Crucis' Court

All the Fine Young Cannibals

2012-01-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

My post title is from a 1960 movie made from a novel by Rosamond Marshall. The movie/novel wasn't about cannibalism, however. Sarah Palin wrote a post last week using the subject of cannibalism but her topic wasn't fiction. No, far from it. We have had, over the last year, many examples of political cannibalism and they weren't and aren't being practiced by the democrats. No, the current cannibalism is a fight between the 'Pub establishment and the rising forces of conservatism and the Tea Party.

Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left
by Sarah Palin on Friday, January 27, 2012 at 4:57pm
We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.
...
I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008. The left seeks to single someone out and destroy his or her record and reputation and family using the media as a channel to dump handpicked and half-baked campaign opposition research on the public. The difference in 2008 was that I was largely unknown to the American public, so they had no way of differentiating between the lies and the truth. All of it came at them at once as “facts” about me. But Newt Gingrich is known to us – both the good and the bad.
...
But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters. We were reminded of the litany of Tea Party endorsed candidates in 2010 who didn’t win. Well, here’s a little newsflash to the establishment: without the Tea Party there would have been no historic 2010 victory at all.

I spoke up before the South Carolina primary to urge voters there to keep this primary going because I have great concern about the GOP establishment trying to anoint a candidate without the blessing of the grassroots and all the needed energy and resources we as commonsense constitutional conservatives could bring to the general election in order to defeat President Obama. Now, I respect Governor Romney and his success. But there are serious concerns about his record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end. We need to vet this. Pundits in the Beltway are gleefully proclaiming that this primary race is over after Florida, despite 46 states still not having chimed in.
...
As I said in my speech in Iowa last September, the challenge of this election is not simply to replace President Obama. The real challenge is who and what we will replace him with. It’s not enough to just change up the uniform. If we don’t change the team and the game plan, we won’t save our country. We truly need sudden and relentless reform in Washington to defend our republic, though it’s becoming clearer that the old guard wants anything but that. That is why we should all be concerned by the tactics employed by the establishment this week. We will not save our country by becoming like the left. And I question whether the GOP establishment would ever employ the same harsh tactics they used on Newt against Obama. I didn’t see it in 2008. Many of these same characters sat on their thumbs in ‘08 and let Obama escape unvetted. Oddly, they’re now using every available microscope and endoscope – along with rewriting history – in attempts to character assassinate anyone challenging their chosen one in their own party’s primary. So, one must ask, who are they really running against?

- Sarah Palin

Her column contains much more than the excerpts I've shown above. Her last sentence really asks the real question, "So, one must ask, who are they really running against?" The sad truth is that the 'Pub establishment is running against us.

Quote of the Day

2012-01-30T01:00:00.000-06:00

Sarah: ‘Annoy A Liberal. Vote Newt’

"You gotta rage against the machine, at this point in order to defend our republic and save what is good and secure and prosperous about our nation, we need somebody who is engaged in sudden and relentless reform and isn’t afraid to shake it up. Shake up that establishment.

So, if for no other reason to rage against the machine vote for Newt, annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going."
-- Sarah Palin, FOXNews, January 29, 2012 at 11:22 am - Fox News via tv.Breitbart .com.

The 'Pub establishment is scared silly Newt may get the nomination. They've created a "big lie" that he didn't respect Ronald Reagan and insulted "the Gipper" numerous times. Supposed proof was a speech by Newt in the 1990s, used by the establishment, as their proof. However, when the actual recording of that speech is examined, the supposed comments by Newt were absent. Those statements were manufactured lies. The 'Pub establishment even resurrected Robert Dole and Elliot Abrams to spread the Big Lie.

Romney and the 'Pub establishment had better take care not to poison the well. Tactics such as these could drive voters away. Already I've heard some saying that if Romney is the candidate come November, they'll leave that vote blank. We cannot afford to split our conservative base. The true misfortune is that the party establishment in DC is not conservative.

Perhaps it is time to create a new party. One that listens to us instead of an establishment dictating what we want...like the democrats.

No Post

2012-01-27T10:36:00.000-06:00

No post. Didn't find a topic that drew my fancy today.

Maybe later.

Backup one, repeat

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

I started yesterday with a short to-do list. Got one outa three. A 33% success rate isn't good. Today, I start with the same to-do list and strive to finish with a better than 33% success rate.

***

The state media and the 'Pub establishment have started another dog-pile on Newt Gingrich. Both want a milquetoast President that can be controlled by the Ruling Class. As much as they try, they still don't understand the people of this country. What is needed in the White House is a conservative Pit Bull, not some wishy-washy, moderate Yap dog. A Yap dog is a cross between a small lap dog and a smaller ankle biter. A Yap dog barks like a big dog but runs and hides at the first sign of opposition.

Short Stuff

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

Today will be busy. I have a bunch of errands to do---look for a new office chair, get a haircut, write a blog post. Of the three, the last item is the last item in the to-do list. Maybe if I can keep it short, I can do it first and then on to the rest of the list.

***

The 'Pub establishment had Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels present the rebuttal to Obama's State of the Union campaign speech last night. This morning, all the pundits were ga-ga over Daniels, gushing about how great he did last night.

My observation? It was the Bland following the bland. Obama was bland because it was the same old crap. More taxes. More spending. It's the 'Pubs fault. The do-nothing Congress (while ignoring the 30+ bills sitting in Harry Reid's waste basket. Bills passed by the House and stone-walled by the dem controlled Senate.) I could have snoozed through Daniel's speech and not missed anything. He, another milk-toast, non-aggressive, moderate, seems appropriate as the poster-boy for the 'Pub establishment.

YAWN!

Then the 'Pub establishment had Mitt Romney, another milk-toast, non-aggressive, moderate, give the "pre-buttal" speech. Notice how the 'Pub establishment is in a rut?

The 'Pub establishment doesn't believe they can beat Obama. The rest of the country believes anyone can beat Obama. The failure to connect with their base is why the 'Pub establishment will lose, one way or another.

Same old, same old.

Attacks from the Left and Newt's Appeal

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Some items caught my eye this morning. While everyone has been watching the 'Pub debates, the left has been preparing their attacks too. I saw these item on the 'net.

George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War
by John Arlidge | January 23, 2012 12:00 AM EST
.
.
.
Occupy Wall Street “is an inchoate, leaderless manifestation of protest,” but it will grow. It has “put on the agenda issues that the institutional left has failed to put on the agenda for a quarter of a century.” He reaches for analysis, produced by the political blog ThinkProgress.org, that shows how the Occupy movement has pushed issues of unemployment up the agenda of major news organizations, including MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. It reveals that in one week in July of last year the word “debt” was mentioned more than 7,000 times on major U.S. TV news networks. By October, mentions of the word “debt” had dropped to 398 over the course of a week, while “occupy” was mentioned 1,278 times, “Wall Street” 2,378 times, and “jobs” 2,738 times. You can’t keep a financier away from his metrics.

As anger rises, riots on the streets of American cities are inevitable. “Yes, yes, yes,” he says, almost gleefully. The response to the unrest could be more damaging than the violence itself. “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States.”

The article is a standard fluff-piece that attempts to show the greatness of George Soros. It conveniently leaves out the fact that the "Occupy New York" movement was funded by Soros. Given that, the statement by Soros above isn't a prediction of possible events. No, it is nothing more than a threat to the nation by one of Obama's cronies.

In another planned attack by the left comes this from Indianapolis.

Indiana unions threaten to occupy Super Bowl

Investor's Business Daily by: IBD, Monday, January 23, 2012

Read more at: http://times247.com/articles/indiana-unions-threaten-to-occupy-super-bowl
Indiana unions' latest tactic
in their protests of
right-to-work legislation
is a threat to borrow
tactics from Occupy Wall
Street and make a public
scene at next month's
Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
Photo Credit:AP
Indiana unions, opposed to becoming the first right-to-work state in the Rust Belt, may disrupt Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. Their unnecessary roughness will cost the Hoosiers needed jobs.

On Friday, as the Indiana Senate was scheduled to take up legislation supported by Gov. Mitch Daniels to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state, Indiana unions considered copying the disruptive and coercive tactics of Occupy Wall Street to disrupt arguably America's premier sporting event, the Super Bowl, to be held in Indianapolis on Feb. 5. ...

If the bill passes before Feb. 5, some Indiana labor activists are considering protests before a nationwide audience. These protests would include Teamsters clogging city streets with trucks, and electricians staging a slowdown at the convention center site of the NFL village. Read the original article at Investor's Business Daily

I'm sure that disrupting the Super Bowl will endear the unions in the hearts of all the football fans around the globe.

In this third case, public service unions have entered the GOP candidate selection process. They're broadcasting anti-Romney ads.

Public employees union heaps cash into GOP ad attacks on Romney

By Luke Rosiak - The Washington Times, Sunday, January 22, 2012
An unlikely combatant has jumped into the big-money battle between independent groups running ads weighing in on the Republican presidential primary: a national union representing public employees. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) spent $1 million Friday on an ad accusing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of greed, Federal Election Commission records show.

The liberal group’s intent is to sway the outcome of the Republican primary in Florida, with ads running there before the state’s party elections Jan. 31. The strategy seems to indicate that the union views Mr. Romney as the most realistic threat to President Obama and would much prefer to see Republicans field another candidate, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, against Mr. Obama in the general election.

The piling-on of a liberal group on top of the Republican organizations attacking Mr. Romney highlights an irony to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that injected massive independent expenditures into politics with a ruling cheered by many conservatives: The majority of the spending thus far has been used to demonize Republicans.
...
Now, in addition to the Republican ads comes the union’s buy, by far the largest from a Democratic-leaning group. AFSCME did not return a call for comment.

The large-scale, full-frontal meddling in an opposing party’s primary is rare. The most recent prominent example may be the expenditure that triggered a series of court rulings dramatically expanding the ability of outside groups including corporations to spend on politics: In the Supreme Court case bearing its name, the conservative group Citizens United sought to air a biting, lengthy attack on Hillary Rodham Clinton in the days before she appeared on ballots as a Democratic presidential candidate facing off against Mr. Obama.

Although that film was fueled by genuine opposition to Mrs. Clinton, the AFSCME ad could be an attempt by a liberal group to push Republicans further to the right as part of a forward-thinking strategy.

I suppose if the dems can't get enough line-crossers to affect the 'Pub selection process, they'll try to poison the well. Typical, I suppose.

***

The left and the 'Pub establishment of Bill Krystol, Charles Krauthammer, Karl Rove, Brit Hume and Ann Coulter, still don't understand why Newt has risen in the polls and his appeal to the country---conservatives, evangelicals, and the Tea Party. The answer is simple but the establishment will never understand. The time for leadership by wimps has passed. What we need to turn this country around, to re-establish our relations with our allies, to preserve our national security and our borders, is a leader. An aggressive leader with a vision who understands the complexity of the world as it is---not as the establishment wants it to be.

Thomas Sowell wrote the article below in the Investor's Business Daily. The left understands, the 'Pub establishment doesn't.

South Carolina GOP's Message: No More Bland Moderates
By THOMAS SOWELL Posted 01/23/2012 06:26 PM ET
Just days before the South Carolina primary, polls showed Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich. Then came the debates and the question about Gingrich's private life, which brought a devastating response from the former speaker of the House — and a standing ovation from the audience.

Apparently the television audience felt the same way, judging by the huge turnaround in the support for Gingrich. The stunning victory in South Carolina brought Newt's candidacy back to life.

But the message from South Carolina was about more than a reaction to how Gingrich dealt with a cheap-shot question from the media. Nor was it simply the Republican voters' response to Newt's mastery as a debater.

The more fundamental message is that the Republican primary voters do not want Mitt Romney, even if the Republican establishment does — and it is just a question of which particular conservative alternative voters prefer.

The successive boomlets for Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain showed the Republican voter's constant search for somebody — anybody — as an alternative to Romney. The splintering of the conservative vote among numerous conservative candidates allowed Romney to be the "front-runner," but he never ran far enough in front to get a majority.

Mitt Romney's supposed "electability" — his acceptability to moderates and independents — has been his biggest selling point. Moreover, he is just the kind of candidate that the Republican establishment has preferred for years: a nice, bland moderate who offends nobody.

This is the kind of candidate that is supposed to be the key to victory, no matter how many such candidates have gone down to defeat. If the bland and inoffensive moderate was in fact the key to victory, Dewey would have won a landslide victory over Truman in 1948, and John McCain would have beaten Barack Obama in 2008.

Whomever the Republicans choose as their candidate is going to have to run against both Barack Obama and the pro-Obama media. Newt Gingrich has shown that he can do that. Romney? Not so much.

There is much more to the article on IBD. Go there and read it in its entirety. You'll receive an education. So would you, Ann, Bill, Brit, Charles and Karl.

Monday Milestones

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

So much for the Pub establishment reports that Romney leads in Florida. In the wake of the South Carolina primary, the latest Florida polls have Gingrich leading Romney by 8 points.

An InsiderAdvantage poll released late Sunday shows the former House speaker leading his main rival former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Sunshine state with 34 percent support from likely GOP voters to Romney’s 26 percent.---Hot Air

Gingrich leads Romney in all areas except for those who are democrats or non-conservatives.

***

Today is the 999th day without a budget being passed. All such attempts, since the Spring of 2009, have been halted by Harry Reid in the Senate. The democrats call the 'Pub controlled house, "The Do-nothing Congress." Truth be told, it is the "Do-Nothing democrats" that have been the obstructionists in Congress.

1,000 Days Without a Budget: Facts on the Senate’s Failure

Mike Brownfield
January 20, 2012 at 5:27 pm

Tuesday, January 24, will mark the 1,000th day since the U.S. Senate has passed a budget—an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch. By enacting continuing resolution upon continuing resolution (short-term measures to keep the government running, spending money at the current rate), the Senate has taken a pass on leading, all to the detriment of the poor and middle class.

The budget process forces Congress to set priorities to protect the people’s money and put it to its appropriate use. Instead, the Democrat-controlled Senate has abdicated its responsibility. The result? The deficit is soaring, causing a looming tax burden and injecting uncertainty into the economy, leaving jobs and economic growth on the table. It’s no wonder the U.S. economy’s growth is so tepid.
As the 1,000th day nears, here are some facts about America’s budget and why the Senate must take action to be stewards of the people’s money as the Constitution requires:
The last time the Senate passed a budget was on April 29, 2009.
Since that date, the federal government has spent $9.4 trillion, adding $4.1 trillion in debt.
As of January 20, the outstanding public debt stands at $15,240,174,635,409.
Interest payments on the debt are now more than $200 billion per year.
President Obama proposed a FY2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0. (And that budget was no prize—according to the Congressional Budget Office, that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would double the national debt in 10 years and would see annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.)
The Senate rejected House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget by 57–40 in May 2011, with no Democrats voting for it.
In FY2011, Washington spent $3.6 trillion. Compare that to the last time the budget was balanced in 2001, when Washington spent $1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion when you adjust for inflation).
Entitlement spending will more than double by 2050. That includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security. Total spending on federal health care programs will triple.
By 2050, the national debt is set to hit 344 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
Taxes paid per household have risen dramatically, hitting $18,400 in 2010 (compared with $11,295 in 1965). If the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and more middle-class Americans are required to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxes will reach unprecedented levels.
Federal spending per household is skyrocketing. Since 1965, spending per household has grown by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, it is projected to rise to $35,773, a 22 percent increase.
Despite all of these blatant red flags, the Senate has utterly failed to execute the most basic, fundamental function of governance at the worst possible time—when the country’s fiscal house is in disarray, the U.S. credit rating is in continual jeopardy, entitlement spending is ballooning, defense spending is on the chopping block, and the economy is in shambles.

***

There are many points to the Libertarian philosophical platform that I like. I like small government. I like more power to the states. I want more control over the Fed and I would like an audit of the practices and policies of the Fed as well.

However, I do not agree, I vehemently disagree, with Ron Paul's isolationist foreign policy. Isolationism lead us to be attacked at Pearl Harbor. Isolationism weakened our Navy and allowed the German wolf-packs to roam our shores and sink ships within sight of the Jersey shore. Before WW2, there were less than 20,000 Marines in the USMC. Isolationism weakened our military to the extent that when we entered WW1, we didn't have enough rifles to arm new recruits. We didn't have enough machine guns to support our troops and we had to buy arms from France and Britain. Isolationism gives the perception, true or not, of weakness and weakness, real or not, draws predators.

I surf the web and I see people spout Ron Paul's isolationism and when the faults and flaws of that philosophy are presented the Paul supporters attack their opponents instead of presenting countering facts. Ron Paul, in a new isolationist ad says the US now starts wars. We didn't start this war. Evidently Ron Paul has forgotten the attack on the World Trade Towers, on the Pentagon, and the crater in a Pennsylvania field. He voted against the War on Terror. That act alone reflects his isolationist view. "If we ignore them, they'll leave us alone." He was wrong then and he's wrong now.

