Friday, January 30, 2015

Silver...and Gold

                New York state assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested Thursday, January 22nd, on charges of taking nearly $4 million in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year old Democrat, considered one of New York’s most powerful and savvy politicians, was taken into custody on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that could lead to sentencing of up to 100 years in prison and cost him his political seat.
                The arrest stunned New York’s  Capitol, coming, as it did, just a day after Silver took the stage with Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo during the latter’s State of the State address. In fact, Cuomo joked that he, Silver, and the Senate majority leader were the “three amigos” of the state’s government.
                Silver has the power to single-handedly decide the fate of legislation, and decides whether a bill gets a vote. As if to prove his  power, last spring he helped convince Cuomo to disband a state anti-corruption  commission that was investigating Silver’s own financial dealings!
                The  federal prosecutor said, “Speaker Silver never did any legal work. He simply sat back and collected millions of dollars by cashing in on his public office and political influence.”
                Just the type of ‘public servant’ we want, acting solely for the benefit of his constituents, his state or his country. What sacrifice he’s shown on our behalf!
                If this member of ‘the one percent’ were a Republican, you wouldn’t see or hear another news story for a month, unless Jesus Christ returned to shop at Costco.
                Silver, however, has long been a champion of liberal causes, using his position as a power broker to support teachers, civil service unions and trial lawyers. Therefore, incredibly, Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle said Silver still has the backing of an overwhelming number of the chamber’s Democrats and they are not seeking his resignation as speaker. “We believe he can carry out his duties as speaker,” Morelle said. “We’re going to stand with him…We have faith in the speaker.”
                So, a white-collar crime that could get him sentenced to 100 years in prison is not enough to persuade his fellow Democrats to ask him to resign his office!! Think about that. This isn’t a banana republic. This was America. Perhaps his fellow Democrats have misplaced their faith.


                I’m going to Costco.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Auschwitz Again?

                Anti-Semitism on the rise. Young Jewish boys afraid to wear their yarmulkes on many European streets. Jewish businesses targeted. Jews being attacked and killed. Jews fleeing Europe.
                The 1930’s or 1940’s? No.
                Today.
                The rebirth of Jew-hatred around the world should give us all pause. Iran is an existential threat to the state of Israel, as are the many Islamic terrorists/groups around the world. At least in their totality. Sadly, this is basically expected. But the diffusion of these people/groups/nations around much of the world is a new development. As is the fact that Israel’s greatest protector, the United States, now appears- and acts- as if it isn’t sure if Israel is deserving of its beneficence.
                Incredibly, the vast majority in the West have been robotically tolerant of Islamists, despite the continuing litany of atrocities committed in the name of Allah. Many have not been as tolerant of Jews or even the existence of the Jewish state.
                 This is odd. The West loves the underdog, the downtrodden, the victim. We love to hate the rich, the ‘one percent’, those that have more than their fair share, life’s ‘lottery winners’, ‘Mr. Big’, the New York Yankees and the New England Patriots.
                Yet it is Israel that is history’s biggest underdog. If  an Underdog Hall of Fame existed, Israel would be a first ballot unanimous selection. Millions of Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. Israel covers 0.0016% of the Middle East’s land-mass. Israel covers 0.00014% of the Earth’s land-mass, as opposed to, say, modern-day Russia’s 11.48%.
                At the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, there was a notable absence. Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vlad the Impaler) was a no-show, even though the Red Army liberated the ‘camp.’ He was too busy accusing Ukraine of killing civilians “in cold blood” in their defense of the country he is slowly invading. Putin will eventually take the whole of Ukraine if he is not stopped. He will take other former Soviet slave-states as well. Poland, arguably a stronger backer of the Ukraine in this conflict than the U.S. (and therefore certainly much braver) and the site of the Auschwitz ceremony, could also eventually fall to the Russians…again.
                We need to be clear on who the bullies are. Israel just wants to protect its tiny little sanctuary. It isn’t threatening to invade other nations.
               There exists a Biblical Prophecy regarding Israel, Russia and Iran, among others. It appears that it is coming true before our very eyes.

Total Square Miles On Earth’s Surface: 196,939,900
Total Land Mass On Earth: 57,510,000 square miles
Russia: 6,602,000 square miles

Israel: 8,019 square miles
The rest of the Middle East: 4,991,981 square miles

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Three Minutes 'Til Doomsday

                The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says Earth is now closer to human-caused doomsday than it has been in more than 30 years because of global warming and the modernization of nuclear weaponry. In fact, the group, founded by the creators of the atomic bomb, moved their famous “Doomsday Clock” ahead two minutes on January 22nd, stating that the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight rather than five minutes. So, apparently, 23 hours and 57 minutes are all shot-to-hell and only three minutes are left of this figurative day the Earth has to live. The Bulletin’s executive director, Kennette Benedict, said “This is about doomsday; this is about the end of civilization as we know it.”
                And I thought the NFL’s “Deflategate” scandal was depressing.
                Don’t start smoking unfiltered cigarettes, drinking hard liquor straight from the bottle and bathing with your toaster just yet, however. The 20 scientists on the board are, in essence, an advocacy group. While they claim to consider climate change and the proliferation/modernization of nuclear weapons “equal but undeniable” threats to humanity’s continued existence, logically I would question both their analysis  and their conclusion(s). The last time they had Earth  this close to doomsday was 30-some years ago. So, in that sense, time has virtually stood still for 30-some years now. And, back then, it would’ve been global cooling that would have petrified them in addition to a nuclear holocaust.
                Maybe we haven’t yet mastered the mysteries of time. Maybe 30-some years is too short a window to matter in the cosmic big-picture. What if we looked further back, and also at other than ‘human-caused’ doomsday possibilities?
                ‘Objectively’, where would they have put the clock in the Dark ages? During the Civil War? World Wars I and II? In fairness, shouldn’t we grant the dinosaurs their own clock? Where was it at when the asteroids or comet(s) hit and they became extinct?

