Unemployment

The federal government Has put an end to the extended benefits the long term unemployed receive.  Most states issue unemployment benefits for 26 weeks any extension beyond those weeks was picked up by the federal government. While the timing is not the best being around the Christmas holiday I can only say it's about time. I know it makes me sound cruel but the truth is people need a deadline as incentive to find work.. This is true because many of the unemployed are going to need to find work in different fields and change is hard and probably financially painful. The other reason that more than 26 weeks of unemployment are detrimental is the damage it does to the recipients. People who are off for this long tend to have work skills that are severely diminished. I also believe the financial pain is more than made up for by pride that comes from actually earning a living instead of just drawing a check. Self confidence and self respect are the biggest casualties of losing a job and unemployment benefits can do nothing about either confidence or respect.

Quote

The two enemies of the people are criminals and the government we must chain down the second with the constitution so that it doesn't become a legalized version of the first. Thomas Jefferson

Even if the government and those that govern aren't stealing for their selves they are definitely stealing to fund there ideologies.

Jugs

Substitute jugs for one million people, so in the U.S. there is three hundred jugs. Two hundred and sixty jugs have milk in them, twenty jugs are perfectly happy empty. In order to put milk in the forty jugs even though twenty are happy empty we add anti freeze to the 260 jugs and put spoiled milk in the 40 jugs. This is Obamacare in a nutshell fix  something badly for less than ten percent of the people by destroying it for the rest.

Enough is Enough

A poll this past week shows that a majority of Americans believe every single congressman and senator should be voted out of office. I don't believe this will ever happen we tend to think that our senator or congressman is all right that it is all the other representitives that are bad. That is why it is so hard to vote out an incumbent. It's obvious that the shut down of the federal government is driving this animosity towards Washington and elected officials in general.

This may be the best worst thing that President Obama has done, though probably unintentionally. Obama's handling of this shut down truly shows the heavy handedness of our government. He has gone out of his way to make this as painful as possible to those of us that government views as subjects. This can especially be seen in the way that people have been treated at and around our National Parks, roads closed to obscure viewing,people put out of their homes,park rangers acting more like thugs than public servants. The stories are enough to almost make me lose hope in our republic. So why is this the best thing Obama has done because sometimes we need pushed to make meaningful change and his actions show the true nature of our elected officials. We have let the system evolve to a place where staying in power is the only concern of our leaders and the good of the country comes second.

I'm not usually an alarmist but I could see this getting very ugly very fast without some kind of resolution. I don't mean opening the government back up or a fiscal deal. I think we are at a point where we need some kind of constitutional convention to reassert power for the people of the United States and not for our elected officials and their appointees. I believe one of the first steps should be to remove all pensions for elected officials and their appointees. This would aid our economy and put their jobs back to a part time or temporary nature.

ACA

This past week Jimmy Kimmel did a man on the street bit that asked people what they like better the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. A large number of people liked the ACA and hated Obamacare. Naturally people have been commenting on the intelligence of our country because everyone should know they are the same thing.

It got me to thinking maybe they are not the same thing, oh I know they are just different names for the same law but are they described the same. The ACA is generally described as cost cutting way to care for everyone rich or poor. While Obamacare is described by all it's faults and unintended consequences.

So while it doesn't speak to the intelligence of Kimmel's victims it does speak to what people want. We want health care to be caring and affordable and Obamacare does neither.

Husband and Wife

I have been married for almost 33 years and have learned a few things along the way. One of those things is that each of us has strengths and weaknesses. There are roles that we have developed over the years based on our abilities and personalities. Our roles may not be the same as every couple but I think all couples develop roles that fit their lives and skills.

So why do people think that anointing Hillary Clinton as the heir apparent to Barack Obama is a good idea. I understand that some people think Bill Clinton was a great president but that certainly doesn't mean Hillary will be his equal. The reason I bring this up is that Hillary's biggest accomplishment in life thus far is being married to Bill and that is not telling us how she would lead.

Well 2016 is still 3years away maybe we will actually get candidates with experience this next time around.