tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64672486677365458732024-03-13T02:27:04.730-07:00Randy Mundy Says:Randy provides commentary on most everything of interest to him: Politics, History, Art, Entertainment, Family, and personal stuff.Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.comBlogger160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-35892386280654943952015-08-21T13:52:00.001-07:002015-08-21T13:57:01.408-07:00What Is That Hat For?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I saw something the other day that made me wonder what is
what.” What would that be?” you might ask. Well, I will tell you what, after I
explain to you that I, at one time, was a young person. I’m sure that I did
some things that made older folks scratch their heads in wonder. I grew my hair
longer than older folks normally did. I have to say, however that it wasn’t
necessarily because of The Beatles. For some reason, I liked the look of much
older folks of the masculine persuasion, like Ben Franklin, Buffalo Bill Cody,
George Armstrong Custer, Jesus… I think
you get the picture. The point is I was, maybe, different than others of my
age. Never-the-less, kids my age tended to
have longer hair and, as soon as possible, would grow face hair, if they could,
and even when they couldn’t. Older folks didn’t care for it so much and would
make comments like, “Isn’t that hot for the summer?” or “Doesn’t that
itch?” The answer was “I like it this
way!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my town (Topeka, Kansas), during a few years in the 60s,
there was a very strange phenomenon concerning clothes that I don’t think went
past the city limits. It was very popular for guys to wear “flag jackets” (a
kind of windbreaker with a large differently colored rectangle on the back
similar to a signal flag that sailors used to send messages), Adler socks and
very tight high-water 501 Levis that came down, maybe, to the tops of their
Adler socks. If they felt dressy, they
would wear wing-tip-dress shoes—they had to be wing-tips. I must admit that I never had a
“flag-jacket”—I just now tried to google it but the only thing that came up was
“American Flag-jackets.” I did, however,
wear wing-tips to church and other dressy occasions. What can you say?
Wing-tips are very cool. I actually had a nice pair of black and white saddle-styled-wing-tips.
I was the envy. I would get some to wear on stage today, if I could find some.
I also wore Adler socks, because they felt good. You maybe couldn’t tell that I was being
stylish, because I wore my 501 Levis (I wasn’t completely out of fashion)
longer than most everyone else. My best friend admitted to me much later in
life that when we first saw me in junior high school he thought I looked like
some kind of dweeb (probably not the words he used) and he was tempted to kick
my butt. Obviously his hesitancy to go
down that road saved him from a terrible beating, but the point is that I was
apparently not following the crowd to any great degree.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Before I get back to my original comment about “What is
What?”, let me say that I don’t get the sagging britches thing that has been
going on now for a couple decades or more. Why do so many kids and some young
men wear their pants like that? Even some men in their mid-twenties are still
wearing. Usually they have their underwear sticking up to the waste, but their
britches about 4 or 5 inches below that.
Sometimes you can see they are actually wearing a belt, but how do they
actually keep the pants up? It can’t be that they can run from the police any
faster, holding their pants with both hands to keep them from tripping. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then there are all of the piercings in different places in
the face and hoops in the earlobes that you could put a clothes hanger hook
through. I guess it’s an
attention-getting-thing, but it would be more simple to have a tattoo on their
foreheads—they likely have many tattoos everywhere else, so one more wouldn’t
be a big deal--that says “Hey, everyone, I am an idiot.” Am I being unkind or
disrespectful? Probably. But I digress…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Back to my original “What is What?” comment. I was getting
back in my truck the other day, after buying a cheeseburger to eat on the road.
It was a hundred degrees out and I see two young fellows going into the burger
joint. They were both wearing stocking caps! What is that about? I suppose that they may have both gotten
ridiculous haircuts and wearing the woolen stocking caps to hide their shame. I
know, there probably isn’t and such a thing as a haircut so ridiculous that
some young folks would be embarrassed over, but if there were, baseball caps
would most likely have covered that. Or,
they could have had a killer air-conditioner in their car and their heads were
getting really cold—they had their ears covered. Of course, they may belong to the Michael Nesmith Fan Club, or have just been trying to
cover the “Hey, I’m an idiot!” tattoos they had gotten the night before, when
imbibing illegal substances. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-2971538125784846612015-08-11T15:45:00.002-07:002015-08-11T15:45:25.250-07:00Where Is The Outrage?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have to ask, where is the out rage? Seriously, I don’t like being angry and pessimistic all of the time, so
I haven’t blogged much of late. Well, there is also the fact that I just can’t
keep up with the multitude of things these days that keep me angry and
pessimistic. Just about every one of the things has to do with the anger-making and
pessimism-making president we have. Every time I think he has gone as far as he
can go, he goes a little (actually a lot) further in doing and promoting stupid
stuff that drags us lower and lower. Is there really anyone who voted for Obama that thinks he is not an
Israel hater? Who thinks it’s a good
idea to make it easier for Iran to create nuclear weaponry and at the same time
reduce the United States military strength to pre-WWII levels? Maybe they are the same
people who think it’s a good idea to fund Planned Parenthood, while Margaret
Sangers’s ‘brain child’ harvests body parts from aborted baby human beings to
sell on the open market. They are human babies, people. The thought that they are anything but humans is trully outrageous.</div>
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I have blogged about the evils of Planned Parenthood before,
but the recent revelations of traffiking in baby body parts and financial gain for the greedy killers makes me beyond sick to my stomach; and I need to vent. Incidentally,
does anyone else find the name, “Planned Parenthood as ironic as I do?
Shouldn’t it be “Planned Un-parenthood?” Margaret Sanger was a racist proponent
of eugenics. It was Sanger’s view, along with many of the progressives of the
30s and 40s, that sterilization of the feeble minded—morons and idiots, in her
view—should be compelled to be sterilized. She was successful in this in 30
states resulting in an estimated 60, 000 sterilizations. Not unlike Hitler,
Sanger was for culling negroes and Jews by birth control, Sterilizations, she
said, “do not go to the bottom of the matter.” (“Birth Control and Racial
Betterment,” Feb. 1919, The Birth Control Review). She presented her beliefs to female groups of
the Ku Klux Klan, and in a letter to Clarence Gable in 1939, Sanger wrote: “We
do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,
and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs
to any of their more rebellious members” (Margaret Sanger commenting on the
‘Negro Project’ in a letter to Gamble, Dec. 10, 1939). If you are a big
proponent of Planned Parenthood, as is Hilary Clinton, you get a Margaret
Sanger award. </div>
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Last evening I visited my daughter and my beautiful new
grandson, to whom she had that day given birth. I looked at him and couldn’t
help but think of the total number of abortions in the U.S. 1973-2013: 56.5
million. That is 219 abortions per 1,000 live births (according to the Centers
for Disease Control); 1.058 million abortions every year; 2,899 Abortions per
day; 120 abortions per hour; 1 abortion every 30 seconds. Is it not bad enough
that we allow such carnage unabated in this nation? Do I have to help fund it
too. Yeah, I’m angry and pessimistic about this nation’s relationship to God. So, I ask, Where is the Outrage? Soilent Green, anyone?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-9909914731690589442014-11-17T17:13:00.000-08:002015-01-28T13:53:34.335-08:00Who Are You Going To Believe? Me Or Your Lying Eyes And Ears?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
President Barrack Hussein Obama to reporters: "Gruber? Gruber? I don't know anyone named Gruber. I thought you were asking me if I knew 'Goober,' that brilliant economist from the Andy Griffith Show that we all loved to hear lecturing on Obamacare and how it was going to save everyone so much money." That is not what Obama said of course, but what he did say is that he "hardly knew the guy who lived in his neighborhood". No, wait, that was Bill Ayers, the ex terrorist bomber from the 60s who is now a college professor in Chicago, who sat on several boards with Obama and, in who's home Obama kicked of his candidacy for the presidency. Oh yeah, Gruber was the racist pastor, who married Barrack and Michelle and baptized their children, and was recorded yelling anti-American communist crap, which Obama never heard when he attended church. No... that was the "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright who wasn't all that close to the Obamas either. Was he the the Communist party hack/pornographer who was a mentor of Barrack's in Hawaii? No, that was Frank Marshal Davis, who Obama later tried to not remember. <br />
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Well, who is Mr Gruber? He's the latest persona non grata whom Obama and the the Democrat party wish had never been born. He was somebody everyone on the Left knew, when they thought he was a "brilliant MIT economist who, while secretly in the pay of the White House, could be quoted ad-nauseum about what a terrific deal Obamacare was going to be. Everyone left of center, including the liberal news media--basically everyone but Fox News--helped make the guy out as an unbiased brainiac councilor to the president.<br />
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All of that has come back to embarrass the left, when videos started surfacing this week where "Economist", Jonathan Gruber, bragged about how it was necessary to "lie" to the American voters--who are pretty stupid by the way--in order to get the the smelly and misnamed "Affordable Health Care Act" through congress and on to the president's desk. Gruber said that, if they told the public the truth, that they would not be able to keep the insurance that like and the doctors whom they liked and that it would necessarily be more expensive for the majority of the middle class, they would never go for it. Ya think? Gruber apparently thought he and the Democrat politicians were pretty slick. Well, as slick as Pelosi, Reid and the other Fools On The Hill (TFOTH) can be considered slick (I know, they keep getting elected). But, I guess they were as slick as they needed to be at the time. Remember, "you have to pass it in order to see what is in it?" If you could listen to that lunacy and still pull the lever for the Dems, I guess you might be considered a poster child for Lenin's (<i>you fill the blank) and the president, TFOTH</i><br />
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The sad thing is that some of us aren't going to hear much about it if the left-leaning news media or the Fools On The Hill can have some say in the matter. I can't help but think of the joke where the punchline goes something like,"Who are going to believe, me or your lying eyes and ears?" Maybe Goober would have been better a adviser to the president. "Judy, Judy Judy".</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-82798677620361546772014-11-05T13:15:00.004-08:002014-11-05T16:54:10.788-08:00I Woke Up This Morning. Did America Wake Up Last Night?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I haven't been inspired to blog about anything for quite a while. But this morning I feel like indulging myself a bit. Last night enough voters woke up politically and turned the Senate over to the Republicans. There were several things that felt good to me. Number one is that Tim Scott won the Senate seat he had been occupying by appointment. The important thing is that Tim is of the black Conservative Republican persuasion. Not only did he win, but he won big, by a bigger gap than fellow South Carolinian, Lindsey Graham did; Lindsey being of the white Moderate (liberal) Republican persuasion.Tim was the first black man elected senator in South Carolina since reconstruction. What was it that Mary Landrieu said about whites in the south not voting for blacks? Of course she has her own problems getting only 42% of the vote for Louisiana Senator, against two republicans in her race. She will have a runoff with republican, Bill Cassidy, next month, to see if she can keep the seat that she has won at least a couple times before. Can she she suggest that men in the south just will not vote for a woman? Even though white men helped her get elected a couple times before, she will not be ashamed to suggest it.<br />
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My number two reason for feeling good is that the elections clearly showed that the Democrats' ridiculous "republican-war-on-women" mantra is getting extremely old and pathetic. Joni Ernst, the first female--republican or otherwise--elected from her state of Iowa. She is also the first female military veteran to be elected to the senate of any state. Republican Shelly Moore is also the first woman in the state of of West Virginia to be elected to the senate. Then there is Republican Elise Stefanik who became the youngest ever woman (30 years old) elected to US Congress in history. It was also fulfilling to see incumbent Democrat Mark Udahl ride the "war on women" position into defeat in the Colorado senate race.<span style="background-color: #c8c8c8; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.8880004882813px;"></span><br />
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My number three reason is that Mia Love won the 4th district of Utah representative seat. I was really excited about her two years ago when she lost to phony "moderate" Matheson in a pretty close race. With Mia, we have perfect the answer to the liberal Democrats' accusations that conservative Republicans are racist and antagonistic towards women. Mia Love is an excellent example of a Republican woman of color trusted by a generally conservative constituency. The old crap about racism and sex bigotry that the Dems trot out when they do not have a valid position to stand on is wearing thin and it looks like voters are getting wise to it.<br />
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My favorite reason for feeling good is that the deceitful, despicable and power-drunk (also creepy weird) Harry Reid will be out as senate majority leader. In a couple months, the Senate will be able to actually vote on bills passed by the house of representatives. Since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives in 2010, the House has passed over 350 bills and sent to them on to the Senate to be voted on. Reid refused to let them come to a vote in the Senate. Why? you may ask. Probably because he is deceitful, despicable and power-drunk (also creepy weird), and did not want any of the Democrats in the Senate to be tempted to choose between doing right and wrong and embarrassing President Obama, by joining with the Republicans on anything.<br />
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Only way last night would have been better for me is if Obama had been on the ballot. But, in essence, he and his policies were on the ballot and the Democrats suffered because of it. I just hope the Republicans will have the backbone to take on the the left and fix the destructive stuff that the Democrats have been allowed President Obama to do. We have only two years to try to keep him in constitutional check before the presidential election in 2016. They also need to shine the light on the corruption of this administration--Bengahzi cover-up, IRS cover-up, Isis debacle, etc. Go team!!!<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">Along with Joni, Republican </span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.8880004882813px;">Elise Stefanik, a college freshman in upstate New York, became the youngest woman ever elected to congress, And of course my </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Joni Ernst, Mia Love</span></div>
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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/11/05/245778/republicans-widen-control-in-senate.html#storylink=cpy</div>
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-6063999287989876662014-09-29T09:46:00.000-07:002014-09-29T09:46:24.909-07:00Naughty or Nice: Is it Not a Laughing Matter?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had the opportunity over the weekend to see my son, Jesse, perform his stand-up comedy at the annual Salt Lake City Comedy Carnival. He was great. He got lots of laughs by using his intellect to expose the absurdities of life. However, I can't say the same about the other comics who shared the bill with him. The MC, who introduce each act, seemed to be trying to get as many obscenities he possibly could in each sentence. The other three comics, apart from Jesse, followed suit, adding in descriptions of their deviant sexual behavior. Everyone at my table were incapable of separating the vulgarity from the truly humorous elements of the comics' bits. Where Jesse was able to get laughter and applause by his humorous takes on modern society's love affair "gluten intolerance" and how work and jobs are like romantic relationships, The others found it necessary to shock the audience into uncomfortable laughter.<br />
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Maybe my friends and I are the exceptions, but we don't find gutter language and foul expletives funny anywhere else, so why should we think it funny or even slightly amusing on stage when a comedian uses it. I work with the construction trades as a safety professional, so I visit job sites most days and get to hear expletives of all kinds and in more than one language. It never thrills me. I never feel compelled to laugh when I hear limited vocabulary of the meaner kind. It seems to me that the users of offensive language were once kids trying out the "adult" words, just as they did when they started smoking and drinking alcohol because it makes them feel older and more sophisticated, but they never realized the fallacy. I suppose the same is true with the audiences who get a kick out of hearing the silly, offensive drivel. I picture in my mind the little kids smoking behind the garage or barn looking at porn and giggling to each other and patting themselves on the back for their "adult" behavior.<br />
