The Family Tree of Jackie Broyles

After many a day of viewing Red State Update....I have decided to attend to the necessary analysis and distribution of the Jackie Broyles family tree....although it might be described as a shrub.

In the period of 1731, Jackie's kin apparently was hustled out of England, on a trumped up gambling charge.....involving several British countess gals....a Lord.....and a count from Italy. The great journey over the seas, took Jackie's kin over to North Carolina and basically dumped the poor sap at a local port there. Going by the name of Charles Festus Broyles.....he quickly got into further trouble with some local women, gambling and whiskey making. By 1733, he was married to some local gal and ended up as wealthy land owner.

James "Sippy" Boyles was the son of Charles....with no real explanation to the nickname earned. "Sippy" apparently got into several incidents in Charleston and was banned from the town for a five-year period. Sippy eventually married some woman who claimed to be a Italian countess from Milano. This was later proven false, although Jackie will forever claim that he has an element of royal Italian blood in his family.

The third son of Sippy Boyles was Donald "Tubby" Boyles....who left the Carolinas around 1790 with his wife and four kids. At some trailside inn, Tubby met a unnatural end twelve days later when he got drunk and rode the wagon into a river. The wife married some Baptist minister and settled in the Knoxville area.

Next in the kin line is Donald "one-eye" Broyles, a son of Tubby. Between 1795 and 1813....Donald went through forty-four rifle misfirings, and was considered one of the most unlucky individuals you could ever hunt with. At the age of 29, with five kids....he met an unfortunate end when the gun misfired and a bear stomped him into the ground.

Carl "The Mighty" Broyles, was the son of Tubby....and was considered the whiskey king of Nashville from 1830 to 1838. An unfortunate still incident ended his reign and left his wife with eleven kids.

Thomas "Moses" Broyles was the 3rd son of Carl's....and became a Baptist minister in Nashville. He outlived three wives and had a total of twenty-two children (and eight illegitimate kids as well). He was shot by a church deacon over one romance, knifed by a girlfriend accidentally at a Saturday night bordello episode, and chased out of fourteen Alabama towns because of illicit behavior. He eventually died of whiskey poisoning at the state fair of 1889.

Franklin "Big Boy" Broyles was the ninth son of Moses Broyles, and went off to WWI with a local boy from Tennessee named York. At some point during a battle in France, Big Boy clobbered up 23 Germans with his bare hands and a crowbar....and then captured 38 Germans with a butcher knife. Sadly....that York kid caught 100 Germans, with just a pistol that same day.....and Big Boy's exploits never got reported up the chain of command. Big Boy arrived back in Mobile after the war, and promptly signed up for a freighter to Panama....where he helped to build the Panama Canal. After three years there, Big Boy then left and toured Peru where he helped some fella discover ancient Inca ruins, then got on a freighter to Alaska where he spent two winters before returning to Tennessee, marrying Miss Nashville of 1941, and having a youngen referred to as Jackie Broyles.

The best that we can say, as we sum up the family tree....theres an awful lot of whiskey, women and guns involved.

The fascinating thing, is that Jackie is kin folk with Brittney Spears, Jerry Springer, George Bush, Katie Couric, former Senator Thompson of Tennessee, and Governor Sarah Pralin who is running for McCain's VP position. It is a mighty tree.

Gustav and Orleans

So we stood and waited for the massive destruction of New Orleans. Yes, I'll admit I was one of the people....waiting like you would at a NASCAR race.....waiting for destruction and flooding. Basically.....it was a dud.

There are several shocking things out of Gustav though.

First, amazingly enough.....folks actually left New Orleans. Some of them even admit today...it was the first time they'd ever been out of the city limits (they were 45 years old).....and they were fairly shocked that real nice folks exist outside of New Orleans. They were even shocked how nice things are in other civilized societies.

Second....the leeve dudes were left standing there....with resignation letters in hand....waiting for the collapse.....and the system held. After everything was done....the boys ran out to some local club.....boozed it up....and went back to work the next day to continue building onto a half-ass flood control system.

Third....the chief of police actually counted up his force....and was really excited. He actually had "X" number of cops on the rooster, and they actually existed this time around.....no fake cops drawing paychecks like Katrina.

Fourth.....the major hotel downtown where Mayor Nagin took refuge in the Penthouse during Katrina, was shocked that Nagin didn't even show up (they had plenty of booze, had the mayor taken refuge in the penthouse).

Fifth....the Super Bowl management staff were shocked that they weren't going to be used as the shelter for the city.

Sixth....and final.....the media who had deployed every single big-name that they had....to cover the 5-star hurricane and hope to lose the Republican National Convention amongst all the action....suddenly woke up by Tuesday morning to discover a 1-star hurricane and no real news....unless they cut back to Minneapolis and cover the convention.

Ten Affordable and Livable Housing Markets?

So Yahoo went out and picked out an interesting topic...."Ten Affordable Housing Markets".

After looking at them....I added "Livable" as part of the title.

1. Indianapolis, IN? Crime and gangs....so why move there?

2. Youngstown, OH? Crime and no jobs....so why move there?

3. Detroit, MI? Crime and corruption in government....so why move there?

4. Warren, MI? Crime and corruption in government....so why move there?

5. Grand Rapids, MI? Crime and corruption in government....so why move there?

6. Tolerado, OH? Crime and almost no jobs.....so why move there?

7. Dayton, OH? Crime and limited job opportunities....so why move there?

8. Akron, OH? Crime and a limited job market....so why move there?

9. Syracuse, NY? Massive snow in the winter, no jobs, and a dead city for the most part....so why move there?

10. Wilkes Barre, PN? High tax base, limited job market...so why move there?

Someone spent a fair amount of time surveying the options and offering these ten as very "affordable".....but then you have to ask the second question....how did they come to be affordable? Thats where you start to find various reasons. Why would any fool think of moving to Detroit? Its one of the few places in America that simply doesn't attract anyone. Half the towns in Ohio fit into the same category of having problems with crime, drugs, and no jobs.

