I double dare

Is anarchy just the flip side of the coin of freedom? Is ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform just another name for commune ism? Is Thomas Hobbes correct when he observed that "man is wolf to man," meaning that the apposition of predator to peacemaker in homo sapiens’ make-up explains all self-interest? It must be so, because liberal vs. conservative in an open warfare of ideas and lifestyles today. And we women lead the way.

We women lead. Liz Cheney, Michele Malkin, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and me, Carolyn McLaughlin. We women lead the conservative revolution. We have no choice. Hope, change - the big O’s revolutionary guard of children - are being indoctrinated in public schools as I speak. Yes they say they can. No they can’t because we’re out here pushing back with the truth. Other women pen memoirs but my conservatism is a lived memoir.
Check me out if you dare.

2 & 2= 3

What are examples of the "fractal geometry of American culture," to which a book reviewer alludes? The prevalence today of the ‘memoir of abuse’? The inverse thinking of liberals? The total ignorance of our schoolchildren that becomes incrementally more expensive? Andrew Carnegie’s idea that "much better is this great irregularity (of wealth) than universal squalor?" All of these fragments and many more construct America. Check out the diversity of protesters at the G-20 summit recently held in Pittsburgh. Tattoos and toted placards from socialists, Marxists, environmentalists, anti-capitalists, anarchists and pacifists, both professional and amateur were on display. Yet these anti-establishment elements are marginal and dwarf in numbers to the law-abiding and rational people in our society. A little dab of realistic thinking would do every citizen good; otherwise, 2 plus 2 in the future might add up to 3.

In a clear vase

In a clear vase
For a fall bouquet-
A rosy coneflower,
Violet asters,
A vanilla daisy,
Yellow rudbeckia,
Twin deep-red mini roses,
Black-eyed susans,
Pale pink sweet peas,
Sprig of yellow goldenrod,
Artichoke sunflowers-
Cheery dinner guests.

His mean streak

Yes, our President Obama possesses a mean streak. I choose my word ‘possesses’ carefully because in order to declare such I grant that meanness of character is a lot devilish and, yes, gratuitous. Who can deny that Obama loves to jab former President Bush at every opportunity, referring to the ‘mess’ he inherited or the unilateralism he now rejects? Are not Obama’s small hand movements like rubbing his temple telling us something when he is listening to a rival political candidate speak? Obama is one ‘mean dude.’ His congenital lying is, like oil, a ‘black oxygen’ and the ‘devil’s excrement.’ If you can’t attribute each utterance of the One to a lie, try renaming it a ‘premeditated deception.’ The intent and result will be the same. Our President is a liar with a mean streak. I will continue to be as far away as possible from him and guilt by association. What about you?

Memorials

"Still though chaos
Works on the ancient plan;
Two things have changed not
Since first the world began,
The beauty of the wild green earth
And the bravery of man."
This was written by a 30 year old soldier killed in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme in World War I. This by a 23 year old in his poem, "Before Action."

"I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good bye to all of this!
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord."

Thousands of memorials commemorate the dead of World War I:
A statue of a caribou calling out in anguish at Newfoundland’s losses.
A statue of a kilted Highlander.
A Celtic cross.
Massive pillars etched with 73,335 names
An obelisk with 4 miniature tanks.
A fence made from tank gun barrels and driving chains.
A sculpture of a struggling Castor and Pollux ( who became stars in the Gemini).
A red dragon sculpted in iron grasping a stand of barbed wire in its claw.
One surviving tree, a hornbeam, from a battle, maintained as a memorial.

Each is a memorial to battles and death at places like the river Ancre remembered by another poet.
"The struggling Ancre had no part
In these new hours of mine,
And yet its stream ran through my heart;
I heard it grieve and pine,
As if its rainy, tortured blood
Had swirled into my own,
When by its battered bank I stood
And shared its wounded moan."

SO WHY AMERICA HAVE WE NO MEMORIAL YET TO 9/11/01?

Once denied

"I know not the man," Peter the Apostle said, thrice, in the garden of Gethsemane, thus denying his knowledge of the Christ even though he was one of his followers. I paraphrase our President Obama, in his response to an interviewer on television, when he said, only once, "I know not about Acorn," thus denying his knowledge of the devilish organization to which he previously swore his allegiance. Obviously, our leader in the White House is three times a better liar than a man who would become the leader of the Christian world.

As an aside, let’s remember that terrorists today know that lying is "in." Liberal, progressive politicians, masters of the art of deception, have exemplified this behavior advancing their agendas for years. Lies today typically get one "out" of trouble and/or prison. Lies often get one into positions of power because the truth does not free a person. Oh shame on Obama, you dissembler!

