Thursday, October 17, 2013

Government Shutdown Deal is a Disgrace

My take on what happened in Washington: 

If most of us saw one of our neighbors do what just happened in Washington, we would think they were insane - An average family of 5 (2 working parents and three teen/early teen kids). They have all of the "normal" luxuries - they drive decent cars, have smartphones, premium cable channels, go out to eat regularly and go to the movies and take vacations every year. What we find out later is that they have been doing with with both parents working two jobs, debt out their ears - two mortgages, notes on both cars, and credit cards maxed out. One day the parents figure out that they are out of money to keep up the lifestyle. They start fighting over the household budget - why does she have to get her nails done every couple weeks? Why is the weekly golf outing so important to him? Why do they eat out three nights a week? Do the kids REALLY need smartphones? The parents both refuse to compromise on ANY household budget concessions, so the cable gets cut off by the cable company because the bill isn't paid - same for the smart phones. Dinners out end, golfing gets cut off and nails don't get done at the salon. Finally, the day before the bank is going to file foreclosure, Dad comes home with a shiny new credit card in his hand. "I've solved ALL of our problems!" he declares. "We can now borrow another $10,000!!!" The whole family rejoices and the cable is turned back on, Mom goes to get her nails done and Dad goes golfing. The kids start texting their friends on their re-activated smartphones about how wonderful it is to have everything back to normal. Flash forward six months to a year later - the family is RIGHT back where they were.


We don't need this crappy "deal" that was worked out in Washington! We NEED a balanced budget, a government that realizes they have to CUT spending to fix the country's problems, and an American public that wakes up and realizes that all of these fancy promises and and subsidies and handouts from the government are simply mortgaging our future.No, I for one will NOT celebrate the deal in Washington or the government re-opening. I think it is a sham and a disgrace to those who founded this country.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Great Reading

I've been working my way through Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and I have to say that it is an amazing work.  I think that the philosophy behind the book is incredibly misunderstood and distorted by many in the general public today.  I do take exception to a few of her ideas, but as a whole, her philosophy is an amazing expression of what I have always believed.  The most interesting aspect for me is how the book seems almost prophetic of what is going on in today's society.

The number of blog ideas that I have just as a result of 2/3 of the book are mind boggling.  Stay tuned for more!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Republican Dilemma

To put it bluntly, since the November elections, the Republican Party has been doing what it seems to do best sometimes....circling the wagons and shooting inward at ourselves.  Don't get me wrong, as a party, we do need to go through some self-examination and evaluate where we are, how we got here and where we need to go.  However, the infighting that seems to result from this for our party is not what we need.  The dilemma that the party faces is that we seem to have multiple distinct factions...the social conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, the Constitutional conservatives and the "inclusive" faction (some might call these the RINOs in the party, but I hate that term).  That is admittedly a simplified breakdown because there are probably more factions than even that.  Despite what the major media will say, the party is not simply the "Tea Party" and the establishment....or the Tea Party and the centrists, or whatever simpleton labels they try to apply.

The problem with the party doing this self-examination is that none of the factions are willing to concede anything.  Social Conservatives have their litmus tests and if the party doesn't pass those, they will take their marbles and go home...same for the fiscal Conservatives, and Constitutional Conservatives.  The "inclusive" faction seems to simply want to pander to the electorate and not want to stand on Conservative principles unless they are expedient.  What we need to recognize is that none of us can have everything that we want!  We need to begin looking at the fights that we can win, the principles that we can stand on, and the solutions that we can offer the electorate and reform the party around those.  Then and only then can the Republican party hope to achieve dominance in the political landscape.

Back in the saddle

I've been lax in blogging lately...life has a way of getting in the way of what we truly want to be doing!  I'm back and have tons of ideas for posts...more to come shortly.