Unexpected Events

My office turned into a smoldering void due to a Christmas fire. Not sure the cause yet, but the newspaper says arson is not suspected. Very old building, I suppose in hindsight it may have been inevitable.

The office supplies, equipment, and furniture are all replaceable. Not cheap, but I'll survive.

Files and my backup hard drive are gone forever. I suppose those things I'm missing will become evident over the next few months, as something comes up and I come to realize, "Oh, that was in my office." Gone forever.

Some personal items are also lost, but I can't think of anything in the office of extremely high sentimental value.

It's still a bit hard to wrap my head around the idea that my office is gone.

Fundamental Issues

I've probably laid out most of what I have to say about the silly healthcare "reform" and dishonest "Cap and Trade" legislation the Democrats and their president are so intent on ramming through. So perhaps a better approach today is to discuss the fundamentals underlying their determination to achieve a much bigger goal than simply helping folks get health insurance or improving the environment.

Because, you see, if they were telling the truth about their intentions of bringing healthcare costs down and getting everybody insured, they could do that with a simple bill that would cost far less than the trillion dollars they're bent on spending.

If they were telling the truth about "Global Warming" being such a threat to the planet, there are many things they could do to entice everyone to use more "green" habits, rather than promising to shut down or tax into submission our energy companies.

The fundamental issue is our very system of government. They don't like our free republic. They want something that falls somewhere in between Soviet or Chinese-style communism and European-style social democracy.

Lately I'm wondering whether there's a plurality of citizens who agree with them. I suppose it's either that or they just don't have a clue what communism or socialism is. It is apparent that many have bought into the Democrat lie that they can get something for nothing simply by voting for the Democrat candidate.

I was in Communist Russia & Poland in the 70's. Sure, it equalizes most of the population. But they are equally poor and repressed. The "Party Members" in communism keep the best stuff for themselves - in Russia, they had cars when their fellow non-member citizens rode public transportation. They had houses while the rest were assigned to government-built apartments.

We had a socialist tax system for decades, when the US Government essentially confiscated everything people earned above a certain limit. That stopped when Reagan beat Jimmy Carter.

I suppose another alternative to the two governmental systems vying for power in our country is a monarchy. A year ago I would have suspected some would like to crown Obama king, but that ship seems to have sailed.

The basic question we face today is very simple. Do we want to remain a free republic, or throw out the constitution and rewrite it to become a social democracy or full-blown communist partner with China?

I no longer think the answer is clear. I don't think we'll know for sure until next November.

Timely but Unfortunate

My recent post about heroes was even more timely than I suspected at the time, as it occurred just before the sordid details of Tiger Woods' tomcat lifestyle came to light. So many have had their bubble burst with that fallen hero. I just feel sad and would rather not hear anything more about the story.

On another sports note, now that the Colts have secured pretty much everything they wanted this season except the Super Bowl, now the debate has started about whether they should go for the perfect season or rest their starters for the playoffs.

I understand the argument on both sides of the issue. It might be sort of moot, given the number of defensive backs that are hurt on the team right now. They might have to recruit a few fans out of the stands to cover the Jaguars' receivers this week.

But the coaches must be able to glean something from history, one would think. The Colts had two recent seasons with stellar regular-season records, when they rested the starters, then looked obviously rusty in dropping their first playoff game.

It seems to me that the thing to do is keep your guys sharp and competitive. Let the healthy guys play in the last 3 games, but rest the guys who are hurt. Maybe if the Jaguars start sacking Peyton with some frequency this week, you go ahead and pull him to save injury. But otherwise, I think you let everybody who is healthy go out and play. Inspire the rookies and backups who presumably have been itching for playing time to go out and prove their value.

But don't sit back and let everybody take the rest of the season off. A month later in that first playoff game, they'll be playing as if it's the preseason. And they'll get beat.

We will soon see what happens. Then those who have opinions on the matter will be proven right or wrong. But we'll all have fun following the Colts to the end of this year's run.

True Intentions

Part of the political discourse these days includes attempts by each side to convince the regular folks that the other side holds some sort of evil intent in promoting their particular position on an issue.

Take healthcare, for example.

The Left accuses the Right of somehow wanting people to die for lack of medical care. Surely only the most partisan or ignorant sycophants on the Left actually believe that. But even the President has joined in the rhetorical suggestion that Right opposition to the Left's healthcare "reform" proposals are nothing more than a big sellout to the health insurance industry.

Conversely, the Right suggests that the Left's main goal is a Socialist/Communist model where the government controls every aspect of the citizens' lives. That their version of healthcare reform is not at all about improving the access and quality of healthcare for all citizens, but is merely a power grab that is part of a much larger objective of destroying free enterprise.

I can say for certain that most opponents to the healthcare "reform" proposals oppose them because of the massive and inefficient bureaucracy it promises to create, the extremely high costs that promise to raise punitive taxes on all of the citizenry while exploding an already out-of-control budget, and the inevitable rationing of care that will result in a system that will be immediately overwhelmed by massively increased demand coupled with reduced supply of healthcare providers.

I can guess that the supporters of this proposal do not believe there's any sort of sinister plot for the government to destroy free enterprise. The supporters more likely hear the stories of people having their insurance cancelled as soon as they receive a bad diagnosis, others facing bankruptcy because they acquire an illness or injury for which they have no or inadequate insurance coverage.

