LIVE, LEARN, LAUGH AND LOVE BECAUSE NOBODY'S GETTING OUT OF HERE ALIVE.
I am probably a conundrum if you look at me closely. I am deeply liberal and believe in equal rights for everyone. I believe in free speech and also support your right to speak, even if I don't agree with what you say. I do not believe that gives you the right to harass me though and vis-a-vis. After all, isn't that what freedom of speech means?
I support old people and poor people and women and children and government programs that protects them. I also support the poor old soldiers that are eventually coming back to America stressed and bewildered to be back in civilization again and suffering from post traumatic stress and government programs that protect them. I believe anything less than that is unchristian and unfair. I know life isn't fair, but it ought to be and, with equality and democracy and a republic which supports these core values, it could be. America's compassion and aid should extend to it's citizens first before aid is extended to foreign countries.
We have to pay our bills and maintain our budget so I see no reason why our counties, states, and federal government can't do the same. I don't think it helps to bail out a business (ie wallstreet) with no strings attached and the companies can continue to waste investor's money on parties and meetings in the Bahamas, or wherever. I hate wallstreet. They are blood suckers. Also, since corporations are now considered 'people' by the Supremes that includes them, too, and they should pay their fair share of taxes. Common sense tells you that is where the majority of taxes should come from. Big businesses get nice little 'tax free' incentives to locate in local communities. That puts the brunt of the taxes on the rest of the community. They should provide benefits that guarantee their retirees a secure retirement. Companies don't care about most employees future retirement anymore. Years ago, Barwick's promised a nice retirement package when I went to work there. A few years later Barwick's shut down because the company had been run in the ground and so many employees were robbing them blind.
I believe in the right to bear arms and the right to bare arms, also. I may be a mulching, saving, storing, gardening, food processing, flybaby but I also think it's not a sin to hunt and fish and protect yourself or others. I would think that anyone living in the south understands the importance of having the right to bear arms. The south will rise again! Actually, I believe it already has. The south is one of the best kept secrets in the world that has finally gotten out. Too bad, because it used to be such a quiet and peaceful place.
I believe that the government has the responsibility to protect it's less fortunate members of society who are poor or indigent or otherwise helpless. Social security was created to help old people who were too sick and old to work to have a decent living. It was money they spent into the government system by taxation that they were supposed to be guaranteed when they retired. Social security paid my aunt and her children for years until the children were adults after their father died. Social security is most needed by the lower income members of our society. Everyone who works pays into social security and should be entitled to it's benefits. Without government programs in place to protect the lower class many American's would be living in squalor without necessities like we witness around the world. I don't think you can call yourself a caring and compassionate person, much less a Christian, if you want to deny poor people access to the basic needs we all have. A home, job, food, medical care, and an education. Education is the key to success.
I believe the government interferes in too many things and causes too much damage without considering the consequences. They change the laws that are on the books and when people realize the new laws are ridiculous and ineffective we are stuck with the changes made by the Suits in Washington.
To name a few: nuclear energy is unacceptable because of the radioactive water which stays radioactive forever. If something produces harmful waste, you should reconsider. As Homer Simpson says, "Duh!"
Next on my list is those screwy florescent lights which are supposed to be handled as hazardous waste and with great caution and recycled. Have you ever read the warnings and directions for disposal? Seriously, they emit mercury! To top it all off, incandescent bulbs are being banned in America. Nobody ever said, "We'll let the market decide whether to eliminate incandescent bulbs". They outlawed them. Lighting is a very small percentage of energy use in America. Someone must have padded their pockets with 'kickback' money.
My third, and final example for now, is corn. The government is screwing around with corn which is valuable for more than your corn on the cob, or cornbread. Corn syrup and corn ingredients appear in many foods. Corn is also an important and valuable food source for the farming industry to feed livestock and pets. The price of corn affects the price of beef. The price of corn affects every part of our food culture. Corn is food for us and our animals. It is the staff of life for beleaguered people in poor countries around the world. When the price of corn increases it tilts the scales against the countries that need corn and grain the most and can afford it the least.
Ethanol has been incorporated into gasoline across America as an appeasement for the high price of gasoline. Ethanol is made from corn. Ethanol actually lowers your gas mileage and wastes valuable corn in a bid to pacify the masses. I'm not buying it. There are better alternatives. Not additives. Check out I Got Gas.
I dream of a future where there are better ways of distributing electricity and anything that comes into our homes and buildings using fiber optics. I used to believe that electric poles and power lines would be phased out and all those wires would be buried underground to protect them from storm damage and wear and tear. I thought they would be incorporated in city designs and all power poles and electric lines would someday be hidden. When I was a child I thought there was nothing uglier than power poles strung along beautiful city streets or country scenery. Sometimes new subdivisions and gated communities bury their cable underground but the practice hasn't caught on in the American landscape like it should.
I thought we would be much further along as a society than we are by now. I believed we would be in the Buck Rogers future or the Jetson's future but we're still stuck in a rut in the twentieth century. After all, women around the world are still considered chattel and our leaders are still grunting and beating their chests. It's a wonder we ever made it out of caves. This is a messed up, screwed up, crazy old world and god knows what the future will bring but when you've always been waiting for enlightenment and progress for all human beings it's a sore disappointment for a child of the sixties.
My mission in life is to live as simply and as peacefully as I can. My goal in life is to win friends and influence people. That's kind of hard when you're an old grumpy bear. My only hope is my undeniable charm and natural charisma. I just hope people don't figure out I'm a grumpy old bear.
"Back to the future, Marty!"
As Always
PIO
