Third One's A Charm?

There have been an interesting couple of weeks around here in Delaware. We have experienced a couple of near misses from castastrophes. A small tornado hit along the PA-DE border last week. Not a whole lot of damage but power was out for thousands for a day or so.
Of course a couple of days ago we felt the earthquake that was centered in VA. At the time I was sitting at my desk here at home. I heard what I thought was the side door shut kind of hard. I stood up to go check it out and then behind me I heard another sound. I suddenly thought that I was going to become the victim of a home invasion and struck a ninja pose.
At about the same moment that I realized that I had nothing to steal, the whole house shook and rattled and some things fell off shelves.
Instantly, I ran to Facebook to make a post. It’s what way too many of us do these days. Two seconds later my questions were answered there. Yes, many people also felt the earth shake. I thought there was a chance it could have been a big explosion, but all of the FB experts agreeed that it was a quake.

Now we are preparing for hurricane Irene. Yesterday it looked like the forecast had it kicking east enough so that Delawareans might just experience a rain event. But at 11am EDT the forecast has us taking a direct hit.

The Outer Banks are right in the path of this thing now. I had the chance to drive through there last year on the way home from a show. This type of storm has the potential to change the landscape.
I am staring at two large trees in my yard; one in the front and one in the back. They are pretty sturdy but they might not be able to match up against 75-90 mph winds and my landscape may very change also.
I have wanted to take one of them down. But at $1000 dollars it was staying until it fell on its own. Sunday might be that day.

I could use a new roof too, I think, so this could kill two birds with one stone. But as long as it doesn’t kill me and the dog, I’ll be ok with that.
I think this means that I have to go get bread and milk now…and a candle. Maybe some gummy bears and a blankie. Yes…that should do it for my hurricane kit.

Utah is looking better and better all the time; that’s for sure!

Delaware Sports

This past weekend I had the opportunity to perform my stage hypnosis show at Cornell University, my second Ivy League school appearance (Penn, last year.)
I went there not knowing that the audience would be about 1500 strong. I was happy to hear it and see it though. The show was set in the athletic field house on a stage where such notables as Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have spoken or performed amongst many other notable personalities.
It was truly an honor to be there and it went rather well.
Larger crowds are actually easier to do; the amount of volunteers from which to choose is large. Indeed there were about 80 who eventually came up to the stage.
While that number of volunteers is great for what I do the trouble can be that because there are so many, that there are a lot of dropouts throughout the show. With smaller groups of volunteers, its easier to keep more of them around and on the stage. Ultimately, I want to keep great volunteers on stage for the best show. Sometimes when people wake up I can bring them back down and that process can be funny in itself. The issue with the larger crowd is that I can’t always get to those people who wake up and decide to head back to the audience. Personally, I don’t like how that looks even though it’s just plainly obvious that the hypnosis isn’t working for them properly.

Because I did end up with some amazing volunteers there were some hilarious moments in the show. As I am writing this I am watching the videotape. I hope to post up some highlights sometime this week.

So I have been debating what show to do next to add to the Dungeon show that we produce at Marshcast.com. I had been thinking about doing a completely positive show on there and indeed that is what is going to happen.
I’ve chosen to re-launch my old show Delaware Sports on its website at delawaresports.com. It was something that I had done on a local cable channel here in Delaware for about 12 years or so.
Delaware Sports was a project that basically left me unable to retire for quite some time. Eventually I pulled myself out of a very deep hole as it transitioned into a sports video production company that I still run. But when I decided to stop producing the cable show, the video production work dropped off dramatically. Coupled with the economic downturn, the hole is deep again.
There are many advantages of producing the show on the internet. Just in case they aren’t completely obvious, they include free air time, 24/7 access for viewers, the ability to monetize the website, no weekly deadlines, tighter and better highlight reels, and the ability to use the show to promote and secure more video work. I can also, of course, promote anything else that I do including my hypnosis shows.

There is a lot of work involved but I justify that work by placing a dollar figure on it and saying that there would actually be money saved had I decided to spend money on advertising to try to get more video production work.
The show will not be a 30-minute show as it had been in the past. Rather, highlights of games and any other segments produced will get posted in shorter clips. This way people who are interested in watching something specific can just click on it directly rather than trying to skim through to the part that they wish to watch. It will simply be much more convenient for everyone involved.
We featured internet versions of our old show a very long time ago. We beat any video production company, in this state anyway, to the internet with full-length shows. Heck, our website was up before any of the major media outlets also. So this particular project was a trail-blazing one. I’m not sure that I have the desire to do much trailblazing now with it since it’s not my main focus, but you never know.
It will be nice to get to meet a bunch of new people while piecing this together and giving them a chance for some extra exposure in the area. 

