Right As Usual

Hard to believe that there could be a worse person than the former President of the US, Jimmuh Carter. Why do I call him that? He broke precedent when he began publicly commenting on Presidential actions. Think of it - he's still taking money from the US, but acting contrary to our interests. He travels the world, using the cachet of his former position to intervene in foreign affairs - including secret negotiations with heads of foreign governments. The Logan Act, still on the books, specifically forbids private citizens (that's you, Jimmuh) from the following: Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States,...

I am definitely NOT ready to start the next presidential election season, but, just as with Christmas, there are those who can't wait for the official start of the season. Dennis Miller is one. He has a funny video up on Foxnews. Miller seems to act as though McCain and Guiliani have a virtual lock on the nomination. If, by some chance they DO get the nod, look for a major blowout - the Republican party will fractionate, go into meltdown, and hand the election, gift-wrapped, to the Democrats. The only Republicans that like those two are the RINOs. And they can't deliver the votes - they're too busy pretending they're really undercover Democrats. Look, the two so-called front-runners carry more baggage than a skycap trailing after Oprah Winfrey's world tour. They have news-worthy divorces, pro-abortion views, and, between the two of them, more flip-flops than either Kerry or a carload of sophomores headed to Florida for spring break. If the votes of honest cons...

I've been thinking about my mother lately. It's getting near Valentine's Day - that was Dad's and her anniversary. They eloped on February 14, 1948. They were married 46 years when she died. Dad followed her 4 years later. I always felt that he lost the will to live after her death. Mom was a light-hearted person. She had what the French call joie de vivre - a love of life. As a teen, I was often irritated with Mom. She seemed, to me then, to be overly giddy, giggly, and frivolous. I was temperamentally more like my father, who had a more dour disposition. Even after leaving home, I didn't fully realize what a contribution she made to the family, and to everyone around. If anyone needed a friend, or a shoulder to lean on, she was there. She would brew a pot of tea, and dedicate herself to listening with full attention. She managed to keep a temperamental and, sometimes, difficult man thoroughly in love with her for nearly half a century. For a post-war m...

Dirty Texas Politics Taint Border Patrol Agents' Trial I have to give huge kudos to Shawn Christopher Phillips, of the Wry & Coy Report, for compiling some of the least known and most misreported facts surrounding the case of the two Border Patrol Agents prosecuted for shooting a drug smuggler. Shawn has raised some very troubling questions surrounding the case - questions worth asking and investigating. He has also connected the dots in a way that the media has been unable (or unwilling) to do. Shawn's original research material can be found at www.patgray.com here and here . I have supplemented the accounts with further information from my own research and from Pat Gray's radio show on KSEV, since he and his co-host, Edd Hendee have been investigating the anomalies surrounding this very muddled case. I have taken the liberty of condensing Shawn's material from several posts to place it into a rough timeline of events as they occurred. As well, I wanted to include...

From Psychology Today: Most people are surprised to learn that there are real, stable differences in personality between conservatives and liberals—not just different views or values, but underlying differences in temperament. Psychologists John Jost of New York University, Dana Carney of Harvard, and Sam Gosling of the University of Texas have demonstrated that conservatives and liberals boast markedly different home and office decor. Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world. Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional. Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start. Multiple studies find that liberals are more optimistic. Conservatives are more likely to be religious. Liberals are more likely to like classical mu...

In the aftermath of the "Tuna Bill" - the exemption for Samoa in the new minimum wage bill - I think we all need to chip in, and fund a tag-along for Nancy, as seen below. OK, he's a little young, but you get the point. What is this about? Well, according to the story in Town Hall : in the rush to get the minimum wage boost to the floor, the Democrats exempted workers on American Samoa where the minimum wage starts at $2.63 per hour. American Samoa is, according to the historyofnations.net website: "An unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US; administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior." American Samoa has a representative to the US Congress (Eni Faleomavaega) who has no vote. From that standpoint, American Samoa has exactly the same status in the US House as the District of Columbia. It's principal administrative area is Pago Pago which is pronounced "Pango-pango." According to the Department of Labor: ...

I'm trying out a new program called Dragon Naturally Speaking. It appears to be a useful program since it doesn't seem difficult to use, and it seems to recognize my voice without difficulty. I've been dictating this post so far. One of the reasons I wanted to use it was to keep my arm from becoming stressed. It's nice to have an alternative. I'll be trying this for the next few days at work. If it works as expected, I'll be able to use it in the classroom. I expect that my students will be absolutely fascinated by it.

By Loma Alta at LinknZona Let us try to sort out what this armed invasion from Mexico means in the broader sense. The US-Mexico border is out of control. Corruption and drug cartels drive Mexico further to a violent, crime-controlled country; our biggest supplier of illegal drugs. Political self-interest, bribery by a broad spectrum of US industrial and agricultural interests of top US politicians, and the President’s family ties to Mexican “Big Oil” and possible ties to the drug cartels, cause them to support illegal immigration. This, in turn, causes them overlook the armed invasions and the millions of illegal immigrants and their billions of crimes because there are votes, political power, and big money in supporting illegal immigration. Smuggling, illegal immigration, drugs, murder and other crimes are spilling over the US-Mexico border and making many areas no-go zones. In Arizona, for example, I previously reported that the US Forest Service posts signs warning US citizens to ...

