Just watched the movie “We Were Soldiers” again.
Check out this post: http://www.galago.net/blog/travel/god-bless-ed-freeman

Panel 3, East, at the Vietnam War Memorial has the names of the soldiers that died at LZ XRay in Ia Drang Valley.

He pointed out that the last EIGHT presidents have all said they will make it a priority to end dependence on foreign oil. Nixon said he would set in motion a plan to end it by 1980. Ha ha ha. “When the Cuyahoga River was on fire in 1969, [Nixon] put it out with his own urine.”

Nixon’s target has been pushed back to 2025, and we’re likely not to meet it.

Here’s the Galago.net take on dependence on foreign oil:

– Impose a national tax of $50 on every barrel of imported oil. That will make it more affordable to drill for oil in domestic fields, and it will help reduce the deficit.
– Give massive tax incentives for vehicles that run on natural gas or electricity.
– Give massive tax incentives for power plants that run on natural gas, clean coal, solar, or other renewable sources.
– Giving tax incentives for efficiency improvements in houses and businesses.

That will solve the problem.

There will be no tax on health benefits until 2018 (and we think it will be repealed before then).

Starting next year, your employer will have to include the value of your health plan on your W-2, but until 2018, it’s just for informational purposes – there will be no taxes on it.

In 2018, insurers must pay a 40% tax on the part of “Cadillac” benefit plans that exceeds $10,200 for individuals or $27,500 for families (not including stand-alone vision or dental benefits). If you have a tax-favored health savings accounts or flex spending account, they will be included in the limit.

By way of example, if your insurance premiums for the year are $2500 per month for your family, your insurer will have to pay 40% of $2,500, or $1000 per year. Of course, that can be avoided if your employer reduces the plan so that it costs less than $2291 per month.

There are some exceptions. The 40% tax will not apply until higher limits for high-risk employees, such as firefighters and pilots. Also, retirees 55 and older get a break as well because their insurance tends to be more expensive. For them, the tax will apply to the value of benefits above $11,850 for individual coverage or $30,950 for a family plan.

You can expect a couple things to happen here. Insurers will pass on the extra taxes in the form of higher premiums. Also, employers will cut down the so-called Cadillac plans so that the premiums fall below the level described above.

We are talking about the most expensive plans, though, folks. The average policy for an individual cost $4,824 per year for single coverage and $13,375 for family coverage in 2009, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The bottom line is that Congress has yet-again succeeded in postponing the day of reckoning. There is plenty of time to change or repeal this law. Even if that doesn’t happen, the likelihood of the change in taxes affecting you is pretty slim.

NASA released these satellite photos for everyone to see it from space. Pretty scary. The world needs to figure out new technology to clean these things up faster, so they don’t reach land.

Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Here’s a close up:

Close up picture of the Gulf oil slick

By the way, thanks to Pete at www.Mashable.com for posting this. That’s how I found it.

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is half way around the world—12,000 miles away—and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no MedEvac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not MedEvac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come.

He’s coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the doctors and nurses.

And, he kept coming back…13 more times…and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman, died Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID…May God rest his soul.

Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman!

THANKS AGAIN, ED, FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR OUR COUNTRY.

The story of Ed’s heroic actions and the men who fought impossible odds in that battle is told in the movie, We Were Soldiers.

The images of people wearing masks around is really sad.  It shows how much power the media has, and how they abuse that power.  It reminds me of Johnny Carson asking his audience, “what would happen if there was a toilet paper shortage?”  The next day there really was a shortage because everyone went to the store to stock up.

Don’t buy the hype.  Don’t go to bed worried about whether you’ll wake up.  It’s all over hyped.

When oil went to $150 per barrell last year, everyone’s expenses went up. Even businesses had to pay more to ship things or operate offices.  Now, we’re seeing the effects.

I saw an article that said we lost more jobs in January than in any other month since 1974.  Hmmm… is there anything that happened in 1973 that might be similar to 2008?

Anyway, here are Volcker’s comments:
Article with comments from Paul Volcker