United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords has a friend in author Tom Zoellner. Tom has known Gabby for a decade and has even knocked on doors in the Arizona sun in support of her campaign. He knows a side of her all America would like to know.

Tom wrote, "I want her to be able to ride her motorcycle through the hills east of town that she loved, to pop in to the TTT Truck Stop for some pie à la mode, to talk to the person on the stool next to her about whatever they wanted to say, to take hummingbird sips of Negra Modela and pretend she was actually drinking, and to go on brightly in the E-kay of her voice about the ideas that were constantly occurring to her and the ways she would carry them out."

Education and Business Experience

After a distinguished educational track that includes a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in California, A Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University, a Fullbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico and a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, she worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City until her father called and said help was needed at the family business in Tucson. In 1996 she became CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain founded by her grandfather. (continued below)

Public Service

Gabrielle Giffords was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2000. Two years later she became the youngest woman elected to the Arizona Senate, a position she held until December 1, 2005, when she resigned to run for Congress. In late summer of that year, she was a volunteer in Houston, Texas, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. She has been a member of the U. S. Congress since January, 2007.

Back in Houston

Gabby Giffords is now back in Houston. This time, however, it is not a trip from her beloved Arizona that she wanted to take. Having been shot in the head at point blank range on January 8 at a political event outside a Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, Arizona, a suburb of Tucson, she was taken to University Medical Center for treatment. Then, on January 21, she was flown to Houston’s Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston.

Today, January 25, she is to be transferred to The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, known as TIRR Memorial Hermann. Her condition was upgraded from serious to good last night. Now begins the long process of rehabilitation therapies. A brain injury has many, many effects, most of which are not known at this time because Gabby has been unable to speak.

Has America Been Unable to Speak?

Are Americans so influenced by the fringe elements of political thinking that we are content to wallow in the inhumane shallows of political conversation? The Constitution of the United States contains words in its preamble that state one of government’s goals is to promote the general welfare. Recently, general welfare has taken on a new meaning, according to some, — socialism.

Those who promote the general welfare are called socialists. Unless that general welfare involves government programs like highways, police departments, fire departments, local health departments, etc.

Another goal of government stated in the Preamble is to insure domestic tranquility. Insuring peace at home, however, should not involve gun control of any kind, again — according to some.

We hear political leaders and those who are called political pundits defaming one another. We see the Mitch McConnell’s and the John Boehner’s and the Eric Me Too’s pledging to sacrifice the best interests of America for a political agenda. Why else would they not sit down and discuss a possible compromise of ideas? Is it because they, for so long now, have been wallowing in the inhumane shallows of political conversation?

Just last night Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, in her response to the President’s State of the Union speech, said the president should repeal his health care bill and let the free market take care of any problems that exist in the world’s best health care system but should also impose malpractice lawsuit limitations. I guess the free market cannot fix the malpractice problem.

We also heard Congressman express that one of his greatest concerns as a parent of three children, aged six, seven and eight, was the debt facing the United States government. Really? My wife and I had a lot of concerns during the growth years of our children, and I can honestly say that I had many, many concerns greater than the national debt. They rode bicycles; they played baseball, they fished in the lake not too far from our house; they visited friends; their friends visited our house; they attended daycare; they attended church. There were many, many things that generated concern for their health and well-being. The national debt? Not so much. Did you? That, to me, is wading in the shallow waters of political conversation.

Gabby Giffords will experience many things during rehabilitation, each of those things designed to help restore a portion of her life. One of those things will be speech therapy. Perhaps it is time for America to undergo speech therapy and turn away from the inhumane shallows of political conversation.

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Learn More About Brain Injury

Larry and Beth Jameson, authors of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They maintain two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Job killing is the new buzzword being applied to any and every thing Republicans and their sponsors don’t like. Their sponsors? You betcha, to quote someone who knows how to raise the value of a personal bank account.

Job killing, used as a buzzword, does not need to be used accurately. It simply needs to be said over and over and over again. You know, like death panels and Obamacare. More importantly, though, it must be used to promote or protect the interests of legislative sponsors.

For instance, the Washington Post reports that Eric Cantor, Republican Congressman, received more than $6 million during the 2010 campaign from what the Post called corporate-linked donations. $2.4 million of that came from the finance, insurance and real estate industries.

Major healthcare firms contributed over $5 million the past two years, including $1.6 million that went to Cantor and fellow Republican Congressman John Boehner. Other sources report Cantor and Boehner received well over $2 million.

The Repealing the job-killing healthcare law act was passed by the Boehner/Cantor-led House of Representatives this past week. Last year, Republicans said the healthcare industry could not handle all the new patients because it would need something like 200,000 more doctors plus loads and loads of new healthcare workers. So, which is it? Is the healthcare bill bad because it will create hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of new jobs OR is it bad because it kills jobs? (continued below)

Remember the Death Tax?

