Worst Column Ever

The New York Times is not longer even fit for puppy potty training.

This is truly the saddest opinion piece ever. There are high school girls' text messages that are more politically thoughtful.

To detail all the outright lies, erroneous assumptions, and illogic is simply too daunting. But I'll give it a short try.

Gail Collins (the "writer") starts by suggesting we set a new precedent by having the President and Vice President resign early so that Obama can start right away. A lame idea that made the rounds during the election. So what happens in 2012 when Obama loses, does he have to resign early so President Palin can take over the day after the election?

Of course not. The rest of Collins piece meanders - referencing Lincoln to blaming President Bush for everything. Then she undermines her starting point by saying Obama wouldn't want to do this because there are all these problems with the country.

Which apparently will go away the second Obama slaps his hand on the Bible on Inaugeration Day. Then she ends with "Time for a change." Isn't that what is happening anyways?

The self-congratulatory tone, the look-I-can-use-google factoids, and a whiff of irrationality combine and swirl into a really toxic gasbag of an opinion. The whole column has this pre-election feel like she wrote it a month or two ago and saved it so she had something prewritten to turn into her bosses while she took a Thanksgiving break early.

Shame on the New York Times for publishing this trash. Junk Bond Status. Junk Writing.

But don't take my word for it, read for yourself.

Chick-tastic

Laura Linney is a goddess.

She was marvelous as one of my second tier heros (Abigail Adams) and is amazing in Love, Actually.

Just had to say.

So is Emma Thompson - Gosh I loved her in Sense and Sensibility.

Mmmmm. Colin Firth.

Okay fine. I'm watching Love, Actually while blogging - always a dangerous situation.

Where Food Comes From

The title of this post is the title of a chapter from Chef Anthony Bourdain's book, A Cook's Tour (an excellent, excellent read). In this chapter he drives home the point that anything you eat was once alive.

With the above in mind, anyone who finds this video "gruesome" is a wuss. And completely clueless about the realities of Life.



If you don't like it, spend the rest of your life in vegan hell.

Oh, and as much as I do love Gov. Palin, this is rather hilarious.

While some people claim that she's been duped by the media again. I don't think so. At one point, she glances over her shoulder. She knows what's going on and she keep on talking. I suspect this is her way of telling the mainstream media to go to heck. Here's a big steaming dose of Alaskan reality for ya.

Failure v. Success

I wrote a post titled, A History of Failure Does Not Create A Future of Success, in which I argue that socialism's failed policies are not the way to a better future.

But the old saw about Thomas Edison "failing" over 200 times to create the light bulb can appear to be an defense against my argument.

If you take the light bulb as a metaphor for government policy, then the "Thomas Edison" defense is wrong.

Thomas Edison did not use the same filament over and over again trying to make the light bulb work. He used different filaments until he found the one that worked and stuck with it (carbonized sewing thread). And then he improved upon that until the light bulb and its filament were perfected.

Conservatism is the working incandescent light bulb. Yes it has its problems but it is still a far superior product to the "new" coiled fluorescent light bulbs liberals want to force upon us. Coiled light bulbs that do not work nearly as well, are far more expensive, and when they break are toxic.

Like Thomas Edison's invention, the light of Conservatism works, burns brighter, costs less, and when something bad happens is far easier and safer to clean up.

Let's stick to our Conservative core values of building upon success, not repeating failures and shine a bright light upon our future.

For if we switch to the dimmer light of liberalism and socialism, we will soon find ourselves in the dark. As I said before, a history of failure does not create a future of success.

Clinton to be Secretary of State

Clinton isn't an insane pick for a democrat President but given the expressed dislike between Obama and Clinton giving her the opportunity to be the face of
America as she globe-trots may not be the wisest choice.

Spitting in the Wind

A local Chicago CBS station is reporting that Obama advisors are trying to lower expectations surrounding the Obama presidency.

What you mean he isn't The One (Oprah), The Lightworker (San Francisco Chronicle), or The Messiah (any random Obama rally attendee)? Now Obama's just being compared to FDR and Lincoln (Time Magazine, MSNBC).

Whatever.

The bar is set so high for the man that a NY Elementary School is renaming itself after Obama before the man has even served one day in office.

The media was so uncritically positive about all things Obama during the election that it is arguable this election was one not by Obama but by the media itself.

In some ways I wonder if this won't turn out to be a cruel joke. If expectations are set so high by the media, then isn't it equally the media's fault as well as Obama's when he inevitably fails to meet those expectations as any human would.

