It is truly a historic day in the story of The United States of America.  I think it shows great progress for our country that the first African-American has been Inaugurated as the President of the United States.  It makes me feel that we are becoming a place where color, gender, creed, or orientation is not what defines the American people, but content.  This past election cycle, the content that was elected is admittedly not my preference.  However, I do look forward to my children being raised in the society of equality that I envision.

As for content, the Inaugural Address contained not so thinly veiled promises of collectivism, communism, and a weakening of our National Security efforts.  I will continue to speak out against policies that are clearly not within the bounds of the US Constitution.  I wish President Obama good luck in his coming four years, I hope that he gives an actual ear to policies of fiscal restraint.  I think that it won’t happen, so if nothing else, I will be guaranteed to have fodder to opine on for the length of this President’s administration.  I again leave you with the words of John Wayne, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my President.  I hope he does a good job.”

I will readily admit that my personal site usually rails against the policies of America’s Left.  However, I want to turn my focus on the outgoing rather than the incoming in this article.  I voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 election cycle.  I did not vote for him in the 2000 cycle because I was too young at that time to vote.  During each cycle, I supported him as the lesser of the two evils presented to the American voter at that time.  Al Gore had his lock box and John Kerry had botox.  I never felt like they were being honest though.  Perhaps it is a true testament that America is a Center-Right country when the Democrats have to back pedal towards more Populist stances instead of preferred Liberal agendas. 

I’m sure that you along with me have seen the “How will history view the Bush the 43rd?” stories from media outlets.  This morning while sluggishly getting ready for work, I watched Morning Joe.  On the program this morning, Joe Scarborough was defending the outgoing President with a sincere argument that maybe torture is justified because we have not been domestically attacked since September 11, 2001.  Paraphrasing his opinion, perhaps the ugly pill for Americans to swallow was the right pill for the right time.  The entire time, co-host Mika Brzezinski sat by trying to interrupt and rolling her eyes.  This is not the first time I’ve seen Ms. Brzezinski treat the mere utterance of approval of President Bush with such disdain.  She inhibits one of the classic cases of “Bush Derangement Syndrome”.  Not as severe as the prime-timers on MSNBC, but enough to make my morning commute sour until I crank on some Honky Tonk Kid.  Today, I will be reviewing the Hits and Misses of George W. Bush in all honesty.

The War on Terror

We have been safer since September 11th.  American authorities have uncovered and subverted plots by terrorists to harm American lives.  Now traditionally this broad topic can be used to incorporate a few different blemishes on the Bush record, so let the good times roll.

• The War in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) is the only war that you’ll see a Democrat support.  We should have been more focused on capturing bin Laden in the Hindu Kush.  Steps are taking place now to redeploy a troop surge into Afghanistan to reclaim territory from a resurgent Taliban.  Did the administration distract itself from what should have been our primary goal by opening up a secondary front?  Yes.
• The War in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) is what it is.  The entire operation is very unpopular with the vocal American Left.  They opposed that we depose a dictator that violated human rights, violated UN resolutions to allow weapons inspectors to do their jobs, attempted a genocide of the Kurds, would not allow free-elections, repeatedly threatened it’s neighbors, and did I mention the 19 UN resolutions that he violated?  If the UN is going to make a resolution, it should stand up and back it up.  What good is the resolution otherwise?  What is the crime in the main financial backer of the UN (the United States of America) enforcing that body’s resolutions if the body itself will not?  In my opinion, the Iraq War was ill-timed, but the absolute right thing to do.
• Torture became a bone of contention.  Apparently Americans are happy to see torture on and by American agents on fictionalized spy shows and movies like 24 and Alias.  However, if it takes place in real life, we start getting squeamish.  I think that President Bush summed it up well in his last press conference while in that office.  He surmised that if his administration had done nothing and we were attacked again, there would be outcry by the media that he didn’t do all he could to protect the citizenry of America.  Therefore, by acquiring information, sometimes under duress, we got the job done to keep us safe.  From me, Thank You G. W.
• Guantanamo Bay, Cuba holds a detention facility for foreign terrorists.  Many in the American Left see Bush’s massive usurpation of the Constitution is not granting the detainees the Rights described in the Constitution.  First of all, these detainees are not American citizens and thusly have no rights under our Constitution.  However, it may be a mistake to not include them in the Geneva Convention.  Under that agreement we could not forcibly acquire intelligence from the detainees.  That’s a hard call to make with positives on both sides.  No torture or foiling a plot to enact another major terrorist act?  If you read the list of confessions on Wikipedia under Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then I’ll let you make the call on whether or not it was a good thing to aggressively interrogate him.
• Wire tapping people that were connected with suspected terrorist organizations without a warrant is where I sit in the middle of the teeter-totter.  The Constitution precludes any unlawful investigation without the investigating party to possess a warrant.  Do we stop gathering real-time intel in a real-time world with an antiquated system for obtaining warrants?  No, I think that setting up a special court in which to acquire these warrants was justified.  However, there should be more transparency.  I don’t want to know everything, I just want to know that there is no power being abused, and I think that’s where the mistake was made.  There was just no degree of transparency.
• “Mission Accomplished” was the aircraft carrier’s banner for completing their deployment.  I don’t think I would have had it up in my shot.

