Obama; The Incredible Shrinking Man

                                                       

Obama and his Democratic minions love thinking small.  While Ronald Reagan baked us a huge economic pie and created some 23 million jobs, the Obama/Reid/Pelosi regime want to crush business, then fight over a piece of the much smaller pie.  Each time the labor force shrinks by another million workers, as millions of folks have given up looking for jobs, Obama trots out to the Rose Garden and boasts of a lower unemployment rate.  To show you how far we've declined, Gallup surveys in the 1960's (before Johnson's Great Society giveaways) showed over 90 percent of American males participating in the labor force. Today that number is 58 percent, the lowest since the Great Depression.

Then last week we learned that Obama's Executive order to raise the minimum wage will costs the nation well over 500,000 jobs...and Obama decreed "that's good".  And when the Congressional Budget Office projected over 2 million Americans will lose their jobs under Obamacare, Obama and Pelosi and Reid all sang in unison "good!...that means more folks staying home and tucking in their kids.  Of course none of the three explained how those unemployed are going to have a home to stay in..or even how they'll be able to afford the kid's bed...but "thinking small" is the new liberal battle cry.

Oh, and when Obama appointed military hating Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense he got just what he wanted; a man who will destroy the American military.  Just this week Hagel and Obama announced that they will cut the military down to its smallest size since the pre-World War II era...yeah..that era when recruits drilled with wooden rifles.  The military, already so small we can no longer fight a major war, is getting smaller.  Of course, Obama and Hagel didn't explain how we'll deal with our many foreign enemies, or how we'll counter China's huge military build out, but then.."small is good". 

And if you think Obama's love for small economic policy and small military strategies is good, you ought to take a look at his small energy policy.  The dude loves solar...loves it so much he's given billions away to bankrupt solar companies!  Well we like solar too..but it only meets two percent of our energy needs!  (SMALL).  If we want to eat, warm and cool our homes, and get to work, we still need that 98% of coal and fossil fuels that fill the bill!  But Obama's got his EPA closing down coal mines left and right, shuttering utilities that run on fossil fuels and getting ready to implement an executive order that will impose massive fines on coal mines, utility companies and factories using fossil fuels! Obama wants "small"....a small economy that will generate just enough fossil fuels to fly him to Martha's Vineyard and Hawaii and to his never-ending campaign stops.  Small.

It seems the only "big" thing liberals love are big budgets and big deficits.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

ECON 101 For Obama

                                                 
President Obama graduated from Harvard Law School.  He's surely an expert on Government Law.  How else could he have managed to circumvent the Constitution by using Executive Privelege to cover his mistakes, appoint 40 plus "Czars" to by pass Congress and issue "edicts" on laws he will impose and those he opts not to enforce.

However, I'm pretty sure Harvard Business School has eliminated Economics as prerequisites for a law degree.  That's the only explanation I can find for Obama's bizarre economic policies.

I'm more than willing to pull my Paul Samuelson Econ 101 textbook down from the shelf and help the Big O out a little here.  To make the lesson more palatable, I'll present a couple of lessons in mode of "Case Study" as Obama was accustomed to at Harvard.

Dividends and Capital Gains vs U.S. Government:

Fred and Ethyl are a retired couple.  Fred was a foreman in a steel mill and Ethyl is a retired school teacher.  During their respective careers Fred and Ethyl worked hard at their jobs, lived frugally, paid their state and federal taxes and still managed to build a nest egg.  

As Fred and Ethyl built their nest egg they put investment money into stocks and mutual funds.  Fred and Ethyl, unlike a state and government employee, must look after their retirement themselves.  Thus, Fred and Ethyl put their money "at risk".  They hope to see their nest egg grow in this risk environment.  Until President Obama came along the federal government recognized that putting money "at risk" deserves a tax break; a lower tax rate than salary because salary is not an "at risk" proposition.  This "tax break" has proven to be beneficial to both the "saver" as well as the government since this "at risk" money is used to fund business start-ups and business expansion as well as contributing to the creation of millions of jobs.  When President Reagan lowered the tax on capital gains and dividends the government benefited by the government getting double the amount of revenue because the economy expanded.

Fred and Ethyl have now read that President Obama wants to raise taxes on their nest egg (a nest egg accrued after state and federal taxes have already been paid in full).  Fred and Ethyl sit down over coffee and say "why should we put our nest egg at risk if we are going to be paying higher taxes, taxes that are much closer to the Joe who's paying "ordinary income" rates with none of his money "at risk".  

Fred and Ethyl pull their money from stocks and bonds and begin buying treasury bills because they no longer feel their "risk" is worth the cost.  Business growth slows to a standstill because they no longer have Fred and Ethyl's money to finance their business expansion.  No new revenue is raised and no new employees are hired.

Fred and Ethyl, no longer confident that their nest egg will grow, have decided they will cut back on their personal spending.    All the millions of Fred and Ethyls pull back from investing and pull back on spending and the American economy sinks like a stone.

The government then has to spend more for welfare and unemployment and food stamps, all the while receiving less revenue because Fred and Ethyl just told Obama to go to hell....which is where our economy has been going.

Sad, damned sad.

Note to Readers:  If you believe this blog serves a purpose, if you believe it lends a bit of rational sanity to some of the national insanity, I urge you to sign up as a follower and subscribe to it by email, in the "subscribe to" box on this page.  If I do not see an increase in interested subscribers I will end this blog sometime in the coming months.  Thanks.

Tyrants Wear Many Faces

                                                             

If there was ever a wiser and more intelligent man than Thomas Jefferson, I'd like to meet him.  Jefferson, after throwing royalist federalists out of office, and assuming the Presidency, had a big job trying to restore personal liberties and restoring political decisions to the people.  One of his most difficult tasks was removing hundreds of corrupt government officials who had been appointed by John Adams in return for political loyalty or personal favor.  

Adams tried to maintain his party's political power by packing the federal courts with party loyalists, regardless of their qualifications.  In packing the courts in this manner, Adams saw a way to perpetuate the policies of his political party.  

So when Jefferson assumed the Presidency he fired corrupt postal officials, inefficient bureaucrats and sought to unwind all those Adams loyalist judges.  The Federalists filed suit and in Marbury vs Madison the Supreme Court ultimately squashed Jefferson's efforts to "unpack" the courts.  Not only did that landmark decision change the character of the so called "three equal pillars of government", it became America's first indication that the courts may hold too much power in a Republic.  

Jefferson was greatly alarmed by Marbury vs Madison and warned repeatedly that the tyranny of the Supreme Court would one day upend the very nature of a democratic republic.

This past week we witnessed just how bad that tyranny can be.  Obama continues his assault on the Republic with his executive orders and political czars and the courts have reversed legislation passed at the will of the people in the various states.  Just as the ultra liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the popular vote of Californians to ban driver's license for illegals and same sex marriage, the judicial tyrants struck down Utah's law defining marriage as that between a man and a woman.  

The liberal courts have also been busy overturning voter I.D. laws, imposed curbs established to stop illegal immigration and, also this week, we learned that the courts are ruling in favor of illegal Mexican invaders in the immigration courts, essentially issuing a blank check for border crossers  to invade, evade the law long enough to decry the breaking up of families..and win amnesty by judicial decree!

The week culminated in a federal court decision yesterday that forced the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic institution, to provide free abortion and birth control as part of their health care plans.

Of course the "big fail" was last year when the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government can force you to buy a product or service that you don't want.  Thus, we have now have the Obamacare fiasco, with its punishing high premiums and fines, and inefficient bureaucracy.  

So I guess it doesn't matter who we send to Congress.  Nor does it seem to matter when we pass state wide propositions by wide margins.  Our masters are now the arrogant Emperor Obama and the liberals sitting on the various federal courts that have infested our country.  Tyrants indeed wear many faces.

Honest History

                                                           

If any of you have more than just a passing interest in history, if you want to ever reach a true understanding of our national evolvement in the last fifty years or so, I don't mind saying that the two finest books to achieve that understanding are written by two liberals.