Ron Paul preaches that the Founders were Isolationist too. Again, he's wrong.

The Myth of Isolationism, Part 1: American Leadership and the Cause of Liberty
By Marion Smith
December 6, 2010
...
To begin, it is helpful to define what is meant by “isolationist.” The term isolationism applies to a policy of abstaining from economic and political relations with other countries. By this definition, the best examples of isolationist foreign policies are offered by 17th century China, 18th century Japan, 19th century Korea, or 20th century North Korea. Considering America’s vibrant commercial engagement and interconnectedness to economic markets abroad, America’s diplomatic interaction with foreign powers, and America’s cultural affinity with Europe, it is clear that the United States of the 18th and 19th centuries cannot accurately be called “isolationist” if the word is to have any meaning at all. To be sure, there have always been isolationist and protectionist voices in American history, just as there have been advocates for imperialism; yet, those few moments, particularly in the twentieth century, when the United States exhibited isolationist tendencies stand out as aberrations in America’s engagement with the world. They are not reflective of a consistent foreign policy tradition that harkens back to the Founding.

Most people, however, mean something quite different from “isolationism” when they assert that the United States was or should remain uninvolved politically and militarily in foreign affairs. Their position can be characterized more accurately as “non-interventionist,” which is understood as a foreign policy of political or military non-involvement in foreign relations or in other countries’ internal affairs. A number of people believe that the Founders prescribed a foreign policy that prohibits military action except for defense and restricts American diplomatic or political engagement with foreign countries as a matter of principle.

The argument for non-interventionism is often backed up with quotes from the Founders and supposed examples of non-interventionist policies from America’s early history. Two such examples that are often cited are Washington’s 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain and the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. Properly understood, however, these early foreign policies were not dictated by isolationist or non-interventionist impulses, but rather were prudential policies guided by the Founders’ affection for republican self-government and their desire to preserve the country’s sovereign independence.

Throughout the 19th century, moreover, the United States provided invaluable support to other peoples around the world who were attempting experiments in self-government similar to its own. The U.S. supported the peoples of Latin America, Greece, and Hungary as they fought for independence. Far from contradicting American political principles, such actions were in fact wholly consistent with them. The United States was not founded to be a solitary fortress or to remain isolated from world affairs. When Washington noted America’s “detached and distant position,”[6] he was acknowledging a geographical reality, not defining a foreign policy principle.

There is much, much more at the website. Go there are read the entire essay for the real truth about our Founder's foreign policy. It wasn't isolationists. We weren't strong enough to defend ourselves. The War of 1812 is proof of that weakness.

***

The Kansas City MO School District has been stripped of their accreditation by the state. There is a proposal to reform the school district that includes stripping tenure from the teachers---especially those who fail their students.

School reform proposals are in limbo in Missouri General Assembly
Some lawmakers fear that controversial measures could stall efforts to help the Kansas City district.

By JASON HANCOCK
The Star’s Jefferson City correspondent

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/21/3384245/missouri-school-reforms-are-in.html#storylink=cpy

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to deal with a potential flood of student transfers stemming from the loss of accreditation in urban school districts like Kansas City’s.

But looming over this year’s legislative session is a pledge by House Speaker Steve Tilley, a Perryville Republican, that any plan to deal with school transfers to suburban districts, or adjustments to the state’s school funding formula, be coupled with ideas that have doomed previous reform efforts.

Those include controversial measures such as expanding charter schools, eliminating teacher tenure (emphasis mine: Crucis), basing teacher pay on student achievement and offering tax credit vouchers to parents who want to send children to private schools.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/21/3384245/missouri-school-reforms-are-in.html#storylink=cpy

As expected, the teacher's union is outraged.

A question was raised in response to this union outrage. Why should teachers have tenure in the first place? No other profession has such a provision.

I worked twenty years as an engineer for one of the country's largest telecommunications companies. I didn't have tenure. Farmers work all their lives tilling the fields and tending herds. They have no tenure. The clerk at your neighborhood convenience store, arguably one of the most dangerous jobs in the metro, has no tenure. Why should teachers?

They would say it protects their academic freedom. From what? You mean the marxist tenets being taught at UMKC and the latest farce being taught there in the Economics department? That's at the university level, not the local Kansas City district. (I would argue that tenure should be stripped from all education levels in the state and make those institutions answerable to those who pay their salaries---the taxpayers.)

It's time to strip tenure, the protection of the ideologue and the incompetent, from the district. Then, maybe then, the children of Kansas City will receive the education they need.

Aunt Anna May

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

When the mail arrived yesterday, it contained a letter from my cousin Donald. I didn't need to open it to know its contents. My Aunt Anna May had passed. She died on Sunday, January 7, 2012, just a few months shy of her 99th birthday. This last Christmas card from her son, Donald and his wife Faye, told us she had been placed in a nursing home. She had been mentally sharp all her life...until the last few months. I knew what was coming when I read their Christmas card. I just didn't expect it so soon.

Aunt Anna May was the survivor of five siblings, my mother, Rosalind, the oldest, my aunt Clara, my uncle Bill, and her twin sister who died as a child during the Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919. Aunt Anna May also buried two husbands, Loy Light and Frances Lamastus.

I hadn't intended for this post to be an obituary. I wanted to record some of my memories of her before those, in time, faded. She lived a rough, tough life on a farm from the days before tractors until the death of her first Husband, Loy, in the 1970s. She lived near my Father's farm in Franklin County when she married her second husband, Frances. When Frances died unexpectedly a few years later, she returned to her family farm and lived near Donald and Faye.

My most vivid memory of her was from a visit made one weekday when I was in grade school. School had just ended. My Grandmother, who lived with us, wanted to go down to the Aunt Anna May's family farm near Cairo, IL.

It was a warm, sunny morning when we pulled off the highway onto the gravel road that lead to the farm. It was a short drive, about a half-mile, past the Olive Branch Baptist Church and over a ridge. When we topped the ridge, we could see the farm and a cloud of dust in the field on the opposite side of the road from the farm-house.

Uncle Loy and Aunt Anna May were planting beans. Uncle Loy was driving the old, green, John Deere tractor. Behind the tractor was a modified horse-drawn planter. Aunt Anna May sat on the planter to operate it and to raise the planter and guide arms at the end of each row.

She wore an old floppy straw hat, worn jeans with torn knees, and a long-sleeved blue work shirt. Her ensemble was finished with a red bandanna tied around her face. When we met her, the dirt around her eyes were reminiscent of the face of a raccoon.

Anna May looked more like her father, tall and slender. She never had a weight problem. She did add a few pounds in the last decade or so but that was compensation for all the decades when she needed a few pounds and didn't have them.

Another memory was a visit we made one weekend. There was a church reunion on Sunday. When we arrived, Aunt Anna May was in the back yard, standing over a stump with her hatchet, killing chickens for the Sunday dinner. She'd grab a chicken, CHOP!, toss the chicken aside and grab another. There were two-three chickens flopping, running around without heads and a few more in a small wire cage. Next to her was a cauldron of boiling water over a fire. The water was to scald the chickens and make plucking the feathers easier. It was a familiar scene. At home, on similar occasions, Mom and Grandma would do the same. One difference was that Mom and Grandma preferred to wring the chicken's neck instead of wielding a hatchet.

Aunt Anna May and Uncle Loy didn't have much money. One Christmas they came up and brought me a present. It was a hand-made bow and arrow set. Uncle Loy made the bow by hand from a limb off an Ash tree. Aunt Anna May made the arrows using turkey feathers and Indian arrow heads they found on their farm.

In 2001, we visited her bringing our daughter Jennifer and our year-old grandson, Andrew. We spend the day visiting with her, Donald and Faye, talking and watching a dozen or more Hummingbirds flying around a trellis and an attached Hummingbird feeder.

She was my favorite. Oh, how I miss her.

Protect the Internet: No SOPA, No PIPA

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

I completely forgot about the net boycott yesterday. I'm adding my small piece at day late, as usual. There has been at least a bit of success. Senator Roy Bount (R-MO) dropped his sponsorship in a news release yesterday.

Jan 18 2012
Senator Blunt: Protect IP Act Is Flawed As It Stands Today, Cannot Support It Moving Forward
KANSAS CITY, MO. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) released the following statement today regarding the Protect IP Act:

“American innovation is a cornerstone to our nation’s economic growth, and job creators have lost $135 billion in revenue annually as a result of rogue internet sites.

“While I believed the bill still needed much work, I cosponsored the Senate version of the Protect IP Act because I support the original intent of this bill – to protect against the piracy of lawful content.

“Upon passage of this bill through committee, Senate Judiciary Republicans strongly stated that there were substantive issues in this legislation that had to be addressed before it moved forward. I agree with that sentiment. But unfortunately, Senate Leader Harry Reid is pushing forward with legislation that is deeply flawed and still needs much work.
“That is why I’m withdrawing my co-sponsorship for the Protect IP Act.

“The right to free speech is one of the most basic foundations that makes our nation great, and I strongly oppose sanctioning Americans’ right to free speech in any medium – including over the internet.

“I continue to believe that we can come to a solution that will cut off the revenue sources for foreign websites dedicated to counterfeiting and piracy that steal American jobs, hurt the economy, and harm consumers. But the Protect IP Act is flawed as it stands today, and I cannot support it moving forward.”

Success, one step at a time.

A Post-Constitutional country

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

Mark Levin has a new book out, Ameritopia: ‘We Now Live in a Post-Constitutional Country. I heard him being interviewed the other day on the radio and later on Fox's Hannity show.

“I believe to a great extent we now live in a post-constitutional country, where much of the Constitution is ignored or evaded,” Levin told CNSNews.com.

From the events starting with Obama's election, we have watched him and the democrats abuse and violate the constitution. The latest abuse was Obama's "recess" appointment to install three union goons to the head of the NLRB and to appoint the head of the new Consumer Protection agency. The problem was...the Senate wasn't in recess. In fact, the Senate hasn't recessed since 2006 when Harry Reid used the tactic to block recess appointments by George Bush. In the case of the Consumer agency, the law clearly states the head must be confirmed by the Senate. There is no provision for a recess appointment for that office.

In an interview with CNSNews, Levin discussed his new book.

The book, released Monday, compares the Utopian and unworkable schemes laid out by political philosophers from Plato to Thomas Hobbes with the vision of natural law, God-given rights, and individual liberty that inspired the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

“Utopianism is not new,” Levin writes in “Ameritopia.” “It has been repackaged countless times—since Plato and before. It is as old as tyranny itself. In democracies, its practitioners legislate without end. In America, law is piled upon law in contravention and contradiction of the governing law—the Constitution.”

The core of Utopianism and most assuredly true with the left in America is the subordination of the individual to the larger society. The individual cannot be allowed any means to oppose or ignore the dictates that govern the Uptopia. In the views of the Utopiaist, the individual is nothing more than a small, obedient cog in the greater machine.

That view is contrary to the concepts of the Founders and to their vision that is completely contrary to the ambitions of the Utopia dictators.

“What I want the readers to understand, what I want the public to understand is, this is not new and it’s going to destroy us,” said Levin. “It’s going to destroy us because it is an attack on the individual. It is an attack on the nature of human beings.”

I would strongly suggest you go to the CNS website, read the article and watch the videos. It will be an education.

Tuesday's Thoughts

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

Politicizing the Girl Scouts. I was scanning some news sites when I came across the article below. The Girl Scouts are using the same tactics as are unions---money flows upwards to the central organization where it's used to push a political agenda. In this case, one element of that liberal agenda is supporting abortion.

There are a number of youth organizations, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the 4-H and other similar groups whose primary task is supposed to be providing moral and philosophical principles for living. Most of these encircle family, God and community. Now, the morality that is being taught is that of the liberal political line...like supporting abortion and Planned Parenthood.

Say no to Girl Scout Cookies
Left-wing political agenda undermines girls, families

By Cathy Cleaver Ruse - The Washington Times
Monday, January 16, 2012
When our sweet little neighbor in her brown camp uniform came knocking on our door this year, we had to say no. I told her mother that I didn’t want to hurt Katie’s feelings, but I couldn’t support the Girl Scout cookie sale anymore because I’d learned too much about the organizers’ agenda, primarily their support for abortion and partnership with Planned Parenthood.

I worried that my “political” stand would cause uneasiness between us, but her response put me at ease: “Well,” she said, “they do use unpaid child labor to make their sales, and the troop only gets 10 percent of the revenues anyway.”
True. According to the Girl Scouts’ website, the lion’s share of the money goes not to the troop but to bureaucrats up the chain of command in multicounty councils. The national office gets a piece of the pie, too, in the form of royalties based on gross annual sales volume - about 200 million boxes per year.

It’s a sacrifice, because I love the cookies and the cuties who sell them, but enough is enough.

I remember the Girl Scouts being flaky way back in the early 1970s. When I was a Brownie, I was told to recite some chant and step over a mirror. If I had known the word, I would have called it “pagan.” Even an unchurched girl of 7 could smell a rat.
...
Several years ago. a quarter of the Girl Scout councils nationwide admitted to partnering with Planned Parenthood, the nation’s abortion giant. When questioned about the affiliation on NBC’s “Today Show,” Girl Scout CEO Kathy Cloninger had no compunction in confirming it.
...
Heard enough? There’s a lot more at 100questionsforthegirlscouts.org.

Earlier this month, a young Girl Scout employee, Renise Rodriguez, made the mistake of stopping by the office to do extra work on her own time in a T-shirt bearing the words: “Pray to End Abortion.” A supervisor ordered her to turn the shirt inside out or leave the office. She left, for good.

So should we all.

There is much more at the website, but frankly, I'm embarrassed to add them to my post. Frankly, it's horrifying what the Girls Scouts are doing. I'll no longer support them in any form.

***

Union thuggery. Public Service unions like the SEIU are back in the news again. They are openly hiring thugs to invade offices and commit other "non-violent" acts. I suppose those non-violent acts would be like those in St. Louis when the SIEU didn't like what they heard from a black Tea Partier who asked embarrassing questions to democrat Russ Carnahan's so-call Town Hall meeting.

The SEIU, gloating of their past successes are making such acts a matter of policy now.

Bored with union organizing, SEIU gears up for thuggery
By: Examiner Editorial | 01/16/12 8:05 PM
The SEIU is looking for someone
to lead non-violent protests. In other
words, someone who has no problems
invading buildings and getting arrested.

The SEIU is looking to hire someone to lead members in nonviolent civil disobedience. In other words, someone who has no problem invading buildings or getting arrested.
Something questionable is going on when a state chapter of the Service Employees International Union advertises on the SEIU national website a "Lead Internal Organizer/Home Care (LiA)" position paying up to $65,000 a year for somebody with the following qualifications:
• Train and lead members in non-violent civil disobedience, such as occupying state buildings and banks, and peaceful resistance.

• Plan and execute strategic direct action field plans including banner drops, bank takeovers, and capitol occupations with membership, other local unions, and coalition partners.

• Execute field plans for special campaigns including contract campaigns, ballot initiatives, COPE contributions, general membership growth and the broader campaign to fight for a fair economy.

(For those not familiar with SEIU nomenclature, "COPE" stands for Committee on Political Education, which the national union describes as the "300,000 SEIU members, staff and retirees who contribute an average of $7 a month." That at least explains the source of some $25.2 million of SEIU's beaucoup campaign money for Democrats.)
...
Since by SEIU's own words, it is assisting in takeovers of government buildings and violating private property and related activities that have no bearing on "traditional representational duties," we wonder if the next president and his appointed attorney general will ask if "SEIU" has anything to do with "RICO."

In other words, SEIU is hiring goons to go after whomever opposes the SEIU and their other public service union buds.

***

Conservative Victories. There were three conservative victories in the Courts this last week.

In Texas, a federal appeals court upheld the state's sonogram law, which requires that women seeking abortions view a picture of their baby before having the procedure. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling, which had issued an injunction, preventing the law from taking effect.
A Marion Superior Court judge in Indiana upheld that state's school voucher law. Judge Michael Keele rejected arguments from opponents that the nation's largest school voucher program is unconstitutional because parents might send their children to religious schools.
The Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. At issue was whether a church or religious organization could hire and fire ministers according to their theological beliefs and teachings.

There was little coverage of these and most of that coverage was about the unanimous SCOTUS decision supporting "Ministerial Exception." "Ministerial Exception" is that portion of the 1st Amendment that prevents the government from interfering in the internal operation and doctrine of a church.

Opinion recap: A solid “ministerial exception”

Analysis
Closing the courthouse door much of the way, but not completely, to workplace bias lawsuits by church employees who act as ministers to their denominations, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously gave its blessing — for the first time — to a “ministerial exception” to federal, state, and local laws against virtually all forms of discrimination on the job. The Court’s ruling, which only Justice Clarence Thomas said did not go far enough, did not order courts to throw out all such lawsuits as beyond their jurisdiction, but it left them with only a narrow inquiry before the likely order of dismissal would come down. As soon as the denomination makes its point that it counts an employee as a “minister,” within its internal definition, that is probably the end of the case. And the employee could be anyone from the congregational leader, on down to any worker considered to be advancing the religious mission.

