Securing the Compound

And You Thought The Insurance Was Bad

2013-12-06T11:27:00.000-06:00

While everyone screams about the five million policies cancelled so far, the would-be-hilarious-if-not-so-destructive website follies, the breathtaking costs and abysmal coverage of the government-mandated policies, and the apparent fecklessness of our healthcare-administrator-in-chief, a very important danger is going under-mentioned and under-considered. That is the shark circling this sinking ship: the impending economic impact of Obamacare.

As they say in the vernacular, this ain't rocket science. If it costs five million people twice as much for their health coverage, AND they get hit with punitive deductibles in the process, what will they not be able to do as much of anymore? That's right, spend money. If Joe is sending an extra $500 a month to an insurance company, Joe has how many less dollars a month to spend on other goods and services? Exactly, $500. That's not nothing.

A bronze plan in my zip code for my family of four would be about $600 a month... with a $12,600 deductible. Read this carefully. I will pay $600 each month for a plan that will require me to spend on average $1,050 a month before it helps me out with dollar one. (And yes, this is after my "government subsidy".)

At this time, "discretionary spending" is generally a wistful "maybe someday" kind of thing in my home. I'm not whining. God is good, and my family's needs are always met. But let me ask this question. Let's say my employer dumps us on Obamacare in a year (if our competitors do it...). I'm living within my means now, not wracking up credit cards but not having anything left over either... where exactly am I supposed to come up with a mind-bending $1,650 a month? That's a mortgage and two car payments where I'm from. Sometimes I get $20 from my bi-weekly paycheck as play money as things are. Maths are hard...

Fortunately for me, I am not an individual policy purchaser, and I am in the employer mandate delay grace period right now. (Hope springs eternal and I choose to prepare inasmuch as possible but hope that something happens to stop the train before the whole thing goes off the cliff.) But what about the guy like me who is an individual policy purchaser? Let's say the guy whose policy has been cancelled was already paying $600 a month for his policy. No problem, all he has to do now is come up with another mortgage payment. Is that a reasonable expectation? Do we live in a day where we can reasonably expect that the average family of four has an extra $1,000 at the end of the month they don't know what to do with now? That family is going to have to make changes and they're going to be serious changes. Sorry kids, the cell phones and data plans are gone. TV too, no more cable. And that takes the internet with it, sorry about your former social life. Guess that means we'll never be ordering anything off Amazon anymore. We'll be cutting the car insurance to the bare minimum, but I'm sure the lizard or pig or other talking animal du jour won't mind, it's all for a good cause. Disney World is going to have to wait until that magical time when the government starts to remember that people actually need some of that paycheck they work for. United Way? Sorry, not this year. Girl Scout cookies? Ibid. Red Cross, Salvation Army, Susan B. Komen, American Heart Association, firefighters with the boots at the intersections, MDA Labor Day Telethon, youngsters asking for money for missions trips, sorry all. Restaurants are off the table, pun intended. Starbucks? Hahahaha!!!! Birthdays are cancelled until further notice. 401k contribution is suspended in favor of purchasing groceries and heating the house... to 60 degrees. Getting rid of the dog, can't afford the dog food...

So now, five million or so policies have been cancelled. The employer mandate has been delayed a year. Ask yourself why it's been delayed a year. If it's a good and necessary thing as we were told ad nauseam when this thing was ramrodded through Congress, do it now, right? Let's say the current predictions are seriously overblown. Some analysts are saying 80 to 100 million will lose their employer-provided policies when the employer mandate kicks in. So let's say it's only half: 45 million. That's policies, not people. Imagine half of those are family plans. Let's guess we're talking about 60 million people who used to have money to spend who don't anymore. What exactly happens to our unicorn-driven economic recovery when a full 1/6 of the population suddenly stops spending money? And what happens to all those people?

A Walk on the Wilde Side - James Taranto

2013-12-06T09:30:00.001-06:00

One of Barack Obama's most irritating rhetorical tropes is his oft-stated aversion to "cynicism." It is vexing in substantial part because of its breathtaking and demagogic hypocrisy: Obama inveighs against cynicism in a cynical effort to manipulate the gullible, to make them feel good about their naiveté. That helps explain how he has maintained a base of support, albeit a shrinking one, as the disaster that is ObamaCare has unfolded.

In his 1892 comedy "Lady Windermere's Fan," Oscar Wilde defined a cynic as "a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." In an essay for The New Yorker's website, Margaret Talbot reveals herself to be--or poses as--the opposite of Wilde's cynic, at least when it comes to ObamaCare.