I'm not pro-Obama in the slightest but I have to feel a little sorry for him. And of course, I am hoping for the best for the sake of our country.

Still, the media may have dug its own grave for failing to provide the public with accurate information about the presidential candidates.

History of Cut-and-Run?

So I'm reading this article by Mackubin Thomas Owens. The start of the article references Obama taking over from Bush and how to handle the ongoing wars.

Mr. Owens compares the situation to Lincoln during the American Civil War (although neither Bush or Obama are Lincoln). The point is Lincoln didn't think he was going to get re-elected and wrote a "blind memo" saying he was going to fight the war until the next president took over and he had his cabinet sign the memo without seeing it. (Can you imagine that happening today?!?)

The article is fascinating but this quote I found intriguing.

"Buoyed by disaffection with the war, the Copperheads wrote the platform of the Democratic Party platform of 1864, and one of their own, Rep. George H. Pendleton of Ohio, was the party’s candidate for vice president. Although McClellan was not himself a Copperhead, he reportedly said, “If I am elected, I will recommend an immediate armistice and a call for a convention of all the states and insist upon exhausting all and every means to secure peace without further bloodshed.”"

All I could think was "No way, since 1864 the democrats are the party of cut-and-run?, Oh my."

I'm sure I'm completely inaccurate but who cares. Democrats have a 144 year history of preferring peace at any cost to victory (WWI & WWII excepted, I'm sure).

Advice from Across The Pond

Tim Montgomerie is a friend of my husband's but that doesn't change the fact that his article here is some very good advice to American Conservatives.

Today's Slave Trade

At this very moment, someone is being sold into slavery. Right now. Today.

This fact is not very common knowledge here in America but it is happening.

These two very powerful websites are worth visiting.

This one is an article originally posted at NRO called Freedom, Justice and Rock 'n Roll by Steve Beard. It is about a documentary by a muscian named Justin Dillian called Call + Response detailing the horrors of modern slavery. (The link is to an IMDB site with a trailer.)

From the article: "In researching his book Not For Sale, professor David Batstone — featured in Call + Response — traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, Peru, India, Uganda, South Africa, and Eastern Europe to investigate modern-day slavery. His findings are breathtaking. “Girls and boys, women and men of all ages are forced to toil in the rug looms of Nepal, sell their bodies in the brothels of Rome, break rocks in the quarries of Pakistan, and fight wars in the jungles of Africa,” he writes. “Go behind the façade in any major town or city in the world today and you are likely to find a thriving commerce in human beings.”

Indeed, the most difficult imagery in the film is footage of children being exploited in brothels and brick kilns, and on battlefields. The blank stares and soulless facial responses betray an inability to smile — even on the part of some of the rescued children."

The second website link it to the American Anti-Slavery Group. Just in case after seeing Call + Response or even just reading the article above, you'd want to help out.

Vote Yes on Prop. Christmas

Yet again another Christmas celebration is diminished by minority rule.

According to Fox News, famed fireworks company Grucci will not be donating fireworks during the town's annual Christmas Parade as they've changed the name to Holiday Parade.

Sounds petty, right? But

"The company's vice president, Philip Butler, who has criticized the secularization of Christmas in the past, said parade organizers were "using all the themes of Christmas and plagiarizing all those themes."

I think that's a rather reasonable concern since the Grucci company is making a donation to a Christmas celebration, not a holiday one.

This news story has inspired me to suggest that perhaps we should put Christmas to a vote.

The name of this parade event was changed "after complaints that the use of "Christmas" seemed to make the parade less inclusive.".

I am all for freedom of religion. My daughter is the only Christian in an all Muslim Girl Scout Troop. But no one's religious freedom is imposed upon when one religious group has a public holiday celebration - as far as I am aware anyone can submit a proposal to their local government to organize, say, a Hanukkah parade.

The folks who complain use either the "inclusive" tactic which is always bogus because they do not hold other religions to the same "inclusive" standards that they do Christians.

Or we get complaints about the separation of church and state needing to be maintained. Which is also a bogus argument because our Founding Fathers separated the two to keep the STATE OUT of the church, not the other way around.

As we need to be reminded every once in a while, America is a democracy. Majority rules. Next time someone complains about a MAJOR religious holiday in this country, let's let the locals vote on it.

Perhaps in communities where Christianity is not the majority, public Christmas events will not occur (they probably weren't anyways). But in other communities, Christmas events can happen publicly because the majority of the people voted to celebrate Christmas publically.

