We've had a bit or rain this morning. I've not checked the weather report, hopefully it won't stay around all day. Walt & I have gotten a wild hair and are heading for Bush Gardens for part of the afternoon & evening. We started off our trip to Bush Gardens with a stop at Pierce's Pitt Bar-B-Que just outside of Williamsburg. The food was fantastic. I couldn't believe how crowded the place was. It was standing room only and tables were at a premium. It would be worth the trip that way just to have the barbecue and the sweet potato stix. YUM!!!
We had a good time at Bush Gardens. We were able to park up close to the gate, without any trouble. Walter was able to get a special access pass - since he has trouble standing around in line for a long time. It was pretty neat. We were able to pop to the front of the line on the rides that we got on today. Nothing like quick access and getting to sit near the front on Apollo's Chariot. We also were able to catch a couple of shows. I even got some fairly good video of the show in Ireland.
We really lucked out just after we went in for the show, we notice that people coming in after us were quite wet. Turns out that the sky opened up just after we were seated. As we were leaving it was just beginning to sprinkle. We made it back into the car before it began to really rain. Once we started home we were nearly drowned by the downpour. It's a good thing that we knew where we were going, because otherwise we'd have never seen a sign with a rain coming down.
We had dinner at the Sino American Restaurant, the food wasn't nearly as good as we thought that it would be...but Walter did enjoy trying the crawfish. They even had frog legs - which were very good. A quite unusal item for a buffet.
Email & Newsletter Gleanings:
A very interesting read....
By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does. One hundred Senators, 435 Congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a Senator, a Congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if; they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.
The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the Speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to by a 2/3 margin.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ.
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
No comments:
Post a Comment