This tax, before there was an America, was paid to kings when property was transferred from one person to another. The United States adopted it as a way to help fund a government of the people, by the people and for the people but to apply this tax only to those individuals who had large estates. It was appropriately called the Estate Tax.

What did we hear about the Death Tax? There was outrage that you had to pay a tax when you died, even though over 99% of Americans would never pay such a tax. Where was the outrage when the gasoline tax was raised? Where was the outrage when the cigarette tax was raised? Those taxes are paid by far more Americans than pay the Estate Tax…far more. Way far more.

Do businesses pay an Estate Tax? No, it is paid by individuals. Do businesses pay a cigarette tax? No, it is paid by smokers. Do businesses pay a gasoline tax? You betcha! I want to see some outrage over the job-killing gasoline tax.

Related Articles

Check out the Independent’s Day Series of Articles.

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head Saturday morning while hosting her first Congress On The Corner in Tucson.

Giffords is a Blue Dog Democrat who supported the Health Care Act passed by the 111th Congress. On Thursday she introduced a bill to cut the salaries of members of Congress by 5%.

The Congresswoman’s Chief of State, Pia Carusone, issued a statement saying, "An unthinkable tragedy occurred at our Congress On Your Corner event today in Tucson. Our community has lost beloved friends and colleagues, and many more are injured. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of them and to those who are suffering the loss of treasured friends and family members.

Congresswoman Giffords is dedicated to serving the people of Southern Arizona. It was in this spirit that our office organized today’s event. We will make further statements as details become available. We offer thanks to the law enforcement, first responders, and medical personnel who work to save lives and mend the injured." (continued below)

Seventeen other persons were shot; six died. Among the dead are Gabe Zimmerman who served as Gifford’s director of community outreach, federal district judge John M. Roll, pastor Dorwin Stoddard, nine-year old Christina Greene, Dorthy Murray and Phyllis Scheck.

Twenty-two year old Jared Lee Loughner was tackled at the scene, arrested and is now in custody. A 9mm Glock with an extended clip that holds thirty rounds was recovered. The Washington Post reports that the gun was purchased legally on November 30, 2010. The manufacture of extended clips was banned in 1994 by the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. That law, however, expired in September of 2004 and Senator Diane Finstein’s effort to extend it was voted down in the Senate by a vote of 8 to 90.

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act was replaced in 2005 with the Bush Administration Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which prevented manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with the products.

We can assume if the ban on extended clips had remained in effect when he made his legal purchase he would have had a gun with a ten-round clip. Eighteen people would not have been shot because he was tackled before he would have had time to reload.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stated, "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

The United States government’s debt ceiling is not a normal topic of discussion around the office water cooler, or anywhere else for that matter. It is an arbitrary dollar figure that represents a simple premise: we will borrow up to this amount of money.

If the average American family operated using a self-imposed debt ceiling we might see the following scenario.

With a take-home pay of $6,000 per month, the family plans its spending. Money will be set aside for groceries, dining out, automobile expenses, automobile insurance, homeowner or renter’s insurance, investment or savings, gifts (birthday, Christmas, etc.), vacations, utility costs, personal property taxes, real estate taxes, clothing, shelter and children’s education, among others. Oh, and each family member must have a cell phone, and they must have one or two computers. Cell phones and computers have monthly costs, also known as monthly debt.

As life progresses, the family wants to buy a home and each family member wants a car. How much of a home (size and cost) and what kind of cars will be determined. Usually these items are determined by want rather than need, and that usually means money must be borrowed to make the purchase. Borrowed money requires monthly principal and interest payments.

The decision is made to spend no more than 40% of take-home pay on monthly debt. This would include all those insurance policies and taxes mentioned above, utilities, computer and cell phone charges, and monthly payments for the house and cars. (continued below)

Then, things over which the family has no control begin to happen. Insurance rates and utility rates are increased. Perhaps the family chose an adjustable rate mortgage so they could buy a larger house for less up-front money and lower payments. After all, by the time the monthly payments increase working family members will have received pay raises at work. The raises did not materialize but the payment increase did. So, the decision to spend no more than 40% of take-home pay on monthly debt is raised to 45%.

One or two family members must have a credit card for emergency purposes in case the car breaks down on the road, or something. The cards might also be used for normal items as long as the full amount of charges is paid monthly. Now the family has added groceries, dining out and clothing purchases to their monthly debt and decided to raise the percentage of take-home pay from 45% to 55%, another $600.

One of the wage-earners is laid off, and the family is facing a serious financial situation. The $6,000 take-home drops to $4,000, $3,300 of which had already been set aside for monthly debt payments. A decision is made to stop paying the credit cards in full each month and carry a balance until the laid off worker finds a new job. The debt ceiling must be raised. The alternative would be defaulting on the debts which would mean possibly losing the house. Vacations and savings plans no longer appear in the family budget.

