Obama's stunning State of the Union 2012

              I have watched President Obama’s State of the Union 2012 three times.  It’s stunning.  I won’t bother you with the voluminous notes I took, but I can’t not speak out about at least a few issues. 

              The president called for a “basic minimum tax.”  Apparently he doesn’t know that we already have on, enacted in 1969 to insure that those at the top pay their fair share.     

             He tells us that, “Through the power of our diplomacy a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program now stands as one.” What? 

             He brags about progress in Afghanistan. The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan: “The Taliban will grow stronger, using fledgling talks with the U.S. to gain credibility and stall until U.S. troops leave, while continuing to fight for more territory.”

            He claims to have saved the American auto industry. Two problems there that need a little more clarification:  First of all the Made in the USA Foundation says, "’Made in America?’ Not quite.”  The AALA requires new cars to provide information on the window sticker including where the car was assembled and where the transmissions and engines were made.  They have charged GM with violating the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA) stripping country of origin labels off of its cars. Joel D. Joseph, Chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, said, “General Motors wants to hide the fact that, even after the government bailout, it has moved production of vehicles offshore. The Cadillac SRX is now made in Mexico. The Buick Regal is made in Germany.”

             Volkswagen disputes the presidents claim that “GM is once again the leading auto maker in the world.”  Volkswagen sold 8 million units and says that although GM boasts 9 million, that figure includes 2.3 million units sold by Chinese automakers SAIC and Wiling.  GM does have a financial interest in those companies, but it is not a controlling interest, so Volkswagen disputes the claim.

              The most galling lie, ( I hate to call it that, but it is a bare faced lie) is the president’s insistence that millionaires pay a lower rate of taxes than middle income people.  Geithner’s own figures show that people with incomes between 50,000 to 100,000 pay 9 per cent, millionaires pay 24 per cent, and the guys at the top pay 36 per cent.  Buffet’s secretary is obviously one of those one-percenters the OWS guys hate so much.

            And yes, that includes Mitt Romney.  What the president fails to admit is that those who live off investment income are taxed twice.  The corporations they own are taxed first at 35 per cent, the highest corporate tax rate in the world.  Then when the shares are paid, the coupon clipper pays another 15 per cent.  Get it?  That means they pay a total of 50 per cent on the money they earn.

           President Obama did say he wanted America to be a country where hard work is rewarded, where personal responsibility is honored, where everyone does their fair share and plays by the same rules.  If we Tea Party people thought he meant that we’d all vote for him.

President Obama's tiffs on the tarmac.

President Obama has a history of tiffs on the tarmac.  In his book “Leadership in Crisis,” Governor Jindal of Louisiana recounts his battle with the President on his first trip to Louisiana after the oil spill.  Jindal’s staff had written a letter to Washington critical of the relief response, and the President stepped off Air Force I loaded for bear.  According to Jindal, “There was not a word about the oil spill.” The president just reamed him out because the letter made him look bad.

Either President Obama is very thin skinned or he just likes picking fights with Republican governors assuming that will sway public opinion in his favor. 

Another investment failure for President Obama

              Remember last August when President Obama gave 2 billion dollars, a “preliminary commitment,” to Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras to help them finance the exploration of the Tupi Oil field, a large off shore deposit beneath a mile of water and two miles of shifting rock, sand and salt, in order that Brazil can become one of the world’s largest oil exporters?

          Our president told them, “We want to…help you with technology to develop these oil reserves…and…we want to be one of your best customers. 

           As it turns out, the United States isn’t getting the oil.  China is.  A few days after President Obama left Brazil, Dilma Rousseff went to Beijing and signed oil contracts with two state-owned Chinese companies.  

           Good job, aye?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/19/china-gets-jump-on-us-for-brazils-oil/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

Global warming: Finally, the veil of deceit lifts

           When they reported last week about the giant solar flares that would disrupt communications and interfere with flights on polar routes, I wondered how long it would be before scientist would start admitting that there were forces much more powerful than silly homo sapiens effecting climate change.

       This morning I see that  Ivar Giaevervar  Nobel Prize-winning physicist, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society.  He said he could not renew his membership because he could not live with the APS policy statement that says the evidence for man caused global warming is "incontrovertible." 