Talbot and her husband, a couple of writers, are especially hard-hit by ObamaCare. Even though she's a staff writer at The New Yorker, they don't have employer-provided coverage. At 52, she hasn't yet aged into Medicare, and apparently neither has her husband, whose age she doesn't specify. That means they buy insurance for themselves, along with their two children, in the individual marketplace.

You know what comes next: Their existing policy is "substandard," not compliant with ObamaCare's mandates. In particular, it lacks maternity care, which Talbot astutely notes is "not so useful" for a family whose only adult woman is a quinquagenarian, and vision care, which "we'd got used to not having."

Ann Coulter: TO SPEAK TO A NIGERIAN PRINCE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH CARE, PRESS '1' NOW

2013-11-14T10:16:00.001-06:00

In a weird confluence of the nation's two most pressing issues -- Obamacare and our insane immigration laws -- this week we found out that the tens of thousands of "navigators" hired by the government to enroll people in Obamacare will include convicted felons.

Despite some "navigators" having already been exposed as having arrest warrants against them, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has no plans to screen out the criminals. (But rest assured: If your identity is stolen as a result of trying to sign up for Obamacare, no one will be more upset about it than President Obama.)

Maybe it's a blessing that the Obamacare website has crashed more often than the Soviet Union's commercial air fleet did.

In addition to convicted felons, navigators are drawn from labor unions, community organizers, former ACORN staffers and front-groups for the Democratic National Committee.

Call right up and give all your private financial and medical information to those guys! What could go wrong? (Before Obamacare was even online, Minnesota's health exchange emailed the Social Security numbers and other identifying information for about 2,400 Americans to a man applying to be a "navigator.")

Read more...

Republicans, Conservatives, and the TEA Party

2013-10-30T17:03:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of division these days on the right: RINOs, the “Republican Establishment”, libertarian conservatives and the TEA Party to name a few. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has become the poster boy for the in-your-face aspect of the RINO stripe with his notorious coziness with President Obama. Arizona Senator John McCain should be nominated for the Oscar in the leading role as "useful idiot for the Obama administration in the category of Republican Establishment", going so far as to lash out against conservative TEA Party Republicans like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and libertarian TEA Party Republicans like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul for their conservative values, displaying his rapier wit by calling them "wacko birds".

Disagreement among conservative factions is normal and can be good when it fosters discussion that dispels ignorance. But disagreement should never occur when it comes to our Constitutional rights.

The framers were convinced that the rights they enumerated in our founding documents were not granted by their writing or bestowed by the beneficence of government, but endowed by our Creator. No one in their right mind wants an American theocracy. But remove the Creator, and who exactly is it that endows us with our rights? Our “rights” then come from government, and are reduced to privileges, to be taken away as that government sees fit. The concept of a “right” implies objectivity; that is, a source beyond subjective opinion or decision. Our rights are endowed by our Creator, or we don’t have any. Those are the only two options.

Our rights are always under fire and require a vigorous defense, perhaps never more so than now. The modern TEA Party movement gets its fuel from the Republican Party’s ineptitude in preserving conservative principles and its weakness in defending our rights. It is comprised of libertarians, religious conservatives, non-religious conservatives, even non-conservatives who realize our government is off the rails, citizens who despite their differences revere and respect the design of the nation according to the founders. It is the attempt to renew libertarianism and conservatism, to save the nation from the steady march of liberal progressivism.

Where we run into trouble is when the different factions want the entire movement to be according to their particular beliefs. We need to take into account what the opposition is doing. They are putting aside any differences they have in the effort to transform America into something it wasn’t meant to be. To meet them head on, we have to look at the basis for our movement, and come to an understanding of the required common denominators; that without which the movement ceases to have meaning. Here’s a short list, a starting point:

The Constitution is non-negotiable outside the framework of the legal means of changing it – We must stand firm against the opposition’s onslaught against our Constitutional rights, and any infringement from our side as well.

Government within its bounds – We must support the federal government in its enumerated responsibilities, and we must resist its encroachment in any other area. The federal government is already far outside its prescription, destroying personal freedom at an alarming rate. The tenth amendment should be the guiding principle of our government. Instead it’s the most ignored.

