"We're Not Gonna Take It!!"

I was watching television a couple of weeks ago, and I saw a very interesting commercial...

It was for the birth control pill called "Yaz!..."

It was interesting because the commercial depicted a bunch of silly looking women running around singing "We're not gonna take it!... NO! We ain't gonna take it!!"

And I thought, "How effective can a birth control pill possibly be if they ain't gonna take it?"

Then tonight, I saw the new commercial for the same product, and I realized that they had addressed the effectiveness problem...

Tonight, they were singing "Good-bye to you!... Good bye to you-ooh, woh wo-oh, goodbye to YOU!"

That's brilliant!

If you run him off, then you don't have to take it!

I want to know, who is the marketing genius who is running this advertizing campaign?

Where can I send my resume? I want his job. (Or her job, as the case may be...)

I mean, all you apparently have to do is pick an up-tempo eighties song, and make sure that you have enough stock footage of young women shopping and eating ice cream so that the fast-talking announcer guy can get the whole disclaimer in...

(The challenge would be finding an eighties song long enough for the disclaimer... "Side effects  may include Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Mood Swings, Weight Gain, Abdominal Swelling, Water Retention, Headaches, Back Ache, Muscle Ache, Heartache, Tooth ache, Temporary Insanity, Fever, Loss of Energy, Loss of Equilibrium, Irritability, Increased Appetite, Unusual Food Cravings, Spotting, Swelling in the extremities, Insomnia, Narcolepsy, Temporary Tourette's Syndrome, more Mood Swings, Loss of Appetite, Ear Ache, Bleeding from the nose and ears, Hair loss, Hair growth in unusual places, Loss of Teeth, Swamp-Ass, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Short Attention Span, Autism, Epilepsy, Diabetes, Unreasonable Expectations, Poverty, Deafness, Blindness, Paralysis, Stupidity, Uncontrollable Flattulence, Fungus Nails, Shingles, Suicidal Tendencies, Obesity, Bulemia, Anorexia, Bitchiness, Loneliness, and Death.") 

( Except for having a baby or two somewhere in there, aren't those the same symptoms as pregnancy?)

Whoever is doing these commercials is waaaaaay overpaid, and I could probably do their job for half the money, and still be better off than I am now...

And obviously, nobody is checking their work...

Humnn...

Greater Expectations...

My Wife, Caleb and I went to Universal Studios Yesterday along with my brother and his family who are on vacation from North Carolina.

My brother is sixteen months younger than me and has four children, the oldest of which is in college, and the youngest is seven months old.

We loaded up both babies, and all the truck that goes along with little babies, and took them to a theme park in central Florida in August.

And everybody was hot.

Extremely hot.

But surprisingly, the babies got along better than any of the rest of us.

Caleb took a couple of long naps in his stroller, drank one hundred and seventeen sippy cups full of water (before he threw the sippy cup on the ground and we couldn't find it again...) and wet fourteen diapers...

His cousin Rebekah didn't even sweat. All day long, you could not tell that she was not in the living room. She was sweet, happy, and dry. (She didn't even turn red.)

We all had a great time.

I had not seen my brother for several months, and I have missed him a lot. He has been my life-long best friend. Living six hundred miles from him has been hard for me.

But I like it here, and he likes it there, so things are the way they are.

He told me about the first ride that he rode when he got to the park.

"It was AWESOME! First, you get into a little box, about 6x8 feet, and the walls are made of brushed Aluminum and glass, and when you get into the little car, the doors close, and you can't get out!

"Then, without warning, the whole thing suddenly drops like thirty feet!

"And when you get to the bottom, the doors open, and you get out, but when you do, you are in a whole different place than when you started!

"It's called 'THE ELEVATOR!'"

Apparently, it's a very popular ride, because they have signs posted everywhere, directing you to it...

I rode it twice myself, but I wasn't that impressed. Trust me, they have way more exciting rides there than that one.

But that's the thing about hype... If you buy into it, you will always be disappointed.

You see, Caleb doesn't know anything about hype, and his favorite ride at Universal Studios was crawling around on the floor at the Jurassic Park Discovery Center.

He had a great time, and he had no expectations about the experience, one way or the other.

Sometimes, I wish that I could be more like that...

I wish that I could just enjoy what is happening for what it is, rather than building the experience up in my mind before it happens, and then being disappointed when it isn't the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

But I guess with age, we trade our innocence for experience, one little morsel at a time.

I hope that Caleb never loses the ability to be happy where he is, when he is there, no matter what is going on, or what was supposed to happen...

I hope that I can learn from him how to be more like that myself.

Look At The Polls!!

While reading the Drudge report tonight, I found this headline...

USATODAYGALLUP: MCCAIN UP 4 AMONG LIKELY VOTERS...

And right at the top of the page when I clicked the link, I saw this disclaimer...

WARNING: Polls are snapshots of public opinion, not forecasts of far-off election days!

I remember no such disclaimers appearing above stories of how Obama may be ahead of McCain in the polls...

Here's a forecast of far-off election days for you...

When the Democrat is not ahead by at least double digits in polls of likely voters by this point in the election cycle, the Republican wins in November.

You see, the polls are creations of the News Media, which overwhelmingly support Democrats, and who use these polls as a kind of "Report Card" to guage how well their propaganda is working.

