The Ghost In The Machine

Article

Einstein said there were only two things which were infinite--the universe and human stupidity, and he wasn't sure about the universe. According to the above linked article, the blame for this lies within technology.

Our kids are stupid. Evil demons inside the technology contraptions have done this to them. Somebody call the Ghostbusters.

Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter "literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else."

Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her "kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger."

Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores. Take-out and drive-through meals have replaced home cooking. And busy families who can afford it often outsource house-cleaning and lawn care.

"It's so all laid out for them," said Maushart, author of the forthcoming book "The Winter of Our Disconnect," about her efforts to wean her family from its dependence on technology. "Having so much comfort and ease is what has led to this situation — the Velcro sneakers, the Pull-Ups generation. You can pee in your pants and we'll take care of it for you!"

When I was a child, I had only ever used a conventional can opener. One year we went on vacation. We bought some corned beef hash. My dad handed me a P-38 can opener and asked me to open the can. I didn't know how to use it. Rather than allow me to stare blankly and starve to death, he did the unthinkable--he showed me how to use it!

True story.

OMG, Tron! A can! How will we ever open it???

Where are we as a society when we really believe technological advances are a bad thing? What has happened to us that we blame technology for bad parenting and the obvious consequences which follow?

Velcro was made to make things easier. One of its many uses is to keep shoes on your feet. It's easier to strap your shoes on with velcro than it is to tie your shoes with laces. This is called an advancement.

Ignorance is not stupidity. Ignorance is the lack of knowledge. Therefore, the child is ignorant because he hasn't been taught. The parent is stupid. Stupidity is the lack of quickness or keenness of mind to understand ordinary concepts. It also means you lack the power to teach these ordinary (simple) concepts or rules to others. There's a cure for ignorance; it is called Education. There is no cure for stupidity; as a wise sage once said, it is forever, and some say it should hurt.

There is a little thing, that apparently is widely unheard of, called Learned Behavior. The idea is, that certain behavior is learned. More importantly, there is certain behavior which has to be learned. If you always have had velcro shoes, or your parents have always tied your shoes for you, you're not going to know how to tie your shoes.

It generally takes five to ten minutes of your precious time to teach your child how to tie their shoes...assuming they have laced shoes. You may, in some cases, have to show them more than once, but eventually, they'll figure it out. Sure, this may take up your shopping time, perhaps even your drinking and partying time, but in the end it will pay off. Trust me.

When I was a child, technology had changed. There was really no need for me to know how a well pump worked; we had a house with modern running water. I didn't really need to know about an outhouse, or the application of corn cobs in such situations. Yet, I knew because my parents did and they relayed it to me.

So, you might come to the conclusion that you're dealing with a bunch of bad parents. This is closer to the real cause; however, what we're really dealing with are stupid people who are so overwhelmed with the latest technological advances and consumed with nostalgia, that they are blaming the new hotness for the old and busted.

Technological advances are a good thing. I can't wait to reach the future generation where all they know is that you defecate into the porcelain bowl and the glowy red laser disintegrates it. Trust me, I won't be whining about how I remember when you had to flush or use paper, and how the kids today are morons because they don't know how to wipe.

Today we are in a special moment. We are in that moment when it's out with the old and in with the new. We should not only appreciate and revel in this moment, we should rejoice in it. Instead, we're condemning it and blaming it on our inability to conform.

That is completely shameless, and dare I say: STUPID!

Cosmetic Brain Surgery...I Thought Of It First!

There is violence in The Congo. Ashley Judd wants to believe it is caused by The Smarty Phones. She also wants to believe that someday they will have cosmetic brain surgery, and then she can be as smart as she is pretty. I haven't decided if I want to break the news to her or not.

In a featured article on the CNN website, Ashley Judd and John Prendergast go to some links (Yes, welcome to the 3D age) to dramatize the brutal gang rape of Kika, a local Mother Theresa type, by the local militia. It also details how when her brother tried to intervene, they first tried to make him rape her as well, and when he refused, they stabbed him to death.

