Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

As we enter the holiday season, I am reminded of years gone by during which I have sought out a gift for a friend or loved one. One wants to believe the commercials in all of their glamour and hype about how the stores are extravagantly decorated in green and red. Americans everywhere long for the carols written so very long ago either revamped into new rockin' versions or sung by vocal legends clinging to their strong name. Citizens of all states wander through isle after isle in their mind creating a picture of the ultimate Christmas shopping and giving season. All of these beautifully Hollywood-orchestrated scenes are abruptly shattered once you step foot into a Communist Wal-Mart or some other retail establishment. In place of all of the beautiful hyms of Christmas is the din of shoppers frantically grabbing heartily sought after items before another patron steals them away. The whirlwind of activity created by the masses swarming the store has caused meticulously decorated Christmas trees, heart-warming nativity scenes, or garland donned decorations to come crashing to the well-trodden floor. In place of the warm, smiling employees are teens who would rather be texting their friend (who is working at another retail marketplace) than aiding customers, the middle aged mom who would rather be with her kids than scanning your clothes, or the fiscally deprived retiree who desires no more than to sit in front of his fire with some apple cider rather than sell you that cup of lo-fat mocha latte. Sometimes, I think that we torture ourselves from Black Friday until Christmas Eve just so that Christmas Day is that much sweeter to enjoy. Of course, there's always the week between Christmas and New Year's Day to return all of the gifts that you didn't really want in the first place. I know this isn't a political blog up to this point, but I'm about to tie all of this together. Liberal mindset dictates that the government needs to help everyone and that all of our tax money should be distributed according to that principle. The mindset of fiscal redistribution leads to several ideas that will further drive the American Dream into the arms of Communism. The first idea that stems from fiscal redistribution is the idea of "Me First" and "Gimme Gimme". Fight this mindset over the holiday season. Quit thinking of what can be done for you and work to serve those in need around you. It is not the governments job to perform this function. It's each citizens' duty.

Bored of Education

I know that the government tailors their services to meet the lowest common denominator, but I believe that the standards for education should at least be different, if not better. Our country's education system is one of the largest institutions by which other countries compare themselves with the United States. Before you write this blog off mentally and click the little "x" at the top right hand corner of your screen, please just listen for a short time. The only point I want to make is that, since we now consider our education system a glorified baby-sitting machine, we ought to start at least teaching living principles to the children who must attend. Instead of crowding their minds with liberally slanted "social studies", we should focus on reporting history accurately and completely in history books, omitting none of the supposed "politically incorrect" material. Instead of instructing Calculus and Trigonometry to high school students, we should teach them how to manage money in true-to-life, hands-on ways. Rather than throw money away on students whose parents are not concerned by attempting to force them to graduate by a seemingly unattainable set of standards, we should have available work study programs for those who are willing to learn a trade in place of achieving a college preparatory diploma. In our VICA and other career-oriented classes and clubs, we should emphasize business ownership and set up classes to instruct principles of employee management, capital delegation, and time control. Let us start breaking the education system into parts that fit individuals as they develop rather than develop an education system that breaks people into parts that fit a government determined mould. Standardization is not the answer. Standardization is a principle of mass production, not of mass education.

Liberal Radio

Recently, I took some time out of my schedule to allow liberal radio to permeate my ears. The topics about which they spoke ranged from grunge music to Australia's Prime Minister's comments on their current involvement in the occupation of Iraq. I heard an advertisement for a labor union created clothing line and an animal activist group using children's comments urging "grown-ups" to do something about polar bears. In all, the passion for which the station backed its message was impressive.

Now that the encouragement has been regurgitated with chunks of my breakfast, I shall proceed to offer my humble and possible caustic opinion. Liberal radio, regardless of zeal and activism, is devoid of a solid political message. All that the liberals on this station could produce politically was a critique of current president George W. Bush. The left must come up with an answer in order to gain permanent followers. To throw stones at the opposition will attract rebels and volunteers, but, in order to cause lasting change in people, one must have an ANSWER to the questions that he poses.