         :The Wall Street Journal article rips the curtain aside revealing what is really behind the Global Warming scheme.   "Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments to raise taxes, taxpayer-funded subsidies for businesses that understand how to work the political system, and a lure for big donations to charitable foundations promising to save the planet. Lysenko and his team lived very well, and they fiercely defended their dogma and the privileges it brought them." 

           Many of us have  been writing about the hoax for years, some of my rants on this very blog. As the great bard once said, "The truth will out."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

         Peter Rockwell (“’Centralizing power letter’ misleading,” Yuma Sun, January 17, 2012) is correct, of course!  The Republicans have been the war mongers of the 20^th century.  Take WWI, for example, 117,000 American casualties, and 12 million people worldwide.  Oh, wait a minute, that was Wilson, wasn’t it?  Well, take WWII then, 1 million American casualties, 19 million worldwide.  Oh, wait.  Wrong again.  That was FDR, another Democrat.  The Korean War was Truman’s (130,000 casualties) and Vietnam the Kennedy-Johnson affair (211,000 casualties). 

                I better quit being so “lazy and downright manipulative.”  Whether for good or ill I know not, but Republican administrations have gotten us involved in the Middle East killing 100,000 Iraqis and causing 120,000 American casualties.

                 Maybe the wars were not justifiable, but the constitution does give the federal government power to conduct war.  Our military is pretty good at that. It is also the constitutional responsibility of the federal government to protect our borders. It is not constitutional for the federal government to employ 2.5 million people to interfere in the affairs of the 50 states and manage our personal lives.

                I thought I made it clear in the first paragraph of my original letter that I was not distinguishing between Republicans or Democrats.  We have had many progressive Republicans who have led us down the big government path, and there are many Democrats in both the house and the senate who would restrain the federal government.

                 President Obama would have us believe it was the Tea Party Patriots in the House who practically shut down congress; however, even when Democrats controlled all three branches they could not agree on a budget.  Harry Reed wouldn’t bring to the senate floor the 15 budget proposals that the 112^th congress sent up because he knew that the more classically liberal Democrats would support them and they might pass. 

                 Our founders knew the danger of a large intrusive federal government.  Benjamin Franklin said, “We have given you a republic if you can keep it.”  We have not kept it very well.  We have spent our progeny into servitude.   We have a federal government that, sometimes with the best intentions, wants to use its power to solve problems and in the process corrupts itself by currying favors and buying votes. 

                  "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -Thomas Jefferson

             “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” - John Adams

Getting where we need to be

      My friend Paula said, “God has a way of getting us to the place we’re supposed to be.”  The idea struck a chord with me and caused me to reflect on the way in which God has worked in my life.

       After my husband died, our house on Vancouver Island, the home I had loved almost ejected me. For some odd reason,  I just couldn’t be there, so I made my permanent home in a small trailer house which was our winter home in Yuma. If I was to be a year arounder, I needed a church.  My first Sunday here I cruised up and down Avenue A and 8^th Avenue at about 8:15, and service at Trinity Methodist started at 8:30.  I had been Lutheran all my life, so I had no intention of making that my home, but I accidentally sat behind Marilyn Young. She was so welcoming that I came back and got stuck.

       Two years ago my daughter Lynne stayed with me for a couple of months while she was getting dental work done in Algadonas, and it just seemed right that she should stay, but two women in a house need two bathrooms. We just happened onto a place in Saguaro Estates with  a bedroom and bath at either end. 

        But I see now that it was not accidetal,  none of this “just so happened.”  God was getting me to the place I needed to be.  He saw the terrible road that Lynne was going to travel, and he knew that we would have to be in a park with year-rounders who would support us and pray with us throughout the terrible summer, neighbors like Joyce who would encourage their churches like her Community Chriustian Church to keep us in their prayers or like Joan whose church warmLynne’s heart with a beautiful Prayer quilt. He knew that we needed a congregation like those at Trinity Methodist who would understand and treasure who Lynne was and who would wrap their arms around us and keep us strong. 

        My daughter is gone now, but she knew she was loved, she knew that she had made a difference. Many of  those knew her will make the commitment that she made.  “I will keep Jesus forever in my heart and not fail to record all my blessings.”