We’ll see how long these shows both run. My goals are related to hypnosis and that form of entertainment but whatever project works the best is the one which I will ultimately follow through to the end…my end, of course.

Done.

Worst to First to Worst

Just a few weeks ago the Pittsburgh Pirates were a win away from first place in the NL Central attempting to overtake the Cardinals.
Now they are 13.5 games out in fourth place and the Brewers have a 6.5 game advantage in the division. My, oh, my, what a difference a few weeks make. That is a tanking, my friends. It is not as noticeable in the middle of the season like this, but at the trade deadline on 7-31 they made a trade to strengthen themselves for a stretch run at the title. They lost 12.5 games in less than 3 weeks.
The Brewers did their part for sure. They won 18 out of 20 at one point and have truly pieced together a championship caliber team. They’ll be fun to watch in the playoffs provided that there isn’t another giant swing.
That’ll be unlikely with roughly 37-40 games each remaining, but it’s still possible. That is the division to watch since the Cardinals who are now in second place trail the Braves for the Wild Card slot by an even greater margin.
The World Champs are in some hot water also. While they are just 2.5 games behind the Diamondbacks in the West, they can’t hit right now. And the star player they picked up from Mets, Carlos Beltran, is on the disabled list. They have gone just 7-13 since that trade.
In the AL, the Yanks and Red Sox are cruising to the Playoffs. One or the other will certainly capture the Wild Card spot there. Currently it’s the Red Sox and they are about 9 games in front of the Angels. If everything plays out the way it should, the Yanks and Sox will end up in the ALCS doing battle in October…or is it December now? As much as I love baseball, it’s terrible to play in cold weather and I’d rather see it end by the 3^rd week of October at the latest. Yet I have heard rumors about adding more playoff teams to the mix. That would extend the season to mid-November unless the regular season gets trimmed or MLB starts going back to regular Sunday double-headers like back in the good old days when that was the only reason to have a “5^th” starter.

I was thinking about the Pirates and how that franchise sort of mirrors some of my own life. For years they were down…kicked around…poor, etc. Then suddenly there was a rise near the top…then CRASH…and back down again. It is the way that it goes and I think it’s important to experience it for oneself and to see it happen to others also, whether it happens to other individuals or even giant sports teams like the Pirates.
It’s important to see and experience to bring balance and humility into one’s life; at least that is how I see it.
There are even some big name celebrities who haven’t exactly lived life with a silver spoon in their mouths. Counting themselves amongst the homeless at some point in their lives before achieving successful careers are such people as Jim Carrey, Carmen Electra, Halle Berry, Jewel, Drew Carey, Charlie Chaplin, Kelly Clarkson, Kurt Cobain, Daniel Craig, Benjamin Franklin, Kelsey Grammer, Cary Grant, Harry Houdini, Don Imus, David Letterman, Rose McGowan, Jim Morrison, Suze Orman, George Orwell, Tyler Perry, Sally Jesse Raphael, Joan Rivers, Colonel Sanders, William Shatner (AFTER Star Trek,) Martin Sheen, Sylvester Stallone, Hillary Swank, Shania Twain, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and John Woo to name some more prominent ones.
Here are some other stats about formerly (at some point) homeless people who have “made it.”
Billionaires:  1
Nobel Prize Winners:  1
Nobel Prize Nominees:  2
Oscar Winners:  7
Oscar Nominees:  11
Emmy Award Winners:  8
Emmy Award Nominees:  11
Grammy Award Winners:  9
Grammy Award Nominees:  14
Best-Selling Authors:  9
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients (U.S.'s highest civilian honor):  1
Knighthoods:  1

If I do a little more digging I bet that I would prove a thought that I have related to this. I would bet that there are more people who come from nothing and make it and keep it than those who had an easier start who make it and lose it. The reason is obvious; those who come from more humble beginnings appreciate it much more. Hmm…did I even need to waste my time writing that? I would think that it is as obvious as could be possible.

So that is written as a tool to help place things, careers, and lives in perspective and to help motivate those of us…especially me right now…to keep on working hard and do whatever it takes to overcome any obstacles thrown in our way.