                And… I’d like my own damn clock. I’d see things a bit differently, perhaps. I would’ve moved the clock back a couple of hours when Reagan was elected. And, with Obama’s election, I’d have had the minute hand moving ahead…with the speed of a wind-turbine’s blades in a hurricane.

Monday, January 26, 2015

An Inconvenient Fact

                 It has now been nine years since Florida has suffered a hurricane, nearly twice as long as the previous record gap of five years between these storms. Have you heard  this on the news lately?
                Al Gore, in his infamous ‘documentary’ “An Inconvenient Truth”, posited that global warming would lead to more frequent- and destructive- hurricanes, among other specious claims.
                To wit: there is still snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, despite his prediction that it would be gone by now. More snow, in fact, than there was a few years ago.
                Think of all the time, effort and money spent to convince the populace that certain things will happen if we don’t all change our behavior immediately. Then ask yourself why it is that no one- or no  entity-  at least in the mainstream media, will voluntarily point out when these predictions are proven false. It’s so easy. These claims were made in a motion-picture in this case!
                When someone flatly asserts that thing ‘A’ will happen by date ‘A’ and that thing ‘B’ will occur by date ‘B’, etc., etc., and we’ve passed those dates, the natural thing to do would be to check the scorecard for accuracy. “Hey, he was two for five” or whatever the case may be.
                It is certainly the scientific thing to do. The hallowed ‘Scientific Method’ demands a hypothesis and conclusion. Whether for scientific advancement, or in the interest of fairness, honesty and accuracy…or even for the sheer joy of it, why wouldn’t media types point out the now demonstrably untrue statements?
                
                It is because these truths are inconvenient for them… and their belief systems. They are not objective, neutral reporters. They are, in essence, part of the elite ruling class They have 'skin in the game' now. And don't want egg on their face.


algorithm:  a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps


AlGoreythm:  the pace at which Al Gore predicts events that don’t come true

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Our Heros


                 A Harris Interactive Online poll, conducted from January 12-January 19, 2009, asked Americans whom they admired enough to call their number 1 hero. 2,634 Americans over 18 years old were surveyed. They were not shown or read a list  of names to choose from and it was not a multiple choice survey. Their answers were to be spontaneous and unlimited.
                Who did the majority of the respondents say was their single greatest hero?
                You guessed it, President Obama. But who was number two, you ask?
                Jesus Christ.
                Jesus came in at number 1 in the same survey conducted in 2001, but Obama wasn’t widely known at that time, so He faced lesser competition in George W. Bush, et. al. At number 2 in the 2001 poll was Martin Luther King, followed by Colin Powell, JFK and Mother Teresa. Think of the diversity we admired even then! After the Lord, we picked two African-Americans (without Obama telling us to), a womanizer and a woman!
                This time around, Obama and Jesus were followed by Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and- surprise!- George W. Bush. Abraham Lincoln was sixth, while JFK fell to eighth place and Mother Teresa to tenth. Where was George Washington, among others?
                Asked to explain their choices, the vast majority of those surveyed claimed to use the following criteria:
                *Doing what’s right regardless of personal consequences (89%)
                *Not giving up until the goal is accomplished (83%)
                *Doing more than what others expect (82%)
                *Overcoming adversity (81%)
                *Staying level-headed in a crisis (81%)
                Fine traits and ‘yard-sticks of character’ all. I must say, however, as accomplished as the President is, I think you’d have to give the edge to Jesus at least as far as ‘overcoming adversity’ and ‘doing more than what others expect.’ Am I right? I mean, I know there is subjectivity in most things, but being an African-American in the U.S.  doesn’t equate to being nailed to a cross. Obama did go from ‘community organizer’ to President of the United States, after all. Jesus rose from the dead! That should be a slam-dunk for the Lord. Come on, if Jesus can’t beat out Obama on these criteria something is seriously awry.
                What would be the result of that same survey today, I wonder? I’m guessing that the President might have dropped a few notches, but, then again, maybe not. It is not just our values that have changed over the years. Our desire and ability to utilize logic and reason, to compare and contrast and evaluate… is less every day.
                What’s really scary is to think of the results of that same survey conducted ten years from now. The way things have trended over the past few decades, I’m guessing it might look something like this:
                *Niki Minaj
                *Louis Farrakhan
                *Mohammed
                *Meghan Trainor
                *Jennifer Lopez
                *Lil Wayne
                *Beyonce
                *Madonna (the singer)
                *Lena Dunham
                *Karl Marx




Thursday, January 22, 2015

HealthCare.gov Is Here To Help!- A Sneak Peek Inside!

