Got a Funny Feeling?

Survival books, whether they be outdoor survival, or about surviving in the city, tell you to trust your instincts.  We can all sense danger, it's just that we usually ignore our instincts.  As Americans, we trust until we are given a reason not to trust.  That makes us easy targets for everything from e-mails from Nicaraguan check-cashing scams, to 9/11 terrorists taking flying lessons in our country.  Or for that matter, immigrants entering our country illegally, counting on us to let them stay.  Our trust makes us an easy target.

So, let's put a couple of things in writing and see if it gives us a "funny" feeling.  I'm not even going to list all our president's socialist/communist/maoist advisers.  That's so old that we don't even get any feeling about it.  So let's start with the president's reaction to the incident involving the D.C. police and Harvard professor Gates.  When asked for a reaction, President Obama said, "I don't have any details, but it is apparent that the police acted stupidly."  I don't have any facts, but I have a strong opinion anyway.  Kind of funny coming from the most powerful leader in the free world, huh?  

President Obama on his cap and trade legislation, changed to green job creation legislation, now changed to American energy independence legislation:  "under my plan, the cost of electricity would necessarily skyrocket."  What politician in their right mind would say his plans would make any utility cost, not just increase, but "skyrocket?"  Seems like he is not worried about our support.  It's like the issue has already been decided.  And why would he want it to take effect during the worst recession of the lifetime of the average American and before an already hotly contested midterm election?  A little funny, huh?  Then we learn that the president was the conduit for the Joyce Foundation's grant to start the only energy exchange in the United States, and that he worked on the grant while still an unknown state senator.  A little funny.  A little, very little actually, research is required to learn that other investors in the Chicago Climate Exchange are a company with Al Gore on the board (An Inconvenient Truth, huh Al?); a bank, Goldman Sachs, who not only was a major contributor to the economic recession, but also received huge taxpayer funded bailouts; and several of the board members of the Chicago Climate Exchange came from Goldman Sachs.  Funny.  

Exxon-Mobil decided a couple of years ago not to form a separate department to do research for alternate forms of energy.  They decided it was best to do what they have always done, look for oil.  Seeing how fast the world is changing, it seemed a little funny that they would not at least hedge their bets by starting to adapt to future alternative energy demands.  Fuji Films and Kodak are examples of how quickly an established company can go from the top to broke by not being on the leading edge of innovation.  But Exxon-Mobil seemed oblivious to the danger of falling behind.  Funny.

One of the president's first acts when he took office was to freeze leasing on shallow water offshore oil drilling, and a federal takeover, or much tighter restrictions of western land where drilling was planned, or already taking place.  No freeze on deepwater drilling though.  Oil companies complained a little, but were strangely quieter than you would expect about the restrictions.  Some just adapted and went to more deepwater drilling projects.  Now we all know what happened with British Petroleum's well in the Gulf of Mexico.  Strangely enough, the president was very reasonable in his early reaction.  He said BP would be responsible for the clean-up and loss of business revenue caused by the explosion and leak.  Again, strangely enough, BP has seemed relatively unconcerned about the cost of the lost rig, its eleven employees killed, the loss of sales of a minimum 5000 barrels of oil a day, at $70+ per barrel for more than 40 days and counting, that turns into real money pretty quickly.  Kind of funny how calm and reasonable BP has been about this loss, and the potential cost of the clean up.  Funny too how unconcerned about the huge decline in their stock market value they have been.

Now, all offshore drilling leases have been frozen for a minimum of 6 months.  Effectively a minimum of a year for projects off the coast of Alaska where many projects had been planned.  Land-based drilling restrictions still have not been eased to compensate.  The cap and trade bill in the senate has now been re-named an American Energy Independence bill, and it still will cause costs to skyrocket.  But little to no complaints or comments from the media or oil companies like Exxon-Mobil or British Petroleum who would potentially be hurt the most by the legislation.  Funny.

