Off to Minden

We're off to visit the one and only Milly Rose today!  Check back later for pictures and maybe a new video!  We're going to try a new place for lunch today, too; a new eatery opened right next door to Milly's place.  How convenient!  Meanwhile, entertain yourself with this:

Is Pence Going To Run?

What are the odds:

A conservative group launched Monday with one goal in mind: drafting Republican Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana to run for president in 2012.

Can he do it?  The AP suggests it may be too late:

Should Pence enter the contest, he would face an uphill climb. Few Americans have heard of him and better known potential Republican candidates — like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin — already have organized fundraising operations.

I like Pence!  Who are these people that never heard of him?  Where have they been?  Jennfier Rubin thinks he's running:

Pence plainly is making a splash in Republican circles. At this point, I'd be quite surprised if he didn't run.

Remember this speech?  Great stuff:

Run, Mike Run!

Standing With Surber

Don Surber has a fine rant over at his place which has now been linked to by many in the blogosphere, but if you've missed it, go check it out.

On this whole idea of civil discourse, I think Surber makes a valid point.  It's important, however, not to lower ourselves to the lying, fabricating and malingering that has been the Rules for the Radical Left for some time now, led primarily, I would point out, by their president who encouraged his supporters to "get in their faces":



 But NOW they want "civil discourse."  Now they want to break years of Congressional tradition and sit in a bipartisan fashion at the State of the Union address.  Senator Mark Udall says the tradition promotes division:

Udall, and his letter's cosigners suggest that "partisan seating arrangements at State of the Union addresses serve to symbolize division instead of the common challenges we face in securing a strong future for the United States" and further that "the choreographed standing and clapping of one side of the room -- while the other side sits -- is unbecoming of a serious institution."

Bovine Excrement.

It has been suggested that they only reason the Democrats want to change the seating arrangement is because they are now so outnumbered by the Republicans and they don't want it to look so obvious. 

This is not the time to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya" in Congress.  Symbolic gesture or not, I frankly don't care if they "work together" or not as long as this "obamination" that is Obamacare gets repealed and replaced.  The big spending must end; the ridiculous stimulus plans and bail outs must end.  The irresponsible decision making must end.  Save your moral equivalence arguments; I'm not saying Bush did everything right either.  He certainly did not.

Civil discourse?  What brought that on, anyway?  Tucson?  That guy didn't bring a gun to that meeting because of political discourse!  He was NUTS.  Period.  What set him off?  Did Sarah Palin's PAC set him off?  I don't think so. 

No, polite civil discourse is fine and dandy but don't tell me to shut up when you've just stripped me of my rights, imposed crippling new taxes from every direction, tried to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, participated in inflammatory rhetoric yourself ("bring a gun to a knife fight!"), taken over private industry, frittered away my tax dollars on nonsense like turtle tunnels, insulted long standing American allies, jeopardized American national security, and insulted my own views. 

I'm with Surber.  Take your civil discourse and screw it.

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The "True Grit" Edition

We're going to the movie today.  The last time I went to see a movie in the theater was The Dark Knight.  But, it's a cold, rainy day and Steve had cabin fever; he's been wanting to go see this remake, so we're going.  We're meeting some friends at The Boardwalk then will cross the bridge to have an early dinner at The Blind Tiger. 

I have mom's errands to do before all that, however, so let's get on to the links - EVERYbody has been blogging more than I have this week:

To no one's surprise, I've been doing it wrong for 40 years.  And you know what they say about old habits.

Although my reading table is getting light, I will NOT read this one.

Pirate's Cove has proof that Jared Loughner is not a conservative.

Wait a minute:  I thought Obama told John Boehner there would be plenty of time to campaign for 2012 in 2012?  Not so for him.

I think Herman Cain should hire Fishersville Mike as his campaign writer!

An excellent post from Doug Ross remembering those who died last Saturday in Arizona.

Some thoughts on civility.

American Power on a key test for Gabrielle Giffords.

Reaganite Republican has a great clip of Reagan telling Soviet jokes.

A Cop's Watch has a solution for DWIs in Austin.  Sort of.

Stacy McCain reveals the secret behind the Tea Party.

Yes, Paco, and spoons make people fat and goblets make people drunk.

Some very good advice from Bob Belvedere.

Critical Narrative on the recycling of slogans...

Hey, you people who live with snow?  Do you shovel your sidewalks?

