Either Janet Napolitano is an idiot or she believes everyone else is either an idiot or a true believer.  It is that simple.  Today she did, somewhat, retract her statement that the system was working great in spite of the nearly successful terror bombing attempt of a NWA jet heading for Detroit.  ”The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days. Our system did not work in this instance.  No one is happy or satisfied with that.  An extensive review is under way.” Let’s see.  The terrorist bought a ticket with cash.  He had no luggage.  His father had warned authorities of his radicalization.  He was on a watch list.  He was not patted down?  Napolitano initially said that our system was working fine.  Then she started taking flak from right and left.  Neither she nor Mr. Obama could see their way free to call the terrorist anything but a suspect.  And, he will be charged with attempting to blow up a plane…..not trying to kill 300 people – attempted murder.  I thought I was conditioned to believe anything that our political ‘leaders’ could do.  Again I am in disbelief.  Do you think either Mr. Obama or Mrs Napolitano would at least call the guy a terrorist if one of their relatives had been on the plane?  Political Correctness caused us to not challenge Major Nidal Hassan and it cost us dearly.  Now political correctness has helped us let a bomber on a plane that could have cost 300 American lives.  What is it going to take for us to start profiling and doing those other “politically incorrect” but tactically correct moves to help defeat the terrorists?  Do we not have any leaders who are willing to confront this issue.  It is also interesting to note that our government has no problem persecuting Christians but wouldn’t dare look sideways at a Muslim.  I don’t want to see Muslims persecuted, but I do want some common sense.  As I heard recently from a private security type, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but, most terrorists are muslims.”  There is a interesting interview here with a retired American General that speaks bluntly to this point.

Read a wonderful thriller over the Christmas Weekend: Term Limits by Vince Flynn, written in 1997.  In brief, it is the story of a revolution against the government of the United States by a group of citizens who feel they are no longer represented by their government.  It is as timely today as it was then, maybe more so.  Here is the demand made by the  revolutionaries to tempt you to read the book:  “In 1776, the founders of the United States of America sent a Declaration of Independence to the King of England.  In that Declaration, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive….it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government.”  We are invoking this right to rise up and alter the course of our government.  You have had your chance to correct America’s course, and you have failed.  Senator Fitzgerald, Congressman Koslowski and Senator Downs were killed as a warning to the President and the remaining members of the House and Senate. Your days of spending and partisan politics are over. During the last 25 years, you have spent money we do not have on federal programs we do not need.  Every year you have promised the American people that your number one priority is to cut spending and balance the budget.  Despite these promises the federal budget has continued to grow.  You have had the time and the opportunity to bring spending under control and you have done nothing.  You have shown that your own personal greed and the goals of your political parties are more important to you than the economic security and future of America.  As a result or your selfish and incompetent leadership, we are now burdened with a national debt that is more than five trillion dollars. A national debt that is growing at a rate of more than a billion dollars a day and is projected to …….If the national debt is not confronted,  it will plunge our country into economic chaos.  The time to act is now.  We are directing the President to withdraw his budget that is before the House (the Health Care Plan?), and with the help of the Office of Management and Budget and the General Accounting Office, to construct a balanced budget using zero-based budgeting.  This budget will contain no new or raised taxes and will cut all unneeded federal programs.  It will introduce means testing to control the growth of  Social Security and Medicare and will adopt the military cuts as proposed by the Joint Chiefs without political interference.  After this budget is passed, the President will submit a national crime bill that will focus on keeping violent criminals off the streets and in jail.  The President, the House, and the Senate shall also implement a two percent national sales tax to be used solely for the reduction of the national debt.  If you are incapable of restoring the limited form of government that the framers of the Constitution intended, quit and go home.  This is the only warning we will give.  If you do not respond to these demands, you will be killed. None of you are out of our reach – not even the President.” It is a real page-turner.  Highly recommended.

I also read the most recent articles in Imprimus.  I was impressed by one written by Victor Davis Hanson and titled “The Future of Western War.“ It is well worth a read.  It starts, “I want to talk about the Western way of war and about the particular challenges that face the West today. But the first point I want to make is that war is a human enterprise that will always be with us…….”  His take on warfare and the ever presence of both hawks and doves was interesting.  I guess it reminds me that wishing there were no wars or no terrorists or no bad people does not make them go away.  It is a quick read and, again, highly recommended.  You could go through the entire Imprimus Archives and not be disappointed with the thoughtfulness of the articles.

