Swickard: Budget special session possibilities

© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez will call a special legislative session because of lower oil and gas revenues than projected. If there are budget cuts, will some government workers get fired? Or will there be a tax increase a month before the November election? Both solutions may cost votes for legislators in close races.
            Cutting the budget usually means someone loses their government job because much of the state’s budget is used to hire people. Often the way those people in charge respond to budget cuts is to fire the most crucially important people first because the citizen outcry may protect their budget.
            Organizations often target doctors, EMTs, fire and police along with in-classroom educators. That always gets lots of citizen outcry and media attention.
            Years ago in Albuquerque there was a budget crunch in the police department so they fired the street policemen in the worse section of town. Did they touch administrative people? No, because the citizens of Albuquerque wouldn’t care if those employees were fired.
            The citizens of Albuquerque capitulated and added more tax revenue to the budget rather than lose critical police protection. Some politicians claim that everyone employed by the State of New Mexico is essential to the state. They proclaim loudly to the media that taking any money away from existing programs will result in catastrophic damage to our state.
            The talking point: there are no workers on the state’s payroll who are not completely essential. Further, we citizens will be told we must consider that state employees are just like us with bills to pay and kids to raise so being fired is featured in the media reports letting us citizens know that firing state workers will destroy lives.
            Another option being discussed is to increase taxes. That way no one is fired. But in the middle of an election voters can express displeasure quickly. Increasing taxes is unlikely this time.
            One thing not being discussed much is that they can raid the New Mexico Permanent Funds. Some people call them “Rainy day funds.” The quick way is to confiscate needed financial resources from the New Mexico Tobacco or other small funds.
            The two funds with plenty of money are the New Mexico Land-Grant Fund created in 1912 and the 1973 created New Mexico Severance Tax Fund. It is dangerous to take money from these funds because these two funds are set to provide about one seventh of the entire New Mexico budget next year.
            It is not easy to raid these funds because legislators in the past realized the glimmering pot of money would be quite attractive to politicians who only thought short-term. States like California had vast financial resources which were taken in a short-term political frenzy years ago. Now California is close to bankruptcy.
            New Mexico’s budget increased more than fifty percent under former Governor Bill Richardson from 2003 to 2010. It went from about four billion dollars to almost seven billion dollars a year.
            The long-term solution is to increase the economy and the budget will be corrected as long as New Mexico doesn’t elect another free spender like Richardson. There is never enough money for free spenders.
            New Mexico revenues are down because the oil and gas industry is cyclically at a low point. It is a cycle but the government increase is linear. There are always difficulties when the energy resources go down.
            Roy Blunt wrote, “The shortest path to more American jobs is more American energy and more jobs that relate to American energy.” That is what New Mexico needs however the problem for New Mexico politicians is that the environmental lobby has lots of power and does not want New Mexico to increase energy jobs.
            So the source of money from the energy sector may not be politically available to some legislators. There are no other easily increased revenue sources. Raising taxes usually results in people and businesses leaving the state thereby actually lowering collected revenues.
            New Mexico’s government is still far larger than just a few years ago with the same number of citizens. Ultimately New Mexico’s state government is about creating jobs and political power. Tough decisions cannot be avoided at this time.

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Importing terror and dividing America, a sorry legacy