Don't miss Michelle Malkin's primer on the "climate of hate."

Beth has adopted a puppy!  It's soooo cute!

Bride of Rove sums up my position on the Arizona situation (and my reasons for not blogging it) perfectly.  Thank you.  Disengage.

Okay - many errands to run in not very many hours so I better get out in the slop today.  Hang tough, friends, and stay dry and warm.

Update:  The movie was great; it stuck very close to the original, I thought, and Jeff Bridges did a fine job stepping into the Duke's boots.  Matt Damon was definitely a better LaBoeuf.   Two thumbs up.  Steve even went out yesterday to get the book and he's having a fine time reading the novel.

Friday Check-In

Thank goodness it's Friday and hey, it's another three day weekend!  (We got a "snow day" Monday last week,) 

We'll get back to blathering about politics a bit on this blog next week as my boycott of the Arizona story winds up; I've not totally ignored the story but I'm just not interested in taking part in the rhetoric of blame.  I'm monitoring things, though.  I don't see any point in trying to figure out what motivated that wacko and I think by now we all now it wasn't politics per se.  He was, as best I can tell, apolitical. 

Steve and I are planning a trip to Minden on Monday to visit Milly Rose and the dogs...maybe pick up something wonderful from her antique shop.  Stay tuned for pictures!

So what's up with you?  Hey, Louisiana:  any thoughts on Edwin Edwards and his release from prison?  Our local news channel was running a poll last night asking if Edwards could run for governor again, would you vote for him?  Results?  54% to 46% YES.  Omigod.

I definitely have to take a trip to Barnes & Noble this weekend; my reading stack is about depleted.  Any suggestions? 

Have a happy Friday!

Spokeo

So a friend of mine posted this on Facebook today:

There's a site called Spokeo.com that's a new online USA phone book w/personal info from pics on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value, income, age, etc. You can remove yourself by first searching for yourself. Then click on your name and copy the URL. Go back to the main page and scroll to the bottom and click on the Privacy button to remove yourself.   This is real checked it out myself.

 I went to the site, searched myself, and sure enough, there I am.  You can search by name or by email address.  I found a lot more about myself when I searched by name; you might have to try different variations of your name, like with and without your middle initial, for example.  But it's there:  cell phone number, facebook, map to my house, address, everything.  The pictures they had of me weren't me, and I don't know where they came from, so their information is sketchy, but it's still too much.  

I ran Snopes on the site and their assessment is that it's a data mining site and that once you actually give them your email, which you have to do to remove your name, you've confirmed your email address and they can sell it.  By that point I'd already removed my name from Spokeo.  I went back to Spokeo to see if my name was still there, and it isn't.

I'm not sure if I did the right thing by deleting myself or not.  Snopes says it's like Wack a Mole - it'll pop up somewhere else. Probably true.  We live in a scary time, folks!

Blood Libel, James Clyburn, Sarah Palin, and the Boycott Continues

Arghhhhhh!  This is why I just won't/can't blog on the Arizona shooting - because this kind of ignorance displayed by James Clyburn makes my head explode!  Pot, meet kettle.

Clyburn said that Palin didn't grasp why such rhetoric was so troubling, regardless of the motivations of the alleged shooter. The No. 3 House Democrat referenced the civil rights era and said that some of the shrill rhetoric in modern politics is reminiscent of that time.

"I have some experiences that maybe she does not have," he said. "When I see and hear things today that are reminiscent of that period of time, I am very, very concerned about it, because I know what it led to back then, and I know what it can lead to again."

My boycott continues.  What else can we talk about?   How's the weather where you are?

Tweeting the Civil War

This is pretty cool if you're on Twitter (and who isn't, these days?); The Washington Post is tweeting the events leading up to the secession of South Carolina:

The Washington Post is tweeting the events leading to the secession of South Carolina 150 years ago, in the words of the people who lived it -- from journals, letters, official records and newspapers of the day, particularly The Washington Evening Star. Follow us.

There are four "accounts":  Abraham Lincoln, Governor Pickens, Letters, and Press Reports that you follow.  Pretty cool.

Enough Already!

I'm still not wading too far into the raging blame game that is still flaming all over the airwaves and internet as everyone tries to figure out where the blame lies for the Arizona tragedy.