Even though it sounds like the opening five minutes of a Sylvester Stallone movie, it doesn't change that it is definitely on the more gruesome side of human interactions. It also doesn't change the severity of it.

However, where Ashley jumps the fence and flies off to Alpha Centauri, is when she then blames this behavior on Electronics. Apparently, these evil militia types are being funded and given their power over this region by all of the money they are making from mining rare minerals which are used in electronic components.

So the issue isn't that one human being would behave this way and commit atrocities on another human being. It isn't that people who would act in such a fashion would do so over a doughnut (Bran Muffins probably aren't appealing enough). They only do it because they can mine rare minerals and sell them to Intel.

Wow, this really is starting to sound more and more like a Sylvester Stallone movie, but I'll be nice to Sly and say Van Damme.

So we can't be as bold and brash as Mad Mel and say all the troubles of the World are caused by the Jews--and trust me, she wants to. No, monkey see, monkey do. Obama talks out against technology and electronics, so let's just blame all of our troubles on the iPad.

Steve Jobs and Hitler, like peas in a pod...an iPod.

Let's face it, anything those people could get their hands on to make a buck would go to funding a dictatorial regime to oppress the people. So it's tungsten and tantalum today, but when the market falls through that, you know they're going to do whatever they can to keep it going--even bottle water.

MmmMmm. Good ol' CongoWater. It tastes just like wholesale rape and murder. Every Hollywood Celebrity will have a bottle in their hands on the red carpet within a week, but don't worry, I'm sure they'll leave the iPhones at home.

Pay It Forward

More than likely, not even God knows where my mind was when I wrote this, but I was going through some of my accrued poetry and found this:

Grim Inheritance

Broken perceptions
linger in an afterglow
of humiliated defeat.

Persecuting a withered intellect.

A soul is left hollow by
a hastened amputation
of self-worth.

Generating a lack of remorse.

Punishment is bestowed
upon an innocent bystander
in a vindictive wrath.

Terminating all hope.

An immediate smirk came to my face when I read it. Perhaps it's a bit melodramatic, but the precision and minimalism it was written with made me feel good about it. Even the title seemed appropriate.

Death And Taxes

"The only things certain in life are death and taxes." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Death and taxes may be certain, but we don't have to die every year." -- Unknown

Today I received a newsletter from my Congressman:

I wanted to share an update with you on the potential effects of allowing significant provisions of the current tax code to expire.

As you know, Congress passed a series of pro-family and pro-growth tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. However these tax cuts expire at the end of 2010. I strongly support making these tax cuts permanent because a massive $3.8 trillion tax increase would hurt families, seniors and retirees, and cripple job creation efforts.

Families that benefited from an expansion of the child tax credit and the end of the marriage tax penalty will see their taxes go up dramatically. Thirty-one million families will pay more than $1,000 per year in taxes if the child credit expires, while 35 million families will pay on average nearly $600 more annually from a return of the marriage penalty. The income tax increases affect every taxpayer but also impact 75% of small businesses. Small businesses create nearly three-quarters of all new jobs and employ more than half of all workers – they can’t afford this tax hike.

Additionally the capital gains and dividend tax increases will affect investors and business, but also seniors. IRS data shows that seniors earned 48% of dividend income and 30% of all capital gains income in 2008. Massive tax hikes on fixed income retirees is the wrong prescription.

Finally, the death tax will be reinstated at 55%. The federal government should not have a right to half of your assets when you die, and Congress should keep its promise by permanently eliminating this tax, which costs billions of dollars in compliance. In fact, I led the floor debate in favor of permanently eliminating this tax in the House.

Uncertainty over tax levels is one significant factor holding back our economy. Businesses, families and investors are facing tremendous hurdles. Congress should fully and permanently extend these tax cuts to help our economy recover and help families and seniors keep more of what they earn.

