The US government…

Two hundred plus years ago, the US was formed and we voted in our government. The initial intent was to have a government of the people for the people, by the people. We set term limits on our President, but I think we forgot to set term limits on Congress. I don’t think back then they figured people would WANT to do it long term, because they were all farmers or other business people that had jobs outside of their civil service of serving the people, and they had to get back to their jobs. This is why they had long breaks throughout the year, to bring in crops, to plant crops, or to insure their businesses were running right.

We still have those breaks, why? This is their only job. They should be working year around. Yes, they should spend some of their time in their home States, but it should be working time, and they should be taking care of business five days a week, year around, except for legal holidays and leave time (vacation).

I think it is time to take back our government. It is time to put term limits on our Congress. Two terms max, just like the President, in their life time.

While we are at it, while they are serving the public, they must continue to pay into Social Security, instead of the Congressional programs, and those funds are currently in the Congressional Retirement program, need to go into the current Social Security program, closing that option for Congress (kinda like what Congress did to the “Old Military” folks a few years ago in shutting down their medical and retirement benefits) to have, no matter how long they work in congress, to retire for life with great benefits, better than those they serve, US!

While these folks are in office, they must follow the same laws that everyone else must follow, no bouncing checks, not sex crimes, etc., with the ability to get off on them. (And when they are out of office, they still need to follow the laws…) When they freeze federal employee benefits, their benefits should be frozen as well, such as pay increases, medical benefits, etc.

We need to get our government back to a government for, by and of the people…

US Education System…

Over the last 30 or so years I have watched a MAJOR decline in the education system here in the US. The teachers don’t seem to be teaching, and the students don’t seem to be learning (although, what is being taught right?).

The first issue I see is that the teachers are being required to teach to a testing program, and not to the basic requirements of life of reading, writing, math and history. The foundations that the rest of our education comes from. We have taken the arts out of school as well, which is also an important foundation that needs to return to education.

The second issue I see is that the students now seem to rule the school, not the teachers and administrative staff. The students just have to call “foul” in any way, because they don’t like what the teacher is having them do or they are not wanting to sit down and learn, and things stop till the issues are resolved, often with the teacher moving on and the student staying to cause more problems.

Then we have those students that are so bad, that get sent to “alternative” schools, were even less teaching is done, and the teachers just sit there babysitting. Doesn’t work folks.

And finally, but not least of which is directly related to the teachers on several levels. Many of the teachers I have seen, talked to, and watched over time don’t want to teach. They want to sit there and get paid to babysit or work with just those that cause no strife or don’t ask questions. Granted we don’t pay our teachers enough to do what they should be doing, and we have Unions getting in the way, as well as “tenure”. We need to get rid of the Unions in the schools, remove tenure, pay our teachers more, and base that pay on the performance of the teachers and the students they teach. I am confident, that if the teacher actually TEACHES, and keeps the attention of the students, the students will settle down and listen and work with the teachers, learning what is taught. And we need to get that focus back on Reading, Writing, Math, Arts, History and Sciences. (And let us stop re-writing history to make it “politically correct”. Tell it like it happened, as the documents of that time state it, and be honest about it!

If a teacher is not performing, the students are not learning, fire them and get one who will. Tenure needs to go away, and the unions need to go away. BUT, we need to pay our teachers. What they get now is below poverty level, and the teachers that will teach can’t live at the current level. (And with the unions, a good chunk of what they do get paid goes to the unions currently!)

If a student disrupts the class, increase their work load and make them do better. If the disruption is “dangerous”, arrest him/her and get them out of there. BUT, put them in a school where they still have to learn Reading, Writing, Math, Arts, History, and Sciences. Don’t let them get away from learning.

After a student finishes high school, they should NOT go straight to college. Who knows what they want to do after high school, aside from party and take a break?. I STRONGLY feel ALL students, both male and female, should spend 4 years in the military, they pick the branch, based on their desires and thoughts, and aptitude. If they spend 4 years in the military, they can earn the money to pay for their four year college degree, and they learn what they want to do in life, while they get a fall back skill (their job in the military) and the get to potentially travel the world while they “sow their oats” and “party”. This builds our defense capabilities, trains our youngsters, educates our youngsters, and lets them spend their time in college actually studying instead of playing like most do today.

Food Production, in the US and world wide…

It use to be in the US farmers were some of the riches people around, because they had land, and because they sold the food that everyone ate. Farmers passed on their lands and crops to their children who did the same as they got older. Over the past 80 or so years, this trend has changed.

