08/18/2008
REIMAGINING POVERTY
United States is a rich country, today one in a hundred American is a millionaire, and no doubt many of these millionaires reside among us right here in the Wiregrass. Thus the response to my article, “Who is paying Neal Boortz” was overwhelming. One would assume that anyone knowledgeable in in the ways of the stock market, would also know of the overall negative effects of the high price of oil on the US economy, the effect on the local governments, school systems, the plight of the truckers, the airlines and the auto industry would be self evident. That the higher income for the oil companies does not justify the damage to the overall economy, since our economy is not designed for a four dollar a gallon gas!
I am different than many, right? At least in my ways of thinking, so it is that even after Mr. Reagan told me that all the poor in the United States drive Cadillac’s and buy steaks with their food stamps and are nothing more than baby making factories, when they are not busy making meth in the back of their pickups, I am not convinced. I am also not convinced that we do not need a minimum wage, that every worker should buy his own health insurance and pay for his or her own retirement out of the money that the employers are not willing to pay them, and will not pay them unless the government steps in.
The poor that I know are hard working people trying to make ends meet, and many of them are really not stupid. For these, a reliable public transportation system would be a godsend. And they would be able to make it to work on time more often, that is if you have people that work for you.
Some of the poor are also those that have retired form jobs they held for thirty-five and forty years (teachers, county clerks, police officers in this area, veterans and the disabled), and their meager pensions and social security together do not cover their living expenses. I am at times shaken( as I am sure you are also) to read about the elderly breaking up their prescription pills, or going days and weeks every month without their medicines. Next time you sit down to a meal, imagine, the thirty eight thousand in the Wiregrass alone at the risk of going hungry, can they afford a car to get to work? And yes, I would not mind paying extra in fuel taxes so the disabled veterans do not have to wait for someone’s charity to get to the clinic. I write off my fuel expenses as a business expense any way, as do all the business people and farmers. Trust me, not all poor are “different” like I am, they don’t all drive a Cadillac, or buy steaks with food stamps, the people with Cadillac’s do not need a lousy subsidized transportation system any way. And as an added incentive for the health conscience taking off some of the raggedy looking vehicles of the roadways will clean the air and clear up congestion too, you could drive safely on the circle again.
WWJD? anybody?
IT IS NOT HOW I SAY YOU SHOULD LIVE, IT IS NOT HOW I WANT YOU TO LIVE, BUT THIS THE WAY YOU WILL LIVE
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
WORSHIPING FAILURE
08/13/2008
FAILURE WORSHIPING
Now then, I really don’t know where to start, there is so much stuff in my mind that I want to say that it might sound jumbled, but give me a chance to make my point.
We have an economy that is sinking, Iraqis want us out and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are rearing back their heads, the oil is up and the dollar is down, and the Russian just did the Georgians in. The Chinese just had the president Bush over for the Olympics, while thumbing their noses at us in Tibet and Sudan. The Mexicans want us to learn Spanish while they invade our country at will, and even hold the police and border guards hostage, and bring the drugs over the border with impunity, but oh well. And all that crap about Musharaf and bringing democracy to Pakistan, forget it, but you already have. America is a great country, or at least it was till we all fell asleep as a society.
As the economy tumbles, and the housing values decline, foreclosures lead families to down size, default on their credit cards, and leads them to lose their shiny new cars, and the jobs disappear causing more and more to lose their homes, and cars and default on their credit cards, our national leaders want us to “drill here, drill now” and why not, we are already being drilled up the you know what, and like that will save us from the disaster that is looming over the horizon, a depression, if we don’t stop talking about this crap called “globalism”. Do you even get that?
Yes, I am, I do. And I will get back to the point of my article, “Failure Worshiping”, and what it means, but I have to get you in line with what I am thinking. We are coming up on the national election, where we have a choice of two major losers, with a capital “L”. Did you say McCain is a Vietnam veteran and he spent five years in a prison camp, o.k. so let him sleep with your wife, or sister o.k. and get it over with, I don’t need to be screwed by him just because of his war record, or the other three hundred million Americans. The man is a crook, remember when the right wing media was talking about John Kerry marrying the rich bitches? McCain did too. How can he have moral fortitude and be a compromiser? How can he call Falwell names and then kiss his ring, how can he oppose George Bush in the primaries and call him most qualified in the fall. And who the hell is Obama?? Obama who? But we love our losers, we worship them.
