Apparently, yesterdays entry was somewhat better, because I didn't get any heat from disgruntled readers. I did, however, hear from two gruntled readers (I assume that's the converse of disgruntled). You can read their responses in "Comments".
So, while I don't think the blog itself is meant for give and take, these two folks thoughts deserve some pondering. As for the first one, I can't figure out for the life of me why anyone of the Jewish faith would vote as a Democrat. Maybe 60 years or so ago, back in FDR's time, the federal government was very helpful to Jews. But even then, Roosevelt refused to allow Jewish ships to land here with refuges from Europe during the Holocaust. (I don't believe that that's too widely known.)
Moving on, Jimmy Carter wasn't a friend to the Jews during his administration, and certainly isn't one now. Then we look at the Clinton's whom went out of their way to befriend the Arafat's, Hillary seemingly more so than Bill.
I doubt anyone could seriously believe that the current administration would hold out a heartfelt welcome mat to Hebraics. As I recall, the Reverend Wright had a lot to say about Jews during the campaign, none of it repeatable here. Of course, the President himself never listened to any of the Reverend's sermons over twenty years while sitting in church, so I guess Jews don't have to worry about him.
On the other hand, I doubt American Jews, and especially Israelis, could find better friends than either of the Bush's. Between Herbert Walker and W, two wars were fought in the Middle-East, both extremely helpful to Israel. And, an open door existed in the White House for whenever Israeli diplomats chose to visit.
Consequently, I'll say it again, I'll be damned if I know why any Jew would ever vote for a Democrat.
The second readers response referred to my take on medical care and healthcare reform, with which the reader seemed to agree. But then the reader went on to say that he or she felt the current financial quagmire was even more important.
It's hard to argue with that conclusion. Having spent most of my business life in financial markets, I think it's fair to say the government hasn't got a clue when it comes to finance. And, it certainly hasn't got the capability to run or control any kind of business. Just as a place to start, how can any entity run efficiently when there are 535 opinions in play, and the vast majority of those opining have never held a real job?
Beyond that, every legislative decision is tainted because, right, wrong or indifferent in terms of what's good or bad as policy, each of those decisions is weighed against whether or not it will help with one's re-election. Consequently, our political leaders put us in financial holes dug by their ineptitude and partisanship, then the citizenry bails them out via taxes. And then, the cycle repeats itself and on and on.
Lastly, I'm not so sure the current unemployment figures are the most accurate data in the world. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to find that a significant number of those shown as unemployed aren't unemployed at all. Instead, during all of the turmoil of the disappearance of their former jobs and the mad scramble afterward, they've found other work, but just choose not to report it. In that way, they avoid remaining part of a system where the feds take significant taxes and then either lose the money or give it away, only to come back and do the same thing again next time. Perhaps, folks are just tired of it.
That's the blog for today. I'm all blogged out.
Adios
My own 2 cents on the current financial mess, is that 80% of the problem was caused by the government and the other 20% was caused by former government employees who migrated over to the private sector and screwed things up there. A case in point is to look at the Alabama ex-grocery clerk that one of your readers mentioned. Why was the clerk able to get a loan? Was it the stupidly of the loan officer or was it government policy dating back to the Community Reinvestment Act that basically told banks that had to lend to people that couldn’t afford to pay back. I say that problem was the government policy along with the likes of Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Franklin Raines along with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
ReplyDeleteReply to akelly1.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to reply to this in the blog itself, but then I'm going to wind up devoting too much blog time to a particular issue.
So, in a nutshell, I couldn't agree with you more. Once again, the "liberal" approach is to bring everything down to the lowest commmon denominator and make the playing field "fair".
In the process of leveling the field, however, things like logic, good judgement, prudence and good old common sense go out the window. And, in that way, we all get "leveled" by government.
As I inferred yeterday, just imagine what the result would be if these people actually ran a business. I don't think there's enough bailout money in the world to cover a fiasco like that.