The Economy

In this arena, President Bush acknowledged a departure from his own (and Constitutional) ideology.  I think that I have outlined the Constitutional stance enough to blow down the house of bricks of the last little pig.  Government interference in markets is a horrible idea.  It’s that simple.  Whether it be bailout, stimulus, or loans, they are all bad ideas that create fiat money and push problems to compound into a horrible situation down the road.  We’ve done that, we need a correction.  It hurts, but let the correction happen.

Education, Social Security, Health-Care, Immigration

• It is not in the Federal Government’s enumerated power to regulate a child’s education.  That is a power that is under statewide jurisdiction.  Even though it was basically the Texas system of standardized testing expanded, it should not be funded on the Federal Level.
• I loved his ideas for privatizing Social Security and it’s a damn shame Democrats didn’t want to get their cash cow taken from them.  The system is so broken that it does not provide a sensible retirement plan.  I don’t plan on using it for more than just monthly beer money.  An individual should be smart enough to set themselves up for success.  Roth IRA, diversified, with an approximately 12% yield from $4000/year for 40 years puts me at around $1.5 million at 65.  Can’t even come close with Social Security.  You do the math.  Social Security is just a crutch to tax the public now anyway, FAIR TAX!
• The Prescription Drugs and Medi-care Initiative was formed while I was in high school and thusly still invincible.  I’m sorry that I haven’t paid that much attention to it in any of my pieces.  It seems to me that there was an attempt to make it easier for people to get medication without socialising (i.e. destroying) our medical system.  More than I can say for the Democratic plan for disaster.
• President Bush stated that he wished he would have pushed stronger for immigration reform.  There is just a lot that is going to have to be hammered out in this debate.  All I will say until then is this, illegal immigrants are not citizens and are not subject to the same protected Rights that United States citizens are.  That means that there should be no due process or introduction of them into our court systems unless they have committed heinous felonies.  Catch them, deport them, prevent them from entering again illegally.  Guest worker program?  Great!  Just get it on the up and up.  You want to be an American now that you’ve lived here for 10 years?  Awesome, but we are going to make you jump through a few naturalization hoops, then get those dodged taxes out of them through processing fees.

Hurricane Katrina

• As I’m wrapping this up, I cannot help remembering Kanye West stating that, “George Bush hates black people.”  I don’t agree, and if you look back on history, the Republican Party as a whole has done more to advance people of all color in the lauded pursuit of happiness.  There is no guarantee.  If you work hard, you will get rewarded.  Take a look at the (?) letter behind the name of Abraham Lincoln or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (before he became a Communist sympathizer) and you’ll generally find an (R).
• Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming.  Well, that’s easy to say.  All hurricanes are caused by warming.  Every cloud is caused by warming.  Hurricanes and typhoons are natural systems to cool their respective hemispheres during the time when they are closer to the sun.  As I’ve said before, climate changes.  I’d be more interested in us cooling off than warming up.  There will be less space either way, but you can either wear more clothes or less or have cities covered in 500 feet of water or a mile of ice.  Take your pick.
• The horrible response time falls on more than just FEMA’s shoulders.  The structure in Louisiana at the time was atrocious.  There was absolutely no way that the operation could have gone any better.  I literally watched a History Channel program a week prior to Katrina and it accurately predicted how inept the recovery would be.  You have corrupt leaders at local and state levels, and nothing is going to be done.  Case in point, Texas got the snot kicked out of them by Ike this year.  I guarantee they are already farther along in almost everywhere but Bolivar, the West End of Galveston, and Surfside.  Also take into account that these areas were also well past recovery from Rita.  A competent state and municipality in conjunction with the Federal government gives  recovery a chance to start immediately rather than a full-scale evacuation after the fact.  Also, channelizing the Mississippi River was one of the US Army Corps of Engineers biggest mistakes, but it was made almost 100 years ago.
• “Now Brownie, you’re doing a hell of a job.”  Maybe he was doing the best with what he had available, but it just was not the right thing to say at the time.

Now President Bush is going back to Crawford (the lucky jerk) to work around the house, write a book, and set up a library/school.  He’ll get away from the media who hates him for a few years, but they’ll drag his name through the mud for a long time.  Why?  He was the first President in a Socialist-centric media, that has the widest range of outlets in the world’s history, that they disagreed with.  I wish him good luck and wish that he still drank so that we could go grab a beer one day to a job well done for the more than 50% of the time.

