Beach Driving Permits and the Bigger Issue

I'm afraid that we have entered an age of insanity when it comes to our government. The sad truth is that we, the electorate, are responsible for the state we find ourselves in.

This month the National Park Service is instituting new regulations for beach driving. Many of us have asked why? The new rules do not appear to address any serious problem, correct any wrong or provide any benefit to society. We are being asked to pay fifty or one hundred twenty dollars for the privilege of driving on our beaches. This is a privilege we have enjoyed at no expense for many decades. So, it is apparent that we are receiving nothing of added value for our money, but rather, it is a racket, like paying protection to the Mafia.

Just why are we responsible for this? For many years we have elected people to public office who believe that government knows best, better than us, and that bigger government can provide the solution to all our problems. Those well intentioned office holders have passed laws and appointed judges of the same beliefs. Government has grown out of control and the bureaucracy they have created make the rules with impunity. Legislators pass the laws, but they don't write most anymore. Proposed legislation is crafted by legal minds with an agenda, from the likes of K Street, Wall Street or some socialist leaning organization. One congressman when asked if he had read some monstrous piece of legislation, laughed, saying no, that's what lawyers are for. Another well known congress person declared with a straight face that we need to pass that bill to find out what is in it. Well intentioned, well maybe, some of the time.

We have put ourselves in the position of being powerless against our own government. The public's input is pretty much an exercise in futility. We cannot say that those who wrote our Constitution didn't warn us that this could happen. Beach driving is the loss today. Tomorrow it could be commercial fishing or something else we treasure like First or Second Amendment rights. President Gerald Ford warned us, “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have”.

There is a solution and it won't come easy. Don't vote for anyone who promises to have government do more for you. Vote for those who are committed to shrinking government, and to bringing integrity, common sense and brevity to legislation and regulation. This is a conversation we all should be having.

So Much Bullcrap

Can you believe we have eleven more months of this political tripe before we vote in 2012?
 
Here they are arguing back and forth about a 2% payroll deduction.  That's $1,000 for an annual salary of $50,000.  In other terms, it takes $120 BILLION out of the broke Social Security Trust Fund.  What the hell are they thinking?  Congress and past administrations have looted the Trust Fund and left worthless IOU's. They have voted to give money from the Trust Fund to people who never contributed one cent.  Now these SOB's call it an entitlement;  an entitlement my ass.  That's our money. The real entitlement programs are the biggest problems.  Medicaid, food stamps and all of the other give away programs have gone awry from the original intent.  They are out of control.  Check one of my earlier blogs for the statistics.  People need to be weaned off the government teat.  This cow is going dry. All of them, Democrats and Republicans, will not  address the real issues of way too much spending by government.  What will it take for them to put politics aside and put the country first? 
None of them seem to have any basic understanding of how a free market works.  Quit playing with the money supply.  Quit micromanaging interest rates.  Quit micromanaging banks and credit.  Quit playing with the housing market.  Politicians are the worst at telling the free market how to do their business.  By and large they are lawyers and even community organizers who have never started a business, managed a business, grown a business, met a payroll or even failed at a business.  They have inflated egos that give them the right to tell ever one how to conduct their business about which they have no idea except what some lobbyist told them.  Government meddling has destroyed family farming, is doing the same to domestic manufacturing and makes it virtually impossible for the average person to start a successful small business. 

Now back to the opening statement.  Obama must go . He and the rest of these socialist goons need to be thrown out next November.  Progressives cannot bring this economy back from the brink.  Government is not and never will be the answer to solving our nation's ills.  It created them.
The two leading Republican candidates, Gingrich and Romney, are running from their own progressive records.  In this age, your past in audio and video is just a click away. They cannot hide it. Gingrich has many ideas and balanced the budget, but as I have believed after reading one or two of his books years ago, he is a statist.  He believes more government is the answer to every problem.  Romney has many accomplishments to his credit, but who is he and what does he really believe in.  Granted, he had to compromise to work with the left as governor of Massachusetts.  But you cannot call yourself a progressive one year and a conservative ten years later.  It's another, I was for it before I was against it, quandary.  A quandary to be exploited by Obama, the man with no past.

