Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE





I wish everyone a great day.

First of all we have to thank the fire, police, and back up staff that have to work; nurses, doctors and other hospital staff working today; some transportation workers still working so many can get home to family; IT workers so people like me can get on; other emergency type workers; and any others that perform necessary work to get us through the day. And starting with the last few groups mentioned, where do we draw the line. Today is Thanksgiving and many of us will go to mass, church, synagogue, or some type of service to give Thanks to what we have, but overall Thanksgiving even though rooted in a religious tradition is not necessarily a religious holiday and the one time of the year we should be able as much as possible to get together to spend with family.

A little bit remiss for some people, it seems that we spend so much time worrying about the trivial that many people don't get to spend time with their families. There are so many people working today that don't actually need to be working. I know it is good that people have jobs to go to, and that business needs to make money, but at what cost. It seems a real shame that we can't keep the tradition of one day a year being solely dedicated to family for everyone. Some people will say I am old fashioned, out of touch with today's world, but that is where I want to make my argument. I am not arguing against change, but keeping what has value to us as a society. We don't value what is important like redeveloping family relations vs going out and buying something we can get every other day of the year. A little planning ahead and we don't need grocery stores open, even convenience stores don't really need to be open, nowadays you can get gas at the pump if you have to go out, but like I said a little planning ahead and many of the things we might need could be had. Then there is the retail people who have to be at work at some un Godly hour, making minimum wage or just above to do what. Really, we can buy the same item on sale at 9 or 10am, just as easily as 4am. How much can you push a sale? People even have to work that don't need to so I can watch my beloved Cowboys.

I can't think of everyone who might be a necessary worker to thank for giving up the day and I can't think of everyone who is working who absolutely doesn't need to be there so others of us can enjoy extra creature comforts and fulfill selfish desires, however, why is it so difficult to think what is important, define them, and let everyone else get together with family and friends to enjoy one day a year with people. People wonder why our society is so disjointed nowadays. Modern Thanksgiving to me is just one example, major example, of why.

Well as we prepare our meal, chop and cut, measure and stir, wash the turkey with the tequila, etc then sit down to borderline gluttony, let us remember to give thanks to the hotel worker, transportation worker, grocery store clerk, along with the police, fire, hospital staff and everyone else working today that allow us to enjoy our day.

God bless and hopefully you have a great Thanksgiving if not today at some point this weekend.

some post mortem comments on the Republican blame game

Always seem to be thinking of stuff way away from a computer, maybe should get one of those tablets, much easier writing on one of those instead of the smart phone when I am not home.

Anyway, I really hadn't thought I was going to write on the Republican self back lash or blame game or whatever you may want to call it and most people are already moving on, but I have heard a few things, seen a few things, etc that made me want to say something. Really, between Jon Stewart's segment on the topic that I thought was really good, to something I heard in church, to another presentation by a historian in the church, and some other things made me think maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I threw in at least a penny's worth of it all.

First I do need to say I rail pretty hard on the Republican party, jumping on what I have been calling the elitists and the extremists. And it is these two segments of the party that is dragging it down and making it ineffective politically, however, the main body, the middle and upper middle class that makes up the large segment of the Party has some blame for letting these two groups hijack the party. And I don't think me saying this is unique. Part of the conversations lately (conversations beyond Fox News) are touching on this I think.

And still even before I get down to my few points, I do want to make a point about the elitist segment and some warnings to people. To begin I have a thought and I haven't taken many economic classes, but I feel that Wall Street, as an institution, should be a trailing economic indicator. This might be a bit strange, but give me a sentence or two on this one.

