God Bless us all

My heartfelt prayers to all those affected and grieving in Virginia and across this country.

I guess what I find so frustrating in all of this senseless violence is that over 90% of the messages, blogs and speeches made about this crime have said "Our prayers are with you; God Bless your community" or some such blessing. Why would God continue to bless us when we have pushed and kicked Him out of our lives, our schools, our communities?

If we really want to bless our friends and fellow citizens, ask God back into our daily lives and our towns. He will bless and keep us and forgive our lack of faith.

This has NOTHING to do with a criminal intent to get a weapon - the criminals ALWAYS have weapons - and EVERYTHING to do with the decline of morality in our society. Children would not kill if they had more regard for themselves and others.

Gun control is not the answer - and I will NOT give my guns up because of a Godless lunatic. Teach your children values, bring God back into our lives and leave the guns alone.

For God's sake would you like to become like Europe? An aside - to those who tout the UK and their lack of guns - violent crime has RISEN not lessened. Read the statistics. If ONE student or teacher on that campus had been armed, this would not be 33 dead. Some of those blessed people acted heroically - they would have been doubly so with a concealed carry permit.

On the Virginia Tech Tragedy

This has been around before but I believe we all need to be reminded to stand up and be heard before we lose any more rights. GUs do not kill people. School shooters are children who had no discipline at home. We as a Nation need to bring back the "Spare the rod and spoil the child" morality. Did you know that saying comes straight from the Book of Proverbs? If we as a country would spend more time in our Bibles, we could solve a lot of our problems.

Darrell Scott Testimony

Guess our national leaders didn't expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton , Colorado , was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well.

It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness.

The following is a portion of the transcript:

"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers. "The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.

"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy -- it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves.

I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,

Your words are empty air.

You've stripped away our heritage,

You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,

And precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere,

And ask the question "Why?"

You regulate restrictive laws,

Through legislative creed.

And yet you fail to understand,

That God is what we need!

"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.

What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors.

No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts. "As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America to take their Bible to school and pray with all your hearts for our country and our world!

Tax Health Benefits? Are you nuts!

In looking at President Bush’s proposal regarding taxing health insurance benefits, I must first of all protest. Secondly, I would like to know what crazy person came up with such a stupid idea.

We have a family of four – my husband, me, and our two children. Both my husband and I work full time in the Information Technology fields. We are paid fairly well for our efforts – though I lost 30% of my (industry) income following the dotcom burst and the recession of 2001, and to date, Project Management has not completely recovered – primarily due to two factors – one is the propensity (and advantages) for businesses to use “contract” labor (thus cutting out all benefits, vacations, holiday and sick pay for the employee – and “paying” the company to restrict access to “full-time” benefits) and the second is the outsourcing issue – overseeing is killing our industry as companies try to outsource to “save money” so they can line to pockets of their rich executives.. We have health insurance coverage through my husband’s company since I have no access to benefits – and with project contract turnovers averaging every 6 months, we would be changing health care like some people change draperies.

The White House spokespeople say that this measure will be tax neutral through 2011 – and will encourage people to go seek out lower cost insurance so they can gain a tax cut. I would argue that fact quite hard. We do not have the advantage of “seeking” insurance – we take what is given to us by my husband’s employer. As I do not have health benefits as an option, there is no comparison ability. We can go out on our own and buy our own policies – with dire consequences. Most private plans do not offer maternity care (in the event we want to have another child) without raising the premium exponentially. Also, most private plans have much higher out of pocket costs – for such things as office visits, prescriptions, routine preventative care (mammograms, lab work) hospital visits etc.

I really want all of our leaders to consider what these types of changes will do to working families. We are putting up with $3.00 a gallon gas, $3+ dollar a gallon milk, meat and produce prices that are rising off the charts, and now, on top of all that you want to tax benefits? We haven’t gotten a raise in 5 years. How are you doing? They are breaking the backs of Middle America. We do not own a McMansion on a golf course – our house is a modest $120,000 2000 sq ft 3 bedroom ranch-style house in an older neighborhood with good schools. So, I ask you – where would you like us to cut back so we can afford these tax increases?

Here is a suggestion : get rid of the illegal immigrants who are taking our school tax dollars, hospital services, welfare dollars, and driving insurance rates through the roof. That will save some money. Then, we can hire those jobs out to people in the tech industry that has gone flat. Pretty soon, my husband and I will be working two jobs so we can keep the same life style that was easy back in 2000. You think Americans are getting ahead? Wrong. We slip back every year. Soon, we will be worse off than our grandparents during the Depression.

