I haven’t stopped reading all the news and sending out my links and comments to others, I just haven’t had time for putting down my thoughts in blog form. So, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Now to the thoughts. I have more than one. But the biggy is basically; Have we reached a tipping point? Are we already off the edge of the cliff? Is it all downhill from here? Can we over come more than half our people being on welfare? Are they?
Now, of course I don’t know the answer to those questions but they are my big concerns. I decided around mid December to put on a happy face and have happy thoughts for Christmas. At my age one never knows how many Christmas seasons we have left to share with our loved ones so that is what I did.
I pushed these questions down as far as I could in my mind and thought on the good things. Personally I have many of those. I have three wonderful children, four wonderful grandchildren, and four wonderful great grandchildren, and just like those in Lake Woebegone they are all above average. My husband is still healthy and active. I still have five wonderful siblings, too. Life is good for all of us.
So now on to the state of the nation and the world. All is not well with them.
The Middle East is on fire. Iran is developing THE BOMB, apparently with our president’s blessing; Iraq is returning to civil war with Al Queda, we are now “supplying small weaponry” (as if we didn’t leave an arsenal’s worth over there); we are “withdrawing” from Afghanistan, (although some people are still being deployed there) which leaves everyone there extremely vulnerable; Syria is still committing suicide; Egypt is under the same control it was under before the big uprising, and in general if it is in the Middle East, Iran, the Taliban and Al Queda are doing their very best to kill and maim as many as they can.
STATE OF THE UNION – Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act is still changing with every day and the so called intellectual elite in Washington are not smart enough to know that to develop a database you have to have a firm grasp of every variable and they cannot be changed at the whim of whomever thinks they are in charge. There have been so many changes in who is waivered, who is eligible for help, who is not, what is covered, what is not covered, and to make it even more clumsy that all changes every week, too. So many have had their old plans cancelled only to be sold the ones that confirm to the weekly version of Obamacare which is much more expensive because you do not pick and choose what coverage you want, you are told what you need and this is the way it is.
The EPA is under fire and suit, but that hasn’t stopped their arrogance. Watch C-span and you can see they are very convinced they are the ultimate authority and in this administration they may be.
Climate Change- or as it was formerly known, AGW/Global warming, is still changing. Scientists are beginning to think it might be caused by the sun, warming or cooling. Who would have thought it? Well, I would have as that is what I was always taught back before the subject was taken over by politics.
Unemployment is a real concern for me. How many people can we support? When you have so many people leave the workforce because they cannot find work; because they found a way to claim disability; because they have reached an age to retire and cannot find work anyway; and then you have those who do not want to work because they would rather surf, (an authenticated case) or whatever it is they do while inland, then who does support them? Who has money left over for goodies after the taxes go to pay for the truly needy and the freeloaders? And how do you really tell the difference?
We are a compassionate nation. We give more to charity and volunteer work than any other nation and we do it in great abundance. But there comes a point when reality sets in and we find we cannot afford some of the disbursements given by tax money to others. What is the solution? I don’t know. I am not schooled in economics but my common sense tells me that a business has to know a little of what the future holds in taxation and regulations before it can go forward and that is not happening to businesses today. As far as I can tell, nobody knows what to expect.
Education We need to get back to the basics. Teach reading, writing and arithmetic. Reading is fundamental, it made a good slogan, but it is true. If a student is not reading fluently by third grade then the rest of the school years are lost on him. Intense reading instruction, one on one teaching phonics is called on in that case. Good students can teach other students in reading.
Writing Writing means two things; one is being able to legibly present words that can be read by others, the other is to put those words into thoughts that can be understood by others. Grammar is what helps to put those thoughts in order so as to convey them to others. I have to confess I am not satisfied with this paragraph, grammar is what would help you rewrite it for me.
I say arithmetic, not math. Math comes in when arithmetic is firmly established. Adding, subtracting, multiply and division, and basic fractions taught in the old fashioned way put a man on the moon and made heart surgeons capable of repairing bad hearts and arteries. Algebra and higher math should only come in when those basics are learned, by rote and forever forged in the mind.
Culture When we have a no holds barred and open to everything culture we have NO culture. We just have life. There are rights and wrongs. I am not saying everything is black or white, I am saying standards are good. We should have some.
