I love these!

How original. I do like the walls, though. Wanna bet on how long untill someone posts a picture of them blue-screening?

read more here

Hmmm… who does the media respect?

Geez.

So, with the extreme rush to bailout of the new administration, has anyone actually stopped for a second to think about what all of this is going to mean down the road? It seems to me that the big O is attempting some short-term “solutions” but actually has a longer-term set of goals in mind, and I don’t think we’re going to like where he’s headed. This is not a political rant (it is a rant, but I’m not seeking to rail on the Dems), just a plea for some common sense observation… hear me out.

Let’s take a look at a few parts of the activities of the past 30 days. Signing of the largest spending bill in the history of the world. Holy cow. How can that not throw up all kinds of red flags? And where is this money going? How will it “stimulate” the economy? Truth of the matter is it won’t. Any “stimulus” it might provide will be in the form of jobs on the government payroll. And when was the last time you ever knew the government to reduce it’s payroll? That’s right, never. So not only are we spending a ton of money now, we’re increasing the size of government more than we ever have, which will mean more government spending tomorrow.

Has anyone noticed that every time the president opens his mouth to preach more doom and gloom, and blame the previous administration for all the ills in the world, that the market takes another few steps downward? All stocks are suffering, but banks are hardest hit right now. So the next step is the government “invests” in these banks to shore them up, at a greatly reduced per-share cost. Nice. The government gets a deal, and we end up with the entire banking system having the fed as the largest single shareholder. If the government controls the banking industry and the printing of currency, how can that be good? Tell me, if (and that’s a big if) the banks recover after this, and their shares go back up, does the government have to pay capital gains taxes on their increases? Something tells me “no”. They’ll just keep the stock and continue to control the banks.

What about the mortgage “crisis”? Well, since you asked, we have some legislation and spending for that, too. Let’s do this: if people can’t pay their mortgages, the government will step in and force the banks to rewrite the loans while paying for the shortfalls of the consumer. Hmmm, what does that encourage? In the areas where people “suddenly” find themselves upside down in their mortgage, because the value of their home has dropped so much they now owe more that it’s worth, what are they going to do? Stop paying the mortgage, of course, especially if they’re only eligible for government assistance if they’re delinquent. This will only cause matters to get worse, much worse. On top of that, it’s starting to become clear that the vast majority of foreclosures are occurring in 5 states (California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Michigan). By a whopping margin. The home values there were significantly inflated compared to the rest of the country. Banks wrote notes to people who couldn’t have afforded them in the first place, they default, and the banks foreclose. This causes the values to drop, which causes a correction. The market takes care of itself. But since the fed is going to step in and encourage default, this will only accelerate the decline. Honest people who would otherwise find a way to make it by in lean times will say “forget it” and go into default so they can participate in the handouts. So now the government owns the mortgages too.

Healthcare is next, and gun control is after that. Just wait. And the president announces last week that he wants to cut the deficit in half while all this spending is going on. How in the world does that compute? We’re just being softened up for the tax increases that come along. And history shows that every time taxes are raised, the economy reacts negatively.

It concerns me that the big O is spreading the fear and doubt in an effort to depress everything so that he can rush as much government increase legislation through as possible. Pretty soon the majority of the country (in one way or another) will be working for the government, and then suddenly everyone is going to wake up and realize that we’ve been Socialized. That will be a scary day indeed. The road to recovery from that will be painful indeed.

Take off the party hat and think for a second.

Things either spiral down or they spiral up. And it’s all comes down to confidence and attitude. If you are confident and have a positive attitude, things tend to go your way. If you have a negative attitude and are scared to death of the next shoe to drop, you start hoarding what little you have, holing up in your home, spending as little as possible, and things go the other way. Some call that a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, in that line of logic, think about it this way. If the President of the United States preaches nothing but doom and gloom, and says we’re going to use the power of the government to spend our way out of this (by increasing the size of government), and we’re going to help everyone out by giving them what amounts to $13 a week, what are you going to do with your $13? Probably put it under a mattress. It won’t go back into the economy. People will see that they’ll get a handout if they shirk personal responsibility. We’ll all go downward together.

