This Just In
A recent study shows that most university and college professors are liberal. Really? Wow. I never could have imagined that one.
Prager has been demonstrating this for years on his radio show and in essays. He queries: could it be that these people have been in school their entire lives, never had to make it in the private sector, and thus have never had to grow up? Could it be that those whose opinion matters much to such
enlightened intellects is that of
immature 20 something students?
Certainly, not all professors are liberal--for we have one on this blog. Certainly not all 20 something students are immature, but when we look at the global effect of such a cohort, it isn't surprising anybody.
Darkness Grows
So here we are America! The Congress has declared it's intent concerning Terri Schiavo, and the judiciary has essentially given Congress the finger. Many conservatives are insisting that Jeb send in the National Guard in response to this insolence, and on an emotional level I would like to see him take such an action; however, this would open pandora's box concerning the relative application of our laws and should not be done.
This being said, how long do you think it will take for some guardian of a group home bound vulnerable adult to petition the courts to "relieve suffering"? For that matter, how long until some start arguing that it is just too damn expensive to keep the infirm and vulnerable alive? After all we could feed the poor with that money! Sarcasm intended. I tell you that day is coming fast--and then we will look like 1930's Germany.
Quick Round
If you would like some keen insight into the legalese regarding the Schiavo decisions, check out
Hugh ,
Radioblogger or give Mr. Squirrel a call. Yesterday, Mr. H linked to a
new blogger with some insight worth reading. I second the opinion.
And while I'm in the midst of wading through judicial rulings, I thought
Hindrocket's article from the
March 10th Weekly Standard would be worth a review. We are at the mercy of a tyrannical judiciary that must be held accountable!
Life's Certainties
With there being only two certainties in life and since my being alive negates one, that means the only thing certain in my life right now is taxes. Yes, it is that time of year again. I spent a good chunk of time this weekend getting a majority of my taxes done. I had already spent a few hours getting everything lined up. And I would have finished them a few weeks back, but one of my mutual fund companies failed to send me my cost-basis information, which I eventually ended up just calculating myself. I have probably under an hour left. Then I’ll sign my John Hancock so that they can haul me off to prison when they discover that I improperly classified a payment I received as a capital gain instead of miscellaneous other income (it really was a capital gain). And then, I will be finished with that task for another year.
Despite all my recent complaints about taxes (don’t get me started on triple bracket jumps under the withholding rules or taxing the sales of automobiles between individuals), when it actual comes down to paying my taxes, I really don’t mind doing it. Do I think that I pay too much in taxes? Yes, I do. But, as a citizen of this great country, I must help support to government. I am not a member of the Posse Comitatus. I do believe that the government has the right to tax its citizens. But I do have some ideas about improving the our tax system. In addition, my ideas would also improve our political system as well.
Humors Aside: At the young age of one or two, my parents took me to dine with some people who attended their church from time to time. These people turned out to be tax protestors. The husband told my father that if the government sent agents to bring him in he hoped they were Christians because he was going to send them to their maker. Years later, this gentleman ended up being arrested for conspiring to blow-up a federal court house. Apparently, I used to run with a really wild crowd.
So, here are my ideas on reforming the tax code. First of all, we need to get rid of withholding. This it the biggest scam out there. Whether or not I owe the tax, the government collects it from me. So, I end up loaning the government money and they pay it back to me in April. They don’t even pay me interest for using my money. But, getting rid of withholding will not be enough. The second thing that must be done to make my master plan complete is that the filing deadline for taxes must be changed. The date must be changed from April 15th to the Monday before election day.
These two changes, if implemented, would have a great impact on our tax system. Think about it. Because there is no withholding, every year, you would be required to write the government a check and for most of us, that would be a very big check. This would help us think a bit more about where that money is going. In addition, you would be writing that very large check on the day before you vote. I think this would do a lot for the way our government is run too. For the first time, the people who spend our tax money would be closely linked in the minds of those who pay taxes to their tax bill. I also believe that there would be a huge increase in the ranks of the Republican Party.
Will these changes ever be made? No. I know that it is just a dream. Most people in this country have problems balancing their check book. For these people, trying to set aside some money to prevent their tax bill from launching them into bankruptcy would be like asking them to solve a quadratic equation or to write a paper discussing how the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the start of World War II. And as for tax day, no politician would ever allow tax day to be so close to election day. They want that day to stay as far away from election day as possible.
So, I will file my taxes with an appropriate amount of stereotypical grumbling. Thankful that I am dealing with this certainty instead of that other certainty.