                          

January 28, 2015, 10:31 a.m.-
                Welcome to HealthCare.gov Mrs. Claire Johnson from 555 Main St., Anywhereville, WI.! We hope you found the log-in process to be easy-peasy and stress free! In order to serve you better and make for a more complete and enjoyable consumer experience, we need to ask you just a few more questions. Rest assured we only collect relevant information that we don’t have already and that your privacy is our utmost concern!
                First off, how long have you smoked Camel Light cigarettes? Mrs. Johnson?
                I, I don’t know…I guess about 10 or 12 years now. How did you now I smoke Camel Lights? And why does the brand matter, anyway?
                You do want access to healthcare, don’t you Mrs. Johnson?
                Yes, of course, but-
                We’ll ask the questions here, Mrs. Johnson, okay?
                Okay.
                How long have you been pregnant, Mrs. Johnson?         
                Pregnant? What do you mean? How…
                Remember that evening about a month ago when you and your husband had that bottle of Southern Comfort and he actually watched an entire ‘romcom’ with you?
                Well…yes, but…oh, my…that would explain why- holy crap!
                Don’t worry, you won’t show for awhile, even with twins!
                How do you…? Wait a  minute, I wasn’t aware this was even an interactive site! Twins?! !&$@F*S!!
                Surely you’ve heard President Obama talk about all the improvements we’ve made to the site in the past few months?
                Well, I guess so…
                Back to the questions then, Claire.  Are you going to take some time off work after giving birth?
                Three months, yes.
                Can we assume your husband has finally found a job, then? What will his starting salary be?
                He’s going to get paid by the hour. I think, like, $10/hr. He can’t work more than 30 hours a week for some reason.
                Anyway, did you enjoy that McDonald’s breakfast sandwich you got at the State Street & Vine Avenue location this morning, Claire?
                What? How the F!*ki#@^s! Did you know that?!
                Put the cigarette down, Claire, and no cursing! You’re going to have to make that your last cigarette until after the kids are born, you know! By-the-way, this being a health care site, we suggest you get that mole in your ‘swimsuit area’ looked at immediately…or whenever they can see you…most care providers are a little backed up lately...must be the changing climate! We can recommend a provider if you like, Claire? Claire? Mrs. Johnson?
***no response***
Claire, we’d like to thank you for accessing Healthcare.gov ‘where your health is our business.’


Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Affordable Health Care?

                 A temporary program in President Obama’s health care law expired with the dawn of the new year. To improve access for the poor, the law increased Medicaid fees for front-line primary care doctors of low-income patients for the years 2013 and 2014, with Washington (read ‘taxpayers’) paying the full cost. This means these doctors are facing fee reductions of 40 percent or so nation-wide in 2015. Meager pay for doctors has long been a problem for Medicaid, the safety-net health insurance program that covers more than 60 million people. Low income people unable to find a family doctor flood hospital emergency rooms, instead.
                Doctors in big or populous states that have expanded Medicaid under the health law may see their fees cut by 50 percent or more. These states include California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. This is at the precise time when millions of new patients are gaining Medicaid coverage. Do you think access to these doctors will be squeezed? I doubt many new doctors will want to participate in this program in the future.
 ‘Experts’ claim that most doctors won’t dump their current Medicaid patients, but will certainly be very hesitant to accept any new ones.
Health and Human Services secretary Sylvia Burwell, on the other hand, said that expanding Medicaid in the remaining 23 states is one of her top priorities.
                Good luck with those waiting periods. Patients might go in needing pediatric care and end up needing geriatric care by the time they are actually treated.
                We’ll have given new meaning to the phrase, “killing time.”


                Obama, heal thyself.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Attacks On Paris...And The Truth

             French President Francois Hollande said the attacks on Paris had “nothing to do with Islam.”

Unless and until we summon the courage to tell the truth and openly discuss what is really occurring, we will never prevail in this existential battle of good and evil. If those in the public eye continue to look for any and every other reason for these continuing attacks around the world, we become the alcoholic that denies there is a real problem and blames his troubles on everyone and everything else. How come there is never any problem boldly stating that ‘white supremacists’ committed a crime or that a ‘fringe group’ of anti-government types are responsible? Sometimes a politically-incorrect group is blamed first for one of these atrocities committed ‘in the name of Allah’, without any evidence for the assertion. How did radical Islamic terrorists get onto the politically-correct ‘protected list’, anyway?? It’s always ‘open season’ on anyone who has the temerity to utter traditional western religious beliefs. The media revels in reporting on the Catholic priest sexual-abuse scandals. Mildly disapprove of gay marriage? Be gone with you! It’s re-education camp for you and anyone who’s had contact with you in the last ten years. Think the death penalty is warranted in the most extreme cases of multiple, heinous crimes? You’re not welcome in polite society. Your dinner invitation to Streisand’s has been cancelled. You believe spanking your child is warranted in certain rare cases? Don’t expect to keep your job at Starbucks. You believe the man should wear the pants in the family? Good luck in this society. You might want to wear a helmet if you are near a college or university. (Where there are likely to be more female than male students).
Yet Islam, with its tenets that the woman is effectively the property of the man and can be beaten when ‘necessary’ and is not supposed to go out in public without her husband or a male relative as chaperon, is untouchable. In many Islamic countries, gays are still stoned in the public square. Thieves and adulterers may have a hand or other appendage cut off, yet it is the one religion treated as  sacrosanct.
Since the recent attacks in France, there have been as many articles and opinion pieces in the local newspapers dealing with the potential ‘fallout’ to the local Islamic community as there have been on the attacks themselves. Literally. Most of these pieces, issued from trembling fingers, have speculated about how it feels to be a Muslim in America or the West today. Many have been written by Muslims, who have collectively spent a great deal of time writing and speaking about their feelings and not much time at all actually denouncing the terrorists and their attacks.
Historically, almost all of the radical Islamist terrorist (sorry, ‘insurgent’) attacks have been (barely) preceded by the cry of “Allahu akbar!” This should be a clue that it isn’t a simple case of ‘workplace violence’ about to occur.
There weren’t thousands of articles on the feelings of Germans (‘krauts’)  in newspapers across the United States during World War II, and they didn’t even  behead many people. If the Germans- or, say, youthful American males who fell under the spell of National Socialism- had killed many people in attacks here while wearing swastika-laden clothing and screaming “Heil Hitler”, authorities would not have assumed it was just another garden-variety case of workplace violence. “It’s a head-scratcher, Bob, but I’m gonna guess it was someone involved with the Communist Party.”
Historically, there has been only one truly effective way of dealing with Islamic terrorists. For a time, the English threatened to stuff pork products in and on their person at burial, preventing them from ever going to Paradise. Sadly, that is the only logical way to defeat people who worship death and are eager for the glories of Paradise, glories that they believe they will earn by killing as many ‘infidels’ as they can.

