How government programs hurt the poor

The Democrats’ War Against Women—disarm them

"Just fire a shotgun indiscriminately into the woods, Jill, if there's ever an intruder. You don't need an AR-15.” Luv ya, Crazy ol' Joe.

And then there's the Colorado guy, Joe Salazar, who thinks call boxes and whistles will be the match for a rapist. Oh, and kick off those high heels, ladies,  and run, or urinate on him. Yes, that should work.

Wise words

Except.  Be cautious, Conservatives.  Obama knows exactly what he is doing.  He isn’t really trying to build up the weak by pulling down the strong—he’s trying to pull down everybody. 

Benefits of implementing a wellness program

Wellness care and healthy lifestyle haven't been subjected to close scrutiny to see if they really do bring down health costs for businesses.  Yes, it's in every health/business bottom line article you see, but where is the research? "Free" preventive services aren't free and aren't preventive--those costs are built into the insurance.  Besides, if something is found during prevention, then it becomes diagnostic and treatment follows, and that isn’t free.  Someone has to pay.  Health costs keep going up, and I've been hearing this for at least 25 years. 

When they got people to stop smoking, the obesity rate went up. Where's the savings? And if  enough people live longer because of exercise and normalized weight, they just cost more in their 80s and 90s because they didn't die in their 70s.

Whether or not they reduce costs—which I doubt--these programs are becoming very intrusive and often are not optional.  The “choice” to participate now may mean that the employee is charged higher premiums for NOT participating.  Some choice, right?  And the spouse who doesn’t work at the company has to also submit.  I hate tobacco in all forms, but I don’t like it that an employee can’t smoke in his own home because of the company’s “wellness” plan.

Infantilizing Marco Rubio

When the Main stream Media ridicules an American Hispanic politician taking a sip of water during a speech, and then runs the clip over 100 times hoping to make him look silly, inexperienced and "other," it's not considered racism by Democrats. But requiring ID, or border security, or documentation for employment, is. If we'd had this sort of alert, tough, investigative press in the 70s, Nixon wouldn't have had a single worry.

Actually, Marco Rubio is an American born in 1971 whose parents immigrated from Cuba in 1956. That they fled Communism is probably a black mark with our leftist press. They adore Castro.   There is no such country as "Hispania," so I was sloppy to use it. It's a made up, catch-all term like Latino that lumps together people from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, and South America even if their ancestry is German, Portuguese, Russian, Jewish, or Spanish. It's a little like assuming all residents of the United States claim England in their ancestry because they speak English.

Rubio And Netanyahu Bump Water Bottles In Israel

Shorts in a knot over Rubio’s water bottle placement

Leftist media try to make any conservative look foolish, not about content, but about taking a sip of water on camera. At least he didn’t drive into it with an intern.

Oh my! Oreos baked in a brownie mix!

You need Brownie mix, Oreos, peanut butter, and cupcake liners.-
-place cupcake liners in your muffin pan, spread peanut butter on 2 Oreos set them on top of each other, and into the liners. Pour Brownie mix on top of them. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Seen at Beyond a Mom Facebook.

You can’t chop out one amendment without affecting the others

This is from the Seattle Times.  As you may have heard, some states are limiting bullet sales, another (Washington state) has decided on a home inspection of registered owners.

“ 'In order to continue to possess an assault weapon that was legally possessed on the effective date of this section, the person possessing shall safely and securely store the assault weapon. The sheriff of the county may, no more than once per year, conduct an inspection to ensure compliance with this subsection.'

In other words, come into homes without a warrant to poke around. Failure to comply could get you up to a year in jail.

'I’m a liberal Democrat — I’ve voted for only one Republican in my life,' [Lance] Palmer told me. 'But now I understand why my right-wing opponents worry about having to fight a government takeover.'"

Why these sell is beyond me

Torn, faded jeans with platform high heels on an anorexic model.

But that’s the fashion and they do sell.  I guess it is because most of the fashion designers are gay men who prefer the form of  young boys.  So why do women fall for this?  If there is anything worse than the baggy look of a few years back, it’s the “back in skinny jeans” look that have Gen-Xers yearning for the body of their middle school days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/fashion/thursdaystyles/08FASHION.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

And it’s suggested you are homophobic if you notice!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/06/1

And men’s fashion too has to look like it’s for young boys. “Media trends are created by famous designer labels which have been managed by homosexual men for decades, and for several years they have been using stick-thin male models.”

http://www.examiner.com/article/straight-men-are-being-destroyed-by-gay-fashion-designers

Who pays taxes? We do.

