Last Chance News for 2009

The world seems to slow down a little in the blissful week from Christmas to New Year's. Mercifully Congress will not be in session until the 3rd week of January again so the American people can breathe a sigh of relief for the moment. Even though the House and Senate have passed Death care bills, they are a reasonable distance from reconciling those and, if the GOP can find a backbone to share before MLK Day, maybe they will use all the procedural tricks they can to slow it down further. I doubt it will matter in the end but if they can make this a bitter fight that lasts into the summer, many Americans will still remember that the Democrat party forced it on us in spite of the fact that over 60% of us don't want it and we can destroy their majority in November.

Well there was another almost terrorist attack on an airplane on Christmas Day (but don't worry, Islam isn't at war with Western Civilization or Christianity). How embarrassing must it be to be a failed suicide/homicide terrorist in the first place but to go down in history as the "Underpants Bomber"? It would be hilarious if it weren't deadly serious. The press won't mention it but this year has seen an increase in attempted and successful terrorist acts over the Bush years following 9/11 which means that Al Qaida and others see Obama as being militarily weak. Well, duh! Naturally the American government won't blame itself for the lapse in security but it WILL make new regulations to further inconvenience the millions of innocent Americans that fly every day rather than do something LOGICAL like profiling.

Knowing Hobama and crew this could be part of their plan to ultimately drive the average person from the skies making air travel the playground of the rich again. I don't think they care if all but one or two air carriers survive to ferry them between their various playgrounds and they have willing accomplices in the enivro-whacko crowd who will see the lower CO2 output from fewer planes as a good thing.

Speaking of CO2, remember that it has been 'de-listed' as a greenhouse gas. Four square feet of grass will exchange all the CO2 you or I exhale this year. The earth cleans out 50% of all CO2 produced in the world every year NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE PRODUCE (that means Earth's capacity to clean CO2 has not yet been reached). Do you know what the biggest greenhouse gas is? No, it isn't methane. It's water vapor. Anyone with any sense knows this. Here in Washington even a publicly educated teenager knows that 70 degrees F feels cooler in Spokane than Seattle because of Seattle's humidity. A visit to the US South East in July will also convince you of the power of water vapor.

Speaking of the rich, as I've always said, the dirty secret of graduated or 'progressive' taxation is that it penalizes people who are attempting to become rich, not people who are already rich. The Kennedy and Soros fortunes are secure even if the upper tax rate is raised to 100% because it won't affect money they already have but it would affect you or I if we were coming from middle class wages into the upper income brackets with high taxation. So, if we're going to go for that, I suggest that we attach a rider to make sure that these people are equally penalized by their confiscatory taxation. If they want to redistribute OUR wealth, let's make sure they have to redistribute THEIR wealth as well. Since we're in the Hobama age of favoritism, I'll only redistribute the wealth of people I don't like (I'll let them keep $250,000 each except for Soros who can't keep so much as a penny). So, for example, we'll take the Kennedy family's estimated $3 Billion (I'm going for the high mark just in case), George Soros' $13 Billion, Teresa Heinz-Kerry's $1 Billion and John's own $225 Million, Democrat Representative Jane Harman's $225 Million, Jay Rockefeller's $81 Million, Warren Buffet's $40 Billion, Michael Bloomberg's $17.5 Billion, and Algore's $300 Million. If my math is correct, that totals just a shade over $ 75 Billion. If we divide that among the 300 million LEGAL Americans, it works out to a whopping $250 per American! Of course we've destroyed the Heinz ketchup company and all of the people they employ are now out of work as are the people Warren Buffett employs and all the people at Bloomberg television (although Charlie Rose should spend the rest of his days as a janitor somewhere just for being so boring). Taking the fortunes of the others won't help us much but since politicians don't actually create wealth, who cares. As for Soros, he should be shot for treason anyway and his money isn't enough to rebuild the wealth that he robbed from the people of England and Eastern Europe or the American public but it would be some sweet justice if he and his family were on the side of a road begging for handouts from passing motorists.

Well, that's my last rant for this year - at least the last one I'm posting! Other than changing the digits on the calendar, I don't put much stock in the whole New Year celebration thing so I prefer to use it as a time for reflection rather than partying. 2009 was a pretty rotten year and we need to pray that 2010 is better. If nothing else we are living that old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Even if 2010 turns out to be worse, it promises to be interesting. See you next week!

Blockbuster Cliches

Well unfortunately it looks like James Cameron's Avatar is a big hit. I say unfortunately because from what I have seen in trailers and heard in scuttlebutt (which has been confirmed) Avatar employs two of the Hollywood left's favorite cliches, the 'evil' military and the 'evil' corporation. I would like to see Avatar for the ground breaking special effects - isn't it kind of scary that we can almost seamlessly blend CGI and real people now? How long before we won't be able to trust what we see on the evening news because someone has scripted CGI events for us to believe? But that's off topic a bit. James Cameron is famous for his hatred of the 'evil' corporations. The entire Terminator series is based on the actions of a sinister corporation that built an all-powerful computer network which turned on humanity. I suppose that we should pity the idiots on the left who can't figure out that the corporation is values neutral and it is the people at the top that determine whether it is nefarious or not. Interestingly enough, men like James Cameron work for some of the most insidious corporations in our society; movie studios. The movie studios work to maximize profits at the expense of the consumer. They backed the Blue Ray disc over the HD-DVD only because it was not backwards compatible with normal DVDs meaning that consumers would have to repurchase their entire collection if they wanted to upgrade to Blue Ray. They enforce Draconian copyright laws against even the most unintentional violations. But worst of all, they slip left-wing propaganda, anti-American values, and every form of immorality they can think of into those movies in spite of the fact that pro middle class virtues and family movies make bigger profits on average.

Recently I also had the misfortune (self imposed) to watch the Spielberg version of HG Wells War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise. This show employed one of the other most overused Hollywood cliches; the dysfunctional family ('hi-lighted' by the nearly continuous shrill screams of Dakota Fanning). Of course the family survives the horror of the alien menace (even though they made EVERY wrong decision possible and would have all died in the first half hour of the movie were it reality) to work out their issues with each other. The dysfunctional family theme does work upon occasion but its overuse demonstrates that the Hollywood writers are inherently lazy and lacking in creativity. With a little more effort they could write equally satisfying drama for a fully functional family where the menace they face as a team is more than a backdrop for the battle between an unlikable jerk (wonder if Tommy was actually acting), a bitter teenage son, and disaffected tween daughter. At least Spielberg has some redeeming qualities as a director. The military in War of the Worlds was portrayed as caring about the civilians safety and resolutely committed to defending the nation in the face of a seemingly invincible foe.

One Hollywood cliche that makes me snicker instead of develop a facial tic is making another appearance in the upcoming The Book of Eli. This is a post-Apocalypse thriller and like virtually every movie in this genre, it appears that the first thing people will forget after the Apocalypse is basic hygiene - as if the entire world becomes a collection of soap-adverse Frenchmen the moment society collapses. As an aficionado of this genre, I saw it develop in the movies of the mid 70s but it really hit its stride thanks to the Mad Max series. The exception to this rule though is when there is a dystopian group or society that has risen in the wake of the Apocalypse. These people are usually exceptionally clean and this usually signals that they are evil (I guess Hollywood doesn't believe that cleanliness is next to Godliness - or maybe they do and just hate God). While I don't expect people in that situation to be as fastidious about personal hygiene as most Americans are right now, survivors would likely congregate around a ready source of water and reserve a portion of it for bathing in order to keep disease at bay.

Oh well, what do you expect from drug addled, sex crazed Marxists?

I'd like to keep away from politics this week but how can I with Harry Reid and the Keystone Kops robbing the American people at gunpoint? These people are crazed by their own power and need to be stopped. The Health Care bill is nothing but a hodge-podge of special interest deals and back room negotiations all designed to impoverish the American people. It demonstrates the inherent problem with modern liberalism: liberalism is the belief that since you cannot make the people equally happy you must make them equally miserable. The only way to do that is to attack and destroy the American Middle Class which fits into their plans anyway since the Middle Class stands as a roadblock to their quests for absolute power and a monopoly on knowledge.

Things to Ponder this Weekend

Well we are one week away from Christmas 2009 and I don't think we have ever needed a little Christmas more.

The Senate is so determined to pass ANY bill before Christmas that the White House has allegedly threatened national security to get Senator Nelson of Nebraska to fold. Unlike Mary Landreau in Louisiana, Nelson seems adamant about his principles unlike Landreau whose $300 Billion bribe is being called the "Louisiana Purchase".

The GOP finally borrowed a backbone and called for a reading of Vermont Senator (and self-proclaimed Socialist) Bernie Sanders 750 page amendment. The Dems and their willing patsies in the press are outraged by this "trick" of parliamentary procedure but in a sane world, what they and we should all be outraged by is that a bill can be passed without ever being read in the Senate chamber. For one thing, I'm betting that if EVERY bill had to be read before both chambers, no one would write a bill or amendment as long as the health care bill and Senator Sanders' amendment are. Having the clerk read a bill should not be a delaying tactic; it should be the rule rather than the exception.

Bangladesh wants the Western world to pony up $500 BILLION per year to counteract the effects of non-existent global warming. Yeah, right! Aside from the fact that we are broke thanks to the Socialist traitors in our midst, I would suggest that if the Bangladeshi government actually believes that global warming is real (man caused or not) they should start a crash program to teach all their people how to swim and hold their breath.

One of my favorite British Prime Ministers, William Pitt the Younger, once said: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." Hmmm. One would think that Mr. Pitt caught a glimpse of the Obama Administration and the current Congress.

