Take a Trip to the Centaur 2012 Parade

We have survived the 2012 Centaur parade; it was cold out there!  The temperature at parade time was about 37 but the wind was blowing and the sun was sinking and it felt colder.  You never know with the weather around here.  It was seventy degrees last week and freezing today. 

We always walk to the parade route from chez SIGIS.  It's not that far and is much easier than fighting the traffic after the parade. I have a friend that lives right on the route and so that's our base on parade day. 

She invites a crowd and everyone brings a potluck contribution.  This year a guy brought his deep fryer so our feast included fried cheese sticks, chicken tenders, and corndogs.  There was also boudin, burgers, jambalaya, steak on a stick, and plenty of sweets, chips and dips to go around.  I ate the best brownies I've ever had in my life.  After the parade the fixins' for s'mores come out and the kids are in hog heaven. 

We had three fire pits going:

...and I nearly caught myself on fire at least twice.

I love to people watch while sitting by the fire.  I saw people with wagons:

 

And people with tutus:

People eating:

And one group brought a couch and a basketball goal out there:

And there's a guy with a turkey on his head:

Some unfortunate soul got a ticket right before they closed the streets:

The house next door to where we were had this sign in their yard:

And in fact they did give away lots of coffee, cocoa and water.  Probably prayers, too!

There were plenty of bounce houses:

And I'm not sure what to make of this:

But lots of people just walked:

We ran into our good friend, Red.  I've known her for thirty years, at least:

But finally it was time for the parade.  And what magnificent animals to start it off!:

Look at those feet!:

Gorgeous animals.

They were followed by the Louisiana Tech Band:



Then the floats came.

People go crazy at parades.  It's all over cheap plastic beads from China and various other trinkets.  It's fun to reach up and snag some beads out of the air when a krewe member throws them to you.  Sometimes it's one string of beads, sometimes it's a tangled wad of beads.  Sometimes a krewe member will single you out, lean over the side and hand you something "special".  A guy on this float leaned over and handed me some beads in a plastic ziploc bag with a huge medallion on them and this guy standing next to me reached out and snagged it from my hand.

 I just looked incredulously at him, and said, "Dude!  Really?!?  He handed that to ME!"  He just laughed at me and lit a cigarette.  I thought about having a throw down right there in the middle of the road but didn't want to end up on the front page of the newspaper over some mardi gras beads.  I did step to the back of the crowd and just watched for a while, though.

This float was cool:

It's the year of the dragon:

These folks were fun to watch:

I loved the penguin float - their costumes were cool!:

Ahem.  The Democrat float?

Belly dancers!

The Mansfield High Marching Band:

The Seal Team Six float came by...:

...and it was a sobering moment:

The Saints float:

It was dark by the time the parade ended:

and by that time I was already back by the fire pit trying to thaw out!

We had a grand time despite the random jerk or two in the crowd and the cold!  Tomorrow is the Barkus and Meoux parade and then next week we'll forgo the Gemini parade in favor of  a Jerry Jeff Walker concert but we will catch the Highland Parade (and maybe catch a hot dog from the Krewe of Bar B Que!)

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Whitney Houston - 1963- 2012

What a voice.  Her rendition of the national anthem was one of my favorites:

Time to Mardi Gras!

Tomorrow is our first parade of the Mardi Gras season; there have been a couple of minor parades already but the first of the three "big" parades is tomorrow.  Here is my report from last year.  Mr. SIGIS and I will be there ready to roll!

We have three big parades here; first is the Centaur Parade.  It kicks off at 4:30 this year and begins at the Preston end (for you locals) and ends up downtown.  The route next week for the Gemini Parade will be reversed.  Our normal parade spot will be right at the beginning of the route tomorrow which is nice because it's supposed to get fairly cold tomorrow night.  If we play our beads right, we could be home just after dark.

The Barkus and Meoux parade is this weekend, too.

Mr. SIGIS and I will miss the Gemini parade this year because we have Jerry Jeff Walker tickets, but we'll be at the Highland Parade the next day.

We've already consumed one king cake this year.

I'll have to get up and get my Saturday duties handled early and we'll head out to people watch, walk the streets, sit by wood fires, eat way too much, and scream our lungs out for cheap plastic beads made in China while sipping beer. 

Stay tuned for photos.

Why I Dropped My NEA Membership

From my school inbox today, a nugget from the NEA:

NEA members:  Become an Educator for Obama.  Now more than ever, we need to elect a President who shares our vision for a stronger America.  Do your part and pledge to be an educator for Obama today on the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education website.  The website also features information on other NEA recommended candidates for federal office (Democrats and Republicans) as well as the profiles of NEA Fund members and the latest news on the election. 

I'm glad I dropped my membership.  I did this in July after the NEA decided at their convention to endorse Obama and to raise PAC dues from $10 to $20 to put toward their support of him. 

