Kent Conwell's Blog, page 2
October 4, 2012
Healthcare from Hell
Last September, the independent Newsmax surveyed 3,660 doctors nationwide in all 50 states. Their political affiliations were mixed with 35 percent Republican; 24 percent Democrat; 26 percent Independent; 6 percent Libertarian; and 7 percent unaffiliated.
This survey showed that if the election were held today, 55 percent would vote for Romney and 36 percent for Obama. The remaining were undecided or claimed to support another candidate.
The survey, conducted by Jackson & Coker, a division of Jackson Healthcare, said Newsmax, is the third largest healthcare staffing company in the US.
While other polls show opposite numbers, what is it doctors see that the rest of us do not?
It could be the following five downsides pointed out by Nick Tate, an award-winning journalist, in the ‘Obamacare Survival Guide’
Downside One: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.
How? Obamacare has taken $716 billion from Medicare over the next ten years, which means less funds for those of us who use Medicare.
Downside Two: Insurance companies are free to pass on increased costs in the form of higher premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. There is nothing to keep costs in check. AARP has already raised its premiums, says Tate, from 8-13 percent.
Downside Three: Doctor shortage anticipated due to lowered payment rates for Medicare among other areas. Up to 40% of those surveyed could retire on seek other aspects of health care. With the additional millions covered by insurance coupled with a 30-40% decrease in doctors, I’d hate to think how long I’d have to wait to get in to see one.
Downside Four: Delayed implementation of Obamacare as well as hundreds of unwritten rules.
According to Tate, many of the rules of the new healthcare system have not been written. The author surmises that as costs balloon, benefits for consumers are likely to lessen significantly, particular for seniors who are the highest users of health services.
Downside Five: Unelected government official will have control to make decision about your healthcare.
The previous drawbacks are shocking enough, but now let’s get into some specifics.
Downside Four for example-delayed implementation of rules.
If you’ll think back, you’ll remember how we were told many of these ‘benefits’ would be phased in over the years. That was clever political maneuver designed to delay any public outrage until after this upcoming election.
The Americans for Tax Reform has pointed out taxes thast are slated to kick in after the election.
1. 2.3 percent tax on medical devices including pacemakers, prosthetics, stents, even the operating table.
2. Deductible medical expenses must exceed 10% of your income instead of 7.5% for income tax purposes.
3. Funds for Flexible Spending Accounts will be capped at $2,500. Currently, there is no cap, allowing families to spend untaxed funds on everything from glasses, contacts, braces, crutches, bandages, anything not covered by insurance. It will even impact families with special needs children.
4. Surtax on investment income that pundits estimate will take over $123 billion taken from taxpayers’ pockets over the next ten years.
5. Medicare payroll tax increase, which could cost employers over $86 billion in the next decade.
You want to know how bizarre, how ill-thought out this plan really is? Read on.
In one of the rulings, the Health Resources and Services Administration says http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/ "Non-grandfathered plans and issuers are required to provide coverage without cost-sharing consistent with these guidelines in the first plan year that begins on or after August 1, 2012. ... All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for ALL (author capitalization)women with reproductive capacity."
All women. In Oregon, a woman’s age of consent is fifteen, which means a fifteen-year-old girl in that state can request sterilization without her parents’ permission.
Is that the type of idiocy you want to permeate our health care in the years come?
If you watched the presidential debate, you know that not even President Obama could explain his own plan.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
This survey showed that if the election were held today, 55 percent would vote for Romney and 36 percent for Obama. The remaining were undecided or claimed to support another candidate.
The survey, conducted by Jackson & Coker, a division of Jackson Healthcare, said Newsmax, is the third largest healthcare staffing company in the US.
While other polls show opposite numbers, what is it doctors see that the rest of us do not?
It could be the following five downsides pointed out by Nick Tate, an award-winning journalist, in the ‘Obamacare Survival Guide’
Downside One: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.
How? Obamacare has taken $716 billion from Medicare over the next ten years, which means less funds for those of us who use Medicare.
Downside Two: Insurance companies are free to pass on increased costs in the form of higher premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. There is nothing to keep costs in check. AARP has already raised its premiums, says Tate, from 8-13 percent.
Downside Three: Doctor shortage anticipated due to lowered payment rates for Medicare among other areas. Up to 40% of those surveyed could retire on seek other aspects of health care. With the additional millions covered by insurance coupled with a 30-40% decrease in doctors, I’d hate to think how long I’d have to wait to get in to see one.
Downside Four: Delayed implementation of Obamacare as well as hundreds of unwritten rules.
According to Tate, many of the rules of the new healthcare system have not been written. The author surmises that as costs balloon, benefits for consumers are likely to lessen significantly, particular for seniors who are the highest users of health services.
Downside Five: Unelected government official will have control to make decision about your healthcare.
The previous drawbacks are shocking enough, but now let’s get into some specifics.
Downside Four for example-delayed implementation of rules.
If you’ll think back, you’ll remember how we were told many of these ‘benefits’ would be phased in over the years. That was clever political maneuver designed to delay any public outrage until after this upcoming election.
The Americans for Tax Reform has pointed out taxes thast are slated to kick in after the election.
1. 2.3 percent tax on medical devices including pacemakers, prosthetics, stents, even the operating table.
2. Deductible medical expenses must exceed 10% of your income instead of 7.5% for income tax purposes.
3. Funds for Flexible Spending Accounts will be capped at $2,500. Currently, there is no cap, allowing families to spend untaxed funds on everything from glasses, contacts, braces, crutches, bandages, anything not covered by insurance. It will even impact families with special needs children.
4. Surtax on investment income that pundits estimate will take over $123 billion taken from taxpayers’ pockets over the next ten years.
5. Medicare payroll tax increase, which could cost employers over $86 billion in the next decade.
You want to know how bizarre, how ill-thought out this plan really is? Read on.
In one of the rulings, the Health Resources and Services Administration says http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/ "Non-grandfathered plans and issuers are required to provide coverage without cost-sharing consistent with these guidelines in the first plan year that begins on or after August 1, 2012. ... All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for ALL (author capitalization)women with reproductive capacity."
All women. In Oregon, a woman’s age of consent is fifteen, which means a fifteen-year-old girl in that state can request sterilization without her parents’ permission.
Is that the type of idiocy you want to permeate our health care in the years come?
If you watched the presidential debate, you know that not even President Obama could explain his own plan.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
September 26, 2012
Best Ways to Catch Fleas
Recently, we spoke of how our president’s philosophical beliefs have taken the U.S. toward a much more defined socialistic road.
And hey, that cannot be denied. If you would dispute such a direction, explain how the 70% increase in food stamps is not an example of more citizens and non-citizens turning to the government for help. Explain to me how nearly half of our citizens not paying income taxes is not an example of citizens turning to the government for help.
I hope you noted that only citizens were mentioned in the non-payment of income taxes for illegals skip them anyway. They cannot afford to pay them not because of their income, but their fear of deportation.
Perhaps you don’t remember, but just after Obama took office, he made a number of his cronies czars, individuals to head certain agencies and who would not be answerable to anyone except him or his appointees and certainly not to Congress. (for all the good Congress might do given their inept performance)
You know, old timers might not have all the sophistication and frills of modern folks, but they possessed a great deal of common sense. The old axiom ‘you sleep with dogs, you get fleas’ is as true today as when it was first coined.
Let’s take a look at some of these dogs—oops, I mean czars.
According to Rense.com, Richard Holbrooke is the Afghanistan Czar. He is an ultra-liberal and anti-gun former governor of New Mexico. He is pro abortion, and pro-drug legalization who also wants to dissolve the 2nd amendment.
Ed Montgomery is the Auto Recovery Czar who is a radical anti-business black activist. He believes in Affirmative Action and job preference for blacks. The University of Maryland Business Dean, he teaches that U.S. business has caused world poverty. He an ACORN board member as well a member of the Communist DuBois Club.
Jeffrey Crowley is the AIDS Czar. He is a radical gay rights activist. Believes in gay marriage and a special status for gays only, including complete free health care for gays.
Alan Bersin is the Border Czar who is a failed superintendent of San Diego and ultra liberal friend of Hillary Clinton. He served as Czar under Janet Reno to keep borders open to illegals without interference from the federal government.
David J. Hayes-California Water Czar who is senior fellow of radical environmentalist group, Progress Policy. No management experience whatsoever.
Ron Bloom is the Car Czar. An auto union worker, he is anti-business and anti-nuclear. He now sits on the board of Chrysler, which now is union owned.
The Central Region Czar is Dennis Ross who believes U.S. policy is the cause of war in the Middle East. Anti-Gun and Pro-Abortion, he is the Obama apologist to the world.
Lynn Rosenthal is the Domestic Violence Czar and the Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. An Anti-Male feminist, she supports male castration.
Former Seattle chief of police, Gil Kerlikowske, is Obama’s Drug Czar who espouses the belief no one should own a firearm and supports legalization of all drugs.
The list goes on and on. There’s Paul Volcker who headed the Federal Reserve under Carter when the economy nearly failed; Carol Browner, Energy and Environment Czar; Stimulus Accountability Czar, Earl Devaney, and numerous others.
Forty-one in all.
