* – I need this license plate:

* – after losing two in a row to Dallas and New Orleans (congrats, Saintseester), my Falcons bounced back to beat Washington 31 to 17, thanks mostly to Michael “the Burner” Turner getting back on track, rumbling for 166yds and two TDs.

“Matty Ice” needs to stop throwing picks, though.

* – now, given who I work for, my view may be a touch prejudiced, but these new Droid phones rock! Sorry Mrs. C., but I think the iPhone has some competition.

This one’s political the rest of the way through, folks. Sorry.

* – so the House passed PelosiCare. Yippee-frickin’-skip. At least it was close (220 to 215). At least there’s a good chance the Senate version of the bill will get shot down. I was also pleased to see 39 Democrats be truly “bipartisan” and vote with their heads and according to the will of their constituencies and vote against this nearly-2,000 page monstrosity.

I mean, seriously, folks, do you want a health care bill that will require you to purchase an insurance policy for at least $15,000? And if you don’t you will go to jail?!?!?! You want a bill that will raise your taxes? You want a bill that will require you to prove that you’re enrolled in a qualified plan and that will fine you if you don’t (oh, btw, illegal aliens are exempt from this clause)? Isn’t filing your taxes enough of a pain in the ass as it is?

* – speaking of paying attention to the will of the constituency, I have something to say here that might not be to popular with the GLBTQ crowd, but hear me out…

First, understand that I am PRO-gay marriage. I just cannot fathom denying people the right to call their love a marriage and the benefits thereof just because of their gender preference. I voted to sustain the gay marriage law in the state of Maine. I was disappointed that the law was repealed via a referendum vote back on November 3rd.

That being said, I understand where some of the anti-gay marriage crowd was coming from when they voted to repeal the law. No, I don’t understand where the bigots are coming from. No, I don’t understand where the narrow-minded religious zealots are coming from. I do understand where those who felt the law was forced upon them are coming from. A while ago there was a gay rights referendum vote in Maine that was defeated. Whether you agree with them or not, the people spoke and said they didn’t want that law. The state government then essentially said, “Well, maybe you say you don’t want it, but we know better than you. We’re smarter than you and more enlightened than you, so we’re just going to pass this law anyway.”

And that’s exactly what the state government did.

What the anti-gay marriage crowd did was exercise their legal rights. They gathered enough petition signatures to force the matter to a vote in a referendum. They campaigned vigorously to make their position heard. They voted in the referendum and won. Those of us who disagree with them may not like the results, but they played by the rules and won fair and square in an exercise of democracy.

The pro-gay marriage advocates shouldn’t quit. I’m sure they won’t. They can play the same game, and they can win. What they need to do is learn from this defeat. It seems to me the two biggest worries people had about legalizing gay marriage were the possibility of religious institutions  being forced to perform ceremonies they didn’t want to and the possibility of their children being taught about homosexuality at an inappropriate age and/or being indoctrinated about homosexuality. I distinctly remember one ad from the anti-gay marriage side that had a woman claiming to be a mother from Massachusetts whose second-grader was being taught about gay marriage in school. Eeven worse, she was not allowed to remove her child from that class! Now, I don’t know if that example is true or not. I never heard anybody from the pro-gay marriage side specifically deny it or disprove it, so I’ll have to assume it’s true.

Know what? As pro-gay marriage as I may be, I do find that example disturbing. I think the second grade is too early to be teaching my child about sexuality, hetero- or homo-. I also think it’s wrong to not allow me to remove my child from that class if I want to. It’s my child, not yours. I’ll decide when he or she is ready to learn about sex, thank you very much.

What the pro-gay marriage leadership in the state of Maine needs to do is write a piece of proposed legislation that makes it clear that no religious institution will be forced to perform a ceremony it does not want to, nor will it be penalized in any way, shape, or form if it chooses not to. This proposed legislation also needs to assure people that schools will not be forced or even asked to teach homosexuality at an inappropriate age (what would an appropriate age be? Well, as a suggestion, I remember having my Sex Ed classes in school when I was in the sixth grade). In addition, such education should be from a scientific perspective, not social. In other words, it should taught as a part of human sexuality, of biology and/or psychology, not as a social commentary. Educate, don’t indoctrinate. Finally, if a parent wants to pull his or her child out of a sexuality class, he or she should be able to do it without fear of repercussions against him or her or the child.

When such a piece of proposed legislation is written, follow the lead of the anti-gay marriage folks. Get the word out. Gather the signatures on a petition. Put it up for a vote on a referendum. Win your rights back.

* – still GLBTQ related, but on a slightly different tack: I have one issue with this story. While not quoted in this article, the Maine Human Rights Commission has been quoted as saying in regards to the situation, ”Gender is a state of mind.”

EXCUSE ME?!

Um, no, gender is defined by biology. Forgive my bluntness, but this is very simple: if you have a dick, you’re a boy. If you have a pussy, you’re girl. Have a dick? Use they boy’s room. Have a pussy? Use the girl’s room. Especially when you’re in the 5th-fucking-grade!

Gender is NOT a state of mind! Gender preference is.

