You can get fuel here for $2.04! It should hit $1.99 by next week, if this keeps up--and we're hoping it does.
I am going to post a few political thoughts. With the elections on Tuesday, I thought I should hurry up and put some of my opinions out there. If you are on the verge of not liking me (which I hope you aren't!) just stop reading this post right now.
When the candidates starting emerging into the limelight a couple years ago, or however long it was, I was interested in Barack Obama. I knew he was a democrat at the time, and I am not, but I have voted before for a democrat. If the politician has the same important views and ideals that I have, I will vote for anyone, despite their party affiliation.
But, yes, you knew it was coming, BUT after learning Obama's views, he is not the right person for President on many levels.
One item that riles me up, is his idea of spreading the wealth. It makes me SO MAD! His purposed taxation will affect people who make $250,000 or more. Lee is no where near making that at the moment, but someday he definitely will get close to that income, if not going over the 250K mark. I am very happy for people who are successful financially, I hope to be in that place too someday. Raising taxes on people who make more money just because they make more money is wrong.
I am sure most of you heard of Joe the plumber and Obama's little talk with him about spreading the wealth. (And it's doesn't matter if Joe is a plumber or a liar, what Obama said to him is what's important.) While Obama was speaking to Joe, Obama mentioned a waitress he had just talked to and how she was having a hard time making ends meet and paying her rent. Obama feels that those people who make under $250K, should be given a tax break and to make up for it, he feels the more wealthy people should foot the break by paying higher taxes. So about the waitress...why doesn't she go back to school? Did she even go to college? Did she try and do a vocational training? Did she finish high school? If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting (Steven Covey)! Sorry lady, you aren't chained to waiting tables the rest of your life.
The reason why Lee isn't waiting tables or stocking grocery shelves at night AND why we aren't worried about money is because we sacrificed to improve ourselves and our standard of living. We both have our Bachelors' degrees (and if you have a low income college is cheap!) and Lee went to optometry school for four years. And just so you know, we lived like students. It wasn't a breeze. We had dial-up Internet for 3 1/2 years, no cable, used a long-distance prepaid card, had a food budget many times of $150 a month, we had one vehicle and Lee biked to school half the time if not more, Lee and I didn't buy Christmas presents for either of us one year (really, NONE at all!), we lived in a cheaper apartment which required taking our laundry to the laundry room-which I did several times with two kids, not to mention other sacrifices during our schooling.
Some of you may think I'm whining and still had it pretty easy. Have you used dial-up for 3 1/2 years?! (I'm trying to be humorous.) We tried to do schooling on our own as much as we could. We are both blessed with giving parents and that eased the burden. But (and this is because of my upbringing for which I am grateful) we never used food stamps or medicaid or WIC during our many years of schooling. We sure were tempted to get food stamps, that's for sure! Some of these government programs were helpful for some of our friends. I was raised through example to stand on my own as much as possible, and that in turn gives me more freedom from the government. I still remember in elementary school that my siblings and I qualified for free school lunches. With nine kids at home at the time, I am sure it would have helped, but I remember my mom saying that she and my dad can pay for their kids' lunches! When my children got immunization shots at different county health departments I was asked if I was on medicaid and it was very refreshing and empowering to say no.
If that waitress wants to make $250,000 she can! She just has to do something different. She doesn't need the government to fix her problem, because that's not going to happen as we all know. I mean, who is financially independent because of the economic stimulus? Did that make a dent in anybody's financial life? I bet it was helpful at the time, but I doubt many people are thinking at this moment that the economic stimulus was brilliant. (It wasn't.)
I was listening to a talk show a few days ago and a caller basically said that people who make over $1,000,000 should be taxed A LOT and shouldn't be able to keep all of that money. This guy needs to put away his childish ideas. I really feel that he is jealous that his income isn't amazingly high. And he probably has a pride problem. Pride runs two ways. Yes, there is the pride of the rich looking down on the poor, but there is the pride from the bottom up too: envy, jealousy, gossiping, etc. Sure there are people that are trust fund babies, or are born into wealthy families, but that money came from somewhere at one point. Very successful people work very hard. It's not like Bill Gates walked into the woods one day and saw a prepackaged computer and operating system lying next to a log with a note:take me to a store and sell me and you'll make millions! He worked hard, and it happened that his efforts turned into a lot of money.
