The Boom of 2010

A now deceased wise man said that your income is determined by your philosophy, not the economy. I’m sorry Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush and Mr. Paulsen. I’ve been blaming you guys. Why I even blamed Jimmy Carter just because… well because he’s so easy to blame. They say adversity reveals a person’s true character. If that is the case, then I don’t like what I’ve seen this year.  So it’s time to lay the blame for my problems right where they belong. At my own feet!

Now the fresh slate of 2010 appears rapidly. It’s time to remember that I must not be owing anybody anything except neighborly love. That I must provide for my family. That the borrower is servant to the lender. And that no one can serve 2 masters. How’s that for a philosophy?

Hypocrisy Part Two

Now good old Jimmy Carter, the master of double digit everything, the man whose fiscal policies did more to hurt minorities in 4 years than a dozen GOP presidents could hope to do in 50 years even if they tried, even if they wanted, yes that good old peanut farmer now says that racism is behind the tea parties, the town hall protests, and any other disagreement with the Leader of the free world. Yes Maureen Dowd, Jimmy says you’re right.

Now how disagreeing with political policy is racism is beyond me. I’ve been listening to and laughing at Bill Cosby since 4th grade when my mother gave me a 33&1/3 album by Cosby with the famous Noah skits, but Dr. Huxtable says it’s racism behind it also. I reject that!

Was it racism when the left including Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy ripped through Clarence Thomas? I don’t think it was. The libs just disagreed with Thomas’ policy beliefs.

So what is it now then, when the White House puts the word out to Gov. David Patterson here in New York, one of only two, yes two, black govenors in the U.S., that he should bow out of the election next year and let the white man run? Shame on you Mr. Obama. Shame on you in the name of your political expediency. Shame on you for your leftist hypocrisy!

The List can go on and on and on!

No one should feel bad about spouting off to your elected representatives because you don’t pay enough tax. That is what one dear soul told me yesterday, “I don’t feel I have the right to speak up, after all, I only make 25k per year.”  Excuse me fellow citizens of these United States, not true, not true, not true! Every gallon of gas you buy in the Great State of New York tallies up over 58 cents to the governing authorities in this land. And I still manage to hit potholes on the highway. Did you know that it cost you 8 cents on a dollar to eat off the value menu at your local fast food joint? Where can you or I get an 8% return on our money. Not at Bank of America which took billions of your cash to get bailed out for their executives stupidity!  Why you even get taxed on the TP you use when you go to the bathroom. There are extra taxes on your cell phone, your house phone, your gas & electric bill, your house(even if you rent it’s built in to your payment), your car, your tires, your battery, your oil, your cable bill, etc., etc., etc. And I wonder… I just wonder, are we going to now give our government, which hasn’t balanced their checkbook in years, control over 1/7th of the U.S. economy. Say no, just say no! Not now, not ever. A businessman told me once that if every working person had to write the check themselves for the taxes they paid, there would be a revolt and every politician in office would be out looking for work. Not a bad idea.

Regressive Tax and the Hypocrisy of the Left

In simple terms a progressive tax is where the more you make, the higher percentage you pay. Not exactly my idea of fairness, at least not as far as my 6th grade teacher taught, but nevertheless that is what it is. Of course it has become a favorite tool of the left especially during political campaigns. Liberals however have never met a tax they didn’t love as Ronald Reagan used to fondly say. Regressive taxes work just the opposite. They affect lower income people more.

Now we find, as government gets larger, it finds all manner of ways to “pay for” it’s excesses. So called sin taxes, such as cigarette and beer taxes tend to rise during times of leftist control. It’s a proven stat that the poor and middle class smoke and drink more than the rich regardless of what Hollywood wants us to believe. Yet a pack of smokes that should cost about 3 bucks actually runs closer to 8 bucks in the stores. The Feds take over 18 cents on a gallon of gas while this great Empire state feels the need to pick your pocket for more than 40 cents. I learn alot just going to convenient stores. The sites that can be seen are startling! Millworkers getting $4 worth of gas just to get to work and then on payday spending their first part of pay on… the lottery! Of course the lottery is a tax also. The most regressive there is since it is almost exclusive to the poor and middle classers. As any student of government knows, government is incapable of creating wealth but not of taking it from it’s subjects, And now along comes this revelation: you must buy insurance under the Presidents new healthcare plan and if don’t you will be fined. George Stephanopoulis asked Mr. Obama yesterday if this wasn’t just a tax? To which Barry replied, “no”. Then George S. pulled out a dictionary and read this to our fearless leader.” Merriam-Webster’s dictionary: ‘Tax, a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes,’ ” Mr. O appeared stunned momentarilly, and then was asked this question: “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?”

