Jinxed Universe

So, I've been thinking of why everyone is so willing to have someone take care of them? Think of it how many times have we heard during this last election of people so excited that Obama is going to pay their mortgage or crying because once he is elected all their problems are going to disappear?

Everyone is talking about how we need the government to do this and that, pay my mortgage, bailout Detroit, change my diapers. Oh, you didn't know I can't change my own? Anyways, it seems the people in general don't want to be responsible for themselves. That they just want to be a lemming that is following the leader no matter where it takes them.

Now why is that? Well, I've been thinking a lot about this. To maintain everyone's right to choose for themselves, we walk a fine line. Now, if we get off that line, it is a downhill slope on each side, so we have to work even harder to get back on the line. Is it easier to go down the slopes? Yes, absolutely! But we are giving up our freedoms when we get off it.

Once we have given up those freedoms we no longer can succeed or fail. Because it is not our decision to make. So, we don't have to fail any more. But we are giving up our rights to succeed. Now, doesn't that sound familiar? Didn't Satan want us to come down here and be forced to do what is right so we could all go to heaven? But, Christ wanted us to have the chance to decide for ourselves and not all of us would return, but we would have made the choice to go to heaven or hell.

We have lost site of what the government is really here for. It isn't here to tell me that I need to wear my seat belt, or that I can't have a gun because we don't want anyone getting shot by one. We need to put it in its place and tell them to let us run our own lives. But, that will only happen if we can get people to understand how important it is that we are responsible for ourselves and our decisions.

So call me old fashion, but I love Clint Eastwood. I remember growing up watching a ton of old Westerns with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. His personality really comes through in his movies. I have only seen Dirty Harry on TV once, and I like seeing anything that he puts out that I can. Does he have some stinkers, yes! But, if you look at his movies as a whole, I like it.

Come on how can you not like a guy who talks like this;

"I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it.”

"I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it."

"Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power."

And My Favorite.

"I know what you're thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I've kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum - the most powerful hand gun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question--Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk!"

A while ago I read an article where Spike Lee started a war of words with Clint Eastwood. Lee took issue with the lack of African-Americans cast in Eastwood's World War II films "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," saying "Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen."

Now Eastwood fired back and said, "I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is; a guy like him should shut his face."

Who wouldn't like this guy?

So, most everyone over 18 considers themselves a man or a woman. Well, generally yes they can. But, to truly consider one a man it takes more than age. Most of you have seen what I am talking about, boys that should be men, but end up shirking their duties and wasting their time.

If we remember the scripture in Mosiah, that says, "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and puteth off the natural man..." Does the natural man like to be lazy and waste their time with video games and shirking their natural duties? Of course!!! Boys like not having to work, being able to watch TV, and not caring about anything but themselves. So, a "boy" is a natural man. We must learn to become less "boyish" and more like men.

Now days we see a lot of these types of "boys". They come in all types of ages and even men can let the boy out occasionally. So, what brings on the man out of a boy? Usually this means there has been an increase of responsibilities that they will fail or succeed. Now, this doesn't mean choosing the type of food I'm going to eat, but life changing decisions. Like going on a mission, getting married, having kids, going to college, etc. These decisions require more than your standard, dang I screwed up consequences, but life altering failures or successes.

So, when these responsibilities come, they either become a man, or fail and stay a boy. "Men" who don't want to take on the responsibilities of having a wife, kids, an education, even to the extreames of having a job, are not "Men" but boys. A person that cannot support themselves cannot be considered a man but a boy. I find that our society likes to find excuses and reasons to call a boy a man. That their reasons for putting of their duties is because of depression, emotional troubles, or whatever. They thing that by making this backdoor into manhood, that one becomes a man. I think that by creating these safety nets , we remove the possibility of failure. It is that pressure of failure that helps us push further.

Failure is okay, In scouting we are taught that we are to let the boys fail, but to control the type of failure. If a boy doesn't setup his tent when he is told and then it starts to rain, we have to let them get wet and cold to learn, but to make sure that they don't die. This way they can fail and understand why they must do what they are told. I know people that love to bring extras of everything so the boys can rely on their leaders to have brought what they need. I don't, I feel this is another safety net, if they don't bring their utensils, or whatever, they can survive without it, it may not be pleasant, but they will remember to bring it the next time we go camping.

Work and responsibilities are an important product in making a man. We must prove ourselves in some difficult situations before we can come out better when we came in. Think of refining a metal, we take the unrefined ore and put it in the smelter to separate the slag from the pure ore. If we can stand that fire and remove the "natural man" we can become men and better than when we entered the smelter.

President Faust talked about how his father gave him the responsibility of taking care of a lamb and when a storm came, he didn't put it in the barn, so when the day came, it had died. His father told him how disappointed he was in him. So, we see here he was given responsibilities and he was able to fail and was able to learn a great lesson as a youth that has stuck with him throughout his life.

So, Justin was telling me the other day that he was watching Dave Chappelle on TV and he was talking about a girl dressing sleezy and making the statement, "Just because I am dressed this way does not make me a whore." Then he makes fun of that statement by saying that if he was dressed in a cops uniform that it doesn't make him a cop. Technically yes, but everyone is going to think otherwise.

Think of that statement, "Just because I am dressed this way does not make me a whore." Now, if you aren't a whore, a slut, a trap, or whatever. Then way are you dressed that way? How many times have you seen someone dressed in anyway provocative? Why would they want to dress like that. Because it gets them attention. Now, when someone dresses like that, what do you expect to go through everyone else's mind? Well, some will start to slobber, others will not even notice and then there are those that will brand you a tramp. Sorry people, I am one of those that will pull out the branding irons and burn it into your hide.

