sand and rock

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord speaks to us of the two possible ways of constructing the edifice of one’s life: building on sand or building on solid ground. He who builds on sand is the one who builds only on the foundation of visible and tangible things: success, one’s career, money. As if these were the true realities. But one day all of these things will pass away. We see that now in the crash of the great banks: all this money disappears; it’s nothing. And in like fashion all these things, which would appear to be the true reality to count on, are only second-order realities. Whoever builds his life on these realities, on material things, on success, on appearances, builds on sand.                   Pope Benedict XVI, Oct. 6, 2008

 

Root of the problem

For the Democrats to blame President Bush for the economic problem is the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty. Everyone needs to know what really happened. Please watch this video!

The Patriot Tax

“Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans.” [link]
The top 1% of Americans already pay 40% of all Federal income taxes. How patriodic do they have to be? [link]
The bottom 50% of Americans pay just 3% of the taxes. Couldn’t they be just a little more patriotic?

It's all in how you look at it...

National Review Online gets it right in this article by John J. Pitney Jr.:

 

[Sarah Palin’s] perspective is different from that of other national politicians. For Barack Obama, Wal-Mart is a symbol of worker exploitation. For Hillary Clinton, it’s a former source of corporate-director fees. For Sarah Palin, it’s a place where you buy stuff.

 

And that’s why we love her!

The experience factor

The Democrats continue to make pointed references to Sarah Palin’s lack of experience and say she isn’t qualified to be President. Never mind that Barack Obama is even less qualified, and that he’s at the top of his party's ticket.

Certainly if something should happen to President John McCain, Sarah Palin would need the help and wise counsel of a lot of people—including Democrats. She would be able to count on that…wouldn’t she?

This is the 2012 election!

John McCain and Sarah Palin will be elected in November because Americans found out in 2008 who they want to be president in 2012. John McCain will get to be president for four years because he proved once again that he cares deeply about America’s future. And Sarah Palin will be elected the first female president in 2012 because she deserves to be, we need her, and we all know it!

Congress's Finest Hour

from the Wall Street Journal

 

August 21, 2008; Page A12

As the 110th Congress continues its August recess, the big legislative news is that it has passed fewer laws than any Congress in the last two decades. An outfit known as Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that the fighting 110th has passed a mere 294 laws, while nonetheless finding time to consider 1,932 resolutions favoring such causes as National Watermelon Month. This is apparently supposed to be a matter of public consternation because Congress should be accomplishing more.

Sorry, but that's the best thing we've heard about this Congress. What a relief to discover the destruction could have been so much worse. With rare exceptions -- free-trade deals, money for the troops -- we wish the Members would spend every minute of every day passing resolutions. They'd have less time to do tangible harm.

Even we -- fated by bad career advice to write about this stuff -- haven't the foggiest idea what is in most of those 294 laws. The mayhem we know about is bad enough. There was that "reform" that blew up the student loan market and has led to Uncle Sam being America's college lender of first resort. This will be the Fannie Mae of the future. And don't forget the mortgage bailout, which puts taxpayers on the hook for as much as $300 billion in bad home loans.

Come to think of it, we'd feel safer if the whole crowd decided not to come back at all after Labor Day. Just stay home, or, even better, spend the rest of the year traveling on Congressional junkets. Sure, taxpayers would have to pay the airfare and hotel bills, but that's a bargain compared to what taxpayers will owe if Congress tries to solve any more problems.

 

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

A Catholic Case Against Barack

There are many things about Pat Buchanan that have disappointed me over the past 8 years, but this column is not one of them.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=27992

 

 

92-year-old witness

Congressional Warming

Contribute to Congressional Warming!!!   Put the heat on Congress to lift the ban on offshore drilling before they recess for the summer.

 

Contact information for all Senators and Congressmen can be found at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt.

 

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
- -- George Bernard Shaw

Who does he think he is?

“Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?”

“His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.”

This is a great column by Charles Krauthammer. [Link]

Good old Al

John had several hundred young hens, or 'pullets,' and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He kept meticulous records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, old Al, was a very fine specimen but this morning he noticed old Al's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets--bells-a-ringing--but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To John's amazement, old Al had his bell in his beak so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of old Al he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair, and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Al the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pullet-surprise as well.

Clearly old Al was a politician. Who else could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?

