Change coming? Options

[MarkD]

To those who wish for "change" without having a grasp of what that change might be, I offer a couple of comments.
One is that it is good to think back. Try to remember the last time that government 'change' in anything was to your advantage.

Another is from life. That is, I learned long ago that we all continue to find creative new ways to survive despite what our government does to us. Wouldn't it be good if we did not have to continuously find new ways to get by?

And last, again on looking for change - any change no matter what it is; Please be very careful of what you wish for, because you just might have that wish granted.
Mark D.

[cowpote]

well said mark.

change cost money!!!!!!

my ??? were are THEY..going to get it....

nothing is for free kids



watch what you wish for!!!

cowpote

[ericv8]

I couldnt agree with you more!

[ericv8]

We just got Ronald Reagan without the balls. Bill Clinton without the teflon. Hitler without the evil. Indisputably, Obama is an incredibly skilled communicator who can motivate the masses with his words and his promises.

However, it is also indisputable that Obama is a man of very questionable connections and motivations. This was never seriously looked into by an adoring media and by a public who was smitten by his charm and rhetoric. Obama talks a great talk but can he back it up? Nothing in his past would indicate that he can. His is not a history of significant accomplishment or preparedness to be president. Obama is all about building dreams and hope by saying what people want to hear. And for this he got a free ride. But when he actually lacks the substance to follow through on his promises, how is Obama unlike any of the Wall Street firms whose dreams and promises went kaput?

Beware the naked man who offers you his shirt.

[seegerfan]

http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd329/H...ider/change.jpg

[mountainway]

Both

[MarkD]

Well, a small majority of the people asked for change, any change, and at any cost. They asked for it, and now it is obvious that it is coming.
I wonder. In another couple years will those people still feel the same way? Will they feel that it was worth it? We won't know until then, but the outlook appears quite bleak.
Mark D.

[FunkyAl]

Mark, obviously "the change" has been quite good for the worldwide reputation of your country. I am quite sure the new man in charge will make a couple of things right, esp. at points where the last man in charge miserably failed, embarrassed himself and embarrassed his own country and his own people he was supposed to represent.

[MarkD]

Al, I can understanad your comment, coming from the other side of the world. But from here, I am just a guy trying my best to survive with a government that is taking away every tool I have to survive.
Back in the Clinton era, I realized that we all do our best to come up with new ways to survive despite what our government does to us.
I'm afraid that with what was done back in the '90s, added to what is being done now, it might become impossible to even tread water anymore. It used to be a sink or swim world. Now the only option seems to be to sink.

For that reason, my concern is hardly what someone over in Sudan or Bangladesh thinks of this country. My concern is simply trying to continue to have a place to sleep at night and put a meal on the table.
Yes, I know the whole world thinks of Americans as a bunch of party addicted lazy drug and booze swilling idiots. That's what comes through television.
In reality, most of us are either out of work due to the world economy or we are working 12 hour days, 7 days a week to earn barely enough to pay the rent or house payment and buy a little food. That's what's left after we pay the taxes.

To be sure, there are the fat cats. And I don't begrudge them because I really wouldn't mind being one of them. I think to myself, how nice that must be. But the reality is that I'm not sure if I'll have a roof over my head in six months.
I wasn't worried about that under George Bush.

I'm quite concerned that before his first term is over, the anointed one will have enacted stringent firearm bans, and/or controls. There goes my ability to put meat on the table and to defend my home. Of course, if the annointed one has anything to say about it, I won't have a home to have to defend. Problem solved!
I wasn't worried about that under George Bush.

Part of the new plan for automobile efficiency calls for older cars to be "phased out." A nice term for older cars being scrapped long before their useful service life has passed. Of course, to the annointed one it seems like a good idea, now that he has formed a new car manufacturer, Government Motors. I'm sure he figures that getting the older cars off the roads will make people buy new cars, and support Government Motors.
Well, I can't afford the tens of thousands for a new car. If I could, I'd buy one from any company OTHER than Government Motors.
I never worried about that under George Bush.

Meanwhile, the ever present but phony issue of Global Warming is heating up. Companies all around the country are taking the corn that used to be part of our food supply and making it into alcohol, to be burned in cars. So, we are burning our food, by law, (admittedly pre-Obama but he's planning to make it much worse) and what people are not yet aware of is how much ground water from acquifers underground is used to make each gallon of ethanol to run somebody's car. This, in a totally misguided attempt to decrease our dependence on foreigh oil. New flash here is that because of all the inefficiencies of making and burning the alcohol, it actually worsens the situation. But Obama is against allowing expanded oil production on U.S. land.

And, no, I do not believe that expanding production of oil in the U. S. would lower the price per barrel on the market. BUT it would definitely slow the movement of our hard earned cash out of the country. Besides, it wouldn't bother me a bit if ol' Hugo Chavez down there didn't get any more of our money.
I never really had to worry about this under George Bush, because he was working on this.

And now we're about to be saddled with Obamacare. The new medical insurance program. Most people don't seem to realize that the current medical insurance system is the end result of the actions of Ted Kennedy back in the 1970's. They screwed it up royally then, so what makes people think the government can get it right this time?

