This is a new typification for me.

Signs abounded: don’t park here. They’ll tow you away.

I was about to experience the seemingly “best” burger in Sacramento (Fornicalia), the capital of the state.

My troops had pre-warned me: don’t get there a minute after 11 AM. We were pretty much on time and still managed to pull off 4 of the 12 seats extant in the entire building. I later discovered that to acquire a seat at the counter is a major coup.

But more: the entire business is about 20′ X 15′. The structure looks as if its been there since 1954. The menu is limited. Bring your hunger. But if you’re anything but a carnivore looking to die, the Squeeze Inn is not for you.

The cook takes the beef patty and splats it onto the small griddle. Upon that patty he places about a pound of shredded cheese. A huge amount of cheese. On top of that he smacks a top bun and then places over it a metal cover. He cuts the patties into fourths and then delineates the cheese borders.

You receive your burger stuffed with beef, extras, and a massive flat panel of cheddar cheese.

The fries are likewise exquisite. They are more like plank fries than fries you’d likely expect.

I am steadily moving into the “protectionist” side of the aisle with regard to the American economy. As the Richmans write in the book “Trading Away Our Future“:

The financial flows that sustained these deficits did not go to expand the U.S. capital stock – they mostly financed consumption of foreign goods,” they explain. “Japan and China and other Pacific Rim nations stole industry after industry from the United States. America’s manufacturing investment declined so much that by 2004 and 2005, net investment in American manufacturing actually went into negative territory, meaning that U.S. manufacturers were not even investing enough to replace wearing out machinery and plants.

The U.S. manufacturing workforce declined steadily, so that by 2007 over a fifth of the U.S. manufacturing jobs that would have existed given balanced trade had been lost. Those losing their manufacturing jobs often took less skilled jobs in the service sector, causing media wages to stagnate. In 2007, the United States was in a much weaker position to compete in world markets and the dollar had nowhere to go but down.”

Repeal NAFTA? CAFTA? I’m thinking this is a good idea. Moving towards protectionism? I’m starting to go there as well.

First, we go out of way in this country to punish success. And businesses, whose job it is not to be the government, still have to operate within budgets and cannot “print” money and simply stray into deficit territory for years on end.

On the other hand, how is it can American businesses and American industry can compete with what are, essentially, slave wages in other third, fourth and fifth world countries? How can America compete with its own school of sharks waiting, just waiting, to sue businesses large and small over the slightest grief or affront?

So what’s the answer? How can we bring industry and business back to America? How can we become more commercially independent? How can we regain that industrial powerhouse that was once the United States of America?

Let’s see:

Wait! Perfect timing! If you’re a Demorat you’re thinking:

Sounds like an exquisite time to raise taxes on every level because, clearly, consumers and the American electorate aren’t paying nearly enough money to government!”

Another wonderful thought in Fornicalia:

To fight global warming, a bill in Sacramento would enable Los Angeles County transit officials to increase taxes on motorists. It’s a bad idea that may foreshadow even worse to come.

Billed as a “climate change mitigation and adaptation fee,” the measure would cost motorists either an additional 3 percent motor fuel tax, or up to a $90 annual flat fee, based on vehicle emissions. The new charges would be on top of taxes already paid at the pump. Either option requires a majority approval by a vote of the people.

My thought to politicians: let’s strangle the American taxpayer even more, during the worst possible economical time.

My thought to Fornicalia denizens: if you support this or any other stupid fucking tax, you need to be shot. Right in your clearly under-utilized head.

Note to those who think you pay insufficient taxes (Warren Buffett included, you moron): nothing stops you from pulling out the ol’ checkbook and cutting any number of rectangular pieces of paper to the US Government.

The Demorats will not be happy until they have completely tanked the economy and emptied every last coin from your wallet.

Every last damned one.

And when that Demorat wins this November? Prepare to get bent over and, no, they won’t be using Vaseline.

CBS Said to Consider Use of CNN in Reporting
By TIM ARANGO
CBS, the home of the most celebrated news division in broadcasting, has been in discussions with Time Warner about a deal to outsource some of its news-gathering operations to CNN, two executives briefed on the matter said Monday.

Over the last decade, CNN has held intermittent talks with both ABC News and CBS News about various joint ventures. But during the last several months, talks with CBS have been revived and lately intensified, according to the executives who were given anonymity because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS’s news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network’s news feeds.

Darn. It couldn’t happen to a nice bunch of elitists. And that Katie Couric? What a reporter!