As we know it

News flash: the world is going to Hell. Do what you will, think what you will, hope what you will, the world's heading straight into the fireball. It's going to happen.
But that doesn't mean today. In fact, it likely will not be today, nor anytime soon.
If I've learned anything after 57 years on God's green Earth, beyond the right to speak like an old guy (things was differnt when I was a boy I tell ya), is that we ain't perfect. Some of us is less perfect than others, all the way to being downright evil. I mean that. Because of that (outside of Divine intervention, but that's not the point here) the world will destroy itself one day. It will happen. You cannot stop it. You are not and will not be in a position to affect it. Period.
I'm not saying not to work for a better world just the same. You certainly should act within your sphere to do what you can to forestall the day of reckoning. But never mind the peripherals: fake news, President Trump, North Korean nukes, Brexit, any ism you can imagine, Obamacare, Fox News over MSNBC. You cannot affect them on a broad scale. Stop fretting.
Be nice to your neighbor. Help directly someone who needs help. Do your job well. Discuss the issues even, among friends and charitably. I personally believe giving the Almighty His due wouldn't hurt either. But stop feeding the beast. You're not then delaying the end of the world. But you just might be helping to bring it if you stoke the coals for the people actually driving the train. You might then be helping the end come before it must.

What's in a Number?

It is not unusual during an election cycle for politicians and pundits to play around with numbers. Numbers are used to impress people, although few people understand the numbers much less the manipulation of such numbers. The Democrats and President Barack Obama are relying on that as he attempts to be re-elected. They claim that the rate of spending increases under the President have been far less than folks believe.

Maybe so, maybe no. You can look over facts and figures here:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/05/24/msnbc-and-white-house-cite-bogus-report-claiming-obama-spending-binge

Or here:

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/23/correcting-obamas-spending-record-again/

Read these and the related links within them at your leisure, if dare or care to. They demonstrate that the rates of increase in federal spending under President Obama are far greater than he wants us to believe. But do the rates really matter? After all, if you earned a buck today but three dollars tomorrow you've increased your earnings 300%, but so what? Three bucks are nothing. But if you earned 50 grand last year and 55 this year, that 10% is huge.

So what really matters are the raw numbers. And the raw numbers are that Barack Obama has been spending a trillion dollars over budget for several years. That puts our current federal budget deficit at $5 trillion dollars. $5,000,000,000,000.

That says more than the rate of spending. And it tells us all we need to know when considering who to vote for in November 2012.