Commentary on the issues of the day...

Shooting at Northern Illinois University – May the good Lord comfort the hearts and minds of the friends and families of the victims. With yet another college shooting, why are so many lawmakers considering banning concealed weapons on the campuses? That whole situation could have been different if a few students that were trained and licensed had had a gun on them. With the way the world seems to be going crazy, having some sane armed people will be necessary for our own self defense.

Navy to blow up satellite falling out of orbit – How cool is that! I sure hope they get a video of it.

The Idaho legislature has a bill before them expanding government subsidized day-care all in the name of pre-school with the intent of giving Idaho students a better start on their education. Even one of my personal heroes, Stan Bastian is a sponsor of this bill, that I don’t agree with. Government should be working to re-institute the role of parents rather than encouraging parents in this system of subsidized-selfishness. This is a sensitive topic in my own home as my wife does not feel equipped to provide our children pre-school level education. Its an issue that I have a lot of internal struggle with, but of this I am sure…kids that are loved and played with by both a father and mother who love each other will enter kindergarten with much more emotional intelligence than children raised in kid farms (daycare centers).

Mitt Romney endorses John McCain – For the Republican party, this was the right thing for Romney to do. I wonder what all the people that have sworn not to vote for McCain will do now. Are you still going to write in Romney’s name?! I’m voting for McCain because he most closely represents my principles of government, but I’m still a little bit sick about it.

I was attempting to write a blog critiquing Obama’s platform. I found it very difficult to do. Not because I agree with what he is saying, but rather because what he is saying could be said by any candidate of any party. He points out a problem and says he’s gonna fix it. He doesn’t say how he’s going to do it. It’s like trying to nail jello to the table. In general, he is all about the government taking care of every social ill…which leads me to my thought for the day…

True statesmen don’t legislate, they motivate.

Public servants should be able to identify the problems with our society, but the solution is not to create government subsidized programs which raise our taxes. A true statesman would use his influence to motivate the community of families and businesses to create their own program and fund their own solutions. I trust that people are really generous with their time and money and would be even more so if the government wasn’t plundering their pocket books.

Finally, our general manager reported a comment made by a county planning and zoning official that really got me heated up this morning. This P&Z guy stated that it was his job to “squeeze all they could out of the developers”. Thankfully, other members of the board disagreed and reminded him that it is their job to make sure that the policies are complied with and that the best interests of the citizens are met. This guy’s random statement seems to be the unspoken prevailing attitude of local leadership. Municipalities and counties seem to have a sense of entitlement that the big evil developers should have to pay more than their fair share of growth. As an employee of a developer, it is my opinion that developers should pay a just and fair share of the impact they have on the community. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has done economic studies that show that homebuilding pays for itself in both economic growth and in tax base increases within an eight year period. The needs for emergency response, police services, libraries, etc. will all pay for themselves, but you cannot realistically expect those services to be in place at the commencement of a new master planned community. When developers donate land for schools and fire stations, the community (especially politicians) should be profoundly grateful for such a generous contribution rather than those things being an expected entitlement.