Irritation and alarm

My other half and I took our two kids and went to a conservative association meeting. We came away with a little book for the kids called Founders' Fables that teach lessons based on the Constitution. It's very cute, and very well done.

We also came away with a deep-seated frustration that the presentations offered were so basic. Seriously, people--what the hell is wrong with you? How in the hell can anyone be unaware that there is no special trust fund for social security? Who doesn't know that the current generation of workers is paying for the current generation of retirees? Who doesn't know that the population of workers is shrinking while the population of retirees is growing?

Worst of all, who simply whines "I want the money I was promised, no matter that it's at the expense of my kids and grandkids?"

So. There's the irritation. Here's the alarm.

Most of my readers are aware that I'm in Missouri. We've had "Fair Tax" legislation floated about for a couple of years, now. It sank in committee. Simply couldn't garner enough support.

Instead of abandoning it for a flat income tax (sensible--which is why politicians won't go for it), they've re-named it the Missouri Jobs Act.

Okay, first off: the whole "Something failed to gain support from the sheep--I mean voters, so let's sneak it past them by renaming it" alarms me. It's related to the whole pride issue I wrote about a bit more than two years ago now.

The reasons a sales tax didn't gain traction are too numerous to mention. Let's talk about the effects we can expect to see in Missouri if they succeed in passing this renamed "Fair Tax."

People within about thirty minutes' drive of a state line are going to do the majority of their shopping--especially on big ticket items--out of state. This directly results in...

1. Fewer sales made in state. Fewer sales mean smaller profits, as well as smaller amounts collected in state taxes.

2a. Smaller profits mean overheads must be lowered. Overhead includes employee wages. That means that people are going to be fired. Which, in turn, means not only is less money going to be spent in-state, but more unemployment is going to have to be paid out.

2b. Items sitting on shelves will have their prices dropped in an effort to sell them, leading to an even smaller profit margin, even with fewer employees. Small business are still going to go out of business.

3. Shoppers fleeing the state to shop will eventually lead politicians to increase the tax rates, and possibly re-apply an income tax on top of the "fair tax."

4. Both businesses and income earners will begin to flee the state.

The Fair Tax is not a good idea, not in this economy. Many of us knew that, and that's why it was defeated under the proper name. Re-naming it and foisting it on us again demonstrates a level of deceptiveness and chutzpah that just frightens me. Tells me that my home state is determined to self-destruct.

Chili

Before the weather gets too warm to enjoy it, I thought I'd post my version of this recipe. It's simple, thick, and can be as hot or not as you want. This recipe is about 3.5 or 4 alarm--if you want it milder, reduce the seasoning, or use mild ro-tel. Or both. If you want it hotter, use more seasoning (but not more than 1/3 c per pound) or hot ro-tel. Or both. I usually double this recipe, because if I don't, there's not enough leftovers to do more than top a baked potato.

1 lb lean hamburger meat (90/10 at least) Ground venison is also very good in this.
1/4 c chili seasoning
1 10 oz can ro-tel
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 15 oz can seasoned black beans, drained

1. Brown meat over medium heat, making sure to break up any large chunks.
2. Add seasoning, ro-tel (undrained), and tomato sauce. Mix well.
3. Simmer on medium low (I usually set the burner to about 4 [low=1; high=11]; adjust as needed for your stove) until desired consistency is reached (about an hour for my taste), but at least a half an hour.
4. Add black beans, stir, simmer until beans are warmed through (another five or ten minutes).

Serve hot, with cheese, crackers, tortilla chips, or baked potatoes. Tastes good the day you make it, and tastes better the next day.

*Helpful cleanup hint: as soon as you've put the leftovers away, run the tap until the water's hot, put dish soap in the bottom of the chili pot, then fill with hot water. Soak overnight and it comes clean with no effort.

New toy

We did our taxes, and did the responsible things with the refund first. You know, kids' college, our retirement...not that it'll do much good with the rapidly tanking dollar.

Anyway, after we did those things, we decided to have a little fun. I ordered this. Hopefully, it will arrive tomorrow. I can't wait to go play with it a little.

Welcome to the blog world, babe.

My husband has started his own blog. You can find it in my blog list: By Other Means.

breakfast cornbread

This is a family favorite. I strongly recommend using an 8" cast iron skillet to cook this in, or a cast iron drop biscuit pan. Spray the skillet/pan with cooking spray, and preheat it with the oven before you pour in the batter, and the cornbread flash cooks on the edges, and falls right out when you turn it upside down after it's done. No need to clean up the pan.

1/2 lb bulk maple flavored sausage
1 sweet yellow corn bread mix (I use Morrison's)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees or as directed on the cornbread mix. Don't forget to spray your cast iron skillet and put it in the oven when you turn the oven on.
2. Fry the sausage, breaking up chunks as you cook it (helpful tip: fry the whole pound, and freeze half for later).
3. Mix the cornbread batter according to the directions (helpful tip: measure the milk in a two to four cup liquid measuring cup with a pour spout, beat in egg, then stir the mix right into the measuring cup. That way, you only have two things to wash: the fork or spoon and the measuring cup).
4. Stir in 1/2 lb of cooked maple flavored sausage.
5. Pour into preheated cast iron skillet. Bake as directed on the mix.
6. Serve hot, buttered, with maple syrup.

No, this likely isn't good for you, but it's easy, tastes good, and heats up well the next day or two.

New category

I'm going to be posting a series of fast, easy, relatively healthy, and tasty recipes that my family and I commonly eat, all under the label "Mother's Little Helper." (I swear, there aren't any drugs involved, just a lack of sleep causing a bit of a feeling of disassociation from reality.)

