Congrats.......

Special congrats to Ted Kennedy.

Five weeks sober, today.

MoveOn Uses Sexual Appeal to Pitch the Public Option

Besides other things the clip reminds me of, this is a good example of how liberals in America portray the difference between their sexy position and bloated ugly conservative business position.

One might conclude that universal health care doesn't have enough support, and that desperate advocates have shake some dumb bimbo's ass to get some interest.

Go to the FactCheck site to read about this claim of 70% support, its not a lie, but it is deceptive.

My Dog Has One Of Those

For the last year we've been experimenting with foods, antibiotics, and steroids. No luck yet, leave John Henry alone for 10 minutes without the collar and he will lick himself to bleed.

Old Butch

John was in the fertilized egg business.
He had several hundred young layers (hens), called 'pullets,' and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.
He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.
This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.
Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing at any particular time.
So now he could just sit on his porch and fill out his efficiency report by just listening to the bells.
John's favourite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!
When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters
coming, would run for cover.
To John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He would sneak up on a pullet, do his job, and then sneak up on the next one and repeat his actions.
John was so proud of old Butch that he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair. Old Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Venus and Mars?

Like the info-mercial styled book about the differences between men an women, Pundit James Carville suggests that conservative citizens are "alien creatures".
Washington Examiner's Chief Political Correspondent, Byron York, has written an that article reviews the conclusions of James Carville's Democracy Corps.
Comments from an Atlanta focus group suggest a conservative distrust of the sitting President.
Not big news but add that the mistrust does not end there...

By the way, Carville and Greenberg found that Republicans not only worry about Obama -- they have a very low opinion of their own party. "They see the Republican Party as ineffective and rudderless," the two write, and also as out
of touch with conservative principles.

So the raging Cajun suggests that conservative Republicans are "alien creatures" because they have no trust in the President? Distrust in the policies proposed has a greater arc of believers than only the Republican party. And that have distrust of their own party? Absolutely, I contend that in many ways GW Bush was a better Democrat than WJ Clinton. Perhaps the raging crackpot should learn that many citizens, including Republicans, believe in limited government, based in a belief that the executive, judicial and legislative branches of Federal government were clearly defined in the Constitution, and are for all practical purposes ignored by the current bodies. The current administration, sometimes with the help of RHINO politicians, endeavour only to increase the scope of government. Pressured by the realization that support is fading, President Obama is accelerating that process, a process which will lead to inadequate services having extraordinary cost, and irrevocable existence.
Go to the article, it is a short well written piece.
Oh, by the way, James Carville, in appearance and demeanor, is far closer to an "alien creature" than any Republican that I know. The man is just plain weird.

Priest's Last Wishes

In Washington , D.C. an old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation's capital.
He motioned for his nurse to come near.
"Yes, Father?" said the nurse.
"I would really like to see President Obama and Speaker Pelosi before I die", whispered the priest.
"I'll see what I can do, Father", replied the nurse.
The nurse sent the request to The President and Congress and waited for a response. Soon the word arrived; President Obama and Nancy Pelosi would be delighted to visit the priest. As they went to the hospital, Obama commented to Pelosi, "I don't know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images and might even get me re-elected. After all, I'm IN IT TO WIN".
Pelosi agreed that it was a good thing.
When they arrived at the priest's room, the priest took Obama's hand in his right hand and Pelosi's hand in his left hand.
There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest's face.
Finally President Obama spoke. "Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?"
The old priest slowly replied, "I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
"Amen", said Obama.
"Amen", said Pelosi.

The old preist continued....

Little Johnny Has Manners....

During one of her daily classes, a teacher trying to teach good manners, asked her students the following question:
'Michael, if you were on a date having dinner with a nice young lady, how would you tell her that you have to go to the bathroom?'
Michael said: 'Just a minute I have to go pee..'
The teacher responded by saying: 'That would be rude and impolite.
What about you Sherman, how would you say it?'
Sherman said: 'I am sorry , but I really need to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back.'
'That's better, but it's still not very nice to say the word bathroom at the dinner table.
And you, little Johnny, can you use your brain for once and show us your good manners?'
Johnny said ......

Hatin' on Cows

In an amusing article titled:

Farmer fined for ignoring cow's 'psychological needs'

Written by Lester of 'The Register', a UK publication.

My mother's family has run a dairy farm for a couple of generations. We know cows, all they do is eat, shit, sleep and piss. Impregnation is the chore of the farmer and a disgusting lot that is. Cows don't express any emotion other than irritation when they aren't milked or fed on time. For the uninformed, that is the same time, so it's hard to tell what that stupid animal is thinking. If it's dark a cow thinks its night, it's feeling are not at risk

Here is the piece...

West Yorks farmer has been slapped with a £150 fine for keeping a cow in a darkened barn and therefore failing to 'meet the psychological needs' of the bovine.
Ronald Norcliffe, 65, was nabbed under the Animal Welfare Act in August 2008 when operatives from Kirklees Environmental Health department and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) visited his Scammonden farm on a
tuberculosis test mission.

According to the Telegraph, they asked Norcliffe where he intended to keep his the cow and its calf in winter. He indicated a barn under his house, but was informed it was "unsuitable because it had little natural light, no electric lights and the doors were kept closed".

A Defra vet served an improvement notice, and Norcliffe, who has no electricity in his own abode, said he'd run some lights from a generator. However, during two further
inspections the lights "were not switched on".

Cue a short break from farming for Norcliffe to appear before Huddersfield magistrates. Bob Carr, defending, was evidently less than impressed with the prosecution. He ridiculed: "I don't know what the psychological or ethological needs of these cows are and I'm sure Mr Norcliffe doesn't either.

"I still have no idea how much lighting is appropriate for a cow - and this man, who has had 30 years of farming experience and is keeping these animals healthy, is none the wiser. In my respectful submission this didn't do any harm whatsoever."

Magistrates disagreed, and we suspect Norcliffe is now balancing the cost of a few gallons of petrol and a light bulb against the aforementioned £150 fine, £50 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

And before you lot go off on one about how the country's gone completely bonkers, a Kirklees Council spokesman clarified that this was the first Animal Welfare Act prosecution it had brought in nine years.

He elaborated: "Our animal health and welfare officers paid several visits to Mr Norcliffe and worked hard to find simple, low-cost solutions - some as simple as cleaning windows and trimming back bushes obscuring the windows which could have been easily introduced. We offered help and advice, but Mr Norcliffe failed to improve conditions for his livestock."

Priceless, these are officials from the government our Democrats wish to emulate. If you scan the web you can find countless examples of how UK style health care imposes arcane rules that don't help the patient. Is this what we want. No but thanks to the democrats, it's what we deserve.

If you like Mr. Haines writing style, you are in for a treat because he seems to specialize in this stuff. Go to this link.

You Decide: Did the Eagle Scout Receive Proper Punishment? - FOXNews.com

You Decide: Did the Eagle Scout Receive Proper Punishment? - FOXNews.com

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Slot Machine

Harrah's Casino, New Orleans, October 2009.

Put in your money, and guess who shows up?

You got, Otis, a nice picture, but no coin.

Yeah! That!

Being an engineer, every month there are a dozen trade magazines to scan through. The following was an unexpected gem in an otherwise boring issue. I will not add any comments because I have found a letter that speaks for me.

Evolutionary Thoughts about Revolution and Reconstitution . .an open letter to our President from an irreverent American SOB*

Written by: George Fox Lang, Associate Editor for Sound & Vibration a trade publication for vibration analysts and engineers.

These words were written on July 4, 2009. While others might have been driven to celebrate the Fourth with a fifth or with a baseball game or a cookout or an evening display of fireworks, I felt compelled to sit at my keyboard and write. I guess the independence of Independence Day strikes each of us differently. I respectfully offer these thoughts of a concerned citizen to the most recent inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500.

Dear President Obama:
I was born in the winter of 1943, a month before General Dwight David Eisenhower was named to head the Allied armies in Europe and 18 months before he unleashed the D-Day invasion of Normandy. I was born under a flag with 48 stars; until I was in the 5th grade, we pledged allegiance to it without the words, “under God.” America was engaged in a world war on two fronts, and the outcome was anything but certain. The President of the United States was wheelchair bound and serving his third term. He would die in the first year of his fourth term, and radio would bring the quavering voice of Arthur Godfrey into every living room with the proud but profoundly saddening details of his state funeral. The nation buried its elected parent, dried its eyes and successfully completed the necessary but repugnant tasks of war. That included ushering in the Atomic Age.

The United States of America was born in war and later nearly torn apart by it. The need for Civil War materials fostered early manufacturing genius and moved us toward our modern Iron Age. World War I literally transformed us from an agrarian society to an industrialized one. It was purely the American ability to conceive, create and produce that allowed us to survive and eventually dominate in the Second World War. Had we not been able to out-manufacture the enemy, the English language might now be extinct. But we did out-manufacture them; we mixed domestic knowledge with patriotic dedication to convert our rich natural resources to needed radar, radios, ships, planes, guns, bombs and food. And in that time of world crisis, we somehow managed to put selfish personal goals aside and work toward the betterment of mankind.

In the aftermath of WWII, America did something unprecedented in world history: we rebuilt our vanquished foes. It was the right and humane thing to do, a thing of which all citizens of this nation can and should be justly proud. We showed confidence in our democratic form and in our commercial processes as well as in the innate goodness of man. What we did wasn’t a Christian thing or a Jewish thing or even a religious thing; it wasn’t a black, white, brown or yellow thing; it was simply a uniquely American thing, a very auspicious opening to the brief American Age of the 20th Century.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been born an American citizen, more so to have lived through the American Age. I was here when the iron lung was rendered obsolete by gamma globulin and then the Salk vaccine. I was here when the “sound barrier” was broken and saw a man walk on the moon’s surface. My home saw almost continuous improvements in comfort: cheap and reliable electricity from nuclear power, affordable air conditioning, water based paint and aluminum siding, black and-white and then color television, push button phones and answering machines, microwave ovens, FM radio and then stereo sound systems with long-playing record albums and reel-to-reel tape followed by cassettes and then compact discs.

I enjoyed every step of the electronic revolution, from hard tubes to transistors to chips, and was here when the microprocessor beget the personal computer. In short, I have enjoyed a comfortable and exciting existence made possible by American technology, American ingenuity, American industry and American integrity. However, I fear I now live in the rapidly descending dusk of the American Age and have no clear vision of what the future may hold.

Can we hold off this impending darkness? I don’t know, but I have some suggestions that might be worth exploring. Is such exploration necessary? I fear that it is. These are not simple evolutionary notions; they are quite revolutionary, perhaps even heretical. For much of the American Age, we lived in competition with (and often in fear of) the “great red bear,” the USSR. But that adversary has essentially vanished, the victim of economic “implosion.” But exactly what really killed the bear and is it now stalking us? In my (never humble) opinion, the answers to those questions are: greed and yes.

I submit to you that there is nothing inherently evil about a communist society. As with our democracy, the “evil” comes in the implementation and the doing, not in the underlying philosophy. In fact, for a population starving in a hostile place, the communist notion of “let’s all work together for the common good” makes perfect sense; one might even call it a democratic notion. I have always been astounded that our nation’s founding documents didn’t contain more of this thought pattern. But then, my nation was founded by an eclectic mix of “break-aways” and “cast-offs” from an evolved western European society. We came to these shores as a collection of both leaders and followers, not merely a disenfranchised dissident horde. It is this societal difference that gave rise to the splendid nature of our founding documents.

While Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto may be a great read from a great mind, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are nearly poetic statements of hard-won human accord on matters of utmost human importance hammered out between brilliant men mutually facing a very difficult circumstance.

I review this not to say that good has triumphed over evil, but rather to point out that “there but for fortune, go I.” The USSR vanished not to our expectation, but to our shock and surprise. We would be fools not to accept that a similar fate could await the United States. Marx’s Manifesto prescribed need for a ruling presidium. It also prescribed the eventual need for that prestigious group to step down and join the proletariat masses. That transition never happened; the idealistic notion that men in power are willing to set that power aside and join their fellow citizens as equals requires that those rulers be very special people. The USSR didn’t have them, and we don’t either. This beloved experiment we know as America may actually be drawn down to ashes and ruin by those people we respectfully call senator and representative.

The simple fact of the matter is that we endure far too much government to pretend we are a free people. Every U.S. citizen is governed by nearly Avogadro’s number (6.02 x 10^23) of laws when we consider the ever-growing confusing morass of local, state and federal rulings. The last thing we need are more laws and thus, more law-makers. What we badly need are empowered representatives willing to remove existing laws at every level.

But we have a Congress full of lawyers, people who know how to do little but debate, posture and conjure up further constraints upon our freedoms. The national asylum is now run by Harvard Law School (and its less influential competitors); if our nation is to survive, we must find a way to change this.

Before the asylum’s inmates decide to rise to anarchy, perhaps Congress might recognize it has a chance to avert national (and personal) disaster. The time has come for fewer legislators at every level. It is no longer acceptable for anyone to make a career out of elected service; no one should serve more than one term in any federal elective office. There is no longer a need for special retirement programs (or bomb hardened bunkers under luxury resorts) for the Congress of the United States. It is time for them to stand down with the American proletariat and be limited to the same benefits accorded to all other citizens (and nothing more). Congress could make these changes law in an afternoon. I submit it would be well advised to do so rather than standing like a chest-puffed presidium. Let our “best” lawyers prove to be good history students in the final analysis.

I hold our Constitution, particularly the early components from Preamble through the seven Articles to Amendment 10, in the highest personal esteem. This was a document of steel-like strength, forged in fire fueled with courage. It was beautifully written by a collection of brave and intellectual men, the likes of whom may never again assemble. Our Constitution as originally enacted was a masterpiece of forward thinking written in clear and insightful prose. Our founders left nothing to be interpreted in what they wrote. They defined the rights of free men in clear and unambiguous language. They explained in those few statements what they collectively were willing to die for; what they personally refused to live without.

I only wish they had added an 11th Amendment to the Bill of Rights, something to the effect:

We have deliberately provided for the evolutionary growth of this document through a defined process of amendment. However, being unable to predict or control the future, while understanding the selfish nature of man, we recognize that the system of law that will rise from this Constitution may eventually become corrupt, deviating from our avowed intentions. For this reason, on every tenth anniversary of this signing, all federal laws including any Amendments added to this Constitution, shall become null and void, and the United States will revert to the strict guidance of this Constitution as it was originally ratified in 1788, amended only by the original Bill of Rights ratified on December 15, 1791. It will be the obligation of the Congress to re-institute such additional laws as it then deems necessary using the processes prescribed herein.

Yes, Mr. President, I fully understand such a Constitutional “do-over” is an unattainable pipe dream. But while I indulge in sucking upon the opiates of my own mind and reveling in the possibilities of a perpetuated American Age, let me share with you some thoughts of what might actually make such perpetuation a possibility.

The American Age was brought about by our nation’s ability to create and manufacture, not by its ability to borrow or loan. When $10^12 leaves the U.S. Treasury to bolster banks and other financial institutions institutions, while our largest manufacturers are told to “suck it up” without federal assistance, I feel my President needs to review American history.

During your first address to our Congress, you discussed the economic recovery of our nation. I listened to you for more than an hour and never once heard you utter the very critical word – manufacturing. It is my fear that you (and the “bobble-heads” who danced behind you) completely missed what happened in the U.S. between 1941 and the present. If we are to survive this economic recession, if we are to thrive again, American manufacturing needs to flourish – not American banking, not our middlemen nor our brokers. If the government is to aid our economy, it needs to stimulate the nation’s producers, not simply appease its greatest sources of economic entropy. It is the inventors, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, farmers, teachers and physicians of this nation who are our potential salvation. Give them the
help that they need to do what we need, rather than shoring up the posturing
egomaniacs who have brought us to this brink of Armageddon.

There are currently 435 highly overpaid and over-rewarded people “serving” in the House of Representatives; 162 of them are lawyers. Like most citizens, I would be very hard pressed to find a single person among them who actually represents me, my thoughts, my philosophies, my views or my needs in any way. Of our 100 Senators, 54 are lawyers. In this voter’s view, we could do with far fewer congressmen, and I’d love to see the 40% barrister content of Congress seriously reduced. As a matter of compromise, I might learn to live with the notion that the Senate must be fully populated with lawyers, but only if I could be assured that the House of Representatives would be entirely free of them.

What we sorely need are people in Congress who understand the possible solution of our nation’s problems from their own firsthand experience, successes and failures. If we are going to solve problems of energy production, we need to populate the Congress with experienced and competent engineers and scientists. If we really want to deliver quality medical care to the nation, we need to have more than a titular sampling of physicians and nurses in our legislative branch. Education will not be improved by 535 lawyers chanting “no child left behind” in unison. It will require dedicated professional educators in Congress making tough decisions for our children intelligently and compassionately. In short, Congress must rapidly reconstitute itself to factually represent the people of America and their needs. What we must have in Congress are concerned and educated citizens serving diligently to resolve the nation’s many woes, not a league of “professional representative” dilettantes intent upon selfishly preserving their own elevated standard of living.