Fiscal responsibility – We must work to stop government standing in the way of economic growth and stop it from spending the future. The first term of the current administration has taught us that the mere threat of government interference can freeze an economy and squeeze the ability to recover from recession out of it. And with debt now passing $17 trillion, far too much of government revenue for the foreseeable future will be spent on simply servicing the debt rather than doing anything positive.

Retaining the deference to the Creator – Controversial yes, but crucial. From the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Without the Creator there are no rights; there is no objective source to which to appeal. Without an objective source, there is only the subjective, and what we have are privileges granted at the pleasure of government. You don’t have to be a religious person, but if you will not support the idea of the Creator, you have nothing to which appeal for the rights you claim to have.

Where we go wrong on the right is that we so often arrange our infantry in circles. Our opposition never does this. One could perhaps rightfully say, “That’s because we have convictions and they don’t.” But if we don’t soon find a way to put aside our lesser differences and work together to stop the onslaught, the discussion will be academic.

Is There a Way Out? - Walter E. Williams

2013-10-30T16:42:00.000-05:00

According to a recent Fox News poll, 73 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, up 20 points from 2012. Americans sense that there's a lot going wrong in our nation, but most don't have a clue about the true nature of our problem. If they had a clue, most would have little stomach for what would be necessary to arrest our national decline. Let's look at it.

Between two-thirds and three-quarters of federal spending, in contravention of the U.S. Constitution, can be described as Congress taking the earnings or property of one American to give to another, to whom it does not belong. You say, "Williams, what do you mean?" Congress has no resources of its very own. Moreover, there's no Santa Claus or tooth fairy who gives it resources. The fact that Congress has no resources of its very own forces us to recognize that the only way Congress can give one American one dollar is to first -- through intimidation, threats and coercion -- confiscate that dollar from some other American through the tax code.

If any American did privately what Congress does publicly, he'd be condemned as an ordinary thief. Taking what belongs to one American to give to another is theft, and the receiver is a recipient of stolen property. Most Americans would suffer considerable anguish and cognitive dissonance seeing themselves as recipients of stolen property, so congressional theft has to be euphemized and given a respectable name. That respectable name is "entitlement." Merriam-Webster defines entitlement as "the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something." For example, I am entitled to walk into the house that I own. I am entitled to drive the car that I own. The challenging question is whether I am also entitled to what you or some other American owns.

Sufficient Reason - Dear Liberal…Here’s Why I’m So Hostile

2013-10-25T15:38:00.001-05:00

(Every so often you run into something and find yourself thinking, "THIS is exactly what I've been trying to say, man I wish I'd written this!" This is one of those...)

Now before I waste too much of your time, let’s establish who I’m talking to. If you believe that we live in an evil, imperialist nation from its founding, and you believe that it should be “fundamentally transformed”, lend me your ears. If you believe that the free market is the source of the vast majority of society’s ills and wish to have more government intervention into it, I’m talking to you. If you believe that health care is a basic human right and that government should provide it to everyone, you’re the guy I’m screaming at. If you think minorities cannot possibly survive in this inherently racist country without handouts and government mandated diversity quotas, you’re my guy. If you believe that rich people are that way because they’ve exploited their workers and acquired wealth on the backs of the poor, keep reading. Pretty much, if you trust government more than your fellow American, this post is for you.

Read The Rest Of The Awesomeness by Jeremy N. Choate

“Mr. President, I’m Leaving The Medical Field”: Hanging Up The White Coat: A Letter To President Obama | Ben Swann Truth In Media

2013-10-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

"I remember the day Obamacare became law. I was sitting in the hospital working in the anesthesia department part-time to cover the costs of tuition. Dr. Alfery, a mentor of mine, looked over at me and said, “Run– It’s not too late to change majors.”"

Read more

Do You Have An American Size?

2013-07-26T21:55:00.001-05:00

Dear New CEO of JCPenney,

Against my better judgment, I entered your store for the first time tonight. Turns out my better judgment was right. I went in looking for a sport jacket and came out with the desire to open a clothing store just because a wombat with a small business loan and a pencil could compete with what I just experienced.

First of all, as I approached the store, there was music blaring from speakers that the front door that screams, "If you don't spend your free time at coffee shops ordering beverages with longer names than Spanish monarchs talking about what losers people who don't hang out at coffee shops drinking fluffy half skim tuxedo caramel sprinkle mochas are you're not welcome here." But my wife said I should be able to find something here, so I gritted my teeth and opened the door. The music was louder in the entry way, but hey, I had momentum and how bad could it be, right?

