The FairTax is a bill in Congress that will eliminate the IRS and replace the income tax and Federal deductions with a national sales tax.  It was not developed by politicians, but by citizens like you and me. Take a look at the Federal deductions on your paycheck and imagine what it would be like to be able to keep it all. 

Without the taxes that are layered into everything you purchase, the cost of products and services will go down. Not only will your costs go down, but so will the cost of exports to foreign countries and we will be able to compete with products that are imported.  This levels the international playing field and creates jobs in America and reduces out-sourcing of jobs to other countries.

Think too, of all the people that don't pay income tax now because of illegal activities, under-the-counter payments, loopholes in the tax code, etc.  It's estimated that 50% of all the people in the United States pay no income taxes, whatsoever. All of these people would pay their fair share when they make purchases.

Some politicians have distorted the facts because the income tax and the IRS are the basis of their power. Without the income tax their ability to control you and limit your liberties will end.

From The Cranky Housewife's blog.  http://thecrankyhousewife.com/

I love Ronald Reagan and I miss him.  Lord knows that I miss him.  I miss him for myself and I miss him on behalf of my children who may never know what it's like to witness the inspired and selfless leadership of an American patriot.  He was a genuinely great man.  He was an evangelist for Conservative ideology and American exceptionalism.  He had an unrepentant love affair going on with Constitutional Republicanism and free market principles.  I could listen to Ronald Reagan speak all day long.  I could hear others speak about him and still be looking for more. 

Here's my problem.  To my way of thinking, it's great if you can sound like Ronald Reagan   The question isn't whether you can repeat his words.   The question is how fluently do these politicians understand what Reagan was saying.  Are they just reading words or have they internalized what the Reagan Revolution meant?  Are they really Tea Party Conservatives or are they the same "go along to get along Republicans" who have enough savvy to rebadge themselves under the Tea Party moniker for political expediency?  You see, I believe that Christine O'Donnell is truly a Conservative.  Even though she lacks the polish of a seasoned political veteran, she speaks Reagan-ese fluently.  When someone asks her a question that is off script from her prepared statement, she doesn't find herself flustered or ill prepared.  It is simply part of who she is.  She doesn't shift her story to be politically expedient.

I'm sure you'll agree.  Four out of five Cranky housewives of Illinois and throughout the nation don't like political expediency.  We're not sending Republicans to Washington or Springfield to "get along."  Our intention is that they will specifically NOT get along.  Loudly.  Whenever possible.  We're not going to take kindly to a clever politician who thinks he's going to jump on the Tea Party Express, whip out a Reagan quote as his ticket to ride, and then hop off when things get a little bumpy.  I beseech this new wave of Republicans to believe me on this.  The Tea Party is not a passing fad.  It's going to be around for a while.  When we say that we are awake, please believe us. We will be paying attention.  We will be taking notes.  We will hold these candidates to their word.  We will vote the weakest candidates off our political island when the next tribal council meets, because we no longer trust anyone with our children's future.  It's nothing personal, but "Conservative" candidates will need to prove themselves.  As long as we are all clear on the rules of battle, then I suppose that we won't have any issues.

REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the people and their elected representatives.

That is why, in this era of official evasion and posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.

This year's election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act "with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right." To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority will immediately pass the following major reforms, aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the American people in their government:

• FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
• SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
• THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
• FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
• FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
• SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
• SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
• EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

Thereafter, within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, we shall bring to the House Floor the following bills, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be immediately available this day for public inspection and scrutiny.

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out- of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses. (Bill Text) (Description)

2. THE TAKING BACK OUR STREETS ACT: An anti-crime package including stronger truth-in- sentencing, "good faith" exclusionary rule exemptions, effective death penalty provisions, and cuts in social spending from this summer's "crime" bill to fund prison construction and additional law enforcement to keep people secure in their neighborhoods and kids safe in their schools. (Bill Text) (Description)

3. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: Discourage illegitimacy and teen pregnancy by prohibiting welfare to minor mothers and denying increased AFDC for additional children while on welfare, cut spending for welfare programs, and enact a tough two-years-and-out provision with work requirements to promote individual responsibility. (Bill Text) (Description)

4. THE FAMILY REINFORCEMENT ACT: Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children's education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society. (Bill Text) (Description)

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A $500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief. (Bill Text) (Description)

6. THE NATIONAL SECURITY RESTORATION ACT: No U.S. troops under U.N. command and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world. (Bill Text) (Description)

7. THE SENIOR CITIZENS FAIRNESS ACT: Raise the Social Security earnings limit which currently forces seniors out of the work force, repeal the 1993 tax hikes on Social Security benefits and provide tax incentives for private long-term care insurance to let Older Americans keep more of what they have earned over the years. (Bill Text) (Description)

8. THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages. (Bill Text) (Description)

9. THE COMMON SENSE LEGAL REFORM ACT: "Loser pays" laws, reasonable limits on punitive damages and reform of product liability laws to stem the endless tide of litigation. (Bill Text) (Description)

10. THE CITIZEN LEGISLATURE ACT: A first-ever vote on term limits to replace career politicians with citizen legislators. (Description)

Further, we will instruct the House Budget Committee to report to the floor and we will work to enact additional budget savings, beyond the budget cuts specifically included in the legislation described above, to ensure that the Federal budget deficit will be less than it would have been without the enactment of these bills.

Respecting the judgment of our fellow citizens as we seek their mandate for reform, we hereby pledge our names to this Contract with America.