Any questions?

* – going back to the health care brouhaha, here’s a pair (1 and 2) of great pieces by Kemtee over at Drive-by Thinking.

* – staying with health care for just a bit longer, I have to respond to a blog post I saw that essentially said “Of course we have a right to health care. It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence (“…certain unalienable rights, that among these are life…”) and the Constitution (“…promote the general Welfare…”)”

First of all, the “life” in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is just way too vague to be used as a defense of health care reform. Hell, you could use that as a defense of repealing the death penalty (which I’m sure this blogger would). You could also use it as a defense of being anti-abortion (which I’m sure this blogger would not). Call me crazy, but given that this passage was in the Declaration of Independence, I’m fairly certain the authors were defining “life” as in a life of freedom, a life free from the constraints they were living under at that time, which they likely felt wasn’t a “life” at all, but rather just an existence.

There’s a difference.

As far as the tired old argument of “promote the general Welfare” being a clause for government-provided health care, consider the following:

* – the same blogger also used the results of election in New York Congressional District 23 to take a shot at (as he calls them) “you Teabaggers/Carpetbaggers.” The Democrat, Bill Owens, won the election, a pretty remarkable accomplishment, given that the district had been solidly Republican for generations. However, the Republican Owens was initially running against, Diedre Scozzafava, was truly a RINO (Republican In Name Only). She was anti-gun. She was pro-life. She embraced the stimulus bill. She was endorsed by ACORN. When she ended her campaign on Halloween Day, she endorsed Owens. Essentially, her winning would have been no different than Owens winning. Disgusted at the thought that such a liberal candidate would represent the Republican Party, the Conservative Party nominated Doug Hoffman, a career accountant with no previous political experience.

The blogger contemptuously mentioned the fact that Hoffman had people like Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson throw their support behind him, and yet he still lost. Stunningly, this blogger failed to mention how many times President Obama and Vice President Biden went to New Jersey to campaign for Democrat incumbent Governor Jon Corzine and that Corzine still lost to Chris Christie, even though New Jersey is a notoriously Democrat state.

The bottom line, sir, is that Owens defeated a heretofore unknown, third-party candidate by a mere 4%. To borrow a line from Glenn Beck, that’s like the Yankees beating a high school team by only four runs.

And you’re proud of this?!

Oh, and by the way, it took Owens a mere one hour after his victory to break four of his campaign promises.

Hope you’re happy.  

* – hey, 13 dead and 29 wounded in a shooting at Ft. Hood, TX. Let’s give a shout-out!

* – oh, yeah, that Congressional Medal of Honor winner he gave the shout-out to? Not a Medal of Honor winner. A Medal of Freedom winner. Bit of a difference.

Think I’m nitpicking? Thinking to yourself, “Jeez, Falcon, give the guy a break! It was an honest, simple mistake!” Yeah? Really?

What would you have done if G.W. had made that mistake? What do you think the media would have done?

* – more evidence that these jobs that were “saved” by the stimulus weren’t.

* – speaking of the stimulus, how’s that working out for the 10.2% currently unemployed in America?

* – and the walls of ACORN continue to come tumbling down…

* – from Newsmax magazine…

President Barack Obama’s decision to spurn German President Angela Merkel’s invitation to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago is “the most telling nonevent of his presidency.”

That’s the view of National Review Editor Rich Lowry, who notes that Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president during his first year in office, yet has begged off going to Berlin to celebrate the Nov. 9 anniversary because of a crowded schedule.

“It’s hard to imagine any other American president eschewing the occasion,” Lowry writes.

“Wouldn’t Obama at least want to take the occasion to celebrate freedom and human rights — those most cherished liberal values? Not necessarily. He has mostly jettisoned them as foreign-policy goals in favor of a misbegotten realism that soft-pedals the crimes of nasty regimes around the world.

“During the Cold War, we undermined our enemies by shining a bright light on their repression,” Lowry writes. “In Berlin, JFK called out the Communists on their ‘offense against humanity.’ Obama would utter such a phrase only with the greatest trepidation, lest it undermine a future opportunity for dialogue.”

The Berlin Wall came down because the free world, led by America, stood resolute against communist tyranny. But for Obama, “we are less an exceptional power than one among many, seeking deals with our peers in Beijing and Moscow,” Lowry observes.

“Why would Obama want to celebrate the refuseniks of the Eastern Bloc when he won’t even meet with the Dalai Lama in advance of his trip to China?”

(Obama did speak at the ceremony – via a giant TV screen)

* – from my bother-in-law’s brother over at The Pinetar Rag:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

–Abraham Lincoln

* – it fucking snowed today. Kill me.

* – and by Monday they say it’ll be near 60. WTF?

* – why, yes, I’d love some hot Mormon muffins, thank you very much!

* – umm, whoops!

* – yet another reason why I’m glad I don’t have to buy bras (and if I ever do need to buy them, please shoot me).

* – unfortunately, 10 years from now this product likely won’t do me any good!

* – idiot.

