Random Pensées for July, 2012

I friend asked me if these “random thoughts” were original, or items I was passing on. I think they are original, and try to note if something crosses my desk from another source. But there’s no way to tell when or by whom the seeds were planted that sprouted into these weeds. And sometimes I read something that triggers a thought that’s derivative.

With the ObamaCare individual mandate fine for not buying insurance being upheld as a constitutional, “tax,” the GOP should file legislation placing a $2,000 public safety tax on every household that does not have a loaded firearm for protection.

Since the individual mandate has been declared a tax, people are starting to notice that it’s a tax on the young and poor, who often can’t afford insurance, but grants exemptions/tax breaks to large corporations, rich unions and wealth donors.

If President Obama can issue an Executive Order that the government won’t enforce immigration law, President Romney can do the same with ObamaCare.

I will give up my Constitution when Barack Obama pries my cold, dead, clinging fingers from it!

Young, fit, healthy-looking guy ahead of me at Walgreens tried to buy two sports energy drinks with his food stamps credit card, called, I think, "Link" around here. It didn't work, so he paid with a $100 bill. Really. The older female clerk, not as fit, looking tired from standing on her feet all day at a low-paid retail job, said to me after he left, "our money." Just two words. I wonder how much longer folks are going to take it.

A friend forwarded the above item to her daughter, who had worked as a grocery store checkout clerk. She replied: “I could go on for days with stories like that! Energy drinks are not covered by Food Stamps, he probably knew that too. Customers with food stamps were often the rudest, most unfriendly customers. Almost all had the iPhone, blackberry, or an expensive handbag--it would make me so mad! This one man would buy expensive things purposely with food stamps (coffee, olive oil), claim he lost his receipt, then return it and get cash to buy liquor/cigarettes, because Food Stamps does not cover those items.” –ML

Democrats and the liberal media think Obama is at a disadvantage due to racism, because he identifies as “black.” (Fair enough, half black is better than Elizabeth Warren claiming benefits as a “person of color” on the basis of “family lore” that she was 1/32^nd native American.) I think he’s at a disadvantage because he’s black, but not for the reasons they think. The liberal elites are so desperate to prove how non-racist they are, that when a black person comes along who, in their words, is “clean and articulate” (Joe Biden) plus “light skinned and doesn’t talk with a Negro accent” (Harry Reid), they push him untested by reality to the front of the line. He gets a trophy for showing up. He gets to become rich writing self-indulgent auto-biographies at a young age. He gets to think that community organizing and voting present in the state senate makes him part of “the real world.” He gets to believe that having the Chicago Machine push him upwards in return for keeping silent (at the least) about corruption and using, then discarding, terrorists and racist ministers to advance his career makes him a smart politician. He goes to the head of the class without real criticism, without real accomplishment and without real testing—or vetting. Having had heaps of unearned self-esteem piled on him due to his color, he can’t understand why his ideas and policies might not deliver in the real “real world.” He is as confused as they to find out that he’s not “The One,” because they always assured him he was so special. Marines are successful in combat because they have been tested in the fire of boot camp. Unlike most people who come to the presidency, Obama was never tested in a political boot came, because the liberals, as they do in the universities, pass blacks without tough testing that others face. This is the worst kind of racism, and a great disservice to black Americans. Obama is only the most prominent current victim. It takes a person of Dr. Thomas Sowell’s character to refuse un-earned, color-based rewards. Obama doesn’t have it—few do.

I’m sorry to have to say it, but I think if Eric Withholder was white, he’d already be under Obama’s bus.

There are a great many things that I think it would be good for people to do, in their own or society’s interests, that I don’t feel I or the government have the right to force them to do. I guess I’ll never be a Progressive.

With the Obama Campaign suggesting that Progressives ask friends to direct wedding and birthday gifts to them, rather than to the folks celebrating their “big day,” I assume the next appeal will be for progressives with a dying relative to ask mourners to contribute to the Obama campaign in the deceased’s memory.

There are only too choices on ObamaCare, of course. Romney and Repeal or Obama and Greece.

