Debit cards, Confederate Flags, Gas Prices and Terrorists

Well folks, the world is continuing its downward spiral into insanity today.   All you have to do is peruse the headlines on any of the major news sources to see that.   Let’s take a tour of the nonsense that’s going on today.  Click on the blue text to access the news story.

In this article on CNN.com,  $50 spending limit, JPMorgan Chase is reported to be considering restricting debit card transactions to as little as $50, because new banking  rules aimed at protecting the customers from excessive fees would limit their ability to charge customers.   As more and more Americans have moved away from using credit cards (and the ridiculous fees associated with them), opting instead for the more manageable debit card, banks are seeing their cash cow get smaller and smaller.  Poor banks, don’t they realize that if they force us back to using cash, they won’t get any fees at all?  My wife and I already have freed ourselves from credit cards.  We don’t have any, nor will we ever have them again. We use our debit cards for almost every purchase we make, believing them safer than cash.  If the banks want to play this game, I have no problem going back to cash.  More and more places will not take checks these days, and many of the one that do will run the transaction in much the same way a debit card is used.  They process it, debit your account immediately and if approved, they hand your check back to you right then.

Personally, I think relying on the cash you have in your pocket is a good thing. If more people could resist the impulse to whip out that credit card and by something they don’t need, they’d be a lot better off.  If we replaced our paper money with coinage, it would be virtually fire proof, would cut costs at the mint, make forgery harder to do, and make it easier for people to keep their money in a safe or other location at home.  Who needs banks when you have a cookie jar, right? On a serious note, limiting transactions   to such a small amount will only serve to drive customers to use cash, thereby depriving the banks of any fees.  What are they thinking? With today’s gas prices, I couldn’t even get a fill-up on my truck with a $50 limit.

Here’s some more stupidity: Confederate flag costs man his job.  Found this one on Fox News.  Apparently an Oregon school bus driver has been fired for displaying a Confederate Battle Flag on his vehicle. Not the school bus, but his own personal vehicle.  According to the article, the flag was in violation of a school policy that prohibits symbols that could be offensive to minorities.  I suppose that if a group of Islamic students who support the Taliban complained, the US Flag would have to come down as well.  When did we become a nation of “minority rule”?  These days, if a thousand people gather together, and 999 of them like something, and one person complains, the thing must be removed. How did it get to be this way?  What if it offends the 999 who like it to see it removed?

Here’s another from CNN: Gas Prices .  In this one, the author brings to light that most of Europe laughs when they hear Americans complaining about high fuel prices.  Seems that gas ranges from $7.50 to $10 a gallon there.  But you know what?  I don’t care what Europe pays for gasoline.  If you take the taxes off that their own governments have imposed on fuel, they pay less than we do still. If they want to do something about their gas prices, they should reflect that when they go to the polls.  Well, in the nations that allow them to go to the polls, anyway.  We still have that option, at least for now.

Speaking of nonsense, here’s the latest casualty of “global warming”.  Got this at MSNBC:  Coffee prices up due to global warming.  One Columbian farmer interviewed in the article says his farm’s production is down 70 percent from 5 years ago and that now his sons may not be able to go to college. Global warming hasn’t seem to have reached Brazil yet though, where production is actually on the rise.  Apparently the coffee plant is very particular, and even a half degree difference in temperature will cause detrimental effects and a 24 hour rainy spell can cause irreparable damage to the crop. Farmers are traditionalists, and are resistant to replanting fields with disease and weather tolerant strains, even though they are already in wide use throughout the world.

The article briefly makes mention that fertilizer prices have skyrocketed, and that that has dented yields as well. I suspect that this is the main culprit, but that’s only my own opinion.   If the farmers have cut the amount of fertilizer due to the costs, the plants will not produce regardless of the weather.  If they have sufficient nutrients in the soil, they will be healthier and more tolerant of changes in the weather.