Progressivism: Suffering the consequences of our own best intentions.

       The reason progressivism is difficult to define (Vincent Lacy, “Progressives place nation before politics,” Yuma Sun, December 19, 2011) is that progressives take on different issues over time.  Whether right or left, Democrat or Republican, a progressive is one who believes that government can solve problems.  Progressives have an earnest desire to remake the world into something that resembles their more utopian vision.

       Theodore Roosevelt was a Republican Progressive. He objected to the laissez-faire free market philosophy of his predecessors and started the 20^th century march toward a more intrusive federal government.  He destroyed monopolies, established the FDA, and passed laws regulating workplace safety and establishing a minimum wage.

       Today’s liberal Democrats have assumed that mantel of turn of the century progressivism.   They have faith in the ability of a strong central government to reorder society and industry, stabilize, rationalize, and expand the apparatus of the state in order to achieve what they consider a more fair and just society. 

Conservative Republicans, interestingly enough, have adopted the philosophy of what was classic liberalism, committed to the ideal of limited government and respect for the constitution and individual liberties. Although we are concerned with budget deficits and adamant about not leaving our progeny with outlandish debts, we are more concerned with how the “nanny” state destroys individual initiative and undermines personal and civic responsibility. 

                Although not all conservatives are religious, they agree with at least one of principles espoused in the Old Testament, that power should not be centralized.  God confused the languages of the people who built the Tower of Babel in order to disperse them, decentralize them, recognizing the fact that, although capable of much that is good, collectively, we are also capable of hideous evil.   The millions Hitler sent to the gas chambers, the millions intentionally starved by Stalin, the millions slaughtered by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, as well as a myriad of similar socialist/communist regimes make that fact absolutely inarguable.  All of them were earnest in their desires to create a better society.

         Our founders were committed students of history and philosophy and after struggling mightily over issues of sovereignty, devised a system of government designed to prevent the consolidation of power and respect individual liberties and responsibilities.  They hoped to save us from the consequences of our own best intentions.  

Bernd Rogat: When you need them angels just appear.

My husband emigrated from Germany when he was 20 years and I have a dozen diaries about his adventures in the new world.  Later, he taped his diaries in English, and they are a hoot, alive with the guy Sig was.  My son enjoyed them much and last spring told me he’d pay whatever it cost to get the diaries translated.  While I searched the web to find translators, I thought of Bernd Rogat, a man who attended our church during the winters when he was in town.  I knew that he had come from the same area of Germany as my husband and thought he’d be a good contact, but I hadn’t seen him in church and since the winter season was nearly over, I assumed Bernd, who camped in the shade of a Palo Verde tree, had already escaped the heat.

               But he hadn’t.  The next Sunday, there he was.  At the post-church coffee gathering I told him I had a job for him.  He said he’d be glad to give it a try. He did some of the translation and he also did some painting and maintenance jobs for me.   I paid him by the hour, but it wasn’t long before he had earned enough money to get out of the heat, so he left for San Diego.

               In the meantime, my daughter had been dealing with some mysterious health problems. In June, an emergency room visit led to a long hospital stay and many tests, but no definitive results. They needed to do a pet scan which could not be done while she was in hospital, so I took her home. Home care would provide a hospital bed, but to make room, I had to get the bedroom cleared out.  I was about to call for help when the phone rang. 

               It was Bernd.  “Mrs. Schingnitz, I did a stupid thing.  I came back to Yuma -  in July.  I cannot believe it.  How stupid.  I simply have to get out of this heat.”  When he left I had told him that I had more jobs for him if he ever wandered this way again.   He hoped he could do those jobs now and earn enough to get him back to San Diego.  I picked him up from his camping spot and he helped me clear out the room, and in the process, tenderly attended to my daughter who was dehydrated and couldn’t keep anything in her stomach.  He gently cleaned her up, replenished her ice water, brought her damp cloths to clean her face and cool her and pillows to rest her head.  He seemed to anticipate, better than I, what she needed.