The Logic of the Progressive Welfare State: The Progressives’ constituents and philosophy demand ever-expanding entitlements, bureaucracy, and government. This, in turn, requires an ever-expending pool of younger, productive, tax-paying workers to support the elderly and others on the entitlement programs and the growing number of government employees in the bureaucracies. But this, in turn, requires ever-higher taxation on those productive workers. With government sucking up ever-larger amounts of income and the capital in the society, causing economic stagnation, larger families become increasingly unaffordable. Coupled with the Progressives’ ethic in favor of abortion and birth-control, plus their self-centered ethic of enjoying life now at the expense of sacrificing for family and the future, the birth-rate plummets. Thus, instead of growing the number of younger workers to support the system, that number falls rapidly, leaving an ever-smaller ratio of workers supporting more elderly, more people on entitlements and more people employed in government. They cycle becomes self-reinforcing, and eventually a death-spiral, like the downward spin of a stricken B-17 which the crew cannot escape from. Attempts at stop-gaps by bringing in workers from the Third World backfire, as they bring with them higher social costs in terms of government benefits, crime and cultural disintegration. The result is, sooner or later, fiscal disaster and collapse. See Greece today, Europe soon or the US not that far in the future.

Once something is “too big to fail,” be it Fanny Mae or a Wall Street Bank, there is no longer any risk in the most risky investments. If the investments turn out well, they get rich. If they turn out poorly, the taxpayers pick up the losses. With Fanny Mae, people like Jim Johnson and Frank Raines got rich making bad investments, and you paid for it. Then Wall Street, seeing profit without risk, piled on.

Autocrats are usually all in favor of free elections until they win one and get power.

With Obama now picturing himself as the tough avenger, bringing death from the skies to terrorists—and turning anyone standing around them at the moment into a red smear—will he now wear a mask and run as, “The Drone Ranger”?

How about, “Keep the Bush tax cuts, repeal the Bush spending increases.” Anyone for that?

In my book, Advice for my Granddaughter: For When I'm Gone. http://www.amazon.com/Advice-Granddaughter-When-Im-Gone/dp/147004238X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1329662198&sr=8-2 

I gave my Britnye four rules for not dying in a car wreck. 1. Don’t drive if you’ve been drinking (or, God forbid, doing drugs). 2. Don’t speed. 3. Always wear seat belts, even if only backing out of the drive. 4. Don’t talk on your cell phone or text while driving. You cannot eliminate all risk of travel, but if you follow these four rules, you can cut your odds of dying in a wreck by a huge amount. Of course, you can meet a driver who didn’t read the book, doing all of these things. May the odds be always in your favor. (All royalties go to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.)

The Race Card—No Progressive should leave home without it.

A friend’s cousin’s grandson just graduated from Mountain Warfare School as an ROTC cadet. The parents and grandparents—anti-war liberals—are, he says, not thrilled. Gotta love those rebellious kids.

Recently I made a credit card purchase in a store. The clerk carefully compared my signature on the sales slip to the signature block on the back on my credit card and said, “That’s good,” handing it back to me. The signature block on my card says, “See ID.” She didn’t ask for ID. Must be a Democrat. Duh.

If Blacks and Hispanics would concentrate on voting for candidates who were going to help the country as a whole by allowing the economy to improve, rather than candidates who pander to them by promising special favors and programs based on race or ethnicity, the country, Blacks and Hispanics would all be better off.

With over 100 rounds of golf and counting as president, shouldn’t Obama be required to yell “Fore!” when launching an attack ad at Romney?

I often introduce Bonnie as, “My First Wife.” While factually true, it doesn’t seem to amuse her as much as it does me.

Sometimes when we get to the car, I ask Bonnie if she prefers to drive or nag today. That doesn’t amuse her either. But it doesn’t stop her from backseat driving our car—and often any other in sight, which can be confusing when she issues stop or turn orders to other drivers who can’t hear her.

We contribute to and shop at Goodwill—I was green before it was cool. Recently we dropped off a bag of clothing. Since you can only deduct what they sell items for, I went to the dress section and was checking tags for the prices. An attractive young black woman smiled at me and said, “Looking for the perfect dress, are you?” I laughed and said that, having lost weight, none of mine fit. Sometimes you meet people in passing that you wish you could know better. With her droll sense of humor, she was one.

Gross, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Warthogs think other warthogs are pretty, I’m sure.

I’m being told that if I have a lung transplant, I can’t have cats in the house. With three cats and Bonnie vs. me, I may get voted off the island.

