Recently posted quotes:

"There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress." Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.” -Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it." -James Madison (1751-1836)

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported." -John Adams (1735-1826)


Monday, November 19, 2012

Grand Kid’s Visit


Alison and Gavin ask to come back with us last Saturday—we were up in McKinney for daughter’s (Stephanie Winters) high school theatre class’s presentation of Little Shop of Horrors—staying the entire week.

We try to fill the time with adventure and educational stuff; but sometimes they find things to do on their own that amaze the older group attending. For instance, Gavin didn’t even know until Sunday afternoon that he could handle the monkey bars and here it is Monday and he’s chasing his sister:

 
Planning adventures for each day is fairly easy but sometimes the adventures take an unexpected twist and they do just fine on their own!



Grand Kids; don’t you just love them?

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Now what? The election is over and nothing changed!



So where do we go now? More than $2 Billion dollars later and nothing has changed. The Democrats still have the White House plus the Senate and the Republicans still have the House. Other than a couple of scallywags who don’t understand what Rape is; most everybody is exactly where they were when we started.

So what’s missing from the equation?

Well, I’ll tell you what’s missing!

One word sums it all up—Compromise. The art of compromise has escaped every living individual in the city of Washington D. C.

How can that be? After all, Washington D.C. is the original Great Compromise. Has this fact been lost on the brethren that work there now?

At 57 Maiden Lane in New York City—the home of Thomas Jefferson, in the year 1790; 222 years ago—a meeting took place that solved the two biggest problems haunting the nation as a result of the recently won Revolutionary War. The first problem was where to establish the new seat of government—in the north or in the south—neither open for debate by either side. The second was the question of the war debt owed by the south to the north—a rather hefty sum.

Jefferson, the Secretary of State, thought he could bring together the two sides and solve the problem and this he suggested to Washington. Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, was pitted in a battle with James Madison over both issues. There remains some doubt that Madison was at the forefront of the argument with what we now know about his collaboration with Jefferson but nonetheless Madison was the opposition leader.

Civility has never been a strong suit in D.C. but there is little doubt that there has never been any two leaders that so thoroughly despised each other more than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton—no democrat and republican can come close to matching this hatred today.

In any event, Jefferson invited the two, Hamilton and Madison, to dinner at his house. The current seat of government was in New York City, a bitter pill to all southerners and the continuous ragging about the war debt did not help the situation.

Over dinner and a little wine (no beer summit this) a compromise suggested by Jefferson was established that located the new capitol at a site that incorporated both the north and the south—with the Potomac River intersecting the district—and the payment of a sum for the Pennsylvania and Potomac land that coincidentally matched exactly the war debt of the south $21.5 million dollars.

Thus both birds in the bush were killed with a single bullet.

A history lesson is in order for Inauguration Day. The entire crew, The President, the Senate and the House of Representatives should be forced to review the original Great Compromise and just maybe they should take an exam on the subject and those not posting a sufficient grade proving their understanding sent home and replaced by someone who does understand.