Our current tax system...

This is quoted as given to me:

"This is a great explanation of the tax rebate program recently enacted by Congress. If you don't understand how it will work maybe this explanation will help:

50,000 people went to a baseball game, but the game was rained out. A refund was then due to the ticket holders. The team was about to mail refunds when a group of Congressional Democrats stopped them and suggested that they send out the ticket refunds based on the Democrat National Committee's interpretation of fairness.

Originally the refunds were to be paid based on the price each person had paid for the tickets. Unfortunately that meant most of the refund money would be going to the ticket holders that had purchased the most expensive tickets. This, according to the DNC, is considered totally unfair. A decision was then made to pay out the refunds in this manner:

People in the $10 seats will get back $ 15. After all, they have less money to spend on tickets to begin with. Call it an 'Earned Income Ticket Credit.' Persons 'earn' it by having few skills, poor work habits, and low ambition, thus keeping them at entry-level wages.People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because it 'seems fair.'

People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they already make a lot of money and don't need a refund. After all, if they can afford a $50 ticket, they must not be paying enough taxes.
People in the $75 luxury box seats will each have to pay an additional $25 because it's the 'right thing to do'.

People walking past the stadium that couldn't afford to buy a ticket for the game each will get a $10 refund, even though they didn't pay anything for the tickets. They need the most help. They are either lazy or think that society owes them for just being born. Sometimes this is known as Affirmative Action.

Now do you understand?"

Just a cartoon expressing my own energy frustrations...

Random

So, a friend of mine, Seth, and another teammate of mine, Rachel, got in trouble for playing soccer in a park. Since when is playing soccer in a park illegal? I thought that was what parks are for. See link:

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6203343&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Apparently, people thought my lack of wordiness was inappropriate when describing Elise and Dave's wedding. Pics to follow I hope. But, the weather was beautiful, the ceremony was unique and expressed their personalities wonderfully, they had a great balloon arch over the chapel aisle, they didn't look too scared (lol), and I had a good time at the reception catching up with extended family. It was a great weekend, just rushed. We'll have to plan another trip to spend more time with the newlyweds.

This last week I was in Florida controlling AC-130s. I also got to go on a ride along and fire the guns. Very cool, highly recommended, lol!

Sister's Wedding

Ashley and I were out to Spokane this last weekend for Elise's wedding. Not much to tell, the wedding was nice, my sister is all married off. The weather was gorgeous, except for the one day of snow, but that was gone again the next day. I did walk my sister down the aisle, and they made me wear my Air Force tuxedo. We had a lot of fun at the reception, caught up with family members, and met a couple new ones (adopted).

Soccer game last night was a slaughter, we won 8-1. Good game considering our disappointing games last week, where we lost our playoff game and got eliminated, and the first game of the new season a player from the opposing team got hurt, ambulance called, etc.; game was never finished, but we were down 3-1.

More indications the surge is working.

Obama, change, or the same old thing?

Obama's message is change, but is that what he really stands for? From what I've seen, he looks like a typical far left Democrat, with integrity issues. In October of 2006, he admitted he was beholden to unions. He's taken money from Tony Rezko. He wants to distance himself from his anti-American, racist pastor, yet he's been a member of the church for 20 some years. He can give a rousing speech, there's no denying that. But do you know what his policies are? He doesn't talk much about them.

If by change he means "not Bush", well we're going to get that no matter who is voted in. If by change he means changing America to match his radical left vision, I'm not sure that "we the people" are ready for that. He says that we need to fix the damage from the last 7 years of the Bush administration. But I would argue that the Bush administration has barely addressed the serious damage left by the Clinton White House.

He claims he has the experience and ability to lead our country, but his resume doesn't show it. What organization has he led? He hasn't even finished his first term as Senator, before that he was an congressman in the Illinois State House. His credentials are severely lacking.

Lets review his record (scratching the surface): He's rated 89% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance. Rated 100% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance. Rated 100% by the AU, indicating support of church-state separation. According to factcheck he's ranked most liberal in Senate, based on 99 votes.

He's for partial birth abortions, government sponsored embryonic stem cell research, meeting with Fidel Castro, Kim Jung Il, & Hugo Chavez, the death tax, reversing the Bush tax cuts, allowing illegal aliens to participate in social security, a national smoking ban, local gun bans, giving foreign terrorists the same legal rights as US citizens, and fighting global warming (which isn't even proven yet).

He's against fixing social security, tax cuts for those "who don't need them", banning flag desecration, and against a Constitutional ban of same-sex marriage.

He says he's for political unity, yet he has the most liberal voting record. If he were a moderate he might have a chance at unity, McCain is a moderate. To me, he seems beholden to the far left and their Utopian socialist ideals that fail wherever they are implemented. A vote for Barack Obama is not a vote for a better America.

Watching the Democrats combust.

I never thought I'd be quoting Keith Olberman, but in regards to the Clinton camp's comment about Obama, he says "their words and your own are now slowly killing the chances for any Democrat to become president". I couldn't agree more, and I love it. While Obama and Clinton hack away at each other McCain and Romney are mending fences and getting their message out there. We may have Romney on the ticket as VP, who knows? Either way, it looks good for McCain and the Republicans.