Zinger From Jay Leno

A madam in New York City claims that John Edwards was a customer in her brothel. You hear that kind of thing and it really makes you lose respect for prostitutes, doesn't it?

If You Think Things Are Bad Now, Just Wait

If I can just get re-elected, I'll never have to face the voters again, so I'll be free to act as I want without having to worry about what those suckers think.

A Display That Makes My Skin Crawl: Our President Becomes a Joke Overseas

Clear Look At An Ominous Development

What public employee unions are doing to us and our body politic calls for close scrutiny and consideration, and that is what it gets in this essay, which is well worth reading.  The bottom line is that our supposed "public servants" in fact have, through their unions, become our rulers and now effectively dominate many of our elected officials.

A 'Let Them Eat Cake' Vacation To Pay For (If You're an American Taxpayer)

The following is from a friend in Texas:

Want to know where Obama’s 13 year-old daughter is right now with 12 friends?

On a 'spring break' vacation in Oaxaca Mexico, on your dime.

She took two jets and 25 secret service men.

You probably haven't heard about it because the Obama Administration has had the Secret Service scouring the web and ordering that any website mentioning this be taken down, claiming that revealing her itinerary could endanger the security of the president's daughter.

Nonsense. Our royal couple just want to hide the way they are ripping off the taxpayers.

[According to the friend who sent this to me, one website was taken down while he was viewing it.  However, at the posting, parts of the story still could be seen here and there were more details on this site.]

The Obama’s must be laughing at the  "taxpaying suckers” who are funding their sumptuous imperial lifestyle.

The trip of the 13-year-old daughter of the president who has driven the country deeper into debt than any of his predecessors probably will cost more than most Americans make in their entire lifetimes.

Article on Murder

An article by your not at all humble blogger on the brutal murder in his own yard of a resident of an upscale Berkeley hills neighborhood and the city's police department's shameful role in the death appears in today's (4/25/12) edition of The American Thinker online magazine under the title On That Violent Death In the Berkeley Hills. It can be seen by clicking here and then scrolling down to the title.

A Gauge of Our Social and Political Standards

Few things exemplify the coarsening and degradation of our social and political standards better than the lowering of the bar for honoring politicians by sticking their names on government buildings and other public facilities.

Not so long ago -- just a couple of decades back -- there was a tradition in the U.S. of not honoring anyone in this way until after they had died. That now abandoned tradition was based on the sensible recognition that any living person might in the future do something reprehensible . . . something that would embarrass those who irrevocably or at least memorably had affixed the honoree's name to something in public view.  One who had died was believed unlikely to misbehave in the future in a way that would cause any such embarrassment.

That was then and this is now . . . and now our politicos are so disliked and scorned, both widely and deservedly, that they are constantly scrambling to demonstrate their esteem for, and to honor one another.

As is so often the case, California in general, and its experimental madhouse called Berkeley, in particular, is leading the way on this.

There, it is not just a living politician who has been so honored but one who previously committed not just a reprehensible act but a criminal one for which he was convicted after initially denying his offense but then copping a plea. A municipal sports facility has been besmirched by having affixed to it the name of Berkeley's current mayor -- a guy who a few years ago was caught stealing from newspaper racks every copy that he could get his hands on of a local paper containing an editorial supporting an election opponent. His honor was trying to destroy as many copies of the paper as he could to prevent potential voters from seeing the editorial.

That's the kind of 'public servant' we now have and honor . . . the kind that is the basis for the axiom that any current holder of a public office that calls for its occupant to be addressed as honorable almost certainly is not.  And that's the kind of shameful but shameless politican routinely honored in willy-nilly fashion by his colleagues. 

Thus we have a plethora of things like the Dewey Cheatum Freeway . . . the Skrew Yew Recycling Plant and Refuse Disposal Facility . . . and the Igot Mein Sewage Treatment Center.  

A Celebratory Obama

For a quick view our president truly happy and joyful, exullting over his signal accomplishment, look here.

Feeling Safer Now ? ? ? ?

We all can sit back and relax now that Big Brother is making us more secure by expanding his reach to keep an eye out for (or on) all of us.  See the report here.


Those who love and trust Big Brother and those who can be conditioned to do so will have no problem with this.  Such training already is, and can be seen in progress at the nation's aiports, where it is being tested on subjects who still must or choose to travel by air.


As for the rest, they should have sufficient time to discuss the matter after they are dispatched to their respective gulags. However, the more extreme* among us will have to hurry to complete such discussions before it comes time for them to go to the shower facilities at the camps that will have been -- and perhaps already are being -- prepared for their arrival.
________________
* You know who they are -- military veterans, religous individuals, and others who insist they are citizens and not subjects and/or persist in talking and writing about things like freedom and the Constitution.  Such people already are being watched and information about them is being collected and kept in those files. 

Remembering a Great Hunt

Shot my first turkey yesterday!

