The American Blog

I was flying from Palm Springs to San Francisco. I sat down in seat 9B. As I watched passengers embark, I noticed a young guy wearing a baseball cap backwards. There was something unusual about his movement. He sat in 8C. I noticed that a large part of his neck was red and that there was what seemed to be a large scare going under his cap. I thought he must have been in a fire. Ouch……

During the flight, I noticed he had his head down. I peeked between the seats. There was a book on his lap and his eyes were open but he wasn’t reading. Something was going on. Read the rest of this entry »

A segment of Americans support abortion and are against the death penalty.

How could one justify such a position?  A position where one is against executing individuals who have done exceedingly evil things and have been convicted in the U.S. legal system and yet supports the killing innocent, very young individuals (fetuses) when the mother wants this.  One can’t have seen an ultrasound of a fetus in the second or third trimester of development, with a straight face, and claim that the fetus isn’t a very young living being.

Supporting the death penalty and abortion OR being against the death penalty and abortion are at least consistent positions.

Abraham Lincoln  in his famous   Gettysbuerg Address talked about a democracy as a government  “of, by and for” the people.  This assumed that   the “people” meaning American  citizens were involved.

Unfortunately, most Americans aren’t involved in our democracy.  Too many of us  believe that the responsibilities of a citizen  are to  vote, serve on a jury when summoned and   occasionally  volunteer. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve heard about government bureaucracies. You probably also know that many city, state, and federal government agencies are outsourcing many services to the private sector to save cost.

And you’ve no doubt encountered a government bureaucracy from time to time - whether it be the Department of Motor Vehicles, the court system, the IRS, and on and on. So most of us appreciate that most public-sector agencies are slow to provide service, provide mediocre service, are difficult to get hold of, and so on. But just in case you don’t or you need a reminder of how inefficient government is, this blog entry will highlight examples. Read the rest of this entry »

Sound backwards? The founding fathers would think so. They knew that America’s priorities had to be “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and in that order as stated in the Constitution. They understood that if the country isn’t safe or is at war (“life), then we couldn’t be truly free (“liberty”). And they understood that if we aren’t free, then we can “pursue our happiness”.

Unfortunately, we have our priorities backwards and it shows. Too many of us care more about our pursuits of happiness, than we do about ensuring the country is strong and thus free.

We spend more time getting on Do Not Call lists than we do communicating with our elected officials. We teach our children how to prove that two triangles are congruent but don’t teach them how to be good citizens. Read the rest of this entry »