What will happen on Tuesday?
It will depend on whether or not you want to live in what has been the finest nation in the known history of the world.
It is fine because everyone is born with an equal chance; an equal chance at life, at liberty, a dynamic duo which pretty much guarantees the pursuit of happiness. But first you must have life.
And life is going to be the issue on Tuesday: life and liberty. The two are not synonymous.
The unfortunate thing about most of those listening to political rhetoric is that they don't pay much attention to what's being said. If they are present at a rally, it is easy to get wound up in group dynamics: the crowd produces its own mood, its own understanding, and neither may reflect the words said.
Mr. Obama has said, in effect, that he is going tax "the rich" in order to support "the poor." Since a relative few (compared to the population) of us qualify as poor we will receive no benefit from this robbery.
What robbery, you may ask. Is there any difference between stopping someone on the street and taking his or her money, clothing, jewelry, shopping basket and car for no reason other that person has them, or taking his or her income simply because it is there? Yet this is pretty much was has been offered.
Oh, and all kinds of "free" stuff. Anyone who has responded to an ad offering free things "if you'll just … (whatever) … has learned how much free stuff really costs.
Free stuff: "free" health benefits (nationalized health care), "free" college education, "free" cash in hand. All for free. Yeah.
But someone has to pay for all that "free" stuff.
We're told that heavy taxation will affect only the rich. Is that possible? Hardly. The government has decided many years ago to tax the income of those of us who have incomes. The taxes go up and sometimes they come down, but once applied they never seem to disappear. But these tax increases will hit only the rich. Sure.
Does this mean that the government will be able to go into someone's bank account and take out what it considers to be the excess? No? Then where? If I were wealthy enough to have to worry about being the "taxable rich" and if the taxes were aimed at my income, I could simply stop having an income. If my money, placed wherever it was to earn more money, was simply removed and put into a non interest-bearing area, I would be able to live in some comfort but not be burdened by taxes. If I did that before the end of the year, I would have to pay tax on this year's income, but what about next year's? In a true socialistic society someone — the government? — might come after me and take whatever it considered excessive, and leave me with what was left.
But it will take time to do that.
Heavy taxes will destroy whatever is left of our economy, and incidentally "sharing the wealth," will, too, because if you take everything from a business or a big corporation, there is no incentive to stay in business and no money left over to pay or hire employees.
On paper, socialism (and we're talking about socialism, here) always looks good, but almost never works. Why? Because most of us need some sort of incentive. In this nation a lot of incentive came from the family. If you have a family, you want it to be well fed, decently clothed and decently educated. But if you have no control over that, why bother.
Mr. Obama denies that he is proposing a socialist society in this country, overseen by a benevolent government.
But no matter what you think he said, that is what Mr. Obama has suggested. Of course you have to listen to the words.
When the system begins to break down, what happens to all the free stuff, like medical care? Doctors won't be paid by the visit, but by the government. Ditto hospitals. And you will be told what kind of health care you are allowed. Eventually — maybe to make more room for all the illegal aliens Mr. Obama intends to legalize — you will be told how many children you can have. Abortion will be easily available and may be demanded as it is in some other places.
Where is the liberty? And where is the life?
Doesn't all that sound wonderful.
Sic transit Gloria U.S.A.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The messiah?
Not everyone will agree, but many observers see time as running out for John McCain unless something crops up.
There has been remarkably little response to the allegations — some or all of which may be true — of voter fraud favoring Barrack Obama in the primaries and likely happening right now in the early voting in many states.
It would seem that the candidate to an even greater extent than most running for public office — even the highest — wants and will accept a win by any means at all. Voter fraud?
What may — or will — happen if Obama is elected?
While taxes and spending will, as the candidate promises, almost certainly go up, the wealth — if there is any left — will be spread around except in the area of national security. There has been a promise that defense spending will be cut by 25 per cent leaving, as someone commented, our troops in Iraq with their rifles but ammunition. I suppose this means that some or all of the troops will be coming home and leaving the Iraqis and others to fend for themselves.
I admit that I was somewhat ambiguous about going back into Iraq when Bush ordered it, but if we pull our support too soon, we will have wasted the lives lost there and probably guarantee our returning troops the same kinds of greetings returning Vietnam veterans received.
What else?
Oh, yeah, almost forgot about the economy and some other issues:
Do you suppose, with the spending programs suggested that the taxation will stop at the absolute top rank of those with money?
The poverty line in this country is somewhere around $14,000 or so for a single person (in the continental U.S.A.), but rising to $22,000 or more (top around $26,000) for a family of four. For larger families the line is higher topping out at more that $35,000 for a family of eight.
