Well...

Ain't that special? I got called something akin to Fred Phelps, because I asked someone when they turned into an atheist? Evidently I'm *so cruel* because government workers need to actually pay into their pension and health insurance; and that much of the Federal government is UNNECESSARY, and unconstitutional. I provided facts & figures for my statements, yet no figures or sources were brought up in rebuttal, merely a slur on me & my character. Typical liberal. No facts? No problem, just attack the person, and perhaps they will not realize that the liberal has no argument that is based upon any type of reasoning except *insane* reasoning!

On the other hand,I was reading how 2/3 of Wisconsin schoolchildren (8th graders) cannot read at their grade level. This is pitiful. What's even worse, is that Wisconsin has some of the *better* rates as compared to other states.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY? Are people raising a passel of brats (as Scarlett O'Hara termed them), or is it just we are reaping the whirlwind of the "ME" generation, who really don't give a damn about anyone but themselves, and what they can get?

And liberals say that conservatives are hateful? Hardly. How is it "hateful" for actually expecting personal responsibility etc. "hateful"? Black is white, up is down, bad is good.

I just gotta say something

About this IDIOCY from the moonbat (see above) judge in DC that ruled Obamacare constitutional. Here is a paragraph from the ruling:

First, this Court agrees with the two other district courts which have ruled that the individuals subject to § 1501’s mandate provision are either present or future participants in the national health care market. See Liberty Univ., 2010 WL 4860299, at *15 (“Nearly everyone will require health care services at some point in their lifetimes, and it is not always possible to predict when one will be afflicted by illness or injury and require care.”); Thomas More Law Ctr., 720 F.Supp.2d at 894 (“The health care market is unlike other markets. No one can guarantee his or her health, or ensure that he or she will never participate in the health care market. . . . The plaintiffs have not opted out of the health care services market because, as living, breathing beings . . . they cannot opt out of this market.”). Thus, the vast majority of individuals, if not all individuals, will require some medical care in their lifetime.

The moron is a judge named Kessler. Substitute something else (food, sex, oxygen) and see if it works. No? Then it's a stupid law. and with stupid, I mean IN ALL CAPS, with lots of exclamation marks after it.

Has this become the nation of idiots, instead of a nation of personal liberty, and individuality? "1984" is no longer the manual for the near future - it is Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". Here, just take your soma and be happy all the time.

Kind of late...but...

I was talking to a friend...okay, well, trolling him (and he was trolling me), and we were talking about the tea party. About how some say "keep your hands off my medicare" and on the same sign - "no socialized medicine". WHAT??

Medicare IS socialized medicine! Talk about a reality delusion. Or rather, cognitive dissonance (Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously).

I didn't notice signs that were this blatantly...ridiculous, at the Tea Party Rally the town had last April 15th, but I think, that if polled, most that are older would say Heck no, keep your hands off my Medicare/Social Security, I paid into it, and I'm due it.

However, SS is a pay-go program, meaning when they worked, they paid for the retirees then. The workers now pay for their Social Security. And Medicare, they say "the employer pays part, and I pay part", its a fact that the person pays ALL of it, as they receive lower wages, because the employer has to take out part of their wage for it. Same with Social Security. Same with unemployment insurance.

Think, if all the money that you actually made, without government getting its grubby paws on it, how much you would actually get.

The friend I mentioned above is liberal, but we do agree on some things..such as the silliness of the above sign, and that when polled, quite a few of the tea partiers would not give up their SS/Medicare.

I was reading a book on economics, and it was brought up that if you saved $1200 a YEAR, and invested it for the long term in stocks, you would (with compound interest) have MORE than you would get from SS, and you'd see around a 4% return on your money, v. 1.5% with Social Security. You'd be having double what you get monthly with SS!

I was like :O I can save $1200 a year from what hubby gives me for groceries, clothes and other stuff.

I'm thinking also of changing my bank, as the current one pays about 1% interest on checking, and a local bank that has 4? 5? branches in the surrounding areas, pays 3%. Even 2% more would be a few bits more. Plus they have an Itunes checking account...you get a $20 credit for Itunes when you sign up, plus (forgot if it's quarterly or monthly) Itunes credit. Plus 3%!

Today is Wednesday, during the school year,, so we have AWANA tonight. Oh the fun of little kids!

Idiocy in Wisconsin

I say, fire their butts. All they are being asked to do is pay more towards their pension (they pay less than half towards pensions than private sector), and for health insurance. Gee... they're being asked to do what everyone else has to do.

Wah, waaah, waaah.

The average teacher compensation in Milwaukee is $105,000. Gee. That's for a 9 month work year. And they're *complaining* about it.

There was a vote last night on an amendment cutting 22 billion. 90 Republicans voted *against* it. Turncoats, is what I call them. Rep. Dan Lungren (CA-R) said that "across-the-board cuts are a lazy member's way to achieve something." What? I guess spending MORE is being responsible? hardly! Here is The Hill's blog on floor action: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action.

Politics and unions. What a way to start a day, makes you want to vomit.

