Once upon a time in America

 

There was a time in this land when it was controlled by an oppressive government.  A government that had layers upon layers of bureaucrats, regulations and confiscatory taxes.  Rules and regulations were sent down from on high telling the masses what they could and could not do.  The government controlled the money through a central banking system.  They used that system to control industry.  They burdened business, large and small, with excessive taxes, regulations and fines.  Thus forcing them to comply with the state or go under.  Most of those in power were appointed and untouchable under the law.  The king sat in his palace and passed out edict after edict……..

Oh you thought I was talking about today?

No, I was referring to a time 233 years ago when the people overthrew an oppressive government and put in it’s place one with few taxes and even fewer regulations.  A government based on individual rights and freedom.  A government with free enterprise at it’s core that grew from thirteen little “third world” colonies to the strongest, richest and most successful nation in the history of the world.  This new nation “Conceived in Liberty” went from little more than thirteen fiefdoms to “Sea to Shining Sea” in under one hundred years.

I am truly thankful that I was born in the United States of America.  I am thankful that I remember the end of that era. The end of a time when individual freedoms were more important then the state.  A time when freedom and liberty were taught in school as good things and Socialism and Stateism were an enmity of that freedom. (Yes, I spelled it right… look it up)

Today we find our nation in a great cultural conflict.  There are those, like me, who think the framers of our nation got it right.  Then there are those on the extreme left, and currently in power, who feel that our Constitution was unfair and must be abolished.

For twenty one years of my life I worked in service to my country.  Many times I was asked to reaffirm my willingness to support and defend The Constitution of the United States.  Though I am no longer active duty Navy, I still hold that commitment in my heart.  I will work, within the law, to help educate and enlighten those who have never been taught “The Blessings of Liberty”.  I will do what I can to gain and hold a conservative majority in my Statehouse and the Federal Congress.  I am again this day proclaiming ‘My life, my fortune and my Sacred Honor’ in the course of restoring freedom to this great land.

What a profound short little paragraph that says it all!!!

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”      Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

Climate Bill Set for Vote After Deal Is Reached – “We the People” CAN stop this.

Here’s the article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124579482359843937.html

If you do not send a note to your Congressman(woman) and Senators TODAY, they will pass this thing. If they do, $6.00 gasoline will be considered cheap.

Write, call, email NOW!!

Don’t put it off unless you like having your electric bill, gas bill and food bill doubled.

Cap & Tax WILL kill this country.

I can’t say this strongly enough…… DO IT NOW!!!!

As much as they try to take it away, this is still a country “Of the people, by the people and for the people”.  BE The People and let your voice he heard in Washington.

Otherwise just sit back and sing the BOHICA song.

http://www.nj1015.com/personalities/jim-gearhart/audio/bohica.mp3

Two letters

I wrote two letters this morning to the staff of Congresswoman Herseth – Sandlin.  I wanted to express my concern with two issues that are causing me to loose sleep.

The first is Cap and Trade (better known as a $600,000,000,000 Cap & Tax bill).

Now… I did not bother to tell her that the whole global warming thing is a fraud and a scam based on junk science, she already knows that and doesn’t care.

I didn’t tell her that carbon dioxide levels rise AFTER the planet warms and is cooling back down, she knows that too.

I did not get into a discussion about water vapor being the greatest greenhouse gas and that Carbon Dioxide is only one percent of the total.

Nor did I mention that less than one percent of Carbon Dioxide is generated by man (meaning if we stop EVERYTHING we can only effect .01 PERCENT of the greenhouse gasses) – she knows that as well and still doesn’t care.

What I told her about is something she does care about.  Her job.

I pointed out to her was that the penalty of any cap and trade bill is the price of energy.  Energy we, in South Dakota, use to grow food.  I reminded her that she represents South Dakota and not San Francisco.  I suggested she support the people who put her there or they might not support her reemployment in 2010.

Since I was on a roll, I then typed another note about another of my concerns – national healthcare.

