Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tournament of Roses Parade Photo of the Day
The #Occupus, the moron-powered octopus built from trash bags that's supposed to represent something to the #Occupy crowd (h/t KTLA):
After all those floats costing $250,000 and up, I'm sure this will be a real treat for the folks on the parade route.
Political Headlines of the Day
Is endorsing Ron Paul a good idea for an entertainer?
Kelly Clarkson sales spike after Ron Paul endorsementI guess this is a win for Clarkson since sales put money in her pocket while Twitter followers don't.
Kelly Clarkson Loses Twitter Followers After Endorsing Ron Paul
Mark Steyn: Time to End the Denial on the Debt
Good stuff from Mark Steyn, but it's a scary way to go into the election year:
Why is it that consumers can have a cow over a $2 Verizon charge or a $5 Bank of America charge, but don't seem to care at all that our country is being bankrupted by liberal policies and politicians? Our priorities are way out of whack.
Ring out the new, ring in the old. No, hang on, that should be the other way around, shouldn't it? Not as far as 2011 was concerned. The year began with a tea-powered Republican caucus taking control of the House of Representatives and pledging to rein in spendaholic government. It ended with President Obama making a pro forma request for a mere $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. This will raise government debt to $16.4 trillion – a new world record! If only until he demands the next debt-ceiling increase in three months' time.Read the whole thing (and I mean that - it's good).
At the end of 2011, America, like much of the rest of the Western world, has dug deeper into a cocoon of denial. Tens of millions of Americans remain unaware that this nation is broke – broker than any nation has ever been. A few days before Christmas, we sailed across the psychological Rubicon and joined the club of nations whose government debt now exceeds their total GDP. It barely raised a murmur – and those who took the trouble to address the issue noted complacently that our 100 percent debt-to-GDP ratio is a mere two-thirds of Greece's. That's true, but at a certain point per capita comparisons are less relevant than the sheer hard dollar sums: Greece owes a few rinky-dink billions; America owes more money than anyone has ever owed anybody ever.
Public debt has increased by 67 percent over the past three years, and too many Americans refuse even to see it as a problem. For most of us, "$16.4 trillion" has no real meaning, any more than "$17.9 trillion" or "$28.3 trillion" or "$147.8 bazillion." It doesn't even have much meaning for the guys spending the dough: Look into the eyes of Barack Obama or Harry Reid or Barney Frank, and you realize that, even as they're borrowing all this money, they have no serious intention of paying any of it back. That's to say, there is no politically plausible scenario under which the 16.4 trillion is reduced to 13.7 trillion, and then 7.9 trillion and, eventually, 173 dollars and 48 cents. At the deepest levels within our governing structures, we are committed to living beyond our means on a scale no civilization has ever done.
Why is it that consumers can have a cow over a $2 Verizon charge or a $5 Bank of America charge, but don't seem to care at all that our country is being bankrupted by liberal policies and politicians? Our priorities are way out of whack.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Arson Replacing Redevelopment Agencies in Hollywood
Since the courts have struck down Redevelopment Agencies in California, there's a new trend in redeveloping those run down neighborhoods - arson. Arsonists are starting fires all over the Hollywood area, which led to a comical press conference today featuring what seemed like every political leader in Los Angeles, not to mention the fire and police departments involved.
There was some unintended truth offered at the news conference when both Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and West Hollywood Mayor John Duran described their neighborhoods as "dense". Truer words were never spoken.
Duran even took it another step and in typical liberal fashion tried to reason with the arsonist via his news conference statement. These people never figure out that you can't negotiate with evil.
It could be a hot holiday weekend in Hollywood.
There was some unintended truth offered at the news conference when both Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and West Hollywood Mayor John Duran described their neighborhoods as "dense". Truer words were never spoken.
Duran even took it another step and in typical liberal fashion tried to reason with the arsonist via his news conference statement. These people never figure out that you can't negotiate with evil.
It could be a hot holiday weekend in Hollywood.
Newt Cries, Mitt Chides, and Women Are Hardest Hit
Newt Gingrich cried this morning while talking about his departed mother and some Christmas memories. Later in the day Mitt Romney promised his audience that he "wouldn't cry". I bet it didn't take 10 seconds for the media to find some woman who was offended by that and then declare that Mitt's comments "will hurt him with woman voters". It's as sure a thing as politician praising ethanol subsidies in corn country.
I'm getting to the point where I don't want to vote for any of them.
I'm getting to the point where I don't want to vote for any of them.
The L.A. Media Have Become the Official Spokesmen For #OccupyRoseParade
For the last several days every news broadcast on every L.A. TV or radio news station has carried a story on the plans for #Occupy morons to infect the Rose Parade next Tuesday. There's absolutely no real news value in these repeated reports...unless it's the goal of the media to promote the morons in hope of a disruption or confrontation during the parade. After all, there's nothing like a good old-fashioned police hippie whomping to stimulate the ratings.
The washed-up theater majors that make up #OccupyRoseParade plan to showcase a 70-foot octopus made of trash bags that's supposed to represent corporate greed (what, no giant puppets??), and will be relegated to following along behind the cops who officially end the parade...and the network TV coverage. But it wouldn't surprise me a bit if the networks hang on a bit and give them national coverage, again in the mindless search for ratings.
The Pasadena Tea Party briefly considered a counter-demonstration when it appeared the protesters would be allowed in the actual parade, but wisely dropped their plans in favor of allowing people to enjoy a politics-free family event. Too bad the #Occupy morons and their enablers in the media don't have that level of maturity.
The washed-up theater majors that make up #OccupyRoseParade plan to showcase a 70-foot octopus made of trash bags that's supposed to represent corporate greed (what, no giant puppets??), and will be relegated to following along behind the cops who officially end the parade...and the network TV coverage. But it wouldn't surprise me a bit if the networks hang on a bit and give them national coverage, again in the mindless search for ratings.
The Pasadena Tea Party briefly considered a counter-demonstration when it appeared the protesters would be allowed in the actual parade, but wisely dropped their plans in favor of allowing people to enjoy a politics-free family event. Too bad the #Occupy morons and their enablers in the media don't have that level of maturity.
#OccupyWallStreet Quote of the Day
From the owner of Java Joe's, a coffee joint in Iowa where some #Occupy morons showed up and started to chant. She promptly kicked them out, trespassed them so they can be arrested the next time they show up, and added this:
There's video of the scum being removed at the link.
“We all have our rights, but not in my place.”Exactly. The First Amendment does not trump private property rights. It does not give anyone the right to disrupt a business. They have a right to speak, with definite limitations, but not a right to be heard.
There's video of the scum being removed at the link.
Political Graphic of the Day
h/t Don Surber:
I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of government treating us all like children who have to be watched every moment and saved from every possible risk.
Another Fee Dies At The Hands of Consumers
How is this story and the Tea Party connected? I'll give you my theory in a minute:
Could you imagine what we could get done if people would be as outraged by a $15 trillion dollar national debt and over $1 trillion in annual deficits as they are about a $2 Verizon charge?
Well, that was fast. Verizon Wireless caved to pressure from outraged consumers and a possible probe by the Federal Communications Commission and backed off of a plan to charge customers a $2 fee to pay their wireless bills online.I really think that the consumer reaction to this fee, and to the $5 bank ATM fees that were proposed and quickly dumped by BofA and other banks, can be traced to the rise of the Tea Party in America. A group of people said "Enough!" and refused to go along with whatever the government (or big business) wanted. I think a lot of people felt personally empowered by the actions of the Tea Party patriots and now feel less intimidated by both government and big business.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the company said it would drop the plan announced yesterday.
"At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers," Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless said in a statement. "Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time."
Verizon said that it still wants to encourage customers to take advantage of other payment methods, including automatic payments that charge credit cards or debit bank accounts every month as well as electronic check payments.
Could you imagine what we could get done if people would be as outraged by a $15 trillion dollar national debt and over $1 trillion in annual deficits as they are about a $2 Verizon charge?