A Future Movie Star?

I am going to read through that list a few more times today because I have to overcome some of the most insane comments I have ever heard from politicians recently. Maybe you have heard them too…to paraphrase- “Food stamps help stimulate the economy,” and unemployment insurance payments create jobs.”

You can’t tell by reading this, but I just beat my head on my desk three times after writing those quotes from people who are supposed to be leading us out of an economic mess.

Looks like I’ll have to read from the top again but remember to stop before I get too far down the page.

Done.

More Milestones

It’s a beautiful mid-August day in Delaware today. I can’t the dog to come in right now; he is loving life out there rolling around in the grass with temperatures and humidity levels low for this time of the year. Two times I tried to get him back in here and he just stared at me ran back out there. Technically he was obeying; he came to the fence when I called him. But then he ran back out there. Hey, he’s 16 now and if he wants to play outside a little longer, I don’t want to stop him.

I still won’t come out until about mid-September though. I only know it’s nice out there because I let the dog out there.

Ok, I have to go outside to go to work from time to time. Hopefully now that summer is beginning to fade away I’ll have to get out more. With school starting again hypnosis shows will start to pick up and I am hoping that this will be a banner year…please let it be so anyway. I am making return appearances to a couple of Universities next week and a new one this coming Saturday. Generally once I get my foot in the door of some of these schools I get asked to return, and that is a good thing.

Jim Thome

Jim Thome became the 8^th player in Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career homeruns blasting the last two he needed to reach that mark last night.

He does so in an era when steroids were popular and probably helped a lot of players hit more homeruns than they would have had there not been steroids (although no one can tell me how they help ANYONE hit a 95 mph fastball.)
What has probably helped more homerun hitters than steroids, however, is the designated hitter. Thome becomes the 4^th player in the 600 hr club to have DH listed as his official position on the stat sheet at MLB.com no less.
For the record the 600 hr club is as follows

Barry Bonds 762
Hank Aaron 755
Babe Ruth 714
Willie Mays 660
Ken Griffey 630
Alex Rodriguez 626
Sammy Sosa 609

Jim Thome 600

Rodriguez, obviously, is still active.
The players listed as DH’s on there, are Aaron, Sosa, Griffey and Thome. Now we know that Aaron, Sosa and Griffey did most of their damage while playing positions but the time spent as a DH did help some of those numbers increase later in their careers.

Of the 8, Thome has the second lowest career batting average (to Sosa) but is one of three with an on-base-percentage of over 400 (Bonds, Ruth.) He has struck out the most (second only to Reggie Jackson all time now) and has the fewest stolen bases, fewest hits, fewest triples and fewest RBI (9 behind Sosa.) He does have the 3^rd most walks to Bonds and Ruth and the second highest homerun per at bat percentage to Ruth.

Derek Jeter continues his climb up the milestone ladder. He now has 3039 career hits and has moved up to 22^nd place all time in hits. Since getting his 3000^th hit has passed Roberto Clemente, Al Kaline, Wade Boggs, Cap Anson, Rafael Palmeiro and Lou Brock. All of those except for Palmeiro are Hall of Famers. Realistically he could pass three more by the end of year needing just 22 more hits to pass Rod Carew, Rickey Henderson and Craig Biggio to vault into 19^th place.

He is only 37 so if he hangs in there for a few more years he should end up in the top ten all time in hits.

Speaking of milestones, the Dungeon of Manlove show has reached the 500 mark in subscribers this week.
Now I know that isn’t a lot of subscribers but I didn’t think we would get more than 20 or so and those would be friends of the show or those on the show.
That number does not count listeners and that number is impossible to tell. The things we can tell for sure are the subscriber totals and how many countries we have reached (47.)
The podcasting craze, or fad, is continuing to heat up around the world. It does now seem like everyone is doing one. On the site which hosts our show there are now over 380,000 podcasters. That is up 20,000 from when we started our in late March. So we know that randomly finding the show and then sticking with it to listen to it enough to want to subscribe is not reasonable. This means that the people we are reaching through our social networks is producing these results…friends telling friends telling friends, etc.

The other day I asked if anyone would listen to a completely positive show if we started producing one. Of the responses that I did get, not one believed that it would work. The typical reply was, it sounds like a good idea but in reality I like listening to train-wreck material.

