"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." ― Rudyard Kipling

Hello and welcome to Thursday, October 15, 2015. As most of you know these daily visits are more or less thrown together. That means that while I try to check them before I publish they do not always go out correctly. You may have heard that it is hard for anyone to both write and proof read their own stuff. That is so true. I do, however, have a great proof reader but she is not always available at 4:45 a.m. to do a final read through. The day I wrote about grammatical miscues being prevalent in the variety of social media utilities, well, she caught one that I made. That day. I re-sent out the blog to those who receive it by email only because it was in that very blog that I was talking about stuff going out with errors. I appreciate her calling it to my attention. It was a left out word. Everyone would have known what I was saying but it was still incorrect. Therefore, I made the change and re-sent it. Sorry to fill up your email folder with corrected blogs but I felt compelled to straighten that one up. I often just fix the original that does exist out on the world wide web but I considered that one to be one I should correct for those on my email list. Now you know. Not that you cared. But I did. There may be a name for that. Or, it may only be an abbreviation at this point waiting to get a name. I can't be sure but I am pretty sure I have it.

Since I'm talking about words let me mention something about the volume of words. Our standard English Bible has more or less than 750,000 (Old and New Testaments) total words depending on the version being used. The U.S. Tax code, just the code, now exceeds 1 million words. Add to that the explanatory notes, regulations and other documentation required to fully understand the code and you get over 10 million words. What does this tell us? Not much other than the fact that the complexity of our tax code is beyond rationale or belief especially for the so called average American taxpayer. I don't really think the average taxpayer is thought about that much with regards to government regulations and compliance. Everyone on all sides of the aisle from every political point of view say our tax code is a travesty that needs to be junked and replaced with a simple and understandable system. Everyone. They all agree. Every election cycle we hear this to be a very high priority to everyone running for office. Everyone. Why then has there not been any progress on changing, updating, improving, and/or simplifying this monstrosity? One reason: Loop holes: Here a loop hole, there a loop hole, everywhere a loop hole! All this agreement on the need for change except the particular loop hole that is important to this politician or that politician. If nothing can be done on something that everyone agrees needs to be changed, is it any wonder we are in the mess that we are in? I'll let you think about that one for a while.

Since I have brought up the political aspect of our day by day living, I might as well give you my two cents worth on the Democratic Party debate where those seeking the nomination for President of our nation met last Tuesday evening. A disclaimer is appropriate upfront. While I hate tags that try to categorize people, I would have to identify myself as a registered Republican who votes often as an Independent and considers himself to be a values voter aligning myself with conservative viewpoints. That, sadly, pretty much rules 99% of those seeking office as a Democrat as being off my radar screen. This has not always been the case. It is the case today. Some say the Republicans have sold out to the far right. They focus on that but my how they seem to not notice the unbelievable shift of the Democratic Party so far left they are no longer even on the field but they are sitting on the top row of the bleachers in left field. Unbelievable. So quickly too. What ever happened to the Reagan Democrats? Value voting Democrats? Having said that I now give you my two cent summary of what I gained from the Democrat Party debate: Malarkey, interspersed with more malarkey, finished up with a final top coat of malarkey. In case you wondered about my use of the word malarkey, here's how I intended it: "A noun, used to describe speech or writing designed to obscure, mislead, or impress; bunkum: The claims were just a lot of malarkey." Any questions class? I didn't think so. Please feel free to discuss it among yourselves or even with yourself if that's your choice. Take care. God bless. See you next time. Amen. ....More later.