Macon's Tea Party

I spent about an hour this afternoon standing in a small park directly across from Macon City Hall, listening to some local leaders talk about the sorry state of affairs in Washington. In between Chris Kroc jumping around shrieking into a bullhorn, State Reps. Allen Peake, Tony Sellier, insurance commisioner John Oxendine, and bloggers Erick Erickson and Jeff Emmanuel gave some great speeches to a fairly raucous (well, as raucous as a bunch of Republicans can be) crowd.

This was just one of dozens of Tea Party protests taking place all over the state today. I was surprised by the number of people that turned out to show opposition to the way our government is spending our money. There were easily 300 to 400 people filling up the square, many waving signs that expressed their disgust with a tax system that punishes success and rewards failure.

It was interesting to see these people fired up over something. The vast majority of them were people who don't usually make time for protesting. I've always said that conservatives don't make themselves heard as much as liberals because we generally have jobs, families, and other responsibilities that take up most of our time. Most of us just want to get our heads down and get on with our jobs, making a living for our families, so we have little time for protesting even many of those things we feel strongly about. But when the leaders in Washington are preaching from on high about our duty to make sacrifices in this difficult economy, while refusing to make any cuts to the wasteful, inept, and out-of-control spending spree that is government...well, it just pisses us off.

It's good to see people waking up and expressing their opinions, but it won't be enough to wave a sign and yell Nobama! And we certainly can't use the old liberal method of subverting the political process by getting sympathetic activist judges to hand down favorable decrees on our behalf. We have to use the system as it was designed by our founders. If we believe Obama's policies to be dangerous, we have to persuade our friends and family using sound arguments and facts. We have to convince the American people that government can't do for us what we can do for ourselves. In fact, government can't really do anything well. When people start to realize that true freedom means a government that lets people keep their money as well as their rights, and allows everyone an equal opportunity at success, then we'll be able enact real "change we can believe in."

Good Friday

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

-Isaac Watts, 1707

If You Don't Read Anything Else Today...

Read this. Just a little perspective for those Americans who think that our wonderful new president's socialism is just what this country needs. Seriously, go and read the whole thing, but here's a little taste:

"So to The Vilified Rich, I beg you now: do for the rest of the country what my friend did for me… do for us what we are incapable of doing for ourselves. Break us of this addiction to the generosity of others. Just go away for a while, voluntarily, and leave the rest of us to look around and wonder where all the money and the jobs went. It will be painful, and it will be bitter, and our rage will be a terrible thing to see. But then, either we will get better, or we won’t. All will depend on whether or not we still feel the shame, and find the courage, to recover for ourselves the mastery over our own lives that once existed for all Americans, before you few despicable rich people came and started paying for more than half of everything. Which, as is obvious now, was not nearly enough.

If we can break this fever, then you can come back with your jobs and your capital and your vision and your wealth, which was generated by producing something large numbers of people found worth paying for. But go now, while you still love America enough to want to come back some day. Because if you don’t shut this thing down, and soon, the Bergs and Obamas will take and take and take from you until you never want to see this Godforsaken land again."

Harold and Kumar Go to Washington

Sans Harold. This is just priceless. Kumar is getting an actual job in our government. An actor...is going to work for President Obama...an actor. Well, I suppose he's every bit as qualified for his new position as our president was when he was elected.

Ladies and gentlemen, taxpayers, meet your new "Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Liason." You gotta love this president's judgement.

Unions

We have all been recently exposed to what happens to otherwise solid companies when they refuse to fight back against the destructive forces of unionized labor. General Motors' current march towards death, albeit slowed by a president and congress literally owned by Big Labor, can be directly linked to the problems associated with the corrupt, inefficient world of unions.

After several years in the construction industry, much of it in the industrial field, I've seen first hand what goes on in facilities saddled with the burden of unionization. I've always held that labor unions serve no purpose in today's society, save to drive up the cost of production in whatever industry they infest. And yet, in the wake of the disaster that is the Big Three, even after the blatant slap in the face that we've all received as a nation, we're still not getting the point.

We show outrage over a few executives getting big bonuses in spite of their own failures, and yet we could care less about the UAW refusing to give any concessions in order to prevent the failure of the companies they have leached dry over the years. Where is our president's haughty condescension with respect to this equally outrageous display of idiocy? Isn't GM getting taxpayer dollars to stay afloat? And yet the UAW wants their members to keep getting paid the same ludicrous wages that contributed to this problem in the first place. With OUR money!!!

There's a great article today in what's quickly becoming one of my favorite new websites, The New Ledger. The always knowledgeable Francis Cianfrocca - aka, Blackhedd at Redstate - is a regular contributor, and I never miss his insight into the financial world. Today's article explains why the UAW will end up finishing what they started in the destruction of General Motors.

Spring Break

After a nice relaxing time on the island, it's back to work this week. It'd been a year since I last visited the beaches of Amelia Island, and I'd forgotten how much I liked it. My beach trips usually consist of as much reading as possible, as I don't seem to get much chance to read any other time. This trip I decided to tackle something I've wanted to read for a long time: Augustine's Confessions.

I wanted to take it slow, and absorb as much as possible from this ancient text, and I can honestly say that it has been an excellent use of vacation time. I got through the first 5 books during the week we were there, and am working my way through the rest now. This is a work that every Christian should read at some time in their lives. I hope to post some of my thoughts on each book in the coming weeks.