Did you catch this part from that story?: “I didn’t mean to do it.” Didn’t mean to do it?! So, what – it was an accident? You tripped and fell and accidentally stuck your dick in a horse? Reminds me of this scene from The Last Boy Scout:

* – heaven forbid you wear a button about God and country at work.

* – it’s a little early to get me started on another Christmas rant, isn’t it?

* – Hollywood takes another not-so-subtle shot at Obama.

* – you know, I had always wondered how Obama was going to define a “saved job.”

Well, now we know.

* – CBS gives us more examples of the White House fudging the numbers to make us believe the stimulus is working.

* – even more examples of fudging.

* – hell, even Dan Quayle – excuse me, I’m sorry, I meant Joe Biden – admits the numbers aren’t accurate.

* – don’t worry, though, because, according to Sting, Obama is “sent from God.”

* – I’m sure this story will get all the Lefties fired up about right-wing terrorists.

* – so does that mean this story can get all the Righties fired up over left-wing terrorists?

* – so, let me get this straight – we’re going to pay Taliban members not to fight against anymore?!

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!

* – amazing what a car company can do when it’s not run by the government, isn’t it?

* – so, PelosiCare is a bill that is almost 2,000 pages long…

* – it’s gonna cost us just over a trillion dollars…

* – it’s not really all that attractive to people…

* – it’s going to regulate fast food restaurants and vending machines…

* – rather than institute tort reform, it’s going to punish states who try to institute it on their own…

* – and it’s going to… oh, hell, there’s too much shit here – just read the transcript.

* – any wonder why, for the first time in his presidency, most Americans think Obama’s got us going down the wrong track?

and just how the FUCK do I get off?

The past 48 hours have been… umm… entertaining(?!), to be extremely polite.

It started this past Sunday night. I had gone down south to visit Mrs. Chili. Cookiemaker and Little Man had been traveling earlier in the day and had elected to stay home, so I was by myself. I had a wonderful time with Mrs. Chili (would you believe we were able to have a calm, rational discussion about Glenn Beck?! ), Mr. Chili, the two little Chilis, Tonks, Bowyer, the two little Bowyers, and MeadMaker’s wife Bobbie. Such a wonderful time, in fact, that I was the last person to leave Chez Chili.

Once I left, however, my fortunes took a turn for the worse. I’d been on the road for perhaps an hour (out of a slightly-more-than-two hour trip) when my car’s engine hiccupped multiple times and then died (keep in mind that by now it was 9PM or so). I gave it a couple of minutes to rest and was then able to restart it. It stayed running for perhaps ten minutes when the process repeated itself. In total, my car died four times between Chez Chili and my saying “fuck it” and calling AAA.

The tow cost me $57. The first potential dropoff point for the car turned out to be a false alarm because the shop I normally take the car to had, unbeknowst to me up until that point, moved. Being a Sunday night, I had to, of course, leave my key in an envelope with a description of the problem in a drop box.

Fortunately, I had Monday off. However, I had to drive to Massachusetts Monday night to check into a hotel because I had a three-day training for my job Tuesday through Thursday. So, I walked to a car rental agency around the corner (figuratively speaking) from my house to get a car for a few days. Problem? The credit card I wanted to use to rent the car had expired back in September and I had NO clue where the current card was. I also really didn’t want to walk all the back to my house and then walk all the way back to the rental agency again (remember, I said the agency was “figuratively” around the corner… and I’m a lazy schmuck). The girl I was working with at the agency volunteered to drive me back to my house and then waited in the driveway while I tore the house apart looking for the card.

I finally found it and was able to rent the car.

I called the shop about my car at 9AM. When they hadn’t gotten back to me about it by 3PM, I called them back.

“We’re still trying to diagnose the problem. We’ll call you back.”

Uh-huh.

So I drive to Mass. No problems. I check into the hotel. No problems. I watch my Falcons lose a heartbreaker to New Orleans. Whatever. I really didn’t expect them to win. At least they made a game of it. I got to sleep around 1AM and got up at 6. I arrived at the training facility aorund 8:45.

And then proceeded to mill around wondering WTF? with the rest of my classmates because nobody seemed to know what room the training was supposed to take place in. At 9:30 somebody finally came to tell us that logistics had gotten effed up and there was no room for the training, so the training had been cancelled! We were to drive back home and go to work in our stores!

Are you fricking kidding me?!

As I was packing up my stuff in my hotel room my boss called me and said there was a three-hour training class taking place along my way home if I could get there by 1PM. If I could, I could just go home after that.

So that’s what I did.

Oh, yeah – my car. Needs a new fuel pump. Gonna cost me $700. Should be ready by Thursday.

Fucking kill me.

P. S – I’ll do a J.A.R.M. tomorrow night.

likely until Friday.

I’m in MA on job training.

WARNING!!!: this is me being a pig again.

You have been warned…

Wanna know what’s really scary?

My friend Bowyer probably saw a LOT of costumes like these at the Halloween high school dance he chaperones every year.

(Bad Falcon! Bad! )

Happy Halloween, everyone!

* – whoopsie!:

* – why the dinosaurs really died:

* - are you a real scientist?:

* – oh, I can only imagine how this interview is going to go…

* – farewell, Soupy Sales (remember him?)