Theodore White, a Pulitzer Prize winner, covers our history from 1956 to 1980 in a book entitled America In Search of Itself..The Making of The President 1956-1980.  He writes about the rise in activism of the Supreme Court as well as the massively intrusive role that the federal courts had in shaping social policy.   He chronicles the hopes of the Kennedy years, then delves into the Johnson years, the evolution of the Great Society programs, with its effects on everything from business and finance to the government's role in the dissolution of the American family.  He lays out the associated ills that the first of those massive government deficits had on the American way of life, the effect that the Vietnam War had in the breakdown of the American social fabric, and, finally, he describes our descent into debtor nation status as the '73 oil embargo and our abandonment of the gold standard sounded the death knell for the pristine American dollar.

White concludes this book by describing the culminations of these historical ills during the Carter years and why Jimmy Carter was not the man we needed in the White House in those crucial years.

It is ironic that, while White champions many of the social programs that evolved over those years, he finds himself longing for the relative peace and simplicity of the Eisenhower years.  He's fair to his liberal following while freely admitting that big government's efforts to solve our social problems probably did as much damage as they served the good.

What I like about Teddy White's book is that he doesn't write like a Harvard history professor.  Instead, he's the wise Uncle sitting back in the rocking chair and explaining in simple and specific terms how we got where we are.  He overlooks nothing in this 400 page book and after reading it you'll come away with a real understanding of the history of two tumultuous decades of our history.



I've probably read a hundred books on 20th century history….this one is by far the best.

                                                             

The second book is "The Fifties" by David Halberstam.  Try to imagine that you have another  favorite Uncle who just happened to be a retired history professor.  And imagine when he comes around he sits in a favored rocking chair, sips a bit of sassafras tea, and begins telling you fascinating stories.  That's David Halberstam.  In "The Fifties" Halbertstam tells you every thing that happened in that decade, and how those events would go on to shape the 60's.  He covers the McCarthy hearings, the development of the Hydrogen bomb, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and Joe DiMaggio and early TV, Detroit autos, TV commercials, Sputnik and Marlon Brando and Eisenhower and Nixon and Kennedy and the Mafia.  He tells you about the popular books of the decade and the space race and the U2 shoot down and Kruschev and his shoe and a thousand other things, social, political, historic that happened in the 50's.  It's a big book, not to be taken lightly, not to be read through in one sitting....instead it's that dear old Uncle professor telling you stories in a most pleasant way.  I can think of no better way to learn history and I'm sure you would love this insightful book of America at mid-century.

Good reading!

Criticize Obama At Your Own Peril!

                                                               

In 1798, during the term of the 5th U.S. Congress, John Adams and the Federalists who controlled Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Act.  Adams had bought into Alexander Hamilton's philosophy that the "all seeing, all knowing" Federal government knew best...and everyone else was just wrong.  The Federalist were seeking such control over American citizens lives, seeking the kind of royal power that the mother country's King George had wielded over his own people.

Adams and the Federalists were particularly bothered by all the citizen criticism they were receiving for a series of bad foreign policy and domestic economic decisions made by the Federalist party, in particular, John Adams.

So they came up with the Alien and Sedition Act which promised to punish both recent legal immigrants as well as American citizens themselves.  And so the Federalist legislation called for deporting any legal immigrant with less than fourteen years of American residence for any remarks they expressed in opposition to Federalist law....or for any political expression that might hold the Congress, or the President in contempt.  And American citizens who dared to criticize the government were subject to two years in prison and a monetary fine that would have bankrupted the average citizen.  And, indeed, a significant number of citizens were rounded up and thrown in prison for daring to oppose "big government".

Fortunately Thomas Jefferson was alive and fighting against these all-controlling tyrants.  Jefferson, always fearful of the growth of government power, mounted fierce opposition to this maniacal power grab.  The acts proved so unpopular that the Federalists lost thousands of party members who fled to Jefferson's Republican party.    American anger was such that Jefferson and his Republicans were swept into office in the election of 1800 and Jefferson and the Congress promptly ended the Alien and Sedition Act and restored the individual freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights.

Sadly, Barack Hussein Obama, just two generations removed from a Kenyan heritage, has chosen to, by executive order, implement many of the deplorable aspects of the Alien and Sedition Act.  So massive is his ego that he cannot stand to have his decisions questioned, either by the Judiciary, the Congress, or the American people.  At every opportunity he has chosen to chastise the Supreme Court, and totally ignore the will of Congress.  Aided and abetted by a Democratic Party that revels in legislating both political and social desires, Americans are once again under the thumb of an oppressive big government.

However, the threat to today's Americans is far greater than when Thomas Jefferson walked the earth.  Obama has used the NSA to ferret out his critics.  Whether they be the Tea Party, whom he and his VP label as terrorists, or senior citizens who protested the federal heist of Medicare funds, whom he called "nut jobs", or simply the average joe who dares to slam Obama on a message board, Obama's got your number...and your address, and your phone number.  

Obama and his racist Attorney General have used that information to squash you.  Whether he uses federal agents or the power of the IRS, you are under Obama's destructive thumb.  And aided and abetted by a print and television media that refuses to tell the truth, Obama and his cohorts are making rapid progress toward achieving the Socialists States of America.  And those members of the media who don't go along with his program soon found their phones bugged and their email messages  pirated, as with the Associated Press incident last year.

Sadly, we no longer have a Thomas Jefferson to fight our battles.  And, tragically, we no longer have an American electorate still instilled with a quest for liberty, as those first Americans were two hundred years ago.  So it looks like a displaced Kenyan will be our downfall...an egoist man-child shall be your ruler...so all of you may as well get used to "who's your daddy" cause your liberties are rapidly circling the commode.

My blog traffic stats clearly shows I've got some federales monitoring what I write here so what ever goose I have is already cooked.   But I suspect that many of you who have ever dared to criticize Obama have had your names captured for some time in the near future when big government deems  that we can only be rehabilitated with a little time in prison.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

My Two Dogs Are Liberals

                                                     
I own two Chihuahuas.  Or should I say they own me.  The tragedy here is that they have both proven to be liberals.

I see it every day.  If I'm having a meal they ignore their dish and covet mine.  If I give each of them one of those little rawhide chews they will fight like devils to get the one the other one is chewing on.  It does not matter the size of the chew, it's the "other one" that they desire.

The same is true for spare rib bones.  It is their very favorite, yet as they greedily suck the marrow out of their own personal bone they are constantly eyeing the bone the other one has.  They play desperate games with each other, where they will try to distract the other dog by going to the window and barking at an imaginary bird, or home intruder, just to get the other one to "bite" by deserting their bone  for a moment, just long enough for the other one to snatch the favored bone away.

When I give one of them affection, the other one will immediately leap in my lap and jam their head in front for the coveted pat on the head or stroke behind the ears.  I have had to perform "two handed petting" hundreds of times so that both of them are given equal due; failing to do so will result in hurt feelings.

Having been born and bred from an Hispanic culture, I suspect my Chihuahuas are likewise benignly in favor of Open Borders, or Amnesty or even ID theft.

My Chi's do not like making any kind of effort on their own.  They refuse to do tricks; if I ask them to sit, or roll over, or stay, they look at me as if I'm insane to expect anything from them.  They believe that anything I give them is their "due" for some past transgression I may have been guilty of in some past era.

Thank god the little bitches can't vote.

If You Wait Too Long, The Stories Will Be Gone

When my great grandfather died a butterfly flew through the open window and alighted on his chest.  His loved ones watched through their tears, sensing that the beautiful  butterfly was transporting his soul to heaven.

My mother related that story to me, as she related so many other stories of the family.  I have been fortunate in that I've always loved hearing the old stories of family.  I grilled my Granny and my Aunt Icie, my Uncle Floyd and, most frequently, my mother.

