A Lesson in Liberalism

My half-sister, who is much younger than I, considers herself a liberal. She graduated from NY University with a degree in psychology four years ago. She put that degree to work for 6 months working as a social worker in an elementary school. She found that the bureaucracy and red tape made it nearly impossible for her to do her job to help at risk kids or kids with special needs.

One of her goals in life is to be self-sufficient and to live off the power grid. The first step for her to reach that goal was to learn how to farm. She never had a very high opinion of food manufacturers and routinely blames big corporations (not personal responsibility) for making humans addicted to fats and sugars that are making us unhealthy. She believes strongly that organic foods are the only way to go. She spent several years working on a farm learning how to grow crops and how to raise animals to make dairy products.

To learn more about different crops and animals she took a job on a Kauai (Hawaiian Island) farm. She likes the work and loves the scenery of the gorgeous tropical island, but only worked the job for a meager six months. She was anxious to leave, why? She did not care for the people. She classified a majority of the people on the island as “moochers”. As a farmer, my sister did not make much in the way of a salary. Because she was poor, many of the locals tried to coax her into getting “free” meals and “free” care at a variety of different sources including churches. But as a responsible and able human being my sister did not consider herself as being a person who needs or deserves any handouts. She concluded if she needed more money, she can get another job.

What made my sister angry about the whole situation on Kauai is that all of the people receiving handouts were all very well educated people capable of working, but refuse – they were living their dream of being “surfer beach bums”. They lived in tents and each night they would sit around a camp fire drinking and smoking pot. They would brag about all their college degrees, and of course, lecture each other on how to make America a better place to live. Their view of America is not much different than Woody Guthrie’s 1940 song “This Land is Your Land”. In other words, they believe America should be a welfare state supporting them and their surfing hobby.

My sister was obviously puzzled to see normal and smart people unwilling to work, but instead choose to be parasites on society. This was not her vision of welfare. Yes, welfare was for the poor, but not for people who choose to be poor. If everyone lived as Woody Guthrie preaches in his famous song, then where would the wealth come from for those free meals and free clinics? After all, if everyone chose to live as a “deadbeat” there would be no wealth, there would be ingenuity to create products, and there would be no one to grow the crops and cook the free meals.

And what’s even worse was that a majority of these of parasite moochers complained about their free meals and were not in the least bit grateful for what they received. These parasites would complain about everything that is wrong with society, but they refuse to take any action. People have a responsibility to themselves and to others to make a positive impact on society. People should never choose to be a burden on society. And if people refuse to have a positive impact on society, then they should have no right to complain. When people become part of the problem and not part of the solution, they have absolutely no right to complain.

I detest people who choose to be parasites that are nothing more than carbon emitting oxygen thieves. But I can at least credit these deadbeats with educating my sister on how welfare provides little incentive for people to advance themselves. Thus, their actions are making her viewpoints more conservative.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

We Are Lucky to be Alive–Today

I have said it before, many people consider me a pessimist, but I am a realist. It may be sad, but in my opinion, those of us who are alive today are the lucky ones. I do not have much confidence in the future of our country, especially in the next 100 years. What are some of the problems facing future generations?

One problem is our national polarity. Problems and issues are not resolved when everyone is more interested in revenge, excuses, and blaming their counterparts for causing all our national problems and issues. In other words, we have become a nation of problem creators and not a nation of problem solvers. There is simply no individual accountability or responsibility anymore and this trend is getting worse each year. Unfortunately, technology has worked more to polarize than to unite Americans, and this trend will continue to get worse as technology expands.

One issue causing polarity is our ever increasing narcissism. Every person seems to be a “know it all” and is only concerned about me, myself and I. Politicians and media pundits are not concerned about doing what is best for the country, but doing what is best for themselves. CEO’s do what is best for them and not for their company and employees. Everyone thinks they understand the math and science behind the problems facing the country, when the fact of the matter is that most Americans are illiterate, especially when it comes to math and science.

Our national fiscal situation is also a major concern. In just the next few decades, the interest on our debt will equal our defense budget. By 2050, the nation faces a 50 trillion dollar unfunded liability for entitlement spending and other union and government retirement plans.

Population increases will place a huge burden on our resources including food, water, healthcare, and energy.

Education continues to be a major issue facing our nation with more kids dropping out each year and more kids failing to have basic math and reading skills to survive in the real world.

Whether or not climate change is manmade or not, solutions to carbon emissions merely slow the process by a few meager percentage points. In other words, nothing is going to stop carbon emissions from going up (unless we use carbon scrubbing technology), and it is going cost our nation trillions of dollars for a negligible difference. Climate change is one example of how government is failing to come up with both a cost effective and efficient methodology to solve the problem. Carbon taxes and expensive green energy solutions will cost our economy jobs and businesses will lose opportunities.

Each year more and more people move into poverty and more and more people are relying on charitable and government handouts to survive. No nation can endure this growing expense as witnessed by Greece and Ireland. In other words, the U.S. is becoming a welfare state. Tough decisions need to be made, but no one has the fortitude to do so.

The bottom line is that our national problems are not going to go away. Every nation faces a breaking a point and for the United States it is closer than what most people realize. If drastic changes are not made soon, then expect the lives of future generations to be one marred in poverty, addictions, starvation, disease, illiteracy, government reliance, and living amongst decaying and crumbling infrastructures. I hate to say it; but better days have passed and we are lucky to be alive today.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/27/12)

USDA - The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs - including in-home day care centers - to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home. A girl’s lunch which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice was deemed not acceptable according to the lunch police, but chicken nuggets made by the cafeteria were deemed as acceptable.

Diversity – The Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear a case about a lawsuit brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student, who said she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of the color of her skin. If the justices vote to hear the case, it could mean a majority of the court is willing to curtail or further restrict race-conscious admissions policies at public universities.

Iran - Iran hailed its advanced nuclear capabilities this past week by unveiling what it says are a new generation of centrifuges to speed up uranium enrichment and its first domestically produced fuel rods.

Manufacturing – Manufacturing jobs have increased the past two years after declining every year since 1998. Obama thinks it’s his policies, but it’s solely because recession manufacturing jobs are increasing due to weakened unions, falling wages, high unemployment, and growth in lower paying manufacturing jobs.

Daily Kos – Founder Markos Moulitsas had this to say about Occupy Wall Street “They [Occupiers] can be as filthy and they can rape people — if you want to make stuff up — but the fact is nobody really cares about it ….”

Economy – Jobless claims continue to decline, but consumer price indices are slowly increasing raising fears of growing inflation. GM posted record profits in 2011 and Chrysler also posted a sizable profit – both due to restructuring from bankruptcy, not bailouts. Also, the Congressional Budget Office reports the United States has now seen the longest period of unemployment since the Great Depression. Unemployment has remained about eight percent the last three years. 

Obama Energy Program - Overall, the Washington Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 ‘green’ companies backed by firms with connections to five Obama administration staffers and advisers.

Alcohol Abuse – Health experts and the World Health Organization may look into new global regulations for alcohol use.

CFPB - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is seeking to bring debt collectors and credit bureaus under its purview, marking the first time the often controversial industries would be subject to federal supervision. Any such change should be considered a Constitutional breach under the “Contracts Clause”.

Student Loan Rule Change - Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, all federal student loans are forgiven if one works in "public service" for ten years after graduation.  Until recently, working in any capacity for any nonprofit was enough for one to quality.

Underwear Bomber - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to bring down a U.S. commercial flight on Christmas Day 2009 by detonating a bomb hidden in his underwear, was sentenced to life in prison this past week in federal court in Detroit.

Tim Geithner – Commenting about the federal debt to Paul Ryan in front of the Budget Committee while representing the White House: "You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say 'we have a definitive solution to that long term problem.'  What we do know is, we don't like yours."

