Obama promised to create 2.5 million jobs.   Six months later, still waiting. The unemployment rate increased to 9.5%.  Since there was a net loss of 467,000 jobs in June alone,  I’m pretty sure you can’t claim to have created any yet.   Let me think like a politician and try to spin this. In January when Obama took office, the number of unemployed was 11.6 million and 7.6%.   Since then, the number of unemployed is now 14.7 million people and 9.5%.   Let’s go ahead and pretend, sorry I mean “estimate” based on numbers pulled out of your ass, that the number of unemployed really would have been 17.2 million had we done nothing and then Obama can claim that he has created 2.5 million jobs instead of losing 3.1 million. Yeah that’s the ticket.  We could even say it would have been 20 million unemployed and then he could also say he “saved” another 2.8 million.  I think Robert Gibbs can sell that to that bunch of lemmings.

Perhaps next time we should actually read the “stimulus” package before passing it.   Since there are no “shovel ready” jobs like we were told, hand me that un-used shovel.  I think I smell something.

The Senate passed a Bill yesterday apologizing for slavery.  This is absurd for many reasons.  The most obvious reason is that nobody currently alive ever was or owned a slave.  Nobody’s father or grandfather ever was or owned a slave. Well, I take that back,former Klansman Senator Robert Byrd, born 1917 may have had a slave owning grandfather.   We are apologizing for the actions of people so many generations back that we never met and probably do not even know their names.  I would also like to make it clear that my family did not arrive in the United States until the 20th century so this apology is in no way related to anything my ancestors have done and that probably applies to a great many Americans including my wife who just became a citizen last year.  I have a guilt free conscience.

As far as I am concerned, the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil War, and the Thirteenth Amendment cleared up all this slavery business 150 years ago.  That is a long time to hold a grudge against an act that was never perpetrated against anyone who is actually demanding the apology.  Nor was it perpetrated by or against anyone they ever knew.  What responsibility do the descendants of any wrong doer have for the crime they didn’t commit? Are the descendants of Brutus responsible for his murder of Caesar?   Why should anyone carry the sins of their father?  And why should those who are not descendants carry the sins of other fathers?

So what does this apology accomplish?   By not apologizing is there some sort of implication that we as a society actually still approve of slavery?  Certainly not, as evidenced by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment.  No doubt we could have less controversy if the Bill simply reiterated our belief that slavery was wrong.  Who could argue with that even if there would seem to be little point to it?  So there seems to be some secondary, more sinister motivation that demands an actual apology rather than repudiation.

Of course the biggest fear is that there will be a claim for reparations.  The Senate Bill clearly states that this is not their intention.  Plus, I think the statute of limitations has probably run out unless there is some overwhelming sense of guilt that leads to a voluntary compensation.  Boy would that be a hard thing to prove and even if you could somehow connect people back to the original slaves and slaveowners, why should everyone not even indirectly involved have to pay for this through taxes?  Do immigrants from Vietnam have to pay reparations as well?  Isn’t it just another way to redistribute wealth to and from those who do not deserve it?

What I think it is is that some are trying to perpetuate the legacy of slavery with victim and entitlement status for minorities. Without it, there would be no quotas and no affirmative action.  There would be no race based handouts and without that an entire money making, race based industry would dry up.  Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton need this issue to generate income.  Liberals need class warfare to get people elected.  That is what I think is driving this effort.  Combine that with politicians terrified of being politically incorrect or being labeled a racist, and you get an apology 150 years after the fact.

So the next question should be why is Congress apologizing?  I think partially because some do actually feel guilty for things they’ve never done and for some it’s to put this nonsense to rest and not have to continually address it.

However, in my life I have apologized for many things that were truly not my fault to make just to be the bigger man and keep the peace.  And I have said I’m sorry to people, not because I did anything in particular, but because I sympathize with their pain, such as, “Sorry for your loss”.  So without acknowledging responsibility, and since it costs me nothing, and it may make someone feel better for some odd reason…

I’m sorry.