               I told him that I had an extra room and asked him if he would stay to help me out.  He did.  It was a grueling time, and Bernd knew how to be helpful in every way. My daughter had suffered a traumatic brain injury 25 years before and most people could not see beyond her slurred speech and ungainly movements.  Bernd recognize her value and respected her intelligence. He talked her through a lot of pain and made her laugh. One time he said, “Here comes your medication flying in on the wings of an eagle named Bernd Rogat.”  I thought, “No, on the wings of an angel,” and that he was.

 They read the Bible and discussed philosophy.  He transported her beyond the pain by reading “Dead Souls” to her.   It sounds gruesome, but that Bernd’s interpretation managed to capture the author’s unique sense of humor, much to Lynne’s delight.  

               In July we finally got a diagnosis, internal melanoma, an aggressive incurable form of cancer.  She did qualify for clinical trials at the cancer center in Tucson, but by the time we got it arranged she had had two more trips to the emergency room and the disease was way out of control.  The doctors agreed that she might have 3 weeks to live and recommended that we spend the time to her delight.  She decided on Hawaii, much to Bernd’s delight because his son lived there. 

               We soon, learned, however, that a trip by airplane was out of the questions, so we opted to spend some time on the San Diego beach instead.  Bernd was terribly disappointed, but I had paid him well, so he had enough money for a plane trip for himself.  I later contacted his sister in New York, but she hadn’t heard from him.  She didn’t think he made it because his son had been in contact with her and hadn’t mentioned it. 

               Yesterday I leaned that he had indeed made it to Hawaii.  I wept tears of joy.  He must have followed his own advice.  “One must be shod with the gospel of peace and wear the helmet of salvation, the breast plate of righteousness,  the belt of truth, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Word of God.”

               I know that he has searched for peace for many years.  I pray that he found it.

Why do atheists care?

I sincerely hope I can elicit a response from Gilbert Shapiro on two issues: (“Prayer ruling not based on merit,” Yuma Sun, January 5, 2012). First of all, with regard to the separation of church and state in the constitution, if the framers were so adamantly opposed to prayer and the practice of religion on government property, why do they open both the senate and the house with a word of prayer every morning?  Why have we established clerics not just in the two houses of government, but also in the pentagon in order to “meet the spiritual needs” of those working in there”?  

From the time the capitol was established until long after the reconstruction period, religious services representing a variety of beliefs were held in the capitol building every Sunday morning.  It was Jefferson who wrote the famous letter containing the "wall of separation between church and state" phrase, but Jefferson himself attended those Sunday morning services.  He also wrote a version of the New Testament that, until about 1917, was distributed to every freshman class of representatives and senators. 

The framers assiduously avoided establishing a religion, but they believed profoundly that we were endowed by our “Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”  The justification of the Declaration of Independence is that no government should have the power to violate those rights because, and I repeat, “they were endowed by our Creator.” In time of crisis they called for days of prayer and fasting. They believed that without our reliance on Devine providence, this great country would not survive. (http://coraleeannmoen.blogspot.com/2011/07/were-our-founders-men-of-faith-based.html). 

Perhaps Article XX of the Arizona constitution could be interpreted as directly prohibiting prayer at the State Capitol, but that leads to me to the second issue that I sincerely hope you will clarify.  Why do atheists care?

 It does takes a little time to say a prayer, but those congressmen and women waste a whole lot of time on a lot of foolishness. I doubt that there is much of an investment of capital and certainly not as much as the $2,351 they spent underwriting the production of “Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party.”

I don’t think it’s really a matter of time or money, so again I don’t understand.  Why do they care?  A Google search suggested it was because atheists are not allowed in Boy Scouts.  I didn’t know that.  Some felt that religious people “are intolerant, hate filled, bigoted.”

 Many of them expressed their fear of religious wars, citing the millions murdered over the years in the name of one religion or another.  Interesting because my reading of history tells me that perhaps 100 times as many have been killed by atheist regimes,  the Third Reich, by Stalinist Soviet Union, Poll Pot, Communist China.   

Again the question:  Really, why do they care?   Were I an atheist, I am pretty sure I would just sit back and giggle at the silliness of it all. Let them waste their time sitting in uncomfortable pews and singing hymns.  Why does our prayer make them so uncomfortable?