Voting for Change???

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But it is broke. Let's change congress!

THIS PUTS THE FACTS ON THE TABLE! I AM TIRED OF OUR PRESIDENT, GEORGE BUSH, TAKING THE FALL FOR OUR ECONOMY.

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six of those years, the economy was fine. A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high

2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon

3) the unemployment rate was 4.5% - about the lowest on record

4) the DOW JONES hit a record high - $14,164 (on 9/9/07)

5) American's were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacationing overseas, living large...

But American's wanted 'CHANGE!' So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yep...we got 'CHANGE' all right. Since that fateful day:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted

2) Gasoline is now around $4 a gallon

3) Unemployment is up to over 5% (a 10% increase)

4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS and prices are still dropping5) over 2 million American homes are in, or near, foreclosure

6) as I write, THE DOW is probing an other low - $11,215 (7/2/08) - $2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

Yep , in 2006 Americans VOTED FOR CHANGE!...AND WE SURE AS HELL GOT IT!!! Now Barak Obama, the Dem's candidate for President--claims he's gonna REALLY GIVE US 'CHANGE!'

JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?

HEADLINE: 600 Illegals Detained in Mississippi.

Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist".

Liberals whine when the government enfores its immigration laws. But this is a nation of laws - and cannot stand without them. Right now, immigration laws say illegals need to be deported. If people do not like the laws, change them. But no one has any right to break them, nor ignore them. What if your neighbor, angry with you, decides he does not agree with laws that prevent murder? Or the pervert down the street decides he does not agree with laws that make it a crime to molest your kids?

People need to get a grip. The law is the law. It is not meant to be painless. It is meant to be OBEYED.

Guess Who?

36 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and
84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is? Give up yet? It's the 435 members of the United States Congress! Believe it or not.

Why do we let these people keep representing us? We all know they are bilking us, and not getting anything done. This November, do yourselves and the country a favor - vote against every single incumbent. Put all new people in office. How will that help?

First, by "firing" all those Senators and Representatives, many of whom have been solidly entrenched for decades, you will be sending a very clear message to ALL politicians - if you don't do the job, and do it right, you'll be looking for a new job, pronto!

Second, the new politicians you elect will hear that same message, and will be more apt to pay attention to "We, the People".

We have the worst Congress in history. But it is not all their fault. It is ours - we keep re-electing those clowns! It's time for a change - a change in representation. A change in Congress.

Regardless of party, whoever the incumbent is, vote for the other person. It's the best thing you can do for your country. It's the only way to take back control.

Crash Course in Economics

I find it amazing how few people actually understand the basic tenets of economics. We live in an economic, capitalistic society, yet fully 70+ percent of all Americans know nothing about it. But they THINK they do, and that is what keeps them at the bottom of the heap. We tend to build our lives on "foundations" known as "beliefs". If our beliefs are faulty, our lives will not be sound or stable, just as a house with a faulty foundation is threatened by collapse.

And most people have faulty beliefs when it comes to money and finance.

This becomes apparent when you hear liberals saying we should raise taxes on the rich. Either they do not understand economics, or they do understand, but hope that we do not. Either way, it is dangerous, and built upon faulty beliefs.

Let me be clear, if I may. You may not believe the following (at least not right away), but for your own sake, I hope you will at least keep an open mind, and chaw on it a bit.

1. 
   EVERY dollar paid in taxes is paid by the poor. No exceptions. I'll explain in a moment.
2. Only 4% of all Americans can achieve full financial freedom.
3. No matter how many people graduate college, there are just so many positions available at the top.
4. There is no such thing as "middle class", and there never was.

Don't believe me?

MIDDLE CLASS: There are only three types of financial condition - wealthy, poor, or in a holding area on your way to one or the other. You may call this holding area "middle class", but that would assume that it is not in a state of flux. The rich are rich. The poor are poor. No flux. But the so-called "middle class" is not stagnant. The people there are in the process of working toward one, or falling into the other. It is always in a state of flux. So it is not a "class". Like Purgatory - it ain't Heaven, and it ain't Hell. It's a proving ground for one or the other.

COLLEGE: No matter what the country; no matter what period in history; no matter how much we might want to change it; the majority of people must be at the bottom. As you move toward the top, fewer and fewer people will be found. It is like a pyramid - the few at the top, the many at the bottom, and those in flux in the middle. Can you visualize that pyramid? So, if there are 10 positions at or near the top for every 200 people graduating from college, 190 of those grads are going to be sorely disappointed. Don't think so?

In the 40's, very few people went to college. All they needed was a two year associates degree to vie for the top jobs. So, every parent wanted THEIR kid to go to college so they could get the good jobs. The number of good jobs did not increase, but the number of college grads did. So, employers started choosing only those who got a 4 year Bachelor's degree. So, everyone stated going for the Bachelor's degree. So now employers again had to weed them out by requiring a Master's Degree for top jobs. Then PhD's. Because there are just so many positions at the top.

