Barack Must Go!

“In spite of wars, assassinations, and disasters, the present state of civilization, poor as it may be, is still far better than the state of nature.” This was written in 1975 by a man who studied and authored a book on the year of the beautiful monarch butterfly. The wondrous insect, by the way, only survives about 9 months, due to disease, accident, exhaustion or predation ( and an annual migration of 3000 miles). We obviously survive beyond our 1st nine months; can we survive what might be our last 5 months preceding a disastrous re-election of Barack Obama?

Obesity Pill !!!!!

Who says the only cure for obesity is self control? Another new drug for victims of over-eating called Belviq has been approved. Trouble is that it is associated with an average weight loss of 3% to 4% in clinical studies. Big whoop! It supposedly activates serotonin in the brain to help a person eat less and feel full AFTER eating. Note the words “after eating”. Trouble too is that it is part of an overall weight-management plan including a reduced calorie died and exercise. Big, big whoop whoop! We are coming full circle to the obvious fact that overeating causes obesity for which no drug, no study, no quick fix exists.

$1,500 to feed one person!

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: WaPo: Lawmakers reworked financial portfolios after talks with Fed, Treasury officials. “The lawmakers, many of whom held leadership positions and committee chairmanships in the House and Senate, changed portions of their portfolios a total of 166 times within two business days of speaking or meeting with the administration officials.”

Obama’s reelection is the ultimate “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World “

”IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD” IS ONE OF THE GREAT MOVIES OF ALL TIMES. AGE HAS ONLY IMPROVED IT - GO GET THE MOVIE! Obama’s reelection is the ultimate studio production, a sort of political It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World that costs millions, features a cast of thousands, and stars some of the biggest names of the day. However, like all screwball comedies, things are not going as the protagonist intends. The entertainment industry has captured Obama’s presidency, and shifted the national agenda onto terrain familiar to California and New York liberals, but unfavorable to the independent voters who will decide 2012. Having alienated practically all of business and Wall Street, the president has come to rely on film, fashion, and music donors. He raffles off tickets to dinners with George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker, and backstage passes to see Marc Anthony. Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has given $2 million to the Obama super PAC Priorities USA, even as his studio is under SEC investigation for alleged bribery of Chinese officials. The most recent list of contributors to the Democratic National Committee resembles a promo for a bad episode of Hollywood Squares: “Kirk Douglas, Billy Crystal, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, and Burt Bacharach.” That last name is worth mulling. To paraphrase another million-dollar Hollywood donor to Obama’s super PAC, here is a new rule: When one relies on the composer of “What’s New Pussycat” for money, it may be time to say a little prayer for one’s campaign.

Allow me once again to be simple minded. There are two things

America has lost her manhood, lost her woman hood and now a National Committee for Elder Abuse must protect our senior citizens from loss of dignity. America obviously could have no pilots fit for a 21st century version of the Berlin airlift, the anniversary of which is now being celebrated by this our lost generation. 275,000 flights helped the Germans after World War II? How was this possible? How can we fight the impossible debasement of our culture today?

Why Can't We be More Like Europeans

BRUSSELS — For most Europeans, almost nothing is more prized than their four to six weeks of guaranteed annual vacation leave. But it was not clear just how sacrosanct that time off was until Thursday, when Europe's highest court ruled that workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation. Did you get that? Employers in Europe are not only legally required to pay for four to six weeks of vacation, but for another four to six weeks if you get sick while on the beach in Italy. This has consequences. With much of Europe mired in recession, governments struggling to reduce budget deficits and officials trying to combat high unemployment, the ruling is a reminder of just how hard it is to shake up long-established and legally protected labor practices that make it hard to put more people to work and revive sinking economies. Allow me once again to be simple minded. There are two things

Free from the Government?

More ‘free’ government money from you and me will go into an expansion of the Ohio Task Force to prevent stuff like impaired driving ( you fill in the blanks). I’m ‘sickofit’ - the spending. Unfortunately every day I hear of another spending program. It appears unlikely to slow down anywhere in this country, which unfortunately is gradually being Europeanized. I can’t afford to get too depressed so I focus on the wonderful Pro Plan Purina Incredible Dog Challenges taking place here too in this great land.

