By Irene F. Starkehaus -
No surprise to most of us, I guess. Fifty-four percent of Americans believe that 2013 was a particularly bad year and a full forty percent have declared 2013 to be a grand scale disaster for their families. So it has been written in the article entitled Excedrin headache No. 2013 (Washington Examiner). So it shall be done. I'm not being flippant either. Keep in mind that this Washington based paper had to look to an Economist/YouGov poll in order to figure out what the rest of us have been learning through life experience lo these many months. If that's not the best illustration of what is broken in Washington then I just don't know what is.
I suppose it is in the smallest way satisfying when the MSM confirms what conservatives have been saying right along in spite of all the .gov evidence to the contrary. Sadly, "I told you so" doesn't make up the household budget gap created by the Affordable Health Care Act that was established to make our health care more…affordable (I'm sorry. What was it about the Affordable Health Care Act that made you think it would be affordable?) and it won't produce jobs for the millions of willing producers who are stuck in a holding pattern waiting for the economy to return to what most of us consider normal levels of growth and prosperity.
Aside from the reflexive "no, duh" that the Washington Examiner's critique produces, the fundamental problem with the post's natural supposition is that it implies Americans need only get to the stroke of midnight to release us from 2013's evil spell. It's as if all the socio-economic chaos was brought about by astrology rather than deed. We must then conclude through such reasoning that the current representatives in government are removed from any fault. i.e.: Obamacare is a failure… but Barack Obama? Not so much. I don't know. The logic seems a bit flawed to me.
Look, I like a good faerie tale as much as the next person but eventually even Sleeping Beauty had to wake up and start affecting change in the world. If we keep doing everything we have been doing for the last seven years without making fundamental modifications in our own behavior, if we fail to demand a vast improvement in the behavior of our governing forces then I promise you that 2014 will make 2013 look like the good old days.
The good news is that we now have all the evidence that we'll ever need to prove once and for all that Keynes was wrong and that the economic and social policies of the Left are bona-fide failures. The bad news is that whole social experiment is for naught if we do nothing to eradicate the progressive influences from our local, state and federal governments. Change is necessary and that change must begin with us. That brings us to the conservative resolutions that may be helpful in altering our current course toward failure and debt. Let us take a moment to ponder these words of wisdom written by far greater thinkers than me:
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The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
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These are harsh words that Chesterton delivers and it may not be what you want to hear at the beginning of a promising new year, but there's simply no escaping it. Like it or not, you are going to die. Why give anyone power over your behavior or drive yourself crazy by trying to deny it?
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With that in mind, can you think of greater waste of time than brooding over the possibility of mortality or illness? Just as you would, I would like to live as long of a life as is possible and I would like to do so with as little pain or illness as possible. But is it wise for Americans to hand over insane amounts of power and money to our governing officials with the hope that they will stave off the inevitable?
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Take a flu shot. Don't take a flu shot. Use multi-vitamins. Don't use multi-vitamins. Go Vegan. Mow on a cow. Death comes to us all either way and makes us equal in that certainty.
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He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. ~ Plato
- This axiom walks hand in hand with the inevitability of death. For as long as you live, you will get old. Aging is not something to fear. It's something to savor.
- The reflection of age upon our faces is nothing to fear either. I've seen the alternative. And it looks like Nancy Pelosi. There are worse things in life than crow's feet. Trust me.
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I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him ~ Booker T. Washington
- As a conservative, you have a lot of people who will ridicule you for your traditional values. They will call you illiterate. They will call you reactionary. They will slander or libel you with allegations of racism, bigotry, and homophobia. They will call you heartless hypocrites. And that's just from members of the Republican Party. Stand your ground and don't allow the stain their hatred to taint your hearts or minds.
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One should eat to live, not live to eat. ~ Moliere
- With the beginning of 2014 will come the constant commercials, admonishments, reminders that you need to lose weight. It's been the Left's favorite mantra now for over thirty years and it's absolutely true. Americans are generally overweight. Of course, when the Left first started calling Americans ugly and fat, we weren't. I suppose that thirty years of verbal abuse will have the effect of making people believe that they are ugly and fat, and eventually they will begin to reflect that unsightliness and obesity.
- The Left's morbid battle with OCD has produced the eating disorders that Americans now endure. Please don't let them fool you. They don't care about healthy lifestyles. If they did, they wouldn't be force feeding birth control pills to adolescents.
- The issue at hand is that even when we are counting calories, we are making our life's focus about food. We are living to eat and that's unhealthy either way. You know what? Release your food obsession and it will release you. If you want to lose weight then you should first figure out why. Only after you have answered that question should you bother with the how of it. Doing it for anyone other than you is a waste of precious time.
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Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. ~ Henry Ford
- The conservative goal of 2014 should be to repeal Obamacare.
- The conservative goal of 2015 should be to abolish the Department of Education.
- The conservative goal of 2016 should be to eliminate agencies that live outside the parameters of the US Constitution.
- Progressivism is a failure. It's time to begin again more intelligently.
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Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. ~ John F. Kennedy
- The goal of repealing Obamacare will not be easily achieved
- The goal of abolishing the Department of Education will not be easily achieved.
- The goal of eliminating extra constitutional agencies will not be easily achieved.
- We should do it anyway.
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This is all you have. This is not a dry run. This is your life. If you want to fritter it away with your fears, then you will fritter it away, but you won't get it back later. ~ Laura Schlessinger
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It has often been said by men and women far wiser than me that money is the root of all evil, but those wise men and women, for all their great insights, are no less wrong. Money is not the root of all evil. Fear is. Fear can be traced back to nearly every wrong that was ever perpetrated, and it can lead people to do terrible things when they give into it.
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When you feel yourself not doing the right thing because you are afraid of what might happen to you, please stop and at least reconsider. Perhaps reflect on points one, two and three while making your final decision.
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Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Do not worry when someone is more successful than you. Do not fret that he or she came to success unfairly. Try not to focus on the material. Try to focus, rather, on what you can do to remake your life into one that makes you happy. Yes, 2013 has been a difficult year but you have shelter, clothing, food, clean water and apparently access to the internet. This is more than what most of the world has. Use the gifts at your disposal and pursue your own bliss.
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Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. ~ Abraham Lincoln
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The best thing to do here? Never test a man's character by giving him power in the first place. Very few people will pass the exam and the rest will wreak havoc on your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The men and women in Washington and Springfield are not gods and they are not your leaders. They are your representatives.
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The goal of 2014 is to improve understanding of the vassalage that these men and women are asking for when they run for office. Take back the language and stop calling mere mortals anything like your leaders. If they fail to represent you in a way that is beneficial to you and your family then fire them and replace them with people who can do the job.
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It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; and not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity. ~ Francis Bacon
- Be who you want to be. Do not accept a role that society has assigned you unless it brings you joy. You are worth so much more than anything that people could envision for you.
Here's hoping that 2014 brings joy and prosperity through our shared perseverance and determination to stop short America's downward spiral.
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