© 2016 Jim Spence - Last weekend it was a Muslim from Afghanistan who was captured after terrorizing the New York/New Jersey area with bombs. This weekend it was a Turkish Muslim, a “legal resident” who murdered five people in the Seattle area.
Thanks to the Obama policy, which Hillary Clinton endorses, America is importing tens of thousands more Muslim immigrants. IT IS CRITICAL TO UNDERSTAND THAT these “refugees” come from places that don’t just encourage American hatred; they teach it to their children like we teach our American kids grammar.
It is the most astonishing thing to see Democrats demand that we agree to allow more people with the same backgrounds as all the other domestic terrorists who have butchered innocents here over the last year (Orlando, San Bernadino, etc.) to be allowed to come to America from countries that indoctrinate all citizens to hate America. With a straight face both Hillary Clinton and Mr. Obama repeatedly tell us there is no correlation between radical Islamic attacks on American innocents and the years of hatred indoctrination these so-called “refugees” receive before they come here.
There is much more to what Democrats represent in terms of public policy, than stupid ideas regarding the types of immigrants we need. When we are not reading about radical Muslim terrorists butchering innocent Americans, we can watch surprisingly violent portion of the black community torch property, steal, and beat up white people. It is no coincidence that in American inner city black communities, as a matter of routine, young children are taught continuously that will get screwed by a "racist American system.” 
It is an amazing thing to observe. American blacks have accomplished incredible things in America. The number of wealthy black celebrities and black business people continues to grow exponentially. Unlike Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, and many other hyphenated Americans, an African American has been elected president of the United States. And this black American has been elected president not once, but twice. Still, in late 2016, while the national anthem is played at sporting events, young black American millionaires and gifted full ride scholarship athletes at universities, kneel or raise their fists with disrespect, as if somehow they just can’t catch a break.
When asked about the incredible disconnect Mr. Obama engages in the most disingenuous form of double talk. He condemns inner city rioting per say, but allows as to how it is understandable. Mr. Obama is certainly compassionate. Unfortunately he reserves his compassion for Muslims from countries that indoctrinate people to hate America. According to Obama these people should not suffer from a “rush to judgment.” Sadly Mr. Obama gives greater consideration to those who are trained to hate America, the Muslims refugees he forces on the American population, than he does to police officers who are trained to protect America. In engaging in the most cynical form of duplicity imaginable, Mr. Obama does great harm to the black population in America. 
The effects of Obama's lack of leadership are far reaching, Sadly, we still have a remarkable percentage of black Americans, who seem far too content with the horrendous black-on-black crime rates in inner cities. These crime rates are much worse than they were eight years ago. And yet this same population segment is conditioned to assume that anytime any black has a violent encounter with law enforcement, that person, no matter how long his or her criminal record might be, is presumed to be the victim of racism. An amazing percentage of black Americans believe police officers, whether black or white, are anti-black. And all of this raging paranoia grows as our black president serves out the final four months of his eight year presidency. There is no logic in this whatsoever, only the ongoing indoctrination of a segment of the population that has been continuously conditioned to see itself as victims for political purposes.
David Clarke
One of my favorite Americans is Sherriff David Clarke of Milwaukee. Unlike Obama, Clarke is a great American. He understands that the Black Lives Matter movement is both criminal and Democrat. He also understands that Mr. Obama has not only not lifted a finger to continue the march towards a color blind society, Mr. Obama has stomped on the breaks and stoked the fires of racial paranoia instead.

In the end, the Obama legacy is a sad one. Mr. Obama continues to cram tens of thousands of people, who have been trained to hate America, inside our borders. And Mr. Obama openly encourages black America to believe that they will be perpetual victims in a society where curiously, millions of black Americans are thriving, prospering, and improving their lives every single day. 
Mr. Obama is the most cynical and sinister man to ever occupy the White House. And Mrs. Clinton figures to give us more of the same. She is working hard to make sure America is always divided and never unites, just as both of the Obamas have for eight years. What a pity that America has had to endure this cultural atrocity.

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Brentley Vinson's life matters