My hopes for January 8, 2009 were simple.  A happy day at work complete with a site visit.  Buy a new hose and regulator for my grill so I can cook some nice Omaha Steaks and then watch Florida and Oklahoma play in the NCAA BCS National Championship Game.  I wish life were so simple.

To begin the day, I woke up and prepared for my day.  I walked out to my truck to begin my commute to work.  The truck would not start.  I tried to push start it, but to no avail.  Finally, a neighbor of mine helped jump my vehicle.  While commuting I noticed every system that has electricity running to it flicker and try to die on me, including the engine.  OK, so my alternator is obviously in need of replacing.  After my site visit and a data collecting appointment at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, I ordered a replacement alternator for purchase.  I will pick it up later this afternoon and my friend Patrick Ellis and I will replace the old one this evening after the work day is over.

By this time, my wife will already cook something and we will not have those Omaha Steaks tonight.  I’ll end up watching some portion of the BCS National Championship game.  Will I see it all?  I don’t know but I am going to remain hopeful.  This is my optimistic side shining through.

While listening to the radio today, I was entreated with a soundbite of President-Elect Obama’s speech of the day.  Before laying out the plan to spend over $1,000,000,000,000.00 (1 TRILLION),  Mr. Obama had to make the case for his plan.  An exact statement was, “Only  government can save us.”  At this point, I almost had a stroke.  In fact, I still have a bit of a headache.  Let me repeat, “Only government can save us.”

How does that make you feel?  It scares me.  It should scare you.  Let’s examine why this statement should scare you:

1.  Government Bureaucracies in collusion with Congressional Democrats created this specific Recession.  Workers employed by the US Government donated money to Democrats who were all too happy to give those bureaucracies the power to grow their ranks while working towards the goal of attaining housing for all (i.e. The Fannie and Freddy Fiasco).  Republican lawmakers were so hellbent on managing the debacle of the two GSEs and deregulation crazy, that they were blinded to the problems of basing the entire fiscal policy on mortgage backed securities.  I’ve outlined that domino effect already.  However, it is important for every American to remember that both Republicans and Democrats were to blame for this, and Democrats a little more so.

 2.   The Federal Government was formed after the ratification of a document that established its structure.  The document was limiting, some would say vague.  It was intended to support a small but efficient protectorate in times of war and give avenues to solving disputes between the States.  This document gives the directives for Government, it is not open to interpretation.  It is black and white on the paper, I am sorry to all Liberals (Socialists/Communists).  Our Government as defined by the US Constitution is not supposed to function the way that you want, the way that it has as of late, and the way that President-Elect Obama is proposing.

 3.  $1,000,000,000,000.00.

 4.  $1,000,000,000,000.00.  Do you realize that that means that the Government is just going to print massive amounts of worthless paper?  Our currency isn’t based on anything tangible anyway.  It is based on securities and the plan is to flood the market with currency when our largest security base has sent us into this mess?  All that pumping more money into this situation would do is kick the problem down the road to be expanded and cost us more in the future.  How do we pay for $1 Trillion?  Taxes from my grandchildren?

 5.  The American People just floated a bill of $350,000,000,000.00 with another $350 Billion to be spent by the Treasury Department under the new Democratic Administration.  It has been stalled by Barney Frank in a pure political move that make President Bush look even worse and more inept.  That still doesn’t negate the fact that there is still $350 BILLION to spend, yet we really need to pump in $1 Trillion.  Idiocy.

This entire Democratic strategy as of late is a move (probably deliberately, maybe through pure stupidity) towards a Communist State.  The Democrats Economic Policy will bankrupt us, make those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder dependent on Government Welfare, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Housing…  Add to it the Government owning the majority stake of major financial institutions and loaning tax money to inefficient American owned auto makers.  The expansion of a Federal Education Program and Health Care Program will make the transformation complete.  By starting at the bottom, it makes it easier for people one rung up the ladder from the new Proletariat to move down and let someone else worry for them.  Eventually, it just slides us into Communism.  I’m not being alarmist.  It’s been the master plan.  They tried it with the New Deal and Great Society and it didn’t completely take.  The Communists are trying to finish the Free People of America off.  Keep your eyes open and be aware!

Let’s do what we can to prevent this from becoming the flag of this Nation.  I would really like to avoid developing a stomach ulcer while this nation slides into Communism.  Who knows when the government run Medical System would admit me for a condition caused by my belief in freedom and the Constitution.

After finishing a great Christmas season, it is time to look forward to the future.  Typically, at this junction, it is common for people to examine their lives and make a governing decision to improve their lives.  While I am seriously modifying my apportionments at meals, I still struggle with taking all the necessary steps to reacquire a healthy and svelte appearance.  That is going to be my personal struggle though and I am thinking big today.  It’s time for me to hitch up my belt and step back onto the stump for what was the vision for America circa 1789.