Congressman Dean Heller - Second District of Nevada

Raising taxes at the present time, whether it's through imposing new taxes or letting old tax breaks expire, is possibly the most insane idea they could have. Notice I said possibly, because it's obvious someone was completely bat-shit crazy when they thought up a Death Tax in the first place, but the guy who decided to make it 55% must have been huffing the same glue Michael Moore is.

Don't nibble on the barrel...

These people in Washington aren't simply out of touch with Americans, they're out of contact. They don't just live in their own world, they're on a completely different planet some 3,000,000,000 light-years away.

The worst part, is that voting them out isn't an absolute. It's a great start, it's our best choice at this point in time, but it doesn't guarantee it will change anything. These people didn't go to Washington and get contaminated and corrupted by the system; these people were like this before they ever got to Washington. That means there are more where they came from. How do we know that the people we replace them with aren't just version 2.0 from the same Communist Meth-lab we got these brain donors from?

"The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination." -- Ronald Reagan

Thankfully it's Friday, so I can forget about all of this until Monday, when we find out what new bills Congress had to pass so we can find out what's in them. Have a nice weekend.

Yeah, Yeah, I'm Still Here.

If only I had time for the long-winded sigh that I feel like letting out right about now. If there is one thing you could tell anyone who actively takes part in political and social discourse, it would be: Dude, go get a hobby. As it turns out, that's what I did.

I could go on and on about how hectic life has been lately, or various other matters I have been dealing with over the last few months. Obviously, they would all be lame excuses. The simple truth is, I have just found other things I have been more interested in than writing endlessly about how stupid the World has become.

Even more to the point, it is a lot more fun playing with guns than it is words. Between working on personal writings such as short stories and screenplays, and buying and shooting firearms, I've just given a pass to the ol' Blog.

It doesn't just look badass...it is.

No, that doesn't mean I'm any less polarized against society, it just means .45 ACPs and Shotguns beats you. That's right Society--Checkmate.

Then when you add into that reloading ammunition and everything that's entailed in that, it's just too tempting to pass the office and head outside.

My love for writing has not waned; however, so it's time for me to start pushing myself and writing this Blog once again. So, beyond my personal stuff, sports shooting, writing, and my dog, I will have to begin once again to come up with interesting daily articles. Don't worry, today is exempt from the "interesting" status. Don't be surprised if I skip a day for hunting.

Webspace Oddity

The lack of editing and editorial control in the media often makes me shake my head. As much as a lot of these people are being paid and given the amount of them, you'd think a typo or boo-boo would be the exception rather than the rule. Today's strange anomaly has me wondering just what is behind it.

This morning, I followed my regular routine of sitting in front of my computer and sifting through the headlines via Google News. That's when I came across this:


After the jaw-dropping double-take, I clicked on the link:

**http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/obama-wes-still-headed-in-the-right-direction/1**

Even though the headline on Google News from above read "We's" and it was in the link itself, the articles' headline was different:


Google News, the link, and the article itself have since been changed as of about 9:30AM PST.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/07/obama-on-jobs-we-are-headed-in-the-right-direction/1

All of this begs to question: Is this an incident of blinding racism that slipped through the cracks, or just a blunder of cosmically unlucky coincidence? In either event, I think I can speak for all of us when I say, we's all very interested to find out.

Chinese Arithmetic

I was going to entitle this article: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Speak to the Voices In Al Franken's Head, but that was just too long-winded. Much like any thought that has ever come out of Al Franken's brain. It also was too all-encompassing and perfect. With a title like that, there's little room for a story. You might as well cut and print, cause you said it all. Runners-up were: Who Didn't See That Coming? and Vaseline Sales Skyrocket, Experts Say: 'No End In Sight.'

With a week which included a massive disaster of an oil spill, The Audacity To Tell A Mexican "No", The Great Elena Kagan Scare of 2010, and 75% of Washington, D.C. running scared for their jobs, it's little wonder the Democrats got winded this week, giving a small victory of sorts to the Republicans.

