Tag: stupid is as stupid does

Just put this bumper sticker on your car. Whoever honks is a Democrat, even if they are registered as a Republican.

(CLICK for larger view)

(Oh, and just so we’re on the same page, download and read, “Honk if You Oppose a Fairer Tax“–pdf :-))

By Heidi at Euphoric Reality

Last Tuesday, the Democrats won the majority in both the House and the Senate. Within a day, President Bush was gloating on national TV about how he could now finally pass his Amnesty bill with a Democrat-controlled Congress. This galling statement by the President was reinforced by the White House spokesman:

White House spokesman Tony Snow reacted to the change in House control by allowing they’re disappointed, but that it presents some intriguing opportunities, such as passing comprehensive immigration reform which failed in the previous Republican House.

Meanwhile, conservatives are shocked – SHOCKED! – by this open defiance of the vast majority of Americans’ wishes. “What on earth is Bush thinking?!,” they wonder. Howard Sutherland says there’s no need for such surprise, and here’s why:

If George W. Bush has been consistent about anything it is his determination to keep the United States open to the mass migration of Mexicans and other Latin Americans.
[…]
George W. Bush is a true believer in amnesty for illegal aliens, at least for Mexicans, and perhaps in some sort of EU-style shotgun marriage of Canada, the United States and Mexico as well.
[…]
That he is sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, not the welfare of Mexicans, does not faze him. The amnesty/guest worker program is President Bush’s lodestar, the legacy he sincerely wants to leave America. In the teeth of all the evidence, he believes that we would be better for it and it’s just the right thing to do. It is more important to him than Iraq, so important that he jettisoned the GOP’s best chance to hold on to the Congress rather than back away from it.

So with the President dancing on the political graves of the massacred GOP, it looks like a plan for amnesty is a sure thing. Now pundits everywhere, on both sides of the aisle, are breathlessly calculating where millions of new voters will fit into the political landscape of the future. I’ve watched and taken part in several debates on which party will end up scooping the Newly Amnestied Immigrant vote.

Here are a few viewpoints I’ve seen expressed about the powerful new Latino voting bloc:

Continue reading “Guard the Borders”

(Don’t be concerned about the image above; it’ll all come to focus at the end of this post… )

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I recieved this via email from a real friend, “Hot” (the Sure Shot Hotshot *heh*). Make of it what you will. I certainly did…

Are you tired of those sissy “friendship” poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You won’t see any cutesy little smiley faces in this list just the stone cold truth of our great friendship. And in bold letters so that all of you can read it.

1. When you are sad — I will help you plot revenge against the sorry man who made you sad.

2. When you are blue — I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile — I will know you finally got a weekend without the kids.

4. When you are scared — I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried — I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused — I will use little words [and speak v e r y s l o w l y–ed..

7. When you are sick — Stay away from me
until you are well again. I don’t want whatever you have.

8. When you fall — I will point and laugh at your clumsy butt.

Now, that’s a real friend… Back atcha, Hot. As the saying goes, “Friends help you move …real friends help you move bodies.”

For all of the Third World County’s readers who took the time to help with Valour-IT program, I’d like to report to you that the drive is over, but not before the goal of $180K was exceeded by at least $4K+, and the checks in the mail haven’t been counted yet.

That means more than 230 laptops will soon be in service for the use by those who, temporarily or permanently, cannot type. Thank you. You have made a mark on their future, and I would submit, your own, as they are enabled to be productive in the workforce.

If you know people who have been similarly disabled by a car, home of industrial accident, the Valour-IT program may be an model for them to get back into life.

Soldier’s Angels not only has this program, but several others to help support the troops. Take a click over there and see if maybe something resonates with your soul that might inflame a passion of yours once more. These programs run all year, so don’t feel like you have to hang back until someone announces a fund drive!

Recently, the discussion was about the Tet Offensive and how the events of February, 1968 related to current day situations was posted on this blog here and here.

