As this election cycle winds down we find the population of the United States seemingly more unified than it has been for decades. Yes there are two sides to everything in this world and Americans are no different, we all have opinions and some will be upset and others jubilant at the outcome. The Tea Party movement has awakened the silent majority just as the Obama campaign of 2008 excited the progressives in the country. For the first time in eons we have a real choice to make in the midterm ballot. Now we know positively the direction that the progressive movement and this administration wants to take our country. We know that according to the polls the majority of Americans have a much different view of a free society and hopefully will prove this point on November 2nd.
If we are to believe the pollsters and pundits the republicans will take the House of Representatives and the Senate will remain barely in the hands of the democrats. We will soon see if the president will accept the transfer of power decided by the voters or try to exercise Executive Privilege to further his progressive agenda. Hopefully he will accept the mandate of the people and try to be a leader of all people working within the limits of Congress and the Constitution to reduce the scope of government and the deficit. I kind of think this is wishful thinking as it is his narcissistic nature to blame anyone or anything for his failures rather than to learn from them. I will be satisfied if they just stop spending and roll back some of the programs this Congress has enacted.
I believe most Americans agree that we have to improve the healthcare system but in moderation not in the socialistic fashion of Canada or England. We can start by performing a concentrated effort at fraud control and making the punishment for Medicare or Welfare fraud fit the crime, this includes fraudulent doctors and lawyers who knowingly bring these cases to the court. In the case of frivolous malpractice suits, should the case be judged frivolous the person suing should be charged with the legal fees on both sides.
We will know in the early evening on the 2nd of November the direction this country will be taking for the next few years, hopefully the attitude of “We won, get over it,) will no longer prevail on either side, and America first will be the motto of this new Congress.
The Ninth District Court of Appeals has once again tried to circumvent the will of the people by striking down the Arizona voter law that require one to prove citizenship prior to voting. It has always been the law that only legal citizens of this country are allowed to vote in any election. The situation in Arizona and nearby States is such that a requirement to show proof of citizenship is a necessity to insure a free and legal election. This is just one more straw on the proverbial camels back that necessitates the need for real positive change. As Kate Smith said so well in song, “God Bless America”, we really do need all the help we can get from above.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
A shining example
My wife and I spent most of Tuesday night watching the miracle in Chile. The idea that 33 men could survive 69 days in the isolation of a cave a half mile underground is a miracle in itself. The fact that so many people and countries came together so quickly and efficiently to pull this miracle off is astounding. The prayers of millions of people around the world were answered when the first miner stepped out of the escape capsule a little after midnight Chiliean time. The strength of faith that these men and their families above showed during their ordeal should be a lesson to all. We so often find ourselves lost and in despair over minor setbacks in our lives, and when we witness a miracle of this magnitude it gives us the faith and fortitude to realize how miniscule our problems are.
We are so fortunate here in America to have so much abundance available to us compared to these men and their families, yet it was they who showed the world a spirit of survival that has been lacking in our culture for many years. For 17 days they didn’t even know if those above knew where they were and if they were even alive. For 17 days they survived each day on a bite or two of tuna and a few ounces of water, how many of us would have the faith in God and the fortitude to survive even half that time. We have become so used to what we assume to be entitlements that we have forgotten most of the basic requirements for survival; Taking responsibility for our personal decisions and actions, preparing for our old age, looking out for our neighbors and the most important of all, realizing that our future is in our own hands, working our way out of problems rather than waiting for someone else to solve them for us.
Our Forefathers, grandfathers and fathers gave us the wit and the wisdom to survive everything from the Revolutionary war to the Great Depression, yet here we have lingered in the throes of this recession waiting for the great hero’s in Washington to bail us out. We the people are the only ones who can cure our ills. It’s our pocket books that have been zippered shut and our fear that has left us waiting for our government to take care of us.
We sometimes seem to miss the concept that we the people are the treasury, and we can’t afford to write anymore bad checks. The government jobs that have been created are paid out of the treasury and do little to add to the coffers. Lasting jobs are created by demand for product and demand for product is created by people purchasing those products. I truly believe this recession is the result of the rhetoric and fear tactics by both political parties leading up to and during the 2008 elections and has been exacerbated by the reckless spending of this Congress over the last 6 years. I can’t specifically blame either President as they do not have the power to spend money, only Congress can do that. Both Bush and Obama could have and should have curtailed this spending with their veto power, yet neither seemed to have the leadership qualities, desire or the cahonies to do so.
It’s time for us, (we the people) to take charge of our own lives with our votes and get rid of these pompous elitist professional politicians in Washington and to loosen our personal purse strings and buy an extra can of beans or two to bring our great economic engine roaring to life, never again allowing our government to smother us with over regulation and increased taxation.
Don
We are so fortunate here in America to have so much abundance available to us compared to these men and their families, yet it was they who showed the world a spirit of survival that has been lacking in our culture for many years. For 17 days they didn’t even know if those above knew where they were and if they were even alive. For 17 days they survived each day on a bite or two of tuna and a few ounces of water, how many of us would have the faith in God and the fortitude to survive even half that time. We have become so used to what we assume to be entitlements that we have forgotten most of the basic requirements for survival; Taking responsibility for our personal decisions and actions, preparing for our old age, looking out for our neighbors and the most important of all, realizing that our future is in our own hands, working our way out of problems rather than waiting for someone else to solve them for us.
Our Forefathers, grandfathers and fathers gave us the wit and the wisdom to survive everything from the Revolutionary war to the Great Depression, yet here we have lingered in the throes of this recession waiting for the great hero’s in Washington to bail us out. We the people are the only ones who can cure our ills. It’s our pocket books that have been zippered shut and our fear that has left us waiting for our government to take care of us.
We sometimes seem to miss the concept that we the people are the treasury, and we can’t afford to write anymore bad checks. The government jobs that have been created are paid out of the treasury and do little to add to the coffers. Lasting jobs are created by demand for product and demand for product is created by people purchasing those products. I truly believe this recession is the result of the rhetoric and fear tactics by both political parties leading up to and during the 2008 elections and has been exacerbated by the reckless spending of this Congress over the last 6 years. I can’t specifically blame either President as they do not have the power to spend money, only Congress can do that. Both Bush and Obama could have and should have curtailed this spending with their veto power, yet neither seemed to have the leadership qualities, desire or the cahonies to do so.
It’s time for us, (we the people) to take charge of our own lives with our votes and get rid of these pompous elitist professional politicians in Washington and to loosen our personal purse strings and buy an extra can of beans or two to bring our great economic engine roaring to life, never again allowing our government to smother us with over regulation and increased taxation.
Don
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
We need to reform the election process
It seems it’s going to be dirty politics as usual throughout this campaign. Just once I would like to see an election season where the voters were treated like intelligent human beings and everyone stuck just to the facts. Can you imagine how nice it would be to choose a candidate based on their position on things important to you, instead of being forced to watch all the negativity that comes from these supposedly upstanding men and women? No wonder it’s so hard to find anyone decent to run for office, they are leaving themselves wide open to everything they did since elementary school. Their families are scrutinized, their children are exposed to mean spirited comments, and half truths become gospel in the media. In my opinion the media is greatly responsible for this obscene spectacle showing their greed by even running these obviously negative ads filled with half truths and innuendo. If candidates were only allowed to obtain donations from their constituents, ( only the people that are directly affected by the candidacy should be allowed to have a voice in any election.) The millions spent on State and local races by the national political parties and the political action groups would disappear, hence the candidates would find it financially expedient to convince their constituents on their merits, not waste crucial campaign money on the negatives of their opponents.
You can bet the media would oppose such conditions as they would lose millions in easy campaign revenue. I honestly believe that this is the only campaign reform that will ever work effectively. Political Pac’s are no different than the lobbyists who taint our political system with special favors. This would force the voters to pay attention to the local candidates and their positions, plus it would allow for a real opportunity to bring new blood into the political arena.
There will always be political commentators with diverse opinions to raise questions regarding candidates and even they should be held liable for misinformation and lies. Call me naïve, but just once in my lifetime would I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy clarity and truthfulness in politics and have the opportunity to choose a candidate by what they stand for, not be forced to pick the lesser of two evils.
You can bet the media would oppose such conditions as they would lose millions in easy campaign revenue. I honestly believe that this is the only campaign reform that will ever work effectively. Political Pac’s are no different than the lobbyists who taint our political system with special favors. This would force the voters to pay attention to the local candidates and their positions, plus it would allow for a real opportunity to bring new blood into the political arena.
There will always be political commentators with diverse opinions to raise questions regarding candidates and even they should be held liable for misinformation and lies. Call me naïve, but just once in my lifetime would I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy clarity and truthfulness in politics and have the opportunity to choose a candidate by what they stand for, not be forced to pick the lesser of two evils.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Whose greed is it?
How can anyone agree with what’s happening to America? We keep hearing from the current administration that it is corporate greed that has driven jobs away from our shores. We hear how it is the greed of the big bankers that have caused this economy to fail so badly. We’ve all heard that the recession is the result of the Bush administration. Let’s consider the facts:
The greed shown has not been from the corporations but from the unions and their demand for higher and higher benefits that have driven jobs offshore. The public demands low prices, yet the cost of domestic manufacturing keeps going up. The result is more and more Chinese jobs. The GM and Chrysler bailouts showed clearly who was more powerful, the companies were bankrupt, the stockholders were ignored and the union was awarded the leftovers.
The big banks are not the ones who caused the housing failure that started all this, are we forgetting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The crime is that they are still doing the same thing and squandering more and more taxpayer money as a result. Of course those in charge of oversight of Fannie and Freddie are the same ones who blocked an attempt to investigate and regulate them before the crash. (Dodd, Frank and Waters.eg)
Bush’s administration didn’t create the deficit we are now facing. Yes he allowed over spending to occur, but the bottom line is that the President either veto’s or approves spending bills, an area he definitely showed weakness in. The Congress is the only body that can initiate federal spending, and who was in charge of the Congress for the last two years of the “Bush administration?
My father was a staunch supporter of unions all his working life, yet he understood and conveyed the fact that there would come a time when the unions would become so powerful that they would stifle the ability of companies to even earn a profit. Before the 1955 merger of the AFL and CIO, the government insisted on the purge of several communists from the leadership of at least dozen smaller unions. Sorrowfully The Labor Unions have been a prime target for those who would corrupt for personal gain and for the Communist activists in America, the good people who made up the membership have been used and abused by a few corrupt individuals and organizations. Has anything changed, are the Locals actually working for their membership or their political cronies? It seems who ever brings the most money to the table in an election controls the eventual outcome and potentially the candidate. Take the time to look into where the money comes from for the election of some of these people and the control exercised over those who receive it.
We have also heard so much about the surplus inherited by the Bush administration. Ask yourself once again, who was in charge of the Congress during the last two years of the Clinton presidency?
The greed shown has not been from the corporations but from the unions and their demand for higher and higher benefits that have driven jobs offshore. The public demands low prices, yet the cost of domestic manufacturing keeps going up. The result is more and more Chinese jobs. The GM and Chrysler bailouts showed clearly who was more powerful, the companies were bankrupt, the stockholders were ignored and the union was awarded the leftovers.
The big banks are not the ones who caused the housing failure that started all this, are we forgetting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The crime is that they are still doing the same thing and squandering more and more taxpayer money as a result. Of course those in charge of oversight of Fannie and Freddie are the same ones who blocked an attempt to investigate and regulate them before the crash. (Dodd, Frank and Waters.eg)
Bush’s administration didn’t create the deficit we are now facing. Yes he allowed over spending to occur, but the bottom line is that the President either veto’s or approves spending bills, an area he definitely showed weakness in. The Congress is the only body that can initiate federal spending, and who was in charge of the Congress for the last two years of the “Bush administration?
My father was a staunch supporter of unions all his working life, yet he understood and conveyed the fact that there would come a time when the unions would become so powerful that they would stifle the ability of companies to even earn a profit. Before the 1955 merger of the AFL and CIO, the government insisted on the purge of several communists from the leadership of at least dozen smaller unions. Sorrowfully The Labor Unions have been a prime target for those who would corrupt for personal gain and for the Communist activists in America, the good people who made up the membership have been used and abused by a few corrupt individuals and organizations. Has anything changed, are the Locals actually working for their membership or their political cronies? It seems who ever brings the most money to the table in an election controls the eventual outcome and potentially the candidate. Take the time to look into where the money comes from for the election of some of these people and the control exercised over those who receive it.
We have also heard so much about the surplus inherited by the Bush administration. Ask yourself once again, who was in charge of the Congress during the last two years of the Clinton presidency?
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Lifes lessons
In my 69 years on this earth I have been very fortunate to be blessed with a loving family, many successes and of course a quite a few failures. During this time I have formed a set of opinions that I share weekly here in this forum. These opinions are based on my life’s lessons not on any politician’s talking points or right or left leaning professor’s theories. As many of you know I tend to share my thoughts whether they are popular or not. Something that is uppermost on my mind in today’s America, is the lack of appreciation for what we have been given. The knowledge that our grandparents and in many cases our parents, made do with so much less and seemed so much happier in their lives is amazing. My parents for example were the son and daughter of poor immigrants. Married in 1925 they made it through 10 years of depression, two World Wars and Korea never having the safety net as the government calls it of the Welfare System on even medical insurance. They successfully raised 3 sons, purchased a home and auto, all the time making sure we all had the opportunity for a good education, and were properly fed and clothed. We were each raised knowing our obligation and responsibility to our country’s service and respecting the freedoms we were handed.
Heaven forbid that my mother had to sew much of our clothing, and did so after traveling across the city and working 8 hours in a hot drycleaners. To think that now we have generation after generation of Welfare recipients who have never worked a day in their lives is unbelievable. We created this mess over the years by adding more and more so called entitlements and making our government progressively bigger and bigger.
No, I’m not advocating doing away with the Welfare System. Doing that would cause a panic in the inner cities of this country that would make what is happening in Greece seem like child’s play. I do think that we should start teaching from elementary school upwards the theory of personal responsibility. I remember vividly a line from Kennedy’s inauguration, “Ask not what your Country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your Country.” It’s funny that I would pick a line from what was considered at the time a liberal, but Kennedy’s liberalism would be akin to today’s conservative movement.