Crossroads

President Obama actually spoke a truth in his speech in Kansas this week.  America is at a crossroad and the choices are quite clear.  We have a choice between the America that created a nation of unparalleled prosperity or a new America, a socialist state modeled after the European governments now wallowing in debt and civil unrest.  Our President is counting on class envy to carry him to another four year term.  He constantly speaks of "fairness", but his idea of fairness is not the ideal of fairness I believe in.  He also speaks as a champion of the "middle class", but really, no way.

I have come to the realization that our President doesn't just have socialist leanings, but that he is an advocate of communism.  He is carrying out a full front assault on capitalism.  The federal government and his  administration are doing everything they can to kill free enterprise and to destroy the American economic engine.  He didn't start this, but he is pushing it to a certain end.

Private industry, creating value from raw materials, is the key to a strong middle class.  We have systematically driven manufacturing and industry from our shores to other countries with taxation and over regulation from EPA, FCC, Departments of Labor, Energy and the rest of the huge federal bureaucracy.  This administration has pushed for leftist changes to labor laws to favor unions over industry.  When they couldn't get card check, the NLRB instituted changes to restrict a company's ability to fairly fight unionization drives. We all know that unions dues become big money for Democratic Party candidates.  The government will not allow this country to become energy independent.  We cannot drill to develop our domestic petroleum and natural deposits.  They are working to end coal as a fuel, the same with nuclear power and regulations make it impossible to build a refinery. 

I confess to not knowing what our President considers the "middle class".  I don't think he considers it to be people becoming financially independent though their own labors, whether working in  thriving industry or in their own small businesses. This President and his administration are all about the haves and have-nots.  It's the 99% vs. the 1%.  It's the demonization of the successful.  They work to convince people that if you are poor, its because someone else is rich.  Their idea of "fairness" is taking money from those working to improve their lives and giving it to those who don't, just to even things out.   We are supposed to believe him when he says he wants a more fair playing field so all have a chance at success.  The biggest obstacle to that success is big government and he is all for bigger government.

Obama is right, we are at a crossroad.  We must make the choice. Do we want to stay on the path to full blown socialism and government control over our lives?  Do we want a President hell bent on turning us into a third rate country?  Do we want a President who owes everything to the likes of George Soros,  corrupt labor unions, and numerous socialist and communists? 

I will vote for anyone running against this man.  I might gag doing it, but there is no alternative. It would be nothing new, I gagged voting for McCain.

 

