BACK FROM CANADA AND ALASKA…WITH MORE IDEAS THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE
There is a lot of wisdom in nature; a lot of it in the wilderness. Still more of it in how nature has evolved, which is a message for everyone about the need to evolve, adapt, and survive, then thrive. Going from Vancouver, BC over to Victoria, BC, and then back to Vancouver to take the Disney Wonder cruise ship up the inside passage to Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau (Alaska's capital) and then to Ketchikan (the wettest city in Alaska and 2nd rainiest in the world)…and having wonderful weather all the way, proves that even close in weather forecasts are often nothing more than educated guesses.
Victoria is a beautiful city, and its crown jewels are the downtown including the grand Empress Hotel and the Buchart Gardens…Fifty acres of flowers in bloom!
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GLACIERS IN THE NORTH ARE RECEDING; IN ANTARCTICA THEY ARE GROWING
Perhaps the human race is fouling its planet, but the concept of "global warming" is still far from scientifically proven or resolved. The US has reduced its cO2 emissions dramatically over the past decade, but countries in the third world, notably China and India continue to increase their output, via coal fired electric plants. In the areas we toured, the scope and majesty of the wilderness is awesome. We only saw a tiny portion of Alaska, and that part was a "temperate rainforest"--a concept that still boggles the mind. The second largest rainforest on earth is in Canada and Alaska, not in the tropics.
There is still a tremendous amount of scenic beauty, including mountains at every view, and glaciers that are still huge…the face of the south Stewart glacier shown is 200 feet tall
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MEANWHILE, UPON RETURNING HOME, NOTHING SEEMS TO BE SETTLED
The recovery stumbles along, with growth fueled by the Fed's infusion of $85 BILLION PER MONTH. This American recovery is like a campfire that continues to threaten to die out, until someone (Bernanke) comes in a dumps another load of accelerant on it. Watching the Obama Administration makes many of us wonder whose side he/they are on? Watching Congress push and pull and tug and get almost nowhere saddens me--and many others. I know some member os Congress and they are good people; bright, hard working, and dedicated. But most of all they are frustrated. For ever step forward, Congress and especially the Democratic Senate takes a step backward--maybe two steps.
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COMPANIES ARE STILL STRUGGLING TO FIND GROWTH--IN SPITE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S CLAIMS
Read any recent earnings report, and very few of them are touting "profitable growth!" Growth is slow, sporadic, and not always even profitable. The stock market continues to hold up, since there is no better place on earth to invest. Europe's recession continues. China's growth is slowing. India's has already slowed. Latin America is a mixed bag of ups, downs, and uncertainty. There is no doubt in my mind that something I said prior to the 2012 election is as true now as I thought it was then. There will be no robust recovery as long as Barack Obama is in the White House. His "scandal ridden" administration is now trying to tamp down its misdeeds and phony, while Obamacare falters, riddled with unworkable parts, and generally a tangled mess. Somehow, we muddle on.
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SOME OF THE MOST STRIKING WISDOM COMES FROM PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN (If you have not seen that movie--it is a MUST SEE film.
—Thoughts from one of America’s great Presidents:
“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” —Abraham Lincoln
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” —Abraham Lincoln
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” —Abraham Lincoln
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” —Abraham Lincoln
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.” —Abraham Lincoln
AMIDST THE INCREDIBLE FOOLISHNESS BEING PERPETRATED IN WASHINGTON, DC, YOU WOULD THINK THEY NEVER HEARD ANY OF THESE LEGENDARY QUOTES—Wisdom of the ages, from a wide variety of sources:
“In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.” —Voltaire (1764)
“The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.” —Adrian Rogers
“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” Frederic Bastiot (1801-1850)
“A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.” G. Gordon Liddy
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan (1986)
“Just because you don’t take an interest in politics, doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” Pericles (430 B.C.)
“A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” —George Bernard Shaw
“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” —James Bovard (1994)
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”—P. J. O’Rourke
“Talk is cheap, except when Congress does it.” —Cullen Hightower
“I contend for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to life himself up by the handle.” —Sir Winston Churchill
“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a Congress.” —John Adams
“No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” —Mark Twain
IF THOSE ARE NOT ENOUGH, CONSIDER JUST A FEW MORE:
—Finally, these thoughts:
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” — Thomas Jefferson
“He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” —Benjamin Franklin
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” —Drafters of the Declaration of Independence.
Remember this statement. Government was created to work for the people, not vice versa.—ME!
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John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, http://www.mariotti.net, http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/
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