I've been MIA while working on a charity event for my daughter's school, so I thought I'd post some thoughts that have gone through my brain since my last post.
I was already less than thrilled with Obama's Leno appearance. I was aghast when he poked fun at the Special Olympics. "It's like — it was like Special Olympics, or something," he said in reference to his bowling game.
The man doesn't seem to have a filter. Every time he's separated from his beloved teleprompter, he blurts out something completely inappropriate and unbecoming of his position. He was barely in office when he blurted, "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances."
He has to be the world's worst gift giver. British PM Gordon Brown gifted the new President with an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet and a first edition of the seven-volume biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert, among other things. In return, Obama allegedly gave Brown a "special collector's box" of 25 classic American DVDs. DVDs which are unplayable in the UK without special converters.
Do we even need to talk about the Ipod/Queen fiasco?
Speaking of the Queen... I cannot believe that Michelle O. touched her. I understand that many people may not be aware of proper protocol regarding royalty, but as First Lady, you think she'd have brushed up on her What To Do When You Meet the Queen Skills.
Meanwhile, while Michelle wasn't showing enough respect to her Majesty, the POTUS was busy bowing at the waist to the king of Saudi Arabia. Are you kidding me? When I heard this, I honestly thought it was a joke, or a conspiracy theory. But I've seen the video. It's a clear bow. Anyone that says otherwise would probably try to argue that guns kill people, or spoons make people fat.
No wonder no one is investing in anything these days! We have a President that is so impetuous that he runs around showing himself subservient to leaders of conflict ridden countries, thinks it's entirely appropriate to give unplayable DVDs to PM Gordon Brown, goes around firing CEO's of private companies(GM), taxing the bonuses of those that had nothing to do with this financial mess other than have the misfortune of working for a company that received bailout money (AIG), and is refusing to accept repayment from the companies that want to give the money back!
It all seems like a bad dream. This administration has gone so far off the edge of sanity that people are finally starting to wake up. Little by little, the glitter is wearing off, and all that's left is a swarmy deceiver with no real experience, no conscience, no patriotism, and no desire to help anyone but himself.
Let's start taking our country and our freedoms back. I want freedom to fail. If I have freedom to fail, it also means that I have freedom to succeed.
Attend a Tax Day Tea Party rally this Saturday, and a Tea Party Protest next Wednesday, April 15th. For more information about finding one in your area, visit here.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Obama Makes History Yet Again
Although he's only been President for two months, Obama has already shattered many records set by previous leaders of the free world. Even in his first day in office, he managed to win the unofficial "Most Money Ever Spent on an Inauguration." Heck, his election itself made history, as he is the first black man to win the position.
He's had more criminals appointed to his cabinet than any other president in the history of our great country. One of them, Tim Geitner, actually had the balls to not step down, as Richardson and Daschle did. Attorney General Eric Holder openly calls US citizens cowards and implies that we're all racists. Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary not because he himself is a nasty dude, but because he just couldn't stomach the Obama Administrations plans for America.
He's spent more of our money in two months than George W. Bush spent in eight years.
I suppose this new record breaker seems like small beans in comparison to everything President Obama has accomplished since January, but it is definitely worth nothing. Tonight, he will become the first sitting president in history to appear on a talk show.
Wow, what a cool guy! Too bad coolness does not end recessions, create jobs, keep citizens safe, nor divert disasters such as ice storms, Mexican drug lord slayings, and shooting sprees in Alabama.
Coolness does not equal greatness. Celebrities should not become presidents. Can we please try to remember that in 2012?
He's had more criminals appointed to his cabinet than any other president in the history of our great country. One of them, Tim Geitner, actually had the balls to not step down, as Richardson and Daschle did. Attorney General Eric Holder openly calls US citizens cowards and implies that we're all racists. Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary not because he himself is a nasty dude, but because he just couldn't stomach the Obama Administrations plans for America.
He's spent more of our money in two months than George W. Bush spent in eight years.
I suppose this new record breaker seems like small beans in comparison to everything President Obama has accomplished since January, but it is definitely worth nothing. Tonight, he will become the first sitting president in history to appear on a talk show.
Wow, what a cool guy! Too bad coolness does not end recessions, create jobs, keep citizens safe, nor divert disasters such as ice storms, Mexican drug lord slayings, and shooting sprees in Alabama.
