BATTLE BUNNY BY Bret Harte

After the men were ordered to lie down, a white rabbit, which had been hopping hither and thither over the field swept by grape and musketry took refuge among the skirmishers, in the breast of a corporal." Report of the Battle of Malvern Hill, 1864.

Bunny, lying in the grass,
Saw the shining column pass;
Saw the starry banner fly,
Saw the chargers fret and fume,
Saw the flapping hat and plume-
Saw them with his moist and shy
Most unspeculative eye,
Thinking only, in the dew,
That it was a fine review-
Till a flash, not all of steel,
Where the rolling caissons wheel,
Brought a rumble and a roar
Rolling down that velvet floor,
And like blows of autumn flail
Sharply threshed the iron hail.

Bunny, thrilled by unknown fears,
Raised his soft and pointed ears,
Mumbled his prehensile lip,
Quivered his pulsating hip,
As the sharp vindictive yell
Rose above the screaming shell;
Thought the world and all its men-
All were charging squadrons meant-
All were rabbit-hunters then,
All to capture him intent.
Bunny was not much to blame:
Wiser folk have thought the same-
Wiser folk who think they spy
Every ill begins with "I".

Wildly panting here and there,
Bunny sought the freer air,
Till he hopped below the hill,
And saw, lying close ad still,
Men with muskets in their hands.
(Never Bunny understands
That hypocrisy of sleep,
In the vigils grim they keep,
As recumbent on that spot
They elude the level shot).

One - a grave and quiet man,
Thinking of his wife and child
Far beyond the Rapidan,
Where the Androsaggin smiled-
Felt the little rabbit creep,
Nestling by his arm and side,
Wakened from strategic sleep,
To that soft appeal replied,
Drew him to his blackened breast,
And-
But you have guessed the rest
Softly o’er that chosen pair
Omnipresent Love anc Care
Drew a mightier Hand and Arm,
Shielding them from every harm;
Right and left the bullets waved,
Saved the savior for the saved.
Who believes that equal grace

God extends in every place,
Little difference he scans
"Twist a rabbit’s God and man’s.

The Civil War calls up memories and sounds of the battle cries for individual freedom. Not now. Now the march to progressivism (socialism) has begun. Long may its banner not wave. The socialists for Obama around the age of 20 content themselves with the knowledge that they have feelings and ‘heart’ for their fellow man, not wanting special individuals to get rich. Those progressives for Obama in their 40's either pay no taxes or have abandoned rational thinking. At the senior level, those dependent upon the government for their livelihood have also pitched their tents in the camp of Obama. When only 40% of Americans pay any taxes and another 11% pay less than 5% or $1,000 it’s obvious that "equal grace ... in very place " has been lost in the battle for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and truth, justice and the American way.

TO A MOUSE

On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November, 1785 by Robert Burns

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa’ sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin’ wi’ the laive,
And never miss ‘it!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa’s the win’s are strewing’!
As naething now to big a new ane
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s winds ensuing’,
Baith snell and keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin’ fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till, crash! The cruel coulter past
Out through thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turned out for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley,
An’ lea’e us naught but grief and pain,
For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But, och! I backward cast my e’e
On prospects drear;
An’ forward, though I canna see,
I guess an’ fear.

As we come to the close of these 1st 100 days of Obama’s reign, we mousies have had our future fields plowed under by our leader’s best laid schemes. All we can hope is that his plans go askew, that enough people who make up his worshiping throng wake up squeaking to the dangers that lie a head for his American field of dreams.
I look ahead like a fearful beastie to many a winter of discontent.

THE ARAB,S FAREWELL TO HIS HORSE by Caroline Norton

Dedicated to Barbaro, a game race horse eventually put down after his brave fight following his breaking down at the Kentucky Derby, 2006, commemorated with the unveiling of a life-size statue at Churchill Downs, Sunday, April 26, 2009.

My beautiful! My beautiful! That standest meekly by,
With thy proudly arch’d and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye,
Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed;
I may not mount on thee again, - thou’rt sold, my Arab steed!
Fret not with that impatient hoof,-sniff not the breezy wind,-
The farther that thou flies now, so far am I behind:
The stranger hath thy bridle-rein,-thy master hath his gold,-
Fleet-limb’d and beautiful, farewell: thou’rt sold, my steed, thou’rt sold.

Farewell! Those free, untired limbs full many a mile must roam,
To reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger’s home’
Some other hand, less fond must now thy corn and bread prepare,
The silky man I braided once, must be another’s care!
The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee
Shall I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be;
Evening shall darken on the earth, and o’er the sandy plain
‘Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.

Yes, thou must go! The wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,
Thy master’s home,- from all of these my exiled one must fly’
Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step becomes less fleet,
And vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master’s hand to meet.
Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;-
Only in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light;
And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer they speed,
Then must I, starting, wake to feel-thou’rt sold, my Arab steed!