The decision, with the main opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., was clearly one of the most important church-state rulings that the Court had issued since its 1990 ruling, in a case involving a Native American church ritual of smoking peyote. In that case, the Court allowed the government to apply “neutral and general” laws to some religious practices, but the Chief Justice on Wednesday said that did not control the new ruling — in the case of Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (docket 10-553).

The Roberts opinion dismissed as an “extreme position” the plea of EEOC to limit any “ministerial exception” solely to workers who perform “exclusively religious functions.” While the opinion said the Court was “reluctant to adopt a rigid formula for deciding when an employee qualifies as a minister,” the opinion went on to describe some key factors that courts are to take into account in judging whether a given denomination has proved its claim to the exception.

In this particular case, involving a parochial school teacher in Redford, Mich., who spent most of her work time on non-religious duties, the Court found these to be decisive factors: that she was formally commissioned or ordained as a “minister” in the Lutheran denomination’s internal practices, that she did perform “important religious functions” in addition to her teaching of lay subjects in the classroom, and that her non-religious duties, however extensive, did not make a difference. The Chief Justice said the Court was unsure whether any church employee would ever do exclusively religious chores.

The central opinion was, briefly, that the government must have hands-off when it comes to internal church practices and doctrine. This does NOT provide a blanket ban on suits involving church organizations.

While all nine members said they joined the Roberts opinion, Justice Thomas made it clear in a separate opinion that he did not fully embrace it.

The Roberts opinion said in a final footnote that is likely to take on added significance as time goes on, that the “ministerial exception” was not “a jurisdictional bar” to all such lawsuits claiming workplace bias. Rather, the Chief Justice explained, it is “a defense on the merits.” Thus, such lawsuits can be filed, and the worker who is suing will make a claim that he or she is the victim of discrimination, and then the denomination gets to answer that the case cannot go further because it considers the employee to be a “minister.”

All-in-all, it was a good week for conservatism. Not all judicial decisions are liberal.

Huntsman drops out, endorses Romney.

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Well, duh! I'm sooo surprised Huntsman will endorse Romney. Neither are conservatives, both are big government advocates and both want to be a part of The Ruling Class. Neither have the moral strength to stand up to the Establishment of either party. The 'Pub establishment is confident that Romney will be their rubber stamp. He has not a forceful personality and he's shown no inclination to lead from the front. When the wind rises, he's a willow bending with the wind.

That is not what we need for a President. Unfortunately, it's very likely that is what we'll get.

Byron York, writing in the Washington Examiner, has these observations.

Huntsman: A boutique candidacy that didn't sell
MYRTLE BEACH, SC -- A number of Jon Huntsman's core positions were deeply conservative. His pro-growth economic plan was nearly everything the Wall Street Journal editorial page could have wanted. He was strongly pro-life. Strongly Second Amendment. Yet conservative Republicans stayed away from his candidacy in droves, and the few people who were attracted to the Huntsman campaign were moderate Republicans, independents, Democrats -- and the media.

Why? Huntsman's problem was that, whatever his position on some key issues, he sent out political and cultural signals that screamed NPR, and not Fox News, that screamed liberal, and not conservative. Even though conservatives agreed with Huntsman on many things, they instinctively sensed he wasn't their guy. It wasn't hard for them to figure out.

As he began his campaign, Huntsman hired as his chief strategist John Weaver, the man who ran the 2000 John McCain presidential campaign in which McCain went almost out of his way to alienate Republican voters while trying to appeal to independents. It was an early sign Huntsman might have a problematic relationship with the Republican base.

Last summer, Huntsman invited photographer Annie Leibovitz to take pictures of him for a spread in Vogue, which accompanied a fawning profile by liberal journalist Jacob Weisberg. The article set out in large ways and small how Huntsman didn't quite fit in on the Republican campaign trail. For example, this is how Weisberg described Huntsman visiting a diner in a small South Carolina town: "Surveying the motley crowd with an ironic expression, he begins, 'All I can tell you is that I never thought I would be making an appearance at Mutt's BBQ.'" Huntsman was never a candidate who could seem completely at home at Mutt's, or with motley crowds.

Beyond that, Huntsman made no effort to be diplomatic about the ways in which he differed with some parts of the Republican base. "To be clear," Huntsman said in a tweet on August 18. "I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." The point is not that Huntsman had to be a creationist or climate skeptic. The point is that he managed to say it in a way that appealed to people on the left and irritated people on the right.
...

On election day in New Hampshire, I appeared on an NPR program and said that there was a certain boutique quality to Huntsman's candidacy -- that he was seeking to appeal to a small, specialized segment of the electorate. It was an effective way for Huntsman to define himself but not a very effective way to win. A short time later, a woman named Carol, from Hanover, New Hampshire, phoned in to disagree. "He doesn't seem very boutique-y to me," she said. But she noted that the only place she had heard him was Vermont Public Radio, and then she described what she had done that morning, on election day: "I'm an independent. I went in, I registered Republican, I voted for Huntsman, and on my way out the door I switched back to independent."

Appealing to Carol, and not to the Republican base, was no way to win the GOP nomination. Huntsman probably knew that all along, but he finally surrendered to reality on Sunday night, when he sent out word that he's out of the Republican race.

Huntsman was the darling candidate for the left. Unfortunately for Huntsman, Romney fit the world-view of those lefty voters better than Huntsman. When the lefties crossed the aisle to vote in the 'Pub primary, they voted for Romney.

It's the McCain presidency all over again. Been there, done that, do not want the t-shirt...unless it's Sarah Palin's.

Takin' a sick day

2012-01-13T08:39:00.000-06:00

I seemed to have picked up some bug and I'm not feelin' too whippy. See y'all next Monday.

The Call of the Mild

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

Chris Muir's Day-by-Day has a great cartoon today. It presents the more important issue in Washington, the roll-over of the Republican Establishment. Barack Obama is still the more dangerous person in the country, but numbers two and three are John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.

Obama is dangerous because he wants to overthrow our Constitutional government. His actions of this last week are only the latest instances in a series of acts that he has done to by-pass Congress. Boehner and McConnell aid and abet Obama's act by doing nothing in opposition. Now it appears the 'Pub establishment is about to ram another rubber stamp by the name of Mitt Romney down our throats.

I have heard that the Tea Party is running a candidate against Boehner in Ohio. We must remove Boehner and all the rest of the 'Pub establishment before the country is irrevocably damaged...if it isn't already.

The Missouri 'Pub establishment has closed the Missouri Caucus. I hope they don't sell us out like the 'Pub establishment in Washington, DC, has done.

Voting with their feet

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

I was born and raised in Illinois...southern Illinois in Franklin County. My wife was born and raised there too, also in southern Illinois. We both attended and graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL.

We know Illinois.

Eighty percent of the state is controlled by the other twenty percent. That twenty percent is Cook County and northeastern segment of the state. Chicago has controlled the state since before Prohibition. It has been and continues to be the most corrupt city in the nation and if you examine the history of the state, Illinois has been and continues to be the most corrupt state in the country.

Illinois has been controlled by the Chicago democrat machine going back to Al Capone and earlier. In Illinois, the rule of survival is, "Go along to get along." My father was a small part of the democrat machine first as a United Mine Workers union shop steward and later as an auxiliary deputy sheriff. In Illinois, if you want something done, like getting the road in front of your house repaired, getting a new culvert along your property to prevent flooding of your fields, if you want the assessment on your property reduced (or that of your enemy's increased), you must have political clout. It's a fact of life in Illinois and Chicago controls the state legislature and the governor's mansion.

Ninety years of corrupt democrat control has ruined the state. The state population is shrinking, the state has the highest taxes in the country, and it cannot service its debt. So what does the state do to fix these problems? They raised taxes 67%.

Here is the tale of one Illinois resident, a former state senator, and what he has decided to do.

Former State Senator Quits Illinois, Moves to Texas
By publiusforum, March 22, 2011 at 11:07 am
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Wilmette Beacon published a very startling article that reveals so much of what is wrong with the state of Illinois. Roger Keats, a former state senator and a recent candidate for Cook County Board President has announced that he is leaving the state and moving to Texas.

Keats has a long history of fighting corruption in Cook County, but he's realized that there is no longer any political will to continue that fight in the state of Illinois. It is hopelessly corrupt and Roger Keats feels he's done his duty, but that duty is finished.
The full text of the Keats' letter was published in Illinois Review:

GOOD BYE AND GOOD LUCK

As we leave Illinois for good, I wanted to say goodbye to my friends and wish all of you well. I am a lifelong son of the heartland and proud of it. After 60 years, I leave Illinois with a heavy heart. BUT enough is enough! The leaders of Illinois refuse to see we can't continue going in the direction we are and expect people who have options to stay here. I remember when Illinois had 25 congressmen. In 2012 we will have 18. Compared to the rest of the country we have lost 1/3rd of our population. Don't blame the weather, because I love 4 seasons. Illinois just sold still more bonds and our credit rating is so bad we pay higher interest rates than junk bonds! Junk Bonds! Illinois is ranked 50th for fiscal policy; 47th in job creation; 1st in unfunded pension liabilities; 2nd largest budget deficit; 1st in failing schools; 1st in bonded indebtedness; highest sales tax in the nation; most judges indicted (Operations Greylord and Gambat); and 5 of our last 9 elected governors have been indicted. That is more than the other 49 states added together! Then add 32 Chicago Aldermen and (according to the Chicago Tribune) over 1000 state and municipal employees indicted. The corruption tax is a real cost of doing business. We are the butt of jokes for stand up comics.

We live in the most corrupt big city, in the most corrupt big county in the most corrupt state in America. I am sick and tired of subsidizing crooks. A day rarely passes without an article about the corruption and incompetence. Chicago even got caught rigging the tests to hire police and fire! Our Crook County CORPORATE property tax system is intentionally corrupt. The Democrat State Chairman who is also the Speaker of the Illinois House and the most senior alderman in Chicago each make well over a million dollars a year putting the fix in for their client's tax assessments.

We are moving to Texas where there is no income tax while Illinois' just went up 67%. Texas' sales tax is 1/2 of ours, which is the highest in the nation. Southern states are supportive of job producers, taxpayers and folks who offer opportunities to their residents. Illinois shakes them down for every penny that can be extorted from them.
In The Hill Country of Texas (near Austin and San Antonio) we bought a gracious home on almost 2 acres with a swimming pool. It is new, will cost us around 40% of what our home in Wilmette just sold for and the property taxes are 1/3rd of what they are here. Crook County's property tax system is a disaster: Wilmette homes near ours sell for 50% more and their property taxes are 1/2 of ours. Our assessed home value was 50% higher than the sales price. The system is unfair and incompetent.

Our home value is down 40%, our property taxes are up 20% and our local schools have still another referendum on the ballot to increase taxes over 20% in one year. I could go on, but enough is enough. I feel as if we are standing on the deck of the Titanic and I can see the icebergs right in front of us. I will miss our friends a great deal. I have called Illinois home for essentially my entire life. But it is time to go where there is honest, competent and cost effective government. We have chosen to vote with our feet and our wallets. My best to all of you and Good luck!

It is a stinging indictment of the state. When Illinois raised taxes 67%, the surrounding states invited businesses to relocate from Illinois and promised lower taxes, additional tax incentives and state governments more friendly to business. Many businesses moved. More are considering moving.

Illinois is controlled by an oligarchy of Chicago democrat politicians, Rahm Emmanuel being the latest. Until that political power is broken, Illinois will continue to slide into political barbarism.

My wife and I still have family members living in Illinois. All live in the lower half of the state. Many are our age and it's too late for them to leave the state. We also have many nieces, nephews and younger cousins there and I hope they will understand their predicament and leave the state.

As much as I hope otherwise, I believe there is no hope for Illinois until the state collapses. The damage done by the democrat machine is too severe to be fixed as it is. It all must come done and then, then it can be rebuilt with political power in the hands of the people instead of in the hands of a corrupt democrat machine.

Tuesday's Thoughts

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

The left, in the persons of Obama and Panetta with the acquiescence of McConnell and Boehner, are gutting our military. The cuts hearken back to Clinton's emasculation of the military when cuts to procurement ment that Soldiers and Marines had no ammo to acquire and keep proficiency in their basic arm---the rifle. Army recruits completed basic training without ever firing their rifles. That was left for their first duty assignment. Except...those units didn't have funds for practice ammo either. All available supplies were being sent to Kosovo and front line units.

We now return to those bad old days.

***

This week IBD posted some memorable GOP quotes from this last week. Here are a few that bear a closer review.

My view is that the principles I've learned in business and the principles as governor frankly have made me more conservative as time has gone on. I've seen a lot of government trying to solve problems and it didn't work. And my view is the right course for America is to have someone who understands how the economy works, who will passionately get America back on track. --Mitt Romney (If that is so, Mitt, why have you never disavowed Romneycare? Why have you never said that you now disapprove it?)
I think that the most important ingredients in this country that made us great was our founders understood what liberty meant. And that is what we need. We have deserted that. We have drifted a long way. It involved our right to our life, right to our liberty. We ought to be able to keep the fruits of our labor. We ought to understand property rights. We ought to understand contract rights. We ought to understand what sound money is all about. And we ought to understand what national defense means. That means defending this country. --Ron Paul (Really?!?! If you think national defense means defending our country, just when you that occur? When Iran builds nukes? No, you've already said that's OK with you. When Iran attacks Israel? No, you've already said we should recall our forces to the US and ignore entanglements overseas. So when would you, Ron Paul? When a nuke is set off here in the US would that finally be a trigger for you?)
The right course for America is not to raise taxes on Americans. I understand that President Obama and people of his political persuasion would like to take more money from the American people. And they want to do that so they can continue to grow government. The answer for America is not to grow government. It is to shrink government. --Mitt Romney (On that, I can agree.)
The problem with Congressman Paul is all the things that Republicans like about him he can't accomplish and all the things they're worried about he'll do day one. And that's the problem. -- Rick Santorum (Yep. Me too.)
Listen, I'm not anti-union. I'm pro-jobs. --Rick Perry (Unions are for Unions. They care nothing about jobs unless it's their own.)
(About the EPA) In Arizona, they went in on the dust regulation and suggested to them that maybe if they watered down the earth, they wouldn't have these dust storms in the middle of the year. And people said to 'em, "You know, the reason it's called a desert is there's no water." Now this is an agency out of touch with reality, which I believe is incorrigible, and you need a new agency that is practical, has common sense, uses economic factors. --Newt Gingrich (Newt is always one with a good come-back. The intelligence of a federal agency is the inverse of it's funding.)

We have a president that's a socialist. I don't think our founding fathers wanted America to be a socialist country. So I disagree with that premise that somehow or another that President Obama reflects our founding fathers.

He doesn't. He talks about having a more powerful, more centralized, more consuming and costly federal government. I am a Tenth Amendment-believing governor. I truly believe that we need a president that respects the Tenth Amendment, that pushes back to the states. Whether it's how to deliver education, how to deliver health care, how to do our environmental regulations. The states will considerably do a better job than a one-size-fits-all Washington, D.C., led by this president. -- Rick Perry (Amen, Rick.)

These quotes and more can be found here on the IBD website.

A new decmocrat attack tactic

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

I'm not a Ron Paul fan. I've said that many times. However he is running as a member of the GOP and that makes him an enemy of the left. He was campaigning in New Hampshire when he was the recipient of this new democrat attack tactic---the media flash mob.

Paul had a scheduled event at a restaurant in Manchester, NH. It was supposed to be a standard Meet 'n Greet, press a little flesh, speak to some voters, ask and answer some questions. Instead the media mobbed the place and filled the restaurant crowding out the voters disrupting the entire campaign event.

Why should we not be surprised. It's just another tactic by the statists to corrupt the electoral process.

Media mob chases Ron Paul from campaign stop in New Hampshire

By Josh Lederman - 01/09/12 09:35 AM ET
MANCHESTER, N.H. — A campaign stop at a New Hampshire eatery unraveled into a bit of a circus when the media scrum chasing Ron Paul apparently became too much for the 76-year-old Texas congressman to handle.

Paul had been planning to make the rounds through Moe Joe’s restaurant before settling down to eat breakfast with his wife, Carol — who said he enjoys apple pancakes — at a table in the corner.

But the plans quickly changed. Barely able to move through the restaurant as hundreds of journalists and videographers surrounded him on all sides, Paul ignored the questions being lobbed at him and slowly inched through the restaurant, offering a few autographs to supporters along the way.

“Guys, you’ve got to take it easy,” shouted one Paul staffer, imploring the media to give the congressman some space.
No such luck.

“Ron Paul: We have you surrounded. We are the media,” sounded the voice from a megaphone as Paul staffers ushered him into a waiting SUV, just minutes after he arrived at the restaurant.

There's more of this article at the site. Go there and read it all. All conservatives should be informed of this tactic and be prepared to block it whenever the next attack occurs.