As I broke into the store proper, my mind simply froze. I was assaulted by a combination of brightness and color one might expect if a lighting store and a sherbet factory were watching a Cheech and Chong movie and got a little too groovy, if you're picking up what I'm laying down... I was literally so disoriented that I couldn't figure out what to do and I simply stopped and stood there looking around. There were no useful signs, no indication of what might be where, just more bad music, bright lights and feminine colors.

With no more useful idea of what to do other than that standing still would make me look like even more of an idiot than I already felt, I began walking. Forward. There was no point in turning because THERE ARE NO SIGNS. Or if there are, the visual noise was so intense that I did not even see them. Same difference. As I'm walking, it slowly dawns on me that I must be moving in generally the "correct" direction as I'm beginning to see posters and pictures of muscular men wearing next to nothing, which seems fairly odd since it's a clothing store not a naked man store. Anyway, I assume that's how you identify the men's department now.

After walking in a few frustrated circles, I found my way out of the melon-vomit-colored purgatory into which I'd wandered and into the section I was looking for, where there were suits and such. Most of them were shiny, and nearly all of them had tags on them that said "slim fit". And all of them are apparently made in Vietnam now.

I like Vietnam. It has trees, and food, and people, and things. I imagine it's a great place. It's also a near certainty that there are not people there who look like me. I can't even get my ARMS in their jackets. (Even their biggest, a 48" jacket, I could have easily ripped like The Hulk.) And apparently they can't envision anyone as fat as me, as the sizes seem to end about 4" smaller than would look less than entirely ridiculous on me. You'd think the American JCP buyers would have told them Americans are fat.

So, Mr. New CEO of JCPenney, who took over from the CEO of JCPenney who was hired from Apple and tried to turn the store into an Apple store and nearly bankrupted it... I have a question for you: who on God's green earth is your target demographic? 22 year old women and metros? Are you trying to finish the job the Applebot started? Because that's what your store looks like. And that's what your selection looks like. You missed a sale tonight and a return customer later because your inventory would only fit men from third world countries. I like men from third world countries, God made them too. BUT WE'RE NOT THEM. I hate to be Lieutenant Commander Obvious here, but since when is marketing to a wafer thin slice of the population around your store a wise business model? I am a rodeo clown as retail goes (and many other things, before anyone volunteers), but I am CERTAIN I could open a store to compete with yours and beat it on the store-to-store sales level. You know how? By having clothes that a) look at least MILDLY similar to the clothes that people there ACTUALLY WEAR and b) by having sizes that actually fit those people and c) by not assaulting people with music you'd never hear outside a Starbucks run by a tone-deaf person. In case the social engineers you hired to develop your pretentiously avant garde and insanely stupid business model aren't aware, if I can't find anything that looks less than utterly ridiculous and oh, maybe FITS ME in your store, guess what I'm not doing? You think about that, I'll wait...

Good luck with your whatever it is you're doing. I won't be back.

Signed,
Big fat American buying clothes somewhere else

Eric Holder Thinks You're An Idiot

2013-07-17T08:57:00.001-05:00

Stand Your Ground laws had exactly ZERO impact on the Zimmerman case; there's little opportunity to retreat when someone is on you smashing your head into the ground. Holder is trying to link the idea of self-defense (which one side would argue is what TRAYVON MARTIN was doing when was trying to kill George Zimmerman) with gun control as though self-defense is what gets people killed. No, the NEED for self-defense is what gets OFFENDERS killed. It is an insane society indeed where we even have to argue for stand your ground. It should be obvious and not NEED to be legislated.

I see no duty to retreat; I have the God-given right to defend myself and my family. YOU have a duty under the law not to attack my family or break and enter my home and force me to make split-second interpretations of your intentions. (Sorry pal, I'm not waiting to see if you're just a nice guy who thinks he needs my TV.) If you do not do YOUR duty UNDER THE LAW not to threaten me and my family, don't expect me to be warm to the idea that I have a duty to let you get away with it at the expense of my family. If you think your "needs" trump mine, why then act surprised if I feel the same way? Do us both a favor don't commit a crime involving putting my family in danger.

Hypocrites.

Fighting Not To Lose

2013-07-16T16:52:00.000-05:00

To twist a tired meme from Afghanistan, you can win the hearts and minds of the people and still lose the war. Just like the strategy our military was saddled with over there, we on the right don't fight to win, we "fight" not to lose. Once you're doing that, you've already lost.