Let’s hear it for the pig.


Allahu akbar.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Preaching Green

                 As reported in the National Review, Maryland has instituted a ‘stormwater remediation fee.’ This assesses a tax on property owners directly proportional to the size of the impervious surfaces on their property that prevent rainwater from reaching the soil.
                Apparently, according to the report, churches in  Prince George’s County faced some of the steepest fees levied due to their sizeable facilities, large acreages and big parking areas. The churches reached a ‘deal’ with the county’s environmental department. They could ‘preach green’ and avoid a fee. The county Department of Environment director stated that the churches “don’t have to preach, per se”, they could also “provide educational programs to teach (parishioners) about how to be more sustainable.” Nice of the government to want more sustainable parishioners. I bet they thought they were ‘sustainable’ already.
                This is a very sad case of the clergy willing to compromise and tailor their message for a tax break and of a government willing to coerce them into supporting a political program. In recent years, the clergy has all too often been willing to be a vehicle of political-correctness and a vassal of progressives.
                Funny, though, I thought the left has been all about the ‘separation of church and state’. Those in the government are always performing its liturgies.
                There is no separation here. The government threatens to punitively tax the church and the clergy affix their mouths to Uncle Sam’s rear end.
                As the saying goes, “two wrongs don’t make a right,” (although they might help make a Jeremiah Wright). We have lost our moorings and strayed far away from our founder’s vision of ‘limited government by, of, and for, the people.’
                Both the government and the churches have put love of principal (money) above love of principle.  
                 *******************************************************************

                The Lord promised that floodwaters would never again cover the face of the earth. Apparently, He didn’t anticipate global warming.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Special Driver's Licenses

                   Ten States Now Offer Special Driver’s Permits For Illegal Immigrants.
                The Los Angeles Times article lamented the fact that the female illegal alien protagonist has a car but no driver’s license. She hasn’t been eligible for one in California- until now!- as she never obtained legal immigration status since arriving from Mexico 26 years ago. Incredibly, the article goes on to state that, “if she were stopped by police, she could be fined hundreds of dollars for driving without proper documentation and have her car impounded.”
                Why wouldn’t she be deported, as that is the proper legal remedy to the law she’s  breaking?
                The article goes on to quote her as saying, “It stops us from doing so many things that most people do, like driving to the beach or going to Magic Mountain.”
                Yet, soon she will have a chance to drive wherever she wants, when California becomes one of 10 states to allow immigrants in the country illegally to apply for special licenses. The California DMV will be opening  four new offices and hiring an additional 900 employees in anticipation of the onslaught of illegals looking to become licensed drivers. An extra $141 million has been budgeted to that end, as well.
                Democrats in the Legislature pushed the law through, claiming it will improve traffic safety. If the 9/11 hijackers had obtained driver’s licenses, would it have improved traffic safety? After all, a couple of them were essentially working on obtaining pilot’s licenses, but that didn’t appear to improve airliner safety.

                To be fair, we need to treat everyone equally. So, we need to come up with special driver’s licenses for others who’ve broken the law, maybe not even with their very first act in our country. I propose that drunk drivers should be issued special licenses that allow them to drive to Milwaukee or St. Louis;  or Lynchburg, Tennessee or the Sonoma Valley in California. Or to the beach and Magic Mountain . Why stop them from doing so many things that most people do? They are American citizens, protected by the Constitution. Think of their kids. It’s a hardship on them as well.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Don't Eat Beef?

Don’t eat beef.
Perhaps you’ve heard that message before. Now you’ll likely be hearing it again, albeit for a different reason. First, it was your health the government nannies were ostensibly concerned about. Now, that’s been trumped by their concern for the health of our mother the Earth. Yes, a government panel that advises the Agriculture Department will release its “recommendations” early this year. It will likely state, in part, that a dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is “more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet.”
A 2014 study by the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ said that compared with other popular animal proteins, beef produces more heat-trapping gases per calorie, puts out more water-polluting nitrogen, takes more water for irrigation and uses more land. There is “compatibility and overlap” between what’s good for health and good for the environment, according to the panel. Once the recommendations are made, the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments will write the final  dietary guidelines, expected to be released roughly a year from now.
“We need to make sure our diets are in alignment with our natural resources and the need to reduce climate change,” stated Kari Hamerschlag of the advocacy group Friends of the Earth. (I have to admit, I’ve never thought of my diet in terms of climate change). Additionally, Michael Jacobson of the ‘Center for Science in the Public Interest’ (an entity that sounds like it should be based in a ‘People’s Republic’) opined, “You don’t want to recommend a diet that is going to poison the planet.”
What’s really behind the constant attack on Big (red) Meat? Maybe we are being steered in the wrong direction. What about the milk-cow? We know how bad for the environment they are, expelling all that methane, all those greenhouse gases. They roam around in broad pastures, as well. Why isn’t “Big Dairy” being targeted?  I know many people who are lactose intolerant. That can’t be good for them or the environment.
Perhaps lobbyists from Chick-fil-A and KFC are behind this. “Eat… more… chicken.”
Seriously, I have a beef with this. When the government tries to tell us what we can and can’t eat, especially when it’s tied to “climate change”, it’s time to get out the collective cattle prod, push  back and reclaim our (natural) rights.