There you have your apology.  What are you going to do with it?

I have been wanting to write about this for a while and finally I had a nice rainy day with nothing else to do.

I have been wondering why it is that suddenly we have become so resistant to change while at the same time our politicians are demanding it?  When confronted with change, these same politicians have a bizarre hyper reaction to stifle it.

Global warming:  There is some sort of consensus that the world’s temperature needs to remain constant forever.  An increase of a fraction of a degree over an infinitesimal amount of time seems to bring out the Chicken Little in everyone.  This just seems completely unrealistic if you look at the history of climate change over the lifespan of the Earth.   Anyone heard of the Ice Age (also one of my favorite movies)?  The temperature swings dramatically in either direction even prior to man’s ability to leave a “carbon footprint”.  I don’t think you could stop it even if you wanted to.   We resort to bizarre ideas like taxing cows and pigs for their methane production and seeding clouds with pollution particles to reflect the Sun’s ray to cool the Earth.  We will spare no expense at preventing this even if it means dramatically lowering our standard of living.  We will go green at enormous expense until we have saved the planet.   I’m not exactly sure how we’ll know when we’ve succeeded.

The economy:  Recessions were once considered to be a cyclical and unavoidable phenomenon of the free market economy.  We used to ride them out and stimulate the recovery with some tax cuts and business incentives.  People learned how to tighten their belts.   Now when we enter a recession, we must do everything possible to avoid letting a recession self-correct itself without any belt tightening or suffering of course.  We strive for pain-free recessions. This is a lot like having a war where no one dies. Good luck with that.  No company should go bankrupt so we bail them out at taxpayer expense no matter how many bad decisions they make. Once they have actually accepted the bailout money, then we can insist on bankruptcy so that the government seize control of the company to advance a political agenda such as imposing socialism or preventing global warming by producing cars that no one wants or can afford.  Trillions of dollars we don’t have must be spent to stop the recession but of course we’re not going to cut any other spending.  Each time we try to manipulate the market by adjusting interest rates or borrowing money we just kick the can further down the road by creating another artificial bubble.

Health:  Do you remember when people used to get sick?  Well not anymore.  Just like the economy, this is now unacceptable.  Forget the fact that 20,000 people die every year from the average, ordinary flu.  When you get sexy new diseases like the Bird Flu or Swine Flu, a virtual artificial panic ensues.   Schools shut down.  People stop traveling. Some countries cull millions of birds and pigs.  Pictures of people wearing masks blanket the news. The Swine Flu might be the wimpiest flu on record, but you wouldn’t know it by the world’s over-reaction.  People were in a virtual panic.  My son’s wrestling school even shut down for a day even though there were no reported cases in our state at the time.  The explanation?  They didn’t want to be the one place that ended up on the news because they were they only place that didn’t close down.  Let’s keep some perspective.  145 people in the world have died due to Swine Flu and 27 in the U.S.  Over 100 people die EVERY DAY in car accidents yet we don’t overreact to that.  1,400 people die EVERY DAY from a heart attack.  17,000 people die every year from illegal drug related deaths yet we still have some people advocating the legalization of such drugs. Seems hypocritical and irresponsible to me.

My question is why?  At first I thought we had a God Complex where we thought we were so arrogant that we could could control the Universe.  Now I think the answer lies in the recent quotes of Rahm Emanuel, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” and Hillary Clinton, “Never waste a good crisis … Don’t waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security.”   These are contrived crises designed to play upon our fears so that we will cede control to those who can save us from ourselves.  It’s a play for power and for money and believe me many people get rich from these fears.  It’s a very dangerous game and the sooner we recognize it, the sooner we can get things back in the correct perspective and maintain our freedom.

Chastity Bono, daughter (or is it son) of Sonny and Cher, has decided to have a “sex change” operation.  Clearly she is not actually changing her sex as this would require a complete overhaul of her X chromosomes into Y chromosomes.  More accurately, she will be mutilating her body to mimic the male form so that she feels more comfortable with herself.  Even thought she wants to be referred to as “he” or “him” now, I find this biologically inaccurate and confusing for the sake of writing this so I will just stick to her original and biological gender for now.

