A long month, with something really pissing me off now

U.S. Veteran Faces Legal Action for Flying American FlagA retired U.S. Army chaplain is being threatened with legal action for flying the American flag in his front yard, the Daily Mail reports. Fred Quigley, 77, of Macedonia, Ohio, a minister who served active duty during the Vietnam War, has been told by the homeowners’ association that his flag violates the property rules. The association has offered to fly the flag at the entrance of the building development, but Quigley refused the offer. “If they can dictate to me that I cannot fly an American flag in America, then, to me, the country is lost,” Mr. Quigley told the paper.  Quigley's lawyer Gerald Patronite said the association has no right to stop his client. (Read more from Fox News)

  Now, I'm pissed.  Mr. Fred Quigley served his country as a chaplain in Vietnam and his community as a minister.  There is no excuse for him to be told he can't fly a flag in his yard.  I serve my country.  If I want to fly my nation's flag, I damn well will.  If the HOA sues, and any judge sides with them, then that judge should be disrobed.

  As far as homeowners' associations go, I now firmly believe they should be outlawed.  There is no excuse for other people telling me how to present my house, unless it poses a clear safety hazard to other people.  I'm sick of this nanny state bullshit.  There is no reason for anyone to try and dominate other people in this manner.

Tea Party Patriots

  After a few years of consideration, I've decided to join the Tea Party Patriots.  While I consider myself a centrist, and the organization does lean right, I do wholeheartedly agree with the core principles of limited government, minimal spending, and a return to the US Constitution.  For those who've seen the chart at the bottom that lists me as leaning a little left, I don't entirely agree.  I may be socially liberal in many areas, but I'm pro gun rights, anti big government, and very keen on civil liberties.  I am a social liberal, but a fiscal and political conservative.  I'm very fond of just using taxes to enforce those laws that need to be enforced, but I'm against some of the many laws we have because they just create problems, they don't actually solve any.  I urge anyone who reads this to consider the core values of the Tea Party Patriots and consider joining.

Anti Trust vs. Anti Big Business

  Just to set the record straight, I'm Anti Trust, not Anti Big Business.  The key difference is that I know that some big businesses are necessary to a thriving economy.  It takes a large business to operate critical infrastructure.  Some things, like automobiles, can't be efficiently produced and maintained by a small business.  Moving freight across the country and around the globe requires large corporations.
  That being said, I am anti trust.  What that means is that when a business begins to grow so large that they can prevent competition, I have a problem with that.  When Joe Doe Shoemaker can't compete with Nike because Nike can all too easily undercut him, there is a problem, and business regulations need to address that. The whole purpose of free market enterprise is that competition breeds improvement.  Walmart underselling Ma and Pa down the road doesn't breed improvement, it breeds cheap goods from China and Mexico that are of lower quality.  And Walmart's business ethics are much in question to me, because they actively train employees how to gain public benefits so they don't have to fund them.  So not only are they destroying the American Dream, they are making the rest of the country pay for their billions of dollars in annual profits.
  Now, there are communities like Red Bluff, CA, that have benefited from the presence of a Walmart distribution center, but that is beside the point.  One dc serves several stores that pay barely more than minimum wage, and degrade the total commercial value of several communities.  That is a problem.  There are towns and cities now where entire shopping areas sit vacant because the last occupants couldn't compete with Walmart.  This devalues entire sections of cities and contributes to crime.
  Now, I'm not entirely anti Walmart, I just have a problem with some of their business practices.  One problem is that they import a lot of Chinese made goods.  China strictly regulates the value of the Yuan compared to other currencies,  and so prevent other nations' currencies from falling below theirs' in value, thus keeping Chinese manufactured goods cheaper.  This is not fair or free trade, this is China using aggressive economic warfare to conquer the world with.  It's that simple.
  My solution to the problem is to use tariffs where free trade is impinged upon.  Let Chinese made goods be jacked up in price by 30% until China backs off its' aggressive economic policies.  Let other goods be taxed at 30% until the nations they are produced in pay a decent living wage to their laborers.  We need to level the playing field with these nations, which don't have the regulations we have.
  There is another problem in that we have too much regulation here at home.  California ranks dead last, not just in the country, but in the world as a place to have a business.  One tenth of the population of the US resides in California.  That says something, that we can't even support our own population because of bad regulation.  We need to reduce regulation and balance economic and environmental needs.
  Another source of bad regulation is unions.  I'm not afraid of union busting.  The fact is, they create excessive regulation, require jacked up wages, and have driven many of the middle class blue collar jobs out of the US.  There was a time that unions did serve a purpose.  That was when there were no laws on the books guaranteeing a living wage for entry level employees.  If unions don't want to get on the same page as those who want to improve our competitive edge with other countries, they need to go.
  Yes, we need regulations that control the negative effects of greed, but we need desperately to lure decent jobs back to the US.  Yes, we should have a minimum wage in place that guarantees that someone will make a decent living even in entry level jobs, but we need to make it possible to conduct business.  I've stated before that I'm in favor of regulating what the top employee or owner of a business can make in ratio to the lowest paid employee, provided they meet minimum wage and can provide decent benefits to their employees.  Too much profit goes to people who do too little, and too much work goes to other nations.