I was running errands for my wife yesterday and I listened to some fill-in hosts for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.  I thought that both were pretty good, but Rush’s host said something that I found interesting.  In discussing the arguments between Federalists and Anti-Federalists about whether there should be a Bill of Rights tacked on to the US Constitution, the discussion was never about whether or not the Inalienable Rights should be protected by the United States Government.  The debate was whether or not the Bill of Rights were necessary.

Thomas Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists were rallying support for the Bill of Rights.  They had the distinct foresight to know that an institution that is granted power by the people will inevitably try to take power from the people.  The Federalist camp saw an enumeration of Rights as unnecessary.  If the Constitution was set up to define the operating functions of this current incarnation of the United States Government, why would you need a Bill to tell the Government what it already knew it could not do?  Clearly, both sides were driving toward the same end of limited government.

How does that hit you?  Has it sunk in?  The debate wasn’t about limiting the Government.  The Government was supposed to be limited anyway.  Instead of debating what programs to spend their grandchildrens’ tax dollars on, the Founders debated on whether it was overly redundant to tell the Government, where it already stated by omission, its limitations.

Now we are living in an age of unprecedented government expansion into spheres of the private sector that would make Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton the best of friends.  This really is a Libertarian’s hell on earth.  Bailouts and Loans on top of illegal entitlement programs started by the Socialist agendas of the New Deal and Great Society debacles.  The one truly fiscally conservative policy that the current Bush administration attempted was to privatize Social Security, which is one of the best ideas of his Presidency.  It got killed because Bush tried to do the unpopular thing of taking away power from the Government.  Juevos Grandes.

After that resistance, whatever Laissez-fairre economic theory that the Bush administration had co-opted to get elected went by the wayside to preserve his image in the media.  The war situations will not sell in a vehemently anti-war media.  They felt like they got lied to.  Anything that Bush touched was automatic poison, so let’s get all cylinders firing against this guy.  They got help with fellow leftist conspirators in the United States Congress who measure their value by wins and losses every 2 or 6 years.  The role of the Congress was to shift the blame over the “fair” lending practiced encouraged by delusional Congressional Liberals, and even opposed by former President Bill Clinton, to the Bush administration.  Here they got help because Paulson wanted to save his old employer and started the Bail-Out Spree.

The Republican National Committee’s New Year’s Resolution should be a incorporation of Libertarian ideals into their fiscal platform.  That means that all answers to spending outside of Constitutionally mandated Government activities is an emphatic No.  No dealing, just No.

2009 should be the year of No.  No to Bail-Outs and loans.  If a company can’t hack it, too bad.  No help for struggling mortgages, if you can’t afford a house, rent an apartment.  Make the incentive to work more than not getting a smaller welfare check.  Make people responsibly plan their retirement instead of depending on their grandchildren to pay them $300/month.  Stop using income taxes to propagate inflated bureaucracy.  Cut programs.  Operate within the limits of the Constitution.  It sounds so simple, but it is not done because Liberals (i.e. Socialists, Communists, etc.) believe in a living document, loose interpretation.

Loose interpretation is tantamount to absolutely throwing away the document altogether.  RNC REVOLT!  Welcome more Libertarian ideals into the fold.  You will get more votes by promising to be more Constitutionally focused and delivering.  There is a Center-Right majority that is just waiting to be invoked into supporting a movement that we all have been waiting for.  Don’t depend on a bankrupting Presidency to laud the virtues of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit (not promise) of Happiness.

It is hard for me to sit down to write lately.  It has literally been hell for me.  I want to write so much, but Ifear that once i start, I will just ramble for thousands of words.  You don’t want that.  You want me to be succint and to the point.  Therefore, I am going to address my current thoughts quickly and not try to express anything through a clever metaphor.

I.  Blagogate

This recent development is meant to shock me?  I am actually shocked though.  How can a Chicago/Daley Machine Politician be dumb enough to get caught?  Seriously, ”Pay-For-Play” Politics has always been practiced and will always be practiced.  However, if one of the main thugs of your machine gets taken down, get paranoid.  Rezko is going to start rolling on all sorts of people to reduce his sentence.  He singled out Blagojevich first because Blago appears to not be playing with a full deck of cards in the first place.  Additionally, why not admit that you talked to Blago if you are Obama?  What does it hurt?  Say, “Our staffs discussed who we would like to see as the replacement and when it became clear of an intention by the Governor to profit off of the nomination, we cut off all ties.”  That’s not hard.  Now, you’re administration starts out with scandal.  This whole thing smells of a Leftist Illuminati that is infiltrating the State of Illinois and branching out into the country at large.  More to come, I’m sure.