John Boehner got to tell everyone I told you so this week when the Congressional Budget Office reported that the Health Care Bill will cost an additional $115 Billion. This would bring the original $938 Billion bill to over $1 Trillion, as was predicted by Republicans, but furiously denied by House Democrats.

So take a moment to let this sink in...the Democrats lied to us.

NOW it makes sense!

Now, normally this would be the part where we scream "NO!" and fall down the exhaust shaft. However, the response was more of: "Hey, slow news day, let's check out The View." In all seriousness, who was surprised at this?

If you're a conservative-minded American and are opposed the Health Care Bill, as most Americans are, you knew this already and were just waiting for the moment when the Democrats would have to come clean. If you're a liberal-minded American who is for the Health Care Bill, you don't care that it's going to cost more, because it's not your money being spent anyway.

So as the Spin Doctors start crawling out of their crevasses like cockroaches, let me spare you a lot of time and trouble. This isn't a political move by Republicans. This information is true. The information is not being misinterpreted, over-exaggerated, or skewed. The Democrats lied. The End.

Now, some of you may be thinking this is an unfair summation. You may also be wondering how I came to this conclusion. Well, unlike the Chinese Arithmetic used to concoct the numbers on the Health Care Bill, this equation was as easy as 1+1=2.

The Democrats always lie, because they have to. Their political views and agendas are so completely off base from that of the American people, that they have to lie. They have to lie, cheat, steal, conspire, connive, and anything else that their corrupt, diseased minds can think of, because there is no other way for them to pull off their endgame. In their minds, the American people won't buy it any other way.

Which is perfect, because it completely plays into their entire ethos of elitist tripe. After all, anyone who is not one of "them" is so stupid and uneducated, there's no way they wouldn't be stupid and gullible enough to fall for it. We're like mushrooms to them. If they keep us in the dark and feed us full of manure, we'll just keep soaking it up.

Everything they stand for is 180 degrees from anything American or what America is about. They are the enemy of the American people. More so than the Terrorists or any other threat we face, they are the enemy within. While we fight wars abroad in a vain attempt to keep the enemy at bay, these Progressive Socialists are right here in this country, and they are trying to destroy us and our way of life by using our own rules against us.

Sorry Liberal Leftists, I just outed you. Do you think we can still be friends?

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not an endorsement for the GOP in any way. If you think you're going to solve this problem by hanging your hat on the Republican ticket, think again. The RNC is in shambles. They have completely forgot who they are and what they stand for. There isn't a single eligible Republican Candidate out there who has the cojones to be a real Conservative and stand up for the American people and against their own party. At this point in time, I would frankly be leery of any one of them who did, because the odds of it being a sheer political ploy to get elected so they can continue with politics-as-usual would be 20-1 and the fix is in.

So what is the answer? The only answer to our current problems is obvious and crystalline in nature. We need to completely clean house. We need to boot out every incumbent and replace them with new blood. What we can't replace in this election, we need to replace in 2012--including Obama himself. Regime change, American-style.

The American public needs to send a message to Washington, clearly and succinctly--we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore. We're done with you. Goodbye and good riddance.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Like many Americans, I watched C-SPAN for the better part of yesterday. I watched as the Democrat controlled Congress won their "victory" on Health Care. At least we were told it was a victory. In all actuality, what we witnessed was our own Congressional Representatives micturating on the very document they swore to protect and uphold.

I'm not sure which was more ironic. That the party that calls themselves Democrats acted in a manner which completely defied everything within the ethos of Democracy, or that our Congress voted into effect a day to commemorate the Cold War Veterans while voting in the biggest piece of Socialist Legislation in the history of this country at the same time. Somehow, I think all of those men and women who fought, periled, and perished in the fight against Communism and Socialism do not feel honored by this.

For years now, I have heard many people refer to Liberals, Democrats, and the Left as Communists and Socialists. I myself have noticed these behavioral patterns and have used these terms to describe them. However, after yesterday, watching their complete incompetence and ineptitude, I wondered to myself: Just how good a Communist are they? After some minor research, I came to the conclusion: Not very.