Sometimes I wake up at 3:30 am to make a head call, and can’t get back to sleep. That’s the worst time. If it were five, I’d get up and go to the office early. At one, I’d be able to sleep. Often it’s because some past incident—perhaps from 40 years ago, occurs to me that makes me angry. Or I start to speculate about something a person might do or say in the future that will piss me off. The voices in my head say this may mean I’m in less than perfect mental health.

On the other hand, I often write down these “random thoughts” in the small hours of the night. Sometimes I can even read them in the morning, to record for these blog posts.

If George is willing to do a task for Harry for $5, and Harry is willing to do that task for George for payment of $5, and the governments forbids them from making the deal, using it’s coercive power to punish them if they do, can George and Harry be said to be free men? Yes, I’m talking about minimum wage laws.

I was an under-privileged child. My parents didn’t give me a computer or a smart phone. I’ve carried that trauma well throughout life, I think. I never got sent to Mexico for Spring Break, either. Like, you know, the common people.

When the National German Socialist Workers Party established their camps, they put up a sign that read, ironically, Arbeit Machts Frei. (Work makes you free.) I assume that when the National American Progressive Socialist Party gets full control here, doubtlessly by democratic vote as the NDSAP did, the sign over the camps will read, “Government Makes You Secure Without Work.”

There’s “Craig’s List,” a listing of a lot of folks wanting to sell something. There’s “Emily’s List,” a listing of liberal woman candidates they are raising money for, as well as “Susan B. Anthony’s list” of conservative female candidates. There’s “Angie’s List,” of recommendations on local businesses. Then there’s “Bob’s List.” That’s a list, growing ever longer, of people who, in a just world, Bob would be given an opportunity to shoot.

My grandfather used to always vote Republican...but then he died...

Obama “accidently” called Mitt Romney “George.” Romney should have responded, “No big deal—an easy mistake to make, Vladimir.”

Obama’s solution to having given foreign terrorists the constitutional rights of citizens is to turn them and anyone standing around them into red mush with drone strikes. No prisoners, thus no rights to violate. No intel either, but I do still like killing them. So, apparently, do anti-war liberals, I guess because being opposed to anything Obama does is ipso facto racist.

By what standard should Eric Holder not be considered a hopeless, vicious racist and perjurer?

The other night I dreamt I was in a bar, having a drink with a friend—who died 18 months ago. Made me sad when I woke up. Too many friends gone. Such is life. And far too many facing challenging health concerns. This getting older and wiser ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The Obama complaint: That rich, flip-flopping, Mormon, out-of-touch, racist, right-wing extremist, SOB Romney is going negative on us!

Name-calling weakens your case. But both sides do it. If you point out someone’s evil, unethical actions, it’s not necessary to call the person a scumbag. Or worse. Not, alas, that I’ve never succumbed to the temptation. But I’m trying to do better.

If you can afford $40,000 for dinner with Obama at a fund raiser, you are part of the 99% the way Elizabeth Warren is a “person of color.”

Since drone strikes to kill terrorists are fine, Bush should have just waterboarded them until they drowned.

When someone is exposed or apprehended in an evil act, it’s hard for me to believe their ex post facto expressions of remorse. In 99% of the cases, I believe they are mostly sorry they got caught. Believing in redemption is fine, by as my friend, the late Maj. Gene Duncan, USMC (Ret.) said in his fine guide to leadership, Dunk’s Almanac, “Never give a bum a third chance.”

I notice that people who are not punctual in arriving at work or other obligated events often feel they can make up for it by being punctual in leaving. And often they are not missed.

The other day, I saw a cart going through the streets with two guys calling, “Bring out your dead.” I thought the plague had returned, but it turned out to be just a Democrat voter registration drive. The “No ID required” they were also yelling gave it away.

Like everyone I know, I click on the endless “terms of use” on websites, certifying I’ve read them, when I have not, because who has the time? Some day I expect to discover I’ve agreed to donate a kidney to the company’s CEO.

When someone says, “As you know…,” they think you probably don’t know. Yes, I do this too.

If I understand liberal logic, an under-age girl having an abortion is a personal matter of individual choice, but an adult buying a large sugared drink must be outlawed by the government, because people cannot be trusted to chose wisely.

Advertising works. Given my age, health and propensity to find bargains at consignment shops, plus the fact that my office is full time casual, I have all the suits I’ll ever need. Doesn’t stop me from wanting to buy a couple when the Joseph A. Banks two-for-one sale ad comes on the morning news.

If Obama was told there were now a million more people scavenging dumpsters for food to live, he’d count it as a million Green Jobs created.