I have enjoyed writing this blog for the past year and a half and in particularly enjoyed meeting interesting and thoughtful people who read and comment.  Thanks to everyone who takes the time to occasionally read this blog.  I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

As I asked at Thanksgiving, please take a minute to send your thanks to our troops.  Whether you like what they are doing or not, they are still making sacrifices for you and me.  They deserve our respect and our thanks.  You can go to Xerox’s Let’s Say Thanks website and send a greeting.  It is fast and easy and can’t help but brighten the day of some of our troops.

I was awakened this morning at 3:30 a.m. by a faulty fire alarm at my home.  The noise was deafening, and, disorienting.  Entering the passcode did nothing.  I ended up having to remove the smoke/fire detector from the ceiling.  That did nothing to stop the noise so I ended up cutting a wire – all this while 125 decibels were ringing in my ears.

When I tried to go back to sleep for an hour until my regular alarm would go off, it was no use.  I laid in bed, my mind spinning from the noise, the surprise, and the relief that it was not due to a fire.  My thoughts kept going back to the Health Care issue and how the Democrats achieved a 60 vote total to pass the measure to the floor for a vote.  I kept thinking about a President who was again forcing a measure through to passage without allowing time for consideration, understanding, or debate.  That is the same President who promised on numerous occasions that every bill would be published on the internet for review and comment for five days before he would sign it. That is the same President who now rationalizes his (almost) every action today with the ‘end justifies the means’ excuse.

I kept thinking about Senator Ben Nelson who sold his soul for a few hundred million dollars.  I thought about the other 59 Senators who voted for a bill because of pressure or greed or power.  I don’t think one of them voted for it because they thought it would result in less expensive, more available, better managed health care services, as they had promised.  I thought of the Senate, a deliberative body, not deliberating the issue, but only the prizes each “yes vote” would bring and the punishment that would come with each “no vote.”  I was frustrated and am still.  I was disappointed and am still.  I was disgusted, and am still, at the lack of integrity and the lack of courage shown by most, if not all, of those who voted for this measure.

How could a Senator promise to make health care more affordable and then vote to make it more expensive?  How could a Senator claim to help reduce our deficit and then vote to spend more on pork to pass a bill that will increase the deficit?  When I think of rationalizing actions that a person knows to be wrong, I always think of Mr. Clinton saying he “…did not have sex with that woman…”   It must be easier to lie to yourself when you lie to the public on a regular basis.

I wonder if it might have helped to read each member of Congress a favorite poem.  Maybe one of them would have seen him or herself in the mirror and done the right thing.

The Man in the Glass  -  Author Unknown

When you get what you want in your struggles for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to a mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass,

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people might think you’re a straight-shooting chum

And call you a wonderful guy.

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest

For he’s with you clear to the end

And you’ve passed your most dangerous test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass

But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

Just back from a great vacation.  I was never once tempted to write a post.  I apologize for those few faithful who check this space often.  I will get back on a schedule of at least once a week with a real post.

Had a wonderful time visiting with both sons and daughters in law and both granddaughters (3 years and 8 weeks).  Reminded me how important family is and how unimportant so many things are in our lives that we do instead of appreciating family and friends.  Also had the chance to slow down and appreciate some of the beauty of nature.  The sunset shown above was one of many that helped me pause and reflect.

While gone, read a couple of books.  I can highly recommend Joel Salatin – Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal. (No, I don’t make anything from Amazon for this link.  I actually think you should get it from your local bookseller, but, you can see other reviews of it at this link).   It was given to me by a son and daughter in law who saw me persevere through a year of bureaucratic barriers to get permission to make and sell wine from the grapes we grow.  My story pales in the light of Salatin’s many and varied adventures.  If you are at all interested in the slow food movement or just like to eat good healthy food, you will be interested in this book.  It is not perfect and has a few too many rants for me, but was well worth the time.  He, at times, is very thoughtful, and makes some very good points.  The other book was a Grisham – The Associate.  Good Airplane book – fast read and fun.  Not his best, but better than whatever movie was playing on board.

Also met with good friends with whom we share a fondness for Kauai. Friend Marc is a musician.  He introduced us to Paul Togioka and we had a chance to hear him play.   He is possibly the finest slack key guitarist around. If you get the chance, listen to his album Here, There, and Everywhere.  You can hear him playing familiar things like Pacabel at his website.

