Re-re-evaluating

ALL POSTS BEYOND THIS POINT ARE ARCHIVES OF A DEFUNCT WEBLOG THAT ENDED IN 2014. 

THERE IS NO DISAVOWAL OF PAST WRITINGS. THESE POSTS REFLECT MY BELIEFS AND THOUGHTS DURING THAT PARTICULAR PERIOD OF TIME. 

CW

No, I'm not shouting it's just an unusually long headline!!!

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I brought this blog back to life back in May of 2013. It was an effort to get away from bloviating on the politics of the day. I wanted to concentrate on larger structural, cultural aspects of our society, chronicling the devolution of America. However, I've found that the politics of the day is the largest contributor of this devolution. The forces that are tearing apart our society and culture (in my view) cannot be separated from the personalities and their shenanigans. So I've found that I'm kinda back where I started.

Judging by the massive readership of this blog and the jam packed and electrifying comment section I have come to realize it's just me shouting into the gale forces of the blogosphere yet barely even contributing to the din. Listen, sometimes I was making a great point and even presenting an angle I felt wasn't getting proper attention. But was it worth the electrons used and the synapses expended putting fingers to keyboard? Probably not. Did I feel better afterward? Not really.

I read an interesting piece the other day about a former leftist activist who upon opening her eyes realized that everything she had done up to that point had been motivated by anger and hate. Even after the object of whatever particular hatred she had was dispatched (or retired) she just moved on to the next without skipping a beat. It was when she realized she had no friends or even acquaintances on the "right" that she reached out for the first time in her life. Though she vehemently opposed their views she found many right-wingers were motivated by love and family and church and community and not necessarily hatred and anger like she was. The last straw was when she realized that while she said she hated the war when George Bush was President and protested at the drop of a hat, she never took part in any protest when Barack Obama took war action. Why? She didn't hate Obama. War didn't matter - hatred did.

Why do I bring this up? I guess I question my own motivation for spouting off like this. Since hardly anyone reads this am I doing it for my own good? What good is it? Is it just my anger at the fools, charlatans and con men as I perceive them? Yeah, probably.

On the other hand, not all leftists are like this woman. Many, probably most, are motivated by by love and family and church and community too. I think they are completely wrong on many subjects but I don't think it's pure hatred that motivates most of them. Yes, there are right-wingers that are motivated by hate - though I think the numbers pale in comparison to the left.

The USA has a lot of problems -  fear, envy, anger and hatred are at the top of the list. I don't want any part of these things in my life. Blogging like this can only contribute to these undesirable attributes. In light of this I will be re-re-evaluating the use of this space...

bear with me...


Ugh

Still seeing blue

Well, it was a big day for he GOP everywhere except in Minnesota. Sure the GOP won control of the State House, but that's small comfort in a state where the Governor and the other constitutional officers wield considerable power. All the state wide offices went to the Dems - again.

It is curious only in that the people of Minnesota are by and large conservative people. These passive/aggressive folk are rarely far-out Birkenstock wearing hippy dippy types. Yet despite their personal conservatism they vote Democrat time after time. This speaks to few things, one is a very weak Republican party and another successful anti-conservative poisoning by the hard core liberal action groups that take advantage of that weakness. Face it none of the past Republican office holders with the exception of one-termer Rod Grams could have been called fire-brand conservatives, the kind that would engender the type of aversion we see to all things GOP in this state.

As a state it's hard to find one more consistently Democrat. The state was once a mining mecca that has seen one party block, stall and reject all new mining projects. The Democrats. It's state that is seeing its great reputation for good schools circle the drain and one party has literally controlled the education system for 50 years. The Democrats. Minnesota has the 3rd or 4th highest tax burden in the nation. There's no sign that rank will turn even slightly south, and there's one party that is always willing to raise them further. The Democrats. Still come election day all over the state the good people vote party line - that party? The Democrats.

On the balance sheet it's mostly a well run state, with a relativity low crime and poverty rates and is chalk full of corporate giants. Bad weather keeps out some of the ill effects of big welfare, because we have big welfare up here. The good work ethic of good working stock keeps the corporations humming despite the taxes. That's changing, however. Huge pools of new immigrants and a failing school system will slowly remove the advantage Minnesota has always enjoyed, each sucking more and more resources from state coffers. Add the ridiculous focus on choo choo trains in the transportation arena. Soon the Twin Cities will become a bypass because the neglect of the road systems will reach critical mass. The tax and spending burden the Dems have laid on the rest of us chickens will come home to roost

Of course well run is relative, small business owners would disagree. The folks who signed up for MNSure would most likely disagree. Warehouse owners looking at their new tax  bill would disagree. I disagree.

Why do we stay if the politics is so unbecoming to center/right people? Well, we were born here, our families are here... That's all I can think of... Oh yeah, our six-week summers are awfully nice.



Ugh