Letter to my congressman

Thank you for responding to my email. I was pleasantly surprised, but I am disheartened by your response.  You are right, government is the problem, but it is not the solution.  Two trillion over 10 years is simply a miniscule reduction in the growth of government. Privatization of government services must become the focus and de-funding of nonessential enterprises the method. Spending controls and fraud prevention, as in any government program, is an oxymoron. A balanced budget amendment is too easily circumvented and hardly worth the paper it is written on (i.e. congress's and the president's willingness to disregard the constitution).

What I wanted to hear was how your efforts were going to develop support for divesting the government of unaffordable departments and programs; what your efforts were for reviewing and reducing the government regulations that are destroying private enterprise; and how you are actively engaged in an effort to term-limit all politicians and sunset all legislation with a 2/3 vote for reinstatement of both the politician and legislation.  

This country is bankrupt in money and, unfortunately, in leadership. I was hoping the Wyoming delegation would be outside of the norm and not let business as usual or the too often used mantra "you don't understand the political process" be the justification for continuing the erosion of liberty, the destruction of freedom, and the replacement of the capitalistic system with a socialist one.

Instead of the Ad council being used to fund antagonistic and counter cultural announcements, it should be used to inform the populace of civic duties and financial responsibilities. If the money is to be spent at all, it should be used to raise our standards of behavior not lower them.

Our country is being lost because too many of its politicians are too often unwilling to make the tough decisions and because too many of its politicans are anxious to vote for the expedient measure rather than deliberate the long-term consequences. 

Please allow me to encourage you to do the right thing for the majority of the people rather than sacrifice the many for the few. I don't believe anything can be done well by the broad brush of the federal government. I do believe that we can restore America but only through the collective agency and work of the people at the individual, community, and county level.  The states should be willing to cooperate rather than bicker and feud. The federal responsibility should not be at the local or especially the private level.

Individual income taxes should be replaced with a consumption tax which is collected by the states and each state would then pay its federal assessment to fund the federal budget which then is based not on the projected income, but on the actual receipts and zero-based budgeting.

Please allow me to encourage you to sponsor legislation which promotes America's abundant resource development and makes it possible for manufacturing to return to our soil and for our independent farmers and small business people to succeed.

Divestiture rather than collectivization of business; individual accountability rather than social classification of our citizens; responsible development as opposed to sequestration of our resources; and shared risk with consequential litigation limiting the awards to context specific criteria. Pay the right amount for the actual damages.

Please allow me to encourage you to defend the conservative point of view and to actively pursue the practical legislation which promotes it.

Thank you for your commitment to the citizens of Wyoming and for your time on our behalf.

angry birds revisited

Today's conventional wisdom is that we can launch an idea toward a perceived problem or futuristic outlook and think that it is relevant.  For example, I read a recent article about the demise of the Dollar as the reserve currency.  In 25 years...  That is like loading an idea up in a sling shot and launching it toward a perceived situation and expecting that at the end of the journey the idea will be unaffected by time and distance and that the structure has somehow not changed.

Everything changes and the simple fact of addressing it causes changes.  Instead of pontificating about the outcome which is worthless it would be much better to put forward a strategy toward some desirable end.

For example the world needs a reserve currency and that currency needs to be as stable as it can be.  Stability comes from discipline which is achieved through responsibility.  A second aspect is that the reserve currency status is not delegated but earned. It is achieved by being the predominant economy.  Economic vitality presumes risk and risk is associated with instability. Instability can only be countered by integrity and responsibility.

Integrity can be taught, modeled and promoted. Responsibility can be monitored and measured. It is the standards of responsibility that must be discussed. It is the duty of the purveyors of conventional wisdom to maintain the standards of responsibility.

Angry Bird Mentality

The recent smart phone game to go viral is called "Angry Birds".  Little did the authors and developers know but they actually created a metaphor for our current mentality.  In angry birds a structure exist which houses some green pigs that have supposedly stolen the birds eggs.  Angry birds are then sling shot toward the structure with the intent of destroying the structure and killing the pigs resulting in a fictitious score and utter destruction of the structure, the pigs, and the birds.

The current mentality is that capitalism, the green pigs, have stolen the riches of the world, constructed an edifice unto themselves and therefore must be destroyed by catapulting constituent groups of angry citizens into the structure to break down the environmentally damaging structure and destroy the capitalists within while accumulating points which presumably means that the person shooting the birds can now post his name as score leader.

The metaphor doesn't stop there.  Once the destruction is complete, the game will reset or advances to the next level epitomizing the current mentality which assumes that life is a game and that it will reset itself with no lasting damage.  Society can be destroyed, the pigs of the world vanquished and all will be well at the next level.  Only it is the same scenario with more pigs, bigger structures, improved defenses which proves more difficult to destroy.

I have a suggestion to improve the metaphor and that would be to eventually turn each pig red and house them in an practically indestructible grass shack adjacent to the diminishing capitalist structures. Eventually all of the pigs are turned red, the capitalists no longer want to steal the wealth or build environmentally destructive structures, the world is at peace and the birds are no longer angry and the game comes to an end. RIP

Self-absorbed

It has occurred to me that the political climate, we find ourselves in today, was inevitable. The standards of good and right are always contested by the proponents of selfishness and laziness.  The experience and wisdom of sacrifice and hard work by the ambitious are wasted on the philosophies advocated by the self-absorbed. The willingness of the meek will always be met by the greed of the malcontent.   And the apathy of the many contributes to the strength of minority.

Consequently we find too many of the future generation: increasingly ignorant of their history; illiterate, stupid, and uninformed; deeply in debt and lacking the resolve and education to do what is necessary to make things better.

The world doesn't have to be plundered or wasted and the people don't have to be starved or abused but the  greedy and powerful won't exercise self-restraint and the poor and powerless won't exercise self-control.

Metamorphic layer

Either I don't understand the metamorphic process or the process is different than explained.  How does a layer of metamorphic rock exist between two layers of sedimentary deposits?

I suppose that the layer is lime stone which is a precepitate while the upper and lower sedimentary layers are erosion deposits. Which could mean that the lime was deposited while the world was dry or cold and the ocean was very stable and possibly very deep resulting in the hard lens.

Conservative Libertarian

Which means that I believe in a society setting minimum rules of behavior and enforcing them with a limited government, paying for it by fees and fines.  Everything has a value and the consequences of infringing upon the liberty of others will require restitution and resolve.

Current Events

May 3, 2011 One has to wonder where all of this is headed. My initial feels are that we are in for some really bad times, economic, political, social, and even religious. However, I am impressed by the history of this country and the resiliency of people. There are a quite a few who think someone should take care of them. there are some who will try to profit at the expense of others and the vast majority will do what is necessary to work it out. It is those people that constantly outwit the pundits and cause the outcome to be different than the conventional wisdom proponents suggest.

I am inclined to think that there are some signs of positive things happening which will rescue this country from those who wish to destroy it. The question is, will we learn a lesson from the up coming economic meltdown and start to live within our means or will we, as they say 'kick the can down the road'.