Paul Ryan's RNC Speech

Figured I'd do a quick review of Paul Ryan's excellent speech from last night. His speech included just the right amount of personal experiences, unabashed faith, and ideals. At the end he also made promises, promises that can be quoted and expected to be fulfilled to the best of his ability, one of the most important being the promise to take responsibility; something the current administration sorely lacks. How can the rest of the country be expected to take responsibility when those who are selected as our leaders are unable to do so themselves?

 "When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That's what we do in this country. That's the American Dream. That's freedom, and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners."


Ryan added just a bit of humor, without having to make jokes at the expense of someone else like so many other politicians tend to do.

"We're a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I. And, in some ways, we're a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I've heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it's not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin."

He spoke of his faith without trying to hide it, and the responsibilities associated with those beliefs.

"Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life.

We have responsibilities, one to another- we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves."

He also pointed out a fact that many of this nation's politicians seem to have forgotten, or just plain ignore, in their constant search for more control over our lives.

"Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government- to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America's founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government." *Emphasis added*

Full script for the speech can be found here.

All in all an excellent speech, makes me look forward to hearing what Romney has to say for himself. I still have some doubts about Romney, but they are mostly opinion related on various business practices (and based on incomplete information to be honest), and as opinion I can accept that I will never agree completely with any politician. In the end what we have for the Republicans are the Policy-&-Math Geek and the Successful Businessman, both are excellent family men with an appreciation for hard work, and the people who do that work. The Democrats have the Man-Who-Still-Blames-The-Past while demonizing those who work the hardest (careful, we can't have success spread!), and the Man-Who-Sticks-Foot-In-Mouth.

Feds Pushing More Spending

Not that anyone is surprised, but the Fed is pushing for more people to take advantage of government programs, thus increasing their spending and the various departmental budgets. Why they seem to think that more people need to be on the government dime given how far in debt we are only the Liberals could tell you. Someone fire the idiot that made that statement...

Typical Obama Tastelessness

As I'm sure everyone knows by now Neil Armstrong died this weekend. It is a great loss to the world at large, and the space community specifically. He will be missed. *SALUTE*

Of course the President felt the need to try and take political advantage of the death of a great citizen. He posted a picture of himself from last April as a tribute... Great idea, let's post an already used photograph of yourself as a form of tribute at the death of someone else. Only in the great narcisist's mind does this make any sense, and it's completely tasteless.

Contact Your Congressmen About the FCC

The newest push by the FCC to further control your lives and communications networks around the country, while raising your internet and phones bills in the process. Contact your congresscritters immediately and tell them not to support this bull.

I'm all for getting people internet and phone access, but if it was economically feasible a private company would have done it by now. Of COURSE AT&T and the like support this idea, it takes costs away from them and forces their customers to pay for it directly instead. Frankly, internet access at home and cell phones are not required for success in today's world. What is required is for people to actually be motivated to improve their own situation. Giving people this stuff for free only increases their dependence on government and their unwillingness to change their current standing in life. After all, why bother to work harder when you'll end up having to pay for all this stuff yourself? Especially when you can get it for free by doing nothing!

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Spending money on projects like this is all well and good when the government is running a surplus, but not when we're running trillion dollar deficits every year for the last 4 years (and before you blame the various wars, their total cost per year is less than $300 billion). Continual deficit spending will not get us out of this. We need to control government spending, bring it down, and give people are reason to work hard to improve their lifestyle, thus indirectly improving the lifestyle of everyone around them.

If your neighbor gets a job he is now spending more money in the area, which increases the money there is to go around, which motivates more businesses to move to the area, thus providing more available jobs. If the government creates the jobs then that money is not really there, it's newly printed cash that only increases inflation. Governments do not create wealth, they take wealth from private industry and redistribute it, ineffectively mind you, to their various interest groups (which in most cases don't have a clue how to run an actual business; ex: Solyndra, etc).

