HUGE TAX INCREASE

The House, in a close vote, has passed the "cap-and-trade" bill, in spite of the fact that:
1) There is no good evidence for global warming
2) There is NO evidence that carbon dioxide has anything to do with global warming
3) Even Greenpeace was against the bill as being useless for conservation
4) None of the useless idiots in DC even read the bill that they were voting on (again)
5) the bill is going to put huge burdens (read dollars) on all of us and do a great job of preventing any kind of business recovery

The following Repuplicans voted FOR the bill's passage Reps. Mary Bono Mack (CA), Mike Castle (DE), Steven Kirk (IL), John McHugh (NY), Leonard Lance (NJ), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Dave Reichert (WA), and Chris Smith (NJ). Maybe we should drop them a note to "thank" them for looking out for us, the dumb slobs who will have to pay for this.

Our Mr Hinchey.....he seems to see no problem with nailing us with yet another huge chunk of our money being taken from us.

IRAN

Link to what is happened today in Iran.

WARNING Very graphic photos.

How could anyone do this to another countryman?
And how could we be so stupid to think that talking to them is going to magically change them? These leaders are still in the Middle Ages, or worse. I'm no genius (duh, no kidding Capt Obvious!!) but I don't see a diplomatic solution here.

For all who believe in it, and I do, please pray for all the victims.

Father's Day

Tomorrow is Father's Day.
Sadly, my dad died almost 40 years ago, and to this very day, I miss him. We had the usual fights, arguments, and disagreements, as is inevitable when 2 stubborn people butt heads, but his concern for and love of his family was never, ever in doubt.
He was of the old school......his word was absolute law as we grew up, and to step beyond a certain line brought a smack on the butt that drove home the point that the line was crossed only at grave risk. And signs of affection did not come easily to him, not because he didn't feel the emotion, but it was not the thing that men did in that era.
But his love for his kids was shown in so many ways...teaching us the right way, the ONLY way, to fish for trout was with a dry fly and a bamboo rod that was probably older than we were, taking walks through the mud as Spring set in, learning the sight and sound of the birds of the area, spending endless hours in his Studebaker station wagon learning all his shortcuts (all of which added miles and hours to any trip, and limitless fun and excitement to the trip as well), exploring things in the area that most people never knew existed (lead mines, iron ore pits and such), listening to the radio in his car with him as we drove through the night, trying to pick up WWVA or KDKA (look them up, they are still there), and the quiet words of encouragement when they were most needed.
Where I am, what I am, what I have done, so much of that is because of the strength, the sense of right and wrong, the courage that he passed on to me. Thanks, dad.

The Letter

If you haven't yet seen and read it, there is a letter written to Glenn Beck, which letter he read on his TV show earlier this week. It was written by a woman who is a grandmother, just another "lady-next-door" who said a great deal of what I think has to be said. Some excerpts follow:

The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now.......

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them.

Please, go here, read the whole letter and think seriously about what she is saying. We are seeing our country rapidly changing from what it used to be, what it was created to be, what it should be, into just another centrally run, big-government, socialistic state.

What to do

There is a book out there, whose title I have unfortunately forgotten, which book tries to explain the fundamental differences between the way the men and women see, react to, and understand the world. It is not a superficial, "touchy-feely" book, but an honest attempt to understand and explain the differences.

One of the basic premises of the author is that men are, by nature, fighters. He feels that men are actually in need of something to fight for, a belief or a cause, something that they can stand up for. As I get older and perhaps a bit wiser (though that is up for questioning!!) I think that he is correct. We need something to believe in, something that we can take hold of, around which we can "circle the wagons". Add to this the desire that many feel for freedom, and I begin to see why some of us are becoming more and more active in standing up against the constant expansion of the federal government and its ever more burdensome laws, rules, and demands.

Though it hurts me deeply to have to admit it, I also see that there are way more who are not only willing, but eager, to sacrifice their freedom and give everything up to the central government in return for the "security" offered them there, losing not only their freedom, but everyone else's as well. They point to us, snicker, and call us disillusioned wackos, throwbacks to a different era, right-wing dingbats, and a host of other unflattering names. They cannot know what is being lost because they have never experienced it, having been raised in a society that sees pleasure and gratification as the only worthwhile goals, and sacrifice and struggles and hardship are things to be avoided.

How do we show them what they are missing and what they are losing? We can't tell them, because words like freedom, work, sacrifice, challenge, patriotism, and liberty either mean nothing to them, or even worse, have been corrupted into something that is bad, evil and to be shunned. If we aren't speaking the same language, if words don't mean the same thing to the listener as they do to the speaker, then understanding is impossible. We have three choices that I see:
We can continue to talk to them, to try and get them to see what the words really mean rather that the corrupted meaning that has been taught them through the years. This is time consuming, and can be frustrating beyond belief when the words that we use are either innocently or maliciously misconstrued and spat back at us. It can be like trying to order from a menu in a foreign restaurant when you haven't a clue what anything on the menu means. You are talking but not conversing. An example that we all have heard...if you criticize the president, you are a racist.
We can try, instead of talking, try to educate by example. We can show by doing rather than talking. Unfortunately, what we do is all to often then presented as something completely different from what we actually did. Think about the recent spate of tea-parties around the country. Here was a group of people exercising their freedom of expression, most of it spontaneous and non-partisan, and much of it aimed at ALL of Washington who were going completely nuts with spending. But it was then presented to the general public as a "bunch of republicans" who were "out to get Obama". Again, this is a tough way to go.
The third choice is to ignore them completely. I don't mean to sound cruel or heartless, but if they can't / won't join, then there is little that we can do about it. Those of us who have tasted freedom, who know that liberty IS worth fighting for, must do what we must do to protect and expand that freedom throughout this country. The complacent hangers-on hopefully will see the errors of their way and join us, but if not, we have done what we could and must move on. There are many who don't join simply because they are ignorant of what they are missing, and these are the ones that I fervently hope will learn and join. Others, those who see themselves as the elite, who "know so much more than we do and are so much smarter than the rest of us", these must be shown as the demagogues that they really are. Those who sit in power and pass law after law, spend billions after billions, and completely ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, and the God-given rights that those documents uphold, these people must be shown as the power-hungry tyrants that they have become.

I will hasten to add that I am NOT pushing for an armed rebellion. God help us if it ever comes to that. The thought of Americans shooting other Americans, of our country laid waste by another civil war, is too horrible to contemplate. I hope for, I pray for, I dream of another type of revolution, a revolution of ideals, of the principals upon which this country was founded and under which it grew from 13 little colonies into the greatest and free-est country ever seen. That is what I yearn for.


There stands a man who has had enough.

He just needed about a million others to stand with him.

So do we.

(with thanks to The Smallest Majority)