The Chicago Climate Exchange estimates business transactions of $10 trillion a year if the legislation passes.  They stand to make a boatload, make that an oil tankerload, of money if the legislation passes.  Yet, only a couple of days after the Canadian Free Press ran stories showing the suspicious links of the Exchange to the president, his backers and advisers, to Goldman Sachs, to Al Gore, and more, the founders of the Exchange sold their controlling interest.  Funny.  Sold their interest to an Atlanta based company called Intercontinental Exchange (ICE on the New York Stock Exchange).  Thirty minutes on their site and a couple of business news sites and you will learn that major shareholders in ICE include Exxon-Mobil.  Funny.  British Petroleum holds a large share.  That's funny.  Why isn't MSNBC investigating?  General Electric holds a big piece of ICE.  General Electric owns all the NBC networks.  Now that's funny.

For as long as I can remember, oil prices have gone up around Memorial Day, as Americans hit the road for summer vacations.  Oil prices traditionally go up when hurricane season arrives in June and potentially threatens to interfere with our coastal refineries and oil shipments.  Oil prices always go up with increased regulation, like the recent offshore freezes by the president.  Oil prices always go up when tension in the middle east increases, like it has with the recent incident with Israel blockade of Gaza.  So, in the past 60 days, we have had the worst offshore drilling accident in U.S. history, followed by tightened government restrictions, followed by the arrival of summer vacation season, followed by the start of hurricane season in the Gulf, topped off by extreme tension in the middle east.  Oil prices have gone down in that time.  That's funny.

That's just the oil-related funny feelings.  Throw in the funny worldwide and media reaction to Israel's defending itself against terrorist organizations whose goal is the absolute annihilation  of Israel.  Add the president's funny labeling of Arizona's immigration law as "misguided" before he, his attorney general, his Homeland Security secretary, or anyone else in the administration had even read it.  Add the continued criticism of the law even though an estimated 65% of Americans and over 70% of registered voters nationwide support the law.  Add the passage of a health care law that over 60% of registered voters oppose; a bill whose cost upon analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office keeps going up.  And finally add the seeming indifference to an unemployment rate staying near 10%, even with funny hiring practices by the Census department reducing the number of unemployed temporarily.

We should have a very funny feeling about all this.  Either they have another crisis planned that they will take advantage of to keep and increase their control, or this Democratic/Progressive Congress and President are the political equivalent of a suicide bomber that is just trying to do as much damage and leave as big a hole as possible when all this blows up.  I have a funny feeling that a large hole is not their goal.      

This Window is a Door

Ever hear of the Overton Window?  Joseph Overton was a researcher, author, and senior vice president of a public policy think tank.  His theory was that public opinion fits into a window on a scale.  If a policy does not fit into the opinion window, politicians will not support or push the policy, for the sake of job security.  So, if the politician or government knows  the policy in question is good for the people, how do you get politicians to support it?  You move the window.

It's kind of like negotiating for a raise.  You ask for 10%.  Your boss says he will give you a 20% cut in pay.  You say, no, I'll quit first.  Your boss says fine, we will compromise.  I'll only cut your salary 10%.  You win.  He didn't cut your pay 20%!

The health care takeover is another example.  Americans are screaming that they do not want the federal government running their health care.  The administration says it will provide public funding for abortions.  America screams absolutely no!! Obama says fine, we'll compromise, no public funding for abortion in the health care takeover.  America says great.  We won that one. Um, didn't we?  They moved the window.

Americans need to stick to our principles.  Move the window back our direction.  Once Americans know the game, we can play it too.  Education is the key.  Know our principles and our history.

Rangers Win the World Series!! Or Maybe Not

Hell must've frozen over.  No, the Rangers didn't even win their regular season game today, much less the World Series.  An even more rare occurrence.  I heard an intelligent comment on National Public Radio.  Of course it was at 3:30 this morning on a BBC rebroadcast, and it was made by an Indian (from India, not Native America).  