U. S. Government Crisis

The United States government, because of past congressional action, finds itself in a similar situation. They have raised the debt ceiling 75 times since 1962. Now there are members of Congress who say they will not vote to raise the ceiling. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he might vote for it if the retirement age for Social Security is raised to 70. Others want to tie their vote to spending cuts.

There is nothing wrong about making cuts in government spending, as long as they are true spending cuts. You see, the government borrowed money to begin a war in Afghanistan, then borrowed more money to fight a war in Iraq, then borrowed more money to reduce government revenue by giving tax cuts to everyone, then borrowed more money to provide prescription drug coverage through Medicare. And, of course, a financial crisis hit and more money was borrowed to prevent some major economic crashes.

Millions of Americans lost their jobs and the government lost more tax revenue because of it. Income is decreasing but the expenses are not going down. Yes, expenses must be cut. But, in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States government, the debt ceiling must be raised. Simply put, expenses cannot be cut enough between now and March 31 to make a difference. The ceiling must still be raised.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the Pentagon would cut its budget by $78 billion over the next five years and shrink the size of the Army and Marine Corps. What that means is that Pentagon spending will only increase slightly each year through 2014 and then remain effectively frozen in 2015 and 2016. In other words, this is a budget cut that does not reduce spending.

The military budget is about 20% of the entire government budget. For next year, the military budget will be $553 billion NOT counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One program being cut by Gates is $15 billion for a Marine Corps amphibious landing craft known as the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. I wonder how many amphibious landings are being done in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the military budget does include $30 billion for unexpected costs for fuel, health care and "other."

Another $70 billion of the military budget will be shifted to building other weapons systems, a new long-range bomber and a modernized Abrams tank. My question is this: could this not be delayed while America is facing a financial crisis? Of course, Republican Representative Howard P. McKeon of California said, "I will not stand idly by and watch the White House gut defense when Americans are deployed in harm’s way."

No, sadly, I’m not kidding. Do you now understand why America faces a crisis with its debt ceiling? As long as we have members of Congress like Rep. McKeon who don’t want to cut "vacations" in a time of financial crisis, you and I are in trouble.

You might also be interested in Understanding the Estate Tax.

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Why is there such a ruckus about the estate tax? Less than 1% of wealthiest Americans pay it. The real estate bubble brought it to the forefront a few years ago. People who had bought a house for $30,000 in the 1960’s found that its value had risen in some parts of the country to about $1,000,000.

The $600,000 exemption still meant that had to pay estate taxes for whatever portion of that remaining $400,000 that couldn’t be reduced by other deductions.

A simple matter would have been to raise the exemption.

Here’s what the IRS says, "The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death. It consists of an accounting of everything you own or have certain interests in at the date of death. The fair market value of these items is used, not necessarily what you paid for them or what their values were when you acquired them. The total of all of these items is your Gross Estate. The includible property may consist of cash and securities, real estate, insurance, trusts, annuities, business interests and other assets.

Once you have accounted for the Gross Estate, certain deductions (and in special circumstances, reductions to value) are allowed in arriving at your Taxable Estate. These deductions may include mortgages and other debts, estate administration expenses, property that passes to surviving spouses and qualified charities. The value of some operating business interests or farms may be reduced for estates that qualify.

After the net amount is computed, the value of lifetime taxable gifts (beginning with gifts made in 1977) is added to this number and the tax is computed. The tax is then reduced by the available unified credit. Presently, the amount of this credit reduces the computed tax so that only total taxable estates and lifetime gifts that exceed $1,000,000 will actually have to pay tax. In its current form, the estate tax only affects the wealthiest 2 percent of all Americans." (Source: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=164871,00.html) – continued below

It only affects the wealthiest 2% of all Americans. Where have we heard that before? Let’s talk dollars for a moment and then we’ll talk sense.

There was no estate tax for the wealthiest 2% of Americans in 2010. This, of course, was part of the Bush Tax Cuts set to expire December 31, 2010.

Obama Proposal for the Estate Tax

The Obama Administration proposed raising the exemption to $3.5 million from what was once $600,000. The tax rate proposed was 45%, about 10% lower than the old days and the same rate the Bush tax cuts lowered it to for 2009.

Robert Ball Has a Suggestion

Robert Ball served as a Social Security Commissioner during the administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Ball proposed using the 2009 Bush estate tax plan and dedicating the revenue to the Social Security Trust Fund. Actuaries estimated that such an estate tax plan would close more than one-fourth of the Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Profiles)

Estate Tax Congressional Action

The United States House of Representatives passed the Obama proposal. Republicans in the Senate blocked it. Again I say, does that sound familiar?

The December 6, 2010 Compromise

The DEAL with the Republicans to move forward provides a two-year plan for the estate tax with an exemption of $5 million and a tax rate of 35%.

The Estate Tax America Needs

Please notice I did not use the word "want" in that heading. We the people need to begin looking at what we need more than what we want. We need, at a minimum, the estate tax proposed by the Obama Administration, and we need to dedicate it to the Social Security Trust Fund as proposed by Robert Ball.

