Archive for September, 2009
And They Call Me Crazy
Here’s a short post tonight while I work to finish up a project I’ve been working on for a week or two now.
Some people, including family members call me crazy because I happen to pay attention to all news outlets including FoxNews rather than bury my head in the sand and pretend reality doesn’t exist.
Well, welcome to reality.
I’m sure things are tough for some people. We all know that something needs to be done to catch those who fall through the cracks with our current health care system, but Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is must be completely out of his mind.
How can anyone compare health care in America with the Holocaust? How can anyone compare the standard of living in America to the horror experienced by millions of Jews sixty years ago? How can anyone compare their definition of poor health care with the death of six million people?
That’s sick. That’s really sick.
Maybe I should just go hang out with my crazy right wing conservative friends and watch FoxNews? Is any other news channel covering this story? I wouldn’t know, because as you know, I am just crazy.
Praise, Priorities, Possibilities, And Perversion
Thought #1
I happened across a video this afternoon that caught me off guard. After watching it, all I could think of was Exodus 20:3 which states, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
In the first half of the video it sure sounds like they are saying “Obama”, and if so, they have a real problem as Christians, don’t they?
“Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;” — Deuteronomy 11:16
Thought #2
I found another video today too. Well, I didn’t find it, it was sent to me on Facebook, but I’ll pass it on here, because you know, I’m cool like that.
Who knew Karl Marx was a stoner dude?
Thought #3
Last week, I found it amazing what the President has time for. He hasn’t found the time to pay attention to the ACORN news and he hasn’t commented on the Van Jones resignation, but he certainly had enough time to tell us all what a jackass Kanye West was.
This week isn’t much better as he prepares to jet off to Copenhagen to support Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics, while the commander of our forces in Afghanistan sits and waits to discuss the war with the President.
Bush spoke with his commanders at least once every week. Obama has now gone nearly two and a half months without a single meeting or conversation with General McChrystal.
It seems to me that President Obama need to work on priorities.
Thought #4
It’s no secret, the Democrats control it all right now. They control the White House, they control the U.S. House and they control the U.S. Senate. Twice, today alone, they failed to insert the public option into the health care legislation that’s taking shape in the Senate.
The two votes marked a victory for Montana Democrat Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, who is hoping to push his middle-of-the-road measure through the panel by week’s end. It also kept alive the possibility that at least one Republican may yet swing behind the overhaul, a key goal of both Baucus and the White House.
Democrats killed the public option in order to keep the possibility of a compromise alive. The five key words being, “Democrats killed the public option”. Don’t they know that throwing themselves on their own swords is not the path to victory?
Thought #5
Whoopi Goldberg is a moron. Earlier today, on The View, she said Roman Polanski “was not charged with ‘rape rape’”. Sorry Whoopi, you’re wrong, he was.
In 1977, Roman Polanski was charged with:
- rape by use of drugs
- perversion
- sodomy
- lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14
- furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor
He pled down to a lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor (aka statuatory rape) but he was charged with “rape rape”. What adult in their right mind would defend an admitted sexual offender claiming that forcing a 13 year old girl to have sex was not rape?
He pled guilty to the crime and then he fled the country to avoid sentencing. Nothing that has happened since 1977, whether it be the release of movies he made, nor statements made by the victim in the case that change the fact that he is an admitted sexual offender who has still not paid the penalty for his crime.
If Roman Polanski was a Roman Catholic priest, the public, including the self-righteous elite in Hollywood, would be calling for his extradition to the United States and that justice be served. Because this case involves Roman Polanski, the famous director, producer, writer, and actor, there seems to be a different set of legal standards that Hollywood thinks should apply.
Debra Winger says, “We hope today this latest (arrest) order will be dropped. It is based on a three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece.”
A case that is dead but for minor technicalities? Failure to appear is not a minor technicality. What an ass.