Mark Twain once said that democracy was like the steam powered printing press that he invested his life savings in.  It worked one time. In a dark room.  With no witnesses.  Intelligent commentary on NPR is just as rare.  But I did hear it!

The story was the typical NPR drivel about businesses destroying the planet with greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.  Specifically they were telling how polluted the Ganges River has become.  The Ganges River is sacred to the Hindus in India.  At least once a year they bathe in the river as an act of purification.  Even with raw sewage, industrial waste, and dead oxen floating down the river!  

The Indian scientist being interviewed was telling about his studies of the self-purification qualities of the river.  He said that something about the river itself purifies the water more quickly than other rivers being studied.  His hypothesis was that an element present in the huge quantity of leaves that wash down off the Himalayan mountains speeds the purification process of the river. But the cleansing process has been slowed because of the dams that have been built in the past 50 years slowing the flow of the river.

The interviewer asked why, if the river is so sacred to the local population, did they allow it to become so polluted?  And not polluted just by industries and businesses, but by the local population?  The Indian scientist said he blamed the British.  When the British controlled India, they set up government agencies to regulate the businesses and control the quality of the water in the river.  He was not blaming the government for loose restrictions on the industries, but for trying to regulate the water's quality in the first place.  He said the regulatory process created a disconnect between the local people and the river.  

In all the previous history of the area, the people took responsibility for keeping the river clean and keeping it sacred.  The British had good intentions when they tried to regulate what was being dumped into the river, but by taking control of the water quality, they took away the local population's respect of the river as well.  The scientist 
said people no longer feel responsible for keeping the river clean.  The government takes their tax money and says it is to keep the river clean.  So the people feel that it is the government's job.  Even though the citizens are the ones who bathe with bloated dead oxen floating past, they don't feel the need to keep their water clean.  It is the government's job.  They also feel that it is o.k. to toss their ox in the river.  The government will clean it up.

I have seen similar results of government intervention on the highways of northern Arizona.  The Navajo of the high desert along the Arizona - Utah border reputedly have a deep respect for the earth.  Their religion teaches that they actually came from a world inside the earth to this world through a sipapu, or small hole in sacred areas of the earth.  So the earth is literally their mother, and like their mother, to be respected and revered.  When the state and federal highways were built through the reservation, the government took responsibility for keeping the land clean.  A drive along Highway 160 from the Four Corners area through Tuba City on the western edge of the reservation features beautiful scenery.  The scenery that John Ford made famous in his John Wayne westerns.  But the current scenery also includes a highway lined with literally millions of empty beer bottles, beer cans, and more trash than you would find after a spring break frat house party.  The American Indians feel no need to clean the area, or no reason not to throw their trash along the road.  The government will clean it up.  It's their job.  And like every other job taken on by the government, they don't do it very well, if at all.  Although they are pretty efficient at collecting the tax revenue needed to pay for the job!

Now they have taken responsibility for keeping us healthy.  Or at least they will take the responsibility in 2014.  In the meantime, they will take the revenue starting today.  I was taught in human resources classes on interviewing and hiring, "past performance predicts future results."  The government's history tells us this will not end well.


But I did hear an intelligent comment on NPR!  Can the Rangers' World Series rings be far behind?

Would Reagan Recognize Us?

Ronald Reagan once said that he had hope for America because we were a nation of strivers, not of coveters.  He said that when an American sees someone succeed, they strive to achieve the same success.  Reagan's Americans do not covet the rewards of others, they strive to earn those rewards through their own success.  The rags to riches story is the story of America.  Or it was.

I told this story to a friend before last year's election.  His response was "you must be from somewhere different."  He was from California.  He said that where he was from, people just wanted to take what they needed from someone who had it.