Depending on where you look, it's Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's fault.  Or maybe it's Rush Limbaugh's fault.  It's Sharron Angle's fault and the Tea Party's vitriol that caused this kid to go over the edge.  It's the fault of the administrators at the college Loughner attended because he was obviously nuts and they didn't do anything.  On and on it goes.

Enough already!  How about some kind of personal responsibility here?  Maybe the kid was just nuts.  Maybe it's nobody's fault.  Were there warning signs?  Sure.  Of course.  Where were his parents?

Enough with the blame.  You'll never really know the answer and knee jerk reactions aren't going to change things.

Turn it down, support the injured and the families of those who died.  Give blood.  Send money.  Do whatever you need to do but stop blaming everyone except the kid who pulled the trigger.

Major Dick Winters 1918 - 2011

Major Dick Winters has died; from PennLive:

Dick Winters, the former World War II commander whose war story was told in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has died.  Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” threw him into the international spotlight.

Winters, of course, never saw himself as a hero, but of course he was:



(H/T:  Memeorandum)

Silent on Tucson...For Now

This blog has been silent, you may have noticed, on the shooting in Tucson Saturday.  I learned of the shooting when I was sitting in a Mexican restaurant with my son celebrating his birthday (a day early!).  By the time I got home about an hour later the story had erupted into a politically-motivated-vitriolic-finger-pointing-without-facts mess.  Somehow it was all Sarah Palin's fault. 

Meanwhile, a federal judge was dead, as was a 9 year old child, among others.  As I watched coverage throughout the day I heard one story after another about Representative Giffords, as if she had been the only person injured.  The finger-pointing and the blame-game increased.  The knee jerk reactions are already starting.

I thought about firing up the laptop and blogging the events but something about it felt wrong.  So I've stayed quiet. 

I'm praying for Representative Giffords and am amazed at the forward progress she is making.  It's nothing short of miraculous.  I'm also praying for the other victims and their families. 

Beyond that, I'm not going to speculate on the motivations of Jared Loughner.  I'm not going to speculate as to whether or not political rhetoric is to blame. 

For once, I'm just going to hold my tongue.  And pray.

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The Winter Weather Edition

The FMJRA was missing for a couple of weeks because of the hectic holiday season, but it's a new year and a new start so the Round Up is back.

I don't know about where you live, but I live in the south.  I'm in northwest Louisiana and we have pretty mild weather most of the time.  Our most "exciting" weather comes from tornadoes and we have two tornado seasons per year:  April and December.  Other than that, we don't get much.  As a result, whenever there's a chance of a snowflake blowing over from Arkansas or Oklahoma our weather people get so excited they are simply beside themselves.

Last winter there was a chance of icing an sleet predicted and the local news posted talking heads out on the interstate and various highways in three or four different locations to report on "the traffic flow and road conditions."  I felt sort of sorry for them, all bundled up out there in the cold..."Well Jerry, the roads are dry right now and there are no traffic problems at this time!  Everything is flowing really smooth at this time!"  It never amounted to a thing.

They are now predicting some "snow and sleet with an accumulation of up to four inches along the I-20 corridor with higher accumulations along the I-30 corridor" which is basically Arkansas.  I live just south of I-20 so I'm not too worried.  Now watch, this will be the time we get a gorgeous, lovely blanket of snow and here I am scoffing at them.  But, heck - it's 39 degrees right now; it was 72 yesterday.  I don't think I have much to worry about.  But trust me:  this "Winter Storm" will be the lead story on the news for the next two days as his has been the previous two days.  The local news station already has a Winter Weather Storm Watch link on the home page so you can check your emergency supplies list (oh lord I don't want to go near a grocery store today!) and check for school and road closures.

Oh well.  It's just crazy.  Let's get to the links:

The next time liberals tell you that the deficit is so high because of the Iraq War, send them over to Doug Ross to check out this chart.

Legal Insurrection is pondering the potential of a Ryan-Rubio ticket.  I don't think it's likely but Oh what a dream come true! 

American Power has posted part of an essay about the Stieg Larsson novels (which I loved).

Fenway Nation has an update on the Mexican and Central American drug cartels.

Head over to The Daley Gator to read about Obama's $5.00 per gallon gasoline coming your way.

Stacy McCain susspects PhotoShop in the Mary Bono Mack photo-scandal.  He's disappointed.

Saberpoint doesn't hold back on how he truly feels about Islam!

No Sheeples Here made me laugh, but scared me a little, too.  There's a poll at the top that says "Should this blog be taken down?"  Go vote NO!