2012 Presidential Race

  We need to hear more from the prospective candidates for next year's race. The fact is, our nation is in turmoil, and we need to do something to change the current status quo.  So far, I'm throwing my support behind Herman Cain.  He may be listed as a "long shot" candidate, but I think that the liberal media is scared.  I'm going to check with the Tea Party repeatedly on this.  If he is the candidate that can bring fiscal responsibility to the White House, while negotiating measures that would actually improve our current situations at home and abroad, Then I urge people to consider him for President.
  In the meantime, we need to see who else the viable candidates are.  I urge those who do read my blog to look into who might be running, and to list their names and where they stand in comments.  It's up to the people to take back our great nation from the people who care about nothing less than their own well being.

Israel and Egypt

  So the day after I rant about the amount of foreign aid we give out, I hear that Pres. Obama has promised a billion dollars in aid to Egypt, to build infrastructure and create jobs.  Ok, what about our infrastructure and jobs at home???  It's a billion dollars we didn't have to begin with. It's not there, and there's nothing we can do to make it be there.  I'm encouraging people, write your Congressperson about this.  Tell them, we don't have the money to give away, we don't even have the money to run our own affairs.  The sad part of all this is that as a soldier, I can only afford to vote against a proven leader if another good leader steps up to the plate. So far, it looks like my vote is going to Herman Cain.
  As for Israel, there is no reason to support Israel going back to the 1967 borders.  No matter what, hardline jihadis will continue to attack Israel as long as it exists.  And make no mistake, I believe Israel has a right to exist.  And I believe Israel has every right to possess  the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  These lands are the ancestral homeland of the Jews.  And everyone who calls themself a Christian has a duty to support Israel.  With the current situation in the Middle East, there is no way to start giving land to terrorist organizations, and that is exactly what would happen if Israel gave land to the "Palestinians", who, by the by, are Levantine Arabs.
  We, the United States, should assist Israel in pushing back the Arab population to across the Jordan River, and help establish a strongly defended national border for Israel.  Muslims have their holiest site, it is the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.  Christians maintain possession of their holiest sites, such as the Church of the Annunciation, the Church of the Nativity, and the Church of Calvary.  Why can't the Jews have one little mountain, and put their temple on it.  Why is it that hardline Muslims have to destroy the things of other religions.  Don't they realize they're hurting their own cause of spreading the teachings of Muhammad by blatantly ignoring other peoples' rights?
  Would several of the Muslim nations attack Israel and the US if such a situation arose?  Yes, they most certainly would, but such a war would devastate the Muslim world.  The fact is, we're now at the crossroads, where such a war would be better fought sooner rather than later.  If Iran gained possession of a nuclear arsenal, and North Korea were to become involved, the death toll of such a war would be horrendous, and several large swaths of the Middle East would be green glowing glass.  And once we turned our attention from the Middle East to North Korea, China would be unable to support N. Korea, because of the ethical concern of siding with one of the nations that started a nuclear war.  Many nations would stay out of a war if it was just the US and N. Korea, but if China were to join, we'd have the full support of NATO and India.  The fact is, we're in a much stronger position politically than a lot of liberals would have you believe.
  We can't have our leadership playing Neville Chamberlain to the Terrorists Adolf Hitler.  It's that simple.  The US has made all the concessions we should have ever made to these people, and they continue to seek ways to attack us.  Those Muslims who would live in peace and practice their religion in a peaceful manner, we should leave alone as much as possible, but it's time to deal with terrorists as what they are, outright war criminals and human rights violators.