Occupy Wall Street - Occupy is officially starting a PAC, which will enable them to raise money for or against candidates and to provide information about legislation and ballot initiatives. Isn’t this no different from Wall Street funneling millions into political campaigns?

2012 Election - President Obama raised $29 million in January for his campaign and the Democratic Party. His total combined fundraising for his re-election bid now tops $250 million.

Fast and Furious - Obama is proposing to remove a provision from the 2013 spending bill that would make it illegal for the federal government to sell firearms with suspected criminals.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Playing God

Many liberals may not believe in God or practice religion, but many act as if they are God. No, I am not specifically talking about ego maniacs such as our President and his naïve followers that think he is the Messiah. I am actually talking about ideologies followed by any progressive left wing commoner. That is right, many liberal philosophies not only make little sense, but they are outright hypocritical and contradict many of their basic conceptionalized beliefs.

Liberal fiscal policy is a good example. Liberals support a welfare state and numerous Ponzi scheme programs such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare, food stamps, and other government handout programs. In order to support these programs they require a massive tax revenue base and therefore, population growth of taxpaying citizens is essential. However, this is not happening? Instead, liberals are playing God promoting abortion and expanding the population base dependent on welfare (ObamaCare is a good present day example). How is this playing God? Well, killing a fetus is playing God. Also, liberals claim to be the Party of science and are more apt to support Darwin’s theory of evolution over the Biblical theory for the creation of the universe and life. But, liberals contradict their own beliefs by attempting to alter Darwin’s theory: “survival of the fittest”. Liberals want to spread massive amounts of wealth from the rich to the poor to support the lives of irresponsible people. Like many conservatives, I believe in helping those that deserve help by practicing compassionate conservatism. Irresponsible people are those who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives and are unwilling to work for their charitable gifts. On the other hand, responsible people do not accept welfare and then blow it on drugs, alcohol, and other material things while neglecting their children. There are many people that do not deserve welfare or any assistance of any kind. This includes those educated oxygen thieves that have decided to live on beaches waiting for those big waves. And what’s worse, most compassionate people do not need the government to play God by deciding how to spread their wealth. Educated people can decide which charities to contribute without government interference. The difference between liberalism and conservatism: Liberals want to take “other people’s money” and then they want to play God by deciding how to distribute that money.

Liberals are trying to play God on other subjects including global warming. Once again, they think they can “alter” evolution by squandering “other people’s” hard earned dollars. There is an underlying misguided liberal theme: Liberals feel any issue can be solved by throwing “other people’s” hard earned dollars at the problem. We do this for everything. Let’s improve education by throwing more money at the problem. Let’s improve the homeless issue by throwing more money at the problem. However, money is only one small variable out of thousands. This is why the decline in education is not being corrected even though we spend more money per capita on education. And our national homeless rate is increasing even though the United States spends more on welfare than any other country in the world. Liberals need to stop playing God. If they want to correct a problem then they are more than welcome to donate their hard earned dollars to that cause, but don’t expect to use “other people’s money” to fix your favorite cause. This is simply irresponsible righteous behavior. No one has the right to play to God.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/23/12)

Obama Budget – He proposed huge budget increases in community college programs, the Arab Spring countries, and highway construction. The budget calls for $1.3 trillion in deficit spending next year, including $350 billion in spending on jobs programs and $476 billion in infrastructure projects. The budget plans to raise $1.5 trillion in added tax revenue over the next decade largely from higher taxes on wealthier Americans (along with other bad ideas such as eliminating tax exempt status for municipal bonds). The budget also calls for $360 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. In fact, most of what Obama proposes in his current budget are things that have failed to pass in the past – it is purely a political budget. To make matters worse, the White House relies on rosier economic forecasts than the CBO in the budget proposal. In 2012 and 2013, the White House uses growth numbers of 2.7 percent and 3 percent, whereas the CBO has projected 2.2 percent and 1 percent growth during those years.

Samuel L. Jackson – Unfortunately, Jackson is the same angry man he portrays in most of his movies as he is in real life. In a recent interview in Ebony Magazine, Jackson admits he voted for Obama solely because he is black and then accused Americans of being racist in a rant where he used the N word 4 times.

Iran – According to Reuters Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said. In other news, Israel also claims that Iran is behind recent terrorist attacks in India, Indonesia, and Georgia.

Quote of the Week: “I do whatever Michelle and Joe Biden tell me to do” said Obama in a recent campaign stop.

Occupy Movement - Film director Stephen K. Bannon is bringing us an in-depth look at who the Occupy Movement really is and what their goals are in "Occupy Unmasked." The truth is, the Occupy movement is violent, anti-American, anti-law enforcement and willing to do whatever it takes to infringe on the free speech and property rights according to Bannon.

Gay Marriage – Gay marriage got a big boost this week when New Jersey legislation made it legal. However, Governor Chris Christie is expected to veto the bill.

Cost Savings Enhancement Act - "Under current law, agencies are required to spend all of the money they are allocated and have no incentive to identify areas in the budget where savings could be found," Senator Rand Paul said. "When this occurs, federal agencies with a surplus of funds must rush to spend the funds before the end of the fiscal year, often on unnecessary purchases." The Cost Savings Enhancement Act is supported by Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Prosperity. The Act creates an employee suggestion program under which federal workers would get as much as $10,000 if their suggestions for trimming are adopted. This bonus policy system for identifying cost savings measures is no different than how private sector businesses operate.

Genesis – Genesis is a solar company in California which may be the next Solyndra. Genesis received 825 million in federal funding and the company is struggling to meet deadlines and is getting pressure from outside influences, including environmentalists and Native Americans, to seize opperation because the solar farm is being built on federal lands.

Voter System – According to Politico the United States’ voter registration system is in chaos — about 24 million registrations are no longer valid and nearly 2 million dead people are still on voter rolls, according to a new report this past week.

Video Game Czar - Constance Steinkuehler, a professor from University of Wisconsin whose appointment as “Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology” constitutes, in the admiring words of USA Today, “one of the most unconventional White House hires in recent memory.” She’s supposed to use her presidential appointment to promote development of “big, save the world” video games.

Nuclear Weaponry – Obama wants to reduce the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal by 80%.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

The Regressive Party

One favorite label that progressives or liberals like to place on conservatives is that they call them the regressive party. Regressive is defined as tending to return or to revert. It is also defined as decreasing proportionately the amount of taxes – regressive tax. Regression is defined as a trend or shift toward a lower or less perfect state – for instance a disease, body function, mental state, or motion can all regress. And yes, the definition of progressive is the opposite – moving forward or advancing in incremental steps. At first glance the regressive label does not seem fair. Although I am conservative my philosophies of implementing a fair tax would yield more revenue for both individual citizens and the federal government. My personal story is that I grew up in poverty – but I have given my fair share of income in taxes and charities without ever accepting a penny in federal handouts. I have helped foster advancements in technology that have made our lives easier, less expensive, and safer. If that is regressive then so be it. To be perfectly honest, the regressive generalization angered me.

By the same token, what is progressive about liberal philosophies and ideas? Abortion as a means of birth control – is that a progressive idea? What about labor union concepts of rewarding and protecting bad employees - how exactly is this progressive? If anything, these ideas lead to mediocrity – look at the American automotive industry when compared to other global auto companies or how education has declined in our country with students being less proficient in math, science, and reading and more kids dropping out of school. How have entitlements and quota systems improved corporate competitiveness or individual advancement? Today, on average, more people live in poverty than 50 years ago. Minorities are segregated more than ever living miserable lives fighting crime and addiction in inner city slums. The family unit has disintegrated - most families living on welfare are of the single parent variety. Meanwhile corporate innovation, exports, and technological advancements have slowed. Yes, it is easy to surmise that the regressive party is the Democratic Party. To me, being regressive is being a burden on society – by having others pay for our existence – this is the Democratic way.