First up: Beef enchilada casserole

1 lb extra lean ground beef (90/10 is adequate, 93/7 or higher is better--don't have to drain it)
1 packet taco or enchilada seasoning
1 8-10 oz can of re-fried beans
1 10 oz can of enchilada sauce
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (I use the 96% fat free)
1 can condensed fiesta nacho cheese or cheddar cheese soup
1 can corn, drained
1 can ro-tel (any variety)
2 or more cups cheese (cheddar works, as does Mexican blend)
4 cups of crushed tortilla chips

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Brown ground beef in large pot. Mix in seasoning according to directions, then re-fried beans. Mix thoroughly.
3. Remove from heat. Add enchilada sauce, soups, corn, and ro-tel. Mix well.
4. Layer chips, filling mixture, and cheese in a 9x13" baking dish (or a disposable steamer tray pan for less cleanup).
5. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve hot.

Edit: my husband pointed out that I didn't specify that we do two layers of each ingredient, or that it's as easy to make two as it is to make one, or that they freeze well. If you want to freeze them, though, you need to more than double the cook time--we've found that it takes two hours to bring one from frozen solid to piping hot.

Big smiles!

Little twerp wouldn't cooperate for pictures until today

Remember this? In this picture, the imp is all of four days old. The monkey is about 8-10 inches long.


Here is the same boy, with the same monkey, two years later. It's really hard, looking at him now, to remember just how small he was.


It's absolutely amazing how they grow.

Too cute to keep to myself.

This...

...is doing this...


...because I had this up over my shoulder as I took the picture...

...and he adores his baby sissy.

Here's the pixie.

This was taken when she was only a couple of days old. Cute little pixie, isn't she? I'll try to get more recent pictures taken of her and post some, but right now I'm a bit sleep deprived.

I love six hour nights.

It's been a bit of a difficult month. The little pixie usually wakes up and wants fed every three hours, right on the dot. Sometimes, she'll sleep for four hours, and rarely, for six.

Last night was one of those rare, six hour nights. Between that six hour stretch, and the two hours of sleep I had before feeding her that last time, I actually feel pretty good today.

Not that it'll do much good...

The new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives plans to read the Constitution as the new session opens.

The attitude displayed in the video below illustrates why I don't think it will do a damn bit of good:



The Constitution is a simple, straightforward document. It's next to impossible to misunderstand. The language it's written in is plain, and unadorned by the standards of the time it was written, and is still pretty plain--especially when compared with the legalese that current bills (which must be passed before we can learn what's in them) are written in.

In fact, the Constitution is so simple and easy to understand that it takes a lawyer or a progressive linguist like Noam Chompsky to misunderstand what it says. We, the people of the United States understand it just fine. And we're not happy that congress has deliberately misconstrued what Article I, section 8 says it can do, and has deliberately ignored that what isn't listed in that section, it can't do: those are the things that are reserved to the states or to the people.

You know, like forcing people to buy health insurance. Or like seizing GM.

Amen, Gunny

You're going to want to go to minute mark 1:30 to avoid the lousy cover of the Stones' "Paint it Black," but listen to what Gunnery Sargent Ermey says. He's totally right, and doesn't pull any punches about it.



I wish I could thank him for speaking out, and thank him for serving. Any of my readers (all three or so of you) who have served--thank you. And thank any of your acquaintance who've served for me.

An illustration of why my kids are going to be taught how to safely handle guns as soon as possible...

...and why I don't think I will ever be willing to lock all of the guns away.

"Merry Christmas" aren't dirty words

I had something depressing happen to my husband and me a couple of nights ago: a twelve-year-old Salvation Army bell ringer wished us a "Happy Holidays" as we put what we could spare into the kettle.

Happy holidays. From a Salvation Army bell ringer. I could only assume he said that instead of the Merry Christmas we usually hear because he's been brainwashed into political correctness by his public school.

Whatever the case, it was just sad.

Role models

I didn’t have good role models on how a good marriage worked as I was growing up. My parents’ relationship failed, mostly due to the actions and inactions of my male genetic donor (though I doubt my mother was entirely blameless). One aunt is still married to her first husband after about twenty years, but that relationship is far from healthy. Another aunt has had one good marriage out of four, and that uncle was badly addicted to narcotics, and wound up committing suicide.

Not one relative that I’ve had close contact with was in a good, healthy, happy marriage. None of my friends’ parents (what few friends I had) were, either.

A lot of my current friends say I just lucked out in finding my husband. I agree, but I also had a role model: Maureen Johnson Smith Long of Robert Heinlein’s To Sail Beyond the Sunset.

So, yes: everything I need to know in life I learned from Robert Heinlein. The specific lessons that Maureen taught me about being a good wife and having a good marriage mostly had to do with my behavior—something I haven’t seen in most marriages I’ve seen fail.

--Dear, don’t bore him with trivia or burden him with your past mistakes. The happiest way to deal with a man is never to tell him anything he does not need to know.

While that one applies in part to past relationships (i.e., don’t go on and on and on about your exes; rather enjoy the relationship you’re in while you apply what you learned from your past failure), it’s not completely good advice anymore—not in this age of herpes, HIV/AIDS and other STDs. That said, that advice doesn’t just apply to past mistakes. If you’ve had a bad day, don’t unload on him when he comes home. It isn’t his fault, and most men don’t know that most women would rather vent than hear suggestions on how to fix things.

He also doesn’t need to hear about your latest argument with your mother.

Another way I try to model my behavior after Maureen’s is this: she tried, in her words, to be a gourmet chef in the kitchen (though, I know my limits), an economist in the household accounts, a duchess in the drawing room, and a perfect whore in the bedroom.