There is no statute of limitation for sex crimes you have already been convicted of committing. He pled guilty to the crime, and he should do the time. The time, by the way, would most likely have been probation, but he fled the country like a coward. He fled the country because he was scared that he might be sent to prison. He fled the country because he wasn’t man enough to stand up and be held accountable for what he had done.
More than 100 people in the film community have signed a petition demanding Roman Polanski’s release. Let’s look at a few of the people who condone the release of an admitted sex offender before he’s even served a day of time for his offense.
Woody Allen, the American film director, screenwriter, actor, comedian, writer, musician, and playwright who had a romantic relationship with the girl he raised as a daughter, but never adopted, from the age of 7. In 1997, he married that daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.
Monica Bellucci, the Italian actress and fashion model. She has appeared in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Passion of the Christ.
John Landis, the American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He directed films such as Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Coming To America, and the first segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were child actors who were killed in an accident involving an out of control helicopter during the filming of The Twilight Zone. Landis was reprimanded for circumventing California’s child labor laws in hiring those children.
David Lynch, the American filmmaker and visual artist. He has directed The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive. You may also remember his television series, Twin Peaks.
Michael Mann, the American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has directed L.A. Takedown, The Last Of The Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, and Ali.
and finally, one of the most significant and influential American filmmaker of his era,
Martin Scorcese, the American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He directed Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Aviator.
Let’s get one thing clear. Roman Polanski raped a child. Got it? Roman Polanski raped a child. There is no changing that fact, there is no debate. He pled guilty to a lesser charge, but the fact remains, Roman Polanski raped a child.
By signing that petition, Woody Allen, Monica Bellucci, John Landis, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Martin Scorcese and every person who signed it all admit publicly that they condone the rape of children. It’s clear that in showing their support for Roman Polanski, they feel that the Hollywood elite think they are exempt from the laws of our nation which are designed to protect those same children, including theirs.
Way to go Hollywood! You had a chance to stand up as a group and make a statement. Too bad that statement amounted to nothing more than support of a convicted pedophile.
More Indoctrination, More Broken Rules, And More Bad News
For the first time in weeks, we all slept in today. Okay, so we were up by 10, but around here, that’s like sleeping in.
It was a beautiful day today. The kids played in the backyard and tormented frogs for a while. Well, I know they were nice to the frogs and they just played with them, but I am pretty sure the frogs didn’t take such action kindly.
After the frogs had their fill of “boating in the pond”, I took the boys over to Tanner State Park, and we were surprised there were no remnants from the flooding last week. Well, okay, there were no visible remnants, except the COPPERHEAD snakes everywhere. We saw four of them, one of which was longer than I am tall, so we skiddaddled over to Sweetwater Creek State Park instead.
The water was muddy, but not too high. We heard a ranger stating that the water rose about 15 feet, which was hard to imagine since there were no lasting effects there either. The osprey weren’t feeding, leading us to believe they won’t eat fish that is (a) hidden in brown muddy water, or (b) hidden in brown muddy water that may have contaminants and bacteria in it. Then again, maybe they did feed and (b) is why we didn’t see them…
Thought #1
Check out this video.
Is this another case of indoctrination or what? Oh sure, they try to temper the last half of the video with the “we’re all together” meme, it’s the “yes we can” and the praising President Obama by name that has me concerned again.
Thought #2
Why do politicians insist on changing the rules when they are in power? Rather than have an honest debate with honest representation in Congress, Harry Reid has promised to basically shove the current health care bill down the throats of the American people.
Developing news on the health care front is that Harry Reid is going to use reconciliation in the Senate if he cannot get the sixty members necessary to block a filibuster. In other words, he is going to bend the rules to his favor so that a simple majority can bypass Senate rules.
This isn’t the first time a political party has changed the rules once they assumed “command”, and the Democrats are hardly alone in doing so. But that doesn’t make it right.
Thought #3
Unemployment among young Americans (age 16 to 24) has risen to 52.2%. No, that is not a typo. 52.2 percent of our young people cannot find work.
