Current Event Ramblings, April 22

I just finished a busy week here.  We finally had some adult students, so it was a much more enjoyable week.  Next week, some high school students are coming from a major foreign language institute here in Korea and their English is supposed to be very good, so that should be a good week.  The following week I'm on vacation.  I'm not sure what I'll do yet; probably nothing.  I'm pretty good at that.  I want to do some writing, I just hope I feel like it.

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I had an interesting discussion yesterday with some of the students who were here.  They asked me if I thought the American military ought to remain in Korea.  I told them that I wish we'd go home.  The United States is trillions of dollars in debt and is going to have to start cutting back somewhere, some time, and priorities must be arranged.  Interestingly, the students wanted the U.S. military to stay; they fear China, not North Korea.  I still don't think China wants a war; why should they when they are purchasing America piecemeal by owning so much of our debt?  I also mentioned to them that, at some point, the South Koreans are going to have to stand on their own two feet and defend their own country.  They understand that.  But it is as difficult to wean people from international welfare as it is to wean them from national welfare, and the U.S. has poured--and does pour--a lot of money into this country.  Why would they want us to leave?  I don't expect it will happen any time soon.

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I read the other day that the American foreign welfare spigot showered $25 million into Libya.  What on earth for?  I thought Obama was going to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and cut out all this involvement around the world.  Ah, well, what's 25 million bucks when you're already trillions in debt?  I also read there is talk that NATO--and the United States is part of that organization, of course--might send ground troops into Libya.  Is Ghaddafi really that big of a threat to us?  At least Iraq has oil...oil we wouldn't need if we would drill in our own country.  Well, I've been there before so I won't go back.

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Obama says he was born in Kenya (he's said it more than once, just YouTube it).  His wife said that Kenya is his home country.  The Kenyans say he was born in Kenya.  He's produced no valid American birth certificate (well, he can't if he wasn't born in the United States).  But the liberal media says he was born in America, so that's all that matters.  Frankly, I don't care where he was born; he's President, and if he did, for some reason, resign, we'd have Joe Biden in the office.  That's better? 

But yes, Obama--and Biden--need to be removed from office because their policies are wrong.  They are in opposition to moral and economic law, and are accelerating the decline of the United States economy and the principles of frugality, virtue, self-worth, and industry that are necessary for individuals--and countries--to succeed.  It's probably already too late for the United States.  That the country would elect Barak Obama to the highest office in the land (after having twice elected that lying, adulterous cur, Bill Clinton) is a fair indication of how far America has degenerated.  But that degeneration is exactly what Obama and the liberal, secular elite want, because then, the degenerate will look to them for direction and support.  And it is that power that the secular left wants.  People who take care of themselves don't need government, and that is the very antithesis of the modern liberal philosophy, which defines "progress" as more government.  I will fully admit that a certain amount of government is (unfortunately) necessary to protect freedom.  But I also insist there comes a point when government ceases to be the protector of freedom and becomes the purloiner, thus enemy, of it.  The modern left is no friend of freedom, with the notable exception of sexual freedom, which is no freedom at all.  For, as Thomas Jefferson said 200 years ago, a person who denies, rejects, and does not abide by moral (i.e., God's) law will eventually become enslaved to his own passions.  And such a person will almost invariably turn to government for help.  Dependence upon government is not freedom, folks.  But it is exactly what the liberal left wants.  Abortion...AIDS...out of wedlock births and the resultant poverty...how many trillions of tax dollars have been poured into these monuments of liberal "morality"?  Tax dollars, incidentally, earned by, and then forceably taken from, hard-working, decent, self-disciplined people.  Yeah, let's have more "progress."  Reader, never, never forget that virtue, hard work, self-reliance, self-control, frugality, religion, and the family and the greatest enemies of liberalism.  Because people who have those qualities and honor those institutions do not need government, and hence, do not need a secular, liberal elite telling them how to live.

When was the last time you heard a politician--any politician--talk about the need for a virtuous citizenship?  You haven't heard it, and you won't hear it, because a virtuous citizenry would put the modern professional politician out of a job.

