Now that I've had my coffee

I suppose I'd better help the wife put the new window in the bathroom.

But she looks so CUTE when she's covered in sawdust and paint!

Blood Boiling

So the AARP, one of the biggest groups who pushed for Obamacare, is now getting a waiver from Obamacare.

Right now, I wouldn't wipe my ass with an AARP application.  My bunghole deserves better than that.

Quote of the Day

From Bill Quick, on the speech that the TelePrompTer in chief just gave to throw Israel under the bus -

Here’s the truth: Barack Obama could suggest that the Palestinians solve their problems with Israel buy building a great many gas-powered ovens with attached cyanide showers, and an awful lot of American Jews would still trek right off to the polls and pull the lever under his name. 

 Ayup.

I'm so not a techie kind of guy

I just finally downloaded Mozilla Firefox for Mac.  I'd been using Safari, figuring that it would be good enough to do what I wanted it to do.  Um, nope, it wasn't.  In fact, Safari has just as many glitches to it as Internet Explorer did.  So I went and downloaded Firefox, which I had been using on my old Windows machine. 

My, what a difference.

What's this?

Could it be the very first asparagus I ever harvested out of our asparagus bed just last night?  Being cooked over applewood?

I do think so!

Oh. My. Gawd.

Just.....  no.  No, no, no, no, no.  I can't think of anything that's actually RIGHT about this "adult baby", and the fact that we're paying his rent and food?

NO!

Spread the News

Confrontation works.  Remember when I posted about how Trump has support because he's not afraid to go after Obama?  Yeppers.  And while Trump is not running (Thank God!) the lesson from his little month or two in the center ring is important - going after Obama works.

More importantly, going after Obama needs to happen if you want to win this election.

The people who Republicans need votes from have been insulted, attacked, harassed, demeaned, slighted and stepped on by Obama and his cronies.  If we think for one second that the person the GOP puts in the race is going to treat us the same way, WE WILL NOT VOTE FOR THEM.  If we think for one second that the GOP candidate is just going to be business as usual, aka Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee or McCain, WE WILL NOT VOTE FOR THEM.  And other than a somewhat coherent foreign policy, does anyone think that a McCain presidency would be better than an Obama presidency?

I sure don't.  McCain has no problem making cute little kissy faces at the people who would enslave generations to their ideological pipedream.

We need someone who will go after Obama, knock him off his pedestal, and send him scurrying back to Chicago.

So The Governator had a love child

Lemme ask you something - are you surprised at all?

This guy has had vaginas thrown at him for decades.  I don't care if he was married for 25 years, this guy, this rich, famous movie star has had more poon thrown directly in his face than any one of us can imagine. And he started out as a body-builder, which from my experience is one of the most narcissistic activities in the world.

I'm not surprised.

Why nobody trusts science these days

Because you don't know who's been messing with the numbers.  And when you can't trust the numbers, you're sunk.  In all the crimes committed by the Left in their global warming hoax, destroying real, actual science in favor of made-up fluff has got to be their worst crime of all.

Home again

Thank God.

Now is the time when we relax

The mission is over, although I don't fly home until tomorrow morning.  I'm sitting outside my hotel with a Devil's Weed and a Quilter's Irish Death.  The cigar rocks.  The beer rocks even harder.  The sun is going down over the Puget Sound.

Sometimes, all the running is worth it.  I only wish the Ragin' Mrs. was here to share it with me.  Ah well.  I'll be back home tomorrow for another adventure.

Quote of the Day, I've used this argument edition

And it's made people's heads explode with rage, but that's the whole point.

"It means you believe in slavery"

People who would take your work and your time and your money, unrecompensed, and give it to someone else, are thieves at best, and slave-masters at worst.  Period.  And when I point this out, people get pissed off at me.  Good.  I'm infuriated at their thievery and enslavement of me.

Seattle

Is just as weird as I remember.  Walking through Pike Place Market brings back memories, some of them pleasant and some not.

Still good food though.

Guess who I had dinner with the other night?

She and her Husband ROCK!

Old Irish Blessing

I've had this song in my head for a couple of weeks now.  I created a slideshow for a class, and at the end I put these words, but I've had the tune running around my ears ever since.



I used to sing this back in my church choir days, about *mumblemumble* years ago.

Just when I think I can stop running

I have another sprint ahead of me.  So since I can't find the time to write an essay, I'll link to an essay that should have been linked when it was first posted; Mind Numbed Robot - Defining "American".

It is un-American to take from your neighbor so that you may have what he doesn’t.

It is also un-American to take from someone who works so that you don’t have to. Right now there are working class people who toil away at their jobs under threat of losing their livelihood if they show up late, fail a drug test, are insubordinate to their employer or any number of prerequisites for employment while at the same time, the people who benefit from those stolen monies are not required to adhere to any such standards. – That is un-American to its core. It is also thievery.

Read it all.

Obama had American flag removed from Ground Zero for his photo op

Obama had American flag removed from Ground Zero for his photo op

Mr "No Flag Pin", Mr "Remove American Flag from his Private Jet", Mr "No Pledge" did it yet again. At what point do we admit to ourselves that he has been educated by the pushback and the only answer to 'why' is that he is full of contempt for those he rules.

Update : So many are saying that the flag was taken down after... fine... so Obama Bin Hidin' did wear a flag pin eventually... fine... and his new Jet has a flag because it is Air Force One... fine... and he eventually said the pledge somewhere... fine. I am soooooooo convinced he is a patriot.

Ragin' Dave's Quote of the Day, Nice Shot Edition

MORE: Frank Luntz to focus group: “Why is Barack Obama a ’socialist’?”

Reply: “Ask Joe the Plumber.” Followed by applause from the rest of the focus group.

That's good stuff.

This is too important to ignore

Here's the summary - the US Government smuggled weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, who now use these weapons in their criminal activity, and the US Government uses this criminal activity to demand restrictions on weapons.

Someone needs to go to jail, starting with the person who authorized the smuggling, and his supervisor.  And that that last would be Eric Holder.  Just in case you were wondering.

My poor dog

He hurt his front left paw a few days ago while we were at the park throwing a ball for him.  He either stepped on something or twisted it, and the way he was running around the twisting is more likely.  Anyways, he's gimping around the house for the past few days, wanting to play, but unable to.  He tried to chase a squirrel and came up limping so badly that we've really been controlling how much activity he has.

Which means that he can't go running with me right now.

So when I got up to run this morning, and he came out wagging his tail, it was almost killing me to make him stay in the house.  His begging face is better than almost any other dog out there.  Anyone else have a foxhound?  You know the face they make when they want something?  Yeah.  That face.  Times ten, because he loves to go running so much.

Pearls Before Swine

Is one of my favorite comic strips.  And stuff like this is why.  Click for readable size:

See any analogies in that strip?  I sure do.

