Thursday, March 12, 2009

NFL players give up and kill themselves

I was just reading about the boating accident down in Florida where the ex-UW linebacker, now with the Raiders and the lineman for the Lions, along with a College football player and a personal trainer were out fishing when their boat capsized in some rough water while they were anchored. The water was about 60 degres, brisk but survivable for a long time.

It seems that within 2 to 4 hours one of the NFL players took off his life vest and let himself be swept out to sea, not long after that the other NFL player did the same thing. Later on the college player saw a light in the distance and decided to swim for it, so he took off his life vest and swam for it leaving behind the personal trainer who was holding on to the boat and wearing a life vest.

I am blown away at how the NFL players basically committed suicide. They were not accidentally killed, and no one should feel sorry for them. They deljavascript:void(0)iberately ended their lives. I was thinking about this last night and incredible this is. I know that there is absolutely no way I would give up after a few hours in the water wearing a life vest. I mean, they were not alone there was 4 of them to keep each other's spirits up. The college kid was just dumb to remove his jacket so he could swim faster. What was he thinking.

I was trying to come up with a reason for the NFL players doing what they did. Could it be that these to physical specimens, these undoubted high school standout athletes, college studs and NFL players didn't know what to do on their own? Could it be that they were so use to having people coddle them and tell them how great they are, and doing everything for them that they lost the survival instinct that the common everyday person has? Is it any coincidence that the lone survivor was the one person that worked for a living and didn't have an entourage waiting on them hand and foot?

This tragedy illustrates a problem that our society has, and that is not promoting the competitive instincts in our children, not making them work hard for everything, putting them up on pedestals because they can dunk a ball, or hit a baseball, or because they are just big athletes. Most of the professional athletes have not had to do anything on their own their entire lives. They have people to do it for them. Is it any wonder that when these guys are left to decide and act in their own behalf that they so often come up short and make bad decisions? I think not. Look at all the athletes that get in trouble with the law, all the while making millions of dollars a year and yet they still go out and make stupid decisions. And in the case of these two NFL players, when faced with life's greatest challenge, they didn't know what to do and took the easy way out. What a shame, all they had to do was be part of the team in the water and stick it out and they would have survived just like the personal trainer did.

Obama's the King of Earmarks over 1.1 Billion worth

Don't you wish that you could spend money that you don't have like your elected officials are doing?

If you have Excel you can see all the earmarks, value and who wanted it. There were only a handful of responsible people that asked for no earmarks, and they are true Americans. The rest should be run out of DC.

Obama's Laundry List of Earmarks

Wealthy people and fair taxation for everyone, yes, even those that get a free ride.

There are many people out there that think it is okay to tax the really wealthy, because after all, they have so much money and it isn't fair to those of us that don't have a lot. We have discussed this notion on my page here, and that is not really the idea of this note.

I wanted to point out that the wealthiest 5% of Americans own basically 95% of everything in our country when it comes to wealth. They are the ones that own all the companies that we all depend on for work. They own the Farms that we rely on for food. They manufacture the things we buy, and employ millions of workers. They are the ones that give tens of billions of dollars to charitable causes every year. They fund community outreach programs that help the needy. They give globally to causes to help people around the world, and they pay 60% of all the taxes that are used to operate out governments and provide essential services locally. All the entitlement programs are made possible because of these mega rich people.

Obama now wants to take away their tax deductions for their properties. He wants to raise their tax rates as well. He wants to tax businesses for their carbon usage. He wants to take away there deductions for their charitable contributions.

When I was filing my taxes this year I noticed that you can no longer deduct cash contributions. You have to have a form from some organization. I think it was gone last year as well, but I can't remember. You use to be able to write-off $200 I think it was per year without documentation. I wonder whose bright idea it was to eliminate that tax credit, hmm. I think I know but the effect is I am sure people give less out of pocket to the homeless people. When you take away credits like this people do remember. It is an incentive for people to give, because they can rationalize that they can write it off and actually get it back in a way. But when you get rid of it and people realize this, they give less than they would normally, it is human nature. Yes some will give the same because it makes us feel good, but was it really necessary?

What about the millions and millions of Americans that enjoy all the services that Federal and Local governments have to offer, yet, they pay ZERO income taxes. Is it fair that they don't share in the burden as is a familiar liberal phrase going around. We should all share in the pain of the economy shouldn't we. Why is it we think it is all right that people don't pay anything and yet we expect others to pay for them?

I know that I would have no problem paying a flat percentage of my income every year to the government. Why not do away with all the deductions and credits, period. Everyone just pays 15% of their income and we are done with it. One page income tax sheet. Granted all those tax preparers would be out of a job. Hell, our employers could be taking this tax out as they already do and there would be no need for people to file tax returns at all. Why should someone with 5 kids get to pay a lower income tax than someone with no kids? Married versus single.

As usual this idea will never be implemented because certain groups in our country would not be able to accomplish their agendas with this method of taxation. It would be very difficult to redistribute the wealth of our country.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Most liberals are really Moderate Conservatives

Answer honestly yes or no, no qualifiers, yes or no, be truthful with yourself.

1. Do you believe that we are all created equal?
2. Do you believe we all have the ability to succeed?
3. Do you believe that people should reap the reward of hard work?
4. Do you believe that people should be held accountable for their own actions?
5. Do you believe it is wrong to punish people for being successful?
6. Do you believe that people should not spend more than they make?
7. Do you believe that a woman has the right to chose to have a child?
8. Do you believe America is a great country?
9. Do you believe in the American worker and their ingenuity?
10. Do you believe it is wrong to overly tax companies/people?

Can you be honest and answer the questions truthfully? For most, not all, this will seem very silly the answers are so obvious.

No. 7 is on this list to point out something to people that are on the left and that is that many on the right can easily answer yes to this question. Not every person that votes with the GOP is against abortion, many are, but not all. Conservatives would rather not have it out there, but they accept the reality that it is here to stay and the overwhelming majority don't have a problem with it. They would just like a few limits placed on it here and there, which most liberals also agree with.

20-30% hardcore Leftwing Liberals
20-30% hardcore Rightwing Conservatives
40-60% Middle of the road Moderates

At any given time the above percentages are pretty accurate. If you use 30% for left/right and 40% Moderates, that means Obama won 22% of the 40% of middle roaders. Obama achieved 52.87% of the popular vote Okay, fine. They drank the Kool-Aid and believed in the change that never came. McCain had 42.something.

If you took away about 5% of the Moderates that voted for Obama and gave them to the GOP candidate, it would have been a dead heat. So really we are talking about 5-6% of the moderate vote that has to be convinced one way or the other. Since they didn't a conservative choice it was all too easy to vote for the messiah Obama with his message of hope and change and fairy tales. Now that people are seeing that Obama was just a slick teleprompter reading used car salesman, I don't think it will be so easy next time for him to con a nation, especially after he has decimated the wealth of our country for four years.

Why Obama won

A friend of mine was pointing out that Obama won so that must mean that most of the country is liberal, to which I replied:\

Let me break it down for you one time. John McCain is a moderate, some would say he isn’t much of a conservative at all, but I digress. The GOP ran a campaign trying to appeal to the middle and the left. Why do you think the conservative talk radio shows all hated McCain from the beginning but made due after he had the nomination? Barack Obama ran a campaign of change and middle income tax cuts, which is clearly a conservative campaign. Given that the supposed conservative candidate ran as a liberal and the liberal candidate ran as a Conservative it is no wonder he won. So no, your premise is sort of misguided. Obama ran about as middle of the road and leaning to the right as he could, because he knew he would get all the liberal vote, because true liberals will NEVER, and I mean NEVER vote for a Republican candidate. This is about as certain as death and taxes, period.

There was a gal on TV and the host asked her if Obama did a terrible job if she would vote for the GOP candidate and her response was no, cementing the point. For liberals it is all about being in control. They don’t care if the person that is in control is a total idiot and doing a bad job, they just want the power. History bears this out repeatedly. Oh, by the way, plenty of republicans voted for Obama. Republicans have no problem voting their conscious, they are not about the power, but doing what is best for the country, and many in the republican party did not want McCain to win.

The reason Obama won was because he told people what they wanted to hear. It really is that simple. You could ask 10 different people from all over the US what Obama is going to do and they would give you 10 different answers because he appealed to what they wanted to hear, so everyone had a different idea. He said he was about change and hope. He sold them a bill of goods. He preached that Bush was bad and was to blame, which anyone that knows anything about the mess we are in will tell you is a joke, but Bush Hating is a disease and many are afflicted with it. It is a very slick technique in politics, find a common enemy and then blame everyone’s plight on that enemy. Hitler used the same technique to rise to power as well, the big lie.

Since Obama has been in office he has changed almost none of the Bush policies that were in place the last 4 years or more. If they were so bad why didn’t he change them all? Because the truth is they weren’t, that’s why.

Obama has the distinction of presiding over the worst ever first six weeks of any presidency when it comes to the market. The market is a forward predictor and is almost never wrong, so what does that tell you about Obama? Be in denial, refuse to see the truth, it is up to you, but the facts are the facts, no emotion just the facts. I believe Obama will go down in history as the worst president we ever had, and Jimmy Carter is jumping for joy, because he can move to No. 2.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Local government vs. Federal

After reading a comment left on one of my other notes, I thought I would point out something that may not be clear. Local government, city and state, are responsible to the people of their jurisdiction as it were. The people that live in these areas get to vote on what they want their governments doing, they have representation, hopefully, and they can use referendums on the ballot if they want to change something. These things affect local matters. Local matters are police, fire, education, welfare issues. The local government taxes us with property taxes, sales taxes, taxes on rental cars, hotels, businesses,workman's comp and the list goes on and on and on, oh, let us not forget our gas tax, one of the highest if not the highest in the country.

