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01/27/2013

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So, working on taxes.  Not happy.  Which I think is kinda a requirement when doing taxes.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for paying my fair share. Whoa! Almost sounding like a liberal there. Wait. No. I’m ok. Libs are for OTHERS paying THEIR “fair share.”  Hard to keep this stuff straight sometimes.

So, where was I?

I have been somewhat remiss in my blogging.  My excuse?  No, I have not run out of things to say.  By far.  I’m going with illness and work. Of course, had my wife taken proper care of me I would not have gotten sick.  Of this she is well aware.  Mainly because I made her so.  Work on the other hand is work.  For some reason the payroll department seems to want me to show up to “earn” my pay (sorry, my wife’s pay – I suspect I will get that wrong many times today).  Sigh!  Maybe switching to Liberal wouldn’t be so bad.  I’m sure somebody out there wouldn’t mind having their money stolen and given to us for my wife’s benefit.  Off topic (although I’m not yet sure what the topic of the day is).

Where was I?  Working on taxes.  Boy is that a fun thing to do.  You are always caught between loving and hating the thought of a large return.  Loving it because it is “found” money.  Hating it because when you think about it, and you should, it is YOUR money that you lost in the first place.  While it is never fun to write yet another check to the government so it can waste even MORE of your hard earned money, getting a refund of your interest free loan to those bureaucrats is not the best thought either.  Although I am nowhere near the end of this year’s journey into the annual tax nightmare, I have no doubt I will be writing that check.  To all you Libs out there, you are welcome.  To all you conservatives out there, where the heck are you?  What’s the deal leaving me to continue to fund bridges to nowhere, midnight basketball and mating habits of African Bullfrogs (or was it Australian?).  Next time get off your sofa and vote!  I blame YOU far more than the bottom-of-the-pyramid Libs.  They are just sheep.  Pawns with no desire to educate themselves.  Apathetic.  Easier to just follow their government shepherds and eat whatever the mass media feeds them.  But enough of that.

So many things to discuss.  So many things in this country that need tweaking or a major overhaul.  So many things I am just not in the mood to discuss today.  I am tired.  Illness?  Work?  The problems of this country and the world?  I don’t know.  Just tired.  The more I venture out and view the actions and interactions of my fellow man, the more tired I grow.  Maybe not tired.  Maybe weary.  At church today we were instructed on the parts of the whole.  Not to despair at whatever part you are to play.  The example, for those of you that have ventured into the world of the Bible, was of a physical body.  The foot, the hand, the ear, the eye.  Each has a reason for being.  Each should except its role and understand it has an important part to play.  The idea is that we individuals also have a specific role to play.  A role in the totality of mankind.  I sat there and thought about that (yes, I can think and pay attention at the same time).  I thought many of the problems we have in society may very well come from many of us not “playing” our role.  Not satisfied with being a foot or an ear.  Always thinking that someone else has a better role to play and against all the talents with which we’ve been blessed we try to be something we are not.  Why is that?

For some odd reason we look up to the White Collar workers – the doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.  We look down on the “unskilled”, Blue Collar workers – the garbage man (sorry, sanitation engineers), custodian, cook, etc.  Why is that?  When we come home from work in the evening on “Trash Day” are we not glad the can is empty and prepared for another week of our rubbish?  When we go out for a nice evening on the town or a Sunday breakfast are we not glad there is a cook in the kitchen of our chosen restaurant?  Are we not happy the end of each work day does not include having to take our waste basket to the dumpster?  Someone will be there after we leave to clear it out.  We all have a role to play.  We should be not only thankful for our own, we should be thankful for that of each of our fellow man.

That said, I see much of the problems of society and the world stemming from individuals that want to play a role for which they are not suited.  As mentioned, we all have God given talents (and yes, God still gave you talents whether you believe in Him or not).  To be truly happy in life, it behooves us to make a determined effort to recognize and appreciate what ours are and make it our life’s ambition to select an appropriate role.  A role that uses the talents we have.  Not only for our benefit, but the benefit of all.  Not only would we be happier, but mankind as a whole would be far better off.