Out of curiosity, I looked at their list of "recommended candidates."  It includes Gabby Giffords; should I let them know she's not running?

In Massachusetts they're supporting Markey (D), Niki Tsongas (D), and William Keating (D), among others. It's quite a list, actually.

Nope, NEA.  You can keep your liberal candidates and I'll keep my money.

"Choot 'Em!" Returns Tonight!

SIGIS is breaking from politics tonight because tonight is the premier of the third season of Swamp People! 

Okay so I don't watch a lot of television and about the only time I blog about things on TV is when a debate is on, but, this has been in the back of my mind for a few weeks now.  There seems to be a rash of new reality series on TV in which the main purpose seems to be to make people in my state look like backwoods, ignorant hillbillies.  A couple of weeks ago CMT premiered two shows:  Bayou Billionaires and My Big Redneck Vacation. 

I watched the premier of each of those.  Now, Bayou Billionaires is going to feature my friend Milly Rose in a couple of episodes (she's appraising their antiques) and Milly swears these are really nice people.  In the one episode I saw, they did in fact seem to be pretty normal.  The show features a family that has hit big money in the Haynesville shale.  CMT, for their part, puts them in scenarios that make them seem ridiculous (like going to join the country club), however, I've only watched one episode.  I'll reserve judgment. 

Same thing with Redneck vacation.  CMT describes it this way:

From the creators of My Big Redneck Wedding comes a new series chronicling the adventures of one countrified, loud-mouthed family from the swamps of Louisiana as they take over a $4 million house in the Hamptons of New York. Watch as this mud-slidin', four-wheelin', beer-slingin', dixie-whistlin' crew learns how to live the high-life and show them Yankees how the South gets down. From polo lessons to wine-tasting to a truly Hamptons nuptial, this rowdy bunch is in for a summer they'll never forget on My Big Redneck Vacation. 

In the episode I saw, the ladies were in a store in the Hamptons asking the butcher for "nutria rat" for their dinner.  Seriously?  C'mon.

To me, Swamp People is different.  Series star Troy Landry has become a cult icon already and the stars make appearances all over the country.  Over 750,000 people "like" their page on Facebook.  Troy and his son Jacob were on Fox News this morning promoting the new season.

What Mr. SIGIS and I like about Swamp People is that the show teaches about the culture of the people in south Louisiana that live this way of life.  They are family oriented and they live off the land.  These people aren't hunting alligators for sport or to make trophys.  It's a way of life. 

The season is only open for about a month (in September).  It is strictly regulated and you must have a license to hunt; you are granted only so many tags and once you've filled your tags, you're done.  The purpose of the alligator program is primarily species protection and control:

The goals of the Department's alligator program are to manage and conserve Louisiana's alligators as part of the state's wetland ecosystem, provide benefits to the species, its habitat and the other species of fish and wildlife associated with alligators. The basic philosophy was to develop a sustained use management program which, through regulated harvest, would provide long term benefits to the survival of the species, maintain its habitats, and provide significant economic benefits to landowners, alligator farmers and alligator hunters. 

 The show often highlights the family gatherings of the principal characters - children, grand children, and even great-grand children. Generations of families living the only kind of life they've ever known and making a living off the land.  They teach the kids solid family values.

While some might complain that Swamp People makes Louisiana people look ignorant, I'd say just the opposite.  I'd suggest looking at the life lessons and the culture the show displays rather than the "brutality" of shooting alligators.  It's so much more than that and they are lessons everyone could use.

The series premiers tonight at 9 ET, 8:00 SIGIS time on The History Channel.

Say Yes, Tim!

A Barksdale airman is trying to get Tim Tebow to go to the military ball with her in April.  She's cute as a button!  How could he NOT "say YES!":

What If Santorum Wins Big Tonight?

It might be a big night for Rick Santorum or it might be a big bust - who knows!?

Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota are all hosting election events tonight; no delegates on the table but lots of bragging rights.

Some links for the wait:

Google Politics has the maps and results - you can toggle between states on the upper right.

Red State has a Live Coverage event going on.

Allahpundit:

No delegates at stake tonight, but this is probably Santorum’s last chance to breeze past Newt as the race’s designated Not Romney. Read Ed’s post on the latest PPP numbers if you missed it this morning: He’s up by 13 points in Missouri (where Gingrich isn’t on the ballot) and by nine in Minnesota. If he wins both easily, then he gets a bunch of positive media coverage this week and maybe a few more big-name conservative endorsements, which in turn could mean enough movement in the polls to put him on at least an equal footing with Gingrich. Once that happens, the pressure will shift to Newt to explain why he should stay in and divide the conservative vote on the strength of having won one state while Santorum should drop out after having won three. Is that enough to get Gingrich to quit? Why … no, but it’ll make an increasingly dull primary interesting again until Super Tuesday.

The Washington Post also has live coverage and updates.

USA Today is live-blogging.

Predictions?