This particular poll appears on the Drudge Report on the same day the the AP reports that we are winning the War in Iraq. (And I know it hurt them to their very soul to have to say that.)

WINNING. Winning a War that every single Democrat was convinced that we (The U.S.) would lose, and that the loss of that War would propel them to political victory without question.

They wanted, needed their Country to lose a War so that they could make political hay out of it.
But alas, that has been denied them. They will instead have to try to sway the American Voting Public with their ideas, their solutions to the problems that We The People face every day.

And what are their ideas?

"We cannot drill our way out of high Gas Prices, we must TAX our way out of them!"

"We cannot privatize our way out of a Socialist Security collapse, we must TAX our way out of it!"

"We cannot expect the public to be responsible for their own healthcare, we must TAX them into Healthcare Security."

"We cannot expect the market to correct the mortgage crisis, we must TAX our way out of it!"

Name for me a Democrat solution to any problem that does not rely on new taxes...

Name for me a society in the history of the world that has taxed itself into prosperity...

Black Jesus Himself has proposed tens of billions of dollars in new taxes to fund his pipe dreams and social engineering.

Does anybody in America believe that these new taxes will only apply to the nameless, faceless "Rich"?

I don't think so.

I don't believe that logical, thinking people in America think that.

The truth is that "The Rich" don't really pay taxes in the first place, and everybody knows that.

"The Rich" run the corporations that we all work for, and when you raise the taxes on a corporation, they add it right in to the cost of business, and pass the increase right along to the consumer.

And "The Idle Rich" like Paris Hilton and Ted Kennedy don't really have an income, and "Wealth" is not taxed in America, only "Income".

Raising taxes on "The Rich" only hurts the middle class, and the working poor. It only hurts the people who are going to work every day, trying to make ends meet and support themselves and their families, and, God Forbid, create a little wealth for themselves and their progeny along the way.

And the more an American Citizen hates "The Rich", and votes his (or her) hatred into power in our Representative Republic, the more he (or she) shoots himself (or herself) in the foot, and cripples their own ability to accumulate wealth.

And the Democrat Party has built their whole electoral platform on hatred of "The Rich", and losing the War in Iraq.

A Chicken in every pot, Healthcare for Everyone, make "The Rich" pay, and George Bush lied.

Are you going to buy into that?

If you do, you are a fool, and have no understanding of how the world works, and you would be doing your fellow man and your Country a service by going out and getting drunk on election day rather than voting either way.

This Election is really a "No Brainer".

And I am no real supporter of John McCain.

I simply can recognize a train wreck when I see one coming, and Obama with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate is a train wreck looking for a place to happen.

Believe the polls if you must, but don't let the polls drive your decision.

The polls are meaningless.

Think for yourself.

No one who believes in the things that have made America great can really vote for the stupidity offered by Obama and his promises.

Not in good conscience.

"Mama..."

Caleb's Morning Menu:

1 whole banana.
1 whole grilled cheese sandwich (crusts removed.)
1 4oz container yogurt (w/strawberries.)
10 whole graham crackers.
1 cup Cheerios.
1 4oz piece baked dinner ham.
10 oz baby formula.
1 Gerber Baby Carrot Pinwheel Cracker.
12 oz ice water.

He's eight months old!

This could get to be a problem reeeeeal quick-like.

Now, granted, we didn't sit him in the highchair and shovel all of this to him at one sitting. He nibbles and snacks all along during the day. We put half a graham cracker on the tray of his walker along with his sippy cup of water, and he eats some, drops some, mushes some into a paste using water from his sippy cup, and smears some in his hair. (As a matter of fact, feeding him is sort of like taking handfuls of food, and tossing it into a running fan.)

But the majority of what I listed above ended up in his belly.

And that is just this morning.

(He has almost completely given up on baby food of any type now. All he does with that is spit it back at you as soon as he knows he has enough of a mouthful to get some distance with it.)

It seems like his appetite has increased somewhat over the past few days. He may be building up to a major growth spurt or something. Any day now, I expect to kiss him goodbye in his crib in the morning before I leave, and find him mowing the grass when I come back home that afternoon...

He says his first official word now. He started on Monday.

Any guesses what the word is?

That's right! "MAMA."

After all I have done for that boy, all the sacrifice, all the late nights and long hours, this is the thanks I get. His first word was "Mama"...

I see how it is...

(He has another word as of yesterday... "Puppy". So you see where Daddy fits in to the equation here... Somewhere below the Dog on the list...)

(NOTE: To qualify as an official word, we have to be sure that he understands the meaning and can use the word in context. Whether he gets the pronunciation exactly right is less important, although he must get that pretty close most of the time for the word to count.

(For example: If he crawls after the dog saying "Pupupupup", and will sit up and look at the dog and try to repeat the word when we say it to him, "Puppy" counts.)

(You get the picture.)

Anyway, as long as he stays as happy, healthy and bright as he is right now, he can have whatever he wants to eat, as far as I'm concerned.

And I know that Caleb is WAY more important to me as a Blog subject than he is to anyone else who may visit here, but when I write about him, I don't get angry, I don't get disgusted, and I don't have 100 comment long arguments with people who have it wrong on almost every subject.