The liberalism of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, supported by people like Michael Moore and George Soros, haven’t a clue as to what that line meant to millions of hard working Americans at the time. Johnson’s Great Society and the subsequent so called entitlements that have sprung from the far left has left this country on the verge of bankruptcy. I hate to use the word ‘progressives’ as in my mind their theories are about as regressive as I have ever seen, but it’s the progressives of both parties that have advocated and empowered the government to grow beyond our forefather’s wildest nightmare. The people are beginning to stir and as we have seen all across this country when they awaken they have done so in an extremely angry mood. The Tea Party you hear so much talk about is not a political party or a wing of the Republican Party, but common thread that is just beginning to weave the fabric of this Great Nation back to liberty and what will once again be a constitutional form of government.
Heaven forbid that my mother had to sew much of our clothing, and did so after traveling across the city and working 8 hours in a hot drycleaners. To think that now we have generation after generation of Welfare recipients who have never worked a day in their lives is unbelievable. We created this mess over the years by adding more and more so called entitlements and making our government progressively bigger and bigger.
No, I’m not advocating doing away with the Welfare System. Doing that would cause a panic in the inner cities of this country that would make what is happening in Greece seem like child’s play. I do think that we should start teaching from elementary school upwards the theory of personal responsibility. I remember vividly a line from Kennedy’s inauguration, “Ask not what your Country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your Country.” It’s funny that I would pick a line from what was considered at the time a liberal, but Kennedy’s liberalism would be akin to today’s conservative movement.
The liberalism of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, supported by people like Michael Moore and George Soros, haven’t a clue as to what that line meant to millions of hard working Americans at the time. Johnson’s Great Society and the subsequent so called entitlements that have sprung from the far left has left this country on the verge of bankruptcy. I hate to use the word ‘progressives’ as in my mind their theories are about as regressive as I have ever seen, but it’s the progressives of both parties that have advocated and empowered the government to grow beyond our forefather’s wildest nightmare. The people are beginning to stir and as we have seen all across this country when they awaken they have done so in an extremely angry mood. The Tea Party you hear so much talk about is not a political party or a wing of the Republican Party, but common thread that is just beginning to weave the fabric of this Great Nation back to liberty and what will once again be a constitutional form of government.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The strength of America
The United States of America is built on a platform supported by the strength of the people who call it home. Our Constitution is the irrevocable document that was put in place to provide protection for those same people. No government manipulation of its words or the misapplied view of any judge, will ever deter the people of America from prevailing in their constant vigilance towards their personal freedom.
The value placed on freedom has been shown throughout the decades by the willingness of men and woman to give their lives for its cause. No individual political party has the patent on patriotism nor on freedom itself. The real show of freedom I believe has been the coming together of people of all colors, political and religious orientations from all across the land to make their voices heard. The great event in Washington D.C. on 8/28/2010 where hundreds of thousands of Americans came at their own expense, to show their support of God and Country. This day has been misunderstood by both politicians and the media alike who have characterized the event as an anti government political rally.
This was actually a truly beautiful spectacle of America at its finest. These were not protesters, they were not anarchists, they didn’t come to tear down anything, they came together as Americans to ask God to once again shine his light on the soul of this country, and illuminate the path that our fore-fathers so brilliantly laid out for us. We have changed over the years allowing ourselves to be purchased by a false ambition, we have gone from the shining city on the hill into a place where we feel we are entitled to and expect our government to support us. Those who stood on the grass of the Lincoln Memorial on that beautiful August day represented millions of us who couldn’t make the trip. It’s time for the media and the politicians of both parties who have assumed an air of elite nobility to realize the party is over. The next march of the people will be to the polls to clear the air of all the pollution that has choked the life out of our world.
The value placed on freedom has been shown throughout the decades by the willingness of men and woman to give their lives for its cause. No individual political party has the patent on patriotism nor on freedom itself. The real show of freedom I believe has been the coming together of people of all colors, political and religious orientations from all across the land to make their voices heard. The great event in Washington D.C. on 8/28/2010 where hundreds of thousands of Americans came at their own expense, to show their support of God and Country. This day has been misunderstood by both politicians and the media alike who have characterized the event as an anti government political rally.
This was actually a truly beautiful spectacle of America at its finest. These were not protesters, they were not anarchists, they didn’t come to tear down anything, they came together as Americans to ask God to once again shine his light on the soul of this country, and illuminate the path that our fore-fathers so brilliantly laid out for us. We have changed over the years allowing ourselves to be purchased by a false ambition, we have gone from the shining city on the hill into a place where we feel we are entitled to and expect our government to support us. Those who stood on the grass of the Lincoln Memorial on that beautiful August day represented millions of us who couldn’t make the trip. It’s time for the media and the politicians of both parties who have assumed an air of elite nobility to realize the party is over. The next march of the people will be to the polls to clear the air of all the pollution that has choked the life out of our world.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
How can a religion advocate such violence?
As a child I was taught to respect all religions, it was thought by my parents that all religions were basically good and taught peace and goodwill. I was raised a Lutheran and most of my friends were Catholic in the neighborhood. We had a quite a few Jewish kids and a few Buddhists in our school and I know of at least two who were Hindu. I don’t know if there were any Muslims for sure, but if there were they would have been accepted for who they were rather than what they were. Growing up we learned from one another. We had a minute of silence every morning, where everyone could pray or not pray in their own way, right after The Pledge of Allegiance. During Christmas we read stories of the meaning of Christmas and listened intently to the kids of other religions when their holidays came around. I was lucky enough to learn why the Catholics always crossed before eating and always ate fish on Friday. I was fortunate to learn why the Jews celebrated with a Menorah instead of a tree like my family. We were all fascinated by the Hindu’s explanation of Karma and belief in reincarnation and the levels of life experienced. Because we were at war with Japan during much of my early childhood, the understanding of Buddhism and their total belief in reincarnation and lack of fear of dying, explained so much about the battles in the Pacific and how surrender was out of the question for so many Japanese.
The differences between the religions I grew up with were easy to live with once understood. They have reached out to one another over the years to the point that most religions of the world are homogenous and live together in harmony. I cannot consider Muslims to be just a religion, their entire being is controlled by the writings of the Koran as interpreted by their Mullahs. Their beliefs are not the same as the tolerant religions of the world, when one believes totally in the writings of the Koran as interpreted by the Mullahs, many must live their lives isolated from the other people of all other religions whom they consider as Infidels. Just like in every religion there are radical factions who take the extreme position in all they do. Take the lives of the Muslims, because the Mullahs practice such total control over their lives in general from birth to death, they seem to be an easy mark to radicalize. Even those who have lived here since birth and enjoyed the bounty of America and its freedoms seem to be easily converted to a radicalism that is not fathomable to most Americans. To most who live in a free society the idea of committing murder in the name of their religion is abhorrent, add the idea that they are told that by doing so they will go to heaven and have many virgins as Martyrs, is just plain against what most people in western life have ever been taught to believe, and it shows their total disrespect of all female beings.
The motivation for the attacks of 9/11 were supposedly religious in nature, I will never believe that any peaceful religion would reward someone for the murder of innocents, especially if it was done for the personal attainment of a Martyrs desires. What baffles me is that we didn’t see this coming as we watched throughout the years the total brainwashing of the children of Islam by radical schools that advocate Jihad against all things western. Now right in the area of the 9/11 attacks our government is in the name of freedom of religion, allowing a Mosque to be built against the wishes of most here in America. Yes we have freedom of religion here in the United States, but those original freedoms were written by our God fearing founders as a way to protect the government from being taken over by any one religion. The fear of a Theocracy was their motivation, not as it has been interpreted in the 20th century by progressively motivated judges who have misused the intent of the law to ban religion in all things public. The New York Mosque to be called the Cordoba House, is an affront to the sensibilities of all who lost loved ones in the attack as well as to all who have served in the War on Terror and lived with the constant fear of terrorism. The name Cordoba itself represents the Great Mosque of Cordoba built on the site of the conquered Visigothic Christian church by the Moors in 784 in Cordoba, Spain. Mosques have many times in history been built on the site of Holy Christian Ground as an in your face slap towards Christianity. It seems the Crusades of the Middle Ages will never be totally over until Armageddon decides the fate of the world once and for all. The “Religion of Peace” as the Muslims like to call themselves had better find a way to make peace within their own society and hopefully learn to live side by side with the rest of the worlds religions. The United States needs to learn from the lessons of Europe; Holland, France, Spain and England in specific, that the followers of Mohammed will populate and take over if they go unchecked. There are enclaves even here in America that are controlled by Sharia Law where local police don’t venture.
I write this not as a bigot or Islam-o-fob as I will be called, but as a heartfelt warning to my sacred country and the people of America. This land where my dreams are now for my Grandchildren and their children, to grow up in an era of freedom, free of the dangers brought by those who would do harm to our society. The political correctness that has permeated our country like a sickness has to stop. The division of the races that make up this wonderful country need to once and for all come together as one. Black, Brown, White, Red and Yellow skin is only a micro millimeter thick and underneath should lie the sole of a American. The racial blame game in all aspects has to stop, the stereo-types have to be put aside. We cannot do this by ourselves, God must be allowed back into our lives, not as a dominate, but as intended by our fore-fathers, an ally whose principles of the 10 commandments have in the past always given us the character and strength to succeed.
This is a Judeo Christian land and always has been, those who come here should understand that and show respect for our heritage. The idea that we owe any sect or religion the right to change what we have built or come to believe over the last 233 years is ridiculous. So many of our loved ones, friends and neighbors have paid the ultimate price for these freedoms we hold so dear, and they’re not for sale at any price. America must always be the Land of the Free and the home of the Brave, but with this disclaimer; “We hold these rights to be very personal, and they must be earned not assumed.” People come to America because of the freedoms offered and most legal emigrants understand that those freedoms did not come lightly.
Those who advocate entitlements beyond our ability to endure, either religious or financial, and who would give our rights of citizenship away freely upon demand, surely do not understand the foundation that made this land the greatest most sought after country in the world. The United States of America is a land under God, of the people, by the people, and for the people, and it’s time to understand that the people want it to stay that way. I remain,
Respectfully yours,
Don Lindberg
The differences between the religions I grew up with were easy to live with once understood. They have reached out to one another over the years to the point that most religions of the world are homogenous and live together in harmony. I cannot consider Muslims to be just a religion, their entire being is controlled by the writings of the Koran as interpreted by their Mullahs. Their beliefs are not the same as the tolerant religions of the world, when one believes totally in the writings of the Koran as interpreted by the Mullahs, many must live their lives isolated from the other people of all other religions whom they consider as Infidels. Just like in every religion there are radical factions who take the extreme position in all they do. Take the lives of the Muslims, because the Mullahs practice such total control over their lives in general from birth to death, they seem to be an easy mark to radicalize. Even those who have lived here since birth and enjoyed the bounty of America and its freedoms seem to be easily converted to a radicalism that is not fathomable to most Americans. To most who live in a free society the idea of committing murder in the name of their religion is abhorrent, add the idea that they are told that by doing so they will go to heaven and have many virgins as Martyrs, is just plain against what most people in western life have ever been taught to believe, and it shows their total disrespect of all female beings.
The motivation for the attacks of 9/11 were supposedly religious in nature, I will never believe that any peaceful religion would reward someone for the murder of innocents, especially if it was done for the personal attainment of a Martyrs desires. What baffles me is that we didn’t see this coming as we watched throughout the years the total brainwashing of the children of Islam by radical schools that advocate Jihad against all things western. Now right in the area of the 9/11 attacks our government is in the name of freedom of religion, allowing a Mosque to be built against the wishes of most here in America. Yes we have freedom of religion here in the United States, but those original freedoms were written by our God fearing founders as a way to protect the government from being taken over by any one religion. The fear of a Theocracy was their motivation, not as it has been interpreted in the 20th century by progressively motivated judges who have misused the intent of the law to ban religion in all things public. The New York Mosque to be called the Cordoba House, is an affront to the sensibilities of all who lost loved ones in the attack as well as to all who have served in the War on Terror and lived with the constant fear of terrorism. The name Cordoba itself represents the Great Mosque of Cordoba built on the site of the conquered Visigothic Christian church by the Moors in 784 in Cordoba, Spain. Mosques have many times in history been built on the site of Holy Christian Ground as an in your face slap towards Christianity. It seems the Crusades of the Middle Ages will never be totally over until Armageddon decides the fate of the world once and for all. The “Religion of Peace” as the Muslims like to call themselves had better find a way to make peace within their own society and hopefully learn to live side by side with the rest of the worlds religions. The United States needs to learn from the lessons of Europe; Holland, France, Spain and England in specific, that the followers of Mohammed will populate and take over if they go unchecked. There are enclaves even here in America that are controlled by Sharia Law where local police don’t venture.
I write this not as a bigot or Islam-o-fob as I will be called, but as a heartfelt warning to my sacred country and the people of America. This land where my dreams are now for my Grandchildren and their children, to grow up in an era of freedom, free of the dangers brought by those who would do harm to our society. The political correctness that has permeated our country like a sickness has to stop. The division of the races that make up this wonderful country need to once and for all come together as one. Black, Brown, White, Red and Yellow skin is only a micro millimeter thick and underneath should lie the sole of a American. The racial blame game in all aspects has to stop, the stereo-types have to be put aside. We cannot do this by ourselves, God must be allowed back into our lives, not as a dominate, but as intended by our fore-fathers, an ally whose principles of the 10 commandments have in the past always given us the character and strength to succeed.
This is a Judeo Christian land and always has been, those who come here should understand that and show respect for our heritage. The idea that we owe any sect or religion the right to change what we have built or come to believe over the last 233 years is ridiculous. So many of our loved ones, friends and neighbors have paid the ultimate price for these freedoms we hold so dear, and they’re not for sale at any price. America must always be the Land of the Free and the home of the Brave, but with this disclaimer; “We hold these rights to be very personal, and they must be earned not assumed.” People come to America because of the freedoms offered and most legal emigrants understand that those freedoms did not come lightly.
