Thoughtful Thursday

Trying to get the cobwebs out of my brain and get woken up this morning. It appears that the sun is out this morning and that always makes for a nice start to the day. I have the window open and I can hear the birds chirping. I am waiting for my special hummingbird to make his or her appearance. How can you tell the difference between a male or female hummingbird?

I do not know. I looked but was unable to find the answer. Oh, I am sure it is out there. I am just to lazy to look for it right now.

I really enjoyed the feedback I received about last Thursdays thoughts I had about President Obama and the nature of politics in general. It really highlighted for me how different we all are when it comes to what we think is the best way to run the country. The more I think about it the more it really feels like a thankless job to me. I suppose it is possible that if something miraculous were to happen and the job rates were to soar to 100% and the deficit would be completely wiped out that a president could have an approval rating of 100%. But I am sure that despite all of that there would be people who would be unhappy and it wouldn't matter to them that everyone was working or that the USA was not in debt to China anymore. They would just find some other, vastly important, reason to be upset.

I think Carl said it best in the comments when he said that "...but I live and participate in an imperfect system." I think that is really key and something I need to remember. The system is never going to be perfect. There is no perfect system. There never will be. The best we can hope for is a system that seems to function most of the time. When I look around the world at other countries and their governments I see very few that I would like to emulate.

To be completely honest since I lean toward the Socialist, and I know that is enough to make a lot of your heads explode, I like how things are done in Sweden. Things just seem to work there. I am sure that there are a myriad of reasons why they are wrong and why that model of government would not work here in America. But, that is not my point. My point is that I like what they do there. There are people who like what we do in America and I am sure there are people who actually like living in Cuba or even Haiti for that matter or the old style Soviet Union or the new style Russia. Though for the life of me I am not sure why anyone would have liked living in the Soviet Union. I can understand being stuck there. But the way that people were treated who lived there it must have just been miserable.


I sidetracked myself. What I am trying to say is that one of the neat things about America is that we are able to freely debate these kind of things and do not have to worry about these thoughts being censored or being put on some kind of list for having a conversation and that is a pretty cool thing. So lets agree to disagree and ROCK IT OUT FOR THE USA!!!! USA, USA, USA!!!!!

3-23-2010 (Tuesday)

Well we have survived another day and now the fallout will begin from the health care issue. President Obama is supposed to sign it into law today. I am already wondering what the next big point of contention is going to be. The only thing that I do know for sure is that there is going to be one. But that being said a friend sent this yesterday and it made me laugh. I realize not all of you may find this amusing but such is the nature of humor. I realize it is making some pretty broad statements but I nonetheless found it amusing to me.

2-23-2010 (Tuesday)

Good morning folks. It is Tuesday morning and the rain has returned to Oregon. I do not mind the rain. It smells nice outside and is kind of refreshing. I think though that after about 3 or 4 days of it I will be back to wondering where the sun is and when is spring going to return. I like living in Oregon. I even like living in the Willamette Valley despite the months of gloom that can settle over us. When the Valley is in the middle of the rainy season it can get seriously gray and gloomy. But, once spring comes and we move into the summer Oregon becomes a really beautiful place to live. I am basically less then two hours away from the ocean or the mountains and when the weather is nice both places can really be nice. But I didn't come hear to lobby for Oregon.

I wanted to go back and touch on what I wrote about yesterday on how I agreed in part with what Glenn Beck said at the CPAC speech. But I also had to mention something he said that I felt didn't make any sense. He was doing his usual talking about how Communists and Socialists became Progressives because that let them be sneaky. He mentioned how things had gone from Revolution to Evolution and the change had allowed for the newly named Progressives to sneak in and undermine the foundation of America. Now I have heard him say this kind of thing before and he, I think, really does believe it. But at one point during his speech he was talking about how he was not a smart man and how he didn't go to college. But what he did do was go to the library because there the books are free. His exact phrase was

"I went to the library -- the books are free."

That kind of threw me for a loop. The biggest reason being that...BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY ARE NOT FREE!!!!! I pay taxes and part of my tax dollars go to fund the library in my town. Now maybe Glenn went to some hippy dippy socialist library where everyone who takes a book can leave a book and there is no librarian but I doubt it. What I found surprising about what Beck said was that libraries are basically communist institutions. They are funded out of the tax roles and anyone who wants to can get books there. I believe the first public library in the country was actually created by progressives who felt that everyone deserved equal access to books.

It just struck me as so typical of all of the talking heads on television be it Olberman or Beck or Limbaugh or Maddow they seem to speak without thinking. The basic idea of following a logical chain to it's conclusion seems to have escaped them. The saddest thing for me is that they make millions and millions of dollars doing this and most viewers just lap it up. They buy their books and listen to their radio shows and watch the television with out taking the time to do any critical thinking on their own.

These people depend on us to be angry but not on us to pay attention to the bigger picture. So lets all take a moment and really think about some of what these people tell us. They are all employees for big companies they wouldn't be working for these companies if they didn't agree with what goes on there. Keep that in mind when watch these shows. Look into where these companies do business and what products they make and sell. I do not think this will hurt us what this will do is make us better listeners and make us more aware of what we are being told. This goes for both sides of every issue. Think before you react. Take a moment and decide if what you are being told actually makes any sense.

This will benefit all of us in the long term.

2-17-2010 (Ash Wednesday)

Good morning folks. I hope you have good day regardless of whether or not you decide to do anything for Ash Wednesday.

Well as everyone seems to know we are in an economic downturn or recession. I have been reading a lot lately about a state in America that is doing pretty well. That state is North Dakota now every state is different and they all have different products that allow for different levels of income. But the biggest difference that North Dakota has is that they have a bank that is totally run and owned by the state of North Dakota. Now, according to the Huffington Post

"The Bank of North Dakota serves as an economic development agency and "banker's bank" that lessens the loan risks of private banks and helps them finance larger projects. It offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses.

The bank had almost $4 billion in assets and a $2.67 billion loan portfolio at the end of last year, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It made $58.1 million in profits in 2009, setting a record for the sixth straight year. During the last decade, the bank funneled almost $300 million in profits to North Dakota's treasury.

The bank has the advantage of being the repository for most state funds, which can be used for loans and occasional relief for private banks that need a jolt of cash during sluggish credit markets."

Also another mention in the article is that North Dakota has an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent. That is the lowest in the nation and something that my home state of Oregon could only dream of. Now I am sure there are other things that makes North Dakota different then Oregon and also makes them more successful then Oregon in terms of jobs and state budget issues. But what I wonder is what is working about their bank. One of the biggest difference is that they are not part of the FDIC so if the bank were to lose money the residents of North Dakota would be on the hook for it. But, so far that has not happened. The bank is running a surplus.

I am just wondering what makes North Dakota special? Is this a model that could work in other states? Should it be something that is attempted? Should it be something that we totally write off as a cursed socialist idea that would fail and hurt the state in the end? Any thoughts out there folks?