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A New Year Approaches

December 30, 2009 // Posted in Politics  |  10 Comments

Damn it!  Normally, I’m always looking forward to the new year, but not this one.  And it all has to do with Politics.

Pre 9/11, I wasn’t really concerned much with what party had majority control, as there was generally a degree of civility in the political discussions of the day.  Sure, I was a Republican then, and of course I wanted my party in control, but even if they weren’t, it wasn’t all that bad.  Well, okay.  It was awful if Liberal ideology ruled.  That stuff is just plain crazy.

Now in the post 9/11 world, our politicians have thrown civility to the wind and have digressed to playground bully tactics.  Of course, I’m referring to the Democrat party.  The Republican party was taking the beatings like a crash test dummy, but then woke up some.  Obviously, their heads are still ringing, but at least they are starting to put the gloves up.  They even have a bit of solidarity going on, which really is a breath of fresh air.  But lets get back to the main point here.

2009 was a miserable year of law making.  Lets face it, the Palosi/Reid machine isn’t focused on doing the will of the people, they are only focused on socializing this last bastion of a free society, and lining their pockets with money while increasing their power over the American people.  Remember the old adage, “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Politics IS power, and with a Liberal majority in both the House and Senate, the power is absolutely corrupt.

Lets look at some of the laws passed this last year (2009):

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-2):  This law amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with a couple other laws, which basically just clarified a time frame in which to act on pay discrimination.  This isn’t a major law, but it is important.  It’s also a rarity in that it actually fulfilled a promise that Obama had made on the campaign trail.  HOWEVER:  This also renigs on an Obama promise in that there was no 5 day wait before signing the bill into law.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5 ):  Commonly known as the Stimulus Bill, this law gave congress nearly $800 billion to spend on crap to help boost the failing economy by loosening up the credit markets and creating jobs by funding “shovel ready” construction jobs.  Now, in theory, all of this sounds good.  In reality, this is a freakin’ nightmare!  First off, government does not create jobs.  The private sector does.  Second…in almost a year after passing this crap, less than a quarter of the allocated funds was spent!  So naturally, NOTHING HAPPENED!!!  In a rare sign of unity, not one Republican in the House voted for this bill, though 3 Republican Senators did.  Nearly $800 Billion worth of crap, yet we have American soldiers in harms way that are struggling for resources.  Nice job Democrats.

The Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act:  Now, this bill has been floating around since 2001, and the only way the Democrats were able to get this thing passed was to attach it to a defense bill.  Now I’m not saying this is a bad bill, but if it’s been floating around for 8 years, and then you finally have to sneak it in a defense spending bill to get passed into law, then maybe…just maybe…this is actually a piece of shit bill.  For those that don’t know, this bill adds protection to the 1969 Hate Crimes act to cover gender, sexual orientation and disabilities.  Basically protecting gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from hate crimes.

Cash for Clunkers:  Initially a billion dollars was set aside to coax people with older, high fuel-consuming cars to dump those for something more fuel efficient.  This was so popular that the billion dollars was consumed in a months time, forcing Congress to dump another $2 billion into the program.  Even then, this law devoured those funds so quick that they had to end the program a full 3 months ahead of schedule.  Here’s where some of the problems come in.  Yes, this was a boon to the failing auto industry, but there was a stipulation in the law that the clunkers turned in, had to be scrapped.  Again, that makes some sense, but they missed out on a real opportunity.  These cars could have been parted out in order to help sustain the cars that didn’t get turned in.  This would have again, boosted the economy some by provided refurbished parts to a user base that couldn’t afford to get the new cars.  Combine that with the fact that in a months time, they had to put more money into the program to sustain it, shows a real lack of planning on the side of the Government.  I’m split as to whether or not this was a good thing, but obviously, it wasn’t handled very well.