Leagacy costs

The AFL-CIO’s new President blames the lack of competitiveness between GM, Ford and Chrysler and BMW and Toyota on "legacy costs." Let me translate. Legacy costs are defined as excessive, unnecessary health benefits and pensions won, by the Unions at the expense of the consumer, which are unsustainable by a company’s current and future workers. Union workers have no right to expect a guaranteed legacy which costs more than a profitable company can afford. But they so believe. We taxpayers via the government have bailed out the 2 big automakers ( not Ford). The cost of this legacy will be shouldered by taxpaying citizens.

What will be the legacy cost of our President’s ‘double-cross’ of our Czech and Polish allies and the planned long range missile shield program? According to a biographer of Civil War general, Phil Sheridan, the "unwanted children of the same defeatist father" ... are "slowness, timidity and caution." Obama has no intention of reacting to the threat of a war-monger, Iran. Obama wants no part of a victory in any war of weapons. Obama is slow, timid and cautious, Why? He has proven in his few short months as President that his 1st order of business is to undermine our nation’s status as a Constitutional Republic by taking America down a few notches in repute in the eyes of the rest of the world.

My enquiring mind also wants to know how we will recoup the legacy costs of the blind liberals whose policies dominate our society and culture. 77 million abortions have occurred since the passage of Roe v. Wade by young boomers, about the same number as the same baby boomers today. Yes, they adversely affected the moral fibre of our society in the past but they still advocate for government, not private individuals, to distribute social justice. Of course, they deny - as always - reality. Conservatives not liberals already give billions of dollars in charity to social justice causes; liberals in their parsimony do not. Instead, they depend upon a blind rationale that government should take money from the people and allocate it to charitable causes. 1. This removes the voluntary aspect of good will. 2. This just double dips into the pockets of those who already give to charity. 3. This means that the charitable causes will be liberal.

How can liberals without enquiring minds know so much about how to fix our country? At the cost of a future devoid of reason (and common sense) what will be America’s legacy?

Liar or coward

On the floor of Congress protocol demands that one not call the President a liar or a coward. Yet English parliamentary procedures have traditionally and often violated this rule even ‘progressing’ to the point of upending the meaning of treason in order to execute Charles I of England. Our House of Representatives only chose to ‘disapprove’ of Joe Wilson’s outburst, ‘You lie," probably because technically Joe did not call Obama a liar. Instead of a disapproval, a member of Congress could have been reprimanded, censured or expelled. But it’s irrelevant because liberals continuously lie. Cowardly liberals hide behind their curtain of inverted reality. Nevertheless, somehow America and Americans ( politicians included) need to look to the past, to real embodiments of heroic truth tellers. For example, Winston Churchill stood up against both appeasement by other Western nations and Hitler’s military advances, vowing to fight on against Hitler to the last man because he knew that subjugation and dishonor would be the only alternatives for England. Perhaps he saved the world by this stubborn act of courage, biding time which eventually paid off when the United States and Russia entered World War II.

Winston Smith, the hero of the novel 1984, appropriately named after Churchill by author George Orwell, raised a glass to toast the past as his 1st act of revolt against the ‘new order’ of Big Brother’s communism. What’s right and honorable (even if past) never goes out of style especially if the future greatness of a country is at stake. Today, America should be especially alarmed. Why? Former President Jimmy (the Crazy) Carter has spoken the lie that America is a racist country who cannot accept a black President. In the past he often abandoned protocol criticizing Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Liberals lie. Jimmy lies. Obama lies. How cowardly it is to lie and deliberately forsake truth!

Whose extinction?

Here’s a lie and the liar who tells a big one. Pity the hapless birds. Betsy Loyless, in charge of SVP policy (?) from the National Audubon Society in Washington comments on the "legitimate concerns about the threat of wind turbines to bird populations," by answering that she does not defend "a fossil fuel status quo that poses far greater risks; it lies instead in improved site selection and design for green energy facilities." Having drunk the global warming kool-aid, Betsy throws out reason in order to substitute her liberal agenda that justifies the lethal wind turbines. When she says that "consultations between energy and wildlife experts can steer wind turbines away from major flyways and designated Important Bird Areas and toward lands with huge wind potential but far less habitat value,"any idiot like myself can counter with the objection that only nature, not man, determines where sufficient wind blows to justify a wind turbine. Nature, stupid. With her reason blown into the wind and lost to the global warming and fossil fuel agenda, Betsy continues that "the status quo of oil and coal development has already destroyed or degraded countless acres of habitat essential to birds, wildlife and healthy communities. You don’t see the carcasses, but the toll is undeniable and increasing. Meanwhile, fossil fuel-driven climate change ( ffdc) is already disrupting migratory and nesting patterns around the world." Really. Has she consulted scientific data lately about the present numbers of birds and mammals (and insects and amphibians)? A liberal bird lover (?) is apparently willing to throw birds into the turbines by saying that "If not addressed, scientists predict it ( ffdc above) will drive entire species to extinction; that’s far worse than the threat from any wind turbine." Any idiot like myself knows it’s time for nature to exact her sweet revenge by somehow driving all emotionally delusive liars into extinction.

