Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, May 27, 2012
ISSUE #709
Lawsuits and wars keep America occupied

Notre Dame sued the government over the President’s health care law. Secretary Sebelius told them, “You can claim a religious exemption if you are one hundred percent Catholic.” Notre Dame says, “If we only enroll Catholics, we wouldn’t win enough games. There are plenty of good Catholic football players but sometimes we need to bring in a Methodist or two, maybe even a Southern Baptist.”

Forty other colleges, hospitals and charities operated by religious organizations jumped in, too, because they don’t want anybody telling them they can only deal with people of their own faith. It’s hard enough in this country to get folks interested in religion without Washington throwing up roadblocks.

Here’s another lawsuit. People who got to the front of the line to buy shares of Facebook are mad because in a week they lost (on paper) one dollar for every five they invested. Looking back on it, all I heard from various business news folks on TV for the last month or two was, “Stay away from Facebook.” Even Warren Buffett said he was not interested in buying. So you got no more right to complain about Facebook than if you lost big betting on Bodemeister in the Derby and Preakness.

Hardly any of the recent IPOs for internet tech companies has made any money, except Google.  Of course it’s not just the internet companies; GM is way below it’s initial price, and we’re all stuck with that investment whether we wanted it or not. Buying Ford stock would have been a better bet.

You have to sympathize a bit with Mark Zuckerberg. You remember he got married the day after Facebook shares sold for $38. Well, how many brides do you know who would stand by their man if, in the first week of marriage, he lost ten Billion dollars?

You have heard of Pakistan. It is located between India and Afghanistan and we have been paying ‘em about two Billion dollars a year to be our friend and help fight Al-Qaeda. Well, we have been suckered again. They hid bin Laden for years, but with the help of a local doctor we finally tracked him down. Instead of giving that brave patriotic doctor a medal, Pakistan gave him 33 years. If they won’t release the doctor immediately, I suggest we stop payment on our check, and instead give an extra Billion to India and say, “Sic ‘em.” If India keeps the Pakistan army occupied on the south border, maybe we can take out more terrorists along their north border and give the Afghans a chance at peace when we leave in a year or two.

Syria is causing problems but we’ve got our hands full. It’s Muslims vs. Muslims as it usually is in that region. Muslims seem to divide up just to have someone to fight against. We don’t understand it any more than we would if the Presbyterians and Lutherans declared war on each other. Iran is raising a ruckus, but we got Israel keeping an eye on them for us.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:
“There’s one thing no nation can accuse us of, and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign dealings are an open book, generally a check book.” 
 WA#45, Oct. 21, 1923

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