Here is part of that note:

There was a song produced in the seventies by the Cowsills called “Feelin’ Groovy“.  The opening line was “Slow down, you’re movin’ too fast…”

That’s the way I feel about the health care issue.  Congress is moving at a break neck pace to pass some kind of health care reform.  Our President wants a bill to sign in just a few weeks.

This is all moving too fast.  When we rush we make mistakes, mistakes that will be hard to fix in the future.  Look at what happened with the ill fated stimulus bill.

Let’s take a step back and do some homework before passing laws that effect more than 15% of this nation’s overall economy.

——————————————

Here’s the deal…. If you want a nation that is better for your children than it is for you, get on the computer and write your congressional repetitives.  Express your concern with doing so much so fast.

Life on the High Plains

So a man knocked on the back door and asked Cheryl if he could leave his “Quad Four” out front for a few days.  She (thinking ATV) said sure.  After he left she looked out the front door and HOLY COW!!  Seems the man was pulling a field cultivator when it got stuck in the mud and he couldn’t get it out.  He wanted to wait a few days for the field to dry out.  This begs the question…. What was the size of the thing that got stuck if THAT TRACTOR couldn’t pull it out???  Only your South Dakota farmer knows or sure.

A conversation with a liberal

A conversation with a liberal.

I am in the middle of a conversation on Facebook with a good friend over my concerns with the Obama-nation when his wife (a true liberal and [and in spite that] also a friend) added her opinion.  The reply below was too good to waste so I thought I would rework it and repost it here.  By the way, the name has been changed to protect the liberal.

——-

Good morning Joan, thanks for jumping in.  You are, in my opinion a ‘true believer” in the socialist state and as such we can simply disagree on what is best for this nation.

I prefer the nation before Woodrow Wilson and his “progressives”.   That was a time when there was minimal government intrusion into the lives of the citizenry.  A time that our nation grew from 13 piss pot third world governments to one of the three great super powers.  From the eastern seaboard and about 100 miles inland to sea to shining sea.  There was no government health care and the family doctor would make house calls.  The cost of medical care was far more realistic and medical insurance for routine procedures was not needed.

 If a dog is severely injured and has to have surgery to reset a fractured leg, the bill may come in at several hundreds of dollars.  If a person is severely injured and requires surgery to reset a fractured leg the bill will be in the tens of thousands.  The same skills, education and equipment are needed in both cases.  In the case of the dog there is little government intervention while in the case of the human there is tremendous government intrusion.  That plus the expense of frivolous litigation are the main two differences in the mechanics of each case.

Here she challenges me on my Navy pension check (a common ploy for liberals). She asks me if I think the government spends too much, why am I taking a retirement check?

Yes, I believe the government spends too much and on the wrong things. I do keep the check I receive.  I keep it because I earned it by contract over 21½ years.  I could have worked for another organization during those years and made a great deal more money.  The airlines, for instance,  were paying four times the money I made in the Navy for the same work.  I chose to enter a contractual relationship with the Navy for my services.  Part of that contract was that I made less money now for a better retirement payment later. 

The United States Constitution establishes the existence of the United States Navy.  I have yet to see where it has established United States Health Insurance (or many other things for that matter).  That being said, I would seriously consider giving up that check if I could pay the taxes my grandfather did.  Frankly, I think I would come out ahead.

Then on to National Health care which was where she took the conversation next…..

I truly believe that national (single payer) health care system will be a disaster.  I look at Great Briton and Canada and their systems and see failure.  Just to look at one thing, the mortality rate in the United Kingdom for breast cancer is twice that of the US.  Canada’s death rate from breast cancer is also twice as high.  Yet these two countries are the models the current administration is using to remake our health care system.  Bottom line…. I don’t want our nation’s health care system turned over the same bureaucrats that gave us Katrina relief. 

Again, if I could have my grandfather’s medical care system, I would seriously consider giving up the medical benefits I get as a military retiree, and again… I think I would come out ahead.

On this Memorial Day

This is the day we have set aside to honor those who fell in battle.

Throughout our short history there has never been a generation without conflict.  There has never been a time in this country where there is not someone who could be called a war veteran.  There has never been a time when there was not a mother, father, wife, daughter or son who has not lost a loved one in armed conflict.