One of the main reasons this has changed is the cost of living in general going up, making it harder for the farmers to get the loans they need for equipment improvements, land improvements, and equipment maintenance. With the high over head in producing the food, we have the very low profit the farmer makes in selling the products to the processors and providers.

Add to this, the children of the families that have been farming for years are wanting more, due to the lack of money and prestige in farming these years. These kids do not want to carry on the legacy of their families, because there is not money, prestige or fame anymore. And who can blame them, with the current cost of farming!?

It is time to get back to the basics here. We need to make farming important again. We need to lower the cost of living across the board. Part of this deals with getting rid of the Unions in the US and lower cost that way. The next part is lowering medical cost by putting limits on medical claims, lowering medical insurance (they make millions and pay out pennies), and changing the way pharmaceutical companies are allowed to do business. (Talked about about that here.)

Then we need to get the families of farmers interested in farming again, especially the younger ones who are wanting to move on!

2010 Goals in Review – 2011 Goals

Last year my goals for the year were:

Goal 1: Continue to loose body fat, and get my weight down to at least 210 this year.

Goal 2: Continue to live a life in God’s good graces and with God foremost in my mind.

Goal 3: To get Circular Wind Ryu and Hasumi Ryu Kendo up and running as strong, respected schools of Martial Arts in the US.

Goal 4: Get totally out of debt!

Goal 5: Find GOOD things to write here at least weekly, if not daily!

Results:

Goal 1: My body fat is down to 19, and my weight is down to 258. I’m not down to 210 yet, but I am getting there… Lost over 30 lbs this past year! And I have given up sodas (coke/etc), candy, and as of a week ago, except for deserts after dinner, and “special breakfasts”, I’ve given up most sweets in general. Not a 100% success, but good advances!

Goal 2: I continue to live a life of Christ, and am working on walking away from sin. This is a hard road to travel, but I am happy traveling it!

Goal 3: This goal has gone the way of the dodo birds. It isn’t happening, because I’m not focusing on it.

Goal 4: I have one bill left. It will take a while to finish this bill off, but I have done a great job of not getting new long term bills, or even mid term bills. My finances are finally getting in order!

Goal 5: Didn’t post weekly at all. Not good of me, but I hope I haven’t chased everyone off. I, with the help of a few others, did create a blog exchange where bloggers can read other peoples blogs in exchange for them reading the bloggers. (http://exposeyoublog.com) This has taken a lot of my time, which isn’t an excuse, but is part of why I didn’t post weekly or daily. I do have four blogs in play though… (http://www.tdbellenterprises.com/dbblog, http://www.circularwindryu.com/blog/, http://tdbellwatkins.blogspot.com, and http://donmbell.blogspot.com/)

Over all this has been a good year. I should have put more effort in the school, but focused on getting in better shape, loosing weight and other related issues.

So, what are my goals for 2011? They are:

Goal 1: Continue my process of getting down to 210 lbs, and a 10% body fat.

Goal 2: Work on shrinking my debt, and begin building my credit score at the same time. It is too low to make me happy.

Goal 3: Increase my religious studies and reading.

And there are a couple of private ones as well….

Fiat Money… The Federal Reserve…

Fiat Money is basically Monopoly money. That is money based on good will alone, and has no backing what so ever. In 1971, we were taken off of the Gold Standard, which was a process of which every bill printed by the US was backed by gold. Without Congressional consent the President took us off the gold standard, and the rest of the world followed in our foot steps, making all money funny money.

History has show us that when money is not backed by something of value, such as gold, silver, or other precious metals, etc., it looses it’s “currency” and becomes the downfall of that nation. Look at my article on The Way of Rome as an example of a nation, a LARGE nation that vanished due to fiat money.

They were producing money left and right to fight wars, to create social programs to keep people happy, etc. Sound familiar? And they were getting into debt with other nations as they did so. They finally fell, along with the other reasons I posted before.

Then we have the Federal Reserve Board. Did you know that they are not Federal? And that they have no oversight by the US Government? The “management” consist of wealthy bankers from all over the world, and they are the ones in control of our money, how much is made, interest rates, how the bank can handle that money, who must report what on how much money is transacted, etc. The name “Federal” is there to make us think that they are part of our government, but they are not. And our Presidents allow them (both sides of the political fence!) to do as they please.

