Government Workers

I don't know if this will be true or not, but we'll find out in 61 years.  I do know that the government is involved in far too many aspects of our daily lives. 

 Ronald Reagan famously said the 9 most terrifying words in the English language are:
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

I’m from the government and I’m here to help'

He also said this about government:

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"

 

Most government workers are not elected, and most of them are protected by employee unions which make it difficult at best to downsize the government.  Laws passed are seldom if ever repealed, and agencies created never get decommissioned.  

 

In order to justify their positions the agency management in almost all agencies must created regulations that give them authority to act.  That authority also gives the nation reason to fear government.  

All new regulations require compliance.  Complexity of regulation requires experts to navigate the maze of regulations.  Hiring experts to help you through the maze adds to the cost of whatever endeavor you are involved in.

If you think it impacts only businesses you are mistaken.  Think about simple things like low volume flush toilets and incandescent light bulbs.  Think about tax credits for replacing appliances with energy efficient versions.

While many things the government regulates are good ideas, the free market will do what is smart and good anyway.  But the complex maze of regulation and red tape cannot improve upon the free market.

At Clintonemail.com

Hillary Clinton uses email.  Not surprising as most Americans anymore do also.  But Hillary Clinton has an email problem.  Her problem is not the email sent or received, nor the server on which it was processed.  Her problem is lack of credibility and lack of integrity.

Mrs. Clinton was not truthful in her dealings with the American people, and this revelation was brought to light when her email service was exposed.  If Mrs. Clinton expects others to follow certain policies and procedures, but not do so herself, she should not expect our support for her past performance, or support for her ambition to become the next President of the United States. 

Mrs. Clinton should not be the person who determines which and when certain emails are made available for scrutiny.  Mrs. Clinton should not be hiding behind ambiguous policy interpretations by political cronies in order to prevent those emails from being made available.  She should be allowing the server and contents to be examined.  Who does that is open for debate, but it should be voluntary on her part to make them available.

Until she does so, she should not be given consideration for election to any office.

Is It Any Wonder?

So Michael Brown did not put his hand up in surrender to Officer Wilson.  Instead he assaulted the officer in an attempt to take away the officer's firearm.  The grand jury heard the testimony and came to that conclusion, as did the US Department of Justice investigators.  Attorney General Eric Holder said so in releasing their report.

But all of that does not matter because Mr. Holder also said the cops in Ferguson are bad, real bad.  All during the riots in Ferguson in 2014 the AG told America that cops are bad.  The mayor of New York City told America their cops are bad.  The Rev. Al Sharpton told America cops were hunting down black youths in the streets.

So is it any wonder we have had 2 police officers shot dead in New York City, and now 2 officers shot and wounded in Ferguson?  Like elections Mr. President, words having consequences too.

Still Waiting for the Evidence

In my August 25, Wait for the Evidence post, I wrote about how so many people are jumping to conclusions without hearing all the evidence.  A couple of weeks ago the grand jury refused to indict Officer Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.  The crowds in Ferguson, Mo. and elsewhere protested, and many rioted.   While doing so they gestured with hands up in surrender, while shouting "Hands up, don't shoot".  All the while many were burning businesses, cars, trash and more.  They were destroying what many citizens of Ferguson had spent time, sweat and money to build up.

So even when the evidence is known, the same people who prejudged the events of the day promoted a lie.  That lie was that Michael Brown was shot while his hands were up and he was surrendering to Officer Wilson.

Several witnesses, three autopsies, and physical evidence collected and examined by police and FBI, all demonstrate beyond any doubt that Brown was resisting, and attacking Wilson, which forced Wilson to fire his weapon until the threat was no more.

I truly bothers me that people continue to lie, violently so, and many in the media, politics and all walks of life, refuse to call a lie, a lie.

Obamacare Should Be Out of Gas, But...

Obamacare is Running Out of Gas

The money quote from this column is this...

There’s more on the line in this challenge than the fate of Obamacare, as if that wasn’t enough.  The legitimacy of American government hangs in the balance.  If the people who draft laws can lie shamelessly about them, then rewrite the laws on the fly after they have been signed, in the interests of political expediency, we don’t have a constitutional government at all, and neither Obamacare nor any other bill signed in Washington is really a “law.”

This means that any law can and will be modified to suit the intentions of anyone in power at any time.  That is not a constitutional republic that we are supposed to have.  No matter what law, or how good that law is, we cannot allow this president, or future presidents of either party, to simply rewrite laws as they see fit.

Why I Vote Republican

I will vote Republican in national elections for president, US Senate and US House of Representatives almost always.  In fact, I cannot remember voting for a democrat for those offices ever.  I will try to explain why.

