Finished goal of running the distance of 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C and back!!!...plus 339.1 miles


0.0 miles run this week.
Daily running average for the week is 0.00 miles per day.
Total amount run in the past 800 days is 2,419.1 miles.
Daily running average overall is 3.02 miles per day.

Day582 Monday 04/02/12

ran 3.3 miles
“You know, each of us is only here because somebody somewhere felt responsibility, yes to their families, but also to their fellow citizens.  Also to our country’s future.  That’s the American story.  The American story is not just about what we do on our own.  Yes, we’re rugged individualists, we expect personal responsibility and everybody out there has got to work hard and carry their weight…

…We also have always understood that we wouldn’t win the race for new jobs and businesses, and middle class security if we were just applying some ‘you’re on your own economics’…

…It’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the decade before the Great Depression.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the last decade.  We just tried this.  What they’re peddling has been tried---it did not work!”

Barack Obama speaking at a fundraiser at the University of Vermont

It’s no longer disappointing to hear such Communist rhetoric from our president compared to the disappointment that nearly half this country actually accepts and wants to adopt these ideas, which have been proven to fail over and over again in other countries across the world and throughout time. 

Whether you start with Karl Marx and the “Communist Manifesto” or dig deeper into history, big government and its appetite for unlimited power have been suffocating freedom, individuality, and everything that has defined America for nearly two and one-half centuries.

I am making the exact opposite and equal argument our president is making.  Essentially, he claims America is a failed system and that we, as a nation, need to purge our “rugged individualism” and live collectively.  We all need to pull our own weight, but no need to pull too much weight at once. 

“Look around,” he might say.  “No one else is working nearly as hard as you.  Ignore your determination.  Let your goals go.  There is no need to work this hard.  You are making the others uncomfortable.  With everyone united together and pulling their own weight, it is not necessary for you to work harder than others.  There is no real reason for you to be competitive with others.  In fact, if you don’t slow down and quit being so selfish with your talents and your perseverance I may be forced to have you psychologically examined to determine your defect.”

This is the direction we are heading in.

“You’re On Your Own Economics”---Our president says it’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked.  Did he grow up in this country?  Is he aware of our story? 

(rhetorical questions, of course---I am beyond the “birther” stuff---I don’t care whether Barack Obama was born in America or Timbuktu and his intentions for the future of America speak for themselves---there is plenty of material to make arguments against him regardless of what hospital he was born in)

America has faced some of the greatest adversities on the face of this Earth and we are here today because we are fiercely competitive and we refuse to lose.  We pay taxes to fund everything from the title of the most powerful military on the face of the planet to generously aiding those who are in hard times, and even those who, for whatever reason, absolutely refuse to contribute to society in any way.  Our tax dollars offer a teat for anyone’s sustenance, but the responsibility lies in each individual to release their lips from government codependence when the time is right.  Comparatively, a baby is weaned from its mother’s breast within a year, maybe two, on average.  Why is it that adult-aged men and women, like children who have been fooled by the teat that feeds them for far too long, continue to suck, and suck, and suck.  They are being denied the opportunity to adapt in the real world and to embrace and act upon whatever goals and dreams they may have. 

This is, in my opinion, the self-destructive societal direction President Barack Obama is steering America in.  His ideas grow more optimal with every individual who gives up and sells themselves to the notion that they are entitled to the rewards of other people’s hard work rather than earning the dignity they deserve, but policies like Obama’s discourage.

One last, separate issue to touch on---our president declared today that the Supreme Court could not legally overturn ObamaCare because he’s “confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
It was not a strong majority, Mr. President.  However, there is a strong majority of Americans who want the law repealed.  And why all of a sudden is Congress so important?  According to our president, Congress no longer has the right to vote on war acts.  American military involvement now passes through United Nations.  Check your premise, Mr. Obama.  You cannot pick and choose principles only when they are convenient for you.

287.6 miles to go.

Here is what happened one year ago on Day217.