Hope you had a great day

Hope your Valentine's Day went really well. We went to the Valentine's Banquet that the church has each year, and it was at a restaurant out in Freeport. I opted for the grilled catfish & shrimp. The cole slaw was FANTASTIC! The catfish was good, but the shrimp wasn't that great. I've had better before. They were kind of bland, and their cocktail sauce had very little horseradish in it. But for catfish & cole slaw, the place is great.

I was going through "my clippings" on my kindle - here is a piece from 'Liberalism is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions' by Michael Savage:

In the end, your tolerance of the intolerable is actually a reflection of your loss of clarity; your tolerance of virtually everything and your "anything goes" attitude is not a mark of liberalism, it's a mark of the degeneration of your ability to judge anything.

But this is also a good bit:

Universal health-care is a carrion call for the bottom-feeders out there who think I owe them a living. They think I owe them health-care, housing, a car, a chicken in every pot, and pot for every chicken! What gives them the right to reach into my pocket for a handout? I owe you nothing. I don't owe you housing, I don't owe you a job, and I don't owe you health-care. That is what Marxists have promised from the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution. Sure, I might see a needy guy struggling to make it and choose to help him. But that's my decision.

That's from "The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military" also by Michael Savage.

From Godey's Lady's Book, Vol 42, January 1851, I found this:

Song of the stars: E. Pluribus Unum -"many in one". A national song by Thomas S. Donoho

The world, with delight,
Looks up to the starry blue banner of night,
In its many-blent glory rejoicing to see
AMERICA'S motto--the pride of the Free!

"E PLURIBUS UNUM"

Our standard forever!
Woe, woe to the heart that would dare to dissever!
Shine, Liberty's Stars! your dominion increase--
A guide in the batthel, a blessing in peace!

"E PLURIBUS UNUM!"

And thus be, at last,
From land unto land our broad banner cast,
Till its Stars, like the stars of the sky, be unfurled,
In beauty and glory, embracing the world!

From "The Soul of Man under Socialism", by Oscar Wilde

The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.

From the Communist Manifesto (marx & engels):

Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of teh State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of teh soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.

Gee..the above sounds like what democrats have done, and want to do!

Here is a couple of bits from Dr. Laura (great advice!)

If you wish to stay together, commit to being your best dream, not your worst nightmare.

Before you speak, think first about whether or not this will add to happiness and peace. Better still, cut your communication 15 percent, and fill the other 85 percent of the time with touching a hand, offering a cup of coffee, a neck rub, a hug, a sweet compliment, and so forth. Remember -- TALK IS CHEAP and ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS...unless, of course, the words are mean or lies.

Steward Machine Co., v. Collector of Internal Revenue, 301 U.S. 548 (may 24, 1947). McReynolds expressed the enumerated powers principle when he wrote, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. . . Can it be controverted that the great mass of the business of Government -- that involved in the social relations, the internal arrangements of the body politic, the mental and moral culture of men, the development of local resources of wealth, the punishment of crimes in general, the preservation of order, the relief of the needy or otherwise unfortunate members of society -- did in practice remain with the States; that none of these objects of local concern are by the Constitution expressly or impliedly prohibited to the States, and that none of them are by any express language of the Constitution transferred to the United States? Can it be claimed that any of these functions of local administration and legislation are vested in the Federal Government by any implication? I have never found anything in the Constitution which is susceptible of such a construction. No one of the enumerated powers touches the subject, or has even a remote analogy to it."

Here's a bit from "The Prettiest Snake in Hell", by D.J. Connolly (I highly recommend this book! it's slick willie's adventures in hell)

"The obama is venomous. But his bite won't kill you; it will just make you stupid."

From "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand:

Every achievement of man is a value in itself, but it is also a stepping-stone to greater achievements and values. Life is growth; not to move forward, is to fall backward; life remains life, only so long as it advances. Every step upward opens to man a wider range of action and achievement -- and creates the need for that action and achievement. There is no final, permanent "plateau".

From "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism", by Kevin Williamson

"The point of public education is, and always has been, to make members of the public better and more productive servants of the state -- and it is therefore unsurprising that socialists have taken up the cause.

And thus I come to the end of snippets of my clippings. There are many more, that are good, but it would take quite a bit of space to put them all here. Hope you enjoy things that I found interesting out of books I've read/am in the process of reading.

I'm in the middle of "Liberal Fascism", by Jonah Goldberg; "Sophisms of the Protectionists", by Frederick Bastiat; "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley; "Socialism: an Economic and Sociological Analysis", by Ludwig von Mises; Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit", by Edgar K. Browning; The Politicall Incorrect Guide to Socialism, by Kevin Williamson; "Basic Economics, 4th ed." by Thomas Sowell; and "Democracy in America, vol. 1" by Alexis de Toqueville.

and of course, a smattering of "The Prettiest Snake in Hell" for some fun.

Scary stuff, kids...

I'm reading a short booklet titled "The Curses of Entitlement: 30 Frightening Consequences of Government Payments", and I ran across this statistic:

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax rates would have to be increased steeply to maintain future Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. For the lowest tax bracket, the rates would increase from 10% to 25%; for those in the current 25% tax bracket, the rates would increase to 63%; in the highest bracket, rates would have to be raised from 35% to 88%. The top corporate tax rate would go from 35% to 88%.

