Liar, Liar… Speech on fire!
Having not watched the speech (I make a practice of putting myself in situations wherein I may be the victim of malicious prevarication) I think it is still safe to say that the whole thing was a bunch of BS. I heard the sound bites, I saw snippets of transcript… it was the same old, tired lines about 40 some-odd million people without insurance and how we just HAD to make sure that everyone has insurance. What crap. How many of those people choose not to carry insurance because it would impinge on their cable package and smokes? Yeah. I gotta tell you, I’m just hopping at the opportunity to pay for their insurance. Here’s an idea: instead of forcing the country into a plan that (no matter WHAT the mainstream media says) DOESN’T want any part of this plan, why don’t you remove all the government fetters and let the market drive prices down in competition? How can they do that, you ask? Eliminate mandatory coverages. Why the heck should a young, single male without a girlfriend, much less a family, have to buy an insurance plan that pays for pre-natal care? Where does that make sense?
Why should I have to pay for cancer coverage if I don’t want to? If I am free to buy the policy that I want at a competitive price, I’m sure as heckfire gonna do that over buying the government-mandated “one-size-fits-all” plan. Eliminate the barriers to portability. If every company in the nation can compete for any person in the nation in terms of insurance, there will CERTAINLY be a drop in price, based solely upon the (empirically demonstrated) law of supply and demand.
Doesn’t it strike you as odd that both of these restrictions are inflicted upon the market by the same people that now want to “fix” what’s wrong with the market? If I came into your house, busted your tv so you only got 6 channels and then offered to charge you a pile of money to fix it, you’d probably throw my backside out the front door, toolbox in hand… and you would be right to do so. So why does the democrat party think that we will let them do the same thing to our healthcare insurance? Ridiculous.
3 Beers, two idiots and an Irish cop…
A joke? Not hardly. I wish that it was. Unfortunately, today the President will be hosting a “Concilliatory Happy Hour” for his buddy the professor of “African American Studies” and the Policeman involved in his arrest. Now, I have a couple BIG problems with this:
1. Since when does the president have any reason to get involved in the purview of a local Massachusetts police matter?
2. Why is the president elevating the complaint of this loud-mouth liberal professor to the level of legitimacy by inviting him to the White house to bury the hatchet with the arresting officer?
3. Why is ANYBODY taking the charge of racism seriously when all the evidence that has been presented points to an officer who was doing his duty according to the information that he was given?
4. Why does a citizen (who is being served by his local police jurisdiction in the protection of his property and safety) belligerently refuse to show ID that proves he is the owner of the house in question?
This whole episode is a prime example of the LACK of presidential restraint that is living in the White House these days. The president decides to chime in after having JUST said “I don’t have all the facts but… the police acted stupidly.” WHAT??
How about, ” I don’t have all the facts, and I believe that this is a matter best left to the police jurisdiction involved.”
or perhaps “I don’t feel that a local police matter falls into the purview of the President of the United States.”
Oh well. I guess that would have taken some knowledge of the ACTUAL duties of the office and an ability to NOT take advantage of a news item to boost your flagging poll numbers. So that will not be happening any time soon.
The dangers of working on TV…
I’m sure that some of you have heard about the little kerfuffle going on about Brian Kilmeade\’s \”pure genes\” comment on Fox & Friends recently. It came up in a discussion about genetic predisposition to various ailments (heart disease, cancer etc.) All the libs that heard it are shouting “racist” (as they typically do in situations like this) – some are making fun of the fact that he kinda stuttered or hesitated while making his statement and calling him a moron and a nazi (again, as liberals typically do in situations like this). This episode however is extremely useful as an instructional tool on the dangers of working for the media, especially on a network that has conservative leanings. What Brian said was effectively the following: Swedes generally marry other Swedes, whereas Americans (read “white americans”) are more likely to marry someone from a different genetic background. As a result, the Swedes are more likely to have “pure genes”, and therefore are less likely to carry genetic predisposition to a wide variety of ailments. Now, on the surface (which is where most liberals usually hang out in the knowledge pool) that might appear to have some inherently racist overtones. If you delve a little deeper though, you start to see the logic behind the statement. To explore this further, I would like to visit the historic and present racial makeup of both the USA and say, Sweden, Norway or perhaps Iceland.
