An Inflection Point...We swing Left

These are interesting times we are living in...I am hoping we are up to the challenge. These past few weeks have galvanized this great country in a way I have not seen in my lifetime. While 9/11 was a powerful and defining moment I do not believe we took advantage of what it could have offered the world. A chance to offer Hope... to be a symbol for people in this world. To collect all of our sum parts and make something bigger than the sum.

Instead we continued down the road of petty Left/Right, Right/Wrong, Us/Them thinking driving the problems deeper into our collective whole.

I had thought long and hard about my vote this past election. What would I be supporting? What principles do I want to see guiding this country? Who deserved my vote? Who would grow into a leader capable of dealing with this storm of challenges facing our future?

Obama is a thoughtful, intelligent, measured man and I think he has the skills to be a wonderful leader of this country. I disagree with most of his policy decisions however.

McCain is an experienced politician, a warrior and a man of principle. He is no Bush... he is his own man. He foolishly let himself get dragged into the Republican miasma and it suffocated him, drowning out the very quality that made him special. Instead of taking a stand against those in his party and drawing in 'the independents' he went to the Right and scared the middle into the arms of the Democrats.

My concerns about an Obama presidency lie not with Obama...but with all the other Liberals who now dominate the Senate and Congress. It is THEY who will be truly shaping what the future looks like... and I am afraid of them, their policy choices and their special interests. All will be lined up and ready to take their piece of the American pie now that they have their grip on the levers of power solidified.

It was my hope that the Government would remain divided, so that neither side would have total control and forcing compromise. It was a disaster when the Republicans controlled all three branches because nobody was there to keep them in check. I fear the same thing is about to happen again except this time the expectation is to grow the government...

I live in a place where people are glowing with pride and hope and love of their country at this moment... and it feels great. I wonder however what is running through the minds of those people who live elsewhere... places that want smaller government and lower taxes. Are they feeling this Obamatism as well?

I voted Libertarian this election. It happened when I looked down at the ballot and could not in good conscience vote for either McCain or Obama. It had been weighing on me how I could stay congruent with my beliefs and principles and go with either. So I decided on neither.

McCain had my vote until he picked Palin as his running mate...a political neophyte on the National stage was a foolish and dangerous choice for an old man to make. Plenty of talented, centrist women would have helped his case, filled out his resume, given him more depth in Economics, and drawn in the middle. Instead he 'went with his gut' and came up short.

My hope is that Obama will stand up to the Liberal left now that he has the job...however his record in that department is sorely lacking. He has voted in lockstep with his party on every issue up till this point, never taking a hard stand or breaking from Liberal orthodoxy.
There are a long list of favors that must now be payed back...to Unions, the anti war crowd, the environmentalists and they will want it NOW.

I am a believer in Capitalism... let people work and enjoy the rewards of that work. Capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other of mans inventions, policies or ideas. These past few months have stained the idea of capitalism. There is a populist backlash against "those Wall Street fat cats" and blame is getting heaped on anybody who believes in letting the markets do their work. My fear is that the Liberals will use this fear and anxiety to push through their Big Government agenda of income redistribution and regulation and we will be suffering under it for the next 30 years while the rest of the industrialized world continues to lower their taxes and create a more hospitable environment for work and entrepreneurship.

When I say this, it doesn't mean that I agree with how the Republicans have run things for the past 8 years... I feel that the politicians in Washington have been an embarrassment to our fine country and the citizens they should be representing. Instead of the political infighting and horrors that they have wrought they should be leading by example.

What kid grows up today and wants to be a politician? What good examples are there of decent, hardworking, community minded politicians looking out for the common good...the good of "all" instead of their narrow interest groups. The only one I know is my mom.

Leaders step up and make hard choices... Great leaders galvanize those that are being led to become more than the sum of their parts. They make you feel good about doing hard things, they give you pride in what is being accomplished and created even when it hurts.

I am hoping that Obama will be a Great leader and forge this country into one powerful and cohesive unit that will face the future together.

I am Proud of our country. I want us to be Proud of each other.

People wanted change and now they will have it.

