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"Kyle again, 2nd blog post ever coming at you. I've had a flood of thoughts the last few days on a few topics that are seemingly intertwined and feel like I've kept my quiet long enough in this election, so here are a few thoughts.
This week I had the opportunity to listen to Kevin Rollins speak who is the former CEO of Dell. His topic was "happiness." He started out by referring to a book coming out written by the guy who will be the head of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). The AEI is the conservative think-tank in Washington D.C. and Kevin Rollins is a member. The book is called "Gross National Happiness" and it is a study of the happiness of the average people in the US from about 1972 to the present. The author is a professor so his research is very thorough and analytic. He points out several demographics and how they compare on average to others in terms of how happy they perceive themselves. The one I found most interesting is that political conservatives are two times more likely to consider themselves "happy" than liberals. He discusses several things that probably contribute to this difference, one being that conservatives have a belief in the power of the individual and the individual's ability to control or influence the outcome they desire while the liberal's belief centers in the power of the collective-they see themselves as reliant on everyone else to get the results they want.
Alissa and I caught a glimpse of 20/20 the other day and they were interviewing people who got into really aggressive real estate investments and risky mortgages who are now in a financial mess. It was interesting to see a huge disparity between how the people were responding. One couple took full responsibility, and had organized a raffle where for $50 people could buy a raffle ticket and when they had sold enough raffle tickets to pay off the mortgage they will have a drawing for the winner of the home. I thought it was a great example of being innovative to find a creative solution to a problem you brought on yourself. Another couple in a similar situation said, "the government is giving all this money to the big banks, what about the little people?" I thought, what a sad little man to point a finger at the government when he made stupid choices. Ronald Reagan said, "Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."
On that note it's on to Obama, who has promised the world to us all. You having a hard time? You have two groups to blame, the rich, and the Bush administration (notice you didn't make the list). So you are not the cause of your problems and guess what? You are not the solution either. The answer to every problem in your life is Obama. There was a good article in the Opinion column of the Wall Street Journal yesterday called "Obama's Magic." It's worth looking up and if anyone is interested I can send the article to I think 10 people with my subscription. It's just points out how ridiculous and contradictory so many of the things are that he says he is going to do. For the record, I'm not a fan of McCain either, but I can not imagine voting for someone whose claims are as bogus as those Obama has made and is making. I don't think it will be the end of the US if he's elected, but I think if he does it will be the result of everyone listening to everything he says and not thinking about it. The greatest tragedy of our generation is that we have stopped reading and most it seems have stopped thinking; at least those who do think, don't read so they have no context for their thoughts.
That's all."
-very interesting....
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