Thursday, October 27, 2011

Do Your Job, Congress!

Sigh.

I stopped blogging because I needed to channel my rage and frustration into more productive outlets (plus I'm terrible at posting on a regular basis :-P). But I need to get this off my chest because some things MUST be corrected.

I'm a conservative, both socially and fiscally. I'm also an Air Force wife, so I'm a huge supporter of our military's Constitutional role of killing people and breaking stuff in a semi-civilized manner. So, my position on getting our national finances in order is that we don't need to gut our military to pay for entitlements. There is a Constitutional mandate for protecting our nation, but there isn't one for our, ahem, "social safety net."

The last few years have been an irresponsible, immature adventure in national budgeting. Congress hasn't passed a real budget in over 900 days, and in the meantime, they've accumulated mountains of debt and expanded entitlements like there's no tomorrow. And, for them, there doesn't seem to be a tomorrow, when the bill will come due. Entrenched Congress members get to spend taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves and their campaign chests, and when the public finally gets fed up with them, they get a cushier retirement than a union boss.

But enough about the need for term limits. Here's what we have now: No actual budget, debt growing exponentially, no real discussion about entitlement reform, and all this as the Baby Boomer Bomb is about to go off and blow us sky-high into fiscal insanity. And what's Washington's solution to all of this?

Why, cut the military's budget, of course! We don't need the latest gadgets for our military or overpriced equipment! Besides, isn't it time we stopped being the world's police force?

And here is where I part ways with the weenie liberals and the Paulbots. Yes, they have the same goal, even though they have different reasons for achieving that goal. But you know what? Both groups are delusional. Liberals believe that if we stop using our military to kill people that try to harm us and break their stuff to smithereens, then the world will love us and everyone will ride a unicorn that solely subsists on Skittles. (Who will make the Skittles, I have no idea.) Paulbots are just as insane with their belief that we don't need to protect ourselves abroad at all, and that should we face an enemy marching into our territory, they'll go home as soon as we start air-dropping Reason magazines on their heads. After all, the world will listen to a good, civil discourse, will it not?

It's ridiculous what passes for "serious thought" these days. Facts are facts, and human nature is predictable. There's a reason Sun Tzu's Art of War is still applicable in today's world. To defend himself against enemies who would take his life, the ancient warrior got a sword and a stone to keep it sharp. To defend himself and his country against those who would take not only his life but countless innocents, the American warrior gets a gun that can take down enemies quickly and efficiently. And when his country takes away that efficient equipment for all the wrong reasons, the American warrior fights on but knows he can't do the job as well as he could.

The "military industrial complex," as it is derisively known to liberals and Paulbots, is one of the reasons we have the most advanced military in the world. The innovations that come from it not only impact our safety and security, but also our quality of life. (You're reading this on the internet, which originated in the U.S. military.) The last thing America needs is something like The Siege of Vienna, where the local populace has to rise up to repel the barbarians at the gates because there isn't enough of a military. The Viennese repulsion of the Ottomans is often described as "miraculous." Do the liberals and Paulbots really want to depend on divine intervention?

Also, I find it infuriating that Congress is putting entitlements above protecting the lives of the men and women fighting for our country. There is a direct correlation between the money we spend on our troops' safety and how many of them survive. Meanwhile, it's not as clear what LBJ's "Great Society" or "The War on Poverty" is getting us besides that mountain of debt.

Our Constitution mandates that we have a military. That same document and the American spirit have turned it into the most professional, most advanced, and the BEST fighting force the world has ever seen.

Do your job, Congress, and fund them.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

New Shop And Blog!

Recently, I opened up an Etsy shop to sell my handmade books. The Etsy shop is here, and the blog describing the stories behind the books is here. Hope you enjoy!