I am a former employee of General Motors Corporation and recently watched the value of that company’s stock evaporate and then re-condense as the property of the U.S. Government and the UAW. As a 30-odd-year owner of that stock, this offends. I saw the chairman of GM berated by the Senate, probably by men whose election the company had largely funded. This whole issue of the U.S. Government versus American automotive manufacturers has left a very bad taste in my mouth. In my opinion, the President of the United States must refrain from trying to run any commercial business. Even giving the appearance of directing such enterprises is most inappropriate to the office and offensive to the average citizen.

If you must muck with an American industry, why not choose to disable, dismember and dissolve an outmoded albatross that is systematically destroying our nation by crushing its economy? In this voter’s view, it is time to declare that no American citizen be forced to bet against himself; it is time to outlaw all forms of insurance and reform tort law. We have become nationally conditioned to the notion of buying “protection” against every malady that might befall us, including death. Indeed, the law requires us to insure our cars, and banks force us to insure the titles of our homes. Tort-driven court settlements force every manufacturer and service provider to insure against liability lawsuits, real or frivolous.

When I file my income tax returns, insurance is invariably my second-highest cost of human existence, overshadowed only by those taxes. Insurance has escalated civil court judgments to unreasonable dollar levels and given rise to a civil law industry that screams to be extinguished. This in turn forces us to insure every aspect of our lives against our fellow man. Malpractice insurance is every physician’s highest cost of doing business. The insurance industry now dictates what care a doctor may deliver to his patient, and its accountants control the scope of hospital facilities made
available to us. Insurance is directly responsible for more expensive automobiles and the elevated cost of all domestic goods. Tort law and insurance squeeze the life out of a free economy.

The President of the United States must often walk a fine line between multiple opposing philosophies. Ultimately, the man in your office always serves us best when he follows the very personal dictates of his own mind, heart and soul. Three hundred million of us trust our President to do just that. A very few us, this arrogant writer included, have the audacity to suggest a few dark corners of that soul that must be investigated and challenged before sleeping peacefully in our White House. I hope that I have illuminated those corners for your consideration candidly, clearly and respectfully.

With my fervent best wishes for your success and the survival of our wounded nation.

George Fox Lang

Circle Flies

A cowboy from Texas attends a social function where Barack Obama is trying to gather more support for his Health Plan.
Once he discovers the cowboy is from President Bush's home area, he starts to belittle him by talking in a southern drawl and single syllable words.
As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.
The cowboy says, "Y'all havin' some problem with them circle flies?"
Obama stopped talking and said, "Well, yes, if that's what they're called, but I've never heard of circle flies."
"Well Sir," the cowboy replies, "circle flies hang around ranches.
They're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."
"Oh," Obama replies as he goes back to rambling. But, a moment later he stops and bluntly asks,
"Are you calling me a horse's ass?"
"No, Sir," the cowboy replies, "I have too much respect for the citizens of this country to call their President a horse's ass."
"That's a good thing," Obama responds and begins rambling on once more.
After a long pause, the cowboy, in his best Texas drawl says, "Hard to fool them flies, though."

Not Using Your Head

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice."

Albert Einstein

To have paid attention to media portrayal of President Bush for 8 years, the prevalent opinion is that conservatives are thoughtless fools. Fools they may be, but they always err on the side of caution. That is the essence of conservatism.
Today with a liberal elected President Obama, the march toward socialism is hastened, without permitted peer review of policies which are dangerous. Dangerous because they are not fully developed, pay significant attention to past failures or accurately project cost. This much even the liberal politicians admit, they are asking us, take this leap of faith, we will care for you. But government does not care for people, it always intends to control people, whether the leadership be liberal or conservative.
So like Albert described, the liberal army of headless troops lurches blindly forward, without anticipation or precaution.
These are the people we have elected.
Are we any better?

This Weekend

Spent the weekend in New Orleans, at a family wedding.
Had a great time.
One of my in-laws gave me some advice.

Don't worry about what people think of you.

Because they seldom do think about you.

That is not to say you should not be thought of, just that most people are generally concerned with their own problems.