Rant of the Month - March

This has been a busy month, personally, professionally, and hobby wise as well. I have not had much time for my favorite activities but have been observing what is going on and unfortunately I can say I don’t like what I am seeing one bit. It would be nice to get a rant off that was positive or that was praising this or that, I will have to work on that one later.

Domestic Policy – It seems the honeymoon is beginning to lose its shine. 8,000 ear marks and tripling the US deficit spending and our GDP to budget ratio was not enough for the Democrat party. Reneging on campaign pledges, promises, and hype was not enough either. Nor was nationalizing the banking sector or using the crisis to subvert debate in passing the largest spending program in US history and his party stating it was not enough and they would need more. Monday President Obama marked the beginning of US socialism. The US government has effectively overtaken the US auto manufacturing industry by taking over 2/3 of the companies, only Ford is still run by the private sector but it seems their days are numbered too. The Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado were the best selling vehicles in 2007 and this irritates the Democrats. The stimulus money Detroit received, hat in hand, had hooks the auto industry could not imagine. This goes beyond the firing of GM’s CEO and Board Director, they needed to go anyway and long ago, no it goes to the fact that Obama laid out his socializing of the companies after saying he was not doing so, the markets reacted with a huge plunge. Chrysler will now HAVE to merge with a foreign auto company or go under, what was it about keeping companies in American? GM will have to stop selling its most popular vehicle and instead start selling unpopular high fuel efficiency vehicles, the government is telling GM what to sell, how to make it, and how to restructure, not a bankruptcy court who is better able to deal with this, remember this, our government is one of the most wasteful and inefficient in the world when it comes to managing public funds and we are now trusting them to run GM, the worlds largest company? Buick is THE most popular car line here in China, that’s right, get rid of the one profitable division that was keeping the entire company afloat in the largest growing auto market in the world, way to go! You can expect higher taxes on gas now, and those incentives to buy the new cars GM is going to produce, government bribes to force people to buy what they say you should buy, the free market is dead. This is not the first time. Remember the naming of the new New York Stadium a certain bank funded and bought the naming rights to, well again the government steped in and said, you took bail out money, therefore we have the right to tell you what to do with ALL your money and ALL your business decissions.

Science – The space shuttle just returned from a successful mission with the ISS. Unfortunately the ISS had 2 near misses with space debris, thanks to China for blowing up one of their satellites and to us and the Russians for colliding two into each other. Now that we almost have the ISS completed guess what, it is almost at its projected end of life! Nasa wants to replace the shuttle with an Apollo looking capsule, no more Hubble or large payload articles, but with Obama and the Socialists Republic of America in charge I doubt that any real science is on the agenda, just what we can get form embryonic steam cells. With all the mess we have here we really need to have real hope in our ability to rise up above Earth bound strife, like the first lunar missions. Space will hold the key to getting more resources, understanding, and put us on the course of being a species able to expand beyond our home planet when the day comes that it is no longer able to support life.

On a second science related topic, Earth Hour. It seems I am better then a Noble Prize winner! That is right, for 1 hour I had all lights off and observed many Shanghai high rises do the same. I ran things on battery power, candles emit CO2 you know, and today I found out Al Gore had his home lit up like a Christmas tree the whole weekend. Even his CO2 absorbing trees in his front yard were alight to show their majesty when so many home across the planet went dark. Now unless the power plants cut production then Earth hour did not do much good. Those coal power plants were still burning coal. The only difference was that the grids across the world had a slightly less load then normal for a Saturday night, not a significant drop either. It is a good concept, but to make a real impact the power plants would all need to cut production for that 1 hour and have rolling brown outs, then we would have something to cheer about.

Sports – March madness is fully underway and I could care less. Baseball continues to get a black eye, Soccer is proving to be a deadly sport as in any sport held in Pakistan. The NFL wants to extend the season by 2 games. Congress is too busy turning the dial from free market capitalism to quasi communistic socialism to investigate the BCS, maybe we should be thankful. In this time of economic hardship we need a good diversion that people of all philosophies can enjoy. Sports allows us to passively project our aggressions on to those on the field. It demonstrates that team work and hard work can make the impossible possible. It gives us hope we can overcome impossible odds and succeed. Too bad we are in a sports funk. The NBA is losing its luster, baseball is tarnished, hockey is a Canadian sport, and only hicks and inbreeds watch NASCAR. At least we have bowling.