1.  The democrat party thinks you cannot prepare meals for your family without government guidance.  Michelle Obama's food police initiative is a prime example.  Also, the war of sugars, fat and sodium in food, and claims of helping you fight obesity is pervasive.

2.  The democrat party thinks the government should stay our of the lives of LGBT community, but cannot extract themselves from your dealing with fertility, birth control and abortion.  The claims that republicans hate women because they refuse to pay for other people having abortions or using birth control are over the top ridiculous.  Sandra Fluck and the animated Julia video prove the democrats definitely continue to have a say so in your bedroom.

3.  The democrat party thinks you cannot choose for yourself where your children get their education, and refuse to support school vouchers.  Instead, while they send their own children to private schools, they deny poor people access to higher quality schools by supporting the NEA and their opposition to vouchers.

4.  The democrat party thinks black people cannot obtain any form of photo identification to show at the voting place.  Even though photo ID is required for countless activities that blacks participate in daily, such as boarding planes, renting cars and hotel rooms, purchasing items with checks or credit, and entering public buildings like the capital, courthouses and federal buildings.

5.  The democrat party thinks jobs a a function of government and not business.  Hillary Clinton, presumed front runner for the democrat nomination for president in 2106 said as much while campaigning for other democrats.

6.  The democrat party calls a 7% increase in the budget a cut because it was not an 8% increase.  Basic math would be better understood if school vouchers were permitted.

7.  The democrat party does not understand basic economics of the free market, and repeats the false narrative that republicans believe in the trickle down theory.  In fact, no republican trickle down theory has ever been promoted.  When Ronald Reagan proposed that if the government collected less in taxes, then people would keep more of their money and therefore spend more, the economy would grow.  Liberal commentators called this the trickle down theory, and democrats repeated it, often.

8.  Democrats do not believe that lower tax rates will generate more tax revenue.  Remember that the rate is expressed as a percentage, and the revenue is the amount of money remitted to the IRS.  John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush all proved that lowering rates will increase revenue, and yet democrats refuse to see this for what it is.

9.  Democrats claim Obamacare is working and working quite well.  While this is opinion, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or Obamacare) is not solving any of the problems it has been claimed to address.  Rates are climbing for most, and higher than historical increases.  People did in fact lose their health insurance and doctors despite promises form almost every democrat they would keep them.  Most people in polls state they want to see Obamacare repealed.  And the actions by President Obama to delay and/or wave multiple groups of citizens and multiple requirements of the law, proves this law does not live up to its billing.

10.  The democrat party believes that the science of global warming is settled.  This is patently false as more data comes into the public domain and more scientists profess opposition to the alarm-ism.  To say the science is settled when so little is actually known about climate records and models, and when so many real scientists question to theory, is simply unscientific in nature.

11.  The democrat party thinks guns kill people, instead of people killing people.  The number of mass shootings has actually not increased according to FBI crime statistics, and several studies conclude the same.  The fact that nearly all mass shootings occur in gun-free zones, where no one can shoot back, is proof that unarmed citizenry is at greater risk than an armed one.  While any death by gunfire is horrible and tragic, the gun is not the cause, but the tool.  When an armed citizen is nearby when a mass shooting begins, the shooting typically ends with fewer injured and dead, and there are countless examples of this scenario.

In general, the democrat party does not trust Americans to make decisions about their own lives on  a daily basis, and does not think Americans can get along in life without persistent help from the government.

In general, republicans think that government should be seen and not heard, and should allow Americans to do what they do best: innovate, create, build and improve their lives for themselves, their customers and their families.

Is Ebola a "Black Swan"?

Black Swan Theory (Wiki)

I only became aware of this theory, which says there are events that take place without advance warning, but can have a large or extreme impact, and in hindsight, we should have seen it coming.

Many people are obsessing over Ebola, in turn fretting over who may have it, can I catch it, and what to do about all of that.  The media lately is trying to convince Americans they are making mountains out of molehills.  Are they?

Ebola was discovered and identified in Africa in the 1970's, where there have been repeated smaller outbreaks, relatively speaking.  Now that world travel has lead to an unprecedented spread to the USA, many people are very worried, and rightly so.  The disease has a high mortality rate, depending on a variety factors, such as general health of the patient at the time of infection.  In African outbreaks the mortality rate is as high a 90%.

We are also being told that we can only contract the virus by exchanging bodily fluids with a symptomatic carrier.  The incubation period is up to 21 days, after which you can be assured you have not been infected.

This all means we have a very low probability of catching the disease,  but if we do, we have a high probability of dying from it.  These attributes make Ebola a black swan of sorts.

Given what we do know, the question should be what policy is appropriate for dealing with potential infections.  Should we quarantine people who have been near others we know to be infected?  Under what circumstances should we quarantine people or not?