Random Thoughts from Me

Some random thoughts from me. Meant to provoke thought, not emotional outbursts. I offer them up and for what it costs you to read, that is what they are worth.
First, I watched the debacle today in the formerly august body of The United States Senate. I was not surprised at the line of questioning by the elite committee holding the hearings on Goldman Sachs. I thought it was a fascinating show on the part of the Democrats considering that almost all of President Obama’s cabinet members are former employees of Goldman Sachs. I am also amused that the Chairman of Goldman Sachs is not only a liberal Democrat, but a personal friend of the Obama’s. No wonder the press has had a heyday with the timing of this committee and its investigation (right when the President wants the Congress to reform and regulate Wall Street). Goldman takes a hit, pays a fine of a few million dollars and is then, somehow, exempted from the new regulations, and makes billions. The old Democrat play book is to divide and conquer and right on cue they try to pit Main Street against Wall Street.

One thing I found interesting was the insistence of the Committee for Goldman Sachs to make public all the internal emails from the company. The courts long ago have determined that emails are protected by free speech and are private. Taking emails and making public only portions of them – taking them out of context – is an old trick used by the Congress politicos of both parties, and the press. I wonder, if the Congress can force Goldman Sachs, a private company, to make public its emails; if we could make all 100 members of the Senate, who are public servants and whose emails belong to We, the People, make public their emails. I would venture they would not because they contain the very same embarrassing type content that is in the Goldman emails.

Secondly, and much shorter. I am aghast at the county I have called home, where I was born and raised; Santa Clara County, California. It seems that the all knowing SCC Commissioners have deemed McDonald’s Happy Meal toys to be fattening and dangerous to our young children. I wasn’t aware that toys contained calories or fat. Now certain meals containing more than a specified number of fat grams and calories cannot be served with toys (fries yes, plastic, no). The Nanny Statists feel that children are eating the fatty meals to get the toys, and that by eliminating the toys; children would not eat those meals and get fat.

May I suggest something else? As little as a generation ago, when my children were young, they were outside playing football, basketball, tag, or any number of activities that involved lots of running and jumping. We didn’t have the obesity problems in children then as much as we do today. Now if I ask my grandchildren if they want to play football, they do --- on X-Box or PS3. If we want to get our kids back in good health, banning a cheap toy from a Happy Meal won’t do it. How about parents being parents and turning off the X-Boxes, hand held games, and texting telephones, and doing what my mother did –running them outside and having them play hard. Turn off the games and soon they would be tossing the football. Would it really work? I say, why not give it a try.