This should be the first step before any measures aimed at reducing Social Security costs are undertaken. Add this footing to the program and let the actuaries then see what’s needed in the future.

Call to Action: Make sure your representatives in Congress know what they should do to protect America’s finances. You can also Stumble this article, Digg it, Tweet it or stick it on your Facebook page.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Roman Emperor Nero was said to have fiddled while Rome burned in 64 A.D. Of course the story is not true because there were no fiddles in Rome at the time, but it makes a good story.

Move forward in time to the year 2010. The Roman Empire is gone, but fiddlin’ while the American people suffer seems to have been resurrected from Nero’s time. One thing that has not been brought forward is Nero’s treatment of the poor and disadvantaged people. A cry arose in the land that the poor were being overly taxed, and Nero cut the tax almost in half. Restrictions on bails and fines were put in place and lawyer fees were limited. Secret government tax records were made public and the cost of food imports was lowered by virtue of tax exemption.

Roman historian Tacitus says that after "the fire" that destroyed a good portion of Rome, Nero organized a relief effort paid from his own funds. He opened his palaces to shelter the homeless and arranged for the delivery of food supplies for the needy. He then established a new building program to make houses safer. To pay for the project a tribute was imposed on the provinces of the Empire. In Roman times, the tribute usually applied to land, landowners or slave owners (the rich).

Okay, so here we are in 2010. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty states that 3 million people in America experience homelessness each year with 1.3 million of those being children. On November 5, 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that 14.8 million of Americans were unemployed with 6.2 million of those having been unemployed longer than six months. They also estimate another 2.6 million have fallen off the unemployment rolls and still have not found employment because jobs are scarce. That same BLS report showed that people who do have jobs are working more hours.

What is Congress Doing?

A December 1, 2010 article entitled Unemployment benefits: not until Bush tax cuts pass, Senate GOP says, pretty much says it all. The extension of unemployment benefits was not acted on by the United States Senate in time to prevent 800,000 out-of-work Americans from losing benefits and another 2 million expected to lose benefits on January 1. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts objected to the bill being brought up for a vote, effectively blocking the required unanimous consent. Brown stated his party’s objection to the $56.4 billion measure not being offset by cuts in other programs. Of course, his party favors extending $700 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that are not offset by cuts in other programs.

Redistribution of wealth? Have you heard that phrase before? From Republicans? Sure you have, only it doesn’t apply if you take money from the poor and give it to the rich – according to Senate Republicans.

In the meantime, Congress is planning to spend about $33 billion on Great Ape Conservation by virtue of HR 4416. The bill states, "The Secretary may award a multiyear grant under this section to a person who is otherwise eligible for a grant under this section, to carry out a project that the person demonstrates is an effective, long-term conservation strategy for great apes and their habitats."

Did you know the U. S. Department of Defense is working with General Dynamics to develop a lightweight .50 caliber machine gun? DOD gave General Dynamics $9 million to try and develop the weapon. Now, this isn’t the first time. General Dynamic’s earlier version called the XML312 was rejected. The new one is being called the LW50MG. Lt. Colonel Mike Ascura stated that the new weapon will not replace the heavier M2 .50 caliber machine gun. It will simply be a new gun.

Military Airplane with Spare Engine

The F-35 fighter jet is a great example of what’s wrong with American government. According to WTNH in Hartford, Connecticut, 83 of the fighters have received authorization and appropriation, and the military has expressed an interest in acquiring over 2,000. For starters, why would we need over 2,000 fighter aircraft, much less over 2,000 of the same model? But that’s not the story here. You see, the F-35 uses a Pratt & Whitney engine manufactured in Democrat Representative John Larson’s district in Connecticut.

Other members of Congress want a piece of the pie and have recommended that a back up engine be made for the F-35, one made by General Electric and Rolls Royce. The military has said they do not need the backup engine. Its production, however, is being planned for two Congressional districts outside Connecticut: Republican John Boehner’s district in Ohio and Republican Eric Cantor’s district in Virginia.

Conclusion

Anybody got a fiddle?

A religious knowledge survey conducted in the United States by the Pew Research Center was released September 28, 2010. While the survey reveals an almost-expected lack of knowledge about other religions of the world, it also shows that Americans don’t know much about their own, personally professed religion, either!

Thirty-two questions were asked in the phone survey. There is a fifteen-question online survey for curious people like me, which I took. I scored 100% – 15 correct answers on 15 questions. The average score for those surveyed was 50%. The fact that I scored 100% compared to professing observers scoring only 50%, to me, is a very telling one because I don’t attend church or Bible study. Yes, I have studied the Bible in the past and, on occasion in recent history, have read through sections searching for proof of certain claims being spouted by others.

My comparison, though, was not totally out of line. A number of questions were asked to identify the resopndent’s religious group, if any. That allowed the folks at Pew Research to break down survey results by "religiosity," if you’ll pardon me creating a word.

