Wisconsin Union Smack Down

Posted on 08-May-2012 by Highvoltage

The primaries were held in Wisconsin tonight and there were 5 Democratic candidates competing to earn the right to take on current Governor Scott Walker in the 05-JUN-12 Recall election.  The stakes for the Leftists were high and you couldn’t have imagined a more motivating state primary in the US than this one so you’d expect a high voter turnout on the Left while turnout for Walker’s primary (which was basically uncontested) should have been much less.

Not so fast my friend……

Here are the results as of 11:20 pm EDT from the Journal Sentinel Online.

If you do the math you see that Walker has almost the same number of votes as all 5 of the Democratic primary candidates COMBINED!  All 5 Democratic candidates got 585,888 votes while Walker got 571,573 votes (with 92% reporting).  Even if all the Leftists who voted in this highly popular primary throw their support to Tom Barrett, it stands to reason that a motivated Republican block will easily propel Governor Walker to victory in the Recall election.

But the Moonbats from Wisconsin Union are still clueless as to the eventual failure of their massive recall effort as is displayed in a few tweets from their faithful.

Recall hasn’t been successful yet – Walker is still the Governor!

Like that would’ve mattered!

Math Fail!

You still have to face Walker in June!

Does this mean Union Thugs will increase their violence and intimidation tactics?

Gee, I wonder how many Republicans stayed home knowing that Walker was going to win his primary easily?

The failure of Falk to win the Democratic nomination is devastating to the public sector unions since they were the ones who started this recall effort and these same Union bosses threw their full support behind Falk.

“Barrett was not the preferred candidate of the public employee unions who sparked the recall. That was former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. But Barrett benefited from higher name recognition and political establishment support.”

The failure is compounded when you consider all the national Union and Leftist dollars that were wasted in last year’s Wisconsin Senate recall failure and is apparently going to be wasted in this year’s governor recall failures.

The tears of the Leftists, not only in Wisconsin but all over the country, will taste so sweet in June when their failure is made complete.

Posted in politics, unionthugs | 1 Comment

We Get The Government We Deserve

Posted on 06-May-2012 by Highvoltage

Outside of 3 weeks in July when the world’s best cyclists compete in the Tour de France, I don’t pay much attention to what happens in that country but something happened in France today that everyone in America should know.  From the Wall-Street Journal article:

“French voters elected Socialist Party candidate François Hollande as president Sunday, choosing a national leader who has pledged to shift the burden of economic hardship onto the rich and to resolve the protracted euro sovereign-debt crisis by softening the current prescription of austerity.”

“With his victory over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the second and final round of voting, Mr. Hollande—France’s first Socialist president in 17 years—won a mandate to challenge German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has imposed spending cuts as the main remedy to repair the public finances of heavily indebted European countries.”

France just elected a President from a Socialist party who has promised to reverse the Austerity measures that Europe must undergo to reign in their debt crisis.  Austerity means many things but the gist of its tenets relates to rolling back government handouts that reward people for not working and as these programs have been talked about and realized in some countries (like Greece) the people getting the handouts became upset.  Color me shocked! 

Days like this remind me of a famous quote that has been repeated by many but is first attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville from his work “Democracy in America” that he wrote during the early 19th century and we should all take the time to become reacquainted with it.

 “We get the government we deserve.”

The French people appear to have bought into the class warfare meme that states the rich (successful) are evil and need to have their hard earned money taken from them and given to those who don’t have the same initiative and drive to become entrepreneurs.  Punishing the rich and continuing to provide incentives for people to remain on the government payrolls is the first step toward Socialism and this is the path France chose today.  I hope they enjoy this journey they chose to go on and as the quote states, they will now get everything they deserve for making this fateful choice.

Obama is hoping that the American electorate is equally as stupid as France’s since that is what he appears to be hitching his re-election wagon to.  Obama is stumping on the income inequality meme and those who understand real world economics know this is a smoke screen to play on peoples’ emotions and has no history of stimulating the economy.  But Obama is counting on a majority of Americans being ignorant to this fact and will vote for him so they can continue to be slaves to the government.

Just like France, the United States is also faced with its own debt crisis that has our debt to GDP ratio over 100% with no end in sight to the debt shell game where countries are buying up each other’s debt. The United States is faced with runaway spending with regard to Welfare and Social Security and no one on the Left has proposed solutions, let alone acknowledged the problems.  But these are mere inconsequential details to Leftists and they prefer to tug at the heart strings of those who choose to be dependent on government assistance and refuse to embrace individual accountability.     

The French elections are now history and there is nothing that can be done to undo its disastrous effects but let’s take a look at How Mr. Hollande won and see if the United States can learn from the French election so that we do not repeat these mistakes.  The following quotes come from the WSJ article referenced at the beginning of this post.

Income Inequality Meme

“Mr. Hollande—the first Socialist president since François Mitterrand, who served from 1981 to 1995—has promised to continue efforts by Mr. Sarkozy to reduce the government’s budget deficit. But Mr. Hollande has said he would ask wealthy households to contribute more.”

Mr. Hollande saw fertile ground with the French electorate by demonizing the wealthy (successful) and convinced a majority of voters that the evil rich need to pay more to finance those on the government payrolls.  Just like Obama is doing now, Mr. Hollande was very forthright in stating his intentions to redistribute wealth in hopes of solving the France’s debt problem and stimulating the economy.

No Solutions offered

“Mr. Hollande hasn’t spelled out exactly how he will improve France’s public finances while stimulating economic growth. His actions will be closely watched by international investors who could punish France by requesting higher interest rates on French bonds if they fear the president-elect isn’t serious about delivering on his deficit-reduction promises.”

Mr. Hollande hasn’t given any detailed programs that will rescue France from its financial crisis.  Notice this tactic mirrors Obama’s plan as well – Just vilify the Right and don’t worry about offering real solutions to the problems.  In over 3 years Obama has spent more time attacking the Right than offering solutions to our problems.  The Stimulus of 2009 was a failure and Obama’s signature legislation, Obamacare, is set to be overturned by the Supreme Court so Obama has nothing of substance to run on for re-election.

Voter Apathy

“In a further sign of disgruntlement, nearly 19% of the 44 million registered voters abstained from voting Sunday. Nearly 5% of voters cast blank ballots.”

Mr. Hollande apparently benefited from a large group of voters who were so upset with the candidates that they either stayed home or casted a blank ballot.  Does this sound familiar with the United States as well?  Conservatives, who are upset with the apparent Romney nomination, are also threatening to stay away from the polls or worse, vote for a third party candidate.  I have made my case for Romney and I encourage those who are unhappy with Romney to still vote for him since this is a far better alternative than four more years of Obama.

It’s the Economy Stupid

“Lagging behind Mr. Hollande throughout the campaign, Mr. Sarkozy emphasized a hard line on immigration, an attempt to attract voters who supported Ms. Le Pen in the first round.”

“The tactic, however, appeared to alienate center-right voters who were angered by the incumbent’s swing to the far right.”

It appears the Mr. Sarkozy lost some center Right voters when he left the main issue, economics, and decided to delve into social or non economic issues.  In 2012 the Economy is the main issue and candidates should not deviate from this message on the campaign trail.  I gave this advice to Republican candidates last year and the French elections only reinforce this.  Immigration reform, Abortion, Gay marriage and other non-economic issues are important for a candidate to have positions on but in this election year, the economy should be the main focus and Americans need to elect a President who has solid plans to get us out of this malaise.

Americans should take heed of the results of the French election and realize that elections do have severe consequences.  Do we want to continue our slide into Euro Socialism and go the way of Greece and Spain or return to American Exceptionalism and lead the world out of this financial mess?

Posted in politics | 1 Comment

Classic Obama

Posted on 05-May-2012 by Highvoltage

Obama is faced with a high probability that the Supreme Court will overturn his signature initiative “Obamacare” (aka The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and he is now lobbying the Supreme Court to think twice about striking this law down because that could cause Medicare payment disruptions.  From the Detroit Free Press article:

“In papers filed with the Supreme Court, administration lawyers warned of “extraordinary disruption” if Medicare is forced to unwind countless transactions that are based on payment changes required by more than 20 separate sections of the Affordable Care Act.”

This is a classical Obama ploy – pass a bill that is not only unconstitutional but so complicated that it would be almost impossible to undo its evil effects due to bureaucracy.  Has this ever happened before?  We have a sitting President threatening (yes that is the word I use) the Supreme Court to abandon their duty to uphold the Constitution.  Is this a basis for Treason?