Just like the beer ads that show everyone having fun drinking. Our society has slowly creeped in the crap on TV, in movies, everywhere we see. All the time you see scantily dressed women on TV. I was talking to some of the girls at work and one of them was telling me how a Victoria's Secret ad came on TV while she was at her in-laws house and she just happened to be sitting next to her father-in-law and how embarrassed she was. These ads subliminally tell us that it is okay to be dressed like this or that. That men will fall for you if you are dress in this.

Since, getting married and living on my own, I just don't watch as much TV as I used to. What TV I do watch is usually PBS or the type. One, day there was a movie on one of the other channels that I sat down and began watching. In the first few minutes of the show I was amazed at all the crap that came on my TV. I seriously couldn't watch it. Now, you may think I'm being a little extreme, but it is amazing to see how desensitized we have become with all the stuff we are exposed to on a daily basis.

Anyways, I find that when a girl dresses like a slut, that she attracts those who are looking for someone that is "easy". Why, because you are putting off that message by dressing like that. DUH!! So, if you don't want some slimy person coming after you then dress modest. Remember the phrase Modest is Hottest.

Warning, I am a hard one when it comes to lazyness and lack of dicipline. So, if you don't agree with my thoughts, then shame on you and get off my site.

As most people know, I love animals. I have had everything from a dog, and a cat to chickens, turkeys, geese, and a goat. Of all of these my favorite is a dog. They just are so much more intelligent than most other animals.

When we had our dog, we had someone come help us train him. Anyways, the dog trainer was able to train us and our dog. It was fairly easy, but we just had to be consistent. If we didn't follow through for one time, we had to start all over. It was very important to let the dog know if what he was doing was good, where we would encourage him with a "Good Boy!", or when he would do something wrong, we would tell him, "No." Sure enough, he was able to learn quickly and was a wonderful dog.

One day I heard a story where a woman had just got a dog. A while into getting this dog, it started to poop on the carpet. So, when she saw this she would open the door going outside throw a dog biscuit out the door and tell it to go outside. It would then proceed outside while she cleaned up its mess. Day after day, this dog would poop on the carpet and she would throw a biscuit outside to get it to go out while she cleaned up after it.

After a month of this she was talking to the friend and telling of her dog and how she couldn't train the dog to go outside. The friend asked what she did when the dog pooped on her carpet. The woman told of how she would throw a treat out the door and get the dog out of the house while she cleaned up.

The friend laughed as she heard this. She told the woman how the dog was viewing pooping on the carpet as a good thing because it gets to go outside and is given a treat. So, it corresponds the pooping on the carpet to the double rewards.

Now, the real purpose of my story. I can't tell you how many times I have seen kids, from infant to 18 doing this kind of behavior.

When I got home from my mission my mom would ask my brother to take out the garbage. She would do this a couple of times in an hours time. Then after he blew her off, she would turn to me and ask, of course I would do it. After a month of this, I had figured out what was going on, my mom had trained my brother that if he would balk at taking out the garbage, she would leave him alone, and it worked. To this day he doesn't do any chores. Because he knew he would just moan and not have to do it.

How many times do we reverse train our kids. We don't have to tell them what they are doing is wrong, they know that. But, we don't enforce the rules. If we let our kids run our lives then we are the ones being trained by our kids. Look at how my brother trained my mom. She now knows that if she tells him to take out the garbage it won't get done, so don't ask him. Ask someone else.

Here is another example. I know someone who fell on hard times and now doesn't have any employment. So, having a good family, his family began to help him out by giving him money for rent and food. All they had to do was report to the family on how things were going. Things went fine for the first few months. Then the reports stopped coming in, nobody could find out what was going on. So, the family went over and found them not looking for a job, but lounging around and doing nothing worthwhile.

So, according to the rules, they were supposed to make a report on how thing were going, they would continue gettting help. But, they couldn't even do that. According to the rules that is a breach of contract and therefore they shouldn't get any assistance.

Continuing on with this story, a year has gone by and the family is still "helping" this individual. They still don't have a job and the family is still supporting them. They are making no effort to change their situation. So, you can see here that the family has trained their child that they can do what they want and the family will financially support them even if it means doing nothing.

Ideally in this situation the person should be left alone. Since, they don't want to do anything. They should be free to suffer the consequences of their actions. Instead, they are a burden on their family and no end in site. If they were left on their own they would come to the harsh reality that I've got to work to eat, I've got to work to have roof over my head. Hmmm, maybe I should get my act together and do something. Otherwise as it says in Galatians, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Also, in D&C 42:42 it says, "Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer."

Some may call me heartless, but I'm all for giving a helping hand to those who truley need it. But, if they don't really need it. No stinking way. Tough love people, that is the best training. Sometime they force you to do this, and you shouldn't have to feel bad.

This really puts things in perspective.

"This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws," says Professor Davies. "Read on, as it does make you think!" Here's his analogy:

"Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

the first four men, the poorest, would pay nothing;
the fifth would pay $1;
the sixth would pay $3;
the seventh would pay $7;
the eighth pays $12;
the ninth would pay $18;
and the tenth man, the richest, would pay $59.

"That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement --- until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).

"'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I am going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20.' So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.

"The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six--the paying customers?

How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

"The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay:

as before, the first four men paid nothing;
now the fifth man also paid nothing;
the sixth man now paid $2;
the seventh paid $5;
the eighth man paid $9;
the ninth man paid $12;
leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.

"But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20 reduction,' declared the sixth man, but he, pointing to the tenth. 'But he got $7!'. 'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man, 'I only saved a dollar too; it's unfair that he got seven times more than me!' '"That's true,' shouted the seventh man, 'why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!. 'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison, 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!' "The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important. They were now Fifty-Two Dollars short of paying the bill. Imagine that!"

