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Friday 5 for May 29: Longs and Shorts

Friday 5: Lessons Learned

CUT SPENDING CUT SPENDING CUT SPENDING

From the Friday5.org website comes today’s 5 questions under the title “Lessons”. I’m posting this here as well as on my Tumblr Blog where the Friday 5 responses are supposed to be posted. But since these questions may also have some political implications, the answers are also posted here.

The Friday 5 for May 22, 2009:

1. What kind of out-of-school lessons did you take as a kid?

I went to Summer Fun and Summer School for a few years which taught us some lessons beyond the scope of regular school. In Summer Fun we went hiking and learned about the environment; played a few sports to learn about physical fitness and we even had wood shop classes where I actually made small wood items that my Mom keeps to this very day. That was fun and I learned how to use some hand tools like the jigsaw and hammer. One year, the Peace Corps came over and taught us during a few weeks of summer school. It was mostly catching up with basic concepts of math, reading and social studies.

2. What valuable lesson did you learn this past week?

Not exactly a lesson, but something I’d like to pass along to the readers. Despite your testimony at the city council or legislature against something at both the city and state government levels, when politicians in Hawaii make up their minds, they generally don’t listen or care about peoples’ testimonies, no matter how great the number are in opposition to something like raising the gasoline or other taxes. If you go to a public hearing, you may get tons of people speaking up in opposition to something yet the legislative body still votes in the opposite direction from what most of the testifiers say. Also even if we have something set down in state law like a ban on same sex marriage, we have snakes in the legislature who want to go around the law and grant civil unions to gays despite how the majority of people voted for on the issue years ago. Same in California… the people voted against tax increases and now the state government there wants to convene a constitutional convention to take away the peoples’ rights to the initiative process.

3. Who in your life really needs to be taught a lesson?

Politicians (Democrats) who go against the will of the people. The best lesson they can be taught is to simply vote them out of office at the next election cycle. Sadly many people have memories that are way too short and end up voting nearly the same tired bunch of liberals (Democrats) back into office every election. Hopefully the voters can remember the pain the politicians dragged us through this year with the passing of higher taxes and putting the civil unions proposal back on the front burner and threatening traditional marriage.

4. What kinds of lessons would you love to have a private teacher for right now?

I need lessons on how to install my own WordPress blog at my own domains.

5. What steps have you taken to lessen the impact of these rough economic times?

Unlike the government I and most people have learned how to cope with the tough economic times by cutting spending. Sadly we have to cut more of our personal spending because big mean government want to take more of our money away through higher taxes on the county, state and federal levels. Raising taxes during a downturn in the economy is not the way to help the people and stimulate the economy.

Sadly cutting spending and cutting unneeded government programs is something our state, counties and the fed have not done enough of during these tough economic times. For example, why do the state and feds continue to fund programs that support the arts? The arts are something that is “nice to have” but certainly not a necessary service when compared to things such as police and fire protection, national defense and maintaining our transportation infrastructure. Government has not learned how cut gigantic, expensive capitol projects that only benefit a small slice of the population like fixed rail.

It is an injustice to everyone that government does not make deeper cuts in these tough economic times. All of the fiscally responsible people and businesses have long ago made cuts and adjustments to the tough economic times. Cutting spending, reducing debt and even getting rid of personnel are things business and individuals continue to do. Government can and should learn more from the people by simply listening and following our example.

Friday 5's Game Answers

I am not much of a gamer but here are my answers to this week’s Friday 5.

1. What’s your favorite card game?

Solitare on my computer… yes it is a card game but doesn’t use real cards. Real cards get lost, it’s fairly difficult to lose a computer.

2. What’s your favorite roll-the-dice-and-move game?

Isn’t Monopoly a roll the dice game? If it is than that’s it for me. Also SORRY… But then life is the biggest roll of the dice, especially with the high taxes and cost of living in Hawaii.

3. What’s your favorite playground game?

Last time I played was very long ago… maybe kick ball.

4. What’s your favorite party game?

I rarely go to parties and don’t do party games.

5. What’s your favorite computer game?

Sim City Classic, Sim City 2000, Tetris, Crystal Quest. - oldies that I play on one of my older Macs.

You should have asked about Favorite Board game because my favorites are

1. Stratego

2. Checkers

3. Chess (I’m not good at it)

4. Candy Land (a fun one as a kid)

5. Monopoly (mentioned above)

THE FRIDAY 5

Mel's Friday 5 for May 1, 2009

Starting this month my responses to the weekly Friday 5 will be posted to this blog instead of my other blog.

Here are my answers to this week’s questions.

1. On May First, 1738, King Kamehameha I was born. What are your impressions of Hawaii?

Just off the cuff and since I live in Hawaii, my quick and dirty impressions of the islands are:

• EXPENSIVE - This state has the highest cost of living and one of the highest and worst tax structures in the entire U.S.A. It is getting worse with the downturn of the economy and more taxes being proposed by state and city government. It is time to CUT TAXES.
• HIGH TAXES - Did I say we have are one of the highest taxed states in the U.S.A.?
• GOOD WEATHER - OK, the huge advantage of living in Hawaii is that the weather is mostly pleasant and sunny year round.
• BEAUTIFUL PLACE - For the most part, Hawaii is a beautiful place to live and or visit. Of course for every beautiful sunset and surf spot I can find, there is always the opposite… ugliness… skid rows, garbage dumps, etc. They’re in Hawaii too.

2. On May First, 1873, Dr. David Livingstone died. When did you last presume something erroneous about someone or something?

Nothing comes to mind at this moment. I am usually always right in my beliefts.

3. On May First, 1876, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro debuted. How do you feel about Disney’s animated classic Pinocchio?

It’s been ages since I saw that movie… last time I think I was a kid. All I remember was that it was colorful, Pinnochio was swallowed by the whale, and that he did become a real boy at the end. Such is the fantasy of Disney movie making. It’s a classic and a good movie.

4. May First is Walpurgis Night in Sweden and other parts of northern Europe. When did you last sing in front of an audience?

Never. The closest I got to that was be a DJ several times and played someone else’s music on a turntable for an audience.

5. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are a punk rock cover band. What song’s cover version do you like better than its original version?

Now that’s a difficult question to answer… I think I would have a few… First almost no covers of Beatles songs are better than the original. However one of the cover versions of a John Lennon song that I like way better than the original is a track called “One Day At A Time”. Lennon recorded it for the Mind Games album in 1973. Elton John covered the song and released it as the B-side to his #1 cover version of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” “One Day at a Time” hardly got any airplay or even recognition in both versions, but I like them both, Elton’s better for the production values and instrumentation. And his vocals are better than John’s for this song. BTW, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” is the only Beatles song covered by someone else to ever make it to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Elton took that to the top in early 1975. Elton’s cover of “One Day at a Time” can be found on his boxed set To Be Continued and re-released versions of Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy.