Years in the Breaking...

Our government is broken. This should be a news flash but sadly enough it is just a declaration of “Old News”. For years we Americans have known that Congress was inefficient at best and that government in general did not represent the will of the people. Why we didn’t or couldn’t prevent this is the subject of a whole rack of books by pundits but we are still left with the decision of “What Now?”

Pelosi and Obama have now proven that the voice of the people is of no concern. It doesn’t matter how many people call, write, or visit their congressperson; what matters is that political pressure from inside the government will ultimately achieve the government’s goals. It is almost as if the government has morphed into a life form of its own. The Obama administration has shown that it will not respond to nor respect the overwhelming majority of Americans. Don’t bother to show up at the White House or on the steps of Congress because those inside are not listening.

Over the past several months we Americans have had to endure an absolute circus in Washington and to what end. Obama promised that his healthcare would win no matter what and to date he has been proven right. Regardless of the wishes of the Majority, Obama understood that with this congress he could impose his will by a series of political maneuvers. In fairness, he is not the first president to do this. He is just the one who is ignoring us now.

So where does that leave us? Should we, can we, dare we put our hopes in what the Senate does with healthcare or look to the 2010 elections. For me I never want to give up hope but sadly I find difficulty in hoping that liberty will be revived in elections that will return incumbents to Washington to ruin what fresh blood we are able to elect. I think all conservatives believe it is time for a good housecleaning in congress but I also think that it is unrealistic to expect it.

Last night as I lay awake thinking I realized that I am old enough to be long dead before the worst of runaway government can get me. As for my children and grandchildren I think they will see the brunt of it. The very thought of that has been the fuel of my political engine. Yet when I speak to my children about the dangers of this Administration, they are no more interested in the process nor informed about it than I was 20 years ago. It is their sense of “everything will be fine” and “I am too busy” and “I don’t know what to do” that makes the current tyrannical government actions possible. Surely Thomas Jefferson was right when he said that we citizens

“are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, that to right them…”

Jefferson went on to explain that government shouldn’t be changed until it reaches “absolute Despotism”. While “despotism” could elicit different definitions, this would be mine:

a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator, not restricted by a constitution, laws or opposition.

As such, I suppose every American will reach their own conclusions as to when and if the government is a problem and how severe. May God bless Americans.

When Pigs Fly

If you would have asked me when New Jersey was going to elect a conservative I would have told you “when pigs fly”. No this is not a reference to Chris Christie’s size though Corzine alluded to Christie’s girth. Now I find that as I watch the election returns some flying pigs are giving me hope. Virginia has already had a triple header with 3 conservative republicans elected and now it appears that New Jersey will surely have one also. I am sure to have to go to bed before the NY23rd race ends. I think I will go to bed with flying swine.

You have to admit that you just need something to hope for in these times. As reported by Susan Ferrechio in the Washington Examiner:

The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:
- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.
- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.
- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.
- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.
- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.
- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.
- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.
- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri
- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.
- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.

With all this pork it’s clear why we see flying pigs!

Amazed

When you get right down to it keeping up with the Political Landscape in America is absolutely boring to a great many. Unless you are a political science major or one of the few people who are inexplicably drawn with every fiber of their being to the latest news, it is just not all that interesting. If you are a blogger you stand a better chance at an audience if you offer some advice on designing twitter backgrounds or a better way to get gum out of hair.

Once again, I have had to come to the hard realization that a great deal of Americans are not now, nor soon likely to become interested in Obama and his radical regime. Thomas Jefferson wrote some 230 years ago “…that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves…” and not much has changed. I heard another version of Jefferson’s wisdom years ago that went like this, “the pain that we feel is preferred to the pain that we fear”. In essence it seems that humans will tolerate much to avoid risking worse.

Having spent my complete existence studying human behavior, religion, philosophy and the like I continue to be amazed by above mentioned phenomenon. Still, there is that “flashpoint” just when oil becomes hot enough to the instantly burst into flames and a similar one for humans when they will rise to their feet an rebel against tyranny. While I see a great many Americans seriously concerned about the troubles of the days, I see a vast group that are so absorbed by their day to day lives that they cannot smell the smoke nor feel the heat of the flames engulfing them.

Recently I had the chance to ask some family members about what they thought of the State of the Union and what they knew about current important issues. Well there seemed to be little knowledge about what was going on and not any real concern that anything was all that amiss. My attempts to draw attention to issues of concern seemed to do more to prove my insanity than to educate. I believe that I may have actually caused them to question the validity of what I was trying to say. Fair enough. Declaring that you think Obama has full intentions to remake this nation into something of his choosing does sound a bit extreme. Still, I was left with the impression that whatever happened would be fine and did not merit them looking into it.

Needless to say I walked away from that conversation less that gratified and even a little offended that my opinion carried so little weight. I hadn’t be push or sanctimonious and tried to present fact with verifiable sources. Yet, I failed to make any noticeable difference and do not expect that they will be of any help on Election Day. But, do not misunderstand. I don’t think these folks abnormal but rather quite normal. The storm troopers boots will have to hit their front porches before they sound the alarm; if even then. As for me, I continue on: amazed.