RACIAL PROFILING AT OBAMA SPEECH!

Obama obviously fearful of armed Latinos. This profiling would never happen when he bloviates to Hollywood Celebrities. “It’s very important that you use your utensils as soon as possible,” an official of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials warned guests as they finished up their chicken lunches on Friday. She added: “I’m not joking.” At the event, the Secret Service made hundreds of guests give up their forks and knives before the president entered the room. The Secret Service told Politico that it sometimes asks that cutlery be collected before the president arrives as a security measure. Yet there are certainly plenty of events where that does not happen, and the service did not explain why this would be an exception. In the back of Obama’s mind must have been the fact that Florida is the home of the White Hispanic, George Zimmerman and we know what he did to Obama’s imaginary son and look - alike. But in Hollywood he never worried about George Clooney and you know how many people has killed in movies.

Industrial Capitalism is Hstory’s Greatest Anti-Pollutant

Bravo for Bjorn Lomborg’s plea for western elites to put their pet environmental concerns in proper context (“Feel-Good Environmentalism at the U.N.,” June 21). As he notes, today’s most lethal pollutants aren’t industrial greenhouse gases but, rather, pre-industrial dangers – still prominent in developing countries – like “smoke from inefficient and dirty fuels such as dried animal dung, crop residues and wood.” We in the developed world have cleansed our environment of these most lethal pollutants by relying upon the very ‘non-green’ technologies that chic environmentalists, ignorant of history, portray as unprecedentedly horrific sources of pollution. Indeed, industrial capitalism is history’s greatest anti-pollutant. Asphalt and automobiles, for example, combine to cleanse our cities and towns of the bacteria and insects (and stench) that are inseparable from animal-powered transportation. The petroleum used to make asphalt and to power automobiles is used also to make plastic wraps that keep our foods unpolluted, and to produce pharmaceuticals that keep our bodies cleaner and healthier. To list all of the ways that industrial capitalism depollutes our environment requires several volumes. Yet we need only look around our homes for compelling evidence – evidence in the form of the solid (i.e., non-thatched) roofs above our heads and solid (i.e., non-dirt) floors beneath our feet; potable water running from faucets; indoor plumbing; antibacterial ointments and antibiotics; refrigerators and freezers and laundry detergents and automatic washing machines and vacuum cleaners and light bulbs and gas cooktops and electric heat-pumps…. The list of ways in which the developed world has been cleaned by capitalism is practically endless. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030 This Julian Simon theme supplies an ideal introduction to Matt Ridley’s recent and

DEFINE AFFORDABLE

Define affordable? Affordable - that which you can pay for and feel a responsibility to pay for once you have made a commitment? Did the word ‘you’ catch your eye? Well it never will catch the eye of a liberal Obama policy maker. I heard an ad for a gov’t. program that is “making home affordable by the U.S. government. Not by YOU, but by your neighbor who must subsidize it via the U..S. government. Do I have this unjust scenario correct or what?

WHOSE WAR IS IT?

Tea Party Isn't Waging A War On Women—Its Women Are Waging A War By AMY KREMER, Posted 06/20/2012 06:02 PM ET Email Print License Comment It's an election year, and the Democrats are scrambling to distract voters from the failed policies of the liberal Washington trio of President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. One of the most recent attempted diversions is the invention of a "Tea Party-led war on women." Ironically, much of the Tea Party leadership is made up of a new generation of powerful conservative women. The truth is that Tea Party women are leading the charge to tackle the fundamental problems brought on by the ever-expanding Big Government agenda. Women are not only the most protective of loved ones. They are also the most familiar with how policies will affect their family on a micro level. So, whether it's talking to their communities, organizing volunteers and campaigning, or leading their states out of the shackles of overwhelming debt and stagnating job growth — women are fighting to take our country back. Looking back, it was just 3-1/2 short years ago that I was a stay-at-home mom fed up with the out-of-control spending in Washington. I was sick and tired of yelling and screaming at my television and radio and decided to get off my couch and do something about my frustration.