Coolness does not equal greatness. Celebrities should not become presidents. Can we please try to remember that in 2012?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
AIG Bailout Mess
So many people are up in arms about the 165 million dollar bonuses promised to AIG execs. In the MSM, I've heard such comments as, "It's not fair!" and, "Why should we reward failure?"
Why indeed?
Maybe politicians should have actually read the policies and contracts in place when they decided to hand over $170,000,000,000 in tax payer funds. That's money out of our paychecks. Even if you're part of the 40% or so of working Americans that don't pay income taxes, it's money out of your boss's paycheck, and guess what? That's less money he has to pay you. Don't be bitter if you don't get that raise this year, just be thankful that you still have a job.
Now that the deed is done, pay the AIG people the money that was promised them. Let it be a lesson. Next time, please read the fine print. And the lesson for you, John and Jane America? In 2010, let's vote some people into office that actual care about us "little people" just trying to make a living, ok?
Why indeed?
Maybe politicians should have actually read the policies and contracts in place when they decided to hand over $170,000,000,000 in tax payer funds. That's money out of our paychecks. Even if you're part of the 40% or so of working Americans that don't pay income taxes, it's money out of your boss's paycheck, and guess what? That's less money he has to pay you. Don't be bitter if you don't get that raise this year, just be thankful that you still have a job.
Now that the deed is done, pay the AIG people the money that was promised them. Let it be a lesson. Next time, please read the fine print. And the lesson for you, John and Jane America? In 2010, let's vote some people into office that actual care about us "little people" just trying to make a living, ok?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
California, Say Hello to the Delta Smelt!
Why should you say hello to this ugly, slimy little sea kitten? Because he is the reason your water bill is going through the roof and may be the cause of water rationing soon, as Governor Schwarzenegger declared California in a state of drought emergency.
All reports in the mainstream media are claiming that after three years of practically record low rainfall, of course there isn't enough water for all of us to use and enjoy to our hearts' content. It is true that we haven't seen as much rain as usual in the Golden State these past few years, but anyone that knows anything about geography knows that much of California is a desert climate, and historically has seen cyclical shortages of rainfall.
So why are we now in a state of drought emergency? In addition to a few years of less rainfall than average, there are California court-ordered restrictions on pumping from the *environmentally sensitive* Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, home of the smelt! We wouldn't want those ugly little buggers to go extinct, after all.
Save the Smelt!
Save the Smelt at the expense of all the repercussions that will come from cutting California residents off from one of their main water supplies. Not only will you be paying more for that precious H2O commodity, but you'll be paying more for unemployment of others, as farmers are forced to abandon their crops and fire their workers. No water=no plant growth. Also, get ready to pay exorbitant amounts of money for those groceries that do make it to your local supermarket. They were grown with expensive California water, or they were transported in from afar; either scenario will jack up the price.
Say Hello to the Smelt?
I say GOODBYE Smelt!
All reports in the mainstream media are claiming that after three years of practically record low rainfall, of course there isn't enough water for all of us to use and enjoy to our hearts' content. It is true that we haven't seen as much rain as usual in the Golden State these past few years, but anyone that knows anything about geography knows that much of California is a desert climate, and historically has seen cyclical shortages of rainfall.
So why are we now in a state of drought emergency? In addition to a few years of less rainfall than average, there are California court-ordered restrictions on pumping from the *environmentally sensitive* Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, home of the smelt! We wouldn't want those ugly little buggers to go extinct, after all.
Save the Smelt!
Save the Smelt at the expense of all the repercussions that will come from cutting California residents off from one of their main water supplies. Not only will you be paying more for that precious H2O commodity, but you'll be paying more for unemployment of others, as farmers are forced to abandon their crops and fire their workers. No water=no plant growth. Also, get ready to pay exorbitant amounts of money for those groceries that do make it to your local supermarket. They were grown with expensive California water, or they were transported in from afar; either scenario will jack up the price.
Say Hello to the Smelt?
I say GOODBYE Smelt!
Friday, February 27, 2009
San Diego Tea Party
It was a great turnout, and amazing to see so many opposed to the redistribution of hard earned wealth to slackers working part time at McDonald's.
Speaker Michael Crimmins
Speaker Leslie Eastman
We even had a sailboat in attendance! The sign says, "Repeal or Retire."
Some of the crowd
Protesters lined the streets
Keep it up conservatives! Keep it real, keep it honest, but keep it LOUD!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Importance of Education & How You Can Help
No doubt about it. Our current educational system has cultivated a generation of self-important and politically correct young adults that can barely read, write, or add, but gosh darnit, don't they feel good about themselves? Oh wait, according to some in the new administration, (*cough* Eric Holder *cough*), only black students should feel good about themselves; white students are cowards because they don't talk enough about how cool it is to be black. (Can you see me rolling my eyes from where you're sitting?)