Scared the crap out of everyone 

in the frozen food section.

It was awesome!


Remember: Don't Make Old People Mad

We don't like being old in the first place, 

so it doesn't take much 

to piss us off . . . .

Note the Double Standard

After reading recent headlines about the U.S. soldier who shot and killed Afghanistan civilians, I couldn't help noticing an irony.  There is all this clamor to try this guy quickly and execute him, never mind his having suffered a traumatic brain injury.  Yet this Major Hasan, who shot up Fort Hood while screaming Allah akbar, still hasn't stood trial . . . and they still are still debating whether he was insane despite clear evidence that he deliberately planned and set out to slay as many infidels as possible.  So we have a guy in a war zone who cracks, and he must be executed immediately.  But a Muslim psychiatrist who was stateside in a nice safe office all day murders 13, wounds 29 of our own guys, his fellow soldiers, and they try to argue the poor lad suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome, from listening to real soldiers who had actual battle experience.  Two and a half years later, they still haven't tried the murderous bastard.

. . . Based on an e-mail from a friend

On the Death of a Memorable Lady and Her Era . . . May She Rest in Peace

The story of her life and times can be seen here.

The Billion Dollar Pigford Scam

'We Don't Got To Show You No Stinkin' ID' . . . or Why Demorats Are 'Dead Set' Against Curbing Voter Fraud

The New Transparency

Just the Facts

Currently Ignored Words of Wisdom

Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.

. . . Joseph Story

Commentaries on the Constitution

1833

The Obamamobile and the Case for Buying It

Let's Mandate All the "Essentials" for a Really Good Free Life

An open letter to the President from Allysia Finley published by The Wall Street Journal:

Dear President Obama,

Can you believe the nerve of employers? Many of them still seem to think that they should be allowed to determine the benefits they offer. There are still many essential benefits that the government must mandate to make the U.S. the freest country in the world.

    • Fitness club memberships. Most doctors agree that exercising is one of the best ways to prevent disease. However, gym memberships can run between $240 and $1,800 per year. Such high prices force us to choose between exercising and buying groceries. While we could walk or jog outside, many of us prefer not to.

    • Massages. Stress raises the risk of heart disease, obesity, depression and a host of other maladies.  However, since few of us can afford massages, it is imperative that employers be required to cover weekly massage treatments or hire in-office masseuses.

    • Yoga classes. Like exercise and massage, yoga reduces stress and can relieve back pain, osteoarthritis and even menopausal symptoms.

    • Coffee. Studies show that coffee can ward off depression, Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes and sleepiness—which makes it one of the most powerful preventive treatments. Oh, and workers must also be able to choose the kind of coffee regardless of the price.

    • Salad bar. Studies also show that eating a lot of salad helps people maintain a healthy weight, which is key to preventing diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

      I'm sure Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and your political adviser David Axelrod could produce a legal memorandum explaining why they are necessary. Besides, if you can justify a mandate on individuals to buy health insurance, this should be a piece of cake.

Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt

The U.S. government's total debt was $10.626 trillion on January 20, 2009 — the day Obama was sworn in as the nation's president. On March 12, 2012, the Treasury Department said the government's total outstanding debt stood at $15,517,051,724,148.90 and will be over $17 trillion at the end of Obama's first term. 

West Virginia proverb:

You cannot get the water to clear up,

until you get the pigs out of the creek.

Our Energy Future ? ? ? ?

The Argument for Voting

The estimable Lee Roldgers makes this argument for voting (and against the contrary argument set forth in the essay posted below on March 1 under the title Current Political Reflections and Resulting Life Lesson):


Whatever one thinks of the ultimate Republican nominee, two words need to be in the forefront of the mind of the most reluctant voter: Supreme Court.


Four more Obama years will likely lead to at least two appointments to the court, which will irreversibly turn it to the left. Presidents come and go. Justices come and stay.

As he usually does, Mr. Rodgers -- to whose blog a link is provided in the column to the right -- makes a good point. And it extends not just to the Supreme Court but to all of the judicial and other positions the president can fill with his appointees.

Those who believe the country still can be salvaged by restoration of the Constitutional republic would be well advised to follow Mr. Rodgers' advise.


On the other hand, another option exists for those who believe the statists' looting culture has progressed too far to be halted, let alone reversed.  Those with that view can allow (and perhaps even help hasten) the collapse of the whole rotten structure and then endeavor to reconstitute the country that the founder's hoped and sought to create. 

Cheers, Yes; But Nonetheless a Bad Sign

A federal judge last week struck down as unconstitutional a Maryland requirement that its residents show  a "good and substantial reason" to obtain a permit to carry a handgun.

The ruling contained this admirably clear and direct bit of common sense:

A citizen may not be required to offer

"a good and substantial reason" why

he should  be permitted to exercise his rights.

 The right’s existence is all the reason he needs.

