The Berkes

Joe Gibbs

I was lucky enough today to attend a breakfast/seminar given by Joe Gibbs and the Game Plan for Life team. It was a great event, and over 2,000 people attended. Gibbs has been a committed Christian for many years, and his new book is an excellent read for believers and seekers alike. Check out his web site...and grab the book!

Broken Windows Everywhere

UPDATE: The House just approved $2B more for this idiotic program. And the dealers do not have much confidence at this point because they are realizing the government cannot administer something like this. I swear I am in the twilight zone...

The broken-window fallacy is alive and well…put into place by the crazy statists in Congress. The One, Harry "The Body" Reid and Nancy "Stretch" Pelosi think that handing out free money to spark the economy is a good thing. 

Well...it is not.

1. When the government hands out "free" money it is never really free. It either comes from our taxes, the printing of money or borrowing it.
2. Paying up to $4,500 for a piece of junk car that is really $1,500 will skew the used car market and make it less affordable for poor people to buy a cheap car to get to work. So the statists are actually hurting the people they claim so much to care about. But we're helping "save the environment." Ugh...gag me with a spoon.
3. The government is full of bureaucrats that are ill-equipped to handle a program of this magnitude and that is one of the reasons why it has been suspended today. Just imagine if ObamaCare passes...how phenomenal will that be?!?

I will keep hammering out these blog posts trying to educate people about the danger of unintended consequences. Giving away free money to stimulate the economy does not stimulate ANYTHING...except our national debt. The statists are buying into the broken-window fallacy hook, line and sinker.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Teachable Moments

Shame

It is amazing to me that people fall for this lie. No "pork" in the stimulus package? Wow.

No Transparency by The One

Folks, even Salon.com is comparing The One to George Bush when it comes to individual liberties and transparency issues.

I will keep screaming from the rooftops that this man is not much different from The Bush: they both LOVE big government and taking away our liberties.

I wonder what the ideologues have to say about this...

Government Price Controls Simply Do Not Work

It amazes me that anyone thinks government-mandated price controls work. It amazes me that people do not understand simple economics. There are so many fallacies out there about the simplest of economic concepts. I hope as time goes on we as a nation will grow more interested and actually start to read about economics. I have hope, as there have been numerous fallacies that have been overcome because of simple, common sense. 

Here is one example of an economic fallacy from 1945: Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in a syndicated newspaper column, "We have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job." Roosevelt thought, along with many other people of that day, that labor-saving machinery caused unemployment. Can you imagine anyone thinking that today? Of course not. America has such great wealth precisely because of our industrial might. We would not all have flat-screen TVs, iPods and fancy cell phones if it were not for MACHINERY. We are such a rich country that many of our citizens below the poverty line have the items I listed above...and also computers, air conditioning, etc. "The Curse of Machinery" was debunked a long time ago, and I am hoping against hope that the economic fallacaies of today (e.g. minimum wage, gov't price controls, deficit spending, printing of money by the Fed) will go by the wayside just like the ones from the 30's and 40's have.

Here is a great quote debunking one of the most popular fallacies of today:

The more money that has been spent on government-run healthcare, the less healthcare we have gotten. This kind of result is generally true of all government bureaucracies because of the absence of any market feedback mechanism. Since there are no profits in an accounting sense, by definition, in government, there is no mechanism for rewarding good performance and penalizing bad performance. In fact, in all government enterprises, exactly the opposite is true: bad performance (failure to achieve ostensible goals, or satisfy "customers") is typically rewarded with larger budgets. Failure to educate children leads to more money for government schools. Failure to reduce poverty leads to larger budgets for welfare state bureaucracies. This is guaranteed to happen with healthcare socialism as well.

Go here to read the rest of this great article by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Emily & Petey

We are watching the neighbor's doggie, Petey. Emily likes him!

Rough Week for The One

Barry had a rough week. A new kind of politics? A new kind of government? Not so much...

Barry, like most politicans (especially career agitators like him) are often out-of-touch with what the American people really want. I think the general public probably does want something similar to what he sold us during the campaign. But the reality is that he is full of crap...just like Bush...just like most politicians. And now the people are turning against him. His approval rating is below 50%, and he is "calling out" the police on national TV after he admits he does not know all the facts. NG...no good.

But enough of this rhetoric! Let's dance!

Tim Tebow is My Favorite College Football Player

“The No. 1 way you minister to people is through your actions,” Tebow said. “They see how you act, how you treat people, how you love people, how strong your relationship with Jesus Christ is.”

Politically Correct

Ah, the attack on the First Amendment continues...this time right here in Charlotte.

I detest the politically correct in our society...detest.

Video here

Article here

T.O.