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It would seem to me that the "comedians"--I use the term loosely--who go in for the crude and racy material should look around to see who are some of the most successful in their chosen field, who shy away from the Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Regan, etc. are largely pretty clean comedians and have really broad fan appeal. Even the very mentally sick among us would agree that they are funny. I know that some will point to the likes of Red Fox and Richard Prior and say they were really funny and successful. I just say that they knew and played to their audiences. They didn't get really successful until they broadened their audience base, to include prime time TV and PG movies.<br />
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In my humble opinion, the truth is that clean comedians are funnier and more creative in their craft than the the crude and dirty comics. They point out the humorous reality and absurdities in the world and help us recognize them and laugh at ourselves. The dirty comedians only titillate the darker natures of humanity. The thing we don't need is more crap thrown in our faces.</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-42492965442895319762014-06-13T14:09:00.002-07:002014-06-13T14:16:33.482-07:00My Logic Is Unimpeachable! Sorry To Say, I Suspect The Same About BarackObama<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Richard Nixon resigned as president because he knew that he was going to be impeached. He was advised by the Republican party leaders that he would not get support from them to withstand impeachment. The republicans knew at that point that Nixon had broken the law by knowingly covering up the illegal actions of his subordinates. Republicans regularly turn against their own when they know that one of their own has been clearly immoral or unethical in their behaviors.<br />
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With Bill Clinton, the democrat argument for Clinton changed from "You can't trust those sleazy trailer-park women he is accused of abusing" to "Come on, every body does it, and lying about sex is understandable". Even though he clearly perjured himself and coerced others to commit perjury, the democrat party circled the wagons around him and Bill survived impeachment.<br />
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Today, we have a president who has personally broken the law numerous times, by presidential orders, making changes to the Un-affordable Care Act--yes, I know that it was called something else by the democrats, but I am calling it what it is--and refused to enforce numerous laws on the books, because he doesn't like them, or because he can score political points with a particular voting block by neglecting his duty as president. Though he has continually broken the law and deceived the public on numerous occasions, and merits impeachment more so than any president before him--maybe even more than Andrew Jackson or Woodrow Wilson, it is impossible for me to see that happening. Why? Because he is the darling of the media and the democrat party has shown time and time again that power trumps morality or ethics every time.<br />
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Now I know that because I find fault with our president that many think that I must be a racist. It is sad to say that that race card being played when ever anyone questions a liberal black politician's integrity or even their good judgment still seams to work for the democrats. At least it does for the most of news media. Sadly, the same cannot be argued for Allen West, Ben Carson, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Condolezza Rice, Michael Steele, Herman Cain, Ken Blackwell, Mia Love and many other black conservatives who have been labeled "Uncle Toms" or "White Men's Pets or something just as insulting by many on the Left black and white. Go figure. Oddly, these are some of the best and brightest among us. Because republicans are so frightened of being called racist, I cannot imagine the president being held accountable for anything, because the republicans think it would go nowhere because they believe, and probably rightly so, that the democrats will never do the right thing and will never put right before power. If the need should arise, they can look directly at the sun at midday and tell you it is midnight.<br />
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So, I hold no hope that Mr.Obama will get his just deserts. That would require that the conservatives and progressives putting expedience aside for righteousness. Though I see my logic as being unimpeachable, I suspect the same can be said for Barack Obama in today's world.</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-23309317585670371952014-03-07T20:55:00.002-08:002014-03-07T20:56:23.346-08:00Who Wants A Federally-Mandated Minimum Wage? Only The Gullible And Their Panderers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, our panderer-in-chief said yesterday that “it is time to
give the American people a raise”. He might as well have said “It is time to
make even more American people unemployed or work only part-time and give the
American people a raise in inflation”. It must also be the time for the
president to try to repair his sinking poll numbers. Everybody wants to make more money, so it is
a feel-good thing to say that you need a raise.
Hiking up a federal minimum wage has been a staple of the Democrats—and
some Republicans, who are afraid they might not sound compassionate—for as long
as I can remember. When I was a dumb kid, I remember being excited about
getting close to $2.50 an hour for a job that I needed no expertise to do. But, on the other hand, I did not like the
fact that comic books were going up in price to 15 cents. As a kid I did not
see that higher wages were necessarily connected to higher prices. As I got older I noticed that, as the minimum
wage rose, so did the cost of living. </div>
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Why are there so many adults who do not get the connection
between the cost of labor and the price of a product? Maybe, it is the sorry
education they received from public schools, but I am not convinced that these
facts are lost on the Democrats and progressive Republicans in government who
climb on the progressive bus. I am sure that most of them have studied simple college
math and logic enough to get a grasp on some simple truths. But, maybe I am giving them too much credit.
Even so, I am cynical enough to believe that they are educated sufficiently to
know that the ignorant masses will not make the connection and they can fool
them into thinking they actually care about people more than keeping political
power. </div>
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Let me revisit the” When-I- was-young” argument to further
explain the logic. I remember my father
earning about $400 a week as a roofer. When I was a baby, my parents bought a
home for $6,000 with a 30-year mortgage.
I can remember my parents buying a new 1961 Chevy Impala for about
$2,000. I also remember our doctor making house calls. I do not remember that
health insurance was as big a deal as it is today and there were not as many
frivolous malpractice law suits, requiring doctors to carry expensive
malpractice insurance. You could go to the hospital and have a baby for around
$200. I remember that I could buy a hamburger for 12 cents. I remember gasoline
in the 20 to 30 cents range where a station employee pumped the gas for
you. In my youth, sodas were 10 cents. I
collected bottles and turned them in to be recycled for two cents apiece. I
would collect at least 25 of them during the week so that I could buy my way
into a public swimming pool on the weekend or buy the comic books that I
mentioned earlier. The truth of the matter is that people made less money in
the good old days, but things also cost a lot less. </div>
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So, you might say that it was a wash, when you consider both
wages vs cost of living, but you must consider that our standard of living is
much greater in many respects. Air
conditioning, telephone service, digital media, medical advances,
transportation; in almost any area you want to focus on, our standard of living
for every American is far better than it was in the not-too-distant past. And none of it had anything to do with how
high the average wage has been. The rise
of our quality of life is due to technological advancements. </div>
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Supply and demand is the overall requirement for
un-artificial raises in wages. In many
ways, advances in technology kill off a lot of low-end jobs. Construction and
manufacturing, for example, used to be much more labor-intensive, requiring
many hands to accomplish numerous tasks. Because of advancement in technology,
many of those tasks are done by robotics or machinery operated by workers who
have specialized training or education.
Today’s workforce often have to meet higher standards going to a
particular job or start out on a job at a lower wage to get the training needed
to perform tasks which pay more once the can do the job more efficiently. Also, technology has changed the way may
people shop for their needs. Today a buyer can go online and make purchase at a
moment, rather than make a trip to store or mail-order a product that they want
or need. Such technology necessarily makes
the labor forces shrink. </div>
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You can also argue that, if a wage needs to be controlled,
that it should not be done on a federal level. If you think that a minimum wage
is needed to match the rise in the cost of living, you have to look at the cost
of living in various parts of the country. I know that my cost of living
changed as I have moved from city ti city and state to state. How can you think
that a $10 minimum wage would mean the same to a worker in Washington DC. as it does to a worker in Burlingame, Kansas? Can you
buy a decent $60,000 home with 3-bedrooms in Washington? If anything, a minimum
wage, however stupid the idea is, could only be done equitably on a state or
local level. But Obama wants everything under his control, especially the
stupid things.</div>
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For logic’s sake, let us imagine that a business man, John,
makes widgets and he employs 100 people. John pays 10 new employees who are
largely unskilled and untrained in the widget making trade a wage of $10 an
hour. His 60 employees who work on the production floor and have been with him
for several years and know how to do their job in an efficient more productive
manner he pays $15 an hour. John has 29
middle and upper management employees who require specialized education in
business and marketing who make salaries of make, on average, $75,000 a year.
John is able to earn $500,000 a year with his company, in an average year. John
is in a competitive industry, so tries to keep his quality wedges as cheap as
he can to make the profit margin that makes his personal industry worth it to
him. Then, the government passes a law that requires him to pay a minimum of
$12 an hour to his employees. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Naturally, John finds himself in a dilemma: where can he cut
the expense of manufacturing his good-quality widgets so that he can still be
competitive in the market place and realize the same profit margin that made
being a businessman worth it? He knows that when he pays more to his
entry-level employees, his other employees will also expect a raise in their
wages to be uniformly fair, especially if a union is involved. If his cost for
labor is increased by even 10% across the board, John will have to charge 10%
more for the widgets to meet the market place. Oh, wait a minute. We forgot
that John’s material suppliers are faced with same dilemma and have to raise the
price of their materials, because they also were forced to pay more to their
employees, so raising the selling price of the widget may be another few
percentage point higher. So, everyone in
the chain of production is faced with cutting something to remain competitive
in the market place. They will, in many instances, cut the number of employees,
so some folks will lose their jobs, because the profit margin requires a given
number of dollars devoted to labor costs. Something has to give or the price of
the widget goes up.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now let us imagine a buyer of widgets, Barak, depends on
widgets for his safety and welfare. Barak has limited income from the
government—I really like the sound of that, for some reason. Barak goes to the widget store and finds that
widgets have gone up in price again. Barak wonders why the greedy widget
manufacturers have raised the price again. Those @#$%$^%# widget makers! I guess Barak needs a raise in his social
security to meet the higher cost of living. That is nothing pandering group of
politicians cannot fix. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, you may think that this little exercise in logic is too
simplistic, but the math always works out the same. When we take from one place
in the economy it has to be filled from another place. Free markets and supply
and demand take care of the appropriate wages for a given type of work. When
you do not have enough people wanting to do a certain type of work and the work
is necessary from the market place’s perspective, higher wages will necessarily
be offered. When the wages meet the laborer’s requirement, the job will be
filled. Just look at what menial labor
is earning in North Dakota with the energy boom they have experienced. I know that I would be just happy with $400 a
week and a $20,000 home mortgage, 12-cent hamburgers, 29-cent-a-gallon gasoline
and all the other stuff that went with it. A minimum wage should be set at what
the individual worker is prepared to do and what the market will allow. If
government did not try to manage so many things in our lives we <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>would all be better off. </div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-45943662611114413712014-02-28T17:36:00.004-08:002014-02-28T17:36:58.077-08:00All Hail The Scary Punk On The Other Side Of The Fence!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will try to keep this short and sweet. Well, maybe not
sweet, but short. And if not short, perhaps I can make this blog shorter than
usual. I Heard Obama’s scary warning to Russia that sending its military into
Ukraine at this moment would not be in Russia’s interest. It reminded me of a
punky kid declaring from the safety of a tall fence that a bully should leave
some other kid alone, because there could be bad consequences. In my mind I see the bully just roll his eyes
and give the goodie-two-shoes punk standing on the other side of the fence a
really rude gesture with his hand while he continues to flex his muscles as he
starts to slap the weaker kid on his side of the fence. I think that is a pretty accurate comparison. Obama is the know-it-all punk who really does
not have a clue about how to deal with bullies, and the bullies are quite aware
of it. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Vladimir Putin is a bully of the first order. After all, he
was a KGB thug during the USSR days. It has been apparent from the beginning of
his reign that his goal has been to maneuver Russia back to the totalitarian
state that it was under full-blown communism. He must have thought he hit the jackpot when Obama
and the democrat punkers took control of the government after the economic smack-down the Soviet Union suffered from Reagan policies. It is ironic that Putin has had the luck of
his nation developing their gas and oil to fuel a pretty good economic growth
and power base, while our president has been trying to stifle our own huge gas
and oil development made possible by technology, such as fracking. We could actually be completely fuel-independent, if the silly sap would get out of the way. In case you are wondering, economies grow or
dwindle on the availability of cheap fuel.
It would appear that Putin has been able to grasp that simple economic fact, while Obama has been unable to get his “giant brain” around that idea. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Putin must
wonder how we could go from a true leader like Reagan to an easy mark like
Obama in less than 30 years. The fact is that Putin has gotten the best of our guy every
time they have had any sort of dust-up. He knows that the punk on the other
side of the fence is all talk and no action—big hat and no cattle, as they say
in Texas. Putin knows he’s just a punk, and more and more, it appears like Obama might
as well be Putin’s personal punk. </div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-79614557280317855162014-02-07T18:24:00.001-08:002014-02-07T18:24:20.152-08:00You Bought Your Favorite Brand! Do You Really Like It That Much?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have been wondering awhile now about why voters embrace
one political party and reject another. You might instinctively assume that a
voter would vote for the person who most agrees with the voter’s beliefs and
principles, but I dare say that you would very often be mistaken. I have talked with way too many people who
agree with me on some pretty important stuff—like “The federal government is
way too intrusive in our personal lives”; “The government needs to stop wasting
so much money”; “Taxes are too high”, and “I am opposed to abortion”. Yet, when
they vote, they vote for someone who is guaranteed to work against everything
that voter says he or she believes in. You probably know who I am talking
about—friends and family members who make you want to pull your hair out when
it comes to politics. Sometimes I think I would rather not know how obviously
crazy those individuals are, so I could sleep better at night. But still I wonder what is going on in their
heads, or, what is not going on in their heads.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I totally understand
why I vote the way I do. It is because the man or woman for whom I vote has led
me to believe, rightly or wrongly, that he or she comes the closest to agreeing
with my beliefs and principles. I cannot
divorce myself from a desire to vote for someone who is as much like me as
possible. I also want to vote for someone who is as good a person—hopefully,
even better—as good and honest as I am.