Vote carefully this year, the bells are not always audible.

(author unknown)

salmonella prevention

In today’s world our communications are much more sophisticated than our perspective.  The recent tomato scare is a case in point.  According to the CDC about 940 people have been sickened since May with Salmonella saintpaul poisoning that was initially attributed to uncooked tomatoes.  The news was instantly flashed throughout North America and the ‘red menace’ almost immediately began disappearing from salads, sandwiches and salsas.  By June 10 Florida’s tomato industry was in “complete collapse” (Reuters).  Mexico, already strained by the sharp corn (not to mention oil) price increases, must now contend with tons of produce rotting in warehouses.

Now comes word that maybe it wasn’t tomatoes after all.  Jalapeno peppers (and possibly cilantro) are the latest suspect, so everybody stay away from Mexican restaurants!

Nahhhh…..in fact I ate an excellent meal just last night in Houston at Little Pappasitos, and I’m fat and happy.  Of course it’s possible my margarita neutralized the salmonella, but that’s a precaution I always take at Mexican restaurants! (Sometimes I take two large doses of that medicine, just to be on the safe side!)

Okay let’s run some numbers and assume (very conservatively) that only 25% of the US population regularly eats tomatoes.  That’s about 75 million people, so if 1000 get sick that puts my chances at 1 in 75,000, about the same as the odds of my getting a hole-in-one in golf—before I drink the margaritas.

More chips and salsa, waiter….and bring me another ‘rita.

 

God I miss Ronald Reagan!

I just ran across a wonderful Reagan story in vol.2 of Bill Bennett’s great history, “America the Last Best Hope”:

 

Reagan…and the Queen [Elizabeth II] were both avid riders.  Reagan’s men were especially eager to get “visuals” of the president and the Queen riding at the royal estate at Windsor.  As the two heads of state galloped up a steep hill, however, the Queen’s horse let out a long, loud blast of gas.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. President,” the Queen said.

Without hesitation, Reagan responded: “It’s alright, Your Majesty; I thought it was the horse.”

 

Obama and the monkey god

I thought this was a joke when I first saw it at The Times of India website. Then I googled “Obama Lord Hanuman” and got a bunch of hits. It probably would be counterproductive to make too much of Obama’s lucky charm, but a story about his “faith” in a golden monkey idol of is just too good to ignore.

 

10 Concerns about Barack Obama

Bill Bennett has put together a two page summary of 10 Concerns about Barack Obama  that’s very well thought out.  He talked about it yesterday on his radio show (5-8am at 1070 AM).  I could make a similar list of problems I have with McCain, but on every one of them Obama is even worse.

 

The sky is falling!

“James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming…” [Link]

======<<<<>>>>======

I suppose pointing Mr. Hansen to the first amendment’s guarantee of free speech would be too much to ask of him, and do little good anyway. He would just point out that it doesn’t give us the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. On the other hand, just who is it that’s yelling “fire”?

Question of the day

Just curious…..How long have the Dimocrats been saying that drilling new wells won’t help reduce the price of gasoline because it takes 10 years to get it into production?

Also, if it’s true that ‘speculators’ are one of the culprits behind the recent price increase, doesn’t it follow that futures markets would react quickly if the U.S. announced an aggressive energy policy?

 

Just another broken promise

Obama Breaks Earlier Pledge on Public Financing
[Wall Street Journal]
Barack Obama announced today that he will not accept roughly $85 million in public funds for the general election, breaking his earlier pledge to do so if his Republican rival John McCain opted in to the system.

Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas

by John Coleman
(founder and former President of The Weather Channel)

You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas.  It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline.  All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth.  What an amazing fraud; what a scam.

[full text of speech]

 

$4 Gasbags

Wall Street Journal - June 12, 2008; Page A16

Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" – everything except expanding domestic energy supplies.

Amid $135 oil, it ought to be an easy, bipartisan victory to lift the political restrictions on energy exploration and production. Record-high fuel costs are hitting consumers and business like a huge tax increase. Yet the U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world that chooses as a matter of policy to lock up its natural resources. The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank.  [link to full article]

Mallard nails it!

Dimocrats

Earmarks After Dark
Wall Street Journal - May 31, 2008; Page A10

Remember those Congressional pledges of earmark reform? Democrats are hoping you don't, as they try to pull a fast one and evade President Bush's pledge to block these special-interest spending projects slipped into legislation without scrutiny.