I have my limits, in the kitchen. I’m a decent cook within those limits. (If there’s any interest, I can post some of my more original, easy, quick, and relatively healthy recipes.) I do take pretty good care of the household accounts most of the time—things do tend to slip my mind while I’m pregnant, though. I do have a persona while out in public of a normal, respectable, responsible young wife and mother. Nobody that I don’t know would have any idea that I keep this blog, or that my opinions and beliefs might not follow the mainstream in this area. Last, unlike Maureen, I do tend to be possessive and jealous—I don’t think I could have the same type of open marriage she did in the book. Nor could I fathom wanting to sleep with anyone other than my husband. That said, I do try (and succeed) to be open minded and willing. And joyfully abandoned.

Last, but not least, is this:

--Formal courtesy between husband and wife is even more important than it is between strangers.

I cannot tell you how true this is. I have seen so many couples ignore this, and so many tend to fall into whinging about their spouse, or putting them down (sometimes in their presence), or bullying them, or being rude and expecting it not to matter.

It matters. The closer the proximity, the more it matters when feelings get hurt. The more (and more often) feelings get hurt, the less the one being hurt is inclined to give the other the benefit of the doubt when something just comes out wrong.

Besides that, I love my husband. I cannot bear to see him hurt by anything or anyone. I think it would half kill me if I did it through carelessness, when the same courtesy I extend to strangers could have prevented it. I could not do it on purpose, like I’ve seen other couples do.

I cannot recommend Heinlein’s work enough. The man had a deep understanding of life and human nature that many modern authors lack, and a knack for storytelling that is unmatched in any era, or by any other author.

Rough weekend...

As everyone who reads my blog knows, I was due to have a baby girl on New Year's Day.

That has changed. I went into labor Saturday morning. My tiny little snuggle bug was born Saturday afternoon, and will be going home with me today. She weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce; was 18.5 inches long; and was in a huge hurry. I got to the hospital at around 2:00 p.m., and she arrived two and a half hours later.

I've got some end of the semester stuff to wrap up, but will post pictures of both her and her brother after I post grades on Monday.

After that, I'll be back to my regular news and political commentary, which I'd been avoiding to try to keep from going into stress-induced labor.

Let's give thanks for our blessings.

For each and every person born or naturalized to this nation have been blessed.

I'm thankful that I'm an American, with a founding document that forbids the government from interfering with my God-given rights to talk about anything I want. I'm thankful that I have a voice in firing a government that I don't think is doing its job right, and hiring its replacement.

I'm thankful that I'm married to my best friend and partner. I'm deeply thankful for that, despite never having had an example of a healthy marriage to base my expectations on.

I'm thankful that I have at least a part-time job that I love doing. I wish I could be in front of a classroom again, but I'm also extremely thankful that I had the option of staying home with my young son and teaching all online.

I'm thankful for my son's spectacularly good health, despite his rough start.

I'm thankful, deeply thankful, that I'm still pregnant with my daughter, despite the discomfort. Each week she stays put makes it more likely that we'll avoid another long hospital stay with her.

I'm thankful for each and every one of my friends, whether they're real life friends or blog friends. OldCatMan, Mousie, Ricki, Ken, and many others--you all mean a lot to me.

I'm thankful that despite my rough childhood, I managed to grow up with remarkably few lasting issues.

The things I'm thankful for are never far from at least part of my mind. I may not express it often in public, but I never forget to Whom the thanks is due.

Lessons forgotten, but not obselete: Rudyard Kipling's take

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

(1919)

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market-Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-bourne like the Gods of the Market-Place.
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings.
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Heading said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstone we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbor and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four--
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

* * *

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man --
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began --
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire --
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Illogical.

Recently, a blog I read posted a list of types of blame-the-victim rape apologists. I found it pretty accurate, and kind of funny, honestly. I didn't comment, because at first, I didn't have anything to say.

Then, in the comments, things got ugly. I don't know what it is about women in general and radical (or at least borderline radical) feminists in specific that takes any reasonable point made by a man and twists it to mean (in their mind) that all men are either rapists, or blame-the-victim apologists.

Actually, I think I do understand: women's brains tend to disengage when they perceive that someone is disagreeing with them. That tends to lead to the types of rather hysterical attacks, instead of the realization nobody disagrees with them. The men they're attacking as apologists also don't want women to be raped. However, since women tend to want to vent, and men tend to listen and try to think of ways to fix the problem, the men offer logical suggestions (i.e., don't drink way too much around people you probably don't know).

Women don't want to hear the logical, reasonable suggestions. They counter with "I should be able to drink as much as I want, anywhere I want, wearing whatever I want, and nobody should harass me about it." And then, they attack the man who dared offer constructive suggestions as if he was a rapist.

In a perfect world, they'd be right that they should never have to be careful. However, this world is not perfect. It has not been perfect since the first couple disobeyed their Maker in the one thing he told them not to do. Yes, we have the right to do what we want, when we want, however we want--however, just as it's the responsibility of any individual not to attack another, each of us also has the responsibility to do our utmost to protect ourselves. It is not anyone else's responsibility. It is definitely not the responsibility of a man--not even my husband--to defend me, now that I'm an adult.

However, it seems that just pointing out that this isn't a perfect world, and it is each individual's responsibility to maintain situational awareness and protect themselves is, in certain circles, tantamount to blaming the victim for the attack. And, as such, is as reprehensible as the rapist himself.

It's just another reason I dislike most other women. I prefer to hang around with people who use their brains as much as they do their emotions. Maybe that makes me a misogynist; however, since I am a woman, by certain arguments, I cannot be one.

Sorry I've been out of touch.

We're all doing fine, for the most part--I'm just insanely busy between teaching two classes, assistant-teaching a third, chasing around a two-year-old imp that's decided he wants to play with me a lot more often than he used to, and trying to avoid stress (i.e., political news) that might cause our daughter to come earlier than she otherwise might.

