Author Archives: bbearren

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About bbearren

I was born and raised in southwest Polk County, Florida, grew up in a small town of about 5,000, where I still reside. I am a veteran of the USAF, enlisting upon graduation from high school and honorably discharged after one stint in the USAFSS. I've worked a wide variety of jobs, started earning my spending money in agriculture when I turned 12. I was directly employed in mining for over thirty years after leaving the military (working a few different jobs in between my discharge and employment in mining), and still work in the industry as a subcontractor for a couple of engineering companies that do project work in mining/processing. Scattered in amongst all that, I've attended Yale University, Florida State University, Polk Community College and the University of South Florida. I have accumulated well over 130 hours, but no degree.

Over $250,000/year tax cut expiration?

Posted on April 7, 2012 by bbearren

Why is it that congress just won’t consider letting the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 annually expire? It ain’t all that complicated – it’s their own taxes that would increase. From US Government Info at About.com:  “The … Continue reading →

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The Supremes will sort it out…

Posted on April 7, 2012 by bbearren

From Healthcare, August 9, 2009: It begins with “Given the size of the deficits… “My Kaiser dues are covered by Medicare (with various copayments). When I turned 65, my dues (for both me and my wife) went from about $400/month … Continue reading →

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A response from Jerry Pournelle

Posted on April 4, 2012 by bbearren

Jerry gave me a two-for, actually.  On his blog he posted a bit of a reply to “Who is a conservative?” and a bit of an aside to the email exchange, RE: Borrowing from China.  Check him out here.  It begins … Continue reading →

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Who is a Conservative?

Posted on April 1, 2012 by bbearren

From View March 24 2010: “Writers are self-employed, meaning that we do not get health care insurance from an employer. For a long time we got ours through Roberta as a teacher, eventually gaining access to the Kaiser system when … Continue reading →

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Another exchange with Dr. Jerry P. “Borrowing from China”

Posted on March 30, 2012 by bbearren

I started this Thursday, and it carried through until today.  Again, I have edited the headers to reflect my email address here, and re-arranged the emails with oldest first. From: bbearren@bbearren.com Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 3:38 PM To: Jerry … Continue reading →

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Drill, baby, drill!!!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by bbearren

This is just a quicky that I hope to have time to flesh out later.  But for those advocates that claim the US will be able to lower gasoline prices at the pump simply by more fully utilizing American oil … Continue reading →

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An email exchange with Jerry Pournelle

Posted on March 6, 2012 by bbearren

On March 4, I read the following on Jerry Pournelle’s blog about the Sandra Fluke story: “Leave alone the freedom of religion issue of requiring a Jesuit college to provide contraception. Where did the government get the right to require that … Continue reading →

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Too much time on my hands…

Posted on February 8, 2012 by bbearren

but I’ve still got a couple of days before the start of my next project, so I’m catching up a bit on some of my reading.  I keep reading the same, tired mantras from conservatives – get rid of Job-Killing-Regulations that are … Continue reading →

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I had something similar in mind…

Posted on February 6, 2012 by bbearren

but Paul Krugman beat me to the post, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Politics“. and he says it much better, as well.

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Let’s look at the national debt.

Posted on February 4, 2012 by bbearren

Politicians try to make the national debt look really scary in election years, wanting us to believe that our national debt is the same as a family taking out a home mortgage that is way too big for them to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Leave a comment