Friday Follies for January 6, 2012

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

I was listening to the radio this morning and the news is filled about an illegal alien who killed a mother and child last July.

Drunk-Driving Illegal Alien Kills Mother and Daughter in Missouri

Another family has been devastated by a drunk-driving illegal alien. Mother and hospice nurse Diane Bronson and her 11-year-old daughter Anna of Belton, Missouri, were killed on July 4 in a head-on crash. The deadly SUV was driven by 18-year-old Felix Solano Gallardo whose blood alcohol was measured two hours after the wreck at .185, double the legal limit in Missouri. He had driven 14 miles the wrong way on the interstate before smashing into the Bronson’s car.

Diane and her daughter were on their way to a Fourth of July celebration in Sugar Creek where her husband Buddy was set to ride an antique scooter in the parade. They never made it.
Drunken driver reportedly went wrong way for 14 miles before fatal wreck
Kansas City Star, July 5, 2011
Diane K. Bronson was eight months pregnant when a state paint-striping truck rear-ended her vehicle in 1999.

Firefighters had to cut her out of the wreckage, and Bronson suffered a serious head injury. But she survived, as did her prematurely born baby, whom she named Anna.
On Monday — more than 11 years later — Bronson and Anna, of Belton, (MO) were again involved in a highway crash. But this time, neither survived.

Police blamed the 8:30 a.m. wreck on Interstate 435 near 63rd Street in Kansas City on a drunken driver going the wrong way.

Jackson County prosecutors charged Felix Solano-Gallardo, 18, of Kansas City, Kan., on Monday with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. His blood alcohol content was 0.185, more than double the legal limit of 0.08, more than two hours after the wreck, according to court records.

Police were still working Tuesday to confirm the man’s identity. According to court records, Gallardo gave his name as Felix Gallardo, but he had two Mexican identification cards on him with a different name, and both cards had different photos. Prosecutors think he is an illegal immigrant.

Police said they think Gallardo had been driving the wrong way for at least 14 miles because they think he ran a driver off of Interstate 70 into a concrete median near Harrison Street earlier. The victim told police the driver drove at him from one side of the highway to the other and appeared to be trying to hit him, police said.
At least nine motorists called 911 to complain about a wrong-way driver on I-70 or I-435 Monday morning.

Gallardo was uncooperative with police and invoked his right to an attorney using an interpreter, according to court records.

The story is approaching an end. Felix Solano-Gallardo plead guilty to two counts of Manslaughter.

Solano-Gallardo could receive up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced March 9.

Solano-Gallardo’s correct name and age have been unclear throughout his prosecution. Immediately after his arrest, he gave investigators the Solano-Gallardo name, while later telling immigration officers that his correct name was Luis Solano-Barrera. Under that name also he gave a birth day that would have made him 23 years old.

But under oath Wednesday, he said his name was Solano-Gallardo and that he was 19 years old.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/04/3352620/man-admits-driving-drunk-in-kc.html#storylink=cpy

When he was arrested he had a number of different IDs on his person---none that were later found to be valid.

***

Eight point five. That is the latest unemployment rate presented by the Obama Administration. As usual, it is a pack of lies. The real rate around 11%. The government has been manipulating the statistics again.

The methodology used by the Department of Labor to calculate unemployment is to compare those drawing unemployment with the number of the employed. That latter figure can be manipulated as desired to include those working part-time and to list those holding more than one job as two people.

In addition at this time of year is the "seasonal adjustment." That is a factor to adjust the seasonal increase of temporary jobs over the holiday season, roughly from mid-October through the end of December.

The problem with that adjustment is that they calculate the adjustment using the employment figures for the last five years. The higher employment of the Bush years is dropping off. The calculation now contains the abysmal employment of the Obama years. Consequently the current adjustment makes the unemployment look better.

Smoke and Mirrors.

Here is another view of that 11% real unemployment rate from The Washington Post, a member in good standing of the state media.

Wonkbook: The real unemployment rate is 11 percent
Posted by Ezra Klein at 07:51 AM ET, 12/12/2011
Typically, I try to tie the beginning of Wonkbook to the news. But today, the most important sentence isn't a report on something that just happened, but a fresh look at something that's been happening for the last three years. In particular, it's this sentence by the Financial Times' Ed Luce, who writes, "According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent."

Remember that the unemployment rate is not "how many people don't have jobs?", but "how many people don't have jobs and are actively looking for them?" Let's say you've been looking fruitlessly for five months and realize you've exhausted every job listing in your area. Discouraged, you stop looking, at least for the moment. According to the government, you're no longer unemployed. Congratulations?

Since 2007, the percent of the population that either has a job or is actively looking for one has fallen from 62.7 percent to 58.5 percent. That's millions of workers leaving the workforce, and it's not because they've become sick or old or infirm. It's because they can't find a job, and so they've stopped trying. That's where Luce's calculation comes from. If 62.7 percent of the country was still counted as in the workforce, unemployment would be 11 percent. In that sense, the real unemployment rate -- the apples-to-apples unemployment rate -- is probably 11 percent. And the real un- and underemployed rate -- the so-called "U6" -- is near 20 percent.

There were some celebrations when the unemployment rate dropped last month. But much of that drop was people leaving the labor force. The surprising truth is that when the labor market really recovers, the unemployment rate will actually rise, albeit only temporarily, as discouraged workers start searching for jobs again.

A number of conservative pundits have predicted that the unemployment figures for the rest of 2012 will continue to "improve." It will improve not because more people are going back to work. No, it will be lower because Obama's administration will continue to manipulate the data to reflect the result that makes Obama look good...if that is possible.

When you hear someone claim that Obama is putting people back to work and use the unemployment rate as proof, look them in the eye and know them for the liar they are.

***

"An Impeachable offense." That was the statement by a local conservative talk-radio host this morning. Obama made four recess appointments yesterday. Four people who Obama knew would not pass the approval process in the Senate. Three of the appointees were union goons to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The other was to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Obama thumbs nose at Constitution on 'recess appointments'
By: Examiner Editorial | 01/05/12 8:05 PM
President Obama is not one to let the Constitution get in the way of a "recess appointment." He just named Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and he has announced three similar recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board. But Obama is making these appointments at a time when the Senate is actually in session, according to the Constitution and under all definitions accepted by authorities for the last century. If the Senate is in session, the Constitution requires the Senate's advice and consent to these appointments.

This attempt to circumvent the legislative branch is a violation of Obama's oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. Instead he is thumbing his nose at it and daring Congress, or anybody else, to stop him. It's the same sort of fundamental disrespect for the rule of law that is routinely practiced by tinhorn dictators like Hugo Chavez.
...
A president's recess appointment power exists under Article II, Section Two of our Constitution, and it requires the Senate to be in recess at least three days before the power is exercised. Nowhere does it say the president gets to decide when the Senate is in recess; only Congress can do that. It has never been understood any other way.

To justify this power grab, Obama contends that the Senate has actually been in recess for weeks because the Senate's brief pro forma sessions every three days are a sham since no official business is conducted. Obama might as well argue that his appointments are legal because the moon is made of green cheese. Article I, Section Five of the Constitution states, in part, that "Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days ..." The House has not consented to a Senate recess. Thus, the Senate's pro forma sessions are strictly constitutional, the Senate is legally in session, and Obama must seek its advice and consent on these appointments. Otherwise, they are null and void and will be thrown out by a federal court. Obama is counting on that not happening before November's election.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/01/obama-thumbs-nose-constitution-recess-appointments/2065421?utm_source=1/6:%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2001/06/2012&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest#ixzz1ih6nNlFJ

Obama's problem is that the Senate is not in recess. The Senate has not "officially" been out of session since 2007. Harry Reid kept the Senate in session to block any recess appointments by George Bush(43). Reid has continued the tactic for other reasons, like trying to show it's the 'Pubs who are blocking legislation, but now that tactic has come around to bite Obama in the butt.

If a vote of Impeachment does come forth in the House, it will be the second time in less than a decade an a half that a democrat President has violated his oath of office.

But then, the democrats care little for such oaths nor for the Constitution. They view them as impediments to their efforts to seize and retain political power.

Yawn...

2012-01-05T09:51:00.004-06:00

Just not feeling it today. Maybe later. The news and political sites are blah as well.

Iowa Reviews

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

Rick Santorum

Mitt Romney won. But by only eight votes over Rick Santorum. Now wasn't that a surprise!

Results for Iowa Republican Caucus (U.S. Presidential Primary)

Jan 03, 2012 (100% of precincts reporting)Source: AP

Mitt Romney	30,015	24.6%
Rick Santorum	30,007	24.5%
Ron Paul	26,219	21.4%
Newt Gingrich	16,251	13.3%
Rick Perry	12,604	10.3%

Rumor mill has it that Bachmann (5%) and Perry (10%) will drop out.

Laura Ingraham reports numerous democrats changing their registration and voting for Ron Paul. I'm not surprised. The dems hope Ron Paul loses by a small margin and get mad, again, and go third party and thus splitting the 'Pub votes in the Fall.

Laura Ingraham also reports numbers of Paulbots disrupting meetings shouting and disrupting the meetings while the other candidate supporters were speaking. I'm not surprised about that either. It seems that Ron Paul attracts thuggish behavior.

McCain is reported to announce his endorsement of Romney within days. Maybe today. Wow, what a surprise. A RINO endorsing another RINO. Big Whoop.

If Bachmann and Perry drop out who will they support. Reports from Iowa say that the Cain and much of the undecided supporters went to Santorum. Will Bachmann and Perry supporters, if those two drop out, go to Santorum too? I wouldn't be surprised.

Newt praised Santorum's performance in Iowa. He said Santorum worked a great campaign. That's all true, Santorum visited all 99 Iowa counties, many more than once or twice. He earned his votes the hard way. I've yet to hear congratulations to Santorum from any other candidate.

Iowa surprised many. Santorum has been ignored by the State Media. That will end. He's hated by the LGBT crowd because of Santorum's opposition of Gay Marriage. If you Google just "Santorum" you'll see examples of that hate. You'll hear the state media parroting those remarks in the coming weeks and months.

Racing

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

The liberals like to call those of us living in middle America as NASCAR loving rednecks. KC has a NASCAR track on the western outskirts of Kansas City, KS and there is a number of races scheduled around the year.

But we here in middle America don't limit our racing to just NASCAR. The truth is that we like just about any kind of racing. Old NFO has a post about a transient aircraft at a small local airport and the effect it had on those present. It reminded me of a race that I attended. A race I remember to this day.

Hawker Sea Fury

Hawker Typhoon

F8F Bearcat

F2G Super Corsair

P-51D Miss America

It was a different kind of race. Air racing. Reno-style. With WW2/Korea era piston-engined fighters like the P-51D, the F8F Bearcat, the F4U/F2G Corsair, the Hawker Typhoon and Sea Fury.

There were two races in the afternoon with a mini-air show in between. There were a number of old fighter aircraft on display including a P-38, F-80, F-87 and a Mig-15. The P-38 and F-80 each did a solo aerobatic demonstration. There was supposed to be a mock dogfight between the F-87 and the Mig-15 but there was some maintenance issue in one of them and they didn't perform.

My role, as one of the pylon judges, was to observe how close each aircraft came to the pylons. There were strict rules governing how the pylon could be approached, at what altitude, the minimum distance allowable to the pylon and some other rules I've now forgotten. Mostly we just laid on the ground and watched the aircraft as they made the turn. My job was to check the approach direction. There were specific rules on the approach vector to insure that if any accident occurred it wouldn't endanger any of the nearby residences or other structures.

One older local pilot told me to bring some earplugs. I was glad I did. My ears still rang for a day even with the protection of the ear plugs. There's nothing like the sound of a Merlin or 4-bank radial engine at full power. If you look at the race results below, you see the average speeds were in the neighborhood of 400mph. Many flew well above that.

It was an afternoon to remember.

1993 - Oct 22-24, Kansas City Air Races, Olathe KC
Championship = 1. Bill Destefani, P-51D Strega (v: 408.91). 2. Dennis Sanders, Sea Fury Dreadnought (v: 402.37). 3. Bill Rheinschild, P-51D Risky Business (v: 379.64). 4. Kevin Eldridge, F2G Super Corsair (v: 375.84). 5. Del Williams, P-51D Pegasus (v: 360.26).

Reserve Race = 1. Alan Preston, P-51D Miss America (v: 347.72). 2. Lloyd Hamilton, Sea Fury Baby Gorilla (v: 340.09). 3. Robert Converse, P-51D Huntress III (v: 322.36). 4. Howard Pardue, F8F-1 Bearcat (v: 320.90). 5. Art Vance, P-51D Million Dollar Baby (v: 257.80).

Groupies

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

By groupies, I mean social network groups like those in Facebook. Politics and political organizing has moved to Facebook. That's a natural evolution in a growing digital world. This blog is another manifestation of that same evolution. Prior to Facebook, other social networks and blogs, e-mail and e-mail lists were the mechanisms used by the political savvy.

With e-mails and e-mail lists, we also received SPAM. It became necessary to scrutinize whether any particular e-mail was from a friend or from some one with an agenda or was a malicious attempt to do you damage. We now have anti-virus, SPAM detectors and malware applications to protect us.

With Blogs, we also were presented with propaganda, with statements presented as truth but in reality are fantasy. Some of those mis-truths and lies were driven by personal and political agendas. They were attempts to spread misinformation to support an agenda. There are no apps yet to prevent the spread of propaganda. We must decided whether to accept or reject information as it is presented. We must develop personal propaganda filters.

We have all that with social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. There are more than these two networks. I'm just using them as examples. Social networks have all the advantages of e-mail lists and blogs. And they also have all the failings.

I didn't use a social network much until this last year and I did so with a large degree of skepticism. It is easy to create a false persona. It is easier to present a false agenda to collect "friends" to persuade them to accept you viewpoints. It's easier if you do so while keeping your agenda at a low profile.

Hook 'em while you "educate" them.

I have joined three Facebook groups. I dropped two and remain with the third. The first group I joined was purported to be a local Tea Party group. Maybe it was...originally. It didn't take long to realize it was one person with an agenda who was trying to create a following. When I uncovered the agenda, it was one that I could not subscribe. The organizer was pushing the so-called Fair Tax. He had all the usual talking points and refused to acknowledge any alternate views.

I've written about the Fair Tax and my opposition to it in previous blogs. Suffice to say I believe the implementation of a national sales tax will evolve into a Value Added Tax as practiced in Europe and we will have a national VAT tax as well as an Income Tax. The Income Tax is anchored in the 16th Amendment. If you want to remove the income tax, you must first repeal the 16th Amendment. That will not happen.

The next group I joined was a state-wide group of conservative activists. They are a 501(C)3 organization and are prohibited from campaigning for any particular candidate. I hadn't known that when I first joined. My error. I'm still a member of this group although in light of recent events I have to review how this revelation will affect my activities within the group.

The third group, one I left yesterday, was another with an agenda. An agenda that I disavow. I was invited to join a week or so ago. I observed the posts, made a few to get a feel for the group.

It had been presented as a grass-roots organization to support conservative issues. Or so I thought. After observing the posts and reading the comments I discovered two agendas of this group.

One agenda was the Fair Tax. There was a so-called expert in the group who repeated the usual talking points. No alternate view tolerated. The second agenda was pushing the candidacy of Ron Paul. Paulbots.

I've said in other posts that in my opinion Ron Paul is unfit to hold any elected or appointed public office. Some of his comments such as supporting Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons make me question his sanity. Once I discovered this group's agendas, I left.

Social networking groups can be the avenue to link people of like minds, and many are. Others, however, are the modern equivalent of the Snake Oil salesmen of the 19th century. They sell a worthless, and sometimes dangerous product. Con artists. When you interact with these groups you must also shield yourself with a large amount of skepticism. When dealing with people whom you have no personal knowledge, Ronald Reagan's advice is appropriate, "Trust but Verify." The degree of trust must be built as you investigate and verify the purported positions of these people and organizations.

If you do not and cannot not subscribe to the agenda(s) of the group, you must leave.

All too many people accept whatever is presented to them on the internet as truth. I heard an acquaintance recently repeat some information he read on the internet or something that he heard and found some corroboration on the internet. You can find anything on the internet. Just because it's there doesn't make it true. It was an outlandish position. One supposedly engineered by the government. However it was obvious to anyone who had at least a high school level of science education that the supposed acts were beyond and contrary to scientific fact. The position was completely false.

Ignorance prevailed.

Perhaps we should modify Reagan's advice, "Verify then Trust." Verification is not just one instance of corroboration. It must be a multitude of corroboration. Not a single piece, or even two or three pieces that appear to support a position but hundreds, thousands of articles that supports the issue or position.

Skepticism is a good and necessary attribute to acquire when dealing with the internet. All too many people don't and they provide food for the predators in social networks and elsewhere.

It's OK to be a groupie. But be a smart groupie, understand the agenda of your group and accept their agenda or leave. That's what liberty is all about. The freedom to leave when you do not or can no longer abide with the agenda of your group.