Next time you lazy poor people complain about taxes. Re-read this story to understand what is really going on.

When my parents started to build their house, I began to understand what work was. Before then, we rarely did our chores, weeded the garden or anything. But, the second my dad purchased the land his house sits on, we had to start working. The land was covered in trees and garbage. We spent weekends there cutting and burning the overgrowth. Then, when our house started to go up, we were there again installing the heating. Then when the house was finished we spent every free day landscaping the yard. This was not an easy feat. When you had to dig the sprinkler trenches out another 6" that the trencher couldn't do, or spending the 4th of July building a block wall taller than you are, you find out what you are made of.

A few years later I quit my janitorial job of work 2 fast hours and get paid for 4, for a full-time job as a hodtender for a mason. Boy, did I make more money, but did I ever earn it. As hodtender, my job was to be at the site before the mason, to get everything setup so when he showed up he would just lay brick. Then as the day goes on, to keep his supply of mortar and brick going and do any odd jobs to keep him doing his job. Then when the mason is done doing his job and leaves, I'm still there cleaning everything up and preping for the next day.

When I would come home I would be dyed various colors from the mortar and absolutely worn out. I would be putting in 8-10 hour days. I would be so tired from lifting mortar and brick up scaffolding and just generally moving it around that I was so physically tired that I would fall asleep the second I got home.

Then at lunch one day I was talking to my boss and he explained that the more I was able to do to keep him laying brick and do everything else, the quicker we were able to get jobs done the more money we made. Because we make the same amount of money whether we take 1 week or 2 months. So, of course the faster we did it the more he made and the more he was able to pay me.

So, with this in mind we went back to work. I worked with this guy for three months, and I gave him everything I had. By the end of those three months he had started me at $7.50 an hour and at the end I was making $10.50 an hour. He even at one point started showing me how to lay brick.

I have kept these two experiences in mind my whole life. I can't tell you how much people are lacking a good work ethic now days. I have tried to give my whole to everything that I take upon my self. But, now days I don't see many hard workers. I see a bunch of lazy farts that think that want their cake and to eat it too. In my business there is a TON of learning involved. We have to be able to diagnose a problem and solve it. Most problems are fairly unique and so you have to be very careful in fixing things that you don't make the problem worse. Especially when you could take down a company at the click of a button. Anyways, in the last year we have hired five different people and all of them found that it was too hard to learn all of the stuff we were asking. We were just trying to get them familiar with a product and not even do anything beyond just knowing what it does.

The only reason higher taxes for the "Rich" are so popular is because everyone wants to work less and get paid more. Since I've been in scouting in this ward I have found that everyone wants to hand the Eagle Scout award to everyone. We have a boy that will be 19 in Feb. He isn't even a Life Scout, but all of his leaders keep telling him that they are going to help him get his Eagle. I have had to help these guys understand that there is no way he is going to get it. That because this boy at one point just dropped off the face of the planet and at the last second wants his Eagle, him and his mother feels like we have let him down. His younger brother was in my troop and we went on a "hike" along Legacy Highway and the last mile I was trying to encourage him and motivate him into going faster than a snail's pace. He kept telling me he was going to call his mom to pick him up because this was too hard. I just kept telling him that the end was is site and to just keep going.

Our stake puts on once a month a required merit badge class. Where the boy just shows up and does what he is asked and can come home with a required merit badge class. I tried to convince my boys into going, but they said it wasn't any fun and that it was hard. So, they didn't go and I told them they will be taking all of the required merit badge classes our scout camp has to offer so they understand that what the stake is doing is nothing compared to what they really need to be doing for these merit badges.

We are loosing our work ethic. How many times do we see people looking for a handout for nothing. Seriously, how many bums do you know who will actually will "Work for Food". They are just looking for an easy buck. How many men do we know who are still attached to their parents for money, shelter, because it is too easy to take it from them.

The only good thing about this recession is that those who really suck at working and need a hard wakeup call will be without a job here. If they are truely hardworkers and can perform they will get jobs and the lazy bums that need to be on the street will either wake up or end up on the street.

At the beginning of this last school year my youngest two siblings began high school. One day I came home from work for lunch and my mom and I began to talk about where Ryan was in math. She had a sheet that showed all of the classes and what were the prerequisites. As I began looking over this and what Ryan took last year. We came to the conclusion that Ryan wouldn't even be able to take PreCalc before he graduates from high school.

Now normally I wouldn't worry about this, but being a Jenkins he is very smart and no matter who it was we all have taken at least PreCalc in high school. Why is Ryan different, is he dumb? Absolutely not!! What happened is, when all of us were in school we had Pre-Algebra, Algebra and Algebra 2 w/ Trig. So, with Ryan the school system has changed it so you take Pre-Algebra, Algebra A, Algebra B, then Algebra 2 w/ Trig. So, are kids just dumber today than they have been before? Has Math changed since we were in school? Not even close.

We are living in the age of Self-Esteem, Everyone is a winner, and all that crap. This has lead to a lowering of the standard. Because we cannot make anyone feel like they are different from another, we lower the standard and make it so everyone can pass the classes.

This idea is ruining our future. This isn't just happening in our school system. Our government loves to do this to everyone. One type is Affermative Action, here we are saying that Blacks are lesser people and we can't make them work as hard as the rest of us. No, we have to lower the bar for them and so they can just walk over it. We also see this as we understand why AIG and the likes are in trouble. The government lowered the standard on giving out loans so a person that really shouldn't be buying a home is getting one and defaulting on it. So, now these guys are screwed and our nation is in trouble.