The more that I thought about the regressive accusation, the more I began to realize that there is some truth to it. In many respects I would like to go back to the earlier interpretations of the Constitution, a smaller government, and more state rights. Still, another definition of regression is to determine the relationship between two or more correlated variables – usually determined by empirical data – to predict future outcomes. Thus, in order to determine and solve the complex problems of tomorrow we need to first regress. In other words, we need to be able to break down the problem into a set of older individual data points or variables. These are the tool that scientists use to understand the relationship between temperature and carbon emissions; or the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues or consumer spending; or the relationship between increasing Medicaid patient payrolls on healthcare costs or the quality of healthcare. These are indeed complex problems that unfortunately very few people have the capacity or the mathematical skills to build an accurate linear regression model to solve these issues. For what it is worth, I have created models, using data from government sites, to solve the above problems. I am not saying my models are correct (they need to pass the test of time), but at least I have the ability to break down problems to find what set of variables correlate to find solutions. By definition a progressive does not have this ability – but I will not make that generalization. What I will say is that being classified as a regressive is not all bad – especially if you have the ability to break down and solve the complex problems that face the future of our nation (that is progressive).

I do not care that people have opinions, one way or the other, on these complex problems. What disturbs me is that everyone thinks their opinions are the 100% correct even though they not only fail to understand the math behind the problem, they have never seen the model or math solution. This is very sad and it is a testament to our narcissism and “know it all” mentality. But if you want to label me as a regressive – go ahead – I now see it as a compliment.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Just Say “No”

It is sad, but I think my favorite reply to a request is “no”. And what’s worse, I no longer feel guilty about it. I was not always this way, but changes in technology, trust, and other factors have turned me into a declining machine. Here are some things I refuse to join and donate to:

I refuse to join any clubs, groups, or organizations. I belong to zero, none, zilch, nada! I will not join a political party because I think they are all sold out to special interest groups. I do not even belong to a softball or basketball team anymore. What are my reasons? First of all political, corporate, religious, or other agenda driven organizations take advantage of our privacy. They sell our names to others who fill our mailboxes, voicemail, and email accounts with never ending propaganda, requests for money, and pressure to join their club. To make matters worse, these requests snowball over time. Take my advice, if you want to warship God, do it in solitude with your family. All of these ploys are all smart marketing tricks, but I do not like it. Secondly, other clubs such as a hiking club, chess club, or softball league means we must rely on others for their success. And maybe I am off base, but people to me are much less trustworthy than ever before. People procrastinate and are unwilling to help organize events, and worse of all most people fail to help the team, club, or organization to be a success. If I join a group, I am in 100% and will do my role and then some. Meanwhile, others are more often than not less committed and that is very annoying to me.

I refuse to donate to public charities anymore. The reason is simple, you donate to one and then you have hundreds of solicitors asking for more money. My advice to people is to anonymously donate (cash) to individuals in your community that need assistance. This is one way to help others without being overwhelmed with phone calls, mail, and email. I simply do not trust charities anymore. They are not immune to scandals and, on average, less than 50 cents on every dollar goes to its intended cause. On the other hand, if you donate directly to a family in need, all of that money goes directly to its intended cause. Of course, the down side is that we cannot write off these donations, but you still get more of a bang for your dollar. I would give the same advice to those that want to donate to election campaigns. Donate directly to the candidate of your choice and avoid those middle organizations such as the RNC or DNC. A good example of charity abuse is the scrutiny that Lance Armstrong’s cancer charity Livestrong is receiving. The charity spends more money marketing and maintaining Armstrong’s tainted image than it gives to cancer research or to help people infected with cancer.

I even try to avoid buying things online or using credit cards to pay for items. The reason for this is because this purchasing approach leaves a paper trail. When there is a paper trail there is not only a potential for fraud, but companies will sell your information to others to solicit you to buy more things.

Joining a social network site (like Facebook) can also be a problem. I do belong to Facebook, but we can forget about our privacy rights when we join social networking sites. Every group you join on Facebook and every site you hit is recorded. Facebook and friends can also use your biography and interests for marketing purposes. All of this information is sold so ads, which correlate to your interests, are added to your Facebook page. Another issue with Facebook and social networking sites are viruses. We must rely on friends and hope they are trustworthy and responsible to have a virus free computer. It is essential to upload a good anti-virus software so your computer to block cookies, viruses, spyware, and popup windows. Big brother is watching and wants to know everything they can about us.

It is unfortunate, but if you want a hassle free life, just say “no”. Do not join clubs, organizations, leagues, or groups. Maybe I am turning into an isolationist, but life is much less stressful.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/20/12)

Climate and Weather – From Good Morning America: Is global warming throwing our weather out of whack? Scientists tell us there's no easy, blanket answer. The bottom line is that the evidence can be strong or weak, depending on the type of weather. That, admit researchers, can be confusing to anyone looking for a clear answer.

Earmarks – The Washington Post has conducted a study revealing that 33 members of Congress earmarked more than $300 million for projects within two miles of land they own. As Elizabeth Warren says “Bringing home earmarks is part of the job”.

Shyness - Shyness could soon be classified as a mental illness, according to new studies. It seems everyone needs an excuse to be irresponsible and dependent on prescription drugs.  

FEMA - The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced last week that it is rolling out a plan to waive debts for many victims of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters who may have mistakenly received millions of dollars in aid.

Lawsuit of the Week - A Staten Island mom made national headlines this past week after suing the city of West Brighton for $900 trillion, alleging the city improperly placed her two children in foster care.

Planned Parenthood – Executive Angie Murie said she had no problem with gender based abortions. How’s that for sticking up for women’s rights?

Nuclear Power – Good news, the nation's first new nuclear power plant in a generation won approval this past week as federal regulators voted to grant a license for two new reactors in Georgia.

Education – Obama has granted waivers to 10 states for more lenient enforcement of “No Child Left Behind” legislation.

Housing Market – Congress passed a 25 billion dollar bailout to help prevent future foreclosures.

Move On - First lady Michelle Obama said this past week that poor nutrition in the military was a "national security issue."

ObamaCare / Contraception Mandate – Under increased scrutiny from religious groups, Obama announced that the contraception mandate rule would be tweaked, so in cases where non-profit religious organizations have objections, their insurance companies will be required to reach out to employees and offer the coverage directly.

Ray Nagin – The former New Orleans mayor is under investigation as to whether he received favors or items of value from vendors to the city in return for contracts they received while Nagin was in office.

Obama Budget Proposal - Obama expects the federal budget deficit to reach $1.33 trillion this year (higher than the CBO estimate), administration officials said this past week, the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. ABC news says “The White House is focusing on re-election themes such as jobs and public works projects in Obama's new budget blueprint while relying on familiar but never enacted tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to reduce future deficits after four years of trillion dollar-plus shortfalls.”

Greece - Tens of thousands of government dependent Greeks gathered this past week near the country’s Parliament as lawmakers voted on a tough austerity package sought by lenders.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama Mirrors Bush Policies

The Obama and Bush administrations have been for the most part polar opposites. However, most of what has gone right for Obama has been because he has mirrored or extended Bush policies, especially against terrorism. Here are a few examples:

• Obama continued the Bush policy of hunting for Osama Bin Laden. And when Obama found him, he did exactly what Bush would have done; he killed him and ignored his civil liberties.

• Obama continued the Bush policy of keeping terrorists housed in Guantanamo Bay. Obama, like Bush, is holding detainees’ indefinitely without a charge. And when the enemy combatants are charged with criminal acts he is trying these detainees in a military tribunal and not a civilian court. These are all liberal promises broken by the naïve and misguided President elect who seemingly thought extreme Islam was a hoax.