I will tell you what this really does tell me, though; that I should make the positive-only show anyway. Keep in mind that the DoM show isn’t negative; it’s just adult-themed. That in itself places it in that category in a lot of people’s minds though.
One note I received thought that shows that are positive in nature are usually religious shows. I sort of thought that was right.
My thought is different about what it would include. I’m not giving away any ideas about what I may do here. This is because I have a stalker now.

Yes, indeed I have a stalker although not in the true sense of the term that you just thought when you read that. Someone is out there following everything that I do and at pretty much every chance is trying to duplicate what I do. I suppose it’s just a matter of time before this person becomes a stage hypnotist and mentalist too. Oops…cross off that second one; this person “dabbled” in that once they saw what I was doing with mentalism also.

Anyway…I really got into the podcasting thing as a creative release that I had needed. I also have just not had a fantastic year as I have mentioned before. Doing my dumb show has helped keep me sane. It’s ironic that some of the craziness that has taken place on my show has helped keep me from going crazy, but it’s true nonetheless. It’s also created an offer for me, although I’m not sure where that might lead.

Have you thought about your particular expertise and how you might share it with others? Blogging like this is one way, and it’s also pretty effective. But have you had even a little urge to do something on audio? Give it a try. There is a little learning curve to overcome and some initial stage fright, maybe, but its fun. If you would like to do something drop me a line. I can help get you started with it and I’d also entertain the idea of adding anything that you might create to the marshcast.com page.

Done

Baseball Awards

The Major League Baseball website recently made a big change to its statistics section. It’s now much more computer friendly and it’s a vast improvement over the old system that was there. If you’re a stats freak like me, you’ll love it.

With less than 50 games left in the season many more outcomes are becoming clearer.
It’s easy to take a look at the standings and talk about them but I was thinking about post-season honors today.

At the beginning of the year I mentioned a few names for some post-season honors. I thought that Adrian Gonzalez from the Red Sox and Albert Pujols were MVP candidates. I thought it wise to watch Cole Hamels on the mound for the Phillies and I mentioned the Angels rookie Mark Trumbo. I do forget if I mentioned any AL pitcher or any NL rookie and am not going back in time right now since it’s not that important.

Gonzalez could very well be the MVP if the season were to end today. He is supported by a pretty powerful Red Sox lineup though so there could very well be another strong candidate right now. Red Sox fans would cringe; the Yankees Curtis Granderson has put up some beefy numbers for the second place Yanks. With other injuries to some of the other star players on that squad, most notably Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, Granderson has been a major reason for the continued offensive success of the Bombers.

Trumbo, in LA, has lived up to my pre-season predictions. He has provided a lot of power in a year where there hasn’t been a lot of power. If he simply stays consistent for the balance of the year, he’ll be the Rookie of it.

The AL Cy Young award race is between the Tigers Justin Verlander and the Angels Jered Weaver. They recently had a memorable head-to-head duel a couple of weeks ago. Weaver leads the league in ERA with Verlander close behind who leads in strikeouts and has a better winning percentage.

In the NL, I thought that Pujols while in his contract year would have a major year. Again, for Pujols, this is a down year. But he is heating up right now and does lead the NL in homeruns tied with his teammate Lance Berkman.
Pujols would need to continue to stay hot for the balance of the year and then have the Cardinals overtake the first place Brewers in the NL Central to be MVP right now. That is because the Brewers have two strong candidates for the award in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. Those two could cancel out each other though and if Albert shines then he’ll get more votes.
The Mets Jose Reyes had been a leading candidate but two recent stints on the DL have hampered his ability to pile up the stats he would need to win the award being on a team struggling to reach the .500 winning percentage mark.
In the NL West there is another potential candidate in Justin Upton from the Diamondbacks. If Arizona wins the west, he has to get a stack of votes.

The NL Cy Young is up for grabs. No one is pulling away with that race. Hamels has been very effective for the Phillies and leads the league in WHIP (walks and hits to inning pitched) which make him tough and not just someone who benefits from the overall team power.

The Rookie of Year could very well be contested between two Atlanta Braves – Craig Kimbrell the relief pitcher and Freddie Freeman, their first baseman.

The current interesting story from the league also comes from the Braves. Second baseman Dan Uggla has a 32-game hitting streak going into tonight’s action. It’s the longest of the year now. But with all of that success he is still having a terrible struggle overcoming his horrid start to the year. His streak has only upped his average to the .221 mark. Going into the All-Star break he was hitting .181. So, just roughly speaking, he would have to break Joe Dimaggio’s all-time hitting streak to just boost his average to a level that is just sort of “ok” for the year.