The key to successfully destroying Capitalism is having a really big beard...

To truly understand Communism, you have to start with the father of the ideology--Karl Marx. The basic concept of Marxism revolves around a theory that Capitalism, like Feudalism before it, is a flawed socioeconomic system which will eventually fail and be replaced by Socialism. Socialism would, in turn, lead to a "stateless, classless society" he called Pure Communism.

In order for this to happen, a transitional period which he termed "The Dictatorship of the Proletariat" had to occur. Marx believed there were two basic classes in a Capitalist society. The Bourgeoisie (Capitalists--e.g. Entrepreneurs) and the Proletariat (Working Class). In order for Socialism to come into effect, the Proletariat had to rise up against the Bourgeoisie and take over causing this Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

According to Rosa Luxemburg, a turn of the century Marxist theorist and philosopher:

"This dictatorship consists in the manner of applying democracy, not in its elimination, but in energetic, resolute attacks upon the well-entrenched rights and economic relationships of bourgeois society, without which a socialist transformation cannot be accomplished. This dictatorship must be the work of the class, and not of a little leading minority in the name of the class — that is, it must proceed step by step out of the active participation of the masses; it must be under their direct influence, subjected to the control of complete public activity; it must arise out of the growing political training of the mass of the people."

Given this definition, the only conclusion one can come to is: If the Liberals are really Communists, they are failing miserably. 75% of Americans did not want anything to do with the Health Care Bill. They not only didn't want it passed, they wanted it killed. If this isn't a "little leading minority in the name of the class," I don't know what is. They may control the Congress, but this is 253 people speaking for 308.9 million people--3/4 of which are opposed to their agenda.

Adding further insult to injury, Marxist canon is fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy. Marx believed that the capitalist state cannot be democratic by its nature, because it represents the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. He viewed liberal democracy as an "unrealistic utopia," because in a capitalist state all "independent" media and most political parties are controlled by capitalists and one either needs large financial resources or to be supported by the bourgeoisie to win an election.

After researching this, it is little wonder that most Left-Wing ideologues have largely rejected Marx and Marxism. This raises the question: If you reject Karl Marx and the philosophies of Marxism, how can you call yourself a Communist? The answer is, you can't.

This leads us to one final question: They're not Americans, they're not Capitalists, they're not Socialists, they're not Communists...so what are they? In a word, culls.

Behind The Deuce

Article

Today the penultimate case in the decades long battle over the 2nd Amendment is being presented before The Supreme Court of the United States of America. McDonald v. City of Chicago will finally decide the question: Does the regulation and legislation of the inalienable right of the 2nd Amendment lie within the hands of the Federal Government or the hands of the individual States?

For more than 25 years now, anti-gun lobbyists and the left-wing fringe have tried to impose gun regulations and bans based on a notion that the meaning and intent of the 2nd Amendment was up to interpretation, and that there was no clear judicial interpretation or precedent of either the Amendment itself or of the Founding Fathers' intent.

Today, as The Supreme Court hears McDonald v. City of Chicago, they will have to make that judicial interpretation. Even though their decision isn't expected until the end of June, they will have to decide--once and for all--what the 2nd Amendment means.

It's a Right the Left needs to stay out of.

In 2008, the Supreme Court's ruling on District of Columbia v. Heller decided that it was an individuals right to "keep and bear arms." It also decided that handguns were indeed "arms." It further stated that the Federal Government did not have the right to dictate to an individual citizen whether they could:

A. Have firearms within their household for private use.

B. Store a loaded firearm within said household.

C. Regulate or Legislate terms on the functionality of a firearm (e.g., disassembly or trigger-locks.) within said household.

Although it seemed like a major breakthrough, the victory was bittersweet. Even though it did break ground on the issue, the decision only referred to Federal Enclaves (Washington, D.C.), it did not specify whether or not this should apply to States, Counties, or Cities. Because the District of Columbia was a Federal Enclave, the city was using that as a loophole to allow for the ban.

