STATE OF THE UNION

I'M TRYING NOT TO:  Comment on the things going on in tic ville.  AKA; local and national politics. Still, sometimes I just have to make my uneducated opinions on things going on. So, where to start.  I guess it will be across the pond.  The big pond east of the U.S.  The news has mentioned lately, that the Queen of England is broke.  I'll admit that I just don't understand everything there is to know about how the English government works.  But the royal's are supported by the people's taxes, I think.  And they have, and spend, millions.  But those millions are shrinking and so the Queen has decreed a tighter budget to her minions. Wonder how that will work out.  Guess I will watch and see.  Maybe this old dog will learn something.  Maybe.
Now to State politics.  The New Mexico legislature is in session. This year, being an even numbered year, it is only a 30 day session and can only deal with the State budget and things that the Governor brings to the table.  Mostly.  There are other things coming up, though. Namely, Same sex marriage, which the State Attorney general says is against the Constitution, but is being challenged by groups of people. And judges that have ordered County Clerks to issue licenses to same sex couples any way. If a committee approves this it will go on a ballot this fall for the people to decide. As I understand it, a committee can strike this down and make same sex marriage illegal.  Again, guess I'll watch and see.  Another issue is the legalization of marijuana.  Patterned after the law that just went into effect in Colorado.  And the Governor is asking, for the fifth time, for the legislature to recind the law of issueing drivers licenses to illegal aliens.  AKA, those who are here in the country illegally.  So far, the house of representatives have backed the Governor in years past on this issue, but the State Senate never has.  I have sent an e mail to the two representatives from the county I live in and the one from the county where we own property as well as the Senator representing this area, expressing my opinion on these three items.  Namely, I am against same sex marriage and the legalization of marijuana and in favor of recinding the drivers license law for undocumented people.  I also sent an e mail to the Senator in Albuquerque that has brought the marijuana law to the table. He is the only one I have heard from.  And his answer.  Marijuana is OK to use.  President Obama said so. And he said, and has been quoted in the news, that this law would bring tax money to the State coffers and the money could be used for education and to fix roads and all the other things tics use to convince people to vote for their favorite pork barrel item.  Also, he said, there would be a lower legal cost to the State, since law enforcement officers wouldn't be spending time investigating these things and the courts wouldn't be spending money with trials and the jails would not have so many people in them cause now people would not be there for using marijuana. My responce to him;  Using that rational, lets just make every thing legal. Murder, robbery, rape, speeding down the highway, public intoxication, whatever, if it's legal, then we can save a lot of money by firing all police officers, judges and other court people. I said that to him.  Of course, there would be a lot of mischief going on and a lot of things that would be offensive to people, but hey, who cares.  It's legal. Or at least, not illegal.
And finally.  The State of the Union Address. When President Obama made his 65 minute speech Tuesday night, he went into that speech with a 40% approval rating. By contrast, congress has only a 13% approval rating.  And his speech was not so much about the State of the Union, but about his ideas of what he wants to do.  And he said, many times, that if congress won't do what he wants, he will do it any way via executive order.  He said that three times in the first few minutes of his speech and then I quit counting.  He also talked about the minimum wage, and encouraged businesses to raise the minimum wage. He did not raise the wages of government workers, but he has signed an executive order making companies with a government contract to pay a minimum of $10.10 per hour.  Again, this is not government workers.  This is the President, ordering private companies to pay that wage if they have a government contract. Well, this means that the government, AKA, in this case the tax payers, will be paying these companies more in order to pay that minimum wage.  He did not mention a national budget, or really address the growing deficit, and he painted a more rosy picture of the unemployment than actually exists.  There was a lot in that speech that I could address, but will mention only one more thing.  First, an aside.  There are ads on the TV about how the city of Los Angeles is helping the environment by using natural gas  to run their city buses. Now, President Obama said that he is going to promote the increased use of natural gas in power plants and other things.  I find both the Los Angeles ad and the comments made some what humorous.  Why?  Well, natural gas is just that. Natural.  As in grown in nature. Or, under the ground.  It has to be drilled for and recovered.  And every time an oil company applies for a permit to drill, the environmental groups rise up in arms and do every thing and spend all the money they can to stop them.  I seem to see a conflict in these ads and speechs. Somewhere some one needs to realize that the earth provides all we have.  It is either mined or grown and these businesses need to be allowed to take care of business in order for us to continue our standard of living. Be you a well driller, a mineral miner or a farmer or rancher, if not for these people and companys, we would not have a union to report the state of. And they can grow the economy.  Not the government with diminishing tax money.  No mater how many pens or phones the President has. 
AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK