I am one of those “typical Americans” who has lived much of my life in a political dead zone. Life has been good, and “Politics” have been in the distant background most of my life. There were stretches when I didn’t even vote. I was oblivious.

Fast forward to 2008. I smelled snake oil with Obama and I couldn’t put my finger on it, other than the shady connection with ACORN. At that time I was only getting my news from the lame stream media. The week before the election my brother & I were celebrating our birthdays, and I realized that everyone in the room (except me) was seized by the fever of Obamamania. And then my brothers liberal girlfriend singled me out by saying “with your feelings about guns do you have to vote for McCain?” Bitch, I thought. Time to educate myself about what I knew I didn’t like, but was unable to articulate.

I began to realize that it was a luxury to take for granted our constitution and all the freedoms that I enjoyed. Perhaps in the past I was living in a more innocent time. Or perhaps not. But today that luxury has vanished. Today we must be vigilant to the forces that are FAST at work to destroy our way of life.

Now I understand how insidious this president, and all the radical leftists he surrounds himself with, really is. I can more readily recognize his deeds, and his blatant disregard for the constitution that is crafted to constrain him and the congress. I can see that no president has the power to fire the CEO of a private corporation. There is no authority to take over a car company & blow off the stock holders & hand the keys to the UAW. There is no company who is too big to fail. There is no debt that can be resolved by borrowing more money to become solvent. There is no such thing as zero consequences for reckless deficit spending and printing trillions of dollars of freshly minted paper, with nothing to back it up but more debt to China. Capitalism is not a bad thing, our country has grown & prospered because of it. The quickest way to kill our economy is to insist on policies of “equality” which really mean redistribution of wealth. There is no constitutional mandate to require citizens to purchase any good or service simply because they are citizens. There is no country on this planet with open borders. There is no sense in pushing “climate” legislation based on junk science. There is no morality in using executive orders to bypass congress to allow the EPA to set restrictive economically stifling rules about carbon emissions. The is no logic in designating carbon dioxide, the gas we breathe out of our own bodies with every single breath as hazardous!! It is insanity for our own government to power grab our lands and waterways and to refuse to allow our own abundant gas & oil reserves to be explored and used responsibly for our own country’s welfare, while we are simultaneously loaning Brazil billions of our tax dollars to drill for oil in their country. And to turn a blind eye to Islamic extremism even in our own military, just for “political correctness” is one of the stupidest things in the 21st century, to be sure. And it is nothing but tyranny to hear that our own government is contemplating taking over our private IRAs & savings “for our own good” because we must be too stupid to manage our own money. This is so Orwellian that even George’s head must be spinning!

“if you are not outraged then you are not paying attention!!!” I wish for my 20~something niece and her generation to be aware. To be vigilant. To be stewards of our future. I want her and all of us to be smart and strong and educated. All Americans who treasure liberty & freedom must never forget that freedom & liberty once lost are rarely restored.

Lowest poll numbers from Gallop yet. Yeah, I know, shocking it isn’t but let’s look at the Washington Post when Bush hit 46 the first time:

Friday, May 14, 2004; Page A01

Six months before the November election, President Bush has slipped into a politically fragile position that has put his reelection at risk, with the public clearly disaffected by his handling of the two biggest issues facing the country: Iraq and the economy.

~~~

Bush’s approval rating in the Gallup poll fell to 46 percent this week — the lowest in his presidency by that organization’s measures. Fifty-one percent said they disapprove — the first time in his presidency that a bare majority registered disapproval of the way Bush is doing his job. A Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday pegged Bush’s approval at 44 percent, with 48 percent disapproving.

Page one news.

How about when he hit 45 for the first time….the next stop on Obama’s trainwreck of a Presidency.

USA Today:

President Bush’s approval rating has fallen to 45%, the lowest point of his presidency, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll.

Another article from the Washington Post the very next day is here.

Oh yes, how about CNN? The poll numbers were highlighted during a Anderson Cooper segment and a Jack Cafferty segment that day.

Ok, ok….so the big news of that drop was the Schiavo case so lets give the MSM the benefit of the doubt and check when he hit 45 again…June of 2005.

CNN:

Poll: Disapproval of Bush at high point

(CNN) — The number of Americans disapproving of President Bush’s job performance has risen to the highest level of his presidency, according to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

According to the poll, 53 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Bush’s performance, compared to 45 percent who approved.

Anderson Cooper again:

VICTORIA CLARKE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Cooper.

COOPER: Hey. Torie, let me start off with you. In the latest CNN- “USA Today” Gallup poll, President Bush’s approval number is down to 45 percent; 37 percent say he has a clear plan in Iraq. That’s down from 49 percent. How worried is this White House?

CLARKE: Well, they’re not worried about their polls. They’re worried about having a really serious and honest conversation with the American people…

COOPER: Wait a minute, you are telling me they’re not worried about the polls?

CLARKE: … about what’s going on in Iraq. I can’t speak for all of them, but I can tell you what they worry about more, which is what is going on in Iraq, and having a very serious conversation tonight with the American people. What’s going on, where the challenges are, where progress is being made, because there is some progress being made, and a caution to the people that this could last for sometime and it will be very, very tough. That’s what they’re really focused on.