Ah! Rudely, then, unseen by me, some cruel hand my chide,
Till foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side:
And the rich blood that’s in thee swell, in thy indignant pain
Till careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each started vein.
Will they ill use thee? If I thought - but no, it cannot be,-
Thou are so swift, yet easy curb’d, so gentle, yet so free;
And yet, if haply, when thou’rt gone, my lonely heart should yearn,-
Can the hand which cast thee from it now command thee to return?

Return! Alas! My Arab steed! What shall thy master do,
When thou, who wast his all of joy, hast vanish’d from his view?
When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering tears,
Thy bright form, for a moment, like the false mirage appears;
Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary step alone,
Where, with fleet step and joyous bond, thou oft hast borne me on;
And sitting down by that green well, I’ll pause and sadly think
"It was here he bow’d his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!"

When last I saw thee drink! - Away! The fever’d dream is o’er,-
I could not live a day, and know that we should meet no more!
They tempted me, my beautiful! For hunger’s power is strong,-
They tempted me, my beautiful! But I have loved too long.
Who said that I had given thee up? Who said that thou wast sold?
‘Tis false,-‘tis false! My Arab steed! I fling them back their gold!
Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back, and scour the distant plains;
Away! Who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!

BLACK SHEEP by Richard Burton

From their folded tents they wander far,
Their ways seem harsh and wild;
They follow the beck of a baleful star,
Their paths are dream beguiled.
Yet haply they sought but a wilder range,
Some loftier mountain slope,.
And little recked of the country strange
Beyond the gates of hope.

And haply a bell with a luring call
Summoned their feet to tread
Midst the cruel rocks where the deep pitfall
And the lurking snare are spread.
May be in spite of tameless days
Of outcast liberty,
They’re sick at heart of the homely ways
Where their garnered brothers be.

And oft at night when the plains fall dark,
And the hills loom large and dim;
For the Shepherd’s voice they mutely hark,
And their souls go out to him.
Meanwhile, Black Sheep! Black Sheep! We cry,
Safe in the inner fold;
And may be they hear and wonder why,
And marvel, out in the cold.

Black Sheep indeed! The shepherds of this our present, liberal government, rather than protecting the system of capitalism, their assigned flock, deliberately subvert it. America’s free market has been left out in the cold. Baa, baa. Boo hoo, we black sheep.

Spring luscious

LAMBS AT PLAY by Robert Bloomfield

Say, ye that know, ye who have felt and seen
Spring’s morning smiles, and soul-enlivening green,-
Say, did you give the thrilling transport way,
Did your eye brighten, when young lambs at play
Leaped o’er your path with animated pride,
Or gazed in merry clusters by your side?
Ye who can smile - to wisdom, no disgrace-
At the arch meaning of a kitten’s face;
If spotless innocence and infant mirth
Excites to praise, or gives reflection birth;
In shades like these pursue your favorite joy,
Midst nature’ revels, sports that never cloy.
A few begin a short but vigorous race,
And indolence, abashed soon flies the place:
Thus challenged forth, see thither, one by one,
From every side, assembling playmates run;
A thousand wily antics mark their stay,
A starting crowd, impatient of delay;
Like the fond dove from fearful prison freed,
Each seems to say, "come, let us try our speed";
Away they scour, impetuous, ardent, strong,
The green turf trembling as they bound along
Adown the slope, then up the hillock climb,
Where every mol-hill is a bed of thyme,
Then, panting, stop; yet scarcely can refrain,
A bird , a leaf, will set them off again:
Or, of a gale with strength unusual blow,
Scattering the wild-briar roses into snow,
Their little limbs increasing efforts try;
Like the torn flower, the fair assemblage fly,
Ah, fallen rose! Sad emblem of their doom;
Frail as thyself, they perish while they bloom!

A win or lose

Have we won or lost the war on poverty? Lyndon Johnson’s administration aimed for "maximum feasible participation." Today the top 1% of Americans represent 25 % of our country’s income. Have we maximized participation in the the ‘American dream’ or not? Accumulating wealth can be addictive like a drug. Can we similarly win the war on drugs? Does drug abuse (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, pain killers, etc,) really make human life solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short ( to use Hobbes’s words) and incompatible with freedom and civil society? Freedom to make good choices may create wealth; freedom to make bad choices might destroys lives. Expressions of liberty in a free society, however, are the only great enablers. Pondering that, enjoy a lovely poem by Robert Louis Stevenson.

THE COW

The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might
To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.

