Thumbnails

I was going to post some full sized pictures on this blog, but decided to just post thumbnails.

If I'm Elected...(fill in blank)

At this time when it seems a significant percentage of the American population is running for the office of President, we're hearing a lot of promises for change. It seems anyone running against an incumbent, or running against the party in power, promises they're going to "change" things if elected.

No one ever seems to want to make the changes I think are needed however. I'd like to see a thorough review done on all the bureaucracies they've established in the last half century and eliminate the ones that have been relatively ineffective.

The "War on Poverty" has not only not worked after a bunch of trillions of dollars were thrown that way, it's had the reverse effect of the stated desires. The way it was set-up it encourages people to not work, to stay on the dole, and carries over into second and third generations. It encourages absentee fathers. It encourages indolence. It has failed miserably so why is it having it's budget raised instead of being eliminated? Make the Change.

OSHA (occupational safety and health act) had it's effectiveness reviewed after it had been in effect just ten years. It's stated purpose was to make the workplace safer to reduce on the job accidents. During that ten years on job accidents had increased by greater numbers each year than any year before OSHA. They never took into consideration the psychological aspects of what they were doing. They would come into a factory, force the company to make millions of dollars in changes to make the place safe - and on the job accidents would increase. Since the workers now knew the workplace was safe, they stopped being careful. That's called failure so why are we still funding it decades later? Make the Change.
The War on Drugs. Failed. Make the Change.

All 22,000+ anti-gun laws they've passed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Failed. Make the Change.

Who's idea was it to pay Congress and at the same time allow them to set their own salaries, establish their own perks, get their medical coverage, vacations, plane fares around the world, at taxpayer expense, and give them huge tax breaks on top of that? Failed. Make the Change.

Has the country benefited by Congressmen that make a life's career out of "serving" in Washington DC, or would term limits suit the country better? Easy question. The arguments for term limits for the President were valid. They are just as valid in arguing for term limits for Congress. Current system? Failed. Make the Change.

If we listed all such changes that need to be made, this would not be a short article, but a large volume of books. Give me a candidate that is willing to make the changes we need, and someone willing to dump the nanny state idea out with the trash.

Rose of Sharon

Last year a neighbor gave me a little stick of a plant she called a "Rose of Sharon". I stuck it in the ground and it's still a stick of a plant with quite a few leaves and maybe five feet tall. All summer it has put out blooms. Sometimes two but usually just one bloom at a time, but each bloom is a startling pink shade. I hope it survives and grows into a bush like her plant has.

What do I do Now?

Who says you can't go home

My little home town in Indiana has an "Old Fashioned Days" festival over Labor Day week-end each year. We decided to take that in this year then stay over and visit with family members that live in the area. It was the town's 32 year to hold this celebration, and over the years they've added to it making it quite an event for a small town. They have a stage with various musical groups, there's a parade with floats commemorating one thing or another, marching bands, antique vehicles and tractors, horses, mule teams and the like. This year's parade was about an hour start to finish. There are demonstrations of antique farm equipment, tractor pulls, all sorts of booths with craft items for sale. A couple of the churches do meals. One church had a smorgasbord breakfast/brunch that ran til ten, then at one o'clock another church took over serving porkchop meals until four. There were dozens of yard sales around town.

I enjoyed wandering around town noting all the changes in the 50 years since I last lived there, chatting with people I new from back then, and some that were later arrivals. Now I'm back home, and it's cooled down a little so I'm back into building a porch and skirting my daughter's mobile home. Other than checking my mail and one other project, I'm not getting much computer time.

My home town will be celebrating it's 175 year in 2010, so they're putting together as much information as they can. Interviewing old timers on tape that will transfer to DVD for sale to anyone interested, creating a book of histories and remembrances and the like. Since I've been doing an E-newsletter for more than five years for my fellow alumnus of that town, I've accumulated quite a bit of information about the town. I'm in the process of gleaning just the information from those that are pertinent to the town. Having put out five newsletters a week for five years, I have a lot of material to sort through. It may take me until 2010. There are two names that designate a 175th anniversary, Septaquintaquinquecentennial or Terquasquicentennial. Since no human tongue can pronounce either of these the town has decided to call it a 175 year celebration. Good choice