Friday, December 4, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
“Specialness” for Kim
In life come challenges that just seem almost too hard to comprehend. They are problems that many look to study in order to solve. Others choose to labor over them just to make them make sense. Both, only to find that life itself often boils down to very complex exponentials that is practically unsolvable and force you to redefine life itself. What happens when in your new definition of life you learn that you have been dealt an unfair hand? You have been presented with challenges that are seemingly overwhelming. You wake in the middle of the night wondering why your life is so suddenly unfair while the lives of so many others seem so suddenly easy. The friends who once leaned on you for support in their life's problems now seem to have been complaining for nothing. The trials and tribulations in their lives are now petty. The hand you have been dealt is just that challenging. For some the redefining of life is the redefinition of self. The challenge in the problem is answered by the defining aspects of their character. They develop an altruism that is indescribable. They have a sense of self that is the epitome of patience and discipline and they are able to balance the things in life that no one wants to deal with. When our children are born we check to see if they have ten fingers and ten toes while they let out their first cry that will in weeks of time will be the source of sleepless nights. The first hurdle is cleared before some stumble over a hidden hurdle in the journey of parenthood. It can be years later that parents learn their children have challenges that set them apart from the walk of life as it was once known. This ruthless card dealt from deep within life's deck of cards is what brings them to their best. They adapt to this challenge and remain true and strong unto themselves while they commit a new level of dedication. This defining moment in life does not define them or who they are; it serves to strengthen their resolute position that life and what it holds will not defeat them. They have a unique perspective on life because they live and understand life differently. What most take for granted is a great luxury in life. Their word is a sacred pact with whomever it is shared. From them is much to be learned. Commitment to a given cause. A word given with intent of always keeping it. An altruistic sense of life. Imagine if we all carried these traits as defining characteristics of our own being. Our world would be a better world. Some understand that their world is only as good as the world is for others. The parent of some one of "specialness" has defined this understanding and refined the world of another to make their world a better world, which makes the world for us all just a bit richer with a touch more hope. Thank them. They more than deserve it! For some life is no longer taken for granted. It is a precious gift that is made sweet through persistence of character and the unconditional acceptance of challenge. Every day they face what many deny exists and do it with a sense of dignity and humility that most of do not even realize we need to be successful in life. Many have put the personal aspects of their lives on hold to become a better provider, protector and parent; while other parents spend their evenings in clubs and bars having not grown into parenthood (or adulthood for that matter). The fundamentals are perfected and built upon. The very principles of parenthood that masses of today seem to missing, they have mastered. Instead of heeding their actions, we look past them because we so desperately hope that what they have to deal with, we do not. The whole time we do this, we lose out on the keys of making our own world a better place. There is perfection found in imperfection; you just have to look and appreciate what you see.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Fingering the other
I cannot help but get drawn into politics. Largely because none of it really makes sense. It is not the lies or positions of politicians; it's the public opinion and acceptance of such lies and positions. One thing that I do understand is how emotionally driven people are; to the point of being self destructive in many cases. From a political perspective this becomes very evident, but it still confuses me. (I think because emotion often lacks logic and reason.) Going into the elections I repeatedly asked people that I knew were voting for Obama; why they were voting for him. I simply would not get a response. Pages (here) adorned with support for Obama of people who would not (or perhaps could not) say why they supported him. For someone like me, something could not be more confusing. A person with a rainbow bumper sticker is more than willing to not only announce that they are gay, but they will freely tell you why they are. A person with a pro-life bumper sticker will talk your ear off about why they stand against abortion. What would make so openly supporting a presidential candidate any different? The lack of ability to respond to such an easy question had lead me to believe they simply had no reason other than his popularity itself. If you were grading Barack Obama on his performance as president, what would he get? * 1986850 responses He gets an A 29% He gets a C 5.5% He gets an F 44% Remember, this is from a currently open survey. The first time I looked at it just over 1.2 million had responded at which time he was at 32% for an A and 42% for a F. As it approaches the 2 million mark the gap is spreading. Few are willing to openly admit that have had the wool pulled over their eyes, but in terms of anonymity they are coming forth in not so insignificant numbers. This same trend is also found in the blogs. As the election drew near pro-Obama blogs were always among the top blogs. After the inauguration his weekly address blogs were among the top blogs. They are now nowhere close to the top blogs, his support has already begun to wane. Pride prevents people from admitting this, but the signs are everywhere you look. In the blogs also lies a huge problem! Anti-Obama blogs are very negative, derogatory and demeaning to not only those that support(ed) Obama, but liberals in general. These blogs are written by very smart people who have very good ideas, their points are not heard because of the tone in which their points are being made. (You cannot call someone stupid or a moron and then expect them to be receptive to what you have to say - especially after they have come to realize that things are not going to turn out as they hoped.) Above and beyond the rhetoric lies some truths no one wants to deal with. We; as Americans are in very deep water. In fact, we are drowning; we have elected an administration that is shoving our heads under water while we try to gasp for air. All economic issues start where the dollar stopped being a dollar. Today less than two percent of Americans own the cars they drive and less than one percent owns the homes they live in. We as a culture have borrowed our way into oblivion and lack to the equity to light our course back to reality. There was a time when a dollar was a dollar and that dollar was backed by not a signature and credit score but by tangible bullion. 
This concerned me because so much was at risk because people wanted to support the man cited by the media as being a winner vice actually standing behind his positions and policies. People were so entranced by the Obama fever that it seemed to me as if they lost all ability of independent thought.
His policies pointed to one direction and one direction only. Socialism; and with socialism comes big government. I would ask a person that intended to vote for Obama how they felt about these issues. In most cases they either felt it would not happen or did not think things through to that degree. Having to make things logical, I concluded that it was not Obama himself as much as it was what he represented; Change.
The problem with wanting change is having to know what you want changed. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence; usually that is due to the added horse manure in that greener pasture. Some saw this coming and worked feverishly against it. Some bought the two year song and dance of a campaign and are now confused about which direction we are going.
Every once and while a person pops up whom I have asked about why they were voting for the way they were. Since he won the election, I figured it would be safe to again ask. No response. My Candidate; Myself spoke not only to the emotion behind such selections but the feeling of being wrong - and of course having to admit to being wrong. Through all of these months some people have come forward and said that they now feel like they have been fooled.
One person I talked to a few weeks ago literally had to hide under her desk to speak her true feelings about Obama because her office was still caught up in Obama fever. That trend seems to be gaining more and more momentum. In an online survey (which is still open) on msn.com a more accurate picture is being painted. Not one of popularity but one of performance.