The battle is over the $601 billion defense authorization bill, which the House passed last week, 384-23. Earmarks are supposed to be included in the text of legislation. Instead, the Members have "airdropped," in Beltway parlance, a huge number of them into the conference report that accompanies the bill. And, to ensure that the money is spent on these dark-of-night additions, the Members have included language insisting that federal agencies do so.

This is a blatant attempt to override Mr. Bush's executive order earlier this year on earmarks. That order took direct aim at "airdropped" earmarks on grounds that they lack the force of law. If Members think their projects are defensible, then put them into actual legislation and vote on them. But because this can be politically embarrassing – think "bridge to nowhere" – Members prefer to slip their pork into the conference reports that offer instructions on implementation. These reports are written by staff members, aren't debated or voted on by Members, and aren't signed by the President. [full editorial]

---

One more proof (as if we needed it) that the only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat.

Promises, promises.

Susan Sarandon vows move to Italy or Canada if McCain elected...[link]

 

Didn’t Alec Baldwin promise the same thing 8 years ago?  Has he left yet?

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

The following is the winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. This year's term was 'Political Correctness'.

The winner wrote:

'Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.'

Operation Chaos

John Kerry said today that "Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary."

 

Sometimes I wonder if Kerry (and the other Dimocrats) are as much worried about terrorists as they are Limbaugh.

 

Service to America

"Every challenge is an opportunity to
measure one's strength of character."
--John McCain

John McCain's Service to America speech in Meridian, Mississipi on March 31 offers some excellent insights into his own strength of character, and how it was forged. We need to enthusiastically support this man. He may not be right on every issue, but he clearly understands the most important ones.
Remember what the Good Book says:

Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable—
if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy—
think about such things.
--Philippians 4:8

Global Warming Takes a Holiday

Ocean Cooling to Briefly Halt Global Warming, Researchers Say

by Jim Efstathiou Jr. on Bloomberg

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Parts of North America and Europe may cool naturally over the next decade, as shifting ocean currents temporarily blunt the global-warming effect caused by mankind, Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences said.

``Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,'' Wood said in an interview. ``Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there's no global warming going on.''

``If we don't experience warming over the next 10 years, it doesn't mean that greenhouse-gas warming is not with us,'' Keenlyside said in an interview. ``There can be natural fluctuations that may mask climate change in the short term.''

- - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Gosh, I’m sure glad they told me!  I might have ‘erroneously’ concluded that natural fluctuations in the solar cycle might have something to do with it.

America

The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or race or nationality.

Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America’s sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century’s terrible wars — no land from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America’s resolve in the defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.

Mitt Romney at College Station, Texas, 12/6/2007

 

Why are we even bothering to hold an election? 
On one side, we have a bitch who is a lawyer and is married to a lawyer, 
campaigning against a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is also a lawyer.
On the other side we have a war hero married to a  

woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship. 

What was the question? 

 

Science

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

- Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi

 

Is this really an Oboma-nation?

 

Obama baby

Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, speaking of his daughters, said, if they “make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

I suppose it’s true that one woman’s blessing might be another’s curse, but it does shed new light on a mindset that supports partial birth abortions.

 

Poor, poor pitiful me...

John McCain says “Americans are hurting today.”

Barack Obama says Americans are “bitter.”

 

Why do these politicians think it’s good strategy to make us feel sorry for ourselves?  What makes them think stroking my self-pity will make me want to vote for them?

 

Irrelevant or irreverent?

Hillary Clinton said Sunday a query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services "is not a relevant question in this debate”.

 

Let's 'Surge' Some More

This is an excerpt from an outstanding article.

---

Let's 'Surge' Some More

By MICHAEL YON
April 11, 2008

It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about "GoArmy.com."

As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda's brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.

Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.    [full article]

 

Happine$$

Barack Obama said Friday that many working-class Americans are angry and bitter over economic inequalities.
And it's his job, I suppose--nay, his duty--to fan the flames and make them feel even worse?

Here's a question and a thought experiment for all those angry, bitter people:

QUESTION: Can money buy happiness?

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: What if there were two doors...

• Behind door #1 is $1,000,000...tax free...guaranteed.
  
• Behind door #2 is happiness...for a lifetime!...guaranteed.

