Being Poor and Hungry

As struggling students, my husband and I often ate mustard and onion sandwiches for dinner.  Our parents experienced the Great Depression and grew their own food.  Today, there are food stamps.
I’m not challenging the idea that hungry people need help to get by sometimes. I'm also not saying that being poor is easier now than it was then. 
I'm just saying that in today's culture of abundant government programs, there is less incentive to become self reliant--and that's not a good thing.

Graduation Day

Today, our granddaughter, Rachel, graduated from high school.  When her mother graduated in 1987, the world looked to the U.S. for strength and leadership.  It is my hope that next May, when graduation time is here, our country will be steadily moving toward resuming its leadership role in the world of nations.  With Mitt Romney as president, that hope can be a reality.

Reading The Amateur - Part 2

What I get from The Amateur is that a president can't govern well while thinking of himself as a savior.

The Amateur--Kept Me Awake!

I decided to listen to Edward Klein's bestselling book, The Amateur, while driving to family cemeteries on a Memorial Day road trip.  This "stunning expose' . . . by former editor-in-chief of the New York Times . . . pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive White Houses in history (and) . . . . reveals a callow, thin-skinned, arrogant president with messianic dreams of grandeur supported by a cast of true-believers, all of them united by leftist politics and an amateurish understanding of executive leadership."
The Amateur isn't one of those tedious political books--it is alive with reports taken from interviews of people in the know, both friends and foe of President Obama.  
There was no danger of me falling asleep at the wheel!

Go To Your Room

I'm confused.  As U.S. citizens and voters, we elect a president and members of Congress and expect them to do their jobs.   Lately, all we see and hear coming out of Washington DC is squabbling, shaming, blaming and gaming.  In the meantime, a minimal standard of performance should be a law requiring these people to propose and pass a budget before they get paid.

What's Wrong With Being Rich?

Come on--doesn't everyone want to have plenty of money?  So perhaps we're a bit envious when people with wealth know how to grow it, manage it and share it.  As one insightful person observed:
"Apparently I'm supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than I am with what Obama does with mine."

My Mom's Project Room

My mother kept a tidy home, but she was the only person who could make sense of her project room.  Her hobbies included sewing and crocheting--baby booties, pink panties, wedding dresses and everything in between.
Mother's project room reminds me of the federal government.  When the common people look inside, they can't figure out what's going on in there.  There's a couple of big differences, though.  Creative products came out of Mother's project room regularly and meeting every deadline imaginable.  When they did, everyone could understand and appreciate what was going on in there.