He gets a B 6.2%
He gets a D 15%
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29493093/
It is us, not the president, not a political party or another country buying our debt; it ia us that has to stop borrowing and start owning our way out of this. Your life and my life are not about keeping up with the Jones'; our lives are collectively about becoming and remaining solvent in our own individual right - responisbly. We blame a lot of these problems on the government, on banks and on the greed of others. The fact of the matter is simple. It is our own individual greed and desires to have more than we could afford than it is any individual or organization that lent us the enabling credit to self destruct. A smaller home and a smaller car do little for self image but do wonders for self development and betterment. Look at it this way. A family (hell, everybody) should have a minimum of six months of living expenses in savings. We do not because our living expenses too often inhibit our ability to save. (We are living beyond our means). When something goes wrong we find ourselves immediately stuck because living paycheck to paycheck only works when you have a paycheck. Like it or not, we are in this together; liberal and conservative alike. The trend is indicating that we are rapidly approaching an all out revolt against the administration. States in large numbers are claiming sovereignty, once supports of the administration are now protesting against it and everyone is pointing a finger at all things other than their own ways of life and the excessive nature thereof. If you cannot afford a Porsche, drive a VW (they are now owned by Porsche so you still actually get one.) If you can't afford Fruit Loops buy some Kroger Sugar Frosted O's (kids say they taste the same anyway.) Until we go back to living within our own individual means; we are doomed. Imagine how effected we would all be today if we all did. There would be no recession and we could afford as a country to do the things countries need to do in order to survive in the world. Our country could support us as we do it; we first must be able to support ourselves. Sitting back and waiting for the government to find better ways to absolve ourselves of our personal responsibilities is no longer going to work. As a culture we live in the red. Spending for most households has curtailed to such a degree that we have killed off our own businesses. Increasing spending and furthering the debt of the country will have the same economic results. The country will spend itself into a freeze. It will become so entwined in debt and foreign countries will have so much interest in our treasuries the entire nation will be in the same "foreclosure" situation because it has so egregiously spent outside of its means. 
We can understand with relative ease how this is bad for a household but quickly fall into denial when it comes to a country. The same economic principles apply. No equity, in time means no return! When the dollar had value, so did our nation. Moving away from lifestyles which we could actually afford has left us in dire straits. The same thing will happen to the nation for the same reasons. (If you don't have it; don't spend it.)
In the end, a bad situation has turned worse and every passing day it worsens. The time to stop this is now and stopping it starts with individual solvency. Once we (unitedly) begin to regain equity, the country and its programs will follow. It is simply too late for the country to do it for us. If you think you can sit back and wait for the government to provide for your wants you should probably start going to the gym and work out your triceps because your hand is going to extending for a very long time.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
F#%k The Police! (while they remain strong and loyal to us!)
Too often there are articles concerning the conduct of police officers in the news. As of late, in Dallas; yet another story of a police officer using less than perfect judgment. We can speculate on racism, we speculate on corruptness; but what really happened in Dallas that day? Defied power, authority and control is what happened.
“I have my lights and sirens and they are not stopping! They know to stop! Unless they have something to hide.”
“I have my lights and sirens and they are not stopping! They know to stop! Unless they have something to hide.”
And let’s face it he was right, in part. Or unless there is something more urgent in their lives than him with his lights and sirens. To us that assumption makes complete sense, but to a police officer that is not a conclusion they are apt to jump to. Something more urgent than a police officer in pursuit? Yeah, a dying mother I think constitutes being more important.
“I see him; he will just have to wait until we get to the hospital.” Defied power, authority and control. Three elements that make police officers successful all rebuked in a display defiance due to a sense of greater urgency. Once on the scene police officer sought to gain power, authority and control.
What makes this incident stand out is this time the defiance was not a lie. Police officers get lied to all day everyday and this time the police officer was faced with the truth. People hide drugs in diapers being babies and make up the most outlandish stories to get out of the least of infractions. Could this have been handled any differently? Absolutely. He could have escorted the family inside, verified the story and called it fair and square. He would have drawn accolades for his understanding and cooperative nature. He instead took it personally. I don’t think this police officer is a racist, I simply think he felt the need to reestablish his power and authority – at a very bad time.
Things like this make us forget what police officers actually do on a daily basis. They make us forget the risks that they take t preserve the rights of citizen they have never met, don’t know and in some cases will never know; even after putting their lives on the line to do so.
Trooper Mike Haynes succumbed to injuries sustained five days earlier when a car being operated by an intoxicated driver struck his patrol car head-on on US 93 near Kalispell.
The drunk driver was driving the wrong way on the highway when the collision occurred at approximately 2:40 am. The intoxicated driver was also killed in the collision.
Trooper Haynes had served with the Montana Highway Patrol for 2 1/2 years. He is survived by his wife, two young children, and parents.
Officer John Hege and Sergeant Mark Dunakin were shot and killed during a traffic stop at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. During the stop, the driver opened fire, killing Sergeant Dunakin and mortally wounding Officer Hege. Citizens who witnessed the incident called 911 and started CPR on both officers.
The suspect fled on foot, leading to an intense manhunt by dozens of officers from the Oakland Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.
At approximately 3:30 pm, the Oakland Police Department received an anonymous tip that the suspect was barricaded inside an apartment building on 74th Avenue.
Officers first attempted to negotiate with the suspect, but when that failed a SWAT team was sent into the location to apprehend him. As the SWAT officers approached, the suspect opened fired with a rifle, killing Sergeant Ervin Romans and Sergeant Daniel Sakai, and wounding a third officer. Officers returned fire, killing the 26-year-old male suspect.
It was later determined that the suspect had an extensive violent criminal history and was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. At the time of the incident he had a no-bail parole warrant.
Sergeant Daniel Sakai and Sergeant Ervin Romans, SWAT team members, were killed when they attempted to apprehend a suspect that had earlier in the day shot and killed Sergeant Mark Dunakin and mortally wounded Officer John Hege during a traffic stop.
At approximately 1:15 pm, Sergeant Dunakin and Officer Hege, patrolling on motorcycle, pulled over a car on a traffic stop at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. During the stop, the driver opened fire, killing the officers. Citizens who witnessed the incident called 911 and started CPR on both officers.
The suspect fled on foot, leading to an intense manhunt by dozens of officers from the Oakland Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.
At approximately 3:30 pm, the Oakland Police Department received an anonymous tip that the suspect was barricaded inside an apartment building on 74th Avenue.
Officers first attempted to negotiate with the suspect, but when that failed a SWAT team was sent into the location to apprehend him. As the SWAT officers approached, the suspect opened fired with a rifle, killing Sergeants Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai and wounding a third officer. Officers returned fire, killing the 26-year-old male suspect.
It was later determined that the suspect had an extensive violent criminal history and was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. At the time of the incident he had a no-bail parole warrant.
Sergeant Sakai had served with the Oakland Police Department for nine years.
Sergeant Ervin Romans and Sergeant Daniel Sakai, SWAT team members, were killed when they attempted to apprehend a suspect that had earlier in the day shot and killed Sergeant Mark Dunakin and mortally wounded Officer John Hege during a traffic stop.
At approximately 1:15 pm, Sergeant Dunakin and Officer Hege, patrolling on motorcycle, pulled over a car on a traffic stop at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. During the stop, the driver opened fire, killing the officers. Citizens who witnessed the incident called 911 and started CPR on both officers.
The suspect fled on foot, leading to an intense manhunt by dozens of officers from the Oakland Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.
At approximately 3:30 pm, the Oakland Police Department received an anonymous tip that the suspect was barricaded inside an apartment building on 74th Avenue.
Officers first attempted to negotiate with the suspect, but when that failed a SWAT team was sent into the location to apprehend him. As the SWAT officers approached, the suspect opened fired with a rifle, killing Sergeants Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai and wounding a third officer. Officers returned fire, killing the 26-year-old male suspect.
It was later determined that the suspect had an extensive violent criminal history and was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. At the time of the incident he had a no-bail parole warrant.