Let's remember

"What a pleasure it is to spice the world with things like moonlore and weatherlore....To wonder about the moon is an unending pleasure of life. If every man should find his way there and learn everything about the moon, would the loss be greater than the accomplishment?" So asks Eric Sloane in the 1960's but his passion led him to become a collector of wood tools and to describe early American life in the 19th century. Back then, there existed a "reverence for wood." Then women swept dirt floors which they inscribed with designs for special occasions like Christmas. Then, a tree was the symbol of God-given independence. Then a tool was the extension of a man’s hand and words, an honest extension of a man’s mind. Every aspect of pioneer living then depended upon wood. Prior to 1865, wood was at its height, for houses, mills, sleds, tools, roads, wagons, furnishing, furniture, equipment, sleighs, boats and bridges - all hand-made. An alchemy of reverence for wood and freedom of an individual made America great back then. Apply Sloane’s question to today, when technological advancements have taken the wonder out of nature and her resources. Is our loss greater than what we have gained?

So as to not loose wonder for something past, here’s a word mistress’s sonnet, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

You see this dog. It was but yesterday
I mused forgetful on his presence here
Till thought on thought drew downward tear on tear,
When from the pillow where wet-cheeked I lay,
A head as hairy as Faunus thrust his way
Right sudden against my face,-two golden clear
Great eyes astonished mine,-a drooping ear
Did flap me on either cheek to dry the spray!
I started first as some Arcadian
Amazed by goatly god in twilight grove,
But as the bearded vision closelier ran
My tears off, I knew Flush, and rose above
Surprise and sadness - thanking the true Pan
Who, by low creatures, leads to heights of love.

By this we should be known

Lasting examples of a particular time in history are the ways people live or the things people think. Writers, historians, archeologists, philosophers and scientists reveal the past through heroes and stars of the day. Who are our heroes defined by their inner values (not by accidents of fate? Who are our stars by consensus? In our time, we shall be known by our shallowness, anti-intellectualism, false heroes and rock star status President. Will we also be remembered for sentiments such as these by Josiah Gilbert Holland?

My dear, dumb friend, low lying there,
A willing vassal at my feet,
Glad partner of my home and fare,
My shadow in the street,

I look in to your great brown eyes,
Where love and loyal homage sine,
And wonder where the difference lies,
Between your soul and mine!

For all of good that I have found
Within myself or human kind,
Hath royally informed and crowned
Your gentle heart and mind.

I scan the whole broad earth around
For that one heart which, leal and true,
Bears friendship without end or bound,
And find the prize in you.

I trust you as I trust the stars;
Nor cruel loss, nor scoff of pride
Nor beggary, nor dungeon bars,
Can move you from my side!

As patient under injury
As any Christian saint of old,
As gentle as a lamb with me,
But with your brothers bold.

More playful than a frolic boy,
More watchful than a sentinel,
By day and night your constant joy
To you guard and please me well.

I clasp your head upon my breast-
The while you whine and lick my hand-
And thus our friendship is confessed,
And thus we understand!

Ah, Blanco! Did I worship God
As truly as your worship me,
Or follow where my Master trod
With your humility,

Did I sit fondly as His feet,
As you, dear Blanco, sit at mine,
And watch Him with a love as sweet,
My life would grow divine!

Man's best friend

Man’s best friend is a dog; man’s worst enemy is a liberal (progressive, collectivist, socialist, communist, etc.) In liberal land, California, the city planners’ term for light shining where it’s not wanted creating urban nuisance is called "light spillage." They can’t have that! It is 3 times more expensive to install politically and environmentally correct (actually incorrect) LED light bulbs as replacements for sodium-vapor lamps. Three times. But they can have this!

EPITAPH TO A DOG

When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rest below,
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Nor what he was, but what he should have been,
But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master’s own,
Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth-
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven,
Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power-
Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.

Ye, who perchance behold this simple urn,
Pass on - it honors none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;
I never knew but one - and here he lies.

George Gordon, Lord Byron’s friend accompanied him through this vale of tears for only 5 ½ years. Liberals will be around forever.

Man’s best friend is a dog; man’s worst enemy is a liberal (progressive, collectivist, socialist, communist, etc.) In liberal land, California, the city planners’ term for light shining where it’s not wanted creating urban nuisance is called "light spillage." They can’t have that! It is 3 times more expensive to install politically and environmentally correct (actually incorrect) LED light bulbs as replacements for sodium-vapor lamps. Three times. But they can have this!

EPITAPH TO A DOG

When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rest below,
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Nor what he was, but what he should have been,
But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master’s own,
Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth-
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven,
Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power-
Who knows thee well must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy smiles hypocrisy, thy words deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.

Ye, who perchance behold this simple urn,
Pass on - it honors none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;
I never knew but one - and here he lies.

George Gordon, Lord Byron’s friend accompanied him through this vale of tears for only 5 ½ years. Liberals will be around forever.

Earth Day 2009

What does a day on this earth offer? Coal, Electricity and automobiles - 3 gifts from Mother nature via human endeavors. The fall of America, the new Rome, slowly and as yet not violently with the advent of Emperor Obama. The meaningless words of our President’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner: "Mostly we want people reinforcing the need to execute and act on the commitments we all made together because a coordinated response is going to be more forceful." The beauty of a classic poem by Walt Whitman.

