I just drove out east to Buffalo and back; the whole trip was about 2000 miles and took 34 hours. I spent most of that time listening to conservative talk radio. I found it to be a real disappointment. Almost everything was about Anthony Weiner. Conservatives are not going to win back this country by talking about the sex life of a democratic House member that represents a liberal New York district. They better start talking about important issues and real solutions if they expect conservatives to take back this country in 2013.
One example of good conservative programing was an interview with Ann Coulter. She was talking about her new book “Demonic” The theme of her book is that the Left has a “group think” mob mentality and most internal mass violence in the world can be traced back to the actions of an irrational mob. It makes sense to me. Throughout history mobs of people were moved to violence by demonically controlled people. The mob is always emotion driven, where as, the conservative Right is driven by rational thinking. Ann Coulter made a good case in that interview that internal violence almost always comes from the Left. She spent a lot of time in the interview contrasting the American Revolution with the French Revolution but you will have to read the book to get the details.
As I have implied in my other writings, if conservatives actually take over this country the Left in the cities will start to riot (all big cities are leftist). The majority living in the big cities will resort to mob rule if they cannot get their way through our republican form of government. We had a small sample of that in the 60’s but that will be nothing compared to what is coming. When or if the mob actually gains control of the country then everyone must conform to the “group think” of the mob. When that happens you will find yourself in a place much like either Nazi Germany or Mao’s China.
I noticed while driving all those miles that the Interstate system in America is in pretty bad shape. I think many of our unemployed should be paid to work on our crumbling infrastructure until they can obtain other employment. We now are paying the unemployed to just sit at home, lose their self-worth as a productive member of society, and get fat. Why not pay this huge surplus labor force to do something more useful like rebuilding our infrastructure or helping with other local and national needs? I really do not want to hear about how everything is controlled by politicians, contractors and labor unions because the sane people in this nation should be dealing with that issue as well.
While traveling the interstates my observation was that almost all the primary roads in this nation need to be rebuilt and all the Interstates need to be expanded to at least three lanes. I also think an even better idea would be to build separate expressways for cross-country interstate trucking. Back in the days when most of the interstates were built, almost all freight was being shipped by rail. It is becoming increasingly dangerous to have these big trucks and small cars traveling the same crowded roads. We need leadership with new ideas on how to use our surplus manpower to improve our country.
I don’t know how many homes and buildings I have seen in the cities that are going downhill fast simply because the buildings needs a new roof and the wood needs a coat of paint to keep out the moisture. What is wiser, paying people to do minor repairs now when people are unemployed, and saving the buildings in the cities, or expecting to build a new city in the future by once again creating unsustainable debt after the depression?
Half the people in Buffalo are not working, or are not making a living wage; so they live in substandard housing and collect food stamps and Medicaid. Many are disabled but somehow most manage to carry around twice the weight that they should. Most of the healthy looking people in Buffalo are the old and the young. I am just using Buffalo as an example ; almost all the old eastern big cities have these issues.
From my observations and conversations I do not think most in Buffalo understand the political issues. They blame the rich (anyone that has more money than they have) and corrupt politicians for everything. They do not seem to have a clue that those in small business (“the rich”) are the ones that create jobs and that the corrupt politicians that they whine about are the very same people that they keep electing to office.
I have talked with conservative women both here in Missouri and in New York and there seems to be a common thread. They do not like Sarah Palin. Whenever I ask the reason they do not like her, the response always is that “there is just something about her”. That is not a rational argument. Try it on a conservative woman near you and note their response. The truth is that many women just do not like successful good-looking outspoken women even if they have the very same views. I wonder if Michele Bachmann will get the same “there is something about Michele” reception?
If Buffalo is a representative sample of northeastern American cities the depression is not going to end in this generation. Buffalo has no answer for their own problems. The city has been going downhill for decades. New York State has no answers for their problems either. There are too many people on the government payroll or on the dole and taxes are nuts. People are leaving the state when they can but family ties often keeps them living there in jobs far below their potential. At least housing has not fallen in value much in the Buffalo area because it has been in a depression for decades; there was no housing bubble in Western New York.
In contrast, in Arizona and Nevada where I spent decades of my life, housing prices have now dropped to about half of what they were just five years ago. Those that sell their home owe more than they can get for them and they can forget about ever recovering the money that they put down to purchase it. Many in the Southwest worked in construction so they will not have a job anytime soon either. The southwest will be in a depression at least until the surplus housing is gone.
