No Runny Eggs

A new studyclaims that there is a link between diminished IQs and eating a junk food laden diet.  According to the British study:

Toddlers who have a diet high in processed foods may have a slightly lower IQ in later life

Wow, who’d of thunk it! Have these folks never done the grade school experiment of nutrition using two rats? In case you haven’t seen it, you take two rats. You feed one a healthy, vegetables and water diet and the other, potato chips and Coke diet.

After about two weeks you will see that the rat that is eating healthy food is still healthy. You’ll also see that the rat who has been fed a poor diet is losing hair, has yellow eyes and other notable physical effects of the poor diet. Once placed backed on the good diet, the unhealthy rat returns to health within a couple of weeks.

The study claims that it went to great links to make sure that there were not other contributing factors that could explain the difference in IQ:

“We have controlled for maternal education, for maternal social class, age, whether they live in council housing, life events, anything going wrong, the home environment, with books and use of television and things like that.”

It sure looks like they covered everything, or maybe not:

While it is possible that diets impacted the children’s IQ I think I see one factor that the researchers missed. It doesn’t require Michelle Obama screaming at parents for them to know it isn’t good to feed their children a preponderance of junk food. I’m not so sure the children’s IQ is a result, it may well have been genetic!

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

Super Bowl ad targets wrong audience

“While many Americans will park in front of their televisions to watch football on Super Bowl Sunday, others will tune in just to see the commercials. Unknown to most Americans, one commercial will be seen only by members of the U.S. military deployed overseas. Sadly, it’s a spot that probably needs to be shown to federal, state and local election officials, too”

* “Nobody gets married anymore, Mister”

“Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.

None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant. Other girls in school want to pat their stomachs. Their friends throw baby showers at which meager little gifts are given. After delivery, the girls return to school with baby pictures on their cell phones or slipped into their binders, which they eagerly share with me. Often they sit together in my classes, sharing insights into parenting, discussing the taste of Pedialite or the exhaustion that goes with the job. On my way home at night, I often see my students in the projects that surround our school, pushing their strollers or hanging out on their stoops instead of doing their homework.”

We need to stop glorifying single mothers

“Because most of us know single mothers, know how hard they’re working, and wish them well, we do what we can to support them and build them up. That’s very understandable and it undoubtedly does some good. However, because we’re constantly talking about how wonderful single mothers are, we’re also making the option look a lot less scary than it should be to young girls — and that’s a very bad thing for them and for society.”

Talking with the president

“As some readers might know, your humble correspondent (that’s me) will be conducting a live interview with President Obama a few hours before the Super Bowl game begins on Sunday. The chat is scheduled to last about 12 minutes and is fraught with danger. For me, not for the president.”

Tawdry details of ObamaCare

“If you would like to know what the White House really thinks of Obamacare, there’s an easy way. Look past its press releases. Ignore its promises. Forget its talking points. Instead, simply witness for yourself the outrageous way the White House protects its best friends from Obamacare.”

* – Especially recommended

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

What of the crimes, massacres prevented?

“A reader who refers to himself as ‘a common-sense liberal’ writes in:

In view of the agonized calls for increased restrictions on firearm ownership resurrected by the recent shooting in Arizona, could you write a column with meaningful statistics on death and injury nationwide prevented by the civilian ownership of firearms?”

High speed rail is a fast way to waste taxpayer money

“High-speed rail may sound like a good idea. It works, and reportedly even makes a profit, in Japan and France. If they can do it, why can’t we?

The truth about abortion

“The fact is that the majority of abortions — far from all, but the majority — serve as nothing more than routine birth control: Most women who have abortions became pregnant by willingly engaging in high-risk sexual activity, and many resort to abortion more than once. For a solid pro-choicer, this presents no problem; if unborn children have no rights, there is no harm done.”

Why Sarah Palin Drives Them Wild

“I wonder how many television hosts and “journalists” tuned in to Sarah Palin’s interview on ‘Hannity’ this week, waiting with bated breath for her to say something they could try to distort. And the more she says ‘this isn’t about me,’ the more they make it about her. Let’s enter the world of Sarah Palin for a moment.”

The State Against Blacks

“The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do. . . . And that is to destroy the black family.”

Don’t kids shovel anymore?

“During my nearly three decades in Boston, exactly one kid has come by seeking a shoveling job. He worked for about 20 minutes on freeing my car from the snowplowed ridge that held it captive, whittling the wintry berm down to the point where you might possibly have extracted the vehicle if, say, you had a mammoth fork-lift at your disposal. When I noted same, he said he’d settle for half the agreed-on fee — and left me to finish the job.”

The following is an entry I posted on MLK Day 2008 on my blog at FranklinNOW.com:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963.

On more than one occasion on Channel 10’s InterCHANGE, I’ve surmised that if alive today, King would oppose affirmative action. He would denounce racial quotas.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

That sounds to me like a perfect conservative value.

Character- conservative candidates say it matters, and conservative voters look for it in various candidates.

On this Martin Luther King Day, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor Paul Greenberg says:

“Martin Luther King Jr. meets the very definition of an American conservative, that is, someone dedicated to preserving the gains of a liberal revolution.

You can tell a lot about an age by the heroes it chooses. While the Malcolms and Farrakhans come and go in favor, Martin Luther King Jr. remains the standard by which all other leaders are measured, and not just black leaders. That’s a hopeful sign.”
—Kevin Fischer blog, 1/21/08

Given King’s famous remarks, it makes one wonder why so many liberals today relish playing the race card. Wouldn’t King find that offensive and insulting to minorities?

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

Liberals seek a ban on metaphors in wake of Arizona shooting

“Every time liberals produce an example of military lingo from a Republican – ‘we’re going to target this district’ — Republicans produce five more from the Democrats.

President ‘whose asses to kick’ Obama predicted ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with his political opponents and has made such remarks as ‘if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun’ — making Obama the first American president to advocate gun fights since Andrew Jackson.

These are figures of speech known as ‘metaphors.’ (Do liberals know where we got the word ‘campaign’?)

By blaming a mass killing on figures of speech, liberals sound as crazy as Loughner with his complaints about people’s grammar. Maybe in lieu of dropping all metaphors, liberals should demand we ban metonyms so that tragedies like this will never happen again.”

The progressive “climate of hate:” An illustrated primer, 2000-2010

“The Tucson massacre ghouls who are now trying to criminalize conservatism have forced our hand. They want to play tu quo que in the middle of a national tragedy? They asked for it. They got it.”

The hateful left

“‘The Left’s sudden talk about incendiary political rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting isn’t really about political rhetoric at all. It’s about the real-world failure of leftist policies everywhere—the bankrupting of nations and states by greedy unions and unfundable social programs, the destruction of inner cities by identity politics, and the appeasement of Muslim extremists in the face of worldwide jihad, not to mention the frequently fatal effects of delirious environmentalism.”

Jared Loughner was a Tea Partier (and I’m am Atheist River Dancer Who Hates Hunting)

“I bet you Lefties in D.C. and in the Blame Stream Media really sucked at playing connect the dots in first grade, didn’t you?”

The 11 most ludricous free passes given to the Obamas

“What burns conservatives most of all is the refusal of the journalistic community to do its job where Obama is involved. Historically, the American press tends to be hard on a sitting president and the American people expect it. This keeps everybody honest. Never have we witnessed the media so willing to forgo its purpose for the advancement of one man”

Let’s break out the chainsaws

“I want to give Speaker John Boehner the benefit of the doubt. Really, I do. But it’s hard when he fumbles the gimmes like he did in an interview with Brian Williams of NBC News.

Dude. You’re on national television and you can’t name one useless government program? Tell me again why we elected you Speaker?

I’m no career politician but I can come up with 5 things to cut without breaking a sweat.”

Eek! A male!

“Last week, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Timothy Murray, noticed smoke coming out of a minivan in his hometown of Worcester. He raced over and pulled out two small children, moments before the van’s tire exploded into flames. At which point, according to the AP account, the kids’ grandmother, who had been driving, nearly punched our hero in the face.

Why?

Mr. Murray said she told him she thought he might be a kidnapper.”

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend:

White Flight

“The new data show that white voters not only strongly preferred Republican House and Senate candidates but also registered deep disappointment with President Obama’s performance, hostility toward the cornerstones of the current Democratic agenda, and widespread skepticism about the expansive role for Washington embedded in the party’s priorities. On each of those questions, minority voters expressed almost exactly the opposite view from whites.”

Two Californias

“The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements, the near-worst public schools (based on federal test scores), and the largest number of illegal aliens in the nation, along with an overregulated private sector, a stagnant and shrinking manufacturing base, and an elite environmental ethos that restricts commerce and productivity without curbing consumption.”

Are we still the home of the brave?

“Sadly, this risk-averse/avoid-pain mindset is overtaking America. Anything that entails risk is to be avoided and, when possible, banned.”

The ten most under-reported stories of 2010

“You won’t see the stories below in the pages of the NYT or on the screens of NBC. You won’t hear them discussed at the water cooler. They’re the stories that show without any doubt the cards held by those who wish to enslave the masses to the god of government. A theocracy, to be sure, but one that holds up the state above all else. These stories are what progressives are trying desperately to erase from the annals of history, an effort that the new penny press, new media, refuses to allow.”

Top Ten Political Lies of 2010

“Here, in no particular order, are the top 10 political lies of 2010.

1. Ninety-five percent of ‘working families’ received a tax cut.”

While teachers are laid off, fortunes spent on….

“Teachers have been getting laid off right and left in Florida’s Broward School District. Despite all the taxes, the money just isn’t there to pay them. This gives an idea of where it went.”

MTV abortion special: Happy for the kill

“Now we get to ‘No Easy Decision,’ which follows one of the teen moms from ’16 and Pregnant.’ Markai finds out eight months after having her daughter that she is pregnant again and decides this time to abort.

Announcing the special, Entertainment Weekly wrote, ‘MTV sources say the documentary will tackle all sides of the issue. …’

So I expected the pro-life position to be fairly represented alongside the pro-abortion position – by educating on the documented harm of abortion to women, describing fetal development at the age of the baby being aborted and offering a counseling session at a pregnancy care center as well as an abortion clinic. I was resigned that Markai would move ahead with her abortion but thought her decision would be fully informed.

None of this came to pass.”

Four nursing students have reportedly been expelled from a community college nursing program for having a picture of themselves with a placenta placed on Facebook. Details as to whether the girls got specific or implicit approval to take the photo are murky. Regardless, upon finding out about the posting of the photo, the college responded with a “We are not amused,” and expelled the students.

What’s ironic about this story is that it occurred in Kansas. For those who may not remember, Kathleen Sebelius is from Kansas. In fact, Kathleen Sebelius was Governor of Kansas during the time when the notorious Dr. Tiller carried on late term abortions as frequently as President Obama says “let me be clear!”

While Governor, Sebelius vetoed a bill that specifically targeted Tiller’s activities. The bill would have required details to be reported to the state on each late term abortion. The bill was important as Tiller was alleged to be performing abortions on underage and situations of coerced abortions. As I think about it now, isn’t it ironic that Sebelius thought reporting of late term abortions was improper but now wants reporting on all of our health issues sent to the federal government.

While I agree it was classless, I have a hard time agreeing that explusion is the appropriate response for the student’s behavior. I mean, it’s not like they got it by performing an abortion or something!

If “classlessness” were grounds for expulsion, I would have never graduated from Whats-a-matta U. Perhaps the students can be re-enrolled under probation. Unfortunately for them, Kathleen Sebelius has left Kansas. If not, they would have likely received a hearty congratulations and not expulsion!

John 1
The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I love John’s description of the coming of Christ.