One of my favorite Bible verses is Ecclesiastes 10:2: "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left". Boy if that isn't a blatant political statement I don't know what is. I'm sure that many a theologian has presented it as another example of God placing the righteous on his right but it doesn't expressly say that in this verse. No matter the theological interpretation, it's a great way to irritate your liberal friends. Let's face it, if you are wise, your heart and head will guide you to the political right. We currently have plenty of examples of fools where are on the left...isn't that right B-HO?

Have a great weekend dear readers! Next week will be sparse due to Christmas.

Glo-baloney!

Before I hit my topic, global warming, I want to alert readers to a rumor that the White House is pressuring Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson to vote for the Reid Health care bill by threatening to put Offutt Air Force Base on the base closure list. It would be a weak threat at best as no bases are scheduled to be closed for the next four years or so but it explains a lot about the way the White House works and exposes their willingness to hold national security hostage to their radical leftist agenda. Offutt was the home to the Strategic Air Command Headquarters and is still a vital part of our strategic and nuclear defenses. It is the place that President Bush was sent to in the unsure hours after 9/11. Playing politics with a place that important should be considered treasonous but what else should we expect in the age of the Audacity of Hoax.

While out shoveling snow the other day, I spent the quiet moments ruminating on the controversy over global warming or, as it is known now, global climate change. The recent scandal over the hacked e-mails at the East Anglia Climate Research Unit has done considerable damage to the global warming alarmists who, mercifully, are coming unglued in Copenhagen right now and bolstered the arguments of long time skeptics; myself included. In high school science lab, ignoring a result or leaving out results of a test to get the 'right' answer was known as fudging the data and our science teacher did not tolerate it. Well the e-mails prove that the climate 'scientists' have been fudging their data for some time.

I am a devout Christian but also well educated and have a generally high regard for science. Unlike some Christians (those usually used as examples of scientific ignorance) I have never believed that the Earth is only 6000 years old and I really have no problem reconciling an old Earth with Genesis because I believe in a Genesis gap that allows a long period between the creation of the universe and the formation of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. I do not believe in evolution as it is currently put forward but I accept that there was a creation that existed before Adam and Eve but was, for some reason, wiped out. And I also have never bought into man caused global warming or the potential disaster scenarios put forward by modern 'science'. I am backed up in that belief by the promise of God given to Noah in Genesis 8:22: As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. He also promised Noah never to flood the world again. Obviously God doesn't mean that local conditions will vary but that doesn't alter or abolish the promise. Based on where you live, planting and harvest time rarely vary outside of a couple of weeks and there will be summer and winter in their appropriate place - sometimes mild, sometimes harsh. If Al Gore was a man of real Faith in God, he would not try to convince us that Cuba will disappear under the ocean (never mind that the highest peaks in Cuba are 6000+ feet tall so if it disappears so does much of the rest of the land in the world).

Up until recently the climate alarmists have had it their way on everything. When it got hot that was global warming; if it was extra cold that was global warming; if temperatures were normal for an area that was global warming. Dissent from that line made you a religious fanatic or insane which is the same thing in the eyes of 'learned' men of science. They have ignored the fact that world temperatures have been flat for the last decade and lower in some places. Even now, they claim that 2009 was the 5th warmest year on record in spite of the fact the much of the US and Europe had below normal temperatures last summer. But the real rub is that tiny phrase 'on record'. Accurate temperature readings have only been around for about 2 centuries. Guess what? At the beginning of the 1800s the world was just coming out of the worst of the so-called Little Ice Age that started about 1350 so world temperatures were rising anyway. Not only that but the hyper accurate readings we now get on a world wide scale have only been recorded since the advent of the satellite age (around 50 years but actually less for weather satellites). Looking at 50 years of climate history for the earth is like trying to figure out a murder mystery by opening to the middle and reading a couple of words.

As a historian, I have long known about climate change. One reason the Romans hated being posted to Britain and along the Rhine frontier was because of the cold winters. Supply was difficult in the winter because the Thames froze making it nearly impossible to get to London. Yet as Europe emerged from the 'Dark Ages' temperatures rose and brought on what we know as the Medieval Warm Period. Remember in grade school when we were told that the 'Vikings' told people Greenland was nice so people would go there instead of to Iceland? That was a lie. Coastal Greenland actually was nice. Unlike now, coastal Greenland was ice free and had a growing season similar to that of modern Scandinavia. Many flocked to it and even colonized North America. England was so warm that the Thames did not freeze in the winter and the southern region was better known for good wine than France at that time. By the end of the 12th century the population of Europe was booming thanks to mild winters and unheard of crop yields (keep in mind agriculture was largely the same as it had been during the Roman Empire). That all came crashing to a quick end in the 1350s and 1360s (which proves that the climate can change dramatically and quickly). In the course of two decades the climate changed dramatically. Two consecutive years of wet, cold summers ruined the crops and Europe turned cold, dark, and hungry. The conditions allowed for the great plague that wiped out 1/3 of Europe's population. It would take them until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to get back to pre-plague population levels. The Thames began freezing over again and during the reign of Elizabeth I, people used the frozen river to avoid paying tolls to cross on bridges and played on the ice as well. Queen Victoria is supposed to have learned to ice skate on the frozen Thames but she was also the last British Monarch to witness it freeze over. According to paleo-climatologists we haven't reached the average global temperature that they estimate for the bulk of the Medieval Warm Period. We are several degrees Centigrade below it. While shoveling snow, I find myself strongly in favor of a warmer earth. Longer growing seasons would make food more plentiful than it is now. Mild winters would drop demand for heating oil and make us less dependent on Middle East Oil. Shorter, milder winters would mean I could spend less time scooping frozen water off my walk and more time telling everyone what I think...and that IMHO, is a much better use of my time!

The Evil That One Man Does

When the righteous triumph there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power men go into hiding. - Proverbs 28:12

Certainly in the US today we can agree that wicked people have risen to power. However some of those who wield that power are hidden from us by a compliant media and pawns in position that appear powerful. One of those people is an amoral, atheistic, self-loathing Hungarian Jew (not that I care about his racial heritage nor do I want to imply that I believe any of the stupid conspiracy theories about Jewish world takeover) with American citizenship known as George Soros. I don't know if Soros is the mastermind or just a powerful piece on the board but he is directing the actions of a number of pawns including Barrack Obama, the Democrat party machine, left-wing activist organizations, and even Republican 'maverick' John McCain.

Soros is a money speculator without equal and his greed coupled with a complete lack of ethical standards has resulted in him rising to the 29th richest man on Earth. He made his first billion back in 1992 by shorting the British Pound Sterling and literally breaking the Bank of England. Thanks to Soros, British citizens lost billions as the value of their savings and homes was cut in half over night.

In France, Soros has been convicted of insider trading (something he does not believe to be wrong) and fined $2.8 million. The French Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction on appeal.

Though I can't seem to find any information on this (yes, I am claiming cover up and still researching it), I heard a news story that he was convicted by one of the Baltic nations for breaking their currency during an economic crisis and actually toppling a government.

Soros funds the left-wing Human Rights Watch, the organization responsible for nearly all the claims of genocide against former Yugoslavian/Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. While I don't consider myself a Slobo supporter, I always sensed something wrong about the way he was dragged up to the Hague and brought up on 'crimes against humanity'. I suspect that Soros made a great deal of money during the breakup of Yugoslavia and wanted to keep the region unstable as long as possible to maximize his profits but evidence is scarce on that count. Either way, Miosevic was convicted largely on anecdotal evidence (again provided by Human Rights Watch) and a damning written statement made by Rade Markovic was extracted under claims of torture by NATO officials which the chief Hague judge said was irrelevant (do you really want to sign over our sovereignty to that body now?).

That's just one of Soros' many organizations. He has dumped billions on left-wing organizations. Here is a partial list of his tentacles:

Moveon.org - created to destroy George Bush personally and support for the War on Terror generally.

Apollo Alliance - this group largely wrote the 'stimulus' bill which is the equivalent of porn for Marxists.

Media Matters for America - leftist organization that attacks Limbaugh, Beck, and others when they cite facts that refute left-wing 'truths'.

The Tides Foundation - essentially a money laundering front group that funnels money to far left groups for donors who don't want to be directly linked to said groups.

The ACLU - fronting as a protector of our liberties, the ALCU is actually a far left group that works to twist the words and meanings of the Rights we hold in the Constitution

ACORN - Marxist front group

Project on Death in America - a pro-euthanasia group (Soros is rumored to have 'helped' his mother commit suicide)

La Raza - a radical Marxist, Latino supremacy group that fights any and all action on border security and is dedicated to a 'Reconquista' of the American lands ceded in the Mexican War.

Center for American Progress - radical left-wing 'think tank' dedicated to shredding the Constitution and pushing the Progressive agenda.

Soros funds other radical leftist groups and has made the most of the loopholes in the McCain/Feingold 'campaign finance reform' act (for which both named were well reimbursed) that brought the rise of the 527 charter groups. He also holds 'shadow' conventions at the same time and in the same cities as the conventions of both the Democrat and Republican parties.

That brings us to the 'renown' and 'maverick' Republican Senator; John McCain. It seems that the ill-tempered, media darling has ties to the star of this blog. In 2000 as his bid for GOP candidate was failing on one side of Philadelphia, McCain was giving the keynote speech at Soros shadow convention! In 2001, McCain founded the Reform Institute in Alexandria, VA in order to receive funding from Soros' Open Society Institute and the Tides Foundation (also funded by Teresa Heinz Kerry). McCain had to abandon ties to it after a scandal involving Cablevision in 2006. For now, McCain appears to be at odds with Soros. One might speculate that McCain was double-crossed in the 2008 election or didn't get what he was promised for being the weak GOP candidate...