© 2016 Jim Spence - Well what do you know? The inner city black population in Charlotte has found an excuse to riot, injure police officers, scream terribly racist white hatred phrases at anyone within earshot, attack reporters sympathetic to their ruses, and oh yes………steal and destroy other people’s property.
Why are the criminal elements of the Charlotte black community rioting while yelling white hatred phrases at the top of their lungs? Because Keith Lamont Scott, a black man with a long criminal record that includes multiple assault convictions was shot by get this……….an um.....black police officer.
Not that it matters to people who are predisposed to hate whites, stereotype all police officers, and steal/destroy other people’s property, but it is instructive to contrast the backgrounds on these two black men. 
On the one hand you have a career violent criminal with a trail of victims as long as a checkout line at Wal-Mart on a Friday evening. On the other hand you have a police officer who should be being hailed as a community hero for making the place safer and surviving great personal risks.
Brentley Vinson
The Charlotte Observer carried a profile of Officer Brentley Vinson recently. Vinson was raised in Charlotte. He was a high school football star his junior year. He did not play as a senior due to a knee injury. Vinson was also an excellent student and earned a scholarship to Liberty University. At Liberty, Vinson majored in criminal justice and became a captain of the football team leading the small school in tackles as a senior in 2012.
When Vinson graduated from college he realized his personal dream and became a police officer, just as his father had. Two years ago Vinson joined the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police force. He has been an exemplary officer ever since and has never been the subject of any disciplinary actions. The point here is pretty simple. America needs more Brentley Vinsons....not fewer. And America has problems with far too many Keith Lamont Scott's, men who often kill innocents. To assume that somehow this fine young man with a pristine background who works in law enforcement would ever want to kill another black man without justification, is the stupidest thing anyone could possibly believe. And yet that is exactly what the race pimps in America's Democratic Party and their surrogate criminals trashing the city of Charlotte would have you believe.
The truth is Brentley Vinson has a life too. And his life matters a great deal…….but not to race pimping criminals who spread ignorance and hatred in the black communities of virtually every inner city in America.
The pattern of fomenting cultural disintegration continues. And sadly, this is a pattern that Democratic Party elected officials welcome and encourage everywhere. It is the only way they can maintain their virtual monopoly on the uninformed black voters.
The demonizing of Brentley Vinson is just one more pathetic example of what a sorry excuse for a leader Barack Obama has been ever since he first ran for office as clueless hack in the black-on-black crime capital of the world…….his hometown of Chicago. Barack Obama has been spreading poison through the black community in America like stage four cancer. And Hillary Clinton promises more of the same.

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Swickard: The “I deliberately lied” society

© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  “When in doubt tell the truth.” Mark Twain
             Mark Twain’s quote is from a long past society. In the 21st century people seem to view truth as to be avoided always. Our society which is connected by the media and internet absolutely worships at the altar of innuendo, myth, purposeful misdirection and downright lies.
            What are the three hardest words to say? Some think it is “I don’t know.” Many people say that. Others think it is “I was mistaken” which isn’t heard often. The three hardest words to say are “I deliberately lied.”
            Yet it happens all of the time. We’re inundated in this “I deliberately lied” society where making up stuff is valued more than telling the truth. Example: this presidential campaign.
            Today’s conventional wisdom is that everyone should lie “if we really care about our country.” They say, “I have to lie about this candidate I oppose because the opposition is lying about my candidate.”
            Candidates do not care if they have already been recorded saying the opposite of what they’re now saying. When questioned they proclaim, “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
            Worse, with all of the data available to citizens today it is amazing that the truth suffers more in today’s world than in past societies. As a lifelong historian I have studied most of the history of our country but I do not recognize statements currently being made about the founding and development of America.
            Example: In February 2015, President Obama said, “Here in America Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”
            That is certainly not true. A more truthful statement would be that people from many lands wove the fabric of our country during the last couple hundred years. No one nation or region, certainly no one religion has dominated the founding of our country. However, America has been served well by Protestant, Catholic and Jewish citizens.
            People today confuse opinion from theory from truth. In fact, it seems opinion is the new truth. If I say, “The Sun rises in the East.” I am told, “That is just your opinion since you belong to the other political party.”
            The great divider of our society are two dominant political organizations: Democrats and Republicans. Both groups view truth as only from their perspective. What one candidate is reported to have said is more an exercise in seeing the bias of reporters than seeing the truth.
            A real truth bomb is the recent “birther” controversy. It is contained in the question: was President Obama born in Hawaii? The media acts like it is a one-sided issue where Republicans are acting in very inappropriate ways.
            But the research is quick and easy. However, it doesn’t fit the political agenda so it is ignored. The birther question came into being not by Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton.
            Rather it started as a promotional booklet produced by then Literary Agency Acton & Dystel celebrating the authors they at that time were representing on the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of their company.
            On one of the thirty-six pages is this statement: Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.
            The next page had a description of Ralph Nadar and the 1990s boy-band, New Kids On the Block.
            That’s where the “birther” story started. We know that some members of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign gave this information to the media. Mainstream Republicans repeated it then and in the eight years of Obama’s presidency.
            Did Donald Trump start this? No, but he could have researched it and then not repeated it. Truth has no place in the “birther” controversy since it serves the partisans on both sides. It is great for fundraising.
            An old joke is: how can you tell if a politician is lying? When their lips are moving. Today: how can you tell if the media is lying? Nowadays, they will always lie - so expect it and embrace truth.