Remebering Willie

Our wonderful Corgi, Willie, died this past Saturday after an eight month struggle with lymphoma. We joke about that day in the spring of 1999 when Jude announced, "Frank, we are getting a dog". Friends of ours, here on Ocracoke, had known that Jude was interested in getting a Pembroke Corgi. They told Jude that relatives in New York had a six month old male tri-color and it just hadn't worked out. A couple of weeks later, they brought him all the way down to Hatteras and we went over and met our beautiful boy for the first time. We can't remember his whole name, but it was Prince somethingy-something. He came with AKC papers, which we haven't seen in many years. I must admit he wasn't so awe inspiring at the beginning. He was scared to go up or down stairs and he had terrible separation anxiety problems. He also didn't take too well to being corrected. The stairs he overcame pretty quickly and that was good because it would have been tough making it on Ocracoke where our home and many other buildings are on pilings elevated above flood level. I say he overcame stairs, but that isn't totally true. It was several years before he was running up and down our old twisted wood staircase with Dale, back when he and Jaren lived with us. He would run and bark up and down, chasing Dale or visa versa. He had a real thing about chasing Dale. We would go to the beach, back when everything wasn't illegal, and Dale would take off running down the beach. Meanwhile, we would hold on to Willie, straining and barking. Finally, when Dale had a couple hundred yards head start, it was turn him loose and the chase was on. It was his job to catch him and herd him back. The chase usually ended with Willie leaping up in front of Dale to make him stop. It was amazing to see how fast those short legs churned. More like a quarter horse than a thoroughbred. A few years ago, we remodeled our upstairs replacing the old stairs with an open tread circular staircase. Willie refused to acknowledge the new stairs. He got as far as the second step to recover his Chippie stuffed toy, but that was it. His separation anxiety gradually diminished. There were times when he wasn't happy to be left at home by himself, which wasn't often , and he'd leave us a mess to express his absolute displeasure with us which we in turn would show ours by ignoring him for an hour or so. Or we would let him out when we got home and he would take off for a few hours just to show us and then we would show him by closing up and make him sit on the porch barking to be let back in.
There are so many wonderful stories about this beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed and loving four legged companion who lived and worked with us for almost twelve years.
Jude was adamant that we were not going to have a dog named Prince whatever. She stressed over this for a few weeks and then woke me up in the middle of the night to announce his name was Willie. We did a progression since he knew Prince. At first it 'The dog formerly known as Prince' ( yeah I know), then it was Prince Willie and then just Willie. He liked his new name. Of course there were variations. When we called him Willis, usually in a loud voice, he knew whatever he was doing, stop and pay attention. And then someone we love called him Woodis, which was fine with him.
Willie loved going to Burger King. Hamburger and french fries were his lunch of choice if we were on the road. Kill Devils, up the beach was another favorite, especially that cup of custard they always gave him. He also loved peanuts, almonds, peanut butter, and hemp pretzels. Honestly, he wanted anything we ate except lime tortilla chips, hot sauce and guacamole. We have always had a herd of cats. He had his favorites. We rescued Evie from the Texaco campground. She was tiny and suffering from a sinus infection. Willie was her guardian her whole life. Nobody messed with his Evie. If he was out lying in the grass, there was Evie curled up next to him, back to back. He was also good a herding cats. Sometimes he just enjoyed chasing them, sometimes they chased him, playing tag your it.

The five best sentences you'll ever read

I have a good friend here, a good poker player, who despite being a little older than me, has never outgrown his left leanings. He still reads Newsweek and for the most part avoids controversy. Several months ago I shared the following piece with him and we had a subsequent conversation discussing his interpretation of some of the points. He has since written an article expressing his views.(his to share) My unsolicited response is further down and I take issue with his assertions that welfare can lift the poor into the middle class, that unearned income is different because someone else is actually earning it for you and that government should have a direct role in redistributing wealth.

THESE ARE POSSIBLY THE FIVE BEST SENTENCES YOU WILL EVER READ:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005), was an American pastor, conservative, author

I have read your piece growing out of the five best sentences. I have no issue with helping those unfortunates who are in financial straits and struggling to get back on their feet. However, I have great issues with your reasoning. The federal government has no right, under our constitution, to take property from one person and give it to another and there is no difference between your property whether it is earned or unearned income.

Unearned income is the product of personal funds invested and in most cases, those funds are placed at risk. The total of the investment could be lost rather than provide a return. The investments earn a return because they provide capital to businesses and therefore create jobs and grow an economy. The return on an investment is not the benefit of someone's labor, but rather the investment provides them the opportunity to earn a living and if the enterprise is successful, the investor benefits.
Helping the needy is a function for nonprofit organizations like church bodies, the Salvation Army, and other charitable groups. They, as opposed to the government, function in the real world with oversight from concerned boards and are most careful in how their funds are dispersed. They raise funds through voluntary contributions from individuals, organizations and businesses. The government can promote those voluntary contributions through tax credits and deductions without getting involved where the have no legitimate business.
How well has government handled this assumed obligation to help the needy? I contend not so well. The government has created huge bureaucracies where success is judged by how much money they dispense. There are 70 federal programs to transfer money taken form one person and give it out to another. From 1989 to 2008, in current dollars, there was a 292% (no decimal) growth in means tested welfare funds dispersed. In 2008 there were 40 million people receiving food stamps and in 1978 that number was 4.3 million. In 2008 dollars, 1980 Medicaid costs were $300 billion and in 2008 that number had grown to $700 billion. Losses in Medicaid programs due to fraud are estimated at over $50 billion per year. I ask, what private enterprise would allow that to happen? When your only task is to give it away, who cares about it? Haven't most federal housing programs for the poor also been disasters, becoming drug and crime infested hellholes?
Ben Franklin counseled us in plain terms. Never give those in need enough to make them comfortable in their circumstance.