One of my favorite tv shows is Survivor.   When the show first came on, everyone assumed it would be won by the contestant that performed best in the challenges.  From the very first season though, it was clear that it would be a social game.  Last season, a contestant named Russell probably played the game harder than anyone in the history of the show.  From the day he got on the island, he worked on alliances.  He worked alliances and manipulated players and basically controlled the game from the first day.   He also spent every spare moment searching for immunity idols.  He found all three, two without clues and before anyone else even looked.  He dominated the game and went to the final with a cute girl that basically rode his coattails to the end.

In the final episode, players previously voted out decide who will win the million dollars.  If I remember correctly, Russell only got two votes.  The other players resented the way Russell worked and earned his way to the end.  They chose to give the prize money to someone who just tagged along with a successful player.  

There was a similar outcome in the show's second season.  Colby dominated the game physically.  He won every individual challenge and took a nice single mother with him to the end.  The other players voted at the end to give the money to the single mother because she "needed" it more.  No one argued that Colby did not earn the reward, but they felt that the woman needed it more.

Survivor has become a metaphor for our country now.  As a rule, Americans no longer strive to duplicate another's success.  Now, we are guilty of coveting their rewards.  Instead of striving for a career that allows us to provide for ourselves and our loved ones, we want our government to take the rewards of success from others and give it to us.  Because we need it.

It will be hard for our society to survive when covetors outnumber strivers.  As Margaret Thatcher once said, "One of the problems with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of people whose money you can take."  Or to put in Survivor terms, when your tribe has more Sandras than Russells, you'll be spending a lot of time in tribal council.

Sing Along!

Cathy did some babysitting today.  My friend, Mike, left his little girl with us for the morning.  Taylor is not a year old yet, but she already has a favorite television show.  Her favorite is Yo Gabba Gabba.  When the music came on, her face lit up and she started leaning to the side to see the tv.  Mike said she has favorite episodes already.  This was not one of them.  The robot and fuzzy monsters started singing a song about not playing in the street.  Like Mike said, if adult humans told a kid not to play in traffic, they would just ignore the advice.  But a big fuzzy monster sings a song about the street being "for trucks, cars, buses, and other dangerous things" and it's gospel to a kid.  Cathy suggested that all lessons in school should be set to music.

That made me start thinking about what my generation learned from music, especially music on television.  How about Coke teaching "the world to sing in perfect harmony?"  Or McDonald's telling us that we "deserve a break today."  Tab letting us know that it's "a beautiful drink for beautiful people."  My favorite, "aye, aye, aye, I am the Frito Bandito!"  "You're in good hands with Allstate."  And "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there."  And finally, "when you say Budweiser, you've said it all."

Saturday morning cartoons had Schoolhouse Rocks public service ads.  They taught grammar with Conjunction Junction.  One taught that breakfast is the most important meal and that "a peanut butter and jelly sandwich any time of day, is a treat."  The one that needs to be brought out of retirement is How a Bill Becomes a Law. 

Our congressmen missed out on the first part of the video where "the whole process starts with ... the folks back home decided they wanted a law passed."  The idea doesn't start with the president, unions, or radicals from Columbia University.  It starts with "folks back home." 

I'm sure the song was edited to fit into its allotted time.  Because it never mentions giving billions of dollars in deals to the senators from Nebraska, Louisiana (sorry, it wasn't put in for only Louisiana.  Any state that suffered a major natural disaster in 2005 would be eligible.  At least as long as their state capitol rhymed with patton luge), and Connecticut.  Then let's turn on the water for a couple of drought-stricken California districts to get their votes.  Still not enough to pass.  Okay, tell the representatives that don't believe we should pay to kill babies that we'll take that part out later.  Really, we promise.  I think all that was in the original version of the song.  It just had to be edited out.

The best part though?  The animated version of the bill was a one page document rolled like a scroll.  That, of course, is just for television though.  The bill that created medicare was 28 pages, the one that created the interstate highway system was two pages, and the Constitution was four pages, six if you count the letter of transmittal and the Bill of Rights.  That many pages wouldn't look good on television.  It might look fishy, like they were trying to sneak something in.  Like maybe a takeover of something important, oh, say the student loan program for grins.  So how suspicious would a 2,700 page pile on the steps of the capitol look?  What could you possibly sneak into a 2,700 page mess?  Pretty much anything you wanted.  Just to be fair, post it on the internet three days before the vote, so congressmen, the media, and the public have a chance to read it and respond. 