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Swickard: A lesser nation as our veterans pass

Jesse Jacobs at age 23 flying B-17s in WWII
© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
             In my mind the “Day that will live in Infamy” will be less remembered by history than what happened the very next day, December 8, 1941. That Monday many Americans walked into military recruiting offices and volunteered to serve.
            One of those, Jesse Jacobs, passed away last week at age ninety-three. He was a friend of my uncle and myself for many years. While his death was not a surprise, the loss of this national treasure hurts. His friends and family mourn, of course, but there is mourning for the passing of a way of life symbolized by Jesse Jacobs and many more like him.
            Even at an early age there were things he would die for. Country singer Randy Travis has a song, “Points of Light” that starts: There is a point when you cannot walk away. When you have to stand up straight and tall, and mean the words you say. There is a point you must decide just to do it because it’s right. That’s when you become a point of light.
            Colonel Jesse Jacobs, Air Force Retired, was born in August 1923 so he was just eighteen when WWII started. Like many in his generation he volunteered to serve in the military and was a B-17 pilot. Part of his training to fly the B-17 was in Hobbs, New Mexico.
            Eventually he ended up in England. After the war he continued his military career and happened to be stationed in Japan when the Korean War started suddenly. That day he left his wife and child in Japan and flew to Korea to fight for freedom.
            Jesse went as an F-80 fighter pilot. In the last seven years I have sat with Jesse as he talked about an America that went to war willingly and defeated the ones who intended to capture the entire world and hold everyone hostage.
            Adolf Hitler intended to have his country hold all other countries for a thousand years. But he did not reckon on Jesse Jacobs and other Americans who ended his reign of terror at just twelve years.
            Even talking about WWII is difficult in today’s world because we already know that the allies won. Italy, Germany and Japan were defeated and present no threat to us now. But in 1941 young men had to step forward and do their duty without knowing the outcome.
            Some came back and 420,000 Americans did not. Who knows what good they might have done if they had lived.
            My uncle who served in the navy as a radar specialist for naval aviation sat with Jesse many years and they talked quietly about that long ago generation. I took my uncle to the Senior Citizen’s Center Monday through Friday for lunch and enjoyed the history lessons.
            My father entered WWII out of high school at the outbreak and retired in 1966 with twenty-five years of service. He was a combat photographer and later taught photography at the Air Force School of Photography in Denver at Lowery Air Force Base.
            My sadness is that years ago my parents died while my uncle who I cared for many years died last year. Now Jesse. We are losing those of that generation as of course age takes them. It will be my generation next. What bothers me is that growing up with my “I like Ike” button I was steeped in the understanding of what it took to defeat the forces of evil the last time there was a world war.
            Much of that history is no longer taught in schools and we have people disrespecting our aged military veterans. That is their right but it doesn’t make it right. I wonder: what will these who bash the military do if a country decides to take us over… a country like Russia which is effectively a dictatorship.
            Will they fight? It is doubtful. Even with patriots left, there is little leadership. I bid a farewell to Jesse Jacobs and all he stood for as a point of light. We are a lesser nation for his passing.

