What is the big deal?

I apologize that most of this is vague. A question arose at work about the design of a particular piece of equipment. This piece of equipment failed and now needed to be repaired. Timing is of the essence, the shop could get it back to us faster if we just made one small modification to the equipment design. As you well know, most process equipment is designed with safeguards and overbuild for future expansion. This one had a unique design of tubes that allowed increased flow for the same diameter. So the repair shop suggested that we could save some time if we just eliminated this "weird" design. No big deal, right? Wrong, the change would have resulted in a loss of capacity of 20%!!! This tiny thing changed the whole capability by 20%.
Lessons learned: so often we think that tiny or incremental changes won't hurt and often these changes make things easier right now, but as we look into the future, this small change could limit us forever. Do things the best way you know how, stop and fix the problem the best way you know how when you find out they are wrong, and make sure that change is for the better.
I still can't believe such a small thing is worth 20% of the total capacity!

Lets go to the Fair

I always love the way the government reports the amount of money it can expect to receive for certain taxes. The carbon tax...makes no sense...they want to tax the energy, chemical, and manufacturing industries (i.e. the only people that make things in the US). Comparing our country to a body, the way Paul of the New Testament described the Church as a body. If the government is the head, agriculture is the legs, industry is the back, and finance is the arms. Then in the last 20 years of progressive socialism, we have gotten a big head, cut off our legs and tied our hands behind our broken back.
If you have ever had business dealings in countries outside of the US, you will understand how easily laws and/or officials can be persuaded to bend the system to give an unfair advantage to a particular player. The people of the United States have built businesses and competed in an almost fair system (the most fair of any in the world, I would argue.) It is this fairness that has encouraged competition, has challenged status quo, has given rise to some of the wealthiest people on the planet; wealth created not by land or resources but by industry, ingenuity, and competition.
More on taxes later.

Universal Healthcare

I think there is a gulf of misunderstanding between 'liberals' and 'conservatives' or as I like to call them, people that want, want, WANT, gimme, gimme, GIMME party and the people that read the Constitution, government stay-out-of-my-business party. From my conversations with advocates of universal healthcare, I hear the points,
-Everyone deserves and needs access to quality medical care. Think of the children
-The cost of healthcare is too high for an individual or family to pay directly.
-People without insurance usually don't pay anyway, so that drives up the cost of healthcare and insurance for those that pay
-Government is the only entity big enough to run an universal healthcare program.
The truth
-Right now, everyone in this country can get quality healthcare
-The concept of insurance is rediculous, a person getting insurance bets that he will get sick, the insurance company bets that the person won't get sick. They then charge person a fee that is higher than the break even point of the equation. That is why the insurance company only pays for certain procedures. It is simple math. (Medical Cost x likelihood + profit)/(group of insured people) = Cost to individual Therefore, healthy people that pay for unused insurance that subsidizes sick people.
-People that receive a service from a healthcare provider should pay for the service. Healthcare is a service INDUSTRY sure doctors love to help people, but they also want to get paid for their work just as a carpenter gets paid for work. There are many places to go and receive healthcare free of charge.
-The truth is that conservatives want everyone to have healthcare, they just don't want the government to run it. It goes completely against the US Constitution. There needs to be multiple insurance providers, otherwise, the quality of healthcare becomes narrowly focused on particular procedures that are paid for and totally rejects the procedures that are newer or more risky. The government will have the ability to bully doctors into whatever suits the government. Basically, the government will be able to decide who lives and who dies.

A note to the President

I am an average citizen that cares about his country, I care about freedom and liberty, and I feel that our country took form as a place where dreams could be followed. That has changed, many people today are not as concerned about their indiviual families and dreams as about the decisions being made by government. The US constitution was written to establish a government to protect the people. Please, protect us, physically. Freedom and the pursuit of dreams will give us jobs.