II.  Auto Industry Bailout

Let’s just call this what it is, United Auto Workers Bailout.  Let me first commend the union.  By hamstringing the industry to meet your standards for working, you have killed it.  I hope you guys have fun freezing your asses off in Michigan while cars keep being assembled at non-union plants in the South.  Is there something in the water in the Southern United States that doesn’t put up with Communist bullshit like unions?  I know that unions do exist in the South, but you don’t see them wield the crippling effect.  Somewhere along the line, a weak manager started looking at their labor force as more than capital expenses.  You want higher wages?  We are going to make the process robotic.  Have fun getting another job.  I hope that by the time I want to buy my next car, I can buy the Chevy Silverado Hybrid that I want.  I’m not going to hold my breath though.  Bush and Paulson will kick their problem down the road though.  I soon see the following as a very real reality:  I want a new car, I apply for the loan for said car, but the loan won’t be given by the now Government owned lender unless I agree to get a car from a certain list of approved cars now made by Government backed manufacturers.  Isn’t the free market system awesome?

III.  Heisman Winner

You got to go with Tebow.  He just finds the way to win.  Bradford and McCoy are great QBs and have both done spectacularly, but if I am coaching a team, I want Tebow as my Field General.  He’s a winner.  I’d like the Big XII to name their own QB of the year also.

IV.  Consumerism

I got a little heat for being so negative about the power that the internet can provide to an individual.  It is the way that I can reach out and share what would usually be totally pointless thoughts bouncing around in my head with the people who actually stop to read them.  In this light, I still stand by my statements.  The Industrial Revolution’s culmination in the PC has done more to cripple the spirit of the Rugged Individualism than anything else in the world.  We went from a society where you grow your vegetables in a garden, can them, and use them for a year to grocery stores and ice-boxes to now, being able to order your groceries online.  You want proof, look at the soaring numbers of obesity.  We don’t have to get off our asses and do hard work for the most part, and you better believe our slip is showing to a couple of sleeping super powers that are ready and starting to pounce.

V.  Who Are You?

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate.  This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished.  However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.  The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.  Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V. 

VI.  Snow In Texas

Climate is a changing thing by it’s nature.  If it wasn’t, the Farmer’s Almanac would always be right.  Guess what Al Gore, there is this large round burning thing in the sky called a Sun.  This star happens to operate on a cycle of variation for its intensity.  The time periods of “Global Warming” were actually part of the observed 11 year cycle of higher solar intensity.  Now, we are on the trough swing of that curve and it’s cold enough to snow in Texas before Winter even begins.  Climate will change.  You can’t infuse Carbon Dioxide back into the Earth’s crust with a huge syringe.  This is just a money making scheme for you and it’s time somebody said so.  Al Gore is the champion of the environmental movement.  You don’t need me to point out that he still travels around to his speaking engagements in a private jet or that he has a largely inefficient house when it comes to energy consumption.  However, when he begins to speak about mitigating for pollution (i.e. paying someone to offset pollution with a “Green Credit”), you may be surprised to know that the largerst bank set up to do this in the US has Al Gore as its majority shareholder.  Champion or Charlatan?  I leave that to you.

VII.  The Scammies

Nominations for the Grammies were announced and the Punch Brothers weren’t nominated for anything.  This is really a huge knock against the music industry for me because the Punch Brother’s 2008 album Punch was possibly the masterpiece of the year.  This is Chris Thile’s (formerly of Nickel Creek) new chamber music played by exceptional bluegrass picker type of style with a forty minute suite in four movements entitled “The Blind Leaving The Blind.”  This is really a gem of originality, and Lil’ Wayne is going to be what gets celebrated.

VIII.  Gas Prices

I saw gasoline selling for $1.41 today.  Congratulations on everyone who did buy a fuel efficient car.  You might have done it to be green, or (in my case) because you’re incredibly cheap.  This doesn’t detract from the fact that we can still hold sway over OPEC.  I think the largest determining factor is that the Iraq War is turning into a US victory and that will help our standing with hostile Sheiks.  They see that we cannot be discouraged totally.  The Dems will show their stomachs to be yellow, but America as a whole was established as a nation ready to fight for our standing in the world.  Now all we need is for idiots in Washington to not tax the cheaper gas back to its higher levels so that the average American can realize their purchasing power and maybe, just maybe, help themselves get out of the financial troubles that the Democrats’ Housing debacle has created.

I worked real hard not to make any lame metaphors to explain anything and will close with a statement that has been burning in my chest as of late.  Our way of life is being threatened by a radical Communist movement that has slowly been allowed to seep into our way of thinking.  The Russian people were easy to institute Communism on, they had been ruled for most of their history.  When facing America though, the Left knows that it must move slow to breed the spirit of Rugged Individualism out of us, so that one day the citizens of this nation would cry to Government to provide.  Looks like that time is approaching.  Communism/Socialism isn’t dead.  Wake up!  Be aware!  Let’s not raise another generation of such easy targets.

