Why cut the pay for those that work and not those that don't?

           So I missed yesterday's post because I got sent home to deal with my Septic system.  Turns out, I shouldn't have worried.  Hopefully it happens today.  Unfortunately, I have duty so I will not be able to be there and my wife will have to take care of it.  She worries about it, but I think she will do fine.
            As I was looking at various things, I came to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with politicians.  How else do you explain the idea that in order to save money, you cut pay and wages from working people (military, federal workers, etc) in order to maintain pay to those not working (welfare, jobless benefits, etc.)  Don't get me wrong, I think that these programs are necessary to a point, but to justify cutting pay from those who work and not to those that don't at the same time is ludicrous.  We cut jobs for the sake of savings only to have those whose jobs we cut end up on unemployment and other costly programs as they search for jobs to replace the job we cut to save money.
            Now comes the fun part.  I was always taught that if you don't have a solution or aren't willing to discuss one, don't bring up the problem.  So here goes.  I say put the people on welfare to work.  Set up day care that is open only to those on welfare and staff it with those on welfare.  Next, put those who now have free time to work in jobs appropriate to their physical abilities.  If they don't know how to do the job, they get trained.  If they don't want to work, they don't get welfare.  I can hear some of you saying, "what about those who are disabled?"  I didn't say anything about those on disability, I said welfare.  But they can work too.  There are phones that need answered, data that needs inputted, etc.  There are jobs out there for all disability levels.  Just as there are jobs out there for all ability levels.  Streets need cleaned, ditches need dug, parks need mowed.  Fences need built.  Fences need painting.  Trees need planting.  I could go on and on.  But we continually complain about those on welfare and the job market.  But no one wants to do the jobs that are available, either because the job is not at their particular "skill level" or because it doesn't pay as well.  I think that if you gave people a choice of working for their welfare and unemployment checks on these needed government jobs that they would either work or get off of welfare. 
              The other side of this is that the work we are either not doing or contracting out at exhorbant rates would get done rather cheaply.  One other thing to throw out there.  Because they are working and may actually want to better themselves, you put into place a policy that gives them the freedom to job hunt while doing the work.  What I mean is, you give them the flexibility of schedule that allows them to better themselves.  If they want, you give them the option of going to school on the governments dime with the agreement that they will stop getting welfare in 5 years.  This gives them the time to get a degree and another year for the following job search.  Once they sign up and take money, there is no turning back.  They are off of welfare regardless of whether they finished school or not.  Of course this means we supply tutoring, but in the long run, it saves us a ton of money.
             This is all my opinion and you can take it however you want, but we have a problem here in the US and it is a selfish problem.  No one wants to take responsibility for themselves.  Everyone wants the government to provide for their comfort.  And it does, as long as you are willing to claim that you can't do anything else and throw everything away and start over.  Do that and you will find that you can live pretty well on the government dime.  Especially if you combine programs properly.  If you give something to someone for Free without any end in sight, you find that there is no reason for them to take a risk and get off of it.
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Lost my mind, please return if found

            Things are so off for me right now, that I have no clue what to write.  It isn't as if there is a lot going on, just that I have no idea what actually is happening.  Take the septic work, for instance.  The system is installed but it hasn't been inspected.  The inspection could happen today, tomorrow, or maybe next week.  Then they have to finish filling in the holes, level the ground and get their machinery out of the way.  It is definitely, possibly getting done this week.  Maybe.  In other words, sometime this month...hopefully.
            As you can tell, I am not exactly centered today.  My mind is trying to go several different directions and I am not even sure where a few of them lead.  All I know is that it isn't helping me write this.  If I were to hold down the period key each time my mind wondered, this post would be several pages by now.  The really sad part is, I have no idea where it wanders off to.  All I know is that I stare at the screen for a minute with nothing going on and then I can continue to write.  I think that this means that I need to stop writing today's post so that I can stare off without the pressure of trying to figure out where I was just at. 
             By the way, if you see my mind out and about with out its body, or vice versa for that matter, please send them home, I would appreciate it.
            Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The dirt on the backyard dig

              I am a bit frustrated right now.  The guys doing the septic system told me Friday that they would have the inspection and finish up yesterday.  My wife even asked them what time the inspector was going to be there when they showed up in the morning.  The told her sometime in the afternoon.  I told my boss and got the afternoon off so I could be there for the inspection, just in case.  As you may have guessed from the way this post is going, they didn't finish and the inspection didn't happen.  The real kicker is, from my experience with my dad, I fully understand why they are where they are.  I can't fault them for anything they have done or where they are in the work.  I've been there.  Digging large holes in the rain isn't fun, nor is it something you do if you can avoid it, especially with heavy machinery.  You also don't just dig randomly, you have to plan it out and make sure what you plan works before you start or you find yourself digging a lot larger hole than you need and you have that much more dirt to move.  So, I can't fault them for their progress.  In fact, I actually find that they are quite efficient and do well.  They are just working in a tight space with little room for error and it makes it that much harder.  I guess I am more frustrated at the fact that I have been taking half days off for no reason and I can see I am frustrating my boss.  I'll get through it though.
            How bout you, have you ever had something take longer than expected or planned?  Were you able to justify the added time and were still frustrated by it?  It is natural, when things don't go according to plan, to get frustrated.  It is how we deal with it and others involved that we show our true nature.  Do you rage against the situation or do you calmly nod in understanding?  Do you stew and growl or do you smile and let it go?  Patience is not easy, but it is something that is important.  Try it, you will be amazed at the results.
          Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

My biggest mistake.

              What a great weekend.  We have a new septic tank, we are now just waiting on the drain field.  That should finish up this afternoon and then we have to reseed the yard.  Saturday, we got to spend some family time on a much needed family outing on a bike ride.  Then we got to spend Sunday afternoon with friends playing games and sharing our lives.  What a great week end.  Of course Monday follows that, but that can't be helped.
              I can't help but feel rejuvenated after all that.  Even though I was spent after the bike ride, I felt great.  There was a smile on the entire family's faces even though you could see they were tired (at least the adults, the kids wanted to go again).  We thoroughly enjoyed it.
             I love being able to spend time with my sons and time near them is time well spent.  That being said, I think that for the rest of today's post I will share another excerpt from my answers for my sons.  This one is particularly close to home.

10-3 What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made?  What can I learn from it?

I think of so many mistakes I’ve made when I am asked this question that it is almost impossible to answer.  I will give it my best though.  First, allow me to clarify something.  To me, a mistake is an error in judgment or a decision made based on faulty information.  It is not an intentional action nor is it something you plan.  While it would be wrong to rob a bank and a horrible decision, it is not a mistake, it is a choice. 

So, looking at it from that point of view, I believe my biggest mistake was my choice of friends growing up.  You see, I had some of the information and, while it was my choice to be their friend, I erred in my judgment as far as what my will power was.  My friends growing up were diverse and I had two sets.  The first set is not the mistake.  They were my friends from church.  They were Christians and as far as I can tell, they lived it.  No, my mistake was the second set.  They were my friends from school and around home.  They were the ones I chose to hang out with the most.  There is that word again, chose.  My mistake wasn’t choosing to hang out with them, or even to be their friend, no, my mistake was to believe that I was strong enough by myself to resist their ungodly influence.  You see, not one of my friends from school were Christians.  They didn’t even pretend to be good.  Still, I thought I could be strong enough to resist the temptation on my own.  Boy was I wrong.

By the time I had graduated from high school, you couldn’t tell a difference between the way I acted and how my friends from school acted.  I allowed myself to be led astray and to go down a path I still regret to this day.  Because of that mistake, I walked in sin for nearly 20 years.  I told coarse jokes, made fun of others, thought only of me and my pleasure.  I refused to acknowledge God and what he wanted of me.  In my selfishness, I blamed others for my failures and felt cheated when I didn’t get my way.  I tried to live by the rules I had learned in church growing up, at least when I wanted to convince others I was good.  I pretended to be a Christian when I was home to make my father happy, but I was no longer following Christ.  It all came back to the mistake of thinking I could do it on my own, to thinking that I could be friends with ungodly people the way they wanted to be friends, without falling into their lifestyle.  While it was a bad decision to be their friend and to continue in that relationship, it was a decision, not a mistake.  We need to be clear on that.  Bad decisions are not mistakes, they are bad decisions.