"The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn't pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be -- through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer's license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business."
– Ronald Reagan, Speech at Hillsdale College, November 10, 1977

Physician reimbursement—or why you’ll wait, by Dr. Anna Meenan (retired at 54)

If you're wondering why your doctor is discouraged and depressed (and many are, though they don't show it) these days, this might help explain it:
http://www.physiciansmoneydigest.com/practice-management/Physician-Reimbursement-Dropped-Sharply
As best I can tell, these are the rates paid by COMMERCIAL insurers. Medicare and Medicaid pay even less than this, and have also been lowering many of their rates. If you think that this is what goes into the doctor's pocket, you are wrong. Out of these sums, the doctor must pay all the overhead of running an office: skilled labor, equipment, supplies, utility bills, and thousands of dollars in malpractice insurance. Think for a moment about what you were charged the last time you called a plumber, or the last time you took your car in for repairs, and put the value of those services up against the value of your life and health. I'm just saying.

$86 for code 99215. Just to clarify, 99215 is the highest code for an office encounter. This is what your doctor would code if you came to his/her office with, oh, let's say, out-of control diabetes with a life-threatening electrolyte imbalance, or if a senior citizen was brought in who was suddenly very confused and not eating. 

Dr. Meenan graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago, practiced in Rockford and formerly was with the medical clinic in Mt. Morris, Illinois

Who really cares? Bush or Obama?

As many faults as Bush brought to the table, Obama is making him look like a hero and statesman, which I doubt that he was. However, Bush was definitely a patriot, a committed Christian, and a man who loved his country. Obama is none of those.

In lives saved, Bush has no match in my life time. The embryonic stem cell executive order (it was never outlawed, it only limited government funding to cells lines already in use) allowed technology to catch up and save women’s bodies from becoming medical labs for experimentation, his moral leadership on abortion inspired thousands of local organizations and volunteers which are reducing that killing field, his trafficking in persons effort (there are more slaves today than during the 17-18th centuries of the Atlantic slave trade) and the PEPFAR AIDS drug assistance in Africa (Obama has let this slide since it wasn’t his idea), and freeing the women under control of the Taliban all put Obama, the peace prize prez, to shame.

AIDS affects gay men and and blacks more than any other demographic, but it was Bush, not Obama, who really stepped up to help. Just one more example of how people who blindly supported Obama where left out in the cold after he got their vote. Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said HIV/AIDS was a higher priority for Bush than it is for Obama, citing the ADAP waiting list and the distinction in PEPFAR as a key difference between the presidents.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/index.htm

Minimum wage increases always hurt teens (Monday Memories)

Years ago (I was about 42 I think) I went to work in a local book store.  I knew nothing about selling books, but wanted part time work so I could be at home when the kids were out of school.  I never was able to figure out the cash register (very early computer style) or all the special promotions/gift cards/coupons.  It killed me to tear off covers and put books in the dumpster.  I hid pornography in the basement.  But because I had a master’s degree in library science, the manager put my salary at twenty five cents above minimum wage.  Truly, I wasn’t worth even that. Businesses that hire beginners like me are doing an act of service.   I made so many mistakes, it is embarrassing to remember.  However, I learned a lot, and it convinced me I really did need to work for the state.  The free market, especially the corporate world (was a chain), was not for me.

After 1998 strict gun control law, crime soared in Massachusetts

But the law will never be blamed.  It’s the fault of neighboring states.  Meanwhile, legal gun ownership is way down.

http://www.jeffjacoby.com/12950/after-the-toughest-gun-law-gun-crime-rose

How we got standard time—the railroads

http://www.wimp.com/trainstime/

Bait and Switch

I clicked on a Nordstrom link for Spring dresses, looking modest, decent length, pretty colors, but when I got there I found something like this, a t-shirt over a window curtain.  The is called a “drop-waist.”  The front looks like  underwear for men.

I had a dog named Polka-dot when I was 11.

