Here is really an eye opener !

[wetibbe]

So you listen to all of the doom and gloom about the USA about to go over the cliff, unemployment raging out of control, chaos in the market and so on, ad infinitim. It seems that the end is nearing according to the media and the candidates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enter the Ocean City Maryland White Marlin Fishing Tournament. *( Worlds largest bill fishing contest ).

My son was in it last week. A dock mate friend, where he keeps his boat, entered and took him and some friends. They cruised down from Northern New Jersey in a LUHRS 38 foot fishing boat.

237 boats entered and 218 finished. My son said his friend, boat and the others on board. were generally the "white trash" of the tournament. One big boat was a Viking 82 footer. Cost $5 million. It had 3 fighting chairs on the deck. The two Cat diesels burn 105 gallons per hour !!!! And they trolled 8 hours per day !!!!

All boats except the Luhrs were 45 feet and up. The docking fee for the Luhrs was $3,000 for the week. It consumed $4,000 of diesel fuel overall. The Captain hired a professional fishing guide and tournament fisherman from Florida. Many of the boats in the contest were "Corporate Boats" !

So now you know what things look like when you pick up the hood and look under. These are the guys Obama wants to tax. Fishing for White Marlin is what they do.

Here's the fishing tournament web page. The total purse was some $2.3 million. Species were white marlin, blue marlin, tuna and dolphin *( Mahi Mahi ).

http://www.whitemarlinopen.com/

Check the payouts, overall purse $2,138,000. One contender took $700,000. *( Be sure to check the photos ).

Here's the Viking Yachts web page:

http://www.vikingyachts.com/pages/index.asp

And the "shot of the day" photos don't miss this.

http://www.vikingyachts.com/pages/shotOfDay.asp

Here's the Luhrs "White Trash" boat my son was on with his friend !! *( Give it time to scroll the photos ).

http://www.luhrs.com/37ips09.html

My son said the professional guide was obsessed with catching a white marlin. The Luhrs owner said to him that they should take some time off from trolling and fish for dolphins and tuna as they were in abundance right under the boat. But the guide jumped ugly and said he didn't come to fish he came to make money !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I commented that people apparently thought the country was about to go down the sewer and he replied: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer".

So the moral is for the kids, and grandchildren, stay in school, get an education and make money.

If some people can send $5 million for a boat to go fishing, I would say things can't be all that bad !

[ilbegone]

I heard on a radio station today about what were the most expensive restaurants in America, ones where the average tab in between $500.00 and $1K+ for a single meal session.

The customers might be the same people who who "donate" to "charity", according to news releases, but mark the milk level in the mansion refrigerator to see if the maid swigged an unauthorized glass or two.

It all makes a good case for a flat tax - Bill Gates and Welfare Annie pay the same percentage on every dollar they acquire. It's the fairest way of doing it.

[willworkforfood]

I remember catching a Salmon with my bare hands during the Carter administration, there was nothing left of that fish except bleached bones!

I chased that fish back and forth for 45mins. It was the best fish I ever caught,
I was homeless at the time!