Federal Judge Smacks Down Part of California's Stupid Global Warming Law
Good, but probably only temporary until the Ninth Circus looks at it:
A Fresno federal judge on Thursday dealt a setback to California's landmark global warming law, which went into effect this year with the goal of reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.This is the kind of case the Ninth Circuit is likely to reverse, thus paving the way for the Supreme Court to keep up their record of reversing most everything that comes out of the Ninth Circuit.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill ruled that California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The standard aims to gradually cut the carbon content in gasoline 10% by 2020 and replace up to 20% of the total gasoline used annually in the state with renewable fuels such as ethanol.
The Internet's Big Guns May Coordinate a Black-Out to Protest SOPA
SOPA is the legislation going through Congress that could radically reshape the internet and shut-down a lot of sites with very little cause. For instance, if I link to an item at another blog and that blog used that item without permission, not only could the that other site be shut down by this legislation, so could mine even if I didn't use any pirated info. The legislation is incredibly overreaching and many fear will be used by large companies to shut down their potential rivals.
Here's what some of the largest players on the internet may decide to do:
Here's what some of the largest players on the internet may decide to do:
In the growing battle for the future of the Web, some of the biggest sites online -- Google, Facebook, and other tech stalwarts -- are considering a coordinated blackout of their sites, some of the web’s most popular destinations.
No Google searches. No Facebook updates. No Tweets. No Amazon.com shopping. Nothing.
The action would be a dramatic response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill backed by the motion picture and recording industries that is intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. The creators of some of the web's biggest sites argue it could instead dramatically restrict law-abiding U.S. companies -- and reshape the web as we know it.
Such a move is drastic. And though the details of exactly how it would work are unclear, it's already under consideration, according to Markham Erickson, the executive director of NetCoalition, a trade association that includes the likes of Google, PayPal, Yahoo, and Twitter.This legislation needs to be stopped. We don't need to allow large companies to censor content and squash their competition without any due process.
“Mozilla had a blackout day and Wikipedia has talked about something similar,” Erickson told FoxNews.com, calling this kind of operation unprecedented.
"A number of companies have had discussions about that," he said.
With the Senate debating the SOPA legislation at the end of January, it looks as if the tech industry’s top dogs are finally adding bite to their bark, something CNET called "the nuclear option."
"When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA,” Declan McCullagh wrote, “you’ll know they’re finally serious.”
Is Nancy Pelosi Looking For a Way Out?
Morning Jolt has the info:
Several pundits have predicted that should the GOP hang on to the majority in the House, and especially if Obama loses, Pelosi will retire. There won't be a spot in the limelight for a Dem Minority Leader and a GOP president. She could still get on TV as long as Obama was running things, but without the ability to have any significant impact that gets her attention, she'll probably prefer to just stay home with the grandkids...or go on some more $10,000 a night vacations like she's on now.
Nancy, Help Us Help You!What I found particularly interesting about the Big Government piece is that Pelosi's daughter refers to her in conversation as "Nancy Pelosi", not "mom" or "my mother". Sounds like there's more than a little dysfunction going on there.
Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told Big Government this week that her mother wants to leave Congress-and that she remains in Washington only at the behest of her campaign donors.
During a telephone interview, Ms. Pelosi -- speaking from a friend's home in New York City -- described her mother's predicament:
She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn't want her to stay so badly. They know she wants to leave, though. They think she's destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She's 71, she wants to have a life, she's done. It's obligation, that's all I'm saying.
I hate to sound presumptuous, but Madam Speaker, on behalf of many, may I say let-not-your-heart-be-troubled about relieving yourself of obligations you have more than met. Besides, if you stay much longer in congress, someone in power, somewhere -- or perhaps maybe even someone in the mainstream press -- may finally be inclined to launch some sort of investigation into your extremely profitable tenure in Congress.
If you feel you must go, please don't remain -- burdened and unhappy -- for our sakes. As Dr. Seuss said to Marvin K. Mooney, "just go, go, go, please do, do do."
The Lonely Conservative: "Aw, poor Nancy and her heavy burden. Her choosing to stay in 'public service' has nothing to do with her own personal enrichment, I'm sure."
Sister Toldjah chuckles:
You gotta love the spin coming from Pelosi's Congressional camp. First, while it was indeed a "right-wing blog" that published the remarks, but the former House Speaker's own DAUGHTER made the remarks, not the blog. Secondly, who said anything about Rep. Pelosi "announcing" at Breitbart's site that she was retiring? Not even Alexandra Pelosi herself treats her comments as any type of "official announcement of retirement" or anything of the sort.
Ms. Pelosi did say in a follow-up text to Big Government that she has not talked to her mother about any of this. Presumably this came after an angry phone call from Mama P, chiding her daughter for letting slip a family secret that is not so secret to her political opposition and that is the fact that Pelosi is indeed beholden to her campaign donors -- and very happily so (more here).
Several pundits have predicted that should the GOP hang on to the majority in the House, and especially if Obama loses, Pelosi will retire. There won't be a spot in the limelight for a Dem Minority Leader and a GOP president. She could still get on TV as long as Obama was running things, but without the ability to have any significant impact that gets her attention, she'll probably prefer to just stay home with the grandkids...or go on some more $10,000 a night vacations like she's on now.
Why Isn't Anyone Going After Romney?
Good question:
What's even more interesting is the seeming lack of attention from the press and Democrats. Perhaps they've figured out that Romney is really the guy they want to run against so they're holding their fire...for now. As I wrote yesterday, once he's the nominee we'll find out stuff about Romney and especially his religion that we can't even imagine right now. And the #Occupy forces will be turned out in big numbers to oppose the former Wall Streeter Romney. That's why that movement was created - with Romney in mind.
We'll see what happens after Iowa.
Mitt Romney's confidence is brimming. The former governor, now widely seen as the favorite to win Iowa, announced Wednesday he'll stay in the Hawkeye State the night of the caucus, a clear indication he anticipates a good result. If he does capture Iowa, he'll head into New Hampshire, long his political stronghold, with a chance to become the first non-incumbent GOP presidential candidate ever to win the first two primary contests - a back-to-back triumph that would all but secure the nomination.It's interesting that the GOP candidates aren't going after Romney. Have they all decided his nomination in inevitable and they're hoping for a cabinet position?
So, naturally, his Republican rivals have spent the last week castigating him on the trail and eviscerating him on TV, all in a desperate attempt to slow down his momentum and keep their own campaigns viable. Right? No - they've nearly done the opposite.
In a new radio ad released Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry set his sights not on Romney but on former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who is enjoying his own surge in Iowa. In the ad and on the campaign trail, Perry criticized Santorum's previous support for earmarks, calling the ex-U.S. senator part of the big-spending Washington establishment. He does not, however, mention Romney.
It's an old story this primary, where Romney has not faced the kind of withering attacks that normally confront a front-runner. His rivals have trained their fire on one another instead.
Just examine the Iowa landscape this week as the campaigns make their last desperate push. Reps. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul are at each other's throats over the defection of the Minnesota congresswoman's Iowa state chair.
Paul, meanwhile, has spent most of the last month barraging former House speaker Newt Gingrich with a litany of hard-hitting TV ads. Paul himself has received blistering criticism from Gingrich and Santorum, each of whom has said his isolationist-leaning foreign policy is unacceptable.
As they form a circular firing squad, Romney stepped back. Rather than engage his GOP opponents, as he's done most of his campaign, he's focused almost entirely on his No. 1 target, President Obama.
What's even more interesting is the seeming lack of attention from the press and Democrats. Perhaps they've figured out that Romney is really the guy they want to run against so they're holding their fire...for now. As I wrote yesterday, once he's the nominee we'll find out stuff about Romney and especially his religion that we can't even imagine right now. And the #Occupy forces will be turned out in big numbers to oppose the former Wall Streeter Romney. That's why that movement was created - with Romney in mind.