And since this is a hobby, then I might as well enjoy doing it.

Right?

For Sale...

FOR SALE:

1993 Freightliner FLD 120 -

Blue W/ (Clean!) Blue Cloth Interior - 70 Inch Sleeper Bunk, Full Air Fairings - Cab Extenders - All Steel Wheels (11R22.5's) - Am/Fm - 10 foot tall Chrome straight 7 inch Smokestack, N14 Cummins (Mechanical Fuel Pump) - 13 Speed - Jake Brakes - 3:58 Rears - 239 Inch Wheelbase...

New Batteries, New Steer Tires, New Wet Line Kit...

Not Perfect - Needs minor work, A/C needs Freon, needs paint job, runs/drives great!

$6000.00* OBO - Serious Inquiries Only Please!

*Diesel Fuel NOT included!!

It's Not My Business...

I am thinking of starting a business with my eight month old son, Caleb, as my business partner.

Caleb has, in the past two weeks, gotten really, really good at crawling, and at sitting up, and he can pull himself into a standing position if he has something to hold on to.

So, now, he has to be watched every single second that he is not in his crib, or his playpen. (And if he's awake in his crib, you had better go and get him, or he will try to climb out.)

He is fascinated by electrical cords, dirty shoes, the dog, dust balls from the floor, week-old cheerios from under Mommy's chair, books on the bookshelf, half-empty soda cups, the drapes, the trash can, computer keyboards... Basically anything that he can destroy, that can hurt him, or is too nasty for him to put into his mouth, and can be hidden in some obscure place where his Mom and I cannot find it.

The geniuses who built our house put an electrical outlet in the middle of the living room floor, and cleverly hid it underneath an X cut in the carpet. His Mommy plugs her laptop into it so that she can work in the living room, and watch him at the same time.

So, most of her day is spent watching him dig in the hole in the carpet, and taking the laptop cord away from him.

He goes after it like a robot.

So here is my business idea...

For a small fee, I will come and child-proof your house.

It should be easy... All I have to do is put Caleb on the floor, and within twenty minutes, he will show me every single thing in the whole house that a baby shouldn't have.

Then all that has to be done is remove all of the furniture, and place everything in the house on shelves at least eight feet from the floor.

Then, we nail all of the cabinet doors shut with twenty-penny nails, turn the electricity off from all of the wall outlets at the breaker box, and hire a maid to vacuum the whole house all day every day.

Then, your house will be child proof. (Mostly.)

But before I start this business, I need to have a lawyer or two to draw up a seventy-two page waiver releasing me from any liability if your baby still figures out how to hurt himself after we have child-proofed your house...

Hhmmn... Maybe this idea still needs a little work...

One Man's Labor Is Another Man's Treasure...

“The best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.” - Benjamin Franklin

From Stuff.co.nz, (whatever that is...)

"Indiscriminate charity does not help anyone..."

"Human rights' are now the enemy of democracy, hard work and responsible living. They have inherently socialist tendencies. They are instruments of oppression and theft, in the service of laziness and parasitism. They sound the death-knell of a healthy society."

Read the whole article.

The rest of the World is slowly waking up, as the United States drifts ever further into a Socialist Nightmare.

Pay attention, folks!

For The Children...

John McCain wants to KILL...

YOUR...

BABY!!

I'm sure glad that Barack Obama decided to avoid the "smear tactics" and "dirty politics" of the 527 groups...

There's no telling how nasty things would have gotten if he hadn't...

I was unaware that John McCain was campaigning on a promise to start drafting ten-year-olds.

And the last I checked, Military Service in the United States was still entirely voluntary.

So, Mom... What if when Alex is eighteen, he decides that he believes in his Country, and whatever cause we may be fighting for by then, and he decides to join the Military in spite of what his pasty-faced, frightened mom says...

Are you going to stop him?

How?

My Wife had a great idea for a response video to this one...

It starts with her chasing Caleb (in his walker) around the living room.

"This is Caleb", she says, wiping strained sweet potatos from Caleb's hands and head.

"He's my first, but most likely not my last.

"He is already a mechanic, and a talented problem solver at seven months. He can operate his walker like a pro, and turn on anything that has a switch.

"My husband and I plan to teach him about what is right with America, and to believe in and be proud of his Country, and to make use of the gift that he has been given by being born here.

"When he grows up, he will be a happy, well adjusted, successful person.

"Barack Obama wants to set up new Pre-Kindergarten Classes so that the purveyors of Marxist Ideology and Political Correctness can have access to Caleb's mind even earlier.

"He wants to eliminate the Homestead Exemption and raise the Inheritance Tax so that the Government can take away any resources that my husband and I can amass instead of letting Caleb use them and build upon them.

"Mr. Obama wants to cheapen Higher Education the way that High school has been cheapened by providing it for everyone free of charge, and free of responsibility.

"He wants to confiscate the fruits of Caleb's own labor when he enters the workforce by raising the Income Tax, and saddling Caleb with the burden of everyone's Healthcare.

"Mr. Obama, were you counting on Caleb to be a slave to your idea of a collective Utopia? Are you counting on him to help you set up your "cradle to grave" Nanny State?