When someone starts, “With all due respect…” you know they are going to say something not all that respectful of your opinion, actions or position.

I’ve been mostly off alcohol for my diet. But it was hard while waiting for the results of the Wisconsin recall election to come in. Then harder when they came in. If ever an event deserved a Scotch, that was it.

When you hear the left taking time out from endless fundraisers for Obama to whine about how Walker outspent Barrett by 8 to 1 or 10 to 1 or whatever they are up to now, you’ll note they talk about what Barrett spent, not the millions the unions spent from dues extracted from members by compulsion. And note that, given the opportunity by Walker’s reforms, a large percentage of union members have stopped paying those dues.

When you are asked to do something, it is far better to say “no,” than to say “yes” and not perform. Good rule is, “Under Promise, Over Perform.”

I get lots of things sent for my blog that are inflammatory. The piece starts off calling the disliked politician or commentator an idiot, a liar, etc. And goes from there. This, I suppose, feeds the writer’s and the sender’s righteous anger. Of course, anyone from the other side stops reading immediately. Worse, those who might be undecided are turned off by the intemperate tone. So it’s also bad politics. Far more effective to state the facts, present them so the reader can come to the proper conclusions. So I try to keep such to a minimum. Humor, on the other hand, is powerful. I prefer humor and ridicule to direct insults and name calling.

Obama says he doesn’t want students to “shoulder a mountain of debt to get degrees.” What about the debt being shouldered by working folks who can’t afford to send their own kids to college, to pay for those who run up that student debt, often to get degrees in sociology, gender studies and interpretive theater, for which there are no jobs.

Do you get the feeling that Obama’s demands for Congress to “do more work” would carry more moral authority if they were not issued from the golf course, a vacation location or the podium at one of his endless fund-raising events?

All good progressives believe that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. All good Muslim terrorists disagree with them. Just as Muslim religious leaders disagree with them that FGM, stoning rape victims, child marriage and honor killing are not part of Islam. But it comforts them to believe it in the face of the evidence from Muslims themselves.

Today’s Democrats support gun control for the same reason that Democrat plantation owners in the old South did. You cannot make slaves of armed men.

If you think gas is expensive, try buying a gallon of coffee in a hotel for a meeting, at $50 a gallon—or more.

There was a time when “progressives” read Silent Spring and fought to ban DDT to save the birds so they could feel good about themselves. The tens of millions of yellow, black and brown kids dead of Malaria in the third world mattered not at all to them. Now, ironically, they want to feel good about themselves for supporting “green energy,” so are behind building thousands of inefficient, high-cost “eagle choppers” in wind farms across the country. If you stand between a progressive and his overwhelming need to enhance his self esteem, you are very likely to die.

Let’s see, there are the two pills I must take on an empty stomach morning and night, the two in the morning with food, the antibiotic I take every other day and the one I take Monday, Wednesday and Friday, plus a host of other meds, vitamins and supplements morning and night. Dear God—I’ve become my grandmother.

When I was in fourth grade, the principle, Morris Small, told my dad I was going to become a juvenile delinquent. After I became a senator, and then a successful association executive, my dad would often muse that, “Morris may have been right—only time will tell.”

Nothing is more correlated with success than self-discipline. But I don’t know how to tell you how to get it unless you are young enough to sign up for Marine boot camp.

I was in Wisconsin the weekend after the failed recall election and must report that there was some unseemly gloating going on. Yes, I joined in, on the “When in Rome” theory.

Being on a diet, I check packages for calories versus serving size. I note they may say, “Only 50 calories.” But the serving size is usually “one tweezers full—800 servings per package.”

Do you think Obama would send illegal immigrants back if we let him send an automatic rifle with each one?

If you want to accomplish a lot in life, adopt this motto: “Do it now!”

Recently I spent some time unsuccessfully tying to add speaker jacks to our old Bose speakers to plug them into a stereo system we picked up at a yard sale. It reminded me that, though I was second in my class due to good book work, I wasn’t the greatest electronic tech the Marines ever produced. I may have led the league in profanity, though.

In Second Grade, my class put on a Christmas Play. This was, obviously, before Political Correctness stabbed its nihilistic knife into the heart of our culture. In a clear example of type casting, the teacher selected me, without discussion, to be the villain, a bad little elf who screwed up Christmas by, for example, making the train run backwards. My parents said I had all the other kids’ lines memorized as well. After this triumph, I retired from the stage.

