Bonuses, anyone?

I can't BELIEVE it. First, I read in the Wall Street Journal that Merrill Lynch intended to and made the decision to pay their employees outrageous bonuses at the end of December and then lied about that decision to Congress. They usually pay bonuses in January for the previous quarter, but they paid them early. Now why do you think they did that? Because they knew they were going under and they knew that they shouldn't get any bonuses because their profits were going to be negative, in the toilet, and suck!!! GREED! Now we hear about AIG planning to pay their employees some huge, outrageous bonuses as well. And what does my evening news tell me about that? They say that the government can't do anything about it. I can't stand it. I really can't stand it. These people are EVIL! (Sometimes I just want to hit them over the head with a crow bar.)

Are We Slaves?

I would like to just start out by saying: Good job, President Obama. Closing Guantanamo Bay has resulted in many of the prisoners going back to the terrorist groups that they formerly belonged to. Way to fight the war on terror.

I would like to comment again on the government policy of handouts and welfare. The Reader's Digest once published the following story:

"In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don't know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. . . .

The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the . . . sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.

Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the 'something for nothing' lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.

A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government's 'shrimp fleet.' But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?

Let's not be gullible gulls. We . . . must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence."

A gentleman named Marion G. Romney stated the following: "The practice of coveting and receiving unearned benefits has now become so fixed in our society that even men of wealth, possessing the means to produce more wealth, are expecting the government to guarantee them a profit. Elections often turn on what the candidates promise to do for voters from government funds. This practice, if universally accepted and implemented in any society, will make slaves of its citizens." He made this statement in 1982. I think that no truer statement could be made. The government is now guaranteeing funds to companies who should be able to make their own money. The government wants to expand the already hefty amount of handouts being given out currently. How soon before we become slaves?

Our Lives Should Not Be Dominated By Our Government

I would like to point out the quotation on the right by Patrick Henry. I am worried that our government is coming to dominate our lives and our interests. Can anyone doubt by watching what is happening with the bailout of AIG and others? What about universal health coverage? That is pretty dominating. The problem with domination? This is what the Communists had in mind and employed. Can anyone think this a right way to govern or to be governed? Our Founding Fathers didn't think so either. The reason given for this and many other dominating programs is that it helps the poor and "mainstreet America." Now I would like to insert another quote from the right:

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
~Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766

I believe in what Ben Franklin had to say here. And the truth is that his assertion has been proved.

Another bother to me: earmarks. Yes I know, I just barely addressed those. However, they just keep coming. As I was listening to the news this morning, it was reported that the Congress has passed an interim spending bill. Guess what is included? ... Earmarks! Of course. I think that somehow the public should be allowed a period of time to review any earmarks added to a bill before it can be signed into law. I know that there are groups out there who monitor this sort of thing, but I don't think the job is getting done. It must not be because we still have earmarks.