We'll see what happens after Iowa.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
The MGM Lions To Get Laid Off
It's tough for everybody these days:
The MGM Grand's corporate symbol won't be stalking the premises in the flesh after Jan. 31, when the hotel plans to close the lion habitat it opened in 1999 for $9 million.That was always a favorite stop when we had our kids with us over there, but let's face it, lions like to sleep a lot and once you get over the initial impression of the big cats, there's not much to see.
A free attraction can't compete with a revenue-producing replacement still to be announced for the space. The daily display of lions behind soundproof glass is "a free show and that's what killed it," lion keeper Keith Evans said. "I don't blame them. It's a lot of money for a casino to cover."
Parade of Fools
It's almost too bad the Tournament of Roses didn't allow these idiots into the parade:
Although the group is not part of the parade, its Web site OccupytheRoseParade.org says, “Float #44/#99 will be our float with visual displays including a 250 foot ‘We the People’ U.S. Constitution, a 50 foot ‘We The Corporations’ version, a giant ‘Goldie Sachs’ Wheel of Fortune exhibit, a Wall Street ‘Occupy The Octopus’ (Occupy The Vampire Squid) representing Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citibank (i.e. Wall Street) and much more,” the Web site states.Must be the doing of all the out-of-work theater majors.
Romney 45%, Obama 39%
So says Rasmussen:
However, what this tells me is if we can keep the election focused on Obama, his policies, and his record in office, he loses.
Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date.Romney has not been subject to the coordinated assault that other GOP candidates have, so I think these numbers are soft. They're likely to go back-and-forth quite a bit, and should Romney actually get the nomination, the full-scale assault on his record in Massachusetts, his religion, and everything else will begin in earnest.
The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president. Ten percent (10%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. ...
A week ago, Romney trailed Obama 44% to 41%. The week before that, he held a slight 43% to 42% edge over the president. The two candidates have been essentially tied in regular surveys since January, but Romney remains the only GOP hopeful to lead Obama in more than one survey. Despite Romney’s current six-point lead, his latest level of support is in line with the 38% to 45% he has earned in matchups with the president this year. However, Obama’s 39% is a new low: Prior to this survey, his support has ranged from 40% to 46% in matchups with Romney.
However, what this tells me is if we can keep the election focused on Obama, his policies, and his record in office, he loses.
A Liberal By Any Other Name....
Still stinks:
'Liberal' label unpopular, just like liberals -- TheDC's Neil Munro reports: "The Democrats’ newest ideological label — 'progressive' — has a 67 percent approval among Americans, far higher than the recognized and rejected 'socialist' and 'liberal' labels, says a new poll released by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. However, the conservative label wins a 62 percent approval from the 1,521 people polled by the Pew, despite Democrats’ prevalence in the education, culture and media sectors, and despite the sympathetic media coverage given during the fall to the Occupy Wall Street protesters." The terms "Marxist," "whiny little crybaby" and "closet authoritarian who wasn't hugged enough as a child" also scored low marks among poll respondents.The term "progressive" is such a misnomer because progressive implies something new, and yet there's nothing new about progressive politics. Socialism and Marxism have been around for at least 100 years that's all progressive policies are.
Sen. Scott Brown Runs and Hides Under Obama's Skirt
Sen. Scott Brown, the Massachusetts Republican Senator who won Teddy Kennedy's old seat with significant support from the Tea Party, is now running to Obama to try and save his job:
In an attempt to bolster his status as an "independent thinker" in an appearance on Fox 25 Morning News, Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., highlighted the legislation that he and President Obama have agreed on.The GOP can lose that seat and still win the Senate back, and given Brown's aversion to all things conservative, that might not be a bad thing.
The sole Republican member of Congress from Massachusetts, Brown faces a tough battle with Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren.
"The president just signed into law my 3 percent withholding bill, the Hire a Hero veterans bill, the Arlington Cemetery bill," he told Fox. "I mean, I could go on and on and on."
Brown, who has been supporting left-leaning policies as of late, also referred to himself as the most bipartisan senator in Congress.
Looks Like It's Rick Santorum's Turn to Be "Not Romney"
A Santorum Surge? (from Morning Jolt):
I'm still hoping the GOP's will once again turn their lonely eyes to Rick Perry.
Hey, remember when I joked that we would cycle through some new frontrunners during the Christmas break? It wasn't a joke after all!Unfortunately, Santorum is a guy who couldn't even win his own state the last time he ran. Of the remaining candidates he might be the weakest again Obama of all of them.
With less than a week to go until Republicans cast the first votes of the 2012 presidential race in Iowa, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Texas congressman Ron Paul remain atop the field there, even as the fortunes of their closest competitors are quickly changing, according to a new CNN/TIME/ORC poll released Wednesday. . . .
Bolstering that possibility is the collapse of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who led in Iowa with 33% less than a month ago, but has seen his front-runner status disintegrate under a torrent of negative advertising and now claims just 14% support. Some of his voters have scattered, providing small bumps to Romney and Paul as well as Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Governor Rick Perry. But the biggest beneficiary of Gingrich's collapse appears to be former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who's rocketed into third place with 16%, a dramatic 11-point climb in three short weeks. Santorum now leads among born-again Christians, and is tied with Paul and Romney among self-described conservatives and Tea Party supporters.
I'm still hoping the GOP's will once again turn their lonely eyes to Rick Perry.
Movie Review - Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
I didn't see the movie but someone I know did - Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church. Here was his Twitter review of the movie:
Booze,gambling,sexy dancing, lying,stealing,back-talking all in the1st 10 min.of Chipmunk movie. DONT take little ones.Sounds like "two thumbs down" to me.
Robert Reichhhhhhhhhhh-uh: Dem Ticket Will Be Obama-Clinton
Hmm:
Would Clinton really rev up the base...as VP? I don't think so. Her big supporters want her at the top of the ticket, not as runner-up again. Plus, how viable is she for 2016? She'll be pretty old then and the years haven't exactly been kind to her.
I can still see Biden being moved out, but I don't think it will be Clinton that replaces him.
My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.Back in January 2010 I predicted that Biden would be moved to Secretary of State to make way for a younger and more popular VP candidate who would be a viable presidential candidate in 2016. I figured Clinton would give Obama a primary challenge, but that seems very unlikely now.
So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.
Why do I say this? Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base that’s been disillusioned with his cave-ins to regressive Republicans. Hillary Clinton on the ticket can do that.
Would Clinton really rev up the base...as VP? I don't think so. Her big supporters want her at the top of the ticket, not as runner-up again. Plus, how viable is she for 2016? She'll be pretty old then and the years haven't exactly been kind to her.
I can still see Biden being moved out, but I don't think it will be Clinton that replaces him.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Gun Control Story of the Day
This happened right here in town at the Mission Viejo Mall (from Mission Viejo Patch):
However, I disagree with the idea of openly carrying an empty gun. This protest has to do with a new law that goes into effect January 1 that will ban such open carry, but whether against the law or not, it's just plain stupid. All you're doing is inviting trouble or making yourself a target. If something bad were to happen and someone saw you carrying that gun they'd assume it was loaded and would either decide to take you out because you're a threat to a bad guy, or expect you to help because you're armed. Either way, you lose.
I'm all for concealed carry of loaded weapons by people who have passed the qualifications to have them. I'm against carrying around an unloaded gun in the open, a gun which is about as useful as a brick but more dangerous because it creates an incorrect impression.
Security guards from the Shops at Mission Viejo near 27000 Crown Valley Parkway, asked police for assistance after a man was seen practicing his open carry rights at the mall's food court.Anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a huge supporter of the 2nd Amendment. If it was up to me California would have a "shall issue" concealed carry law like many, many other states and our crime rate would be much lower. In fact, I saw just today a statistic that showed the murder rate among concealed carry permit holders is less than half that of the general population. More guns = less crime.