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Swickard: A lesser nation as our veterans pass

Jesse Jacobs at age 23 flying B-17s in WWII
© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
             In my mind the “Day that will live in Infamy” will be less remembered by history than what happened the very next day, December 8, 1941. That Monday many Americans walked into military recruiting offices and volunteered to serve.
            One of those, Jesse Jacobs, passed away last week at age ninety-three. He was a friend of my uncle and myself for many years. While his death was not a surprise, the loss of this national treasure hurts. His friends and family mourn, of course, but there is mourning for the passing of a way of life symbolized by Jesse Jacobs and many more like him.
            Even at an early age there were things he would die for. Country singer Randy Travis has a song, “Points of Light” that starts: There is a point when you cannot walk away. When you have to stand up straight and tall, and mean the words you say. There is a point you must decide just to do it because it’s right. That’s when you become a point of light.
            Colonel Jesse Jacobs, Air Force Retired, was born in August 1923 so he was just eighteen when WWII started. Like many in his generation he volunteered to serve in the military and was a B-17 pilot. Part of his training to fly the B-17 was in Hobbs, New Mexico.
            Eventually he ended up in England. After the war he continued his military career and happened to be stationed in Japan when the Korean War started suddenly. That day he left his wife and child in Japan and flew to Korea to fight for freedom.
            Jesse went as an F-80 fighter pilot. In the last seven years I have sat with Jesse as he talked about an America that went to war willingly and defeated the ones who intended to capture the entire world and hold everyone hostage.
            Adolf Hitler intended to have his country hold all other countries for a thousand years. But he did not reckon on Jesse Jacobs and other Americans who ended his reign of terror at just twelve years.
            Even talking about WWII is difficult in today’s world because we already know that the allies won. Italy, Germany and Japan were defeated and present no threat to us now. But in 1941 young men had to step forward and do their duty without knowing the outcome.
            Some came back and 420,000 Americans did not. Who knows what good they might have done if they had lived.
            My uncle who served in the navy as a radar specialist for naval aviation sat with Jesse many years and they talked quietly about that long ago generation. I took my uncle to the Senior Citizen’s Center Monday through Friday for lunch and enjoyed the history lessons.
            My father entered WWII out of high school at the outbreak and retired in 1966 with twenty-five years of service. He was a combat photographer and later taught photography at the Air Force School of Photography in Denver and Lowery Air Force Base.
            My sadness is that years ago my parents died while my uncle who I cared for many years died last year. Now Jesse. We are losing those of that generation as of course age takes them. It will be my generation next. What bothers me is that growing up with my “I like Ike” button I was steeped in the understanding of what it took to defeat the forces of evil the last time there was a world war.
            Must of that history is no longer taught in schools and we have people disrespecting our aged military veterans. That is their right but it doesn’t make it right. I wonder: what will these who bash the military do if a country decides to take us over… a country like Russia which is effectively a dictatorship.
            Will they fight? It is doubtful. Even with patriots left, there is little leadership. I bid a farewell to Jesse Jacobs and all he stood for as a point of light. We are a lesser nation for his passing.

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Swickard: A look at college years ago

