You didn build that !

It wasn't really a robbery, just social justice without the middleman.

definitely worth the risk

I have to admit, the guy does have an ability to inspire people !

John, What were you doing with the lumber in the back of your truck?


Making a tower for the Mustang?

To quote R.E.M. "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." One has to question why the government is providing and taxing for non-essential services in the first place?

This is one that someone sent us the other day.

ncdoubleup wrote: This is one that someone sent us the other day.

Be careful, you have fallen for our secret plan to eliminate you all!

Hi Dave,
First off let me thank you again for your generosity at the GL reunion. I enjoyed meeting you, your son, and the family pup, and it was a pleasure to get a ride in your boat.
I really don't know why you seem angry that I had an enjoyable vacation visiting our national parks on the way home from visiting my daughter. I feel for the people who have spent their savings on a dream vacation to one of our national parks only to find them shuttered.
May I remind you that I worked many years of 60, 80, and even 100 hour weeks before I retired so I could pay for my children's education and put some money into my IRA and savings, and I have actively invested that money to get a return that can support some of my activities. I shared some of my views on investing this thread. While many were criticizing the government for supporting alternative energy and investing in some of the technology companies involved I embraced the technology. It has proven to be a much better strategy than "drill baby drill".

I have trouble understanding how your money supports my vacation.
I made a few of my investment selections clear to all with these posts. This is how I pay for my retirement.

john b wrote: skicat2001 wrote: Obama's 90 billion dollars on green energy is one example. AND THEY ALL WENT BANKRUPT.    This is the kind of bankrupt everyone wants! The Department of Energy invested $465,000,000 in Tesla in October 2011. At that time it would have bought 18,637,274 shares, since stock was trading at $24.96 Today that stock is worth $689,579,138 Department of Energy profit of $224,579,138. Solar City, another company the Department of Energy invested in with a loan of $275,000,000, went public in December 2012 at $11.00 Two months later the stock closed at $15.63, up 42% in 60 days, I'll take that. Department of Energy profit = $115,000,000. There are others as well, but these are the only ones I have positions in. There is always a great deal of risk in small cap new technology, but the rewards can be great as well. Everyone picks a big loser sometimes, and you don't have to pick more winners than losers either, just have a big winner come along once in a while. The risk was especially high with some of these given the time frame the purchase was made, with an election just on the horizon.. As a wise man on this site once said, "Do what you always do, get what you always got". Few people were ever exceptionally successful relying on an old business model. You have to think of the next thing.

And here is my follow up to that post.

[QUOTE=john b] I had to revisit this post. As I said back in January I invested in those terrible companies that all went broke under O'bama. This post in January is more true today than ever.
How are these companies of the future doing now? Just check if you haven't been following the business news. Too bad we didn't support Solyndra a bit longer. They went out of business and now we are forced to buy our solar panels from China for the booming solar business.
O'bama, a visionary. How's your oil stock doin on that "drill baby drill" platform?

john b wrote: [QUOTE=skicat2001] Obama's 90 billion dollars on green energy is one example. AND THEY ALL WENT BANKRUPT.

This is the kind of bankrupt everyone wants!

The Department of Energy invested $465,000,000 in Tesla in October 2011. At that time it would have bought 18,637,274 shares, since stock was trading at $24.96

John,
I cant take credit for that bumper sticker. (altho I wish I could :) I just happened to post it first.

A lot of humor is at the expense of others... sometimes that hits a nerve. I think a lot of the posts in this marathon thread have been out of frustration... and maybe a bit of jealousy.

There area lot of things I get frustrated over ... I'm 59 and look at my retirement funds (actually lack thereof) and could cry... after all, I did everything "right". Started saving and investing early in life, only to see it mostly wiped out by circumstances I had nothing to do with.

Pam and I have worked our azz off to build a small business (which "O" reminded me "We didn't build that.. someone else did" .. funny, I go into work at 6:30 most mornings. I never see "someone else" there?).

We started our business in 1986 ... and had one 10 day vacation in the first 15 years. Then we were finally able to hire an employee. He was there almost 6 years. Pam and I were actually able to take a couple of weeks of vacations EACH year! WOW! this is great!!! THEN the economy hit the skids. (btw, I didn't do that..."Someone else did that:(

It's back to just her and I. No more "frivolous" vacations. Now we actually close the doors of the business when we want a few days off to do silly things, like go to Green Lake. Kind of hard to have any income when the doors are closed. Not sure we will ever see another "week" vacation...

