Friday, September 9, 2011

As The Reasonable People Withdraw

It worries me that as the ensconced political left and the right become more polarized and seek to win at any cost, the reasonable citizen will tire and step back to let the two fight it out. For all parties this will be as disastrous or more than a terrorist plot.

Friday, August 26, 2011

How to make a big mess

When you suppress,
When you repress,
You make a MESS

Friday, August 5, 2011

How Much Gold in Fort Knox?

While no one will officially confirm the #s, supposedly there is as follows:  .... the gold there (at Fort Knox) and at U.S. Mint facilities adds up to one of the world’s largest bullion holdings. Still, it’s a tiny part of the nation’s total assets. In a $13.8 trillion GDP economy, 147.3 million troy ounces of gold barely registers. 


I multiplied that by the current $1,600 an ounce and it comes to $229 Billion. I think the government just blew that in its FAA faux pas.

Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/article/is-there-gold-in-fort-knox/385523/#ixzz1UCI7KoLO

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Turn Around

Turn around and look.
Look upon the source,
Of your wealth.
It is you, of course.
Given each person, truly,
Is the ability to succeed,
If one but tames the unruly,
And strives to serve a need.
Focused on another for a solution,
This is not your call.
Ignorance is no absolution.
Dependence builds a wall.
Keeping what you earn,
Is good to a measure,
But what you must learn,
It’s not for your pleasure.
What can you give?
How can you serve?
Your purpose to live,
Is to share and conserve.
Look no further than home ground.
Expect not satisfaction.
A life turned around,
Starts with your first and every action.

(C) 2011 R.W. Bodo All Rights Reserved 

Friday, March 4, 2011

How Old Was I

How old was I?
How old was I,
when the steam engine ceased to be a steam engine?
When did the valves and rods and hissing
give way to engines with something missing?
No riveted tank, no clanging bell,
the sound of steam I knew so well,
pressing the track in deliberate churning,
massive cast iron wheels turning,
What night was it that I awoke to a droning roar,
of aircraft plunging from the sky toward my door?
I feared, running out and looking up, sure to see
a ball of flame dropping straight upon me.
No, this roar was a land based sounder,
not up there, but over yonder,
toward the tracks I walked by day,
to adventures that lie along the way.
But where was the shrill warning cry
of whistle valve tugged by engineer?
No valves expiring hot breath to ply,
the wheels to the dark ribbon adhere.
Now I see the sloping cycloptic face
beaming toward the turn,
no smoke stack belching, no coal to burn.
Just small unseemly wheels, gentle on the track,
humming motor without squeals
diminished by the click and clack.
This single eye staring down on me,
was a new creature breaking through,
my vanishing childhood taking flee,
a security blanket steadfast and true,
fixed in my heart, my friendly local choo-choo.
Was I eight or ten?  Perhaps earlier, then?
No matter. Steam will not this way come again.
© 2001 Roger w. Bodo

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Age of Unenlightenment

The dark ages are not a time in past history but cycles of history - times when reason loses ground to superstition and radical beliefs that displace reason and logic.  If the ages of Aristotle and Seneca can give way to Attila and Genghis Khan then the writings of Jefferson, Franklin, Payne and Lincoln can give way to the Religious Right and Tea Party rationalists.  Appealing to the uninformed and ignorant, to those who need a savior, and who grasp at simulated straws, the dark shadows or real motives win over the thoughts of those who know that all are linked in history no matter their social and financial standing. In it all, it becomes too late to realize that the price paid for superiority and domination destroys not only people but a nation.