Returned to great disappointment that it appears Congress will drive one more nail into our coffin by passing a bloated Health Care Bill that is sure to add another Trillion or so to our deficit.  More on that next week.

Mr. Obama was in top campaign form again last night.  It is a shame that he can’t seem to stop campaigning and start leading.

For those of you who doubt that the purpose of this speech was campaigning, please reflect on the following:

Hyping a speech for a week before it happens is done to create news, typically for an un-newsworthy event.  By toying with the press for a week, he has taken their attention off of the Health Care Debate.  This allows that effort to press on under the cover of darkness (or at least with minimum press scrutiny).

Setting a time line for withdrawal of forces based on the election calendar rather than on the achievement of goals is designed to effect an election, not to achieve battlefield or diplomatic success.  He had to reassure his anti-war base that he was going to withdraw troops before the next time they get to vote for him.

Speaking for 35 minutes in front of a national television audience is a way to take millions of dollars of free publicity.  If he really wanted to tell our enemy our strategy, which it appears he did, he could have merely made a press release.  In fact, he could have made his decision, in private, three months ago and been much more effective.

I wonder what the opposing coach would do if your coach made a speech to the crowd before the game saying, “After the first half is over, we will start playing our third string quarterback.  We all know he can’t pass, but don’t worry because we will have a big lead by then.”  My guess is that the opposing coach would burn the clock as much as he could to hasten the time when he would be playing against the third string.  I’m pretty sure that is what we saw last night.  What, You don’t think the Taliban would like to wait until they are fighting against an inferior Afghani military?

I’m saddened and worried that our President finds it more important to campaign than to run the affairs of state.

We are an interesting society.  We are open to new ideas like no society before us.

That is a good thing.  It means we welcome thoughts and ideas that challenge our daily assumptions.

It is also a bad thing.  It means that we are always challenging convention which leads to a fair amount of chaos.  If we don’t just accept what has gone on in the past as a good or correct thing, we are more willing to dump it for something new.

We also have insatiable desires.  Take for example housing.  Coming out of World War II, any GI returning home was hopeful after a few years back at work in the ‘real’ world, he might afford a small house or duplex.  A standard home then was about 700 to 800 square feet.  It probably had one bathroom and a carport.  Having a car was almost a need in many parts of the country and some families even had two.  Today, people with 2500 square foot homes have their sights set on a home of 4,000 to 5,000 square feet with a garage the size of houses in the 50’s, big enough to keep all four of the family’s cars out of the rain.  When I was in High School in Hawaii, I remember meeting tourists in their late 60’s and early 70’s, who were visiting from Iowa, and who had saved their entire lives for the opportunity to take a one week trip to paradise.  Today, kids on the West Coast think it is their right to have a two week vacation to Hawaii to celebrate graduation from high school.

The fact that we can so easily accept such an inflation of housing, transportation, or recreation “needs” indicates that we are quick to assume that it is our right to have this much.  If our parents had to work for 20 years to save the down payment on a house, we see it as our right to have a house, now.

As a society, we take for granted that we can own houses and cars and take trips without paying our dues.  Not many folks are interested in months or years of hard work to regain their health.  They want a pill to fix their ills….now.

What does all this have to do with anything?  Well, I think our feeling of entitlement, our need for instant gratification, it all makes us very susceptible to all sorts of cons and schemes.  Witness the number of folks who fell for Bernie Madoff’s Scheme.  The desire for ‘more’ blinded them to the incongruity of investment returns at four times what the market was producing for most investors.

Today, I contend that our politicians are using our propensity toward instant gratification to gain power from and over us.  Adults in Detroit who were interviewed  actually believed that Mr. Obama was going to give them money and better houses, etc.  Now we have a Congress trying to convince us that we can tax and spend ourselves to prosperity, and, large numbers are buying it.

We are being exploited by politicians who want power and who know that we want solutions, at no cost to us, and now.  Want the economy revived?  Just have government make lots of transfer payments that put money in our pockets, no worry that someone else is being taxed to provide that money.  Want to pay less for health care?  Let our government provide it for free.  It doesn’t matter that our grandchildren will pay for it.  We deserve it.  Not comfortable seeing homeless people or indigents waiting at an Emergency Room to be seen for flu symptoms?  No problem.  Our government can end homelessness and provide healthcare to all.  We will vote for this as long as the ‘other guy’ has to pay.

