Political Musings - The Fall Of An Empire Occurs Slowly... Over Time... And is caused by the people responsible for maintaining it.

Jason here... Political musings...  turn away now if you wish to survive....:-P

Had a conversation with Mom today where she made a political point to me that caused me to ponder.  It was the garden variety Obama is better than Bush comment.  If you look, you can find an entire news media pushing the same view (that's not new... historically the news media has never been balanced, fair, or objective.  objectivity was a creation of journalism schools of the 60's and 70's).  I had to ask myself... is it really "better" or just different?

Looking at what is going on today in our country I can find very little connection between our "leaders" and the common citizen.  I see political wrangling and manipulation.  I see a President who has the media on his side and an opposition party in disarray.  I see Chicago Style politics with a constant drumbeat to forgive the method if it achieves the objective.  Don't pay your taxes?  You could work for the Obama administration!  Against signing statements?  Ignore Obama making his, scream about the previous guy.  Upset about debt run up by previous administrations?  Ignore the debt that my children and grandchildren will be forced to pay from this administration.   Upset about the war...  vote for the guy who will get us out of it... except he's not going to do that.  Biden admitted yesterday that it was all about oil but the administration doesn't have the guts to simply pull everything out and let the middle east be..  isn't that what the left has preached for years?   15 years in EMS has taught me to believe less than 10% of what I hear.   It's not what you say... it's what you do...  word's mean nothing... actions are everything...

I am surrounded by "shovel ready" projects waiting for Federal Stimulus dollars but 100% democratic party controlled congress instead is building a generational power base based on people needing the federal government.  Could it be that the Obama administration lied about money going to "shovel ready" projects?   Already the Federal government controls banks, car companies, and other businesses.  Under the Obama administration, the US government has actually refused to accept payments on TARP and other Federal tax dollars from companies that received the money and want to pay it back.  If they paid it back, the government loses control... can't have that.

I am reminded of world history... the fall of the Roman Empire.  The parallels are there and aren't too hard to see...

General consensus among historians are that these factors led to the fall of the Roman Empire:

1. Christianity

Over time, Church leaders became influential and took away power from the emperor. Christian beliefs conflicted with the working of empire.

2. Barbarians and Vandals

Rome embraced the barbarian but also lost territory and revenue to them, especially Carthaginian Africa, which they lost to the Vandals.

3. Decay

One can spot decay in many areas going back to the crises of the Republic under the Gracchi, Sulla and Marius, but in the imperial period and in the military it meant men were no longer trained right and the invincible Roman army was no longer.

4. Inflation

By the time of Claudius II Gothicus (268-270 A.D.) the amount of silver in a supposedly 100% silver denarius was only .02%. This led to or was severe inflation, depending on how you define inflation.

5. Lead

The presence of lead in the drinking water leached in from the water pipes, from glazes, and food preparation could have contributed to heavy metal poisoning. Lead was associated with contraception and recognized as a deadly poison.

6. Economic

Economic factors are cited as a major cause of the fall of Rome. Some of the major factors, like inflation, are discussed elsewhere. But there were also lesser problems with the economy of Rome that combined together to escalate financial stress. These include:

• Poor management,
• The dole (bread and circuses), and
• Hoarding.

7. Division of the Empire

The Roman Empire was split not just geographically, but culturally, with a Latin Empire and a Greek one, the latter of which may have survived because it had most of the population, a better military, more money, and better rule.

8. Hoarding and Deficit

Causes of the fall of Rome include economic decay through hoarding of bullion, barbarian looting of the treasury, and trade deficit.

I can see parallels here in many areas...  we are currently in a period of deflation right now but inflation is coming right around the corner...  I am left stunned by this comment by one of our founding fathers...

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams

When morality is lost in a culture or society, poor decision making is the result.  And while the left blames Reagan, the right blames Clinton, the left blames Nixon, the right blames Johnson, the left blames Bush, the right blames Obama;  the truth is plain.  Beneath the partisan bickering we have lost the collective morality in the USA and the things that the country was founded on.  We have lost our morality in favor of more easy and seductive populism. 

I now am faced with the burden of preparing my children for a world that I know will look nothing like the one I was raised in.  No longer is it just "wanting my child to be more prosperous than I".  Now it is something else entirely... How do I prepare them for a future where morality is no longer a fundamental understanding in society  and going the direction of the populist wind is called leadership?