Please do something to help Americans. Do NOT vote for ANYONE who is currently in office. Get rid of the bums.

Another Discussion about Outsourcing

"Answers on Outsourcing"
CNN Money
By Rory L. Terry

A finance professor argues against placing blind faith in outsourcing. His views follow.


(New York)-- A great deal of effort is being expended to convince us all that the outsourcing of jobs under the rubric of free trade is a good thing. I would like to discuss some of these arguments.

Our labor force is not better trained, harder working, or more innovative than our foreign competitors. The argument that we will create new jobs in highly paying fields simply is not true. We have no comparative advantage or superiority in innovation. To assume that we are inherently more creative than our foreign competitors is both arrogant and naive. We are currently empowering our competition with the resources to innovate equally as well as we. Consider the number of new non-native Ph.D.'s that leave our universities each year; consider our low rank in the education of mathematics and the sciences; and consider the large number of international students enrolled in our most difficult technical degree programs at our most prestigious universities.

Most of our best, high-paying jobs can be exported:

• doctors (even surgeons)
• mathematicians
• accountants
• financial analysts
• engineers
• computer programmers
• architects
• physicists
• chemists
• biologists
• researchers of all types

Our trading problem is an externality. An externality exists in economics any time there is a separation of costs and benefits, and the decision maker does not have to incur the full cost but receives the full benefits of the decision. The fact is, there is no economic force, no supply and demand equilibrium, no rational decision process of either business or consumer, that will make an externality go away. Classic examples of externalities are when a business dumps toxic waste into a nearby river and the downstream residents incur the costs of cancer. The business is able to lower its costs and pass those lower costs on to its customers, and never pay for the treatment of the cancer patients. We have laws in this country against dumping and pollution because they are externalities -- they require a legislative solution. Cost reductions and other benefits provide a strong incentive to outsource jobs. A company that decides to move its production overseas cuts its costs in many ways, including the following:

1. Extremely low wage rates
2. The circumvention or avoidance of organized labor
3. No Social Security or Medicare benefit payments
4. No federal or state unemployment tax
5. No health benefits for workers
6. No child labor laws
7. No OSHA or EPA costs or restrictions
8. No worker retirement benefits or pension costs
   

Besides cutting costs, there are other benefits to exporting jobs, including the following:

1. Tax incentives provided by our government
2. Incentives from foreign governments
3. The creation of new international markets for the company's products (which ultimately empowers the company to turn a deaf ear to this country's problems and influence)
4. The continued benefits of our legal system and the freedoms that we provide

The net effect of all of this is lower costs, higher revenue, higher profits, higher stock prices, bonuses for management, and the creation of wealth for a subclass that benefits from low taxes at the expense of the rest of us. The costs of the decision to outsource are not borne by the decision maker. As a society and as a country, we experience many costs from outsourcing, including the loss of jobs, social costs, higher costs of raw materials and loss of national sovereignty. Loss of jobs reduces the tax base, creates high unemployment benefit costs, and raises the cost of government retraining programs. Displaced, unemployed workers have higher rates of child and spousal abuse, alcoholism, bankruptcy, divorce, etc.

As China and India and other large populations grow, they demand huge quantities of oil, gas, steel and other basic raw materials. These costs are born by all of us -- every time we fill our gas tanks, for example. And as a nation, we lose our ability to make independent decisions that are in our best interest when we are dependent on foreign debt and foreign manufacturing. This is a classic externality.

Rory L. Terry is an associate professor of Finance at Fort Hays State University

Personally, I am vehemently opposed to outsourcing. I feel that as leaders of business, the CEO's of American companies have a lot of benefits as corporations -as has been given in a previous post of mine - and with all those benefits they enjoy, there is a requesite responsibility to American workers. If you are taking jobs away from Americans, to give to people in India, China, Mexico, or anyplace else, then you (as CEO) have not upheld your personal responsibility to your country.

Either act responsibly, or quit.

Watch out - Hilary thinks the boogie man is out to get her!

You know, Ms. Clinton, if I needed another reason NOT to vote for you in 2008, you just provided it. I just read a news story where you are crying out against the "Big, Conservative Conspiracy". This story makes you sound like the paranoid, socialist, conniving, gold digger you are.

You and your fellow partisan politicians are not interested in what is best for the US, you are interested in the next sound bite that will give you the next leg up on the "competition".

Do you want to know something important? Leading this country is not a popularity contest - you are not running for Prom Queen. The President of this country bears the responsibility and weight of making tough choices that are the best to promote THIS country as a whole - not his or her personal agenda.

I hope the rest of the country sees clearly through your manipulations. You, Ms. Clinton are no John Kennedy.