How to be poor in the 2nd and 3rd quintile

Even from sound conservative sources I see comments like this, "No one who works full time should live in poverty." Well, think about that and the personal choices that people make, even those with good jobs and an education, that impoverish their families and soul. Sure, the "income" may put them in the 2nd or 3rd quintile, out of range of the census figures that describe poverty, but they've maxed out the credit cards, drinking and drugging, too many vacations, too many manicures and fashionable clothes. They've forgotten they could eat that $20 restaurant meal for $3 at home. No savings, no retirement fund, no money for the church. Yes indeed, you can work full time and be poor and miserable, and it's no one else's fault. No government program will force you to marry the mother of your children to protect them; no government program will force you to eat right and exercise (although it will spend millions to nag you).

Lifestyle choices condemn many to poverty.

The next Republican candidate will need to run against the Democrats

These days you have to run against the party.

" Republicans run against their opponents, rather than against the left and the Democratic Party. That’s what Mitt Romney did. And that’s why he lost an election he should have won. Romney never defined his presidential campaign as being opposed to the left or to the Democratic Party. It was solely against Barack Obama, a popular president at the time and the first black ever to serve as president, something that continued to mean... a lot to many Americans who hoped that this fact would reduce black animosity toward white America.

Had Mitt Romney constantly repeated that he was not merely running against Barack Obama, the man, but against Barack Obama, the most left-wing president in American history, and continually explained what that meant, he might well have won."

It may sound lofty and moral to say you vote for the candidate and not the party, but unfortunately the parties not the individuals control the government.

 http://www.dennisprager.com/dont-vote-candidate/

Defining conservatism

Here's a good definition of conservatism: "Our common cause as conservatives is based on shared principles and convictions about the primacy of freedom and liberty, the dignity and sacred value of human life and the essential role of private property and the rule of law in the construct of a civil society."

See? Not hard to memorize, but tough to get on a bumper sticker or campaign ad. Know what you believe and why--don't limit it to Obama's mistakes, or sound bites. There are 50 sound, conservative principles to dismantle ACA and start over, but they need to be articulated.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seymour-fein/2014/10/29/progressive-fallacy

http://americanconservativeparty.com/blog/2014/03/aca-as-an-abuse-to-constitutional-process/

http://www.conservativefactcheck.com/content/articles/QA_Why_Conservatives_Dont_Support_the_ACA

There is something positive about the Ebola scare

One good thing about the Ebola scare is the audit of our readiness for a pandemic. Hospitals, CDC, and Homeland Security failed despite billions poured into preparation in the last decade. $9 billion given to local health authorities since 2002. The bad thing is that Republicans have taken their eye off the ball of all the other scandals--IRS, NSA, VA, growing poverty rolls, race baiting by the president his AG, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, etc. Democrats are so excited that they've pulled this off (see articles in Huffington Post where operatives use Ebola to lie about "cuts.")

 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/department-of-homeland-security-gets-a-bad-grade-for-pandemic-readiness/

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We've let Ebola push all the Obama scandals to the back burner, much to the delight and encouragement of his team, so let's review what really happened in Fast and Furious.

 http://sharylattkisson.com/20-examples-of-the-violent-legacy-of-fast-and-furious

Record cold in South Carolina

Global warming is natural and has been taking place the last 8,000 years or so; that said, there are so many things individuals, organizations, non-profits and the local, state, and federal government can do to preserve the best and enhance the rest without damaging cultures and nature. Unfortunately, it has become a political battle and a war for profits as investors and utilities chase the latest windmill and solar panel. The gulf between gain and truth seems to be getting wider.

http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/11/earliest-snow-in-columbia-sc/

Why Democrats talk about gaps instead of consumption

This is why the Democrats have to talk about a gap rather than quality of life and consumption.

1. The typical poor household, AS DEFINED BY THE GOVERNMENT, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there are children, especially boys, the family has a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.

2.  In the kitchen, the household has a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences include a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.

3.  The home of the typical poor family is in good repair and is not overcrowded. In fact, the typical average poor American has more living space in his home than the average (non-poor) European has.

