In Ohio, CPS came in and took an 8 year old out of the home. Their “reason” was that the boy weighed 200 pounds and was having trouble breathing. I know that CPS has a lot of power, but there was no evidence that the boy was being abused. I agree that 200 pounds is grossly overweight. According to the weight charts, an eight year old boy should weigh about 60 pounds.

This case brings up how much power does the government have? Should the government come in and take children from their parents whenever they want? I agree that CPS should take children from the home when there is obvious physical abuse. No child should be subjected to physical abuse. I would even agree to CPS coming in on a case of mental abuse, if the case could be proven. Most of the time mental abuse would be nearly impossible to prove because the experts would all have to agree. That is always a difficult problem because each expert wants to have all the answers.

Whenever CPS gets involved in cases, it is so difficult to extract them from the case. Even if it is proven that there was no abuse, if CPS got involved they stay involved way past the time they should extract themselves from the situation. CPS has very difficult rules for people to follow.

When we were adopting children, we steered clear of cases with CPS involvement because of the tremendous red tape involved. We are now adopting two of our grandchildren and have to jump through all those CPS hoops because CPS has been involved in this case. CPS does have money attached to their children that can be adopted, but I am not sure it would be worth it if the children were not related.

Now that CPS is involved in this case in Ohio, the family will have to jump through a lot of hoops to get their son back. The paperwork involved will involve cutting down many small forests before it is done. But, is CPS involvement arbitrary because of the chart that gives average sizes. I know those averages are generally correct for most children. Is the chart correct for this boy?

Government charts give false pictures of things. The weight chart that we use today works well for those of us who are not athletes. For athletes, it gives a false picture. For example: All of the Phoenix Suns or any professional basketball team are morbidly obese according to the chart. If you look at the players, none of them look fat at all. The chart does not work because muscle weighs more than fat. People that work out and have lots of muscle will weigh more than the same size person who has fat. That is why the chart does not work well for everyone.

Does the height and weight chart for children work in a similar pattern? I have not studied it enough to give a good answer. Does racial makeup make a difference on the chart? I know the chart breaks down boys and girls into two different charts so sex is not a factor. Maybe the chart is 100% accurate. Maybe it is not. I do not have enough information to give a definitive answer.

I have a problem with the government coming into homes and telling families how to raise their children. This is supposed to be a free country. In a free society, the government has no business telling families what to do or not to do. The problem is that we have developed a Nanny-State mentality where people feel it is the job of government to come in and tell us what is right and wrong. To paraphrase a scripture: As for me and my house, we will make our own decisions and pay the consequences ourselves. We will not lean on the government for anything! I hope that those who know the scriptures will not beat me up too much over that. I just thought it fit.

Last week, the Occupy Wall Street bunch announced that they were going to Occupy Black Friday to try and stop the busiest shopping day of the year. Well, the numbers are in and the Occupy Black Friday event has to be classified as a monumental bust. Overall sales for the weekend are up 7%. Sales on Black Friday are up 16%. If Occupy Black Friday had any impact, it is lost on the numbers. This is the best Black Friday in history.

I also discovered this morning that the Occupy Phoenix group has only 8 people. I then reflected on the different Occupy groups all over the country. If the Occupy event is in a Red State or city, the Occupy group numbers are in single digits. If the Occupy event is in a Blue State or city, the Occupy group numbers can get quite large. For example, Phoenix has 8 protesters and Tucson has a couple hundred protesters. Both are in a Red State, but Phoenix is a red city and Tucson is a blue city. Occupy Wall Street has hundreds, if not thousands at their event. They are in a Blue State and a Blue city. Occupy Oakland and Occupy Los Angeles have hundreds or thousands; Occupy San Diego has maybe a hundred or so. All three are in a blue state, but Oakland and Los Angeles are blue cities, San Diego is a red city.

The protests on Black Friday were pathetic and under manned by the Occupy groups. The shoppers ignored them. That is the worst thing that can happen to a protester. A protester needs people to take note of his/her protest before it takes on any meaning. For the shoppers to ignore the protesters was significant in that it showed the disdain the general public has for these pathetic losers that are leading the Occupy events.

Democrats generally support the Occupy events and try and give the occupy events as much air play as possible. After the disaster of this weekend we should see the Democrat party generally disavow any support for the occupy movement. The movement will never generate any interest in people to vote for Barack Obama, so the occupy movement has no value for the Democrats. As long as the Democrats thought they could milk the occupy movement for votes, they were in full support. When they discover there are no real votes to be had, they will drop the occupy groups like a hot potato.

The Tea Party groups on the other hand do garner votes and are now raising cash for their favorite candidates. The occupy groups produce few, if any, votes and do not generate any campaign cash. The Democrats hitched their cart to the wrong horse. Now, they will have to figure out a way to make people to forget that they ever supported the Occupy protesters. Fortunately for the Democrats, their supporters have very short attention spans. But, unfortunately for Democrats, conservative and independent voters have much longer attention spans. Those groups will remember that the Democrats supported the anti-American Occupy movement from the beginning, no matter how much they protest that their comments are being taken out of context.