Foreign Aid and Domestic Problems

  The copy and paste status going around FaceBook right now is about the amount of Foreign Aid we spend each year, and all the current domestic issues.  Lately in the news, the aid we give to Pakistan has been receiving a lot of flak.  The fact is, we're trying to buy friends, and the problem with that is many parts of these foreign cultures want nothing to do with us.
   We send over three billion dollars a year to Pakistan.  A nation that has been playing both ends against the middle.  The ISI actively supports Taliban operations in Afghanistan, and American service members die because of it.  Even though the civilian government acts pro American, they are unable to stem the support from Pakistan's defense forces to the Taliban.  We just shouldn't give them the money.  It's being used to hurt us.  There are many who worry about Pakistan having nuclear weapons.  Well, so does India, and they wouldn't hesitate to obliterate Pakistan from the face of the earth if they started getting out of line or fell to an oppressive hardliner jihadi regime.  There has to be a certain point where it's just not our problem.  If we ceased aid to Pakistan, the Taliban would fall in Afghanistan.  It's that simple.
  There are several African nations we send billions of aid to every year.  We face a budget shortfall, and we don't even bother cutting that cancer out of our budget.  Most of that money never even reaches the people.  We could cut it down to one fourth and give it directly to the Christian Children's Fund, and get a hundred fold effect from the aid money.  Sanctified Fecal Matter Batman!!  We funnel the money through governments and it gets used in every way but the manner in which it was meant to be used, but a private organization could accomplish a lot more with a lot less.  Our nation is trillions of dollars in debt, facing serious crises, and we hemorrhage money to other nations that can't even use it properly.  There's where the biggest budget cuts need to come from.  And let's get rid of all the bureaucracy that is a waste of even more money.  Heavily bureaucratic nations have a top heavy economy, and the little guys under them get crushed, it's that simple.
  Along with my other ideas about welfare reform, getting rid of the huge government agencies and letting private nonprofit organizations do the work would greatly improve the economic efficiency of such programs.  President Bush's Faith Based Initiative was brilliant really.  Give money to religious organizations that provide social welfare and support services.  We should shut down the agencies that do this work, and give half the money to nonprofits who do the work.  We'd get twice the effect for half the money.  And that's not counting the second and third order effects if you utilize my other ideas.
  Another big offender in my eyes is the United Nations.  We practically fund the whole UN, and yet they stand as a roadblock to many of the things we need to do to protect our national interests and security.  NATO is one thing, NATO is a mutual defense treaty organization comprised mostly of Democratic societies that have something in common with us.  The UN, however, is comprised of a lot of different nations, many which are dictatorships.  They actively seek to block pro democratic initiatives in many forms, actively target smaller Democratic nations with sanctions, and slow the processes by which mankind can advance fully.  I'm sick of it.  The US should withdraw from the UN, cease all funding, and kick every UN organization and headquarters off of our sovereign soil.  And we should encourage our allies to do the same.  Without the support of the First World Nations, the UN could not stand on its' own two feet.  No dictatorship could support the UN, they have too much to worry about at home, and would quickly lose their seats if they contributed the level of troops that the US, UK, France and Germany do.  Even China couldn't afford to support the troop levels of the UN, they would actually have an uprising within months if they deployed a significant portion of their forces.
  There is another place we could make up for lost revenue.  The trade treaty with China is almost expired.  In order to renew it, we as a country should require China to hold constitution referendums, democratic elections, and address the serious lack of human rights in China.  If not, no more 3% tariffs.  They can be taxed at 25%.  Or higher.  Let them feel the economic pinch or fix their system.
  And while we're at it, no more 3% tariffs for anyone, unless they're goods are already at a competitive price to ours.  Enough of these third world sweatshops undercutting manufacturing costs and putting hard working Americans out of work.  I'm certainly sick of "Made in China" and "Heche en Mexico" on everything.  We can have decent tariffs on competitively priced goods.  We can employ Americans to makes our stuff otherwise.  And we can use taxes and tariffs to make it happen.
  The fact is, we can no longer fail to put America first.  Our people are out of work, sleeping on the streets, and not receiving the services they should be.  Our schools are consistently sinking in rankings.  Our youth are being failed, by us.  It is up to us to stand up and say enough is enough, and vote our leaders out of office, even if it means enacting recalls at the congressional level.

Political and Gender Stereotyping in Modern Entertainment

  This has been a bit of a pet peeve of mine for a couple of decades now.  You turn on an American Sitcom, and you see a fairly intelligent wife, and the husband, in order to be intelligent has to be a liberal "intellectual" (I laugh, and I fart in their general direction), or the husband is often overweight, big on football and dumb.  Plainly said, that's been the truth.  With "Home Improvement" in the 90s it was funny.  Tim Allen as Tim Taylor was hilarious.  Fast forward, and you have "King of Queens", "Family Guy", and various other cock-and-bull shows with the same premise, dumb man and smart wife.  It's old, Hollywood.  I'm a fairly conservative person, and I'm in the top 2% for IQ.
  Shows I like are ones like "NCIS", where the characters run all stripes.  Not all Muslims are terrorists, not all terrorists are Middle Eastern, and everyone's intelligence runs the gamut.  The blatant politicizing is what gets me, how all the intelligent males in a lot of modern entertainment are far left.
  "Family Guy" has gone way over the edge in this regard.  I can't stand to watch it anymore.  Every time I turn around, the show is making blatant fun of "Red" states, Conservative Personalities, and religion.  "South Park" goes over the top sometimes, and is definitely not for children, but at least they play fair, and everyone gets their fair share of being made fun of.
  Guys like Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck, I can handle.  Yes, their views are to the extreme, but you know that going in.  It's their job to give you their opinions and political views.  You turn on CNN, you know you're getting a more liberal bent.  FOX News favors a conservative view.  That is well known.  When I turn on TV to prime time television and sitcoms, I want to be entertained.  I don't want the shows' creators' political views crammed down my throat.  And I don't want to see how women are "so much smarter than men, unless men are liberals".  Period.  I want a gamut of characters.  If I see a History Professor, I want to see an intelligent man or woman, who may be a little conservative or liberal, who's views are based on actual history, not on the predilections of the show's creator.  Let the art teacher be liberal.  Or maybe a conservative even.  It's possible.  Political debates and opinion shows are the place for politics.  Sitcoms and dramas are the place for non biased entertainment.