Be smart. Educate yourself and develop your own positions and political stance. Don't be a robot following other's agenda. Be an individual and make your own

Repost: New Year's Traditions on the Farm

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-06:00

Growing up on the farm, we had a few traditions---mostly imported. New Years was a family holiday. Kith 'n kin visited on Thanksgiving and Christmas. New Years, however, was just Mom, Dad, me and later Grandma.

The farm was located in the middle of coal country in southern Illinois. The population was mostly Scots/Irish/English who brought mining skills learned in the coal mines of England and Wales. During the Union/Mine Owner wars of the early 20th century, many East Europeans were brought in as strike breakers. After the strikes were resolved, the East Europeans---Poles, Hungarians and various Russians, became good union members and added their traditions to those of their predecessors. However, the new traditions were more aimed at religious holidays than of New Years.

One tradition that became almost universal was the tradition of the gift of coal. The tradition was that the home would have good luck if the first person to cross the threshold in the new year was a dark Englishman, Welshman, Scot, Irish (add other nationality here) wishing everyone within Happy New Year and bringing a gift of a bucket of coal to warm the hearth. My Dad fit that job description and since I was the next oldest (only) male in the house, I assisted with the tradition.

Come New Years, around 11PM, earlier in some locales, the men of the house would leave with a bucket of coal, their shotgun, and, for those who imbibed, a bottle or mason jar of holiday cheer. In town, they would usually head for the closest bar or other gathering place and wait for the mine whistle indicating midnight.

At the farm, we had three close neighbors; John Davis, our neighbor just across the road from the farm, Sy Malone, a friend of Dad's who had a small farm a quarter-mile to our west, and Ken Shoemaker who lived a couple of hundred yards to the east. All were coal miners or had been. Ken Shoemaker was also a bus driver for the High School. John Davis' place was the most central of us and he had a heated barn for his heifers. That was our gathering place.

Ken and Sy usually arrived early bringing some 'shine that Sy made in the woods in back of his house. John would join next. By the time Dad and I arrived, they were sitting around a kerosene heater and usually well lubricated. The men talked and drank. Dad sipped tea from a thermos he had brought. I listened. I heard quite a bit of gossip, bragging and stories while waiting in that barn.

Remembering those times, I'm amazed that with all the drinking that occurred, there was never a firearm accident. I think folks were more used to guns in those times. Many were WW2 veterans such as Ken and Sy Malone. John Davis added to his mine income as a trapper and occasional commercial meat hunter. Dad was a long-time hunter as well. They were experienced folks who acquired gun-handling habits that just weren't broken even when one has consumed large amounts of alcohol.

In coal country, the time standard was the mine whistle. The whistle blew at shift change each day, at noon, and on New Years Eve, at midnight. The closest mine to the farm was about five miles away. That mine, Orient #2, was on the north edge of West Frankfort. Dad, John and Sy worked there. Ken worked occasionally at Orient #3.

When midnight neared, everyone loaded their shotguns---usually with #6 or #7 1/2 shot, and went outside to listen for the whistle. At the stroke of midnight, delayed only by distance, we heard the mine whistles; Orient #2 to the south, followed by Old Ben #9 to the south-east. Another whistle arrived from the west, followed slightly late by Orient #3 from the north. The men raised their shotguns and in turn fired three times into the air. Nine shots in all.

As the sound of their shots faded away, I could hear the patter of falling shot and the echoes of other shotguns rolling in from surrounding points. In the far distance, I could hear the Sheriff let loose with his Thompson sub-machine gun that he had confiscated from Charlie Birger just before Charlie was tried for murder and later hung---the last public hanging in Illinois.

As the gunfire died away, each man picked up his bucket of coal, his shotgun and began the trek home to be the first dark-headed man to cross the home's threshold. In lieu of hair, John Davis wore a dark hat.

It was a short walk for Dad and me, just across the road and up the drive. Dad walked up to our front door and knocked. Mom would answer and Dad would exclaim, "Happy New Year!" and we'd go inside to the warmth. Mom would have coffee or more tea for Dad, a glass of milk for me and either cake, sweet rolls or home-made doughnuts depending on what she and Grandma had made that day.

New Years was a family celebration, but New Years Eve was one for males. A celebration in the cold or in a warm barn; a gathering of men, boys, talk, drink and memories. A communal celebration of the coming year.

Done.

2011-12-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

The crew finished right at dusk last night. This morning they'll take the trash trailer off to be emptied and bring it back to haul off all the ladders and scaffolding. This morning is cleanup. They have a large magnet to roll over the yard to pick up loose nails and metal scrap.

This afternoon we'll write a large check and it's done.

It was supposed to take a week to ten days. Instead it took a few days shy of a month. The final appearance, though, is great and it is worth the money spent.

Now I'm off to complete some chores that have lain silent for this last month.

A quickie

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post before I take off...

I was over at Hot Air when I saw this. This article really made me curious.

It begins: Radio ad asks Iowans to caucus for Palin

posted at 10:35 am on December 28, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Iowans might feel a bit overwhelmed by the choices for next Tuesday’s Republican caucuses for the GOP presidential nomination, but one independent group has begun running radio ads insisting that there is still room for one more choice. Calling itself “Sarah Palin’s Iowa Earthquake,” the group will target specific markets in Iowa asking voters to line up behind the Republican Party’s most prominent non-candidate, and other ads will apparently follow.

Here's another source from Breitbart on the same subject.

Now wouldn't that just put a twist in the Establishment's nickers?

Fini..., Pt II

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

Well, the project didn't quite finish yesterday. There's still some touch-up and fixes yet to do. We're supposed to have the final walk-around today. I think we've reached the 95% stage. The windows still need work and touch-up with paint. It's is looking nice.

I'm in 'n out today. It's going to be busy.

Fini...maybe

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

If all goes well the siding project will be finished today. They have to replace some siding that cracked on one side. Note: concrete siding does not flex easily!

After the north side is finished, they'll need to permanently fasten the window sills (new sills too), paint over the nail heads and chalking, and re-attach the front door and garage lighting.

They hoped to be much further along but yesterday after they were all setup and started working, it rained. They got pretty wet and had to come in side to warm up. One worker almost got hypothermia. Rain with temps in the high 30s is not nice. Nor welcome.

When they finish, it's walk around time. Checking to see and approve the work, checking the paint touch up, checking the windows, and checking all the minute details. Once we've signed off, we'll write a very large check to the builder. Man, do I love fixed-price contracts. Otherwise, we'd be waay over budget due to the weather.

The crew-boss told me they were booked continually through this coming March. They are all young guys, mostly in their twenties, a couple in their early twenties and one older one who is the expert cutting the siding to fit. It's not measure twice, cut once. No, with concrete siding, it's measure thrice, cut a template, install for fit, then cut the siding.

They are all Christians, too. On the first day, I walked outside and one had a radio tuned to a local Christian station.

Mrs. Crucis and I are glad it's about over. We don't like parking in the street and we're looking forward to getting our garage back.

Happy New Year!

The Race

2011-12-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

What race? The one for the 'Pub nomination for President. All the recent polls have Romney in the lead followed closely by Ron Paul. Newt Gingrich is in third---a distant third according to some polls. The state media clearly wants Romney to be that nominee. As he did in the last election, Ron Paul has a very effective machine. The proof of that is shown in the polls.

However, Newt is still in the running. Thomas Sowell, writing for the Investor's Business Daily favors Newt.

Gingrich Past Shouldn't Block A Future Sans Obama
By THOMAS SOWELL Posted 12/23/2011 06:44 PM ET
If Newt Gingrich were being nominated for sainthood, many of us would vote very differently from the way we would vote if he were being nominated for a political office.

What the media call Gingrich's "baggage" concerns largely his personal life and the fact that he made a lot of money running a consulting firm after he left Congress. This kind of stuff makes lots of talking points that we will no doubt hear, again and again, over the next weeks and months.

But how much weight should we give to this stuff when we are talking about the future of a nation?

This is not just another election and Barack Obama is not just another president whose policies we may not like. With all of President Obama's broken promises, glib demagoguery and cynical political moves, one promise he has kept all too well. That was his boast on the eve of the 2008 election:
"We are going to change the United States of America."

Many Americans are already saying that they can hardly recognize the country they grew up in. We have already started down the path that has led Western European nations to the brink of financial disaster.

Internationally, it is worse. A president who has pulled the rug out from under our allies, whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, tried to cozy up to our enemies, and has bowed low from the waist to foreign leaders certainly has not represented either the values or the interests of America. If he continues to do nothing that is likely to stop terrorist-sponsoring Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the consequences can be beyond our worst imagining.

Against this background, how much does Gingrich's personal life matter, whether we accept his claim that he has now matured or his critics' claim that he has not? Nor should we sell the public short by saying that they are going to vote on the basis of tabloid stuff or media talking points, when the fate of this nation hangs in the balance.

Even back in the 19th century, when the scandal came out that Grover Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock — and he publicly admitted it — the voters nevertheless sent him to the White House, where he became one of the better presidents.
...

In a world where we can make our choices only among the alternatives actually available, the question is whether Newt Gingrich is better than Barack Obama — and better than Mitt Romney.

Romney is a smooth talker, but what did he actually accomplish as governor of Massachusetts, compared to what Gingrich accomplished as speaker of the House? When you don't accomplish much, you don't ruffle many feathers. But is that what we want?

Can you name one important positive thing that Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone? Does a candidate who represents the bland leading the bland increase the chances of victory in November 2012? A lot of candidates like that have lost, from Thomas E. Dewey to John McCain.

Those who want to concentrate on the baggage in Gingrich's past, rather than on the nation's future, should remember what Winston Churchill said: "If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost."

If that means a second term for Barack Obama, then it means lost big time.

There is much more at the website. I urge you to read his complete article.

Sowell addresses the attacks from the left and the 'Pub establishment that Gingrich is a conservative. Their point usually is that he isn't a Tea Partier. Well, neither are Romney nor Paul. Paul likes to present himself as one but I note that he has no endorsements from any Tea Party organization.

Sowell notes Gingrich's accomplishments when he was in office.

Engineered the first Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 40 years.
The first balanced budget in 40 years. The media called it "the Clinton surplus" but all spending bills start in the House of Representatives, and Gingrich was speaker of the House.
Produced some long overdue welfare reforms.

And finally, don't forget The Contract with America.

Proponents say the Contract was revolutionary in its commitment to offering specific legislation for a vote, describing in detail the precise plan of the Congressional Representatives, and marked the first time since 1918 that a Congressional election had been run broadly on a national level. Furthermore, its provisions represented the view of many conservative Republicans on the issues of shrinking the size of government, promoting lower taxes and greater entrepreneurial activity, and both tort reform and welfare reform.

What has Romney done? This is Sowell's answer to that question.

Romney is a smooth talker, but what did he actually accomplish as governor of Massachusetts, compared to what Gingrich accomplished as speaker of the House? When you don't accomplish much, you don't ruffle many feathers. But is that what we want?

Can you name one important positive thing that Romney accomplished as governor of Massachusetts? Can anyone? Does a candidate who represents the bland leading the bland increase the chances of victory in November 2012? A lot of candidates like that have lost, from Thomas E. Dewey to John McCain.

At least McCain was a fighter..frequently supporting the democrats as much as he supported the 'Pubs. Romney? Romney is no fighter. When the going got rough, he switched positions. Would he be a conservative President? Only if the 'Pubs win both houses of Congress.

Romney's position when controversy and opposition occurs is to follow Rodney King's infamous statement, "Cain't we all jest get along?" If, somehow, the democrats retain control of the Senate. Romney is just as likely to rollover to their positions as he would if the 'Pubs were in control.

Romney would be nothing more than a rubber stamp. He'd be a Sheep in a Wolf's clothes. If the 'Pubs gain control of Congress, he would go along with anything that reached his desk. That is exactly what the 'Pub establishment wants. They have no great interest in curbing government either. Pork and the ability to spend keeps them in office. That is the primary interest of the establishment of both parties. The country can fend for itself as long as they have their power and perks.

Newt, at least, is no rubber stamp. That alone makes him much more desirable for President than Romney.

Repost: A Gathering of the Clan

2011-12-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

When my Grandmother lived with us on the farm, Thanksgiving and Christmas was always a big deal. Many of our relatives lived at both ends of the state.

My Aunt Anna May (note: My Aunt Anna May, at age 99, is still with us,) and a bunch of cousins lived near Cairo (rhymes with Aero. Kayro is a syrup. K-Eye-ro, another incorrect pronunciation is a city in Egypt,) Illinois. Mom's other two siblings, Aunt Clara and Uncle Bill, lived near Chicago along with their batch of kids and cousins. We lived betwixt them with a local batch of cousins and therefore often hosted the gathering of the Clan at the holidays.

In the late 1950s, most of the cakes and pies were hand-made including pie crust. Betty Crocker was expensive and not to be trusted according to Mom and Grandma. A week or so before the guests arrived, Mom and Grandma started making pie dough. They would make it in small batches, enough for a couple of pies and then store it on the porch. The porch was unheated and was used as a large refrigerator during the colder months.

Mom and Grandma collected pie fillings most of the year. When cherries were in season, they canned cherries. When blackberries and raspberries were in season, they canned the berries---along with making a large batch of berry jelly and jam. When apples were in season, they canned and dried apples. When the holidays arrived, they were ready.

About the only things they didn't can was pumpkins. Mom and Grandma purposely planted late to harvest late. I don't remember a year that we didn't have pumpkins or sweet-potatoes for pie filling.

The count-down started with the pie dough. When the dough was ready, Mom began baking pies. When a pie was finished, it'd go out to the porch covered with a cloth. The division of labor was that Mom would make pies, Grandma would make cakes.

Grandma liked sheet cakes. I rarely saw a round, frosted cake unless it was someone's birthday. Grandma's cakes were 12" by 24". Icing was usually Cream Cheese or Chocolate. Sometimes, when Grandma make a German Chocolate cake, she'd make a brown-sugar/coconut/hickory nut icing. The baking was done right up until it was time stick the turkeys, hams or geese in the oven.

The last item Grandma would make was a apple-cinnamon coffee-cake that was an inherited recipe from her mother. It was common-place that when everyone arrived, we'd have a dozen pies and another dozen cakes ready. That was our contribution. The guests brought stuff as well.

The holiday gathering wasn't just a single day, it was several. Thanksgiving, for instance, lasted through Sunday. A Christmas gathering lasted through New Years. We weren't the only relatives in the central part of the state, but we were the gathering place. Come bedtime, the visitors left with some of the local cousins and would gather again the next day at another home and the visiting continued.

It was not unusual for us to have twenty or thirty folks at the house at one time. Our barn was heated for the livestock, so the men and boys---and some girls, gathered there. Dad would turn a blind eye to the cigarettes, cigars and bottles---as long as no one started a fire. Grandma's jugs of Applejack appeared as well.

The women would gather in one of our side bedrooms where Grandma's quilt frame was set up. They would sit, talk, quilt and plan future family affairs. A number of weddings were planned in those sessions. Sometimes before the bridegroom was aware of his upcoming fate.

Come Christmas Eve, the women, along with a number of kids, put up the tree and decorations. At 11PM, those who wished went off to midnight services. There were a number of preachers in the Clan and those who didn't want to drive to a service and were also still awake attended a Clan service in the barn. That was the only building able to house everyone at the same time.

On Christmas, the Clan dispersed to their more immediate relatives. Mom, Dad, Grandma, my Aunts and Uncles, my sister Mary Ellen, her husband Dick and their two kids arrived. Sometimes my Aunt Emily and Cousins Richard and Dorothy (Dad's niece and nephew) from Dad's side would come down from Mt. Vernon, IL for Christmas.

More often than not, Dad, Dick, my Uncles and I would go goose or duck hunting early on Christmas morning. The Muddy River was only a few miles away and if we arrived right at dawn, we were likely to find some Canadian Geese or Mallards sitting out of the wind on the river. We rarely spent more than three hours hunting before we'd return home, wet, cold and tired ready for breakfast.

We would have a large breakfast around 9AM and afterwards while Mom and Grandma started on dinner, we'd open presents next to the tree. I remember once that Mom hide a pair of snow tires for Dad's pickup behind the couch. I really have a hard time believing Dad wasn't aware of them.

Over the years, the Clan has dispersed. Most moving to locations where jobs were available. The elders have passed on and with them the traditions. Cousins have lost touch and few live on the old homesteads.

It was a different time, another era. Some families still maintain the old traditions. They are the fortunate ones.

Merry Pre-Christmas

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

The next few days here a Casa Crucis will be hectic. The siding crew is still working. The project is about 70% done and light rain/sleet/snow is forecasted for later this afternoon. Mrs. Crucis and I have a number of errands yet to do. If I don't have time for a post tomorrow, let this be our best wishes to you.

Let us all remember the source for this Holiday.

Luke 2:10. And the Angel said unto them, Fear not:
for, behold,I bring you good tiding of great joy...