Republican ad people will have a field day with all the Democrat support for the rabble that claims to be the 99% but is really the 0.1%. Putting the two together will make people understand just how bankrupt the Democrat party is on ideas. They support people whose idea to improve things is to destroy the American way of life. That is not progress; it is regression into a more primitive time where we had kings. We got rid of kings in 1776; we do not need to start a new round of kings in 2011.

Barack Obama got just what he wanted out of the Super Committee put together to try and solve the debt crisis. Obama wanted the committee to fail. Obama did not make any input into the committee deliberations to try and solve anything. The Democrats selected for the committee were the most hard line Democrats in Congress. They went into the committee with two options. The first was to make sure the committee failed. The second was that if the committee succeeded it had a revenue enhancer (raising taxes) that would be sure to destroy America.

Probably for the first time in my lifetime, the Republicans on the committee actually held the line. They went into the committee with the goal of making sure the committee succeeded. They also were committed to cutting the cost of government and holding the line on raising taxes. Usually Republicans get themselves in this type of situation and decide to throw their principles over the side. This time the Republicans selected for the committee did not do that. They held fast to their principles, but put out many plans that should have been acceptable to the Democrats, if they were really interested in reaching a deal.

That the Democrats and the White House were not interested in a deal is shown in their reaction to the failure of the committee to come to an agreement. Obama gleefully ran to the first microphone and blamed everything on the Republicans. He said that they had refused to compromise with the Democrats. He also said that the Republicans had never made any offers to the Democrats. That was false, but what else do you expect from the Liar in Chief. To Obama, no Republican proposal is really a serious idea. To him they are all frivolous. Because they are frivolous, they can be dismissed as not being serious about trying to reach a compromise.

The Republicans on the committee need to be commended for holding the line and not compromising their principles. Republicans do that time and again. It is refreshing to see them not compromise their principles for a change. There is hope that they will continue this effort through the 2012 elections. If they continue to hold fast, they have a great chance to take the Presidency and both houses of Congress.

In order to succeed in 2012, the Republicans have to do a better job at public relations. The Democrats are so much better at public relations than the Republicans are. Part of the problem is Democrats deal with emotions and simple phrases. Republicans have to deal with complicated issues that require a longer more extensive answer than a one sentence sound bite. That makes communication with the public much more difficult. It is just more difficult, not impossible. The Republicans seem to think that if the answer is longer than one sentence it is not worth putting forth an effort to try and get that message out. If they continue to persist in this kind of public relations, they will not be the majority in anything in 2012. One thing Mitt Romney has going for him is his PR team. They seem to have mastered the art of making the Democrats look foolish using their own words. No matter who gets the nomination, Romney’s PR team needs to be on board the Republican Presidential team. With them on board, the Republican Presidential candidate has a great shot at actually getting a better PR message than the Democrats.

Since this is Thanksgiving week, it is appropriate to write an article about Thanksgiving. It started after the Pilgrims survived their first full year living on Cape Cod at Plymouth. Of the 202 people that left England on the Mayflower, only 53 were left alive. Fortunately for me, two of them were my ancestors (Richard Warren and Stephen Hopkins). Before they left the Mayflower, they wrote the Mayflower Compact. It was basically a contract between the Pilgrims and God.

When the Pilgrims first started Plymouth, they tried a new system of government where all worked and put into a common pot. Then, all drew out of the common pot all they needed to survive. It did not take long for some to realize that if they put in a little less they could still benefit. Those that worked the hardest felt slighted and started working less. By the time of the Thanksgiving feast, the Pilgrims were near starvation because of idleness. That winter they decided to keep the common lands near Plymouth and give everyone private lands further out.

It did not take long before these private lands were producing far more than the common land. Finally they realized that the common land policy was a failure and distributed the common land to everyone. We call this common land policy communism today. It had no real name back then. Some politicians today are trying to get us to go back to the common land policy that failed the Pilgrims and almost caused their colony to fail. Private ownership and capitalism caused the Plymouth colony to thrive. Plymouth encouraged others to come to New England and the rest is history.

Back to that first Thanksgiving feast, most of the food for the feast was supplied by the Native Americans who came. Today, we eat Turkey, mashed potatoes, bread, vegetables, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Then, they ate venison, Turkey, other small birds, fish, corn, and possibly cranberries.

The purpose of the Thanksgiving feast was to thank God for allowing the 53 members of the Plymouth Colony to survive to that point and for the harvest they had just completed. They invited their neighbors in to enjoy the feast. Fortunately for them, the neighbors brought plenty of food to fill out the menu. At that time the relations between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans was good. A generation later the two sides were fighting and killing each other. But at this time, there was no animosity between the two groups. Each side saw the benefit of having the other side as allies. They had cooperated in defending the colony and the tribe from attack by other tribes. They respected each other for what they could do in battle. There was honor between the two because each kept their word. It took another generation and new colonists who did not understand the hardships endured by the Pilgrims to undo the good relations that had been established at this time.

