On Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament

The new sheriff strode into the street under the noon sun, his dark skin a stark contrast to his white hat. His opponent was already there waiting. They moved closer together and stopped at 20 paces. "It doesn't have to be like this Black Bart" the sheriff said, oblivious to the irony. "We can put aside the logic of fear, lay down our guns and talk about this like reasonable men". Black Bart's head turned almost imperceptibly and his eyes narrowed in calculation. The sheriff held out his hands and slowly drew the polished weapons from the holsters that he wore rather uncomfortably on his hips. He knelt down and placed them on the ground in front of him and stood again..... smiling reassuringly, arms again outstretched, hands empty, palms up in a gesture of trust. The whole town held it's breath as the seconds ticked slowly by. And when Black Bart visibly relaxed there was a sense of relief in the town. Perhaps the bitter rivalry and tense stand off between the two adversaries was finally over. And then Black Bart did something that no one seemed to expect: He drew his gun from its holster and stood there in the hot sun examining it as if seeing it for the first time. And then, slowly and deliberately he raised it to shoulder height, carefully sighted down the barrel and shot the new sheriff right between the eyes. (The End)

A Catastrophic Tone

Sometimes the conversation turns a little away from the subject at hand and lands on the tone of that conversation. It’s an issue all to itself: the tone of civil discourse, and of course the lack of it. In truth, I wonder if effective civil discourse can actually have a civil tone. If everyone is calm, where is the real desire to get anything done or to keep anything from happening?

This year started out with the President and his democrat controlled Congress rolling out an 800 plus Billion dollar stimulus package that seemed to come out of nowhere. We were told that they wanted it, but not specifically what was in it, and that if it didn’t pass the results to the economy would be catastrophic. We saw the government take control of General Motors and then give a 37% interest to the labor unions (who arguably were more than a little responsible for its problems in the first place). Again we were told that the alternative would be catastrophic.

Then there’s HR 2454: The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Cap and Trade. The energy bill which the President freely admits will cause energy costs to skyrocket, but explains won’t cost consumers a dime because of taxes and fees that will be levied on energy suppliers and given back to the poor to pay their light bills. Again, failure to pass this legislation will be catastrophic to the world in general and then to the U.S...

Failure to do anything that this administration proposes is predicted to have catastrophic results. That brings me to HR 3200 (The American’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009). This bill was written by special interests groups and rolled out for an easy pre-recess passage, but somehow by the grace of God the discourse finally became uncivil. People started asking what the heck was in that 1000 page monstrosity, and no one could answer except to say that failure to pass it would result in (you guessed it) catastrophe. Legislators went home on recess and set about explaining why they were going to pass it even though they didn’t know what was in it and their constituents let them know in no uncertain terms that if they did they’d be looking for new jobs after their next election cycles. Make no mistake. Those lawmakers didn’t go to the town meetings looking for input, or for discussion. They went to lecture and inform as to what they planned to do. And people reciprocated and informed their representatives what THEY planned to do in return.

It seems that a lot of people (center and right) have begun to recognize that when the President tells them that it isn’t the details of the legislation that matter, but the spirit, what he really means is that the results are going to be catastrophic.

But that’s just what an Average guy thinks.

Tax Weasels

And so there she was, a nice looking middle aged woman sitting in what looked to be a lawyers office. You know, with floor to ceiling book shelves. And she’s saying “so and so and so and so reduced my tax bill from $43,000 down to $400 and they can do the same thing for you”. And I’m thinking WHAT? Essentially these lawyers helped this woman cheat the IRS out of $42,600 that she owed them. Damned IRS anyway.

But let’s break this down a little shall we? IRS is short (you gotta love it short) for the Internal Revenue Service (as if you didn’t know that) and it’s the part of the government responsible for collecting federal income taxes. And like it or not, we have to have some agency or mechanism for the collection of taxes. So. This woman got some lawyers to help her cheat (lets call it what it is) the IRS out of $42,600. So she got out of paying the federal government that money…… but the federal government had already spent that money (years ago as it turns out), and now the federal government has to collect that money AGAIN, only this time from someone else. And who do you suppose that might be hmmmmmm? I’ll tell you who! It’s YOU and ME. What the HELL is going on here? What it is is that lawyers are advertising how they can help you STEAL from your neighbors, because that’s what it is.

So the next time you see a law firm offering to help the citizenry weasel out of paying what they owe to the IRS just remember that what they are really doing is offering to help your neighbors pick YOUR pocket.

And that’s what an average guy thinks.

On Presidential Failure

“How can you hope that the President fails?” we are asked. “If you want for the President to fail you want the nation to fail”. The answer to the question is simple: I simply don’t agree with him, and just because he’s been elected President in no way obligates me to accept his idea of what national policy should be. In fact, one could argue that because I disagree with him I am duty bound to oppose his efforts with my own. It is up to his supporters to try and make him successful. As for the nation failing if the President fails: That just isn’t true. The President isn’t the nation.

The President is the chief executive officer of the United States of America. The Congress makes the laws, the Supreme Court rules on their constitutionality and the President executes them. Of course the President is also the head of his or her political party and uses that influence to shape what sorts of laws get passed through the congress. In this way the President sets domestic policy and tries to steer the nation in one direction or another. But, since the President and I disagree on what sort of changes are necessary in our country I hope that he fails in his efforts. And not only that, because I disagree with him I have promised myself (in an effort at making myself feel less like a helpless onlooker) to oppose him whenever and with whatever means I have at my disposal. To openly and unashamedly try to bring about the failure of the President in his efforts to change our society in ways I think are unacceptable.

In addition to his role as chief executive officer of the country, the President is also the formulator of foreign policy, his job being to look out for and promote the interest of the United States in the world community. In this role, he is more or less on his own except for the Senate having confirmation rights as to who serves as Secretary of State and the responsibility to ratify or not to ratify any treaties that the President would like to enter into. One wants to believe that the President has the best interests of the citizenry in his heart, but as citizens we have much less input into foreign relations than we do domestic issues. This is as it should be. The President’s foreign policy successes and failures will be written by historians in glowing terms of peace and prosperity or in the blood of those who’s suffering and death were brought about by his inexperience and naiveté. And so, in his efforts to look out for the best interests of the United States, I hope the President succeeds, but I fear he will not. This is something about which the citizenry has little to say, and must simply wait for the next election.

And that’s what an average guy thinks.