Pabst RED Ribbon

Hello My Dear Friends! You know there is nothing more American than Red, White & Blue. This week a symbol of low budget America has jumped ship. The symbol of which I speak is PBR. That's right, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The 170 year old Milwaukee brewery has been sold to Moscow-based Oasis Beverages. That's right. The flagship beer of Hipsters and poor people across the Country is now Commie Beer! In the past decade or so Anheuser-Busch goes to Belgium based InBev, Coors merges with Molson and becomes Canadian and a South African company buys Miller Brewing Co. What is the international obsession with crappy beer? I realize the Russians are no strangers to crappy beer. Believe me, I've tasted Baltika. It sucks.  First Twinkies and Ding Dongs move to Mexico and now this! It's the beginning of the end people. They're making it impossible to be xenophobic and obese! Thank goodness Peeps and Cheetos are still all American. It's funny, really, that we say "as American as Baseball..." when all of the Rawlings Baseballs used by Major League Baseball are made in Costa Rica. When you think about Americana you think of Radio Flyer Red Wagons (made in China since 2004); Barbie Dolls (Hong Kong); Etch A Sketch (China). Remember Huffy Bikes? China. It's a shame, really. Even that evil little troll Jon Bon Jovi tried to move our beloved Buffalo Bills to Canada! (All hail Terry Pegula). Anyway, my Dear Friends, another piece of Americana leaves the Motherland. It's just another brick in the wall. (London).
Po

Random Thoughts

Hello My Dear Friends! On Friday a Veteran, suffering from PTSD, jumped the fence at the White House, ran across the lawn and walked into the North Portico doors. That's where the First Family lives. Luckily it was a Friday, so the President and his family were already on vacation! Have you ever seen an over zealous fan run out on to a baseball field? They are always tackled before they reach any of the players. The President doesn't need the Secret Service, He needs Stadium Security. Those guys don't mess around!
A teacher in a Washington, D.C. public school gave her middle school students a homework assignment; 'Compare George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler'. LOL! A few parents were a little ticked off when they learned of this. School officials said it was not part of the standard curriculum and that the teacher used poor judgement. Gee, you think? The teacher apologized for her "poor judgement" and was forgiven. Do you think the outcome would have been the same if that same teacher asked students to compare Barak Obama to Adolf Hitler? Neither do I.
Three Afghan Army Soldiers, in Cape Cod for a "training exercise" disappeared during a trip to the mall in Hyannis, Now, I'm not sure which army training exercise actually takes place in a mall but, one would think whatever it is, it would have been more enlightening to do it on Black Friday. Anyway, it seems the missing officers were found in Niagara Falls! Yup. They were headed to Canada. That's not the funny part. This is the first time these annual training exercises have been help on US soil since 2006. The Commander of the Joint Base Cape Cod said hosting the event was "a valuable opportunity for the Massachusetts National Guard and is personally rewarding". Dude! Your National Guard lost three soldiers! You might want to revisit the definition of "Guard".
Finally, you may be interested to know that, last week, 2 US F-22 fighter jets intercepted 6 Russian Military planes 55 nautical miles off the coast of Alaska. They included two refueling tankers, 2 Mig-31 fighter jets and 2 Bear long-range bombers. Apparently the Government didn't think we needed to know that. NORAD confirms that several hours after that, 2 Canadian CF-18 fighter jets intercepted 2 long-range Russian Bear Bombers 40 nautical miles off the Canadian coastline. The Russian planes, in both cases, turned back after the jets were scrambled. There were no confrontations. Maybe we should call out the Massachusetts National Guard or the Secret Service to protect us. Oh, wait.....
Po

