President Harry S. Truman, the man in the White House when the United States intervened on behalf of the millions of innocent people who were being displaced and massacred by Hitler’s Nazi Germany, claimed to have practiced his piano lessons for two hours every morning during his childhood. Likewise, President Warren Harding was said to be able to play every instrument except the trombone and the clarinet. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) played the organ. Of course we all remember President Clinton and his saxophone, but did you know that President Nixon was an accomplished pianist?
And more recently a girl who was a musician long before she became an academic and then a world-famous diplomat, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a very accomplished classical pianist. As she was growing up in the Rice home music was a family affair, and as early as age 3 Condi played piano at family gatherings. Her Dad was a minister and she often accompanied her organist Mother in church. The name “Condoleezza” is from the Italian phrase con dolcezza, which refers to playing music “with sweetness.” While other kids in her neighorhood were playing outdoors, she was more likely to be found practicing the piano or reading a book.
According to a Rueters News report, President Obama expects to raise nearly sixty billion over 10 years by by tightening rules related to the estate tax and close unspecified tax loopholes.
While I freely admit to being an Obama supporter I don’t think the move to tighten the estate tax code is either needed or will be effective. While there is a consensus that closing tax loopholes would be a good first step in fixing a broken tax system; how to fix the current tax code is not the problem, the problem is the current tax code.
We need to find new ways of looking at the problem. Mike Huckabee proposed a national sales tax much like the one supported by The Fair Tax Organization. I like the idea but the Fair Tax has generated it’s share of opponents. Which is not surprising.
The current tax system in the United States is a political tool. Every politician promises to cut taxes while blustering about how unfair taxes are to every group they are wishing to court. A scarier aspect is the IRS seems to have become the strong arm of the government.
I believe it is time to change, I don’t have all the answers but I’m willing to get involved in the debate.
Recently I was talking to a friend about how little good Bush’s bailout and Obama’s economic stimulus bill were doing. My suggestion was to give everyone over 60 two million dollars. I was only half joking. Then my brother in law sent me this via email:
Dear Mr. President:
Please find below my suggestion for fixing America ‘s economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.
You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:
There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:
1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.
2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.
3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.
It can’t get any easier than that! If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes…
Now in principal I heartily agree but unless my math is wrong forty million times one million is forty trillion. I don’t think even the government would spend that much money. Of course my idea of giving everyone over sixty $2,000,000 isn’t going to work either.
Without trying to insult many fast food businesses and cheap service sectors in certain parts of this country, I can only say, I have seen a huge difference in human behavoir (intelligence). It was so bad that I spoke with many of my closest friends and believe that these people are either affected by vast amounts of Mercury in the food they eat, or something darker is happening to them.
God Damn America. Most Americans don’t agree with that statement. Presidential candidate Barrack Obama doesn’t and yesterday in Philadelphia gave another inspiring speech denouncing much of what Reverend Wright delivered from the pulpit.
Unlike many politicians Obama didn’t distance himself from Reverend Wright but embraced him. At one point Obama said, “As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me.” I think every person in America understood exactly what that means. You don’t throw your family away even though they may be embarrassing at times.
My mother always told me to hate the sin but love the sinner. I think that’s a subtlety lost on many of todays right wing politicians and religious leaders. Many of whom just a few short weeks ago were implying Obama was a Muslim are now saying Obama has been going to a Christian Church for years where the pastor is a racist. I guess the idea is to throw enough mud untill it sticks.
To his credit Obama was mostly silent on the attempted religious slurs (even though being a Muslim is not a slur) but tackled the issue of race firmly and decisively. He continued and clarified his campaign of hope and unity saying, “We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demoagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias, but race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Rev. Wright made in his offending sermons about America — to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.”
T.S. Elliot wrote, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper". Are we in the last days as the Mayans, Nostradamus and the Bible predict?
Is America being destroyed by internal and external forces? Will this all come to pass in our generation?
These are questions that may not have answers but one thing I do know is we have a responsibility to continue learning the truth and exposing the lies that are enslaving us.
