I won't go into details- not because you don't want to hear them but because I don't want to go into them. But I've made the biggest mistake of my life, even greater than leaving USAFA and giving up my free, guaranteed education and place in the military. I had to think about that for a few minutes to make sure about my position on that thought, but its true.
I finally cried today. I kinda feel relieved now.
Hopefully the way to go is up now.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Welcome to the Socialist States of Amerika, Comrade!
Here it comes.
This is the beginning of the end of American freedom.
This post is really aimed at the masses of people who voted for Obama, but I don't mind if everyone else who has a head on their shoulders listens in.
Have you ever wondered why America is the economic powerhouse of the world? Why American consumers are the ones who drive the world's economy? (And by extension, when our economy suffers, the whole world's economy suffers?)
Because we let our people keep the money they make. America has one of the lowest income taxes in the world- and according to the Tax Foundation, 32% of Americans don't even pay an income tax- they likely pay it, of course, but get it all back when they file their tax forms.
Think about it. When people get to keep more of their money, they get to spend more of their money how they want to. And we do. Let's face it, American consumerism drives our economy, and it's the exact reason why our economy is so powerful worldwide. It's why people from all over the world want to come to America to start their own businesses, to live the American dream- because the rest of the world taxes their people and businesses up to 70%. Imagine how hard it would be to live on your $20,000 a year income if you were only able to keep $6,000 of it. (The above income figure is not meant as an insult; at the moment, I'm making less than you.)
Obama has been quoted as wanting to "redistribute the wealth". He wants to take money from the people who have lots of it, and put it into governmental programs for the poor of America. The problem with redistributing wealth, ie, giving money and programs to poor people, is that it locks them into dependency on those programs- and they make no effort to better themselves, because, lets face it, they don't have to. They're getting taken care of and paid to be poor.
African American economist Thomas Sowell stated in 2004, "The black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life."
America spends more than one trillion dollars every year on total benefits to the poorest one-fifth of America. To quote Right Truth:
To put it all together: America leads the world economy because we're not Socialists. We don't tax our people up to 70% like the Socialists in Europe. And don't come crying to me when your income tax shoots up, and you watch it pay for a whole host of new programs for the poor in America, and our economy suffers due to high-end companies leaving America to other places in the world where they're not taxed as much- leaving little but minimum-wage service sector jobs in America.
Dirty spiral.
I hope the Democrats who'll be in control of the Senate, and, possibly, the House, aren't nearly as left-leaning as our President-elect. I hope they'll have the intelligence to know where that Socialistic road will take them.
But, as for me, my hope for a positive change has died.
This is the beginning of the end of American freedom.
This post is really aimed at the masses of people who voted for Obama, but I don't mind if everyone else who has a head on their shoulders listens in.
Have you ever wondered why America is the economic powerhouse of the world? Why American consumers are the ones who drive the world's economy? (And by extension, when our economy suffers, the whole world's economy suffers?)
Because we let our people keep the money they make. America has one of the lowest income taxes in the world- and according to the Tax Foundation, 32% of Americans don't even pay an income tax- they likely pay it, of course, but get it all back when they file their tax forms.
Think about it. When people get to keep more of their money, they get to spend more of their money how they want to. And we do. Let's face it, American consumerism drives our economy, and it's the exact reason why our economy is so powerful worldwide. It's why people from all over the world want to come to America to start their own businesses, to live the American dream- because the rest of the world taxes their people and businesses up to 70%. Imagine how hard it would be to live on your $20,000 a year income if you were only able to keep $6,000 of it. (The above income figure is not meant as an insult; at the moment, I'm making less than you.)
Obama has been quoted as wanting to "redistribute the wealth". He wants to take money from the people who have lots of it, and put it into governmental programs for the poor of America. The problem with redistributing wealth, ie, giving money and programs to poor people, is that it locks them into dependency on those programs- and they make no effort to better themselves, because, lets face it, they don't have to. They're getting taken care of and paid to be poor.
African American economist Thomas Sowell stated in 2004, "The black family, which had survived centuries of slavery and discrimination, began rapidly disintegrating in the liberal welfare state that subsidized unwed pregnancy and changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life."