It was also stated by the court:

"Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms."

McDonald v. City of Chicago will now have to decide whether a State or any other ruling body has the right to regulate or legislate gun policy other than The United States Government. Additionally, NRA v. City of Chicago is being heard separately, but in conjunction with McDonald. The NRA's case will pose the question of the constitutionality of a regulation which disallows the registration of handguns.

The Supreme Justices seemed to be all over the map today while hearing McDonald v. City of Chicago, which means not only will the final decision be interesting, there will be a lot of finger-crossing, teeth-gritting, and hand-wringing going on up to the last minute. However, given the scope of District of Columbia v. Heller, and its direct ruling on the classification of handguns being "arms," I predict a ruling will be made in the NRA's favor on NRA v. City of Chicago.

March Madness

Many Americans watched last week as President Obama crashed and burned during The Great Health Care Summit. Let's face it, when all you are is smoke and mirrors, you don't let the curtain down. Meaning, he was more well liked when people knew less about him. Americans being able to see him in action caused a backlash from both sides of the issue. Even his biggest fanboy Matt Damon has backed out from under him.

However, I had the great displeasure of catching his weekly address yesterday. It has been clear from the beginning that he knows every cheap parlor trick in the book, but he went way too far this time. Using the Olympics, the Olympic Spirit, and teamwork as a segue to a yes-we-can-let's-work-as-a-team prank to sell a dying health care bill to Americans was as stale as that pretzel that's been under the couch cushions since last July.

Watch out, Barack, your slip is showing.

The problem is, you can't sell Socialized Medicine to Americans. Even if you label it "Health Care," "Health Care Reform," "Government-run Health Care," or "Free Jujyfruits For Everyone," you're never going to sell it. It is especially hard to sell when you're using it as a veil to hide an unmistakable Democratic power grab. Add to that, all of your main objectives like Tort Reform, Mandatory Coverage, and Government Regulation are completely illegal, unconstitutional, and beyond the Powers of Congress outlined within the U.S. Constitution--et voila!--you have another dead whale on the beach.

Mmm...Jujyfruits.

As both an American and a member of what is affectionately known as "The Public," it further polarizes me against the entire issue when I see articles like this: Article

Even as President Obama prepares to convene a televised summit on health care reform designed to showcase his newfound commitment to “bipartisanship,” the White House and congressional Democrats have been finalizing their plans to ram through a health care bill using a little-known and seldom-used parliamentary gimmick known as “reconciliation.”

For those not versed in the arcane rules of the U.S. Senate, reconciliation is not what a divorced couple attempts when they visit Dr. Phil. It is a mechanism for avoiding filibusters on certain budgetary issues. If Democrats can find a way to apply it to health care reform, they could pass a bill with just 51 votes, negating the election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and the loss of the 60-seat supermajority.

Reconciliation was established in 1974 to make it easier for Congress to adjust taxes and spending in order to “reconcile” actual revenues and expenditures with a previously approved budget resolution. Thus, at the end of the year, if Congress found that it was running a budget deficit higher than previously projected, it could quickly raise taxes or cut spending to bring the budget back into line. Debate on such measures was abbreviated to just 20 hours (an eyeblink in Senate terms), and there could be no filibuster.

We're supposed to believe they just thought of this in last minute desperation. We're also supposed to forget that Obama has been trying to associate Health Care Reform with the Economy for months now. The present state of the Health Care System has little to no effect on the state of the economy to begin with, but it clearly has nothing whatsoever to do with the present state of the economy. Passing a 1.6 trillion dollar health care bill only affects the economy in one way: It puts us that much further in debt. Yet, if we can tie them together, then we can spin it so it becomes a "budgetary issue," and then we can use Reconciliation to close the deal.

Nevermind, Obama hasn't been laying the groundwork for this for months, this really is just a last minute act of desperation to pass a highly debated, extremely controversial health care bill that the majority of Americans do not want. I'm going to go back to eating my free Jujyfruits. I heard a rumor that they're made out of Kool-Aid. Delicious.