ICE CREAM - BAD

No more milk for human kindness. No more can ‘you scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream.’ Big Brother and Big Sis in Washington, looking out for our ever-expanding waistlines (eventually topped by our fat, stupid heads) are running ads to stop you parents from allowing your kids the natural treat of ice cream. The obnoxious public service announcement tells a child how ice cream is “really” made (stuffing from old dolls) so that the child will be repulsed and repelled from what has always come natural to children throughout history and biology of the human species. Perverting both mother’s milk and biology comes naturally to liberal do-gooders, absolutely oblivious to nature and its delicious, natural offerings. Liberals can also ‘reason’ themselves into atheism, so it’s no surprise that sodas, ice cream and popcorn must be forbidden. As the mayor of a city considering the ban on sodas explained: “Free will is good but things that are dangerous need government regulation.” What’s the tea party for? Pointing out the insanity and ill will of such liberals and fighting them every step they try to take into our homes.

A Commandment Revisited

When did the 8th commandment, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor,’ disappear from the Decalogue? To whom does this moral rule of the road not apply? Apparently the Obama administration. Let’s begin with the recent rebirth of the ‘birther’ argument questioning Obama’s birthplace. In 1991, Obama’s publisher, anticipating and advertising a book Obama was asked to write, said that he was born in Kenya. Obama must have contributed to or at least read his own bio blurb. Yes? This statement, however, was not eliminated from promotional materials until 2007, just as Obama’s presidential bid was forming. Further, when the real book finally appeared in 1995, called “Dreams from my Father,” ( ironically not the book contracted), the place of Obama’s birth was unspecified. Obama has never commented on this discrepancy. My point here is that either a lie, a truth or deliberate dishonesty applies. With our transformational President, truth usually has an expiration date. Obama told Reverend Wright in a private moment, that other people must tell the truth but as a politician he was exempt. So when is this administration sincere? Why is the “biological influence” of Mormonism on Romney an important issue to liberals supporting Obama, but his own “biological influences”of a polygamist father or Marxist and revolutionary friends overlooked? Why can researchers and the media find scandalous facts about private citizens and never any about Obama? Are Americans really as handicapped as public service announcements would have us believe? We are sick, dying or poisoned from student loans, autism, concussions, PTSD, road rage, diabetes, food, obesity, poverty, hunger, Wall Street greed, corporate malfeasance, disabilities or drug addiction. Who is left to toddle off to work? Will green energy free us from dependence upon foreign oil? “Cute energy”sources, as described by Bill Gates, are only for the rich and represent insignificant amounts and thus require subsidies. So why mandate what is not cost effective? Also, they represent money-making opportunities for special interests. Who actually carry racist signs? The tea party is described as racist but Occupy protesters carried the hate-filled and racist signs and perpetrated actual violence. Who actually funds Obama causes? George Soros, for example, a wealthy ‘world order’ enthusiast, funds liberal organizations but he made his fortune manipulating national currencies, a process Obama continues to decry. How bad is Bain Capital? Obama badmouths private equity groups, like Bain who invest monies for most private pension funds. Retirement accounts suffer if investment companies did not achieve financial success. How can you both bully the rich and take their money? Obama depends upon support from bundlers and private equity groups. He held a $36,000 a plate fund raiser with private equity Blackstone which he previously bashed under the Bush administration. Speaking of Bush, Obama blames him for virtually every current ill, yet he has continued many of Bush’s policies. He was against the Bush tax cut before campaigning for its extension. He claimed that risky bets by banks began with the Bush administration. (They already were encouraged and mandated by previous administrations). After bailing out banks, however, Obama now punishes and regulates them hindering their future success. Drone strikes were anathema under Bush, but now they are back with a vengeance justified by their low collateral damage. Obama railed against overspending (cutting out waste ‘line by line’) but he added trillions to our nation’s debt. Bush’s war in Iraq was a failure but Afghanistan makes Obama a successful war President. He brags about withdrawing our troops but will indefinitely leave many behind to stabilize the country. Is home ownership a right? Apparently, even if a mortgage holder defaults. Who absorbs the cost if unaffordable loans (that never should have been issued) are re-structured or forgiven? Has your interpretation of morality evolved? Obama’s evolution on gay marriage is rooted in pure political expediency - ‘gays for pay.’ Of course, if men and women have a right to choose their lovers, why not legalize the exchange of vows with a beloved cat or dog? Where is the evil 1%? 99% includes the ill-defined but changing middle class, the 50% of citizens do not pay any income taxes and the10% who pay the bulk of the taxes. Is it a baby or a fetus? When it’s convenient to file murder charges, a woman carries a baby; otherwise it is a collection of cells for scientific purposes or an obstacle to free choice as part of a woman’s lifestyle. Is contraception or conception a right for Obama supporters? Here are ten Pinnochios from Obama’s ministry of information. 1. American-made products are better. Actually they cost more due to union rules. Ironically, imported parts are cheaper. 2. Manufacturing jobs are the answer to securing the American dream. Times have changed due to information and technology revolutions. 3. Locally grown and organic foods especially fruits and vegetables are healthier and support local communities. Does anyone really believe they can provide year-round family needs? Actually organic products have mostly been responsible for the outbreaks of salmonella and represent no health benefit. 4. Low interest rates encourage investors. Savings and retirement accounts suffer from them because investors are forced to take on more risk to stabilize or grow their money which is now earning no money. 5. Government should ban unhealthy (junk) foods. There are no unhealthy foods. All food is designed to keep a human being alive. Overindulgence is unhealthy. 6. High school graduates need a college education. Massive student debt does not guarantee a successful career. It is up to an individual to acquire skills or knowledge ( not just athletic prowess) for a productive life. The forgiveness of student loans is on the horizon now that the ‘problem’ of illegal aliens has been solved. 7. According to a radio ad from the Dept. of Energy, you can save enough money using energy saving light bulbs to buy a flat screen TV. In how many decades you ask? 8. Elizabeth Warren’s 1/32 Native American heritage justifies affirmative action because it is “correct in a mythical sense.” Does this not sound like 1984 double speak or Indian shamanism? 9. We must stop sending jobs overseas. Since before Columbus discovered America, trade on a global scale, exchanging goods and services, advanced civilization. 10. We can spend our way out of a recession. Not even if we continue to fight our present war. Not an imaginary war on women or on the middle class, but the real war between two contradictory visions of America, liberal and conservative. It’s one thing to cherry-pick facts for political gain, but it’s wrong to distort reality with shameless dishonesty. The way I see it, the 8th commandment needs a revisiting. It’s wrong to bear false witness to each other and to reality. Moses would agree. Come November, my vote will symbolize a vote against great dissembling from this administration and for a revisiting of the 8th commandment.