I watched T.O.'s new reality show tonight. Not much to say except, "Oye". I'm a cheeseball so I shall keep watching. I just hope my boy catches a bunch of TD's for the Bills this year. And if he doesn't, I don't really care. I'm just entertained by seeing good shots of Buffalo and Niagara Falls on VH1. 

Go Bills! 

@ Qdoba

Obama vs. Obama

I am no fan of the GOP these days, but this is a good spot. Regardless of the economic mess left the president, he has been disingenuous at best. Ask the 665 CMS teachers what they think about the stimulus package.
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It's Not An Option

UPDATE: This is the 600th blog post here on AdamBerke.com. Woohoo. 

Interesting note: since I quit Facebook and Twitter early last week I have averaged 37 unique hits per day. That is a 32% increase from previous weeks.

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...looks like the Democrats are not exactly the party of "choice."

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

Justice Sotomayor

I've been following the Senate hearing with one eye...

The only thing I have noticed worth mentioning is that Sotomayor is responding to the criticisms of her past quotes by pretty much saying that is not what she meant and she has an open mind when it comes to ruling. I don't think anyone believes her, but hey, this is politics.

And yes, this is all politics and political posturing. The one thing I find interesting though is how incredibly happy and excited the Democrats are by Sotomayor's nomination. They are all excited because she is a minority and this is going to be a great thing for our country. The question I ask in return is why weren't the Democrats excited by Miguel Estrada a few years back? The man, by all accounts, has an incredible legal mind...something that no one is accusing Sotomayor of having. The Democrats went to extraordinary lengths to block Estrada from becoming an appellate court judge, and the reason came out was because he is a conservative Hispanic. Well, let me rephrase that: because he is a conservative. The Dems don't care that Sotomayor is a "Latina." They care that she's a liberal, plain and simple.

I wish the Dmeocrats AND the Republicans would call a spade a spade. White man, Latina, black man...none of it matters. In the end the Dems want a liberal and the Republicans want a conservative. I just want someone that can interpret law and not be a political puppet. It is sad that this is the reality of the situation, and it does not look like it will be ending anytime soon.

Government Healthcare

I have had debates with people about how bad and inefficient state run healthcare would be. Let us put aside those debates for a moment. The question I have today is how are we going to pay for this "public option"? Folks, we are not going to be able to pay for it. It is going to cripple us...especially my home state of New York:

Sabres Schedule Just Released

Saturday October 3 MONTREAL 7:00 p.m. 
Thursday October 8 PHOENIX 7:00 p.m. 
Saturday October 10 @ Nashville 8:00 p.m. 
Tuesday October 13 DETROIT 7:00 p.m. 
Friday October 16 NY ISLANDERS 7:30 p.m. 
Saturday October 17 ATLANTA 7:00 p.m. 
Wednesday October 21 @ Florida 7:30 p.m. 
Saturday October 24 @ Tampa Bay 7:30 p.m. 
Wednesday October 28 @ New Jersey 7:00 p.m. 
Friday October 30 TORONTO 7:30 p.m. 
Saturday October 31 @ NY Islanders 7:00 p.m. 

20th of January

Thanks to Joseph Keckeissen for the following two quotes...

When President Obama was sworn in on 1/20/2009 he had the chance to say this:

"The inflationary monster TARP is out. No more bloating up the money supply and the budget with inflationary inanities. No more bailouts. No more rescues. No more trillions. Those who have received any bit of largesse will promptly return their ill-gotten loot to the Treasury. The bankruptcy courts are now authorized to get on with their interments at once. Nobody is too big not to be interred."

But, unfortunately, sad to state, the new president never understood the warnings of Ludwig Von Mises, who told us again and again that the market is the only institution that makes and rectifies prices, that money must not be multiplied, and that the interest rate is naturally and untouchably sacred.

Thanks for continuing Bush's ridiculous policies, Mr. Obama.

Baby is 15 Months Old

Is the Stimulus Package Working?

This blog post is written from an independent point of view. I am not playing partisan politics, and I hope you read this with an open mind. If you think I am writing this from the Right, then I suggest you stop reading. If you would like to actually learn something, then read on....

Bush and the Republicans left a heck of an economic mess for Obama and the Democrats. But Bush only added to the terrible problem that has been going on for many, many decades. Central banking and the manipulation of interest rates is the main reason we are in this mess. The bust-boom cycle (two recent examples are the Internet craze of the late 90's and the housing crisis over these last few years) was caused by artificially low interest rates and wild spending by the government...federal, state and local. 

Thank You

Several people reached out to me today, and I want to thank you all for your kind words...it is very much appreciated.