Helping Families Save their Home Act (Public Law 111-22 ) :  Now the concept of this bill was to let judges modify mortgages so that families would be able to have a chance to stay in their homes…those that bought houses that they couldn’t afford in the first place.  However, in the final bill, that provision wasn’t even included in the bill.  What passed were mortgage rule changes and law modifications that would help people hang on to their homes.  Now, helping people stay in there homes is a noble endeavor, but the problem is, these people bought homes that they could barely afford in the first place, so when things went south, they should have lost their homes.  That’s what happens in the real world.  If you can’t afford it, you don’t get it.  That’s the basic rule of managing your own money.  Now the American people have to subsidize mortgages for people that have no common sense.  Again…noble…sure.  But very wrong.

The Omnibus Bill:  Over 8500 earmarks of pork barrel spending.  Obama ran a campaign of NO Earmark spending.  In a time of economic crisis, this is not only irresponsible, but its asinine!  Another Obama promise that was renigged on.  Another shitload of taxpayer money pissed away on power grabs.  This is the legacy of the Obama administration.

Obama, Reid, Palosi, Dodd, Nelson, Durbin,  Waxman…the list goes on and on.  These people, in my humble opinion, can and should be tried for crimes against the U.S. Constitution.  At the very least, removed from office for dereliction of duty and fraud.  This is why I’m not looking forward to the upcoming year.  These people are going to continue pushing socialist agendas in order to increase the power of government over the people…something that the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protects us from.  You see, the Constitution limits government oppression in order for us Americans to live freely, and Obama, Reid and Palosi can’t stand that.  Hell, Obama himself stated that “the Constitution limits what the government can do” (paraphrasing) and he sees that as a problem.

There is no guarantee that 2010 is going to be any better.  Especially when the Health Care bill gets passed.  That is going to screw the American public so bad that recovery may not be able to happen.  Our only hope is take back the Senate and the House.  Even then…it may be too late.

It’s time to fight!  It’s time to put our congressmen on notice.  We need fiscal conservatism, and more responsible government.  We need less government control on our individual freedoms.  We need personal responsibility instead of a nanny state.  We need to get back to American exceptional-ism.  Obama is not the answer.  He’s a cancer on the American way of life.  Obama and his cronies have to go.

Stand up America!  It’s time to fight for your rights to be Americans!

Hendo

Merry Christmas!!!

December 7, 2009 // Posted in Politics, Uncategorized  |  6 Comments

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!!

(this one may go in different directions, so try to keep up)

Okay, look.  I’m not a religious person.  In fact…I’m an Atheist.  More to the point, I just don’t believe in organized religion.  Lets face it, throughout human history, religion has been a controversial part of our society.  Think of all the wars and senseless murders that have been done in the name of religion.  Atrocities of all manner have been committed under the guise of religion.  Isn’t that antithetical to the true meaning of religion, and it’s influence?

Look at all the different religions available to us (we humans love variety):  Catholic; Baptist; Jewish; Protestant; Episcopal; Muslim; Buddhism; Mormonism; Hinduism; The Snake lovers; Men in Black; Satanism; Socialism; the list goes on and on!  Now, how is this possible if there is supposed to be one true God?  I know what you’re thinking….”But Hendo…don’t you have a theory on all of this?”  The answer is a resounding…”I do, my loyal subjects!”  And here it is…

Initially, I think religion started off as a pretty good thing.  But man being the creature that he is, the perversion quickly set in.  Somewhere along the line, some dude in a dress said “hey…religion is pretty cool, but I really would like [insert human desire here].”  Several people agreed, but most didn’t.  This splintered the religious belief, so a new religion was formed to accommodate this new exception.  Time goes on, and it happens again.  Next thing you know, a few millenniums later, you have several different spin offs of the original religion.  Some split from the splinters!  Today, there are so many different religions, that I can’t even count them all.  Wait…here’s my calculator.  College math should come in handy here.  Let’s see, one divided by this, times that with an exponent of….ERROR!  WHAT?!  Even my trusty Technology God gave up on trying to figure that shit out.  Sheesh!

So, where do we stand?  Well, if we get down to the basic religious values of any flavor, you get …be nice to people; help each other out; and a set of other acceptable moral values that in fact, sound pretty good.  Now I may not believe in religion, but I do believe in common sense and that being good to people is always a good thing.  I’m also not about to sit here and chastise anyone that feels that going to church on a regular basis is helpful to them.  I mean…if you feel that this kind of communal gathering is helpful to you, then by all means do it.  How can it be wrong?  No one can tell you what feels good to you, so if it’s something that you think helps you…enjoy!  It’s a social gathering of like-minded people, all with faults and concerns.  Having someone to talk with, is always a good thing.  Wait…collection plate?  You gotta pay for this?  Well, hell…it’s got to be better than some overpriced psychologist, any day of the week.  Hold on a second…’social gathering’, ‘talk with friends’…isn’t this what Facebook is for?  Great!  Add another religion to the list…Facebook!

Now you know my theories on religion.  I’m not against it per say, but I’m definitely not a follower.  This brings me to the whole ‘Merry Christmas’ thing.  Yes, Christmas is a religious holiday.  No matter what anyone says about it, it’s a religious thing.  Almost everyone celebrates it, whether they have the faith or not.  Hell, I used to celebrate it!  It used to be one of my favorite times of the year!  However, in this day and age, its merely just a marketing ploy to get people to buy a bunch of needless shit.  In fact, if it wasn’t a religious holiday prior to being a marketing tool, I would say that it is just as bad as Valentines day.  But I digress.

I think that Christmas time is still a wonderful thing to the human race.  There is a lot of positive feelings this time of year, and going back to ‘helping people out’, it’s one of the last bastions of hope that many people have.  So why do we have a campaign to end Christmas, and turn it into just “Holiday”, or whatever the PC term is?  These are the most useless people in society!  Look, if you’re out buying a Christmas tree, and one of these idiots come up and say “hey, what kind of holiday tree are you getting?”  You have my permission to slap the shit out of them.  As a matter of fact, slap them twice.  Now, I don’t advocate violence.  This is strictly a ‘take care of my brother’ scenario.  They have obviously strayed so far from common sense, that an intervention is definitely in order.  It’s fucking Christmas!  And it’s lost its religious connotations long ago, in civil society.  Saying Christmas doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings, and if it does…fuck’em!

I don’t celebrate Christmas.  It’s not because I don’t believe in the spirit of it, it’s for personal reasons.  Long ago, I inadvertently lost the ability to share Christmas with my daughter.  It actually took several years for me to come to grips with that.  As a parent, you realize that Christmas is for the children.  Once you’ve celebrated Christmas with your child, you don’t want to celebrate it any other way.  At least that’s my case.  I won’t celebrate Christmas again, unless my daughter is with me.  That’s my choice.  Does that mean that I’m upset that other people celebrate it?  Hell no!  Why would I use my suffering to hinder someones happiness?  That’s just wrong, and I didn’t need a religion to tell me that.  I say Merry Christmas, because it is Christmas.  I say, “that’s a beautiful Christmas tree”, because that’s what it is.  I may not celebrate it, but I still understand the spirit of it.

So here’s the ‘take away’ from all this babble:

  1. Don’t give me your religious spiel.  I just don’t care about it.  If it works for you, then I’m happy for you, but don’t expect me to tag along.
  2. Slap the idiot that tries to get you on the PC version of Christmas.  They need the help.  Actually, slap them twice, then educate them on the true meaning of Christmas.
  3. Do everything possible not to lose your ability to spend time with your children.  Christmas is a special time, and it should be spent with your kids.
  4. Christmas isn’t really about giving.  It’s about spending time with your family and friends.  It could be sitting at a bar watching a game, or even playing mailbox baseball with the fella’s.

I am King Hendo.  Merry Christmas to all of you!!!  Be good to each other, and help someone that needs it.