As much as everyone wants to deny it, failure is a good thing. This is where we learn from our mistakes and grow. Who would like a trophy for being last place? Too many times, we come up with excuses of why we can't hold someone to a standard.

"Oh, it isn't my fault, I thought my Winnebago came with an AutoPilot." No you were just stupid.

"My kids just aren't as good at soccer as the other team." Tell them to practice more.

"He's just not as smart as his classmates. But, we can't hold him back he would lose all of his friends." Then push him harder, tell him what is going to happen if he doesn't suck it up.

"I was born this way, I didn't choose to be gay." Bull crap, you just want to justify your behavior.

What happens is everyone takes the responsibility and points it to someone or something else and therefore we have to lower the standard because it isn't our fault. Rather than making ourselves responsible for ourselves, and raising our standards up to what is required, it is always someone else's fault.

By allowing this we are giving up our freedoms to make allowances for these "exceptions". In my eyes this is the seeds of socialism. I'm not responsible for myself, the government is supposed to take care of me, and now we are no longer accountable for anything.

Lately I have heard a bunch of ads on the radio about having parents read and teach math to their kids. They talk about how we as a nation used to be the number one creator of scientists and engineers, but now we have lost that position because we have lowered the standard and we are creating a bunch of fat, lazy, whiners. This all because we have lowered the standard in which we hold our youth.

Was Pres. Hinckley inspired when he raised the bar for the missionaries? Absolutely!! Now we need to do the same in every aspect of our lives.

A year ago I took a class and became a Certified NRA Instructor. While I was there we had to do some shooting and we used the Council's rifles. These rifles were amazing. They were very easy to use and I can see why they have them for the kids to use while up at camp. Anyways, one of the guys teaching us told us he could get us one of these rifles for about $220. At the time I thought about it and decided not to go with it. I checked out a site later on and found the gun for about the same price.

Now, fast forward to today. I have been watching the price of this gun for a year now. I just can't justify the purchase at the moment. But, if you look at the price of the rifle now, it is a $100 more than it has been, ever!! What happened? I'll tell you. So, the day I looked this up was a couple of days after the elections. Well, because Obama has been elected, the price of guns has jumped. Now you have to ask why? Well, he doesn't like guns and wants to get rid of them and everyone knows it.

On Tues. I "had" to stop at Sportsman's Warehouse. I was getting some stuff for my campout this weekend. While I was there, I stopped by the gun section and I was blown away. All the shelves were empty!! I mean there was no bullets, no gun powder, no reloading supplies. There were guns on the racks, but they weren't full like you are used to seeing. Okay, yes, hunting season has been going on. But, all gun powder was gone, all callibers of bullets were gone. Literally all the shelves were empty.

I think that the public are panicked. They know what is in store and are saving up for the worst. They know what is going to happen in the next four years. Do I blame everyone for buying out the store? No, I'm inclided to help them do that. I just don't have the financial freedom at the moment to do so.

Really, I think that we will never outlaw guns. I think the democrats know that. I think these initiative like in California to get rid of lead ammo is how they are going to pass gun control. They are going to slowly make excuses of why certain types of ammo shouldn't be used until that included all types. Then we will have our guns without any ammo. That is why I'm getting involved in reloading my own ammo. It started off just being a way to make shooting cheaper. But, I believe we are going to see restrictions on ammo coming out of this administration.

Being the Scoutmaster for our troop, it is my responsibility to take the Boys out camping and getting comfortable in the outdoors. So, for this weekend I have planned an overnighter up by Causey Reservoir.

Yesterday I handed out equipment lists to the boys. On it I made a statement of no electronics. In my last ward, this was an issue that every boy had an MP3 player they would bring and listen to. They would listen to these all the way up to the campout and during the campout and back from the campout. So, I wanted to nip this is the bud before it became a problem.

Well, apparently these guys want to bring their Nintendo DSs. I told them if they brought them I would confiscate them and would only return them to their parents. Boy, I thought I was going to have an uprising. I have been planning out what we are going to do for quite a while. So, I garantee that if they will just show up, they will have a great time.

Again in my last ward, the YM Pres. kept telling us leaders that all the entertainment of today is to keep the youth individualized or isolated. That these things are creating problems for our youth because when they are face to face with someone, they don't know how to react. Think of it, how many people do you know that are addicted to computer games, their cell phone (namely texting on their phone), MP3 players, etc. These are all getting us used to being self entertained, we don't need others, let alone the need to hold a verbal conversation.

I have seen multiple times first-hand how this game World of Warcraft destroys all social aspects of a person's life. People get into this and begin to live their lives through this fantasy world. Not only that, but they begin to pay real money for virtual belonging. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

These games are so addictive that players don't eat, don't sleep, they lose track of time. They are all consumed into these games that they begin to lose track of their real life. I personally have done this, to a lesser degree. I have stayed up 'till the wee hours of the morning trying to take over the world or something.

It is bad, these electronics are supposed to help us. In my profession as a Computer Tech. I see the addictive nature of computers. That is why I am glad I have my calling. It gives me the chance to get away from technology and relax.

We need to make sure we are not so dependent on technology for our own entertainment that we can't part from it for even an overnigh stay.

On Weds. we had a discussion with the new girl in the office about the school voucher system that got defeated last year. She was under the impression that in addition to what she was paying in taxes for public schools we would also be paying for private schools also. When we understood what she thought, we helped set her straight and now she understands the advantage of having the voucher system.

When I was in college, I did a paper on the benefits of the private schools system and the voucher systems. I cannot believe the lack of understanding on this issue. So, I want to write an article and hopefully help at least a couple of people understand the benefits of these issues. While I was in High School, I worked at West Bountiful Elementary as a janitor. Being in such a job along with being a child of the public school system, I have first hand experience in many of the faults of this system.