Then there are Soros' actions in the wake of 9/11. While president Bush was begging us to shop normally and quietly pleading with investors to stay in the market (which affirms my belief that we were economically hurt worse than ever reported), George Soros made his first serious attempt to harm the US economy by shorting the market. In my eyes this is the same as treason and he should be charged with that crime. (I wonder if he was obliquely referenced in the James Bond movie Casino Royale when M was speaking about baddie Le Chiffre shorting the market after 9/11.)

Soros own words damn him as well. "The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States."

Soros may fall short of being the Antichrist but he certainly is a physical embodiment of evil. The man destroys economies on a whim while ignoring the consequences to hard working people in the middle and lower classes. He is worse than the worst caricature of 'evil, greedy capitalists' painted by the left but because he funds most of them his crimes are ignored by the left and the media. This man is dangerous and qualifies as an Enemy of the Republic. He should be stripped of his fortunes, his family, means to make money, and imprisoned (or better yet, eliminated in means similar to the way he killed Milosevic).

Where's my Moonbase?

About the middle of 2010 the space shuttle is set to amble into history and none too soon for me.

I was twelve in 1981 when Crippen and Young piloted the Columbia into space for the first time. At this point in my life, I was still running home from school so I could get there in plenty of time to watch reruns of the original Star Trek (4 pm every weekday!) so I was suckered in by the space shuttle program like the rest of my generation. The space shuttle was and still is a remarkable piece of technology but in a not-at-all-stunning display of why government cannot and should not run things, NASA's bureaucracy took a step backward with one of the most incredible vehicles ever built.

Inside of a single decade the early space program went from barely achieving a stable orbit to a trip to the moon. We then repeated that miracle several more times and built a space station to boot - all before 1975 (about the time I started watching Martin Landau and crew living on Moonbase Alpha in Space:1999). By 1981 we had seen Star Wars and the first Star Trek movie. That initial launch of the space shuttle gave my entire generation (Gen X) hopes that ours would be the first to whom space would be open to ordinary people. Some of us still might be able to visit there thanks not to NASA but to 'evil capitalist' billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic project.

This year marked the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Forty years after the Wright brothers first flight, planes were dozens of times faster and ready to break the sound barrier. Forty years after Neil Armstrong became the most famous person on earth, we aren't sure NASA has retained the technology to get us back to the moon. Much of that is because of a change in NASA at about the same time the space shuttle got off the ground where it stopped being run by normal humans and and control was ceded to bureaucrats (the species Homo Bureactratis prove Darwin wrong as they are an evolutionary step backward from Homo Sapiens).

Thus even while we were cheering the new era of space travel, NASA's horizons shrank from the outer planets, Mars, and even the moon back to low orbit around the Earth. The tragedy of the Challenger turned them even more timid and the space shuttle fleet itself became little more than a delivery truck into orbit.

I feel pretty cheated. By this time in my life I expected to be able to look into the sky with good binoculars or a small telescope and see lights from humanity's first permanent base on another world. At the very least, we should have partially completed a space station along the lines of the one in they had in the dreadfully horrid 2001: A Space Odyssey. Good grief!!! I even had the plan. We could have launched a dozen or so regular rockets with building material to the moon over the course of a couple of years while the space shuttle was used to build a transport ship in orbit. It could have even been nuclear powered since the main vehicle would be a ferry between earth and lunar orbit (no risk of releasing radioactive material in a landing). Once enough stuff was landed on the moon a team of engineers would go put up the surface buildings and start digging since a base on the moon would be much safer if most of it was below ground. Over the course of two decades it might even have resembled Moonbase Alpha a little bit. But alas, the dunces in charge at NASA barely got a near-sighted telescope into space.

Like any other bureaucracy NASA now has billions of dollars swallowed up in graft, red tape, dead end projects, and corporate waste; billions that should have been tech labs, observatories, and living areas in the moon base. Billions that should have been constructing a ship on the moon ultimately destined to take the first humans to Mars. George W Bush tried to give a Kennedy-esque speech urging us on to Mars but it fell on deaf ears at NASA. The public may have cheered but NASA replied through its cadre of "Nattering Nabobs of Negativsim".

I don't expect us to get back to the moon anytime soon. My moon base exists in the same place that my flying cars do and wherever that is, it isn't any drawing board at NASA.

Quick Guide to Political Philosophy

Two political philosophers that impacted the creation of the United States, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, had very different views of government and I get the sense that their outlooks are competing against one another in the US again today as many of those who are supposed to be our servants now view themselves as our masters.

I'm hoping that most of you at least heard of these two men in your high school American Government class. Thomas Hobbes is probably best known to most of us for his statement that life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". This is the basis for his political treatise Leviathan. Leviathan is properly named considering that the paperback version I have is as thick as an average Tom Clancy novel but the type is about half the size. Hobbes argues that any government is better than being in the state of nature. Civil society should be placed under a sovereign authority that severely curtails many of the natural rights of the individual and any abuses of the heavily centralized power must be tolerated by the populace as the price of a better life than that found in his state of nature. If however the central authority crosses an egregious line of abuse then they should expect a rebellion even though he is strongly against them.

On the opposite end of that spectrum is John Locke. Locke's Second Treatise of Government argues much the opposite of Hobbes and is mercifully as brief as Hobbes is wordy. His claim is that man has certain natural rights bestowed upon him by God that predate the existence of government. As such, when we enter into the social contract of civil government, we should only cede minimal rights to the central authority for the sake of creating a civil society. Most of you might know Locke as the 'life, liberty, and property' guy. Not only does government have no right to interfere in certain of our political liberties BUT it has as an express duty the job of protecting those rights from interference by others. When a government fails to protect our rights or begins to take them from the people then the social contract is broken and as sovereign individuals we have a right and duty to rebel against that authority.

As you may have guessed from previous posts, I am most definitely in the Lockean camp as were many of the Founding Fathers. With some modification his rights to life, liberty, and property are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (the word property was replaced by pursuit of Happiness because Northern abolitionists balked at the implication of slaves in the word property). They are also embedded in the Bill of Rights with many of the rights specifically listed (free speech, press, religion, assembly, redress of grievances, arms, secure in your household) and those that are not listed covered in a catch all disclaimer in the Tenth Amendment (which bars the central government from interfering in rights not listed).

Unfortunately, too many people are not taught about our rights and into that vacuum which nature abhors step too many politicians and hucksters that see the world according to Hobbes. Our man-child president, the Kenyan bastard, is one of them. Of the one hundred Senators in Congress I would guess that about 75 of them lean toward the Hobbesian world view to some degree or another (thus making this not about party politics). I would venture to say that about 3/4 of the 435 Members of Congress are also in that camp. Some of them are there thinking that if they only had more power they could do great good but many of them - especially those who have spent more than a decade inside the Beltway - want power solely for the sake of that power. Then we are beset by a literal horde of unelected bureaucrats seething with the desire to get more control over other agencies, elected politicians, and average people like you and I. Add to that the other literal horde of those who will benefit from an expansive and corrupt government like Jeffrey Immelt CEO of GE (General Evil) which also means he is in charge of NBC (you may want to research the connection between NBC, Obama, and GE's 'smartgrid', and GE healthcare to see where that relationship is going to take us); George Soros, a crooked investor and speculator (convicted of insider trading in France) with deep pockets and a hand in the leftist Center for American Progress, ACORN, SEIU, and a host of other far left organizations; and so many other individuals/groups all vying for power over us.

I believe that we may quickly be approaching that dreadful and yet glorious day when it is necessary for us to revoke our consent to be governed by these people. All of my adult life - starting with the George Hebert Walker Bush administration - I have watched as sinister forces have been eroding our liberties. Some do it in the guise of helping the less fortunate through weakening our borders, protecting us from terrorists, 'giving' us health care, and bailing out failing businesses. Others do it through draconian bureaucracies like the IRS with its tangled web of regulations that no layman can understand or the EPA by declaring every species that sneezes as protected (or the subhuman wretches that forced wolf reintroduction in Idaho). We must not live in fear of that day or one another. That will be the one thing that stops a critical mass of us from standing up to be counted with the true Patriots. It is a daunting task but I know that I would rather die free and on my feet rather than live to an old age on my knees and die a slave to the people I've named above and their political descendants. As Patrick Henry said "If this be treason then let's make the most of it."

Musings for Pearl Harbor Day

Today is the 68th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and I hope you will take a moment to remember what is now the second worst day in American history and the 2402 Americans who died there. Every year fewer and fewer of those who fought and survived World War II remain for us to thank. Both of my grandfathers and a number of great uncles fought in that war and all are now gone. Fortunately they told stories about their experiences that I will remember for years to come.

Pearl Harbor was one of the darkest days in American history. Just as many Americans awaited more and worse attacks in the dark days after 9/11/01, numerous Americans - especially those on the west coast and in Hawaii - lived in great fear of a Japanese invasion of America. Of course that invasion never came and in the microscope of history we know that Japan really didn't have the ability to launch a mass invasion of the US Mainland with the bulk of their ground forces sweeping through the Republic of China and Indochina.

A mere six months later the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942) drove off the spectre of invasion completely as the rejuvenated US Navy tore apart the Japanese armada and made them a third rate naval power in one blow. Though the battles in the Pacific would rage on above and below water for three more years Japan was always on the defensive from Midway on.