COOPER: Paul, do you believe that?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, yes, in part, but, at the same time, they have to be focused on the polls, because that’s how we gauge whether the public supports it.

Let’s see if CNN, the Washington Post, the USAToday and other media outlets will report on the 46% approval rating let alone when it 45.

Politico has saved the MSM’s bacon a few times…and to the rescue they ride again but still no sign of any doom and gloom from the others all week. Last 30 days?

Amazing what a D next to the name can do to our MSM eh?

Remember this? On January 28th House Speaker Nutty Nancy said (video @1:12)

PELOSI: “We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we will parachute in. But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

That statement won’t surprise many readers here as it has been clear for a while that Democrats will do ANYTHING to get their way and grab power over 1/6th of the nation’s economy and make us all dependent on Washington for our health care.

The latest moves in this coup against constitutional government came today with the idea that the House would vote on a rule to reconcile a Senate bill that it had never voted on. How absurd is that? It trumps the already unprecedented use of the reconciliation tactic for health care look tame by comparison.

What’s next? An actual constitutional coup where Democrats just declare their health bill passed by themselves and have Obama sign it into law?

Or, are we witnessing the final death throes of the overreaching of Democrats who long ago failed to find majority support among the American people for their big government power grab?

Place Your Bets!

Is this the “change” America voted for when it elected Obama to tame the way Washington works?

From Roll Call:

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.

The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.

This would appear to end the fraud suggested by House Democrats detailed below. But rest assured, if they can’t use that tactic they’ll think of something equally underhanded.

end update.

As if the secret backroom deals weren’t bad enough. As if the near total shutout of Republicans wasn’t bad enough. As if the bribes and special favors for Obama supporters wasn’t bad enough. Now, House Democrats are preparing to put forward a rule which pretends they already voted to approve the Senate version of health care so they can then proceed with another highly partisan vote on reconciling the health bill.

The rule is called the “Slaughter Solution” named after Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Democratic chair of the powerful House Rules Committee and a key ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Readers will recall that Slaughter’s big contribution to the health care summit at Blair House was the story that one of her constituents had to wear her dead sister’s dentures.

Now, with this rule, Slaughter appears ready to chomp down once again on what little common sense and civility remain in the House of Representatives.

Voters who are already fed up to the eyeballs with the shenanigans Democrats undertook to advance a bill that a clear majority of the American people DO NOT WANT must act NOW to let the few wavering House Democrats know that the price for supporting this idiocy will be defeat in November.

Is your Representative on this list? Or this one? If so, CALL THEM NOW. Organize protests outside their offices Write letters to the editor at your local newspaper!

The thought of Steve’s “just give in because there’s nothing you can do about it” attitude has been swirling around in my head for a while now.  It’s shameful that any American’s feel this way.  It is infuriating that any man would prefer a life of uninterrupted subservience to government authority  over one of turmoil in defense of their own rights and that of their descendant’s.  Yet it seems that many American’s have this attitude.  Our founding fathers recognized this unfortunate trait that many human beings possess.  They recognized that people would often prefer to do nothing rather than stand in their own defense.  They warned us against this attitude.

I have compiled a list of quotes from the founding fathers warning us against quietly submitting to the will of men in power:

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”
-Samuel Adams

“Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expense at the price of their own posterity’s liberty!”
-Samuel Adams

“…it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?”
-Patrick Henry

“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
-The Declaration of Independence

“a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
-Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the state of Virginia, Query 17

All of these quotes have particular significance in present day America. They exemplify our founding fathers’ predictions on the temperament of the people towards government rule. The founders’s predictions were true. The American federal government has become a centralized conglomerate involved in nearly every facet of American life. At every turn, the federal government is there waiting to regulate, take, and redistribute anything they can. For many Americans, centralized government intervention is all they have ever known. A great number of these individuals are so accustomed to this that it has, as Thomas Paine puts it, “a superficial appearance of being right.”

What so many people fail to recognize is that the federal government has no right to be so deeply entrenched in our personal lives. The level of power that the federal government now exercises over the people was never intended by our founders.   The federal government is in place to defend our rights and uphold the constitution.   They are not here to redistribute our wealth,  indoctrinate our children, or create rights and entitlements through the use of perverse and unconstitutional legislation; Yet they do all of these things, and the American people tolerate it.  From time to time the people will rise up in descent. Much like a tide the government may recede for a time, but the tide always rises again, eroding the shore line further and further.

If I could make a plea to the American people it would be this:

“Do not be complacent; complacency can only serve for you to live in blissful ignorance until the day you come to realize that you are no longer an individual, but rather just a number that is ordered to live in a way that complies with a centralized government’s policies and procedures.

Stand in defense of your liberties.   Tyrants will not wait until you are ready to exercise their tyranny.  It is not your right to defend freedom, it is your duty.

Be proud of your country.  It is the last beacon of freedom amidst a rising sea of tyranny.  If America falls, what hope of freedom does mankind have?”

