Stop Pulling the Wagon

With an apology to Aesop

Once upon a time there was a pleasant meadow in a lovely valley.

A colony of ants came to the meadow and saw that the land was good and with work would provide for a lovely place to live for them and their children.

They worked hard and put away food for the winter and cared for the land.

From a neighboring valley a tribe of locusts came to the land of the ants and decided to stay because the meadow was so pleasant and fertile.

The ants welcomed them in as neighbors and soon they all decided that they should form a government and each ant and locust would get an equal vote in the affairs of the meadow.

Some of the  locusts came to the ants and said they were poor and in need.  Being of kind heart the ants voted to share the fruits of their hard work with the locusts.

Being locusts, they did what locusts are prone to do, that is create lots of little locusts and sit in their burrows eating the food produced by the ants and watching their flat screen televisions paid for by the ants.

In time they discovered, as the little locusts grew up to vote, that they now outnumbered the ants and could vote themselves more and more of what the ants were working so hard to produce.

More and more locusts had baby locusts and invited their relatives and kin in from neighboring meadows.

One by one the ants figured out that they were doing all the work and the locusts were doing all the eating and loafing and watching television.

The ants decided that they did not want to continue to provide for an ever increasing number of locusts who did little to provide for themselves.

The ants packed up and left the now ravaged meadow and moved away to another meadow in another valley.

Winter came to the meadow of the abandoned locusts.  The locusts starved and froze because there was no longer any ants to provide for them what they refused to provide for themselves.

And the shadow of darkness fell over the formerly  pleasant meadow in the formerly lovely valley.

End of story.  If you are an ant you know the moral of the story.  If you are a locust you don’t care if there is a moral; you just want to know where the ants went.

Bob Bandy

This was sent to me anonymously and I share it here because I could not have said it any better.

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.  Congress said, “Someone may steal from it at night”.  So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.  Then Congress said, “how does the watchman do his job without instruction?”

So they created a planning department and hired two people.  One person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.  Then Congress said, “How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?”  So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people.  One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, “how are these people going to get paid?”  So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.  Then Congress said, “Who will be accountable for all of these people?”  So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, “We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back.”

So they laid off the night watchman.

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Now slowly let it sink in.  We go like sheep to the slaughter.

Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the Department of Energy during the Carter Administration?  Bottom line is, we’ve spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency…. the reason for which not many who read this can remember!

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977,  TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.   Now it’s 2012 —- 35 years later —- and the budget for this “necessary” department is $24.2 Billion a year.  It has 16,000 Federal Employees and approximately 100,000 contract employees and look at the job it has done!  35 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports.  Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports…..  Great job!   Good old Federal bureaucracy.  (And we could supply all our oil needs from the USA)

Now we have turned over large segments of our Banking system, Health Care system and Auto Industry to the same government?

Hello!  Anybody home?

(some editing to shorten without changing content – Bob)

Bob Bandy

“so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name”  Revelations 13:17  (NIV)

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“CALL ME A RAGING PARANOID”

Safeway wants me to believe that this card is for my own good.  That it will allow me to save on “Club Card Specials” and enable Safeway to track my purchases to “Better Serve Me”.

But I know better.  How long do you think it will be before the government requires all this data be transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor my lifestyle and eating habits.  All in the name of public health under the new “Affordable Health Care Act” (Obamacare).

Lets see,  New York City is now regulating the use of salt in public eating places.  San Francisco is pondering the regulation of the sale of sugar as a health hazard and other government agencies are concerned with saturated fats and other, yet to be determined hazards.  It seems that to protect me from myself the government wants to regulate what I eat, drink, breath and wear.

How long before I hear a bull-horn out in front of my house, look out the window and see Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,

and a “Swat Team” in front of my house shouting through the bull-horn to my neighbors that I have violated the Government Guidelines  on the consumption of certain food groups and dangerous additives?

Of course, they will then tell me, and my neighbors, that because of my habit of making “poor choices” in what I eat and drink, and to keep health care affordable for all Americans, that they have placed restrictions on what Safeway will be able to sell me in the future.  My “new” “Government Approved” Club Card will only allow the purchase of Rutabagas, Broccoli and Soychicken.

