Posts Tagged ‘The Factor’
I didn’t always agree with you, but you inspired many to defend their beliefs.
The budget explained in simple English.
United States Tax Revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal Budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New Debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National Debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent Budget Cut: $38,500,000,000
Now, remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s your household budget.
Annual Family Income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New Debt on the Credit Card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on credit card: $142,000
Total budget cuts the politicians are proud of: $385
Today is Veteran’s Day. Although many people confuse Veteran’s Day with Memorial Day, they are distinctly different in many ways. One thing is for certain…it causes a great problem for me. First a little history, then we’ll get to my problem.
At the end of World War I, prior to the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles, fighting ceased when an armistice went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918. In 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11th as the first official commemoration of Armistice Day. After some changing dates and different laws recognizing this day, President Ford signed into law the return of Veteran’s Day to its original day of November 11th, with said law going into effect in 1978. Now to my problem, for which I have no solution.
Veteran’s Day always falls on November 11, regardless of the day of the week. This year it’s on Friday. Although some schools will be closed, many will be opened. Schools choose to stay open because of legal requirements that force them to teach a certain number of days, and giving up a Christmas vacation day or summer vacation day to take off on Veteran’s Day is something that most teachers’ unions won’t tolerate. Never mind our veterans, this is the union we’re talking about and we all know how important they are.
Most government offices will be closed. Presumably it’s so the employees can attend Veteran’s Day celebrations in cities nationwide. In reality, the government employees union better known as the AFL-CIO, has used its leverage over the years to bargain the government for a certain number of paid holidays, and Veteran’s Day is one of them. It matters not the significance of the day, what matters is the time off. How they spend that time off is not mandated, so don’t be looking for the AFL-CIO to be marching in a parade near you.
Private business has chosen a unique way to celebrate Veteran’s Day. Knowing that many people will be off from work that day with presumably nothing to do, most retail outlets will have special sale fliers, hoping to fill their stores with shoppers looking for bargains. I’d like to think that some of those bargain hunters will be visiting the local veteran’s hospital with some of their cheaply acquired booty, bringing cheer to all the patients that need some.
Looking around, one would think that the people who have profited most by the sacrifice of veterans would observe this special day. Since banks are closed on Veterans Day, my first reaction is to jump for joy that someone in the private sector recognizes those sacrifices. But a closer look reveals that the New York Stock Exchange is still open. The excuse they use is that we have to consider the global markets and our global trading partners, forgetting that most of our global trading partners are not marching the goose step down Main Street because of the sacrifices our veterans made during World War II.
If you think you’ve guessed my problem, you’re probably wrong. I’m not demanding that people change their ways and celebrate Veteran’s Day in a manner which I and many other may prescribe. I’m not demanding that the stock market close, government employees attend a parade near you, or stores stop offering sales and shoppers stop shopping. I’m not demanding that peoples of foreign nations stop to recognize the contributions of our veterans to their freedoms, or that the world stop rotating on its axis because it’s Veteran’s Day. I’m not asking for anything like that.
My problem is this: Today, I will tell all the veterans I know how thankful I am for their service. I will tell them how thankful I am for the freedoms which we all share. I will tell them how much their sacrifices mean to me. For some of them, I will simply say “Thank you”. In saying that, I feel as though I am falling horribly short of what is owed for their sacrifices. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and entire communities have sacrificed their sons and daughters for my freedoms. Those sons and daughters of our nation have given their all, at a cost that I cannot fathom, much less measure.
How is a man of modest means such as myself to repay such great acts of service to one’s country by so many people? How do I make it known to these fine Americans how much I appreciate what they have done for me and my family? How do I pay this debt of gratitude? I have no answer.
I hope that today, Veteran’s Day, will bring peace and happiness to all of our veterans. I hope that this day will be celebrated by many. And at the least, I hope that all veterans everywhere will accept my most gracious thanks for all they have done, because my thanks is all I have to offer.
Last year, I wanted to write something special about Memorial Day. Posted here, I received so many responses from it I didn’t have time to read many of them. One response, from Gina Miller, lead to the reading of that entry by Gina on her twice weekly radio address.
During the last year, not much has changed in our country, except to say that we are 365 days closer to being able to vote the biggest disappointment I have ever known to hold the office of President, out of office. This year, as with years past, I will head to the local National Cemetery to listen to services and pay respect to the many people who gave all to protect a simple man such as myself. Only two people ever gave their life for me…one was a man named Jesus and the other was an American soldier.