I find it remarkable that most folks today are more captivated by the superficiality of daily life and have little interest in the stories of those who came before them.  After all, we can argue all day about whether "environment or heredity" are dominant in our formation and development but even the 'behaviorists acknowledge that heredity is at least fifty percent of our makeup.  It should follow then that folks would have a keen interest in family history.  Alas, that does not seem to be the case for most.

I have been trying, through this blog, to leave something of the family stories for those who might become more interested in family long after I am gone.  Despite my frequent postings I cannot begin to even cover the surface of all that I have learned.  Even my children show little interest in this pursuit.  Though I have voluntarily recounted some of the family stories that I find interesting I can't recall a time when I was prompted to do so by my children.

I'm sad for them.  There will come a time when they will want to hear the family stories and I will no longer be here to relate them.  Yes, of course, they can go to Ancestry.Com and retrieve the dates and places of birth, marriage and death.  But who will tell them what a typical day was like for a share-cropping family in depression era Oklahoma?  Who will tell them about the little brick schoolhouse that their grand or great grandmother attended?  Who will explain to them what life was like under a "barter" economy when currency was an extremely rare commodity?  Who will tell them that the 'infant croup' that their little child displays is an inherited weakness in the gene pool?  Who will explain why part of the Friend family fought for the South in the Civil War, while others fought for the Union cause?  Who will explain how their great grandfather came to be named John Archibald Marmaduke Friend?

It is remarkable that the last night I spent with my Uncle Floyd was spent in talking about the family of his youth.  I delighted in hearing of the family dragging the mattresses from the house to the wagon for a weekend fishing and camping excursion down by the lake.  I laughed with gusto as he told me stories of the youthful lust and love life of both he and my mother!  When we finally retreated to our sleep on that last night of family talk my heart was lighter and full of love for my family.

Yet, even with my extreme curiosity about family tales there was so much more I would now like to ask.  Were Uncle Floyd alive today I would ask how he felt when he left the farm to fight in a frightful world war.  I would ask what he felt as this modest farm boy, having never travelled anywhere, as he boarded a troop transport to Europe.  I would ask him why he would stop and listen when a popular song of the 50's ("Fraulein, Fraulein") began to play.  I would ask him why he was so eager to name my sister Rena Marcella after a French girl.....and what that might have meant to him.

Now, when there are so many stories left untold, I am grateful that I had such intense curiosity for the "old stories".  I can recall badgering my Granny for more and more stories until she became agitated.  I can be thankful that I engineered long family re-tellings between my Aunt Icie and my mother.  I can be thankful that my Uncle Floyd left me a wealth of stories on our last night together.

But I am sad that, now that they are all gone, I am left "wandering in the desert", thirsting for more more stories, more exhibitions of love, of sacrifice, of worries on an ancient day.

I feel grateful for the legacy of family stories that I do have...but sad for those who never stopped, put down the mouse, the I-Phone, the magazine or the TV remote, long enough to pause and ask about all and who that came before.

Ronald Reagan; Tough Hombre

                                                                   

I would guess that most Americans under the age of fifty only know Ronald Reagan by reputation.  They may have heard from seniors of the wildly prosperous Reagan years, or perhaps have read in a fair and balanced history book of Reagan's winning the cold war against the Soviets.  But, I wonder how many know just how much trepidation there was about Reagan's age.

Ronald Reagan was 70 years old when he assumed the Presidency.  We all knew that..and many were fearful that the rigors of the job were simply too much for a man of his age.  After all, Eisenhower had his first heart attack only two years into his Presidency, and Lyndon Johnson croaked from heart disease very shortly after leaving the White House.  So there was legitimate concern that Reagan would be too old to carry out the exhausting duties of the Presidency.

Fortunately, for America, the vote that year was "anyone but Jimmy Carter" and Reagan won the White House.  And our fears began to ease when we saw Ronald Reagan stringing fence wire, or riding horses and chopping firewood all day at his ranch out in California during those Presidential retreats.

We saw his resiliency again when Reagan took a bullet scan millimeters from his heart, then refused a hospital gurney and walked his way to surgery.  Before he was put under he raised his head, looked up at the doctors and said "I hope at least some of you are Republicans."  

Barack Obama is a much younger man...he gets his exercise on golf clubs around the country and shooting hoops with pro basketball players.  I'll leave it up to you to decide what's more strenuous, cutting a cord of firewood with an axe...or playing golf with Tiger Woods.

But Ronald Reagan was tough enough to drink with Democratic House speaker Tip O'Neil, and not feel intimidated by the rough give and take of political compromise.  And Reagan was tough enough to tell Soviet Premier Gorbachov to tear down the damn wall and he was tough enough to forego the morning political polling and stick proudly to his principles, popular or not, vote winning or not.  

And when Ronald Reagan came up for re-election he won 49 of the 50 states in a landslide election, proof that one can win by living up to his principles.   And no one gave a damn that he was 74 years old.

One tough hombre!  And boy could we use him now.

Hillary Clinton; The Power Behind The Throne

                                                             

It has been reported loud and often that the relationship between Hillary and Bill Clinton is no more than a political partnership; that there is so little warmth between Bill and Hillary that they couldn't melt a vanilla ice cream cone in the middle of a Little Rock summer.   Instead, it has always been a corporate partnership with Bill as CEO and Hillary as Chairman of the Board, the behind the scenes power that calls the shots.   Apparently, Hillary wrestled control at about the same time as Bill's foray into "bimbo chasing".

Hillary saw no reason to "fire the CEO" even after Paula and Jennifer Flowers, or even after Bill's rape of a campaign aide in a Little Rock hotel room.  And she was only upset about the Monica Lewinsky affair because it put a damper on her future political ambitions.  Even as recently as 2008, when Bill was caught with one of his bimbos in his hotel room during Hillary's North Carolina Presidential campaign, Hillary was only concerned about the impact it would have on her chances for the Presidency.

Well, this past week we learned that all of the suppositions about Hillary were indeed true!  The unfortunate revelations in the form of a personal journal by Hillary's best friend, Diane Blair.  Blair meticulously documents Hillary's thought processes as expressed through her email and letters over the years.  The journals were unearthed following the death of Mrs. Blair and certainly paint the true portrait of a Hillary Clinton, cold, hard, political machine.  

For example, Hillary's letters frequently alluded to Bill's near compulsive philandering, for which Hillary, rather than being hurt personally, saw Bill's "bimboism" as the cost of doing business; something to be written off as the necessary expense of a political business.  Most telling was Hillary's remarks about Monica Lewinsky; rather than giving any consideration for Monica's youth, or Bill's prolific philandering past, she blames the whole affair on a conniving and ambitious "bimbo".  

Did Bill stray so often because Hillary is just a cold fish?  Did she fail to warm Slick Willie's bed?  We may never know the answer to that, though the Blair journals certainly portray her in that light.  Perhaps we would be able to distinguish Hillary's capacity for love or lust had Vince Foster, who  allegedly killed himself after Hillary ended their illicit affair as soon as she entered the White House, had lived to write a book.  The answer to that died in the last thought of Foster as he blew his brains out in a nearby Washington park.

Though I am hoping against hope that Hillary does not win the White House in 2016, it might prove just how much, or how little warmth she feels about Slick Willie Clinton.  Will Hillary finally fire the "CEO" of that political partnership and assume both the CEO and Chairman of the Board roles as President?  

Or perhaps Hillary will throw Willie a bone and appoint him as the Presidential Advisor to the National Organization for Women (NOW)...that would put Slick Willie out to pasture with a whole corral of potential bimbos.

We shall see.  Meantime, you might want to invest in the company that makes WD-40 as the Hillary political machine begins gearing up for the ultimate power run in 2016.

Arizona Charter Schools Crushing The Teacher Unions

                                                           

Good morning, dear reader,

If your community is suffering from sub-par K-12 education you ought to look seriously at what some states are doing with the charter school programs.  Arizona has gone all out in this state's challenging the teacher's unions and bloated public school administrators who, for too long, have produced high school graduates that can't read or write even at the sixth grade level.