Bread Upon the Waters addresses the bill to eliminate czars and includes a list of czars and salaries.
Stunning.

*Sigh.*  Only Ann Althouse could post something as inane as a photo of sweet potatoes and get sixteen (at this writing) comments.

Bob Belvedere is already tired of John Boehner, and on this particular point, I'd have to agree.

Pundette has an excellent post on that disturbing report that 41% of all New York pregnancies end in abortion.

Pirate's Cove has the latest on the Gitmo detainee transfer situation and Obama's signing statement.

Be sure to read about The Arrogance of King Harry Reid over at Sister Toldjah.

Sandy went Milly Rose's antique shop!

Jim Brown's column this week concerns insurance rates in Louisiana going through the roof.  Not good.

Pecan Corner explains the difference between a tool and a weapon to the nanny state.  Almost ANYTHING could become a weapon, dear nanny state.  Sharp pencils, paper clips, paper weights...the list is endless. 

Bride of Rove has an entertaining sift.  Bride, I'm so proud of your Weight Watchers progress!  I'm so impressed!  ...and jealous...

That's it for now.  Check back tomorrow and see if we're snowed in down here.  I'm betting not.

No More Obamacare!

Since your tax dollars are going to work purchasing search results on internet search engines in order to lead you straight to the HHS propaganda on Obamacare, you might want to know where you can find the truth.  This website is one good place to go. 

At NoMoreObamacare.com you can sign a petition for repeal, and you can get the facts of the bill.  There are links to articles in the news about Obamacare and a citizens guide to repeal as well as contact numbers for Congress. 

Check it out!

The Cost of Reading the Constitution

The suddenly cost conscious Vanity Fair is lamenting the fact that Republicans are wasting, wasting!, about $1.1 million to read the Constitution aloud this morning!

You remember the Constitution?  According to Vanity Fair it;s "a document whose recent relevance is due largely to the ideological and sartorial interests of the Tea Party."

Thank you, Tea Party.

No, instead of working this morning, solving the nation's ills, the House will be frittering away time reading the Constitution; that costs money!  While they're wasting time doing that, coffee machines are running, the security staff is working, the staff is working...

When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members’ salaries and expenses, and for their police protection, and for keeping their lights and phones and coffee machines on. Even Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) combined don’t blow enough hot air to heat the Capitol in January.

I wonder how much money Vanity Fair wasted consulting this guy and how much time was wasted setting this to print?

Fish Wrap of Record is an Insult to Fish

In case there are any lingerers out there who still doubt any bias of The New York Times, today's editorial ought to seal the deal for you.  Entitled "Pomp, and Little Circumstance," the editors waste no time in blasting away at Republicans and calling the introduction of the move to repeal Obamacare, the introduction of new Rules, the swearing in itself, and the reading of the Constitution "unusual pomposity":

Those who had hoped to see a glimpse of the much-advertised Republican plan to revive the economy and put Americans back to work will have to wait at least until party leaders finish their Beltway insider ritual of self-glorification. Then, they may find time for governing.

The empty gestures are officially intended to set a new tone in Washington, to demonstrate — presumably to the Republicans’ Tea Party supporters — that things are about to be done very differently. But it is far from clear what message is being sent by, for instance, reading aloud the nation’s foundational document. Is this group of Republicans really trying to suggest that they care more deeply about the Constitution than anyone else and will follow it more closely? 

I'm guessing that's a rhetorical question?

And it took only four paragraphs to get to the race card:

In any case, it is a presumptuous and self-righteous act, suggesting that they alone understand the true meaning of a text that the founders wisely left open to generations of reinterpretation. Certainly the Republican leadership is not trying to suggest that African-Americans still be counted as three-fifths of a person. 

Of course, requiring constitutional basis for legislation is now "vacuous."  

Now, sit down and hold on to your hats here, because this is especially rich after the kabuki theater of the Democrats we've endured the past few years:

The Republicans’ antics are a ghastly waste of time at a moment when the nation is expecting real leadership from Congress, and suggest that the new House leadership is still unable to make tough choices. Voters, no less than drama critics, prefer substance to overblown theatrics.

Bwahahahahaha!

Fish wrap, indeed!  I wouldn't insult my fish!