Linky Love today

From PowerLine, who has a compare and contrast of Nancy Pelosi's extreme hypocrisy.  I post this because she keeps rising from her grave to disturb the country, so it's only proper to keep tabs on her.

Oh Goodie!

It's National Offend a Feminist Week!

Of course, if you're into that sort of thing.....  well, anyways, I have a few more of these old ads that might piss a feminist off.

And putting up a few clips from "McClintock" is always good as well!

Osama Bin Laden is dead

They found him near the Pakistani capitol of Islamabad.  And then they put a bullet in his brain pan.  Which raises ALL kinds of interesting questions on both topics.

Bathroom rebuild

The two day job turned into a five day job, and I just finished putting the grout into the tile surrounding the window.  Not only did the previous dipstick use drywall instead of moisture resistant backing, but this house is so old and has settled so much that there isn't a straight line in the building.  Period.  So the window is a little crooked, because we built a square frame and then tried to put it in an unsquare window opening.

Ah well.  That's what we like to call "character" here in Wisconsin.  The important thing is that it works, and it's waterproof.  Which it is.  And it's a hundred times better than what we had when we moved in.

NEXT!

Leadership

So making the blog rounds, there's evidence and proof that Obama is a massive, complete and utter failure, especially when it comes to leadership.  To put it bluntly, Obama couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag.  The people that he has in place are there for political reasons, not for anything that could remotely be considered as actual talent.

Folks, the essence of leadership is this - find what talents your people have, and then use those people to get the greatest effect.

Here is what leadership is NOT - it is not claiming credit.  It is not telling people how awesome you are.  It is not telling people "I'M IN CHARGE".  It is not dictating every action of your subordinates.  It is not controlling every facet of your subordinate's work.

If you are an effective leader, you should spend the majority of your time on YOUR problems handed down by YOUR superiors, not micromanaging the hell out of the people who work for you.  The only time I get down in the weeds with my troops is when one of three situations crop up:

1)  My troops are tasked with a job they're unfamiliar with.
2)  My troops have screwed up the job that they're familiar with and need some guidance.
3)  My supervisors are demanding that I be "hands-on".

Other than that, I lay out the mission, make sure they understand the mission, make sure they're confident about how to do it, and then all I want are status reports.  I ask how they're doing.  I ask how their family is doing.  How's the wife and kids?  You doing OK?  Is there anything I need to do to make your job go smooth?  You need any support that I can call in?  Yes?  No?

And I make damn sure that every now and then, my senior guy comes up and sees what I do, so that in the event I leave, he can do my job.  99% of the time, they look at my inbox and say "Nah Dave, you keep that pile of crap.  I'll be over here doing my job."  But they can DO my job if they need to.

If you have a problem person, you find out what the problem is and fix it.  Sometimes that means you get rid of that person, if no other solution is working.  But most times it's a matter of retraining, or tweaking the responsibilities that person has.  But in all things, you need a clear-eyed view of what the problem is before you and begin to fix anything.

Folks, the first thing Obama does not have is that clear-eyed view.  It's too tainted by his ideology.  I don't think he can have a clear-eyed view if Hayek gave it to him personally.  The second thing he is missing is the ability to put the right people in the right jobs.  That stems from his narcissistic personality. He wants to get credit for everything, and so he's not about to let some competent person hog all that glory!

Obama is nothing more than a glorified rabble-rouser who demanded to be put into the greatest leadership position in the world, and now that he's been proven completely incapable of doing the job, wants to whine and snivel and shift the blame.

That gutless fucking pussy isn't fit to clean the boots of the lowest private in the US Army.  And that's the honest truth.

Yay! Remodeling!

Shower enclosure?  Up.  Glass block window?  Installed.  Scotch?  In me.

I need a vacation from my vacation.  And after all of my snarling and growling, my wife needs me to take a vacation from my vacation.

When planning to remodel your bathroom

Especially in a house built with plaster and lathe, always be prepared to rip out at least half of what you were planning on remodeling.

Especially when some brain-dead numbnuts used FRIGGIN' DRYWALL in the shower enclosure and then covered it with FRIGGIN' MASONITE!

We've already made the trip to the Home Depot to buy greenboard and various other accoutrements that I hadn't planned on buying.  But at least it'll be done right this time.

Body hurts

Three to four more loads of gravel and the driveway will be mostly complete.  And I'll be in need of more alcohol to keep the pain levels down.  I'm not as young as I used to be, dammit.  I can remember working like this all damn day when I was just out of high school, and all I would do is laugh, drink a Mountain Dew, and go party all night.

I know why Trump is popular and gaining support

Oh, I don't like him.  I don't like him at all.  To quote The Mistress of Snark:

Basically it's a Buchanan-esque populist conservatism with most of the Jesus trimmed off. In other words, Trump is aiming at what he thinks is the bullseye of the Tea Party: Flag-waving xenophobicNational Enquirer subscribers who like the F-15 flyovers before football games and want lots of free stuff from the government but hate them some taxes.

And Michelle Malkin:

Like most statist promises of bountiful job creation, government-engineered redevelopment math rarely adds up. Trump’s corporations have backed casino industry bailouts and wealth-redistributing “tax-increment financing” schemes — the very kind of taxpayer-subsidized interventions we’ve seen on a grand scale under the Obama administration.

Championing liberty begins at the local level. There is nothing more fundamental than the principle that a man’s home is his castle. Donald Trump’s career-long willingness to trample this right tells you everything you need to know about his bogus tea party sideshow.

Trump is a liberal dressed in conservative wool, but he's still a liberal at heart.  So why is he gaining so much support and momentum?  Because he's going after Obama.

The only person I've seen take well-aimed shots at Obama from the Republicans is Paul Ryan.  Everyone else from the Republican Stupid Party still mouths the nice, safe political platitudes while Obama hurls insult after insult after insult and finishes it off by wiping his ass on the Constitution.  So Trump is capturing what Americans are feeling right now, and getting results.  The folks who only get their news from network TV are finally seeing someone who expresses out loud what they've expressed to themselves for the past two years.  And it's working, isn't it?

Too bad that the majority of the GOP leadership are the same gutless, yellow-bellied pieces of crap who foisted John McCain on us two years ago.  Maybe if we had more people willing to stand up and actually show support for the principals they claim to stand for, we wouldn't be in the situation we find ourselves in now.

Obama begins Chavez-like attacks on Oil Companies

Well, friggin DUH!  Commie is as commie does, and Obama is nothing but a true-red Marxist.  So he's following his buddy Chavez in attacks on the people who produce energy.  And there are hoards of ignorant Americans who will follow his lead and believe every word he speaks.

This is hard-core communism, folks.  And when communists fail, they blame capitalism, or anyone who produces jobs, money, energy, and all that other stuff that a country needs to survive.  Communists are parasites, they can only exist by feeding off something else, and they'll blame anyone but themselves for the failure and misery they bring about.