Isn’t it funny that “Merry Christmas” is offensive, but “Death to America” and “Death to Jews, those children of apes and pigs” is simple a lovely example of the beauty of an equally-valid culture which must be respected and honored?

Because some people can’t help being jerks doesn’t mean you have to feel bad because you can’t help despising them.

I notice that those who complain about development and urban sprawl usually already have a place to live and a place to work.

Once it because chic among intellectual elites to despise the free market system that has brought prosperity to the masses in the West, the average guy was put on the road to third world privation. It will happen, I fear, within the lifetimes of many now living.

The most important thing an executive does is terminate people. They might be excess to revenue, in the wrong job, or not able to perform at the expected level. This is not a lot of fun, but the executive who cannot do it will take the organization he or she manages to ruin. This iron rule includes countries.

Strong people use strong adjectives. When I was in the 10^th Marines, an artillery regiment, the favorite was “weak!” As in, “The new liberty policy is weak!” Or, “Gun six’s shooting today was really weak!” Progressives, on the other hand, say things like, “Saddam Hussein’s son ordering the schools to send him young Shi’a schoolgirls to be raped makes me uncomfortable.” Or, “Iran’s hanging of gays and stoning women for adultery is inappropriate.” Or, “Saddam’s gassing Kurdish families was regrettable.” They are, however, able to muster strong words to describe in the vilest terms anyone who disagrees with them, so maybe I make too much of this.

Why do people think glasses make you look scholarly, while hearing aids make you look old? Aren’t they kind of the same thing?

Yes, I just signed up to try hearing aids. Too many loud noises in my misspent youth. They may not help, as my hearing loss is mostly in the high range and they tell me the aids are designed for the middle range, where most conversation is. It doesn’t bother me to wear them—once you pull an oxygen tank everyplace you go, you pretty much leave youthful vanity at home.

You never have to buy address labels. Just contribute to a couple of charities, who will give your name to other charities, and every month you will get a selection of labels as a “free gift,” to try to guilt trip you into sending money.

I suspect that if you are coldly rational 10% of the time, you have a huge advantage over the majority of people.

I thought Facebook and Twitter were a huge waste of time, until I joined. But I find most days I don’t have time to sign on, so waste none.

When you are on a successful diet, and then hit a plateau where you stay about the same for a week, it raises the great fear that the little bit you are eating might be enough to maintain you at a weight higher than you want to be. You think, “What the hell do I give up next? Water?”

I was against Obama in 2008. You know, before it was cool.

Suggested campaign slogan. “Vote Democrat: Free Shit is a Human Right!”

They’ve cut the Nobel Prize awards 20% to about $1.1 million, so no use nominating me again this year….

When the Taliban again takes power in Afghanistan, as they will, I’ll feel bad for the women and girls. But when they behead Karzai—not so much.

Romney has a big advantage over McCain. In 2008, McCain was running against Obama as Obama said he was. In 2012, Romney is running against Obama as he has proven to be. Some of us knew.

Some people are steel. Heat tempers them. Others are popcorn…a little heat and their heads explode.

It is now, apparently, considered racist to call Obama cool, because people are criticizing him for being too cool. But I’m okay. I never thought he was cool. Narcissism is seldom really cool.

With charges against John Edwards being dropped, I suppose it’s too soon for him to join Bill Clinton on the campaign trail as a beloved elder Democrat surrogate for Obama. Watch for him for Hillary in 2016, though.

A lot of political punditry on both sides seems to me to be wishful thinking; the counting of un-hatched chickens. Often it sounds like they are trying to convince themselves, not the reader, that things are going fine for their side. Personally, I’m an optimist by temperament, but a pessimist by policy. If you expect the worst, you are either pleasantly surprised, or gratified at being correct. More often the latter, alas.

From time to time I see a story on the news about a pretty teacher seducing a male high school student, or read about a good looking teen girl seducing the boy she is babysitting. I think these are designed to make most of us guys feel we had deprived childhoods.

Where is Guy Fawkes when we really need him?

Drones: Making Moderates out of Militants.

I was out with a couple of association exec colleagues a couple of months ago, and we went to lunch after our meetings. They were younger than me, but not kids. When we sat down at the table, there was no conversation until the waitress came, as they were checking e-mail & text messages. Communication is destroying the ability to communicate!