The citizen assist report was made around 12:13 p.m. Saturday. No arrests were reported.
However, I disagree with the idea of openly carrying an empty gun. This protest has to do with a new law that goes into effect January 1 that will ban such open carry, but whether against the law or not, it's just plain stupid. All you're doing is inviting trouble or making yourself a target. If something bad were to happen and someone saw you carrying that gun they'd assume it was loaded and would either decide to take you out because you're a threat to a bad guy, or expect you to help because you're armed. Either way, you lose.
I'm all for concealed carry of loaded weapons by people who have passed the qualifications to have them. I'm against carrying around an unloaded gun in the open, a gun which is about as useful as a brick but more dangerous because it creates an incorrect impression.
California's New Gay History Law
Here's something California public school parents can look forward to:
Okay, folks, there's no such thing as "gay" history, or "black" history, or "women's" history or any other special qualifier you want to name.
There's just history. Period.
If someone made a significant contribution to history they should be mentioned regardless of any other qualifiers and their importance in textbooks should relate to their actual importance in life. However, this requirement for specialized history means we end up elevating the status of certain people because of their attitude toward their crotch or the color of their skin rather than for their actual import in changing and affecting history. That's how you end up with more textbook pages devoted to the guy who invented peanut butter than to Abraham Lincoln.
It's stupid and the people who promote this nonsense are unworthy of government positions.
California also becomes the first state to mandate the teaching of gay history. A new law requires schools to include in the public-school curriculum the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, along with disabled persons and others. The statute, which has no age limit, also bans instructional material that discriminates against those groups.You won't be able to by NyQuil without a prescription in California anymore, but your kid's kindergarten teacher can teach your 6 year-old about "gay" history. Boy am I glad my kids are out of public school (or perhaps we should start calling it "pubic school".
Okay, folks, there's no such thing as "gay" history, or "black" history, or "women's" history or any other special qualifier you want to name.
There's just history. Period.
If someone made a significant contribution to history they should be mentioned regardless of any other qualifiers and their importance in textbooks should relate to their actual importance in life. However, this requirement for specialized history means we end up elevating the status of certain people because of their attitude toward their crotch or the color of their skin rather than for their actual import in changing and affecting history. That's how you end up with more textbook pages devoted to the guy who invented peanut butter than to Abraham Lincoln.
It's stupid and the people who promote this nonsense are unworthy of government positions.
Senate Prospects For GOP Looking Better
The Senate field for 2012 offers some hope for ending Harry Reid's reign of terror as Senate Majority Leader:
And 2014 looks even better:
Democratic Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson’s retirement presents Democrats with a serious problem. Right now, they control the Senate, 53-47. They have a slim margin for error, and their hopes of keeping a toe-hold in the federal government's elected branches could ultimately depend on their ability to limit losses to two or less.The GOP will have challenges in Nevada and Massachusetts, but there's still hope for getting rid of Reid even if those states are lost.
But barring an unlikely entry to the Nebraska race by former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D – and perhaps even if he does enter – Democrats will probably lose two seats without much of a fight. In addition to the Nebraska retirement, Kent Conrad’s retirement in North Dakota has created a very favorable pickup opportunity for the GOP.
After counting those two seats, Republicans will enjoy a target-rich environment elsewhere. First, there is Montana, where freshman Sen. Jon Tester, D, faces the most popular Republican in the state, Rep. Dennis Rehberg. Polling shows that Rehberg can definitely win, and might even be the favorite already. At the top of the ballot, President Obama is unlikely to do as well in Montana as he did in 2008 (47 percent), and that could also affect the race.
Then there’s Florida, which no one really expected to be competitive. The sudden entry by Rep. Connie Mack IV, R – son of former Sen. Connie Mack III – has made this one unexpectedly competitive. An early Rasmussen poll already gives Mack the lead. Other polls give Nelson the lead, but with low enough numbers that he is quite vulnerable.
After that, several other Democratic seats will be in serious jeopardy. The top tier consists of the open seats in Wisconsin and Virginia (Republicans are guaranteed to nominate a top-shelf challenger in both), then Missouri, where the GOP field appears weak, but the incumbent is also weak. The next tier consists of Michigan (which could get very hot later this year), New Mexico and Ohio.
And 2014 looks even better:
And if you think that’s bad, have a look at the map for 2014. Democrats will need several miracles to avoid more bloodletting (although, importantly, miracles do happen). Republicans lost so many seats in 2008 that they have, by my reckoning, only two theoretically weak ones left in the 2014 class (Maine and Kentucky). They will be gunning at more than ten theoretical Democratic targets, even assuming no Democrats retire.Never count political chickens before they hatch, but unless the GOP has a major meltdown (which is always possible), we should be rid of both Obama and Reid by next January.
There is no point in counting one's chickens early in politics. But it is worth noting that a filibuster-proof GOP Senate majority by 2015, while perhaps a stretch, is far from unattainable. That is doubly true if Barack Obama squeaks by to re-election in the new year.
This is What Democracy Looks Like in Los Angeles
Our headline of the day:
L.A. voters to decide if porn stars need to wear condoms...It's hard to believe they could get people to sign a petition for that.
The Faith Gap
Apparently the less likely you are to have faith in God the more likely you are to have faith in Obama (h/t Justin Hart):
Opinions about President Obama are divided sharply along lines of faith and religious participation. New Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveying of Likely U.S. Voters shows that the president earns a job approval rating of 58% among those who rarely or never attend church or religious services. However, among those who attend services every week or nearly every week, just 38% offer their approval. Among those who attend more than one service a week, approval is even lower at 31%. Looked at from another perspective, Obama earns a 31% approval rating among Evangelical Christians, a 38% rating among Catholics and approval from 44% of other Protestants. Among voters who do not claim a Christian faith, including many who claim no religious faith of any kind, the president’s job approval is substantially higher at 65%. When it comes to intensity, 32% of non-Christians Strongly Approve of the job the president is doing, while 22% Strongly Disapprove. Among Evangelical Christians, just 19% Strongly Approve and 58% Strongly Disapprove. Twenty-three percent (23%) of other Protestants and 17% of Catholics Strongly Approve of the president’s job performance. For other Protestants and Catholics, the Strong Disapproval number is 45%. Overall, among all voters, the president’s total job approval has recently been in the mid-to-upper 40 percent range. The faith gap is also found on the Generic Congressional Ballot.Everybody has a god. For some it's an actual deity. For some a make-believe deity. And for some it's government.
What's the Opposite of Hope and Change? Obama
Frank J. Fleming writes about Obama's campaign strategy for 2012 which probably shouldn't include "hope and change":
Obama can't run on his record. He can only run on the idea that keeping him would be better than what any GOP candidate would do (and sadly, there might be some truth there depending on the candidate). He won in 2008 with promises to unite America. His campaign in 2012 will be all about dividing America. It's gonna be ugly.
The new year will be a time for President Obama to focus on the activity at which he’s been most effective: campaigning. As president, he’s been, well, he’s tried really hard, but pretty much everyone agrees he’s an expert campaigner. In 2008, he easily cruised to election on his theme of Hope & Change. Perhaps his campaign was so effective that even today people are filled with hope and a desire for change. If so, he needs to put an end to that immediately.Read the rest of it here.
Obama will have to run pretty much the opposite campaign from what he did in 2008, as “hope and change” are now his enemies.
It’s easy to see why “change” is a bad thing for people to fixate on now that Obama’s the incumbent. “Know what would be a big change for this country? A new president.” It also works against his policy ideas. His “stimulus” consisted of lots of spending. And his “jobs bills” were . . . more spending. The last thing he’ll need is for people to ask, “Should we try something different — you know, a change?” To which he’ll have to respond, “No, that’s crazy. Where did you get this ‘change’ idea from? That doesn’t sound like something I’d say; it sounds more like something from one of those Koch brothers.”