Those who advocate entitlements beyond our ability to endure, either religious or financial, and who would give our rights of citizenship away freely upon demand, surely do not understand the foundation that made this land the greatest most sought after country in the world. The United States of America is a land under God, of the people, by the people, and for the people, and it’s time to understand that the people want it to stay that way. I remain,
Respectfully yours,
Don Lindberg
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Personal responsibility and respect
Personal responsibility seems to be a lost art in today’s world. I remember as I was growing up the words of my dad, “think before you act because only you can be held responsible for your actions.” I never really understood those words because personal responsibility was second nature. Today people just blame the system or their childhood traumas. When we got into trouble in school mom or dad didn’t run down and blame the teachers, actually they got out the razor strop, and then made us apologize to the teacher for any disruption we may have caused. Think about it, we actually had to pay for our mistakes, we weren’t allowed to blame the system. I remember climbing over a neighbors fence while we were playing army and the fence being slightly rotted at the post collapsed. I got a huge bruise on my noggin and tore my pants and believe it or not my folks didn’t sue the neighbor, in fact my dad apologized and rebuilt their fence. He made me work his time off helping him on his construction site on Saturdays until he felt I had earned enough both in the area of responsibility and money to pay for the job. Now a days the parents would have sued their neighbor for having a faulty fence causing bodily harm and destroying personal property (the pants).
What lessons are sent to our future generations as our population goes through life breaking contracts, skipping out on obligations etc.? Professional athletes who hold out for new negotiations rather than finishing out their obligations to their teams are a good example. All these things are the result of a failure to make people responsible for their actions from an early age. How long has it been since you heard a teen say things like yes sir or yes ma’am to their parents? Our progressive society not only has failed in the responsibility area but it seems they have forgotten to teach the manners that were mandatory when people my age were growing up.
I may be called old fashioned and antiquated but life was a lot easier when everyone was held responsible for their actions. Most of us grew up without things like liability insurance or medical insurance. Doctors didn’t worry about things like frivolous lawsuits, the person who was thought to be trying to get something for nothing would have been chased out of court. The medical profession was not considered a job it was a way of life. A person’s word and a handshake was often all it took to justify a major operation or a stay in the hospital. Yes this progressive society has done wonders for our world, we need a lawyer just to understand the gobbledygook that comes out of our illustrious congress. Whatever happened to expressions like “A mans word is his bond,” or “I swear to God.” Statements like these have no meaning in today’s society. We go through life just hoping that someone doesn’t steal our worldly goods or even our very identity.
I know we can do better, but it starts with each person being personally responsible for their own actions and holding those we honor with elective office to the same level of honesty and responsibility. To hear a politician say they misspoke when you know they just plain lied is ridiculous and should be an affront to our sensibilities. The day of professional politicians who are not held to the same level of honesty and personal honor as those who elected them has to end. We need to re-establish our country as “One Nation under God” once again or we will have failed to honor those who paid the price for what we have come to take for granted, the greatest country mankind has ever known.
What lessons are sent to our future generations as our population goes through life breaking contracts, skipping out on obligations etc.? Professional athletes who hold out for new negotiations rather than finishing out their obligations to their teams are a good example. All these things are the result of a failure to make people responsible for their actions from an early age. How long has it been since you heard a teen say things like yes sir or yes ma’am to their parents? Our progressive society not only has failed in the responsibility area but it seems they have forgotten to teach the manners that were mandatory when people my age were growing up.
I may be called old fashioned and antiquated but life was a lot easier when everyone was held responsible for their actions. Most of us grew up without things like liability insurance or medical insurance. Doctors didn’t worry about things like frivolous lawsuits, the person who was thought to be trying to get something for nothing would have been chased out of court. The medical profession was not considered a job it was a way of life. A person’s word and a handshake was often all it took to justify a major operation or a stay in the hospital. Yes this progressive society has done wonders for our world, we need a lawyer just to understand the gobbledygook that comes out of our illustrious congress. Whatever happened to expressions like “A mans word is his bond,” or “I swear to God.” Statements like these have no meaning in today’s society. We go through life just hoping that someone doesn’t steal our worldly goods or even our very identity.
I know we can do better, but it starts with each person being personally responsible for their own actions and holding those we honor with elective office to the same level of honesty and responsibility. To hear a politician say they misspoke when you know they just plain lied is ridiculous and should be an affront to our sensibilities. The day of professional politicians who are not held to the same level of honesty and personal honor as those who elected them has to end. We need to re-establish our country as “One Nation under God” once again or we will have failed to honor those who paid the price for what we have come to take for granted, the greatest country mankind has ever known.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Lets stop it now.
As we go through each day of this horrible recession I have come to understand what stress does to your mind and body. When I look in the mirror I can see the ageing process going on before my eyes. That sandy colored hair has turned to gray and the laugh lines around the eyes that used to add character now add the years to the face. Stress also affects one physically as little aches and pains become much more serious. I mention all this because I not only see it in my mirror but in the faces of those around me. It doesn’t matter if you are a rancher or a remodeler, a farmer or a car salesman; we are all victims of this plague. The question is what can we do about it?
First of all it’s important to understand who controls to the power in a deepening recession; it’s not the government, although the government can be the cause it can never be the solution. The solution will come from the people when they decide that enough is enough. In a recession there is basically a lack of spending due to fear. The fear can be real or imagined it is just as deadly either way. It used to be that the average Joe could care less about the stock market; only the rich dabbled in stocks and bonds. What has changed is that so many retirement plans over the years have invested in everything from municipal bonds to stock investment strategies and now these retirees are feeling the pinch of uncertainty as the market goes up and down. Big corporations although flush with cash are reluctant to spend on new ventures for fear of additional taxation. Small business is in a holding position because of the lack of loans available and the fear of increased costs due to the new national medical requirements coming.
Who can change all this? The answer is you, John Q. Public. It’s you that buy the furniture and appliances, it’s you who purchase automobiles and property. Yes the government can throw more money in the form of stimulus but all that does is add fear to the business environment and slows the whole recovery process. In a situation like we are presently involved in cash money is not a great asset. As the government prints more and more and the amount of cash in circulation goes up the weaker the dollar gets. With each new regulation and or regulatory agency the business community draws inward and just like you they are afraid to spend or expand. The end of this will come when the public decides to act. When products are produced more jobs are added, more jobs means more tax revenue, more tax revenue means less national debt. Every aspect of our economy depends on one thing, the ability to sell and replace business inventories. You are the defibrillator that will restart the heartbeat of America.
First of all it’s important to understand who controls to the power in a deepening recession; it’s not the government, although the government can be the cause it can never be the solution. The solution will come from the people when they decide that enough is enough. In a recession there is basically a lack of spending due to fear. The fear can be real or imagined it is just as deadly either way. It used to be that the average Joe could care less about the stock market; only the rich dabbled in stocks and bonds. What has changed is that so many retirement plans over the years have invested in everything from municipal bonds to stock investment strategies and now these retirees are feeling the pinch of uncertainty as the market goes up and down. Big corporations although flush with cash are reluctant to spend on new ventures for fear of additional taxation. Small business is in a holding position because of the lack of loans available and the fear of increased costs due to the new national medical requirements coming.
Who can change all this? The answer is you, John Q. Public. It’s you that buy the furniture and appliances, it’s you who purchase automobiles and property. Yes the government can throw more money in the form of stimulus but all that does is add fear to the business environment and slows the whole recovery process. In a situation like we are presently involved in cash money is not a great asset. As the government prints more and more and the amount of cash in circulation goes up the weaker the dollar gets. With each new regulation and or regulatory agency the business community draws inward and just like you they are afraid to spend or expand. The end of this will come when the public decides to act. When products are produced more jobs are added, more jobs means more tax revenue, more tax revenue means less national debt. Every aspect of our economy depends on one thing, the ability to sell and replace business inventories. You are the defibrillator that will restart the heartbeat of America.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
What made America great?
As many of you know I was not raised here in Nevada. I grew up in the South end of Seattle in a blue collar neighborhood populated mostly by Boeing Aircraft employees and even a few carpenters like my dad. Each neighborhood was like a little town separated by either wealth, position or in some cases ethnicity. We didn’t experience the racial divisions that many towns in other areas did nor did we fear going from community to community. Our schools were integrated before we learned what the word meant. In those days we didn’t look to find a difference in people but to find a common thread. Maybe it was the war years that made us find commonality, or maybe it was the fact that we relied on each other as neighbors to survive. Being a Scandinavian living in a predominately Italian community, attending a racially diverse school, I grew up privileged in the fact that I benefitted from having friends who represented many different ethnicities and cultures. Our high school was made up of roughly 45% Caucasian, 25% Black and about 30% Oriental. Friendships were made along those same lines and when like all boys of the time we fought, it was never motivated by anything but stupid temperament.
I bring these facts up because it seems that today we experience a constant barrage of racial charges. A White person can’t even disagree with person of another color without being accused of bigotry. A Black is called an Uncle Tom or worse if he even considers himself a conservative. A Mexican American is shunned if they speak out against illegal aliens. We could never have the relationships in today’s world that my wife and I and others our age were privy to growing up. Have we changed that much, or have are we been used as pawns in a world being artificially divided by race for years by activists who gain in power and financially with every new crisis. This isn’t an anti Obama tirade, I am referring to those who spend their lives teaching racial division in the guise of religion or community activism. They can be White, Black, Brown, Yellow or Red, if they drive wedges between people of different cultures they fall into this category.
If we ever get back to just being Americans, not African-American, Muslim-American, Mexican-American or whatever people call themselves, just maybe we will once again find that common thread. The reason this country became great was the assimilation of so many cultures into one culture, American. Dividing cultures and creating religious fanaticism weakens us all and will eventually destroy this great republic from within.
I bring these facts up because it seems that today we experience a constant barrage of racial charges. A White person can’t even disagree with person of another color without being accused of bigotry. A Black is called an Uncle Tom or worse if he even considers himself a conservative. A Mexican American is shunned if they speak out against illegal aliens. We could never have the relationships in today’s world that my wife and I and others our age were privy to growing up. Have we changed that much, or have are we been used as pawns in a world being artificially divided by race for years by activists who gain in power and financially with every new crisis. This isn’t an anti Obama tirade, I am referring to those who spend their lives teaching racial division in the guise of religion or community activism. They can be White, Black, Brown, Yellow or Red, if they drive wedges between people of different cultures they fall into this category.
If we ever get back to just being Americans, not African-American, Muslim-American, Mexican-American or whatever people call themselves, just maybe we will once again find that common thread. The reason this country became great was the assimilation of so many cultures into one culture, American. Dividing cultures and creating religious fanaticism weakens us all and will eventually destroy this great republic from within.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
President Thomas Jefferson
Try as I may I could not add any words or thoughts to this article, Jefferson explained the current conservative position better than anyone could today. Show me the person here today who feels qualified to debate one of the greatest minds in our history and I’ll show you a fool. Don
HOW DID JEFFERSON KNOW?
"It has been said the greatest volume of sheer brainpower in one place occurred when Jefferson dined alone...." John Kennedy
“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.” Thomas Jefferson
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Thomas Jefferson
“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. “ Thomas Jefferson
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Thomas Jefferson
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” Thomas Jefferson
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” Thomas Jefferson
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” Thomas Jefferson
“I believe that the banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. If the people of America ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Thomas Jefferson
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.' -Mark Twain
HOW DID JEFFERSON KNOW?
"It has been said the greatest volume of sheer brainpower in one place occurred when Jefferson dined alone...." John Kennedy
“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.” Thomas Jefferson
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Thomas Jefferson
“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. “ Thomas Jefferson
“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” Thomas Jefferson
“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” Thomas Jefferson
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” Thomas Jefferson
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” Thomas Jefferson
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” Thomas Jefferson
“I believe that the banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. If the people of America ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Thomas Jefferson
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.' -Mark Twain
Monday, July 26, 2010
Politics and prejudices
If we all look at the same facts without prejudices, and by that I mean leaving your political affiliation out of the equation, how can there be any different commonsense opinions? Facts are facts and facts have no affiliations or opinions. Why is it that a conservative and a liberal economist can look at the same figures and come up with totally different opinions as to the eventual outcome. As a businessman I don’t have the option of making a mistake, if I read the facts wrong it’s simple, I lose my own money and if I make too many mistakes I will go broke. There is no in between, no gambling with the public’s money. Where we seem to differ is in the reading of history, if studied, history seems to constantly repeat itself, yet we make the same mistakes over and over, and I believe it is because we rewrite history constantly as to not offend anyone. Unmanageable debt has been our downfall throughout history. In 1929 it created a market crash when stock values went down drastically and margins were called. Most stock investors at the time used credit and only invested 10% of the value out of their own money, when they called the loans many took the elevator on the outside of a 5 story window. What’s different about the housing crash, people were allowed to obtain loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac beyond their capabilities of repaying and when values went down they were unable to pay. The odd thing is it is still happening at the rate of over 145 Billion directly out of the treasury since the crash. We just don’t seem to have the capabilities to learn from our mistakes. Please understand, the treasury is us and we now have to dig in our pockets to settle these debts that are still being incurred.
What is different between those historical facts and our country being engaged in a spending rate that exceeds our GNP. (Gross National Product) To offset the debt they have resorted to printing money in order to pay the interest on the debt they have accrued. As you can check for yourself with the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve we now have over 2.3 Trillion dollars in circulation almost 3 times what we had in 2008. Now before you Bush bashers start let me explain something, neither Bush nor Obama have the authority to increase the debt of this country, the fault lies with the Congress and it seems to me the liberals have been in charge of that since halfway through the 2nd Bush term. The President can veto or at least try to force a vote on spending, but when he requests congress to pass spending legislation and then signs the said legislation it kind of makes him responsible for the debt.
How do entitlements add to the deficit? To me and to most conservatives history once again gives us the answer. Many historians credit a Scottish Professor named Alexander Tyler with making the following prediction in 1778; (paraphrasing) he is said to have stated; “a democracy can only last about 200 years as once the populace discovers that they can vote themselves largeness from the state treasury they will soon force the treasury into bankruptcy.” What have we done since Johnson added The Great Society Program other than vote ourselves more and more money from the treasury. The old politician’s ploy to get elected of promising a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage has grown to free medical, free food, free education and don’t bother to worry about your retirement we’ll take care of that too. Yep, old Alexander hit it on the head, our democratic republic has made it 233 years, I guess we should feel fortunate that we beat his prediction by 33 years.
