50% Chance at Best

I have had the good fortune to live most of my life paying little or no attention to politics.  Opinions, sure, strong at times, (no to wars; yes to freedom and meritocracy) but never a call to action.  That is, until 3 years ago when I noticed one freedom after another being put into the hands of unelected bureaucrats with no accountability.  

Obama gets an A for addressing health care, financial stability and economic stimulus, but sadly, an F for execution.   8000 pages of complex, incomprehensible, unfocused and ineffectual legislation has eaten up time and resources without delivering the desired results.

If I felt government had the integrity and expertise to wisely control every facet of the economy and individual life, I would stay silent.  However, hardly a day passes without frightful examples of incompetence, malfeasance, waste, corruption and 

a growing list of unintended consequences.

Obama's biggest success has been in transferring 100% of the blame to Wall St. and implying that his form of governance is the solution.  After a $4.5 trillion increase in national debt, massive loans and grants to the "greens", hundreds of new agencies, 90,000 pages of regulations, and all economic plans involving more debt, the evidence suggests otherwise. There is no part of the financial crisis that didn't originate in D.C. under both parties.

Even more troubling is the near autocratic control of health care, mortgages, student loans, consumer credit, banking, "green" energy, oil/gas development, every DROP of water, air, education, internet, rural America, broadband expansion, electricity, immigration, commerce and food.  Yes, Congress and the courts are still there but any resistance is met with an end run through an agency. The EPA, FCC, FTC, HHS, Homeland Security have been especially helpful for his agenda.

The propaganda machine is working full force again to present OWS as an"organic, peaceful" protest of income inequality while never mentioning the subversive groups orchestrating the activities.  Perhaps, America thinks communism, socialism,

Marxism, anarchy, anti-Semitism, anti-capitalism, revolution, or redistribution of wealth at the hands of bureaucrats is the system they truly want.  However, until I see an successful example of any of those forms of governance, I will stand with freedom, the rule of law, and economic mobility.

Obama has also found success in keeping the country distracted with budgets and deficits which makes it even more important to "watch the other hand".  The agencies and regulators never sleep.  One FCC proposal that appeared to increase freedom by removing the restrictions on dual ownerships of news, broadcast,etc. actually would open media to being controlled by narrow special interests.   His little noticed executive order to control rural America (food, fuel and fiber) is especially dangerous with his belief in Agenda 21.

The extremes of both parties are leading us over the cliff and offer little comfort. I have done my research and am left with playing the odds.  With Romney there is a 50% chance of economic survival and with Obama there is a 100% guarantee of failure.

High Cholesterol Testing

After reading that the healthcare elves were going to add testing for cholesterol for children near the age of puberty to the list of "free preventive" checkups, I decided the least I could do was to read the entire article before sacrificing yet another brain cell to outrage.  I found no comfort.   The "free" test actually costs the system between $50-80 a pop.   Less than 1% were likely to indicate medication.   My instincts suggest that less than half of the parents would even consider giving their 12 year olds statins for life.  Under current testing protocol, the elves estimate that as high as 37% of those indicating medication could be missed.   Okay, 37% of 1% equals about one-third of 1% and then adjusting for parental decisions only one-sixth of 1 % of those needing medication would miss out on life-long statins.  I could be wrong but my estimate of how many 12 year olds die from high-cholesterol would be ZERO.  I read on.  About 10% would fall in the riskier category indicating the wisdom of adopting a low-fat, high fiber diet and extra exercise.   My estimate of 12 year olds lasting on such a diet for more than a week, if that long, would again hover around ZERO.  Any 12 year old not running around enough to get the proper amount of exercise is probably already addicted to internet games and won't be moved.

Disclaimer:  I do not want children to be deprived of adequate health care, but this test should not have gone beyond a mere vision in the head of the one who held a patent on the testing machine.

Income Inequality

     I do not deny income inequality or the enormous increase to the one-tenth of one percent at the top.   However, I strongly object to it being made the centerpiece of the country's ills as the media and those roaming the streets would have you believe.   Don't shoot, but the numbers mostly reflect the natural laws of supply and demand, not nefarious plots against the middle class.   If there are 100 million people capable and willing to move a box, the pay will reflect the oversupply of labor, conversely at the other end for a singular Steve Jobs  rewards will be unlimited.  (Yes, there are millions of examples in-between.)   