Turkish Charity (Yeah, sure)

There is a strange case in the German court system this week...with various claims that Turkish charity "fronts" in Germany....were collecting money (you can guess various methods)....and funneling the money toward “Deniz Feneri” (Lighthouse), which turned around and funneled money toward the head of Turkey’s media watchdog, Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK). An executive of the charity actually admitted such in court this week.

The best we can figure....several media groups in Turkey are in failure status (they can't make a profit). You can guess the various reasons....from internal corruption to paying off the right political figures to allow them to continue on the air. Its the Turkish way....you know.

The truly amusing thing...is that these Turkish middle class workers have tremendous pressure on them in Germany....do donate to a local Turkish charity....to "help the poor Turks" out. No one is truly responsible and truthful in this matter. If you told these dimwits....that that $1k they gave last year to that charity....ended up back in Turkey....paying off some TV or radio station so they could continue to broadcast....they'd get all upset.

Where is the ethics of this group?

Wondering what will be published in Turkey about the court case? Well....its a anti-Turkey witch hunt of course.....what else would those silly Germans be doing when they openly criticize Turkish charities?

When Turks left Turkey for a better life.....they should have asked themselves why keep this identity and close-ties back to Turkey? The agenda guys in Turkey are simply milking these poor saps for hard-earned cash....with no real benefit for themselves.

The Air Force Tanker and Boeing

While everyone is waiting on the Air Force decision to extend the competition of the tanker business....to well into 2009....to allow the poor pitiful Boeing folks to totally redraw their airplane and compete against the Northrop Grumman/EADS (the Frenchy boys) again. Note, I said again because they have tossed out two competition so far.

This week....to add more juice to this episode....the union at Boeing went into a strike and wants more money. So whatever price that Boeing had been thinking about....is going to increase a fair amount. For folks in Mobile who would have had the Northrop/EADS project.....they have to be smiling because they see improved chances of winning the contract (again).

German Taxation

For those who weren't aware...I pay German taxes (causing the pitiful decision of buying Germany property).

This week....with the tax adviser (you kinda have to have one, you can't do it yourself).....the topic of a company sale came up. A local company in question, owned by one individual, was sold for $7.5 million. As the adviser pointed out in commentary....the German government collects 50 percent of this sale. Fifty lousy percent? Yep. So this guy who wasted years of his life building up this company....got only fifty percent of the final price. I just stood there....thinking....what idiot would want to start a business in Germany?

Can a German do his own taxes? The simple answer is no. If you are a guy living in an apartment, with nothing going on.....no house....no property.....nothing....then you can use the computer programs that they sell....and do it yourself. After that point, you have no choice....you have to hire a professional. I end up paying around $450 for his services. I feel like a fool but they have you stuck.

My US taxes.....I do all by myself....in a three-hour period. The Colorado taxes....less than 18 minutes. So I feel rather silly over this German tax issue. There are few, if any, deductions. Forget about IRA's or 401Ks.....Germans don't do that. Forget about a 1,000 normal US deductions....because it just won't happen.

Why stay? Its a question that I ponder daily....sometimes hourly.

Everlasting Bankruptcy

In Germany, there is such a term as everlasting bankruptcy.

Basically, when the company has screwed up enough....and you'd think thats the end of them....and its a company of a thousand or more employees...then the government steps and takes control. They bandage up things and attempt to move on...forward. In most cases....the orphan company is either sold off quietly or kept running for years in a semi-bankrupt status.....just to keep employees and the local community happy. Its the German way.

Here in Kaiserslautern, existed a company for almost 100 years.....called Phaff. They made sewing machines. Up until the late 1970s....they still made a profit. Truthfully, up until the 1950s....they were still employing several thousand folks and turning great profits year after year.

In the 1970s....the modern area arrived and clothing became slightly cheaper to make elsewhere and ship in. Fewer sewing machines (their line of production) were made and sold.

By the 1980s....they had gotten into heavy-production sewing machines, but met stiff competition from the Pacific.

So by the early 1990s...they were borrowing money heavily from the banks with the corporation of the local political figures and even state politicians. They could not recover. They were sold and resold.

So when Mr. Ting came in the mid-90s...the man who bought vast sewing machine empires in the Pacific and throughout Europe....no one asked questions. This guy sold various properties and shipped the cash quickly out of the country....rather than pay his bills or the loans. When the banks finally said enough....Mr. Ting walked away.....no prosecution efforts by the political apparatus of Germany....because so many were paid off or the party gained funding. So in 1999....Phaff was officially bankrupt.

Then came the various government directors and efforts to repackage the company. When they were finally bought by an Italian company....it was mostly for the technology, and a simply promise that jobs would remain. The company was basically a bankrupt company kept in operation.....with German funding used in some fashion....to keep a bogus act going.

Next year will be the tenth anniversary of the bogus company that still stands there. This week....the local press came to announce that various folks are going to be laid off (approved by the union), and Pfaff is going toward the next age of bankruptcy, which will evolve of course....to an eventual state of "nothing".

The property left there? This is the curious thing....sitting there at the end of town....probably 40 acres of prime real estate. There are dozens of land speculators that would love to get their hands on the property, but then the issue of hazardous waste exist. They want the local government to take up the flag and cover the cost.....which the fools will likely do eventually. A major shopping mall? I'm betting on it....but it'll be decade away before they can finally turn off the light and let the last employee leave.

Germany is a funny country....keeping jobs going with a bankrupt company....with no future. Who pays for this service? Take a guess.