Shots Across the Bow

Shots Across the Bow http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/ A Reality Based Blog en rhailey931@gmail.com Copyright 2012 2012-11-07T04:16:55-05:00 236 Years is a Good Run http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/236_years_is_a_good_run/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/236_years_is_a_good_run/
Not the election; that's not what I'm talking about.

And not this blog, although this is my last post.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do if Obama won re-election. This is not a snap decision, or an emotional reaction to a crushing defeat.

Mitt Romney won roughly half the popular vote, indicating that half the country believes we are on the wrong path and that Obama is the man responsible. Half the electorate felt that Benghazi, and Fast and Furious were more important than binders, bayonets and Big Bird. Half the electorate felt that Obama's, well, it's hard to call it a plan since we don't know what it is, vision was the wrong one for America. Half the electorate believed that what he wanted was antithetical to America's best interests. If a few more people, just a few thousand, had voted the other way, we would wake up in the morning to President Romney.

And I would still be writing this post.

Because the other half of American voters have looked at the past four years, and are happy with what they see. The President that brought us long term unemployment at record levels, the lowest workforce participation rates in decades, the most anemic recovery in history, $5 trillion in new debt with who knows how much to follow, quantitative easing as a permanent economic policy, disregard of Constitutional checks and balances, and the replacement of the rule of law with the rule of a man has won re-election. And all he had to do was promise to take money from those who earned it and give it to those who didn't. The American electorate has spoken and they are in favor of continued handouts from the federal government paid for by imaginary money printed out of thin air.

The character of the American voter has changed irrevocably. That smoke won't go back into the bottle. The people, bless their hearts, will continue to vote for the candidate that promises them the biggest slice from the public coffers and the smart candidates will give it to them in order to win elections.

Until, of course, the coffers are empty. Until there are no more wealthy people to tax.

Check out Greece if you want to know what comes next.

It won't be the politician's fault though. They'll find somebody else to blame when the money is gone; probably the rich because they are a convenient target. It won't be their fault either, but they'll take the blame because we, the people, will never place the blame where it truly belongs.

On us.

After Obama was elected, Michelle said that for the first time, she was proud to be an American. I guess that makes it fair for me to say that tonight, for the first time, I am no longer proud to be an American.

Not because we elected Obama, but because we knowingly re-elected him.

If it makes it easier for you to believe this is about race, as my former friend did, then so be it. If you want to believe this is just sour grapes, or an emotional reaction, fine. Believe what you want; it doesn't matter to me. What you or anybody else thinks about me is the very least of my concerns now.

You see, I know what comes next. The confluence of our politics and our economic policies can only lead to one place. I hope I'm wrong and that the current crowd of idiots in DC can accomplish something that nobody else in the history of the world has been able to pull off, but I'm not going to bet my life on it.

I believe we are heading into a time that will combine the worst parts of the Great Depression and the War Between the States. Making things worse, as America weakens, crippled by debt, a moribund economy, and a feckless foreign policy, I expect external attacks as well, not of conquest, but of destruction.

---------------------------------------------

If I were a Republican in Congress right now, my strategy would be simple. Give Obama everything he wants. He wants Card Check, give it to him. Cap and Trade? No Problem. An open door immigration policy with full amnesty? Coming right up! A revised tax code that forces the wealthy to pay their 'fair share,' to be defined of course by the federal government and the size of the deficit? At your service sir! Wage and Price controls to make sure that people don't make 'too much' money? What a brilliant idea!

Give him everything he wants. One of two things will happen. The progressives will turn out to be right, and we will have the most prosperous, secure, plentiful lives in the history of America, Or they will be proven wrong yet again and have nobody to blame for it.

And for those who believe we have a duty to stand up for the people and to work in their best interests, just point back to Nov. 6, 2012 and remind them, "This is what you voted for. This is what you wanted."

At last, people would come to realize that fiscal sanity is not selfishness; it's just good common sense.

On second thought, never mind. The media would still find some way to blame it all on Bush.

