Before I start on my note for the day, please allow me to thank all my readers (and especially those who took the time to offer comments) for an interesting 2009 from the perspective of a blogger.  It’s increasingly difficult to find the time to have at least one new blog note for all but maybe a dozen days a year.  Hearing from readers (whether you agree, disagree, or just want to have a conversation) helps keep me going.

2009 for me was better than 2008 in all ways except for the trends in our nation’s government.  It’s been an amazing year watching my kids grow.  My 2-year old son now almost seems like a real person, versus last year when he was less than a year old and wasn’t really that interesting.  Similarly, my 4-year old daughter has developed a personality that lights up a room.

Financially, it wasn’t great, but it was certainly better than 2008.  I’m sure the same is true for most people.

Writing was fun, particularly writing for Human Events, and I enjoyed each of my opportunities to guest-host talk radio shows in Greeley and Denver.

Around the house, my wife spent dozens of hours (and many hundreds of dollars) building beautiful gardens in rock-walled terraces, full of spectacular flowers and relatively drought- and animal-resistant plants called sedum (aka “stonecrop".)  Although the flowers only stick around for a few months at our altitude (well over 8,000 feet), it’s really changed the character of our property for the better…and given my wife enthusiasm to stay where we are rather than trying to sell the house to avoid the long, cold high-altitude winters.

On one hand, those who only know me through my blog may think that my entire life revolves thinking and writing about politics.  It’s not true, and I realize that politics is just one part of life.  That said, at some point politics because truly important and truly impactful on our lives.

And we are at that point, thanks to the American voters who decided to elect a president for no real reason other than his skin color and despite many bright red warning flags waving in their faces.

I’m very torn as we watch what’s happening here.  Part of me believes, as I’ve said many times, that we’re living Atlas Shrugged and that the only quasi-permanent way to keep voters from supporting fascist/socialist candidates like Barack Obama is to let the suffer through what comes from actually electing one.  And part of me believes the permanent damage to the country I love may be intolerably great and nearly impossible to undo.

At this point, I have to hope that my Randian approach is correct because at least for the next several months the tyrannical Democratic majorities in Congress will keep going down their radical path of government takeover of absolutely everything.

The moochers and the looters are in charge.  Americans are getting the government they deserve.  But I can’t feeling that my children are suffering for the brain-dead idiocy of Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans who voted for Barack Obama.  For the record, and in line with my Randian approach, I maintain my position that I was correct to vote Libertarian. If John McCain represents winning, then we’ve already lost.  I’d rather take my chances with living through Barack Obama and having the public possibly learn a multi-generational lesson than to have people believe that someone like McCain is the best America or the GOP can do.

So, as America suffers through the Obama Administration, all I can do is try to show my children (admittedly too young to understand political lessons, even by example) what is important and to try to impart some of those views to my readers. At some point, there will be another American revolution.  Whether it’s more like 1776 or 1994 is yet to be seen.

In the meantime, I plan to remind myself that politics isn’t everything and to take pleasure from life’s “simple things", like my family and even my wife’s garden, and to notice that those are really what’s important.