What can you learn from all this?  Simply put, trust in God.  Can you have non Christian friends?  Certainly, and you should.  You must, however, be on guard at all times and realize that without God and Christian friends, it is all too easy to fall away from God and into the ungodly lifestyle of your non Christian friends.   You must also be wary of the relationship with them.  A non Christian friend should never be your first source of advice concerning, well, anything.  This is because their advice, while it may sound good, is based on worldly teachings and not on what God says.  Sure, some of their advice may even be exactly what God says, but if you rely on their advice, you will find that God has no part in your life and you will regret it.  I know I do.  You must also never let their opinion of you be a reason to do something.  God’s opinion is all that matters and an ungodly friend does not know or even hear God’s opinion.

This may seem to be a bit harsh.  It may even sound like I am against having ungodly friends.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Even God encourages you to have friends among non Christians.  Read Luke 5:29-32: “29 Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. ³⁰ And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’
³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”

Jesus sat with the worst of the society with reason.  The key is to remain rooted in your belief and to not allow them to sway you.  You should also note that, while he sat with them, he did not count them as close friends, that privilege was reserved for his disciples, those who had already committed their lives to him.

In closing, the biggest mistake I ever made was not trusting God over my friends on earth.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Keep your eyes on him and you won’t go wrong.

           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The games we play (and lose)

                Apparently I am luckier than I thought.  What brings this up?  I beat my wife at Catan again yesterday (sorry dear, but I have to share).  It wasn't the first time, in fact, my wife claims it has been ages since she won.  Looking at how we play, the strategies we use, and all the nuances that go into it, we can't find any fault in how she played.  In fact, we both agree that she couldn't have chosen a better lay out or done anything different.  This means that it has to be down to how the dice rolls come up.  In other words, I win because the dice roll in my favor more often.  I can't control it, yet here I am with my wife upset at me because she I beat her again.  Oh, and we can no longer play Catan one on one.
              This brings to mind a few other things.  You see, I grew up in a home that loved playing games.  One of my earliest memories of my mother was sitting with her playing a board game.  When I was able to add and multiply, my dad taught me cribbage (I lost for years before I finally beat him).  As I grew up the games left the random chance heavy realm and went towards strategy.  I still haven't beaten my dad at Monopoly. 
               This was highlighted when I went home for my grandmother's funeral.  For the first time in almost 10 years, all my siblings and I sat down with my dad and played hearts.  By the time my dad arrived, us kids had already played 2 warm up games to shake off any rust that may have accumulated and we thought we were ready to take on the old man.  We were wrong.  At the end of the game the it was obvious us kids were playing for second best.  The scores?  My younger brother lost with a score of 108, my older sister got 96, I got 89, and my younger sister got 78.  Dad?  He won with a score of 6.  No, I didn't mistype it.  That is supposed to be a single digit.  Dad didn't just win, he schooled us.  What made it worse was the fact that he said very little in regards to the game.  Most of what we talked about with him was just catching up chit chat.  He didn't talk about how badly he was beating us.  He didn't tell us we couldn't make him take anything.  He just quietly sat there and gave us kids every heart he could.  Yup, I am glad I don't play poker with my dad.
             How about you?  Is there a family game that your mom or dad have always won?  A game that is a must when you are together?  Or maybe there is another tradition that, while not an official competition, has been elevated to the level of professional sports (I have seen a father and son compete at camping, it wasn't pretty, the winner had to sleep on the side of a mountain for a week in subzero temps).  These competitions can be healthy if done right (the camping thing, maybe not so much).  They are opportunities to connect with family and regain the awe you once had of your parents or to show them just how much you've grown.  Engage with your parents in the old games you used to play and have a bit of conversation at the same time.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The pay gap that isn't