That’s it. I just needed to get lost in some baseball today. Nothing to complain about now and baseball simply helps me straighten out myself after losing myself in it for a while.
Still pretty slow, show-wise, but things will pick up again starting next week. Looks like I’ll add another major university to the show schedule in a couple of days, which will be cool.

If you listen to the Dungeon of Manlove show, it will be a little safer to hear now. One of the major reasons it had an extra cringe factor is now gone. While the show will still be for adults, it’s less of an adult show, if you know what I mean. But still, if you are easily offended by “bad words” pass on it.

I have been, for years I should say, tinkering with the thought of doing a super-G rated show which only features positive and happy news from the area and the world. The idea would be to lift people’s spirits and feature people who are doing great things.
Yes, there are religious shows that are similar, but it would be with far less religion.
Sadly, I don’t think many people would listen to it though.

I don’t know; I’d like to be proven wrong about that. Send me some notes to let me know what you think. What do you like to hear? Would you listen to such a show? What would you like to hear in it? I’ll wait for the notes to decide.

Done

Rollercoasters

While the technical definition of the word cliché is “a phrase or word that has lost its original effectiveness or power from overuse” I have also heard it said that the term or saying to which it refers is simply stated so truthfully or powerfully that it simply can’t be said any better.

Well the one I am thinking of right now is, “life is full of ups and downs.”

How true, how true, how true that has been for me this year. Good grief. I’ve certainly had these peaks and valleys over the course of my life. However, this year is taking the cake right now.
In February, I was on top of the world performing my hypnosis show in Las Vegas for the first time. That, naturally, was an “up.”
In a 30-day period through July and August I grossed $500 in income before expenses. That is pretty much as low as it’s ever been for me in my adult life, income wise.

But this type of uncertainty is a potential risk for someone like me who wishes to have some control of his destiny. I have never been a conformist and to become one as completely as necessary to achieve the security that most people have would about kill me.
Although, ironically, during these down times, and this particular period, I have sometimes gone to sleep and hoped that I would not wake up anymore.

What is really making this matter worse right now is that I may have made a very, very bad decision that was made based on my loyalty to a few people. I recently had an offer to do something that, if I had taken it immediately, would have meant that I would have had to stop doing something else and leave a group of people out in the cold (another cliché.)
But because I am loyal, I stuck to my guns (another cliché) and delayed a decision which means that I am risking the offer made to me if the terms I worked out don’t pan out properly.
What makes it even worse is that there are some clear signs that I may have placed my trust and loyalty in the wrong person in this group.

It would not be the first time that someone in whom I have placed my blind trust was trying to screw me or has successfully screwed me. The other night I found out for certain that someone I had let in my house over the past couple of years was stealing money from me while in here.
What is ironic with these violations of my trust, whether actual or possible, is that I spent a great deal of my early adult life working in a field where I learned not to trust anyone.
The effects of those days carried over into my personal life in a negative way. Try living life just not trusting anyone at all; it’s awful. So I spent a great deal of time working on trying to trust people again. Then I do, and what I knew will happen, happened.  

So, it’s back to the grind now after I post this. Back to trying to find more places to perform, back to writing my book, back to trying to produce a show that people will support, back to trying to get back to the top of the hill again.

But I am so overwhelmed with depression right now, its killing me; just not fast enough for my liking.

Done.

Rise Up!

Have you seen the movie trailer for The Rise of the Planet of the Apes? How cool does that movie look to you? I can’t wait to see that one although I’ll have to wait since I refuse to go the movies these days the way people act in them.
Of course I’ve seen all of the PotA movies and even saw all five of the originals in a row in a drive-in movie in Northern N.J. a very long time ago.
If you are someone who has never seen them its just simply about apes getting real tired of being treated poorly. They rise up and take over the earth and kick a lot of human ass along the way.
The series starts later in the timeline and now what looks to be a fantastic remake would put the movie in the early part of the timeline.

So where am I going with that opening?