It's your choice--pick a door.

Why Iraq Matters

This is an excerpt from a great article by a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  It demolishes every argument put forward by the Defeatocrats.

 

Unless the advocates of defeat can show, as they have not yet done, that the consequences of losing are very likely to be small not simply the day after the last American leaves Iraq, but over the next five, ten, and 50 years, then what they are really selling is short-term relief in exchange for long-term pain. As drug addicts can attest, this kind of instant-gratification temptation is very seductive — it’s what keeps drug dealers in business despite the terrible damage their products do to their customers. “Just end the pain now and deal with the future when it gets here” is as bad a strategy for a great nation as it is for a teenager.  

 

From Why Iraq Matters   [Link]
by Frederick W. Kagan on NationalReview.com

 

 

Bad to the bone!

On April 18, coming to a theater near you:

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

Dimocrat dishonesty

Just three minutes long.
http://www.bercasio.com/movies/dems-wmd-before-iraq.wmv

The REAL political spectrum

The left-right political spectrum as it is generally understood today is essentially meaningless. However, if we define the left side as "absolute government control" and the right side as "Anarchy" (no government), it suddenly begins to make sense. The diagram below is a simple exercise that may make the world a little easier to understand. Just move the various words and concepts to their appropriate place on the spectrum.

Re: Recycle or go to Hell, warns Vatican

As usual, the mainstream media wrote some misleading headlines that were picked up by lazy journalists all over the world.
The real story is on the Catholic World News website.

Ethanol--the hoax

Walter E. Williams has posted a great article about the Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax on Townhall.com.

The whole concept of mortal sin may have just been dealt a mortal blow.

 

Recycle or go to Hell, warns Vatican

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 10/03/2008

 

Failing to recycle plastic bags could find you spending eternity in Hell, the Vatican said after drawing up a list of seven deadly sins for our times.

The seven, which include polluting the environment, were announced by Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, a close ally of the Pope and the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, one of the Roman Curia's main court.

The "sins of yesteryear" - sloth, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath and pride - have a "rather individualistic dimension", he told the Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper.

The new seven deadly, or mortal, sins are designed to make worshippers realise that their vices have an effect on others as well.

"The sins of today have a social resonance as well as an individual one," said Mgr Girotti. "In effect, it is more important than ever to pay attention to your sins."

According to Roman Catholic doctrine, mortal sins are a "grave violation of God's law" and bring about "eternal death" if unrepented by the act of confession.

They are far more serious than venial sins, which impede a soul's progress in the exercise of virtue and moral good.

Mgr Girotti said genetic modification, carrying out experiments on humans, polluting the environment, causing social injustice, causing poverty, becoming obscenely wealthy and taking drugs were all mortal sins.  [Link]

Vaclav (is not Santa) Klaus

You've probably never heard of Vaclav Klaus, but he's President of the Czech Republic. He grew up in Soviet communist-dominated Czechoslovakia, and his Wall Street Journal article (by BRIAN M. CARNEY, March 8, 2008; Page A9) offers a unique perspective to the "global warming crisis". Here's just one of several points he makes:

He likens global-warming alarmism to communism, which he experienced first-hand in Cold War Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite. While the communists argued that we must all sacrifice some freedom in pursuit of "equality," the "warmists," as Mr. Klaus calls them, want us to sacrifice liberty -- especially economic liberty -- to prevent a change in climate. In both cases, in Mr. Klaus's view, the costs of achieving the goal, and the impossibility of truly doing so, argue strongly against paying a price of freedom.
Furthermore, the fact that there has been some warming over so many years does not, by itself, prove to him that this trend will continue indefinitely. "Undoubtedly there is some warming," Mr. Klaus allows. "But there has never been no change in climate, no change in global temperatures." [Italics mine.]

Here's another:

Cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle "are two different methodologies, two different approaches, two different ways of thinking," he says. The less desirable precautionary principle "as used by Al Gore and all his fellow travelers" says that "if you are afraid that there are risks to something, you may prohibit everything." He continues: "This is for me absolutely unacceptable to think about."