The lowest salary of the bunch is $102,000. Of that number 35 salaries are listed as ‘unknown,’ which in the current vernacular means they’re well up in the six digits.
One of the czars, Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar, has resigned, but take a look at his credentials. According to Glenn Beck, Jones is a Black activist and a member of American Communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party. He said George Bush caused the 9/11 attack and wanted the president investigated by the World Court for war crimes. A Marxist, he says whites are poisoning blacks; and that the transformation from ‘suicidal gray capitalism’ to ‘econ-capitalism’ is the way to a complete redistribution of wealth.
Jones is no more extreme that the Science Czar, John Holdren, who has NO science training, but is a intense supporter of the Sierra Club, and anti-business advocate, and claims U.S. business has caused world poverty. He believes it is okay to abort a child until the age of two, and—are you ready for this? The thinks trees—that’s right, trees should be able to sue humans.
I tell you, folks. Stuff like this can’t be made up. It’s too bizarre.
The credentials of these idiots are so off-the-wall, you want to laugh until you realize the guy in Washington who is directing our country, is the one who appointed them.
I mentioned earlier about sleeping with dogs. Well, you’ve seen what kind of fleas these canines carry, so you can easily understand the kind of fleas Obama has to scratch.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
And hey, that cannot be denied. If you would dispute such a direction, explain how the 70% increase in food stamps is not an example of more citizens and non-citizens turning to the government for help. Explain to me how nearly half of our citizens not paying income taxes is not an example of citizens turning to the government for help.
I hope you noted that only citizens were mentioned in the non-payment of income taxes for illegals skip them anyway. They cannot afford to pay them not because of their income, but their fear of deportation.
Perhaps you don’t remember, but just after Obama took office, he made a number of his cronies czars, individuals to head certain agencies and who would not be answerable to anyone except him or his appointees and certainly not to Congress. (for all the good Congress might do given their inept performance)
You know, old timers might not have all the sophistication and frills of modern folks, but they possessed a great deal of common sense. The old axiom ‘you sleep with dogs, you get fleas’ is as true today as when it was first coined.
Let’s take a look at some of these dogs—oops, I mean czars.
According to Rense.com, Richard Holbrooke is the Afghanistan Czar. He is an ultra-liberal and anti-gun former governor of New Mexico. He is pro abortion, and pro-drug legalization who also wants to dissolve the 2nd amendment.
Ed Montgomery is the Auto Recovery Czar who is a radical anti-business black activist. He believes in Affirmative Action and job preference for blacks. The University of Maryland Business Dean, he teaches that U.S. business has caused world poverty. He an ACORN board member as well a member of the Communist DuBois Club.
Jeffrey Crowley is the AIDS Czar. He is a radical gay rights activist. Believes in gay marriage and a special status for gays only, including complete free health care for gays.
Alan Bersin is the Border Czar who is a failed superintendent of San Diego and ultra liberal friend of Hillary Clinton. He served as Czar under Janet Reno to keep borders open to illegals without interference from the federal government.
David J. Hayes-California Water Czar who is senior fellow of radical environmentalist group, Progress Policy. No management experience whatsoever.
Ron Bloom is the Car Czar. An auto union worker, he is anti-business and anti-nuclear. He now sits on the board of Chrysler, which now is union owned.
The Central Region Czar is Dennis Ross who believes U.S. policy is the cause of war in the Middle East. Anti-Gun and Pro-Abortion, he is the Obama apologist to the world.
Lynn Rosenthal is the Domestic Violence Czar and the Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. An Anti-Male feminist, she supports male castration.
Former Seattle chief of police, Gil Kerlikowske, is Obama’s Drug Czar who espouses the belief no one should own a firearm and supports legalization of all drugs.
The list goes on and on. There’s Paul Volcker who headed the Federal Reserve under Carter when the economy nearly failed; Carol Browner, Energy and Environment Czar; Stimulus Accountability Czar, Earl Devaney, and numerous others.
Forty-one in all.
The lowest salary of the bunch is $102,000. Of that number 35 salaries are listed as ‘unknown,’ which in the current vernacular means they’re well up in the six digits.
One of the czars, Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar, has resigned, but take a look at his credentials. According to Glenn Beck, Jones is a Black activist and a member of American Communist Party and San Francisco Communist Party. He said George Bush caused the 9/11 attack and wanted the president investigated by the World Court for war crimes. A Marxist, he says whites are poisoning blacks; and that the transformation from ‘suicidal gray capitalism’ to ‘econ-capitalism’ is the way to a complete redistribution of wealth.
Jones is no more extreme that the Science Czar, John Holdren, who has NO science training, but is a intense supporter of the Sierra Club, and anti-business advocate, and claims U.S. business has caused world poverty. He believes it is okay to abort a child until the age of two, and—are you ready for this? The thinks trees—that’s right, trees should be able to sue humans.
I tell you, folks. Stuff like this can’t be made up. It’s too bizarre.
The credentials of these idiots are so off-the-wall, you want to laugh until you realize the guy in Washington who is directing our country, is the one who appointed them.
I mentioned earlier about sleeping with dogs. Well, you’ve seen what kind of fleas these canines carry, so you can easily understand the kind of fleas Obama has to scratch.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
September 19, 2012
Eye Openers
Eye Openers
I try to be a good citizen> I try to stay informed and active. There are millions of us, and I’m quite certain I was not alone when I confess I did not stay glued to the TV during either political convention.
You pretty much know what is going to take place at those little fais-do-dos, so why waste time unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool party addict?
Well, I missed something at the Democrat Convention this year. I saw it on replay, after replay, after replay. And the Republicans lost no time in jumping on it.
You know to what I refer, the God business.
Initially, the Demo platform left God out. Fortunately, there came an outcry, so the powers that be were forced to call for an oral vote on whether to put God back in or not. ‘Aye’ for yes; ‘nay’ for no.
I had to watch it a couple times to understand what was going on with the subsequent voting. You know how these political voting statements go for either side. They’ll say something like ‘all those who support the negative decision to uphold the positive referendum that denies negative agreement for farm supports, say aye.’
Three quarters of the time, I have no idea the point on which the vote is taken.
I’ll be honest, folks. That very fact God was left out set me back on my heels.
But back to the voting. I might be old and kind of hard of hearing, but I listened to those oral votes. The ‘nays’ had it, but the moderator called the turn for the ‘ayes’ against an overwhelming ‘nay’ vote.
I still couldn’t believe the majority did not want ‘God’ in their platform.
Where did such a proposal come from?
What gave it birth?
You and I know there are folks out there who want to take God out of everything. That is their right in our country even if many of us disagree.
Progressivism? Socialism? Communism? Democracy?
I don’t know. I do believe the socialistic trend that began decades back has been given a huge boost with the present administration. And it was the administration’s philosophical precepts that nurtured the disdain for God at the Democratic Convention.
The whole thing puzzled me until I ran across a guy named Wayne Allyn Roots. He connected a lot of dots for me.
He was a classmate of our president when Obama was at Columbia University. He claims that if Obama is re-elected in 2012, the U.S. is finished. “Obama,” he says “Is no fool. He is not incompetent. On the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis, and social chaos thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.”
“He is a devout Muslim. Look at his czars, anti-business and anti-American.”
Glenn Beck, years back, stated Obama was following the plan of Cloward and Piven, two of his professors at Columbia University. The two outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands.
Note: Government spending--$16 trillion in debt, five of which came in the last four years
Note: Entitlement demands--47 million on food stamps, the usage of which has increased 70% under Obama
Note: Almost half of our citizens pay no income tax
When I read that, I went back to the books to find out just if there really were a Cloward and Piven, or if this were some of the crud floating around on cyberspace. Even Snopes confirmed it.
Professors at Columbian University School of Social Work, Cloward and Piven were a married couple whose political strategy called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system to create a crisis that would replace the present welfare system with a national system of ‘a guaranteed annual income’ and thus end poverty.
Obama’s game plan, Roots asserts, is to turn the U.S. into a Socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival. As such, they can be counted on to always vote for even bigger government.
And why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
Universal Health Care has more to do with unionizing millions of hospital and healthcare workers as well as adding 16,000 new IRS agents than it does with healthcare.
In all honesty, folks, I had to think about this. Looking back over the last few years, I saw the trend.
Cap and Trade for example has nothing to do with global warming. Instead it has everything to do with spreading wealth, government control of the economy, and payoffs to Obama’s biggest contributors who can be counted on to support whatever he wants to do.
What about making Puerto Rico a state?
Who benefits from one million new welfare recipients and government entitlement prospects? Obama. He picks up two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressmen, and a million loyal Democrat voters.
What about legalizing 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants?
Same as Puerto Rico.
What about Stimulus and bailouts?
The funds went to Democrat contributors and unions. Teachers’ unions up north got S125 billion. Texas teachers-$3.2 billion. (and our esteemed governor, Rick Perry, did some slight-of-hand with the $3.2 to balance the state budget—if you and I’d pulled that kind of stunt, we’d be in Huntsville right now)
You know, I’d often wondered what the Obama had in mind.
