A Small Glimpse Into A Liberal's Mind

At work today, I mentioned to one of my co-workers the blog I wrote yesterday. Wouldn't you know, right after the words came out of my mouth, I knew I was in for a head desk moment.

Here's what happened. I was explaining to him that family farms can't afford to hire hands like big farms. I went through all the points I made last night. He looked at me with a straight face and said, "Well, what about the families that have 30 children & make them work 80 hours a week?"

First, if a farmer is able to have 30 without having sister wives, more power to him. (And his wife) Second, if you have 30 children they won't have to work 80 hours a week, unless they're a big farm with 1,000+ heads of cattle & 200+ acres of land.

That aside, I looked at him and said, "SO? That is their way of life. Who are we to tell them different. Are the children being harmed?" He said, "Yes, because they don't go to school."

Unfortunately, that was the end of our discussion, because he's my jobsetter & had to go fix a machine. I should mention that his was raised in union everything family. This saddens me because there is too many people out there that think like that.

Newsflash!!! Life has risks. The government was not put in place to protect you from all risks & hurts. Sometimes you have to fail, its how you learn. Don't believe me, read up on Thomas Edison. How many times did he fail before he got it right?

It scares me that people are willing to allow the government to tell them how to eat, raise their children, run their business. No wondering we are failing as a country. We must send all these liberal thinkers back to school & re-teach them. This had gone on way too long & it needs to stop, NOW!!

Get Off My Farm!!

America's history is in farming. It was how we survived. We were known as being an agricultural society. The government has been slowly chipping away at it. They started subsidize farming, so you have dirt farmers. Now, they are going after family farms. Not the ones that have a thousand head of cattle or 100+ acres of land to till, family farms. They want to put a limit on how much chores the children can do on the farm.

This is making my head hurt! The aritcle I read this morning made the comment of we're going to follow the European model. Hello?!? There's a reason most of our families left Europe. Also, have you seen their financial situation?

I grew up and still live in a farming community. I know the reason why public schools get June, July, & August off. I know that farming gets expensive & is very labor intensive. Think about some of these things that I have learned just growing up around farms. Never work at one, they're stinky. Tractors are expensive. The tires for tractors are expensive. Fuel for them isn't cheap. Feed cost money. Veterinarians are costly. Farmers have big families to help with the chores of working on the farm.

This is a way of life. It is not for everyone. This just shows me how out of touch the U.S. government is with the American people. Not all of us live in N.Y. or L.A.. A great majority of us live in what they would refer to as 'fly over country'. I believe they are stepping over the lines. Getting their hands into something they know nothing about.

What's next? They're going to tell me how many chores my child can do inside the house? Can wash dishes one night a week or mow the lawn once a month?

The Department of Labor needs to step back. Farming is the one business that will keep this country afloat. Stop fiddling with it!!

My Blog Con Breakthrough

If you've the personal, non-political blogs I have written, you know I have social anxiety. So let's put myself at a conference in another state with about 300 people I've never met face to face. Add in another factor of me having some health issues. As you may guess it adds up to be an interesting weekend. Which it was!

I think I did okay. No one has told me different. It was very overwhelming for me. It was like going to a family reunion & you've only been dating your guy/girl for a few months.

So the first person I really talked to was Jimmie Bise Jr. I love him. He is so friendly. But He did do something that almost made me cry. He told me I was beautiful. Now, you have to understand, up until then the only people (outside my family) to tell me that I am beautiful were my female friends & drunk guys at closing time. So that started my experience.

After that I started meeting more people I met on twitter. I was happy to finally meet part of my anti-social social circle. I also some big dogs of the twitterverse & bloggosphere. If it wasn't for the fact I haven't eaten since breakfast & started drinking at the Detroit airport, I'm not sure I would have done as well as I did.

After that, everything kinda happened very fast for me. I did have some slow when I was away from people. I had so many conversations with so many people. As a matter of fact, I talked to so many, I felt like I was campaigning & I forgot to do that!!

I do remember trying to socialize as much as possible. Trying make as much of the experience as I could, mainly because I don't know if I'll be able to this again. If I keep my job, then I will be able to. I've only been out of debt completely for a few months, so I'm still getting used to it.

To summarize, I did a few things that 6 months ago I would have put money on the fact that I wouldn't have done it because of finances & anxiety. I traveled by myself. I allowed myself to be in a room with essentially strangers.

I'm so glad that I went though. Number one, it was great to get away for a few days, meet new people. Number two, it was awesome to prove to myself that I can do it. That I'm proving that stupid voice in the back of my head that I am worth more.

Safety or Control?

So I was watching this movie called 'The Color of Friendship' on the Disney Channel. (Don't judge, it was 3 am) It was set in the late 1970's, it was centered around the apartheid in South Africa & a U.S. congressman from California that was trying to stop it. He hosted a exchange student from South Africa. Now, the big thing is he was a black congressman & she was white.