Correct Answers by Group

Atheists and Agnostics answered more questions correctly than people who profess religious affiliation. Can you name one of the most popular Christmas songs? How about O Little Town of Bethlehem? Yet, only 71% of those surveyed knew that Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, was born in Bethlehem. Every year, several times a year, a movie called The Ten Commandments is shown on television. The movie is based on the second Book of the Bible, Exodus. Yet only 72% of respondents knew who led the exodus out of Egypt. But that may not be suprising in light of the fact that only 63% knew what the first Book of the Bible is.

Thirty-seven percent read the Bible or other Holy Scriptures at least once a week. That might explain who it was that knew the first Book of the Bible is Genesis but, think about this; 63% of those surveyed do not read the Holy Scriptures of their own religion! Thirty percent of white evangelicals and twenty-nine percent of black protestants reported that they read books or went online weekly to learn more about their own religion. That low number is sad enough but when it comes to reading books or going online to learn about other religions, the national average is 7% with no group scoring higher than 8%.

Do you know who Joseph Smith is? 51% of those surveyed correctly identified him. Only 44% knew that the Mormon religion was founded in the 1800s and only 40% knew that the Book of Mormon tells the story of Jesus appearing to people in the Americas. For more information about Mormons, you might want to read, Mitt Romney Believes What?.

A Disturbing Religious and Political Reality

The Pew Report states, "Previous surveys by the Pew Research Center have shown that America is among the most religious of the world’s developed nations. Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults say that religion is ‘very important’ in their lives, and roughly four-in-ten say they attend worship services at least once a week. But the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey shows that large numbers of Americans are uninformed about the tenets, practices, history and leading figures of major faith traditions — including their own."

Furthermore, the report states, "More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45%) do not know that their church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. About half of Protestants (53%) cannot correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation, which made their religion a separate branch of Christianity. Roughly four-in-ten Jews (43%) do not recognize that Maimonides, one of the most venerated rabbis in history, was Jewish."

The Religious Right wields a strong influence on the Republican Party and, thus, on politics and government in the United States. Their primary goals, it appears, are lifestyle in nature. They are behind the Pro Life (anti-abortion) movement, and gun ownership, among others. Politically, they speak of lassiez-faire capitalism, gun ownership and government support of non-public schools.

They sometimes claim elitism as Pat Buchanan did in a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, "Our culture is superior to other cultures, superior because our religion is Christianity." And, they preach fear. "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different…It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-biased media and the homosexuals who want to destroy all Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination are the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in our history." – Pat Robertson

"… those of the humanistic stripe want to see all Bibles banned in America." – Jimmy Swaggert

I mentioned Mr. Robertson and Mr. Buchanan because they have run for President of the United States. Mormon Mitt Romney and Baptist Mike Huckabee are considered to be presidential contenders for the future, as they were in 2008. Both Romney and Huckabee would like to see Roe vs. Wade repealed, and Huckabee would sponsor a Constitution Amendment to outlaw abortion in the United States.

So, What is Smaller government?

The Religious Right and ideas espoused by their political leaders shout for smaller government – in some instances. Huckabee had advocated doing away with the Internal Revenue Service. Others want to get rid of the Department of Education. Okay, that’s smaller in size. What about smaller in scope?

Should abortion, gay rights, legalization of marijuana, and other such issues be left to the states to determine, or should the federal government enforce a rule on the states? Currently there is such a federal law against marijuana use that will trump the state laws if the matter goes to court. When it comes to abortion, Huckabee wants a Constitutional Amendment that would take the issue out of state control. When governor of Arkansas, Huckabee signed into law a prohibition of same-sex marriage and stated his opposition to legal civil unions for gays and lesbians.

Having the federal government in the bedroom or den or listening on your cell phone or monitoring your computer usage is BIG government – in scope. In a land known for freedom, intervention by the government to limit freedom is BIG government – in scope.

I agree that the Second Amendment guarantees much to gun owners. But, shouldn’t government be big enough to outlaw guns and ammunition designed to be used against law enforcement officers and, yes, political officials?

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution greatly increased the Scope of Government. It states, in part, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…" In other words, if federal law grants a privilege or immunity to its citizens, no state can do otherwise. If the scope is limited on a federal level, then the states would be free to restrict privileges or immunities.

Religious Power in America

The question becomes this: Should power to influence both the size and scope of government be given to religious groups who know very little about their own religion and virtually nothing about the many other religions practicing in the United States?

It should be a rule (Bill Maher, take note) that you should, at the very least, know why you believe what you believe before forcing that belief on others. With 63% of you not even reading the Holy Scriptures you believe others should live by, well, it’s a little difficult to take you seriously.

You can correct that. And, in a way, I think the founder of your religion would really want you to know more about it. How can you evangelize or recruit others when you don’t know what it is or why you’re doing it? And, how do you know what you are supposed to be doing?