Hope is even worse for Obama. Obama recognizes this, as he recently told 60 Minutes that it will probably take more than one more term and more than one president to fix the economy. Basically his message is: “Things are going to be miserable no matter who you elect, so stick with what you know.”
Because crushing hope is the only economic strategy that’s worked for him so far. It turns out that Obama and his experts understand how jobs are created at about the same level that a four-year-old understands where babies come from, so causing despair is a lot easier and perhaps even more effective in the short term than trying to create jobs. When unemployed people give up hope, they stop even looking for jobs and thus no longer count in the unemployment statistics. Boom! Unemployment drops — thanks to the abandonment of hope!
Obama can't run on his record. He can only run on the idea that keeping him would be better than what any GOP candidate would do (and sadly, there might be some truth there depending on the candidate). He won in 2008 with promises to unite America. His campaign in 2012 will be all about dividing America. It's gonna be ugly.
Retail Giants Sears and K-Mart Fading Slowing Into History
When I was a kid it was a big deal to go to the Santa Ana Sears during the Christmas season and check out the huge toy display which always included a fancy model train layout. And the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalog with its huge toy listings was something to behold.
Today, the only Sears near here is basically a store we walk through when heading to other shops in the Laguna Hills Mall. About the only thing we've purchased at that store in recent years is a water heater and some tools.
It wouldn't surprise me if that store ends up on the closing list:
Today, the only Sears near here is basically a store we walk through when heading to other shops in the Laguna Hills Mall. About the only thing we've purchased at that store in recent years is a water heater and some tools.
It wouldn't surprise me if that store ends up on the closing list:
Sears Holdings Corp will close as many as 120 of its Kmart and Sears discount and department stores after its holiday sales slumped, sending its shares sliding more than 27 percent to their lowest level in three years.With the exception of the Craftsman line of tools, a lot of Sears merchandise is pretty low rent. It's certainly not in our top 10 list of places to shop.
The retailer, which is controlled by its chairman, the hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, has seen sales decline every year since the $11 billion merger of the two chains in 2005, and likely faces further closings to cut expenses, preserve cash and push back against rivals such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Amazon.com Inc, analysts said.
Sears also disclosed on Tuesday that it tapped its credit line to borrow cash and forecast that fourth-quarter earnings would fall by more than half.
Under Lampert, the company, once one of the most successful U.S. retailers with a history going back to 1886, has let stores deteriorate, said analysts, who also faulted poor locations and ho-hum merchandise for its ongoing problems.
"They've neglected this business for so long," independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi said, adding that he expects more closings. "They are letting Kmart and Sears die on the vine."
Northern California McDonald's Offering Free Small Coffee in Tough Economic Times
Signs of the times:
Local McDonald’s restaurants will be kicking off the new year by offering a free small cup of coffee to its customers in the Greater Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto area. Beginning Monday, January 2, all local McDonald’s restaurants throughout Northern California will be offering a free small Premium Roast Coffee made with 100 percent fire-roasted Arabaca Beans to all customers during business hours with no purchase necessary. This program is local McDonald’s way of saying thank you to their customers and offering a helping hand at the start of the new year.What I found interesting is they're not offering these deal in any of the Bay Area counties that have been on a jihad against McDonald's Happy Meals. Eat it, Bay Area (and pay for it yourself).
“In this challenging economic climate, we know that many are struggling to make ends meet and this is our way of lending support during these difficult times,” said Steven Ramirez, a local McDonald’s restaurant owner from Elk Grove. “As the holiday season comes to a close and budgets become tight, we hope this program will offer some comfort to our community and also warm them up a little during this cold, winter season.”
The free coffee program will last two weeks, beginning Monday, January 2 and ending on Sunday, January 15.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Texas Santa Killing Was Done By Dad Who Didn't Want His Daughter Dating Non-Muslims
Religion of peace:
Aziz Yazdanpanah, dressed as Santa, shot dead his former wife, his daughter, his son, his-sister in-law, his brother-in-law, and his niece. Then he shot himself.To call this an "honor killing" is to do a disservice to the word "honor".
Aziz didn’t want his daughter Nona Yazdanpanah to date non-Muslims.
Famous Movie Star Dies at 80
Cheetah:
Cheetah the chimpanzee, who acted in classic Tarzan movies in the early 1930s, died of kidney failure Saturday at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, a sanctuary spokeswoman said.I'm glad nondenominational Christmas music is good for something. It's apparently the Fountain of Youth for chimpanzees.
Cheetah was roughly 80 years old, loved fingerpainting and football and was soothed by nondenominational Christian music, said Debbie Cobb, the sanctuary's outreach director.
He was an outgoing chimp who was exposed to the public his whole life, Cobb said today.
"He wasn't a chimp that caused a lot of problems," she said.
Cheetah acted in the 1932-34 Tarzan movies, Cobb said. Movies filmed during that timeframe starred Johnny Weissmuller and include "Tarzan and His Mate" and "Tarzan the Ape Man," according to the Internet Movie Database.
Sometime around 1960, Cheetah came to the sanctuary from Weissmuller's estate in Ocala, Cobb said.
In the wild, the average chimp survives 25 to 35 years and at zoos chimps typically live 35 to 45 years, she said.
Crime Blotter Headline of the Day
From North Carolina:
Caught On Tape: Clerk Punches, Knocks Out Armed RobberFeel good story of the day.
Clerk Then Makes Suspect Clean Up His Own Blood
The Immaturity of the Left Will Be In Full Display in 2012
We can expect this kind of stuff all year:
The Occupy people may succeed in temporarily silencing GOP candidates, but they won't succeed in winning people to their cause. That kind of behavior is very annoying and certainly not attractive to anyone but the very weak-minded and immature.
Protesters heckled and chased Newt Gingrich and his wife as they left the Iowa Capitol on Wednesday, a turbulent scene that Iowa political leaders fear could be replayed again and again before Jan. 3, jeopardizing the civil discourse tradition of the Iowa caucuses.Obama didn't face this kind of opposition from conservatives in 2008 and won't see it in 2012. Why? Well, his Secret Service detail would quickly remove anyone disrupting his events, and conservatives are not that immature. We don't try and stifle the speech of our political opposition. We try to persuade them with the strength of our arguments, not the strength of our screams.
The leaders say they’re gearing up for a showdown.
The protesters — some involved with the Occupy movement — say they plan to attend candidate appearances, stand up, scream questions and disrupt the events.
The foundation of the caucuses is civil dialogue, where Iowans can engage in conversation, said Matt Strawn, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party.
“The more that agitators disrupt these events, the more it takes away from the Iowa caucus experience,” Strawn said. “It doesn’t give other Iowans an opportunity to ask the questions.”
The Occupy people may succeed in temporarily silencing GOP candidates, but they won't succeed in winning people to their cause. That kind of behavior is very annoying and certainly not attractive to anyone but the very weak-minded and immature.
The Ever Encroaching Police State
Is this really necessary?
The Transportation Security Administration had quite a year of free publicity in 2011, including headline-grabbing news of agents groping grandmas, fondling supermodels, joking about passengers’ “junk” while virtually disrobing them and pilfering possessions from luggage.People who are used to taking trains know they can arrive just a few minutes before the train gets there and easily get aboard and make their trip. The TSA has probably done more to promote train travel than anything else they've accomplished, but should one of these teams show up at a train station, they're guaranteed to make a whole host of people miss their trains while continuing their record of never having stopped or even detected a terrorist threat. This is completely unnecessary and I wish a candidate not named Ron Paul would vow to end this mess.
In 2012, the agency is planning to expand its operations at train stations, subway stations, ferry docks and other transportation hubs.
Special TSA teams conducted 9,300 surprise inspections at non-airport facilities in 2011 alone. The Department of Homeland Security is pressing Congress to pay $24 million more for 12 additional roving units next year.
The Los Angeles Times reports that these teams — called “viper” units, with 25 currently operational — drop in at transportation facilities and conduct random inspections.