First off lets define the difference between "public" and "private" and how they work.

When we talk of "public" this term is usually used when referring to anything that is funded by the government. These can vary, from public schools, public library, to even public services. These divisions all receive their money from taxes from the people. From an economic point of view, these types of institutions aren't as efficient as a "private" institution because they don't have the competition to constantly be improving. This is similar to a communistic society, in that once a type of bike is made. Why improve on it? What do I get for creating something better than the previous one? I can't get paid more than the next guy, and I can't be shown any favoritism. So, we are stuck with the ugly grey bike, even though there are better ways of making it. Think of it, no matter whether you have a better education, or your methods are better, you get paid the same as the next guy that does the bare minimum. These places also are allotted a budget that is not based on performance, but on what the government sees that they need.

Now, "private" means that it is not owned and operated by the government, but by a group or individual that is usually interested in providing a product or service. Now, because these people have to compete with the others trying to provide what they also do, there is a different picture. These companies have to be able to provide the best product they can to attract as many buyers as they can to purchase their product and a reasonable price and still have money enough to pay their employees. This means if an employee finds a better way of making a bike or a new design to attract customers, then the company makes more money and therefore can pay this guy more. While the guy that is just doing the minimum won't last long. When anyone needs to be fired, that guy will be the first to go. But, if a company just stays with a design or a way of doing things and doesn't compete, they will surely fail as a business.

Having said this, these two descriptions apply to the school system. Let me share some personal examples of how our public school system works.

In my brother Jared's 3rd Grade year of Elementary School at Woods Cross Elementary, he had a teacher, Ms. Sebastian, who was going through a divorce and was taking her problems with her to school and taking a lot of her frustrations out on the children. One day my brother came home from school very distraught about the day and come to find out this teacher had yelled at the kids because she was frustrated with her husband who had just had flowers delivered to her room. She began to tell the girls how horrible boys are and just made the kid's lives miserable.

When my mother found this out, she approached the principle about the issue and was hoping there was something they could do. The principal, Mr. Terry, was aware of the issue and said there was nothing he could do. He said that they couldn't move my brother out of the class, he couldn't get rid of the teacher, because she couldn't be fired, that takes years. But he could have gotten her out of that school, but she would just move to another school, and he wasn't going to do that. So, basically, my mom and my brother just had to put up with her.

I have shared a story in a previous post about my English teacher my senior year. Again, many of these teachers are not even doing the bare minimum of giving the children entrusted them the education they require. But, because there is so much red tape to get these teachers fired or even repremanded, these teachers can get away with anything.

Now, on a positive note. Jared and I both worked at West Bountiful Elementary as janitors. There was a teacher while we were there that we know cared about her kids. When school was over and after all the other teachers were gone, here this teacher sat, working away on preparing for the next day. We, the janitors, would leave the school at 7:00 and here she stayed longer that we did. Now I know she has the true meaning of caring for her children, but why should she get paid the same amount as Jared's 3rd Grade teacher? She is doing so much more for her kids than my brother's teacher or even my teacher, I want her making more.

This is where private schools and the voucher system comes in. Here is how we get everyone on equal playing grounds. Right now, I being a property owner, am paying for the public education system, now if I want to send my child to private school, I will pay for their public education and their private education. So, I'm getting hit twice here. What the voucher system does is take that money that would have been spent on my child in public school and allows me to take that to a private school of my choice. This doesn't mean that if I want a $15,000 education for my child everyone is flipping the bill, but what it means is the voucher is good for $5,000 and I will have to pay the difference. Now doesn't that seem fair? But wait, this isn't the only benefit!

In introducing these vouchers, it makes it so the public schools and the private schools play on an even playing field. Now, because parents can make an easier choice on where their child goes to school and its not just the local Elementary school, the public schools have to start to compete for students from the private schools. Now, if there was a movement of students from the public schools to the private schools, the public schools will be able to have smaller classroom sizes like they want. Then if the movement is big enough, the allotment of money to each school will begin to decrease, now this sounds bad, but what this does is force the schools to become more efficient, there is going to be less waste, I can't tell you how much stuff a school throws out and it is perfectly good stuff, from new boxes of chalk and crayons, to new pads of paper to construction paper, to TVs and projectors. All this waste will go away, my family has personally seen all of this waste going on. This includes schools only being able to hire a specific number of teacher and so all the crappy ones as mentioned above would go away and be jobless. This also has an effect on the private schools in that they would have more students and more money to hire new teachers. Causing a demand for good teachers and even raising the salary rates of current and new teachers.

Now I know from my research that many of the teacher and school officials say that vouchers will cause children in public school to get a poor education, because they won't have enough money to keep the public system going, but I beg to differ. As long as the public education system will adapt to the times and not submarine themselves by holding on to the crappy teachers and keeping the loose financial ship they are running, they will do fine. The only people that need be worried by this system would be the lazy teachers that don't know what work means, that shouldn't be teaching our children anyways.

We also hear the argument of seperation of church and state, with kids having the option to go to a Catholic school or a private school being ran by a religious sect. Now, this is bogus, because the government cannot have a national religion, or endorse any one religion. What is going on is, the government is enabling the parents to decide where they want to send their child to school. If the parent wants to have their child learn religion, while at school, that doesn't mean that the government is creating a national religion.

The reason I am for private schooling, is because I have been in a private school. I have seen the children that graduate from this school and they are top notch. These kids are held to a higher standard than in public schools. If these schools don't produce intelligent kids, then they would fail as the free market allows, because the parents then wouldn't take their kids to school there and they wouldn't have enough money to keep their school running. Having been in public schools and seen the large ugly side of it and how it has brought our education down. I just cannot accept letting my children go to a public school. So, if I have the means to get my kids into private school, I will do so.