DUMB DELIGHTS
I think I could turn and live with animals,
they’re so placid and self-contained:
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do no sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
Not one is dissatisfied- not one is demented with the
mania of owning things;
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived
thousands of years ago;
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole
earth.

Antecedent to Columbine

He and his troops were coming to "vomit on the politics of joy. ... We’re going to wipe you out. We’re going to kill you... We’re going to take you into a dark alley and you’re never going to come out." This was said in Chicago,1968, by the terrorist leader, Tom Hayden. However, none of the participants in these revolutionary maneuvers came to grief. In fact, many entered mainstream society and academia; one of them befriended our new President, Barack Obama.

In 1999, two nutcase students at Columbine University rampaged, killing 12 students and a teacher. Since then, the school (and the country by extension) has done nothing but wallow in grief. On this the 10th anniversary of the massacre, classes have been canceled and a memorial is being held. No talk of fixing the problems that led to this tragedy will be heard.

Lesson learning has been absent all these terrible years since the 60's. Grief that knows no shame stymies learning about corrective measures for atrocities. In fact, parents still blab over the Internet about their faults and rage fantasies without embarrassment. Radicals from the 60's and 70's remain unrepentant in their behavior, proud of their legitimate status in society. Today yet another story emerges, a familiar scenario nowadays, of a ... (you fill in the town) man who kills his wife ( girlfriend or relative ) and ... children (you fill in the number). Yet our culture simply reports these horrors and just accepts such shameful crimes.

Living in Obamaland offers no relief. There’s no new Deal. We’re replaying the Old Deal with its tolerance ( even embrace) of liberalism (progressivism) which per se must remain non-judgmental. If life is the sum of what we focus on, America has not learned from its past mistakes. We loll in the sensational, the anti-establishment, the outrageous, the immoral, the shameless, the sad. We make no attempts to change or suggest changes to our culture of death.

Answer to Columbine

In answer to what went wrong to allow 2 student monsters to run amok at Columbine, I echo a columnist’s statements referring refers to Flannery O’Connor’s 1963 article about the basis of a child’s education. "It concerned neither guns nor violence," she writes, "neither cliques nor experimental approaches to the treatment of adolescent depression. It was about...books. In defending the teaching of the great works of the Western canon rather than those of the modern day (which kids far preferred) she said something wise, the sort of thing an adult might say. She said that the whims and preferences of children should always, always be sublimated to the sense and judgment of their elders."

And what if the student finds that is not to her taste? someone once asked writer O’Connor. "Well that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His (the student’s ) taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.."

Formed indeed! PPP proper, prior parenting - where are you today when you are needed?

A world of words

Pre 1865, American lived in a world of wood, which William Penn called "a substance with a
soul." In 1765, a Boston merchant said that "With our land’s wealth, we can all afford to be independent. There is probably nothing a man needs that we cannot make or grow in America. Look about you! Except for a piece of silk here and there, the clothes on our backs and every stick in our houses is American. We can be, indeed we are, the most independent people on earth." Fast forward to 2009, a chemically and electronically dependent country rendered totally without shame by years of consumption and instant gratification. Americans re-interpret words so they are what they want to hear. Along comes Barack Obama who pulled the wool over enough eyes to become President. Our country is promised hope and change. When Obama promises that "everything I say, there’s a price to pay," his followers acquiesce with patriotic feeling.

OUTRAGEOUS

1. Octomom wants to trademark her name so that she can market a line of clothing or diapers and a video game company also wants to trademark ‘octomom.’ What has free enterprise come to?

2. The U.S. in 2008 had the highest per capital income in the world but politicians and some Americans still complain about T.E.T., tough, economic times. A reality check is needed.

3. A local Goodwill store was forced to close for 3 weeks because a mercury blood pressure machine broke and spilled its contents onto the floor. Haz-mat was called in while free trade was ruled out.

4. A local city school system will participate in a local ‘wellness expo,’ as if this constitutes education.

5. Virginia Tech University canceled classes on the commemoration day of the 2nd anniversary of a student massacre there. Why?

TEA BAG TERRORISM

How, when and why have we Constitutional patriots became ‘Tea Bag Terrorists?" On April 15th we attended the Chillicothe Tea Party. The parties reflect a grass roots effort to protest out-of-control spending by government in Washington funded by excessive taxation We attended knowing that we have now been identified as extremists and potential terrorists by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It seems more than a coincidence that Janet Napolitano, Obama’s Homeland Security Director, issued a 9 page document on threats to American security the day before the Tea Parties. Her report identifies persons who disagree with Obama’s administration policies as potential terrorists, hence the name "Tea Bag Terrorists" comes to mind. On the same day, Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times called tea party participants "insane." Well, we "Tea Bag Terrorists" or we the "insane," held parties of protest in over 2,000 cities throughout the U.S. with hundreds of thousands of Americans in attendance.