As I witness a lame duck administration of supposed Fiscal Conservatives embrace the most overtly Socialist takeovers of private industry alongside the Liberal legislature and incoming administration, I really hang my head in shame.  Freedom is being taken, and the government perpetrating these criminal usurpations of power is being silently approved by generations that have embraced the current human condition.  In the study of Humanity, an observor would never be able to find a situation like today that has existed before.  Improvements in communication technology have virtually destroyed the individual and grouped us into a collective.  One hundred years ago, the only individuals who were debating a global poverty debate were wealthy dynastic liberals in the Northeast United States.  They could afford to not focus on the basic insurance of their liberties, because monitarily, they were set and were not preoccupied with the day-to-day struggle of living free.  Now, even those who are in poverty in this country have the opportunity to connect themselves up to a PC and can become a consumer and critic. 

Is consumerism freedom?  Frankly, the evil of consumerism sickens me.  What sickens me more is that even I am guilty of this evil.  Everyone is.  I guess I just missed the clause in some obscure section of the US Constitution that said that you are entitled to everything you want.  If someone can show it to me, please direct me to it.  The only thing that gives me some sort of sollace in my personal consumerism is that I am working to earn a wage and not buying beyond my means.  What debts I do have, I am paying back.  I am working to ensure that I have the ability to purchase a home one day.  I just do not understand the mindset of expecting healthcare, a home, transportation, clothing, and food out of a government that was NOT set up to give you any of those things.  Our government was set up to ensure that the individual’s innate rights are not infringed upon by it or any other party.

It is in that spirit that I approach the main topic of this particular article.  California’s Proposition 8 was recently passed.  Although, it will probably be litigated away in the near future, I have trouble either damning or endorsing this measure.  Personally, I am a heterosexual and find nothing at all attractive with the male anatomy of Homo erectus.  However, I do not discount that there are people who are generally attracted to people of their own sex.  When looking at the issue from my moral goggles, I have observed in scripture (specifically of the Judeo-Christian tradition) that homosexuality is a sin.  These sentiments are expressed in both the Old and New Testaments.  As a professed Christian, it would hold constant that I adopt these beliefs and that I would see homosexual acts as a sin against God.  However, I hold no malice towards homosexuals for the simple reason that I am no person to realistically judge another.  Also, it really does not affect my world if someone is homosexual.  Some see it as impeding on humanity’s morality.  Jesus also calls humanity to be loving towards all, so I do not think that I can honestly descriminate against someone based on their sexual orientation.  I think that’s what should be focused on when the “Religious Right” addresses an issue like Gay Marriage.  Does it show Jesus’s love to discrimate against them?  I don’t think so.  Also, as a Libertarian, I have have adopted a laissez faire attitude.  I am not a homosexual, but if one of my future children happens to be, I will not love that child less and I would like them to have the option to live their life with the rights that their mother and I have been able to enjoy.  Do I think that Civil Unions are the same thing as a Civil Marriage?  No, I think offering the institution is a cop out unless you institute that all State arrangements of binding two people together are all classified as a Civil Union.  If a two people want to enjoy the status of being mutually exclusive partners, no matter their sexual orientations, and all rights that they are entitled to through that action, then by all means they should be allowed.  In this way, I am opposed to defining Marriage as stated in California’s Proposition 8.

On the other side of this argument, I do support the Constitutional right of Californians to excersise their own judgment on the issue.  If the State’s constituents decide to support Proposition 8, I can only say that by majority voting standards, California has made Gay Marriage an institution that will not exist in their State.  I myself believe that the Marriage issue is something that should be handled by State to State referrendums.  If a State’s constituency chooses to support it, then it is legal in that State.  If the State’s constituency chooses not to support it, then it is not legal.  In this way, I am in support of the voters of California’s wishes to be their law.

I guess this will be the best time for me to address the current controversies that have gripped the The Episcopal Church of the United States of America.  In the matter of consecrating homosexual marriage inside the Church, the document that we profess as scripture forbids homosexuality, so I can only guess that Gay Marriage would also get the axe.  Additionally, if a congregation, convocation, or diocese decides to support an issue that the larger Anglican Communion does not profess, then that entity should not be included in the Communion.  This also works with the consecration of an open and practicing homosexual taking up positions in Clerical Ministry.  As a part of the vows a priest or bishop takes, the candidate is asked to renounce all known sins.  If you renounce something, you do not continue to do it.  If I were to become part of the Clergy of the Episcopal Church, I would have to renounce some of my practices and I would also keep my word once I took that oath.  I do not support someone who takes an oath that is supposed to be accountable between themselves and God and then committing a sin that is explicitly stated in both Testaments that they believe to be the scripture upon which our understanding of the Divine is built.