What is different between those historical facts and our country being engaged in a spending rate that exceeds our GNP. (Gross National Product) To offset the debt they have resorted to printing money in order to pay the interest on the debt they have accrued. As you can check for yourself with the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve we now have over 2.3 Trillion dollars in circulation almost 3 times what we had in 2008. Now before you Bush bashers start let me explain something, neither Bush nor Obama have the authority to increase the debt of this country, the fault lies with the Congress and it seems to me the liberals have been in charge of that since halfway through the 2nd Bush term. The President can veto or at least try to force a vote on spending, but when he requests congress to pass spending legislation and then signs the said legislation it kind of makes him responsible for the debt.
How do entitlements add to the deficit? To me and to most conservatives history once again gives us the answer. Many historians credit a Scottish Professor named Alexander Tyler with making the following prediction in 1778; (paraphrasing) he is said to have stated; “a democracy can only last about 200 years as once the populace discovers that they can vote themselves largeness from the state treasury they will soon force the treasury into bankruptcy.” What have we done since Johnson added The Great Society Program other than vote ourselves more and more money from the treasury. The old politician’s ploy to get elected of promising a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage has grown to free medical, free food, free education and don’t bother to worry about your retirement we’ll take care of that too. Yep, old Alexander hit it on the head, our democratic republic has made it 233 years, I guess we should feel fortunate that we beat his prediction by 33 years.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A dirty little secret
I get asked the following question quite often by everyday people who don’t understand how the government can run with all this deficit spending. They ask; “When my wallet is empty and my bank account is depleted I have few choices, I can file bankruptcy or find a rich relative to borrow from. How does the government run without money?”
You may have noticed an easing in the economy over the last few months, we’ve actually seen some growth in sales here in our business and you can’t help hope that this recession is really coming to an end. Why am I skeptical, because it is an election year and the government in power can do several things to temporarily ease the financial situation. They do these things because we American people are so attuned to our comfort that we ignore the facts when we are comfortably fat and sassy. I am fortunate to have an excellent mentor and friend who advises me in the area of the economy. Through this friend I have come to be reacquainted with the term; Quantitative Easing of the money supply. "quantitive easing" or "quantitative strengthening" or similar are fancy words for the money-printers of any country to use when lessening or increasing the supply of that country's currency-in-circulation. Our Fed ,Bernanke, has increased our U.S. money supply from around $900 billion when Obama took over to approx. $2.3 TRILLION right now. At the rate our debt interest is increasing and using the basis of supply/demand, our currency will shortly buy only a third of what it was worth when this young "genius" and his equally-clueless minions took control. And while on this subject, the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve keeps track of the U.S. money supply and you can go there at any time on-line to check it. It contains M-1, M-2 and the newish M-3). “
To make this clearer picture a jar of marbles, these are cats eye marbles pure and clear, someone comes along who is better at marbles and quickly depletes your supply. Not wanting to admit you are a poor player you get some mud and make new marbles and refill your jar. Now you and the other player both know these marbles aren’t worth what the other ones were so they are discounted two or three to one. The same thing is true with our money supply. When Obama took over our money supply (currency in circulation) was around $900 Billion. It is now $2.3 Trillion. What happens when the other players realize our money is made of mud?
This latest move to extend the unemployment benefits is a perfect example of mud money. All the republicans asked for was that he take money already earmarked for stimulus to pay for this expansion of our debt. They are not ruthless people haters as the media and administration has painted them, they were simply trying to protect the assets of this country so your children and grandchildren are able to live free from this folly. If we continue to make mud money we all know that in the light of day it will crumble and fall apart.
“In 2008, Fannie and Freddie were placed into 'conservatorship' by the US government. This move was meant to be temporary, and meant to stabilize the housing sector without an outright nationalization of the institutions. But the two mortgage companies continue to bleed money (which is being taken from the Treasury -- $145 billion so far), but clearly no one from the administration seems to know what to do with them. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has promised to address the matter by early next year, but has yet to suggest just what he will do. It is both frustrating and scary to witness daily that our administration's financial heads are so incompetent in the field of economics. TOTALLY incompetent! It is as though they were using an Ouija Board to determine $$ policy, but, then, even that method would result in their making a correct decision every so often.”
It’s your tax money that is paying this enormous debt and it will get bigger and bigger as our interest mounts up. The idea that everyone should be able to buy a house is part of the utopian dream of the left. It should be, that everyone should be able to buy a house if they have been frugal and wise enough to save for a down payment and be able afford the payments. They should also be required to have a history of making payments on time before taking a loan with the taxpayers as guarantors. Fannie and Freddie will be in the news once again as it is they who guaranty 96.5% of all newly originated mortgages and sadly the next time we hear from them we may not be able to survive the news.
You may have noticed an easing in the economy over the last few months, we’ve actually seen some growth in sales here in our business and you can’t help hope that this recession is really coming to an end. Why am I skeptical, because it is an election year and the government in power can do several things to temporarily ease the financial situation. They do these things because we American people are so attuned to our comfort that we ignore the facts when we are comfortably fat and sassy. I am fortunate to have an excellent mentor and friend who advises me in the area of the economy. Through this friend I have come to be reacquainted with the term; Quantitative Easing of the money supply. "quantitive easing" or "quantitative strengthening" or similar are fancy words for the money-printers of any country to use when lessening or increasing the supply of that country's currency-in-circulation. Our Fed ,Bernanke, has increased our U.S. money supply from around $900 billion when Obama took over to approx. $2.3 TRILLION right now. At the rate our debt interest is increasing and using the basis of supply/demand, our currency will shortly buy only a third of what it was worth when this young "genius" and his equally-clueless minions took control. And while on this subject, the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve keeps track of the U.S. money supply and you can go there at any time on-line to check it. It contains M-1, M-2 and the newish M-3). “
To make this clearer picture a jar of marbles, these are cats eye marbles pure and clear, someone comes along who is better at marbles and quickly depletes your supply. Not wanting to admit you are a poor player you get some mud and make new marbles and refill your jar. Now you and the other player both know these marbles aren’t worth what the other ones were so they are discounted two or three to one. The same thing is true with our money supply. When Obama took over our money supply (currency in circulation) was around $900 Billion. It is now $2.3 Trillion. What happens when the other players realize our money is made of mud?
This latest move to extend the unemployment benefits is a perfect example of mud money. All the republicans asked for was that he take money already earmarked for stimulus to pay for this expansion of our debt. They are not ruthless people haters as the media and administration has painted them, they were simply trying to protect the assets of this country so your children and grandchildren are able to live free from this folly. If we continue to make mud money we all know that in the light of day it will crumble and fall apart.
“In 2008, Fannie and Freddie were placed into 'conservatorship' by the US government. This move was meant to be temporary, and meant to stabilize the housing sector without an outright nationalization of the institutions. But the two mortgage companies continue to bleed money (which is being taken from the Treasury -- $145 billion so far), but clearly no one from the administration seems to know what to do with them. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has promised to address the matter by early next year, but has yet to suggest just what he will do. It is both frustrating and scary to witness daily that our administration's financial heads are so incompetent in the field of economics. TOTALLY incompetent! It is as though they were using an Ouija Board to determine $$ policy, but, then, even that method would result in their making a correct decision every so often.”
It’s your tax money that is paying this enormous debt and it will get bigger and bigger as our interest mounts up. The idea that everyone should be able to buy a house is part of the utopian dream of the left. It should be, that everyone should be able to buy a house if they have been frugal and wise enough to save for a down payment and be able afford the payments. They should also be required to have a history of making payments on time before taking a loan with the taxpayers as guarantors. Fannie and Freddie will be in the news once again as it is they who guaranty 96.5% of all newly originated mortgages and sadly the next time we hear from them we may not be able to survive the news.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
From Pride to Poverty
Each week I try to explore various segments of our government regarding the laws and decisions made on our behalf. By now everyone who has ever taken the time to read this column knows that I am a conservative and have great disdain for big government. What riles me most is the influence that big contributors and far left radicals have on our present administration and the sitting congress. As a veteran and being close to retirement I find myself wondering how this happened to America and why now. I’m sure a few diehard liberals left over from the 60’s will have the answer for me and I can’t wait to hear it, but I have a few questions for them first; The first is who is going to pay for all this debt we are accumulating? If it is going to be recovered through taxation from the rich or top 10% of the population, who then is going to create the jobs for our grandkids? If the jobs that are being created are basically government jobs that draw from the economy rather than add to it, what happens when everyone works for the government and there is no one left to pay for it? Why is it that every country that tried this form of government failed, even Russia has turned to capitalism to survive as have China, Yugoslavia, Hungry, East Germany, Romania and so many countries that it’s ridiculous to name them all here.
The bigger the government the smaller the man, in other words when government gets so big the individual has little opportunity to succeed. How many successful entrepreneurs came out of Eastern Bloc countries under Communism? Why then do those presently in power and the left over remnants of the 60’s utopian dream deem it necessary to copy such an antiquated form of governance? The only reasonable answer is personal power. These governments of the past and present including Cuba, Venezuela and the tyrannical Muslim bloc nations all have one thing in common, a central government controlled by a small group of radicals. Is that what is in store for my grand kids?
I was taught as a small child that America provided the opportunity and it was up to the individual to provide the personal responsibility to succeed. What happened to the personal responsibility portion of the equation? When I came home from the service there were few jobs to be had so we created our own opportunity and cleaned other peoples yards and homes. It was small money at the time but we didn’t have to stand in line for it. As you can see we survived, the work ethic and personal responsibility taught to me in my childhood has pulled me through many times in our lives. I believe whole heartedly in giving a helping hand to those who are in need on a temporary basis. To those who make a living out of welfare and constant use of government programs generation after generation I feel I owe nothing. My utopian dream is having the opportunity for a job for everyone who is inclined to earn their way.
The bigger the government the smaller the man, in other words when government gets so big the individual has little opportunity to succeed. How many successful entrepreneurs came out of Eastern Bloc countries under Communism? Why then do those presently in power and the left over remnants of the 60’s utopian dream deem it necessary to copy such an antiquated form of governance? The only reasonable answer is personal power. These governments of the past and present including Cuba, Venezuela and the tyrannical Muslim bloc nations all have one thing in common, a central government controlled by a small group of radicals. Is that what is in store for my grand kids?
I was taught as a small child that America provided the opportunity and it was up to the individual to provide the personal responsibility to succeed. What happened to the personal responsibility portion of the equation? When I came home from the service there were few jobs to be had so we created our own opportunity and cleaned other peoples yards and homes. It was small money at the time but we didn’t have to stand in line for it. As you can see we survived, the work ethic and personal responsibility taught to me in my childhood has pulled me through many times in our lives. I believe whole heartedly in giving a helping hand to those who are in need on a temporary basis. To those who make a living out of welfare and constant use of government programs generation after generation I feel I owe nothing. My utopian dream is having the opportunity for a job for everyone who is inclined to earn their way.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Who's the racist?
Have you noticed the changes that have taken place in America in the last year? Have you noticed the ugly racist rhetoric from the new Black Panther party? The same group that stood outside of polling places with nightsticks during the election, the same group that our government decided not to prosecute for obvious intimidation of voters. The same group that the NAACP failed to chastise after they called for racial violence, setting their movement back 50 years. Have you heard the recent racist rhetoric from the so called (Reverend) Wright, I say so called, because no preacher I have ever known uses such bitter hatred to sell his wares. This is still The United States isn’t it? Why is it now that only whites can be racists? I know am leaving myself wide open to be called a bigot by those who disagree with everything I say, but I love this country and I am watching a wall of divisiveness that I believe is politically motivated and that is destroying everything that people like Martin Luther King did to bring some type of sanity to a terrible time in America. The hatred that is spewed by these people is going to cause real racial division in this country, a division that will eventually escalate and I’m afraid turn violent in the end. We can continue to ignore this situation and allow this infection to spread, or show the courage to speak out against such hatred and force our government to take action against these groups with the same vigor they oppose organizations like the KKK and the Skin heads. Bigotry is bigotry no matter who it is directed at.
Growing up in the Northwest I was exposed to a different type of racism, not white against black or brown but against the Japanese Americans, most who never had a bad thought about our country. The government rounded them up confiscating their homes and farms similar to the way they treated the Native Americans in an earlier generation. They were sent to concentration camps losing everything they had worked for all their lives. I bring this up because though it was a horrible action against any man, you seldom hear the Japanese proclaim hatred against the people or the government that caused their internment. Post war, the Japanese didn’t dwell on their terrible plight, they reintegrating into society, educated their children and have prospered greatly. The problem I see with our present situation is that for the last 40 years our government has continually thrown money at every problem from racial unrest to failures in education. It’s way past the time to solve these problems once and for all, not by buying temporary peace but by once again living by the basic principles that built America; rewarding hard work, upholding the law, teaching self discipline and requiring personal responsibility in all we do.
America is the greatest country devised by man, it allows each citizen the opportunity to go as far as his or her ambition will allow. The teachings of our founding fathers that so brilliantly designed our laws and developed our way of life haven’t changed, we have. It’s time to return to commonsense, good judgment and to the values that made America strong.
Growing up in the Northwest I was exposed to a different type of racism, not white against black or brown but against the Japanese Americans, most who never had a bad thought about our country. The government rounded them up confiscating their homes and farms similar to the way they treated the Native Americans in an earlier generation. They were sent to concentration camps losing everything they had worked for all their lives. I bring this up because though it was a horrible action against any man, you seldom hear the Japanese proclaim hatred against the people or the government that caused their internment. Post war, the Japanese didn’t dwell on their terrible plight, they reintegrating into society, educated their children and have prospered greatly. The problem I see with our present situation is that for the last 40 years our government has continually thrown money at every problem from racial unrest to failures in education. It’s way past the time to solve these problems once and for all, not by buying temporary peace but by once again living by the basic principles that built America; rewarding hard work, upholding the law, teaching self discipline and requiring personal responsibility in all we do.