One of Michael Swickard's 1968 photos
© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.   Old folks joke about walking to school in snow, uphill both ways while their grandkids roll their eyes. But those words have some truth about the changes in a couple generations.
            Take myself: I went to college in a different world than kids today who live in the same town and attend the same college. In 1968 I packed my suitcase at my parent’s house in Alamogordo and moved to my uncle’s house in Las Cruces a mile from the New Mexico State University campus.
            My uncle allowed me a bedroom since I barely had enough money saved to pay tuition and fees and then books. There were no student loans so I paid my way through college and could because tuition and fees were about $180 a semester which adjusted to 2016 inflation is $1,200.
            Compare that to $4,400 a semester now charged at the same college and you see that loans are required.
            My possessions were a couple pair of jeans, some shirts and clothes and shoes. I had a four dollar Timex watch, a wind-up alarm clock and a 1930 Underwood #5 manual typewriter borrowed from my grandmother.
            It is no longer 1968 and college students have personal wealth items today in values I didn’t have for the first five years after I graduated and began working professionally. The only thing I didn’t have was debt which young people now have lots.
            I had the choice of going to college or having a car, my ability to earn money would not support both so I came to college on foot. The good of it was I had almost nothing for anyone to steal from me. The first couple years I lived a very small life that did not use much money.
            Luckily my father taught me photography when I was in junior high school so I had a trade to bring which allowed me to make money… typically two dollars a published picture. That was enough to keep me in school and allowed me enough to eat. But eating was another story.
            The first week I was walking to campus one Sunday afternoon to study at the library. As I walked by the Methodist student center just off campus I smell food and it smelled good. So I walked in. The campus minister, Don Murphy was standing there and asked, “Come to eat with us?”
            I replied that I didn’t have any money. He said, “Then you can wash dishes.” The food was great. They say that appetite is a great seasoning. My uncle was a bachelor and didn’t keep much food in his house.
            As I was leaving Reverend Don said, “Did you know that tomorrow the Church of Christ has a dinner, Tuesday the Presbyterians, we feed Wednesday night and the Baptists serve Spaghetti on Thursday.” He gave me a couple other leads to free food and I lived a fine life.
            Every Tuesday was Air Force ROTC which was a requirement for freshmen and sophomore men to take. I enjoyed the classes and actually enjoyed marching. They found that I was a photographer and I was appointed student photographer which meant I went to many functions.
            For a couple years I walked to and from campus once or twice a day through sunlight, dark, rain, dust and gloom of night. Not any snow that I remember but it would make a better story. Those days I had what I called the number but I didn’t share that with anyone.
            The number involved how soon I would be completely out of money and have to quit college. I got down to sixty days but never closer. Importantly, I left college without any debts.
            My graduation was a semester late since I was the first production director of KRWG-TV and helped put it on the air in February 1972. That was an unpaid position and I dropped hours to have the time which I made up to graduate the next semester.
            Yes, it is a different world for college students with computers, smart phones, designer clothes and cars along with a consuming life. Their choice, not mine. I wonder how a couple more generations will change.

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Environmental hogwash and government budgeting - Thomas Sowell Part 8

© 2016 Jim Spence - We finish up our series highlighting the wisdom of Thomas Sowell with a brief discussion of two topics; environmental hogwash and government "budgeting." 

Maybe three decades ago Kristi and I began to stow our empty aluminum cans in a large cardboard box in the garage. Every so often when we had accumulated seventy or more pounds of them we would take them down to the scrap metal company here in Las Cruces and sell them for cash. I remember a certain family member, a typical brainwashed Democrat who would always show up at Christmas and cram his empty aluminum cans into our trash bin under the sink instead of leaving them on the kitchen counter to be crushed and stowed in the cardboard box in the garage. We asked him repeatedly to just leave the cans on the counter, but it not seem to matter to him enough to remember that we saved aluminum.

A few years ago the City of Las Cruces decided to "save the planet" and require “mandatory recycling.” The rules did not apply only to aluminum, but to several other relatively worthless materials as well. Since we live outside the city limits, recycling is still optional. Essentially, in Las Cruces, as is the case with most places run by Democrats, the government requires citizens to do the sorting of raw materials for firms that take the contents of the recycle bins at the dump stations. We do not perform free sorting for raw materials firms. However we still keep our aluminum cans which WE get PAID to sort......when WE sell them. I ran across this quote by Thomas Sowell to explain the principle:

“Where recyling takes place only in response to political pressures and exhortations, it need not meet the test of being incrementally worth its incremental costs. Accordingly, studies of government-imposed recycling programs in the United States have shown that what they salvage is usually worth less than the cost of salvaging it.”

