A Scattered Brain

I know it has been a really long time since I’ve posted, and I’m not certain that I will start back up on a regular basis, but I have to get this out there and then just will be done with it.

I am numb after the election.  Our county has slipped past the brink where we now have more people believing they are entitled things from the government than believe that a person has the right and responsibility to make his own choices and outcomes.  I’m not sure if we can come back from that.  Other countries in history haven’t and eventually collapse or look to be on their way to collapsing.  The United States isn’t to that point, but it will take a long time to turn things around if it ever will.

Personally I am a little surprised and very disappointed.  I am surprised that it really wasn’t that close.  As I watched the returns, I knew as soon as PA and WI were called quickly for Obama and NC was still counting and not called.  At that point, I knew all of the swing states (and more) that Obama needed he wasn’t going to have any trouble getting.  I’m disappointed from so many on the right especially showing that things were closer.  I tend not to believe Democrat pollsters when they argue the methodology of polls showing a close race, but in this case they were correct.  It wasn’t a landslide by any means, but certainly a more comfortable win than even most of the media was projecting.

So, where do I go from here?  At this point, as I mentioned, I’m a bit numb.  I’m going to do my best to avoid all political discussion for the foreseeable future.  I’m turning off talk radio for a while; I’ve closed my political news feeds on my home page, and certainly taking a few days off from Facebook as the winners and losers will most certainly be taking their shots and I don’t want to see it, so I am posting here instead as the amount of people that will read this is vastly a smaller portion of the population and will primarily be my family whom I love dearly.

From there, I’m just going to live my life and to do the best I can to provide for my family as best as I can.  I’ll continue to vote for sure, but I don’t plan to pay attention to the ebbs and flows of politics over the next 4 years as I have nearly my whole life; even before I could vote.  I’m not giving up my beliefs or my hopes for the country, and the small part of me that has entertained the idea of ever running for office (very small but the nugget has been there) won’t go away completely, just on hold for sure.

There, I’ve said what I want to say about this election and my thoughts going forward.  I needed to get it out there, but really don’t feel like engaging in long discussions over it at this time.  Take care all!

This has got to be the worst start to a presidency in the history of our country.  And it isn’t even close.  This is a man who wants to take away all of our freedoms and liberty while appearing to try to fix things.  As individuals and families, we can’t spend ourselves out of debt; so how is it that we could even think we could as a country?

Obama’s administration is using fear, lies, and mob mentality to get exactly what they want; which is a fundamental change in policy to unadulterated socialism.  Let’s use the AIG bonus situation.  The administration acted as if it was news that these were getting paid out.  It wasn’t news, it was part of AIG’s plan from the very start.  And they aren’t bonuses as you and I would think of them; they are retention bonuses.  Which means, this is money getting paid to people who have been LAID OFF but need to be kept on board for a little while to keep the company running.  The schedule and amount was known by all those involved for a long time; but to gin up public anger, they have lied and twisted to make this seem like a shady thing.  Even if you get down to the money, the “bonuses” are 1/10 of 1% (or 0.001) of the bail out money.  I’m sure a lot more has been used even less wisely.

So, what was the fix?  Forcing them to give the money back or face 90% taxes.  Now, it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL and illegal to target a person or group of people with tax legislation.  But unfortunately with this congress and the Supreme Court, you can’t guarantee that the Constution would hold up, so to avoid dealing with it, some would rather give back 100%.  Just by ginning up public anger with these lies, they’ve imposed a 100% tax.  If they can do it to people from AIG, why on earth would they stop there?  Plan on losing all of your money in the near future if they get their way.

We are really in scary times; and the sad part is that most people are either blind to it or don’t think it will affect them.  Before they know it, they will have no more freedom, no money, and no hope.  How’s that for change?

UPDATE: It seems even the president of the very socialistic EU thinks we’re on the wrong path.

Most, if not all of you, are very aware of my political views so I’m not going to go into my reservations regarding Obama’s policies and proposals.  I’m also not going to look back at the last eight years to discuss the Bush administration.  I wouldn’t be changing anyone’s opinion.  Instead, I’m going to focus on the innaguration itself and the over the top coverage.

Think about it in all of your lifetimes, has the innaguration of a new President ever been covered this much?  And for what?  I understand the historical aspect of the first black President and I respect that; but it isn’t like we’re celebrating a hero coming home from war.  It’s a change of President, something that happens every four to eight years.  This isn’t any different.