Sergeant Romans had served with the Oakland Police Department for 13 years and had previously served with the United States Marine Corps.
Sergeant Mark Dunakin and Officer John Hege were shot and killed during a traffic stop at 74th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. During the stop, the driver opened fire, killing Sergeant Dunakin and mortally wounding Officer Hege. Citizens who witnessed the incident called 911 and started CPR on both officers.
The suspect fled on foot, leading to an intense manhunt by dozens of officers from the Oakland Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department.
At approximately 3:30 pm, the Oakland Police Department received an anonymous tip that the suspect was barricaded inside an apartment building on 74th Avenue.
Officers first attempted to negotiate with the suspect, but when that failed a SWAT team was sent into the location to apprehend him. As the SWAT officers approached, the suspect opened fired with a rifle, killing Sergeant Ervin Romans and Sergeant Daniel Sakai, and wounding a third officer. Officers returned fire, killing the 26-year-old male suspect.
It was later determined that the suspect had an extensive violent criminal history and was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon. At the time of the incident he had a no-bail parole warrant.
Sergeant Dunakin had served with the Oakland Police Department for 17 years and is survived by his wife and three children.
Corrections Officer Mark Parker succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained on January 10, 1984, in the Orange County Courthouse.A suspect had gone to the courthouse with the intention of shooting a police officer who had given him a traffic ticket. The suspect entered a courtroom and exchanged gunfire with Deputy Harry Dalton, mortally wounding him. He then shot and killed Deputy Arnold Wilkerson in the courtroom and shot at the judge, but missed.
After exiting the courtroom he exchanged shots with another deputy in hallway. Officer Parker, who was unarmed, was caught in the crossfire while attempting to shield citizens in the hallway. He was left paralyzed from the chest down and required round-the-clock care for the remainder of his life.
The suspect was convicted of murder and executed in June of 2000. Officer Parker attended the execution.
Officer Parker had served with the Orange County Department of Corrections for only one year, and was 19 years old at the time of the shooting. He was later made an honorary deputy.
It has been a long week for police officers. Many of these names, faces and incidents are not familiar to most. A fallen police officer tends to be local news with emphasis not on the police officer and the things they were doing to protect and serve, but on all of the things wrong with the person that turned fine and courageous men and women into mere statistics aired locally. There is a problem when this face is more popular!
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An offer’s whose mistaken actions outweigh and is more popular than those that have paid the ultimate price acting on the front lines of protecting civil liberties.
Currently there are more than 800,000 men and women in blue. We see “Protect and Serve” but perhaps do not really understand what lies underneath. The moment that your inalienable rights are so much as suggested as being infringed; these men and women are there. When your safety “could” be jeopardized; these men and women are there. A lapse in focus on a busy day; these men and women are there trying to get your keys out of your car for you. Helping you change a flat tire on a busy highway while they direct you stand off to side safe putting their lives on the line to help you just get home from work. And in thanks we glorify the less than perfect.
They put their personal feelings aside to uphold the constitution for all. For a while they were all heroes following the terrorist attacks on September 11th and honored around the nation for their heroic actions.
But as time pushes on, our memories fail and our perverse desire for the undesirable forces our memories to ebb the good to find reason, justification and rationalization usher in the bad. This is not fair representation of what these men and women do for us. We repeatedly snub our noses at them while they unyielding go forth with a sense of duty that most Americans have no way of understanding.
What if; one day they got fed up and said F#&k You back! What if; one day they decided that enough is enough and our pretentious attitudes towards them would no longer be tolerated? What if; one day the just walked off the job and told us to fend for ourselves? Given the way we treat them, we have every right to do so! They won’t of course because their loyalty to us far exceeds our loyalty to them!
If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?
Dolores Huerta
Perhaps our inability to forgive them in these current times is a greater reflection of ourselves!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The US is planning to boycott the UN conference on racism.
Many are assuming the US boycott is about what the US has to hide as far as racism within our country. Several things come to mind on this. I really do not think that this is so much an issue of our nation being perceived as racist by other nations, but more of our nation's support of Israel. The cited reason for the boycott is unflattering verbiage that stands to (further) darken Israel's reputation in its handling of Palestine and Muslims in general. Agree or disagree with the war, truce, war, cease fire, war relationship between the Muslims and Israel, the bottom line is that Israel refuses to ebb to the Arabs. One first has to understand the history of the conflict and our unyielding support of Israel in their efforts to both claim and keep a homeland (Zionism). Jews started entering what is now Israel in the 1920's and 1930's and given statehood by a fledgling UN in the 1950's. The Arabs (Muslims) were strongly opposed to this and fought their immigration both politically and violently. Problem was the Jews kept kicking their asses every time they were attacked. The Jews were given half the land by the UN and were again attacked. The results were the same and Israel pushed the fight deeper and deeper into Palestine and forced the Palestinian Arabs into the final quarter of the territory which made over 700,000 Arabs refugees who sought shelter in tent cities in Syria. The UN offered to take these refugees in but they insisted in remaining refugees while they waited for the Muslims to again reclaim their land from the Jews. Under political pressure from Arab states and the UN, Israel withdrew – not from being forced out. Their withdrawal was viewed as an Arab and Muslim victory and not a political concession. The "victory" fueled the motivation of Muslims to fight and they have relentlessly attacked the Jews in forms of war and terrorism since. For Jews in this Muslim "holy land" there is no peace in life and there is no peace of mind. It is either fight or be again run out of a homeland. So, they fight and we (America) support their fight. One way of looking at this is from the Islamic perspective. Jews (a much hated infidel) is not only living on their holy land, but Israel has persecuted and oppressed its people! This religion is notorious for its hatred of infidels to begin with, when you add the fact that they keep getting defeated by said infidels it serves only to add insult to injury to a very proud people. Our support of Israel is largely why we (America) fall under attack by Muslims and Muslim Extremists – and of course, we too are infidels in their eyes. In reading the current definitions of infidels in Islamic propaganda you repeatedly find Christians, Jews and Atheists /Pagans; which has replaced Polytheists. (To us, Atheists and Pagans are two completely different things but to them they are one in the same). Semantics aside, Islam revolts against all that which is not of its own religion. It is a religion that is both written and designed to conquer all religions that are not Islam. The Koran is a "timeless" write that directly reads to oppress, tax, and fight to the finish against any person or religion that refuses to accept it (Islam) as world order. That is of particular importance at this time because the new administration is under the impression that this is an enemy in which we can simply disengage and walk away from. We look to draw down the troops in Iraq, we look to politically speak directly to a government that does not separate church and state (not to say that we do) with a "we are not your foe" statement as if these acts will allow us to fly under the radar against an enemy that stands against us by its very design. Our withdrawal, just as Israel's withdrawal will be viewed as a victory and new violence will be garnished as it reward. (Mark my words on that)! In our defense of Israel and our boycott of this conference; "…unless the final document is changed to drop all references to Israel and the defamation of religion". The U.S. and Israel walked out midway through that eight-day meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism — the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state — to racism. The anti Zionist movement is purely Muslim and in their eyes are grounds for religious genocide. Canada (by the way) is also looking to boycott the conference. The irony here is that the conference is named Durban II. The initial conference (Durban) in 2001 was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and slavery. Here we have a conference that is enabling