Philosophy

Detroit, Philosophy

Detroit opinion leader makes erroneous comparison between business and government

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Daniel Howes, Detroit News columnist recently published a rambling column discussing the parallels of the Detroit Automakers comeback (as illustrated by their Super Bowl ads) and the city of Detroit and its potential comeback. The column was fairly innocuous stuff until these two paragraphs:

Yes, I know the convenient dodge from those who would prefer to avoid the obvious parallels between running an automaker into the ground and running a municipal government into the ground: government is not a business.

Wrong. Both succeed and fail on the strength (or weakness) of managing reality, dollars and cents, not some mythical ideal that exists only in gauzy memory or an eighth-grade civics class. Neither business nor government can allow expenses to consistently outstrip revenue for too long, cannot charge customers or taxpayers more and deliver less, without inviting serious existential consequences.

So many things wrong with the above paragraphs.

Starting with the most fundamental flaw: business adds value by producing something (a product or service) and creates wealth, government can only take wealth (through the force of law) from one group of people and give it to another, adding no value and creating no wealth.

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Michigan, Philosophy, Rent Seeking

OK, So Lets See The Other Side

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pure-somethingToo often, your local government will have advocates of money-spending that holds out the promise of jobs, or some tangible benefit that can be presented in dollars gained back for the community.

The authors of such fiction typically seek to justify their own positions of employment within that community, and possibly within the government entity itself. Axiomatically however, all of them have a stake in the outcome of the requested spending.  They will be asked for, and then will present metrics, or a presumed study of return on investment (ROI) and typically the elected leadership falls for it hook, line and sinker.

A perfect example was during a consideration of funding for the MSU extension office in Grand Traverse County when I was an elected commissioner.  County commissioners were given plenty of reading materials by the MSU advocates to show us that for every dollar spent we would see a result of $17 in benefit to the county.  The calculations as it turned out were premised on a ‘guess,’ that was then multiplied by a compounding analysis program that is used by MSU intellectuals, that relies on ‘guesses’ for the input variables.

Go. State.   ..  Yay.

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Democrats, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

Dumb Dumb Dumb

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More and more the left side reveals its mission to undercut the principles within the Republican Party

lennox-corpsNeedless to say, if I were to write a response that is in any way appropriate to this nonsense, it would almost assuredly result in a lawsuit.

A guy who has (as far as I know) never held a REAL private sector job, never owned a business, seems to travel the world on pixie dust, and is a persistent cancer within the Republican party has now hit the pancreas.  When Dennis Lennox says:

Instead of falling into the left’s trap, Republicans should go on the offensive with a bold manifesto focused on creating opportunities that not only raises the minimum wage — an increase to $12 would impact 40 percent of working Americans — but reforms welfare and reduces taxes on main street innovators, entrepreneurs and job creators.

It has to be a trap itself.

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Philosophy

To Not Speak Is To Speak

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Where was the pro-life party two weeks ago?

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Both pro-life and pro-murder activists observed the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision just under two weeks ago, and most Christian churches observed Life Sunday on one of the weekends on either side of that event. Given that the sanctity and dignity of human life is its own three-paragraph line item in the 2012 Republican Platform (on page 20 and 21 of the downloadable PDF version), one would have thought that the Republican National Committee would have had something to say regarding National Sanctity of Human Life Day during their recent winter meeting in the District of Columbia, especially given that they made a point of setting aside 3-1/2 hours on Wednesday specifically for the March for Life. Given that Michigan has such a deep pro-life tradition that Governor Snyder’s veto of a pro-life bill was promptly overridden by citizen initiative, one would think that the Michigan Republican Party would have had something to say regarding the same annual event.

However, a review of both the RNC and MIGOP websites reveals that the only mention made is by RNC Deputy Communications Director Sarah Isgur Flores, and seems to be in the context of responding to the DNC’s perpetual war on women. Other than that, the silence is deafening. Which leaves us wondering, what could have been so important that it should have taken priority over speaking up to defend those among us who are most vulnerable and least capable of defending themselves?

Unborn Baby At 12 Weeks

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

Grassroots Support for Dave Agema

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Dear Fellow Patriots,

The attacks on Dave Agema have weighed heavy on my heart for Dave, his wife Barbara, and for those interested in seeing freedom and liberty prevail in our state and nation.

Dave Agema has been standing up for fiscal and social conservative values and Constitutional freedoms for many years – first as a fighter pilot, then as a State Representative, and now as Republican National Committeeman. He has been a strong and solid conservative voice within the Michigan Republican Party and also a strong supporter of the TEA party and grassroots movement in our state. He has spoken to TEA Party groups all around Michigan in support of founding principles and the core values that separate the Republican Party from the Democrat Party. Recently, I attended the MRP State Committee Meeting in Lansing where Dave’s speech on standing firm on our Republican Platform’s core values resulted in a standing ovation and resounding applause unmatched by any other speaker that day. These core values are not just talking points to Dave, but values he has spent a lifetime defending and fighting for.

Over the years I have learned how the media and the progressive movement will do whatever they can to silence conservatives through threats, intimidation, and attempts to destroy a person’s life and credibility, even making things up if necessary. I have learned how dirty politics can get, but I understand the reason behind it – it is because of what is at stake. This battle that we are in is a battle for the heart and soul of our nation, it is ultimately a spiritual battle and the stakes are high.

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Philosophy

This Too Shall Pass

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Abraham_Lincoln-1858Abraham Lincoln from  in an address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859, offered a thought that offers both hope and caution. (from The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln )

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”

As Lincoln opined, things both good and bad; as a part of the flow of time, will eventually, simply, cease.

Whether one is to take it as a warning, and advisement to actively protect what has been made good, or a promise that certain blemishes will eventually fade is certainly upon the perspective [of the] bearer of such impairment or achievement.

And it is the perfect sight of historical fact under which we can see both sides in play.  The abolition of the American slavery, and the more recent loss of Liberty earned by the blood of our forefathers.  The routing of a scourge of man set to control man, and the promise that would prevent it from ever happening again disappearing under the most false pretense of populist desire.

Recent events involving an organized effort to remove a Michigan defender of what is good, through such false pretense has in its operative design a working model of historical precedent.  To make great achievement ‘pass’ all that opposition must do is wait for a plausible flaw.

Be it truth or not matters little to those of destructive intent; when the objective is to make what is good, wither and fall.

I await eagerly, the passing of a current pretense of despair that will indeed happen; but knowing that with time, it too, shall return.

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