Campaign Ceiling

Obama 440M

Romney 283M 

723M spent on the two major Presidential Campaigns in 2012.   

Imagine if we capped campaign spending at 50M per party.  I arrived at this figure allotting one million dollars for each of the fifty states, leaving our country a theoretical surplus of 625M.  Real money.  

Really theoretical money.

The real money was squandered on a process that divides our nation into two groups trying out-squabble each other.

Is it too much to ask that we act as a super-breed of compassionate humans who transcend party politics, race & gender while treating others as we wish to be treated?

Huddled Masses, Yearning to Breathe Free

Just saw a meme that showed little kids in one frame and gang-bangers in another. Under the children it said "what the left wants you to think is coming across the border," while under the other frame it says "what's coming across with them." And now I can't un-see that freaking dumb ass image, and again I've lost even more faith in humanity. The internet sure can be terrible sometimes. Have a heart, y'all. Peace.

My friend Chris posted that this morning.  

The immigration crisis saddens me, then again, I may have expected the Rich, Racist, People-in-Charge to be afraid of homeless children.  

What surprises me is to have noticed the Fear coming from all directions: young and old, men and women, the overheard conversations of strangers and interactions with my own family and friends.  A former guitar student publicly states, 

Obama does not know how to run a country. I'm all for saving the children but this is not the way to do this. My reason stays the same. If you add more poverty to poverty, it's going to continue to poverty. The economy in America cannot support the ILLEGAL children coming through and they will end up where they were to start with and will also make the children already here suffer because OBAMA does not know how to resolve an issue in a better way. Do you want your children struggling to get into college? Finding a job? I would guess no. These children are going to take futuristic jobs away from our children who are already here. Why hurt your child's future? Send these illegal children back and help them other ways!

I understand that a large of faction of Americans are not concerned with my friend Chris' faith in humanity, nor my personal sadness, nor the tears in the eyes of a sad, hungry Hispanic child.  Some people only care about Money.

However, I see this crisis as POTENTIAL FOR JOB CREATION.  Construction workers for housing our new Americans.  Teachers to educate them.  Medical personnel.  A brand new branch of the IRS to install a process of paying fair taxes.  Public and private sector security personell. 

This could be better than Roosevelt's New Deal.  Are you out of work?  Buried in Debt?  Need a fresh start?  Come to Detroit!  The Government, Good Ole Uncle Sam, will PAY YOU to teach English, to build houses, to work in a hospital, school, or factory.  

The first location that came to mind was Detroit.  I'm quite certain it has been abandoned for years. After this quick jive, including job creation in five different fields, I'm wondering how to make this work in my home state of Massachusetts.

If you do not dig my Hispanic-American colony idea, that's fine, we're just brainstorming.  It's better than being hateful. 

The Lemonade Stand

"I'm not getting out of the car.  Children are disgusting.  Look at their hands."

I was driving, noticed the group of children and their lemonade stand, so I had pulled over, when my wife made that remark.

"Fine" I replied, and shut the door.

"Which one of you is in charge here?" I asked the group.

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I don't have kids, but I imagine the value in the lemonade stand is two-fold:

1) The children are compelled by their young Greed to sit outside for hours.  You are free from their presence for nearly an entire afternoon and don't even have to pay a babysitter.

2) You get to teach the children how their own Greed will inevitably destroy them.

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Let's imagine our theoretical child excitedly rushes inside to display $9 dollars after an honest afternoon in the front yard with the lemonade stand.  The lips begin to quiver as you quickly take the first $3, for the government.  "Don't even ask about taxation", you tell them, "you're too young to understand, and always will be."

The next $6 dollars are split in half. Let's make the theoretical partner a sibling instead of a neighbor, to increase the tension.

Before our theoretical child can even begin to wonder how $9 has become $3, our theoretical parent starts hurling more costs.  The cost of renting the space for the stand.  The cost of the lemonade, water filter, and plastic cups.  You take your child's last $3 dollars, but it is not enough.

Attempted Moongazing

There was a cloudy halfmoon illuminating our path from Hampton Beach back to Maine, and I remembered there has forever been a telescope leaning in the corner of the bedroom at her parent's house.  I decided tonight was the night to use the telescope.

First, we ate leftover ribs and drank beers by the campfire.  I dragged the telescope down to the lawn but the Moon was not in sight.  I tried to locate a star in the lense but quickly determined the task too difficult, finding a mental remedy to my failure by convincing myself I wanted the Moon alone.

I tried to rally a team to join me on my mission to the moon, but we had missed a long day of partying and potential recruits were tired.  My wife's brother Danny agreed to join me because he is the nicest guy in the world and always willing to join a potential adventure.  By the time we left the house my wife, her sister, and Dan's wife had come along.

Josc theorized that we should go to the end of the road, to the other road, and at that first clearing not too far, where people fish, there would be the Moon.  It was not a long walk.  When we reached the clearing and the Moon was still not in sight we eventually realized that the Moon rises and sets just like the Sun and that we had missed our opportunity for moongazing.

On the walk back I was thinking that Time may be a manmade construct but it sure does make something like moongazing more convenient and if we had quickly researched the day's Moon times with a smartphone it would have saved us all this trouble, and how boring that would have been.