Not everyone is convinced that the teams are necessary, with critics referring to the operations as “security theatre.”
“It’s a great way to make the public think you are doing something,” Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, told the Times. “It’s a little like saying, ‘If we start throwing things up in the air, will they hit terrorists?’”
In 2011, a variety of libertarian, progressive and tea party advocates vented about the intrusive nature of TSA procedures, also referring to them as “political theatre.”...
TSA officials told the Times that the mobile “viper” units have not foiled any known terror plot.
Political Video of the Day
A Ron Paul supporter shows how you can kill "chemtrails" by spraying white vinegar at the clouds. Of course, the "chemtrails" are actually contrails created by hot jet engines going through moist cold air at altitudes well above 30,000 feet. That's some spray bottle she's got.
A little scientific knowledge would be so incredibly beneficial for these idiots. As the air passes through a jet engine it's compressed and heated and then expelled at a high rate of speed out the back. Depending on pressure, humidity and temperature at flight levels a contrail, if one forms at all, can last from a few seconds to a few hours. It all depends on the atmospheric conditions, not the amount of vinegar sprayed at the sky.
People in the middle of the country are more likely to see lots of these because of the jet airways (the designated paths through the sky) that criss-cross the country. That's why contrails will sometimes appear in box or grid-looking formations. If you were to superimpose the jet airways over that area they'd look just the same.
Unfortunately, there are millions of people willing to believe even the craziest fantasy about the government, and an alarming number of them back Ron Paul. He seems to attract, and even encourage, the crazy in people.
Christmas Cartoon of the Day
Yes, Christmas is over, but this is too good to let wait until next year:
Monday, December 26, 2011
Music Video of the Day
Some time back we became fans of the BBC America show "The Choir" which featured a young British choir director, Gareth Malone, who has made it his life's goal to get people singing. He's taken people with little or no singing experience and made choirs out of them with amazing results.
His latest effort has resulted in a number one song on British charts - military wives singing for their husbands. Enjoy:
His latest effort has resulted in a number one song on British charts - military wives singing for their husbands. Enjoy:
The Ten Commandments of Paul Bearers
Not the funeral kind, the Ron Paul crazy follower kind. Read them here.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
When Trumpets Attack
For your holiday listening pleasure, my son posted this video of The Last Trumpet Christmas as trumpet players attempt to outdo one another.
Merry Christmas!
I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends! All four of us will be together this week, and that's a pretty rare event these days.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
There's Nothing Like Christmas Eve at LAX
Los Angeles International Airport is not the place I would normally choose to spend Christmas Eve, but the traffic and crowds won't bother me. I'm going to pick up my daughter and for the next week all four of us will be under one roof, an increasingly rare event. Consequently, I'll be taking it pretty easy on the blog this next week as we do some stuff together.
Have a wonderful Christmas week!
Have a wonderful Christmas week!
A Christmas Eve Story
Do you think there are still angels among us? Read on.
There was one other incident during our drive that night that I forgot to put in the write-up, which I did several months later. At one point during the heaviest of the rain a car to my right swerved toward us. We missed him, but I commented afterward that I didn't know how we kept from colliding. Anne told me later the angel on the right front of the car actually pushed the swerving car away. Of course, I didn't see it happen, but I believe it.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you're heavenly guardians are always on watch.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I wrote that story, and yes, it's true. It happened to us on a stormy night in 1994. I submitted that story to Guideposts Magazine, and after they rewrote it (and frankly in my opinion butchered it), it ran in the Jan/Feb 1996 edition of Angels on Earth, a subsidiary publication of Guideposts. I decided to run the original version here rather than the doctored up Guideposts version.MODERN DAY CHRISTMAS ANGELS
It was Christmas morning, 1994, and I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper when my wife Anne came in. She had tears in her eyes, and when I asked what was wrong, she said “I have to tell you something about last night. You probably won’t believe me”. With that intriguing introduction, she began to tell me about our family’s encounter with angels the night before.
On Christmas Eve we had driven about 100 miles from our home to my wife’s parent’s home in Santa Paula. Anne’s sister’s family was out from Michigan, and the whole clan had a wonderful day of eating, fellowshipping, and gift giving. Although the atmosphere inside the house was warm and cheerful, outside a large winter storm was moving in with the promise of significant rainfall.
By about 3pm the rain had started and the storm seemed to get stronger with each passing hour. By 7pm we decided that we had better get on the road if we were going to make it home before Santa arrived (our 6 and 3 year-old kids were very worried about that).
Leaving Santa Paula we headed out onto the canyon highway in heavy rain with occasional brilliant lightning flashes. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the driving conditions really frightened my wife. I’m a good driver and I wasn’t too worried about guiding our aging minivan through the torrent, but she was really scared. As we headed south on Interstate 5 in very heavy rain, she began to pray silently that the Lord would provide protection for us on our journey.
She told me later that she immediately could feel the presence of four protecting angels. More importantly, though she didn’t look at them directly, she could see them out of the corner of her eyes silently flying along at the four corners of our van. The rain and wind was beating at them, but they maintained their position like celestial Secret Service agents. I was concentrating on my driving and was totally oblivious to our heavenly guardians.
During the next hour and a half we saw no less than four overturned cars and a couple of other accidents caused by the heavy rains. A couple of times we hit large patches of standing water that caused the van to begin hydroplaning, but each time I was able to regain control without anything more than a bad scare. Even scarier were the occasions when another car splashed water across our windshield momentarily destroying our vision.
As the trip progressed Anne said she began to sense that the angel at the right rear of our van seemed to be struggling as though he was carrying a significant weight. The other angels didn’t seem to be having the same problem. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him straining to hang on.
Our harrowing journey was nearly over as we reached our offramp in Mission Viejo. Finally feeling safe, Anne breathed a silent thanks to the angels and released them to their next assignment. She said it was as though a flight of butterflies had soared aloft as the angels departed in a flurry of wings.
As we turned from the offramp onto the main street near our home, I noticed that the van was handling very funny. It seemed to be very loose in the back, and I suspected we had a problem with one of the tires. We pulled into the garage and I got out and walked around to the right rear. There to my surprise was a completely flat tire – not just low on air, completely flat. There was no major puncture in the tire, but a small leak had apparently caused it to go down over a period of time. Due to the small size of the hole, the lead had probably started many miles away from our home.
As Anne related her story to me the next day, I realized that the struggling angel had been straining to hold up our van while the tire slowly went flat. He had kept the van level and under control despite the lack of air in that tire. No wonder he had such a hard time during the long drive.
Had we been stuck out in that storm with a flat tire, there’s no telling how long we would have waited for help. With so many accidents and problems on the highways, we could have been there for hours. We’ve been members of AAA for many years and have often used them to come to our aid when our cars have had problems. This time, I’m thankful that we had AAAA – four angels – to do the job when we most needed it.
I’m sure holding up a tired old minivan is a pretty unexciting assignment for angels who two thousand years ago spend the first Christmas morning heralding the birth of the Son of God, but I’m sure glad they were there.
There was one other incident during our drive that night that I forgot to put in the write-up, which I did several months later. At one point during the heaviest of the rain a car to my right swerved toward us. We missed him, but I commented afterward that I didn't know how we kept from colliding. Anne told me later the angel on the right front of the car actually pushed the swerving car away. Of course, I didn't see it happen, but I believe it.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you're heavenly guardians are always on watch.
A Christmas Surprise
On this Christmas Eve I thought I'd rerun a couple of favorite posts from the past. This one was from December 4, 2010.
=============================
Last night I felt like the chief elf running Santa's workshop. Me and my fellow elves were able to provide a nice Christmas surprise to my mom. I was debating whether to write about this, but it's a nice story...at least for us...and you might enjoy it.
My dad was a dedicated Christmas decorator. Every year he put in countless hours getting out all the Christmas decor and putting it together throughout the house. Because of physical limitations my mom wasn't able to help him much, so putting it together and taking it apart pretty much fell to him.