Conservatives knew that once Obamacare passed, Leftists would fast track re-writing Healthcare, Insurance and Medicare rules/guidelines to the point that it would be next to impossible to correct them.  It is not a surprise that this is exactly what happened and it is no surprise that Obama is using this lame excuse to keep the law on the books. 

This is why Nancy Pelosi once said that we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it.  Passing the bill was just the beginning but the true evils of the bill would not be realized until the Health and Human Services (HHS) finished rewriting the healthcare regulations once Obamacare’s passage gave them the ability to do just that.

It is quite telling that Obama isn’t trying to defend Obamacare on its merits but instead he’s saying it would be too complicated to undo the bureaucratic rules.  Is this all he has?  Saying that it would be too complicated to undo Obamacare is not a reason to prevent the Supreme Court from striking it down on Constitutional grounds.  But then again, this is par for the course for a President that blames everyone but himself for the catastrophes that he and his team have created.

Sorry Obama but I think “unconstitutional” trumps “extraordinary disruption” every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  We can live with the temporary disruptions while we correct for the mistakes of Obamacare but we will not be able to survive, long term, with Obamacare still the law of the land.  Obama needs to quit the whining and accept the fact that Obamacare is a failure just like the rest of his Presidency. 

Posted in healthcare, politics | 1 Comment

Kentucky Derby Week

Posted on 03-May-2012 by Highvoltage

As someone who was born in Kentucky, graduated from the University of Louisville and lived in that great city for 10 years, this time of year is special to me. 

Since my wife is also from the Bluegrass state, we throw a Derby party for our friends every year and while we live in the Palmetto state, we have just as much fun as we did when we lived there.  The next few days will be spent preparing for that party but I wanted to put up a post for those not familiar with the Derby and I’ll try to give you an understanding of why it is special for those who love horse racing and really special for those who have a connection with Kentucky.

The Kentucky Derby is the first time 3 year old horses will run 1-1/4 miles in their young lives and this is what makes the Derby race so unpredictable and difficult to handicap.  You not only look at workout times, jockeys, trainers and past race performances but you must also look into the horses’ breeding to find the ones who have the DNA to go this distance.  Unknowns such as weather, post position (which is done by picking numbers out of a hat) and just dumb luck contribute to the outcome of the race and I don’t have to mention that the best 3 year old horses in the world are assembled on the Churchill Downs track during the fastest two minutes in all of sports.

Louisville basically shuts down a week before the actual Derby Week and there is a different activity each day (parade, Fireworks, Wine Festival, Steamboat race, etc.) and of course Chow Wagons stationed around the city where you can munch on carnival style food, drink beer and listen to live music every night.   It is a magical atmosphere in the city which will culminate on the first Saturday in May and it’s understandable if you ‘mail it in’ at work during this time because chances are your boss is doing the same thing.

It’s not well known to those outside of horse racing or those who have never attended a Derby day at Churchill but the Derby race is actually the 11th race run on that day.  There are two preliminary races but then the caliber and stakes of the subsequent races increase steadily until you get to the Derby race, but it’s not over then.  There are two more horse races after the Derby races which are never televised but those at the track stick around to try their chances at winning some money and those who are local stick around to wait for the traffic to clear out.  Another little known fact – the jockey who wins the Derby is scheduled to race in the 12th and 13th race but will be replaced due to commitments that he or she will be involved with after winning the biggest horse race of the year (and most often the biggest win of that jockey’s career).

One of the great aspects of Derby is the diversity of people who attend and I’ve been fortunate to rub elbows will the full spectrum.  In college, I spent most of my time in the infield (rarely ever seeing a live horse) and partying with the younger crowd, getting muddy, getting into fights and generally trying not to get arrested.  Later I was fortunate to have a seat in the Eclipse room (where you get to see the über wealthy make their way up to Millionaire’s row) and sit in one of the Governor’s boxes on the finish line.  I can say without a doubt that I loved all those experiences equally well and they all had a special character that I will always remember so if you ever get a chance to go, be sure and walk in all areas to take in the culture of the different parts of Churchill on Derby Day.

With Derby only a few days away, don’t expect any new posts from me until after the weekend but you can follow me on twitter as I’ll try and live tweet our derby party and use the hashtag #derbyparty (along with a few other thousand people).

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of when we spent one Derby in a box on the finish line (I’m the bald guy).  I don’t know what Heaven will be like but it can’t be much different that sipping a Mint Julep, smoking a cigar and watching the Kentucky Derby from box seats on the finish line.

Posted in sports, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Let Them Come

Posted on 01-May-2012 by Highvoltage

One of my favorite movies, Kingdom of Heaven, depicts the story of the reluctant hero Balian of Ibelin, played by Orlando Bloom, as he defends Jerusalem between the 2nd and 3rd  Crusades against the attacking Muslim army led by Saladin.   After days of fending off the Muslim army, it is apparent one morning that the forces of Saladin will storm through the front gate and move into the city.  Most leaders would have chosen to retreat and fight another day but Balian gave a speech to rally his troops and his basic message was – “Let them come!”  His belief was such that the Muslim army could be destroyed on that day and the war would end so let them come and let’s get this over now.

His full quote is here:

“When this wall comes down… there will be no quarter. If you throw down your arms… your families will die. We can break this army here. So I say let them come! Let them come! Come on! Come on! Come on!!!”

That is sound advice and I feel the exact same way about Leftist in 2012.   Let them come!

Since the election of Obama and the blatant disregard of the Constitution by Team Pelosi/Reid, we have amassed a conservative army that is fed up with creeping socialism and the deleterious effects that Liberal dogma has had on our society.  I’m tired of fighting in skirmishes and now I’m ready for the final battle.  Let them come!

Conservatives have an opportunity in November to beat back the lies of the Left so they no longer have a welcome home in mainstream America and Liberal, cancerous ideals will be forced to reside in fringe college campuses and in the few remaining Union halls.  Let them come!

Let the President come with his class warfare rhetoric.

Let Sandra Fluke come with her birth control smokescreen.

Let the Liberals come with their war on moms.

Let the Leftists come with their war on dogs when we really know Obama actually ate a dog.

Let their economists come with their love and devotion to Keynesian government spending.

Let the Main Stream Media (MSM) come with their poor Obamanomics “recovery” data.

Let the MSM come with their race bating.

Let the Democrats come with their lies that more welfare spending (so called “entitlement” programs) will lower the poverty rate.

Let Obama come with his massive increase to the National Debt even though he railed on Bush for a much smaller deficit.

Let Obama’s economic advisors come with their “shovel ready jobs” or their failed stimulus.

Let Liberal Bloggers come with their failed predictions regarding the Keystone XL pipeline.

Let Liberals come with their typical tactics of lying, shifting and vile tweeting.

Let Lawmakers come with their crony capitalism kickbacks for failed Green initiatives like Solyndra and the Chevy Volt.

Let Obama come with his silence and lack of leadership regarding the Zimmerman trial which is only accelerating racial clashes during the summer.

Let Pelosi come with her lies regarding Obamacare.

Let MSNBC reporters come with their racist dog whistles.

Let the Anthropogenic Global Warming Cult scientists come with their false claims that man is causing the Earth to rapidly warm to dangerous levels.

Let government agencies come with their intimidation and over regulation.

Let Obama come with that “Blame Bush” nonsense when we all know that he owns the economy.

I could go on but you get the point.  Conservatives should not run from the Left or avoid confrontation this year but instead hope they bring everything they have against us.  We need every lie and sinister thought of the Left to come to the surface so we can expose them and debunk them.  We need all conservatives to be active on Twitter, Facebook, at work and at play to go to war for not only conservative principles but for the future of this country.  Liberals have nothing to offer to defend 3+ years of Liberal policies gone wild so they will resort to every trick they have kept hidden for the past few decades.  Let them come!

In case you missed it, we are in a war!  We can end this in November so I say let them come!

Posted in politics | 2 Comments

Paul Krugman Loves Him Some Keynes

Posted on 28-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

 

On NPR today, Paul Krugman gave an interview and talked about how the US is experiencing more than just a difficult recession but instead he equated the current US economic situation to the Great Depression.  The two paragraphs below from the NPR story are the only words I heard from Krugman today that I agreed with.

“Krugman says he uses the term depression to describe today’s economy because “it’s qualitatively similar to the Great Depression.” He tells NPR’s Robert Siegel, “It is a sustained period of really lousy economic performance and an enormous amount of suffering.”

