While playing a word game in the car recently we created the word ‘uturnium,’ which is the atom that causes drivers to do opposite of what would be expected in a given situation. This means things like turning left from the right lane, turning right with the left turn signal on, etc.

After some serious consideration, it becomes obvious that the supply of uturnium is much greater than first anticipated. Indeed, uturnium has contaminated the highest levels of government and society.

Consider the evidence:

Why else would a bill that will (and was designed to) put private health insurers out of business be called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? (How can a private insurance company deal with a competitor that doesn’t have to worry about costs, sets the rules for what must be covered, and can print its own money?)

If not under the influence of uturnium, would those that work hard and make the correct decisions in their lives – and expect to keep a little more of the fruits of their labors – be called greedy, while those that feel entitled to a portion of the wealth and labor of others be lionized by politicians and the media as outstanding citizens?

If not for uturnium, would spending be called investment? Would a budget item going up by 5 percent instead of 8 percent be called a draconian cut?

Would institutionalized racism (quotas, preferences, etc.) be treated as though it was somehow nobler than the older version of institutionalized racism (Jim Crow) that it replaced? Does this have to do with which groups benefit and which are held in check? That is racism!

Would giving a ‘taxpayer’ more money back than they had withheld from their wages (Earned Income Tax Credit, among others) be called a ‘refund?’

Would ‘pay their fair share’ become a catch phrase used to demonize those who have achieved success and who pay the vast majority of taxes already? Indeed, would wealth creation itself be demonized? Unless, of course, you’re talking about a celebrity that earns great wealth while demonizing the very society that makes it possible. See also, hypocrisy.

Would teachers and their unions claim to be ‘for the kids’ when their actions over the years show that they’re much more interested in their tenure and their perks?

Would the news media, whose job it is to act as watchdog, sugar coat or completely ignore stories that make one side look bad – like Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and the radical affiliations and policies of dozens of unelected, unaccountable presidential czars – while tossing ‘gotcha’ questions like ‘how old is the Earth?’ to the other side in an attempt to make them look unfit to lead?

Sadly, it seems that half the country is affected by uturnium these days. Only a rigorous program of education, of standing up for the truth, and calling out those who lie to further an agenda will stem the tide. It can be done and it must be done if our Republic is to be saved.

We must neutralize uturnium!

The tax cuts enacted under President Bush (43) created a 10 per cent bracket, increased child tax credits, and eliminated the marriage penalty, among other things. This writer must be wealthy because all of these benefited my family.

One would think that the last thing the government would do is allow these common-sense reforms to expire at a time when fewer Americans are working than when President Obama took office. But that is exactly what will happen on Jan 1, 2013.

The House has passed a bill to extend the current tax law for one year, giving the newly elected Congress and President time to hammer out the details of what the tax code should look like going forward.

The Democrat-controlled Senate – which has yet to meet its obligation to pass a budget in more than 3 years – will not even bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

The changes will represent the largest tax increase in the history of the United States, taking nearly a half-trillion dollars out of the already-struggling private economy. The changes will affect every taxpayer. Here’s a few:

• The 10 percent tax bracket will go away, with those filers absorbed into the 15 percent bracket. (A 50% increase.)
• The marriage penalty will be restored. This penalizes married filers by making their exemptions less than double those of single filers.
• The Child tax credit will be reduced by half, from $1,000 to $500, directly affecting the tax burden of families with children. This credit phases out beginning at incomes of $75,000/$110,000 (single/married), hardly a “tax break for the rich.”
• The Payroll tax for Social Security (not part of the original Bush cuts, enacted under President Obama) will go from its current 4.2 per cent back to 6.2 per cent, a 47 per cent increase. This will directly affect the take home pay of every working American, and the income of every business – whose share of the tax will also rise. (Multiply the amount on your last pay stub by 1.47 to see how much.)
• Small businesses aren’t left out, either. There are several changes coming your way, including how you expense purchases and new taxes related to the implementation of Obamacare.

All of these (and many more not mentioned here) make it imperative that all of us understand what’s at stake in this election. If you believed that these tax cuts were for the rich you owe it to yourself, and indeed to your fellow Americans, to educate yourself in the two weeks that remain before we go to the polls.

This is our best chance to decide what kind of country we are going to be. Does the money you earn belong to you or to Washington?

Ronald Reagan said that “The government can’t control the economy without controlling people.” How much control over your life do you want to surrender?

Hillary Clinton, striving to achieve her own link to greatness, once claimed that she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary who was the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest – even though she was born six years before his feat.

The prize for creating a political soul mate must go to Bill Clinton who, in 1997, claimed to be like Grover Cleveland on the grounds that Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cleveland, best known for being the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms, did indeed father a child 10 years before winning his first term in 1884.

Let’s look at how Cleveland handled his ‘scandal.’

Grover Cleveland was mayor of Buffalo, NY and Sherriff of Erie County before becoming president. Before that he worked as a lawyer – who refused to represent anyone he knew to be guilty. As Sherriff he ended the practice of public hangings in Western New York, and as mayor he demanded that a street cleaning contract be renegotiated when he discovered that the city council had a kickback agreement in place with the winning bidder.

Do you see the similarities between Cleveland and most modern politicians? Me either. But there’s more.

When the Republicans in 1884 leaked the story of Cleveland’s child to the press, Cleveland held a meeting with his campaign manager. His instructions were succinct: “Whatever you do, tell the truth.”

When he won the presidency in 1884, the first Democrat to do so since James Buchanan in 1856, Cleveland showed full faith in the Constitution, refusing to jam bills through Congress on several occasions because he didn’t believe in usurping the legislative branch’s authority. He would remain a strict constructionist though both of his terms.

