John T. Reed’s news blog

I started out poor. Although, like most poor people, we didn’t know it. My parents spoke about poor people at times. They meant people who had even less money than we did. Now I know that their referring to others as poor was only relative. We wore hand-me-down clothes, ate fish sticks and peanut butter sandwiches, and got the occasional big treat of a glass of off-brand cola. I’m not complaining. We were happy. We did not know what we were missing—literally. Our neighbors, classmates, and playmates were in the same boat. The poor generally only feel poor when they...

Copyright by John T. Reed You often hear Americans say that we are not, or should not, be the policeman of the world. Let’s think about that. A world with no policeman? First, do we want to live in a world with no policeman? I think not. There are currently a number of countries or sections of countries where outlaws dominate. They include, North Korea, the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, The tribal areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan, Somalia—Afghanistan, Libya, and Iraq. There are a number of other countries who threaten their neighbors with violence like Iran. In a...

I now have 8 blogs. Please click on John’s Blogs at the nav bar at the top of each page of my new web site. For example, today, I posted a new item about your needing to go to Australia to open a bank account there now in the hyperinflation blog.

October 14th, 2010 by John T. Reed William F. Buckley, Jr. famously said, I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand people on the faculty of Harvard University. I think he’s right. Although I would put it this way, We would be better off with a Congress composed of citizens chosen randomly for single terms the way grand juries are chosen than the current professional-politician Congress. Buckley was being a smart ass. I’m dead serious. Congress chosen randomly from each district and state for six-month terms Grand...

June 22nd, 2011 by John T. Reed Copyright 2011 by John T. Reed In California, we have the ability to pass laws and amendments to the state constitution by referendum. Prop 13 In 1978, we famously passed Proposition 13 which lowered our property taxes from about 3% of the value of your property to 1% of your original purchase price. I now pause while I and all Californians reading this genuflect at the mention of Prop 13. (Massachusetts imitated California, but their “Proposition 2 1/2” actually lowered their property taxes down to roughly our BEFORE-Prop-13 level. Pikers!) Our property taxes...