"Because, you can't have him."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is my job, and the job of my Wife to take that little baby boy, and make a fully-functioning, capable grown man out of him.

And that is what we intend to do.

Caleb will be taught The Truth about the World, and about America, and the way things work, and how to be successful and happy within the parameters which exist here.

I will not allow him to be hobbled by the defective ideology of the leftists and morons who would support a political candidate as flawed and un-American as Barack Obama.

It doesn't matter. After Alex has been raised his whole life on a steady diet of Tofu and Politically Correct Marxist Pacifism, had worn a helmet when he rode his tricycle, went to Public School and did all of his Science Projects on the subject of Global Warming and went home to waste the rest of his day playing video games inside the house, Alex most likely will not be fit for Military Service anyway.

That is why, when they are both grown, Alex will most likely be working for Caleb. (Or someone like him...)

That is, unless Alex figures out early that his parents are clueless, and believes in something bigger than himself and his parents' narrow minded and self-centered priorities, and decides to make something of himself.

In that case, maybe he and Caleb can be golf buddies or something.

But that will be up to Caleb and Alex.

Cave Time...

I've been getting along surprizingly well since my Wife left me.








I've done my own cooking...

A little cleaning...

Rearranged some furniture...

Even caught up on my sleeping.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Just joking... Of course I'm not sleeping on the couch...)

(Not ALL the time, anyway...)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, I'm not fooling anyone for a minute with this "Wife left me" gag, am I?

She did, sort of, but just for a few days. She took Caleb up the coast to visit with his cousins, aunts and uncles in Niceville and Gulf Breeze.

I stayed behind because I can't afford to take any more time off work. (Worst Economy since Julius Caesar, and all that...)

And I miss them.

Caleb is going to crawl any minute, and I am going to miss it.

But it's okay... They'll be back soon, and I will get to see it then.

In the meantime, I'm kind of enjoying this little bit of "Cave Time". You don't usually get much of that after the children come.

There are things about being married that nobody tells you. (Or at least, nobody told me...)

Nobody told me that after you get married, you don't really get to eat whatever you want anymore... Bologna, Vienna Sausages, Liver Pudding, Banana Sandwiches... These things are off the menu when a Woman is doing your meal planning and cooking. (Not that I'm complaining... I'm not sure why I was eating that stuff in the first place.)

But today, I decided that since I don't have to answer to anybody this week, I would have myself a Liver Pudding Sandwich.

Only I can't.

Liver Pudding was an item which appeared at our house probably three or four times per year when I was growing up. It's a kind of... well it's like... It's... Well, it's pork liver. Mashed into a pulp, with some corn meal added to improve the texture, a few spices added to improve the flavor, and then it's usually stuffed into a sausage casing to ruin whatever was improved in the other steps.

The very mention of the stuff is enough to evoke violent wretching sounds from my Wife.

I decided to go and get me some today.

But I live in Florida now, so I am denied access to such culinary delights as Liver Pudding, because the people down here have no idea what good food is. The woman at the Meat Market made a face and said flatly:"Never heard of it."

"Oh yeah? You know, this would be a darn good place for a Meat Market now, wouldn't it?"

So I made Chicken Salad instead.

When I am finally driven back to North Carolina where I belong, food will be what does it.

You can't get any here.

You can't get a decent Cheeseburger, no Sun Drop, no Liver Pudding, no Fat-Back... And the Bar-B-Que down here is a reddish, sticky, slimy substance with some type of meat-fibers strung through it. (I guess it's pretty good if you've never had the real stuff... BBQ sauce is Vinegar based, not tomato based, for crying out loud!!)

All that being said, I'm not losing any weight down here, so I guess it's all right.

My Chicken Salad was good, anyway. (Mayo salad, not lettuce salad... I am a man, you know...)

I just hope my Wife comes back home before my colesterol reaches lethal levels...

Maybe it's better that I couldn't find the Liver Pudding after all...

Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed!

Priceless!!

The American Dream

From the Transcript Of Barack Obama's Wesleyan Commencement Address, May 25, 2008:

"Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it.

There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy.

You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation.

Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition.

Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story."

The Chapter where America switched to Communism.

What is the "American Dream" to you?

Is it the possibility that you can someday own a home?

A big car?

A nice suit, nice clothes?

Lesiure time? Recreation? Retirement?

Who do you expect to give you these things?

We in America have the highest across-the-board standard of living in the entire World. Our "poor" enjoy more living space, a better diet, and more creature comforts than even the "wealthy" in most countries.

A large percentage of America's "poor" have color televisions, cellular phones, cars...

Some of the very "poorest" Americans are fat. (At least by the standards of most of the world.)

I am not "poor".

I'm not "rich" either. Not by American standards. But I do live in a nice house with a pool and a whole acre of yard, a garage, and a sprinkler system, in a neighborhood of homes almost exactly like mine. (Except for the yard. Everyone on my block is envious of the amount of land that I live on...)

I drive an old pickup-truck, but my Wife has an almost new car.

But today I worked 15 hours. Yesterday, I worked 13. Tommorrow, I will work at least 12, maybe more. (Probably more.)

My Wife is working as I write this, clicking away on her lap-top, educating Florida's little skulls-full-of-mush on the finer points of Geometry, on-line. (It's ten after eleven PM. She's been at it, off and on, since seven this morning.)