Like that dedicated atheist who tried to get God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, this kind of rule by "I'm offended" is a trend that must be squelched. I'm offended by lots of stuff but I tolerate it because I also believe in Free Speech (not in my house from my kids but in every other way).

So next time someone at the town hall meeting complains about public Christmas displays, suggest that the town put it to a vote. "It's a Wonderful Life" we have here in America. Maybe "A Miracle on 34th Street" will happen and "Santa Clause is Coming to Town."

(I know, I know)

Vote, YES for Christmas.

Liberal Fascism

I'm gonna flog this book by Jonah Golberg a lot because "Liberal Fascism" is an amazing read and full of verifiable and historical facts (it is footnoted to heck and back).

The reason why I want everyone to read the book is that background knowledge makes Michelle Malkin's article about the violent anti-Prop 8 protestors and the hypocrisy of liberals when the call Conservatives "nazis" all the clearer.

As Michelle states, when conservatives are disappointed, say when we lose a Presidental election to a man of low experience, conservatives quietly cope. Not so the opponents of Prop 8. Michelle points out in her article that these vicious leftwingers are resorting to violence, blacklists (!), and extortion to achieve their goal. A goal that in the democracy they live in was defeated in a fair vote.

Examples? Here are just a few from Michelle's article:

"Instead of introspection and self-criticism, however, the sore losers who opposed Prop. 8 responded with threats, fists and blacklists.

That's right. Activists have published on the Internet an "Anti-Gay Blacklist" of Prop. 8 donors. If the tables were turned and Prop. 8 proponents created such an enemies list, everyone in Hollywood would be screaming "McCarthyism" faster than you could count to eight.

A Los Angeles restaurant whose manager made a small donation to the Prop. 8 campaign has been besieged nightly by hordes of protesters who have disrupted business, intimidated patrons and brought employees to tears. Out of fear for their jobs and their lives, workers at El Coyote Mexican Cafe pooled together $500 to pay off the bullies."

I want to make this clear, Nazism is also called National Socialism. It is socialism with insanely wrong patriotism and rascism. Regular socialism is more big government whether national or supranational. Socialism is the mid-point between progressivism (still bad) and totalitarian Communism (evil). In short, Nazi's were part of the Left not the Right. Calling a conservative a nazi reveals nothing more than your ignorance. This is detailed in Jonah's book.

Conservatives are well-behaved and polite as a general rule. When Liberals scream we are Nazi's, we just back out of the spittle-spray range and try to reason with them.

(In my opinion, this is a mistake. We should record the event and post it on the Internet as part of a Name and Shame campaign to get Liberals to take a deep breath and converse like adults.)

We are not the bad guys. We are the grown-ups.

No Experience Required

Victor Davis Hanson over at NRO (scroll down, I can't link to his post directly) discusses the fallout already starting from Obama's utter lack of political experience.

His cabinet picks are all basically Friends of Bill.

Yup, if we are very, very lucky, we're going to get a repeat of the Clinton years. I mean it, if we are lucky. The last thing I want is Obama's election platform actually becoming reality.

As Victor points out

"That is, given Obama's absence of executive experience and brief tenure in the Senate, Obama never was in a position to assemble an insider team other than the Chicagoan Axlerod. So what was Obama to do when he needed savvy advisers and a brain trust he could count on from the old days to form the nucleus of his advisors and cabinet?

He could hardly draw on personal friends like Ayers, Khalidi, Pfleger, Rezko, and Wright. Other than Friends of Bill, the last Democrats to be insiders were the Carterites now in their 80s. So if a Democrat were to be elected President without much experience, and without friends or advisors he could draw upon who were qualified for office and worldly about Washington's macabre politics, who but the Clintonites were there?

This seems to be an unprecedented development entirely neglected by the media, this sudden reliance on a primary rival's team—ipso facto an illustration of Obama's thinner political resumé."

The lack of executive experience on the part of all the candidates (except Gov. Palin) was a major concern of mine during this election and I hope and pray that the conservatives beat this particular horse to death and put up for election in 2010 and 2012 strong female and male conservatives with both real world and executive governance experience.

It is the core argument against Obama - even four years from now. We did not get "Change" (thank God), we got more of the same. More of the same old Clinton policies. More of the same old socialism. More of the same old leftwing failures that has always dragged this country down.