I hope it is the change they thought it would be.


Durand

A hopeful Conservative in our newly Liberal country

The top 40% of earners pay 95% of our taxes...

Did you know that the top 40% of earners pay 95% of the federal income tax bill?

How much do the bottom 40% pay? Zero. Zero federal income tax.

So when liberals talk about a progressive tax system, how much more progressive can we get?

Lets think about this... If you are already paying no income tax, what is your incentive for the Government to have lower taxs? You already are paying nothing, so it has no impact on your life to have the "fat cats" pay more. Sure, raise taxes!

When people have no "skin in the game" it costs them nothing to ask for more.
The problem is that this money must come from somewhere... that somewhere is from the people who are creating/owning/running small companies and employing 80% of the people in the country.

These people work hard and create jobs. By taking more and more from them you will eventually cause the incentive to work to be so low that they will work less or move to a more hospitable environment.

Read the following article... I would love to hear your thoughts.

Durand

Obama and the Tax Tipping Point

How long before taxpayers are pushed too far?

By ADAM LERRICK

What happens when the voter in the exact middle of the earnings spectrum receives more in benefits from Washington than he pays in taxes? Economists Allan Meltzer and Scott Richard posed this question 27 years ago. We may soon enough know the answer.

Barack Obama is offering voters strong incentives to support higher taxes and bigger government. This could be the magic income-redistribution formula Democrats have long sought.

Sen. Obama is promising $500 and $1,000 gift-wrapped packets of money in the form of refundable tax credits. These will shift the tax demographics to the tipping point where half of all voters will receive a cash windfall from Washington and an overwhelming majority will gain from tax hikes and more government spending.

In 2006, the latest year for which we have Census data, 220 million Americans were eligible to vote and 89 million -- 40% -- paid no income taxes. According to the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute), this will jump to 49% when Mr. Obama's cash credits remove 18 million more voters from the tax rolls. What's more, there are an additional 24 million taxpayers (11% of the electorate) who will pay a minimal amount of income taxes -- less than 5% of their income and less than $1,000 annually.

In all, three out of every five voters will pay little or nothing in income taxes under Mr. Obama's plans and gain when taxes rise on the 40% that already pays 95% of income tax revenues.

The plunder that the Democrats plan to extract from the "very rich" -- the 5% that earn more than $250,000 and who already pay 60% of the federal income tax bill -- will never stretch to cover the expansive programs Mr. Obama promises.

What next? A core group of Obama enthusiasts -- those educated professionals who applaud the "fairness" of their candidate's tax plans -- will soon see their $100,000-$150,000 incomes targeted. As entitlements expand and a self-interested majority votes, the higher tax brackets will kick in at lower levels down the ladder, all the way to households with a $75,000 income.

Calculating how far society's top earners can be pushed before they stop (or cut back on) producing is difficult. But the incentives are easy to see. Voters who benefit from government programs will push for higher tax rates on higher earners -- at least until those who power the economy and create jobs and wealth stop working, stop investing, or move out of the country.

Other nations have tried the ideology of fairness in the place of incentives and found that reward without work is a recipe for decline. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher took on the unions and slashed taxes to restore growth and jobs in Great Britain. In Germany a few years ago, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder defied his party's dogma and loosened labor's grip on the economy to end stagnation. And more recently in France, Nicolas Sarkozy was swept to power on a platform of restoring flexibility to the economy.

The sequence is always the same. High-tax, big-spending policies force the economy to lose momentum. Then growth in government spending outstrips revenues. Fiscal and trade deficits soar. Public debt, excessive taxation and unemployment follow. The central bank tries to solve the problem by printing money. International competitiveness is lost and the currency depreciates. The system stagnates. And then a frightened electorate returns conservatives to power.

The economic tides will not stand still while Washington experiments with European-type social democracy, even though the dollar's role as the global reserve currency will buy some time. Our trademark competitive advantage will be lost, and once lost, it will be hard to regain. There are too many emerging economies focused on prosperity and not redistribution for the U.S. to easily recapture its role of global economic leader.

