As our unemployment rate flirts with 10% I have to wonder about a few things

1. Why do we accept the idea that illegal immigration is a good thing and has not directly contributed too many of our current economic woes.

2. Many women want to be in the workforce and God bless them that do want participate in the workforce. However shouldn’t we keep in mind the best times in our country were when families had a choice of the wife being a homemaker or a bread winner?

3. As we continue to increase the retirement age shouldn’t we remember words such as respect your elders. Those words make me wonder how respectful it is to plant an elderly person on a stool at the entrance of Wal Mart for an 8 hour shift.

4. Is it really wise that our current job market is so strained that youth looking for a summer or an after school job is just plain out of luck in many cases.

5. Is it wise that we put up with elected officials serving out their term from their death bed because the party they associate with may lose power if they step aside?

Those are just a few questions I am pondering, and as we deal with a difficult economic situation many of the answers will be hard to find while some answers are extremely simple.

Here are my simple common sense answers.

1. American citizens above all else! Immigration laws must be enforced so we are not giving an American job to a foreign citizen.

2. If you want to do business in America you must produce in America. Companies that send their plants overseas should sell all their products overseas also.

3. Give families the support they need to make a strong household. By support I mean tax breaks, school choice, and community enhancements, etc.

4. Eliminate the capital gains tax! It is call the free market for a reason and those who participate in the purest form of capitalism should not be penalized for their successes.

5. Phase out Social Security as we know it and replace it with a program that mandates all workers must invest 10% of their income in an investment of their choosing. The investor should be free to change the investment as they desire but are restricted from removing the monies until retirement.

6. Lower the retirement age, not raise it. Those that want out need to get out making room for the youth coming into the workforce.

Many will say how could we ever pay for all of that. Consider that when a company eliminates higher salaries they make more money. With this money the corporate tax rate will generate more revenue. That coupled with the elimination of the capital gains tax which will grow businesses and encourage more investment. This will go a long way toward putting the country in a good standing, but of course none of this will work without extreme cuts in spending that have been out of control for most of modern time.

1 yard from glory

As a professional athlete retires and fades from the glory surrounding the sport he participated in the athlete also fades from our memory. Usually we do not know or really care about our athletic heroes after sport endeavors. The athletes quickly fade from our memory, while the game winning shot, hard hitting tackle and the Hail Mary pass remain etched in our minds forever.
The only time we open up the past is when we give pause to honor the passing of the athlete who once astounded us by their playmaking abilities, on field courage and heroics. Well today is one of those unwelcome days when we pause to honor the memory Steve McNair.
For me McNair was not a great QB but he was a very solid player and I have great respect for the way he played the game. He was always a leader, always willing to share the spot light and never the troublemaker. McNair did not have the Super Bowl successes of Tom Brady, Dan Marino, John Elway, etc. What McNair did have was a successful career year in year out. In 13 seasons McNair threw for a very respectful 31,304 yards and 174 touchdowns. We tend to measure QBs by their passing yardage and touchdowns and forget about the yardage gained off of a QB scrambles (674 rushing yards for McNair) and the pain they played through.

Steve McNair shot to death July 4, 2009