I think that liberal thinking must exist, much as evil must exist for there to be a solid definition of good. We cannot know what is conservative if there exists no liberal. Also, nobody on earth wants a purely conservative way of thinking, governing, or living. It would be just as corrupt and enviable as its purely opposite existence. Modern liberal thought, or "progressive" thought as they enjoy pegging themselves, has many questions and assertions but no plan to answer or fulfill these political conundrums. Please don't get me wrong, they offered opportunities to serve in places and to purchase items that promote good stewardship of ones resources and environment. This does not offer any sort of buttress to the national political campaigns that strictly target what they consider to be a "failed administration" under our current President.

I have yet to meet a liberal that supports the Fair Tax, a bill that would abolish the IRS, create a flat 23% sales tax, eliminate all other taxes, and bring fairness and simplicity to our government's largest source of income. If liberals are about fairness, then why are they OK with high taxation? High taxation isn't fair to citizens who need that money to live day to day. They support high taxation because they support big government. Who else supports big government? The conservatives support big government. What, then, is the different between a conservative and a liberal? The liberals desire to utilize government to legislate our finances. The conservatives yearn to legislate our moral fabric behind the barrel of government guns. Freedom will be snatched from our cold dead hands either way if we don't start voting toward freedom instead of voting using our emotions.

I can just see the breadlines now . . .

An article I read on the WSBTV website yesterday perturbed me. I'm sure all of you oversensitive, overbearing, and overprotective parents out there are leaping for joy and gleaming your pearly whites over this one, but I, for one, find this situation scary and unfair. The article is quite truncated and concise. It states that a college in my town of Newnan had a student by the name of James Milhauser threatened students at the cafeteria of the school by saying that he was "organizing an attack against the lunchroom crowd." It follows by stating that the police investigation of the threat, taken as an act of terrorism, yielded that the kid had no concrete plans for carrying out the threat. Ok, all of you soccer moms can now inhale a peaceful lung full of fresh air knowing that one more terrorist is taken off the streets, for the article reports that he was booked at the Coweta County jail. Hooray for the office of homeland security! They can't seem to keep dangerous people from boarding airplanes with implements of destruction, but they do an EXCELLENT job of arresting kids who make unfounded "terroristic threats."

I am ashamed of the local police force. I am also ashamed of the citizens of Coweta County, and more specifically, Newnan, Georgia. We have allowed our country to take an event that devastated us all in some fashion and tuck our little legislative tail between our legs only to sit in a corner awaiting anything that even remotely resembles something that could be related to a small portion of the aftermath that was this same catastrophic event. In short, we have completely overreacted in this situation. I would say "I believe" that this was overreaction, but, since there was no evidence of an attack against this lunchroom crowd, there were no accomplices, and the kid really seemed to just be reaching out for a friend or maybe just some attention, we have totally missed the point. I haven't paraded around with a pen and pad inquiring from all of those people who know this Milhauser kid as to how he's been acting the last eighteen months, so I have no inside knowledge about Mr. Milhauser's psyche, moxie, or mores. I am not clairvoyant enough to read the article and just understand the whole situation, but I can make an accurate prediction of where this country is going if we don't all have an over sized cup of coffee and realize how much micromanagement laws limit our freedom. The next step for the school systems is to pass bylaws that allow school officials to expel students for a child's' just saying that they're going to beat up another child after school. We as a nation are using the government guns to change the way people think. When a large mass of people utilize a common governing body to coerce someone to think and believe a certain way, we call that brainwashing. How is that different from passing hate crime laws or terroristic threat laws? IT'S NOT. The "moral majority" which is neither moral or the majority wants us all to believe that they are doing what's right in trying to alter the way those of us who don't "think the way we all should" by passing laws that bolster the severity of impunity. A conviction sentence for those who commit crimes against another race or nationality is DOUBLED. I don't hate any race or nationality more than I hate a white male American, so if a black man breaks into my house and I shoot him, I could get the death penalty.