As planned so far, Obamacare, sometimes called Teddicare, will effectively put the private insurance companies out of the medical insurance business, thus causing everyone to buy medical insurance from the U.S. Government. So, we're supposed to trust our government, the same government that can't even run a railroad or keep pavement on the federally funded highways. to give us medical cost coverage that is better than that which we have now? What I see coming is rationed medical treatment. I see not enough medical personnel to take care of the number of patients, thus people waiting 6 months or a year to recieve a diagnosis for, say, cancer. At that point, the cancer is very far along, and the government bureaucrats will decide that it is not cost effective to treat this patient, so he must just go home to die. It is much cheaper that way, I admit. But it isn't really good medical practice.
George Bush wanted to do something about the high cost of medical care in this country, but he knew better than to try what Obama is about to enact. I wasn't too worried before, but I sure am now. Especially since I'm getting older. Older people will simply be considered not worth treating because they're at the end of their useful lives anyway. This can be pretty much inferred from what he said during a huge infomercial he did on TV last week.

The list goes on, but life is truly different around here than it might appear to the rest of the world. My concerns are not unusual, as evidenced by the fact that only slightly less than half the population of this country voted against Obama for president. The pro-Obama general media called it a landslide. But it was far from that.

Moreover, many of those who did vote for him were people who would normally have voted for the Republican candidate.
Unfortunatelly, the Republicans fielded John McCaine. So many conservative leaning voters voted for Obama out of disgust for the Republican party that it certainly helped Obama win the election. I don't know if that was enough by itself to swing the election, but it surely did not help.

I voted for McCain only to vote against the more dangerous candidate. I would have preferred having the option to vote for someone who might actually know what he's doing. We were not given such a choice. Many people voted for "change" because they wanted some sort of "change" no matter what it was. Obama, with that war cry, had the election in his pocket because too many people didn't car what he might do, as long as it was a "change."
Well, it's coming. It has come. In a years time, I will likely be living on the street, as I see little hope for otherwise.

So, actually I don't care what the rest of the world thinks. They can all love Pres. Obama as though he really is the messiah, come to save the world, as so many here seem to believe. I'm not ignorant of how he has been travelling all over the world, apologizing for the Unites States. Telling everyone how terrible this country is. He's trying to get the rest of the world to feel all warm and fuzzy inside about the USA. Well, it won't work in the end. Those who are a danger to the U.S. will see only a weakness, and those who are friends to the U.S. won't really be affected much by it. Overall, his apologies will have a negative effect on world perception of this country.
I wish he would just stay home, keep his mouth shut, and tend to domestic business. ...Hmmm, no, that's not a good idea either. I'll tell you what he needs to do. He needs to get me down there as his top advisor. Part of his problem is that he has surrounded himself with others like him, who have no conception of what it's like for the average citizen in this country.

He's just about finished up now with his self appointed task of undoing all that was accomplished in Iraq, so it appears that'll have to be attended to again in a couple or few years.
Mark D.

[FunkyAl]

Boy, Mark! Didn't expect that. Am at work now, will read later. BUT...

my concern is hardly what someone over in Sudan or Bangladesh thinks of this country

I am happy I don't live there. But in one of the world's ecologically and economically strongest countries, Germany. A country that IS indeed concerned what other countries, even Sudan, think of it. That's why we were and are able to develop on a much higher level...

[MarkD]

Hi Al
Well, I have never lived in Germany, but I don't buy the idea that Germany is the successful country that it is because they worked hard to be 'liked' by every country in the world.
I tend to believe that Germany became what it is, along with most of the other industrialized nations in the world, during what is called the industrial revolution. Just like the other countries that became strong, educated and wealthy during that time, and remain so today, Germany grew in prosperity and in world stature because of the dedication, hard work, and ingenuity of its citizens.

From my own observations, the USA is not especially hated by most of the rest of the developed world. It's hated by the government of Iran, but not by most of the people of Iran. It is feared by the North Korean's, who act tough out of their fear. The citizens of that country, for the most part, don't hold much, if anything, agains the US.

I think we're sitting pretty well with the British, Germans, Russians, Italians, etc. We're even on reasonably good terms with the Chinese. Sixty years ago, who'd a' thunk it?

The Israelies have been on good terms with us, but that might change with our new president, because he has been siding with the terrorists against Isreal in some areas. It remains to be seen what will work out of that.
Mark D.

[FunkyAl]

Sorry, Mark, that I did not answer your latest posting. I just never have the time to get deeper into this with my humble English skills.
I do see some of the points you make but I have to kindly disagree with most of them. Okay, all of them.

But I can stir up some more trouble if you like. My next vacation will either take me to the Iran, Libya or Uzbekistan. We haven't made a choice, yet. U know why I love to travel these kinda countries? They are just different. We've already been to Morrocco and Syria. ESPECIALLY in Syria it occured to me that most of the people we met there were hard-working, honest people trying to raise their children and have a good and peaceful life. They didn't like their own government. From what we can see on TV these days, the same seems to stand for Iran, too.

Everytime I came back from my 'Arabian' holidays, I felt extremely relaxed, freed from Western habits, freed from the fast and unhealthy life we live in our countries.

Apropos my country. My earlier posting made me look quite arrogant. I didn't mean it that way. I believe, I live in a good country with the right attitude. But we are by far not the greatest country in the world. We are not perfect, we do make mistakes but we do care about what other countries think of Germany. The reason lies in our history.

[M-16 pilot]

Well we asked for change and that is what obama is going to leave us with just change. He has spent more $$$$$ than any other president. And that was just his first few months in office. can we handle the change for 3 more years. Bend over here is your change. With all the $$$ he and his dummycrats have given the banking, auto industry, and stimulus. could have been given to the American people who would have purchased goods and services. By purchasing those goods and services would have provided jobs, Those employed people would in turn purchase goods and services. The banks, manufacturers, goverment would have all benefited.

impeach him now and save America.

Tim