Miscellany to Start the Week

As this week witnesses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, I have collected a few thoughts you may find useful. 

From Searchquotes.com comes:

“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends; but it’ll always get you the right ones.”

           

            Good way to start the week! Honesty. Forthrightness. Logical. Factual.

            Alec Baldwin has thrust this statement into the open air of public debate:

“Everything we stand for is under assault in this country, and not from some outside force. Our rights, liberties and economic security are threatened by the Republican party as it operates today.”

For a party that spouts conservative principles of self reliance and freedom, they are hell bent on inserting government to control everything from abortion to access to education, access to healthcare and religious freedom. Think what Abraham Lincoln stood for and would stand for today were he alive. Then think the opposite. That would put you pretty much where republicans stand today. What an odd turn of events!

Jon Martin Designs at www.jonmartindesigns.com shares this thought:

“Rommunism: Rewind & Ransack ~You do all the work. You pay all the taxes. We bank offshore.”

This statement may be over the top but really, all Romney has to do is share his tax data with the public so we can make up our own minds about his financial transparency and honesty. If it is good for everyone else, why not him? And please; tell us more why you think offshore banking should be good for you and the rich while not for others?

This next item comes from www.samuel-warde.com:

“I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta ‘rage’ in him; a rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically the only thing he’s not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.”  ~ Tom Morello,

                                                                           Rage Against the Machine

           

Ryan’s core beliefs and political positions are strict Tea Party politics. They are in fact uncomfortable to Mitt Romney’s positions. How are they going to square those differences in the public forum during the campaign? It will be interesting to see, huh? In the past Mitt has been much more open to gays, abortion, religious freedom, and constitutional government. But now that he is running for the White House, he is tweaking every issue for votes from special interests. And he is asking for campaign contributions as well from those same interest groups. Decency is something that has become lost in this process. His principled past no longer is. That’s a shame. It also means we cannot trust what he will do on the presidential public stage should he win the White House. That seems very dangerous to me.

The Pro Wrestlers Against Bullying have this idea to share:

            “Parents…you want to make a dent in bullying?

Then don’t tell your children they are worthless, fat, weird, ugly, bad, stupid, dumb or any other negative names.

            Build up their confidence, Not TEAR it down…Words HURT!”

I don’t know what’s more pleasing or surprising of the above, the message itself which seems spot on; or the fact it comes from Pro Wrestlers! Either way, it’s all good. We all need to work on this. Respect youth and help them develop into the citizens we hope them to become.

And finally, I want to leave you with this thought:

“President Obama created more ‘American’ jobs in 2010 than George W. Bush did in 8 years and more than Romney ever has.”

                                                                                    ~ Anonymous

It may be from an anonymous source but check it out with the GAO. The data supports the statement. I’d much rather have a president who has our back and is attempting to rebuild the middle class than a president who continues to demean the middle class and redistribute wealth to the elite classes.

It all goes back to FDR’s statement, “the best customer of a corporation is a well paid worker.” The middle class is the core to both a healthy society and the economy. Nurture one and get both.

Of late breaking interest: Romney has finally issued a white paper on his energy policies. It appears it is more of the same old theories that our nation’s future is rooted to oil, natural gas and coal. All three are finite sources of energy and guaranteed to rise in price. The only people benefitting from that circumstance are the owners of the natural resources and corporations that bid up their prices. The rest of us keeping on paying. The real answer is to find alternate energy sources.

Both our health and the environment will benefit from alternate fuels. And the economy will find new life and vitality as well. But from a backward looking politician like Romney, I guess we couldn’t expect better.

What we need is forward vision. Doing the same old thing won’t get us anywhere.

August 27, 2012