TEA Parties: President's Opinion ... Scary

The media and leading Democrats have been trying to define or dismiss the TEA Parties held across the nation on April 15th. They all pretty much don't understand and, worse, don't WANT to understand why we did what we did. I expected the response we got from 'the media', Pelosi and others on the left but I didn't expect what our President said.

In a town hall meeting this week President Obama dismissed the TEA Parties as insignificant and basically insulted the participants. He showed disdain for us by describing us as a bunch of "tea bag waving" conservatives and said he'd rather have an "intelligent conversation" about the issues. Obviously, a country-wide protest demonstrates the protesters' lack of intelligence ... unless it's a demonstration for liberal issues which, by definition, are intelligent and patriotic. As he was talking he was snickering(!) disdainfully at what we had done. Oh good. An insulting and dismissive attitude by the President toward people peacefully exercising their constitutional right to protest something we want government to do differently. That's leadership we can appreciate huh? Disrespecting us is a good way to help unify the country as he promised to do, right?

All the people at our TEA Party here in Roseburg, OR seemed like ordinary Americans to me. Many were retired and a significant number were veterans. The Commander in Chief disrespecting veterans? Disrespecting ordinary Americans exercising their constitutional rights and practicing principles behind a government of the people? Interesting response by someone who promised to represent all the people.

It was scary enough when the head of national security recently warned law enforcement across the country to watch out for conservatives, people with conservative bumper-stickers and veterans as potential national security risks. To have the President disrespect and be dismissive of those same people too is a serious matter that shouldn't be taken lightly. I'm a Viet Nam era vet and a conservative. Also, I participated in our local TEA Party. Should I be concerned what our government might make of that? Hmmmm.

Matt and Heather News 04/30/09

Our son, Matt, and his wonderful wife, Heather, are having one of those periods in a marriage that becomes extraordinarily memorable. Karen and I are having fun watching them having fun with it.

Last week their home purchase offer was accepted. It's their first home so it's quite exciting. Closing happens in about three weeks but the inspection is done and didn't uncover anything they're worried about. One's first home is a pretty big deal and they're certainly enjoying this.

Then three days ago Heather completed the last class required for her Master's degree. Graduation is May 9th. We're so proud of her.

Lots to celebrate in the NorIda Olds household. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Johnny Cash, their Boston Terrier, celebrated with a hearty meal of energy & protein powder mix that he discovered. (That was probably interesting because he's an energetic fellow without getting 'juiced'.)

God Bless Them in this and all their future adventures together!

There They Go With Gross Distortions Again!

There was a guest column in the Oregonian Tuesday in which the author was indulging in the political left's favorite pasttime ... twisting facts and statistics in a familiar and transparently partisan attempt to leave readers believing Bush did something bad when he didn't. The author reported that education spending decreased 8.9% during Bush's last four years, which is true but intentionally misleading. The decrease happened during Bush's last two years and the other SIX years he increased it by =>record<= amounts. We don't want to talk about Bush doing more for education than any other president because that doesn't fit the left's template for the Bush years ... that he lied and failed. Here's what the author didn't report based on the Department of Education's own statistics.

Federal K-12 spending actually increased from $38.4 billion in 2000 to $68.6 billion Bush's last year in office which is about a 50% INcrease, adjusted for inflation. No other president has ever come close to that kind of accomplishment. The ONLY decreases on Bush's watch were during his last two years when Democrats controlled the Senate and House and therefore had the power to increase it if they wanted to!

I'll bet that most readers will also be surprised to know that education spending increased from $32.2 billion to only $38.4 billion during Clinton's eight years, which is an inflation-adjusted DEcrease of about 3%. Which president actually deserves criticism? Which deserves credit for, in fact, record education spending?

President Obama recently used the exact same statistical distortion as a basis on which to claim he'll rebuild education spending that Bush broke. Obviously, Bush didn't break it but, in fact, did far better than any other president since the Department of Education was created. President Obama may have his hands full just trying to do as well as Bush.

TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party - Roseburg OR 04/15/09

Isn't America great? These are freedom-loving, average, every day Americans exercising their Constitutional right to peacefully assemble and speak their minds about government actions with which they disagree.

Speaker Pelosi said(!) she thinks rich elitists are behind this and many on the left think this is Fox Broadcasting's doing. Fact is, it's about as grass-roots as it gets. In fact, many Democrats participated out of concern for excessive government control and spending. Mostly however, comments and reactions by critics attest to their disdain for (and fear of?) conservatives in our country who comprise a very large minority.

Homeland Security Chief Napolitano has even alerted law enforcement officials across the country to keep an eye on us and on other 'radicals' who are potential domestic terrorist threats such as people with conservative bumper stickers and military veterans. It's ironic that veterans are on their watch list since we served to protect them and their beliefs.

While insincere (and fake because they don't believe them) apologies are forthcoming about their reactions to the TEA Parties and conservative activities, we must understand that their initial words and actions illustrate their TRUE feelings and inclinations toward these beliefs and activities. They've always vociferously protected and claimed protection for people peacefully expressing views they agree with so what they're doing is at least hypocritical and unfair. It also flies in the face of Constitutional principles AND protections for ALL Americans, including conservatives.

There's something very worrisome going on in our country when Homeland Security starts worrying this much about trouble we conservatives and veterans might cause. It attests to the rationality and logic behind the 1st, 2nd and 10th amendments don't you think? It also attests to the wisdom and vision of our founding fathers in attempting to establish a balance of powers among political parties and between branches of government. That balance is clearly under assault and in danger of being lost in legislation and judicial edicts directed toward fake 'fairness' (ie, actually only serving their own beliefs, agendas and political priorities).

Clearly the founding fathers understood the danger of ANY one political party controlling too much of government. They understood (as evidenced in the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution) it's historically true that, without checks and balances, self-interest, self-preservation and paranoia kick in at some point and one party begins restricting the activities of the other using political, social, judicial, and law enforcement tools at their disposal or of their creation. What's happening should alarm all freedom-loving citizens because it could just as easily happen to anyone no matter their political affiliation.

The people leading our government institutions have somehow come to forget they're required to serve the Constitution and the will of The People. We do not exist to ensure their security. These new corrupt attitudes have been growing in both major parties for a couple of decades but now one party has enough control to actually lead the country in a new direction away from Constitutional principles, away from true freedom. America was formed to be a Republic, no question whatsoever. We are clearly moving in a strongly socialist, arguably marxist direction. We ignore the signs and trends at great risk to our Republic, at great risk to true freedom.

The TEA Parties grew out of concerns like those above among true freedom-loving Americans who believe and embrace the principles expressed by our founding fathers in our foundational laws and documents. We need to think outside our political boxes to understand the danger in order to right the ship we call America.

Fact is we are losing our representative form of government. Not only do Republican representatives get completely shut out of the legislative and executive processes, our so-called elected representatives in either party don't read and reasonably debate legislation. That means, in effect, that there's no assurance whatsoever that legislation represents ANY American. How can there be if they don't even read, much less understand what they sign? In their arrogance they no longer believe they work for us. Constitutionally, we don't serve their political whims or those of special interests, they serve our will. They are supposed to protect our security and freedom, then get out of our way! Instead government has grown into a self-serving behemoth that consumes some 45% of all jobs in the country. They show mind-boggling disdain for and disrespect of citizens. Indeed they disrespect our founding documents and laws. This is a fundamental failure of those we've been electing in both parties, increasing relentlessly and significantly over the past couple of decades.

How many times do we have to hear "we won so we get to do it our way" before we realize this is UNrepresentative government and is strongly anti-Republic, not just anti-Republican? NO American, Republican or Democrat, should be okay with this total usurpation of power. It flies in the face of the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution as well as all principles behind them.

As messy as our two-party system can be it'll be far worse for our Republic to become a one-party system as is currently in process. It is not a road we should travel if we value freedom and want to remain the free, prosperous, generous, peaceful, and strong country we are today.

LOVE ... What It's All About

What God and Jesus did for us on this day is all about love. What is asked from us in return is obedience of course but His greatest commandment is for us to Love one another. Hate NO ONE. Love ALL.

One of our biggest challenges in the age in which we live is to love those who hate and disrespect us and others. We need to disagree respectfully, appreciating why others believe what they do. We should not allow disagreement to divide us irreparably.

What's hard for me this day and most days recently is how others can hate us Christians so much for our beliefs and how they can ascribe things to us that are wrong and unfair. We do not hate ... at least we're commanded not to. But we're called to recognize and stand against what God's Word describes as sin.

