Do-Overs

There aren't many times in life where we get "do-overs," but I'm pulling one now.  I read my own post from yesterday and didn't care for it.  Oh, I liked the topics and my views haven't changed.  But I graded my own work and found it lacking.  So, here goes....

Yes, my favorite season has become Lent.  I enjoy the Friday fish fries, namely the all-you-can-eat ones.  After their Fri afternoon/evening walk, we usually join up at a local restaurant for the fish fry.  I'm doubly lucky in that I get to eat with the pretty ladies.  I walk into a restaurant and, if I think they have already arrived, ask the hostess for "the table with the two pretty ladies."  If I suspect I am the first to come, I tell the hostess "I'm waiting for two pretty ladies to arrive."  Regardless of the order, my comments always draw smiles. 

I'm still trying to digest (no, not my all-you-can-eat dinner) the fact that Facebook and General Electric made billions of dollars last year, yet paid no federal income taxes.  And, to boot, FB received a several hundred thousand dollar government credit.  Wait!  How can one get a credit if one pays no taxes?   And hasn't GE laid off tens of thousands of US employees, moving a lot of its operation overseas, you know, hiring foreign workers?  I suppose we should emulate GE and file lengthy (tens of thousands of pages) tax returns.  Yet, my two paychecks, since Jan 1, are light 15% and 6% due to more taxes being withheld.  What are the odds the 99%ers will march on FB?  Yeah, right, as if that's going to happen?  Why doesn't the label "greedy" get hung on GE?  After all, if Big Oil is greedy, what do we call GE?  Yeah, you guessed it--political campaign contributions!  Two of the things I can't abide are dishonesty and hypocrisy.  And this administration seems to have an overflow of each, while constantly preaching its own righteousness.

Detroit native Dr. Ben Carson bears watching.  The pediatrician (?) has entered the political debate, recently decimating affirmative action and political correctness.  The man seems intelligent, with a great deal of common sense.  And, he must be potential danger--the Democrats and their attack dogs are already after the good doctor.  Perhaps he will be the answer to our current malaise, malfeasance, and mess.

If you were a Detroit resident, would you pay your property taxes?  A recent newspaper story revealed fewer than half of the people with property in Detroit pay their taxes.  In today's newspaper, a resident who pays his taxes asked, "Am I the stupid one?"  That's a legitimate question.  Detroit, as we know, is in dire straits, probably near devastaing bankruptcy and collapse.  It needs the tax monies from its citizens.  I suppose these scofflaws (and I'm not sure they are) should pay up.  But, should they?  What do they get in return?  No street lights.  No trash pick-up.  Poor police and fire protection.  (And I'm not being critical of the police and fire personnel.  They are understaffed and handcuffed.  Morale is understandably low.)  The schools are terrible, at best.  Why should taxpayers give up their money for nothing, literally, nothing? 

Detroit was, according to Forbes mag (?), "the most miserable city" in the US.  Flint was number two.  Warren was in the top five.  Hmmmmmm......  Maybe my view is colored by the past.  Detroit was a great place to grow up 50 and more years ago.  There were great parks, clean and safe.  I wasn't afraid to take my bike downtown or to Canada.  There was no fear of being out at night.  When I now go to Detroit, relatively infrequently I admit, I still feel no fear.  So, should this "misery index" encourage people to pay their property taxes?

If the sequester occurs, is it true the federal budget will be reduced by a mere 1.5%?  Is that so?  If it is, what's the big deal.  As noted above, thanks to the Bozos in DC, my income is down quite a bit from just December.  Why is it any more of a big deal for the federal government to also have to bite the bullet--and only 1.5%?  I'd even submit than much of what will be cut likely didn't really deserve to be in the budget in the first place.  I still like the idea of no pay for members of Congress until they submit a budget.  I'd even go so far as to say a balanced budget!  Oh, I forgot.  Pelosi told us members of Congress deserve their pay and the respect that goes with it.  My fault....  Hey, when I use the word "Bozos," does that imply "respect?"

Where are all these protesters when Obama does something outrageous?  Where are the media?  And then they want us to believe they aren't biased.  Apparently, Obama golfing with Tiger Woods last week cost US taxpayers about $1 million.  Is that above the normal week expenditures?  And his wife took a separate vacation? 

I was reminded of George Bush (Daddy) last week, in the midst of a malaise myself.  Bush, according to sources, went into a deep funk after losing the election of '92.  It wasn't that he lost, but that he lost to a guy like Clinton.  (I don't remember the exact words, but that certainly was the sentiment.)  Imagine losing to someone like Clinton, Pelosi, Reid, or Obama.  Wow!  How depressing that would be!  What was it the WSJ said about this administration, "dishonest by even modern political standards?"  I have felt the same way many times, losing again and again to people for whom I had no respect.  I'm pretty competitive, but only in things that matter.  I've been lucky enough to have been pretty successful at a high level of competition.  I've won far, far more than I've lost, but haven't won all the time.  Sometimes the pitcher was better than I was.  Sometimes the halfback was better than I was.  Sometimes my opponent was just plain better.  Of course, there are other factors that might be involved, things outside of my control--weather, officiating, plain dumb luck.  But sometimes the other guy was better.  So, I learned about losing, how to handle it.  But I have a very hard time accepting a lot of the battles I've lost, namely those in education.  I've said it before and will say it many more times.  There are far too many people in education who make decisions who shouldn't be allowed to make them.  Yet, they still do and I was ignored.  Yep, as Bush Daddy discovered, it's not necessarily about losing, but about to whom we lose!