The Book of Judith

Protestant Bibles don’t contain the book of Judith, although it was part of canon for the Eastern and Western Church until the Reformation.  It seems, though, St. Jerome had a bit of a struggle—I looked it up and he had to translate from the Chaldean texts to Latin.  (We saw his cell when we were in the Holy Land.)

There is a web site that focuses just on Biblical films, Bible Films Blog. It is amazing, or maybe not, how many films have been made about Judith.  The author, Matt Page (UK), is going to be writing about Judith the next week or so, and begins with a collation of all the films he could find, and the first 3 are silent films.

He lists 13 films about Judith—it has everything for today’s audience; religion, sex, violence, and politics.

A plan doomed to fail

No shock here. If the federal government passes enough mandates, and the states can't print money, soon there is no money for the poor.

"Obama administration officials said Friday that the state-based “high-risk pools” set up under the 2010 health-care law will be closed to new applicants as soon as Saturday and no later than March 2, depending on the state." reported in Washington Post today.

The plan is set up to fail--whether intentional or not. The wait to get in the high risk pool means the people are desperately sick by the time they get coverage, and very expensive to treat, thus depleting the money for those waiting. Bad, bad plan that only a massive bureaucracy could come up with.

And ultimately, it is the same plan for the rest of us.  Doctors are quitting rather than go along with the insane regulations—the documents to support this massive bill run to thousands of pages. 13,000 pages as of October 12 and 18 pages to define a full time employee.  There aren’t enough to meet the Obamacare guidelines and new doctors probably won’t materialize.  By the time we get to see a doctor, we’ll be too sick for effective treatment.

The government will add more snoops and IRS agents than doctors or nurses.

Food stamp king, jobs footman

Since January 2009, a net of 194,000 new jobs have been created. During that same time, 14.7 million have been added to the food stamp rolls.

Wrong on so many things, but especially this one

A holocaust for black America—40% of pregnancies of black women end in abortion. Democrats think it’s a plan to fight poverty.

Young Indiana athlete excels at life and sports

“The son of Marvin and Apryl Hoot, Nik is a well rounded athlete in spite of the fact that he is missing parts of both legs and doesn't have a fully developed set of fingers. He lives with these physical disabilities because his biological parents - an unknown couple from Russia - attempted to abort Nik. The abortion didn't take and in the fall of 1996 Nik was born - he was put up for adoption shortly thereafter.”

He’s had prosthetic legs since he was two years old and since then has been unstoppable.  His parents have adopted five other children with birth defects, who look up to him.

http://www.wane.com/dpp/sports/local_sports/wane-   woodburn-woodlans-warrior-nik-hoots-story-jwh

http://www.theabortionsurvivors.com/failed-abortions-get-informed/

Bad to the bone.

      

Noodling what you’re eating

A pending federal food-labeling rule that stems from Obamacare would overburden thousands of grocers and convenience store owners — to the tune of $1 billion in the first year alone. At first it was just for restaurants, but it has slopped over into the grocery industry for salad bars, food bars, soups and bakery items. Apparently there are people still who think death by chocolate is the equivalent in nutrition of a salad so they need big brother. All of us who shop at that store will pay.

http://facethepolitics.com/2013/02/supermarkets-angered-by-new-fda-obamacare-regulation/

Sequestration, or where are the cuts?

Most of our tax money (70%) goes for social programs, especially Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and Social Security.  Some conservatives don’t like Social Security and Medicare called an “entitlement,” but they truly are—we should be entitled to what we paid in with interest. (I’m not because I have a teacher’s pension and get nothing for what I paid in to SS in non-government jobs, nor a spousal benefit.)  And it isn't the fault of Obama, as some detractors claim (he's got more than enough problems without giving him that one.) That will only increase.

The defense budget is extremely small, although the sequestration was Obama's idea (now trying to blame GOP) and is a rather small amount, it will certainly hurt the thousands of civilian employees right now as other lower paid jobs become unavailable because of raising the minimum wage—which always hurts the economy. It's a wonderful 2-fer for the president to hurt the economy even more which seems to be his major desire as he flits from gay marriage to stomping out freedom of religion to passing out free contraceptives instead of freeing up businesses to create more wealth.

