Happy Birthday Princess!

Today we will celebrate Maddy Rae's 6th birthday.  Maddy will always have a special place in Papa Frank, Nana, Mimi and Papa Larry's heart.  She is our first grandchild.  Maddy is best described as a happy, smart, assertive child.  She smiles 10 times more often than frowns.  She likes to be in charge, directing how every event is managed.  I bet that she is already working on the seating arrangements for her birthday party. She displays a mothering instinct when dealing with her younger brothers.

This fall, Maddy begins Kindergarten..  Never has a child been so ready.  Maddy hungers for knowledge.  She once asked her Nana to teach her to read, like her Mimi was going to teach her to play the piano.  I am convinced that in a year or so, Maddy will be reading to her brothers. 

Watching her grow the past 6 years can only be described as pure happiness.  We love you Maddy. 

Happy Birthday Princess!

I am not a smart man... but,

Today, July 30th marks the 33rd anniversary of my marriage to Terri.  What more can a man say than how blessed he is to marry the woman of his dreams?  The only words that come to mind are those spoken by my personal mentor, Forrest Gump.  I am not a smart man, but I know what love is.  Forrest and I have a lot in common.  Infatuation with a particular woman is one of them.

I once blogged about how I met and fell in love withTerri.  It was eerily similar to how Forrest proposed to Jenny. 

Forrest/Frank Gump: Will you marry me?
[Terri turns and looks at him]
Forrest/Frank Gump: I'd make a good husband, Terri.
Terri Hansen: You would, Frank.
Forrest/Frank Gump: ...But you won't marry me.
[Terry laughs]
Forrest/Frank Gump: Don't you love me, Terri?
Terri Hansen: [laughs again]
Forrest/Frank Gump: I'm not a smart man... but I know what love is.

There are many quotes from the movie that I can relate to, or describe me well.  Just like Forrest, I can be dense.  Forrest has an excuse much better than mine.

Forrest Gump: Lieutenant Dan, what are you doing here?
Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: I'm here to try out my sea legs.
Forrest Gump: But you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan.

Jenny Curran: His name's Forrest.
Forrest Gump: Like me.
Jenny Curran: I named him after his daddy.
Forrest Gump: He got a daddy named Forrest, too?
Jenny Curran: You're his daddy, Forrest.

Bubba: Have you ever been on a real shrimp boat?
Forrest Gump: No, but I've been on a real big boat.

Jenny Curran: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be?
Forrest Gump: Who I'm gonna be?
Jenny Curran: Yeah.
Forrest Gump: Aren't-aren't I going to be me?

Thanks for the 33 years, and I love you Terri Lee.  That's all I have to say about that.

Happy Birthday to the Wookie

Today is my daughter Allison's 22nd birthday.  As I reflect on the last 22 years, I see a person who has gone through tremendous change.  During her early childhood, Ali was very active socially.  When attending one of Lyndy's sporting events, she would spend the entire time socializing with complete strangers.  We would find her sitting on the lap of other parents carrying on a conversation. 

When Allison played sports, she used the games as a social outlet.  I remember a particular soccer game when she was around 5 years old.  Those games were more accurately described as herd ball.  During one such herd, Allison and her new team mate and friend were seen strolling out of the herd, arms around each others shoulders, talking about whatever 5 year olds talk about.  Allison did not like to play softball, I suspect because playing the outfield can be lonely.  I have memories of her chasing butterflies in center field, and slowing moving to the left or right enough that she could talk with the other fielders.

Allison was always a very girly kid.  She had a princess dress that she wore over her normal clothes.  She wore it everyday for months.  That was during her Little Mermaid phase, when she watched the movie at least once every day for nearly a year.  For toys, Allison liked Cabbage Patch dolls and Mapletown.  I don't believe she even showed an interest in playing with Lyndy's giant Skeletor collection.  They were two different kids.  As part of her girly personality, Allison liked long hair.  That, along with her hairy arms and legs earned her the nickname the little Wookie after the popular Star Wars character.

As Allison grew older, she changed significantly but never lost the girliness.  Terri and I were very unaware of the character she was building.  We saw an immature young lady, when just under the surface was growing a principled person with strong character.  It took the misfortunes that her and husband Jimmy encountered just after their marriage to expose just what a good, kind, and decent person we had raised.

So Allison, I promise to not call you The Wookie anymore.  I hope that you have a wonderful birthday.  You Mother and I love you very much. 

Happy Birthday, Douche Bag.