The paintings we see of the First Thanksgiving are always idealized. We see noble savages and clean, well-fed Pilgrims. Some of that may be true, but I am sure that most of us would be appalled by the squalor that existed during that first feast. In fact, the unsanitary conditions that existed would probably make most us not partake in the meal. Most of the paintings were done a hundred or more years after the First Thanksgiving and so could only imagine what the true conditions were like. So, we get to see the Pilgrims through the eyes of 18^th and 19^th century painters who were part of their time, not the Pilgrims time.

The super-committee that was appointed to get Congress out of the financial mess is not going to meet their deadline. That sets up automatic triggers that would be terrible for the country. Democrats put the automatic triggers into the committee to get Republican support and participation. They also wanted the automatic triggers to be put into motion, so they refused to budge off of their idea that taxes had to be raised and no cuts could be made. That the committee was going to fail was obvious from the beginning when they announced the Democrats who were going to serve on the committee.

Republicans have put forth plans to increase funds and reduce spending. They are so numerous that they cannot be itemized here. Some of these trial balloons were acceptable to me, but most were not. At least, the trial balloons were an attempt to reach an agreement on this problem. The Democrats had only one plan, to raise taxes on the “evil” rich and not reduce any spending at all. According to the Democrats this would result in a balanced budget. Everyone with a brain knows that the revenue increase from raising taxes would not balance the budget. But, the Democrats want everyone to believe that the increase in funds from the tax increase would completely pay for the current level of spending. That is completely false. No amount of tax increase could pay for our current level of spending. Even the Democrats have to know this. They just say it will to cover themselves during the debates. That results in Republicans pulling out charts showing that it is impossible and putting everyone to sleep.

The only way to solve the financial crisis that has taken over our federal budget is to make massive cuts. Cutting out complete agencies would go a long way to controlling spending. Cutting taxes would raise the amount of money brought into the treasury. Putting both together in large enough quantities a balanced budget could be arrived at within a very short time. Without both being implemented will result in further stagflation. This was the original goal of the super-committee. They have failed at this task and are unlikely to reach their goal of reaching financial sanity within our lifetimes.

Not everything the government spends money on is worth spending money on. Since not are all equally high priority, cutting spending in the lower priority items could result in huge savings for the country. You would think that both Democrats and Republicans would have saving the country’s financial health as a priority. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the priority of one of the two parties. Democrats seem to be bent on destroying the financial health of our country and laughing their way to the bank while they do it.

To illustrate this point, Warren Buffet has been speaking out that the “rich” need to pay more in taxes. He has a company that is complaining about paying the taxes they currently owe. If he truly believed what he was preaching, his company would pay the higher taxes with no complaint. Warren Buffet is just the most visible of the “rich” that are complaining that their taxes are too low. If they really want to pay higher taxes, they can always do so as a gift. There is a spot on the IRS tax forms for people who would like to give money to the US government to donate. All they have to do is go to the donation page and donate as much as they want to the federal government. They can then donate as much or as little as they want to reduce our deficit. That few, if any, donate is an indication that they really believe that their taxes are too high.

We are coming up to a time never before seen in the world. It appears that Europe will have an economic collapse. If Europe has an economic collapse, then the rest of the world will likely suffer the same fate. The reason for this is that back in the 1950’s someone came up with a plan to eliminate wars like World War II. It was based on the Mutually Assured Destruction that was in play between the US and the Soviet Union. It is called, Mutually Assured Economic Destruction. It means that if one country fails, then all other countries potentially could fail. The idea was to prevent countries from waging war against other countries for fear of destroying their own economy.

Europe is facing destruction. Their only reasonably strong member is Germany. Germany is faced with the choice of destroying herself to save Europe or saving herself and allowing Europe to fall. Neither option is good as the German economy is so tied into the other European economies. The Germans have the money and the discipline to get their European neighbors on track, but to do that will almost surely destroy their economy. Their other option is to go back to the Deutsche Mark and cut their ties to Europe. This might save Germany by insulating her from the economic collapse that will surely happen if she pulls out of Europe. But, without the rest of Europe Germany would be hard pressed to continue to prosper. That would probably just push their fall further down the line, so instead of failing now, they would fail later.

If Europe fails, America is in deep trouble financially. We are already over stretched financially. Any little thing going wrong could send us into a depression. Europe failing would undoubtedly cause the US to suffer financial hardships. Europe failing would most likely cause the US dollar to fail. If the US dollar fails, then the rest of the world will be in rough financial shape. Bartering between countries would be the only way to continue international commerce. That would be highly speculative.

