Wisdoma

The joke that Warren Buffett is unfortunately becoming continues to play out in the media. After challenging Congressional Republicans, but not Democrats, to voluntary pay more in taxes to pay down the $15 TRILLION US debt (about $50,000 for every man, woman, and child in the US, and about $135,000 for every taxpayer), Warren said he was writing a check to the US treasury to back up his challenge.

His check: $49,000.

Or about .001 percent of his $40 BILLION dollar net worth.

I, for one, am not impressed.

By the time it takes you to read this, the national debt will have increased by almost $100,000. Thanks Warren. Your check will save about 25 seconds off the national debt.

Is there intelligent life in the media?

A new story by Adam Clark Estes of The Atlantic Wire proclaims “The Great Martin Luther King Copyright Conundrum” in trying to explain why it costs $10 to watch Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech.

Estes says it is the fault of US copyright law and “It’s not the Martin Luther King estate’s fault….”

Really????

US Copyright law does not require that a dime be paid.

The $10 fee is the King family greedily making use of copyright law to charge, just as the family has demanded extortionist fees for just about anything else related to Dr. King, such as monuments.

To call a spade a spade, this is a media story purposefully dishonest. If you don’t like the $10 fee, lay blame where 100% of the blame lies: with the greedy Martin Luther King family.

Myself, I have saved ten bucks.

Assuming Mitt Romney wins the Republic nomination for the Presidency, you can be sure there will be significant attacks on Mormonism by the media in an indirect attempt to undermine his candidacy.

This is something I have been sure of for some time. Today, I saw an early attack on Yahoo news.

Out of the blue, an article about a Mormon teenager’s emotional problems, and a wild claim about womens use of anti-depressants in Utah.

Nothing newsworthy at all about this. A story could be made out of an emotionally troubled teenager for any religion, or non-religion for that matter.

This is to be expected of Bay area based Yahoo, where any and every pro-gay article is fit to run. (Today the story was gays make better parents than heterosexual couples!) And, by implication of the LDS Church’s opposition to Proposition 8 in California, attacks on the Church are welcome.

But assuming Romney is the candidate, I expect to see a class action lawsuit alleging sexual abuse akin to that seen against the Catholic Church. Look for attacks against the Boy Scouts, an organization heavily supported by the Church. Look for more media “stories” about the Church which are not positive.

In this hypersensitive political landscape, in depth revelations about Mormonism, critiques of religious beliefs, and ridiculous (because they are not newsworthy) stories relating to private details told to Church elders (of which Romney was one) will soon be all over the place.

Warren Buffett is at it again, offering to pay a dollar to reduce the nation’s debt for every dollar paid by Republicans in Congress.

What? Democrats do not need to pay?

Why the contingency? Warren, just be a man and donate the money, no strings attached.

A story going around today is that Sears is closing about a hundred underperforming stores as holiday revenue comes up short for the company.

That is a pittance of the thousands of stores Sears has.

After a horrific experience buying a refrigerator, that left us over a month without a main refrigerator, let me say I’m glad to see a hundred stores closing, and may a thousand more close.

From top to bottom – literally – from the staff on the floor to local management at the company to regional management all the way up to corporate (yes, I had to deal with them all), a horrible company that deserves to die.

Of course, keep in mind that “Sears” today is not the Sears of decades ago. Kmart bought the company and renamed itself Sears.

I think Sears today is still living off that old positive image. Do yourself a favor – avoid Sears / Kmart. There really is no reason to shop there. Lower prices at Wal-Mart and better selection at big box specialty stores can be found.