At Hog On Ice , Steve H. rants about those wasting their time with TV. I know so many people who pour the precious years of their lives into that stupid box. If that's what you have to live for, why do you even breathe? If you can't find something real to do, at least buy a computer and write a blog. Leave some evidence of your existence, other than a giant ass-shaped dent in a couch full of Cheeto crumbs. I agree - I seldom watch TV - if I do, it's because I don't feel well enough to do anything involving mental stimulation. Other than that, it's because my husband wants to watch, and he feels that it's more "companionable" to watch together. Whatever. In the interests of marital harmony, I do. But, I'm generally bored by it. My writing on this blog may be banal, but it indicates that I lived - not just existed.

TEN THINGS TO PONDER FOR 2007 10. Life is sexually transmitted. 9. Good health is merely the slowest rate at which one can die 8. Men have two emotions: Horny and Hungry. If he’s not chasing you, make him a sandwich. (Is that true?) Read the rest on The Anchoress .

Every day, when I log on, the first thing I see is the rotating memorial to the 9/11 victims. I spend a few moments reading their information, and comparing their ages to mine. They are all too young to have died. I was thinking about them yesterday, and I realized that, for me to have seen all the faces, and paid my respects, it will be almost a decade. So, my plan is to keep the memorial up for quite a while.

OK, I know the more hardware-savvy will laugh condescendingly at this, but... I finally figured out why my wireless was toast. I had accidentally toggled the function key that turned it on and off. I finally figured this out after days of consulting on the phone with my favorite hardware guru (my dear son-in-law). Yeah. It's the OR.

You have absolutely GOT to see this video! It's the actual speech by Rep. Wu (Do I have to mention Democrat?), who said there are Vulcans in the White House, then corrected himself to say that they were Klingons, not REAL Klingons, but faux Klingons. I feel that Oregonians were especially - NUANCED - to realize that what the House of Representatives needed, in this time of international crisis, is someone who has a breathtaking and comprehensive understanding of Star Trek trivia. Like the guys below. See? Even Sulu is laughing. REAL KLINGONS? Moron.

On Viking Pundit , Eric cites an article by Robert Samuelson, chastising lawmakers for not dealing with Social Security. As someone born in late 1945, I say this to the 76 million or so subsequent baby boomers and particularly to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, our generation's leading politicians: Shame on us. We are trying to rob our children and grandchildren, putting the country's future at risk in the process. On one of the great issues of our time, the social and economic costs of our retirement, we have adopted a policy of selfish silence. I agree. Listen, my stance on this topic could cost me money, big time. I understand that I may be torpedoing my chances of retiring, maybe permanently. So what? I would gladly sacrifice for my children and grandchildren. Now, I need to be clear. I'm not suggesting that we toss Granny out in the streets. Those already retired should not suffer unduly. However, I think it's past time to get Social Security and Medicare c...

I've been folowing the story on "Jamil Hussein" - the alleged policeman whose reports of American atrocities have been widely spread by the AP. Most recently, the AP snidely pointed to identification of Jamil Gholaiem Hussein as the police officer in question, and implied that bloggers were unfairly chastising them. Hussein was real, nyah, nyah, so don't you feel stupid for not finding him, when he was in plain sight? Well, no, according to Villainous Company . But how was "Hussein" listed on the Khadra station records? Ah... that little piece of information is one the AP finds not fit for your consumption: The AP has been citing Cpt Jamil Hussein Gulaim. The police officer's actual name is "Jamil Ghdaab Gulaim". Notably, the AP has offered no explanation for why it gave a different name to the MOI than the one the officer in question is actually using, nor for its decision not to inform the public that "Jamil Hussein" was in ...

Here's a link to an update of the previous post. I'll be monitoring the news about this situation for the next several days. Although my internet on my main computer is still down, I brought home my backup computer, and will be posting on that for the next week or so (maybe longer).

By Heidi at Euphoric Reality The excursion into U.S. territory last week by "Mexican gunmen" was not a chance confrontation between the Arizona National Guard and untrained illegal immigrants, but a deliberate "perimeter probe" by an infantry-trained, uniformed Mexican force, officials say. Euphoric Reality has learned in exclusive interviews with high-ranking sources within both the Arizona National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol that the incident the mainstream media calls a "standoff" was in reality a military-style operation, carried out by a unit of Mexican troops dressed in military uniforms, flak jackets, and armed with AK-47s in an apparent operation to probe the border defenses and test the limits of the National Guard troops. Using easily recognizable infantry movement tactics (such as arm and hand signals and flanking maneuvers), the Mexican unit deliberately moved in a military formation across the border from Mexico, where they were picked ...

Via Euphoric Reality , I found this link. I'd already read about the attack this morning, but hadn't woken up enough to blog about it yet. Nice of ER to post this, and give me another few hours before I have to clear the fog.