Just around the corner……..Lent

Next week is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten season for this practicing catholic, but I'm going to start a week early. It's supposed to be 40 days of self-denial, so traditionally we're supposed to give up something that we like and eat fish products or any other meatless meals on Friday's. Plan now, because starting next week the fish places will be packed.

I got a little off track explaining the tradition but this time I will give up arguing with the conservative right wingers in the forum. I think if I can restrain myself for 40 days, and hopefully it will become a habit. I don't have to name names again but a couple of posters will follow me and accuse me of lying or being delusional. One poster has a habit of calling everything I post “smoke and mirrors." That's OK, I can rise above that. I've posted my references, so others can judge the validity of my post.

My wife is going to use the rest of the week trying to decide what to give up the lent. It shouldn't matter as I keep telling her because that's between her and her god. It's not like you going to be punished, and it's more of a self -restraint than anything else. I bet right now, she's at the store buying fish, tuna, and stuff for bean chalupas. By the time Easter comes, I will have my fill of fish.

Life is funny, when you're in your mid thirties, work and parenting take up most of our time and when we get old and retired; we have the time but don't enjoy it as much. I remember the weekends were special when we were off together, but now it's just another day. The other night my wife was up trying to buy Astros tickets for a Saturday game and was having trouble getting two end seats. I had to remind her that we can go during the week now. She is still having a difficult time of not having to be at a certain place, at a certain time.

The weather is great, 70° with no overcast clouds, it’s great for being outdoors, so I guess I'll look for the WD 40 and air up the tires on my bicycle and just ride up the block for a while.Why do bicycle tires have to be aired up everyday?

Puppets on a string

I can still remember September 15 of 2008 because that's the date Lehmann brothers went down and almost took down our entire country’s Financial System in a domino effect. However clumsy it was and I think Federal Chairman Bernanke, Secretary of Treasury  Hank Paulson and President Bush made the right decision when they decided to let the taxpayers bailout out Wall Street.  Yet, we still have those that will shill for Wall Street and big corporations because they think taxes and regulations will  weaken them.

I know after 30 years of Ronald Reagan’s prophecy of “ government is a problem not the solution” the followers will all defend trickle down economics'. They will go to bat to give the top 2% a tax cut and go out of the way to see that Wall Street and the corporations have very little interference in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. The republicans have a bill to restrict the EPA from enforcing current emission laws and they want to repeal the finance reform package the democrats passed.  This is the basis for local bloggers like Observer and rollingstone to that the top 2% and the big corporations should not be tampered with if we're to have a robust economy.They are puppets on a string.

Conservatives accused President Clinton of “tax and spend politics” when he raised income taxes on the very wealthy to pay for investments in economic development, education, and new technology. [Washington Post] But Clinton’s policies yielded 23 million new jobs—nearly five times more new jobs than Bush created with his tax cuts for the super-rich. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

The problem is not that corporations are overtaxed. In fact, a whopping two-thirds of American corporations and foreign corporations doing business in the United States pay absolutely no federal income taxes—despite taking in $2.5 trillion in sales. [Government Accounting Office] In 2005, 28 percent of large foreign companies doing business in the United States (those with more than $250 million in assets or $50 million in sales) paid no taxes.

There's a point of overtaxing and over regulations but we can’t come to the table if zero is the starting point.  I bet the majority of Americans believe that cutting discretionary spending by $61 billion is a great start at getting our fiscal house in order. Not so, says Goldman Sachs that large of an amount would cut the GDP by 2% and other economists have said that it will lead to 700,000 jobs being lost.  There is a rule that says “ when consumers and businesses are not spending- government has to.” we don't want to make the same mistakes of the 1929 Depression by drastically reducing government spending before full recovery. We should sit down at the table and discuss 10 year plans of tax reform, entitlement reform, and defense cuts with tax increases that will trigger if we don't mean our goals.

I'm completely ignorant when it comes to local politics because Lamppost wrote a blog that doesn't make any sense to me.  I'm pretty sure the posters that responded understood what he was talking about because he was articulate and but I don't know if his message was about the good ole boy system, volunteering, or a combination of both. I guess I’m that far behind with my head buried deep in the sand.  Someday,I will will get someone to explain all this to me.I don’t know if “puppets on a string” applies because I don’t know who the puppets are.

In the meantime Mike Huckabee thinks Obama was born in Kenya and Chris Matthews is going off the edge like Charlie Sheen and Rick Perry thought Juarez was part of Texas.