It is very tragic how this election turned out. Our country (not me and some 56 million others) just elected a person with an undefined past, no accomplishments to speak of, and uses words that make people "feel good". In fact, our new "President-elect" would probably even have a hard time passing a national security background check for a top secret clearance as a private citizen, or at the very least be given a second look.
His rise to prominence came at a time when our country was having some hard economic times and was in a protracted, but necessary, war. It came at a time when the bulk of the mainstream media successfully talked down the economy to the point that many people actually started to believe it even before it really happened. It came at a time when the same media bashed the existing President for carrying out a war to protect the American people without regard to the fact that we haven't been attacked again since 9/11 and are a nation much safer than before.
Of all the elections I've been through since I first voted in 1964, this is the very first I actually fear for our country and what may be around the corner. I hope that our new president will make good decisions for our economic and national security while keeping our nation free from further government and foreign interference. However, I have severe doubts based on what he has said, or not said, and the fact that he is basically an unknown entity that has been successfully hidden from the past with the support of the media.
In his victory speech he tells his loyal supporters that the road will be difficult but "we will get there". Where is that? He never defines it, but yet they cheer.
He wants to "redefine" America "block by block". What does this mean? Yet they cheer.
He wants to "spread the wealth" and give tax cuts to 95% of working people even though many people already do not pay income taxes. He funds this by taxing the very people who help create the jobs. He never mentions that taxes will go up for many when he lets the present tax cuts expire in 2010. Yet they cheer.
He says we don't need to drill for more oil and gas and open up our vast land and waters to harness the energy it needs to further our economic growth. Yet they cheer.
He wants to add 100's of billions of dollars to the national budget to fund health care and other expanded entitlements to make more people dependent on government rather than themselves. Yet they cheer.
Our new President-elect says he wants to start a "civilian national security force" probably because he has little trust in our military. He has also said he wants to cut the military budget in a time when our nation has a perilous and cunning enemy and countries that could become our enemy any time. Yet they cheer.
With the help of a very biased media, a lot of money, and some "white guilt", I fear our country has gone down a dark alley with very little chance that when we reach the end we will be the same America that made our country the most free and prosperous in the world. My hope is that any damage that may result can be reversed to restore our country to the principles that made it great. Time will tell. Maybe we will have an answer in time for our next election cycles in 2010 and 2012.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Where's the Crisis?
Although I still have a lot of faith in President Bush to do what's right for this country, I wonder if he is being given good financial advice. It appears something has to be done to help stabilize our financial system, but does it have to be this drastic? I know some so-called experts say people and businesses will soon fail to get loans to buy cars and homes, but so far things seem to continue like in the past. I keep getting solicitations for expanded credit and auto dealers seem to be selling cars. Even homes are being bought and sold. Things seem to be going on normally from my limited vantage point, so I have to assume that the financial experts see something I'm not seeing. This crisis has the investment market in a free fall, but is it because we know there is a serious problem, or because we only think there is a real problem. Do we really know for sure? I'll leave it at that for now.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Optimism is Always an Option
Our government's bailout mentality that I wrote about some time ago, has now officially morphed into socialism. The so-called imminent collapse of our financial system resulted primarily from government interference with the free market of our monetary credit system via government controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and other institutions - i.e. handing out bad loans and mixing them up with our investments. What do we get out of the mess that government helped create? You're right - we get more government control.
I'm afraid with the advent of the proposed "bailout" or "rescue" plan, along with the likely continuance and possibly strengthening of the liberal block of our congressional senators and representatives, the next few years will lead to an exponential increase in government control of our everyday lives including health care, education, the environment, energy, and now much more control of our financial system which is the engine of our economy. If you control the engine, you control the ship.
Moreover, if the Democratic nominee, whose past education and associations are linked to anti-capitalism and socialistic policies, gains control of the White House, combined with a liberal majority in Congress, our free market system and our way of life will be drastically changed in the years to come. The damage will take many years to reverse assuming we will gain the will to reverse it in the first place.