The word “word,” gets roughly translated as “breath” meaning the being or essence of ones being. Read back through this passage using “breath” or “essence” in the place of “Word.” Note how John lays out how personal, how it was from His core that Jesus came for us. A rewrite of the 14th verse might be:

“God’s essence, God’s being, became flesh and dwelt among us.”

May God’s essence, God’s being be the focus of your joy this Christmas!

In Christ,
Shoebox

I haven’t got time for a fully thought through post but here are a few random shots:

• When will Boehner or McConnell step up to a mic and say, “Read my lips, no new spending!”

• Congress has become nothing more for a social club.  Elected members worry more about what other members think than standing for their own principles.  Each incoming congressional freshman should put a sign on their office door that says, “If you are here to convince me of your position on an issue, please know that I am not here to satisfy your social needs, I am here to hold to my principles on behalf of those I represent.”

• The 111th Congress is dead, it just doesn’t know it.  Where are those death panels when you need them?

• While not scientific, I spoke with several recruitment/temporary agencies in the mid Ohio valley this week.  The consensus is that things are improving…slightly, but improving.  They typically see a lull from Thanksgiving until after the first of the year.  This year, their activity is picking up over the holidays.

Today, Michelle Obama got her wish and the nanny state expanded.  Congress passed the “Healthy- Hunger free kids act.”  For $4.5 billion we now get an extra $.06 of support for school lunches and federal government support for an after school meal.  Oh, but you also get mandates for school gardens, no doubt to grow arugula, and to “buy local!”  What a waste!

In her comments today, Michelle actually referenced comments from some military folks who attempted to tie obese kids to a military readiness issue.  I wonder if Michelle will be equally concerned about making sure that all school kids get gun training?

In honor of Michelle’s on going quest to ensure that we all eat only what she tells us to, I have penned a song.

To be sung to the tune of the Beatles “Michelle”
Michelle, cow bell
These are words that go together well
Large Michelle

Michelle, cow bell
Can’t we keep our fast food that is swell
Large Michelle?

I love it, I love it, I love it
That’s all I want to say
I wish you’d go away
And leave my food choice up to me and
Not Uncle Sam.

Michelle, cow bell
I’m sure you love French ‘cause they do what
Ever their told

I need to, I need to, I need to.
I need to make you see
Oh what fries mean to me.
Until I do I’m hoping you will
Quit dogging me.

I love food….

I want more, I want more, I want more.
I think you know by now
I’ll get to food somehow
No chide from you will shrink my waist so
Nag on Barack.

Michelle, cow bell
French toast, French bread, French fries, French croissant
All foods that you loathe

Don’t touch any of the food I love
Or you’ll lose your hand, my Michelle.

In case you need a little help with the tune:

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).

Time to think the unthinkable: A Democratic primary challenge to Obama’s re-election

“It is time for Progressives to stop ‘whining’ and arguing among themselves about whether President Obama will or will not do this or that. Obama is no different than any other President, nominated by his national party. He was elected with the hard work and 24/7 commitment of persons who believed and enlisted in his campaign for ‘Hope’ and ‘Change.’

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist nor have a PhD in political science and sociology to see clearly that Obama has abandoned much of the base that elected him. He has done this because he no longer respects, fears or believes those persons who elected him have any alternative, but to accept what he does, whether they like it or not.”

What to cut

“Congress should enact government-wide spending caps that gradually return spending to 20 percent or less of GDP. After a $727 billion spending increase since 2007, there is no shortage of programs to cut to meet that 20 percent target. The 112th Congress should target programs based on their economic impact, their cost, and the feasibility of reforming them. It should build credibility with the public by including cuts in the federal government’s spending on itself, unpopular earmarks, and even traditional conservative spending programs. Conservatives could begin with the following twelve projects…”

A nude awakening-TSA screening and privacy

“The TSA continues to advocate a model of security based upon overreaction. Ineffectual peripheral threats relating to liquid explosives, shoe bombs or printer cartridges coincide with rapid changes to the terrorist alert level (as if the risk of terrorism increases after a failed plot!) and reactionary modifications to security protocol, resulting in the loss of millions in governmental revenue, inconvenience for passengers and the abatement of fundamental liberty.

