"What makes men think they can justify death? Is it arrogance?"
- Mel Gibson, The Patriot
While watching The Patriot this weekend that quote really hit me. With the events of the past weeks I have been disgusted at the acts of violence around our country and the world. Almost as disgusting as the violence is the ignorance about current events. It surprised me how many people had no idea about the police killings in Oakland and Pittsburgh, the shooting sprees and people killing their own families in New York, Alabama, and even my home state of Washington. The "justification," excuses, or even blame accross conservative and liberal lines for these events given by the shooters and the media has been the stagnant economy or job loss or any number of reasons. I am not a pacifist by any means, but when innocent people die for any reason is terrible, be it "justifiable" or not. In my last post I had said to read a paper, watch the news, surf news stations on the web, or listen to news radio for just an hour and you will be more informed about the world you live in. I am sticking by that because it astonishes me when people in the most powerful country in the world have no idea what is going on it. We are world leaders, yet we know nothing of the world. President Obama told Europeans in a speech there that Americans were, "arrogant," and though I find that completely offensive I find it hard to disagree with him. Arrogance may not be the correct word but ignorance fits it perfectly. So many people had no idea North Korea was preparing to launch a "test" rocket that it was honestly scary. The news started covering it adequately AFTER it had already been launched, and North Korea is a country with a viable nuclear program. If there is a type of "justifiable" violence it would be to protect innocent people from a dictator like Kim Jong Il, but instead most of us only justify our own ignorance and arrogance. Arrogance that we believe our government should give us everything and make sure none of us fail, arrogance that we are leaders of the free world and must be treated as such, and arrogance that we have some right to the wealth and prosperity we so easily take for granted. We DO have the right and the opportunity to work for that prosperity, we DO have the right and opportunity to lead the world and protect freedom and innocence, and we DO have the right, the opportunity, and the duty to be informed and make this world a better place. Maybe eventually we can lead the world by showing it that violence is not only unjustifiable, but unnecissary, and by eliminating not only ignorance, but arrogance as well.
Now I will move on to the news I wanted to cover, and live up to the expectations I have made for myself of being fair and honest.
I may seem harsh in most of my posts against Democrats, President Obama, and I hope Republicans and our government as a whole, but I found something positive I want to share to balance out my own negativity (believe it or not it depresses me too). I originally heard about this on Fox News and then took time over the weekend to research it more. It is called the, "Payroll Tax Holiday Act of 2009," and it was proposed by Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick of Idaho and Republican Aaron Schock from Illinois. This Bipartisan idea put forward by two former businessmen would help small businesses, of which there are about 5 million in the United States. They believe that small businesses will lead the way out of this recession and get our economy growing again because 70% of Americans are employed by small businesses. What the bill proposes is any business that has less than 50 employees can "take a holiday" on paying their payroll taxes, which they say comes out to about $120 per employee per pay period and that money would be required to be reinvested in the company by the employer, and would also put the employees portion into their pockets giving them more to spend in the economy. In essence this bill puts money back into the system, and not only into the hands of the producers but the consumers also. I also think this bill is a great idea, not only a great idea but a great bipartisan idea! It gives employers a chance to grow and hire more employees, and gives 70% of Americans more money to save, invest, or spend. If there is a better way to jumpstart lending, spending, and our economy I don't see it. There was a study done that said just a 40% decrease in this tax could add 2-4 million jobs and INCREASE tax revenue (as reducing taxes in the past has almost always done). Both Congressmen are new this year, freshmen in a government of career politicians that have come up with one of the best ideas I have heard in years. It allows not only the creation of new jobs, but for employers to keep current employees that they may not have been on the verge of being forced to let go.