Wall Street, as what most people think of traditionally, is suppose to reflect how business is doing. Another words the market would go up or down depending on the overall health of the economy and how companies are doing. And it still puts on those appearances, but the current reality is Wall Street now exists for its own profit. Yes occasionally a company's performance does have a direct bearing on its stock price, but rarely for the long run. Two things are going on, first companies seem and it is commented often to be pandering to Wall Street and make business decisions that do not benefit the long term health of the company. Second and more scary is Wall Street as most know can make money and lots of it especially nowadays with all the sophisticated traders with very small movement in the overall market. Wall Street doesn't need companies to be successful for it to be successful. It has lost what technically was its primary purpose to exist which is the ability of investors to share in the capital growth of our economy. I don't think this is radical news to most, but it has to be taken into consideration when I refer to the elitist wing of the Republican party, which is primarily made up of people profiting off Wall Street as its own identity. I mention this because I want the mainstream Republicans to realize that economic policy dominated by this group under the guise of being part of a conservative economic policy is a sham. So if you look at how Wall Street is suppose to be viewed traditionally then it should stick to being an investment vehicle to help people grow their wealth. And if you read my posts regularly you know I am firm believer that for democracy to be healthy, wealth needs to be spread out and not concentrated. And I mean real wealth, many strong companies and small businesses doing well, which we seem to be missing nowadays. This is hurting democracy. Wall Street should be a trailing indicator because it would reflect in market movement what has already happened to the overall business climate and people would invest on future potential. The fact that the market can be manipulated by events and market movement without any basis on how the actual company is doing is dangerous. And I do mean by events not like wars or disasters where a company has no control, but man made events to manipulate the market and this is what I fear, the elitists are now able to create events and manipulate the media to influence the average investor to go one way and Wall Street takes advantage and makes outsize profits on just the movement itself. Again I don't think this is new news, but a rather long paragraph to make a simple point.

Back to the original topic. So what happened, first take into consideration historic perspective, this country always seems to overcome all the changes that have happened over the last 200 plus years and we have kept on growing. Even a few depressions and more recessions, a few wars, etc, even when we have new groups becoming part of the country and a nod to Mr Stewart's point about the immigration that occurred in the 19th century. We became stronger, much to the chagrin of the elitist groups of that time. The immigrants were blamed for all sorts of troubles that could come about. And again the country got stronger. I have heard some other points similar, but the one by Mr Stewart is something you can go verify as a back up to my point that not only do the Republicans have only themselves to blame, the groups they are deriding that helped Obama win are the groups they should be trying to win over. And seriously telling people they are bad because they didn't help you win isn't going to help your cause in the long run. The extremists and elitist through Fox have been shooting the future of a true conservative agenda in the head. They are killing it. It is becoming more and more difficult to present a rational conservative argument in a conversation with people with the idiocy these people are spouting. And for them to denigrate different voters as the future downfall of the country, well thanks a &^%#)%&#) bunch.

They are going nuts over this, and some of these groups would be the conservative movements best allies. For example, many middle class Latino groups have a history of hard work, working themselves up to get where they are, and have strong family value backgrounds. The basis of any generic conservative ideology in this country, yet the elitists and extremists look at this group as a detriment of the future of the Republican party. They talk about how America is changing, well it always has and always will, but to take away any future of a true conservative agenda by belittling other groups is plain idiocy. They act that because there are less white males to vote for them, the country is going to hell. Plain stupid. The country can continue to be great, but you have to educate why your values are good for the country and with their attitude it will take some doing going forward.

I have always said a good education helps democracy along with my earlier thoughts on wealth. Now with many new immigrant groups etc, plus the rise of women in our business and political landscape it is not the end of this country as the Fox News pundits are acting like, but rather an opportunity to expand the basis of why conservatism still has a better outlook for the long term health of this country. Well a true conservative agenda, that relies on strong economic growth of business not wall street, family values that incorporate better education for our children, faith based values in our society, concepts of civics and citizenship shared among all the people, a government that isn't over bearing and oppressive in size, more balanced budget that is realistically managed. People believe in these values, Most people in this country are moderately conservative, and to what seems to be utter amazement of white fox pundits this includes everyone in the country.

So to the Republicans in general, time to either take back your party or look elsewhere or everything you believe in will be gone, not because Obama won and took the election by using all these different groups, but because the conservative leadership failed to engage them at a crucial time in our country.

Anyway a little more rambling that I wanted to be, but I tend to do that, cut through the rhetoric and I hope the general point is made.

And just in case I don't get back to this blog before Thursday, have a great Thanksgiving. Even if you have to find something to be thankful for, find it, acknowledge it, and go from there.