Arizona has opened the door wide and allowed parents to vote with their feet, migrating their kids to charter schools and abandoning federal education mandates that lead to failure after failure.  

By every measure Charter Schools are winning the education war, leaving many public schools educational ghost towns, many of which have been forced to close due to declining enrollment.  

Charter schools are demanding performance from their students and a full commitment from parents; making sure their kids attend and making sure the kids do their homework.  Ironically, Charter schools are simply doing what the public schools did back in the fifties; insisting on a partnership between school and parent to educate the kids.

The state is beginning to finally make headway as the statehouse has provided legislation giving educational institutions the leeway to find what works and stay with it.  Arizona citizens are given tax credits for their expenditure on Charter Schools and every Arizona tax return has a block the taxpayer can check off to divert part of his/her taxes to support these Charter Schools.  This has infuriated the liberals in Washington and the teachers unions.  How dare parents and taxpayers demand quality results when mediocrity was perfectly acceptable a few years ago!

Just this morning the news lines are hot because Arizona's Secretary of Education initiated state wide robo calls informing state residents of their charter school options and providing information on how they can enroll their kids for free in charter schools throughout the state.  The teachers unions are really irate and accusing state education officials with playing "favorites".  Not a word was mentioned of the public school system's abject failures in educating the state's children.  

Score one for "the good guys".

Breaking News!

                                                           

Good morning, dear reader

For those of you who missed the over night news, here's all the news that really matters.

(Dateline Hollywood)  Richard Simmons held a press conference in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood to announce that he is indeed heterosexual.  As audience members gasped, Simmons explained that he could no longer live the lie that he was homosexual.  He said his wearing short shorts and the mincing walk  and the feminine lisping were just mannerisms he employed to appear gay and draw an audience.  Simmons said he was tired of living a lie that was detrimental to his good mental health as well as his loving relationships with members of the opposite sex.  

In other Hollywood news TMZ is reporting that over 2,000 Hollywood stars are petitioning Grauman's for a "re-do" of their famous shoe prints in cement displayed in the sidewalks of that Hollywood landmark; the women asking to wear their "Doc Martins" and the men opting for a nice pair of Ralph Lauren spiked heels.

(Dateline Washington)  Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi held a joint news conference this morning to condemn the U.S. House of Representatives for that body's failure to pass a bill that would grant citizenship to 30 million invading Mexicans.  Both Schumer and Pelsoi branded Republicans as racist rednecks for failing to grant citizenship to law abiding, upstanding, melting pot loving, English language speaking Mexican citizens.

(Dateline Fredrick, Maryland)  The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that, beginning July 4h, 2015 they will implement a ban on hamburgers and fries.  The FDA cited the environmental hazards associated with cattle methane escaping into the atmosphere and the potato profits in Idaho going toward financing of several anti-government militia groups thriving in that state.

(Dateline Sacramento, California)  The 40 year dominance of a Democratic controlled California statehouse continues....today state lawmakers passed a law that bans all White people from becoming permanent residents of that state.  The new law specifies that, unless a resident has at least 50% Mexican blood lines, they will be deported to a state willing to accept them.  The law, which goes into effect on 1 January 2020,  also grants dual citizenship to both the United States and Mexico of all Mexican state residents who came to the state since the first U.S. amnesty was granted in 1986.  

(Dateline Washington D.C.)  President Barack Hussein Obama signed an executive order that expels the state of Arizona from the union effective 1 January, 2015.  Obama cited the explosive growth of anti-government militia and the rise of the Arizona Praetorian Guard as reasons for the expulsion.  The President commented that Arizona is nothing more than an "outlaw state" that occupies far too much of his Attorney General's time in federal court suits.  Arizona will return to territory status until the citizens of that state embrace the legalization of marijuana, accept interstate same sex marriage laws, accept illegal immigration and commit to deficit spending to satisfy federal welfare statutes.

(Dateline Washington D.C.)  President Barack Hussein Obama, in his second executive order of the week, has declared the city of Detroit, Michigan a "disaster area"....this will qualify that city for billions in interest free federal loans and outright grants in order to bring  the city of Detroit back to her former glory.   Obama has ordered automakers, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda to relocate from southern cities to Detroit and immediately sign labor agreements with the United Auto Workers, then occupy more than ten million square feet of manufacturing space left empty when American automakers deserted those sites in the 1980's.  Any manufacturer failing to comply with this executive order shall be banned from manufacturing automobiles anywhere within the 49 states.

(Dateline Middlesborough, Kentucky) In the wake of the tragic death of their minister, who died last week from a rattlesnake bite used as part of his sermon, the Full Tabernacle Church has decided to stop using rattle snakes and, henceforth, employ only harmless garden snakes to demonstrate their faith and lack of fear.

(Dateline New York)  New York city mayor Bill de Blasio declared an outright ban on snow in the five burroughs of New York effective October, 2014.    That ban also includes sno-cone vendors as well as 7-11 Icies.  de Blasio commented that the excessive snow fall in the winter of 2013-2014 has pre-empted school for over a million children and has hampered the unionized teachers from teaching NYC kids the value of a liberal education.

On a lighter note, Ms Edna Mayberry, age 87, became the first senior to be denied medical approval for open heart surgery by the President's Obamacare death panel.  Instead she was referred to hospice care for her remaining days.  In retaliation, Ms Mayberry has began auctioning off her free Obamacare provided birth control pills and a voucher for a free abortion on E-Bay.  So far, bids have already reached nearly half the sum needed to self-finance her heart surgery.  She says if she fails to get the needed sums, she plans to move to Colorado and begin selling pot laced brownies to raise the rest.

Good night and good luck.

Obama's Job Killing Executive Order

                                                         

If you've been keeping up with Obama's attention grabbing executive order to raise the minimum wage you know that only 4% of all jobs are paid at minimum wage.  You should also know that every economic study done over the past 70 years shows that raising the minimum wage more than a few percent always results in fewer minimum jobs available.

As we've mentioned here before, minimum wage jobs are meant for young folks; it has always been intended for kids without works skills.  No rocket science required here…..it simply teaches a kid how to show up for work on time, work as a team, and learn a few basic skills.

However, with the decline in education, American schools are turning out illiterates not qualified to work at anything except minimum wage.  Now the Obama/Reid/Pelosi regime are insisting that these jobs be paid a "living wage".  Good lord!  These jobs were meant for teenagers so that they could buy school clothes, see a movie, or buy a CD occasionally.  They were never meant to be "living wage" positions.

Obama, being the head socialist, has upped the ante.  He has now ordered all mentally challenged to receive the higher minimum wage as well as all employees who support a government contract.

And here's what happens every time liberals boost the minimum wage more than ten percent or so:

There's a mentally challenged kid who works at a small burger joint in my neighborhood.  It's not a national chain.  It is owned and operated by a senior citizen who invested part of his retirement money in a place that would give him something to do each day.  He knows all his coffee regulars; those who aren't enamored with Starbucks, who prefer Farmer Brothers coffee and a little conversation to $7 dollar lattes.  The wife bakes a meatloaf for the "blue plate special", or another day will offer spaghetti and garlic bread for $5 bucks.  This little greasy spoon hired a mentally challenged kid whose mother brings him to work daily.  The kid gets a free hamburg and all the soda he can drink for wiping tables and swinging a mop every couple of hours.  The old man has to come in behind the kid and wipe the tables clean cause the kid keeps forgetting to rinse his cleaning rag.  For this, the kid gets $7.50 an hour.

But Obama gets his way the kid will be unemployed.  The old man just can't afford the extra hundred bucks a month for a job he's offering out of kindness.  

The same is true for hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the land.  Raising the minimum wage from $7.50 to $10 bucks an hour for a teen worker, or an illiterate adult, adds $500 bucks a month, per employee, and that's something that the "non-MacDonald's" can't afford.  So, the small business guy will make do with less; he'll hire fewer workers and work a little harder himself, just to stay in business.