I leave you with one last  appropriate quote, not from our founders, but from Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crises maintain their neutrality…there comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

Is this a case of smear or transparency?

Josh Rogin at Foreign Policy, The Cable:

Several former Justice Department officials have criticized the group Keep America Safe, which is led by Liz Cheney and William Kristol, for its attacks on the department for hiring lawyers who have defended terror suspects in the past, including one particularly controversial ad calling some of them the “al Qaeda 7.”

“The American tradition of zealous representation of unpopular clients is at least as old as John Adams’s representation of the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre,” reads a letter organized by the Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Wittes and signed by David Rivkin, Lee Casey, and Philip Zelikow, among other prominent Republican lawyers.

“To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions on contested questions and demands a uniformity of background and view in government service from which no administration would benefit.”

Why does this matter, and go beyond “talented lawyers taking honorable positions” by lawyering up on behalf of “accused” terrorists who wish to kill Americans? Because in the “war on terror”, we may be winning it on the battlefield and in some cases, behind the scenes; but in the court of law, thanks to such organizations as the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU, America has been on the losing side of 3 of the 4 major war on terror cases that have come before the Supreme Court.

And if these are just honorable, patriotic lawyers doing their honorable duties, then Eric Holder and the Obama Administration really should have no objections to the transparency, should they? After all, this is “the most transparent administration in history”, right?

Thomas Joscelyn takes a look at their body of work. Marc Thiessen devotes an entire chapter (“Double Agents”) in Courting Disaster to the lawyers involved in defending al Qaeda terrorists, and their connections to Eric Holder. (See Thiessen’s op-ed in WaPo here; and if you are so inclined, Eugene Robinson’s attack on Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe here).

Andrew McCarthy also weighs in on why this issue matters.

There is still the problem of the over-reach that has slowly stretched the form beyond the original mandate as specified in the constitution. You can tell that they are sensitive to these concerns by the little historical blurb they have after each question. Nevermind the fact that their present “reasons” have little or nothing to do with the original reasons some questions were asked long ago. IE: property ownership, and such. (If you recall, only property owners could vote back then.)

I will give kudo’s for them keeping the form to only 10 questions. (I don’t know about the “long form” some are getting, and from the sound of it, it seems onerous.) I will damn them to hell for spending 14 billion dollars doing it, including the sponsorship of a stock-car, and super-bowl ads.

There is however still some items they have no business asking, and I didn’t answer questions like them 10, 20, or 30 years ago either, so my reasons have nothing to do with Obama. They have NEVER prosecuted anyone for failing to fill it out, or for leaving parts blank. Do fill it out and send it in…it is important.

I have put the 10 questions here, along with my answers.

The Questions on the Form:

How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?

We ask this question to help get an accurate count of the number of people in the household on Census Day, April 1, 2010. The answer should be based on the guidelines in the ‘Start here’ section. We use the information to ensure response accuracy and completeness and to contact respondents whose forms have incomplete or missing information.

Answer: 5

Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?

Asked since 1880. We ask this question to help identify people who may have been excluded in the count provided in Question 1. We use the information to ensure response accuracy and completeness and to contact respondents whose forms have incomplete or missing information.

Answer: No

Is this house, apartment, or mobile home: owned with mortgage, owned without mortgage, rented, occupied without rent?

Asked since 1890. Homeownership rates serve as an indicator of the nation’s economy. The data are also used to administer housing programs and to inform planning decisions.

Answer: Left blank

What is your telephone number?

We ask for a phone number in case we need to contact a respondent when a form is returned with incomplete or missing information.

Answer: Left blank

Please provide information for each person living here. Start with a person here who owns or rents this house, apartment, or mobile home. If the owner or renter lives somewhere else, start with any adult living here. This will be Person 1. What is Person 1’s name?

Listing the name of each person in the household helps the respondent to include all members, particularly in large households where a respondent may forget who was counted and who was not. Also, names are needed if additional information about an individual must be obtained to complete the census form. Federal law protects the confidentiality of personal information, including names.

Answer: Person 1 (2,3,4,5)

What is Person 1’s sex?

Asked since 1790. Census data about sex are important because many federal programs must differentiate between males and females for funding, implementing and evaluating their programs. For instance, laws promoting equal employment opportunity for women require census data on sex. Also, sociologists, economists, and other researchers who analyze social and economic trends use the data.

Answer for persons 1 thru 5: Male, female, female, female, male.

What is Person 1’s age and Date of Birth?

Asked since 1800. Federal, state, and local governments need data about age to interpret most social and economic characteristics, such as forecasting the number of people eligible for Social Security or Medicare benefits. The data are widely used in planning and evaluating government programs and policies that provide funds or services for children, working-age adults, women of childbearing age, or the older population.

Answer for persons 1 thru 5: 49, 47, 17, 16, 15. (No dates given)

Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?

Asked since 1970. The data collected in this question are needed by federal agencies to monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as under the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State and local governments may use the data to help plan and administer bilingual programs for people of Hispanic origin.

Answer: Left blank

What is Person 1’s race?

