Conservative and Not Ashamed to Say It

If you haven't figured it out yet, on the political scale, I come down fairly conservative. Ironically enough, that's exactly what most of the Founders would be if you got down to it. Despite personal beliefs, they believed that "the government that governs best governs least", which is exactly what true conservativism really means.

I believe that government should stay out of our lives and out of our economy.

I believe that government's role is to protect its citizens from encroachments from without. As such, I believe in a strong policy of national defense.

I believe in Federalism- where states and localities respond to the whims of constituents, not the upside-down government we have now where the Federal level dictates to the States. The creature does not govern the creator.

I believe that personal ideologies belong at the local level. Let each locality determine which laws it wishes to adopt. Let the federal level facilitate intercourse between the localities.

When we abandoned the township, we lost our way. When we put power into the hands of what Reagan calls "a distant intellectual elite", we created this problem for ourselves. Nobody knows how to fix your problem as well as the people near and dear to you in your own community, and nobody who has never met you can give you useful help to meet those outcomes.

Yes, I'm a registered Democrat. So was Jefferson. If Democrats truly cared about the little guy, they would adopt the politics of conservativism and endorse lower taxes, less regulation, and fewer government interventions. They do none of these things, which is why the nation suffers. Bush may not be a panacea, but he is not the source of our curret dilemma.

Obama Hurts Everyone, Even the Poor

I don't know how this story got out, but it shows the true design and end of Obama's so-called compassion for the poor, the middle class, and average Americans. Every time he gives us a five spot, it costs us a lot more than that. He gives us a dime and it costs us a dollar. Hardly a good trade.


For a $25/month increase in pay, he lost $300/month in food stamps. Sounds like a poor tradeoff to me.

Obama does what he does to elevate himself. I could link you to gobs of stories about his lies and how nothing he promised has come to fruition and that he does the opposite of what he says. The president made promises to get elected. He follows the admonition of Lewis' Screwtape to "Steal a man's soul and give him nothing in return." Do you really think that extending healthcare to more people without increasing doctors and hospitals will lower costs? That's more peope chasing the same number of goods. Reagan knew the folly of that. I wish more people would today.

Why People Love Disney

I started listening to some tapes today by Robert Stevens and something really hit home. He points out in the introduction how the music to which we listen dictates our reality to our subconscious. In particular, he refers to the Rolling Stones song "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and points out how the people who hear that over and over and over constitute a great majority of those who are never satisfied, no matter what they have.

While listening to this tape, I decided to listen to Disney music because a friend of mine does almost exclusively that. As I listened to the words, I was astounded at some of the messages I heard and realized why it was that I used to love Disney and why millions of people flock to Disneyland every year and seem happy despite huge crowds and long lines. Here are a few of my favorites:

And don't spend your time lookin' around for something you want that can't be found. When you find out you can live without it and go along not thinkin' about it, I'll tell you something true- the bare necessities of life will come to you. --Jungle Book

No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true. --Cinderella

It's a razzle-dazzle day, a lifetime of joy in just a few hours. --Pete's Dragon

The second star to the right shines in the night for you to tell you that the dreams you've had really can come true. --Peter Pan

A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be...in this whole wide world there's no happier bloke.
--Marry Poppins

Always let your conscience be your guide. --Pinocchio

Whistle while you work and cheerfully together we can tidy up the place, so hum a merry tune. It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace. --Snow White

Now, keep in mind that these come largely from older Disney productions. In point of fact, since the passing of Walt and the resignation of Roy, the Disney genre has shifted more towards entertainment than moral messages by and large, but the parks are built still mostly around the older movies that taught us to look up, believe in something larger than ourselves and not lose faith.

So go to the happiest place on earth. In the last day alone since I started listening to classic Disney movie music I have already noticed that it influences and uplifts my thinking. Not that my music was bad; most of the songs were pretty good, but I chose to fill my mind with the highest form of music available that teaches and trains my mind while I drive to go higher, look higher, doubt not and be believing. I testify that it works. Try me.



*note- the author has no stock in Walt Disney, and he has not been compensated to write this article, though he welcomes the prospect

Political Levity

Rush Limbaugh shared these on his show today, which I though were pretty funny:

"Barack Obama and God DO have something in common. GOD doesn't have a birth certificate either."
"How do God and Obama differ? God does not think he's Obama."
"How else to God and Obama differ? Liberals love Obama."

