Robert Stacy McCain went hunting and bagged a 6-point buck. Unfortunately, instead of using either a gun or a bow-and-arrow, he used his car, and 2004 Kias aren’t made for hunting whitetail deer. The ugly news is he had just spent $700 to fix the engine on said car.

I wish I could hit the tip jar myself, but the funds aren’t there for me right now. So do it, and tell him Egg sent you.

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

Seriously, you people have a problem with restoring honor?

“The venom-mill has been churning in regard to this event for weeks now, but it’s been in overdrive today, and Glenn Beck and those who turned out for the rally are being mocked. No real surprise there.  Personally, I think anyone who can find anything to mock in the sentiment of restoring honor to our country and its leaders must be one sad sack of a person.”

Beware of the Obama tax increases

“Democrats want Americans to believe that by letting tax rates rise they have discovered religion as deficit cutters. But after a two-year assault on the federal trough in which Congress passed the notoriously wasteful stimulus and added a new health care entitlement, few Americans are even bothering to listen. In reality, the harm this tax increase will inflict on jobs and gross domestic product will strongly outweigh any presumed boost in tax revenues.”

How ‘brilliant’ can Obama be?

“What and where is the proof that Obama is such a sharp fellow? The recorded evidence is unavailable since his academic records, and test scores from three universities are sealed at his demand. Sure, he graduated from Harvard, But so did George Bush, who earned an MBA but is still pilloried by some as dumber than dirt. We shall have to examine Obama’s performance and make our own assumptions based on observations.”

Obama’s Achilles Hell: He’s not African-American

“When Obama declared himself African-American, and not mixed race or biracial as some had hoped, the African American community celebrated with jubilee. To us, Obama’s bold assertion meant that he identified with the African-American experience.  It was proof that he’d accepted the chivalrous invitation of the African-American community and would soon glide into our open arms to meet our soft far embrace.  So far, much to our dismay, he’s proven to be a bit of a playboy.”

Our failing immigration courts

“One month ago – without notice to Congress, without a word to the American people – the Department of Homeland Security began dismissing from U.S. immigration courts the cases of thousands of illegal aliens. The department says it will focus its efforts on removing criminal aliens. Aliens without serious criminal histories – 250,000 by some estimates – will be left alone. This policy closely follows last August’s announcement by the department that it would not deport fugitive aliens – aliens who skipped court or disobeyed orders to leave the United States. These policies assure that more illegal immigration will follow – with illegals confident that the administration, which refuses to secure this nation’s borders, will not remove those who enter and remain illegally.”

Liberals losing the cultural wars

“Beginning in the 1960s, God was driven out of American public life because liberals said the Constitution demanded a separation of church and state.

Planned Parenthood was part of a campaign that convinced many Americans that killing unborn babies was really a defense of a woman’s constitutional right to choose.

The ACLU sued to define ‘free speech’  to include vandalism, sacrilegious art, and spitting on returning veterans of the Vietnam War.

Even more depressing, the drive for equal rights for liberated slaves, begun by Republicans during and after the Civil War, morphed into a liberal affirmative action program which reintroduced privilege based on skin color.

In 2010, the tide has turned.”

In campaigns, entrepreneurs get busy

“In his campaign for Congress, Wisconsin Republican Chad Lee bought cut-outs of Nancy Pelosi and other politicians he opposes from VictoryStore.com. Some of the signs have been stolen.”

A slower Labor Day road trip

“I’m planning a road trip this Labor Day weekend, along with as many as 34.4 million of my fellow Americans. I just hope I can get out of town.”

Your love and respect for our troops is REAL!

President Obama addresses the nation tonight about the war in Iraq.

I strongly suspect he will not use the word “victory.” He will not admit he was wrong about the surge he adamantly opposed with other leading Democrats. He will not give credit to President Bush.

Our arrogant, egotistical Commander-in-Chief has already begun touting his successes. From his weekly radio address Saturday:

“As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war.  As President, that is what I am doing.  We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office.  We have closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of bases.  In many parts of the country, Iraqis have already taken the lead for security.

In the months ahead, our troops will continue to support and train Iraqi forces, partner with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protect our civilian and military efforts.  But the bottom line is this: the war is ending.  Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course.  And by the end of next year, all of our troops will be home.”

Earlier this month in Atlanta, the president told disabled veterans he was keeping a campaign promise to end the war “on schedule.” The problem is, the timetable for ending the war was scheduled long before he took office. It occurred on President Bush’s watch. CNS News reports:

“The timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops in Iraq was decided during the Bush administration with the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by U.S. and Iraq officials on Nov. 16, 2008. The Iraqi parliament signed SOFA on Nov. 27, 2008.
 
The agreement, which had been in negotiations since 2007, set a timetable calling for most U.S. troops to leave Iraqi towns and cities by June 30, 2009, with about 50,000 troops left in place until the final withdrawal of all U.S. military forces by Dec. 31, 2011.”