In the 1600′s and 1700′s the United States played host to an abysmal episode in the history of mankind, the slave trade. This however introduced to this country yet another variation to the ever expanding gene pool that was North America. At that point, there were already persons from just about every area of Europe, and the indigenous American tribes from different areas of the continent. As the US advanced through history, all of those bloodlines mingled (even as many of them were persecuted and driven out of their homelands). Today, the US is one of the most diverse countries in the world as far as genetic makeup. I would wager that there are genes from just about every human population on the planet floating around somewhere between Atlantic and Pacific.
Now, if we look at the historical background of Norway, we don’t find that same level of genetic mixing. Norway didn’t grow labor intensive crops that encouraged the importation of a low cost, slave-based workforce. Not only that, but Norway doesn’t share a land border with a country, much less a continent that has a significantly different genetic makeup from that of the typical Norwegian. For example, how many Mexican immigrants (legal or illegal) do you think enter Norway in a given year? Are there any reservations or pockets of tribal societies left in Norway? Has Norway ever experienced a large scale wave of immigrants from Asia to it’s West Coast? On all counts, no. So, relatively speaking, Norway would be a homogeneous collection of individuals. Sure, there are variations of hair color, height, etc., but in terms of visible ethnic differences, virtually nothing.
Ok, before I go any further, let me stop before any libs reading this get really wound up to say the following: The recent history of the human race has shown an ever increasing tendency of groups to intermingle in a global sense. In the last hundred years, travel has become cheap, easy, and much more rapid. Not only that, but the economy is global in reach now, and people are routinely transferred to offices located in different parts of the world. I am aware of this. Yes, there ARE people that live in Norway that aren’t decended of blonde-haired, blue eyed Scandinavian stock. But, before you call me a bigot or racist, see if you can give me a recommendation for a restaurant in the “Little Havana” section of Oslo. If you can, I’ll stand down. In the mean time I’m gonna go look for a good Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Reykjavik. I’ll probably need to order a pizza though, it could take a while to find one.
The point is this:
There are plenty of idiots out there that love to watch people that they disagree with and then “shoot off” at the mouth without considering what is ACTUALLY being said (the two that come to mind most readily are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson). Most of them probably also thought that “Change you can Believe In” was a slogan to get behind. Note, none of them asked “Change to what?” Those of us that actually look a little further into the background of any situation, usually have a better view on the realities of present and future. If I worked on TV, I might stutter a little too if I was about to say something that most people were too ignorant to understand.
“to uphold and defend”….
Undoubtedly, you the informed reader of this blog, have heard about the uneasy situation in Honduras. I’m sure you have also heard the media crowd duly reporting that it is a “military coup”. Horsefeathers. It is very clearly (and undeniably) a constitutional response to a power-hungry president. I, however would rather look at a few surrounding circumstances just for the sake of my own amusement.
1. Hugo Chavez doesn’t like what’s going on. Well, that’s my first indication that this is probably a GREAT thing in the making. “Mr. I Own Venezuela” is a tin-pot dictator who himself has decided (at the point of a gun) to be El Presidente for life. Anything he doesn’t like is most probably a big step in the right direction. This of course doesn’t even take into account the fact that Mr. Chavez is complicit in this attempt at usurpation of power by willfully and knowingly printing and providing ballots for the unconstitutional referendum that Former President Zelaya had planned to carry out.
2. The United Nations has condemned the actions of the Honduran Congress (i.e. the forcible deportation of the dictator-to-be Mel Zelaya). Does this surprise anyone? Hmmm… the UN on the wrong side of an issue, where have we heard that before? Oh, right, it was every other day since June 26, 1945. If the Honduran Congress is acting on the letter of the Honduran Constitution, the UN can shove off. Isn’t this the same crowd who were griping about the US invasion of a sovreign nation (Saddam’s Iraq)? What happened to all that ‘sovreign nation’ sentiment? Eh, who cares what they think… they all believe in man-made global warming too.
3. The President of the United States has made statements supporting Zelaya (the ousted power grabber in chief). Now THAT bothers me. What does it say about the present administration’s oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of our nation when they clearly don’t care whether or not the Constitution of any other nation is followed or respected? Notice I didn’t say that it surprised me… anyone with an ounce of Constitutional knowledge in their skull knows that nationalization of private entities would make the founding fathers vomit. I’ll tell you one thing, if Barack tries this whole “re-elected till I get tired of it” trick, I sincerely hope that our military leadership follows the example of their Honduran counterparts.