That the ruling was even necessary, that it was cheered by those who support the Constitution, and that the state plans to appeal show how far broadly the statist mindset is abroad in the land, and how far into the statist rathole the country has sunk.


A full news report on the ruling can be seen here.  

An Accuratre Assessment

When you’re in the Oval Office and you turn on the TV and see Greece going up in flames, the inevitable result of a country living beyond its means, and you decide that’s going to continue to be your economic role model, the best that can be said about you is that you’re stubborn, ignorant and irresponsible.

When you decide that the best way to go about getting re-elected is by pitting Americans against each other on the basis of race, class and religion, cynically turning this noble nation into a banana republic, you go from being just another Chicago hack with a leftwing agenda to joining the putrid ranks of demagogues and dictators.

. . . Columnist Burt Prelutsky

Transparency In Government?

Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu is refusing to provide Congress with a list of "green" companies   into which the administration has committed taxpayer money  that are at risk of following Soylyndra down the bankruptcy drain, or even to tell Congress how many such companies would  be on any such list.


This from what we were promised would be the most tranparent administration in the nation's history.

Optimistic Delusions

It's unclear whether our president is being manipulated like a puppet and a ventriloquist's dummy into acting and saying that Iran can be persuaded to abandon its nuclear weapons development program by peaceful means or if he just finds it politically expedient to act and talk as if that is a real possibility.


The Iranians always resume talks and diplomacy whenever action against them appears to be a real possibility, but their program constantly moves forward and the negotiations and diplomatic efforts inevitably collapse. 


Mr. Obama has gone so far as to state that it is unclear whether the Iranians have decided to develop nuclear weapons or whether their efforts are aimed at producing power and other peaceful goals.


One has to be pretty obtuse or delusional to believe that this is why their program is being conducted in many widely dispersed sites deep beneath the earth's surface. 

In the Entitlement State There Are Entitlements and Entitlements

In a sane world, one's mind would boggle at a left wing feminist activist insisting that she is entitled to a free sexual ride at other peoples' expense.  But no, that's exactly what that shameless  Georgetown University law student is doing. She epitomizes the entitlement state's free loading mindset by demanding that somebody else -- her school, or her health insurance company, or the government (meaning taxpayers) . . . anyone but she herself -- pay for her birth control so that she can enjoy sexual frolics without having to worry about the possibility of becoming pregnant.  How proud her parents must be.


What's next? Perhaps government issued vouchers good for taxpayer paid visits to Playboy Mansions or brothels, or trysts with coed law students or call girls.


Any and all vestiges of doubt about the extent to which the U.S. has degenerated culturally, economically, morally, and politically should be wiped out by the coed's brazen demands, her support by our ruling elites in government, the media, and academia, and the docile acceptance of all this by the general population.


Nonetheless, an even more incideous entitlement state mindset is afoot in the land -- the assumption by those who comprise our corrupt elites that notwithstanding their manifest failures they are entitled to run the country and all of its institutions, and to dictate how the rest of us should live our lives and what we should be allowed to think and say. This mindset was spelled out a few years back in this admirable essay, which should be reread on a regular basis.

Maxine's Apt Analogy

Current Political Reflections and Resulting Life Lesson

Having surveyed our nation's abysmal political prospects, I am seriously considering not voting at all in the general election in November.


It is true that the Obama presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for the country. Furthermore, a second term in all likelihood would be even worse. The former community organizer would be free to govern as he wishes, unconstrained by the prospect of again having to face the electorate.


It is equally true that any of the viable opposition candidates would, as president, be less harmful to the country . . . but that's hardly an argument for the election of any of them.


Although both of the leading Republican candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, claim to be conservatives, neither of them has shown any libertarian tendencies or any commitment to smaller, less intrusive, and frugal government. Both of them in the past consistently have sponsored or supported expansions in the size, scope, and expense of government. Wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of talk about what they would have the government do to "help" us, we heard them tell us what they would have the government stop doing? But no, they represent the authoritarian wing of the Republican Party.


Newt Gingrich is the field's intellectual shininng light. But he is impulsive, reckless, and uncontrollable.


Ron Paul is spot on insofar as domestic policy is concerned. However, on foreign policy he so rigidly committed to libertarianism's orthodoxy that he carries it to its ideologically logical -- but practically illogical and dangerous -- extreme.


In light of all this, one has to return to considering two pithy suggestions:

Don't Vote, It Just Encourages Them

and

If God Really Wanted Us To Vote, He Would 
Give Us Real Candidates

Accordingly, I cannot help but wonder whether our nation's decline is unstoppable. Perhaps all we can do is sit back, let it (and even Obama) happen, and hope and strive to be able to restore the founders' visiton and rebuild the country after the currently rotting structure collapses of its own weight.


Discussing, and/or attempting to discuss these thoughts with friends, neighbors, and acquantances has driven home to me a great life lesson:

I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible,

but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.