Author Archives: Tom Balek

Good Times in Canada, Eh?

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We just returned from a fantastic football weekend in Canada.

Yes, they do play football in Canada, and for football junkies like my son and I, it’s a great excuse for a summer road trip.  The Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the BC Lions 23 – 20, and the big play was a missed field goal attempt that was run back 129 yards for a touchdown!  Now that’s something you don’t see in the NFL!

Aside from getting our summer football fix, the thing we enjoy most on our northern excursions is our Canuck friends.  They always make us feel welcome, show us a good time, and are as curious about our everyday lives as we are about theirs.

I was delighted to learn that the economy is great in Saskatchewan.  The mean family income is now $73,000, second among the provinces to Alberta.   New shops and restaurants are popping up all over, and business is brisk.  New football stadiums are planned around the country, including Regina. The streets are filled with shiny new cars and trucks, and pockets jingle with loonies and toonies (one- and two-dollar coins).

On the other hand, my Canadian friends worry about public services.  The health care system is a mess.  The average wait time to even see a specialist is now ten weeks, and the six-month wait time after that for routine surgical procedures forces many patients to spend their hard-earned Canadian money at hospitals south of the border.  They view their health care as “free” but when pressed, they admit that they don’t always get the best value for their tax dollars.  It is a sneak preview of ObamaCare.

For all Saskatchewan’s apparent wealth, we couldn’t help but notice the shabby condition of their highways and other infrastructure.  They definitely have some “shovel-ready” jobs.  It seems that Canada has the same problem we have in the US – things left up to the free enterprise system seem to work out just fine, but anything filtered through the mud-bog of government slows to a crawl.

One of my Canadian friends was fascinated to learn that I own guns, and usually keep one close by for personal and family protection, thanks to our second amendment and my Montana concealed carry permit.  “We can’t even buy a bullet, eh?” he lamented.  “Only the bad guys have guns here.”

I didn’t run into any bad guys.  Just a bunch of good guys who love their country, Riders Football, and Canadian beer.  (PS –  no US flags anywhere – no Star Spangled Banner at the game either!  See my blog about that)

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Green is the Colour.
Football is the Game.
We’re all together
and Winning is our aim!

Green Is The Colour – Saskatchewan Roughriders

Hey Barack – Send Your Poor Brother George a Check

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My wife (that lovely, delicate, sensitive little flower) often exclaims (rather loudly) to any liberal who feels the government does not do enough for their parents/siblings/children or somebody else’s parents/siblings/children, “If you don’t care enough about your family to take care of them, why should I?”

She has a point.  Take our president, for example.  His aunt, Zeituni Onyango, lives in Boston in subsidized housing, on disability payments.  For years she was on the public dole as an illegal alien, but eventually she and her taxpayer-funded attorney got a “waiver” to avoid her deportation to her home country, Kenya.  So she is no longer technically “illegal.”

Um, Mr. Obama, if you don’t care enough about your aunt to slip her a check once in a while, why should the taxpayers take care of her?

The latest Obama relative in the spotlight is his brother George.  It seems George, who lives in Kenya on a few bucks a day, doesn’t hear much from his big brother, Barack, these days.  “He’s got other issues to deal with,” George says.

For someone so insistent on “sharing the wealth”, and someone who continues to amass personal wealth, our president appears kind of, well . . .  niggardly (please look it up before you call me a racist).

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I pay my money to the welfare line –
I see you standin’ in it EVERY TIME!

Why Can’t We Be Friends – War

Sen. Max Baucus Payback to Big Tobacco Donors – Kill Small Businesses

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The “pay for play” culture of corrupt cronyism is alive and well in Washington, DC.

Sen. Max Baucus, (D) Montana

Senator Max Baucus, (D) Montana, has just taken out an entire industry, its small business owners, and their employees with the stroke of a pen.  By hiding a small amendment in the transportation bill that passed last week, Baucus ensured that every small “roll your own” tobacco company in the US will go “up in smoke”.

The roll-your-own cigarette companies sell papers and loose tobacco through retail outlets and vending machines.  The market advantage of roll-your-own cigarettes is lower price and the pureness of the tobacco – the RYO companies do not add chemicals to the product like the big guys do.