What really chaps me is that this whole thing is being played off my the media as “just another military takeover” in Central America, when it is the exact antithesis of that very situation. You had an elected executive attempting an ‘end-around’ on the Constitution of his nation. When he tried to use the military to complete the task, the military leadership told him to drop dead. Yup, sure sounds like a coup d’etat to me. This is the very spirit of constitutionally-bound Patriotism. A heartly congratulations and well desereved “‘atta boy” to the Military leadership of Honduras from Hellfire & Brainstorm. Apparently, they have ‘a few good men’ in their ranks as well.
You MUST be kidding…
Well, it would seem that the Obama administration is pushing hard towards instuting a government-run healthcare system. I’m sure that many of you understand exactly how abyssmal an idea that really is, but let me make it even worse. According to this article from CNS News.com they aren’t sure which countries they really mean when they say that it “works pretty well”. Um, what?
Robert Gibbs would starve as a salesman. If you’re going to sell me a product and tout references for it’s great features and functionality, you had better have a specific list of people that I can call to find out if that’s true. If somebody told you that their vacuum cleaner was voted “the best on the market”, my first question is: “By whom?”
Well, in this case, the idiot sales person says: “Um, I don’t know.” Hmmm… so whether it be the vaccuum or Government-run heathcare, they’ll both suck, we just don’t know how much.
I can tell you, I lived in Britain and had the unfortunate experience of visiting a hospital over there. The place looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 70′s. Ask yourself why people in Canada come to the US when they need immediate medical care for what could be a terminal illness. How well is a government bureaucracy going to run a system that is responsible for our very survival? I don’t want my heart surgery waiting in somebody’s inbox over the weekend or getting “stuck in the system” because the “new guy” in the Health Services Administration Office mis-coded it. If you’ve ever been to a DMV, you know how government healthcare will work and with whom you will be dealing in that office. I have never met anyone in any federal government office or institution that I would consider “above average” in the intelligence arena. All I’m sayin’ is you had better schedule your heart attack for mid morning on a Monday or Tuesday… any earlier and your “approval for services” will be in “weekend voicemail hell”, any later and you’ll be in the end of the week catch-up period. Oh, by the way, government office-types don’t do overtime. They leave at 5 every day. I know, I ‘ve unfortunately been one and watched it happen.
Wake up and start screaming about this now. When it’s already happened, it’s waaaay too late.
Fail.
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life…”
So are the words of Obama’s first (and hopefully LAST) pick for the Supreme court Sonia Sotomayor. Arrogance picks arrogance. Is anyone surprised? How is it that Liberal judges think that accurate jurisprudence is dependent upon someone’s ethnicity, personal experience and feelings on a subject? Could it be that they don’t actually give a rat’s kazoo about the constitution and it’s directive to the court to decide the constitutionality of law and the judgment of cases based on current US law and precedent?
I’ll be anxious to find out how our mainstream media views such an ethnically charged and ignorant statement. By default, it implies that we “poor, stupid, ignorant and inexperienced white folk” don’t have the same “richness of experience” as your standard, “wise (and apparently culturally superior) latina”.
Well, Judge Sotomayor, have you ever lived outside of New York? Ever lived in a foreign country for years at a time, or walked the shell-cratered beaches of Normandy? Have you ever seen the magnificent castles of Europe or studied the walled fortresses of Roman-era Britain first hand? Looked down from the windows of the Marksburg to the banks of the Rhine? Have you ever tasted haggis or listened to the lonely wail of a piper playing Amazing Grace from the towers of Edinburgh castle on a cold spring night? Ever experienced a ferry ride across the pitching north Atlantic to see Vestman Islands? Ever taken stock of the American graves in Europe personally? Ever seen the works of Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and been close enough to touch them? Seen the place where King Henry VIII executed his wives? Seen the bunker where Churchill directed the British War effort during WWII? Visted the Ossuary at Verdun and seen the bones of unidentified WWI soldiers stacked by the room-full? Visited Stonehenge? Seen the Book of Kells? Traveled across the green hills of Ireland? Have you walked the streets of Paris? Dublin? Cologne? Reykjavik? Munich? Bonn? London? Inverness? St. Andrews? Strasbourg? Calais? Seen the ruins of the Abbey at Wrexham? Ever seen the Alps at sunrise out the back of a tent? Ever whitewater rafted down a glacier-fed river in Austria? Ever bothered to visit the battlefields that checker the eastern half of the US that bore witness to our own domestic conflict? Seen the ruins of a Native American palisade wall or a mound complex that contains not only the bones of those who built them but also those of US soldiers? Been aboard a US aircraft carrier?
