On This Day

On this day, my husband proposed to me 21 years ago.

On this day, my husband and I got married 11 years ago.

Technically, we legally married earlier to start the green card process but this date was always going to be the big-family-wedding date. We married a third time in England that Christmas for family who couldn't make it to the US wedding. And yes, it was 10 years to the day he first proposed - I am a pain-in-the-butt.

On this day, my husband and I got got married in a Catholic service one year ago.

We did it to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary (yup, that's getting married four times to the same man, never divorced).

So on this day, my husband and I celebrate one proposal anniversary, an eleventh wedding anniversary, a first (Catholic) wedding anniversary, and the upcoming first anniversary of his book being published (hopefully the first of many).

We are also celebrating Human Achievement Day (way better than Earth Day), my recovery for hysterectomy surgery, and the winning of a substantial sweepstakes prize.

Today is a good day. I hope it is a great day for everyone as well.

Wanna See One Million Tea Bags?

Check out this article (and the picture below) from my husband's think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Are You A Terrorist?

Take Reaon's online test to see if the DHS considers you a terrorist.

I took it and apparently am...


The Other McCain has a few choice words about this as well.

Susan Boyle

YouTube won't let me ebed but follow this link. YOU MUST HEAR AND SEE THIS WOMAN!

What a package! What a voice!

She moves me to tears and I don't even know the song she is singing (Found them below)!

I am gushing because she is the perfect example of inspiration, surprise, and vocal perfection imaginable (and she knocked Simon Cowell on his ASS).

Below are the lyrics to the song she sang on Britain's Got Talent (UK version of American Idol) - when you realize they are being sung by a 47-year-old unemployed woman who is in a church choir, you understand why her singing these words moves you to tears.

Here are the Lyrics(Thanks to NewHotdox) -
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he'll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

Or you can listen to this...

Over Half A Million And Counting

Pajamas Media has a quick and simple webpage up that can link you with the citizen journalists and other sites that covered the TEA party protests.

Excellent work.

Government Healthcare Means Rationed Medicine

Every country that has government-run healthcare is a country that rations its healthcare. Great Britain's NHS is a monstrosity that will as likely kill you as treat you.

I have relatives who have waited over 4 years for a simple foot surgery. My mother-in-law can not get her hip replacement for another 3 and is not allowed to purchase the only medicine that eased her arthritis pain.

So whenslate.com runs Kausfiles webpage talking about how US democrats are trying to sell universal healthcare to the American people by honestly stating that the government will decide if you live or die,....

"hard choices" and "rational" coverage decisions, by which Klein seems to mean "not providing" treatments that are unproven or too expensive--when "a person's life, or health, is not worth the price."

...I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Win A Copy Of Really Inconvenient Truths

Enter CEI's contest to win a copy of my husband's book here - and if you say you've entered in my comments section and win, I will make sure my husband autographs the book for you with a personal message before it is sent out.

(Scroll down for entry form on righthand side of webpage.)

OR - buy a copy today! Makes a terrific gift for "Earth Day".

Taxes & Tyranny

(By Jonah Goldberg - Originally posted on NRO - The Corner)
I copied this in its entirety because it is just so good, especially the last bit which I bolded.

Amidst all of the hooplah, I've heard a lot of complaints from liberals. Here are the most frequent complaints and my responses.

1. All of this tyranny talk is overheated and idiotic.

Well, some of it surely is. But look: According to that Reason video I posted below, Americans work an average of 103 days a year just to pay their taxes. If you had to work 365 days a year to pay your taxes, that would be a kind of slavery or indentured servitude, because all of your productive labor would be going to the government. You would have no resources of your own to provide for the life you wanted. Instead the government would provide you not with what you want, but what the government decides you need.

That sounds like a kind of tyranny to me.

And, I think if we had to work 364 days a year it would still be a kind of serfdom (after all, serfs were allowed a little plot of their own). Ditto 363 days, 362 days, 361 days etc. Now, at some point the difference of degree becomes a difference in kind; working one day a year to pay for the government doesn't sound oppressive to me. But it seems to me that it's hardly absurd to think that 103 days a year is too much, or to believe that if that number goes even higher, we're losing something important.

I would also add that it's sort of crazy for liberals to equate government hand-outs (positive liberty, FDR's economic bill of rights, and all that) with "freedom" but to equate the desire to keep more of the money you make yourself with greed and oppression of some kind. Money does make all sorts of liberties possible (you have to pay for your megaphone and all that). But government money only pays for the "liberties" the government thinks you should have, and therefore it can determine how you exercise them. That turns liberties into privileges dispensed at the whim of the state.

