The Fundamental Repaving of America!

Is it realistic to believe that resurfacing America with asphalt is the key to an economic rebound? Isn't asphalt a petroleum byproduct, and did Washington just shut down drilling? Won't the "green" people be upset we are basing our recovery effort in environmentally unfriendly petroleum based byproducts? Can we agree that the majority of the 9.6% of the unemployed don't know how to operate a paver, roller, dump truck ,or other heavy equipment required to meet this initiative?

This is how out of touch Washington is. I think after reviewing this we can all agree, they don't have a clue! Here's the scoop. The dang car is still in the ditch and paving the road isn't going to do a darn thing to get it out!

Money spent trying to revive this economy, must be focused on a return. You don't get additional return on maintaining existing structure. This is money that should have been budgeted and spent anyway.


God Bless!
Capt. Bill

Labor Day

Have you ever wondered why Labor Day is a national holiday? The first weekend in September became a nationally recognized holiday in 1894, but it was invented and celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882. It was federally enacted after the deaths of a number of workers by the US military and US Marshals during the Pullman Strike. Congress and President Grover Cleveland passed the legislation just six days after the event, fearing further conflict. Nothing like a day off from work to promote cooler heads!

Personally, I like to believe it's a celebration of the beginning of college and NFL football seasons. Some parents celebrate because it signifies the traditional start of the school year. Their little darlings will now be occupied five days a week by the teachers, not them.

For some it signals the end of summer and the beginning if fall. I'd have mixed emotions about that, fall is such a beautiful time, but thankfully I don't have to deal with it, living in the land of eternal summer. In any case it's a great excuse to get outside and enjoy the company of your loved ones. Enjoy!

God Bless!
Capt. Bill

The Prostition of Knowledge!

I had an interesting conversation with a college student the other evening, who was majoring in teaching. So being the inquisitive dinner guest I am, I questioned him on the subject he'd prefer to teach. I was surprised to find he wanted to instruct history. So to further the conversation, I asked, why? Here was his logic.

History never changes, you pass on reading assignments, and it's not complicated to instruct. Naturally, I wanted to know if he had a grasp on history, was he studying it, and was he fascinated by the background stories that make it interesting? Nope, not at all. It was a class he could easily prepare for, and really only do it once, just be repetitive, then assign a project due at the end of class. So I asked him, what if the answers he was given were wrong? He wasn't concerned, he was taught to judge a student by their past grade performance, and look for key words in their assigned papers. Good students get good grades, and historically bad students get average grades.

Now I was hoping this wasn't a trend, but he's done several apprenticeships as part of his major, and this is the wisdom of his mentors being passed down. I'm starting to see why our cookie cutter education system is failing our youth. This, my friends, is exactly the result of the collusion of government and union influence on our school system. Tenure has inspired a ho hum attitude in our education system, and the worse part of it is, it's being taught to the new teachers. It isn't a wonder why teachers unions fight so viciously to avoid performance based pay systems.

It starts at the top, higher learning institutions, (colleges), have an open purse with government backed student loans. The tuition keeps going up, because the financing is guaranteed, and the quality of graduate is going down. The requirements are lowered to gain entry, so the seats are full of government backed income. Has anyone else noticed that in these tough economic times, the colleges are still expanding?

American exceptionalism is being sold out to a socialistic education mill. If our future depends on our youth, they best be educated outside the standard government funded school system. Even the private institutions are falling for government control as all their money is now fed to them by Uncle Sam. Knowledge is being prostituted for financial gain. This could be why a four year degree is the equivalent of a basic high school education of years ago.....

God Bless!
Capt. Bill

Principle Based Priorities!

I was asked a great question the other day, one I think we should all ask ourselves often. Are your priorities principle based, or are your principles based on your priorities?

Life is demanding, but we should never allow that to interfere with what we believe in. As I've been reminded many times before...

"Methods are many, principles are few, methods may change, but principles never do!"

I've found listing my priorities based on my principles helps keep me on track when the difficult situations arise. So I thought I'd share how mine align...

Faith tops the list. When I feel lost, I ask myself this simple question. What would Jesus do? My path always is clear when I start here.

My family is next in line, followed by my friends, and then work. Using this pecking order, most conflicts are easily placed by level of importance. Apply a liberal dose of love and forgiveness and the path seems much clearer.

With the firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence....

God Bless
Capt. Bill

Stress?

Problems left to themselves equal stress.

The easiest way to relieve stress is to address issues as soon as they present themselves. How many times have we obsessed over something, just to find it wasn't really as bad as we imagined? The dread of dealing with a problem is often worse than the cure.

It's just like an infection, the longer it goes unattended, the more consequences it creates. No one has ever died from making a phone call, or writing a letter. I've found, once confronted, those big stress items weren't nearly worth the anxiety they caused anticipating dealing with them. In the words of Larry The Cable Guy, "git er done!"

Perhaps Mark Twain put it best when he said, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

God Bless!
Capt. Bill

"Look! Up in the sky!"

They weren't handsome, they weren't popular. They were so poor they used to draw their cartoons on the back of butcher's paper.

When the country was embroiled in the onset of World war Two, right smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression, these two kids from Cleveland gave us the world's first super hero.

They gave us something to believe in....

Truth, Justice, and the American Way!

Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were the inventors of "Superman."

They inspired America when times were tough, but it wasn't easy! Here was their first response after submitting superman....

"The trouble with this, kid, is that it is too sensational. Nobody would believe it!"

Good thing they didn't discourage easily!

God Bless!
Capt. Bill

A Little Something To Hold You Over!

Still on the road, back at it again tomorrow! In the meantime, dwell on this thought....

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5