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The Thoughts, Ramblings, and Ideas of a Conservative There are some things in my life that I am very passionate about, like my wife and kids, my right to “keep and bear arms”, and my right to worship my God when, where and how I choose to worship him. As you might gather from this information, I am politically conservative in my views. While I am a registered Republican, I don’t always agree with the party line. I vote according to what MY beliefs are, but I don’t vote for someone based on a single issue. I want to use this page to just write down my thoughts on different issues. I’m not asking you to agree with these thoughts. If you don’t like what you are reading...then stop reading! So, here we go. SPECIAL POSTING! March 16, 2010 With regard to the Health Care Bill (HCB) that is currently being pushed by Obama and the Democrat party.... I can hardly believe what is happening with this HCB. It is bad enough that Obama and the far-left don’t seem to care that the vast majority of Americans do NOT want this bill....It is bad enough that the bill itself is flawed beyond all reason and would serve to do great harm to our country’s financial security. It is bad enough that passage of this bill would do more harm than good to the medical care of our citizens. It is bad enough that passage of this bill would give untold and unprecedented power to the federal government, power they aren’t supposed to have...power they should never have. But regardless of whether or not you like this bill, regardless of whether or not you think this bill is needed, regardless of whether or not you think everything I’ve said here is wrong...the fact that some of our elected officials are resorting to trickery and bribery, using political procedures that were never meant for this type of bill, namely the Slaughter rule where a vote doesn’t even have to be taken, or the reconciliation option where they only need 51 votes to pass the HCB.
The Second Amendment A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Although the interpretation of this amendment has been discussed for a long time, the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) gave gun owners the clarification they had been looking for. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment “protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” The Court also said “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on long standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.” My thoughts on this subject are very simple. I have a right, even a duty, given to me by God to protect myself and those around me from harm. The Second Amendment simply affirms that right. I practice that right every day, and will use whatever means necessary to defend myself and those around me from harm. Very simple.
The First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Again, my thoughts on this are simple. This beginning section of this Amendment was put in place to keep our President, our Congress, our leaders...from telling us what religion we all had to believe in, not to mention how, when and where we could practice that religion, or for that matter if we had to practice any religion at all! There is nothing in this Amendment that gives the Government the right to keep us from praying or reading our Bible when and where we choose to. In fact it prohibits the Government from doing so. For years now there have been groups like the ACLU and atheist organizations who have brought lawsuits against, for example, teachers who have chosen to read their Bible during their lunch break, when the students are not even in the classroom...Or schools that would have someone say a prayer at some time during their graduation ceremonies. I remember the story of a Judge who had the Ten Commandments on the wall in his courtroom, and if I remember correctly, the Judge lost his job because he refused to take them down! Our very own Congress has a prayer spoken before each of their meetings. I can’t help but wonder why they are allowed to do this, but the rest of us are not. The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of two “anonymous” students because two adults at the school were conducting some type of religious meeting on school property, even though there weren’t any students anywhere near the area where this “meeting” was being held. This is, at the very least, infringing on the right of free speech for these two adults. Not so much because the ACLU is filing this lawsuit, but more so because our Government and our Courts allow these types of lawsuits to be heard. If the ACLU and other organizations don’t like us being able to pray or read our Bibles in certain places, they have the right of free speech to complain about it. Our Government, however, does NOT have the right to keep us from practicing our religion whenever, wherever and however we choose to do so. When our Courts rule in favor of the ACLU and other organizations in these types of cases, they are effectively “prohibiting the free exercise” of our religious beliefs.
