To Be Or Not To Be America (It's Not A Question, It's A Call)

To be a citizen or not to be a citizen, that is the question. It’s not whether or not they can vote. Citizens vote. Non-citizens don’t. You want to vote, become a citizen. That’s the only issue at hand here: whether you want to be a citizen or not. If not, don’t expect voting rights.

We cannot blur the citizen-immigrant line much more without it becoming just a figurative idea that is sometimes applied, but more often not. If immigrants are “loyal, patriotic, hardworking Americans,” which sounds just like what a citizen should be, they should become citizens! See how that works?

The path to voting for non-citizens is not a ballot deciding whether they can vote. It’s called citizenship.

If non-citizens can do everything citizens can, what’s the difference? If there is no such thing as a border, is there such thing as a country? If there’s no such thing as America, there is no such thing as an American. How would you like ceasing to exist? Does that fit in with your plans for the weekend?

Of course, if there was no such thing as America, we could all just kind of sift over into the World Union people are trying to form. I mean, the dollar’s dead anyway. We’re down the economic drain. Our President’s a screwhead. Our policies, parties, and culture is tearing at the seams. We’re teetering on the edge of a cliff in the middle of a tornado. It makes sense to just abandon everything, doesn’t it?

Heck no. We could have abandoned ourselves in the middle of the Revolution. We’re losing this thing anyway, and don’t know what to do if we win it. Let’s just give up. But we didn’t. Building the Transcontinental Railroad, settling the West, we could have given up. But we didn’t. Fighting the Civil War, we could have just said, “Screw the South.” But we didn’t. And we never will. No matter how jacked up things may seem, this is America, and always will be.

Although I admit sometimes things seem hopeless.

Take healthcare, for instance. Last week a leading manufacturer informed workers that their healthcare costs would rise partly because of the law. The law that was supposed to provide a competitive market by being something better, not making the other companies worse. Everyone who signed that bill (all of them Democrats) knew what they were signing (this time). No one in America knew, but that didn’t matter to them. Their constituents had a pretty good idea, though. All you had to do was watch the clips of Obama talking about ending private insurance. All you had to do was listen to him selling that law and you knew it was bogus. But what could we have done?

Let’s not go there right now.

We all knew that job-based coverage was pretty much screwed. We all knew that the government was going to dominate the market like Big Business in the 1800s and 1900s. We knew it was coming. But the worst part was knowing we were powerless, short of a rebellion, to stop it. This is not how it should be. We are not helpless onlookers. We ARE the government. We are what creates them, funds them, keeps them in existence. At any point in time we can end them. They seem to have forgotten that there are more of us than there are of them. And we don’t believe in gun control.

You can see the Democratic schemes at work. A Democratic governor laid out a plan for employers to shift workers into the taxpayer-subsidized healthcare plans that will be available (soon to be mandatory) in 2014. There’s the manufacturere who told workers their premiums would jump. According to Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee (a Democrat), "The economics of dropping existing coverage is about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private." Does that sound like undermining private insurance to you?

They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Either they’re very smug or know they’re screwed in a week and are just doing everything they can to screw us, too. Probably both.

Employers are considering shifting most or all healthcare costs to workers. Coupled with the economy (which is, we’re told, “improving,” which is another way of saying “it’s still pretty ugly and we don’t feel like telling you about the mess we’ve made”), this adds up (or subtracts) to the middle class being a little bit screwed. Just a tad.

The middle class has depended on job-based coverage for decades. 150 million people rely on it. There are, according to B. Hussein, 47 million uninsured Americans. I wonder if that number will be higher or lower in ten years.

That raises an interesting question. What will things be like in ten years? Will we be on the streets? Will we be dead from terrorist attacks? Will we have fling cars? How high will taxes be? Will America even still exist the way it does today? It’s sad that that is possible. That we can wonder. What will we be doing in ten years? Anything? Nothing?

Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t better to just start a mini revolution and start over. Keep the Constitution, keep the system, keep the bare legal necessities of survival, keep the core of our society, the stock market, that kind of thing. Scrap everything else.

Of course, the world economy would plummet. You probably can’t even pull something like that off. Maybe you don’t keep anything but the Constitution. Maybe you don’t even keep that (though you’d hopefully model the new one on it). Hopefully you do it right.

Think about it. You’re painting a picture and it starts to rain. Drop after drop hits the paper until the picture is a runny mess. Do you keep painting? Do you take it inside, let it dry, and paint over it? Do you pull out a new piece of paper?

I don’t know what’s right, or what’s going to happen. But I feel like something is going to happen. Something big. A storm is about to break.