Asked since 1790. Race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State governments use the data to determine congressional, state and local voting districts. Race data are also used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services.

Answer: Other/Human

Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?

This is another question we ask in order to ensure response accuracy and completeness and to contact respondents whose forms have incomplete or missing information.
Answer: No

“Exactly how Americans define “socialism” or what exactly they think of when they hear the word is not known”

It occurs to me, that this statement encapsulates much of what I believe to be a the failings and ills of society today.

Gone are the days, if they once existed, of opinions rooted in fact and study. Regardless of your thought of socialism, should not an individual have, at the very least, a general understanding of an issue prior to lending their thoughts a voice? I cannot help but feel, that this seemingly minor issue, lies curled at the base of the majority of the problems we face as Americans today. The consistent failure, day in and out, to truly define that which you stand for and against has become an anchor on this great nation.

Daily, people expound upon that which they half-understand, vote without research or fact, blindly trust that all will be “okay”, and, in the end, assign blame where they see fit. The responsibility for the mess we currently enjoy lies within us all. Whether because we have failed to properly educate ourselves in each decision, to prepare our children, or merely to speak out when the time is ripe, the fault is surely ours. With every silenced tongue and lazy opinion, democracy dies.

“Socialism refers to the various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on the amount of labor expended.”

The democrats are continuing to quietly attach another nationalization program to the corpulent national healthcare scheme. This silent scheme would replace private student loan lending institutions in favor of  direct government financed (read taxpayer financed) student loans. The Hill reports thousands of jobs would be lost in this pursuit:

But the student loan industry estimates that nearly 35,000 jobs would be lost if the federal government lent directly to students and only let private companies service the loans.

Just what we need are more college graduates unable to find work and saddled with crushing student loan debt. If you believe the cost of higher education is exorbitant, imagine what it will be like when all price controls are removed with government subsidizing student loans. Colleges and Universities will no longer have any incentive to price their product competitively if the government is there to approve student loans that cover whatever tuition they demand.

Dana Perino writing for Fox News makes a salient point regarding government takeover of student loans:

One thing is certain, consumers see the best results when they are empowered to choose which options best suit their needs. Maintaining a diverse array of private student lenders — for-profits and non-profits, local and national — would ensure that a retail market is preserved as a means to promote innovation and customer service excellence. Just as none of us want to be forced into a health insurance policy that pays for things we don’t want or need, it’s also a mistake when a high school senior only has one government-mandated option to finance their college education.

If Congress wants Americans to have health care and student loans that work for them, they should support reforms that *drive down* costs and let families shop around for the products best suit their needs. The principles of “choice and competition” cannot just be meaningless, throw-away lines that the Democrats use when they want to get their way. Republicans and like-minded Democrats should ensure that these principles are maintained in the student loan market in order to preserve jobs in a tough economy and prevent the country from spiraling further into debt.

The Cato Institute takes a closer look at “Inventing a Student Loan Crisis“.  A must read for those interested in what is really going on with student loans.

In the end all will be well…Harry Reid believes it is a big day in America..only 36,000 Americans have lost their job today.

A suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias “Jihad Jane” has been arrested and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and for plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.

Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., described by neighbors as an average “housewife,” is better known to federal authorities as “Fatima Rose” or “Jihad Jane.”

The indictment, obtained by ABC News, charges LaRose with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country.

She is also accused of making false statements to a government official and of attempted identity theft, a passport she allegedly stole with the intention of giving to an Islamic fighter. The court papers claim that LaRose reached out through the Internet to jihadist groups saying she was “desperate to do something to help” suffering Muslim people, and that she desired to become a martyr.

Check out the indictment below:

Indictment 1

Yahoo has it up highlighted: (click to enlarge)

Kos, Think Progress, TPM, Alan Colmes…..all went off the deep end.

HuffPo:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada’s health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and ‘death-panel’-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.

Of course they all look foolish thanks to some honest reporting from Politico:

CORRECTION: Whitehorse is in Yukon, not Saskatchewan, and Palin, as a young child, lived closer to it than earlier reported.

UPDATE: Here’s some more context: “My first five years of life we spent in Skagway, Alaska, right there by Whitehorse. Believe it or not – this was in the ’60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn’t that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.”

ALSO: Socialized medicine apparently only kicked in in Yukon in 1972, post-Palin.

The irony here is that they PAID for their health care.

Wow….go figure.

And all the other moonbats have ignored this info choosing to keep their PDS on display without correction.

Dan Riehl brings brings up the double standard here:

A sentence in an Associated Press item I blogged last night really brought home to me the double standard the AP and others have employed in covering Sarah Palin, versus their long running coverage of Obama going back to even before he was elected.

Palin’s health care history, even when she was a child, is of interest because of her criticism of Obama and other Democrats working on U.S. health care.

Palin is a former governor, now a private citizen with, admittedly, significant political cache. But Obama ran for and now occupies the office of the so-called leader of the Free World. Shouldn’t his college thesis that, for all we know, doesn’t even exist, have been of at least some interest before November 2008? What about the Law Review articles it seems he’s never written, unlike most every review editor in the past?

