Must Read for Conservatives

Mark Levin is one of my favorite talk show hosts. If you are lucky enough to catch his national talk show it will become part of your daily routine.

I recently went into one of those huge book store chains. You know the type where they hide any conservative books on obscure shelves, put the discount stickers over the face of the author or wrinkle or rip the cover to discourage you from purchasing it. I was happy to see that Mr. Levin's newest book was on sale. Even though I promised my wife I wouldn't buy any more books without the coupons that are hanging on the refrigerator at home I had to grab one.

I need to encourage everyone to read this book. It gives one man's opinion and thoughts of what direction we should be going as conservatives and Americans. I am only a third of the way through, I'll finish it tonight, but I am really enjoying it.

Sounds Like My Kind of Guy

I haven't had a chance to research the new Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan. But I must say, the short sound bites that I heard coming from the boob tube have electrified me in a way that I haven't felt since Pope John Paul II. This man appears to be the type of priest that Catholic Americans need. A no nonsense guy who loves life, loves God, and feels that we should be proud to be Cathlolic rather then just blend into the anonymous crowd. You know that he is going to be good when the media is attacking him this early.

I can't wait to learn more about him. I also look forward to hearing one of his homilies in the near future.

Tax Time

Like every April 15 it is that time of year. Tax time.

What always amazes me is the near elation people get with a refund. Many folks are happy that the government who over taxes, over spends and wastes your money gives back the money you gave them without interest. I like to equate a refund to someone holding my ice cream cone on the beach for an hour or so and then giving it back to me to eat. Yeah I can lick the drips and eat the cone but it would have been so much more useful and satisfying if I had it when I first got it.

I'm sure it is by design (Look what we did for you; you got a refund) instead of the reaction that we should be having (More then half of my salary is for taxes!!!)

My lovely home state of New Jersey has decided to step in line quickly with the rest of the Statists (Please refer to Mark Levins latest masterpiece for a definition) in Washington to raise my taxes. If all goes to their liking I will be paying a minimum of 62% of all that I make to varied branches of government through taxation.

I hope the Tea parties keep growing a grass roots movement to conservatism. Not a moderate, neo or any other type but a true conservative movement. Not a drive to existing Republican party politics (They are almost as bad) but a grass roots change.

It won't effect small business

Change!!! Change we can believe in!!!
The following was an email I received from a colleague. This is a good way to embrass the new regimes change policy while still applying common sense and fairness.

LETTER FROM THE BOSS.....As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the factthat Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and governmentfees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, ourprices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismalstate of the economy, we will have to lay off six of our employeesinstead. This has really been bothering me, since I believe we arefamily here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go. So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lot and found six'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided thesefolks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way toapproach this problem. They voted for change, I gave it to them.>I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

The Credit Saga Continues...

I need to preempt this rant with a few financial thoughts. I was raised by two very fiscal conservative parents. They believed that you save, save, save and pay your mortgage off ASAP. They also taught me that you only buy what you can afford and you pay off all of your bills immediately if you can afford to do so. (If the rest of the country followed these rules, there would be no financial crisis!!)

Luckily I listened to this advise early on. I was always a decent saver and I was obsessed with my credit. (Another financial rule passed down by my parents.) I never had reason to get a credit score but it should be extremely high because of these practices.

Now for the saga...

Like my fellow blogger and brother, dirtycopper, I own a big, black fuzzy Newfoundland. As a responsible pet owner I take Guinness to the vet for yearly checkups, etc. In October of 2007 I took my 130lbs worth of fur to the local hospital for some maintenance. After receiving treatment and getting the overpriced pharmaceuticals, I approached the receptionist in order to pay my bill for the visit.

The receptionist apologized for the delay but they were having voluntary maintenance done on their computer server and had to calculate the bill manually. After a few minutes I was presented with the bill. I paid in full and received my receipt.

Less then 24hours later I got a phone call from the billing department. They said that they miscalculated my bill and I owed them an additional $70. They continued by apologizing for the inconvenience...the bill is in the mail.

A few days later I received the bill and contacted the vet. Like a good used car salesman I was unable to immediately speak with the person that could actually solve my problem. I had to repeat my story several times to the same type of employee that was unable to properly prepare my bill. When the time came to connect me to the proper authority she was not available.