As an aside, does anyone with half a brain need any more proof that Obama is nothing more than a third-world dictator with delusions of grandeur?  I didn't think so.

Housework

I actually took leave to get work done on the house.  Gonna be busy the next few days.  Enjoy the blogroll!

Easter Sunday

When our savior actually saved us.  Without his resurrection, all the other stuff probably wouldn't matter all that much.  THIS is the day the Lord has made!  Let us rejoice, and be glad.

I'm up early, firing up the smoker and getting ready to plop an Easter Ham onto it.  Enjoy your Easter, folks.

Are you enjoying that $4 a gallon gas?

Go ahead and thank Obama, who promised us this sort of thing back when he was on his endless campaign.  I'm certain he's going to investigate all those speculators and investors, because that will keep the spotlight off of him and his actions that have driven costs higher.

In the meantime, tell me what plans you've had to cancel because you couldn't afford to drive there.  And prepare yourself for $6 a gallon come July.

Dear Fellow Public Restroom Users

If your asscannon sprays your discharge like grapeshot all over the toilet, to include the seat where others would normally sit, perhaps a change of diet is in order?

Dear lord.......  What the hell is wrong with people?  Do they have some type of digestive disorder?

Reason #1,763,2895 why Idaho rocks

Idaho governor issues executive order banning implementation of Obamacare in the state.

Otter issued an executive order imposing a state prohibition on receiving federal funding for or otherwise implementing the Affordable Care Act. The order directs state agencies not to establish new programs, promulgate rules or accept federal funding to implement the health care reform law, in effect for more than a year.

More, please.

Riots

A couple of points that I just wanted to link to today - one is from the American Thinker, and it references the point that S&P downgraded it's outlook on the USA to "negative", which is just a fancy way of saying that they don't think we'll be able to pay our debts, or at least not as certainly as we could a year ago.  The second link is Doug Ross, and he points out that government handouts now outweigh tax revenues.  The economy continues to tank.  Add it all together, and you have a nasty recipe for some civil unrest.  This country has created a parasitic class of people who suck their living from the government teat.  What happens when that teat runs dry, folks?

I think we saw that end result in Greece, and other places in Europe.

Both the Ragin' Mrs. and I knew of people who's entire life goal was to get on disability and live off the government checks for the rest of their lives.  THAT WAS THEIR GOAL.  Oh, and during this time they were about and about living their lives unimpeded by any real, actual injury.  They went to parties, they did their activities, they just did not work.  Nope, that was MY job.  Still is.  That is unsustainable.  It was unsustainable in Roman times, and it's just as unsustainable now.  There's no magic formula that allows a government to blow through trillions of dollars for bread and circuses without the financial crash at the end.

In the end, the result is going to be the same as any group that spends more than it makes - financial failure.  To the Left, that may be their goal.  To conservatives and patriots?  We should be fighting this with everything we've got.  Or you could just wait until the country falls apart and form your own little fiefdom.  Tell me how that works out for ya.

Did you think I was joking?

You know, about all that global warming that got dumped on us?

I took this picture this morning with my cell phone as I was clearing the global warming off my truck.  By the way, I was wrong, it was SIX inches of global warming.  And it's April 20th.

Yeah, it takes guts to live in Wisconsin.

Glow-Bull Warming

I need to go shovel off the four inches of global warming that got dumped on us yesterday.

It's April 20th, people.

All that global warming needs to hurry up and get here.

This is what fascism looks like

The oh-so-tolerant Left, making sure that the people's voice will not be heard.  Call it what it is.  Anti-democratic.  Fascist.  Anti-American.  And then make damn sure you hang that label on the people responsible, the Democrat American Communist Party of Wisconsin.

And I agree with some of the commenters over at Gateway Pundit -

This is what the right are up against. It may be time to start behaving like you are at war, because whether you have woken up or not, you are at war, and the left are your enemies. You can’t count on the common decency of your opponents – they don’t even know what decency is, let alone what used to be termed ‘common decency’.

And

Operating in the current political climate, you tell me no one involved in the recall petition thought to secure these documents let alone their computers? You folks better wake up or else you will find yourselves being eaten by that wolf. I am really concerned about the naivete of some of our conservative brethren. We are in a war for the very soul of this nation and if any of you do not understand nor recognize how to fight against this evil, we are lost.

We're at war, dammit.  WAKE UP!  Do not expect the left to treat you decently, because they will not!  Do not expect the left to act rationally, because THEY WILL NOT!  Do not expect the left to act with compassion, because THEY WILL NOT!

Big news coming for me personally

Details are still getting worked out, but some big changes are looming just ahead.  Once I have more info, I'll post it.

If you haven't read it yet

Read it now.

I had a discussion the other day with some relatively intelligent folks about social security. The idea of cutting benefits or moving the retirement age shocks them. “How unfair! But I’ve paid into this my whole life!”

Yep. You sure did. You got lied to and screwed over by evil political opportunists. Deal with it. I’m just shy of 40. I know that I’m not ever going to see a dime of any of the money I paid into Social Security.  FDR’s pet program was garbage when the average old person died a couple of years after retirement and the ratio of workers to retirees was 40 to 1.  How in the hell is it supposed to work when retirees are expected to live for TWENTY YEARS and there’s only a handful of people paying in for every one getting a check?

It doesn’t work. No matter how hard you wish, no matter how hard you hope, no matter how much compassion you can fit in your stupid compassionate heart, no matter how much you happen to like some program that helps somebody do something wonderful… math never lies and interest never sleeps. Caring don’t pay the bills.

Read the whole thing.  It's one damn fine rant about the state of the nation's fiscal policy, with suggestions than politicians won't ever follow but need to have tattooed on their forheads.

Standing up to unions works

And how.  How does a deficit of $31 million sound for the next budget cycle, after facing billions in deficit from the past few years?  I know that there are a few folks who support the unions, but in Wisconsin the unions are the problem, not the solution.

Back

And I'm wiped.  More later.

Obama & Holder let CAIR finance terror

Obama & Holder let CAIR finance terror and then take a walk

Patrick Poole :

High-level source concedes DOJ let off CAIR co-founders and others for political reasons.

Holder(D) can be bought cheap.

DANEgerus

It wasn't dust

It's smoke.  Ouch.

It's always clearer after the rain

Which is a good thing, considering just how much FRACKING DUST there is in the air around these parts.  We need another good night of rain.

Hack.  Hack.  Hack.

potential Government Shutdown in the media

As we loom in the 11th hour of our government squabbling like sibling while putting families like our military in an awkward position of having to go to work and not getting paid without other resources. I found this pointed video that puts it in perspective.

While you watch this video just remember that our president(cough) has stated that a shutdown would be inexcusable while threatening to veto a bill that would buy another week and fund the military through the rest of the fiscal year.

Busy today

And for the next two weeks.  If I post, it'll be sporadic.  Sorry, but the free ice cream machine is turned off for a bit.  See you after Tax Day.