The federal government should have stayed out of education--it wastes a lot of that money, and that responsibility was left to the states. Head Start, one of the biggest federal wastes with a 40 year history of failure, will probably get money better spent on bridges and roads, that he never gets around to that despite his promises. http://blog.heritage.org/2012/09/23/chart-of-the-week-70-of-spending-goes-to-dependence-programs/

Time to clean the House. . . and the Senate

If they can’t stand up to the executive branch then how can they be the representative branch? They are supposed to be representing US, as in We the People.  Obamacare didn’t get one Republican vote; 83% of Americans disagreed with the concept; it is so complex and unwieldy that it will take years to figure it out with law suits, lawyers, and new cottage industries. Obamacare is even more unpopular now than when it was passed, but the Democrats have the gall to lie and claim it is an achievement.

A viral joke—'Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers' program, or L.A.R.K.

at least I hope it isn’t real, but it is suitable for my Democrat readers who think Republicans unfairly blocked the Gitmo transfers to Illinois or the NYC trial.

Adopt a Terrorist  (HT Murray)

A Canadian female libertarian wrote a lot of letters to the Canadian government, complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. She demanded a response to her letter.

Shortly, she received back the following reply:

From: National Defense Headquarters
M Gen George R. Pearkes Bldg., 15 NT
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa , ON K1A 0K2
Canada

Dear Concerned Citizen,
Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces, who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities.

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa . You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense, to be called 'Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers' program, or L.A.R.K. for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided, on a trial basis, to divert several terrorists and place them in homes of concerned citizens such as yourself, around the country, under those citizens personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence in Toronto next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud is your detainee, and is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint. You will be pleased to know that we will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with your recommendations.
Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his 'attitudinal problem' will help him overcome those character flaws. Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counselling and home schooling, however, we strongly recommend that
you hire some assistant caretakers.

Please advise any Jewish friends, neighbors or relatives about your house guest, as he might get agitated or even violent, but we are sure you can reason with him. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless in your opinion, this might offend him. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills either in your home or wherever you choose to take him while helping him adjust to life in our country. Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters except sexually, since he views females as a form of property, thereby having no rights, including refusal of his sexual demands. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him.

You also should know that he has shown violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire. I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of 'respecting his culture and religious beliefs' as described in your letter.

You take good care of Ahmed and remember that we will try to have a counsellor available to help you over any difficulties you encounter while Ahmed is adjusting to Canadian culture.
Thanks again for your concern. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man. Good luck and God bless you.

Cordially,
Gordon O'Connor
Minister of National Defense

Remember the 2013 SOTU

Remember the President said that if Congress didn’t act on his ideas, he would do it without them?  The Congress was designed by the Founders to be the strongest of the three branches of government because it is elected by all the people. (President has electoral college, Supremes are appointed).  Originally, it was the House, then the Constitution was changed from the states sending the Senators to DC to the people electing them. (Thus, now the 50 states have no representation, probably not a good idea.)  Obama hasn’t usurped this “king” or “dictator” role all by himself—it’s been growing gradually by all administrations, especially FDR set things on a roll.  But he is the most blatant.  The first person pronouns in the speeches are just overwhelmingly annoying. The Constitution has been changed nearly 30 times, and it is outlined in the Constitution how to do this.  Obama does not respect the Constitution. He is a statist.  Big Government.  Big, and growing bigger.

More gun violence in gun controlled Chicago

Why did Catholics support Obama?

Fifty seven percent of practicing Catholics (attend mass at least once a week) voted for Romney.  Forty three percent who call themselves Catholic but rarely attend services, voted for Obama, the pro-abortion president. Every U.S. Bishop opposed the HHS mandate,  and it clearly looked like Obama stabbed them in the back after they’d supported him on immigration, taxes, etc.  But they just couldn't fight the fact that Catholics have been primarily Democrats for way too long.  I can’t imagine that they couldn’t see this coming when they supported a pro-abortion candidate in 2008.  So that also means that 43% of practicing Catholics think it is OK for Catholic charities and schools and hospitals to go under because of Obama's mandates.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/02/15/why-did-so-many-faithful-catholics-vote-for-obama-again/

CNN—the lack of curiosity and journalism will destroy them

CNN Wonders: "Why are Republicans so fixated on Benghazi?" Doh! You mean like where was the President?  Why was there no protection?  Where are the arms that were being shipped to Syria? Gosh, fellas and gals.  There could be some Pulitzer Prize material there if you weren’t lackeys.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2013/02/15/cnn-incredulous-over-gop-fixation-benghazi-opposition-hagel

What happens when a city loses power—the Carnival Cruise Ship

Let me tell you why this happened on the Carnival Triumph: The cruise ship lost electricity, commented Rush Limbaugh.” If you want to see entire cities experience what happened on that cruise ship, then you stand by idly and let the environmentalist wackos have their way and encroach very gradually on your freedom to use electricity that you pay for.”