We all have a stake in that.         

                

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Can't See The Forest For The Trees

                 Evidence suggests Minnesota’s climate is changing much faster than ever before stated a scientist with the Nature Conservancy.  Moreover, a new study headed by the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station was released recently. It states that Minnesota’s vast northern forests will look radically different a century from now due to global warming. The study “found” that tree species at the northern edge of their range will do better in years to come, but those at the southern end of their range will do poorly- or disappear altogether.
                The report’s authors claim the findings can help ‘forest managers’ plot the state’s forest of the future rather than let chance rule the transition. I thought everything in nature  was brought about by simple chance. Man screwed it up, but now man needs to meddle with nature again by planting certain types of trees in certain numbers in specific areas? We now have to impose an intelligent design on our mother, the Earth, is that it?
                The Nature Conservancy scientist also said, “It’s important to note that we aren’t certain on all of this stuff, so we need to hedge our bets, like an investment strategy, and not put all of our eggs in one basket. We’re trying to encourage diversity of species into the future.”
                Here are some other study findings of note.
                *The number of heavy precipitation events will continue to increase, and impacts from flooding and soil erosion may also become more damaging.
                *Forests may experience more drought stress during the growing season, as well as increased risk of forest fires and an increase in forest pests and invasive species.
                *Temperature increases will lead to longer growing seasons.
                So, to recap: flooding will increase dramatically, as will drought stress, of course. Diversity of species in the future is our goal, except for certain trees, ‘pests’ and invasive species. But, look at the bright side, despite the excessively hot, wet, dry weather, frequent damaging storms, soil erosion, forest fires, invasive species, ‘pests’ (locusts?), and the like, the growing seasons will be longer! Wow.


                Hedging our bets, indeed.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A Progressive Pledge?

                According to the National Review (via Campus Reform), a professor of American civilization at Metropolitan State University of Denver requires his students to recite a slightly modified version of the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each class.
                Among the statements in this oath he devised are:  the United States is reserved for “Republicans,” and that the nation is repressed “under Jesus.” It continues apace, claiming that its constitution offers “curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, tree-huggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you, if you don’t watch your step.”
                This is the exact opposite of reality. Republicans are constantly bashed and slandered. It is a sport amongst the elite media.  We certainly aren’t repressed by Jesus. Look at our movies and television, books and society at large. What is true is that we have repressed Jesus.
                If Mohammad was treated they way Jesus is in American popular culture, by now there’d be no studios or television stations left to continue the sacrilege…or viewers left to see it.
                There is a black man in the White House. We elected him. Twice. He is called “the President of the United States of America” and is supposed to be the leader of the free world. Fifty years ago, homosexuality was considered a mental illness, and now we have gay marriage. Abortion is not only still legal, many women want others to pay for it. Welfare queens, tree-huggers, and feminazis are all thriving.
                And that ‘black’ President? He just went around the constitution and the Congress in an attempt to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.
                Communists? Communists, socialists, Marxist-Lenninists and the like are in academia, government and everywhere else. Socialists are firmly in control of the Democratic Party. We are in the process of normalizing relations with Castro’s Cuba.
                And this despite the fact that these ideologies have brought nothing but wont, suffering and death to every country that has ‘embraced’ them. In 1913, under the Czars, Russia was a net grain exporter. The ‘glorious’ October Revolution came about in 1917, and the Marxists took over. Stalin was named general secretary in 1922. Subsequently, under his communist leadership, up to seven million people starved. Russia literally went from net grain exporter to cannibalism in a little over ten years.
                There is one group that does have to be careful of what they say or risk facing abuse and oppression: people who disagree with these politically-correct, mainstream-media, elitist, coastal views. Pastors and Priests are being prevented from stating their biblicly-backed beliefs on homosexuality. Writers and commentators are being enjoined from publicly disagreeing with the idea of ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming.’ Conservative groups are being targeted by the IRS. The mythical ‘one-percent’ are being savaged. Tea Party members are being slandered as ‘Tea-Baggers.’ Democratic candidates sneeringly aver that those in the American Heartland “cling to their God and their guns.” (Though they, while certainly capitalizing the ‘D’ in Democrat, probably wouldn’t capitalize the ‘G’ in God. They ironically booed His late inclusion in their platform at their 2012 convention).
                Let’s pledge allegiance to sanity and logic, history and the truth.

                

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Orangutans Are People Too

                “Orangutans are people, too” gushed the Associated Press headline (dateline Buenos Aires)!

                This was triggered by an Argentine court’s ruling that an orangutan that has lived 20 years at the Buenos Aires zoo is ‘entitled’ to some legal rights enjoyed by humans, including liberty from confinement.
                ‘Sandra’, the 29 year-old orangutan in question, was unavailable for comment.