Our children are being dumbed down in government run schools. Study after study after study show that American students are falling further and further behind their foreign counterparts. Teachers are limited on how much work they may assign their students, social awareness trumps personal responsibility, school nurses can't hand out aspirin but can direct pregnant teens to an abortion clinic, and students incapable of constructing grammatically correct sentences or adding two three-digit numbers together without a calculator keep on donning those caps and gowns to receive their diplomas.
What's our new prez going to do to improve our educational system? With $100 billion set aside in the latest "stimulus" package for education, you'd think the government could improve education drastically. Unfortunately, as history has shown, throwing money at a problem rarely makes that problem go away. It's sort of like using a pail to dump water out of a leaky rowboat... sure, you can keep the boat from sinking (for awhile) but if you don't plug the leaks, it will keep filling back up and your arms will get very, very tired.
I'm not sure Obama really wants educated, critically thinking adults in his audience anyway. Afterall, it was the idiotic youth vote that got him elected (although not this 26 year old youth, you all know I voted for Sarah Palin ;-)). Imagine if all of those young people had stopped to think about the ramifications of electing a power hungry socialist that attended a black supremist church for 20 years, kicked off his political career in a domestic terrorist's living room, had a wife that was ashamed to be an American until her husband was nominated for the Presidential ticket, and wants to sit down for milk and cookies with Ahmenajad (you know, that Iranian leader with nukes and a desire to obliterate the US from the map). A well educated audience might have questioned his double speak, even to the point of telling two different cities that he was rooting for their team to win the world series! Seriously, is that important enough to lie about?
Besides, Arne Duncan, the former Chicago schools chief, is now heading up the Department of Education. And we all know how great the schools in Chicago are (again with the eye rolling! I just can't seem to help myself).
So what's a parent to do in these dire educational circumstances? Sit back and relax while the government tells you what's best for your child? Not this parent, that's for sure! As our eldest daughter neared schooling age, my husband and I took stock of our options. We could put her in a government run school, and supplement at home. We could put her name in the lottery for a coveted spot at a nearby covertly Christian charter school. I could homeschool her, but that would've involved too many prescription drugs (no, not Ritalin for her, Lorazepam for me). We could look into private school. Months of research, phone calls, school visits, and prayer later, we fell in love with The Cambridge School.
The philosophy-
Now everyone knows the major downside to private education: the cost. It eats a substantial chunk of our monthly income, but it is a sacrifice that we are willing to make. Although the Obamas practice school choice (their elementary age daughters attend the prestigious Sidwell Friends to the tuition tune of $28,442 per year, per girl), it's a case of, "What's good enough for thee isn't good enough for me." Obama does not support the use of vouchers, which would allow parents of school aged children to take a portion of the money that the state has allocated for their education and spend it at the school of their choice.
I know we are blessed to not need tuition assistance at this point in time. We don't take fancy vacations, we don't go out on fancy dates, I clean the house, cook the meals, chauffeur the kids, and shop frugally. Heck, right now I'm writing this piece on a three year old laptop with a screen that blinks out if I don't keep a clothespin on the upper left hand corner. Life would be much easier financially if we didn't pay for our daughter to attend private school, but we get by just fine.
There are many that cut every corner, but still can't afford to participate in school choice. These are families with hard working parents and eager to learn kids, who just want to be given the opportunity to attend the school of their choice, The Cambridge School. For those students, the school offers some tuition assistance... which of course is paid for by...wait for it...fundraising! You knew I had to be selling something, right? Wrapping paper? Cookie dough? A snugi, perhaps?
How about a chance to win a dream car for only $25? Did I get your attention? (in my best cheesy Billy Mays impression) For the low, low price of $25, you will receive by mail or in person 1 raffle ticket as confirmation of your entry, with its partner being entered into the drawing to take place on April 4, 2009 at the Cambridge Auction and Gala. The grand prize winner will receive his or her choice of one of 4 dream cars or $25,000 cash.