The survey shows that while American citizens claim we live in a Christian nation, we may not. Saying you are a Christian is not the same as being one.

For more information about the U. S. Religious Knowledge Survey, click this link.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Dear Washington D. C.:

America getting back to you again. Perhaps you’ve noticed a lot of new faces moving toward town, and a lot of them are coming courtesy of our country’s Tea Party movement.

Here’s something you need to know. Yes, there are a number of evil people who have tried to co-op this movement, and there are a few wild ideas floated by uninformed supporters of this movement. However, look around you. Congress is inundated with wild ideas and uninformed people already. This is nothing new. The "need to know" part of this is that it is a people movement that should not be identified with radio or television talk shows or Dick Armey, Michelle Bachmann or anyone else who says they speak for the people.

It’s the Stupid Economy

You must admit that Capitalism has a black-eye at the moment. Supply-side economics is not supplying the number of jobs needed by our country’s citizens – and that is the key to just about everything else you’re hearing.

Why is there such an uproar over ILLEGAL immigration? Because jobs are being lost. Why is there such an uproar over NAFTA and other trade agreements? Because jobs are being lost. Why is there such an uproar over Congressional legislation that rewards companies who ship jobs off our shores? Well, that’s simple – because jobs are being lost.

Why is there such an uproar over the Wall Street bailout? Because you chose to provide a benefit to people who create nothing but financial chaos and get rewarded with uproarious salaries. Wall Street’s analysts have corporations running scared. They must continually improve their bottom line by laying off workers or shipping jobs overseas in order to please the analysts. You bailed out one of our biggest problems, and we’re pissed about it. (Read Karl Marx, Socialism and the Tea Party Movement).

Now, however, we need to talk about government spending.

Debt, Deficits and Decisions

Fact – the United States government has a huge debt. Fact – the debt is caused by deficit spending. Fact – Deficit spending is caused by stupid decisions. We’ve all done it. We all do it. Keeping up with the Joneses as a life goal has been around longer than I have, and I’ve been here a long time.

It’s like Credit Card Debt. Credit cards, as a method of payment, is not a bad thing. They make life a lot simpler. However, when a credit card is used to buy something that is not needed or that cannot really be afforded, it becomes a bad thing. A balance is carried forward and, in many cases, an exhorbitant interest rate comes into play. Then you must devote a part of your income to paying the interest on your debt and a part of your income to paying the debt. In other words, you lost purchasing power because of not managing your desires for something you really couldn’t afford.

I keep reading about you folks spending money for a weapon that the military doesn’t want. I’m talking millions and millions of dollars you’re spending for something that is not needed – and that our country cannot afford. Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that you’re doing it to keep jobs in the military complex. And, that’s stupid. It would be less stupid if you used those millions and millions of dollars to have people make windshield wipers; at least that’s a needed product and you’d still have the jobs. But the truth is – we cannot afford either!

Be a Decider

You know, they say a stupid person is one who does something that fails and then does it again expecting a different result. Several years ago you gave a huge tax cut that helped America’s richest people and told us that those people would use that money to create jobs. Okay, we lost 8 or so millions jobs since then – and now you’re thinking about doing it again. Back up two sentences and read what I said.

Supply-side economics requires that money be in the hands of demanders. You know, it’s that old demand creates supply sort of thing. Without demand, the economy falters. You put money in the hands of people who are simply going to put it in the bank or stock market and you get one result. You put it in the hands of hungry people, and they will spend it quickly, creating demand. Is that so difficult to understand?

On November 2, 2010 a lot of decisions were made. Many of those decisions resulted in a whole bunch of new deciders who will be moving to Washington. Someone is going to be a decider. You can do it to benefit the country or voters will do it to replace you with a different decider.

Deficit Deciders Needed

Nobody said your job was supposed to be easy. You see, along the way folks there in your fair city forgot all about us having a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." November 2 should be a reminder that the voters didn’t forget. There are a lot of special interests people all up in arms about decisions that need to be made. No one wants deficit reduction to happen in their back yard. Well, it’s got to happen in everyone’s backyard in order for it to work.

What’s up with this XOS Wearable Exoskeleton suit developed by Defense Contractor Raytheon? The promo material says it will allow a soldier to pick up 200 pounds of stuff hundreds of times without getting fatigued. How much does it cost? How many times is it necessary to pick up 200 pounds at once? Could the stuff be boxed in fifty-pound boxes? Could four guys pick it up if it stayed in a 200-pound box? Why are you spending money on this? Money we don’t have, by the way. Not only that, but why is Defense Contractor Lockheed Martin building a similar suit called the Human Universal Load Carrier?

Did you pay both of these companies to develop the same thing when, in reality, it isn’t needed at a time we cannot afford it?

Military spending must be on the cutting block.

For the People

Don’t forget those words. Your decisions should be based on what’s best for the people. Sure, it would be nice to have a bike trail running through the middle of my hometown. But I can give up that bike trail so an elderly person can afford health care. Are you willing to take any degree of health care away from your grandmother so millionaires can continue receive a tax cut they don’t really need?