This same particular family member had some plastic or cardboard last Christmas and remarkably, he actually asked me where our recycle container was. I responded that we did not recycle worthless items, we only recycled aluminum. Of course by this stage of his life, this relative had finally been indoctrinated, not by us on aluminum, but by Democrats on "saving the planet." Accordingly, he now has no problem with government forcing citizens to sort raw materials of little value for raw materials companies that have a deal with the government. I made the assertion that if these companies really wanted my plastic and my cardboard they could get it out of my big container, but since they were not going to pay me, as the scrap metal company does, I was not about to sort for those practically worthless items for them free. “I am not an unpaid worker for a company that is savvy enough to con our local governments out of free raw materials,” I explained.

We argued back and forth before he ended the discussion by telling me I was stupid. In the interest of preserving some semblance of a pleasant holiday, I let the insult slide.

Let's explore government budgeting. New Mexico State University is dealing with a lengthy series of annual budget squeezes. As I read stories about this situation I am reminded of a incident one of my friends told me of. It seems he needed the use of a computer for a project one summer when his computer died. He went out to the journalism department at NMSU and asked if he could sit at a work station for a couple of hours and do his work. The NMSU employee pointed to a closet and directed him to a stack of brand new Apple computers still sitting in boxes unopened. When my friend asked for an explanation, the employee said, the previous year near the end of the fiscal year, the department had a bunch of money in its account, so the boss bought all of these computers. He said the boss did not want to have a surplus in the department account or the higher ups might cut the budget, so the boss ordered all those computers.
I have heard these types of stories about all sorts of departments in all sorts of government operations. It reminds me of this quote from Thomas Sowell that should help everyone understand how fat, bloated, and wasteful government is:
“Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.”

Nobody in their right mind would buy a bunch of computers that were not needed with their own money. But when you work for government and you talk about budgeting, it really helps if you are not in your right mind.

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Suspend your common sense - Thomas Sowell Part 7

© 2016 Jim Spence - Democrats have a cynical game plan to manipulate and control black American voters. And Thomas Sowell resents this fact. He has spoken often about how much misinformation gets published and trumpeted about the black experience in America. Sowell has lived the black experience in America. In his writings he traces the roots of today’s high unemployment rates in the black community. And he remembers the rising income rates of blacks and low unemployment rates during the first half of the 20th century. All of this happened when racism was a serious problem and long BEFORE Democrats started to call for government intervention to “help” blacks. He reasons that racism is a relic of the past and has nothing to do with the struggles of blacks.
Thomas Sowell
Perhaps Democrat Patrick Moynihan knew best when he went against most in his party and opposed proposals by LBJ to allegedly fight poverty. Instinctively Moynihan knew that laws passed under LBJ were a sure fire way to promote illegitimacy in the black community, destroy the families, and perpetuate poverty. Hand outs started being given to inner city girls who bore children out of wedlock, but only if the children’s fathers did not live in the house. These stupid ideas were government-baked recipes for calamities and the rest as they say is history. Democrat’s big government ideas have “helped” the American black community set itself back a hundred years.
Let’s consider racial discrimination. Arthur Blank, Robert McNair, and Tom Benson own NFL teams. Peter Holt, Gail Holt, and James Dolan own NBA teams. In fact, Tom Benson owns both an NFL and NBA team. Each of these people competes with dozens of other team owners. Imagine what sort of results these business people would experience with their teams if they instructed their coaches to purposely keep lesser players because they wanted to discriminate against African Americans? We all know the answer to this question. The very idea is preposterous. Thomas Sowell put it succinctly.
“It would be very hard, for example, for a basketball owner, no matter how racist he was, to try to operate without Blacks. It would be suicidal.”
The better players, of which so many are black, would simply sign with other teams. And the other teams with the better players would destroy the teams with lesser players on the playing field. We all know this, simply because it is common sense. Sports franchises want to prosper. Accordingly they are always looking for ways to upgrade their talent. They comb the far reaches of the world looking for better players. Again, this is common sense.
Let’s completely suspend our common sense. Why would we do this? Because…..Democrats want us to. They would have everyone believe, especially blacks, that somehow business people that own sports franchises are DIFFERENT from all other business people. They want us to believe that only sports franchise owners want to succeed, not any other businesses. Democrats float misleading advertisements around election time that infer that business people instruct their managers to purposely keep lesser employees because they want to hold down the minority communities.
Talk to any business owner who is succeeding and he or she will tell you the hardest thing to come by now days is qualified people with skills. Sound familiar? It is the same dilemma sports franchise owners have. Everyone is competing for talent. And nobody who is going to last for more than ten minutes in business cares what color or gender the talent is. It is common sense. But if you are a Democrat you are required to suspend your common sense where race is concerned. These are the cold hard facts on race that should be known by every American.