We need to cultivate experienced conservative leaders now (but let's not run for election until the time is appropriate, OK?). This is a potential conservative strength and we must build on it as this inexperience of Obama's and Clinton redux will be the chink in Obama's armour.

Novak on Brain Cancer

Robert Novak has brain cancer. Love him or hate him, he is a fascenating journalist. Here is a very interesting interview with him from Townhall.com (great site).

He ends with a request for those who like him to pray for him. Already did, sir.

BadMommyMoments

A website well worth checking out. As a stay-at-home mom, I especially appreciate this post.

I have actually been introduced to people at my husband's business events who, upon hearing what I am, have actually turn away from me. Dismissed like I just announced I panhandled for a living.

I don't think so. And I love this blogger's honesty about life in the mom lane.

Prince of Darkness Offers Guidance

Karl Rove has written a terrific article on Newsweek about our way out of of the wilderness.

I think the first three points are pretty obvious and I would love to send him my list of 25 things because I think mine are better (as one does).

That said, I agree with all his points except number four.

4.Republicans must regain ground among critical voting groups. Voters ages 18–29 voted Democratic by a 2-to-1 margin. A market-oriented "green" agenda that's true to our principles would help win them back. Hispanics dropped from 44 percent Republican in 2004 to 31 percent in 2008. The GOP won't be a majority party if it cedes the young or Hispanics to Democrats. Republicans must find a way to support secure borders, a guest-worker program and comprehensive immigration reform that strengthens citizenship, grows our economy and keeps America a welcoming nation. An anti-Hispanic attitude is suicidal. As the party of Lincoln, Republicans have a moral obligation to make our case to Hispanics, blacks and Asian-Americans who share our values. Whether we see gains in 2010 depends on it.

Winning requires addition, not subtraction. While the GOP's strength is in the suburbs, exurbs and small towns, it cannot surrender urban America, especially if it wants to win states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio and regain strength in New England.

Winning does require addition but I don't think being conservative means trying to be all things to all people in a country as big and diverse as the United States. That would be is foolish. While Karl Rove isn't saying that exactly it is dangerously vague when precision is called for now.

Conservatism is about the strong values Rove mentions in his other points. We don't have to change those to attract the Youth vote, we just need to sharpen our message and be better. Better understood. Better heard. Better than Liberals at talking to these groups.

Before we can add to our numbers, we have to make sure our numbers add up. We must clarify our positions and attach them to a clear core of values. Once we do that, Conservatism will be excellently placed for the future. The so-called Prince of Political Darkness has offered clear guidance back into the light.

Uncle Joe

I don't care - I like Joe Lieberman.

Yes, his voting record is extremely liberal but he goes his own way and I appreciate that. Shoot, when I couldn't bear to vote for either Bush or Kerry in 2004, I wrote in Lieberman with Zell Miller as VP.

Now anything that upsets those radical leftwing whack jobs at DailyKos makes me happy. And I am particularly happy today because the DNC (which has treated Joe terribly in the past) is leaving Sen. Lieberman relatively unpunished for his "sins" during the election season.

(The Democratic Caucus voted in a secret ballot which is ironic as their leader has said he wants to let Unions get rid of secret ballot votes but that's another post....)

The story on Fox News is...

"Sen. Joe Lieberman will keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee despite hard feelings over his support for GOP nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign." ...

"Lieberman's colleagues in the Democratic caucus voted 42-13 Tuesday on a resolution condemning statements made by Lieberman during the campaign but allowing him to keep the Homeland Security Committee gavel. He loses an Environment and Public Works panel subcommittee chairmanship, however."

That the Senate Democratic Caucus thought this ritual was even the slightest bit worthwhile is astonishing. Both Obama and Reid had to wave them off. To punish Lieberman would make Obama look bad before he was even sworn in, drive Lieberman even further away from the democrats and make real the paranoia many feel that to criticize Obama is to risk punishment. Free speech violations for everyone!

I once watched a Liberal from AirAmerica shout "Oh, so its not what you say, it's what you do that's important." And the Conservative saying, "Ummm, yes." It isn't that Lieberman votes consistently with democrats that was important, it was that he said nice things about a conservative.

At least Joe Lieberman isn't that crazy relative in the basement Zell Miller talked about in his speech at the Republican 2004 convention - that would be Joe Biden. And from the look of it, Crazy Uncle Joe Biden is being kept in Obama's basement while Uncle Joe Lieberman gets to walk outside.

For now.

More from the Onion

I have to tell you - this pretty much sums it up for me.