America spends more than one trillion dollars every year on total benefits to the poorest one-fifth of America. To quote Right Truth:
Here's another eye-opener. When rich people have money to spend, they spend it in order to make more money. Translation: They conduct business, which means they open new businesses, create jobs, create wealth, drive the economy, make things better for everyone. And, conversely, when we try to take money away from rich people, they find ways to hold onto it, to hide it. And that also means they're not using it to create more wealth... which means they're not out there conducting business and creating jobs.
"To put a trillion dollars in perspective, it’s more than twice our total spending on national defense.
It’s larger than the total revenue collected by the federal individual income tax.
It’s about ten times as much as we spent on redistributive policies in the 1950s (in inflation-adjusted dollars).
It’s equal to the total before-tax cash income of middle-income households. That’s right, we transfer to the low-income population an amount equal to the entire income of middle-income households, that is, households in the middle fifth (40th to 60th percentile) of the American income distribution.
If a trillion dollars were simply given to those counted as poor by the federal government (37 million in 2005), it would amount to $27,000 per person. That’s $81,000 for a family of three, higher than the median income of all American families, and far greater than the poverty threshold of $15,577."
To put it all together: America leads the world economy because we're not Socialists. We don't tax our people up to 70% like the Socialists in Europe. And don't come crying to me when your income tax shoots up, and you watch it pay for a whole host of new programs for the poor in America, and our economy suffers due to high-end companies leaving America to other places in the world where they're not taxed as much- leaving little but minimum-wage service sector jobs in America.
Dirty spiral.
I hope the Democrats who'll be in control of the Senate, and, possibly, the House, aren't nearly as left-leaning as our President-elect. I hope they'll have the intelligence to know where that Socialistic road will take them.
But, as for me, my hope for a positive change has died.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Check this site out. They've got a story about the Empire State building, newly the tallest building in New York (after the two tallest were destroyed 7 years ago), being bathed in the color of the religion that made sure the Empire State Building would be the tallest building.
Monday, September 29, 2008
This Broken Bailout of Ours
Hallelujah!
Voted down, and a damn good thing too. This is a prime example for the reason why I picked the name I did for my blog.
Here's the root of the problem. Bad economic decisions in our modern banking industry (I refuse to call them "institutions" like the media seems to love doing - they are not "institutions" that we must simply keep afloat. They're businesses.) stretch back to at least the 1970's where the savings & loans started to go under. Laws passed in 1980 apparently made it acceptable for them to be increasingly loose with their money, and in the following decade we had a savings & loan meltdown. Lets notice the trend starting here: government got involved in business, and the market failed. In 1989, the government formed the Resolution Trust Corporation to help these companies get rid of their "toxic" investments, and a significant portion of this was funded with taxpayer dollars. Notice anything similar about what's happening today?
So the real meat of the problem here is that these companies feel safer since the door has been thrown wide open for government bailouts of bad financial decisions. The very same people who made these bad decisions are screaming for the bailout to happen, to avoid an economic "meltdown". Yeah, sure, let's bail you out so you can run away with your golden parachute. The man who took over as CEO for WaMu recently worked a whole 17 days before the company failed, and he received a $20 million payment. Let's not forget Stanley O'Neal, the former Merill Lynch CEO until 2007, left with $161 million.
The logic simply fails. These companies, whose business it was to loan money and make money on those investments, failed. They made bad investments, and now they're in financial trouble. The argument for the bailout is that the people of this country and their businesses won't be able to get home loans, car loans, student loans, business loans, because the institutions that loan money don't know how much they can loan. . . So we need to give them taxpayer money so that they can loan more money. They're in trouble because they made bad decisions about loaning money; we don't need to give them money from taxpayers so that they can continue their failing business.
Despite modern indications, we live in a Capitalist society, folks. The government is attempting to apply a Socialist solution to a Capitalist system.
Here's a hint: the free market fixes itself, and when the government gets involved in business, bad things happen.
Let me paint for you the true Capitalist, free-market scenario. These financial businesses fail (in part, at least, because of underhanded lending techniques. That's a totally separate matter). They get picked apart by the other companies who want to create or expand their financial influence. The assets of the failed companies get bought by people looking to make money on their failure to do so. If the government steps in at all, it should be to reduce or eliminate taxes on the income made from these "dangerous" investments to increase the speed that these assets get bought.
