Thursday, April 21, 2011

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

OH! SAY WHAT IS TRUTH. That's a statement, not a question. Have you seen the advertisement's for Brita water bottles? Or filters? They will have someone doing something, walking on a treadmill, for example, drinking from a plastic bottle of water. Then say something like thirty minutes in the gym ( or something like that ) thousands of years in the land fill. Then on to the Brita. Well, that is truth, kinda. I assume they don't actually know how long they will be in the land fill. But then, every thing else in the land fill with the plastic bottle will be there for thousands of years also. Including the Brita bottle, when it gets thrown away. Why? Cause of the nature of a true landfill. FYI, a truly well made land fill goes like this. First the bottom is packed with clay, or some such material. Then it is lined with a heavy gauge liner. Then as the garbage is put in the land fill, it is packed with spiked, steel wheel bulldozer's. When all this is done, and dirt is added from time to time, and packed, then the landfill is covered with more clay like material and packed down hard. So when it is finished it is supposed to be leak proof. No water, no air, no sunlight. So, whatever is in there, be it a plastic bottle, a cardboard box, a two by four, or whatever, it cannot deteriorate with out moisture, oxygen and sunlight. so, like the water bottle, it just sits there for thousands of years. Supposedly. Only time will tell.
So what else is truthful, kinda. Well, like Brita, ( and I am not dissing Brita, just using them as an example ) most companies stretch the truth a bit. Cause they want you to buy their products. What is best. Usually, what ever you like is best. I like Fords, but if every one else did also, it wouldn't matter how many bailouts the other company's got, GM and Chrysler and the rest would go under. . So decide what you want, check out the stats on the items, and buy whichever one fits you best. The same goes for most tics. Republican or Democrat. Listen to what they say. Check out their record, if they have one. What kind of person are they? Then vote accordingly. Be they Repub or Demo. As in the land fill, only time will then tell. And tell it will. If we live long enough. Oh! even if we don't, it will tell. Just hope those coming along later learn what ever lesson is there to learn.
And That's The View From The Ditch Bank

Friday, April 15, 2011

A Little Bit About A Few Things

WHERE TO START: It's been a couple of weeks since I posted a blog. Since I returned to the working world, blogging seems to have taken a back seat to the activities I am involved in. I am even thinking of increasing the amount of blogging I do that would be conceived as personal. Maybe. But probably not today. 1. The congress and the President finally agreed on a 2011 budget. Now the fight is on for the 2012 budget. The current budget will cut several Billion Dollars from federal spending. Good? Well, maybe. The fine print says this will be over a period of time. This year! only a few million will be cut. Now a fight on whether to raise the debt ceiling. Regular people like me, and I suppose you, when we don't have the money we go without, or go into debt. Well, the federal government does one of those things. I saw a news report where people said they would give up their entitlements. I believe most, if not all, entitlements should be eliminated. What is an entitlement? Social Security. Well, no I am drawing that, but have paid into it for over 50 years. Medicare? No, I have paid taxes from my pay check into that program for years also, and was made to enroll when I turned 65, even if I didn't want to. Also, $96.00 a month is held from my S.S. check as well as a similar amount from my wife's check each month to pay for medicare. Yet, these are the programs the President wants to cut, to cut spending. 2. In the city/county where I live the sixth fire this week was burning a house and into the forest. We are extremely dry and the wind is blowing a sustained 30 MPH this weekend, with stronger winds on Monday, yet the Forest Service wants to set two "controlled burns" next Monday. This is 14 fires since the 14,000 acre fire we had last month. Some of them very small and put out before it did any damage. 3. I don't like the "change" that has taken place the last two years. Although Obama campaigned on that premise, and made promises that he hasn't kept, I have been around long enough to know that he wouldn't keep them. Indeed, couldn't keep them. Politics are like that and have been for centuries. Still, I think the President, and the House of Representatives and all Senators who are up for election needs to be replaced next election. I think the people are demanding that our elected officials need to be responsible for the way they are governing and spending our money. And it is OUR money they are spending. We need to pay attention to all tics and get rid of the ones who are over zealous with spending, regardless of the party they belong to. 4. On a little better note, Our new governor is making a name for herself, at least in the State. She is now auditing the school districts, especially the one that are crying foul at the cuts they are being ask to make. I have blogged in the past on my opinion of the budget and the schools, so scroll back and find what I said if you don't know. The audits are being inspired by a fact that came to light recently where the school systems are padding the numbers of "special ed students" so they can get more money, then using the overage for other things. Sounds a lot like government bodies don't it. Well, Governor Martinez is trying to put a stop to a lot of those kinds of things. Kudos to her. 5. In case you haven't noticed, the world is going crazy. Mothers killing their babies, children killing their parents, husbands and wives killing their spouses, kidnappings, murders, rapes, crooked cops, condoms being offered to pre teens, and wrong being called right, or at least OK. And that's just the news. TV programs are worse. 6. Considering all this just makes me want to find a cave somewhere and go into hiding. With a good book, of course. And That's The View From The Ditch Bank