How long will it take until we learn the truth in Gerald For’s famous quote, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”

or

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to A. F. Tytler)

Do we really need to spend $1 Trillion over the next 10 years to “fix” our country’s health care system?  Do we really need to have our Congress pass laws to do this tomorrow?

P. J. O’Rourke said it right when he suggested that ““Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”

Planestupid is a group dedicated to showing that human caused global warming is, in large part, caused by aircraft travel.

Where to start?

The revelations this week confirming many of the conspiratorial aspects of Al Gore’s Religion, Global Warming, raise a number of questions.

Should we trust scientists or the U.N.? —  It appears that many scientists were willing to shape experiments and data to fit their needs.  They also seems to be quite apt at using peer pressure to silence those who disagreed with their global warming mantra.  As such, many have proven to be untrustworthy.  It also appears that the U.N. did much the same thing by silencing descenters.  Trusting the U.N. has always been unwise but it now appears that to increase funding and gain more control over more people, the U.N. has again misled us.

Does Global Warming Exist? I don’t know.  I’m guessing that you don’t either.  It does appear that we all need to go back and actually study data and how it was obtained rather than choosing a political agenda and finding statistical data to support how we feel.

Is the use of carbon fuels by humans the cause of climate change? My guess is that it has an effect. I also guess that the effect is much smaller than we have been led to believe.  I continue to wonder about events like the Krakatoa Eruption o f ‘83.  If scientific estimates of the 1883 eruption are correct, it was over 10,000 times the destructive force of the Nuclear bomb detonated at Hiroshima.  Did it have an effect on global warming?  How big an effect compared to today’s use of carbon fuels?

How similar are the results of the campaigns to promote the Y2K disasters and the Global Warming disaster? A lot of people made a lot of money on the Y2K scare.  They sold computer upgrades, new programs, insurance, and you-name-it.  Many of these people did what they could to stir the pot and create the panic preceding Y2K.  My guess is that Al Gore has made a lot of money on global warming.  I know he has done a lot to promote it.  I think the similarity is great.  The difference is that we learned the falsehoods of the fear mongers on Y2K at shortly after midnight on January 1, 2000.  If Human Caused Global Warming is real and is as bad as Mr. Gore would have you believe, it will be too late to change our ways by the time we find out the truth.

We could get much closer to the truth if the U.N., many “scientists”, and all those who benefit from the fear of global warming would be honest.   This week’s revelations may help move us to more of the truth.

What should we do?

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I’m in a particularly poor mood today.  I see that Mr. Reid is hell bent on getting his disastrous power grab bill to the Senate Floor this weekend.  I see that Olympia Snow is willing (again) to sell her soul and to sell out her constituents just to grab a little power in exchange for a vote.  It makes me wonder why our elected officials seem unwilling to take on the important issues of the day but have lots of time to play politics.  Apologies in advance if this post is a bit less civil than my usual.

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Pretend you are a Member of Congress, or a Senator, or the President.  There are lots of important issues for you to consider.

Quick.  Chose one of the following and make it priority 1 (one).  Once you have that, pick number 2 (two), then 3 (three) and so forth.

Education Reform

Energy Supply and Self Sufficiency

Economy – jobs

National Security

National Debt

Healthcare Reform

Environmental Policy

National Basketball League Salaries

Race Relations

National Infrastructure issues

Communications security

Where does Healthcare reform fall on your list?

Now tell me if Congress and the President have their priorities right.  Below are a few comments on some of the issues our government is concerned with today:

Health Care Reform - proposed cost (most analysts say this is VERY optimistic) $100 Billion per year more than now ($420 Billion for Medicare, $216 Billion for Medicaid) and will cover an additional 20 to 30 million people.

Medicare currently covers about 35 million people for an annual budget of about $420 Billion.  that means we spend about $12,000 per person covered.  That also means we are being asked to believe that a government healthcare option will cover 30 Million people for around $100 Billion a year, less than one third what the government pays now for each person covered by Medicare or $3,350 per person per year.

Energy Research and Development - Current Energy Department Budget is around $25 Billion total.  Does this mean that our government, for all its protests about gaining energy self-sufficiency, is about 30 times as concerned about health care as it is about energy (read ‘or about the economy’)?

Jobs were supposed to be created by injecting a Trillion dollars into our economy via the Recovery Act.  It looks to me like some of that money could have better been used to hire some people to run the Recovery.Gov website who could read and write.