And, as to those small businesses that have federal contracts?  These aren't Boeing and Raytheon, folks!  These are small cleaning businesses that come in and clean government and military offices, who wash windows, who provide farm grown vegetables to the chow hall or commissary.  These little businesses, unlike Boeing, who sells the Air Force a $100 million dollar fighter jet, can't absorb the costs of paying employees $10.10 an hour and still make a profit!

So all Obama will achieve with his spanking new executive order will be to award contracts to the big chains, the Roto Rooter, the national cleaning companies, the big facility maintenance firms…and all those little business guys will be out of business.  

And so millions of teens, and thousands of those "special education" kids will not have a chance in hell to getting one of those minimum wage jobs.  And, as usual, the liberals will have totally failed in getting the results they wanted…simply because liberal brains are wired for insanity.

Sad. Damned sad.

Black & Hispanic Prejudice On The Rise?

                                                 
This weekend the Associated Press posted a news item about a national survey indicating Americans are more prejudiced toward Blacks and Hispanics than they were four years ago when Obama took office.  Surveyors were amazed that the election of a Black President had failed to bridge the gap between caucasians and Blacks and Hispanics.

The surveyors, in an effort to find answers, turned to social scientists and academic elites.  Both of these so called experts attributed the increase in prejudice to Americans just being "slow learners".  Not one of these "elite" experts were willing to consider that, perhaps, the actions of this President might have been a causative factor.

Consider the now "viral" video of Obama speaking in "ebonics" to that NAACP Black audience as he huffed and puffed about hateful "Whitey" as being the cause of all Black problems.  Consider the hundreds of speeches Obama has made to win the favor of his voting blocks by promoting class and race warfare.  Consider how Obama immediately condemned the cop for the arrest of the drunk and hostile Black professor before learning of the facts, then trying to backtrack from his error by holding a "beer summit" on the back lawn of the White House.  Consider Obama quickly condemning the murder of a pot-smoking teenage Black thug down in Florida by a "White Hispanic"....even to the extent of saying "Trayvon Martin could be my son".  And doing so, while totally ignoring the dozens of Black gang murders on the South side of Chicago every year.

When Obama chooses up sides, and it's always in favor of Blacks, before the facts are in, how else is America expected to take this?  Naturally, White America is going to feel put upon and feeling like we aren't getting a fair shake in Obama's class and race warfare game.

With regard to an increase in hostility toward Hispanics, how is America supposed to feel when Obama skirts Congress and the Constitution and elects to make 2 million illegals "legal" simply by the edict of a President who neither respects the rule of law nor the sense of what is right and wrong.  How is America to feel when Obama promises to grant amnesty to 28 million more illegals even as Americans are struggling to find a job, many of which will go to those who came here illegally?  There's nothing like losing your job and having your family going homeless, all because an illegal Mexican took your job, to cause racial resentment!

So, while the academic "elites" couldn't figure out why Americans are resenting minority favoritism most Americans understand why there might be a touch more resentment of those who are gaming our system and violating our laws.

If liberals weren't so blind to opposing views, if they weren't so wrapped up in their own sense of superiority, they just might come to understand why class and racial warfare and the art of minority pandering by this President has done more to divide our nation than any other factor.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

An Old Man Contemplates Death

                                                             

Dear Reader,

Please indulge me today as I chew on a few of my own philosophies; about the winter of my life and how our creator seems to affect a natural transition to death.  Please don't think this morbid, for I still revel in many joys in life…they are just more basic, more simple, less concerned with niceties or the superficial that's in vogue this month..or this year.

Now I don't claim to own the franchise on how older people think.  I've seen folks far older than me who act and feel young and are as "hep" about the current goings on as someone in their thirties.  Good for them.  But I do believe that most people evolve through their lives and, in the autumn of their life, begin to reassess what's important and what's floss.  

Let me explain.  Up until I was fifty or so I enjoyed a night out dancing, a few hours of good conversation over dinner, perhaps a good bar with Sinatra singing quietly in the background.  That was my transition from disco dancing and Long Island Ice Teas, 2AM breakfasts at Denny's, spirited fights with my mate, an evangelical fondness for football and even a hangover once in a while.

At work I fought to be the best, "Mr Indispensable", the cock that ruled the roost.  My ambition was every bit as strong as in my twenties.  When I finally retired it was only because employers no longer wanted to hire fifty year olds, at least in the professions for which I was most suited.  So even my retirement was but a gradual progression into "the retirement years".  

Well, in those first years of "ease" I was surely a bit of a confused mess….stuck between the desire to get up and go to work and a growing uneasiness of once again plunging back into the occupational rat race.  Whatever meaning life had for me during those first few years probably consisted of enjoying fleeting moments of temporary pleasure…but certainly no enduring satisfaction with the path my life was taking.

It was then that I developed lung cancer.  The first few weeks were the hardest as I read the sobering statistics of a 15% survival rate.  But once I went into surgery, and they cut out a precious piece of my left lung, and once I began to undergo six months of chemotherapy, my life began to take on new meaning.  For all of the first year after my diagnosis that "meaning" was  simply preparing how to best face my imminent death.  Then, as each year went by, I began to look upon my time, post cancer, as "bonus days" to be savored and thankful for.  And, then, as each annual cat scan showed me clear of cancer I began to live again….but now fully aware that the grim reaper looms large over my shoulder.

Now, try to understand this; the thought of death does not depress me…it takes all of us, the rich and famous and the humblest of people.   It is as natural as birth and should be accepted and not feared.

No, what occupies my philosophies these days is how our creator transitions us toward that final end.  I value peace above all things, material or otherwise.  Some of you might think that strange, given my Don Quixote swings at liberalism…instead, it is my quest for peace, my ultimate desire to be left alone, to think how I please, to do as I please, that spurs me to fight the liberal brown shirts who would tell me how to eat and drink and think about government and society.  Were I not able to blow off steam in these blogs I would surely be a basket case…thus, the very process of battling liberalism gives me peace.

Back to the "transition".  When I was younger I loved going to movies.  Each year i loved watching the Academy Awards and rooting for my favorite actor, my favorite movie.  Same thing with music; I always enjoyed the hits of the day and watched the Grammys and rooted for my tonsorial heroes.

And I watched my share of "Love Boats" and "Fantasy Islands" and "Dallas" and "Cheers" and spent a lot of my time in front of the TV.

In my "autumn"…or "winter" most likely, I care not a whit for who won Best Actor, what flick won "Best Picture" and haven't been to a movie since "Forest Gump" in 1994.  Not to say I haven't watched a few on DVD or on television, when I deemed them worthy of a few hours, but no movie theaters, no cell phones ringing, no rude theater goers, no loud speakers blasting away for me.  The same with music…I can count on a single hand the music produced in the last decade that touched me in any way.  As to hip hop and rap, well, they may as well be doing kabuki in Africa, so strange and alien it is to me.

And my TV is now limited to documentaries and old movies and TV shows from the 50's and 60's.  Many of them don't hold up well but at least they mesh with the culture I grew up in.

Finally, while I'm all for racial equality, I don't understand today's ethnic pampering, or, to me, the new world turned upside down where the immoral is rewarded and the American work ethic is laughed at, with those who believe in it scorned and labeled racist and redneck.

Are you getting my point?  My thesis here is that our creator begins to ween us off the material things, the superficial things, as we get older.  It is almost as if he is working to ease our pain at leaving any of it when we pass on.  ATTENTION ALL THOSE UNDER 50!  I know you don't get this…it also our creator's intention that you NOT get it; you must keep those youthful juices flowing in order to feed, educate, medicate and shelter your loved ones…not time for an "old folk transition" yet.  That too is how it should be.  And, lest you think old fogies like me live in some gray world without joy, worry not.  My heart can still thrill to a wonderful play, a great book, to news of great heroism or nobility…it's just that I can now be joyful and happy just sitting on my back patio and listen to a chorus of birds singing their morning songs.  I can now, after more than half a century of fighting poverty, fighting wars, worry about raising a family…I can now lay my head on my pillow at night and sleep the sleep of the innocents, knowing I'm good with my creator.