                Apparently, that wasn’t an anomaly. Florida attorney Steven Wise of the “Nonhuman Rights Project” recently argued before a New York State appeals court that ‘Tommy the Chimp’ is a person, entitled (there’s that word again) to basic rights, including  freedom from imprisonment. Tommy is a ‘retired’ circus chimp currently living happily with his owner in Gloversville, N.Y.
In a cage complete with a stereo and cable television.
Mr. Wise would like Tommy and other chimps to be able to spend their retirement in a Florida sanctuary.
There is a Chimp Liberation Movement underway. I’m sure there will be a suffrage movement on their behalf soon, although they’d probably be able to vote in most precincts now, since no driver’s license or identification is required.
If liberals believe chimps and orangutans are their equals, I’m okay with that.
But when they believe that monkeys are humans and unborn babies are not…well, that’s when I ‘go ape.’
They  may  ‘liberate’  babies from the ‘prison’ of their mother’s wombs, but only after they kill them.

Unlike Sandra and Tommy, they won’t get the chance to retire in Florida…or live anywhere.



                

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Progressive Regression

                                                     “Progressive” Schools

Progressive schools are here! I know, I know, schools have been, almost without exception, a  bastion of extreme liberalism for decades now throughout the West. But, they typically haven’t been specifically set up to be such, especially grade schools. Not to worry, though, the times they are a changin’. These schools are popping up all over the country now.
These students don’t just get the usual bash the U.S. fare. They are free to focus on any number of politically-correct topics. They can learn at their own pace with kids of different ages and pursue their own interests. Administrators say that these schools may well be the future of education. They say that the grade level model where everybody does the same thing doesn’t meet the kids needs anymore. These new schools typically have café-style furniture and low tables for group work. Sushi and Saki anyone? Students are free to wander around between rooms and even work on assignments while lounging on the floor. So much for ‘posture.’ Staff members are frequently called ‘advisors,’ not teachers.
A key concept amongst these bastions of brilliance is learning through community service, often via a school-wide project, such as building free libraries or cleaning up a local stream. (Or raising funds for an abortion clinic?). Might kids at these schools study only what they want, perhaps missing out on, say, math or English?
Report cards don’t include letter grades, of course, but normally indicate which modules a student has completed. Other ‘measurements’ include portfolios, ‘student reflection’ and ‘narrative feedback.’
It’s “Back to the Future” all over again. Schools such as these were fairly popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. How did that work out for us?

Apparently we did not  learn anything from them.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Genetic Gender Selection, What Could Go Wrong?

                “I’d like her to have kinda feminine lines, with a soft, white, backseat, four-on-the-floor, and a black top, please.” Ordering a car? Nope. Baby.
                The sex selection business is here to stay. And that may be just the start. Those folks that want to be able to pick the sex of their child will  now have that ability due to modern medical technology. ‘Pre-implantation genetic screening’, or genetic gender selection, now makes it possible through amniocentesis, or even a blood test, to determine what sex the baby would be early on in the ‘pregnancy’. If you don’t like the result, just abort and try, try again!
                We all know what’s coming with gene-mapping, etc., etc. Ads in college newspapers already frequently seek egg and sperm donors, with height and SAT score ‘requirements.’ Will we soon be submitting ‘orders’ for a particular eye color, hip-waist ratio, aggression level, length of appendages, hair color, proclivity to be a good football player or musician? If we keep on this path, the answer is a simple, emphatic, “yes.”
                The possibilities are endless. Hitler would be jealous. Perhaps a ‘master race’ is finally at hand? This moves the entire childbirth process from an intensely spiritual, sacred, time of parental bonding, wonder, joy- and yes, worry- into the realm of manufacturing and assembly.
                What could possibly go wrong? “Does it come with a warranty? I sure hope there is a ‘Lemon Law’!”
                In Australia, pre-implantation genetic screening is illegal. The Aussies are worried about what happens to human beings when we use genetics to select our children’s traits.
                Good on ya’ then, mates!


Thursday, January 8, 2015

Russian Fairy Tales

                Russian President Vladimir Putin used his annual New Year’s Eve address to the nation to claim that the March annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region was, “the most important milestone in the country’s history.”
                Apparently, he doesn’t recall World War II. Ever been to, say, Stalingrad (Volgograd) Mr. President? Staving off becoming a part of the Third Reich and subsequently winning the war can’t compare to your annexation of Crimea? Well, that should make the Ukrainians feel better, anyway! Clearly, he has no intention of giving the Crimean peninsula back unless he’s forced to. And he doesn’t appear worried about that prospect. Nor should he be.
                He also touted love for the Motherland and stated, “It manifested to the full extent in the brotherly support of Crimea and Sevastopol residents, when they firmly decided to return home.” Putin should consider a second career in stand-up comedy, or perhaps contemplate writing children’s fairy-tales.
                “The brotherly support of Crimea and Sevastopol residents, when they firmly decided to return home?”  Did Putin’s military kill and wound Ukrainian soldiers because they were offering their brotherly support? It was President Putin who ‘firmly decided to return Crimean residents home’ by "annexing" them and massing Russian troops on- and over- the Ukrainian border.  How many Ukrainians have been killed by the Russians own ‘brotherly support’ since clashes started months ago? They were certainly returned home. To their maker.


I suppose South Korea has historically been experiencing the ‘brotherly support’ of North Korea, too, Mr. Putin?