Those of us who have benefited from the greatness of this country over the past 50-60 years will not much be effected except maybe for a somewhat decreased standard of living in retirement, but the emerging generations will be greatly effected by an increased dependency on government. This greatness was built on hard work, personal accountability, self-sufficiency, and our capitalistic system over the past 230 plus years. We now approach a serious turning point and I'm not sure we have the collective will to reverse course and decrease government control, but optimism is always an option.
I'm afraid with the advent of the proposed "bailout" or "rescue" plan, along with the likely continuance and possibly strengthening of the liberal block of our congressional senators and representatives, the next few years will lead to an exponential increase in government control of our everyday lives including health care, education, the environment, energy, and now much more control of our financial system which is the engine of our economy. If you control the engine, you control the ship.
Moreover, if the Democratic nominee, whose past education and associations are linked to anti-capitalism and socialistic policies, gains control of the White House, combined with a liberal majority in Congress, our free market system and our way of life will be drastically changed in the years to come. The damage will take many years to reverse assuming we will gain the will to reverse it in the first place.
Those of us who have benefited from the greatness of this country over the past 50-60 years will not much be effected except maybe for a somewhat decreased standard of living in retirement, but the emerging generations will be greatly effected by an increased dependency on government. This greatness was built on hard work, personal accountability, self-sufficiency, and our capitalistic system over the past 230 plus years. We now approach a serious turning point and I'm not sure we have the collective will to reverse course and decrease government control, but optimism is always an option.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
"It's the Oil, Stupid"
We always heard "it's the economy stupid" in campaigns past, but today I think it more fitting because of the emphasis on high energy costs, that we focus on "oil" and its primary derivatives - gasoline, heating oil, kerosene, and diesel fuels. Most of our politicians bemoan the cost of oil and its effect on our personal lives, but hardly any of them really get at the heart of the problem, and that is we need more domestic oil production and refinery capacity.
Although I personally promote the conservation of our natural resources, we cannot get carried away to the point that it will have a significant adverse effect on our economic growth. Unfortunately, we are now at that point, and our political leaders need to get the courage to advocate increasing our domestic production of oil and its fuel derivatives along with the increased use of nuclear power. To accomplish this they need to treat the environmental issues, such as "climate change" with much more skepticism and not so quick to dismiss the abundance of scientific facts that do not support man-made global warming.
This will take political courage since our media and the bulk of our politicians, along with our educators, have done a very good job of "indoctrinating" the public and our kids with the notion that we are destroying the planet with fossil fuels. This is hogwash. Lest we forget, oil, along with coal, are now and will be for the foreseeable future, our only economical sources of energy and there is plenty of it here on our own soil and offshore, contrary to the myth that there isn't. To shun this fact will doom our economic system and our way of life as we know it today. Many alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, are much too expensive and each have its own serious problems. We have made nuclear energy into an enemy by our "nuclear phobia" but it is a relatively practical and clean alternative source of energy. Until we get smart leadership on this issue, our national economy will suffer like it hasn't suffered since the Great Depression. We need to act now before it will be way to late.
OneConservative
Although I personally promote the conservation of our natural resources, we cannot get carried away to the point that it will have a significant adverse effect on our economic growth. Unfortunately, we are now at that point, and our political leaders need to get the courage to advocate increasing our domestic production of oil and its fuel derivatives along with the increased use of nuclear power. To accomplish this they need to treat the environmental issues, such as "climate change" with much more skepticism and not so quick to dismiss the abundance of scientific facts that do not support man-made global warming.
This will take political courage since our media and the bulk of our politicians, along with our educators, have done a very good job of "indoctrinating" the public and our kids with the notion that we are destroying the planet with fossil fuels. This is hogwash. Lest we forget, oil, along with coal, are now and will be for the foreseeable future, our only economical sources of energy and there is plenty of it here on our own soil and offshore, contrary to the myth that there isn't. To shun this fact will doom our economic system and our way of life as we know it today. Many alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, are much too expensive and each have its own serious problems. We have made nuclear energy into an enemy by our "nuclear phobia" but it is a relatively practical and clean alternative source of energy. Until we get smart leadership on this issue, our national economy will suffer like it hasn't suffered since the Great Depression. We need to act now before it will be way to late.