Profanity

I have always wondered how cuss words achieved their status.  I mean, when you think about it, a cuss word is not that different than any other word.  There are no profane letters, and we define a profanity as a series of innocent letters in a particular order.  I turned to Webster for a better definition and received little help.

Profanity:
1 a : the quality or state of being profane b : the use of profane language
2 a : profane language b : an utterance of profane language

Profane:
1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate
2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use

So if Webster is to be believed, a profanity is a word that debases or desecrates something sacred with abuse, irreverence or contempt. Using that definition, I can readily identify why many or most cuss words are considered profane.  But what about that one popular profanity that means excrement?  The definition seems to fall apart.  Would anyone consider excrement to be something sacred?

So while I do not believe there is a consistent definition for what constitutes a profanity, neither will I begin to use those words.  I really never have.  I will admit that a few have crossed my lips.  Over time the number of such utterances has diminished.  The decline may be due to my work environment.  When I was a technician, most of my peers used profanity heavily.  As I moved into management, I heard much less.  Today, hearing a co-worker use profanity is rare, and usually related to extreme frustration.  Sometimes, it has more to do with a small vocabulary.

Lately, Terri and I have become interested in the HBO series, The Sopranos.  While the story of a mafia family is compelling, I fear the expletive laden dialogue has desensitized our ears to profanity.  Hearing the dialogue would have been more than we could withstand if not for the rounds of golf played with SILC, which began the desensitization process.  Okay, I do exaggerate. 

A little.

Party Week!

This is the party week of our year.  Purely by chance, 3 consecutive opportunities to celebrate occur in this one week.  On Wednesday, Madison Rae Farr celebrates her 6th birthday.  It is hard to believe that 6 years have past since we became grandparents.  The actual celebration is not held until Saturday.

On Thursday, we celebrate Allison's birthday.  Her 22nd does not warrant the celebration held last year, but it is still significant because we now begin the countdown to 30.

On Friday, Terri and I celebrate our 33rd anniversary.

PARTY!

Howard Dean Slap-Down

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, the host Chris Wallace and Newt Gingrich delivered a slap-down of epic proportions to the uber-liberal Howard Dean.  Dean is an over the top liberal who suffers from the Ready Fire Aim mentality.  He often speaks off the cuff providing erroneous information, otherwise known as lying.  If liberalism is a mental disorder, Howard is the disorder's poster child. 

Dean was on his usual rant about how racist Fox News and conservatives are .  He was using the recent flap that led to the firing of Shirley Sherrod.  Dean was trying to make the point that when Fox played the offensive video out of context without investigating the entire speech, they were being racist.  There was only one problem with his liberal logic.  Chris Wallace points it out here.  Priceless!

It's Not That I Don't Like to Swim ...

I have never been much of a swimmer.  Even when I was a kid, hanging out at the pool was not tops on my list.  I would rather play a little baseball than go to the pool.  I enjoy a dip on a hot summer day as much as anyone, but swimming has never been my favorite recreational activity.

Terri usually laughs when she sees me swim.  She says I use twice the energy needed to move about.  She is right.  If I were ever stranded in the middle of a large body of water, I would last about 10 minutes before dying of exhaustion.  This body just wasn't built for the water.

My parents owned a lake home right on the Lake of the Ozarks.  For years we visited them several times a summer.  I think I entered the water once voluntarily, and one other time thanks to niece Heather's jet ski driving inability.  Or was that Lyndy?  All I really remember was my head skipping along the water as I desperately clung to a jet ski after the driver made a smooth bank right followed by a quick 90 degree jerk to the left.  On the fifth or sixth face skip, I decided to just let go and go in.  That was my only time in the water that year.

I can sit next to a large body of water for hours on end.  It just never occurs to me that I should get in.  Last weekend I asked my grandson if he had been swimming.  It turns out he is a lot like me and doesn't have the desire to swim.  I asked him if he was afraid to swim.  He responded that he was not, but that he was afraid of sinking.  He's a lot like me.

Public Service: Bumper Sticker Removal Tool

Funny!  Well, sort of.

Living in a Small Town

I was born and raised in Shawnee Kansas back when that city was a very small town.  Our home was was located on the far eastern limits of the city.  To the east lay only woods and creeks until you reached the railroad tracks and I-35.  I can still remember lying in bed on a hot summer night, hearing the trains pass by so loudly I felt they were in my backyard.  Occasionally deer would wander out of the woods and into our yard. 