Repeal and Replace

In Bobby Jindal's book, Leadership and Crisis, he has an interesting chapter on Medicare and he writes about his time on the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare in 1997.  This is a topic with which Jindal was quite familiar having already served as head of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and had achieved an impressive record of reform there. 

As legislators such as Chuck Schumer lob accusations of hypocrisy at Republicans who accept government health care as part of their federal employee benefit, it is important to remember two things.  John McCormack points out:

The logical fallacy here is that Republicans never said that government employees--which is what U.S. congressmen and senators are--should not receive health care coverage from their employer. What Republicans did was oppose a law that raised taxes and cut Medicare by $2 trillion in order to pay for an entitlement program that greatly increases government control of health care. (They favored and favor a variety of free market reforms.) The fact that many Democrats and a few Republicans do not understand this distinction does not mean all Republicans are hypocrites. 

Further, Jindal points out that the insurance those on Capitol Hill receive is not exactly like Medicare, either.  Jindal explains:

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program...is not perfect, but it is less bureaucratic and more responsive to its enrollees than Medicare...Instead of paying for services, FEHBP allows recipients to choose from hundreds of health insurance plans, and then it pays for a large portion of the premiums.  Far from being a top-down system [as Medicare is] FEHBP encourages competition among insurers for federal employees.

This is far from what "government insurance" is under Medicare. 

Schumer's cries of hypocrisy are absurd.

On a related point, Peter Ferrara over at American Spectator has done some excellent work in the past in researching and reporting on Obamacare.  His piece this morning is revealing as well.  In explaining how Obamacare plans to phase out private insurance (remember "if you like your insurance plan, you can keep your insurance!" - baloney), Fererra explains exactly how HHS plans to eliminate private insurers over time:

But there is socialist method behind the madness. Obamacare raises health insurance costs by mandating that health insurers provide expensive new benefits. That is why it was so obvious that Obamacare will raise health insurance costs. But now come the federal regulators who plan to dictate to the insurers that they cannot reflect those costs in higher premiums.

And so those companies will have to be "regulated" or go out of business. And no new companies will be there to fill the void so you'll all be channeled into government run health care.  As it turns out, you WON'T be able to keep that policy you currently have.  Read the whole thing.


Many of us may have developed Obamacare "fatigue" as we railed so mightily against it, and many are just plain tired of hearing about it or talking about it.  The old "it's done" attitude.  As Republicans move into Congress today and begin the march toward repeal, we'll be hearing a lot more about Obamacare in the days to come and it's time to pay attention.  Now that we know what's in it, it's time to repeal and replace.




(Logo from Cafe Press)

Boehner Responds

Here is John Boehner's response to Harry Reid's line-in-the-sand warning not to try to repeal Obamacare:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion. 
The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now.  You’re welcome.  

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office

The 112th Congress swearing in will be broadcast live on Facebook tomorrow:

Tomorrow, House Republicans will live stream the opening session of the 112th Congress - including the swearing-in ceremony and remarks by Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-OH) - on the Pledge to America Facebook Page. The House will convene and the stream will go live at 12:00 p.m. ET.

The reading of the Constitution will be Thursday at approximately 11:00 ET.

Censoring Mark Twain

I don't even know where to start with this one.  Via Memeorandum, there's a new edition of Huck Finn coming out with the n-word completely excised and replaced with "slave":

"...Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the "n" word (as well as the "in" word, "Injun") by replacing it with the word "slave."

"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind," said Gribben, speaking from his office at Auburn University at Montgomery, where he's spent most of the past 20 years heading the English department. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."

This is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.  Are we now going to go back and rewrite every classic text in which there is some term that offends some group?  Talk about political correctness gone amok!  A commenter at Joe.My.God said:

Hey, if this works out, they could do a little cleanup on Anne Frank's diary. Like make the whole thing a big understanding about the Nazis rounding up "juice" instead of "jews" and everybody laughs at the crazy mixup. Zany hijinks ensue from there.  

I couldn't agree more.  How about Gone With The Wind?  Can we clean that one up, too? 

I've been teaching To Kill a Mockingbird for eleven years.  Each time, before we read, we have the discussion about the language.  I explain to students the context of the word, the setting of the novel, and they learn that Atticus finds the term offensive:

"Don't say nigger Scout.  That's common."  (Chapter 9).  

Scout learns that Atticus views racism and prejudice as a "disease" that takes over normally clear headed people. 

There's a context. 