Less than four years later, Japan's emperor stood on the decks of the USS Missouri, in the bay of Tokyo Harbor signing a complete and utter surrender of his nation without terms while two of his most important cities still burned from the atomic blasts that devastated them. In the final analysis Pearl Harbor was a brilliant tactical moment and victory for Japan (in the west, we consider sneak attacks as a sign of cowardice and evil but in the east it is an acceptable tactic - something to consider when dealing with out Chinese 'friends') but it was a horrible strategic miscalculation. Without the ability to press the attack by following up with an invasion of Hawaii, which would have starved out islands like Midway and forced the US to operate from its own shores or from the Alaskan islands far to the north; all the attack on Pearl Harbor achieved for them was to gain an additional, intractable, and righteously angry enemy before they had chased the British out of the Pacific and hamstrung or crushed Australia as an allied base of operations.

I feel sorry for Amanda Knox. I can't imagine facing murder charges in America where the burden of proof is on the prosecution to demonstrate that you did it; but to have to face the charges in a nation without many of the guarantees the accused has here and in which the burden is on the defense to demonstrate that the accused did not commit the crime must have been overwhelming. Now I don't think she did it but I have to qualify my belief because as a man seeing an attractive young woman in distress, my protective instincts start firing up. Would I be as protective if she wasn't attractive? - that's hard to say. I don't believe that she killed her roommate but she could be hiding a Machiavellian evil inside her that we miss simply because she's attractive. In the American media we only get one side of the story and I think we lose sight of the first victim; Meredith Kercher - also a lovely young woman. I want justice for her but convicting someone of her murder wholly on circumstantial evidence is a crime in itself as it denies both Meredith and Amanda justice. There is a cautionary tale here as well. As much as you should take care with whom you associate here in America, all of us and moreso young Americans need to scrutinize their acquaintances and new friends if they are travelling, working, or schooling alone overseas.

I also feel sorry for Lindsay Lohan. Like many of you, I practically watched the spunky little freckle-faced red-head grow up in Disney movies never suspecting that pretty much everyone in her life was exploiting her. I think this happens to a number of child stars and thanks to 'reality' television it seems to be happening to a lot of other children as well. We may not be far from a day when Child Protective Services come busting through your door to wrestle away your children because you dared spank them but they ignore the real damage done to children by television shows like John and Kate Plus Eight (neither one seems a fit parent and all I've ever seen is what they show on The Soup); Wife Swap (two parents were so celebrity addicted they faked their son being in a runaway balloon for publicity early this fall); and by far the worst Toddlers and Tiaras which is nothing less than the sexualization of children (again other than seeing it appear on my on-screen guide as I search my 200+ channels for something decent to watch because Phineas and Ferb isn't on, I've only seen excerpts from it on The Soup which disgusts me enough).

Finally today, my un-Christian moment. I HATE Harry Reid and Barrack Obama. I hate Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. These people deserve our ire and disdain. They are poised to force Cap and Trade on us in spite of the fact that man caused global warming has been discredited completely, are ready to finish forcing government run health care on us in spite of public opinion, and are finding ways to spend us into oblivion. At the risk of baiting the black helicopters and an FBI investigation, I wish for the crazed Japanese pilot in Tom Clancy that rammed a 747 into the Capitol Building. That little part of me that fights against my Christian upbringing makes a little smile curl on my lip when I imagine them all suffering eternal torment in Hell. Its hard to ignore. It whispers in my ear the hope that God does not have mercy on their souls. I know its not right but its there. It is about ultimate revenge and it embarrasses me to admit it because I know that I should love my enemy and make no mistake; these people ARE my enemy and YOURS.

More Rambling Thoughts

Afghanistan is a failed state. The Indians (that's natives of India not aboriginal North Americans) knew it. The Mongols and Chinese knew it. The Muslim Caliphs knew it. The British found out. The Soviets found out in brutal fashion. Even the Taliban knew it. For some reason we haven't learned it yet. I believe its because the people at the State Department assigned to Afghanistan are "experts" in Latin America or Africa but that's only my opinion.

You can control Afghanistan but not if you fight a "civilized", Western style war. We need to drop poison gas (we have plenty wasting away in depots in Umatilla, OR and Hawthorne, NV) in every cave from Kabul to Lahore (that's in Pakistan for the geographically ignorant) and count the bodies until we get Osama bin Laden and his cronies.

Speaking of failed states, we haven't learned much from the debacle in Somalia that was started by Bush 41 and shorted by another loser left-wing president. I guess on the plus side, Afghanistan is land locked so there won't be many pirates raiding shipping from there.

Continuing with the failed state theme, how about California, huh? Just like their peers in the Beltway, the CA general assembly passed a bill to spend umpteen billion dollars that they don't have. Not to worry though. I'm sure that the Fed's will bail them out. California is the world's 8th largest economy on its own. They seem to be banking on the hope that they will be "too big to fail" and hey, why not. With the precedent set by the bailouts of the banks and GM and Chrysler it looks like their hope will take our change and large bills as well.

Joe Morgan may be the worst sports broadcaster EVER. He is a horrible combination of grandpa Simpson and Narcissus. In other words, he tells disjointed rambling stories that are all about himself and how wonderful he is. Which makes him just like our president...

Those of you who know me know that I have no problem with women in positions of authority. Heck I have worked for women and I have a female doctor; so I'm obviously not threatened by it. That said, I swear that most of the women in Congress are some of the dumbest fishwives ever spawned. Nancy 'Bo-tox' Pelosi can't open her mouth without lowering the IQ of the room she's in. Sadly that's better than her ne'er-do-well witch apprentice Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (ah, the famous hyphenated last name...the flashing red light of b*tchiness) who can't string together a coherent thought to get it out. California gives us a who's who of moron women including Maxine Waters, Zoe Lofgren, Hilda Solis (who is now Labor Secretary), Jane Harman, and their two vomit inducing Senators: Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (Democrats all). Here in Washington we suffer the Basset Hound of politics: Patty Murray and her apprentice witch Maria Cantwell (oh, the things I've done to that last name!). The Republicans aren't much better with Olympia Snowe and the ditsy Susan Collins. These hags and political whores don't do much credit to their part of the species.

Is that enough for today? I haven't been focused on politics this week. I'll try to alert you in advance next time.

One more thing since I'm listening to Christmas Carols on the radio. I really don't like Karen Carpenter. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate her silky voice, but for crying out loud, her songs could go on the Soundtrack to Seasonal Affective Disorder. She sings waaaaaaaaaay too slow. William Shatner doesn't draw out a word like she can. Some people may like that but I like my music up tempo and BIG.

If you've heard Amy Grant's versions of Angels We Have Heard on High and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or Michael Crawford singing O Holy Night, or Boney M singing Mary's Boy Child (all favorite carols), then you have an idea of how I like my music. I once told someone that I will not have considered myself to have fully lived until I have heard Ride of the Valkyries clearly from a mile away. If it can be sung it should be accompanied by music (that doesn't include rap which should be accompanied by the report of field artillery and followed by silence). If it can be accompanied by music it should be orchestrated. If you can orchestrate it and add a chorus then you can double the orchestra. Music should move you...literally. The sound waves should be felt in your body and physically move your cells.

Oh to be Thankful

Today was supposed to be the warm-fuzzy 'things I'm thankful for' blog but events in the news have a way of intruding into the plans of mice and men. The MSM (mainstream media) is trying its best to ignore the growing scandal that is going to rock the scientific world to its core. It appears that a hacker hit the mother lode that reveals ongoing manipulation of climate data, discarding of data conflicting with Anthropomorphic (man caused) Global Warming conclusions, and a conspiracy to keep papers refuting AGW out of the peer review process. It is still too early to tell how far this reaches but it may actually impact the validity of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph that is used to silence critics of AGW and reveals that data from the Medieval Warm Period (in which the earth's average temperature was higher than 1998 the 'warmest year on record') was marginalized in order to push the AGW agenda forward. In other words the whole Global Warming bit is a HOAX!

Here is the article in the UK Telegraph for those of you interested in more details:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Now I'm not going to crow that this is the end of AGW as some will. The powermongers and money greedy are not going to just let it die. Expect even more backlashes from the eco-freaks as they circle the wagons and insist even more loudly that they are right.

So, on to thankfulness. We are so wealthy as a society that we have forgotten what it actually means to be thankful or grateful. Oh, we can talk a good line about the things we're thankful for but how often do we actually stop to fully appreciate what we have? I have so much that I don't even know how to appreciate them. I have books by the hundreds and baseball cards by the thousands. I have so many things that most of them were looked at for a moment and plopped away on a shelf or in a closet. Between Mrs. C and I, we have filled most of the empty space in the house.

It reminds me of historian Simon Schama's book "The Embarrassment of Riches". The book examines the Dutch trade empire from the perspective of their middle class. At the time the Dutch were VERY Protestant and VERY devout. Their trade empire made most of the Dutch very rich within the span of a generation. This created a serious conundrum for them. As good Protestants they whole heartedly believed in what we call the "Christian work ethic". But now, many not only did not have to work for their wealth they were inundated with it. Unlike Americans who are excited to conspicuously consume, the Dutch were embarrassed by their sudden wealth. Schama describes how many would try to get rid of the money by buying up as much as possible and then...hiding it. Middle class Dutch households would literally be bursting with goods. Books were popular but many a proper house would have hundreds of sets of table linens - many never used. They would buy stacks and stacks of chinaware only to shove them into hutches also never to be used. Pottery, books, bedding, and the like filled every corner of Dutch houses and they would go on working as proper Christians were supposed to only to grow even wealthier and have to hide that (a horrible circle I'm sure!). In the end, the sudden wealth went as fast as it came and in its wake it left the Dutch much less religious and much less industrious.