I hate to hear people say, “They all do it”, when some political figure
does something immoral or dishonorable.
For example, in my mind, a person running for the office of President of
the United State of America, should be a person who exudes virtue and morality
and holds himself or herself to a higher standard. After all, they will be
filling the position that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have held.
Granted, George and Abe are no longer with us and it may be a little hard to
find their like today, but we should at least try to put some thought and
prayer into such an important vote. We should at least devote some time in
doing our homework on these people. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, if you believe in communism or really big-brother-government
or Keynesian economics, I understand where you are coming from. And I
understand why you vote for the man or woman who comes the closest to agreeing
with your belief system. You are an
ideologue and I am an ideologue, and we will always be in each other’s face,
but—getting back to the point of why voters embrace one person over another or
one party over another –why do so many of us vote contrary to our beliefs? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer, I think, is that they have associated themselves
with a brand. I have written before
about my father being a die-hard Democrat. His mantra was “Republicans are for the rich
man and the Democrats are for the working man”. I can also say that he was a die-hard Chevy-owner.
He was also a die-hard fan of the Saint Louis Cardinals in the National League
and whichever team was in Kansas City ( Athletics or Royals) at the time. Though he was a FDR, Truman and Kennedy man,
I am pretty sure he liked Ike—Ike was his commanding officer when he fought in
the war, so he could break with one favorite team for an opposing favorite
team, like the dilemma he would have had lived to see the Freeway World Series
between the Cardinals and the Royals .
He could probably only be persuaded to vote Republican if there was an
important emotional connection like he would have had with Eisenhower. And, as most sports true fans are, he was a
fan of his teams even when they were not very good. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to admit that we all fall into that category when it
comes to sports. I root for the Royals,
the Jayhawks, The Chiefs and the Jazz, even when they are stinking it up. Gratefully
the Jayhawks are looking good again this year. And likewise, I detest the teams
who may perennially beat my teams.
Because I grew up in a family who drove Chevys, I tended to prefer them
myself. I see that kind of fanaticism
all over. Who has not seen a decal of a Calvin-like little boy urinating on a Chevy
or Ford logo? I can safely say that there have been some good and bad years for
about every make of automobile, but still people have their biases. Everybody
can find something that he prefers because it is their favorite brand, even if
there is substantially no difference in the product. Some people like Levis
while others prefer Wranglers. And, it may not matter the monetary cost to the
real fan. They are willing to pay a little more for the product because it is
their brand. You might remember back when Coca-Cola tried to introduce “New
Coke”. The Coke Company had done a bunch
of blind tests where the cola drinkers picked the drink that they liked best.
They found that the taste testers more often preferred the Pepsi-Cola product.
So, Coke decided to produce New Coke, which tasted more like Pepsi. Well, Coke
fans went crazy and the Coca-Cola Company went back to what their fans wanted. I
was happy with Pepsi either way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In essence, this phenomenon of fanatical behavior—that is
where the term “Fan” comes from—gives me some insight into why some people vote
against their interest. For whatever reason—they were raised a Democrat, or
Republican or Catholic, or Baptist and they refuse to give up their brand, even
if it kills them, because it would cause their mother or father to roll over in
their graves—they have become fixated by the brand. I have heard people respond to me, when I ask
them why they are going to vote for a Democrat, even when they know that it is
a bad choice, that they just can’t pull the lever for a Republican. This is precisely what I think is happening
with many of the voters in America. They are not really doing their homework on
the issues or the leadership qualities of the candidate, or thinking seriously
about what they are buying with their votes.
When the time comes, they roll out of bed and pull the lever for their
traditional brand, even though that brand now may not be as good as they
remember it to be back in the day. Even when it looks to them like a Ford might
be a better by than a Chevy in a particular year, they just cannot write the
check for the Ford. Or they just cannot make themselves wear a pair of
wranglers, no matter the fit or the price, because they would feel that they
had been untrue to their team. And, what would their friends say? Well, I have
a pretty good idea what I would say. I would say, “Pull your stupid head out”! “You
thought you were buying a Ford Continental but you are driving around in an old
Ford Pinto with a gas tank ready to explode when the inevitable rear-end crash
comes!” And, If you keep this crap up, I guess I will keep beating my head
against the wall in frustration. But, I
would say it in a friendly and loving way.<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-75335791715498506352014-01-28T18:21:00.003-08:002014-01-28T18:26:04.627-08:00"Pay No Attention To Pesky Facts: The State Of The Union Is Strong!"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obama has a big opportunity tonight to set the record
straight in his State of the union Speech.
He has to say something that will help his failing image, something that
will make his supporters not continue to flee from him like rats from a sinking
ship. That is good accurate imagery, if I do say so myself. To borrow a phrase from the Obama’s favorite
communist pastor, the president’s “chickens have come home to roost”. Recent
polling evidently shows that some folks who believed Barack Obama about the
‘Affordable Healthcare Act’—I won’t use the more popular “Obamacare “
sobriquet, because Pelosi, who claims she never called it that, no matter how
many recordings show the contrary, and even Obama, himself have stopped calling
it that, since it seems to be a stinker of a law—are now coming to the
conclusion that the man they entrusted with creating a wonderful new healthcare
system for the nation was doing one of the following: (1) He really thought it couldn’t be that
hard, because big government is the answer to all of the world’s ills; (2) He
was lying the whole time because, being the Marxist Socialist that he is, he
knew that the ignorant masses could be sold anything if you had said it enough
times and the liberal media would stay in bed with him for the long run; (3)He just doesn’t like the free market at all
and knows that he is on the right road to prove the strategy of Richard Cloward
and Frances Fox Piven (Sorry about this extremely long run-on sentence, but I
am writing in a stream of consciousness here);
(or 4), He’s just an idiot that thinks he understands how economies
work. At any rate his popularity really
tanked. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suspect that if you
were to make a test question in a multiple choice structure, “all of the above”
would be the correct answer. I don’t
think he is a total idiot, by any means—he has admitted after all, that he was
a bit of a slacker in school and often times slackers can get by on native
intelligence (see my own history)—h e was smart enough to work the system to get
through school and into the Ivy League
stepping stones to politics and other educated idiot positions. Incidentally, he never attended public school.
When he was with his mother in Indonesia, he went to a private Muslim
school—you can read his books about himself. And when he went to Hawaii to live
with his maternal grandparents he attended a posh private high school. He also sends his own daughters to private
schools and always has. At any rate, the point I would like to make is that he
appears to not be the genius that so many lefties proclaimed him to be. ( I heard
James Garner say that Obama was probably the most intelligent president we have
had. I really like Garner as an actor,
but now I feel sure that he should not teach history). Obama is unable, it
seems, to put ideas together in public without a prompter, and he does not know
how to pronounce the word “corpsman”. Now, I know that there are a lot of
people behind bars who are fairly intelligent, so raw intelligence does not
make you a stellar politician who would be void of misjudgment. Look at Biden … uh, look at Pelosi… or umm
Reid… Well, I can’t come up with a very good example among the Democrats at the
moment that would prove my point, but there are probably some out there. And, I am not suggesting that Mr. Obama
should be behind bars. That may come in another blog, but clearly the stuff
involving the roll-out of the Affordable Healthcare program seems to show that the President is still a
monumental slacker. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As to my second conjecture, that he was lying the whole time
about what to expect with his healthcare plan, we only have to compare his
claims prior to the roll-out with reality.
I remember last year when the president gave his State of the Union Speech
that a Republican congressman was so
shocked by what the president claimed about his plans that the congressman
blurted out “You Lie”. You might think it was rude of him, but I think I would
have had a hard time swallowing that crap too. Seems he was right; Obama lies. A
defender of the president could say that it was a well intentioned untruth, and
you that you can’t expect perfection.
You can’t expect perfection from the most intelligent president we have
had? That has to be a shock to James Garner and his liberal friends. And, a defender might also say that it was
the Republicans’ fault that he had to tell some minor fibs, in order to get the
smelly thing passed. That fact is that
it was smelly from the beginning. Many on the Republican side new the idea
would not work and tried to tell the public that it could not work, that it was
going to be a huge train wreck. Up until
the day before it started falling apart at the website roll-out, Some brave
conservatives even stood up to their own party leaders in trying to stop the
thing. Hindsight has been good to those
individuals. However, the fact remains that Obama was lying and our Health Care
System in possibly dying. Isn’t my
little rhyme catchy? It is almost as snappy as “Bush Lied and people died”. The
left somehow knew that Bush lied, even though the Democrat leadership at the time,
Clinton, Obama, Schuman, Reid, et al, also believed that Sadam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and voted along with president Bush to invade Iraq. It would seem that if it is good for the
goose, as they say, it should be good for the gander. Of course, the ultra -Left couldn’t see
equivalency if it could be argued against them. The bottom line is that Democrats,
almost to a man or woman, will almost always say “Me Too” when they think it
could be to their political benefit, while some Republicans—not all, sadly—who
are conservatives first, will stand
their grounds on principle. I see the votes that passed the “Affordable
Healthcare Bill” through the house and Senate as a good example:. The Bill
passed without one Republican vote, while a sizable nonpartisan vote supported
the invasion of Iraq. Who has more political guts and who was lying? I feel
sorry for the Democrats who exposed themselves to the political aftermath of
voting for the healthcare debacle. Actually, I don’t. I don’t want to get
caught in a lie.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third possible reason for Obama’s Healthcare program is
his desire to fulfill Cloward and Piven’s strategy for bringing down the US
government. Cloward and Piven were
sociologists and political activists who saw the easiest way to reach their
goals of a socialist revolution in America
was through the Democrat party. They wrote: “The ultimate objective of
the strategy—t o wipe out poverty by
establishing a guaranteed income—will be questioned by some. Because the ideal
of individual social and economic mobility has deep roots, even activists seem
reluctant to call for national programs to eliminate poverty by outright
redistribution of income” It was their intention was to create a crisis in the
current welfare system by focusing on welfare law and eventually bringing about
its collapse under its own weight, necessitating replacing it with socialist
system guaranteeing annual income. This was to be done by encouraging the poor
to demand more and more benefits or entitlements and overloading the system. I don’t
think that it could be plainer to a Martian looking down at us that we are
heading full speed under Obama’s steerage to the destruction of our free market
system. Now it may be happening faster than he might have expected and wished
for—he has been recorded as saying that he favored a one-payer system for
healthcare—because the unaffordability of his programs are beginning be obvious
to more and more people. He may have tipped his hand too soon. I pray that he
has. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last possibility is that he<u> is,</u> indeed, an idiot;
an idiot who has no understanding of how an economy works. However, it may not
be his fault. After all he was sired and
raised by communists and there are a surprising number of people who are unable
to understand the concept of living within their means. The whole Democrat
Party suffers from this incapacity these days, as well as close to half of the
Republican Party. Just as there are, for
example, a relatively small number of
people in the world who are color blind, unable distinguish between green and
red, there exists a huge number, perhaps a majority of people in the world who
are unable to grasp the difference between income and outgo. This is a sorry state of affairs, exacerbated
by the fact that too many educators are also income-outgo-blind. They teach,
and liberals and progressives are susceptible to, the Keynesian doctrine of
economics. John Maynard Keynes held to
the theory that a government could spend its way out of recessions and
depressions. This will sound odd to
those of us who have been taught and have come to believe that when you are
lacking in income you should logically spend less and save for a rainy day.
It’s possible, I guess, that some Keynesians believe this as well, as far as an
individual or a family goes, or at least I hope that is the case, but it is
very different when it comes to nations and their expenditures. For Keynes, somehow the fact that that
governments could print more money when they thought they needed to, absolved
them from natural laws of inflation and deflation. For the Keynesian, inflation is not a very
big hurdle. They apparently believe that, as long as you can ride the wave and
print more and more money, a new norm will arrive and exist for a while, until the
bigger demands on the government and economic bubbles start bursting. Then, it is off to the races again, with higher
government-controlled minimal wages and so called price controls which do
little but anesthetize the unwashed masses.