Since the fires in the southwest are big news, as a side note, I will also add the following observation. Some of the most beautiful lands in this nation are now burning in Western Arizona and Eastern New Mexico. These fires will not be out until after the summer monsoons start in a few weeks. There will be about 1000 sq miles burned to a crisp. I have to wonder why our land managers cannot seem to get these fires put out while they are still small. It seems the government just puts the least amount of resources they can on fires and then the fires too often get out of control. Only when it is already too late do they bring in the resources that could have put out the fire.
They do not learn. They never learned anything from Yellowstone or the big fire in South Oregon a few years ago or the fires in California and elsewhere. I have news for them. It costs a heck of a lot less to put out a wildfire when it is small than when it is burning square miles of timber. For some reason government continually under-reacts to fires. They should know better by now.
I figure the two big fires in Arizona that are ongoing will cost the taxpayer billions and destroy two great American wilderness areas. The government idiots managing our lands should have learned by now that they need to spend a few million dollars on planes and smoke jumpers. They need to spend the money to put fire fighting resources in place in order to save billions of dollars in lost timber, homes and huge firefighting costs. I think what we need, is a special forces of smoke jumpers that are just standing by in the critical fire months to put out these fires as soon as they appear. Hot spots can be automatically spotted by thermal remote sensing satellites long before they get out of control.
Maybe I am being too hard on the federal land managers, they probably cannot get the money from Congress until it is already a Federal natural disaster. By the way, the big fire in the Coronado National Forest in Southeast Arizona was started by illegals just like they start fires in Arizona just about every year. Our President apparently must think that illegals provide many jobs for American fire fighters or he would police our borders adequately as the U.S. Constitution requires him to do. No, it does not take moats with alligators, all it takes is the will to enforce the existing immigration laws.
I am one of those conservative women who don’t like Sarah Palin. She’s has too much of a rock star thing going. Her family is in the spotlight as well what with the daughter being on Dancing with the Stars. Plus, she herself has that show about Alaska. Too me that persona is too much of a distraction. All we’d hear about day after day would be her outfits, her hair, her kids, her this, her that. I want someone who is serious. I like Michele Bachmann. She’s attractive but doesn’t have the spotlight on her life. I hope Sarah doesn’t run, she would continue to diminish what is left of the Republican party.
Don ,
Like myself, I think you are tired of hearing about Anthony Weiner. A great deal of talk radio
from both sides I view as nothing more than a form of entertainment. I put Rush Limbaugh and
Howard Stern in the same bucket, they only do what they do because they get paid big bucks for
doing it. As you so correctly state , the big cities have become slums waiting to implode.
Many people on some form of taxpayer assistance do not want employment, they want entitlement.
We the people through our apathy sre as much to blame as government. America’s problem is spiritual
not financial. When there is no more money for handouts there will be riots and it will take
military force to stop them. Unless and until there is a serious revival in this country there
will be no improvement. The only thing I know to do is be faithful to God and pray.
Adriana,
Actually, you are not one of those conservative women that I was talking about. You give legitimate reasons, they do not.
Adriana,
You give a very good evaluation of Sarah Palin. She has become wealthy since McCain picked her
and the media is fasinated with her. We do not need political celebtities, we need God fearing
public servants. Sarah gets way too much media attention , one would tend to believe she relishes the attention or she would remove herself from the spotlight. She offers a lot of
criticism , but no real specific ideas or solutions.
Jesus Christ could run against anyone and lose, including Sarah.
Even if Jesus did win, everyone would still be whining. “He’s too much of a star”;
I wonder if they’ll be whining when they choose the mark of the beast?
Spoiled rotten brats.
There’s maybe two years left, if that, to get your act together. And you’ll need a skill set that doesn’t include the word “office”;
With or without Sarah or Mitt or Obama or Chrislam.
And China is already rumbling over the debt crisis.
Sorry, I can’t hate Palin because of her show. She had some serious lawyer fees to pay off after the incessant attacks from leftists while she was in office. Keep in mind, in 2008 she was the only one out of herself, Biden, Obama, and McCain who was not a millionaire.
Keep in mind, all ‘conservative women’ are not Christians and that ‘something’ that they don’t like about her might just be the Holy Ghost. I would take Palin over any one of the current crop of Republicans (most are R.I.N.O.’s) with Herman Cain a close second.
Mr. Fritts: Palin only gets the amount of attention the MSM gives her. To say that she, “offers no real specific ideas or solutions” is just false. She has ideas for job growth, energy independence, ‘real’ national security/foreign policy that actually benefits taxpayers, and many others.