If you go back and start censoring the language in classic novels you'll remove certain potential for critical thinking from our curriculum.  Just tell the kids what to think; don't let them figure anything out for themselves!  Let's clean up Shakespeare while we're at it; it's certainly bawdy enough.  Is that the next target?

Until we clean up the degrading and offensive language in hip-hop, I don't think there's a leg to stand on here.

The Lefties are Getting out Their Garlic Necklaces

The liberals are simply twisting themselves like tops as they contemplate John Boehner's plan to open the 112th Congress with a reading of the Constitution.  Personally, I think it's a fine idea.  As teachers we are always reminded by our administrators to "set the tone" on the very first day.  The same principle is at work here.  The lefties are in apoplexy.  Let's survey a few of those:

Michael Chamberlain at OpEdNews says:

This reading of the Constitution, into the Congressional Record, is smoke and mirrors, nothing more.

Here's what Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, should do after the reading concludes. Make a request to clarify the reading of the Constitution, with the reading of the following documents: From the Federalist Papers, Federalist #33, by Alexander Hamilton, and Federalist #39, by James Madison. Those, will get their heads spinning with NATIONAL supremacy. Also, from the Founders' Constitution: James Madison's letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated June 27, 1823; James Madison's letter to Edmund Pendleton, dated October 28, 1787; and James Madison's, Notes on Nullification written between 1835 and 1836.

Chamberlain then goes on to explain that it's "anti-Constitutional" to repeal Obamacare and cites a Georgetown law professor as his source.

From the blog Say it Ain't So Already:

This sounds like a way to waste a whole bunch of time and to feed video of supposedly uber-patriotic Republicans to the media.

Obama himself suggests that Republicans are simply "playing to their base" and says:

“My expectation, my hope is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will realize that there will be plenty of time to campaign for 2012 in 2012,”

Spoken like a true campaigner.  Obama has never quit campaigning for 2012.

Norah O'Donnell says it's just a gimmick:

O'Donnell condescendingly introduced the segment by suggesting that the Constitution "has been getting a whole lot of lip service." After alerting viewers that the Republicans would open Congress by reading the document's text, she skeptically wondered, "Is this a gimmick?"

Ezra Klein says yes, indeed, it's a gimmick and besides, that old document is so confusing anyway...

Yes, it's a gimmick. [Laughs] I mean, you can say two things about it. One, is that it has no binding power on anything. And two, the issue of the Constitution is not that people don't read the text and think they're following. The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done. So, I wouldn't expect to much coming out of this.

The Delaware Liberal is in the "it's a stunt" camp:

The new Republican House has already decided that it’s first stunt is to read the Constitution out loud. The Republicans want to convince us that they are the one, true party of the Constitution.

Over at Politicus USA this is all somehow Michelle Bachmann's doing:

Bachmann thinks the November 2^nd election was a mandate for Congress to return to the Founders’ idea of America and says, “Voters called for a renewed commitment to the Constitution,” and that, “These new rules show that Republicans are serious about respecting the Constitution.” Bachmann’s comprehension of the Constitution is tenuous at best, and her remarks this past summer that she wanted Minnesotan’s to be “armed and dangerous” in case the Federal government enforced federal laws were nothing short of treason and incitement to armed insurrection.

And ShowMeBlog offers this:

My God… The new and I guess old Republicans do not know what the Constitution of the United States contains!  Not only that it looks like the new Republicans coming into the House must be so stupid that they can read it. They have to have it read to them. I do not think the new Republican members of Congress should be sworn in as members of Congress.  How can they take the oath when they do not know what they are saying they will protect and defend?

 It's difficult for me to believe anyone could object to Boehner's reading of the Constitution.  It's never been done before and I think it's high time.  But to many liberals it's like garlic to a vampire and almost more than they can stand.  That's a shame.

Let's Talk About Movies

Have you seen the new True Grit?  Are you planning to?

Bill O'Reilly has a review/comparison column of the two movies here.  In short, he liked them both but prefers the original.

As for me, I'm really tired of remakes.  I haven't been to the theater to see a movie since...I guess The Dark Knight.

I've heard they're remaking The Great Gatsby!  Horrors!  Mia Farrow was the perfect Daisy! 

Even worse, Robert Zemeckis wants to remake The Wizard of Oz.  Forget about it.

That's like remaking Gone With the Wind.  Sacrilege.