OneConservative
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Letter to RNC and McCain Campaigns
I'd like to share a letter I recently sent to the RNC and John McCain Campaign Chairman with a copy to the North Carolina Republican Party. I encourage others to take similar actions to try to get their attention before it's too late:
"I am very disappointed, to say the least, that Senator McCain has chosen to criticize the North Carolina Republican Party for running an ad that associates the state’s Democratic candidates with Senator Obama and the views of his pastor, Reverend Wright. Apparently, the Republican National Committee agrees with the senator because I have not heard anything to the contrary. It appears that Senator McCain is trying to distance himself from what he discerns as personal attacks when in fact they merely point out that Senator Obama, and those supporting him, closely associate themselves with those advocating radical views. This is a very legitimate argument, and to dictate that a political arm of the Republican party cannot advertise this argument is not only harmful, but downright insulting and, in fact, dictatorial. Senator McCain appears to take more comfort being critical of his own party than the Democrats, and the press eats it up. The close personal associations of a candidate for public office are fair game because they may reveal a person’s worldview. This is a very important element in any campaign.
The mainly liberal media loves it when the Senator is critical of his own party because in their eyes he is a maverick among the conservative political culture. Well, if Senator McCain can be a maverick within his own party, I guess I can be one also. Therefore, I have decided for now not to donate any more money to the RNC or to the campaign of Senator John McCain until Senator McCain and the RNC “grow up” and stop being afraid to criticize because it may be too offensive. The stakes in this election are much to high to risk the takeover of this country by radical elements bent on destroying the culture and infrastructure that made this country great. It is bad enough that I was reluctantly supporting Senator McCain in spite of his more liberal views on immigration and global warming, as well as his negative attitudes toward the oil and drug industry and the like, but this issue has taken it to a new level.
Additionally, Senator McCain is on record as opposing the so called “527” organizations on all sides of the political spectrum. He is basically trying to stifle political discourse in taking this point of view. Ironically, he helped create these groups with his campaign finance reform. How else does he think people should debate political issues? Gone are the days when individuals have enough political impact to make a difference so they resort to other methods.
I applaud the actions of the NC Republican Party in airing the ad in question and I hope more state committees and conservative 527 organizations take similar actions. In fact my future donations will be going to the 527 groups that support truly conservative causes. They will probably have more impact by taking the issues head on than Senator McCain or the RNC can even hope, or have the courage, to do".
OneConservative
"I am very disappointed, to say the least, that Senator McCain has chosen to criticize the North Carolina Republican Party for running an ad that associates the state’s Democratic candidates with Senator Obama and the views of his pastor, Reverend Wright. Apparently, the Republican National Committee agrees with the senator because I have not heard anything to the contrary. It appears that Senator McCain is trying to distance himself from what he discerns as personal attacks when in fact they merely point out that Senator Obama, and those supporting him, closely associate themselves with those advocating radical views. This is a very legitimate argument, and to dictate that a political arm of the Republican party cannot advertise this argument is not only harmful, but downright insulting and, in fact, dictatorial. Senator McCain appears to take more comfort being critical of his own party than the Democrats, and the press eats it up. The close personal associations of a candidate for public office are fair game because they may reveal a person’s worldview. This is a very important element in any campaign.
The mainly liberal media loves it when the Senator is critical of his own party because in their eyes he is a maverick among the conservative political culture. Well, if Senator McCain can be a maverick within his own party, I guess I can be one also. Therefore, I have decided for now not to donate any more money to the RNC or to the campaign of Senator John McCain until Senator McCain and the RNC “grow up” and stop being afraid to criticize because it may be too offensive. The stakes in this election are much to high to risk the takeover of this country by radical elements bent on destroying the culture and infrastructure that made this country great. It is bad enough that I was reluctantly supporting Senator McCain in spite of his more liberal views on immigration and global warming, as well as his negative attitudes toward the oil and drug industry and the like, but this issue has taken it to a new level.
Additionally, Senator McCain is on record as opposing the so called “527” organizations on all sides of the political spectrum. He is basically trying to stifle political discourse in taking this point of view. Ironically, he helped create these groups with his campaign finance reform. How else does he think people should debate political issues? Gone are the days when individuals have enough political impact to make a difference so they resort to other methods.
