Cash for Clunkers....a Rant

The whole Cash for Clunkers is reason to shake a head in disbelief and wonder what third graders are running our country.

There is a litany of reasons I think the program is a joke. It is not the most important issue out there, nor do I think it is all that damaging. As an indicator, it is frightening, though.

1. As a stimulus, it is narrow-minded. If, indeed, stimulus was the objective, wouldn't it be more prudent to just cut our taxes? Give us the $4500 to spend freely, therefore stimulating a number of industries. Raising taxes, taking on more government control, and throwing out a goofy little program like this is insulting, not stimulating.

2. As a help to the environment, it is worthless. The benefit of getting "gas guzzlers" off the roads is so microscopic it won't matter. However, the cost of junking those cars in enormous. Perfectly usable parts are being destroyed, causing us to require so much more in resources to make new, costlier ones. It costs something to shred vehicles that are very usable and good tools for a number of purposes.

3. Dealers are being shafted. Auto dealers won't feel the effects of it for awhile, but when their "Clunkers" start being rejected, long after the deal is made, because they didn't meet some obscure requirement on page 117, paragraph zz, they will know the program isn't "all that". In addition, putting them in the car destroying business, many for the first time, is questionable. I've a feeling that destroying some of the fine vehicles they are having to trash is akin to "putting down a good dog" for many of them.

4. Helping out the lower income folks would be to allow them to PURCHASE these vehicles and use them. It would be to allow them to use the PARTS from these vehicles. This is taking away many helpful resources to folks who need the parts and vehicles to keep driving back and forth to work.

5. Hello? People? THIS is the government in the used car industry. Their 4 month plan lasted a week. THESE are the people you want to run our health care industry? Okay, I know some extremely well-spoken and intelligent folks who sell used cars. It is a generalization to categorize them all with the homemade commercial guys who yell and wear funny costumes. As in any industry, there are those who appear less intelligent (understatement?) whose image is projected on the whole industry. You need to know what you are doing to succeed in used cars. Having said that, it is clear that it doesn't take a doctorate degree to survive selling used cars. Our government, however, hasn't survived in the industry. If you argue that they are, I will answer that printing more Monopoly money to stay in the game is cheating. This is an indicator. If you don't want a minimum wage, chicken costume wearing surgeon performing your surgery in a few years, you really should be paying attention now.

Having hit a few high points, I believe I will cease this rant before I lose my breakfast. I'm going to go sit outside, read my Bible and remember Who is in control of this world, the health industry, my health, and my government. I will put my trust in the Maker of this world. I will pray for the Peace that I cannot understand and then I will get on with picklin' some peppers. Pickled peppers, now that's gotta be good for you.

One Trillion Dollars

These bills Congress is passing for bailouts and stimulus are making me crazy. Everything they are doing flies in the face of every concept of free market. Senator John McCain has been twittering. For a few days, he twittered the top ten porkiest earmarks in the bill. It was pretty interesting. Several would have been funny if it had been Monopoly money we were talking about. However, it isn't. It is our money.

I am completely incapable of wrapping my mind around the kind of numbers in these bills. To help visualize it, I found this website. Check it out. I'll be listening for your "Wow!" (I would HT the blog that first directed me to this site if, for the life of me, I could remember who it was!)

If This Doesn't Concern You.....

....you really need to get your head out of the sand.

Hat tip to Everyday Mommy for this quote:

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers ~~

Well said.

Glen Beck has figured out that a legislator has to read 640 words per minute from the time of receiving the bill in order to have read it before the vote, thanks to the fast track it is on. That is, in order for Nancy Pelosi to stay on schedule for her trip to Europe. Given that no legislator is capable of reading that fast, this bill will be voted on by people who have little to no idea as to what it even says. This is the largest expenditure in the history of the nation, with many, many naysayers, and they are jumping into it blindly. Can you say irresponsible? Insane? Utterly frightening?

A scarf, a sweater, a cd, and an abortion?

In this Washington Times article from Saturday, we find that "Indiana residents in need of a quick stocking stuffer this holiday season have an unusual option: Planned Parenthood gift certificates."

Under the guise of helping low income women afford health care, the Indiana Planned Parenthood chapter is offering gift certificates for their health services. Although the certificates may be used for an abortion, Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, says "I can't imagine that could happen." She goes on to say, "An abortion is a tragic and urgent situation in a women's life, and gift certificates don't lend themselves to that."

The mixed messages and confusion abounds.

Is that what they tell women who come to them, upset and concerned about an unplanned pregnancy, that to have an abortion is "tragic"? Not having consulted them myself, I have no way of knowing. Somehow, though, I suspect that if it were deemed to be "tragic", it may send women right back out the door.

What about the fact that this is, hello?, CHRISTmas? "It's very typical of Planned Parenthood to pervert the meaning of Christmas, which is a time of life and selflessness and love and giving," said Katie Walker, a spokeswomen with the American Life League, a Catholic pro-life activist group.

I recently saw a sobering email where a woman came to her physician, pregnant, wanting to have the doctor "take care of it". She had a child, just a few months old, and didn't feel she had adequately recuperated from the first birth. The doctor, in his doctorly wisdom, suggested they do away with the child in her arms to allow her a few more months of recuperation before having to care for a child. Of course, that was offensive to the mother who would "never kill her child!" It, of course, is just a story. The irony is real.

Please get behind and support women's crisis pregnancy centers such as Open Arms. These people lovingly help ladies sort through their options, looking at things from a long term, even eternal perspective. They provide ultrasounds to help them see that this isn't a blob, but a real baby that they are growing and protecting in their own body. They help them find alternatives, such as providing a family who would love to have a baby of their own the chance to do so.

If only there was a way to force women to have to explain to their child that, hey, Uncle Elmer gave me this birth certificate, so I used it to kill you. If they had to face the reality of what they were doing, I can't imagine that nearly as many could go through with it. Seeing their baby on an ultrasound helps them to do that.

It terrifies me to think of all the babies doomed by gift certificate.