At Chillicothe, Betsy Ross, Abraham Lincoln, Uncle Sam and New England patriots with tri-corner hats attended in period costumes. The program began with an invocation to bless the gathering followed by the pledge of allegiance and a singing of our national anthem. A ‘subversive’ start wouldn’t you say for terrorists? A speaker emphasized that Washington did what it wanted by passing the stimulus package without reading it or allowing debate. Another speaker noted that over the last 50 years, morality in America has gone down the drain. A speaker who disapproved of the killing of the unborn received loud support. A high school student complained of the theft by taxation of her bright future. Questions were asked: "Where is stewardship? Why have we abandoned our Constitution? Where is capitalism that made this country great? How many things can’t we do today that we could do 25 years ago? A rendition of the song "I’m proud to be an American,"genuinely aroused the emotions of the listeners. All speakers were ordinary citizens; we avoided the Columbus Tea Party because politicians were to be speakers and we felt they have been the problem not the solution to present woes.
We disappointed the police presence with our proper decorum; they looked bored and lonely on the sidelines. We braved the opprobriun of Homeland Security, the mockery of the mainstream media. Government waste and the stripping of Americans’ basic liberties were the themes on most placards by demonstrators. Our placard read, ‘OINK TO GET YOUR PORK,’ with cute, little piggy faces in the O’s. Other signs read: "Don’t tread on me, T.E.A. Taxed Enough Already, Give me Liberty not debt, R Are you T’d off?, Read my lipstick, no new taxes, Spread my work ethic not my wealth, Stop stealing my children’s future, Born Free but taxed to death, Liberty is all the stimulus we need, I am not your ATM, No Fascism ( also socialism) in America, Vote for change we can afford." The crowd of about 500 at Chillicothe was predominately composed of locals but I saw a signatory from Kentucky. Babies in slings and strollers, young adults and seniors ( some handicapped), conservatives, libertarians, Republicans and Democrats - all were represented in a nonpartisan, civil but angry crowd. Truly a tea party is a grassroots movement that is as one participant said, "a freedom loving American thing."

So how dangerous are we ‘Tea Bag Terrorists?" Obama’s Homeland Security Department’s report describes terrorists as "those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." Noteworthy is the fact that this report actually refers to American citizens who disagree with policies of the Obama administration as ‘terrorist.’ Yet it is now official administration policy to call foreign terrorism a "man-caused disaster"so as not to offend foreign terrorists. Also noteworthy, the report violates our Constitution’s founding principle of states’ rights and places federal authority over our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We can handle being called "Tea Bag Terrorists’ but the Obama administration goes too far when in the same document it also cites homecoming soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential terrorist fodder. It says that "right wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat." It seems they cannot let go of the left-wing vision of our military as uneducated and prone to violence. Veterans at the tea party audience were applauded as well as the speaker who saluted the greatest military in the world.

A spokesman for the President said Obama probably isn’t aware of the tea parties. Really? Isn’t the problem that the administration does not hear the people? The first step in hearing the people would be for Obama to fire Janet Napolitano, a true un-American.

A little more than an hour of solidarity with fellow Americans who still honor our Founding Fathers and the Republic they created, served us well.

The dark side

"Get out of our lives" or "please allow us whatever floats our boats." Which deep philosophical principle governs the national tea parties today? My suggestion is to consider a darker thought about insanity. Why have some Americans lost their sanity? On Easter morning, a statue of the Virgin Mary at Saint Monica’s Catholic church in California was beheaded! Who or what could go that far with a ‘statement?’

Those who went that far in World War II were Nazi SS soldiers, carrying out insane butchery under the cover of words like ‘artistic,’ ‘clever,’ military importance,’ energetic,’ experimentation,’ (diverse and sadistic methods of murder and mayhem) and ‘rest centres,’ (brothels). Who went that far was the Wehrmacht itself under Adolph Hitler that employed the slave labor of prisoners, working them 18 hrs. a day, cowering under the lash, holed up at nights 6 in a dog kennel, 8' square, starving and freezing to death.

Who can perpetrate the evil of killing Christ again via his blessed mother? Who indeed this Easter in Santa Monica CA? Who indeed on the Eastern front in Russia, 1944!

More outrages

Let’s not restrict outrages to the present, big O’s administration. Insanity being viral, outrageous nonsense affects our entire cultural and political systems in America.

1. Almost every car dealership now offers some type of ‘walk-away’ program wherein car payments will be made up to one year ( $500 a month) for buyers who suffer some type of life-style threatening situation, for example, a job loss or medical emergency. GM calls this comprehensive program the "total confidence" plan. With bail out money from the rich, auto companies spread the wealth around to the poor.

2. 2,000 times more energy is consumed in the production of bottled water over tap water. At the same time, it takes 50 billion barrels of oil (think fossil fuel) to manufacture the bottles for bottled water each year in the United States. This is bottled water, for God’s sake, not tap water which is safe, satisfying and fossil free.

