There has been plenty written about how rotten this year was and this decade in general. Of course I have a contrary view. Not just philosophically, but personally. I graduated from college in 2003. I was the first person in my family to do so and I paid for my own education. I’ve been fortunate to work for a fast growing privately held company here in Sarasota for five years. I have also married a wonderful woman.
Are there things to complain about? Certainly, but complaining is for losers. I consider myself lucky to live in the most prosperous nation on Earth during the most prosperous time in history. Could things be better? Sure, but things could most certainly be worse. The past years have seen tremendous technological innovations. Just think about a world without high definition television, high speed internet, smart phones, Google, Facebook, blogs, and GPS. I don’t have to think very hard. I remember 1998 very clearly.
Instead of worrying and complaining about our dire situation let’s be thankful. Why do our best days have to be behind us? If the past 100 years have taught us anything it’s that the future will always be brighter than the present.
Tomorrow is the last day of 2009. It’s the end of the decade (well, not really). It’s time to adjust the way we say our year. Frankly this is well over due. Techcruch links to another story about this change. I like 2010 already.
Say “2009″ outloud. Chances are you’re saying “two thousand and nine.” But if you think about it, that’s weird. Say “1909″ outloud. Chances are you’re saying “nineteen-oh-nine.” It makes some sense, since we weren’t going to pronounce “2000″ as “twenty hundred,” but for whatever reason, going forward, we never moved to something like “twenty-oh-one” for “2001″ and so forth. A new website is urging us to do just that for the next decade.
There’s certainly a lot of blame to go around about the latest foiled airplane bomber; however, I don’t get all the ire toward the President. I understand the nature of politics. It’s not just the Right that’s beating up Obama. It’s the Left. When Maureen Dowd bashes Obama there’s definitely a problem. As the Politico has pointed out, Bush didn’t receive this kind of press after Richard Reid tried to blow up his Air Jordans.
I think this stems from the Katrina Effect. After Bush was reelected in 2004 the press and the Left became adept at blaming everything on the Executive Branch. As I’ve stated before, Katrina was a natural disaster that was the most poorly-covered event in my lifetime. Since that time the President isn’t getting a pass on any issue. The nation’s press is so mired in negativity even Obama can’t rise above it. Sure, I have some real problems with this administration’s attitude on national security. There’s no doubt that the White House’s war with the CIA isn’t good for our nation’s security; however, the press won’t cover that angle. Given the way the press is covering events Obama is in deep trouble politically if he faces any kind of disaster.
Liberals spent eight years complaining about all sides of the federal government. Most of these problems were laid at the feet of George Bush. What liberals forgot was that conservatives are even better at pointing out the excesses and waste of government. After spending eight years successfully bashing Bush and the federal government Americans are supposed to accept a larger, more debt-ridden government? This is the fundamental problem facing liberals. Liberals didn’t mind Bush’s big spending government. Obama was able to tap into this angst to get elected, but he has no way harness it now. Domestically, Obama and the Democrats are just Bush on steroids. Americans didn’t like all the spending then, and they abhor it now. Bush Derangement Syndrome has its consequences. Being partisan for partisanship sake may be a profitable political tool in the short-run but eventually ideology wins. What is the big popular idea coming from progressives? Raising the minimum wage?
Mostly due to the Christmas rush I wasn’t able to write anything about the speech I attended by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. Mackey joked briefly at the beginning about the Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote in August; however, his speech wasn’t about politics. The speech lasted an hour and Mackey touched on healthy eating. He showed a number of graphs that show that the price of food in America has declined since the 50s while the nation’s health problems have increased. Americans are eating way too much in dairy products and meat while the only vegetable we seem to like is the fried potato. These aren’t new revelations, but the sheer numbers are staggering.
Mackey’s speech wasn’t political overall, but it should have been. Until the citizens of the United States make a conscious effort to start eating healthier there’s no way we’ll be able to control our health care costs. Mackey listed a few healthy items that my wife and I are going to try to adopt in January.
Mackey recently stepped down as the Chairman of Whole Foods. He remains the CEO. The title of Chairman is largely pointless, but some of the nutjobs are happy about it. Mackey has become a “divisive figure.” That’s what liberals call people they don’t agree with. Using this odd logic Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesus Christ were also “divisive figures.” To get the hipster dufus take on Mackey just read this article…
But he is a global warming-denying (well he was just reading some book, see, and all he’ll say, see, is that the scientific consensus is unclear) right-wing old businessman like any other, only worse, because his adolescent love affair with the Ayn Rand books that convince teenage boys that they’re secretly the masters of the universe happened after he made his first million. Now he’s qualified to say Keynes was “proven” wrong about everything, as the financial sector collapses under the weight of decades of Milton Friedman.