Sure, you think I’m crazy now………  But you just wait and see!

Bob Bandy

God, having granted me the grace to reach my current age, has hopefully seen to it that I have learned a few things along lifes path.

Example: good intentions are not enough when creating a New Years Resolution list.  Reality and my own weakness has a way of  bringing even the most lofty and well intentioned promises crashing back to earth.

The first step I must take before preparing a list is to document some observations and hard learned lessons which include but are not limited to:

1. The people at my Bank are not my friends.

2. Expecting efficiency at any government run agency is like waiting up for the Tooth Fairy with a camera.

3. In the political arena it is probably wise to give up my quest for truth and join the increasing number of my fellow citizens who seem content with believing a good fantasy.

4. At my age I need to carefully consider whether buying green bananas with scarce retirement dollars is a wise investment.

5. That a promise not to maim or seriously injure the idiot who cut me off in traffic and then stopped right in front of me may not be realistic if I have to keep that pledge for a full year.

With these guidelines in mind I have decided to simplify this years list to just three pledges which I have a reasonable chance of  following through on:

A. To spend at least part of each day breathing.

B. To have as my goal to Love Much, Laugh Often, Live Generously and Forgive Freely.

C. To cherish and honor my family and friends and to spend as much time with them as possible.

Now about that idiot who cuts me off in traffic…….. hmmmmm?

Bob Bandy

Jon Corzine has joined a list of political and business leaders who seem to have short and long term memory loss.  Jon, the former CEO of MF GLobal,  former United States Senator and former Governor of New Jersey has seemingly done for MF Global what he did for New Jersey.  That is cause them financial ruin.

However, when questioned by Congress about the apparent disappearance of some 1.2 Billion (thats Billion with a B) Dollars that seems to have vanished under his watch at MF Global he can only answer that he “never intended” to do anything wrong, nor can he remember signing, as CEO, the companies Financial Statements with false and misleading information on them.

Seems that supposedly good intentions and bad memories are the current escape route for corrupt office holders, CEO’s, and other public figures.  For example, Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, who can’t remember when he found out about the “Fast and Furious” gun running debacle that has already caused the death of at least one U.S. Border Agent.

I wonder if good intentions and a poor memory will suffice for errors on my tax returns with the IRS?

Perhaps Mr. Jon Corzine should become a cellmate of Bernie Madoff so the two of them could play Monoply with each other for a number of years.  Lets see, would that be 30 years or 40  years.  Sorry, I can’t remember.

As for our forgetful Attorney General Eric Holder.  Maybe he could spend some time in an orange jumpsuit in a prison cell with a 230 pound, heavily tatooed lifer named Bubba.  I was thinking of a prison in Texas but a good friend suggested a jail in Juarez Mexico might be a more appropriate destination.

Just a thought.  I never intended any of them should come to any harm…. honest!   

Bob Bandy

I remember when my daughter was young and used to go to birthday skating parties with her friends.  They had an Arcade at the skating rink and I would often pass the time with the games there.  One of my favorites was Whack-A Mole where the object is to whack the moles on the head with the mallet as they pop their heads up through the holes.  I was remembering this recently and it got me to thinking…….

I keep hearing members of our government asking why businesses are not hiring more employees and why they are re-locating to sites outside the United States?

Have any of these people asking these questions ever tried to start a business?  Have they ever tried to keep a business going?

Being a business owner, or potential business owner is like being a Mole in a game of Whack-A-Mole. Only you are not trying to avoid just one “Whacker” but multiple “WHACKERS”.

You will need a permit or license.  WHACK!  Your city, county, state will require an application and fees.

Where is your Environmental Impact Report?   WHACK!   The EPA will need a completed report and a fees.

Need to hire employees?  WHACK!  More forms, more requirements, more regulations.

You will need insurance against everything that could possibly happen or create a potential liability.  WHACK!

Need to terminate an employee?  WHACK!  WHACK!  WHACK!  More forms, more regulations, more requirements and sometimes attorneys.

Government mandated Health Insurance.  WHACK!

Did I mention potential Union involvement?  WHACK!

You finally beat the odds and make a profit.  Its now tax time.  WHACK!

And the game goes on.  Can be a lot of fun…….   unless you’re the Mole.

Bob Bandy