The Maschitan?
I have a few interesting short stories unrelated to current events. In Fresno, Ca, there are many ethnic groups and languages. There is a Catholic church in Fresno that holds a celebration every year in honor of St. Elia. Saint Elia is the patron saint of Maschito, Italy and he lived during the 6th century. Maschito is a town in Italy settled by Albanians. The original language was Albanian but has been heavily influenced by Italian. The people are known as Maschitans and many can still speak the dialect called Maschitan. . When the Maschitans originally settled in Fresno, many could not communicate with those Italian speaking immigrants because of the language difference. Little by little the dialect is fading and in time will probably disappear. The Albanian exodus into Italy took place about 500 years ago. It is interesting how the dialect has survived
The pension crisis is still around and Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego wants to eliminate guaranteed pensions for future employees and replace them with 401(k) accounts like private sector workers have in place. The unions are already speaking about market crashes with 401(k) plans. The uneducated will never understand that employees can invest in guaranteed products , less risk fixed income securities and invest in diversified portfolios which provide balance.
Obama’s Keynesian advisors still believe that their now discredited model is driven by consumer spending rather than by business investment. Extending jobless benefits to boost consumption and raising taxes on the “rich”does not create economic activity.
Now that the mid-term elections are behind us, it is interesting to watch the democrat’s “last hurrah” as they try and stuff legislation led by Pelosi and Reid. Those two should enroll in a high school econ course that explains how taxes reduce economic activity and how reducing taxes causes government revenues to increase. They just don’t get it- along with our President.
Paul Krugman stuck his neck out on the virtues of British National Health service and its Ntl Institute for clinical Excellence. The wall street Journal Article (November, 17 2010) basically calls it a “ death panel” because the government can decide whether treating you and extending your life is worth it. How about the Democrat’s compassion?
Now that the elections are concluded and Caifornia and New York are the “mavericks” that do not follow the rest of the nation, what is in store for the former Golden state. This year ‘s budget short fall for our state might come in at $25 billion. California is required by Its constitution to balance its budget. In ten years,we have lost 640,000 factory jobs, unemployment today is 12.4% verses 6.1% in 2004. We have 36% of the nations welfare recipients. Source: IBD November 15, 2010.
Our governor has bought into the global warming law and may cost the state $100 billion. People are leaving our state for business-friendly states. To top it off, we elect Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown and a whole slew of environmental Congressional and state Senate reps. What has happened to my state? It would appear that the inmates are running the jails. “
Gary E. Marsella