I'll try to write a few things, but make no promises.

My imp turned two, today.

It's been a hell of a ride--born eight weeks early, spent his first five weeks in the NICU, and is still playing catch-up with full term babies, in some respects--but I wouldn't change him for the world.

I'll add pictures, later. It's amazing how much he's grown.

I say again: gun free zones = target rich environments

The University of Texas in Austin has had that demonstrated again. As have a house party in anti-gun New Jersey, and a family in anti-gun Boston.

The only thing gun laws do is disarm the law abiding.

Ironies: the spice of life.

There were, for a change, a couple of news stories I ran across that had me snickering from the irony.

First up: green shopping (i.e., bringing your own bags) is good for the environment, but bad for the shopper. Apparently, no one thinks to wash their bags, and they get full of bacteria that make people sick.

I guess those plastic Wal-Mart bags aren't so evil, after all, huh? If hippies feel guilty about just throwing them away, they could always use them for other things: they make great packing padding for glassware, or great small trashcan liners.

Or, if the hippies are still too down on disposable bags, they can always just get sick. No skin of my nose, and they have been warned, now.

Second: Minnesota is running out of money for their unemployment offices. Guess who's being let go? Here's a hint: it's not the admin staff. No, they're letting the job counselors go.

I guess it's time for the counselors to counsel themselves.

Food nannies

Talk about part of OCM's 90%! Anyone that can take candy (or chocolate milk) from kids really deserves to fuck off.

work, work, work.

I finally got everything set up and going with my classes. Just in time to pick up their first papers--21 for one class, and 16 for the other. I think I might be able to get done with grading this week, if I can keep on schedule of a third of a class per day.

Wish me luck.

WTF?!

Fall doesn't start until Thursday! And it's already snowing in north central Montana!

I guess the warming part of the natural climate cycle is definitely over.

Why people shouldn't store their guns in the "proper" manner.

My husband and I do store our rifles in the proper manner: in a locked closet with the ammo (and some magazines) in a different location.

We do not store our pistols in the same manner.

Yes, each handgun is out of the toddler's reach; however, there is a loaded pistol in almost every room of our house where we spend a significant amount of time (with the exception of the imp's room).

Want to know why? This is a good demonstration of what happens when people follow the "accepted, proper gun safety" advice.

I'm not saying our local law enforcement is as incompetent as those in Cheshire, CT; however, when your door is being kicked in by thugs intent on harming you and yours, you have seconds, at most, to react. You don't have the five to ten minutes, minimum, it will take for your 911 call to fetch a response from a competent law enforcement office (longer for the incompetent ones).

It is not the responsibility of the police to prevent crime. It is the responsibility of the police to investigate, solve, and punish crime. It is up to each and every individual one of us to protect ourselves.

And we can only do that if we're prepared for the worst case scenario, and are armed, even in our own homes.

Arrogant and stupid.

This post doesn't reference politics, for once. Nor does it have anything to do with popular culture. No, this one was sparked by my total contempt for people of faith that claim to know the mind of God.

This family is a very good example of this. They're trying to force a private, Catholic high school to permit their son to enroll, despite their refusal to get the kid the vaccinations to protect the other students. Their justification is that, since we're all made in the image of God, introducing anything into the body (such as immunizations) is a violation of the will of God.

I've got several issues with this. First and foremost, they have no right to force a private high school to allow their son to attend. Were it a public school, I'd question their intelligence in wanting to enroll him so badly, but not their rights. Second, not getting their son vaccinated endangers all of the kids around him. Last, they've decided that they know the mind of God better than almost everyone else in the world, which contains several different problematic issues that caught my attention.

That last issue is the main one that gets me: their claim that the body is perfect as it is, and should have nothing else introduced to mar that perfection of being created in the image of God is a dangerously narrow-minded, too-literal interpretation of one single passage. Yes, we are made in the image of God--but which part of us? God is spirit: spirit does not include body. I believe it was our souls that were made in God's image.

Personally, I believe God pushed the start button on the big bang, and on evolution, and sat back to watch the show unfold until something developed that was complex enough to house the soul: homo sapiens. Like Mousie, I believe Genesis was never meant to be interpreted as literally as some ignorant individuals do: "It is impossible to look at Genesis and believe that its main intent is natural history. It makes a spectacularly bad natural history."

That entire idea that the body is perfect, and that nothing should be introduced is a very dangerous one: what about infections? Does that mean they'll not permit their kid to be treated with antibiotics? What about cancer? Will they sentence their child to a painful death, because of their belief that intervening in the body is a sin? There are verses that mention that the body is a temple to God, but that's in reference to intoxicants and sexual promiscuity, mutilation and self-harm: things that can and often do cause irreparable harm to both body and soul, not to things intended to preserve health and life. Like antibiotics. Like cancer treatments.

Like immunization vaccines.

If those idiot parents truly believe that their bodies are perfect, and that nothing should be introduced, maybe they need to be forced to follow that belief themselves, and starved to death.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one.

I haven't heard much of Lady Gaga's music. What I have heard gets stuck in my head to the point I want to knock myself unconscious to get rid of it.

Still, that's not what's formed my impression of her. I feel much the same way about The Beatles' music. No, my impression of her is that she's totally fake. Plastic. Not even as real as Barbie, who at least usually sports a happy smile.

What scares me is that most of her fans don't see just how fake she is. Camille Paglia suggests it's because they're so immersed in electronic communication (Facebook, texting, anything but face-to-face, voice to voice communication) that they simply can't see the difference between a put up, faked-up, electric persona and a real person.

