Puffs

Sufferings and hardships.

Time and patience.

. . . and governments.

I’m going to try to tie these thoughts together for this week. Hope you bear with me.

Governments: many different levels of governments affect our daily lives and it’s too easy to make a blanket condemnation of them all. Don’t do that as that would be an injustice.

In general all governments are in existence to help provide law and order in our lives. On the national scene the government is supposed to provide protection for the citizens therein.

A problem comes from how best to accomplish these responsibilities. Both Republicans and Democrats wish to do these duties, but so often in very different ways.

One sentence I read over the weekend helps give a little overview of the whole situation. Most governments want all citizens to not suffer or have hardships, but is that possible. That sentence I read went like this: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”

Yes, it was written by St. Paul and in the big picture I think it means we’re going to have suffering and hardship, no matter what we do. Even a little look at history tells us that fact.

However, that doesn’t mean we should not even try to buffer or end the suffering and hardship we have. Common sense tells us that an orderly and safe society is better off when some of these sufferings and hardships are lessened or eliminated. Unemployment and hunger are two of thousands of possible examples of suffering that governments should work on to eliminate or reduce.

However, seldom, if ever, does a government action solve all problems for everyone.

Here is where the Republicans and Democrats seem to differ. It appears to me that Democrats are of the mind that if one law didn’t solve a problem, let’s just pass several more laws because we know more than the average guy and sooner or later we’ll get enough laws passed that “everyone” will be happy.

The Republicans seem to take the approach that fewer laws actually free people up and maybe with a little assistance the people can solve their own problems.

A couple of examples of what I mean. Abortions . . . Some suffering and hardship do accompanied the arrival of a new-born baby at times to people without sufficient economic means, or maybe unmarried women. The Democrats’ solution to the situation was to kill the baby (called abortion). How that killing of that baby was going to solve any suffering and hardship is beyond my understanding. The Republicans tried to encourage adoption of those babies and tried to assist the women in such situations. (Maybe they didn’t try hard enough to save those 60 plus million people that died.)

Another example is the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The Democrats passed all kinds of laws governing when and where masks had to be worn, some direct medical mandates and then spent millions upon millions of taxpayer’s dollars to solve a medical problem. I’m not sure how the Republicans would have handled the pandemic on a national level but on many a state level they seemed to handle the situation without nearly the trouble the federal government was having.

One last example from many that could be cited: Gasoline Prices: When the Democrats regained the presidency in 2020, one of the first things they did was to institute regulations to make the drilling and production of oil in the U. S. almost impossible because of the cost. The result was a two or three dollar per gallon rise in the price of gasoline. I’m guessing if the Republicans would have retained the presidency, oil prices would have stayed much, much lower than they ended up being.

The story of history is primarily that of sufferings and hardships being solved sooner or later. Time and patience is required for many of these hardships and sufferings to be solved.

Certain situations may require immediate action, but a government has to be careful in what it does so the result is not worse than the original problem.

If St. Paul was correct that the hardships we encounter are nothing compared to our future, why are the Democrats so willing to force actions that not only ‘do not work’, but are also just plain ‘wrong and evil?’

Time and patience does work and at times are the best solution.

A O

“The Heritage Foundation” has a 50 year history of investigation of events of social, governmental and economic issues among other public service work. I just came across the following information concerning election fraud and wanted to pass it on. I can’t add much to the information listed below except to say that Nebraska is listed as the 41st state when it came to efficient, safe and workable election systems. The voter ID law passed this year may just be a very good thing.

Consider the following information from the Heritage Foundation. It doesn’t mean each and every instance was an illegal vote, but it sure does open up the process to illegal action.

• 8,360 individuals registered and voted in two different states during the 2018 election.

• Votes were recorded for 7,890 deceased individuals in the 2016 election and 6,718 deceased individuals in the 2018 election.

• 43,760 individuals who registered more than once at the same address in the same state voted twice in the 2016 election, and 37,889 individuals registered more than once at the same address cast two votes in the 2018 election. Thousands of these duplicate votes were cast using mail-in or absentee ballots.

• 5,500 individuals registered at two different addresses in the same state and voted twice in the 2018 election.

• Votes were recorded in the 2018 election for 34,000 individuals who were registered at nonresidential, commercial addresses such as gasoline stations, casinos, and restaurants.

A O

Just to add a bit of humor to your week.

Today, I ate a naked pita chip !

I didn’t know such a thing existed. It was an example of “organic – baked – Pita chip” that was simply naked.

Or so it said on the bag they came in.

Learn something new almost every day.

A O