It seems there aren't very many original ideas in Hollywood anymore, what with all the remakes and sequels.  Perhaps that's why there was a decline in box office receipts for 2010, although the economy certainly could play a factor.  Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky.

I have heard, however, that The Black Swan is excellent and I did mean to catch Secretariat which I suppose is on DVD now.

I'll make a prediction, though.  I'll bet it's not long before talks are underway for Hillenbrand's Unbroken to be adapted into a movie.  You couldn't make up a story like that one.

So.  I know I'm cranky about movies.  But what about True Grit?  Have you seen it?  I might give it a shot...

The Constitution? Why That's Just an OLD Document! It's not Relevant!

It's a new year but any hopes you may have been holding that E.J. Dionne would pull his head out of ...the sand...are unfounded. 

Dionne has penned his usual delusional column for the WaPo this morning citing the wonderful compromises the Democrats tried to make during their tenure as majority in Congress.  In fact, he says, the problem with Democrats is that they compromised too much:

Democrats did not overreach in the 111th Congress. On the contrary, they compromised regularly. Compromise made the health care bill far more complicated than it had to be and the original stimulus bill too small. Democrats would have been better off getting more done more quickly and more coherently. 

Well, "coherently" would indeed have been better but you'd be hard pressed to get it done more quickly as most in Congress didn't have time to read it as it was.  Certainly not the stimulus bill.

Dionne scoffs at the GOP intent to begin the next Congress with a full reading of the Constitution and the suggestion that bills must have constitutional authority attached.  He calls this "an obvious sop to the Tea Party movement" and suggests:

One can imagine that the rule's primary practical result will be the creation of a small House bureaucracy responsible for churning out constitutional justifications for whatever gets introduced.

Ye gads, we can't have any more bureaucracy in Washington!  No!  The huge bureaucracies established by Obamacare have already taken up all the office space! 

Seriously, Dionne has no respect for the Constitution whatsoever.  He scoffs at those of you who would regard it as "sacred scripture" rather than "a collection of shrewd political compromises."  You aren't supposed to take that "right to bear arms" thing literally, don't you know?  It's an old document!  Out of touch with today's facts!  It's not relevant anymore!  It was written by a bunch of passionate old men prone to foolishness!  Or so says the historian Dionne cites.


Just forget that old thing!  In fact, let's debate it, Dionne suggests, and figure out what the Constitution really means!  How about you just take a civics class, Mr. Dionne?  Most of us already understand that document.

No, any hopes you may have been holding that Dionne would change or somehow be rational are now dashed.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Decision Points is the Literary Equivalent of a Chia Pet According to MSNBC

 Have you read Decision Points?  Do you own a copy?    As you may have read a few days ago, George Bush's memoir is selling like hotcakes:

Former U.S. President George W Bush's memoir has sold an astonishing two million copies since it was released in early November - and it's not even in paperback yet.   'Decision Points', published both in hardcover and e-book form, is flying off the shelves, the Crown Publishing Group says.  By contrast, former president Bill Clinton's memoir, 'My Life', has logged sales of 2.2million copies since it was first published in 2004.

Now let's see....

What could be the reason for this?

Could it be that there are Bush supporters out there who are interested in his time in The White House?  Nah!
Could it be that there are political junkies who are interested in reading about Bush's policy decisons?  Nah!

According to MSNBC, people are buying Decision Points as a joke, a gag gift.  Or maybe because they hate Bush so much they want to know just "What was he thinking?!"  

Norah O'Donnell interviewed Alex Pareene of Salon who suggested:

It may be the fact that he was hated by so many people actually helped fuel his book sales because people wanted to hear him actually justify himself and explain some of his decisions that he made. And, you know, there are, I mean, you can imagine that some people bought it as a gag or some people got it, received it as a gift and didn’t really want it.

By that logic there must also be a lot of liberals buy Sarah Palin's books.  Palin's America By Heart, dubbed "a flop" by the media, is currently ranked #6 and #7 on Amazon's non-fiction Political books list, behind The Federalist Papers and Glenn Beck's Broke.  It's currently #8 on the NYT Non-Fiction list (two slots ahead of Glenn Beck.).  Palin's Going Rogue was at the top of the NYT Best Seller list for six weeks and sold over one million copies.

By Alex Pareene's logic, that's a lot of liberals buying gag gifts.  Or a lot of liberals filled with a lot of hate who want to line the pockets of politicians they despise.  