Do you believe that she does this because she cares whether or not Florida's meat-head children understand Geometry?

Do you think that I work all of these hours, tired, sleepy, hot and sweaty in a rough-riding raggedy, slow company truck because I care whether or not Florida Rock runs out of #57 Gravel?

Are you crazy?

Is the "American Dream" the idea that everyone can be equal?

Only if you are a Marxist.

Let me explain something to you.

I make decent money. So does my Wife.

Neither of us could care less about "the poor". We believe that anyone else could do what we are doing, and live the way we live.

We both put in the work, and pay the price for our lifestyle. We do not expect "society" to subsidize our way of life.

And we don't feel any obligation to "those less fortunate," or any "debt to those who helped us get here", rather than to be successful, and to make "those who helped us get here" proud of our success.

Let me tell you what the "American Dream" is.

America is the place where I can make more money, buy more stuff, live better than you, if I apply myself more than you do.

That's it.

Competition is the engine that drives Entreprenuership, Industriousness, Ingenuity.

Equality is Stagnation.

If everyone has everything, then nothing is special.

My responsibility to my community is to provide an example of what hard work and self reliance can provide.

I do not owe one minute of my labor to anyone but my Wife and Child.

To tell me otherwise is to make me a slave to the "Collective".

And just what makes Mr. Obama think that I, or anyone else, will keep working as long and hard as we do, when everyone is equal, no matter what we do?

Keep your Marxism, Mr. Obama.

You, and your supporters obviously have no concept of what America is, or what made Her great.

Let God Sort'em Out...

From the UK Daily Mail via the Drudge Report...

Mother's anger turns to delight after her baby survives an abortion

Finley Crampton really shouldn't be here. Although his parents would have loved another child, they knew their baby could inherit a life-threatening kidney condition – and they couldn't take the risk.

After all, their first son had died of the condition and the second was born with serious kidney damage.

So when Finley's mother, Jodie Percival, became pregnant while on the Pill, she and her fiance Billy Crampton, 35, made the agonising decision to abort this child.

However, Finley had other ideas. And some time after the operation, Miss Percival felt a fluttering in her stomach.

The child had survived the abortion and thrived in the womb. 'I couldn't believe it,' said Miss Percival. 'This was the baby I thought I'd terminated.

Look at him. There's his picture.

Now, the couple is overjoyed to have him, and everyone says that he will most probably live a "normal life".

That is, until that fateful day (and it's coming...) when he asks the question: "Mommy, what is an abortion?"

Could you explain to one of your children that you didn't want him? Could you tell him that you tried to kill him before he was born, but NOW you love him?

If he hacks him mother to pieces with an axe when he's twenty, could it be considered self defense?

This is a heartbreaking and joyous story, and I hope that this couple are able to deal with this child, and the issues that their actions have created, and that he actually will be able to live a normal life.

But I wonder when I hear stories like this one if the people who say things like "Abortion is a terrible choice to have to make...", or "Who are we to force women to have unwanted babies?" really understand that if it wasn't a choice, people would not be forced to choose.

This is not the story of an unwanted baby. This couple wanted a baby.

But they wanted a perfect baby. (How many of us would be here if our parents had had that standard, and the ability to test us to determine our imperfections before we were born?

If Ted Kennedy's mother had known FOR SURE that he would someday develope brain cancer, do you think that she might have aborted him? (How far would the march toward American Socialism have been set back if that had happened?)

My son Caleb fed himself a whole little bowl of frozen yogurt with a spoon today, for the first time. Every day he learns something new, and he is so happy to be here that I cannot grasp the concept of having denied him the opportunity.

The opportunity to exist.

It is my job, as his father, to give him every chance to succeed and to thrive, to try to equip him to face the challenges that he will face in life to the best of his, and my abilities.

At no point in his development did killing him seem to me to be the best way to do that.

But then again, for me and for Caleb's mother, Abortion was never a choice.

Enjoy your abortions while you've got'em, people. This policy of national madness will come to an end someday.

Maybe not in the next four years, but someday.

Where Are We Going, And Why Are We In This Handbasket?

I have decided to vote for Barack Obama in November.

It will be the first time in my life that I have ever voted for a Democrat for any office, and it pains me to no end that things have come to this...

But I'm going to do it anyway, because it has to be done this time.

I have put a lot of thought into this decision. It has been the most difficult decision about an election that I have ever had to make, but I feel that the choice is clear.

Republicans lost control of both Houses of Congress in 2006, and by all accounts, they are going to lose even more power this year. The estimates that I have heard put the Democrats gaining ten to twelve seats in the Senate, and predict at least a seventy seat Majority in the House of Representatives.

This puts the Democrats at the magic number of sixty votes in the Senate. The "Veto-Proof" majority. Enough votes to break a filibuster.

If a Republican President were to nominate King Solomon to the Supreme Court, the Democrats would not confirm him.

So the Supreme Court is lost, one way or the other.

Add to that the fact that the Republican Presidential candidate this time around is John McCain.

