Welcome to 2012 !It's an Election Year, and all of Us Political Pundits, Prognosticators, PrimeTime Poets, and Paper Pushers are in Our Element once More. So far, this Primary season, the rabid Republicans have given us countless debates, and several "Flavors of the Week" in the 3 contests already completed. It seems as though the voters thus far have given us 3 different winners, in 3 vastly different states. One of these races was the Iowa Caucuses, the first-in-the-Nation contest was awarded to Mitt Romney by an 8 vote margin ahead of former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. That slim margin gave Romney a bit of a bounce as the candidates headed for New Hampshire, a state where Romney had an organization in place for months, and where Mitt has a summer home, dating from when he was Governor of Mass. next door.,.....to be continued ! Hey There, Here I am again, The Blogger Properly Known as "Mr.Indecisive"For Months and Months now, I have been expending my energies and time "Blogging for Dollars". I've had the pleasure of beginning a Political Opinion Blog on a new Blog Network called "Blogatize.com" It's been nice to have partners that will split ad revenues with me, and even though I haven't yet seen the results of my first month's work, I have gone the monetization thing one better, in that I have listed that Blog on Amazon's "Kindle for Blogs", where HippyVet's Daily Opinion Blog is now available for subscription. That said, I've got a bug-up-my-ass about someone preempting another of my brilliant ideas. This happens to me all the time, and there's only one simple reason that has kept me from wealth and comfort all these years,...it's known in the business world as : "Lack-of-Capital" ! Yes, another ugly aspect of the cyclical nature of poverty is that little 'Catch-22' thing. It takes money to make money, and if you don't have a large chunk of change lying around the house, you might as well forget that novel idea called "Getting Ahead". Now, I have had many bright ideas in my time. One of the first of these brain storms was back in the late 70's. I was living in a college town, and been working in the student and townie bars and clubs for many years. One of the worst features of these bars, is that many were 10 or more blocks off-campus, and with no school or municipal transportation after dark, there was the necessity or someone having to drive after-partying. So, my bright idea was to lease the city buses after hours, hire Campus Police and Criminal Justice students to drive and chaperon, and by charging the clubs a monthly amount for the service, and charging the students a very nominal fee, one could improve Public Safety. protect the students from career ending DWI charges, and make a few bucks in the process. So, right away I write up a proposal, calculate fuel and labor costs, and have my lawyer-friend look over the business plan, and do my approach to the Bus Company. Within a weeks or so, we had a response; "While we agree with the wisdom of your plan to utilize the City buses in the evening hours, we regret to inform you that another individual has already taken an option on the after-hours use of the buses, and has paid for several years to maintain that option !" A quick call to a buddy in the County Clerk's Office told the sad tale of who had foiled my plan,.....the Evil Owner of the local Taxi Cabs ! Duh!, I mean how stupid was I not to realize who could be a possible loser as a result of my "Alky-Haul" Idea ? Again, Doh''!. And Now, to my latest idea that was recently used by another party, in this case The State of Washington. See, as a Vietnam Veteran returning home to the heart of the Anti-War movement,( The Bay Area ), myself and many of my friends felt this need, no more than a need, like a necessity to get out of the urban / suburban sprawl of Silicon Valley, and commune with nature, or at least escape to somewhere so remote, so incredibly distant from civilian areas, that our Primal Screaming, random fits of gunfire, and total lack of personal hygiene could bother nobody but the endangered species sharing our space in the Great Outdoors. Now, only part of that last paragraph is factitious, because almost universally, guys coming "Back to the World" just needed some time alone, preferably in a woods or mountain that was safely removed from the jungles. mountains, and military compounds of South-East Asia. Somewhere "Safe" where we could contemplate our surprising survival, and think about what we would do with this life we were never sure we would resume. Even the "City Boys" among us chose to remain in California after discharge, because they sensed that the people and lives we had left behind years ago, were not necessarily where we belonged in Life after War. After years of our "Cities" being Saigon, Bangkok and Phnom Penh, we weren't exactly sure the the Big Apple, The Windy City, or even Philly, would be what we needed. So, flash ahead to 2007, and picture me in my big F-250, tooling all over America delivering travel trailers, and wondering what I'd do with myself after that gig ended. Being an "Outdoor" person, who loves to travel, and also being a concerned Veteran who didn't want our newly discharged Veterans to face the same kind of hurdles that my Brother Vet's and I had to endure, I was thinking of ways to help them find that space and time required for healing. An idea that was starting to germinate in my brain had to do with establishing a string of "Depots" for the thousands of RV Transporters who were out there living out-of-their-truck, using the Truck Stops and Roadside Rest Areas of America as their Home-Away-from-Home. That idea was to lease some run-down motels, and some closed gas stations, and by installing shower rooms, cubicles with single beds and toilets, and providing plenty of parking, I could have jobs and housing for a lot of Veterans, all the while providing my fellow Transporters with a comfortable and secure place to park, for overnight, or for a week-end layover. While I would be cruising around the Nation seeking suitable properties to use as Transporter's Havens, I would also be visiting the local RV parks, trying to establish a chain of Veteran Owned-operated RV Campgrounds. Said RV Parks and Campgrounds would become part of a network to be served by a newsletter, a central Website, and a Co-Operative Association which would also issue "Veteran Approved" status to worthy businesses which supported the local VFW's with special rates and donations to their fund-raising efforts. OK< Rad Alert> I just got word about this fabulous new Site called " They Have Names.com " Casual Commerce is presently an RV Transport Contractor Headquartered in Kokomo, Indiana, At this time, we are sort of on Hiatus, as the RV business Nationwide is in the Toilet ! The situation in our Industry is so bad right now, that President Obama made Elkhart Indiana his first stop, as he began a series of Town Hall type meetings to explain his Recovery Plan to the American People. While many people see these hard times as a major set-back, I am taking a more optimistic outlook on things, and am going to try to my little one-horse Company into new areas, and attempt to use my Disabled Veteran's status to seek new contracts and contacts. As a Veteran Entrepreneur, I would like to be in a position to hire some returning Veterans from the Iraq / Afghanistan Wars, and give them opportunities for growth, in an environment of care and understanding. Benefits that we Vietnam Veterans had to wait decades for, or never got a chance at at all. That's a pretty clumsy sentence, but it says what I meant, so I'll let it stand! That's enough for an Intro, so now I'm going to add some Pic's and Flags and stuff.  |
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