The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

The Giant And His “Friends”

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There is a wind blowing.  A mighty wind. The Giant, long asleep, has awakened to find his home being pillaged in the stealth of night. 

And he is angry.

The Giant, who is kind, works hard, takes care of his tribe and usually keeps his own counsel, thought the thieves were Friends. He thought that by taking care of himself and his tribe, and those Friends, he would keep the land safe so his tribe could grow strong and prosper. He gladly paid a small tithe to the Friends, but that is not what they want.  The stores he has put by for the long winter, the patch of ground he has worked, they want all that, too. The Friends want to control the Giant and his tribe, so what the Giant won’t simply hand them they take and steal.  They want the Giant to be dependent on them; he has too much, they say, so they take it and make it theirs.

The Friends have never seen the Giant angry. They ignore him in his protests; they turn a deaf ear to his complaints. He has been quiet too long and that quiet has been taken as complacency. But that wasn’t what it was.  It was simply the Giant going about his business, content with his world, warts and all. He never expected his life to be perfect, but he always had options and choices and he could work with that. He sees now the Friends aren’t his friends; they have been waiting quietly for the Giant to sleep so they may take away what he has worked for, to take away his choice of how he lives. Has the Giant awakened in time?  How greedy have the Friends really become? How far will they go? They have already started to smear the Giant’s good name, to say things about him that are untrue. The Friends have already shown they might use force if the Giant doesn’t cooperate and go back to sleep.

How far will they go?

It has been many, many years since the Giant has had to fight on his own land for his right to be left alone. Can he still do it? For all the Giant holds dear, he must now fight or what he loves will be forever changed.

We, The People, of The United States of America are at the crossroads of one of the most dangerous times in our long history. Is that statement scaremongering? Over the top? I don’t think it is. The wealth of our nation is our wealth, wealth that we have earned. The government has no wealth except for what WE, THE PEOPLE, create.

Think about that.  They are borrowing on what we do, on what we will do in the future, and spending it. It is NOT their money; the government has no money but what they take from WE, THE PEOPLE.

WE are a kind and generous folk, always have been.  Are we perfect? No, we are humans. However, we should always understand and be proud of all the good we do. The money, goods and time we give freely to help others in this country as well as others.  WE, THE PEOPLE, are good folks.  We can’t forget that though they, the government, would like us to forget. They call us greedy and tell us we have no idea not only how to take care of ourselves but how to best use what we have earned though our labor and so they will take it.

This isn’t about the rich,  it is about our rights.  It is about our right to choose how we conduct our lives.  To choose how to to PURSUE our own happiness, how we live day-to-day.

It is about control.

Do we have the guts to fight this? I believe we do and it isn’t just Congress.  It is the local and state governments as well.

How do they play?  Let us count the ways.

Schools go right after busing and anything else they can think of to upset the kids and inconvenience the parents. Yet on closer inspection they have hired more administrators, given them raises, and have spent money on precious little that has to do with actual education. Plus they have to follow unfunded, useless mandates from the state and federal
governments.

At the local and state levels they say “We will cut services”; police and fire go right off the bat, yet spend $500 a pop on office chairs (yes, that happened in my state). Hire more pencil pushers and give everyone raises. Have assistants for assistants; everyone has a state car to drive, and on and on.

The Federal government …won’t even start.

They all have their hand in our pocket.  They all make laws and rules daily that take a bit more of our rights and our ability to pursue happiness.

It is time to stop “The Friends” because our “friend” they are not.

Think About This

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Everyone can’t help but think about money these days.  We’re seeing less of it in our paychecks, we’re spending more of it for goods and services, we’re paying more of it in taxes (yes, Virginia, this year’s stimulus credit will be next year’s tax liability), and it continues to be news every day as Wall Street continues to wobble like a Weeble and Pater Obama and the Family take over more and more of private enterprise.

As it has been noted here and elsewhere in the non-Democrat-dependent media, the government got us into this mess in the first place and, throughout modern history, when the government makes a financial mess, they’ve never yet been able to clean it up.  Since this administration is using previously-failed tactics, there’s no reason to think we’re going to come out of the current crisis with anything that resembles the original United States of America.

There have been rumblings for some time that the “average person” isn’t really savvy enough when it comes to investing, and various proposals hit the table time and again about how the government should step in and save them from themselves.  If you believe that, folks, I have another bridge to nowhere for sale.

Here is a good piece that helps put remove the liberal’s hocus-pocus and puts the reality of the government’s deep dive into the private sector  into better focus.