4.  By its own report, the typical poor family was not hungry, was able to obtain medical care when needed, and had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty

The Christmas drawing

Our niece Joan who is a year older than our daughter has 8 grandchildren, and one of the moms has already posted who buys for whom at Christmas.  She’s going shopping. It’s arranged so siblings don’t get each others’ name.

Arielle BUYS FOR Jaxon.
Bella BUYS FOR Hallie.
Brody BUYS FOR Taylor.
Taylor BUYS FOR Brody.
Anthony BUYS FOR Arielle.
Hallie BUYS FOR Bella.
Kali BUYS FOR Anthony.
Jaxon BUYS FOR Kali.

I’ve got to say, I’m impressed with her organization.

Pathetic Democrat campaign tactics

It's just stunning that in the 2014 election all the Democrats have in their tool box of lies is equal pay for equal work for women (1963 law) and the myth that Republicans will return blacks to slavery and Jim Crow, when Democrats control all the major cities with the highest black unemployment, and we've had a black president for 6 years and a higher black voting rate than whites.

Democrats, instead of just saying, I’m not happy with Obama’s record, will lie that voting with him 97% doesn’t mean they approve, or they pretend ignorance, or they make outrageous statements like the female Senator from Louisiana a state that had a female governor during the Katrina disaster, that southerners don’t like women and blacks therefore she’s in a tough race.  Louisiana also has a minority governor at this time. She’s desperate to separate herself from Obama, so she just makes things up.

The Walker vs. Burke race in Wisconsin—most important in nation

I hope he wins. If he can turn Wisconsin from the steep left going over a cliff, any governor should be able to learn from him. It may be the most important election in the nation on Tuesday. Unions are going all out to defeat him. And that's BIG money. The academics are going crazy with fear that their reign of terror over students could be challenged. Walker has something very few Republicans have--a backbone (you thought I would use a different word, admit it).

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/102914-724074-unions-seek-to-oust-wisconsins-walker-for-daring-to-stand-up-to-them.htm

The reality is that Wisconsin has made a remarkable comeback in four years. The $3.6 billion budget deficit Walker inherited is now a surplus. Property and income taxes have been cut by $2 billion — for everyone. Jobs have come back, and the unemployment rate is down to 5.6% from 7.7% when he entered office.

How liberals respond to a discussion on “mercy” killings.

The Righteous Mind; why liberals and conservatives can’t get along

Wharton professor Philip Tetlock recently spoke with Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind.

Close ties, state universities and federal government

How dependent are state universities on the federal government?  In September 2014, Ohio State University received 185 grants totaling over $39 million.

Friday family photo—All Hallows’ Eve

Tomorrow is All Saints' Day, the day we remember in the Christian faith all the saints beside us, around us, and those who have gone ahead of us to wait and welcome us home. Today is All Hallows' Eve, the day before (eve) All Hallows' feast day, celebrated since the 3rd century. In the secular world it is contracted to Halloween and people like to dress up; some as though they are already decayed and dead. Sort of to scare away what they know is coming. God declares us holy... in our baptism, so we are all saints (sanctus in Latin). Celebrate--it really is a Christian festival, but be holy and God centered--it's not a time for sexy costumes or the living dead! The first Sunday in November in the Lutheran church we honor the saints who have gone ahead--we read their names in our services, and we'll be serving communion. I remember last year as I was saying, "the body of Christ given for you," the names of my parents and in-laws were being read from the pulpit.

One slur that can be overlooked, another that can’t

So a member of Obama's administration bad mouthed the leader of Israel, our only ally in the middle east. Called him chicken shit or something like that. The media just skips over that word or uses symbols, so I’m actually not sure what he said. Anyway, he said Benjamin Netanyahu was a piece of poo and a coward. Obama has ignored the slur. It's a good thing that staffer didn't say, "Washington Redskins" or he might have been fired immediately for being so hateful.

http://omnifeed.com/article/dailysignal.com/2014/10/29/chickens-slur-doesnt-faze-israels-netanyahu

“Certainly, that’s not the administration’s view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counterproductive,” said National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey, according to The Hill. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the president have a forged an effective partnership, and consult closely and frequently, including earlier this month when the president hosted the prime minister in the Oval Office.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-calls-chickenshit-netanyahu-slur-inappropriate/