PUMPING GAS

“We didn’t like to call it a gas dump,” explained Pfc. Mel Rapp, of Wernersville, PA. “We called it a POL. Just like the British did. Stands for petrol, oil and lubricants. Very fancy.” During the battle for France in WWII, at St. Lo, the QM Gas Supply Company, had 32 nozzles pouring out 285,000 gallons a day fresh from the pipe. Who says our civilization could have survived without without gas? Pfc. Rapp said: “Lots of guys passed out. The gas fumes get you after a while. Sometimes you just keel over and sometimes you really get sick. You get lead poisoning. Looks something like poison ivy. On a real hot day, you could actually see the gas fumes. It looks like heat coming off a railroad track. I remember we were in this apple orchard with the little apples just coming out and goddam if the whole orchard didn’t die in a week from the gas fumes.” But WAR is WAR, of course, and we had to win in Europe against Hitler and the Germans. Today is today, of course, and we still cannot live without coal, oil and natural gas. Nuclear might be safe and alternatives might be cute, but God’s gifts of fossil fuels must be utilized and appreciated.

Memories before the Internet

A different time past Speeches, poetry and songs for every occasion were spoken, written or sung during and after the Civil War. This different time past treasured sentiments in words. 600,000 Americans died; in 1910, 84 cemeteries in 28 states honored the fallen. Negro spirituals, camp songs, about “tenting on the old campground”, feelings for the “girl I left behind me,” and popular commemoratives about “when this cruel war is over” were heard across this country preceding, of course, radio, TV, cell phones and the Internet. Treasured words about “the blossoms blooming for all,” “break not his sweet repose,” “Over their graves rang once the bugle’s call,” “where defeated valor lies,” about “The searching shrapnel and the crashing ball,” And what a Grand Review when the fighting was over! People like John Burns at Gettysburg, and poems ‘in Memoriam” to numerous brave soldiers like the young, “Great Cannoneer, Major John Pelham, commanding the Horse Artillery, who fell mortally wounded with the “battle-cry on his lips and the light of victory beaming from his eye.” Too romantic? To ideal? Maybe, but unfortunately all too real, too sad. Julia Ward Howe penned the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” because no one wanted to forget “the picket shot,” the “men dreaming in the trenches,” or Christmas night of ’62. No special General was forgotten in poetry or prose (though great poets who also died in battle). Thomas Jonathan Jackson ( Stonewall) and Albert Sydney Johnston to name but two. How did we Americans write back then? TO THE SOUTH O subtle, musky, slumberous clime! O swart, hot land of pine and palm, Of fig, peach, guava, orange, lime, And terebinth and tropic balm! Land where our Washington was born, When truth in hearts of gold was worn; Mother of Marion, Moultrie, Lee, Widow of fallen chivalry! No longer sadly look behind, But turn and face the morning wind, And feel sweet comfort in the thought; ‘With each fierce battle’s sacrifice I sold the wrong at awful price, And bought the good;’ but knew it not.’ James Maurice Thompson BROTHER JONATHAN’S LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE She has gone,- she has left us in passion and pride,- Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side! She has torn her own star from our firmament’s glow, And turned on his brother the face of a foe! They may fight till buzzards are gorged with their spoil,- Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil, Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their caves, And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves: In vain is the strife! … Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky; Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die!... Go, then, our rash sister! Afar and aloof,- Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof; But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore, Remember the pathway that leads t our door! Oliver Wendell Holmes SUCH IS THE DEATH THE SOLDIER DIES Such is the death the soldier dies; He falls,- the column speeds away; Upon the dabbled grass he lies, His brave heart following, still, the fray. Robert Burns Wilson THE DYING WORDS OF STONEWALL JACKSON The stars of Night contain the glittering Day And rain his glory down with sweeter grace Upon the dark World’s grand, enchanted face- All loth to turn away. And so the Day about to yield his breath, Utters the stars unto the listening Night,. To stand for burning fare-thee-wells of light Said on the verge of death. O hero-life that lit us like the sun! O hero-words that glittered like the stars And stood and shone above the gloomy wars When the hero-life was done!.... Sidney Lanier Walt Whitman for Abraham Lincoln… O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. … And James Russell Lowell ODE TO LINCOLN Such was he, our Martyr-Chief, Whom late the Nation he had led, With ashes on her head, Wept with the passion of an angry grief: Forgive me, if from present things I turn To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote: … “Be proud! For she is saved, and all have helped to save her! She that lifts up the manhood of the poor, She of the open soul and open door, With room about her hearth for all mankind! The fire is dreadful in her eyes no more; From her bold front the helm, she doth unbind, Sends all her handmaid armies back to spin, And bids her navies, that so lately hurled Their crashing battle, hold their thunders in, Swimming like birds of calm along the unharmful shore. No challenge sends she to the elder world, ] That looked askance and hated: a light scorn Plays o’er her mouth, as round her mighty knees She calls her children back, and waits the morn Of nobler day, enthroned between her subject seas.” So much was written about America ( a great land) and the binding up of wounds from the Civil War

2% Controls All

Left right, left right... 1...2...3...4...march. It’s Pride Festival and Parade time in this Gay Pride month of June. All four are marching - GBLT, Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgendered. Uptown, downtown, all around the town of Columbus. All across this country. What do I think? What do you think when a tiny percentage of Americans controls such a large segment of political clout and nonsense?

Laws should promote reason and not whip up hysteria.

