THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF
TOM "The Writer" BRUCE
I'd love to hear from you. So move around my site and let's get to know each other.
Tom Bruce
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$1,000,000,000,000
Pay attention, there will be a quiz later!
The year 2012 will be the fourth year in a row that the United States spends $1 trillion more than it takes in. (Source: Neil Cavuto, Fox News)
Can't get your mind around what a trillion dollars amounts to? Well, if you laid it out in dollar bills end to end, it would stretch for 67,866 miles, or roughly 2.72 times around the Earth.
Or, to look at it another way, if you spent $100 every second of every day non-stop, it would take you just over 317 years to spend it all.
Question #1: Who was the United States President for these four years?
Question #2: What are you going to do about it?
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Please commit these names to memory, especially if they are from your state:
Senator Max Baucus, Montana
Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts
Senator Jon Kyl, Arizona
Senator Patty Murray, Washington
Senator Rob Portman, Ohio
Senator Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania
Congressman Zavier Becerra, California
Congressman Dave Camp, Michigan
Congressman Jim Clyburn, South Carolina
Congressman Jeb Hensarling, Tesas
Congressman Fred Upton, Michigan
Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
In case you have forgotten – and I am sure the above hope you have -- the above were selected by the President to be members of bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The commission was charged with issuing a recommendation by November 23, 2011 for at least $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction steps to be undertaken over a ten-year period. This would have been the second installment of deficit reduction measures. Possible areas to be examined by the committee included: revenue increases, including raising taxes; tax reforms, such as simplifying the tax code and eliminating some tax breaks and loopholes; military spending cuts; and measures to reform and slow the growth of entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
On November 21, the committee concluded its work, issuing a statement that began with the following: "After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline."
In other words, THEY FAILED. They could not agree on recommendations, which many consider vital to the future of this country. They should be rewarded. Voters should give each of them the opportunity to find new employment elsewhere.
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A Campaign Reform that will make a better President
Newt Gingrich is basically ending his campaign $4.3 million in debt. Creating large debt is not a habit we want our presidents to continue to have. Therefore, reform campaign law to state that all campaign bills have to be paid in advance. I know they have to pay for their advertising in advance, so why not everything else? Get our next leader into the mode of paying as he goes. Makes cents to me.
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Unbelievable, but true:
"The 9/11 hijackers spent less than $1 million to attack the United States. The cost to try to prevent a similar attack – in police, airport security, and other systems – runs to a million dollars an hour in the United States Alone."
From The Age of the Unthinkable; Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo. A book that will make you think.
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RE-ELECT NO ONE
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Remember when we were kids and we’d get a cheap toy stamped “Made in China” and we’d jokingly say, “Wow! This must be expensive. It’s imported.”
Somehow, it doesn't seem quite so funny now, does it?
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Henry David Thoreau from Walden Pond: “We love eloquence for its sake, and not for any truth which it may utter...” (Remind you of anyone?)
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Did you hear the story of the little boy who was walking home from school and found a ten dollar bill on the road. He excitedly ran to the candy story. He was such a smooth talker, that he convinced the proprietor that he was sure he'd find another $10 tomorrow. So the owner gave him $20 worth of candy on the promise of future settling of accounts. Today, that boy is President of the United States.
My memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Remember, if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off!
THE
not so
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
1. The first chapter of my recently completed novel, It Started With Chicken, a tale of love and revenge exploding from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
2. My professional resume. What I've been up to for the last fifty years.
3. My writing resume. I'm glad I took typing in high school.
4. Recent writings. Click here to read: "I Dig the Blues," "Ideas,"
"Who? Never Heard of him," "Richard Miniter Makes Me Feel Better," a snippet from my memoir, plus two fictional articles based on fact regarding my hero Noah John Rondeau, my article on Dr. Edward Trudeau and the history of gossip from Enrico Caruso to Britney Spears.
5. A rant. And an occasional rave including: Three Facts that may surprise you (they did me)" - added 2/15/12 - "Bears in the Adirondacks," "Henry David Thoreau was a lot of hooey!" "A Tourist Gets Even," "Why the world hates America;" "A Good Citizen," "New York would be a great city if it weren't for the tourists;" "George W. Memorial Library" "
6. These are a few of my favorite things. See if you agree. I lead off with a list of all thing you need to know to be happy, healthy, and wise. I follow this with a tribute to THE PIPE. Then some mind-bending quotes from George Carlin. Next meet Renaissance Man Burr Morse, follow it up with "the love of reading," Chuck Lorre's secret, plus Michael Z. McIntee writer of The David Letterman Show's, "The Wahoo Gazette," seasoning cast iron cookware, and recipes including Rattlesnake Baked Beans and Johnny Cake.
7. The junk drawer. Everybody has one. Where you jam stuff you don't know what to do with. (The rule that says you should not end a sentence with a preposition was devised by mean teachers to scare their students with.) or ("I think a sentence is a fine thing to put a preposition at the end of." William Zinsser in On Writing Well; The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction - 20th Anniversary Edition. A terrific Book.) Begin with "paraprosdokians" (added 2/16/12)
Henry David Thoreau
was a lot of hooey!
See a rant or a rave.
| Savinelli Alligator Pipe | ||||
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This is one of my collection of over fifty pipes. It is also one of my favorites. Read why smoking a pipe is good for you on My Favorite Things page.
It's Renaissance Man
Burr Morse.
To meet Burr, click on
My Favorite Things
page.
Remember when "fast food" was what you ate during Lent?
Remember when "making out" was how you did on a school exam?
Remember when "time sharing" was spending time with your family, not buying a condominium in Florida?
Due to the current economic conditions, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.