There are a number of things that need to happen to trigger all of these events. I am not a financial guru of any type. I have to rely on those who have financial knowledge greater than mine. But, they also have to have a realistic view of the world. They cannot have the liberal mindset that everything will be fine because we are the United States.

Glenn Beck has been talking about this for some time. Since there is little we can do as individuals to stop any collapse, we have to prepare for any possible outcome. We do that by stocking up on the things that will keep us alive, namely food and water. We also have to have a safe place to live if everything starts to fail. We do not want to get caught up in riots and killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Next on the list of things to do to prepare is to have some sort of a defense against looters. I watched a survival show last year because a friend of mine was participating. The one thing the group had a problem with was defense. There were artificial rules in that show that there would be no weapons. In real life, there will undoubtedly be weapons used by looters. So, I would advise you to become armed and know how to use it.

The last thing is to have something you can barter with. Gold and other precious metals have always been great for barter societies. But things that would be highly prized during times of want would be alcohol, tobacco and medical supplies. Stocking up on these commodities would enable you to barter with valuable items to get things you need.

From the experts I have heard, this time of chaos will probably only last 3-6 weeks. That is not a long time, so you don’t have to store a year’s worth of water. But it might also be good to store enough so you can help other people. That would be the honorable thing to do.

If you can weather the storm you will end up stronger and in a better position than when you went into this problem. I hope it never happens in my lifetime or actually ever. But, you have to be prepared. The signs are everywhere that something big is going to happen soon. A quote I heard says, “Plan for the worst and hope for the best. That way you will always be ready.”

Yesterday, I was blown away by Ann Coulter’s column. I know she was basically saying what many others were saying, but to hear it from her at this time was surprising. She said that Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee for the Republican Party and that we should all accept that fact.

Mitt Romney does have some baggage. Most notable of Mitt’s baggage is Romneycare in Massachusetts. He has explained that federalism gives states the opportunity to try things that are not appropriate for the federal government to do. He says that Romneycare is one of those experiments that the states are allowed to do. I do tend to agree with that sentiment as states should be free to experiment with different programs to see how they work. Romneycare has been found to not work, but it also has been modified by the Democrats since it was originally implemented. So, the Romneycare that Massachusetts has today is not the Romneycare that was passed while Mitt Romney was Governor of Massachusetts.

Mitt Romney’s second heaviest piece of baggage is his reputation for changing positions. He has done that. Basically he has become more conservative over time. While he was a Massachusetts politician, he held positions consistent with most New England politicians. Since he left the governorship, he has modified his positions to fit more with the general public. Does that mean he has changed his positions? Yes. Is that a particularly bad problem? No. The only problem is one of perception. People know that he has changed positions on some subjects. So, he was labeled as a flip-flopper. That label is hard to get rid of once you get it.

The third of Mitt Romney’s problems is that he is a Mormon. Mitt Romney belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The members of that church are frequently called “Mormons” because of their belief in the Book of Mormon as scripture. Members of the church use the designation “LDS” as shorthand to identify themselves as members. Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not one of the largest churches in the country, most people do not have a good background in what the church believes. That means that people wanting to exploit this weakness can make wild claims and have many people believe them. I know the church is working hard to educate the public on what the church believes. I also know many individual members have taken time to educate different groups about different points of doctrine. But, there is still widespread ignorance about what the church believes.

Statements that Mormons are not Christians do not help the discussion. The statement is completely false. The name of the church says it all in regards to the church’s belief in Jesus Christ. The people that make this claim are basing it on the fact that the church believes that Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings with one purpose. That was the common belief at the time of Christ and for a couple hundred years after. By the time the Nicene Creed was written that knowledge had been lost. So, all Christian churches that base their knowledge of Jesus Christ on the Nicene Creed have a different view of Jesus Christ. That is how they make this “claim” that Mormons are not Christians. What they really mean is that Mormons do not subscribe to the Nicene Creed like most other Christian churches. The Nicene Creed says that Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Ghost are the same person. Therein is the difference and how they arrive at the erroneous conclusion that Mormons are not Christians. Mormons are Christians or the name of the church would be different.  

Romney may or may not be the candidate for President from the Republican Party. He seems to have the best shot. He is the best funded and is not making the mistakes that all the other candidates are making. That alone leads one to believe he is the one that will head the ticket in November 2012. Whether that is the best or not remains to be seen. No matter your opinion on Romney, he is far better than Obama ever could be.

This has been one of those proverbial bad days. First, after I woke up this morning, I tripped over a bag of toys we are planning to give to Goodwill. I landed on my right knee, but did not sustain any real damage.