That and basically all of his college history remains locked away, evidently of no concern at all to the AP. And I have seen a recent item suggesting his record as a lawyer back in Chicago is far from complete in official records these days, though I can’t find a current link.

As I recall, Obama traveled to Pakistan as a young man in 1981. Back during the campaign, there never was any serious interest in why, or what he did during the trip. But that Sarah Palin! My God, she crossed the border for a check up a time, or two – we’d better dig into her child health care records, it’s now fair game, after all, because, well, who knows what we might turn up??

And Dan has more on the particulars of Sarah’s Canadian health care experience….stuff you just won’t read at Kos and friends.

They embarrassed themselves time and again with their BDS….now, they just look even more foolish.

UPDATE

From The Jawa Report:

Update: Jawa reader and Canadian citizen Garduneh Mehr points out..

Healthcare is not free in Canada; we pay for it with our taxes. And Sarah Palin’s family, not being citizens, would have had to pay full fee.

Of course this whole issue stems from Newfoundland premier opting for his heart surgery in the US.

Updated for clarity:

1972

Yukon creates medical insurance plans with federal cost sharing, April 1.

My father agreed to the trip, reluctantly: he maintained I should take a pickup and drive straight there without the possibility of disappearing forever in a thousand miles of bush and mountains, never to be seen or heard of again. I assured him I felt way more comfortable on a horse than in a vehicle and persuaded him that a horse was more my style and it might be the last chance I would ever have to really see the wild country. I promised to start home in the second week of July and to keep a journal, so not to lose my famous sense of time.

That spring we had heavy rains with heavy snow melt, the rivers and creeks were raging between the high water marks of their banks, and I was lunging in the traces while waiting to leave. Crossing rivers and creeks while they are in flood stage is suicide, so I waited in the agony of expectation of an exciting pack trip. I loaded up 40 hot rounds for my 8mm Mauser; they were hot, because I wouldn’t fire my weapon except to kill the odd animal for meat or to bail myself out of a Grizzly encounter. I’d pack a 22 rifle for shooting ptarmigan and grouse, sport wing shooting was out of the question, head shots from 30 feet was the order of the day, my apologies sportsmen, but this was a question of survival and eating well on the trail.

There would be five us on this trip, me, Dallas my saddle horse, two pack horses Florence and Bertha , and Tiger my beloved and battle scarred Catahoula. You may have noticed all my horses were mares. After a lifetime as a horseman, I have come to several conclusions; first off, is that in certain human blood lines, a horseman will appear once in so many generations. There might be many family members who ride, but there will be one who has an uncanny gift for horses and among those will be the occasional mare man: he will have an unexplainable way with horses, especially mares. For mares are the real animal, the animal that migrated four to five thousand miles a year, the animal that will fight to the death while defending her foal, the animal that is considered difficult by most horsemen, who prefer geldings; by definition, the ‘Mare Man’ doesn’t have these problems, he goes about his work with ease using horses that others avoid. A true ‘Mare Man’ can be observed with a mare hugging him lightly, as if he were her foal: not in the rubbing method you so often see, that has people thinking their horse is showing affection, but is really using the human as a scratching post and displaying disrespect towards his rider.

I am one of those ‘Mare Men’: from my father’s side, descended from those ancient Celts that rode across Europe two thousand years ago, from where no one knows, fought Caesar in a series of desperate wars that nearly destroyed Caesar and his legions. Only those that sailed to England and Ireland escaped the Gladiatorial arenas and slavery. At least that is what I have been told by old Irish horsemen who have watched me work and have stared into my green eyes while taking note of the auburn hair.

I didn’t really need two pack horses, but if one of them became lame, I wouldn’t need to leave most of my gear. Each horse would have four sets of pre-fitted shoes with nails. A stall jack and fitting hammer along with a leather apron and basic shoeing tools would take care of the hooves for a two thousand mile trip. If they had to make the last two hundred miles barefoot, they could do it, being a little tender would make them anxious to get shoes on in the future. Cooking utensils, a couple of tarps, (One for a wicki-up and one for a ground cloth) an ax, small shovel, Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’; Hemingway’s ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’; and a so called Complete Works of Shakespeare made up my reading list. I had a coal oil lantern with enough fuel for a few minutes worth of light each night: although in June there was 22 hours of daylight and at night there was usually enough light to see, almost enough to read.

I packed a lot of food, some vegetables, dried rice and dried beans there is less and less edible green food the farther North you travel, I’d be sure to make spruce tea and rose hip tea to maintain an adequate intake of Vitamin C. Scurvy was a serious problem in the early days, it affected Jack London and probably shortened his life, and he was only in the North for one winter. The Northern natives roast the stomachs of Caribou with the grass and lichens inside along with huckleberries or blueberries until they (the caribou stomachs) are ready to explode and then have a feast similar to our turkey dinners. I haven’t tried it, but I would eat it rather than starve.

Eventually the creeks and rivers began to ease up on their rampage and it became safe to travel. I said my goodbyes and headed out on what could have been my last adventure in the mountains, in more than one way.

