Music brings us together

Something a little more fun

After a couple of political posts, I thought it was time for something a little more light-hearted.

Over the weekend, Jess and I let the kids (our cats) go outside. They’re strictly indoor cats so going outside is a big deal for them. We have to keep them harnessed and tied up because they don’t know how to survive outside. They’ll chase something right into the street without thinking about whether there are cars coming. They’re not the brightest cats but they are good pets. They LOVE going outside too.

Here’s Aspen in one of her favorite spots. She doesn’t move around a whole lot once she gets outside. She just likes to get in the bushes and hide. Once she settles in she just munches on the grass and hangs out.

AJ on the other hand can’t get enough of the yard. Here he stuffs his face down into the grass. Moments later he was running around as far as his rope would reach. He attempted to snag a butterfly but I wasn’t ready with the camera. He went from this position to four feet in the air in a split second. He missed the butterfly though.

Here’s the little guy looking cute. He’s a good kid for the most part but don’t let this photo fool you. He’s a mischevious little dude.

See? He likes to play with anything. And I do mean anything. He spent a few minutes attacking this little flag and had a great time with it. Then some bug flew by and he was off trying to play with it.

So those are our kids enjoyng a day in the sun. Sorry there’s only one photo of Aspen, but seriously, they’d all look like that one. That’s pretty much all she does when we take her outside. Well, except freak out about something and then run inside. She does that too.

My response

My comments on the local tea party folks are based on my own observations and the comments they made. They are pretty clearly Republicans and more lashing out at Obama than government spending in general. That’s amplified by the fact that it wasn’t until the Republicans were defeated in the Presidential election that they decided to complain. If you’re truly against so much government spending, you should have been complaining long before now.

In terms of Mexico and universal healthcare… Those against it always seem to pick the worst examples of its implementation. England and France both have universal, single payer systems and they work quite well. We don’t have to build our system based on failed systems elsewhere. We can pick and choose what works best. The private insurance health coverage we use now doesn’t work unless you’re rich. And I contend that as long as health coverage is a “for profit” industry, it never will. Healthcare is not something that should be based on one’s ability to “pay the bill.”

The current stimulus package provides tax cuts for the majority of the country, gives money to important industries that can help us get off of our addiction to foreign oil and helps sustain industries that employ a whole lot of people. Without drastic action, the country would have insane unemployment (even higher than it is now) and we’d risk a total economic collapse. We can’t just sit back and do nothing. If you have a better plan, I’m all ears. So far all I’ve heard people do is complain.

As for taxes… Jesus said give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s. That money you “earn” isn’t yours. =) I understand the sentiment, but taxes are necessary for the operation of government. It is our duty, as citizens, to send responsible people to Washington to ensure they spend the money wisely. Unfortunately too many people have taken advantage of that responsibility and spent unwisely. If you’d like to look at it from a partisan perspective, when Clinton left office, there was a budgetary surplus… meaning we were going to be able to pay down the national debt. When Bush left office, not only was that surplus gone, he’d more than doubled the national debt. Taxes are a way of life now because we’ll be paying that debt down for generations.

I may be a democrat, but I’m a pretty moderate one. I believe in fiscal responsibility but I also recognize that some taxes are necessary. Some social programs are necessary as well. Even some of the ones you won’t agree with. I would love for the church to rise up and make welfare unncessary… but until the church does that, I’m not willing to let those people suffer. While I don’t like having to bail out  businesses that made really bad business decisions, I do believe we can’t let the economy collapse and have people that have done nothing but work hard lose their jobs. (Take me for example, I work hard, do good work and yet I know that my industry is on the verge of total collapse… am I to blame for that? Should I suffer because others have made poor decisions?)

The tea partys were pushed by Limbaugh and Fox News. They’re partisan. A good portion of the signs at tea partys were criticizing Obama. The man just got in office and is dealing with the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Give him some time to deal with these issues and give him the respect he deserves as President. Isn’t that what everyone wanted for Bush? I just think the Tea Partys are claiming to be about taxes and spending but are really about being sore losers. If these people were truly upset about spending, why wait until Obama is in office to complain?

Tea Party

So there’s going to be this big national protest thing on tax day. They’re calling it a Tax Day Tea Party. Supposedly the protesters are modeling their protest after the Boston Tea Party. They’re upset about all the government spending and taxes so they’re throwing a protest. We’ve got a group here in Hamilton that’s going t throw one.

Here’s my problem… These are Republicans (though they claim to be independents) being egged on by Fox News and various other conservative talk show hosts. The original tea party was about taxation without representation. These people are all represented in government. So their comparison to the original tea party is totally flawed.