4%: Throughout history, only 4% of all people ever get to the top, to the point of complete financial security. This is the amount of room that is at the top. It does not change. And believe it or not, our schools and universities are geared to that, because nothing else works. If you have more than 4% at the top, there will not be enough folks below that to hold them up. Ever see cheerleaders in a standing pyramid? It takes two to hold up the top one. It takes three to hold up the two, and it takes four to hold up the three. Altogether it takes 9 to hold up the top one. What would happen if one of the girls in the middle or the bottom joined the girl at the top? The whole thing would collapse.

4% is all that can make it to the top without jeopardizing the entire economy.

I am hoping you are still following me. It's a tough concept, but once you begin to grasp it, everything gets incredibly clear. And then you increase you chances of inching closer to the top - and farther from the bottom!

All things trickle down. The rich guy pays the employee. The employee pays his gardener. The gardener pays for his groceries. Now, liberals want us to believe that everything flows UP. Give the poor more welfare, more money, and it will get spent and flow up to the rich guy. Sounds good, I know. But it is phony. Want proof?

When was the last time you asked a poor person for a job? Or, the money that liberals give to the poor - where do you think it came from? Certainly not the poor! The reality is that everything flows up AND down, but it starts by flowing down. If it does not go down, there is nothing for the folks to spend, so it cannot get back up to the rich. Again, when did you ever get a paycheck from a poor person?

But if money flows down, why aren't the poor getting richer? That's simple - look back to that pyramid. If the rich guys puts $100 into the pipeline, by the time it filters down to the masses at the bottom, each will only have a dime. You are splitting up $100 among 1000 people - it's the pyramid again. The $100 in the hands of one person represents certain wealth, but distributed among 1000 people, it represents poverty. And that is why the poor stay poor. As Jesus said, the poor will always be with us. They have to be. They are the base that holds up the pyramid.

OK, so we are almost there. Let's see how and why the poor pay EVERY dollar of tax, and the rest of us pay none. Really!

Let's assume Poor Guy eats Ramen soup, because it's all he can afford. Liberals get elected by promising the poor that they will tax the rich, and use the money to help the poor. Since there are more poor people than rich people, they get voted in. So now they tax the Rich Guy an extra 10%. Sounds good, huh?

But look closely. Every expense a person has is a COB (cost of business), or COL (cost of living). And whenever we create and sell a product or service, those costs are factored into the price. They have to be, because Uncle Sam does not allow us to print our own money - only the government can do that.

So, you increase Rich Guy's tax by 10%. He deals with this as with any expense - he adds it to the cost of his products and services. The folks who buy those products and services are, therefore, paying his taxes for him. And so the Rich Guy who makes Ramen increases the cost of the Ramen that the poor guy has to eat. And the poor guy is now paying the taxes of the rich guy by way of higher prices on the Ramen.

Did I just hear some wiseguy say, "I pay taxes, but I am just a guy working for someone else. I can't pass my taxes off on the poor. I gotta pay my own." Nope! You don't. Your taxes are one of your costs of living. As your costs of living go up, you demand a cost of living raise, which covers those costs (including taxes - where else will you get the money to pay them - you ain't got no money tree, Bubba). So, in truth your taxes are paid by your employer, who must now increase the costs of his products/services in order to cover your raise, because he ain't got no money tree, either. And the folks who buy those things end up paying your taxes.

No matter who you are or what you do, if you "pay" taxes, ultimately those costs gets filtered down and passed to the poor. They are the only ones who are not in any position to pass them on, because there is no one below them.

The short of it: when a whale craps in the ocean, it falls to the bottom of the sea. So, any and every tax is paid by the poor. Increasing the tax on the rich - or anyone else - results in the poor getting poorer.

Taxing the rich, then, is not the solution - it's part of the problem. So what, then, can we do to make things better?

That's easy - you reduce the burden on the poor by reducing taxes. And you reduce taxes by requiring our legislators to spend our tax money more wisely. You require they give up ALL "pork barrel" spending. You require, with your votes, that they monitor costs - no more paying $1500 for a toilet seat. You require that the government, like yourself, should live within its means.

There are two ways to accomplish this - one is temporary, the other is permanent.

The temporary method is to "fire" every single legislator in office, regardless of party by voting for the opposing candidate. This sends a clear message to all other politicians and aspirants - do the job, and do it right, or dust off your resume and go back to working for a living! Start with the coming election - vote against every incumbent, to stir things up and send a very clear message. Say, "Work for me and not yourself, or look for another job". The current legislators have not been doing the job, and every one of us knows it.

Voting out EVERY incumbent is the only way to take back control of the government.

The permanent solution can and should be accomplished by first using the previous temporary method, then tell every new legislator that if they want to serve a second term, they had better vote in the "Fair Tax" (look it up, and learn more about it at www.fairtax.org). This places a lower burden on everyone, provides adequate revenue for the government, and places the power and authority to raise or lower it to the people. The legislators would no longer have that power.

And it reduces the burden on the poor - they will still be poor, but not as poor as they are now. And why is that important (other than being the moral high ground)? Because everything flows up AND down. The more money the poor have, the more they can spend, and funnel back up into the economy. And you, my friend, cannot get your hands on money that is not moving. The Fair Tax moves more money through the system, faster and easier.