Tomorrow's children may come to question why their parents sold their birthright for a mess of "fairness" -- whatever that will signify when jobs are scarce and American opportunity is no longer the envy of the world.

Mr. Lerrick is a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Awareness and Survival- A great primer

I just finished an excellent book about "awareness"... Written by a Marc "Animal" MacYoung it candidly discusses what you need to know to survive. This is a much broader subject then 'carry pepper spray'... I would highly encourage both men and women to read this book if they care about their personal safety.

I am a very peace loving guy... being the tallest or biggest guy in the room 95% of the time means that when somebody wants to rumble they look around the room and see my big blond head sticking up out of the crowd. I have no interest in fighting people for real, while the art and science of the fight do interest me very much. I had a friend in high school who got into to a stupid altercation with some guy who was alone (my friend had a group with him), the guy got scared and pulled a knife and my friend got stabbed a bunch of times, losing an eye.

I like my eyes and I like living so fighting=possibly losing an eye/life/friend/etc. and is not an equation I am interested in being part of.

Only once have I been in a fight... at the delightful Levende Lounge in SF. What is strange about that place is that I have seen two other fights there on separate occasions! I was minding my own business when a friend of mine starting getting hassled by a guy. I had noticed the idiot and his friends earlier (bad energy) and so stepped in between, turned around (oops) and walked my friend Andrew away from the guy, saying "these guys are idiots, dont get into", when the guy behind charges me, wraps his arms around me and throws me to the ground...

Lets say I was a big surprised...My arms were out wide, hands open, 5 feet away and the guy just went for...as I went down his small, sneaky scumbag friend ran over and kicked me in the ribs.

What? We are in a fricking lounge! I twist and spin into the lunkhead and wrap the guy up with my arms while my two friends are watching in amazement...luckily they had been in a number of fights so as the crowd closed in to "break it up" they jumped in and pounding the guys face in. I saw the sneaky little bastard and clawed my way through the crowd wanting to leave him a parting gift...I landed one good one on him and then the whole thing was over, the crowd locking everybody up.

Total time? Maybe 10 seconds. It felt more like much longer however...The Lounge staff then kicked out all of the scumbags and asked if we were ok. I was shakey but seemingly fine...It was only later on that the adrenaline wore off and I noticed the bruises. The ribs began to hurt more and more... not healing fully healing for 6 weeks. So that sucked...

What I am saying is that even if you do everything you can to avoid a fight, sometimes some idiot while jump on you...I was lucky to have my friends there to rearrange his face for me.

This book helps to bring awareness to situations... like helping to give you a radar that is always on, pinging out for out of the ordinary things. I have been working on this skill for years... only it was through my acting training. Learning to move through space and know where people are is a very important skill in the dance and theater. It is honing an awareness that is larger than the 2 foot bubble that most people instinctively have...it is pushing that awareness all the way to the back of the theater, space, room so that you can adjust your energy to suit the crowd.

Reading his book I was surprised at how similar the ideas were relying on that inner energy meter to feel out people and crowds. There is some interesting information regarding power hierarchies and world models... the Alphas and betas, how they interact, how to be careful in situation where the relationships are unknown.

The author uses very colorful language and lots of humor to get his points across... you will enjoy learning the lessons he has gained from 17 years of street fighting.

What I found most refreshing is that one of his biggest survival tips is "run". Just get out of the situation before it gets bad. Fights usually dont come from out of thin air, so read the signs and make haste. Take your ego out of it and bounce... or end up maimed. If however you must fight for your life, then give it everything you have, no holds barred, maim and destroy the person. Most people who will attack you dont want to end up really injured and so will run away once they have gotten an ear torn off, etc.

Of all the 'survival' or self defense books I have read this one is the clearest, most concise, most fun to read, and honest about all the bad stuff that combat and fighting entails. It also is applicable to much more then just 'the street', its lessons will inform you about your interactions at work, at play, on the field and generally about life. Written by somebody has actually been there getting beat up or beating up. Also touches on the legality of what is happening...it all well and good if you defend yourself, but what if it still lands you in jail? That is not survival either... Check it out. Would love to hear peoples thoughts on it.