Then, on the way to work I got into a traffic accident. I am recording this information so that I can recall all the details of the accident in case I am ever called to remember them. I was driving west bound on US 60 approaching the Mill Ave. Exit. The truck in front of me started to slow, without using his brakes. It took me a time to realize he was slowing down. By the time I realized he was slowing down, I was too close. I slammed on the brakes in a vain attempt to stop hitting the truck. I almost came to a stop before hitting the truck, but failed. I hit his truck just slightly under his bumper. That pushed his bumper into my grill and caused some grill damage. The passenger side quarter panel also sustained some damage by being pulled from its normal location. It looked fine, just not in the normal spot.

The truck in front had a couple of minor gashes to the rubber on the bumper. Otherwise, I could not see any damage to his vehicle. The driver told me he had been coasting and was taking a drink of water when I hit him. The impact pushed his vehicle forward and spilled water all over his windshield.

After I came to a complete stop, I felt an impact from the rear. A white truck hit me in the rear. When I looked at the point of impact, I could not find any damage on my Jeep. The truck that hit me did not show any damage as well. There might have been some damage to the truck or my Jeep, but it was not visible to me when I took a quick look.

After we all pulled to the side of the road, I noticed a fourth vehicle. That fourth vehicle had lots of fluid coming out of it. But, it was a smaller car that hit the truck that hit me. It must have sustained quite some damage to have that much fluid leaking all over the place.

After the Highway Patrol officer gave me a ticket for failing to control my speed, he told me to leave. As I drove away I noticed that I had to use Armstrong Power steering to turn my Jeep. Because of that I took it to an Auto Body shop that I had used in the past. I almost did not make it as the vehicle wanted to overheat. When the auto body shop looked at the Jeep, they noticed that the belt that runs the power steering, cooling and battery had broken. That is why I had so much trouble driving it to the shop.

After I got to work, I reported the accident to my insurance and got a claim number. Because I had not had any accidents in the past two years, I had a rider that gave me a $200 discount on my deductible. I will eat that $200 up on the rental car. But everything will work out well in the end.

The good thing is nobody was injured. People were inconvenienced, but no injuries. I am thankful for that. Sorry about the personal post today, but it was necessary to remember all the details.

The wheels came off the Cain campaign yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin. Herman Cain was sitting before a review board of the local newspaper and answering questions about whatever the newspaper asked him. He was asked if he agreed with Barack Obama on his policy toward Libya. The next couple of minutes reminded me of the 53 second debate performance by Rick Perry. It was an easy question that anyone who keeps up with the news should be able to answer handily.

On the Barry Young show this morning, they are declaring the Herman Cain campaign dead because of this mistake. It may not be dead, but it is definitely on life support after not being able to answer such an easy question.

Everyone has brain freeze from time to time. You get up to go to the kitchen and when there, cannot remember why you went to the kitchen. That is why Rick Perry’s gaffe and now Herman Cain’s gaffe make them human. The problem with the mistakes Rick Perry and Herman Cain have made is that they were made on a public stage. That makes them worse than the normal brain freeze that people get.

What both campaigns have to do is work to restore the image of the candidate as knowledgeable about the issues. Rick Perry needs to make his point from the debate frequently in speeches. Herman Cain now needs to speak forcibly about how he would have handled Libya differently than Barack Obama. If they are successful in getting their points across, then people will tend to forgive them for having a brain freeze. Rick Perry has the bigger problem in that his brain freeze was on national TV. Herman Cain was just before an editorial review board on a not for prime time camera. That is why Herman Cain will have an easier time getting over this huge hump he put in his path.

In polling, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are now the front runners. Herman Cain has dropped to third. Newt’s rise is directly tied to the losses by Herman Cain. Romney’s support has remained relatively constant since polling started on this campaign.

The campaign season has seen one candidate take a run at Romney after another. Each one reaches the top and becomes the front runner. Media scrutiny then takes over and the candidate starts to fade. After a while, the candidate is back in the lower tier of candidates. The only one that has remained at or near the top since the beginning is Mitt Romney. The problem with Mitt Romney is that he does not energize the base like these other candidates can. The problem with the other candidates is that they do not seem to have staying power. Staying power is needed if you are going to take on an incumbent at any level.

I am not sure if this finishes Herman Cain as a candidate. The Democrats threw the bimbo stories at him and it had no effect. This may or may not be fatal politically. Time will tell, but right now it does not look good for the Herman Cain campaign.

John Corzine is in deep doo-doo. He was the CEO of MF Global. They filed for bankruptcy on October 31, 2011. The reason they filed for bankruptcy is that they are missing billions in customer account money. The business account is 100% accurate, but many, if not most, of the customer accounts are empty. They should have large sums of money in them, but there is nothing. The last person who had this problem was Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme. It is a little early to call MF Global a Ponzi scheme, but all the early signs are there.

Who is John Corzine? He is a former Goldman-Sachs executive who made his fortune on Wall Street. He took that fortune and bought a Senate seat from New Jersey. I say bought, that may be a little strong. He just put huge sums of his own money into his campaign and overwhelmed an underfunded opponent. Then, he set his sights on the Governor’s chair in New Jersey. So, he self-funded his campaign and defeated his underfunded Republican opponent.