Are you like me and have friends who have pretty much lost everything, or close to it in the last few years? Are you like me and have friends who are still doing ok because they work in sectors that haven’t been hit by this economy.
In any economy, good or bad, some rise and some fall.
I’ve never seen people fall so far though and I lived through the Jimmy Carter era.
But even the people that I know who are doing well because they have jobs have lost also.
Take one friend who works as a teacher and has a wife who is a nurse. Their jobs are currently secure. But they have a house that has lost value to the point where they owe more on it than its now worth. Their retirement accounts are also worth about 40% less or so.
Another friend of mine works as a programmer and his wife is a teacher. He has people bidding for his services and as an administrator his wife’s job is secure. They are trying to sell their house and can’t at the price where they could put the proper down payment on the new one they would like because the price has depressed there also.

Sure that is anecdotal evidence of hard times for people. But I can add plenty more and can toss in some personal experiences also.

Yet we recently watched the “leaders” of our government make decisions that are going to damage our economy even more. Nothing that has been done in the last few years has done anything to foster the possibility of any growth in this country.

We still hear idiots like Delaware’s own Joe Biden talk about this fantastic recovery. We hear the leader of the DNC, Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, talk about this “blazing” recovery.

Look, I could jot down a hundred quotes about how great everything was supposed to be with this new leadership and all of this fundamental change and all of that absolute bull shit. I could jot down hundred more quotes about how all of the changes and regulations that have been put into place are going to create jobs and yank us out from the ditch that they “inherited.”

Lordy…I could write a friggin book here now. How do I keep all of these things in my mind straight and precise and not long winded?
Since I mentioned the word inherited let me also mention that the two ass clowns who use it the most, Biden and President Obama, were both IN the Senate prior to their election to the White House. Obama had been there for two years and Biden something insane like 36 years.
Either one of those financial and government gurus could have penned legislation that would have helped our country fight off the evil George Bush and his evil economic policies. Especially in the two years before Obama took office since the Congress was under Democrat control and Bush couldn’t do anything. Where are thoese bills? Where were those budgets they created? Why doesn't a very-supportive leftist press in this country ask them about that...ever?

Obama, the genius who was going to save us from this terrible recession sent a budget to Congress recently that was voted down 97-0. It was so effing horrible that every single person in the US Senate voted against it.
Obama, trying to “lead” in the recent debt debate kept talking about how we needed to have the limit raised so we could pay our bills and maintain the full faith and credit of the US.
Ah, but when the evil George Bush wanted to do so in 2006, here is what the great leader of our government said then…

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Can you believe that shit? Can you actually believe that came out of his mouth after watching him say nearly the exact opposite thing on National TV over the past couple of weeks?

So what is it? Was George Bush a failure of a leader or is Barack Obama a failure of a leader? The answer is most likely “both.” Obama has doubled down on failure though and is a complete disgrace in my opinion.

If I hadn’t been such a loser growing up and didn’t make so many bad decisions along the way, I swear I would run for some government office if not even the Presidency itself. Because I know I could run it better than this guy when it comes to this economy. (Now, I would nuke any country that messed with us instead of sending troops, so my foreign policy ideas would keep me out of office…I think....but the economy I could manage.)

Here is one thing that makes me yell at the TV or radio every single time that I hear it. “The rich should pay their fair share.”
Ok, if you are asking why that drives me nuts pay close attention because this is such common sense that some might need to get it beat into you. (Except if you are one of my female friends who reads this and then just consider this a more gentle nudge in the butt.)

Let me start with just some basic examples of personal income taxes.

If you make $50,000 your income tax rate is 15%. The income tax on that is $7500.
If you make $500,000 your income tax rate is 35%. The income tax on that is $175,000.

So, Obama tells me that the rich guy is not paying his “fair share.”

Does this make any sense at all? He is paying 2 ½ times what the first guy grosses in income tax.

They want to raise that 35% bracket back to 38% which is what it was before the evil George Bush cut taxes in 2001 and 2003. That increase would mean an additional $15,000 in taxes, TWICE what the first guy paid all year and jumping his total to $190,000.

That isn’t fair. The percentage isn’t fair and the dollar total isn’t fair. What would be fair? EVERYONE PAYS THE SAME PERCENTAGE.

In fact that rate should be 18%. Roughly speaking, that is the percentage of gross domestic product that is generated each year in this country. No matter if our leaders try to raise our tax rates they take in 18% of GDP. If our GDP is 10 trillion dollars we take in 1.8 trillion dollars. (Of course we then spend more than that every year so hence the mess.)