3. If a dog bites a man or child, it must be quarantined for 30 days either at the owner’s home or in an animal shelter. Assumed is the possibility of rabies; assured is the absence of it in virtually all pet dogs. The only price paid for this needless process is common sense.

4. A woman living payment-free in her home allows a mortgage broker to ‘persuade’ her to refinance her no-cost mortgage for one that exceeds her monthly income by more than $400. Who is insane here?

Get thee to a tea party tomorrow, April 15th.!

An unhappy Easter

Nazi Germans rationalized their brutalities on the Eastern front in World War II by:
1) the end justifies the means (of the new order).
2) the victims were just Communists and untermensch ( sub-human mongol-slav).
3) what is ordered is ordered (befehlt ist befehlt).

If this is not perfectly clear, what about the words of a Nazi General: "What matters is not what is true or false, but exclusively what is believed."

Unhappily, what’s clear is that blindly following the leader is a silly child’s game.

Some big outrages

I am outraged by liberal, political correctness gone mad. in the big O’s administration.

1. Bicycles, older library books and youth-model ATV’s which contain lead in places which manufacturers say children won’t reach with their mouths, if at all, are illegal to sell or distribute.

2. Eco-friendly Easter eggs for the ‘roll’ on the White House lawn, are fashioned out of eco-friendly wood, painted with vegetable dyes and wrapped in eco-friendly wrappers.

3. The big O claims that Muslims contribute much to our culture when only 90% of American Arabs are Christian.

4. Home-baked pies for fund raising church activities are illegal because they are not produced in state inspected kitchens.

5. Joe Biden buys an expensive dog from a ‘high profile‘ breeder who is then harassed by PETA and forced into $4000 of legal fees.

6. The big O flies a chef 800 miles from St. Louis to prepare 20 pizzas for him at the White House.

7. The big O refuses to visit Normandy’s World War II cemetery during his visit to France because he doesn’t want to diss the Germans.

8. No one can feed peanuts to the birds at the Statehouse in Madison, WI. because some child with an allergy might touch a nut or pick one up or alas, eat one.

9. A new addiction to tanning beds has been added to the list of compulsions because a woman developed a rash and fed her habit by robbery.

10. The Obamas as symbols of all that’s rich and elite and out of touch with the common people have accepted a Portuguese water spaniel as the new, family pet.

These are by no means the top 10, just the first 10 outrages that I’ve noticed in recent days. I wonder who will care for the family pet that biologically shares the same DNA with a lonely puppy or dog that could have been adopted from a local animal shelter. If you feel like one of those abandoned, unwanted canines (or felines), more than likely headed for euthanasia with millions of others considered useless, then join a crowd at a National Tea Party April 15th, 2009.

Obama banal

Miss America from Indiana 2009 states that her platform is to "promote community service and involvement" which can "open eyes to what amazing experience it is." Profound, huh?

One writer contends that the 18th and 19th centuries were the "most remarkable period of practical inventiveness in world history." I contend that 2009 is the most unremarkable year of inane platitudinousness in American history.

A new word

I encountered a new word, IATROGENIC. Like any good student I must now use it in a sentence after looking up its definition. Obama’s world is in need of healing. Regulation is out of control. When will a strong, new IATROGENIC drug (one of healing induced by a physician esp. for disorders resulting from autosuggestion ) be prescribed for liberal politicians? In PA, state health inspectors have banned the sale of home-baked pies because they are illegal under the food-safety code having not been prepared in a state-inspected kitchen. My mental outrage against such a dismissal of common sense and tradition is only surpassed by my suppressed primal scream over America’s descent into insanity. With the healthiest and wealthiest populace and the safest food supply on the planet, how has America come down to this deprivation of individual freedom and initiative? Home-baked goods are unsafe because they have not been prepared on the premises? How can a tradition reaching back almost a half century be scrapped? How can politicians get away with this c...? What will be next on the list of dangerous violations of laws passed by liberal, insane politicians abetted and supported by liberal voters? Knowing it’s an impossible dream, I still dare to hope that a much needed anti-Fascist iatrogenic will be found. What anagram would be appropriate for its introduction into the mad, liberals’ market?

Rough sess ahead

About a great adventurer and conqueror is said: "He only can permanently increase the wealth of mankind who increases man’s knowledge of himself and intensifies his creative impulses." President Obama is making sure this doesn’t happen by punishing achievement and encouraging ignorance now that he’s in power. From the same author at the conclusion of his book, I quote: " This deed of Magellan has shown for all time that an idea, winged by genius and sturdily energized by passion, proves stronger than the elements of nature, and that a thing which a hundred generations have regarded as no more than a wish-dream can by one man in his short lifetime be translated into the realm of reality and become an imperishable truth."