Some news agencies are anticipating this far beyond what expectations should be.  A CNN reporter stated that they expect the words from this speech to be carved into marble!  He hasn’t done anything yet in his entire career, let alone anything great to start planning a monument to him.

The news is also constantly reporting that we need to rally behind Obama.  Where has this been for any other President?  You didn’t hear this before Bush in 2000, or even Clinton in 1992.  I know the media is biased, but this seems to be a giant whirlwind of supposedly objective reporters trying to be a part of history.

The bottom line is he is just a man; his race means nothing.  He hasn’t accomplished anything yet, and the expectations that have been set are going to be very hard to meet.  Of course, to the media, he can do anything (or nothing) and will meet those expectations in their mind.

Mitt Romney has decided to drop out of the race and concede to John McCain.  This is a very sad day for me as a Romney supporter, but even more so as a conservative.  It is now guaranteed that we will have a liberal in the White House come next January.  Right now McCain is claiming that he would push a conservative agenda.  I can’t believe that given his record of late opposing most, if not all, any conservative positions on legislation.  He was against the tax cuts.  He wrote the very illegal campaign finance reform bill (breaks freedom of speech in the ways candidates can and cannot respond to attacks).  He wrote the bill for immigration reform which would have given amnesty to millions of people who shouldn’t be in the country now.

So now what to do?  I can’t vote for anyone at this point.  I almost would rather a DemocRAT in office so Republicans can oppose all non-conservative legislation.  If McCain gets elected, the rank and file Republicans would have their hands tied in opposing the President (much like they do now with many of Bush’s proposals).  I don’t know if I could ever actually pull the lever for a Dem, but I really can’t say I approve much of McCain at all.  A lot can happen between now and November, of course, and I can only hope that it won’t be nearly as bad as I currently fear.

The Monte Carlo hotel and casino in Las Vegas has just caught fire. There aren’t many details right now but it appears to have started near the roof and is going down into guest rooms. The hotel has been evacuated and firefighters are working on it now. It is unknown at this time how the fire started.

UPDATE: As of 12:30 PM PST, the fire appears to be under control and nearly out.

So, the government has decided to enact an Economic Stimulus package. The package calls for $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples with an additional $300 for each child for those who pay taxes. I’m guessing we won’t get anything for our kid yet, but the $1,200 extra back of our own money sounds nice.

The checks are scheduled to come out in June or so if the vote goes through this week as expected. It has a wide range of support from both sides of the aisle as both Democrats and Republicans know that if they were to look like the party opposing this, they could pay dearly in November.

I, for one, don’t necessarily agree that the economy is in dire straits. I certainly don’t think the government should get involved in the housing issues out there as the market will correct itself in time. But I won’t be sending back my check either. 🙂

This has got to stop… Yet another girl has gone missing and the suspect is a registered sex offender.  How many more of these need to occur before the liberals in this country understand that they are releasing sex offenders way too early.  Most of them should never be released; especially those that are ranked as “highly likely” to commit the same crime again.

Is it just me, or has common sense yet again left the building?  If you release someone knowingly that they are likely to commit the same crime again, shouldn’t you reconsider releasing them?  But no, instead we create a freaking list and tell them that they have to register themselves on this list.  Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

The people that are committing these types of crimes aren’t going to be rehabilitated.  Sorry, it won’t happen.  Their punishment should be banishment from society for life.  Whether that is in prison or in a hospital can be determined on a case by case basis; but to let these sick minded individuals back on the streets is reprehensible and as a society we are then all culpable for their actions.  It makes me sick.

How many more stories like this must we see before we change the way these criminals are handled?  I personally believe that being convicted of a sex crime against a minor should incur a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole; along the same lines of murder in the 1st.  Even though the victim(s) may be alive, they certainly have had their original, innocent self murdered and those responsible should have to pay accordingly.

Something tremendous has happened in France… They have overwhelmingly elected a pro-American, pro-Capitalist conservative for their new President.  This changes the decades long socialist trend in France and is a great thing to see.  He will have a lot of challenges ahead, as parliamentary elections are coming up soon, and France’s government may not know what to do if an opposing party to the new president wins the majority (the government as it is now almost depends on the President and Parliament to be of the same party).

To see anything less socialist coming out of Europe (Great Britain excluded) is truly amazing.  The new president is going to be taking on a lot of responsibility but it appears the French are ready to come back to a market based society.

Check out the news article here.

Have a great week!

