Election

I have been uncharacteristically quiet over the last several weeks as this election heated up into the media frenzy it has become. I am an avid upholder of the Constitution and the intent of our forefathers when they penned that great document that has been the blueprint for our civilization for the last 200 plus years. We separated ourselves from the despotic rule that the English had held over the colonies, and in doing so penned one of the greatest documents guaranteeing personal freedoms that has ever been written.

John McCain was not my first choice of candidates for the Presidency of the Unites States, however he is the candidate that the Republican Party has chosen to be the candidate to represent them in the race for the Presidency and he is now my choice for President of the United States. In supporting my choice of Candidates I have been called a racist bigot, yet those that know me know that it is far from the truth. I believe all humans are born equal with the ability endowed upon them by God to become whatever they may decide to become. My lack of support for one Barack Obama has nothing to do with race, and more to do with his lack of coming clean with the American people. When I swore my oath in 1980 to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and to follow the legal orders of the Officers appointed over me (which include the postion of the Commander in Chief, POTUS, President of the United States) I subjected myself to a background check that was very extensive and thorough. I had to meet certain criteria in order to hold the position I was being considered for. My life became an open book so to speak. Barack Obama is not willing to let the information out that I had to let be known in order to hold my security clearance, and the clearance Obama would hold is much higher than the clearance I had.

I recieved this information in my e-mail this morning and it really makes you think, what is Obama trying to hide...

A Guy named Joe, who happens to be a plumber with ambitions for a bigger business, questioned and challenged a Guy named Barack, who happens to be running for President of the US/Leader of the Free World. And within 24 hours The Media has given us more information about Joe's life than they've given us about Barack's life in the past 18 months!
Thanks to a diligent press corps, we now know about Joe's professional licensing status, his income tax situation, his employment history, his domestic squabbles, his voting record, everything associated with his personal identity; his education. It's probably been reported somewhere whether he wears boxers or briefs.

Thanks to a lazy press corps we still don't know
1) what grades Obama made in college
2) how he got into Harvard
3) when he met Bill "the bomber" Ayers
4) when he stopped doing illegal drugs
5) his medical history
6) whether he still smokes cigarettes
7) the extent of his affiliation with socialist/communist organizations
8) why he's no longer a licensed attorney
9) whether he lied on his Bar application
10) whether he'd qualify for a security clearance if he were just an "average joe"
11) what passport he used to travel to Pakistan in 1981
12) who his ex-girlfriends are
13) whether he was or still is an Indonesian citizen
14) why his Kenyan grandmother insists he was born there
15) whether he was ever legally named Barry Soetoro or anything else besides Barack Hussein Obama
16) why he needed the help of a crook to purchase his family home
17) where he was on Nov. 6 and 7, 1999
18) what the long-version of his birth certificate says
19) why he helped an anti-American, pro-Islamic candidate for Kenyan President against US interests
20) why he listened to Rev. Wright's sermons for 20 years
21) how many times he took his kids to a Rev. Wright sermon
22) what he actually did as chair of the Annenberg Challenge
23) the depth of his relationship with ACORN

Well, you get the idea.

But, really, I am SO relieved that the Mainstream Media has done its job vetting Joe The Plumber, who is NOT running for public office, but who had the AUDACITY to challenge Barack Obama, who wants my vote for President of the United States of America."

Think what you may of McCain and Palin but their lives are open books compared to Obama. When questioned about his being born in Panama, McCain produced his birth certificate, revealing that he was born to American parents. His father a Naval Officer, his mother and American Citizen, He was born under military jurisdiction thus make him an an American Citizen by birth..

The argument is being made that Srah Palin is not qualified to be Vice President of the United States, when she was a Governor and a Mayor. Obama was a senator for 140 days before deciding to run for President of the United States. He was an assemblyman and a community organizer before that. So I guess that autmatically qualifies him to be President of the United States.

In closing I urge every person to go out and vote. it is our Constitutionally right to be able to cast a vote for the President of the United States and every other elected office of this country. Whether you agree with me or not about my choice for President, exercise your right to vote for President.