Next time you see a flyer from your school see how many spelling errors you get? You'll be amazed, and these are the people teaching our kids.

So, the good thing is we won't have to hear about the elections for a while.
Thank You!!! I've had enough of this.

But, I want to make sure that in these two or even four years that democrats run our nation that we hold them accountable for their actions. We cannot let them get away with this. These are a group of liars and will try to get out of it all. But, with them in charge, they can't blame the Republicans for any of the screw ups that they create.

Also, as they screw this nation up, I will actively criticize any and all democrats that voted for Obama or any of the members of Congress. I don't see anything good coming from these times.

I personally believe that anyone that voted for Obama is ignorant to the issues. If you were really actively involved and informed to the issues, you would realize how horrible what Obama is proposing really is. If you disagree lets talk, I would really like to know your logic.

So, a while ago, when Justin had just gotten home from his mission he told our family about a book called, The Millionaire Next Door. Apparently my Mom already had the book, so I went to town on it begin the geek I am. There are some very intriguing ideas in the book and I highly recommend it. But, the reason I bring this book up is to show a similarity that I see with an average company and our nation.

In the Millionaire Next Door, they talk about when someone creates a successful business and then they pass the business on to their children, that the chances of the business's success are pretty good, because the children of the creator saw the struggles their struggles and even felt some of them and so they understand how important the business is and put their hearts into it. But, if the children pass the company on to their children usually this is where the business begins to fail because they weren't around when the company was created. So, the grandkids now are running things and they end up spending money they don't have and running the company into the ground.

So, what does this all have to do with our nation? I believe that our nation is following the same pattern, but on a longer scale. Throughout our nation's history we have had to make sacrifices to maintain our freedom and our country, and at times we have had large wars, and economic struggles that have pulled us back on track. That has brought the cost of freedom back fresh in our minds. What we are experiencing is nothing that has had a great unifying effect on us. The wars we have been apart of aren't enough to bring us together again. We also haven't felt any hard times as some of our parent and grandparents have. So, because the people as a whole haven't felt or really have seen the the struggles of a nation, we take it for granted and we enjoy the freedoms we inherited and in the process screw things up and cause our nation to fail.

That has now brought us here. We have maxed out our credit cards, bought cars we can't afford, mortgaged ourselves to our ears and ruined our nation. With the cherry on the top being a democratic government telling us what we can and cannot do. Hopefully we will wake up before it is too late and we correct ourselves and get ourselves back on track. Otherwise we are going to end up as a communist state.

Yesterday we talked about how Pres. Benson was the Secretary of Agriculture and how he ended up talking to Khruschev who said that Pres. Benson's grandkids would live under communist rule. Then earlier today on Glenn Beck he played Pres. Benson's exact words about the conversation. I couldn't believe it, it made me sick, especially to see so many of our people so blinded and willing to give up their freedoms and to let the government to dictate what they are to do in every aspect of their lives.

When I see this kind of stuff happening it makes me wish the Second Coming would just come. That our nation can't get any worse than it is. But, then I look at it again and say, "Well, Yes it can." Otherwise I wouldn't see a poorer future than the one we currently have.

So, today as I was at my parent's house, we began to have a discussion about politics and what was going on. At some point in the conversation we talked about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and as I was reading these I found some interesting parts of the DoI to be very profound and seem to have a lot of meaning in our times today.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men..."

As I think about these words. I find it interesting that there are those out there that believe that the words "Pursuit of Happiness," means that the government have to provide for them the things that make them happy. But, if you read these words carefully you find that we are given the Right to Pursue Happiness. We are not given the Right to Happiness. We are left to ourselves to gain Happiness in any form that we find it. We also are not to rely on the government to provide this for us. This is an individual freedom that we alone can gain for ourselves.

"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Saftey and Happiness."

I believe that all of the political parties of today have reached this point. They are now becoming destructive and are not holding up our standards, values or principles. It is to the point where it is not "We the people..." that have a say in what we want. Looking at the two major political parties out there, I feel like both of their standards are slipping downward and they are trying to make us feel like we are moving away from them, when in reality it is them that have moved away from us.

The reason I quoted this section of the DoI is because I feel like we could replace Government in this quote and replace it with Party, and it would tell you exactly how I feel. Both parties are doing nothing for us, so we need to institute a new party that holds to our beliefs and make our message clear of what we want. Show these two parties that they are off in left field and that we are not moving. We need to rally under an new banner that is setup on our beliefs and desires.

Throughout American history there have been many different parties that have come and gone. I think that these parties have served their purposes and it is time to get new blood into the system.

I heard this today and I thought it was an idea I loved and would like to see happen after the elections.

A CEO of one of the Banks in Utah is going to have to downsize the bank and layoff some employees, especially when Obama makes all of his changes. As he thought of who he was going to get rid of, he walked out into the parking lot and noticed all of the Obama bumper stickers and an idea came to mind. These are the people who made this happen, they are the ones who will give up their jobs first.

When I heard of this, I thought what a wonderful idea. This way they get to feel first hand what their votes have done to our nation. These are the people that have given us the higher taxes, why shouldn't they lose their jobs and need the help Obama is offering.

So, if anyone reading this needs to fire anyone, please fire the Obama fans first.

So, with having the worst choices available to me for Pres. I was thinking who do I vote for, McCain who is a Liberal in sheep's clothing or Obama a Communist in sheep's clothing? What a selection to vote for. That is as good as voting for SuperDell for governor!!