There was nothing but trees, trails and creeks in those woods.  Occasionally a gypsy family would take up residency in them.  Today we would call them homeless.  I remember a couple of kids my age that lived in the woods with their parents.  They were dirt poor, living in a small pull-behind trailer.  They would come into my neighborhood to play quite often.  On the day their mother washed their clothes, they would only have a rug wrapped around them. 

I was prohibited from playing in the woods.  It didn't stop me though.  I remember many days swimming or seining for crawdads down in Turkey Creek nearly a mile from the house.  But a day came when a housing developer bought the land and began building houses where once stood only trees.  About the same time, Shawnee began to grow from a small post-war baby-boom 2-bedroom housing community into a medium size city with full business district.  Crown Drugs removed it soda fountain and replaced it with additional aisles of consumer products.  Vans Food Store doubled in size and became the area's first superstore.  The nearby Shawnee Mission Parkway exploded with new businesses.  Ben Franklin's five and dime store closed.  Gambles, Coast to Coast and other department store chains took their turn doing business just a short distance from my home.  I no longer lived in a small town.

But I did continue to live in Shawnee for many years.  Terri and I bought our first home less than a mile from my childhood home.  We lived there 15 years.  Both Lyndy and Allison were born while living in that small 2 bedroom home that we improved with a third bedroom and second bathroom.  But eventually, we sold our home and moved to Overland Park, which was and still is the second largest city in Kansas.  We lived there for 14 more years.

Then in 2007, Terri and I move to Basehor.  Our 5 minute commute grew to 35 minutes.  At first I did not enjoy the drive, but have recently grown accustomed to it. I use the drive in to plan out my day.  The drive home I use as a time to wind down. 

By any definition, Basehor is a small town.  On any given weekend, the biggest thing going on in Basehor is breakfast or dinner at the VFW, a new farm, quilt or Indian exhibit at the local museum, or the annual Dairy Days that comes around every summer.  The high school will have a craft show each year and of course the high school sports are still big events to the locals.

Living in Basehor is a lot like my childhood growing up in Shawnee.  It is quiet at night.  Traffic is low.  Hearing a siren is rare.  To the east lie every type of business we might need, but to the west lie only farm land and woods.  Basehor is more like a small town than it's neighbors to the south, Bonner Springs, or to the east, Kansas City Kansas. 

We found ourselves getting excited when a grocery store moved in a couple blocks from our house.  We were then disappointed when it closed within 7 months because there was not enough business to sustain it.  Now we have a Dollar General opening a few blocks away.  I think it should make it given the demographics of Basehor.  You see, most of the Basehor citizens have lived here for years.  Many lived here most or all of their lives.  Many have a farmer heritage.  Teeth are considered signs of opulence, and the local dentist offers an express line for those with 3 teeth or less (thanks Larry the Cable Guy).  Truck farms still set up along highways over weekends.  Deer sightings in the neighbor hood are fairly common.  The similarities to Shawnee of 40-50 years ago are many.

I like living in a small town.

Smart Letter of the Week

Just as there are no stupid letters, there are no smart ones either.  There are smart people who write letters.  Two of my favorite people in the world had their letters published recently in the KC Star.  Reverend Blackburn is commenting on the Reverend Phelps, a kook preacher of a family cult that spreads hatred in the areas local to Wichita Kansas.  Due to the proxiemty, I see a lot of press about Phelps.  As the pastor of his family church, Westboro Baptist, he gets a lot of press.  Those who believe he is representative of Christians and organized religion use this press to ridicule those of faith.  Reverend Blackburn writes a nice letter.

Fred Phelps out of line



I cannot understand the thinking of Topeka’s infamous “Rev.” Fred Phelps. As an ordained minister, I just cannot comprehend his obsession with the homosexual agenda as it strays from God’s “divine calling” for ministers to teach, preach, lead, equip, model, pray, exhort and comfort. Phelps’ hate-filled rhetoric, confrontational tactics and unbiblical views do not further the Kingdom of God.


On the contrary, they damage the cause. They discourage seekers from finding the truth, and they cause those who are weak in faith to “stumble” spiritually.

Furthermore, as a father of a deployed (Iraq) Army Special Forces Medic, it is unconscionable to me why Phelps would target our men and women in uniform and their families, especially at the funerals of our fallen heroes. Such anger and hatred is neither God-honoring, nor reflects the attitude, actions, and calling of Jesus Christ.

Christ’s call to all his disciples is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart… and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27); not to mention “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44).

Phelps does not demonstrate a devotion to and a love for God, let alone a love and respect for his “neighbors.”