When I was but a young child, before I drifted off to sleep, I was careful to say that childhood prayer…"if I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take"…Though I certainly endorse those sentiments, I am no longer quaking with a youthful uncertainty about my fates.  I have already "transitioned" into an acceptance….I have packed all that matters and will begin my final journey when my creator decides the time.

I pray that all of you, regardless of age, ultimately achieve the peace that I have found just two months short of my 66th year.  

Illegals Are Killing Your Children

                                                         

This morning we learned that sixteen kids at a high school in Henderson, Nevada have been diagnosed with Tuberculosis.  Health officials expect that number to climb higher.  This high school in southern Nevada is peopled heavily with illegal Mexican kids whom the Supreme Court has mandated that we educate.  However, the Supremes didn't tell us how to deal with a host of diseases that illegals have brought back to America after years of being under control or wiped out altogether.  

As the massive invasion takes our country further down the road to third world status we must expect to deal with sick and dying children, victims of a government that simply places potential Democratic voters above the health of its citizens.  

Nevada is not alone.  California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have long struggled with the alarming decline in public health.  Tuberculosis rates in these border states are now ten times the rate of the rest of the United States and are quickly exploding to epidemic proportions, 16,000 reported in Texas alone!   Lest the rest of America feel safe, you should know that Atlanta is now reporting outbreaks of Tuberculosis not seen for 60 years, the disease emanating from the explosive rise in illegal immigrants residing in that city.  And cities across America have reason for concern as illegals have now fanned out to all other states.

Just a couple of years ago California health officials were shocked to see a dramatic rise in Polio cases, once considered extinct in the Western world.  The rise in Hepatitus cases is the highest in our history, corresponding with rates that exist in other third world countries. 

Perhaps most frightening has been the introduction of diseases once thought to no longer exist in America; Dengue Fever and Typhoid cases are now being reported.  Chagas, a disease not known in this country is now being reported.  This ugly disease is caused by parasites brought to this country that work their way under the skin, most often the face, then migrates to the brain where it brings cell destruction and death.

The problem of course is that we are absorbing Mexico's dregs; folks who have never been vaccinated against disease and carrying diseases into our country that have been extinct for 60 years or more.

What you normally hear in the arguments about illegal immigration are such things as the burden placed on our welfare system, or the increasing and heinous illegal crime rates, or ID theft.  Rarely does one hear the perils illegal immigration is causing to our public health.  

Kinda makes you wonder:  will those open borders/amnesty folks feel the same way about awarding citizenship to illegal Mexicans when their kids develop TB or Polio or, heaven forbid, Typhoid?

Sad.  Damned Sad.

The Obamacare Job Losses

                                                           

Whew!  I'm so glad that three million people who feel enslaved by working at a job will now be free to stay home and have me pay for it!  I was beginning to feel guilty that we were actually forcing people to work and pay for their own health care.  

The Congressional Budget Office came out last week and highlighted how the parameters built into Obamacare will allow folks who don't feel like paying medical insurance premiums will qualify for free taxpayer paid medical care.  I mean, what's the big deal?  We're already paying the premiums for the 30 million who get free medical and dental on Medicaid so what's an extra three million on the federal benefit gravy train.

Now, I know there are those conspiracy theorists who say that Obama is trying to destroy capitalism by impoverishing people so that they will depend on a big socialist government…but how can I not believe the White House when they revel in three million taxpayers giving up their jobs so that they can stay home, smoke a legal bong or two (that's coming soon), play their gaming system and watch Jerry Springer on their big screen televisions.  

And let's face it; we've got to find jobs for the 30 million illegals soon to be made citizens…what better way to provide them with jobs than luring three million American workers to give up theirs?  I mean, what irony…we'll soon have 30 million illegal Mexicans in the work force, people who used the emergency room as their own means of health care, now paying taxes to pay the medical premiums for three million Americans who would rather chill out at home while Mexicans pay for their health care!

Oh sure, our premiums might go up a bit to offset the three million who won't be pay for theirs….but what's a little extra if we can make so many people happy?  I mean, after paying $2,000 bucks a month for my family's health care, what's a few extra hundred dollars a month to support those who won't pay a dime, right?

As a matter of fact, I'm impressed by our President's innovative plans to encourage folks not to work.  He's for welfare and free health care, free cell phones, free food stamp cards and an extension to three years of unemployment checks for those not willing to take a job beneath their dignity.  

Dignity is all with this President.   A cup of dignity for a quart of government subservience.  Yeah, that's the ticket!

Broken Immigration Laws...or Just Not Enforced?

                                                 

Have you ever wondered what Amnesty Advocates mean when they say we have a broken immigration system?  Have you ever wondered why they will never respond when you ask "why don't you just enforce the immigration laws we have now?"  

It's very simple.  When they say our immigration system is broken they're really saying they want the laws changed to allow some 20 million illegal Mexicans to be rewarded with citizenship and a front row seat to America's generous social welfare programs.  

I just took a look at a very objective analysis of the Gang of Eight's new Immigration Program.  Oh sure, it's loaded with all kinds of language about enforcing our borders and cutting off illegal immigration in its tracks.  How many of you remember that this same sort of enforcement language was used back in 1986 when we granted the first series of amnesties?  And since the Obama administration has been picking and choosing who the deport, regardless of immigration law, why would you believe they would enforce it this time?

Let me give you two examples of why all this enforcement talk is just gibberish.  Just the other day we learned that illegals, by filing tax form INIT, non resident tax filings, were able to claim $11 billion dollars in 2011 alone in Child Tax Credits!  Illegal Mexicans have been scoring big with your taxes for years. Congress knows about it and has done nothing!  Further, by Congressional law, illegals filing these INIT returns with IRS are safe because, again by Congressional law, the IRS is not allowed to provide the tax filing addresses to ICE!

Secondly, you know all those illegals crowding you out in hospital emergency rooms?  They are legally entitled to do that because the courts mandated that hospitals must provide emergency care regardless of legal status.  And do you know what the courts referred to in order to reach that decision?  The very Congressional law that was passed that didn't preclude illegals from the law...and Congress has never saw fit to amend the law!  So do you really believe any of this latest mumbo jumbo about strict enforcement?  If you do I want to talk to you about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy!

But getting back to the new law; did anyone notice that there is an 18-month window after the bill passes where our new 20 million green card holders are allowed to bring as many of their extended family now living in Mexico into the U.S. to live?  That ought to add another 30 or 40 million to the ones already here!

And looking further into the bill one Wall Street Journal article took a good look at the bill's language on illegals filing and paying taxes for the years they were here illegally.  Guess what?  The business journalist surmised that it might cost us hundreds of billions of dollars if those folks started filing late returns.  Why?  Because they, already accustomed to gaming the system, need only to under report their income and make them eligible for huge sums of tax credits, to include hundreds of billions of dollars in child tax credits!

The same is true for the Social Security Program!  The Congress is likely to vote them back credits for working in the U.S., even if they used fraudulent social security numbers; this crime would be amnestied under the new provisions!  Thus, the Social Security Program, already being robbed to pay for deficits in the General Fund, would have to begin paying out Social Security SSI and Social Security Retirement for millions of illegal Mexicans.

And, in light of the criminal element we last granted amnesty, are we going to insure that we aren't taking in even more criminals?  Well, apparently not because the new immigration bill clearly allows illegal Mexicans to have as many as three misdemeanors on the books and still qualify for citizenship!  Are you kidding me?  Does anyone remember when America demanded that immigrants be of high moral standing before being allowed in America?

