8-28 Restoring Honor Event Washington D.C.

After spending the day in Washington and seeing first hand what the event was all about, all I can say is thank God for Glenn Beck. He held to his word that the event was going to be non-political and all about Hope, Faith and Charity. The crowd was amazing, this was the first time I have ever attended an event of any size where there was more please and thank you, then screw you and get the hell out of my way. Sure, there was some folks who didn’t like people cutting in on “their turf” but I didn’t see or hear any one make any comments that could be construed as mean, and certainly not violent. That is until we left the event. Anyone who thinks D.C. is a friendly city, has not spent much time there.

Everywhere we went, people were all about jumping in front of us and getting somewhere first. A group of outwardly gay individuals even felt the need to call us “tea baggers” while we ate breakfast at the Luna Cafe, which by the way is excellent and highly recommended to anyone who finds the need to go Washington D.C. If not for the Gaggle of Homo’s (See Steve I can use discretion at times) the Luna would have been a wonderful experience. Even with the incident the service was very kind and food was excellent. In addition to the Luna experience we encountered people all throughout the city who seemed like it was a huge inconvenience having to deal with “Tourists”. This from a City who by all rights should not even be a population center if not for the fact our government is headquartered there and the sole reason anyone ever had for moving to the area in the first place.

I am glad I had the opportunity to participate in the event, I hope that people of faith, all faith can now begin the process of working together to restore our republic. I believe it will be these people who pave the way. If not, who? If not now, when?

Cheers,

Mike

Awadh A. Binhazim, Ph.D.

To learn more about the Good Doctor start here.

Personal Spirituality and Individual Salvation

I take a lot of heat from both sides of the argument on the subject of faith. I consider myself an Agnostic but support and defend freedom of religion as one of our most sacred rights. I wouldn't say I'm not a believer, I just don't believe that the higher power wrote a rule book. Good is either in your heart or it's not. That's between each of us and our own spiritual belief. Freedom on the other hand is universal and a requirement in order to practice faith, so I believe we all can be joined in that fight.

That said I find myself questioning organized religion quite often. It also makes me question why those who are the most critical of my own personal spirituality of those who follow one flavor or another of organized religion. It seems those who are the "the most" faithful are also the "the most" critical. This doesn't make a whole lot sense to me but it's something that I've learned to accept. I only hope that those who have faith will come together now and work towards our common goals.


Cheers,

Mike

The Hire Act "Scam" of 2010

As you may already be aware our leaders have graced us and our businesses with the Hire Act of 2010. This plan was created to help stimulate the economy by giving our business leaders an incentive to hire people, thus creating more jobs that the current administration can use to boost it's performance. This sounds like a good plan, right? Creating jobs , I mean that's what we keep hearing about, so how can more jobs created be a bad thing?

Here's the catch.

The IRS is giving the tax credit for all employees hired between February of 2010 and January of 2011 who where unemployed during the prior 60 days or who worked fewer that 40 hours for someone else during that time. There is no restriction on Temporary workers or age restrictions for the young or old who may only be working on a limited basis to supplement their lifestyle be it School or Retirement. So let's take the Hospitality Industry for example. Resorts and Destination locations need to hire more people during the summer months to help handle the extra flow. These are positions that would need to be filled regardless of the economic situation and whether or not a tax incentive was available.

Hotel Hires a 15 year old student who will work for 6 hours on Saturday and Sunday during their summer vacation.

Tax Credit, YES.

How about a the College Freshman who who gets a paid internship that has a pre-determined end date three months later.

Tax Credit, YES.

Your retired Grandmother gets bored sitting at home and decides to get a part-time job working 3 hour shifts ever few days so she can socialize and stay active.

Tax Credit, YES.

A Homemaker who does not work for pay nine to ten months out of the year returns to her seasonal job for the 6th season planting in a greenhouse.

Tax Credit, YES.

Barack Obama has just saved or created 8 jobs with just the 4 above mentioned positions. How does he get credit for 8 when only 4 people are actually working? Well it's simple really, the employers involved in the above businesses needed to hire for those positions anyway, and decided they will in fact hire the temp workers who not did not previously work permanently.

Confused? Come on, catch up?

Cheers,

Mike

The Constitution is not "Living"

The Constitution of the United Stated of America is the document that organizes our system of government and secures our rights as citizens of this great Nation. You might have heard or read in recent time that this document is a “Living Document”. You might even recall that Al Gore made this point in 2000 during the presidential campaign. You may also be aware that Barrack Obama supports this concept as he wrote in his book, “The Audacity of Hope”. Many others also support this idea and have written about it over the years but does that make it a reality?

Progressives believe this wholeheartedly as it was they who originally started this concept, going back to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as well their Supreme Court Justices Louise Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes. They created the idea that instead of referring to the actual document we could refer to our own case law and their decisions in future matters. They believed they knew better than the founding fathers. These very same progressives were those who supported eugenics’ and it’s use it to eliminate the black race. These initiatives where hidden in plain sight mixed with more tame ideals such reductions in corruption and improvements to government efficiency.

Ask yourself if our Constitution was intended to be a “Living” Constitution why is that we never heard of witnessed those words until 1937 when Prof. Howard McBain wrote a book with that title. No earlier record shows any reference to this and you certainly will not find this mentioned by any of our founding fathers but our education system teaches this as a guiding principle to our youth. There is no shortage of this concept anywhere you look so to the undiscerning eye this seems like a logical and sound rationale. You will read books and articles by classically trained Authors and journalist referring to this concept like it’s understood fact without regard to the original source documents.

Now the Progressives of the early 20th Century did bring us some key ideas that I will not attempt to challenge here although each can be in great length. They did bring us Child Labors laws and the idea of “Trust Busting” as well as Prohibition. OK, maybe Prohibition didn’t work out so well, but I digress. They also supported Conservationism and Reclamation as well as Union Labor. Even though they are responsible for these changes does not make it right for them to change the entire foundation of our Government. Let us not overlook or dismiss the thoughts and words of those who designed this great nation.

In Federalist 45, ”the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite”. The Constitution from its very origin was the frame of a national government made up of special and enumerated powers, and not of general and unlimited powers. Thomas Jefferson said it best, “Let no more be heard of trust in men, but bind them down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” And possibly the most powerful of his arguments, “On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

Do our leaders follow this guideline today? You be the judge.

Cheers.