Unfortunately, the MSM chooses what is on the news for ‘public consumption’.
She was even correct about Paul Revere.
Excellent article Don, it hits on some very real subjects.
RE: Sarah Palin, I have noticed when talking to women (not here on this blog) that there is a jealousy that seems to crop up when talking about Palin.
When I was listening to Ann Coulter talk about the “mob rule” in her book ‘Demonic’…though her book pertains mostly to the U.S…I couldn’t help but think, as an example, of the enormous mobs that have engulfed the Middle East.
Our U.S. Highways, as someone who drove commercial trucks in the U.S., it is true that 40 tons of truck is both a danger and tears up the roads…but, unfortunately, the cost of building new roads just for trucks is way too expensive.
It seems to me that we are already building our interstates mostly for trucks and that is why they are already way too expensive to build. There should be more use of rail for the long haul or make truck roads out of Liberal BS, it is cheap and it never wears out
The North East area has VERY heavy truck traffic, combine that with extreme weather & salt and you have a situation where roads are torn apart quickly and need to be constantly rebuilt.
The train rails are already overloaded…hence the need for trucks.
For safety, regarding trucks…there’s simple solutions, but the D.O.T. is more concerned with fining truck drivers than making the industry safe.
The roads up north can never stay in good condition for the reasons above, but also when water gets in the small cracks in the road and freezes, it expands and breaks up the asphalt/concrete. I have seen this in GA since we had an abnormally cold winter this past year with higher than average snow/rain which turned to ice. There are roads here that were paved only 2 years ago that now have cracks that feel like expansion joints when you run over them.
Keeping the roads in tip-top shape in the northern states would take billions upon billions per year. Then again, if we weren’t giving our jobs to other countries and devaluing the dollar, we could probably afford it.
What ever happened to the new paving materials that were supposed to have been developed over a decade ago that would prevent all that? I guess the lowest bid contractor uses the cheapest materials. I am no expert but I think if they paid the price to use the best materials the roads would last much longer. However, spending more for something that lasts has never been a huge American trait.
Frank is absolutely correct, however, there are technological solutions as you indicate Don…problem is, again, you have big government getting in the way as they do in every facet of the American life.
Self repairing and chemically heated tarmacs in the winter have been around for years…but how can government build anything when it costs them $500 for a hammer or they spend $500k+ on research to see how shrimp react on a runners treadmill in water ?…this is not a joke ! Search it.
Frank ,
Not sure what you mean by MSM. I read the news on CNN, FOX NEWS, and MSNBC almost daily. There
are many things about Sarah Palin I like, but I just don’t see her as Presidential material.
I am delighted to see Palin’s strong support for Israel and anyone who opposes Obama on anything is usually correct. Maybe I under estimate Sarah Palin’s abilities. It would be correct to label me as radical because I want monumental change in Washington and I want it
super quick , not gradual. A 360 degree turn overnight would probably cause more problems than
it would solve. I can’t see any candidate who could bring that about . This country is too
divided to really change anything quickly. I think we have to go bankrupt to wake people up to
reality. Not all entitlement programs are all bad, but we can no longer afford them.
To: Don Fritts,
I disagree, it’s not the entitlement programs for the elderly, disabled, etc. that we can’t afford, it’s wasteful, out of control, government spending that we can’t afford. This debt is the result of over 20 years of irresponsibility by our elected officials.
And, what do you think the odds are that the Washington elite are going to continue to vote themselves a pay raise (gov’t entitlement) every year…despite the economy ?
MSM = Main Stream Media, it seems our culture is getting acronym happy, I wish people would quit being lazy and define their acronyms 1st.
David ,
Thanks as I have never heard the acronym MSM before. I think the irresponsibility really
started with Lyndon Johnson in 1964 with his great society programs. I agree there is no reason to believe Congress will act in a responsible manner, they are there to serve themselves
I am not advocating throwing the elderly under the bus , but there has to be some changes.
I have always believed Medicare is loaded with fraudlent claims. As I already said, I the radical one who would make any misuse of taxpayer dollars a MANDATORY Capital Punishment
crime and allow No Appeal. BLESSINGS to YOU David.
Regarding the interstate highways… Don’t forget EPA regulations. A decade ago I remember an older asphalt hand complaining about how “they have taken all the good stuff out of the A.C. component (tar) in asphalt”. I doubt a decade has improved things.