Two things need to happen. We need to get back on the Gold Standard, recall all our debts that we forgave with Japan, Germany and other nations, WITH the interest that was agreed to back then, and remove the Federal Reserve from power.

We are coming closer and closer to melting away as a nation of power and a nation in general. And I’m not happy as to where I see us ending up!

Time for everyone to educate themselves on the money/currency processes of life, and what is happening to us here in the US, for those of us that live here in the US.

If you outside of the US, look at your money situation as well. It is also fiat (fake) money with no backing but the good will of the nation (is there such a thing?) and your taxes.

The US revolted due to taxes, and here we are, taxing ourselves even more and the government is spending more than they receive in taxes, and paying themselves more each year as we the tax payers make less each year due to inflation and more taxes!

TIME TO STOP THIS MESS!

Oh how true… And we are headed that way…

I received an email from a friend that said this:

THIS IS TRULY THOUGHT PROVOKING.

There was a chemistry professor in a large college
that had some exchange students in the class. One day
while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one
young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his
back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter.
The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his
back. He had been shot while fighting communists in
his native country who were trying to overthrow his
country’s government and install a new communist
regime.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor
and asked a strange question. He asked:

“Do you know how to catch wild pigs?”

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the
punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.

“You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in
the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs
find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free
corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put
a fence down one side of the place where they are used
to coming.

When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the
corn again and you put up another side of the fence.
They get used to that and start to eat again. You
continue until you have all four sides of the fence up
with a gate in the last side.

The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to
come through the gate to eat that free corn again.

You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole
herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.
They run around and around inside the fence, but they
are caught.

Soon they go back to eating the free corn . They are
so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage
in the woods for themselves, so they accept their
captivity.”

The young man then told the professor that is exactly
what he sees happening in America . The government
keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps
spreading the free corn out in the form of programs
such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned
income, tax cuts, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies,
dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP),
welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually
lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths:

1) There is no such thing as a free lunch

2) and you can never hire someone to provide a service
for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

If you see that all of this wonderful government
‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of
democracy in America , you might want to send this on
to your friends.

If you think the free ride is essential to your way of
life, then you will probably delete this email.

But God help you when the gate slams shut!

AMERICA ,The home of the Free
Because of the Brave.

I don’t want to get into the truth or not (as posted on Snopes.com, etc.), but on the basics of what the “student” says.

What he has to say here VERY much is what is happening here in the US. And I think we have three of the four fences up already, and the fourth is close to being put into place.

It is time to take a QUICK step back, look at what is going on here in the US and put the brakes on and move things back to a Government of and for the people, not of individuals for the individuals.

When our nation was formed, the government “staff” was to be of the people, who kept their day jobs, which back then was mainly farming, and related work, and came together every so often to take care of business that needed to be taken care of. The pay was next to nothing, as they had their “Day Jobs”, and there were no benefits. They were there to take care of important issues as they came up that HELPED the people of the nation and settled disputes in the nation.

The reason our Congress gets so many long breaks at certain times of the year, was so that the original people could go tend their farms, etc. Since they don’t have day jobs, why do they need so many breaks? They don’t!

BUT, that said, let’s go back to the original intent of our Congress, which is of the people, by the people and for the people, and not of politicians with a personal agenda.

I’m fed up, and voting this year will show that others probably are too, I just hope enough people are waking up and smelling the dung coming from the east coast, and the rest of the US, and lets this Nation get back to being a strong and powerful nation OF THE PEOPLE!

President Obama and his birth certificate…

Ok, President Obama had an interview in the last couple of days:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38914715#38914715

In this he says, and I paraphrase, he doesn’t time to go around with his birth certificate plastered on his face.

My question is, has it ever been shown yet, to the people of the US that is, and why does he think we want him to plaster it on his face, rather than in newspapers, and on the air? In a manner that we can verify that he was in fact born in the US, and not in Africa as his Doctor that was there has said, his Grandmother has said (early on, now she says Hawaii), and those that were there have said?

Happy 4th of July!

As we come to the end of the day, I hope you have had a great 4th of July if you live here in the US. I have had a great day, and weekend, so far.

As we celebrate the achieving of independence from Great Britain, I think through the actions of the United States of America since then. We have assisted in, or fought numerous battles since then, always for the purpose, or at least the stated purpose, of defending freedoms that we feel all people should have. I am very happy to be called an US Citizen, and hope we can see our country go back to the principles we fought for to achieve our independence!

Looking forward to many more such celebrations!