In September, 2009 he passed away and when the Christmas season started just two months later nobody wanted to go and decorate the house. It was just too difficult, so last year the house went largely bare of the usual Christmas decor.
This year, at the prompting of my wife who knew Christmas decorations would be very meaningful to mom, we decided to do something about it. Because of other schedules Friday night was the only time I could get everyone together, and that would work out well because mom was going to be gone to her small group meeting. She has a full-time caregiver who lives with her, so I asked her to call me the moment mom left the house. We were parked nearby and as soon as we got the call we all swooped in and started the mad decoration frenzy.
My wife and I were there, and my son joined us when he got off from work. My sister, her husband, and two daughters also were there, and together the seven of us got to work. I climbed the ladder in the garage and started handing down stuff to the others and everyone took on a project or two. We had to put put up the tree, put together a Nativity set, a Dickens village, unbox and set-up a number of different displays and objects d'art. Not knowing where dad had put everything after his last Christmas in 2008 complicated things a bit. We still haven't found a couple of things.
It wasn't easy. My dad's artificial tree was an older model that required the individual installation of each and every branch. It took several of us quite awhile to get that thing together (my tree at home is 7' tall, comes in four pieces and goes together in about two minutes). Then we had to find the decorations for the tree, first and foremost the lights. I found bags of Christmas lights, most of them dead or half-working before finally stumbling on the two bags that had the lights he used on the tree. My son undid the knots and tangles, engineered the wiring, and we lit the tree.
Next came boxes of balls, ribbon, holly, and other doo-dads that were usually on the tree. My wife, sister and nieces pretty much handled the decoration of the tree while I set about cleaning up the empty boxes, bags and other debris we had strewn around in the process. Before too long everything was back up in the garage and you couldn't see the signs of the struggle that had been underway.
From the outside of the house you couldn't tell anything had been done, except for one thing. My dad had a lighted Angel Gabriel that he used to put on the front lawn each year. Gabriel was named Gabriel Schwartz by their Jewish neighbor, and earlier that day the neighbor had commented to me that he missed seeing Gabriel Schwartz in front of the house.
My brother-in-law fixed that, putting him together and wiring up the timer.
When mom drove up, feeling sad about Christmas and having just talked to her friends about how much she missed having the house decorated, there was old Gabriel Schwartz shining on the front lawn.
She was shocked to see him and couldn't understand how he got there, and then walked into the house to see the rest of the work. My wife and I were the only ones who could stay until she got there after 10pm and the reaction was just as I expected - a flood of tears. I was fighting them too, because the house looked much like it had before we lost dad.
We worked pretty hard and scrambled to get it all done, but it was worth the effort. The family did itself proud.
And as I looked back at the photo of the tree I realized that Dad was watching us all along.
=============================
Last night I felt like the chief elf running Santa's workshop. Me and my fellow elves were able to provide a nice Christmas surprise to my mom. I was debating whether to write about this, but it's a nice story...at least for us...and you might enjoy it.
My dad was a dedicated Christmas decorator. Every year he put in countless hours getting out all the Christmas decor and putting it together throughout the house. Because of physical limitations my mom wasn't able to help him much, so putting it together and taking it apart pretty much fell to him.
In September, 2009 he passed away and when the Christmas season started just two months later nobody wanted to go and decorate the house. It was just too difficult, so last year the house went largely bare of the usual Christmas decor.
This year, at the prompting of my wife who knew Christmas decorations would be very meaningful to mom, we decided to do something about it. Because of other schedules Friday night was the only time I could get everyone together, and that would work out well because mom was going to be gone to her small group meeting. She has a full-time caregiver who lives with her, so I asked her to call me the moment mom left the house. We were parked nearby and as soon as we got the call we all swooped in and started the mad decoration frenzy.
My wife and I were there, and my son joined us when he got off from work. My sister, her husband, and two daughters also were there, and together the seven of us got to work. I climbed the ladder in the garage and started handing down stuff to the others and everyone took on a project or two. We had to put put up the tree, put together a Nativity set, a Dickens village, unbox and set-up a number of different displays and objects d'art. Not knowing where dad had put everything after his last Christmas in 2008 complicated things a bit. We still haven't found a couple of things.
It wasn't easy. My dad's artificial tree was an older model that required the individual installation of each and every branch. It took several of us quite awhile to get that thing together (my tree at home is 7' tall, comes in four pieces and goes together in about two minutes). Then we had to find the decorations for the tree, first and foremost the lights. I found bags of Christmas lights, most of them dead or half-working before finally stumbling on the two bags that had the lights he used on the tree. My son undid the knots and tangles, engineered the wiring, and we lit the tree.
From the outside of the house you couldn't tell anything had been done, except for one thing. My dad had a lighted Angel Gabriel that he used to put on the front lawn each year. Gabriel was named Gabriel Schwartz by their Jewish neighbor, and earlier that day the neighbor had commented to me that he missed seeing Gabriel Schwartz in front of the house.
My brother-in-law fixed that, putting him together and wiring up the timer.
When mom drove up, feeling sad about Christmas and having just talked to her friends about how much she missed having the house decorated, there was old Gabriel Schwartz shining on the front lawn.
She was shocked to see him and couldn't understand how he got there, and then walked into the house to see the rest of the work. My wife and I were the only ones who could stay until she got there after 10pm and the reaction was just as I expected - a flood of tears. I was fighting them too, because the house looked much like it had before we lost dad.
We worked pretty hard and scrambled to get it all done, but it was worth the effort. The family did itself proud.
And as I looked back at the photo of the tree I realized that Dad was watching us all along.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Fools Fighting Over $180 Sneakers
Christmas may have hit a new low. Headlines from Drudge:
Women trade punches over Air Jordans...I can't help but wonder how many of the people buying these things are paying for it with money received from some government program?
Pandemonium as shoppers race for shoes...
Cops pepper spray mob...
Brawl...
Gunfire...
They Can't Wait, They Break Into The Mall...
SEASON'S BEATINGS!
Even Profitable Businesses Are Leaving California
Can you blame them?
Steinberg is a fool and his attitude will help increase the rate of businesses leaving the formerly Golden State.
Democratic reaction to the news that Waste Connections, a $3.6-billion company and major Sacramento-area employer, is headed to Houston to seek a friendlier business climate tells other businesses all they need to know about the attitudes of those who run California's government.Democrats treat business as though its reason for existing is to fund government. Business don't exist to fund government, and for the occupiers in the audience, they don't exist to provide jobs either. They exist to make profits for their owners or stockholders. Period. And if the future in a state like California looks as bleak as it does, even a currently profitable business would be smart to explore options elsewhere since the future is sure to include more regulation and taxes.
State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, gave these clueless and snarky remarks in response to the news: "In this instance you have a company that is, in fact, profitable, making significant revenue gains in 2011 and 2010. That doesn't speak to a bad business climate here in California when a good company is able to thrive in that way. So whatever Mr. Middelstaedt's (company CEO) reasons are to leave the great state of California, I know I'm pushing back."
Steinberg claims to have worked on improving the state's business climate, but from what we see in Sacramento, Steinberg and the party he helps lead have been pushing hard mainly for additional regulations and much higher taxes. The California Democratic Party's attitude long has been that businesses are basically trying to rip off the public, and the source of all wealth and advancement can be found in the public sector, When businesses leave. Steinberg and Co. show little sympathy.
Is it really the Senate president's role to determine the proper profit margin for a privately owned company? Talk about arrogance.
"The decision by Waste Connections to relocate, despite the 17 percent revenue increase and the $18 million cost to move to Texas, illustrates that businesses will endure short-term costs to ensure long-term prosperity," wrote state Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, in response to Steinberg's message. Walters quotes business-relocation expert Joe Vranich of Irvine, who notes that businesses typically save 40 percent in costs by leaving California because of lower taxes and more manageable regulations found elsewhere.