Now That's Funny
Mike stumbled across
this little gem and I just had to put it up. What is so amazing about that little piece of work, is that it fails to account for history.
Prager has often cited the now infamous communist saying, "The future is known, it's the past that's always changing." Strange, how history is constantly rewriting itself to fit some idealogue's position.
The video rightly warns about shared information impinging on the sacredness of our privacy. This being said, this is a great example of the pot calling the kettle black. Nearly all totalitarian regimes of the modern era began on the left. Think about all of the bloodshed and suffering that occurred under the facists, communists, etc. Now think of the systematic eliminition of all things Christian from public discourse, e.g., cross on L.A. County seal, Ten Commandements, the use of Merry Christmas, manager scenes, etc. So we will deny the historical foundations of our nation? Really! What side of the aisle most threatens your civil liberties? And who leads this charge to protect the public or should I say the weak-minded who are so narcissitic everything offends them?
The ACLU. Furthermore, do they not systematically erode our protection, by opposing ID's that would be useful in knowing who the heck is in our borders (concerning immigration and illegals)? At every stinking turn.
And if this isn't enough we have become obsessed with laws about safety. Seat belts, booster seats, air bags, and anti-smoking laws are all well-intentioned, but an erosion of our liberty none-the-less. Think about it. What would happen to you if you strapped your kid in a chair for four hours? At home? Than your an abusive parent. In a car? Law abiding citizen. I know that's an extreme example, but ultimately what is it that happens? You lose your ability to make a decision.
The ACLU! I tell you those four letters strike more fear into my heart than The Patriot Act ever has.
Oh, and since this turned into a screed, go read
Lileks post today. He links to a website that will make your blood hot with fury.
What We've Been Saying.....
In our discussions on the right to life vs. the "
right" to die, we have more than adequately addressed the slippery slope of the Groningen Protocol, et. al. Those salient points have come to fruition like a dark and ominious storm cloud. Today this cloud envelopes our great nation as Ms. Schiavo's
long protracted death has commenced, barring
Congressional intervention. And now
we have this. Words fail. I'm sick. Go pray.
In The Time Honored Tradition
Tales From The Hood (Part Three)
Mike and Grisby's version
of
Thursday was a busy day. Up before six to make it to Bible study by 6:30. As the college is on spring break this week, I have no clients to see, which means a longer day at TCG. The day started off right, and this carried right through the remainder of the day. Lots of phone work and a couple good appointments.
Stole a few moments over the lunch hour to catch up on some blog reading. Mr. Squirrel recommended some new sites, which were depressing, so I didn't spend much time there
(you'll understand my desire to not ruin your day by linking). Caught up at
Writer's Blog &
it's companion blog, which reminded me....
I was driving through the 'hood the other day (right past Mike's
FAVORITE store) when I came across another wonderful bumper sticker. The young miss driving the junkyard contraption, impudently displayed the following on her rear bumper--"redneck's girl." It is unclear whether she was referring to her papa or her boyfriend--if the latter, she looked barely old enough to drive, so I guess that fits the profile. On a side note, Mr. Food sent the following, which sounds like
"something that would happen on Mike's street". Anyway...
Saturday we'll be celebrating Sweet Babies's birthday. She's been teething lately, so really, really pleasant company as you can imagine (best
Stewie voice--"I claim this mouth in the name of incisor"). Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. Have a great weekend!
The Nano-Second Culture
My wife, the fetching Mrs. Squirrel, and I have done some planning for this summer. We have decided that from May through September, we will guard our family’s schedule. Through scientific analysis, we have discovered that a schedule will always tend toward its natural state of being full. O.k., there was no scientific analysis, but schedules do tend to fill up quickly. And, it doesn’t take long for our family to spend all our time running from one event to the next. But, not this summer. We have drawn a line in the sand.
We have decided to limit the number of activities that we will commit to. We are going to reclaim our schedule and have an enjoyable summer. To me, the perfect way to spend a summer’s evening is sitting on the back deck, sipping on a glass of lemonade, and watching the children frolic in the yard, while a warm breeze hums a Stephen Foster medley as it blows through the tree branches. If that image doesn’t lower your blood pressure a few points, you need to consult your physician.
A note to our friends: we will still get together with you. Actually, this might make the time we spend with our friends better, in that we won’t be so hurried and harried from an over-crowded schedule.