• Obama has not only continued the Bush policy of using drone strikes to knock out al-Qaida targets in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, he has escalated the use of this strategy.

• Obama went to war to overthrow a rogue and genocidal tyrant in Libya similar to how Bush went to war with Iraq. The difference is that Bush had the fortitude to finish the job. In effect, Obama was supporting the Bush “Freedom Agenda” in the Middle East when he went to war against Libya. As other oppressed Arab nations saw Democracies flourish in Iraq and Lebanon (Cedar Revolution backed by Bush), they too wanted the same freedoms. As a result, dozens of revolutions broke out across North Africa and the Middle East. Unfortunately, Obama missed out on many of these opportunities to oust terrorist supporting governments.

• Obama has continued both the Bush Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In fact, Obama has implemented the Bush “surge strategy” in Afghanistan.

Obama has also successfully mimicked a few alleged successful George Bush domestic strategies:

• Obama continued the unpopular Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP) that bailed out banks and financial institutions. To date, many of the loans have been paid back with interest.

• Obama has continued the Bush tax cuts for all tax brackets. Obama’s economic advisors correctly understand that raising taxes on the wealthy during a recession would be bad for the economy.

• Obama also continued the Bush policy of bailing out the automotive companies. Although many credit these bailouts for keeping GM and Chrysler solvent, bailouts did not stop them from going in bankruptcy, which ultimately got their financial standing under control.

Obama and Bush also have some troubling policy similarities:

• Both Obama and Bush will go down as the top Democratic and Republican deficit spending presidents in U.S. history.

• Both Obama (Democrats) and Bush (Republicans) are responsible for getting us into one of the worst recessions in U.S. history and both were unsuccessful in getting us out of the mess in a timely matter.

Oddly, Obama is quick to blame Bush for all of his failures, but he has never given Bush any credit for his successes. For instance, when the 1 trillion dollar stimulus and quantitative easing techniques failed to alter the recession’s outcome for the better, Obama would routinely blame Bush for getting us into the mess in the first place. And let’s not forget Obama and Democratic policies, under Bush, such as those used by mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie were a leading cause for the financial and housing collapse. Still, Obama has taken no responsibility for the economic calamity and his failed measures to correct the recession. And finally, in his speech following Bin Laden’s death, Obama alluded to the fact that the Bush administration took its eye off the prize (Bin Laden). But, according to reports, information collected under Bush’s watch led directly to the killing of Bin Laden (and some of that information came from enhanced interrogation techniques). Still, Obama gave Bush no credit. It is therefore a fact that had Obama been President after 9-11, we would have never gotten the intelligence necessary to kill Bin Laden. The bottom line, Obama is only successful when he emulates Bush policies.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/16/12)

Florida – A proposed bill will forbid citizens from using food stamps to buy sweets. The law would also restrict ATMs where food stamps can be redeemed.

Egypt - Ignoring a stern U.S. threat, Egypt this past week referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – CPAC was actively protested by the Occupy DC movement which was set up by the AFL-CIO union head.

Energy Tax Credits - Last week, Senators Jim Demint (R-South Carolina) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Energy Freedom and Economic Prosperity Act (EFEPA), a bill to repeal all energy-specific tax credits.

Health Records – Since the conversion to electronic medical records began there has been nearly a 100% increase in health data breeches.

Ginsburg - "I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," Ginsburg said in an interview this past week.

Quotes – "What's frustrated people is that I've not been able to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our Founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than I would like sometimes. But what we have been able to do is move in the right direction” said Obama in an interview with Matt Lauer. “Handing airport screening duties to private companies could result in another terrorist attack like Sept. 11,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said last week.

Occupy DC - Authorities say 11 people have been arrested in Washington's McPherson Square since Park Police began clearing away tents from one of the nation's last remaining Occupy sites. David Schlosser, who is a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said that one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. That person is accused of hitting an officer in the face with a brick Saturday evening. The officer was treated at a hospital. Three others were charged with assault on a police officer.

Joe Biden – He admitted in a speech this past week that government subsidies have worked to raise college tuitions. Imagine that, Joe saying something that actually makes sense.

Free Speech – Remember Obama chastising the Supreme Court in his 2011 SOTU address over their ruling on Citizens United? Now all of the sudden, Obama is in favor of Super PAC’s. This from ABC’s Jake Tapper “In a conference call with members of President Obama's 2012 reelection committee this past week, campaign manager Jim Messina announced that donors should start funding Priorities USA, the Democratic Super PAC run by two former White House staffers, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney.

Obama Occupy Fundraiser – Obama held a fundraiser for Occupy sympathizers – Event tickets cost as much as 38,500 dollars. This is just more hypocrisy.

Birth Control - Students at Shippensburg University will now be able to get Plan B, the morning after pill, from vending machines on campus. 

Gay Marriage - In a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday, the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned “Prop 8”, which banned same-sex marriages in California.

ObamaCare – The legislation has a provision that will force companies (more than 50 employers) to provide a room (cannot be a restroom) for women to breast feed their children.

Planned Parenthood – The organization made 164 million dollars on abortions this past year.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Eyeball Statistics

What is “Eyeball Statistics”? It is phrase I haven given to how a majority of people analyze data. In other words, people analyze data merely by what they can deduce by looking at it. Thus, they are not performing the necessary “due diligence” to mathematically analyze the data to find correlation or standard deviations. We are all guilty of using eyeball statistics because it is fast and convenient. Eyeball statistics is certainly acceptable when evaluating a few data points for one or two variables. From this we can ascertain trends. But the human brain is not very good at deciphering trends from a plethora of variables and data points. To do this properly, we must do the math and create complex models.

Let’s evaluate how statistical data can be misleading. One common statistic that most people use is statistical averages. And many people have the ability to compute averages merely by eyeballing the data. Finding the statistical average of a set of data points is easy to compute, but this data can be misleading. In many cases, averages can mean very little without knowing the variance, standard deviation, or even the skewness of the data. For instance, a student who scored 5 points below the class average on a test means very little without understanding the statistical variance of how the class performed as a whole. If the student’s score was within one standard deviation of the average, then they are performing as well as a majority of the class. If their score, on the other hand, was two or three standard deviations below the class average, than they are performing well below the rest of the class. Hence, statistics can be misleading if they are not defined properly. And we cannot define statistics properly merely by eyeballing data.

Most of the economic and scientific problems that face Americans are not easy problems to solve. The effects of carbon emissions on global warming; the effects of Obamacare on doctor availability; the effects of raising taxes on the wealthiest earners on consumer spending; the effects of cap and trade on corporate profits; and so forth. Each of these problems may contain dozens of variables with thousands of data points and no one can eyeball these results. These are the problems and issues that face Americans on a daily basis and we all have an opinion about them. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion. But we must remember that an opinion is neither right nor wrong. The problem is that all Americans feel their opinions are scientifically proven facts that are unequivocally 100% correct. How many people have actually seen and understood a model created by an economist showing the effects of taxing the wealthy on consumer spending or a model by a climatologist revealing the effects of carbon emissions on temperature changes? The answer is pretty darn close to zero. Without seeing these models I cannot agree or disagree with the conclusions. For this reason, I create my own models to better understand these issues, but models are not perfect. If models were 100% accurate to predict the future, we would all be prophets. We could wipe out cancer and solve the world’s problems. But trends change over time, which render models obsolete. And like all statistical models, there is an error associated with them. When I posed this question to one liberal friend about global warming models, he forwarded me a bunch of weather prediction models he found on the web. First, the data within the models was not known and therefore, we could not dispute the results. Secondly, there is a big difference between weather and climate models and for someone arguing that global warming is manmade - he should have understood this fact. Face it; people do not like to show their models because someone can poke holes in them.

