Stop Pulling the Wagon

Cartoon by Syl Mateo

 California may have a new problem.  It seems  that a Federal Judge and California Governor Swarzeneggar have decided to release thousands of State Prison Inmates back into society.  Somehow word of what its like on the “outside” in California seems to have seeped into the protective environment of our penal system. 

As prisoners start calculating that they will be trading a life of free meals, free healthcare,  lots of leisure time with their friends,  no taxes and no responsibilities for what the rest of us face on a daily basis,  I’ve got a question.  What if they won’t go?  What happens if we force them to leave and in their desperation to get back “inside” they commit new crimes and then calmly remain at the scene of the crime demanding to be put back where the “livin’ is easy”?  

One idea might be that instead of releasing them, we transfer them to “Gitmo” (Guantanamo Bay – Cuba).  That way the Federal Government can release them and they (the Feds) will pay for relocating them to Bermuda, Palau or some other island paradise as they have done with many of the “detainees” (spelled “terrorists”) that they have set free in recent weeks.    Its an idea that works for me!

Bob Bandy

Pardon me for being a skeptic.  Now that congress has drained the bucket that was supposed to be holding all of our Social Security contributions, you will excuse me if I don’t want to trust them with another bucket called National Health Care.

Maybe one of them could step up and point out for me an example of an efficiently run Government program or agency that has operated as promised, on time and within budget.

How about the Post Office?  It lost Seven Billion Dollars last year.  Maybe Amtrak – but no, we keep pouring Billions of taxpayer dollars into it and it keeps losing money.   These are but two of many examples.

Maybe we could have Health Care run by our military.  They are not typically efficient but they are effective if you don’t mind killing ants with a Four Hundred Dollar sledgehammer.

Could it be  that Congress and the Administration is trying to create another bucket called National Health Care that we taxpayers can pour money into.   A bucket that they can dip money from.  Money they can pay out to favored groups (ACORN is a good exapmple) and individuals so they can keep getting re-elected and stay in power.

And someday, we will find that this bucket too has been filled with IOU’s payable in hyper-inflated dollars borrowed from the Chinese.   Dollars that are now worthless because of Congress’  lack of fiscal discipline.

Why do people who lie to you and mismanage your money seem so surprised when you no longer trust or believe them?         

Bob Bandy

Watching episodes of Jay Leno’s  “Jaywalking” , “Battle of the Jaywalk” etc. ( check it out on Youtube)  is very entertaining and funny.  Many of  those interviewed and questioned are clearly well educated people.   A substantial number saying they were college students/graduates, teachers, managers etc..  Many of the answers given were amazing.

When asked where the Cold War was fought, one of Jay’s questionee’s figured it had to have been fought in Antartica because its cold there.  I guess we defeated the Antarticans?

Now I don’t claim to be the brightest person around.  Just sort of an average guy.   But I am real sure of three things:

• The Cold War was not fought in Antartica.
• You don’t give the keys to your new car and a bottle of whiskey to a teenager.
• You can’t spend your way to prosperity with a credit card.

But I would be willing to bet  that if we presented the above as questions to those in charge of our government (Federal and State) they would probably not score more than 33% on the test.

California is getting ready to release thousands of felons because of budget cuts and some Federal Judge who decided that they are overcrowded and not getting all the health care and other things they are entitled to.  (They receive better health care now than probably 90% of the rest of us.)

Maybe we should send these released felons to serve in Congress.  I’m thinking they would likely steal less and waste less money than the group that is in there now.      

Bob Bandy

Living in California is a little like being trapped in an episode of The Simpsons.

I am specifically thinking of the episode in which the entire family went to Electric Shock Therapy at Doctor Marvin Monroe’s Family Therapy Center.  Each of them was given a button with which they could Zap another member of the family during the Therapy session.  Once started, they continued to Zap one another until they finally caused such a drain on the electrical grid that  the lights across the whole town started to flicker.

California is now like that.  A dysfuntional state that is in the process of Zapping itself into darkness.  Functional if not literal darkness.  Zap, lets solve our financial problems by laying off fire fighters and law enforment personal.  Zap, lets solve some more of our financial problems by releasing felons from prison.  Zap, lets solve this years financial woes by borrowing from future budgets.  Zap, more Regulations to drive business out of the State.   And, maybe my favorite:  zap, lets raise taxes so more people who pay taxes will leave the state.  Zap, Zap Zap —- The lights are starting to flicker.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor I think many of us Californians thought we had Conan the Barbarian riding to our rescue.  Certainly he would jump in, muscles rippling, crack some heads, slay the evil Serpent King Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and we would all live in peace and prosperity.

But Conan had never met an enemy before quite like the Simpsons.  Little did we all suspect that we would see our hero morph into a kind of Conan the  Simpson.         

 Bob Bandy

Credits: The Simpsons 1994 – Theres No Disgrace Like Home – Matt Groening/Creator  Conan the Barbarian 1982 Directed by John Milius – Universal Pictures/20th Century Fox

I hope I am wrong but am afraid I am not.

It seems to me that our Congress and Administration is  in the process of doing something Osama Bin Laden tried, but failed to do when he planned the destruction of the  Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.   One of Bin Laden’s major goals was to severely damage, and he hoped, destroy our economy.

Our Government (Administration and Congress)  is now exploding our national debt by spending something like one hundred and eighty five percent of revenues.   In addition they are in an ongoing campaign to destroy what is left of the economy through Government run Health Care, Cap and Trade and other wasteful “Boondoggles”.

They are running up a crushing debt that our children and grandchildren will have to face as either ruinous taxation or hyper-inflation or both.

As POGO said:  WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.  (Walt Kelly)

Osama Bin Laden just might be laughing himself silly in a cave somewhere.  We are doing it to ourselves!

Please tell me I am wrong!

Bob Bandy 

I am seriously concerned that our culture lacks the collective self discipline to survive.  Let me explain.

It is my belief that at some point the number of individuals who want to live without rules, responsibility or consequences for their actions  may reach “critical mass” and our great experiment with self government may decay into anarchy and chaos.

I do not know what that critical mass is but I suspect that five percent of our population cannot support the other 95 percent.  The “math don’t work”.

Think about it.  Most of the worlds great belief systems are founded in personal self discipline.  Success in almost all endeavors  requires we apply discipline to achieve goals.  Consider Business, Academics & Sports.  Am I wrong?

Bob Bandy