He not only has based his entire political career on siding with Democrats and opposing the agendas of the people whom I sent to Washington to represent me, he has gleefully engaged in "back-room deals" with the opposition and subverting the political process, he was the leader of the "Gang of Fourteen", and as such, usurped Presidential Authority over the Judicial Nomination Process, and has authored legislation which unconstitutionally restricts the right to free political expression and would throw our Borders wide open to a hundred million (or more) new immigrants, with the right to vote and collect tax-payer funded benefits as soon as they arrive...

He also embraces the Global Warming myth, and has stated that he will pursue an agenda of combatting "climate change", which means attacking the U.S. Economy, raising taxes on everything and everyone, and further screwing up energy production and delivery in America.

To paraphrase something that I heard my Dad say a long time ago, the world is crying out for some good, strong conservative leadership, but NOBODY wants a cheap immitation of a Liberal.

I cannot vote for John McCain.

And if I did, it wouldn't do any good anyway. We, as a Nation, are going to pursue the Liberal Agenda for at least the next four years, no matter who the President is.

On the substantive issues, McCain's platform is almost indistinguishable from Barack Obama's.

And the result of following this path of irresponsible, naive, and short-sighted legislation will be a period of National misery, crisis and economic disaster that will make us all long for the heady, carefree days of prosperity and plentitude of the CARTER ADMINISTRATION.

So now, the question becomes:

If there is going to be a disaster caused by the pursuit of a Liberal Agenda, who should own that disaster? The Democrats who caused it, or the Republicans who layed down and let it roll over them?

With my vote, I choose to put the blame where it belongs.

This is going to be messy, but I plan to do my part to see that the authors of the mess get the full credit for it. I will not give them a RINO to hold up as the representative of Conservatism for the rest of my life.

I will not vote for John McCain.

I am going to vote for Barack Obama.

And pray.

Ayn Rand Says...

If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.

Any alleged "right" of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as "the right to enslave."

-- Ayn Rand, "Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness

With All Due Respect...

Mike at "Mike's America" has written a very respectful, very statesman-like, well-wishing Blog post about Ted Kennedy's brain cancer. If that's what you are looking for, then click the link, and go over there.

Mike is a statesman, and has made a career as a diplomat.

I am a truck driver.

Now, I do not, nor would I ever wish brain cancer on anyone. It is a horrible disease, and apparently Ted Kennedy's case is inoperable, and most probably incurable. I have the utmost sympathy for both him as a person, and his family. My prayers are with them all.

But if brain cancer will remove him from the U.S. Senate, I'll take it.

Ted Kennedy has been the most effective and successful enemy of the ideals and concepts that made America great that the world has ever known.

Name any issue that you are angry about, and I can tie it to Ted Kennedy.

Mad about high gas prices? Ted Kennedy has consistently opposed any and all efforts and strategies to streamline the production and delivery of all types of energy in America for three decades.

Angry about the healthcare system? Ted Kennedy authored the legislation which set up the flawed HMO system (remember that?) and subsequently allowed healthcare costs to skyrocket for the past twenty years, while simultaneously training Americans to believe that someone else should provide their healthcare for them.

Immigration? Kennedy first began to monkey with U.S. Immigration Policy in 1965, by helping to push through the Hart-Celler Act, which was a drastic overhaul of Immigration policies in America. "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." Said Kennedy.

The bill, when put into practice, proceeded to flood our cities with immigrants, upset the ethnic mix of our society, relax the standards of admission, and cause American workers to lose their jobs.

Education? Kennedy co-authored the "No Child Left Behind" Act, which has been pointed out repeatedly to be one of the major failings of the G.W. Bush Administration. (Huh?) The decline of American Education has happened entirely since Ted Kennedy became a U.S. Senator, and he should shoulder his fair share of the blame.

He has consistently ignored the U.S. Constitution, and opposed at every turn the right of U.S. Citizens to keep and bear Arms.

He has been an outspoken and tireless advocate of U.S. embarrassment and defeat in the War in Iraq.

His stand on same-sex marriage should anger you whichever side of the issue you are on. He claims to support same-sex marriage, but has never sponsored any legislation attempting to legalize it. (Unless you count his usurpation of Presidential power through blocking President Bush's Judicial Nominees... But then again, Kennedy knows that the courts are the extra-Constitutional path of Liberalism into Law...)

And, despite the fact that he, himself, has been fabulously wealthy all of his life through no effort of his own, he has chosen to make a career of working tirelessly to place stumbling blocks in the path of any American who would seek to become wealthy through hard work, ingenuity, or investment.

And on, and on, and on...

And on.

Ted Kennedy has been in the Senate all of my life, and I have had no method of removing him.

The people of Massachusetts have for some unknown reason chosen to inflict him upon America since 1962, and he has opposed everything that I hold dear, everything that I believe in. I was not surprized to learn that his opinions and ideas emmanated from a diseased brain.

I, for one, will not be sorry to see him go. I do not wish him his pain. I wish him a speedy and comfortable departure. (And his inevitable eternal reward, whatever that may be.)

I suppose that I should at least try to say something nice about the man rather than simply trash him with a list of facts, since (as far as we know, ) he is a human being...

So, here goes...

As far as we know, he hasn't killed anyone in almost forty years...

Sorry. Best I can do.

Happy Trails, Senator Kennedy! Here's to the speedy relief of your suffering, and ours!

"That's Not Leadership."