America is the greatest country devised by man, it allows each citizen the opportunity to go as far as his or her ambition will allow. The teachings of our founding fathers that so brilliantly designed our laws and developed our way of life haven’t changed, we have. It’s time to return to commonsense, good judgment and to the values that made America strong.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Where are Danny and Sue?
As I sit here in north central Nevada, far removed from the politics of the major cities and the party factions that seem to grow with each election, I am amazed at the depth of personal egotism that prevails in our politics. We as a party have the opportunity to stand out in America and lead the way for a new leadership in the United States Senate. The defeat of Harry Reid is paramount the gaining of control of our countries direction.
We had three well known candidates in our primary who were all well qualified and who claimed to be conservative republicans. As in all primaries we had one person chosen to go on to run against Reid. Not everyone voted for Sharron Angle but she ended up the victor with the popular vote. Isn’t that what is supposed to happen in this country? Instead of jumping behind her with moral and financial support the other two candidates have literally disappeared from view. I actually voted for one of them thinking how lucky we were to have three such qualified people in our party and what that meant to our future in the state. I must say I am totally disillusioned as well as disappointed in the lack of party support from these other candidates. Failure to support our duly elected candidate is the same as announcing for Harry Reid. Ego is a strange phenomenon and brings out the worse characteristics of a person. After researching all three candidates prior to the primary I can honestly say there wasn’t a millimeter of difference in their abilities to be our Senator from Nevada. Their failure to support our elected republican candidate makes me believe that they really don’t care about the party’s ability to win, or the direction our country is going. It must have been just personal ambition that brought them to the candidacy in the first place.
Sue and Danny, our country is calling on you to stand with your party’s representative to defeat Harry Reid and his cronies once and for all. This is an opportunity that seldom comes in politics where you can be a hero to our cause or you can simply stand back and cripple the first legitimate chance to stop Obama’s snowball to socialism. The Republicans of Nevada and the entire country are waiting to cheer you on.
Sharron, this is your opportunity to answer Reids negative ad’s once and for all. It is time to reach out publicly to your fellow republicans for their support. We know the context in which you spoke on major issues like Social Security and Medicare. We also know that the campaign being used by Reid taking your own words totally out of context in some cases cut off in mid sentence is his normal low brow politics as usual. You have to get your message out in full context and your previous adversaries would be the perfect ones to bring the truth to the public.
The term I’ve heard tossed around about “Republicans for Reid” is totally out of step for any type of conservative, no self respecting republican would go down to his level. Those who claim this distinction had better be ready to change parties ‘ala’ ‘Arlen Specter’ come election time. We elephants have long memories.
We had three well known candidates in our primary who were all well qualified and who claimed to be conservative republicans. As in all primaries we had one person chosen to go on to run against Reid. Not everyone voted for Sharron Angle but she ended up the victor with the popular vote. Isn’t that what is supposed to happen in this country? Instead of jumping behind her with moral and financial support the other two candidates have literally disappeared from view. I actually voted for one of them thinking how lucky we were to have three such qualified people in our party and what that meant to our future in the state. I must say I am totally disillusioned as well as disappointed in the lack of party support from these other candidates. Failure to support our duly elected candidate is the same as announcing for Harry Reid. Ego is a strange phenomenon and brings out the worse characteristics of a person. After researching all three candidates prior to the primary I can honestly say there wasn’t a millimeter of difference in their abilities to be our Senator from Nevada. Their failure to support our elected republican candidate makes me believe that they really don’t care about the party’s ability to win, or the direction our country is going. It must have been just personal ambition that brought them to the candidacy in the first place.
Sue and Danny, our country is calling on you to stand with your party’s representative to defeat Harry Reid and his cronies once and for all. This is an opportunity that seldom comes in politics where you can be a hero to our cause or you can simply stand back and cripple the first legitimate chance to stop Obama’s snowball to socialism. The Republicans of Nevada and the entire country are waiting to cheer you on.
Sharron, this is your opportunity to answer Reids negative ad’s once and for all. It is time to reach out publicly to your fellow republicans for their support. We know the context in which you spoke on major issues like Social Security and Medicare. We also know that the campaign being used by Reid taking your own words totally out of context in some cases cut off in mid sentence is his normal low brow politics as usual. You have to get your message out in full context and your previous adversaries would be the perfect ones to bring the truth to the public.
The term I’ve heard tossed around about “Republicans for Reid” is totally out of step for any type of conservative, no self respecting republican would go down to his level. Those who claim this distinction had better be ready to change parties ‘ala’ ‘Arlen Specter’ come election time. We elephants have long memories.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Obama was right to fire McChrystal
Obama was right to fire McChrystal. You heard me right, for once I agree with what the President did, you can’t have a team when the players disrespect the captain. I’m not saying that what McChrystal or his aides said was wrong, I don’t know that because I haven’t digested the entire interview yet. What they said was improper and in the wrong forum, also it was a breach of military protocol. As Officers in the United States Military they had to have understood that. Just like Arizona’s new immigration law it could have been a cry for help. I guaranty you that Arizona would forget that law in a minute if the Federal Government would do their rightful job on the border, pass real legislation to curb illegal immigration and do something about the millions of illegal’s already here. Who’s to know what was in the minds of those Officers who shot their mouths off to the Rolling Stone. First of all they had to know that a rag like R.S. would not be friendly to their cause, secondly it doesn’t matter what media they were talking to, they were trained to take orders and keep their personal opinions to themselves.
In spite of all the fanfare and good reviews regarding the appointment of General Petraeus I have the feeling there will be a real change in the Afghanistan operation. The General will find that this is an entirely different world than the one he left behind in Iraq. The one thing Saddam Hussein did was to modernize Iraq. Everything from the roads and highways to the cities that surrounded his huge palaces required training and technical support. The military training is another big difference between the two countries. Afghanistan is 200 to 300 years behind Iraq in the area of social and domestic infrastructure. McChrystal is a star in the area of Special Ops, his background in the Special Forces gave him a huge advantage dealing with the Taliban Guerrillas. General Petraeus is more of a conventional soldier, he was responsible for training the Iraqi army to fight alongside our troops. He won’t find that military mentality and background to work with in Afghanistan. McChrystal was just beginning to develop the trust of the Afghan army, with the change it will take more time to rebuild that trust once again. Tying McChrystal’s hands with the constant fear of civilian casualties and allowing an aggressive liberal media to be imbedded in the area just may have been the last straw for these men.
We are now in the longest war that the United States has ever been involved in, but the fault doesn’t lie with the military. Once again we find ourselves embroiled in the middle of a political war. The difference between a political war and one fought with the full intention of winning is obvious. The problem with this political war is that we can’t walk away from it like we did in Viet Nam and Korea. Osama Bin Laden or his successors would immediately rebuild their training facilities and soon be infiltrating our borders with their radical Muslim philosophy accompanied by the soldiers of Allah bent on our demise. No my friends, this is no time to quit the fray, General Petraeus needs to do his best impression of Patton if we are to succeed. The politicians need to get out of the way and allow us a victory for once or we just might find ourselves continuing to sacrifice our youth for the next hundred years.
In WWII we rounded up everyone with a Japanese Sur name and sent them off to camps in the desert southwest. With today’s philosophy we allow them to build their Mosques in our cities to continually breed discontent plus we pay for their education and welfare too. My how times have changed.
In spite of all the fanfare and good reviews regarding the appointment of General Petraeus I have the feeling there will be a real change in the Afghanistan operation. The General will find that this is an entirely different world than the one he left behind in Iraq. The one thing Saddam Hussein did was to modernize Iraq. Everything from the roads and highways to the cities that surrounded his huge palaces required training and technical support. The military training is another big difference between the two countries. Afghanistan is 200 to 300 years behind Iraq in the area of social and domestic infrastructure. McChrystal is a star in the area of Special Ops, his background in the Special Forces gave him a huge advantage dealing with the Taliban Guerrillas. General Petraeus is more of a conventional soldier, he was responsible for training the Iraqi army to fight alongside our troops. He won’t find that military mentality and background to work with in Afghanistan. McChrystal was just beginning to develop the trust of the Afghan army, with the change it will take more time to rebuild that trust once again. Tying McChrystal’s hands with the constant fear of civilian casualties and allowing an aggressive liberal media to be imbedded in the area just may have been the last straw for these men.
We are now in the longest war that the United States has ever been involved in, but the fault doesn’t lie with the military. Once again we find ourselves embroiled in the middle of a political war. The difference between a political war and one fought with the full intention of winning is obvious. The problem with this political war is that we can’t walk away from it like we did in Viet Nam and Korea. Osama Bin Laden or his successors would immediately rebuild their training facilities and soon be infiltrating our borders with their radical Muslim philosophy accompanied by the soldiers of Allah bent on our demise. No my friends, this is no time to quit the fray, General Petraeus needs to do his best impression of Patton if we are to succeed. The politicians need to get out of the way and allow us a victory for once or we just might find ourselves continuing to sacrifice our youth for the next hundred years.
In WWII we rounded up everyone with a Japanese Sur name and sent them off to camps in the desert southwest. With today’s philosophy we allow them to build their Mosques in our cities to continually breed discontent plus we pay for their education and welfare too. My how times have changed.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The Constitution is the basis for our law.
I understand that not everyone agrees with what I feel and what I have to say about politics,
but just like you I have every right to have an opinion. One thing we should all agree on is to
be thankful for our good fortune to be Americans. Whether born into this Union or
naturalized, there is no better place to live and raise a family. My wife and I feel we are doubly
blessed by living in a small community like we do where neighbors watch out for each other.
Just like most of you, I have strong feelings regarding the direction we as a country are headed.
You may feel all is well and actually be happy with our present situation in the world and that is
your right as an American, but there is a very large faction that agrees with me that we are
headed down the path to a socialistic destruction of our inherent system of government.
When this country was born our founding fathers had the foresight to lay it’s foundation within
and around a rule of law that was meant to stand for all time. It is not as some would have you
believe, a living breathing changeable document. It is a rule of law designed by the founders to
govern our society. Of course I’m referring to our Constitution, the interpretation of which has
been messed around with for decades. My feeling about its content and true meaning is that
there is no room for personal interpretations by politicians on anyone else. I have always felt
that the founding fathers had it just right. Their anticipation of every aspect of our societal
needs has been astonishing. The amendments that have been added have been well thought
out and have served this nation well over the decades. Ignoring the Constitution all the while
stepping on the rights of either individuals or industry was wrong back in the beginning of this
country and certainly wrong now. The idea that the government has the authority to force
individuals to purchase anything including insurance is wrong. The idea that the government
has the authority to take over companies with taxpayer money was wrong back in the
beginning and is certainly wrong today.
To make my point about the value of the Constitution; when the military swears in a new
Officer, the candidate swears their allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of
America. There is no reference to the President nor the Congress , they are simply in power at
the whim of the people of the United States. When a congressional body or the executive
branch ignores the Constitution when enacting laws that affect the people of America they are
stepping on the rights of every citizen. It is a situation that no one should want from either
side of the political spectrum as the power balance can change quickly and what’s good for the
goose is just as good for the gander. The biggest argument here is whether or not this
administration and the existing congress has overstepped this line. That is a question that each
individual will have to answer in their own mind and with their own vote in November.
The Oath of Office (for officers):
"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."
but just like you I have every right to have an opinion. One thing we should all agree on is to
be thankful for our good fortune to be Americans. Whether born into this Union or
naturalized, there is no better place to live and raise a family. My wife and I feel we are doubly
blessed by living in a small community like we do where neighbors watch out for each other.
Just like most of you, I have strong feelings regarding the direction we as a country are headed.
You may feel all is well and actually be happy with our present situation in the world and that is
your right as an American, but there is a very large faction that agrees with me that we are
headed down the path to a socialistic destruction of our inherent system of government.
When this country was born our founding fathers had the foresight to lay it’s foundation within
and around a rule of law that was meant to stand for all time. It is not as some would have you
believe, a living breathing changeable document. It is a rule of law designed by the founders to
govern our society. Of course I’m referring to our Constitution, the interpretation of which has
been messed around with for decades. My feeling about its content and true meaning is that
there is no room for personal interpretations by politicians on anyone else. I have always felt
that the founding fathers had it just right. Their anticipation of every aspect of our societal
needs has been astonishing. The amendments that have been added have been well thought
out and have served this nation well over the decades. Ignoring the Constitution all the while
stepping on the rights of either individuals or industry was wrong back in the beginning of this
country and certainly wrong now. The idea that the government has the authority to force
individuals to purchase anything including insurance is wrong. The idea that the government
has the authority to take over companies with taxpayer money was wrong back in the
beginning and is certainly wrong today.
To make my point about the value of the Constitution; when the military swears in a new
Officer, the candidate swears their allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of
America. There is no reference to the President nor the Congress , they are simply in power at
the whim of the people of the United States. When a congressional body or the executive
branch ignores the Constitution when enacting laws that affect the people of America they are
stepping on the rights of every citizen. It is a situation that no one should want from either
side of the political spectrum as the power balance can change quickly and what’s good for the
goose is just as good for the gander. The biggest argument here is whether or not this
administration and the existing congress has overstepped this line. That is a question that each
individual will have to answer in their own mind and with their own vote in November.
The Oath of Office (for officers):
"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Why the love hate relationship with oil?
What the makes The United States run? If you answered oil I would give you an A+. For some reason many Americans can’t get over their love hate relationship with the oil industry. We Americans love to drive our big cars and SUV’s and enjoy the products produce cheaply with oil by-products but have been taught to hate the very people and companies that allow us to do so. The environmentalists want to stop all oil production and go green. It’s a nice idea and I would be all for it if we had the technology to produce our power in a safe efficient and inexpensive process. The cost of wind energy per watt produced is too high for our pocket books. The cost of solar energy per watt created would make our present energy bills look like pennies on the dollar. The nuclear option is the closest thing we have that will produce inexpensive and efficient power but we have made it so expensive to build nuclear power stations that the cost would be crippling not to mention the necessary oversight required. I remember the arguments and false statements meant to scare the population in the months leading up to the building of the Alaska Pipeline. The environmental zealots were in full bloom and making predictions of a natural disaster on the scale of Armageddon. The Caribou that they so worried over have used the warm pipeline for shelter and have gained in population sizably.