Here’s an “amnesty” we could support. Let’s make the hundreds of Mexicans who died as the result of the Obama Administration’s Fast and Furious program honorary US Citizens.

For my diet, I weigh myself every morning. The other morning I forgot to take off my glasses. Darn. So I took off an additional five pounds! Okay, that a joke, but with a point. No one is better at fooling us than we are at fooling ourselves. This is especially true of politics, where it is easy to see when the other side is doing it, but very hard to see when we are. Worth remembering.

A while ago, planning to sell our condo in Madison and giving up on losing weight, I took my small clothes to Goodwill. Now, having decided to keep the condo, and having lost so far 35 lbs under doctor’s orders, I’m taking my large clothes. Thus I expect to be arrested any day for public nudity.

You have to pay attention. At any time, they can change the definition of racist and nail you. “Colored People” changes to “People of Color”—don’t get it backwards. Negro changes to Black, which Jesse Jackson convinces Blacks, who were fine with that term, to change to African-American. Our friends from Latin America might be Chicanos, or Latinos or Hispanics on any given day. Orientals have become Asians. Indians are now Native Americans, except those who are from India, who are Asians, but who knows next week? Similarly, Moron was changed to Feeble Minded, which was changed to Retarded, which was highly PC at the time, but now is highly offensive. So the Association for Retarded Citizens is now the ARC, don’t ever ask them what ARC stands for, and the award I got from the local ARC back in the 1970s for my work as a senator is probably non-PC to put on the wall, because it has the “R” word on it. I think “Mentally Challenged” is the term most advocates have settled on, but I’m never sure anymore. I think that while retarded is now very non-PC and will get you nailed, you can refer to those you think suffer from lack of mental acuity as feeble minded, morons or idiots with relative impunity. Unless they are bigger than you and close at hand. Meanwhile, I gather I’m still a honky.

I am, however, boycotting Notre Dame University for offensively demeaning Celtic Americans by using the “Fighting Irish” as a mascot. I mean, if “Fighting Sioux” is demeaning and offensive to Indians Native Americans, then Fighting Irish must be equally offensive and demeaning to those with ancestors from that green isle.

I figure the “sell by” date on milk doesn’t mean anything. If you sniff it and don’t gag, it’s okay to use. After all, I’m a year past my “sell-by date” and still going strong.

On a recent Sunday, my wife and I went to one of the lovely Lake Michigan beaches in Evanston, to enjoy summer. It’s like the Jersey shore, but with shade trees on the edge of the beach and no sticky salt. Teasing the pretty high school girl taking the beach fee, I said, “Do I get a discount for being old?” “Nope,” she said, “No senior discount.” “How about for being a cripple?” I pointed at my oxygen tank. “Any handicapped discount? “ Nope.” “Come on, work with me here. How about for being cute? Or (pointing at my cap) for being a veteran?” She smiled. “I’ll give you a discount for being a veteran.” “Oh, I was only teasing you,” I replied.” I know,” she said, “But one of my teachers is a Vietnam vet. I admire that.” So I saved two bucks. And people said I was dumb to volunteer for Vietnam.

Illegal voting is not an academic problem that doesn't concern you. When someone votes illegally, because they are not a citizen, a voter in that district, or have already voted, it weakens the authority and power of your vote. It undermines freedom and our right to fairly elect our leaders. And it denies you equal protection of the law.

"Gun Buy Back" programs really would prevent crime if they then gave the guns to law abiding citizens to defend themselves and their homes.

I don’t know about you, but I think every American should be proud to pay their fair share in taxes to keep the Obamas in sardanapalian splendor. (Look it up when you look up “pensée.”)

Obama’s view: Jobs are our number one priority. But not at the expense of. anything else my base is for, that might make them stop giving me money.

Both liberals and conservatives tend to view the constitutionality of a president’s actions dependent on if they approve or disapprove of the actions.

If it wasn’t for self-congratulation, there would be a lot less congratulating going on in this world. Yeah, me too.

As a Marine communicator, I was drilled that you get on the air, say what you have to, and get off before they target you. So sometimes when we’re apart, my wife finds my phone calls a tad brief. I never was one for hanging on to listen to my girl friends breathe.

Do you get the feeling that Kofi Annan might have been able to broker a deal in Syria, if there had been the same profit potential as in the Iraqi “Oil for Food” program his family found so beneficial?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090701646.html

You say “Progressives.” I hear “Communists who want to control other people.”