Besides, I'm sure he has better things to concern himself with, like licking his wounds after the special kick to the groin he received today when Warren Buffet, a name Obama liked to drop every five minutes on the Campaign Trail, said the Health Care Bill needed to be scrapped.

The Deep End

There's an infamous scene in the movie Se7en, where Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are taking Kevin Spacey's "John Doe" to a remote location to inevitably decide their fates. In the car on the way there, Pitt asks Spacey if he knew the exact moment when he lost his mind.

Well, if you ever wondered the same thing, do psychopaths know the exact moment when they lose their minds, here's what it looks like:

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich

Tom Selleck's Portuguese speaking mustache

loves fluffernutters as much as Flipper...

According to the artist, Greg Szmurlo, creator of the web site Selleck Waterfall Sandwich, he was inspired by a recent dream he had of Tom Selleck eating a sandwich in a beautiful, springtime meadow. "Tom Selleck's mustache spoke to me in Portuguese and told me to 'make this dream a reality.' But on second thought, the mustache insisted on the use of a waterfall setting instead of a meadow."

Incredibly, we're told Selleck has heretofore made no comment. Although it is rare, occasionally, we are graced with a healthy dose of literalism. This is clearly a case where someone has literally gone off the deep end. The deep end of the falls...

Oh, Really?

Words cannot express the feelings I have at the moment about last night's State of the Union address by President Barack Obama. However, I will do my best to try.

Basically what "We the people" heard last night was this:

1. Barack Obama has learned nothing.

2. He will continue with politics as usual.

3. He has completely lost touch with the American people, as well as reality.

4. He will continue to campaign and organize, rather than lead this Country to better times and present the proper solutions to its ever worsening problems.

5. Our President is an elitist bore, who will never admit that he is inexperienced, incompetent, and incapable of learning from his mistakes.

Your Commander and Con.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us with three more horrible years of partisan politics where every month of inaction and ineffective policies will set us back years. For every month that passes that the current situation continues, we will be set back at a minimum of one year.

That is fact, ladies and gentlemen. It's not over-dramatized Nostradamus prophesy. This is reality.

In this fine country, we have what is called a Democracy. A Democracy cannot work without Capitalism. Capitalism is the very blood that flows within the veins of our way of life. This is why Communism and Socialism never lasts, because without Capitalism, a form of Government cannot survive. Capitalism equals Freedom. There is no clearer equation than that.

Through Obama's actions and inactions, he is killing Capitalism in this country. Everything he is actually doing is killing Capitalism, and everything he is NOT doing is killing Capitalism. Believe it or not, not acting at all is as harmful as taking the wrong action. That is why in leadership, taking action and making a mistake is still better than sitting on your hands and doing nothing because you don't have the courage to do so.

Hence the saying, "It is better to burn out, than to fade away". If you make a mistake, at least you tried. At least you weren't lukewarm, wishy-washy, Laodicean. You made a decision and you acted on it. Yes, it didn't work out, but you didn't sit on your hands. You didn't mess yourself and dive in. You stood up and took a chance, even in the face of grave danger. This is what makes the difference between the Shepherd and the Sheep.

Obama is vanilla. He is nothing. He will do whatever it takes to remain popular...oh wait, that's right, he does NOTHING.

Yet, the most important attribute of a leader, is someone who can learn from their mistakes. If you cannot learn from your mistakes, that means you completely lack common sense, and without commons sense, you might as well walk out into the rain with your head up and your mouth open and drown.

Obama does not learn from his mistakes. He is an elitist. He believes HE knows what's best for you and that you aren't smart enough to know what that is. He has a Congressional and Senatorial majority who believes the same. So what can you draw from that? Three more years of the same catastrophe.

In the days, weeks, months, and years to come, we are going to see a polarized America. We will see a country who will increasingly reject President Obama. Before his term is over, we will witness the most hated, loathed President to ever hold office. We will see the first time a United States President has crashed and burned into flames. Through all of the catastrophes Americans have witnessed, this will be the hardest.

