On Out of Control Government, "Local Issues," the Taliban, Hiroshima, and Noonan

I've got another busy day ahead.  I've got some business to take care of this morning and then Steve and I are taking the afternoon off and getting massages at one of the casino spas.  Neither of us has ever had a "professional massage" so I'm looking forward to this.  I'm sure I'll be addicted.  The literature assures me it will alleviate stress and "release toxins" from my body.  Heh.  Okay.  I'll go for that!

Around the web a couple of things have caught my eye which I don't have time to get into very deeply this morning.  Enjoy this pretty picture (left) that my niece took, and consider...

This column from Charles Krauthammer.  As usual, I agree 100% and it sort of goes to my Farm Dust post earlier in the week.  Governing by fiat.  The money quote:

In the modern welfare state, government has the power to regulate your life. That’s bad enough. But at least there is one restraint on this bloated power: the separation of powers. Such constraints on your life must first be approved by both houses of Congress.  That’s called the consent of the governed. The constitutional order is meant to subject you to the will of the people’s representatives, not to the whim of a chief executive or the imagination of a loophole-seeking bureaucrat.

This post by Pundette, which addresses the goofy comment by Robert Gibbs that Obama doesn't want to weigh in on "local matters."  Pundette:

A local matter. What a cowardly approach to an issue that most Americans care about intensely. Obama's missing something essential: Basic love of country? Common human sympathy?

And she quotes Rush, who said,

Isn't this fascinating? Not gonna get involved in local decision making. Wouldn't you love to be hearing that in Arizona? Let me ask you a question, was it just New York that was attacked on 9/11, or was it the country? It was the country, was it not? United States of America was attacked on 9/11. They're getting involved in our local health care decisions. They're getting involved in the kind of cars that we buy. They are getting involved in virtually every aspect of our lives they can insert themselves.

No kidding.

This column at Fox in which the son of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. laments the decision to send our Japanese ambassador to the Hiroshima commemoration.  He sees it as a sort of apology and says his father would not have approved:

"It's an unsaid apology," Tibbets, 66, told FoxNews.com from his home in Georgiana, Ala. "Why wouldn't it be?  Why would [Roos] go? It doesn't make any sense.  "I know it's the anniversary, but I don't know what the hell they're trying to do. It needs to be left alone. The war is over."

I heard Oliver North speaking to Sean Hannity about this earlier in the week and he was equally outraged. The ambassador did not give a speech at the event, but some quoted in this piece believe the U.S. should apologize for dropping the bomb.  I have no doubt that Obama will get around to that.


And finally, consider this post from Andy McCarthy in which he notes the fact that our government still has not designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization.  WTF?!

Yesterday, after three months of delay, the State Department finally issued its congressionally mandated annual terrorism report. It shows that the United States has not even designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization — not in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan.

I'd like to know the reasoning behind that one.  Read McCarthy's piece to see why this is such a big deal.

And if all that isn't enough to keep you going, here is Peggy Noonan lamenting the fact that America is at a boiling point and that for the first time, we don't expect our children to have things better than we did.  'Scuse me, Peggy, but weren't you over there singing glorious about the potential of The Great Obama, before the election?  Yeah.  Hush, now, okay?  Just, hush.