A Parking Lot is the Best Nancy Could Find

To celebrate the Stimulus Recovery, Nancy went home and found someone who was given $10,000 in the stimulus package, and in turn the parking lot owner says he has “created” 13 jobs.

Impressive.

Maybe you’re like me, and it’s been a while since you’ve been able to afford to go out to eat, let alone go somewhere which requires paid parking – but the last I recall, parking lots don’t have a lot of employees, and those there are…tend to be minimum wage.

So…787 Billion dollars, and Nancy wants to celebrate minimum wage jobs.  Go figure.

Way I see it, 787 Billion divided by 300 million Americans, means a little more than $2,600 per person.  And for a typical 4 person family, that wold be about $10,400 dollars.  I think we would have been better off with a ten thousand dollar check, than jump up and down cheering 13 more working at the parking lot.

I also love her answer about California unemployment going from 10.6 to 12.4 – we won’t know how bad it would be if they hadn’t acted.  Well, for starters, that argument works both ways – no one can tell where it would have stopped.  In other words… it may have stopped at 12.5 or maybe … even 11.4.

Second flaw – if 787 Billion stopped it, does this mean another 787 billion will lower it?  why stop there?  Why not throw 787 billion at unemployment every month until everyone has a job?  I’m sure there are still plenty of ways of creating even more minimum wage jobs.

Because one thing is certain – you can’t spend your way out of debt.

First Milestone

Just thought I’d take a moment and recognize that today is my first milestone – 500 visitors.

Ok…Rush, Milken, Beck…I know they get that in all of 30 seconds, and it’s taken 8 days to get here.  But you know what, when I started this, I was figuring maybe one or two hits a day (thanks dad and thanks to my wife).  I wasn’t figuring to get here yet.

But you what?  I’m just having fun.

Old-Man-Tex

What the Mount Vernon Statement Means to Me

Granted, I wasn’t able to make it to the signing of this document (oh, that and I wasn’t invited – but then, that’s not the point).  There’s been some buzz about it being on Wednesday.  In case you haven’t read the “Mount Vernon Statement”, the opening preamble might catch your attention.

“We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding.  Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law.  They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.”

(Now, before any nit-wit has a heart attack that they used the word republican instead of democrat, remember, they are talking about a model of government, and not a particular political party – if you don’t know the difference, then your gripe is with your high school civics teacher for spending more time on green energy citizenship).

Remember the opening lines to the Statement’s preamble?  compare that to the following opening lines – and tell me which sounds like the sound bites coming out from the left.

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.  Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight.

What I do believe is this – Mount Vernon is the home of General Washington.  He should be the role model for each and every person we ever think about electing.  He joined others who swore their honor and their fortunes.  With today’s crop of corruptocrats, honor has no meaning, and the Beltway is seen as a way of expanding one’s personal fortune.

What I do remember about General Washington is this: the public was willing to call him “Your Excellency”, but he only wanted “Mr President”.   After winning the war and securing the power, he could have simply declared himself Emperor, but chose to return home after two terms (and for those who’s high school teachers spent more time talking about American Imperialism – it wasn’t until after WWII that the Presidency was restricted to two terms).  He didn’t have to leave.  He wasn’t about to be voted out.

So…the Mount Vernon Statement means this to me – we need Statesmen, not politicians.  We need men and women who are humbled by their office, not see it as validation of their own personal agendas.  We need people believe a stain to their honor, is a fate worse than death (which means, having to define “is” and “sex” are not the defenses of someone honorable).

What we have today is good people, who have good intentions, but once they are there…at the seat of power, they no longer want to leave.  They are willing to compromise their principles and beliefs in order to not only maintain, but acquire even more power.  In other words, what we have today are disciples of the Faustian bargain.  (Give me the power, and I will sacrifice honor and principles to keep it).

So… only history will be able to tell what impact the Mount Vernon Statement has had, but know this, if we don’t restore honor, and return to the principles which set this nation on an unparalleled course, then we should be ready to accept “the American Experiment” is about to come to an end.

Tea Party Caused the Austin Kamikaze

Well, it took less than 24 hours for the Left to start saying “Tea Party” in the same sentence as “Austin plane crash.”  Imagine that!

“Scott Brown Yawns at Plane Attack” and “New GOP Senator links guy crashing plane to his election”

But maybe we should have seen this coming – after all, when the professor in Alabama went on a shooting spree, it didn’t take long to press for a link between her crimes and the Tea Party (“Race in America: Does racism explain the ‘tenure shooting’ and Tea Party movement?”)

A few days ago, Professor Jacobson at “Legal Insurrection” has done a fine service by trying to warn everyone that this was what we should start to expect.

Now…read the words from the Kamikaze himself… do you see anything about Tea Party? Or Obama? – no…this is someone who’s been having problems for better than 20 years, which appears to have started when he started to attend “You Don’t Have To Pay Taxes” seminars.  If anyone is to blame for sowing the seeds, it should be here…and not Tea Party.

Read his diatribe, and you will see he was no fan of any part of the government.  Or CPAs (who he blames for tax problems).  Or for other Engineering companies which “colluded to drive down the rates”.

There’s a lot I can say about the Kamikaze – and after reading his manifesto, one thing I’m sure of, his ideology was nothing comparable.  No more than the Unabomber’s manifesto was.

Enough on that… the main point – we better be ready for the populist movement to be blamed on a wide number of violent crimes.   That’s prediction number one….Prediction number two: watch for the head of DHS and other mouthpieces like Gibbs and Olbermann to take up the same accusations.

Old-Man-Tex