Sunday, January 30, 2011

Interesting Comment Today About Unemployment from my YouTube Video

While I was working on my YouTube account, I found a request for approving a comment for one of my videos talking about my unemployment. I have pasted the comment exactly as written.

stop wiening and enjoy it, iv been getting unemploment for two years and its great, iv been fishing and boating everyday, chilling with sluts at the beach,

I left out the personal attack portion due to the obscene language.

I have listened to all of the comments made on radio talk shows about extending unemployment for 2 years and further discussions about extending it even further. I have defended the unemployment benefits for those who truly needed them. Unfortunately, we have people like this who abuse the system and treat the unemployment benefits as an entitlement. The 111th Congress passed a $56 billion extension to the unemployment benefits. Instead of paying for it using the unspent funds from the stimulus package, Congress added it to our national debt.

This comment actually made me sick. I understand that there will always be people who abuse federal programs designed to help those in need. I took unemployment and it helped me over a lot of financial problems. Needless to say, I worked very hard to find a job. I sent out almost 1,700 resumes and completed 800 applications.

I thank God each and every day for the blessings of a job.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Social Security and Permanent Annual Deficits

I just read an article about Social Security that sent a chill down my spine.

If politicians fail to shore up Social Security, it will run in the red every year going forward. This is according to Congress Budget Office.

Most people have no confidence in Social Security. I know I don't. I have even lower expectations of our lawmakers when they say they will fix Social Security. We will be borrowing more and more money at this rate. But, what do the politicians care. They have a big, fat pension to take care of them. If I had my choice, they would lose those pensions and have to do the same thing I have to do. I have to depend on Social Security and my 401(k). Very few businesses still have pension programs. However, the government is full of them.

What are we going to do? We have to make so very tough decisions and we will need to make them quickly. The CBO also pointed out today that we will see a $1.5 trillion deficit in our budget. Progressives believe we can spend our way to prosperity. Good luck with that one. I guess they believe that we all live the "lifestyle of the rich and famous". Think again!

Senate Vote on Health Care Repeal

I am so glad to see that Senator Mitch McConnell is pushing the Senate to vote on the House-approved bill on Health Care repeal. The arrogance of Senator Reid by vowing not to allow the bill on to the Senate floor is galling to say the least.

I want the Democrats as well as the President to defend this unpopular law and stand by it. When 2012 comes, the American voters will remember how the Affordable Health Care law was jammed down our throats with hardly any debate. Do you remember the angry town hall meetings?


Do you know that there are 159 new federal government programs, bureaucracies and offices created by this law? When government is involved nothing gets down efficiently. Look at the above diagram of the law and all of the agencies and decision points.

Last night, the President, in his State of the Union address, called for streamlining the federal government to make it more efficient. Is this more efficient? Hardly. When you have a bureaucracy like this, you will have more waste and more government employees. This is not the way to run a business.

I agree that the health care industry needs to be reformed. We start with tort reform and address frivolous lawsuits. The day of the ambulance-chasing lawyer is over. Work WITH business to help them get health care for their employees. Help families by providing vouchers to pay for part of their health care insurance. Decrease the cost of health care by working with doctors, networks, insurance companies and hospitals. Everyone will also need to pay more for their health care. Most prefer just to receive it for free. We cannot do that.

For some "free" means passing the burden of cost on to someone else. No, it means that we all work together to make the system work.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tragedy in Tucson Exploited!

I heard the sheriff of Pima County blaming talk radio and Rush Limbaugh for causing people to take matters into their hands. The people of Westboro Baptist Church are planning to protest at the funerals of the six people who were killed. Gun control advocates are now saying that we need to ban high-capacity clips.

I am absolutely tired of everyone using this tragedy to advance their political position. Although I may disagree with the President, I do agree with what he had said about coming together. We do not need to take this horrible situation and turn it into a circus.

There are people who want to control free speech. Do you remember what the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, said about the government controlling grammar? If we start to control speech, we are doing exactly what Loughner said the government is doing. I have even heard some people wanting to ban Mein Kampf and burning the Communist Manifesto. I have read both books. Does that make me a crazy homicidal lunatic? No, it does not. Think about Charles Manson. He said that the Beatles' songs were talking to him about revolution. Should me destroy all of the Beatles' music? How about Son of Sam? He said that his dog was telling him to kill people. Do we kill all of the dogs? Look at Charles Whitman, the University of Texas gunman, or George Jo Hennard, the man who killed 24 people in Killeen, Texas, in 1991. Both of them just decided to go on a rampage and take their anger out on innocent people.

There are people who wake up hating the world and decide to do something horrible. We can try to prevent these things from happening, but they do happen. We need to learn from the situation and do something constructive. We do not need to make it a point to use the tragedy as a method for pointing fingers.

We should mourn the dead, learn from the situation and work TOGETHER to make sure that this does not happen again. It is fine that we can disagree about political issues, but we cannot resort to finger pointing, name calling and censorship. We need to discuss things as adults and not act like spoiled children.

Friday, January 7, 2011

40% Abortion Rate in New York City

In an article in the New York Times, New York City has a 40% abortion rate which amounts to 90,000 lives. This is an appalling number. Our society treats everything like a disposable commodity and it seems that life is no exception.

This saddens and disturbs me very deeply as a Christian. Why have we allowed this to occur? We now longer believe in the sanctity of life. I honestly believe that there are more organizations that fight for animal rights than there are that fight for the lives of the unborn.

Book Reports Via Twitter?

The Eanes Independent School District in Texas has decided to allow smart phones in the classroom and teachers are having them submit book reports via Twitter. Do you believe this? How much detail can you put in a 140-character message?

I know that we want to teach students to be concise when writing; however, you cannot adequately discuss a book in 140 characters. What can you say? In order to meet that requirement, I would not read the book. I would just read the book's jacket.

What are the teachers doing in school? I hear college professors saying the same thing. High schools are turning out functional illiterates. They cannot write or speak correctly. Their communication skills are horrible. Most cannot balance a checkbook or fill out a tax return.

When I was in sixth grade, my math teacher, Clay Reeves, spent about 3 weeks going through a tax return and our exam was filling out a 1040 form. I thank God for teachers like Mr. Reeves that gave me the practical skills that I use to this very day. However, our public schools are no longer the envy of the world. We have fallen so far so quickly. Our children cannot function in the world. Instead of teaching them the skills they need, teachers are using their authority to preach social justice and progressivism. The students learn more about Che than Cosine.