Some of his other opinions are a bit disconcerting but, as I said, he does have a different perspective. One very telling point he makes is that "Russia is more free now than in any time in its 2,000 years of history. So to speak about dictatorship is misusing the terminology, devaluing the terms that we use." I'm not sure I completely agree with that, but his is very definitely a non-American (but not anti-American) perspective. Interesting!
--Cliff

HillorObamaCare

Anyone who thinks they want the "single-payer" health care system advocated by Hillary Clinton or B. Hussein Obama needs to watch this 5-minute video.

Zombies

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." 
                                                            ~ e.e.cummings

Loch Ness Monster--victim of global warming

Gosh darn it!  I just knew it had to be global warming!

 

Legendary Nessie hunter Robert Rines is giving up his search for the monster after 37 years.   The 85-year-old American will make one last trip in a bid to find the elusive beast.   After almost four decades of fruitless expeditions, he admitted: "Unfortunately, I'm running out of age."

World War II veteran Robert has devoted almost half his life to scouring Loch Ness.  He started in 1971. The following year, he watched a 25ft-long hump with the texture of elephant skin gliding through the water.  His original trip was to help another monster hunter with sonar equipment and quickly identified large moving targets.  He was smitten and returned the next year, which is when, he says: "I had the misfortune of seeing one of these things with my own eyes."   Since then, he has been obsessed with tracking down the creature with a staggering array of hi-tech equipment. It was this gear that took the famous "flipper" picture that year which created a stir around the world.

Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

[link]

 

 

McCain for President!!!

A lot of my favorite conservatives are acting like improvised explosive devices because John McCain will apparently be the Republican nominee for president. Some are threatening to sit out the election--or even vote for Hillary--because of their hatred for McCain. To paraphrase a 1795 protest against John Jay, they want to

Damn John McCain! Damn everyone that won't damn John McCain! Damn every one that won't put lights in his window and sit up all night damning John McCain!

Two months ago I might have felt the same way about sitting out this election, but as the big day looms I'm returning to my senses. The big difference here is that in 1795 we weren't threatened with a Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama presidency. With Barack or Hillary there's no hope they'd get anything right, and in 4 or (God forbid) 8 years they could damage the country permanently.

McCain isn't always wrong, and there's at least some chance that he'll do a few good, big, things...like veto some spending bills, nominate decent judges, cut taxes, and (most importantly) win the war.

John McCain isn't the problem. The problem is a primary system that eliminates most of the candidates before most of the country even gets a chance to vote. I'd like to see a class-action lawsuit against Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida. By moving their primaries ahead of "Super Tuesday" they effectively disenfranchised over 90% of the population. Now that's who we need to be mad at! Where's a good lawyer when you need one?

McCain for President!!!

Sen. Kerry Blames Tornados on Global Warming

Former Democratic presidential nominee blames 'intense storms' that have killed more than 50 on climate change. [Link]

ç================<=>==============è

I’ve heard that the unusually colder weather much of the world is experiencing is also due to global warming. I suppose the lower than usual hurricane activity last season also was due to global warming, just as the higher than usual activity was the previous year. Talk about convenient! It doesn’t matter what happens, just blame it on global warming!

Character

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.

- Phillips Brooks (1835 –1893), noted clergyman and author

Republican debate

I hate to say it, but in my opinion Huckabee easily won the debate tonight.  Part of that was due to McCain dragging Romney down into a stupid argument about "timetables".  Lois almost came unglued.  I think she'll vote for Hillary now before she'd ever vote for McCain.  Even Ron Paul came off better than McCain, except for his dumb isolationism.  Huckabee definitely had the best (smoothest?) answers, but I'm afraid all he's going to do is split the conservative vote with Romney and hand the nomination to McCain. 

Sex: work vs. pleasure

The Commanding Officer of a Marine regiment was about to start the morning briefing to his staff and Battalion and Company Commanders. While waiting for the coffee machine to finish it's brewing, he decided to pose a question to all assembled. He explained that his wife had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep. He posed the question of just how much of sex was "work" and how much of it was "pleasure"?

The X.O. chimed in with 75% vs. 25% in favor of work.

A Captain said it was 50 – 50%.

The Colonel's Aide, a Lt., responded with a 25-75% in favor of pleasure, depending on his state of "inebriation" at the time.

There being no consensus, the Colonel turned to the PFC who was in charge of making the coffee. What was HIS opinion?

With no hesitation, the very young PFC responded: "Sir, it has to be 100% pleasure".

The Colonel was surprised and asked why?

