WhatFinger


Jim Yardley

Jim Yardley is a retired financial controller for manufacturing firms, a Vietnam veteran and an independent voter. Jim blogs at jimyardley.wordpress.com

Most Recent Articles by Jim Yardley:

The First Place to Cut Spending…Easily

If you’re at all like me, you must have said to yourself hundreds of times in your own life “I just don’t have the time to do everything. I can’t get everything done.” And we always say that like it’s a bad thing. But is it a bad thing? It depends largely on context, at least in my opinion. Let’s just say that you’re the President of the United States. You need to shrink the size, and massive cost, of government. Obviously, entitlement spending would be a great target but trying to reduce payments to entitlement recipients would be political suicide.
- Sunday, August 23, 2015

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

First off, everybody just calm down. The title does not refer to the Republican Party. It refers to one of those “Why did the chicken cross the road?”, or “Why does a fireman wear red suspenders?” type questions. Those questions where the answer is so obvious everyone in involved thinks it’s a trick question.
- Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Will We See the Downfall of Both Parties?

Do we have a unique chance at this crossroads in our history, the 2016 presidential elections, to see the destruction, the complete and utter destruction, of both political parties at one time? Think I’m kidding? Imagine that Hillary, clever lawyer that she is, manages to survive her disastrous email investigation, wins her battle to be nominated as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president.
- Tuesday, August 18, 2015

What Should Really be Blamed?

We see time and again, over and over and over, aberrant behavior. People are beaten, people are robbed, people are denied their rights and equal protection under the law, poverty, hopelessness, and so on.
- Monday, July 13, 2015

When Does Decency Triumph?

The recent Supreme Court decision announcing that same-sex marriage is a Constitutional right is now viewed in many cases as an imprimatur over all aspects of homosexual demands on the rest of society. If a same-sex couple wishes to marry, the press and many left wing pundits now view this as having the right to demand of every citizen to do exactly what they're told to do by every same-sex couple that walks in the door, regardless of the religious strictures that may have created resistance to participation, even marginally, in a same-sex wedding event.
- Thursday, July 9, 2015

A Circular Firing Squad Isn’t Just a Joke

The GOP does more than simply aid and abet Democrats desire to destroy America. It appears the GOP is even more dedicated to destroying themselves. Let’s face it, there really are sixteen Republicans angling for the nomination of their party: That’s eight men with experience as state Governors, five that are (or have been) U.S. Senators, two are (or were) CEOs of major corporations and one who is a noted pediatric surgeon. One of the CEOs is female, two of the Senators are of Hispanic descent, and one candidate is of Indian ancestry while another is African-American.
- Thursday, July 2, 2015

Speaking Whose Truth?

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.-- Samuel Butler -- 19th Century novelist Our media is famous, or infamous if you prefer, for being of the leftist persuasion. But why are they leftist? One might assume that they are simply incredibly brave people who are willing to risk everything to “speak truth to power.” What if we have that backwards?
- Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Random Thoughts

Frequently I make notes to myself about something that I think would be good for a future article. Even more frequently I conclude that there is no way trying to fill 750 – 1,000 words will only put my readers to sleep, but I have found that short, and to-the-point, bits can occasionally hit the right spot.
- Thursday, June 11, 2015

Is this Your Country?

As we enter another election cycle for 2016, we will hear millions, if not billions of words coming out of the mouths of candidates and from thousands of politicians from every political subgroup. From Progressives, Socialists and Democrats to Republicans, Libertarians and Tea Partiers.
- Thursday, May 28, 2015

Protecting Thought or Paychecks?

I spent yesterday evening driving to our local high school, which is the polling place for any votes that relate to membership on the local school board. Equally important, but much more inflammatory, the school budget is also subject to approval through votes by local citizens.
- Friday, May 22, 2015


Answering Debbie Wasserman-Shultz's Challenge

Debbie Wasserman Shultz demands that anyone who questions our Dictator-in-Chief about his so called "negotiations" with Iran be prepared to offer alternatives to solve the Iran nuclear weapon problem. Actually, considering the demand is put forward by the Democrat Party's Loon-in-Chief is really pretty reasonable.
- Monday, April 20, 2015

When did the word “Negotiate” become the New Synonym for “Surrender”?

Being too old to have enjoyed the benefits of being educated using what is euphemistically referred to as “Common Core”, some of us might not be aware that in addition to seismic alterations in performing simple mathematical calculations (such as figuring out how much change to give someone when they try to pay for a burger with a twenty dollar bill), we might not be cognizant that the actual language of our country has also been changed.
- Monday, April 13, 2015


Coming to America

I heard Neil Diamond’s song “America” (which is frequently referred to as “Coming to America”) today as I was driving alone in my car. It was released in 1980 as part of the film The Jazz Singer, and became a huge hit single in 1981.
- Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Why Do They Feel Invincible?

Many of President Barack Obama’s political supporters seem to think that they are invincible.
- Saturday, April 4, 2015

Obama Has an Off Ramp Available

Iran must understand that America has been treating with Iran as if it were an equal for only one reason. America was being courteous. Courtesy has limits and those limits have been reached.
- Friday, March 27, 2015

What Did He Just Say???

FOX News Sunday, and its continuing attempts to actually perform live-action news gathering, is often attacked by disappointed members of the Irate Right as well as the Indignant Left by the outcomes of their various interviews of the glitterati among the members of the Washington, D.C. elites.
- Monday, March 23, 2015

Congress Shows Us How to Shoot Ourselves in the Foot

Hey, Congress, if you're looking around for who to blame for causing all the uproar about unconstitutional edicts, executive orders and administrative mandates please stop pointing your collective finger at Obama. You should be looking in a mirror for creating unconstitutional legislation in the first place.
- Sunday, March 22, 2015

Ignorance versus Apathy

I recalled an old, make that VERY old joke. Students were asked “What is the difference between ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Apathy’?” The most common answer the questioners received was “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
- Friday, March 20, 2015

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