Let's Pick Our Poison

Hello My Dear Friends! I've heard your pleas and I'm here to help. 'PoKitty', you say, 'who should we trust in the Middle East'? First, let me say, it's "whom" should we trust, not "who". Anyway, the latest news tells use that our Government has decided to "back" the "moderate" Syrian rebels in our battle against ISIS. Is this the right move? LOL! I guess that depends which side you're actually on. My Friends, the Middle East is not as complicated as those in charge would have you believe. Even though there are countless factions at war in the region, there are really only two sides. There are the Sunnis and the Shias. They've been at war since the death of their Prophet Muhammad some 1400 years ago. The main difference between the two sides is more political than spiritual. Simply put, Sunni Muslims follow the elected Muslim leader where Shia Muslims follow Imams, who they believe have been anointed by the Prophet himself. The Kurds are Sunnis. They have always been our allies. Their army, the Peshmerga, has been battling ISIS to protect their land in Northern Iraq which they consider Kurdistan. The "moderate Syrian rebels" are Shias. They have never been our allies. The President's plan would require the Kurds and the Syrian rebels to fight together against their common enemy ISIS. This, for several reasons, will never happen. First, it assumes that the Kurds actually care what happens to Bagdad. They do not. Second, it assumes they will fight along side their enemies. They will not. All the Kurds care about is protecting their little piece of the world. Our plan to "back" the Syrian rebels is a slap in the face to the Kurds as it means that we are, in fact, backing the Shias, their enemy. Now, you ask, how do we know which Syrian rebels to train and arm? Well, I suspect it will be the ones that have been on the US payroll for over a year. WHAT? Yup. We have been paying the salaries of thousands of Syrian rebels who turned against Bashar Assad over a year ago. Tens of millions of dollars. The funny thing is, many of those rebels have ties to al Qaeda but we're paying them anyway. So, since they're already on the payroll, we may as well train and arm them. It's not like they're going to turn on us, right? I mean, if we can't trust al Qaeda to protect us whom can we trust. We're also going to re-train and re-arm the Iraqi army. These would be the guys who turned tail and ran when ISIS approached. That's why they have to be re-armed. They turned over all of the arms we already gave them to the enemy so they could run faster. It's very difficult to teach courage but I guess we'll try again. This, My Dear Friends, is our current "Foreign Policy". I don't know about you, but it certainly makes me feel safe.
Po

It's a Mystery Wrapped in an Enigma

Hello My Dear Friends! Every time I say "this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard", someone has to step up and prove me wrong! WTF people. Let's start with the annual fight over Texas school books. As you know, Texas is the largest purchaser of text books in the nation thus, what they decide on as content usually makes it way into text books around the Country. That is how students end up believing that Pilgrims are simply "travelers" and September 11, 2001 was something we had coming. Anyway, one of the many debates this time around is over global warming. It seems the publisher dared to suggest that, although it is widely accepted that the earth is warming, not everyone agrees on why. Apparently that isn't true and, according to one "scholar" it does a "disservice to students to suggest that the behavior of man is not to blame". LOL! What? Another "scholar" said that "mentions of Christianity should be removed from history books" so that students get a "factually accurate" picture of history. What? You do know why the "travelers" left England, right? Let the battle rage on. I'm sure the final product will be wonderfully accurate.
Let's talk about the insanity going on in the Middle East. As you know the President said the battle against ISIS will not include American combat "boots on the ground". He the sent another 400 "military advisers" to the region. Apparently they're not wearing boots. I don't really think, at this point, we should be splitting hairs over footwear, but here we are. We are, however, sending 3000 boot wearing soldiers to West Africa to fight Ebola! Excuse me? Ebola is a virus that has killed about 2400 people. ISIS is a terrorist network that has killed about 5500 people! Am I missing something here? Soldiers should be fighting terrorists. Doctors should be fighting Ebola, right? Has Ebola vowed to destroy America? Has Ebola beheaded any Americans? Could we please get our priorities straight. Yes, we have to help contain and eliminate the Ebola virus. It is very serious. But, it is NOT what our military is for. Here's an idea. Let's round up all of those Texas scholars, throw in the geniuses from the CDC who mailed out the anthrax in a ziplock bag, team them up with Congress and send all of them to West Africa to battle Ebola. Heck, there are at least 20 doctors in Congress. They'd be a lot more useful than soldiers and, those other folks appear to have a lot of free time on their hands. Off you go now. save the world.
Po

Your Bad Choices Affect Others!

Hello My Dear Friends. As you can plainly see, someone else's bad decision has adversely affected my life. 10 weeks ago I was a beautiful, purebred Chocolate Point Himalayan. Today, after I was accosted and shaved by a crazed Captor, I now have a beautiful white head, a brown face and a GRAY body. I look ridiculous. I remain in seclusion. My point is, the Captor made a bad choice that affected ME! I must now live out my days looking like a Mutt. This happens far too often. Gubmint leaders decided to let thousands of illegal immigrant children into the US and now thousands of  US children are battling a "rare" respiratory virus. Gee, I wonder where that came from? Former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice punched his woman in the face (twice), knocking her out. He's been suspended indefinitely from the NFL. Clearly a bad choice on his part, since he did it on camera. Now, because of Rice's bad choice, all other NFL players will have to make sure there are no cameras around before they smack their women around. Right Ray McDonald (49ers); Quincy Enunwa (Jets); Greg Hardy (Panthers); A.J. Jefferson (Vikings); Robert Reynolds (Titans); Dez Bryant (Cowboys); Rod Smith (Broncos). That's just the past few years and only those arrested for domestic violence. I'm sure the list of those not arrested is far longer. At least the NFL is taking this one "seriously". Enough about that. Tonight the Prez will be addressing the Nation on his "strategy" on battling ISIS. It's a Prime Time address which means it's serious. Presidents only interrupt prime time TV programming when they have something urgent to say. I suspect, after announcing to the world last week that he had no plan, correcting that blunder would seem urgent. Generally, when the Prez discusses his "foreign policy" he spends most of the time listing all of the things he will not do. In the words of Queen frontman Freddy Mercury, from the legendary Bohemian Rhapsody, "Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango"? (That means "dance clown, dance"). We'll have to wait until 9pm to learn the "master plan". Let's hope it's not a bad choice.
Po

Do My Ears Deceive Me?