NUTTY NUGGETS

CONGRATULATIONS! An afficionado of Grape-Nuts cereal, salutes you. Post’s cereal has been my standard. The generic version from Kroger was rejected as decidedly inferior in taste and quality. Then my local Washington Court House Aldi store recently shelved your Millville Nutty Nuggets which I tried in the 24 oz. box for a lower price (compared with Wal-Mart’s) than Grape-Nuts. They are not as hard as Post’s product which I often soggied up before eating because my senior teeth are not as strong as those of my youth. They are just as flavorful and conducive to slight sugaring and fruit garnishing before eating. They surpass Post’s in flavor.

Yes, I will return to buy boxes not only for myself and husband but also for two of my children that love grape nuts cereal too. Hearing a ‘stupid’ government add for the newly re-named food stamp program SNAP, I can quote that "healthy food within reach" begins with a breakfast (which I never skip) of your Nutty Nuggets.
Sincerely,

L.L. & O

Liv, Lennox and Obama, the progressive, dynamic trio, like three prongs of a trident, have stabbed the victims and the victims’ families of 9/11 through the heart. On August 11th, as a prelude to the 8th anniversary of the attack on our civilization by 4 planes hijacked planes by terrorists from the Arab world, a conference call (meeting) was held between President Obama, President Lennox of the National hip-hop caucus and Liv, Vice-President of strategic and partnership programs. This arc of revisionist extremism was bolstered by many left-wing and politically-correct groups including (Oh God, I can’t say it without wincing on behalf of animals and avians) the National Wildlife Federation. To rescue 9/11 from the right wing’s culture of fear, the decision was reached to convert a day of tragedy, ripe for commemoration, into a day of service to community or government, a day of hope disconnected from the horrible event of 9/11. Thus, we can chalk up another perversion to the left. Call the left socialists in this situation because service to our fellow man, to our leader and thus to our country perverts the reality at Manhattan’s twin towers and on the ground at the Pentagon and Shanksville, PA.on Sept. 11, 2001. L.L.& O. and their fellow travelers pervert grief into hollow hopes for change in the guise of community and social service. Liv, Lennox and our big O, a dangerous triumvirate indeed lead this beloved country into places darker and more painful than the grief we felt on 9/11/01.

Back again

Those days are gone forever that Lieutenant General Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, USMC in 1953 glorified when he said: " The days of eloquent speeches and oratory are outmoded. What the public wants and demands today are sincere statements and facts from men who have the experience and the knowledge of what they are talking of."

Au contraire! Our President and leader speechifies eloquently (according to his worshipers). Yesterday he addressed the Unions in his thrall, today he’ll be heard by public school children across America and tomorrow he stands before the Joint Session of Congress. Obama personifies what Chesty abhorred - the elitism of the disconnected from reality on the ground. Speechifying constitutes the entity we now call our national leader. 27 speeches on his health care agenda, 92 speeches in which it figures prominently are examples enough. When will those days come back again that a simple, fighting Marine championed? Whenever a Chesty like Sarah Palin talks to the ‘other’ half of America that understands implicitly the value of ideas and truths expressed clearly to an audience exercising reason and common sense - the media and elites demonize her as old-fashioned and out-of-touch.

Au contraire! Ours is a country bifurcated, divided, divisive, separated into a pro or con slavery-like debate over a pro or con liberal Washington rule. Chesty realized that traditional Christian values, honest work and personal integrity counted for greatness. Our nation’s youth he contended throughout his life, are "as good as their fathers and grandfathers..." If they have "the proper leadership on high levels, we’ll never have anything to fear..." He asked that we Americans "leave your sons alone and let them grow to be MEN." He believed that actions trump words.

Consistency trumps showmanship. Marching to the tune of one’s personal drummer trumps the cacaphony of consistent contradictions as evidenced by our President Obama. Is America on the path to becoming a sissified Obamaland?
Au contraire!

Obama P.C.C.

