See Jane go, look out below

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I was greeted by my local paper this morning with the news that U.S. Representative Jane Harman is quitting her seat in Congress. My first reaction was of course to be pleased that she would no longer be hampering the South Bay with her "leadership". But, it kind of reminded me of when I first started teaching.

I started teaching right after an ugly two + week strike. When I heard how it all went down I thought that the Union president was a knucklehead. Then came the next Union president who had no clue how to bargain or walk across the street and thus made the first guy look better than he was. Following her was a man who I am sure only owned slip on shoes because tying them was way beyond his pay scale and in turn made the first Union president I knew look like a genius. Finally, we have someone who has his moments and a clue about bargaining  but his wardrobe can be embarrassing. 

My point is that even though I am delighted to see Jane go, I am also worried about who may come after her. I worry because I live in her district where my fellow citizens have voted her in nine times even though, despite her alleged knowledge of the space industry, many aerospace jobs have left and Jane didn't see it coming! Seriously, I am surrounded by people who elected Jerry Brown in again! The rest of the country figured out that Obamanomics is does not work, yet Californians voted in every single left wing nut on  the ticket.

I am worried, because even though it is nice to see Jane go, my experience tells me that an even more liberal politician is just waiting for the opportunity to exploit the masses in the South Bay and rather not be exploited. 

No Tax Tuesday: The Death of Health Care Extortion, Please!

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Here's the deal: if I am "required" by law to purchase insurance, then common sense would demand that insurance prices be fixed, to prevent ever increasing costs. But, since I am talking about the same people believe that taxing the life out of average citizens (under the guise of making "the rich" pay their fair share) is an "investment", I am not too hopeful that common sense will be our leaders guide. So, 26 states say no to the Health Care Extortion law. Now, a judge in Florida declares the whole thing unconstitutional! 

When should, or should the government have the power to force anyone to do anything? I know the Constitution doesn't really mean much to a liberal but, what does govern their thinking process? I do not think the government should force anyone to buy anything. Think about that...what ELSE might the government decide we should have to purchase?

Is it a right of every citizen to have affordable health care? Why? Is health care a self-evident truth? If health care is a right, how much is each person equitably entitled to having? Who decides this? Why should a really wealthy person get better coverage than a less wealthy person? Why should a working class person have to pay for their families insurance and someone who does not work receive insurance coverage for free, and why should the government use the working class persons taxes to pay for the person not working?

In the end, the government elitists are finding a way to force their "progressive" ideals upon all of us. I say no thanks. 

3,2,1 Blast Off!

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I hope  you had a great weekend. I did. I ended up taking over leadership of my son's Cub Scout Pack this year and it has been a lot of work but a lot of fun also.

This weekend was out first Space Derby in recent memory. I have since heard rumors that there was a few in the past, but none experienced by any of us now participating. So, as a pack we bought a slick new track, passed  out the kits, had a meeting to start building them and off we went. And off they flew! Some of the rockets went through the track and crashed at the end, flying of the track. Good thing someone thought to bring some fast drying model glue. One or two rockets had so much torque they just spun right off the guide!

One of my top goals was to have maximum participation. In order to do that we used a system called the perfect N which is sort of like a modified round robin tournament. Every racer raced four times, once in each lane. It was great. The only delays were the time it took to wind each rocket. There was also a few technical problems and kinks we worked out on the way but still everybody raced 4 times. Twenty heats is a lot of heats for a space derby.

I know it went well because after the official heats were over people wanted to race some more just for fun. And that is what Cub Scouting is supposed to be, fun with a purpose. Mostly, it was the joy of watching my own son getting a ribbon and a huge smile. Being a dad is very cool.

Is a Trillion Enough?

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OK folks, I've been very busy (I know, we all have) and I haven't been able to sit down to put any thoughts on paper. But, I'll give it a shot today.

I listened to the President's State of the Union Address the other night and wondered if he was saying he was actually going to do anything differently. He boldly said he would veto any earmarks and his own party pretty much said they would still put them in. The POTUS still talked about investment when we clearly need to evaluate the past "investments", stop "investing" in "investments" that show no positive return. 

Remember Wild Bill Clinton's war on smoking? I guess it had no real affect on Barack Obama. Now. President Obama wants to consolidate government agencies. Good, I agree. But, that will not have any significant affect on the cost of government. The only thing that will bring down the cost will be by instituting spending limits on entitlement programs. Sorry folks, but Social Security, Welfare and Medicare are out of control, literally. Obama's call to consolidate a few government agencies is as meaningless as Clinton's war on smoking. It sounded good but ddin't stop any future Presidents from smoking . 

Then this morning my local paper reads, "Deficit to hit a chilling $1.5T." Obama's plan: raise the debt limit. Did you catch that? RAISE THE DEBT LIMIT!! So, my "brilliant" President's solution to crushing, enslaving, mortifying debt is to make a way to borrow more? Now, he will sell it as "investment" but. let's be real, the "investments" this administration has put our hard earned money into have been nothing short of disastrous. Yet, President Obama still wants to pretty much stay on the same course. 

