Kids or War?

Well, the school referendum failed, and by a large margin. 61% to 39%. And here's how not to end a referendum question on a ballot: BY VOTING "YES" ON THIS BALLOT QUESTION, YOU ARE VOTING FOR A PROPERTY TAX INCREASE. And yes, it's done in caps as anyone who voted saw. So it's not surprising it was overwhelmingly voted against. Who wants an increase in property taxes? That wasn't just Roseau. The vast majority of school referendums across Minnesota failed.

I have a solution for education shortfalls. I do know that a factor is that inflation has put everyone on the defensive when it comes to wallets. From the grocery store to the gas station and every point in between we're feeling the effects of disastrous federal and state economic policies. And that eventually catches up to everyone. You can't escape the effects of inflation when it comes to voting.

And one of the causes of inflation is wasteful spending. A quick Google search showed me that there are approximately 65 million students in public schools in this country. That number times the Roseau schools referendum of $1,050 per pupil increase comes out to around 68 billion dollars if we gave that increase to every public school student in the nation. So in other words, we could have taken about one third of the 175 billion dollars we've spent in a permanent Ukraine war that's fed some very wealthy defense contractors to give a $1,050 per pupil increase to every student in America without asking for a dime in referendums. Or putting it another way, we could give a $3,000 per pupil increase to every student in the nation with just what we've given to Ukraine.

The demise of the Roseau school referendum is partly due to not putting America First in favor of foreign countries, their wars, and handing out blank taxpayer checks to the rest of the world instead of taking care of our own priorities such as our kids.

Maybe the next ballot we get should have a warning next to the candidate's name saying "BY VOTING 'YES' FOR THIS LUNATIC WHO LIKES FOREVER WARS TO THE BENEFIT OF DEFENSE CONTRACTORS WHO PAY THIS POLITICIAN'S CAMPAIGN, YOUR CHILD WILL GET A $3,000 REDUCTION IN SCHOOL FUNDING."

I wonder how things would go for a candidate like that. Probably the way it should go for them all.

Bubbles

I thought I was reading The Babylon Bee, a pretty popular satire sight, but I came across a story at minnpost.com about a forum held in the Twin Cities that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey attended. If any of you are wondering if the far left in this state has lost its mind and wonders why crime has gotten out of control, let's take a look at this exchange.

"Apparently, if you've got a whole bunch of people that are looking to cause trouble – if you put bubbles out there, it's really hard to look tough when you've got bubbles floating around," Frey said.

Axios Twin Cities reporter Nick Halter, who moderated the Saturday panel, followed up, asking Frey: "We're talking about (bubbles), like at a kid's birthday?"

"Yeah. You think I'm joking. I'm actually not," Frey responded. "It's a bubble machine – and the people who are looking to cause trouble are like, 'I can't look tough around these bubbles.' So they disperse and it deescalates the situation and people who aren't looking to cause trouble love bubbles."

That's all Minneapolis needed during the George Floyd riots that left businesses and a Minneapolis Police Precinct in flames. And it's all it needs now with a high murder rate.

Bubbles.

Bernie Figured It Out

"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right."

You'd think that would be a standard gotcha line to democrats from any republican these days after last week's election.

But that was a tweet from Bernie Sanders, our greatest communist national treasure. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. The democrat party abandoned blue collar workers of all races in favor of uppity city liberals and their woke condescension who are a very vocal minority in this country. Or as the Bill Clinton campaign told America in two winning presidential campaigns, "it's the economy stupid." The average blue collar American just doesn't want to get fleeced or called garbage. It's such common sense that even a communist can figure it out.

I've Got a Book

for Atheists

Speaking of atheists like Bernie, you've heard it said before that "there are no atheists in the foxhole." In other words, it's hard to not believe in God in a tough time. But that's not true. I didn't believe in God before, during, or after sitting in a foxhole. And I'm not the only one. Life was about eating, drinking, and being merry, because in the end you're just gonna die into a black hole of nothingness.

But then the crap of life happens and you wonder to yourself in the hard times what it's worth to even exist. In the midst of one of these experiences thirty years ago as an atheist a friend of mine in the army always had his Bible sitting out. One day I grabbed it in one of those hard times and randomly opened it to the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is in the Old Testament and the second verse right off the top says, "'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'

As an atheist nothing more true could be said. So I was hooked. By the end of Ecclesiastes I believed in God. Then it was on to the Gospel of John and the good news. Give it a try if you haven't.