Why do Democrats do this? It is because they want to manipulate and control voters in the minority segments of the population. They want to manipulate them into believing that the business people in the sports world are somehow “different” than the business people competing outside of that world. They don’t want anyone to know that ALL business people are dying for the next LeBron James, Cam Newton, or Kevin Durant in their industry. And just like sports franchise owners, they don’t care what color the superstars are.

Thomas Sowell understands that racists come in all colors including both Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. He had this to say on the subject: 
“Racism does not have a good track record. It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it instead of putting it under new management.”

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Misuse of the term "greed" - Thomas Sowell Part 6

Thomas Sowell
© 2016 Jim Spence -“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money. Among the many other questions raised by the nebulous concept of “greed” is why it is a term applied almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already earned—never to those wanting to take other people’s money in taxes or to those wishing to live on the largesse dispensed from such taxation. No amount of taxation is ever described as “greed” on the part of government or the clientele of government. One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.”--- Thomas Sowell
You hear misuse of the term “greed” and the canonization of those who misuse it virtually every day. Whether it is the Clintons or the Obamas, demonizing those who produce is their stock and trade. How do they get away with it? Their party has carefully constructed a public education system and entertainment system and used these systems to indoctrinate the masses. Sowell pinpoints the realities of the results the Democrats call for here:
“Socialism is a wonderful idea. It is only as a reality that it has been disastrous. Among people of every race, color, and creed, all around the world, socialism has led to hunger in countries that used to have surplus food to export.... Nevertheless, for many of those who deal primarily in ideas, socialism remains an attractive idea -- in fact, seductive. Its every failure is explained away as due to the inadequacies of particular leaders. Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”
What Democrats count on most to stay in power is widespread ignorance. And what they count on most has become reliable. We have a nation on the verge of starvation in Venezuela. However, there is no mention of the fact that Venezuelan dictators like Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro have been pimping for socialism for decades. China only emerged from a period when starvation on a massive scale was beginning to set in, when it turned to market based principles. Often when you listen to a socialist, whether it is Obama, one of the Clintons, or Bernie Sanders, you notice that they scoff at the idea of market-based principles as being too simple in the complex world. They want people to believe that they understand this exceedingly complex world much more so than the average person, so much so, that they should be the nation’s caretaker. Sowell has their ilk nailed here:
“People who pride themselves on their "complexity" and deride others for being "simplistic" should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth.”
The nation's public education system and elected officials in the Democratic Party refuse to discuss the basic concept of economic scarcity. They urge their constituents to resort to envy. Sowell points to reality here:
“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”
The Lego movie illustrated the corruption of Hollywood and the Democrats as well as any film in modern history. The villain in that animated movie was “Lord Business.” The movie was one of the most cynical attempts to turn people against business. Ironically Hollywood is a business too. Thomas Sowell gets to the heart of the matter here:

“It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing “compassion for the poor,” but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.”
The next time you hear a Democrat barking about producers not paying their "fair share" you should know that they laying a guilt trip game on America. Sowell speaks of it often:
“Despite whatever the left may say, or even believe, about their concern for the poor, their actual behavior shows their interest in the poor to be greatest when the poor can be used as a focus of the left’s denunciations of society.” 
And some people wonder where Colin Kapernick gets all of his stupid ideas? 

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