Before Baucus’ amendment, the loose tobacco companies were exempt from the big sin taxes which afflict the finished cigarette manufacturers.  His amendment eliminates this exemption, and the crushing cost of these taxes will snuff out the small companies, according to Robert Weissen, owner of nine Sin City Cigarette Factory outlets in Las Vegas.

These entrepreneurs are just trying to make an honest buck and are barely a blip on the big tobacco radar.  The additional tax revenue will certainly not make a dent in the $16 trillion debt Baucus has helped create.  Montana does not have any roll-your-own companies.  So why does Baucus care about this tiny band of entrepreneurs?  Well, among Baucus’ campaign contributors is Altria, aka Phillip Morris.  Connect the dots.

Baucus has become the prototypical corrupt, sold-out, big-money, big-government, purely partisan, inside-the-beltway, showing-off-his-new-girlfriend cartoon character at its worst.  He embodies everything a thinking citizen should abhor.  Max does NOT represent Montana and seldom even SEES our beautiful state or its people.  He has become an embarrassment to the citizens of the Big Sky state.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I got one hand in my pocket –
And the other one is flickin’ a cigarette

Alanis Morissette – Hand In My Pocket

The Government Sucks – So We, the People, Have to Step Up

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Today’s bad news: our economy added only 80,000 jobs in June – while another 85,000 workers dropped out of the labor force to join the ranks of the disabled.  As fewer people can find or keep jobs, our federal government continues to take former workers onto the “dole” to artificially hide the true unemployment rate.

Our President’s reaction?  “It’s still Bush’s fault”, and “We need more government union workers who will vote for me (teachers and firemen)”, and “Things are not all that bad”, and “There are no quick fixes”.  Not exactly inspirational, is it?

By the way, when did you agree to have your federal tax dollars spent on more firemen for the city of El Paso?

And when did your local school board decide that your federal tax dollars should pay for “hundreds of thousands more teachers”?

Punch after punch, the federal assault on citizens continues.  It’s enough to drive one to depression or drink, or both.  Unless . . .

Unless we conservatives can make ourselves so strong individually and collectively that we can fight and win the daily battles in our city, state and federal government offices – and strong enough to educate and convince our misguided or disengaged brethren to vote correctly this fall.

When times are tough I take comfort in something I learned a long time ago, when I joined a bunch of young friends in a civic group called Optimists, Intl.   Even the first line is enough to bring you out of your funk:  “Promise yourself to be so strong . . . ”

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself …
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Sounds kind of “Reagan-esque”, doesn’t it?

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

Give me a job, give me security
Give me a chance to survive
I’m just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God, I’m hardly alive

“Blue Collar Man” – Styx

The Insults That Triggered our Declaration of Independence Are Here Again

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On July 4, 1776, representatives of the States (not the nation) declared their Declaration of Independenceindependence from King George and Great Britain.  The document they presented to the world included a list of grievances against the King that justified their bold action.

There are grand passages from the Declaration that are widely quoted and remembered.  But the part that interests me today is the list of grievances.  These guys were really ticked off, and with good reason.  It surprises me how many of these “repeated injuries and usurpations” against the States exist today.

“Let Facts be submitted to a candid world”, they began.  Each complaint in the list begins with “He . . .”, referring to King George.  I can’t help making a mental substitution.

  • “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome necessary for the public good.”  (We now have an administration that has stated it will choose which laws it wishes to enforce.)
  • “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” (Over-reach and bloated, uncontrolled growth by the EPA, the BLM, HUD, Fanny/Freddy, Education, Labor, Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Health and Welfare,  all of the “czars” – where do I stop?)
  • “He has combined with others . . . giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation for imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”  ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg.

Fortunately, we can redress our grievances today without the bloodshed our forefathers bravely endured.  We can again declare our independence by voting this fall to end the creeping tyranny that, left unchallenged, would destroy the freedoms our States have enjoyed for 236 years.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

“Somebody Get Me A Cheeseburger!” – Steve Miller, ‘Livin’ In the USA‘

They Don’t Talk about “The Children” Any More

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Remember when the favorite justification for every liberal idea was “the children”?  We would hear countless public service announcements on radio and TV, extolling the virtues of this government program or that, in the ubiquitous deep, oh-so-sensitive PBS voice – stretching out that first syllable – “the CHILLLLLdren.”  It didn’t matter if the latest big-government program had anything to do with children – it could be providing free socks for desert toads –  you could still count on hearing that it must be done for “the CHILLLLLdren.”