Here are the places I got my information, so you can make your own decision and hopefully we as Americans can make ourselves heard and help these Congressmen pass their great bill.
http://minnick.house.gov/2009/04/bipartisan-proposal-calls-for-payroll-tax-holiday-for-small-businesses.shtml
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1836
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512433,00.html
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Beyond Politics
I am sorry it has been so long since my last post. I wanna focus on this that have gone on the last few days and weeks that I haven't been able to cover that I think have been attributing to our situation here in America and also around the world. The call for a world currency to replace the dollar as the stable median for trade is as much our fault as any other countries and is a big cause of the uncertainty that is keeping us in a recession and our stock market in a rut. While everyone was focused on the AIG bonuses and taking sides there was much bigger things going on, and we were being "cleverly" distracted. If you dont know what I'm talking about with AIG bonuses then I implore you to just watch an hour of news a day and become a little more informed. They are the bonuses that the government wanted to tax 90%, which is using taxation as a political weapon against a certain people, which is... quick test,
A - illegal
B - unconstitutional,
C - retroactive
D - All of the above
If you answered "D" then you are correct, and if you answered, "D for Dumb," then you get a bonus point. (Note: Bonus points as well as the quiz are like points on Who's Line, and you can take that to the bank, because soon they will have as much value as the dollar) Take for instance the fed printing a trillion dollars to give to ourselves to finance our own debt, but they didn't want us to know about that because we all know that printing money causes inflation, and printing alot of money will cause our dollar to be worthless. We also borrowed another two trillion dollars, the the Congressional Budget Office's previous projections for the budget deficit was about a trillion dollars off and they now believe it will top $1.8 trillion just this year. This is a terrible cycle in which the dollar is worth less and then on top of that to borrow money we will have to pay higher interest rates to other countries and on our own loans. Those things don't work very well together especially when the government is trying to get, "the credit flowing again." The new bank plan to share bad morgages from the banks between the public and private investment and buy ups is actually not a half bad plan. The problem is that it hinges on the banks selling the assets for $0.50 on the dollar when at the least they are going to want $0.80 on the dollar but no one is going to want to buy something that risky for that high of a price, and the banks aren't going to budge on the prices. Then the government called for more oversight and the power to take over and control any company that has a significant influence on our economy. After that, President Obama fired the CEO of GM, how he has the power to do such a thing I'm not completely sure. I thought that was something for the board of directors of a company to do, but I guess maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I am correct and the government is overstepping their bounds like the continue to do, and stepping all over the constitution. Do not think I am only picking on liberals, democrats, or Obama, because this all began with the Bush administration though it was not this full scale and I believe he still did many good things, and the current republicans aren't helping at all either. The government plans to bailout newspapers, why and how those are helpful to our economy I am also not sure, and for some reason I think that is directly against the first amendment of the constitution. The second amendment and others are all on the chopping block it seems, more and more every day with the new judicial appointees and court rulings along with government policy. I feel for the ex-CEO of GM because at 54 he had worked for GM for 31 years and had a large retirement built up, but cannot collect it until he is 60. Everything he worked to build and now his retirement is hanging in the balance and now he has no say in what happens to the company. The people want what GM built, they wanted the trucks, they did not want the economy cars and hybrids. That is not GM, that is what you can get from Japanese automakers. It is called a niche in a market, but the government stepped in and told them they needed to diversify, like they told the banks to take risky mortgages, and now all these companies and financial institutions are failing. Ford is still a very sound company, has not gotten any government money, and is doing fine which is something I attribute to them not listening or depending on the government. Companies know what to do in their sector and designing what people want, the government clearly does not, especially the elected and appointed officials in our government who have had NO experience in the private sector whatsoever. The government cannot even see the logic in its own programs. They say people cannot afford health care and that they want to get credit flowing, but they tax us to death. If they simply lowered taxes we COULD afford health care and the government would not need the money to provide it. Less taxes would also give us more money to invest to get credit flowing like they want.
The Constitution is the supreme law of America, and I do not want a world government, world currency, world law, or any higher law here in America than the Constitution. Everywhere in the world is different, different cultures, and thus different laws. I do not understand why there is even a debate about our constitution, what is says, or whether we should adopt foriegn laws. Our government does not understand our own laws or what we stand for as Americans, in fact, Daniel Hannan, a member of the British Parliament seems to understand our economy and political system better than anyone here. If you don't believe me just watch some of his videos on youtube, he is truely a brilliant man and I can only hope his view is shared in Europe and he is elected there. Before the government starts to take over the media, deciding what we want as consumers, and attempts to take away our second amendment rights one way or another is when we need to act and let THEM know what WE want, not when it happens, before. We need to go beyond politics, unite like we did after Pearl Harbor and September Eleventh, and become Americans again.