Hello My Dear Friends! As you may have realized by now, the world according to Me can be very different than the world according to others. The good news is that I am generally right. The President says that we, with them help others, will diminish ISIS to a "manageable problem". Mr. President, with all due respect, you "manage" your weight; you ELIMINATE your enemies. Grow a set, will you! Enough is enough! Contrary to what you seem to believe, golf balls are not the most important balls a man can have. Okay. Now, with all eyes on ISIS, are you aware that Libya has reported that they have 11 commercial airplanes that are unaccounted for? It's true. When rebel groups overran Tripoli, including the airport, they made off with 11 planes that have not been seen since. That's a little terrifying, don't you think? The good news is, with our post 9/11 technology, those planes would never make it to the United States. The bad news is, most of Europe doesn't have such technology. You'd think we'd be hearing a bit more about this, wouldn't you? I guess Justin Bieber's latest arrest is more important. So, as I write this, hundreds, maybe thousands, of fast food workers walked off the job to demand a pay increase to $15 an hour. Good luck with that. That would work out to about $31,000 a year to flip burgers. Consider, if you will, that the average Bank Teller begins at about $24,000 a year. A Soldier in the US Army, reaching the rank of Private First Class (E3) with a minimum of 6 years experience can expect to earn $24,400 a year. The average Police Officer begins at $28,000 a year. Anyone silly enough to want to work in radio can expect their first job to pay about $23,500. I think you know where I'm going with this. Obviously the above salaries vary by state and such, but the point is the same. $15 an hour to work in fast food is ridiculous. I understand that you can not raise a family on $8 an hour but, guess what, that's not McDonald's fault. That's your fault! I know, shocking right? Did I actually just say that people should take responsibility for their own future! Yes I did. Perhaps, before you start a family, you should think about how you're going to support them. What!! If it is your lofty goal in life to work at Burger King, that's your right. Good for you. If it is your goal in life to buy a home and raise a family, then maybe you should aim a little higher than the King! I know it's a crazy concept but it just might work! Why not get an education, work hard and earn your future instead of sitting on your butt in Times Square with a sign that says "Gimme More".
Po

Once Again, You're Missing the Point!

Hello My Dear Friends! Can I just tell you that it isn't easy being the smartest Cat in the world. Seriously. Sometimes it's just plain exhausting. I realize that, since the disintegration of the media, it is very difficult for the average human to get the full story on any topic. But, seriously people, sometimes I think you're not even trying. Let's examine the merger story de jour. Burger King is purchasing Tim Hortons in what is generally called a "tax inversion strategy". What that means is that American owned Burger King buys Canadian owned Tim Hortons and becomes one big Canadian company. This effectively lowers the company's tax rate to about 26%, down from the oppressive US business tax rate of nearly 40%.  This is a practice widely criticized by the President, even going as far at one point, as calling it "un-American". Fine. The fascinating part of this story, the part no one seems to be talking about, is that Berkshire Hathaway is putting up $3 billion (or nearly one quarter) of the purchase price! Berkshire Hathaway is, of course Warren Buffet, the man who stood side by side with the President, denouncing this very practice. The same Warren Buffet who, while campaigning for the President, indignantly declared that he was paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, and that wealthy Americans had to step up and pay their share! Freaking hypocrite! Here's my point, the point I believe the media is missing. It's not that Burger King is buying Tim Hortons and moving to Canada. It's that, in spite of all of the rhetoric, campaigning and promises about tax reform, the wealthy in this Country can still do whatever they want to avoid paying their taxes while you and I struggle to pick up the slack. That's the point people. That's the point! Did you know that, in 2012, J.C.Penney posted revenues of $12.99 billion dollars and I paid more in taxes than they did? It's true. Not only did J.C.Penney NOT pay any taxes in 2012, they got a $551 million dollar tax credit. A REFUND! They're not alone. AMR corporation (American Airlines) had $24.86 billion in revenue in 2012. They paid NO taxes and got a $569 million tax credit. How about Verizon? $115.85 billion in revenue; $660 million tax credit. My personal favorite, Caesars Entertainment Corp. You may be familiar with their casinos. revenues of $8.59 billion and granted a tax credit of $871 million. People wonder how we're ever going to pay down this Country's $17.7 Trillion dollar debt. Gee, I wonder where we could find the money?
Po