Joe Schmoe's Weblog

Time For a New Party

kcir20205 — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:59:49 +0000

So who is excited about our prospects for this November? Hands anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller. It is pretty sad that every election is the same. We vote thinking we are making a difference yet we just get the same thing. It doesn’t matter which party it is. I guarantee that regardless of who gets elected, the national debt will continue to rise, the trade deficit will continue to occur every year, the government will continue to be more intrusive, we will continue to spend billions on foreign aid that could be going to people in this country, illegal immigrants will continue to pour into this country like water through the levees in New Orleans, oh and we will continue to be taxed at unprecedented levels. We will continue to fund the welfare class that has been created by the “Great Society” folks of the 1960′s. We now have generations that have never worked, they only know reliance on the government. I tend to believe our government like it that way. With every new intrusion into our life, the government gains more power. The government wants us to rely on them. They want us to always look to them, they do not want us to be self-reliant. Currently we have two parties, but I would argue that we only have one party. This party is the Preserve Government Power party, or the PGP. The Dems and Repubs are simply factions within this party, they want the same thing which is ultimate government power, they just fight to see who controls the PGP. So I suggest it is time for a new party. A party of, for and by the people. I would like to get back to a true two party system. We need a party that understands that the government is inefficient and this inefficiency costs taxpayers billions if not trillions. We need to find a way to stop government deficits through true reductions of government power, by working towards privatizing many of the functions the government are doing today. Its time we start looking to ourselves for the answers, if we can do that then maybe we will gain back a little of the power we have naively given to the government. We need to start taking the problems that face us seriously or our problems are going to multiply and bury us.

Saudi’s Say No, Maybe Its A Good Thing

kcir20205 — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:47:05 +0000

I just read that the Saudi’s have decided not to increase oil production to meet rising oil demands. The reason is clear. Why should they? They don’t need anything from us. They have all the leverage and in life leverage is 99% of the battle. It is time for us as a country to start taking real steps towards ending reliance on foreign oil. While I know this isn’t a new idea, this story just re-emphasizes the need for this to come to fruition sooner than later. We need to start looking for supplies here while continuing to look for ways to conserve and also create real incentives for alternative fuels. We have made many middle easterners very wealthy over the years. Has anyone ever seen Dubai? How about Kuwait? Now I am not mad at them. They are doing what business men do. I am mad at us for not doing what business men do. When you lack leverage and you are being squeezed by a vendor, you look for alternative vendors. That could be in the form of new a new supplier or a substitution product. We are a resourceful society and the free market we sorta live in is made for situations like this. The current environment is screaming for innovation. I believe this innovation will come. But we have to do it. We can’t look for the government to do it for us. All we can ask is that they stay out of the way which will make it easier for us as Americans to meet this challenge. Let me repeat my mantra, the government is not the cure all. They can barely stay out of their own way on most things. Innovation comes when Americans like you and me are pinched and I don’t know about you, but my bottom is bruised. The great thing about the market economy is that as needs arise the market finds ways to fill them. There is a positive to the high gas prices. The higher the price of gas goes, the sooner we will be less reliant on it. The sooner we are less reliant, the less important the middle east becomes. The sooner it becomes unimportant, the sooner we have less to do with them. That can’t come soon enough for me. The only real motivator for change is adversity. The more adversity the more motivation for change. So while the Saudis have us now, they are driving us to become less reliant and thus changing the leverage equation. One day trust me, they will be asking us to increase our demand, and we will say we have no reason to. How sweet will that be.

California Gay Marriage

kcir20205 — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:28:36 +0000

Well, not sure what to think about this really. I guess it is all about medical benefits right? I mean lets not kid ourselves into believing that it is about anything else but money. It isn’t about being accepted or changing society’s views. It is about money. I am not even saying that I necessarily disagree with the ruling, but lets just call it what it is. I think that this country was formed based on principles in the Bible. Which is a bit dangerous since a lot of the Bible is interpretation, thus countless different factions of Christianity. As an example, the Westboro Baptist church uses the Bible to support protesting funerals of veterans and teenagers killed in car accidents. I think that we as a society need a compass. I think the Bible is a good start. I am a believer in states rights, so if California wants to recognize gay marriage, I guess so be it. But issues such as these are difficult. We elect officials who appoint judges that we believe will do whats best for our society. Is having the government officially recognize something that the Bible fairly clearly denounces put us on a slippery slope? To say no, means you are not really a believer in what the Bible says, which for some isn’t a problem. Myself, I believe in the Bible. I think it has been affected by man but the core, the parts that can’t be lost in translation are real. So I struggle when we decide we are going away from that. Can we be tolerant of different lifestyles but not endorse it as a society? Can we say, we don’t think what you are doing is right, but it is your life? There is a group of people who are exhibitionists. Does this mean we should allow them to walk down a crowded street naked? I should state at this point that I have gay relatives. It is clearly not an easy lifestyle to live. To be honest I couldn’t care less that they are gay. That is not for me to judge as a person. I will not however endorse their lifestyle. It is a difficult issue with no right or wrong answer I think. In closing, I am where I started this diatribe, confused and unsure what to think.