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

An Affair To Remember

                Last July, letters and notes that the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, sent to his mistress, Carrie Fulton Phillips, were unsealed and made public. It is abundantly clear, even in the classier prose of that day, that the affair was extremely passionate. Phillips, married at the time as well, and Harding were both in loveless marriages.
                Harding wrote her in 1913 stating, “There isn’t one iota of affection in my home relationship. It is merely existence, necessary for appearance’s sake.” On Christmas Eve 1910, the then future President wrote an impassioned love note to her on the back of a photograph of himself. “My darling,” he began, “There are no words, at my command, sufficient to say the full extent of my love for you- a mad, tender, devoted, ardent, eager, passion-wild, jealous…hungry…love. It flames like the fire and consumes. It racks in the tortures of aching hunger, and glows in bliss ineffable- bliss only you can give.”
                Not bad. Phillips kept those and dozens of other letters from Harding, some running 30 pages long, despite his request that she burn them. The roughly 900 pages show a very different side of a President who campaigned on a platform of “a return to normalcy.” While in office, Harding was dogged by political scandal. He died in office.
                Harding’s affair with Phillips began in 1905, according to James David Robenalt, author of the book, “The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War.” The book reproduces many of the love letters, and also examines suspicions that Phillips spied for the Germans in World War I. No proof of that has ever been found.
                Harding sometimes wrote to his lover in code. She was ‘Sis’ or ‘Mrs. Pouterson.’ He was ‘Jerry’. Together, they were ‘the Poutersons.’  They had secret meetings in Germany, England and Canada. They met in New York and rendezvoused on an ocean liner, where they began the day “with glorious kisses and fond caresses, and you were so superb,” Harding wrote in a later reminiscence.
                On January 2nd, 1913, he wrote to her: “My Carrie, Beloved and Adored…I do love you so. I wonder if you realize how much- how faithfully, how gladly…how passionately. Yes you do know the last, you must have felt the proof.” And on September 15th of the same year, recalling an amorous weekend in New York: “I do not know what inspired you, but you resurrected me, and set me aflame with the fullness of your beauty and the fire of your desire…imprisoned me in your embrace and gave me transport- God! My breath quickens to recall it.”
                History has largely judged Harding as incompetent and inarticulate. He was self-evidently not inarticulate! Neither was he incompetent. His letters also reveal his studied thoughts about the looming World War and other weighty matters. He also raised questions about America’s role in the world that are still being pondered today.
                His grand-nephew, Richard Harding, gave an address this past July to a room largely filled with historians. He told them, “It’s our hope and your responsibility not to be distracted by the sexually explicit prose that fills parts of these letters, but instead to use all the information in them to reassess the measure of the man. Warren Harding doesn’t need protection. He needs honest, hardworking and fair historians to tell us the story as they see it.” Good luck with that.
                 However, maybe the Democrats will now give him some grudging respect. Certainly, in this day and age, like Clinton post Monica, his approval ratings will rise.

                But for the wrong reasons.

                

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Limousine Liberals

                Liberals contributed the most cash to their candidates this past midterm election. Among the top 100 individual donors to political groups, more than half gave all or most of it to Democrats or their allies. And groups that gave more than $100,000 to the Democrats or their allies held the top thirteen spots  on the group donors list. The two biggest super PACs of 2014 were the Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC, both backing Democrats, of course.
                Among the 183 groups that wrote checks of $100,000 or more to another group, Democrats had an enormous 3-to-1 cash advantage. The biggest contributor, naturally, was the National Education Association, which coughed up $22 million. Not a single Republican-leaning group cracked the top 10 list of those transferring money to others. Which makes sense, as transferring money from those who’ve earned it to those who typically vote for Democrats is what Democrats are all about.
                In reality, Democrats have been raking in more money from wealthy donors than Republicans have for years and years now. The NEA, Hollywood actors and actresses, various special interest groups,  unions flush with ill-begotten cash fleeced from their members whether they approve or not, George Soros, lawyers, Costco, and many others dependably contribute huge sums of cash to the DNC and its minions.
                Yet, incredibly, they still get away with portraying Republicans as the party of rich people in order to split the country and win votes through a contrived class warfare. 

Monday, January 5, 2015

Pols Push For Poles At Polls?


                Some cities and states around the country are pushing to change existing laws to allow for more interpreters at polling places. Current law, in many areas, already allows voters who can’t read English to bring an interpreter to help them at the polls. If an on-site election judge speaks a voters language they can ask him or her for assistance as well. Yet some still insist that those measures are inadequate and that more needs to be done to help the rapidly growing number of voters (or potential voters) who can’t speak English.
                Minneapolis, for example, provides its voter information materials in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali. Should the goal really be to have interpreters for every language in the world  everyplace Americans vote? Do other countries do this? If you or I moved to a non-English speaking country and were allowed to vote, would we automatically expect- and be provided with- an  interpreter?
                Why didn’t we do this in the past? Germans, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Chinese, etc., etc., all came here over the course of a hundred-plus years and were expected to earn their citizenship by becoming familiar with America and her customs. What about the Poles? We made fun of them and didn’t bother to print voter information materials in Polish or have Polish interpreters on hand where they voted. They were expected to learn the language.
                And assimilate to a degree. Why did they come here? Remember the ‘melting pot?’

                E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many…one.

                I’d vote for that.

                

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Democrats To Try Historic Filibuster In Attempt To Prevent Republican Congressional Takeover

January 6, 2015
News Syndicate-             

                Leading congressional Democrats stated yesterday that they will filibuster in an attempt to prevent newly-elected Republicans from being seated in the 114th congress, slated to begin today.
                Asked how long he was prepared to keep up the unprecedented filibuster, Al Franken (D-MN.) stated, “a little under two years, probably, until the next elections where the ‘bleeping’ people get a chance to speak again, and maybe get it right this time.” Franken then added, “Who am I kidding, Gruber was right!”
                Other congressional Democrats said that they would just- literally- take their seats with them in an attempt to prevent newly-elected Republicans from sitting in them. One averred, on the condition of anonymity, “Remember how the Clinton people took the “W’s” out of White House keyboards before George Bush the younger took office? It’s kinda like that.”


