I love life. I'm sitting in my bedroom watching the original Bad News Bears while catching up on some news and my favorite conservative blogs. It's one of my favorite movies, and Walter Matthau is great in it. I love how he makes changes in his life to ensure he's giving the boys he's coaching the best he can give them. It's inspirational in it's own way, though I'm sure many don't see it that way. My lovely wife is sitting next to me. My oldest daughter Mallory is asleep in our bed. My boys are off having air gun wars in the snow. My youngest daughter Reagan is watching TV in her room. We're just back from the Christmas vacation. It's pretty good.

I often ponder my good fortune. Though not wealthy in the material sense, I couldn't be wealthier in the things that matter most to me - my family and friends. I am a very lucky man. One of the things I feel fortunate about is to have been born in this country. There is no greater country on the face of the earth, nor has there been (I'm sure many, man historians and many liberals think otherwise).

There are many reasons why I think America is great. It remains the one place in the world where any citizen, born into any circumstances, can achieve anything. Anything, if they're willing to work for it. Our history is replete with examples of people who have done so, though I'm too lazy to research them for this post.  Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed, and this is where well-intentioned, if ill-informed, people think government should step in. One school of thought that I struggle with is the notion that government should somehow be expected to guarantee our happiness, our well-being, and to make sure that we have everything we want and not have to work for it. I think the less government the better, and we're headed the opposite direction. Government is growing and growing and is becoming more and more intrusive in our lives. And I don't mean the Patriot Act. I mean laws that take away more and more of our decision making, and I don't like it, and I don't think it's going to get any better with the Democrats in control of Congress. On the other hand, it wasn't like the Republicans exactly shrunk the government and all of its spending. If they can't or won't, then I certainly don't expect the Democrats to.

I'll write more on that soon. I guess the point of this post is to marvel at the greatness of our nation and the kind of lives it affords us the opportunity to live. As far as I'm concerned, there's no better place to be.