Driven by a lust for power, he and his regime have created—and you can’t deny this, a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialistic rulers by overwhelming the system.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
I try to be a good citizen> I try to stay informed and active. There are millions of us, and I’m quite certain I was not alone when I confess I did not stay glued to the TV during either political convention.
You pretty much know what is going to take place at those little fais-do-dos, so why waste time unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool party addict?
Well, I missed something at the Democrat Convention this year. I saw it on replay, after replay, after replay. And the Republicans lost no time in jumping on it.
You know to what I refer, the God business.
Initially, the Demo platform left God out. Fortunately, there came an outcry, so the powers that be were forced to call for an oral vote on whether to put God back in or not. ‘Aye’ for yes; ‘nay’ for no.
I had to watch it a couple times to understand what was going on with the subsequent voting. You know how these political voting statements go for either side. They’ll say something like ‘all those who support the negative decision to uphold the positive referendum that denies negative agreement for farm supports, say aye.’
Three quarters of the time, I have no idea the point on which the vote is taken.
I’ll be honest, folks. That very fact God was left out set me back on my heels.
But back to the voting. I might be old and kind of hard of hearing, but I listened to those oral votes. The ‘nays’ had it, but the moderator called the turn for the ‘ayes’ against an overwhelming ‘nay’ vote.
I still couldn’t believe the majority did not want ‘God’ in their platform.
Where did such a proposal come from?
What gave it birth?
You and I know there are folks out there who want to take God out of everything. That is their right in our country even if many of us disagree.
Progressivism? Socialism? Communism? Democracy?
I don’t know. I do believe the socialistic trend that began decades back has been given a huge boost with the present administration. And it was the administration’s philosophical precepts that nurtured the disdain for God at the Democratic Convention.
The whole thing puzzled me until I ran across a guy named Wayne Allyn Roots. He connected a lot of dots for me.
He was a classmate of our president when Obama was at Columbia University. He claims that if Obama is re-elected in 2012, the U.S. is finished. “Obama,” he says “Is no fool. He is not incompetent. On the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis, and social chaos thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.”
“He is a devout Muslim. Look at his czars, anti-business and anti-American.”
Glenn Beck, years back, stated Obama was following the plan of Cloward and Piven, two of his professors at Columbia University. The two outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands.
Note: Government spending--$16 trillion in debt, five of which came in the last four years
Note: Entitlement demands--47 million on food stamps, the usage of which has increased 70% under Obama
Note: Almost half of our citizens pay no income tax
When I read that, I went back to the books to find out just if there really were a Cloward and Piven, or if this were some of the crud floating around on cyberspace. Even Snopes confirmed it.
Professors at Columbian University School of Social Work, Cloward and Piven were a married couple whose political strategy called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system to create a crisis that would replace the present welfare system with a national system of ‘a guaranteed annual income’ and thus end poverty.
Obama’s game plan, Roots asserts, is to turn the U.S. into a Socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival. As such, they can be counted on to always vote for even bigger government.
And why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
Universal Health Care has more to do with unionizing millions of hospital and healthcare workers as well as adding 16,000 new IRS agents than it does with healthcare.
In all honesty, folks, I had to think about this. Looking back over the last few years, I saw the trend.
Cap and Trade for example has nothing to do with global warming. Instead it has everything to do with spreading wealth, government control of the economy, and payoffs to Obama’s biggest contributors who can be counted on to support whatever he wants to do.
What about making Puerto Rico a state?
Who benefits from one million new welfare recipients and government entitlement prospects? Obama. He picks up two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressmen, and a million loyal Democrat voters.
What about legalizing 12 million illegal Mexican immigrants?
Same as Puerto Rico.
What about Stimulus and bailouts?
The funds went to Democrat contributors and unions. Teachers’ unions up north got S125 billion. Texas teachers-$3.2 billion. (and our esteemed governor, Rick Perry, did some slight-of-hand with the $3.2 to balance the state budget—if you and I’d pulled that kind of stunt, we’d be in Huntsville right now)
You know, I’d often wondered what the Obama had in mind.
Driven by a lust for power, he and his regime have created—and you can’t deny this, a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialistic rulers by overwhelming the system.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
September 12, 2012
Reasons Not to Like Romney
The political conventions have come and gone. A lot of folks are still confused as to whom they will give their vote. Big surprise, huh?
Well, with the help of a little research and the learned critiquing of a couple friends, I came out of the two weeks with the understanding of why many would not vote for Mitt Romney.
And naturally, being a conscientious citizen and an all-around great guy, I decided I’d pass the information along to you.
Right off the bat, on top of having the looks a casting director would want for a film about a president, Romney has been married to one woman since 1969, even through her struggles with MS and breast cancer. Why, there aren’t even any smoking guns or skeletons in his closet. Squeaky clean. Like one of my buddies remarked, ‘he’s boring, boring.’
He speaks with the accent of his upbringing. He finds it impossible to articulate in a fake, southern black accent of a hellfire and brimstone preacher whenever he chooses.
He graduated from Harvard Law School and Business School, cum laude. His records are there. They can be verified.
Someone like that is really too backward for today’s presidency. He doesn’t smoke or swear; has never done drugs despite their prevalence during his college days. He is a boring reminder of yesterday’s America where people believed in God, went to church, remained faithful to his spouse, worked hard, and became a success.
To illustrate just how out of touch the guy is, he has five sons none of whom can boast of arrest or rehab records. And they were reared by a mother who remained at home with them.
And look at how wealthy he is. Would you believe that he didn’t marry into it or inherit it? In fact, the guy is so out of touch with the world that when he inherited his father’s great wealth, he gave it all to charity.
Now, just how un-American is that by today’s standards?
Shameful.
No, he believes you go out and work your butt off to earn your own money.
And worst of all, he’s a Mormon. Now, I kid you not, that’s a bunch you’ve got to watch. The religion teaches all of its people—are you ready for this? It teaches all its followers to be clean-living, patriotic, hard-working, thrifty, charitable, and self-reliant. Can you imagine how much trouble a bunch like that could cause?
He started Bain capital, and from that office, turned it into Staples, now 2,000+ stores, 90,000 employees. He did similarly with Dominos’s, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, and numerous others. He created jobs, and from today’s welfare rolls, that seems to be the last thing Americans want, jobs.
Now, you tell me. Do we really need that sort of energy leading our country?
Look at us today. Almost half our people don’t even pay taxes. That must mean we’re doing something right, huh?
And another thing, he’s one of those goody-goody volunteers. He’s always volunteering. After high school, he spent almost three years as a Mormon missionary in France with no pay. He worked as an unpaid volunteer for his dad's gubernatorial campaign; as an unpaid intern in his dad's governor's office for eight years; an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years; an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years; and he took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.
Oh, yes, did I mention he gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity?
Disgusting. Someone like this is hard to trust.
We need someone like Obama or Biden who know the ropes. Last year, Obama got away with giving 1% of his income to charity while his partner, Biden, gave .0013%. ($300.00)
And what did showoff Romney do? Showboating, he gave 19%, $4 million, almost twice the biblical suggestion of a tithe. How silly was that?
There you are. You can see obviously, the guy doesn’t stand a chance.
He’s a dummy. He should have rubbed shoulders with communists or terrorists. Or maybe he should have attended a church where the preacher damned the United States. Maybe he could have made it then.
What do you think?
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
Well, with the help of a little research and the learned critiquing of a couple friends, I came out of the two weeks with the understanding of why many would not vote for Mitt Romney.
And naturally, being a conscientious citizen and an all-around great guy, I decided I’d pass the information along to you.
Right off the bat, on top of having the looks a casting director would want for a film about a president, Romney has been married to one woman since 1969, even through her struggles with MS and breast cancer. Why, there aren’t even any smoking guns or skeletons in his closet. Squeaky clean. Like one of my buddies remarked, ‘he’s boring, boring.’
He speaks with the accent of his upbringing. He finds it impossible to articulate in a fake, southern black accent of a hellfire and brimstone preacher whenever he chooses.
He graduated from Harvard Law School and Business School, cum laude. His records are there. They can be verified.
Someone like that is really too backward for today’s presidency. He doesn’t smoke or swear; has never done drugs despite their prevalence during his college days. He is a boring reminder of yesterday’s America where people believed in God, went to church, remained faithful to his spouse, worked hard, and became a success.
To illustrate just how out of touch the guy is, he has five sons none of whom can boast of arrest or rehab records. And they were reared by a mother who remained at home with them.
And look at how wealthy he is. Would you believe that he didn’t marry into it or inherit it? In fact, the guy is so out of touch with the world that when he inherited his father’s great wealth, he gave it all to charity.
Now, just how un-American is that by today’s standards?
Shameful.
No, he believes you go out and work your butt off to earn your own money.
And worst of all, he’s a Mormon. Now, I kid you not, that’s a bunch you’ve got to watch. The religion teaches all of its people—are you ready for this? It teaches all its followers to be clean-living, patriotic, hard-working, thrifty, charitable, and self-reliant. Can you imagine how much trouble a bunch like that could cause?
He started Bain capital, and from that office, turned it into Staples, now 2,000+ stores, 90,000 employees. He did similarly with Dominos’s, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, and numerous others. He created jobs, and from today’s welfare rolls, that seems to be the last thing Americans want, jobs.