The fiscal cliff

Okay, is it me or what? There are so many obvious compromises why can't we get a deal done? I know some of the crap now is just political posturing, but it is getting lame.

And we will never get a decent conservative agenda if the current group of elitist and extremist Republicans don't make some moderation. We need to reduce the size of our government. Just the size alone will force taxes to go up. We need to work our way through this mess so we can realistically reduce the size.

First obvious compromise, raise taxes a small amount across the board a bit more of an increase to the top bracket. Also create a small percentage reduction across all of the govt, more of cut budget, not programs cut. Basically look at the fiscal cliff as having stair steps each year. The goal is if you can start the turn around on the deficit it might help the economy.If the economy picks up and employment increases you may not have to raise taxes next year because more people working brings in more taxes. Also gives you a year to make honest effort on reducing spending even more. Again focusing on spending cuts not program cuts and as you are doing this you can begin the process of how you can combine programs to reduce waste and redundancy.

Now we start year three of the stair steo. Wuth minimal to no increase of taxes in year two, drop in actual spending based on allocating less across the board you can begin the real work of recreating and combining like mentioned before our social programs to do more with less. As I have mentioned before in other posts we cannot ignore poverty, it will cost us more in the long run . It is how we address it that must change. Getting started on reducing the deficit allows us as conservatives to show we are serious about solving the deficit which gives us the support from the people to change the way we do things. We need to be ready to be flexible.

Once we change the dynamic of the conversation politically we can implement more private public partnerships to continue rebuilding the economy. Once the economy gets strong again we can look at certain tax reductions or targeted tax reductions to encourage development of new industries where can export more to help leesen the impact of our drbt.

Just some quick thoughts to show things can get done without being dranconian. There are many compromises possible that can lead back to a conservative solution to our economic challenges. We need to start the compromises so we can shape the dialogue going forward.

Anyway trying to type this on a bus plus keep my thoughts organized with a two inch screen is maddening. I did want to start a dialogue though. And for conservatives the sooner the better.

So bring back the Progressive Conservative Party.

Finally I have seen some random posts on creating a national water policy some with drought and flood planning. If we built the great seaway in the 1800's we can certainly do something in this century. This is something we can definitely use more of a public private partnership rather than having this all done by the federal govt by itself.. Again we need to moderate the size of the government so as conservatives we need to get out in front of this.

Have a great evening, going to learn more about the seven deadly sins, lust is the topic and I only bring this bit of trivia up because of a certain General in the news. Too bad he messed up his life over something he should have known better. Head of the CIA and he thinks he can hide something. Shesh


And oh yeah behaving himself a bit better.

some randomness

This topic has probably been beaten to death, but I am curious as to how frustrated coaches and players get with all these sports fantasy leagues. I really don't pay much attention to them, but you got to think some players are tired of hearing how they blew a fantasy game after they may have just had a grueling bad day. I cannot imagine how pissed I would be if I got harassed from some idiot who put the fantasy league ahead of me trying to win the real game. Just curious what the players think.


After the election my youngest daughter ( I have a few) asked me if we were rich would we be Republicans. After all I rant about including with the family just more proof positive that kids don't listen to their parents. Now this is the daughter that once asked me how much we would get if we won the lottery. I explained to her the amount after taxes were withheld. She became an instant member of the Republican party. I keep telling its okay to want to be conservative, but there is more to life than lower taxes.

We had our Veteran's Day parade here in Dallas today. Somewhat chilly for Dallas, but a pretty good turnout. And to those that served or serving. Thank you

down for the count

Did I just hear Pat Caddell on Fox news say Americans want something better. Does that mean I get to say "duh". This race goes to show any half decent moderately conservative candidate could have won, but as long as the Republican leadership only think of their wants a true and good conservative platform won't happen. Again a poor candidate came close because all the polls show we are moderately conservative, yet we can't find a candidate to stand up to the economic oligarchy and do what is right for this country. Anyway congrats to the President at least you ran a smarter campaign.

Folks its time to start looking for the right candidates. Have a good night.

