A Site for Shore Eyes

The only thing that keeps me from tearing my hair out because of the density of many politicians is this deforestation project going on atop my head. There hasn’t been any clear cutting yet but there are a few open areas that seem to be getting worse.

Enough about my hair. Why is it that so many politicians, especially Democrats, just don’t get it? They keep talking about not wanting to give tax cuts to the rich. Okay, should we give tax cuts to the 47 percent who pay no taxes? Pols miss the boat on many things when it comes to taxes, and the first is that the government didn’t earn the money. Taxes are what the government takes from those who do earn money. Tax cuts simply mean that the government is not taking as much money from individuals and corporations.

These politicians somehow ignore the big elephant standing in the middle of the room when they wring their hands and say they can’t afford to give a tax cut or that they just don’t know how they’ll be able to pay for a tax cut. News flash: historically, and you can look it up, tax increases almost always generate LESS revenue, not more. People with high incomes already pay more than their lion’s share of taxes, and when it becomes too burdensome they quickly tire of carrying the non-producers on their backs. Manufacturers will look at ways to cut costs, and this can result in laying off employees or cutting some of their benefits. In many cases they simply pack up and move to wherever the taxes are lower, even if it happens to be another country.

When Clinton was governor of Arkansas the legislature increased the tax on diesel fuel and calculated the additional millions they would rake into their coffers. Revenue decreased, because truckers filled up in neighboring states where taxes were cheaper. You can look it up.

Congress decided to protect the sugar industry by placing a large tariff on imported sugar. This increased sugar prices for everyone. Sugar became so expensive that some candy companies were forced out of business. You can look it up.

The steel tariff, during the Bush administration, was another fiasco. It placed a tariff on imported steel, and brought not only the steel industry, but the construction industry, to a screeching halt. This law was quickly repealed. You can look it up.

In Samoa, in 2007, the U.S. Congress, in its benevolence, decided to introduce a minimum wage there. In 2009, Chicken of the Sea, one of the largest employers, closed up shop and moved out of Samoa. Starkist laid off 800 workers. Both said the minimum wage law was the reason. And yes, you can look it up.

Another big thing they miss is when they’re going to “punish” an industry, such as big oil (that sounds better than little oil) by increasing or adding a tax to their products, such as gasoline. Silly me, but they’re punishing the consumer, not the industry. What business person in his right mind wouldn’t cover the cost of a tax increase by increasing the price of the product? This is just one more reason why tax cuts for the rich make sense. Politicians play on the sympathies of the electorate by calling these people “fat cats.”

Obama thinks that there’s a time when a company has made enough money, so it shouldn’t make any more. This applies to others, not to him. He never had a real job and now he’s a multi-millionaire. He wants to redistribute everyone else’s wealth, but not his own. There are many reasons that socialism has failed everywhere in the world. People simply don’t want to work hard for those who don’t.

If I go fishing and the government divides my catch among the spectators, it won’t be long before I stop buying bait and become a spectator. Of course, in communist countries they simply made people work and we saw how productive that was. It seems that there are some in this country who think socialism is a good idea, but these are people who never had to live through it. In addition to politicians, these are Hollywood types living in their own little fantasy world. Well, the leaders in communist countries were pretty well off at the expense of everyone else. I suppose the elites figure they’ll be at the top and everybody else can live in little concrete block cubes built by the government for its working class.

If socialism is so bad you’re probably asking yourself, “Then why does it work so well for some insects?” It’s not difficult to see that insects have a role in the world that doesn’t involve inventing things, for example. An ant simply has to find food and move dirt, making more tunnels. They don’t improve those tunnels by adding electricity and they don’t build trucks to haul their grains of sand or other things they carry.

Bees make honey and they could make a lot of money if they knew how to market it, but instead they just let people take it for free. And don’t raise your hand and tell me that bees are smart because you’ve heard of spelling bees. Yeah, I know, they make quilts, too. . .

Capitalism works because it’s a system of providing goods and services to others not at anyone’s expense, but as a result of one’s labors. When others carve out a niche in the same market all must compete to provide the best and most cost efficient products or services possible. The more government interferes by introducing regulations and taxes, the more it costs the consumer, and sometimes results in an inferior product.