What do teachers think of Common Core? The Gallup Poll

This is a deceptive Gallup poll--teachers are split positive and negative on Common Core (more Democrat teachers are positive than Republican, duh!). 56% say it is positive that there are unified standards in the U.S. BUT. Only 1% say it focuses on individual needs! Is this sacrificing the individual for the whole? Only 2% say it improves learning, improves communication, improves teaching, covers the basics, or holds teachers, districts and schools accountable. Only 3% ...say it improves reading and writing, in depth learning and positive change. Common Core has been bankrolled by financiers like Bill Gates ($150 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) in collaboration with UNESCO to develop a "master curriculum." It's not nationalism run amuck, it's globalism on steroids, with the end goal some sort of squishy morality on "fairness," "sustainability," and "peace."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/178892/teachers-offer-split-decision-common-core.aspx

The U.S. dropped its membership in UNESCO under Reagan, but GW Bush reinstated it in 2002. UNESCO had a plan called International Baccalaureate (IB) long before Obama had his eye on the WH, although many on the right want to blame Obama. When Common Core was imposed, many U.S. schools were already IB schools and didn't have to change much because they are so similar. IB emphasized socialist morals and goals. Academic rigor was replaced with fuzzy societal goals like redistribution of wealth, downplaying patriotism and nationalism, and stronger direction by the federal government.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/21/15ib.h32.html?

Hillary Clinton being absolutely clear about her socialist plans

1) Hillary, what she believes: “Don’t let anybody tell you that, uh, you know, it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly.”

2) Hillary, a few days later after her handlers realized it was toxic:  “Let me be absolutely clear about what I’ve been saying for a couple of decades: Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out—not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas.”

U.S. corporations have the highest tax rate in the world.  Even if #1 translated to #2, it would be a lie. When politicians say, "let me be absolutely clear" be ready for more lies.

in #2 she sounds a lot like Van Jones six years ago before he was outed and fired who sounds a lot like the old 19th century Marxism.

#1 will be a good campaign sound bite for the Republican candidate (Walker, Jindal, etc.), and I hope they aren’t too timid to use it.  Such pansies.

The Democrats are abusing blacks

http://RebelPundit.com Chicago activists Paul McKinley, Mark Carter, Joseph Watkins and Harold “Noonie” Ward recently went on the record with RebelPundit to deliver a message to black communities across the country.

Democrat leadership gobbles up the dollars and starves the people out.

This Democrat says she’s not wealthy

Huffington Post on Elizabeth Warren in 2012: $700,000 from Harvard, book royalties, consulting fees, $5 million house, and mutual funds and stocks worth $8 million. But she actually told Congress that she wasn't wealthy. Of course, she also told everyone she was an American Indian.

Quarantines are for less important people

Kaci Hickox, the nurse and epidemiologist who was quarantined in New Jersey after recently returning to the U.S. with a fever after treating Ebola patients in Africa, actually works for the CDC, whose standards are lower than New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and the Pentagon, and probably your state. She thinks her rights have been violated because she had to live in a tent for 3 days (ask some American soldiers about that). Anyone want to bet which party she belongs to? Right.  She’s a Democrat.  I don't know who or what HLN is, but its poll said 91% want health care workers quarantined upon reentry.

But quarantines are OK for other people. "Hickox’s travels as a nurse took her to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Nigeria and convinced her of the importance of quarantines and “health surveillance,” according to the University of Texas-Arlington newsmagazine. “I realize that we need to find better ways to improve health surveillance and outbreak response in settings with poor resources,” Hickox said. “My training in the EIS with the CDC will allow me to learn the gold standard of this kind of work.”

Doctors without Borders with whom she worked for a year has had 9 deaths and 16 illnesses from Ebola.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/193424-nurse-connected-to-cdc/

http://gotnews.com/ebola-nurse-complaining-quarantine-left-wing-democrat-cdc-employee/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-quarantine-issue-proves-divisive/2014/10/27/

Mauritania—where slavery is alive, unwell, and open (but illegal)

Where there is still slavery--Mauritania. And many don't even realize they are slaves. Something like 10-20% of the population with lighter skinned Arabs enslaving dark skinned Africans. A tradition of centuries.  This is a fascinating video made by CNN, at great risk  Stay with it (it isn’t long) for the interview with the Arab slave owner who became an abolitionist.  http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html