Right As Usual

I found this on Blackfive - you really need to read it.

I'm 58 today. This is not a major surprise to me; with my family history, I expect to live a long time. Although my parents died young (65 & 76), most of my relatives were around until their late 80s or 90s - a few even until past 100. Today will be a day to enjoy myself. I have work to do (both for my employer, and on the house), but, today, that can wait. I plan to spend most of the day indulging myself.

I'm adding a stunning graphic about the links from radical groups to Obama.

It's sometimes difficult to unravel the many threads that link our President to a radical group that works to overthrow the economic system of this country. The American Spectator, in a relatively short post , manages that: And now we have the mortgage crisis, which has sent a shock wave through Wall Street and panicked world financial markets like no other since the stock market crash of 1929. But this is a problem created in Washington long ago. It originated with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), signed into law in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter. The CRA was Carter's answer to a grassroots activist movement started in Chicago, and forced banks to make loans to low income, high risk customers. PhD economist and former Texas Senator Phil Gramm has called it: "a vast extortion scheme against the nation's banks." ACORN aggressively sought to expand loans to low income groups using the CRA as a whip. Economist Stan Leibowitz wrote in the New York Post: In ...

This is tragic - parents who used the new Gardasil vaccine, have found their children experiencing an ALS-type progressive disease. Turns out, warnings concerning ALS and vaccines have been raised before. John Iskander, the CDC's associate director for immunization safety, tells me the agency previously has received reports of ALS following the anthrax vaccine. This, in addition to the deaths of Jenny and Whitney, "kind of tells us that we need to look more broadly at this issue," he says. He's quick to add that "we're doing just an initial review at this point; we don't have suspicions that these are casually related." Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, maintains that its vaccine is extremely safe and points out that it could potentially save women from dying of cervical cancer . "There are unusual and rare diseases that occur in girls and women in this age group whether they're vaccinated or not," says Rick Haupt, Merck's h...

One of my family is now on the net, Harley Dangerous She's a tattooed Harley lady who lives in AZ. Check her out; she's got information about a bike run next weekend.

I've been reading various blogs in The National Review, Powerline Blog, and others. Powerline is pessimistic - with good reason - about the economy. Many Americans are. But Powerline - and Victor Davis Hanson - are concenred, as I am, about Obama's leanings in international affairs. Many Americans were not happy with Bush. They felt that he was too trigger-happy. I didn't agree, but I accepted the reasonable people can disagree. Obama, however, is way off in the other direction. His rush to appeasement is Chamberlain-like. Obama has never met a dictator - especially Islamic - that he didn't like. I'm concerned. So I'm channeling my anxiety into work with local and state political parties. I'm also funneling my support - and money when I can manage it - to conservatives of either party.

Our economy is on the ropes. Most of the baby boomers, hovering on the edge of retirement, have seen savings diminish. One of our friends, just retired, has had his savings reduced in a matter of a few months by 800,000 dollars. Yeah. That'll leave a mark. Madoff was a piker in comparison. A new fear is the change of our government to a form that Americans hold in contempt - the Banana Republic. Now, I like the Banana Republic - the store, I mean. Nice Friday casual clothes, reasonably priced. But, I can't say that I fancy it as a government. Particularly as a replacement for the mixed type we enjoy, that combines a republic with various forms of grass-roots participatory democracy.

Truly, sometimes I think we've reached a new low in stupid. Obama is pushing a plan to get reimbursement for vet's treatment from - their private insurance companies. Yes, you read that right. Although the insurance company is a private entity, they may be held responsible for continued treatment of veterans' injuries. Is Obama trying to get this year's Big Stupid Award? Keep it up, O-Man - you're a real contender.

I just noticed that the sitemeter is nearing the 200,000 mark. It's been great doing this, and I'm looking forward to the next 200,000 visits. I found this post in the Jonah Goldberg archives; it's particularly apt now. People ask, “Why is there poverty in the world?” It’s a silly question. Poverty is the default human condition. It is the factory preset of this mortal coil. As individuals and as a species, we are born naked and penniless, bereft of skills or possessions. Likewise, in his civilizational infancy man was poor, in every sense. He lived in ignorance, filth, hunger, and pain, and he died very young, either by violence or disease. The interesting question isn’t “Why is there poverty?” It’s “Why is there wealth?” Or: “Why is there prosperity here but not there?” At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labo...

I finally got my copy from Amazon. It's been re-issued in paperback, and, what the heck, I had an expiring gift certificate, it was almost as though it was meant to be... The trouble is, I'm on page 58, and I see no way that I'll put it down until the end. I have inspectors coming tomorrow, to evaluate the program, and...I just don't know how I'll manage it. The other book is Outliers, and I have enough sense to postpone opening it until the weekend.

I found this link through the Volokh Conspiracy. The Moving Minutes contains scenes from film that support freedom, independence of thought, and the American Spirit.

Not apologize, you understand, for their ridiculous error, but hem, haw, and stutter in a futile effort to avoid saying: I was wrong. Does anyone remember the Fonz having that quirky trait? He was incapable of admitting imperfection (although NOT incapable of BEING imperfect). Imagine. Chris Buckley (son of the late, famous conservative, William Buckley), and the Davids - Brooks and Gergen - all of the Elite (with a capital E), are, at last, acknowledging the - uh, what do you call it - error of their ways. When they famously joined the Obama Bandwagon, stoutly insisting that "O" was merely a centrist, not a hard-leftist, they contributed to the collapse of the dim Republican hopes. MANY of the elite copied their flight from reality. It was simply TOO dreadful to contemplate the non-elite Palin family in the role of VP Photo Op. Peter Robinson, in Forbes, covers the uncovering of their awakening. "The strange thing," Buckley wrote last week after listening to Ob...

OMGolly, (I'm trying to cut out swearing for Lent, OK? ) you have to see this Day by Day cartoon . Warning: Don't be drinking coffee while viewing.

NOTE: I became aware of this situation via The Curt Jester's blog post. Kathleen Sebelius is a governor who has openly, publicly, and overwhelmingly supported - even promoted - abortion as a preferred "choice". She has been asked by her bishop NOT to present herself for Communion, due to her advocacy of abortion. The 25 "Catholics" who support her nomination are apparently also the ones who defied the US bishops group to support pro-abortion candidate Obama. That group is examined here: Catholics for the Common Good Sebellius has had a long-time relationship with George Tiller, an abortionist who performs late-term abortions, and who has been investigated in the death of one of those patients. From Wikipedia : the medical director of an abortion clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, which specializes in the provision of late-term procedures. His clinic practices have been a subject of criminal investigation: Christin Gilbert, a 19-year-old woma...