Sing along, I'm just a bill, I'm only a bill...    

Thank God for Texas!!

When we moved to Arizona in 1993, it was the first time in my life that I lived outside of Texas.  When we were renting our house, the lady we were renting from told us where all the county offices were in Prescott.  She said we should get an Arizona license plate as soon as possible.  She said if we did not, expect to get stopped a lot by the local police.  They don't like people from out of state, but especially not those from Texas.  We kind of laughed it off, but did get new plates fairly quickly.  Didn't want to tempt fate or the local police department.  We were in Arizona for a few years before moving back to Texas - Amarillo.  No one recommended that we change our Arizona plates quickly.  We moved back to Arizona in 2005.  I started work on Monday.  Thursday afternoon when I went outside for a break, I found a note on my windshield from the local sheriff's department.  It detailed the local requirements for updating your vehicle registration within 30 days after moving and told the fines possible if you did not.  I did not see it as an anti-Texas practice, just a revenue enhancer for the county.  My belief was justified when another new hire came on from Oklahoma and received the same note within a week.  And no one resents Okies.

Then I moved to Colorado and what a difference!  I heard the usual jokes and good-naturedly took them.  It's easy to take the jokes about your perceived natural superiority when you know that you really are superior!  The first comment that was not good-natured joking came from a local hunter when I was selling him a hunting license.  A license for the first elk hunting season came to about $175 and he started complaining about those *@! Texans making the price of licenses go up.  Well, the same license for a non-resident cost almost $500!  And the state is using money from out of state hunters to actually keep the cost down for in-state hunters.  Not to mention the sales tax I collected from them on the ammo, sleeping bags, tents, firewood, propane, gasoline, coats, orange hunting vests, gloves - what exactly did they bring with them???  I probably threw a little fuel on his fire when I mentioned that our little town was actually part of Texas at one time.  Along with Denver and Cheyenne and everything in between.  He just lived in the part of the country that original Texans decided they had no use for.

Next came negative comments from Raelynn's 5th grade teacher about Texans in front of her class.  Raelynn was upset, so Cathy let the teacher know that Raelynn lived in Texas and still has a lot of family in Texas and she should be careful who she is ridiculing in front of the class.  The comments stopped, but so did any other conversation or interaction with the teacher.

We moved to Gunnison, which is a friendlier area.  It has to be, since it gets a huge chunk of revenue from out of state skiers, summer vacationers, and students at Western State.  Like most prejudices, they are softened with exposure to people from a different background.

I started seeing news stories a couple of weeks ago about conservative views being re-introduced into school curriculums in Texas.  Since Texas is the largest non-California market, what is taught in Texas is rolled out to the rest of the country since publishers go for the biggest market.  And California is so far off the chart that no one will follow them.  According to the news stories, the conservatives were successful in rolling back almost all the progressive changes, especially to history, that occurred beginning in the early 1970's.  So the media and progressive educators started sniping.  An editorial cartoon in this Sunday's Denver Post (yes, I am one of the 156 people that still read the newspaper) showed a copy of the Constitution with sticky notes saying things like "mention the 2nd amendment here," "can't we work Reagan in here somewhere," "talk about capitalism here," etc.  Like requiring students to memorize and recite the preamble to the Constitution is a bad thing!  And the 2nd amendment is in there!  And Reagan was a president!  And Texas and United States has actually featured English-speaking white men!  It's Texas history!  We won the Texas revolution.  Don't really care why Santa Ana decided it was necessary to kill everyone at the Alamo.  Just that he did and he got his butt kicked at San Jacinto.  And Sam Houston did not have all his gun-toting rednecks kill all the Mexicans.  He let them live and go back home to Mexico.  He didn't even decide to go conquer more territory.  Same with the American revolution, WWI and II, the Cold War, capitalism vs. communism/socialism/fascism.  We won.  Get over it.  America is blessed and exceptional.  Our kids need to be taught about the good things their country has done and is doing.  It is not necessary to go around bowing to foreign despots and apologizing for our success.