Got a spare million dollars?

CMBlake links to one of the coolest things I have seen in a while, and I know just where I'd put it.  I just need about a million and change.  Anyone out there feeling rich?

How not to write a judicial decision

Presented by one Judge Sumi, or as someone described her (and I don't know where, but it rocked), Delores Umbridge.

If Sumi expects to have her decisions upheld by the state Supreme Court, perhaps she should take care to write them properly in the first place.   She will have trouble explaining how she justified interfering with the publication of  law in defiance with Wisconsin precedent, and I doubt that the Supreme Court will give her three tries to get that right.  Furthermore, her commentary about the legislature’s ability to work around her won’t exactly be seen as uninterested jurisprudence, either.

Now, she's a judge, which means that she should have at least a partial grasp on the law, right?  Perhaps if she was actually worried about the law rather than enforcing a pure political action via judicial fiat, it wouldn't have taken her three tries to get it right.  But then, this is Dane County, the home of Madison WI, a hole in Wisconsin surrounded by common sense.

Manpower

Doing manpower studies at work, in order to justify our requests for more staffing up the chain.  Looking at my spreadsheet, I see that I've had a grand total of two days off this month.  Most my section isn't much better than I am.  A good amount of travel included in there.

Next month, about the same.

This is why the military is paid on a salary.  Were we to get paid time-and-a-half like the unions, we'd eat up our entire budget in the first few months of the fiscal year.  And this is all rear-eschelon stuff here.  This isn't combat ops, which is essentially 12-16 hour days.  I'm lucky to have 10 hour days back home.  Think about that the next time a public employee union member shrieks that they want more of my money for their cushy job.

MUST! WATCH! NOW!

Memorize this, and then use it to beat clueless Leftists like a baby harp seal.

How about we boycott them?

Public employee unions circulating boycott letters to businesses in Wisconsin.  Great.  "Nice business you got there.  It'd be a shame if anything happened to it!"

Members of Wisconsin State Employees Union, AFSCME Council 24, have begun circulating letters to businesses in southeast Wisconsin, asking them to support workers’ rights by putting up a sign in their windows.

If businesses fail to comply, the letter says, “Failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

I'm really getting sick of the unions here in Wisconsin.  If anything, their actions have reinforced my opinions that modern-day unions are nothing more than a group of thugs waiting for an excuse to act out.

Obama's Speech

Why do I even bother reading it?  It's blather and hot air, spewed on command.  I bet I can even break down how it sounded:  "Last month.....     (pause, head-swivel to next teleprompter)  Gaddafi's grip of fear.......  (grip of fear?  WTF is a grip of fear?)  appeared to give way........  (pause, head-swivel to next teleprompter)    to the promise of freedom."

The man is a robot.  I expect to see a string coming out of his back, with one of his speechwriters reaching out from behind a curtain and yanking on it.  Oh, and this line is a real knee slapper!

And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.

Oh really now, President Present?

Bah.  I'm done.  Tell me when the government shuts down.

The question that keeps rattling around in my head - what does Obama get out of this?  Why Libya, when he dithered as protesters were shot in the face in Iran?

"Anarchists"

I've remarked in the past that the irony of "anarchists" rioting for more government was a constant source of amusement for me.  Nice to see that I wasn't the first nor the last to think that people calling themselves anarchists who riot for more state power are a joke.

There' still basketball being played?

Can you tell how little I care?

Penmanship

Mine sucks.  A side-effect of all the typing vs. actual writing that I do.  My handwriting looks like the scratchings of a chicken on LSD.  Unless I'm writing with my fountain pen.  The Ragin' Mrs. got me a beautiful fountain pen for Christmas, and she remarked that the moment I started writing with it, my hand writing improved.  I had a fountain pen years ago, and used to write home when I was stationed in Korea.  My penmanship then was good, and using my fountain pen seems to bring back the muscle memory that led to that good penmanship.  There's something about writing with real ink on paper that forces you to take your time and write correctly.

The Cajun remembers the fountain pens of his youth, and how they used to make you practice penmanship in school.  I can tell you from having to take sworn statements back in my MP days that penmanship has gone straight down the tubes, even when compared to my chickenscratch handwriting.  Folks, if you have kids who use nothing but a computer to type out their correspondence, get them a good pen and force them to write and use decent penmanship.  As easy as it is to use a computer, everybody uses paper and pen on a daily basis in the real world, even if it's to write "while you were out" notes.  You MUST be able to communicate with the written word.  And you might as well do it properly.

Agnus Dei

or Lamb of God.  At mass this morning I was pleasantly surprised when my priest, instead of using the over-modernized, trite, hippy-dippy sounding liturgical music, chanted both the Kyrie and Agnus Dei.






Granted, what he chanted was less formal than this, but I can't find the exact versions of the chant we used on You Tube right now.  It was wonderful to have the traditional liturgical music sung once again.

First day off

This is the first day where I can sit around and slurp coffee this month.  Tomorrow will be my last.  I was supposed to go to an event  today, but I've sent the Ragin' Mrs, and instead I'm cleaning the house and trying not to feel guilty about enjoying my break.

This is my life right now.

Ragin' Dave's Quote of the Day

From Tam, the Mistress of Snark, in the comments over at Og's place.

“Passengers pay on average only 58 cents of every dollar it costs to operate a rail system. This is just operating costs. Every additional passenger is a net loss.”

How much is it worth to you to get a gullible cell-phone yammering hippie off the road twice a day? I got 42¢ right here.

I'll toss a fiver in there and get a bunch more off the road!

I was going to go running this morning

But I stepped outside to let the dog do his business, got hit by the cold temps plus a nice windchill, and thought to myself "You know, why don't we see what this afternoon looks like?" and then went back inside and made coffee.

Blah.  I'm ready for spring.

UPDATE:  Afternoon run was much better.  I never really like running in the afternoon, but if it's a choice between frostbite or an afternoon run, I'll run later.

On President Present and Libya

Well, Michelle Malkin and Drew M at AOSHQ pretty much sum it up.  Obama is pathetic, weak, gutless, spineless, nutless, feckless, cowardly, craven, mindless and idiotic.  Watching that worthless bag of crap soil the Oval Office day after day makes me want to vomit.  The damage that ignorant narcissistic moron is doing to this country cannot be repaired.

And I want every Obama voter who was screaming for Bush's impeachment to be out there doing the same damn thing to their Liberal Lord and Messiah now that he's gone to war against Libya.  What's that?  Oh, those lunatic liberal lickspittles were lying and using any excuse to attack a somewhat conservative president, and are nothing but a bunch of hypocritical pieces of trash?  Why yes, yes they are.  This here is my quote of the day:

And regarding rubes: yes, those on the right who supported Obama, and those on the far-left who believed in Obama’s campaign promises, were clearly rubes. But the rank and file Democrats who are now silent on Libya? I think it’s important we call them what they are: liars.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that many times over the last eight years, I would see the intensity of the moral outrage on the left over Iraq and say to myself, “Gee, these people sure do feel strongly about this. What if they’re right about it?” This caused me many times to reexamine my reasons for supporting the war, and my conscience. We now know, however, that it was all quite simply bullshit. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. I must admit, I’m feeling a bit like a rube myself.