              As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a couple days.  There is one good reason and one bad reason for this.  The bad reason is that, on Tuesday, I didn't feel like it.  It wasn't anything in particular, I just didn't have anything constructive to say so I chose not to post.  In retrospect I should have posted another answer that I gave my sons as I have done in the past, but I failed.  The good reason is that, yesterday, the guys came to put in my septic tank so I was involved in that all day.  Which turned out to be a bit of a waste as the only thing they got done was removing my old oil tank.  That was a bit angering, We replaced the tank based on information that it was leaking because sediment was found in the oil filter during servicing.  When the tank was pulled, it looked good.  In fact, it still had oil in it and didn't leak.  talk about a bummer.  Oh well, one less thing to mow around.
                Now for today's post.  There is a piece of legislation going around that the Democrats would have us believe is part of the Republican's war on women.  You may have heard of it, it is the pay equality act, or something similar.  It is supposed to ensure women get equal pay.  This is a piece of useless legislation at best and downright political maneuvering in any other case.  Why?  First off, let's get the idea that I am against equal pay for women out of the way.  I am not.  I have always been a big supporter of equal pay for equal work.  It is right and what is fair and I won't deny it. 
                 Now on to why this is a piece of legislation that makes no sense.  I would like someone to show me a job that women get paid less for doing the same work as their male counter parts.  I couldn't find one.  I found stats showing that over all women got paid less than men, on average, across the US, including all jobs.  But when you delve into it the average used is done wrong.  First off it includes all jobs including ones that are typically avoided by women, such as construction, deep sea fishing, window cleaning (I am kidding there), and other high risk jobs.  I am not saying that women don't or can't do them, I am saying they are typically avoided by women.  Secondly, the average does not take into account for longevity.  This is a major factor in a lot of jobs.  For instance, until recently, the majority of CEO's were men.  This wasn't because of sexism as feminists would have you believe, but because the position of CEO is typically filled by someone that has a track record of efficient leadership.  This can only be achieved through experience and time.  In other words, in order for there to be women as CEO's there have to have been women as VP's and on down the line.  Of course there is going to be a disparity here since men have been in the work place longer.  Factor in the fact that a lot of women leave the work place to have a family and that those that stay are outnumbered as they move up the ladder and you can see why this may be.
              Now for the real shocker.  For the most part (professional sports excluded), women get paid as much, or more than their male counter parts.  This is from data that compares job to job.  It took an average of all men and women working in the same area in the same jobs during the same time frames.  Which makes sense as it is comparing the same things.  Think about it, if you compared your end of year totals with your coworker and you worked twice as many hours as he did, would you consider it fair if your boss paid him the same amount based on pay equality?  Or what if you went in to work one day and found that the new intern was getting the same pay as you, even though you were a manager, because there is a pay gap.  This is what the act to fix the purported pay gap is trying to do.
                  Overall, it was a piece of legislation that served no purpose, wasted time and money, and was strictly to give the appearance that Republicans hate women.  Oh, did I mention that the bill required added funding in a time when we are trying to make budget cuts?  So the Republicans voted against wasting tax payer money on a bill that served no purpose and they are being castigated for it.  Makes sense to me (please note that the last statement was made with the highest level of sarcasm possible).
                Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Back on days, posting again.

         I am finally back on days.  This means I will be posting again.  A lot has happened in the last month, most of it good.  In fact, I am finding it difficult to name something negative, so I won't.  I think the biggest thing that has occurred is that I now have a mentor in faith and we have decidedly similar thought processes.  This is a blessing and a wonderment.  We get along surprisingly well and last time we got together we talked for almost 2 hours before we knew it.  It was an awesome experience.  I look forward to the next year as we explore our faith.
        Otherwise, things are going well and I am looking forward to going back to a regular schedule.  I really don't have anything that leaps out at me to post about, but I will post again tomorrow and hopefully I will find something interesting to comment on.
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.