* – idiot

* – another idiot

*  – more idiots

* – big, fat idiot (do you Libs really vote for people like this? OY!)

* – and before you ask, yes, I am currently reading Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots – and enjoying every word of it!

* – speaking of Arguing With Idiots, Beck spends an entire chapter blowing the Left’s take on healthcare out of the water.

Here the Associated Press’ Calvin Woodward also does some fact-checking and hammer’s one of their biggest misconceptions – the evil, greedy, money-grubbing insurance industry.

* – speaking of healthcare, this thought occurred to me the other day about how to fix things:

1) get rid of the “pre-existing condition” clause

2) institute real, serious tort reform

3) remove the barriers that prevent the 1,400-odd health insurance companies that exist in this country from selling their product in any state they want to.

4) to cover the people who truly cannot afford health insurance, offer free insurance to those who can meet the following  criteria:

     a) prove you are a legal resident of the United States of America

     b) prove you have no health insurance

     c) prove you have no health insurance because

          I) you are unemployed

          II) you are not covered by anyone else’s insurance

          III) you work part-time or otherwise are not offered insurance through your work

          IV) even with a full-time job and employer-offered insurance you still cannot afford health insurance

Any thoughts or questions?

* – yes, indeed, the excuses are wearing thin.

* – yes, indeed, it is his rubble now.

* – state by state, the number of jobs “saved or created” by the federal stimulus bill.

* – so, why, exactly, shouldn’t there be a question on the 2010 census that asks whether or not you are a U. S. citizen?

* – “I think it’s beneath the White House to get into a tit for tat with news organizations.” – Democrat Representative Jason Altmire from PA.

I saw a “cute” little YouTube video over on another blog that claimed that the White House did not start this war with FoxNews. FoxNews started it. They started it because they’ve done nothing but attack Obama from Day One.

To which I would say, “What’s your point?”

You think Bush wasn’t attacked by the liberal media from Day One? Remember “He stole Florida!” back in 2000 (don’t get me started on THAT one!)? With the exception of a brief respite immediately after 9/11, Bush was constantly getting hammered by the press. Did he bitch? Did he complain? Did he ever try to ban even one of those agencies from the Press Pool?

No, he did not. He put on his big-boy pants and took it like a man. As did Bill Clinton. As did George H. W. Bush. As did virtually every other president before Barack Hussein Obama. Obama is dealing with no more of a shit-storm than any other president before him. Unlike his predeccesors, however, Obama apparently has a unique combination of to large an ego and to thin a skin to be able to handle it like a grown-up and would rather say, “Well, if you’re not gonna play my game my way then you just can’t play at all!”

There’s leadership for you.

Oh, and I got a good laugh out of the way the video ended, too:

“Fox is not news. It is a 24/7 political operation.”

And MSNBC would be… ?

* – and in local news, I voted early in ME’s 11/3/09 referendum because I’ll be in MA for job training on 11/3/09.

Here’s a link to the referendum questions.

I voted “No” on 1, “Yes” on 2, “No” on 3, “Yes” on 4, “Yes” on 5, “No” on 6, and “No” on 7.

* – and for this week’s PJTV videos…

Andrew Klavan tells us how to have sex

Alonzo Rachel on the Liberal Slave Ship

Bill Whittle on War v. Peace (didn’t I say some the stuff he’s saying here?)

My name is OBAMA-MANDIAS,

King of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty…

The closing of Guantanomo Bay (that hasn’t happened yet)

The withdrawal from Iraq (that hasn’t happened yet)

The renewed focus on Afghanistan (you know, the “good war” – that hasn’t happened yet)

The repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (that hasn’t happened yet)

The $787 billion stimulus package (of which only 15% has been spent so far)

The “creating & saving” of jobs (which is why unemployment now stands at 9.8 %)

The Air Force One New York City fly-by

Picking the 2009 Final Four

The Crowley-Gates Beer Summit

The War on FoxNews

flag@whitehouse.gov

The Apology for America’s Existence world tour

The Chicago Olympic bid

The Nobel Peace Prize (for which I did absolutely nothing)

Cash for Clunkers

Nationalizing the auto industry

Bailing out the banking industry

Appointing people like “Tax Cheat” Timothy Geitner to my cabinet

Appointing almost as many czars as Russia ever had

Telling people to judge me by the company I keep and then hiring people like Van Jones

The $1 to $2 trillion healthcare proposal

Giving billions of dollars to Brazil so they can drill for oil

extending provisions in the Patriot Act

don’t forget, “Cap and Trade” is coming

(did I forget anything?)

and DESPAIR! 

* – I have been alive for 40 years, 2 months, and 28 days. In all that time I have only seen a live bald eagle in a zoo.

Until today.

On the way home from dropping off Little Man at his daycare this morning, I saw one in flight over the local river.

Call me a geek, but I thought that was pretty damn cool.

* – speaking of my geekiness, I have to admit, now that I’ve worked for a cell phone company for over two months, that I’m pretty eager to check out the new HTC Imagio smartphone and the upcoming Droid smartphone.