Years ago when I had the book store, I noticed a paperbook published in the early 1970's or maybe even the late 1960's, called The Super-Americans.  Its premise was that the reason other Americans dislike Texans is the same reason that people in other countries don't like Americans.  We know we are right, and don't really care to hear what you think about it.  As Emmitt Smith told Kevin Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX, "look at the scoreboard."  That's all that matters.  Deal with it.  

First the education reforms, then being one of the first states to say they will challenge the health care takeover in court, to being one of the few states whose economy is not in complete freefall.  Now, take a look at this nightmare of a news story from Washington.  It's just unbelieveable how far we have fallen as a country.  About half the comments say that the mother in the story is wrong.  She should have no say in the matter.  What the school did was legal.  In 1995, Texas repealed the law that would allow the schools to do this in Texas.  So maybe California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Washington, Colorado, and D.C. should just close their mouths and take a look at the scoreboard.  Follow the example of a successful state.       

It's all about the Benjamins (money for the less with it crowd)

The first rule in management is "Don't mess with your people's money."  A mistake on a paycheck will be remembered forever, no matter how quickly it might be corrected.  For all the debate about the Constitution, states' rights, federal funding of abortion, government takeover of health care, and death panels, the thing that will kill the bill quicker than anything is the cost.

And maybe that's the way it should be.  In a capitalist system, the market decides.  That's one of the basic principles of our country.  Why did cars become more fuel-efficient in the mid-70's?  Because gas prices went up.  Cars with better gas mileage sold, so car companies made an effort to improve all models' fuel-efficiency.  When gas prices moderated, or the public got accustomed to the higher costs, size became more important.  Chrysler's comeback under Lee Iacocca was led by the minivan.  When gas threatened to climb $4 a gallon or higher, there was a waiting list for hybrids.  

We all complain about American jobs going overseas.  When I worked for Stride Rite in the late 1980's and 1990's, almost all their shoes were made in factories in Massachusetts and Missouri.  Nike set the standard for the industry by going overseas to China and reducing their costs and increasing profits for their shareholders, which is their number one responsibility.  Stride Rite followed their lead, sending hundreds, if not more than a thousand jobs overseas.  By doing so, they were able to avoid the cost increases associated with doing business in the U.S.  Costs consisted mainly of environmental requirements (we all want clean air, right?), employee wages and benefits (we all want high wages and great benefits, right?).  Those production cost increases, to use Obama's phrase, necessarily led to skyrocketing retail prices.

At my store in Arizona, I saw the perfect example of Americans voting with their pocketbook.  We sold the Sperry Topsider boat shoe for $49.  A customer looked at it, tried it on, liked it, then saw that it was now made in China.  He told me that he refused to buy shoes made in China and these used to be made in the U.S.  He REFUSED to support any business that sent jobs to China.  I told him that the Dexter store was only a couple of doors down from my store and they had similar shoes, still made in the U.S.  He was back within fifteen minutes, buying the made in China Sperry Topsiders.  The Dexters, Proudly Made in America, cost an extra $20.  