“Krugman worries that we’re becoming accustomed to this reality. “We’ve kind of settled into the notion that this is the new normal,” he says. “But it shouldn’t be. And it’s not something we should accept.”

We are indeed in a period of lousy economic growth and we should not accept these current conditions as the new normal but instead call on our American exceptionalism to strive to do better.

The rest of the interview has Krugman channeling the spirit of John Maynard Keynes and saying the government isn’t spending enough.  Some pertinent quotes from the NPR interview are below with emphasis mine.

“But now we know what works, says Krugman. Which is why he became so frustrated when Democrats pushed through a stimulus package he believed was far too small. “I, among other people, was screaming at the time, tearing my hair out very publicly in the Times,” he says. “We had an epochal financial shock … and we responded to it with a policy that was really quite modest — that was not nearly enough to offset that shock.”

Krugman thinks the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that ran up our debt by another $787 billion wasn’t enough.  Remember that Obama’s economic advisors told him that this stimulus was needed to keep the unemployment rate below 8.0% and we all know how well that worked out.   It’s hard to understand how doubling down on failure would have improved our situation but that is what Krugman is saying.

“Particularly since the stimulus such as it was has expired, what we’ve actually had is a lot of fiscal austerity. If you include the state and local governments — which you should — then what we’ve actually had is a record-breaking decline in government payrolls, a really major drag from governments cutting back rather than expanding.”

Krugman also thinks that it was a mistake to cut back on government payrolls and we should reverse this trend over the past couple of years when local and federal governments have trimmed the fat.  It boggles the mind how anyone can say that America is better off when we have more people under government payrolls but we have to consider the source here.  Remember Krugman is a proponent of the broken window stimulus fallacy which has been debunked here and here.

“So, people have said about the 1930s that Keynesian policies didn’t really work because they weren’t really tried, and that applies with extra force to this depression.”

“Though Krugman thinks the solution to our current depression is simple economics, he concedes that politics is never simple.

“It would be nice if we had a political system in which important figures from both parties understood textbook macroeconomics, because that’s all we’re talking about here,” he says. “The odd thing is I’m not a radical. I’m actually calling for believing your Econ 101 textbooks and acting on what they say.”

Krugman thinks that Econ 101 teaches us that government spending will spur economic growth and all we need to do is follow this simple advice.  He also believes that the recovery of the 1930’s wasn’t due to Keynesian policies because even the massive government intervention in the wake of the New Deal wasn’t true Keynesian since it didn’t go far enough. 

I won’t get into what got us out of the Great Depression but let’s say for the sake of argument that massive government spending did help rescue us from that economic collapse.  The US debt situation in the 1930’s was much different than the situation today and you can see that from the following graph of US Debt as a percentage of GDP (this data was obtained from the US Government Spending website).

During the Great Depression (1930’s), the US debt to GDP ratio was around 25% so borrowing money and increasing our debt then wouldn’t have had the same disastrous effects as compared to now when the US debt to GDP ratio is over 100%. Is Krugman really saying there are Economics textbooks that say having a debt to GDP ratio greater than 100% is a good thing?  If that is true, then why are countries like Greece (who has a debt to GDP ratio of 160%) teetering on the verge of collapse with such high debt to GDP ratios?

Keynesian economics is a fallacy because it takes money from citizens and gives it to the government to spend in a manner that would not be done in the normal Free Market.  The money doesn’t materialize out of the vacuum of space but must be taken from citizens or borrowed from other countries and neither is a valid option at this current time in the US.

Posted in economics, politics | 6 Comments

An Obamanomics Recovery

Posted on 25-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

The Federal Reserve Board (the FED) recently released their estimates for GDP growth for the next three years and the summary chart is shown below.

Even though we have come out of one of the worst recessions in recent memory, the GDP growth rate is predicted to be a puny 2 to 3 percent.  Why do I say puny?  To see how the US economy has recovered in the past from previous recessions, I went to the Bureau of Economic Analysis to obtain the US GDP historic GDP growth rates.  I added the predicted GDP growth rates that the FED gave today and used the middle of their ranges to estimate yearly GDP growth rates for 2012 through 2014 and the graph is shown below.

As you can see from the chart above, the magnitude of the recession (or depression) is in direct proportion to the magnitude of the recovery that follows (see the recovery from the 1930’s and mid 1940’s).  We see larger recoveries from deeper recessions and smaller recoveries from smaller recessions.

When we zoom into modern history (starting at 1960), we see that the economy recovered very well after the major recession of the early 1980’s and since the recession of 2009 was much worse, we should’ve seen a higher GDP growth rate as we recovered.

But that didn’t happen and according to the FED, it never will.  Welcome to Obamanomics!

Posted in economics, politics | 14 Comments

A Conservative in Favor of Government Student Aid

Posted on 25-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

Recently, Obama trotted out another one of this emotion tugging memes that won’t have any effect on the economy – Keeping new Federal Student Loan rates low.  This is just another ploy similar to the Buffett rule or the whopper he served up last week – cracking down on all those oil speculators. 

While all of Obama’s “plans” are meaningless in Macroeconomic terms, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about Federal Student Aid.  I’ve noticed many conservatives recently voicing their opposition to the Federal government participating in grants and loans to college students and they have serious beliefs that those programs should be eliminated.  It’s not just pundits and wannabe pundits making this claim because many of the Republican presidential candidates advocated eliminating the entire Department of Education.

“Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry want to eliminate the Education Department. “

Of course none of these four will be the eventual Republican Presidential nominee but they aren’t exactly lone wolves with their idea that the Federal Government shouldn’t be in the education business.  Their arguments are constitutional in nature and are basically summarized by a quote from the Daily Iowan article linked above:

“Bob Anderson, the chairman of the Johnson County Republicans, said eliminating the Education Department is a philosophy based on states’ rights.

“Education is one of those various issues that is principally reserved for the states and the localities,” he said. “Reserving privacy to the states is the strong principle of the overwhelming majority of Republicans. None want to see [the Education Department] as a controlling, dominating influence in the education process.”

I find it hard to argue with Mr. Anderson but before I get to my views on the topic, there is a brief history of Federal government involvement in education that the Daily Iowan provides which is important to the conversation:

“The Education Department administers Pell Grants and student loans and provides access to higher education for millions of low-income students at more than 6,000 postsecondary institutions, said Jane Glickman, a press officer at the department. In 2011, it’s operating on a roughly on a $71 billion budget.

The Higher Education Act of 1965 created the federal student-loan program, distributing student loans through two different federal programs — Direct Loans and Federal Family Education Loans.

The U.S. Department of Education, which opened in 1980, became the sole administrator of all federal student loans in 2010 following the elimination of the Federal Family Education Loans program.”

My Story

I was fortunate to be born to loving parents who taught me the value of hard work and the importance of an education.  They did what they could to provide for my needs and both of them worked hard to make ends meet and ensure their kids had a life better than they had when they grew up.  Our family was not wealthy and I’d characterize us as somewhere between poor and middle class so that meant when time came for me to apply to colleges there was no money in a savings account that my parents could use.  No stock options to exercise.  No 529 college savings plans to fall back on. 

I didn’t always make the best decisions while in high school and even though I scored well above average on the ACT (which I took while hung over) I didn’t qualify for academic scholarships, I wasn’t blessed with athletic ability sufficient to be awarded an athletic scholarship and even the Navy turned me down for an NROTC scholarship due to health issues.  I was about to graduate from high school and although my parents had drilled into my head since I was old enough to understand that I was going to college, that scenario didn’t seem possible from where I sat.

I’ll skip ahead to let you know the story has a happy ending; I did go to college and received Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering.  As a professional engineer I travelled all over the world designing, installing and commissioning manufacturing facilities and I am now blessed to direct a medical device manufacturing facility that makes life saving devices.

So how did I get from that desperate situation as a high school senior to my current position?  Community College, hard work and help from the Federal grant and loan assistance programs.

There was a great community college in my home town that would allow me to take the freshman and sophomore college credits in an engineering program which would transfer to several of the state colleges.  Since the tuition at the community college was a fraction of the state college tuition, my parents were able to pay for the first two years and this bought me time to figure out how to pay for the remaining years of my education (which I had decided would be completed at the University of Louisville).