The fundamental problem is that terrorism is innovative while TSA policy is reactive. The TSA modifies its protocol on the basis of terrorist plots that have already happened, while an intelligent terrorist knows not to duplicate the failed efforts of past terrorists.”

Last state budget bill contained $39.2 million in earmarks

“With all the talk about banning earmarks in the new Congress, it’s easy to focus on the national and forget the local, but it turns out the porksters in Madison have been wallowing in the earmark mud just as much as those in Washington have been.

In fact, even as the state battled an approximately $6 billion shortfall going into the last budget cycle, lawmakers managed to successfully insert $39.2 million in earmarks in the 2009-11 state budget bill.

Among the goodies passed out by the Democratic majority – and left in the final budget act by outgoing Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle – was $500,000 for an upgrade of the Oshkosh Opera House, $5 million for the Bradley Sports Center in Milwaukee, $250,000 for the Madison Children’s Museum, another half-million dollars for the Aldo Leopold climate change laboratory, $100,000 to restore a stone barn in the town of Chase, not to mention recycling bins for the town of Wrightstown and $50,000 for a public shooting range in Eau Claire.

Even OneidaCounty got a little taste of pork, just enough perhaps to whet the appetite – $10,000 for a trail crossing.”

Locked and loaded

“’A look into the minds of the gun-toters among us.”

“I swore to myself I was not going to be defenseless ever again.”

Texting ban won’t make us safer

“In a country where we regularly affix ‘caution, hot!’ warnings to cups of coffee, is it really conceivable that government safety czars would agree that two, 3,000-pound hunks of metal could safely be maneuvered past one another on a two-lane country road in the rain by two 16-year-olds jamming out radio Top 40?) 

But as it is, driving in America is inescapable, dangerous by nature, and often so mind-numbingly routine that we look for other diversions of the eye, ear and hands. Because of this, it’s unlikely bans on texting while driving will make much of a dent in the crash numbers.”

Here are some of the key ingredients for this entry:

cheese·burg·er  (chzbûrgr)

n. A hamburger topped with melted cheese.

The above is the Frenchie burger from the NY restaurant, DBGB.

obesity   (-bs-t)

n. The condition of being obese; increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat.

gar·den  (gärdn)  n. A plot of land used for the cultivation of flowers, vegetables, herbs, or fruit.

The above garden is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. 

hyp·o·crite  (hp-krt)

n. A person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives.

hyp·o·crite  (hp-krt)

n. A person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives.America, you don’t eat right.

Barack and Michelle Obama, the two leaders of the federal government’s food police, have lectured us to death.

We will show you how to eat properly.

We will tell you what to eat.

We will tell you what not to eat.

Restaurant owners, we will tell you what to serve.

Restaurant owners, we will tell you what not to serve.

We will set the rules and you will follow them or government bureaucrats will make you suffer.

The complete and utter condescension has been sickening.

The Obama’s have become the quintessential spokespeople for the phrase, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Last year, the New York Times reminded us, “As President Obama ran for office, whenever questions of his ordinary-man credentials arose, his aides were quick to say that he loves a good burger. As he worked to win over male voters, a stop at a beer joint would suddenly be on his itinerary. But when the cameras weren’t rolling, he was just as likely to have a healthy plate of sea bass and steamed vegetables as a burger and fries.”

The newspaper noted Obama’s cholesterol had jumped 42 points since 2007. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told White House reporters, ”You guys think he eats carrots and celery. There’s more cheeseburgers, fries and pie than you previously knew.”

How could this be? After all, the First Lady took on America’s girth as her persoanl crusade, going so far as to plant a veggie garden to promote all heathy items green and orange.

The British press asked the obvous question: What would Michelle say? (We also learn the Obamessiah isn’t exactly a terrific tipper).

So, Barack isn’t following his wife’s advice. One could argue the president is allowed because Mrs. Obama doesn’t practice what she preaches.