That’s all just stuff that us poor, stupid honky white folk do. I suppose I still lack the “cultural richness” of your standard “wise latina”.
FAIL.
“Fighting the War”
The year is 2017. You crawl out of your bed and prepare yourself for a dangerous day of duty to your nation. You knew the sacrifice that might have to be made when you accepted the challenge and the call from your country. You splash a little water on your face to wake yourself and grab a cup of fair-trade, shade grown coffee. You would check on the weather, but you know what the report will be… hot, and getting hotter daily.
As you and the others prepare to load up in your transports, you see the familiar US Government logo on the side. It is faded now, but it still carries the aura of strenght and dominance. The quarters are cramped and the trip will be tedious, but it is a choice you made 9 years ago and you are determined to live out the commitment that you made. As the journey begins, you notice the faces of those travelling around you… serious and furrowed faces; equally tired of the daily grind of duty but resigned to the task ahead.
Looking ahead you see the clinic. Unsurprisingly, there are many casualties waiting at its doors. You watch as the medics go about their work, almost casually, attending to the injured masses without much enthusiasm.
Without any warning, you are suddenly thrown sideways. Just before you black out you see the enemy that you have fought so long… how you hate them. Then there is nothing.
You awake in a bed in the very same clinic that you saw before… now the glum doctors and nurses are attending to you with the same lack of vigor. On the television you can see a report about more casualties. You cant’t hear the sound, but you can read the subtitles. The news is grim and the death toll rises. You read the white text running across the bottom of the screen:
“US Department of Transportation reports 17,000 deaths on the roads last year.” Experts believe that smaller cars are a leading cause of increased traffic accident deaths. Legislators are pondering outlawing SUV’s.”
You shake your head a little to clear the fog. “What?” that can’t be what it said. You look again to the screen to see a picture of a transport just like yours bearing the same logo that you remarked upon when you got in.
“General Motors claims that smaller fuel-efficient cars are not to blame in the increased death tolls on the highways and says that older, larger and more polluting cars are to blame.”
That big GM stares back at you from the front end of a Chrysler Nano, the newest car in the line of government-mandated, fuel efficient cars. Your car was much like that one… as are many these days. You think about the 17,000 deaths and wonder how many of them, like you voted for “change”. As you look down at your badly broken legs, you are thankful that your choice to save the planet didn’t cost you your life. You remember the image that crossed your line of sight just before you went unconscious. Damn that Escalade and it’s fat, undoubtedly Republican driver.
The nurse comes in to attend to you, but to your surprise, she simply looks at your chart and turns to leave.
“Will I need surgery?, you ask carefully.
“Maybe”, she replies in an even tone. It will depend upon the results of your X-rays.
You look at her, perplexed. “I haven’t had any Xrays yet.” The words are barely out of your mouth when the truth of the situation washes over you.
The nurse looks up and flatly informs you. “They’re scheduled for early next week.”
“Next week?” you spout indignantly. The news had just finished giving the weather for today… Monday. “How can it take so long for an xray?!”
You had heard about the rationing of health care and the long waits for procedures, but never imagined that it would be your problem. Now, you were at the mercy of the system. “Is there any way to get them sooner?” you inquire with a faint taste of bribery on your voice.
“Nope.”, she blurts. “Everybody waits.”
“…we hope for a day when everyone recieves the same quality of care….” the echoing words come back to you now from that rally so many years ago. “Heathcare for free, healthcare for all” was your chant. Shortly afterwards, you had celebrated the passage of the Universal Healthcare Act of 2011. Now you were a beneficiary of that piece of legislation. Somehow, though, it didn’t feel so beneficial…
Is it futuristic fiction or prophesy? Or is it simply the unavoidable result of “Change You Can Believe In”?
Congress sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong…again.
Congress is at it again. They are pressuring the NCAA to switch from the BCS to a play-off format.
Now, as a college football fan, I am all for a play-off, in some form. I think the BCS doesn’t really do any better than the old poll system did at deciding a national champion. I do think that the BCS does a really good job of creating a thunderstorm of media coverage every year with all the disagreements and arguments both for an against it. But ultimately, I’m in favor of a ply-off.
What I’m not in favor of is Congress mandating that NCAA switch from one format to another. Not only is this type of action a complete waste of taxpayer time and money, it’s an flagrant abuse of power. In no part of the Constitution is the right to a fair and balanced college football championship format guaranteed. There are certain congressmen who are reaching far beyond the scope of the Congress’ power to win votes in their own states and are attempting to bring big-time college football money to their state funded institutions.