"Well, Sir," began the PFC, "if there was any work involved the Officers would have me doing it for them."



God Bless the United States Marine Corps.

Gas pipeline rupture

This picture shows what happens when a 30" natural gas pipeline, operating at over 900 psi, ruptures and ingnites. It happened on I-20 near Delhi, Louisiana, on Dec.14, 2007. It's interesting to me because as a Gas Controller about 20 years ago I operated this line. Fifty years ago my Dad helped build it.

photo by Clay Cooper III

Whose abortion "rights"?

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents. [link]

Read that last line one more time...Barack Obama "voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive."

And Hillary Clinton is criticizing his record on "abortion rights." How could anyone vote for either one of these people?

Cold spell soon to replace global warming

MOSCOW. (Oleg Sorokhtin for RIA Novosti) – Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world.   Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases.
…Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change. Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind. Man’s influence on nature is a drop in the ocean.  [link]

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute.

 

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.
- Thomas Carlyle

SecDef Christmas message

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday sent out a holiday message urging all Pentagon and military workers "to remember our many blessings as Americans — perhaps chief among them are the dedicated soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who protect our nation."

The troop surge in Iraq reduced violence sharply and Afghanistan operations "inflicted heavy losses on the Taliban, launched a comprehensive, nationwide reconstruction effort, and strengthened civic institutions," he said.

"We are in our seventh year of war — the first sustained combat with an all-volunteer force since our nation's inception," Mr. Gates said.

"Our troops and their families — active, guard, and reserve — are giving so much. This holiday season, many of those in uniform are on repeat deployments or have had their tours extended. Many will miss midnight Mass or have already missed Hanukkah's Festival of Lights. Many will not hear the squeals of delight from their children on Christmas morning. Many will sing neither carols nor hymns. Instead, they serve halfway around the world to honor a pledge they made to the country they love. Please keep our troops in your thoughts and may God forever bless them and this wonderful nation we call home."

 

Scientists doubt climate change

by S.A. Miller
December 21, 2007

 

More than 400 scientists challenge claims by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations about the threat of man-made global warming, a new Senate minority report says.  The scientists — many of whom are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore for publicizing a climate crisis — cast doubt on the "scientific consensus" that man-made global warming imperils the planet. [more]

 

Seasons Greetings

To  My Democratic Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes  for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress,  non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice  holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious  persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with  respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of  others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions  at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and  medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally  accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the  calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society  have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily  greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western  Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed,  color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of  the wish.

To My Republican Friends:
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Huckaboo

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out," Huckabee said. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists." [link]

I disagree with Bush on lots of things, but it takes a special kind of arrogance for a Monday morning quarterback in Little Rock to second guess war decisions made five years ago. Bush-bashing is a Dimocrat sport.  I was already having serious doubts about him, and now Mike Huckabee has lost any possibility of my support.

The Trouble with Celebrity Endorsements

Oprah and Obama combine forces to destroy us all.
by Mark Hemingway, at www.nationalreview.com

Oprah [has given] high-profile support of The Secret, a pernicious self-help phenomenon that tells people they can physically realize their dreams by merely wishing for them...Naturally, like most everything else Oprah touches, The Secret is nothing more than one big marketing scheme. Except unlike her other marketing schemes, instead of squeezing cash out of a desire to lose weight or improve one’s marriage — this one actually sucks her audience’s bank accounts dry by exploiting the actual process of hoping and dreaming, leaving a consumerist sack of meat where a person with a soul once was.

Perhaps you doubt my doubt about the power of The Secret. So I propose an experiment. Obama supporters should follow Oprah’s advice and spend the rest of the election cycle doing nothing else but wishing Obama into the Oval Office. Don’t write any checks, don’t volunteer, and for heaven’s sake don’t vote.   [link to full article]

Pope condemns climate change prophets of doom

by SIMON CALDWELL - updated at 14:48pm on 12th December 2007

Attack: Pope Benedict criticised climate-change prophets of doom

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering. [link]

 

Good movies

We saw two really good movies this weekend, and what's most unusual is that both are great for kids, too! Enchanted is a tongue-firmly-embedded-in-cheek fairy tale, and the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. The presence of Susan Sarandon is the only downer in the film, but even she couldn't ruin it (though she tries).