In a discussion earlier today, I expressed what some might call pessimism, I simply see it as realism. Conservatism is losing. The other party responded with a Rasmussen poll showing that support for conservative viewpoints is actually increasing not decreasing. The problem is that it hardly matters who supports what anymore because we have an imperial government ruling over us now instead of the representative government we are supposed to have. None of the three branches of our government gives a whit what the majority thinks anymore. The Constitution = Cottonelle to our glorious leaders these days. So where's the win?

I hate to be so negative, but I honestly don't see a turnaround on the horizon. I sincerely believe that had the 2012 election been clean, Obama would have lost. (I know that makes me the kook fringe in the eyes of many. Whatever.) I believe that Congress is so corrupted now that without literally flushing the entire thing and replacing it, any new blood is immediately corrupted. Take Ryan and Rubio for primary examples. A monkey's rear-end knows that illegal aliens aren't going to vote for Republicans in numbers sufficient to offset the effect of granting amnesty on the base. And yet the Republicans join el gang de ocho, line up the circular firing squad and have at the base. Again.

Until the day that the right goes on offense, and in a big way, we are done. And I think we're really close to the point of no return, if we're not already past it. A small fringe minority is remaking America while the majority of us is out here going, "Wow, this sucks", and that's about it. I don't honestly know what we CAN do to get things turned around. But what we're doing isn't working and it's not going to work. Quit dreaming about polls and percentages. How do we fix this?

COMMON CORE: "Common Core" or "Rotten to the Core" - You Decide

2013-06-07T17:34:00.001-05:00

Common Core is an educational curriculum being forced upon the states by the Obama administration, which is scheduled to be mostly implemented this year in the 46 states that have adopted it. Common Core eliminates local control over K-12 curriculum in math and English, instead imposing a one-size-fits-all, top-down curriculum that will also apply to private schools and homeschoolers.

Read more...

Scandalpaloozagate Fatigue

2013-05-17T14:56:00.000-05:00

Oh, he's really stepped in it this time, hasn't he? Benghazi won't go away, the IRS turns out to be as partisan as the mainstream media, Obamacare is bankrupt before it's even implemented and the Department of Justice is abusing it's power so badly (AP investigation among so many other things) that it's likely they wouldn't know "justice" if they fell in it. Not to mention Smokin' Jay Carney's Prevarication-O-Meter is ticking over so fast the US Debt Clock website is thinking of filing an infringement lawsuit.

Poor President Obama, what's he going to do now? How's he going to get out of this? His second term agenda is in danger and the evil Republicans could sweep the 2014 mid-terms if something doesn't happen soon!

Your assumption is all wrong. This is exactly what he wants. Your homework assignment: Figure out why. I'm not doing it for you, and if you'd been listening the past 5 years you'd know already. If you don't know, shame on you and get to work. It's really close to being too late.

Here are some hints (and yes, I know they look totally unrelated)...

Remember the things that were huge right before Scandalpaloozagate? Like gun control, for instance? What's going on with that? "They lost", you say. Wrong. They never lose. This crowd does not lose, even though sometimes it may look like it.

Oh, and how about the serial killer Kermit Gosnell murdering uncounted children under the auspices of the Hypocratic Oath by calling himself a women's health provider? Making Molech proud, one savage and light-hearted killing at a time. Do you think that got the attention it warranted, both from the media and from the government? (Did you know there's another one in Houston, and at this point he sounds as bad or worse? Is it possible that this isn't as much the exception to the rule as we're led to believe?)

What about the fact that the economy simply will not improve no matter how much time it's given? Even with huge numbers of people giving up looking for work and/or going on disability, the unemployment number barely moves. Weird that. It's almost like there's something gumming up the works.

It's big picture time. And that's the biggest hint I'm going to give.

What's going on here and what's about to happen?

New Report: Global Temperature Standstill Is Real | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

2013-03-15T11:05:00.001-05:00

Date: 15/03/13

The Global Warming Policy Foundation

London, 15 March: A new report written by Dr David Whitehouse and published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation concludes that there has been no statistically significant increase in annual global temperatures since 1997.

After reviewing the scientific literature the report concludes that the standstill is an empirical fact and a reality that challenges current climate models. During the time that the Earth’s global temperature has remained static the atmospheric composition of carbon dioxide has increased from 370 to 390 ppm.

