Fiscal Cliff Madness

This whole "fiscal cliff" thing is really bothering me.  There have been no actual solutions to the problem offered by either side.  Most people understand that I am a conservative and have no problem defending smaller government and more personal responsibility, so to my more liberal leaning brothers and sisters - what is your plan? 

Is it making things so "fair" and "equal" that no one in this country seeks to be unique, creative, entrepreneurial, and wanting a "good" life for themselves?  Why is there a distinction made between rich people who make their money my creating companies and jobs and rich people who make their money by playing sports or acting or just plain being stupid?  Why again do you listen to the latter and their thoughts on how you should live your life when the majority of the former just want to be left alone and support the rights of everyone to do their own thing as well?

Is life fair?  No.  Should part of government's role be to make the playing field as accessible and fair as they can?  You bet.  Should government then manipulate the game to punish the hard work of those who are successful following said rules and give more of the results of that success back to people who don't put in as much effort under the banner of "fairness" and "equality"?  I personally do not think so.

Let's let facts be the facts and make the truly hard decisions, popular or not, to get this country financially solvent again and back to a place where, popular or not, America is respected.

FACT: "Rich" people (small and large business owners, top athletes, Hollywood "elites", and heirs to fortunes) fund most of the federal government's income in terms of income tax.

FACT: Most of the spending outside of entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, welfare programs, etc.) are almost completely funded by other federal tax sources (gas tax, capital gains tax, corporate taxes, cigarette tax, etc.).

FACT: Even taking all of the "1%'er's" monies would only fund our government's out of control spending for about a week

Here's my common sense approach to getting this thing under control and something my wife and I have done recently with pretty good success in finally being in control of our money:

STOP SPENDING MORE MONEY THAN YOU EARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAVE AN ACTUAL WRITTEN BUDGET AND STICK TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DON'T BORROW MONEY TO BUY THINGS YOU DON'T NEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a big one:

STOP COVETING WHAT OTHERS HAVE AND CONCENTRATE ON THE BLESSINGS YOU DO HAVE AND WORK HARDER TO POSSIBLY GET SOME OF THE LUXURIES YOU MIGHT DESIRE. 

Less government and more "us".  Shouldn't that sound good for everybody?

To my friends both conservative and liberal - please respond (civilly of course) with your ideas on how to solve this issue.  Let's solve this together, remove the politics, and get this crisis licked with good 'ol American know-how.

Thanks for listening.

Pray, Vote, Pray

Posted this on Facebook last night . . .

"Our country is heavy on my heart tonight. While I whole-heartedly profess and confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior and do not call the earth or the USA my "true" home (can't wait for heaven!), I am so thankful for being an American and truly believe this is a special place and ALL of us who live here should want it that way. Why settle for being like everyone else when we should be striving for re

al greatness, the kind that is humble, yet strong, a beacon of hope and goodness in this pluralistic and self-serving world, and a destination for those who want the freedom to use their God-given talents to create great things, inspire others to do what is right, and live lives bent on serving and loving others before oneself. The ideals of our government, as written by our founding fathers, as imperfect a people then as we are now, and the freedoms and liberty they allow and protect, should drive this country, NOT a government bureaucracy that enslaves the people it tells it is doing them a favor. I share in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of a country where we are FINALLY judged NOT by the color of our skin or our gender, or our age, but BY THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER.

Vote for America tomorrow if you have not already. This for me means I voted for Mitt Romney. But regardless of the outcome of the election tomorrow, it is really up to US, the people of this special place, to take some ownership of the mess we are in, love one another no matter shared beliefs, put on our working boots, and actually BE the America we want to be. Good night, and I humbly pray for God to continue His blessing on us."

 

 

Becoming an IT Guru and a Dad too :)

I'm really on a roll with blog posting lately :) 

Lots of changes happening in the Page household recently.  First, I finished my first big IT certification process last month and am now an A+ Certified IT Technician!  This is a very broad knowledge base certification with testing on everything from laser printers to basic networking and operating system maintenance.  It's a great primer into the IT industry as a whole and a good starting point to grow in my IT knowledge.  Next up, Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certification - hopefully by the end of the year.

What's next . . . pushing through my penultimate semester at Denver Seminary with both of my classes focusing on leadership.  Love the interaction in both classes thus far and am eagerly awaiting next semester when I will FINALLY (after 7 years and a degree change) be graduating!  I am extremely excited for what the future holds in my life as a leader, a teacher of leaders, and, most importantly, as a FOLLOWER of Christ.

One more thing . . . I'M A DADDY!  My wife and I are the proud and humble parents of one Abigail Claire Page, born September 22, 2012.  She is a beautiful little girl and truly a miracle here on earth.  Excited, a bit scared, but eager to raise her up the ways of the Lord and want to enjoy as many moments of her growth and life as we possibly can.

Working on the Sabbath . . .

I'm at City Hall on a Sunday evening . . . working.  Why?  Because someone new is starting tomorrow and I'm in charge of having their technology ready.  There are plenty of reasons why I shouldn't be here doing this - I received the set-up form on Friday, I'm not supposed to be working on weekends, etc.  But the reality is, someone new to the City of Greenwood Village is starting a new position and possibly a new career tomorrow and I want to do my part to make it a welcoming and successful first day at work.  That's what I do :)

ITIL Foundations Certified!

What a week . . .

Just spent the last few days learning the basics of ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library.  Sounds exciting, no?  While the class wasn't earth shattering, many of the concepts made complete sense in blending the IT world with the business world through the use of best practices and a clearly defined set of processes to bring value to an organization or business through the use of technology.

There were many takeaways in terms of leadership within this training.  One concept which stuck out in my mind was the relationship between responsibility and accountability.  There can be one person or many people responsible for completing a task, but only one person is accountable for it's completion.  Being a leader means accountability.  The buck stops with you in good or bad and you get to receive either the praise or the condemnation if a project is either a success or an utter failure.  Being a leader means being able to handle both sides of this particular coin after it has been flipped.

What does being responsible vs. being accountable mean to you?

Thought for the day....

I was pondering in the shower this morning about my pursuit of leadership, leadership knowledge, and what it means to be a leader.  Most people, especially in the corporate world, seek a leadership position to feel that he or she is finally a leader.  Then it dawned on me.  This is such a simple concept, but I think most of us blow right over this simple fact: leadership is a quality, not a position or title.  Be a leader wherever life has you.  Serve others, lead well, and the leadership "titles" will certainly follow.  


We've been going through the Beatitudes in church the past several weeks and Jesus' sermon on  the mount is so many things, including an upside down view on leadership (at least our modern views on leadership).  "Be humble," "Hunger and thirst for righteousness," "Be pure in heart," "Be a peacemaker."  Not things you find in too many tomes on leadership in the 21st century!  

Agreement w/ Chris

As my worship leader and friend has mentioned in his blog (see my blog links), our worship rehearsal went really well last night. I readily admit I LOVE playing bass! Something about driving the band harmonically and rhythmically and rounding out its sound is pretty darn awesome! On the other end of that scale is my proficiency at playing acoustic guitar . . . terrible. I just had my first "official" lesson with Chris and I've got a lot of work to do! Its so much different than playing bass, my fingers keep touching multiple strings and making horrible buzzing and muted tones, and having all of this musical knowledge in my head and not being able to instantly get it out on the guitar is frustrating to say the least. Practice, practice, practice. That's the key to getting better. Hopefully I can hold out on smashing the guitar before then!