Taxes, Deficits, and Debt!
It has become increasingly clear in our national debate concerning THE FISCAL CLIFF (add echo effect) many people do not understand Debt, Deficit Spending, Taxes, and our GNP and these misunderstandings are influencing policy decisions. It seems that many people are using the concept of “taxes” to mean our national “income” yet, taxes are not. Taxes…
May Blessings Upon Thee Fall!
I’ve been struggling of late, as have many, many other people, to feel the joy this time of year usually brings. I found the “Christmas spirit” from the experience of opening “White Christmas” at our community playhouse, but that was tempered by the discovery of the bodies of two beautiful little girls in cold, remote…
Castles in the Air
With Republicans taking the majority in both the Iowa Senate and House there are going to be several Republican-based initiatives that have been waiting (im)patiently in the wings for several years, that will become front and center as soon as the legislature reconvenes. One such issue is going to be Castle Doctrine. Castle Doctrine has…
Gunfight at the OK Corral Middle School
Maybe I am taking those who are calling for “more guns” too seriously; maybe its just a Straw Man tactic to caution the rest of us from going too far the other way. Yet I keep hearing from many people that “arming more citizens is the answer to stop these violent crimes.” A lot of people believe…
The Grief That Does Not Speak Whispers…
This is just too much to comprehend. 27 people dead. 20 of them children. 6 were teachers who gave their lives defending those children. The sad reality is that this is by no means the only tragedy of this magnitude in recent memory. Virginia Tech saw the most loss of life from a single shooter…
Just Like the Ones I Used to Know…
Last week I wrapped up a successful run of “White Christmas” at the Cedar Falls Community Playhouse. We entertained over twenty five hundred people who seemed quite delighted with the romantic optimism of the Irving Berlin score and the Broadway adaptation of the 1954 Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney classic. I, too, was caught up in the…
Kiddie Pools and Jack Daniels
I don’t believe in pre-destination or that a higher authority, moment to moment, guides us in any particular direction. I believe that the universe is a physically logical, mathematically consistent domain that is populated by infinitely capricious events. As human beings, trying to navigate this existence with meaning, so as to be less fearful of…
The Pot Calls the Kettle Black
Lately, as we’ve been talking about entitlement programs and the taxes they create, some people have been bringing up Corporate Welfare. It’s a term that I’ve tossed around as one of the great inequities of the welfare argument, but admittedly I used it mostly as a liberal talking point more than anything else. Certainly the…
Another Fine Mess!
“Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into!” said Oliver Hardy to Stan Laurel every time Stan had, indeed, gotten them into another fine mess. That’s also what Republicans are saying to Democrats and what Democrats and saying to Republicans with regard to the latest high concept blockbuster: The Fiscal Cliff. If this were a…