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

God Bless The Good Folks At Onion

Just watch this - I love the Onion folks!


In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

I'm Laughing In Your Direction

I just love it when these the-sky-is-melting global warming "scientists" (oh yes, those are heavily ironic quotes around the word scientist) get a big ole Russian blintz on their face.

Check out this article from the Telegraph (always a good read).

Dr. Hanson (boo hiss) has to revise some numbers and I am laughing because this is the jerk who got those Greenpeace vandals off in the UK, who fabricates scientific data in order to keep the massive Green movement in funds, and is mean to people I know.

I don't like him. He's laughable.

Nerdtastic Indeed

Jonah over at NRO called this video "nerdtastic" and it is indeed gloriously geekerrific.

Please, see for yourself.

Why We Must Fight

I am the wife of an immigrant - a legal Green Card immigrant - so believe me when I say that illegal immigration is wrong.

I whole-heatedly support legal immigration (I worked real hard to bring my husband into this country legally) but I hate and abhor illegal immigration.

Why?

Because the very act of entering this country illegally is tantamount to breaking-and-entering into a home. This is my country and I have the right to know who is here.

The Houston Chronicle reports that "thousands of inmates admit they're in the U.S. illegally, but even those convicted of violent crimes are often released right back onto Houston's streets".

Unacceptable.

Let me be clear. On my mother's side of the family, we've been here since 1634. We were farmers who never left our little patch of Massachusetts until one of us joined the Union Army to free the slaves. My father's side of the family came over two generations ago and fought the Germans in World War Two.

We owe no one anything. And as far as I am concerned whether you are Mayflower family or Off-The-Boat, if you commit to America you are an American and have every right to our Founding Fathers as I do.

But if you don't commit then why are you bothering except to be a parasite?

Does America need commitment or parasites?

Elitism Bad

One of the glories of Capitalism is that you don't have to be an Ivy League graduate to become wildly successful. You just have to be smart and driven.

You have to care about something so much that you make it happen. And in America, that is possible because the entrepreneur (or any person working to make themselves better) is free to try and succeed. Although that may no longer be true soon.

In socialist countries (democratic socialist or communist), elites don't want the competition from upstarts who didn't do their time in "prestigious" universities (intellectualism being a principle measuring stick of elitism). So in socialist countries ranging from Cuba to France, entrepreneurs are suppressed or outright illegal.

So Elitism is bad and yet here in the USA.

Which is wrong and a shame. Thankfully David Limbaugh's excellent post on his website, Sanctimonious Stone Throwers, points this shame out very perceptively.

It's starts with how Sarah Palin's elite detractors are wrong, wrong, wrong but continues with the very real examples of how the Liberal elites let Obama play the race card by claiming Conservatives would play the race card - which we never did.

"There's apparently no limit to the shameless tactics of those willing to use false and divisive charges of racism to vilify an entire group of people (which, ironically, is the pernicious thought process inherent in racism) who are probably truer to racial colorblindness than their sanctimonious accusers."

By claiming Conservatives would "play the race card" before it even happened, Obama played the race card. While he said he wanted to "transcend race", he also said, "They're going to try to make you scared of me," ... "You know, 'He's not patriotic enough; he's got a funny name.' You know, 'He doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."

Doesn't seem very transcendent to me.

Apparently, the media was so charmed by a man with degrees from Columbia (a nest of liberal radicalism) and Harvard (rapidly becoming so) that they didn't bother to actually realize what tools of the Obama campaign they had become.

But unless Conservatives fight back, the media will forever be Liberal tools.

Liberalism has no faith or understanding of everyday people. They say they are fighting for the "little" people but every single policy they enact has harmed more folks than helped.

Elitism is the failure to let local people solve their own local problems. And everyone should be afraid of any government policy that allows someone from another place to make decisions for those most affected.

Why should Washington DC solve California's problems when Californians know what best works for them? Why should we believe Obama can even possibly fulfill any of his campaign promises when they are all predicated on the idea that the elite know best.

When has that ever been true? But don't look to the liberal (aka socialist-leaning) media to let you know that.

Intellectuals who understand the everyday pleasures of personal freedom and who want a person with a good idea to succeed are always welcome. Elites - liberal or conservative - who believe their cocktail barter should be ashamed. Actually, they should be Named and Shamed.

Poop

Parenthood - especially in the first four to five years - has a high poop factor.

Lots and lots of poop.

Imagine what I've been through in the past 18 hours that compelled me to share this with you.