Fri Musings

Imagine a governor who sits on the sideline through much of a nasty budget crisis, one who wants to be known as "the education governor" (but who has never answered any of my letters and e-mails challenging her perceptions), coming in at the last minute to veto legislation depriving school districts of millions of dollars each. Some of the districts will lose more than $6 million! Go try to run any place with a cut that deep at the last minute. Is it blatantly transparent that this is a so-called "power play" to raise taxes? Is the Dem gov trying to emulate the hated John Engler, who outfoxed the Dems 15 years ago with Proposal A? The WSJ had it right when it surmised the other 49 states should watch Michigan to see how not to govern a state.

Speaking of the media.... How interesting that American newspapers, television, mags, etc. won't publish cartoons some Muslims might find offensive, yet are more than willing to publish info and opinions that give aid and comfort to enemies who kill Americans (soldiers and civilians).

I noted that, of the 83 Michigan counties, all but 5 have unemployment rates of more than 10%. Some cities, Pontiac, Highland Park are over 30% and several others, Flint, Detroit are very close. Yet, in Lansing, it's business as usual, the typical hand-wringing followed by inaction to change the structural faults in state government. I think one of the "structural" faults is the quality of people we keep sending to hold state public offices.

I read with interest a Walter Williams piece this AM. I almost chuckled out loud when he called most of the taxes levied on us "legal thievery." Ha Ha. I have asked for years, "What is it called when someone takes your money without your permission?" Of course, there are valid reasons for taxes, some taxes, far fewer than what are paid now, as Williams notes, too. But the pols have agendas, agendas that cost money. Those pols don't pay for them out of their own pockets, do they? So, they steal others' money, in the name of taxes. (BTW, I wonder how many of the 535 members of Congress live in houses that cost as little as mine???) I know the "community organizer" who now sits in the White House had his suburban Chi house worth more than 10 times mine--hmmm, I wonder why he didn't give more of his money to his "community." Oh, check and see how little, very little, he actually gave to charities, with a family net worth in the millions.

In the same vein, if government can force people to save for retirement (and, after all, what is Social Security? can you opt out of payments?), not to pay taxes for, say, protection, it can eventually force people to pay for other things, insurance, farmers' costs, bailouts of maladministered companies, other people's cars and houses, health insurance...the list is endless. Yet we sit and take it, all of it, smiling because government is going to take care of us. It's taking care of us, all right.

So, the government has been urging "everyone" to get the Swine Flu Shot, but then, because so many are looking to get the shots, there aren't enough to go around. The shots have to be rationed (hmmm, with health care on the legislative table, isn't that a scary thought???). I read that almost half of Americans aren't going to get shots. Well, I wonder why. No, I don't wonder, not at all. More and more people don't trust government, the media. How many times can "wolf!" be cried? Didn't more people die from the early flu shots than from the flu itself, back in the '70s? Then some gov't hack doctor claims the Swine Flu Shots have been tested more than other flu medicines. Hmmm, that's odd, seeing as the Swine Flu just appeared, not years, but months ago. What long-term effects could possibly have been monitored--there hasn't been a long-term????? Can you say "public option?"

From Lynn Cheney's book Telling the Truth (please, no comments about her husband, which seems to be de rigeur for dialogue nowadays: Before one can get "Obama is a bad President..." out of one's mouth, the response is "Yeah, but Bush..." as if Hitler was OK because Mao and Stalin....): "The name-calling and invective that my forays brought down on my head struck me as curious. Why didn't my opponents offer counterarguments to what I had to say? Why didn't they try to show where weak evidence had led mt to false conclusions or where a lack of knowledge had kept me from seeing the truth?" And, later, "...reasoned argument having been rejected as...[a] tool." Talk about nailing the public schools!!!!! She has, right there in a nutshell. Of course, the answer to her questions is "opponents" can't offer counterevidence; they can't debate or engage in contentious dialogue. And, they don't have to...because far too many teachers lack the courage, concern, knowledge to stand up to the idiocies being perpetrated. Too many teachers are like too many citizens--they don't really care.

Oh, I have a headache--not really, but I have a deadline that was just moved from Dec 1 to Nov 1.