In the early 1980's, WalMart was Hometown Proud.  They advertised carrying made in America merchandise.  They were also going under.  By 1988, you no longer heard the made in America claim.  Their new catchphrase was Always the Lowest Prices.  Google for stories about the Lowest Prices and their affect on American jobs particularly Zenith televisions and Rubbermaid.  It is impossible to pay the highest labor and environment related costs and sell for the lowest prices.  And it speaks volumes about those costs when you realize that it is cheaper for businesses to ship raw materials overseas, mainly to China, pay to have the products manufactured, and then ship the finished product to the United States than it is to have it manufactured in America.  Unions put the blame on the businesses when American jobs become Chinese jobs.  Blame Americans.  We are the ones that put more value on low retail prices than on American jobs.  When unions or the government start setting wage and benefit requirements, you only have to look to General Motors to see the results.  When over $1000 of the cost of every car goes to benefits for retired workers, a company can't compete.  That leads to higher retail prices and/or lower quality standards, fewer sales, and in this case a government run company.  And when the government gets involved in business, the results are predictably disastrous for the taxpayer, the shareholder, and the customer.  Unions seem to come out of the mess all right though.  They expect a payback for their campaign contributions.

Get the government involved through minimum wage standards.  At my company, we employed an average of 23 year-round full time employees.  Our starting wage was just under $1 over minimum wage.  The government felt that the minimum wage needed to be raised.  Within two years, our starting wage was now below the minimum, which forced the company to give all employees with under a year of service a raise to minimum,about 6%.  Well, the company has a responsibility to its shareholders to make a profit.  At my store, we were budgeted to use 14% of our gross sales on hourly payroll.  That did not change.  The company's options were to raise prices to increase gross sales, or reduce the number of employees.  Customers put a higher premium on price than service, so instead of 23 year-round employees, we now had to get by with 21.  Another interesting side-effect was that longtime employees were now dissatisfied with their pay.  While starting wage went up over 6%, annual salary increases stayed at the standard 3%, so new and short-term associates were making close to the pay of 3 to 5 year associates.  And customer service scores went down because the lower number of employees not only could not do the job as well, but they were not as happy with their job.  As usual when the government gets involved, everyone loses.

So now health care is the focus of the government takeover.  Like anything else, we want the best product at the lowest price.  We don't want to pay the cost of the world's best medical care, we only want to receive the world's best medical care.  In this case, we can't send the jobs to China for lower costs.  So, as in the case of General Motors, the government is stepping in.  And as usual, only the unions (unions, not to be confused with dues paying union members) will be happy with the results.  

Wolverines in the Closet

When Raelynn was about two and a half years old, she visited her MeMe for a couple of days.  MeMe taught her to pretend. When she got home, Raelynn was talking to imaginary friends, having teas, and doing all those things that little kids do.  One of her favorite books was about animals in the forest going to a bear's house during a storm.  We made up more parts of the story with gophers and wolverines.  For some reason, Raelynn really got into the gophers and wolverines.  Soon she was chasing imaginary gophers around our house in Amarillo.  

One day, our landlord, a really nice man in his 60's, was over working on the plumbing under our bathroom sink.  Raelynn ran into the bathroom, and very excitedly asked if the gophers had run through there.  The wolverines chased them out of the closet!  Mr. Frost pulled his head out from under the sink and asked me, "did she say gophers?"  I said, "yeah, the wolverines chased them out of the closet."
 

Kids naturally have imagination.  Play helps develop it.  And so do good toys.  Old fashioned toys like dolls, blocks, tinkertoys, Lincoln logs, and yes, even toy guns.  Our toys have become so advanced, that imagination is no longer required.  Even the toy guns that we sold at Alco make the shooting noise for you.  No more yelling POW as you shoot.  The end of the barrel lights up with a red light and the gun makes noise for you.  

Imagination is harder to teach as kids get older.  Ego gets into the way.  Don't want to look stupid in front of your friends.  But still good teachers in elementary and middle school use imagination and pretend.  Raelynn's teacher in 6th grade taught a section on the Renaissance and gave titles to everyone (he was Duke), and they had a night where they even cooked dishes from the era.  And in one section, they put Columbus on trial for genocide.  I guess imagination can be both used and mis-used.  