I am very thankful for our great wealth. Even the poorest Americans are rich by the standards of most of the population of the rest of the world. No American can probably even imagine having to live on $20 per month but billions do.

One day Mrs. C asked me what I thought would most amaze Medieval people about us. Most of my thoughts would take up an entire blog of its own but my first answer was 'how much food we have'. I then quickly amended it to 'how much food we waste'. Most Americans throw out as much food as people in the Third World have every year. As we sit down to gorge ourselves tomorrow please take a moment to be truly TRULY thankful for the sheer abundance of food that we have.

Before the family comes tomorrow, before the feasting begins, before the noise of the football games drowns out your thoughts go someplace quiet just for five minutes; heck, you can probably do this exercise in the shower. Just take that time for a little introspection. If you don't believe in God, I'd strongly recommend taking the time to open your mind to Him. Think about what we have to be thankful for and then THANK HIM for it. I am thankful for having so much that I cannot even organize it all. I am thankful for reasonably good health. I am thankful that I was born an American with so many rights, so much wealth, and so little burden. I am thankful for the abundance and variety of food I have. I am thankful for my family from my very supportive parents and best friend brother to my two remaining grandparents to my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, to an extended family out of all proportion (great aunts/uncles, second cousins, cousins removed x times, and all of their families).

I am also very thankful for my wonderful wife. Amazingly she not only tolerates this blog but actually supports it. She doesn't play jealousy games (something I am not equipped to play nor would I be able to tolerate) when I ogle Natalie Portman, Kiera Knightley, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a whole host of 'flavor of the month' actresses/celebrities (so you know, I don't get jealous of her celebrity passions either). She tolerates my moods and insecurities. She knows and accepts that I will only assimilate about 1/4 of the things she tells me and will make sure my attention is focused if she wants to tell me something important. At this time in my life, I can't imagine another woman tolerating me (I think I'm difficult to live with but I've been living with me for 40 years now) so every day she's still here I'm that much more amazed.

I hope you all find the time to be truly thankful for the many fold blessings of your life tomorrow and of equal importance, I hope you know to Whom those thanks should be given.

Have a truly Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.

Yelling at the TV

We all have an image of ourselves in our mind that often air-brushes out some of the imperfections and I am no different. However, one of the problems with self-awareness is that we are also aware of our imperfections. I tend to see myself as a decent Christian man even in the face of advocating the nuclear pulverization of Islamic cities and their inhabitants yesterday. In that case, I can reasonably separate what I believe as a Christian and the necessities of fighting a generational war against someone who MADE THEIRSELF my mortal enemy.

One of my worse failings though is my mouth. I am a bit of a cusser (I'm also a smart-a## but that's a different issue). I learned it in a public university! In spite of my loose usage of certain words, I have used the f-word sparingly as it is simply too vulgar for me. I also have actively chosen not to curse in any way that invokes the Almighty or his Son. In addition, due to changes I want to make in my life, I have been trying to keep from arbitrarily tossing cuss words into my everyday conversation; which is increasingly difficult in a steadily coarsening society. Unfortunately, I find myself firing off a few of my arbitrary strings of profanity while yelling at the television.

Just this past weekend, I was reduced to the NFL on NBC for 'entertainment' and found myself shouting for someone to roughly insert a pole of some sort in a certain orifice belonging to Keith Olberman (this on the heels of him being called KO for the umpteenth time in five minutes). I may have also referred to his genitalia as a wild field grass. When watching Fox News (or ANY news), I often find myself yelling at the liberal talking head, often referring to them as a vulgarism for a part of the female anatomy - and so you know, that vulgarism does not begin with the letter 'c' (and now we know why I blog instead of being a talking head). I yell at coaches and managers for making poor play choices while watching college football and MLB - although that doesn't always involve cussing. I yell at "Bones" when they push PC/leftist crap into the plot (e.g. Angela trying to 'save' a pig from being breakfast meat; everyone being too obsequious to the Muslim intern (they trashed a Christian's beliefs in the same episode)). The NBC channels turning their logos green for 'green week'. The ever-present logos in the bottom right corner (I KNOW WHICH *%$^%$##%# CHANNEL I'M WATCHING!!!). One of my personal favorites is watching science shows about the beginning of the universe/solar system/earth where they contradict what they just said in a previous segment of the same show/the previous show/or last week. A few weeks ago, a geologist announced that between 2.5 to 12 times the water in the oceans exists locked in the earth's crust and mantle; at which point I turned to Mrs. C and said "He just confirmed that Noah's flood was possible". OK, that didn't involve cussing but I still yell at the scientists who go miles out of their way to create a theory that denies the existence of God. Anyone ever hear of Ockham's Razor?

However the other night I had a real problem while watching the tail end of a history of Thanksgiving program on the PC "History" Channel. Granted they were talking about how the holiday has become a political brier patch and showing footage of the people of Plymouth doing their annual parade out to Plymouth Rock and being disrupted by civilization hating 'native' Americans. Then the show broke to a sound bite from one of the moron-dians whining about European colonization (you know because we're going to reverse that). It is so easy to sympathize with the plight of someone sitting in a comfortable room, wearing well made and reasonably new clothing (that looked higher end), who gets a check from the US Government every month simply for existing, and can ignore a fair number of governement regulations that European Americans ignore at their peril. I guess the wheel, written language, horses, and gunpowder weren't enough of a trade for him. Funny, it makes you pretty popular when you give another civilization those things in Sid Meier's Civilization games.

Falling into near fits of apoplexy by the time they broke for a commercial, instead of relief I got shoved over the edge by the first ad. In pushing its next show, America before Columbus, I was put in a conundrum as I tried to laugh and suffer a facial tic at the same time. Images from America before Columbus flashed by as the narrator blabbed his PC script when a small group of Indians rode...RODE...onto center screen...ON HORSEBACK!!! Now I will accept that the images had no context with them so it could have been part of the tease but I am 100% sure that America before Columbus did not...DID NOT...have horses! Fortunately, a giggle won out but I did back up and make Mrs. Crusader tell me what was wrong with the commercial (she got it right too!).

I didn't watch America before Columbus.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for that blemish on my self perception. It and several other things I see as personal failings keep my already oversized ego somewhat in check!

On Sheik-y Ground

Politics hasn't been the center of the RC's attention for the last week which explains the distinct lack of postings. Besides its been a bit slow lately with regard to business inside the Beltway (which is usually a good thing for the American people). Granted the Senate is still haggling over just how much debt they will saddle our progeny with but that's about as interesting as watching Harry Reid speak...oh yeah, been there done that.

Another reason not to post is because I'm not sure I could control the foul language clogging up my head at the decision by the Obama Administration to try Khalid Sheik Muhammed and his cronies in a civilian court. Make no mistake even though Atty. General Holder is claiming that this was his decision alone, he could not have gotten the prisoners remanded to his custody without the cooperation of the Secretary of Defense and my guess is that Gates wouldn't do that unless the president ordered it. This is all a scam on the American people so that WHEN these trials blow up Holder will be the fall guy and Obummer can do the plausible deniability dance.

Of course they don't really care. This already has blown up since the five have already plead not guilty in order to turn the trial into a political statement. I expect that sometime next year, after this trial has distracted us from what the Kenyan Katastrophe is doing behind the scenes to stomp on the remains of the Republic, Holder will resign 'in disgrace' and end up in the far left Center for American Progress or some similar organization where he will continue to make bad policy for America. The terrorists and their allies in the Middle East will have gotten an open platform to bash American foreign policy and probably a hung jury. Then they will be returned to the custody of the Defense Department since the president has already announced that they won't be released even if they fail to be convicted. And we will be back where we started but our enemies will wrongly be shown that there is nothing just in our justice system.

Now if I remember my Geneva Convention correctly, spies and 'irregulars' (enemy combatants that do not wear a uniform that identifies them as a military member of a nation) can be detained indefinitely, interrogated (that includes enhanced), and summarily executed. This is precisely what should be done with KSM and the other four. A show trial will only serve our enemies both foreign and domestic which is a violation of the oath that Obastard took less than a year ago. But when you don't believe in the Constitution why defend it in the first place?

My friends, this IS and always has been a war on Islam. It should never have been described as anything else because Islam is at war with us. Islam has only two options: the Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb. The Dar al Islam is all people or lands that have submitted to the will of Allah. The Dar al Harb (literally House of Death) is all people and lands that have not submitted to Allah. Those of us in the Dar al Harb have three options as far as the Koran is concerned: conversion, slavery, or death. Obastard and his cronies seem willing to take us into slavery (Dhimmi-tude) or conversion.

I would like the fourth option: resistance. In a sane world, KSM and the others would be marched out in front of a firing squad, have their mouths and noses stuffed with pork fat (pork is unclean to Muslims and those contaminated by it cannot enter 'Paradise'), and be executed. Of course in a sane world, we would have nuked Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Tehran on 09/12/01. But that would have been too 'uncivilized'. We would have killed millions of 'innocents'. We would have saved thousands of American lives. We would have scared Islam back into the shadows for ten generations. We are at war; we have been since the 7th century AD. That we refuse to fight the war to win it means we have already lost.

The Failing States

For those of you who pay close attention, listen to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and/or other right of center commentators, you are well aware of the US's national debt and exponentially growing deficits. Though the official amount is hovering around $12,000,000,000,000 (Trillion - using the zeros makes a bigger impact than spelling it out). When unfunded government mandates - which have harmed the states - are added in, our total debt jumps up to $105,000,000,000,000 (Trillion again). Now I don't know about you, but I'm not entirely sure that the value of the land, resources, and buildings in the whole US of A are worth $105 Trillion. With a population of 300,000,000 (million) if you were born today, you would come into the world OWING $3,500,000! That is your share of the debt. Considering that most people will earn between $600,000 and $1,000,000 in their lifetime, it is impossible to pay off. When you owe that much money you are not free, you are a serf.