Recently we have experienced the same rhetoric regarding what the environmentalist call Global Warming. The world led by the United Nations and Al Gore have spent billions of our money following the theory that the carbon we produce as mankind is going to destroy the earth, melt the ice packs and drown all the Polar Bears on earth, when in fact the earth’s temperature has actually dropped in the last 4 years to the 200 year average of 57 degrees. This drop has been obvious to anyone who has been caught outside without a coat this winter. The source for this information; The World Temperature Graph produced in 2009 by Climatologist Cliff Harris and Meteorologist Randy Mann that combined the following resources:
"Climate and the Affairs of Men" by Dr. Iben Browing.
"Climate...The Key to Understanding Business Cycles...The Raymond H. Wheeler Papers. By Michael Zahorchak
Weather Science Foundation Papers in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
The latest disaster will not be lost on our environmental friends, the President has already called for a moratorium on offshore drilling a move that has caused over 35,000 workers to stand idle. By constantly berating BP and stirring up strong anti oil emotions rather than calming the situation in a presidential way, President Obama has helped drive the value of the oil giant to half of what it was. What happens when they are forced into bankruptcy, who will pay for the cleanup then? This is a time to first solve the problem not point fingers and play the blame game. It amazes me the way the coverage has been in the network news compared to the way the same blame George Bush media treated him and his administration following Katrina a natural, not a manmade disaster.
The lack of experience in oil and business in general by the panel appointed to look into the situation by the president is an example of the arrogance and elitism of this administration. Their failure to act on offers of help from countries more experienced in oil disasters actually hiding behind the Jones Act of 1929 a strong union legislation, is almost criminal. Bush waived the Jones Act after Katrina to expedite the transfer of needed fuel into the area hands on management of the project these men. If President Obama wants to avert a major domestic catastrophe he should waive the Jones Act, drop the moratorium on drilling allowing the people to go back to work, and turn over the whole project along with the necessary financial support to a commission made up of and by the States involved. No one in Washington is in a better position to handle this than the Governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Working directly with BP they are ready willing and able to take on the task. As an example the marshes in Louisiana now polluted could have been saved by building sand dykes to prevent oil from entering. The State of Louisiana ask for Federal permission to do so and was tied up in bureaucracy for weeks. This is not the first rodeo for these men having worked their way through the tragedy of Katrina.
Recently we have experienced the same rhetoric regarding what the environmentalist call Global Warming. The world led by the United Nations and Al Gore have spent billions of our money following the theory that the carbon we produce as mankind is going to destroy the earth, melt the ice packs and drown all the Polar Bears on earth, when in fact the earth’s temperature has actually dropped in the last 4 years to the 200 year average of 57 degrees. This drop has been obvious to anyone who has been caught outside without a coat this winter. The source for this information; The World Temperature Graph produced in 2009 by Climatologist Cliff Harris and Meteorologist Randy Mann that combined the following resources:
"Climate and the Affairs of Men" by Dr. Iben Browing.
"Climate...The Key to Understanding Business Cycles...The Raymond H. Wheeler Papers. By Michael Zahorchak
Weather Science Foundation Papers in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
The latest disaster will not be lost on our environmental friends, the President has already called for a moratorium on offshore drilling a move that has caused over 35,000 workers to stand idle. By constantly berating BP and stirring up strong anti oil emotions rather than calming the situation in a presidential way, President Obama has helped drive the value of the oil giant to half of what it was. What happens when they are forced into bankruptcy, who will pay for the cleanup then? This is a time to first solve the problem not point fingers and play the blame game. It amazes me the way the coverage has been in the network news compared to the way the same blame George Bush media treated him and his administration following Katrina a natural, not a manmade disaster.
The lack of experience in oil and business in general by the panel appointed to look into the situation by the president is an example of the arrogance and elitism of this administration. Their failure to act on offers of help from countries more experienced in oil disasters actually hiding behind the Jones Act of 1929 a strong union legislation, is almost criminal. Bush waived the Jones Act after Katrina to expedite the transfer of needed fuel into the area hands on management of the project these men. If President Obama wants to avert a major domestic catastrophe he should waive the Jones Act, drop the moratorium on drilling allowing the people to go back to work, and turn over the whole project along with the necessary financial support to a commission made up of and by the States involved. No one in Washington is in a better position to handle this than the Governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Working directly with BP they are ready willing and able to take on the task. As an example the marshes in Louisiana now polluted could have been saved by building sand dykes to prevent oil from entering. The State of Louisiana ask for Federal permission to do so and was tied up in bureaucracy for weeks. This is not the first rodeo for these men having worked their way through the tragedy of Katrina.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
What does being an American mean to you?
As I thought about this question, I found myself looking back through my life and trying to understand my intense feeling for this land. There was no one point that stood out and shouted America is the greatest land of all. Was it inborn in my psyche, was it something I was brainwashed to believe, could it be the way I was raised? All these questions popped into my head yet nothing stood out with the answer. To me this country is a gift from God. Our forefathers were given the vision to see and the foresight to understand just about everything that could happen in the future and went on to create a country based on the principles of Christianity yet open to all faiths. The Constitution is the center point of our republic, it is not a frivolous document, it is what our entire set of laws are based on and what has kept us free from oppression as a democratic republic for the last 234 years.
It’s hard for me to understand how we could have people here in America who would actually tear up the Constitution and give away their precious independence for a handful of entitlements. The freedom to define who you are going to be, by the choices you make in your life is one of the greatest freedoms of all. This country gives everyone the potential to succeed, what one does with that power is in their hands. When we allow the government to take control of our lives by buying into the idea that a bureaucrat can do a better job, we get things like judges making laws rather than defining them, we get things like political correctness a term much used but little understood by the average person.
Political correctness has caused individual States to spend millions of our hard earned money just in printing documents like drivers tests in a multitude of languages. Political correctness has evolved to the point that we have allowed millions of illegal aliens to destroy our welfare system, our medical, our educational system just to name a few. We have spent billions to appease our conscience and got nothing for our money. We are not allowed to use the term terrorist in association with the Muslim religion, how has that worked out? We have captured terrorist in the process of committing a terrorist act and we give them Miranda Rights like an American. A few months ago we allowed our government to scrap the greatest medical program in the world for what will be a European or British style program that has people waiting for critical operations for months. Why?
Medical insurance has been available for decades, yes the cost has escalated greatly because of the abuse of the system and the high cost of liability insurance for doctors brought on by millions of frivolous malpractice lawsuits. The government could have taken the path to repair the system rather than scrap it for the unknown. Being an American has always meant personal independence and having pride in ones accomplishments, now we are standing in line for the government pay check and shortly for the physical check up. Somewhere somehow someone should read the Constitution and teach the politicians in Washington the meaning of those hallowed words. The elitist in our Congress have evolved into a separate country and do not feel compelled to live by the rules they create.
It’s hard for me to understand how we could have people here in America who would actually tear up the Constitution and give away their precious independence for a handful of entitlements. The freedom to define who you are going to be, by the choices you make in your life is one of the greatest freedoms of all. This country gives everyone the potential to succeed, what one does with that power is in their hands. When we allow the government to take control of our lives by buying into the idea that a bureaucrat can do a better job, we get things like judges making laws rather than defining them, we get things like political correctness a term much used but little understood by the average person.
Political correctness has caused individual States to spend millions of our hard earned money just in printing documents like drivers tests in a multitude of languages. Political correctness has evolved to the point that we have allowed millions of illegal aliens to destroy our welfare system, our medical, our educational system just to name a few. We have spent billions to appease our conscience and got nothing for our money. We are not allowed to use the term terrorist in association with the Muslim religion, how has that worked out? We have captured terrorist in the process of committing a terrorist act and we give them Miranda Rights like an American. A few months ago we allowed our government to scrap the greatest medical program in the world for what will be a European or British style program that has people waiting for critical operations for months. Why?
Medical insurance has been available for decades, yes the cost has escalated greatly because of the abuse of the system and the high cost of liability insurance for doctors brought on by millions of frivolous malpractice lawsuits. The government could have taken the path to repair the system rather than scrap it for the unknown. Being an American has always meant personal independence and having pride in ones accomplishments, now we are standing in line for the government pay check and shortly for the physical check up. Somewhere somehow someone should read the Constitution and teach the politicians in Washington the meaning of those hallowed words. The elitist in our Congress have evolved into a separate country and do not feel compelled to live by the rules they create.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
What could be the driving force behind the delays in cleaning up the Gulf oil spill?
I like so many others, have an opinion as the reason this well hasn’t been successfully capped. What started as a preventable accident due to the faulty construction of the basic structure 5000’ below the surface, has been magnified by the time honored political cover up and the corporate greed we’ve come to know. The foudation was never properly set and there were last minute safety protocol changes asked for and approved by the government inspectors. The President of B.P. knew that it was a risk to start up the well under those conditions but the decision was made to go ahead with opening the flow. The Mud Engineer on the rig reported the deterioration of a gasket on the valve just hours prior to the explosion.
Now to the theory as to why capping it hasn’t succeeded. Each attempt that has been made, has been to fit a recovery unit over the well or stuff heavy mud into it rather than permanently closing down the site. The heavy mud that was tried was a temporary fix at best. Yes they will spend billions on the clean up and resulting law suits but eventually they will recover their losses due to the producing well that they are so anxious to save. Destroy the well and there is no chance for the recovery of these losses. The Administration is not doing an adequate investigation because it may lead to the corruption inside the Interior Department that approved the start up in the first place with these untested last minute changes. The original well was approved during the Bush administration but the changes in safety protocol happened on Obama’s watch just days before the well was to be opened. So could it be Greed and Politics as usual, sure sounds like it to me.
This Interior Department has been hit with many charges including the use of the government computers for porn, some employees were said to have spent their entire days searching for porn sites on company time. This on top of the fact that an important member of the Obama Cabinet has also been quoted saying “ No good disaster should ever be wasted.” Could this be another perfect opportunity to nationalize another industry. I really want to think positively about this effort but I have little faith in the administration nor B.P.’s desire to plug this well permanently. Instead of the blame game that is going on I feel that a lot more effort should be aimed at the coastal cleanup while there is still time to save the marshlands. The laborers that B.P. has hired seem to show up only when the press or the president is around.
There is also the report that an American who was an engineer in the Saudi Arabian oil industry, Mr. Nick Pozzi offered technical assistance to B.P. and our government immediately after the problem started and never even received a response. Pozzi was with Saudi Aramco when they had a disastrous spill in 1993 over 70 times greater than the Exxon Valdez. This spill was not only kept secret by the Saudi’s, but was cleaned up immediately by utilizing specially equipped tankers. Reference; http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-cleanup-fix-for-gulf-oil-spill-lie-in-secret-saudi-disaster/19476863
No ones listening Pozzi stated in the interview. I say get him out there and test his method, there’s surely no harm in letting the Saudi’s help us for a change, after all we’ve paid for just about everything they have over there. If they have the technology to clean this mess up why wouldn’t we use it?
Now to the theory as to why capping it hasn’t succeeded. Each attempt that has been made, has been to fit a recovery unit over the well or stuff heavy mud into it rather than permanently closing down the site. The heavy mud that was tried was a temporary fix at best. Yes they will spend billions on the clean up and resulting law suits but eventually they will recover their losses due to the producing well that they are so anxious to save. Destroy the well and there is no chance for the recovery of these losses. The Administration is not doing an adequate investigation because it may lead to the corruption inside the Interior Department that approved the start up in the first place with these untested last minute changes. The original well was approved during the Bush administration but the changes in safety protocol happened on Obama’s watch just days before the well was to be opened. So could it be Greed and Politics as usual, sure sounds like it to me.
This Interior Department has been hit with many charges including the use of the government computers for porn, some employees were said to have spent their entire days searching for porn sites on company time. This on top of the fact that an important member of the Obama Cabinet has also been quoted saying “ No good disaster should ever be wasted.” Could this be another perfect opportunity to nationalize another industry. I really want to think positively about this effort but I have little faith in the administration nor B.P.’s desire to plug this well permanently. Instead of the blame game that is going on I feel that a lot more effort should be aimed at the coastal cleanup while there is still time to save the marshlands. The laborers that B.P. has hired seem to show up only when the press or the president is around.
There is also the report that an American who was an engineer in the Saudi Arabian oil industry, Mr. Nick Pozzi offered technical assistance to B.P. and our government immediately after the problem started and never even received a response. Pozzi was with Saudi Aramco when they had a disastrous spill in 1993 over 70 times greater than the Exxon Valdez. This spill was not only kept secret by the Saudi’s, but was cleaned up immediately by utilizing specially equipped tankers. Reference; http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/could-cleanup-fix-for-gulf-oil-spill-lie-in-secret-saudi-disaster/19476863
No ones listening Pozzi stated in the interview. I say get him out there and test his method, there’s surely no harm in letting the Saudi’s help us for a change, after all we’ve paid for just about everything they have over there. If they have the technology to clean this mess up why wouldn’t we use it?
Monday, June 7, 2010
Chicago style politics
In the early 70’s I moved my family from Seattle to Illinois to become a National Sales Manager for a Chicago based company. I traveled a great deal with my job spending a lot of time in and out of O’Hare International Airport. I bring this up as this was my first experience with the corruption of politics as usual in Chicago. From Mayor Richard Daley Senior, to the lowliest police officer who would accept a five dollar bill in lieu of a speeding ticket, the corruption was rampant. It was especially obvious at the airport where cabs and limo drivers were forced to pay the police at the airport for the opportunity to pick up passengers at the various terminals. I was privy to this because my company had a limo and driver who was forced to wait over two miles away and timing his trip to the terminal hoping to catch me on the fly as he passed through. The limo’s owned by the Daley company could sit at the terminal and wait for their passengers to deplane. When we explained that this was a private limo and not for hire we were told to discuss it with the officers at the airport. (back where we started) . It was usually a $5 bill to get a ten minute position at the terminal, in 1972 that was equivalent to $20 today.