If you seriously want to move upward in the pyramid, and if you want America to become stronger and financially stable, think about these things. Then get the changes made at the voting booth. Because that is where "real change" occurs. Is starts with YOU, not the politicians who seek only to empower themselves.

Win Or Lose

This morning over coffee at the local donut shoppe I got into a discussion with an atheist. After listening to his rhetoric about religion being a heathen rite, and that no sane, intelligent person would believe in God, I just had to speak up.

I first told him that, as a rule, believing in a greater power was a sign of intellect, and I proceeded to explain why. But the real blow to him came when I made one final statement:

"If there is no God, neither of us loses anything because of our beliefs. But if there is a God, I win, and you lose. There is no possible way an atheist can win - the best he can hope for is to not lose. And there is no possible way a believer can lose - the worst that could happen is that he does not win. Given a choice between a 50% chance of winning or a 100% chance of not winning, most intelligent, sane people would opt for the chance of winning."

Poor fellow choked on his donut and left without saying another word.

It is such a great feeling to know you simply cannot lose. And I feel pity for that fellow who simply cannot win, because he lives in a world that has no hope.

I turned to the man next to me, and showed him my thumb - how complex it was, and what it helps us to accomplish. I said, "Billions of independent cells act together to make me what I am, and work together flawlessly. Toss in instincts, emotions, intelligence and everything that makes us who we are and I cannot fathom that such a thing could happen by accident."

It rained in the afternoon, and one of the brightest rainbows I have ever seen hung in the sky. And I felt comfortable in my beliefs.

Simple Solution to Major Concern

For several years there has been a growing controversy over "gay marriage." I do not understand why, because there is such a simple solution.

The controversy arises when the needs of some people are diametrically opposed to the moral values of others. Gays need the same protections and rights as heterosexuals, but heterosexuals often do not want to accept the gay lifestyle because of religious, moral reasons.

The problem was created because the government broke the law - violated the First Amendment. Marriage always has been a religious rite. The state and federal governments, in violation of the First Amendment, co-opted and took over control of marriage, making it something that had to be sanctioned by the state, rather than God. "Separation of church and state" was ignored. This resulted in a religious rite, meant for followers of the church, to become a state institution.

The solution, then, is to separate the two in a just and fair manner - to allow gays to fulfill their needs without infringing on the personal moral values of others.

Currently, marriage is not just a state-sanctioned ceremony - it is also a religious rite. One that is often abused, even by heterosexuals.

PROPOSAL: All couples, regardless of gender, would have the right to enter into a civil union, sanctioned and regognized by state and federal government, with all the same rights currently attributable to marriage. These would be CIVIL UNIONS, regardless of gender, and would be the state-sponsored "norm" for all couples - even heterosexual couples.

Marriage, on the other hand, would be a separate RELIGIOUS rite, as it was designed to be, to be entered into as an option by religious people, to be performed only in a church, and only by an ordained person of the cloth. At least one member of the couple must actually belong to the church in which they are to be married, to maintain the sanctity of the marriage rite. Marriage would not create any new rights or priviledges not already given in Civil Unions.

Therefore, any couple who can pass muster with their church may be married in that church, regardless of sex. Church tenets that do not allow gay marriage would not perform any. Those religions that do not have a problem with gay marriage would perform gay ceremonies.

The end result: gay couples will have the same rights, responsibilities and protections as heterosexuals, granted equally to all by the state and federal governments. Those whose religion objects to the gay lifestyle would not be sanctioning or supporting gay unions - their church makes that call.

In this way, marriage would retain its religious sanctity and those with moral objections need not be concerned. And gays would have the same status as heterosexuals, from a legal standpoint.

If we remove the state from marriage (which should never have co-opted it in the first place, as that is a breach of separation of church and state), the problem is no longer real.

All couples wishing to unite would enter a civil union, for legal standing as a couple. Those whose religion and moral structure requires union in the eyes of God would ALSO marry, in a church, by an ordained person of the cloth (both rites can be performed simultaneously).

If gays believe themselves to be otherwise moral and have a need to unite in the eyes of God, they need only find a religion that agrees with them that the gay lifestyle is not an abomination in the eyes of God.

And, if no such church can be found, perhaps it is time for them to create one.

For here is a little understood fact: religious tenets are not meant to be molded to people. It is people who are supposed to be molded by religious tenets. Therefore, if a church uses a Bible that includes the belief that homosexuality is a sin, then that church should never be allowed to support the gay lifestyle. God's word is not for us to change.

So if gays need a church of their own, they need to found one that is based on a Bible that states something to the effect that while God may see the lifestyle as an abomination, he also sees gays as His children, and does not love them any less, and can bless their unions in spite of their faults.

After all, NONE of us are without sin, are we? So when you come right down to it, and using the "logic" that gays cannot marry because they are sinners, none of us should be allowed to marry, for we all come up short in the eyes of God.

While separating marriage from the state is the best solution considering the nature of Mankind, in a perfect world the simplest and best solution would be to let all adult couples marry, and let God decide who He will condemn, if anyone.

If you are not a moral person, you should not care who marries whom. And if you are a moral person, you would do well to remember "Judge not, lest ye be judged".

'Nuff said!