I applaud the actions of the NC Republican Party in airing the ad in question and I hope more state committees and conservative 527 organizations take similar actions. In fact my future donations will be going to the 527 groups that support truly conservative causes. They will probably have more impact by taking the issues head on than Senator McCain or the RNC can even hope, or have the courage, to do".
OneConservative
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Big Bail Out Mentality
Here we go again. If the tax rebate bailout wasn't enough, we now have government talking about bailing out the home mortgage industry and mortgage holders who can't seem to afford what they agreed to pay for in the first place. Even though about 95% of mortgage holders have no problem paying their monthly payments, we have a bunch who the government says needs help. What is it with this bailout mentality? Can't we just let the system work to correct itself and leave it to personal accountability? I'm tired of having to pay for everyone else who can't seem to get it together. I guess the media who hype all our problems, and the supporters of big government can't leave well enough alone.
It wasn't long ago that people didn't always need to have big government come to the rescue, but today politicians need to have the Feds bail out every natural or man-made crisis to buy more votes. This wasn't the case in the past on such a massive scale. Where is the money coming from? You know where - from our pockets in the form of higher taxes. It won't be long before this country implodes on itself, and a revolution will be necessary to rescue ourselves from .... uh, well, ..... ourselves.
OneConservative
It wasn't long ago that people didn't always need to have big government come to the rescue, but today politicians need to have the Feds bail out every natural or man-made crisis to buy more votes. This wasn't the case in the past on such a massive scale. Where is the money coming from? You know where - from our pockets in the form of higher taxes. It won't be long before this country implodes on itself, and a revolution will be necessary to rescue ourselves from .... uh, well, ..... ourselves.
OneConservative
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Shooting Ourselves in the Foot
Well, here we go again. The price of oil hits another high and, guess what? It's not the fault of "BIG OIL". Here we have a combination of market forces due to normal supply and demand coupled with speculation on the future price of oil due to political events, and government intervention.
Normally, when a product is in high demand and the supply is limited, the price goes up resulting in the producer increasing supply to sell more product at the higher price. Eventually, the increase in supply will meet demand and the price will stabilize or fall if demand decreases and, in a free market environment, the cycle continues. However, oil as a commodity, unfortunately does not exist in a free market environment.
Our governments (federal and state) have chosen to limit production of raw oil and its by-products, such as gasoline, heating oil, etc. through environmental regulations and, more recently, the man-made global warming myth. OPEC which is a consortium of foreign oil producing countries exacerbate the problem by controlling production to keep the price as high as possible. This would be considered price fixing in our country and would be illegal, but our government essentially ends up doing the same thing through regulation. Thus, when the supply is limited artificially, and demand remains high, the prices will remain high as well.
Government also effects the cost of energy by subsidizing products that compete with oil, such as, ethanol, wind, and solar power, and the like. Most of these products cannot exist without subsidies and research grants because the costs of such new technologies cannot be sustained in a free market at the present time. Even if oil companies could produce more oil, they have a hard time justifying an increase in the product because of the unknown effects of the use of other forms of energy. Why would you invest more millions or billions of dollars to increase production when you weren't sure how much competing subsidized products may reduce demand for your product, even if these products may cost substantially more to produce than yours.
When we combine these market factors with the perversion of science that has embedded itself into the political process, we approach what I call a "perfect storm" - the combination of an self induced increase in the costs of energy with the fanatical belief that man is ruining the world and changing the world's climate. If this process continues and we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, our economic system and standard of living will be drastically reduced to a mere figment of itself. Maybe this is what many of the global warming fanatics really want - a destruction of the capitalistic system and along with it, democracy.
We have to understand that oil at the present time is the only source that can produce the amount of energy that this country needs to sustain our economic growth. Oil reserves are plentiful enough to sustain the planet for many years to come. Nuclear power is a great alternative to our electric grid but we are so blinded by the word "nuclear" that our country resists any increase in its use. Many other alternative sources will take a very long time to become an affordable and practical product in a free market. All this hype on bio-fuels is causing world food prices to rise exponentially and is inefficient compared to oil.