Added:

Why are they still voting for Cain, Huntsman, etc.?

Protest votes?  Absentee votes?

Sign Me Up For The Sweet Meteor of Death, Too

I've been in a depressed funk over the GOP candidates.  Thus the light blogging, I guess.

Via Hot Air, this is where I am too:

Influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson said he would endorse the “sweet meteor of death” over any of the current GOP candidates, but would back the party’s eventual nominee in the general election against President Obama.

Anybody but Obama.

With the exception of Stacy McCain, I can't find anyone who is really enthusiastic about any of the candidates, for that matter.

Allahpundit:

Honestly, my core problem with the field is less their specific weaknesses than the fact that we failed to entice a top-tier star candidate into the field against a vulnerable incumbent whom conservatives despise. I can’t get past that. Like Erickson, I’ll vote for the eventual nominee, but I can’t bring myself to choose one over the others because the feeling that they’re not our best is ever present. Deep down, I don’t think any of them are equal to the fiscal challenges ahead. How can I have a preference?

Ditto.

Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan

SIGIS is remembering Ronald Reagan today.  He would be 101.

Here are Ten Reagan Quotes from CSM.

Marathon Pundit relives his Reagan centennial trip.

The Patriot Post has several links for the occasion.

 Americans for Prosperity has an ad out for the occasion:

Another "Perrybot" Response

I was at work this morning when I saw Stacy McCain's bitch-slapping post to the "Perrybots" and I couldn't respond at the time because, well, I was at work. 

Stacy, it seems, is aggrieved because Rick Perry's campaign burned through $20 million in his failed campaign.  Stacy, who was all for Herman Cain, by the way, is now on the Rick Santorum bandwagon; he seems to be harboring some resentment about his current candidate's cash raising status:

Just ask yourselves, Perrybots, what might have been possible if some other candidate — any other candidate, perhaps one who could remember how to count to three – had an extra $20 million to spend here in Florida. But no, you spent months telling the rest of us that Rick Perry was The Only Conservative Who Could Beat Romney, an argument you didn’t hesitate to repeat as late as December, long after it was apparent that he wasn’t ready for prime time. And you still refuse to admit that you were misled, and helped mislead others, into jumping aboard that hopeless Bandwagon to Loserville.

I'm quite fond of Stacy and I have great respect for his Shoe Leather Reporting; I link him often and have hit his tip jar several times, but he's dead wrong on this one.  Rick Perry had every bit as much right to run as did Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, or anyone else for that matter.  If he burned through $20 million then it was his to burn.  And the people had just as much right to support Perry as Stacy does his candidates of choice.

Troglopundit refutes Stacy's logic:

One need not be a “Perrybot” to see the logical fallacy McCain is making. To wit: “if Rick Perry hadn’t entered the race, somebody else would have gotten that $20 million.”

I dunno what’s in that pile, but it smells.

Short answer: no, neither Rick Santorum, nor Herman Cain, nor Michelle Bachmann, nor Thaddeus McCotter would have received that $20 million. A small proportion of it, perhaps. I’m speculating, but it seems likely that other candidates would also have received some of it. Therefore whatever financial impact this fictional Perrylessness might have had would be distributive in nature, and thus zero.

Perry had several large contributors who were likely donating for the sole reason that they liked Perry and his record of success in Texas.   Heck, I even donated to Perry (not millions!) but I haven't donated to anyone else as of yet.  In this little microcosm, my small donation would not have ended up going to Santorum even if Perry had never run in the first place.  I'd have kept it.

The fisking of Stacy continues with Wyblog:

Hey, Stacy McCain is a kick-ass gonzo journalist and all. He Knows Things. I'm just a random Polack from New Jersey. But it occurs to me that Rick Perry, a guy who's actually won elections and governed from conservative principles, might have gotten more traction if a certain gonzo journalist hadn't taken a flyer on the likes of Herman Cain, and in the process misled a whole lotta other folks into buying a one-way ticket on the 9-9-9 Restraining Order Express. Cain wanted to be president alright, just not President of the United States. More like president of Hooters, if you get my drift. 

How much cash did Herman Cain suck out of the Santorum coffers?   How much early traction could Santorum have gained had Stacy not been on the Cain Train?

Adrienne chimes in:

Well, who's sucking up oxygen now? 

Michelle Malkin has thrown her support behind Santorum.  I understand her reasons.  I like Santorum, too.  But I also believe that he is not going to be the nominee.  Neither is Ron Paul.

I think that in the end the only one making any sense here is Smitty:

The candidates all suck: get over it. 

Amen.

Remember, when Perry got into the race he was viewed by many as the savior from this stinkin' field of RINOs we have now; he'd never lost an election and had a track record (while not perfect) of conservatism and job creation in Texas.  Why was it wrong to support that, pray tell?

It was much easier to support that than to support a guy who lost a re-election bid in his own state.

