Pot and Kettle, Mr. President?

If you can read this, you know that bullies have existed forever.  If you’ve not been living in a cave, you know that it has gotten a little worse over the last decade or so, especially since bullies can now have their friends video them doing their bullying on their phones and instantly upload and or share it with all their friends and numerous websites -they can relive the moment and the victims can be laughed at by so many more people.

Recently, there’s been a big anti-bullying-thing going on.  At my kids’ elementary school, just about every person running for an office on the student government, had some sort of promise to stop bullying in the school.  I asked my daughters (2nd and 4th graders) if they knew of any bullying going on and they said no -maybe they don’t see it or maybe it’s not happening in their classes.  Of course, it is possible that the school, school district, state, etc. is trying to drive home the anti-bully message so they are pushing the candidates to mention it.

Last week, the President and the First Lady spoke at some conference against bullying and I think there’s another sort of Public Service Announcement (PSA) against bullying that the President has made. I hadn’t watched any of them until just a few minutes ago, and only because I was writing this, but I’m fairly certain that the majority of the kids who are bullies haven’t and won’t watch them.  Even if they were to watch them, do you think they are going to decide against bullying?  Not likely.

Now, I applaud the President and his wife for speaking out about the bullying, but I have to wonder if this isn’t a case of the pot calling the kettle black.  The President and his administration are straight out of Chicago and are more than willing to use the bullying-style politics Chicago is known for.  To a large degree, a lot of getting anything done in Congress is a matter of who’s got the biggest bully on their side.  At no point was this more evident than last year when the President and his Democrat-controlled Congress pushed Obamacare right over top of the Republicans and onto an American public that, according to all the polls, the majority of the population didn’t want.

To all you bullies up there in Congress, the people sent notice last fall that they are not happy being trampled for political gain or to create your “legacy” -this isn’t based on parties, I hope.  Do what the people who’ve elected want or be replaced.

Texas Proposal of Mandatory Dog Insurance

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/16/texas-dog-owners-barking-mad-proposal-mandate-dog-insurance/

How stupid is this proposal?  In a word:  very!

Before I get into the details of this particular proposal, let me just ask how less unfair would this be than the Federal requirement to buy health insurance.  Is Texas not one of the states fighting the stupid Obamacare mandate?  Of course, it is. So, how is it that the fidiot who proposed it can’t see the near parallel.

The root of the problem is that Texas, according to the article, doesn’t hold the owner responsible for their dog biting someone/something unless they have bitten before.  Maybe they shouldn’t have to put the dog down for a first bite, but the owner should certainly be liable for damages their animal inflicts on another or another’s property unless they can prove in court that their pet was intentionally provoked.

Why is it that people in government think the only way to help people is to legislate new stupid laws???  It isn’t really surprising, though.  We have become a nation that no longer forces anyone to be liable for their actions, or, apparently, their pets’.

ObamaCare, a year later

Last year, well, actually, prior to him getting elected, I didn’t like the idea of poorly designed, wannabe socialized medicine, which is a big part of Obamacare, regardless of how he and his administration and their supporters want to spin it.  Sure, it’s got some good points, but it has a LOT of bad ones.  I don’t think anyone who tried and failed to get insurance or who has insurance doesn’t agree that the health care/insurance industry needs/needed to be reformed, but what was in the bill was not the solution.  The problem is that there are just too many institutions that need to be reformed that are intertwined to simply fix one… and do a poor job of it.

As for the promise of transparency… well, by now anyone who believes this administration practices any sort of governing in the open must be blind or just plain stupid.  There, I said it.  And, as Dr. Wolf explains in his commentary in the Washington Post, not only is the Obama administration being willfully deceptive, they know the health care reform they got Congress to pass is a load of crap, which is why all the “friends” of the administration are petitioning for and being granted exemption from it.  Follow the link below for a very well written commentary on it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/28/tawdry-details-of-obamacare-420960137/?page=1