Unlike some, our faith does not command us to kill others simply for not believing what we do. In fact, we're commanded to love our neighbors and to love our enemies even while standing strongly against them in our own defense. What's so bad about a 'religion' that places love above all else? Why do those who practice our faith in some countries deserve to die simply because they believe in our loving God and practice love even among those who hate them and have no qualms about saying they want to kill us, not because we've done them any harm but only because we don't believe what they do?

The irrationality and inhumane-ness of it weighs heavily on me most of the time but on this special day I rejoice in the living God who gave me real life, enables me to love my enemies while resisting them and empowers me to stand up to unfair, irresponsible and corrupt governance.

Next Book: From Slavery To Freedom (John Hope Franklin)

Well, now I've gone and done it! Was looking forward to entertaining and light reading in retirement but Leonard Pitts Jr, whose columns appear frequently in our local paper, challenged people (especially Whites) to understand African-American history better as a further step forward healing the racial divide. So I'm accepting his challenge by tackling the subject book which is at the top of his recommended reading list.

I have no illusions about being quite ignorant about this subject. A 'Black History' course I took in college helped but it barely made a dent in my lack of understanding. Mr. Pitts' persistent claims of White ignorance forced me confront the extent of mine. Honestly, it's considerable. Mr. Pitts' theory is that White ignorance is a primary cause of inadequate progress against racism so I began wondering whether he might be correct. I have one concern about his claim but one thing needs to be said first.

Regardless of my opinion about his theory, I believe that reducing ignorance is progress and is its own reward, even if nothing 'tangible' comes of it. That's at least one key reason I'm attempting this challenging read.

As to Mr. Pitts' theory that White ignorance about African-American history and the African-American experience gets significantly in the way of better African-American success and achievement, I have some concerns about that. We have to be careful with our expectations what that will accomplish. Elimination of ignorance by itself doesn't automatically fix anything but I think Mr. Pitts and Dr. Franklin understand it's a necessary step. Irrational prejudice, fear, antipathy, or apathy can still exist. Progress is dependent on what's done with what one learns.

Also, I wonder whether elimination of our ignorance is really what most African-Americans are after. It seems to me that many African-Americans want Whites to understand their pain and/or the pain of their ancestors. Is it the cathartic experience they want or can it accomplish a major tangible improvement in their lives? Actually, I don't know but I wonder. Perhaps a better question is can we Whites really learn their pain?

I think that a 'sufficient' understanding of their pain may be impossible to achieve to the extent they want. How can anyone think that we Whites can understand their pain and discrimination experiences without actually going through it ourselves? I don't understand how reducing or even eliminating our ignorance can lead us to 'understand' it to the extent they want. I think it's like going off to fight in a war. How can anyone understand a soldier's experiences, feelings and the life-changing impacts about his battlefield experiences without also going through it?

Also, it sometimes appears that many African-Americans just want to keep punishing us Whites in whatever way they can (e.g., Rev Wright and the recent celebration of white cop killings by an African-American in Oakland CA) rather than have us simply read about their pain.

I've long respected Dr. John Hope Franklin's accomplishments. His death recently is a great loss to us all. For those of you who may not have heard much about him, let me quote part of his biography from the book I'm reading (7th edition by the way):

"Dr. Franklin is a former President of the Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Studies Association, the American Historical Assication, and the Society of Phi Beta Kappa. Among Dr. Franklin's awards are the Jefferson Medal of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the Clarence Holte Literary Prize, The Jefferson Medal of the American Philosophical Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Charles Frankel Award, presented by President Clinton in 1993. He holds one-hundred honorary degrees (as of the book's 7th printing). (Holding Master's and Doctorate degrees from Harvard) he was Chairman of the Department of History at Brooklyn College and at the University of Chicago, where he was the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Preofessor Emeritus of History. He was a Fulbright Professor in Australia and Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University in England"

Anyone with such impressive credentials deserves our highest respect. The least I can do out of respect for this great American and to honor his life is read his most notable literary accomplishment.

Finished O'Reilly's "Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity"

I highly recommend the subject book to anyone, especially males, especially men over 55, and anyone with a Catholic background. The book was a fun trip down memory lane to a more innocent time. Life has gotten complicated by any comparison and we get so wrapped up in it that we don't appreciate what made us who we are. Reading this book provided me with a terrific opportunity (and excuse) to reflect on more innocent times when I was bold and fresh ... or at least thought I was.

It would be good for most of us to 'reset' our priorities and this book is a great tool in the process of doing that. It's also just plain entertaining reading. For those of you who are younger than 55 you may learn a few things about the generation I'm privileged to share with Mr. O'Reilly. You may learn that there's no harm in being a little more flexible, a little less up-tight about things.

Most of the things we take seriously aren't worth the effort. The things we should really be thinking about will be our undoing if we don't seriously consider them better. Principles MATTER. Values MATTER. Lightening up MATTERS. Respect that's earned REALLY MATTERS. Above all, God and Godly principles MATTER! But being fresh and bold is important. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Here's to ALL Bold, Fresh Guys from the 50's and 60's! God Bless You Guys!

Got TwitPic Completely Working ... Finally

Figured out how to embed Twitter in my blog page but wasn't having any success getting comments posted that I wanted to be included with pics. I'd enter a comment in the "Text" field of a message sent to TwitPic but it wouldn't post with the picture. Then via the online TwitPic support group I found someone commenting about wanting to post his 'subject' info differently. When I put my picture's comment in the text msg "Subject" field instead of the "Text" field it finally got posted. End of mystery. TwitPic users can find info about how to use TwitPic by searching users' comments but I couldn't find a "User's Guide". Wonder if one exists?

One remaining curiosity. After I delete a pic from TwitPic, the link to the pic still remains on my blog page. When I click on that link now I just get a message saying the picture was deleted. I'm wondering how to delete the link from my blog.

Republican Budget Bill: Will It Get A Fair Shake?

The Republicans submitted a budget proposal. It is serious legislation that represents the will and interests of the other 40% of Americans whose interests have been ignored since this economic collapse began. It deserves serious consideration and debate if Democrats have any interest in constitutional due-process, in being fair to the other 40% of Americans or in the principle of reaching across the aisle as they claim to stand for.

We should note that this bill represents a serious attempt to be part of the solution rather than just saying no. Question is, will Democrats say no (again) to this or give it a fair airing out via debate and compromise?

Another question is how will the media handle this Republican budget proposal? Will they cover it at all? If they do, will they make fair and balanced analyses, comparing pros and cons with the Democratic budget proposal? Will they help Americans understand both bills or will they basically throw rocks at the Republican proposal in a biased and political/agenda-serving way?

I'm Opposed To Taxation Without Representation - So TEA Party 4 Me

There's a TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party Coming April 15th Near You. Check it out at: http://www.teapartyday.com/

I don't know about you but I'm with our founding fathers and the Declaration of Independence on this. Taxation without representation has no place in this country. We fought a war against an oppressive government for freedom from such tyranny and it's worked out pretty well for over 200 years.

If you don't think that is happening, consider this:

1. The bills being passed to deal with this economic mess commit us to record spending. That means record taxes too you know ... where do you think they get the money they're spending? It's OUR money ... ALL of us.
2. Elected Republican representatives are being shut out of participating in formulation of those bills that address one of the most severe economic crises in our history. That means that some 40% of Americans have no representation in the creation of the bills or, therefore, in determining the consequences but we WILL be told we have to pay for it. (And so will our kids and their kids and ...) That's taxation with NO way for our interests to be heard. If we will be forced to pay for this shouldn't we have something to say about it in the first place? Wasn't that what the Declaration of Independence was all about?
3. It's actually worse than that. Fact is, NO citizen can be sure his interests are being represented because those voting on these bills aren't even taking the time to read them much less understand them! How can they be sure their vote represents the will of the people they supposedly represent? They don't know the will of the people and they obviously don't care to know before they vote. They're not even interested in debating it for at least the principle of it. The process sounds kinda unconstitutional doesn't it?
4. The Democratic leadership has denied Republican participation in the legislative process and won't allow alternative proposals a fair hearing much less debate. So which party is actually "the party of no"? At least when Bush pressed for his tax cuts he discussed it with the minority Democrats and made a compromise for them (he changed it from a permanent tax cut to a temporary one because of Democratic opposition). (BTW, what Democrats are calling tax cuts in their bill are NOT tax cuts that Republicans support so it's completely disingenuous to claim those tax cuts are a compromise to Republicans.)
5. Bottom line: historical, economy-choking and wealth-stealing tax increases are in process by unilateral action of one political party with no effort to ensure it represents the will of a single American (see #3 above). It boggles my mind to think that even Democratic citizens are okay with this with respect to principles in/behind the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

So, I think I need to attend the TEA party on April 15th. Even our smallish community is participating. If you want to check into it and see if there's one near you, check out the link at the top of this blog.

