Wow! So much has happened this year and it’s not even over yet!
Instead of waiting for it to end though, thought I might go over a few of the more interesting aspects of it all……
So I lived long enough (again) to get another year older and hopefully wiser in my ways
2010 seems to be the year of increased political angst; we had overzealous socialist democrats promising utopian paradise for all (eventually), but looks like reality got in the way of that (THANKFULLY)
I’ve been reading again more this year (A good thing) and went back to some “old school” stuff I almost forgot existed which has in turn motivated me to read even more and to finally understand
Sports/schmortz……… same old-sameoldsame………. nothing new this year other than the higher levels of the organizations paying lip service to the public about every social cause in an attempt to gin up more ticket sales, or possibly PayPer View……For the first time in my life, I am SERIOUSLY considering dropping cable TV, but at this point, it would be only for me, as the wife/daughter still watch; I get everything I need from radio & Internet now
Finally upgraded cell phone after probably 10+ years of cursing them; now have Droid-X and loving it. There is a semi-evil thought in my mind to cancel Internet too and just get everything on the phone……… but wouldn’t work at this stage
I have found a new challenge that inspires me; Philosophy – particularly Aristotelian philosophy and Objectivism (I’m a huge Ayn Rand reader/fan from the 90′s) In fact, I will probably link to a few recommended (By me) books by Rand and similar writers in future blog posts
Technology: Well, IPv4 did NOT kill the Internet yet (Nor did DNS…..lol) and although I still maintain a great desire to excel and rise in the IT world, my current life/job situation is not exactly where I want to be at 44 years old (But having a job at this point in time is not a terrible thing either)
Which brings me to the state of our economy; wow….. seriously?? Government takes roughly $900 BILLION (Yeah, the one with the B) for the initial “stimulus” injection, which ended up pretty much doing the opposite for the country; bailing out institutions as they saw fit, and then something I NEVER saw in my lifetime of following politics: The democrat led House of Reps illegally (In my mind of understanding of how legislation works through Congress) does a “deem/pass” of the Senate version of obamacare so they can get it in before going on a break……… and some people have been scratching their heads as to WHY the Republicans (Let’s cut to the chase – it was the TEA PARTY) had such incredible landslide victories about a week ago.
Next week begins the “LameDuck” session of Congress; this practice or whatever they call it should be rescinded permanently and as soon as possible! All the lameduck sessions do is give the outgoing (And in many ways relevant to this election cycle) congress a last chance to implement things they either couldn’t or wouldn’t do during a normal session – and leave it for the new incoming members to sort through the wreckage …. NO THANKS!
The state I live in (NC) has seen its democrat controlled General Assembly switch to Republican control (BOTH HOUSES) for the first time since 1898….. NOT 1998, 1898
Now THAT is hope/change I like and can look forward to. My understanding is that over 20 State legislatures have both houses controlled by Republicans – that’s huge! And don’t get me started on the Governorships
I am still going to post about technology related things; however, technology at this point in time is not generating the interest that US and world events are right now as related to political upheaval and real hope and change.
November 14th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Wow, Kevin – you covered a lot of ground here! I do want to mention that while we upgraded our internet account to the fastest one we can get, we canceled our Cable TV a long time ago, and do not regret it at all! Chrissy learned to watch YouTube or do other things, and we affectionately call our TV the “DVD Player” now hehe! Later we will likely get internet TV but for now it is OK on our computers.
Crazy about NC’s Republican status – didn’t realize that it was so long, sheesh!! Be careful, some of those who label themselves Republican are actually not at all – watch what they DO, right?
I have a couple links you may enjoy!
Frederic Bastiat’s “The Law” about Legal Plunder:
http://www.freelythinking.com/The_Law.pdf
http://bastiat.org
For A New Liberty by Murray Rothbard:
http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp
Objectionist Party:
http://www.objectivistparty.us/
Let’s catch up!!
Lisa
November 14th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Thanks for the links; yes, we’ve been observing that the Internet media is watched much more than normal TV (Except for Sara) and I have a feeling we will have to keep it for a bit longer. I covered the ground that was there…………. and yes, there was quite a lot of it. I was mildly disappointed to learn that the Objectivist movement (Led by L.Peikoff) actually recommended to their followers to vote for Democrats back in the 90′s, as their fear was that Republican wins would lead to a surge toward Theocracy, and it wasn’t until 2009 that they realized the mistake they made and started recommending voting Republican to stop the tidal wave of Socialsm, Statism, and Authoritarianism (Through Democrats). I just finished a very interesting book on the parallels of German society pre-Hitler and the US. It is called “The Ominous Parallels” by Leonard Peikoff. It is not a story by any means; it is more of a discussion of history and historical events as they pertain to then and now. It’s a very good book and is very helpful in explaining why the German people were so taken in by Hitler and his philosophy.
November 15th, 2010 at 6:29 am
If you noticed, the Republicans DID bring this situation to a place faster than the Democrats. That is because they were really not Republicans – they were Neocons. As you know, Jimmy Carter was a disaster, so he was voted right out – then even Clinton had many Republicans in Congress (and there was some messed up stuff passed then). And I don’t even need to tell you about GW Bush and what they brought in! We may still have some of this problem, and we need to diligently ride the rear ends of all of our elected officials and just because they have “R” as their party doesn’t mean anything. And I will keep my eye open for that book, sounds like Ray would like it (and maybe he even read it already for all I know)! Love you!!
November 28th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
I don’t disagree with the basic premise that Republicans had a hand in bringing Obama about. My view is that there were people who “called” themselves Republicans but in fact were “Democrat-Lite” or what some would call “Moderates” or even Independents. I think throughout our political structure, there is a sense of “Careerism” and even a sense of entitlement among those politicians who have been in office/power longer. It definitely runs through both parties; most recent Repub. “ship jumpers” to the Dem. party should be all you need to know about their desire to hold onto their perceived power in govt. Jim Jeffords and that ex-governor in FL that ran an in Indep. but had the support of higher ups in the Dem. party are just the most recent examples. I would say the current AL senator Murkowski is one of those Moderates who just wants to “get along” with Dems by cowtowing to their wants.
This Tea Party revival is going to be different from the 1994 House takeover in that back in 94, a lot of people thought “This is it – we won and everyone knows/believes we are right”, which was totally wrong because that movement wasn’t really “grassroots” as they focused on the National elections (House/Senate) and played no part in changing the dynamic in the State Assemblies.