Every howling moonbat who is now silent when their Marxist Messiah is doing it can go to hell.

Oh Yeah, THAT will work wonders!

Unions and commies, working together in Wisconsin!  Granted, at this point the two groups are only separated by a hair's worth of difference anyways....

More Democrat Shenanigans in Wisconsin

This time, proof that they're aiding and abetting the protesters.  I'd be willing to bet my paycheck that the reason the hippies have been able to take over and live in the Capital is because the Donks have been letting them inside when all other access is blocked.  Much like the window that was opened for them after the State Police had locked the rotunda down.

Democrats - is there any depth to which they won't sink in their greedy war for power?

Ladies and Gents

Buy ammo.

"If we continue down on the path on which the fiscal authorities put us, we will become insolvent, the question is when," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in a question and answer session after delivering a speech at the University of Frankfurt.

"The short-term negotiations are very important, I look at this as a tipping point."

But 6 billion in cuts is draconian.  Right.

Yes, the public supports Gov. Walker

Of course, the public in Wisconsin doesn't have cushy, taxpayer-funded jobs that refuse to punish people for playing hooky, do they?  And while hoards of smelly hippies throwing screaming fits in Madison sells papers, the real story is that people in Wisconsin supported Gov. Walker in his attempt to balance the budget.

Choke on that, hippies.

My First Dog

That wasn't a family hound was a border collie mix named Blackie.  I was stationed at Ft. Riley at the time, and living off post in a delightful little burb called Grandview Prairie, which was in essence one large trailer park.  I walked into the post vet center, back into their adoption section, and this little, skinny black mutt was staring at me.  All the other dogs were going berserk, but this one dog just stood and stared.  I sat down in front of her cage, put my hand up to the wire, and she licked my hand.

I took her home the next day.

I didn't know it at the time, but she had been abused beyond all belief before she was picked up by the game warden and dropped off at the vet.  She was starved, had been beaten, neglected, and was a miserable little scrap of fur when I got her home and gave her a bath.  I was so used to the country dogs at home that I did what we used to do back there; just dump a day's worth of food in the bowl, and let the dog eat when it wants to eat.  Well, with Blackie, that meant eat it all right then, because she didn't think she was ever going to get any more.  So she would gorge, and then vomit all over the carpet.  Me being a stupid guy, it took me a little while to figure out exactly what was going on.  And then I started putting an eighth of a cup of food in her bowl, as quietly as possible.  She would see it, and scarf it down.  When I saw the bowl was empty, I would put another eighth of a cup of food in there, until she got used to the fact that every time she looked in her food bowl, there was food in it.  It took her about a month before she was no longer scarfing food at every opportunity.

She would also cringe at any loud human voice.  If I laughed, she would hide.  It took her a while longer until she wouldn't run away at the sound of a raised voice, but she eventually got to the point where even if I was full out laughing she would just wag her tail and sit down.  It took years before she started behaving like a normal dog, but she was a wonderful, intelligent, loving dog from the day I took her home.  She used to sleep on my bed, right next to me.  At one point, I had a delightful young lady who was um....  spending the night....  and after we had exercised ourselves into slumber, I woke up to the sound of *THUMP* "Ow!  Bloody hell!"

Blackie, finding her space occupied by this delightful young lady, had gotten into the middle of the bed, put all four feet against the lady's back, and pushed her out of her spot, right off the bed.  And then Blackie curled up in her rightful spot.

When I got out of the Army back in 2000, I made a stop at the Ragin' Parents place before I moved on to Seattle.  And while I was looking for an apartment or a house, my Mom told me that she would watch Blackie while I was out and about.  So about a week into my search for dog-friendly living quarters, I call Mom to update her, and she informs me that I'm not getting Blackie back.  I object, because this is MY DOG, but my mom is Mom, and the fact of the matter is that my parents acreage in the country is better for a border collie than a cramped apartment in downtown Seattle.  And Mom had lost our family dog a few years back, and you don't just need a dog in the country, you NEED a dog.  So, Blackie lived at my parent's house from that point on.  But every time I came home, she would jump in my lap, and lick my hand, and curl up on me any time I sat down.  She might have lived at my parent's house, but she was my dog.  My sweet, loving dog.

Mom called me tonight, and let me know that she had to put Blackie down.  She's buried on my parent's property up in Idaho.  She had been injured back in November, and just went downhill from there.

She was at least a couple years old when I got her back in 1998, so she lived to be 13 or 14 years old.  She had a great life out in the country, in a house full of wonderful people, and loved by a woman who just knew deep down in her bones how to treat animals right.  The Ragin' Mrs. likes to joke that my mom and I attract animals and kids to us like magnets.  If that's true, it's because my mom taught me how to treat them properly.  Blackie had a decade of happy, country living, which is more than most animals can dream of.

And it still hurts to lose her.  Let me quote Og here:  

As I have often said before, if I die and I don’t come to the afterlife being greeted by all the dogs i knew in life, the Creator and I will have some WORDS.

There's a Kipling poem at that link that I can't read right now.

Pre-deployment pomp and circumstance

Today was the first time I had chance to witness the pre-deployment ceremonies. I understand the purpose for them. The purpose being to give the soldiers a warm send off, tell them thank you and that people care about them and appreciate what they are doing. To me the most honored people there were the Patriot Guard. There were a lot of Senators, the Governor and High ranking officers that all made speeches. Most of the speeches were too long, stroking ego's, irrelevant and giving people information they would not absorb.

To know that the soldiers were leaving the next day just made the timing of this ceremony very cruel. Cruel to the soldiers, their families, and friends. I say that because the timing of this ceremony, they were required to be at, robbed them of a precious final day before they leave and rubbed their nose in the sacrifice they are making.

I do believe these ceremonies are important. I do believe they need to happen. I just think it needs to be between a week and a month before they leave, not robbing the family of that precious final day.

It all made me happy that when the RagingDave went, he just went without all of this Required Army Hoo-Ha when we just wanted to be with each other.

Award delivered

Woke up way too early and drove for hours each way, but the award was hand-delivered, right during the sending off ceremony.

It's Beer-Thirty.

Progressivism, personified

First, take a good gander at the unemployed dishwasher who wrote a screed against Ann Althouse.  And then read his rambling email exchange with Dan Riehl.  Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know who exactly is protesting in Madison, take a good long look at Mr. Shankman here.  Stark, raving loony.

Seether

OK, bear with me here because I'm going to get into a bit more private mode than just puking on the progressives that are ruining this country.  I'm going to keep this as non-descriptive as possible, just because you never know who's reading.