religious oppression by Islam at the expense of the only Jewish State in existence in the name of racism directed against the Jew that eight short years ago stood against the Middle East. (The word hypocrisy should slamming into your temples right about now). Should the conference let out and globally speak against Israel, the country and religion will be set back more than 50 years of evolutionary development. The consequence of such actions could lead to the fall of Judaism given that more than 48% of its followers live in Israel. This is exactly how Zoroastrianism fell to Islam (less the political involvement of global sympathizers). This is what Islam does; it eradicates competing world religions and forces violence through intolerance. (This is not to be taken as a slight to Muslims. It is simply stating the design and nature of this religion). Jihad's Future speaks to this outside of the conference. Boycotting is the new administration's way of not supporting the UN's stance against Israel. In not supporting it, our current administration assumes a very passive and cowardly role. We wish to not further agitate the Muslims by speaking in support of Israel and therefore against them. We will be dragged into this regardless. Shortly following the conference (should it go forth on the current agenda) Muslims will have found both political and global validation in their agenda of intolerance and aggressively move forward against Zionism. We will either assist Israel militarily or we will (in our life time) watch the fall of a world religion. You may note that the founding Monotheistic religion is Zoroastrianism. It was born in the Middle East but is now considered an Indian religion because Islam forced the few remaining followers out of the Middle East after killing the rest. Zoroastrianism now comprises .07% of encompassed world religions; the FOUNDING monotheistic religion was written of the books as a Middle Eastern religion and eradicated by a religion it gave birth to. This religion did not lose followers to more progressive religions; its followers were slaughtered, enslaved and driven out by Islam. Judaism is next. As much as our boycott seems that it is about what we have to hide as a nation, it's not. It's about Israel, it's about religion and it's about the US becoming passive and cowardly under the new administration. Only by standing firm can we gain respect and stop such acts. In effect, our passivity is ignorantly enabling the Muslim movement of dominance. One then has to question what happens next. Understanding Islam, I think it obvious. They will seek new territory and continue efforts in Africa to push Christianity out. It will look to deepen its grip in Europe and gain further economic strength. Then its aggression will intensify here in the US. If this sounds in the least bit farfetched take a quick look at the progression of Islam. Study the Koran. Learn about Jihad. Notice how in the religion of Islam "love" is used. Identify how martyrdom is rewarded. And then ask how can there ever be peace with a religion such as Islam gaining such political strength through its corrosion and corruption of the UN. There are simply no nice answers to be found. I am not anti Muslim. I am however anti oppression. The Jews are lifelong victims of oppression by Muslims. A great deal of the genocide carried out against the Jews by the Germans was orchestrated by a banished Muslim leader and his followers when they fled Palestine to Libya. And for me, therein lies the problem. We like to think that conferences such as Durban II are about us. Hell, we like to think everything is about us but we forget to look back before we look forward. In looking back we can gain better perspective on the events of today and can begin to draw reasonable conclusions as to what lies in store in future years. It is from that perspective that I gauge this on. How the UN can draft a conference that enables anti Zionist temperament is of grave concern. The very organization that granted Jews statehood now moves to sign its death certificate and all because Israel refuses to succumb as both a state and religion to Islam. To me (and this is just my opinion) the UN now has an Islamic agenda; while it may or may not fully understand the history of Islam, this agenda is ill fated for all but Muslims. Israel reserves the right to fight so long as they continue to fall under attack by Muslims and Muslim Extremists – just as you and I do, just as America does and just as any nation or any people do. Fighting oppression, enslavement and for your home is beyond human in terms of condition. It is a natural condition innate to all living creatures. The worst thing that can happen is the UN revokes statehood at which time ethnic cleansing will commence and the Middle East will erupt in full war as Israel falls. Pulling out of Iraq serves this agenda as it will allow Muslims to concentrate efforts and resources on Israel. The best thing that can happen is this issue is stricken from the conference and the Muslim agenda goes unaddressed as it pertains to Israel in this forum and is thus not globally validated. The best simply meaning delaying the inevitable fight that is to come shortly after our withdrawal. The fight will be less popular from a Muslim perspective, but they are going to fight. Israel is no slouch. The fight will get ugly and get ugly fast but with the added resources, Israel this time may very well fall and history will again begin repeat itself as we watch the destruction of a religion because it is simply not of the Islamic religion. (Or Israel can pay the Muslims to coexist as the Islamic religion is written). Like I said, there are no nice answers on this. As one of my readers asked me not to long ago on this issue with Islam and Judaism; "Is this our fight?" My best answer is it will be our fight sooner or later; and the later the fight the worse the fight. The problem in letting it happen is the growth and spread of Islam. Fighting a smaller foe today is always better than fighting a bigger stronger foe tomorrow; but again, the fight will be fought. No one likes the idea of it but that's just how things are in today's world. The global fighting you see is ALL BASED ON RELIGION. The political wars we saw to stop the spread of communism and non democratic governments are gone. Today's fighting is different but the ideology is the same. One group feels the other is different and therefore bad. Until Islam stops (or is stopped) these are the new wars of the current age. Anything that violently lashes out at everything that is different to it will eventually come knocking on your front door. These people knocked on ours very noticeably on September 11th 2001. Failing to stop its progression only guarantees they will again come knocking. To teach them to stop knocking, you must prove to them they never again want to as much as walk the path to your door. This is exactly what we are currently undoing. Closing Gitmo. Releasing detainees while the fight continues (both administrations with more blame going to Bush's in this case) and attempting to try detainees as if the robbed a Best Buy or a Walmart. We are trying to fight a politically correct war with more concern of being liked as a nation than being feared and respected as a nation. The message that sends is that we are weak. We are the sheep cowering from the wolf. They will be back because we are not showing them it is in their best interests to stay away. Some military leaders such as General Black Jack Pershing understood how to handle such threats in terms that Muslim Extremists could understand. Until we bring that temperament and understanding back, this is the way the world will be. We can convict a US Marine for over reacting a killing an Iraqi man but we struggle to bring the masterminds of 9/11 to trial. We have detained and released a Muslim Extremist who is now the head Taliban officer fighting against the troop buildup in Afghanistan. Do we really think this is the way to be respected by an enemy? The Durban II UN Conference on Global Racism as written today in its agenda poses Islamic Militant temperament as correct and undermines the need of understanding how this religion poses a threat to all ways of life. A boycott is a cowardly act. It is the US stating that it is scared to go forth and publically stand up against Muslim Extremists, Terrorists and support the next nation that will fall victim to it. Seeing things like this validates that living in war is better than living in fear and denial. Putting things off only leaves them unfinished. Somehow we have to realize that this is not a nice world, this is not a peaceful world and come to the reality at some point we must either take measures to stop Muslim agendas or fall victim to them. It is not a crime to be both liberal and have a set of nuts; it's just that the two (like Islam and everything else in the world) cannot manage to coexist. And I thought Carter was bad! -T
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Flag
Long May I Wave I AM THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
By Howard Schnauber
I am the flag of the United States of America.
My name is "Old Glory".
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom.
I am confident.
I am arrogant.
I am proud.
When I am flown with my fellow banners,
My head is a little higher,
My colors a little truer.
I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped -- I am saluted.
I am loved -- I am revered.
I am respected -- and I am feared.
I have fought in every battle of every war
for more then 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg,
Shiloh and Appomattox.