Think I am off the wall again? Think again. We have culture of worshiping and admiring, nay, emulating the losers, from baggy pants hanging off our asses to dress down “Casual Fridays“, we wrote the book.
Back when the Fox channel came on the air they started a show, “ Married with Children” about a family of losers, going no where fast, then the ABC gave us more of the same to copy from and came up with “Rosanne“, another bunch of white trash losers, and what was that other show with the character, “JJ”? the “Good Times‘, we did not want to leave our black brothers out now did we. And you did not have to be poor to be trash, so we included “Different Strokes“, and “Moving on Up” to the mix of falling family values and failing moral boundaries. On “Married with Children” we had a stupid father and his fourteen year old slut, so on Rosanne the mom wanted to know if her twelve year old daughter had the hots for a boy, the bar has been being lowered ever since, the media knew we love losers.
08/20/ 2008
Time after time, our solution to a problem is to change the rules so that the problem is no longer is defined as a problem. A case in point here is the letter from the presidents of a hundred colleges that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen so that the college students can get legally drunk. Thus no one can say that our society is failing in raising children properly, or that our children of age are behaving irresponsibly, that even the presumably the smart ones are just a bunch of sorry asses that can not and will not act within the boundaries of the laws. If we propose to lower the drinking age to eighteen so the college students can drink, then one, are we not encouraging the few who do not yet drink to go ahead and drink, and two, if we want to make this exception for the college kids, then why not make an exception for the poor kids of the block to sell drugs because some kids on the block sell drugs, may be even legalize prostitution because some people do prostitute. Have we not already legalized adultery, pre marital sex, extra marital affairs and gifts from the lobbyist?
Time after time when we fail as a society to cure the problems, the old failure status it self has become the new norm. Alcoholism, drug abuse even spouse abuse and child abuse and rape are now defined as illnesses, illegitimate child birth, poverty, greed, abuse of power have all become social norms. And all of this not just from psychological points of view, but even from a Christian point of view these are all forgivable sins. No need to fix the problem, now that the problem does not exist.
The thing is that when we worship something, a “god” perhaps, the object of our worship is can never be at fault. So when we worship failure, we refuse to talk bad about it, instead we laud it, admire it and hold it in the highest esteem. For a vast majority of our people, it is therefore no longer acceptable to be successful, to work hard, to study hard to get educated, and to get ahead. Nor as a society we want them to. You have heard the phrase “acting white” it is so wrong and misunderstood; when in reality most whites today aspire to be just acting trashy. I am sorry, not acting trashy, just being different. (see American Enigma, below).
Is the fault of Psychology or the new religion? It is hard to tell, many Christian denominations today have become so much like the syrupy pop-psychology. I am O.K., You are O.K. Jesus died for all your sins and you are forgiven no matter how fucked up you are. Same as in psychology where the raped and the rapist are both victims, Really.
Muslims are happy just killing, whoever wherever, and mostly their own. When I argued with a Muslim friend that the suicide bombings and the beheadings, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, were actually causing an increase in poverty, prostitution, child rapes, and thus could not be explained as, and or considered to be God’s will, he thought I had lost MY marbles.
But just as a suicide bomber is bent on destruction of some at any cost, devoid of reason, so we are going headlong in to a culture of self destruction, unwilling and unable to stop. Be it the federal budget deficit or our own budgets, be it the trade deficits, transferring our wealth to our enemies, or be I our ”addiction” to oil and what it does to our environment, and trade deficits or our addiction to drugs prescription and non prescription, or our culture of sex and consumption at all costs, we seem unable to stop ourselves, control ourselves, or even just say that there is something bad wrong with our ways and surely it will lead us to annihilation in more ways than we bargained for.
Do we really worship failure? Unable to speak against this “god”. Unable to even speak its name like the Jews of old were not allowed to speak the name of their “God”. Unable to stray form the path that will lead us to “Him”. And celebrate “Him”.
No? Then how is it that today we have divorce parties? And break ups a routine. How is it that the collapse of any and all standards of society, standards of community is celebrated. Back to this later.