Are you willing to deprive a child of health care or a hot meal so you can build more unneeded weapons? Yes, I understand you cannot reduce the debt until you have a budget surplus rather than a budget deficit. This is what you should be thinking about. How will you decrease spending and, possibly, increase revenue on a yearly basis.

Forget Social Security for the moment. It does not contribute one penny to the deficit nor to the national debt. There is plenty of time to deal with that. Let’s do what’s needed now to confront the problems we have now.

What Others Are Saying:

About Social Security – "The system has been running a substantial surplus for a generation because the Baby Boom has been working and paying payroll taxes, and the Baby Boom dwarfs the generation now receiving benefits. The surplus has gone into the Trust Fund, which now stands at about $2.6 trillion (That’s trillion with a “T.”) As the Baby Boom retires, the system will stop running a surplus later this decade. Then the system will pay full benefits, including cost-of-living adjustments, from payroll taxes and the interest from the Trust Fund. About a decade after that, payroll taxes and interest on the Trust Fund will not be enough to pay full benefits, including cost of living adjustments. Then the system will pay full benefits, including cost of living adjustments, from payroll taxes, interest and the principal of the Trust Fund." – Huffington Post

Defense Spending – "The scale of defense spending in the USA, as Chalmers Johnson has repeatedly pointed out, is beyond what any other citizen base in the world shoulders as a percent of GDP and adds up to approximately the defense spending of the rest of the world combined. So a little nip and tuck here is considered significant. Why do these commissions never ask what it is that all of this defense spending does for America?" –

Rob Johnson, Director of Economic Policy, Roosevelt Institute

More Independent’s Day Articles

Independent’s Day
Independent’s Day – Social Security
Independent’s Day – Second Amendment
Independent’s Day – Deficit Reduction (this article)

FYI – here’s information you can use.

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

For days following the mysterious contrail in the sky over California we were told the military says it was not caused by them. The Pentagon immediately shoved its way into the story, as the Pentagon has done for decades.

News organizations kept asking questions. Why did no one know what caused the mysterious contrail? It was a simple question. Did anyone have something in the sky that could have left such a trail?

It’s not a missile. The United States is not in danger, we kept hearing time and again. In other words, we were being told, "We don’t know what it is, but it’s not going to hurt us."

It’s not the first time the military and the Pentagon have offered such a story.

The Roswell Daily Record reported on July 8, 1947 that a flying saucer had been captured by the Air Force. Notice the sub headline, "No Details of Flying Disk Are Revealed." The story mentions a husband and wife who own a hardware store in town that reported seeing a flying disk.

In case you didn’t already know it, RAAF stands for Roswell Army Air Field. In fact, it was a press release from their public information office that got the ball rolling. The press release stated that personnel from the 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disk" from a ranch near Roswell.

Immediately the Pentagon jumped in. ‘Wait, we can’t tell the people that. It will scare them.’ So, the next day, General Ramey, the commanding general of the Eighth Air Force, told America that it was simply the remains of a radar tracking balloon.

For thirty years the military version of the story remained unchallenged. In 1978, Major Jesse Marcel, who was involved in the original recovery of the debris, said the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft.

Deja Vu, All Over Again – Not This Time!

Here’s what I think really happened. Ever since the movie, E T, we have known that aliens have lived among us. If you need more proof, there’s a TV show called The Event that further explains. Please notice we’re talking a Hollywood movie and a Hollywood TV show. Where is Hollywood? It’s in California. Where was the mysterious contrail. California!!!

It’s a proven fact that Californians are far smarter than people who live in the lesser states of Mr. Lincoln’s Union. That has come into question recently since they voted down the legalization of marijuana and the resulting tax revenues it would have brought to their Republican-Governor-led budget deficit and subsequent problems. But I digress.

Californians knew Extra Terrestrials lived among us, and they tried to tell us by showing movies and TV shows. That seems to be the way most Americans learn stuff. I mean, there’s the Right-Wing Fox News and the Left-Wing MSNBC, and there’s the main stream television media like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report. (Pay attention that you don’t pronounce Stephen’s last name as COL-BERT. Bert is on another main stream media outlet, Sesame Street, I believe. Colbert – well, imagine you’re sitting around a campfire for several hours imbibing adult beverages. And you slur, "Hey, hand me another col bare." That’s how you pronouce his name.) But I digress.

Recent Political Events That Mattered

October 30, 2010 – The Rally to Restore Sanity was held on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D. C. Attended by a lot of smart people, the basic premise of the rally was simple, "Can’t we all just get along?" Can we not set aside special interests and work together to better America? After all, that’s the only way problems will be solved. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert led the rally.

November 2, 2010 – Americans participate in a General Election and show they did not pay any attention whatsoever to the part about Restoring Sanity.

