01/31/2011

Just a short note of quotes from a web site here.
Joe

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20 Awesome Quotes On Character
[ 17 ] July 4, 2010 | Alvin
1. Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. – Unknown

2. People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. – Thomas B Macaulay
4. You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. – James D. Miles
5. Everyone tries to define this thing called Character. It’s not hard. Character is doing what’s right when nobody’s looking. – Unknown
6. Most people say that it’s the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character. – Albert Einstein.
7. Character is the result of two things: Mental attitude and the way we spend our time. - Elbert Hubbard
8. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character – Albert Einstein
9. Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have – Unknown
10. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power – Abraham Lincoln
11. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
12. Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character. – Stephen Covey
13. Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming. – Jim Rohn
14. I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character! – Theodore Roosevelt
15. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are. – John Wooden
16. How true Daddy’s words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. – Anne Frank
17. Knowledge will give you power, but character respect. – Bruce Lee
18. Men show their character in nothing more clearly than what they think laughable. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19. Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. - Kurt Vonnegut Jr
20. The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity. – Roy L Smith

01/28/2011

Well I am a little behind. I have not been able to write until now and it is after 1am.
Well the biggest thing I heard today was of the uprising in Egypt. Now as bad as that is the people are willing to create unrest because of corruption in the government. Mr. Obama has threatened to cut part of the funding we give them every year. I have a better idea cut ALL of their funding forever. We give them 1.5 billion dollars each year. We could use that money and apply it towards our own deficit. Not only Egypt but every country, I would think if we done that we could most likely eliminate our deficit or at least take a sizable chunk out of it. Ok enough about our wasting money on some idiots across the oceans.
Let us go back to the protest going on in Egypt. Now there is a novel idea have a protest because of a corrupt government. Most of us know that everywhere else in the world there is a corrupt government/dictator. I mean they are a bunch of third world citizens over there. They do not have the perfect form of government there as we do here in the good ol’ US of A.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
The government of our country is just as corrupt as any other country. The only reason people do not know it is because it is called by other names. As in politicians health care fund, their retirement fund, and my personal favorite, Ex-presidents secret service. This is corruption on a grand scale. They cannot say we are padding our pockets with this money so we will call it by some other more acceptable name and the stupid people in this country will buy it hook, line, and sinker. They have and most people do. Now you may doubt that statement but please think about this for one minute. The politician’s health care fund is something neither you nor I can ever get into unless we lower our standards and become politicians. Most Americans have to pay into their health coverage. And even after paying into we still have to pay a deductable. Well not our good old boys in Washington. They have lifetime coverage with no payment or deductable. Now how in the world did they get that kind of a health insurance? They passed it for themselves years ago. Just like they give themselves raises most every year. Their retirement does not come from social security either they have a great retirement plan. They gave that to themselves also. Well myself I am sick of the government doing for them self and screwing the American people. How many more years will this corruption go on before the American people wake up? My guess is it will never stop because people think they have to depend on the government for everything. IF there was an honest man in the government they would stand up and say “Enough of raping the people we represent we need to give back to them what is rightfully theirs.” Their health coverage should be eliminated let them pay for it like all of the rest of us do. Let them get their retirement from social security and see how long it takes them to make it solvent again.
Well food for thought again today
Joe

01/27/2011

Well first thing today is to wish my son Joseph Jr. a happy birthday. He is 25 today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON!!! I think about that and this year is a special year in my family because come July 5th my grandmother will be 100 years old. Think about that my grandmother will be 100, my mother will be 75, I will be 50, and my son is 25. 25 years between generations.Yes that is kind of neat in my book.
Well for all of Mr. Obama's claims in his state of the union address, he just made unrealistic goals and high expectations. Lets just put it this way. We could really say that Mr. Obama said "I will have you living on mars within 15 years." Nice just what I want to do live on mars. Just like every other politician promise the moon and give us the shaft. I would rather have had him say "America we are in deep shit and we the government takes full responsibility for this shit. For starters we will give all of our salaries back to the American people because we have failed. Second we as politicians will donate half of our personal wealth (you know that all politicians are millionaires)to the general fund of America. We are doing this because we are responsible for the way this country has been ran. As good corporate/government citizens we want to prove that we are here for you the American citizen."
LMAO LMAO yea I know that will NEVER happen. To have government do what is right LOL I do not see that happening in my lifetime.
Well today is not a good day so keep your mind open and THINK!
Joe

01/26/2011

Well Mr. Obama gave his all important speech last night. Did you watch it on TV? Naw neither did I. Although, I did read it and as I write I will also read and give you my commentary on it so here goes. Well one thing he said "With their votes, they've determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties." The question I ask is why? Why state that government is now a shared responsibility. At what point in time did it stop being a shared responsibility? Oh that's right when the democrats were in control it is not shared, but when the republicans take control THEN it is supposed to be shared. Mr. Obama you are a hypocrite!! You never spoke about sharing when YOUR party was in control. Now I am sure at this point you will say shut up you republican sympathizer. Au contraire I am neither republican nor democrat. I do not like to be put in a boxes as label do but for you people that have to have a label for me just call me an AMERICAN!!! I know not what you were expecting but that is who I am.