Well George, let me answer that! It is! It is a tax!!!! God help the United States of America. I think I’m gonna be pro choice on this healthcare thing Mr. President. Now that’s a term every liberal understands.

Government and the Bigger is Better Theory

One thing technology is teaching us is that bigger is not better. Because of laptops, Blackberrys, Facebook, Twitter and the like, life is becoming more de-centralized. For years school systems, governments and corporations have tried to grow bigger and centralize power and money. Of course now we see our schools rampant with crime, our governments loaded with deficits, and our corporations being too big to fail and thus receiving billions in bailout money. Time to break ‘em up, govern locally, and make things more manageable. The men who run these behemoths have proven the old adage that power always corrupts.

So what to do? As I write this, buildings sit empty in the  great city of Schenectady that once housed neighborhood schools controlled on a very local basis. The streets are scattered with empty stores that used to be led by entrepreneur proprieters seeking to invest in their communities. The scenery is littered with run down vacant shopping centers that once were put there by companies too big to fail but that failed anyway.

Oh, illustrious leaders! Please get a new paradigm. Change isn’t change if all continues to go in the same direction it has gone for the last 40 years. Oh, grand and glorious lawmakers! If you do not stop the madness, you will join the ranks of the unemployed next year. Yes even you administrators that mold the minds of our young. Wake up! To change some things, you gotta change some things.

Thank you for letting me rant; can I get some stimulous money please?

End of Summer

Well, back to blogging. Business is picking up, finally! My 20 year old journalist major daughter is back at school. After a summer of interning at Albany’s major newspaper, it’s back to classes and her new job at the college paper. My oldest child, just got married this year to her long time boyfriend and moved out of the house with my precious grandson. And my son, the 17 year old, is ready for the next game of Halo 2 and oh yes, high school (I hope).

 Well now it will be business as usual. The house is quiet, the bathroom clean, Obama’s on vacation(thankfully), and my fellow citizens and I are ready to start stimulating the economy. Let’s go!

Which Way?

“Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.” –Abraham Lincoln

CFC and Health Care Reform

The program began about a week ago and already the skids are being applied. Cash for Clunkers has run out of money in less than a week. So much for Government oversight and foresight. If the BO admin along with Pelosi and Reid can’t anticipate and administrate a billion dollar program for one week, what makes them or anyone think they can do likewise with a trillion dollar plus National Health Insurance program into perpetuity. 

Harry, Barry, and Nancy ought to sit down for some beers in the Rose Garden. Maybe they will figure out that there are some things they can’t figure out.

Abortion and the Evangelical

A common misconception is that the term Evangelical was coined in the 20th century and is a political term. Actually the term was used before the Christians fought to stop slavery in England. An Evangelical is someone who believes in the Biblical gospels (which mean good news). It was used derisively then by the pro slavery people much the same as it is used today by the pro choice people.

Where does this conservative branded christian get his or her stance on abortion? As believers in “solo scriptura”, they take no Pope or Pastor or Monarch as their authority but only the Bible alone. While much could be said about the pro life stance, lets distill it quickly using a Bible.

When does life begin is the age old debate? Birth or conception? Neither birth nor conception says the reborn Christian!

Jeremiah 1:5 (New King James Version)

⁵ “ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
      Before you were born I sanctified you…

In this religious view it begins before either as you can clearly see.

Is the fetus an actual baby or something else while in the womb? Read this excerpt from Luke chapter one:

³⁹ Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, ⁴⁰ and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The mother of John the Baptist was 6 months pregnant when the “baby” leaped in her womb.

So these ancient texts explain the stance of the believer in the holy scriptures. Are they correct? That is not the issue here. In the United States they are protected by the 1st amendment of the Bill of Rights- freedom of religion and free exercise of religion.

What You Speaketh, Shall Occureth: Source

²²“Have^[f] faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

^{Mark 11:22-24}