On March 11, 2009, the website Listicles.com suggested five foods Michelle Obama should banish for American diets. Sure enough, burgers made the list, and that would seem to follow the First Lady’s emphasis on vegetables rather than meat.  A month later, the Associated Press shockingly reported that, for shame, Michelle sneaks out for burgers.It gets better.

Last August, Mrs. Obama visted the Good Stuff Eatery in Washington D.C. with daughters Malia and Sasha where they dined on cheeseburgers, fries, and shakes. The New York Post reported, “Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevemt pictures from being taken. Nope. Can’t have photos floating around of the queen of carrots and peas chomping down on a juicy, fat-laden burger. 

This past October, while campaigning for Russ Feingold, Mrs.Obama stopped at Miss Katies Diner in Milwaukee and ordered a cheeseburger. Apparently forgetting she was in America’s Dairyland, she eschewed a milkshake.

Washington’s radical attempt to reform America’s diet isn’t working. A recent Gallup poll shows that we are not stupid. Most of us understand the value of healthy eating and can easily find affordable fresh produce.

NEWS FLASH to the food police: We just don’t want to eat it. We eat what we want to eat because we live in what is still a free country. What a concept!

No one is suggesting that the Obama’s should never indulge in a greasy burger. However, if they’re not going to lead by example, they need to tone down their pontificating and over-regulation.

But they won’t.

A new book contains an anecdote about the all-knowing Calorie Counter-in-Chief counseling an overweight staffer that he will eat a salad and like it.  

hy·poc·ri·sy (h-pkr-s)

n.
1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.

It’s run amok at the White House.

WOW!

There couldn’t possibly be more, Kev, could there?

It couldn’t possibly get any better, could it?

It could and it does.

(Cross posted at FranklinNOW.com.)

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).

Fall reckoning

“Before the vote on Nov. 2, humorist P.J. O’Rourke quipped that it wasn’t an election, it was a restraining order. For Democrats in Wisconsin it was an apocalypse. They lost the governorship; a Senate seat; two congressional seats; both houses of the state Legislature, and, just to run up the score, the office of state treasurer to a guy who ran on a platform of abolishing the job.”

Girls just wanna have guns

“I have a dream! 

A dream where instead of reading about a cute college coed left dead and naked out in a vacant lot or bloated and floating in a river, the story reads: ‘dead jackass found double-tapped and dead on the curb as his soul wings its way to Hades—all because he messed with the wrong mama’.”

Naked Truth

“According to the  Transportation Security Administration, Americans have no problem with the new airport screening procedures. So they should stop complaining.

That self-contradictory reassurance, which would be unnecessary if it were true, seemed slightly more plausible after chaos failed to ensue from protests by Thanksgiving travelers who refused to walk through the TSA’s full-body scanners last week. But there are reasons to question the TSA’s portrait of placid passengers happily baring all for the sake of homeland security.”

What is not being discussed in the groping debate

“It doesn’t seem to me that wanting to get from point A to Point B by flying the friendly skies provides probable cause to justify doing a virtual strip search of a person…or doing a combat pat down of what we USED to call suspects when justifying the search…

All because Mohamed Atta and a group of America hating murderers decided to destroy this nation and everything she stands for by flying planes into buildings? (Maybe they succeeded in doing far more than they believed possible that day given what we’ve surrendered as a result?).

So…Here’s the 800lb TSA Agent in the room everyone is missing.”

Why this fear of a civility pledge?

“It’s only 32 words. Yet, only two sitting members of Congress or governors have signed the civility pledge. So what was it about civility that all the other 537 elected officials couldn’t agree to? Read it and decide for yourself.”

Joe Scarborough tells GOP to confront Palin

“Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private. Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up.”
KF NOTE: I found Scarborough’s views too harsh and off-base, but the article is still interesting.

Is NPR for sale?  

“It seems George Soros, sugar daddy of 1,001 leftish crusaders, personal hobbyhorses, and even some good causes, has just given NPR $1.8 million to hire a hundred new reporters.