Imagination is the first step in the invention and innovation process.  Imagine it, plan it, then create it.  It's also the first step in defense.  You have to imagine what the bad guys will do.  The 9-11 commission said that the biggest reason the attacks were successful was that America had a "failure of imagination."  No one could imagine that the hijacking of airliners could be a suicide mission.  The crews of airliners were trained to cooperate with hijackers and let negotiators take over when the planes landed.  It was never imagined that the planes would be used as a weapon and the hijackers weren't planning to survive the attack.  We never imagined that eleven men with boxcutters could kill 3,000 innocent Americans and bring down the two tallest buildings in the country.


I am fearful that our imaginations might be failing us again.  Like I said before, I never thought that candidate Obama was dangerous.  In order to be elected, he would have to be, at the very most, just a little off-center of the beliefs of the majority of Americans.  And to be re-elected, he would have to reflect the beliefs of the majority.  But, like the terrorists, he and his followers (or leaders) are not thinking like traditional politicians.  They are not looking to be re-elected.  Just as they promised in their campaign, they are trying to fundamentally change America.  Mainstream America did not imagine that that fundamental change meant taking over banks, auto makers, and the entire health care industry - and everything that could possibly be lumped into health care.  Fortunately, America woke up and made a lot of noise protesting the health care takeover.  Some of the congresspersons are realizing that the President's agenda is more than they had bargained for.  Unfortunately, some are either in agreement with him, or still not able to imagine what he really has planned.

Not only is there talk about being able to get the bill signed into law by the President without even going to a Senate vote again, but also adding everything possible that would not be able to be passed separately.  Government takeover of the student loan program, gun control, abortion policy, and any environmental policy are all being rumored to be added to the bill.  Actually public funding of abortions is already in the bill and they can't take it out without risking the failure of the bill when it is presented to the Senate again.  So it will stay in and be taken out in future modifications, they promise!!  And of course, our first response is that all these stories are just nut-job conspiracy theories.  No president or congressman, or senator would be so stupid.  They would never get re-elected!  That's the point, they are suicidal politicians, they don't care about being re-elected.  One of my senators, Michael Bennett, said as much on one of the Sunday morning political talk shows.  He said that even if it meant not being re-elected, he would work to pass the current health care takeover.  He would do the right thing for his constituents!  Just to show how well our representatives listen:  I did something I had never done before, I wrote to Mr. Bennett protesting his position.  Now I get weekly updates by e-mail telling me how hard he is working to pass this legislation for me!

Americans no longer trust their imaginations.  We just can't believe that our elected leaders could be doing this.  In this case, there really are wolverines in the closet!  

Politics

I have always been fiscally conservative, but generally socially liberal. While I voted for McCain, I never felt that Obama was dangerous, or really that different from McCain. I believed that anyone who made it that far in the process was intelligent and mainstream enough to at least be relatively harmless. Wow, was I wrong! From the bailout that had to be passed RIGHT NOW or life as we know it will end!!!! To the takeover of two of the big three US auto makers. To the takeover of the banking industry. To the appointment of admitted communists, socialists, and marxists to major cabinet or czar positions. Not to mention a tax cheat to Treasury Secretary! To the rush to pass cap and trade legislation that is based on veeerrry shaky global warming (excuse me since it's no longer warming we now call it climate change) science. The rush to health insurance reform in an attempt to take over 15% of the U.S. economy (in addition to the majority of the auto and banking industry). Where will this administration stop?????? Oh, apparently on defense. Can't rush into a decision to back our troops in Afghanistan with an increase in troops as requested by a general on site. Let's take over 100 days and then give them 37,000 troops instead of the 40,000 requested. It seems like a pure power or ego driven decision. It took 100 days to decide that the general was close to right, but not quite. And it took our President to make the adjustment.

Let's just get back to the Constitution. You know the one that both the President and all the Congressmen in office took an oath to protect and defend. A recent poll showed that less than 5% of the people could name 5 rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Let's get back to the basics. Here's a link to the Constitution http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html By the way, it's not nearly the 2000+ pages needed for the health insurance reform bill.