2. The original tea parties were about taxation without representation, today's spending is the result of Democrats winning elections, so it's taxation with representation.

There's some fairness to this objection. But one response would be that Democrats are tripling the debt, which means that generations of Americans not yet born will be taxed to pay for spending today. That is a kind of taxation without representation.

A second, more political than philosophical objection, would be that today's spending is being achieved under false pretenses. Obama says he's spending this money to fix a crisis, but much of his spending has nothing to do with the crisis but with shopworn liberal action items. However, since Obama campaigned on many of these items, I don't think it amounts to taxation without representation. But it does seem like the sort of duplicity worth a protest or two.

3. These protests are unpatriotic astroturfing by plutocrats.

So much for "dissent is the highest form of patriotism"!

I find it sort of amazing that when groups like ANSWER, a Mos Eisley cantina of America-hating nut cases, take to the streets it's a full-flowering of democracy in action. When ACORN pays their ragamuffins to protest, or when Rainbow/PUSH shakes down businesses through racial extortion, it's the sort of direct democratic action Thomas Paine dreamed of. And when labor unions pay people to protest, it's populist. But when a bunch of independent Americans, talk-show hosts, and email campaigners organize hundreds of protests around the country, it's astroturfing.

4. Republicans are hypocrites for suddenly caring about deficits.

Well, maybe. But then so are liberals for suddenly not caring about deficits. (That part always gets left out.)


Moreover, I don't get it. Republicans didn't care enough about the deficit when it went up a "little" under Bush (to pay for a war), therefore they can't complain when Obama sends it through the stratosphere (to pay for socialized medicine)? How does that work? If my wife spends too much on a shopping trip, does that mean she can't complain if I lose our house on a trip to Vegas?

5. The populist anger out there is the real face of America's homegrown fascism.

Sigh. While I think Rick Perry's secession talk is idiotic and unfortunate (even accounting for Texas's unique history), I am at a loss as to how any of this stuff smacks of fascism. Even Perry is talking in the context of the federal government doing too much, taking away too much liberty, getting too involved in local communities, and interfering too much with the individual.

How do I say this so people will understand? Fascism isn't a libertarian doctrine! It just isn't, never will be, and it can't be cast as one. Anarchism, secessionism, extreme localism, or rampant individualism may be bad, evil, wrong, stupid, selfish, and all sorts of other things (though not by my lights). But they have nothing to do with a totalitarian vision of the state where individuals and institutions alike must march in step and take orders from the government.

If you think shrinking government and getting it less involved in your life is a hallmark of tyranny it is only because you are either grotesquely ignorant or because you subscribe to a statist ideology that believes the expansion of the state is the expansion of liberty.

Your Breath Endangers Health

(Originially posted by my husband at NRO - The Corner)

As expected, the EPA has issued a preliminary finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. A coalition of free-market groups has already expressed its concern about what this means via a letter here. There is now a public comment period, and it is vital that as many people and organizations as possible make their views known. Instructions for submitting comments are here.

Malkin vs. MSM

Malkin wins by being more of a class act than these MSM clowns.

Truly sad, morally deficient, intellectually morbund, and tasteless.

My Husband's Book

Buy it here and celebrate Earth Day by giving it to a liberal (afterall, they caused the environmental catastrophes we "need" Earth Day for).

Or visit this website and get a free excerpt.

Obama's Speech "tic" (aka lying)

Personally, I kinda think he makes a fair point. But then again, I have never been impressed with Obama's speech or speeches.

In God We Don't Trust

Apparently and according to CNSNews, Obama asked for all religious images to be covered during his speech at Catholic university, Georgetown.

“In coordinating the logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event, Georgetown honored the White House staff’s request to cover all of the Georgetown University signage and symbols behind Gaston Hall stage,” Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at Georgetown, told CNSNews.com.

Obama Suggests He Just Help Himself To Your Money

No, it's not an Onion headline.

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Obama is suggesting that he could "simplify" the tax code now with a flat tax but by having the IRS simply take the taxes you owe right out of your bank account.

You don't have a problem with that do you?

Also in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove's excellent Op-Ed explaining why TEA Party Protests are happening.

Why I Do Not Watch CNN

The pathetic attempt to make this some "vast right-wing conspiracy" deserves derision and an ass-whooping.



And Mark Hemingway gives it to CNN's Susan Roesgen here too.