When the government increases taxes on those with higher incomes it reduces the will of the people to advance their own condition. Why work harder when they're just going to take more of what you earn and it will just leave you in the same living condition, yet more worn out, for that extra effort? People who advocate higher taxes on the wealthy are either already wealthy themselves, thus have more than enough to not care (most of it is already accumulated wealth anyway, which isn't taxed), or they are people who have no intention of advancing themselves, instead living off the backs of others. Anyone that actually intends to change their current situation and move up on the ladder knows (or should know) that increasing taxes on the "wealthy" will only negatively effect them when they finally get to that position themselves. Instead of waging class warfare on those who become successful in their lives, we should be encouraging charitable donations by those who makes lots of money. Give them incentives to give and people will do so.

Mitt Romney is the perfect example of this, and yet the liberal media is trying to make people hate him for it. Sure, he paid only 14% on his taxes last year (I only paid 8.7%, though my unadjusted tax rate is 15% base) but he also gave away 16% to various charities, and that DOES NOT include the 10% yearly tithe Mormons are expected to contribute to their temples. Overall the man gave away 40% of his income last year. How much more do people expect someone to give? What number is considered enough? Who cares if he has plenty more, IT'S HIS MONEY. He earned it through hard work and good investments. What is the problem here?

If you start a business you are paying local, state, and federal taxes on the profit you make. You are paying the SS and Medicare taxes for every employee, in many cases as high as 30% of that person's salary. You took out a huge loan, or mortaged your house, or saved up tons of cash, etc. Most people pay taxes for years before starting a business. Is that not contributing to the construction of those roads and schools and businesses? Is the money you paid to go to the various schools and take classes, or to receive training, suddenly not counted as contributing to the building of those facilities that helped you succeed? Anyone saying that you didn't build that doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.

Amusing Article

So LL Cool J apparently stopped a home intruder a few nights ago, broke his nose and his jaw. I guess that NCIS: LA training paid off. Willing to bet that guy will never break into another house again too. If more people were willing and able to similarly defend themselves you'd see a massive lowering of home invasions.

Hilarity ensues

So if you were the opposition and somebody told you that one of the primary donors for your opponent had said your veep choice's "ideas offer 'a lot of the right long-term thinking for the country'" how would you spin it?

This is the situation that Romney's campaign managers are in, and I really hope they take advantage of it. Marc Benioff, a national campaign co-chair for President Obama not only said the above about Paul Ryan, but he donated $10,000 to his House Rep re-election campaign before Ryan was selected for the Romney ticket.

Almost makes you wonder if they knew that before they chose Ryan, doesn't it?

Sorry for all the short posts by the way, getting back into the swing of things and my mind isn't quite on for full on articles just yet.

Germany Starts Jew Bashing Again?

I'm sorry, but given Germany's history against the Jewish community do they really think this is the best idea? Nevermind that circumcisions actually help prevent various medical conditions later in life, and the fact that they are widely performed for non-religious reasons.

It's probably the only time in modern day you'll see Muslims and Jews agree on something for that matter...

Remember people, governments always start small when it comes to removal of your rights. History and knowledge are the enemies of all dictators.

I'm Back!

Queue the AC/DC... I'm back from my vacation, and trying to catch up on recent events. Tend to avoid politics, etc while I'm on vacation to help actually be able to relax. Can never get away from it completely, but it's nice to slow it down a bit.

That said, the following made my day. "I'm a big believer in: if they punch us, we put on the brass knuckles and punch back," said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

Now that's my kind of political philosophy, enough of this namby pamby friendly crud when dealing with the other side, they sure as heck don't show us that kind of respect, so no reason to treat them any differently than they want to be treated.

Now to find some real news to bi... blog about.

Congratulations U.S. Olympians...

Now get ready to pay your taxes! The Americans for Tax Reform did their research and were kind enough to mention how much each medal winner gets, and how much of that goes to taxes.

Bronze:  $10,000          ~$3,500 in taxes
Silver:    $15,000          ~$5,385 in taxes
Gold:     $25,000          ~$8,986 in taxes

And that is BEFORE their yearly tax returns. Imagine winning several medals like Michael Phelps, and having to pay taxes in the $50k tax bracket just for the money you got in medals.

We're one of only a few countries that tax worldwide prize money. Thanks for competing everybody, now hand over that tax money!