And?

So Sunday, I was doing yard work and replacing a 40 year old Craftsman garage door opener, as I generally don't do the whole organized Christianity thing, 'specially on high holidays (Always thought it was sorta hypocritical to go only when God is especially watching or whatever....either get with the program or don't, but attending Church on big Holidays only seems wrong to me..., but that's not what I am writing about.) Anyway.....Sadly, Sears doesn't stock parts for openers made more than 10 years or so ago, and I couldn't find a latching relay that would replace the badly worn one on the otherwise fully functional unit that came with the house when I bought it....So upgrade time it was. I only hope this new Chamberlain lasts half as long as the unit is is replacing ....the original was installed in 1972!

Anyway, as I passed a "milestone" birthday a while back, I've been thinking a lot. No surprise there, but I have come up with a few things to comment on...Might take a few posts.

So I have been on this earth for 50 years plus or minus a few days and hours. Now, the first 30% of that I was too busy being a boy to pay that much attention to too may things, and then the next 20% I was too busy learning to live as a man does (and chasing girls and women) to pay much attention to how things were working.

But lately,  in the other years I've lived,  I gotta say that I am becoming more and more (in a nearly exponential curve) disillusioned with my country and my government. My government has, since I can remember noticing it, become ever more increasingly intrusive into people's businesses and lives. I started noticing this about the time I became aware of things political....at the end of the Carter administration. I was adult enough to be embarrassed by the debacle of the Iran Hostage affair, and then began noticing how his Departments of XXX slowly grew in size and power....In cost...and intrusiveness.

It is now a Government by the People and for Itself....not by the People and For the People. It exists, like any lifeform to grow and adapt and feed upon something else....It no longer holds the Welfare of the Citizens first, and it is no longer constrained by any rules or law....Government exists, it seems, with no restraint and for itself and its minions, not for the purpose for which it was created and shackled by our Constitution. It rules by Executive Fiat and Regulation, with no legal oversight nor limit. THe Legilators aid and abet at worst, and simply ignore at best it's ever growing lack of control, and for the most part the Courts simply rubber stamp the regulations and executive orders.


We have the EPA which has caused no end of trouble for people..Not to fix the environment, but  to make sure that we all do the "right" things for today's ideology ...It hasn't  made the environment better, (at least not in the past 20 years)...hasn't cleaned up the air or water that much, HAS raised pricing for food, manufactured goods and electricity and gasoline prices...nearly everything else by a significant amount and soaked up a great deal of taxpayer money...Effective? Not really. Wasteful? Yes. Intrusive? You betcha.

The DOE (Department of Energy) is another. They cost us a LOT of money, change our way of doing business and we get very little for the changes to our lives that they cause.

OSHA does a lot to keep the workplace safe, but in typical government style it goes completely overboard in a lot of ways.

Lets not even go there when it comes to the NSA....Or the War on Drugs...

But seriously, I WANT THE GOVERNMENT THAT I WAS TAUGHT ABOUT IN HIGH SCHOOL. Not the one we have now. I want the limited government which plays by the rules that are spelled out in the Constitution. Not the slapdash-lackadaisical sorta law-abiding half-assed Congress and Executive branch that we now have. I want Congressmen with guts enough to stand up and say STOP!....and NO!!! And those who will limit the excesses of our government agencies....And make sure that if we pass laws they are enforced.

I WANT THE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT that I was taught about in school...... I want the COUNTRY I was taught about in school. I want to know what the hell happened to it.

I want a country that works as well as the one I grew up in in the 70's. Where people worked and were able to find work. Where help was there if you really needed it, but not as many people were needing or willing to take it. Where the incentive was to find a job.

And I am willing to try to get it back with the Soapbox, and the Ballot box and yes, if necessary (although I sincerely hope it isn't), the other box. 

Also,where in the hell is the flying cars they promised me in Popular Science?

Get the hell off my lawn.