When I was 16 I got a job at a local Wal-Mart to pay for my car and allow me some playing around money (which more often times than naught got me in trouble) and from that day forward I would always have a job.  Shortly after getting this job, my dad gave me some valuable advice that proved to be a major contributor in my ability to eventually go to college – he suggested I participate in the employee stock purchase program.  I didn’t know much about the stock market back then but I followed his advice and by the time I left to attend a traditional four-year university the stock had split several times and it paid for much of my junior year.  I failed to mention that I worked at Wal-Mart during the mid to late 1980’s and anyone following Wal-Mart stock back then knows what a smart investment that was!

That was a great plan for the first 2 years and part of my third year but there was still a huge gap between what I had and what I needed to pay for the rest of my education and that is where the Federal Student Aid program came in.  After filling out the Financial Aid Form, I qualified for not only low interest student loans but thanks to my parents’ low earnings, I also qualified for Pell grants that I never had to pay back.  Bottom line – The Federal loans and grants were enough to bridge the financial gap and they allowed me to pay for the rest of my bachelor’s degree.

I still needed to work part time jobs, participate in college work studies and work 3 different internships to not only live while in school but also pay for my graduate school (the Pell grant didn’t pay for graduate school) but that wasn’t a bad thing either since the studying and jobs kept me out of trouble.  The Pell grants and student loans weren’t like winning the lottery because life was still tough and I had to work throughout my entire college experience to just get by (not to mention spending 10 years paying off those loans after I graduated).  In hindsight, the jobs I had during college contributed to my education and gave me motivation to continue my studies so that I could have a better life but without the grants and loans, I couldn’t have financed my education.

While I agree with the constitutional argument that the Federal Government shouldn’t be in the education business, I do agree in providing financial assistance to help those less fortunate finance their education.  Higher education is the tide that floats all boats and I have more than paid those grants back through my taxes from my higher wages that I couldn’t have hoped to attain without my education.  If we want to move this education assistance program from the Federal level to the states then I’m all for that but I’m not for totally eliminating education assistance.  I am the poster child for what government education assistance can do when given to someone who works hard and has a desire to improve one’s life.  Money alone won’t give someone an education as it must be coupled with a strong work ethic.

ADDENDUM

There is more to this story that is unrelated to Federal Student Aid and I would file this under the “When God closes a door, He opens a window” category.

As I stated earlier, when I turned 16 I got a job at Wal-Mart but there was another significant life event that happened that same week – I tried out for the high school baseball team.

Baseball was my sport and I was fairly good at it but due to an injury I suffered in 8th grade, I skipped tryouts my freshman year and chose to make a go of it during my sophomore year.  Baseball was going to occupy a lot of my time in high school so I came to the decision that if I made the team, I’d quit my job and focus on baseball (which would mean I wouldn’t be able to buy a car too).

To my great disappointment at the time, I wasn’t selected to be on the team.  I was heartbroken but as I stated above, the job at Wal-Mart helped finance my education and I don’t know if I would’ve been able to go to college without those valuable stock shares and the intangible work ethic that was instilled in me during my time at Wal-Mart. 

This just goes to show you that our wants are not always what is planned for our lives.

Posted in economics, politics | 3 Comments

Time to Reform Welfare

Posted on 22-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

In a previous post I took a deep dive into Social Security and showed how we are on an unsustainable path but I offered a solution to get us into a more fiscally conservative position.  Now I’d like to tackle another so-called entitlement program – Welfare – by again looking at the history of Welfare, describe why it is in trouble and what we can do to fix it.

History

Welfare was a part of our country even at the beginning as we adopted the English Poor Laws that gave assistance to those who were unable to work due to physical limitations and assistance was given to those individuals.  But starting with the Great Depression, Welfare payments increased with the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935 which included unemployment payments and benefits to dependent children.  Many Federal government agencies such as the Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education were created to help facilitate this aid. 

Although there have been many changes such as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996, Welfare, as we know it today, encompasses many aid programs that include Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid (healthcare), Food Stamps, Child care assistance and housing assistance. 

You’ll recall that President Johnson declared a war on poverty and launched his “Great Society” programs in the late 60′s and early 70′s and a summary of Johnson’s changes is provided below from the website Defense of Capitalism.

“In a speech in May of 1964, President Johnson proposed a series of “activist” government policies that would create a “Great Society” for America. He told his audience that he was determined “to assemble the best thought and broadest knowledge from all over the world to find [the] answers” to these social ills. In 1965, following Johnson’s reelection to the presidency, he initiated a wide variety of pieces of legislation to fight his declared “wars” on these social ills. Government programs and spending were either introduced or expanded in almost every domestic direction.”

 We’ve had this war on poverty for many decades so let’s see how we are doing.

The Problem with Welfare

We can obtain Welfare spending as a percent of GDP from the following site and see how well it is correlated with the US poverty rate from this site.  If increased Welfare spending is a tool that can move people to a higher standard of living then we should see poverty rates go down after welfare spending increases.  Here is the graph (the left y-axis relates to poverty rate and the right y-axis relates to welfare spending as a percent of GDP).

From this graph, there is absolutely zero evidence that increased Welfare spending reduces the poverty rate but instead there appears to be an opposite correlation.  Notice that the poverty rate dropped in half from 1960 to 1970 even though Welfare spending remained at a constant 2.0% of GPD.  Also notice that a drastic spike in Welfare spending in the mid 1970’s didn’t drop the poverty rate but instead increased it starting in 1980!

We can safely say that the War on Poverty will not be won by increasing Welfare spending. 

In case you needed one more piece of evidence that Welfare is on an unsustainable course, here is a graph of Welfare spending as a percent of GDP and you can see we are on an upward trend with no plateau in site (note the trend line).

The data prove that Welfare, in its current state, is A) not effective at combating poverty and B) on an unsustainable path so now we must take steps to reform it.  

A Way Out

Let me state clearly that I don’t believe Welfare should be totally eliminated because we should take care of those who are either going through a difficult period or have been rendered incapable of earning a living.  I am not heartless and I think a country should use tax payer money to provide for those who need a helping hand and the many programs under the Welfare umbrella do just that for honest, hard working Americans.  But as is the case with unchecked goodwill, the helping hand of Welfare has become an enabler for those to remain in poverty or worse, has provided a new money pot for unscrupulous individuals to raid (such as here and here).   

Like Social Security, we can’t just cut to zero and let the chips fall where they may but unlike Social Security we can cut spending outlays to Welfare much sooner.  It would be cruel and dishonest to cut spending immediately because many families have been conditioned to be dependent on this system and before we remove the assistance to those who can work for a living, we need to provide time and resources to allow them to shake free from this government dependency. 

I happen to agree with the following Welfare reform proposals from the Heritage Foundation and they are a listed below.

Account for Welfare Spending: Congress should require the President’s annual budget to detail current and future aggregate federal means-tested welfare spending. The budget should also provide estimates of state contributions to federal welfare programs.

Get Costs Under Control: The next step in welfare reform is to control the explosive growth in spending. Once the current recession ends (when unemployment reaches 6.5%), aggregate welfare funding should be capped at pre-recession (FY 2007) levels plus inflation. This would force Congress to determine whether or not these programs further the goal of alleviating poverty.

Promote Work, Not Government Dependence: Building on the successful 1996 model, welfare reform today should continue to promote personal responsibility by encouraging work. For example, food stamps, one of the largest means-tested programs, should be restructured to require recipients to work or prepare for work to be eligible to receive benefits.

Policymakers Must Act: Congressmen Jim Jordan (R–OH), Tim Scott (R–SC), and Scott Garrett (R–NJ) are leading efforts to account for spending, control costs, and promote work. Policymakers should put welfare reform front and center as they tackle our nation’s fiscal crisis.

We must make sure that our Welfare outlays are means tested and are being given only to those who truly need it.  We need to put a time limit on those who are capable of work but choose to accept government assistance instead (indefinite unemployment benefits must stop).   We need to cap Welfare spending to a portion of GDP.  We need to provide incentives for able body people to get off Welfare and enter the workforce.  We should be honest enough with the American people to have a fierce conversation about how increases in Welfare spending are part of the cancer that is destroying our country and Congress needs to act now.

From this site, you can see that Welfare spending in 2011 ($472.9 billion) was 13% of the total Federal government outlays ($3,603.1 billion) and it gets worse when you discount deficit spending and consider that Welfare spending is 20.5% of actual Federal income ($2,303.5 billion).   Are we really saying that 20% of all Federal income is required to compensate the people in the US that are unable to work?

Welfare, like Social Security, is a Federal government program that must be drastically altered if we have any hope of saving the Republic.