I'm not saying that Lady Gaga can't sing--even The Beatles could sing, and I really hate their music with very few exceptions. All I'm saying is that her persona is disturbing on a level that was, and is, difficult to articulate. I wonder if the artist is still in there, or if somehow the manufactured doll put out by the music industry is all that's left.

Happy anniversary.

Nine years. Today. Right now, in fact.

And we're still only marginally safer now than we were then.

I've heard people whining for years, now, that the reason they hate us is because we're belligerent. That we export a culture offensive to Islam, with the nudity, sex, and alcohol routinely portrayed in the media. That we should leave them to rule their world the way they see fit.

I don't recall United States citizens hijacking full passenger planes and ramming them into office buildings full of Muslims in Saudi Arabia, with American citizens celebrating in the streets of American cities as the buildings collapsed and the death tolls rose. Seems to me it happened the other way around.

I don't recall the United States forcing our culture on other nations in the name of religious tolerance. Seems to me that we're the ones bending over backwards to accommodate an enemy ideology, welcoming it into our midst like the idiots we are.

I don't recall any attempts by radical leftists--especially feminists--to force the same standards of behavior onto Muslims that they intimidate the rest of us in the West into, such as treating women, homosexuals, and those of other colors, beliefs, and nationalities as equal members of the human race. Seems to me those same radical leftists are too busy declaring the Muslim culture, which routinely stones rape victims to death because they're unchaste women, the moral equivalent of the culture where the rape victim is seen as a victim instead of punished as a criminal.

Nine years. We've spent nine years coddling a culture that aims suicide bombers at our troops, that buries bombs on roads that as often kill their own people as ours, that wants to force the entire world back into the seventh century, and under their own sandal heels.

People are angry. Politicians seem to have forgotten that the people who elected them have longer memories, don't see the "bigger picture" (if there is one), and only see that political correctness allows terrorists to stalk our armed forces from within their own ranks. Politicians beg us, "Please, oh please, don't provoke them."

What about us? What about the victory center that Islam wants to build on the very grounds that they destroyed nine years ago? What about the bibles, rosaries, Crucifixes, and other symbols of Christianity that are against the law to own in the middle east and are routinely burned in Saudi Arabia? What about the bibles we forced our own troops to burn so that we wouldn't offend those we were sent to subjugate so that they couldn't attack us again? Isn't that provoking us?

Is it any wonder that so many are behind the crazed pastors that want to burn the Koran today?

Nine years. I suspect this is only the first nine years in the next two hundred.

God knows we're not willing to do what's necessary to end it sooner, and prevent their "civilization" from destroying ours in the process.

From an e-mail

"YOU MIGHT BE A Radical MUSLIM IF..."

1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.

2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.

3. You have more wives than teeth.

4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon unclean."

5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.

6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.

7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.

8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.

10. Your cousin is president of the United States

What part of "...shall not..." don't they understand?

I swear, we need to add a written test on our Constitution to our requirements for holding public office, especially for congresscritters. There is no way the second amendment can be misunderstood by any rational person (which automatically excludes lawyers, like the ones who wrote the explanation linked to the amendment) who has actually read it.

Regardless, since they couldn't get the EPA to do their dirty work, the administration is trying to restrict our rights to keep and bear arms by restricting and more heavily regulating the manufacturing end of things.

Contrasts

I honestly believe the FBI when they say that Muslims are going to get violent over the Koran burning coming up.

The interesting thing is that, not only was there no violence incited when the Islamofacists burn the Bible, crosses, and other Christian artifacts, but Christian soldiers were ordered to burn Bibles translated into the two most common Afghan languages (and obeyed those orders) rather than permit Islamofacists to believe that we were trying to convert their slaves to Christianity.

And the media is always far more worried about right-wing Christian violence that never materializes. Go figure.

I don't mind part of their idea.

Giving gang members jobs might well work--provided the jobs are behind walls, concertina wire, patrolled by individuals with training and rifles, and involve taking the individuals in question off the streets.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. First of all, since it's Chicago, it's far more likely that the individuals saying that they're only violent because their lives suck* will be handed the jobs and privileges taken from the law-abiding. They are, after all, helpless victims of the welfare culture that removed productive role-models (hard-working fathers) from the home in the 60's and 70's.

Second, and most importantly, these are criminals, and government only wants to prevent the law abiding from using violence to defend ourselves from the violent. Only the law-abiding are a threat to the government.

After all, what is our current government but a "legal" gang?

Funny, how they won't take their own medicine.

I recently read a story that I've been kind of thinking about since. A man who worked for a teachers' union (UFT, specifically) decided that the union's non-teacher employees deserved the same benefits as the teachers they represented, and tried to get his coworkers unionized.

The UFT fired him.

It occurred to me that there was something wrong when the union doesn't want to give the same benefits to their employees that they fight for for the ones they represent.

After I thought about it for a while longer, I started to wonder: if the unions (the biggest business of them all) can't afford that kind of salary, benefits, and vacation package, can we, the taxpayers, afford that for all teachers?

I'm not saying that some teachers don't earn it. Many earn it many times over. Jaime Escalante is a very good example of "Whatever they're paying him, it isn't enough."

However, with dropout and fail rates increasing (though being hidden by schools' massaging of the numbers), literacy and numerical literacy rates falling to the point that some kids don't qualify for community college remedial math classes, and students (and employers) holding the opinion that people have to have a degree to be qualified to work, maybe we can't afford to keep giving our teachers so much.

We've proved over the past quarter of a century that throwing more money at the problem hasn't solved it. Teachers' unions stand firmly against merit pay bonuses, so maybe starting teachers and ineffective teachers need to be forced into pay and benefit cuts.