“The standstill is a reality and is not the result of cherry-picking start and end points. Its commencement can be seen clearly in the data, and it continues to this day,” said Dr David Whitehouse, the author of the new report.

The report shows that the temperature standstill has been a much discussed topic in peer-reviewed scientific literature for years, but that this scientific debate has neither been followed by most of the media, nor acknowledged by climate campaigners, scientific societies and prominent scientists.

The report also surveys how those few journalists who have looked at the issue have been reporting the standstill, with many far too ready to dismiss it or lacking a sense of journalistic inquiry, preferring to report squabbles rather than the science.

”If the standstill continues for a few more years it will mean that no one who has just reached adulthood, or younger, will have witnessed the Earth get warmer during their lifetime,” said the report’s author, Dr David Whitehouse.

In his foreword, Lord Turnbull, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, commented:

“Dr Whitehouse is a man who deserves to be listened to. He has consistently followed an approach of examining observations rather than projections of large scale computer models, which are too often cited as ‘evidence’. He looks dispassionately at the data, trying to establish what message it tells us, rather than using it to confirm a pre-held view.”

Full report here

American Thinker: Dennis Rodman, Obama's Madeleine Albright

2013-03-05T08:47:00.001-06:00

March 5, 2013

Dennis Rodman, Obama's Madeleine Albright

Daren Jonescu

My Minnesota pals Guy Green and Tony Bauer recently included me in an e-mail exchange regarding Dennis Rodman's edition of the Jane Fonda Communist Workout featuring North Korea's new favorite son (of god), Kim Jong-Un. This little incident, which in itself ranks up there on the sanity scale with Maxine Waters' warning of 170,000,000 Americans losing their jobs due to the sequester, is nevertheless a timely reminder of just how power-mad progressives really are, and how thoroughly their power-madness obliterates any notions of conscience or decency.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/03/dennis_rodman_obamas_madeleine_albright.html#ixzz2Mg1CLVRT

American Thinker: Is the U.S. Clinically Insane?

2013-02-21T14:15:00.000-06:00

"ObamaCare is replicating the British NHS here. The president certainly can't want Americans to die. Thus, he must be insane: he is doing the same thing (as elsewhere) and thinking that the result will be different."

Read more... by Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA

Henson Ong at Gun Violence Prevention Public Hearing - Hartford, CT - 1/28/2013 - YouTube

2013-02-01T16:27:00.001-06:00

You MUST watch this video. Henson Ong at Gun Violence Prevention Public Hearing - Hartford, CT - 1/28/2013 - YouTube

Hey America, here comes your free healthcare!

2013-02-01T10:18:00.001-06:00

Surprise! ObamaCare Plans Start At $20,000 For Family Of 4 » Pirate's Cove

Why I Don't Read The Huffington Post

2013-01-25T15:36:00.001-06:00

Ok, so someone accused me of only reading conservative news sources, and they were correct. Shame on me. Not really, because I hate it when my head explodes and makes a mess. So just to be cool about it, I thought I'd go to the Huffington Post and read some headlines and see if I could handle it. Here's what I came up with before I ran screaming like a little girl.

What The 2012 Election Would Look Like Under The Republicans' Vote-Rigging Plan -- This fascinating expose of the horror of the evylle Republican plan shines the disinfectant sunlight on their machination to have electoral college votes allocated by Congressional district rather than by state. Yeah, I know, huh? That gives an unfair advantage to the Republicans! Because there are more districts that vote Republican... hmm. Wait. That means that it would be technically more fair and more representative of the American people that way, wouldn't it? And it means that it's the Democrats who now have the unfair advantage, taking presidential elections they shouldn't...

‘Ultraconservative Utopia' Would Include Drug Testing The Poor & Unemployed -- Rather than even try to describe it, I'll just past in the first block from this riveting write-up on what the dastardly conservatives are up to in Kansas:

Lawmakers seeking to abolish income taxes and stymie unions in Kansas think it might also be worthwhile to make the poor and unemployed pee in cups to prove they're not wasting taxpayer money on drugs.

Why those evil so-and-sos! Are you telling me that they think that for someone to qualify for public assistance that comes out of the taxpayer's pocket, they should have to prove that they're not wasting that largesse buying drugs?!? You have to be... wait... that kind of makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, maybe if you weren't buying drugs and stoning your life away you could be more productive, or at least need less assistance?