Okay, so I think you got the point that I think distributing wealth is a bad idea. I think people should be generous with their money and Lee and I give 10% (tithe) of our income to our church-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plus we give a generous monthly fast offering that goes to help the needy. People should share their talents too. Raising taxes on people who make more money just because they make more money is wrong. Lee and I seriously plan on being multi-millionaires when we retire and I sure don't want the government taking all of our hard earned money away.
Another point of Obama's I don't like is socialized health care. I have a friend who lived in England for a couple of years, during which time her infant son needed specialized care. If you think socialized health care is good, you need to talk to her. It's not. Besides, we have a plan like that already in the US: Medicaid! Even during optometry school when we weren't making that much money (I think we were considered below the poverty level) we were able to have health care. Yes, at times the coverage was VERY minimal, but we enjoyed the freedom of choosing which health care plan we wanted and that fit our needs during specific time periods. Plus I love the freedom of choosing a doctor that I want to see instead of the government telling me! We were even able to pay for the birth of 3 kids during optometry school.
I'll just mention one more thing because this post is getting so long. Out of all of the views I disagree on, this one is the most important: Abortion. Obama is for it. I am against abortion. You all need to read an article by Elder Russell M. Nelson Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from the October Ensign: "Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless". Just click on the title and it will take you to the article. Elder Nelson writes: "Worldwide reports indicate that more than 40 million abortions are performed per year." How sad. (I appreciated your thoughts on this Janae and Liz.) This is reason enough alone for me not voting for Obama.
Well, I'll stop my ranting. If you made it this far, thanks and good job! Can we still be friends? I am thankful I get to vote on Tuesday and hope you all do the same (or voted early). If you are still game for more reading, read the wonderful piece below by my mom.
There may be llamas for Obama, but this mama sure ain't!
Redistribution of wealth forced NC Refugees from home in Zimbabwe
By L. T. Bartholomew
Wally and Helen
Herbst know firsthand about redistribution of wealth. A front page article in the Sunday, October 19, 2008 Raleigh, NC News and Observer detailed the expulsion of the
Herbsts, who are white, from their 13,000 acre farm by armed men. (see <
http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/1260755.html> President Robert Mugabe oversaw the land distribution from white farmers to impoverished blacks.
According to the article, “the seizures wrecked the country’s agricultural infrastructure, leading to extensive food shortages and stratospheric inflation. The United Nations estimates that 1 million people have lost their livelihoods and homes as a result of the redistribution...Inflation is at 231 million percent, and the U.N. estimates that 45 percent of Zimbabwe’s population, or 5.1 million people, will need food help by early 2009.”
As land owners “Wally employed about 30 permanent workers...and more than 150 people during the...harvest seasons.” They “provided a preschool on the property for workers’ children, and a free health clinic where mothers could take their babies.”
After their expulsion, their son, John, was kidnapped. The ransom demand was “exactly what the family had on deposit” in the bank.
There are a lot of parallels here to what is happening and what is being proposed in our country. Wally
Herbst was a landowner, a CEO. He had a better house, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, while the workers lived in traditional huts on the land. He provided health care for his workers. He had money in the bank.
From 1986 to 1993 my husband worked for a turkey processor in Wisconsin. People who worked in the processing plant complained that the owners were rich while they worked for wages. The man who founded the company grew up in very humble circumstances. As a young man he obtained some turkey eggs, hatched them out, sold the turkeys and bought more eggs. That was the start of the company. Anyone in town could have done the same thing. The point is, he did, and they
didn’t. What he did do was provide jobs, health insurance, and retirement contributions to hundreds of local residents. His house was larger than most. He had more money in the bank, but he worked for it, and gave generously to the community, including college scholarships and summer jobs to two of my own children.
Wally and Helen are in America on three-year visas that allow him to work in Agriculture. The article concludes “Where there is work, there is opportunity...It really is an American dream.”
But if our government owns the banks, if the equity people have built up in their homes is taxed away through capital gains taxes, if inheritance taxes prevent parents from passing farms and businesses down to their children, the American dream will turn to dust.