At that point, he was running pretty high. But, when you are a Governor, you have to actually do things. As a Senator, all you have to do is talk and vote on bills. Governors have to govern. That was his downfall. New Jersey became a cesspool of corruption and liberal ideas. People voted him out of office after only one term. That was despite the fact he outspent the current Governor, Chris Christy by about 10-1.

After losing the Governor’s race, he and some investors started up this MF Global. It appeared to be successful for some time. But, the wheels started to come off MF Global this year. By the fall, everything was exposed and John Corzine resigned in disgrace. That will not save the company or John Corzine from their liability in this scheme to bilk investors out of money. Bernie Madoff went to prison and I expect that John Corzine will do the same if this is determined to be a Ponzi scheme as well.

When John Corzine ran for re-election, Joe Biden came and campaigned for him. He touted the exceptional financial ability that John Corzine had in his endorsement. Joe Biden said that when he and Obama first took office they called John Corzine because he understood the problem better than anyone else. So, now we know why the Obama administration has run things into the ground. They got financial advice from John Corzine a probable Ponzi scheme manipulator. At least, that is how it looks on the surface. I know that what things look like on the surface and what they really are can be two entirely different things. But, in the case of Ponzi scheme’s if it looks like one, it usually is one.

We have to remember that John Corzine is a Democrat. He has always been a Democrat. When news stories come out about this financial company, they will not mention his political connection at all. They might mention that he had been a Senator and a Governor, but they will never mention that he was a Democrat. If he had been a Republican, that would have been the lead. Because he is a Democrat, no mention will be made on the news. Those of us who remember history have to remind the world just who this individual is and what he represents. The news media never will mention those facts to anyone.

In the Republican debate last night, Rick Perry put the last nail in the coffin that was his Presidential campaign. He struggles in debates anyway, but last night he really messed up. He had a 53 second time period where he could barely remember where he was, let alone what he was supposed to say. He looked to the person next to him, Ron Paul, for help. Ron Paul helpfully suggested the EPA as one of the agencies to shut down. So, Rick Perry parroted that he would shut down the EPA. He quickly realized that was wrong, so he corrected himself. But he still could not remember the three agencies he wanted to shut down.

We all have times where we do not remember what we were going to do or say. It happens to everyone at some time or other. That it happened to Rick Perry during a televised debate is so damaging, I cannot imagine his campaign recovering from the blow.

I remember a month or two ago, I said that the nominee would be either Rick Perry or Mitt Romney. I was definitely wrong about Rick Perry. He has not shown the ability to think on his feet that is needed by a President. But that said, even as bad as Rick Perry has been he would be light years ahead of Barack Obama in his ability to correct what is wrong with America.

Right now, the nomination is between Mitt Romney and Herman Cain. Mitt Romney has the support of the GOP establishment and lots of money. Herman Cain has grassroots support and is still looking for money. He is a lot better off today than he was a month ago, but still lags far behind Romney.

Romney’s campaign is running pretty much like a well-oiled machine. He makes few mistakes, but also takes few risks. Romney looks Presidential and is acting more Presidential every day. But there is something about that kind of campaign that just is not connecting with the public this year.

Herman Cain is running a campaign that is unscripted. When you do that you come across as genuine. You also tend to make mistakes because you do not have well researched positions. You take your positions as they come up during the campaign. This kind of campaign is connecting with the public. The disparaging comments from the women are not having the effect they would have on a well-oiled machine like Romney. People are giving Herman Cain the benefit of the doubt in this situation.

Speaking about the Herman Cain accusations, Ann Coulter has a great article on the subject. She points out that all the allegations are coming out of Chicago. Herman Cain has never lived in Chicago. But, David Axelrod lives in Chicago. Also each of the women known has a direct connection to David Axelrod. Plus this is the MO of David Axelrod and Barack Obama. That is how an unknown candidate that lost to a bad candidate for the House could win the Senate. They smeared his primary opponent with false sexual harassment accusations. That caused the primary opponent to lose. The Republican in the general election also succumbed to the sexual allegations made by David Axelrod. As a result, Barack Obama practically took the seat unopposed. I know he had an opponent, but it was just a token opponent, not a real opponent. The same thing is happening to Herman Cain. Is this a coincidence? Or is this the work of David Axelrod in his usual capacity? You decide, but the parallels between the other candidates Obama faced and the allegations against Herman Cain are too much to ignore.

November 11 is Veteran’s Day. It is time to honor those who are serving and have served our country to keep us free. Yes, they even fought to allow those idiots in the occupy movement to do stupid things.