As it is, the process is working.  We don't like the candidates, but it's working.  Perry faltered and he failed.  I hate it, but it is the way it goes.  Newt says he's staying in.  Mitt is staying in. 

Krauthammer sees Missouri as Santorum's chance to make a stand (February 7):

I think [he's] staying in. I think the real sleeper event could be in Missouri. Missouri doesn’t have any delegates. It’s only a beauty contest. But Gingrich isn’t on the ballot. I think for Santorum, this is his great opportunity. He’d be essentially one-on-one with Romney.

If polls are to be believed, Republicans need to stop eating their own and start focusing on Obama.  As it is right now, we're handing him four more years.

None of our candidates are perfect.  In fact, Smitty is right - they stink.  All of 'em.  But in the end, blaming the "Perrybots" and continuing the blame game won't win back The Oval. 

Truth is, there's no real conservative in this race and in the end we're going to have to do the same thing we did in 2008.  Hold your nose and vote. 

Let's just hope we don't get the same result.

Charlie Crist Thinks Obama is Doing "What's Right for the Country"

In case you had any lingering doubts about Charlie Crist's true colors:

In a rare television interview, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who left the Republican Party during his unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate bid, told Chuck Todd on “The Daily Rundown” that he’d consider voting for President Obama in November.

“Consider? Sure, I would consider that,” said Crist. “I really think he’s sincere and genuine. I think we have a lot time, a lot of issues to talk about, but I think, in his heart, he’s trying to do what’s right for the country overall.”

More at Not One Red Cent!


(H/T:  The Corner)

A Message for Mitt and Newt

Dear Republican contenders: 

Please start going after Obama and not each other.

Via Legal Insurrection, Obama is trouncing both of you:

In potential Election 2012 matchups, it’s President Obama 47% and Romney 42%. However, if Gingrich is his Republican opponent, the president holds a double-digit lead, 50% to 37% (see tracking history).

Thanks,
Pat
xoxoxoxo

"Printer! Printer!"

Do you need to smile today?  This is adorable.



(H/T:  Josh)

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The Perfect Weekend Edition

The camellias are starting to bloom but it's clear that mine have suffered from the drought last summer.  I spent a little time this afternoon pruning dead wood from my camellia bush and now I'm hoping it makes a comeback this summer.

But when the camellias start to bloom I know spring is not too far behind.

Mr. SIGIS and I had a busy Saturday and a lazy Sunday which is just about a perfect weekend.

Saturday I hit up a couple of estate sales early in the day then we headed over to Minden for the kickoff of Mardi Gras with their German Fasching celebration.  We had a grand time catching beads and watching the infamous Milly Rose dancing in Main Street along with the parade (video below).

My shopping treasures this weekend include this pretty jadeite vase (left).  I also picked up an old "depression era" green water bottle.  I remember we always had one of these in our refrigerator when I was growing up and it just reminded me of my childhood so I bought it.  I also bought an old Kosmos Brenner brass oil lamp.  And finally, Milly gave me a beautiful depression glass pink serving tray which I adore.  So as far as treasures go, it was a great weekend!

Today we've moved at a slower pace.  I did some much needed housework, went to my mom's and took care of her, then Steve and I took the rest of the day off.  We sat on the deck in the sun, drank a beer, and watched the dogs play and visited with our neighbor for a bit.

I'm disgusted with the Republican race right now.  Like Pundette, though, I'm "bitterly clinging" to Rick Santorum as long as I can.  Deep inside I'm just enraged at the ignorant establishment at the head of the Republican party who has put us right back in the same mess we were facing in 2008.  I can't even verbalize just yet how pissed off I am at the state of things.

Elsewhere:

The Other McCain is still filing great "on the road" coverage of the campaign - this time from Florida.

Speaking of the bone-headed Republican establishment, Sister Toldjah wonders if they're out to get Allen West.

Legal Insurrection points out the "scorched earth" tactics of the Romney campaign.  It's not pretty, folks.  Not a bit.

Saberpoint likes Santorum and calls the Republican fisticuffs between Newt and Mittens "vicious, self-destructive, personal and bitter."

American Power thinks Sarah Palin is endorsing Newt (video at the link).  I'm actually surprised; I'd have thought her to be more of a Santorum kind of gal.

Doug Ross checks out Occuy DC (with photos). 

Wyblog posts on the mandatory contraceptive edict.

Herman Cain has endorsed Newt.

Global warming is out; Cycle 25 is IN.

Be sure to check out The State of Our Disunion at Political Clown Parade.

Mark Levin is very concerned about Romney's character.

Dan Riehl has analysis of Levin's comments.

All in all, this campaign has gone somewhere very ugly.  It doesn't do any good to think about what could have been at this point but there's a lot of that going on inside my head.  It does seem as if Mitt and Newt are eating each other alive and quite possibly Rick Santorum will be the last man standing.

Oh well.  Much will be made of the Florida primary and let the chips fall where they may.  ABO in 2012.