And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults — aged 16 to 24, excluding students — getting a job and moving out of their parents’ houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession — in which a total of 9.5 million jobs have been lost.
It’s clear that none of Obama’s plans are working. And before you start spouting off that it was the Republicans and their 8 years of control in Washington that caused this, remember one thing. Republicans DID NOT control Congress for the past eight years.
Sure, President Bush was in office and has his share of the blame to shoulder in this mess we are now facing, but the House and Senate were not under Republican control during that entire eight years. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and their cohorts on the Hill are as much to blame for all of this.
It’s time for Congress to wake up and get to work. The time for pointing fingers is over, unless of course you want to single out those responsible for the mortgage fiasco, then you can point to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Should we be working on a solution to fix these problems rather than finger pointing and shoving unwanted (expensive) legislation on the American people?
Now I am off tonight to read my new Photoshop User magazine and some more of the book I am reading. I may actually climb into bed before 3am. How awesome would that be?
PS: Yes, MR Ducks! MR Not Ducks! OSAR, CM Wings! YIB MR Ducks!
Unrefined Methods & Broken Promises
What a week this has been. Between the perfect storm that came in the form of 15 – 20 inches of rain and the perfect storm known as server mishaps, I am completely exhausted mentally and physically.
After sitting down and relaxing with a few games of chess and some trivia with the kids, I’m settled in enough to share some things I saw today.
Thought #1
It’s pretty clear that some parents don’t trust the new H1N1 vaccine.
In a poll of 1,678 U.S. parents conducted by the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, 40% said they would get their children immunized against the H1N1 virus — even as 54% indicated they would get their kids vaccinated against regular seasonal flu.
…
About half of the parents who said they’d pass on the H1N1 flu shot for their kids expressed concern about possible side effects of the vaccine.
I don’t trust it. Why would I? The last time the U.S. distributed a Swine Flu vaccine, more people died from the vaccine than died from swine flu itself.
More than 500 people are thought to have developed Guillain-Barre syndrome after receiving the vaccine and 25 died. No one completely understands what causes Guillain-Barre in certain people, but the condition can develop after a bout with infection or following surgery or vaccination. The federal government paid millions in damages to people who developed the condition or their families.
However, the pandemic, which some experts estimated at the time could infect 50 million to 60 million Americans, never unfolded. Only about 200 cases of swine flu and one death were ultimately reported in the U.S., the CDC said.
There might be good reason to be wary. The vaccine has been rushed to market using unrefined methods.
So how many people will suffer adverse effects from the vaccine this time around? Is it worth subjecting yourself, and your kids, to these increased risks?
Thought #2
Barack Obama isn’t going to be able to close Guantanamo Bay by January, like he promised he would. How many promises does this guy have to break before people wise up?
Thought #3
If you don’t buy health insurance under the proposed health care plan, you will be subject to a $1,900 fine. If you fail to pay that fine, you will be charged with a misdemeanor, face up to a year in jail, and an additional $25,000 fine. Yes, this means if you don’t buy health insurance the government can through you in jail.
Thought #4
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) isn’t happy with those measely fines. She wants to make sure that every successful person in America pays an additional tax to cover the health care needs of those who haven’t been quite as succesful.
The House Democratic plan calls for raising income taxes on upper-income people to pay for covering the uninsured. Baucus has instead proposed a tax on high-cost insurance plans worth more than $8,000 for an individual policy and $21,000 for family coverage.
Proponents of the insurance tax, which Obama has endorsed, say it would help to lower health care costs by encouraging people to become more cost-conscious health care consumers.
Isn’t it a given that President Obama has endorsed this additional tax? However that isn’t the funniest part of that article. This is.
If House Democrats adopt the insurance tax, it may help them to reduce the income tax increase that they’ve proposed.