Dickie Dance

Check out Dickie breaking it down at Genna's graduation party...it is all grainy because the original video was pitch dark:

Why I Am Leaving Facebook and Twitter

For a few weeks now I have been contemplating canceling my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I have been on Facebook since the very first day it has been available (September 2006) to the general public, and I signed up for Twitter within a couple months of its launch (Spring 2007). Although I barely used either site very much at first I have become an active member of both services. My personal feelings of these two services are this:

Facebook is a true social utility site. A lot of people mistake this service as a social networking site (ala MySpace) but Facebook itself says its service is to connect to friends one already has…whereas MySpace is a way to find people to be your friend. This is why MySpace is open to the public by default, and Facebook is not open to the public (even as an option.) The long and short of this is that I had 285 friends on Facebook. That’s ridiculous…I don’t know 285 people that well. I only care about a handful of people on here, and I am connected to them via other mediums.

Twitter is a remarkable service that will continue to grow as it becomes the world’s best way to search for real-time/live content anywhere on the Web. The power of Twitter, and the effect it will continue to have on business, sports and news should not be underestimated by anyone. The great thing about Twitter is that you can still “follow” people without having an account. By going to search.twitter.com or directly to a person’s Twitter page an immense amount of real-time info can be found.

So now that I have given you intelligent overviews of what these two popular services are, here is why, as of today, I have canceled both of my accounts.

A pastor that I follow closely recently wrote about how he gets overwhelmed with the daily goings on of work, life, etc. He wrote about how he sometimes loses sight about what he really wants to see. And what he longs to see is God. He writes that we all see many different things throughout our lives; amazing, beautiful things such as, “…the Swiss Alps, the waters of the Caribbean, the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, the faces of my wife and children.” But sometimes what he fails to see is the real, true beauty of these things…the beauty of God in that he created all of these things.

After I read the pastor’s blog about clarity and how he longs to see God, it hit me that I feel the same way. I have so much clutter in my head, and I feel so bogged down by e-mail, blogs, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter (all of which I access dozens of times per day from my laptop, BlackBerry and iPod Touch) that there is no way I am allowing myself enough time to spend time doing the things that really matter. The things that really matter are having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and spending time with my amazing wife, daughter and the rest of our family (yes, these are in order of importance.)

I have come to the point that something on the list above (e-mail, blog reading, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) has to go. When it comes right down to it, the decision is an easy one for me…bye bye, FB…bye bye Twitter. I am taking back the hours (yes, hours) per day I spend on these two sites and I am concentrating on the more important things in my life.

I have a feeling some of you will think I am being pious and perhaps proselytizing here…and that is your right. I am merely here to tell you about a personal choice that I am making. I am certainly not judging anyone by how much they use FB or Twitter. I am certainly not suggesting you cancel your accounts and do what I am doing. And although I will never be shy about spreading and sharing the Good News, this blog post is not intended to convert you, or if you are already a Believer, to have you change your habits and how you worship our Lord. I am simply telling you why and how I have reached this decision.

I have been very involved with the explosion of the Web since it became popular in the early-to-mid 90’s, and over the years I have increased my time on the Web to the point that I now have to cut some of it out. I have had my own website/blog for over 10 years now, and I plan on keeping my presence on this blog and our photo and video sites up and running. I love sharing pictures and video of our precious little girl, and I enjoy writing about fiscal responsibility and politics. I know I can be opinionated, perhaps a little too much so, but this blog will continue, and I hope you will continue to join me here.

Please feel free to leave a comment below, or send me an e-mail ajberke@gmail.com

Cheers!

P.S. The pastor I refer to is Jerry Gillis - Lead Pastor at The Chapel in Buffalo, NY.

Emily Likes the Buffalo Bills

Last Monday Emily, Grandpa Dickie and I made our way down to the Buffalo Bills store at the Field House. We spent a bunch of dough, and Emily got her very own T.O. teddy bear!

Here is a short video of Emily crawling around our hotel hallway, and a quick shot of her at the Bills store.

Double-standard in the Senate

When I write about fiscal responsibility I am equal opportunity in my slamming of Republicans and Democrats. But today in the Senate, the Democrats were caught applying a double-standard to a Senate Amendment brought up by Jim DeMint, the Republican senator from South Carolina.

In a nutshell, senate leadership threw out DeMint's "Audit the Fed" amendment because it is a rule violation. Well, many other amendments are attached to this same bill and violate the same exact rule. DeMint even gets the senate leadership to admit to this.

I do not exactly know why the Senate Democrats would want to block this legislation. Why are they so afraid of a vote? Do the Democrats not want transparency and accountability of the Federal Reserve? This is just amazing to me. Shame on the Senate Democrats. This battle is not over...not by a long shot.