     One bit of good news for the middle class is that from 1979-present, the decrease in the size of the middle class was from movement up not down.   Clearly the implosion of the credit bubble had a more adverse effect on the net worth of the middle even though the top lost a higher percentage of their wealth.   Losing $2 million out of $20 million just isn't the same as losing $2000 out of $20,000.   

     Capital gains during the boom years of technology created enormous wealth at the top but didn't change the value of labor at the bottom.  That's normal, not a sign of oppression or evil.  Ironically, it was Congressional limits put on executive salaries in 1993 that led to the explosion in stock grants with the the obvious results during a bull market. I mention that to illustrate the untoward results when government thinks it is smarter than capitalism.   

    Static skill levels of those remaining in the middle is another of the many other factors making the charts of inequality deceptively extreme.    That aside, increasing government transfer payments or forcing those financially responsible to cover the imprudence of others is really bad economics.  

    Some solutions that would be more productive than marches, would be to increase one's skill levels, learn new ones, get really creative, take any available job to stay in shape and possibly hear of opportunities that won't be found on internet games sites.  No one is exempt from misfortunes or disappointment but whining in the streets is soooo unattractive.  A basic moral safety net for the needy is an absolute necessity but having taken on too much debt or not having a job, while sad, is a temporary setback not a justification for riots or shifting responsibility to others.  

     It is an egregious delusion to believe that the system is "rigged" only for those at the top.   I realize that Obama's propaganda machine keeps that falsehood alive for political purposes but it has a dreadful effect on the psychology the country. The road upward is as open as ever for those not crippled by promises of government salvation or grandiose expectations.  

      The anti-capitalists amongst the occupiers are so misguided to sacrifice freedom for a bureaucratically controlled economy.  How many abject economic failures do there have to be, for the left to know that government management is not a solution? All forms of socialism impose ceilings on prosperity which will always stems government's ability to keep promises of an adequate floor.   Sweden, which is the size of CA but with near homogeneity, stands virtually alone at social success.  Krugman's continued use of Sweden as an example for America should be evidence enough to recall his Nobel. 

     The press and administration's continued support for OWS and willful blindness to the clear and present danger of lawless mobs threatens the security of us all.   When authorities turn a blind eye to mobs protesting at private homes, threatening executives,  destroying public property, taunting police and hindering the ability of businesses to operate, those of us who still believe in the rule of law need to speak out.  I resent the concept of the "99%" as it in no way accurately describes the majority of us not in the 1% earning over $380,000 but who are deeply grateful to be living in the freest and most prosperous country in history.   

     Those roaming the streets could very well cost the country both freedom and prosperity.  With the complicity of the media, Obama's agenda has done enormous damage to both already.  It always amuses me that the affluent left does not understand that they won't get to keep their wealth either if the subversive groups hiding behind OWS achieve the collapse of the system that they are seeking. Hasn't the intelligentsia ever studied the French or Russian revolutions?   

      My recognition of Obama's failures and extreme ideology in no way implies praise for the other end of the political spectrum.   I find both cringe worthy.  Watching the right make excuses for Herman Cain is every bit as offensive as watching the left pretend that ows is organic, peaceful, and properly focused.   My position presently is that there is a 100% chance that Obama will continue his assault on individual liberty and aggressively pursue his dreams of wealth redistribution, amnesty and carbon taxes, but that there is at least a 50% chance that Romney is qualified to reverse the worst of Obama's agenda without miring the country in conflict over the right's social positions.  Another second wasted on DADT or NPR funding just might put me over the edge. 

The Beginning

In hopes of releasing the pressure of outrage that arise after reading and watching the morning news, I am going to try this. I don't know how many others are being tortured by the positions of the far left and far right but I am just hoping there are enough in the universe to save us from destruction.   Both my springer spaniel and short-haired pointer are capable of finding better solutions than our current leaders, and better yet, without the maddening political talking points.  And so,it is from that level of desperation that I begin.