Folks, read the bill carefully!  It's available all over the Internet.  Study it.  What you'll find is that this bill is just more of the same lack of enforcement that the last amnesty bred.  It is strictly political; you have Democrats salivating at the potential for 20 to 60 million more Democratic voters...and you've got Republicans in Name Only (RINO'S) falling all over themselves trying to suck up to Hispanics in order to keep their Congressional seats!  

This bill does nothing for the American people except to further burden our social safety net and suppress wages of legal, hard-working Americans whose jobs are already under assault by jobs moving overseas and the sick Obama economy.

And the worst of it is that if this bill passes we will have at last surrendered the sanctity of our borders for all time and we may as just well learning Spanish, living with crime, drug smuggling, greater government corruption....and the okay for everyone to park three cars on their front lawn and play Mariachi music late into the night.

The Republicans are right to be wary of this bill.

Obama's Demise; Flaunting The Rule of Law

                                                         

This week the Republicans all but ruled out passing immigration reform this year.  They cite a lack of confidence that any immigration laws passed by Congress would simply not be enforced; especially the punitive aspects of the law that might stem the wave of invasion.  I'm not surprised.  

It was only last week, during the State of The Union speech, that Obama pledged to issue executive orders to achieve any socialist goals that the Congress should fail to act upon.  As he has done for five years now, Obama has declared himself Emperor and used his dozens of Czars to circumvent both the Judicial and Legislative arms of our republic.  

Obama has established a long and miserable record of defying all manner of our nation's laws.  His first assault came from an attack on contract law, the very law sanctified more than five centuries ago..the law that deems that two parties who mutually sign a contract are bound by the terms of that contract until it expires.  But Obama, in an effort to curry favor with his army of tit-suckers, immediately began to attack the banks on mortgage loans.  Obama and his minions chose to ignore that millions committed income and documentation fraud to buy homes they could not afford.  Millions more, riding the up sweep of rising home prices, took out second mortgages for swimming pools and new furniture and even trips to Europe, then when the housing market collapsed they cried foul!  

So Obama took executive action to force banks to write off bad mortgages, and to write down the principal on homes now overpriced in the housing meltdown.  At the time I wrote several blog essays about the long term effects of violating contract law…that it only encourages slackers to walk away from commitments they were all too willing to make when they first signed on.

Then, not content to destroy contract law, one of the pillars of a civilized society, Obama began abusing both civil and criminal laws.  His first foray into lawlessness came through executive order; he instructed Immigration officials to ignore immigration laws and cease deporting those who violated our borders.  When Arizona tried to stop the massive invasion of illegals into Arizona through SB1070 Obama sent his Attorney General into the state to sue both the state as well as law enforcement officials whose only crime was enforcing the immigration laws currently in  place.

Finally, last year Emperor Obama declared over two million illegal Mexicans free from prosecution and granted blanket amnesty to the so called "dreamers".  (We have thousands of "dreamers" here in Arizona; they love robbing Circle K's and 7-11's and dealing drugs and conducting home invasions and murdering innocents and participating in long car chases…"dreamers indeed")  

So, last week, after giving the matter much consideration, after holding their annual party conference, the Republicans considered an immigration bill.  Not as forgiving or as comprehensive as the one that emerged from the Senate, but a bill that would address immigration problems, item by item.

Then, they heard the words of the President, fresh from the SOTU speech, the boast that he would issue executive orders if Congress didn't give him what he wants…..and they remembered all of Obama's many breeches of the law, his circumvention of the U.S. Constitution time and time again, then said to themselves "why in the world would we trust this guy to enforce any law we pass?"

So, in the greatest of ironies, Obama will not get to play "savior" for 30 million illegal invaders…and all because he has shown a disdain for the law during his entire Presidency.

Glad.  Damned Glad

The "Boomer" Scourge

                                                 
I'm a "boomer".  I am among those born between 1946 and 1964.  Just about every day I read something from a boomer criticizing the "younger" generation.  I also see some pretty dim Gen X and Gen Y'ers complaining about having to fund Social Security for the "blue hairs".  There is more than enough blame to go around for everyone but Gen X and Gen Y do have a few points.

While it is never acceptable to assess a set of values to 77.7 million people, (there are tens of millions of exceptions), there are some common assertions that can be made about a huge swath of the boomer population group.  Let's look at some of the baby boomer's "life achievements".  I caution again, the following does not apply to all baby boomers, but certainly enough of them to represent a significant social movement.

I have to preface this by first saying that some of the blame for some of the baby boomer failures has to go to the Greatest Generation.  Baby Boomer parents had to endure the Great Depression and a ghastly World Wide War against fascism.  This Greatest Generation, with all good intentions, wanted to give their children all that they didn't have; material goods, safety and security and freedom from want.  The Greatest Generation emerged from WWII with a "can do" attitude and an extremely strong work ethic.  They built homes in the suburbs, furnished them with televisions and radios and modern kitchen appliances and initiated the greatest spoilage of children known to human civilization.

So, when some Baby Boomers reached young adulthood, pampered with the blessings of Dr. Spock, free from want, they began looking about for something else that might engage their fancy.

Unlike their fathers, an "elite" group of Baby Boomers did not feel the need to serve their country.  They opted to be the "grand decider" on which wars were justified and worthy of their service.  So, the boomers took to the streets and the college campuses and they yelled and carried signs and spit on servicemen and women and burned their bras and smoked dope and listened to the bands of the day that catered to that movement.  Barack Obama's mentor, Bill Ayers, even went so far as to join the Weather Underground to blow up buildings on college campuses.

While still sucking off mom and dad, many Boomers condemned the materialism of the previous generation, as well as anyone among them who strived for material gain.

To escape their self imposed misery Boomers began doping up on pot, heroin, cocaine and a host of other recreational drugs.  They championed free sex and called it the sexual revolution.  When they had babies they named them "moon rock", "moon beam" or "world peace".

They started Earth Day and crusaded to save the environment, all the while driving their gas guzzling cars to their rallies and pissed and shit in the rivers and pastures of Woodstock.

After a decade that millions of Boomers don't even remember they finally woke up, their spirit of revolution and testosterone levels diminishing, and realized that their BA in Psychedelic Art from Berkeley was not marketable in the jobs market.

So many of those hippie Boomers were forced to reassess their lives.  So they moved back with mom and dad, or laid low, and waited for the old folks to die so that they could cop what's left of the family estate.  And certainly mom and dad, who lived through the Great Depression were sufficiently thrifty to leave their Boomer kids an estate with a hefty bank account and a paid up mortgage.

Boomers inherited thrifty mom and dad's wealth and became "investors".  They began to strongly embrace the materialism that they had derided just a decade before.  They played the real estate game of the 80's, bought BMW's and Caddies and Mercedes, then played the stock market during the Internet bubble, and hoped they'd be out of the scam before the bubble burst, all the while failing to parent by ignoring PTA meetings or Neighborhood Watch or warnings about their children watching graphic sex and violence on TV.  Further, their parenting failed because all their children need do is point to their parent's own Boomer youth to make any child correcting a moot point.

Boomers used their wealth to buy ever more expensive houses, then re-modeled them every two years when Corian was outdated by marble and when rosewood became more fashionable than oak.

Then a few years ago the Boomer House of Cards began tumbling down.  Home prices cratered and their 401k's and IRA's were decimated by a stock market crash.  And Boomers have been left to reside in their own pile of experiential excrement and decry the lifestyle of Gen X and Gen Y.

Gen X and Gen Y could care less for the materialism of their parents; they do not worship the logos of BMW or Mercedes.  Millions of them embrace the minimalism of municipal transit and opt to achieve a work/life balance to their lives, having recognized that corporate loyalty doesn't exist and never did.

So, Boomers, if you're guilty of these sins, repent and shut the hell up.  I personally opted for a more responsible citizenship and a life of service and have some..but fewer regrets than other Boomers.

