The television series, set during the Korean War, lasted eleven seasons. The actual Korean War lasted only three years.

Boy has there been some news events as of late.

Farrah Fawcett has died.  I grew up with her poster on my wall.

Michael Jackson has died.   The proclaimed “King of Pop” has succumbed at the age of fifty.

Riots in the streets of Tehran all wrapped around a bogus election.

Cap and Trade to triple your energy bill.

California cannot seem to pass a budget.

Whoa…   Let’s back up a minute…

Farrah Fawcett has died.  Not much that effects us directly, however we are saddened by the loss.

Michael Jackson has died.  Not much that effects us directly, unless you are selling his records on E-bay and we are saddened by the loss.

California cannot pass a budget.  Same story as last year and the year before, and the year before that.  No much here that effects us.

Cap and Trade to triple your energy bill?  Does that effect you and I directly?  Well, let’s see.

According to a study completed by the George C. Marshall Institute, the Cap and Trade program as it is being force fed to us today will cost us…  and cost us dearly.  The Cap and Trade program is the equivalent of a permanent tax increase for the average American household, which was estimated to be $1,100 in 2008 (mine was about three times that amount), would rise to $1,437 by 2015 (1,437 x 3 = 4,311) , to $1,979 in 2030 (1,979 x 3 = 5,937), and $2,979 in 2050 (2,979 x 3 = 8,937).  YIKES!

Estimates of job losses due to Cap and Trade range in the hundreds of thousands. The price for energy paid by you and I, the American consumer, will rise. The studies reviewed showed electricity prices jumping 5-15% by 2015, natural gas prices up 12-50% by 2015, and gasoline prices up 9-145% by 2015. Gasoline would suffer a 16 cent price increase per gallon at the low end of the estimates to a $2.58 penalty at the high end (using the January 2009 reported retail price of $1.78 per gallon – who the hell paid 1.78 per gallon in 2009?).

Cap and Trade is a neat thing because our current politicians can say they are taxing polluters, not workers.  Hmmm…  Once you create a scarce new commodity, in this case, the right to emit carbon, and then mandate that businesses buy it, the cost gets passed onto the consumer in the form of higher prices.  This is elementary business folks.  Think about it.  Ninety-five  percent of working families (that’s you and I) are going to be the hardest hit by this bit of legislation.

Is this the “change” we voted for in 2008?

Note to self; Starting looking for two jobs, not one.  That additional source of income will be needed to keep ones head above water in this climate of “change” as outlined by our current governmental administration.  I will also make sure that my friends and family will also need to seek other means of supporting itself (i.e. sell the following – family mementos, heirlooms, priceless possessions, youngest child) as the cost of living will edge ever higher by exponential amounts.  Hell, cashing in my retirement accounts will probably get me at least a year of living comfortably…  provided that I’m not taxed further.

So, as I purview the news, maybe I should pay a lot more attention to those things that will effect me directly.  I will be sad for those people who have lost loved ones and I will be concerned about the goings on in other countries.  But I will also be looking over my shoulder at this new “politics for change”.  Right now, I am not very impressed with the “change”.

And quietly brewing in the background is an old adversary, North Korea, making saber rattling statements about raining a nuclear firestorm upon the U. S. on July 4th and then rekindle the conflict that they celebrate each June.

I wonder if the actors from the M*A*S*H T.V. show will be back for reruns?

Until next week…