Let's get it started

To kick this blog off, I want to reflect on yesterday's presidential election and the reaction I've heard today.

First and foremost, it should be noted that I adhere to neither major political party. I am more closely aligned with the libertarians than anything else, but even at that I am not a die-hard. My political views are more closely aligned with conservatives, of the two major parties, but I do stray on several issues.

In the 2000 election, for 38 days after, and still to this day, Democrats say Bush "stole" the election. The Supreme Court "gave" the presidency to Bush. None of this is further from the truth. Bush won the election, even the liberal L.A. Times extensive recount scenarios proved, there was no way Gore would have won, if they had still been recounting today. Now that this one is pretty much in the books, will all of you Democrats PLEASE shut up about it?

The 2004 election again went down to the wire, with Bush again winning, and Ohio being the deciding state this year instead of Florida. But the larger picture from the nation as a whole, is that Bush captured about 51% of the popular vote. Not since Regan was in office has any president captured a true majority of the vote. Not even Clinton could do this, so I think the nation has indeed spoken. While not an overwhelming victory, and still showing the nation is pretty much a 50-50 split, it is no longer up for debate, at least in my opinion, who the president of this great nation is. Bush not only won the electoral vote, he won the popular vote by at least 3.5 million voters.

Listening to people discuss this today has been pretty interesting. Liberals and Democrats (the two are not necessarily the same) lament the loss has been pretty amusing. Everything from "I can't believe Americans are so stupid" to "well, kids, hope you like the desert, because the draft is coming!" I mean, seriously, what the fuck? OH GOD! Bush won! We're all going to DIE! Get a life.

I do not think Bush is the greatest president of our time. I wasn't even particularly satisfied that our two main choices were barely distiguishable from each other. But if you actually analyze the rhetoric both candidates were spewing over the past few months, Kerry was clearly careening wildly off every cliff he came to. For everything he was promising, and I do mean EVERYTHING, two things became painfully clear. One, there is no way he could get all of that done in four years, or even eight, on the slim chance he could get re-elected. And two, there was no way he could pay for everything he was promising without significantly raising taxes, not just on the "rich", but on everyone. This is my biggest problem with democrats. They want to give everything to everyone, with no way to pay for all of it. Government does not have ANY money. Any money the government uses to do anything comes directly out of the pockets of taxpayers. That means me and you, boys and girls. Sure, republicans are not a whole lot better, at least not the current batch of republicans we have available, but at least they don't blow THAT much smoke up my ass!

And speaking of trying to give everything to everyone, why do you think the democrats even go down that road? Because we, as whiny ass Americans that we are, keep asking for someone to take care of us. Jesus fucking christ, people, grow a backbone! Stand up for yourself, fend for yourself, stop expecting the government to be your new mommy! Do you realize that, counting social security and medicare payments, sales and usage taxes, federal, state and property taxes, over 50% of your income goes directly to the government? Half of every dollar you make! HALF! If you actually had to write the government a check every month for the total taxes you owe, this country would be in a state of rebellion right now. But since the kinder gentler government takes even that burden off of you, and deducts most of it straight from your paycheck before you get your greedy little hands on it, you don't even miss the money they are stealing from you. And still they want to raise taxes almost yearly. It blows my mind. It should blow yours. But will it? Nope. You will continue to go about your daily lives never even thinking about where all your money is going. And when you fill out your taxes next April, you will be absolutely ecstatic when you get a refund. A refund?!?! This is money the government took from you that they never should have had in the first place, used it for a year, gotten interest off of it, or bought another $800 toilet seat, and then said, oops, sorry, here's the money I stole from you back. And do you bitch slap them? Do you prosecute them for the theft? Hell no, you THANK them! You APPRECIATE being robbed.

Okay, that's enough for now. This is just where my random thoughts took me today.

Peace out.
LoRyder