Of course the national debt isn't the whole picture. Forty-three of the fifty states are facing budget shortfalls. If you can, you may want to consider moving to Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Texas, Indiana, or West Virginia which will balance their budgets or have modest surpluses in FY 2010. We're all aware of California's budget problems and the fact that they are facing a $23 Billion budget gap. Naturally the leftist loonies in Sacramento are considering hefty tax increases which will drive anyone of means and businesses from the state. The state of New York faces economic collapse as well and millionaires are bailing out of both the city and state like mad.

My adopted state - the People's Republic of Washington - is facing an $8 Billion shortfall this year which places it in the top 10 nationwide for percent of budget deficit ratio. Now to my surprise, Governor Skeletor (Gregoire) has proposed what I believe to be rational changes. She has proposed cuts in state health care assistance and suspension of pay increases for state workers and teachers. I don't think she went far enough on those but at least it is a start. It appears that she, unlike many other state and local legislators, has realized that taxpayers are no longer going to accept threats of cuts in ambulances, police, and other ESSENTIAL services. No doubt the unions are already pressing legislators in Olympia against these cuts but after Boeing announcing that it will be taking more jobs to Right to Work states, the unions may be losing power in Washington.

Down in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Oregon, they face a $1 Billion shortfall. The governor there has proposed a 1.2% across the board budget cut. That seems to be a bit of a panic response and cuts like that rarely get through because they hit too many sacred cows at once. This may have been a play for time to sit down and push for certain cuts but we always have to be aware that when a politician talks about a cut, it is usually a cut in the amount they are increasing spending rather than an actual cut in spending. But like Gregoire, he might be realizing that his taxpayers are ready to revolt as well.

Then there is my true home state of Idaho. Idaho is facing a $411 gap in its 2010 budget. It is also the only one of the three run by Republicans. Even so it spends far too much on non-essential services; many of which are aimed at the currently non-existent tourist industry. (My ire at the conversion of Idaho's economy from resource to tourist based could take up an entire blog of its own. Needless to say, being a tourist based economy SUCKS!!!)

Across the nation we have banded together to demand that our governments stop spending money that we don't have. We have been ridiculed by the press - except for Fox News Channel - for this. We have been called names by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton (I guess he stopped feeling our pain). Some are stuck in the party politics game but many are realizing that the only difference between Republicans and Democrats has been how fast they are sending our hand basket to Hell.

It is unlikely that our Fascist trio (Obama, Pelosi, and Reid) will ignore our demands and continue spending anyway. We are at least three generations in debt (four if you're a Baby Boomer) which means that the great grandchildren of people my age could be out of debt IF and only IF we start acting like responsible adults right now. We need to stop electing people based on what they promise to give us and start asking them what they will do to pay off what we owe without turning the US into a Third World country. I'm willing to forgo a lot if it means that future generations will have a better life than me. I've had it pretty good already and wouldn't mind clearing some of the junk out of my house and life. I'd much rather give that up and start buying less than giving up my freedom.

Jackboots Tromp...Are you listening?

The smiley faced jackboots are moving forward everywhere in the former land of the free and they are doing it just as comedian George Carlin said they would; with a smiley face. If you haven't read Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism, I HIGHLY recommend you run out to your nearest new book retailer and pick it up. It details many of the ways we are giving up our freedoms merely because of the promise of an easier way. If someone is telling you that something is "for your own good" or "for the children" there better be red flags and sirens going off in your head.

In Cleveland the fascists are out with green shirts and baseball caps. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that First Energy will be outfitting a small army of these people to deliver two 23 watt CFLs and some energy 'saving' propaganda to every customer. To cover the cost of this seeming act of generosity, First Energy will be adding about a $0.60 surtax (don't know what else you can call it) to every customer's bill until the customer pays $21.60 for the two light bulbs that cost about $5.00 in the store (let's ignore the fact that an incandescent light bulb can be bought for about twenty cents) PLUS the cost of the energy the customer would have used anyway! All of this is legal because the Ohio State Assembly passed a law requiring that First Energy cut emissions and switch over about a fifth of its energy production to alternative sources by 2025.

That goes in line with GE's (General Evil) attempt to implement the "Smart Grid" which will regulate the amount of electricity going into a person's house. Hmmm...nothing sinister about that. GE claims it can save energy by lowering the amount of electricity it allows into a house while you're at work. I can't imagine anyone...like out Kenyan dictator...abusing THAT system. Of course GE funnelled millions into the Obama campaign.

GE is also behind the death of the incandescent bulb. Surprise, surprise, they own the lion's share of the CFL market. Not only that, but they closed an incandescent bulb factory back east and moved the jobs to China where the Commies can put as much mercury in our CFLs as they want.

In California, a legislator is floating the idea of banning big screen televisions. What the...? I'd like to tell that person I'm floating the idea of banning oxygen exchange in their lungs.

Judge David Hamilton up for a lifetime Federal position ruled that the Indiana state Legislature could not invoke the name of Jesus Christ at the opening prayer but could invoke the name of Allah. I believe we should issue a Christian Fatwa against this moron.

If Health Care passes SEIU stands to become the single most powerful union in the nation. Not only that but there is language in the House bill that would allow lawyers to sue for pain and suffering in cases where an insurance agency dropped a client (which they cannot do now). Of course government health care cannot be sued. This will be a multi-billion dollar boon to lawyers in the short term but once the government runs all health care do you think they'll allow anyone to sue them for anything?

Santa Claus is under fire again this holiday season even though he has been turned into a completely secular figure at this point. Unless you use the almost unheard term St. Nick or even know who St. Nicklaus was, you'd never associate him with Santa Claus (which is a corruption of Saint Nicklaus). Unless you pay attention to Here Comes Santa Claus (best sung by Gene Autry and Elvis) in which Santa Claus is identified as an agent of God (...Santa knows we're all God's children...) you would never think about it.

The jackboots keep us from calling the Fort Hood killer what he really is: A TERRORIST!!! Not every Muslim may be a terrorist but virtually every modern terrorist is a Muslim in spite of what the media tells us. Of course if one deranged Christian kills an abortion doctor or if clinically sane Christians peacefully picket a Planned Parenthood clinic (which is illegal thanks to a blatant misuse of RICO laws), he is instantly branded as a terrorist but thanks to PC you can ram two planes into skyscrapers or shout "Allahihu Akbar" before killing 13 people and the media will not call you a terrorist.

There are countless examples and they are coming at us so fast that one person can't keep up with all of it. Barry Goldwater said the the price of freedom is eternal vigilance but even that may not be enough anymore because we can't watch every angle every moment of the day and that is how the enemies of freedom are attacking us. Its time to stop taking it. When someone gets in your face and threatens to take your freedoms stand up and shout them down. If they push you push them back. A war against individual freedom is coming and if we aren't willing to fight back then we will live out Natalie Portman's words from Revenge of the Sith "so this is how liberty ends; amid cheers". Granted that was the best line from all three of those movies, it was also the most potentially prophetic.

Random Entertainment Grumbles

So Mrs. Crusader informed me that the director of 2012 cut a scene from his disaster movie 2012 which showed Mecca being destroyed lest he get a fatwa issued against him. So much for free speech. Of course he can still show the statue of Christ above Rio toppling over and the dome of the Vatican collapsing on top of people. That must mean that Christians are much more reasonable than Muslims or we know that holiness does not reside in a place or object but solely with God. I don't foresee the Pope being offended by it. Hmm...world ending disaster movie showing famous places being destroyed; obviously an attack on the Catholic Church!

Speaking of the Catholic Church, have you ever noticed that in movies you only really see Catholics represented? Granted they are generally easy to spot with their collars, their robes, and funny hat collection whereas a Protestant preacher could easily be the guy standing next to you wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Horror movies are always a kick for me because the priest is inevitably faithless or 'wrestling' with his faith to a point that he can't ward off the incoming demon with all his fancy rituals and liturgical chant. Oh how I long to direct the movie where a devoted Protestant minister comes waltzing in, looks at the hapless priest with a roll of the eyes, studies the victim, says "In the name of Jesus Christ you are commanded to leave this body", and poof evil demon leaves without time to give a forwarding address. It would probably be pretty anti-climactic since that would cover ten minutes of movie time and they'd have 80 more to fill without the scary demon around...

I haven't watched the new V series but hear that it is a thinly disguised criticism of the Obama administration which is interesting coming from the All Barrack Channel and so soon. I mean it took well over a year for any seriously overt anti-Bush rhetoric to show up in our 'entertainment' (other than the whole hanging chad thing). I'm pretty sure you won't see that over on the National Barrack Channel. Though outside of Heroes or if you watch the 15 incarnations of Law and Order, I'm not sure anyone sees much of anything on NBC. You know your network is failing when you move your "Tonight Show" style show to Prime Time and your comedy shows are up against Bones and Fringe over on Fox.

Thank Heaven for the Saturday Sci-Fi (sorry that is Sy-Fy now) movies. These B movies with hackneyed plots and writing that looks like it came off the PC's of government run high school creative writing class are about the most entertaining thing on television anymore. Sometimes you get a fairly decent one but most of the time you'll choke on your popcorn as you laugh at the plot holes or make MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000 - google it if you don't get the reference) like quips over the dialogue or situation on screen. This weekend's offering, Ice Twister, should be another glorious entry in the endless procession of films that make you wonder why you're wasting your life in front of the television!