Check out this article:

Group Asks Congress to Adopt Five-Day Weekend

As much as it sounds like a good idea, this would kill society.  If everyone only worked for two days, can you imagine the lines at the DMV or medical practices?  Sure, different services could be open on different days to lessen it a bit, but things would grind to a standstill for those services that require lines / waiting.

The economy would be affected, but maybe not as much after a while.  Most people when working probably don’t get a full 5 days of real work done anyway, so if you only had to be in a place for 2 days a week, you could be more productive.  Of course, business couldn’t adopt a rolling schedule like independent services could; otherwise things would really never get done.  Imagine sending an e-mail to a client but they won’t be in until later in the week so it’ll be at least a week before you get a response.

I’m sure the idea behind the group isn’t really to effect change.  If they were truly serious, they would possibly push for a 4 day work week; which would have nearly no adverse side effects to economic or service abilities as each business could choose how to split up Monday/Friday off time.  I think they are just trying to make the point that Congress, for all of the money they receive (outside of PAC donations) as salary, is only in session for what works out to 2 days a week.  I’m not a fan of Congress in general and believe there should be some major overhauls in practice, but the last thing I want would be for them to be in session for any more time than they are now (do you really want them passing MORE stupid legislation?).  Also, even though they may be in session for only 104 days, they are working out side of that; theoretically; for their constituents.

I have a better overall solution… allow me to work 2 days a week at my current salary and the rest of you can all continue to work as you do (or don’t) now.

Take care all, sorry for the lengthy delay in posting.  My current bowling league ends tonight so I will post my scores for the league and how we ended up as a team.

Well, after 12 years of controlling both houses of congress, the GOP has lost the House and the Senate is too close to call and may be for quite some time depending on what happens in Missouri, Virginia, and Montana.

As most of my friends know, I’m quite the conservative Republican; and while I continued to vote that way for the Senate and House races in my district; I feel that the GOP has really let me down in many ways.  Most, if not all, of the ideals that took the GOP to the top starting in 1994 have all been lost in general Washington politics.  Fiscal responsibility is something that seems to be forgotten (and that is spending outside of Military spending, which I am 100% for).

Also, at least since Bush has been in office, the leadership of both the House and the Senate haven’t been leading at all.  Even with the President, it was their requirement and duty to lead with the conservative principles that got them (and continued to get them) elected in the first place.  That has been missing the last 6 years.

If we end up with a Democratic House; slightly Republican (or tied) Senate, things could get interesting as split party congres like that will make things difficult.  However, regardless of what happens in the Senate, the Democrates (gulp!) have a mandate and the public has given them the opportunity to try to lead and get things done.  I don’t see that happening and while Nancy Pelosi Speaker to be has stated that the House won’t spend a lot of their time investigating or trying to impeach Bush, don’t count on it.  It has been the mission of the Dems for the last 6 years to ruin Bush; not because of his policies and their disagreements for them, but rather some personal, deep-seeded hatred for him as a man.  I hope that Ms. Pelosi can keep her party in check and deliver on that promise.

The only good that I can really see out of this is when there are conflicting parties among the different branches of government, nothing tends to get done.  Most of the time nothing is better than what Congress does accomplish and while I had hopes in 2002 when Republicans had control of everything that many conservative legislation initiatives would pass, there wasn’t much; and the tax breaks that did pass still came with increased pork spending in government so no real long term benefits.

Congratulations again to the Dems; and to the Republicans; if you ever want to win back support among the voters you have to get back to a fully conservative base as right now there isn’t anywhere for us to look to right now.  The Democrats, with few exceptions, are too liberal and support too many increases in the size of government.  Some GOP members state they are for smaller government, but all recent evidence is to the contrary.

For the record, outside of the tightly contested races where I felt my vote truly counted, I voted for a third party candidate.  Generally, I would vote for the Independent American party (known as the Constitution party in most states).  This is the first time when I didn’t vote straight Republican across the board.

We need a government that understands that it isn’t the government that makes this country work; it’s the people.  It always has been and always will be.  Government, by it’s very nature, opposes the initiative, innovation, and imagination that is needed to create new ideas, products, and services to really help the people of this country.  I don’t expect much out of the next 2 years; or really just 1 before we start trying to elect our next President.

I’m sorry for all the rambling; if I took more time, I’m sure I could have posted a much more coherent and nicely flowing essay.  But hey, English was never my best subject; and I’ll admit at this moment I’m tired and sad and just don’t want to proof read my post. Hooray to all of you who actually read all the way through this.