Something changed.  In recent years you seldom hear “the children” invoked by the left.  Could it be because any rational person knows that a 16 trillion dollar debt is really not so good for the children?

I became a grandpa when my twins grandbabies were born a couple of years ago.  And, while I have known for some time that we are screwing things up pretty royally for future generations, it really hit home when I realized that one of those future generations includes my own precious twins.  Now I see everything in a broader context.  It makes political activism real for me. I feel compelled to do whatever I can for the future of my grandkids.

If you are still reading at this point, you should meet Lydia, the apple of Grandpa’s eye!  I write and record songs for the kids, and here’s one I did for her – along with a video.  By the way, if you remember “the Jetsons”, chances are you have grandkids to worry about too.  We can’t let them down.  Here she is!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On The Right Side

I Wanna Dance With Lydia! – Tom Balek

I Pledge Allegiance – to the Maple Leaf?

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Saskatchewan RoughridersMy son and I are big CFL (Canadian Football League) fans.  We make the long drive from our Montana home to Regina, SK for a game every summer, and listen to our beloved Roughriders on the web.

The Rider fans are amazing – they paint the town green for every home game.  They yell and scream and guzzle Molson Canadian beer, and wear watermelons on their heads.  It’s about as fun a football atmosphere as you could want (well, except for the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium).  And the Canadian rules make for a fast and furious game of football (“He’s at the fifty!  the fifty-five!  and down at the 53-yard line!”)

But that’s not what this blog is aboot (Canadian for “about”), eh?

Whenever we attend a Canadian football game, or listen on the internet, I can’t help but notice that they always play O Canada, the Canadian national anthem, but then never play the Star Spangled Banner.   Never.  The same is true at a Canadian hockey game, baseball game, or any other public event.  They never recognize the US.

By rule, 19 of the 42 players on any CFL team are from the United States.  Obviously, there are not that many good Canadian native football players.  The best players are all from the US, as are the coaches.  Canadians love their football, but it is an American game.  Still, there is never any recognition of the United States at any CFL game.  No flag.  No national anthem. Nothing.  It’s all about Canada.

Now, I don’t have a problem with this.  Really.  It’s their country, it’s their league, they are very patriotic about it, and more power to them.  The Canadian fans welcome my son and I as a curiosity, and frankly as “football experts from the States, eh?”  Our celebrity status is very cool, just like that great Canadian beer.

What I don’t understand is this:  last weekend my band played music for three nights at the fantastic rodeo weekend in Augusta, MT, and we enjoyed watching the rodeo on Sunday.  In addition to the athletic prowess and the terrific Western atmosphere, there was a lot of pageantry and patriotism.  As far as I know, there were no Canadian participants in the event.  There may have been a couple of Canadian spectators.  Still, the rodeo officials made a big deal of riding the Canadian maple leaf flag around the arena, and playing O Canada before our national anthem.

Why?

Even stranger than that, about HALF of the spectators stood there with hands over their hearts for the Canadian anthem!  Like they were pledging allegiance to Canada!

Why?

Here in Lewistown we have local drag races on summer weekends.  What a great American event!  Vintage American Chevies and Fords,  classic Beach Boys music – it just doesn’t get better.  So why the heck do we have to listen to O Canada before our own precious Star Spangled Banner?  I mean, I like Bachman Turner Overdrive as well as the next guy, but hey!  This is American Drag Racing!

I don’t think the Canucks need to pay homage to the US at their events.  But I also don’t think “O Canada” is required at ours.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

American Woman, Stay Away from Me! – the Guess Who

The Rattle of Jerking Knees

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Hear that noise?  It’s the sound of knees jerking all over the place from the news that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

I have to admit, I was puzzled too when Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts sided with the transparently liberal judges on this one.  I kept thinking, “there has to be more to this than meets the eye.”  The reaction by many conservative pundits was to lament that Roberts caved in to the evil liberals, for any number of purported reasons.  My knee started to twitch, but failed to fully jerk.

First of all, we want our judges and justices to be apolitical, so don’t go there.  Second, there has never been any indication that Justice Roberts is wishy-washy on the Constitution.  And third, back in 2009 when President Obama was vehemently denying that his “mandate” penalty was not a tax, I was thinking, “Of course it’s a tax.  When you have to pay money to the IRS, for whatever purpose, it sure smells like a tax to me.”