Steinberg is a fool and his attitude will help increase the rate of businesses leaving the formerly Golden State.
A Modern Day Christmas Greeting
h/t Father Peter West on Facebook:
To My Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012 but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that United States is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To My Conservative Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Political Cartoon of the Day
This is almost impossible to read in the small format available on this blog, so feel free to go here and see it a little better. It's worth it.
Is There At Least One Republican Courageous Enough to Deny Unanimous Consent? - UPDATE-NO
There wasn't one in the Senate (imagine my surprise), but the House has a lot more Tea Party types who might just be mad enough about yesterday's cave-in to throw a monkey wrench into the works:
Let's see if anyone has the cajones to do it.
UPDATE: Apparently not. Even before I finished writing his the House Tea Party caucus rolled over and joined the establishment GOP. There was no objection and this farce is kicked further down the road and a new $105 billion whole has been opened up in Social Security.
What a bunch of cowards.
By the way, if an Republicans had plans to send me fundraising materials or were expecting a donation this year, forget it.
Caught between a disapproving Republican establishment and a rebellious caucus, House Speaker John Boehner threw in the towel on the effort to pass a yearlong extension of the current payroll tax holiday and funding for long-term unemployment benefits and Medicare.An objection wouldn't stop the bill - they'll just have to come back next week to pass it. But it might cause Obama to miss his precious Hawaiian vacation since he might have to stay in town to sign it. At the very least that would save the taxpayers a few bucks and give some angry Republicans a chance to spit in Boehner, Obama, and Mitch McConnell's eyes.
That sets up the big drama for today: will any House Republicans move to stop the deal from going through. It only takes one, since Boehner is moving the package by “unanimous consent.” If even one House member stands up to object, the speedy deal is kaput.
Let's see if anyone has the cajones to do it.
UPDATE: Apparently not. Even before I finished writing his the House Tea Party caucus rolled over and joined the establishment GOP. There was no objection and this farce is kicked further down the road and a new $105 billion whole has been opened up in Social Security.
What a bunch of cowards.
By the way, if an Republicans had plans to send me fundraising materials or were expecting a donation this year, forget it.
Ron Paul's Newsletters Full of the Paranoid and Crazy
Not to mention racist:
Toast.
And here's another must-read column on Ron Paul that every Paul Bearer should read.
A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters two decades ago warned of a "coming race war in our big cities" and of a "federal-homosexual cover-up" to play down the impact of AIDS.If Herman Cain's indiscretions of 20 years ago were fair game in the campaign, certainly these newsletters should be fair game. Nobody with a record of this kind of writing is going to win election for president. Even if Paul didn't do the actual writing, these things were sent out under his name and that makes him responsible for the content.
The eight-page letter, which appears to carry Paul's signature at the end, also warns that the U.S. government's redesign of currency to include different colors - a move aimed at thwarting counterfeiters - actually was part of a plot to allow the government to track Americans using the "new money."
The letter urges readers to subscribe to Paul's newsletters so that he could "tell you how you can save yourself and your family" from an overbearing government.
The letter's details emerge at a time when Paul, now a contender for the Republican nomination for president, is under fire over reports that his newsletters contained racist, anti-homosexual and anti-Israel rants.
Reports of the newsletters' contents have Paul's campaign scrambling to deny that he wrote the inflammatory articles.
Among other things, the articles called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a "world-class philanderer," criticized the U.S. holiday bearing King's name as "Hate Whitey Day," and said that AIDS sufferers "enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick."
Toast.
And here's another must-read column on Ron Paul that every Paul Bearer should read.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Political Tweets of the Day
From me, earlier today in response to the news that the House GOP is caving on the 2-month payroll tax cut after pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his partner Obama:
I'm disgusted with the whole bunch of them. Boehner has just guaranteed that this turmoil will continue and the deal he'll be told to accept (by McConnell and Obama...not to mention the media) will be worse than what he was holding out for this time. Now he gets to defend a millionaire's tax break...right in the middle of primary season.
It's time for new leadership in the House and Senate.
House passes multiple bills which die in Senate..no problem. Senate passes one bill which dies in the House...END OF THE WORLD!!!You can follow along here.
Where were the complaints from Obama and the media when Harry Reid was killing House bills that would help taxpayers?
Gutless House GOP deserves to find themselves in the minority again. Gutless Senate GOP deserves to stay there.
I'm disgusted with the whole bunch of them. Boehner has just guaranteed that this turmoil will continue and the deal he'll be told to accept (by McConnell and Obama...not to mention the media) will be worse than what he was holding out for this time. Now he gets to defend a millionaire's tax break...right in the middle of primary season.
It's time for new leadership in the House and Senate.
The Revolution in a Cornfield
Gov. Sam Brownback is taking the Tea Party goals and objectives to heart and is transforming Kansas:
If you want to know what a Tea Party America might look like, there is no place like Kansas.Of course, the Washington Post is not that impressed, but I am. This kind of government tough-love is what's needed nationwide if we're to get spending and debt under control. Read the rest of the piece and try and gloss over the liberal bias. Brownback is doing good things and his state should be a model for the rest of the country.
In the past year, three state agencies have been abolished and 2,050 jobs have been cut. Funding for schools, social services and the arts have been slashed. The new Republican governor rejected a $31.5 million federal grant for a new health-insurance exchange because he opposes President Obama’s health-care law. And that’s just the small stuff.
A new “Office of the Repealer” has been created to reduce the number of laws and regulations, and the Repealer is canvassing the state for more cut suggestions.
In the upcoming legislative session, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) plans to roll out proposals to change the way schools are funded, taxes are levied and state pensions are administered.
A year after voters vaulted hundreds of tea party candidates to power in Washington and in state capitals, the movement’s goals are being pursued aggressively in states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas.
But in Kansas, as nowhere else in the country, tea party fervor is reshaping government. The same political forces of the Republican Party driving the confrontation over taxes and spending in Washington are now completely in charge in Kansas.
The GOP now controls the state’s House of Representatives with the biggest majority in half a century. Emboldened by this power shift, Brownback — the state’s former two-term U.S. senator — has embarked on his overhaul at a breathtaking pace.
“It’s a revolution in a cornfield,” said Arthur Laffer, the 71-year-old architect of supply-side economic theory and former economic adviser for President Ronald Reagan who is now working with the governor. “Brownback and his whole group there, it’s an amazing thing they’re doing. Truly revolutionary.”
A Nurse's Strike...for $18 a Paycheck? Really?
I watched a news report this morning on a nurse's strike at two hospitals in Long Beach - Long Beach Memorial and Miller's Children's Hospital. According to the report the nurses have an average salary of $93,000 a year and one of the major points of contention is they're being asked to pay an additional $18 per paycheck for health care.
$18 a paycheck.
We currently pay over $500 per month for our family's healthcare through my wife's employer.
Get back to work, nurses, or find something else to do.
$18 a paycheck.
We currently pay over $500 per month for our family's healthcare through my wife's employer.
Get back to work, nurses, or find something else to do.
In Iowa Romney Leads Among Republicans, Paul Among Non-Republicans
And that's why a Ron Paul win in Iowa will be basically meaningless. From Rasmussen:
The GOP should NEVER allow non-Republicans to vote in their primaries. NEVER. It's foolish to let the opposition pick your nominee.
But Scott Rasmussen notes a significant difference between supporters of Romney and supporters of Paul. "Romney leads, with Gingrich in second, among those who consider themselves Republicans," Rasmussen writes. "Paul has a wide lead among non-Republicans who are likely to participate in the caucus."The Paul Bearers will do their best to stack the caucuses with non-Republicans who are willing to caucus for Paul but will be unlikely to vote for him were he to become the nominee. This is a strategy designed to screw up the GOP nominating process and we can expect to see lots more of it in other states with open primaries.
The GOP should NEVER allow non-Republicans to vote in their primaries. NEVER. It's foolish to let the opposition pick your nominee.
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