In Hawaii and Alaska costs of everything including poverty are higher, in Hawaii especially, much higher.
Some of these people, I assume, will be in line for the wealth the man from somewhere will be spreading around, but, unless there is some sort of adjustment, some of those who aren't on the absolute bottom level — if you're hungry it is sometimes hard to realize that there is a lower level — will paying for aid to that lower level, probably with their own dinner money.
Will wages go up?
Almost certainly not. Business owners have families, too, and are likely to be more concerned about their own, regardless of how badly they may feel about putting their own workers back on the street.
Will wages go down?
Maybe not, but whether they stay level or go down (up?) there will be fewer people drawing wages which will curtail production and, in a time of falling income, increase costs drastically.
What about other things?
Well, there are all kinds of promises which some see as threats. How about nationalized health care. Works other places, doesn't it? I guess it depends on what you consider "works" means. Currently, even if you don't have insurance you can be treated in an emergency room, assuming you have an emergency. If you have insurance or cash you can get in to see a doctor on very short notice and if surgery is indicated get that taken care of in most cases pretty quickly. Go to nationalized health country and it may take you weeks to see a doctor and a year or more for surgery. And you don't have to pay anything — except rapidly climbing taxes.
Oh, but for those in need, abortions will be available on demand and perhaps even encouraged. A woman, the left says, has the right to choose. She certainly does, but that choice can best be made before abortion has to be an option.
Obama has promised the best of all worlds. Everyone gets fed, everyone gets health care — who cares about the quality? — and everyone is broke, because while there may be some food around, you won't be able drive you car much, the possibility of rapid transit is quite low.
Except for rapid transit to Hell, which is the direction indicated.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
There has been remarkably little response to the allegations — some or all of which may be true — of voter fraud favoring Barrack Obama in the primaries and likely happening right now in the early voting in many states.
It would seem that the candidate to an even greater extent than most running for public office — even the highest — wants and will accept a win by any means at all. Voter fraud?
What may — or will — happen if Obama is elected?
While taxes and spending will, as the candidate promises, almost certainly go up, the wealth — if there is any left — will be spread around except in the area of national security. There has been a promise that defense spending will be cut by 25 per cent leaving, as someone commented, our troops in Iraq with their rifles but ammunition. I suppose this means that some or all of the troops will be coming home and leaving the Iraqis and others to fend for themselves.
I admit that I was somewhat ambiguous about going back into Iraq when Bush ordered it, but if we pull our support too soon, we will have wasted the lives lost there and probably guarantee our returning troops the same kinds of greetings returning Vietnam veterans received.
What else?
Oh, yeah, almost forgot about the economy and some other issues:
Do you suppose, with the spending programs suggested that the taxation will stop at the absolute top rank of those with money?
The poverty line in this country is somewhere around $14,000 or so for a single person (in the continental U.S.A.), but rising to $22,000 or more (top around $26,000) for a family of four. For larger families the line is higher topping out at more that $35,000 for a family of eight.
In Hawaii and Alaska costs of everything including poverty are higher, in Hawaii especially, much higher.
Some of these people, I assume, will be in line for the wealth the man from somewhere will be spreading around, but, unless there is some sort of adjustment, some of those who aren't on the absolute bottom level — if you're hungry it is sometimes hard to realize that there is a lower level — will paying for aid to that lower level, probably with their own dinner money.
Will wages go up?
Almost certainly not. Business owners have families, too, and are likely to be more concerned about their own, regardless of how badly they may feel about putting their own workers back on the street.
Will wages go down?
Maybe not, but whether they stay level or go down (up?) there will be fewer people drawing wages which will curtail production and, in a time of falling income, increase costs drastically.
What about other things?
Well, there are all kinds of promises which some see as threats. How about nationalized health care. Works other places, doesn't it? I guess it depends on what you consider "works" means. Currently, even if you don't have insurance you can be treated in an emergency room, assuming you have an emergency. If you have insurance or cash you can get in to see a doctor on very short notice and if surgery is indicated get that taken care of in most cases pretty quickly. Go to nationalized health country and it may take you weeks to see a doctor and a year or more for surgery. And you don't have to pay anything — except rapidly climbing taxes.
Oh, but for those in need, abortions will be available on demand and perhaps even encouraged. A woman, the left says, has the right to choose. She certainly does, but that choice can best be made before abortion has to be an option.
Obama has promised the best of all worlds. Everyone gets fed, everyone gets health care — who cares about the quality? — and everyone is broke, because while there may be some food around, you won't be able drive you car much, the possibility of rapid transit is quite low.