So many want to be something they are not, should not and often cannot.  But for whatever reason – envy; desire; pressure from peers, parents, others in authority – they insist their “lot in life” is not theirs.  They MUST be something they are not.  They MUST be something for which they are not prepared.  For which they have no talent.  If an individual’s talents lie in a specific area and they fail to use them, something in the play of mankind is not getting done.  A role is not being played.  This tends to throw everything out of whack.  Take my word for it (or not, don’t really care all that much today), everything is out of whack.  The play is not following the script.  This leads not only to unhappiness on the part of the individual but a “disturbance in the force” (yes, I actually said that).  There is currently a major disturbance.  I believe my weariness derives from this disturbance and, in part, my lack of time, talent or treasure to fix it.  I know, I know.  Who the heck am I to take the world on my shoulders?  I’m actually not.  My weariness stems from the knowledge that neither is anyone else.  So many of us are not fulfilling our role.  Nobody individually is able to solve the problem.  However, as each domino falls due to someone not fulfilling their role, those around it, fulfilling their obligation or not, are also brought down.  This leads to the state of affairs in which we now find ourselves.  Sigh…

Ok…  back to taxes.  The topic or the task?  As long as everyone is of the understanding that I am (sorry, my wife is) being robbed and my (sorry, her) treasure is being wasted, I will get back to the task.  However, if I learn in the future that some of you out their actually believe I am (she is) not paying my (her) fair share, I shall delve DEEPLY into the subject and pelt you unmercifully with the facts.  You WON’T like it I assure you…

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…

We the People have lost control

01/06/2013

Brian Sunday Posts , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The majority of those voting in the last two U.S. elections voted for Socialism.  I’m not sure many of them understand that, but they did.  I AM sure the officials for whom they voted are well aware of it (see my post of 12/23/12).  I do not want to specifically dwell on this issue.  However, I do want to mention of few consequences thereof.  I think from the standpoint of the average citizen that voted for this government, they will find many of the consequences unintentional.  I know many of these people and am dumbfounded that they could actually cast their vote the way they did.   While on the surface they can reconcile their underlying beliefs with what they were being told.  I am dumbfounded however because these are otherwise intelligence people that refused to look any deeper than the political rhetoric, the stump speeches, the sound bites.  I am dumbfounded because of the overwhelming data that demonstrates over extended periods of time in countless different circumstances and situations that none of what they were being told works.  Two of the most pressing topics of the day are ObamaCare and gun control.

I’m not exactly sure how birth control became a medical issue.  It is not a disease to be cured.  It is not an injury to be repaired.   In many forms of birth control you are putting chemicals into your body but you do so also with aspirin or any other over the counter remedy.  However, in those cases you ARE actually attempting to cure, or prevent, some disease or injury.   So why again is birth control a medical issue?  In the past, from a “societal view”, it really hasn’t mattered.  However, in the new Socialist state in which we live, it does.  It does because the government has decided that employers must pay for it.  I can hear many of you now.  Why does THAT matter?  It matters because, although we continue to ignore it, the Constitution is still the law of the land.  The 1st Amendment to said Constitution explicitly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …”  So what has THAT got to do with birth control?  It just so happens that some people are opposed to birth control on religious grounds.  So, contrary to popular belief, those privately owned companies that do not believe they should pay for their employee’s birth control are not just doing so on religious principal.  They are doing so on Constitutional grounds.  This is the type of thing our Founding Fathers fought against.  Not just against a government that tells you what religion you must practice (such as belonging to the Church of England in pre-Revolutionary days), but a government that tells you what you are allowed to practice and what you are not.  A government that tells you that unless it is practiced inside four walls designated a religious building, it is not religion.  Your religious beliefs are not a concern of the government.  Control is.