But wait! There's more! Spend $100 on a bundle of tickets, and receive not 4 chances to win, but 5! That's right, Folks, for just $100 dollars, you will receive 5 raffles tickets! With sales being capped at 3,000 entries, your chances to win the grand prize or one of the smaller cash prizes are higher than the chance you're wearing a snugi right now. And be honest, that warm fuzzy feeling that you get from doing something good (like donating to a stellar cause) is all you really need to be a winner! Ok, warm heated seats in a brand new luxury car might trump a warm fuzzy heart on a cold winter morning...
No need to be present to win. Void where prohibited by law.
Download your forms here, enter "Hannah E." as the Cambridge Referral Name, and mail or fax it in to the school.
All proceeds directly fund the Tuition Assistance and Language Arts programs(Mandarin, Latin, and Spanish) which help ensure a diverse and vibrant student community and well-rounded academic programs.
Our children are being dumbed down in government run schools. Study after study after study show that American students are falling further and further behind their foreign counterparts. Teachers are limited on how much work they may assign their students, social awareness trumps personal responsibility, school nurses can't hand out aspirin but can direct pregnant teens to an abortion clinic, and students incapable of constructing grammatically correct sentences or adding two three-digit numbers together without a calculator keep on donning those caps and gowns to receive their diplomas.
What's our new prez going to do to improve our educational system? With $100 billion set aside in the latest "stimulus" package for education, you'd think the government could improve education drastically. Unfortunately, as history has shown, throwing money at a problem rarely makes that problem go away. It's sort of like using a pail to dump water out of a leaky rowboat... sure, you can keep the boat from sinking (for awhile) but if you don't plug the leaks, it will keep filling back up and your arms will get very, very tired.
I'm not sure Obama really wants educated, critically thinking adults in his audience anyway. Afterall, it was the idiotic youth vote that got him elected (although not this 26 year old youth, you all know I voted for Sarah Palin ;-)). Imagine if all of those young people had stopped to think about the ramifications of electing a power hungry socialist that attended a black supremist church for 20 years, kicked off his political career in a domestic terrorist's living room, had a wife that was ashamed to be an American until her husband was nominated for the Presidential ticket, and wants to sit down for milk and cookies with Ahmenajad (you know, that Iranian leader with nukes and a desire to obliterate the US from the map). A well educated audience might have questioned his double speak, even to the point of telling two different cities that he was rooting for their team to win the world series! Seriously, is that important enough to lie about?
Besides, Arne Duncan, the former Chicago schools chief, is now heading up the Department of Education. And we all know how great the schools in Chicago are (again with the eye rolling! I just can't seem to help myself).
So what's a parent to do in these dire educational circumstances? Sit back and relax while the government tells you what's best for your child? Not this parent, that's for sure! As our eldest daughter neared schooling age, my husband and I took stock of our options. We could put her in a government run school, and supplement at home. We could put her name in the lottery for a coveted spot at a nearby covertly Christian charter school. I could homeschool her, but that would've involved too many prescription drugs (no, not Ritalin for her, Lorazepam for me). We could look into private school. Months of research, phone calls, school visits, and prayer later, we fell in love with The Cambridge School.
The philosophy-
The Cambridge School employs a classical, Christian approach to learning, which is a time-honored approach to learning used throughout the Western world by the 16th century, and which remained the norm until at least 1850.The method is known as the Trivium, which imparts the basic tools of learning to the student and introduces them to the life of the mind. The Trivium is applied to every academic discipline, meaning every subject has its grammar, logic, and rhetoric.Becoming educated in any subject involves knowing its basic facts and principles (grammar), ordering and analyzing relationships concerning those facts (logic), and communicating conclusions in a clear, persuasive, and winsome manner (rhetoric). This three-phase model works because it focuses on the way children learn best at each stage of life and builds on the foundation of previous stages. Thus, it prepares students to become life-long learners who can think for themselves. And in today's culture, such skills are increasingly valuable precisely because this educational model is the exception rather than the rule.
Now everyone knows the major downside to private education: the cost. It eats a substantial chunk of our monthly income, but it is a sacrifice that we are willing to make. Although the Obamas practice school choice (their elementary age daughters attend the prestigious Sidwell Friends to the tuition tune of $28,442 per year, per girl), it's a case of, "What's good enough for thee isn't good enough for me." Obama does not support the use of vouchers, which would allow parents of school aged children to take a portion of the money that the state has allocated for their education and spend it at the school of their choice.
I know we are blessed to not need tuition assistance at this point in time. We don't take fancy vacations, we don't go out on fancy dates, I clean the house, cook the meals, chauffeur the kids, and shop frugally. Heck, right now I'm writing this piece on a three year old laptop with a screen that blinks out if I don't keep a clothespin on the upper left hand corner. Life would be much easier financially if we didn't pay for our daughter to attend private school, but we get by just fine.