Rant over...

Oops!

Oops. I tried to attach this at the end of the post but it showed up at the beginning and for some reason, blogger won't let me cut and paste. I made this cake for a friend's co-workers son's 4th birthday. I was soooo nervous it would crash before the party because it had to travel an hour and a half to San Francisco, but it made it!

Now here's the post I was trying to put BEFORE the picture:

Sometimes I forget to post here because most of you are on Facebook. However, for the few of you who have not kept up with the times ;-), here's a quick update.

I turned in my notice at Michaels. My last day will be May 2 and I can't wait! There is so much I want to do! The kids and I are getting excited for our trip to Oregon. We should be coming up Thursday, May 28th and staying about 2 weeks. Jason will be staying in CA, working and taking advantage of the peace and quiet to travel and take pictures.

The kids are growing like weeds. James' loose tooth isn't very loose anymore. If he doesn't get it out in the next month or so, he will have to have the dentist pull it :-(. His permanent teeth are coming in behind his baby teeth and will get crooked if we can't get the baby teeth out.

Not really much else to post. Here's a picture of what I spent my week on:

A vent

Why do I always pick dud jobs? Or maybe it's just me. Maybe all jobs are duds and I just don't like to put up with all the junk. Because I have a tendency to get jobs and quit them within a couple months, I told myself when I accepted the job at Michaels that I would stay there until June no matter what, and honestly, that's the only reason I'm still there. My last post was all about how wonderful my job is, and in theory it is, but... GRRR! I'm so frustrated! I hate feeling like a pawn, something to use, abuse and discard! I went in to work Saturday and taught two classes. I had 4 students registered but only 3 showed up. I was informed AFTER I taught the classes that the policy had changed as of that week and that instead of getting paid $33.50 for each class, I would only get $25.50 because I didn't have 4 students show up. I just got a $70 a month pay cut with NO warning. The crazy part about it is that next week, I will have four students in one class and 5 in the other, but they pay based on the first class attendance. I have been told by my Wilton manager that there is nothing they can do. It's in the computer and they can't override it. I am soooo mad I can't see straight! And it's not even about the money. We have definitely been blessed and while the extra $70 would be nice, it won't make or break us. It's more about feeling completely stepped on. Michaels doesn't want to lose money, so they take it out of our hide. And I'm frustrated with myself. They pay me for my classroom time, but not for all the work I do at home to promote it, to plan my classes and to make sure that I know what I'm talking about. Jason says I should just put in the bare minimum, what they pay me for, but I can't seem to make myself do that. If it's not perfect, why bother? I know it can't be perfect, but I don't want it to be sub-par because I didn't even try. Ugh! I'm so busy and would love to have my personal time back, but I don't want to quit yet another job. Why do I keep doing this? GRRR!

I was headed out to get the mail and heard some trickling water. The kids are asleep and Jason is at work, so I figured it must be the ice machine...until I looked outside. It's pouring down rain, so i decided to put my mail-getting plans on hold and sit down here instead.

It's very peaceful here right now. The house is quiet except for the sound of the rain and the clicking of the keys on the keyboard. It's not like this often around here. Mostly because I make myself so busy and fill my world with noise, without taking the time to just be. A nice thing to do every now and then :-).

My job is going very well. I'm starting to relax and enjoy myself and my boss is appreciating my work. I made a display for my classroom a couple weeks ago. It took me about 30 hours, so most of it was "pro-bono" work, since I only get paid $25 for my story boards. Yesterday, my manager asked me how many hours I spent on it. When I told her, she was floored! I don't think people who don't do cakes realize how much goes in to making them. Anyway, she came up to me a couple hours later while I was doing my demo and went over some paperwork with me. She told me that she wanted to make sure that I was getting compensated adequately because, in her words, "we really like you here, and we want to make sure that six months down the road, you don't look at your husband and say, honey it's not worth it." She gave me another display to do. This one pays $46, she provides the supplies AND I get to do it at home. SWEET! I was going to do a display cake for practice anyway and now she'll provide the supplies and I get paid for it. Free money!