Ah, the economy is suffering from Milton Friedman! That’s a new one. I guess he’s not around to defend himself from such intellectual giants as Alex Pareene. Who is Alex Pareene? Exactly my point. The article is full of every “progressive” cliché. Moronic profanity? Check. Jab at Dick Cheney? Check. Swipe at Capitalism? Check. It’s kind of pointless to argue with these people. The United States long ago gave up on many free market principles. The lesson of the Great Depression has never been learned. Government intervention prolonged the depression and we’ve been stuck with big government ever since.
There are health care regulations still on the books that were crafted in the 40s. Is that decades of Milton Friedman? Did Friedman create Medicare and Medicaid? When the Founding Fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “we hold these truths to be self-evident” they didn’t know that in the end there is no “self evident” truth. Mentioning the Creator is part of the “right wing fringe,” and the pursuit of life and liberty is okay as long as you pay the government first.
John Mackey is no saint. He’s not the next leader of the libertarian movement. Even if he was, that’s not my point. With marksman-like accuracy the left is becoming proficient in marginalizing and ridiculing anyone they disagree with. Sarah Palin is a backwards idiot. Bush was a moron. They even made fun of Reagan’s age and intelligence. President Obama got elected under the flag of post-partisanship and has pursued massively unpopular legislation passed on party line votes. Who is really divisive? The Iraq War (which the left is still crying about) was authorized on a bipartisan vote. Who is really divisive? The Bush tax cuts were passed by a bipartisan vote. Who is really divisive?
My Dad has owned a leather furniture repair company for almost twenty years. It’s with this in mind that I have always had a keen eye on “leather repair kits.” In short, these kits are a scam. They don’t work, the colors don’t match, and their claims are fraudulent.
I wouldn’t even waste my breath on these kits but they’re everywhere. A quick Google search on “leather repair” spawns hundreds of kits. A trained leather repair professional has to match color by eye. It’s a very difficult process because almost no two couches have the same color.
Today outside of the Sarasota Herald Tribune building I saw a man carrying a sign. It’s kind of odd to see a man picketing in downtown Sarasota. It’s a dead week here anyway. It’s a ghost town. A lot of people are on vacation vegging out in front of the TV or shopping. The only reason I bring this poor gentleman up is that I know that the Herald Tribune will not be covering the story. What’s the story? I don’t even know.
The Herald Tribune probably had good reason to fire this guy on Christmas Eve. I’m sure if some other company fired an employee on Christmas Eve and said employee decided to picket the former employer the Herald Tribune would be all over it. I contacted Creative Loafing about the gentlemen but he was gone before they got there. That’s too bad because I’m sure he must have some kind of compelling story.
I touched on the issue of immortality a few days ago. It’s an issue that is near and dear to us all. Every year countless millions of people die because our government refuses to offer simple immortality to its citizens. Every day approximately 155,000 people die in the world. In the United States alone approximately 2.4 million people have died this year. Washington must pass a massive immortality entitlement. I don’t care how much it costs. We’re talking about life or death.
The government should be funding immortality research. If we can put a man on the moon certainly we can figure out how to live forever. Living forever is a constitutional right. It’s stated clearly in the Bill of Rights. It’s right after the right to privacy. Surely politicians like Tom Harkin and especially Robert Byrd know how important this issue is to Americans.
It looks like Obamacare is going to pass the Senate. Every Democrat who had concerns has been bought and paid for. For the Democratic Party it doesn’t matter if the bill is terrible. Health care is about creating a new entitlement. Democrats in Washington are willing to lose seats in the short term because once the masses get a taste of free health care they’ll vote Donkey forever. Charles Krauthammer has been on point during this entire process. It’s uncanny how well he’s predicted how this would all play out. I should also add Mark Steyn to the list. Why is the Democratic Party (the institution, not the people) so determined to pass anything? It’s quite obvious Kim Strassel pointed out in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
So why the stubborn insistence on passing health reform? Think big. The liberal wing of the party–the Barney Franks, the David Obeys–are focused beyond November 2010, to the long-term political prize. They want a health-care program that inevitably leads to a value-added tax and a permanent welfare state. Big government then becomes fact, and another Ronald Reagan becomes impossible. See Continental Europe.
Until the nation goes bankrupt expect lawmakers to keep reforming health care. If the government cannot manage parks, the post office, the military, or agriculture effectively there’s no chance health care will be a success.
It’s too bad that the world’s lone outpost for free market ideas will ultimately succumb to the backwards fantasy of centralized health care. It’s been a steady march to an ugly socialist/capitalist mixture since Hoover.
Centralized health care (like all centralized programs) can never work in the long run. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. It’s sad so many “progressives” don’t understand the damage they’re doing to the Republic.
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