i thunk so

People everywhere have problems. Someone somewhere is living on the street and doesn’t know how they will feed their kids. Someone just lost their job and will probably have their home repossessed by the bank. Some farmer lost all of his crops to a drought and will probably have to declare bankruptcy. Someone just found out they have cancer and doesn’t know how they will pay the medical bills.

These are all sad stories, and if you know someone who is in a situation like this, I hope you will do what you can to make their life a little easier. That’s where positive change begins — with people. Individuals who care.

When the government tries to fix things, it NEVER works. I challenge anyone to point out a government program that meets the following criteria:

1. This program had/has a clearly defined goal with an easily quantifiable measure for success.
2. This program had/has a clearly defined budget with no allowance for corruption or financial mismanagement, and has accountability stop-gaps built in.
3. This program was/is not simply the result of badgering by special interest or political posturing during an election year.
4. This program had/has a provision that allows for its dissolution if it did/does not meet the clearly defined and quantifiable goals, thus guaranteeing that money spent on the program will not be wasted.
5. This program didn’t/doesn’t hold any possibility of eroding personal privacy rights.
6. This program could not be avoided simply by letting a private enterprise do it better and more cheaply.

When I think about nationalizing health care, I can’t help but see it through to it’s natural end in my mind’s eye.

Once the government is the vendor, it is up to the government who they will and won’t service. If they are the ones with that role, can they not also decide the criteria for that decision?

What if you’re a parent who spanks their kids? When your kid goes in for their government-mandated checkup (and they *will* mandate your preventive care, which is another right you will lose — the right to *not* go to the doctor), what types of questions will the doctor be required to ask them? Will you be allowed to be in the same room during the checkup? Will their checkup also include a mandatory psychiatric evaluation (after all, we need to stop those school shootings before they happen, right)?

When there just aren’t enough doctors to go around (mostly because they will no longer have a financial incentive to become doctors) and the rationing begins, how much of a say do you think you’ll have? Maybe your kid was born with Downs Syndrome. Since they don’t have much of a chance at a normal life anyway, why not put them at the back of the line? We’ve already been so desensitized by abortion anyway, I doubt government-mandated euthanasia will phase us that much. Let’s just have a cut-off, shall we? Who do you know that’s really much use to society past the age of, oh say……75?

Maybe when there aren’t enough doctors, the government will decide it’s time for them to get into the business of deciding who will become doctors. Maybe we just won’t have the luxury of letting people choose a career for themselves anymore.

People will read this and say I’m being extreme. It’s not. This is already beginning to happen in some parts of the world. Why? Because it’s the natural progression when a heartless, bureaucratic entity takes charge of anything. Their ultimate goal is taking your money, shutting you up, and staying in office. The government does not care about individuals. The next time one of the Presidential candidates talks about “government with a heart” or some such nonsense, they should be immediately tossed from the race.

Government is not supposed to *feel*. Government is supposed to facilitate peace and opportunity. Government does not belong in the business of handing out favors, playing favorites, or finding new ways to spend our money. Lately, this is all they’ve been doing.

Does your government speak for you, or do you speak for your government? You are supposed to be the voice. You are the one who got first mention in the U.S. Constitution — not THEM.

Look at what our federal government has become? Look at their track record.

WE ARE THE COUNTRY. We are in charge. THEY don’t get to have power over us unless we cede it to them. Don’t give them another shred of power over you.

Virtually every state and local service is now tied to federal funding. This makes every municipality beholden to the desires of the federal government for fear of losing funding. You don’t think the exact same thing will happen with health care?

Think this through and play it out to its natural end. I hope you will see it for what it is: another brick in the wall of government oppression — albeit disguised as a safety net for everyone — that will ultimately separate us completely from our personal freedoms. I feel safer already.

Filed by JP at 4:43 pm under Opinions, Government, Democracy
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We already knew Harry Potter was a ruse to “sillify” witchcraft for children and make spells and incantations seem somehow harmless — something even a child could master.

The Harry Potter evolution is a perfect picture of evil at work.

The first book (and subsequent screenplay) in the series introduced young readers to a whimsical world of children at play — children just beginning to explore the wonders of the magical realm. It was like something kids might experience in their dreams at night — flying, quidditch, giants and other “wondrous” creatures from the imagination of J.K. Rowling.

It began innocently enough, but with each book the characters all began to take on increasingly dark personalities. It became obvious that the more Harry came to understand the powers of “magic,” the more the power at his disposal began to present a moral dillemma for him.

I’m not writing anything earth-shattering here. I’m sure all of this was intentional on the author’s part…and that’s my point. The series attracted throngs of young readers and quickly became wildly popular. It soon became a literary standard for kids everywhere — if you weren’t reading Harry Potter, you were just a bit uncool. Now the youthful fans were addicted, and it become much easier to begin to indoctrinate them and scare them. But of course, they simply had to find out what would happen to Harry in the next book.