Current Event Ramblings, April 9

The weather here in South Korea has finally warmed up a bit.  We're supposed to hit the low 60s today.  That means hot weather is just around the corner and it was miserably hot and humid here last summer.  There's nothing I can do about it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

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Baseball season has started and the Astros are playing about like I expected--they lost their first 5 games before they finally won one.  They may have the worst team in baseball, though their first six games were against the Phillies and Reds on the road.  Those are two of the best teams in the league.  The Rangers have started out well.  Of the two Texas teams, they are the only one with much chance of having a decent year.  I'll comment on baseball occasionally, but it's not a high priority

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In the news, there's still talk of a government shutdown if there's no budget deal.  Shame on the Republicans for demanding a government budget!  The Democrats have done a marvelous job the past two years in running up huge deficits without one.  The Dems are threatening to shut down the government if a rider is attached to it extending funding to the Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan conflicts, but they are insistent that Planned Parenthood (i.e., abortions) be funded.  The Democrats are calling it a "women's health" issure.  So American babies can be killed, but our military can't be funded.  You've gotta love (pardon my facetiousness) how utterly immoral and amoral the Democratic Party has become.  I hope the government IS shut down, and for as long as possible.  Those people in Washington, D.C., are the ones destroying America.  Go home Congress, and stay there, and let the people take care of themselves.  Even the welfare junkies will do it if they have to.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  In early America, Congress met for maybe 3 or 4 months a year and then the members went home to make a living.  What a novel concept.

Addendum (later in the day):  About two hours after I wrote the above paragraph, a budget deal was announced.  It is to supposed to cut $38 billion from the budget this year and $500 billion over the next 10 years. 

I think it's worth noting that it's the Republicans (and the "Tea Party") who forced this to be done. 
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Donald Trump has been vocal about pressing Obama for his American birth certificate.  Hawaiian authorities say Obama was born there, but they've produced no birth certificate as proof.  The governor of Hawaii (a friend of Obama's) says Obama was born there, but he's produced no birth certificate, either.  The President and his wife have both said, publicly, that he was born in Kenya.  The Kenyans certainly think so.  I don't know where the man was born and I don't really care.  Neither he nor Congress have paid the least bit of attention to the Constitution anyway, so why should they bother with where he was born?  And such ignoring of the supreme law of the land didn't start with Obama and the current bunch of rogues in Washington.  The U.S. Constitution has been a dead letter for a long time.  Trump has talked about running for President next year.  He says he'll announce his decision soon.  Even though he has no politcal experience, he certainly couldn't do any worse, domestically, than Obama and the professional politicians who keep getting elected to Congress.  Trump might be a welcome change since it's the politicians who are destroying the country.  The area of concern with Trump is his lack of foreign affairs experience.  He's going to be dealing with a lot of rogues out there, and that would be a challenge.  But, again, he couldn't do worse than Obama who is utterly clueless in how to handle world affairs.  We ought to mind our own business, anyway, and involve ourselves only in those matters that directly affect us.  That ain't gonna happen, though.  Today's American politician thinks he can remake America, so it's only one more step to believing he can remake the world.  That's the arrogance and philosophy of the modern secular elite.

Trump DOES know how to meet a budget; he would never have gotten where he is otherwise.  Perhaps that's the best argument for electing him.  Private business must make ends meet or they go out of the business.  That's the difference between private enterprise and government.  The government can simply borrow, raise taxes, or print more money.  There is no accountability except to voters whose votes you are trying to buy...via borrowing, raising (someone else's) taxes, or printing more money.

Too bad government can't go out of business and turn its affairs over to some entity that can effectively handle them without fleecing the very people trying to be helped.  Most of what government does COULD be turned over to some other agency, and be handled far more effectively.  But that's not the way to remain in power and try to reshape society upon one's own vision of Shangri-la.

If the U.S. government HAD shut down, it would have been reduced mostly to doing the things government is supposed to do--protecting its people.  Too bad they worked out a deal.