The Rev. John C. Blackburn
Shawnee

The second smart letter is in response to Reverend Blackburn.

In Reverend Blackburn’s excellent letter (7/11) he points out Fred Phelps irrational, illogical protests against gays. To paraphrase a line from Hamlet, Phelps protests too much methinks. Could Phelps’ “over the top” protest be an indication that he too is gay?


Frank Bryant
Basehor, KS

Non-Sequitor

When an American Muslim soldier shoots fellow soldiers because of his hatred of the infidel, some blame those around him who failed to detect his plans.

When a police chase of a suspected criminal ends with an accident, the police are blamed for chasing the criminal.

When a state attempts to enforce a state law that is identical to federal law, the feds sue them.

When a conservative racist senator dies, his past is mentioned in the obituary.  When a racist liberal senator dies, he is honored for his service to the country.

When a conservative wins a narrow election, voter fraud is alleged.  When Black Panthers are videoed intimidating white voters, charges are dropped at the request of the Justice Department.

When a presidential administration increases deficit spending by 300% in one year, the previous administration  is blamed.

The list goes on and on.  Where did the concept of responsibility go?

Harsh

I know this is a harsh statement that will not help the Tea Party gain favor in the mainstream media, but I do have one question.  Is it true? 

If so, who should care that it is harsh?

The Nation's Fiscal Future

The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission provided an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future on Sunday.  They called the current budgetary trends a cancer "that will destroy the country from within" unless addressed with tough action in Washington.   Here are the bullet points from their assessment:

• Bowles said that unlike the current economic crisis, which was largely unforeseen before it hit in fall 2008, the coming fiscal calamity is staring the country in the face. "This one is as clear as a bell," he said. "This debt is like a cancer."
• The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," with a promise to pay by our children.
• "We can't grow our way out of this,". "We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can't tax our way out. . . . The reality is we've got to do exactly what [governors do every day]. We've got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that."

Okay.  If they are serious, I'm in.  But let's see the cuts first so that we know they are serious.

Stupid Letter of the Week

As you are becoming aware, there are no stupid letters, just stupid people who write letters. This week's letter comes from Patty Brown, chairwomen of the Missouri Sierra Club.

World Population Day

Friday is World Population Day. It is a time to reflect on how humans have so successfully reproduced that only half of the world’s total of 6.8 billion people is sustainable. People understand deer being endangered by their excessive numbers, but they don’t want to think about this with humans.


Deaths are increasing from pollution, severe weather and natural resource wars. The world’s oil supply has peaked. About 1.1 billion people lack clean water. Almost half of the forest habitat is gone.


We are now losing half of all species. These are all related to population and consumption. The U.S. has the greatest per capita impact. Earth consists of a diversely balanced interdependent web of life, which we must protect.


Solutions include comprehensive sex education, increased funding for family planning worldwide, education and empowerment of females, adoption, having children later in life and decreased consumption. We’ll have 9 billion people by 2050 unless the death rate increases. If 90 percent of all women stop at two, rather that the current 2.6 children per woman, we could stabilize population growth and decrease the negative effect on the planet.

Patty Brown
Population & Consumption Committee
Chair, Missouri Sierra Club
Independence

I made a note to myself to never invite Patty to a dinner party.  She would just bring the mood down.

Patty is a throw-back to the 1960's when Paul Erlich wrote in his book The Population Bomb,that due to the earth's population we would see mass famine and starvation in the 1970's and 80's.  His prediction of world population did come true, however every other prediction was wrong.  Why?  Because Paul and Patty forget one thing.  Knowledge and technology increases at a rate equal to or greater than population.  In other words, we figure it out.
The stupid part is that Patty wants to educate our kids on sex, encourage abortion and return to a life from the past just in case our current lifestyle isn't sustainable.  I support Patty's right to ride a bike, live a minimalist lifestyle, not have children, and to influence her family to do the same.  But I won't believe her self-serving, "sky is falling" hype.

No Mercy

I don't have the mind of a criminal.  If a cop turned his lights on wanting me to pull over, I could never make the mental leap to consider running.  Those who do have very little intelligence.  With multiple cops armed with radios and helicopters, it is so rare that a chase could ever end in the getaway of the criminal.  Yet, they run.  Many times the outcome of that chase is the pain and suffering of innocent people.  I believe the runner should be held responsible for pain, injury and even the death of any innocent bystander caught up in a police chase.

