Reality Check

I know I said that I originally started this blog not to be a political sounding board but a sounding board for my various rants and raves. Unfortunately, the posts lately have been on the political side. This one may seem to be no different but I submit that this post is more of a reality check than a political post. This reality check is brought to you by the one year anniversary of the death of a friend who grew up just 3 houses down the street from me. On August 22, 2007, Staff Sergeant Jason Payton died in a helicopter crash with 13 other men and women in our armed forces outside of the town of Tikrit. The crash, deemed to be non-hostile in nature, was ironically on its way to drop the soldiers off after completing a successful mission. This was Jason's second tour in Iraq with one or two more in Afghanistan, where he was involved in an ambush that nearly claimed his life then. When the crash occurred, he was just three weeks away from turning in his weapons and beginning the trek back home. He was to be married the next month after he returned home. Jason was the 3,714 US death in Iraq.

Regardless of your opinions on the war or the current administration, I hope you at least are grateful there are people like Jason that are currently serving to protect us and the innocent. I know he loved the Army and was pursuing a career in the Special Forces. The image of looking at his body in the coffin two weeks after the crash will never leave my mind. He was tiny and looked like a kid but when he was alive, he was bigger than life and always happy. At the time of this post, there have been 4,146 deaths of US service men and women in Iraq. I still support the war and hope that all those who are serving will be able to return home safe and sound. One thing I am proud of is that when our service men and women come home from duty, they are… for the most part… treated with respect and dignity. I am a firm believer in our military and also believe that you can be against the war and still support the troops. I also believe that you can be against the war and be patriotic.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I consider myself to be conservative. In fact, I am probably a little more than most "conservatives". I "align" myself with the Republican Party not because I want to or feel the need to belong to a group but because I agree with their stances… most of them. I am not a "Compassionate Conservative" as our President calls himself or whatever the party's new buzzword is this day. I am a realistic conservative. I would say that I am socially and fiscally conservative yet I have stances that some would say is "liberal", like that word is a curse word or something. I am also a realistic American in that I will vote for someone that I believe A) will be the best President and will lead America down a path that I believe will be the most beneficial to this country and B) that I agree with. Why in the name of God is it important or "newsworthy" how many homes a candidate has? How will that affect how he, or she, would be as the President of the United States? I agree with the disclosure of financial records because I would be a little untrusting of someone that cannot manage their own finances and would be entrusted with the finances of the US. The media today takes a position and backs a candidate (McCain for Fox News… they are fair and balanced… and Obama for MSNBC and the Communist News Network (CNN) because, as you know, CNN equals Politics) but of course they would deny that they favor one or the other. The media should report the news… facts only… and if they want to add commentary then by all means do so but at least mark it as that, Commentary. We should ask ourselves if the story the media is presenting to us realistically matter in the grand scheme of things. I would venture to bet that most of what they say doesn't.

While being realistic is important, we still need to be dreamers. After all, the next big change and great advancement in our society will be from those who still appreciate being unrealistic… every once in a while. It is finding the right balance that will always be just beyond our fingertips but it is important that we never stop trying to grab it.

Damn Yankees

Despite my apparent inability to sleep the past couple of nights (now on only three hours sleep since 7:30 am Sunday), I have been able to get more things done at work than in past weeks. Who knows, maybe my work lately has been complete crap but so far I have not receive any complaints. I am really looking forward to the Montana trip in a week. That will be olive oil in a water bottle awesome.

 

Today's post covers a topic that is of special importance to me so here it goes. One of the things that I am most grateful of is being an American. Where else do you have the ability to argue several different points with others freely and without fear of punishment from the government and then go to work and try to screw your fellow man in the spirit of Capitalism? I mean, come on. This is just brilliance… much like the creature that makes absolutely no sense to me, the Duckbilled Platypus. It looks like a duck fucked a beaver and a manatee. Then their offspring mated with an otter and a snake (for the venomous part). What was evolution, or God, thinking? Come on. Nevertheless, I digress.

 

I would say that I am a little over the top in being patriotic and I believe that this word means something different than what most of my fellow republicans define it as. It is not being pro-war, pro-life, Christian, flag waving, or Mary Tyler Moore. Someone who is against the war in Iraq or war in general can still be just as patriotic as you or I (okay, maybe not me because few people are). Blindly following the leaders of this country and not saying anything against it because we are at war is not being patriotic. That is being an idiot. You should question your country's actions and the leaders we elect. I am a big Bush supporter yet he has done some f'd up things and I talk to people about them because we should. Of course, if you disagree but decide not to speak up, that's great too. That is your choice but to not question anything???? I am pro-war but most of my friends are not. I am a republican, most are not. I am a conservative, most are not. I am a white male, most are also. I am for the taking over of Canada because really, what good does Canada except mispronounce "O" and add nonsensical onomatopoeia's to the end of statements… and I doubt my friends would be for that as well. The point is, being patriotic means that you want better and greater things for the US. For me, I add the line that you also want the US athletes to kick butt at the Olympics.

 

Now, on to some other rumblings… Despite our inability to balance the budget (and this is not Dubya's fault people… the President has no official say in the final budget that gets passed by CONGRESS), we still dish out more foreign aid than any other country. We have two naval vessels that cost a fortune to operate and take up valuable human resources to man yet they are designed to provide medical assistance around the world. The USNS Mercy is the West Coast ship that is dispatched to the Tsunami area, Mynamar (even though their support was denied by the Junta), and other places. These are giant white colored floating hospitals with big red crosses all over it. Realistically, for the next few years (5-8 years) we should reduce all foreign aid to nothing, except for a contingency of 5-10 billion dollars in case of natural disasters or humanitarian crises.

 

This will hurt other countries that have not only come to rely on these funds but demand and expect to continue to receive it. How dare we even consider spending our own money elsewhere (mainly, on our debt and our own citizens that need help too). Despite this, we continue to shovel out money. By reducing this funding, and not increasing anyone's budget, sorry DOD, you can live with the funds you currently receive, while maintaining everyone's taxes at the current rates, should help to close the gap. To further close the gap, the government needs to close the loophole on big businesses that to this very day pay little or even nothing in taxes. That is wrong. This, of course, is a slow approach method to closing the gap and there are more courses out there that we can take.