November 11 is a very special day to me for a number of reasons. First, it is my birthday. I take it as a badge of honor that I was born on the day that honors veterans. While I am not a veteran, I take honor in coming from a long line of men who served our country in times of war. My military service attempt was during the Vietnam War. I was in college and my draft number was 22. That meant when I graduated, I was almost 100% sure of getting drafted. I decided that I would rather enlist and choose where and how I served than have it chosen for me.

A friend of mine in a similar situation went from college in Greeley, CO to Denver to take the tests to join the military. I took the tests attempting to score high enough to be able to go to OCS and become an officer. My father had been an officer during WWII. I had no problem with the tests. I was the high score for the day and for the last month. My chance at OCS was looking very good. I then had to take the physical and there my problem started. I had played basketball the night before against a team that felt a ticky-tack foul was taking your head off. Also, after basketball games my knees sometimes hurt and they did this day. So, I reported the sore knees. The doctors examined my knees and took X-rays. Their analysis was that my knees would require surgery within 10 years and that I was unfit for military service.

I have to admit I was disappointed and happy at the same time. I really wanted to be an officer like my Dad. But, I really did not want to be shot at. The draft board reclassified me as 1-Y. This meant I could be drafted but only for office duty. The military was not drafting 1-Y’s at that time. A few years later the classification 1-Y was discontinued and all people that were 1-Y were reassigned the classification 4-F.

My family has served this country in times of war honorably since the Revolution. I have done some research on Ancestry.com and found at least 12 privates, a sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major and a General that are direct relatives that served during the Revolution. During the Civil War, I could only find two privates for the Union and one private for the Confederates. During WWI, my grandfathers served in the same unit. They became friends and moved back door to each other after the war in San Francisco. That is how my parents met and eventually married.

When the war started, my father was attending UC Berkeley. He graduated with an AA degree and enlisted in the army. Because of his education, he went to OCS and became an officer. He was a 2^nd Lieutenant in an anti-tank platoon in the 99^th Infantry when he first went over to Germany. He must have served in that capacity during the Battle of the Bulge as the 99^th Infantry fought their first major battle there. About the time the army crossed into Germany they decided to reduce the number of anti-tank platoons, so my father was assigned to an infantry platoon. That is where he served until the end of the war.

My mother served as a secretary in the Navy Department in San Francisco during WWII. She never told me any more than that about her service.

My wife’s father served as a Lieutenant JG in the Navy during WWII. His claim to fame was he volunteered to get malaria in the research the Navy was doing on Malaria and the drugs necessary to treat it. That bothered him for the rest of his life. He never saw any naval battles that I know of.

I have always supported the military. I wish to honor all those who have served and are serving our country.

Yesterday was an election day in Arizona. We had two notable elections, one for Mayor of Phoenix and the other a recall election of the Senate President.

The election of the Mayor of Phoenix went pretty much as expected. The Democrat won. Democrats have run Phoenix for at least the last 15 years and probably longer. The election is supposed to be non-partisan, but everyone knew that one was a Republican and the other a Democrat. Little was heard from either candidate during the campaign period, other than signs.

The other election has more significance as our Senate President was defeated in the recall election. That is the first time in Arizona and I understand it is the first time in the history of the United States that a sitting Senate President has been defeated in a recall election.

This election created a lot of press. There was the incident where someone threw a padlock at the person running against the Senate President. A sham candidate was entered into the race. She was definitely lost when contacted by the press. She was finally declared a sham candidate by the court, but not removed from the ballot. One reason she was not removed was it was too late to reprint all the ballots.

Given that both candidates are members of the same LDS ward, you would think that civility would rule the roost in the election. That was far from the case. Name calling and other nefarious acts were committed. It was one of the dirtiest campaigns ever run in the history of Arizona. That means it was really bad. There have been some truly dirty campaigns in Arizona. None of the campaigns were ever as bad as New York or Chicago, but bad enough.

The problem with the former Senate President is that he had represented this district for a long time. He had never lost an election. In fact, he really had never been challenged in any election. He had gotten the proverbial big head and thought himself invincible. His supporters thought that they had carte blanche to do anything to keep him in office. That is why the campaign descended into the depths of name calling. Jerry Lewis, the challenger, tried to run a clean campaign but that is difficult when your opponent is constantly pushing the envelope.

Politically there is not much difference between the new Senator and the old Senator. Their political philosophy is much the same. The old Senate President was more of a hard liner when it came to issues. Everything was either black or white to him. Jerry Lewis is less of a hard liner on most issues. His core values are similar, but his approach is more accommodating. I think he will be a good addition to the Arizona Senate. I did like the old Senate President, but he was running his own kingdom. A change at the top was really needed. It remains to be seen how things will work out, but right now things are looking pretty good in Arizona district 18 and in the State of Arizona over this election.

In Phoenix, the failed policies of the previous two Mayors will be followed. That means Phoenix will continue to decline. The suburbs will continue to grow in power and influence as they are all better run than Phoenix. Again, it remains to be seen how things will play out. Right now, I am not very optimistic about how Phoenix will fare over the next four years.