Annika Sorenstam

kcir20205 — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:29:43 +0000

Rarely does an athlete come along that dominates their sport so completely that there is no doubt that they are the best to ever play. Annika Sorenstam is such an athlete. Being a woman, a lot of what she has accomplished hasn’t been heralded like Tiger or Jack but make no mistake she has been every bit as dominating. Just to give you a little feel for what she has done, here is a short (and I mean short) list of her accomplishments. 72 LPGA victories, that is one less than Jack Nicklaus and 10 more wins than Arnold Palmer, 10 majors, 8 time player of the year award, and the only woman to shoot a 59 in a LPGA tournament. The closest active LPGA player in wins is Karrie Webb with 35. That isn’t even fair. She won 5 tournaments in a row twice and dominated tournaments year in and year out. While Annika only ranks third in total LPGA career wins, the two ahead of her are from an era when amateurs still won tour events. Undoubtedly, the LPGA fields are much deeper than in years past. Annika has left no doubt who is the greatest woman golfer of all time. This week Annika decided to announce that she is retiring at the end of this year at the ripe old age of 37. She made this announcement after doing what she does best, winning a tournament. Given another 5 or 10 years she would most likely own every record in woman’s golf. Annika has been a graceful champion and has given back to the game in many ways. One such way is her golf academy that she hopes will help others improve their skills but more importantly fall in love with the game she has totally dominated. With her retirement, women’s golf will lose a great competitor, the ultimate ambassador for woman’s golf, and maybe even some of its luster. She has decided to focus her attention to marriage, children, promoting golf, and cooking and I am pretty sure no one can fault her for that.

Does it Really Matter?

kcir20205 — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:41:49 +0000

It is election time and it seems like it has been forever. The presidental election seems to start around inauguration now. I ask, does it really matter? Right now we have three candidates. All three are from the established political parties and offer the same “solutions” to all of our problems that we have been hearing since 1930. The fact is they are all the same just at varying degrees. What I can tell you is that regardless of who is elected, we will continue to get taxed at an alarming rate, the money collected will continue to be wasted, and the government will get continue to get bigger and more intrusive. Now, you might be able to argue that one candidate will tax us less or spend the money on issues that are more necessary than another candidate, but the cold hard fact is status quo is status quo. One candidate is preaching “change”. Funny but my guess is that his view of change is redirecting funds from one program to the next and finding new exciting means to generate revenue. Another candidate wants to socialize health care. Well, the government seems to do such a good job with everything else (see the national debt, social security, the war in Iraq) lets give them more power and additional responsibilities. We think that health care is expensive now, wait until the government mismanages it. It will cost infinitely more but it will be masked because it will come from our tax dollars. The last candidate is just hoping that the other two candidates beat each other up enough that he can slip in under the radar. I have yet to hear an original thought from this candidate in years. But we will go ahead and elect one of these candidates and then whine and complain that they are doing a bad job. Meanwhile we will start gearing up for 2012.

Whose Fault is it Really?

kcir20205 — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:53:36 +0000

You know it is amazing to me where we are today in America. I read my local papers and listen to talk radio and I just can’t believe how powerless we all seem to feel. Most comments, even the ones from so-called conservatives, seem to blame the government or big business or foreign countries or anyone else for all of our woes. Somehow the mortgage crisis, gas prices, the falling dollar, illegal immigration and everything else is the government’s fault. Well, the truth of the matter is it is our fault as a society. Hate to say it but the fault lies with you and me. See I am a big believer in America and Americans. I think that we have the greatest nation on earth filled with the greatest human beings on earth. I think there is nothing that we can not do. But somewhere along the way we have lost our self-determination. We have lost our accountability. It is always someone else’s fault and someone else should always bail us out. This thinking is terminal. I believe that if we continue to go down that road we are doomed as a society. Take out a risky mortgage and now face foreclosure, well that is the lender’s fault for tricking me and the government’s fault for not protecting me. Should lenders who took advantage of less knowledgeable buyers be punished, absolutely but ultimately the person signing the loan needs to understand that by getting a lower rate they are taking a risk. It is blackjack with your residence, sometimes you go bust. Gas prices are outrageous. I agree but we as a society have said it is ok to be reliant on foreign oil. When gas prices were $1.10 a gallon, were we as consumers pushing the market for hybrids and alternative fuel sources? No, we were buying 12 mile per gallon SUVs. Now it is the government and the oil companies fault that we are facing oppressive gas prices. Well, no the blame is on us. We tend to want the thinking done for us these days and we always seem to look at the government to do it for us. This has been an environment that began during the depression and has been fostered by every administration since. Read this line carefully. The government does not have the answers, we the people have the answers. The government can not solve all our woes. We have to do it, by changing, by being more active in society, by thinking beyond what is in our pocketbook today. We have to just think for ourselves and understand that there are consequences. Happiness breeds apathy. If it isn’t affecting us today we don’t seem to worry about it. This has to change or we will be complaining about far worse problems in the near future.

Introductions are in Order

kcir20205 — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:22:32 +0000

Let me tell you a little about myself, I am a 35 year old white middle class married man. I grew up in a rural farming community to a father who served in Vietnam and mother who drove a school bus. We weren’t poor but we weren’t driven around by Jeeves either. My parents tried to make sure that I never went without but usually did that by putting themselves in debt. I am not a genius but I did finish my MBA. I largely put myself through college (oddly enough a woman’s college that allowed men commuters). I worked in a warehouse while attending college and took out student loans to finish. I currently have no affiliation to any religion but am a strong believer in God. I am 6’1 and have brown hair. I love sports both watching and playing. I am an American. I am pretty average. I am ok with that. My goal is to provide my view on today’s issues to help give others an insight to what the average white guy’s take is on the happenings of today. I think sometimes our view gets lost in the media and twisted by others’ agendas. Hopefully I can add my voice to the choir.