Trying to Get Peaches From Apple Trees

I had a dream last night in which the only part I remember was a line that I need to stop trying to get peaches from apple trees. You can try all you want to plant an apple and get the tree to bear peaches, but in our understanding and with our technology it quite frankly cannot be done. Eventually, you have to stop innovating in ways that waste and go back to ideas that wok. Unfortunately, the president refuses to do anything except try old and doomed ideas from his socialistic upbringing and education that will do nothing but bankrpt us and every successive generation.

Why is it acceptable for the bloated and overpaid government to spend itself into mountains of debt? The President excoriates GM for allowing itself to be buried under a mountain of debt for which it cannot possibly hope to pay. China meanwhile started worrying about America's ability to pay on the bonds it owes them for the TARP and other bailout funds financed by that communist regime.

When the price of oil and gas goes up, Big Oil will be punished. The irony is that the government that will punish them is the same entity that has made it difficult if not impossible for Big Oil to do anything about soaring prices. The Obama administration rescinded leases and permits, banned shale oil, and enhanced environmental regulations restricting access to wilderness areas. He wants to nationalize them too. All the while, he flies a pizza chef in, takes an entire wing of fighters and helicopters to NYC to keep a promise to his wife to take her on a date, etc.

Businesses go out of business and he decides to go spend like money grows on trees to have a good time. He can't stay in the city where he lives; he has to trapes about the nation at our expense buying hamburgers and saving 25 policemen's jobs when there's plenty to do in D.C. Yet, he escapes all responsibility and will even be credited for the drop in new unemployment claims and in people taking from unemployment. Nevermind that some people have given up and that others have been on unemployment long enough that their benefit has now lapsed.

Everyone who earns money is richer than those who earn nothing. So, eventually, be ready to be taxed, irrespective of your income, under confiscatory levels to pay for Obama's luxuriation and for the largess which your friends, families, and neighbors exact of the President. Even if he meant to rule well, which I do not believe, he means to rule. Meanwhile, he promises you peaches, and plants only apple trees. Men cannot harvest grapes of thistles. You cannot do wrong and feel right. You cannot live evilly and be blessed. That is contrary to the order of the universe.

Scared but at Least Able to Say it

I don't usually forward things, but this was worth sharing:

snopes.com: An Open Letter to President Obama - Lou Pritchett

Posted using ShareThis

We need more people who are not afraid to speak truth. Samuel Adams said that "The liberties of our Country and the freedom of our Civil Constitution, are worth defending at all costs".

On the Law

If the Law is reason free from passion, why is Sotomayor a viable candidate?

Justice Thomas, a leading proponent of this jurisprudence, writes: “In order to be a judge, a person must attempt to exorcise himself or herself of the passions, thoughts, and emotions that fill any frail human being. He must become almost pure, in the way fire purifies metal, before he can decide a case.”

The new court nominee ignores the law in favor of her passions. In fact, she claims that "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

The judgements passed should revolve around the law. DeTocqueville observed that part of America's strength lay in the fact that "In America, the law is king". No other nation has ever done as well at ensconcing that ideal. Don't let Sotomayor unwravel that. Write your representatives and tell her she is unacceptable.

On the Content of Her Character

Republicans in Congress apparently decided not to put up too much of a fuss over Obama's first judicial nominee on the basis of her race. Never mind the completely rational reasons for opposing her, let's just quit now. Sotomayor has been overturned by the US Supreme Court at least eight times. She has no more clear view on the law than I do despite her JD and her years of experience. She did not fight her way from poverty to achievemet; her parents did that when they immigrated here.

I oppose Sotomayor on the auspices that she is incompetant, incorrect, and incorrigible. It has nothing to do with her race. I oppose he with the same vehement defiance with which I oppose Schumer, Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, and scores of others.

She shows no respect for the oath she took or the stewardship she carries. Her rulings demonstrate a complete lack of fidelity to the constitution. Her conduct desmonstrates how much she despises a big swath of the population...on the auspices of her race and genitalia she can be a better judge than I. The vast majority of Americans are not racists, but she is, and she hates you if you aren't exactly what she is. Like all mass Movements, she wants you to hate the borgeoise, which is nothing more than whatever Marxists hate.

In 2006, when I went to take the CBP examination in Las Vegas, I met a man from Peru. He spoke to me during the break between sections of the test. He wondered aloud at all the people who come to this nation and denigrate our laws and defy our traditions. After seeing so many from neighboring cultures blatantly disregard the law, he left construction to pursue a life in law enforcement. I have a great deal of respect for him and hope he is succeeding.