It will be harder than the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It will be harder than the disgrace of Richard M. Nixon. The American people are in for some hard times. One can only hope they will be prepared. The real question here; however, is how will HE react to this? Will Obama's reaction to this situation be catastrophic? Or will he just continue with his current modus operandi and just fade away?

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire.

Article

I originally expressed my disgust and dismay October over the incident which happened at Richmond High in Richmond, California. Words cannot express my feelings at this moment at the horror and disgust I feel today.

A 15-year-old girl was raped by two men Friday night after the assailants and two other men forced her into a car at gunpoint in Richmond, the same city where a high school student was gang raped after leaving her homecoming dance in October, police said Saturday.

The girl attacked Friday was walking to her Richmond home at 5 p.m. when four men in a black Buick pulled up to her on Cutting Boulevard near Stege Avenue, police Sgt. Bisa French said.

The girl did not know the men and refused to answer as they called out to her several times, police Lt. Mark Gagan said.

One of the men then jumped from the car and forced her inside at gunpoint, the girl told police. They drove around for several hours before stopping at an unknown location, where two of the men sexually assaulted her, French said.

They released her near the bus turnaround at Contra Costa Community College, where a San Pablo police officer found her around midnight, Gagan said. She was taken to a hospital and received a sexual assault exam, then was released.

Police said the girl described the men as being in their 20s; one was African American with long dreadlocks and had the word "money" tattooed on the side of his neck, she said. No one has been arrested.

"When you have someone taken off the street at gunpoint and sexually assaulted, these suspects are looking at life in prison," Gagan said.

I have to fight back the urge to vomit as I read this story. I was extremely dismayed at the incident which happened in October, as a poor girl was repeatedly raped for two and a half hours right outside a high school gymnasium which was supposedly guarded by several police officers and security guards. After seeing this, I have no doubt that not only, should all of the police officers of the Richmond California Police Department be fired, they should be prosecuted for gross negligence. This makes me so disgusted and enraged, I feel like packing up a kit and going over to Richmond to serve up some vigilante justice ala Charles Bronson in Death Wish.

Don't worry, it's just the Richmond Police...Carry on.

What exactly are they doing in Richmond? They're still looking for the quote "seventh suspect" in the original offense, and this happens. It sounds to me like, the Richmond Police are beyond just being incompetent, it sounds to me like they are in on it! So much for Richmond being a good community and that we should not judge them based on this one incident. I think they got their one pass, and now they need to face the music.

This is beyond gross negligence. This is beyond incompetence. This is beyond societal neglect. There is a real problem in Richmond California, and something needs to be done about it. For something this vile and preposterous to happen once is one thing. For it to happen twice shows a clear and present problem which needs to be investigated and addressed. Some officials need to go to jail over this. I say we start with Lt. Mark Gagan, the man who is oh so quick to jump in front of the cameras and grab all the press after he and his inept police force drop the ball.

Gagan said police do not believe there is any link between Friday's attack and the Oct. 24 gang rape of a 16-year-old Richmond High School girl. In that case, six young men ages 15 to 21 have been charged with sexually assaulting the sophomore, who police say was repeatedly raped for two hours after leaving the homecoming dance while as many as 20 people watched.

The attack took place on the Richmond High campus, about a mile and a half northwest of where the girl reported being kidnapped Friday.

On Friday, Richmond police said they were looking for a seventh suspect in the Richmond High rape, 43-year-old John Crane Jr. Investigators said Crane raped the victim while she was unconscious. They have not been able to locate him, despite an intensive manhunt.

Oh, really? Richmond is really that big of a place that an "intense manhunt" can ensue and no one is found? Well, okay, we'll be nice and buy that line, but guess what Mark, it happened AGAIN! Only a mile away on the same campus, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! Oh, but you're still looking for the seventh suspect for the original rape which happened over THREE MONTHS AGO! Who is to blame here? I wonder.