Although models are not perfect, they are the only means we have to evaluate complex problems that cannot be solved by eyeball statistics. And anyone who claims to understand the effects of carbon emissions on climate change or the effects of raising taxes on the wealthy has on unemployment are formulating an opinion if they have not done the “due diligence” to understand the math behind the conclusions. This is why the so called experts are wrong over 50% of the time when trying to predict the future – they are guilty of eyeball statistics. I will post this study at a later date (it compiled data over 30 years). For instance, economists were right less than 40% of the time when predicting the future outcome of two possible scenarios. For example, economists where asked will unemployment go up or down next year, or will inflation go up or down next year, and so forth. The average American could guess and get 50% of these questions / predictions correct. Maybe this is why everyone thinks they are an expert - they can guess better than the experts!

One Question

When I evaluate local, state, and federal political candidates I ask myself one question – Which candidate do I most trust to run my personal finances? In most cases the answer is none, but this is my litmus test when I evaluate the resumes of politicians. After all, if I do not trust a person to run my personal finances than how can I trust them with taxpayer money? And this question should not be limited to politicians, but other people who hold public jobs that are required to balance a budget. Hence, this question should also be asked of principals, superintendents, and the folks that run public retirement accounts. For instance, far too often we appoint good educators into the role of superintendent or school principal, but they fail to grasp how to run a school district like a business because they have a budget that needs to be balanced. Therefore, a good educator is not necessarily the right person for the job if they lack good business acumen. The same can be said of state and federal bureaucrats running retirement systems that have amassed trillions in unfunded liabilities.

I very rarely view a federal political candidate’s record on social issues as important. Most importantly, political candidates need to be both business and financially savvy. It is not because I think social issues are not important or that I do not have a strong opinion about them. It is because I view social issues as “state” and not “federal” issues that should be resolved independently by each state. The federal government or Supreme Court has no business making laws or decisions about gay marriage, capital punishment, legalizing marijuana, or abortion unless the Constitution is amended. There simply is nothing in the Constitution to support federal government interference in these matters. However, social issues are more important when I am deciding between candidates in local and state races.

A recent poll indicated that fewer than 1 in 5 politicians have a background in business or economics. Over half have college degrees in humanities or some government related field. And what’s worse, nearly all of these candidates are mathematical illiterates. This means they are incapable of performing a simple statistical analysis to determine what economic indicators are the most pivotal for a strong economy nor can they determine which economic parameters correlate. Politicians do not understand the math and science behind global warming nor do they understand the math behind the economics of determining the effects of raising the taxes on the wealthy. I am not only talking about liberals, but conservatives too. Case in point, Tea Party favorite Tom Tancredo was duped by Bernie Madoff. Because of this it very hard to find a candidate who passes this one simple question. Let’s face facts, most politicians are not qualified to write laws and manage budgets on economic issues or controversial issues such as global warming. Simply put, they are not experts in these fields they merely pretend to be experts.

It is no surprise that most elected Presidents are generally governors and not congressional members. The reason for this is simple; governors have practical experience running a state budget, whereas congressional members merely write legislation, but do not run a budget. And congressional members who are responsible for a budget have no problem deficit spending and running up trillions of dollars of debt.

So it should come as no surprise that the Obama administration is failing to fix the economy. Obama and over 90% of the advisors in his administration have no practical business experience. Many are lifetime educators that have failed to try their ideologies in the real world. Hence, most of the Obama administration is not qualified to run a McDonalds let alone a nearly 15 trillion dollar economy. Therefore, I would not trust them to run my finances, nor should anyone else.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/13/12)

Economy – Some good news for Obama: the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent while 243,000 new jobs were created in January. But then Obama had the audacity to warn Congress not to “muck up” the recovery.

Planned Parenthood – The Susan G Komen foundation has ended its funding to the controversial organization. The foundation then caved to Democrats who were furious over this, but Planned Parenthood itself doesn't even do breast screenings by its own admission, it only "connects" women to entities that do provide cancer screenings and mammograms.  In other news, a day after NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made a $250,000 gift to Planned Parenthood, the city’s teachers’ union is answering the mayor’s call for matching donations with a $125,000 gift of its own.

Housing Market - Obama called on Congress to approve a $5 billion to $10 billion effort to help U.S. homeowners refinance as part of a wider package of proposals to shore up the depressed housing market. Obama had sketched out the proposals in his State of the Union address last week, including a tax on banks to pay for the plan that Republicans quickly rejected.

Afghanistan - A growing number of attacks by Afghan troops on U.S. and NATO forces is raising questions as Afghanistan prepares to take more responsibility for security. In other news, the Pentagon’s monthly spending in Afghanistan dipped (due to troop reduction) to $5.3 billion in October and November, down from an average of $7.8 billion a month in the fiscal year that ended in September, according to data compiled by the Defense Department comptroller’s office.

California – The state will officially run out of cash next month. They are reporting a 21 billion dollar deficit on a 90 billion dollar budget.

Class Act - By a vote of 267-159, the House of Representatives voted to overturn the Class Act, a long-term care provision of Obamacare that would have become a budgetary nightmare.

National Prayer Breakfast – Obama cites scripture to defend his policies, saying God is on his side of isle.

NY Times - The New York Times Company suffered a net loss of almost $40 million in 2011, with its fourth quarter profits falling by 12.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2010.

Stimulus 2 – Speaking to Virginia firemen Obama proposed a new conservation program that would put veterans to work rebuilding trails, roads and levees on public lands. He's also expected to announce the administration will seek additional grant money for programs that allow local communities to hire more police officers and firefighters.

Heath Shuler – The North Carolina Democrat will retire after completing his term this year. This is a very winnable seat for the GOP.

Federal Budget - Senate Democratic leaders on Friday said they do not intend to bring a fiscal 2013 budget up for a floor vote. "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it's done, we don't need to do it," said Harry Reid. It has already been over 1000 days since the Senate officially passed a budget.

Iran - The U.S. and Israel are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities, as that nation’s leader said it won’t back down. The U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from attack, Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration said.

Occupy DC - The police used barricades to cordon off sections of McPherson Square, a park under federal jurisdiction near the White House, and checked tents for mattresses and sleeping bags and sifted through piles of garbage and other belongings. Some wore yellow and white biohazard suits to guard against diseases identified at the site in recent weeks. Officials also have raised concerns about a rat infestation.

Syria - Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution backing calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, despite international outrage this past week over a devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by his regime's forces.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

The Party of the Underdog

As an astute fellow blogger points out (CW – Commonsense Matters), liberals are the party who believe they represent the underdog: the poor, women, minorities, gays, unions, and even the planet. They even view the 1.2 billion global Muslims as the underdog in the conflict with about 15 million Jews (outnumbered nearly 1000 to 1). Progressives are the party that thinks white males have destroyed our planet and have an unfair advantage over other genders and ethnicities. Hence, it begs to reason, that liberals also think that Republicans loathe the poor, women, minorities, gays, unions, and the planet. After all, the GOP sides with big corporations over the planet and who are, for the most part, against any new entitlement programs to support the less fortunate. The Democrats cause may be noble however; there are many flaws with this progressive ideology or way of thinking.

First of all, if it were not for Republicans, African-Americans would have been slaves longer; the women’s suffrage movement would have been delayed; and even the civil rights movement would have had to wait longer for its passage. It was Republicans that championed these movements in both state and federal governments.

Secondly, the U.S. spends more money per capita than any other country in the world on welfare programs to support the less fortunate. In fact, conservatives give more money to charities to help not only less fortunate Americans, but less fortunate foreigners than progressives by nearly a 2 to 1 margin.

Thirdly, the GOP is Party for family values and morals, whereas Democratic policies have worked to denigrate the American family unit. The family unit is arguably the most important ingredient for the future success of any nation.