The reasonable among us we look at that philosophical abortion and
wonder how intelligent people could fall for it. I know it baffles me. We free
marketers, who see the wisdom of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman and see the
opposition as crazy. In fact, I think
this picture of John Maynard Keynes supports my thoughts: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8NbDeBv0SVMYwCojhkxJ9_noZc025UYWX4YXA1SRzbATf9LoGwDWwuOdYj1mD7a7zm96MqWmMVnUBvy17MU9zbFh8EFCHt5Or53wNWcqXZ9dQ-tbhiESAGMnXr-4YPEfZQt80y-gdKHs/s1600/John+Maynard+Keynes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8NbDeBv0SVMYwCojhkxJ9_noZc025UYWX4YXA1SRzbATf9LoGwDWwuOdYj1mD7a7zm96MqWmMVnUBvy17MU9zbFh8EFCHt5Or53wNWcqXZ9dQ-tbhiESAGMnXr-4YPEfZQt80y-gdKHs/s1600/John+Maynard+Keynes.jpg" height="400" width="331" /></a></div>
<!--[endif]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6467248667736545873" name="_GoBack"></a>He looks crazy to me. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, tonight Mr. Obama will try again to make his State of
the Union Speech believable , while laying the blame for his troubles at the
feet of those dastardly heartless Republicans, and the Tea Party racists,
especially the Black ones. Like the old joke about the man caught cheating by his wife, Obama will have to say, "Who are you gong to believe me or your lying eyes?"</div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-8567417605812010502013-12-24T15:19:00.000-08:002013-12-24T15:19:23.181-08:00T'was The Nightmare Before Christmas: An Obamacarol!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like to be charitable as Christmas approaches, but I need to post just one more politically motivated blog before I don my cap and settle down for a long winter's nap. I heard yesterday that the Obamas want us to discuss Obamacare with our families on Christmas. We might talk about it in my family, but I doubt that he would want to know what we have to say about it. I also heard that Barack Obama signed up for the bronze
healthcare plan. Well, actually, he did not do it himself. He had staffers
(minions) do it for him, because he and the First Family are currently on their
Christmas vacation in Hawaii and everyone knows there are no computers in
Hawaii or on Air Force One. It is
probably a good thing he had someone else do it, because he would have a
problem being truthful on the application and he would likely screw it up, like
everything else he has done. Yes, I know it was a symbolic gesture—as president
he is the Commander in Chief and gets his healthcare gratis through the
military—but could he not have qualified for the platinum plan? Would it not be
fairer for him and the democrats in the Senate and House and all of their
staffers (minions) to lose their wonderful health insurance plans, like
millions of people who had health plans which they were happy and satisfied
with before Obamacare forced the insurance companies to cancel them, to take
the bronze plans? Well, seriously, would it not be fairer? The democrats are always whining about
fairness, are they not?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We were promised that Obamacare would be much better, that
premiums would be reduced across the board, and that if you liked your current healthcare
plan—you would be crazy, obviously (ha ha ha) because everything the federal
government does is cheaper, less wasteful and better in every way—you could
keep your silly plan. Of course, I, and
logical thinkers like me, knew that it was impossible for the scam of Obamacare
to be anything but a huge failure and disastrous to the economy—socialism and
governmental control of economies always make things more cumbersome and much
more expensive. But, now some of the minions are coming to realize that Mr.
Obama was not to be trusted with the nation’s healthcare system. We, the ones who made the effort to actually
check the guy out before he was elected and have paid attention after the fact,
knew that Obama was a big phony at best. As has been pointed out by many conservative
talking heads, Obama has never run a business, never worked at anything other
than community organizing (rabble rising) and holding political office (lying,
cheating and stealing). As a progressive democrat (undeclared Marxist), he
disregards free enterprise and craves governmental power, preferably,
dictatorial power. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obama had to lie, of course, just like he has had to lie or
claim ignorance about the myriad of scandalous events he has governed over in
his presidency. If the ignorant people knew that their premiums would have to
go up and that they would not be able to keep their preferred doctors, he would
not have been re-elected. But, do not
feel alone on this, you ignorant healthcare users who voted for Obama, the
insurance companies are also crying bitter tears. Obama promised them that they
would make much more money with Obamacare in place. And why would they not make
more money, if the government forces people to buy health insurance? They
thought the fix was in. How were they to know that Obama was either an
incompetent boob or a Marxist democrat trying to drive the country into a
one-payer healthcare system? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Actually, I do not think Obama is any more a boob than your
typical run-of-the-mill college-educated Utopian socialist pinhead. Obama and his cronies understand that you
have to tear down the prevailing system in order to get people to accept a
pie-in-the-sky socialist utopia.
Socialists know that they cannot tell the truth about what they plan,
because people want stability, and if they suddenly find their lives unstable
or convinced that their situation is untenable, they will be accepting of
drastic change. People do not typically elect to have a limb amputated unless
they are convinced that gangrene has set in and it will eventually kill them
otherwise. But, what if the doctor
proposing the amputation is crazy, and he thinks that a mechanical limb is much
more durable and aesthetic? He would have to convince the patient that the
natural limb is not a good thing. And, if he follows Machiavellian principles,
such as the end justifies the means, as most tyrants do, he will tell any lie
necessary to get the desired results.
Tyrants almost always know what is best for everyone around them. Of
course, it does not usually apply to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may think my
doctor-amputation analogy is a stretch, but I sincerely believe that
progressive politics are lunacy. History has shown that socialism unchecked
will destroy a capitalist free market God-fearing—this term actually means “God-revereing”,
when translated correctly—society. The
conservatives know by practice and application that making more of a product
and allowing for competition in producing and selling a product will cause the
product to be more available and less expensive. Conservatives in Congress
—notice I do not use the term ‘republicans’ here, because once upon a time there
used to be conservative democrats like Harry Truman, and there are way too many
progressive republicans these days as well—have tried for years to take the
governmental shackles off of our healthcare system. They have promoted the concept of allowing
people to shop for health insurance across state lines and to reduce frivolous lawsuits
through tort reform, but state insurance lobbies and trial lawyer lobbies have
partnered with the democrats and liberal republicans to keep those costly
encumbrances in place. Just those two things would save billions of dollars to
the consumer and help bring more doctors into practices. If the progressive-socialists
in our federal and state governments actually wanted to help and protect the
little guy, they would forsake their ties to these lobbyists and quit trying to
create villains out of people who <u>EARN</u> a lot of money and are paying the
vast majority of taxes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, you might ask yourself, “What has this gem of
governmental interference in our lives cost the taxpayers so far, including a website
built by a Canadian company, CGI, which has “connections” with Obama’s peeps?
According to the non-partisan Factchecker website, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6467248667736545873" name="_GoBack"></a>a conservative
figure would be $70 million. A more modest figure would be $125 million to $150
million. Or, one could embrace the entire project, as outlined by GAO, and
declare that it is at least $350 million. Now, if the number that the
non-partisan Government Accountability Office is correct and the thing cost $350
million, I would wonder if it was money well spent, since the website was hard
to navigate, kept crashing and the price tags of the healthcare options so scared
the crap out of people that they are flocking away from Obamacare rather than
to it. Since our nation’s population is
currently estimated at about 315,000,000, the federal government could have just
given each and every person in the whole wide country a million dollars apiece
and they could have opened their own healthcare savings account and not worried
about an insurance carrier! Now, does that sound Crazy? Do you actually think
Obama wants everyone to have more affordable health care, or is he trying to amass
more dictatorial control? I rest my case. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh wait a minute, one more thought: It has been said that
Obamacare is the law of the land and we just need to get over it. True,
congress passed it unilaterally, and it was upheld in the Supreme Court, by
calling a penalty for not obeying mandate a tax. But since then, Obama has
rewritten numerous times by carving out special wavers for more and more
special interest groups and delaying the mandate for large businesses and now
some individuals. Some republicans—by this I mean no democrats—saw the train
wreck coming and tried to get the debacle-ridden implementation of Obamacare
postponed for a year, but Obama and his minions said, “No, we will never, ever,
do anything you people want, even if it kills all of us, except when it will
get us reelected”! Well sure, that is not what they said specifically, but is,
in essence an accurate description of their mindset. And, you might ask yourself, “Hey, according
to our Constituion, doesn’t the President have to obey the law and see that it
is enforced?” Well, not if you are
President Barack Hussein Obama. Again, I ask, do you actually think Obama wants
everyone to have more affordable health care, or is he trying to amass more
dictatorial control? Now, your honor and
ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I really rest my case. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Merry Christmas! And, a Happy New Year! I hope.</div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-68687648383063619582013-12-05T18:07:00.000-08:002013-12-07T18:08:36.194-08:00If You Are Going To Do It, Please Do It Right!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am a big reader. I read or listen as I drive, to many, many books in a year's time. I like books of all types, be they serious, comedic, fiction or nonfiction. I have read some books over and over again. I like a good story, whether fantasy or fact. But it needs to be good. With all of the good literature out there in the world and with fewer people willing to put the time in to actually read, it is understandable that film has become this generation's books. Now, I am not smug because I am a reader. I am also a sort of movie buff. I like "good movies" and "good television shows" from every time period. I particularly enjoy it when a favorite piece of literature of mine makes it onto the big or little screens. Of course the real primitive stuff, like Eadweard Muybridge's "Running Horse" made in 1878, were interesting and amazing for their time when still monochrome photography had only been around since about 1800, but they could not be considered masterpieces of any kind. They were curiosities and nothing more.<br />
<br />
The first "movie" to tell a story was "The Great Train Robbery", filmed by the Edison company in 1903. It lasted about 12 minutes and had a closeup and some pretty funny action scenes (by today's standards), but the story had no character development and was more like a news reel that we used to see in the movie theaters in the thirties and forties before television programming allowed for visual news to be reported directly to your home. But, the idea of moving pictures to tell a story was hard to resist. Instead of having to read popular novels or works of non-fiction, where you could only imagine the events in your mind's eye, you could now see a moving depiction of the material. Like they say, "before television and movies, we had books".<br />
<br />
Of course it was still far from having a very realistic experience. The movie world was monochrome and had no sound. You still had to do some reading to get a better gist of the story and you could not tell if the beautiful people on the screen were blondes, redheads, brown-eyed or blue-eyed. Plus, you had an organist playing accompaniment to help get you excited or make you sympathetic at the right moments. It was hardly much better than reading, but was at least a step in the right direction. But, we had a little while to go before we would have the movie-going experience available to us today.<br />
<br />
Color film actually proceed "Talkies" by about two-and-a-half decades. The 1903 French film, "The Passion Play" a depiction of the life of Christ, was done in Pathechrome, a process that involved staining parts of individual frames. The process of capturing natural color would happen with Kinemacolor in 1914 and Technicolor would become the standard for color films in Hollywood by 1932. So, color was available but it did not become the norm until the sixties. The color movies were, of course, more costly to make and the expenditures for color movies were usually reserved for what were considered by the film companies as the more epic stories to tell. Of course, the advent of sound made telling a story easier. The technology existed since 1923 but it generally sounded like crap. When The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, sound was pretty much in to stay even though it continued to sound like crap for another few years. Everybody wanted to hear the same dialog, music and ambient sounds they were experiencing in everyday life.<br />
<br />
Why, you may ask, did they start putting music in along with the natural soundtrack? If they are trying for realism, I think they are completely wrong. I know I don't have an orchestra or a snappy pop group following me around and playing music to match my mood or give my audience a nod as to what I may do next. I suspect it was part and parcel to the way silent films were watched, with a piano player or organist accompanying live at the movie house. Somehow, I do not begrudge the music too much, because there are times when it actually helps the action or lack of action on the screen.<br />
<br />
Innovations in movie production have gone nuts since Star Wars in 1977. Special effects have become the norm for big budget money makers. People want to see what would have been impossible just a few years ago: Realistic-looking creatures and events that could not possibly be done outside of computer-generated images. Now, 3D in film has been around since about 1915, but it became a bit of a craze in the fifties and early sixties with mostly pretty silly monster movies, but they have really caught fire during the last decade with super hero and space-based movies. Where we had "Cinerama" in the fifties and sixties, which entailed a huge curved screen to help put you into the middle of the action, we now have IMAX, with really, really big screens and projectors that can project the big picture with amazing detail. Now you can feel like an ant watching the action. Audio has improved as well. In the sixties they tried a" Senssuround" system to simulate the vibrations shown in the 1974 film, "Earth Quake", airplane take-offs and explosions in the film "Midway" of 1976--curiously both starred Charlton Heston--but it was not that much of a thrill to me. Now they have THX and Dolby and Surround Sound to enhance your movie viewing pleasure, and if you want the vibrations, you can pay a bit more and sit in the special D-Box seats in some theaters which will vibrate and shake in conjunction with the visual action on the screen. Frankly, that particular advancement does little for me. In-fact, I find it extremely annoying. But I digress...<br />
<br />
I began by saying I liked to read and was a sort of movie buff. Again, I really like movies of all shapes and sizes, if they are good and not overly pretentious. I, unlike my wife and some of my kids, really enjoy watching old movies in black and white with dated music, if they were done well. My wife is unable to enjoy anything that is shot in black and white and has dated sound. But I say good acting is good acting, and on-screen charisma is what it is. It took a decade or two to get there, but eventually, the film industry developed directors and actors who understood the movies were not the stage and had to be more subtle. I enjoy watching a play--I, myself have performed in some over the years--but it is obviously a much different deal than mugging for the intimate camera. The movie has the better chance, or is better equipped in my opinion, of recreating for the observer a more complete entertainment experience when telling a story. However, they also have a greater chance of completely blowing it. If the powers that be in television and film cannot come up with their own original material, they go after what they think will make them the most money. I hate it when people with power in the entertainment media are only in it for the money. They will almost always get it wrong.<br />
<br />
Movie and television producers, in my opinion, owe it to good literature to get it right.The way they usually blow it for me, is they try to tell a story that originated from a different medium and thunk they can make it better. Popular novels are most often abused, in my humble opinion. It is seldom that the movie is better than the book it was based on, especially when the movie producers think they can make the story better or change it in away that will make it sell better. I have to admit that there have been a few times when I thought that the movie was better. For example, Jaws, the film, was better than Jaws, the book. I understand that it is very difficult to include everything of importance from a book into a movie version and get it into a two-hour to three-hour time frame, so you may need to streamline the story a bit. However, when you take the stories of Edgar Rice Boroughs and his best characters like Tarzan and John Carter and come up with a completely different story and completely different lead character, you really start to hack me off. I do not understand why Burroughs let them get away with portraying his Tarzan as a moron when Burroughs wrote him as a genius. Another example which comes to mind is the the attempt to make the Jason Bourne books into movies. I suspect that if I had not read the books, I would have thought the movies were okay, but the producers of those films thoroughly decimated Robert Ludlums brain child. If they were going to do a completely different story and make characters from the movie be the opposite of how they were in the book, why not just rip off the concept, give their characters different names and call the movie something else. With many of them you could never ever be charged with copyright infringement. Once the author of the book sells the rights, the movie producers can do pretty much what they want, and star pretty much who they want, who they think will sell the movie. How do they think the fans of the books feel about it? I do not think that they ever consider anything beyond what constitutes "marketability" in their own feeble brains. I know a bunch of people, as I do, who will not see a film that they KNOW is not a decent adaptation of a favorite book, or even a movie version of a popular TV show, which has happened many times in the last couple of decades. Money and power are often wasted on the clueless, I guess.<br />
<br />
Since I just now turned this into a rant on stupid producers in Hollywood, let me vent a bit on the travesty that is the movie, Jack Reacher. I know that Lee Child has been quoted as saying that he thought Tom Cruise captured the essence of his hero, but I mean really! For some reason, Tom Cruise is considered one of those charismatic movie star types. I do not get it, but I will allow that enough people like him to go see him in any movie. But, let us be realistic; Tom Cruise is at best five feet and six inches tall and weighs in at about 170 lbs., where the Jack Reacher of the Lee Child books is six feet and five inches tall and weighs in at around 250 lbs. The Jack Reacher in the novels is a scary dude, while Tom Cruise makes me laugh when I see him get tough. I have a pretty good imagination but it is not good enough to buy that.<br />
<br />
So my request for the movie and television producers in the world would be that, if they cannot create something on their own, please do not turn silk into a sow's ear. You, Mr. and Miss Producer, most likely do not know how to make another artist's creation better, so go back to what you do best and have done over the last century: Keep coming up with new innovations and better and better special effects. But leave a good story alone. That's a wrap!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-70687576201700919172013-11-18T07:41:00.000-08:002013-11-18T19:21:29.008-08:00Sacajewea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The very first Americans, of course, were the indigenous population later known as “Indians”. From the very beginning, the Indian population was conflicted over the arrival of the Europeans and their colonization of Indian homelands. Some resented their coming, while others welcomed the newcomers, perceiving them as just another tribe with whom to share the bounties of nature. Ultimately, it became obvious to the Indians that the Europeans were there to stay and would eventually become the dominate culture. Some fought the inevitable and others embraced it. Sacajewea, whom I salute in this installment of my Profiles of Leadership in America, embraced it.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1h9S5os_MrUcR85queDtQSxJwfxO8ioqoAsB_nvJDfPtMXPEhgk5ypBEdQez_ZWdqFDbAHoUqsFVimZXSbeqqB280ZB3uI7tpaUawRjd55GwTGjj1Ka6yoymIEouHsLzkKQDowUsD-E/s1600-h/Sacagawea.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5183970129110763538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs1h9S5os_MrUcR85queDtQSxJwfxO8ioqoAsB_nvJDfPtMXPEhgk5ypBEdQez_ZWdqFDbAHoUqsFVimZXSbeqqB280ZB3uI7tpaUawRjd55GwTGjj1Ka6yoymIEouHsLzkKQDowUsD-E/s320/Sacagawea.gif" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a><br />
<br />
Sacajewea<br />
c. 1784—December 20, 1884?<br />
<br />
Americans, living today, owe much to our exploring pioneer forefathers. But, what of our exploring pioneer foremothers? In 1804, Lewis and Clark set out, with a company of some fifty men, to explore the Louisiana territory. The President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, had purchased the huge territory from France with very little knowledge of what it contained. He enlisted Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who had never set foot in that part of the land, to undertake this dangerous expedition and bring back that knowledge. Luckily for President Jefferson, and even more so for Lewis and Clark, the explorers met a young Indian woman on the way, who guided them through the most difficult and potentially perilous part of their journey. That Indian woman was Sacajewea.<br />
<br />
Sacajewea was born a Shoshone around the year1784 in the area now known as the state of Idaho and was named Boinaiv (Grass Maiden in the Shoshone language). While still a child, she was stolen away from her family by the Minnetarres (an enemy tribe) and renamed Sacajewea (Bird Woman in the Minnetarre language) by her new tribe. Her Minnetarre captor later gambled her away to a French trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau. She became Charbonnea’s wife and was living with him in the Dakotas in the autumn of 1804 when Lewis and Clark reached there. Sacajewea and her husband agreed to act as guides for the team of explorers. The group wintered at Fort Mandan where Sacagawea gave birth to her son Baptiste.<br />
<br />
The Frenchman, Charbonneau, possessed marginal abilities as a guide, but his young Indian wife proved to be an excellent guide, showing exceptional courage and resourcefulness. On one occasion, Sacajewea risked her own life to rescue the records of the expedition and other valuables from an overturned canoe. She accurately directed the Lewis and Clark expedition to her own country, which she had not seen since she was a child. She also taught the company how to gather food and live off the land to survive when supplies began to run short.<br />
<br />
When they arrived at the Shoshone tribal camp, she renewed her associations with old friends and family. It was here that she very likely saved the lives of the whole party of explorers. Sacajewea’s brother Cameahwait was now the chief of the tribe. His first inclination was to kill the white men for their belongings. But, because of Sacagawea’s influence, Lewis and Clark were able to procure food and horses from the Indians and were allowed to go on their way unharmed.<br />
<br />
Sacajewea, finding that the rest of her family was dead, except her brother and her dead sister’s son, adopted her sister’s child (she named him Basil) and took him, along with her own child, on the Lewis and Clark trip. With her two children in tow, she continued as guide, leading the explorers to the Pacific Ocean, arriving on November 7, 1805. On the way back, they explored the Yellowstone region, which she also knew well. Upon returning to the Dakotas, Charbonneau refused all inducements to go back to civilization and Sacajewea remained with him. Little more is known about the rest of her life, but Sacajewea is believed to have married into Comanche Indian for an extended time and living to the age of 100 years, dying around 1784 in the Shoshone Indian Agency.<br />
<br />
The white men of the Lewis and Clark Company had great respect and affection for this young Indian woman, who, while mothering two small children, was able to lead, teach, and even protect tough explorers on a very difficult journey. She created good will and trust, for at least a short while, between Indians and white Americans. Without her help and guidance, the Lewis and Clark expedition would likely have experienced disaster, and President Jefferson would not have received the wealth of information that he desired. Sacajewea’s roll in the Lewis and Clark exploration exemplified peaceful cooperation between Indians and white Americans. Sadly, that peaceful cooperation was seldom repeated in American history. Still, Americans that live west of the Mississippi River today, like the men in the Lewis and Clark expedition and President Thomas Jefferson, owe Sacajewea a lot.</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-28306924462400501662013-11-08T16:54:00.003-08:002013-11-08T16:56:46.582-08:00Samuel Adams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="EN">The
American Revolution produced quite a few extraordinary leaders: brave and
spiritual men and women who were willing to sacrifice all they had to create a
country and government where freedom would reign, and where all people could
pursue their individual life, liberty, and happiness (private property). However, for the revolution to be successful,
many at the time believed that faith in God and His endorsement of the
colonists’ efforts to confront the greatest military power in the world would
be paramount. Perhaps the most vocal exemplary proponent of this idea was
Samuel Adams.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Samuel
Adams, <st1:date day="27" month="9" w:st="on" year="1722">September 27, 1722</st1:date>
</span><span lang="EN">–</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> <st1:date day="2" month="10" w:st="on" year="1803">October
2, 1803</st1:date><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><st1:date day="2" month="10" w:st="on" year="1803"><br /></st1:date></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Samuel Adams, like his second cousin, John
Adams, the second president of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, was born into a
religious and politically active family and was a graduate of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Harvard</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
<st1:place w:st="on">Adams</st1:place> was generally unsuccessful in his
business affairs. His father’s attempts
to create a “land bank” for the farming community had been impeded by the
royalists in Massachusetts government and left the older Adams with substantial
personal debt at his death, which in turn fell to Samuel to deal with. Samuel never was particularly successful in business,
but he flourished in politics. In his
masters thesis of 1743, Adams argued the case for colonial rights, </span><span lang="EN">that it was "lawful to resist the
Supreme Magistrate” to preserve the Commonwealth. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN">By the1760s, Adams had become an
influential member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was vocal
in his opposition to the efforts of British Parliament to tax the American
colonies without American consent. His
publicized call for cooperation between the colonies was a contributing factor
in the British order to have British soldiers occupy Boston, which in turn
aggravated the Bostonians to the point of violence, culminating in the famous
‘Boston Massacre’ of 1770, where British soldiers responded to rock-throwing from
a Boston mob with gunfire. Ironically,
it was Samuel’s cousin, John Adams, an equally vociforous voice for American liberty,
but defender of law and order, who would defend the British soldiers in court for
using deadly force to defend themselves against the angry Bostonian mob. A
couple years later, Samuel Adams and other like-minded American colonial
patriots organized links between their fellows throughout the other twelve
colonies. The “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 and other later efforts by Adams and
his fellows, who became known as the “Sons of Liberty”, resulted in further
reprisals by the British government to quell the American rebellion in the form
of the occupation of Boston by British troops, the “Coercive Acts” of 1774
which was akin to marshal law. Adams and his fellow patriots responded by convening
a Continental Congress in 1775. Adams
was considered a traitor by the British at this point and they sent troops to
both capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seize the military arms which
the British had learned were stored in Concord. The battle of Lexington and
Concord and the successful defense put forth by the “Minutemen” essentially
began the American Revolutionary War and eventually resulted in the Declaration
of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson
said of Samuel Adams that he steered the Congress toward independence.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN">During and after the Revolution,
Adams served on numerous committees. He promoted paying bonuses to the
Continental soldiers for reenlisting when their enlistment was ended. He also
called for the punishment of Loyalists to the British crown, banishing them and
confiscating their property. His harsh approach to loyalists continued even
after the war, opposing their return to Massachusetts, believing that they
would work to thwart the new republican form of government. He was on the
committee which drafted the articles of confederation with his emphasis on
strong state sovereignty. Along with his cousin, John Adams and James Bowdin,
Samuel drafted a new constitution for Massachusetts in 1779.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN">After the Revolutionary War, and
under the Confederation, economic troubles began to trouble the new republic.
The uprising known as “Shay’s Rebellion” and other difficulties with taxation
led many to believe that the confederation needed revision. In 1786, delegates
met in Philadelphia to try to revise the Articles of Confederation but ended up
creating a new United States Constitution with a stronger federal
government. Adams had misgivings about a
strong central government and was initially counted among the Anti-Federalists,
but eventually he agreed to support the new constitution, with the proviso that
amendments would be added later, which resulted in first ten amendments now
known as ‘The Bill of Rights’. With this
ability to amend it, Adams became a staunch supporter of the new constitution.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><br /></span>
<br />
<span lang="EN">Adams attempted to be elected a
representative to the new House of Representatives but lost the election.
However he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and then Governor. Samuel,
unlike his cousin John Adams, aligned himself with the Thomas Jefferson and the
anti-federalist party. He left office as governor in 1797 and retired from
politics. He suffered from essential tremors and was unable write effectively during the last ten years of his
life and he died at the age of 81 years on October 2, 1803. He was considered
by his contemporaries, both friends and advisories as one of the greatest
personalities among the founding fathers and a firebrand personality for
individual freedom. In fact, much to his chagrin, John Adams, while serving abroad
as a diplomat was often referred to as “the other Adams. Indeed, Samuel Adams
was at the forefront of the revolutionary movement and with a loud voice for
independence, ever vigilant, willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing for what he
believed in, and was convinced that he was doing God’s will by creating a
republican form of government. The
Boston newspaper, <i>The Independent, </i>Eulogized
him as the “Father of the American Revolution”.<i> </i>There were many founders of our nation who could claim that they
did their all for the birth of the United States of America, but few who were
the equal of Samuel Adams.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-19309652467303361002013-11-07T17:32:00.000-08:002013-12-03T07:33:58.143-08:00I'm Sorry You Were So Gullible! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I really did not think I would ever see Barack Obama
apologize for anything, let alone his “Affordable Care Act” (aka-Obamacare).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But today he sort of did, though he made it
plain that he had been misunderstood--wink, wink, nod, nod--when he placed a “period” behind every
outrageous promise he made while he was selling the public on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course he could not take full
responsibility, because he is not capable to do that. It is much easier for him to
say that he was misunderstood than to say, “I bald-faced lied to everybody
about what they could expect, like being able to keep your insurance if you
like it, or the average family will save $2,500 a year on insurance cost, when
the average family will spend $7,500 more per year”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact is that he, like the lovable
Sergeant Schultz, of Hogan’s Heroes fame knows nothing: He did not know about
‘Fast and Furious’, He did not know that we were spying on our allies; He did
not know that the IRS was targeting conservative organizations; He did not know
that terrorists were involved in the murder of four Americans in Benghazi—in
fact, we still do not know where he was that night and who told our military
and CIA to stand down when those Americans were screaming for help; And, he
does not seem to know that he has no constitutional authority to grant waivers to
his supporters on Obamacare, or pick and choose which laws congress passes to
enforce. But then, if we look at all of these things from Hillary Clinton’s
perspective, what difference does it make at this point?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, it makes a lot of difference to people of principle. I
did not like it when Nixon lied. I did not like it when Bill Clinton lied. I
did not like it when Carter was inept. And I do not like it when Obama is both
inept and a liar, which is pretty much all of the time. He owes an apology for
deceiving the electorate to get elected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He knew that if he allowed the truth to be told in any degree, whether
it be that it was not a stupid video that got four Americans murdered, or that
Obamacare is an ill-conceived attempt to turn our healthcare system into a
single-payer socialist monstrosity, that the public would not have gone for it.