Now, you tell me. Do we really need that sort of energy leading our country?
Look at us today. Almost half our people don’t even pay taxes. That must mean we’re doing something right, huh?
And another thing, he’s one of those goody-goody volunteers. He’s always volunteering. After high school, he spent almost three years as a Mormon missionary in France with no pay. He worked as an unpaid volunteer for his dad's gubernatorial campaign; as an unpaid intern in his dad's governor's office for eight years; an unpaid bishop and state president of his church for ten years; an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years; and he took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.
Oh, yes, did I mention he gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity?
Disgusting. Someone like this is hard to trust.
We need someone like Obama or Biden who know the ropes. Last year, Obama got away with giving 1% of his income to charity while his partner, Biden, gave .0013%. ($300.00)
And what did showoff Romney do? Showboating, he gave 19%, $4 million, almost twice the biblical suggestion of a tithe. How silly was that?
There you are. You can see obviously, the guy doesn’t stand a chance.
He’s a dummy. He should have rubbed shoulders with communists or terrorists. Or maybe he should have attended a church where the preacher damned the United States. Maybe he could have made it then.
What do you think?
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
September 5, 2012
Technology Snafu or Dumb Humans?
Well, I did something the other day I swore I wouldn’t. I promised in blood I wouldn’t do it, but I gave in.
I bought a lawn tractor.
You see, at my age, I don’t get enough exercise. I know, I know. It’s my fault. Most of what I get was walking behind my little Lawnboy self-propelled and playing with the grandkids in the swimming pool.
But, I tell you, the way grass has been growing plus the heat, I wasn’t just pooped when I finished mowing, I was flat pooped out.
And if you know anything about poop, flat-pooped-out is to pooped like a double dog dare is to dare.
What started all this was a few weeks back when I had cataract surgery. Couldn’t even read the big E at the top of the chart.
Now, it had been almost seventy years since I’d been a patient at a hospital when I had my tonsils out as a boy, but that’s another story. The eye doc told me no strenuous activities for four weeks, so I hired a local gent to mow my yard, which is fairly good size.
At least it’s fair sized in my estimation.
It takes about two hours with a hand mower, and that’s not counting weed-eating, another task I heartily dislike.
To top it all off, the once a week business just let the grass get too high. Don’t misunderstand, tall grass doesn’t bother me. I can watch it grow all day without the least bit of guilt or shame.
I just don’t have the get up and go I once had. Like the old cowpoke drawled, ‘it just got up and went’.
That’s enough rambling. Let’s get back to the story.
I went to my local lawn mower specialist, an independent business owner in Port Neches. I buy all my lawn stuff from him and he maintains it, a service you don’t find too often today.
He gave me a few hints, and I headed out, spending the day looking through Mid-County.
I followed his suggestions: at least 17 hp; front engine; Briggs and Stratton; local maintenance; and a cup holder in the fender so I’d have someplace to put my beer and keep both hands on the steering wheel.
You know, they say sometimes even a blind dog finds a bone.
That summed it up for me.
I found what I wanted in Mid-County, paid for it, made delivery arrangements.
I should have expected trouble when the clerk handling the process kept asking a second gentleman questions--profound questions like ‘which button do I push now?’ or ‘do we deliver?’
I glanced at my wife and rolled my eyes. Why is it I always get the new clerk—oops, I mean ‘sales associate’ that the store is breaking in?
That was Wednesday. Delivery was Saturday. Here’s where the trouble started.
We received a call that next day informing us the tractor would be delivered Friday instead of Saturday.
Great—give me an earlier chance to play with my new toy.
Next morning we got a call saying there was not one at the warehouse. They wanted me to call the store, which I did, and got hold of another one of those ‘sales associates in training.” Patiently, I started going over all that had happened. By the time I finished, my hair was standing on end in frustration.
Somehow communication suffers between two people when English is a sixth language for one of the participants.
I was ready to call it off, but my wife said just wait.
A couple hours later, a call informed us it would at our house by noon that day.
I didn’t hold my breath, but by golly, here it came in the back of a pickup. No delivery truck. Simply a pickup with no logo on the door.
The deliveryman unloaded the tractor and showed me how to use it. I’ll tell you one thing, while appearing pretty much same as they did twenty years ago, lawn tractors are a little more complicated. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t catch on as fast.
After he left, I forgot all he had said. I had to read the directions to figure out to start it. You can follow my trial run by the shaved flowerbeds, knocked-over shrugs, skinned yard, treed cats, and angry wife.
But if you think, as I did, that with the delivery of the tractor, my dealings with this company were over, you’re wrong.
Next day, Saturday, I got call saying delivery was delayed. If I’d call them, we’d set up a time.
I called and explained the tractor had been delivered, then added “But I’d be happy to take another if you won’t charge me for it.”
She didn’t laugh. I guess some of my humor is lost on someone with English as a sixth language/ I had more calls the next two days informing me delivery would be delayed. I called them again Monday, explained it and was told everything was fine. Not to worry. Tuesday morning I received two more calls.
What do you want to bet that if I’d bought it at a local Mom and Pop business that Pop would darn well have remember delivering it? Unfortunately none are available around here.
Technology gone haywire? Or humans botching technology?
Even this morning, I received three calls before ten a.m. I’m tired of explain. I’m tempted to let them deliver it. Since I never signed any delivery papers, I could claim I’d never received it.
You think?
Naw, wouldn’t be right, but if they keep calling, wanting to deliver one, I might just break down.
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
I bought a lawn tractor.
You see, at my age, I don’t get enough exercise. I know, I know. It’s my fault. Most of what I get was walking behind my little Lawnboy self-propelled and playing with the grandkids in the swimming pool.
But, I tell you, the way grass has been growing plus the heat, I wasn’t just pooped when I finished mowing, I was flat pooped out.
And if you know anything about poop, flat-pooped-out is to pooped like a double dog dare is to dare.
What started all this was a few weeks back when I had cataract surgery. Couldn’t even read the big E at the top of the chart.
Now, it had been almost seventy years since I’d been a patient at a hospital when I had my tonsils out as a boy, but that’s another story. The eye doc told me no strenuous activities for four weeks, so I hired a local gent to mow my yard, which is fairly good size.
At least it’s fair sized in my estimation.
It takes about two hours with a hand mower, and that’s not counting weed-eating, another task I heartily dislike.
To top it all off, the once a week business just let the grass get too high. Don’t misunderstand, tall grass doesn’t bother me. I can watch it grow all day without the least bit of guilt or shame.
I just don’t have the get up and go I once had. Like the old cowpoke drawled, ‘it just got up and went’.
That’s enough rambling. Let’s get back to the story.
I went to my local lawn mower specialist, an independent business owner in Port Neches. I buy all my lawn stuff from him and he maintains it, a service you don’t find too often today.
He gave me a few hints, and I headed out, spending the day looking through Mid-County.
I followed his suggestions: at least 17 hp; front engine; Briggs and Stratton; local maintenance; and a cup holder in the fender so I’d have someplace to put my beer and keep both hands on the steering wheel.
You know, they say sometimes even a blind dog finds a bone.
That summed it up for me.
I found what I wanted in Mid-County, paid for it, made delivery arrangements.
I should have expected trouble when the clerk handling the process kept asking a second gentleman questions--profound questions like ‘which button do I push now?’ or ‘do we deliver?’
I glanced at my wife and rolled my eyes. Why is it I always get the new clerk—oops, I mean ‘sales associate’ that the store is breaking in?
That was Wednesday. Delivery was Saturday. Here’s where the trouble started.
We received a call that next day informing us the tractor would be delivered Friday instead of Saturday.
Great—give me an earlier chance to play with my new toy.
Next morning we got a call saying there was not one at the warehouse. They wanted me to call the store, which I did, and got hold of another one of those ‘sales associates in training.” Patiently, I started going over all that had happened. By the time I finished, my hair was standing on end in frustration.
Somehow communication suffers between two people when English is a sixth language for one of the participants.
I was ready to call it off, but my wife said just wait.
A couple hours later, a call informed us it would at our house by noon that day.
I didn’t hold my breath, but by golly, here it came in the back of a pickup. No delivery truck. Simply a pickup with no logo on the door.
The deliveryman unloaded the tractor and showed me how to use it. I’ll tell you one thing, while appearing pretty much same as they did twenty years ago, lawn tractors are a little more complicated. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t catch on as fast.
After he left, I forgot all he had said. I had to read the directions to figure out to start it. You can follow my trial run by the shaved flowerbeds, knocked-over shrugs, skinned yard, treed cats, and angry wife.
But if you think, as I did, that with the delivery of the tractor, my dealings with this company were over, you’re wrong.
Next day, Saturday, I got call saying delivery was delayed. If I’d call them, we’d set up a time.
I called and explained the tractor had been delivered, then added “But I’d be happy to take another if you won’t charge me for it.”
She didn’t laugh. I guess some of my humor is lost on someone with English as a sixth language/ I had more calls the next two days informing me delivery would be delayed. I called them again Monday, explained it and was told everything was fine. Not to worry. Tuesday morning I received two more calls.
What do you want to bet that if I’d bought it at a local Mom and Pop business that Pop would darn well have remember delivering it? Unfortunately none are available around here.
