The second post comes from one of my other blogs, My Last Name Means Money. The crux of Trickle Up Economics Beats Bank Bailouts is that bailouts beget bailouts and we see that today, with the first bailout causing no noticeable improvement to the economy, a second even bigger bailout bill is now working its ways through our political offices. The Republicans are right that these bailouts represent a slippery slope, however it is not the size of the bailout but merely that we’re bailing out failing enterprises and once we began to do so we removed a huge disincentive to fail. Now that failing can be profitable, will we continue seeing more and more large corporations reporting dire economic situations and accepting government bailout loans? Call me crazy, but I believe we should give out loans only when we reasonably expect to be repaid, not when the recipients are literally falling towards bankruptcy.

Check out these two posts and if there’s enough positive response I may post my updated thoughts on the latest round of bailout bills. Take care everyone!

A war on terror is a war on a word, a concept, an invisible entity that we can never truly kill. It represents a shift in war mentality. In recent history war has taken an us versus them perspective, where group A loves or needs X and group B hates or has X so A and B fight. Now, we fight words, and as a result we’ve personalized and individualized war. A war on terror is in essence a war of one against a feeling.

For seven years we’ve fought against this word, “terror”, yet people are still terrified. They doubt the resiliency of our economy. They distrust our “elected” leaders. They wonder if they can afford to put food on the table. Seven years have passed and terror is still kicking our butts, and will continue to do so, for we cannot kill a word.

There is only one way to end this war and it starts with you. It starts here. Are you ready to end the world on terror? Gather up your courage, clear your throat, stretch your fingers and shout or type it as loud you can:

I am not terrified!

• I am not terrified of dying.

It is an event that will meet all of us soon. Rich, poor, old, young, athletic, obese, smart, stupid, good and evil, all of us will one day die. I speed through the streets of Greater Boston on my bicycle without fear of death. It makes me a better cyclist, as I do not hesitate to move.

• I am not terrified of Muslims.

They are a people. There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in this world. Some of them are evil; some of them are not. Most of them are average people like you and me.

• I am not terrified of peace.

Without war, how would we keep global population down, technology on the cutting edge and resources flowing? By focusing on these issues rather than killing each other, that’s how.

• I am not terrified of the federal government of these United States of America.

If need be, the fifty states of the union can and will exercise their rights to sovereignty.

• I am not terrified that our elections are either greatly mismanaged or more realistically fraudulent.

My vote will be published on this blog. It may not be counted but it will be recorded.

• I am not terrified that artificial people called corporations roam our lands and rape people’s wallets and health for the pursuit of the lowly dollar.

Consumerism is a dying artificial (d)evolution and is already experiencing the last struggles before its’ ultimate death.

Most importantly, I am simply not terrified.

The only way to end this war on words is with words. Declare you are not terrified and join me in a world without wars on words.

As of now, for me, the war on terror is over!

Everything looks good, right? It’s just a City of Boston recycling bin, provided by the city to its residents so we may get our recyclables picked up once a week by the city. An overall good use of Bostonian tax dollars, right?

Well I thought so too, until today. Today is our trash and recycling pick-up day. Our recycling already got picked up so I went outside to bring the bins in and while doing so noticed a curious mark on the side of the bin.

I know it’s a bit blurry to see (taken with my iPhone) but the side of the recycling bin says “Made in Canada”. That’s right, the City of Boston’s recycling bins were made in Canada. Now, why is this use of foreign plastic bin makers such a big deal?

Well, for one think of the resources required to transport all these plastic bins from Canada to Boston. It’s ironic for a program designed to improve our environment to cause unnecessary pollution by using a faraway source for these bins.

Also, think of the economic benefit this bin manufacturing contract could have had to a plastic manufacture(s) here in Massachusetts. Even if the city government saved money by using the Canadian company, in the long run we lose money by it leaking out of our state economy and thus resulting in less jobs and less tax revenue.

All in all, it’s not the worst thing that the City of Boston has done but it doesn’t make sense why we didn’t use a company within the state to make these bins as it would have required less resources and thus been cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

Perhaps there’s something I’m unaware of behind the scenes that makes this situation logical. If any of you out there have additional facts about this story, please let me know via the comments for this post or by sending me an e-mail.