Effectively, yeah: that may be classified as merit pay. But it's really not that hard to determine which teachers deserve it. All we have to do is compare apples to apples: test all students in one school grade, with the same test, at the beginning and end of the year, throw out the highest and lowest scorers in each class, and compare the medians. Students know who the best teachers are; why can't administrations figure it out?

A good example of why holsters are always a good idea.

Seriously, people: do not put loaded guns in your back pocket--or front pocket, or down your pants--without a holster made to go there. You'll shoot your butt (or something more valuable) off.

About time.

The EPA finally recognized that it is, like all government entities, limited by the Constitution and its duly ratified amendments.

Let's see if that extends as far as recognizing that it can't seize property (or abrogate property owners' rights), or lay taxes.

Another semester has begun

And already there's frustration.

I hate admin and bureaucracy.

They've got apps for everything.

If you watch Top Gear (British car show) and happened to see the interview with Stephen Fry, you probably know that iPhone has an app for gay men who want to find other gay men nearby. There's an app that locates where child predators live in relation to where you (and your kids) happen to be.

There's also an app that helped a Texas homeowner know his house was being broken into, so that he could call 911. While he was on vacation in Connecticut.

I've got an app for that, too, for all that I don't have an iPhone, don't go on vacation often at all, and almost never that far away. Here's my app to prevent burglary:

This made me cry a little.

It may be because I'm pregnant, but I think it was more than that. Give it a watch.

*snicker*

This story cracked me up: a Hatian-born Florida Democrat would-be-congresscritter got robbed at gunpoint while waiting in her car to make a campaign appearance at a church.

I'd be laughing at any congresscritter getting no professional courtesy from their colleagues, such as the above; however, the fact that it's a foreign-born Democrat woman, and a typical liberal, makes it better.

Good news...

I found out yesterday that my other half and I will be having a girl!

Who do these guys remind you of?

This one is really good. They made me think of another of my favorite bands when I heard their work the first time.




I like this one even better. Don't ask me why--I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It's the same band and singer backing up one of the greatest guitarists of the 80's and early 90's.

Too...many...remarks! Can't pick one!

I know it's not really funny, but one of the first things I thought when I saw this headline was, "Did somebody drop a nuke on one of Al Gore's global warming summits?"

Bitch has no rights in this country.

She doesn't have the right to stay here. She doesn't have any parental rights to her child. She doesn't have the right to use our court system to take the anchor baby away from the parents who've loved him and raised him as long as he can remember.

She needs to be sent back to Guatemala, bulk rate shipping, postage due.

That needs to happen to each and every criminal alien who pops a kid out on American soil: they get arrested and deported, with their child given to an American couple who can't have kids of their own, to love and raise.

The sad thing is that the Brits are seeing the Obama presidency more clearly than the current administration.

Because, seriously: Gardiner doesn't really miss anything in his analysis of why the current administration is failing so badly. The only thing he didn't really mention was the post turtle issue.

Lie down with filthy, skanky, leftist politicians...

...get up with bed bugs.

Ready for classes next week...

I think that, unless I'm really needed, I won't ask for any more summer classes. They go way too fast, and this summer's seemed to have a lot more special snowflakes in it than I usually have.

Not to mention it leaves me feeling like I don't have quite enough time to get rested from teaching, and ready to teach fall classes.

In any case, though, I did get my textbook finished, and got my site adjusted to remove stuff that I put in the textbook. They don't need to be downloading and using the handouts, but ignoring the explanations of what they're supposed to be doing. And way too many of them do just that.

So, in other words, we need to move away from service industry to manufacture?

That's what I kinda got from this article.

However, the factories mentioned in the articles aren't your grandpa's factories, nor are the jobs something any schlub can do. Most of these factories are automated: that means the jobs require brains, adaptability, and quality education, things that the majority of the American workforce in general lacks.

Thing is, unions have most of American manufacture in a stranglehold. There are still some auto companies that have factories in the U.S. that aren't government owned. Most of those are in non-union states.

Kansas, Missouri, and much of flyover country are right-to-work states. Maybe it'll be flyover country that hauls the rest of the country out of the depression we're currently mired in.

We just need to build a few more factories, and fight to keep unions from raping our workers.

Trust me, people, this isn't a new concept...

The FDIC is making a big deal of praising banks with free checking. Like it's a brand new thing to help poor people.

Um, guys? I've had a checking account with one bank or another for thirteen years, now, and my checking accounts have always been free. The last three banks I've done business with have had free online bill pay. Nor have I ever paid for a savings account.

The article I linked above mentioned that there's a large percentage of people who don't use bank services. Isn't that their choice? Isn't it their choices to engage in behavior (i.e., constantly bouncing checks) that discourages banks from offering them the same type of free checking I've had for darn near half my life?

And, as for the "minorities" cited by the article, isn't it a personal choice to commit the crime of jumping the border so that they don't have the identification documents most banks require to open an account?

This strikes me as just another instance of the Community Reinvestment Act, the government interference that directly caused sub-prime lending, the housing bubble, and the current economic problems caused by people defaulting on really stupid loans.

Racist idiot.

I really hate identity politics. You know, the type that says, "Since you're black/Hispanic/a woman, you must vote Democrat."

Excuse me, but that leaves the individual totally out of the equation.

Beyond that? Harry Reid most recent stupidity overlooks one of the main reasons legal residents and naturalized citizens support enforcing current immigration law, by either the federal government or the state: nobody likes someone who butts to the head of the line.

I wonder if they're going to be finally going sane?

I mentioned before that the feds were being a bit insane in their expectations of housing policy results. Actually, I spent quite a bit of time talking about it in various posts.

It looks like now, they're finally realizing that they can't keep doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Stupid sellers shouldn't have accepted the offer.

