Something To Think About Archive

The recent spate of gerrymandering congressional districts by states run by one party or the other, be it Texas or California, is that the voters in those districts end up being the real losers when they are politically trapped by their statehouse and no longer have a real say in the direction that their representatives take them. If the statehouse has decided that you now live in a district controlled by one party or another, you have no real control over who represents you in Congress.

Author Grenville Kleiser advised us that we should “Realize that work well and worthily done makes life truly worth living.”

Publisher B.C. Forbes claimed that “A man’s success or failure is determined as much by how he acts during his leisure as by how he acts during his work hours.”

As Mark Twain once observed: “It is easier to stay out than get out.”

Inventor John Hays Hammond believed that “Character is the real foundation of all worthwhile success.”

T.S. Eliot wrote: “Whatever you think, be sure it is what you thin; whatever you want, be sure that it is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that it is what you feel.”

During the government shutdown, President Trump kept pushing for Republicans to end the filibuster, if for only as a one-off for the shutdown. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The filibuster is there to prevent one party from ruling by fiat when they hold just a slim majority in the Senate that could be for as little as two years. No matter which side of the aisle you sit on, at some point you’ll be glad that it takes a 60-vote majority to pass legislation. Can you imagine the damage that could be done with an extremist-dominated red or blue party and only 51 votes?  The filibuster exists to get consensus by a real majority, consisting of left, right and center.

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done,” advised Abraham Lincoln, “and then we shall find the way.”

English philosopher John Locke said: “It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.”

Mark Twain claimed that “Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.”

Today, let us count our blessings, not our troubles. As Aesop taught: “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”

It’s been said that “The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never scoring.”

The core problem with Socialism, but certainly not it’s only problem, is that when the programs don’t work and people are not lifted out of poverty and life circumstances don’t improve through social programs, Socialists double down on those failed efforts assuming that throwing even more good money after bad is the solution; and then important, humane Safety Nets become Entitlements that become multi-generational dependency.

Today’s Anarchists like Antifa, would do well to heed futurist writer Stanislaw Lem who wrote: “When smashing monuments, save the pedestals – they always come in handy.”

Singer Lena Horne advised us to “Always be smarter than the people who hired you.”

British film director Michael Winner called a “team effort” “… a lot of people doing what I say.”

It’s been said that “Two men working as a team will produce more than three men working as individuals.”

Albert Einstein said: “Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and died, and that I must exert myself to give in the same measure as I have received….”

We see that a major union announced a proposal to impose a “one-time” 5% tax on billionaires in California to address federal funding cuts to health care for low-income people. The tax would be on the net worth of California’s richest residents. This opens the door to a wealth tax which would be pretty tempting for Sacramento to make permanent and then put on a sliding scale for all taxpayers, not just the billionaires. Remember that only 1–2% of the population were targeted by the original federal income tax in 1913 and in 5 short years ten times as many households were liable for the tax. And, here at home, in 2012 Jerry Brown backed the supposed “temporary” Prop 30 income tax increase to 12.3%, slated to expire in 2018, only to have it extended in 2016 to 2030 by Prop 55. Vampire Taxes never die.

Publisher B.C. Forbes’ thought that we should “Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor. Expect to have to do a lot of hard hammering and chiseling and scraping and polishing.”