Magellan’s genius (diligence) allowed him to dream of circumnavigating the globe. Will Obama’s diligence re-fashion the map of these United States into a collectivist society? Within the short space of his first 100 days, Obama’s progressive ship of State has already made dramatic progress across our Republican sea. We’re in for some mighty Sturm und Drang.

aPRIL MADNESS

‘Obama to America, all my words are to be heeded. All bets on irresponsibility are on the table. All name-calling must be punished. Off with the heads of reason.’

Here are a few backup examples of the state of our culture excluding a daily dose of murder and mayhem, familial, societal and even animal in the case of the shooting of Marcus Luttrell’s dog, Dazy. Poor little ones, ages 3-5 in pre-school are out of control even though they don’t belong in indoctrination ‘u’ so early at the expense of parents who choose not to teach them good behavior or allow them to be uninhibited, inquiring children. Music critics with geriatric age qualifications refuse to get a ‘religion’ because they still believe in the "covenant between rock guitarists and their audiences. Our government has added life insurance companies to the list of bailout recipients. GM encourages debt and irresponsibility by offering to pay up to $500 a month for 12 months to consumers who lose their job and can’t make their car payments. I for one am not a taxpayer who approves of this use of my indenture because I choose to drive a used vehicle and avoid credit. Two more crooks have gotten ‘away with it’ - Sen. Ted Stevens with theft in office; Al Franken with theft of office.

‘We are all in this together according to our multi-labeled leader who speaks the foreign language of forked-tongue. No, we are not all in this together, President Obama. Have you noticed that whether delineated as a liberal, a Marxist, a Fascist, a progressive, a socialist or a collectivist, no one is also calling you a Democrat? American to Obama, "All your words are to be ignored; all your ideas to be rejected. Long live our free Republic."

Heads up America, all Obama messages should be ignored. On with liberty

Remner the fallen this Easter

‘Stranger! To Sparta say, her faithful band
Here lie in death, remembering her command.’
" Never will these lines, telling of the heroism of the defenders of Thermopylae and ever after regarded as the song of praise to bravery, fidelity and soldierly obedience, be carved in stone at Stalingrad in memory of Sixth Army’s martyrdom on the Volga. Nor is any cross or cenotaph likely to raised over the vanished traces of the German soldiers who starved, froze and died there.

Yet the memory of their indescribable suffering , their unparalleled heroism, fidelity, and devotion to duty will live on long after the victors’ cries of triumph have died away and the bereaved the disillusioned and the bitter at heart have fallen silent." Field-marshal Erich von Manstein

Tales of war and woe with their overtones of victors and vanquished, remain forever fascinating, riveting and challenging in their ability to simultaneously repulse and addict the reader. Me!

Straight talk

What this culture needs is straight talk rather than euphemistic gobbledygook about the perils of prom time (and moral behavior in general). Some politically correct radio guest spoke about "different impressionistic events" involving young people. I’m clueless as to the direct message here. Youth, he said, should "dress more affirmative" at a "stylistic event." He emphasized the "positively impressionistic" as he tried to "get a little historical about the problem we have." Oh, give me a break! Were these words about prom time? Don’t drink; don’t screw should be the frank message to teens at prom time or any other time. Our culture is now based upon obfuscation and equivocation. Our society pressures people to excuse every crime. In an ideal, vintage era of sin, such meaningless nonsense would not have been tolerated. As early as 1939, George Orwell noted that, "We have sunk to such a depth that the restatement of the obvious has become the first duty of intelligent men."

Where today do we find intelligent men and women? Or who now can identify the ‘obvious’? I’m obviously depressed over the state of ‘affairs." But it does me no good to rile myself or succumb to justifiable anger. Anger against self is one definition of depression. I’ve been there and done that with depression, but with age flows enough wisdom to confront the obvious without losing optimism.

We’re out here yet, we holdouts for straight talk and direct teaching about good and evil, about the advisable and inadvisable, about respect and the damage of the diss.

End times again

In 1887, Dr. Parker eulogized Henry Ward Beecher as a man who "came to earth in summer; went to Heaven in spring. Wherever he came among men he brought June sunshine and music, and made even desponding and surly men feel that a fuller and warmer, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ itself, was ‘at hand.’ ... To know God, to love God, to accept Christ, to serve Christ, to magnify Christ, to grow in grace, in knowledge, and in truth, to be pure, wise, gentle, sympathetic, were the glowing dogmas which gave his immortal ministry its strength and glory." ... Mere eulogy is a waxen flower, that melts n the hand that proudly grasps it; but true eulogy is a living flower, rooted alike in earth and sun."

In 2009, too many men and women in Europe and the United States laud our new President Obama for his sense of "activism, dynamism, youth, vigor and radicalism," and irresistible appeal according to a smitten journalist and commentator, P. Noonan.