CNN is such a tool.

PS Here's another strong take on the "toolness" of the mainstream media.

And of course, the always excellent Ed Driscoll pretty much puts the bullet in the back of this one's head.

Kudos For Use of the Word Retarded

Because we could all use a laugh on this day, Cracked.com has posted this "article" titled, "7 Retarded Tax Evasion Schemes (People Are Actually Trying)".

Reported success rate so far, zero.

Very funny and worth a read. Enjoy.

The Goal of Environmentalists

Well, Tax Day is fading. Now we have Earth Day to look forward to and this Onion video pretty much sums up the Environmentalists goals.

In The Know: Should Americans Return To A Simpler, Stone Age Lifestyle?

Now Human Achievement Day would be much cooler. (By the way, that's my husband's voice on the first video.)

And speaking of cooler, buy my husband's book, "Really Inconvenient Truths - Seven Environmental Disasters Liberals Don't Want You to Know About Because They Helped Cause Them". It makes a great Earth Day gift for deluded Greens.

Media Having Trouble Finding Right Angle On Obama's Double-Homicide

As reported by The Onion...

WASHINGTON—More than a week after President Barack Obama's cold-blooded killing of a local couple, members of the American news media admitted Tuesday that they were still trying to find the best angle for covering the gruesome crime.

"I know there's a story in there somewhere," said Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, referring to Obama's home invasion and execution-style slaying of Jeff and Sue Finowicz on Apr. 8. "Right now though, it's probably best to just sit back and wait for more information to come in. After all, the only thing we know for sure is that our president senselessly murdered two unsuspecting Americans without emotion or hesitation."

...

Nevertheless, a small contingent of independent journalists has begun to express its disapproval and growing shock over the president's actions.

"I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but we are in the midst of an economic crisis here," political pundit Marcus Reid said. "Why was our president ritualistically dismembering the corpses of his prey when he should have been working on a new tax proposal for small businesses? I, for one, am outraged."

The New York Times newsroom is reportedly still undecided on whether or not to print a recent letter received from Obama, in which the president threatens to kill another helpless citizen every Tuesday and "fill [his] heavenly palace with slaves for the afterlife" unless the police "stop the darkness from screaming."

"President Obama's letter presents us with a classic journalistic quandary," executive editor Bill Keller said. "If we print it, then we're giving him control over the kinds of stories we choose to run. It would be an acknowledgment that we somehow give the nation's commander in chief special treatment."

Added Keller, "And that's just not how the press in this country works."

Pictures from the PWC TEA Party Protest

I took these and the ones below today in front of the Prince William County government buildings between Noon and 12:30pm - when the protest was just getting started. Everyone was great, kind, inclusive and patient. I was particularly impressed with the wide range of age groups and demographics.


I love this little old lady sitting in the rain, in a wheelchair, fighting for her freedom!


This guy is NOT wearing a Che t-shirt, that is a picture of Ronald Reagan and it says "Old School Conservative".


The silver fox in the middle of this snap wanted to know if I was taking pictures for the DHS hit list, I assured him that I, myself, was probably on that list thanks to this website.


Gottal love a good sign.


That's my boy.

Big Government and the Boston Tea Party

(Originially posted on NRO - The Corner by my husband)

Here's a short explanation of how the background to the original Boston Tea Party involved rentseeking, corporate welfare, bailouts, stealth taxes, and reckless government intervention in the market. Plus ça change.

More Pictures from Prince William County TEA Party

I took these today between 12pm and 12:30pm.

I (HEART) Sarah Palin Fans!


The crowd is clustered around a small awning tent to hear speakers, I think they are about 10 deep - for a relatively unknown protest site, there were a couple hundred people.


Fought for our freedom, still fighting today.


Just a nice crowd of smart folks exercising their right to lawful assembly and free speech.


Just a drive by I took as we were leaving.

Joking about Torture

David Corn over at Mother Jones is now wondering if the Obama administration is actually joking about torture.

Why isn't every liberal's head exploding as they would if President Bush had allowed his press secretary to crack jokes about gitmo "torture".

Department of Homeland Security Now Political Blunt Instrument

Both Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin agree that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now being used by the Obama administration to silence anyone who believes in

As Rush points out, it is a spectacular coincidence that this DHS stupidity is released just before the TEA Party Protests. Could it have been a ham-fisted attempt at intimidating people who might be inclined to protest the outreageous taxes being inflicted upon the American People?