Mortgage Meltdown: Can't Fix The Problem Correctly Without Understanding It's REAL Causes

Isn't it logical that any fix we arrive at for a given problem will be more effective if we understand what caused the problem? Asked another way, how can we expect a fix to work if we don't even know whether it addresses the actual cause? Isn't it logical, if we don't understand a problem's cause, that our 'fix' even has a good chance of making the problem worse?

If your car won't start would you just get out your tool kit and replace the electronic ignition system? How much would that help if the gas tank were empty and you just forgot to look at the gas guage or the fuel filter was clogged shut?

Two key actions are actually what led to this meltdown. First president Clinton issued an executive order forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make half their holdings be highly risky sub-prime loans (loans that were mostly given to people who actually couldn't afford them and wouldn't qualify for them under sensible criteria of the past). Low interest, no down payment and no real credit check. A disaster in the making. But that alone wouldn't have caused this disaster because the type of insurance needed to protect companies from defaults on this type of loan was regulated and it held this type of investment in check.

Then on December 21, 2000 lame-duck president Clinton signed into law a bill that significantly deregulated the credit default swap insurance industry and literally overnight these highly risky sub-prime mortgages started flooding the market. It was just a matter of when, not if, these would cause a collapse in the market.

Democrats love to say that 'eight years of Bush' and 'Republican deregulation' caused this economic meltdown when, in fact, eight years of Clinton and Clinton deregulation(!) caused it by his two actions described above. And several Democrats were prominent in the push for so-called 'affordable housing' as well as resistance to Bush's attempted corrections. In FACT, President Bush proposed legislation to re-regulate this industry and it was defeated by Democrats, led by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who (irrationally and foolishly) insisted that Fannie and Freddie were healthy. Bush and other Republicans understood the risk to our economy and tried to INCREASE regulation of the credit default swap insurance industry. Ironically the party (Republicans) that didn't cause it but tried to fix it is the party being blamed for it.

Back to my original point. So, if we allow ourselves to believe the outright lie(!) that Republicans, especially Bush, caused this when, in fact, it was Democrats, what are the chances we'll arrive at the most effective fix (courtesy of the party that caused it)? The answer is a resounding NONE! That should make every American screaming mad! The Democrats' dishonesty and deceit should give us pause regarding pretty much all the legislation they're pushing through the legislature that is devoid of participation by Republicans.

Said I Was Done Messing W/Sprinkler Systems ... But

The guy who built our house used terrible fill dirt in the front and back yards. Just plain dirt, no organic material in it at all best we can tell. Not only does it not nourish plants, water runs through it like a sieve before plants can absorb much. So says the people who worked on our landscaping when I started complaining to them about how poorly our plants were doing.

One thing is clear to me. Having a ring of evergreens around our back yard and basic plants along the house on the same drip line (as it was installed) makes no sense. Can't control soil moisture well via only one drip line for trees that need deep watering and plants that need less. So I want to get the ring of trees on a separate drip line. Per a local sprinkler system installer, one new valve (including running wire to the existing controller), a water filter and misc connection materials ... $500! Gads! Who can afford that in this economy?

I looked into the cost of doing it myself ... $80. Is it worth crawling around in the dirt and digging stuff up? Let's see ... $420 savings = no-brainer! Plus, what red-blooded American male doesn't like playing in dirt and, if he's lucky, mud? Ha! Then there's tearing apart the existing contraption followed by gluing stuff together. The boy in me is happy. It also involves figuring out a clever way to fit more stuff into the 'vault' currently housing other valves so I have to design something that actually works. The engineer in me is happy too.

Got the parts. Next time it hasn't rained for a couple days this thing gets done!

On 'Getting' Educated: More Money Is NOT The Answer!

An education isn't something that can be 'given' to someone. We'll make better progress improving education if we'll accept this fact. Too many people irrationally think that giving more money to the education bureaucracy translates automatically (and magically) into giving our kids a better education. To become educated one must decide to learn. It is a personal choice, a personal action. What we adults (ie, taxpayers) must do is provide the environment, material and instruction in just a reasonably competent way. The rest (ie, actual learning!) is up to the students.

Problem is, once children become teenagers it becomes difficult to channel them to acceptance of anything, including an education. Sometimes, especially an education! If a teenager doesn't want to learn he/she won't. Take a couple other examples to illustrate my point. Parents can put a good meal on the table but a lot of kids can't/won't eat it because they're full of fast food or would rather go out with their friends for fast food. We can tell kids to get more exercise but, in the end, it's something they have to accept responsibility for doing, as it is for becoming educated. We can't give them a healthy cardio-vascular system any more than we can put educational materials in their heads.

I'm hoping this is an 'aha' moment for the more liberal folks who might be reading this. Are you beginning to understand that money cannot fix it the way it needs to be fixed? Read on for further proof and solutions.

So, why is it that high school test scores are unchanged since the Department of Education was created nearly 30 years ago (according the the Department of Education's own statistics)? Nearly 50% of all states' budgets go to education and the federal Department of Education budget has doubled in the past 10 years. My God! In the absolute sense, why isn't that enough money? What do we have to show for so much money going into the education system? Not much! At what point do we accept two things:

1. Mind-boggling amounts of money hasn't fixed it yet so maybe it's time we accept it's illogical to think more money will fix it and


2. Teenagers tend to be biased (by hormones, peer-pressure, disillusionment with and loss of respect for adults and/or adult authority, etc) against most any kind of attempted indocrination or act of authority by adults (at least those who don't do well in school) and we LET them get away with their unacceptable attitudes.

Maybe We Should Try ...

1. Parents should be more responsible for their kids' education, making it their responsibility at least as much as it's the responsibility of schools (and taxpayers!).


2. More accountability needs to be placed on the kids for becoming educated. Parents should be the primary 'enforcers'.


3. Fewer excuses for kids who don't want to learn. Life is challenging to say the least and these young adults need to start realizing that their future is becoming THEIR responsibility as they enter high school.


4. Boundaries in many areas, especially at home. Bad grades = fewer privileges. For example, reduced/no TV, computer, cell phone, and car use. Curfews and grounding from social activities.


5. Stricter rules. Homework comes first ... before socializing, TV, computer, cell phone, etc. Homework and good grades become their primary responsibility. For those getting bad grades, very strict rules with no exceptions until exceptions are ... drumroll ... earned via improved grades!


6. A decent study environment somewhere at home.


7. Exercise. A healthy body is conducive to better learning and a better attitude toward becoming educated.


8. Good food (especially limits on fast food). A healthy body is conducive to better learning and a better attitude toward becoming educated. Most kids need wayyyyy less caffiene, sugar and saturated fats in their diets.


9. Adequate sleep. A healthy mind and body are conducive to better learning and a better attitude toward becoming educated.


10. No TV, gaming consoles, phones, or computers in kids' rooms. When kids use computers their parents should know the kinds of things they're doing with/on them.


11. Chores. It's good for kids to understand that with approaching adulthood comes with increased family responsibilities. Less of a free ride.


12. Cars are a privilege for kids ... period. They're a need, sure, but NOT a right.


13. Both parents must be involved in kids' progress by checking homework, helping with homework as necessary, checking test grades, and proactively checking in with teachers.


14. Most students need to avail themselves of school and public library resources for extra help. For example, I found that different math books often helped me understand a new concept because a different author approached explanations with a bit different view that made it clearer for me. Doing this requires the student to accept responsibility for it.


15. When I started making 'being an effective student' MY responsibility I learned material better, learned it faster and retained it longer. The main revelation I had in this regard was Plane Geometry in high school. I was failing the first nine weeks and was so scared of not passing that I started doing ALL the problems in the book, not just the ones the teacher assigned ... and I turned them all in. Another thing I did was move to the front of the class which forced me to be attentive even when I didn't feel like doing it. Even if a teacher has a seating arrangement he/she doesn't want to change, if a student who is struggling were to ask permission to move to the front row I doubt that many teachers would say no. The important thing to do is to take ownership for 'what =>I<= can do to become a better student'. The rest of my story in Plane Geometry is that I went from straight "F" work in the first nine weeks to straight "A" work the next nine weeks. And that happened because I started taking responsibility for being a good student. After starting to do this and other things I'm outlining herein, I never again worried about bad grades. One of my most interesting and important revelations was that teachers' competence mattered a whole lot less after I started taking personal responsibility for results in my life. My bad grades in Plane Geometry was a problem that didn't require ANY more taxpayer money to fix. In addition, my fix was a whole lot more effective.