At least my Lakers seem to be getting it together. 

Flush 'em Friday 1 21 11 Edition

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It is time for another edition of "Flush 'em Friday!" The following represent a random list of people or things I fell should be flushed down, around and/or out of wherever they are and whatever they doing.

• California Governor Jerry Brown for even thinking about let alone mentioning more taxes.
• Drivers who don't use their blinkers at all or wait until AFTER they have turned or changed lanes. This includes the group of drivers who stick their arm out of their window, point and turn without looking.
• Gavin Newsome for being Gavin Newsome whether I like it or not.
• Supervisors who dump crap on others and call it delegating, and then tell you it needs to be done by this afternoon before you leave which is long after they leave.
• Drivers who take up two spaces when parking either because they believe their car is worth it,and/or because they just seem destitute of any car parking skills.
• ObamaCare because it is just a government cluster#$#*% of mismanagement via government agencies, cronies and basic knuckleheads. Forcing anyone to purchase something is a minus in the freedom column  no matter how "progressive" you try to paint it.
• Representative Jane Harman for voting against the repeal of the job killing health care bill. She should go see what has happened to the hundreds and thousands of people in her district who have lost their jobs and find out where the jobs went. 
• Community Organizers for being the paid henchman of unions and the left.  

Who do you think I should add to this list?

Job Creation via Government?

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It looks like LA Mayor Antonio Villarigosa is planning on lobbying the new congress and President Barack Obama on strategies to help create jobs. This is why Los Angeles and California are in the horrendous condition they are in financially. Herein lies the problem with all Democrats and liberals: the solution to business problems are, in their belief system, in government regulation and "funding." What is telling is also that La Mayor does not go to his Governor first. He knows his state has no money, but, the feds will at least print some more up if they feel they need money. La Mayor is not looking to help businesses flourish in a free market system, he is looking for a handout. 

It can't be the mythological green jobs candidate Jerry Brown promoted during his run for Governor but has scarcely mentioned since would help LA or La Mayor would seek those. If green jobs were the answer La Mayor would surely know how to open up opportunities for small business entrepreneurs and thus create jobs all over LA. 

Here's the deal: Job creation via government intervention is only as good as the intervention lasts. In other words, when the funding stops, so do the jobs. So called infrastructure creation such as roads is really just government payouts to unions. If the roads do not produce an industry that will outlast the funding they are only temporary jobs, government payouts. 

As I drive around Los Angeles I see empty building that once housed industries. Industries that created products not dependent on government subsidies. Industries that provided jobs for my grandparents and parents. Where are they now? Some are out of state, some are overseas. Why? Maybe we should ask the likes of Democrat Jane Harman who when informed of the loss of over 500 jobs in her district was "blindsided" and "didn't see it coming". Clueless. We dare not go there for help. That is why I will repeat myself and say that since 2005, under the Democratic legislature California has lost over 1,200,000 jobs and counting.

So, off you go Antonio. Ask the POTUS if can print some money to send California's way to "create" handouts, err, I mean jobs. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Outstretched Hands and Pointing Fingers

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Happy Marting Luther King Jr. Day.

For me, racism can be approached two different ways, either with an outstretched hand or a pointing finger. When I think back upon Martin Luther King Jr. I think of an outstretched hand. In his time honored "I Have a Dream" speech he called on Americans to look not to the color of our skin, but to the content of our character. My mother used to say that there are good and bad people, no matter the what they look like on the outside. 

Unfortunately, much of the rhetoric I hear ignores the content of men and women's character and focuses on the color of someones' skin. Basically, it is the pointing finger approach that I hear. I once had a friend of mine tell me, "You have no idea what it is like to be black and be an American!" Here's the deal: I NEVER said I did. I was eating my lunch, saying nothing, precisely because I am not black and growing up black is not my experience. The flip side is that my friend, (I gently replied that I never said I did know what his experience as a black man was like), had no idea what my experience as a white man was like, although he was pretty much assuming he did. My friend and I went to the same private school in elementary and middle school. we both went to private colleges. We both had the same positions in our company. That does not mean our experiences were the same getting there. My friend had just read a book by a white liberal guy blaming all the other white, mostly conservative white people, for all the crimes, injustices and poverty known to African Americans. A pointing, blaming finger without many solutions, just deflection of blame.

When I talk to people, no matter their color, race, religion, or political hankering, in the end we have the same hopes and dreams. What disturbs me the most is that most political dialogue does not unite us but divides us. As a parent I believe I am like any parent in that I want my child to grow up in a world where he or she is free to be who God created them to be. I know the world is not like that. But, I teach my children as I was taught that there are good and bad people, no matter what they look like on the outside and that the inside is what counts. And I teach them to reach out their hands and treat others as you would like to be treated.