I worry however that my friend will face opposition from people like Sotomayor. Two CBP agents served time for shooting but not killing a known narcotics trafficker. What will she do, his culture and heritage notwithstanding? It's not about race. It's about predominant philosophical ideology, and hers is quite frankly racist, bigoted, and socialist-radical-envirostatist, making her an enemy of the Constitution.

As for members of the Senate who have promised not to oppose her, shame on you. Stop cowtowing to the white guilt that says we cannot oppose someone of another race. Dr. King would roll over in his grave. This is not about race; it is about substance. Her character is not of the sort that we want on the Supreme Court. Se cannot, she will not keep fidelity to its precepts and principles; the content of her court work clearly delineates that as fact.

If I am going to be damned, I might as well be damned for what I am. If we're going to lose, let us lose on principle. The battle cannot be won if you quit before it starts. Don't give up until you have no other choice. If you're going to hold what I say against me, then you sure as shooting better hold what she says against her.

Starting Fresh

When I got divorced, I thought my life was over. So many things associated with and ancilliary to that event combined to corrupt my reason and sap my strength. It has taken me some time to leave my past in the past and just carry forth the lessons it taught me into my present. A lot longer than I like to admit.

When his laboratory burned down, a sixty-seven-year-old Thomas Edison reacted by saying,

"Thank goodness all our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start again fresh".

When as a result of these circumstances I put the Reno metropolitan area in my rear view mirror and moved without a job or prospects to Las Vegas, I really did start fresh. Nobody really knew to what I'd been up previously, and I was free to start myself over again in a new location. It's actually the theme of my life growing up military, that whenever I made what felt like an irreconcilable mistake, I knew that in a few years I would move away and get a fresh start. For some reason growing up, I never let my past baggage come along, but now that I am older I have.

In his book Alone but not Lonely, Brandt talks about this phenomenon. As we grow up and get cynical, realizing the start realities of the real world, some things that we ought not carry with us become attached. Fortunately for me, last summer I met a friend who has helped me remember some things which should not have been forgotten and leave in the past some things I ought not to have brought with me.

A few weeks ago, several men whom I respect sat me down and told me that in spite of my past I had weathered the storms well. Maybe I'm not as happy as I ought to be on the outside, but I really do have a wonderful life. In fact, only one thing in my life is not as I wish it were. How many people do you know who can honestly say that? It really is a wonderful life.

I thank God for the chance to start fresh. Yes, it was painful, but I was given a second chance. This morning I met a man who just recovered from open heart surgery following a heart attack. Due to a congenital defect, he's suffered all his life and not known, but the right people were there at the right time to give him his second chance, and it resonates in his actions. Chris inspires me. Now, to put it into action...

Job Well Done

For several weeks now, I've been watching this particular man on the way to work. He's holding a sign for the Casa Grande Apartment complex advertising that they're renting. I have never seen a man who deserves his money as much as this man.

He exemplifies excitement. You've seen sign "twirlers" before. I usually notice them because they're not doing their job- talking on a cell phone, sitting down, leaning in the shade, or otherwise obfuscating that for which they are supposed to be advertising. Since I don't buy much and hate advertising, I am not usually one to look at their signs anyway. When I go out shopping, I usually know what I want prior to arrival at the store. This man is ALWAYS swinging his sign, standing up, and on task. The one time I saw him "slacking" was when he was taking a drink of water, and I see this man on the way to work every day M-F.

He demonstrates dedication. No matter the weather, no matter the temperature, and despite the probably dismal prospects, he's out there working. I don't know how he can do it every day when we're already reaching 100F during the day. While other people in this country sit at home and bewail having lost their jobs or complain about unrealistic demands placed on them by employers, spouses, or whomever, this man stands at the corner of a busy street in the heat advertising a deal that can't be beat. Astounding.

He tolerates the untolerable. From fumes to heat to the searing sun, this man is what every postal employee is not. He's the kind of person who would have run the original Marathon. Although I like physical labor, enjoy the outdoors, and don't mind working hard, you would have to pay me a pretty penny normally to get me to do what this man does. I suppose if the pay were high enough or if I lost my job I might because I have done so before, but not in the summertime in Las Vegas. I don't know how he does it.

He deserves a raise. If I could hire men like him to work for me all the time I would because I would know I was getting my money's worth.