So what is a "federalist"?

at first look I would have guessed someone who want the good ol' Federal Government to take care of everything,....but if you listen to Fred Thompson it's almost the reverse!!
The Federal government NEEDS to be rained in, I don't know of anyone who in thier heart of hearts does not agree. Well I take that back, I guess if we cut all the unemplyment compensation, the welfare payments, the Aid to dependant children, and the BILLIONS of other bucks we piss away in this country,then maybe those folks would be a bit upset.
Not that I'm not sympathetic to the plight of these folks, becasue I am, but let's get it right, not "systematic". There is a TV commercial of folks going through a fast food court by the hundreds, burgers are flying through the air, magically landing on buns, drinks automatically pouring and matching up with the burgers and all being combined and poof! The customer waves his magic Credit Card over a little machine and off he goes with lunch and never even missing a stride. This is a perfect example of "systematic" to my mind. But back to the commercial,...one dude comes along, gets to the little machine by the cashier and hands her a few dollar bills, and BAM!!! The entire thing comes unglued, things are crashing to the floor, people are banging into each other and spills are everywhere. This is a perfect visual for a common sense person, like Fred, saying Can't the State handle this, why does the Federal government have to get involved.
(Ok a little lame, but you get the point!)
The Federal government sends billions to the States for school lunches, billions for child care programs, child health issues and clinics, but the taxpayer is paying for it all!
Let the States figure out and handle thier own problems, let them approach the Fed's and ask for help,...BUT they damn well better have a good reason, and be able to stand up to the scrutiny!
Gotta go, more later!
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Better Fred than Red (red being communistically inclined)

I urge you to see what we really need for a PResident of this country, check out www.Fred08.com
more tomorrow
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The decline and fall of the middle class way of life,...alas!

America is truly the land of opportunity, at least it was a hundred years ago. But in the last fifty yearswe have allowed our government, through our elected officials, to "fast track" us back into slavery. No, it's not the slavery we all studied in school, it's a new and even more insideous form of slavery, and it's called "liberal conservative emasculation".
Oh, it's still true that you can achieve instant success, even hard work success, but every day the real fact of life is that "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer." Let's look at the development of our country and see what's been happening,..shall we?
In the American Revolution we fought to set up a government and country to seperate us from the tyranny and injustices we saw to exist in the British Colonial Rule. The granting of vast quantities of land and title toa few, with the ability to levy taxation without representation, and , via that control control the masses and maintain a repressed society living in poverty and squalor. Our noble victory that brought about our Constitution andBill of Rights set us on the course to be the great experiment, where anyone could rise from the lowest level oflife, to the greatest. We saw the vision, and the value of public education, the magic of entreprenuerial thinking that turned "daydreams" into reality and progress for our entire society. A fair opportunity for so many, albeit there were many, many less then to avail themselves of these opportunities than there are now.
We moved forward from 1776, we struggled, we fought, but we endured. The Great Civil War of the 1860's which almost rent this noble experiment into shreds came upon us, and yet, despite the bloodshed. the idealogical differences. the corruption, and the greed, we endured still, and continued limping ahead as our wounds began to heal.
After the Civil War we saw a new trend, an immigration of people to this country like never before. They too wanted to be part of our noble experiment. At first they were welcomed, then ignored, and then finally they were flat out discriminated against in ways that today are almost beyond our comprehension. But in spite of it all we kept moving ahead,...moving forward as a society.
As the 19th century continued along there emerged a new voice, the voice of labor unions, or the "guilds" of Europe. They found in the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, the mandate to empower the principles sought fromthose documents from thier very inception. Life,..Liberty,..and the pursuit of happiness for a mankind of equal beings. They came into existence simply becasue the great growth of our country had reached the point that the rich were, again, getting richer, while the poorwere indeed getting poorer. Out of the unions came a completely new and unheard of strata of society. Something no other country has now or ever in the past risen to accomplish, it was the Great American working Middle Class. Those not gifted with great minds, lacking access to a superior education, lacking the skills to understand and live within, or amongst the "political cosmos", and the "silver spoon" of life. Only by the sweat of thier brow, the labor of thier hands, and the weight of hard work on thier backs could they even hope to move up into this new strata of success reserved for the wealthy and attain the pot of gold painted by the Constitution and Bill of Rights that lay at the end of the rainbow. But could they?
World War I intervened, and a gratefull nation of people went forth to give thier livesto contuinue the great experiment. When they got home from Flanders Fields, and the trenches and poison gases they found the rich were getting even more rich again, while the poorfar poorer. Fate intervened and the "Depression" of the late 20's and early 30's brought both the rich and the poor to thier knees,... and the first instance of the fatal "government virus" was visibly at hand.
While necessary to stop the depression and put the country back on it's feet, both economically and psychologically, far ranging legislation was passed, which in the long term would do more to hurt our country than any enemy, foe or invader could have ever inflicted upon us. In fact it would bring us to our knees again in the 21st century, and that is where we are now.

Tomorrow part II - Working ourselves back into slavery

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"Believe and all things are possible!"