I used my compass and the government maps that were notoriously inaccurate at the time and headed North. I ate my heaviest foods first, thus I would lighten the load on my pack horses: eventually, I would be eating dried beans, rice and oats; the mainstay of the horse packer, delivering the most nutrition for the weight carried.

The trip was a reaction to the thoughts of desperation caused by leaving my home and my life. When I returned from college in four years, my personal dogs and horses might be gone forever. I might change and never be the same after going to school, I was full of doubt, I enjoyed my life on the ranch and in the wilderness and now it was coming to an end; so that I could be with people who had no concept of life in the wilderness, to me it felt like a prison sentence rather than an education.

In the mean time, I crossed several rivers and came upon an alpine valley with a huge stand of mountain balsam. For some reason I was hesitant to cross this foreboding stand of deformed trees. They were six to twelve feet high with aged thick trunks, probably two hundred years old, dwarfed because of the extreme alpine conditions; their bodies twisted from perpetual winds into patterns that reminded me of flames in a campfire, perpetual bizarre green flames. On the other side of the valley was a barren mountain top like the one I was on, except there was a grizzly digging after ground squirrels or some other little rodent. He was digging very quickly like a dog digging in soft earth, except the ground he was digging in was rock hard and every once in a while a boulder the size of a man’s head would fly up between his hind legs. He was a rare beauty, black (a rare color for Grizzly, although they can vary a great deal) and large with his new fur glistening in the sun and rolling with deposits of fat from the spring grass. It would make a great hide for my room at college and the rendered lard makes the best pie crusts; but I wasn’t hunting Grizzly and the temperatures were so warm the hair might slip and I didn’t have enough salt for the raw hide. Lucky for him.

Horses can smell a Grizzly from several miles away if the wind is right, their nose is good enough to determine which way a Grizzly is headed when they cross his trail, but at this distance their eyes can’t see a Grizzly and the wind was at our backs so they couldn’t scent the bear.

Tiger was keying off my caution, he was sitting to my right and studying the strange stunted forest ahead of us. He was a veteran bear fighter, carried the scars and understood the inherent dangers. Besides the company, he provided protection at night in case a bear walked into camp while I was sleeping and decided to pull me out of my blanket roll for a quick snack. I tie each of my horses to a tree for the night in a perimeter around my sleeping area. A horse wont make a noise if they aren’t threatened, if the bear comes close to them they will scream like a woman, a terrible noise: Tiger would and has fought to the death to give me time to wake up and grab my rifle. I love horses and appreciate their nature and culture, but that is the main difference between a dog and a horse as a friend.

I had about a mile of this green forest of Perdition ahead of me and I wanted to get on the other side with enough daylight to find a good camp with feed and water for the horses; I was counting on the Grizzly deciding I was a dangerous character with three horses and a dog and heading off to tall timber once he stopped digging long enough to catch our scent.

We were half way through when I noticed the hair along Tiger’s back standing straight up and his lip curled in a silent growl. We had company and it might be that Grizzly I saw on the opposite hill.

I heard a low growl coming from Tiger and I put the lead pack horse’s halter rope in my left hand and drew my rifle out of its scabbard with my right hand. Tiger turned just as the horses bolted, I pulled up my saddle horse and the pack horses ran by me on the right, the left pannier or pack box on Florence hit Dallas, my saddle horse hard in the right flank and then the ax laced to the box caught my right leg and pulled me out of the saddle and onto my horse’s neck, in less than the blink of an eye, before they pulled up and circled, they were directly in front of my horse, a movement that released my leg or I would have been hung up on a runaway pack horse or on the ground on my back. Thankfully, I had my rifle out of the scabbard or the stock would have been broken. I kept the horses under wraps while they were lunging and jumping in several different directions. I pushed myself back into the saddle and turned around to see what the Hell was gong on behind me. My future family and leg were obviously bruised from the near disaster, but I didn’t have time to acknowledge the pain or take inventory. The bear had circled behind me and was making runs at us and snapping his jaws with that loud clamping sound like a small bore rifle or a 30-30 firing. He was trying to stampede my horses and doing a pretty fair job of it: Tiger kept the bear from running in and grabbing one of us and all I could do was hold onto my rifle, taking an accurate shot in this wild melee was a forlorn hope. Although Tiger was so mad he was foaming at the mouth, he was in control enough not to run in and fight the bear alone or we would have had the biscuit (as in last supper).

Suddenly, the noise all stopped except for Tiger circling us growling and barking, the pack horses were crowding us and making a nuisance of themselves. I could feel a hitch in the stride of my saddle horse, she was bruised and lame at the very least, I could feel the blood running down my leg into my right lace-up over the ankle moose hide moccasin; the blood was flowing freely, judging by the squishy feeling in that moccasin, the blood scent would excite the bear’s blood lust even more, but we seemed to be alright for the time being.

We had at least a half mile to go, we were moving at a fast walk, if we broke into a trot it would be hard to keep the horses under control if the bear tried to separate us again. If it was just me on a saddle horse, I could make a dash for the open country and dismount to hopefully kill the bear that was making my life so miserable. With two pack horses tied with the second one’s halter rope to the first one’s tail, they would be dead meat if I lost control of them or I could fall and end up as dead meat on the ground in this Mountain Balsam Hell.