Here's Milly Rose dancing in the streets:

Loose Thoughts

If you're looking for debate coverage you might head on over to Legal Insurrection or The Other McCain.   I.Just.Can't.  Meh.

I've been busy at work and real life.  I tried to watch the State of the Union, got three minutes in, and had to bail.  When Obama starts spewing crap about "fairness and equity" and how the "rich" should give "their fair share" I start seeing spiders and creepy crawling things in my head and my head starts to spin.  I had to turn it off.

Speaking of SOTU, what did you think of Michelle's dress?  I thought it was ill fitting but I'm no fashionista.  You'll usually find me in blue jeans and a sweatshirt.  I liked the color and I even liked the brooch, but I thought the straps crossing above the boobs looked weird.  I didn't think it was tailored well for her.  I've read some blogs that criticized her for dressing as if she was going to a cocktail party rather than a SOTU speech but that part doesn't bother me.  I just didn't think the dress fit well.  It's not exactly "for the common man," either, at an estimated $2,400.  Not a Target dress.

Let them eat arugula.

Charles Krauthammer has some thoughts on the SOTU:

It sounded like the Clinton years with their presidentially proclaimed initiatives on midnight basketball and school uniforms. These are the marks of a shrunken presidency, thoroughly flummoxed by high unemployment, economic stagnation, crushing debt — and a glaring absence of ideas.

Of course, this being Obama, there was a reach for grandeur. Hope and change are long gone. It's now equality and fairness. That certainly is a large idea. Lenin and Mao went pretty far with it. As did Clement Attlee and his social-democratic counterparts in postwar Europe.

As for the Republicans, I'm sick of Newt and Romney going after each other.  When are we going to go after the incumbent, eh?  At this point I'd be just fine if they ate each other alive and Santorum came out on top.  

Surfing the links I see that Bride of Rove is struggling with some of the same issues.

Pundette is expecting Newt Fatigue to hit at any time.

As for me, tomorrow is Friday.  Centenary College will commemorate the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz with a 12 hour loop screening of the testimony of local Holocaust survivors Rose and Louis Van Thyn.  I'm going straight from work to see both of them.  If you're around here I'd encourage you to go.

Speaking of the Holocaust, heck out this stunning poll (H/T: Mike).

Steve and I are headed to Minden on Saturday for the kickoff of Mardi Gras season; the Fasching Carnivale and parade will be the highlight of the day, plus some shopping with Milly Rose!

Oh, and I'm going to test drive a Jeep when we go, too!  Yay!

Out.

McDonald's: NOT Lovin' It

Let me tell you about my experience at McDonald's today.  And before I do, I bet you have one to match or better it.

4:00 this afternoon.

I drive up to a local McDonald's franchise.  The drive-thru is seven cars deep but I'm worn out, long day, and figure it will be an opportunity to check my email while I wait.

Eventually I am second in line at the order window.  The car in front of me sits for, oh, maybe 7 minutes before pulling up.  This is a long time at a drive-thru window.  But when he advances, I pull up and stop at the window.  And wait.

Wait.

Wait.

"Hellooooo?" I said.  "Anybody there?"

Wait.

Wait.

"Is this thing working?"

Nothing.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

So I pull to the side. "What the hell," I think.  Why not.  I go .... inside.

It gets good here.  When I walk inside there are five people at the counter and four are pissed off.  On the other side of the counter there are two employees and one of them is bitching out a customer.

"Excuse ME, MA'AM, but would you like a REBATE?  WHAT can I do for you NOW?!  I'm SORRY if you not happy with your ORDER but WHAT do you want ME to do about it?  MA'AM?!"

And this employee is wagging her head back and forth, hands on hips and using the most sarcastic tone you can imagine.  The customer is a middle aged woman with a child who looked to be about 7 or 8.

Meanwhile, another customer has a half unwrapped burger in her hand and is hopping from one foot to the other waiting to get her issue settled; another customer is standing at the counter, "Am I going to get my order?  I have to be at work!  If it's not coming, I've got to go....".

A manager finally walks up.

"What's the trouble here?"  She attempts to sort things out.  She sends Miss Sarcastic back to the window (which is why she was not there to take my order) and attempts to restore order.

This does not last long because as the woman with the child attempts to explain what's wrong with her order to the manager, Miss Sarcastic comes back from the window with that head wagging thing again and this time she's pointing her finger.

If this girl worked for me she would have been fired on the spot.  The manager, clearly frustrated, sends her back to the window.

Finally my order comes out (woman with child is still waiting for her plain hamburger, and woman that needs to get to work is still waiting).

My order is wrong.  It's missing one of the two sandwiches.  I give it back to the manager.

Woman with child gives up and takes her order the way it came and explains to her child that they'll just scrape off the offending ingredients.  Woman who has to go to work is still waiting.  More customers have stacked up behind us all.  Meanwhile, Miss Sarcastic is working the window.