He also said "What's more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea – the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny." Our destiny or the one the government wants to shove down our throats. If I was allowed to choose my destiny then it would be without the government telling me I have to do certain things and I cannot have certain things. I would also like to travel as I want to, without the government searching me or my possessions when I fly. I know at this point all of you yellowbelly and liberals will say "We need protection from terrorist" All you people are doing is playing right into their hands because the government thinks that all of the terrorist are little old white haired ladies. Or middle aged people with computers. I may be wrong but I think all of the terrorist are from the Middle East. I say that not to be prejudice but fact is fact so kiss my a$$. As long as I am on this subject lets clear up some misunderstanding. This is America we speak English. If you wish to communicate in this country then learn English. If not, go back to your 'perfect country" and leave mine alone.

Another thing "Sustaining the American Dream has never been about standing pat. It has required each generation to sacrifice, and struggle, and meet the demands of a new age." Then please tell me Mr. Obama when is the government going…" to sacrifice, and struggle, and meet the demands of a new age." I do not see anybody in government going hungry or having to choose between food and medicine. Most everyone I see appears to be well feed some even seem to be over feed. The truth of how it should have been written is "Sustaining the American dream has never been about standing pat for you. It has and will continue to be required of each and every person in America to give up more money and more freedom so we can line are pockets and feel good about ourselves." As my hero would say "For shame for shame"

"We need to take responsibility for our deficit, and reform our government. That's how our people will prosper." In this one thing Mr. Obama you are correct. YOU the Federal Government needs to take responsibility for YOUR deficit. Stop passing the buck onto the back of US citizens.

Well more food for thought

Joe

01/25/2011

Well today is the big day. Tonight Mr. Obama will tell us all about his "Big plans" for the next few years. Most of the talk will be about the economy as I said before. The question that needs to be answered is can the government provide jobs for the Americans that are unemployed? Well no but they COULD help to create jobs. We do not need a bigger government we need a smaller and a smarter government. Politicians are not listening or paying attention to the people of this country. That is evident by this passed election. When will people wake up the second largest employer in America is Wal Mart. Yes, that is correct the Federal Government is the largest as far as numbers is concerned. The only reason they are not number one in all aspects is because the government produces very little revenue. If the government was a business they would have filed bankruptcy a long time ago. The debt to revenue is negative. No company can run for very long in the red. Now if you think that when Mr. Clinton was in office and he claimed that America had a surplus then you are very wrong. Think about your own finances if you own a house and it is not paid for. And you have a car that is not paid for. Then by common sense you know you do not have a surplus you still have debt. Too have surplus then your house and car would have to be paid for, and you have no other long term debt. At that point you could say you have a surplus. The way the government fixed the number it would look like there was a surplus when in reality there was not and has never been. It could almost be called "cooking the books". This is to do the accounting process in a way that shows one thing, but if audited it would show the true financial condition of the company/government. Is that illegal? Yes, but not if you own the legal system.

Well food for thought for today

Joe

01/24/2011

01/24/2011

Well today is sad because Jack LaLanne died. My grandmother would watch him and she is older than him. It shows even if you exercise you are not getting out of here alive. LOL Now I know you bunch of goody goody backstabbing liars will say "You should not talk that way when people die because _____ blah blah blah". All I can say to any of you bunch of people that MAY read this. TRUTH HURTS!!! It is like it is a prerequisite to whatever comes next if anything. Now if that fact remains then there is nothing wrong with talking about death. Just because a person speaks of death does not mean ditily squat. Well I need to get off that "dead horse"

So, on Tuesday we get to hear what Mr. Obama has in store for this great country. Most of what he has to say will be directed at people in DC. What he needs to say to the American people is "We are in big trouble", but that would be truthful and I know there is no truth anywhere inside the "Beltway". See that is the problem with America it has become a nation of liars. Most people will say "I don't lie" but at that same moment they do. It is like I told a friend the other day people lie just because they know nothing else. I know of people that because someone lied about them they are having great difficulties today. The lies may have happened days, weeks, months, or even years ago. You know the old saying "Why can't we just get along?" I can tell you why, people are too selfish. It is all about me, me, me.

Look around you. What do you see people doing? Who are they thinking about? Listen to their words. Most conversation that I have heard is about self. That is why this country is in a mess. We have become self-centered we no longer think of our neighbors or anyone else. Just what do "I" want?

Well food for thought

01/23/2011

Well here it is another day. Yehaw!!! One more day to live threw daily hell from people and government. Front page this day is Mr. Obama's State of the Union speech coming up this Tuesday. Now this speech is to focus on the economy. There is something about that statement… oh that's right Mr. Clinton said "It's the economy stupid" . Well here we are 18 years later and it is still the economy stupid.