Social issues – Norte Dame got itself into hot water with the Church for extending an invite to Obama for a commencement speech. Now correct me if I am wrong, isn’t ND a private Catholic school? Inviting a politician who’s only legislative achievement in his state and federal legislative career was championing the passage of the Illinois law requiring survivors of abortion to be put to death by denying them any medical care and going to extreme methods if that did not do the job. Add that to the lifting of the embryonic stem cell ban essentially turning planned parenthood clinics into laboratory supply warehouses. All I can say is that the leaders at ND really want to buck the system and prove they are Americans first and Catholics second. I guess they are following the 2 guarantees in life literally, taxes and death. Where is the separation of Church and State on this one, oh yea, private college and public figure, my bad I thought it was only bad for the Church to get involved in the States’ business, not the other way around. While on the topics of religion, our Secretary of State, Hillary, went to Mexico recently and ended up at the site of the patron saint of Mexico’s site for a visit, in Guadalupe, when shown the sacred shroud she asked the priest ‘that is beautiful, who painted it?’ to which the priest stated ‘God’. Classic, you would think the Secretary of State would research a country a little and her route and itinerary to ensure no social or religious snafus would crop up, especially having that get caught on film.

International issues – North Korea… Here we go again. They have invaded Chinese territory to punish two Korean born US Citizens who had the audacity to film their country from the Chinese border. You know there were Americans because anyone who has lived here for more then a year knows that the border between the two is pretty porous and open and China will always turn a blind eye. I guess Al Gore will need to find 2 more recruits, and maybe this time he can tell them what they are getting into before they get paraded in the capital of a hostile state and tortured for treason. In a few days Kim, the Dear Leader, will launch a 3 stage rocket into space to put a communication satellite into orbit. We know this is a veil, because who is North Korea communicating with? They are completely cut off from the world because they can’t control what is out there. What do you want to bet this satellite will be a washing machine or something that will crash into another satellite and cause yet more space junk. The US of course is stating sanctions will be put into place, pttttt. We all know China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, will not allow the rouge nation to be punished. The South Koreans are scared to act, facing down the world’s largest army and knowing how the US has recently dropped support for its Eastern European allies I can’t blame them at all. North Korea needs real pressure placed on them from all 5 partners in ensuring their nuclear ambitions cease as quickly as possible, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and the US all need to unify and punish North Korea without the UN’s involvement. Once again the UN and our reliance in it is proving to be impotent and ineffective.

Cultural issues – For those who are not aware, there are numerous Tea Parties going on around the country on April 15th. These are to signal to the government we want representation for the taxes we pay by re-enacting the Boston Tea party that was a major event leading up to the creation of our nation. I suggest all seek out these events close you to and attend if at all possible. This is not a conservative only issue, we all pay taxes. Cigarette, gas, alcohol, sales, property, licensing fees, all the hidden little taxes we pay are the major issues. Add that to the porkulous spending and soon to be largest budget in the history of the world and I feel it is vital we send those who work in our names a message that we OWN THEM, they don’t tell us what to do, we tell them WHAT WE WANT and they do it. They represent US, not their party and its wacky ideals, right and left wackyness included. It is time we all READ the constitution and see where in it the government has the power to do what it is doing now. Read the Federalist Papers, our Declaration of Independence, and other founding works so we better understand what the term, We the People means and how the government belongs to US, not the people we send to do our dirty work. Oh, Mr. Obama… we OWN YOU, and your little Nancy Pelosi too, that goes for you Harry Reid and Barney Frank. We OWN all of you, we PAY your salaries, expense accounts, health insurance premiums, retirement savings, remember that. Not until you re-write the Constitution will you break the back of the nation. Here is one for you rich people out there. I challenge each American making over $3 million a year in income to work for only $1 in 2010. This gives you 9 months to save. If you accept this challenge the vast majority of tax revenue to pay for this liberal insanity will not exist! Think about if the richest 10% of the nation, who pay 80% of taxes, forego paying tax for 1 year. Sure it can not be coordinated, just like gas out days or Earth hour, but if all the CEO’s and corporate big wigs did this, the Dems would have no money to study pig farts or the 2010 census results. I also challenge the members of our elected state and federal governments to forgo their salaries for 1 year and cut their staff by 75%. Spend more time listening to the people who you represent and reading their letters and less time with lobbyists and fellow government employees so you are connected with the people to whom you ultimately answer. This will save hundreds of millions of tax dollars and will reconnect the elected to the electors and ensure only those who have a duty to serve will do so. Do that and I will eat my shoes, raw.