Global Warming/Climate Change “The warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences.” --- “The good news is we know what to do. The good news is, we have everything we need now to respond to the challenge of global warming. We have all the technologies we need, more are being developed, and as they become available and become more affordable when produced in scale, they will make it easier to respond. But we should not wait, we cannot wait, we must not wait.” AL GORE, speech at National Sierra Club Convention, Sept. 9, 2005 Okay...so first of all, Al Gore is a complete nut bag about this stuff. Have we been having some changes in the climate? Sure we have. Are they being caused by mankind’s reckless abuse of our planet’s resources? Of course they aren’t! The Global Warming/ Climate Change crowd would have us believe that due to the pollution our cars and factories etc. have been spewing out over the past several decades, that our temperatures are getting substantially warmer, huge storms are going to reek havoc on the world. Even John McCain, a quasi Republican, said in a speech he gave on May 12, 2008, said: “We have many advantages in the fight against global warming, but time is not one of them. Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming, or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters, and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring. We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge.” The folks who adamantly believe that our planet is doomed because of Global Warming will probably never be convinced otherwise. One of the greatest things I’ve seen that debunk this whole man caused Global Warming myth is this document called Nine Lies About Global Warming. It makes for some great reading and is very informative, should you still be on the fence about all of this. Personally, I’m hoping that all of these folks with nice beach front property are so scared about the oceans rising and their properties flooding, that all of a sudden we’ll be able to buy some beach front property in Florida for pennies on the dollar. I’m just sayin..... By the way...one other thing I need to mention has to do with the laws they’ve passed, or are trying to pass, regarding these CFL Light bulbs. You know, the ones that have the little curly-cue lamp instead of the regular bulb? Are you aware of how dangerous these things are? Each one of these CFL bulbs have mercury in them. There are actually hazardous-material warnings about these light bulbs that say if one should break in your house, you are supposed to evacuate your home, and have experts come in and clean the stuff up! Here is a quote from one Web site I found: “CFLs contain an average of 5 mg (range of 0.9 to 18 mg) of mercury. Breaking a single CFL bulb in a room can result in mercury vapor levels 300 times in excess of what the EPA has established as safe for prolonged exposure. Serious health effects are associated with mercury exposure. Unborn and young children, elderly and those with weakened health are particularly vulnerable. Mercury affects the nervous system. Neuro-pathways of children are still developing and exposure can result in permanent damage.” Well, isn’t that just lovely! To read more about what you have to do to clean up this mess, go read what the EPA has to say. You’ll find information like:
The Global Warming Nuts (herein known as the GWN or Nuts for short) want us to reduce our carbon footprint, a totally made up saying that deals with the amount of carbon dioxide we are all putting into the atmosphere which is, of course, what it causing all of this global warming in the first place. Let me refer you back to the Nine Lies About Global Warming article I mentioned earlier. The first Lie they tackle is the one about Carbon Dioxide and they bring up this point: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic gas which is essential to all life on earth. (Carbon monoxide, however, is extremely toxic and, if inhaled, will cause death very quickly.) All green vegetation requires carbon dioxide as plant food, and the process of photosynthesis, in which plants take in carbon dioxide, absorb solar radiation, store the carbon and emit oxygen, is basic to life. As concentrations of carbon dioxide increase, the rates of growth of plants also increase. Flowers and vegetables grown in hothouses are frequently fed with extra carbon dioxide for faster growth and higher yields. As atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased from approximately 325 ppmv (parts per million by volume) in 1970 to 375 ppmv today, wheat yields in Australia have increased in the last 30 years, in part because of CO2 enrichment. There is much more to this part of the story. Take the time to read this article and get the other side of the story that you are bombarded with every day on the news.