Technology gone haywire? Or humans botching technology?
Even this morning, I received three calls before ten a.m. I’m tired of explain. I’m tempted to let them deliver it. Since I never signed any delivery papers, I could claim I’d never received it.
You think?
Naw, wouldn’t be right, but if they keep calling, wanting to deliver one, I might just break down.
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
August 29, 2012
New Indian in Town
I’m proud to announce a spanking brand-new Indian has joined the reservation at Port Neches, Class of 2030.
My little grandson, Noah David Wood, was born August 21, 11:37 a.m. to Susan, Gayle and my elder daughter. Mom and son are doing fine. Dad is a wreck. Siblings are both puzzled and curious and feeling a little left out.
The little guy has ten toes, ten fingers, and he is healthy. What more can you ask?
We held him within two or three hours of his birth, and what surprised me most was that he was pink—a healthy pink. He wasn’t yellow with jaundice, red and wrinkled from being so scrunched up in his tiny abode of nine months, but pink and smooth.
Now, all babies are precious, a gift to us from God to nurture and rear to be a decent human being. But the truth is, and if you’ll admit it, most infants fresh into this big wide world don’t look exactly like Gerber babies.
Once when Bill Cosby was talking about the birth of his children, he claimed when he saw the first one, he thought his wife had given birth to a lizard.
Think back. Remember?
But Noah was different.
I held him for about twenty or thirty minutes all swaddled in his blankets and cap. He slept the whole time while I marveled at his color. Most infants take a couple days to pink out.
His brother, Mikey, is six, heading off for kindergarten this year at Taft Elementary in Groves. Mikey takes after his Dad, Big Mike, euphemistically called such because of his height, one so lofty he has to duck to come in the door.
Mikey comes to about my chest and probably scares the dickens out of ninety pounds. The Peewee football coaches love him.
His older sister, Hannah, is in the sixth grade at Groves Middle School.
I have a feeling Noah might take up acting or some sort of drama because for the last few weeks, he kept us all in suspense. Just like the consummate actor, he has a sense of perfect timing. Hold off until the last second to milk all the tension possible from the audience.
You see, Susan had a feeling the little fella might come early, so each day for the last few weeks, we halfway expected him to put in an appearance.
Day after day, he was a no-show. Day after day, we waited, holding our breaths, keeping our fingers crossed. And day after day, he just remained warm and snug.
Gayle and I laughed about it. Who could blame him? What kind of sense does it make to leave a warm abode with all its security for the world outside where nobody knows what might happen in the next moment?
His due date was August 15.
August 15 came and went. By now, Susan was—how do I put it. Susan was somewhat peeved at her recalcitrant infant who was already in position.
She contacted her doctor for an exam. All he could do was shrug and report the obvious. Noah was playing hard to get. Give him another day. If he hadn’t stuck his head out by then, they’d take steps to help the stubborn little squirt make up his mind.
So Tuesday the 21st,at 6:30 a.m., they gave the feller a nudge.
I couldn’t help imagining little Noah there, upside down, his tiny arms stuck out in a last ditch effort to hold back the inevitable. I even imagined him shouting “No, no. I don’t want to go out there.”
But he did, and he is, and we’re all tickled pink that he’s out here with his family, both families.
Mike’s mother and grandmother live in Beaumont. Wonderful folks. Judy, Mike’s mom, took care of Mikey while Susan and Mike were at the hospital. Noah and his big brother, Mikey, and their sister, Hannah, are lucky. On their Daddy’s side, they have a great grandmother, Marie, a remarkable woman herself who served in the U.S. Navy Waves in World War II.
And they have us on the other side.
Noah got a break, a special break. Unlike so many million other babies, he was born in the U.S.A., where, despite all our problems, we still live in the greatest country in the world. Unfortunately, you’ll be one of those helping straighten this out in the years to come. But that all comes later. You just sleep and eat and grow. You’re in good hands.”
Sleep tight.”
Signed,
Pa.
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
My little grandson, Noah David Wood, was born August 21, 11:37 a.m. to Susan, Gayle and my elder daughter. Mom and son are doing fine. Dad is a wreck. Siblings are both puzzled and curious and feeling a little left out.
The little guy has ten toes, ten fingers, and he is healthy. What more can you ask?
We held him within two or three hours of his birth, and what surprised me most was that he was pink—a healthy pink. He wasn’t yellow with jaundice, red and wrinkled from being so scrunched up in his tiny abode of nine months, but pink and smooth.
Now, all babies are precious, a gift to us from God to nurture and rear to be a decent human being. But the truth is, and if you’ll admit it, most infants fresh into this big wide world don’t look exactly like Gerber babies.
Once when Bill Cosby was talking about the birth of his children, he claimed when he saw the first one, he thought his wife had given birth to a lizard.
Think back. Remember?
But Noah was different.
I held him for about twenty or thirty minutes all swaddled in his blankets and cap. He slept the whole time while I marveled at his color. Most infants take a couple days to pink out.
His brother, Mikey, is six, heading off for kindergarten this year at Taft Elementary in Groves. Mikey takes after his Dad, Big Mike, euphemistically called such because of his height, one so lofty he has to duck to come in the door.
Mikey comes to about my chest and probably scares the dickens out of ninety pounds. The Peewee football coaches love him.
His older sister, Hannah, is in the sixth grade at Groves Middle School.
I have a feeling Noah might take up acting or some sort of drama because for the last few weeks, he kept us all in suspense. Just like the consummate actor, he has a sense of perfect timing. Hold off until the last second to milk all the tension possible from the audience.
You see, Susan had a feeling the little fella might come early, so each day for the last few weeks, we halfway expected him to put in an appearance.
Day after day, he was a no-show. Day after day, we waited, holding our breaths, keeping our fingers crossed. And day after day, he just remained warm and snug.
Gayle and I laughed about it. Who could blame him? What kind of sense does it make to leave a warm abode with all its security for the world outside where nobody knows what might happen in the next moment?
His due date was August 15.
August 15 came and went. By now, Susan was—how do I put it. Susan was somewhat peeved at her recalcitrant infant who was already in position.
She contacted her doctor for an exam. All he could do was shrug and report the obvious. Noah was playing hard to get. Give him another day. If he hadn’t stuck his head out by then, they’d take steps to help the stubborn little squirt make up his mind.
So Tuesday the 21st,at 6:30 a.m., they gave the feller a nudge.
I couldn’t help imagining little Noah there, upside down, his tiny arms stuck out in a last ditch effort to hold back the inevitable. I even imagined him shouting “No, no. I don’t want to go out there.”
But he did, and he is, and we’re all tickled pink that he’s out here with his family, both families.
Mike’s mother and grandmother live in Beaumont. Wonderful folks. Judy, Mike’s mom, took care of Mikey while Susan and Mike were at the hospital. Noah and his big brother, Mikey, and their sister, Hannah, are lucky. On their Daddy’s side, they have a great grandmother, Marie, a remarkable woman herself who served in the U.S. Navy Waves in World War II.
And they have us on the other side.
Noah got a break, a special break. Unlike so many million other babies, he was born in the U.S.A., where, despite all our problems, we still live in the greatest country in the world. Unfortunately, you’ll be one of those helping straighten this out in the years to come. But that all comes later. You just sleep and eat and grow. You’re in good hands.”
Sleep tight.”
Signed,
Pa.
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
August 22, 2012
A Stinking Gift
If you’ve been following the news, you are well aware the political fur is flying. One accusation after another is being hurled by all sides at each other.
More than once in the last few weeks, my jaw has hit the floor upon viewing various political advertisements.
Who or what can we believe?
All I can suggest is take it all with the proverbial grain of salt. It is difficult to pin facts to the mat, a heck of a lot more difficult than trying to give a cat a bath.
When I ask myself if I’m better off now than I was four years ago, I have to say ‘no way’.
Why? Basically, the economy.
I base it on my own personal and family expenses.
Four years ago, my weekly trips to Walmart averaged about $90. Today, the same items hit almost $120, a $30 increase. And if you’re on a fixed income, that $30 takes away from some of your other ‘like to dos’. The same type of increases hold true all other areas.
Fast food is up; medical expenses are higher; insurance costs more; autos are outrageous; and on and on and on.
When prices increase, most families, me included, look for ways to shave our own spending so we can balance our budget.
Let’s forget politics for a moment. Let’s forget that some fanatics bleed blue or red--Libertarians? I don’t know. Maybe they bleed pink. But let’s forget about the color of our blood and concentrate on putting the American budget back in shape.
Unless you are a welfare cheat—no, I shouldn’t have said that. Welfare cheats don’t read columns like this. They’re too busy spending food stamps on lobsters and beer.
There isn’t a concerned citizen who doesn’t know the ultimate fate of our country if such spending continues.
With all its moles and warts, the Ryan tax plan addresses the issue. At least it is a start on winnowing the chaff from the grain.
I know, I know, there are hundreds, yea, thousands of questions, but we have to begin somewhere. The House has sent a couple budgets to the Senate where they died and long and painful deaths.
I found a list of items the Republican side of Congress wants to cut.
After reading them, you’ll be as shocked as I was not only by their number, but by the way obscene amounts of tax monies are spent.
