Happy? New Year

Let me be among the first to wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year,  a year that promises to be as eventful as the one soon to be over. 

Turmoil escalated in the  the Mid East, including the attack on the consulate in Benghazi and murder of  the ambassador and three others.  Greece led the way to financial crisis but is not the only nation in danger because of socialism.

On the national scene we enter the coming year not knowing had hurtful actions or failure to act by the president and Congress will affect all of us personally.  We know we will be paying higher taxes as Obamacare alone will add one trillion dollars in new taxes.  Actions that could lead to the creation of jobs and increase in governmental revenue are not being considered.  Instead, measures that increase taxes and take away jobs are pushed.

In the face of all the bad news, I am still able to be optimistic that the American energy that overcame wars and depressions will triumph finally. So, again, best wishes for a happy New Year.

She eats greens again

Last year in a post on eating turnip greens I mentioned that my then two-year-old granddaughter ate greens and seemed to enjoy them.  I was surprised; most kids don't like any green vegetable, and I hated them as I grew up.

Saturday we had greens and not only did she eat them she asked for second and then third servings. They were not even very good greens (they were cooked with olive oil; at 86 I want to eat for flavor not for health.)

Too many draw government money

The number of people drawing social security benefits has  tripled in the past 30 years to more than  eight million, putting social security in danger.  Together with the two million drawing extended unemployment benefits makes the need to create jobs critical, and increasing taxes is just the wrong way to accomplish this. Somebody must work, even if for minimum wages, to pay those who are not working.

Too late now, but Mitt Romney had a plan that would have almost painlessly reduced spending the first year by half a trillion dollars and by the second year would have balanced the budget and  created  jobs.  The nation is near to falling off a "cliff" where more people will be depending on money from the government than are working and paying taxes. That will be disaster.

You're invalid, your license that is

Five friends, ages twenties and early thirties, took advantage of the holidays to get together and have dinner in Shreveport Thursday night.  They were enjoying visiting and decided to continue by going to a lounge, have a drink, and talk some more.

Four went through the formality of showing their driver's licenses for identification, but the doorkeeper told Josh his ID was invalid because his license had expired.  Josh had observed a birthday recently and it had been four years since he had renewed his license.  That ended their party but at least it reminded Josh to renew his license.

Cliff or not, disaster is here

Whether this nation falls over the "fiscal  cliff" or kicks the can down the road again,  with some actions that make conditions even worse, will be known in a couple of days.  When I speak of making conditions even worse, I particularly refer to Obama's proposals that will have us spending 55 per cent more than in 2012.




Contrary to more spending we need to take action to reduce spending and create jobs in order that we will have more people working and paying taxes while fewer people are milking the government.

Let's be brutally honest here.  Talk of cutting  welfare programs, and I include extension of unemployment pay as welfare, is meaningless.  We have gone too far on entitlements to pull back now.  Disaster of our economy is just ahead.   Half of the government's bills are paid with newly printed money, guaranteeing hyper inflation lies ahead with the dollar becoming near worthless.

I wish that I could offer a glimpse of hope, but we have let ourselves get too far with welfare that makes the recipients better off financially than if they worked.  That word "entitlement" tells the story.  When we decided that people were "entitled," politicians competed in offering  greater and greater benefits.  Thus disaster for the economy.

Blog began three years ago

This blog, Roy E Lowe.com, began three years ago as a Christmas gift from my daughter, Jessica.  I didn't know what to do with it, but I began posting mostly memories of events of my childhood.  I posted a few times about my service on the USS Pickens, APA 190, and was delighted that this led to contacts with others who served on the ship and families of former shipmates. I hope to stay in touch with as many of the shipmates and their families as are interested.

Eventually the blog turned into an abbreviated editorial column, which is not surprising since I edited a weekly newspaper for 20 years.  Who knows how this blog will be in the future or even if it stays alive. At this moment I plan to continue to submit whatever is on my mind, not being concerned whether I have readers or whether they like what I write.  Here's to three more years plus as many more as I can offer.

Jim Nabors - Go Tell It On The Mountain