No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for January 21st, 2010

Toasting the House of Lords

by @ 11:34. Filed under Miscellaneous.

“The Work of the House of Lords”, the UK’s official Parliament document that outlines the functions of that august body states, “The House of Lords does not have a general power of veto over the Commons, but its strength lies in the careful examination and expert input of its Members, asking the Government to ‘think again’.”

America’s House of Lords, otherwise known as the U.S. Senate, performed this function perfectly in the context of the health care debate. It took a long time to craft a bill that was grudgingly signed on to by the 60 senators necessary to break a filibuster. America, via a Massachusetts Senate election, forced government to “think again.” Thank God.

You will soon hear calls for elimination of the filibuster rule.  In addition, you will hear about how silly it is for North Dakota and California to have the same representation in the Senate, despite the fact that California has 57 times the population of North Dakota.

But this is precisely how a representative republic is designed. Whims of the majority are tempered by geographical representation and procedural intricacies in the Senate.

Delay allowed the public to register its will. Procedure will prevent the Senate from thwarting that will with a simple majority. That is exactly how it is supposed to work.

How Stupid Does He Think We Are?

by @ 6:52. Filed under Politics - National.

Yesterday, President Obama was interviewed on ABC.  When asked about the Scott Brown victory, President Obama responded:

“Here’s my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country: the same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office,” the president said. “People are angry and they are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

According to Barack Obama, he and Scott Brown are actually brothers involved in the same fight.  Both he and Scott Brown were elected because people are so mad at Buuuuuuuuuuuuush!

On Sunday with his only trip to Massachussetts to stump for Martha Coakley, President Obama called Scott Brown:

  • a protector of big banks
  • a protector of big insurance companies
  • a protector of big pharma
  • a protector of big health care

On Sunday, Obama nearly picked up Caesar Chavez’s meme to call Scott Brown “satan!”  On Wednesday, after being firmly rebuked by the Massachusetts, and as a proxy, my the American people, Obama claims they are part of the same struggle against “the man!”

Does he really think we’re that stupid?

His HE really that obstinate that he can not accept any level of criticism?

I think the answer to both questions, sadly, is yes!

All Hands On Deck!

by @ 5:24. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Catch this headline from USAToday:

Soldiers told to stop handing out food

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Food handouts were shut off Tuesday to thousands of people at a tent city here when the main U.S. aid agency said the Army should not be distributing the packages.

It was no known whether the action reflected a high-level policy decision at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) or confusion in a city where dozens of entities are involved in aid efforts.

“We are not supposed to get rations unless approved by AID,” Maj. Larry Jordan said.

Jordan said that approval was revoked; water was not included in the USAID decision, so the troops continued to hand out bottles of water.

It’s hard to put into words just what I want to say about this situation.

Catastrophe, human suffering, starvation, death from dehydration, all of these are realities in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.  I’ve been involved in natural disasters of a far smaller scale (Florida hurricanes) and I can tell you that even there, the attitude is “help the people!”

We didn’t care about who got recognition for what was being done.  We didn’t care about “following chain of command.”  We didn’t care stop to ask permission when someone needed food.  We didn’t stop to ask for IDs.  We also didn’t stop to fight over “who’s going to pay for this.”

When it comes to a tragedy the scope of which has happened in Haiti, the last thing that will help any of those people is to fight over “who’s in charge!” 

I will echo Rush Limbaugh’s sentiment, for which he was roundly skewered by the left, do NOT send donations to any federal agency to assist Haiti.  They are to focused on covering their butts and using this event as an opportunity to justify their existence and expand their scope and power.

Please do help the Haitians by contributing through Samaritans Purse or and organization which I have done a fair amount of volunteer work with, Feed My Starving Children.

Help the Haitians but do it through groups that are more focused on helping the Haitians than they are in helping their own careers!

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