I'm also really enjoying seeing people feel successful. One of my students sent me an email last week around 11pm of a cake she had done. A cute teddy bear she was practicing for her cousin's baby shower. She was soooo excited and it just warmed my heart that she would want to share it with me, and that I had played a part in her happiness. In my Saturday class, I have a student who joined because her friend wanted her to. She informed me the day they signed up that she would never be able to do it. I told her that yes, she would, and even if she never got the hang of the rose, she could at least do stars. She told me that as a kindergarten teacher, she could probably do stars, but that was it :-). Last week, she made some really cute cupcakes, with teddy bears, piped figures and flowers. She was so excited! She took pictures to show her dad in Florida. Now mind you, this woman has to be around 50 :-).

Another student on Saturday came into class and informed us that this was just not her thing. By the end of class, she was beaming as we all ooed and aaed over her cake with cascading flowers down the side. Now, my students' technique and execution sometimes leaves something to be desired, but the joy they get from creating something that they've never been able to do before makes me realize that it's not about perfection. My job has more to do with bringing people joy than it has to do with mastering the Wilton technique and to me, that just makes it all worthwhile.

Gabby has definitely developed a creative side as well. She spends literally hours coloring and/or painting nearly every day. She takes her coloring books and her crayons to bed with her and has almost learned to color within the lines. She loves to sing, as she always has. Her latest favorite song is "No one" by Alicia Keyes. She's so adorable in her little cutie voice, singing "No one. No one. No one!" at the top of her voice. Her beautiful blond hair is getting really long and she informed me today that she wants to grow it down to her feet ;-). She's also been growing like a weed. We measured her at 39" last week. Only one more inch to go before she can ride the bumper boats at Boomers!!! YAY!

She had her first kiss this weekend. My friend Kelli from church has a little boy who is almost 3. We went to pick up our kids from the kids program after church Saturday night and Kelli asked Drew if he wanted to give Gabby a hug. He walks up to her, gives her a hug, walks away, then turns around, walks back over to her and plants one on her lips. Too cute!! Kelli told me that maybe they would get married someday ;-). Whatever happened to arranged marriages anyway? I like this family :-).

James is growing up so fast! He's getting really excited for Kindergarten. We get to register him the first week of March. He's excited to go to school every day that Daddy goes to work. He is learning to count to 100, colors within the lines and is starting to sound out words. He's also learned how to tie his shoes. Both he and Gabby have been begging to do play dates with their friends and I've decided that I liked it much better when I got to choose their friends because it made play dates a lot easier.

Jason, poor guy, has to get a tooth pulled this week and an implant put in. One of his molars broke and unfortunately, it's at the very end of his mouth, so it's not possible to bridge it. We discovered through all this that dental insurance hardly ever covers implants and won't in this case. $2000 out of pocket. Thankfully, we have money left over from last year in an HSA, so it won't affect our day to day finances. Thank you, Lord!

Well, there seems to be a lull in the rain. I think I'll run out to the mail box.

Gabby

I have to go to bed, but I wanted to relay an interaction that Gabby and I had earlier today.

Me: "Gabby, I'm the luckiest woman alive because I get to be your mommy."

Gabby: "I'm the luckiest kiddo alive!"

Me: "Why?"

Gabby: "Because I get lots of princess stuff."

So much for a tender moment.

The good in the world

As we all know all too well right now, life can feel pretty heavy these days. Jason and I, for some reason, have been protected from hard hits as of yet, but too many people we know are REALLY struggling and sometimes, things look so gloomy and dismal. And yet, in the midst of all this, I have been struck by the good in the world. Perhaps all the hardships have created a backdrop where these things stand out, but whatever the reason, I wanted to share a few things that have jumped out at me and warmed my heart this week. First, I read this article on the drudge report. Pretty amazing!

