State Budget

Let's here it for Mike Bishop. He has become the last bastion of no more taxes, or should I say revenue. That seems to be the new buzz word in the Governor's office to avoid saying the "T' word. With the new Michigan Business Tax we have the distinction of being the worst state in the union to do business in and now the Governor is pleading with Bishop to compromise and let her office initiate new revenue streams, aka levy new taxes.

All I can say is Thanks Mike!!!!

Pet Facebook

My dog has a sitter that has become very close to her and she is moving to Chicagoland. Is it so unusual that my dog Maggie has requested her own Facebook page in order to be able to communicate with her friend after she moves? OK, so I had to fudge the age for her as Facebook does not allow anyone under 18 to have a page and my dog is only 2 1/2 but in dog years she is nearly 20!!!!!!

It is also true that either my wife or I have to type for the dog but we don't mind doing it because we are on the computer a lot anyway. If it helps her get over the loss of her friend I am all for it.

Oh the things we do for our pets. At least this one item doesn't cost me anything.

Political Emails

Let me preface this by saying the I did not vote for Obama and would not vote for him today. In fact I think he and the liberal left are in the process of destroying the Constitution and putting this country so far into debt that we may never recover. However, I am so irritated at the amount of emails I receive that attribute things to President Obama and the Democrats that are blatantly untrue that I wonder if any of my friends even bother to verify the facts of the crap they forward.

When I recieve these, I spend just a few minutes to review the facts before I trash this crap and let the sender know that it is not true and please validate before forwarding.

Next thing I wonder is who sits around and compiles this stuff? These people must know it is crap so I assume they pass this stuff out to discredit the President and the Democrats knowing the information is a lie. Don't they know that they will discredit themselves on their own without lies and deception?

Oh well, such is politics; sad but true!!!!

Monday Moanin'

.....and I have nothing to moan about. Had a great romantic weekend with Loverly in downtown Detroit. Stayed at the newly renovated Book Cadillac and it was wonderful. Spent Sunday driving around looking at some of the other Detroit landmarks that have been renovated and some that simply need to be torn down. If you are looking for a great place to go, the Westin Book Cadillac is 100% smoke free. You can't even smoke in the bars. WoooHooo!!!!!!!!! They also did a great job restoring it.

We stopped into the old Fort Shelby Hotel too. It is now a Double Tree and they did a great job with that as well.

I have seen pictures of these old landmarks on www.forgottendetroit.com and I can't believe the condition they were in and how far they have come.

I am trying to get my hands on some correct version of the Stimulus Package and what is in it for Michigan. I am a little afraid that what I have seen so far is truly what the Republicans have been calling simply a redistribution of wealth. There seems to be a lot of money being spent on underfunded Federal and State programs. That was not what I had in mind when I was thinking about economic stimulus.

I will reserve judgment though til I see the documents. I hope I am wrong and that we are spending over a half a trillion dollars on something that might make a difference.

BFN, back to work and my caffiene free diet coke.

Connected

OK, let's see, Facebook for personal stuff, LinkedIn for business stuff and my Wii connects to the Internet for entertainment. Now I find out that my Blue Ray DVD player will be connected to the Internet and it will be able to download firmware upgrades as well as different content pieces as the technology matures. Of course I can also talk to my DVR from anywhere across the internet and record shows for later viewing.

I am in the technology field and not much suprises me these days but the explosion of the Internet and the variety of applications that it holds is becoming truly astounding. Quite frankly, the things I have mentioned here are perhaps some of the more visible but clearly not the most remarkable.

This weekend I get to set up my new TV and connect it with the surround sound system and the Wii and the Blue Ray just in time for the Super Bowl. Gotta love technology.

Here We Go Again

Here we go again folks. Gas prices are on the rise. Gas has gone from $1.54 to $1.99 in my area in less than two weeks. I saw it go up $.21 just today. How about we start to question the reasoning for this before it hits $4.00 again. Let's start letting the oil companies and our governmental representatives know that we do not intend to fund windfall profits again.

I am sure we will hear that instability in the middle east is the reason for this most recent uptick. Can anyone tell me when there hasn't been instability in the middle east? Maybe I missed it with all of the news about the mortgage and automotive bailouts going on but I do not recall hearing even one oil company complain about a 3rd or 4th quarter loss or even a peep about declining profits from the oil companies. I am pretty sure they all still made money when oil prices were below $40 per barrel and gas was $1.50.

I would really like to be able to turn a profit this year in my business without giving it all to the oil companies and our state government. Gas is one of those items that kills us. My employees were kind enough to help eat some of that cost this past year and I truly appreciate it. However, we have increased the mileage reimbursement rate because I can't expect my employees to bear much of that cost as it eats into there bottom line just a much as it does the companies.

So.............. let's all do what we can - as loudly as we can - to ensure that we don't see $4.00 per gallon again.