If House Democrats adopt the insurance tax which raises taxes it may help them reduce the income tax increase they’ve proposed. Sorry, an increase is an increase no matter what you call it or where you apply it. The American people will still see tha same (additional) amount come out of their checks and they’ll still remember that it was the House Democrats that screwed them over.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.Barry Goldwater
The Dangers Of Bench Legislation
One of my biggest pet peeves is when judges attempt to legislate from the bench. Our system of government is set up with checks and balances for a reason, and some people feel that their “cause” is more important than following the normal course of events as our founding fathers defined them.
With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that some organizations are trying to persuade the Supreme Court to apply the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child as a matter of binding ‘customary international law’, even though the United States has not ratified the CRC.
Amnesty International believes that international law, rather than American law, should be used to make this decision. We have been warning people for some time that this theory could be used to force this treaty upon an unwilling American public. Americans want to retain family-based decision-making and American-made law. The UN Convention Rights of the Child would undermine both of these principles,” constitutional lawyer Michael Farris said.
If the Supreme Court rules that the international laws defined in the CRC are binding on the American people, a vast majority of family laws from virtually every state could be impacted and no longer applicable.
No international law should supersede an American law within the borders of our sovereign nation and our nation’s laws should originate in an American legislative body not from the hammering of a gavel from the bench.
You can read about these cases which could have a long-lasting impact on families across America, at parentalrights.org.
Caught, Taught, Burned, And Spurned
I heard that President Obama gave a speech at the U.N. today. I heard a lot of other stuff too. Today was another busy day, so tonight you get more thoughts. Oh stop, you know you like them.
Thought #1
ACORN has filed suit against the team that produced the undercover videos that exposed the level of corruption inside the organization.
The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings.
They fired the two employees seen on the video, and then use the fact that those two former employees have suffered from “extreme emotional distress” because of the ordeal.
Shouldn’t the employees have filed suit against ACORN for false termination or something? They were most likely doing the very thing they were trained to do in the first place.
Thought #2
Remember that video I asked about last night? You know, the one where the kids are being trained to praise the great and powerful O? Apparently it bears a striking similarity to a video produced to praise the leader of North Korea, Kim Jung Il.
And while we’re on the subject of schoolchildren, did you know some students were tested after being forced to view the President’s address to the Joint Session of Congress?
An isolated case or an example of the indoctrination taking place right now in our schools?
Thought #3
The United Nations held their yearly “lets compare the size of our…” forum again today.
Achmed I’mANutJob spoke at the gathering and delegates from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States walked out. My only question is, did President Obama encourage our U.N. ambassador to walk out or will he be forced to resign now?
If you missed the President’s address to the United Nations today, you really missed out on one of the most disgraceful speeches ever delivered by a U.S. President.
Frank says it best when he says,
The United Nations, mostly financed by us, is a pit of vipers striking daily at the principals for which the United States of America stands and now this “leader” apologizes. It is obvious that he places no value on the oath taken earlier this year and never intends to abide by it.
Thank you Frank.
Thought #4
Nancy Pelosi had decided she doesn’t need the support of Blue Dog Democrats in the debate over health care.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is planning to include in the bill a tax on wealthy Americans, as well as a more robust government-run health insurance plan (or “public option”), abandoning the compromises leaders in a key committee worked out with the moderate Blue Dog Democrats.
Mrs. Pelosi is going to need some more Botox injections if she keeps stretching her mouth so much from inserting her foot. She didn’t have the votes with their support, let alone by walking away from them.
Thought #5
Bad form, Sarah. Bad form. It’s one thing to criticize the sitting U.S. President on American soil, but it’s hardly something that should be done while standing in a foreign land.
Whether you agree with the current administration or not, you don’t set up your soapbox on foreign soil and bash the President of the United States, no matter how legitimate those criticisms are.
As a staunch supporter of yours, I am quite disappointed. Like I said, bad form, Sarah.
Thought #6
The IRS dumped ACORN today. Wow. How bad do you suck if the IRS wants nothing to do with you?