Ok, I will admit, there seem to be a few conservative voices on the Huffington Post. They seem oddly out of place, like a really short guy in a crowd jumping up and down waving his arms frantically. But there's also some real great stuff too, like this global warming blog post from climate scientist Al Gore:

The Future -- Right, that Al Gore, the one who just sold his failed television network to Al-Jazeera, the media arm of the Qatar government, one of the great oil producers of the world. You know what I like about Al Gore? His tremendous chutzpah. Not much else, but hey, that should be enough, right?

You know what? I think I remember now why I don't bother much with leftist news sources. There's a whole lot more baloney out there than beef...

American Thinker: The Great Progressive Church

2012-12-13T11:42:00.001-06:00

Psychologists say that people need religion in one form or another, and will always invent a theology if they are not given one. I'm not the first to notice that the rise of thetic, unchurched, Godless Secular Humanists has resulted in liberals meeting this human need by converting Progressive Ideology into religious doctrine and admiration for Progressive leaders into unquestioning worship. Self-righteous calls for civility aside, this explains why they get so angry and vicious when you challenge any of their tenets. You are not disagreeing with them over policy. You are attacking the core of their religion, and their reaction is often the same as if you told a member of the Westboro Baptist Church that Jesus wasn't divine or a member of the Muslim Brotherhood that Mohammad was a fake. Blasphemy cannot be tolerated by fundamentalists of any stripe.

Of course, like all religions, the Progressive Church has degrees of belief, from the moderates, who are rather like Christmas and Easter Christians, to the Fundamentalist Progressives, who respond as you'd expect from a Salafist told that Allah wasn't really in favor of slaughtering Jews. (Why are you picking up that stone?)

To understand the Progressive Church, you must first understand that for them, intentions matter, not results for real people. If they can feel all warm and fuzzy about intendions, the actually outcomes are of no interest. Note that they find no cognitive dissonance when their principles collide with each other or with reality -- they just ignore it, in the grand tradition of many great religions...

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/the_great_progressive_church.html#ixzz2ExFrUSsz

Merry Holiday!

2012-11-27T14:50:00.000-06:00

Watching any TV lately? Seeing a few commercials with Christmas trees, presents, music, sales, etc., right? Have you heard the word “Christmas” even once?

I noticed this over the ~~Thanksgiving~~ Turkey Day weekend; while every retailer on the planet wants you to buy your Christmas presents from them, not one out of all of them will actually say the word “Christmas” in their ads. To someone who wants things to make sense it's a little puzzling. I mean, I began to get the feeling it was coming after how it seemed to pain people to say “Thanksgiving”, and then seeing the absurd commercials where people talked about being generically thankful for this, that or the other thing. And of course, they have to be just generically “thankful”, because to go any further than that would mean to actually give thanks, and if you give thanks, there has to be an object of the giving. So I kind of get it. If we have to acknowledge to Whom we’re giving thanks, then we have to admit that this holiday isn’t just a day of feasting and getting together with family so that you remember why you don’t get together with your family very often. (Uncle Fred got drunk again and did what this time?)

But the Christmas thing is another whole level of weird. I mean, I suppose I could almost be convinced that it’s a matter of not wanting to offend the Jewish consumer who is buying Hannukah presents. Well, no, not really. See, while I see indications of Christmas in these commercials like trees, decorations, etc., what I never, never see is a menorah. So no, it’s not for the sake of our Jewish compatriots that we’ve foregone mentioning the name of the holiday retailers depend upon annually for their very survival and profitability. No, this is something else entirely. There’s a wink and nod thing going on here that is just plain bizarre. Yes, it’s Christmas. Yes, we want you to buy your Christmas presents here. Yes, the sale ends on December 25^th. Yes, there’ll be a Santa in the store. Yes, there will be gift-wrapping services available. Yes you’ll hear Muzak versions of Christmas carols and songs on the overhead, vocal-less so as not to offend whoever it is that might be offended.

And... there it is. Someone cares that someone thinks someone's going to be offended by Christmas. Not offended enough, mind you, to avoid trampling and hospitalizing a total stranger in order to get $10 off some underwear that’s the wrong size at a store from which they wouldn’t even want people to know they got their underwear. Not offended enough to refuse the annual Christmas bonus, should they be fortunate enough to work for a company that can still afford one. Not offended enough to tell their family members that they’re going to stick with their convictions and no longer acquiesce to these blatantly religious holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas and just lay low until New Years.