* – Falcons 21 – Bears 14. Not because of Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, Roddy White, or Tony Gonzalez, but because of a tenacious, underrated defense.

Life is good.

* – anybody seen the new Where the Wild Things Are movie? Can an almost-five-year-old handle it?

* – oh, I can see where this is gonna go…

* – I am so glad I don’t live in California.

* – so CNN decided to fact-check that SNL skit that ripped Obama.

And Jon Stewart excoriated them for it!

* – holy crap! A 21st-century American school that actually praises success – and look at the results!

* – “What I did was like a Bob Dylan song…” – Florida Democrat Representative Alan Grayson, speaking of his “The Republicans want you to die quickly…” crack.

Nope, no arrogance here, folks.

* – speaking of arrogance, I’ve gotta get something off my chest here. I was recently involved in a fairly heated debate over on another blog. It started off about another topic entirely, but eventually meandered into a discussion about pride in one’s country and pride in general. Here are a pair of comments directed at me: “Why did I ever think you had a thought in your head?” and “I do know that for many years, centuries, “pride” has been considered one of the seven deadly sins.”

1) my guess is that you once thought I had a thought in my head because, given the blog you “met” me on, you assumed that I thought the same way you did. Once it was revealed that I did not, however, it wasn’t a matter of us simply having different opinions, it was a matter of you obviously being a genius while I was an ignoramus. THAT is pride, on your part, sir.

No, wait, that isn’t pride – that is arrogance and conceit.

2) speaking of arrogance and conceit – THOSE are sins. Not pride. There’s a difference. There’s something wrong with being proud of the things your country has done right in the past? There’s something wrong with being proud of your favorite sports team when it wins a championship? There’s something wrong with being proud of your child when he or she does well in school or in some sort of competition? There’s something wrong with being proud of yourself when you’ve truly earned a raise at work? 

No, I would say, there is not.

There is something wrong with believing that you’re better than everybody who doesn’t think the same way you do.

3) I find it interesting that somebody who has been on record as being dismissive of organized religion would refer to the Seven Deadly Sins. If a conservative uses religion to back up his or her point, he or she is labeled as a frothing, Bible-thumping, radical member of the “Religious Right.” But a liberal can use religion in an argument because they are somehow more enlightened about it all.

The arrogance and hypocrisy makes me want to puke. I am reminded of part of that Thomas Sowell quote I referenced last week: “All problems seem to (the political Left) to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.” 

* – what’s health care reform going to cost? $1 trillion? $1.6 trillion? $829 billion?

According to Harry Reid, one of the primary proponents of health care reform, maybe it’ll be as much as $2 trillion!

* – your federal stimulus pacakge dollars at work.

* – hey, I know, let’s take over two-and-a-half billion dollars that was supposed to go towards arming our soldiers at war in Afghanistan and Iraq and instead give it to (among other things) an educational institute named after Ted Kennedy!

* – oh, and now that ACORN is old news, let’s start refunding them, ok?

* – still think the government doesn’t exert at least some control over the media?

* – in local political news, the State of Maine’s referendum vote will be talking place on November 3rd. Of the various items on the list, the decision over whether or not to continue the current law of allowing gays to marry in this state has garnered the most attention (I will be voting to continue the law, btw).

However, another proposal has been gettin a lot of airplay on the radio lately. It’s called TABOR (short for the TAxpayer Bill Of Rights), and it basically says the state cannot raise taxes at a rate greater than that of inflation and population growth. Sounds like a great idea, right? Then why didn’t it pass back in Maine back in 2006? Why didn’t work in Colorado?

Well, according to an ad campaign being run by opponents to TABOR, Colorado voters suspended it because it caused the state to be short of money. Because of TABOR, the campaign claims, seniors didn’t have enough money for medication and the state couldn’t adequately take care of the roads and state employees had to be laid off, and schools couldn’t afford to turn on the heat in the wintertime and blah, blah, blah, blah blah…

All of which just makes me think “Bullshit!”

Now, I’ll admit I haven’t exactly done exhaustive research on the subject, but I’m willing to bet that Colorado didn’t have enough money to take care of all those things not because it didn’t have enough money, but rather because it misspent the money that it had.

It’s called prioritizing, folks. It’s called fiscal responsibility. It’s called sensible budgeting. If you’re strapped for funds but really, REALLY want that Xbox 360, you don’t just say “fuck it” and buy the Xbox 360 and then beg for money to put food on the table. You suck it up, do without the luxuries, and make sure the necessities are paid for.

Government ought to try it some time. 

and now for this week’s Pajamas TV videos:

* – Dr. Peter Weiss on the Baucus Bill

* – Bill Whittle on what to do with Congress.

* – Steven Crowder on school choice.

* – AlfonZo Rachel on just where is Obama getting his money?

* – Republicans talking about gay marriage? Gay Republicans?! HUH?!

This one’s pretty much all political, folks. Sorry.

* – to start, though, here’s another usesless app for the iPhone.

* – I know a lot of people have an issue with Michael Vick getting reinstated to the NFL, and I can understand and appreciate their reasons why. Me? I don’t have a problem with it. I don’t, however, see why he should get his own reality tv show.