All I ask is that we’re ready. That we cling to our money, guns, religion, kids, and freedom. That we never forget who we are.

We are America.

And Obama, nothing is ever going to change that.

And we’re not apologizing.

The Cost

Price of gas: about three bucks, maybe more.

Price of income: around a third of what you make.

Price of freedom: whatever we sell it for.

The elections are ten days away, folks. Ten days. Are we really thinking about what will happen as a result of our choices? What the cost will be?

We have all these people promising to make things better. Maybe they can. Maybe they can't. If they do, though, what's the cost?

Is free healthcare worth the control the government gets? The taxes they impose? The regulations and restrictions they create? Is free stuff worth freedom? Is a promise of a better life that has been broken many times worth higher taxes and more corruption? What are you willing to risk in the name of hope?

Have you even considered what things will be like in ten, twenty, thirty years? And what you can do to influence it? What do you want? What do you want for your children and grandchildren, for yourself in retirement? What do you want for those you love?

These politicians can make promise after promise, but in the end, you decide what happens. Unless you give all of you're freedom away, but we're not quite there. Not yet.

Maybe they can give you all of your wildest dreams. But what will it cost you? Your family? Your friends? Your freedom?

Can it last?

Is it worth the cost?

I hope we thin of all of these things in ten days, and all days to come. I hope we use our heads, not our feelings or whims or the heat of the moment. I hope we really stop to think about things (before that becomes illegal). I hope we realize the truth, the implications, the cost of electing those who would lead us farther down the road we're on.

We have the power. It's in our hands to change the world. No offense to Harry Reid, but we're saving the world, down here in America. We go to work every day. We come home and feed our families. We work hard for the American dream, and we live it every day. We send our kids to school and pay taxes that fund who-knows-what and more. But why? We don't have to comply to the government's every wish. They comply to ours. Because in addition to all of those aforementioned other things we do, there is one more, very important thing. Look out, Democrats.

We vote.

Saving The World

Harry Reid is trying to convince his constituents that he saved the world and they just don't realize it. How'd you save the world, Harry? Invent the internet?

I guess we must not have noticed. I get a mental image of Harry Reid flying around in blue and red spandex, his cape billowing in the wind, and get the feeling that that would be something we probably couldn't help but notice. He must have been humble in his world-saving and suddenly decided to brag about it. With no relation to the upcoming elections, of course.

According to Reid, we'd be in a world-wide depression if it weren't for him. Thanks to him, we are merely heading at breakneck speeds toward a depression instead of being in one. Thanks for saving the world, Harry.

I don't believe him. Did he win a Nobel Peace Prize? No. Obama is the Savior, not Reid. I think Reid may have missed that memo. "Hey, all play-acting as God normally on schedule is cancelled due to Obama being the Savior. Force of habit does not matter. As much as we may want to, no Democrat but Obama can claim to be God (while simultaneously obviously not believing in him). Are we clear?" Yeah, Harry must have been out doing typical Democrat Saturday-night stuff when that memo came out.

And I don't know where America was when the "Harry saved the world" memo came out. Probably out working, filing taxes, taking our kids to school.

Harry telling us he saved the world is actually a jab at himself. The world is not looking very saved. That's like a homeless man telling his kids he got pizza and dividing a piece of pepperoni among his five kids and wife. Yeah. Thanks.

So, Harry, little suggestion, next time you save the world, can you do us all a favor and stay out of it?

Wrong

There was a comic in our local paper yesterday. One frame. Pictured were a witch, an anti-gay demonstrator, Hitler, and a Tea Partier with a dunce cap on his head. “I’m not a witch,” proclaimed the witch. “I’m not a homophobe,” insisted the demonstrator. “I’m not a Nazi,” declared Hitler. “I’m not an idiot,” pronounced the Tea Partier.

How eloquent and original to call a Tea Partier an idiot. That’s certainly never been done before, and the word idiot has fallen out of use. It’s good to see it making a comeback.

This is the left’s sorry attempt at... well, whatever they’re trying to do now. The sad thing is, any competent observer can tell the difference between Hitler and the witch and the Tea Partier and the demonstrator. First of all, Hitler would never say he wasn’t a Nazi. That’s what he was. And a witch is a witch. Granted, she could have just been dressed up for Halloween. So the only one they know for sure is Hitler. But the button on the demonstrator’s jacket said, “Gays are immoral,” not “I’m afraid of gays.” Bill Clinton was immoral (yet is still celebrated by society). Are we afraid of him? That could go either way, but most people are not. Think of all the adjectives liberals use to describe conservatives. Following liberal “logic,” they’re afraid of all of us! Score! And finally the Tea Partier. You can’t prove to me that a Tea Partier is an idiot. Of course, it was a somewhat clever comic(for a liberal), but I’m obliged to rip it to shreds.

