Opus 2015-120: On the Street: Numbers Can Lie

I was driving so I may have the numbers wrong but they are close enough to ask some questions.

The two numbers on the giant billboard were 62,300 and 9,100 and underneath the numbers were the words “prison” and “school” respectively.  I think the statement had to do with the cost of one inmate in each institution for a year.  It did not explain what they were proposing.  It just had the numbers.

Did they want to spend less keeping criminals locked up or more keeping children locked up?  Maybe the opposite?  I have been around enough of these people to guess where they are going.  They believe that if we will spend more money on education we will not need to spend so much on prisons.  This is one of many Marie Antoinette moments that Progressives have.  She is reported to have responded to the poor people complaining about a lack of bread, “Then let them eat cake.”  The point is that she was totally out of contact with the world most people lived in.

More money will not solve the problems in education.  Let me make a comparison.  I am a messy.  I do not see mess unless I trip or it is pointed out to me.  Then I quickly forget.  After all, there are always more things to pile higher, right?  You can buy me all the brooms and storage containers you want.  It will just add to the clutter.  You need to change me.

There is no indication that more money improves the product of education.  You can pay for parents to go to parenting classes.  It won’t do any good unless they spend less time at the spa or shopping.  You can buy more technology but technology is part of the problem.  We don’t need more people who can use technology.  We need more people who can design it. 

There are many sources of the problems in crime and education.  There will be no solutions without holding people accountable for their behavior.  The problem for the Progressives is that if people take responsibility for their actions and learn to think, there is no more need for Progressives.  Informed, responsible people are not easy to lead and manipulate.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-138, Holidays: George III Reincarnated

Happy 4th of July.  I hope you are celebrating while you still can.

I am going to try to find time today to read through the Declaration of Independence.  It would be a good annual ritual.  Just as on Christmas we read the revelation of the incarnation and on Easter we read the eyewitness accounts of the resurrection, so on Independence Day it would not hurt to read from the primary source.

We are all familiar with the opening paragraphs, with “all Men are created equal,” and “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  Those are inspiring and need to be remembered.

But...

Have you read the rest?  Are you aware of how the issues of 1776 are so much like the issues of 2012?  Let me share a few excerpts that you may not have gotten to.

In the same paragraph as the above you find,

“The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

Now I want you to substitute “President of the United States” for “King of Great-Britain” and see if you eyes get wide and your blood begins to boil.  How about the next paragraph?

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.”

And the next paragraph,

“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”

If this does not begin to form a pattern for you let me just offer a few hints:  Arizona, Immigration, INS, Supreme Court.  I am sure I could give you more.  The American Revolution did not start because they did not like the tax on tea.  It was the result of a pattern of behavior as old as tyranny.  That is why the Tea Parties have as their central theme limited government.

Are we in a crisis?  I would say so.  Our imperial president feels he is above the law.  We have elections coming.  Get serious.  We have the tool of impeachment.  We may need to use it. 

Look beyond the president.  If Congress were not so out of touch they could take action and reign in the usurpation of power.  Maybe it is time to vote the suckers out, all of the suckers.  I know you like the one you have but you need to seriously ask yourself, “Do my elected officials really believe in ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’?”

Again, I hope you are celebrating while you still can.  We are not as free as we were when I was a child.  Who knows about the future.  We can still say we live in the best country on earth but it won’t stay that way if we don’t pay attention.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-267, Tea Time: Steeping Determines Strength

In listening to pod casts I keep hearing about how the Tea Party candidates are starting to compromise.  Welcome to politics.  In a republic a certain amount of compromise is necessary.  It is not always evil.  If we can get a slice of bread today we can go for half a loaf tomorrow.  In a free country we may never get the whole loaf.  Such is the price of living among a free people.  Remember that in communist countries elections often produced results of 100%.

Will some of the Tea Party choices wimp out?  Sure.  They are humans and even in the best batch of humans you will have a few that won’t stay the course.  Does every compromise make them a Benedict Arnold or a Judas?  No, a thousand times no.  If you know their character and know their priorities then give them time to build the base we need.

Will Tea Party choices make mistakes?  Sure.  Even people with vision and principles, such as Ronald Reagan, made some serious mistakes.  When you look at a nice, honorable man like George Bush the Elder and his pledge of “read my lips” you see how easy it is for people who are honorable to not understand what evil lurks in the hearts of men.  They believed the elites when they promised to do something as part of a deal.  It is possible that some of the freshmen in Congress will need to go through the same process of learning. 

What Tea Party choices must never do is give up.  They must keep going for the gold and settling for the silver if necessary.  Just don’t accept the lead bell.

As a member of the mass of voters I am willing to give them time to do their job as long as I am convinced they have not taken their eye off the ball.  During the American Revolution there were frequent times when everything looked hopeless.  At one point the honorable George Washington was almost replaced with a political hack General.  We are blessed today because those men and women stayed the course.

homo unius libri