In summary, I support Civil Gay Marriage and the right of a State’s Voters to reject it if they want to.  If you are upset about Californians taking this step, move to a State that is more tolerant.  Here is an even more lurid suggestion.  Why not work for Universal Freedom through limited Government interference in our lives and thusly a limited role for the US Government as prescribed in the Constitution?  How tempting is that?

Sorry that I have been quiet as of late.  On November 12, my mother had an orange sized tumor removed from her brain.  The doctors got it all and it was benign.  She is doing really good and is continuing to recover at home.  I was in Texas from November 13 to November 18.  We even sent a Red Cross message to my wife’s ship and she was able to meet us in Texas.  We had as good of a time as possible in the situation.  We saw a lot of family that we hadn’t seen in a long time and I even had time enough to get a new Texas Driver’s Lisence (my first horizontal lisence).  Needless to say, I missed three and a half working days, so I have had some catching up to do to get up to date with all of my projects.  I am now fully caught up and will be back to using some of my free time to post.

My main concern with this holiday weekend is not the 8 trillion communism proposal, but the Lone Star Showdown.  Preparations have begun and I am at my office Marooned Out.  Thank you all for supporting my family during this stressful time and Gig ‘Em Aggies!

WHOOP!

What the hell happened?  Sometimes it is hard to wrap my mind around the ridiculous notions that people get in their heads.  If you visit my brother’s site, www.travisthornton.net, you will find a much more enlightening discussion over the Federal Bailout.  I, was not schooled in the nicetiesof political science, so I am going to shoot straight with you.  Say you were to start a restaurant, and it did not do so well.  You cannot really recoup initial capital invested, and you have to close the restaurant.  Seems like a simple concept to most people.  Now, say you are in charge of a large automotive manufacturing company that has steadily lost market share since Baby Boomers would actually buy imports.  You are hemhoraging money.  You have a long string of layoffs, but eventually you are going to have to fold up.  What’s the difference between these two business models?  Certainly one exists on a larger scope, holds more value when affecting the national GDP, and employs a unionized work force that is a political goldmine in the “swing states”.  However, it is still a private business.  If someone puts their money into a GM, Ford, or Chrysler and invests capital (in the way of money) into their production, and the venture fails… Well, the venture should fail.

There are no, and should be no guarantees that every time you make an investment that you will make back a profitable return.  That is the nature of free enterprise.  Risk.  If you take a risk, sometimes you are going to lose.  If you agree to a adjustable rate mortgage, you have to realize that eventually your payments will increase.  If you are a lender, sometimes the person in debt is going to default.  If you are an insuring agent and you insure one of these loans, sometimes you are going to have to pay off that policy because of the default.  Taken all in, if you see that this problem is pervasive throughout the housing industry, which provides the basis for the financial industry, then you are bound to fail one day.  We did that, through oversight on the part of both Democrats and Republicans, we did that.  The revolutionary idea that I will suggest is this, it is not the private citizen’s responsibility to reward someone else’s risk gone wrong.

If you base your business on risk or a product that does not attract market share, perhaps you should find another venture.  Detroit automakers should be the first to make a change to an entire fleet of Hybrid and Fuel Efficient Vehicles.  However, they would have to start small, and I’m not talking about just 5% of their production line.  Seriously downsize the workforce and only focus on the kind of cars that concious buyers are looking for.  GM is even producing Hybrid Silerados and Tahoes now.  As a man raised in the rural setting, and a cheap/Earth-concious consumor, this is great.  I will be able to get a truck that is still good for the Earth.  If I were GM, I would be hammering this product.  I wouldn’t have made the switch to Hybrid so gradual.  I would have swiftly cut production and the workforce and retooled to produce strictly Hybrid vehicles, but here again, they have union quotas to appease.  Communism at its best, crippling the American Auto Industry.  Now, the Socialist suggestion of Bailout (which let’s not forget is just government ownership of a private entity) for the Big Three.  How fantastic!  Not only will our Financial Industry be government owned, but so will the Auto Industry.  Therefore, we will have to go to our Government Car Dealership and get our Government Car Loan pending government approval.  Slippery slope?

I guess my real reason for embarking on this rant is because Circuit City has filed for bankruptcy and humorously or seriously, there have been mentions of using Bailout money to help them out.  I think this enrages me because Circuit City does not actually produce its own goods.  It is a retail chain.  It sells the same things that Best Buy does.  However, Best Buy has garnered the lion-share of the electronics market, because they simply can sell things better.  The product that they produce is the buying experience.  I would just rather be in a Best Buy store.  Circuit City stores are usually in disrepair if they are the older variety, and have a cheap presentation in their new stores.  The buying experience in Circuit City is awful.  If people don’t buy their electronics from there, they fold.  It happens.