Posted in economics, Entitlement Programs, politics | 14 Comments

Political Judo

Posted on 18-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

I am not a fan of Leftist hero Saul Alinsky but I did find value in reading one of his books – Rules for Radicals.  This book not only reveals the playbook of Team Obama (and every other Liberal) but also shows Conservatives how to use these tactics against the Liberals in what I call political Judo. 

For example, Alinsky’s Rule #4 (“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules”) is something I embrace since Leftists are prone to explode into fits of false rage in order to win votes from those who are not apprised of the facts on a particular issue.  That used to work almost every time because the Main Stream Media (MSM) would parrot those faux rage news stories and Conservatives were helpless to find a microphone of their own to counter the lies.  But that was before the days of Twitter, Facebook, Internet radio and Blogs.

Below are a few of the ways Conservatives have used the Leftist’s own rules to flip the argument and turn the Democrats arrows around and penetrate the ones who originally shot them.

War on Women

Starting with the comments by Rush Limbaugh regarding the Sandra Fluke testimony in early March, the Left generated a fictitious war on women meme that many liberals still claim to be real.  Of course the Sandra Fluke smokescreen was nothing more than an attempt by the Left to divert attention away from the massive encroachment of government into our lives through Obamacare mandates but Liberals will never let the truth get in the way of a good ole fashioned meme.  The Democrats saw an opportunity to drive a wedge between Romney and women so they ran with it but much to their frustration, the meme came to a crashing halt when a Leftist revealed which political group had a REAL war on women. 

Enter Hilary Rosen on Anderson Cooper 360 on April 11th when she made the incredibly ignorant comment that Mitt Romney’s wife, a mother of 5 boys, “has never actually worked a day in her life.”  After given many chances to walk this comment back, she instead doubled down and revealed the true war on women which is really a war on moms who choose to stay home and take on the profession of rearing children.  

The original meme created out of nothing by the Left to attack Mitt Romney has now been turned around 180 degrees and the Democrats have to somehow explain how a person who has visited the White House 35 times doesn’t speak for the Democrats and especially Obama.  Good Luck with that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Death threats

The hate speech and death threats during George W. Bush’s terms as president were disgraceful and upset me more as an American than a Conservative.  I think Obama is the worst president to ever hold the office and is doing more to destroy this country than any outside enemy but I would NEVER threaten the President or wish death on him.  He is the President of my country and while I have the freedom to disagree with him and criticize him (as I’ve done numerous times on this blog) I still have respect for the Office he occupies and will treat him with that respect. 

This wasn’t true with Leftists when Bush was in office and in case you need a refresher on the type of hate speech that was directed at Bush, take a few minutes to scan through this link.

 I don’t recall the media outrage at these blatant death threats and hate speech but now the MSM is now up in arms about a veiled threat by Ted Nugent (yes, that Ted Nugent).  Ted Nugent doesn’t speak for the Republican Party, doesn’t get messaging from Mitt Romney and can’t be linked to any establishment from the Right so why are his comments news worthy?  The answer – The Left has nothing from Obama’s 3+ years to campaign on so they are desperate for any talking point that can be used to hammer Mitt Romney that they’ll pick up comments made by an ex-heavy metal rocker and rally the Leftist troops to repeat the meme within the MSM echo chamber.

Hey Lefties, it’s not working!  You can’t remain silent for 8 years of hate speech and death threats on Bush and then expect us to take you seriously when we see you jumping up and down about what Ted Nugent allegedly meant by his statements (And it is my opinion that he was talking more about defending his right to own guns than threatening the President).   

War on Dogs

The Left expressed considerable outrage when it was revealed that Mitt Romney once travelled for 12 hours with his dog in a cage strapped to the roof of the car.  Oh how the Left hyperventilated over this and if you don’t believe me you can see this search of the word “Seamus” (the name of Romney’s dog) on the Daily Kos website which shows the term used 45 times in 2012.

I have no position on this issue as I can’t speak of the details nor whether it constituted cruelty to animals but I do know this – Romney’s dog survived that trip and they didn’t eat the dog during the vacation. 

The Daily Caller points out that in Obama’s book, “Dream’s of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance”, there is a section related to Obama’s lifestyle while he lived in Indonesia.  The quote from the DC article is below (emphasis mine):

“With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”

How a Presidential candidate acted during his pre-teen years in a foreign country has the same level of importance to me as the travel arrangements for animals during a family vacation that happened 29 years ago.  Both should be left out of the political discussion but now that we know Obama actually ate dog meat then we have this to throw in the Left’s face every time they utter the word Seamus (which I bet will be never again).

$4 trillion of National Debt

When Bush was President and the National Debt was equal to around 70% of GDP, then Senator Barack Obama was very upset about adding $4 trillion to the national debt.  Click on this link to hear Obama blaming Bush for the debt, calling him “unpatriotic” and claiming that Bush had a “credit card from the bank of China.”  Remember that Bush racked up that $4 trillion in 8 years in office so let’s see how Obama has done with keeping national debt in a more “patriotic” region.

In August 2011 (less than 3 years into Obama’s term) the US had already amassed $4 trillion in debt and through March 2012 we were pushing up to the $5 trillion level.  

If $4 trillion in 8 years is “unpatriotic” then what do you call over $5 trillion in 4 years?  Personally I call it criminal but we’ll let the voters decide in November.

Gas Prices

In 2006, when gas prices went over $3.00 per gallon, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi railed on Bush to do something about it.  Gas prices are much higher now even after adjusting for inflation but we can’t seem to find Nancy Pelosi or any Leftist screaming about how the high gas prices are the fault of the President.

What is Obama offering to fix this current situation?  Gimmicks and Boogeymen.

The inconsistency of the Left on this issue of gas prices should be enough for any voter to realize that Democrats are not serious about solving problems but instead are only interested in gaining and holding onto power in DC.

Unemployment

The euphoria was still high as Obama took up residence at the White House and Obama gave us the criteria we should use to judge his performance.  From a Huffington Post article in December of 2008:

“Obama declined to speculate when he thought the struggling economy would turn around, saying, simply: “I don’t have a crystal ball.” But he did offer something in the way of a measure for performance judgment.”

“The yardstick should be,” he said, “am I creating these jobs and are we strengthening the economy.”

Of specific note, the president-elect repeated something that his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Sunday: that the economic stimulus that will leave his desk early upon taking office will focus largely on “shovel-ready projects,” as in, programs that are ready to create jobs immediately.”

It’s hard not to laugh at that quote about “shovel-ready projects” knowing what we do 4 years later – those jobs were anything but shovel ready and proved to be just one of many jokes/failures related to the 2009 Stimulus that cost taxpayers $787 billion.

And remember this famous video from Obama where he stated in clear terms that if the economy doesn’t recover then he deserves to be a one term President. 

It’s quite obvious that Obama failed miserably with regard to Economic issues during his 3+ years as President so we should hold Obama to his words and tell him in November that he deserved to be a one term President.

These are just a few of the many examples where manufactured rage from the Left has been not only dispelled but turned around to bludgeon the democratic candidate it was supposed to help.  Keep these memes coming Democrats, this is War and unlike the past, we are ready now!

Posted in politics | 5 Comments

Obama is the George Costanza of Economics

Posted on 17-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

Remember in September of 2011 when Obama pushed for passage of his American Jobs Act (AJA)?  There was nothing in the AJA that would actually create jobs so the AJA was just a political ploy and I mused that the Republicans should pass it out of spite but fortunately that didn’t happen.   

If we were to believe Obama that the AJA was needed to create jobs then let’s take a look at the unemployment rate graph to see if he was right.  From the BLS, here is the graph from February 2011 to March 2012:

You can see that at the exact time Obama stated that the AJA was needed to create jobs, the unemployment rate started coming down and Leftists can’t point to a single policy that caused this to happen.  There are many reasons why the Unemployment Rate has dropped but I think this also speaks to the power of the Market to overcome even the insanely overzealous regulatory climate that Obama has created.

As another example of Obama’s economic inadequacy, I am reminded of the 2009 Stimulus when Obama’s economic advisors stated that unless we passed the $787 billion monstrosity deficit spending bill, unemployment would rise over 8%.  Unlike the AJA, the 2009 Stimulus Bill was passed so how well did Obama’s predictions play out?  Not too well as this graphic from the American Enterprise Institute points out:

It’s almost like Obama is living in an alternate universe to our economic reality and the US should do exactly the opposite of anything Obama recommends.  It appears that America has had a George Costanza revelation regarding Obama and we should do the direct opposite of every proposal that Obama’s team throws out. 

