A letter from my niece

I received an email from my niece the other day. I'll give her credit. She responded to my challenge to say why, besides the Iraqi War, she won't be voting for Bush. One thing I wanted to respond to tonight was a few misconceptions that plenty of people besides her have. They all fall under the general category of the national economy. Misconception#1: The economy tanked because of President Bush. Please do some research on your own on this one. Nobody thinks the bubble burst because of anything the president did or didn't do. It was already bursting when he took office and the 9/11 terrorists attacks just hammered the nails in the coffin. Misconception#2: The government (Bush) is raising tuitions and cutting financial aid for college students. The President has NOTHING to do with what colleges charge for tuition. The cost of tuition is going up because the demand for college is going up. The demand for college is going up because there's so much financial aid available. (esp. low interest loans.) And a final point about "cutting" at the Federal level. There's no such thing! We always spend more this year than we did last year. Always. If money were the answer to education, we'd be at the top of every category. Check out this article. American tax payers will invest a total of 501 Billion Tax Dollars on education. Next year the President has requested about 402 Billion Dollars for the defense of the whole country. This President will spend more on Education, not to mention Health and Human Services than any President in history. Is it because he loves us so much? No, it's because we live in a very wealthy country and the spending just keeps going. See what you did now? You got me all wound up. I'm going to bed now.

Popular posts from this blog

A warm spring night

Back on the veranda, I sit. Contemplating a June without Science Camp. That's right, Science Camp will be officially called off tomorrow due to lack of attendees. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. The first few years, we were blessed by two significant factors. One was
Read more

You see, it's like this...

My sister asked me after a recent blog entry, "What's up with you Christians and Evolution anyway? What, God can't do Evolution if he wants to?" (I paraphrased) I don't know. I have talked to all kinds of Christians about this and there are many, many different viewpoints. I'd have to say that most folks that I know are not "bothered" by evolution. That means they don't think about it much or it doesn't collide with their faith or something along those lines. However, I do tend to hang with a few fundamentalists here and there and run across my fair share of Darwin as the Devil stuff. As I stated in an earlier blog entry, I think that I've been prepared to talk to people about this subject. So many times I don't actually offer an opinion of my own. During a discussion one night, a friend was becoming agitated at my line of reasoning and Annette jumped in to say, "He's just playing devil's advocate." The friend respon
Read more

More on the Beatles

I've been thinking a lot about the Beatles lately. They've been in the news of course because of the anniversary of the Ed Sullivan Show. I got out a copy of the movie Help! This afternoon and fast-forwarded to Hey! You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. I was practically in tears. I almost instinctively focused on John's mouth as he's singing as I imitated every inflection of every phrase. I still think he was one of the great Rock N Roll voices ever. But the biggest thing that hits you is the 40 years! 40 years! Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson. And if you really want perspective think about 40 years before that! Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover, Coolidge, Harding and Wilson. Of course, real perspective comes when ever I think that there's only two of the Beatles left alive. I guess that means I'm getting old too. I'll be 45 in a couple of weeks. As I mentioned earlier, I'm buying a Stratocaster. I've
Read more