Not all of it is a bright, sunshiney picture. The stock market takes a dip, because some of its pillars have crumbled, but the pillars are being remade even as they crumble. The people who made silly purchases of homes or cars or what have you... I'm sorry, but have a little personal responsibility for your actions. You either didn't read the fine print on your loan contracts, or you didn't understand it. So, these people are in trouble. If the company that buys their bad loan has a good heart, they can restructure the loan to have a more sane interest rate, and probably decrease the overall amount owed, in order to keep these debtors in their car/home whatever they bought, and attempt to have a positive cash flow from the original people who made the loan. Failing that, or if the company is a little more cut throat, they'll evict the person or repossess the property, and attempt to sell it to someone else to recoup the money on their investment on these "bad" loans.
In the end, some people lose their property due to making a bad decision about which company and what loan, some people get a break and get to keep it... Some companies go under, some companies get bigger. The market and the economy has a little healthy turmoil, and then things normalize and stabilize. And we go back to living life, just like we always have.
... I seem to have run out of words. In closing, the government should get its big nose out of the market and the market will take care of itself. In the future, the people of this great nation and the businesses in it will be a lot more careful how they treat loans. We go through a short time of economnic difficulty, and then things normalize. The free market system works - you just have to leave it alone and let it. It has for the past 200 years, with various government induced hiccups.
Voted down, and a damn good thing too. This is a prime example for the reason why I picked the name I did for my blog.
Here's the root of the problem. Bad economic decisions in our modern banking industry (I refuse to call them "institutions" like the media seems to love doing - they are not "institutions" that we must simply keep afloat. They're businesses.) stretch back to at least the 1970's where the savings & loans started to go under. Laws passed in 1980 apparently made it acceptable for them to be increasingly loose with their money, and in the following decade we had a savings & loan meltdown. Lets notice the trend starting here: government got involved in business, and the market failed. In 1989, the government formed the Resolution Trust Corporation to help these companies get rid of their "toxic" investments, and a significant portion of this was funded with taxpayer dollars. Notice anything similar about what's happening today?
So the real meat of the problem here is that these companies feel safer since the door has been thrown wide open for government bailouts of bad financial decisions. The very same people who made these bad decisions are screaming for the bailout to happen, to avoid an economic "meltdown". Yeah, sure, let's bail you out so you can run away with your golden parachute. The man who took over as CEO for WaMu recently worked a whole 17 days before the company failed, and he received a $20 million payment. Let's not forget Stanley O'Neal, the former Merill Lynch CEO until 2007, left with $161 million.
The logic simply fails. These companies, whose business it was to loan money and make money on those investments, failed. They made bad investments, and now they're in financial trouble. The argument for the bailout is that the people of this country and their businesses won't be able to get home loans, car loans, student loans, business loans, because the institutions that loan money don't know how much they can loan. . . So we need to give them taxpayer money so that they can loan more money. They're in trouble because they made bad decisions about loaning money; we don't need to give them money from taxpayers so that they can continue their failing business.
Despite modern indications, we live in a Capitalist society, folks. The government is attempting to apply a Socialist solution to a Capitalist system.
Here's a hint: the free market fixes itself, and when the government gets involved in business, bad things happen.
Let me paint for you the true Capitalist, free-market scenario. These financial businesses fail (in part, at least, because of underhanded lending techniques. That's a totally separate matter). They get picked apart by the other companies who want to create or expand their financial influence. The assets of the failed companies get bought by people looking to make money on their failure to do so. If the government steps in at all, it should be to reduce or eliminate taxes on the income made from these "dangerous" investments to increase the speed that these assets get bought.
Not all of it is a bright, sunshiney picture. The stock market takes a dip, because some of its pillars have crumbled, but the pillars are being remade even as they crumble. The people who made silly purchases of homes or cars or what have you... I'm sorry, but have a little personal responsibility for your actions. You either didn't read the fine print on your loan contracts, or you didn't understand it. So, these people are in trouble. If the company that buys their bad loan has a good heart, they can restructure the loan to have a more sane interest rate, and probably decrease the overall amount owed, in order to keep these debtors in their car/home whatever they bought, and attempt to have a positive cash flow from the original people who made the loan. Failing that, or if the company is a little more cut throat, they'll evict the person or repossess the property, and attempt to sell it to someone else to recoup the money on their investment on these "bad" loans.
In the end, some people lose their property due to making a bad decision about which company and what loan, some people get a break and get to keep it... Some companies go under, some companies get bigger. The market and the economy has a little healthy turmoil, and then things normalize and stabilize. And we go back to living life, just like we always have.