Remember that when Obama says that he needs to be re-elected in November of 2012.  

Posted in economics, politics | 6 Comments

Climate Models Fail Again

Posted on 15-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

We have yet another example where the climate models of the Anthropogenic Global Warming cult don’t match reality.

There was a post on WUWT showing predictions of the global surface temperatures made in 1998 from the Hadley Center climate model.  In the many pdf files linked on that post, this one shows the global temperature predictions through 2100 and the graph is shown below.

From that graph, we should be seeing global surface temperature anomalies of around 1.3° C in 2012 but as I’ve shown in a previous post, the temperature anomalies are much less. 

It should be stated that the graph above is taken from the Hadley Climate Research Unit so I’m using the data of the same institution that made these predictions in 1998 based on their models.

Houston, we have a problem!  It appears these models need some tweaking!

Posted in Climate Change | 1 Comment

The Left’s War on Moms

Posted on 11-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

Today on AC360, Hilary Rosen made the following statements about Ann Romney (Mitt Romney’s wife):

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, “Well, my wife tells me what women really care about are economic issues.” And, “When I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.” Guess what? His wife has never actually worked a day in her life. She’s never really dealt with the economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing—in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and how do—why we worry about their future.”

It should be noted that the Romney’s have five children so Ann Romney’s job was a stay-at-home-mom and if anyone thinks this profession isn’t a real job then I can’t take you seriously.  In my opinion there is no more noble profession than raising children and in many American households, this job falls to the wife.  This statement by Ms. Rosen is an insult to my wife, my mother and any woman or man who undertakes the high calling of being the primary child rearing parent. 

In keeping with the custom of Leftists, Hilary Rosen took to twitter (@hilaryr) to try and walk this back.


So Ms. Rosen believes a stay-at-home mom truly ‘works’ only if she has to take care of the kids and hold down a job outside of the house. 

She also makes the true statement that Mrs. Romney isn’t running for president but if that is the case then why did Ms. Rosen choose to call her a lazy women who has never worked in her life?  Sorry Ms. Rosen, you brought this up and your words and tweets are now in the public domain to show how clueless you are about the profession of Motherhood.

For months the Leftists have been trying to spin the false War on Women that they claim the Republicans have been waging but now we see the true war on Women and more specifically the War on Moms the Left just started. 

Oh wait, it hasn’t just started.  Hillary Clinton took a shot at moms in 2008 when she stated that she “could’ve stayed at home and baked cookies” so maybe this War on Moms has been a plank in the Leftist platform all along.  Ms. Rosen just revealed it and if it’s war she wants then it’s war she’ll get.

War!

ADDENDUM:  Ms. Rosen works at SDKknickerbocker (A PR firm) and she serves as a Managing Director alongside Anita Dunn who was the White House Communications Director in 2009 for the Obama White House.   This firm worked for the Obama 2008 election campaign.

Posted in politics | 5 Comments

Our Very Large Universe

Posted on 09-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

Even when we read about our vast cosmos or peer into binoculars/telescopes to glimpse distant nebulae or galaxies, it is still hard to fathom the true size of the Universe.

A wide field picture of a small part of our universe was published by the European Southern Observatory which attempts to define the vastness of the cosmos and the summary of this picture is given below:

“This view shows a section of the widest deep view of the sky ever taken using infrared light, with a total effective exposure time of 55 hours. It was created by combining more than 6000 individual images from the VISTA survey telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. This picture shows a region of the sky known as the COSMOS field in the constellation of Sextans (The Sextant). More than 200 000 galaxies have been identified in this picture.“

That’s right, over 200,000 galaxies have been identified in one very minor constellation (Sextans) in our night sky that has 88 constellations (many of which are larger than Sextans).  On average, each galaxy contains around 100 billion stars so 200,000 galaxies represent 20,000 trillion stars!  And this is just 1 of 88 constellations!

The telescope was trained on this same area of the cosmos for 55 hours and detected photons from various galaxies that are impossible to see with our eyes when peering through a telescope.  The telescope also looked in wavelengths that our eyes can’t detect (Inrared light) and this additional detail further reveals just how congested our cosmos is when we look deep enough into it.

You can download the full file here (it’s 250 MB so be prepared for a little wait time) and the picture below shows what the wide field looks like when we zoom all the way out:

Once you download the full picture, you can then open it up in your favorite photo application and then start panning and zooming to your heart’s content.  Prepare to be wowed!

Here are a few of my zoomed in screen caps of the photo but since the field is so immense, don’t expect me to tell you how I got there!

It is an incredibly humbling experience to view the cosmos and realize we are just a blue dot orbiting a minor star in the suburbs of an average galaxy in a cosmos comprised of millions or more likely billions of galaxies.  How many thousands or millions of stars have planets in the habitable zone that have life forms going outside to peer into the depths of space and looking at our galaxy and wondering if there is anyone else out there?

Posted in astronomy, cosmology | 2 Comments

The Sad State of Journalism

Posted on 07-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

I don’t know how the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin episode will end but I do know who is already being convicted – The Main Stream Media (MSM).

Once 911 audio and police surveillance video were released the media went into full race baiting mode and tried to be the first to ‘prove’ how George Zimmerman was a racist and shot Trayvon Martin in cold blood.  But after careful analysis of the audio and video, many MSM outlets had to make embarrassing retractions and revisions that should reveal to Americans just how lost the MSM is.

 

On 28-MAR-12 ABC reported that the police surveillance tape showed no signs of injury to Zimmerman and this supposedly supported the racial driven narrative that Martin was a victim of a hate crime.  But on 02-APR-12 ABC changed their position after enhanced video footage clearly showed a cut on the back of Zimmerman’s head.  

As if CBS were working from the same playbook as ABC, they came out with a story on 28-MAR-12 stating that the video showed no injuries to Zimmerman and then had to backtrack with a story on 03-APR-12 admitting the video did show injuries to Zimmerman’s head. 

There is a very detailed post at Sistertoldjah showing how CNN first reported that the 911 audio clearly revealed a racist word used by Zimmerman to describe Martin but days later had to do their own backstroke and admit that Zimmerman was instead stating that it was “F&cking Cold” outside (which it was in Florida on the day of the shooting).

But perhaps the worst example of journalistic ethics came from NBC and is detailed at PJ Tatler.

Here is what the full transcript of the 911 call contained:

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good, [begin ellipsis] or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic? [End ellipsis]

ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

Here is how NBC first broadcasted the 911 audio after its own editing:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” Zimmerman told a police dispatcher from his car.

To NBC’s credit, they have fired the producer responsible for this “error” (as NBC explains it) but I find it very hard to call this an editing error when it looks more like a blatant attempt to present Zimmerman as a racist.

I remember a time when journalism was an honored profession and those who chose to enter that field understood the ethics that were required in providing the news to the public.  Somewhere along the way I feel that journalists stop getting degrees in Journalism and instead chose the Political Science route and they bypassed the training in ethics.  The Zimmerman smear campaign by the MSM shows us just how biased the traditional media are and why more people are looking to new media in the forms of blog sites to find details and vetting of the stories.   

Posted in politics | 3 Comments

Liberal Predictions Proven False

Posted on 04-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

In January of this year, Obama was faced with a decision on whether to allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and he denied that construction.  At that time, Conservatives railed at the lunacy of this decision because refusal to build the pipeline would kill thousands of new jobs and force Canada to find other countries to sell that oil to (i.e. China).

Leftists didn’t buy that argument and went to the blogosphere to denounce this highly charged rhetoric and a few examples are shown below.

From a Daily KOS article written by S. J. Gulitti:

A corollary issue that conservatives have tried to raise is that Obama’s vetoing of the first Keystone application will result in Canadian Oil being sold to China and that this rejection will preclude any further chance of that oil being shipped into the American market. As it turns out nothing could be further from the truth.

Thus there is nothing in the Prime Minister’s comments or in TransCanada’s actions that would lead one to conclude that we have forfeited our opportunity to purchase Canadian oil. What I find remarkable in this particular conservative attack is the complete and total willingness to ignore the fact that Prime Minister Harper seems to be engaged in political posturing for the sake of Canadian public consumption on the one hand, and the fact that he in no way rules out a revival of the project after environmental concerns are addressed on the other. Harper’s own words clearly prove he would prefer to ship oil to the United States than to China and you can bet he’s more than aware of the far higher costs involved in the later. As such there is no reasonable indication that the rejection of the first Keystone application signals the end of any chance that Canadian oil will flow into the United States.