16. When I took OWNERSHIP of 'really/actually learning the material' my grades improved even more. There's a very important distinction in this. If 'a passing grade' is your objective that's about all you'll get, sometimes not even that however. If 'getting by with not reading all reading assignments' (ie, scanning rather than 'studying' the material) about all you'll get is a passing grade, sometimes not even that. If you're doing math problems assigned without rechecking your work or having someone else check it over all you'll get is a passing grade, sometimes not even that. When your objective becomes actually learning the material rather than turning in homework just to be turning something in, you'll not only succeed, you will get lots of A's.


17. Another important step up for me was becoming more proactive in the classroom. Volunteering to put math and science problems on the board was a good move. It was scary at first but the more I did it, the more confidence I gained. Plus it's a really, really good way to hold yourself accountable to do homework well and actually learn the material. Raising my hand more to answer teachers' questions is another example. By the way, I started by volunteering for the easier problems/questions and worked my way up to volunteering for the most difficult ones.


18. ALL Freshmen should be required to attend a well-structured class/seminar on Study and Learning Skills. Maybe it should be a special class given the week before the normal school year begins. Most high school students don't have very good study habits. Even those who do, however, could improve their learning skills. Things to cover in such a seminar include memorization skills/techniques, what constitutes an effective study environment, effective methods to learn a given subject tailored to what's most effective for each subject type, skills for reading faster with better rentention, time-management for students, note-taking skills (for use during lectures),test-taking skills, and effective participation in class.


19. ALL parents should attend a seminar that covers such things as the bullet items above. For one thing, most parents could benefit in their personal lives from this information.

The items listed are valuable life skills too. In this increasingly high tech world, it's clear that learning is more of a lifetime requirement than ever before.

Ensuring the students are doing these things ought to be primarily the responsibility of their parents but one of the key things schools must do is provide tutoring help. Senior students could help with this as well as parents and others in the community. Mentoring is equally important for many students, especially when a student has only one parent or none at home.

One of the things I've learned over the years is that I could learn some of the most difficult subjects EVEN when the teacher wasn't all that effective. EVERYONE has ineffective teachers from time to tome. Students (AND PARENTS!) need to get over it and not let that be an excuse for doing poorly because learning, in the end, is their responsibility. I found that as long as I had good textbooks I could learn most any subject pretty well. Regardless of how supportive my parents were too. By the way, in case you're thinking I had a situation or capabilities that gave me an advantage to do this, I was just a middle-class kid whose father died when I was seven. And an IQ test I was forced to take in high school showed I had average intelligence. I had no special help and was fatherless but I became successful in school when I took personal responsibility for learning the subjects. No one, and I mean NO one, thought I'd accomplish something like a Master's Degree in Engineering from Stanford but that's what I did. While learning a subject more on your own requires a lot more discipline than when teachers are very competent and effective it's important to understand how much is possible to achieve.

I firmly believe that, with the proper personal commitment to learning, a student can learn any subject well enough to get, at a minimum(!), passing grades. The study of foreign languages may be an exception but for most basic courses in English, Literature, Math, Science, Government, History, and the like, a person can learn any subject pretty well armed only with a good quality new or used textbook and determination. What that tells me is that money isn't nearly the answer to the problems as the media, government, 'scholars' in the field of education, a large percentage of parents, and others would have us believe.

US Department of Education: Budget, Conclusions and Recommendations Plus State Spending Postscript

The US Department of Education budget has grown from $14 Billion in 1980 when it was created and funded to around $70 Billion in recent years ... 5 times greater in 20 years. The greatest increase was during the Bush years. That'll be a surprise to most people because they won't hear the truth from the media. ED funding spiked to $100 Billion in 2006 when an extra one-time(!) $25 Billion was allocated as initial funding for the Federal Family Educational Loans program so that peak is kind of an anomaly in an otherwise reasonably consistent upward curve.

Democrats, especially President Obama, are playing political games with the curve and telling everyone that ED funding decreased under Bush ... which it has ONLY if you compare Bush's last two years with the year that had that one-time peak in it. Overall, ED funding increased about 80% under Bush. And you won't hear that Clinton's ED spending record is much worse than Bush's. (Note: there's a reason why Clinton was able to balance his budget ... ie, by cutting spending on education, military, national security, etc.). Stating the facts in a misleading way is what politicians and their willing accomplices in the media do in general.

Examine the curve and you'll see that ED funding increased about 80% during Bush's two terms. Compare it with Clinton's two terms. Bush increased it about 80% without even having a tech boom to help pay for it. So who's done a good job? Republicans or Democrats? Clinton or Bush? People need to seek out all the facts and not just drink the liberal Cool-Aid.

CONCLUSIONS:
In my previous blog, US Department of Education Report Card, I quoted that department's own statistics on what's happened with high school test scores. Basically they've pretty much remained unchanged since that department first started functioning in 1980. A reasonable person might assume that the results would have been the same if not better if the department had never been created. What have we gotten for those Billions? Certainly no improvement but it's not for lack of trying.

My wife and I experienced lots of experimenting with our kids' education. Various liberal 'fixes' to the stagnant level of quality included going to closed classrooms to open classrooms and back to closed classrooms, old math to new math to old math and lately to a new more intuitive math, and lots more experiments. NO ONE in the field of education can say we parents haven't been supportive of their experimenting on our kids in terms of either spending or support for their various new teaching methods. Nearly half of every state's budget goes to education alone and funding has doubled at the federal level in the past 10 years. Don't ask me to believe we're not spending enough! What do we have to show for it? No improvement and lots of excuses that are increasingly losing credibility after years of this nonsense.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Now our new president, wants to pump wayyyy more Billions into education and, after seeing it double in this decade already, we haven't heard any explanation why we should blindly go along this time as we have for more than 20 years, especially at a time when we're in the middle of an economic crisis. After suffering through 20+ years of broken promises to get high school graduates more ready for the real world surely we can slow down just a little on this increase? At least long enough for someone to convince us why it WILL work this time to ensure we're not just throwing money at the problem that we can ill afford this time. In fact, many of us think it would be best to dismantle the federal Department of Education and much (most?) of the bureaucracy at the state level. Then send the savings, fairly apportioned, directly to the classroom level. I think many of us are ready to try this experiment: tell the bureaucrats, unions(!) and education theorists to get out of the way, stop messing with our schools and kids and let educators on the front line do what they've been trained to do!

As I said in my blog about education test score results, it appears that the greatest need is to direct our attention to high school test score improvements. I pointed out that test scores for all PRE-high school grades have increased significantly and consistently over the years while high school test results show no improvement. Therefore, all the consistent claims, mostly from liberals, about the need for pre-kindergarten education is difficult to understand and certainly can't be explained on the basis of test results, especially when compared with high school. If all pre-high school levels show consistent improvements but high school doesn't, where do YOU think we should be focusing our attention ... and taxpayer money?

What's the point of even trying to improve kindergarten level performance if the benefit can't be maintained, much less improved on, in high school? Instead of putting more effort and money into pre-kindergarten education, why don't we fix what's actually, undeniably broken? The only explanation I can think of for the left's emphasis on pre-kindergarten 'education' is that it's really taxpayer paid day care masquerading as 'education reform' which sounds all noble but is entirely smoke and mirrors.

STATE SPENDING EXAMPLE:
The states' own budgets for K-12 education is an equally difficult bang-for-the-buck challenge to swallow. For example, did you know that California's K-12 education budget was $50 Billion (approximately HALF the entire state budget) for the school year 2007-2008 and that education spending from all sources, including federal ($6.7 Billion!) was around $70 Billion? That translates into $12,000/pupil for grades K-12. One thing I've always found interesting is that, in California, liberal legislators call it a CUT in education funding if the governor or Republican legislators want to remove something from the proposed budget even though the remaining amount would still be more than the previous year's allocation.

With K-12 funding consuming close to half of every state's budget, how can anyone argue that the fix is to SPEND more? It's fundamentally illogical, especially since all this money we're spending has led to no significant improvement.

US Department of Education Report Card

The Department of Education, was created by laws passed in 1979 and it began official operations on May 4, 1980. Here are its own statistics (ie, From the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences on their website: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/results2004/).

These are the average scores for 17-year olds about to graduate from high school. (Note: The first scores are for the earliest years reported by the website.)

Reading ("Average Scale Scores"):
1980: 285
1992: 290
2004: 285

Writing ("Average Scale Scores"):
1998: 150
2007: 153

Math ("Average Scale Scores"):
1980: 300
1992: 307
2004: 307

Science ("Average Scale Scores"):
1996: 150
2005: 147

Reading scores are the same today as the day ED, the Department of Education, started operating. It's true that the scores increased slightly between then and now to a peak of 290 but it's a pretty small peak and scores have decreased steadily since then.

Writing scores are the only ones that increased but it wasn't much and to the extent what we see written in opinion pages, general media, advertising, and other sources is an indication of competency in grammar and general expression, the writing ability of our high school and even college graduates is none too impressive.