Despair.com

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK...That's not leadership. That's not going to happen..."
- Barack Obama

Okay, Mr. Obama...

We live in the United States of America.

Our forefathers established the first nation in human history in which the power of freedom was fully unleashed, and as a direct result, we citizens of the United States of America enjoy the highest standard of living on the face of the Earth.

Not only is this high standard of living our birthright, but most of us do the work, and pay the cost every day to maintain that standard of living for ourselves and our families, not out of selfishness or greed, but because we recognize that it is our duty as citizens of this great nation, and guardians of that birthright to maintain, and even improve on it.

To tell me that I should care one whit about how other countries around the world feel about my lifestyle, much less that I should scale back my lifestyle, which is not only my birthright as an American citizen, but that I bust my butt sixty to eighty hours per week for, is not only an insult to me personally, but an open-handed slap at my Country, and the ideals and opportunities which have made my Country the greatest nation on Earth, and the envy, by your own admission, sir, of the rest of the world.

And the fact that you, Mr. Obama, flew to the engagement where you insulted me and my Country on a jet airplane, you live in a mansion, and have never worked a day in your miserable life by my definition of an honest day's work, and then have the nerve to tell me and my fellow citizens that we have to tighten our belts shows without question that you, sir, have no idea what true leadership really is.

If you want to lead America out of the Energy Crisis that we currently face, then get Government out of the way of the Energy Industry, and let them solve it.

And if a market for Environmental Clean-up is created through that, then let the market make someone rich by doing that.

Let us take a leadership role, as a nation, and show the world that we can not only maintain and improve our standard of living, but that we can do it cleanly and affordably, by embracing freedom, opportunity and the ingenuity of the individual, as well as the collective.

Let's lead the world by showing them what made America great in the first place.

But if belt tightening is the only solution you can embrace, then we all await your leadership on that as well.

When we see you living in a mud hut with no air conditioning instead of your mansion, riding a bicycle to Oregon to insult us and our beloved Nation instead of flying on a very comfortable jet airplane, and living on one bowl of rice every day, then you can point to your belt tightening leadership.

So, lead, follow, or get out of the way.

But don't tell us, the citizens of the United States, that we should follow the rest of the world into poverty and depression, just so that the rest of the world will like us.

The rest of us are not so weak.

Still Around...

It's so hard to find time to Blog lately...

This past weekend, we went to N.C. to see the family and show off the baby, and a good time was had by all. (I don't care who you are, you don't have a prettier or cooler baby than mine, no matter what.)

Caleb showed off all weekend long like it was his JOB. He smiled, he sat up, he laughed, he played with his toys, he tried to crawl. He kept everyone near him smiling and laughing the whole time. He was quiet and happy in his car seat for the whole trip, and even sung quietly to himself while he rode.

We left N.C. on Monday morning, and spent the night at the top-secret Tugboatcapn Bunker in the woods near Atlanta Ga., and made the rest of the trip on Tuesday, returning home about 7:00 Tuesday night.

And then Wednesday, I got the Flu.

Some micro-organism has invaded my person, and has ever since attempted to convert me into a gigantic, walking, whining, complaining, dripping, coughing Virus.

But thanks to Ny-quil and Day-quil, and a very understanding and long-suffering Wife, I am still alive.

It's not like I don't think of things to write about, and God knows that there is plenty going on that needs to be commented on, but the truth is that I would much rather play with the baby, or talk to my wife, or, frankly, watch mindless television than to spend time arguing on the internet about things that I cannot change.

But I love Blogging.

So, whether it makes any difference or not, I am still going to try to post something every couple of days or so...

When I have the time...

And when I am inspired...

And if anyone cares...

Do Not Feed The Bird Brains...

People used to tell me when I was young that you shouldn't feed birds.

This seemed cruel to me back then. We lived in the mountians of North Carolina, and sometimes there would be snow on the ground for weeks at a time. I felt sorry for the poor birds trying to find food through all that snow.

But it was explained to me that if you feed birds in the same place every day for any length of time, they learn that this is where the food is. If you start feeding them, you can never stop, or the birds you are feeding will stand around waiting for you to provide them with food until they starve.

Eventually I understood that the compassionate thing to do for the birds was to let them look after themselves, so that they never forgot how to.

Having said that, please consider this:

From the UK Daily Mail...

Raised on welfare, the 'Why Bother?' generation that doesn't want to work...

A "why bother?" economy has been created in Britain which has left thousands with no motivation to work, a report published today concludes.

The findings by the public services think tank Reform suggest that increased welfare dependency has made it more difficult for those on the lowest incomes to do better...

Means-tested benefits and higher taxes have reduced the incentives available to those on low incomes to better themselves, Reform says.

It concludes: "The unintended consequence has been a 'why bother?' economy in which a significant minority do not have the capability or motivation to succeed."

The article goes on to tell the tale of a family with ten members living in a three bedroom "council house" (whatever that is...), and none of them, for three generations, have ever worked.

And from what the article says, they are not the only family in the U.K. who are living this way. According to the article, they have become a drag on the National Economy.

But that's not their problem...

It's a problem for everyone else in the whole country...

Think about this when you hear the Democrat Presidential Candidates' speeches as they cross the countryside, heavily engaged in "Pander-Fest 2008".