There used to be a saying that life imitates art, then art imitates life, if either is true , we are in trouble.
09/02/2008
The Palin Factor
Let’s, for a moment forget the pink elephant in the room, we will get back to it soon enough, I promise.
That it is a sign of real maturity to know, that the political philosophies, ideologies and theories are just that, and may not have any basis in reality, and may not even be workable or practical in the real world. That these are not the “commandments” , set in stone, definitely not worth a physical fight, brawling, or torturing the non believing to confirm to them or to change their minds.
In my article below, ( part of the longer article of " Failure Worshipping") when discussing the teen drinking I had mentioned that when we are unable to control or change the behavior to the expected norms, we just change the norm and the expectations to disguise the failure, even making a failure seem like a success. Isn’t every school in the United States now supposedly above average? And when every child is left behind then no child is left behind. It is “ Lake Woebegone” city.
When Condoleezza Rice was chosen to be the Secretary of State, one of my objections was that she was a “Soviet Expert” and that since the Soviet Union no longer existed she was out of place, but just getting us in to Iraq was not enough to show her utter incompetence, we had to be wrong in Georgia too, so what did we learn from it? Nothing! It so seems.And if the Democrats think that Obama O.K. to run the country then how can they complain about the poor little beauty called Palin? Or does any of it really has anything to do about the future of three hundred million who still call themselves the Americans. Just compare the two, if Obama is said to be good looking, well by gosh she was the runner up in a miss Alaska beauty pageant, Obama went to Harvard on his brain power and she went to college on the beauty pageant scholarship. Obama was the editor of Harvard Law, and she was the PTA chairperson, Obama was a banker she was a small town mayor, so they are both even in experience if you are on the right, Right! We may not want to talk about the candidate’s children, but just like Cheney’s daughter being a lesbian and then having a baby with her partner was in the news, and now the news of Palin’s seventeen year old being pregnant and unmarried has leaked out, the question is what will McCain have to say about the Republican "moral values", and our "family values", proper parenting, parental supervision, and that lil pink elephant in the room, “the abstinence only”. BTW it works folks, really, if you also keep your “dating” children within your sights. And if and when your abstinence only kids have children, from now on you can call them the Palin factor.
FAILURE WORSHIPING
Now then, I really don’t know where to start, there is so much stuff in my mind that I want to say that it might sound jumbled, but give me a chance to make my point.
We have an economy that is sinking, Iraqis want us out and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are rearing back their heads, the oil is up and the dollar is down, and the Russian just did the Georgians in. The Chinese just had the president Bush over for the Olympics, while thumbing their noses at us in Tibet and Sudan. The Mexicans want us to learn Spanish while they invade our country at will, and even hold the police and border guards hostage, and bring the drugs over the border with impunity, but oh well. And all that crap about Musharaf and bringing democracy to Pakistan, forget it, but you already have. America is a great country, or at least it was till we all fell asleep as a society.
As the economy tumbles, and the housing values decline, foreclosures lead families to down size, default on their credit cards, and leads them to lose their shiny new cars, and the jobs disappear causing more and more to lose their homes, and cars and default on their credit cards, our national leaders want us to “drill here, drill now” and why not, we are already being drilled up the you know what, and like that will save us from the disaster that is looming over the horizon, a depression, if we don’t stop talking about this crap called “globalism”. Do you even get that?
Yes, I am, I do. And I will get back to the point of my article, “Failure Worshiping”, and what it means, but I have to get you in line with what I am thinking. We are coming up on the national election, where we have a choice of two major losers, with a capital “L”. Did you say McCain is a Vietnam veteran and he spent five years in a prison camp, o.k. so let him sleep with your wife, or sister o.k. and get it over with, I don’t need to be screwed by him just because of his war record, or the other three hundred million Americans. The man is a crook, remember when the right wing media was talking about John Kerry marrying the rich bitches? McCain did too. How can he have moral fortitude and be a compromiser? How can he call Falwell names and then kiss his ring, how can he oppose George Bush in the primaries and call him most qualified in the fall. And who the hell is Obama?? Obama who? But we love our losers, we worship them.
Think I am off the wall again? Think again. We have culture of worshiping and admiring, nay, emulating the losers, from baggy pants hanging off our asses to dress down “Casual Fridays“, we wrote the book.