Like many people I am extremely busy. Between my job, family, honey do's, coaching and volunteering I often find myself without enough time to accomplish my daily tasks without adding extra repetitive non sense. I don't have endless opportunities to recall these people to have to explain the story again before being connected to the same person who was again, not available.

After a year of playing phone tag, speaking with all of the wrong people and leaving messages with explainations I was finally blessed with the opportunity to experience the American tradition of collections.

I called the collections agency. After giving her my account number she said something to the effect of so I would guess that you would like to pay this? So I told her the following...
After telling her the story I explained that I have never had a credit account with this hospital. I have always paid my bills immediately. I should not be penalized for the incompetence of the employees that can not perform 2nd grade math or do not have better reading comprehension then a 3nd grader. I equated this late bill to a car salesman calling me the day after I purchase a new car saying that I owe the dealer an additional five thousand dollars because the price negotiated and paid for was too low...they miscalculated it.

I ended the phone call by giving the collections agent some financial advise. I told her that I would be sending a letter to her and the hospital outlining this incident along with receipts. After they received this letter I told her to not contact me via phone, email or letter because it would only be a waste of stationary, employees time, postage and resources. I would never pay this bill no matter what they propose to do to my credit and I thought I would help them keep costs down.

Of course it didn't end there...I called to make an appointment for Guinness's yearly appointment. (Yes, I really went back. The vet service is great. It is the billing department that bites.) They wouldn't make an appointment until I spoke with the head of billing. They connected me and of course...she wasn't available. (What a surprise.)

She finally called back in a timely manner and we spoke. After I explained to her the entire story (I guess she never listened to my many messages) she asked me to send her a letter with the receipts so she could investigate my claims. (Another department must have gotten my letter.) I gladly complied.

What is next? Of course I will have to see this through just to have an ending to this saga.

We Need to Take a Dump

Our current economic issues in America are very troubling. Every American is effected. Some worse then others. But what is the solution? What should be our course of action as a nation?

The ruling party, which I might add has been controlling Congress for several years now, believes that we should keep building government and throw billions and billions of dollars at the problem. This never worked for the education systems, why would it work for the economy?

One of my coworkers said it best, "The economy just needs to take a good dump." Yea, sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it takes longer then you thought. Sometimes you need to go back a few more times to get the whole job done. But in the long run, when it is all over it is a huge sigh of relief.

How does this apply? The ruling party is doing the equivalent of squeezing the nations butt cheeks. They are taking a ton of Imodium AD in the hopes of making the economy feel better but they are actually keeping the bad stuff inside instead of letting it out. By keeping it in they are making the health of the economy worse. They are just prolonging the inevitable.

What should we do? Get rid of the bad stuff. Let the homeopathic solution of Capitalism take nature's course. The weak businesses, the gluttens, the monopolies will collapse, adjust, fold, fade into the sunset or go to jail. Jobs will be lost, people will be hurt. But by doing this we get rid of the bad stuff; AIG, Frannie, Freddie, a bank or two and we move on. The economy will be healthier, we'll learn from our mistakes (hopefully) and new companies will sprout up and rejuvenate our nation like a big glass of ice water (I prefer tap) during an August afternoon.

Fairness Doctrine...

I keep hearing that we need the "Fairness Doctrine." We need to make sure that all voices are heard in media. Does this include all media and all voices? Will the controlling party cutback on the liberal control of the likes of CBS, CNN, ABC, etc.? Or are they just targeting conservative talk radio?

The new administration and their party believe that Americans are helpless. They need BIG government to run their lives. So much so that they need to choose what they can hear and see in the media. (Kind of sounds like the old Pravda days to me.)

Whatever happened to good old American Capitalism? If it is a good product it will thrive and survive. If it is garbage it will fade away. Do 8 tracks ring a bell?

Al Gore and his cronies attempted to push into the talk radio market a few years back. They started several stations and loaded them up with radical left talk shows. Their product was horrible, they developed no audience and they have since faded away.

Instead of improving their message and product they are going to try and backdoor the conservatives through the "Fairness Doctrine." Since Al Gore invented the Internet maybe he can invent another new form of media.