Government Run Healthcare Wow! What a hot topic of conversation this has turned out to be! As most of you know, or have heard, there are evidently many of our elected officials in Congress who have yet to read the entire bill that they are trying to vote on. Now, I must admit that in a way I can understand that, because this thing is 1017 pages long! I started reading through it yesterday and got to Page 70 before I started nodding off. Most of the language in this bill, known as HR 3200 or “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009”, is very legalistic and unless you are schooled in legalese you are going to have a hard time understanding or translating what they exactly mean. My biggest problem with this bill, is the concept of the bill itself. There are many countries around the world who have a system like this already in place...and I don’t know of a single one of them that has been successful. Why would we, as Americans, even be thinking about having our Government running our healthcare system? Does our healthcare system need some reforms? Sure it does. Do Americans get charged way too much money for the healthcare we currently receive? Sure we do. Most of us also feel we get charged way too much at the gas station too, but is Congress doing anything about that? Not really. One of the things about living in a capitalist society is that businesses can charge whatever they want to for their products. The general public, however, is able to regulate what those businesses will charge. We regulate that by simply not purchasing goods or services from those businesses who we feel are charging too much. I realize that the answer is not necessarily that simple, but that is the basic rule of capitalism. Capitalism is defined as follows: “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.” Socialism is quite different. The dictionary defines socialism as: Does that not scare the crap out of anyone but me? The first definition talks about the “production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. Do the words “redistribution of wealth” mean anything to you? We all pay taxes to our government, so in essence the redistribution of wealth is already taking place. Think about it with these examples: First of all, I mean no disrespect to “John” or anyone who may currently be in John’s shoes. I’ve been there myself and I know it’s not easy or fun. The point I am trying to make is that Joe, and especially Bill, are the ones paying for John’s needs. So that is where we already have a redistribution of wealth. Those who make more money, pay more in taxes, and those taxes fund the programs that make it possible for John to only work part-time, only pay part of - or get a reduced price on - his medical bills, and they pay for the subsidies that allow John to live in an apartment for substantially less than what it would cost most other people. In my mind, if our Congress passes ANY form of Government run health care, we are going to be moving more and more toward a socialist society. As it states in definition #3: Socialism is the “stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism...” Our government was formed with the idea that THEY work for US. THEY are supposed to be doing what the majority of US want them to do. We are supposed to have control over our lives, not some mindless bureaucrat in D.C. I have to share this...one of the definitions of a bureaucrat is: “an official who works by fixed routine without exercising intelligent judgment.” I got that straight off of Dictionary.com so I’m not just making this stuff up! There is a document here that serves as an analysis of HR 3200. While I am not seeing some of the things this analysis points out, here are some of the main things that bother me about HR 3200, and they are: Pg 145 Line 15-17 An employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE (while I am not seeing exactly what this analysis shows, there are parts going on to page 147-148 that are indeed scary) As I sort through all of the 1017 pages of this monster, I will post things on here that you too should be worried about. One part that I am specifically looking for is where it talks about, if you currently have insurance and for whatever reason you lose that insurance; e.g., you change jobs, you change your plan to another insurance company, you lose your job, you are currently covered on your spouse’s insurance, but drop that coverage because it is cheaper for you to buy insurance through the company you now work for (which is the situation I am currently in) that you will NOT be able to go to another insurance plan, you will be forced to then get insurance through the government run plan. Has anyone located this part? If so, please let me know. I am very concerned about this particular part because if it is true that people will be forced to become part of the government plan, that not only spells disaster for each of us that are dragged kicking and screaming into a system we don’t want any part of... it will also be the death of insurance companies in America. Little by little people will be given no choice about joining the socialized health care system, and little by little the insurance companies will lose their customers, have to lay people off, they’ll probably be forced to raise their rates (if the government will let them that is) and you can see how far down the hill this snowball is going to roll. Eventually they’ll all be out of business and the government will be the ONLY health care system we’ll be able to use. And as I mentioned before, if you choose NOT to use the government plan and you do not having acceptable health care according to the government, you will be taxed an extra 2.5% on your income for not acquiescing to their wishes. Hey, they said you would still have a choice, right?