It’s just nonsense to insinuate Republicans are the party that hates the poor, women, minorities, gays, union workers, Muslims, and the planet. When Republican’s championed the freedom of slaves, equal rights for women, and the civil rights movement they saw everyone as equal regardless of race, gender, religion, or ethnicity. This was not exactly how liberals perceived or interpreted these events over the past 50 years. Progressives have gone out of their way to earn political points by insinuating women, gays, the poor, and minorities are not equal – they believe, in fact, these so called “underdogs” are inferior to white males. Thus, liberal politicians and judges implemented laws, policies, and legislation to bend the rules of life in favor of these so called underdogs. Diversity, quota systems, environmental laws, and other favoritism rules and regulations were formulated by liberals to provide the underdog with an unfair advantage. These polices do not promote excellence, but mediocrity. When one group of people is given more opportunities in both business and education when in fact, they are not the most qualified candidate, this makes America less competitive. This is a big reason why the U.S. economy is losing ground to other emerging markets such as India and China. When an automotive union assembly line worker earns more benefits and wealth than a non-union PhD engineer who designs the safety system for cars, this is a recipe for disaster. Liberals call the anti-union movement as class warfare, but the truth is that in many cases the people that are being discriminated against are the non-union workers. And when corporations are taxed higher than global counterparts and face more environmental restrictions, then this too is a recipe for disaster.

Democrats may demonize Republicans, but conservatives only want everyone to have the same opportunities. The GOP realizes it is not fair when a wealthy female or minority has an unfair advantage to get a job or to earn a place in a higher educational institution than an underprivileged white male. The GOP realizes it is not fair when a high school dropout working on an assembly line earns more wealth than a PhD engineer. The GOP realizes it is not fair that U.S. corporations have to face higher taxes and regulations when competing with global competition. The bottom line is it is never a good idea to solve the problem of equality by diminishing or lowering the opportunities of one group of people with the hope it will elevate the performance of others. Medicaid and other welfare programs have not worked to lower the poverty and homeless rate. In fact, welfare has worked to increase the poverty and homeless rate. After all, why work or be responsible if you can get handouts for doing nothing. Republicans only want people who are living off the wealth of others to be responsible. It just does not make sense to reward mediocrity or irresponsible behavior. And finally, no one is an underdog when the rules in life favor them. In a sporting event an underdog is not given an unfair advantage to level the playing field. Life simply does not work that way.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Weekly Lowlights (2/9/12)

Pentagon - The Pentagon unveiled a 2013 budget plan that would cut $487 billion in spending over the next decade by eliminating nearly 100,000 ground troops. 

Entitlements - Dependence on entitlement programs continues to soar under President Obama. The number of food stamp recipients is up 45 percent since he took office, while the number of people receiving a government benefit of any kind is up 44 percent. 

Europe - Fitch Ratings downgraded the debt of Italy, Spain and three other countries that use the euro this past week, a possible setback as European leaders work to contain the continent’s debt crisis.

Elizabeth Warren - Warren says she is not part of the 1%. “I realize there are some wealthy individuals – I’m not one of them, but some wealthy individuals who have a lot of stock portfolios" she proclaimed. Hard to see how Warren wouldn't be, by most standards, wealthy, according to the Personal Finance Disclosure form she filed to run for Senate shows that she's worth as much as $14.5 million. She earned more than $429,000 from Harvard last year alone for a total of about $700,000, and lives in a house worth $5 million.

Occupy Movement – More trouble in Oakland as nearly 200 protestors were arrested this past week. Part of their activity included burning the American Flag. And what’s worse, a 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering his adoptive parents after reportedly arguing with them over how much time he was spending at an Occupy protest camp. Robert Kamin, 55, and Susan Poff, 50, were found strangled under blankets in a car outside their home in Oakland, California. In other news, the World Social Forum wrapped up a five-day meeting in Brazil, urging citizens to "take to the streets on June 5" for the global action, which would be in support of social and environmental justice.

Fast and Furious – New documents reveal that Holder was indeed aware of the operation the day Agent Terry was killed.

Quotes – Bill Maher over the Obama / Brewer exchange: “This kind of thing happens when we allow Negroes to Read”. Obama on GOP: “We weren’t sent her to wage perpetual campaigns”.

ObamaCare - The Department of Health and Human Services has issued an edict that, under ObamaCare, effectively all employers will be FORCED to offer health insurance that covers subsidized contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.  

Freddie Mac - A recent investigation (NPR) into trades made by the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant shows that while Freddie with one hand is helping consumers get mortgages, it is, with its other, making those mortgages harder to refinance.

Biden – Not surprising, but Biden advised against the Bin Laden raid.

CBO - The Congressional Budget Office this past week predicted the budget deficit will rise to $1.08 trillion in 2012.  The CBO also projected the jobless rate would rise to 8.9 percent by the end of 2012, and to 9.2 percent in 2013. Also, the Congressional Budget Office found that federal workers are compensated 16 percent more than comparable private-sector workers on average. 

Arizona Union Bill – According to the Arizona Republic there is a new union bill that would make it illegal for government bodies to collectively bargain with employee groups. Public safety unions would be included in the ban. It would also end the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues and ban compensation of public employees for union work.

Insider trading - By a 93-2 vote, the Senate passed legislation this past week that “would require disclosure of new stock transactions on the Internet within 30 days and explicitly prohibit members of Congress from initiating trades based on non-public information they acquired in their official capacity,” the AP reports.

Unions - Private-sector unionization continues to decline. Only 6.9 percent of workers in the private sector are union members.

Marijuana – According to Reuters efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use are gaining momentum in Washington State and Colorado, despite fierce opposition from the federal government and a decades-long cultural battle over America's most commonly used illicit drug.

Iran – According to ABC Five men arrested in November in connection with a plot to blow up the only bridge connecting the island of Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and to assassinate Bahraini politicians are allegedly tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and reportedly received military training in Syria, according to information leaked to the media by authorities.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Unions and Gangs

I am certainly not going to categorize unions in the same classification as street gangs, but there are many disturbing similarities. My wife, who is a teacher, despises unions and is the one that brought these similarities to my attention. Recently, my wife had a meeting with the district superintendent over the new tenure rules in Colorado since it affected her status. She told the superintendent “I do not care about tenure, if I am not doing my job fire me. No one should be protected when they are doing a bad job whether they have been working days as a teacher or 35 years.” A lot of her resentment towards unions started in her childhood when she saw her father being driven to work in the back of vans to protect his identity because he crossed the picket line. She saw the violence too as one of their neighbors was shot on his door step. So it should come as no surprise that she brought these similarities to me.

• Both unions and gangs work to kill jobs. No small businesses will open its doors in areas where gang violence is high and likewise, unions make it harder for companies to compete globally.

• Both unions and gangs prey on the weak. It is not surprising most gang members and even union members come from less education or a lower socioeconomic status. Gangs and unions invite people to become members of their “brotherhood” with false promises of security and protection. They brainwash people and rob them of any independent thought (and of course their money). And if you refuse to conform and join the union or gang, you will be harassed and even threatened with violence. This is a big reason why liberals and unions support card check – so they know exactly who is not conforming to join the movement. My wife received a message after starting a new teaching job to attend a mandatory meeting, but the subject matter was not included in the message. Within a minute she knew the meeting’s purpose was to convince the new teachers to join their union. She left and said “never invite me to these meetings again”. My wife understood that this was the first step in the brainwashing and indoctrination process.

• Both unions and gangs will resort to violence to get their way and they are both certainly susceptible to scandals and fraud. It is no secret that union and gang leaders advocate for themselves (more money and power) and not their members.

• Both unions and gangs will build power through member numbers and money. They love to take other peoples hard earned dollars so they can spread the wealth (mostly into the leader’s pockets).