Not that I’m all that pleased with Republicans either. You know the feeling of, “Come on, guys, you had this handed to you, take it”? (Ironically, this handout [the increase in popularity among voters] came from Democrats [the lords of the handout].) Why can’t they do it right now that they have the chance? Why couldn’t they be doing it right even when they didn’t have the chance, so that when the chance came along, they’d be ready? Why did they have to screw themselves over so that the party is divided now? The Tea Party should actually be called the GOP, because they’re everything Republicans should be.

Should be. That’s the operative word here, isn’t it?

America should be income tax-free. America should be governed by, for, and of the people. America should be one of the most revered nations on the planet, not an object of disdain from foreign countries and even our own elected officials and citizens. There should be a sense of “should be.” There should be ethical standards. It’s WRONG to murder babies. It’s WRONG for same-sex couples to marry (or act... married...). It’s WRONG for us to be afraid of our government. It’s WRONG for us to worry that terrorists and violent criminals will be let loose in our own backyards. It’s WRONG. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. It’s not just immoral, unethical, unconventional, or whatever adjective you want to apply to it. It’s not disputable.

It’s WRONG.

We as a society cannot accept the idea of “wrong.” What Bill Clinton did wasn’t “wrong.” What al Quaeda did wasn’t “wrong.” What the Fort Hood shooter did wasn’t “wrong.” Some people might think so, but some people don’t, and we must respect everyone’s opinions.

Good luck with that. Hijackers are heading a plane for the White House and you want us to respect their opinions? Not to stop them because that would be religious discrimination? Give me a break, liberals. In theory their ideas are... well, cute. And ideal. But they logically cannot work. It can only end in chaos.

Gee... Has that happened before?

We’re laying the foundations for the World Trade Center memorial. Are we going to be stupid enough to let that fall, too? (Read between the lines: Are we going to be stupid enough to let liberals get in power again?) I realize that it happened while Bush was President, but he had just taken office less than a year before, and quickly took the measures needed to ensure that it would not happen again. Which is more than I can say for B. Hussein, who’s only concerned with continuing and accelerating Bush’s spending policies. Not his tax breaks, not his pro-life and anti-terrorism stances, just the spending. If Obama “had this dumped on him,” he should have started cleaning it up, instead of setting records for most debt accumulated per year by a President.... IN HIS FIRST YEAR.

Blame all you want, just don’t expect any favors... like votes...

Skewl

Some schools (not necessarily the school I currently attend, any school I have previously attended, or any school I am in association with, but not necessarily NOT one of those schools previously mentioned) are making an effort to be more modern while being environmentally friendly. It is obvious that the measures that, shall we say, certain schools have taken were not extensively researched, at least not as thoroughly as they should have been.

For example, it will definitely contribute to the school's attraction if they give their kids laptops. What with the whole "going green/paperless" thing, people are sure to come flocking. Plus, hello, it's a freaking laptop. What high school kid doesn't want a laptop?

Me, actually.

I mean, yeah, I'd love to have a personal laptop. But to use it all the time, never to touch a pencil again, to experience the frustration of running out of lead, to bask in the satisfying rhythm of pencil scratching paper... eh, it's a writing thing. But seriously, there's something about writing things down with your own hands that makes it.. personal. This is your story. Not the computer's. You wrote this. I think it aids knowledge retention and allows students to function more adequately.

We take our geometry tests online. We have to press the protractor to the laptop screen and measure an angle. And we can't extend the lines because, honestly, who's going to draw on their laptop screen?

I get headaches almost every day. I've always been really sensitive to exposure to screens, whether it's TV or computer or a Gameboy or what. I already have bad eyesight, so I can't even begin to imagine what this screen's doing to my eyes and my brain.

Then there's the distraction/temptation factor. You give a kid a laptop... Honestly? What teenage boy isn't going to be playing games in the middle of the lecture? Or, better yet, using the screen to hide the cell phone they're testing on.

It sickens me how we're all like lap dogs, always eager to please and full of ourselves when we do. "Oh, we're saving trees by going paperless!" When did paper become the universal symbol of all that is evil? I love paper. I have this thing for completely blank sheets of paper. I have to fill them up. Documents on a screen? Not the same effect. You don't learn the same way. But since it's currently the fad, I guess that's what we're going to do. And we'll be so proud, parading ourselves around. Good for us. (You've figured out by now that it is my school that I'm talking about.) No one thinks about the consequences. If we're ahead of the curve, who cares that we'll all be blind and brain damaged in twenty years? What does it really matter as long as some tree somewhere isn't cut down for a few more days? What does it really matter as long as we meet the standard of liberalism that is so ingrained in our culture. We don't even realize that they've infiltrated every aspect of our lives. The very thoughts we think are contaminated.

