Staged Accidents

Florida has an epidemic of staged accidents that take advantage of insurance companies lose rules. As a result insurance rates for Florida drivers are increasing alarmingly. It is happening in all large metropolitan areas in the State. Why is this happening?

The desire to get something for nothing seems to be sweeping over this State. Of course, the OWS people are marching also for this same thing - getting something which was not personally earned. Why is this such a pervasive movement now in our society? Every right thinking person knows that it is necessary to earn ones sustenance and works to obtain it. Yet, there appears to be a growing number of people that do not agree with working for their daily bread. Years ago Christian principles were taught and learned so that society had many, many people that were self regulating. What has happened to all those people during these times?

The Tenth Commandment appears to be unknown to a greater percentage of our population. Unknown and unsought as a means of improving our society. Thomas Jefferson, after being president, worried about this condition developing in the people and warned against it.

Our State legislature must now come up with laws that will diminish the amount of staged accidents. The something for nothing crowd is fighting against these changes. Yet, if we cannot control ourselves, the State must come in and do for us what the people used to do honorably.

Solyndra

The Solindra problem the democrats now have exposes the lie that the government is capable of running businesses. True capitalists would not touch this Company because the risks were not acceptable. A capitalist looks at the facts to ascertain whether to put money into a project. A bureaucrat looks at a policy (green jobs) to ascertain the disbursement of funds. Even when advised by risk capitalists not to spend the money, the policy overrides and money is spent.

Another reason government cannot run corporations is that cronies are listened to, and the cronies carry a lot of weight because they contribute money to campaigns. There are sometimes cronies in private companies but they must deliver or else the company goes bankrupt. The real world is dominant in private companies and when somebody makes a major mistake he is fired. When the government operative makes a major mistake he is transferred, never fired, certainly he never resigns. His mistake is miraculously turned into a resume enhancement. He lives to screw-up again.

The head of the Department Of Energy, Mr Chu,  now says he regrets giving 500 million to Solindra. He does not go to jail for handling the public's money so cavalierly, mentions nothing about resigning, but puts up his head and proceeds to his next task. Private capitalism is far better than government for running corporations.

Mississippi Turns Republican

As a citizen of Mississippi for five years, I am amazed at the change in the State's politics. When I left the State in 1995 it was very solidly democrat. Blacks voted democrat in spite of the abuse they received from the whites in power. All the while I was there blacks were increasingly gaining victories in businesses, education, courts, police forces, prison guards, and elective offices. They were doing this through the democrat party. The governor at that time was Maybus, a white, who was at that time pushing for black inclusion into full participation in all State affairs. More than once I heard whites state "save us from Maybus."

It has been 16 years since I left and now they have elected republicans as the majority in their legislatures. How did this happen? Did the blacks turn into republicans? Did the whites turn into republicans? The State has not been republican since the end of the Civil War, during reconstruction. At that time, a black republican (supported by the residual, republican Lincoln administration and the desire of Johnson, the new President, to punish the white southerners)  served in the US Senate. Eventually the democrat whites regained political power and passed laws that held down black voting.

I would like to see a story written on how this transformation from a democrat polity to a republican polity was accomplished. Somebody did a lot of work.

Politics of Personal Destruction

Sexual misconduct claims are raining heavily on Herman Cain, five in just a few days. I am reminded of a football game (this really happened) where a team near the end of the game, and requiring just a little more time, had three of it's players on the ground with an injury. Time is called when an injury if discovered and these players had all determined to do what was necessary to get that extra time. The democrat party , alarmed at how well Cain is doing, has decided to go after him with all guns firing, just as they did with Sarah Palin.

Make no mistake, this is something that is regularly done in the democrat party. It was done to all the claimants against Bill Clinton. The main-stream-media, at that time, gave all the health and comfort to their champion needed to survive accusations against him. The women charging Clinton were vilified through the politics of personal destruction. It was done to Judge Bork and to Justice Thomas when they were nominated to the Supreme Court. They succeeded with Bork and almost succeeded with Anita Hill claiming sexual harassment against Thomas.

We shall see how Cain holds up against the attack dogs, and more importantly, how well the republican voters can ascertain the truth about these allegations.

Catholic Liturgy Is Changing

It has been almost 50 years since the last, large liturgical change for Catholics. That was when the Mass, said in Latin,was changed to the language of the parishioners. Also, the priest turned to face the people instead of having his back to the congregation. The "Kiss Of Peace" was introduced and it became a great point of contention. I recall one parishioner calling out, while leaving the Church in a huff: "When I want to hold hands with someone I will go to the movies."

The changes now being installed are minor (at least to me) and should not cause the same kind of disruption it did back in the 60's. For the main part, the prayers are being changed to more accurately reflect the Latin from back in the third and sixth centuries. Even the words for the Elevation are slightly altered. The word "chalice" is substituted for "cup" and the words "....shall be shed for all," will now change to "....shall be shed for many." For the last few weeks the priest has been reading to the congregation some minor changes in the words of some prayers. I have not noticed any objections to any announced change. Perhaps there will be an uproar after the changes start being used in the next few weeks.