-------------------------------------------------

Like I said, I hope I'm wrong; but I have to plan as if I'm right.

Reading over this post, it seems overly melodramatic, but I don't see anything I really want to change. Hard times are coming, and a smart man will prepare. I think I've got 2-3 years as we slowly coast down to desperation, but I am an optimist. A freak storm at the wrong time, a failure of that national power grid, or some other catastrophe could easily cause things to go south faster than I believe.

But they will go south. No country has ever been able to print their way out of a spending problem. Here's a quaint little fact for you. Paul Ryan's budget, the one Obama and the Progressives claimed was draconian , unbalanced, unfair, and would cause tremendous suffering if implemented, did not reduce spending by a single penny. It reduced future planned increases in spending, but did not ever bring spending below current levels. His plan resulted in deficits that were slightly smaller than Obama's, but still massive.

If picayune reductions in spending increases were demonized so strongly by Democrats and the media, then what are the chances that we will ever get spending under control in DC?

The answer is simple; we won't. We'll keep piling on debt, funding it by printing money, until the dollar breaks.

So I'm going to get ready for the day the bottom drops out.

Some people call it going Galt; others call it dropping out. This isn't a protest thing; it's a lifestyle change. I've got to prepare for a time when the things we take for granted, like food, shelter and electricity, can no longer be taken for granted. I call it being prepared.

I wish you all the best of luck. My biggest hope is that four years from now, I can sheepishly come back to this blog and admit I was just a little crazy that night, that I was overreacting.

But again, I'm not betting my life on it.

Take care.

...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-11-07T04:16:55-05:00 Her First Time http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/her_first_time/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/her_first_time/
Painful, bloody, awkward, slightly embarrassing, and you may regret it later?

I guess she's got a point!
...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-27T16:25:25-05:00 An Excellent Question for the Final Debate http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/an_excellent_question_for_the_final_debate/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/an_excellent_question_for_the_final_debate/
I have said several times that one reason I cannot vote for Obama is because he believes he has the authority to use a drone to take out any US citizen that he has declared an enemy combatant, regardless of where they are, or what activity they were engaged in. Anwar al-Awlaki is a prime example of this. Awlaki was an American citizen who went to work as a propagandist and a recruiter for al Qaida. After killing him in a drone strike, the Obama administration leaked rumors that Awlaki had graduated to planning operation, but there was never any indication that he committed an act of war, i.e., took up arms against the United States.

But we killed him anyway, and most people were happy about it.

Then we sent in a drone to take out his 16 year old son at a barbeque. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was not a terrorist as far as anyone can determine but he was targeted just the same.

A teenaged US citizen, never accused, much less convicted of a crime, was killed, not on a battlefield, not carrying arms against the US, but eating a meal at a barbeque.

No court, no judge, no jury; just a secret order and a silent drone.

Folks, that scares the crap out of me.

Now here is where it gets interesting.

Mitt Romney shares nearly the same position as Obama.

All U.S. citizens enjoy due process and habeas corpus rights under the Constitution. Due process permits the use of deadly force against all enemy combatants, including citizens, who engage in acts of war against the United States on behalf of an enemy of the United States. U.S. citizens have no right to affiliate themselves with al-Qaida or other terrorist groups plotting attacks against our country from foreign shores.

As president, my top priority would be to protect the American people from all of our nation’s terrorist enemies, whatever their citizenship or country of origin. My preference would be to capture, interrogate, and prosecute any U.S. citizen who has engaged in acts of war against the United States. But if necessary to defend the country, I would be willing to authorize the use of lethal force.

Romney qualifies his statement slightly be referring to 'acts of war,' but then seems to include joining with or working alongside al Qaida as an act of war.

I have a very hard time stomaching that. Yes, we must defend ourselves, and yes, we must be proactive, but assassination of civilian targets? That's a step too far for me.