The so-called Third World nations are unnecessarily stifled economically because the developed nations don't want them to use oil for fear of global warming. Do people really want windmills in their backyard and huge solar panels on their roofs that cost more to install and maintain than the money they pay to the power company? Do people want to give up the number of TV sets, computers, electrical appliances, cell phone chargers, video game players, etc.? Think of it. Most of the people you hear who are demagoging the environmental issues have large cars, a lot of home electronics and appliances, huge living spaces, and use personal jets. Will they give all these things up? Not a chance. But they want YOU to give them up and limit your choices in what you buy.
When are we going to realize that this self-induced hatred of oil will cause our economic downfall? It is amazing that our politicians are reluctant to speak out on this issue, probably because they think that everyone has accepted the man-made global warming myth and the blaming of "BIG OIL" for the world's woes, and are afraid to lose votes and be hated by the mainstream media. It is time for some political leadership calling the environmental myths for what they are and stopping the demagoguery on the evil of oil. If this doesn't happen soon, the results may be irreversible.
OneConservative
Normally, when a product is in high demand and the supply is limited, the price goes up resulting in the producer increasing supply to sell more product at the higher price. Eventually, the increase in supply will meet demand and the price will stabilize or fall if demand decreases and, in a free market environment, the cycle continues. However, oil as a commodity, unfortunately does not exist in a free market environment.
Our governments (federal and state) have chosen to limit production of raw oil and its by-products, such as gasoline, heating oil, etc. through environmental regulations and, more recently, the man-made global warming myth. OPEC which is a consortium of foreign oil producing countries exacerbate the problem by controlling production to keep the price as high as possible. This would be considered price fixing in our country and would be illegal, but our government essentially ends up doing the same thing through regulation. Thus, when the supply is limited artificially, and demand remains high, the prices will remain high as well.
Government also effects the cost of energy by subsidizing products that compete with oil, such as, ethanol, wind, and solar power, and the like. Most of these products cannot exist without subsidies and research grants because the costs of such new technologies cannot be sustained in a free market at the present time. Even if oil companies could produce more oil, they have a hard time justifying an increase in the product because of the unknown effects of the use of other forms of energy. Why would you invest more millions or billions of dollars to increase production when you weren't sure how much competing subsidized products may reduce demand for your product, even if these products may cost substantially more to produce than yours.
When we combine these market factors with the perversion of science that has embedded itself into the political process, we approach what I call a "perfect storm" - the combination of an self induced increase in the costs of energy with the fanatical belief that man is ruining the world and changing the world's climate. If this process continues and we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, our economic system and standard of living will be drastically reduced to a mere figment of itself. Maybe this is what many of the global warming fanatics really want - a destruction of the capitalistic system and along with it, democracy.
We have to understand that oil at the present time is the only source that can produce the amount of energy that this country needs to sustain our economic growth. Oil reserves are plentiful enough to sustain the planet for many years to come. Nuclear power is a great alternative to our electric grid but we are so blinded by the word "nuclear" that our country resists any increase in its use. Many other alternative sources will take a very long time to become an affordable and practical product in a free market. All this hype on bio-fuels is causing world food prices to rise exponentially and is inefficient compared to oil.
The so-called Third World nations are unnecessarily stifled economically because the developed nations don't want them to use oil for fear of global warming. Do people really want windmills in their backyard and huge solar panels on their roofs that cost more to install and maintain than the money they pay to the power company? Do people want to give up the number of TV sets, computers, electrical appliances, cell phone chargers, video game players, etc.? Think of it. Most of the people you hear who are demagoging the environmental issues have large cars, a lot of home electronics and appliances, huge living spaces, and use personal jets. Will they give all these things up? Not a chance. But they want YOU to give them up and limit your choices in what you buy.
When are we going to realize that this self-induced hatred of oil will cause our economic downfall? It is amazing that our politicians are reluctant to speak out on this issue, probably because they think that everyone has accepted the man-made global warming myth and the blaming of "BIG OIL" for the world's woes, and are afraid to lose votes and be hated by the mainstream media. It is time for some political leadership calling the environmental myths for what they are and stopping the demagoguery on the evil of oil. If this doesn't happen soon, the results may be irreversible.
OneConservative
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