My thoughts.

I will use the words "us" and "we" as terms for our society as a whole.

First a couple of personal experiences and some editorial comment.

In the fall of 1975, as a naïve college senior 22 year old, I walked into Management 487, the "Capstone Course of the School of Business Administration at Florida Atlantic University". There sat an elegantly dressed gentleman. He went on to introduce himself as a Harvard MBA that went to school on the GI Bill and serving in the college cafeteria. He then rose from his desk and pointed to the blackboard where he had written the capital letters "M G A". He then asked us what this stood for. We all sat there scratching our heads. He the proudly proclaimed, "This is what this class is all about, Money, Greed and Avarice".

This is what is taught in business school and we reap the results.

Now we advance to after the election of 2010. My would be red neck cousin in law calls me to ask a question concerning his mother's insurance policy. Later on in the conversation he asks, "What do you think of the election"? I responded that I thought the we elected a governor (Rick Scott of Florida)that is probably a criminal. His response was, "That F****** N***** President has got to go".

Of all of the insults I can think of there isn't one as demeaning to a white man as that is to a black man.

What has this got to do with why you can't go sailing? I can only speak to what I know, Flood Insurance.

Many years ago flood coverage was a covered peril under most property insurance policies. After some severe floods, the insurance companies realized that they could not estimate the risk to price it and that it was more trouble than it was worth. After some years past and several economic devastating flood occurrences we decided that the only way to protect our fellow citizens from this pain was to pass the National Flood Insurance Program legislation.

It was not without faults, It has gone broke several times and several attempts have been made to strengthen the program. We loudly complained as we refunded the program pay the claims. The last straw was when Katrina flooded New Orleans and the program went broke again and then legislation expired. After a several month lapse in the program we passed a new law that required actuarial sound rates so that we did not have to fund the claims after the fact.

In the past month, my brother in law was looking a buying a weekend retreat house located in a flood zone. He got the quote under the new rates yesterday and is withdrawing his purchase offer.

The State of Mississippi, hardly a bastion of liberalism is challenging the new law that the rates are unfair and will thwart economic activity. Our self proclaimed Tea Party governor is joining in the suit as a friend of the court.

Yesterday said governor criticized our president for a "lack of leadership" for not leading the fight against a policy that forced a program that has attempted to reduce it feeding at the federal trough.

Where does fiscal conservatism begin?

To MN3:

Which "idiot president" do you refer to?

I'm going to put you in the same column as my cousin in law. You carry a lot of hate.

Yes, I laughed at the "Some village in Texas has lost its idiot" cartoon, but I never related him to an ape, which we have evolved from. If our president had curly, red hair and was of Irish heritage named Barry O'Brien would you still call him an idiot?

So let's look back at the presidents in my lifetime.

Obama-Spent his first 2 years trying to clean up an economic and military disaster. Since then he has tried to level the playing field for most of us. Is he a Muslum?
It doesn't matter. As I remember the day before Money, Greed and Avarice Day is a holiday that was started by a group of people that came to this country to escape religious persecution.

W-He's not an idiot, he start an unneeded war that was only paid for by special legislation out of the budget process and cost too much blood and treasure. Medicare Part D was a good idea, again unfunded.

Clinton-I would not let my daughters in a room alone with him. But he ran a fairly successful economy and we survived to live another day.

Bush the Senior-A good man that had the restraint to know when to stop, whether Iraq or paying for our debts through a tax increase. I was again laid off from what I thought was a lifetime job.

Reagan-I was laid off from what I thought would be a lifetime job. He got lucky and was in the right place at the right time.

Carter-The most humane president we will probably ever see.

Nixon-Good, opened relations with China, ended the draft and my $100 income tax refund. Ya'all know the bad.

Johnson-More mixture of good and bad.

Kennedy-A life cut short by hate

Eisenhower-Remember the warning of the military industrial complex.

Random thoughts

Ya don't like the auto bailout, then buy a Ford.

Don't like TARP, then use a bank that didn't take any money.

Did you buy a Kia or a Hyundai? Do you think that they have an unfair advantage as they do not pay sufficient taxes to pay us back for their defense?

The guy at Home Despot did not understand when I asked if they had a brand of plywood besides Weyerhaeuser. I prefer my money not go to the Koch brothers.

And finally, I know that Larry spends plenty of money on lobbying, but I'm sure glad that his hobby is sailing and not trying to squeeze every last cent out of the rest of us.