Both Rush and Michelle's posts link to the DHS pdf which would be a hilarious read if it weren't an actual government document with real policy implications. I mean if you feel your local or state government should have some real power, then you could end up on a DHS hit list.

Enjoy that thought this tax day.

Tea Party Coverage

Here is a list of excellent links about today's TEA Parties!

WOW! Actual mainstream media coverage of the TEA Party movement! Way to go, Wall Street Journal!

Michelle Malkin gives us an excellent Tax Party movement history.

Tea Party Derangement Syndrome - a sign of success according to Roger L. Simon

Tea Party Crashers are Fascists - because they want to silence dissent. Good point.

Bob Krum's take on the Tea Party movement - What's next, where, and how?

RINOs beware, you are NOT welcome at TEA Party Protests.

Tax Day Video From Reason

AIM Goes After the "Left Wing Conspiracy"

The website "Accuracy in the Media" is going after the claims of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" that the Tax Party revolts are "orchestrated".

Their basic premise is that the George Soros-funded leftwing echo chamber is so accustomed to creating top-down organized "protests" that they can't possibly recognize a naturally-evolving, honest-emotional-reaction protest if it camped out on their front lawns.

Faking Military Photo-Ops

Apparently, liberals accused President Bush of faking a military photo-op which turns out to be a lie.

But when Obama fakes a military photo-op, it is strangely silent in media-land as the tumbleweed tumbles by.

Fake and hypocrits, is it surprising I changed my voter registration from democrat to republican?

Tax Protest Update

(Copied in full from the DC Examiner)

If things go as organizers plan, thousands of ordinary, hard-working Americans will hit the streets Wednesday in hundreds of Tea Party Protests called to oppose the high-tax and deficit spending policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. Some observers have compared the Tea Party Protests to the Tax Revolt that began in California in the 1970s and spread nationwide, eventually providing important support for President Ronald Reagan’s landmark 1981 tax rate cut. But there really is nothing in modern American political history to match the spontaneous explosion of grassroots political activism in recent months among what once was known as the Silent Majority.

The movement started with a “Porkulus” protest organized by Keli Carender, a blogger-mom in Seattle getting her first taste of political activism, three days before the now-famous Feb. 19 television news rant by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Carender was concerned about Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. Blogger Michelle Malkin got wind of Carender’s activity and touted it, which led to similar protests in Colorado, Arizona, and Kansas. A national movement caught fire, organized by a bunch of mostly unconnected people who found each other via social networking on the Internet. These facts about the origins of the movement render especially goofy recent accusations from pro-Obama groups on the left that the Tea Party Protests are somehow part of an evil right-wing conspiracy funded either by CNBC or Fox News.

Part of the reason for the mean-spiritedness in some of the attacks from the pro-Obama groups is likely the failure of efforts to turn out large crowds in support of the chief executive’s $787 billion economic stimulus package and $3.6 trillion 2010 federal budget, with its $1 trillion deficit and comparable floods of red ink for a decade thereafter. The recent “New Way Forward” gathering here in D.C., for example, was heralded by organizers as the first of a wave of counter-Tea Party Protests, but barely a dozen people turned out. Similarly, much-publicized efforts to use the 13-million email addresses compiled by the Obama campaign to generate pressure on Congress barely caused a ripple, much less a wave of support for the Obama budget. If you are interested in participating in a Tea Party Protest tomorrow, you can find information at http://taxdayteaparty.com/ and at http://www.teapartyday.com/

See you there.

Additional take on the tea party protests from Fox News here.

Barbara Boxer's Tax Video

Sharia Law Bad

It's funny how we're starting to read about how Islamic Fundamentalists do bad things again, now that Obama is amping up Afghanistan.

I suppose the "good" fight "deserves" support. But what about all the bad that happened in Iraq too?

Shocker! Obama Breaks A Campaign Promise

It's actually a small promise - to get a shelter dog but given his child's allergies, a purebreed was probably unavoidable.

Still, it is the way the Obama's (and Ted Kennedy) went to such great lengths as described here to make it look like their new Portuguese Water Dog was a rescue animal shows how little faith they have in reasonable people.

Certainly (and my sister who worked for them can attest to this) there are some "crazy" people in the animal rescue/shelter industry. People who will condemn Obama for putting his daughter before an animal. But again, reasonable people would understand.

The knee-jerk impulse to lie, fudge, and confuse in order to do what they damn well please is endemic on both sides of the political spectrum but when a politician promises hope and change until you want to vomit and then does not keep his hope and change promises, well, that just makes it all the worse.