Timing is everything...

 

 

 

"Proponents of ObamaCare don't really care if they get something for nothing. However, insurance providers cannot supply something for nothing and stay viable..."

Okay - if our endorsed candidates don't capitalize on this issue, I might be tempted to take a "switch" to them! This un-forecasted event can only be called one thing - a gift horse. Both our candidates for Governor the U.S. Senate can make some hay on this issue. Since both are behind by double digits in the polls, it is time to step on the gas.

Truthfully, I have been a bit disappointed on how the campaigns have gone so far. They have been tepid at best. The local paper recently had an article on why our candidate for Governor (Jeff) is behind so far. He is a good man who has done good things. However, it is name recognition. People outside of Hennepin County know very little about Jeff. My suggestion is to wallpaper the countryside with campaign signs. Get on the air more. Most of all, make the case to the people of Minnesota for a change of leadership.

To be successful in any race, the case must be made for 1) why the incumbent should be fired and 2) why your candidate should be hired. I have not seen that yet. If I was running, I would go after the Governor hammer and tong. I would hang the Met Council around his neck. I would use Met Council's Thrive 2040 as a perfect excuse why under Dayton, we have collectivism has gone wild. I would explain the FREEDOMS we will lose with both MNSure and Thrive 2040. I would expose how many of the jobs created have been lower wage, part time jobs. Jeff always says we can do better. Lets show the folks how!

MNSure is the gift that keeps on giving. We need to open up that gift. MNSure has been a mess (and an expensive one) since the get go. And now, with the "loss leader" insurance company pulling out, rates are expected to skyrocket. We will get the real truth in early October when drapes are pulled back, and we see what the true insurance costs will be.

Mike on the other hand, has a different gift. Al was the 60th vote on ObamaCare. Period. I would tie in Al with not only the debacle of ObamaCare, but also every other cluster which this Administration is responsible for. NSA, IRS, Benghazi - all have Democratic finger prints. Al has a voting record which is shameful. He votes with the President 97% of the time (fact, not an estimate). Mike also needs to put in an order for a zillion signs to put up all over the place. Our CD6 office STILL does not have any signs!

Lets go team! The table has been set for us. We have the energy, now lets get to work. MNSure, ObamaCare, and Obama should be the keys to our victory in November. Now lets use those keys and get going!

The war on....Ebola?

 

 

 

 

"You have got to be kidding me!"

 

 

Just when think that things could not get stranger, more reckless, more dangerous, we now have a brand new HAIR BRAINED idea. Rather than commit seasoned troops to root out the growing evil that exists in Iraq and Syria, we are going to send America's finest into what some call a death zone. Yes, our Commander-in-Chief, who professes to hate war, has declared war on a virus. As such, he is committing 3,000 troops to the Ebola hot zone in Africa.

Now I believe there are very few things on this planet that scares people more than a hemorrhagic virus. And the one which is the best known is Ebola. It is bad, bad rice. This current outbreak is particularly vexing to the WHO (World Health Organization). Is spread through the touching or exchange of bodily fluids. Some can be saved, but most will not. Death by this wretched disease is gut wrenching to say the least.

Even with the best containment available, the disease continues to spread. It is now in five countries in Africa and has resulted in over 4,000 cases with over 2,000 deaths. Some experts are now predicting, should the disease continue to spread (and maybe mutate), the number of cases could exceed 1/4 million by the end of the year. Ebola outbreaks in the past have resulted in a few hundred cases at best.

So why would our Administration send our war fighters over to an Ebola hot zone? That is not what they were trained for. Excuse me for being crude, but our soldiers are trained to kill people and break things in a time of war. It is just that simple. They are not trained to be nation builders or doctors.

The decision has now been made to send 3,000 of our finest into Africa to fight a disease. All this while the evil and ruthless ISIS continues to grow. Some think that ISIS is already on our southern border. How will we know that this disease will not mutate to airborne transmission and infect our troops? How will we know that the latency period will not increase, allowing our troops to be inadvertent carriers back to the homeland?

This is yet one more hair brained idea coming from an Administration which does not have much time for our military. I am very grateful that I don't have a son or daughter who was selected to go on this mission. I might end up saying something regrettable.

Our soldiers and sailors are trained to fight. Our doctors are trained to heal. Most Presidents understand and respect the difference between the two. This one does not.

Survival in Ketchikan

 

 

"I had heard the people in Alaska were tough, but until I met Butch, I had no idea how tough..."

One of the first stops we made while visiting Alaska, was Ketchikan. Ketchikan is somewhat unique in Alaska as it sits in a temperate rainforest. A rainforest? I thought all of those forests were in hot and muggy climates. Nope. Alaska has one also and it does rain quite a bit up there.  In fact the average amount of rainfall it gets is almost 155 inches a year. In 1917, records show it received a whopping 190 inches!

We had signed up to take a tour of the wildlife preserve just outside of town. To nobody's surprise, it was raining. It was amazing to say the least. I have never seen so many salmon. This was the final journey for many of them. Get up the streams to spawn, and then die and be consumed by bears and gulls. All part of the circle of life in Alaska.

