neorants

I finished reading the transcript of the State of the Union address a while ago, as I’d only caught the first half on TV last night. You’ve gotta respect Dubya — this is a guy who isn’t shy about his convictions, and someone I’m proud to call President.

This is a difficult stance to take at my workplace — as a Republican, I’m in a definite minority around here, and it’s all I can do to button my lips when I hear people bashing the guy around the office. (If you’d prefer not to hear my pro-Bush ramblings, feel free to scan four paragraphs ahead to my personal ramblings, which promise to take you to even greater heights of disinterest.)

But really, how can you do anything but respect a guy who never forgets this country was founded on judeo-christian values, and doesn’t just provide lip-service to God throughout his term? When speaking about his drug-addiction treatment initiative, he used the Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as an example of a great recovery program, stating, “A man in the program said, ‘God does miracles in people’s lives, and you never think it could be you.’” He reminds us that “The liberty we prize is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity.” Lastly, he states “We Americans have faith in ourselves, but not in ourselves alone. We do not know — we do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history.” That stuff, in my opinion, rocks. Whether you’re a christian or not, it’s important to know that your leader is willing to stand up for what he believes.

OK, so you may be saying, “yeah, that’s all well and good, but it’s a bunch of feel-good fluff — we don’t need a pep talk, we need action.” I think this country as a whole has been feeling pretty demoralized. The stock market is floundering, the threat of war has been looming. I think exactly what we need is a bit of a pep talk. That doesn’t mean we don’t need the pep talk reinforced with actions, it just means that a pep talk in and of itself is no bad thing.

As for action, the entire first half of the speech focused on domestic policy. I, for one, am very happy to see work being done to reduce our reliance on oil-providing countries, health-care reform that avoids sliding down the slippery slope toward socialism, and tax breaks for the common man. I’m particularly all about making tax relief slated for the coming years happen now — why drag our feet? (Especially that bit about the marriage penalty, maybe it’ll be reduced by the time I’m actually married ;)) And eliminating double taxation of dividends should hopefully give a shot in the arm to the stock market, which should help the economy in general, both in actuality and perhaps more importantly, in perception.

Now, speaking of budget-related stuff, I’m debating setting up some sort of activities budget as part of my personal budget. This stems from the fact that having a steady girlfriend, let alone a fiancée, was never part of the fiscal year 2003 budget for NeoCorp, Inc. ;) I’d pretty much written that stuff off and stopped thinking about it. NeoCorp is now facing the harsh reality that while its former sole proprietor was perfectly happy with living on a steady diet of Hot Pockets ™, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and ramen noodles, with an occasional bit of fast food thrown in for variety’s sake, while programming and web surfing for entertainment, the vast majority of the population, in particular the female contingent of same, prefers a bit more variety in their dining and entertainment repertoire. These lifestyle alterations have placed a considerable unexpected strain (to the tune of $150.00 - $200.00 per month, not including holiday and engagement ring costs) on NeoCorp’s PFP budget. PFP, of course, standing for pre-furniture-payoff, referring to the extra $500.00 per month we’re currently absorbing thanks to the wonders of 12 months same-as-cash on an entire apartment full of furniture from the fine folks at Havertys.

Now, being the nice guy you all know I am, I hate saying no. I would like to provide the new senior partner of NeoCorp with everything her heart desires. I would also, however, like to maintain a roof over my head and avoid repossession of my vehicle or furniture, and continue to make normal savings and retirement investments. This, as you can see, puts me in a bit of a quandary until I free up the additional $500.00/month tied up in furniture interests at the moment. While relief from this strain should be forthcoming, budgetary measures must be taken in the meantime. The best method I can come up with so I don’t feel like a horrible, horrible man when I have to turn down a few requests for additional expense-incurring activities (such as a night at the movies, $25.00 not including pre- or post-movie dining) due to limited funding is to create an activities budget and adhere to it. I still feel like a bad, bad man, but soon there’ll be an extra $500.00 of discretionary income to play with, and then I can make up for it.