If he had been honest, which frankly is beyond his ability, we would have a
president who actually understands business and economies, instead of a
socialist nincompoop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I apologize if I hurt anyone’s feelings and my apology is
every bit as sincere as Obama’s, PERIOD!</div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-77701439893146811842013-10-24T17:18:00.000-07:002013-10-25T07:17:23.460-07:00What Do You Do Now, America?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do not like saying I told you so, but… Well, actually I do not like having to say I
told you so. I would like to have seen a president
in charge of the country who was not a complete dunce when it comes to our
country’s health care system and general economy, then I would not feel compelled to say "I told you so. Some of us--I mean those of you who voted for Obama and who are not me--are so tainted by the
media’s love affair with the Obama and the Democrat party, and who are so loathing of all things
Republican, that they cannot hear logical arguments. Too many people are so easily led by union
bosses, progressive educators and simplistic entertainers that they run over a
cliff like lemmings, taking the rest of us with them because we, the reasonable ones. are trapped in
the crowd. The old saying, “fool me once—shame on you, fool me twice—shame on
me” is appropriate here. "Three strikes and your out" seems apropos as well. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obama fooled enough
of the voting public to get elected the first time, partly,by promising to have
the most transparent administration we have ever seen and declaring that he
would bring civility to the office and to change the way things would be done in
Washington. And, do not forget, he would be a post
racial president. But then we got the Chicago way of doing things. We got graft and good-old-boy politics like we have
never seen before, with sweetheart deals of “stimulus money” given to his
supporters and cronies like we haven’t seen since Andrew Jackson. We got cover-ups over gunrunning to Mexican drug
cartels by the Justice Department, where a border patrolman was murdered, and the
Benghazi fiasco, where four more Americans were murdered, because Obama wanted to
take credit for having “Al Qaeda on the run” and bringing peace to the Mid-East by
supporting the Muslim Brotherhood--He couldn't let anything like the truth interfere with his chances for re-election. Oh yes, and do not forget that he would regain respect from the other nations of the world. Anybody
who pays attention to world affairs and domestic issues would be disgusted. He has taken every opportunity to take racial sides, making divisive comments where he should have just played basketball or gone golfing. And then he ran the most nasty and vicious
re-election campaign in a century, via character assassination against one of the most moral
and ethical businessmen to ever run for president. He also
pushed socialized “Obamacare” down everyone’s throat, except for government
employees at the very top. Those things were the result of fooling enough
people the first time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, after being fooled the second time, people are
beginning to recognize the fact that he is a charlatan and may be the most inept man since Buchanan to sit in the Oval Office. Truly conservative lawmakers tried to defund
the ill-conceived and unpopular Obamacare and save our country from its ruinous effects, but the idiotic Democrat leadership [insert Obama,
Pelosi and Reid here] would not compromise an inch and shut down the government
for a couple weeks and the Obama-minion media, as they always do, blamed the "evil Republicans". Now, as the roll-out of
Obamacare has begun, people are beginning to see that Obama and his minions
either have no clue about anything, or they are trying to destroy the best healthcare
system in the world and replace it with socialized medicine. Even the densest people are finding out that Obama is evidently
a big liar or big boob. He said that
under Obamacare, you could choose to keep your healthcare plan, if you liked it, and
your doctor, if you liked him or her, and the average person would save $2,500 a year on health insurance. Now they find, when they actually are able to get on the
government healthcare website—the one that was farmed out to a Canadian
software firm and cost over half of a <u>BILLION DOLLARS</u> and does not seem to work any better than some of the most ardent of the Obama voters—that none of those
things are true: Most often, they are not able to keep their doctors and plans and the cost is on the average of $7,500 a year. That would be a difference of $10,000, in case you are wondering. The republicans tried several ways, during the government
shutdown, to pass legislation to fund the government and curtail some of
the most troubling parts of Obamacare, including postponing for a year the mandate for individuals to sign up for government healthcare or be fined. They
reasoned that, since Obama authorized a waiver for big business to do just that, that
it was only fair to allow individuals the same waiver. The Democrats are always worrying about fairness, are the not? But Noooooo… the
Democrats would not budge because they
seemed to be winning the war of public opinion and, once again, and successfully pinning the Republicans with
the blame for shutting down the government for political reasons. So much for changing the atmosphere in Washington. But then again, to be fair, I do not believe he actually said he would change it for the better.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, because people are meeting some of the effects of Obamacare head-on, and
seeing that it will actually cost jobs, and in many cases cause people to lose their health insurance, and force them into a much more expensive government-authorized plan, there are some Democrats coming over to the side of reason.
Six Democrat senators: Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Joe Manchin, Mary
Landrieu, Kay Hagan, and Rick Nolan, are now asking to have that individual mandate
postponed a year. A cynic, like myself, might
think that most of these folks are up for re-election next year and might be changing
their position because Obamacare has never had a majority of support by the voting
public and they are from more conservative states. But who can say for sure? <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is that public opinion may be changing about this naked
Emperor of ours. As more and more people become frustrated and find themselves
in trouble with the law because they cannot afford the “affordable” care act, we
might see them vote with a little more understanding next time around. He fooled you twice, so
shame on you! You blew the call! What are you going to do about it? In 2014 we have a chance to put a Republican majority in both houses. Remember, "Three strikes and your out"!!!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-30283413448613775172013-10-09T19:32:00.002-07:002013-10-09T19:32:54.618-07:00Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed! Come See The Violence Inherent In The System!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you watch TV news, you probably have heard that the
villainous Republicans have shut down the government. Although, unless you are
trying to go to a national park or another site that is controlled by the
National Park Service, the might not have noticed any problem yet. The president and Democrat leadership in the
Senate and House of Representatives have been hysterical about the dire
consequences of the “shut down” describing the Republicans as “terrorists” and
“hostage takers”, who are holding the American people ransom threatening to
blow up the government if they do not get their way. It would be funny if it were not so sad for
the rest of us who value accuracy. Well, wait a minute—it is still pretty
funny. I mean watching Obama, Reid and Pelosi spew their rhetorical hypocrisy,
while keeping strait faces is always humorous. Some people don’t see them as
funny, but then many people—especially women—don’t get the Three Stooges
either. Now, who are the hostage takers?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The hostage-holding analogy is a tried and true hyperbolic
argument for Democrats. It worked pretty well when a similar situation happened
during the Clinton administration. Republicans got the blame in most people’s
minds because most people get their left-biased news reportage form TV news and
entertainment medium who reported it that way, though there were two parties
involved with differing opinions about where the money should go and how much
needed to be spent. It is interesting to me that the president and Harry “Dracula”
Reid—Unlike the Democrat politicians, I can say insulting and demeaning things
about people whom I disagree with because
I am not an office-holder who is supposed to show decorum—are constantly
clamoring for a clean spending bill. A clean spending bill would be, in the
Democrat’s view, a bill that meets all of their requirements, funding the
entire government, which would not exclude anything that the Republicans did
not want to fund. But who are the
hostage takers again?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Democrats are not very good when it comes to history,
especially when the things they do and say seem to come back to bite them, as
when they try not keep from raising the debt limit because it would be “unpatriotic”.
Yes, that was what Obama said as a Senator when trying to defund the war effort
in Iraq. Historically speaking, spending bills in this country used to be
passed on an individual basis, not the so-called “clean bill”. The House of
Representatives, as most people know, hold the purse strings and decides what
bills are funded. If they choose to defund Obama Care, for example, or to fund
individual segments of the government they can legally do so. They were voted in to use their discretion,
just as the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and the
Democrat-controlled Senate chose to unilaterally pass Obama Care without
knowing what was actually in it, as Pelosi unwittingly (her favorite position)
admitted. The use of words like “hostage” and “ransom” are inflammatory and
inaccurate in the extreme, but it seems to be offensive to the media if applied
in the right direction, just like it seems to be impossible for minorities to
have racist feelings. And again, who are
the hostage takers?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Though the hysterics on left describing hostage taking and
ransom demands are purely infantile, let us go with it for the sake of
argument. This time around, it has been pointed out, by reasonable observers on
the right, that normal “hostage situations” require someone, with experience in
such matters, to “NEGOTIATE” to free some if not all of the so-called hostages.
In fact negotiators who care about people will try to get as many out of a
hostage situation as possible. So, it
would seem that the Democrats only care about their favorite hostage of the
month: Obama Care. It should be pointed
out that the Republicans have met initially tried to defund Obama Care, passing
a bill that would fund everything else. When that did not even get voted on by
the Senate, the house passed, as used to always be the case, spending bills for
individual projects or departments. Those efforts have also been ignored by
Senate Majority Leader, Harry “Emperor Palpatine” Reid. When asked in a news
conference, why he would not allow a vote on passing the House’s funding of at
least the NIH, if it were to help a young child get cancer treatments, Harry “Wicked
Stepmother” Reid replied, “Why would we do that?”. The like-minded Senator Chuck “Commander Lyle
Tiberius Roarke” Schumer chimed in, “What right did they have to pick and
choose what part of government is going to be funded? Oh, I don’t know… Maybe
it was Article 1 of the United States
Constitution, you idiot! Not only are Democrats typically bad at history, they
apparently have not read the Constitution since high school if even then. The
House has offered to fund the government, but the President and
Democrat-controlled Senate refuse to budge. If the words “hostages” and
“ransom” are to be applied, then who is really Hell-bent to hold the American
people hostage or hold them for ransom? Could it be the Democrats? I think so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let us also take a look at who is actually getting hurt the
most and who is doing the actual hrting. The House passes budgets and spending
bills but the President apparently has discretion on who actually gets hit and
who gets favored status. The day that the government was officially shut down,
Endowment For The Arts, which targets PBS, Sesame Street and Big Bird and Elmo,
was given nearly a half billion dollars, while the President ordered the
federal parks closed. And, the Obama administration barricades the WWII
Memorial, but allowed an illegal alien amnesty rally on the Washington D.C.
Mall during the “shutdown”. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span>At the WWII Memorial, Carol Johnson
with the Park Service says, they were told to close the site by White House's
Office of Management & Budget. This was also the case at the US cemeteries
in France, where travelers wanted to pay their respects to the WII fallen
heroes, but found the entrances locked. The National Park Service, under orders
from Obama, have been blocking off all of the viewing areas of Mt. Rushmore
with cones. Not only did they close down the park that the monument is located
in, but they are now blocking off any and all spots along the roads surrounding
the park that provide a viewing spot for picture taking. South Dakota
Democratic State Senator, Tim Johnson, said that the problem would be fixed if
Republicans would just send a clean CR that funds Obamacare to Harry “Satan” Reid. Where you used to see unarmed park rangers
you now see armed guards keeping people away. It has been reported that park
rangers have been instructed to make it difficult on the public. One wonders
what would happen if someone should stray across a barrier to the Lincoln or Jefferson
memorials. How difficult should it be made on us? Deadly force, perhaps? We
might be being held hostage, but not by the Republicans.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Help, Help, We’re being repressed! I just hope we do not
experience the violence inherent in the system. But nothing would surprise me
with these guys. </div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-75445501860190925942013-09-30T08:21:00.002-07:002013-09-30T08:21:41.078-07:00Obama Fiddles With Golf While Rome Burns; Why the Affordable Health Care's Approach Has Me Feeling Ill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, it appears we have another “government shutdown” looming. I suspect that
it will either not happen or it will be short lived. It is claimed by the
democrats that it will hurt the economy. I suspect that it will hurt the
economy less than the ironically named “Affordable Health Care Act” will
ultimately hurt the economy and is anything but affordable. Let us face the facts: The economy is still in
the tank after five years of Obamanomics; we are heading into another housing bubble;
the Fed is printing money like crazy; more people are leaving the labor market
than are entering it; a bigger percentage of Americans are on food stamps and
welfare than ever before; the spending bills passed in the past have been
nothing more than Democrat slush funds and to pay off the unions.; and that
stupid health care law is only a ploy to push us into one-payer socialized health
care and wreck our free market economy beyond help. Even the Obama’s complicit buddies, the
corrupt (possibly just ignorant) union bosses are starting to become frightened
of “Obama Care”. What were once full-time
jobs are now part-time, and business owners know they have to cut down on labor
and pay the health care “tax”, as Chief Justice Roberts assures us it is, though
to get it passed in congress the Obama administration argued that it was not. Somehow,
these knuckle heads—anyone who subscribes to Keynesian economics— believe that a
superficially high government-imposed “minimum wage”, price controls on commodities and extra
government spending adding public entitlements will equate to a robust economy,
lots of job creation and a greater standard of living. That would fantastic if it were not a fantasy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Dems have always believed in government-implemented
price controls as a way to keep prices down, while upping spending. Sadly, those policies have never worked as
intended. Whether promoted by FDR, Carter or even the Keynesian convert, Richard
Nixon, price controls and added government spending have only promoted
inflation. Read Thomas Sowell if you are not able to get your head around the
economy and how it actually works. When you take competition out of the equation,
cost always rises. If the profitability of a product is taken away by either
the cost of its production through the imposed cost of materials or labor, the
producer of the product will either cut back or go out of business. What will follow will be less availability of
the product, which will inevitably make it more dear and will eventually cause
the price controls to break. Government
intervention into the airline and oil industries in the past are exemplary of
government manipulation’s destructive effects on business and the public. For
the protection of consumers, it is illegal for businesses to collude—and it
should be—so why would it be good idea for the government to do essentially the
same thing?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is that Obama only cares about socializing American
health care as well as other aspects of American life. If he was serious, he could be meeting with
Republican leaders in the House and Senate, to try to resolve issues that they and even some union leaders have now clamored about,
but he refuses to budge from his lofty perch at the golf course. He plays golf while
Rome burns, it would seem, He suspects, and with reason that the media
will enforce the idea that the cold-hearted Republicans only want to shut down
the government and cause problems for this wonderful “black” president, even
though the Republicans have tried to introduce legislation that would force the
president, congress and federal judges
to use Obama-care. But alas, the president and his Democrats in congress don’t
want it for themselves. Could it be that they cannot afford it? Heaven forbid! It
makes me ill to think of it, so I hope I do not have to depend on the
Affordable Health Care Act, should it be fully implemented. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-44168170224721511752013-09-17T08:38:00.000-07:002013-09-17T08:38:52.187-07:00They Never Had A Chance!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, here we go again. Some nut, or homegrown terrorist,
has run amuck, shooting a bunchy of defenseless people—this time at another
military site, the Washington D.C. Navy Yard. Twelve people “never had a chance”,
as they say. Again, we have silly people on the left, like Senator Diane
Feinstein, clamoring for stiffer gun control laws. If I might be so bold, Diane
Feinstein is an idiot! Gun control advocates always try to make hay out of
these events, but never see the realities. What do 99% of these shootings have
in common? They happen where the shooter knows the people will be sitting ducks
and defenseless. The reality is that Gun
control laws have dictated the very circumstances that these nut jobs look for!
Washington D.C. is a gun-free town. Schools, churches and some movie theaters, like the ones where recent mass shootings occurred were gun-free establishments. The Navy Ship Yard, like all US military
properties, as was Fort Hood, has been gun- free zones, except for the military
police, since the Clinton administration. Our military are not trusted to carry guns? Pretty weird, when you think about it. True, the perpetrators of the ship yard and Fort Hood shootings were ex-military and military, but they would have been vastly outnumbered had everyone else on base been able to legally carry a weapon that they have been trained to responsibly use. I</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost without exception, gun control
measures, which restrict legal carrying or possession of firearms, result in
higher instances in gun violence. When
gun control activists are asked if they would be willing to post a sign on
their house declaring that their home is a gun-free home, they are
nonplussed. The clueless will always want to take self-defense privileges
away from the law abiding public in an effort to quell the use of illegal acts.
They always ignore the fact that criminals are not law-abiding in the first
place, and will never oblige themselves to give up their weaponry and the
obvious advantages they have in a society where their prey wander around defenseless.
Make no mistake about it, we are talking about actual predators, and predators use the
advantages they have, whether they be large claws and teeth or guns, knives and
clubs, to overcome their prey. If sheep
had the same big teeth and claws that wolves and big cats have, the carnivores
would not try to devour them. Humans are
much the same way in respect to preying on the defenseless. Why create more defenseless people when it
has been demonstrated over and over again that conceal-carry laws and ever
open-carry laws definitely reduce gun crime. Imagine, if you will, the rabbit from Monte Python and the Holy Grail. Run away!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In truth, gun control is less about gun control than it is
about trying to make us more and more dependent on government. Gun control
advocates want us to think that they can protect us better than we can protect
ourselves. Law enforcement, by and large,
does what they do to the best of their ability. However, most of the police
officers will admit that most gun crimes have been committed well before the
police can arrive on the scene. The
liberal news media will report the kinds of stories where people are preyed
upon successfully by the criminal much more often and with much more glee than
they will the stories where those preyed upon successfully defend themselves or
deter a crime from happening because they had a gun. How many lives could have
been spared if someone on the scenes of these terrible acts had had a gun to
defend themselves and the others around them? We will never know, because our progressive
lawmakers never gave them a chance.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-91326909986957448602013-09-10T08:36:00.001-07:002013-09-17T08:40:12.651-07:00In Some Cases, Second Thoughts Are About As Good As No Thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I just heard that some Obama fans are starting to have
second thoughts about him. I am convinced that they are most likely their
actual first THOUGHTS about him. There was never anything that suggested he
would be a good leader for the United States, other than he was perceived by
the Left—this includes the liberal media (news and entertainment), the liberal
intelligentsia (a mutually exclusive term in my opinion), radical labor union
leaders, the uninformed and blatant racists (both black and white). Maybe you can make an argument that you cannot
blame the uninformed too much, because
they do not have any core beliefs beyond the idea that there is a lot of grey areas
between right and wrong, that there is no real difference between ideologies
and they did not know that the president was a fraud from the very
beginning. It was convenient for the
Left that Barak is “black” and a Harvard-educated law professor, who can give a
pretty good-feeling speech if it is on prompter. He was somebody they could fully get behind. They could count on the fact that many would
want to vote for Obama, either because of “white guilt” or “black pride”. They could also count on the fact that they
could hide his inadequacies from the public by not allowing information to be assimilated
by the masses. They knew that most of the public is ignorant—this means they
are not informed, either by choice or because they have not been taught. And,
when information was brought up that would expose Obama’s true ideology and inadequacies,
they could always holler, “Racism”. It was the perfect storm, as they say.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have also heard people say, ” I’m disappointed with Obama,
but I’m not sure Romney would have been
any better”. Really? See my comments
above! The non-reporting on Obama continued unabated and the outright lies
thrown out by Obama and his surrogates went largely unexposed by the liberal
press. We conservatives can take little comfort in the fact that Fox News dominates
the TV news outlets and Conservative Talk Radio dominates by far in its venue. The reality is that the liberal outlets and entertainment
Medias still vastly outweigh us. Network
news and prime-time entertainment rule the ignorant masses. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let us be frank. We have had five years of a terrible
economy, with more people deciding to stop looking for work than find jobs. Black
unemployment is worse than it has ever been, especially for young blacks. Obama Care is a fiasco, making small
businesses elect to turn their workforce into part-time rather than full-time to
be able to stay in business. Even Big Labor is starting to understand the emperor
has no clothes. The idea that Romney, a tremendously successful business
executive and successful Republican governor over an extremely liberal
state, would not have been better to
preside over a free economy society, moronic at best. You might be able to make that assertion
about foreign policy, because Romney had no definitive foreign policy
experience beyond serving as a Mormon missionary in France, but his world
outlook was not tainted by the Marxist philosophies of his mother, father and
grandparents, as Barak was. Obama’s love
affair with the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Arab Spring” has been disastrous
for Libya, Egypt and Syria. Now, if you
say to me that, perhaps, McCain might not have been any better, I might agree
with you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to say that, even though I knew that we were in big
trouble when Barak Obama was elected, that there was a part of me that was
proud that a mixed-race individual could be elected president of the United
States. However, I knew that it would happen someday. I just hoped it would be
a conservative, who had a serious grasp on economic, moral and world
issues. That is still my hope. I know he is pretty old and he would not
consider it, but Thomas Sowell, the brilliant conservative economist (maybe the
smartest man in America today) is always my choice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We as a nation have
continued to dig ourselves a big hole. We argue about the most obvious things
to a logical mind. We somehow think that
there should be a minimum wage, when all it does is reduce the number of jobs
and the profitability of the companies forced to comply. Competition has always
been the obvious way of increasing profits and raising the standard of living—read
Basis Economics, by Thomas Sowell. We expect to reduce illegal immigration by stifling
legal immigration. We allow stupid things like tenure, organized labor in the
government sector, life-long elected officials, legislation from the bench and an
entitlement mentality to exist in our society. We thought by electing a man
with “black” ancestry we would generate a less racist atmosphere. The opposite
has been the case. Almost everything—I am being generous when I say “almost”—that
happens involving peoples of differing racial backgrounds is suspected of
racism and deserve presidential comment, except those that are blatantly black-on-white-with-admitted-racist-intent
crimes. So much for Reverend Kings color blind society where people would be
judged for the content of their character. The hole keeps getting deeper and
wider!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We say we aspire to be a freedom loving nation, but we tend
to work at giving more and more of our freedoms up to an ever-growing behemoth of
a federal government; a government which, if you believe polling, ever fewer of
us trust. Our Constitution, with the original bill of rights and amendments is
not a living thing that can be twisted and manipulated to make it what special
interests want to be. It was put in place by our brilliant forefathers to
protect the people from an oppressive government. If things come up that the
designers of the Constitution could not foresee, which might restrict the
rights of the people, the mechanism is there to make amendments to it, to
better protect those rights. It was not meant to be particularly easy for the
reason that humans can be fickle and may choose to be strictly a majority-rules-society
or adopt a government by dictate. The
President, a supposed constitutional law professor, and his supporters in Congress and the Supreme
Court do not seem to grasp this notion. Extra-constitutional laws and
regulations are killing us. You can read
just about anything Marc Levin to get a better appreciation for the intent and
value of our Constitution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The bottom line is that we are not better off than we were.
And I doubt that we are going to be any better off for the next three years.
Obama’s presidency is a failure on all fronts, but he is doing exactly what he said he would do. He just thought he was smarter than he actually is. But, that is the case with most progressives. I hope we will have a majority
in the next elections who take the time to read and study about the candidates
and issues. We need to get away from the "reality' TV shows and the fluff media long enough to educate ourselves. And, do not turn to the university educators for "reality" either. Those folks mostly live in the fantasy worlds of socialism and progressive Utopian nonsense. Educators have worked hard through tenured systems and teachers' unions to eliminate arguments from any opposition. Sometimes it is hard to break with conventions and tradition. If
you have grown up with ideas about politics and philosophy that dictate your
vote, I only ask that you think about it first. If you read the same old stuff and listen to the same old people without a different frame of reference, your view, no matter how you might actually evaluate them with logic if given a reasonable opportunity, will probably go unchallenged. It might also be worth praying
about, unless you have been convinced by the liberal Left—mostly democrats ,
these days—that God has no place in politics. Think about that!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-42833459668274275432013-07-08T15:39:00.002-07:002013-12-03T07:39:26.729-08:00It's Been Awhile!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's been awhile since I blogged. Mainly, it is because I had lost the energy to say what I was thinking. This is not to say that my thoughts and opinions were of no value to even me, but that I had been physically tired and lacked the mental toughness to push through, I guess. For one thing, I had gone through a period of illness. The night of the election returns I went to the emergency room because I was feeling so badly. Of course, the election results alone were enough to make me physically ill, but I REALLY felt badly. Blood tests showed that I was dangerously low on potassium. I immediately started taking supplements and had further tests done. I'm not sure if I should say that I was gravely ill, but it was determined that I had Type II Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Chronic Kidney Disease, among some lesser ailments. At one point it was thought that I had had an heart attack in the recent past--an EKG seemed to indicate some heart muscle damage. After an Angiogram, it was determined that I had no heart disease. Nonetheless, I decided I needed to try to get into better physical shape and perhaps reverse some of my maladies. So, I went on a serious diet and exercise program of my own making. In a few months I had lost 35 lbs. and lowered my blood pressure to the normal range. I also seem to have put my kidney numbers in the normal range and no longer have problems with my blood sugar. I test my blood sugar daily and average consistently at about 100. My energy level has returned and I expect that I will return to blogging on a more frequent basis. <br />
<br />
I still find it hard to think about things political without becoming irate with liberals and their inability to digest logic, sending my blood pressure inching up, so I had better try to write more about history, music, art, film, literature and family joys. I have been reading about Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver as of late and plan on adding them to my" Profiles of Leadership in America" project so they should show up soon. There are several other lesser-known great Americans that should have a place as well, but I need to find time to research them a little more before adding them in. I have also been re-watching some old TV programming from my youth as of late, and hope to blog about what we are missing in entertainment these days and possibly writing some critiques of recent films and TV fare. Anyway, keep looking for me and perhaps I will send up something of interest to you.<br />
<br />
Randy Mundy</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-55039384154152695242013-03-29T09:29:00.000-07:002013-03-29T09:29:27.247-07:00GEORGE WASHINGTON<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
America has always been noted for innovative and revolutionary ideas. Though Americans did not originate the concepts of democracy and republican government, it was in America that these concepts were given their best chance to take root, flourish, and survive. It was not a forgone conclusion that the American Revolution and its following experiment in government would be successful. On the contrary, it could have only been judged highly unlikely and improbable at best. The great American experiment of government by the people and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln later described it, was only made possible by great thinkers and great doers, willing to make great sacrifices of personal blood and treasure, putting all at risk. No one individual was more responsible for its birth and successful early years than the ”father” of our country, George Washington, my latest instalment and chapter of Profiles of Leadership in America. <br />
<br />
<img alt="[George+Washington.jpg]" border="0" id="ms__id644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYnvXW8pJJz8mTRUsIBVrD0AyE3PMLY85BlNIC1Jm6Bt00J6AzkfTKzMe3xBSH4loG3_8jC2zu5VHrFscPI0KPqtF4gt4pFc7VV-x7C3yW59_xZg68yPDDnJ0JamlRZ25FjXwXqRtQaE/s1600/George+Washington.jpg" /><br />
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George Washington<br />
February 22, 1732—December 14, 1799<br />
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In May of 1787, the Constitutional Convention of the newly formed United States of America met to determine how their new government would function. These Americans of British decent were exploring new political territory. Once before, in the mid-Seventeenth Century, Englishmen attempted to live without a monarchy, but after little more than a decade of the political experiment, England invited Charles II to assume the throne. The Americans, via a successful war for independence, had again rejected an English king. The challenge for the Americans would be to avoid relying on an Oliver Cromwell-type dictator. The answer came in the form of a three-branch form of government with a president at the head of the executive branch. The unanimous choice of the convention, to fill the office of president, would be George Washington. <br />
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George Washington was exceptionally prepared to fill the role of the nations first President and set the precedence and model for future holders of the office. Washington, primarily a farmer and businessman, was first brought to prominence by his military exploits in the French and Indian War as a militia officer serving under British General Edward Braddock. Though he was involved in few victorious actions, Washington is credited for great bravery under fire and for lessening, through his calm leadership, the degree of loss caused by blundering superiors. When the 2nd Continental Congress met in 1775, Washington arrived in a military uniform expressing his support of Massachusetts (which the English Crown considered to be in a state of rebellion) and his willingness to fight against Britain. On June 15, 1775, Washington was unanimously elected General and Commander and Chief of the Continental army. Though there was obvious danger that a strong general might use his army to set up a military dictatorship, the Congress expressed total trust in his character. Washington’s commission stated: “you are hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and welfare of the service.” <br />
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Washington’s leadership during the war was exemplary. He recognized that the army needed to be under civil authority preserving congressional control. Often, when haste was necessary, Washington would act and then report to Congress. If Congress was displeased, he would not repeat the action. He was able to bridge the social gap between rich (including many members of congress) and poor (which included most of the soldiers in his army). He also bridged the political gap between militants (including Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin), the moderates, and conciliationists (like John Dickinson). These difficult tasks were accomplished while conducting a war against the most powerful army in the world. At his urging, a reluctant Congress declared independence from Britain to distinguish their war from a mere rebellion. Though he had many military successes during the war, perhaps his greatest success was keeping his outnumbered and ill-equipped army from being overrun and demoralized. Time and time again he exercised great control, and was able to preserve his army until the opportunity for ultimate victory presented itself.<br />
