Monday, September 24, 2007

Gang Visits Nature at Itasca

The gang at the lake loaded into the vehicle and motored to Itasca State Park in Minnesota Saturday. The leaves were in the same mixed up mode that North Dakota leaves seem to be in. But; so what? Nature was at its most beautiful and certainly spectacular. Some of those rare lavender leaves were spotted, among a lot of bright yellows and rare reds.

While some areas were faded green, others were nearly down. The conditions reflected a normal year last week, combined with next weekend and the weekend after that. Explanations abound: early fall, bad winter ahead, dry spring, early fronts. Attempts to blame it on Bill or Hillary Clinton were amazingly discounted, though the gang usually believes these and passes them on. But attempts to politicize a journey into Nature’s handiwork failed. Love the trees. Adore the lake. Do not forget the wild rice soup at the lodge.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Withdraw from Failed War on Poverty Now!

Is it time to call for a withdrawal of troops and a pullout in the War on Poverty? Begun in the 1960s by then President Lyndon Johnson, this ill conceived move by the Democrats has had a near 40 year record of failure without notable success. Poverty still exits, and in some places like Appalachia, various reservations, and in sections of major cities; it is still endemic and severe.

If 40 years of Federal policy and spending failure has not brought sparkling success and solution to this problem, isn’t it time to try a fresh direction to these policies?

Its policies have failed to bring education as a goal worthy of support in major poverty prone populations of the United States. Its policies have failed to stem drug use from coast to coast among disadvantaged populations. Its policies have promoted divorce among disadvantaged populations and broken up families.

The Democrat thrust to buy votes among the poor has simply failed. It has bought those votes, but is that a reason to continue failed policies? It has had 40 years and not met Johnson’s broad goals. 40 years! America cannot stand to fund the welfare and related systems in light of such a record. Forty years is enough.

Monday, September 10, 2007

The Persecution of Christians in America

A recent ad in U.S. News & World Report stressed the persecution of Christians in today’s world. Seemingly out of place in a nation where Christianity dominates, it sadly is a very real aspect of the liberal left’s drive to rebuild society based on a sense of freedom based upon license rather than liberty.

Christianity, with its stands on traditional morals, is in the way of liberalism’s drive to rationalize every practice as worthy of protection and approval, except those that subscribe to a sense of decency that limits others. To be moral is vilified as setting limits, and to ask for any sense of decency is to deny liberty in expression.

While driving toward license, or total freedom, this liberal thrust is odd and contradictory in that it is accompanied by an equal thrust toward political correctness that emphasizes freedom from offense and control by any group in society that limits actions of another group. For the correct” to advance, the world of the others must change. Freedom to some, the favored because their actions and desires are the opposite of traditional American values, brings persecution to others who support those values.

This, the Christian is persecuted in America. The Christian, as the typical American of history, recognized the importance of control and order, of decency as a societal value. He/She saw the importance of this because liberty has always involved some sense of responsibility while license does not.

The problem is that you cannot expand a society toward a rampant free for all without damaging the world of those who know such change is a pathway toward doom. Once Christian society is weakened in America, postmodern America has shown itself impotent to replace old values as a unifying factor. Never since revolutionary times has America been so divided without any thing to grasp for unity. You cannot even make a claim that the basic rules of the system hold us together when a majority has started to see those rules as working against them. A social glue based on everyone doing whatever they feel like offers a weak gluey paste of the school child in a society needing solid poxy to hold itself together.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Predicted as Present

Rudy Giuliani seems to have a very positive set of proposals as outlined in the September 10, 2007 [p24] issue of U.S. News and World Report. He notes that the Democrats might already be having a negative impact on U.S. investment in the United States because the threat of tax increases by the party likely to win can currently be taken as real. He points out that a business can go to much lower taxed places and hear a better pitch for the business. France has lower taxes than us and is preparing to cut. He notes that only Japan has higher taxes on business than the United States. Businesses are already looking outside the United States. They have long term views that do not allow them to wait and see if the predicted is true. The giant Democrat tax hike is reality when you look at a reasonable future, and business is acting now to adjust.

At the lake, the same is true. Investments are anticipating a tax increase following a Democrat victory in 2008. Like Amy Klobuchar [D Senator] of Minnesota, they talk its impact starting at $200,000 or more; but gee it never starts that high. Protective investment is the goal now.

The positive impact of the Bush tax cuts is clear. Guiliani makes a nice case backed by the figures. The hope is that the Democrat, liberal tendency to favor redistribution does not end up moving even more jobs to India, France, Ireland, and the rest.