WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES

Earlier today I purchased a copy of The Birmingham News while waiting for my meal at IHOP. The following “above the fold” headline in the Local section caught my attention. “Wi-Fi program touted as model.” Cutting to the chase, this is a federally funded program to put free Wi-Fi in four Birmingham housing projects. The cost of the program is a mere $500,000.


The worth or worthlessness of the program is not at issue here. Whether the people who live in a housing project deserve free Wi-Fi any more than I do in my modest abode is also not the issue. The one overriding issue of this blog is that we are broke. The federal government does not have any extra, or for that matter sufficient, funds to operate without substantial borrowing.

To put this on a more personal basis; let's assume that last year you spent $100,000 but earned only $60,000. And this year it looks about the same so you are planning to install Wi-Fi in your house. You justify it by saying that it will help you find a better job or learn more about the world and your kids do their homework. But you don't have the money. Is this something you would do?

Recall that this program is a “model” program. That means that the federal government, though borrowing your kids' and grand kids' money from China, is considering putting in free Wi-Fi in many more housing projects.

In the same paper there is a column by E.J. Dionne who says that we are not broke. To bolster his argument he points out that we are able to borrow money at historically low rates. Well, Mr. Dionne if we have to borrow money to operate we are broke. At least in my part of the country when you are borrowing money to live on you are by definition broke. It is foolish people like you who contribute to the overall ignorance of our population about the seriousness of our monetary problems.

But you liberals can be happy that four housing projects will be getting free Wi-Fi. Not free of course, but free to them. How you destroy this nation's future for projects like this and cowboy poets is beyond my ability to comprehend.

Through The Looking Glass Again

We live in a country where vile and obscene signs can be displayed to cause further harm to those who have lost loved ones in a war. It is so because of our love of freedom of speech. We live in a country where the 10 Commandments are pulled from the lockers of high school students. We do this because our desire to keep any form of Christianity from our children is greater than our love for free speech.

We live in a country that sends a large portion of its treasures every month to people who would like to destroy us. We do this in order to prevent any possible contamination of our own soil. We actively prevent our own quite competent companies from drilling. We fail to create the thousands of jobs and keep billions of dollars in our own nation. No other nation on earth is so foolish.

Someone recently told me that they would like for us to keep our oil. For what? We have enough oil and gas to run this country for several hundred years. Two hundred years ago there were no cars or trucks. The idea that we will not have alternative energy in the next several hundred years is plain silly.

The United States is in self destructive mode. We are systematically destroying this nation by policies that seem to have that intent. The value of the dollar will soon be the value of the country formerly known as Rhodesia. Each time the government prints more money, the money you have becomes less valuable. They are stealing your wealth.

We have a Congress that talks about reducing spending. They talk, and talk and talk. We have a political party that seems quite content to spend this nation into oblivion and another one that is impotent. We have a President who refuses to name our enemy while attacking the TEA Party as racist.

Our nation is upside down and inside out. We are driving off a cliff and slowing down is not an option. If we don't stop, we will die as a nation. On the positive side, this should slow down the illegal immigration problem.

And Behind Door Number Three

Just when you think the federal government cannot dream up another way to waste your money, and that of your children and grandchildren, they do.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is here.  A government without money steps forward to invest in something most people care little about.  Yes, behind door number three is HIGH SPEED RAIL.

The federal government will borrow more money to have high speed rail cars made in . . . wait for it . . . some country OTHER than the United States.  We don't make them here.  Why not?  Well for one thing we don't use them.  Amtrack loses a fortune every year.  Why?  People don't take the train very often.  High speed or not there are few places in this country where rail travel makes much sense. 

For all of you hope and changers out there, let's hope somebody with the intelligence of at least a common laborer will change our federal government.  What is so hard about this concept?  We are broke.  We cannot start new and wasteful programs.  We must cut spending.  Cut spending, not waste money we don't have on a project we don't want.   

Muslim Brotherhood Mostly Secular

Our federal government is at it again.  The same government that wants to run your health care, tell you what to eat and control most every aspect of your life has stepped up to the plate (this would be baseball not supper) once again.  Yes, they have advised that the Muslim Brotherhood is primarily a secular organization.

So I'm on the phone with BJ, owner of Bubba's Bait Boats and Wrecks, and we are discussing the Muslim Brotherhood.  All in all I must say that I agree with BJ.  BJ thinks the federal government could not differentiate between a hole in the ground and a certain portion of their anatomy.  I believe him to be correct.