Some commentators on the state of the American media, formerly the American press, are shocked, shocked! Others aren’t. Inquiring minds want to know if this is a scandal, just philanthropy, a menacing portent for the independence of American journalism, or all of the above.”

The care and feeding of progressives

“I’ve had to ask readers of my blog to register in order to post comments.  There are three reasons why: 

1. Trolls 
2. Trolls 
3. Trolls

When I started my little blog, it didn’t occur to me that trolls would come out in droves.  Why would leftists expend their energies on me? And why would they subject themselves to scrutiny by a licensed psychotherapist?

But apparently, numerous trolls have been drawn to me, like venomous bees to honey. These trolls use the same weaponry of other extreme progressives: shame and degradation. They try to use ridicule as sort of stun gun, immobilizing the other.”

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).

A Redneck’s Bitter and Clingy Thanksgiving List

“I’m thankful for the socialists, anti-theists, demons and those who despise freedom, family, faith and our nation’s flag. Yes, I’d like to thank you because you ramp up my mind, my attitude, my loyalty to God and Country, and my study of our nation’s history and founding docs. Indeed, you’re my reason to get up every morning, to write, to do my show and to produce videos with a vengeance. Without you and your wacked worldview, your screeching lesbians, your nightly news hacks, and your America-loathing rhetoric I wouldn’t have the resolve and the capital to auger for that which is holy, just and good.”

Washington Post covers for Team Obama with body scanner poll-53% idiocy

“The Obama Administration is tone deaf as to what is going on with airport checkpoints.”

Airport “Security”?

“No country has better airport security than Israel– and no country needs it more, since Israel is the most hated target of Islamic extremist terrorists. Yet, somehow, Israeli airport security people don’t have to strip passengers naked electronically or have strangers feeling their private parts.

Does anyone seriously believe that we have better airport security than Israel? Is our security record better than theirs?”

11 Unusual Security Measures Employed By the TSA

“I wanted to give some attention to some of the TSA’s lesser-known (and more peculiar) security policies. Here are 11 unusual security measures that the Transportation Security Administration currently has in place, all courtesy of their website.”

Higher taxes won’t reduce the deficit

“The claim here is that these added revenues—potentially a half-trillion dollars a year—will be used to reduce the $8 trillion to $10 trillion deficits in the coming decade. If history is any guide, however, that won’t happen. Instead, Congress will simply spend the money.”

Why letting tax cuts expire will hurt small businesspeople like me

“It’s said that small business owners work eighteen hour days for ourselves so we don’t have to work eight hours a day for someone else.  And often our income on a dollar/hour basis is less than the established firms we may have left to go on our own. Certainly this is generally true for those few scary years at the beginning when a myriad of mistakes are made and unanticipated events occur that prompt the principals to pay ourselves only after all other obligations have been met   So why do it?  Why take such risk?

First….”

The 25 best quotes about liberals

“Enjoy!”

If you got cancer from smoking, that’s YOUR problem

“But does anyone really care about people that have damaged themselves for smoking?”

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).

New Wisconsin Senate President says deficit can be solved

“There is a way to get out of this. First of all, you have to be honest with the public. There won’t be more of anything for the next two years. What we need to do is get rid of that debt and do it in one year.

To accomplish that, there are a number of things that are going to have to be done. Everybody’s going to have to take less. If you got a dollar in 2010-11, you may only get 95 cents in 2011-12. It may not be a permanent deal, but it’ll be for at least two years.”

Tears (my own) and airport scanners

“Ok, so folks start through the old-fashioned screeners. Everyone. But when my turn comes, I’m motioned through the naked-scanner. I objected, asked why (‘random selection’) and shared that I preferred the regular detector. Oh no, not possible – it’s not my job or right to make a choice. Rather, I’d have to submit to a pat down. I asked for details and learned I would be patted under my breasts and up the inside of my leg until ‘we feel resistance.’ Oh my.