My diet must be working. Washington has declared I’m no longer “too big to fail.”

It drives me nuts when someone writes, “The player that hit the homerun.” IMHO, a player or any person is a “who” not a “that.” But “that” is more common.

Is “Islamophobia” the result of racism? Or the fact that on any given day you can read about murders in the name of Allah committed by Muslims, more often than not against fellow Muslims? Is white people’s fear of blacks the result of racism, or of the crime statists that show blacks commit far more murders per capita than whites, most often, of course of fellow blacks? (Who are quickly forgotten because the race-baiters can’t use their deaths to gain power and wealth.)

If you voted for Obama, it should reduce your credit score by about 200 points. We know what you think about personal responsibility.

The enemies of America used to need spies, which are expensive. Now they just need a subscription to the Washington Post and the New York Times, which will tell them every damaging secret they can find out.

If you have to say “Just Kidding!” after a “joke,” don’t be surprised if people don’t believe you.

I'm now resigned that I'll never be known by a nickname containing the word "Kid." As in "The Cincinnati Kid" or some such. Friends at the Worlds End Pub in Edinburgh used to call me "Tallahassee Bob," though. Then they'd ask if there was a bridge there and what was thrown off it... Alas, they are almost all gone now.

It bears repeating: There is a difference between immigrants, who come to your country to join its culture, adopt its values, learn its language and participate in the economic and political life of the nation, and colonizers, who come to live as parasites off your culture while working to replace it with the failed, oppressive culture of their homeland. I support immigration, I oppose colonization.

I believe that if I ate and drank everything I’d really like to, I could get my weight up to at least 275 lbs, before I died. Which would be next year.

When you open a friend’s e-mail at work, and discover it contains X rated pictures that were not made clear in the subject line, it gives you a little adrenalin jolt as you scramble to close it.

If it wasn’t for doing things he once slammed Bush for doing, from attacking other countries to executive privilege to raising the debt ceiling, would Obama be doing anything at all besides golf and fund-raising?

Hypocrisy, thy name is “politics.”

The problem with having the “something for nothing” crowd as your political base is that when you start to run out of “something,” they will turn on you in a vicious fury.

People who pray to win the lottery should ask themselves why God would want them to win. I hope he’s too busy with other things to be making lotto decisions, because I can’t think why he’d pick me. But maybe that’s why I haven’t won.

It’s just possible that things will unravel to the point where Obama and Holder will try to throw each other under the bus. I don’t think Holder has the backbone to fall on his sword for Obama.

If you murder your parents, a Progressive will make sure the government offers you special benefits as an orphan, and that you are covered by the ADA for PTSD due to the terrible ordeal you’ve been through.

Funny the people screaming "Justice for Trayvon," have nothing to say about 300+ dead Mexicans or Agent Brian Terry in Fast and Furious. No justice for them?

Here’s the concept behind the Euro. Pick out a dozen folks, most of whom share different languages and come from different cultures with different work ethics, and make an agreement with them that you’ll form a fiscal union. Each member can charge as much as he or she wants to the joint credit card, and you’ll pay your share. And their share too if they can’t pay. Sound like a good deal to you? So who were the smart guys in Europe that it sounded like a good deal to?

When one sees what the Obama administration has done, or has tried to do, one wonders and fears as to what they would do if unrestrained by political considerations, the Congress and/or the courts.

Since the administration is moving to see that women get into Ranger School and other combat jobs in the military, I think they should demonstrate their commitment to gender equality by requiring the NBA and the NFL to field female players. As with the military, they can just lower the physical standards. Better yet, no one is likely to die. (get hurt, maybe, but that’s equality.) The NBA and the NFL could use a few more whites and Asians for racial fairness too, never mind relative ability.

Now days, being called a racist by Progressives is a badge of honor. It only means they cannot answer your arguments.

It bears repeating. The more powerful the government, the less free the people. No exceptions.

Obama read the Constitution and said he didn’t have the authority to suspend the immigration laws. But then he read the polls and discovered he did…

Do you get the feeling that Jay Carney may now feel a little sympathy for Richard Nixon’s press guy?

Recently I wore shorts to the office, as the staff was going to a joint picnic. One of my female colleagues joked, "Bob's in shorts--look at those sexy legs!" I was amused, not offended at all. But I did think grimly that it had been decades since a male supervisor would have dared to joke like that with a female colleague. Anyone who says there's no double standards isn't living in reality.