If a private business fails, let it fail.  It is private.  In the immortal words of Hyman Roth, “There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me.  Sorta looked up to me, you know.  We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street.  Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada… made a fortune, your father, too.  As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him.  Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI’s on the way to the West Coast.  That kid’s name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas.  This was a great man, a man of vision and guts.  And there isn’t even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town!  Someone put a bullet through his eye.  No one knows who gave the order.  When I heard it, I wasn’t angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things.  So when he turned up dead, I let it go.  And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!” 

Let’s let bad businesses of the past go and (though painful at first) refocus on ensuring our Free Economy is more free than a Nationalized Economy.

The campaign obviously did not turn out as I had personally wished.  I was hoping that Americans would see the benefits of not participating in a Federal Socialist society.  Apparently, feelings had been so strong about the present administration that they wished for any break from what they saw as a continuance of the current course.  Therefore, a great orator that embodies a change simply by being the person he is was handily won this latest contest.

Is there reason for Constitutionally minded Americans to fear?  I don’t think so.  While the upcoming administration may indeed embrace ideals that will promote the most Socialist society in American history, the means of the Change will be reversible.  For in reality, the only true way to preserve the change in time perpetual is to totally amend the US Constitution to adequately ensure that these goals would remain the Modus Operandi for the Federal Government.  This simply will not happen in a Center-Right country.  All Change will come in the form of expanding bureaucracies which can be eliminated if the implements of that Change prove to be fallible.  I personally believe that America will embrace the ideals of Freedom and Personal Responsibility.  That the ideal of Rugged Individualism will again rise from the ashes to inspire Americans to live the life that the Founders had envisioned.  My hopes are that the current economic crisis will lead the American people to honestly reflect on our current consumer frenzy and focus us on ideals that motivate us to a society where we work for our rewards.  No matter the position, no matter the level, Americans need to remember that sustaining our way of life is dependent on the individual and the fruits of their personal toils.  These are my personal hopes for the future of our society.

As I was perusing Facebook statuses yesterday, I observed a sight that truly saddened me.  Ardent supporters of the Republican ticket were lamenting that the President-Elect is “not their President” or that they would move from the country.  The supporters of the winning ticket were also reveling in the victory and being quite callous in their personal statements.  It broke my heart to witness people voice such vehement feelings toward someone just because they do not agree.  If Republicans are truly angry, do not forget that it was under a Republican administration that our current situation arose.  Now certainly, Congressional Democrats did prevent the reform of the Government Sponsored Entities whose failure exacerbated the problem of deficit spending.  Democrats also have their certain share of blame for the war of Facebook statuses.  For if one is a true Liberal, they would accept that people have the right to disagree.  Our nation was built upon discourse.  To brand someone as a horrible person just because they don’t agree is not proper, indeed it isn’t even what would be considered mature.

The election of Barack Obama to the post of President of the United States was truly historic.  It is the culmination of the idea that every American has an equal right to participate in the process.  This election truly validates the grand experiment in Democracy known as the United States of America.  The fact that I may not agree with the agenda of the President-elect does not make him any less in my eyes.  He was, in fact, elected to be the President of my country.  I won’t be the one lauding his policies, but I will give him the support and prayers that the leader of this nation has always garnered in my being.  Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States, and as a citizen, I cannot in good conscience tolerate our society to divide over what is an actual mark of progress in that society.  Did I vote for him?  No.  Are there valid questions about his past and his policies that I still hold?  Yes, but I will not allow them to further the divide between the two sides of our Political Spectrum in my personal life.  I will take a path not trod as of late by those in the Left (with respect to their disdain towards President Bush), I will support him as the leader of the Free World, not fester an underground hatred, and do all in my power to voice the virtues of our Federal government operating as defined in the US Constitution.  In the immortal words of John Wayne when asked about the election of John F. Kennedy, “I didn’t vote for him but he’s my President, and I hope he does a good job.”

Unite as Americans, do not divide as partisans.  May God Bless America and may God guide the President-elect in his leadership of the Unites States.

Good evening, London.  Allow me first to apologize for this interruption.  I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition.  I enjoy them as much as any bloke.  But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.  There are of course those who do not want us to speak.  I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.  Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.  Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.  And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?  Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.  And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.  How did this happen?  Who’s to blame?  Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.  I know why you did it.  I know you were afraid.  Who wouldn’t be?  War, terror, disease.  There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.  Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler.  He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.  Last night I sought to end that silence.  Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten.  More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory.  His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.  So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked.  But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

People should not be afraid of their governments, Governments should be afraid of their people.