I decided to re-print last year’s Memorial Day posting. It still represents my feelings about this precious day. It also brings back a few memories, one of which was our President skipping the traditional ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to go party with his Chicago buddies. I and others won’t forget that.
So, without further delay, I bring to you my Memorial Day message, and hope that our veterans that are still here with us will receive my warmest thanks for a job well done. I will always remember you and your sacrifice.
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I wanted to write something special about Memorial Day I wanted people to read my words and with those words jumping off the page at them, just say “Wow!” I’ve sat here for hours thinking about this, and my emotions have run the gamut from anger to sorrow to happiness to fear. What started off as a quest to write something superb will end up being a mere description of my emotions and thoughts about Memorial Day.
First, I am angry at the American people. Memorial Day is a special time of observance, a time to remember those that gave all in defense of the freedoms that we all enjoy. It originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. For many people, it has turned out to be a day of “Summer Sales Event” shopping, perusing a mall in search of made-in-China goods representing trade policies that have destroyed our work force. For others, it’s an excuse to drink too much at a picnic, or worse, a day when our President will skip the traditional service at Arlington National Cemetery so he can go vacation in Chicago with the rest of his thugs. This is a truly a disgusting display of everything that is wrong with America.
Next, I feel sorrow for all of the men and women who have died fighting for a country they loved. While many men and women gave the ultimate sacrifice for their service, men like Dick Blumenthal lied about their service to make it seem like a sacrifice. For those that have served, please remember that when people lie about being on the same level as you, it is a compliment to the way that America views its veterans…with the highest level of respect that can be put into words. These liars imitate your good name, good reputation, and righteousness to benefit their own less-than-stellar image. We will sort them out and hang those that insult our veterans with their lies and deceit.
At the same time I am happy….happy to live as a free man in a free country, courtesy of the sacrifices those before me have made. I am happy that I can wake up and know that I will enjoy another day, not as a communist, not as a Marxist, not as a servant to the queen…but rather, a free man. Thank you, veterans. Let’s hope we can count on the voters to keep us that way after the next election, because at the rate we as a Nation are going, our freedoms are becoming lost upon us.
With that being said, I must say that I fear for the future of my country. I fear for our children, who will have to pay for an enormous debt that our country has, who will have to fight a war on an ideology masked by religion that our President refuses to acknowledge, and who will have to clean up the mess left by our leaders, who are nothing more than grown up dope-smoking hippies from the sixties.
Our current leaders are the same people who dodged the draft, invented the term “recreational use”, and spit on our soldiers as they returned from war. Their “free love” mindset has created a court ruling that has resulted in 40 million abortions to date. We have a court system over run with drug abusers, pedophiles, and child pornographers. As our law enforcement officers and our court system struggle to keep up with crime, we have politicians that continue to allow thugs and criminals to flow across our borders, feeding this crime wave while refusing to enforce federal immigration laws. Hold these leaders accountable.
This weekend, as we remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, remember that those freedoms also come with a price payable by all of us. That price is the responsibility of ensuring that all they fought for, all they died for, was not in vain. That means we must enforce our laws, accept responsibility for our own actions, and hold those accountable that don’t take responsibility. We can start with Washington D.C., and begin taking back the country that so many have died to preserve.
Sometimes people will ask me why I don’t publish as much of my own writings as I do from others. Some have even said to me that it appeared that my website was becoming a forum for everyone BUT me.
That’s what this forum was designed for. It was intended to be a forum for others to be seen and heard. I want the voice of America to be heard by all, and that America is you. In particular, I really appreciate the voices of conservative women. It is my belief that the conservative movement, mostly represented by the male-dominated Republican Party, will fail in it’s endeavors to take back out country if we do not empower conservative women to take the forefront of that movement.
Alan West, in the video below, describes in brilliant detail how it is women, and not men, that are the backbone of a powerful society. Take a look:
The folks down the street came walking by a few days ago with their seven-year-old daughter and stopped to say “Hi”.
During small talk chat I asked the little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked the little girl, “If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?”
She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”
Her parents beamed with pride.
“Wow…what a worthy goal!”, I told her, “But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.”
She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”
I said, “Welcome to the Republican Party!”
Her parents are no longer speaking to me.
If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
(Unless it’s a foreign religion, of course!)
If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a conservative reads this, they’ll tell their friends so they can have a good laugh.
A liberal will attack it because he’s “offended.”
I posted this prior, but thought it would be a good time to resurrect it. It’s a bit slow in the beginning, but watch until the end…it gets good.