Right up front, the plan doesn’t cut Social Security nor Defense. What I read is that while it does make an effort to reform SS, those citizens over 55 are not affected.
There are fifty-four items on this list. They range from eliminating taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a $12.5 million annual savings to repealing the eighty-one year old Davis-Bacon Act for more than $1 billion annually.
Some of the other programs on the list to be either required or eliminated are:
Eliminate Presidential Campaign Fund. 775 million savings over ten years.
Eliminate Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants $2.5 billion annual savings
IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees.$1 billion total savings.
Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
Eliminate Mohair Subsidies $1 million annual savings.
Sell excess federal properties the government doesn’t use. $5 billion total savings
No funding for federal office space acquisition. $64 million annual savings.
A perfect example of just how careless those jokers are with our taxes is clearly illustrated in the two previous examples.
One wants to sell unused government properties and the other wants to eliminate funds for federal office space acquisitions. (only in Washington can they justify spending money by working against each other)
Here are only ten examples of the list, which contains forty-four others.
They are all as wasteful as these next two.
For example, we could save $1.565 billion by eliminating Amtrak subsidies and $17 million by getting rid of the International fund for ‘Ireland’ (whatever that is)
One last example of Washington’s obscene spending is the Congressional Death Gratuity.
When a member of Congress dies, his family is given his yearly salary as a death benefit. In addition to insurance.
Some deal, huh?
The list totals $2.5 trillion savings over ten years.
Will Congress follow these suggestions?
I doubt it.
While the alternative is unthinkable, we best think about it or we’ll end up like Greece.
Like I said, we’ve got to start somewhere.
If we do, then in six decades, our kids and grandkids can have it all paid off. That’s some stinking gift we’ve left them, huh?
If you should want the entire list, e-mail me. Happy to oblige.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
More than once in the last few weeks, my jaw has hit the floor upon viewing various political advertisements.
Who or what can we believe?
All I can suggest is take it all with the proverbial grain of salt. It is difficult to pin facts to the mat, a heck of a lot more difficult than trying to give a cat a bath.
When I ask myself if I’m better off now than I was four years ago, I have to say ‘no way’.
Why? Basically, the economy.
I base it on my own personal and family expenses.
Four years ago, my weekly trips to Walmart averaged about $90. Today, the same items hit almost $120, a $30 increase. And if you’re on a fixed income, that $30 takes away from some of your other ‘like to dos’. The same type of increases hold true all other areas.
Fast food is up; medical expenses are higher; insurance costs more; autos are outrageous; and on and on and on.
When prices increase, most families, me included, look for ways to shave our own spending so we can balance our budget.
Let’s forget politics for a moment. Let’s forget that some fanatics bleed blue or red--Libertarians? I don’t know. Maybe they bleed pink. But let’s forget about the color of our blood and concentrate on putting the American budget back in shape.
Unless you are a welfare cheat—no, I shouldn’t have said that. Welfare cheats don’t read columns like this. They’re too busy spending food stamps on lobsters and beer.
There isn’t a concerned citizen who doesn’t know the ultimate fate of our country if such spending continues.
With all its moles and warts, the Ryan tax plan addresses the issue. At least it is a start on winnowing the chaff from the grain.
I know, I know, there are hundreds, yea, thousands of questions, but we have to begin somewhere. The House has sent a couple budgets to the Senate where they died and long and painful deaths.
I found a list of items the Republican side of Congress wants to cut.
After reading them, you’ll be as shocked as I was not only by their number, but by the way obscene amounts of tax monies are spent.
Right up front, the plan doesn’t cut Social Security nor Defense. What I read is that while it does make an effort to reform SS, those citizens over 55 are not affected.
There are fifty-four items on this list. They range from eliminating taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for a $12.5 million annual savings to repealing the eighty-one year old Davis-Bacon Act for more than $1 billion annually.
Some of the other programs on the list to be either required or eliminated are:
Eliminate Presidential Campaign Fund. 775 million savings over ten years.
Eliminate Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants $2.5 billion annual savings
IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees.$1 billion total savings.
Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
Eliminate Mohair Subsidies $1 million annual savings.
Sell excess federal properties the government doesn’t use. $5 billion total savings
No funding for federal office space acquisition. $64 million annual savings.
A perfect example of just how careless those jokers are with our taxes is clearly illustrated in the two previous examples.
One wants to sell unused government properties and the other wants to eliminate funds for federal office space acquisitions. (only in Washington can they justify spending money by working against each other)
Here are only ten examples of the list, which contains forty-four others.
They are all as wasteful as these next two.
For example, we could save $1.565 billion by eliminating Amtrak subsidies and $17 million by getting rid of the International fund for ‘Ireland’ (whatever that is)
One last example of Washington’s obscene spending is the Congressional Death Gratuity.
When a member of Congress dies, his family is given his yearly salary as a death benefit. In addition to insurance.
Some deal, huh?
The list totals $2.5 trillion savings over ten years.
Will Congress follow these suggestions?
I doubt it.
While the alternative is unthinkable, we best think about it or we’ll end up like Greece.
Like I said, we’ve got to start somewhere.
If we do, then in six decades, our kids and grandkids can have it all paid off. That’s some stinking gift we’ve left them, huh?
If you should want the entire list, e-mail me. Happy to oblige.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
August 15, 2012
I Told You So!
Over the last few years, I’ve ranted and raved about the folly of Obamacare. From the beginning, I claimed it was being jammed through without enough time to peruse thoroughly the 2700 pages. That was enough to make me skeptical.
And then when you turn around and realize the document is written in such a manner as to be open to interpretation depending upon the mindset of those making the final decisions.
I caught some flak from those who disagreed. Nothing wrong with civil discourse. Some wasn’t quite so civil, but you and I both know that’s the level to which ignorance stoops when it is backed into a corner.
I’m just an average guy trying to make it from day to day, hoping for the best. Neither Democrat nor Republican, I want what is best for my family and our country. And I have always believed that the health bill, as written, is not good for us.
Before you pull out the tar and feathers, I hasten to add there are parts that are super for all of us. You know them, no one will be denied insurance; folks get help on medicines; and many others. There are those who need help, and in all decency, we should help.
No, what I’m talking about is the errors brought about by a fanatical rush to pass the law without proper discourse. Sometimes, maybe we can discuss our president’s true motives for jamming it through Congress, but now, let’s talk about a couple mistakes in the monster bill that could make the ‘affordable’ ‘unaffordable’ or that would permit couples making up to $60,000 eligible for Medicaid.
Yep, I said Medicaid, M-E-D-I-C-A-I-D. You know, that federal insurance designed to aid the less fortunate.
The New York Times, a predominant liberal newspaper, stated “a glitch in the language of Obamacare could make the “affordable” health plan unaffordable for millions of American workers.”
Let’s take a look at the ‘glitch’.
Of course, where Obama is concerned, even a full-fledged disaster is only a ‘glitch’.
But, let’s get serious. Obamacare says insurance provided by an employer is not affordable and thus eligible for subsidies if the employee’s premium is more than 9.5% of the household income.
So far, so good, Right?
Now, here’s how the bill sticks it to the average American.
IRS (and remember, the government hired 16,000 more agents to handle Obamacare), states this 9.5% is based solely on the individual coverage of the employee, not the cost of covering his family. I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone family coverage is considerably more.
For example, a family has income of $40,000. The employee’s premium is $200 a month, $2400 annually, but his family’s premium is another $2,400. That’s $4,800, around 12% of the family income. On the surface, they are eligible for help with premiums.
Now, here is the glitch.
Since the employee’s premium is less than 9.5%, he is not eligible for subsidies, but what about the additional $2,400 for his family? That puts him over the 9.5%. His family should be eligible for subsidy, but he is, according to Obamacare, not eligible for subsidized help on his premiums.
If you remember, last week I wrote about how complicated the bills were written, and now you can see why. The more confusing, the more lawyerish, the less the average Joe Sixpack wants to mess with them.
Hey, and there’s more.
“The Mail Online’, a political watchdog, reported that up to three million people could qualify for Medicaid in 2014 because Obamacare includes a clause that Social Security benefits would no long be counted as income for determining eligibility for the program.
For Medicaid, the law states an eligibility of 133% of poverty level ($22,350.), which comes out right at $29,700 for a family of four in 2011. Say the retired husband and wife have a sum total of 2,500 SS benefits. That’s another $30,000 for a grand total of almost $60,000.
Extreme case? I hope so, but can you imagine the games the welfare cheats will play with this?
In all fairness, The House of Representatives passed a bill to rectify this mistake and sent it on to the Senate where nothing, as far as I can discover, has happened except they’re all on five weeks vacation now.
Doing nothing must be mighty tiring.
In forty-one years of teaching, I worked with thousands of youngsters. I tried to teach them to think for themselves, avoid dogma, and to always think though their decisions.
I wish those folks in Washington had done the same thing.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
And then when you turn around and realize the document is written in such a manner as to be open to interpretation depending upon the mindset of those making the final decisions.
I caught some flak from those who disagreed. Nothing wrong with civil discourse. Some wasn’t quite so civil, but you and I both know that’s the level to which ignorance stoops when it is backed into a corner.