Now that the smoke has cleared the battlefield, we can assess the extent of the damage.  Or of victory.  And I am leaning in the direction of the latter.  By ruling that the ObamaCare mandate is a tax, Chief Justice Roberts took the whole “Commerce Clause” justification off the table.  I was seriously concerned that a constitutional victory for the mandate could open the Pandora’s Box, allowing the government the tool to force citizens into anything.   This would have set a dangerous precedent in Constitutional interpretation, but Roberts threw an extra padlock on the box.

Uncle SamThe proponents of the Act act one time publicly insisted that the mandate is not a tax.  Then the solicitor general insisted to the Supreme Court that it is, in fact, a tax.  No one can know exactly what Roberts’ motivations were, but the result is the same.  By labeling the mandate a tax, Roberts ensured that President Obama is the proud owner of an enormous tax increase, a deceptive one at that, and this will likely cost him a second term.  The frosting on that cake is the fact that tax laws are easily repealed, requiring only 51 votes in the Senate, so ObamaCare will likely be tossed to the ash-heap of history anyway.

An excellent analysis was made by Timothy Dalrymple – he pulled together a number of “silver linings” for conservatives in the wake of the SCOTUS decision.

Still, knee-jerk exercises are in order for conservatives.  We need to be in shape for some serious butt-kicking this fall.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.
TAX MAN – the Beatles

Let’s Just Ignore That Law

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I’ve heard it said that the United States is “a nation of laws.”  I’m not aware of any recent re-write of the Constitution, but last week it seems something changed.

Oh, the laws are still there, but our current president and attorney general have decided that they don’t feel our law officials need to enforce some of them.  For instance, they say that as many as 800,000 illegal immigrants will not be deported “as long as they aren’t doing something ‘illegal’.”  You can’t make this stuff up.

White House advisor David Ploufe insisted on TV that it’s not a political move intended to pander to Hispanic voters.  I’m sure the thought of trading amnesty for votes never crossed their minds.

My lovely bride had a great idea.  She said, “Why don’t we decide to not enforce the capital gains tax?”

That got me thinking.  There are a lot of laws that might be best forgotten.  I’ll bet the rancher who lost 58 of his sheep to a single grizzly bear last week near Conrad, Montana would like to say, “Oh sorry – heh, heh – I thought I could just ignore that little rule about shooting grizzlies.  My bad!”

MUS - Mexico Borderaybe next time I’m in that long line at the airport waiting to get groped by the TSA guy, I might just jump right over their little retaining rope, bypass the whole security checkpoint, and have time to grab a tasty Cinnabon roll  before my flight.  I say the groping laws should only be applied to nervous-looking bearded guys in turbans praying in Arabic, anyway.

But I suppose I am just dreaming.  Ordinary citizens don’t get to choose which rules they want to have enforced, at least not in our “nation of laws”.  Only a dictator could get away with something like that.

 

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

“I Fought the Law, and the Law Won” – Bobby Fuller Four

 

“First Class” Travel? Or “Government Class?”

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Just a few random ideas for cutting government spending . . .Image

  • Require all government employees to travel in coach with the rest of us.  There was an effort to clamp down on first-class and business-class travel by government employees several years ago, but it appears that this perk has quietly become acceptable again.  Next time you are herded with the other cattle back into those crowded coach seats, take a good look as you walk through the comfy first-class cabin.  There’s a good chance most of these passengers are there on the taxpayer’s dime.
  • Take a good look at the use of expensive “smart phones” by government employees.  Most government employees would be adequately served by inexpensive “dumb” cell phones, and in fact most employees already have, or would purchase, their own cell phones.  I’ll bet the cost of this item, including air time for web surfing, is shocking.
  • Stop paying government employees for all of their accumulated “sick pay” when they retire.  You should get sick pay when you are sick.  That’s why they call it “sick pay!”  Or maybe take sick pay out of the employee’s retirement account.  Some government employees receive six figure checks for accumulated sick pay at retirement in addition to a fat guaranteed pension plan.

This is just a start. The notion that government costs can not be reduced is ridiculous – give me a room full of retired, miserly old accountants and we could cut the budget by a third in no time, without reducing services.  And for crying out loud, could we please at least pass a budget?