Another allegation has come out about Herman Cain. This one hired an attorney, Gloria Allred, before coming out. Gloria Allred is a sleazy lawyer that is in the business of dirty tricks. She is well known in California for pulling dirty campaign tricks against Republicans at the last minute. So, for her this is early in the game. But, when the opportunity to commit a dirty trick arises, you take it.

I have not read the entire statement by the woman making the claim. What I did read did not sound like Herman Cain at all. For a story to work it has to have an element of truth in it. Either Herman Cain was acting completely out of character at that moment, which would truly be unusual. Or the event did not happen as this woman is claiming.

People have traits that define who they are. They almost always act within the guidelines that these traits set. For the soft spoken, ultra-polite Herman Cain to act like this woman said is preposterous. It is possible he said something she took offense at. Even soft spoken, ultra-polite people say things that some people might take offense at. But to get physical like that is so out of character that it makes the entire story unbelievable.

Herman Cain has a news conference scheduled in 6 hours to answer questions on this matter. His initial comment that his wife felt the actions were out of character are exactly in line with my opinion that the actions were completely out of character for Herman Cain.

I am a big man and sometimes I run into people by accident. Because of size difference they can take quite a hit. That means it is possible that a person could take offense when I run into them by accident. The events as described by this woman would not qualify as that kind of encounter. But it is entirely possible that some kind of action like that happened and she is just embellishing it to make it sound better. That would be entirely within the MO of Gloria Allred clients.

Gloria Allred clients are always well coached in what to say to do the most damage. The story is always too good to be true and eventually falls apart upon further examination. But Gloria usually attacks at the last minute. If the attack falls apart after a couple of weeks, the damage has already been done. This time there is plenty of time to blow up the story and recover. I think it is poor timing on Gloria Allred’s part. Her usually MO would have generated better results.

Of course, it is also entirely possible that Gloria Allred has a legitimate client for a change. The story does not ring true, so that is probably not the case. Gloria Allred’s clients never have any money so Gloria gets paid by the Democrat Party or some other interested person who wants that candidate destroyed. My guess is if you follow Gloria’s funding you will find out the truth about this particular person.

We will know more after the news conference. But, upon first examination this story stinks. The other stories have more credibility than this Gloria Allred client.

On a short morning update by Rush Limbaugh this morning, I heard something that blew my mind. There was a man of Hispanic descent that got arrested and convicted for drugs. He decided that he could get out of the conviction if he said he was an illegal alien. So, he claimed that he was an illegal alien and was deported to Mexico.

In Mexico, he was in trouble because he now was a real illegal alien. He was a US citizen in Mexico illegally. Mexico does not mess around with illegal aliens. So, the man pulled out his US passport and proved he was a US citizen. He was then deported back to the United States.

He got arrested in Salt Lake City on some charge and explained that he was not an illegal alien but a US citizen. ICE was contacted and he was determined to be a US citizen. He was released and told to come back for a hearing on his charge. Surprise, he did not show up for his hearing. There is now a warrant for his arrest.

This is definitely one story that makes you wonder. When the man first made the claim to be an illegal alien, the government evidently did not make any attempt to determine if he was a US citizen. Since they did not make the check, they believed everything that he said. That put him in Mexico. Mexico may cry and moan about our drastic laws regarding illegal aliens. But, their laws are far more restrictive than ours ever have been or ever will be. If you are found to be an illegal you can go to prison for years with no hope of seeing the outside until the term is up. That is just for a first offense. The penalty gets even worse for a second or more offense. One thing you do not want to be is an illegal alien in Mexico.

What struck me about this entire episode is the gullibility of the government each and every time this man made a claim. They believed him every time he made a claim, no matter how much evidence they may have had to the contrary. This man had his US passport in his possession, yet they never checked to find out if he had any documentation of citizenship. That would have put to rest any bogus claims that this man had made. But, no, the government could not be bothered to find out for sure if he had any documentation in his possession.

What this entire episode highlights is how incompetent government is most of the time. There are government workers who are good at what they do. There are government workers who strive to be the best and be part of the solution. The problem is that there are a vast number of people in the government at all levels that just occupy space. They put in their hours, but do not make any effort to improve their work at all. As a result, the comment “it is good enough for government work” has a lot of meaning. Most of them seem to work at Motor Vehicles because I always get one of the occupy space people rather than the people that genuinely strive for excellence. Remember my criticism of government has some validity as I worked for the federal government for over 20 years. I know what I speak of when I talk about government incompetence.

That is why we should never allow the government to do anything for us that we can do for ourselves. Unfortunately, too many people cannot see that government incompetence is built into the system. They still believe in government. Those people are called socialists, communists and Democrats. The rest of us have a healthy skepticism when it comes to government. That is the best way to deal with government. Trust, but verify is the way to dealt with any government agency due to the rampant incompetence built into government.