Subsidies to farmers were intended to preserve the family farms, but, as is often the case when politicians come up with ideas, the unintended consequences were that farming became big business. Most small farms are ignored, with most of the subsidies going to large commercial farms with incomes of more than $200,000 and assets in excess of $2,000,000. More information on the detrimental effects of subsidies can be found at: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2007/06/How-Farm-Subsidies-Harm-Taxpayers-Consumers-and-Farmers-Too.

Ethanol production also exacerbates the problem. Farmers who grow corn and other crops for ethanol production receive subsidies from the government, and the ethanol refiners also receive incentives. All this for a fuel that is considerably more inefficient than petroleum-based gasoline, can damage engines and other parts, and must be shipped by truck, rather than by pipeline. Those tree huggers seem to overlook the fact that it takes about 1700 gallons of water to make a gallon of ethanol. The cost of producing both crops and livestock has risen, so the consumer ends up digging deep to pay for ethanol and food. What a system!

My biggest concern, however, is when is the American voting public going to realize that they have to stop voting for the village idiots? I know that we can’t always pick perfect candidates to run against them, but really, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama? Give me, and the country, a break!

Somewhere along the line things got a bit mixed up with respect to the First Amendment’s intent, thanks mainly to the progressives in this country. When these individuals mention the separation of church and state they fail to mention that no such wording exists in the Constitution. The intent of the reference to Congress not making a law respecting the establishment of a religion is to prevent the government from forcing people to belong to only a state-run church, as was the case with the Church of England at that time. These present-day sages who “interpret” the constitution as they see fit seem to omit the part that says, “or prohibit the free practice thereof.”

Okay, correct me if I’m wrong, or better yet, don’t bother, because this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to it, but when a court rules that a courthouse must take down the Ten Commandments, or cannot display a nativity scene, or that a school cannot have a morning prayer or an invocation at a football game, is that not prohibiting the free practice of religion? Huh? Isn’t it? That’s what I thought.

What’s amazing about all of this is that the ACLU files lawsuits against anything it deems as religious, in an attempt to secularize America and make it more like the atheist communist countries. That is, except with respect to Islam.

For example, most schools in New Jersey started calling Christmas holidays “the winter break,” or something similar. Likewise with Easter, which they now call spring break. Oh yeah, except that Atlantic City schools added two Muslim holidays, so we see that the nonexistent separation of church and state applies only to Christian and Jewish religions.

A lot of people keep saying that the Muslims have a right to build a mosque near ground zero. I guess sort of like the U.S. has a right to build a nuclear plant or laboratory at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. What could be more insulting than those three scenarios? The “religion of peace” has a long history of building mosques in cities that it conquered, usually right over where a church used to be. That’s what happened in Cordoba, Spain, and anyone who thinks that this scheme is labeled the Cordoba Project because it sounds nice doesn’t have a clear grasp on reality. Perhaps they’re the same people who voted for a president named Barrack Hussein Obama after the country suffered through the horrors of 9/11. It’s not surprising that massive voting fraud during the election is now coming to light.

Sorry, Charlie, but I have no desire to convert to Islam. I was born and raised a Catholic, but never thought it appropriate that I force everyone else to convert unless they wanted to die a violent death. It never occurred to me to board an airplane and force the pilot to fly into a building in the Middle East, simply because those people are not Catholics. Nor did I ever attempt to recruit other Catholics to strap bombs to themselves and go blow up a bunch of innocent people. If that means I’m not a devout Catholic, then so be it, or as we say, “Amen.”

We were taught in school the horrors of the Crusades, but they failed to mention that they were a result of Muslims attempting to take over the world, so Christians finally revolted. The whole scenario seems to be playing out again, even more rapidly in Europe than here in the U.S. I just wonder how long people are going to put up with this nonsense before starting a new Crusade. Unfortunately, based on what’s happening in Iran, nuclear weapons will be the new swords.

When I used to go to the beach I generally took a towel along, and a blanket, especially if a girl was involved. For some reason girls used to like sitting on blankets on the beach. That has all changed, based on my observations of beachgoers and comers. Beach sitting now requires chairs.

Nowadays many beachgoers push huge contraptions with big fat wheels, which I guess makes them easier to push or pull through the sand. Usually, a few folding chairs hang about on special racks, and other beach paraphernalia is crammed inside the carts. Large coolers and beach umbrellas are not uncommon. This seems like way too much trouble for something as mundane as going to the beach, when a towel and a pair of flip-flops pretty much fill the bill. Yes, you can carry a small cooler if you have a penchant for real sandwiches. I never liked eating or drinking anything on the beach because of the sand that invaded everything, especially on windy days, which meant most of the time.