My order comes out a second time and it is still wrong but I don't have the heart to send it back.  I just take it and leave.  As I go, I notice that cars are stacked up twelve deep in the drive-thru.

So tell me why McDonald's is posting record profits? 

Where's the civility?  The customer service?  The "home-training?"

So when The Teenager feels the need for fast food, I'll route him to Burger King or Wendy's from now on.

Got a similar story?

I've Paid My Debt to the Curmudgeon

I've made good on my bet with the Curmudgeon and gone one better. 

If you recall, we made our annual bet on the LSU-Bama game and LSU did not manage to pull a win out of the Mad Hatter's Hat.  Bama steam rolled the Tigers.

Our bet was for $100 toward the Wounded Warrior Project.

In the "one better" tradition, (last time the bet was for a six pack of Sam Adams and the Curmudgeon went "one better" and paid up $100 to WWP), I've signed up for a monthly donation of $19, which comes to $228 a year.   That's about two six packs of Sam Adams a month; I think I can spare that (and so can my waistline).

1/24/2012 5:40:27 PM EST

Dear Pat Austin,

Thank you for your generous donation to Wounded Warrior Project. Your gift enables us to provide comfort and aid to the wounded and families in need.

Your information is as follows.

Your Information

Name: Pat Austin

.....

Payment Information

Payment ID: 325776
Payment Type: CREDIT
Payment Date: 1/24/2012 5:40:27 PM EST
Donation Amount: 19

Wounded Warrior Project is a public charity as described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Your gifts are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.

Please note your credit card will be charged $19 on or about the 20th of each month beginning next month. 

Thank you again,

Wounded Warrior Project 

Until next year, Curmudgeon! 

Geaux Tigers!

Centenary to Screen Van Thyn Holocaust Testimonies Friday

This Friday Centenary College and the Van Thyn lecture series will commemorate the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz:

The all-day event will honor the memory of local survivors Dr. Rose and Louis Van Thyn and feature a continuous screening of their video testimonies on their struggles during the Holocaust. The screening is free and open to the public and visitors may stop in throughout the day.

"Sadly, we will soon be in a world without any living Holocaust survivors to teach us about the dangers of hatred and intolerance," said Dr. Lisa Nicoletti, Professor of Art and Visual Culture. "Collections such as this one are vital to Holocaust remembrance and education. For the last decade, Dr. Rose with Louis by her side, regularly spoke on our campus about life before, during, and after the Holocaust. We miss them terribly."

• What: Van Thyn Holocaust Testimony
  
• When: Friday, January 27, 8:00 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
  
• Where: Kilpatrick Auditorium, Smith Building
  

This showing marks the introduction of Centenary College as the first Shoah Foundation Visual History Collection in the state of Louisiana. The College will provide the public with free future access to these testimonies, which will be housed in Magale Library. The testimonies are from the archives of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

Steven Speilberg created the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 when he was inspired by his experience making Schindler’s List. The Institute aims to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause—through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies that it gathers from survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.

More here.

If you're not local and can't attend, I encourage you to listen to Rose's story here.  I heard Rose deliver her testimony a few years ago; it's an amazing story and one I share with my students each year.  While I've met Louis (he was always beside Rose when she spoke), I've never heard his full testimony so this will be an experience for me.  These were two very special people. 

Never forget.

(H/T: Nico)

At Least There Are No $16 Muffins Involved

We all know that ObamaCare is awash in new regulations and bureaucracies.  Here is just one more:

Embedded in ObamaCare is a toxic rule called the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. The Act requires all companies that manufacture medical products purchased by the government to disclose on a public website anything they give physicians valued above $10. Last month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued draft guidelines.

Wonder how many "jobs created" this one covers?

The Spin Begins

My mother said to me the other day, "I'll be so glad when this election is OVER!  It seems like it's been going on for a year!"

I hate to tell her, but it hasn't even started yet.  We've only been dealing with the Republican primary so far.  Just wait until the general election! 

True, Obama has been campaigning for re-election since 2008, but only now are we beginning to see general election 2012 ads cropping up on television.

I've even seen a few "Obama 2012" stickers on a couple of cars in town.  Whenever I see those bumper stickers I just can't fathom it.  Given this man's record, how can anyone still support him?  I tried to get Mr. SIGIS to explain it to me but he couldn't.

It's true that much of the population depends on the liberal mainstream media to inform them.  Much of the general population just doesn't care - they hate politics and politicians and will vote however their editorial page tells them to vote.  In truth, the number of political junkies like me (and you - you're reading this, aren't you?) are much lower in number than those who just vote blindly.

Yet still.  Consider Obama's first campaign ad.  Investor's Business Daily fact checks the energy statements in the ad:

The Obama re-election campaign is already shaping up as the most deceitful in American electoral history. "For the first time in 13 years our dependence on foreign oil is below 50%," the commercial declares, accompanied by goose-bumpy music.

