Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Sip Heard Round the World

This is what we've come to?

After Barack Obama stands before the nation and vows to send us spiraling further into debt with a multitude of new programs that miraculously won't cost a dime and all anyone can talk about is Marco Rubio taking a sip of water?

Never mind that the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 will increase unemployment.  I mean, if I have a small business and I have ten employees, I'm going to cut back to eight if I can because I can't afford to keep ten anymore.  If I have a business with enough employees to force me into Obamacare, I just got an incentive to cut a few of them back.

But for goodness sake, let's don't talk about that!  Let's talk about Marco Rubio taking a sip of water!

Drudge, in his own way, pushes back:



Because it's okay when liberals drink water.  Just not Republicans.

Obama made no mention of Benghazi and his massive failure to protect those Americans, respond to their call for help, or even hold accountable those responsible.  But who cares?  Marco Rubio took a drink of water on national television.  From Politico:



Obama vowed to expand the federal government's role in federal education - as if holding states hostage by forcing Common Core on them was not enough.  Most states have been compelled to accept the pitiful Common Core curriculum in order to be considered for federal grants and monies.  National education standards are, in fact, unconstitutional but this president has coerced the states to adopt them.  Shame on them all.  But what difference does it make?  Marco Rubio was thirsty.

The New Yorker:


The New Yorker breaks down the moment into microseconds:


By the second minute of Marco Rubio’s official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address last night, it was clear that the Senator’s body was betraying him. His lips caught each other in the way they do at moments of stress, when we are suddenly confronted, after long lapses of unthought, with the actual mechanics of speech. Under the hot lights, Rubio’s mouth went dry. A few minutes later, sweat trickled down his right temple, and he moved his hand instinctively to wipe it away. The dry mouth persisted, and, at times, his eyes flashed with a kind of pleading and mounting desperation: the speech was less than halfway over, with words and words to go. His hands, already large in the frame when he kept them low in front of him, flashed a few times to his lips. And then back to his temple.
By the eighth minute, he seemed to have adjusted, and it looked as if he might push through to the end. But then, three minutes later, he made a gamble and reached for a water bottle offscreen: he lurched down to his left and fumbled a bit, making a terrifyingly intimate moment of eye contact with the audience before taking a quick sip from an unfortunately tiny bottle and then ducking to put it back.


In his speech, Obama continued his partisan politics by blaming Republicans for sequestration and just about anything else that he can get away with, but he accepts no responsibility for anything.  Disgusting.  But at least he didn't take a drink of water on the national stage!

At least Rubio has been a good sport about it.  He's been chugging water on the news shows all day long today.

Good grief.  Don't we have anything else to talk about?

The only winner here is Poland Spring.

No wonder this country is going down the tubes.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Healthcare Gone to the Dogs

I'm not watching the SOTU address. I'm well aware of the SOTU.

I was, actually watching the Westminster Dog Show which was ever so much more interesting. That's kind of where I am with politics these days. Gone to the dogs.

True story:

I was visiting with a liberal friend whom I adore. Politics aside, we have other areas of common ground on which we can be friends.

Tonight this friend, who is almost 70, told me he needs a hip replacement. The doctor looks at the x-rays and says, "Yep. You need a hip replacement. You've got no cartilage.". But then the doc tells him that because Medicare has clamped down on such procedures he has to do physical therapy first.

My first thought was "Are you serious?!"

But ten seconds later, of course, you realize that with Obamacare naturally nobody is going to get a hip replacement. Why waste resources on the old and infirm?

So, this friend will do the PT which has zero potential for success (because the doc says he has no cartilage, remember) and will likely exacerbate the pain, but hey!, maybe in ten years, he can get a hip replacement if he sits around on a list long enough.

This is reflective of why I've seemingly stopped political blogging. I'm screaming into a void. I tried to warn people that this was coming. Your doctor doesn't get to make decisions about your care - the ipab does. Your doctor can't look at your x-rays and prescribe treatment! He has to look at a formula, your age, and the cost in order to determine if treatment is feasible.

Faced with the inevitable reality of Obamacare, in the same breath this friend also expressed profound hope that "we can get everyone covered on healthcare.". Free healthcare for all.

Free? What's free? Somebody has got to pay. It's not going to be "free.". Ever. Never ever.

Here comes the tide of illegals now about to drain your healthcare system, baby. You think finding the care you need NOW is hard? Just wait.

Why are liberals shocked when what they voted for shows up on their daily plane and bites them? We TOLD you this was coming. It's basic economics, people! Nothing is "free!"

My friend is a wonderful, kind, big-hearted person and like I said, we agree on many (non-political) things. I'm sorry my friend can't get the treatment he needs when he needs it.

He should have read my blog back when I was screaming "Don't do it!! Don't vote for Obamacare!"

The sad thing is...I don't see it getting better. Ever. The Republicans are too divided. The Tea Party conservatives vs. the Democrat-Lites. I don't see a reconciliation there which means a perpetual Democratic stronghold on the horizon shored up by imminent amnesty.

We are screwed.

I once thought that we're going to have to just let it all destruct, implode and rebuild from the ashes but I'm no longer that optimistic.