Our society appears to be shifting the blame to the police.  They say that apprehension of a criminal is never worth the life of an innocent bystander.  I agree, but that is not the point.  If the police don't chase criminals, criminals will always run.  That cannot be in the best interest of society.  Yes, we would have fewer deaths caused by police chases, but the trade-off is more criminals on the streets doing what criminals do.  The police are not to blame for innocent deaths - the criminal is.

A recent event in Kansas City illustrates the pain a suffering one stupid criminal can do when they decide to run.  You can view the dashcam video here.  I do not believe anyone was killed, but several were injured.  I believe the voice heard after the crash is that of the criminal, whining about his broken leg.  I get some satisfaction in imagining a Dirty Harry vintage cop stepping on his leg and twisting.  "How's that feel punk!"   yeah, I couldn't be a cop either.

Arab Astronauts?

In an interview with the Arab news network al-Jazeera, Charles Bolden, the current head of NASA states:

"When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things. One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."


Okay ... I can definitely support the first directive.  I get a little twitchy with the second.  The third made me spit up a little in the back of my throat.  How any leader can redirect an organization charged with leading the world in space exploration to go make nicey nice with the religious followers who want to kill us?  What is Obama's real intention here?

Best T-Shirt I've Seen in a While

It can only be improved by replacing the word Nebraska with Missouri.

Clowns with Credit Cards

There is a bill circulating in Congress intended to fund the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is fairly typical since all spending by Congress is deficit spending, so a special fiscal approval bill must be passed by both houses and sent to the president for signature.  An interesting thing happened to the current bill while in the House of Representatives.  An addition $20 billion in domestic spending was added.  Here is what our representatives did with the credit card our children will pay off:

• $10 billion in aid to states to help avoid teacher layoffs - Wasn't this what the Stimulus bill was used for?
• $5 billion for collegiate Pell Grants
• $142 million to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - Didn't our President tell us that BP would pay all costs?
• $1 billion to assist youths find summer work
• $1.15 to compensate black farmers who argue the Department of Agriculture discriminated against them for years when it came to approving loans - the government settled a lawsuit with black farmers more than a decade ago but many missed the deadline to file claims. The money in this legislation is designed to help those who filed late.

This is what you get when 535 out of touch clowns are given a credit card with no limit.  It is time to vote them all into retirement.

Stupid Letter of the Week

As you have come to understand, here are no stupid letters.  Just stupid people who write letters.  Here is this weeks winner from Philip Cardarella of Kansas City.

Supreme hypocrisy



Although hypocrisy is no stranger to the law, there is a special irony in the Supreme Court’s newly discovered “right” to bear arms — including handguns.


Only recently the same court closed its magnificent main doorway (under the iconic “Equal Justice for All” inscription) to force the public to enter through a side door, which can be monitored more securely.

Apparently the only place the five justices think anyone should be safe is inside their own workplace.

Philip F. Cardarella
Kansas City

Philip is asking the wrong question.  The question is not where did the five judges discover a right to bear arms.  The questions is how could the dissenting 4 judges not understand the plain text of the second amendment to the constitution?

The second amendment states: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.


In 2008, the U. S. Supreme Court struck down a Washington, D.C. ban on individuals having handguns in their homes. Writing for a 5 to 4 majority, Justice Scalia found the right to bear arms to be an individual right consistent with the overriding purpose of the 2nd Amendment, to maintain strong state militias.

Hey Philip, nothing was discovered.  To say it was is just plain stupid!

Independence Day

As the years go by, the traditional celebration of July 4th change more than any other holiday.  Some of the change is due to age and maturity, some by the anti-fireworks laws in most cities.  A few years ago, Terri and I began a habit of playing golf on the Fourth.  That has not become a tradition, probably because of the heat and humidity that usually accompanies this holiday. 

When I was a kid, the Fourth of July was one of the largest celebrations held by my family.  My parents would host a Fourth of July picnic at our house.  Both sides of the family would attend.  Family friends would also attend.  Since attendance would sometimes surpass 40-50 people, it was always held outdoors in our backyard.  

The celebration would always begin early in the day.  Everyone would bring a dish, and the food would be spread out on a large conference size table in the yard.  Everyone would help themselves whenever hungry during the entire day. 

My uncles Jim and John would spend much of the day shooting M-80s or cherry bombs into the air using a high powered sling shot.  On a typical Fourth, they would ignite and launch a full gross.  Occasionally they would have one with a slow burning fuse that would reach earth before exploding.  I remember no major personal injuries, but do remember a few tomato plants in my parents yard that did not survive the celebration.