I have a little mirror magnet over my desk with this inscription on it. I've had it for years and it is kind of my credo for life. But recently, maybe it's part of the aging process, I begin to doubt it a bit. How can you not if you look around this crazy world we live in?

I love my job, I just hate my boss, he's more than just impossible to deal with. He's spent the past two years hunting for my head, and frankly at this point he can have it! My strength in managing is pulling together a crew, getting the most out of them, and making them proud of what they do,...and I'm damn good at it. My philosophy of business is one of fairness all the way around, for the company, the employees, and the customers. I believe if you put those things together you have optimized your potential for success for everyone. If you "market" deceptively, play "games" with pricing, and the other aspects of business the company is shoooting itself in the foot,...eventually. I further believe people make mistakes, it's all part of life's learning process, but only if you learn, adapt and work to overcome, not simply put your head in the sand and pretend it isn't happening.

Recently I expanded my horizons and after many weeks of work and study, not to mention getting licienced by the State, I began a new career, part time at first and hopefully full time within a year, managing Community Associations. Lesson number one learned, some people have more money than sense, and flat just won't listen. I severed my relationship with one group after a scant two months as there were so many obvious problems, so much back door politiking, and so much just plain tunnel vision the task became not just impossible to manage, but staggering on the brink of some "creative accounting" just to keep it afloat!

As I remarked to a friend the other day , it's a real shame common sense and wisdom, not to mention self respect and concern for all mankind don't seem to develop during your working years, but only after you begin to stop and smell the roses. There is life beyond the almighty dollar, there is life beyond the next rung on the career ladder, and most importantly a person can become very rested and sleep all night if they respect social justice.

Enough of today's comments, time to get back in the "rut" for another day.

Retail Maddness,...it's here!

Well it's that time of year again, the "Holiday Season". It used to be the "Christmas Season", but now it's the politically correct "Holiday Season" instead. Another one of the "GONZO" items that used to be.

Ok so you're not of the "Christmas" belief, that's alright, then just ignore it, count it as a "freebie" day off, or to quote my grand daughter,..""Whatev'", but let the rest of us enjoy OUR Christmas season!

I work for a retailer and we've been setting up for Christmas since the 1st of October. All the decorations and stockings, and red and green "Holiday" signs are firmly in place. I willl make the rash presumption that the lower than usual sales this year and the consumer confidence and spending patterns are the major reason we went from summer to Christmas (there! I said it the old way, so I'm not the real "PC" dude!)

Some "expert" or "analyst" figures we will subliminally "trap them" into thinking Christmas is even closer than they think and they'll begin buying Christmas presents and allow the poor merchants to recover some of thier losses thus far in 2005!

But is it realistic? I may have to walk the walk and talk the talk, but it ain't even close to Christmas yet, so why start buying now? I'll miss the hustle bustle of the last minute "rush", one of the real signs of Christmas. And more importantly are there really any "deals" out there or are we looking at the same retail bag of tricks, you know "Buy 1 get 6 free", "25% off your second item" and all that other stuff.

And then there is "Black Friday". First of all it has nothing to do with race. Historically that is the period when the old merchants would actually begin to make a profit for the year, or go from the use of red ink, for losses, to "black" ink for profits. So if the term "Black Friday" ofends you then go seee your shrink!

But they come in hoardes. It's the closest thing I can imagine as an analogy of the landings on the beaches of Normandy in '44. Never mind logic, never mond reason, but the "one upsmanship" of retailers. One across from me opens at 4:30 a.m.! And there are people lined up for the "early bird specials"or the limited essential "give a way" to drag you into the store, because after all you're not getting up at three thirty to run down for one pair of slacks, or a polo shirt, so you'll stay and "shop til you drop".

The real "commando's" would put Wilma Rudolpf to shame the way they race fromn store to store like the devil himself was breathing down thier neck. They open the door, instantly make contact with a clerk and then it's "You got early bird specials?" And "where are they?" And "when do they go off sale?" They think for about three seconds, make a decision and either snag something and run for the cash register, or wiithout so much as a "thank's" close the door and run to the next store for a repeat performance. These clowns will hit dozens of stores practically before the sun comes up, and spend the rest of the day gloating over the "deals" they found.

They park on the highway, in the street, in employee parking areas, it's crazy,...but they drop a bunch of money.

Well time to headoff and do more "prep" work for the madness.

Since when does it make sense to be that "fanatical"?

What happened to common sense?

I guess I'm useing this as a form of "therapy", since I don't reallly think anything's wrong with me,...BUT we got a whole world that has gone over the edge!
When you don't have anything wrong with you, you know, you're childhood was not one of abuse, alcoholic parents, sooooo poor you couldn't afford clothes, or any other number of "victimization profiles", and you are now a "grown up" American, but confused as hell about where you "fit in", read this blog regularly.
We'll explore things like, "Why isn't my life my fault?" or not, and "Everything is so unfair?", definately not, and the mother of all wrong thinking, "Why doesn't someone like the government help me?".
I'll pen my first "rant tomorrow for your reading enjoyment, but be sure and comment to me. Why, because I think there's a lot more of us out there and that's a good thing.