Then there’s the bit on AOL News about a teacher who had to resign after some of students found some x-rated films she made about 20 years ago.  This is the second time she’s had this problem come up.  In 2006, she lost teaching job in another state for the same reason.  There was nothing illegal about the movies she made, according to the article, and she has no criminal background, so many people question why something that happened 20 years ago would be a basis for firing a person.  So should it?  She’s been on “Doctor Phil” and talked about it, she’s openly admitted doing it.  Since then, she’s gone to college, improved her life and herself, so how long should this haunt her? People always raise the “morality” issue when it comes to stuff like this, but I say “let he among you without sin cast the first stone”.   She’s turned from that life, but yet the “moral” people of the world still condemn her. Is that the Christian way to be folks?  Seems like I remember something about a thing called “forgiveness” in there somewhere, what’s happened to that?  Come on, get over it.  She did it, admitted it, and moved on with a new life.  If she can’t put it past her, why not go back to it?  She could make a lot more money with a porn site than being a teacher, and no one would care in the porn business that she had once been a teacher!

Every carrier is running news about the Libyan Civil War, though none of them have the cajones  to call it that.  I keep seeing words like “uprising” and “civil unrest” .  Come on folks…there are a group of people using guns, rocks, sticks and anything else they can get their hands on to overthrow the government in their nation.  That government, in response is using as much military might as it can muster to stop it, including troops, automatic weapons, tanks, aircraft and tear gas.  People on both sides have been killed, many are hurting. All the while, the international community sits on its hands trying to figure out what to do.  Well, the answer is simple.  You leave it alone, as long as it stays contained in the Libyan borders.  If the people of Libya want to throw off an oppressive regime and form a democratic republic, that is their right to do so. No one can give it to them; no one can show them the way.  They must do this on their own.  For democracy to flourish, for freedom to have any meaning, it must be fought for, paid for in blood by the people who want it.  It must be their own hard won victory that brings it about.  You can see a good example of how well this works in Israel and the United States.  Both these nations fought their way into being against tremendous odds.  Yes, they both had help from other nations, but only after they had begun the fight on their own.  The free and independent nations of the world stand as such because not only is freedom dear enough to die for, but it is dear enough to kill for as well.  Our presence in Iraq for more than a decade proves that you cannot give freedom to a people. They must wrest it from their oppressors themselves if it is to be a true and lasting victory.  Was Saddam a threat to the world that needed to be eliminated?  Yes, I have no doubt.   He was a threat not only to his own people and his neighbors but the entire world.  The invasion should have removed him, thrown down those loyal to him, and then we should have left and let the Iraqi people sort it out for themselves.  If they don’t want freedom bad enough to pay the price to keep it, we shouldn’t pay it for them.  As the biggest superpower in the world, we have a measure of responsibility to help maintain peace and order in the world.  We have the right and an obligation to defend ourselves and aid our allies if other nations unjustly war against us or them, but internal struggles such as those in Libya now should be hands off until it threatens to spill onto the world stage.  Yes, there will be tragedy and atrocities. It will require that the major powers in the world cooperate to keep outside influences to a minimum, but it must resolve on it’s own, whichever side is victorious.

The worst thing that can happen is for it to become another Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Viet Nam, where opposing superpowers use the peoples of those countries as pawns in their own contest of wills.  Afghanistan is such a mess that the Soviet occupation in the 1980’s failed, and our own has not been exactly a success.  The Soviets pulled out in 1989 if memory serves, and the chaos left behind gave rise to the Taliban. It remains to be seen what the result of the American invasion of Afghanistan will accomplish. Begun in 2001 after Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11 of that same year, the occupation of Afghanistan continues to this day.  Current plans call for a possible withdrawal of American troops in 2014. The results of American intervention in Iraq remains to be seen, and no one can describe the war in Viet Nam as a success for either side, although there are those that claim victory after the Americans pulled out.

Is the world safer from terrorism because of these actions? I would like to say that it is, but sadly, I can’t say that with certainty.  It has slowed the terrorist organizations down, and made it harder for them to train and recruit, but there will never be an eradication of terrorism.  Unfortunately, there will always be those who are determined to control, at any cost, the lives and destinies of others.  Some, like Adolf Hitler, will find their way to the halls of power through seemingly legitimate means.  Others, like Osama bin Laden, will hide in caves and deserts, aided by those individuals or governments who either fear him or profit by his activities.  The best that we can hope for is to detect and disrupt the activities of these people and the governments of the world that support them.