Thoughts Of The Moment from Katie's Dad

Name:
Location: Near Reading, Pennsylvania, United States

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." Benjamin Franklin

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

What Is Wrong With American Business

I just finished reading this article about Mike Rice and his new home. He is CEO of Utz Snack foods in Pennsylvania. Talk about the arrogance. Read the article. Than send them an e-mail even if you never heard of Utz!

Pa. potato-chip king supersizes with 40-room mansion at NJ shore
6/19/2006, 4:47 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

AVALON, N.J. (AP) — A man's home is his castle — especially when it has 11 bedrooms, at least 15 bathrooms, a sauna and a swimming pool.
The nearly 15,000-square-foot mansion being built for snack-food king Michael Rice and his wife will have about 40 rooms spread over three levels, plus a three-car garage.
Even by the lofty standards of this ritzy beach town, that's a lot of potato chips.
Yet the mansion for Rice, chief executive of Hanover, Pa.-based Utz Quality Foods, is going up along some of New Jersey's oldest and most natural dunes — despite a state law forbidding such construction.
Rice, who acquired the one-acre parcel in 2000 for $3.5 million, sued the state, arguing the prohibition was a "taking" that would prevent him from enjoying his investment.
The state decided not to fight, choosing instead to work with Rice to reduce the home's size from its original blueprint of more than 20,000 square feet, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Construction began in April and could take more than a year; it's not clear how much the house will be worth until after it is built and assessed. The new home replaces a smaller one that had roughly the same footprint as the pool for the Rices' new abode.
Calls to Rice's office and to an Utz corporate communications office were not returned.
Rice already owns one of Avalon's priciest homes, a 7,132-square-foot oceanfront house with an assessed value of $8.74 million.
Some neighbors resent the size of his new house.
"I just don't think it belongs there," said Elmer Parsons, 82. "The name of the game down here, as I see it, is greed."


PennLive.com - Pa. Potato-Chip King Supersizes With 40-Room Mansion At NJ Shore

mailto:dlissette@utzsnacks.com (Dylan Lissette - VP Sales Operations)

Monday, June 19, 2006

News Of War

I found this letter on a blog on myspace. Good read.
Peace

15 Jun, 2006 - Stop Stretching My Sack,
Mr. *President: A letter from an Iraq Veteran
Stop Stretching My Sack, Mr. *President

A letter from an Operation Iraqi Liberation (O.I.L.) Veteran

Mr. *President (appointed),

I just read an article on Voice of America (VOA) about your attempts to boost domestic support for your illegal war in Iraq and I thought Id send you a peppy little reality gram asking you to please stop stretching my sack.

For the record, I guess I am still a defeatist -for no matter how hard you smirk, I will always believe waging war for the sake of preventing war is a really stupid concept. You might have understood that, had you actually served in the military. Theres a big difference between wearing a uniform and being willing to die in one.

This Orwellian negative utopia idea of war is peace rates right up there with spitting in the face of the U.N. to invade a country (Iraq) which was apparently spitting in the face of the U.N.; and with using dangerous nuclear weapons on another country (Iran) because its leader is reportedly threatening to enrich uranium for possible use with a dangerous nukular weapons program. Christ, if hypocrisy was a liquid wed be breathing through straws right now.

Your refusal to accept reality is Herculean. The following line from the VOA article I mentioned adequately demonstrates this fact The American people have got to understand, I believe we are going to succeed, he said.

Oh, we understand, alright. Understand this, Charles-in-Charge: we couldnt possibly care less about what you and the mystical voices in your head believe regarding succeeding in Iraq. You can spin it how you like, but a polished turd still smells like turd. Contrary to his nickname, even Karl (Turd Blossom) Rove, cant change that fact. Cutting our noses off and waterboarding us isnt the answer either, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld.

You see, we lost when you started this war. We have lost our good reputation and the trust and respect that it commanded throughout the world. We have lost almost 2,600 American service members -murdered for material things by their trusted Commander-in-Chief and by their duty to honor. And still, the beat goes on.

We are soon to lose all our wealth, our national security, and now the rights and freedoms gauranteed us by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Were losing too much. This thing is beginning to look like a cavemans version of mutually assured destruction -without the nukes (so far).

Its time to ask, at what cost? Its time to shut up and bring our troops home. Its time to end it.

Vic Blazier, Defeatist and 2003 Operation Iraqi Oil

Vetwww.inkwellinsurgency.comaxisofasses@yahoo.com
Patriotism isnt yellow, or magnetic
(This letter submitted via congress.org)(VOA article referred to can be found here.)