Evil is something that is regularly disguised as harmless fun. It is a two-faced predator. If it shows its true colors at the very first, potential victims will run away screaming. Evil must soothe its prey into believing that no threat of harm or ill intent exists. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing — a Venus fly trap.

The Harry Potter saga was a devolution into a world of evil and death — a slow, downward spiral into the pit of hell. “But Harry wins in the end!” you say. Good triumphs over evil? Really? At what expense? How did it really end?

J.K. Rowling, much like the hero of her now-concluded Harry Potter series of novels, was allowed to toy with the minds of millions of children. Parents all over the world willfully exposed their children to witchcraft for the first time — many of those same parents would never dream of bringing a Ouija board into their home, let alone having their kids play with it. Millions of children are now having nightmares which may as well be ripped from the pages of Rowling’s works.

Innocence is a frail thing. Many parents who pride themselves as pro-family conservatives were among those who delighted in the new excitement and fervor for reading that their children seemed to have discovered. They eagerly rushed out to buy every single Harry Potter novel — after all, wasn’t it amazing how little Johnny and Susie seemed to be able to sail right through a 500-page novel? All the while your kids were being stuffed into an abyss of fear and darkness.

Then, even after the series had concluded, Rowling had to make headlines one more time by sticking it to all the parents who might have begun to realize that they had squandered their childrens’ innocence on a worthless heap of paper and ink. She announced that Dumbledore was, in fact, a gay man. She described his inner torment and repressed love for another male character referenced in the series.

Was there a reason to make this declaration? I say of course there was a reason. Dumbledore was one of the series’ most beloved characters. He was a grandfatherly figure who was always both the watchful father figure as well as the junkyard dog when the situation required it. Readers quickly came to see him as the protector of Harry Potter.

Now, with the series finished, Rowling decided it would be nice if she proclaimed Dumbledore’s homosexuality — not because it was essential to his character development or the plot (the series is finished, remember?). She couldn’t resist one final twist of the knife that is already embedded in the imagination of your kids’ minds forever.

Are your kids any better for having read the Harry Potter series? Are you that unimaginative that you couldn’t find anything wholesome and well-written for your kids to read? Witchcraft is evil. Those who seek to further it are evil. Those who would abuse the minds of children and seek to indoctrinate them in the ways of evil are the lowest form of life in existence — I consider Rowling to be in that category.

Filed by JP at 9:30 am under Rants, Opinions
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Politicians, take notice. The American people actually do care about freedom. The more you scoff and snicker at grass-roots movements in support of candidates who favor limited government and individual rights and liberties, the more you cause those people who didn’t care to take an interest.

So keep mocking Ron Paul. Keep belittling the middle class. Keep up your classless, ignorant, high-and-mighty antics. You are waking a sleeping dragon. Above all, we Americans value our Constitution. Every move you’ve made recently has been to undermine our rights and individual freedoms. You thought you had us right where you wanted us. You thought you could just buy us off with your bloated government programs, handouts and entitlement programs. You thought you were done with us. Well, we are done with you.

A peaceful revolution is taking hold across America. You’d better make other plans for your future because your days of aristocracy are over. The voters are beginning to remember who really holds the power in this country, and we are taking our Republic back.

We are tired of party-manufactured dogma, absence of intelligent debate, and utter disregard for the financial burden that the middle class of this country is being forced to bear. We are noticing how you are voting and how you are behaving. As you smugly dictate your agenda to us, we are fully aware and we will remember when it comes time to pull the lever.

Your earmarks disgust us. Your waste is repugnant. Your willfully indignant attitude toward our feedback and opinions is utterly reprehensible.

Don’t forget, you work for us. You will be getting your pink slip any day now.

Filed by JP at 11:24 am under Rants, Opinions, Government, Democracy
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I like to think that I am unaffected by these ridiculously early campaign stump speeches and straw polls, but sometimes I just can’t help but watch. Train wrecks and all that…

Over the Labor Day weekend, Hillary was wooing the union labor vote.

I find the liberal stance on border control (they want open borders) and illegal immigration (they want to ignore it) to be quite at odds with what union laborers generally want. Now, of course union laborers also want handouts from anywhere they can get them, but how does letting millions of illegals pour across the border help the typical blue-collar union laborer? Answer: it clearly does not. Millions of illegals taking jobs from lower middle class Americans undercuts the blue collar wages. Illegals also tend to be non-union workers. Unorganized labor doesn’t contribute dues to the labor unions.