I had a Soldier working for me who was pretty much a highspeed troop.  Always driven.  Worked his tail off.  In fact, he pretty much broke himself for the past few years getting the mission done, regardless of what he was faced with.  Worked 12, 16 hour days, weekends, spend months away from his family.  And this is a stateside job, mind you.  Made my unit look GOOD on a national scale because of the work he was putting in on his particular program.

Was he perfect?  No.  In fact, he managed to step all over his wedding tackle on one occasion.  But still, one big mistake vs. years of excellent performance?  He was a darn good troop.  And every single one of us has an "Oh, hell!" moment in life.

Now, my supervisor happened to have a problem with this young troop.  The more I think about it, the more I'm convince that the problem revolved around who was getting recognition in my unit.  When people talked about the program we run, their statements invariably started with "SGT Highspeed" rather than "Officer So-and-So."  And my supervisor is rather narcissistic, to the point of being toxic.  So to have Colonels and Sergeants Major talking about my troop rather than about him had to grate on his nerves.  There was also some personality conflicts that came into play, but that has nothing to do with my troop's work ethic.  And my troop was professional, didn't let those conflicts interfere with the job he was doing.

Now then....  comes time for SGT Highspeed to leave.  I give him a good evaluation.  Not a great one, because again, he did step on his wedding tackle, but a good one that will help him grow and gain advancement in the future.  I also put him in for an award for the service he's done.  And it's a good award.  My supervisor goes nuts, albeit in a rather quiet manner, about this award.  First he tries to tell me not to give my troop that specific award, but to submit him for a lower award.  Sorry, but military regulation states that any Soldier can submit any other Soldier for any award.  That doesn't mean that Soldier will actually get the award they were submitted for, but even the Chief of Staff of the Army does not have the authority to tell me to NOT submit someone for an award.  I respond in a rather blunt manner that I'm putting my troop in for this award, and if my supervisor feels the need to downgrade it, that's his prerogative.  THAT didn't sit well at all, because if my supervisor downgrades an award that I'm submitting for a Soldier, he has to explain why.  And I don't think he can explain that, because it's based on his personal feelings rather than my troop's work.  Then my supervisor tries to tell me that I'll never get this award approved through our chain of command.  I respond with the same line - then let them downgrade the award if they feel the need to do so.  I'm going to submit the award I think my troop should get.  And that's what I did.

I did get somewhat called on the carpet about that, because people do remember my troop stepping on his wedding tackle and my supervisor whines and complains enough for this award submission to get on the radar.  I get pulled into the Chain of Command's office and asked to explain myself, and why I think my troop deserves this award.  And so I lay out my case - SGT Highspeed darn near broke himself for this command on this program.  Made us look good.  Made us the leader in this particular program.  USARC level recognition of being the best.  Yada yada yada.  And then I look that high-ranking person in the eye, and say "There are people in this unit who are going to use this particular program to get themselves a nice big fat award when they leave, and the only reason they'll be able to do so is because of the work that my troop put into this program."

I just got my troop's award back yesterday so that I can present it to him.  And it's the exact award I submitted for him.

My supervisor saw it, saw that I did indeed get my troop his award, and he loses it.  Doesn't go yelling and screaming, but just becomes insulting and nasty.  Says that my troop getting that award "devalues" the award.  Can't understand how my troop can get rewarded after he stepped on his wedding tackle.  Questions my integrity and my work ethic on a few different topics, then finally leaves.  Ticked me right off.  I went home and ran for close to an hour just to get down to the point where I could talk about it to the Ragin' Mrs. without spitting and cursing.

And after having a good long run, and then a good beer, my wife made the statement to me, "Don't be mad.  Your supervisor is sitting at home right now all pissed off because your troop got an award and he didn't."  And you know what?  She's right.  This is a matter of recognition.  My supervisor is losing his mind because my troop is getting recognized, and his narcissistic self isn't.  More to the point, a troop that my supervisor doesn't like and tried to tear down is getting recognized for all of his hard work, and there's nothing my supervisor can do about it.  Someone else is being put on a pedestal for a moment, and my supervisor can't kick that pedestal out from under him.

We had a rather pleasant dinner after that.

So what's the point of all this?  Well, part of me still wanted to vent.  And part of me wants to point out that when you have someone working for you who deserves an award, then you darn well get it for them.  Stand your ground.  I've learned more about dealing with Toxic Leadership during this tour than I ever wanted to, but the enduring lesson is that you still do what's right no matter what, and you stand your ground when you know you're right.

And yeah, part of me wants to gloat.  I made sure my troop got the award he deserved, and I fought my immediate leadership to do it.  And I won that battle.  It might bite me in the ass later, but it'll still be worth it.

Twenty days of thuggery in Wisconsin

This is what "Progressivism" looks like.  And an observer of history with a decent memory can call it what it is:  Fascism.

Budgeting

I'm stealing this from Joe Huffman's blog.  And then I'm printing it out and sending it to my congresscritters.  I know a lot of folks who's budgets are in the $50k range, and I can use this to beat them over the head.

[It is predicted the Federal budget deficit will reach $1.65 trillion this year with a $14.1 trillion debt and about $2.1 trillion in income. Yet the House cannot reach agreement on spending cuts. The House Republicans want to only cut $60 billion in spending and the Democrats only want to cut spending $6.5 billion. If you were to scale this down into numbers people might be able to relate to it would look like the following.

If your family income were $50,000 then:

• Family debt is $335,700

• Family deficit is $39,300 (spending is $89,300/year)

• The head of household wants to cut $1,430 in yearly spending

• The spouse wants to cut $154.80 in yearly spending

The children should cut up the credit cards and sell everything that isn’t the bare minimum needed for food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and communication. If the debt still isn’t being paid down they should consider selling their parents organs.

Ayup.

More Union Thuggery in Wisconsin

Since it's been proven that union goons, leftist idiots and collage marxists (but I repeat myself) can get away with breaking the law here in Wisconsin, they've decided to go out and show people what Democracy in Wisconsin looks like.

Upon arrival, members of the recall committee were encircled by union protesters carrying signs and a leader with a mega phone who began chanting and ranting loudly. They packed in tightly around the petition collection table so as to prevent those attempting to sign from doing so. At one point, a pro union protester, pretending to be interested in signing the petition, wrote profanity across a partially collected petition form, than began ripping up the completed petitions that were in close proximity.

The policemen who were there, and who were standing in close proximity to these events as they unfolded, did nothing to assist those collecting the petitions as they were being destroyed, despite such an action being a Felony under Wisconsin law. Police also did nothing to clear the walk way for citizens that wanted to sign the petitions. Recall Committee members received many phone calls the following day from Merill area citizens who stated that they showed up to sign the petition, but were too afraid to get out of their vehicles and approach the recall table.