Barack Obama P.C.C. Three titles being better than one, of course, our President can boast academic significations of P for President., C for comrade and C for czar. Our leader is like an overly qualified candidate with multiple diplomas. His disciplines represent him as President (duly elected by a slim majority), Comrade (as in Communist) and Czar ( as in imperial dictator). When one says something better than I, why not quote? Obama’s reign is now an "orchestrated subversion of our way of life (American) composed by a cabal recruited in the White House." Check out today’s (Sunday, 9/5/09) Internet reading from Victor Davis Hansen to further elaborate and clarify these premises and conclusion.

TYPICAL POLITITIAN

I’m reminded of Mencken’s sound description of the typical politician:

He is a man who has lied and dissembled, and a man who has crawled. He knows the taste of boot-polish. He has suffered kicks in the tonneau of his pantaloons. He has taken orders from his superiors in knavery and he has wooed and flattered his inferiors in sense. His public life is an endless series of evasions and false pretences. He is willing to embrace any issue, however idiotic, that will get him votes, and he is willing to sacrifice any principle, however sound, that will lose them for him. I do not describe the democratic politician at his inordinate worst; I describe him as he is encountered in the full sunshine of normalcy. He may be, on the one hand, a cross-roads idler striving to get into the State Legislature by grace of the local mortgage-sharks and evangelical clergy, or he may be, on the other, the President of the United States. It is almost an axiom that no man may make a career in politics in the Republic without stooping to such ignobility: it is as necessary as a loud voice. Now and then, to be sure, a man of sounder self-respect may make a beginning, but he seldom gets very far. Those who survive are nearly all tarred, soon or late, with the same stick. They are men who, at some time or other, have compromised with their honour, either by swallowing their convictions or by whooping for what they believe to be untrue. They are in the position of the chorus girl who, in order to get her humble job, has had to admit the manager to her person. And the old birds among them, like chorus girls of long experience come to regard the business resignedly and even complacently. It is the price that a man who loves the clapper-clawing of the vulgar must pay for it under the democratic system. He becomes a coward and a trimmer ex-officio. Where his dignity was in the days of his innocence there is now only a vacuum in the wastes of his subconscious. Vanity remains to him, but not pride.
From H.L. Mencken, A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (1995), pp. 31-32.

EARPLUGS ANYONE?

Earplugs anyone? On Tuesday, President Obama is taking his propaganda drive to the nation’s schools. A historical first will be the President addressing all of the nation’s pubic school children at once in a televised address. For this time period he will be educator- and- parent- in- chief. And this is just his warmup for another one of his pedantic addresses to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. If you can fool the kids on Tuesday, fooling the bozos on Wednesday should be a piece of cake. What exactly is the point of his pretension to lecture to children and Congresscritters? CBS reports that as of August, Obama has given over 200 speeches in 240 days. Obama’s teleprompter has become an integral part of the administration; on occasions when it has failed, Obama has become almost speechless.

It becomes more obvious each day that Obama’s presidency is about speeches and recreational diversions, not performance or accomplishment. Every problem demands an eloquent speech to slip past the glaring flaws and incompetence of the policies he proposes. Speechifying, or I prefer the old term for political speeches, ‘bloviating,’ is what Obama does best; it won him the Presidency. Unfortunately, he apparently has nothing better to do that what he does best.

The kiddie speech will only cost the children a couple hours of lost class time, which I am sure they will enjoy as goof-off time, but, of course, I wonder how much money this will cost cash strapped schools nationwide? The Wednesday prime time bloviation to Congress, hereinafter referred to as Congresscritters, will cost the TV networks $20 million and who knows about the costs to the rest of the economy.

Since this is primarily a propaganda push, I feel that the kiddies and the Congresscritters should be provided with optional earplugs if they think they have heard ‘it’ all before. Because eloquence, exploited by a master, trumps reason, I think the captive audiences need a fighting chance to hold on to their sanity with ear plugs that allow them to just ‘space out.’ Think of Odysseus, in Homer’s classic Greek epic, who ties himself to the mast of his ship to prevent his succumbing to the sweet song of the Sirens inducing him to jump overboard. The kiddies are at a disadvantage because after this first ever Presidential intrusion into the classroom, the White House and the U.S. Department of Education are providing teachers with a followup ‘study guide’ that contains assignments like "Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of Congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?" or "What are your three favorite words" of the President? And my personal favorite, "Teachers can extend the learning process by having students … write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals."

I may be paranoid but do I also detect a bit of paranoia in Obama’s concern about fractious citizens (called mobs) at Town hall Meetings and Tea Parties who will not listen to their Leader? Could this be his motivation to reach out to the children thus bypassing the adult population? The teacher’s guide, of course, does not have the companion question, "Why is it important for our elected officials to listen to us?" This is not a question that seems to occur to our rulers in Imperial Washington.

