Sometimes in responding to quickly, especially on a blog site, one can miss the most important & obvious of things. In this case, prayer.

In reflection, there is no question that God gave us the wisdom to make use of the opened doors presented to us. While we have some control over local things, we have an infinitesimal control over the rest. We therefore come before God, & ask his guidance & help, to do our best, of what we have been given.

God Bless

Growing up across the RR tracks from a “shanty town”, my dear 4’10″ mother was pretty direct in getting my “tenacity & motivation” going. It was more like “quite whining & get it done, or I’ll tell your dad”. That was a motivator most of the kids I grew up with had. We made the best of what little we we had (by modern standards), but in the process we learned, even when we failed.

Do you really not have a clue why Romney’s negatives have been so high? Have you heard none of the incessant barrage of Romney bashing by the Obama campaign, and the obligingly repetitive MSM?”

Of course I have a clue about this. But it is beside the point. Whatever the reason for it, it is what Romney has to contend with and work around. Just like Obama has to work around his African last name. Romney’s finally doing pretty well at it at the moment.

I must say I find so many conservatives to be excessively “fact challenged”. We have the media we have. So now what? You don’t hear Romney crying in his beer about it. He and his campaign are too busy trying to develop a work around, because he needs one and pronto. In that very good sense he is a professional politician, and a grown-up.

Anybody can contribute some small work around to this, even if it’s only calling up your nearest Romney field office and trying to get a yard sign or a bumper sticker. Or signing up for as much political mail as possible. I know from personal experience extending all the way back to the Howard Dean campaign that if you get on enough of these lists you will have pollsters, plural, calling you for your opinion constantly. My household has been averaging about 5 polling calls a week since I live in a strongly contested state.

You will also get yourself a lot of trash mail from campaigns. But if you really care enough about the result, you can put up with it. That’s what grown-ups like Romney do, put up with it and keep scratching around for solutions. What you do or what I do won’t make problems go away like a magic wand, but it is a contribution, and a real one, even if a tiny one.

That world has been utterly destroyed. It ceased to exist in 2002 with the outrageously ballooning spending for the Iraq and Afganistan wars and the compensating action by the Fed to hold some semblance of prosperity in this country by pushing interest rates down to a level which brought down the home mortgage industry, destroyed massive amounts of personal home equity, and made saving with both safety and decent return impossible for the ordinary person. The Fed has made it clear that it will continue this policy indefinitely.

You had a level playing field. Someone starting out now where you started has nothing of the kind. Period. The winter store of food the ant is saving is constantly being raided through manipulated gasoline price spikes and uncontrolled and unregulated Stock Market bubbles that have forced the poorest of the hard working out of a job over and over again, eating up every accumulated savings and forcing the out of work to repeatedly live off credit cards between jobs at usurious interest and fees.

Even an ant can’t save for the winter if the fields have been burned to the ground by repeated brush fires.

In particular, the fable about the Grasshopper & the Ants. About a happy care free grasshopper, how he hopped his way through summer singing away, until winter set in. Then reality set in, & he was saved by the ants, that worked all summer getting ready for winter.

When my wife & I were married ( she also came from what would called now days poor, but normal back then), you might say we agreed to live like the ants. That is, watch our $’s very carefully, & spend on what was necessary (good education for our children, & teach them about saving & $’s). No, we did not have a “vacation” every year, or much longer, & the new “used” car had to last at least 10 years. We would visit relatives & stay with them, with the kids sleeping on the living room floor. In short we lived what would be called simply, & saved for the autumn of our lives.

As far as your question about going back to work after retiring, if necessary yes. Starting at a job of $0.25/hr, I paid my way through a local Catholic College.That work included cleaning toilets, standing by steaming meat kettles, pouring hot metal, shoveling sand all day in the sun. Wasn’t fun, but it paid for an education, and leaned many things useful later in life.

As far as Medicare, I have to wonder if that program is more a curse, then blessing. But if vouchers gives us the care I grew up with, in a small town clinic, I can live, on my allotted time, with that.

It goes on and on. This arrogant, conceited man has tarnished the Presidency of the United States, with both his domestic and foreign policies.

The only thing more frustrating and saddening than the fact that this man has never been questioned, never been critically scrutinized by the media which have wholly abdicated their responsibility of a free press, is the reverence accorded this man by so many ignorant or disiterested people who continue to think he will lower the seas (after all, he said he would), and question nothing themselves, even the most obvious.

Sorry for the rant if it offends everyone — but after these last 3 1/2 years in which I’ve seen things happen in our America that I could never have imagined, and having read one too many comments exuding the worship his followers exhibit without reasons to do so other than, perhaps a blind allegiance to a political party instead of assessment of the man, it…just spilled over.

“Obama’s ratio of approval/disapproval ratings have consistently been significantly higher than either the Republican or the Democratic Party.”

Joseph Marshall, have you been unconscious for the past 2 years or are you simply incapable of critical thinking?

Do you really not have a clue why Romney’s negatives have been so high? Have you heard none of the incessant barrage of Romney bashing by the Obama campaign, and the obligingly repetitive MSM? “Romney is one of those evil venture capitalists who care about no one and nothing in the pursuit of money!” “Romney tied his dog to the top of his car.” (even if it was in a kennel. What a barbarian!) Romney owned Bain and Bain capital took over a steel plant, and an employee lost his job and 5 years later the employee’s wife died….so Romney’s a murderer.” “Romney’s a murderer!” “Romney is waging a war on women!” “Romney has never paid taxes!” Romney’s an evil mormon says Harry Reid — not at all the exemplary Mormon that Harry Reid is. As per Harry Reid. Obama not being able to fix things is all the Republicans fault. They are nothing but obstructionists. Never mind that Obama’s attitude has always been “[his] way” or the highway. Because, “[he] won.” (said he)

The volume and degree of lies has been astonishing. Almost but not quite, as astonishing as the use of it to distract from Obama’s failings and should-have-been scandals.

The bottom line is that there is nothing that Obama and his campaign haven’t done or will not do to hold on to power. Nothing! His loyalty is of convenience so long as it is of use to him. The most recent and blatant example is the in-our-faces cover-up of Ambassador Steven’s horrific murder and the three other Americans. But never mind! This guy was only serving his country in one of the most dangerous places in the world, but his death is just too bad. On with campaigning and Las Vegas! Send out the surrogates to sell an obvious lie to the people and make sure the media amplifies the message and asks no inconvenient questions.