Her folks still aren't talking to me....

I received this story in the email today, there are several versions like it, but the point is the same....



I was talking to the 8 year-old daughter of a friend of
mine, and she said she wanted to be President some day.
Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing
there, so I asked her, "If you were President
what's the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the
homeless people."

"Wow - what a worthy goal," I told her. "But
you don't have to wait until you're President to do
that. You can come over to my house and mow the grass, pull
weeds, and rake my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then
I'll take you over to the grocery store where the
homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use
toward food or a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, 'cause after
all she's only 8. And while her Mom glared at me, she
looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why
doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work
himself, and you can just pay him the $50?"

And I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her folks still aren't talking to me.

Wow....Post 200!

I had an idea of something that I was going to post this morning, when I started to write it, I noticed that this is my 200th post to my blog. That really calls for something deep and meaningful.....but I don't have anything deep and meaningful this morning, so I'll go with my original idea....

Something (not sure what) reminded me of this funny that I saw years ago.


ACHTUNG!

Das machine is nicht fur gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Ist easy schnappen der Sprinngwerk, blowenfusen und
poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Ist nicht fur gewerken by das Dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken
sightseeren keepen hands in das Pockets.
Relaxen und watch das blinkenlights...

You're special....

"You're Special...." that's a really nice phrase that you can tell someone. But saying it with a different tone of voice, and it could be considered offensive. What if you said it with a condescending tone of voice to someone in a wheelchair?

If you read this blog, or know me in person you can probably guess that Barak Obama was not my first choice for President. No, it had nothing to do with him being a black man, it had to do with with fact that I believe he is a Socialist at heart. The majority of voters in this country felt he should be our President. He is my President and I hope that he is successful and I support him as such.

I can't imagine what it must be like to go from an ordinary citizen to being the leader of the free world. I imagine that the campaign puts a candidate in the spotlight enough to where they can begin to see the scrutiny that you will be put under if you win, but I don't know if anything can prepare you for the fact that there are hundreds of special interest groups out there watching every word you say to find something to be offended about.

Does anyone remember James Watt? He was the Secretary of the Interior under the Raegan administration. He was most famous for not allowing the Beach Boys to play at a Fourth of July event because of the 'undesirables' that they would attract. However, as I remember it, he had a terrible case of foot in mouth syndrome. I remember some flack about him referring to someone as a cripple. I did a little bit of research and found that in fact, his tenure as the Secretary of the Interior ended because of a sentence he uttered while telling about his administration:

"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent."

This statement ended his career.

There are some people in this world that are simply looking for reasons to get their feelings hurt. I'm sure if the President mentioned that he had a steak before he went bowling, that PETA would be all up in arms. When I first saw the clip from the Tonight Show, I totally missed the reference to the Special Olympics, only after they pointed out what the flap was over did I even hear it.

Without a doubt, I can promise you that Barak Obama was making fun of himself and not disabled children. Would everyone please lighten up?

We hold these truths to be self-evident....

The news has really been interesting over the last couple of days....in particular, I have been watching the government's involvement in business.

On April 1 new tobacco taxes will go into effect. The expressed purpose of these new taxes is to curb smoking effectively killing the tobacco industry.

Yesterday, President Obama announced his goal of preventing AIG from paying the executives millions of dollars because the government had given them money and therefore had 'leverage' in how they run the business.

Here's the thing, everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. Everyone knows that wearing seatbelts are a good idea. However, these are matters of personal choice not government control. I've debated many people about these issues and have found that the opposing argument always seems to involve the 'good of society' over the 'rights of the individual'. I feel that this is a very dangerous 'slippery slope' type of concept. It is a socialist idea that has grave consequences down the road.

I find it very interesting that our government would take it upon itself to destroy one industry that it finds unacceptable while protecting another. It is also very interesting that the government feels that it should have a say in the running of the business since it gave money to the business.

It is a very difficult problem, government should have no involvement in business whatsoever. In my opinion, businesses should stand on their on and live or die based on their performance. The government has determined that AIG, the auto industry and certain large banks are too big to allow to fail. Therefore, their involvement became necessary. Though our economy would likely be in grave shape if these businesses should fail, as a matter of principle, I believe it should have happened. I believe that the path that the government has chosen will lead to more serious consequences to our Liberty down the road.

Getting to the crux of the problem....

If you watch the news at all this weekend, you heard about AIG paying bonuses this week to the guys that put the company, and our economy in such peril. If you didn't hear about it here's one story about it.

The current CEO of AIG was put in place by the Bush administration and he wrote a letter to President Obama saying that AIG's hands were tied. The contracts were negotiated before he got there, and AIG is contractually obligated to make the payments.

As I see it, the problem is NOT that they are making the payments now, the mistake was made long ago when they wrote the contract. Who in the world would write a contract where they were obligated to pay bonuses to people who drive your company into the ground? I've not seen the wording of the contracts, but I've heard them referred to as 'retention bonuses'. Why would they want to keep these guys?

The real question is, when these executive receive the payments, will they keep them? I saw a story about the CEO of JAL where he returned his salary because the company lost money. He sets a great example of what leadership really is.

My prediction, the AIG execs will keep the money, and not think twice about it.

NFL Fantasy Football Promotion....

My thought is that most of this is not real, but its fun to watch....

Dolphin Bubbles....

I saw a story about this on the news yesterday. Dolphins are thought to be the most intelligent of all animals....after seeing this, you might see why....

Still here.....

I haven't had much on my mind lately, been very busy, not much time for deep thought...

Things seem to be settling down nicely now, new place to live, new job....it's been a long hectic road getting here, but I like the calm.

One thing that I have been thinking about is emotions. Emotions are tricky things....they will make people do things that don't make much sense (myself included). Many years ago, I had a counselor tell me that the main difference between man and animals is that when something happens around an animal...they react immediately, instinct takes over....fight or flight. Man has the option, we can stop and think before we react. We can react from intelligence instead of instinct. I've found that the longer I take to react, the more time I have to think about it, and the better my reaction is. If I'm really 'on my A game', I'll think through what I've been taught from the Bible, and try to react based on Biblical principles. I rely on my own knowledge way too much, but every once in a while, I'll do the right thing.

I've dealt with many in business who are very calm and thoughtful even when things seems to be falling apart all around them. I have a great amount of respect for these folks. I'm trying to learn how to do that.

I'm not saying that everyone should become emotionless drones or remove emotions from your life (Spock comes to mind). But, basing decisions on emotion seems to lead to problems.

Just an observation....

Brilliance....

Hey gang....sorry it's been a while since I posted. Lot's of changes and goings on last week. I'm still trying to catch up, but I wanted to share something with you that I found. My new apartment has a fireplace, but I didn't have any kindling to start the fire with. I went to the grocery to buy some starter blocks that Duraflame makes and I found something called "Strike-a-fire" made by Diamond. These things are cool. They are like a large match that you can strike. They burn for about 15 minutes which is enough to start a large piece of firewood. They are really cool. I bet they would be great for starting a charcoal fire with no lighter fluid.

Here's a link