I went to the beach for one primary purpose, which was to go in the ocean, whether swimming or surfing. The secondary and just as important purpose was to watch and possibly meet, girls. Unfortunately, not as many of them spent nearly as much time in the water as I, so at times I found myself sitting on a blanket with one or more of them. Those were the only times I endured sitting there in the hot sun. Every five minutes or so I generally asked if she or they were ready to go in the water.

Girls liked to sunbathe, which I consider a misnomer. Like, how can you take a bath in the sun, and why would you want to? The sun is hot, especially without water to cool you off. And you can get a nice tan while in the ocean. You can even get sunburn, or worse yet, sunburn poisoning, so I found out.

Yes, I got sunburned on my shoulders and figured I could still go to the beach the next day as long as I wore a tee shirt. I was right, except that the shirt didn’t prevent exacerbation of the problem. My shoulders sort of resembled a pizza when the cheese bubbles up, except it wasn’t cheese. I also discovered that shirts have a way of sticking to blisters, which made it less than fun to take it off. Whenever I see people who resemble cooked lobsters coming off the beach I pity them.

This past summer we went to Peggy’s Crab House, inside Keenan’s Irish Pub, naively thinking the place would be selling crabs. What were we thinking? They were selling lots of beer and other drinks, but no crabs. Apparently they only sell crabs a couple of days out of the week, so the name of the place is rather confusing. It’s sort of like going to Nathan’s and they’re not selling hot dogs that day. I don’t know what the deal is, but we went into a food place on the boardwalk that has an enormous lighted Coca-Cola sign overhead. This thing has to be six or eight feet tall! When we ordered Cokes they said they only have Pepsi products. . . A few years ago we went to a DQ in Waynesboro, Georgia (don’t go there) and my wife ordered a chocolate cone dipped in chocolate. They gave her a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate and told us they don’t have chocolate ice cream! I have since checked with other DQ’s and all of them are supposed to have chocolate.

Remember the old adage, “The customer is always right?” Has anyone noticed that it has changed in recent years to, “The customer is usually wrong, and if you don’t like it, go somewhere else?” That’s not as true with the big chain stores, but the smaller independent stores are often run by people who seem to not care whether or not you patronize the place.

I had two run-ins with a little Italian restaurant that serves mediocre, but okay food. After I had gone there several times, he asked me for ID when I used a debit card. He then grabbed a bunch of supposedly unpaid receipts and waved them in my face. I paid with cash and left. About a year or so later we ordered a pepperoni pizza to be delivered. It came without the pepperoni. We called and he said he would send us the right one. The delivery person arrived with the pizza and a note from the store owner stating that we owed another $2.50 and he wanted the original pizza back. We just paid for the new pizza, but this place will NEVER get another dime of my money.

Does anyone else get bothered by those pop-up ads that are in your face? Now, some of them take up the entire screen and many of them flash incessantly. I would never, ever buy whatever it is these places are selling.

For years I have loved watching college football, but it’s getting more and more tiresome to watch a game. First there’s all the constant blabbering by the “analysts,” who tell you everything you never wanted to know, and often miss important items in the game. Who cares if the quarterback’s uncle used to go duck hunting with the cousin of an NFL player? It used to be that a completed pass was a completed pass, a fumble was a fumble, and the ground could not cause a fumble. With instant replay and review, things got much more complicated. Now, to determine whether or not the player fumbled they run the play back in slow motion and the announcers say, “See? The fingernail on his left pinky touched a blade of grass (or artificial turf) before the ball came out! That’s not a fumble!”

Pass catching is even more complicated because if a player catches the ball and goes down he must be careful to cradle the ball so it never touches the turf. What nonsense! And then there’s the deal about whether or not he caught it in bounds. “Look!” they’ll say, “His left toe touched the sideline but his right foot was in bounds, but I’m not sure that he had complete control of the football when his left foot hit the ground. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Even worse is evaluating whether or not a player actually scored a touchdown. It used to be pretty cut and dried. If the runner or receiver ended up in the end zone with the football it was a touchdown. Now they have this imaginary vertical plane, and if any part of the football crosses that plane, even if for a nanosecond, it’s ruled a touchdown. “Well, if you watch this ultra slow macro view it appears that one of the laces may have broken the plane, so I think it’s going to be ruled a touchdown,” they inform us.