I was there at San Juan Hill,
the trenches of France,
in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome
and the beaches of Normandy, Guam,
Okinawa, Korea, and Vietnam.
I was there. I led my troops.
I was dirty, battle-weary and tired,
but my soldiers cheered me
And I was proud.
I have been burned, torn and trampled
on the streets of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn
and trampled on the streets of my country.
And when it's by those whom I've served in battle -- it hurts.
But I shall overcome -- for I am strong.
I have slipped the bonds of Earth
and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space
from my vantage point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness
to all of America's finest hours.
But my finest hours are yet to come.
When I am torn into strips
and used as bandages
for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldier,
Or when I lie in the trembling arms
of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,
I am proud.
MY NAME IS "OLD GLORY".
LONG MAY I WAVE.
DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN,
LONG MAY I WAVE.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Moron of the Month
This has been sitting in draft form for the better part of ten days until I got one too many hate mails last night for being late with Moron of the Month.
Enter "Murray". If you are from the north; that’s Murrie. If you are from the Kountray-fied south; that’s Murrauh. If you are from Boston; well you are pretty much assed out because there are too many R’s in his name for you to even begin to pronounce.
Either way one chooses to pronounce it (or not for my Bostonian readers), "tool" is always acceptable.
Murray’s story comes by way of a friend in the Southern AZ region. He got to meet Murray as he was rushed into the ER of a local hospital.
Murray just is not that smart of a guy. Not a bad guy, just that he is not a smart guy either. We all know the type. The guys that get themselves into "situations" because they do stupid things; it’s not that they really get into "trouble". We all have friends like that.
(Duke Farley from "Hot Butter Beans" fame was like that. In fact, it was how I got to know him. In Kindergarten Duke got bored and stuck his head through the back supports of his chair. Now I watched him do this. He diligently worked for what had to be a half hour trying to squeeze his fat ass head through that tiny little slot on the back of the chair between the two wood slats. As always determination pays, and his head popped through there just like he was being born all over. And much like Ms Farley would have reacted, the chair was having nothing to do with him going back the direction from which he came and thus, he and that chair were stuck like two Chihuahuas in heat. All that pushing made his ears swell. It was like a safety lock on a door. He was going nowhere and the chair remained on his head for four and half hours - the best first day of Kindergarten ever).
Not that Duke was bad, it is just that he would find himself in situations that could have easily been prevented.
Mr. Murray was of much the same. His grandfather detested the fact that Murray was so stupid and would demand that his mother send him down to his remote ranch to help with some work "to toughen the lad up and make him grow some common sense with his balls." (The irony in that comment will soon make sense).
Murray’s grandfather is himself a hot mess. Old school in every sense of the word, he believes that America is America and one should not enter without appropriate approval. Complicating this issue, Ol’ GrandPa Murray’s ranch is waaaaay down south in AZ and pretty much sits on the border of Mexico. His Devine idea was to put an electric fence around his property to "shock the piss" out of any would be trespassers. He had the fence installed and got a kick out of the occasional BUZZZZ POP in the wee morning hours.
Re-enter Murray our tool in question. Murray arrived one early morning to help Ol’ GandPa Murray around the ranch. On his chore list was the electric fence. With the size of the ranch in mind Murray grabs some beer and jumps on the AVT and off he goes to first tend to the animals before heading out to the fence.
This global warming winter we had our fair share of snow in AZ and on this fateful morning snow covered the ground as Murray blazed his way out to the fence. Five beers later Murray arrives. With nature calling he begins to wonder if the fence has been turned off.
[There is a little trick to electric fences when there is snow on the ground. If the snow line stops at the fence; it’s on. If the snow runs through the fence; it (could be) off. Checking the switch and LOCKING IT TO THE OFF POSITION WHILE YOU TAKE THE KEY WITH YOU IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA. Unless you name is murray anyway.]
Our inebriated Murray decided to kill two birds with one stone and arched a golden flow of very temporary relief on the fence. BUZZZZ POP! and Murray made instant raisins out of his tater tots. I know as guys we can cut the flow of the golden stream in times of dire need but no man can cut the flow faster than that blue bolt was racing towards his soon to be prosthetic tool of a tool. The shock of the shock; not the shock itself but the shock of what got shocked sent Murray into shock. He lay in a penis smoldering heap awaiting rescue by Ol’ GrandPa Murray - who decided to drench the smoldering, shriveled appendage with nice cold beer. Our Murray was now wide and awake and screaming bloody murder. To silince the lad (And I guess to toughen him up a bit) Ol' GrandPa gives his raisins a nice hardy kick. (Good looking out pops)!
To the ER they go and greeted by the person who submitted the story an ER physician I have known for a few years. Doc Croc had never seen anything like this. Confused, he asked the obvious and got the answer he least expected. "My whiz grand son checked to see if the electric fence was on by taking a whiz on it. He started screaming so I gave him a good swift boot to the balls. If he wants to scream like a girl I could at least try to make the lad one." To which Doc Croc laughed so uncontrollably that he had to have another doc fill in for him.
What did we learn from Murray’s plight? Nothing at all. People do stupid things at stupid times, all with varying degrees of failure, but only one can be selected as Moron of the Month!
Congratulations Murray!
BUZZZZ POP!
-T
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Are we on our side or not?
A few weeks ago I said it was time to bring back some old writes and see where they stand now as the economic, political and religious landscapes of the world change.
A rough draft of an article "Gitmo, Gitmo, Gitmo" drew its fair share of liberal fire. Problem is this is not a liberal v. conservative issue. It was under the Bush administration that these detainees began being released not obama.
My position is simply that once these people are detained; they should pretty much be left to rot in there. Jihad’s intent is the destruction of Christianity and Judaism. With these people at large, peace has about as much chance as a gold fish in a piranha tank. (Jihad’s Future).
So what has happened to bring this Gitmo issue back into the lime light? It is not the five going to trail for the 9/11 attacks (though I do have a draft on that); Mullah Abdullah Zakir, a former Gitmo detainee has resurfaced. Only he is now the new top Taiban operations officer in southern Afghanistan. His mission is to counter the US troop surge. Nice huh? A guy we had is now the man leading the attack against the buildup.
According to the Pentagon 18 released detainees have "returned to the fight" and 43 had returned to terrorist activities. That is 61 detainees that we had our mitts on that we have allowed to go back to bring harm to troops abroad. Does this not seem in the least bit counterproductive? I said in Feb that Gitmo will only work if those detained remain detained. As things are turning out; one would be hard pressed to argue that. Closing Gitmo as we build up in Afghanistan is a concern because it was the only detention center designed for long term detainment. Do you mean to tell me then that we are going to bring everyone we detain back here for trail?
The reason Zakir was released was simply because they did not have the evidence needed to convict. This causes a huge issue for the men and women fighting this war under these bureaucratic conditions. Seeing things like this, these men and women know that if they "detain" a person, chances are good they will be back in the fight and that next encounter may not end well for our guys. If they instead put a nice hot 7.62 round through their brain housing group to keep them forevermore out of the fight; they get investigated to determine if the act was justified. The same attorneys that are trying these Muslim Extremists are trying our troops. Many say this war is not winnable. Under these rules, this war is not winnable though it very well could be. To again quote Cheney; "The United States needs to not so much be loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes that requires us to take actions that generate controversy." Hell, Americans do not respect America right now and we think fighting a kinder and gentler war is the way to go about this. To try to convict and not kill your enemy? That will not work if our state prisons are releasing convicts because they cannot afford to house them. This simply means that they will be released back to the fight no matter what; convicted or not! Who do we really think we are fooling here?