Now if you people think that Clinton's policy changed the economy then go read this article here. The budget at that time was $292 billion. Now fast forward to today the budget is $1.3 Trillion. That is around a 4.5% increase in the past 18 years. Today we have a 9 % +/- unemployment rate; in 1993 it was 7.3%. So let's do some math just to be fair I have not done the figure crunching until right now so I am unaware of what the outcome will be. I feel that way I am not being bias in what I say. So that would be about a 1.2% increase in unemployment over 18 years. This would be about 0.06% increase each year. Let's put this is the real world. At 9% unemployment that is around 15 million people without a job. That is like having the whole population of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, Georgia, and Washington DC unemployed at the same time, or almost the whole state of Florida. Now that is a lot of people! Now Mr. Obama will most likely say something about another stimulus bill to add jobs to the economy. Another million if not billions of dollars wasted on policies, that benefit no one other then politicians or big business.

How about we do these instead cut government spending? We could start by cutting every politician salaries in half. Mr. Obama receives over $5 million salary; Mr. Biden receives over $227,000 Mrs. Clinton receives over $186,000. The rest of Mr. Obama's administration salaries range from $27,000+ up to over $193,000, keep in mind these are yearly wages. Now the question is do you make that much per year? I would go out on a limb and say that more than 90% of people who read this will say "Hell no". Well then why do these people in DC need or deserve that much in wages? Don't we as the American people provide for them most of what they need, as in their fundamental's needs? Their fundamental needs would be housing, food, transportation. Let's see we provide Mr. Obama with housing, food, transportation, and numerous luxuries. And I put vacations with all of your family near and far a luxury. Meaning we provide all of that for him then why not give back to Americans his so called salary? Do you feel that is unfair? Do you have all of these thing provided for you? If all of these were provided to you and your family could you or better yet would you be willing to give up your salary? If my family had their basic needs provided then I would be willing to give up at least 80% of my salary to the people that I represented. I say only 80% because I still have things beyond the basics I need like cell phone, cigs, etc. Well more food for thought for today.

Joe

01/22/2011

01/22/2011

As I wrote that date above it hits me. This is 2011!!! It really boggles my mind it is 2011. What happened to 1984 from George Orwell's movie? Well in one way it has transpired, in another it has not. Today there is only a few places that a person can go without being watched on security cameras. So, "Big Brother" is watching us. Well at my age that is about all I can remember from that movie. LOL

In reality it is still the government that IS watching us. Do you realize that you cannot go to a NFL game without being under surveillance? The big talk today is about the Steelers and the Jets (at least in my neck of the woods). The Steelers are the favorite by 3-1, but me I always take the underdog. I don't win very often, but it is more about the triumph of overcoming great odds. Right now you are asking "What is the relationship between football and the government? One thing overcoming great odds we as the American people face great odds. The great odds are do we retain are freedom or do we relinquish them? Do we go along with what is being shoved down are throat by this government? Do we because we are apathetic say well it does not affect me so what. Wake up people EVERYTHING the government does affects you. It may not have an effect right now, today, but at some point it will. I do not understand people. What would make a person believe that what a government does has no affect on them? Or is it that people are worse than apathy they are dependents. The following is an e-mail I received. It speaks way better than I could on this subject.

This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. You can see it coming.
I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government."
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public
treasury."
"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to lose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years".

"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1 From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage".
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul,
Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

Now because it was an e-mail the figures and names are most likely not correct but the idea behind that piece of paper is. That idea is that America is being give/sold/stolen away as a lot of Americans set on their lazy ass and do nothing, but set back and receive from the government.

Again here is another e-mail.  

 

CHANGES ARE COMING Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come. 1. The Post Office.  Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills. 2. The Check.   Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business. 3. The Newspaper.  The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services. 4. The Book.  You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book. 5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes. 6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies." 7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix. 8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert. 9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that can't be changed are memories.  19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of  America That Will Blow Your Mind  The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world. If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children? Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America goes into more debt and every single month America gets poorer. So, what happens when the debt bubble pops? The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber. Here are 19 stunning facts about the deindustrialization of  America : #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation. #2 Dell Inc., one of America's largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.   #3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost. #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.     #5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone. #6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago. #7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000. #8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million. #9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent. #10 Ford Motor Companies recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.   #11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941. #12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services. #13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. #14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th. #15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.  #16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products.    Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide. #17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States. #18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.   #19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept. So, how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it? How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands? How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy? How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide? The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one. And to underscore the above: 11/9/10 : The largest private employer in Saginaw, Michigan will soon be the city government of Beijing, as a 104-year-old unit of General Motors will be sold to new owners from China. The $450M purchase received little attention this summer, but it is a landmark deal - the first time Chinese investors have bought a U.S. Industrial operation of such scale and history. Again because it is an e-mail most facts and figures are most likely incorrect. But all of this is food for thought for today. Joe