I’m just an average guy trying to make it from day to day, hoping for the best. Neither Democrat nor Republican, I want what is best for my family and our country. And I have always believed that the health bill, as written, is not good for us.
Before you pull out the tar and feathers, I hasten to add there are parts that are super for all of us. You know them, no one will be denied insurance; folks get help on medicines; and many others. There are those who need help, and in all decency, we should help.
No, what I’m talking about is the errors brought about by a fanatical rush to pass the law without proper discourse. Sometimes, maybe we can discuss our president’s true motives for jamming it through Congress, but now, let’s talk about a couple mistakes in the monster bill that could make the ‘affordable’ ‘unaffordable’ or that would permit couples making up to $60,000 eligible for Medicaid.
Yep, I said Medicaid, M-E-D-I-C-A-I-D. You know, that federal insurance designed to aid the less fortunate.
The New York Times, a predominant liberal newspaper, stated “a glitch in the language of Obamacare could make the “affordable” health plan unaffordable for millions of American workers.”
Let’s take a look at the ‘glitch’.
Of course, where Obama is concerned, even a full-fledged disaster is only a ‘glitch’.
But, let’s get serious. Obamacare says insurance provided by an employer is not affordable and thus eligible for subsidies if the employee’s premium is more than 9.5% of the household income.
So far, so good, Right?
Now, here’s how the bill sticks it to the average American.
IRS (and remember, the government hired 16,000 more agents to handle Obamacare), states this 9.5% is based solely on the individual coverage of the employee, not the cost of covering his family. I shouldn’t have to explain to anyone family coverage is considerably more.
For example, a family has income of $40,000. The employee’s premium is $200 a month, $2400 annually, but his family’s premium is another $2,400. That’s $4,800, around 12% of the family income. On the surface, they are eligible for help with premiums.
Now, here is the glitch.
Since the employee’s premium is less than 9.5%, he is not eligible for subsidies, but what about the additional $2,400 for his family? That puts him over the 9.5%. His family should be eligible for subsidy, but he is, according to Obamacare, not eligible for subsidized help on his premiums.
If you remember, last week I wrote about how complicated the bills were written, and now you can see why. The more confusing, the more lawyerish, the less the average Joe Sixpack wants to mess with them.
Hey, and there’s more.
“The Mail Online’, a political watchdog, reported that up to three million people could qualify for Medicaid in 2014 because Obamacare includes a clause that Social Security benefits would no long be counted as income for determining eligibility for the program.
For Medicaid, the law states an eligibility of 133% of poverty level ($22,350.), which comes out right at $29,700 for a family of four in 2011. Say the retired husband and wife have a sum total of 2,500 SS benefits. That’s another $30,000 for a grand total of almost $60,000.
Extreme case? I hope so, but can you imagine the games the welfare cheats will play with this?
In all fairness, The House of Representatives passed a bill to rectify this mistake and sent it on to the Senate where nothing, as far as I can discover, has happened except they’re all on five weeks vacation now.
Doing nothing must be mighty tiring.
In forty-one years of teaching, I worked with thousands of youngsters. I tried to teach them to think for themselves, avoid dogma, and to always think though their decisions.
I wish those folks in Washington had done the same thing.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
August 8, 2012
Time to Speak Out
I can remember decades back how surprised I was when I discovered how political parties, unlike leopards, have changed their spots over the last couple hundred years. Their political philosophies did an almost 180 degree turn.
At first I puzzled over it, then I realized such is the natural course of any endeavor in which individuals participate for their beliefs and philosophies will affect their decisions involving the venture.
That’s one reason you often hear remarks such as ‘this is not the Democratic (or Republican) party of my grandfather’.
You’ve heard similar comments.
So it is no surprise that over the last three years, the current administration has been changing the philosophical premises of the Democratic party. Some of these changes, however, are so subtle as to have slipped past many of us. While I was aware of some of the obvious changes, others passed by me like the proverbial ship in the night.
What opened my eyes was an article by Steve McCann on The American Thinker, an online political site with conservative views. I repeat, ‘conservative views’, not Republican, not Democrat, but views held by a majority of Americans--the same kind of Americans that stood up for Chick-fil-A.
I, as Mr McCann and just about everyone I know, recognize the upcoming election as one of the most important in the history of our country. I firmly believe if Obama is re-elected, America will change dramatically in that it will no longer be the dominant country in the world.
And what is wrong with being dominant?
We are dominant because of the free enterprise system. Free enterprise and capitalism has made America a world leader. Work you butt off and you succeed.
But if you are one of the ignorant who believe we should lower our own standards of living so those who take advantage of welfare won’t feel slighted or have their poor feelings hurt, then while I wish you no harm, I hope that your car breaks down, or the bus doesn’t run, or a wheel falls off your bicycle when you go to vote in November.
Obama, during his first term, put in place, says Mr. McCann, executive powers that enables him in his second term to fulfill the campaign promise of transforming America, regardless of which political party controls Congress.
During his first term, he has made Congress irrelevant.
Don’t believe me?
Look what Congress has done. Nothing.
Cleverly exercising executive orders, Obama continues making decisions that alters the direction we are going, and Congress sits on its collective thumb.
During his election honeymoon, he was clever enough to pass a wide variety of laws that transferred vast, almost unlimited powers to the executive branch.
If you say, ‘so what?’ then please don’t vote.
You see, the Executive Branch (Obama), the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court) and the Legislative Branch (Congress- ha, ha! What a joke!), by our Constitution have equal power.
He has taken those powers and established them in the Executive Branch
Why do you think the health care plan was 2700 pages long?
A Chicago political move, it was deliberately written in vague terms so that Obama’s bureaucrats appointed to interpret the laws could place just about any interpretation they wanted on them.
No? Then why did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi imploring the House to pass the bill screech out to pass it ‘so we can read it and see what is in it.”?
In this 2700 pages, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is referenced 2,500 times; he is instructed he ‘shall’ do something 700 times; he ‘may’ take some action on his own discretion 200 times; the law states ‘the Secretary ‘determines’ 139 times.
In essence, Mr. McCall concludes, one person, appointed by the present, will be in charge of the health care of 310 million Americans once Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014.
Look at the way the Secretary of Health and Human Services is ordered to be in charge. He ‘shall’; he ‘will’; he ‘may’; he ‘determines’.
Where, I ask, is there room for our input, for our doctor’s input?
Are we back to the Middle Ages where a landlord ‘shalls’, or ‘wills’ or ‘determines’ what we do?
And if that isn’t enough, the same holds true for the 2,319 pages of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, which confers almost unlimited power to control financial, banking, and investment sectors; and create new agencies not subject to any control by Congress.
“This overall process,” concludes Mr. McCann, “Was repeated numerous times with other legislation all with the intent of granting unfettered power to the executive branch that is controlled Barack Obama and his radical associates.
It’s time for America to stand up and reclaim the inalienable rights guaranteed us in the First Amendment.
I can’t help thinking of that mournful soliloquy regarding the holocaust.
First they came for the communists,
And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t peak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left to speak out for me.
Right now, folks, there’s enough of us left to speak out. It’s time.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
At first I puzzled over it, then I realized such is the natural course of any endeavor in which individuals participate for their beliefs and philosophies will affect their decisions involving the venture.
That’s one reason you often hear remarks such as ‘this is not the Democratic (or Republican) party of my grandfather’.
You’ve heard similar comments.
So it is no surprise that over the last three years, the current administration has been changing the philosophical premises of the Democratic party. Some of these changes, however, are so subtle as to have slipped past many of us. While I was aware of some of the obvious changes, others passed by me like the proverbial ship in the night.
What opened my eyes was an article by Steve McCann on The American Thinker, an online political site with conservative views. I repeat, ‘conservative views’, not Republican, not Democrat, but views held by a majority of Americans--the same kind of Americans that stood up for Chick-fil-A.
I, as Mr McCann and just about everyone I know, recognize the upcoming election as one of the most important in the history of our country. I firmly believe if Obama is re-elected, America will change dramatically in that it will no longer be the dominant country in the world.
And what is wrong with being dominant?
We are dominant because of the free enterprise system. Free enterprise and capitalism has made America a world leader. Work you butt off and you succeed.
But if you are one of the ignorant who believe we should lower our own standards of living so those who take advantage of welfare won’t feel slighted or have their poor feelings hurt, then while I wish you no harm, I hope that your car breaks down, or the bus doesn’t run, or a wheel falls off your bicycle when you go to vote in November.
Obama, during his first term, put in place, says Mr. McCann, executive powers that enables him in his second term to fulfill the campaign promise of transforming America, regardless of which political party controls Congress.
During his first term, he has made Congress irrelevant.
Don’t believe me?
Look what Congress has done. Nothing.
Cleverly exercising executive orders, Obama continues making decisions that alters the direction we are going, and Congress sits on its collective thumb.
During his election honeymoon, he was clever enough to pass a wide variety of laws that transferred vast, almost unlimited powers to the executive branch.
If you say, ‘so what?’ then please don’t vote.
You see, the Executive Branch (Obama), the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court) and the Legislative Branch (Congress- ha, ha! What a joke!), by our Constitution have equal power.
He has taken those powers and established them in the Executive Branch
Why do you think the health care plan was 2700 pages long?