Chicago politics have always been corrupted by money and greed. The money the Capone gang made from illegal liquor during the prohibition era was a nothing compared to the money the Daley machine took daily from graft and shakedowns.
Now to the present; how can we expect anything less from our present administration, Obama has loaded his staff with Chicago political operatives, self proclaimed Communists and avowed socialists. The Sestak and Romanoff bribery disclosures simply show that our buddy “B.O. Aplenty” learned well from the years under the grand Chicago scheme of politics. The difference between Daley and Obama is simple, Daley, though a crook, actually loved the capitalist system and America as a whole. Obama seems out to break America so he can rebuild it as a socialist country. The recipe for this is well known and was layed out by two Columbia Professors; Cloward and Piven. Richard Andres Cloward and Frances Fox Piven - two Columbia University sociologists - first proposed this strategy in 1966 as a means to bring about the collapse of the capitalist state by bankrupting it. They reasoned that the number of Americans on the welfare rolls probably represented only a small fraction of those eligible for welfare. If enough people could be persuaded to demand what was "owed" them, the system would simply be overwhelmed, precipitating a "profound financial and political crisis."
Their scheme was to bring the United States to its knees by spending beyond our capabilities to recover then saving the world by taking over industry, banking and the medical profession with government. They used a black political activist George Wiley to stir up racial unrest but whose real objective is to draft people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown -- providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.
This would allow the redistribution of wealth without a fight. Remembering that our president was a student of Columbia and has basically admitted leaning towards socialism his entire life. One should be able to come to the conclusion that we have truly been had. For those of you who continue to doubt this is happening and are pleased with the way things are going now, please tell me where this country is headed, and where we are going to end up. I would really love to know how we are going to get to this utopia without total chaos.
Chicago politics have always been corrupted by money and greed. The money the Capone gang made from illegal liquor during the prohibition era was a nothing compared to the money the Daley machine took daily from graft and shakedowns.
Now to the present; how can we expect anything less from our present administration, Obama has loaded his staff with Chicago political operatives, self proclaimed Communists and avowed socialists. The Sestak and Romanoff bribery disclosures simply show that our buddy “B.O. Aplenty” learned well from the years under the grand Chicago scheme of politics. The difference between Daley and Obama is simple, Daley, though a crook, actually loved the capitalist system and America as a whole. Obama seems out to break America so he can rebuild it as a socialist country. The recipe for this is well known and was layed out by two Columbia Professors; Cloward and Piven. Richard Andres Cloward and Frances Fox Piven - two Columbia University sociologists - first proposed this strategy in 1966 as a means to bring about the collapse of the capitalist state by bankrupting it. They reasoned that the number of Americans on the welfare rolls probably represented only a small fraction of those eligible for welfare. If enough people could be persuaded to demand what was "owed" them, the system would simply be overwhelmed, precipitating a "profound financial and political crisis."
Their scheme was to bring the United States to its knees by spending beyond our capabilities to recover then saving the world by taking over industry, banking and the medical profession with government. They used a black political activist George Wiley to stir up racial unrest but whose real objective is to draft people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown -- providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.
This would allow the redistribution of wealth without a fight. Remembering that our president was a student of Columbia and has basically admitted leaning towards socialism his entire life. One should be able to come to the conclusion that we have truly been had. For those of you who continue to doubt this is happening and are pleased with the way things are going now, please tell me where this country is headed, and where we are going to end up. I would really love to know how we are going to get to this utopia without total chaos.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
America, a land of legal immigrants
Why is the administration so bent on punishing Arizona? I have read the new Arizona law and it is nothing more than a repeat of the Federal law. The firestorm worked up by the Obama administration’s comments and their professional protesters is nothing short of criminal. The people of Arizona are doing nothing more than crying out for help from the one source that is supposed to be available to them, the federal government. When someone is trespassing on your property or invading your home you have the right and the obligation to protect your family. The Arizona legislature and Governor is doing the very same thing, protecting their families. Would anyone here trade places with a family living near the border? No one has the right to profile by skin color or race including the police; this is emphasized in the careful wording of the law. This country was built on the backs of emigrants from all the countries of the world. The key to the problem of today’s growing immigration is the fact that so much of it is illegal. The laws of the United States and our Constitution that have kept this country together and safe for the last 230 some years are being ignored and totally abused.
A large majority of the people of the United States of all races have made it abundantly clear that the border of this country is sacred and needs to be closed by whatever means possible. The Federal government has for decades failed to do their job in this regard. This has not been defined by either republicans or democrats. It has been a political football that neither party has had the gumption to address. The Hispanic community in this country has contributed greatly to the American way of life and to the wealth and prosperity of this country. They have served gallantly and with honor in our Armed Forces throughout history. It is a shame that they are being used as pawns in this border war that is being waged because of an ideology that is foreign to most citizens. We were promised that our border would be closed following the great amnesty program from the Reagan administration, now our ship is being navigated towards yet another amnesty fiasco. We have had five administrations from both parties who have done nothing to solve the border problem.
We have the ability to offer both a guest worker program for agricultural needs and a sovereign border. The responsibility lies with the federal government, the laws are already in place to punish employers who hire illegal aliens and just need to be strenuously enforced. The border is presently being used as a highway by Mexican gangs for the importation of dangerous drugs and an open doorway for terrorists to enter undetected. Any excursion across our countries border should be met with armed resistance and immediate response. The National Guard of all southern border States should be exempt from international service and used to seal and secure our nations sovereignty. This is the only country we have and it’s up to us to preserve it.
A large majority of the people of the United States of all races have made it abundantly clear that the border of this country is sacred and needs to be closed by whatever means possible. The Federal government has for decades failed to do their job in this regard. This has not been defined by either republicans or democrats. It has been a political football that neither party has had the gumption to address. The Hispanic community in this country has contributed greatly to the American way of life and to the wealth and prosperity of this country. They have served gallantly and with honor in our Armed Forces throughout history. It is a shame that they are being used as pawns in this border war that is being waged because of an ideology that is foreign to most citizens. We were promised that our border would be closed following the great amnesty program from the Reagan administration, now our ship is being navigated towards yet another amnesty fiasco. We have had five administrations from both parties who have done nothing to solve the border problem.
We have the ability to offer both a guest worker program for agricultural needs and a sovereign border. The responsibility lies with the federal government, the laws are already in place to punish employers who hire illegal aliens and just need to be strenuously enforced. The border is presently being used as a highway by Mexican gangs for the importation of dangerous drugs and an open doorway for terrorists to enter undetected. Any excursion across our countries border should be met with armed resistance and immediate response. The National Guard of all southern border States should be exempt from international service and used to seal and secure our nations sovereignty. This is the only country we have and it’s up to us to preserve it.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Whose fault is it?
Why is it that so many American people today seem to be willing to give up their rights for more and more entitlements and big government programs? This country has been a shining beacon for the rest of the world to admire and try to attain. Now we are trying our best to be more like the nations of Europe. Instead of leading the way in the world as we always have, we are becoming little more than MOCK EUROPEANS, soon we will be in no better shape than Greece with a U.S. deficet/GDP level of 10.6 compared to Greece's 12.2. In the near future we will be going into a period in our legislative and judicial branches of government, where many things that are potentially going to have long term affects on our society are going to be proposed. We can choose the way of Greece and the other European countries, or fall back on our good old American Founders principles of pay as you go. Democracy fails when the citizenery learn that they can pay themselves big dollars for little work from the treasury. The lazy and useless will smoother us with debt that is so great recovery will be unattainable.
Number one on their to do list is the immigration situation, what would amnesty do to our country and how will it affect our political environment? First of all, and this is just my opinion, it is a sure way for the present administration and its one sided governance to stay in power. Adding 8 to 10 million more voters to the present balance of power will without a doubt insure a liberal victory. We have seen the method of operation this administration used on the medical bill, can we expect anything different in the immigration debate? Even now we cannot afford the benefits Social Security and Medicare presently owe to the American people, so how will they finance benefits for these additional people who have never paid a dime into these programs? Am I a Bigot or Racist for questioning these things that will have such a long term effect on our way of life? Is it a racist view when I look at the events of the last few weeks, the protests basically sponsored by the Obama administration that have sprung up all over the country over the Arizona legislation, where violence and property damage are the norm? Is it fair to say that we have had enough of the border violence where Mexican drug cartels seem to have the upper hand, killing at will and slithering back across the border? There will be those who will call me racist, but in my heart I know I just say what’s on my mind and race plays no part in my concerns.
We were promised an open and bi-partisan government, wasn’t it that all debates of major proportions would be televised on C-Span for all to witness. We have had the most secretive and derisive period in our governmental history in the last two years. We have had lie after lie exposed not by the adversaries of this administration but by their own words captured on video both during the campaign and after the election. Who’s at home out there, does anyone even seem to care that we are in a freefall towards a new and lesser version of America? I never thought that in my lifetime I would see so many people in this country sit idly by and watch the dissolution of our nation.
This hasn’t just happened; it has been coming for a long time. We’ve sat still as they eliminated God from our lives to protect a minority who felt threatened. We’ve sat still while our enemies in the world have successfully blocked our every attempt at security in the United Nations even though we pay the largest portion of its existence. We’ve sat idly by as our nation’s public schools have dumbed down the curriculum to the point that in some cities the graduation rate is less than 50%. We have watched as our cities and states have been forced because of political correctness to print all public documents in so many different languages, who pays for this?
We have a government who has absolutely ignored the majority’s desires in order to push its own agenda; we have a Federal Court system that is supposed to interpret the laws of the land who actually bend them to meet their own philosophies. The most maddening thing of all is we have a populace who stands idly by continuing to elect the same old tired horses yet always expecting a different outcome.
And they wonder why we go to Tea Party’s
Number one on their to do list is the immigration situation, what would amnesty do to our country and how will it affect our political environment? First of all, and this is just my opinion, it is a sure way for the present administration and its one sided governance to stay in power. Adding 8 to 10 million more voters to the present balance of power will without a doubt insure a liberal victory. We have seen the method of operation this administration used on the medical bill, can we expect anything different in the immigration debate? Even now we cannot afford the benefits Social Security and Medicare presently owe to the American people, so how will they finance benefits for these additional people who have never paid a dime into these programs? Am I a Bigot or Racist for questioning these things that will have such a long term effect on our way of life? Is it a racist view when I look at the events of the last few weeks, the protests basically sponsored by the Obama administration that have sprung up all over the country over the Arizona legislation, where violence and property damage are the norm? Is it fair to say that we have had enough of the border violence where Mexican drug cartels seem to have the upper hand, killing at will and slithering back across the border? There will be those who will call me racist, but in my heart I know I just say what’s on my mind and race plays no part in my concerns.
We were promised an open and bi-partisan government, wasn’t it that all debates of major proportions would be televised on C-Span for all to witness. We have had the most secretive and derisive period in our governmental history in the last two years. We have had lie after lie exposed not by the adversaries of this administration but by their own words captured on video both during the campaign and after the election. Who’s at home out there, does anyone even seem to care that we are in a freefall towards a new and lesser version of America? I never thought that in my lifetime I would see so many people in this country sit idly by and watch the dissolution of our nation.
This hasn’t just happened; it has been coming for a long time. We’ve sat still as they eliminated God from our lives to protect a minority who felt threatened. We’ve sat still while our enemies in the world have successfully blocked our every attempt at security in the United Nations even though we pay the largest portion of its existence. We’ve sat idly by as our nation’s public schools have dumbed down the curriculum to the point that in some cities the graduation rate is less than 50%. We have watched as our cities and states have been forced because of political correctness to print all public documents in so many different languages, who pays for this?
We have a government who has absolutely ignored the majority’s desires in order to push its own agenda; we have a Federal Court system that is supposed to interpret the laws of the land who actually bend them to meet their own philosophies. The most maddening thing of all is we have a populace who stands idly by continuing to elect the same old tired horses yet always expecting a different outcome.
And they wonder why we go to Tea Party’s
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Opinions and history should have a common thread.
Like many of you, the older I get the more opinionated I become. Our opinions usually come from personal experiences that one lives through in his or her life. I have never understood Anarchy in any form, my love for this country and what it has always stood for runs too deep in my heart for that. During the riots at the democratic convention in ’68 in Chicago and the resulting chaos of misguided college students who were being molded into Mini Marxists by radical college professors, I could see that the America that I loved was being torn apart from within. When Ronald Reagan came on the scene the great silent majority in America spoke loudly for the first time in our history. This resulted in a reconfirmation in our patriotism and a rekindling of American passion for freedom in our country.
What has happened since? The great silent majority went back into their shells and allowed the radical Mini Marxists of the ‘60’s me generation to continue their assault on our education system and to sneak into our government unchecked. The idea of self responsibility and the concept of hard work yielding great rewards that built this great country, has now given way to massive entitlement programs that we don’t seem to be able to live without. Owning a business in this new world of ours is trying at best, the government at all levels State and Federal seems to think that they can continue to squeeze us and money will just flow out of every orifice. The banks that are supposed to help build American industry are no different than the government, they will squeeze out the marrow of our businesses and leave the skeleton to perish.
I started this conversation talking about Anarchy and true to form we are once again seeing the lessons we failed to learn from in the 60’s coming back to life. The legal citizens of Arizona fed up with the failure of the Federal Government to act in support of our immigration laws and to protect our borders, have enacted nothing more than a reaffirmation of our federal laws in regards to immigration laws. They did this after senseless crime and murder in their State became almost commonplace. The President being an avowed political activist has told the people of Arizona to protest against this new law. The resulting demonstrations will eventually lead to a growing division within the State between the Hispanic population and the White population. This is just another form of the divide, weaken and conquer tactics right out of the teachings of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ studied by Obama in his formative years.
America is at a crossroads and the elections in November will decide which road we will travel for the next several generations. My guess is that the Silent Majority, democrats, republicans and independents will once again raise their voices at the ballot box, and move this country back to the center of the axis, an axis of commonsense government and free enterprise that made this country the greatest in the world.