From a Washington Post Blog article written by Michael Levi:

The fate of the Keystone XL pipeline will be of limited consequence to either long-term U.S. energy security or climate change (though its rejection will probably be ugly for U.S.-Canada relations). The Keystone decision ultimately became far more about symbolism than substance. It’s a shame that so much attention was diverted from things that matter more.

From a Washington Post Blog article written by Ryan Kellett we see that Environmental whacko Bill McKibben even reassures us that the Canadian oil will stay in the ground.

“However, environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, responding to questions from Washington Post readers Thursday, said the oil will stay in the ground.”

Well it appears that all the slings and arrows hurled at Obama were just from Right Wing Nut Jobs who didn’t understand Canadian politics and energy policy.  There is nothing to worry about – Canada will not sell the oil to other countries and our primary trading partner will never do anything to retaliate against this decision. 

Unfortunately, facts are stubborn things.  Today we hear from Sun News that the Liberal analyses above don’t match the thinking of Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Even if President Barack Obama approved the controversial Keystone XL pipeline tomorrow, at least some Canadian oil would still flow to Asia, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In a public one-on-one interview here with Jane Harman, head of the Wilson Centre think-tank, Harper said Obama’s rejection of the controversial pipeline — even temporarily — stressed Canada’s need to find other buyers for oilsands crude.

And that wouldn’t change even if the president’s mind did.

“Look, the very fact that a ‘no’ could even be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets,” Harper told Harman in front of a live audience of businesspeople, scholars, diplomats, and journalists.

“We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position.”

Wow!  It appears that Obama’s decision to reject oil from one of our most trusted trade partners has caused that country to rethink their energy policy and to whom they sell their oil.  That means that a portion of Canada’s oil will not only be diverted to other Asian countries but our price for the rest of Canada’s oil will increase!

It appears our price for that Canadian oil will go up as well.

Harper also told Harman that Canada has been selling its oil to the United States at a discounted price.

So not only will America be able to buy less Canadian oil even if Keystone is eventually approved, the U.S. will also have to pay more for it because the market for oilsands crude will be more competitive.

Well isn’t that just lovely?  Obama’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline not only prevented new jobs in the US but we’ll now see an increase in our oil prices from Canada.  Not to mention that a portion of Canada’s oil will be sent to Asia where it will be burned in a much less environmentally friendly manner than if it were processed in the US.  So not only do working Americans lose out on this decision, the radical leftist Environmental team just guaranteed the oil will be sent to countries that will spew out more carbon to the atmosphere (this doesn’t matter to me but it has to drive the Global Warming cult crazy).

The Conservatives predictions about what would happen after killing the Keystone XL pipeline have happened and Liberal predictions have proven to be false.  Let that be a lesson to all of us.  

Posted in Climate Change, politics | 3 Comments

Detroit aka Little Greece

Posted on 03-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

We have watched over the past few months as Greece has come to grips with its decades of living beyond its means and with its debt now equal to 170% of its GDP, the country has reached a tipping point.  Greece is being forced to accept austerity measures from the EU and the citizens are starting to realize that the government handouts and sweet union contracts are a thing of the past.

Lest we get too smug in America and think this can’t happen here, I will offer evidence below that at least one American city, Detroit, is facing the same stark realization. 

I have pasted quotes from various news articles that are hyperlinked in the headings “Detroit” and “Greece” so you can see for yourself that this massive debt reckoning is already coming to American shores.  Remember that the US debt to GDP ratio recently passed 100%.

Borrowing Money To Pay Bills

Detroit

GOVERNOR RICK SNYDER: Detroit has run a deficit since 2005 of significant dollars. It’s borrowed over $600 million just to get by. It’s just borrowing another $137 million to continue the old way of doing things that just didn’t work here.

Greece

A total of 199 lawmakers voted in favor and 74 against, Parliament Speaker Filippos Petsalnikos said in remarks carried live on state-run Vouli TV early today. When, on Nov. 16, Papademos won a mandate from the Parliament to implement budget measures and secure the bailout of 130 billion euros ($172 billion) he received the support of 255 lawmakers in the 300-strong chamber.

Oversight From Outside Body

Detroit

KLINEFELTER: The governor is pushing for a consent agreement with city officials that would enable the state to impose a new board analyzing budgets crafted by Detroit’s mayor and city council and a new project manager who would have the final say over financial matters. If the deal is not approved by this week, the governor says he’ll have no choice under state statutes but to appoint an emergency manager with sweeping authority, effectively leaving the mayor and city council with no power.

Greece

Greece’s cabinet has approved fresh austerity measures demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a 130bn-euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout.

The draft bill must now be passed by the Greek parliament and approved by European finance ministers.

Five ministers have resigned from the government over the issue, with one junior party in the coalition saying the demands were “humiliating”.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has warned the country faces “uncontrolled economic chaos” if it fails to agree spending cuts and defaults on its debts.

“We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt,” he told his cabinet, saying it was an “hour of historic responsibility”.

“A disorderly default would plunge our country in a disastrous adventure,” he said.

Malaise

Detroit

CONRAD MALLETT: They have reached a point where the disorganization and dysfunction associated with the regularly expected delivery of city services is so bad that people have concluded that: Why should I pay my taxes for the services that I’m not getting?

Greece

“There is a kind of resigned acceptance, but this resigned acceptance is not a stable equilibrium position. People do get fed up with being made to feel guilty for their horrible situation,” said Professor Erik Jones of Bologna’s Johns Hopkins University.

Violence and Unrest

Detroit

SANDRA HINES: You don’t have the right to come in and take our city from us and tell us what to do. I’m so tired of being in war mode. This is a war, y’all. They literally have declared war on us. And we are assembling our troops to fight you back.

KLINEFELTER: Such protests are as much a part of Detroit’s history as the automobile. But right now, the city is precarious financial straits, facing a roughly $200 million budget deficit, its credit sharply downgraded by Moody’s and Fitch’s rating services and needing a loan just to meet payroll for the next few months. Governor Rick Snyder has repeatedly appeared on local talk shows and staged town hall meetings, stressing that he does not want to take over the city, but cannot let Michigan’s signature Motor City drown in red ink.

Greece

“Once that happens, we are going to find not just a rapid turnover in incumbent governments that happen to go to the polls, but also an increase in the general level of disquiet that will be expressed in the form of strikes and other forms of social disobedience,” Jones told Reuters.

Jean-Paul Fitoussi, an economics professor at the Sciences Po institute in Paris, told reporters at a business conference in northern Italy on Friday that austerity measures were “a dangerous approach that could trigger social unrest”.

Unions represent only a fifth of workers and many people crossed picket lines on Thursday in fear of losing their jobs.

However, the strike had a much bigger impact than a previous stoppage 18 months ago in a sign that patience may be wearing thin in a country with the European Union’s worst unemployment.

Hundreds of thousands attended protest marches and factories and ports ground to a halt. There were brief outbreaks of violence on the streets.

A lot of people accept austerity and economic reforms like some kind of divine punishment. But when the high unemployment drags on, I am convinced the social protests will take off,” said Jose Antonio Garcia Rubio, economic secretary for the United Left, a minority leftist party that did well in the November general election.

The situations for Detroit and Greece are both equally tragic but there is no magic wand that we can wave to fix the problems.  The entire world should take notice that Greece and Detroit are providing us with a lesson about what will happen when Liberal policies have to be reversed.  Actions have consequences and when you live for decades on borrowed money, provide government handouts to citizens and offer sweetheart union deals there will come a time to pay the piper.  Atoning for these fiscal sins is going to be painful but there is no alternative when a city or a country runs out of money. 

Posted in economics, Entitlement Programs, politics | Leave a comment

The Meaning Of Life

Posted on 03-Apr-2012 by Highvoltage

There are questions that are as old as time itself.  Why are we here?  What is my purpose?  What is the meaning of life?  There have been untold variety of answers to these questions and my hope with this post is not to analyze them but instead give my answer to the question – “What is the meaning of life?”

I have asked that question many times from my childhood, adolescence and in adulthood but it wasn’t until I was studying God’s Word during a Holy Week shortly after completing graduate school did the answer come to me.  It is simple in its raw written form but much more complicated when looked at in a theological perspective and is a roadmap for a full life the way God intended.