Over the entire day, fireworks were enjoyed.  Cousins Joe and Jerry always came to the event with grocery sacks full of fireworks.  It was a chore just to get to them all consumed within the daylight hours.  At night, as soon as it was dark, we bagan our our fireworks display.  My Grandfather Barr would always bring the watermelon and sacks of Roman Candles, sparklers, fountains, helicopters and mortars.  The display would continue non-stop for over an hour.  One vivid memory was that of my 400 pound Aunt Dorthy leaning back in her lawn chair to avoid being struck by an errant pyro-technic device.  The chair could not withstand the stress and deposited her harshly on the ground.  No injury, but I don't remember her ever participating in the picnic after that.

Once the fireworks were spent, we would carve the watermelon.  Once it was gone, the event was over.  Typically, this was after midnight.  We would all retire to nurse our fireworks caused wounds or burns.  The next few days would be spent cleaning up the yard of spent fireworks and collecting the gunpowder from dud fireworks in order to create one last memorable blast.

Today's celebration of the Fourth are much calmer.  Terri and I will go to church, and then relax before going to SILL and BILS home for ribs.  Later we will watch one or two professional fireworks displays in the local area.

No Confidence = No Growth

We are now nearly 2 years into the current economic recession and most economic indicators do not signal a near term recovery. Conservatives blame Obama, Obama blames Bush.  But why after all the stimulus dollars have been allocated, and over half spent, have we not seen much improvement?  I believe it is because of how those federal dollars have been spent. 

Most of the stimulus has been spent balancing state budgets to continue inflight projects and extend employment of state workers that would have been cut without the assistance.  This is very short term thinking by the administration.  Saving a job until next year when it again is at risk is not wise spending that instills confidence in workers, state governments or businesses.  Without this confidence, real recovery will be extremely slow or impossible.

Business leaders around the nation know that federal deficit spending cannot continue forever.  This along with talk of increased taxes gives them little confidence that any apparent improvement is real or sustainable.  Until the business community believes the economy is improving and will continue, there will be no improvement in unemployment or the capital investment that drive our economy.  Businesses will remain in a wait and see mode, watching for clear signals of a better economic environment.  They will not hire people if there is significant risk of future downsizing.  They will not spend to expand if long term economic improvement is not on the horizon.

Looking for lessons in the past uncovers the only strategy that has ever worked effectively.  While counter intuitive, cutting taxes is the only proven method to climb out of a recession.  When President Reagan inherited a recession comparable to this one, he did not blame President Carter.  Instead, he cut income and capital gains tax rates across the board.  Hiring, investment, and the economy began to improve in just a few short months, and within 3 years federal tax revenue increased by 50%.  This act led to the longest period of economic growth the country has ever experienced.  The lesson unlearned is that if Obama would have cut taxes by $750 billion stimulus dollars, we would now be witnessing an improving economy.

The Obama administration believes that government spending leads to economic growth.  So in order to fund his vision for the country, he cannot continue to borrow and spend money.  Multiple taxes and fees are in the future, the most ominous one being Cap and Trade.  This one tax will hit every American hard by increasing the cost of most goods and services.  Increased taxes make businesses less profitable unless they pass the cost on to the consumer.  Regardless of whether they pass on the cost or absorb it, new taxes decrease certainty and lower confidence.  Businesses will not hire or invest.  Recovery will be stymied.

While it appears that government spending has avoided the second Great Depression, it also appears that we are now in Obama's Great Recession.

Me 'n' Forrest

One of my favorite movie of all time is Forrest Gump.  Forrest and I have a lot in common.  While I did not overcome a disability (unless I am not aware of it - so I guess it could be true), serve in the military or become an avid runner, the stark differences end there.  One of the things I share with Forrest is our affinity to mow grass.

You might remember the scene in the movie where Forrest, after he becomes independently wealthy, continues to mow the high school football field.  As Forrest said it:  "And cause I was a gazillionaire, and I liked doin it so much, I cut that grass for free".

I can relate.  Ever since I purchased my first riding mower a couple years ago, I look forward to cutting the grass.  I rush through weed eating and push mowing so that I can climb aboard my Huskvarna 20 HP 48" mower and cut my grass plus most of the common area around my property.   I can only dream of cutting field as large and unobstructed as the one Forrest cut in the movie.

There are many other similarities between Forrest and I.  We both became successful through a combination of pure dumb luck mixed with a little hard work, we both can become infatuated with a single woman, and we both think in very simple terms based on our upbringing.  These similarities may become future blog topics.