Homesick Blues

Here's one that I'll toss in for Nick at RightMichigan. And anybody else that wants to see what happens when liberals run amuck.

Michigan is my home. I was born there, and have lived there most of my life. But right now, I'm in New Mexico. Part of it is personal, but things in Michigan are completely screwed up. The governor is clueless, and thinks it's a good idea to fly to Europe for a week or two, and come back with a promise of 150 new jobs for the State..

Of course, while she was gone the State lost a couple thousand jobs, not to mention the money that it cost to send her there. (And sadly, to bring her back).

But she and her fellow Dummocrats came up with a plan. Just raise taxes, and the problems will be solved! Sure, there's the whole thing about people having less money to spend. And the part where businesses have to cut jobs to save money. And the part where the spending by the State Government is still high...

But hey, raising taxes will fix everything, right? And even if it doesn't, well she's only been in office for 5 years, so it's clearly the fault of her predecessor. That's the argument made by all good Dummocrats, including one of my siblings. Of course, she works in education, so that could be part of her problem. And she is the one that once told me that if Bin Laden demands the US become a Muslim nation, then we should just declare it, and he'd leave us alone.

So you can imagine how much attention I pay to her political musings.

In any case, it's been interesting to see the "progress" that Michigan has made in the last few years. Most of the larger cities are dying, people are making less money, companies are moving out, and the government works on the logic that throwing water on a drowning man is the way to save him. Sure, because the fact that Michigan is economically worse off than any other state is just a coincidence.

Which is not to claim that everything is Jenny-Poo's fault. I rode a Greyhound from Michigan to Colorado some 20 years ago, visiting another sister. I sat for a while with a guy that was moving from Michigan back to his home state of Nebraska. As I recall the tale, he had moved up there a few years before, for whatever reason. While in Michigan, he opened a small shop. After a few years, it went under, and he was bailing out. The one thing that has stayed in my mind all these years is his comment "Michigan is a horrible place for small business".

Friends of mine that own small businesses today agree with that statement. So there is a problem with the system, and it isn't all the fault of the current administration. But it does need to be fixed.

(Of course, my brilliant sister says that it's all the fault of the previous governor, and that Jenny-Poo can't be held responsible. When I point out that she's in charge and thus has to fix things, she retorts that Jenny-Poo shouldn't be held responsible for the failings of another. At which point I mention that she has the job, things are broken, and therefore it's her responsibility to try and fix it; which earns me a "well it shouldn't be". I make the observation that things are worse now than when J-P took office, and are getting worse every day, and she says that it's proof of how bad things really were when J-P came in. I'm honestly not sure why I even bother, except that I hate stupidity.)

I could go on, but it would take forever to explain the problems. All I can say is that I greatly prefer Michigan to New Mexico, and I want to be back there with my family and friends, but I just don't know if it's possible. Next year, I'll probably be heading someplace different- this whole New Mexico thing was prompted by a deployment to Iraq in my family- but I just don't know if heading home is a valid option. Higher taxes, high unemployment, high crime, and so on just isn't a strong environment for someone who needs to start over at the point when he should be able to take things easier.

I wish I could head back today. Instead, I might not be able to ever return. And that breaks my heart.