I can’t say that I care about the survival of labor unions anyway. Unions are not about equality. Maybe they were at one time, but now they’re about selfishness and consumer exploitation. In a way, union labor is a microcosm of what’s happening with our federal government: power to the aristocracy and screws to you. Unions pay their dues like lemmings while policy is dictated to them from on high. The upper crust has little concern for the everyday plight of the middle class, or they would give unions the tough love they need to survive.

I just find it ironic that unions will back liberal candidates in elections, yet liberals have an agenda of empowering government — the most anti-union agenda one could have.

Filed by JP at 10:15 am under Rants, Opinions, Democracy
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I think he’s smart to actually put a platform out early on rather than sit around waiting for opinion polls to shape his platform. He is appealing to the base that Bush forgot. I’m not saying that I’m considering rejoining the ranks of the Republican party or anything, but as a social conservative it is important to me that someone is willing to stand for something.

See Rudy’s 12 Commitments .

Filed by JP at 4:28 pm under Ideas, Opinions, Government, Democracy
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In case you hadn’t already figured it out for yourself, American Idol has jumped the shark. They did it to themselves when they let the adorable little brown boy from Seattle into the field. They had a story — the boy and his impish sister — and they let the wrong sibling through.

Now Sanjaya isn’t even taking it seriously anymore. The seven ponytails for good luck and the schoolyard insults are just fuel for the fire as far as America is concerned.

Now the producers are stuck with a Sanjaya Summer Tour. This kid makes Justin Guarini sound like Andrea Bocelli.

Filed by JP at 11:09 am under Opinions, Television
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I can (and plan to) shovel my guilt to the sidewalk with the rest of the trash now that I have been pardoned.

Actually, I think Dr. Williams is a pretty smart old codger with plenty of wisdom to boot. Here’s his official GMU faculty page.

Filed by JP at 2:55 pm under Opinions, Humor
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I’m guessing my multi-part series on the banality and and ineffectiveness of middle management will go on for awhile, so I’d like to keep from piling on all at once. I’ll attempt to keep my comments focused on a few key points in each of the posts of this series.

For now, back to the show…

Remember the movie Jerry Maguire? Remember when he wrote that memo called “The Things We Think and Do Not Say”? Well I want to write a memo to middle managers everywhere. I think I’m going to call it “The Things You Say that Nobody Really Believes”.

There’s a new project coming, and I think you’re really gonna like it!
Middle managers are usually dismally deficient when it comes to the ability to inspire. Chances are if this project is going to be managed in much the same way as the project I’m currently working on, my top priority is going to be contemplating new and exciting ways to kill myself.

We have great opportunities for advancement here
Oh really? Do you mean it? Someday I may actually get to be just like you?

This company has an open-door policy
Is that supposed to be a perk? Let’s be honest. Do any of you really feel comfortable with the idea of going over your manager’s head to gripe to his superior? When has that ever ended well for anyone?

I don’t want to sound cliché, but…
Then you should probably just stop talking right now.

Of course there are worse things about middle management than their pathetic attempts at inspiration, but the point still should be made that people — normal people who actually do the work — respond to leadership by example, not a social class of professional elites incapable of drawing their own conclusions or formulating ideas of their own.

Filed by JP at 9:20 am under Opinions, Business
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I’m about to commit a mortal sin. Usually I hate lists, but the following is actually the result of a great deal of internal wrangling and soul-searching.

My top ten movies of all time (obviously limited to movies I’ve seen):

1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Money Train
3. The Goonies
4. Gattaca
5. Gladiator
6. Victory
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Rocky IV
9. Twelve Monkeys
10. Can’t Buy Me Love

Okay, maybe I didn’t really toil over it, but these were the movies that came to my mind first; so they must have made quite an impression on me.

Filed by JP at 11:47 pm under Opinions, Movies
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I found a fascinating article today in the New York Times entitled “Big Oil Find Is Reported Deep in Gulf” that initially made me smile. It was a report about a huge oil find deep underneath the Gulf of Mexico.

Chevron, Devon Energy and Statoil ASA, the Norwegian oil giant, reported that they had found 3 billion to 15 billion barrels in several fields 175 miles offshore, 30,000 feet below the gulf’s surface, among formations of rock and salt hundreds of feet thick.

Naturally, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this will eventually just be used as another card in the deck for the oil market manipulators. Once those oil rigs go online, the oil market will be that much more “sensitive” to inclement weather in the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course it’s all puppeteering and scare tactics anyway since the oil companies have a “can’t lose” scenario. By not investing in refining and production infrastructure, they can claim lack of capacity and manipulate prices as such when anything bad happens. They also save that investment capital for themselves, and happily add it to their already record profits. How many businesses in the world can you think of that actually profit from ignoring consumers and from not reinvesting in infrastructure? Only one that I know of.

Filed by JP at 8:47 am under Rants, News Clippings, Opinions, Business
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