Major economic downturns, in fact, unfailingly produce declines in oil imports. And so do higher gas prices — which went from an average of less than $2 a gallon at the time Obama took office to nearly $4 in the middle of last year and remain well above $3 today.

How could gasoline demand not drop with so many people out of work, businesses dying and jittery investors sitting on a trillion dollars?

Of course "our dependence on foreign oil" is lower.  It's not because we're producing more domestically; we're not.  It's because of the reasons stated above.

This is typical Obama spin.

It's sort of like saying "You will be able to keep your doctor," when ObamaCare was rammed down our throats.  Sure, you'll be able to keep him as long as he's able to stay in practice but once ObamaCare really kicks in, he will probably pack his little black bag and fade into the sunset.  Either that or he'll be so backlogged behind the deluge of patients waiting to see a doctor, any doctor, that you'll be a distant memory.

Deceitful.

"Oh," but you say, "All politicians do that!"  And I won't argue that to some degree.  I take issue with those as well.

Consider this from ABC News:

Turning to the economy, the ad hails “2.7 million Clean-Energy American Jobs,” citing a July report from the Brookings Institution, the suggestion being that Obama deserves credit for the employment in those industries.

But the Brookings report does not claim Obama created or maintained those jobs, just that 2.7 million exist in that sector – which encompasses a diverse array of roles and industries, including all of the nation’s mass transit workers (e.g. bus drivers).

But who's going to read the fine print?

Get ready for a long campaign, Mom.  The lies and the spin are here to stay.  I just hope voters care enough to decipher them and read between the lines.  From both sides of the aisle.

The Keystone Kops Would Run America's Energy Policy Better Than Obama

There's been much written in the past few days about Obama's disastrous Keystone decision.  There is little doubt that Obama is simply punting on this decision and attempting to appeal to his environmental base.  The thing you need to know about the Keystone decision is that the environmental threat doesn't exist and that Obama's own DOS cleared the way for it to go forward.

Jonah Goldberg:

The environmentalists to which Obama is pandering have an understandable, if at times irrational, fear of oil spills and a religious faith in the dangers of global warming. The only problem is that blocking the pipeline will, if anything, increase the likelihood of oil spills because Canada will still bring the oil to market.

The project has been studied for three years (much longer than the Solyndra bailout took) and to be sure would not be a project that creates new pipeline over virgin territory:

The Keystone pipeline had already been essentially cleared by environmental bureaucrats. Adding the pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf wouldn’t scar some pristine wilderness; it would be more like adding just one more string to a spider web, given how many pipelines already crisscross the region.

Take a good look at this map that shows all the pipelines running through the Ogallala Aquifer.

That's some 21,000 miles of pipeline there.  Jonah Goldberg again:

Opponents say it would threaten the groundwater in Nebraska, where some 21,000 miles of pipeline already exist. But, as the American Enterprise Institute’s Kenneth Green notes, any spilled oil would have to flow uphill to reach the Ogallala Aquifer.

So you've got three things going on here that are all now debunked.

The first is that the big evil Republicans imposed an arbitrary deadline on the president forcing him to decide prematurely.  Bunk:

The President’s claim that the State Department needs even more information before it can make a sound decision is equally ridiculous. State didn’t start reviewing the project last month when Congress set a sixty day deadline on making a decision. The review process has been going on for over three years now. The State Department has studied thousands of pages of detailed reports, data, maps and studies, and his issued thousands of pages of its own reports, including a massive eight volume environmental impact statement.

The President wants the public to believe that Congress imposed an arbitrary, impossibly short deadline on it. In fact, what Congress did was force the administration to end the years of dithering and an actual decision for a change. The President had more than enough information to make the right decision, but – sadly and all too predictably – he choose to appease the environmental fringe once more.

The second fallacy is that this pipeline would cross virgin territory and threaten previously unspoiled ground.  Bunk. Look at the maps.

The third fallacy is that the administration needs more time and information.  Bunk again.  Obama's own State Department has already cleared the way for the pipeline to go forward:

DOS studied a number of alternative routes to minimize or completely avoid the pipeline crossing over Sand Hills. The department worked with the Bureau of Land Management and state agencies where the pipeline passes through and made more than 340 minor realignments to the pipeline route.

There is absolutely no reason to delay the entire project when DOS explicitly signed off on additional route variations that could occur throughout the construction process.

Clearly it is Obama, and not the Republicans, who are making this decision a political one.  In fact, Obama phoned Prime Minister Stephen Harper to explain that the merits of the project were not the issue but that the evil Republicans are:

Obama called Prime Minister Stephen Harper to explain that the decision on Wednesday was not on the merits of the pipeline but rather on the “arbitrary nature” of a Feb. 21 deadline set by Republican legislators as part of a tax measure he signed, Harper’s office said.