Saturday, January 3, 2015

The Dark Ages- 2.0

                 There is a country whose debt is rising, its population aging and job security fading. The country’s youth, especially, wonder when, and if , their country can bounce back. Most of its citizens do not have the security of lifetime employment enjoyed by their parents and grandparents. Low birth rates combined with longer life expectancy are thinning out its working-age population at the same time the ranks of retirees are swelling. Ultimately, its taxpayers will shoulder the burden of surging costs for health insurance, elder care and pensions. Its leader has tried to jump-start the economy by injecting it with huge sums of money, leading to the devaluation of its currency. He has promised sweeping and drastic overhauls.
                Most in this country feel less well off than before due to long-term declines in wages and purchasing power. About four in 10 residents work in part-time or contract jobs that afford little security or benefits. For the country’s youth, permanent, career-track jobs are the exception, not the rule. Its manufacturers struggle to compete with rivals like China. Some think the nation is in serious, irreversible decline. This sure sounds familiar. The nation I’m describing?
                Japan. (Ironic, as back in their 1980’s economic heyday, everyone thought that Japan was going to own the world).
                Obviously, this sounds like a carbon-copy description of the U.S., but the same is true with many countries in the European Union and elsewhere. The West needs the emergence of a strong, principled leader or leaders who understand that socialism has never been, cannot and never will be…the answer to these problems, as it caused them in the first place. (Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher,  we need you now).
                Even this won’t be enough to save us, if the people  don’t understand or will not support what has to be done. If many don’t stop demanding more of other’s money, and few are willing to sacrifice any of their pensions or entitlement benefits, we will never come out of this economic malaise. And, if we don’t fully utilize all our energy resources, and if we continue to let pathetic dictators dictate to us, we- and the world- will eventually slide back into another Dark Age.

                

Friday, January 2, 2015

Scientists Discover Inception Of Conception!

December 30, 2051-
News Syndicate
                         Scientists Discover That Sex Can Be Used For Procreation
In a stunning report issued yesterday, Thursday, December 29th, a team of scientists from the Johnson & Johnson & Johnson Institute for Human Behavioral Research (JJJIHBR) released results from a recent long-term study where one participant allegedly got pregnant from an act the scientists termed  “coitus”.
 Birthrates in the U.S. have been falling for decades until hitting ‘0’ in recent years. The resultant aging of the country has only been countered by massive immigration. This has coincided with the vast acceptance- and practice- of gay marriage and  the staggering increase in transgendered and gender-questioning individuals. Some right-wing religious nuts say that these are factors in the U.S. not experiencing a live birth in seven years.  The ‘nutters’ also claim that the continued breakdown of the family,  the near continuous economic slump and the proliferation of various adult ‘toys’ and ‘self-pleasuring’ are additional factors. These, along with the tolerance and proliferation of any imaginable act and the continued marginalization and feminization of males are keys to understanding the phenomenon many ‘Tea-baggers’ say. They cite recent surveys showing that the few remaining males in heterosexual marriages have a near 100% rate of impotence and  corresponding rates of “E.D.” This is  due in part, they claim, to television and movie portrayals and in part due to the fact that the few remaining females in heterosexual marriages satisfy themselves chiefly through their television shows where everyone else is doing it and talking about it all the time, and by reading books about perfect, yet ironically  macho, masculine, males ravishing the female protagonist, otherwise known as “them”. These males are chiseled of body, wealthy- or both- always conveying power, according to one of the few remaining male-support groups. Yet in real life, they claim, these females typically get mad if their husbands are fixated on looks, corresponding femininity and ‘sexiness’, and often say things like, “too tired tonight, help me with the damn dishes for once” before going off to read alone in bed.
Some extremists say there is even more to it than that. They posit that the rise in the number of people addicted to video games and on-line content and the fact that almost no one engages another human being directly  anymore, typically only communicating with another person via their modern “hyper-smart” phones have also been factors in the birth-rate dwindling down to zero.
  In any case, according to the researchers, all of this, along with the rise in artificial-insemination, has led to a  virtual society-wide memory failure regarding what the scientists termed “coitus”, which they say, based on anatomical evidence, is apparently “specifically designed”  to be engaged in by one man and one woman, and can thus potentially produce children! Belinda Lafleur, co-head of the study stated flatly, “ as hard a concept as it is to grasp, there can now be no question that this is the way nature intended for us to bond and produce children.” After this startling realization sunk in, the researchers delivered some bad news, stating that, “ since 87% of the native-born population is now too old to try this new method with any hope of success, even if they wanted to, it may already be too late for this country to reverse the course it has been on now for all these years. Climax change is here to stay.”
The scientists were taken aback by their own findings. Richard Johnson, the other study co-head, exclaimed, “We’re all just hornswoggled now. I mean just stupefied. I, for one, never saw this coming.” 
Many in  mainstream groups such as ‘GLBT Forever’ and ‘NAMBLA’ have taken profound issue with the findings, some going so far as to call the so-called findings “disturbing, sick, unfounded & pushing the envelope for the simple shock value of doing so.”
The head of Queer Nation opined that “this kind of over-inclusive tolerance leads us on a very slippery slope. And I don’t like the reference to ‘nature’. It’s too easy a step from there to ‘nature’s God’ and similar hurtful terms. It’s one thing for the minority to have its little say, but last I checked, the majority still rules in this country. You know, just sayin’.”