The CDC doesn’t mention the bacteria in reusable bags

CDC is investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to chicken.

CDC’s food safety steps recommend which of the following to prevent foodborne illness from raw poultry? Find the answer here! http://go.usa.gov/4MQA:
A) Wash hands with warm soapy water for 20 seconds before and after handling raw poultry.
B) Cook raw poultry to 165°F using a food thermometer.
C) Refrigerate food promptly.
D) Separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from other food in your grocery shopping cart and in your refrigerator.

But they don’t mention the importance of washing the reusable bags—they are loaded with bacteria.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/rosenwald-md/post/your-reusable-shopping-bags-are-full-of-bacteria/2011/12/06/gIQA32nYZO_blog.html

Tutoring program only for children of color

What a dumb thing for a principal to do--he's just told minority children that they are the only kids in the school with academic problems, and the white kids can get a pass! It may not have been his intention to either discriminate against white children with learning problems or black kids with low self-esteem, but I believe he succeeded.  His excuse after the complaints rolled in?

“This is Andre Pearson [voicemail to upset white parent]. It’s focused for and designed for children of color, but certainly, if we have space for other kids who have needs, we can definitely meet those needs,”

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/02/13/parents-complain-about-school-ad-for-colored-only-tutoring-program/

So why would a tutoring program only be designed for children of color in the first place?  Could it be that they’ve been subjected to lower/different expectations all along?

President Who?

I'd love to say, "President Walker," or "President Jindal," or "President Rubio," but it will probably be someone not on the radar yet. Let's not chase special interest groups like the Democrats, where blacks vote 90% for a guy because of his skin color and still get stuck with the highest unemployment rate, and liberals get an attack of belated white guilt; let's go after ideas that help the whole country.

Water didn’t hurt Ted Kennedy’s career

Fussy about my orange juice

We drink a lot of orange juice, my husband more than I.  And over the years I’ve learned to avoid certain off brands (cartons designed to look like name brands) because they are either tasteless or bitter.  In the Alchemist Newsletter today I read about a disease that may cause that.

Oranges that are not "in the pink" can be detected using NMR spectroscopy, according to work by scientists at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) based in Fort Pierce, Florida. The researchers have used the amino acid composition of juice from oranges to identify those grown on trees infected with HLB, Huanglongbing, a pathogen that causes citrus greening disease. The study should allow fruit growers and processors to identify problem batches before products based on the citrus fruit, such as fruit juices, are manufactured. Additionally, work that leads to a better understanding of how the pathogen affects the amino acid profile of the fruit might lead to agrochemicals to inhibit infection in the first place.

Liberal Logic and Conservative Compassion

Liberal logic

Best quote of the evening

A real boondoggle for the phone companies.

This probably called a fee, not a tax, but it is, and it is soaring.

"The U.S. government spent about $2.2 billion last year to provide phones to low-income Americans, but a Wall Street Journal review of the program shows that a large number of those who received the phones haven’t proved they are eligible to receive them.

The Lifeline program—begun in 1984 [under Reagan] to ensure that poor people aren’t cut off from jobs, families and emergency services—is funded by charges that appear on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone customer. Payouts under the program have shot up from $819 million in 2008, as more wireless carriers have persuaded regulators to let them offer the service."

http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/02/12/obama-phone-scam-cost-taxpayers-big-bucks-last-year-19952

BO and FDR, two peas in a porridge

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) compared Obama favorably to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) after the SOTU speech last night. She might want to reconsider. To get elected, FDR promised he would be a fiscal conservative in 1932 after the liberal Hoover set the stage for really big government intervention in the economy after the crash of 1929 creating many new programs.  But FDR made things worse and kept the country mired in a Great Depression that lasted over 10 years. Our grandparents kept reelecting him—just like today’s know nothings reelected Obama last November despite his failures to turn the economy around.