We are struggling to put these 9/11 masterminds on trail that have all but admitted their roll in killing 3000 Americans but we have tried and convicted Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins for killing one Iraqi civilian in no time flat. Are we on our own side or not?
We will either learn to take the gloves and get down to business or we can continue to run in these same circles of doing the same thing over and over while we expect different results and better outcomes.
I am not saying this Marine Sgt was right in his actions but when you look and the results so far, one Iraqi man’s life has more value than the 3000 American lives lost on the 9/11 attacks. This does not have to be this difficult. Those captured need to remain out of the picture until such a time that this Muslim Extremist threat against the American way of life is neutralized. If they spend a life time "detained"; so be it. It is better that the world understands we mean business. This Mr. Nice Guy crap has got to stop. General Black Jack Pershing realized that respect meant taking the issues Muslim Extremists bring forth seriously and acting in a manner in which they can relate to garners both respect and positive results. Today his actions would have gotten him jailed, yet following his actions there was not another Muslim Extremist attack on Americans for 42 years. We have grown weak in our resolve to protect our way of life because we taken it for granted for too long.
"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." The question that persists is whether we are truly interested and committed to bringing this war to an end. Under these political conditions we are interested in neither committing to it nor bringing closure to it because we lack the courage, nerve and resolve to do what needs to be done. Instead our interest is being "liked" by other nations as opposed to being once again respected by the world.
-T
Monday, March 9, 2009
A 13 Year Old Get It Right, Why Can't America?
Amazing what self education can do. An open mind and objective mind is the key sound reasoning. It is odd how so many cannot figure such things out and a kid can.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Fright Night
I was a bad kid. And at times a mean kid. The fact that I did something wrong, failed to listen or blatantly defied doing what I was told to do always resulted in one; an ass whoopin and two; me being pissed that I had yet again managed to get myself in trouble.
One Friday night a month all the kids were allowed to stay up as late as we wanted to watch horror movies. It was the big thing, reason alone for me to actually try to remember to keep my behind out of trouble for a day.
On one of these Friday’s I decided to act out. It really was not my fault, it was the cat’s fault!!! The damn thing was harassing me. I would walk through the livingroom and it would attack my ankles, I would sit on the couch and it would jump on me. That little bastard simply would not leave me alone! An hour of scratches later and it is time for this festering feline to go away for a while and I decide to lock it the basement. I snatch it up, open the basement door and sling it down the steps slamming and locking the door behind it - the whole time forgetting my aunt was down there doing laundry!
She was the cat lover, not me. And these cats were not to be mistreated. Throwing one down a flight of steps was a very bad idea, especially on a Fright Night!
Shit!
This was going to leave a mark! But after all, my aunt was locked in the basement too so if I had anything, it was time. Time to go eat some ice cream (I knew I would be getting none later). Time to hide some toys in my room (I was definitely going to have some alone time after my beating). And time to get some good old fashioned licks in on my little cousin.
My aunt had come up to the top of the steps and demanded I unlock the door - she was hardly in a position to DEMAND anything given the fact she was locked up and I had full access to the house. She banged away beneath me as I made my way up and down the steps going in and out of my room and savoring my fleeting time.
A flaw, my little punching bag of a cousin opened the door as I was coming back down the steps. I turned the corner only to find her standing in the living room looking for something to beat my ass with! I knew that’s what she was looking for and be damned if I was going to give her a chance to find it. The rational thing to do was make her act fast while her hands were empty. And that’s just what I did, I took my shoe off and threw it at my cousin to force her to beat me with her hands and not a belt.
She was like the Tasmanian Devil laying hot stings to any portion of my flailing body she could get her hands on! To that point in my life it was the worst beating my aunt had given me. "Have you lost your cotton pickin mind?" My behind was on FIRE! She had me by the arm and swatting me in circles until she tired out.
And then it was over. "You are going to make me kill you one day Terry." And she walked away. (Hmmm, she had never said THAT before. I think I just messed up).
The whole time my cousin Mark and his friends were in the back yard peering through the window watching me take this beating - and of course laughing. He came in with all smiles mocking my flailing and screaming act; which of course did not sit well.
I found myself pissed at my older and much larger cousin and wanted nothing more than to even the score; but in a safe way. He could kick my ass at the drop of a dime so I had to catch him off guard.
The movies start and we are all gathered around the television and my attention is more on him than it is the movie. Staring, contemplating when I hear... "Terry! Were you in this ice cream?!"
Damn it! I had forgotten about my little reign of household terror!
"Yes, Aunt Pauline! I only had a little bit though."
She made my scoop everyone’s ice cream and take it to them - I of course got none. Mark being the ass he was being that night demanded that I place his bowl on his lap. Me being the child I was; dumped it in his lap and instead of waiting for him to stomp a mud hole in my chest I jumped on him to get my licks in early. My aunt watched the entire thing and snatched me up (probably saving my life) and sent me to my room because I was so out of control that evening. On the way up the movie kept going through my head; one scene my cousin had jumped to when it came on. Perfect!
We lived in an old three story row home. To get to my room you had to walk through the bathroom on the second floor. To get to Mark’s room you had to walk through my room. (He was waaaay back there).
Sent to my room I immediately went to my bed and stuffed it with everything I could find to make it look as if I were sleeping in it and crawled under Mark’s bed. My reign of terror for the night had ended but my reign of horror had just begun.
Hours later Mark entered the my room and made a comment. "That’s right, you better be sleeping little punk!" (Yep, I’m sleeping alright! Let’s see who the punk is about to be here in a few minutes)!
And like clock work Mark falls asleep and as always his arm falls off the bed and hangs to the floor. Just as in the scene from the horror movie I grab his arm and start pulling him under the bed while I let out this crazed scream!
His reaction was sheer self pissing panic! LITERALLY! Pulling with all of my might I slowly begin to actually drag him under the bed. I decide to really make him panic and bite his arm and with the creepiest voice I could muster "mmmm Bloooood!!!"
You would have thought some one was being hacked to death in that back room!
Problem. This was actually going on for a little while and I never thought how to end it. I really could not eat his arm and once he figured out it was me I am stuck under the bed. He had locked the bathroom door and went back into his room (my uncle’s pet peeve)! The entire family was trying get through to the back room but could not. All they hear is Mark screaming bloody murder and my cries for blood. I am sure they were all as terrified as Mark was!
My uncle broke the door down and drug Mark out with such haste that I came flying out from under the bed with him.
Opps!
I saw my uncle man handle my oldest cousin once. He came home drunk and tried to pick a fight with a steel worker - my uncle. He picked my cousin up by the neck with one hand and pressed him against the wall. His feet were literally dangling. With the other hand he gave him a nice little love tap too the ribs. And for good measure, he threw him across the room. (That love tap broke three ribs); and I just got this monstrosity of a man out of bed in a panic at 4 in the morning!
"Hi Pops!" What else could I say? He looked more relieved that it was me under the bed than anything; to not ride that wave would be foolish. We all know that parents go from relieved to pissed in no time flat. Every now and then that can be offset by the right play.