Durand

Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons
by Marc MacYoung

http://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Shots-Ambushes-Other-Lessons/dp/0873644964/ref=pd_sim_b_7

A Vast expansion of Government...hold on to your wallets or put your hand out

How effective is Government?

When it takes your money in the form of taxes, how much of that makes it to the end product/project? All of it? 90%? 5%?

My understanding is about 60%.

So when Government uses your money in such a wasteful way, why would we want to give over even more to it? Why we would let the people responsible for so many catastrophes keep on doing what they are doing?

Liberal politicians believe they know where to allocate resources best. This is one of the cornerstones of Liberal thought...that the Government is wiser than the citizen and knows how to pick the winners and losers.

Conservatives (true conservatives...not the politicians who have had their hand in the cookie jar these past 10 years) believe that the Individual will allocate resources in the most efficient manner by watching out for their own self interest. While some may fail, the winners will help everyone to prosper by creating new industries, jobs and ideas that propel the world as a whole upwards.

I do not like when the Government is run by all of the same political party... Republicans or Democrats. It means there is nobody to keep them from their worst impulses.

This country has a Center-Right leaning to it, regardless of what the San Francisco liberal elite seem to think... yet what is about to happen means that Liberals... very left leaning liberals will control all branches of the government. That means higher taxes and more entitlements... a redistribution of wealth, chosen by these 'progressive' politicians.

Once you hand out an entitlement it is almost impossible for it to be taken away...So this expansion into all avenues of private life is going to be very difficult to undo. We will be suffering through its consequences for generations to come.

Please read the article below for a more detailed description of what lays ahead...

I am filled with trepidation.

DF

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420205889842989.html

A Liberal Supermajority

Get ready for 'change' we haven't seen since 1965, or 1933.

If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.

Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on.

Let the Markets Work

Here is a great article discussing how the individual is better equipped to deal with their own self interest than the Politicians...

I agree wholeheartedly...

Durand

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Full article is in link below...

Imagine you had never seen a skating rink. I tell you, "I'm going to invite 100 people down to strap blades to their feet and race around as they like." You say, "That's insane! Someone must coordinate all those people."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420352554042529.html

My Perspective from the land of the Liberal

Welcome,

I begin this blog with the intention of sharing my thoughts and ideas about Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This could take form in many ways...through politics, science, love, art, humor or just a funny story that illuminates a truth.

I live in San Francisco, a city I love deeply for its support of 'the different'. I lived in different places in this wonderful country of ours but when I arrived here I felt at home. People embrace change and transformation in a way I have never encountered anywhere else. While they may not be 'into' what you choose to do they are fully supportive of you doing it. This means every day you see all sorts of people doing all sorts of things...

This open tolerance does have its limits however... God forbid you are a Republican! The tunnel vision that the average person has here for the issues is quite remarkable. It is much the same problem that the Rabid Right has... it is their way or the highway.

I hope that I can give the people around me a bit more of a balanced viewpoint about the world around us. The SF Chronicle, while a fine publication has a very limited perspective. Same goes for the New York Times which is the holy bible around these parts. A wonderful paper with an agenda just like any other media source. It is no more 'correct' than the Wall Street Journal is.

I read both of these publications every single day. They both provide me with different perspectives on our country... I get to decide what my truth is by sorting through these various items, seeing how they compare and noticing trends over time. When I began reading newspapers about 6 years ago it was soley the SF Chronicle. I then added the NYTimes into the mix. Finally I got a subscription to the Wall Street Journal and have been reading all three for the past 4 years.

I finally feel that I have enough information to form a coherent opinion on the subjects of our day. I also have finally gotten fed up with the close minded group think that I see everyday around me. Pockets of people all cheering on each others very limited viewpoints, supporting their own myopic ignorance by interacting only with those who have the exact same opinions.

So welcome to my brain...I will be taking in this world of ours and I will share what I am learning. I am new to blogging...in fact I am new to putting my beliefs out on display for the world to see.

Thanks for stopping by...

Durand Ford