But if the President said something like, “you know, our economy is still the largest in the world. We lead, we don’t follow. In fact, when we grow our economy, everyone benefits. More jobs are created. The tax base grows. Everyone wins. So, instead of spending us into oblivion, we’re going to do something radical. We’re going to do away with income tax for 2009. Take that money and get yourself back on track. Whatever that means to you.” Think about the impact that that would have on our economy right now. Sure, some people would use that shot in the arm to get themselves in a better financial position, perhaps getting out of debt. Many would go out and spend more. For about the same price as all of this spending the economy would receive a much more direct “stimulus”. And the stimulus would be at the hands of the people, not the government. Then the market could take care of itself.

If they really wanted to get radical, during the tax hiatus they could overhaul the tax system itself. Eliminate the stupid concept of taxing a persons earnings and move to a consumption based tax system. Forget this flat tax nonsense (although that would be better than what we have now). Tax me on what I consume and spend, not what I earn. That would have a much more positive natural effect on peoples spending and saving habits. Why should I aspire to earn more if that means the government is just going to take more?

I’ve about had all I can take of this class warfare rhetoric. “Tax the rich, they can afford it!” What a load of crap. It’s been said, but I’m going to say it again. I never got a job from a poor person. Ever. Here’s the deal: there will always been someone with more than you, and there will always be someone with less than you. You have to encourage people to move up in life. If I have money to spend, chances are I’ll spend it. Either by starting a company (creating jobs), or investing (creating jobs). Chances are not great that I’ll just stuff it in my mattress.

The government was put in place for only two reasons: to protect the people from foreign enemies (military) and to enforce the common laws of the land (judicial). It was not put in place to guarantee healthcare or build roads or help the poor or invest in the stock market or any one of the thousands of other things we’ve allowed it to do. The government has no place to tell me how I spend my money. It has no right to take my hard earned dollars and give them to someone who has a different set of socioeconomic circumstances. If you try to level the field by taking from me to give to someone else, you will only bring us both down. But if you get out of the way and let me decide who and what to invest in or give to, we all rise. That’s the fundamental difference between a market driven republic and a socialist/communist society.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping out your fellow man. If you vote left because you think your party is more compassionate towards those less fortunate, that’s great. But think about this: if you want to give to the poor and help out at the soup kitchen and volunteer at the hospital, that’s awesome. But do you want the government to mandate what you do in that regard? Should it be up to the political elite to decide where your earnings go? Or should you decide that?

With the current and proposed increases in government spending and scope, that’s exactly what’s happening. It’s all connected. How in the world can you have the “live and let live, what you do is your business and doesn’t affect me” attitude on the one hand, but then have the “I’ll tell you who gets your money” attitude on the other? You can’t have it both ways. It just doesn’t work. There are fundamental truths to the world.

I’m not happy with where the Republicans allowed us to go in the past few years, but is this the kind of “change” we were looking for? Socialism? It concerns me to no end that we now have a generation of voters and citizens who don’t even know the meaning. All they hear is headlines and rhetoric. And they can’t look past next week’s paycheck to see where we’re headed. We have a real opportunity to right the ship. But at this rate, we’re going to abandon it. So, if you lean left you can gloat all you want about your newly elected candidate. But I urge you to ask the question “is this really what I signed up for?”

In software, systems often reach a point where it’s easier to trash it all and rebuild than it is trying to support the current code stream going forward. You move forward with the learning and knowledge of the prior system, but start anew. A bunch of people from Europe did that about 250 years ago. Are we there again?

Remember, once a government increases its power, it very seldom gives it back. And we’re rushing towards the point of no return. Every example of Socialism and Communism has ended in revolution.

Think about it.