Politicians, as usual, shut the barn door after the horse has escaped, not realizing that such action has no bearing on future problems. Also, it is almost impossible for a rare situation to repeat itself. Yet, after the sad, wild animal tragedy in Zanesville last year, in which the demented owner opened the cages of his wild animals and then committed suicide, politicians passed the ‘much needed’ wild anima bill. Of course, the bill has nothing to do with either preventing the tragedy of the killings or of animal abuse ( which was not occurring at the time) in the future. I do believe, “kill all the politicians” should be the other half of Shakespeare compound sentence beginning with “kill all the lawyers.” A public subjected to illogic and irresponsibility by public servants cannot grow in knowledge or understanding. Even WCH City Council proved this recently by proposing that businesses surrounding the Court House be forced to ‘clean up their act’ for the good of the community. A lifelong pet owner, Carolyn McLaughlin

Trust NO Politician!

Sen. Hatch’s Solyndra Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch did so many favors for Raser Technologies, a green technology company in his state, that the company named its geothermal power plant "The Hatch Plant." His role turned out eerily reminiscent of President Obama's support for the failed solar-panel maker Solyndra. The Hatch Plant is now shuttered, and Raser Technologies has gone bankrupt. "He supported Raser," Hatch spokesman Matt Harakal told me, "because they were a Utah company, not because of any specific focus on renewable energy. ... His focus is getting Utah companies out in front of the world." The Hatch-Raser relationship didn't end well for Raser or for taxpayers. How will it end for Hatch? (From Washington Examiner)

No Experience Necessary

From: Roger L. Simon: New Acting Commerce Sec’y Has NO Commercial Experience Job creation, shmob creation! In harmony with Obama’s odd assertion that the “private sector is doing just fine,” the president’s new Acting U. S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank has virtually no private sector experience (just like the president himself!). The sole exception in Ms. Blank’s long career is a brief stint at a data collection firm after she graduated from college in 1979. She is, however, the author of a book – Challenging Inequality – from the University of California Press, Berkeley.

Electric Car Scam

#GREENFAIL: Syracuse’s little-used electric car chargers being replaced after just months. A Syracuse nonprofit got a $700,000 government grant last year to buy and install 68 electric car charging units around Central New York. But this week, Synapse Sustainability Trust ripped the last of the chargers out of a downtown Syracuse parking lot. But reader Kenneth Strumpf writes that this is the key bit: The goof-up will have little impact on the public. After all, there are only 30 electric or electric hybrid cars in five counties surrounding Syracuse. There are more charging units than there are cars that can use them. He comments: “I regularly park in a lot containing about a dozen of these charging stations and have never seen a car attached to one.” Interestingly, the company that got the grant, Synapse Partners, is run by the county Democratic chairwoman. “Fed by government grants, their company and its nonprofit arm also have strong connections to the Democratic Party.”

Obama & Jobs

“Seriously, where does Obama get off talking about the private sector? He’s never even been there. That’s like me talking about Turkmenistan. Heck, Obama’s spent more time in a madrassa than he has in the private sector.”

Words & Meaning

Back to G.K. Chesterton who said that it is not love ( which is personal and particular) but hatred that unites men. Something Hitler understood well. Something the Devil also understands well when working through mortals. So when we hear words, we do not just know they symbolize things, they also symbolize meanings, ideas, principles held close and dear to the speaker. For better or for worse. When we hear hatred, we hear an attempt to unite people in hatred.

Courage

Great men and women throughout history have understood courage: I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. - John Wayne Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared. - Eddie Rickenbacker Courage is fear holding on a minute longer. - George Patton Courage Is Contagious Yes, courage is contagious because studies show that even a single dissenter speaking his mind empowers others to think for themselves.

Wasn't Hope And Change in effect for 3 years?

The Federal Reserve said the median net worth of families plunged by 39 percent in just three years, from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. That puts Americans roughly on par with where they were in 1992.