... I seem to have run out of words. In closing, the government should get its big nose out of the market and the market will take care of itself. In the future, the people of this great nation and the businesses in it will be a lot more careful how they treat loans. We go through a short time of economnic difficulty, and then things normalize. The free market system works - you just have to leave it alone and let it. It has for the past 200 years, with various government induced hiccups.
Monday, September 15, 2008
But
I'm not too tired to read. This is some great information about the socialist policies of our government and what it costs us in real dollars.
WAR is coming!
Its way too early... well... late... for me to be posting right now. I'm editing this later :P
EDIT:
WAR is Coming!
The release date is dangerously close (September 18th) and having beta tested this game, ohmygosh. It takes a lot of the good elements of MMO's of the past, and completely ignored everything that made them slow, or annoying, and generally forgettable. As soon as your character sets foot on the world of WAR, things start moving quickly, and they don't stop unless you want them to.
I could go on ranting about it, but really, you can get a preorder at Target for $1, and get a head start on the game without really paying for it, so what are you waiting for?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Seriously?
Just signed up for iGoogle to see what it had to offer, and one of the things that caught my eye was this story. Which is actually a transcript of a TV/radio "news" program.
First of all, call them what they are. Illegal immigrants. Calling them "undocumented" doesn't change the fact that the lack of documentation means they're in this country illegally. That goes hand in hand. Undocumented = Illegal. This "political correctness" really irritates me. Just because you say a classic beat up car is a "beautiful" beat up car doesn't mean that it isn't, still, a beat up car.
Second, and this is the real issue; "The climate of fear around deportation has worsened as ... ICE continues to step up its raids across the country..." Climate of fear? What is that even supposed to mean? That illegal immigrants are fearful that they're going to be deported? Good! Great! That means that ICE is doing its job correctly and enforcing our immigration laws that these illegal immigrants have broken.
I also enjoy the self-propagating society the liberal media has created for itself. The list of credentials for any "expert" is the list of publications that have featured their words. While that might have meant something when the media was actually fair and reported news instead of slanted stories, all it shows now is how deeply in bed said "journalist" is with the liberal political machine.
Back on topic.
In the transcript of the show, they even quote a person who... well... I'll just quote it for you.
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 3: [translated] We are in a country that isn’t our own, but we want the government and the new administration to reform immigration for everyone."
Since when did illegal immigrants have a say in what our country does? Isn't that the one real perk to being a citizen of this country? That you can vote on the issues the country needs to decide on? Who appointed these liberal hacks the Saviors of Humanity, giving voice to the undertrodden people who make themselves criminals simply by being here, in our country?
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 8: [translated] This country doesn’t respect you. My words don’t matter. They’ll get what they want, including taking my life. I’m tired of them treating me like I’m less just because of the color of my skin. They have everything of ours, including our country. America is for all Americans. This is my boat, too. [in English] This is a country of immigrants. We need the change bad. Obama is not the solution."
America is for all Americans. That's the catch. You're not an American. Yes, we are a country built on immigrants. But, further, we are a country built on immigrants who came here wanting to be American. We are not a country built on immigrants who work here, demand rights and social services to which they are not entitled, and then send all the money back home so their family can have a better life in their own country. For the vast majority of American citizens, our ancestors came here legally, learned English, worked hard, and made for themselves and their families an American life, raised their children as Americans, and became part of the country, and part of our national identity.
Most of these illegal immigrants (obviously, not all; some are trying to become American, but they are the exception) are simply here to work jobs that pay more than a few pesos a day, and then send the money home to improve the quality of life of their families in their home country- which they still identify with. If you've watched any video of any of the immigrant marches, they're waving Mexican flags, not American flags. They don't want to be American- they want to be Mexican in the United States, and have all of the privileges of American citizens. Check out this video.
I salute that veteran. The video makes my point- that Mexican businessman wants to be Mexican first, and never an American. But he wants all the rights, privileges, benefits, everything that should be the result of American citizenship.
When the show introduces their guest, David Bacon, right out of the gate he goes for the "human rights violations"- talking about workers who were arrested by ICE for immigration infractions.
"But the problem with those workers is that they were—you know, there was no habeas corpus, there was no bail. There weren’t even any charges against those people for two weeks."
I'm sorry, but you don't just "give" someone habeas corpus. The procedure for habeas corpus is bringing a court action against the agency that is holding someone against their will, and if the court decides the agency doesn't have the authority to hold that person, they go free.