Back when the Fox channel came on the air they started a show, “ Married with Children” about a family of losers, going no where fast, then the ABC gave us more of the same to copy from and came up with “Rosanne“, another bunch of white trash losers, and what was that other show with the character, “JJ”? the “Good Times‘, we did not want to leave our black brothers out now did we. And you did not have to be poor to be trash, so we included “Different Strokes“, and “Moving on Up” to the mix of falling family values and failing moral boundaries. On “Married with Children” we had a stupid father and his fourteen year old slut, so on Rosanne the mom wanted to know if her twelve year old daughter had the hots for a boy, the bar has been being lowered ever since, the media knew we love losers.
08/20/ 2008
Time after time, our solution to a problem is to change the rules so that the problem is no longer is defined as a problem. A case in point here is the letter from the presidents of a hundred colleges that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen so that the college students can get legally drunk. Thus no one can say that our society is failing in raising children properly, or that our children of age are behaving irresponsibly, that even the presumably the smart ones are just a bunch of sorry asses that can not and will not act within the boundaries of the laws. If we propose to lower the drinking age to eighteen so the college students can drink, then one, are we not encouraging the few who do not yet drink to go ahead and drink, and two, if we want to make this exception for the college kids, then why not make an exception for the poor kids of the block to sell drugs because some kids on the block sell drugs, may be even legalize prostitution because some people do prostitute. Have we not already legalized adultery, pre marital sex, extra marital affairs and gifts from the lobbyist?
Time after time when we fail as a society to cure the problems, the old failure status it self has become the new norm. Alcoholism, drug abuse even spouse abuse and child abuse and rape are now defined as illnesses, illegitimate child birth, poverty, greed, abuse of power have all become social norms. And all of this not just from psychological points of view, but even from a Christian point of view these are all forgivable sins. No need to fix the problem, now that the problem does not exist.
The thing is that when we worship something, a “god” perhaps, the object of our worship is can never be at fault. So when we worship failure, we refuse to talk bad about it, instead we laud it, admire it and hold it in the highest esteem. For a vast majority of our people, it is therefore no longer acceptable to be successful, to work hard, to study hard to get educated, and to get ahead. Nor as a society we want them to. You have heard the phrase “acting white” it is so wrong and misunderstood; when in reality most whites today aspire to be just acting trashy. I am sorry, not acting trashy, just being different. (see American Enigma, below).
Is the fault of Psychology or the new religion? It is hard to tell, many Christian denominations today have become so much like the syrupy pop-psychology. I am O.K., You are O.K. Jesus died for all your sins and you are forgiven no matter how fucked up you are. Same as in psychology where the raped and the rapist are both victims, Really.
Muslims are happy just killing, whoever wherever, and mostly their own. When I argued with a Muslim friend that the suicide bombings and the beheadings, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, were actually causing an increase in poverty, prostitution, child rapes, and thus could not be explained as, and or considered to be God’s will, he thought I had lost MY marbles.
But just as a suicide bomber is bent on destruction of some at any cost, devoid of reason, so we are going headlong in to a culture of self destruction, unwilling and unable to stop. Be it the federal budget deficit or our own budgets, be it the trade deficits, transferring our wealth to our enemies, or be I our ”addiction” to oil and what it does to our environment, and trade deficits or our addiction to drugs prescription and non prescription, or our culture of sex and consumption at all costs, we seem unable to stop ourselves, control ourselves, or even just say that there is something bad wrong with our ways and surely it will lead us to annihilation in more ways than we bargained for.
Do we really worship failure? Unable to speak against this “god”. Unable to even speak its name like the Jews of old were not allowed to speak the name of their “God”. Unable to stray form the path that will lead us to “Him”. And celebrate “Him”.
No? Then how is it that today we have divorce parties? And break ups a routine. How is it that the collapse of any and all standards of society, standards of community is celebrated. Back to this later.
There used to be a saying that life imitates art, then art imitates life, if either is true , we are in trouble.
09/02/2008
The Palin Factor
Let’s, for a moment forget the pink elephant in the room, we will get back to it soon enough, I promise.
That it is a sign of real maturity to know, that the political philosophies, ideologies and theories are just that, and may not have any basis in reality, and may not even be workable or practical in the real world. That these are not the “commandments” , set in stone, definitely not worth a physical fight, brawling, or torturing the non believing to confirm to them or to change their minds.