On Tuesday Obama attempts to imprint on the gullible minds of the kiddies, but on Wednesday he speaks to ossified brains of the Congresscritters who will be parsing every word of his speech trying to determine how they can personally gain or, at least, divert some funds to their home districts. Their pre-programmed minds will be asking ‘Where’s the pork?" rather than asking what do their constituents want or what’s good of their country. This week’s Rasmussen opinion poll found that 57% of Americans believe that 100% of Congresscritters should be replaced. Also, 42% of Americans say names selected at random from the local phone book could walk the political path between common sense and insanity better than the Congresscritters and our current leader.

Earplugs are called for. Odysseus could have used them against the seductive song of the Sirens. Many shoppers and drivers (even those on riding mowers ) have already opted to stop up their ears with music or to talk on a cell phone rather than hear the chatter of the outside world. Is there no Constitutional right for citizens to have earplugs to stop the drone of politicians, especially Obama?
　

Endymion

Endymion
In Greek legend a beautiful young shepherd loved by Selene was granted eternal youth and sleep at her bequest. Also from Greek, is the word demos meaning the people, as in democracy.

The rising moon has hid the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,
Lie on the landscape green,
With shadows brown between.
And silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana, in her dreams,
Had dropt her silver bow
Upon the meadows.
On such a tranquil night as this,
She woke Endymion with a kiss,
When, sleeping in the grove,
He dreamed not of her love.
Like Dian’s kiss, unasked, unsought,
Love gives itself but is not bought;
Nor voice, nor sound betrays
Its deep, impassioned gaze.
It comes - the beautiful, the free,
The crown of all humanity -
In silence and alone
To seek the elected one.
It lifts the boughs, whose shadows deep
Are life’s oblivion, the soul’s sleep,
And kisses the closed eyes
Of him who slumbering lies.
Oh weary hearts! O slumbering eyes!
O drooping souls, whose destinies
Are fraught with fear and pain,
Ye shall be loved again!
No one is so accursed by fate,
No one so utterly desolate,
But some heart, though unknown,
Responds unto his own.
Responds - as if with unseen wings,
An angel touched its quivering strings;
And whispers, in its song,
‘Where has thou stayed so long?

THEME OF POEM: Into each life some love must fall. THEME OF OBAMA: 500 million dollars in grants (of the peoples’ voluntary monies) for wind and solar power projects does the rule of demos make!

TAORMINA

"On its own natural balcony overlooking Mount Etna, more than twenty-three centuries ago, when Sicily was part of Magna Graecia, this tiny mountain town was already famed for its sweeping views. As Sicily’s most fashionable resort, Taormina was described by Guy de Maupassant as ‘all that seems made on the earth to entice eyes, spirit, and imagination.’ Its ancient Greek amphitheater, the Teatro Greco, enjoys one of the loveliest sites anywhere. Framed by the stage columns is the snowcapped summit of Mount Etna and, beyond, the Straits of Messina and the terra firma of Italy and Europe. The acoustics are just as impressive, and the theatre, hewn into the rock face of Mount Tauro at an altitude of 675 feet, is still used every summer for a festival of the arts, film, and music. Attending one of the Greek classics performed just before sunset is an experience without peer. The city’s favorite pastime is a leisurely passeggiata along its one bougainvillea-swathed strip of boutiques and curio shops, interspersed with intimate piazzas and dramatic belvederes. Be sure to stop by one of the cafes and have a traditional Sicilian dessert of granita (flavored shaved ice) while you watch Etna puffing gentle plumes into the Sicilian sky.
Then retire to the hotel that proves an old saw: The church and the government always know how to pick the finest real estate. The Hotel San Domenico, a luxurious hotel with transfixing views of Mount Etna, was built as a Dominican monastery in 1430. Today it is Sicily’s finest and one of Italy’s most romantic hotels, its rooms the actual (albeit enlarged) cells of monks until the last century. The brothers would never recognize the cushy wrought iron or richly carved wooden beds, the crisply ironed linen sheets or the gracious service. Enjoy a cool pomegranate juice before dinner in the former chapel, now the atmospheric hotel bar. Dining in the main hall, once the refectory, is a culinary event. The vast garden is a serene jasmine-scented oasis with palms and lemon trees and a near-perfect view of the azure Ionian Sea.

How’s this for travel writing at its best. With Patricia Schultz, there are 999 additional places to see before you die by drowning in on your own pleasurable drool. Why quote from her description of this destination? If you have even inhaled the sweetest-of-the-sweet perfume of night-blooming jasmine, you’ll know why even an imagined trip to a TAORMINA would be out of this world.