I have no problem with people deciding they don't want to sell their house to someone else for any reason. I don't even care that this couple didn't want to sell their home to a black couple. It's a personal choice. I personally think it's a reprehensible reason, but I'm not going to tell people what they can and can't think.

But they shouldn't have accepted the offer, then refused to sign the papers. That does make them criminally liable.

This smacks of a setup for murder.

I agree that Hillary Clinton would make a better VP than Joe Biden. I also think that she'd make a better POTUS than Obama.

I don't think it's a good idea to set a man up for murder by replacing Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton. If the trade is made, I don't think Obama (should he be re-elected--which I doubt) would live longer than the first two years and one day of his second term.

I don't like the man, either personally, or as a president. However, I'd never wish death upon him, if only for the sake of his daughters.

The answer is yes.

If we count salary plus a dollar amount on benefits, as this article does, federal workers are paid entirely too much.

I'm not protesting the paychecks/benefits of law enforcement officers and teachers. In point of fact, given how much of themselves the really good ones give, they aren't paid enough.

However, those in other government jobs really shouldn't have the benefits they do, not at their pay levels and amount of actual work they do.

That goes more than double for federal workers in the legislative branch.

You'd think they'd WELCOME state aid...

ICE has admitted they don't have the funding to track the illegals that they know about.

The same bureaucracy that stuck its nose in the air and refused to process those turned over by Arizona. Because Arizona's racist, y'know.

I've got a few ideas to cut cost: cut the paperwork and ship the criminals back to where they came from. That would definitely cut some costs.

My other, preferred idea is to post ICE agents down on the border in well-sheltered "hides" with a high-powered rifle and orders to ignore all South-bound illegals, and take out all North-bound wetbacks. Yeah, there'd have to be legislation passed to refuse all lawsuits brought by Mexico and/or the criminals' families, but that would be even cheaper than shipping them back where they came from.

Got my textbook more than half done.

I'm sure not getting royalties for this. Basically, I'm calling it a textbook because I don't have a better word for it. There's some introductory material that I wrote to give students answers to the most common "what am I supposed to do/how am I supposed to do that?" questions, but most of it is the handouts from the paper assignments and some explanations and transition material.

I've got about seven chapters done, and four chapters left to pull together and write. Not much left at all.

Setting up for fall

I'll be a bit busy for much blogging for the next two weeks. I have a textbook to write, and a second to modify.

I do plan on doing some, so stay tuned.

I'm gonna go to hell...

This cracked me up. Talk about an irony sandwich.

I think, maybe, every citizen ought to carry a digital camera of some sort.

After all: they can't prosecute us all for filming them dropping the ball. And, if you think about it, it is in our own best interest to make sure that evidence can't be easily planted (or removed) by those who'd rather we weren't able to defend ourselves.

This is probably a lowball estimate.

I just read that government figures have something like 40.8 million people on food stamps or similar taxpayer funded food benefits.

My guestimate of a dollar amount is based on this: some are granted something like $50/month because of other government benefits that put them just over the threshold, of getting a reasonable, monthly budget of groceries, but still below where they can easily afford to feed them selves; others get $300+ per month per family member. I sort of averaged the likely numbers together to guess that people on food stamps average out to around $200/month.

That's $816 million dollars handed out in entitlements, mostly to those who don't understand the difference between needs and wants (like I mentioned in this blog post). Per month.

Now, multiply that by 12. Comes out to not quite $10 billion per year.

Missouri has laws in place where anyone on the dole is subject to random drug tests, and lose benefits if they test positive. That cut some of the worst offenders off the rolls. I don't know if any other states have anything similar, but it should be mandatory nationwide. I'd also advocate cutting luxury foods off what food stamps will pay for--nothing more than canned food, hamburger meat, beans, and rice. Nothing that's ready made or processed.

I'd also advocate cutting off food stamps to any household not on SSI, disability, and without children.

But then again, I'm a heartless taxpayer that thinks that most adults have the responsibility for their own actions, and need to pay the prices for their own choices. It's only when mental (really low IQ, or other cognitive disability--not "emotional disability") disability, physical disability (other than morbid obesity, which--when not coupled with another illness like MS--is a personal choice in most cases I've ever encountered), or age get in the way of being able to make choices to keep one from starving that I think adults should get "free food" from the taxpayer.

From the "All cultures are equal" files...

...I'm going to go out on a limb and make a bet, here: somehow, the left and the illegal alien lobby are going to try to explain how killing a man and drinking his blood are morally neutral because of the culture they come from.

Damn.

A little girl's lemonade stand was shut down in Portland, OR, because she didn't have a $120 license to operate one.

That's 240 cups of lemonade, minimum, for the precious little seven year old to break even.

I don't think we need any more evidence that Big Government and Big Brother don't support entrepreneurship. Nor do we need more evidence that they've never been kids themselves, just crawled out from under a rock into office.

I think this is way beyond "self-incrimination."

There is no way I think this should be permitted. Yes, it's interesting; however, it's so far beyond a violation of individual freedoms--specifically those guaranteed by the fourth and fifth amendments--that it sounds a lot more like Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report" than anything rational.

Pro-law isn't anti-immigrant, just anti-illegal.

Virginia's AG has given a legal opinion that cops in VA can ask foreigners they pull over/arrest for their immigration status, thereby proving himself pro-law.

Maybe if more of the country was pro-law, a nun wouldn't have been killed by a drunk-driving illegal alien. Maybe if the nation was more interested in prosecuting crime that affects others than in modern prohibition, said double-criminal wouldn't have been on the road, drunk again, and hit an innocent woman.

There's a reason Missouri passed Proposition C by such an overwhelming majority.