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/st ory/904842.html

The other two things are small, but sometimes it's the small things that impact us the most. I've been waiting for our local Gottschalks to run Clinique's bonus. For those of you who don't know what that means, a couple times a year, Clinique, the makeup company that I buy from, runs a promotion where you get a bunch of free stuff (lipstick, mascara, eye shadow, etc.) when you buy a certain amount. It started today and I've been stretching my makeup until then so that I could get the free stuff. I went in today and all I needed was the foundation (I only buy two things from Clinique. The rest I get somewhere cheap, if at all). The minimum purchase to receive the bonus was $21.50. My foundation came to $20.50, of course. The sales associate tells me that with tax, it will be over $21.50 so she'll give it to me, even though technically she's not supposed to. THANK YOU! She didn't have to do that, but she did out of the kindness of her heart and I was really grateful. Then Gabby and I went to play in the kids area. Gabby had to use the restroom and on the way out, I asked Gabby if she wanted to share a soda. We couldn't agree on a flavor, so we decided to just not get anything. An older gentleman was walking by with his walker and dropped a whole bunch of quarters. I picked them up for him. Then he asked if Gabby wanted a soda. I told him that she was ok, that she has had a lot of junk food lately anyway. He asked how much the sodas were and I told him $1.25 as we started to walk away. He called after us: "I have a couple dollars. Do you want a soda little girl?" For some reason, that brings tears to my eyes as I type because this man didn't even know us. He had no idea whether we "deserved" a soda, or whether we were down on our luck, or anything. He just wanted to be nice. Now I'm dying to do the same for someone else. See, it's so easy to make someone smile. To warm their hearts and make their day and yet, how often do we do things like that? Gabby probably won't even drink her soda. She doesn't really care for pop all that much because it's "too spicy", but the selfless act of that older gentleman is something I definitely won't forget for awhile.

A new month, a new job, a new post

Life has just been trucking along here and I figured I should pop in for an update. I never would have guessed that I could get sick of winter (what winter?) in CA, but I'm ready for summer to arrive. I'm looking forward to the warm days when we can leave the windows open all day and the chance of rain is slim to none, where play dates at the park only get cancelled because of too much heat or poor air quality :-). I'm looking forward to being able to comfortably bbq every night of the week if we want to, although I really do need to figure out how to operate a bbq :-). Jason's our bbq expert, but when he doesn't get home until after 6, it's too late to cook the meat for dinner. I guess I'll make that my goal for the summer: learn to bbq. As all of you know, I have lofty aspirations in life :-).

I got to teach my first cake classes this week, to a total of 13 students in all. 9 the first night, 4 on Saturdays. My Saturday class is a HOOT!!! It's 4 elementary school teachers who are doing this just because it's fun and they are a riot! I had more fun in that class than I had had in weeks, and I got paid for it. Doesn't seem right in a way :-).

My manager told me that I have more students in my first class this year than they had all year last year. YES!!! Thank you, Lord! My Thursday class is so large (I know. Only 9. But that's large for a hands-on cake class) that I went up a pay grade. I get an extra $10 per class because of it. SWEET! I've been pretty stressed the last few weeks because of all the learning and organizing involved, but I really do enjoy what I do and I know the stress will diminish as I become more familiar with how everything works and build confidence in myself and my skills.

Jason's had a tough go the last few weeks, but still really seems to be enjoying his job. The kids LOVE having so much time with Daddy and I love the flexibility of him running home if I need to run out for an hour or so. He works incredibly hard and in return, he gets to set his hours and take time off when needed. Pretty good deal, all in all.

Gabby has definitely left her baby years behind. She is now 38" tall and has an incredible vocabulary. She sings her way through the day and tells story after story to her babies and stuffed animals at night. She has become quite the night owl (GRRR!) and would rather take a nap so she can stay up than skip her nap.

We had moved her gymnastics class from Monday evenings to Wednesday day because she was starting to skip naps and would be really tired by the time her class ended at 8 on Mondays. Unfortunately, when we switched her, she went from looking forward to gymnastics all week long to crying and clinging to me every time she had to go :(. She said the class was too big and that she missed her friends. I didn't realize that she was close to the girls in her Monday class, although now, looking back, the fact that she asked me every week if she could have them over for a play date should have been an indication. duh! After talking to her teacher, we decided to switch her back. She went back to her old class last night and the jump in her step was back. She was grinning ear to ear and she came out from the class at the end and said: "Mommy, that was fu-un!"

James has developed a strong interest in God and anything related to God. He started AWANAs two weeks ago and while the memorizing part is not his favorite, he loves the stories. I took him to Borders to pick out a new Bible with actual chapters and verses, rather than the kids' story Bible he had. I showed him the kids' Bibles with pictures and things, but he adamantly chose an NIV backpack Bible with no pictures. I asked him if he was sure he didn't want to get one with pictures and he said: "Mom, I don't want a Bible for the pictures. I want it for the words!" Over the last week, we have read Matthew 1 through 11, geneologies and all :-).

That's all for now! I need to go start the brownies so the kids and I can make Valentine brownie pops for James' class on Thursday.