Once we got to the outskirts of the preserve, we were met my Butch. He was to be our guide and keep us safe from bears (yes, where there are fish, there are plenty of brown and black bears). It was my first exchange with someone who was born and breed in this most rugged and unforgiving land.

Butch was about my age and missing a good many teeth. He lived on an island across the harbor with his wife of many years. Butch was a pure survivalist. I did not know that until the tour was almost over. I got the hint when he was talking about canning bear meat. He just finished another bunch and his stockpile now would last him over four years. If he needed more, he would just shoot another bear from his front porch. He canned his own berries, his own salmon and his own meats. He heated his house with wood only and due to the massive amount of rainfall, had plenty of water to drink.

I could not resist asking "the question". During a lull in the tour, I asked Butch was he was a survivalist. His answer, like his lifestyle was plain and simple. "Have you seen what is going on with this country? There is a s**t storm coming, and coming soon. All of us, we better be prepared." He went on to tell me about the ammo he had stockpiled and the numerous places on his land he had stashed provisions.

Butch also told me he had a hard time understanding the folks in the "lower 48". They had changed, just like the country had changed. Up in Alaska, things do not change. The final frontier has stayed pretty much the same since the time Secretary of State William Seward bought this wonderful land from the Russians in 1867.

Many people in Alaska who cater to tourists leave in October for more temperate climates. Not Butch and his wife. They live there summer and winter and love all the seasons. However to live in coastal Alaska, one must be built with strong fiber. To survive just off the land, one must also be clever and knowledgeable. As Butch said, "when the s**t storm comes, he will be ready." I know he will, but doubt many of us will be. 

Endless Summer

 

 

"These kids are products of a broken school system, a broken economy, and for some, broken homes..."

Today, we spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon in around Minneapolis. We had a family member who needed some dental attention and needed a ride to the dentist. We noticed two things about our largest city: 1) the traffic has become very heavy far beyond normal rush hour and 2) there were a heck of lot of kids standing around not working nor in school.

Many people today seem to be concerned about our education system. In particular the achievement gap. Consequently, we have some schools in Minneapolis (as well as other large cities) which have chronically low graduation rates. The excuses for this come in waves. "Kids of color learn differently;" or "It is a cultural thing." To all of that I say "crap!" I have worked and served with people from every race or combination thereof. I have yet to find any race, sex, creed or faith that is pre-disposed to learn better or worse than anyone else.

So we end up with broken schools, mostly in the inner city. We stick kids in those failed schools (many of which are of color). When they fail, we blame the allusive "gap". Well that is just the wrong answer.! I am tired of our city as well as others "throwing away" kids just because leaders refuse to lead. Private schools who have a structured environment and high expectations have a habit of producing "winners" out of kids who were once thought to be "losers".

We take kids who have dropped out of school or have graduated, and are functionally illiterate, and expect them to succeed. Throw in an economy which has been stuck in the mud for 5 years and what do you have? A youth unemployment rate ranging from 20 to 40 percent. These kids have no education, no job, no future. Many turn to breaking and entering or other crime. As the well healed move into deluxe studio apartments, the throw away youth end up begging on street corners or living a life of petty crime.

Every year this problem seems to get worse, never better. Some may be okay with developing a permanent underclass in the city, but I am not. As a man of faith, I believe every life has value and importance. These kids deserve better. They need to be taught how to fish, not to just eat a fish meal. We owe it to them. We owe it to all of us.

Stuck in a rut...

 

 

"The distance between Wall Street and Main Street has never been wider..."

In church yesterday, we learned how our lifestyles can allow us to get stuck in a rut. Our life choices, leading to our life styles. However, not all ruts are bad - a stable marriage leading to a stable home life for kids to grow up in is a good rut. A life of bad choices can lead to a bad rut which is not only hard to break out of, but can lead to unhappy endings.

Our economy is stuck in a rut. I know, I know, we have bigger fish to fry right now. The fact remains however, this economy is languishing almost to the point of malaise. It is bad in just about all areas. The only unintended consequence which makes some feel better is the stock market. It is growing by using backwards logic. The worse the economy is, the more intrusive the Fed gets. The only arrow left in the Fed's quiver is to print more money. The extra money allows the speculators and day traders to inflate the value of many stocks.

An article in Sunday's paper addresses this issue. For the past five years now, since the technical recovery began, wages and the hourly work week have been stuck. That is, unless you are in the top 10% of the wage earners. For the other 90%, the average work week remains at 34.5 hours with wage growth barely moving a smidge from year to year. If the Fed would once again take a laissez faire positions on the economy, the top 10% would also feel the pinch.