Victor Davis Hanson Comments

Two parties, left and right, are central to good consensual government — one the perennial check on the other, both within the general boundaries of constitutional free-market capitalism. Yet the hard-Left takeover of the Democratic Party has meant that there is no longer a credible balance in our system, as almost all the tenets of contemporary left-wing ideology are blowing up, imploding super nova style — unsustainable ideas that are contrary to human nature and demand coercion for their implementation, given that they are increasingly anti-democratic and have to be implemented from high by an elite technocracy whether in Brussels, Sacramento, or Washington. Far too much is always seen as not enough: Greeks are angry that there was too much “austerity” and not enough of the old borrow and spend; Obama is blamed for only borrowing $5 trillion for too “little” stimulus; Democrats threaten to withhold from the community-organizer Obama because he was not hard enough on “fat cats” and the capitalist state; in California, a 10.3% income tax is too low, not too high. When the remedy is seen worse than the disease, then the patient is indeed terminal. .... From Greece to Italy to California to Wisconsin to Obama’s Washington, the verdict is in: the democratic model of trying to provide cradle-to-grave benefits, administered by an elite technocratic class, using demonization to bully the opposition and redistribute income, not only does not work, but cannot ever work. Note that President Obama — $5 trillion in new debt, “stimulus,” millions added to food stamps, unemployment benefits vastly expanded, near-zero interest rates, enormous subsidies for wind and solar — never concedes his blue-state neo-socialism is not working (even though it is almost impossible to stymie the U.S. economy). .... Again the essential truth: free-market Western democratic capitalism is sustainable, both environmentally and economically, and alone gives us the affluence and freedom to allow a sizable minority to divorce itself from the gritty daily tasks of production to critique and revile the very system that nourishes them. ... Like a super nova, contemporary liberalism is imploding through its own irreconcilable forces.

What is new?

The Federal Government at the time of the Civil War was the largest builder (using timber)in the world. Amazing tidbit. Also, the Union was superbly equipped with food and clothing for the duration of the conflict. Yet, extensive frauds were perpetrated on the Government (in both clothing contracts and transport services). What is new?

There is no Gaia

Thought for the Day There is NO Gaia, yet there exists a word Gaia; so why does it begin with the letter G?

Who knows?

Here’s an after D-Day question. Who knows that the Federal navy in the Civil War rose to a force of 569 steam vessels and over 50,000 seamen? The failure of historians to recognize the great service done by the navy shows a lack of philosophic perception without which history is but a diary of events. The Blockade was very important but a poor offset to the great land battles with 1000's of men killed and wounded. To place New Orleans, Mobile and Hampton Roads in the category of commonplace events is not to know war. Even the Comte de Paris in his “History of the Civil War,” credited the officers and sailors who for 4 years policed the Atlantic seaboard: “Their task was the more arduous on account of its extreme monotony. ... The Federal navy displayed a perseverance, a devotion, and a knowledge of its profession which reflects as much honor upon it as its more brilliant feats of arms.” May many seamen in their watery graves, also rest in peace.

What has our culture wrought?

Perhaps we ought to define education. According to G. K. Chesterton, “Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.” So what have we learned over the last 50 years? What has our culture wrought? Yes, you guessed it - ignorance. America’s soul has become lazy, uninquisitive, passive and thus morally compromised. If the Corps of Engineers during the Civil War, in July 1863, would construct an 800 foot long, timber Chatahoochie Bridge, 100 feet high in 41/2 days - ask yourself how many years the incomplete Sept. 11th Twin Towers Ground Zero memorial has been in the making?

Butterfly effect

What’s a butterfly effect? “Unknown consequences of seemingly irrelevant action.” Does the triumph of Scott Walker in Wisconsin and restriction of Unions in California come to mind signaling the end of the big “O”? Actually reading about birds, I’ve noted that nature and a little nurture from human intervention, beat pure nature every time. An ornithologist and writer notes that her Carolina Wrens over a period of 7 years produced 335 fledglings (with security and some help from her). She also notes that over a period of 7 years, her blue birds freed 53 offspring. Likewise, with humane care, our beloved pets can live long lives devoted to us as we download joy and satisfaction from them. My neighbor’s beloved cat is past 20. Many beloved Civil War horses that followed their masters’ hearses lived long lives.