Of course, what Democracy in Wisconsin looks like is Leftist thugs using violence to stifle their opposition, while unionized cops stand there and let it happen.

I am so pissed right now......  

Found at Sondra K's Place.

What happened to the Mob?

It got unionized.  I mean sure, if you're a mobster you can go out and break the law and reap quick monetary rewards, but in a union you can do all the formerly criminal stuff you used to do, but this time the Democrat American Communist Party will protect you!

In the letter to Wisconsin businessmen, however, we see why so-called collective bargaining is particularly corrupting to the police. Although the letter explicitly threatens only an economic boycott, when it is written on behalf of the police--of those on whom all citizens depend to protect their safety--it invariably raises the prospect of another kind of boycott. Can a businessman who declines this heavy-handed "request" be confident that the police will do their job if he is the victim of a crime--particularly if the crime itself is in retaliation for his refusal to support "the dedicated public employees who serve our communities"?

Sykes sums up the letter this way: "That's a nice business you got there. Pity if anything were to happen to it if, say, you didn't toe the line and denounce Governor Walker like we're asking nice-like." He's right. "Organized" law enforcement bears a disturbing resemblance to organized crime.

Just another reason why unions have outlived their usefulness.  Why don't the police show up with baseball bats and threaten to knee-cap the business if they refuse to support the unions?  That's about what's going on here.

Reinforcing

Just in case you missed it this weekend, President Obama is a gutless lying punk.

He indicated that “our oil production reached its highest level in seven years. Oil production from federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time high,” adding that “for the first time in more than a decade, imports accounted for less than half of what we consumed.”

Flat out lies, plain and simple.  And easily proven lies at that.  He just lies, and automatically assumes that the alphabet networks will cover for him, because they DO actually do that.

If you're the praying type

Pray for the people of Japan.  The Ragin' Mrs. has friends stationed in Okinawa.

Apologies

Sorry 'bout the lack of free ice cream over the weekend.  I had another engagement, and I thought I was going to have the internet there.  I didn't.  So, I'll refund every last cent that people paid me to blog this weekend.

Violent Union Goons and College Anarchists take over Wisconsin Capitol

When democracy doesn't go the way you want, shut down democracy!  Does anyone else want to question why I call the Left "Anti-American"?  The Hot Air linked page below has a livestream feed from the Wisconsin Capital Building, and Meade Althouse (who has done invaluable reporting from ground zero) says that it's pretty much unsecured chaos.

Quote of the day?

“Barack Obama paid for, organized, and is putting on this riot.”

Take photos, video, whatever you can of the Leftist goons in action where ever you happen to be.

And in Idaho......  Boom, baby.

BOISE - The Idaho House has given final passage to a far-reaching bill that removes most of teachers’ existing collective bargaining rights, sending the measure to the governor’s desk and marking a big win for state schools Supt. Tom Luna, who proposed the plan. 

Too bad that state didn't deal with the teacher's unions when I was still in school, but better late than never!

OUTSTANDING!

Dear Democrats American Communist Party Members - this is what happens when you refuse to participate in a democratic republic.

Enjoy.  And about damn time.  Walker and the rest of the Wisconsin legislature had given those clowns too much time to scream into sympathetic TV cameras.  Now they can come home and actually get to work, or they can continue to be sent into irrelevancy.

Oh for the love of.......

And here comes yet another social experiment on the military.  I hope that all you people who pushed for the repeal of DADT are happy.  The military has ceased to be a war-fighting organization.  It is now nothing more than a laboratory for all the people who want to see it destroyed.

The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday.

Here we go, folks.  We're already sliding down that slippery slope.  The damage that is being done by Obama and his administration will never get fixed, because they'll make good and sure that it's permanent.  And women in combat?  How many women out there can carry 125 pounds of gear and weapons for 100 yards, much less two miles?  If we're going to allow women in combat, are we going to FINALLY get rid of the dual standard for physical fitness, where women only have to do half the repetitions to get twice the score?

Oh, I can't say that can I?  That's SEXIST!

And I'm still waiting for ANYONE to explain to me why I will get arrested if I strip off and jump into the women's latrine, but it's OK for a man who is sexually attracted to men to shower with me and share a room with me.  And you know what?  I'm going to keep waiting on that, because there's NO ONE out there who can rationalize that.

Democrat to workers - pay us or piss off, slaves!

Hey, it's not like you NEED that job all that much, right?  You don't want to pay union dues?  Find another job, you stupid tax-slave prole!

I love these unscripted moments when a Democrat American Communist Party member tells you what they really think about the people they claim to represent.

Budget busting

Last month, the deficit was larger than the entire deficit for 2007.

The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending.

That one-month figure, which came in a preliminary report from theCongressional Budget Office, dwarfs even the most robust cuts being talked about on the Hill, and underscores just how much work lawmakers have to do to get the government’s finances in balance again.

Right now I'm wondering of this country is going to survive what Obama and the Democrat American Communist Party has done to it, with a good dose of help from the Republican Stupid Party.

William Daley(D)

William Daley(D) says it is hard to setup 'No Hair Zone'... oh... I mean... 'No Fly Zone'. Has he even served?

I'm not criticizing the man, but I don't think he has the credentials to judge military matters, although I bet the Hair Club for Men has called.

I also believe we have crossed a line from simple incompetence, leaping over 'good intentions', into outright collaboration with the enemies of America. Let's review...

* Barack Hussein Obama blew off the Iranian people demonstrating for democracy in 2009. Whose side was he on?
* Obama then committed a series of "gaffs" that included dithering over calling the Fort Hood shooter a terrorist. Really? Was releasing the Lockerbie bomber "smart diplomacy"? How was the Christmas bomber not a Jihadist?
* Refusing to learn from these "mistakes" Barack Hussein Obama refused to take sides against Qaddafi, refused to criticize him by name, and instead of rescuing American citizens trapped in Libya he left them floating in an undersized unseaworthy rental for 3 days. Wow... No wonder the rebels are begging for Bush.

Some may note that Barack Hussein Obama's "mentor" of 23 years traveled to Libya to meet with Qaddafi and kept in touch even after it became common knowledge that Qaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing personally. Militant racist Farrakhan was party to that trip and how many Jihadists have come from his twisted religion?

So what is simplest explanation for all of this? Well... when a Kosovo Muslim shows his thanks for our military preservation of his freedom by gunning down American soldiers while screaming "allah akhbar" we find that Barack Hussein Obama refuses once again to call that terrorism. Yet he finds time to criticize Congressional hearings on the links to Islamic extremism to recruiting of Jihadists in America.

The answer is really pretty simple if you avoid drowning in the carefully crafted contortions of the MainStreamMedia to avoid the obvious.

Barack Hussein Obama is on the other side.

More Please

We need more of this in Wisconsin, and we need to pass it around.

