Our strategy when we shop for groceries at Wal-Mart is to stick to name brands that can be had for much less than the other chains and stay away from Wal-Mart house brands under the assumption that Wal-Mart makes less money that way. We like the prices but the service isn’t that great and the produce is generally sub-par. We make our trips monthly and usually fill a cart with 50 or so items.

After going through checkout my wife has a habit of checking the receipts to make sure we didn’t get overcharged. She’s taken up this habit because she’s been finding a lot of overcharges. It’s usually 2 or 3 products and always less than a dime but they are always there. She is determined not to be overcharged and will head right for customer service line and wait to get our 25 or 50 cents back.

I think it’s too much trouble for 50 cents and I’m sure I’m not alone. How many people never notice? How many people get to the car and say “It’s just a quarter, forget it.”?

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the land. Stealing pennies from every transaction scales very well when it’s thousands of transactions a day at thousands of stores. If you figure only one thousand transactions a day times three thousand stores for 25 cents each that is $750,000 a day. Multiply by 365 days and you get $273,750,000!

Two hundred seventy three million dollars! Earned by stealing pennies from nearly every transaction.

Now, those amounts are pure speculation, but, you can see how this all scales. Wal-Mart is well know for having one of the most efficient supply chains in the world. It makes me think pricing is not handled at the store level. It’s centralized then pushed out to stores. My wife has reported price discrepancies on the same items multiple times and it is not corrected. That shows a failure somewhere along the line or it shows intent.

Have you checked your receipts lately?

It’s not a political party because the chosen GOOOH member will reflect local community values. A hard line conservative will not be chosen in San Francisco for example.

Currently lawyers and multi-millionaires are excluded because those are the types of people who are currently overrepresented in Congress.

• Your gas costs more

Ethanol is more expensive than regular gasoline and it doesn’t burn as well. That means you get less MPG so you fill up more often.

• Your food costs more

Corn is now in high demand. Corn is a staple food used for animal feed and is in nearly every food you buy. If it’s more expensive to feed cows then milk and beef go up in price. The most common sweetener is high fructose corn syrup so everything that uses it has gone up in price.

• You get to pay higher taxes

Utah taxes food by a percentage so if the food costs more then the taxes are higher. And since ethanol is not a cost effective replacement for gasoline, the ethanol industry is heavily subsidized. Without the subsidy the ethanol producers would not make money. Eventually all this extra cash ends up in the pocket of some Archer-Daniels-Midland executive.

• It doesn’t actually save the earth by being “green”

Corn ethanol production is a net loss for the environment because you end up clearing forests to plant more corn to make more ethanol so your boondoggle will pay off.

• It won’t make us energy independent

If we plow up all the land in the USA for corn we will only meet @10%-15% of our total needs. Assuming they don’t increase from all the extra agricultural activity.

After they pass this legislation, they stand around for photo ops congratulating themselves on how well they’ve screwed over the average Joe. Don’t forget, the Democrats own Congress right now but George Bush owns the Democrats.

The reason I would vote for Obama is Hillary Clinton. For me, this entire election is about not letting her get into the office of the President. If Obama wins the nom then I will probably vote for him. Both Romney and McCain, who are taking turns comparing themselves to Reagan, leave me cold. Romney might actually be better than McCain. Today. Who knows what tomorrow, or some focus group, will bring with him.

The irony of this whole thing is that we could have a revolution and install Dr. Paul as Emperor for Life and he’d order an election in 2012 and step down if he lost. McCain, Romney, Bush, and Clinton would get elected and try to stay in for life. They’re power mad.

The War on Terror incites terrorism and, by it’s very existence and the politics behinds it, makes people afraid. I would say the Department of Homeland Security with it’s ridiculous color coded alert system has fomented more terror than Osama Bin Laden. Osama and his band of Al Qaeda managed to piss us off. It took politicians to really, really scare us.

The War on Drugs has brought us cheaper, more plentiful, and a wider variety of drugs. Drug interdiction and the risks of prosecution makes drug dealing incredibly profitable while drug policing, with asset forfeiture laws, has also become incredibly profitable. When the dealers and the cops are both against legalization then there is something wrong. Overzealous cops with flimsy evidence are busting down doors in the middle of the night, shooting dogs and terrorizing or killing innocent people, then shrugging and saying “We did it by the book”. The police can do most anything and get away with it if the local DA is willing to look away. Remember, you vote for District Attorney.

The War on Poverty is being fought in the wrong places. When poor children feel that school is not an option then they will remain poor or end up in jail or dead too young. Welfare  reform  in the 90’s only worked because someone realized that free money was not the answer. They need to realize that it’s never the answer and solve even more problems. Government should not act like Mommy or Daddy and bail you out every time you screw up. Mommy or Daddy shouldn’t either.

These “Wars” do nothing but promote the role of government and their alleged solutions. These government sponsored wars are eternal and unsolvable so don’t buy into them. Less government is the road to freedom.

I fear then every candidate, other than Ron Paul, will be a pandering pro-goverment tool. They will say what it takes to get elected and then do what it takes to get re-elected. If you value integrity at all then you will not vote.

I believe we are entering a new age where technology will fundamentally change the reach of goverment. I think a revolution could occur within the next 50 years. I hope I’m alive to see it.

Imagine Ron Paul hangs around deep into the primary season. Huckabee, Thompson and Guiliani are gone and it’s just Romney, Mccain and Paul left. Ron gets invited to all the debates and he’s pulling in @20% in the primaries in a much less split field.

Now say he’s still got money and he’s hinting at an independent or LP run.

In this scenario, the GOP loses the election and Clinton/Obama is the new president. Would the GOP offer Dr. Paul some ripe committee appointment to keep him on the sidelines or maybe even the Vice Presidency? Some Veep candidates have gotten that nod simply because they were from Texas.

If I was Ron I would hang around and accept some political windfalls. He can use his Dr. No power more effectively if he moved a bit higher up in the ranks instead of just being that guy who votes no on everything.

Synopsis: Terrorism doesn’t work if we’re not, you know, terrorized. I live is absolute zero fear of a terrorist attack. By reacting the way we have we folded like a house of cards to terrorists demands. What demands you ask? Be afraid. Be terrorized. Worry, worry, worry.

Since 9/11 we, the people, have been terrorized by Washington. Six plus years of scaremongering and it looks like they’re just getting warmed up.

I find no fault in the spread of the story among well meaning people but I wonder who made this up and spread it around?

How much of actual, real, history will be lost and replaced with information that makes a better “feel good” story?

Synopsis: We’re heading towards a point where most people do not pay federal taxes at all. That could lead to a situation where non-payers consistently vote to remain non-paying and continue to leech from the payers.