adding to post earlier today

Today was the kind of day that makes you want to drive. Just get in the car and go somewhere. It could be anywhere as long as it isn't man made. Just drive to a forest, lake, river, mountain, desert, beach (especially beach), anywhere to get away from anything resembling real life.

Unfortunately the time for this is not a luxury I can afford right now. Shame though, we should all be able to take time out on beautiful days like this and enjoy a bit of peace.

Hopefully some day soon before it gets too hot.

Otherwise I hope you got to enjoy your day.

Can't say enough

The local firefighters were out collecting for something this weekend at all the traffic lights. I hadn't really paid attention if it is all the cities around here or just where I live. I haven't been out much.

Does make you think though, we rarely think about firefighters or I guess we call everybody first responders now, but with the tragedy in West, Texas and bombing in Boston they are the ones that are there when needed. So this is what the kids call my shout out to all the men and women who give themselves to help us when we are in need. You cannot say enough about how valuable these people are to us.

I hope you are having a wonderful spring day where you live. Going to be mid 80's here, can't ask for much more except that we get to keep somewhat reasonable temperatures for as long as we can. Its been a great mild spring.

Somebody say I told you so

Or I thought about titling this post " I don't want to be right"

The talk for 2016 has started, you see news stories in the political sections talking about what will the conservatives do in 2016 or is Hilary going to run.

The key is to keep 2014 out of the hands of the extremists. If we want to put in place a conservative agenda, we need conservative leadership who will stand up and capture a much larger audience. The liberals are driving an agenda that is just detrimental to the long term health of this country. And right now they have the ears of the general populace.

There are three fronts conservatives are losing.

One is the audience. Young people don't get the danger of run away spending. And they don't pay attention to financial matters. Congress has lost credibility with much of the country and conservatives are being blamed. It is all of Congress, but right now conservatives are taking a much larger hit with the people. I have said this in previous posts, but we have to recruit middle class minorities with a strong message that gets through to them that they are going to lose what they have gained if ultra liberal polices continue. The message needs to show the long term advantage of conservative fiscal policy, reduced spending and by doing that we can lower taxes. Too long Republicans have said we need lower taxes. Just saying it nowadays is not a message. We need to show how it works. And the spending has to be reduced. We need that to happen to start balancing the budget. And everyone wants a fair, but understandable tax code.

The second is social agenda. This is pro life, this is pro family, and this seems to be anything in general that supports Judeo Christian beliefs. Kids today are being taught in all forms of media (music, press, movies, TV etc) that you don't need a value system. I try to teach the kids you don't condemn the sinner, you condemn the sin, but nowadays sin seems to be glorified. It is like no one gets life is a gift and we should cherish it. You don't have to be perfect. That isn't expected, what is expected that you respect what has been given and find your purpose. And the social agenda is where we can capture the middle class minorities. They still believe in strong family values. Most come from strong families that laid a foundation for them to become successful. We spend too much effort trying to change laws, when really we should be trying to change hearts. If we educate to values, we won't need to legislate.

The third is defining conservatism. Extremists on the right are driving an agenda that has conservative verbiage, but takes away the ability to accomplish anything. Politics is always going to have some give and take. We have to move the agenda to more practical matters in government, but if people think all conservatives are obstinate, then they won't want to work with us. Most Americans still are moderately conservative. Right now though they feel conservatives don't represent them. And this is because liberals are acting like the more practical group. Conservative politicians really should be the more practical group, but with extremists defining the agenda and Republican leadership kowtowing to them the majority of this country is under represented.

Americans by and large are still a driven people. They want success. They want to feel their voice is heard. They want a responsive government. Conservatives need to show that a responsive government is not a super large government, one that isn't in their life 24/7. People want security, but we have to lead the charge that security does not mean we give up our rights. Conservatives need to push the agenda that the federal government is not the way to solve all problems. We need to offer alternatives and right now this is one of the conservative's weakest points. There is absolutely no creative juices running through conservative politics. The times are changing and we need to adapt our means to accomplish our goals. This means new ways to solve problems. Again people want responsive government, they want government to solve problems because they are being taught that through decades of growing government intrusion in our lives. We need to show that problems can be solved bottom up or through individual initiative. And again this means being creative.

So please tell me I am wrong, that we can muddle through with what we have been doing for the last few years and everything will be all right. Or if I am right and we don't change we can kiss conservatism and our country good bye.

So if the Republicans don't want to do it, bring back the Progressive Conservative party, more commonly known as the Bull Moose party. I am telling you, it is uncanny what that philosophy would mean now.

Tax day has come and gone

A few thoughts:

I wonder how many people go to confession after tax day.
I wonder how many people should.

Did the taxes, plus had a family birthday to celebrate. Nice contrast of spending money you don't have.

Actually I will say in my dealings with the actual people of the IRS I have always been treated well. Sometimes we can forget that there are people that work for the IRS and they are willing to help so don't be afraid to ask for anything reasonable.

And for taxes we forget it is not just income tax that eats us up. There are way too many fee taxes, secondary taxes etc that drop off our radar screen. So would it be better to have one tax rate for everything or do you prefer to be nickel and dimed to death. And the actual tax forms are too complicated. You should be able to fill out all the forms you need to get all your deductions with a reasonable amount of effort. The forms are skewed to where you have to pay for help. I think this is something that needs to be addressed. A person with reasonable capabilities should be able to do their own taxes and get all the deductions that are available to them. The difficulty of filling out the forms a sideways version of cheating you out of your money. This isn't the IRS, this is lobbyists forcing our legislators to write laws that benefit them. Or you could even say indirect taxation without representation.

Beautiful spring day here in Texas, too bad ruined by events in Boston. Our prayers go out to the families of the victims and for the recovery of the injured

Who took the fun out of it?

Remember when political bantering was fun. It use to make your blood race. Now all the crap we hear just makes it boil. We are overloaded with hate and misguided ideology. Big government is now the liberal norm and being conservative is measured by how many names you call liberals.

Why have we lost something that we should cherish? What happened to defining issues and standing up for them. Remember when being a liberal meant you wanted more rights and you didn't want the government intruding in your life. I am not talking the modern conservative smaller government, but the classic expand the rights of the individual.

Anyway is it possible to bring back real political dialogue in today's environment? I hope we find a way.

Otherwise long live the constitution the constitution is dying.