"Hi Pops" was no such play. The huge hand was rapidly descending on me when my aunt saved me by rushing in the room. Once he heard her I think he realized what the out come was going to be had he actually picked me up.
"I am going to kill Terry one day!" And he just stormed out of the room.
(Hmmm, that was twice in one day. I think it is time to chill a bit; not a chance).
Mark was in a little urine soaked ball crying. Not only did I scare him, I almost sent him into shock. It took my aunt about ten minutes to calm him down and explain that "it was just Terry playing" before he actually looked around and realized he was alright. Of course there were bite marks on his arm but he was none the worse for wear.
It was then he realized the extent of the scare I had just put on him. Kids at that age show embarrassment through rage. It is their pride developing and anything taking a stab at their fragile pride has to be hostilely and hastily vanquished. Not me, not on this day. I had just terrified my bully of an older cousin into a urine soaked, weeping fetal ball. For the first time I maintained a strong advantage. To come after me from this point on meant you had to deal with me on my terms and I had proved that my terms were extreme and it would not end well.
As fast as he started to spring on me, he stopped. The thought of the consequences for the few licks just were not worth it. My aunt just shook her head and said, "Great." and took the traumatized Mark to get cleaned up.
Quickly I was moving up the food chain.
The more clever aggression I showed and the more I committed to the aggression, the more space I would have, the more I would be left alone and the more I could rule by consequence; not force. My older cousins began backing off because it became obvious that even though they were larger and stronger, I would stop at nothing to even the score; making it worse was the fact that there was no way to predict how or when I strike back.
I would be tested in my new found resolve but the consequences would be dire.
-T
Political Deception
OK, look. I realize that here I am in the midsts of “Liberal Land.” That conservative spot of red in a sea of blue. I freely embrace that and encourage retort in anything I write, discover, or pass forward. This submission is no different. Something I discovered out of boredome and could not help but pass it forward.
Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2009
Obama's Radicalism Is Killing the Dow
A financial crisis is the worst time to change the foundations of American capitalism.
By MICHAEL J. BOSKIN
It's hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street as a product, at least in part, of the realization that our new president's policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not just mitigate the recession and financial crisis.
[Commentary] Martin Kozlowski
The illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents -- John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance -- President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter's higher taxes and Mr. Clinton's draconian defense drawdown.
Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.
To be fair, specific parts of the president's budget are admirable and deserve support: increased means-testing in agriculture and medical payments; permanent indexing of the alternative minimum tax and other tax reductions; recognizing the need for further financial rescue and likely losses thereon; and bringing spending into the budget that was previously in supplemental appropriations, such as funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The specific problems, however, far outweigh the positives. First are the quite optimistic forecasts, despite the higher taxes and government micromanagement that will harm the economy. The budget projects a much shallower recession and stronger recovery than private forecasters or the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are projecting. It implies a vast amount of additional spending and higher taxes, above and beyond even these record levels. For example, it calls for a down payment on universal health care, with the additional "resources" needed "TBD" (to be determined).
Mr. Obama has bravely said he will deal with the projected deficits in Medicare and Social Security. While reform of these programs is vital, the president has shown little interest in reining in the growth of real spending per beneficiary, and he has rejected increasing the retirement age. Instead, he's proposed additional taxes on earnings above the current payroll tax cap of $106,800 -- a bad policy that would raise marginal tax rates still further and barely dent the long-run deficit.
Increasing the top tax rates on earnings to 39.6% and on capital gains and dividends to 20% will reduce incentives for our most productive citizens and small businesses to work, save and invest -- with effective rates higher still because of restrictions on itemized deductions and raising the Social Security cap. As every economics student learns, high marginal rates distort economic decisions, the damage from which rises with the square of the rates (doubling the rates quadruples the harm). The president claims he is only hitting 2% of the population, but many more will at some point be in these brackets.
As for energy policy, the president's cap-and-trade plan for CO2 would ensnare a vast network of covered sources, opening up countless opportunities for political manipulation, bureaucracy, or worse. It would likely exacerbate volatility in energy prices, as permit prices soar in booms and collapse in busts. The European emissions trading system has been a dismal failure. A direct, transparent carbon tax would be far better.
Moreover, the president's energy proposals radically underestimate the time frame for bringing alternatives plausibly to scale. His own Energy Department estimates we will need a lot more oil and gas in the meantime, necessitating $11 trillion in capital investment to avoid permanently higher prices.
The president proposes a large defense drawdown to pay for exploding nondefense outlays -- similar to those of Presidents Carter and Clinton -- which were widely perceived by both Republicans and Democrats as having gone too far, leaving large holes in our military. We paid a high price for those mistakes and should not repeat them.
The president's proposed limitations on the value of itemized deductions for those in the top tax brackets would clobber itemized charitable contributions, half of which are by those at the top. This change effectively increases the cost to the donor by roughly 20% (to just over 72 cents from 60 cents per dollar donated). Estimates of the responsiveness of giving to after-tax prices range from a bit above to a little below proportionate, so reductions in giving will be large and permanent, even after the recession ends and the financial markets rebound.
A similar effect will exacerbate tax flight from states like California and New York, which rely on steeply progressive income taxes collecting a large fraction of revenue from a small fraction of their residents. This attack on decentralization permeates the budget -- e.g., killing the private fee-for-service Medicare option -- and will curtail the experimentation, innovation and competition that provide a road map to greater effectiveness.
The pervasive government subsidies and mandates -- in health, pharmaceuticals, energy and the like -- will do a poor job of picking winners and losers (ask the Japanese or Europeans) and will be difficult to unwind as recipients lobby for continuation and expansion. Expanding the scale and scope of government largess means that more and more of our best entrepreneurs, managers and workers will spend their time and talent chasing handouts subject to bureaucratic diktats, not the marketplace needs and wants of consumers.
Our competitors have lower corporate tax rates and tax only domestic earnings, yet the budget seeks to restrict deferral of taxes on overseas earnings, arguing it drives jobs overseas. But the academic research (most notably by Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James Hines Jr.) reveals the opposite: American firms' overseas investments strengthen their domestic operations and employee compensation.
New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.
From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan, to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history.
Unfortunately, our history suggests new government programs, however noble the intent, more often wind up delivering less, more slowly, at far higher cost than projected, with potentially damaging unintended consequences. The most recent case, of course, was the government's meddling in the housing market to bring home ownership to low-income families, which became a prime cause of the current economic and financial disaster.
On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible, step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run economic stagnation is not.
Mr. Boskin is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.
March 06, 2009
Deception at Core of Obama Plans
By Charles Krauthammer
WASHINGTON -- Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 -- 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely.
Forget all of this. This is run-of-the-mill budget trickery. True, Obama's tricks come festooned with strings of zeros tacked onto the end. But that's a matter of scale, not principle.
All presidents do that. But few undertake the kind of brazen deception at the heart of Obama's radically transformative economic plan, a rhetorical sleight of hand so smoothly offered that few noticed.
The logic of Obama's address to Congress went like this:
"Our economy did not fall into decline overnight," he averred. Indeed, it all began before the housing crisis. What did we do wrong? We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care, and education -- importing too much oil and not finding new sources of energy (as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf?), not reforming health care, and tolerating too many bad schools.