Our National Debt is now in the ballpark of $12 Trillion.  That is just shy of our Gross Domestic Product of $14 Trillion.  Borrowing and spending at the rate of the first 10 months of the current government indicates a doubling of our National Debt in the next 5 to 7 years.  Does this not trouble Congress or the White House, or You?  How are you going to pay the $40,000 that you owe?  Or the $40,000 that your wife owes?  Of the $40,000 for each of your kids?

Are you as concerned about the Environment as our Congress?  When was the last time you heard anything come out of Washington about the safety of our water supply?  Our food supply?  How about Air Polution?  Do these things have anything to do with the health of our population?  Are they addressed in our ‘Health Care Reform” legislation which is pending?

What about National Security?  Are we more or less likely to suffer another 9-11 type attack today than we have been over the past half dozen years?  Are you at all concerned about the Taliban taking over Pakistan or at least gaining access to one of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons?  I am.  Does it make sense that the President is doing nothing to lead our armed forces and diplomatic service to resolve this problem?  For a candidate who said his predecessor was doing everything wrong (and was not concentrating on Afghanistan which was the war we should be fighting), to be 10+ months into his Presidency and to have done nothing to indicate he wants to lead us in this vital area strikes me as either cowardice or incompetence.

Education is a hot topic.  Are we losing the ‘battle of the mind’ to Asian countries?  Are we ignoring our most valuable resource, our children?  Is education something that should be left to the states?  Our Congress doesn’t seem to care since it seems to only have time for health care reform legislation.  I guess they must since their leader says, “….health care is the single most important thing we can do for America’s long-term fiscal health. That is a fact. That’s a fact.”  B.H. Obama to the AMA, June, 2009

In my not-so-humble opinion, the only thing that makes Health Care rise to the top of Mr. Obama’s agenda and Mr. Reid’s and Mrs. Pelosi’s is political power.  What you think is important is unimportant to them.  Health care reform is their ticket to even more power and control.  Little things like jobs and national security will take a back seat until they have their Health Care Reform (read power).

Have you called or written to your Senators to let them know how you feel?  They need to know.

The Obama Administration is hell bent on imposing some health care reform legislation on us.  I am convinced it will be the beginning of the end of the U.S. medical system that is the envy of the world.  What do I mean by that?  I mean that doctors all over the world look up to the medical innovation and the quality (not necessarily the delivery) of health care available in the USA.  I mean that when someone of means outside of the US gets sick or has a major medical problem, they want to go to the U.S. or have a U.S. team come to “fix them.”  When you have the freedom, when you are not controlled (completely) by government bureaucracy, you can take the risks needed to come up with the innovations that have driven most medical advances.  When you are paid a wage and have regular hours, your motivations change.  You get what they have in most European countries today which is an order of magnitude less than we have here in innovation.  You get a dwindling supply of doctors.  How many will be willing to go through all the hoops, the study, etc. to take a job that pays less than a medical equipment salesperson?

Okay.  I think you get the idea that I don’t like what Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Reid and Mr. Obama are trying desperately to push down our throats.  If you still have doubts, see my other posts, here1, here2, and here3.

Now, about “going forward without a vote.”  It is not enough that the President and Congress are pushing with all their might.  Now they are imposing their plan for Health Care Rationing on us without our input and without legislation.  The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government panel that issues federal recommendations on preventive medicine, said that screening in a woman’s 40s does not save many lives and can do more harm than good.  Though this is just a recommendation, not law, it will lead insurers to write policies that follow the recommendation.  That means you will not get the procedure paid for in your 40s or but once each 24 months in your 50s and 60s.  In other words, since you will not be covered by your insurance for Mammograms except according to this Federal Recommendation, the effect is that Mammograms have been rationed by the Federal Government.

With the makeup of the USPSTF being mostly academics, I make the assumption they are more liberal than conservative and as such will back the aggressive “reform” program sought by the current administration.  To me this means that this is just the first step in Government Rationing.

Who needs Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi?

Xerox has a wonderful program that sends cards to our troops.  It is very easy.  Just go to the Let’s Say Thanks Webpage and choose a card and a greeting.  If you read the feedback that is on the site, you will understand how helpful this simple gesture is.  If you have a blog, post this.  If not, send it on to your address list.  Someone who is away from his or her family at the Holidays will appreciate your efforts.  Thank you.