Except for rapid transit to Hell, which is the direction indicated.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Let's focus
I am sitting here in the American southwest with the sun shining outside and the threat of a sever-ish winter storm on the horizon.
I am, of course, worried about global warming, not because it is happening (it is not), but because it leads focus in the wrong direction. The globe is and has been cooling for the past ten years, and likely will continue cooling for sometime to come, maybe for a very longtime to come.
But. And this maybe is an important "but," there is a lot of money to be made out of global warming and a lot of money has been made out of it. I think it was Goebbels (I could be mistaken) who said the bigger the lie the easier it is to believe.
Warming happens. It is part of cycle. You see it almost annually. Year A is warmer (cooler) than year B. Decade B was warmer than decade. But the global warming that seems to bring forth hysteria is happening only as part of a cycle. Some years the planet is warmer than in some other years. Right now, the planet is in a cooling cycle.
So-called global warming is being blamed on greenhouse gases, primarily on human produced carbon dioxide, which is supposed to reflect the earth's heat and sooner of later is going to turn us all into cinders. The curious thing about this is that the earth has held higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and it hasn't melted yet. In fact some of those periods were cool periods.
There are many atmospheric gases and the most common is water (vapor) which you see in clouds almost daily. Without those rain clouds our planet would indeed be in sad shape. We need the rainfall.
Curiously — and many seem to forget this — carbon dioxide, a common gas — is on the things than keep the planet going. We and all other breathing creature exhale carbon dioxide at every breath. All things dying exude carbon dioxide. And, leaving out the sky above us that does indeed hold carbon dioxide, the oceans are the largest reservoirs of that oh-so-common gas. We cannot survive without. High amounts of carbon dioxide ensure good crops, even bumper crops, and while plants are using carbon dioxide grow and mature, they are exuding oxygen.
It's kind of a cycle: a life cycle.
When the earth gets much colder than it is now, which could happen quite soon, there will be fewer plants growing, maturing, dying, and adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and taking it in and converting it back into oxygen and carbon. It is likely that there will be less land available — on a world scale — for growing crops.
It is a pity that we — human beings — are so gullible as to preach that the great god global warming, being fed human-caused carbon dioxide, is going to turn us all into cinders.
Frankly I think we should just ignore that myth, but get ready for what will happen.
It's going to get cold.
See: iceagenow.com
co2science.org
icecap.us
I am, of course, worried about global warming, not because it is happening (it is not), but because it leads focus in the wrong direction. The globe is and has been cooling for the past ten years, and likely will continue cooling for sometime to come, maybe for a very longtime to come.
But. And this maybe is an important "but," there is a lot of money to be made out of global warming and a lot of money has been made out of it. I think it was Goebbels (I could be mistaken) who said the bigger the lie the easier it is to believe.
Warming happens. It is part of cycle. You see it almost annually. Year A is warmer (cooler) than year B. Decade B was warmer than decade. But the global warming that seems to bring forth hysteria is happening only as part of a cycle. Some years the planet is warmer than in some other years. Right now, the planet is in a cooling cycle.
So-called global warming is being blamed on greenhouse gases, primarily on human produced carbon dioxide, which is supposed to reflect the earth's heat and sooner of later is going to turn us all into cinders. The curious thing about this is that the earth has held higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and it hasn't melted yet. In fact some of those periods were cool periods.
There are many atmospheric gases and the most common is water (vapor) which you see in clouds almost daily. Without those rain clouds our planet would indeed be in sad shape. We need the rainfall.
Curiously — and many seem to forget this — carbon dioxide, a common gas — is on the things than keep the planet going. We and all other breathing creature exhale carbon dioxide at every breath. All things dying exude carbon dioxide. And, leaving out the sky above us that does indeed hold carbon dioxide, the oceans are the largest reservoirs of that oh-so-common gas. We cannot survive without. High amounts of carbon dioxide ensure good crops, even bumper crops, and while plants are using carbon dioxide grow and mature, they are exuding oxygen.
It's kind of a cycle: a life cycle.
When the earth gets much colder than it is now, which could happen quite soon, there will be fewer plants growing, maturing, dying, and adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and taking it in and converting it back into oxygen and carbon. It is likely that there will be less land available — on a world scale — for growing crops.
It is a pity that we — human beings — are so gullible as to preach that the great god global warming, being fed human-caused carbon dioxide, is going to turn us all into cinders.
Frankly I think we should just ignore that myth, but get ready for what will happen.
It's going to get cold.
See: iceagenow.com
co2science.org
icecap.us
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