I asked for a supervisor. And then another supervisor. And then the gendarmes showed up. Three of them. Oh my.”

Pat Me, Pat Me

“The other day a CBS News Poll found that fully 81 percent of Americans approve the use of the high-tech machines at the airport, but that means nothing to Drudge. How many more Americans would welcome a soothing pat-down midst the hurly-burly of travel at our nation’s stress-filled airports I do not know, but count me in — especially if the patter-downer is a cute little number on the order of, say, Sarah Palin.”

Amid airport anger, GOP takes aim at screening

“Did you know that the nation’s airports are not required to have Transportation Security Administration screeners checking passengers at security checkpoints? The 2001 law creating the TSA gave airports the right to opt out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners after a two-year period. Now, with the TSA engulfed in controversy and hated by millions of weary and sometimes humiliated travelers, Rep. John Mica, the Republican who will soon be chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, is reminding airports that they have a choice”

Obamaganda: Campaigning on your tax dollars

“The Department of Health and Human Services spent $700,000 on a TV commercial featuring the 84-year-old Andy Griffith, explaining to seniors why the Democrats’ health care overhaul was good for them and their Medicare.

In the ad, the star of the ‘Andy Griffith Show’ says, ‘This year, as always, we’ll have our guaranteed benefits. And with the new health care law, more good things are coming.’

The government bought airtime on CNN, the Weather Channel, Hallmark and Lifetime, considered the most popular networks for seniors.

He ends the ad saying, ‘I think you’re gonna like it,’ in the folksy Andy Griffith way.

The core problem with the ad is that it’s not true.”

Should Illegals have drivers’ licenses?

“You don’t think these illegals with license are voting as well, do you? How much easier is it to vote when you have a driver’s license? Completely unacceptable.

This story becomes more interesting when you consider it is the first female Hispanic Governor that will revoke the licenses.”

Over the past few weeks, the TSA has gained an increasingly notorious reputation. Increasingly aggressive searching procedures have cries of sexual harassment, security boycotts and “Fourth Amendment” echoing through airport terminals. While I didn’t think it possible, the TSA has become more hated than Nancy Pelosi and has done it in a matter of just a few weeks. That all said, I’ve found the silver lining that goes with thrum of negativity regarding the TSA.

On a radio show Friday, Jesse Ventura said that he would no longer fly commercial flights due to the TSA regulations:

I feel that as a former governor, a former mayor, an honestly discharged [Vietnam] Navy veteran, that I can’t live with myself and subject myself that every time I go to an airport I have to prove that I am not a murderer, I have to prove I am not guilty of anything, I have to prove I won’t hijack a plane. I find it ridiculous and so for my own personal choice I will not fly a commercial airliner or subject myself to that again.

Ventura then recognized the possible implication of his decision:

It probably means an end to my career.

Oh no! You mean the bat shit crazy former governor of my former state won’t get a forum to espouse more of his bat shit crazy theories? You mean we won’t hear anymore about Jesse’s theory of 9/11, FEMA camps and other illusions of his mind?

Well done TSA, well done!

I have to congratulate Robert Stacy McCain and the soon-to-be-departed Smitty on having over 5,000,000 hits to The Other McCain. Perhaps it’s because Smitty is getting ready for a little Uncle Sam-paid-for trip to a country ending in “-stan” to do for the Uncle what he does for Stacy, but Lance Burri beat them to the celebratory punch.

Herewith, a brief primer on how to make hits translate to respect among the blogging community – Carpe diem. Of course, that hasn’t exactly worked for me; all I’ve ever been is a faceless face in the crowd, and at last check I’m somewhere around 1/20th as popular as Stacy (full disclosure; I don’t publicize the hits number because it is more-easily gamed than visitors, and I’ve been doing this longer than he has). Seriously, if I ever got in charge of running a New Media conference, one of the first four people I’d ask to be on the headlining panel is Stacy (and yes, there would be at least 4 people on said headlining panel).

Hmmm, I wonder what being the support staff for The Other McCain pays….