This 'N That

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that for today.

Bill Maher states:

“We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It’s overrun with sheep and conformists.”

I’m sure there are those who think otherwise, but in the main I think Maher has it right. It’s one thing to speak out with a loose and crazy tongue. It’s a whole different thing if you are speaking out with sound ideas, good questions and observations of what’s happening, etc. Those thoughts provoke conversations with meat and logic that leads to stronger understanding of problems and their potential solutions. The other type of dialogue is tendentious and distracting. I suspect that’s the purpose of such noise in the first place. So, we have some work to do. Let’s get down to it!

From the Internet:

“The only reason you are a citizen today is because your ancestors believed and practiced immigration.”

Let’s not argue about legal or illegal immigration. At one time there was only one type and it was all legal. Today times are more complex. Legal definitions need to be refined; they also need temporary solutions to settle the outstanding policy issues surrounding illegal aliens. So let’s do it. John McCain tried to do it; so did George W. Bush, so has Obama. But depending on who’s in the White House at the time, the other camp always appears to rebel and make compromise impossible. So we need to try again with full honesty. The public must know we are trying to do the right thing and compromise. Those who don’t, will clearly appear as trouble makers. Maybe they will be not returned to office in the next election!  But that is up to the voters.

From the Internet anonymously:

There is a photo of a modest office building, then this caption: “This one building in the Caymans houses 18,857 ‘American Corporations’ that pay NO taxes.”

Imagine that. Sheltered income for the sheer purpose of avoiding taxes. Take advantage of all the loop holes available, yet still squeeze out of paying taxes. Taxes, by the way, which help pay for schools, universities, police and justice systems, roads, bridges, water supplies and distribution systems, communication systems and research and development. All these things are available for companies to use in order to provide goods and services to the market. Still the profits are too small for them; they hide their income and pay no national taxes on it. GE has done this. So have many other large corporations. And of course, there are countless smaller firms organized just for the purpose of avoiding taxes on their commercial interests. And let us not forget these tax regulations have been written into law by the wealthy people and firms who pay for lobbyists and PAC funds in support of specific politicians and special causes.

Shame! You and I have paid taxes for years for what we use. We helped create those services. We helped offer those services. Yet we paid taxes on our income. That’s us; the middle class. We are the engine of prosperity and always have been. We pay a good chunk of our earnings in taxes while inventing new industries, new knowledge, develop new jobs, and raise kids to repopulate the nation. Yet we have had our incomes slashed, our cost of living raised, and our nest eggs eliminated.

This is not about the poor although it could be. It is not about the rich. It is about the middle class. Screw with that long enough and we will fall back to another Great Depression Era. There are those who think we already have but I think not; however, the point of no return is approaching.

Sarah Palin said:

“Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant – they’re quite clear – that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the Ten
Commandments.”

Wrong Sarah! If it was so clear cut then you wouldn’t have the opening to raise the question in the first place, and have so many of your fellow citizens nodding in agreement. The simple truth is much more difficult.

John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 and said this:

“The government of the United Sates is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Now that’s clear cut and in direct opposition to Palin’s comment. No doubt our nation was founded in a time when religion held more weight in the prevailing culture. It is out of that context our nation arose. But the framers of the constitution specifically avoided mention of Christianity. It was religious persecution in other lands which gave the largest motivation for people to come to our shores in the first place. Freedom of Religion does not mean ‘do it my way or else’.

A little more openness and honesty please. Civil discourse is just that: civil.

August 4, 2012