More though, our country (and indeed global economic community) is in a severe recession/depression. The tea partiers are not offereing solutions… they’re just complaining. I’m sorry, lowering taxes is not going to solve our problem. Government programs are helping people out in a LOT of ways right now. Especially around here where unemployment has ballooned to 9.8 percent. If you cut taxes, you have to cut those programs. That means those of us not making much money are going to be hurt even more.

Plus, stopping stimulus actions means the US auto industry totally collapses and disappears. The banking industry collapses and credit is gone. That means people are out of jobs and businesses that depend on loans for day-to-day operations are forced to lay people off. The already high unemployment rate would sky-rocket. Something simply HAS to be done. We can’t just sit back and NOT take action. It’s not that simple.

Then there’s the glaring hypocrisy of the Republican party these days. For years all we heard was the notion that criticising the President was akin to treason… Now, as soon as Obama takes office, the Republican party can’t say anyting but negative things about him. The presumptive party leader (Rush) is openly campaigning for him to fail. Congressional Republicans have become the party of “no.” There are no fresh ideas coming out of the Republican party these days. They’ve suddenly forgotten that Bush raised taxes and increased government spending and size at an unbelievable rate of the last 8 years. Now, when Obama is trying to undo all the damage Bush did, the Republicans are being sore losers.

I know a lot of Republicans read my blog… I’m happy to listen to ideas for solving our current problems. If they make sense to me, I’ll say so. I will say up front though, saying “lower taxes” is not going to win my vote. The country has tried that route and it didn’t work. I’m looking for NEW ideas. And they’ve got to take into account the current economic conditions.

I’ll share some of my ideas in a later blog post.

One last day on the snow

Ski season is now officially over here. Totally sucks. Jess and I spent one last day on the snow Saturday and oh what a day it was. There was a foot of fresh snow and it was buttery smooth. I was loving it. Jess even got into the act and tried to ski powder for the first time. It was quite the adventure!

This is what I spent most of the morning skiing. It’s at the top of the mountain and there’s a mid-way point that Jess would get off at. This is steeper and tends to have a bit more snow than below. I’m actually in this photo but it’s hard to see me. It gives you an idea of the snow conditions though. It was like this most of the day. In the afternoon the sun came out and started to warm things up. That’s when it got harder because the snow compacted and got pretty heavy.

Here I am coming in for a stop after shredding the top part of the mountain. You wouldn’t know but I totally almost fell right before Jess snapped this photo. I caught an edge and had to be cat-like to maintain my balance. I managed though.

I don’t have any pictures of Jess in the powder. To be honest, I was laughing pretty hard through most of it. She was such a trooper and kept trying to figure it out though and I was proud of her for her effort. It was just funny to watch/listen to her as she experienced deeper snow for the first time. She fell a few times but she kept getting up and trying some more.

Here’s Jess looking very stylish in her ski suit and helmet before we set off down one of the groomed runs. She handled them much better than the powder runs. It’s definitely easier even if it’s not quite as fun.

And here she is ripping it up on the way down. Hard to tell in a photo but she’s actually moving and not just standing there. I was following behind with the camera trying to take photos while I skied. Harder than it sounds. Keeping her in frame proved to be pretty difficult. She was moving fast enough that I had to split my time between trying to aim the camera and keeping an eye on the snow ahead of me.

It was a good season (though not spectactular) and I got a lot of days on the snow. Somewhere in the mid-30s I think. Jess got out a bit more this year and got a feel for powder so maybe she’ll be a bit more ready for it next season. I know I’m already ready for it. Waiting another 6 or 7 months to get back out there is going to be tough. I hate the off-season.

One more weekend

We’ve got one more weekend for skiing here in Montana. At least in this area. Our little area, Lost Trail, is closing this Sunday for the season. So sad. Last weekend was pretty sweet. I skied a ton of powder pretty much all day long. The snow was a little weird on the groomed runs where Jess tends to ski but she said she had a good time too. I had a blast skiing the trees and staying in the soft stuff.

Other than that, not a lot going on around here. We went over to Helena last Friday and watched Jeremy, Jess’ little brother graduate from the Montana Police Academy. He’s a cop now. That makes me related to 3 cops. I’m surrounded by “the man!” It’s cool though. They all do good work and keep the bad guys in check. Gotta like that.

The house is a mess. I’ll be working on that on Fridays from now on. Now that ski season is coming to a close I’ll have a lot more free time on the weekends. I’ll use it to clean and to write. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while. The writing part. I just won’t give up skiing for it. Ski season is short enough, I can’t afford to be missing opportunities.

That’s really about it. I’m really trying to get better about blogging. The problem is that I’m also trying to be better about going to bed earlier so I’m having a hard time getting to the blog when I go to bed pretty soon after I get home from work. I’ll figure it out eventually.