* – you may have noticed that I didn’t mention my Falcons for the last two weeks. Well, last week they were on a bye, so there was nothing to talk about. The week before they were humbled by the New England Patriots 26 – 10, so I didn’t want to talk about it. This past Sunday, however, they stomped – STOMPED, mind you – the San Francisco 49ers 45 – 10.

Life is good.

* – the other week I mentioned how I think I’m turning into my father. The other day another reason to think that popped into my head.

I used to listen to music on the radio. Not anymore. Now I listen to talk radio. Either sports talk (thank you, WEEI) or political talk (yes, those guys – Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, sometimes Jerry Doyle, Mike Gallagher, or Rusty Humphries).

I am old.

* – so the other night I finally got around to watching When Harry Met Sally pretty much all the way through with Cookiemaker. Good movie. And, per our agreement (which she claims was never made), she now has to sit down and watch Jaws with me at some point.

The interesting conversation that ensued when the movie was over, however, came from when I made the comment that WHMS was a good example of back when Meg Ryan looked hot, which I then immediately amended and said, “No, not hot – cute.”

“Well,” Cookiemaker said, “what’s the difference?”

I found it difficult to explain with words. I had to use examples, instead.

This:

is cute.

This:

is hot.

The best way I could explain it with words was that cute was somebody you find physically attractive enough to want to sleep with, but would then actually want to stick around and cuddle with afterwards, whereas hot was physically attractive enough to want to sleep with, but then leave and never call again.

Does that make sense?

(now on to the politics…)

* – this may be the funniest thing Saturday Night Live has done since the heydays of Belushi, Murray, Akroyd, Martin, and Radner:

What I also find telling about this skit is that finally some element of the mainstram media is taking shots at Obama. For far too long the only criticism, the only tough questions, were coming from Fox News, the Drudge Report, right-wing websites and blogs, or conservative talk radio. Sure, SNL is no longer even close to being the cultural icon it once was, and therefore is no longer as relevant, but it’s still an element of NBC, and the fact that an element of NBC took such blatant shots at Obama may very well mean that the honeymoon is finally over.

*  – here’s another example of the tables turning (kinda). So the other day Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Many people, including some of his supporters, aren’t really sure why. After all, given the cutoff date for being considered for this year’s Nobel means Obama was awarded the prize for essentially eleven days of work, which means he was given the award for doing virtually nothing (hell, imho, even after nine months he’s done virtually nothing, but I digress…).

Even Michael Moore – yes, that Michael Moore – posted an article on his website titled, “Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize – Now Please Earn It!”

Moore is specifically addressing Obama’s policy on Afghanistan, but when this Fat Bastion of liberalism is saying Obama hasn’t done anything to deserve this award, that speaks volumes of The One’s accomplishments (or lack thereof).

Now back to my digression. Exactly what has Obama done to deserve this award? Simply because he’s not Bush? Well, hell, by that definition I should’ve gotten the award! Because he means well and has good intentions? What was that road to hell paved with…? I mean, look, if he’s gonna get a Nobel Peace Prize for being President of the United States for eleven days, then he should also get the Cy Young award for throwing out the first pitch of the All-Star Game. While we’re at it, let’s give him a Congressional Medal of Honor for being the Commander-in-Chief while the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going on, even though he’s never set foot in either country. 

I’m just sayin’…

* – still think Obama isn’t arrogant or narcissistic. Check this out.

Did you catch those numbers? The Obamas didn’t go to Copenhagen to talk about America or the Olympics or Chicago. They went there to talk about themselves! 

* – hey, here’s an idea, let’s let a couple of black people talk about racism in America today:

Sonia Schmidt & Alonzo Rachel.

But I’m sure they’re just a couple of Uncle Tom’s, a couple of shameless ho’s bought off by The Man, intimidated by Big Bad Whitey.

* – let me give you another example of how silly the playing of the race card has gotten around here lately. I was listening to Rusty Humphries a couple of weeks ago, and he had a male caller on railing against Jimmy Carter calling Joe Wilson a racist. The caller claimed to be black. Humphries took another caller at the same time, a woman (who also claimed to be black), who accused the male caller of lying, claiming he wasn’t black, and that she knew he wasn’t black. How did she know?

Because he didn’t sound black.

Excuse me? He didn’t sound black? How racist do you want to get?!

Exactly how are black men supposed to sound? Does this mean that, in this woman’s opinion, Jerry Rice, Mike Tyson, and Troy Polamalu aren’t black?

(all right, so Polamalu is actually Samoan, but you get my point)

I think this woman has seen this scene from the first Beverly Hills Cop too many times:

* – do you believe, after all that has been revealed about ACORN, that there are still people out there defending them?!

* – what stuff by ACORN? This stuff by ACORN.

* – hey, yeah – what did happen to global warming?

* – remember the old “Real Men of Genius” ads by Budweiser? Well, how about “Real Members of Congress”?

Here’s to you, Mr. Faithful Like A Trial Lawyer.

And you, Mr. Tax Law Writing Tax Evader.

* – speaking of Mr Tax Law Writing Tax Evader, it’s about damn time they looked more deeply into his shit.

* – speaking of taxes, don’t you dare think that Value Added Tax they keep talking about is off the boards yet.

* – how about another video of schoolchildren singing Obama’s praises? What the hell, right?

Is anybody else getting scared by this stuff yet?

* – remind me to not send Little Man to Berkeley when he graduates from high school.

* – a response to an internet PSA out there by Will Ferrell, done by PJTV.

* – did you ever wonder where liberalism and conservativism originated from?

* – “What is most frightening about the political Left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.” – Thomas Sowell 10/9/09

* – gods, but I love winter in New England!

(if you can’t detect the sarcasm there, you’re not paying attention)

* – say goodbye to Saturn (the car company, not the planet. Don’t want to freak people, you know).

* – whatever happened to “It takes a village…”? I remember when it was the neighborly thing to do to look after your neighbors’ kids before they went to school.

* – and now, apparently, there are schools that don’t want your kids walking or biking to school.

Huh?

Look, I understand that these schools are ostensibly concerned about your childrens’ safety, but this is the parents’ call, not the schools’. And to meet the children at the school with a state trooper for walking or biking to school?! Are you kidding me? I’ve been a teacher, folks (well, an intern, anyway), and in this day and age you should be grateful the kids are showing up at the school, regardless of how they got there!

* – for the record, the following picture did NOT come from my classroom when I was a teaching intern:

* – Jim Carrey as Scrooge and the three Christmas ghosts in a film by Disney? This might be pretty good…

* – ladies and gentlemen, coming soon to Comedy Central – The Jeff Dunham Show!

Fire up the TiVos and the DVRs!

* – I’m sorry, Mr. Moore, what did you say? I couldn’t hear you over the thunderous hypocrisy.

* – it’s bad enough that a fairly large group of Hollywood types are running around saying things like this about the current Roman Polanski situation…

* – but then Whoopi Goldberg has to chime in with this gem.

I used to like Whoppi Goldberg.

Empahasis on “used to.”

Now I am disgusted by her. What a waste of humanity! She should be beyond ashamed of herself. It wasn’t “rape-rape’?! WTF is “rape-rape”?! That is an insult to every woman on the planet, especially those women who have been “rape-raped.” What is your definition of rape, Whoopi? She was a 13-year-old girl. He was thirty years her senior. He plied her with quaaludes and champagne, got her naked, took pictures of her, and forced himself upon her. He RAPED her! I don’t care whether or not she’s come out since then and said she just wishes this would all go away – HE RAPED HER!

Tell you what, Whoopi, just in case you’re still fuzzy on what exactly rape is, how about the next time you’re on “The View” you have your co-hosts tie you down, strip you down, get you high, liquor you up, take pictures of you, and then let every guy in the audience have his way with you, no matter how much you protest? How about that? Maybe then you’d have a clear definition of what rape is.

What a disgrace!

* – a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

* – still think Obamacare won’t cover illegal aliens?

* – isn’t this new healthcare reform supposed to save the average consumer money? Then why is it that a family of four led by a 45-year-old making a total of $63,000 annually would pay over $7,000 after tax credits if they chose to purchase their own insurance under the Baucus plan (you know, that plan that will fine you $1,900 if you don’t have some kind of health insurance)? 

The calculator used to arrive at that figure can be found here.

* – now, if a Republican had done this, the outcry would have been titanic.

Given that it was a Democrat, you probably hadn’t heard about it until now, had you?

And if you think said Democrat is going to apologize for comparing the current health care debate to the Holocaust, you are sadly mistaken.

* – don’t worry, folks, Social Security is fine, absolutely fine. It’ll be there for us when we retire. And for our kids, And our grandkids. Absolutely nothing to worry about. Just move along.

* – you know, both major political parties in this country have scumbags, but Obama’s got be wondering when he’s going to get a break from stories like this.

And this.

* – the sequence of events with the recent Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics was just priceless.

First, The One and Mrs. One have to take two separate planes to Copenhagen to pitch for the hometown. On the taxpayer dime. Can somebody find out how much money that cost us (CNN’s Lou Dobbs estimates about $10 million)? How about how much of a carbon footprint was left by these two private airliners? Oh, and the pitching had to be done while health care is unresolved, cap-and-trade is just over the horizon, Chicago is turning into Beirut (or, even worse, Detroit), Iran is waving nuclear weapons around like David Letterman waves his penis around at his female employees (had to get that in there ), and our troops in Afghanistan still don’t know WTF is going on and why they’re there (Dobbs reports that while Barack Obama did in fact meet with General McChrystal while in Copenhagen, the two only spoke for 25 minutes).

Then we have to hear about what kind of a “sacrifice” Mrs. One is making by going to Copenhagen.

I’m not even going to dignify that insult to my intelligence with a remark.

And then the whole thing came crumbling down around them. Not only did Chicago not get the 2016 Olympics, it was the first city eliminated. As Rush Limbaugh so bluntly put it, it was a “bitch-slap upside the head” to the First Couple. After all of the travel, expense, fossil fuel burning, carbon footprint emitting, and “sacrifice,” the Obamas have to run home with their tails between their legs.

