Sanity at the Trough

Margaret Thatcher, perhaps the most famous prime minister of England, after Winston Churchill, was reared over her father’s butcher shop in Grantham, England. Her most famous quotation, “socialism is fine until the people with money no longer have money.”

From Grantham, Wayne Co. North Carolina, perhaps it’s most famous lawyer, Robert Futrell, friend of mine, killed in a plane crash, an assistant to a congressman. He told me that federal workers, those at the federal trough, lived better and more decadent than I, a disabled, hard-working veteran could ever imagine. He said their days, if at work, were spent planning the vagaries of their lifestyle... sumptuous buffets, cocktail parties, gym inter-reactions, all at the expense of lobbyists just too anxious to entertain them. He said any decadence was available... sex, perversions, pornography, shopping and visiting extravagances. We understand that the halls of congress are crowded with stock brokers imbibing the manipulation and control of financial markets via congressional headlines. According to Roll Call members of congress, democrats, increased their net worth 750% just last year. Nancy Pelosi increased her net worth by 62% or $35 million last year. President Obama has doubled his net worth.

The average salary for a federal worker is $126,000, much more than a private employee. Simplicity in the buying and selling of securities, manipulation of markets, certainly with anyone with common sense, assured by congressional action affecting stocks.

Is it possible for anyone to have so little common sense that they cannot see the insanity at the trough?... stock market up several hundred points one day and down several hundred points the next day. As one of the greatest manipulators of all times, now in prison, Bernie Madoff said, “the stock market is a fixed game.”

Is it possible that there is one person in America still stupid enough to believe that there is not a calculated reason that politicians spend the kind of money they spend to get elected? (Obama $1B to get elected as president. According to Yahoo news, senators spend $5-6 million to get elected to a job which pays $160,000, the average price tag for a house seat is $1 million.) Opensecrets.org, reveals that Kirsten Gillibrand raised $21M for her New York senate seat, representative Michelle Bachman raised $14 million for her house seat. I have never known a politician to retire from public office poorer than when he went in. They all know, county commissioner to president, that for the rest of their life, they have it made. We just learned that the cremated ashes of veterans who make this decadence possible were, until recently, thrown into a landfill. There are 76,000 veterans who are homeless. This writer, totally blind, 100% disabled, has never been able to get a white cane or talking watch from the veteran's administration. Over and over, the veteran's administration promised me a reading machine and housing adaptation for the blind. My doctor, VA Hospital, Durham, NC, warned, your records have been flagged “as a trouble maker.”

Since returning from the military, involved in several businesses, I have worn out sheets rolling and tumbling at night attempting to make business decisions... something those working for government know nothing about. I believe, with all my being, that this was the type thing Jacob was doing as he wrestled with God over his life... grandson of Abraham, father of the twelve patriot sons, tribes of the nation of Israel, Judaism. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. (Genesis 32:24) Always, in scripture and in history, we are looking backwards, knowing the outcome. Put flesh and blood on biblical and historical characters and realize that they did not know the future. Jacob had heard his brother, cry out for the blessing, which he had stolen from his father Isaac. He learned, just as I have learned, just \as you have learned, that we do not gain from wrestling, just ask “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

We do not know if the dollar will decay before or after the euro, but it is coming. In this “silver-gold bubble”, the stock market, real estate, expectations for the future will sink, simply because of debt. Those at the government trough, and they know the insanity of what is happening will never have the knowledge of accomplishment. The politician, the bureaucrat, in their heart, know that they are living their grand lifestyle off the hard work of others. It is the small, private businessman, the small private farmer, employing fellow citizens who need jobs, who pay the excessive taxes that pay the salaries and ludicrous stipends of those who depend on government largess. Academia has been ruined because of dependence on government. Science has been ruined, no longer credible because of dependence on government handouts. Over 50% of the population depend on government entitlements, people who had rather sit home and do nothing (obesity and stress) than have the satisfaction of honest labor, an honest paycheck from work, not a government check because of nepotism.

Children of the depression knew and know discipline. The present millennial generation, better educated and less employed... spoiled, thinking themselves too good for work will find, the hard way, that “fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)