So I would love to see this question come up in the debate on foreign policy. I want to hear the future President justify targeting Americans for assassination. If you have the balls to do it, you should have the balls to stand up and admit to it.
...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-19T00:09:28-05:00 The Tennessean Endorses Romney http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/the_tennessean_endorses_romney/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/the_tennessean_endorses_romney/ Really!

The next president must be the one with the best chance to get the crushing, $16 trillion national debt under control, coupled with the more immediate need of enabling a vibrant job market.

It is because the economy is paramount that The Tennessean endorses Gov. Mitt Romney for president.

What's really interesting is that as you read the endorsement, you can tell that the editors of the Tennessean really, really don't like Romney. Much of the article is devoted to all the reasons why they don't want to elect Romney.

Yet they give the endorsement to Romney, meaning they have that much less confidence in Obama.

I wonder how many Democrats feel the same way, yet won't say so. An how many of them will just stay home come election day.
...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-18T20:18:14-05:00 Excellent Discussion of Medicare Contrast Between Obama and Romney http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/excellent_discussion_of_medicare_contrast_between_obama_and_romney/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/excellent_discussion_of_medicare_contrast_between_obama_and_romney/ This kind of discussion will never make it in a debate structured around sound bites, but it's the kind of information people need to vote intelligently.

The problem with calling an increase a cut just because it consumes a smaller share of the total economy is that it assumes that if the economy grows, Medicaid spending should grow with it. It’s essentially an argument that Medicaid should have a claim on a guaranteed portion of every dollar the economy produces.

...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-18T18:51:39-05:00 Remember the Sharp Drop in Jobless Claims? http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/remember_the_sharp_drop_in_jobless_claims/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/remember_the_sharp_drop_in_jobless_claims/
Gone.

Jobless claims jumped right back up to 388,000.

Here's hoping that Democrats don't count votes like they count jobs.
...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-18T14:54:21-05:00 Robb Allen Provides Perspective http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/robb_allen_provides_perspective/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/robb_allen_provides_perspective/ usually involves pain for somebody. I'm guilty of forgetting this all the time. I pray that my reminders are always as gentle as this one.
...
Link to post]]> Personal, Blogging 2012-10-18T14:51:08-05:00 A Real Recovery! http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/a_rea_lrecovery/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/a_rea_lrecovery/ From IBD:

The Obama recovery is so small that median household incomes have been steadily falling since it started, and there are 11 million more people on food stamps and 2.7 million more mired in poverty.

A recovery where people lose jobs, lose money, and sink into poverty...I don't think they are using the word recovery the way most of us would.

And then there's this graphic:

...
Link to post]]> Politics 2012-10-18T14:41:54-05:00 Busy Week at Babble! http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/busy_week_at_babble/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/busy_week_at_babble/
Three posts this week covering several topics, one of which features an old picture of me as a young boy celebrating First Communion.

Yes, they had cameras back then.

This week, I covered Obamacare and the lawsuits over its infringement of religious liberty, whether children should be taught about religion, and the idiocy of New York's soda ban, and how it is merely a symptom of a pervasive attempt to coddle us into subservience.

Go check them out here and let me know what you think.
...
Link to post]]> Personal, Babble 2012-09-21T15:20:05-05:00 Nobody Dies http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/nobody_dies/ http://www.shotsacrossthebow.com/index.php/site/comments/nobody_dies/
It is obscene, derogatory, extremely profane, potentially racist, and certainly NSFW. It is not funny in the least, and has no socially redeeming value whatsoever.

It exists for one reason, and one reason only.

To demonstrate the profound difference between fundamentalists of different religions.

Remember, I warned you that it was profane, obscene, and offensive, and NSFW. It involves various deities in compromising positions. Despite the fact that I am a fundamentalist follower of one of those deities and find the image offensive, even as I understand the underlying message, I feel no burning desire to behead, stone, assault, or otherwise physically harm the artist.

For obvious reasons, this post will not be on Babble!
...
Link to post]]> Religion 2012-09-19T23:12:30-05:00