Math scores haven't improved since the early 90's. We got a little value out of ED before then but nothing since.

Science scores decreased slightly since the early 1990's. Considering that high tech endeavors are increasingly driving the economic engines of successful countries this is very discouraging.

Test scores in all areas of learning did increase substantially and consistently(!) for grade school and middle school children in all areas of learning but what good is that if such increases cannot be sustained through high school since, at graduation, they become the students' tools in the real world. For that reason I haven't included those statistics. High school graduates' scores are the ones that matter as a tool for measuring likely success as adults and those are the scores that stagnated at least 20 years ago.

An important point to make is that all the hubbub over pre-kindergarten education and 'getting children ready for grade school' is way overblown based on test results that show CONSISTENT increases for all for pre-high school grades. I have a revolutionary idea, why don't we pay more attention to the areas in which test scores show there is an actual measurable need? Duh! That would be, drum roll, high school! Hello? With all grades except high school making improvements, by what warped logic can anyone claim pre-kindergarten (or any other pre-high school level) is where we need to focus? The education 'experts' tell us with their own data(!) that all grades except high school are improving and then they say that where we need to focus is getting children better prepared for grade school. Grade schools are improving and high schools aren't so we need to fix grade schools? Say, what? These are supposed to be our smart people fixing this. With thinking like this is it any wonder our high school graduates aren't any more skilled than those from 20 years ago or more? And with logic like this, what are the chances it'll improve any time soon?

Indeed, intuition and annecdotal information also strongly speak to multiple needs highschoolers have that aren't being met besides strictly academic ones. I strongly disagree with the focus I hear from mostly liberal circles that we need more emphasis on pre-kindergarten education or, for that matter, on kindergarten, grade school or middle school either. Why not fix what's wrong at the high school level first since their own test results show that's what needs fixing? Could it be that this pre-kindergarten education need is actually tax-payer funded day care masquerading as 'education reform'?

An Inconvenient Document

The Declaration of Independence made our founding fathers' intentions clear. This was to be a Republic. Separate writings and the Pledge of Allegiance attest to this too so it's undeniably true. What that means is that all citizens are supposed to have fair representation. To fully understand what that means one has to read other writings. They were dead set against control by one political party.

Unfortunately we do have one-party control now because Democrats lock our elected Republican representatives out of the room when creating legislation and they steamroller their bills through the legislature. In fact, Democratic leaders in the legislative and executive branches declared openly that "we won ... we get to do it OUR way, period". Brazen? Oh yeah. Arrogant? Definitely. It's wrong in any regard but especially in the context of that apparently insignificant and pesky little document called The Declaration of Independence. That document declared this to be a Republic whose government is a government of, by and for ALL The People. How do Democrats square their behavior and principles with that founding document? Obviously they can't. It is, therefore, an Inconvenient Document and is clearly antithetical to their aims and even principles.

Then there's the Constitution. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that our founding fathers intended for this to be a two-party (at least) system. Not only was the Constitution constructed for that but for a balance of powers among the three branches of government. Clearly they sought BALANCE of power among parties and branches. What do you think they'd say to one party's leaders saying "we won ... we get to do it OUR way, period"? What would they say to some 40% of Americans not having their concerns voiced, much less debated, on the floor of the House or Senate? What would they say to a $1 Trillion spending bill being passed without a single representative in the House or Senate having time to read the bill, much less understand and digest it? It was passed not because it was a good bill (because no one can know without reading it) but for partisan, agenda-serving and special interest-serving reasons. This was a bill that began significant government reform AND committed record amounts of national debt, yet The People weren't given a chance to hear what was in it much less express their will. This bill was totally the will of one party. Well, doesn't that fly in the face of the Constitution and constitutional principles expressed by our founding fathers? How do Democrats square their behavior and principles with that founding document? Obviously they can't. It ALSO is, therefore, an Inconvenient Document and is clearly antithetical to their aims and even principles.

So much for fair representation. Remember what we told the Iraqis about forming their government ... that their government MUST include the interests of Sunni's, Shiites AND even the small minority Kurds? They were told that there must be fair and representative OUTCOMES in legislation too. We're good at telling other countries what's fair to their citizens but arrogant control prevails within the ruling party in America. Ruling party? Doesn't that sound kinda like a dictatorship or autocracy? Even if you're a Democrat, doesn't that sound like it's probably not good for our country?

Planning The Fly Fishing Trip With Matt Is Progressing

Pics: Mighty Mo (Missouri River), Son Matt

Matt (who lives in Rathdrum ID with his wife, Heather, and pup, Johnny Cash) and I will be off on a fishing trip in the Helena MT area Sept 17-19 using our 26' Nash trailer for lodging. We have a half-day guided float trip planned the afternoon of the 17th, the day we arrive, followed by a full-day guided float the next day. Both will most likely be on the Missouri River, an excellent fishery. We'll decide what to do (chilling, fishing, whatever) the first half of the 19th when we drag ourselves out of bed and I'll return Matt to his wife later that day.

Fishing the Missouri River can be a lot of fun. There are plenty of good-size trout in the river and they put up a good fight. One never knows how the fishing will be but the time Matt and I have together will be sweet no matter how well the fish are cooperating. We haven't done anything like this together before just the two of us. (The move from PA to San Jose doesn't count cause that wasn't just chillin' and doing 'guy stuff'.)

How I'm going to get up there from here in Roseburg is a whole other adventure with my wife that will be a good subject for another blog.

(Note: Might Mo photo courtesy of Missouri Riverside Outfitters in MT.)

Planning The Fly Fishing Trip With Chris Is Progressing

Pics: Upper Sacramemto River, Son Chris

(Note: I'm planning fly fishing trips with both of my sons, Chris and Matt. The one with Matt is later in the year and a blog is coming on that one as more details are known.)

Chris and I will find ourselves on the Upper Sacramento River in early June using our trailer for lodging. I'll be arriving in the area a week or two ahead of him in order to find a good campground, get the trailer set up and scope out the best places for us to spend our time fishing.

Originally we were going to the Quincy CA area (an hour's drive East of the Sacramento River) where I have more fishing experience but environmental concerns have led CA's Dept of Fish & Game to stop stocking rivers in much of Plumas County there. I've heard lots of good reports about rivers in other areas of NorCal so I'm comfortable trying them out. Like a lot of things in life, this unexpected need to change plans will probably work out better. Whatever happens, time with Chris is its own reward as it will be with Matt too when we hit the Mighty Mo together in September.

Since Chris and I are fishing in an area unfamiliar to both of us I decided on one day of guided fishing and picked the Upper Sacramento River which I've always wanted to check out. When I've used guides on other fishing excursions it was always for a float trip by boat. This time we'll be walking which is good because we both prefer that over fishing from boats. The guide, Michael Caranci (The Fly Shop in Redding CA), says we'll be 'pocket fishing' which is also a little different for both Chris and me. It's good to expand our horizons and learn something different so we're looking forward to the experience.

More info coming as more details are worked out. (By the way, the Upper Sac River photo is courtesy of The Fly Shop in Redding CA)

Materialism and Greed Got Us Into This Trouble - It Won't Get Us Out

We cannot spend our way out of this economic nightmare. Not by any level of spending ... federal, state and local government, company or individual. Greed and materialism got us into this. More insane spending won't fix the underlying cause and the problem will only get worse.

We've built an economy on debt with American enterprise and work ethic as collateral. A little debt is helpful to grow the economy if we use it to invest in our future. However, spending like crazy just to have better 'stuff' than the next person is economically sick. It doesn't say much for our values and principles either. Whatever happened to living within one's means? Being in debt used to be thought of as something to be avoided. It would be best for us to get back to those kinds of principles.

Now the President is encouraging us to just 'spend' to get our economy going again but that isn't the answer. We don't have the money to spend. It's gone. So how does more debt help fix this problem? If we could go cold-turkey on mindless spending and credit card debt our economy would recover faster and in a much healthier way. Problem with that is it means the obvious pain of companies going out of business because they've become so dependent on Americans going into debt to buy 'stuff'. But people, even the President, don't seem to understand that just 'spending' is even more painful because this level of debt in our country (especially if we increase it by trying to spend our way out) will kill our economy for farther into the future than we can possibly imagine.

The best solution is practicing better fiscal responsibility at all levels ... government, companies and individuals. Restrained spending and more saving (ie, living within our means) will be really, really good for us in the long run. Swallow the bitter pill now for a much healthier future.

Unrepresentative Government

Regarding my previous blog about Congress and the President not representing the people, consider the following comparison and the implications.