Peruse history and tell me what the next logical step was for Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics when stuff like this started happening. The answer is Communism. Bread lines. Specialization of workforce. Socialized medicine. Exorbitant taxation. You do the math. Personally, I'm apprehensive.

Do your part to turn this around. Contact your representatives and tell them what you don't like about current policies. Vote your convictions, not your emotions. Take ownership in your country. Do not let the elected officials have carte blanche. This is how Socialism starts, and Socialism ALWAYS turns into COMMUNISM.

church and state

The separation of church and government is a very touchy subject for many. Some feel as though our founders were trying to keep religion from ruling our country while others interpret our founders' plan as being one of keeping government out of our religions. Contrary to the contrasting opinions, the founders were trying to do both. These wonderful men came from a country or countries in which the ruler had levied his own belief system onto law making and enforcement. Right and wrong from a governmental standpoint was situational, only depending on how that despot or tyrant felt the day he had to make a ruling. I say all of this because our country has been involved in a tug of war, so to speak, for decades over this matter. Recently I had the privilege of perusing an article about said topic.
The government of the state of Georgia is apparently ratifying a measure to allow a class in public schools for the Bible to be taught as a book of history. Whereas, I believe (and my believe is founded in historical fact) that the Bible is historically accurate, and I believe (which is simply a personal spiritual belief) the Bible holds a lot of truth and use its writings to guide my life, I have to express some concerns regarding this movement.
My first concern is that this is a window for Christians to start taking issue with the mass education system. I see the Christians criticizing how the Bible is taught in schools and asking for only clergy or only Biblical scholars to teach the class. The instructor of the Biblical history class should be very well educated on the parallels between accepted history books and the history of the Bible. He should have a deep understanding of the chronology and pertinence of Biblical history, but he HAS TO REMAIN NEUTRAL religiously. I see the Christians using this class, which they may see as a 'victory', as a springboard to push other agenda items, such as teacher-lead prayer time. I see Christians attempting to turn our public education system in Georgia into a tool to "witness" to the masses. Christians, keep your hands off the public school system. It is not our governments job to educate our kids on your spiritual belief system. It is your job as parents to perpetuate your spiritual beliefs. This is not a Christian education class, it is a history class based on the historicity of the Bible. Keep it that way. Don't allow your emotions about your religion to take over and make decisions for other people. If you truly have faith in your God, then you know He will do as He wishes, and His wishes are for good. It's not the governments or your job to do so through the mass education machine.
My second concern is the possibility for an 'equality movement' in the education system. The people who practice Wicca or Islam or Taoism or Rosicrucian-ism (or any other belief system I didn't mention), I see, will desire an equal audience in mass education in the future. Other religious affiliations or spiritual groups will move to have classes added to school offerings as a measure of equality. First, this class is not about Christianity, so you other religions will have to move past this fallacy. Second, if other religions have historically accurate books that can be taught as a history class, then I believe they should be given equal treatment. For government to favor the Bible over another historical book is preposterous and unconstitutional. Government schools cannot teach religious beliefs as facts without becoming a theocracy. Remember the Church of England? Enough said.
All points that I care to make having been made, I believe that, even though we haven't always agreed on methodology or outcome of decisions, all of us who have a spiritual affiliation of some type can agree that none of us wants our kids educated by the propagator of a religious group with which we do not agree. In order to do that, we must make sure our public education system does not give out spiritual education of ANY kind. There are those who are radical in their spirituality and desire the government to become a theocracy either for Christianity or some other major religion, but they are not great in number. The eagle and the flag must, however, keep their watchful eye over those, even of our own countrymen, who seek to destroy freedom by forcing their religion on us all.
Thank you for reading.