Why?

Because they have our children. They have our children in their hands (when we let them live, that is) from ages three and four to age eighteen (sometimes longer). Add to the list of things that should be privatized (Social Security, welfare [aka charity, ever heard of it?], and infrastructure spending are already on the list): schooling. They have our children. They have the future. They're controlling it. Public schools are the principal vessels of liberal indoctrination. All the legislation that comes with the package too, of course. Like "No Child Left Behind"? Yes, I am willing to rip on Bush because I know what's right and what's wrong, as opposed to what's Democrat and what's Republican. Our school took in two students who were kicked out of their old school for trying to start a mafia. Well, we can't leave any child behind (except the ones lying dead in the commons).

And where's the other end of that deal? What about the people who are too advanced for their grade level and are forced by law to remain where they are? Sure, we're not leaving anyone behind (except everyone in the public school system [it's not like most teachers really care, with the exception of a few--I've had some pretty awesome teachers--because the unions will fight for them whether they deserve better pay or not. There's no incentive for good teaching, just bad teachers demanding more pay than they're worth]), bu we're not promoting success, either. Mandatory mediocrity is what it is.

So, in short, public schooling (among many, many, many other things) is completely screwy and is going to either fail itself or result in the failing of America.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get my sleep. I'm taking a state-mandated standardized test tomorrow morning.

We Know The Drill

Besides being a better football team, there's another reason to prefer Michigan State over U of M. I'm just going to be blunt here: Michigan kills babies.

I know that's old news, but I thought it appropriate in light of recent athletic events to rip on Michigan a little.

Anyway. Midterms are in about two weeks. Sadly, it's been more than that amount of time since I've posted, which shows how busy high school is. (Last I knew there were 75 days until the elections.)

Personally, I'm supremely ticked. We have the chance to take back America and we can't even unite our party or pick candidates who stand for anything but, basically, moderate Democrat ideas. If you're not a Republican, please don't soil the name. (I consider myself a Tea Party Constitutional Traditional Conservative GOP Republican, emphasis on the "Grand Old" in GOP.)

And of course, clinging to what hope they have, Congress is postponing the vote on extending the Bush tax cuts. If the Democrats voted on that before the election, their being screwed would be more than speculation.

But that never stops Obama from running his mouth. You'd think he got paid to--oh, yeah. You know, I sometimes almost feel a little sorry for the guy. Not really, but it has crossed my mind. I mean, he's too stupid to know when and how to lie. He seems bent on destroying Republicans while subconsciously destroying his own party. I suppose I should thank him for that.

Anyway, if you're enjoying your retirement, lounging by the golf course, reminiscing about your hard work in your youth, well... say goodbye to the golf course, at least. Because the government just might (which is news-speak for "they will") tax your dividends as income to pay for their ever-expanding budget.

You know, if I was a Democrat, I would have so much fun in the focus groups I'm sure they have. I can think of tons of ways to suck your hard-earned money right out of your pockets. How about taxing you for anything your minor children earn, and taxing them, too? Bonus! How about taxing them for the five bucks they made mowing the lawn? Basically, anything is taxable. So watch out.

I'm so sick of hearing this "Obama had this dumped on him, he inherited it" crap. Well, sucks to be him! He shouldn't have run for President, then. The per-year rate at which he's piling on the debt is already more than double Bush's, and he's been in office less than two years! (Heaven forbid he get re-elected.) You think he's going to stop? Between blaming Bush and becoming the savior of terrorists everywhere, I doubt he has time to rethink his economic policies. He'd have to figure out how to think first, anyway.

It's times like this when I'm almost tempted to believe in evolution. Some people really seem to have the minds of apes.

Speaking of that, I wrote a myth for English, "The Origin of the Origin of Species." It's about how the theories of evolution and overpopulation were born. I'll leave it at that, and you can finish the myth yourselves. It's great because my teacher is a big lib (who I'm sure considers himself some kind of independent, "new" liberal), but also a great teacher, so I'm hoping he got a kick out of it. I almost wrote it on the origin of the liberal, but thought that to be a bit much. :D

On taxing dividends: there's apparently constitutionally not even supposed to be an income tax, an argument I'll be researching extensively (when I find time).

So. In summary, the apes in Washington are trying to screw us without officially proclaiming it. Honestly? The Democratic Party has been around how long? We know the drill.