Take the Iraq government for example. There are approximately twice as many Shiite's as Sunni's in Iraq and Kurds represent a very small minority of its citizens. We all know how well publicized it was that our government insisted on fair representation of not only the two large groups but of even the SMALL Kurdish minority as well. (This is consistent with a republic form of government which ours is ... or at least was as founded.) The recent history of Iraq's new government is very clear that while the Iraq government was being formed and while Iraqis' elected representatives were considering historic government and economic reforms, our government (Democrats, Republicans, the State Department, and President) INSISTED ON fair and balanced participation, consideration and OUTCOMES that included the interests of all three groups of people, including the small minority Kurdish population.

Compare that with what's going on in our own country. Republicans are not even being allowed in the room while leading Democrats decide the contents of legislation and what nature of legislation gets pursued. In fact, the Democratic leaders in the legislative and executive branches made a point multiple times of saying(!) "we won so we get to say what's in legislation [regardless what Republicans want]". In fact, bills' voting percentages SCREAM that Republicans aren't being allowed ANY semblance of a voice in what becomes law in our country ... even for these large and sweeping reforms currently under way.

Our government insisted on fair representation of ALL groups in Iraq's government and instisted that the outcome include fair representation of all people's interest. Yet we allow one party complete control over sweeping government, economic and other reforms, including record mind-boggling debt that ALL Americans will have to pay for, not just the Democrats who are creating that debt.

We (arrogantly?) held our own constitution and republic-based principles up to the Iraqis as the standard. Not only do our current actions show us for the hypocrites we are but it shows in dramatic fashion how far we've strayed from our own republic-based principles as contained in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

This is wrong, simply wrong! How can any American citizen stand for this? What's going on in our own legislative and executive branches is unconscionable, demonstrably unconstitutional and definitely not consistent with the principles of a republic that our founding fathers intended nor that they in fact created vis a vis the constitution and other documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

I, for one, am outraged! I fear great harm can come to our country running it this way.

Congress and President: How Can This Be Called Representing The People and The Constitution?

Why don't they get it? We The People Want AND The Country NEEDS:

1. NO EARMARKS in any bill at least until one year after the economy recovers.
2. REDUCED GOVERNMENT SPENDING ... across the board so that income exceeds outgo for at least one year.
3. REDUCED TAXES to prime the economic pump where most jobs are created most effectively ... in small to medium size companies.

Why can't government do what all citizens are having to do right now ... reduce our budget/spending? Why do they care more about political agendas than our economic stability? Why don't they understand that they work for us and do not have a right OR responsibility to tell us what to do?

This is supposed to be a representative form of government. That means:

1. They have a constitutional responsibility/duty to find out what We The People want them to do then do that.
2. They have a constitutional responsibility/duty to ensure fair participation of all political parties represented by membership in the house and senate.
3. By way of #1 and #2 above, they are constitutionally prohibited from putting party, politics, agendas, etc ahead of either the will of the people, the welfare of our citizens or the best interests of our country.
4. By way of #1 and #2 above, they are constitutionally prohibited from locking minority parties out of fair and representative participation in the legislative process.
5. They're obliged to honor their oath of office by which they swear(!) to serve the people and the constitution. The constitution and people do not serve their desires, period!

The principles at the heart of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution aren't complicated and neither is their oath of office. So what's going on here?

Bailing Out Companies In This Much Trouble In This Kind Of Economy Is A Fool's Errand

As many of us conservatives have been saying since September, trying to bail out companies in that much trouble, especially when the economy is in this much trouble, is a fool's errand. We said then and we say now that throwing money at the problem does three (BAD) things:

1. It creates only an illusion of helping solve the problem. Makes one feel like he's 'doing something'. Of course 'something' must be done. While it's unattractive in the absolute sense and is certainly painful, a structured bankruptcy has to be considered more seriously.
2. It creates the false hope that severe economic pain can be avoided. There are elements of our society that are highly invested in avoiding pain, no matter the cost and no matter how much a waste of time, energy and resources it is. Pain is unavoidable. But pain is good because it helps us be more effective and resolute in preventing it the next time the same circumstances start materializing that caused the pain before.
3. Turning off the money spigot is extremely difficult when the companies come crawling back for more. And they will because the spigot and, perhaps, the reservoir itself aren't big enough. The bucket we're pouring that money into has at least a couple of holes in the bottom. One is the product and how it's been managed in a way that helped create the problem. Another hole is the bad economy. Another way to look at it is we're throwing money at the symptoms while the root problems go unresolved for the most part. We're treating symptoms (money is a nice bandage) while the disease (holes in the bucket) continues killing the patient.

Businesses can't and don't survive using this kind of model (throwing mind-boggling amounts of money at a problem) but federal bureaucrats in government don't have to concern themselves with keeping the bottom line healthy. After all, they can just print more money!

When companies start developing a new product they start by committing significant money to the project. What managers of successful companies know is that it's better to kill the project when the money being spent no longer appears to be capable of producing a desired result. What they know is that the money spent so far is sunk cost and should have NO bearing on a decision whether to continue funding the project. They look at the options ahead of them and do a cost/benefit analysis of each. What's been spent is spent. They can't do anything about that now. Often, heading off down a different path than they started down is the best option for the FUTURE of the company. They can walk away from something that turned out to be a bad decision and feel good about it because it's the right thing to do now. They're more interested in the survival of the company and don't live in denial like people with political agendas do.

There's even an old saying about pouring even more money into something that's not working out: throwing good money after bad. Stopping an effort when it begins to look fruitless is also called cutting your losses. Sure, it hurts to have spent all that money and get nothing for it. But pursuing the folly hurts more! You can't avoid pain at that point but you get to choose which pain you're willing to suffer. The folly of keeping up a hopeless effort and the huge price one pays for doing that are key lessons learned in Business 101 ... by those who paid attention.

I Enjoy Windows OS Updates Almost As Much As A Tooth Extraction

Installing the SP2 update to XP was such torture. It took three attempts trying different approaches to disabling stuff and removing some old 3rd party software. The SP3 update isn't going any better even though I'm doing everything Microsoft's website recommends for preparing my computer for that update. After two failed SP3 update attempts I'm giving up. After many, many hours wasted on these two updates I'm inclined to just leave it at the SP2 level and not voluntarily undergo this torture again.

There It Goes Right Down The Crapper!

Hear that sound? It's our economy AND and the Constitution's two-party representative principles being flushed right down the toilet.

Oh, I Get It!

I get it! Democrats have been getting hammered pretty hard about that $787 Billion Stimulus Bill they crammed down our throats so President Obama comes up with a budget SO big that we'll stop worrying so much about what congress did with that piddly little stimulus thing. $3.5 Trillion is SO stinking much money that we're burning out our brains just trying to understand how much money that is! Let's see I now get $400/month from retirement investments (after thieves and crooks got done with me) so it would take me 730 Million years to come up with that much money. Did I say Million? Gads, I still can't grasp how much $3.5 Trillion is. Maybe it'll help if I calculate that in light years?

Heck, I'm in such shock that I'm wayyyy not ready to move onto thinking how it gets paid for. That must be part of the plan too! By the time we're over our shock, the budget legislation will be passed too. Stimulus bill? What stimulus bill? Budget? Did you see a budget go through here? See? It worked! Brilliant!

It's Not The Old West Folks!

C'Mon folks this is not the lawless Old West. The elections and subsequent legislative and executive 'encounters' aren't meant to be the equivalent of gunfights on main street. It's not meant to be about survival of the fittest or the last man/woman standing. The winner of the gunfights we're seeing doesn't get to be the law.

The 'law' is our Constitution, not any of the institutions created by it, any person garnering significant power by it's processes or any political party that comes along. Our founding fathers established the principles and rules by way of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They intended for there to be a tension but also relative balance between the two basic political opposites, liberals and conservatives. When one party locks the other out of the room while creating really important new laws and sweeping government reform, including record spending and debt, we become more like a dictatorship or autocracy than a democracy. It may be exciting, fun or even entertaining for some in one party but it's not healthy for our country. It's arguably unconstitutional isn't it?

There is no doubt that passing that particular stimulus bill absolutely commits us to big tax increases to pay for its spending requirements without citizens having any idea what those taxes will be. There is also no question that not one legislator had time to read the legislation before passage so that guarantees there was no time to ensure it represents the will of The People. In fact, rational people have argued that it was processed that quickly in order to consciously avoid having citizens know what was in it before it was voted on. What would our founding fathers say about that? Does taxation without representation ring a bell?

Why has America been so consistently successful compared with countries that are controlled by either very left-wing or very right-wing politics? What's going on in Congress is unhealthy and the legislative processes being used appear to violate at least the spirit of the Constitution and intentions of our founding fathers.

