For me, the entire month of December brings nothing but thoughts of the upcoming Christmas holiday. As the day approaches that we, as Christians, celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, I find myself reflecting on certain things that completely humble me, as a human being. This year, I was shown something new to reflect on. It has strengthened me, as a Christian, so I thought I would share it.
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Mary Christmas
December 25, 2010 by
Collectively Bargaining Our Rights, Resources, and Riches Away
December 14, 2010 by
While watching this cesspool of a Congress wrap up it’s final sessions, I am reminded why I decided to remain independent of Party politics. Just looking at the latest piece (of crap) legislation that ties continuing the Bush era tax cuts to unemployment and a growing number of other “perks” is sickening to me. This 111th session of Congress has lost the ability to debate issues for the ‘common good’. Instead, they have resorted to ‘collectively bargaining’ our rights, resources, and riches away.
The term, “collective bargaining”, is a term that is, usually, reserved for contract negotiations between labor unions and corporations. During the negotiation process, both the company and labor unions begin talks with outrageous demands from the other side, eventually to be whittled down to a temporary deal that both sides can agree to. These types of contracts are temporary in nature because company profits margins and competition constantly change. It does neither side any good if the company can not maintain a decent profit margin to remain competitive on the world market, if the company fails, the union fails also.
So what does this have to do with Congress?
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The Freedom Of Speech
December 9, 2010 by
The assault on the freedom of speech has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Apparently, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps has decided to take it upon his federal department to decide what the freedom of speech entails.
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The Great Earmark Debate
December 4, 2010 by
The November 2nd, 2010, mid term elections should have sent one EXTREMELY clear message to lawmakers to “stop wasteful spending, or you will lose your job”. This has led to contentious debates over ways to control spending, one of the most obvious, earmarks.
On November 30, 2010, the United States Senate rejected the idea of banning earmarks. The reason the idea is met with so much resistance in the Senate is because earmarks have always played a vital role in funding State projects. Many highways, interstates, bridges, and corridors are built using earmarked money. Likewise, many research and development grants, universities, construction projects, and State emergency funds are also earmarked during the legislative process.
However, there are some interesting peculiarities to the earmarking process that leave the whole thing looking, well… rather shady.
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