Simple Randomness

I Think I’m Officially Tired of Politics

So with all the different conventions, all the ads, and all the stuff on the news all the time I have to admit that I’m really getting sick of politics and political stuff.

Does anyone else get the feeling like this election is turning out more and more like a high school election?  I’m sure it’s always this way to some extent, but it seems more and more blatantly obvious this time.  It’s like both sides just want to promise the world, but in the end you know that they either can’t or won’t do half of what they say…

Well, my intent with this blog was never to get very political, if ever, so that’s all I’ll say on the topic for now.  I think it would be great if a viable 3rd or 4th option would come out.  Two parties seems to be part of the problem…

A Little Rant About Gas Prices and Liberals

Ok, I have to go on a little rant right now.  Normally I won’t do this, but I get so sick and tired of hearing all this stuff about how the gas prices being high is all some big conspiracy and blah blah blah.

That’s not even the thing that really bugs me right now.  Today I read a blog post (I won’t bother saying where) that went off on some ‘Big Oil’ ad that was promoting getting off foreign oil and using our own resources because demand is going to be higher by 2030 and we need to be independent.  I agree with those statements; we need to be using our own resources.

But instead, this ‘liberal’ (I’ll use that term lightly because I hate stereotypes, but it’s the only word that fits right now) had to go on the offensive because it was an ad by ‘Big Oil.’  And what was the line of attack?  If we increase our use of oil we’re going to increase gas emissions and kill the planet by then!

You’ve got to be kidding me!  The fact is that we are an oil dependent nation.  And right now we are getting high prices because we’re so dependent on everyone else in the world for our energy supply!  I agree that we need to find alternative ways of getting energy, but ethanol sure isn’t the answer.  And it seems to me that until we can get oil under control, we’re going to have a hard time really producing other reliable resources.

So why don’t we drill our own oil?  Because for some reason in this country we are paralyzed by the environmentalists and other groups that really should have no business directing policy.  It’s really quite sad.

But by biggest annoyance to people like this other blogger is that they can come up with all these reasons why we shouldn’t do something, but they have no solutions of what we should do.  They just complain about how whatever a ‘republican’ decides has to be evil and after money.  So my question to her and anyone else with that line of thinking: you got a better idea?

One solution: nuclear energy.  Nope, can’t do that, environmentalists say no.

Another solution: build more of our own refineries.  Nope, can’t do that one either because of environmentalist wackos.

Drill for oil in Alaska?  Nope, you’ll kill caribou.  Caribou?!?  You’re telling me that you would put caribou above the welfare of millions of people?  I’m sure the caribou will adapt, they have for a long time!!!

Ok, this rant has gone in several different directions.  But hey, that’s the nature of rants right?  I just get so tired of hearing about all the things that we aren’t allowed to do for one reason or another.  I’m tired of the complaints and excuses of what we can’t do but no alternative solutions to what we can do.  When does it stop?

I’m hoping that someday soon in this country we get some leaders that will do what needs to be done and not be paralyzed by those people who just want to get in the way.  We need solutions, not restrictions!

A Great Idea From Jesse Ventura

This morning coming into work I heard the local radio guys talking to Jesse Ventura.  You know, the guy who was a pro wrestler and then also the Governor of Minnesota.  I didn’t know this, but he was a mayor before that too.  Quite the impressive guy when you look at it.

Well, he had a really good idea that I think we should put into effect.  What he said is that when he was mayor, he took a 4 year break and got back into the private sector before he ran for governor.  That way he really knew what was going on in the private sector as a governor.  He says that one of the problems with our government these days is that we have career politicians.  People who have been in politics their whole lives and then are supposed to tell us that are actually in the private sector what would be best for us.

I think it’s a great idea!  In fact, right now I want to nominate Jesse Ventura for a Nobel Prize because of that great thought!  I mean think about it, we get these guys in office that haven’t been in the private sector trying to make laws that are supposed to be for our own good, but they have no clue!

Anyway, that’s my political rant for the day.  Thanks Mr. Ventura for the great thought!

Has the American Dream Changed?

First of all I should probably admit that when it comes to political stuff I lean more to the conservative side than to anything else.  So just yesterday I was driving home from work and was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio and I heard something that really got me thinking.  He was playing a clip from John McCain on David Letterman the other night where McCain was talking about the idea that a lot of people are about to lose their homes.  He was suggesting over and over that they were losing the American Dream.

WHAT?!

I have to fully agree with Beck on this one, but since when was owning a home the American Dream?  You mean to say that all of this ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ stuff comes down to owning a house?  I don’t think so!

When I think of the American Dream, I think of being able to do my own thing and make a living if I want to.  It means that I have the right and privilege to start my own business and either make it or fail.  It means that I have the freedom to try to do what I want to do to provide for my family.   Not just own a house!

It’s really sad to me that the American Dream has been degraded to this.  In the movie Far and Away the American Dream was to own some land.  But not to put a house on it!  It was to own some land that you could call your own and then do what you wanted to with it!

To stay on the political topic, I also think it’s sad that so many believe that the American Dream means entitlement.  Like as an American I am entitled to get all this free stuff from the government or some junk like that.  I don’t want that!  I just want the freedom to be able to make it on my own, not get handouts.

So anyway, I think I’ll rarely get political on this blog, but what I heard yesterday really got me thinking.  Please believe that the American Dream is more than having a house!