That’s it for tonight. I’m off to read a book on the Kindle for iPhone app. You won’t believe how much I’ve been reading since I got that iPhone.
Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.Calvin Coolidge
All We Need Now Are The Monkeys
The great and powerful O has spoken.
I just don’t get it. Why isn’t the mainstream media calling out the President, his administration, and his supporters for the garbage they are spewing on a daily basis?
First, it was the Van Jones debacle. Well, that wasn’t really a debacle, it was a well planned, carefully executed slap to the face of every American. Where was the media? From the moment evidence surfaced that he was nothing more than a radical communist who advocated a total revolution in America, the media should have been all over the story. As you know, they weren’t.
So where were they? Even after the scandal broke and all of the evidence (in his own words, via videos available online) was uncovered, how did mainstream media handle the story? They reported that he was a ’9/11 truther’ and that he called the Republicans a bad name. That’s it. No mention whatsoever of his radical beliefs, his desire for total anarchy in America, or the fact that all of the evidence against him came out of his own mouth.
Because of that whole mess with Van Jones, or the lack thereof on their part, it didn’t really surprise me when the mainstream media missed the boat on the ACORN sting videos either.
On September 10th the first ACORN video surfaced. ACORN employees in the Baltimore office were caught on video talking with the undercover couple about smuggling young girls into the country for the purpose of prostitution. They even helped the couple learn how to evade paying taxes.
Many people may have thought this video was a one time deal, and in light of that fact, maybe, just maybe, it could have slipped under the radar of the mainstream media. But what about the second video from Washington, D.C? Or the third from New York City?
By now even the most cynical person can see the pattern of corruption at ACORN. Apparently it wasn’t enough for the mainstream media, however, which still wasn’t convinced there was a problem that needed reporting.
I thought for sure, the fourth video from San Bernadino, California would have been “the one” because it dealt with Child Prostitution as well as a “self-defense killing”. Surely these topics would garner the interest of the mainstream media honchos, but on September 15th, Charlie Gibson, the anchor the ABC World News Tonight said he hadn’t even heard of the ACORN scandal.
On September 16th, after the Census Bureau had already terminated their agreement with ACORN and the U.S. Senate had voted to defund them, their chief executive, Bertha Lewis, announced that they were suspending operations and were no longer going to advise new clients until an independent review was completed.
Since that announcement (which also drew very little attention from anyone in the mainstream media), the fifth video from San Diego was released and the U.S. House voted to cut all funds to ACORN.
So where was the mainstream media? Why are they still failing to report it today? Oh sure, some of them have mentioned the scandal, a couple have even discussed the videos. Of course, when doing so you hear words like ‘entrapment’ and other phrases that place the blame for the whole mess on the two people who went undercover to expose the corruption in the first place.
Isn’t that what reporters used to do? Isn’t this the kind of thing the mainstream media is supposed to do? The President announced this weekend that he won’t commit to cutting federal funds from ACORN, and no one is calling him on this either!
What else is the mainstream media going to try to ignore? How bad do things have to get, and how much information has to be released before the mainstream media stops what they are doing to look at what’s really going on?
Maybe they’ll ignore the fact that the White House is using the National Endowment for the Arts to fund political propaganda? Maybe they’ll turn a blind eye to the fact that President Obama has done a 180 on his position and is ready to extend three crucial provisions of the Patriot Act?
There used to be a time when politicians would speak up and expose those who were acting in a manner that was detrimental to our country. There used to be a time when they were willing to do the right thing by exposing the corruption among them and we could trust that those we sent to Washington would actually work to make our country a better place.
There used to be a time when the mainstream media questioned those in our government and kept them on their toes. But these days, however, with the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on the Hill, sending politicians to Washington gets us nowhere and asking someone in the mainstream media to do their job is less successful than sending a flock of flying monkeys out to grab a little girl and her dog.
PS: My apologies to the departed Margaret Hamilton for defacing her image in such a way, but I had a point to get across.