Hixter

I've never collected unemployment, so I have no experience in that area.

Factor in the amount of people who have dropped out of the labor force and, as the Labor Department says, "the unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent in February but has shown little movement, on net, since September 2012."

Yes, and it's uncalled for.

All you have to do is read the news -- it's written by people who are economists. But then again a little common sense will tell you that the government can't just print more money without devaluing the dollar. It's a fine balancing act that's been going on for a long time and it will inevitably hurt when we fall off the tightrope. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand that hitting yourself in the head with a hammer is a bad idea. I'm not a Realtor, but I knew enough to stay out of the insane housing bubble in southern California 7 or 8 years ago and moved to Texas where pric

Watch what happens when the Fed starts raising the interest rate (it's practically zero now) and bonds start tanking.

It's a fact that the Fed has purchased trillions of dollars in bonds to keep the economy afloat. It's a fact that the market will crash once they stop doing so. Last week's single-day, 200-point drop shows just how closely the market is tied to the Fed's pumping: even a whisper of future change is enough to cause the market to plunge. It's all a matter of how much longer the Fed can continue to pump money to keep the economy afloat; common sense says that they can't do it much longer and the longer they do it, the worse the crash will be.

Anyone with half a brain realizes that the market is surging because of the huge amounts of money that the Fed is pumping into the system by buying bonds. Interest rates are so low that cautious investors are diving into the market in order to make a decent return on their investments, but when the Fed stops juicing the market it's all going to come crashing down HARD. My company's 401k advisor spoke to us last week and warned that a "massive" correction would be coming in the near future. He mentioned the fact that gold is trading at almost $1600 per ounce as an indicator that the market wa

The debt increase during Obama's first 4 years in office: $6 trillion The cost of more than 10 years of war (4 of which also fell under Obama): $1.5 trillion There's no way tax increases will be able to solve the country's debt problem. it would cost every American $20,000 just to cover the $6 trillion in debt increase over the last 4 years -- and then there's the $10 trillion he inherited. Future spending is set to increase dramatically, so things look even gloomier down the road. We need to cut the size and expense of government, and that includes social programs like Social Security, we

The national debt has increased 6 trillion dollars over the last 4 years and all this sequestration hullaballoo is about cutting 1.2 trillion dollars over the next decade. Looki at the projected figures for 2013 and beyond (the rise of Obamacare) and it's obvious that we're in deep doodoo and need more spending cuts, not just more taxes.

I have no idea what to think anymore. Over the last few days the Vice President of the United States has claimed that shotguns are easier to handle than an AR15 (have the average woman fire a 12-gauge and an AR15 and see what they think) and he's advocated shooting blindly into the air and through closed doors as methods of home defense. Unbelievable. Now the president is trying to portray the sequestration as a GOP creation and when he gets called out for it by former-lefty-favorite Bob Woodward his minions issue threats. Who knows what this administration has up its sleeve.

Whatever it takes to get doddering old fools like Maxine Waters out of office .. now she's claiming the sequestration might cost 170 million jobs. That's more than the entire nation's workforce. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u8-d95SO_3g[/media]

Now go to Slate's site and look at how disproportionately large the numbers are in places like Chicago which have strict gun control laws, "assault" rifle bans and magazine capacity limits already in place. Yes, obviously yes.

Thanks. It was fun most of the time. I'm in Los Angeles to visit my kids, grandson and an old Army buddy.

United States Army: 1985-1989

You welcome the day that we lose a war to China? Hopefully you and your loved ones won't be smoking cinders so that you can enjoy that day.

The debt is our nation's number one problem. That said, I'm nervous about cutting our military in the present climate. I'm 35,000 feet over western Texas and trying to catch a quick nap, but you'll have to take me at my word when I assure you that I'm not talking partisan politics or hawks or doves when I say that I'm concerned about our military and defense capabilities. Ugly things are on the horizon and our nation may soon find itself at its most vulnerable position in more than 80 years in the near future. China is on course to match us militarily in the next 10 years, so if we find oursel

I was going from memory and I guess I added the planned USMC cuts (20,000) with the planned Army cuts (50,000) to get the 70,000 figure. Sorry about that. I think we'll prove that false if/when China acts against the various disputed territories in the Pacific. If you don't think that nuclear-armed bombers and subs prowling our nation's borders aren't an immediate threat then I guess we have nothing more to discuss.

President Obama intends to make drastic cuts to the military because social spending like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, etc. is growing by leaps and bounds (already dwarfing defense spending) and he needs someone to wield the axe. The president can't be seen slashing social spending, so defense is up for huge cuts and Hagel will be on board because he's already been quoted as saying that the Pentagon is "bloated." As it is, our Navy is shrinking while China's is growing. They're beginning fo field their first aircraft carriers, while one of ours is sitting in port waiting for a 4-year

His performance under fire was abysmal. He came across as weak and unsure of himself and those are not the qualities that our SecDef should display. He's spent the last few weeks denying, retracting and apologizing for things he's said over the last several years, so nobody really knows what his actual viewpoints are, but it's fairly clear that he's soft on Iran, hard on Israel and eager to cut our military at a time when adversaries like China and Russia are flexing their military might aggressively in our direction. Add in the fact that he's Republican and he becomes President Obama's wet dr

God help us.

But how do I shoot the rabbits and possums that are always eating my veggies if I can't buy any bullets?

There's an idea ...

Yeah, but it's kind of hard to find new hobbies that put steaks, sausage and jerky on the table.

Just for the record, that includes the ammunition typically used for hunting. I've had a new rifle for 3 weeks and can't find any ammo to sight the damn thing in.