As you know, your opportunity to compromise and amend the bill was on the floor of the state Senate. As you know, you forfeited that right and opportunity when you decided to flee the state instead of doing your job.

Your stubbornness in trying to ignore the last election and protect the broken status quo is truly shameful. While we wait for you and your colleagues to finally show up, Senate Republicans continue to stand ready to do the job we were elected to do, here in Wisconsin. I hope you are enjoying your vacation, and your vacation from reality.

OH YEAH, BABY!  I am so sick of the fleebaggers whining and crying about how they're part of the "legitimate process".  If they were legitimate, they would be back in Madison and not hiding out in Illinois. I say piss on 'em, every last fleebagging piece of crap, and push through as many anti-union bills as they can in Madison before the Donks finally show back up.  It's time for a Conservative field day in Madison, and we need to get busy!

Found via Cold Fury.

Poor widdle teachers

Making six figures a year, gosh, who can afford to live on that?

Oh, and your kids are coming out of school less educated than in any time in American history.  Enjoy!

Now, the six figures is after benefits, true, and that's in Milwaukee County.  But let's take the case of the county around Ft. McCoy, WI.  Monroe County.  If the teachers in Monroe County are making $50,000 a year with bennies, they're still kicking the ass of the average salary in Monroe County, which is a shade over $35,000 according to this data on Sparta, WI (the seat of Monroe County).

People don't make much here.  And yet taxes are sky high, and any money that the teachers get is coming from folks who have a hard time paying their mortgage from month to month.  So tell me again about how the teachers aren't paid enough?  Just where the heck are they supposed to get more money from?

A-HA!  If you follow the links from Ace's place, you'll be able to download a spreadsheet of teacher's salaries from all over Wisconsin.  Sparta Area School District teachers make an average of $45,654, with fringe benefits of $19,228.  So that's $64,882 in yearly salary and bennies in an area where the average yearly income is HALF OF THAT, with no bennies!  Yeah, tell me again how underpaid those &^%#@! teachers are!  What a load of horse manure!

Roadblock

You know, I don't mind taking a leisurely stroll through the airport, especially when I've already missed my connecting flight because my first flight was delayed due to snow.  But when I'm stuck behind two corpulent examples of humanity's bloated existence, both of whom reek of stale cigarette smoke, who are literally taking up half of the walkway by their own selves....

Well, that's enough to make me lose my appetite for a while.

I just thank heavens that I wasn't sitting next to either of them on the airplane.  I'd have to go bathe with bleach afterwards.

Oh yeah - I was gone this weekend.  Didja notice?

Damn....

Steamboat McGoo is hanging it up.

Safe travels, you perverted genius.

Another reason to abolish the ATF v.2

ATF Agent was ordered to let guns flow into Mexico.

And then the anti-gun crowd, including people in our government, claimed that US guns in Mexico was proof that they needed to restrict gun ownership.

Oh hell no.  Get rid of the ATF.  Now.

Frankfurt

Two dead airmen, others wounded, by another member of the "Religion of Peace".

The Chaplain who I was with in Afghanistan had been to Bosnia and Kosovo, and claimed that the US picked the wrong side there.  He made no bones that what we allowed to happen in that country would come back to bite us in the ass, because the Muslims hated us anyways and the non-muslim population would never forget that we hung them out to dry.

Well, here's the first part of his statement in all too real flesh and blood.

Gas Prices

So now that gas is $3.35 a gallon and climbing, are we going to hear news story after news story about how President Obama is in bed with the big oil companies and helping them make outrageous profits?

And when gas hits $5.00 a gallon, and people put their entire paychecks into their gas tanks just trying to get to work and back, will it finally be Obama's fault, just like the networks and the liberals claimed it was Bush's fault?

Nah, I didn't think so either.

UPDATE:  Great Minds Think Alike.

The "Peaceful" Left

Caught on video again.  The Harpy who starts yelling "FUCK YOU" in time with the chants at around 2:05 was a nice, classy touch.  And when the Democrat legislator comes out to rescue the Republican legislator, but can't get the crowd to settle down for more than a minute and never gets them to actually back up.  If this had happened to a Donk?  It would be all over the next news show - TEA BAGGER VIOLENCE OVERFLOWS!  But since it's the Left attacking a Republican?  Nada.

I fucking hate the propaganda whores that currently run network news.

Seen these yet?

Doug Ross has the files that proves Ted Kennedy was a commie pervert.  Now, as much as it's every young boy's dream to rent an entire South American brothel, doing it with dirty filthy commies?  That's just over the top.

And Ted Kennedy was an anti-American piece of crap.  Thank god he's dead.

Mugshots of Meth addicts

Remember kids, DON'T DO DRUGS!

Even if every single one of those people kicked the habit right now, they're still fucked.  Their bones are shot, they'll have osteoporosis at the age of 35 or 40 because the meth has stripped their bones of calcium, their teeth are dead, and their brains are half eaten away.  They will never be the people they once were.

There's an analogy in here somewhere.....

Ah hell, I don't need to explain it, do I?

Holy Insurance, Batman!

No wonder the Public Employee Unions in Wisconsin want to keep their sweet deals coming - they've got the game rigged to rip off the taxpayer two or three times in one fell swoop!

A few dozen districts have managed to dump WEA Trust insurance over the past few years, despite the protests of teachers and their union. Officials from many of those districts say they managed to save at least six figures their first year with a different carrier, and maintained steady rates in subsequent years, while still offering quality health coverage to employees.

Officials from other districts say they're also eager to dump WEA Trust coverage, but need their employees' anonymous claim histories from WEA Trust to share with other bidders. Several say they have never requested that information because they were told WEA Trust would punish them by pulling them out of local insurance pools, resulting in skyrocketing premiums.

Today many Wisconsin school boards consider themselves stuck with expensive WEA Trust health coverage, until state law is altered to take the identity of the insurance carrier off the collective bargaining table. Gov. Scott Walker's current legislative proposal would do just that, giving school boards the opportunity to freely shop for insurance and save millions of tax dollars for instructional purposes.

In fact, Gov. Walker recently cited WEA Trust as the #1 reason for collective bargaining reform.

There's always another shoe waiting to drop.

More Fail from President Present

Osama bin Ladin famously said that if given a choice between a weak horse and a strong horse, people will pick the strong horse every time.  Well, I'd say the Middle East has seen just how weak Obama the gutless punk pussy truly is, and they've made their choice.

We're going to be dealing with the damage from Obama's inaction for decades to come.  As Insty puts it, the BEST outcome we can hope for is a Carter-esque type legacy.  But I don't think we'll be that lucky.

The Oscars were last night?

Can you tell how little I give a shit?

Today's musical post

Came to me as I was reading my latest edition of NRODT and found that George Shearing had died.



My first introduction to George Shearing came from Ella Fitzgerald, who took that song from up above and made it her own, but you can still hear George playing through every note she sings.



Enjoy.  I'm off to a friend's house.