Most supporters I know don't actually lack insurance, and don't even know anybody who lost their insurance when they got sick. They are fearful that it might happen to them someday. And they hear the stories so eagerly spread by supporters of the "reform" about insurance executives taking millions in bonuses, and believe it's not right for anyone to make a profit from other people's misery.

I think that among opponents to the healthcare reform movement are probably insurance company interests who will do whatever they can to keep the money train on the track. I also believe there are those on the Left that are pushing this legislation as part of a larger agenda designed to someday end with an entirely government run and controlled healthcare system.

I also believe that supporters of these "reforms" are either uninterested or dismissive of the negative details and consequences these new laws will have on either their own lives. I wonder how many of these folks will wake up a couple of years from now to realize they made a terrible mistake.

The bottom line is the same for me as with most current political issues. Our government is counting on our ignorance and gullibility as they push through an agenda none of us (except their own bureaucratic class) will appreciate once it comes to fruition.

Clueless or Dishonest

Turned on CNN when I got in tonight. First thing on was Obama, saying:

"We are trying to figure out how to get companies hiring again."

My jaw dropped, because everybody with half a brain knows the answer to that is very simple. The companies I consult with every day can't be more clear about the simple solution. Want to get them hiring again?

Announce that "Healthcare Reform" is going to be pulled back, at least temporarily until the economy gets back on it's feet.

Drop Cap & Trade altogether.

Extend the Bush tax cuts a couple more years.

Only a fool or a dishonest politician would try to sell "green jobs" and healthcare reform and cap & trade and across-the-board tax increases and stifling regulation and new restrictions on energy development and cash for clunkers and cash for caulkers and stimulus for ACORN and printing billions of new dollars and selling the country to China and unprecedented boondoggling and out-of-control pork-barrel spending and all the rest as good for the economy.

I've gotta assume it's dishonesty and not cluelessness. But either is not good for any of us "regular" folks.

Hey, Barry: We "regular" folks don't want a government healthcare program or massive taxes to solve a fake global climate change crisis. We just want good jobs so we can take care of ourselves and our families without your big-brother government butting in.

But you know all that, don't you.

How to Stave off the Cold

No, I don't think I know exactly.

Here I am trying to hold one off again, only about a month after recovering from the last sinus infection. This morning I was sneezing, thinking, "where did these sneezes come from?"

By this evening the sinuses are raging. I'm chugging Emergen-C, which seems my only hope to keep this one at bay.

How do these happen? I'm pretty careful - I try to keep to clean habits as much as possible.

But I can't avoid the specific things I suspect contribute to these viral infections.

Like flying. The person directly behind me on this week's flight was coughing frequently. I was tempted, but stopped myself from looking at him for fear of seeming rude. But I wondered if he was coughing on me, and suspected he was.

Then there was the flight delay, which very nearly caused me to miss my connection. I had to hustle from the far end of Atlanta's Concourse A to the far end of Concourse D in about 15 minutes. They'd actually posted "Closed" on the monitor when I walked up, but fortunately the agent let me on. They closed the door behind me.

So I arrived at my destination after midnight, so I got maybe 5 hours of sleep, but maybe not really because I'm staying in a mini-mobile home they have the nerve to call a "Chalet". And it has a furnace that I think produces more decibels than degrees of heat.

My suspicion is that the furnace in my little "Chalet" hasn't been operated yet this year. So by me being the first to turn the thing on, it probably blew out all sorts of accumulated molds and other nasty allergens.

Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate that I don't get sick more often, given my unusual itinerant lifestyle.

I only pray this time I can duck the sinus infection or cold or flu or whatever is trying to knock me off my feet. There's nothing worse than getting sick on the road.

Tracking the Climate Change Fraud

Every day there seems to be a new layer peeled back on what is looking very much like a political fraud that's been perpetrated on the world by people claiming to be scientists.

The hacked emails showing the concern of the leaders of the movement that their data doesn't support the theory, thus plotting ways to keep the ball rolling; the newer claim of a software engineer that the code underneath the climate change models was written to guarantee the desired outcome; the evidence of collusion in the influential climate change advocate (self-described scientist) community to suppress all refuting studies and trash those with the temerity to bring them forward - all point to the compelling likelihood that the whole "global warming" agenda now renamed "climate change" agenda is about left-wing politics and grant money, not science.

It is interesting to see all the members of Gore's Church of Climate Change scrambling to save the socialist ideal they believed they were on the cusp of installing upon the foundation of their alarmist climate message. Their main messages seem to boil down to what the Wizard of Oz so famously told Dorothy and her friends:

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

They are saying, "Pay no attention to those emails, the code behind the model, and the suppression of contrary studies: Climate change is irrefutable!"

I would think anybody out there who calls themselves scientists should be appalled and angry at the way their profession has been besmirched in the pursuit of a political outcome. Unfortunately I can't seem to find much evidence of anybody in the scientific community expressing such outrage or suggesting the climate data be made available for independent study to find out the real truth without regard to political agendas.

Have we universally lost all capability to think rationally, outside of the Left-Right paradigm?

It would seem so. Where have the intelligent people gone?