With the shape of the economy (it’s recovering but not we’re not completely out of the woods yet), justices using international law to influence decisions in American cases, and a president who has forcibly taken control of an automaker and illegally changed bankruptcy laws to favor unions in the most blatant of vote buying actions, you’d think our congressmen and women would have better things to do with OUR time than tell the NCAA what to do with college football. But when you consider the actions of our president in regards to GM, then they could simply be playing a very expensive, very dangerous game of follow-the-leader.
If you are as pissed about this or any other issue as I am, I highly encourage you to contact your Senator and Representative and let them know. The only way that we can change this country is to change the leadership. And the only way they will change is if they think Americans have begun to pay attention again and aren’t simply sitting in front of the TV with their eyes glazed over as Simon Cowell yells at the latest American Idol flunky.
Make your voice heard.
P.S. – I know that a while back, I promised a few articles on the FairTax, since it was tax season at the time. Due to illness, craziness at work, a friends wedding and the launching of a new site, I was unable to sit down and write some comprehensive posts on the FairTax. I will at some point actually do it, I just don’t know when. Sorry to all those who were expecting the posts.
“Obama Rex”
So lets say I owe you $1000.
I also owe Visa $25,000 for purchases made on their card.
(Note that this is a fictional account because credit cards are a stupid idea)
I go bankrupt. Now whatever I own outright stands good for all my debt.
Bankruptcy law says that Visa gets first swipe at my stuff because they have a secured loan. A legal contract that says that they have a right to reclaim whatever I own in order to collect the money that I owe them.
You have a handshake agreement for $1000.
Enter King Barry.
Because you are a democrat voter, Barack says that you get your $1000 before Visa gets ANYTHING. Sound cool? It might to you - it’s your $1000, but to the credit card company with a secured loan, it’s bass-ackwards… And illegal.
This is exactly what is going on right now with the Chrysler bankruptcy. The Unions have an unsecured claim on Chrysler for their pensions. The people who invested money in Chrysler (Bondholders) have a secured right to claim their money back under US bankruptcy law. Our president has decided that the Unions should get their share first. You got that? Decided. He doesn’t have the right, privelege or power to “decide” anything in this situation. This man must think he’s a king with the ability to override federal law where he doesn’t THINK that it’s fair or “right”. This is called hubris, people. I hope the court of whatever state this comes up in slaps the teeth right out of his mouth for this arrogant attempt at countermanding standing US LAW.
Where does a trillion dollars go?
So how many of you are actually budget oriented in your house? Do you sit down at the beginning of the month and spend every dollar you have “On paper On purpose” as Dave Ramsey says? Ok, so maybe you do. Do you think that you could do that for a trillion dollars? I doubt it. Any budget that contained that much money to be allocated is certain to have a few “leaks”. You know, where people try to allocate some of the money to an organization or company for a “good” reason… Sooner or later (usually later) we find out that the organization in question has ties back to the progenitor of the disbursement.
In today’s episode, we are looking at the little reported ‘coincidence’ that Senator Diane Feinstein’s (D-Cal.) husband and his firm were recently hired by a firm that strangely enough got a $25 Billion, taxpayer-funded chunk of cash… courtesy of legislation introduced by Senator Feinstein herself. Hmmm…
Now, when you’re looking at a budget (this year) of a trillion dollars (that’s a thousand-billion dollars by the way) 25 billion isn’t really that big of a number. I mean, it’s only 2.5% of the budget, so no big deal. Right?
Well, the story from the Washington Times says that the Senator’s husband Richard Blum sits as a Board Charmain for CB Richard Ellis. CBRE won a contract to sell FDIC insured properties from failed banks. The $25 Billion comes in as a hand-out to the FDIC to pay someone to sell off these properties.
Now, there is always the possibility that this is actually all ‘above-board’ and CBRE really is the best company for the job. I mean, look at some of the no-bid contracts that Halliburton won. They were, without a doubt, the best company for some of the jobs that needed to be done. The stink comes in when the fact that the Senator doesn’t sit on the comittee that oversees the banking industry. It wasn’t really ‘her place’ to be offering this type of legislation.
I was always taught to ‘avoid even the appearance of impropriety’. Sound advice for sure. It doesn’t look like it was applied here, however. I’ll let you be the judge.