Illegal Immigrants and How to Not To Do Anything About It

I am a hoarder of information, documents, letters, email, etc. Today I was forced to dig into the my archives for information someone wants, someone who had it, but didn’t take care of it. Any who I digress. While digging into the ramparts of my OLD emails, I found this little gem, from May of […]

Scapegoat Politics…

Just some things rattling in my head this morning…. Today I see headlines about Marco Rubio being booed at a gathering to discuss the recent school shooting. Booed and pinned down to say yay or nay to the NRA, pinned down to say guns were responsible for the recent and past shootings. This is disturbing. […]

Postcards From the RNC, Robo Calls That Is!

I keep getting robo calls from the RNC…. They desperately need $75 from me to fight the biased media and drain the swamp. What?? That is roughly 1/12th of my total monthly income. I have no problem telling them I am living on Social Security and not much of that, but I’m talking to deaf […]

Government Intrusion Into Our Lives – Not What It Used to Be

The headline for this post is a little misleading.  Our government has not changed so much as our attitude toward our government.  I am a senior citizen and for as long as I can remember the mailman always read Dagwood Bumstead’s mail – well, the postcards anyway.  The mailman often had some snide remark about […]

The Gun Control Debate is no Longer About Guns

The vitriolic language from the far right over Second Amendment rights tells a story beyond the fear of losing the right to a thirty round clip in the favorite 9mm semi-automatic hand gun.  This debate is not about guns – this debate is about fear of government.  That is one way to say it – […]

Finding Meaning in the National Debate About Debt

We have had a major crisis in our house recently that started with a heated conversation about our budget, and I thought that I would share the events that led to our household meltdown so that we might learn from my mistakes and apply those lessons to our national debate about money. It was budget […]

The Short End of The Regulation Stick

The hard earned emotions of our life influence our thoughts.  They distract us from our initial purpose.   I often begin a post and when finished I have to change the title to reflect the actual post – the burr under my saddle led me off course.  Many of us have burrs under our saddles that […]

The Federal Government is BIG Because Locals Are Not Responsible

The big toot in the news today (and for the past forty year) has been anti-Big Government.  Ronald Reagan swept the electorate on his charge that ‘Government is the problem.’  We have to ask why.  Why has our Federal Government grown to such a behemoth?  The answer is really quite simple – it is because […]

“…Anger Can Blind Human Vision…” – Malcolm X

The Elijah Muhammad’s of 21st Century America are found in the right wing radio personalities and in the fringe of the Republican Party. People like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter, and the entire FOX media system. These are people who use distortion of reality to ferment, distill, and bottle the anger of misguided masses. They sell their potions of angry snake oil from the backs of their wagons every day. They have but one target – any form of civil progress as debated and negotiated by our representative Government.

Health Care Distortions by Conservatives

The Conservatives For Patients Rights (CPR) proudly defines four ‘pillars of patient’s rights.’   These rights are: Choice, Competition, Accountability, and Personal Responsibility.  This group defines the basic application of these rights in the following video.  We do not disagree with the four principles, but we take exception to the interpretation. Watch the video and we […]

The NRA Supports Mexican Drug Cartels

It is the law of unintended consequences at its most maddening extreme.  In their asinine attempt to keep all forms of arms available, with the least regulation or restriction, the Nation Rifle Association has made heavy weapons available to the Mexican Drug Cartels. We don’t have enough James Bonds around to control the bad guys. […]

Trust God, But Lock Your Car

The finger pointing has only just begun, and there is reason this is so.  People across this country have been devastated by the collapse of our economy.  The natural stages of grief have kicked in.  The initial stage is denial (John McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are sound).  Denial is followed quickly by […]

Politics of Racism, 1903, 1968, 1988, 2009

I collect political memorabilia. As I looked through my junk last night I realized how much we have changed.

I have a George Wallace neck tie from his 1968 run at the Presidency. It is a thin white tie with bold red letters horizontally positioned that reads Wallace ’68. Twenty years ago I attached a campaign button to the Wallace tie – it reads Jesse Jackson ’88.

Is Bailling Out the Big Three Like Bailing Out Your Neighbor?

The Senate yesterday failed to reach an agreement on the bailout package for the auto industry, meaning that it will probably be January before the industry can get any help.  This is something that is being “cussed and discussed,” as my grandfather would have said, in many circles.  Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is […]

Detroit Bailout – an Ethical Conundrum

This writer has often defined self as being an economic conservative and a social liberal.  Normally there is not much conflict in that ideology.  I will help my neighbor as long as I don’t have to borrow money in the endeavor.  I will not enable my neighbor to continue poor behavior by bailing him out […]

Trust God, But Lock Your Car

The Federal Government of the past eight years reminded this writer of an old computer axiom – we can now make a million mistakes a minute. In 1972 I worked in the world of finance with an IBM 370, Model 145 – one of those mainframe computers with a front panel of flashing white, yellow, […]

Democrats are Complicit in Economic Collapse

Democrats and Republicans mixed the Perfect Economic Storm.  A big part of the collapse of Wall Street should rightly be put at the feet of the Wall Street Bankers.  These are the ‘experts’ who were charged with managing the bank’s resources.  Our government sanctioned lunacy in the banking industry – but that does not excuse […]

McCain’s Problematic Use of ‘Naive’

John McCain likes to refer to Barack Obama as being naive, always in the context of foreign policy.  McCain says Obama is naive about Iraq, about Russia, about terrorists.  But McCain should be careful with this word.  John McCain has championed deregulation for rich bankers and Big Oil – with the belief that these folks […]

The Real McCain – The Keating Five

John McCain has desperately floundered this week to adopt a meaningful policy to deal with the economy.  He changes his position two or three times every day.  As if this were not enough to violate our trust, his entire history is one of catering to exactly the sort of people who have crashed Wall Street.  […]

Tony Soprano is Running Wall Street

The Bush Administration has made Wall Street an offer they can’t refuse.  Suck the life out of the company, siphoning money from the investing middle class, then we will tax the middle class to bail you out. The movies have had great material with organized crime.  The rage began with The Godfather, continued with Goodfellas, […]

Eroding Deliberative Democracy

The United States of America is a Republic.  From Wikipedia: The word originates from the Latin term res publica, which literally translates as “public thing” or “public matter”.  The idea resides in a representative form of government.  The people elect one of their own to represent them in the government.  Deliberative Democracy is a form […]

Mortgage Crisis – the Case For Regulations

This writer is a fiscal conservative who believes THE GOVERNMENT should simply do their job.  Partisan politics shake out like this – The Democrats act like the Government is the mission – and the Republicans think the Government has no mission.  They are both frustratingly wrong.  The Bush Administration’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is leading […]

Jon Stewart gives pointers to Ron Paul

Son, Ron Paul did the now required appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. Jon Stewart was not only gracious but offered some sage advice on managing the other candidates during the debates. They had a civil conversation. Mr. Paul presented well – to my surprise. Mr. Paul noted that the other candidates are not very […]

Moral Economics

Son, We in this country are on the verge of a recession. I see two realities in this prediction – one is an academic understanding of economics – the other is the real human disaster of poverty and despair. I’ll speak first to economics – it is important to understand some basic principles. A recession […]

Grief – an Emotional Response to the Economy

Son, I am suffering the stock market drop. My portfolio for retirement has been devastated. The emotion is gripping. As I pondered my own reaction I realized that I am suffering a grief response. This is not an academic discussion – people across America are suffering the grief of real loss. So what is Grief? […]