A - illegal
B - unconstitutional,
C - retroactive
D - All of the above
If you answered "D" then you are correct, and if you answered, "D for Dumb," then you get a bonus point. (Note: Bonus points as well as the quiz are like points on Who's Line, and you can take that to the bank, because soon they will have as much value as the dollar) Take for instance the fed printing a trillion dollars to give to ourselves to finance our own debt, but they didn't want us to know about that because we all know that printing money causes inflation, and printing alot of money will cause our dollar to be worthless. We also borrowed another two trillion dollars, the the Congressional Budget Office's previous projections for the budget deficit was about a trillion dollars off and they now believe it will top $1.8 trillion just this year. This is a terrible cycle in which the dollar is worth less and then on top of that to borrow money we will have to pay higher interest rates to other countries and on our own loans. Those things don't work very well together especially when the government is trying to get, "the credit flowing again." The new bank plan to share bad morgages from the banks between the public and private investment and buy ups is actually not a half bad plan. The problem is that it hinges on the banks selling the assets for $0.50 on the dollar when at the least they are going to want $0.80 on the dollar but no one is going to want to buy something that risky for that high of a price, and the banks aren't going to budge on the prices. Then the government called for more oversight and the power to take over and control any company that has a significant influence on our economy. After that, President Obama fired the CEO of GM, how he has the power to do such a thing I'm not completely sure. I thought that was something for the board of directors of a company to do, but I guess maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I am correct and the government is overstepping their bounds like the continue to do, and stepping all over the constitution. Do not think I am only picking on liberals, democrats, or Obama, because this all began with the Bush administration though it was not this full scale and I believe he still did many good things, and the current republicans aren't helping at all either. The government plans to bailout newspapers, why and how those are helpful to our economy I am also not sure, and for some reason I think that is directly against the first amendment of the constitution. The second amendment and others are all on the chopping block it seems, more and more every day with the new judicial appointees and court rulings along with government policy. I feel for the ex-CEO of GM because at 54 he had worked for GM for 31 years and had a large retirement built up, but cannot collect it until he is 60. Everything he worked to build and now his retirement is hanging in the balance and now he has no say in what happens to the company. The people want what GM built, they wanted the trucks, they did not want the economy cars and hybrids. That is not GM, that is what you can get from Japanese automakers. It is called a niche in a market, but the government stepped in and told them they needed to diversify, like they told the banks to take risky mortgages, and now all these companies and financial institutions are failing. Ford is still a very sound company, has not gotten any government money, and is doing fine which is something I attribute to them not listening or depending on the government. Companies know what to do in their sector and designing what people want, the government clearly does not, especially the elected and appointed officials in our government who have had NO experience in the private sector whatsoever. The government cannot even see the logic in its own programs. They say people cannot afford health care and that they want to get credit flowing, but they tax us to death. If they simply lowered taxes we COULD afford health care and the government would not need the money to provide it. Less taxes would also give us more money to invest to get credit flowing like they want.
The Constitution is the supreme law of America, and I do not want a world government, world currency, world law, or any higher law here in America than the Constitution. Everywhere in the world is different, different cultures, and thus different laws. I do not understand why there is even a debate about our constitution, what is says, or whether we should adopt foriegn laws. Our government does not understand our own laws or what we stand for as Americans, in fact, Daniel Hannan, a member of the British Parliament seems to understand our economy and political system better than anyone here. If you don't believe me just watch some of his videos on youtube, he is truely a brilliant man and I can only hope his view is shared in Europe and he is elected there. Before the government starts to take over the media, deciding what we want as consumers, and attempts to take away our second amendment rights one way or another is when we need to act and let THEM know what WE want, not when it happens, before. We need to go beyond politics, unite like we did after Pearl Harbor and September Eleventh, and become Americans again.
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