In an earlier conversation, I said that I believe you can never have a strong middle class unless there is industry where value is produced. Whether it is the building industries, manufacturing, food processing or selling those commodities, they provide well paying jobs to many in vertical industries. In places like Guatemala, there is agriculture where fresh produce is harvested and shipped to market or consumed. Very little value is added. It is the same with mining and gas and oil production; harvested and shipped. A prime example is the contrast between Ireland and England in a previous century. The Irish had the potato. They grew them, harvested them and ate them or sold them. The English grew wheat, harvested it, and then milled it and then bakers made it into bread, cakes and pastries in a vertical industry.

Most people will voluntarily give to help people in need. They are especially generous in this nation when folks are struggling to recover from disasters. You are right that people are unwilling to give to those who do little to help themselves or to those who squander it. There we have the federal government, to take it and with inadequate regard, give it away or waste it.

Why not drill now

I wrote this in response to criticism of Sarah Palin's view that maybe now was the time to get serious about domestic oil and gas drilling.

Just announcing that we will immediately begin exploration and utilization of domestic energy sources will help stabilize the petroleum markets and gas prices. 99% of cars and trucks run on gas or diesel and will do so for many years. We as a country have painted ourselves into a corner pursuing a foolhardy policy on energy independence. Every building in America should have solar panels and wind turbines should be turning throughout the land. But, that does not alleviate our dependence on petroleum. Government will never solve the problem. When technology catches up with our desire for clean renewable energy, then and only then will it happen and my money is on entrepreneurs in the free market system to get us there. So, if Sarah Palin is an idiot, then those who bash her must be insane for that is the definition of someone who does the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Check out Palin's actions with big oil while governor and then tell me she is in their pocket.

Government's Business

Somewhere in the universe there must surely be one government program that is a model of efficiency, delivering service that meets and exceeds customer expectation. That really isn't a fair statement because consumer expectations of government services are pretty low.
In our county, we still have ABC stores, albeit two stores. Recently it was revealed that these two stores were in arrears to their suppliers more than $100,000 and had been cut off. So far, the investigation points to mismanagement and the manager was in place for 20 years. We can only surmise that no one ever looked at a balance sheet or P/L statement or performed an audit. No one to my knowledge has been held accountable.
My position has always been that the government, at every level, should never be in any business that could be conducted by a private enterprise. Open competitive bidding with transparency would lead to better service at a lower cost because someone will keep an eye on the bottom line and customer satisfaction will be a priority. Free enterprise is the mother of innovation leading to breakthroughs in technology, efficiency, quality and lower costs.
In most instances where government has inserted itself, whether to control pricing, promote fairness, even the playing field, help the disadvantaged, and on and on, the results have been far from the promised benefits and more often damaging to society.
The examples are many and varied. They include prohibition of alcohol, the great society programs, federal Department of Education, campaign finance reform, medicare and medicaid, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the war against drugs, and the federal reserve system.
Now we are being told that the federal government can deliver better health care at lower costs than the private sector while the fact is that medicare and medicaid are rife with fraud at estimates of 60 to 80+ billion dollars per year and the fastest rising costs in health care are in government controlled programs.
Even I believe that government does have a place at times in helping promote and regulate interstate business. The interstate highway system, rural electrification, breaking up strangling monopolies and ending unfair labor practices are some instances. But it is a slippery slope and the bureaucracies created grow endlessly in size and power far beyond original intentions and are often used to control states and advance political objectives. The Department of Energy was established in 1977 to end dependence on foreign oil. It has grown to 16,000 employees in dozens of departments with an annual budget of 26 billion dollars. DOE, a complete failure at its original objective, is just another huge bureaucracy obstructing domestic energy development. The Department of Education was elevated to cabinet level in 1979. Its total funding this year is over 100 billion dollars. Despite all those dollars over all these years, quality of education in US has not improved. Teacher's unions exert unwarranted influence and any meaningful changes like alternative school choices are seldom considered.