Anyways, as I have been following what is going on with elections coming up. I have no hope for McCain, I truly think Obama is going to get in and I'll be surprised otherwise. But, I think that once Obama gets into office that we are going to wake up to some nasty surprise in January. I think that will be the day Obama will let his true colors come forth and we will see that all the morons out there that voted for him will have been decevied. We are up for a January surprise!!!

Obama is going to do something that is going to be detremental to our nation. Either he is going come out as a Muslim, or throw our country into Communism, with Putin showing him how. All I know is we are going to be in for a big "surprise." I won't be shocked when the cat is let out of the bag, but just what kind of cat or how big it is will be the shocking part to me.

We just know too little about this man. There are too many questions about his friend and associates. It is enough that I think we know far too little about him to put him in such a position as this one.

So, if any of you vote for Obama, and when this happens, remember I told you so.

I have been reading about the Revolutionary War, I have come to some surprising results in that our forefathers broke from England mainly over being over taxed. It started out that because of the French and Indian War, England had incurred a large debt over maintaining the Colonies. As, one tax law was passed the people revolted and refused to pay, so England would repeal the law and come up with some new idea to get repayment from the Colonies for this debt. Each time a new tax law was passed, the Colonials would refuse to pay, and make a stand against these taxes.

As I read this, I was amazed at how much crap we have put up with. How many times we just have to "grin and bear it." For example, doesn't this Obama redistribution of wealth thing seem horrendous to anyone else but me? I just don't understand why we are so complacent and just roll over for the government. Don't we have a say in any of this? Lately I have seen two instances where the federal government actually listened to the voice of the people and voted against a law that actually was going to pass.

Are we to busy with our lives to be involved in government? Here we are going to vote on Nov. 4th, and there are some Utah Constitutional Amendments being proposed and who out of us all knows where they stand? Are you for or against? Most everyone I talk to just trusts the government and votes yes to them all. Or when was the last time we ever heard of the people voting out a judge, are we up on if they are good or not?

I know that sometimes being a member of a group like the NRA, who will push for laws that its members agree with, can be good. But, I feel like each individual person needs to make an effort. We need to be like our founding fathers and be involved, stand up and don't be afraid to say, "No." I asked some of my family and friends what they would do if all the sudden Pres. Obama passes a law banning all firearms. Would you give them up? Mostly, I got hums and haws and no clear, "yes" or "no" answers. If that ever happened, I wouldn't give mine up. I would do as our predecessors before us and say, "NO!!!!"

This is just one example, but I just want you think of how far you would let things go. Where is your line in the sand? Has the government already crossed it, or how close are we to crossing it? I believe many of us have a wide line and we are in the middle of crossing it and are just letting this line get wider. Personally, with this bailout bill that was just passed. I have hit the point where I believe that the people running our government are out of touch with the people. That they are looking out for the dollar signs everywhere and are ignorant of what we the people desire.

We as the people need to make sure that EVERY one of our voices are heard. We need to make sure that we are emailing, calling and letting our representatives know where we stand and how they need to vote to stay in office. Like I've said, when two crappy bills have been put to a vote, they were shot down, because the American people disapproved of the bills and were active in letting their representatives know that.

This is OUR nation we live in, we cannot blindly elect people. We cannot blindly let these people run our country. I believe that the reason we are in such a bind right now is because too many of us are ignorant and blindly are willing to elect any schmo that promises a better life to these all too important positions.

Here is something to chew on.

Bailout type	Cost to taxpayers (Source: Reuters)
Financial bailout package approved this week	up to or more than $700 billion
Bear Stearns financing	$29 billion
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalization	$200 billion
AIG loan and nationalization	$85 billion
Federal Housing Administration housing rescue bill	$300 billion
Mortgage community grants	$4 billion
JPMorgan Chase repayments	$87 billion
Loans to banks via Fed's Term Auction Facility	$200 billion+
Loans from Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund	$50 billion
Purchases of mortgage securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac	$144 billion
POSSIBLE TOTAL	$1.8 trillion+
NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER U.S. CENSUS	105,480,101
POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD	$17,064+

I am a big fan of talk radio. I can't stand to watch the news on TV anymore. One of my favorites is Dave Ramsey. Having grown up in an accountants home, I know more than the basics of "keeping the books," and so I can agree with Dave on everything he says. Well, the other day he was having people call in and explain to him why what Barrack Hussein Obama is proposing is okay to do. Meaning taking money from those hard working Americans and giving it to the lazy slobs that are going nowhere with their lives.

He gave these guys one hour to call in an justify themselves to him and I went back an forth from laughter to anger. Some of these people were just dumb and their father must have been the Geico Caveman. Then you got the sincere idiots that are so off in left field because they have no mind of their own, and these people ranged from poor as dirt to well off enough that they would be getting robbed by the government themselves.

Dave kept telling everyone that he is not endorsing either candidate and that he was just explaining the logic of this aspect of Barrack's views. He used an analogy that seemed to get to everyone that called in. He would ask how many cars they have and asked if it was okay to take one of those two and give it to someone that doesn't have any. Everytime, the person on the phone would flounder and would never respond to his question.

What part of this plan doesn't stink of communism? Is it the equalizing of the paycheck or the destruction of the motivation to be better? I was amazed that a lot of these callers were using scripture to justify themselves into believing that the government was doing all of us a favor and giving to those in need for us. But, as Dave and I were on the same wave length, he told the people and I screamed at the radio, "We are being forced to give up money, we are not willingly giving to those in need." Imagine if I could count my taxes as being part of my tithing, what a rediculous thought.

I'm trying to play my cards right with all the crap that is going on now days, and I tell you I'm not seeing a pretty picture being painted for our future. I feel like I'm in the days of Nephi before the coming of Christ and watching as the people are becoming wicked and the righteous being oppressed.