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After the war, Washington performed the duties of his presidential office with the same leadership qualities that he exhibited as a military leader. He again, by force of his personality and character, bridged the gaps between social and political groups. He included representatives from both conservative and liberal--not to be confused with the current definitions of the terms--persuasions in his cabinet. Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State) and Edmund Randolph (Attorney General) were Liberals, while Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury) and Henry Knox (Secretary of War) were Conservatives. Washington chose to steer his young country through its fledgling years by adopting a neutral stance in foreign affairs while leaning towards a stronger central government in domestic affairs. By doing so, he was able to both strengthen the nation’s economic union and keep the United States out of costly new wars with both Britain and France. Although he was generally averse to harsh measures, Washington was able to calmly use force when necessary (as with the whiskey rebellion) without bloodshed or reprisals. His steady guidance allowed his young republic the time it needed to safely start defining itself politically. <br />
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Unlike many other revolutionary first ‘presidents,’ George Washington was not forced from office by death or threat of death. After fulfilling a second term (again he had been unanimously elected), Washington retired, urging his countrymen to avoid party strife and to cherish the union and the constitution. Thomas Jefferson, who at times strongly disagreed with Washington, wrote of him, “His integrity was the most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man.” <br />
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It has been suggested that the founding fathers of the United States of America represented more than their fair share of the greatest intellects of their time or possibly any other. The Constitution of the United States bears witness to their profound and inspired wisdom, as does their choice of a leader. In a time in history when the world was full of kingdoms, they chose a democratic republic. And to protect their political experiment they chose George Washington--the man who would not be King.<br />
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-82795964560621940372013-03-20T10:47:00.000-07:002013-03-20T10:49:21.373-07:00BENJAMIN FRANKLIN<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On of my favorite pesonalities from Americanhistory is Benjamin Franklin. In my opinion, he should be at or near the top of everybody's list. Here is my reposting of the segment of this remarkable man from my Profiles of Leadership in America:<br />
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America is known as a place of opportunity, as a place where one’s genius can be developed and given a chance to be productive and, possibly, benefit mankind. In its youth, America was much the same, with entrepreneurs and visionaries exploring the possibilities. The British Government had settled its colonies in America for economic and strategic reasons, but the British subjects that actually came to these shores were seeking freedom to be what they wanted to be, to be free from perceived religious, political, and economic shackles. During the 17th and 18th Centuries, America was seen by many without opportunity as a place where a “nobody” could become a “somebody”. And, in some special cases, they could become a very important and universally celebrated “somebody”, like Benjamin Franklin. <br />
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Benjamin Franklin<br />
January 17, 1706—April 17, 1790<br />
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There are few people, if any, in today’s world who compare with Benjamin Franklin. In fact, there are few people of any age that compare with Benjamin Franklin. He was a writer, publisher, scientist, inventor, educator, politician, statesman, diplomat, philosopher, patriot, and philanthropist. No one, who did not serve as President of the United States, has influenced our country for the better more than Benjamin Franklin. <br />
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Born in Boston in 1706, Franklin was the 15th child and youngest son of Josiah (a soap and candle maker) and Abiah Franklin. He only attended school for two years and did not do well enough that his father felt he could afford to further educate him. His father kept young ten years old Benjamin home to work in the family shop. His schooling may have stopped but he continued to educate himself by reading every book he could lay his hands on, believing that, “the doors of wisdom are never shut” (Eiselen 413). Franklin did not like the soap and candle trade, so his father sent him to be apprentice to his older brother James, a printer. Franklin proved to be a skilled printer, but he frequently argued with his older brother. Franklin was secretly writing some popular articles under the pen name “Mrs. Silence Dogwood” that James was publishing. When James discovered that his younger brother was writing the articles, he refused to print any more of them. Franklin ran away at age 17 to Philadelphia and at age 24 opened his own shop and started publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette, writing much of the material himself. He also married Deborah Read that same year with whom he had two sons (William became governor of New Jersey) and a daughter.<br />
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As a printer–writer-publisher, Franklin developed his newspaper into the most successful one in the colonies. As a businessman he was innovative. Historians credit him as the first to publish a newspaper cartoon and to illustrate news stories with a map. He was even more successful with his publication of Poor Richard’s Almanac, which he wrote and published for 25 years. In the almanac he preached much of his philosophies of virtue, industry, and frugality with memorable wise and witty sayings such as, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.” “God helps them who helps themselves.” “Little strokes fell great oaks.” And “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals” (Eiselen 413).<br />
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Although Franklin never actively sought public office, civic leadership was constantly thrust upon him. In 1736 he became clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly and then agreed to be Philadelphia’s postmaster. His work as postmaster so impressed the British government that, in 1753, they offered him the position of deputy postmaster general of all the colonies. Franklin improved the postal service throughout the colonies and even Canada. He worked constantly to improve his city by establishing the world’s first subscription library, organizing a fire department, reforming the city police department, starting a program to pave and light the dirty city streets, and raised money to build a hospital. By these efforts, he helped Philadelphia to become the most advanced city in the British colonies. <br />
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As a scientist and inventor, Franklin was inexhaustible and completely philanthropic, choosing not to patent or benefit financially from his many inventions. One of the first men in history to experiment with electricity, Franklin proved, with his famous kite experiment of 1752, that lightning was electricity. He used this knowledge to invent the lightning rod, urging others to use his device to protect their lives and property. Once, he tried to electrocute a turkey only to shock himself unconscious. He later remarked, “I meant to kill a turkey, and instead, nearly killed a goose” (Eiselen 415) (Perhaps this is the real reason that he esteemed the turkey above the eagle as a symbol for The United States). Other inventions that benefited his fellow man were his fuel-efficient stove design and the bifocal glasses. Once, after viewing the first successful balloon flight in France, he heard bystanders scoffing, “What good is it?” Always a forward thinker, Franklin responded, “What good is a new born baby?” (Eiselen 415).<br />
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In 1754, when the French and Indian War broke out, Benjamin Franklin offered a plan for the colonies to unite to defend themselves. He printed the famous cartoon of a disjointed snake with the caption, “Join or Die.” His ideas for “one general government” that was presented to a conference in Albany would later find its way into the Constitution of the United States. Though his plan failed to be ratified, Franklin worked hard to support the British army in its fight against the French and their Indian allies, securing horses, wagons, and other supplies and equipment while raising volunteer armies to help defend frontier towns. <br />
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When friction started to develop between Britain and her colonies after the French and Indian War, Franklin worked to keep the colonies British, while protecting what he believed were the colonies rights. In 1757, Franklin was sent by the Pennsylvania legislature to London to lobby parliament in respect to tax disputes. For most of the next 18 years until 1775, he remained in Britain as an unofficial ambassador representing the American point of view. Franklin preferred that America remain in the British Empire, but only if the colonists’ rights were protected. He pledged to pay for all of the tea destroyed in the Boston Tea Party if Parliament would only repeal its tax on tea. His proposal was rejected and he returned home two weeks after the American Revolution had begun. <br />
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Again, Franklin was chosen to serve in the Second Continental Congress, where he again proposed a plan (similar to the Albany Plan) to unify the colonies, which laid the groundwork for the Articles of Confederation. He was chosen to again organize the postal system, which he quickly accomplished, giving his salary to the relief of wounded soldiers. He helped Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence and signed it, declaring, “we must indeed all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately” (Eiselen 415b). Later that year (1776) at age 70, Franklin left for France where he would, as ambassador, eventually charm the French into joining the Americans against the British. Without Franklin’s success in securing the help of France, the American Revolution would likely have failed.<br />
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After the war Franklin returned to Philadelphia and served as president of the executive council of Pennsylvania (Governor, basically) and attended the Constitutional Convention. He was instrumental, by his wisdom and common sense, in keeping the delegates from going home when negotiations got sticky. At his suggestion, the delegates prayed, at the beginning of each day of business, for spiritual guidance. Franklin declared, “…without his (God’s) concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word down to the future ages” (Benson 18). <br />
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Franklin was proud of what his country had accomplished. He had personally signed the four major documents in early American history; the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of peace with Britain, and the Constitution of the United States. He even hoped that the example of the Americans would lead to a United States of Europe. But, Franklin knew that much was left to do. Two years before his death, he was elected President of the first anti-slavery society in America. His last public act was to appeal to Congress to abolish slavery. <br />
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He had accomplished many marvelous things in his lifetime. He was a great man that did many great things and was greatly loved. In 1789, (one year before Franklin’s death) George Washington wrote in a letter to Franklin, “If to be venerated for benevolence, if to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in vain” (Eiselen 416). In his will, Franklin simply wrote of himself, “I, Benjamin Franklin, printer…”(416). <br />
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References:<br />
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Article on Benjamin Franklin by Malcolm R. Eiselen from the World Book Encyclopedia 1970.<br />
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This Nation Shall Endure by Ezra Taft Benson.<br />
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-73649204136139977352013-03-20T10:25:00.001-07:002013-12-03T07:29:51.852-08:00Charming Rogues Are Out And About!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have not blogged about Obama's presidency recently because, honestly, it depresses me to think about it much. With the direction he is taking us with domestic and foreign policies, the United States will be in serious trouble, and we will be hard pressed to make amends. Frankly, I believe it may be too late. This morning, I read a face book posting by my friend, Terry Conley, which made me both sick to my stomach and seriously amused. His posting was about a news report about Obama's state visits to the Mideast, including Israel, and the expectation that he would use his charm to get Israel and the crazy (my word) Muhammadans to respect one another and get along. <br />
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I guess the plan is for him to go around the leadership in the countries involved and appeal to the sensibilities of the young masses to put pressure on the leadership. The laughable part is that he thinks that anybody over there cares at all about what he thinks. I guess the sickening part is also that he thinks anybody over there cares at all about what he thinks. For example, when the youth of Iran were trying to act out and demand a change in their government, Obama was silent. Also, what are the Israelis supposed to think of a guy who embraces the Muslim Brotherhood so heartily and gives so much monetary aid and weaponry to Egypt--Mohamed Morsi is a Holocaust denier and has repealed Egypt's policy under Mubarak, that Israel had a right to exist--who are again technically at war with Israel. <br />
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Now, I understand that true charm can get people a lot of things they want. Even perceived charm can get people a lot of what they want. However, I dispute that Obama is charming at all, for people who see him as he really is--that would be people like myself--and who know a thing or two about phonies and cheats. Obama is even more transparent and less charming than Bill Clinton. He and Bill Clinton got to the highest office in the land because they were able to fake sincerity well enough that the most gullible among us--which may have been a majority of us, judging by election returns--thought that they deserved our trust with power and authority. <br />
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We all knew that the cartoon character, Snidely Whiplash, was a dastardly criminal, who had a penchant for placing damsels in distress. You knew he was dastardly because he acted like one and he twisted his mustache in a suspicious way and laughed about what he planned to do in a dastardly and comical way. I guess in reality, Snidley had a degree of charm, in that his attempts to do evil were always thwarted by the half-wit, Dudley Do Right, who exhibited the same kind of charm as another hero of book and film, Forest Gump. Sadly, we are not living in a cartoon world and there are circumstances, both here and abroad, that will undoubtedly result in disaster. As I see it, Obama's perceived charm is killing us here at home and will likely kill a lot of people abroad. I guess I shouldn't think the idea of him being charming that amusing after all.</div>
Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467248667736545873.post-36529101418249534042013-02-15T08:21:00.000-08:002013-02-15T08:21:27.747-08:00Do You Understand What Depression Is?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I hear some people say that that this is the worst economy since the Great Depression, I marvel at their ignorance. Of course, this is generally political speech. It is used on the left to give blame for the past administration, and to give cover to the present administration for its economic policy failures. This the same situation that prevailed 80 years ago and made a bad economy worse and which extended the recession, turned depression, to 13 long frustrating years. Like FDR before him, Obama is trying to manage a free economy by socialist principles and failing badly. We may soon see how badly when the federal spending and job-stifling high taxation shows the inevitable results. <br />
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My parents lived through the Great Depression, as did the parents of my friends around my age. My generation, because of the plenty we enjoyed, had a hard time appreciating what they experienced. My parents tried to describe it to me and my siblings: how they ate potatoes and beans for most every meal, along withe fish and game that the men brought home from hunting and fishing; and how my father might expect to get a new set of overhauls for a Christmas present. As I understand it, the motto of the time was, "Use it up, wear it out, Make do or Do without." The following pictures might help us "get the picture". We just need to imagine them in color.<br />
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In those years, people really wanted to work for what they might eat. My father worked as a teenager, along with his brothers and my grandfather, in the coal mines of northeastern Kansas to help provide for his family. He went to school during the the high school football season so he could play football, but then he would go back to the mines when the season was over. Because of this, he never completed his education beyond the 8th grade. After serving in the European theater of WWII, he came back to look for work where ever he could find it. He ended up as roofer, eventually working for himself and teaching his sons the roofing trade. He was the hardest worker I have ever known.</div>
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Those folks were a tough lot. They endured the Great Depression and the greatest world war yet seen on the earth. They survived what their government's economic policies inadvertently did to them because they had great work ethic, and they largely strived for success and self respect. And, further more, they had great faith in God. Do we have the same values and virtues today, which would carry us through similar circumstances? We may have to see what we are made of in the very near future, and seeing what I am seeing, I have some serious doubts about us. This time the pictures will be in color!</div>
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Randyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05346776329374177421noreply@blogger.com0