• It is nearly impossible to get out of a union or gang once you become a member.

• Both unions and gangs like to flash their logo and colors all over their perceived territory.

These are a few similarities. I am sure others can think of several more detrimental things that both unions and gangs have in common.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

A Subtle Word that Polarizes

I have said it hundreds of times; I am a numbers guy and really have a tough time working with words. One way that I compensate for my reading and writing deficiencies is by using math and creating a program which I refer to as a “word counter”. Word counters are common and the marketing departments of companies use them religiously. For example, ads are placed on our Facebook pages which match our interests. Originally, I created the program because I was proof reading a lot of technical papers written by engineers who worked for me (yes, this proves that most engineers’ writing skills are poor especially if I am the one doing the editing). In any event, the tool helped me in the editing process. Since I retired, I have expanded the program. Today, I can run long texts through the counter and can determine if the writing is liberal, conservative, polarizing, too technical, etc. For instance, if the words “blame” or “fault” are used numerous times and words such as “solution” are not used, then the writing is most likely polarizing because it one sided.

Interestingly, one word that comes up a lot in polarizing writings is the word “annoy or annoying”. Here is one definition of annoying: “Causing vexation or irritation; troublesome: an annoying cough.” In my day the word annoying was used to describe non-personal nouns such as an annoying sound or annoying pain. Today, this definition, in my opinion, has expanded to be more personal and used to attack people: I find John Steward annoying. In my analysis of the word annoying (and observations), it is commonly used in writings where the words such as fault and blame are also used. In fact, stronger divisive words are often used in connection with the word annoy that I rather not list. The word annoy is more likely to be used by liberals; people with social issues (you know those people who can only communicate via social networking sites) are more likely to use the word annoy; younger people are more likely to use the word annoy; people that are “know it alls” are more likely to use the word annoy; people who use the word annoy are less likely to compromise – very opinionated; and people seem to be less self-aware who use the word annoy.

On the other hand, a word that is used instead of annoying that is more positive and less divisive is the word Frustrating. Here is the definition of frustrating: “To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: A persistent wind frustrated my attempt to rake the lawn. To cause feelings of discouragement or bafflement. To make ineffectual or invalid; nullify.” The word frustrating is more likely to be used in writings were solutions are proposed. People may find something frustrating, but they will try to find a way to remedy whatever they find frustrating. On the hand, people who find something annoying do not try to resolve or remedy that feeling – instead, they are more apt to simply avoid the situation or make the situation worse by finding blame and fault for the annoyance.

I am sure many may disagree with this analysis of the word annoy, but I would have never have noticed the context of which the word annoyed is being used if I did not use math to analyze writings.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/6/12)

Interest Rates – The Federal Reserve announced it is unlikely that they will increase interest rates before 2014.

Taxes – From the AP: President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies in the Senate promised Wednesday to press ahead this year with legislation drawn from his plans to require millionaires pay at least 30 percent in taxes and curb tax preferences for companies that ship jobs overseas. Also, A new report from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. Is this part of Obama’s fairness?

USDA – The Washington Post announced “School cafeterias will be serving more-nutritious meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains and less sodium and fat under new Department of Agriculture guidelines that will revamp the federally-backed school meals program for the first time in 15 years.”

Prison – From ABC News: A convicted murderer on death row in North Carolina wrote a taunting letter to his hometown newspaper about his life of "leisure" in prison and making a mockery of the legal system. Danny Robbie Hembree Jr. was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Heather Catterton in 2009 and was sentenced to death on Nov. 18, 2011.

Florida Homeless – As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.

Warren Buffet’s Secretary – Mrs. Bosanek was the center of attention (aka poster child) during Obama’s SOTU address for paying a higher tax rate then her billionaire boss. Forbes Magazine concluded that Bosanek made somewhere between 200 and 500 thousand dollars in 2009. Don’t you feel sorry for her?

Jan Brewer – The Arizona Governor and Obama got in a heated exchange on the Phoenix airport tarmac. Obama initiated the exchange and finished it by walking away to avoid discussing the stark differences between the administration and Arizona policy.

Hillary Clinton / Tim Geithner – Clinton will step down from her Secretary of State post and Geithner will step down from the head of the FED after this term.

Social Conservatives – “Research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.” I would really like to see this data!

North Carolina – Embattled Democratic governor Beverly Purdue will not seek reelection this year. Also, Democratic congressman Brad Miller will retire at the end of the year. Both of these vacancies are very winnable for the GOP come November.

Economy – 2011 was the worst year on record for new home sales and fourth quarter GDP only hit 2.8%.

Ener1 – The battery manufacturer is the latest “green” company to go belly up after receiving 118 million in stimulus funding from the Department of Energy.

Higher Education - President Barack Obama announced this past week a plan to shift some federal dollars away from colleges and universities that don't control tuition costs and new competitions in higher education to encourage efficiency as part of an effort to contain soaring college costs. It was exactly this type of federal interference in our grade school system that led directly to its decay and lack of global competitiveness.

Keystone Pipeline - A senior Democratic congressman (Henry Waxman) likened Republican lawmakers to terrorists this past week for their insistence on tying approval of construction of a new oil pipeline to must-pass legislation.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Why Force Policy and Legislation?

There is nothing progressive about liberal policies; liberals want to force their will on Americans all at once. What is the end result of liberals forcing legislation down the throats of Americans? Stagnation and decline, case in point, the results of the 862 billion dollar stimulus on the economy. When I post my election models a person pointed out that I was biased because I used negative numbers to represent Democrats and positive numbers to represent Republicans. I explained my logical reasoning for this choice: negative numbers are on the LEFT side of the number line whereas, positive numbers are on the RIGHT side of the number line. But yes, the LEFT is the best way to describe liberal policies because they force both the U.S. economy and the social state of Americans backwards in a negative fashion. Here are some prime examples of liberals forcing their political ideology on the American people that have backfired:

In Brown v. School Board the liberal Supreme Court ruled that separate and equal was not good enough and therefore, decided any student should be free to go to any school of their choice. When African-Americans continued to go to black schools the Supreme Court ruled again in Brown v. School Board 2 (Most history teachers do not speak of this second case) which essentially nullified the original ruling and forced students to go to particular schools (students, in particular African-Americans, were no longer free to go to the school of their choice). In other words, the court’s ruling was to force integration. Many lawsuits were filed against this ruling, most by African-Americans, who were concerned because their children were spending up to 4 to 6 hours a day commuting to and from school. Today, are African-Americans better off because of the ruling by the Supreme Court in Brown v. School Board 2? Most are not, and they continue to be segregated in inner cities where school systems are much worse than they were 50 years ago. The decline in the social standing of African-Americans and Native-Americans can be linked to other liberal policies targeted to speed or force a desired result such as diversity and multiculturalism. Attempts at diversity and multiculturalism have only increased resentment between ethnicities and races and has done very little to integrate African-Americans (inner cities) and Native-Americans (reservations) into “mainstream” America.

What about liberal policies to end poverty? Liberals have passed a plethora of welfare policies targeted to help the poor such as Medicaid, food stamps, and low income housing. Today, poverty (16%) and homelessness (2%) are at its highest levels and more people are dependent on government handouts than ever before (50%). So what do liberals propose to correct the mess they started? They want more tax revenue from companies and wealthy individuals so they can redistribute more wealth. This makes absolutely no sense! Liberals want to continue with the same policy of wealth distribution that has failed miserably to wipe out poverty and in fact, has made it worse.

Climate change legislation is another example of liberals trying to force a result. Unfortunately, these types of policies have led to a negative domino effect on the economy. Climate change policies have led directly to higher energy costs which, in turn, have led to less consumer spending which slows the economy which, in turn, have led to the transfer of jobs overseas.