Stephen Hadley writes in today’s Wall Street Journal:

“The U.S. effort in Iraq is not over. Some 50,000 U.S. troops, together with a robust diplomatic presence, continue to train and assist Iraq’s security forces and support its democratic progress. The American people, our coalition allies and especially the Iraqi people have paid an enormous price. It is important to remember why.

For over two decades, the regime of Saddam Hussein had threatened the national security of the United States, its key allies and the stability of the Middle East. It had invaded some of its neighbors (Iran and Kuwait) and threatened others (including Saudi Arabia and Israel). It had produced weapons of mass destruction, used them on its own people and the people of Iran, and threatened to use them against others.

Perhaps the most critical moment was President Bush’s decision in January 2007 to add over 20,000 American combat troops and change the military strategy. He was actively opposed by a majority of the Congress and a commentariat that argued for everything from withdrawing immediately to partitioning the country.

Following Mr. Bush’s decision, U.S. military forces and diplomats forged an unprecedented partnership to implement the new strategy and break the back of an insurgency that threatened to tear the country apart. Their success permitted the United States to begin withdrawing its troops in December 2007. By December 2008, Mr. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could sign agreements providing both a long-term U.S.-Iraqi partnership and the withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011.”

President Obama deserves no credit for the current developments in Iraq. He opposed the war, and until recently, has shown little regard for our troops. Don’t be fooled by anything he pontificates tonight.

Every Sunday morning on my blog at FranklinNOW.com, I post a list of highly recommended columns from the previous week.  Here is this week’s compilation that should keep you busy:

Cheapskating to victory

“(Scott) Walker is running for governor hoping to galvanize what he calls a ‘Brown Bag Movement.’ He visits workplaces around the state during lunch hour and after a short speech takes questions from the workers who show up to hear him. Every seat has a brown paper lunch bag with a short saying. ‘I have to brown bag it so I can pay Wisconsin’s taxes’ or ‘I’d be eating out if government wasn’t gobbling up all of my money’ or ‘Wisconsin is Tax Hell!’

It’s cheesy, but, like the salary ad, it seems to be working. When I mentioned to a Washington-based political reporter that I was headed to Wisconsin to profile Walker, he said: ‘Oh, the Brown Bag guy’.”

Is it time to listen to Paul Ryan’s economic prescription?

“Who is this guy? It would be no surprise if he turned out to be a wealthy financier who had taken up budget policy as a retirement hobby (like Peter G. Peterson) or a professional forecaster whose views on consumer spending are bearish (like Gary Shilling). The surprise is that Ryan is an elected official. He’s running for election to a seventh term in Congress, representing a district with a razor-thin Republican edge south of Milwaukee.

Mess with Social Security? Are voters ready for this? Maybe they are. Those trillion-dollar deficits can’t go on much longer.”

Democrats betrayed us

“Wonder why voters will hand the GOP a crushing victory in November? It’s the trust, stupid.”

It’s the stupid season, stupid

“If you vote for Tom Barrett because you think Scott Walker gleefully employs racists at the highest levels of his campaign, you’re stupid, and shouldn’t be voting. If you vote for Russ Feingold because you think Ron Johnson will make it even slightly harder for you to kill animals and people with barely regulated deadly weapons, you’re stupid.”

The last refuge of a liberal

“Now we know why the country has become ‘ungovernable,’  last year’s excuse for the Democrats’ failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?

Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities — often lopsided majorities — oppose President Obama’s social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a mosque near Ground Zero.

What’s a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument. The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card.”

Women behaving badly

“I hereby present—with full chromosomal immunity—a rundown of things women have been doing to totally screw themselves since winning the right to vote.”

Where are the new jobs?

“The problem today is that the economy is not being left alone. Instead, it is haunted by uncertainty on a hundred fronts. When rules are unintelligible and unpredictable, when new workers are potential threats because of Labor Department regulations, businesses have little confidence to hire. President Obama’s vaunted legislative record not only left entrepreneurs with the burden of bigger government, it also makes it impossible for them to accurately estimate the new burden.

In at least three big areas—health insurance, financial regulation, and taxes—no one can know what will happen.”

Public pensions and our fiscal future

“Few Californians in the private sector have $1 million in savings, but that’s effectively the retirement account they guarantee to public employees who opt to retire at age 55 and are entitled to a monthly, inflation-protected check of $3,000 for the rest of their lives.”

Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque

“The angry national debate over Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s intention to build a mosque two blocks north of the horror of 9/11 at Ground Zero has been further fueled by supporter Nancy Pelosi declaring, ‘I join those who have called for looking into how … this opposition to the mosque is being funded.’ If one of her sleuths knocks on my door, this opponent will readily state that I need no outside funding as a reporter who is deeply investigating the motivation of Imam Rauf’s choice of this site of mass murder for the mosque.” 

The real radio hatemongers

“The hypocrites. Leftists say outrageous things on the radio routinely, things they truly mean, too, and those remarks never see the light of day on ABC, CBS and NBC. Talking about the N-word is wrong but wishing death on political enemies is OK when the rhetorical bombs are dropped on conservatives. The

Media has a new report chronicling who the real radio hatemongers are. Research Center

Start with …”