In my article below, ( part of the longer article of " Failure Worshipping") when discussing the teen drinking I had mentioned that when we are unable to control or change the behavior to the expected norms, we just change the norm and the expectations to disguise the failure, even making a failure seem like a success. Isn’t every school in the United States now supposedly above average? And when every child is left behind then no child is left behind. It is “ Lake Woebegone” city.
When Condoleezza Rice was chosen to be the Secretary of State, one of my objections was that she was a “Soviet Expert” and that since the Soviet Union no longer existed she was out of place, but just getting us in to Iraq was not enough to show her utter incompetence, we had to be wrong in Georgia too, so what did we learn from it? Nothing! It so seems.And if the Democrats think that Obama O.K. to run the country then how can they complain about the poor little beauty called Palin? Or does any of it really has anything to do about the future of three hundred million who still call themselves the Americans. Just compare the two, if Obama is said to be good looking, well by gosh she was the runner up in a miss Alaska beauty pageant, Obama went to Harvard on his brain power and she went to college on the beauty pageant scholarship. Obama was the editor of Harvard Law, and she was the PTA chairperson, Obama was a banker she was a small town mayor, so they are both even in experience if you are on the right, Right! We may not want to talk about the candidate’s children, but just like Cheney’s daughter being a lesbian and then having a baby with her partner was in the news, and now the news of Palin’s seventeen year old being pregnant and unmarried has leaked out, the question is what will McCain have to say about the Republican "moral values", and our "family values", proper parenting, parental supervision, and that lil pink elephant in the room, “the abstinence only”. BTW it works folks, really, if you also keep your “dating” children within your sights. And if and when your abstinence only kids have children, from now on you can call them the Palin factor.
Friday, August 08, 2008
WHO IS PAYING NEAL BOORTZ
08/08/08
WHO IS PAYING NEAL BOORTZ
I really do not wish to call anyone stupid, but then there are exceptions. Either Neal Boortz thinks all his listeners are really really stupid , or that dear ole Neal has finally lost his marbles. His brand of “Capitalism on Viagra” , steroids being an illegal drug, will not only destroy the poor, it will also destroy the country.
Back in two thousand four, I had proposed that since this country is not designed for a four dollars ( I actually did say four dollars), we need to start slowly increasing the tax on gasoline and use the money to support a public transportation system. I have detailed my plans elsewhere in this blog. Now that we have four dollar a gallon gas how and why are Neal, and that two legged dog of a talk show host, Dennis Miller, out supporting the big oil.
The Republicans have never had a shortage of small time crooks to be their mouth pieces. From a convicted perjurer in COL North, to the convicted burglar in G. Gordon Liddy, to drug abuser Rush Limbaugh, to the very true to his name the Dick Morris, who became famous for cavorting with prostitutes and now the new and improved coke head the Dennis Miller, it is hard to believe that someone would really take these clowns seriously, but here we are.
I hear these guys lamenting as to how the big oil is being portrayed as callous, as how to figure out the profit margins, and the how Democrats are out to kill their business. Let me assure you that I am not voting for Obama or for McCain, I will only tell you the truth and let you make up your own mind, about the presidential candidates and your talk show hosts.
The way that Neal and Dennis explain the oil company profits is this. Say you call someone and tell them that there will be a get together at the church Saturday at two and that they MUST show up, and tell them that there will be some singing and some prayers and a pause for everyone to hang out in the parking lot which will be followed by a reception in the fellowship hall, but leave out the fact that his mother was murdered last night and it will be all for her funeral.
Yes a lot of retirement plans contain shares of the big oil companies, and yes if you participate in a retirement plan you will get a few dollars of the increase in the share price and dividend increases. But what they leave out is this, that the higher oil prices are shutting down car factories and dealerships, thousands of independent truckers have been driven out of work.
That the increase in fuel costs is increasing the cost of everything else, that as you make more money in oil company shares, your GM and ford shares are sinking, your airlines stocks are going under, you are paying more for everything else, airline travel is going to be for the ultra rich only and as the air travel shrinks so will the employment in the TSA, the baggage handlers will be out of work and the ticket clerks and travel agents and the hotel industry will suffer. We as a nation are not doing better by paying more for our gas.