S'Up With Female 'Barbers'?

Why do female haircutters refuse to cut a man's hair the way HE wants? (Sorry, but I can't bring myself to call them barbers.)

Once again (or rather 'still') I'm shopping for a good barber. Male barbers started getting much harder to find about 20 years ago so, when I move to a new community, my search invariably begins with female haircutters out of necessity. My main beef is that they ALL hate sideburns. No exceptions (at least not that I've found in 20 years).

I want modest sideburns about 1" long and I want them equal in length. Is that a lot to ask? Ha! Apparently it is! I don't care what's currently 'fashionable'. I don't even care if my sideburns don't happen to fill in as thickly as some. For whatever reason (that I can't explain and, in fact, is completely irrelevant anyway) I just like to have modest sideburns. C'Mon, it's MY hair!

It's not for lack of trying to find a good barber because at least 80%, probably 90% of my haircuts in that time have been by females. And I do make the effort to work with them. I've had my current female haircutter since we moved to Roseburg almost two years ago. It's been a struggle to get my hair cut the way I want. Once, after going to her for about a year, she whacked my sideburns completely off but I stayed with her because she promised she'd do it my way. A couple of times after that I told her to leave them alone and I'd trim them at home. She got annoyed with my lack of confidence so I relented and said, okay. I won't say anything again but the 'rule' going forward is: don't shorten them; just square off the end and I'll be the one to shorten them at home with my own clippers when/if I want to. She appeared to agree. Foolish me, I believed her.

To her credit she appeared to try. Then two haircuts ago she blurted out "I don't like sideburns". Well, duh! I should have known it was a lost cause at that point but I resolved to keep trying to work with her. The last haircut was the last straw. Once again she sortened them by about half. This time I didn't say anything but am in search of a new barber. Wish me luck!

I can imagine what you're thinking but, yes, I did give her a nice tip each and every time including a bit bigger one at Christmas AND we talked about 'stuff'. I wasn't a grinch in tipping or conversation. I was always on time for my appointments. (My wife would agree I'm punctual, perhaps to a fault.)

So, what is it exactly with female 'haircutters' anyway? I don't get it even after 20 years of experience with about 12-15 haircutters.

Stimulus Bill Process: Violation of Constitutional Principles?

Step back for a moment and check out what just happened regarding the stimulus bill.

First, representatives of some 45%(!) of voters were purposely excluded from the table (citizens' interests were denied representation) when the bill was created. Note: the Democrats claim their tax cuts in the end included that representation but: 1) just because something is called a tax cut doesn't mean it's a kind of tax cut Republicans desire (in fact, those particular ones aren't) and 2) most of what they call tax cuts are tax credits, not cuts at all so it's a huge distortion of truth to say that aspect of the bill supports Republican interests. Mostly it does not.

Second, the bill was too big and the vote forced irrationally too quickly for any(!) congressman to even read it, much less understand it. How can representation be claimed for even Democratic citizens when their congressmen didn't have time to even read it? In fact, more than half of the bill's contents are the types of things the constitution intended to go through appropriations processes. Using this emergency as an excuse to satisfy a pent-up desire for party-specific programs (therefore avoiding healthy, appropriate debates about their merit and content) is not clever. It's unconscionable and irresponsible.

Our founding fathers, via the content of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution clearly intended for there to be a balance of powers in order to avoid unfair governing as demonstrated by the desire for a fully representative form of government by including such features as the House and Senate, the electoral process as set up, three balancing branches of government, and setting everything up to balance political views via a give and take legislative process. It was clearly intended that resulting legislation should be processed so as to fairly consider and represent opposing views after having them rigorously debated and flushed out.

Bottom line, Democratic congressmen have no rational basis on which to claim their vote on this bill represented the will of The People. In addition, the debt created by this bill will force an unavoidable large increase in taxes. That means there was no assurance (and no desire or intention to achieve assurance) that either the bill's content or the resulting taxes represent the will of The People. The content and the process used in fact guarantee that the interests of a large percentage of Americans were purposely(!) avoided. Isn't that taxation without representation?

Instead of ensuring the will of the people is represented in the first place they did what they wanted, intentionally avoiding due (consitutional) process and are now embarked on a sales job after the fact to convince us what they did was the right thing.

This should bother all Americans, not just Republicans because it is a clear violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence (as in taxation without representation). The process used for this bill was puposely designed to exclude Republican participation in any meaningful way. Not a good day for our Republic.

Finished Reading 'Wild at Heart'

When did I stop being a warrior? When did that secret desire to be dangerous melt away? Life sucks it out of us if we let it. Good news is we can get it (back) men.

Fact is, we were born with a spirit of adventure to be warriors. Too often we end up being the epitome of the comic strip character, Dilbert. Or we direct our warrior effort and strength toward getting rich or some other shallow and fundamentally irrelevant objective/goal. Often how we look becomes more important than how we are character-wise. Appearance becomes more important than substance. Don't rock the boat ... you could fall out. Don't take risks ... you might fail. Don't be true to your nature ... conform. Don't do 'the right thing' ... that's so old-school. Don't. Don't. Don't. What happened to try ... try your best?

When and how did things like honor, honesty, courage, responsible behavior, integrity, reliability, faithful friendship, chivalry, defender of the weak/affirmed, hard/honest work, faithful husbands/fathers, and avoiding debt/indebtedness cease to become the standards? One of my greatest laments about our culture at this time: there was a time when a man's word meant something, when a promise made was a promise kept. One lawyer for every 10 people in the country wasn't necessary because a man's handshake was bond and people took more responsibility for their lives and for circumstances, especially those they created.

As Eldgedge describes, many of us men live wounded lives, unable to realize the potential God put in our souls. Wounds from our fathers are the worst along with fathers who are absent in fact or in spirit. Fathers who fail us or make/allow us to feel like failures keep us from discovering our "authentic masculinity".

So, we search (or should be searching) for that "authentic masculinity" such as God intended for us which translates into being a good (reliable, faithful) husband, father and friend. We were born to be Wild at Heart so if we never discovered it or lost it we need to find and embrace it. Our world needs us to be authentic. Our wives and children are more desperate for it than we (or they!) know or vocalize.

I recommend this book to any man who realizes he's no longer Wild at Heart.

Galesville Reservoir (OR) Fishing Trip 02/07/09

This is Galesville Reservoir where I spent Saturday doing what a lot of us retirees love doing. Fly fishing is the type of fishing I enjoy the most and I was using my 8' Outcast pontoon boat this time. Caught a good number of landlocked coho salmon which I've never caught before. Sweet relaxing day. At least until the wind started churning up whitecaps. Naturally I was at the downwind end of the reservoir so paddling back to the boat ramp was a challenge. But it was a beautiful day in a beautiful place. A good day of fishing ... and catching!

House Built on Sand - The Tide Has Come In On Our Credit-Based Economy

We built our robust economy on credit. Ever since we went off the gold standard under Nixon we've been printing money like crazy, building our economy on debt. Our collateral has been the capacity of American workers and enterprise. You wouldn't get a loan youself on such collateral but that's what our economy is based on. There are a couple of really bad consequences.

First, it's really, really hard to fix this problem because so much of our country's economy is based on debt. There's so much debt that pumping billions, even trillions, into it barely makes a dent in the underlying problem.

Second, the only ways to fix it seem to be printing more money or just paying down ALL debt and letting the economy go through the pain of a recovery which involves a lot of corporate insolvency.

We're trying to fix it by printing money because the alternative SEEMS worse. That's basically what these bailouts are ... printing more money and then propping up the dollar with loans from other countries. Did you know that just since September 2008 we've printed twice as much money as ever before? That drives down the value of the dollar really fast and adds mind-boggling amounts of debt we owe other countries. We're mortgaging our country to the hilt ... and beyond. It will create a huge inflationary bubble too. Most Americans don't or choose not to remember what it was like when basic interest rates were around 20% making EVERYTHING cost way more than we could afford. Inflation drives up the cost of everything and makes simple living difficult.

The alternative way of fixing this is soooo painful but will probably be better for us in the long run. We need to give up our 'standard of living' for a while and decrease our debt substantially (at the individual, business and gov't levels) and have it tough for that time rather than creating misery for half a century or more via this stimulus package.

Many Americans don't understand that most of this current stimulus package is not stimulus at all. Instead, most of it is pet Democratic causes and they're using this emergency as an excuse to get them through Congress because they couldn't get them passed otherwise! Did you know that it now includes a huge amount of NEW entitlements that we'll have to keep paying for long after this crisis is over? Do you think this is a good time to institute new entitlements? In fact it's stupid! Speaker Pelosi and President Obama promised that this package would be targeted, temporary and quickly effective. It is none of those things now. It's a shameful, dishonest sham being perpetrated on citizens.