Possibly now, it is the moment to get ahead of the power curve and discuss the big picture that happened 30 years ago, and see if it may relate to what happens next….

So, Richard Nixon was President. The Democrats had control of the Congress. The President, as he promised in his election campaign was pulling our troops out of ground combat positions, yet left the promise of support for the South Vietnamese Army, using the strategy of “Vietnamization,” a process of turning the war over to the ARVNs, as they were able to handle it.

Effectively, in 1972, our ground combat forces were out, safe advisers left the ARVNs. While the president is the Commander-in-Chief, Congress controls the money (you’d think people would quit accusing the presidents, of any time, of what goes on with the budget, but, once more, I digress). So Congress cut off the funding for the supporting arms and the supplies from America going to South Vietnam. Now, the study of history over the ages shows the winner of wars is the country who has the best logistics and can out-produce the adversary in the fight. When “we” (the Democratic Congress) pulled appropriations from the war support effort for our allies, they sentenced them to loss of the war, and, in many cases, death in a very literal sense.

So in 1975, the NVA rolled into Saigon and raised the North Vietnamese flag in that city. It was over. What next? The Communist rebels in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot now had nothing to fear and a totalitarian government came into power and the killing fields became a part of life, as about 1/2 of the population of Cambodia was killed it’s own.

Why did the conquest of South Vietnam and the mass murders happen across the border? There was no nation with the power to let them know this wasn’t acceptable.

What does this mean today?

We already know there is simmering hate in Iraq between the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds. We have not yet been able to help them understand there’s a better way to solve issues than to murder 75 people a day, using very brutal means.

Add to this, there is at least one neighboring country, Iran, already stirring the pot, for for us to have an ally, let alone a foothold in the region, keeps them in check, unable to carry out their desires to control much of the region. Syria is a player, too, but seem to at least be keeping their head down and themselves out of the media coverage.

So, the time may come, if the Democrats can strong arm their agenda to withdraw, whether by getting the President to acquiesce to this via the “bi-partisan” Iraq Working Committee, or by the pulling of appropriations for any support of our troops. The Department of Defense will end up with no choice to bring the troops hone, or at least out of the battle zone of Iraq.

My prediction: The Sunnis, having been in power for so many years, used to being able to, even as a minority, rape the other cultural groups of the country, literally and figuratively, feeling they have some right to murder and torture as they feel. So, the Sunnis will come back with a vengance at the Kurds and Shiites. Bloodshed…and much of it.

Add to this the military power to the East, the Iranians. They, with their affinity for the Shiites, the majority culture, will now roll across the border and become directly engaged with the Sunnis. Bloodshed.

The Kurds, who have rebuilt much of the infrastructure to the north, and are already prospering from the oil flowing, will most likely get attacked by the Sunnis and Shiites, and the Iranians, as they have valuable resources and are using them.

If we thought we stepped into a hornet’s nest in 2003, we haven’t seen anything that will be like this. The locals of the area will feel empowered to kill and plunder in even more horrific manners and scales than they have, for they now see “we” (and I substantially contribute this to the Democrats and the Liberals) don’t have the stomach for it. Much like asking someone to be an EMT and all they can do at any car accident is to stand by, while people bleed to death, throwing up. Those people, politically, are the Democrats and they, in this scenario, would decide it’s better to legislate against people having car accidents, rather than finding those who can take care of such messy conditions, and wait until things are safe to toss their cookies.

More and more, I am coming to see the Democrats in modern times are the party of death and destruction, with pools of blood running from their hands. They do this, not because it’s the best course of action for the rest of the world, or the country, but so they can ascend to positions of power, where they can rent the Lincoln bedroom out to friends to raise money, so they can buy their way back into power.

I can only figure their deep dissatisfaction with the War on Terror, is they see the revenues of President Bush’s tax cuts flowing towards Iraq, and not into their hands, to bribe the voters of the next election with their largess.

The Democrats and Liberals have never acknowledged they had a part in approximately 3M deaths in SE Asia after 1972. They cannot, for they would have to face their part in mass murder.