What has happened since? The great silent majority went back into their shells and allowed the radical Mini Marxists of the ‘60’s me generation to continue their assault on our education system and to sneak into our government unchecked. The idea of self responsibility and the concept of hard work yielding great rewards that built this great country, has now given way to massive entitlement programs that we don’t seem to be able to live without. Owning a business in this new world of ours is trying at best, the government at all levels State and Federal seems to think that they can continue to squeeze us and money will just flow out of every orifice. The banks that are supposed to help build American industry are no different than the government, they will squeeze out the marrow of our businesses and leave the skeleton to perish.
I started this conversation talking about Anarchy and true to form we are once again seeing the lessons we failed to learn from in the 60’s coming back to life. The legal citizens of Arizona fed up with the failure of the Federal Government to act in support of our immigration laws and to protect our borders, have enacted nothing more than a reaffirmation of our federal laws in regards to immigration laws. They did this after senseless crime and murder in their State became almost commonplace. The President being an avowed political activist has told the people of Arizona to protest against this new law. The resulting demonstrations will eventually lead to a growing division within the State between the Hispanic population and the White population. This is just another form of the divide, weaken and conquer tactics right out of the teachings of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ studied by Obama in his formative years.
America is at a crossroads and the elections in November will decide which road we will travel for the next several generations. My guess is that the Silent Majority, democrats, republicans and independents will once again raise their voices at the ballot box, and move this country back to the center of the axis, an axis of commonsense government and free enterprise that made this country the greatest in the world.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The greatest work of man
What is the greatest plan mankind ever devised?
Let me give you a hint , it begins with;
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
The greatest Document ever written starts out like this;
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The sad thing is that few Americans even have taken the time to read and attempt to understand either of these history making declarations. The Constitution is the blueprint for freedom here in the United States and although amendments have been offered and ratified the basic principles have remained the same as it was originally laid out by its creators. When you think about it the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in essence signing their own death warrants, their bravery in the face of the overwhelming strength of the English is a lesson for all future generations.
It doesn’t really matter what political party you belong to, political party’s are like popular music they change greatly from time to time. Pride in America and a real understanding of our history makes you an American Patriot. Understanding our history will make us all stronger in the end. I know not all Americans have the same convictions and the same personal beliefs, that’s what makes us so great. The one common denominator in all Americans is the great freedoms we enjoy, we must never allow them to be squandered for entitlements that in essence are just designed to take away personal responsibilities.
Let me give you a hint , it begins with;
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
The greatest Document ever written starts out like this;
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The sad thing is that few Americans even have taken the time to read and attempt to understand either of these history making declarations. The Constitution is the blueprint for freedom here in the United States and although amendments have been offered and ratified the basic principles have remained the same as it was originally laid out by its creators. When you think about it the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in essence signing their own death warrants, their bravery in the face of the overwhelming strength of the English is a lesson for all future generations.
It doesn’t really matter what political party you belong to, political party’s are like popular music they change greatly from time to time. Pride in America and a real understanding of our history makes you an American Patriot. Understanding our history will make us all stronger in the end. I know not all Americans have the same convictions and the same personal beliefs, that’s what makes us so great. The one common denominator in all Americans is the great freedoms we enjoy, we must never allow them to be squandered for entitlements that in essence are just designed to take away personal responsibilities.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Truth is an important part of history
A question comes to mind during these times we are presently struggling through, it has to do with the pride of America. When I look back on my memory and believe me that takes some doing at times, I seem to recall that is was we Americans who were first among those that stepped in and saved China from total domination and murder by the Japanese. The rape of Nanking was totally unjustified and stirred the hearts of even the pacifists here in America. Now the true history of this may require too strong of language to teach in elementary school but surely by the junior year it should be part of their curriculum. After all history is history and if we gloss over the bad parts we fail to learn from the experience. It also is buried deep in my old brain that when Hitler decided that he was the man to rule all of Europe it was the American GI that risked all to halt the Nazi’s. Russia probably wouldn’t be speaking Russian today if it hadn’t been for America’s ability to produce thousands of fighter bombers and get them to Russia along with millions of tons of supplies to repel the German onslaught that was on the verge annihilating the Russian army.
I bring these things up to make the point that first of all we have nothing to ever apologize to any of these countries for what we have done to protect freedom in the world. Education is our only hope of restoring the pride in our history by our youth that seems to have faded over the years. Without American influence the world would be a very dangerous place. When I meet our young kids who serve in the military today I feel they represent the history of all who have gone before them. I can without reservation shake their hands and say thank you for your great service. There are those in this country that feel our military are the aggressors not the saviors, to me these people should study the history of our fighting forces and see where we and the rest of the world would be without their ever present courage and perseverance.
I know that some will bring up isolated misdeeds like the terrible massacre at Melee or other individual actions that were not supported by anyone but the individuals involved to discredit our forces, but most Americans realize the how precious our freedoms are and how costly they are to sustain.
For us to fail to pass down the true history of events to our children is criminal and will in time come back to haunt our society. When we fail to learn from history we are doomed to repeat it, if it is glossed over for political correctness or politics in general, our future generations will suffer for it. Americans found the pride and the courage to pull themselves out of a deep depression in the thirties and go on to save the cause of freedom for millions of people all over the world. We have the greatest country that the world has ever experienced and it has flourished because of our personal beliefs in freedom and our love and protection of our Constitution. We need to stand by this document and demand our elected representatives live by its principles.
I bring these things up to make the point that first of all we have nothing to ever apologize to any of these countries for what we have done to protect freedom in the world. Education is our only hope of restoring the pride in our history by our youth that seems to have faded over the years. Without American influence the world would be a very dangerous place. When I meet our young kids who serve in the military today I feel they represent the history of all who have gone before them. I can without reservation shake their hands and say thank you for your great service. There are those in this country that feel our military are the aggressors not the saviors, to me these people should study the history of our fighting forces and see where we and the rest of the world would be without their ever present courage and perseverance.
I know that some will bring up isolated misdeeds like the terrible massacre at Melee or other individual actions that were not supported by anyone but the individuals involved to discredit our forces, but most Americans realize the how precious our freedoms are and how costly they are to sustain.
For us to fail to pass down the true history of events to our children is criminal and will in time come back to haunt our society. When we fail to learn from history we are doomed to repeat it, if it is glossed over for political correctness or politics in general, our future generations will suffer for it. Americans found the pride and the courage to pull themselves out of a deep depression in the thirties and go on to save the cause of freedom for millions of people all over the world. We have the greatest country that the world has ever experienced and it has flourished because of our personal beliefs in freedom and our love and protection of our Constitution. We need to stand by this document and demand our elected representatives live by its principles.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
What will America be in 2011? Two sides two views
What will America be in 2011? Two sides, two views.
The difference being the elections of November 2010. If the makeup of congress remains the same it is obvious we will have a much different country after the elections than we have lived in previously. Cap and Trade, Amnesty and higher taxes are just a few new laws that we can expect to be faced with. Each one has the ability to affect our way of life tremendously. Cap and Trade for example will without any argument raise our utilities and fuel prices greatly. It is a special tax on resource uses and is designed to reduce the use of green house gas producers. The argument is that either Global Warming is the effect of man made pollution, or a natural change that has been experienced in generations past. Just about everyone agrees that the world is changing slightly and that these changes will have an effect on the weather. Are they natural or man made is the question and science is split 50/50 on the answer. Historical science shows us that the earth is constantly evolving. Areas like Northern Nevada were at one time tropical like, and covered in large inland seas. There once was a land bridge from the European Continent to America across the Arctic. Wooly Mammoth remains have been found in Southern California indicating that it was once in a frigid state. Could the changes we are now experiencing be the result of this phenomena or is mans appetite for comfort destroying our planets ability to recover?
In the area of Amnesty we will be asked to make changes in our country that will have an effect on everything from future elections to our ability to maintain our present entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. We are going to be asked to give up our Sovereignty and open our borders. This is not a republican or democratic program this is a progressive society move that started with NAFTA and has continued thru both of the Bush presidencies, Clinton and now the Obama’s administration. The progressive movement has been around for a long time and has over the years slowly has shipped many of our jobs offshore by creating a desire for cheaper daily use products and promoting high cost union programs at the same time. This has made the production of many of these products impossible here in the United States closing factories effecting millions of workers. General Electric, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and many other large companies have moved much of their production away from our shores. They did this to lower costs created by over zealous union contracts and to satisfy America’s desire for cheaper products. Amnesty will create an even greater demand on our entitlements as their numbers will swell the ranks of beneficiaries. Now that we have a new law regarding our medical industry, amnesty will also stretch the limits on medical care to the point of breaking it. The costs predicted by the promoters of this program totally ignored the impact of amnesty on it. It will create a tremendous voting block for the liberal progressives and we can only expect more and more socialist like programs being approved and reducing our average American rights.
I’m not suggesting anyone change their overall views towards political parties but going back to the values we once lived so well by will take a revolution of spirit for all of us. More than any time in our history the next election will decide our future. Who we send to congress will decide who we are as a country. It is my belief that any candidate worth his or her salt would be willing to guaranty in writing that they will represent those who elected them.
The difference being the elections of November 2010. If the makeup of congress remains the same it is obvious we will have a much different country after the elections than we have lived in previously. Cap and Trade, Amnesty and higher taxes are just a few new laws that we can expect to be faced with. Each one has the ability to affect our way of life tremendously. Cap and Trade for example will without any argument raise our utilities and fuel prices greatly. It is a special tax on resource uses and is designed to reduce the use of green house gas producers. The argument is that either Global Warming is the effect of man made pollution, or a natural change that has been experienced in generations past. Just about everyone agrees that the world is changing slightly and that these changes will have an effect on the weather. Are they natural or man made is the question and science is split 50/50 on the answer. Historical science shows us that the earth is constantly evolving. Areas like Northern Nevada were at one time tropical like, and covered in large inland seas. There once was a land bridge from the European Continent to America across the Arctic. Wooly Mammoth remains have been found in Southern California indicating that it was once in a frigid state. Could the changes we are now experiencing be the result of this phenomena or is mans appetite for comfort destroying our planets ability to recover?
In the area of Amnesty we will be asked to make changes in our country that will have an effect on everything from future elections to our ability to maintain our present entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. We are going to be asked to give up our Sovereignty and open our borders. This is not a republican or democratic program this is a progressive society move that started with NAFTA and has continued thru both of the Bush presidencies, Clinton and now the Obama’s administration. The progressive movement has been around for a long time and has over the years slowly has shipped many of our jobs offshore by creating a desire for cheaper daily use products and promoting high cost union programs at the same time. This has made the production of many of these products impossible here in the United States closing factories effecting millions of workers. General Electric, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and many other large companies have moved much of their production away from our shores. They did this to lower costs created by over zealous union contracts and to satisfy America’s desire for cheaper products. Amnesty will create an even greater demand on our entitlements as their numbers will swell the ranks of beneficiaries. Now that we have a new law regarding our medical industry, amnesty will also stretch the limits on medical care to the point of breaking it. The costs predicted by the promoters of this program totally ignored the impact of amnesty on it. It will create a tremendous voting block for the liberal progressives and we can only expect more and more socialist like programs being approved and reducing our average American rights.
I’m not suggesting anyone change their overall views towards political parties but going back to the values we once lived so well by will take a revolution of spirit for all of us. More than any time in our history the next election will decide our future. Who we send to congress will decide who we are as a country. It is my belief that any candidate worth his or her salt would be willing to guaranty in writing that they will represent those who elected them.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
What's going to happen now?
I guess now the proof is in the pudding, the deal is done and we can only wait to find out the real outcome. Of course I’m referring to the Healthcare Bill that was just pushed down our throats. This is as clever a deception as I’ve ever seen in politics and believe me in my 68 years I’ve seen some beauties. Here we are going to pay for this for the next 4 years before we see the benefit or at least most of the benefits. I am a firm believer that we needed to reform the system but I can’t for the life of me understand why we had to destroy what we had to do so. What ever happened to the concept of testing the water? Here we are jumping into what may be the shallow end of the pool head first. I could understand eliminating the precondition loophole in insurance to make sure everyone could get affordable coverage plus I think medical insurance should be open to purchase across state lines. Eliminating a lot of frivolous lawsuits would also be a benefit, I still don’t agree with the law that allowed doctors and lawyers to advertise their services. (This one won’t make me any friends’) For you kids it wasn’t always like that. In the old days ambulance chasing lawyers had to do it on foot. Doctors were doctors and treated you as a patient not a customer. Families used to have relationships with their physicians, now days they have to beg for an appointment.
When you take a small business like ours that has just suffered through what I would call a major depression in the auto industry, and add the financial burden of additional taxes and increased medical insurance payments it becomes a life and death problem. For example, we pay close to $7,000 a month for our share of the employees medical insurance. With this new program it seems the ones that didn’t want coverage are now going to have it mandated. This gives us three choices, increase our payments for those who now have to have it, find less coverage in general or opt out and pay the government fine for non compliance. Doesn’t sound like a very attractive scenario no matter which way we go. Small businesses like ours are the biggest employers in the country and this will just add one more burden on all of them.
When we should be creating jobs, our government seems bent on running the providers of jobs out of business. Thomas Jefferson our third President made several pertinent quotes just about this type of situation. From Mr. Jefferson’s lips; “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts.” The third and most succinct quote is; “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
Mr. Jefferson had it right way back in the beginning, my how we have lost our way!
When you take a small business like ours that has just suffered through what I would call a major depression in the auto industry, and add the financial burden of additional taxes and increased medical insurance payments it becomes a life and death problem. For example, we pay close to $7,000 a month for our share of the employees medical insurance. With this new program it seems the ones that didn’t want coverage are now going to have it mandated. This gives us three choices, increase our payments for those who now have to have it, find less coverage in general or opt out and pay the government fine for non compliance. Doesn’t sound like a very attractive scenario no matter which way we go. Small businesses like ours are the biggest employers in the country and this will just add one more burden on all of them.
When we should be creating jobs, our government seems bent on running the providers of jobs out of business. Thomas Jefferson our third President made several pertinent quotes just about this type of situation. From Mr. Jefferson’s lips; “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.” “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts.” The third and most succinct quote is; “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
Mr. Jefferson had it right way back in the beginning, my how we have lost our way!
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