I need Your Help

My family has been on a terrific journey for the last 23 years. We are a family that steps up to the plate and helps people and groups when they need help. It is not uncommon for us to spend our vacations and free time helping out in some volunteer capacity. To me it can be much more rewarding and relaxing then just laying around on a beach somewhere. I have bitten in lately to several projects which are to say the least huge.

A minor project which is no less important than any of the others is where I need the help right now. In an effort to collect can tabs for the Shriners Hospital of Boston


One man's trash is another man's treasure, and in this case the little aluminum can tabs are collected at approximately 1300 tabs to a pound. The tabs are sorted and then sold for recycling value to help pay for the Shriners Hospital of Boston which provides free care to children up to 18 years of age.

My family is undertaking a collection drive for these tabs, and help raise money for this much needed project. I need 5 gallon buckets to help in the collection and storage of these tabs. I strongly encourage anyone to collect these tabs, and if you have clean 5 gallon containers that we can use at collection sites and for storage in my barn I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Please e-mail me at bartoswicz@roadrunner.com

How much for minimum wage?

I had an argument with someone yesterday about minimum wage. He was going on and on about how much easier it will be for working people now that the minimum wage has increased in New Hampshire to over $7.00 an hour. People will have so much more money in their pockets for the things they need he exclaimed.

This is a fallacy and I will try to show you here. Suppose I own a small business. I am buying raw material from another small business. It takes that business one hour to produce the material I need, being a small shoestring business they hire high school kids to produce the material and pay minimum wage for an entry level position. So two weeks ago the labor cost of that material was $6.50, now die to the increase of minimum wage it goes to $7.50 so an increase of $1.00 per unit. Now suppose he has uses a basic profit margin calculation to make his money on the product and he figures 10% for profit, so now his product has raised $1.10 in cost to me for my product.

My material cost just went up $1.10 overnight, and it takes an hour to produce my product, so I have to pay my entry level high school employee an extra dollar to produce my product, so now my cost of production has gone up $2.10 per unit. In order to stay in business I need a 10% margin to stay in business, so to cover my increase in material , and labor increase, I have to raise my price by 21 cents per unit on top of the $2.10 for a total of $2.31 increase in my product., and this does not even include the increased cost of employing people such as my share of employment costs, insurances, energy increases. But for the sake of simplicity I will just stay with my original supposition. Now my product goes out on the market at it's increased cost of $2.10, and the retailer adds their markup on the product a minimum of 25% so this brings the cost of the item up (I'll make it simple here) another 50 cents so know my product costs another $2.60. Now the person who makes minimum wage has to pay another $2.60 to buy my product, and guess what they are no further ahead then they were before the wage increased.

Now you have another unintended consequence. You have a person who has worked several years for a small business and his wage has increased $1.00 per hour over that time, now he is back to making minimum wage again, his employer is not obligated to giving him another raise so he is actually taking a step backwards, because in order to buy some products his dollar does not go as far. We could increase minimum wage to $20 an hour and we would still be in the same position, maybe even worse because a lot of small businesses would go out of business because they could not pass the added costs on and keep selling their products or services, so more of our jobs go overseas to countries where workers make pennies a day.

How Do You Respond?

I am currently reading a book by Robert Schuller Tough Times never last but tough people do, Inspirational writings. in this book Dr Schuller poses a question, How do people repsond when you ask them how they are doing? He rates the answers on what he calls "Schuller' Scale of Spirit". Everyone's answer falls somewhere on this scale of 1 to 10, but it totally reflects their attitude on life and ultimatley how well they may succeed in life.

1. Silence, trembly lips, eyes filled with tears.
2. Profane Anger, a torrent of swear words
3. Awful, you would be too if you had the problems I face
4. Not to bad. ( this is barely just one step above awful)
5. Pretty Good (just a a step above not to bad)
6. Good
7. Great
8. Terrific
9. Fantastic
10. Sensational

While we may never get to many responses in the 1 to 3 range, even though I have heard 2 and 3 a few times. The same is said of responses in the 7 thourgh 10 range. I hear a lot of Not to Bad, and pretty good responses, even the good or fine range, but they do tend to be pretty negative comments about us. We have become a very negative society, we tend to look down on our lives, and not counting our blessings. We grow complacent about our abilities, and when things go wrong we feel helpless to change them or climb out of our complacency. Negativity is running rampant in society today, especially with the economic downturn we have experianced. Even now with signs of the country coming out of the slump we still tend to be negative and fatalistic. The dollar is growing stonger, prices seemed to have peaked and seem to be edging back down off the crest, but we moan and groan about what we don't have, instead of being thankful for what we do have.