They stand on the edge of history and are prepared, with a complete disregard for history, their own, and that of world events, ready to loose the executioners in the Middle East, first, and later in Africa and Europe. They will then turn their face from the horror and go back to their fund raisers, not even consciously aware of their shameful part in the deaths.

My gallows humor would be to think maybe they are thinking of this outcome as a help for the environment, for after all, it’s people and the demands they place on industry, that cause greenhouse gasses and causes desertification and the now, the acidification of the oceans. If we have a few less million of us to cause pollution, let alone perpetuate the species, then we’ll not have to worry about running the air conditioners quite so long at the homes and offices of liberals.

I asked the question earlier “Who should have the franchise?” (yeh, yeh, not in exactly those words)

How about this: change our national/state forms of representation. Our legislative bodies pass too many laws as it is. They simply are not cumbersome enough. Why not propose a Constitutional amendment (and encourage States to follow suit) changing apportionment of the House, at least (and repealing the direct election of Senators, giving us something closer to the Founders’ Constitution)? Say, anyone who can gain the certified signatures of 10,000 citizens would represent just those citizens (and yeh, I know I’m riffing off of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress just a lil bit.). Those citizens could “fire” their rep for failing to represent their views pretty easily by simply refusing to sign on for another term’s representation by that rep. Along with limiting tghe franchise to property owners, like the Founders wisely did, such a move would go far toward cleaning up the mess of snakes we currently have as congresscritters.

Of course, it could just give us a dfferent mess of snakes, but I’d be happy with that.

Let’s see… depending on how “property owners” were defined, the House could bloat up to somewhere between 7,500 and 15,000 members, if I take a purely WAG–cos I’m not digging into the census data for “real” estimates, which could be wildly off, especially since I’ve not set forth a definition of “property owner” in this lil screed.

At any rate, that ought to make Congress unwieldy enough to at least slow down the proliferation of oppressive laws.

Oh, one last thing: either restrict the congresscritter’s (entire family) income by limiting it to ONLY what his personal constituents will pay and REQUIRE congresscritters to live under ALL the laws they enact, or find another mechanism to make the job less attractive to “career” politicians *spit*.

Justathought…

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Short shrift posting mode, again, so just a lil thought experiment/homework assignment:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. —Alexander Tyler, Cycle of Democracy), 1770

Voting in our putative democracy is considered a right that every citizen has. But rights are something(s) inherent in a person, not given by the State. If a State grants to persons the license to do certain things, then those things are not rights but privileges, which can be revoked by the State.

In a republican democracy (or democratic republic) of the sort envisioned by the Framers, voting was not so much a right nor a privilege as a responsibility. And as such, they restricted the franchise to “freeholders”—those who owned real property free and clear. Such persons, they reasoned, were more likely to exercise responsible judgement in their voting.

Such is not the case in a pure democracy–something the Framers mistrusted as mob rule, which is what America has come more and more to approximate. In a democracy, the less responsible simply vote their greed, their lusts, their passions and simple stupidity.

Others have suggested different restricting the vote to different classes. Some have suggested tyhat only women should have the responsibility of voting. Robert Heinlein famously (or perhaps I merely assume his suggestion famous, since it’s common knowledge among most of my peers :-)) proposed that only veterans of a country’s armed forces should have the vote (not active duty, only those who have served).

What think you? It is obvious that some who do vote are too lazy or stupid to vote responsibly. And some simply sell their vote for a meal, a bus ride or enough money for their next fix (or for their next welfare check, which amounts to just about the same thing, IMO). Who should have the “right” to vote?

“The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month… ”

That’s how I remember my grandfather speaking about Armistice Day, which we now call Veterans Day. It was a day that his generation optimistically celebrated as the end of “the war to end all wars,” honoring and remembering those who had sacrificed everything to win a peace that endured… for a brief time, until the ’30s when it became obvious that the end of war was a delusion.