I could go on about things that annoy me like how Bones is accommodating to Muslim characters and portrays Christians in a bad light or the propaganda that gets inserted into my entertainment on a regular basis but this is Friday and those are another blog. Enjoy your weekend.

Thoughts for Veterans Day

Today is the 91st anniversary of the end of the First World War. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the tragedy that was World War I ended. Many brave Americans fought, were injured and died in that war; a war that we had no reason to be in; a war that Woodrow Wilson promised he would keep us out of. But even while campaigning with that promise in 1915-1916, America's first Fascist dictator was taking steps to embroil us in that war.

Like other Progressives, Wilson believed that he could and should force societal change and in the war in Europe he saw an opportunity to create that change. Decades later the radical Saul Alinsky would put that idea into his book Rules for Radicals that the radical should let no crisis go to waste. In another perverse tragedy of our age, that has been quoted by several Obama Administration officials including Chicago thug and close adviser to the president; Rahm Emanuel.

But back to Wilson. He got the war he wanted and off American boys went to die in the fields of Flanders ostensibly to "make the world safe for democracy". You know the history of WWI. We arrived in force just in time to tip the scales for the allied cause and by late 1918, the Germans were facing invasion and sued for peace. While the French and (to a lesser extent) the British played sore winners by coming up with ludicrous reparations demands, Wilson rushed to create the League of Nations a naked attempt to impose Progressivism on the entire western world.

What they don't tell us about World War I is the fact that Wilson created a proto-SS that went around intimidating newspapers that printed opinion pieces against war entry. After we went to war, his jackboots intimidated and closed down papers that made even the mildest of dissenting remarks about America being in the war or its prosecution. People went to jail without due process for negative remarks about the war.

You also won't find many history teachers or professors that discuss the ultimate negative impact of America's involvement in the Great War. At the time of entry, the French military and government was exhausted and on the verge of suing for peace with tacit British approval (they were also verging on war exhaustion. So in all likelihood the victorious Germans would have made demands typical of European history after Napoleon (the Alsace-Lorraine was always the main contention between the two nations) and the war that none of the large powers wanted would have ended in the spring or summer of 1917. Victorious Germany would not have lost her Central European lands and empire. Victorious Germany would not have suffered the depredations of the Weimar Republic and a decorated corporal Adolph Hitler would likely have wiled away his life as a mediocre artist or architect floating between Austria and Germany.

In addition, a victorious Germany would never have taken the desperate action of allowing the exiled Vladmir Lenin to travel from Switzerland back to St. Petersburg in their futile attempt to sow enough dissent in the great Eastern power to get it to leave the war; thus the Soviet Union would never have formed.

Yes, that's right. Thanks to Woodrow Wilson not only did brave Americans die in the tragic mistake of World War I, but his actions led directly to the conditions in which Adolph Hitler and (eventually) Josef Stalin rose to power and all of the consequences following those events. Some of the blood of the 6,000,000 Jews that died in the Holocaust must necessarily appear on his hands. The 20,000,000 Slavic peasants that died thanks to Stalin and most of whom probably never heard of Woodrow Wilson should haunt his eternal soul.

Perhaps this is the wrong day to point these things out but while we thank those who served and continue to serve we must make sure that their precious lives aren't needlessly wasted. Wilson's dreams of grandeur and social Utopianism killed millions who needn't have died. Because of his ego we mourn for the heroic and selfless Americans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and here at home sweating over the day they might have to turn a key and end the world. We mourn for the millions who died because of Nazi cruelty and Communist sadism.

Eggheads the world over spend hours contemplating whether it is more tragic to be the first casualty of a war or the last. Mr. Wilson's war has raged on for the better part of a century. It is fitting that we celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall this week as well because it goes hand in hand with the solemn commemorations we should have today. The last Wilsonian casualty was finally counted when the last man to die in the Cold War passed away. It is hard to digest, hard to comprehend and perhaps we defend our psyche's by not thinking about it too hard.

We can't change the past but we can impact the future. Painful as it is we must constantly remember and remind others of Wilson's war and its ultimate costs. We have one of Mr. Wilson's political descendants in office now. He will likely use an instrument other than war to force socialist Utopianism on us. His lackeys in the House and Senate are already working on it. Let us learn our lesson from Wilson and do whatever we can to stop these people now lest someone three generations from now is putting together the list of casualties from Mr. Obama's nationalized health care system, his Depression, and his dithering in Afghanistan.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sacrifices that every American veteran from the Revolution to Iraq and Afghanistan has made for me. Today's point was to lament the fact that one made made the sacrifices of so many necessary. We can't ever fully repay our veterans for the things you have suffered but we will try not to fail you if those who would waste your service attempt to do so again. Thank you to my grandpas one who served in the Pacific and stayed on in occupied Japan, the other who served in Italy and Germany (both came home safe); thank you to my great uncles all of whom miraculously returned home: a Marine who was first ashore in Okinawa; one on a submarine in the Atlantic; and one a bomber pilot in Europe. All are gone now but their stories and legacies live on in two and three generations of my extended family.

Remembering the Berlin Wall

Well surprise, surprise! The Anointed One, Barrack Hussein Obama (mmm...mmm...mmm), is sitting out the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'm guessing that he couldn't figure out a way to make it about him so why bother going. The other likely reason is that since he doesn't believe in individual freedom why would he celebrate the greatest single event that symbolizes freeing individuals?

In 1985, I had the great good fortune to visit Berlin - East and West. At that time no one, especially a dozen teenagers from small town Idaho, could imagine that the Berlin Wall would be rubble a mere four years later. We could hardly even imagine the powerful statement President Reagan would make two years later demanding that Mr. Gorbachev tear down the wall. The wall looked permanent and immovable just like the Soviet Bloc. Towers shielded by reflective glass looked grimly down on gray concrete wall topped by miles of barbed wire. As if emphasizing the differences between East and West, the buildings of West Berlin looked bright and cheerful while those on the East side of the wall looked like they were built in gray scale. In East Berlin, all colors seemed muted and when visiting the other side, it was as if some unseen creature was sucking the joy from your soul.

Crossing into East Germany and East Berlin was a daunting prospect. Our bus was boarded by soldiers in dingy olive uniforms armed with sub-machineguns at the checkpoint. They checked our passports closely, counted us several times, and checked to make sure we weren't carrying contraband print material (especially bibles) into East Berlin. On the way out, we were counted several times again to make sure we weren't smuggling anyone out.

A small group of us accompanied by chaperons crossed at Checkpoint Charlie to catch dinner and the State run opera company on the East side. Again, there were queues and a maze of narrow halls lined by unnamed and uncounted East German soldiers; all on guard against the 'evils' of western freedom. Then we emerged behind the Iron Curtain, potential prisoners of the state just like the millions of East Germans that the wall was built to contain; blissfully unaware of the Stazi (East German KGB) officer likely trailing us. (And this isn't idle, anti-Communist paranoia; the officer was equally likely there to ensure our safety as to spy on us. After all, the last thing the East German government needed was an international incident involving American teens.)

Then there was the wall itself. On the East side, it was bordered by a no-man's land of bare ground dotted with land mines and a second wall. The wall cut through Berlin with the same disdain of human desire and hatred of freedom as the system that created it. Once busy streets now dead-ended at the wall. Subways were cut off by the wall. German friends and families were cut off by the wall. The western side became a graffiti covered running commentary of Germany's Cold War with itself. In an age before the blog, all manner of people 'blogged' on the wall. Missives against communism and capitalism dotted the wall. Here and there one could find lamentations for those trapped behind the wall, exhortations for unity, disarmament, and peace. Then there were countless names with and without dates.

Berlin and Germany left an indelible impression in my mind; one that has and continues to inform my political opinions. The close experience with the naked totalitarianism of the Soviet system is partially responsible for my conversion from an ordinary center-rightist to a Crusader.

Mine was the last generation of the Cold War. Many of those born a mere five years after me were barely aware of the rest of the world when the Berlin wall fell. If there is a down side to the end of Soviet/Warsaw Pact totalitarianism, it is that the Millenials and beyond will not be able to see firsthand evidence of the evils of Communism. The soft socialism of Europe and the velvet-gloved Communism that Red China projects to the world look far less insidious than they really are. These things make us susceptible to the idea of government as a benefactor. We begin to fall for the idea that we have rights to health care, housing, food, water, cable television, and a whole list of the things most of us know we have to work for. As we begin to embrace soft socialism we will indenture ourselves to the government. We will accept George Carlin's 'happy face fascism' because security is easier than freedom. And one day, we will have given away enough freedoms that government can take off the velvet glove to reveal the iron fist. If that day comes, this time there will be no wall; no bastion of individual freedom left to fight against it. What Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and like minded individuals failed to do by force, we will do to ourselves through soft words and good intentions.

Random Thoughts and Parting Shots(for the weekend)

Well, the Mafia sponsored (I know, the Mafia doesn't exist; they're just refuse collectors) team won the World Series this year. Of course it cost a billion dollars in payroll and a new stadium for the Sopranos of the baseball world to prove 'victorious'. I was hoping that the decade would clear out before the Bronx Bummers would buy another trophy but we can't have everything.

Speaking of which, somehow Boise State University still manages a high enough ranking to be in BCS competition. I suspect the BCS is run by the Velvet Mafia since it doesn't seem to know anything about football! Now BSU may be a legitimate top 25 team, I won't argue that point; but they aren't a top ten team just based on the weakness of their schedule and certainly should not be contenders for a BCS bowl game. Its way past time for a College Football playoff system.