But enough setup, here is the meaning of life as stated in six words:

“Come and See, Go and Tell”

This collection of two simple commands (whose sequential order is important) is a common theme in the New Testament and these words bookended the life of Jesus on Earth as told by the Gospel of John.

See below a passage taken from John 1:43-49 (emphasis mine) which was early in the ministry of Jesus:

43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He *found Philip. And Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip *found Nathanael and *said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip *said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael *said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”

Shortly after Phillip became a Disciple of Jesus, what does he do?  He goes to tell Nathanael about this Jesus and how He was the Messiah that was prophesied by Moses.  Of course Nathanael is skeptical so how does Phillip handle it?  He tell Nathanael to “come and see” this Jesus.  After heeding Phillip’s suggestion, Nathanael encounters Jesus and shortly after he is convinced and becomes a believer.

Again, after Phillip first became a follower of Jesus, he then responded to that saving grace by going to tell others (Nathanael) about Him. “Come and see, go and tell” is the roadmap and pathway to a life that God intends us to occupy.

At the end of John we see another example of this simple but powerful philosophy.  After Jesus was crucified, his Disciples (minus Judas) behaved like most of us would after seeing our leader violently executed – They went into hiding.  It took the courage of a woman, Mary Magdalene, to do what Jesus had taught them to do – Seek Him.  She was just as upset as the Disciples and just as scared for her life but instead of hiding, she went to the tomb to find his body.  As is the case when desperate people seek Jesus, they go reluctantly and with a great deal of skepticism but instead of finding defeat (a dead body), they find redemption (an empty tomb).

See how the Scripture describes this event in John 20:10-18 (emphasis mine):

10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes. 11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she *saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they *said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She *said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and *saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she *said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus *said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene *came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

After seeking a corpse but seeing the risen Christ, Mary’s first commandment was to go and tell the Disciples of His resurrection.  Again it must be stated – Mary didn’t seek the risen Christ but instead was anticipating a lifeless Jesus.  Instead of succumbing to defeat from desperation, she chose to “Come and See” her Savior even though she had no idea of what awaited her.  After seeing the resurrected Lord, she received her commands of “Go and Tell.”

Permit me a quick Sidebar here.  There are many reasons why Christianity differs from all the other faiths of the world but having women occupy such a prominent role in its history is one of my favorites.  At the time of Jesus’ resurrection women were not seen as equal members of society but Jesus’ risen body appeared first to a woman!  That along with the fact that women were given equal salvation once accepting the saving Grace of Jesus sets Christianity apart from all other faiths.

But John is not the only place in Scripture where the “Come and See, Go and Tell” meaning of life is described.  The Gospel of Matthew offers another account of these same events and you can read them here from Matt 28:1-10 (emphasis mine):

1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. 2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus *said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

In two occasions in this passage of the above Scripture you see the “Come and See, Go and Tell” instructions to the women.   The angel told the women to come see the place where Jesus was lying and then Go tell His disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead and then Jesus instructs them personally to go tell His brethren in Galilee so they can see Him.

“Come and See, Go and Tell” – This is truly the meaning of life.  We are commanded to come see the risen Lord and then go and tell others about Him.

Lest I be too harsh on the Disciples, there is an interesting fact that bears repeating.  These men were scared to death (literally) after seeing the death of Jesus and if Christianity was to count on them for spreading the Gospel it didn’t seem likely that this would happen on Saturday night.  But something happened on Sunday morning to change these men so that all but one of them would go on to spread the Gospel of Jesus and be executed for that fact (John was the only one to die a natural death).  What caused these timid, weak, simple men to transform into aggressive missionaries who were willing to be executed in very painful ways (Peter, who denied Jesus three times the night after Jesus’ death was crucified upside down)?  The only explanation for these men following the second command (“Go and Tell”) was that they followed the first command (“Come and See”).  After seeing the risen Lord, they were embolden in their efforts and risked life in order to preach the Gospel.

“Come and See, Go and Tell”

How we come to see Him can be done in many ways – go to Church, read the Bible, read Christian authors, listen to Christian radio, talk to Christian friends or spend quality quiet time with Him in prayer.  We might not have much hope or faith in the act of attempting to see Him but we are rewarded in that act when we make the first move.

How we go and tell others about Jesus is also not limited.  We can be Christian parents to our kids and raise them in the Church, we can volunteer to help the less fortunate, we can hear the call to accept a life of ministry as a pastor or missionary or we can make ourselves available to our friends and coworkers to explain the Gospel or we can live our lives so that others are drawn to us and want to find out why the evils of the world do not tear us down.

Once you become a Christian your journey is not complete.  If it were then God would immediately snatch you up to Heaven and that would be it.  I don’t know why God made the delivery method of His Gospel to be through sinners such as myself but since He is the creator of the Universe I have to think that He knows better than me.  It would be so much easier if Angels were to come down and talk to each person of if Jesus would make an appearance to each of us (like what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus) but God didn’t choose that method.  We are the messengers of the saving Grace of Jesus Christ and after we become aware of the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus pays for all our sins (“Come and See”) we are compelled to carry out the second command (“Go and Tell”).

This is Holy Week – The time between Passover and the Resurrection of Jesus that is so full of emotions and theological significance that is literally defines what Christianity is about.  If you are a seeker, then I invite you to Come and See the risen Lord.  If you are a Christian, then I challenge you to Go and Tell someone about the Son of God who offered a sacrifice that covers their sins and provides hope in an evil world.

 

 

 

Posted in christianity | 4 Comments

An Example Of Liberal Tactics

Posted on 30-Mar-2012 by Highvoltage

I saw a tweet from @ChicoDelainky that stated George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin, was a member of the Tea Party.  This is absurd and in reality George Zimmerman is a registered democrat as shown by the following voter registration and this was already covered by several blogs such as this one.  

In an effort to show this Liberal the truth, I decided to engage him and the various tweet exchanges are shown below.

Now notice in the next tweet that the Liberal is frustrated with the facts so he shifts the conversation (starts talking about Jared Loughner).  This is a classical Liberal tactic when the facts don’t support their narrative so I was not surprised by this.

In the next tweet we’ll see that @ChicoDelainky is now resorting to throwing anything against a wall to see if it sticks.  When faced with arguments that totally rebut his arguments, the Liberal now attempts to offer “proof” that Zimmerman was a Tea Party member.  That’s right, Zimmerman knew the words to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” song.

Of course there is no source to the Tea Party membership card or the knowledge of the lyrics to “Sweet Home Alabama” but Liberals never let facts get in the way of a good rant.

It was obvious that @ChicoDelainky was called on his lies and was unable to defend his statement that Zimmerman was a Tea Party member.  But what do Liberals do?  Admit their fault?  No, they double down on denial and then shift gears to vile tweet about a dead conservative blogger.

Posted in politics | 5 Comments

Biden The Economic Wizard

Posted on 28-Mar-2012 by Highvoltage

Vice President Joe Biden spoke in Iowa today and claimed that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a history of offering consistently wrong remedies for the US economy.

“Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney of disregarding the importance of the manufacturing sector as a source of jobs for middle class Americans and said the former Massachusetts governor had offered “consistently wrong” remedies for the U.S. economy.”

That is an amazing accusation coming from a member of Team Obama who promised in early 2009 that we needed a $787 billion stimulus package to keep the unemployment rate below 8%. 

Here was a graph from the Obama’s economic advisor’s original report showing what would happen to Unemployment with and without the Stimulus.

Now here is this same graph with the actual unemployment percentages plotted in red through May 2011.

Here is this same graph with the February 2012 unemployment percentages plotted with a red dot.

As I stated in an earlier post, the failure of the 2009 stimulus to meet its stated objectives proves that the Obama administration is woefully inadequate when dealing with economic matters.

“We saw in early 2009 where the Obama administration also made the fatal mistake of offering solutions before fully understanding the problem. Obama saw the rising unemployment caused by the great recession and decided the answer was a massive stimulus package. Prior to proposing this package, they stated that the stimulus was necessary to keep the unemployment rate below 8.0% but we know that the actual unemployment rate rose to 10% and the actual plot of Unemployment over time followed a trajectory that was worse than the one predicted if we didn’t pass the $787 billion stimulus. There is no arguing that the 2009 stimulus failed its stated goals so the Obama administration was guilty of offering solutions to a problem that they didn’t accurately characterize.”

No one from the Obama administration, and certainly not Biden, can criticize anyone’s ability to grasp economic problems and their proposed solutions to those problems.

Posted in economics, politics | Leave a comment