The Militarization of Police

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

I read an article today that was frankly, disturbing. The subject of the article has been present for a long time, decades in many cases. That subject? The conversion of our local police into a paramilitary force.

Local Cops Ready for War With Homeland Security-Funded Military Weapons

Dec 21, 2011 4:45 AM EST

A decade of billions in spending in the name of homeland security has armed local police departments with military-style equipment and a new commando mentality. But has it gone too far? Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting report.
...
The buying spree has transformed local police departments into small, army-like forces, and put intimidating equipment into the hands of civilian officers. And that is raising questions about whether the strategy has gone too far, creating a culture and capability that jeopardizes public safety and civil rights while creating an expensive false sense of security.

“The argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of terrorist scenarios,” says Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. “Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT equipment can stop that.”

The result? The police are no longer peace officers, they are now law enforcement officers.

It is important to note here that contrary to popular belief, the police have no requirement to protect the people. There have been a number cases rising to the US Supreme Court and the Court has said the police have no requirement to protect individuals. The police can only enforce the law or seek those who have broken the law. They no longer work to protect the people but they now protect...what?

One common response is to counter acts of terrorism. Really? Then why are these units being used to serve warrants...in the middle of the night...without knocking? That doesn't sound like countering terrorism to me.

Another is that criminals are more heavily armed than the police. They cite the famous North Hollywood bank robbery where two men, armed with fully automatic weapons and wearing body armed engaged in a shoot-out with police resulting in multiple casualties among those police officers. The police actually had to commandeer semi-automatic rifles from a near-by gun dealer. The City of Los Angeles did not provide any long-guns to the police, short-ranged shotguns excepted.

In that situation, the police had been effectively disarmed by the LA city government. There were federal grants available, that were used afterward, to provide funds for squad-car rifles like the Ruger Mini-14 and the Colt AR. The city was negligent but blamed instead "proliferation of firearms" instead of accepting their own failures.

There are instances where criminals barricade themselves against police. A siege occurs. Most people understand that sieges will end sooner or later. They DO NOT require frontal assaults by armed and armored police to resolve the situation. But, politics demand quick resolutions not patience and the command staff demand a resolution before the media appears and the scene is broadcasted on the local news.

Still it come back to the conversion of police from the peace officer mentality to the law enforcement mentality. In the latter case, the Us vs. Them mentality not only develops but is encouraged. A California study in 1997 researched the trend and noted the deficiencies and the dangers of militarization.

Militarizing American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units
Peter B. Kraska and Victor E. Kappeler
Social Problems
Vol. 44, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 1-18
(article consists of 18 pages)

Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems

I can't cut 'n paste an excerpt from this study. You'll have to go to the site and read it for yourself.

Here is an excerpt from testimony before Congress on the same subject.

Our Militarized Police Departments
Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Crime
Radley Balko | July 2, 2007

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, thank youfor inviting me to speak today.

I’m here to talk about police militarization, a troubling trendthat’s been on the rise in America’s police departments over thelast 25 years.

Militarization is a broad term that refers to usingmilitary-style weapons, tactics, training, uniforms, and even heavyequipment by civilian police departments.

It’s a troubling trend because the military has a very differentand distinct role than our domestic peace officers. The military’sjob is to annihilate a foreign enemy. The police are supposed toprotect us while upholding our constitutional rights. It’sdangerous to conflate the two.

But that’s exactly what we’re doing. Since the late 1980s, Mr.Chairman, thanks to acts passed by the U.S. Congress, millions ofpieces of surplus military equipment have been given to localpolice departments across the country.

We’re not talking just about computers and office equipment.Military-grade semi-automatic weapons, armored personnel vehicles,tanks, helicopters, airplanes, and all manner of other equipmentdesigned for use on the battlefield is now being used on Americanstreets, against American citizens.

Academic criminologists credit these transfers with the dramaticrise in paramilitary SWAT teams over the last quarter century.

SWAT teams were originally designed to be used in violent,emergency situations like hostage takings, acts of terrorism, orbank robberies. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, that’sprimarily how they were used, and they performed marvelously.

But beginning in the early 1980s, they’ve been increasingly usedfor routine warrant service in drug cases and other nonviolentcrimes. And thanks to the Pentagon transfer programs, there are nowa lot more of them.

This is troubling because paramilitary police actions areextremely volatile, necessarily violent, overly confrontational,and leave very little margin for error. These are acceptable riskswhen you’re dealing with an already violent situation featuring asuspect who is an eminent threat to the community.

But when you’re dealing with nonviolent drug offenders,paramilitary police actions create violence instead of defusing it.Whether you’re an innocent family startled by a police invasionthat inadvertently targeted the wrong home or a drug dealer whomistakes raiding police officers for a rival drug dealer, forcedentry into someone’s home creates confrontation. It rouses thebasest, most fundamental instincts we have in us – those ofself-preservation – to fight when flight isn’t an option. (Emphasis mine -- Crucis)

The testimony continues and it's well worth a few minutes reading the full article at the website.

One cogent line above is "...when you’re dealing with nonviolent drug offenders,paramilitary police actions create violence instead of defusing it."

What is the purpose then, of these paramilitary units? Protecting the people? No. That is not a requirement saith the courts. Countering heavily armed drug dealers? As the testimony above states, that isn't commonly needed either.

Serving warrants? Before the use of SWAT teams, Officers would walk up to the doors and knock. Rarely did they have to call up enforcements. And if such were needed, the officers waited until those enforcement arrived instead of charging inside weapons drawn. (I should note here that my father was an auxiliary deputy sheriff. He would frequently serve warrants throughout our county and never once needed assistance or have to draw his weapon. In fact, he rarely carried a weapon when serving warrants. He told me he never needed one.)

We again return to the original question. What is the purpose of militarizing the police? I have some thoughts on that but I'll not state them here. Those questions should be directed to our elected officials and police.

Once all the rationalization is swept away, the answer will be they're not. Yes, some small force, trained and equipped should be available when needed. Perhaps a force by the State Police or Highway Patrol. But not every Police Department nor every Sheriff's department needs one. In fact, very few do.

All too often, such paramilitary forces are used simply to justify their existence. Use it or lose it. Many federal grants come with these paramilitary forces. No SWAT team, no federal money.

That is a very serious mistake.

It promotes the Us vs. Them mentality that pits the police against everyone not of the police. That mentality enforces distrust by the police and that distrust is returned by those same people the police are supposed to protect.

It's is a prime example of negative feedback. The more the SWAT teams, the paramilitary forces are used, the more they are thought to be needed. The truth is just the opposite. The less they are used, the less they are actually needed.

Snackin'

2011-12-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

When the end of the year approaches, it seems that time compresses. My wife and I have been running around to attend to some chores...Christmas gifts for the grandkids, buying new fixtures for the outside of our house when the siding project is finished, and a multitude of other tasks. When we're finished for the day, supper, more often than not, is a sandwich, soup or something else that can be prepared quickly and easily.

Sometimes, we skip lunch and in mid-afternoon, we're looking for something for a snack. Usually for me, that's nibbling on cheese. For Mrs. Crucis, it's chips. We're both burned out. In one of our conversations, I remembered that my grandmother liked to snack too. However, this was before the days of fast food and chips were still a novelty.

After my grandfather died, Grandma came to live with us. Dad still worked in the mines, Mom was teaching 5th and 6th grades in a school some miles away and I was in school.

Grandma would rise early to fix breakfast for us, and would have supper ready when we all got home around 5pm. She spent much of her day cooking. She liked to cook. She liked to bake. She wasn't much on baking bread, although at times she did. Grandma preferred to bake pies and cakes. Large sheet cakes.

I still remember coming home late one school day. It was cold. Though the bus dropped me off at the end of our driveway, the short walk to the house still chilled me. I entered the house and found grandma finishing a large sheet cake---one of my favorites, blackberry jam cake with cream cheese icing. She had a piece waiting for me and a large glass of milk. The cake was still warm.

It wasn't always a cake. Just as often it could be an apple, cherry or some other fruit pie. We had a one acre apple orchard on the farm, several cherry trees around the house, a dozen or so rows of strawberries in one garden and yards upon yards of blackberries and raspberries along our fence rows. We always had a supply of canned fruits and berries that Mom and Grandma canned every year.

But pies and cakes weren't the only thing that grandma liked. She, like me, liked things that were salty. Things like cheese, nuts still in the shell and roasted, salted nuts. More often, she was seen nibbling on those more than sitting down to a piece of cake or a piece of pie.

Although we butchered every year, a hog or two, we didn't butcher any of the cattle. For one, we didn't have that many, and two, the cattle produced more income when taken to market than a hog. We raised more hogs and hogs had a quicker "turn-around" or reproduction cycle that cattle. We also raised chickens and for a while, several hundred turkeys for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year tables. In short, we weren't starving. No, far from it. We lived "high on the hog" in more ways than one.

The usual evening meal was potatoes in some form, corn or some vegetable from our garden, a meat dish, and pie or cake for dessert. It wasn't until a few years later, after Grandma was gone, that, on retrospect, I discovered Grandma's favorite snack food.

I had never noticed that when Grandma laid out the meat dish, more often Fried Chicken, Pork Chops, a roast, or a turkey, she always seemed to fix too much. There was always left-overs. We didn't mind. Dad always had a nice big lunch at the mine. Mom would sometimes take something to school depending on what was on the school menu.

I also noticed that chickens always seemed to have four legs and wings. When we had pork chops, Grandma made about half again as much as we could eat in one meal. When we raised turkeys, we had a roast turkey about one a month.

But the leftovers seemed to be gone quickly. The leftover turkey seemed to disappear quickly too.

One day I did discover Grandma's favorite snack. I just didn't realize it at the time.

Grandma was a small, slight woman, barely five foot tall and sopping wet, maybe a hundred pounds. No, she wasn't a large woman. In fact, she looked remarkedly like Grannie on the old Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

I came home from school and entered through the back door. Most folks in our area at that time entered through the back door. The front door was reserved for "company."

When you entered our back door, you can either go straight down the stairs to our basement, or turn right and walk up a few steps into our kitchen. When I walked through the door into our kitchen, I found Grandma sitting at the kitchen table...with a pork chop in her hand.

She held the chop by the bone and had just taken a bite off the chop. She liked cold pork chops...and chicken legs and wings...and turkey legs and wings...and turkey sandwiches. Grandma liked just about anything cold that had once ran or had wings.

I remembered later how often I'd come home, at bit hungry, thinking of that leftover pork chop from the night before, or of a chicken leg, or some sliced turkey for a sandwich only to discover they were gone. I'd always thought they went with Dad for his lunch at the mines. They did. But not all of them. No, Grandma carefully planned Dad's lunches...and her snacks. After fixing Dad's lunch, there was always enough for Grandma's lunch and mid-afternoon snack.

During the week, I was the first one home. Dad arrived next and Mom usually arriving around 5pm. I caught Grandma snackin' a few times but never thought much about it. Grandma could really put the food away but she never seemed to gain any weight. She was a hard worker and put those calories to work.

After she was gone, I remarked once at supper that the meals seemed smaller. Mom smiled. She knew. Dad just said we didn't need as much for three as for four. I don't think he ever noticed or if he did, he didn't ever mention Grandma's snacking.

Yep. Grandma was a snacker. No fast food or unhealthy chips for her. Nope. Grandma snacked high on the hog...or low as the case may be.

Tidbits

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

The saga of the Casa Crucis siding project continues. Last Friday, there was an issue with the scaffolding around the house. The decision by the crew was to replace it with a different style. The front of Casa Crucis is not a flat, smooth wall like the north and south sides. Down came the scaffolding and today a new one is to be erected.

There is snow and freezing rain forecasted for overnight with 1"-2" accumulation. I'm glad I'm not working outside.

***

I was surfin' over the weekend and came across this article. I'm not at all surprised at the results of the poll.

Gallup: Gingrich Leads Romney by 20 Points Among Conservatives; Romney Leads Gingrich by 10 Among Liberals, Moderates
December 15, 2011
(CNSNews.com) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia is leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential race by 20 points—41 percent to 21 percent--among self-professed conservatives, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday.

By contrast, Romney is leading Gingrich by 10 points—27 percent to 17 percent—among self-professed liberals and moderates in the poll.

The poll, conducted Dec. 5-11, surveyed 1,665 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who are registered voters. Among all poll respondents, Gingrich led Romney 33 percent to 23 percent, with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas at 9 percent, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota at 6 percent, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 6 percent.
Gingrich led among most sub-groups in the poll—except for self-professed liberals and moderates, those 18 to 34 years of age, and those living in the East.

Among the Republican-leaning independents, Gingrich and Romney were tied at 23 percent, with Paul at 14 percent.

Among the Republicans, Gingrich had 38 percent, Romney had 23 percent, and Paul had 7 percent.

Among the conservatives, Gingrich had 41 percent, Romney 21 percent, and Paul had 7 percent.

Among the liberals and moderates, Romney had 27 percent, Gingrich had 17 percent, and Paul had 13 percent.

You can find the complete article with more poll data here.

I'm not at all surprised that liberal and "moderates" prefer Romney. After all, he's one of them.

***

Want to help make sure your children aren't growing up in poverty? Get, and stay, married. According to a Heritage Foundation study, being in a stable, married household has a much, much better probability of staying out of poverty. In the study, single parents were compared against married families and their income levels. This study compared single parent white, black and hispanic families with their married counterparts using census data from 2010.

The married families at or below the poverty level comprised only 4-9% of the population. The single parent groups varied from 40% and up.

Marriage and Poverty in the United States

View more presentations from The Heritage Foundation

Interesting, is it not?

***

The Missouri budget is projected to be several hundred million dollars in the red this fiscal year according to forecasts. Democrat Governor Jay Nixon has a plan. He wants to "barrow" money from the state's universities and repay the "loan" over a seven year period at zero percent interest.

Why am I concerned about this plan. He wants to take money from the universities' reserve funds, money they earned through various enterprises, from alumni donations and other income sources, keep it for seven years and then give it back with no interest. The result, since there is no compensation for inflation is that if the plan worked as stated, the universities would end up with less than they had in the beginning.

It's the same as theft.

Nixon considers asking 5 Missouri universities to lend money to state
BY VIRGINIA YOUNG • vyoung@post-dispatch.com > 573-635-6178
STLtoday.com
Friday, December 16, 2011 8:30 am

JEFFERSON CITY • Gov. Jay Nixon is asking fivestate universities to consider lending the state more than $100million next year to help balance the state's budget, a proposalthat is drawing fire from key legislators unhappy with both itssecrecy and its impact.

Nixon's proposal, which his budget director termed preliminary,calls for the University of Missouri to chip in $63 million andfour other schools to come up with lesser amounts, for a total of$107 million. The money would come from their reserve funds.

The state would roll the money into the $850 million highereducation budget that covers operating expenses at all ofMissouri's four-year institutions and community colleges. The goal:to avoid a cut that could otherwise equal at least 13 percentacross the board.

Universities making the interest-free loans would look to berepaid over a seven-year period with money diverted from thestate's college loan authority, known as the Missouri HigherEducation Loan Authority, or MOHELA.

In addition, Nixon proposes cutting the schools scholarship funds in half and telling the universities to make up the difference out of their remaining reserve funds. As you can expect, the legislature is not pleased.

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan Silvey, R-Kansas City,called the plan ridiculous. "The governor is looking for thisscheme that avoids making tough decisions on cuts," he said."Rather than balance the state's budget, he wants to dream up newrevenue sources which happen to be interest-free loans from ouruniversities."

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer,R-Columbia, said the universities would have no guarantee that theywould get their money back.

"If the proposal is a Bernie Madoff-type Ponzi scheme to make itlook like something's being funded that isn't really being funded,that's not acceptable," Schaefer said.

Ah yes, your democrat pols at work. If they can't tax and spend, they'll just steal money...and spend. Cutting all that spending in the first place isn't an option for them.

When your revenue projections are undercut by reality, sane people cut their spending to match their income. Government, on the other hand, can't imagine spending less. They prefer to come up with schemes to get around our state's balanced budget requirement.

Tax and spend. Steal and spend. The only difference is semantics.

Another light posting day

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes life catches up. I've mentioned that we're having new siding installed on our house. The crew has been working since last week. The north and south sides are done except for some cleanup---caulking and painting over the nailheads. We're over the top and on the downslope. The project should be finished in a few more days.

However, and there's always a however, we need to buy some items not covered in the contract, some metal trim around the garage doors and some new shutters for the front windows. The old trim and shutters could not be saved when they were removed. It was recognized that may be an issue.

Today will be busy, going to Lowe's and other places to buy these items and more.

***

Last night, Mrs. Crucis and I attended our local 'Pub Central Committee Christmas party. About half the crowd, maybe more, were office holders and/or candidates for office. Sarah Steelman was in town for media interviews and fund raisers. She was one of the attendees. Two candidates running for Sect'y of State were there. One of the candidates sat at our table.

After the dinner, each candidate and office holder was given a few moments to speak. Some took the offer, others didn't.

One thing I noticed and it disturbed me. The candidates that spoke were all elegant and accomplished speakers. Only one stated why he was running, what his position was on some current issues and what he planned to do if he won the office.

Only one candidate told us why he was running.

That's telling of the state of the 'Pub party in Missouri. Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed. I expected more.

***

Today is our daughter's and son-in-law's 16th wedding anniversary. Congratulations! It seems like yesterday that I escorted her down the aisle.

***

Have a great weekend. There's only a week left 'til Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Even democrats...

2011-12-15T01:00:00.000-06:00

...are disgusted with Obama. The column below is by a Blue Dog democrat. I'm unsure if Cardoza is running again. So many on that list aren't. As you read the article, while Cardoza is a Blue Dog, it's readily apparent he is no "small government" and "less spending" advocate. I don't think those exist in the democrat party.

Dem lawmaker blasts ‘Professor Obama’ as arrogant, alienating
By Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) - 12/13/11 06:05 AM ET
After observing President Obama for the last three years, it has become obvious to me that the president might prefer to be a university professor rather than do the job he holds today. While he might not realize that he feels this way, the evidence is very clear to those who work with or watch him closely.

Let me be clear — I’m not trying to disparage professors. But anyone who wonders why the president is not crushing the weak Republican field only needs to examine how President Obama has behaved more like Professor Obama:

‘IDEA DISEASE’

In the president’s first year in office, his administration suffered from what I call “idea disease.” Every week, and sometimes almost every day, the administration rolled out a new program for the country. There was no obvious prioritization and, after the rollout, very little effort to actually pass the latest idea/imperative/plan/edict. Instead, the new programs just kept coming, with the new proposals constantly stepping on the previous day’s message. This rampant “idea disease” squandered the tremendous goodwill generated by the Obama campaign’s message of “hope,” tainting the president’s personal appeal. As Democrats in Congress, we often felt like we were drinking water out of a fire hose, trying to simultaneously deal with past failures of the Bush administration and the avalanche of new initiatives from Obama. This lack of focus also made it easy for congressional Republicans to stall and foil many of President Obama’s best initiatives — which they did with relish!

This piece is from The Hill website. The complete column can be read there.

The coming election is one for the 'Pubs to lose. The 'Pub establishment is working hard to achieve that loss. They believe if they can win the Senate, retain the House, they don't need the White House---and all the liberal "Czars" and agency heads appointed by the Obama.

The 'Pub establishment is wrong. We need to remove them as much as we remove the democrats from office.

Another light day...

2011-12-14T09:02:00.000-06:00

The siding folks have worked around to the east window in my office. I have to clear a path (ugh!) to the window, remove the items, mostly diskettes, books, and boxes of lead bullets, from the window shelf and unlatch the window lock.

It'll take a good part of the morning to do that. I have a lot of junk in the way. In the mean time, enjoy this contribution by Michael Ramirez.

Y'all have a great day. I'll be back tomorrow.

You Ain't No Teddy Roosevelt!

2011-12-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

A hundred and some years ago, Teddy Roosevelt came to Osawatomie, KS, and praised progressivism. The supposed purpose of the visit was to commemorate the creation of a state park. Instead, Roosevelt used the event to attack elements in his own political party who chose to follow a path contrary to that desired by Roosevelt.

The Kansas Historical Society has a webpage describing the event. Roosevelt intended to bridge a gap between the Eastern and Western factions of the Republican Party. He failed, partly due to the machinations of William Allen White.

The essence of Roosevelt's speech has been discussed by numerous historians. it was, according to Prof. George E. Mowry, "the most radical speech ever given by an ex-President… . His concepts of the extent to which a powerful federal government could regulate and use private property in the interest of the whole and his declarations about labor, when viewed [with]…the eyes of 1910, were nothing short of revolutionary." [30]
Roosevelt stated:
The American people are right in demanding that new Nationalism without which we cannot hope to deal with new problems. The new Nationalism puts the National need before sectional or personal advantage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat National issues as local issues. It is still more impatient of the impotence which springs from over-division of governmental powers, the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring National activities to a deadlock. This new Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of public welfare. It demands of the judiciary that it shall be interested primarily in human welfare rather than in property, just as it demands that the representative body shall represent all the people rather than any one class or section of the people… . I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare. Normally…the ends are the same, but whenever the alternative must be faced I am for men and not for property… .
These ideas, plus a very clever comparison between the crisis which Brown and Lincoln faced in the 1850's and the crisis Roosevelt and the American people faced in 1910, constitute most of the speech. Taken with the 17 specific reforms Roosevelt discussed, they are the essentials of the address. [31] -- Kansas Historical Quarterly - Theodore Roosevelt's Osawatomie Speech by Robert S. La Forte

Roosevelt adopted the edicts of Progressivism to gain support of the populist movements of that time. Again, he failed and in a few years created a third party, the Bull Moose party, as a platform for another run for the Presidency.

It's problematic whether Teddy Roosevelt actually believed in Progressivism or whether he used them to advance his personal political aims. Regardless, it lead to his defeat for another Presidential term and into obscurity.

Obama came to Kansas last week, to Osawatomie, KS, like Roosevelt. He did not come as President to commemorate an event or announce some policy statement. No, he came an Candidate Obama running for President in next year's election. Like Roosevelt, he attacked private property, embraced big government and more. Like Roosevelt, he failed too.

Obama's Godfather Speech
The president sounds more like a Corleone than a Roosevelt.
By DANIEL HENNINGER
Most press accounts of Barack Obama's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, Tuesday described it as delivered by the "president of the United States." And indeed the person delivering it analogized himself to Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton. In fact, the Osawatomie speech was not given by the President of the United States. It was given by the leader of the Democratic Party.
...

Dan Henninger says that the president sounds
more like a Corleone than a Roosevelt.

The Osawatomie speech sounded like what you'd expect to hear in Caracas or Buenos Aires. As in: "The free market has never been a license to take whatever you can from whomever you can." (Applause.) And: "Their philosophy is simple. We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."

Some will say hearing crude Chavista populism in the Obama speech is an overreaction. That once it's understood the Kansas speech was the work of the party leader, not the president of the United States, it becomes easier to think about it without overreacting to its intense and vivid rhetoric: "Millions of working families in this country . . . are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal."
...
About two-thirds through Mr. Obama's Kansas speech, I started to think of "The Godfather." After slapping around the "wealthy" for about a half hour, Mr. Obama said, "This isn't about class warfare." Maybe that's true. In "The Godfather," when awful things are about to be done to people, Michael Corleone or Tom Hagen reassure those about to get hit, "It's not personal; it's strictly business."

But I could be wrong about that. There is that defining moment when Michael Corleone says to Fredo, his brother, "You're nothing to me now." When even as party leader, a president of the United States gives a major speech in which people get singled out repeatedly as basically enemies of "the middle class," one has to wonder if they are nothing to him.
...
The Kansas speech was built around one concrete policy idea: that the rich and millionaires (officially still defined as families with before-tax income above $250,000) should send him more money so he can "invest" it. This single policy, if we heard correctly, will end high unemployment, raise middle-class incomes, put children through college, make America fair and defeat countries that pollute.

Obama, rather than sounding and emulating Teddy Roosevelt sounded more like Hugo Chavez railing against capitalism and free markets. Like the reigning democrats, Obama mouths platitudes while blocking acts that would actually help the country. It's become obvious that the democrats do not want economic recovery. Turmoil---political and economic, they believe, enhances their position. As long as they can ferment and promote class warfare, they can remain in power.

It's not the haves vs. the have-nots. It's the parasites vs. the producers, the dependency class against the productive citizens of this country. It's Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged come to life.

REINing the Bureaucrats

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

For centuries and longer, there have been jokes about various professions. These jokes abound because we acknowledge an element of truth in those jokes. There is one profession I've not heard anyone make a joke---bureaucrats.

Why? Because we all know that bureaucrats can...and will retaliate and we have no recourse to their capricious acts.

Members of Congress have taken a step to rein in the power of bureaucrats and regulators. It's call HR-10, the REINs Act.

Taking the REINS on Regulation
By James Gattuso
October 12, 2011
Should Congress be held accountable for the regulatory policies of the federal government? Most people would say so, and this week the House Judiciary Committee plans to vote on a bill to make Congress explicitly accountable for federal regulations. Introduced by Representative Geoff Davis (R–KY), H.R. 10, the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny” (REINS) Act, would require Congress to approve major new rules before they can take effect. A similar bill, S. 299, has been introduced in the Senate by Rand Paul (R–KY).

REINS would significantly change the way regulations are imposed. Congress would no longer be able to pass hazy legislation and disclaim further responsibility. By increasing Congress’s accountability for regulatory policy, it would end the shell game for responsibility that Members have long played. Requiring explicit congressional approval for new rules is no panacea for excessive regulation, but it is a common-sense step forward.

This bill has the libs and democrats in Congress shaking in their boots. For decades, they have been able to achieve their goals via regulations when they could not through legislation.

Cap 'n Trade is a good example. That bill would have crippled our energy producing and coal mining industries. The 'Pubs blocked its passage but some elements of that bill, CO2 emissions for example, are still being put in place...via EPA regulations. Those regulations now label CO2, a necessary gas for life on our planet, a pollutant to be controlled and regulated.

Another similar attack was initiated recently against farm dust! The idiots decided that farm dust had to be controlled. Their solution would not have worked and would have resulted in a significant portion of family farms closing or being closed by the government for being non-compliant.

Let's get real. Farming is NOT clean. Farmers deal in dirt. They plow it. They cultivate crops growing in it. Dirt makes dust. It is not something that can be eliminated. Making farms wear dust masks, work in hermetically sealed cabs on their tractors and self-propelled equipment, breathing filtered air is not a viable solution. It just adds costs to their product that cannot be recouped.

The regulators are out of control. The REINs Act is, at least, a partial solution. Make Congress answerable once again and make Congress approve all regulations created by the bills created by Congress.

Rising Red Tape
Firm action by Congress to rein in costly regulation is sorely needed. Over the past few years, the cost and number of new regulations have increased dramatically. This increase did not begin with President Obama, but it has accelerated markedly during his tenure. From inauguration day 2009 through March of this year, regulatory agencies imposed some 75 major new regulations (defined as those costing $100 million or more), imposing some $38 billion of new costs annually on the economy and consumers.[1]

This is on top of the continuing burden of the existing stock of red tape, which has been estimated at some $1.75 trillion per year.[2] This burden not only increases costs for consumers but hinders enterprises from growing and jobs from being created.

Delegated Power
Of course, Congress has always had the constitutional authority to control the growth and reach of federal regulations. The thousands of rules and regulations adopted each year originate from the powers delegated through legislation to agencies by Congress itself. These rules can always be revoked or modified by subsequent legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. And Congress has used this power in the past in particularly egregious cases.
...
A deeper problem is that many Members of Congress are reluctant to accept responsibility over rulemaking. Under present practices, they get to take credit for enacting popular but vague legislation, but then can plausibly deny responsibility for the specific regulations that follow. The result is power without accountability—a useful result politically but an abysmal one for policymaking.

The REINS Act would end this game by requiring every major rule (those with an economic effect of $100 million or more annually) to be specifically approved by the House and Senate (as well as the President) before the rule takes effect. This would help ensure not only that regulators are exercising their delegated powers in a way consistent with the intent of Congress but that Congress itself can be held accountable for the regulations and consequences of that result. -- The Heritage Foundation.

There are some additional proposals being considered to assist the REINS Act.

Imposing sunset dates for federal regulations. REINS would do nothing to reduce the costs of existing regulations.[5] To ensure that the costs of existing rules are justified, they should be required to expire automatically if not explicitly reaffirmed by the agency through a notice and comment rulemaking. As with any such regulatory decision, this re-affirmation would be subject to congressional review under the REINS Act.

Creating a Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis. In order to exercise its duties responsibly under the REINS Act, Congress needs the capability to analyze proposed and existing rules independently without reliance on the White House Office of Management and Budget or the regulatory agencies. A Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis—modeled on the Congressional Budget Office—would provide Congress with this ability. Such an office would also help Congress better evaluate the regulatory consequences of the legislation it enacts.

These aren't complete solutions. They are good starts. The Federal Government is out of control and in the hands of the non-elected. The non-elected have agendas and those agendas are not concerned with the welfare of the people of this nation. More often, people are considered to BE the problem and are to be controlled.

That is the view of the statists. They are not our friends. The statists' only concern is how their acts benefits themselves and how their agendas can be addressed regardless of law and the constitution.

No post today

2011-12-09T09:23:00.001-06:00

My morning is being interrupted and I've been lax. I should have a post queued but didn't.

Mea Culpa.

I've off to my quarterly visit to the vampires in a few minutes. I work on something when I get back.

Y'all play nice while I'm gone.

Subversion

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Define: Subversion.

"Subversion is the undermining or detachment of the loyalties of significant political and social groups within the victimized state, and their transference, under ideal conditions, to the symbols and institutions of the aggressor." ^[2]

"Subversion — Actions designed to undermine the military, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a governing authority." ^[3]

"Subversive Activity — Anyone lending aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups, or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments by force and violence is subversive and is engaged in subversive activity. All willful acts that are intended to be detrimental to the best interests of the government and that do not fall into the categories of treason, sedition, sabotage, or espionage will be placed in the category of subversive activity." ^[3]

"Subversive Political Action — A planned series of activities designed to accomplish political objectives by influencing, dominating, or displacing individuals or groups who are so placed as to affect the decisions and actions of another government." ^[3]

My interest today in this subject was spurred by an article in the Washington Times by Matt Patterson.

PATTERSON: Labor unions and communism
Revolting history is playing out again in modern America
Trade unions are a school of communism.
-Vladimir Lenin

Labor leader Andy Stern has seen the future. There’s no freedom there, but he’s OK with that. Mr. Stern, a former president of the Service Employees International Union SEIU), recently returned from a trip to China, where he had the opportunity to meet with “high-ranking” government officials, who outlined for the former labor leader the authoritarian regime’s long-term economic plan. (

Mr. Stern was so enamored with what he saw in the Middle Kingdom that he praised the communist country’s state-planned economy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and urged the United States to embark on a similar path. Among the more revolting passages of Mr. Stern’s love letter to Leninism:

“The conservative-preferred, free-market fundamentalist, shareholder-only model - so successful in the 20th century - is being thrown onto the trash heap of history in the 21st century. In an era when countries need to become economic teams, Team USA’s results - a jobless decade, 30 years of flat median wages, a trade deficit, a shrinking middle class and phenomenal gains in wealth but only for the top 1 percent - are pathetic. This should motivate leaders to rethink, rather than double down on an empirically failing free-market extremism.”

The Occupy Wall Street crowds were supported, openly and clandestinely, by unions, mostly public service unions like the UAW, the SEIU, the AFT, and the NEA. If you look at the photos of those demonstrators, you see sights such as this.

UAW Local 2110 Vice President Booker Washington shows Solidarity with the Occupy movement

And this.

FDR, like our current President, was a socialist. He tried all the usual liberal schemes, Tax and Spend, "stimulous" programs that didn't work and packing the Supreme Court with his cronies. That last tactic didn't work, fortunately for us.

But getting back to the original topic. Unions were and are socialists. I remember my father and grandfather talking once about the Wobblies, or Industrial Workers or the World. It was 1917. My father, at age 15, had just started working in the coal mines. The coal from his, and other neighboring mines, fed the steel mills of Chicago, Northern Indiana, Pittsburg and Birmingham. The government needed more production to feed the war effort. Like many things that roll down hill, the mines went to three shifts and worked through the weekend.

The unions, where they existed, objected. The mine where my father and grandfather worked was not unionized at that time but union organizers were present. Among these were representatives of the Wobblies.

Most of the unions, at that time, supported the war effort. Their intent was to get the best deal possible for their members while they could. Once a pay-raise or benefit was acquired by the union, it would be difficult to be removed later. That was not the tactic of the Wobblies. They wanted strikes---violent strikes and disruption of production.

The Russian revolution had just started and the Wobblies were more interested in acquiring aid and money for the communists than they were for the betterment of their members. Their message did not go well among the coal miners of southern Illinois. Many unions actively supported the Russian communists but they did so quietly. My grandfather was a local union official and read first-hand messages from union headquarters ordering a percentage of collected dues to be set aside for Russian aid.

Flash forward nearly forty years to the early 1950s. John L. Lewis was president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). I've written about Lewis before. One incident is still fresh in my mind. John L. Lewis came to our county for a union fundraiser and my father took me along. I remember the crowds, Lewis on the podium, the smell of cigars and alcohol. Some years later my father told of the meeting and I understood what happened.

My father was not a socialist. Nor, was my grandfather. John L. Lewis was. At that meeting, Lewis brought along a representative of the Socialist Workers Party of America. They had some candidates running for office and were soliciting money from the unions. This was the time of Joe McCarthy and McCarthy was investigating communists. Lewis did not want to be in McCarthy's sights. So he brought a stalking horse.