There are many that cut every corner, but still can't afford to participate in school choice. These are families with hard working parents and eager to learn kids, who just want to be given the opportunity to attend the school of their choice, The Cambridge School. For those students, the school offers some tuition assistance... which of course is paid for by...wait for it...fundraising! You knew I had to be selling something, right? Wrapping paper? Cookie dough? A snugi, perhaps?
How about a chance to win a dream car for only $25? Did I get your attention? (in my best cheesy Billy Mays impression) For the low, low price of $25, you will receive by mail or in person 1 raffle ticket as confirmation of your entry, with its partner being entered into the drawing to take place on April 4, 2009 at the Cambridge Auction and Gala. The grand prize winner will receive his or her choice of one of 4 dream cars or $25,000 cash.
But wait! There's more! Spend $100 on a bundle of tickets, and receive not 4 chances to win, but 5! That's right, Folks, for just $100 dollars, you will receive 5 raffles tickets! With sales being capped at 3,000 entries, your chances to win the grand prize or one of the smaller cash prizes are higher than the chance you're wearing a snugi right now. And be honest, that warm fuzzy feeling that you get from doing something good (like donating to a stellar cause) is all you really need to be a winner! Ok, warm heated seats in a brand new luxury car might trump a warm fuzzy heart on a cold winter morning...
No need to be present to win. Void where prohibited by law.
Download your forms here, enter "Hannah E." as the Cambridge Referral Name, and mail or fax it in to the school.
All proceeds directly fund the Tuition Assistance and Language Arts programs(Mandarin, Latin, and Spanish) which help ensure a diverse and vibrant student community and well-rounded academic programs.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Inconvenient Truth About the Pork-Free Stimulus Bill
I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill. -President Obama, February 10, 2009.
Really, Mr. President? No pork in the stimulus? Well then, how do you define some of the ludicrous expenses tucked in this behemoth of a bill?
Some left-wing pet projects included in spending frenzy
-$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
-$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
-$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
-$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
-$6 billion for university building projects
-$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
-$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
-$1 billion for community-development block grants
-$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
-$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
Laudable goals? Maybe. Goals that should, in this citizen's opinion, be achieved through charity and not government, but either way you look at it, none of these items will do much to stimulate the economy. By the way, ACORN will be eligible to apply for and receive a good portion of this money. If there ever really is any transparency, as the Prez has promised, I'm sure we will see millions, if not billions go to voter fraud. I have a feeling that that transparency is going to be rather opaque.
Some items that will benefit Washington D.C. infrastructure
-$150 million for the Smithsonian
-$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
-$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
-$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
-$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
-$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
-$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
-$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
-$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
-$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
-$1 billion for the Census Bureau
Is our capital falling down? This list sure makes it seems so! New buildings for everyone! Ooh, and new cars too! Let's get those cute trendy little Priuses! And, after you drive your new car to your new work building, go ahead and sit down at your new computer!
Seriously? How is bankrupting my children so that government employees can have nice things going to stimulate our economy?
Here are few other wealth redistribution goodies
-$89 billion for Medicaid
-$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
-$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
-$20 billion for food stamps
Now I'm really stumped. Anyone want to explain to me how providing extra free stuff (health care, food, and just plain cash) for the unemployed is going to encourage them to get a job?
Even more random spending
-$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
-$850 million for Amtrak
-$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
-$1.7 billion for the National Park System
-$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
-$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
-$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
-$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
Amtrak is getting a cut of this? Do you know when the last time Amtrak produced a profit was? Decades ago! I wish I could suck at my job and still get paid! Must be nice. Hmmm, maybe the $850,000,000 for money-pit Amtrak was thrown in because Joe Biden's son Hunter sits on the board? Say it together boys and girls- nepotism!
And speaking of ridiculous expenditures, why exactly are we spending money on a polar icebreaking ship? Haven't the dems been saying for years that the ice caps are melting?
Speaking of ice, the above bullet points are just the tip of the iceberg on this $838 billion dollar package meant to stimulate our economy by proving jobs to out of work Americans.
I believe Shakespeare said it best through Juliet;
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself."
Only this stimulus is not even close to Romeo of dear perfection. It is pork. Let's call it like it is, okey dokey? After all, President Obama, you were the one that called for a new era of responsibility and transparency.
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