President Obama – Hapless or Helpless ?
Choosing a Presidential Candidate
WHERE HAS COMMON SENSE GONE? No. 22, Thomas Paine – August 2011, The definition you prefer depends on your view of President Obama’s job performance.
If you support his policies (however poorly defined) you will likely view him as hapless, never able to get a break or experience any good luck. If you do not support his policies you will likely view his tenure in the Oval Office as one of helplessness in which he is seemingly unable to transform rhetoric into an executable action plan that has any merit. No matter which definition you choose, the presidency of Obama provides an opportunity for some insightful review of how we, as a nation, qualify candidates and then elect one of them as our president. Continue reading →
Where are the Elephants?
WHERE HAS COMMON SENSE GONE? No. 19 Thomas Paine – April 2011 –
I see the Tent, I have seen the Clowns, ………..but where are the Elephants?
I have been watching the Federal Government Circus on television. I have no doubt many other concerned citizens have also been watching. We have been subjected to posturing, half-truths, outright lies and a pitiful display by Harry Reid the Senate Majority Whiner.
We have been a country without any actual leadership for over two years. The present administration has stumbled from mistake to confusion to outright deceit without providing any clear direction for the country along with the details of how to follow that direction until clearly articulated goals have been reached. Continue reading →
Recognizing Government Hypocrisy
WHERE HAS COMMON SENSE GONE? No. 16, Thomas Paine – February 2011
I have continued to wonder about the Federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. The courts have found the moratorium to be illegal. This has been viewed by the present Administration as a setback and accordingly emphasis has shifted to dramatically extend the Permit to Drill process, in effect negating the findings of the court. Now it appears the Minerals Management Branch will issue an occasional permit so to avoid the appearance of total non-compliance with the court finding. Is this bureaucratic chicanery or merely bureaucratic bungling and ineptitude? Sometimes it is pretty hard to tell the difference since the various levels of Government have such a poor track record in responding to major events in a timely and appropriate manner. One need only look back as far as Hurricane Katrina to find an example of even more death, damage and disruption than was caused by the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Government’s response to Katrina was subjected to justified criticism at the time. Even though the cause of the Katrina disaster was quickly diminished the significant after effects remain to this day. Continue reading →
Perpetual Motion and Government
WHERE HAS COMMON SENSE GONE ? No. 12 Thomas Paine – November 2010
Does perpetual motion exist? Knowledgeable people have told us perpetual motion is a technical impossibility. Anyone making the “outlandish claim” perpetual motion is an impossibility has obviously never watched the political process very closely.
While it is true the political process does not meet the true standard of perpetual motion, a standard which requires no new energy being supplied to the process, the political process all too frequently continues indefinitely with no positive result. I am willing to discount hot air as an energy source and thus defend my analogy of the political process being strikingly like perpetual motion.
A mere one day after the recent election results were in, the perpetual motion machine was off and running. How can this be? Continue reading →
WHERE HAS COMMON SENSE GONE ?
( Some Random Musings on the forth of July )
No. 10
Thomas Paine – July 2010
Our country is in a mess. We are being bombarded from every direction with conflicting solutions to the mess. We are even seeing astoundingly bad solutions that seem to be saying the mess is not bad enough yet…..we should make it worse and the clarity that situation provides will then make it easier to apply an as yet undetermined solution in the somewhat distant future. How many times have we recently heard from our elected representatives….” We know it is a new law with some problems but we will fix them later. It is better to pass a bad law than no law at all!” In order to believe such a moronic statement one must be willing to ignore the question “If you really intend to fix it why did you not do so the first time?” Do we even uniformly understand what a mess is? Is a big mess the same as a terrible mess or are they different messes?
Where Has Common Sense Gone?
Where has common sense gone – Governance by Deceit
Thomas Paine – April 2010
Disclaimer …….
All too often, it is the fine print at the bottom of a document that advises the reader of possible errors or omissions in the body of the document that has already been read. I believe it is best to point out, in advance, which content is knowledge ( supported by facts ) and which content is notion ( driven by emotion ). I am stating up front that the following contains a significant measure of notion. Such must be so since it attempts to predict the future. Even though this approach differs from my normal approach to subject matter, I believe the point to be discussed is so important it merits an early warning, i.e., warning before the fact, therefore notion.
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