Quote: A nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its laws made by cowards and its wars fought by fools. ― Thucydides

I'm not a big fan of tattoos, especially on women. But I thought it best not to say anything to the young woman I spotted at the local pool with a 1911 Colt automatic pistol tattooed on her right side. A tad too tough for my tastes. I liked better the pretty girl at the recent Scottish Games here with two nicely-done Scottish thistles on her left shoulder, and her clan badge with a bit of Celtic knot work underneath.

When someone is really lonely, you might say, "He's as friendless as Freedom at a Democrat convention."

I was reading at the pool near some kids about 12-years-old who were playing ball. The ball got away from one and bounced off my leg. He retrieved it without a word or glance at me. No harm done and I wasn't upset, except to feel bad for the boy, growing up without the trappings of basic courtesy so necessary to a happy life.

My 11-year-old granddaughter came back from the Lazy River ride smiling. Seems the 11-year-old boy in a tube next to her told her she "has pretty eyes." And so it begins….

A Progressive is a guy who would prefer that his daughter came home pregnant and with a STD from being raped at an

Occupy Wall Street

protest, than with a copy of the Constitution from a Tea Party protest.

Time to stop calling them the MSM (Main Stream Media) and use the true term: PPP (Purveyors of Progressive Propaganda).

I'm really enjoying Summer. Around here, Winter isn't a season--it's a sentence.

Because a country or city has elections, doesn't make it a democracy. See Chicago.

I have no idea why anyone takes political statements by over-paid entertainers, left or right, seriously.

"Executive Privilege" is for presidents what "Taking the Fifth" is for mobsters.

  

One of the solemn responsibilities of a grandfather is to make jokes, puns and remarks that give the granddaughter a chance to practice rolling her eyes.

One of the most useless notices is, "No Reasonable Offer Refused." Of course, whenever the seller thinks an offer is reasonable, it won't be refused. Duh.

When I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, if anyone says I “passed away,” I’ll haunt them. If you can’t say “died”—the plain truth—then croaked, snuffed it, bought the farm, bit the big one or taking a dirt nap are acceptable and more entertaining alternatives, among others. And none of that rubbish about “after a courageous battle with…” Courage is when you have a choice, like going out under fire to bring in a wounded comrade. When you have no choice, as with a terminal illness, you do what you must. Hopefully that doesn’t include too much unseemly public whining or whimpering.

I signed up for Twitter to get blog material, though I don’t have time to go on many days, or read 2% of the Tweets of those I follow. What has surprised me are the large number of young, black conservatives posting about their views, often under the vilest attacks from the “tolerant progressives.”

Obama clearly believes the job of the President is to enforce those lows he agrees with, to announce non-enforcement of those he disagrees with, and to enforce others, like voting rights, selectively, depending on the case and the interest group involved. This differs from a non-elected oligarch, I’m sure, but I can’t think how at the moment.

I’m joining those now calling him, “Attorney General Eric Withholder.” Beautiful, but not original with me, alas.

Let’s see if I understand liberal logic. An Arab born in Egypt whose Arab grandparents fled Israel (Palestine) back when the Egyptian Arabs told them too because they were attacking and going to exterminate the Jews, is a refugee, not a citizen, and has no rights as an Egyptian. A child brought illegally to the US from Mexico by his illegal immigrant parents is, however, entitled to a job, healthcare, and education and all the rights of citizenship except (maybe) the right to vote, regardless of what the law may say. Huh.

When it was clear in September of 2008 that Obama was going to be elected president, I pretty much expected the combination of “Chicago Way” corruption tied to anti-freedom, anti-free-market, pro-big government policies we have gotten. But I must say I’m over-whelmed with the daily catalog of their efforts to fundamentally change America into Greece, on all fronts.

When the Progressives say, “Social Justice,” I hear, “Stand and Deliver!”

Any day now, I expect the Progressives to accuse Brian Terry of racism for getting killed with a DOJ-walked gun to make Obama look bad.

When the press loathes the President, as with Nixon and Bush, they will leave no stone unturned to root out every hint of corruption. But when they are enthralled by the President, as with Obama, corruption is allowed to flourish.

*****

Robert A. Hall is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic.

http://tiny.cc/g02s4

For a free PDF of the book, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com