Canada will grow weary of Obama's shenanigans and turn to China:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama “Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports,” according to details provided by Harper’s office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country’s “financial security.”

The “decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market,” Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.

Why not?  Brazil already has:

Less than a month after President Obama visited Brazil in March to make a pitch for oil, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was off to Beijing to sign oil contracts with two huge state-owned Chinese companies.

The deals are part of a growing oil relationship between the two countries that, thanks to a series of billion-dollar agreements, is giving China greater influence over Brazil’s oil frontier.

Obama has made it perfectly clear that he's not interested in developing United States energy reserves.

Mark Whittington:

Obama's policy in regard to oil and gas has been a study in incompetence driven by an ideological mania against hydrocarbon fuel in favor of more politically correct forms of energy production. This has not only led to what amounts to a campaign against oil and gas production in the U.S., but embarrassing scandals such as Solyndra, brought on by unwise federal loan guarantees to dubious green energy companies. 

This is occurring at a time when Iran is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's oil passes from Persian Gulf fields. The very threat has led to a spike in the price of oil and of gasoline. 

Between shutting down the industry in the Gulf of Mexico for months, killing hundreds of jobs and auxiliary small businesses that go along with that, and now the Keystone decision, it's clear that Obama would rather tilt at windmills and solar panels.

So now we don't get Canada's oil, we don't get Brazil's oil, and we're stymied at nearly every turn in trying to get to our own oil  (When's the last time you saw a rig in ANWR?).

Unbelievable.

(Photo/Map credit:  PennWell MAPSearch)

In a Funk

I've been in a funk. 

It's not that I thought Rick Perry was a Perfect Candidate - he wasn't.  It's not that I thought he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan.  He definitely wasn't.

I'm just out of sorts with the process.  When Rick Perry dropped out only Iowa and New Hampshire had voted.  By the time Louisiana gets around to voting, we'll likely be down to just two candidates.  90% of the country won't get to vote for the candidate they want but will have to chose from the candidate a handful of states have deemed worthy. 

Oh, I know, national polls and all that.  I'm still just in a funk because I don't like any of the remaining candidates.  I'll get over it. 

If you are interested in the South Carolina primary, Stacy McCain is running some great coverage over there at The Other McCain, even if he is drinking a Blue Moon.

As for me, I engaged in some estate sale therapy to ease my woes.  There was an estate sale in an old year 1921 home on Kings Highway today that was filled with gorgeous heavy antique furniture.  I wasn't in the market for any of that but I picked up this pretty jadeite candy dish:

I love the creamy green color of jadeite.  It's be great filled with chocolate covered espresso beans! 

I also got this neat framed Remington print "Fight for the Waterhole."  It'll look good in Steve's man-cave:

I also got a neat white and blue enamelware square piece with a lid.  It's seen better days but I thought it was unusual and I wanted it:

It's about six or seven inches square. 

My shopping didn't get me completely out of my funk but maybe the voters in South Carolina will cheer me up a little.  I'm not sure how, but maybe. 

Mittens in third place might do the trick.

Time to Stick My Head in the Oven

Okay so we all saw Perry's big announcement today coming.  You can't hang around in last place in the polls for too long before you become a drain on the whole system.  I hate that Perry's bid played out the way that it did but what are you going to do?  Wasn't his time.

Perry had improved a great deal since those first debates but maybe it was too little too late.  I think also that too many people listened to Rick Perry and heard George W. Bush and they just aren't over Bush yet.  Although I still think history will redeem Bush in the end.  Somewhat.

So where to go from here?

Pundette has gone to Rick Santorum.   Stacy McCain has been with Rick Santorum since Herman Cain dropped out.  Legal Insurrection is still with Newt.

I don't know where I'm going right now.

To be honest, I just don't like any of them.  I don't.

How can the Republican establishment have farked this up so badly?  That's a rhetorical question - you don't have to answer it.  It's because they're the Republican establishment.  All this PR about "we really do have a strong field of candidates" is just crap.  I don't even want to begin listing my grievances with these candidates.  Not enough time and it's all been said. 

Is it too late to get Michele Bachmann back?

I suspect that the Democrats are more afraid of Newt than anyone else and you can call me a conspiracy theorist if you want to but I think that's in part what pulled Marianne Gingrich back into the limelight.   I don't think Team Obama wants to debate Newt.

And when in the hell did debating skills become a prerequisite for running for president, anyway?  Speaking skills are important but so is executive experience, intelligence, foreign policy knowledge and experience, business acumen, character, integrity, and honor.

Coming into this election I've always said that "a dust bunny could beat Obama," because WTF is he going to run on?  His record?  His job killing, debt hiking, food stamp raising, partisan, scandal ridden record?  Seriously? 

But here's the Republican establishment about to hand it right back to him.

I'm going to stick my head in the oven.  Maybe there's a beer in there.  And a match.



(Cross posted at Not One Red Cent!)