Today, we pause to honor both those who have served, giving their lives to protect the liberties we enjoy, and those who have and still do serve in our military and still live.

But we honor thenm all knowing that the price they have paid and continue to pay, the service they gave and continue to give is more honorable and more worthy of our gratitude than any recognition or expresion of thanks we may show.

So rather than empty words of praise, let us embrace the challenge these lives of service raise. Note well the final verse below. Take up the torch and hold it high. Keep faith with those who died; keep faith with those who faithfully serve still.

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

TB-posted to both Stop the ACLU’s open post and Veterans Day Open Trackback post.

Not exactly a recipe, more a plan of battle.

In the past, I have gone so far as doing away with traditional Thanksgiving meal fare and simply cooked up a pot of chili, in an effort to keep the day as simple as possible and be able to concentrate on just being with family.

But alas! Lovely Daughter. especially, wants more traditional fare (and I suspect others of simply catering to the cook in not being so insistent). 🙂 So…

Here’s what I plan this year:

Lovely Daughter can bring her beloved green bean casserole, and while I’ll not make pumpkin pies this year, I’ll make pumpkin bread. As for the rest of the meal… *sigh* OK, some yams or sweet potatoes (although perhaps I can foist those off on LD, as well? :-)), cranberrry sauce (canned–I’m still going for easy, simple, quick prep) and…

In the rice cooker, a turkey breast in the bottom, in a bath of turkey gravy fixins, surrounded by cut up potatoes and topped with dressing. I’ll let it all cook together in the rice cooker for a couple of hours and report back later as to how it actually all came out.

Oh, the dressing? Frankly, I’ll probably buy a package mix and jazz it up with chopped onion, boiled eggs and celery (all made up ahead of time) with more freshly-ground pepper than any package includes (heck, none of them include ANY freshly-ground pepper), etc. Maybe some freshly-rubbed sage and such, as well. Pop some baby carrots straight from a rinse outa the package into the veggie steamer for the top of the ricve cooker and I’ll be good to go.

Simple. One or two pans (counting the pan for the pumpkin bread… made in the bread maker, of course). I don’t expect to use the ovens at all, except as warmers for the dish(es) L.D. may bring. Oh, I might dump the p-bread and bake up a fresh loaf of wheat bread for the meal as well… also in the bread maker.

Juuuust enough for us four and my parents, should they decide to “drop by” (230 miles out of their way–*heh*) for a visit.

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Two posts I highly recommend you read. One is the (one day early) Veterans Day Post at The World According To Carl. The graphic alone is worth the trip.

The other is found in Jerry Pournelle’s comments in his Thursday Chaos Manor in Review (page down a few paragraphs). His observations on the vote Tuesday are brief, considering his extensive knowedge and experience, but very important, IMO. A couple of paragraphs may whet your appetite, but I highly recommend CLICKing on over to read the rest:

As to the elections: the Republicans did not deserve to win. I do not believe the Democrats have earned the right to rule, and the very close election seems to bear that out: there’s no mandate here. The Republicans abandoned Reagan and his principles, and reverted to the typical Optimate attitudes of the Country Club oligarchs. They went on a spending spree to reward themselves for their labors in opposition, loosed a flood of earmarks, raised discretionary spending to new heights much of it for projects that make no sense, and made war on Federalism and states’ rights. Far from leaving things to the states, they decided to interfere.

Having abandoned fiscal conservatism and what I would call the conservative principles of the people I would have called conservative, they embraced the Trotskyite idealism of the neoconservatives. Trotskyite is a modern name for good old fashioned Jacobinism. Jacobins don’t really want “the people” to rule, of course; they are sure they know better what the people want than the people do, and if the people don’t realize that, why Rousseau himself told us that sometimes people must be forced to be free.

DO click over and read the rest. His is a much more moderate tone than I would take (have taken :-)), of course, but his knowedge, experience and historical perspective all lend real weight to his very reasonable views.

Also t-b-ed to Carl’s OTF.