9/19/2010

Thoughts On A Sunday

Deb was in New York to attend her sister's wedding, having left The Manse Friday morning and returning late last night. Neither BeezleBub or I could attend due to work obligations.

Deb called me late yesterday afternoon, telling me about the wedding and about how she really wanted to come home. Instead of staying one more night at the hotel and returning this morning she decided to make the 6 hour drive back last night and pulled in here at The Manse just before 11PM. She never really sleeps well away from home so for her the decision whether or not to come home last night was an easy one for her to make.

I'm glad she did.

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It seems the GOP has failed to put any effort in to the Delaware Senate race, putting its focus more on the perceived shortcomings of the GOP candidate and not her Democrat opponent.

I'm surprised they haven't come right out and endorsed the Democrat and gotten it over with. After all, their hand-picked candidate Mike Castle was only slightly less liberal than the Democrat candidate.

It's quite obvious the GOP establishment has lost its way and has lost touch with the rank and file. No wonder so many of their candidates have lost to more conservative opponents.

It's tough enough when a candidate has to campaign against the candidate from the opposing party. It's worse when they have to battle their own party as well.

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This isn't a surprise to me: Poverty in the US has risen and it's no coincidence.

Of course the present Congress and the Obama Adminstration have nothing to to with it. It's all Geoge W. Bush's fault. NOT.

One commenter to this piece had the gall (or perhaps it was sheer ignorance) to take a page from the old Leftist playbook and try to claim poverty and wealth is a zero-sum game. If it is, it's because the same aforementioned Congress and President made sure poverty went up by their short-sightedness and use of long discredited 'fixes' to problems they themselves helped create.

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In regards to the rise in poverty: Poverty must be redefined in the US. As the News Junkie reminds us, those on “the lowest rung on the income ladder lives better lives today than the average middle-class Americans of the last generation.” I have to disagree with that somewhat. It should read “of two generations ago.” Things that many of us take for granted today didn't even exist back in the 1970's. And the material things that were part and parcel of middle class America back then are pretty much universal among the poverty-stricken. It's all a matter of perspective. In many respects most of those of us in America living in poverty would still be seen as wealthy in many other nations.

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The pressure during the most recent state primaries must have gotten to Markos Moulitsas, founder of the DailyKos, because he has clearly gone off the deep end.

He's had to try to figure out an excuse for the reversal in fortunes of his beloved Democrats, all the while bashing the right and writing a book that calls all conservatives “jihadists”. I guess all of that extra work is starting to go to his pompous head.

Covering the primaries extensively Tuesday night, Moulitsas rambled on about the usual moonbattery. 'All conservatives are racists.' Heard it. 'O'Donnell's inexperienced and dumb.' Heard that too. But taking a step outside of his usual delusions, Moulitsas decided to insult the founder of the nation's most accurate polling service, Scott Rasmussen.

Because it's likely the Democrats will have their heads handed to them this coming November 2nd, and Markos is incapable of understanding why the great unwashed masses have turned against the spendthrift and redistributionist Congress and President, he decides he needs to throw a tantrum? It's time for him to grow up.

As the saying goes, RTWT.

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As if we need any more proof that environmentalism has nothing to do with preserving the environment and more to do with control and feel-good hypocrisy, there's this little video about Hatteras Island, the US Park Service, and the Audubon Society and how the latter two have decided it's perfectly OK to twist and distort science in an effort to destroy the lives and livelihoods of the islanders all in the name of the environment.

Piping Mad: Fair People at the Mercy of a Government Gone Fowl from Kevin Hicks on Vimeo.

(H/T Wizbang)

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Gunned down by police in Las Vegas for being legally armed while shopping?

The victim in question, Erik Scott, committed no crime, threatened no one, and according to numerous eyewitness reports, was shot to death by Las Vegas police officers upon leaving the local Costco after trying to follow conflicting orders given to him by three different police officers. The same three officers that killed him.

Oh, yeah, that ought to help increase tourism. I know any thoughts I had of visiting Las Vegas any time in the future are gone.

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Other than rewriting the Constitution to suit his needs, it appears Obama has decided to edit the Declaration of Independence as well.

Care to hazard a guess what phrase he left out?

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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You've got to love it when the AGW crowd contradicts itself with reports coming to opposing conclusions. What makes it even better is when they “beclown themselves” by saying both contradictory reports are right.

Say what?

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Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus “apologizes” to the White House for being such a successful
bastard entrepreneur and creating 300,000 jobs in the process.

The gall of the man!

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The Constitution celebrated its 223rd birthday this past Friday. If you noticed, there wasn't a lot of hoopla about it, at least not in the media. Maybe it's time for that to change.

And who might we be thanking for that change?

Barack Obama.

It was on September 17, 1787, that 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the Constitution of the United States. There had been more delegates, but some had already left and three refused to sign the document.

The challenge for the Convention was in many ways the challenge we still face today: How to create a central government strong enough to perform the needed tasks to manage and defend the country, and yet limited enough to ensure that it doesn’t rob the people of their rights and freedoms.

While the Founding Fathers succeeded admirably, we have failed … miserably.

Indeed. We've seen the weakening of the Constitution in regards to our freedoms and the ever growing power of the federal government. We've seen that failure in our political leaders (Nancy Pelosi is one that comes to mind, with Barack Obama and members of his administration not too far behind).

In the past, the people may have not noticed. But this isn't the past, and we have noticed. And we're not going to take it any more.

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Glenn Reynolds has a number of links and comments about Senator Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) decision to run as an independent after her loss in the Alaska primary.

All I can say is that if she carries through she will guarantee a win for the Democrat challenger. But then again, it's really all about her and not about Alaska or the GOP.

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China and Germany have abandoned their old socialist economic and government models and have seen their economies expand, and in the case of Germany recover from the recession. Isn't it ironic then that Barack Obama wants to institute the very economic and bloated governmental systems these other nations have abandoned? Germany cut taxes, cut the seize of government, did away with much of the overly restrictive government regulations, and promoted more market freedom. They've already managed to work their way out of the recession and their economy is booming.

But here in the good ol' USA we have a President and a Democrat-majority Congress that seems to think imposing the very things that have made the economies of most of the rest of the EU total basket cases and trapped them in a recession would be just the thing we need here.

Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have proven Santayana's axiom: Those who choose to ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is warming up a bit, firewood is being stacked for the winter, and where boating season should last another 4 weeks...if we're lucky.