*jaw drop* These are confiscatory rates, even more so than they are now, with stifling business. This would be almost up to the 90% tax rate that was once done. Imagine that. Out of every dollar you made, 90c would go to the federal government. This is outrageous!

Grrrrr

This is Harry Reid on rights:

“What Republicans refuse to understand – or at least what they hope the people don’t realize – is that in America, we give our citizens rights. We don’t take them away. That principle comes first. It inspired this country’s founding, it has directed our evolution and it defines our promise."

Who gives citizens rights? Certainly not the government - we had those rights before it came along. God gives us our rights. Not Harry Reid and the rest of his ilk.

In other news, an illegal immigrant was told to "go to Mexico" for your surgery, as UTMB Galveston was not going to pay it. Too bad more hospitals do not do this. The story is here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7416070.html. When people who are not Mexican citizens have emergency treatment in MX, they are told to pony up first, before they get the treatment. Not here.

I'm thinking quite a bit lately of "bread and circuses". What with what is going on in Egypt, Greece, etc. Because the gubmint doesn't give them enough. I'd imagine with hyperinflation here, people would be upset, but no civil unrest... until the TV shows Dancing with the Stars, and American Idol are interrupted, and other garbage on television. THEN people will riot, as they do not get their circuses.

I wonder about many people...why is this entertainment, and the lives of 'celebrities' so darn important to them? Its like they don't actually live in reality.

Back again...

The company we get our wireless from, came out and messed around with it yesterday... guess what! My net works! I can upload photos to flickr again, use Facebook, and actually send out email. Thank goodness for Yahoo messenger on my phone - it kept me connected at least. I started going through email yesterday, and found these few things:

The PCNAA bill (Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act) monster has come back to life. This horrendous thing was brought up last year, co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE).

From IT Professional Services, we find this:

“The bill would grant President Obama unusually broad power to declare a “national cyber-emergency” at his discretion and force private companies that "rely on" the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the US "information infrastructure" including Internet service providers, search engines, and software firms to take action in response. That could include limiting or even cutting off their connections to the World Wide Web for up to 30 days. Anyone failing to comply would be fined.”

In addition to this monstrosity, the government wants ‘private business’ to start making “Trusted Identities” for the internet.
The NSTIC ("N-Stick") proposal (National Strategies for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace), which was release in draft form last June, proposes the creation of an online identity "ecosystem," which the report defines as "an online environment where individuals, organizations, services, and devices can trust each other because authoritative sources establish and authenticate their digital identities."

Uh, guess what. The internet is not *that* important. What did people do for years previously? Its not a necessity. Its a want, not a *need*. Many things we have today are wants. Sure, it’s nice to have, but as soon as the goons start tracking everyone online, it’s only another step into the police state that this country is becoming. Don’t think so? Seen what is going on with the TSA? Nothing like breaking the 4th Amendment rights that we have, NOT the 4th Amendment rights that the government allows us to have. Our rights came before government.

From The Law, by Frederick Bastiat:

The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense…(t) law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy. ..(t)he nature of law is to maintain justice. This is so much the case that, in the minds of the people, law and justice are one and the same thing. There is in all of us a strong disposition to believe that anything lawful is also legitimate. This belief is so widespread that many persons have erroneously held that things are “just” because law makes them so.

Imagine that this fatal principle has been introduced (legal plunder).: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few – whether farmers, manufacturers, shipowners, artists, or comedians.

HOW TO IDENTIFY LEGAL PLUNDER

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law – which may be an isolated case – is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

LEGAL PLUNDER HAS MANY NAMES

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole – with their common aim of legal plunder – constitute socialism.

Okay. So much for the US of A not being a socialist country. Perhaps not socialist with a capital S, however we are well on our way.

You know how Amazon.com has their e-reader, Kindle? I found that it is free for the PC. You can download it, and all you have to do is register. How cool is that! You can read the rest of The Law, I think the price was 99 cents. Right now I'm currently reading FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression. Also New Deal or Raw Deal?. Both are very interesting. I also ponied up 19.99 for Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, 4th ed. for my Kindle.

I learned that the gas lines that were so prevalent in the 70s, and basically KILLED OFF my beloved muscle cars, was the fault of governmetn meddling in prices. There was no less gas during that time than there had been previously, or after that. Sowell's book is easier to understand for economics than F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. Daniel Hannan (British MEP) has come out with a book The New Road to Serfdom. Don't know how that one is, but he has a youtube channel, and makes lots of common sense that is so lacking in today's overnments all over the world.

I also went over to Baen Books website, and got Monster Hunter International, and Monster Hunter Vendetta for my kindle. I'd read them in paperback, but I loaned those out, and still wanted to re-read them. They're books that are very hard to put down! Also to go outside in the dark afer reading them :) I was out by my car, and a cat came running up out of the dark. I almost screamed and ran to the house. They're darn good books. Larry Correia is the author, and Monster Hunter Alpha is due out this year...I'm really looking forward to it.