Happiness

I saw a poll this morning listing the states in order happiest to least happy.Utah was happiest, I live in Ohio we are #47.

It got me thinking I always assumed happiness was in our mindsets. That by simply thinking positively we can will ourselves to be happy. Oh I know sometimes this won't work but in general if we start with a smile it pushes us in the right direction.

So now I read this poll and it tells me here in Ohio being happy is tough. Can data like this be self fulfilling?

What the heck I'm going to go ahead and be happy anyway.

Neutrality

A couple of days ago John posted about how people live their lives. Categorizing themselves in several ways based character development in role playing games. These categories included 9 character traits from lawful good to chaotic evil true neutral being in the middle.

Coming home from work Wednesday Dennis Prager stated if you are neutral in regard to something that is evil you are actually evil.

The Bible tells us in Matt 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. This would lead me to believe that everyone has an opinion. You can't be for a free market economy and Cap&Trade they are diametrically opposed.

My question is can any one be truly neutral. We can claim to be neutral but is this just being afraid to express an opinion. When we say we don't want to pick sides aren't we saying either we can't decide which side has more merit or we don't want to offend.

I think we would be better served by our leaders if they strove less for neutrality. For while being neutral in regards to political opinion might not be evil it certainly serves bad policy.

Money

Leading up to Tuesday's elections several stories got me thinking. Two separate school unions were demanding raises between 2-4 percent. The one demanding 4 percent was offered 2 and was indignant, threatening a strike. There was also a deluge of letters to the editor in our small local paper debating the merits of a new school levy.

The thing that struck me was the tone institutional type people take when discussing money. Institutional people in my eyes are people who have never worked in the private sector government workers,school employees and such. whenever institutional people discuss money it's as if they think it's in unending supply.

Society might be better served if public employ could only be had after 5-10 years of private sector work. Having to create something in order to earn a pay check helps give perspective to what money really is a token representing work or service done.

Halloween

A poem I remember from my youth. I don't know the author

Ruth and Johnny
side by side
went for an auto ride

John hit a bump
Ruth hit a tree
John kept going ruthlessly

Look both ways before crossing the street

Any of us who walked to school as youngsters know this rule,look both ways before crossing. I walked to school from the first day and this was drummed into my head.

Most of the summer and into the fall people have been debating health care reform. People are wary and for good reason our Representatives have consistently shown poor judgement failing to look for unintended consequences and overlooking true costs. This is a universal failing of both parties.

While we have been staring down the speeding train of health care reform we have forgotten to look the other way. Coming equally fast is the climate change legislation. As hard as it may be to believe this bill might even do more damage to our economy. I've posted earlier about our local problem of the cost of cfl's the new spiral light bulbs. At a time when businesses are trying to right their ships and put Americans back to work uncertainties are the last thing we need.

We need to let congress and the White House know that what our country needs most now is not new programs and new taxes but stability. Those with dollars to invest didn't get wealthy gambling. They need to know what direction the government is taking and the possible effects of their direction.

Health care opt out

I keep reading different accounts of the reform plans and questions people are asking. The latest scam to try to raise public approval is the opt out option for the public option.

The thinking goes people won't complain if they don't have to participate. The only problem is that you don't get to opt out of paying for this boondoggle.

So how stupid does the Democratic leadership think we their constituents are, evidently quite stupid. Because in effect they are asking us to pay for a product and receive nothing in return.

Here's a thought why doesn't congress stop trying to buy reelection with unconstitutional programs. Some people would say they are looking out for the public welfare. I would say if all they were interested in was the public good there would not be so much interest in polling data.

The end of civilization

The AP. has a story about a young girl and her homecoming dance. This 15 year old girl left the dance and was drinking outside when she was attacked. For more than 2 hours she was raped and beaten. She was left half naked by a picnic table, she is still in the hospital recovering.

This should be enough to make you think civilization is ending but it gets worse. More than two dozen people saw this heinous act and did nothing not even calling the police.

The world has always had demented evil people but there was a time where people would have tried to stop this outrage.