When the government pays for everything for everybody, why should anybody do anything for themselves?

When everyone is on the public dole, and nobody works because it is more profitable to stay home and be a loser than to go to work, who will pay the taxes to support everyone?

The article says that the U.K. has made the mistake of feeding the bird-brains... and now they are starting to run short on bird seed...

The same thing is going to happen here, and soon, unless the American people wake up...

It can be avoided, but in order for that to happen, a few bird-brains may have to be allowed to starve.

Bitter...

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." - Barack Obama

He was talking about the poor slobs in small towns in Pennsylvania and around the country who haven't had jobs in twenty-five years, and who (according to him) believe that the government has not done enough for them.

Well, I don't live in the "Rust Belt", but I do live in small-town America, and I am bitter.

You're doggone right, I am.

I'm bitter when I see my government planning to spend a trillion (or more) dollars of taxpayer money to prop up the mortgage industry and keep housing prices impossibly high in perpetuity, even though they have absolutely no Constitutional authority to do so.

I'm bitter when I think about the fact that I decided last year to rent a house rather than buy one, and instead buy my own truck and try to better myself through hard work, and then partly because of flawed (and again, extra-Constitutional) governmental meddling with the petroleum industry, fuel prices ate up whatever profits I could have realized, and my truck was reposessed.

Nobody offered to bail me out.

But now, I get to help bail out the millionaires at Bear Stearns.

I'm bitter because I am being asked to choose between possibly the three least qualified Presidential Candidates in the history of the United States. None of these people have any business anywhere near the government at all, let alone the highest office in the nation...

But I have to choose one of them... or not. I cannot in good conscience vote for John McCain, and neither can I vote for an unabashed Socialist panderer running on a Democrat ticket.

I still believe that the Constitution means something, and that it limits what the federal government can do for me, or to me, and no matter how good an idea it seems to be, or how many people think that they might benefit from government bailouts and interference in their (and my) life, the Constitution prevents MOST of what the federal government does now.

I'm bitter because none of the Presidential candidates seems to understand that.

I'm bitter because my nation, the greatest nation in the history of the world, seems to have forgotten how to win a war. Regardless of whether you agree with the reasons for going to war, we shouldn't be having this much trouble defeating an enemy that basically fights with sticks and rocks.

War is a terrible thing for all concerned. But if you are going to engage an enemy, for whatever reason, it should be so much more terrible for the enemy than for you, that they beg you to stop, and then for decades to come, any potential enemy you might face would rather do ANYTHING than have to engage you in armed conflict.

It's a simple concept. DEFEAT the enemy, soundly and without remorse or mercy, and then you will have peace.

Then comes the nation-building, the aid for refugees, the humanitarianism.

No one in our government seems to understand this, and I learned it on the playground when I was five years old.

These are just a few of the things that I am bitter about.

Not that the government hasn't done enough for me, but that the government will not leave me alone, and it screws up everything it touches.

So yes, I cling to my Constitutional Right to my gun, my religion, my expectation of border security and fair trade practices.

I cling to them because these Rights are under attack by the very people who are supposed to be defending and protecting them.

Obama is right. I am bitter.

And I have every right to be.

The Problem...

What can I say?

I have been slack. Fallen behind in my ranting and raving.

But I'm back, so, here we go.

How much petroleum can you eat?

Who among us hasn't enjoyed a nice evening, hanging around with friends, tossing back a couple of quarts of 10w30 and enjoying an asphault burger hot off the grill?

Which one of us doesn't tear up when we remember how our dear old Mom slaved over a hot stove when we were young, cooking up a pot of home-made tar for our supper? (Sticks to the ole' ribs, don't it?)

I personally simply CANNOT get going in the mornings until I've had a steaming hot cup of diesel fuel...

Sounds silly, don't it?

We all know that we cannot eat or drink petroleum products...

You know what we CAN eat, though?

CORN!

That is, unless stupid Liberals among us mandate that we burn our corn in the gas tank instead of eating it...

From the New York Times...

Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing

The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.

But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people.

Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.

In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers...

So, in order to solve a problem that does not exist, the Democrat-controlled Congress voted to burn the World's food supply in our cars (even though by all accounts, ethanol is horribly inefficient and almost impossible to transport), while insisting that we leave our own oil supplies in the ground so that we will not spoil the view.

REAL smart.

And get this-

The EU Commission on Monday rejected claims that producing biofuels is a "crime against humanity" that threatens food supplies, and vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package.

"You can't change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives," which could see the EU landmark climate change and energy package disintegrate, an EU official said.

So, basically, Liberals and Global-Warming Environmentalist Know-It-Alls all over the World are saying that they are willing to starve the poorest children on the globe to death rather than admit that they are wrong.

So, let's recap.

Oil is the cleanest, most efficient substance currently available for use as fuel, it isn't good for anything else, and we (The U.S., We The People...) have BILLIONS of barrells of the stuff right here at home, which we cannot access because of Liberals.

Corn is sadly inefficient in the gas tank, is an important part of a nutritious breakfast, but it is being burned by mandate of our Government while the children starve because of Liberals.

So, the problem isn't a shortage of fuel supplies, the problem isn't global Warming, the problem isn't high food prices.

The problem is Liberals.