Eventually his steadfastness, and the ill-timed Panic of 1893, led Cleveland to fall out of favor with his party. He would not gain the Democrat’s nomination to run again in 1896. But no one could argue that Grover Cleveland was not an honest man. We should have more of his kind – in both parties.

In case you don’t know the tune, it goes something like this: Conservatives hate children, poor people, clean water and air, and if put in charge there would be no policemen to arrest criminals (something liberals seldom want to do anyway, now that I think about it) nor fireman to put out fires. They’ll sing a different stanza from time to time, but you get the idea.

If we do not exorbitantly tax ourselves to do these things, will they not get done? Why do liberals not see any other alternatives?

Picture the scene in any old black and white movie with farmers on the Great Plains, the breadbasket of America – and the world: A storm brews; a barn is struck by lightning and is burning; neighbors come from all directions to help put out the fire and rescue animals; later the neighbors pitch in to rebuild the barn and make the farmer whole.

Government involvement in all that: zero.

People can and will do things for themselves – better and more cheaply, too – if they decide that there is a value to getting something done. Think of it as a free market. Each of the neighbors knows that his may be the barn on fire someday. There is a possible future benefit to helping the other farmer today.

Not having to dial the government’s emergency phone number and wait for the government’s fire trucks to show up had other benefits as well. In those days people (in rural areas and in cities, too) knew their neighbors and weren’t afraid to go to bed at night or out for the evening without locking their doors. Society was much different from what it is today. Coincidence? I think not.

The liberal solution is, of course, to expand government further while insisting that Conservative ways didn’t work. No, it’s liberalism that doesn’t work. Liberals need to confiscate money for their projects. How many would voluntarily pay to finance a work of art consisting of a crucifix submerged in Urine? How many think we should spend taxpayer’s hard-earned money to circumvent bankruptcy law and bail out a labor union?

The sooner more of us shed the ludicrous notion that only the government can do things for us, the sooner we’ll be on our way back to theUnited Statesthat our founders envisioned: The land of the FREE.

One of the president’s recurring themes on the campaign trail is that we’ve tried “their” way, meaning the Republican’s economic plans for lower spending, regulation, and government intrusion into a citizen’s life, and that this was, in fact, the cause of our current “mess.”

Really, Mr. President?

If the president was correct there would be recent examples of:

• Years when federal spending actually declined from the previous year.
• Years when businesses of all sizes had fewer regulatory hoops to jump through, making it easier and less expensive to operate and create the jobs so badly needed.
• Years when administrations (Republican and Democrat) didn’t define success by how many big-ticket pieces of legislation were enacted.
• Years when tax liberation day, the date when a person’s tax liability was met and they were now earning money for themselves, was earlier in the year instead of later.

In fact, there are no examples of any of these.

Yet, amazingly, a significant proportion of the citizenry not only believe the president (thanks to a constant repetition of propaganda that would make Heir Goebbels proud), they think that “my way” where the government lives within its Constitutional bounds and financial means is the “radical” approach to governance.

James Madison must be spinning in his grave.

No, Mr. President, it’s your way of thinking, with ever-increasing budgets, deficits, and debt that has held sway for many years now and it is why this country is on the very brink of economic collapse.

My way better get a chance before it’s too late.

My response would have been, “Bob, how do you destroy rubble?”

Today the Buffalo News reports that, according to NY State Education Dept. data, the four-year graduation rate in the city’s schools is up (yes, up – by 6 %!) to 54%. Granted that this is one report in one newspaper regarding one school system, but the performance figure is not uncommon among urban school districts around the country. For example, the News article mentions that Buffalo’s figure is higher than Rochester and Syracuse, NY – both scoring in the 40’s.

This is an accomplishment? Enough people apparently find this performance acceptable because year after year not much changes, except the ever-rising spending – often coupled with declining enrollment. It’s a shame the student’s don’t see any of it, as fees for extracurricular activities are becoming ubiquitous and the ‘ required school supplies’ list is longer and longer as the student advances though the grades.

Imagine the same boast from neighborhood businesses with which we deal regularly:

‘Welcome to the butcher shop – 54 % of our meat isn’t spoiled.’

“Corner grocer – 54 % of our vegetables are fresh.”

“Auto repair shop – we fix your car right 54 % of the time.”

And each one of those could add, ‘…and our prices are continually rising because we can keep out the competition!’

Who would voluntarily walk into any of these businesses and part with their hard-earned money? Yet that’s what millions of parents are forced to do because they can’t afford to pay their government-school taxes and private school tuition too.

It’s time for this country to decide exactly who is to be the beneficiary of our publically funded and operated school districts.

Is the purpose of the school district to provide a good living and lifelong retirement benefits to the teachers and administrators and by extension, their union bosses who get wealthy off the taxpayer dollars they launder through the staff’s paychecks?

Or is the purpose of the schools to educate the children so they can be productive citizens and the future leaders of our country in their adulthood? (If they also had a basic understanding of the country’s founding principles including freedom and capitalism – and how our country has benefited from them – that would be great, too.)

If you believe the latter, then it’s time to stand up and demand that school tax revenues belong to the children, not to the bureaucrats that feel entitled to their endless benefits – and offended by the suggestion that they should actually contribute to them, like the rest of us have done for years if not decades.

It’s time for the adults in the room to grow up, decide, and really put the kids first for a change. If that is defined as ‘destroying’ the public schools as we know them, I say good riddance because the schools, as currently operating, are destroying a lot of futures.