My situation was becoming desperate, I had to get out of this Balsam and away from this aggressive bear, the horses were all in a lather from their fear and exertions, and Tiger would eventually make a mistake in judgment, he was continually circling to protect us and had to be getting tired. I was used to having the lead rope for the pack horses in my right hand and the bridle reins in my left hand: my rifle was in my right hand, although I couldn’t get a shot off, the bear had respect for that rifle, he had probably been shot at before, my left arm was exhausted from hanging onto the lead rope of the spooked pack horses; suddenly from the right, the bear charged and started snapping his jaws in between growls or roars. This time the horses broke and I was along for the ride, I watched the trees and tried to pick the best trail with enough room for all three horses. I couldn’t see Tiger, but there wasn’t anything I could do to help him: hopefully, he was tight behind us. If a pack slipped or if a rope came undone, the pack horses would fend for themselves. The horses were running out of control and were no longer responding to me. Normally, pack horses couldn’t keep up with a saddle horse, but Dallas was bruised and the pack horses were scared witless.

We broke cover and stopped fifty yards later. I jumped off and waited for the bear to come out. No bear, oh well, it could have been worse. Tiger’s pads were torn and bleeding from running over the sharp flinty rocks, but the wounds were superficial, he was just footsore. Dallas was bruised and sore, but not bleeding. My calf had obviously been hung up on one of the panniers and either the ax or shovel had cut me.

The realization of how close we had been to a disaster settled when I saw a tall Indian walking towards me with a smooth easy stride and a rifle held in his right hand. His face was a deep brown like a twice baked biscuit, he half grinned said some words that I didn’t understand except for the odd English or French word. Pointing to his chest he said a word that sounded like biscuit, from that time on he was known as Biscuit, he spoke directly in your face and used a series of clucks when he talked, he sprayed saliva without being aware of it and to keep from insulting him, I ignored the desire to wipe my face. With a diplomatic flair using three languages, he said the Black Grizzly was a bad bear that liked to eat horses and the occasional human. He motioned for me to follow him, I had not learned the city custom of not trusting strangers, I followed him into the past, a world in flux.

We walked for a mile or so and came upon a pony with a thick mane and tail full of burrs. He seemed proud of this animal and mounted it with pride. I climbed on Dallas and we rode into his village at about ten pm, there was still a couple of hours of daylight left. He showed me a corral to put my horses with fairly decent feed, so I un-tacked the horses and left them to recuperate.

He walked me over to a portable building, inside there was a White Man with an English accent. It was a medical office, the guy had a nice smile and introduced himself as Gregory. He asked what happened, I wasn’t too proud of my adventure so I told him my leg was bleeding.

He looked at the back of the calf and said it was a long wound, but only needed a few stitches at one end and a good cleaning. I asked him if he had anything for a dog’s paws and he gave me some stuff for sled dogs on the ice. He fixed us a pot of tea and we talked.

He was an immigrant from England who was hoping to earn a stake in life and move on. He was an RN and came out to the wilderness to deliver babies and try to keep these “Northern Niggers” healthy while bringing them into the twentieth century. I felt as if I had a brick had dropped into my belly and felt so sad for Biscuit who was waiting patiently for my treatment.

I was shocked to hear that expression. I thought he would come here because he liked helping these people, but apparently he was only here to make the most money and pay off his college loans the fastest way possible. Although my mother was a native woman that men went out of their way to help and open doors for, Like she was the Queen of England, I was born with green eyes, fair skin, and an auburn color to my hair. Except for a few personality traits and high cheekbones, no one would guess that I had native blood in my veins.

I took an immediate dislike for this man who was in his mid twenties and refused payment for my treatment. I walked outside his office after thanking him and shaking his hand. Biscuit and I walked to his house and sat down to a plate piled high with boiled moose and greasy fry bread. I love the Native people, but their dietary habits and culinary skills are often found lacking. I was hungry, so I ate some of the grey looking and unappealing meat and fought to keep it on my stomach.

I was given a bedroom that was just that, a room a little larger than the bed. I laid there wondering what I was doing with these people and drifted off into a deep sleep. The next morning I wandered into the kitchen and scouted out the food available, if I could start a decent meal before they woke up, they wouldn’t stop me from cooking.

I found enough flour, eggs, butter, blueberries, and bacon to start a decent meal: I didn’t know how many people I was cooking for, so I just started cooking. People of all ages came down when they smelled the aromas coming from the wood cook stove. They began to eat and eat and eat, I made coffee and they drank like they had never had a drink in their life. I was having a good time and the women enjoyed watching my cooking skills, for a teenager, I was feeling pretty good.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Biscuit introduced me to everyone, I called him Biscuit and everyone thought I was hilarious. I was especially interested in meeting his three daughters: they were the real Indian Princess Types, the oldest was about fifteen and beautiful, the others were about 12 or 13 and cute as buttons. I tried to say the oldest girl’s name and came out with Vase, again I was considered a true comedienne, the twins seemed to be named Teal and Seal, this brought more laughter; but the names stuck, because everyone was using my new names for themselves, sometimes without laughing.