The congressman in the movie was Ron Dellums. So you can look up more of his story it you want. Its a good story.

The reason I'm writing this is because of what the girl from South Africa kept saying, "It's for our/their safety." Why do the Bantu (black people) need passes? For their safety. Why are these books/songs, TV programs banned? For our safety.

It hit me. How many laws have the US congress passed in the last 100 years that were for our 'safety', but really were chipping away at our freedom?

Want a gun? How long can you wait? Can you afford the ammunition? Do you have a safe? Will there be children in house? How many do you want?

Want to fly? Do you have common name that might show up on a watch list? Can you get all your liquids into a quart size Ziploc bag? Don't forget to leave your nail clipper at home, because its a weapon!

Think about it, those are only 2 examples. We are heading towards this huge nanny state. We know better. We have so many examples from history to learn from, but we're not. We are sitting on our butts doing nothing except complain every once in awhile.

I'm not going to take it anymore! Are you?

I Wanna Start A War!

Actually the war has already been started. This particular war start quite awhile ago.

I am a straight white Christian conservative. If I say anything against the LGBT movement, I'm a homophobe. If I say anything negative about someone that has more melanin than me, I'm a racist. If I speak about God or Jesus, I'm slamming religion down others throats. If I want smaller government, I'm against poor people.

Seriously?

I refuse to allow the political correctness of America change the way I speak. If you get offended, that is your problem, not mine. If you want a war on words, bring it! Make sure your spelling & grammar are correct, because they count.

You've been warned.

More of My Story

Last night, I did my first call in to my friend's, Ai Politics, internet radio show. We discussed personal budgeting/ finance. Because of time & how broad you can take that topic, big chunks of my story was left out.

Growing up, we were comfortable. Always had food on the table, bills were paid on time, and we had health insurance on and off through the years. I worked in high school so I would know how to balance a checkbook before I moved out on my own.

When I was 24, I moved in with my brother to help him raise his two children. When I first moved in, it was fine. My brother made enough to pay the household bills. So I was able to go to school during the day, be with the kids at night, & work on the weekends. But life happened. My brother screwed up. Lost his job. He was able to find a job after a while, but had to take a drastic pay cut. I used my credit card to float us through part of this. I also donated plasma for $50 a week.

Through God's grace, we were able to stay at the house for at least another year before foreclosure. We found a house for rent close to school. I was out of school by then, but still only worked part time.  By this time, my credit card was maxed out. I had no extra money to pay on it, so it sat collecting interest. I also had problems with my car. God's grace again, I got my mom's old minivan to drive.

My credit was so bad. I had no extra money. I became ashamed & depressed. Here I was, a woman in her 20's, broke. I couldn't even thinking about dating. No way could I try to go into a relationship with this bad of credit.

I finally did get a full-time job! I was so excited. A straight 40 hour paycheck really help with bill paying. For the first time in years, I was hopeful about the future. Then six months later, I was fired. I've never been fired before. I didn't do anything wrong. I found out that's what this one boss did, bring someone in for six months, then fire them. I was crushed! One week before my birthday.

So for the first time in my life, I went on unemployment. In Michigan, every two weeks you call their automated phone line named MARVIN. MARVIN became my new best friend. Nice thing is I live in a small town. People found out what happened to me and were willing to help me find a job.

The local Delphi plant was closing, so they were looking for temp workers to help close the place down. The legacy people would buy-out, retire, or be able to transfer to GM plants. The hitch was you needed to be a friend or family member of someone working at the plant. Good thing I grew up in the town & I knew people in there. I was told I would have a job for at least 8 months. The starting pay was $14/hr. I took the job!

I started at the end of June, by the middle of February, my job there was done. I did start as a temp, but somehow my bargaining chairman got in the union. I was still out of a job. The union did tell me that was an opportunity I could go to the plant in a nearby town, they just didn't know when. So back on unemployment I went.

I was off work for 7 months. During this time, the bill collectors began to call. Remember that credit card I didn't pay on? Yeah, I had over $6K on it. They wanted me to put $3K down, then do monthly payments. They threaten me with a lawyer. I told them 'Go ahead, I have no money.'

The day after Labor Day, I started at the plant where I am currently. That week, I got served papers from the credit card company. Wow, news travels quick. Went to mediation, set up a payment plan.

Between my credit card, student loan, & car, I was way over my head in debt! I didn't think I would ever get out, but God came through again. The church I was attending at the time was doing Financial Peace University classes. I went through them once before, but if you have no money, it makes it hard to follow. So I went again. I followed most of the steps. (I have a really bad rebellious streak in me) Through, a lot of cut backs, not a lot of luxuries, and a lot of overtime, I stand before you today, DEBT-FREE!!!

So it is possible. It isn't easy, not always glamorous, but you do feel better when its over!