Counting

They should poll the people who didn't vote and ask them why. Especially if this election is close. Or ask people if they are happy with their vote.

some pre election comments part b

Trying to write a post on my smartphone and for some reason can't fix the mistakes. Previous post is a bit butchered so please excuse. Main idea though is to realize there is more than one issue to this campaign and to hold people to this fire can be counter productive. Education is key. You can't convince people with argument. Life is something people have to learn to appreciate. And the religious protestant right goes way overboard on trying to beat this issue into law. They just won't succeed with these tactics. Try to tell them that and they act like you cut off their foot. When we are better educated as a society we have a better chance to prevail. For some this sounds counter intuitive, but it will work. Put God first not religion then the pieces start to make sense. Religion sometimes gets in the way of God and those mistakes are hard to overcome.

Anyway I got way off track here, have much more to say,but late

The other point is more straight foward.

Real quick platform stmt here before the election for what I consider to be the progressive platform.
Education not what we accept but one that challenges our children and sets higher standards not just in,math and science, but also arts, philosoohy, critical thinking. Somewhere amongst my previous posts is a rough draft idea based on child development and all around education I think we should use.

A real war on poverty. One that doesn't rely on handouts, but attacks the multi generational poverty our current welfare system created. Instead of hand outs we need to create wealth, will need to start with re education and rebuilding family to get started.

Reward the people who invest in our country with tax breaks. We cannot give tax breaks arbitrarily. Economic policy should be based on two key factors...rebuilding a more diversified wealth base and developing products we can export. Helps with jobs, trade imbalance, and develops new technolovies.

We need a diversified energy policy. Whether you believe in global warming or not we need to make sure we aren't dependent on one to two sources of energy, plus there is so much advantage if we, as a country, lead the way into
this century. Every country that develops new energy always benefits for decades to come. History is full of examples.

We need to balance the budget. See above for a start and add working on poverty. Poverty has hidden costs that will derail any budget if not addressed.

We need to develop a national water plan. This shouldn't be a govt program but a coalition of public and private investment. Part of my plan to shore up social security involves these projects.

Okay enough for now, have a great evening and never try to type this much insanity on a smart phone.

I just feel this election,is an,exercise in futility. No candidate or party that realizes we need new solutions for a new time.

And someone wake Congress up. They have got to quit living off of special interests or we are just screwed.

Some pre election comments

Not much left to say anymore. For some of us this election is an exercise in futility. Not a big fan of government solving our problems and don't feel the Republicans really have the best interests of the country. Or at least the current Republican leadership. The rank and file are just too willing to accept what has been thrown,at them.

It seems they are dancing with the devil because the devil is playing their song.

I think this for many reasons, but especially for one issue. Can anyone really trust him on this I do not know. Maybe he will stay the course, who knows. And there is a small group or maybe large group hard to say making this a one issue race.

I am somewhat libertarian and govt. shouldn't legislate social issues, but can't support the libertarian party because the party platform seems by default to support a bunch of issues I am against. By saying govt shouldn't get involved shouldn't be defacto support to the issue.

Anyway for pro life it shouldn't be a one pony race. There are better ways to support life than by trying to base an entire election on this issue. It is the responsibility of the Church to spend as much time on educating than legislating. I am a firm believer the more people are educated the more they would actually understand the power of the gift of life. Even better secular education in general is good because an educated person tends to ask more questions and wonder where do we come from. Once people are aware they exist the more they want to know.

Also truly educated people can see the futility of the argument of pro choice of what a woman does in private is her business. Which you can say, but it allows for further argument that if a woman self mutilates in private it is okay because its her choice or kills herself, prostitutes herself, does pornography. Yes she can do this in private and it is her choice, but is this truly the best for her. Or even for men. You can say you have a choice but where does that choice leave you.

And this is also why the Church should direct its energies to education not legislation. You can't force people to believe something, it is better if they come to realize the truth. And in this case, it is the understanding that we are created and that all life is precious. Even the unborn.






































And then you don't argue stupidly about life because of rape but because of a better educated populace you work on the issues that cause rape. Getting people to,appreciate all life and respect each other leads to protecting women from real problems like abuse and rape. Again education leads to a better understanding of the value of all life vs trying to pound a viewpoint down p eoGUIple's throats. People resist being told what to