Showing posts with label grandkids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandkids. Show all posts

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Two Americas


Another great email I received from a friend the other day that needs as much exposure as it can get.  I'm still spending my time creating great jewelry ... come visit my shop and see what I've been doing.  My granddaughter just got her ears pierced and I've made her allot of kiddie type earrings-- but they'd work for anyone that likes small, light earrings with sterling silver ear studs - have also been working with some fantastic , hand painted beads from Nepal, but I don't have those on the web site yet...soon. I promise. My other popular product right now are my disco ball earrings...in lots of great colors, red, beige. turquoise, black, lime, purple, orange....and they can be finished with gunmetal, gold, or silver






Enough about jewelry - on to the important stuff....
In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this in response to Obama's "income inequality speech": 
Two Americas
The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.

The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. 
The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t. 
It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the do's and the don’ts.

Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.  That’s the divide in America.

It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. 

It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office.

It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves it's country.  That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.

The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.”  
He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just.

That is the rationale of thievery.  The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you.  Vote Democrat.
That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.   It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America.

It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope.

The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.

Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences.   Those who choose wisely and responsibility have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.  
Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income.

You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. 
You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course;  you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course.

Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take. 

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do.  There is significant income inequality between us.  Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort.   While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant.
He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes.  His outcome pays a lot better than mine.
Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth?  No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom.  The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail.  
There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.

The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy.
Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.  Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.
The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get."  Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.

Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society, if Barack Obama gets his way.   He seeks a lowest common denominator society in  which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.

He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other.  America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.  It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization.
What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism.  He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.   That’s what socialists offer.  Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow.

Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand.'

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Musings on Holiday Travel

We just returned from traveling to Pennsylvania for the Christmas season and we had a wonderful time, there is nothing better than a 5 year old on Christmas morning...especially one who sleeps until 8:00 A.M.. Now, is that a good kid or what???Of course, all of my grandchildren are perfect, so I really didn't expect anything less. So, before I get to the meat of this post, I would like to wish each and every one of you who reads this blog, a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2011.

We left lovely Arizona over a week before Christmas, in hopes that we would miss some of the holiday craziness of the airports. Other than the fact that we had to get up some time in the middle of the night to catch our plane, the airport was very empty...either that, or it was so early that my eyes hadn't woken up yet. We landed in Philly to the first snow of the season - oh, lucky us!!! Driving to our destination, which was about a one hour commute, we saw 5 fender benders and one very serious accident, reminded us graphically of why we wanted to leave the snow behind us when we retired. Not only was it white everywhere, IT WAS COLD - I MEAN COOOOOOOOOOLD.  I think I had blanked that mind numbing cold and how much that I hate it out of my memory banks, but it's back again.

Spent Christmas week in a blurry of activity - including making lots of cookies with a 5 year old - she cracks a mean egg, but other than that, her culinary skills are rather limited, except for the infamous cut out Christmas cookies. I think that it took us all day to complete one batch - granted, a large batch - but still one batch.  I'm not sure who won the colored sugar wars - the cookies - the floor - or the cracks in the table.  I am just very grateful that I got the chance to do this and that it wasn't in my kitchen.  We did make a mess - and my daughter may never get the frosting cleaned up - it was spread around a little more that one would normally see.  I must admit that my grandaughter vastly improved my ginger snaps - they are rolled into balls, rolled in sugar and then baked...she had to add red and green sugar to the white that I gave her to roll the balls in, and they ended up looking much more festive than mine have for 45 years.

Had a great time going to school with our granddaughter for her Christmas Party and I got to read to the class - fun!  She has the most incredible teacher and I told my daughter that it's going to be hard to top this one and she's only in kindergarten.  If you ever want to practise your powers of concentration, try reading "The Night Before Christmas" to 25 five year olds on December 23.  There was not allot of focusing being practised in that room, that day, but I did enjoy it.

 I was very glad that I brought my long underwear...I never took it off for 2+ weeks, as I said before, it was COLD. I even wore it to the two parties that we attended, luckily I was wearing a turtleneck so it didn't show, but I would have worn it even with a strapless gown - it was COLD. One good thing about the cold, we were able to make our secret egg nog that has to age for about 5 days and unless you have a walk in refrigerator, that usually takes place outside,so we haven't made it since coming to Arizona.  John couldn't wait to sample it - and did so most nights that we were there, it is good! ! As he was coming in from the patio with his evening glass, our grandaughter looked at him and said, "Poppy, you have an egg nog problem".

We had an uneventful journey home although it was a few days late - Mr. Flu paid a visit, early in the morning that we had planned to leave, so we had to change our plans.  Ended up flying in on New Year's Eve and stopped at In and Out Burgers on the way home for our big night out. So for now, my big green long wool coat is put away as are my gloves and winter hat - sadly though, I needed them when we landed. It was high 40's when we left Philly, it was 37 when we landed in Phoenix, the pilot thought he'd gotten lost, and it was 32 when we arrived home - ugh, at least there was no snow on the ground...Happy New Year All