How does this work? The only way it can… in someone’s imagination. The imagined offense doesn’t actually exist, but in this hideously deformed politically correct culture we’ve developed where the phrase “too bad” is reserved strangely for the majority, any possible offense to anyone other than a Christian is imagined to be the real thing and therefore avoided at any cost. The same people who balk at saying "Christmas" seem to have no similar problem saying “the holy month of Ramadan”. The same mouths that can’t utter the name “Jesus Christ” except in the most offensive ways (but remember, if it’s Christians who will be offended it doesn’t count) seem to have no problem at all with “the prophet Mohammed”.

That pine tree with the lights on it isn’t a Hannukah tree or a Ramadan tree, it’s not a Kwanzaa tree either. It’s a Christmas tree. Don’t like it? Too bad. Oh, and Merry Christmas!

George Will: Obama’s empty, strident campaign - The Washington Post

2012-11-01T16:14:00.001-05:00

George Will: Obama’s empty, strident campaign - The Washington Post

By George F. Will, Published: October 31

“It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man.”

— Calvin Coolidge

Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising to replicate his first term, although simply apologizing would be appropriate. His long campaign’s bilious tone — scurrilities about Mitt Romney as a monster of, at best, callous indifference; adolescent japes about “Romnesia” — is discordant coming from someone who has favorably compared his achievements to those of “any president” since Lincoln, with the “possible” exceptions of Lincoln, LBJ and FDR. Obama’s oceanic self-esteem — no deficit there — may explain why he seems to smolder with resentment that he must actually ask for a second term...

The Second Amendment Does Not Grant Any Right

2012-11-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

(Don't remember where I got this, but if anyone can tell me I'll be glad to credit it...)

The Second Amendment does not grant any right. It states that the right (which already exists) shall not be infringed. The Declaration of Independence clearly articulates the source of unalienable rights as our Creator.

The Ninth Amendment, proposed along with the Second by a single act of Congress, states "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." In order to retain something, one must first have it. This wording makes very clear that these rights are not granted by having been mentioned in the Constitution.

This is important because the Left always tries to win the battle of definitions so we have to fight the rest of the war on their terms. Don't surrender to the idea that government grants a right. Government merely grants privileges and immunities, which it may then revoke at its whim.

We can't afford four more years

2012-11-01T10:06:00.002-05:00

I mean, I don't know, maybe you can, but I can tell you I can't.

How Will Taxmageddon Impact You? The Foundry - Heritage Foundation

2012-10-31T17:13:00.001-05:00

How Will Taxmageddon Impact You?

Excerpt:

A horrifying combination of expiring pro-growth tax policies from 2001 and 2003, the end of the once-temporary payroll tax cut, and just a few of Obamacare’s 18 new tax hikes, Taxmageddon will be the largest tax increase EVER to hit Americans. It’s nearly $500 billion in one year, starting January 1. That’s two months away.

The number $500 billion is rather large and abstract, so The Heritage Foundation has broken down the expected tax increases per person just for 2013:

Families with an average income of $70,662: tax increase of $4,138
Baby boomers with an average income of $95,099: tax increase of $4,223
Low-income workers with an average income of $24,757: tax increase of $1,207
Millennials with an average income of $23,917: tax increase of $1,099
Retirees with an average income of $42,553: tax increase of $857

Iowa warns international observers of arrest - Bobby Cervantes - POLITICO.com

2012-10-31T17:02:00.001-05:00

Iowa warns international observers of arrest - Bobby Cervantes - POLITICO.com

So, the OSCE is coming. Who invited them anyway? Who are they? They are the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and they're here to bring the United Nations' gold standard for world corruption to a polling place near you. But why? Why would a "a crisis mediation and conflict resolution group in Europe, Asia and North America" be monitoring (rather uselessly, I might add) elections in America?

If anyone else were the incumbent, I'd be fascinated by the idea of an election monitoring body supposedly looking for vote fraud when we can't even get the liberales to quit with their manufactured outrage over the concept of voter ID. But in this scenario, it has a sort of an inevitable feel to it.

Here's my question... Everyone knows who is doing the vote fraud. If these "observers" actually do any observing instead of just being of pawns with Democrat marching orders, they're going to know too. So, can anyone imagine a scenario where the OSCE fingers the Democrats for their inevitable and constant cheating? Anyone heard anything from them yet on the polling machines in several states where you choose Romney and it comes up Obama? No? Yeah, me neither. Anybody else getting sick and tired of this garbage, or is it just me?