A Chicago political move, it was deliberately written in vague terms so that Obama’s bureaucrats appointed to interpret the laws could place just about any interpretation they wanted on them.
No? Then why did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi imploring the House to pass the bill screech out to pass it ‘so we can read it and see what is in it.”?
In this 2700 pages, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is referenced 2,500 times; he is instructed he ‘shall’ do something 700 times; he ‘may’ take some action on his own discretion 200 times; the law states ‘the Secretary ‘determines’ 139 times.
In essence, Mr. McCall concludes, one person, appointed by the present, will be in charge of the health care of 310 million Americans once Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014.
Look at the way the Secretary of Health and Human Services is ordered to be in charge. He ‘shall’; he ‘will’; he ‘may’; he ‘determines’.
Where, I ask, is there room for our input, for our doctor’s input?
Are we back to the Middle Ages where a landlord ‘shalls’, or ‘wills’ or ‘determines’ what we do?
And if that isn’t enough, the same holds true for the 2,319 pages of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act, which confers almost unlimited power to control financial, banking, and investment sectors; and create new agencies not subject to any control by Congress.
“This overall process,” concludes Mr. McCann, “Was repeated numerous times with other legislation all with the intent of granting unfettered power to the executive branch that is controlled Barack Obama and his radical associates.
It’s time for America to stand up and reclaim the inalienable rights guaranteed us in the First Amendment.
I can’t help thinking of that mournful soliloquy regarding the holocaust.
First they came for the communists,
And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t peak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
And there was no one left to speak out for me.
Right now, folks, there’s enough of us left to speak out. It’s time.
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
August 1, 2012
Dog Heaven on the Neches
I heard about an old East Texas bachelor who had a small cabin on a few acres near the Sabine River. Seems like the last two fingers on his left hand were frozen shut from a boyhood accident. His only companion was an old mongrel hound, Barney.
Well, the old boy was out hunting one day when he got snakebit by a fat cottonmouth. After tending the bite best he could, he headed home, but along the way, he grew dizzy and sat to rest, He closed his eyes. His old hound lay at his feet.
When he opened them, he struck out for home once again, but the trail was different. Puzzled by the changes about him, he paused at a strange road with a fancy gate. Up the road a piece sat an elegant two-story house with music coming from the windows. A well-dressed gent opened the gate. “Welcome. Come in.”
The old bachelor asked where he was. “Things look different. And I feel different.”
“Why, you’re dead. Remember? The cottonmouth?” He smiled. “Don’t believe me. Look at your crippled hand.”
The old gent wiggled his frozen fingers in surprise. He looked up at the man. “Is this heaven?”
“What do you think?”
He reached down and patted his dog. “Come on, Barney. Let’s go in.”
But the well-dressed man stopped him. “No dogs allowed. Only humans.”
“Then I ain’t going in. If heaven ain’t good enough for my old hound, it ain’t good enough for me.” So he struck out along the unfamiliar road.
Around the next bend, he came upon another road that led up to a plain log cabin like his own. A jasper dressed in overalls sat on a fallen log. “See you didn’t take old Luke up on his invite.”
With a snort, the old feller replied. “Not without my hound.” He nodded up the road behind the smiling man. “What’s this place?”
“Why, this is heaven.”
“Heaven?” He eyed the undistinguished road curving through the forest. “What was that place back there with the fancy house and loud music?”
The grin on the younger man’s face grew wider. That was Hell.” He nodded to Barney. “Come on in. And bring Barney with you.”
Now, there was no sign on the second road, but if there had been, I figure it would have read ‘Port Neches,’ for our little city welcomes dogs of all breeds.
A regular dog heaven.
No, I didn’t know it either, and I’ve lived in the area for over forty years. I’m just dumb, I suppose.
Even before we built our house, we constructed a fence for our little dog, Cim. That was what we had been told the city required. Fences for dogs. So we complied.
But I kept seeing loose dogs. I’d call about them, thinking the city would appreciate knowing about the canines. Nothing.
I puzzled over it while I kept seeing more and more of various breeds roaming the neighborhoods--free and unhindered, chasing cats, eating garbage, and leaving ample evidence of their cavorting behind to help fertilize our yards.
Then it hit me, like the proverbial ton of bricks. A dog heaven. The city wanted to keep it a secret so Nederland and Port Arthur wouldn’t take credit for the idea.
But why the idea in the first place?
The only answer was that previous city fathers wanted to lessen the stress on its hard-working citizens so they decided to provide a entertaining service not offered by any other community, a haven for dog owners to give their beloved pets free rein and let the citizenry enjoy the frolicking of the happy animals.
What better way to wake up each morning than to see the different breeds of canines running the street and yards. Just the other day, I saw a Jack Russell terrier gamboling with the rare and elusive Basenji, but that was nowhere as memorable as watching a rare Bearded Collie and a Boston Terrier chase cats up my neighbors’ pecan trees.
Our city fathers have come up with a remarkable idea to help the city grow with this dog heaven business. They ought to change our city sobriquet from ‘Sapphire City of the Neches’ to ‘Dog City of the Neches’ or maybe ‘Canine City of the Neches.’
Visitors will flock in, and we won’t have to bother with a riverfront park project that’ll put Kemah to shame.
At the base of the sign, we should inscribe the words, "Give me your Rottweilers, your Malamutes, your Yorkies, your huddled mongrels yearning to breathe free."
A catchy slogan might be “A Dog in Every Garage!”
Who says our city doesn’t have vision?
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
Well, the old boy was out hunting one day when he got snakebit by a fat cottonmouth. After tending the bite best he could, he headed home, but along the way, he grew dizzy and sat to rest, He closed his eyes. His old hound lay at his feet.
When he opened them, he struck out for home once again, but the trail was different. Puzzled by the changes about him, he paused at a strange road with a fancy gate. Up the road a piece sat an elegant two-story house with music coming from the windows. A well-dressed gent opened the gate. “Welcome. Come in.”
The old bachelor asked where he was. “Things look different. And I feel different.”
“Why, you’re dead. Remember? The cottonmouth?” He smiled. “Don’t believe me. Look at your crippled hand.”
The old gent wiggled his frozen fingers in surprise. He looked up at the man. “Is this heaven?”
“What do you think?”
He reached down and patted his dog. “Come on, Barney. Let’s go in.”
But the well-dressed man stopped him. “No dogs allowed. Only humans.”
“Then I ain’t going in. If heaven ain’t good enough for my old hound, it ain’t good enough for me.” So he struck out along the unfamiliar road.
Around the next bend, he came upon another road that led up to a plain log cabin like his own. A jasper dressed in overalls sat on a fallen log. “See you didn’t take old Luke up on his invite.”
With a snort, the old feller replied. “Not without my hound.” He nodded up the road behind the smiling man. “What’s this place?”
“Why, this is heaven.”
“Heaven?” He eyed the undistinguished road curving through the forest. “What was that place back there with the fancy house and loud music?”
The grin on the younger man’s face grew wider. That was Hell.” He nodded to Barney. “Come on in. And bring Barney with you.”
Now, there was no sign on the second road, but if there had been, I figure it would have read ‘Port Neches,’ for our little city welcomes dogs of all breeds.
A regular dog heaven.
No, I didn’t know it either, and I’ve lived in the area for over forty years. I’m just dumb, I suppose.
Even before we built our house, we constructed a fence for our little dog, Cim. That was what we had been told the city required. Fences for dogs. So we complied.
But I kept seeing loose dogs. I’d call about them, thinking the city would appreciate knowing about the canines. Nothing.
I puzzled over it while I kept seeing more and more of various breeds roaming the neighborhoods--free and unhindered, chasing cats, eating garbage, and leaving ample evidence of their cavorting behind to help fertilize our yards.
Then it hit me, like the proverbial ton of bricks. A dog heaven. The city wanted to keep it a secret so Nederland and Port Arthur wouldn’t take credit for the idea.
But why the idea in the first place?
The only answer was that previous city fathers wanted to lessen the stress on its hard-working citizens so they decided to provide a entertaining service not offered by any other community, a haven for dog owners to give their beloved pets free rein and let the citizenry enjoy the frolicking of the happy animals.
What better way to wake up each morning than to see the different breeds of canines running the street and yards. Just the other day, I saw a Jack Russell terrier gamboling with the rare and elusive Basenji, but that was nowhere as memorable as watching a rare Bearded Collie and a Boston Terrier chase cats up my neighbors’ pecan trees.
Our city fathers have come up with a remarkable idea to help the city grow with this dog heaven business. They ought to change our city sobriquet from ‘Sapphire City of the Neches’ to ‘Dog City of the Neches’ or maybe ‘Canine City of the Neches.’
Visitors will flock in, and we won’t have to bother with a riverfront park project that’ll put Kemah to shame.
At the base of the sign, we should inscribe the words, "Give me your Rottweilers, your Malamutes, your Yorkies, your huddled mongrels yearning to breathe free."
A catchy slogan might be “A Dog in Every Garage!”
Who says our city doesn’t have vision?
rconwell@gt.rr.com
http://www.kentconwell.blogspot.com/
www.goodreads.com/author/show/13557.K...
www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JPCK26
www.kentconwell.blogspot.com