Pro union policies have also led to a negative domino effect on the economy. Unions unrealistically inflate benefits and pay for workers which, in turn, forces jobs to move overseas. And let’s not forget that union protection of bad employees, in particular teachers, has led to horrific consequences on the economy because it leads to failing schools and increased drop- out rates which, in turn, leads to more government dependence which, in turn, leads to more government spending and debt.

Here is an example of how things work when the government and courts do not interfere and force an ideology on Americans. In the Dred Scott ruling the Supreme Court decided not to rule on the case leaving Dred Scott as a slave and not a free man. The Left is still bitter about this ruling today. However, if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dred Scott, arguably the freeing of slaves would have been delayed for decades because it would have changed history – Would Lincoln have been elected President or would the Civil War had taken place only a few years later? Probably not, and therefore, the issue of slavery was resolved faster because the Supreme Court did not legislate from the bench and they let the free people of America decide the fate of slavery in a natural manner.

Liberals claim to be the Party of science such as their adamant belief in the theory of evolution. However, in evolution nothing is forced, it happens naturally over time. If there is an imbalance in nature, it is corrected in a natural way so as not to force another imbalance in the system. It is interesting how liberals feel they can alter the effects of evolution (climate change) and survival of the fittest (saving the poor) by taxing people more and throwing money at these issues. This is hypocrisy at its best, yes, we believe in evolution, but we are naïve to think we can alter evolution by throwing money at these problems. Money is only one of millions of variables for these complex problems. Yes, Liberals are Left on the number line because their policies are negative, they promote stagnation at best, and they lead to both the economic and social decline of Americans.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Obama’s Lowlights (2/2/12)

Roe v. Wade – Obama says in a statement that the court's decision (Roe v. Wade) also makes clear that the government "should not intrude on private family matters." Yes, this from the man who is mandating health insurance and wants to control family wealth.

Gabrielle Giffords – The Arizona Congresswomen resigned a little more than a year after she was shot. Giffords recovery has been a remarkable story.

Human Rights - The United States and other Western governments must accept the new reality that Islamists have emerged to fill the power vacuum in the Arab world after a wave of popular uprisings, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report this past week. Now, that is irony!

TSA - U.S. Sen. Rand Paul was detained briefly by security at the Nashville airport when a scanner found an "anomaly" on his knee.

Obama – Leaked memos from the 2008 campaign shows that Obama (Mr. Civility) approved the character attacks against Hillary Clinton.

Oil Production - “President Obama has pursued a comprehensive energy strategy that has increased our domestic energy production, reduced our dependence on foreign oil to below 50 percent for the first time in 13 years and supported more than 224,000 clean energy jobs,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement. But what the White House fails to acknowledge is that U.S. oil production is up because of the efforts of his predecessors, not him. It takes years to see the effects of pro oil polices in terms of production.

Privacy - The Supreme Court ruled this past week that police must obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to a suspect's vehicle, voting unanimously in one of the first major cases to test constitutional privacy rights in the digital age.

Right to Work – Indiana passed a right to work bill (anti-union), which was protested by Democratic legislators who refused to show up to work.

Salon – Joan Walsh of Salon had this say “We have a really interesting case study in the Republican Party in these two candidates because Mitt is the candidate of vulture capitalism that hollowed out the middle class and represented and enriched the top one percent. But Newt is the face of the politics of resentment and racism and angry white male rage that let guys like Mitt do that to the economy.”

Romney – He released his income tax records and in the past two years he paid 6.2 million in taxes on 42 million dollars of income. This is a low effective tax rate because his income is based mostly on capital gains. However, the Romney’s donated 7 million to charities during the past two years. This is more charitable contributions than the cheap Pelosi, Reid, Obama, and Biden will donate in their lifetimes combined (and they too are all millionaires). Romney’s 2010 tax return was 500 pages long! This fact is even more troubling than the numbers in the return and a better reason why tax reform is needed.

Obama Drug Use – A few editorials this past week made a valid point – If Newt Gingrich’s divorce and marital issues are a chief concern for his qualifications to be president of the United States then so should Obama’s past history of drug use (which incidentally is a felony) and his affiliation to a rogue church.

Federal Budget – It has been 1000 days since Congress officially passed a federal budget.

Chevy Volt - According to numerous auto trade reports, a number of U.S. car dealerships are turning away the Chevy Volt due to safety concerns.

SOTU – Obama’s message last week in the SOTU address was: Fairness. When will politicians realize any government interference or intrusion into corporate or individual lives is never fair? It always favors one group of people or one industry over another (diversity, cap and trade, entitlements, and so forth).

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)

Are Over Half of All Southerners Racists?

Are over half of White Southerners racists or bigots? Time magazine attempted to make this assentation in an article they wrote last year marking the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War: “150 Years After Fort Sumter: Why We’re Still Fighting the Civil War” by David Von Drehle. Von Drehle’s hypothesis is that people are dismissing slavery as the leading cause of the Civil War because of an April 2011 poll: “Harris Interactive polled more than 2,500 adults across the country, asking what the North and South were fighting about. A majority, including two-thirds of white respondents in the 11 states that formed the Confederacy, answered that the South was mainly motivated by "states' rights" rather than the future of slavery.”

I for one was never taught any the fallacies pointed out in Von Drehle’s analysis of the Civil War (although I was educated in Northern schools). It seems Von Drehle’s objective, as with many liberal historians and writers, is to dream up racial story lines (After all, this type of divisive story sells magazines, but, unfortunately I think Von Drehle believes the righteous drivel and conspiracy theories he spews). It has been 150 years since the Civil War ended and we still need to insinuate that White Southerners are still racists and bigots – that is truly sad, particularly since none of them were alive 150 years ago.

Today, when people say that the Civil War was about states’ rights they are correct. The most important outcome of the Civil War was the ratification of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments to our Constitution, in particular, Article I of the 14^th amendment. And it is important to note that while the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments were ratified to protect African-Americans (former slaves), there is nothing in these amendments specifically referring to blacks, Negroes, African-Americans, or slaves. The amendments were written in generic terms such to be inclusive of all Americans, not just one race or ethnicity. Maybe the Northern politicians and bureaucrats who wrote the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments were also racists? After all, they did not refer specifically to slavery as being the main cause of the Civil War (as Von Drehle’s hypothesis would suggest).

The interpretation of the 14^th amendment has expanded over the years. Meanwhile, the importance 10^th amendment, which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people”, has diminished. Article I of the 14^th amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Today, people understand that the 14^th amendment, in particular the due process clause (second sentence) of Article I, has made the 10^th amendment moot or inconsequential. For this reason, States’ rights were forever changed by the Civil War. For instance, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Miranda and Roe based on the due process clause in Article I of the 14^th amendment. Hence, the outcome of these decisions, and dozens like them, has changed hundreds of state laws. This is evidence that the Constitution’s 10^th amendment, protecting states’ rights, is null and void – a critical outcome of the Civil War.

Also, Supreme Court citizenship rulings were upheld for Hispanics and other races based on the 14^th amendment. If we believe Von Drehle’s premise that the 14^th amendment was just about slavery, than we can start departing all those children born in the United States from illegal aliens. But the naturalization clause from Article I of the 14^th amendment (first sentence) is inclusive of all ethnicities and races, not just African-Americans or former slaves.

Respondents to a Harris Interactive poll suggesting the Civil War was about states’ rights are not bigots (as Von Drehle suggests), but people who understand the modern implications of the Civil War’s most important documents – the ratification of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th amendments, which were written to protect all Americans, not just former slaves. Von Drehle’s hypothesis is not only misguided and divisive because he obviously fails to understand history and our most important document (the Constitution if he needs to be reminded), but his theory refutes his liberal views on abortion and citizenship to name a few.

My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)