Even instant review doesn’t always work. I was watching a game where the team appeared to get a first down but the ball spot made it short of the line. The coach challenged the spot and was correct; the player had made the first down. The official announced that the ball would be respotted, but he put it back where it was, short of the first down. As we used to say in the Navy, “I’m not sure what the purpose of this drill was. . .”

They could eliminate a lot of this confusion with some simple rules changes. If a player catches the ball it’s a catch. Duh! If he landed with a foot inbounds it shouldn’t matter whether or not he had control of the ball at that point, because that’s subjective anyway. With respect to fumbles, the rule should probably be that the ground cannot cause a fumble (as is the supposed present rule) but if the player had a knee on the ground when the ball came out it should be a fumble. And finally, touchdowns should require that the football be in the end zone for, say, three seconds. Instead of crossing this imaginary vertical plane, the ball should have to be in the player’s possession, either on the ground or with both feet in the end zone.

The best thing they could do, however, is to give you the option of hearing the game noise without the constant chattering of the so-called experts. I don’t care what could have happened had this guy caught that pass or if the team hadn’t been penalized, or if so-and-so weren’t out with an injury. Nor do I care that a team has won 20 games out of 26 when a full moon falls on the second Friday of the month, but maybe some people do.

Once again the official summer season at the Jersey Shore drew to a close. Next comes the “shoulder season,” as some like to call it. It’s pretty obvious as to why it’s called a shoulder season, so I won’t bother explaining it to any dimwits who happen to be reading this. Okay, so I don’t really know why someone gave it such a stupid name, but I never understood someone naming a kid Moon Zappa, either.

Anyway, the laughing gulls generally don’t hang around much after Labor Day, so they’ll be wintering in Myrtle Beach and points south after next week. They’re already laughing about getting out of this place for the winter, or at least that’s what I think they were laughing about. It’s hard to tell, because that’s pretty much all they do, other than steal bait, French fries, popcorn and pizza crusts. Of course, they could be laughing about applying for unemployment. When the gulls leave I miss them more than I miss the shoobies.

Back to the shoulder season. Business owners on the island traditionally closed up for good after Labor Day so they could lay themselves off and collect unemployment before heading for Florida. The shoulder season started off slowly with senior citizen bus tours back in the 70’s and gained momentum, so business owners hung around and waited until about Columbus Day to lay themselves off. Now the Democrats in Congress have created a dilemma for these people by legislating perpetual unemployment compensation. Will it now be more advantageous for these people to close shop on Labor Day and start collecting unemployment until it’s time to reopen in the spring? Perhaps it’s time for me to look into starting a summertime business, yes?

The weekend after Labor Day is the annual Roar to the Shore, an event where thousands of bikers roar around town on noisy motorcycles. This year they’ve added a tattoo convention, another thing that’s been sorely missed in this family resort. What is it with people these days getting all of these tattoos? Do they think they’ll wash off, or do they just like looking like idiots? Used to be tattoo artists generally wouldn’t tattoo people’s faces and necks, but that’s back when tattooing was considered somewhat seedy, and was preferred by drunken sailors who didn’t know they were getting tattooed until the next day. I don’t think it’s less seedy these days, although the shops might be a bit cleaner and exist everywhere, not just in military towns. The problem is that so-called “respectable” people with a touch of class are in much shorter supply these days.

Well, Labor Day was the last day a summer flounder could be caught and kept here in New Jersey. That’s not as bad as it sounds, because there were very few keepers this year. Hey, if it was 17-3/4 inches it had to go back, although a bit of stretching may have occurred at times. They say that ethics is what you do when no one is looking. I’m usually good on that, but if I had caught a 17-1/2 incher, I’m not sure what I would have done if no one had been around. Anyway, we’ll never know.

We cruised through town Labor Day night and noticed a surprising number of people still hanging onto summer here. Many of them apparently cleared out the next day. On the plus side, it’s now much more of a pleasure riding my bike without the bike path being mobbed by non-bike things such as pedestrians.

So they’re expecting about a hundred thousand bikers in town this weekend. They roar around town till all hours of the night and morning. I’m once again thinking of removing the muffler from my SUV for the weekend, but it’s probably too much trouble. Instead, I guess I’ll just buy some earplugs. Okay, so I’m a hogaphobe.