November 10, 2010 – President Barack Obama’s National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform CoChair’s Proposal is released to the public. Every special interest group in the whole United States found something wrong with it. Well, maybe not the richest 2% of Americans since the top tax rate in the proposal is a HUGE discount from what it now is and, oh yeah, middle income people will pay more. Kevin Drum, writing for Mother Jones, said, "And their tax proposal? As part of a deficit reduction plan they want to cut taxes on the rich and make the federal tax system more regressive? That’s not serious either."

The Day Before the CoChair’s proposal, a mysterious contrail appeared near California. The far-more-intelligent-than-us aliens had witnessed the recent events and knew what the Commission was doing. They (the aliens) made a decision. Not being able to stomach any more of this silly foolishness among Earth People, ET went home!

Be sure to check out the Independent’s Day series of articles.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Dear Washington D. C.:

America here again. Let’s talk Social Security.

And let’s be frank about it. The Social Security program is a much needed program to help seniors who can no longer work to help themselves.

There are a number of reasons these seniors can no longer work. Probably the most contentious and least obvious is that employers do not want to hire older workers. Then, of course, there’s the fact that many are physically or mentally unable to work. With fewer and fewer jobs available in the United States, it’s not unreasonable for older workers to move out of the work force and allow younger ones to move in.

What About Privitization?

This is probably the silliest idea that has ever come along. Younger workers already have the means to open individual retirement accounts and participate in 401K accounts. These have not always been available to those who are already retired or those nearing retirement age. And, those who did try to supplement Social Security with smallish privitized retirement accounts saw those accounts tank in the last few years. Throw in 8,000,000 job losses and a bursting housing bubble and many people had to cash in those retirement accounts to pay mortgages and living costs.

Saving for a rainy day is pretty damn stupid when there’s a hurricane in your back yard. It’s time to act. It’s time to protect yourself and your family, and that’s what a lot of people did. IRAs and 401Ks flooded Wall Street with new money. You, my Washington friends, deregulated those folks and allowed them to create derivatives – essentially a piece of paper with writing on it. And those wise folks began selling worthless paper to one another. It was sort of a "I’ll buy yours if you’ll buy mine" sort of thing. In their wisdom, they tied the worthless paper to worthless mortgages, also a product of your creative legislating.

And now you’re thinking about taking the security out of Social Security and giving it to Wall Street? How #@^&*%$ stupid do you think we are? Okay, good point. We did elect the fools who did this to us. But that era is over.

Raising the Retirement Age

Okay, if you will stop talking about privitization, I’ll talk to you about raising the retirement age. Go ahead and raise it to 70 for people currently under age 50. This will give those younger folks who probably already have other retirement accounts plenty of time to make any necessary changes to their retirement strategies – and it won’t mess with the folks who don’t have time to make any changes.

The Need for Social Security

Long ago we moved away from the agrarian society in which each family took care of itself. You talk about the federal deficit putting a burden on future generations of our children, but don’t put a lot of thought into dropping the aging generation directly onto the backs of their children. Again, we no longer live in that world.

Social Security, modest though it may be, still allows a person to have a little bit of respect. In many cases, a large portion of the Social Security check is paid to Medicare for health insurance. And, in some instances, the Social Security recipient qualifies for Medicaid to pay the coinsurance portion of Medicare.

We are not a society who casts the elderly aside. Families cannot fill the gap. Churches cannot fill the gap. Meals-on-Wheels cannot feed everyone every meal.

Yes, everyone gets a kick out of calling these Entitlement Programs. The connotation is that people feel they’re entitled to these benefits. Well, they are! Because they are American citizens. We are supposed to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We are supposed to have a government that provides for the common welfare of its citizens. Those aren’t my words. They were written by our Founding Fathers.

One last thing. You’re really not thinking about giving a tax break to the wealthiest 2% of Americans and take the money away from the elderly – are you? I mean, really, are you?

Franklin Roosevelt said it this way:

What Others Are Saying:

"Social Security is not in need of saving. It is the most fiscally responsible part of the entire federal budget. Its benefits are modest, averaging less than the minimum wage. It is extremely efficient, returning in benefits more than 99 cents of every dollar spent. At its most expensive, when the Baby Boom generation is fully retired, Social Security will cost half as much, in terms of percentage of GDP, that France, Germany and many other countries are paying for their counterpart programs right now, today. Its projected deficit, still decades away, is manageable in size – just 0.7 percent of GDP, about the same amount as extending the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent of Americans." – Nancy Altman on Huffington Post

"Social Security benefits play a vital role in reducing poverty. Without Social Security, according to the latest available Census data (for 2008), 19.8 million more Americans would be poor. Although most of those kept out of poverty by Social Security are elderly, nearly a third are under age 65, including 1.1 million children." – Paul N. Van de Water and Arloc Sherman

More Independent’s Day Articles

Independent’s Day
Independent’s Day – Social Security (this article)

FYI – here’s information you can use.

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.