David, the difference between a small car with 1 person is not much lower weight per square inch on the road surface as a semi at 80,000lbs. A semi at legal limit is about 40lbs per square inch, a small car is about 36lbs per square inch. Add more persons in that small car and you will probably exceed the pound per square inch of a semi at 80,000lbs. They just don’t build roads and maintain them at proper intervals as they should. All tax revenues are put into the general fund and the Congress Critters think that all that money needs to be spent on social needs instead of infrastructure to keep our country moving forward.
Don,
The problem I see with putting unemployed people to work on infrastructure, is that you end up with more government workers. That is where we are headed as a system, but I would not be inclined to push on the gas to get us to there sooner.
The solutions to our economic problems historically have been based on innovation and individuals creating. That was the strength of the American system. That system has been so horribly twisted and disfigured that we now look at government led solutions like they might actually help. They will not, they will just compound an already untenable situation.
I am not suggesting that they be government workers. What I am really suggesting is that if you need to collect long term unemployment you need to work rather than just sit home and rot.They can find ways for private contractors to hire the unemployed using government funds if the infrastructure projects were created.
Let’s face it, there will be high unemployment for many years to come, so there is plenty of time to identify the projects and get these projects done. Paying people not to work long term is stupid. It costs taxpayers money and it gets absolutely nothing done for the price we pay.
Don,
I agree with what you said as an ideal, however, if private contractors are using government funds to facilitate a work force, wouldn’t it actually turn into government running and regulating the thing again ?
I think government caused these problems intentionally with their over taxing & regulating that led to outsourcing so that we could only rely on them (the government) instead of the public sector ?
As a taxpayer, I would rather pay for unemployment then all the big government nonsense that got us into this mess in the first place.
We are at a wits end and are now debating cutting entitlements because big government wasted trillions on unnecessary expenditures (research nonsense, stimulus, money to foreign countries, etc.)
We could kick the elderly and the disabled to the street, cut unemployment (let them starve) because government squandered our taxes and destroyed the private sector.
Talking about entitlements…
Having been in Congress since 1999 Anthony Weiner will be eligible for a congressional pension of up to $46,224 each year, according to the National Taxpayers Union, which calculates all congressional pensions. He’ll eventually be eligible to collect the balance of his Congressional Thrift Savings Plan, which is currently $216,011.
Or how about Nancy Pelosi’s $200,000 family vacation on taxpayer dollars last year or her $18k a month office.
The list goes on and is quite long of our government at “work”.
David,
We live in a Republic. The people of the United States are suppose to control their governments. If we the people have not done that job and continue to let government run out of control the people reap the consequences. The real problem is that too many people demand a free lunch from government and also want regulations to control everyone else. Then they run into the mess that they helped to created themselves in many ways and then say the government is out of control. Sure it is, but whose fault is that and who has the power to do something about it?
Well, anyone who has read what I have to say knows that I’m an admitted pessimist when it comes to the plight of humankind. The more I read the daily news and the more I study history, mostly the Bible, the more it’s confirmed in my mind that man cannot rule over man with integrity.
Is it even remotely possible that the government would relinquish its increasingly domineering power over our lives, vote for term limits, spend responsibly in the best interests of the nation, decrease their own personal wages/entitlements in office to a reasonable level ?
Here’s an example of government attitude on their authority…
When Asked Where the Constitution Authorizes Congress to Order Americans To Buy Health Insurance, Pelosi Says: ‘Are You Serious?’
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55971
Yea, it’s a big joke to those in power and how dare we (the people) to challenge them (the government)…
Who can we elect or what can we do to reconstruct the U.S. federal government to what it is supposed to be and get these power mongers out of there and bring our country to the Republic status it is supposed to be ?
I am openly optimist when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s the only hope for mankind in any nation in my opinion…and to those I talk to daily who won’t receive the Lord and depend on man, I fear for them.
Pelosi did not get in her government position without people voting for her. If people in this nation want the likes of her in government who really is to blame for that?
The problem in our nation is not our government, it is the morality of the people that elects such representatives.
We are not going to change the end plight of humankind but we are suppose to be the salt and light for humankind. So Christians need to vote for people that they know are true Christians if they want to see change for the better. But if the majority in America now hate what we Christians stand for we ought to know that it goes with the territory. The people that reject God’s people will get the king that they demand and their Saul will always oppress them.
well i would say that Sarah Palin could’ve used her celebrity style status to her advantage but her handlers failed miserably in cashing that,, rather her biggest potential became a curse for her.