Politics ...

    I had a brief text session with a friend recently and it reminded me that my last post did not address the larger issue.  Specifically, my last post was about politicians playing games with the sole intent of 'gumming up the works.' in Washington. What I failed to note was that it was the political drive for 'Universal Healthcare' that brought us to this point.
    Ms. Fluke's testimony regarding contraception was not really about contraception. No, it was about free access to a 'service' since the service is now being provided by our government.  I have heard numerous arguments regarding women's healthcare as opposed to men's healthcare and why the disparity in the services provided. This morning I stumbled across the article that highlights my concerns from the beginning. The article is all about access to men's ED medications and vasectamies.
    I think the combination of Ms. Fluke's testimony and the lawmakers trying to manipulate the public's consciousness regarding healthcare is serving as the perfect example of what I feared would happen. The government is no longer talking about providing healthcare to the citizenry - instead they are focused directly on how to manipulate the masses.  You don't believe me?  Prior to Universal Healthcare (even though it still has not been implemented), we did not have discussions of forcing citizens to undergo additional procedures if they wanted access to a specific drug/service.  Now that the government is the only supplier - we see the unintended consequences of such a plan. Unintended is being nice as I personally believe this was the plan all along.Very directly the government can tell us what steps we must take to receive the medication or service that we need. We must meet certain criteria before being allowed to have the procedure or drug and our ability to argue or disagree has been muted.

Let me be clear - I am opposed to government run healthcare. I am opposed to the government providing for ED medication and services. I am opposed to the government providing for contraceptive services. I am fully in support of private companies building products and services and inviting private citizens to purchase and subscribe to those.  Please remember - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act is not about providing healthcare it is about access to healthcare.  What discussion would we be having right now if the government was not taking over access to healthcare? The economy? Education? Defense of our nation? Immigration? Drugs? Safety of our children?

Experts? Who said they were experts?

There are no sour grapes in this post. The election is behind us and the next several years will show us what we just elected. My question, in light of the way the current congressman and women are acting, is who said we elected them to be experts? At anything? The way the 535 congressmen and senators have been acting seems to imply they were elected because of their brilliance and ability to manipulate, I mean manage, health care - financial markets - the automobile industry - energy .... When in fact the majority of them made it to Capitol Hill as lawyers.
I mean no disrespect to lawyers. How does a lawyer know what is best for the economy? How does a lawyer understand health care and what is right for the masses? Quite simple - THEY DON'T! Apparently winning an election is the first step in manipulating the future of the millions.
If this is not the case - please explain Nancy Pelosi to me, and she is one of the few non-lawyers on the hill. What background does she have to carry the influence that she wields? She has no background in health care, energy, manufacturing, finance (other than her own family wealth). In fact - her biography only lists that she graduated college. No specialty - no further study ... But she is directing how her party, and the rest of congress, should be taking on these issues that have huge implications for today and tomorrow. Not to complain to much about Pelosi, she is but an example of the 'I am in - now what can I change' gang known as the legislative branch of government.
I am 100% opposed to term limits as We, the people, should be smart enough to vote those out of office that do not represent us well. I am opposed to un-educated voters being allowed, often hand delivered, to vote. Differences are what makes us strong - so this is not about those that disagree with me being blocked from voting. I just believe that people caught up in the hype are not capable of rational thought. Without rational thought - how qualified are you to even vote?

Who are you?

I feel compelled to share a bit more about how I came to be the person I am and characterize this blog by what is really behind it. Some who are reading this may think I am a strong McCain supporter. You could not be more wrong. John McCain was not my choice - no, he is far from the representative that I was interested in electing to the office of President. That being said, he is the strongest candidate for that office at least on the areas that I care deeply (national security, the sanctity of life, individual rights, responsibility) about. Again, I said he is the best still standing.

The media in this country took away my chance to vote in the primary for the candidate that I thought would be best for this country. How? Why? They did it by backing John McCain and Barack Obama and by the time it was my turn to vote .... well, the choices had been dwindled down. Yes, the media did it. So why would the media back John McCain and Barack Obama? And what happened to that support (at least for McCain)? Quite simply put - John McCain was the closest thing to a Democrat that the Republican party had to offer and they saw this as the closest to an acceptable outcome as possible. Once the rest of the candidates were run off - the press' true colors came through and they showed that even an 'isle crosser' from the Republican party would not be acceptable. Why Obama? Because he is the most liberal candidate to ever step forward ... in the history of this great country. The press loves this and is the sole reason they continue to block and tackle for the candidate as he inches closer to the most powerful and most prestigious job in the entire world.

Why does any of this matter? If you have children you already understand this. Take the position of parent as you watch your child or children grow. When they are small you encourage them to take steps, you follow behind to pick them up when they fall. When they are taking steps on their own, completing sentences without your assistance and beginning to find and make friends your job as parent takes on another role. Now, you are looking out for who/what will interact with your child and you do things help to shape who your child is. I am specifically referring to monitoring and at times controlling who your child interacts with. We all know the 'Do not talk to strangers' part of this, but what is even more important is the investigating that we all do to know who our children are associating with. Who do they play with on the playground? Who do they eat lunch with at school? What are their parents like? What circle does my child run with?
This continues throughout the life of your child. Why? It is the associations that we have in life that make us the people we are. We all have found good and bad in people and we make judgement calls as to whether or not to continue the relationship. As a child we can't understand why we are or are not allowed to play with certain kids. As adults we understand that we are 'the company that we keep'. Character matters and part of that character is understanding who we should and should not associate with.

Back to politics .... or did we never leave. Barack Obama's associations are not ones that I wish for my children to have. To that end, they are not associations that I wish for my country to have. To many - comments such as these would be considered negative but the inverse could not be more true. It is simple honesty and innocent report of facts that should measure the tenor of the commentary.We need to grow up and be the parents. We need to stand up when we see something that is wrong in our society. We need to find ways to fix what is broken. We need to participate to insure we have the opportunity.

God Bless the United States of America!

Where is the honesty?

Not that there are many of you out there reading my posts, but if you have read them you sense that I am rather annoyed with the media in the U.S. . Politics is a simple area to see how one-sided, skewed and self-promoting the media is in this country. There was a time, I have been told, that the media (print, radio, television) actually reported the news. They investigated all aspects of a story and provided that information for the world to consume.

That time is definitely either a dream, a point in history that has been passed by, or simply a creative thought that my parents shared with me as a child and I believed them. The news media, specifically print and television, is so focused on getting their story out there that they often create news instead of merely reporting it. Reading about Sarah Palin (you name the topic) it is very clear that a team of investigators took their charge to dig up information very seriously. This is something that the media should do. However they failed to do the same research on Joe Biden, Barack Obama and John McCain. Perhaps they think that everyone knows how much each of them spends on their wardrobes or how much money they have tied up in family business ....

That being said - it appears that they simply have a plan to report every negative aspect of the governors life in an effort to create/sway public opinion instead of simply reporting it. If they really were about informing the public they would have gone through the same level of investigation and speculation about Joe Biden. Something as simple as :"How can a United States Senator, for several years, be in a position to only be worth $63,000?". Talk about judgement - if he has nothing more that $63K saved after all those years living on the public dime, then how ready is he to be President? Balance a budget? Get us out of this economic crisis that he helped get us in to?

So, until the press decides to act as an unbiased observer and researcher - I will not recommend them for anything other than lining my daughter's rabbit cage and another reason to limit the amount of time my children watch television.