Gregory said he was going to town and asked if I had suggestions for their food and cooking requirements. I asked how much they had to spend and he shrugged his shoulders and said whatever. I thought this was a strange answer, but I was bound and determined not to eat boiled moose again, if I could avoid it. I ordered spices, flour, olive oil, vegetables, a large soup pot, a dutch oven, a large skillet with a glass lid, a roasting oven and various ingredients for breads and pies. He said he would be back in two days.

I was shocked, two days, I had hoped to be healed up and back on the trail in two days. Oh well, they liked me and I ordered all the stuff, I better teach them how to cook and use the equipment.

Gregory told me that Biscuit had ordered a pre-made log house and it was waiting for someone to take the initiative and start the construction. I told him to tell Biscuit that I wanted to see the house.

Biscuit walked me behind his house and there were the materials to build a beautiful log house. He showed me the plans, it was obvious that Gregory wasn’t about to assist, so I studied the plans and told Gregory to bring back rudimentary carpenter tools, sacks of ready mix concrete, along with nails and screws and plywood for a foundation.

Gregory then told me that Biscuit wanted me to teach his people to speak like me. I looked at him like he had been bucked off on his head, he said, “They like your voice because you are soft spoken,” he smiled, said good bye and left for town.

I selected a fairly decent location and began stepping off the measurements for the foundation. With the help of Pythagorous, and his 3, 4, and 5 triangle rule, I stuck sticks in the ground that defined a rectangle with right angles for corners, while 20 or so people watched in amazement. I worked until I couldn’t do anything else without equipment and noticed that the people were still watching me.

I held up my hand as if to say stay to a dog and pulled out Moby Dick from one of my pack boxes. I started to read about hunting and harpooning whales when one of the young twins came up with a piece of paper and a pencil. I wasn’t going to get away with anything with these people. I drew a whale and a man in a boat throwing a harpoon into the whale. As soon as I was done drawing the whole group converged on the drawing and began to speak in very excited and animated ways concerning my humble drawing. Eventually, they listened to the story again, but I had to point to certain features of the drawing like the whale and the harpoon while making dramatic gestures, the women would scream and put their hands over their mouths and everyone would break out in insane laughter. Everyone was having a party except me. After repeating the process with several more drawings, I was worn out while they were clamoring for more. For the life of me, I had read Moby Dick several times and could only think of three or four places that seemed even remotely funny, like when Quegqueg put his boots on under the bed, now that was funny to me, but my audience found little or no humor in that passage.

They especially enjoyed the passage about an English fisherman who put his wife in a small dory and deserted her on the ocean in a small dory: another sailor saw the distressed woman, rescued her, and took her home to become his common law wife. Apparently she prospered with the second man and her original man sued to get her back. The court ruled, in the same traditions of our courts, by citing the laws concerning harpooned whales; whales that escape the first whaler are considered free whales and once a whale is free upon the high seas it belongs to no one and since the second fisherman had already harpooned the wife and captured her, she now belonged to the second fisherman. Now this brought the house down, they were literally rolling in the aisles.

In Canada and the US, there are White people who attach themselves to minority groups and encourage them to be perpetual wards of the state. With an Elitist attitude that encourages them to be victims and forever under the protection of these self-serving whites who are actually parasites of other peoples misery.

Native people are as intelligent as any race that has walked the face of the earth; they readily adapt to modern life if given the tools and opportunity. Skookum Jim from the Yukon Gold fields is a perfect example: he was a stone age man who was thrust into a position of power and wealth from a purely accidental find of one of the richest gold mines in history. An unusual and extreme case, but it illustrates the ability of native people to adapt in an extreme and unusual situation.

Liberals with the perpetual ‘Nanny State’ mentality have debauched whole native cultures, their policy is not working! It doesn’t take long on the streets of Calgary, Vancouver, or Seattle; to see a drunk native doing the three steps forward two back shuffle. Yet this man’s grandparents were proud, strong people at least until the compassionate Liberals destroyed their pride with policies that made Liberals rich and debouched Native culture. Defining people who need to live under the blanket of Perpetual Nanny Statism that is characteristic of Liberal philosophy not only applies to Native people, but to the Hispanic and Black as well. Liberals cast these minorities as “Less Than” people who are unable to compete with the Liberal’s self serving vision of the ‘Omnipotent White’: thus in the Liberal perversion of freedom, the minority is forever given the unofficial categorization of the ‘White Man’s Burden’ for perpetuity, at least according to the world vision of the Progressive. Of course the Liberal benefits at the polls by making whole cultures wards of the state and by making whole disciplines in Universities dedicated to caring for people who, with a little organization, could have stopped the westward expansion of the United States and Canada; the concept is preposterous, yet it is happening continuously, the subjugation of whole races and cultures, to consolidate power and control for Progressive Socialism.

Can you imagine the howling if a Republican had said this?

RATHER: Obama “Couldn’t sell watermelons even if you gave him a State Trooper to flag down traffic!”