Calling the Muslim Brotherhood secular is like calling the Southern Baptist Association secular.  The Muslim Brotherhood chose their name back in the 1920s.  They didn't decide to call themselves the Middle Eastern Brotherhood or the We Love Freedom Brotherhood. 

Old Southern boys often can spot bullcrap when we see it.  Something is smelling in Washington right now and its not Michelle's perfume.  So when you hear someone say the Muslim Brotherhood is really just a group of good old boys who just want what is best for the Middle East; hold your nose cause you are being fed a line of crap.  Unfortunately that is mostly what we get from the Federal Government.  It is a shame we have neither the will nor the inclination to change it.  

FEDS KILLING THE FUTURE

Once again, in their seemingly unstoppable effort to destroy the United States, your federal government has found another way to spend money they don't have.  This time they are going to be bailing out states.  Yes, states that have not been able to stay within their budget will be bailed out by a debtor federal government that steals your money by printing more of it.  Great system isn't it?

Take a close look at the states most in need of a bail out (or just fiscal sanity) and you might find they are primarily run by liberals who never saw a program they didn't fund.  When times were good they spent and spent and spent.  Now that times are bad they spend and spend and spend.  The result?  They don't have any money.  Yeah, surprised me too.

It is not all the fault of looney politicians.  Much of the problem is caused by an electorate unwilling to demand fiscal sanity from elected officials.  Maybe it is not too late.  Call your Representative and Senators.  Tell them to quit spending money they don't have and for goodness sake don't enable states to continue overspending. 

Paying More For Gas? Thank Your Federal Government

Dear Congressman and Senators;

Just a note to remind you that the escalating price of oil will negatively impact your constituents greater to a power of ten thanks to the Federal Government. If we were drilling for oil off shore and in Alaska as any sane people would do, the impact would be less.

If the Federal Government actually wanted to make this country energy self-sufficient it could be done. Instead of pie in the sky solar and electric cars we could switch to natural gas. We have it in abundance. It is cleaner than what we are using now. But, that's just people who actually care about our country. Ever heard of T. Boone Pickens?

In the future, as historians study the fall of the United States, one of their questions will have to be what makes a nation so powerful fall so fast that it would not even develop its own resources and instead send money to people who wished to destroy them.

Think unemployment is bad now? Wait until gasoline is $10 a gallon. One final note: we borrowed 4 billion dollars today. What did you do to keep that from happening?

Dear Congressman and Senators

I am writing this with as much civility as possible considering that you are in the group of people who make my life more difficult on a daily basis. This exercise, which is of course just an exercise, since you are fast becoming as obsolete as this retired person has become. As someone says too often, let me be clear, I do not suggest that you individually are making my life more difficult. I do humbly suggest that you are either unable or unwilling to take the steps needed to improve the situation.

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you has morphed into I'm from the government and if I haven't screwed up your life yet, it is not for lack of trying. A few examples: We pay too much for gasoline because our government prevents oil drilling offshore and in Alaska. The lunacy of this position seems so clear that explaining it is merely a waste of our time. While you were not looking the EPA has made it more difficult and expensive to mine for coal, note West Virginia.

In its continuing efforts to control everything the government is taking over the Internet. Oh, I haven't even mentioned health care. Almost everything we were told about the health care bill has proven to be a lie. Costs are going up. Hospitals are going away. Medicare is not fixed. It goes on and on. Repealing the health care bill is not possible the pundits say. The pundits said it was not possible to extract our country from the most powerful nation on earth at the time. They were wrong then. If only I were writing this to people who care more about their country than their elected position.

While you were being lectured on civility, the Homeland Security Administration decided to leave a billion dollars down the sewer and canceled the virtual fence. Old country boys knew this was likely crap in the beginning, and now it has proven to be so. Here's a thought. Build a fence. A real fence. One that is difficult to cross. I know it would be expensive, but protecting our borders is actually a real duty of the federal government, not like most of the things you do.

Maybe you could lay off some of those people who spend their lives writing regulations for ill conceived laws you couldn't stop and no one ever read. If you don't stop this administration and the rest of the power hungry people in DC you will be leaving your children and grandchildren a poor excuse for a country.

The message is simple. If you don't have to do it, don't. The federal government is not our mother. Every time you protect us from something you also take away one of our rights and responsibilities. From the Internet to the food we eat: get out of our lives. Do what is allowed and required. Do nothing else.