Our decision goes against the nano-second culture in which we now live. At work, we send documents via FedEx, because the mail is just too slow and we send documents via email, because FedEx is just too slow. At home, we cook our food in a microwave, because a conventional oven is just too slow. We have fast food restaurants in order to get our food quicker and the fast food restaurant has a drive-up window to save you from wasting the time it takes to get out of your car to pick up the food. Everything in our culture seems to be geared toward speed. But, the time saved through the use of these wonderful innovations is not used to expand our leisure time. Instead, the additional time is filled with more activities. In the nano-second culture, life is more hectic than ever.
Now it is not that all those events that could fill our schedule are bad. Most are very good and also interesting. But, the time has now come in the life of our family when we have to do a little cost-benefit analysis. Does the cost (the time, the hectic running from event to event) outweigh the benefit (the interaction with friends, the interest in the subject matter)? Our family has determined that the cost is too great.
This is not a call for a Luddite revolution. This is a call for a spring cleaning. Our lives, like our homes are filled with clutter. It is time to take a few moments and weed through all those activities and involvements. Determine what is important and keep those activities. Let go of the activities that are cluttering up the closets and selves in your life.
I have been doing a lot of this lately in my own life. I have a variety of interests. I am discovering, however, that I need to cut back on my involvement in certain activities in order to focus my energies on a smaller number of specific activities. Take volleyball, for instance. I love volleyball and I always will. But I have not played competitively since I have moved to the Cities three years ago. I have also aged three more years and I’m not sure my body could take the beatings that I once used to put it through. So, I have come to the conclusion that my days of playing competitive volleyball are over. You heard it here first. I don’t have the time to play any more and physically, I don’t think I could play at the level that I once did. Instead, I intend to focus on my golf game, which is in desperate need of some focused attention. I also have a lengthy reading list that I would like to work on, in addition to a few personal projects that are still being formulated in my head.
I am looking forward to a very enjoyable summer.
I Blog Again
I know, I know. I haven’t written much lately. But let’s face it. It has been a slow news month. No, the Michael Jackson case does not constitute news under my definition. Plus, weeks of sunlight deprivation are starting to take their toll. I have been generally uninspired to write for some time.
But, once again I must say thank you to liberal talk radio. Just a mere five minutes has me talking back to the radio and saying “I shall blog again.”
Several idiotic comments where made yesterday. The first stupid thing that was said was this, “Did you see that the stock market went down yesterday? And, that’s where President Bush wants to invest our Social Security money.” That has to be the most moronic argument against privatization that I have ever heard. Let me see if I understand. Because the stock market went down yesterday, we shouldn’t privatize Social Security. What if the market went up yesterday? Then would it be acceptable? I hate to drop a rock in their pond of serenity, but the stock market goes up and it goes down. And looking back over many years, the market goes up more than it goes down. Once again liberals show just how short sighted they are.
The other thing that irked me yesterday was once again they brought up Enron and WorldCom. “Oh the poor employees who lost all their retirement money when those companies went under.” Now I’m not a totally heartless conservative. Yes, it is sad that these people lost everything. Yes, the corporate executives acted improperly. Bad things were done. But, I believe in personal responsibility. (A gasp from the left … how dare he say that.) Some of those poor employees who lost everything do need to share some of the blame.
Let’s take WorldCom. (There are some particulars about Enron that put a slightly different spin on things … blackout dates and all.) I don’t know for certain, but I suspect, based on almost ten years of working with retirement plans, that the WorldCom retirement plan worked in the following way. First, the plan was probably a 401(k) plan and, as such, allowed employees to defer some of their compensation into a variety of investment options. These options probably included a range of different mutual funds and an option to invest deferrals in WorldCom stock. Secondly, the plan probably had some type of matching contribution or employer contribution that was made entirely in company stock.
The reason that so many employees lost so much is that they made a fatal error. Despite the fact that they were already receiving an employer contribution that was made totally in WorldCom stock, they invested a portion of their salary deferrals in WorldCom stock too. Some employees invested all their deferrals in WorldCom stock.
There are three important words to remember when investing for your retirement: DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY.
These employees where blinded by greed and forgot the most basic investment concepts. They were too risky in their investments. It is simply too risky to put too many of your retirement eggs in one basket. In my humble opinion, if you are investing in company stock by means of an employer contribution, you should not be investing salary deferrals in company stock too.
The employees say, “but Bernie Ebbers told me that the stock was safe and that it would continue to go up and that I should purchase more.” I say, “If Bernie Ebbers told you to jump off a bridge, would you?”
As I said above, I am not saying companies and their executives did inappropriate things. I am saying that individuals need to take some degree of personal responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, the left is anti personal responsibility and only interested in bashing “evil corporations.”