My health insurance rates have almost doubled in the last few years (What is so "Affordable" in this act?) Just went to dentist- xrays, cleaning and 360 bucks lighter, I'm back on the street... btw, the doc says I need almost 800 bucks worth of work sometime in the near future.... don't wait up doc... My insurance doesn't cover this.

I am completely embarrassed with pretty much ALL of these so called "public servant" politicians and the way they act. They are soooooo far out of touch with what the average Joe is doing to survive. What a JOKE.



On a lighter note, there are a few positives...

I still think we live in the greatest nation on earth. (altho I am VERY concerned with the direction it is going... mainly for my grandkids)

I'm still am able to buy gas for my boat. (good teeth are over rated, right?)

We rarely "go out" to eat. (gotta buy gas for the boat, you know?!)
   but We still have food on the table.

I come home to a house that the majority of the worlds population would think a king lives in.

I am free to worship on Sunday mornings. (somehow, that's not as popular with the general masses as it used to be)


and finally, we can all express our sometimes silly thoughts and beliefs on public forums without being thrown in jail. (I hear rumours they are working on changing that?)

Anyway, I gotta get some shut eye... 5:30AM comes pretty quickly. ( maybe "someone else" will finally show up at work tomorrow morning?)

Cheers my friend.

Rmemeber Dave, visiting our national parks is not free. They are supported at least in part by user fees. The annual pass I bought costs $80 per person. Campsites are $20 per night X 2000 sites, and cabins are pretty pricey. If all visitors to Yellowstone (3,447,000 in 2012) bought passes that would be $275,760,000 per year in passes alone. The entry fee, campsite fees, souvineers, donations, and shopping offset the cost to run the park. Many of the roads and improvements in our parks were built by the CCC workers.
These parks are a national treasure and I posted a few cell phone photos be ause i am impressed with their beauty no matter how many times I have visited. BTW visitors are welcome to use the government provided ramps to launch a boat and enjoy a spin around the lakes in many of the parks.

It’s a democracy and funny it seems Americans want national parks even at the exorbitant rate of almost 10 dollars per American per year. To think that some old guys 200 plus years ago tried to protect us from national parks is silly, not true, and even if it was who cares what they thought it was 200 hundred years ago when unsettled land was everywhere and the many ways we destroy the planet had mostly yet to be invented. That’s why they voted in a constitution that could be changed. I don’t know how anyone lucky enough to have been born in the USA can have an attitude like … man I lived to a hundred and payed like a thousand dollars and never visited none of those freaking waste of money parks… damn government. Well boo hoo you drank cleaner water and breathed cleaner air because they existed. A national park can only be accomplished by the federal government and therefore it is exactly what the federal government should be doing.   

Steve I would be interested in hearing how you do when you check the exchange for health insurance costs, so far in NY most of my self employed friends are finding real coverage available at considerably less than what they were paying for catastrophic care insurance.

Joe,
From what I gathered yesterday the IL site was not working properly / overloaded. (Imagine that something with the IL government not working properly... ) Sometime, I will check it out for sure. Havent had a lot of time to see how it works... sounds like good ol subsidies based on income?

John,
Your daughter was able to get an account set up already? Is she in IL?
if I can be nosey, what type of business is she in?
.

I think I broke my horn...

skicat2001 wrote: I think I broke my horn...

Now your just another Obama hating honky!

MNCare, Minnesota's state run health exchange is off to a stellar start. A month ago they emailed out (honest mistake) a list of 2000 insurance brokers personal information including names, addresses and social security numbers, But I am sure we can trust them with the confidentiality of our medical information. They are also under fire for their spending of the 4 million dollar allowance for navigator companies. they funded planned parent hood and a company founded by a democrat insider 2 days prior to the application cut off, but neglected to fund groups to help low income customers. they had to fork out an addition 3/4 million above the budget to remedy that.

Day one of operation they could not get the site up for the first 8 hours. After some internet protocol viagra they claim to have 50,000 hits (who knows how many misses)this week but only managed to get 5000 accounts registered and will not say how many actually purchased insurance. Its like watching a slow motion train wreck.