The IRS and Taxes I think most of you would agree that our tax system is seriously flawed. While we have it a lot better in our country than most other countries, we are still getting screwed pretty good by our government when it comes to our taxes. We not only pay taxes on our income, we also pay taxes on most everything we buy, we pay taxes if we get lucky and win the lottery, we pay taxes if we are smart investors and make money in the stock market, we pay taxes if a loved one dies and leaves us part of their estate, we pay taxes on our personal property/real estate, and then we pay even more taxes if we sell that real estate. We get taxed to death in this country! The more you make, the more you pay in taxes. The part that really gets me is that you are paying more percentage wise though...not just more because you made more. Know what I mean? If Bob makes $30,000 a year and only pays 17% in taxes, why does Bill - who makes $150,000, have to pay 25% in taxes? Why is our tax code so completely screwed up that it takes a CPA with a Master’s Degree to understand it? Thank God we have things like TurboTax or otherwise most of us would be totally lost when it comes to filing our taxes. Personally, I think we should be on a flat tax system. Everyone pays the same percentage. I seem to think that 17% is a pretty good and reasonable number. So here’s how it would work. During the year, every time you get a paycheck, 17% is automatically taken out. You don’t have to file your taxes at the end of the year, there are no deductions, no loopholes, no credit for mortgage interest etc... for ANYONE! The Fed would save so much money on payroll alone after they basically abolish the IRS, that it would cut our deficit by billions. Granted, there would be a lot of people who would have to find new jobs, but it annoys me to no end that my taxes are paying them to keep track of my taxes! I don’t need them to keep track of my taxes, they’ve already been paid. I don’t know how many people the IRS employs, not to mention all of the businesses like TurboTax, and other tax filing agencies, but why should I have to pay someone to figure out how much tax I owe, then to do the paperwork so I can file my taxes, and then have a bunch of people getting paid by my tax dollars to keep track of me paying my taxes...only to have my heirs pay more taxes on the money I’ve already paid taxes on several times... when I’m dead? Our tax system definitely needs an overhaul. I’d rather they were working on this problem, instead of trying to convince me that they can properly run another behemoth agency dealing with health care.
Term Limits for Congress This is definitely something that needs to be put in place. I truly believe that the majority of the corruption that has taken hold in Washington D.C. is directly related to Congressmen and women being able to almost have a lifetime job. Think of some of the people who have been there forever, like Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and yes there are Republicans who have been on the hill way too long as well. John McCain, even though I voted for him for President, (actually I was voting for Sarah Palin and hoping she would take over shortly after they moved into the White House) he has been in Congress for too many years! I believe our elected officials in Congress should be limited to 8 years in office. I realize that we, the voting public, can make their stay in office even shorter, but I think we would be better served if we mixed things up a bit more often than we currently do. This is not a new idea of course. Term limits for Congress has been suggested and bandied about for several years. Not too long ago, such politically diverse figures as Ed Koch, Doug Wilder, Ralph Nader, Paul Tsongas, and George Will supported term limits; over 100 Members of Congress signed a discharge petition to force a vote in the House of Representatives on a constitutional amendment regarding term limits. There is a very telling article about Term Limits here. Congress’s job approval ratings have been in the tank for years. It currently sits at around 30%. Only 30% of people in these polls think Congress is doing a good job! My first thought, is who are these 30% and what are they smoking if they think Congress is doing a good job. My second thought is, if only 30% of Americans think Congress is doing a good job, then why do we keep voting these people back into office? I believe there are at least two reasons this keeps happening. The first one is voter apathy. Over the past several years, even decades, people have become less and less enthused about the political process in our country. Voter turn outs have been getting lower and lower, and some of the people who do vote, do so because they feel it’s their obligation (which it is by the way) but they don’t really know anything about the candidates other than, “oh yeah, I know that guy. He’s been in the office for awhile now, I’ll just vote for him again.” Honestly, if that is how you vote...please stop voting. Take the time to learn about the various candidates on the ballot, and then resume your voting. The second reason is the amount of money that some of these folks put in to winning an election. The salary for most run of the mill Congressmen pays around $174,000 and yet they’ll spend millions of dollars to win the election! I know, on the face of it that doesn’t make much sense does it? Well, the millions of dollars they spend are generally coming from political donations made by individuals and businesses supporting that particular candidate. Once in awhile you will have a candidate put a bunch of their own money into the campaign as well, but I’m betting that doesn’t happen very often. Many times a candidate will amass a small fortune from all of the contributions they receive, then they don’t win their election, but they still get to keep the money? Can that be right? When you get elected to Congress, you get quite a few benefits too. Far too much information about this to list on this site, so go here if you’d like to find out just what Congressmen/women get paid and what their benefits are. While you are there, take a look at what their Pension plan is like. Don’t you wish you had one like that? Upcoming Issues The Supreme Court and other Judges: Legislating from the bench based on political beliefs instead of the law Environmentalist’s and other wacko groups: Why are we letting minority factions run our country?
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