Lately, with work and doing a lot of car travel, I've gotten into listening to books on tape. Many of which I have wanted to read, but have lacked the time to read.

Throughout my school years, I was a nerd. Yes, you heard it here, I am a self proclaimed N-E-R-D. I did a ton of reading, I read everything from Star Wars, Louis L'Amour to a thousand page monstrosity called Texas. Once you get into Jr. High, or Middle School, and High School. We are all made to read, "The Classics" and in addition pass off pages that we have read of other various books of our choosing. This seemed an easy task for me because of my nerdyness and addiction to books. But, as I was forced to read with the class, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and a various amount of strange books I would rather not remember, I began to hate what school seemed to call, "The Classics".

When we began to pick apart the sentence structures and derive the meanings of them and look for the foreshadowing in everything, I began to scream. I began to question who these people are to tell me what the Classics really are. The straw that broke this camel's back was when I was a senior in High School, I had begun to read "The Three Musketeers. I had started this before my last semester of High School and was halfway through it when I decided to use the 600 pages for my reading quota. I approached my teacher and discussed using the book, and was immediately shot down, and was given the famous, "It has been made into a movie" line and was told to find something else. I pleaded with her and asked her if I would compare and contrast the differences between the movie and the book. Then, I was given a curt, "No" and sent on. After that I remember one of the kids in the class reporting on one of the books he had read and telling us about it. The book was a biography of Michael Jordan, "Hello, Earth to Moron!! This guy is on TV every day playing basketball," there was no plot, no foreshadowing, am I missing something. At this point I was mad. Then what further angered me was every dang one of these "Classics" had been made into a movie and we were to watch these movies after we read the books. It was bad enough to read them and now we have to replay the whole stinking book through our eyes!?!?!

Ms. Burrows was her name and was one of these teachers that was just there to get a check. She just wanted to do the bare minimum and screw every good kid over in the process. Unfortunately I wasn't aware enough that I could have been in the AP English or even the Honors English.

Anyways, I came up with a plan. I wasn't going to let this hag screw me over. I figured that they didn't pass records of books I had read from one year to the next. So, I went to the library and checked out twenty 100 page books I had read in 9th grade. I sat down with her the following day and told her I was going to read each one. She passed them all and then the next day I showed up with all twenty and reported to the class on all of them. Knowing if she called foul, I could prove I had read each one along with my parents.

As I reported each on of these books off, I could tell she was getting more and more red in the face and I just kept going. Once I finished, the rest of the class continued reporting on their books and I put all the books in my bag and pulled out my "The Three Musketeers" and made sure she saw I was back to reading my book. I knew I had her, she couldn't do anything to me now.

At the end of the semester, Ms. Burrows gave me what is called a "U", which in the Davis County School District means I was rotten. I ended up having to get a signature from the Assistant Principal to get rid of it and to graduate.

The purpose of this story is to show how stupid this whole idea of who is defining what are "The Classics." Do I see that any of these writings that they are making me read as being of a higher caliber than any of the other books I've read? Lately I've taken a fascination with older literature and I haven't found any of what the schools deem of the classic nature to be so much superior to the books I've been reading.

I think that these teachers are using their powers as educators to brain wash our children into what they want them to think. They have have a captive audience and we have no choice in what they can or cannot read. When my children go to school I will not allow for this type of garbage to happen with my children.

The last week has been driving me nuts. I love listening to talk radio and especially Glenn Beck. If you know my family you know that we love our sarcasm. Therefore I can get along with everything Glenn Beck says. This last week has been killing me. Hearing about this bailout bill and all of this garbage that our lovely politicians are doing is driving me to think that the world is going to come to an end at any moment, especially with a commie like Barrack in the White House.

I guess my frustration comes from my knowledge of our history. Throughout the history of the United States we always hear of great quotes from all of our great presidents and leaders of this nation. They seemed to have great things on their mind and inspired us as a nation to reach to higher heights. How many times have we heard of the Gettysburg address, or "Give me liberty or give me death," or "Don't ask what your country can do for you, but ask what can I do for my country." For those who have seen "National Treasure," remember the part where he is quoting the Declaration of Independence? Once he finishes he says, "Nobody talks like that anymore," Why are our current leaders so uninspiring, and conniving? Duh, we like mediocraty, we don't care enough to do much now days.

I have watched parts of the debates and they drive me nuts. Nobody can seem to give a straight answer. They all have to give shady answers that can be interpreted as being for or against an issue. They just want votes, and an office at our expense. They tell us what they want to hear, then once in they do what they want.

Here the first bailout bill was shot down, because we the people didn't want to save these high rollers that mismanaged their companies. Then, they get another bill in and get it passed on the weekend when everyone wasn't aware of what is going on. So, we now get to float the bill for these money grabbers like AIG, Fanny May and Freddy Mack. Then, after we hose ourselves for these guys, AIG has the audacity to plan a huge corporate getaway, on our freaking dime. Thankfully we found out and screamed our disapproval. Anyways, I digress.

Why is it that we can't seem to find an inspiring leader among the population of the US? What has happened to them all? Have they gone the way of the dodo? I feel like every national politicians, republican or democrat will tell you what you want to hear. They are just professional liars.

I don't know, I guess I long for someone to come along and inspire me and make me feel some national pride again. I am proud of our past nation, but our current nation drives me crazy because we don't seem to have any kind or foresight or hindsight. I like the analogy of the frog in the pot. Where if the frog is dropped into a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out, but if you put it in cool water and then slowly heat it up it will die because it will have gotten used to it until it is too late. We are silently giving up our freedoms and then one day we will wake up and it will be too late.