Eleanor, his wife, was actually unhappy when things started to turn around during WWII because all the men and many of the women were employed in the war effort. (Even her most love-struck biographers acknowledge this.)  She wasn't done planning every detail of citizens' lives yet.  And like Obama, FDR hurt the little guy first with new excise taxes on everything from gum to movie tickets.  In 2009, Obama raised cigarette taxes, even though it was long ago proven that the poor do not respond to punishments in order to improve their health, and in 2013, he’s raising gasoline taxes 18%, which won’t stop the rich from taking trips, but will certainly hurt the middle class and low income driving to work.

How the New Deal hurt millions of poor people

Obama had a message for the youth vote last night

Badly worded signage

A parking lot sign at Giant Eagle is in desperate need of another clause or some punctuation.

"Expectant mothers and fathers with new born children parking only."

Each time I see it I wonder about that expectant father, or the mother of a new born who is pregnant already, or the adoptive mom with a new born. I'm suggesting,

"Please let customers with young children park here."

A new born is certainly easier to wrangle than a couple of cranky toddlers, and doesn't grandma or nanny need to park close too?

40 years later. . .

My set of Revere Ware is probably about 40 years old, but I only learned to use the steamer basket within the last year. Smack my head! Can't believe how easy this is. I used to boil green beans to mush and they were still tasteless and hard. 7 minutes. That's it. It's never too late to learn those new tricks, ladies.

If he can’t get it in taxes, he’ll start on our savings

Today we're meeting with our financial advisor, Dave. My tax deferred account says I have to spread this out almost another 24 years (only my uncle Leslie Weybright has lived that long in my family). But that assumes Obama doesn't decide that taking our income is not enough, he wants our wealth. Is it fair that I put away 15% of my income every month I was employed, in addition to the state required pension withdrawals, and some other twit was out getting her nails done, night clubbing, or taking fabulous vacations. Shouldn't she, in the president's reasoning, get some of my common sense?

Marco Rubio, a voice of sanity in a tax and spend world

"[Obama’s] solution to virtually every problem we face is for Washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more," Rubio said of the president. "And the idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hardworking middle class taxpayers - that's an old idea that's failed every time it's been tried. More government isn't going to help you get ahead. It's going to hold you back. More government isn't going to create more opportunities. It's going to limit them."

Yes, it’s the old, failed way—FDR tried for over 10 years and kept us mired in a Depression--and they say conservatives are stuck in the past.

Rand Paul in his response said something like, “What the president fails to grasp. . .” then something about hard work.  Look guys, this president is not dumb and he knows exactly what he is doing and has the steps laid out to destroy initiative, self-reliance, the rewards of hard work, and anything else the founders had in mind.

Where are the Benghazi survivors?

There are still many unanswered questions despite what Obama’s PR machine reports. (Jay Carney says all questions have been settled.)

Are they being protected?  Hidden?  Imprisoned?

Are they dead?  Never existed?

Homicides are at an all time low

Homicides are at an all time low. Even one murder is too many, but when ever we start to make progress, be it racism, disease, accidents, poverty, suicide, homicide (all of which are at all time lows according to government stats), there are groups whose jobs depend on keeping the issue alive and in the public view. It would "disarm" the left if they were to report that we are not a horrible, awful country that needs their fix.

Gitmo closing was so yesterday; today it is drones

The Constitution guarantees due process for American citizens. The drone program used against Americans is illegal. Where are all those pro-bono, hot-shot lawyers who rushed to Gitmo to protect the rights of non-Americans who were captured in combat? (Whom the president has left in limbo, by the way.)

I ticked off 17 problems with his first year, and remember, in those days he was still against gay marriage.

The Obama Doctrine: Kill don’t capture

Today is fat Tuesday and tomorrow is Ash Wednesday

Carnival comes from Latin and means "to stop eating meat." In the 1500s, "carnival" time was the last three days before the Christian season of Lent. Lent is 40 days (Sundays aren't counted) before Easter of repentance and moderation or fasting in the Western church tradition. It was the last chance to eat meat until Easter. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, when the cooks used up all the fat before the Lenten fast. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when Christians go to church and have the sign of the cross made on their foreheads from last year's palms from Palm Sunday (usually purchased because it is very hard to make your own ashes, at least at our church).