Where are we right now, economically speaking? A few points to ponder:

• The U3 unemployment has dropped to 6.1%. Good news, right? Not really. It is a numerator and denominator issue. With more and more people exiting the work force, the U3 number automatically improves. If we had the same number of people in the work force today as we had at the start of 2008, we would have a much higher U3 number.
• The jobs created last month was again very disappointing. Only 142,000 jobs were added, which was the lowest so far this year.
• In addition, the number of part time as compared to full time jobs continues to be vexing to the experts. In June, an article in Human Events had this to say about this troublesome issue: "The U.S. economy lost 523,000 full time jobs in June. This was offset by a surge of 799,000 part time jobs. That gives us what the media is bizarrely reporting as 300,000 jobs created."
• More and more companies are attempting to use "inversion" to lower their tax burden. As the United States continues to have the highest corporate tax in the world (almost 40%), more and more companies are looking to acquire an overseas company and relocate their legal headquarters. The problem with our staggering corporate tax burden has been known about for years, but nobody seems to know how (or want to) fix it.
• Finally, let us not forget our good friend, Mr. Debt. I won't even go into our unfunded liability issue, as that is too scary for a Monday morning. As of this morning, our National Debt stands at $17.745T, and is galloping towards $18T. If the Fed ever lets interest rates float to where they should be, the cost of servicing this debt will be a back breaker. Meanwhile, our entitlements which are the big drivers in our debt, remain unchecked.

As you can see, the "rut" we have been in for the past five or six years remains unchanged. I could write the same article year after year with only minor modifications. Remember this in November when you vote. Status quo equals staying in our rut. We reelected this President and we might just end up reelecting our Governor. Welcome to life in the rut.
 

Our own Denis the Menace...

 

 

"He is everything that Rham was, only taller..."

Not everyone knows that the latest "sharp elbow" guy for the President is from Minnesota. For those who do not know it, Denis (not a typo) McDonough is. And he is a BIG time Lefty. I should be proud that a home town boy has made it big time in the Land of Oz, but I can't. In fact, I am a bit embarrassed. He, like the Queen of the Den (Ms. Valerie Jarrett), really spread the goo on thick when a guest on a Sunday talk show.

He skittered and slid all over the set when discussing the rapidly growing threat in Syria and Iraq (although he did call them "ISIL" like his boss does). Like the cock-eyed optimist from South Pacific, he "put on a happy face" when talking about this bunch of butchers who just decapitated another innocent. It was so bad, that when retired General Hayden was on next, Hayden spent half his time correcting "Denis". Denis is probably quite a bit smarter on this stuff than General Hayden. Besides being a four star general in the Air Force, Hayden also headed up the CIA AND the NSA. A good resume in my book.

I will contrast what I saw on the news this morning with what I saw last night. One of my current heroes is retired four star general, Jack Keene. I would have loved to serve under him. He was on as a guest (via telephone) once the breaking news came across about the latest beheading. General Keene, who is always measured and articulate, was so mad he was spitting tacks. If he could have un-retired and put on a uniform last night, I think he would have.

General Keene is a former Vice Chief of Staff for the Army. He has seen battle. He knows what he is doing. He is flabbergasted that four days after the President's September 10th speech, nothing has happened. In his words, "We have not laid a glove on ISIS in Syria". By the way, Syria is where all the action is right now. Iraq is where they are getting their finances by stealing oil (and they also want the water from the dam). Syria is where the command and control is for ISIS.

So while Denis and others from Disneyland continue to parade around spreading false hopes and cheer, the evil empire in the Middle East continues to grow ever more dangerous. Soon we will be wondering how they got as far as Chicago to set off a dirty bomb. We will then see if Denis and Valleriecontinues to discuss sunshine and lollypops instead of the clear and present danger we are in.

Hero Worship

 

 

 

"Yes, even the mighty can fall. They are after all, human..."

Say it ain't so! Not AP, our golden boy, our franchise player! We could maybe understand Chris Cook with those long dreadlocks, or Ray Rice who comes out of a town known for thugs. But our clean cut looking Adrian? No way! He is a hero to many!

Well guess what folks. We are once again reminded that the boys who entertain us every Sunday are just plain old people. They are not super humans, they are not machines. Many grew up poor and have a God given talent for speed, size, throwing or catching. During college years, many lost perspective on who they were as fans would idolize the ground they walked on. Once in the pros, these kids who grew up poor, all of sudden became fabulously wealthy. Oh yes, and the hero worship continued.

These people are NOT heroes. They are just people who have been gifted with a different skill set that most are not. Heroes are our law enforcement officers who face danger each and every day. Yesterday, another officer get shot to death in Pennsylvania. Why? It is thought he was targeted just because he was a cop.

Heroes are our firefighters who every day are vigilant to keep us safe from harm. Not only do they fight fires, some of which turn deadly, they also often times are "first on the scene" for medical emergencies. Along with their first responder EMT brothers, their life saving skill level, as well as compassion for others, make them unique among us.

Heroes are the doctors and nurses in the ER who work amazing hours to treat us when we are hurting too much to be at home. They perform triage on badly injured people who are rushed in by ambulance from an accident. Even though tired, over worked and often times over whelmed, many treat each and every patient as if they were the only patient on the ward.

Yes, and there are our service people. The ones who keep this country safe from growing threats overseas. They are paid an amazingly low salary for putting on the uniform and guarding us 24 X 7 each day of the year. Even though many of them don't like to be called heroes, they are.

So who are the real heroes? We are surrounded by them. They are not easy to pick out as they don't proclaim themselves to be such. However, they are. Who are not the heroes? After the past couple weeks, I think we all know the answer to that one.