Government Is Not The Answer

This is why we should not expect, or want, the government to be in charge of everything.

I believe we are in a battle between forces which believe government should be the ultimate authority and the forces which do not. When we vote in 2016, that is what is at stake.

I think most Americans simply want the government to leave them alone. I have said that before. The Founding Fathers seemed to want to limit government for just that reason. I could be wrong but I do not think so. I think the people of America in the 1770's would be appalled at the state of the country today. That is, after they got over the shock of being in modern America. 

Let's Play Monopoly

There's no question that it is one of my favorite games. I've played it since I was a young tyke and love it. In fact, while I am writing this I am also playing it. A game I started Sunday morning about 9 AM.

Here's how Wiki describes its beginnings:

Monopoly is a board game that originated in the United States in 1903 as a way to demonstrate that an economy which rewards wealth creation is better than one in which monopolists work under few constraints.

When it was created, many people remembered (lived in) a time when monopolists ruled the economy. Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others were kings of industry in the late 1800's. Some say they built industrial America. Today, it's a game. A game played with pizza and beer, often.
But it was once serious stuff. Very serious.

I play a version that can be played on any PC. I can have human players or computer ones, I can alter the rules a bit and do... I add to the number of houses and hotels (I found I needed more than the game's default) and make some changes I like (landing on Free Parking means you collect some of the taxes paid by the players) and I deal out all of the properties at the outset. And, of course, I cheat a little: I quit any game where I am at a distinct disadvantage before it starts. I do not need to start with a monopoly but I like to have one, or at least a one of the properties in most of the sets. After that, I try to gather up railroads. I feel they are the key to the game.

With a PC version, I have learned that I can buy railroads for $288 (first one), $385 (second one), and $1085 (and last one) most times. I have also learned I can buy non-monopoly properties at 3x their value. To buy one that gives me a monopoly varies depending on how much the value of the monopoly is. For instance, getting the last of the Connecticut Ave, Vermont Ave, and Oriental can be as cheap as $800 but the last of the green set may cost up to $2000.

I found I can win easily enough with 4 railroads and any monopoly set.

The next time you think about how evil, selfish, and greedy the rich (who don't pay their "fair share" in taxes) are, ask yourself which you almost always choose in Monopoly: $200 or 10% of your total value?

Why I Am Patriotic

I was once ignorant about the Founding Fathers. After all, I was young and what could I want to know about a bunch of old men who had lived 150 years before me? That was before I learned how much they restricted their own power in constructing a new nation. Many owned slaves but the documents upon which the nation was founded would eventually lead to freedom for the million or, at least, the hundreds of thousands held in slavery at the time.

Even though they likely figured they would be the ones to hold power after the Revolution, they sought to limit the government's power. Just the Revolution alone was unprecedented at the time. To attempt to break away from the superpower of the day was an incredible concept. Their cause was probably helped by the Crown also thinking a revolt in the colonies was doomed to defeat.

What is really remarkable is that the Founding Fathers wrote that document (the Constitution) some 12 years after the revolt began and some four years after its success. They could have made themselves royalty, they could have made themselves into an aristocracy but they didn't. Perhaps because they thought the populace would not stand for it after 8 years of war against an aristocracy or because, in order to raise an army to fight the Crown, they had to tap into the concept of liberty for all (minus the slaves, of course). They knew their livelihoods (and the livelihoods of many of those who wielded power in the Colonies before the Revolution) depended upon the continuation of slavery. Or maybe they just thought slavery would endure. Still, they sowed the seeds of freedom from slavery in that Constitution.

England professed to be free while it maintained its traditional caste society. If you were not of a noble family, you were not free. The birth of the American nation likely had to turn the idea that the masses were lesser people on its head.


The history of America is one of a nation struggling to live up to its own lofty ideas. And we have old, dead, white men to thank for it. Perhaps revolutions do not end... if successful.

What Are Adages?

Simple phrases or sentences which convey a moral or instruct about behavior. My mother was fond of them. She used them over and over as I was growing up but most of them made very little sense to me.

For example, she often said "Handsome is as handsome does." To this day, I have no idea what that might mean. Another one she liked was "Them that has, gets." That one I equate to the "Golden Rule" which, in my crowd, meant... "those with the gold makes the rules." Or, perhaps, "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer."

I am sure you have adages rambling around in your own brains. Maybe your mother was fond of them too.

Of course, Mom was also fond of saying things like, "If you break your leg, don't come running to me." And, "If you drown, I'll never speak to you again." Both of which make a kind of sense when you think about it.

I had something else I wanted to convey, something about patriotism, but that will keep for another time.

Just Some Thoughts

Not important ones, just random ones about the GOP presidential nominee race and a few other things.

There are now seventeen candidates vying for the GOP nomination. Sharks smelling blood in the water. Even though Trump leads in the polls, I don't think he has a chance of getting that nomination. He reminds me of Perot in a lot of ways; bombastic, populist, a bit outrageous but getting a lot of attention and popularity. Trump, like Perot, doesn't seem to have a lot of specifics. Perot used a car metaphor... he was going to "open the hood" and fix what was broke. Trump just brags about his money and how successful he's been in business. But he also says he'll build a wall along the border and, somehow, get Mexico to pay for it. He's not saying how.

Marco Rubio and others (including Jeb Bush) are out in California looking for people willing to contribute money. You need a lot of money to run for president. Silly me, I thought you needed ideas and plans to implement them. I guess that hasn't been true for decades. It seems there are no specifics anymore, just bombast and populism.

I hear Joe Biden might get into the race on the Democrat side. Don't know how true that is but Hillary is having image trouble. I have to wonder how she can expect the public to believe she never, in 4 years as Secretary of State, sent an email through her private server that contained classified information. Easy to prove, just allow access to that server. I won't hold my breath, that's not the Clinton Way.

I am wondering if the next president, whoever it is, can dig us out of the hole we are in.

Good thing I am old.