Now what we then hear is about “loopholes” and “deductions.” All of those deductions everyone has. One of them that this administration wants to close is the home mortgage interest deduction. That’s because the evil rich people have big homes and can take bigger deductions.
But then that means that I couldn’t take one either and I’m in the first-guy bracket, and I can use that deduction for sure.

So what we have here in Obama is the Great Divider. While he was supposed to be a great uniter he fights a class war in this country instead.

I know, I’m a little scattered here…two more examples of idiocy though; bear with me.

We keep hearing about evil corporations and how they are taking jobs overseas.
Well, the United States now has the highest Corporate Income Tax Rate in the entire world. It used to be second but now since Japan lowered theirs (to stimulate their economy!) we are now the proud leaders of that category at 40%.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/u-s-corporate-tax-rate-the-highest/

So, why do you think that a company would take their business overseas? Well, let me tell you that its not just the corporate income tax rate, but lets just stick with that by itself.

If a company makes a million dollars the tax on that here in this country would be $400,000. If the company leaves the country the US Government (and I realize I am simplifying this) gets ZERO.
So, here is an answer and if you elect me for President I will do this right away. Lets cut the corporate tax rate to 25% (Canada is at 31% and Mexico at 30%.) Lets compete with our northern and southern neighbors which might also be taking our companies from here.
Now, if a company moves back here because there is a tax advantage to doing it, we would then collect $250,000!
THAT IS BETTER THAN ZERO.
Also, those companies…wait for it…would bring back jobs! It’s a freaking miracle!
The salaries on those jobs would generate tax revenue and would no doubt make up the difference from 400,000 to 250,000. In fact, depending on how many jobs there are with such a company we could actually make MORE money.

But these idiots insist on RAISING taxes when WE KNOW THAT PEOPLE LEAVE WHEN THEY ARE RAISED SO WE GET NOTHING INSTEAD.

In 2007 the state of Maryland imposed a “millionaires tax” that was supposed to generate 330 million dollars in additional revenue for their next three fiscal years.
They collected 100 million dollars less the very next year. That was a swing to what they budgeted of 230 million dollars.
The left-leaning, Obama-supporting Baltimore Sun even had to acknowledge the facts of this failure http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-05-14/news/0905130138_1_higher-tax-bracket-individual-income-franchot

We are told by the left in this country about how evil oil companies are, right?
We hear about how they don’t pay their fair share of taxes too, aren’t we?
Exxon paid 15 billion dollars in taxes in 2009, the highest tax bill in the world. They are an oil company. Chevron, another oil company was also in the top five.

Now, we talk about loopholes again. One of the loopholes that exist is that companies that do business in other countries are subject to the host nation tax systems. Well, I have a solution there too. How about we develop some of our own resources here?
Then we could generate tax revenue from those countries here. We keep it at a lower rate, as mentioned above and the cash will flow.
ALSO, there would be more jobs available.

Take a look at South Dakota as an example of a state which is developing its own oil resources. The state has an unemployment rate of less than 4% and in the western part of the state that rate is less than 3%.

But wait! We are told that developing our own resources is not the answer to our employment woes and revenue woes.

WELL IT SURE IS ONE OF THEM!

Yet our genius of a leader took 2 billion of our dollars…that’s some of YOUR money and some of MY money, and gave it to Brazil so they could develop THEIR oil reserves. Then he told that that we would be their best customers. That means more of our money is going to go there to employ, feed, clothe and house their citizenry.

I don’t mind helping out other countries. I want every country to do well so that their people don’t come here illegally. But we aren’t doing things that are helping our country.
Hey, did you know that Mexico’s unemployment rate is now under 5%? It turns out that, in an historic demonstration of irony, that Obama’s handling of our economy is so bad that he is helping our illegal immigration problem in the country as illegal aliens now start to head back to Mexico to find work!

You can’t make up how insane this is. He can actually run on the fact that illegal immigration is coming under control under his administration! BAHAHAHA.

But I want someone to run and promote a common-sense approach to fixing our economy. I want my friends to stop suffering. I want to stop suffering.

The Apes wanted to stop suffering too. You’ll see Friday night at the movies what they did.

Trade and Fire Away

There were a couple of key trades late before the MLB trading deadline passed yesterday at 4 p.m. The Braves picked up Michael Bourn from Houston and the Phillies picked up another Astro in Hunter Pence.
With the Braves now 6 games behind the Phillies, they are really playing for the wild card spot in the playoffs unless the Phillies use franchise killer Aaron Heilman more out of their bullpen.
The Pirates, still in contention in the central despite getting swept by the Phils over the weekend, picked up Derrick Lee from the Orioles. Lee was once an NL terror with the Cubs but he didn’t quite pan out the way the management in Baltimore thought he would.