As for the charges not being brought for two weeks, that is a complaint I can understand. Two months passed before I was falsely charged with my crime, and during that period, I had no idea why I wasn't employable. But looking at the two numbers here... one man waiting two months to be charged, versus 481 people waiting two weeks to be charged... I'd say that ICE was working as fast as it could to charge all of them as quickly as possible, as is everyones' right in our justice system- the right to a speedy trial.
Alright... I'm all worded out for the moment. More to follow, likely tomorrow.
First of all, call them what they are. Illegal immigrants. Calling them "undocumented" doesn't change the fact that the lack of documentation means they're in this country illegally. That goes hand in hand. Undocumented = Illegal. This "political correctness" really irritates me. Just because you say a classic beat up car is a "beautiful" beat up car doesn't mean that it isn't, still, a beat up car.
Second, and this is the real issue; "The climate of fear around deportation has worsened as ... ICE continues to step up its raids across the country..." Climate of fear? What is that even supposed to mean? That illegal immigrants are fearful that they're going to be deported? Good! Great! That means that ICE is doing its job correctly and enforcing our immigration laws that these illegal immigrants have broken.
I also enjoy the self-propagating society the liberal media has created for itself. The list of credentials for any "expert" is the list of publications that have featured their words. While that might have meant something when the media was actually fair and reported news instead of slanted stories, all it shows now is how deeply in bed said "journalist" is with the liberal political machine.
Back on topic.
In the transcript of the show, they even quote a person who... well... I'll just quote it for you.
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 3: [translated] We are in a country that isn’t our own, but we want the government and the new administration to reform immigration for everyone."
Since when did illegal immigrants have a say in what our country does? Isn't that the one real perk to being a citizen of this country? That you can vote on the issues the country needs to decide on? Who appointed these liberal hacks the Saviors of Humanity, giving voice to the undertrodden people who make themselves criminals simply by being here, in our country?
"IMMIGRANT RIGHTS MARCHER 8: [translated] This country doesn’t respect you. My words don’t matter. They’ll get what they want, including taking my life. I’m tired of them treating me like I’m less just because of the color of my skin. They have everything of ours, including our country. America is for all Americans. This is my boat, too. [in English] This is a country of immigrants. We need the change bad. Obama is not the solution."
America is for all Americans. That's the catch. You're not an American. Yes, we are a country built on immigrants. But, further, we are a country built on immigrants who came here wanting to be American. We are not a country built on immigrants who work here, demand rights and social services to which they are not entitled, and then send all the money back home so their family can have a better life in their own country. For the vast majority of American citizens, our ancestors came here legally, learned English, worked hard, and made for themselves and their families an American life, raised their children as Americans, and became part of the country, and part of our national identity.
Most of these illegal immigrants (obviously, not all; some are trying to become American, but they are the exception) are simply here to work jobs that pay more than a few pesos a day, and then send the money home to improve the quality of life of their families in their home country- which they still identify with. If you've watched any video of any of the immigrant marches, they're waving Mexican flags, not American flags. They don't want to be American- they want to be Mexican in the United States, and have all of the privileges of American citizens. Check out this video.
I salute that veteran. The video makes my point- that Mexican businessman wants to be Mexican first, and never an American. But he wants all the rights, privileges, benefits, everything that should be the result of American citizenship.
When the show introduces their guest, David Bacon, right out of the gate he goes for the "human rights violations"- talking about workers who were arrested by ICE for immigration infractions.
"But the problem with those workers is that they were—you know, there was no habeas corpus, there was no bail. There weren’t even any charges against those people for two weeks."
I'm sorry, but you don't just "give" someone habeas corpus. The procedure for habeas corpus is bringing a court action against the agency that is holding someone against their will, and if the court decides the agency doesn't have the authority to hold that person, they go free.
As for the charges not being brought for two weeks, that is a complaint I can understand. Two months passed before I was falsely charged with my crime, and during that period, I had no idea why I wasn't employable. But looking at the two numbers here... one man waiting two months to be charged, versus 481 people waiting two weeks to be charged... I'd say that ICE was working as fast as it could to charge all of them as quickly as possible, as is everyones' right in our justice system- the right to a speedy trial.
Alright... I'm all worded out for the moment. More to follow, likely tomorrow.
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