A cautionary note to Gen X and Gen Y:  Don't be so damn smug.  The jury's still out on your generations too.  You folks tend to worship an Apple logo a bit too much and tend to value a Cappachino at Starbucks far more than their worth.  And you labor under the delusion that fingers on a keyboard trump the communications value of face to face talk or an occasional hug.  Finally, Gen X and Gen Y'ers are beginning to develop a keening "whine" and are starting to embrace a sense of "victimhood" and some sort of "wealth envy" against those who produce and prosper.  If your dear Barack could confiscate all the wealth of millionaires and billionaires it wouldn't even be enough to fund free birth control for all of you.  The American dream still lives for those who are willing to pursue it, though it is getting more difficult to reach.  Your Barack has also taught you that it's okay to enforce some laws and ignore others; you'll find the results from embracing those choices will not be to your liking.

Dichotomies Of The Liberal Class

I guess the problem I have with liberalism is that I find those who advocate liberalism seem incapable of pursuing a line of rational thought.    They seem to embrace ideas that conflict with each other.  The dichotomies generated in following liberal political ideas leave me dizzy.

For example, while liberal Americans support Obama's embracing of the Muslim culture, where little girls' genitals are mutilated so that they can never enjoy sexual intercourse, liberal American women insist that their bodies are their own and if you won't fund universal abortion and birth control, you're a "heathen".

Liberals espouse absolute freedom to follow the most perverted cultural pursuits such as defining legitimate art as a crucifix in a jar of urine, or a nude Virgin Mary, yet liberals will hunt down, censor and savage anyone who espouses a conservative point of view.  And, to liberals, Christians are "rednecks and bible thumpers" not worthy of being American.

Many liberals have argued that Muslims in the United States should be free to ignore American law and follow only Sharia law while remaining silent as Muslims in the Middle East kill Christians simply because of their faith and burn down their churches.

Liberals are great at instituting laws that regulate what you can eat, whether or not you can smoke or how your babysitter is to be paid, but are impotent when it comes to enforcing criminal statutes.  Liberals work to insure criminal prisoners are treated better than the taxpayer who foots the bill.

Ten thousand liberals will gather for a march to stop the execution of a condemned killer but not one of them will make a single sympathy call to the murder victim's family.

Liberals embrace those who pay no taxes and persecute those who do.

Liberals in San Francisco will fine you $500 bucks for smoking a cigarette but have no problem if you light up a joint in Ghiradelli Square.

Liberals will file child abuse charges against an American parent who fails to secure their child in a children's car seat but sympathize with a Mexican Coyote who piles 15 illegal Mexicans in a van like cord wood and sneaks them across the border.

Liberals are some of the stingiest givers of charity from their own wallet but have no problem giving out your tax money with wild abandon.  The latest tax return information was reported in yesterday's news.  While Mitt Romney gave $4 million dollars to charity, Joe Biden gave only $5,500 on an income of nearly $400,000 dollars...yet Joe is the liberal champion who cares..and Romney is cold hearted and out of touch.

Sorry, liberal Americans;  I just don't get you!

"Arizona; Where America Still Lives"

                                                   

Arizona is still a state where the 'old America" lives.  We have gold miners and copper miners, and cattle ranchers with calloused hands and leathery faces.  Our "white collar" get up in the morning, stop at Starbucks, then ride the elevators in downtown Phoenix, high up into the skyscrapers, then sit behind desks and look out on a valley where thousand year old Indian canals still ferry the precious water that irrigates our cotton and citrus and winter vegetables.  Our "blue collar" wrap the peanut butter sandwiches, grasp the commuter mug, hustle the kids off to school, then set off to work a factory floor at Motorola or Intel or peel off for insurance offices, mattress stores, restaurants, or construction sites.  Our older folks, the retired (willingly or not), awaken, attend church, early morning swim or yoga sessions, then  file out to serve as volunteers at soup kitchens, food banks, hospitals, and schools, where they serve for free as teacher assistants.

America at work.

                                                     

Arizona, land of the "old America",  is under constant assault by the "new America".   You see, Arizonans, though three thousand miles away, still hear the peels of liberty from the Liberty Bell, perhaps far better than those who now dwell in Philadelphia.  We place greater value on a Constitution written some 230 years ago, perhaps more so than those who live just steps away from Freedom Hall.  We don't enact gun laws that serve no purpose except to take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.  And we're more than willing to use those guns to protect our home and our families.

Perhaps, though we live three thousand miles from the Statue of Liberty, we honor and revere her just a bit more than those who live in her shadow.  Having suffered from massive illegal immigration, we know all too well the infinite value of those who come here legally, with the hopes and dreams carried by millions before them; to seek a better life.  We honor those who arrive in the clear light of day, and deplore those who sneak across the border in the dead of night, with backpacks stuffed full of pot, or heroin or meth to finance their journey.  We in Arizona have never bought into the creed "Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Drug Merchant".  

 Arizona, where the American dream lives on...                                                  

Arizonans dream big.  They see life as opportunity, where every road is open, where anyone who's willing to work hard can realize their dreams.  Perhaps it's because we live in such wide open spaces, where we're given room to grow, where our ambitions are as wide as the wide expanse of desert skies.  Our politics are conservative,   We believe in spending only what we earn.  We believe in a "hand up" but not a "hand out".

Oh sure, we've attracted transplants from the "new America"; those mavens of liberal righteousness from Oregon and California, where, having driven those states into fiscal socialist ruin, flee to Arizona because the mess they created is no longer "habitable".

So they come to Arizona and demand that we change to accommodate to their social theorems and philosophies.  These liberal transplants are offended that our Sheriff adorns his prisoners in pink underwear and feeds them baloney sandwiches...and when they complained about the Kool-Aid, he took it away and told them to drink water.  And when Joe's prisoners complained about the heat in his Tent City Jail, he said our soldiers in Afghanistan endure that same kind of heat, and carry a 60 pound pack on their back as well.  And the liberal transplants don't like it that  our sheriff's in the southern part of the state honor the sanctity of our borders.  Arizonans cheer our Governor when she shows no fear of a President descending royally from Air Force One, only to be lectured about the perils of open borders and blanket amnesties.  But the liberal transplants deplore the lack of "diplomacy" and insist that we bow to the "federales" who sue us in court and gave us Fast and Furious, arming 2,000 of the Mexican drug cartels, costing the lives of our border patrolmen and other innocents.

But, as with "old America", we Arizonans resist!  Unlike California, whose statehouse runs year round, and where their state pols draw $200,000 per year salaries and year round per diem, our state representatives draw less than $25,000 a year and meet only a few months of the year, then go home to live and work in their communities.                                                

Arizonans are nature lovers.  We live with coyote and mountain lion and wolves and lizard and all manner of wild life.  They come to us and we venture often into their world as well.  Arizona is often thought of as desert, yet we have the grand pines and massive winter snowfalls of Flagstaff and Show Low and Pine Top.  We have cool clear brooks and streams abound with fish and serve as haven for all manner of fowl.  We enjoy the culture of our many native American tribes and acknowledge their role in the grand history of the state.  We have high meadows where the spring rains fall gently, and the wind sends the pines and aspens into glorious song.                                                

We don't have earthquakes or tornados or hurricanes.  We're blessed in that sense.  But, in mid summer, the intense heat is often broken by spectacular monsoon storms.  The thunder rumbles and the skies flash in grand lightening displays.  Then, as the first hard rains hit the desert floor, the wonderful scent of creosote permeates the air, not unlike the scent of fresh laundry left to dry on the line outside.  Many of us grab bars of soap and run out in the backyard to bask and bathe in the cooling summer rains.  As the rains intensify the summer heats dissipate and the temperatures drop as much as 20 degrees in a single hour.  When the monsoon rains subside the desert blossoms in a spectacular display of desert flowers.  

                                                

And when night comes, and the children are put to bed, Arizonans in the "old America" venture outside to witness God's grand display of a million stars shining down through clear desert skies.  And Arizonans, reminded of how small we are, and how grand is our creator, will say a silent prayer in gratitude for what they have...what they, themselves have earned.  

Beautiful Arizona....where the "old America" lives on.