If you love music--and can suspend your disbelief long enough to forgive a whole series of impossible coincidences--August Rush is a wonderful tribute to the power of music. It's gotten mixed reviews, but I think the bad ones are from those who don't hear the music.

It's about time Hollywood started making good movies again.

It's "selfish" to have babies

Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly

.....At the age of 27 this young woman at the height of her reproductive years was sterilised to "protect the planet".

 

Now isn't this the best idea since zippers!  I'm beginning to think maybe Darwin was right...these folks are naturally selecting themselves right out of the gene pool.  Fantastic!!!

editor generals

"We made a great mistake...in the beginning of our struggle, and I fear, in spite of all we can do, it will prove to be a fatal mistake. In the beginning we appointed all our worst generals to command the armies, and all our best generals to edit the newspapers. As you know, I have planned some campaigns and quite a number of battles. I have given the work all the care and thought I could, and sometimes, when my plans were completed, as far as I could see, they seemed to be perfect. But when I have fought them through, I have discovered defects and occasionally wondered I did not see some of the defects in advance. When it was all over, I found by reading a newspaper that these best editor generals saw all the defects plainly from the start. Unfortunately, they did not communicate their knowledge to me until it was too late."

attributed to Gen. Robert E. Lee

Global warming scam

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. ……I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming. [Link]

--John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel

Jailed Terrorist: "I Want My Walkman"

Convicted al-Qaeda murderer complains about life in federal prison

NOVEMBER 6--An al-Qaeda operative serving life in prison for his role in the bombing of American embassies in Africa contends that his rights are being violated by U.S. jailers who have denied him access to Arabic publications and religious books, limited his mail privileges, and no longer allow him to use a Walkman.

The Osama bin Laden disciple and three codefendants were convicted in 2001 for their roles in simultaneous car bomb attacks at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania. Those blasts killed a total of 224 people and injured thousands of other victims. [Link]

 

Philadelphia punishes Boy Scouts

The city of Philadelphia has decided to punish the Boy Scouts of America because it will not allow homosexuals to serve as Scout Leaders. City officials said they will charge the Cradle of Liberty Scouts Council $200,000 a year to use the city-owned headquarters. The Council was paying $1 per year (since 1928). The city owns the land on which the Council's 1928 Beaux Arts building sits.

Chernobyl gorenobel

...one of the world's foremost meteorologists called the theory that helped Al Gore win a share of the Nobel prize the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, spoke to a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina and said humans were not responsible for global warming.

"We're brainwashing our children," said Gray, 78, a longtime professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

Nation's top Democrat defends banning God

The nation’s number one Democrat, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is defending the banning of religious references on certificates issued by the Architect of the Capitol.

An Eagle Scout asked that a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol be sent to his grandfather, along with a certificate bearing the message: “In honor of my grandfather Marcel Larochelle, and his dedication and love of God, country, and family.”

Stephen Ayers, the Architect of the Capitol, banned the use of the word “God” in the certificate issued for the Eagle Scout. Ayers, serving in a low-level, non-elected position, claims he has the authority to ban the word “God” from the certificate. This is the first time ever for the Architect of the Capitol to ban religious references. Ayers said he banned the word “God” because someone might be offended.

Pelosi defended Ayers’ decision to ban all religious references. Several legislators signed a letter to Pelosi asking that Ayers’ censorship be stopped. “The Architect’s policy is in direct conflict with his charge, as well as the scope of his office and brings into question his ability to preserve a building containing many national religious symbols,” the legislators said in the letter.

Instead of stopping the censorship, Pelosi defended it. “It’s not about being anti-religion,” Pelosi said. “It is just about what the Architect thought was appropriate for him to proclaim in a certificate.” By saying such, Pelosi approved the banning of religious references by Ayers.

Eagle Scout!!!

The Soros Threat To Democracy

by INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 24, 2007 4:20 PM PT

Democracy: George Soros is known for funding groups such as MoveOn.org that seek to manipulate public opinion. So why is the billionaire's backing of what he believes in problematic? In a word: transparency.

How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute, which gave him "legal and media advice"?

That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $720,000, most likely under the OSI's "politicization of science" program.

That may have meant that Hansen had media flacks help him get on the evening news to push his agenda and lawyers pressuring officials to let him spout his supposedly "censored" spiel for weeks in the name of advancing the global warming agenda.