I do want higher gas taxes and prices, I do want subsidized public transportation for the poor and the elderly at least. I do not want to see people made poor by their car expenses, and I do not want to see poor having to choose between feeding their kids, buying school supplies or buying gas to get to work. I surely do not want to see the elderly die of heat or freeze to death because they could not afford to pay the electric bill.
A higher gasoline tax, that is used to subsidize the public transportation services will reduce the dependence on foreign oil immediately, (people in the rural districts could get rebates) reduce our trade deficit, will give lesser amounts of our money to the terrorists and the un democratic regimes of Arabs and the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, it will increase the value of the dollar. It will also take out the speculation from the markets, and actually lower the cost of oil as the use and the demand for it decreases. It will be a win win for every American, and even for many a poor overseas.
I am sworn to protect this country against the enemies, foreign and domestic. So who is paying you Mr. Neal.
WHO IS PAYING NEAL BOORTZ
I really do not wish to call anyone stupid, but then there are exceptions. Either Neal Boortz thinks all his listeners are really really stupid , or that dear ole Neal has finally lost his marbles. His brand of “Capitalism on Viagra” , steroids being an illegal drug, will not only destroy the poor, it will also destroy the country.
Back in two thousand four, I had proposed that since this country is not designed for a four dollars ( I actually did say four dollars), we need to start slowly increasing the tax on gasoline and use the money to support a public transportation system. I have detailed my plans elsewhere in this blog. Now that we have four dollar a gallon gas how and why are Neal, and that two legged dog of a talk show host, Dennis Miller, out supporting the big oil.
The Republicans have never had a shortage of small time crooks to be their mouth pieces. From a convicted perjurer in COL North, to the convicted burglar in G. Gordon Liddy, to drug abuser Rush Limbaugh, to the very true to his name the Dick Morris, who became famous for cavorting with prostitutes and now the new and improved coke head the Dennis Miller, it is hard to believe that someone would really take these clowns seriously, but here we are.
I hear these guys lamenting as to how the big oil is being portrayed as callous, as how to figure out the profit margins, and the how Democrats are out to kill their business. Let me assure you that I am not voting for Obama or for McCain, I will only tell you the truth and let you make up your own mind, about the presidential candidates and your talk show hosts.
The way that Neal and Dennis explain the oil company profits is this. Say you call someone and tell them that there will be a get together at the church Saturday at two and that they MUST show up, and tell them that there will be some singing and some prayers and a pause for everyone to hang out in the parking lot which will be followed by a reception in the fellowship hall, but leave out the fact that his mother was murdered last night and it will be all for her funeral.
Yes a lot of retirement plans contain shares of the big oil companies, and yes if you participate in a retirement plan you will get a few dollars of the increase in the share price and dividend increases. But what they leave out is this, that the higher oil prices are shutting down car factories and dealerships, thousands of independent truckers have been driven out of work.
That the increase in fuel costs is increasing the cost of everything else, that as you make more money in oil company shares, your GM and ford shares are sinking, your airlines stocks are going under, you are paying more for everything else, airline travel is going to be for the ultra rich only and as the air travel shrinks so will the employment in the TSA, the baggage handlers will be out of work and the ticket clerks and travel agents and the hotel industry will suffer. We as a nation are not doing better by paying more for our gas.
I do want higher gas taxes and prices, I do want subsidized public transportation for the poor and the elderly at least. I do not want to see people made poor by their car expenses, and I do not want to see poor having to choose between feeding their kids, buying school supplies or buying gas to get to work. I surely do not want to see the elderly die of heat or freeze to death because they could not afford to pay the electric bill.
A higher gasoline tax, that is used to subsidize the public transportation services will reduce the dependence on foreign oil immediately, (people in the rural districts could get rebates) reduce our trade deficit, will give lesser amounts of our money to the terrorists and the un democratic regimes of Arabs and the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, it will increase the value of the dollar. It will also take out the speculation from the markets, and actually lower the cost of oil as the use and the demand for it decreases. It will be a win win for every American, and even for many a poor overseas.
I am sworn to protect this country against the enemies, foreign and domestic. So who is paying you Mr. Neal.