The contrast between Beecher and Obama is stark; no comparison is apt. A similarity can be drawn, however, between events 2000 thousand years ago and events today. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the righteous God repeatedly punished his sinful people. Today, 2000 years after the New Testament, the would-be gods called socialists, collectivists, pleasure Nazis and liberal Fascists punish people willy-nilly, for politically incorrect transgressions and sins of self-interest. Their imposed rules and regulations, like self-flagellations, attempt to replace peoples’ free wills while at the same time they ignore and avoid the root cause of sinfulness in societies - the abandonment of God’s commandments.

Easter’s here again to remind us it’s the season for true repentance, for a return to the reason for righteousness - adherence God’s moral rules of conduct. Good luck, America. Happy Easter Egg hunting. Our leader’s name is Obama not Beecher.

This vale of tears

"This earthly life has been fitly characterized as a pilgrimage though a vale of tears. In the language of poetry, man himself has been called a pendulum betwixt a smile and a tear. Every thing in this world is characterized by imperfection. The best people have many faults. The clearest mind only sees through a glass darkly. The purest heart is not without spot. All the intercourse of society, all the transactions of business, all our estimates of human conduct and motive must be based upon the sad assumption that we can not wholly trust ourselves or our fellow-men. Every heart has its grief, every house has its skeleton, every character is marred with weakness and imperfection.. And all these aimless conflicts of our minds, and unanswered longings of our hearts, should lead us to rejoice the more in the Divine assurance that a time is coming when night shall melt into noon, and the mystery shall be clothed with glory."

Notwithstanding the above truth which I quote from an unknown author, this vale of tears is sorely being tried as our big O, President, Sayyid Obama rules the world. In his bi-polar America, liberal, socialist and collectivist supporters of their leader demonize anything big representing wealth, like big oil, big business, big corporation and big incomes. They overlook g spots before their eyes that also represent bigness, like the big O himself, big rich sports’ stars, big rich movie and music stars, big judgments in lawsuits and even our Potentate’s big mamma. Oh well, liberal hypocrisy is systemically big.

"There is no fountain which the healing angel troubles with his restless and life-giving wings so constantly as the fountain of tears, and only those too lame and bruised to bathe miss the blessed influence." As J.G. Holland writes, it’s time not miss the call for a long, deep cry. Cry, my beloved country.

Look ahead

Amid the clouds carrying temporal economic and moral crises around the globe, it’s appropriate to hear from George D. Prentice around the turn of the last century.

"It can not be that earth is man’s only abiding-place. It can not be that our life is a bubble, cast up by the ocean of eternity to float another moment upon its surface, and then sink into nothingness and darkness forever. Else why is it that the high and glorious aspirations which leap like angels from the temples of our heart, are forever wandering abroad, unsatisfied? Why is it that the rainbow and the clouds cover over us with a beauty that is not of earth, and then pass off and leave us to muse on their faded loveliness.? Why is it that the stars which hold their festival around the midnight throne are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, and are forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? Finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty are presented to the view, and then taken from us leaving the thousand streams of affections to flow back in an Alpine torrent upon our hearts?

We are born for a higher destiny than of earth. There is a realm where the rainbow never fades; where the stars will be spread out before us like the islands that slumber on the ocean; and where the beautiful things that here pass before us like visions will stay in our presence forever!"

Have faith, ye who suffer from liberal Fascism and creeping socialism, there is hope for true, permanent change.

Liberal fascism

Amid the madness of liberal Fascism and creeping socialism that floats around the globe, let’s hear from Wm. Ellery Channing some time around the turn of the last century.

"In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am - no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling - if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, If Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespear to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom - I shall not pine for want of intellectual companion ship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live."

Take note Obama and your fellow ‘level playing fielders’ around the world. Equality under the law and shared prosperity begin behind the pages of a good book, with reading rather that from externalized waste of time and energy. Reading is the basis of education. Ignorance, therefore, is the world’s most expensive commodity, traded and hedged today but unfortunately undervalued, underpriced and under-invested.

Bi-polar America

No cure is in sight, unfortunately, for our bi-polar America. Extremes persist. Ultra-leftists like the PSA, the Party of Socialism and Liberation with front groups subverting freedom and capitalism, persist in the advancement of their ‘causes.’ And they receive news coverage. Tea parties across America to protest Obama’s agenda of socialism and liberation from capitalism, garner no notice from journalists or the press. Thank goodness for the Internet where information flows. Another, albeit banal example of bi-polar behavior is the existence of entrepreneurial businesses offering "spa experience packages." These liberal but capitalistic endeavors ironically contrast with calls from conservatives for restrictions on hedonism in daily living.

Bi-polar implies extremes but more than that it represents hypocrisy within the extremes. We who have eyes that see and brains that process reality are worried about this phenomenon because our bi-polar counterparts pervert reality. Liberal arts and humanities curricula in colleges and universities teach and preach nothing but liberal, political ideology. The great ideas in works of literature, history, philosophy, sociology and sometimes even science, have gone bye-bye. Jared Diamond explores the future of the human animal in his book "The Third Chimpanzee." A worthy bi-polar quest indeed!