From the “shot heard round the world” in Concord Massachusetts to the most recent exploding IED in Iraq, we have had to continually defend our way of life.  The price of that defense is measured in lives, more than a million of lives over the years.

Many have served our country in a number of different ways and there are times for to pay our due respect to them.  Today is not that day, today is different, today we remember those who paid all.  I honor those men and women who have given all they had for their Nation’s survival.  I consider the ground where they are interred, as Mr. Lincoln said, “hallowed”.

We have an obligation today to remember those who fought and died in all our wars, From Bunker Hill to Bagdad.  For their sakes we, the living, must remember them and do our best to preserve what they fought and died for.

Please take a moment to say a prayer for all those who are suffering from the pain that comes from losing a loved one in war.  Then take another to pray for the country they fought to protect.

C. S. Lewis quote that I think says much.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” –C.S. Lewis”

That – in a nutshell – agrees with my opinion of the Nanny State.

Caption contest

My wife drew this great cartoon.  I have been looking at it for a few days trying to come up with the best caption.

Just by itself it is funny. 

I think the right caption would make everyone laugh. 

We could use a good laugh right now so please get those creative juices flowing and join in the fun. 

I thought of three and will add them as replies.

Here’s the cartoon:

Republicans need to elect Republicans.

Warning!!

This is political commentary.  Those on the left should stop reading now.

Republicans need to elect Republicans

Now I know the title sounds obvious but (as politics usually goes) this is not the case in Presidential elections.

This particular piece started out as a note to one of my representatives to the Republican National Committee.  It concerns me that if we do nothing, we will repeat what happened in the 2008 Presidential election.

Here’s what I mean.  There are states in the primary process that allow people other than Republicans to select the Republican candidate.  New Hampshire is one and so are South Carolina and Michigan.  These states are near the beginning of the Primary season and have a serious impact on the rest of the process.

Here’s what I see happened in 2008.  The Democrats fielded a rank of extreme left wing candidates (Obama, Edwards, Clinton, Kucinich, Biden etc.).  These folks were so far a field that it left the moderate or “blue dog” Democrats nowhere to go.  In the open Primary states they switched out and voted for the most liberal candidate on the Republican side – John McCain.

This skewed the Republican nomination process got us stuck with a weak and (I’ll say it) liberal candidate.  The Democrats and Independents chose our Republican candidate in the primary then the Democrats voted with their party in the general election.  The independents split.  The conservatives had no candidate to support so they stayed home.  Not necessarily election day.  But prior to that.  There was no fire in the Republican party.  No excitement about our nominee.  No great rush to volunteer.  That is until Sarah..  But that’s a story for another day.

I heard Michael Steele on Sean Hannity yesterday afternoon.  Sean brought up the open primaries and how we keep getting liberals as our presidential candidates.

He said they were “looking into it”.  He mentioned that many of these states have to make the change in their respective Legislatures.

Now, there was a time when both parties (Republican and Democrat) were working on a plan to fix the primary disaster.

There was a plan in the works to have four blocks of states.  Each block will take turns voting in the primary first. The argument is weather Iowa and New Hampshire will be part of the blocks or hold their places as the kick off states.  I think the process stalled at that point because I have not heard anything about it in two years.

So where do we go from here?  Are we stuck with the current system that keeps true Republicans from gaining any ground?  Do more and more states keep moving their primary election dates forward to have an impact on the nomination process?  Where do we stop?  One year early? Two?

How about this… Let the states have their open primary but only count the Republican voters.  Use the percentage of registered Republicans voting to determine the number of delegates seated at the convention.  In other words, if the 70% of the people who voted in the Republican party primary were, in fact, Republicans… than 70% of the assigned delegates for that state would be seated (and allowed to vote) at the convention.  Perhaps a change in the bylaws like that would get the state Legislatures and the state parties to rethink this open primary foolishness.

Republicans need to nominate Republicans.  Not moderate Democrats with no real choice in their own party.

Democrats…. Fix your own party and stop screwing with mine.