Obamaspeak

Let Me Be Perfectly Clear II Fast and Furious was an Obama Administration Program to supply assault weapons to Mexican Cartels so Mexican and American gangs could kill people. Then use the killings to justify new gun control laws on regular citizens. A coverup of massive proportions requires doublespeak of massive proportion. The Justice Department letter was in response to a request Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Issa sent in mid-May. “Following the receipt of your letter, the department has had a number of constructive conversations with staff aimed at satisfying the legitimate goals of congressional oversight while, at the same time, ensuring the integrity and independence of the department’s law enforcement efforts,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to those congressional leaders on Tuesday afternoon. “We are hopeful that these ongoing conversations will lead to a mutually acceptable resolution of these issues and continue to provide the kinds of information that would answer your questions,” Cole wrote. “While our staffs continue to discuss these issues, I want to reiterate that I remain available to meet with you personally.”

Thinks about the numbers

A reliable source projects our debt at $20 trillion ( if we continue on Obama’s path ) by 2016. David Limbaugh claims that he had 12,000 articles and 5700 folders of evidence of Obama’s wasteful and destructive path of governance to comb through for his new book, The Great Destroyer. The University of Chicago received $6 million dollars for a program to provide 90 basic entry jobs under ObamaCare; that $67,000 a job. Should we not ask why a health care bill spends billions to provide jobs? Should we not ask if taxpayers understand the meaning of a billion dollars ( much less than a trillion)? Obama’s bureaucracy is wonderfully efficient at wasting money. We should be overwhelmed by the audacity of it all. But at ground level, we pinch our pennies, one visit to Dollar Tree at a time.

Let Me be Perfectly Clear

A ‘CLARIFYING’ STATEMENT FROM OBAMA’s PRESS SECRETARY. Truly an example of why we are in such a muddle. Please try to DIAGRAM any sentence in this ramble: TAPPER: “Who specifically is ‘rooting for failure’”? CARNEY: “I think that when you have a situation where action is not being taken on Capitol Hill where it is obvious, as outside economists will tell you, what actions Congress could take to help create jobs, that there is at least a failure to act. And you know, I can’t tell you specifically whether or not that’s rooting or just passivity, but the fact is that Americans send their members — send their elected representatives to Washington to act, not to do nothing. And there is an opportunity, and has been now for quite some time, an opportunity to help the economy grow faster, to help it create more jobs, to protect the jobs of teachers and firefighters and policemen and women, and Congress has failed to act on those, and Congress has failed to act on — thus far, on elements of the congressional to-do list that would also have positive economic effect.” DOUBLESPEAK anyone?

Forward Into the Dark

Can the Devil pull off an “obvious deception?” If you have ever been cursed with both watching and listening to two of the Fallen Angel’s choice disciples - Barack Obama and Christopher Hitchens, you ‘ll know what I mean. They both have the ability to render a falsehood both seductive and transparent at the same time. The evil of it all comes through no matter what. Christopher hated religion until his death but proudly became American citizen. Barack hates America at his core as he tries to ensure the death of the traditions of our country. The symbolism and double meaning of Obama’s Presidential slogan “Forward,” with its accompanying color red, is not lost on me. The symbolism and double meaning of red, the color of fire in Hell neither. It’s sad - Obama here yet; Hitchens gone.

Remember the horses who served!

In 1864, during a 2 week period, 36,000 horses served the Union cause during the Civil War. In the 1st two years of the war between the states, 289,000 horses served for the North. In total, 823,766 horses gave their time or lives in the service of the Federal cause. Hail to the horse!

Residual Obesity Stigma

What’s new? A study finding “residual obesity stigma,” which claims once you are perceived as fat, always will always you be perceived as fat ( even if you are no longer fat). Does the obverse hold true about being perceived as thin? Or is reality just a state of mind? For liberals, reality is anything they say it is - defined in academic language the public is too stupid to understand. Duh!

FREEDOM THROUGH GOVERNMENT (BY FORCE)

New York’s Mayor Bloomberg institutes health rule that soda may not be sold in containers larger that 16oz. In his statement he says the government must “ ...force people to understand...” the perils of sugar. I am reminded of the slogan of the French Revolution, “ We must force men to be free.” And we know how that worked out with the guillotine chopping off objectors’ heads (too stupid to be free). Freedom through tyranny - the new America beginning in New York..