Belt Tightening 101 - Refresher Course

Taking a look at my grocery list today I had to seriously think about pruning my list of "wants" and thin the list to concentrate on my "needs". It would be great to be able to afford four New York Strip steaks this weekend, but at a price tag of $7.59 a pound, I think we'll be grilling burgers instead. Sure, we can dress them up, but they're not going to be steak.

I try to make sure that we have "the fixin's" that everybody likes; french fries, for instance. But at $2.00 for a 16 oz bag of frozen I find myself opting, instead, for a 10-pound bag of taters for $3.99. To me, this is wise investing. I know my target demographic (a hungry family), I know the risk associated with investing in a bag of potatoes, and I know that in the potato market there are various ways to improve my liquidity by using this asset wisely. Used wisely, $4.00 worth of taters can stretch $25 worth of meat into seven dinnertime meals for my family.

When I make sloppy joes, for instance, I always throw a couple of finely diced potatoes in with the meat as it browns. It stretches the meat and nobody recognizes the potatoes once they get covered with sauce. Moms like me are tricky and we're smart.

Perhaps the Obama administration, Larry Sommers, Tim Geithner, and perhaps even Barack himself would learn a thing or two from housewives across America - if they would climb down from their ivory towered high horses for just a bit.

We know from experience, but mostly we know from surviving lean times how to work within a budget. We've learned that we can't simply open our neighbors' wallets and take a few bills out when we come up short. We've learned how to use that $4.00 bag of taters to get seven meals rather than spending nearly that amount of buy enough product for only one meal.

Mr. Obama, if you're in the mood to hear from us we're willing to give you some good advice. Spend less than you take in, and learn to live within your means. Also, I'm sure that even in your culture, Mr. Obama, stealing is against the law.

November 3, 2009 Elections

Today there is a small ballot issue in my now hometown of St. Joseph County, Indiana which involves adding an additional income tax of 0.25% to the taxes that we pay. I believe this measure is going to go down in flames because our Common Council, a group of which the majority are democrats, recently voted (against overwhelming public opposition) to allow the City of South Bend to gleen from the residents of the County an additional 1% in income taxes to be used for police and fire services within the City of South Bend ONLY and NOT to be used for the surrounding areas.

Problem is, while the scare tactics caused our County Common Council to cave, the Mayor's office knew that there was a million dollar emergency rainy day fund that could be tapped at will. This fact was not disclosed prior to the vote. Then, as if the monarch Steve Leucke wasn't happy with the additional monies, he hired a "green" guy for the city. Salary is estimated at over $100k a year.

So, at the end of today I hope that the politicians get a clear message:

WE'RE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!

Flu Season! Yuck!

It appears that my household will not be spared from the flu this year, after all. My healthy teenagers have, blessedly and all at the same time, become ill. The fever, body aches, nausea, sore throats, headaches and generally crappy feeling have hit us all at once.

As "the mom" I'm not permitted to get sick at the same time as the rest of the family, and certainly if I do get sick I will be stuck here, alone, to care for and tend to my own illness. I feel like this is what the Obama administration is doing to moms everywhere.

We're being expected to care for our families, tend to the youth of America, and when it's our turn to be taken care of, when we're old and frail, we'll be left on our own. I think about the promises that our government made to my generation, that if we would just keep paying all of those taxes that we, too, would find our pot of gold at the end of our lifelong rainbow. We were assured that Social Security was solvent, that the actuarial computations made for sustaining the program were sound. We were given this promise when we were still in diapers, all through high school and college, and into our early careers. We kept sending out our messages of doubt, asking our elected representatives to be honest with us. "Please tell us the truth!", we begged.

Congressman Claude Pepper of Florida made his entire career on fighting for Social Security benefits increases for senior citizens. He pushed hard for increased spending for Medicare, for better protections for senior citizens rights. As a young person I despised him. My thought was that the old farts should just go off an die. Now I am the old fart, and the kids just want me to go off and die.

I will admit that my generation provided little sacrifice to this Nation. My generation was the one that protested "the establishment". My generation hung Richard Nixon out to dry. My generation embraced Mao, Che, Castro, Kruschev. My generation made love - not war. My generation wanted equality for all, but we also embraced class warfare as a religion.

So when you wonder how we got to where we are today, look at today's 50 and 60 year olds.

Inheritances

Lately I've been thinking about inheritances. An inheritance is defined, generally speaking, as something that passes from one generation to the next. It can be property, traits, birthrights.

When a parents dies, for instance, they will often leave to their heirs an inheritance of some financial significance. Typically a parent will bequest a portion of his or her estate to their heirs as a token of appreciation, love, or, in my case, disdain for a child, grandchild, or other loved one. For the beneficiary of an inheritance it is not enough to know that you were considered, but the beneficiary wishes to know that they were indeed considered worthy.

When I think of the inheritance that our elected officials are now considering for our beneficiaries (the future generations of Americans), I can't help but acknowledge the obvious fact that they (the Congress, Senate, and the President) believe some people worthy and others not. They consider worthy those individuals and groups who have failed in their lives. They consider the inability to attain self-reliance and responsibility to be worthy of emptying the wealth of a nation into the coffers of those who whine, complain, and blame others for their misfortune.

Progressives for decades have exploited the very groups they claim to defend. I have often asked why blacks, for instance, would continue to vote for the same politicians decade after decade when clearly it is the politician who benefits. Public housing is still substandard.
Our education system is still failing to prepare ALL people for a future of productivity. We have, by way of election, de-funded our inheritance and pillaged the coffers of the dead out of political correctness.

When all is said and done...

...a lot is said and little is done.

The funeral is over and the questions linger. Why is the largest question. How is the next one. When is the last question.

Why? Why did things turn out the way they did. Why were there so many years and decades of mistrust, of accusations, of bitterness.

How? How do I forgive? How do I reconcile myself to the fact that he is never coming back and will never hear the truth?

When? When will this pain and emptiness go away?

If Government Healthcare is so great....

Finish this sentence:



I look forward to going on Medicare because_________________________________.

If you answered "because it's free", stop reading now. None of what I say will appeal to you and you won't appreciate how imperiled our Republic is at this moment in time.

I don't know about you, but I never want to go on Medicare. Yes, I know I've paid into the system. Yes, I know that private insurance may be cost prohibitive. Yes, I know that everyone is expected to go onto Medicare when they reach that certain age.

DO YOU WANT THIS GUY AS YOUR DOCTOR?

Now comes Obama, professing to have the answer to all of our healthcare needs, oddly enough, as an expert in, what else, the law. His wife, also a lawyer, worked with The University of Chicago Medical Center, but work is such an ambiguous word. It's been pretty well publicized that she spent little time actually earning her six figure salary during the last two years of her clouded tenure there. After all, isn't this the same location which was the scene to one of the more infamous patient dumping schemes? It was under the sugar-coated "Urban Health Initiative" that Medicare-only funded patients were given free rides to clinics (all outside of the area) to receive their medical care. Patients with better insurance were given the spots within the hospital that their poorer, government dependent brethren were forced out of. In fact, most of those forced our of the hospital were poor blacks and hispanics, sent to clinics whose Medicaid and Medicare patient load was not as high as that of an inner-city hospital. Yet, those clinics were not privey to the influence of the wife of a United States Senator, nor were they on the receiving end of millions of dollars of grant money and donor gratuities. Yes, those clinics who were forced to accept these patients were also forced to keep the dirty business of patient dumping to themselves.

To understand this entire concept one must make sure to comprehend that words have meaning. We all know by now that the word "urban" means poor, and usually refers to a person of color. But, in today's current political climate we all know that a Black First Lady nor her husband would EVER be considered racists, would they? In order for Mrs. Obama to sell this "initiative" she hired none other than her husbands' current advisor, David Axelrod. Together, Axelrod and Obama devised a plan which would move patients from the University hospital if they received government healthcare. There were stories published of the "Tylenol" treatment for severe injuries. Patients were often bused to outlying clinics when they presented to the emergency room with fractures, deep lacerations, or, in some cases, when children presented with high fevers and convulsive symptoms. Many of these symptoms and injuries were of enough severity to have warranted inpatient hospitalization, yet these patients received no more treatment than a would get from a school nurse.

Most of us enjoy a relationship with our doctors and we feel confident in their abilitiy to treat our medical needs. Otherwise, we simply switch doctors. In my case, I like to refer to them as being "fired". If someone gets money from me to do a job, and then I find someone else to do the job, that pretty much means, they're fired, right?

Now, members of our government like to pretend that it is THEY who placed themselves in a position of authority over us. Please allow me to remind all of you that it is THEY who work for YOU. YOU have the authority, as guaranteed by the Constitution, to FIRE these people who believe themselves to be your masters.

Daniel Webster wrote, "The inherent right in the people to reform their government, I do not deny; and they have another right, and that is to resist unconstitutional laws without overturning the government."

Do YOU have the will to resist? Ronald Reagan reminded me years ago, "Man is not free unless government is limited." Is it time for us to resist government expansion? You decide for yourselves, but I made up my mind months ago.

Hard To Swallow...and then some!

You know, it seems like only yesterday that we were all listening to the members of the media bash Bush for everything from the economy to global warming. Oh? Yes, it was just yesterday. Sorry.

Some things never change in this world of ours, but this past week I saw a remarkable admission by some members of the press: The press, it seems, does not appreciate being controlled. This admission struck me as particularly odd in this day and age, especially when I think about the fact that I, too, am able to now provide my own editorial opinion at will. The truth of the matter is that the press is uncomfortable in a position of being spoon-fed. They are, moreover, at their most confident and their happiest when it is THEY who determine the scope, content, and direction of public discussion and public policy. Thomas Jefferson had a unique relationship with the press. He placed within their hands a power that they ultimately used to torment him and his presidential policies. It is a wise person who understands that a snake cannot control its determination to bite.

In the book, “Jefferson and the Press”, by Jerry W. Knudsen, Knudsen accurately points out that the press has always been partisan, and more accurately, has always been controlled by those who control its purse strings. To speak very plainly, the members of the media are fully aware of who butters their bread. Through their writing, speaking, and editorial positions they can make or break a political candidate, a business, an individual, an idea.

In the past few days we’ve seen ABC produce an infomercial for the liberal healthcare agenda item of Barack Obama. Without hesitation, this press outlet refused to acknowledge that opinions of dissent exist by refusing to air paid advertising by groups who oppose the highly controversial and expensive Obamacare measures before the Congress now. This Congress, I might add, has made it clear that any legislation regarding healthcare will not be exhibited to “the people” for a full week before voting on it. This occurred with the stimulus package, the TARP program, the auto-union partnership co-op, and most recently, the Waxman-Markey energy legislation. Now it is clear that the Congress and Senate intend to force the American people into personal bankruptcy by thrusting one more spike into our coffins and into the wombs of mothers of yet to be born Americans. The mainstream media has been a coconspirator in this massive extortion against Americans, and surely, they can expect some sort of reward from Obama.

How will Obama reward the press? Why, through a bailout, of course! When this happens (and you know that it will), few outlets will be able to compete against the purse strings that Obama will open and close, unleashing hungry hell hounds under the guise of journalism.