It isn't because Dear Leader is black, like he's probably going to claim. It isn't just because of the huge price tag that has been understated by every political hack that is pro-Obamacare/ mandatory Medicaid (though that is a large part of why Missouri just kicked the current administration in their empty ballsack).

The citizens--not subjects--of this country don't want socialized medicine. We don't want wait times in emergency rooms long enough to prompt us to suture our own wounds (and then get prosecuted for doing so). We don't want women to go through this in a crowded ER waiting room.

We don't want socialized medicine that gives us access to waiting lines and lists, that gives us government-mandated health-service rationing, instead of permitting the open market to give us access to doctors and care. We don't want an entire segment of our economy enslaved to provide the services that the left has created a "right" to.

This is the United States of America, not Great Britain or the European Union. We are citizens, not subjects. You govern by our consent, not by right of birth.

It seems that most of those in Washington, D.C., have forgotten that.

Big Brother is watching us.

This ought to be illegal. It's an imposition on our God-given rights, guaranteed against government intrusion by the fourth amendment.

"Our own government has become our enemy"

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu may be referring specifically to the federal government's reaction to and attitudes about illegal immigration, but that's really not as far as it goes. Like King George III of England, the current POTUS (who has delusions of competence) and his cronies have done much, much more than most of us realize in usurping our personal and national God-given freedoms.

Let's start with immigration, shall we?

In refusing to enforce current immigration laws, almost all of which parallel Arizona's laws, the current administration and its lackeys have abdicated responsibility for the welfare of the nation--in its security from attack, in its economic welfare, and in its actual physical health. Illegals in this country commit a disproportionate amount of crime, collect a disproportionate amount of taxpayer funded welfare programs (and by that, I mean no illegal is entitled to any dollar amount spent on them in any form, whether that is through welfare, education, or health care), and are not subjected to the same requirements as legal immigrants with regards to carrying contagious diseases like drug-resistant TB into our country.

This abdication of responsibility led directly to Arizona passing a law with an overwhelming majority that makes federal immigration law and state immigration law the same. By that, I mean Arizona made it a state crime to commit the federal crime of jumping the border without waiting in line.

And, pretty much as soon as Arizona passed the law, Dear Leader and his AG declared that they'd bring a lawsuit against the state that dared uphold national law. Which brings us to

--He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

--He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Not long afterward, a federal judge in Arizona struck the heart out of the law, disallowing Arizona law enforcement to check the immigration status of those investigated for other crimes. I don't know about you, but I know that if I were to be pulled over for, say, not wearing my seatbelt and the cop finds out that I left my driver's license in my other purse (or pants, like a friend of mine did), I'll be ticketed at the least (my friend, who looked like a drug dealer at the time of the stop, and lived in a rather suspicious looking apartment complex, was arrested) for not having legal ID on me. According to that judge, Mexicans don't have the same burden of proof.

Then again, she's in the direct pay of Dear Leader. If she hadn't ruled like she had (even though she was probably eager to), she might have lost her bench:

--He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

Let's move from immigration law violations to others. Somehow, somewhere, Dear Leader decided it was his right and duty to nominate and hire "czars" to help him carry out his abuses against the American people. We have a Pay Czar, a Car Czar, a Green Jobs Czar, a Health Czar, and many others, which have no authority under the constitution, any more than Dear Leader had to appoint them:

--He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

Worst in my opinion is his insistence that, like Canada and Britain, we must socialize a huge portion of our economy, because healthcare is a basic human right.

Mr. President, we are neither Canadians nor Britons, and their socialized medicine plans failed. Miserably:

--He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

And in with this, we discover that, not only is your plan going to cost more than the federal deficit currently is, it's going to have to have taxes added up front to build up enough funds to make imposing Obamacare/mandatory Medicaid possible.

And that doesn't even count the hidden taxes that is the cap and trade legislation that the lame duck congress will likely force through once the November elections have made the American public's displeasure known:

--For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

We have discussed this at every stage, in every way we can think of. We've posted YouTube videos. We've organized against the socialization of our nation. We've marched on Washington, D.C. itself, totally overshadowing in numbers similar left-wing protests. Has the Federal Government listened? Quite the contrary:

--In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Unlike what many think, Washington D.C. and the federal government haven't failed. They have accomplished much of what they intended, and are working on the rest. If anything, that is what will lead to a second revolution (or civil war, whichever you'd prefer to call it):

...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I hope that it doesn't come by blood and strife, like the first Revolution did, but I'm fast losing that hope as the Federal government keeps refusing to listen to those who placed it where it is.

Pray for our country. Pray hard. We need it.

More ethics violations.

Besides Rangel, there have been three other names pop up as needing investigation: Maxine Waters (likely connected to Rangel); Jesse Jackson, Jr. (though his dad really needs to be thoroughly investigated for racketeering); and Gregory Meeks. Since all four are niggers in every sense of the word, race-baiter Al Sharpton is claiming that the investigations are racially motivated.

I think it's more likely to be politically than racially motivated. Jesse Jackson, Jr., in particular, makes me wonder if these four have pissed Dear Leader off to the point where he might have had his people quietly pointing the ethics committee in the right direction.

I wonder what dirt Rangel et. al. have on Dear Leader?

Age does matter, sometimes.

And sometimes, there needs to be prosecution involved, not marriage, even when there is "consent." Like here.

Thankfully, when the family tried to get a marriage liscense for their pregnant 13 year old daughter, there was an investigation into who the father was, and the 27 year old man was arrested.

The sick bastard should have been sleeping with a girl closer to his own age, rather than one that could have been his daughter. I understand that, in some countries and cultures, the girl would have been counted an adult. However, this is not one of those countries, and the culture needs to adapt to what this nation's laws require.

"If there's grass on the field, play ball," does not apply when the age difference is so great.