To be or not to be - The Erosion of Parental Rights

By the cranky housewife

When I was in second grade, our teacher announced that as a class we were going to create a book called VIP (Very Important People).  In this book there would be a separate page for each student which would be biographical in nature and would include a picture that was drawn by the student to depict the detail of his or her biography.  Each day, a different student would be picked to be the VIP and would be asked a series of questions about his or her life.  “When is your birthday, how many siblings do you have, do you have any pets”… you get the idea.  This all led up to what I considered to be the most exciting question of them all, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  My mind just reeled in anticipation.  I could hardly wait until it was my turn and I could answer the all-important question for the whole world (well, my second grade class was nearly my whole world) to hear.

I waited very patiently… and I had to, because the teacher was very particular about equity.  It was “boy-girl-boy-girl” all the way.  I must have waited a full and most dreadful month, listening to the two alternative answers… “I want to be a teacher!” vs. “I’m going to be a baseball player.”  Very humdrum, I must say.  I was looking for something with a little more razzmatazz.

But then it was my turn.  I wriggled in my seat – I was so excited.  With concerted effort, I remaining composed and justified and answered all the perfunctory questions with poise and dignity.  Birthday?  Check.  Siblings?  Check.  Pets?  Check.  And then my moment was upon me.  My whole state of being hummed with breathless anticipation… “And what would you like to do when you grow up?”

Without skipping a beat, I blurted it out.  “I want to have a baby.”  There was a momentary silence while the class digested that information.  Silence, followed by laughter.  The teacher looked a little frazzled and settled my classmates before turning to me and responding, “But what kind of work will you do?”  Puzzled but defiant (which sums up my entire academic career) I repeated, “I want to have a baby.”  I overheard a girl who sat a row away whisper to her neighbor, “That’s a silly job.”  Again, the class twittered with laughter.  My teacher (She must have been on the verge of an aneurysm - I’m sure her mind was whizzing with what kind of picture I intended to draw as illustration to this little biographical tidbit) answered, “Well, that’s okay too.” And thus my VIP moment ended.  It hadn’t been as much fun as I thought it was going to be.  I now realize that this is because my answer had been wrong. 

I don’t mean wrong in any real biographical sense.  I am doing exactly what I said I was going to do.  I stay at home.   I raise my children.  I am a scourge to the sociological evolution that social planners have in mind for our world and for the universe at large.  When I say that my answer was wrong, I mean that the expectation was that little girls would grow to be good social workers and little boys would grow to be big boys.  I could have said, “I want to work at the DMV” and that would have been a more acceptable answer.  I could have said, “I want to work in a daycare center and change the diapers of other women’s babies who are out being more productive than I will be,” and this would have still fallen into the bell curve of proper responses.  To suggest that I would stay at home and have children and raise them with my own value system was just shy of Progressive blasphemy.  I think this may have been my first inkling that the public school system is dysfunctional.  But to heck with them.  To quote the always irreverent Indigo Girls, “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind.  Got my paper and I was free.”

I hear a lone voice out there whispering, “So, what is your point Madam Housewife?”  Don’t be timid.  Don’t be shy.  Speak right up.  Your question falls into MY bell curve of proper responses.  Or to quote my second grade teacher, “That’s okay too.”

Back in 2005, there was a court case that is referred to as Fields v. Palmdale School District in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that parental rights do “not exist beyond the threshold of the school door.”  More precisely, “We conclude that the parents are possessed of no constitutional authority to prevent the public schools from providing information on the subject [of sexuality] to their students in any forum or manner they select.”

Do you remember the old days when we had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  It seems like a long time ago - before the days when our only right was to be a productive and useful member of society as determined by society for the purpose of moving our species forward to some non-specified evolutionary end for the greater good, and to which the individual and his rights have no relevance or meaning (big gasp for breath inserted here.)  I only vaguely remember those days too, for the response, “Well, that’s okay too” foreshadowed the beginning of State influence upon the American family in a way, which may look like some Huxley-an acid trip…but which is, in fact, our current reality. 

Think back even ten years ago.  Would you have ever thought that there would be a time when there would be a school system created and run with monies that had been extracted from abused taxpayers in order to support areas of studies, which are often not only of little educational value, but offend the very people who are paying for the whole mess…and that a court, which is funded with monies extracted from those same abused taxpayers would rule that the taxpayers have no right to stop the offensive studies and have no right to stop funding the offensive studies…and that they have no right to protect the children that they have born and raised once they have entered the school system, which by law they must hand their children over to.  It’s insane.  For six hours a day and for thirty-six weeks a year, parental rights become subordinated to a system that is intended to teach, but rather undermines parental authority and corrupts children against parental value systems.  When did the saying, “He who pays the piper picks the tune” become “I don’t care if it sucks - You’ll pay for this crud and you’ll like it?”

Do you find this as fascinating as I do?  Please check out Parental-rights.org  and learn more about the erosion of your personal liberties at the hands of corrupt educational and judicial systems.        

The world population demographic is changing.

My favorite Rap Video!

This is my second post in a row about a Great Pyrenees.  Watch this video from The Today Show.

Warning! You'll have to endure a short commercial before the video.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38038060#38038060

Two weeks ago we adopted a four year old Pyrenees mix from an animal rescue organization.  She had been given a name we didn't care for so we named her Libby, short for Liberty.  She's a small dog for a Pyr, only 65 pounds compared to Josie's 125.

Maureen was a little reluctant to go see her because she wanted an even smaller dog, and told me, "If I don't like her, we're not taking her home." But when we got there Libby went to Maureen and would not leave her side. It was love at first meeting for both of them. She's going to be part of the family for a long time.

We took her to the vet and to have her checked out and micro-chipped. She did have heart worms when the rescue organization got her, but was treated for it and is heartworm free now.

Josie is just starting to warm up a little after two weeks.  She's been the only dog since Molly died almost ten years ago and was reluctant to share to share the house with Libby.

Enjoying the backyard grass.
 
 Laying in the driveway.

In the back yard.

That's Josie's ear in the background.

On the porch.

She loves that spot on the landing next to the porch.