I saw a poster the other day that said, “We don’t blame cars for drunk drivers, why do we blame guns for violent criminals?”  I would add that we don’t blame the alcohol either.  I find it a darn good question.  What I find dumbfounding (apparently my word of the day), is that so many people don’t get it.  In More Guns, Less Crime John Lott demonstrated the inverse correlation between guns and crime.  In doing so demonstrated yet again that gun control does not work.  He demonstrated in fact, the exact opposite.  As an aside, Mr. Lott is an economist quite familiar with how to do honest statistical analysis.  Not being a gun enthusiast himself, he originally planned to prove exactly the opposite of what his results showed.  However, unlike so many that manipulate either the question or the answer in order to achieve their going in supposition, Mr. Lott let the honesty of the results speak for themselves.  Of course, many blame neighboring cities, states, countries, etc for such statistics.  They claim that we must get rid of ALL guns and control them getting into the country.  Hmmmmm…  Let’s ask England and Australia how that is working for them.  Both island nations.  You can’t get better control of your borders than that.  Both saw a marked increase in violent crime as access to firearms became more and more restricted.  Not just crime but crime in which individuals were more directly involved.  What do I mean by that?  In England, prior to guns being outlawed home break-ins were mostly limited to vacant houses.  The robbers were of course concerned with discovery and confrontation if someone was home.  This is problematic if the person at home had a means of defense.  Since that means of defense (firearms) was removed from the home (first restricted to the shooting range/club and then altogether), burglars have little to be concerned about as relates to their safety.  They are now going after homes whether someone is there or not.  Now the citizens of England not only have the crime of burglary but assault.  You need now not fear only the loss of possessions, but the lost of limb or even life.   Australia’s “experiment” proved the same.  Has either country admitted its failed policies?   Oh NO!  We can’t have that.  The fact that their subjects (specifically chosen term) are in far more danger now than ever is not a concern of theirs.

What has all this got to do with us?  We are yet again on the trajectory of more restrictive gun control.  The fact that the Clinton Gun Ban was a failure and we actually have far fewer “gun” crimes now than under that failed policy is beside the point.  The problem they argue is the same as what those in other countries pushed.  It didn’t go far enough.  That these other countries have gone to complete bans and finding exactly what John Lott found (in this case, less gun means more crime – while not the title, also covered in his book) is ignored.  We are now again pushing for another “assault rifle” (aka, black, menacing looking rifle) ban.  In addition, the latest FBI data (2011) shows more murder victims in the U.S. by blunt objects (clubs, hammers, etc) than all types of rifle combined (496 vs 323).  I could cite reams of data demonstrating the absurdity of blaming the weapon instead of the user.  But this is what will always continue to baffle me – the complete denial of data demonstrating anything that disagrees with their view.  Your safety is not a concern of the government.  Control is.

Let us set aside the “moral” aspect of birth control and the logical aspect of gun control for a moment.  The question with which we are left amounts to control.  Society is a “contract” in which man bands together for collective benefit.  In such a situation, control is to some extent necessary.  Of this there is no doubt.  Because of this, there becomes a delicate balance between individual and group requirements. Using the example of traffic management makes it quite easy to see such a balance.  Traffic lights and stop signs are used to control vehicles at intersections.  We acknowledge that in order to have an ordered society we may have to come to a brief stop at a stop sign or sit at a stop light for a few minutes even if another vehicle is nowhere to be seen.  I would suggest both evidence and logic would demonstrate this is an acceptable price to pay to ensure a level of safety while driving.  I would also suggest that if individuals choose not to practice birth control or own a gun, this is an acceptable price to pay to live in a mutually beneficial society.  However, when government, against all logic and honest data, decides to take our money to pay for something for another individual that we find objectionable or that we are not allowed a specific tool we find necessary, both with no regard for our Constitutional rights, it is probably time to question into what we have gotten ourselves.  We the People have lost our Constitution.  We the People have lost control.

>>> The day is at a close, the night is drawing in and my cigar awaits – ’til next time…