Either way we attack this (through dramatically increased government spending or via capitalistic measures like fiscal responsibility) businesses suffer. If you think that these bailouts will fix it, think again. Businesses will fail at scary rates for at least a year or two whether it's from inflation (ie, printing money) driving their sales down or Americans making paying down all debt their priority instead of buying more 'stuff'.

If you think there's a painless solution to this you're being unrealistic. The painful but true fact is this will be worse than most of us think and I think this so-called stimulus package is a really bad idea, at least as it's currently set up. Encouraging capitalism will be better than just handing people money. And all the new funding for Democratic party special projects just adds to the problem, not fix it. We need ALL the money we can muster to help grow businesses so they can create jobs. The last thing we need is more gov't spending on projects (that CAN wait) and have to get funded by sucking money out of the economy and adding debt. Isn't it clear how stupid it is to do that?

Longing For America To Get Back To The Basics

This will be a series that I want to try out in addition to more mundane topics. Before commenting on specifics by category over the next several months I wanted to express my frustration with our country's direction and state my objectives vis a vis this topic within my blog.

I feel we're losing our way in terms of the kind of successful and healthy society that our founding fathers intended. It seems to me that we've strayed from building on the foundation they layed and are, instead, not just tweaking a so-called 'living constitution' but being pressed by well-meaning minority forces to build an entirely different foundation. I think the potential consequences or risks beg we explore what we're doing rather than just accept it.

I'm quite certain our founding fathers would be saddened by the hate, divisiveness, intolerance (including intolerance in the name of tolerance), and deteriorating integrity, honesty, principles, values and morals. They'd be dismayed by spineless political leadership that serves special interests and political correctness at the expense of citizen representation/protection and true constitution-supporting objectives.

Some of the issues that concern me (more depth on each in future blogs):

o Greed and selfishness. Anything seems to be justifiable as long as we're not the ones hurt, no one is looking and/or we don't think we'll be caught. How our choices/decisions affect others is irrelevant.

o Dishonesty.

o Materialism.

o Expecting someone else to bail us out of trouble, even when we get there through our own foolishness or bad judgement.

o Self-indulgence; no boundaries (by others or ourselves). We see no reason to deny ourselves, much less accept limits from others.

o Increasing immorality ... related to self-indulgence. Immorality is spreading; we're losing our moral compass. For example, sex is becoming a recreational activity.

o Spending well beyond our means and getting deep into debt.

o We don't feel responsible for debt we got ourselves into. In fact, leading debt-reduction companies say you "have a right to" have your debt restructured so you don't have to pay back what you borrowed. Bailing out on one's obligations is no big deal any more.

o We feel we have a right to avoidance of and protection from failure and bad consequences.

o Personal integrity, ethics and strong principles are becoming old-fashioned and irrelevant. Getting ahead rules. 'My word is my bond' used to be the rule and stood for something. Now, one's promise doesn't seem to mean much either to the person making the promise or to whom the promise is being made.

o Short-term thinking that ignores or sacrifices long-term benefit/good. We seem to be largely incapable of doing what's in our long-term best interest on an individual or any other level.

o Personal responsibility, self-discipline and accountability are to be avoided, not embraced. We even teach our kids this approach to life. Sad.

o Decline in public institutions' service to citizens. The education decline is especially troublesome.

o Doing what's right is less our default thought/action. Whatever happened to the principle of hard work to get ahead or doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing ... for a greater good ... first? Who or what should define what 'the right thing' is anyway? Why not be people of principle whose promise is trustworthy and word is bond?

o Duty, honor and patriotism are considered out of vogue, old-fashioned. Maybe irrelevant? Definitely not the path to being cool.

o Respect that derives from fear or intimidation rather than being gained by earning it.

I'm Also Stoked About Trips With My Sons!

These are my sons, Chris (left) and Matt. I'm excited right now because I'm working on plans to go on fishing trips with each of them individually this year. Fishing trips like this are mostly a good excuse to spend time together without the distraction of home and work responsibilities. Private time together with my sons to share whatever needs to be shared. Time to get to know each other better as adults. I'm so stoked about this and will be posting updates as things come together.

The basics of both trips are coming together. The most likely logistics got established by the fact that Karen and I want to experience Fall in Western Montana (ref blog posted 01/24/09). Since Matt lives in NorIda (what Matt's wife, Heather, calls North Idaho) it will be really convenient to work in a trip with him in the Fall as part of the trip Karen and I want to take up thataway. Current plan is to spend three days with Matt in the Helena area in mid-September probably fishing the mighty Missouri as much as we can. At least one full-day guided fly-fishing float trip is in order as we're not familiar with that area. Having a guide for at least one day will give us a leg up on the how and where of successful fishing there.

That means the trip with Chris will be in the Spring, late May most likely but I need to guess when the rivers will get lower and clear up. The duration's not established yet. We've talked before about meeting half-way between here (Roseburg, OR) and his home (San Jose, CA) so the Quincy, CA area is a logical choice for that and other reasons. Since he's working he can get there reasonably quickly compared with anywhere in Oregon, which maximizes our time together. Also, it's an area where I've fished several times before so we won't be wasting time trying to figure out where and how to fish. This works out well also because that time of year is good fishing in the Quincy area. I will plan to arrive in the area at least a week before Chris arrives so I have time to scope out where the fish are getting active and would likely stay there a while longer following time with him for additional fishing/exploring on my own.

For both trips I'll be taking our trailer, both to save on lodging/meal expenses and for the camping experience it affords. Updates coming as things firm up.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I love you so much! You bless my life!

(Pic is from last year's BDay but you get the idea.)

I'm Stoked For Trippin' W/Karen

Ah, retirement with the love of my life! We'll be vagabonds more this year. Gotta see Western Montana in the Fall so we'll definitely do that this year. Northeastern Oregon, which we've never been anywhere near before and a line of lakes in South-Central Oregon between Crater Lake and Klamath Falls are possible trips too. Not sure we can do all three this year because we prefer settling in each area we visit for 3 weeks or more. We'll see.

Our trailer, a 25 1/2 foot Nash, is very comfortable for us and we prefer staying in federal campgrounds where we're close to nature and good-natured, down-home people who also love slowing down to appreciate God's handiwork. Fly-fishing is always on the agenda for me everywhere we go.

Will post more info on these trips as the planning progresses. For now it's fun to anticipate the adventures in store for us this year.

Men Are Mostly Posers?

Most men are posers. Interesting proposition by John Eldredge in his book "Wild At Heart" which I've nearly finished reading. I'm still 'processing' his reasoning but there's a lot of merit to it. Our insecurities along with childhood and early adulthood 'wounds' lead us to pose as something we're not nor were meant to be. Longing to find the warrior that was in you as a boy fighting imaginary but fearsome foes? Check out this book.

The War Started Under Clinton, Not Bush

I've got news for those who naively insist we were at peace until George Bush became president. I've been hearing that again lately and can't let it go unchallenged. We've been at war with these terrorists since at least 1993 when they declared war on us by bombing the World Trade Center buildings on their first failed attempt to bring down both towers by crashing one into the other. We just didn't have the guts to fight back the way we needed to until they killed more Americans. Experts said the 1993 explosion could have brought down both towers if the van containing the explosive had been parked a few feet closer to critical support columns. We came that close to having the 9/11/01 disaster play out on 2/26/93 while Clinton was in office. Considering the catastrophe that the 1993 bombing nearly was, a rational person has to ask two questions. First, why wasn't national security, including surveillance tools, made a much higher priority afterwards? Second, why do so many people think this war didn't start until the towers were attacked a second time?

By the way, a man named Ramzi Yousef, who trained with Al-Qaeda, planned the 1993 attack and was one of four men who carried it out. Guess who his uncle is? Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, the principal architect of the Sept 11, 2001 attack! Khalid gave Yousef advice what to do and how to do it over the phone and funneled funds to him by wire transfer. (Doesn't that give you pause to consider even stronger surveillance techniques, not weaker?) Yousef was assisted in assembling the bomb by Abdul Rahman Yasin, an Iraqi bomb-maker. Yasin was detained by the FBI afterward and released but immediately left the country for Iraq. This all leads to a third logical question: why weren't our intelligence organizations able to connect the dots to the people and planning involved in the Sept 11 attack and, perhaps, prevent it? I believe the fundamental reason was because most Americans didn't believe or want to believe we were in fact at war.

Too many people still don't take this war seriously enough. This is a stateless, ruthless enemy who is absolutely committed to our destruction. It's an enemy which uses diplomacy like a weapon only to buy time and mislead. We need to wake up and fight this war with determination and commitment appropriate for the threat we face.