Dad was aware that the SWPA was a communist front. Many of his co-workers did not. After that meeting, Dad had little to do with the UMWA but remained a member because he was approaching retirement age.

Now we have people like Andy Stern, a socialist, as the head of a major union, a union that is actively working against the interests of this nation to advance that union's political agenda. Unions, once, provided a benefit. No longer. Today they are subverting the interest of our nation to advance their political position.

That position is NOT to our benefit. We must oppose the unions at event opportunity or loose our liberty. The coming election may be the worst, most violent we've seen since the Civil War. The socialists, the Occupiers already call for violence and civil war. Whether that occurs is problematic, it is already happening. The scale just hasn't risen to public view, yet.

I watch the news and reports closely. I would not be surprised at anything the left may plan or attempt.

Views from the Midwest

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

Obama came to my neighboring state of Texas---oh!, I mean Kansas yesterday. In his gaff of the day, Obama said he was glad to be in "Texas." After a few scattered snickers, he corrected himself and said, "Kansas." The local news reported this misstatement. I've yet to hear any mention from the state media about it.

The local news covered Obama's campaign speech amid the complaints of Kansas Citians because Obama's motorcade disrupted traffic through the middle of Kansas City at noon and at rush-hour. I think the traffic reports got more attention than any of Obama's speech as folks tried to keep clear of Obama's rolling traffic blockade.

The gist of Obama's speech was the usual liberal lies: the Free Market is Bad, cutting taxes and spending never works, only government knows what is best for everyone, the Republicans are evil and don't care about anyone except for millionaires.

Yeah, it was the usual drivel we've all come to expect from the democrats.

***

While Obama pontificated in Kansas, other news items revealed how vulnerable we've become under the neglect of the democrats. North Korea is building ICBMs with sufficient range to hit the continental US. China is expanding it's missile forces as well.

China's military recently deployed two new mobile ICBMs, the DF-31 and DF-31A. It is not known whether North Korea’s new mobile missile is based on Chinese technology. China in the past has provided missile technology to North Korea, a fraternal communist ally. -- Washington Times.

The Iranians are progressing as well. Israel and possibly the US and UK are already in a state of clandestine war. The recent explosions at Iran's missile development facilities are possible examples of this warfare as well as the Iranian attack on the UK embassy and subsequent expulsion of Iranian diplomats from the UK. Add to this Putin's threat to retarget the US and Western Europe foretells a resurgence of the Cold War.

While all this is continues, Obama goes on a campaign trip to Kansas and then off on a seventeen day vacation to Hawaii.

Yep, when the going gets tough, Obama goes golfing. When it's really getting tough, he goes on vacation. If we hear that Obama is leaving the country on another boondoggle, we'd all better head for the storm shelters.

CARE: Children's Act for Responsible Employment

2011-12-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

The libs are attacking the family farm once again. CARE, or the Children's Act for Responsible Employment, HR 2234, sponsored by democrat Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34), is an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. That 1938 law limited child labor to those fourteen years of ago or older. Agriculture, however, was exempted.

This exemption allowed the children of farmers to work on the farms, to learn the skills needed to operate the farms, and to learn how to be farmers and later inherit and continue farming successfully. The libs are outraged.

The libs claim that the exemption allows children to work long hours, in hazardous conditions among toxic chemicals. All that is true. Farming is not clean, farm animals product large amounts of non-sanitary wastes, fertilizers, like ammonia nitrate, are toxic, and operating farm equipment can be dangerous.

Yes, farming is dangerous and always has been. When I was growing up I was plowing a field and hit a pipeline. The presence of that pipeline was not known. There were no records of it but there is was. When I hit that pipeline I was thrown off the tractor. If the tractor's engine hadn't died on impact, it would have run over me. There was nothing that could have prevented the mis-hap. A neighbor down the road from us was killed when his tractor, on a hillside, rolled over on top of him. Another neighbor was thrown off his tractor and was severely injured. Farming is not safe.

What makes farming safer is teaching children how to farm safely at an early age until it becomes second nature. The CARE bill, ignores all of these factors. They want to impose an age limit of 16 to prohibit farm children working on the family farm...with one exception.

That exception negates all their liberal arguments. The exception is that children can work farms owned by their immediate families, i.e., their fathers and mothers. It prohibits the children from working any other farms. No working for their grandparents, no working on farms owned by aunts and uncles, nor farms owned by cousins or neighbors.

If the danger and working conditions is so severe, why the exemption. The danger and conditions are what they are and are no less for the farms of the immediate family that it is for others.

One reason for this bill, if you look at some of the so-called farm labor forums, is an indirect attempt to unionize the family farm. If children do not learn the skills needed to farm, those skills must be hired.

The great failing of this bill is that it's been written by those who have no real knowledge of farming. It is based on hearsay and anecdotes. The proponents claim that 100 farm kids are killed every year. That may be true. But how does those numbers compare with the number of deaths in auto accidents? Far, far less I believe.

If the libs were truly outraged by the death rate why don't they address the issue of auto deaths? Perhaps because they would lose their supporters? Why not one and not the other? Politics.

The reality of this bill is that it is another attempt to impose the nanny state and expand governmental control over our lives. I grew up on a farm. I know well the dangers involved in farming. Technology and engineering has reduced some of the day-to-day risks of farming but not all. Agriculture is too important to the survival of our nation to be left in the hands of idiots with an agenda.

Observations on a drive through Middle America

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

I posted last week about my wife and I taking off on a mini-vacation over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I was a good escapade and we both needed to get away for awhile. The Tahoe performed well and to expectations. The winds were 15-20mph and gusts up to 25-30mph. The Tahoe, being a bit boxy, was bounced around at highway speeds. On the trip down, we had headwinds and our gas mileage reflected those winds. On our way back, the wind had shifted from the south to the north and we battled headwinds all the way home.

We watched the countryside and the towns that we passed through. It was evident that all were battling headwinds, economic and political headwinds.

It is not unusual to see boarded up buildings along the roadside. Abandoned gas stations have sprinkled the countryside since the first gas price spike in the 1970s. At that time, about every corner in town had a gas station, or a mom 'n pop "gas and grub." There are few, now, who survive. Today's versions sport brand names like Quiktrip, 7-11, or Casey's.

But today, more than just gas stations stand empty. Along the highways, in the towns, numerous modern office and light industrial buildings now stand vacant. These empty place still sport signs advertising auto repair, tires, used cars, and more often, layers of signs of a succession of failed businesses.

Missouri was and continues to be hard hit but there is a few signs of life. In Butler, south of Kansas City on US-71, a new Walmart is about to replace an older and much smaller building. The newer, larger facility will bring a few more jobs in an area already depressed. Further south, in Neosho and Pineville near the Arkansas border, the economy still survives as do the residents...damaged, yes, but surviving.

On entering Arkansas, the countryside appeared the same until we reached the larger cities of Rogers, Bentonville and Fayetteville. The depression is visible and obvious. Instead of a vacant building here, an abandoned business there, you have entire business and light industry parks empty with lease signs sprouting like mushrooms in the economic darkness.

These are not old office and industrial parks. No, these vacant sites are new and modern. Some in the final stages of completion needing only a bit of landscaping to be finished. They have been halted and now stand amid growing weeds and wind-blown debris.

There are no visible lines of unemployed men as depicted in fading photos from the 1930s. In this time of government welfare, they stay at home, or out in bars, and small-town cafes and diners. In many forms the unemployed today have a better life than those of eighty years ago but the feeling of helplessness and despair is still present.

Missouri and Arkansas, in past decades, were bastions of the democrat party. No longer. Now trucks and family cars sport decals and stickers say, "One and Done." Other stickers are much less polite but just as vehement in displaying their displeasure with Washington and the establishment of both parties.

At one small gas station along the Missouri-Arkansas border, I noticed cars and pickups with Obama-Biden stickers crudely scraped off and new ones supporting various democrat opponents like Ron Paul, Rick Perry and others as replacements by the former democrat owners. The negativism against Washington, democrats and liberals run high and continues to climb higher.

Along with these anti-establishment sentiments is a strong suspicion that, seeing the proverbial writing on the wall, the democrats and liberals will attempt to thwart the election next year. A common sense of uneasiness is present if you watch and listen to those around us. A story about the Black Friday sales after Thanksgiving with the sales of guns being among the highest in recent years is apocryphal.

Whether for hunting or personal protection, the sales of firearms grows as does the growth of concealed weapons licenses across the country. The growing distrust of the government in Washington is widespread and not, as the state media would claim, only by the far-right. The country as a whole is shifting leaving those in government isolated and apparently uninterested of the views of the electorate.

We are approaching one of those periods that the Chinese have called, "interesting times." No one can predict what will come but come it will. All we can do is prepare as best we can and work together to see that the election is unimpeded and fairly executed.

No Post Today

2011-12-02T08:56:00.001-06:00

The siding folks are coming in a few minutes and I have a few things to move/remove/cover before they do. See y'all next week.

The facelift has started

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

The various repairs to Casa Crucis starts today. Some minor bathroom repairs today with the new siding starting tomorrow. After the siding is new gutters.

The siding is generically known as "concrete." The version we're getting has the color permanently mixed into the siding. No more painting!. The siding has a warranty longer than we expect to live. It's more expensive than we had originally budgeted but given the life-span and no need for more painting, the cost/savings-per-year is very reasonable.

The whole project is expected to take 7-10 business days. Blog posting during this period "may" be intermittent. At some point, I'll have to shutdown my server farm when they repair the window behind my desk and servers.

With all this occurring, I've not spied any good topic for posting. Just check back later...or tomorrow.

Cartoon Cavalcade

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Waaaay back in the 1950s when I was in grade school, Saturday morning was for kids. By that I mean cartoons and kid shows starting a 6am through noon. TV was black and white then and the old cartoons from the 30s and 40s were new to us. Cartoons like Krazy Kat, Mickey Mouse, Popeye and the Katzenjammer Kids.

We laughed when Krazy Kat threw a brick at the cop, Popeye and Bluto fighting, and all the stuff the Kids got into. So did our parents. Dad liked Popeye, Mom liked the Katzenjammer Kids. We all liked them and no one thought we kids would throw bricks at people like Krazy Kat nor start fights like Popeye and Bluto. We knew it was fiction---cartoons and not real life.

I guess that overall folks must have been smarter then...and knew their kids better too. After all, we routinely took our .22 rifles to school in the Fall and went squirrel hunting on the way home in the afternoon. No one thought we'd shoot each other or someone else. Our parents taught us gun safety and how to handle our rifles safely.

It's been nearly sixty years since that time. I still like cartoons but my taste has changed a bit. Here are a few that I found today that I think is more appropriate for our times. Hmmm, on second thought, maybe metaphorically throwing bricks like Krazy Kat will come in fashion once again if the libs get out of control.

Glenn McCoy:

Chuck Asay:

Lisa Benson:

Here's another view of Barney Frank's departure by Michael Ramirez.

***

As I wrote yesterday, we're expecting a crew at any time to begin tearing off the sides of our house and erecting new siding. Consequently, I'm keeping my post short and simple. I may have to bail at any time.

Oh, did I say they're repairing our windows too? It's gonna get a bit chilly in Casa Crucis. Time to emulate the cats and break out the fur coats.

Snuck outa town for the weekend, Part II

2011-11-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

A blog note: Casa Crucis will be getting a facelift starting this week. I'm having siding installed and some rot removed/repaired around our windows...including the two windows in my "office." The siding was delivered yesterday and the crew is due tomorrow to start work. When they get to working on my two windows, I'll have to shutdown my internet access. At this time, I'm not sure how long I'll be offline. I hope no more than a day but I'm not a carpenter nor in the siding business. I'm guessing. I hope I'm right.

So don't despair if I'm offline for a day or two. I'll be back.

***

After stopping by the Pea Ridge Military Park on Friday, we continued south to Ft. Smith. It had been cloudy and windy all day. The temperature had risen to 62 according to the thermometer in the Tahoe. When we passed through the Boston Mountains south of Fayetteville, the clouds dropped and a light mist started...just enough to use the wipers on their lowest setting.

We arrived just as darkness fell. We saw a sign for Motel-8 and remembering the old radio advertisement stopped and got a room.

What a mistake. Let's just say, we'll mark that down as a lesson learned and move on. Saturday night we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. That was much, much better.

Google Maps let us down once again. I was looking for Judge Isaac Parker's courthouse and the old Ft. Scott site. The only thing I could find on Google Maps was "Ft. Scott Park." That turned out to be a city park, not the National Park site. Mapquest directed us across town to the correct location.

Like Friday, Saturday was cloudy, rainy and warm. It had rained early in the morning. The temp was in the high 50s with 100% humidity. After a great breakfast at Calico County Catering, we arrived finally at the Ft. Smith Historical site.


Ft. Smith Territorial Federal Court. Originally the enlisted barracks of Ft. Smith.

The Ft. Smith site covered approximately 15-25 acres as measured by my Mk I eyeball. The first fort was built on the bluffs of Bells Point.

Bell's Point overlooking the Arkansas River. This is the site of the original Camp Smith (later renamed Fort Smith.)

The fort was later moved half a mile to its present location, and rebuilt with a 10' stone wall surrounding the fort. All that is left of the wall is the stone foundation the encircles the site.

There was a walking path around the grounds that lead from the courthouse down to the original site of the fort and then around the rest of the grounds.

Map of the original Fort Smith

The building that was Judge Isaac Parker's Court was originally the enlistedmen's barracks. Officer's quarters and the Quartermaster's warehouse were separate buildings. The Officer's Quarters burned down at some point but the stone Quartermaster's warehouse remains.

Stone Quartermaster's warehouse. The foundations of the two Officer's Quarters are to the left behind the flagpole.

The basement of the court was the holding cell. It was known as "Hell on the Arkansas" by the prisoners. It was one long open room with stone walls and floor. The prisoners slept on the floor using straw filled pallets. The photo below shows the entrance to the cell.

Jail entrance in the bottom of the Ft. Smith Courthouse.

Inside the courthouse is a number of exhibits including movie posters for the original True Grit starring John Wayne and Hang'em High starring Clint Eastwood. A caption on the Clint Eastwood poster noted that the movie storyline was created from a number of true-life incidents that happened to the Deputy Marshals working for the Court.

On the floor above the cell was Judge Isaac Parker's Court.

Judge Issac Parker's Court, Ft. Smith, AR.

Contrary to popular views and as depicted in Hang'em High, Judge Parker never watched any hangings. He turned that over to the official hangman, George Maledon.


George Maledon, Prince of Hangmen

The gallows at Ft. Smith was said to be the largest built. The last hanging, of George Wilson, occurred in 1896.

Reconstructed Gallows at Ft. Smith. The original was torn down and the pieces burned after the last hanging in 1896.

With the exception of a three-year period in the 1870s, the hangings were not open to the public. A wooden fence surrounded the gallows and when the site was not in use, it occasionally was used as a horse corral.

Wooden enclosure around the Ft. Smith gallows.

We returned home the following day stopping to visit again the Pea Ridge Military Park as described yesterday. It was a fun weekend. We think we'll do something like it again when time permits.


The SEIU is looking for someone to lead non-violent protests. In other words, someone who has no problems invading buildings and getting arrested.

Crucis' Court

All the Fine Young Cannibals

Quote of the Day

No Post

Backup one, repeat

Short Stuff

Attacks from the Left and Newt's Appeal

Monday Milestones

Aunt Anna May

Protect the Internet: No SOPA, No PIPA

Jan 18 2012

A Post-Constitutional country

Tuesday's Thoughts

Huntsman drops out, endorses Romney.

Takin' a sick day

The Call of the Mild

Voting with their feet

Tuesday's Thoughts

A new decmocrat attack tactic

Friday Follies for January 6, 2012

Yawn...

Iowa Reviews

Racing

Groupies

Repost: New Year's Traditions on the Farm

Done.

A quickie

posted at 10:35 am on December 28, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

Fini..., Pt II

Fini...maybe

The Race

Repost: A Gathering of the Clan

Merry Pre-Christmas

The Militarization of Police

A decade of billions in spending in the name of homeland security has armed local police departments with military-style equipment and a new commando mentality. But has it gone too far? Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting report....

Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Crime

Snackin'

Tidbits

Another light posting day

Even democrats...

Another light day...

You Ain't No Teddy Roosevelt!

The president sounds more like a Corleone than a Roosevelt.

By DANIEL HENNINGER

REINing the Bureaucrats

No post today

Subversion

Revolting history is playing out again in modern America

UAW Local 2110 Vice President Booker Washington shows Solidarity with the Occupy movement

Views from the Midwest

CARE: Children's Act for Responsible Employment

Observations on a drive through Middle America

No Post Today

The facelift has started

Cartoon Cavalcade

Snuck outa town for the weekend, Part II

A decade of billions in spending in the name of homeland security has armed local police departments with military-style equipment and a new commando mentality. But has it gone too far? Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz of the Center for Investigative Reporting report.
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