The Red Sox acquired pitcher Erik Bedard from Seattle and needed to as they placed pitcher Clay Buchholz on the 60-day disabled list.
The other real major deal featured the Rockies trading away their 27-year old ace of the pitching staff, Ubaldo Jimenez, to the Indians for a slew of prospects. The Indians, a team which had been an early season surprise, are now just a game over .500 in the AL Central, but are only 2.5 games behind the first-place Tigers. Jimenez, if he mimics the form that he had last year when he was 15-1 at one point in the season, gives the Injuns a counter to the Tigers ace Justin Verlander who nearly threw a no-hitter yesterday in a crazy game against the Angels.
The Orioles did pick up a replacement for Derrick Lee (Chris Davis) in a trade with the Rangers. The 25 year-old Davis has played about 250 major-league games and has a mighty powerful bat. He has hit 42 homeruns in 880 at-bats and is hitting .365 with 22 homeruns in the minors this year. But, as is the case often times with these kinds of guys, he whiffs a lot. In fact, in 2009 he struck out 150 times in just 391 at-bats. That is a pace that would make Ryan Howard and his new teammate Mark Reynolds proud.

With this following bit of history you will find a major difference from the players of today compared to the players in the “good old days.”
On this day in 1903 the Giants, losers of 11 of 13 games, get a big boost as Iron Joe McGinnity ASKS to pitch both ends of a doubleheader. He lives up to his name, winning both from Boston, 4 - 1 and 5 - 2, giving up just six hits in each game. Five Giants (some sources say eight) are nicked by pitches in the two games, while the two teams combine to plunk six (or 11).

Joe McGinnity

In the Tigers-Angels game I referenced earlier there was some heated moments as two of the AL’s best pitchers faced off against other. Verlander from Tigers was going against Jered Weaver. Both were looking for their 15^th win of the season. After tossing a homerun to the Tigers Magglio Ordonez, Weaver thought that Ordonez was admiring his homerun a little too long. I didn’t think so on the replay; the ball was just right down the line and could have been foul.
However, a homerun by Carlos Guillen of the Tigers a little later was completely different. Guillen not only stared at it but stared back at Weaver and basically showed him up on the mound.
Well, Weaver didn’t like that too much and there were some words exchanged to the point where the umpire then warned both teams that if there was any retaliation people would get tossed.
Verlander was also pitching a no-hitter at the time to frustrate Weaver even more. Weaver then blazed a fast ball right at another Tigers head and was removed from the game.
In the 8^th inning, while Verlander was still pitching his no-hitter, one of the Angels tried to bunt for a base hit.
Now there is this unwritten code between players at this point of a no-hitter. If a player gets a good solid hit to break up the no-hitter, that’s all good. While no one expects a batter to just let a pitcher make history, one of things that a batter can do to break this secret bond is to try to bunt for a hit, which this guy did (I forget his name.) Verlander made an error on the play and then stared out at the offender now standing on second base in much the same manner as Weaver did when Guillen hit his homerun. (Apples and oranges comparison between the two violations by the batters of course.)
Verlander’s no-hitter was then broken as was his shutout in that inning.
Back in the dugout Verlander could be seen shouting at the Angels bullpen and one of things I read on his lips was, “next time” as he was pointing to his own ribs. Clearly he was telling someone the next time he either faced him or did something like that he was going to get one of Verlanders 101 mph fastballs in his side.

So the next time these two teams play a double header against each other, both pitchers should just man up and pitch both games of it and throw at everyone and have a grand old, “good-old days” kind of Sunday afternoon.    

We had a 35% spike in subscribers this past week on our podcast, The Dungeon of Manlove. People from 44 countries now have heard our show. If you are a friend, a follower or a fan please subscribe to the show and listen now and then. You can subscribe right on this blog here in the upper right corner where it says, “subscribe.”
While I couldn’t initially determine why there was a specific spike like this, where most of it was actually in one day, I did just get a note which explains it. I am not at liberty to say anything else besides that right now and wouldn’t say anything that would jinx what I just read.

The show isn’t for everyone but I do know that there are a growing amount of people who, while they wouldn’t listen to it in public or in front of their kids, are still listening every week.

Done.