The "day of reckoning" has now arrived. And because "it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament," Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal.
Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people.
At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the entire banking system. One can come up with a host of causes: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pushed by Washington (and greed) into improvident loans, corrupted bond-ratings agencies, insufficient regulation of new and exotic debt instruments, the easy money policy of Alan Greenspan's Fed, irresponsible bankers pushing (and then unloading in packaged loan instruments) highly dubious mortgages, greedy house-flippers, deceitful homebuyers.
The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.
And yet with our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy. Four months after winning the election, six weeks after his swearing in, Obama has yet to unveil a plan to deal with the banking crisis.
What's going on? "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
Things. Now we know what they are. The markets' recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions -- the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic -- for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.
Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy -- worthy and weighty as they may be -- are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Let it go
What a weekend!
Since I was in Texas it would be wrong to not support my boy Rocky since he was fighting in Houston. A great fight too! Give Rocky props!! I had to get back to Dallas because I was cutting it close on my flight back to AZ. No after fight party and no standing around talking to everyone, just back on the road and straight to the plane.
Texas for some reason lowers the speed limit on the highways at night and the state troopers go out of their way to enforce it. With that in mind a coffee shop stop is in order. (Long slow rides without coffee are like watching mold grow on stale bread - just mind numbingly boring).
I find a little dive coffee shop and see a familiar face as soon as I walk in.
"You are not going to the after party (she had obviously seen me at the fight)? You always go to the after party. Or are you going out to cheat on some one?"
Yep, just like that. It was an ex.
That one ex I had actually forgotten about. That one ex I had not maintained a good relationship with after we broke up. And understandingly why. You see, she’s a bitch. It is seldom I say that but it is fitting and just as I introduce myself as an ass; she introduces herself as a bitch so I am not exactly calling her out of her name.
There was reason for the comment though. Back in my drinking and driving days (college) my friends and I had gone out to a party. The party go out of hand and I decided it was time to go and rounded up my boys. The night was young and leaving the party by no means meant going home; just not going to jail. In the front yard were some coeds from NYU who were also leaving but still interested in partying. COOL!
A quick stop for some liquor and beer and they are following us to my place. In the car "EEK" is getting all excited and starts demanding condoms KNOWING he is going to get a little action. Laughter at EEK turns into condoms being thrown at him to shut him up. Opened condoms, closed condoms, you name it, they were throwing it. The subsequent party at my little run down studio apartment was a lot of fun but not the orgy EEK was hoping for. The relationship between Columbia and NYU was; well, interesting. There always seems to be more investigating the other school than anything else. And these young ladies, were; well, young ladies.
About a week or so later (and the timing could not have been worse) I am out with my girl and she asks about the party. [Left early, NYU, my place... blah, blah, blah]. No more than twenty minutes after that conversation one of the NYU girls from the party walks into the bookstore and jumps into conversation about how much fun the party was and tells me they all want to come bak out to do it again. My girl was not right with me at the time but was definitely within earshot of the conversation and comes rushing over only to make a scene and run little miss NYU off.
My temper does not help and she is going home. Getting in my little beater of a car I do something I have had never noticed myself doing; I watched her put her purse on the floor board - which in turn made her watch where she was putting her purse.
And what lies there but a condom wrapper! Yeah, this was going to be good! All the explanation in the world was not going to bring her under control. I was cheating on her, the girl from the bookstore, a coworker, my neighbor, a classmate. Any good female companion I had I was instantly sleeping with. On and on all the way to her dorm.
So she goes to her room, I go to get some food and she calls me. My first instinct was to not answer (that pizza was good and be damned if I was going have her mess my meal up). But I answer. She asks where I am and she hears a female voice from the next table and her impression was that I immediately went out with some one else and had no regard for her feelings.
Click.
Ring.
Voicemail.
Ring.
Power off.
Considering my course of study and work schedule, a tumultuous relationship was something I simply did not need. My mind was made up by the time I hit the door to my apartment and called her and told her that I did not have time for her and her drama.
Click.
Bumped into her a few times at school, never answered another one of her calls and never spoke to her again - until Saturday night. Not surprisingly she is unchanged but being that after all of these years she brought it up she was in need of closure.
I got a couple of cups of coffee and sat at the table with her and her friend. Small luke warm greetings and I jump right into it. "Damn girl, just let it go already. I did not cheat on you. Believe what you will but I didn’t. You showed me a side of you that day that I was not willing to deal with at that time. Just let it go."
Her friend rolls her eyes at me. (Big mistake).
"What? Do bitches run in packs these days? You don’t know me, don’t judge me. She told you something that was wrong and you are stupid enough to believe it. Let me guess. You are that tag along hater friend with no life of her own that goes around stirring up shit you have no business in. You get in my business again and I’ll give you all the business you could possibly imagine."
"C’mon. Let’s get out of here. I don’t need this."
I get up and leave but I could not help but wonder how people can harbor so much negativity. The whole jealousy thing I understand. That boils down to one or two things. She is either very insecure or she was actually cheating at the time. Hell, or both and that is fine because it was a different time and place - or at least it should have been. This all happened years ago and was coming up all over again. For me it has been a closed chapter; one that I had honestly and completely forgotten about until this happen chance meeting in Houston.
It is strange that people choose not to move forward in life, to allow themselves to get caught up in the things we are supposed to grow out of. I have no idea how she is doing, if she needs help with anything, if she has a family, how her career is progressing, nothing. Time passes and things change. A meeting like that; even with an ex, should be spent getting caught up. Not spent going back to the day and incident in which you parted ways.
Let the past go. It lives forever more in you in the form of learned experience. All that hate and discontentment for days past only drags you down today. Let it go so you can move forward. The past is gone, there is nothing you can do about it but make regrets right, not harbor them. If she wanted closure it was there this whole time. She could have easily looked in the mirror and said "I should not have been so unreasonable (such a bitch)." It would not have changed anything, we would have broke up regardless. Blaming a person for the wrong thing was little more than the reason that accelerated the inevitable. The fact of the matter was my school was intensifying and my work schedule was increasing, the relationship was doomed. So why fester in days past? You reconcile the past to move forward. You bring all of your past acts and deeds into balance, and move forward. None of us were angels; it is part of growing up, but too many of us spend today in yesterday’s memory and that is just unhealthy.
Today we should all be quite different than we were years ago. It is a sign on growth, development and progress.
On the road I realized that my number one reason for breaking off a relationship was because I was moving forward faster than they were. The main reason I was dumped was because I was moving forward. "Terry, you are just not the same anymore." I was told in one case. I smiled and said "I shouldn’t be, now should I?" At that time I was new to college and was shedding myself of the irresponsible kid in me so I had probably become less fun, less reckless and more sober. Her words were taken as a compliment. In about a year she would drop out of college and have a son. I bumped into her as I was going on to Columbia to begin my masters, she was working as a cashier at the King of Prussia Mall in Philly. This is exactly why you grow out of yourself from time to time. Each time you shed your old skin you begin a new life. It is odd to think that I was dumped because I was maturing and growing into a responsible adult. A person with a bright and promising future allowed it be derailed because she refused to do the same.
There simply comes a time in life that yesterday has to allowed to sink to the deepest most irretrievable depths of sea. In you today lies its knowledge, wisdom and experience, the past is worth little more than that. Just let it go.
-T
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