Will they learn anything from this? I doubt it. Will it start to occur to them that this job cannot be done with style over substance, that specifics and statisitics and facts work better than sweeping generalities and grand orations and “rock star” charisma? Probably not. Will they begin to assume some humility in their thoughts and deeds? I’m afraid I’m gonna have to vote no on that one, Bob.

But hey, we can “hope” for some “change” now, can’t we?

* – speaking of Letterman and the Chicago bid for the Olympics, I just had to steal this Top Ten list from Bo:

Top Ten Reasons & Excuses for Chicago Losing the Olympics -

10) Dead people can’t vote at the IOC.

9) Obama was distracted by his 25 minute meeting with McChrystal.

8 ) “That I couldn’t talk Chicago into the Olympics doesn’t mean I can’t talk Iran out of nukes.”

7) “The impediment is that Israel is still building settlements.”

6) “Obviously no president would have been able to accomplish this.”

5) “We’ve been quite clear and said all along that we didn’t want the Olympics.”

4) “This isn’t about the number of Olympics “lost,” it’s about the number of Olympics “saved” or “created.”

3) Clearly, there weren’t enough wise Latina judges on the committee.

2) The IOC is racist.

1) It’s Bush’s fault.

* – it just keeps getting scarier and scarier:

* – you know, I was reminded the other day of some of the things Obama said in his inauguration address, and, in retrospect, just how hypocritical some of those things sound now, not even nine months later. For example, listen to what he says about 1:45 into this:

He won’t apologize? Really? Isn’t that exactly what he does virtually every time he leaves the country?

* – yeah, I just bet they do.

Why are we still a member of the United Nations? Exactly what good has this organization done for the United States of America? Why do we insist on being a member of a body that allows Iran and Libya to be members and North Korea and the Palestinian Liberation Organization to be “observers”? I think we need to leave the U.N. It is a toothless tiger. It costs us somewhere in the area of $400 million a year to be a member. The international diplomats who swarm New York City because the UN meets there rack up almost $20 million annually just in unpaid parking tickets. Who knows what other crimes these people commit with their diplomatic immunity. And we get exactly what for our troubles?

The United Nations has now become as useless as its predecessor, the League of Nations. It is time to leave.

While I’m at it, let’s get the hell out of NATO, too. Why does that alliance even exist? It was formed to provide a military alliance against the Soviet Union and its puppet satellite states in the Warsaw Pact. The USSR is dead. The Warsaw Pact is dead. Most of the countries who were once members of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR are now members of NATO! So why are we still a part of a now useless alliance?

And finally, as long as I’m talking about getting out of things, let’s get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, too.

Yes, I was for the Afghanistan invasion. And yes, I was for the Iraq invasion, too. But that was 2001 and 2003. It’s now 2009. Why are we still in either of those countries?

Think about it. Why did we invade those two nations? Afghanistan was because we wanted revenge for 9/11, we wanted to hurt al-Qaeda, and we wanted to topple the Taliban government and replace it with an American-friendly government because we believed the Taliban had very close ties with al-Qaeda. Iraq was because we believed Saddam had WMDs and to topple him and his Baath party because we believed he had ties to al-Qaeda, as well.

Well, I think we’ve taken our revenge for 9/11 by now, don’t you? We’ve hurt al-Qaeda pretty badly in Afghanistan, wouldn’t you say? We toppled the Taliban and installed a democratic government, haven’t we? So why are we still there? “But Falcon,” you may say, “if we leave now that government may not be able to stand on it’s own.” To which I say, so what? We’ve been propping that government up for eight years now. Don’t you think it’s about time the training wheels came off and they learned how to stand on their own? Stop crawling and start walking, people!

I think if there ever were WMDs in Iraq we would have found them by now, don’t you (though we did find quite a bit of evidence that Saddam was violating the peace treaty from the first Gulf war in other ways. Sorry – can’t let that go )? We toppled Saddam and the Baath party and installed a democratic government, didn’t we? And while we didn’t find any links between Saddam and al-Qaeda, we certainly hurt other anti-American terrorist groups being supported by Hussein, right? So why are we still in Iraq? Because we’re afriad of that government falling apart as soon as we leave?

Well, I already gave my opinion on that, didn’t I?

The cost of these wars, in terms of both dollars and American lives, has been well documented, and they far outweigh the rewards. The money would be far better off being spent on something else or, perhaps even better than that, not being spent at all. The lives, obviously, are priceless. We can continue to fight the War on Terror in a much more efficient and effective manner, as I’ve detailed before. Finally, lest anyone accuse me of being against these wars now only because it’s Obama in office and not Bush, I would refer you to the same post and ask you to note the date.  

* – this may interest some of the moms out there , depending upon their political views.

* – this site will help you keep and eye on the SEIU, if you’re interested.

(and, yes – I LOVE the name of the site! )

* – yes, ladies and gentlemen, the United States of America is, in fact, exceptional.

(have I mentioned how much I like Bill Whittle yet?)