I cannot begin to imagine how much self-loathing it would take to undergo such a radical procedure and announce it to the world and how she possibly arrived at this place.  Certainly everyone can relate to not liking certain things about oneself or even wishing we could be someone we’re not, but who can relate to something like this?   Michael Jackson maybe? Could it be said that he has now changed his ethnicity just because he has altered his outward appearance?  Maybe Jocelyn Windenstein who has repeatedly had surgery to make her resemble a cat?  By the way, that doesn’t really make her a cat.

Howard Bragman, Bono’s publicist, released a statement saying, “Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity.”  I’m not sure courageous is the appropriate description.   I find something very disturbing about this.   Not that what she is doing affects me in any way, but I really feel sorrow for her. She must be incredibly unhappy.

No, I really don’t get it.  It does not seem to be the sort of thing that is related to her sexual preference though, because it is certainly acceptable these days to be attracted to women if you are one yourself. There are probably a majority of lesbians who are completely comfortable being a woman and like themselves for the most part as they were designed although it is rare to meet any woman who doesn’t wish to alter something about themselves.   Sure a nose job or hair color or implants seem within reason, but I do find it extreme to lop off both breasts, take testosterone to grow hair and enlarge the clitoris, and have a hysterectomy.   Being a man is gross.  We are disgusting creatures and why would you butcher yourself to look like us?   Body hair is no prize, really.  I wanted it when I was 12 and now I have so much hair everywhere I really can’t stand it. There’s also more to being a man than looking like one.  She’ll have to learn to be an insensitive pig and that takes years of training.

And really, you’re fooling no one.  You’re going to end up looking, acting, and sounding like a woman who had a sex change much like a drag queen who cannot pull off being a woman convincingly.  It just ends up being creepy and cartoonish.  It’s one thing for a lesbian to bring home her girlfriend to meet the family, but try bringing home the lesbian who’s now a dude?  That will just confuse everyone.

I really wish people could accept who they are inside and out and be happy with themselves.  Everyone is special just the way they are and should feel that way.

Just curious, if a lesbian has a sex change, does that make her and her partner now straight?

This morning Obama also announced new CAFE standards for the car companies forcing them to produce cars that exceed 35 MPG.   I was wondering why he would do such a thing.  Clearly the car companies are already in trouble.  Chrysler is already in bankruptcy and GM is on the verge.  There is no demand for the hybrid vehicles they make now because simply they are too small and too expensive.  I would probably buy one if I could afford it, but I can’t.   The obvious result will be higher car prices and lots of unsold cars that nobody wants.  How could this possibly help the car companies or the consumers?

Then this evening I figured it out.  Obama is deliberately trying to bankrupt the car companies to nationalize them.

According to Reuters, General Motors will become Government Motors.  After giving GM over $15 billion in bailout money which we were PROMISED was a great investment with great returns for the taxpayer, GM is ready for bankruptcy, but get this, it is selling itself to the government.   And guess what the government plans to do with it?   First it will forgive all the bailout funds we gave them and then it will start a new company, owned by the government, to later be turned over to the unions and bond holders.

What???? That can’t be right.  But it is.  The government just started a car company.  This is incredible.  I bet as usual no one will dare to challenge it either except obscure bloggers who have somehow escaped falling under the spell of the Charismatic One.

We just leap-frogged socialism and jumped headfirst into communism. This is no exaggeration. The government is taking over a private business and giving it to the proletariat.  They will try to make cars according to a political agenda rather than the laws of supply and demand.  Obama is trying to create a supply and forcefully create a demand by limiting choice.

So who do these CAFE standards target?  Ford.  The one company smart enough to not take government money will now have to compete with a nationally subsidized competitor.

Good grief, somebody stop these people.