Just as negative, we seem to part company by another seemingly innocuous statement such as Take care, or Take it easy. They seem on the surface a pretty neutral comment to be making, take care, don't do anything to rock the boat, don't venture to far from land. Discoveries weren't mande by taking care. Continents would still be undiscoverd if we all took care. Answers to medical problems would still be unanswered if we all just took care. The same goes for take it easy. Many things worth accomplishing would go undone if we all took it easy. The world would be a much different place if we all just took it easy. When the times get tough, tough people have to roll up thier sleeves and do things the hard way, not take it easy.

On the scale of life where do you fall, not to bad or sensational? Do you plan to take the bull by the horns, or stand around and just take it easy? And for those who care to ask I am sensational. I woke to a beautiful sky, I have a loving wife, and I have all the opportunity in the world, I just have to work at it and not take it easy, or for granted. I don't sit around waiting for opportunity to fall in my lap but I get out and try to make my own breaks.

Saturdays

We tend to take time for granted and feel that things will always be the same and that those we love will always be there. A friend sent me this story. I had seen it before but forgotten all about it. It will put a lump in your throat.

"3900 Saturdays


The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.


A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.



Let me tell you about it.



I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business He was telling whomever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.



'Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital' he continued. 'Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.' And that's when he began to explain his theory of a 'thousand marbles.'



'You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.'



'Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail', he went on, 'and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.'



'Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.'



'There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.'



'Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.'



'It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!'



You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.



Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. 'C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast.' 'What brought this on' she asked with a smile.' 'Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.'



A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.



And so, as one smart bear once said...'If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.' - Winnie the Pooh."

I hope you go out and buy your marbles. Let us get a real perspective of what is most important in our lives

Be careful what you ask for

Many people do not believe in God, or they don't believe that God answers prayers. I was out picking blueberries this evening, as has been my nightly and weekend project since late June. I was down in the field in the midst of a patch of low bush blueberries that were hanging like grapes. The mosquitoes were like a black cloud around me, and all you could hear was the constant buzzing. It sounded like the world war II movies when they show the planes all over the sky, and that incessant drone. I looked up to the sky and there were rain clouds off in the distance, and I said, "God, I know these mosquitoes are some of our creation, but can you do something to control them while I pick my berries. Just then the sky opened up and the rain poured down on top of me. I considered coming down out of the field but I decided I was already soaked and by the time I got to the house I would be soaked through as I was way up at the top of the field, so I just kept on picking, and picking, and picking. When the container I was putting the berries in was full I stood up and the rain suddenly stopped, and a rainbow came out ending right on my property. I am amazed about how many blueberries are out there this year, it is like a carpet of blue out there.

This does bring up a pet peeve of mine. I have all these berries and I am picking like crazy, but I will never harvest them all or even come close, I offersd a local food pantry to let their customers come over an pick berries for themselves, and was politely told they couldn't do that, they can't require their customers to do any work like that, but if I wanted to pick them and bring them over they would gladly give them out to the people who came in for food.

Lives

Publius Syrus once wrote, "We should not live one life in private, and one life in public."

Those who know me well know I love to collect quotes, as a matter of fact I have filled two journals with quotes I have collected and am currently working on my third. This is one quote that seemed very very appropriate just after I found it. It was shortly after I wrote it in my journal that we got news of the John Edwards affair. This was definitely a case of a person living two separate lives, his public personae of a man who adored and supported his wife's battle with cancer. A loving man who was there for her ignoring his personal needs (but not his public ones in running for President) to help her with her battle. Then there was the personal life where he sought and acted on the relationship with another woman during this time. he stated that he grew into the assumption that due to his successes he could do whatever he wanted without any reprisal or ramifications, he had become a legend in his own mind.

We must live transparent lives willing to let what we do in our private lives be as upright as that which we let be seen in our public lives. If anything we should be more upright in our private lives as our giving spirit should be a private matter. God knows our hearts and He knows our intentions. If we do what we do for public acclaim it may be for the wrong reason.