Of course BSU may have found the proper formula for consistent BCS standings. I call it the Ohio State Stratagem. Play as soft a schedule as possible and only play 10 or 11 games to optimize your chances for a perfect record and wham, bam, thank you Velvet Mafia, you're in a BCS bowl game. Ah, sweet smelly revenue; who cares if you don't deserve to be there.

This may seem insensitive coming one day on the heels of the terrible tragedy at Fort Hood; but I cannot say I was overly shocked to learn that the assailant had an Arabic name and was a Muslim. One would think that in a sane world, he might not have been offered a commission in the United States military but the US government has done little to prove to me that anything they do is sane in the last 20 years. You want a parallel with Rome? Here it is. We have become so hubristic and indolent that we allow the ENEMY to serve in our military just as the Romans allowed Germanic people to serve in theirs. My heart is heavy for the innocent and patriotic Americans that died yesterday and the families that will miss them. My heart is heavier for the nation that allowed this to happen out of some misguided notion of political correctness.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to next weeks release of the movie 2012. Nothing warms the soul like a high cheese factor, big budget, disaster movie. I'm hoping for a lot of gratuitous destruction. But having written my own disaster-piece theatre tome, I'm sure it will disappoint. Oh sure, there will be the obligatory and joyful moments as New York and Los Angeles are destroyed. No disaster movie is complete without the euphoria of seeing the Eiffel Tower collapse and the obligatory destruction of some other easily recognized world landmarks. It has always troubled me that none of these movies ever show anything being destroyed in the Southern Hemisphere (with the occasional exception of the Sydney Harbor Bridge). Maybe its because there isn't anything in the Southern Hemisphere except the Sydney Harbor Bridge worth destroying. Somehow I don't think nature is quite so picky. Just once though, I'd like to freak out a few eco-nuts or bleeding heart 'we owe the third world'ers by having the asteroid/doomsday scenario wipe out Buenos Aires, Nairobi, or Riyadh. Better yet, since we are OBVIOUSLY the world's good guys and THEY aren't, how about some cosmic justice? Lets have it hit Beijing, Tehran, Caracas, or Havana. Now that really would warm the soul!

Enjoy your weekend.

Election Results

Interesting election results. The Democrats must be stunned by the scope of their loss in yesterday's elections. In Virginia, Republicans won the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General; only the second time in history that all three offices were swept by one party. Only a year ago the left was chirping that they turned Virginia from red to solid blue (while in the same breath they attempted to claim that Obama made us no longer a red or blue nation). Now I know that on Monday I spanked the GOP for moving left of center and I'm still of that opinion but the candidates in Virginia ran on conservative platforms - also a smack in the chops to the Country Club elitist Republicans running the party.

In New Jersey, one of the bluest of the blue states, a modestly Conservative Chris Christie beat Jon Corzine, a self made Goldman Sachs multi-millionaire (remember Goldman Sachs is in thick with the government). Granted Corzine was up to his oversized nostrils in the political corruption Jersey is famous for but that isn't why he lost. He was slightly ahead of Christie until Obama made it his goal to 'save' Corzine. At that point polls fell into a statistical dead heat demonstrating that Jersey was as much a rejection of Obama as it was Corzine.

New York 23 has to be giving both the Democrats and Republican leadership fits. A boring, uninspiring, candidate running as a Conservative came from statistical oblivion within one month to force the hand-picked, liberal Republican candidate out of the campaign and come within a hair's breadth of beating a moderate Democrat. In fact, the Republican candidate has been shown to be more LIBERAL than the Democrat candidate! Though the Democrat won with a plurality 49% it has to be a hollow victory. I think this contest will spur other conservatives to third party campaigns in 2010 especially if the party pushes liberal or moderate Republicans in those districts.

Now to Washington politics.

I-1033 went down 55%-45% but I think that was as much on the unpopularity of its backer Tim Eyman. He has been demonized throughout the state after successfully separating Olympia from your money by getting through a flat fee on license tabs rather than us paying a 2% tax based on the value of the vehicle. Of course the state completely ignored that it received increased revenue from new car sales taxes.

Referendum 71, to expand domestic partnerships looks like a very narrow pass 51%-49%. I wrestled with this a lot. As a Christian, I am opposed to the idea of gay 'marriage' but I also realize that the US is not a theocracy. Unlike certain dogmas, I also don't subscribe to the theory that we have to make the world better in order to please God and make it so Jesus comes back. If Revelation is right, the world is going to suck worse than now when Jesus comes back. The libertarian in me also doesn't really care if Adam and Steve want to visit each other in the hospital. Frankly, I think every person should be able to draw up a list of people that can visit them in the hospital no matter the relation. If I want Natalie Portman on the list, no one should be able to stop that even if Natalie Portman is about as likely to rush to my bedside as Al Gore is to put down a doughnut. I think many people cautiously voted for this but are wary of any group attempting to take the further step of legalizing gay 'marriage'. Of course with all the rain sotted leftist morons in Seattle, I could be wrong...

And fortunately the City of Spokane overwhelmingly rejected what can only be described as a Socialist Utopian (which for real people means Distopian) change the sheets kind of dream in Proposition 4, 75%-25%! Prop 4 is the kind of idiocy that can only come from the likes of SEIU, ACORN, the Mafia run Unions, and the rest of the spectrum of drug addled, STD riddled (all that 'free' love), Wiccan, Vegan, Rainbow flag, Free Tibet bumper sticker on your Subaru Outback or Forrester crowd of Marxists that unrightfully steal oxygen from the rest of us. Don't rest on your laurels though. Envision Spokane will likely be back with more lunacy next year (they have a website so you can see just how out of touch with real people they are) so stay vigilant!

Stay vigilant. Pray for the people of Iran who are valiantly opposing 'President' Ahmedinijad (who cares how you spell it!). Sic Semper Tyrannus!

Goodbye GOP

I hate to orient this blog on the daily news but news comes and goes so fast these days that its hard to ignore something until I want to discuss it. Tomorrow's elections fall into that category.

In the 23rd District of New York, the RINO (Republican in Name Only) candidate suspended her campaign on the heels of a strong challenge from a Conservative candidate who might actually beat the Democrat (in a show of RINO true colors, she endorsed the Democrat). Conservative independents are making strong showings in several races. While this might have some short term bad consequences, it lays the groundwork for a longer term chance to fundamentally change American politics as much as the Republican party did when it split from the Whigs.

In the 1850s the Abolitionists in the Whig party grew disgruntled with their party leadership which had gone wishy-washy and refused to address issues related to abolishing slavery and split off to create the modern Republican party. Like modern RINOs, the Whigs could hardly be distinguished from rank and file Democrats of the day.

Like many former GOPers, I have felt further and further alienated from the party since the moderates used Newt Gingrich's foibles to wrangle control of the party from conservatives. These same moderates wrecked the 1994 Revolution and by 2006 lost control of the House and the Senate. These same self-serving, East Coast, celebrity loving, elitist, Democrat wannabes then opted for the 'media darling' candidate, John McCain in the 2008 election virtually assuring that the Democrat candidate would get elected. In fact McCain's campaign was SO bad that had he picked an equally squishy moderate for VP rather than the unjustly maligned Sarah Palin, it is entirely likely that he would have lost the election by percentages somewhere in the teens rather than 8%. Of course the Party hacks completely missed or cognitively dissociated the lesson from 2008 and continue to pursue a platform of 'me too' globalist-statism while poll numbers continue to show conservatives abandoning the party en masse.

Tomorrow's elections may split the votes between Republicans and Conservative Independents. While the media prognosticators might be rejoicing over this since they are leftists anyway, they are also exhibiting signs of fear. In 1992, Republicans dissatisfied with George Bush 41 sought refuge in Ross Perot and other Independents allowing Bill Clinton to win a plurality vote. In 1996 Conservatives forced the moderate Bob Dole to pick the conservative Jack Kemp as VP in order to keep us from rebellion. In 2000 Conservatives threatened to bolt the party forcing George Bush 43 to run as a Reaganite even though he was probably closer to Lyndon Johnson politically. In 2004 Bush 43 swerved right again to keep another grassroots rebellion at bay. I have already spotlighted the disastrous 2008 election. The last thing the media wants is a unified conservative front with a strong, well articulated agenda that energizes Americans to demand that the government return us to the Original Intent of the Constitution. They shudder in fear that we will stand once again to stop the 'New World Order' they want so desperately.

Well now its 2009 and thanks to the Tea Party movement, continuing GOP marginalization of conservatives, and the actual threat of America goose-stepping down the Fascist abyss, it looks like my fellow conservatives have had enough. Even if we split the vote and let a few more Democrats in this year, the GOP has been put on notice. We have demanded spending cuts for years but the GOP and Democrats have brought us and our children a $12 TRILLION debt (and growing!). Together they have both eroded American rights and sovereignty. Together they have caressed, kissed, slapped, kicked, cajoled, browbeat, and dragged us toward globalist-Marxist-uberStatism. The GOP has one year in which to move back to a center-right party and join conservatives in preserving America or we will leave them just as our political ancestors left the Whig party. This could well be another American revolution IF we stand up as one and remember that what unites us is stronger than what divides us. In another decade, if they are not careful, the GOP might find itself sitting on a museum shelf next to the Whigs wondering how it withered and died so quickly.

When talking about the GOP, I like to paraphrase my political mentor and favorite president: Ronald Reagan. I didn't leave the Republican party; they left me.

So Goodbye GOP. Write me if you ever get your head straight.