Big Government, The Federal government is tasked with defending the country, taking care of the ederly via Social Security and Medicare, and if you have some a disability to where you can't take care of yourself you qualify for Social Security as well. Watching over the Securities and Banking industries to ensure they are operating as they are supposed to. OOPS, they didn't do that one too well did they, hence the crisis now. There is no provision in the Constitution for the government to be running the Education system in our country, none. There is no provision for our Government to be subsidizing (giving handouts) to farmers and other companies. Government had a very narrow scope of involvement in our lives when it was written.

Universal healthcare, Nationalized banks, Corporate bailouts, Bailouts for irresponsible people are not part of what the Federal Government is supposed to be doing.

Why should someone living in Washington State have to pay for saying a Marsh Mouse in San Francisco? Shouldn't California be responsible for their own State? Or about sending money to some state so they can have a Tea Cup Museum. Why should we have to pay for a Nevada History museum to be build in Harry Reid's state? Or how about a high speed rail between Disneyland and Las Vegas, why should we pay for that? This is your BIG government at work spending money that hasn't been made yet without regard to the consequences to our country. Why do they do this you ask? Why, well it is very easy, because they can. They don't really care about the true well-being of our country. The more people dependent on government the more votes they will have. They have kept the minority vote in the their back pocket for 50 years. They dangle the carrot out there filling their heads with hope and dreams and Change we can believe in, and then they give them the same old song and dance.

Rise up and be pissed off. If you don't think that we are all in this together, you better think again. The bread lines were filled with republicans and democrats and socialists and every other political party. When we fail we all fail together, and when we succeed we all succeed. Capitalism is what paid for all the liberal programs that you dems like so much. If you take away the income, you can keep on spending. It is easy to see why Democrats are against tax cuts though, judging by Obama's nominees most of the democrats have given themselves self-imposed tax cuts and they just don't pay their taxes.

Decline of the American Spirit

How much better off do you think we would all be as a society if parents started telling their children that if you want something you have to work for it. And if you don't get it, well, that is life. We are all born equal, but what we achieve in life is up to us, not our government, our employer, our friends or family. I have raised 3 children, the last of which just finished high school a year ago, and it simply was amazing to me the things that she was told at her high school by counselors, and from college recruiters. They blow so much smoke up these kids asses it is scary.

We have raised a generation of children that think it is their God given right to succeed. All they have to do is get up in the morning. Over that past couple years fewer and fewer high school seniors are even looking for work. It fell below 50% for the first time ever in the last couple years. When I was a child if you weren't good enough to play, you didn't get to play, period, end of story. You got to be on the team and you got to practice and you had the opportunity to better yourself. Cream rises to the top. Nowadays, we don't keep score, and little johnny gets to play regardless of his skills or ability. He never has to practice, there is no reason to try and better himself because he is going to play regardless. A generation of entitlement.

We just elected someone who promised change and hope, and then he turns around and expands all these different entitlement programs. Can't pay that home you shouldn't have bought to begin with, that's okay, we will bail you out. Change and hope, I don't think so. We are just going to create more people that rely on the government. The end result is you destroy the American spirit of achievement. You take away any incentive to better yourself through hardwork. Imagine that there were people that actually though Obama was going to buy them cars and houses when he got elected, because they didn't have them and that is what they thought he had promised during the campaign.

Our country was built on the successes of the individual, not on the government. History has taught us very clearly that government is not the solution, it is the problem.

Teach your children to rely on themselves, achieve, work hard and prosper. People will succeed and people will fail, that is the way of life. We don't need to be the United Welfare States of America.

Politics and Religion

I think that it is interesting that so many people in our country are afraid to discuss politics or religion. I understand why, but it is curious nonetheless. Our society has devolved to the point that nobody respects anybody if they don't agree with them. People are unyielding in their points of view and cannot fathom the other side of a discussion.

I myself have no problems discussing anything, because I don't get emotionally attached to the subject. I try and discuss facts as much as possible, things that are historically accurate. I try not to blindly follow the party line on anything. I can respect someone else's point of view. The sad thing is we don't teach our children to be able to have discussions, debates. Once upon a time in America we taught debate in high school. People were taught how to take either side of an issue and make an argument in support of it, and against it. Nowadays people can't stand to hear the other side, let alone try and learn from it.

During the campaign I used to love asking Obama and Gregoire supporters why are they voting for their candidate, and it was very interesting to hear the responses. I would then ask them pointed questions on how their candidates were going to address very specific issues, and they would give me the party line, but when I asked very specific questions, they usually would not answer and instead move on to another party line. Most of the people I talked to couldn't, or didn't know how to defend their positions. They just blindly spouted the CNN, NBC, MSNBC lines they heard over and over and over.

If we are respectful, and stick to facts, not emotion, we can learn from the discussion and yes, we can change minds.

Unfortunately, our society only learns by trial and error, of which we are experiencing on a very grand scale right now. Everybody wants the country to succeed and have the economy take off upward, but dreaming and hoping just isn't going to get the job done. That is why I take a stand and voice my opinion in the hope that I could open just one pair of eyes to the reality of the situation.

So, please, feel free to express yourself. I will take no offense for the discussion is far too important to shy away from. We all need to be proactive. I say kick them all out and let's start over, term limits for all. New blood, new ideas.