What about Ann Coulter's best selling books?  Or Michelle Malkin's?  

Pareene's explanation of Bush's memoir as the literary equivalent of a Chia Pet is lame by any standards and further embarrasses MSNBC, if that were possible.

On Books and The New Year

I don't make New Years Resolutions.  Never have.  But I do promise that once I go back to work next week I'll get back to blogging more on politics and less on what I'm reading!
But, since we're talking about it, let's just update the reading table, shall we?  When we last checked in I'd just finished Jim Brown's Justice Denied.  Excellent read.  From there I picked up Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars because after Brown's tale it seemed I needed to read something just a little more bizarre and Stephen King was the only person to do it. 

Either you're a Stephen King fan or you're not.  I have a long history with King and have been reading him since the very first books.  Some were great, some were ridiculous.  Some were awful.  A couple I never even tried.  I'm a real fan, however, of his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft; we refer to parts of it in my Creative Writing class and the students really respond to it.  Of his more recent books, I thought Lisey's Story was ... interesting and creative, but not his best stuff although it was well received.  Duma Key was dumb, but it held my interest.  I liked Bag of Bones and I liked Blaze, which he did as Richard Bachman.  I hated Under the Dome and wanted to throw it in the road when I was finished.

That's the thing about Stephen King.  You love him or you hate him.  At any rate, his latest collection of stories in Full Dark, No Stars, four actually, was very good.  Well, I liked them.  They were dark, of course, but at the end I wasn't angry at the outcome of any of them.

I tend to alternate between fiction and non-fiction as I read.  I'm now into Bobby Jindal's Leadership and Crisis.  So far, I like it.  He's got a personable, easy style; very conversational.  The opening chapter dealt with the BP oil spill and seemed to just jump right into things without any introduction or fanfare.  The chapter seemed out of place, like it should have been at the end.  I guess he figured that's what people wanted to read about so he put it first.  From there it covers his childhood and that of his parents, and his educational background.  I've just finished reading about his shock at discovering that Ivy League universities are exceptionally liberal.  He went to Brown and was told not to call females "girls" or "ladies" because that was sexist, but to call them "women."  He was also scoffed at for holding doors open for his female classmates.

Steve and I spent New Year's Eve settled in our living room, Big Band music playing softly in the background, reading books.  We each had a dog beside us; I had a beer and he had a gin & tonic.  It was quiet and perfect.  Neither one of us is much on getting out with the crazies on New Years.  Steve is reading A Confederacy of Dunces and every few minutes he'd laugh and snicker as he read.

Today, we planned to watch the Winter Classic at noon (go Penguins!), as is our tradition, but due to weather issues it's been moved until this evening, which is fine.  I'll put a corned beef brisket in to cook, make a pot of cabbage (with a big ham bone!) and some purple hull peas from Lester's Farm.  We'll have some guacamole, and a Santa Fe Roasted Pepper Cheese Ball, and we'll spend another quiet day.  I know, we're boring.  But we like it!  It'll be back to the grind soon enough for us both.

So, Happy New Year to you all, thanks for reading this blog all year, and I'll get back to politics real soon!  I promise!  In the meantime, enjoy the quiet.

Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights

Steve and I went to Natchitoches yesterday for our last day trip of 2010.  We hadn't been since this summer and I was overdue for a visit to The Pioneer Pub since the place was closed for vacation when we were last in town.

We took a leisurely drive down Highway 1 and hit town about noon.  Our first stop was the Kaffie-Frederick Hardware Store which is the oldest general store in the state of Louisiana.  They've got everything from PVC pipe and horseshoes to fine art.  Need some new cast iron cookware?

Or a ladle?

How about a welcoming dog:

Or an upside down Christmas tree (we saw a couple of these as we walked down Front Street; some decorated, some not.)

Steve bought some coffee and I got a new Pyrex measuring cup and we headed over to The Pub for lunch.  Except you couldn't order food until four.  So we ordered beer.  We had a beer and peanuts and promised to come back at four.  We went down the street to The Canebrake Cafe for chili dogs to hold us over:

It's a nice little coffee shop sort of place with light fare and big windows where you can watch the river and the people walking down Front Street while you relax.

From there it was on to The Book Merchant where Sam was sleeping in the window:

We browsed for a while and Steve found a book he wanted then we walked around for a bit.  We watched people all day line up in front of these decorations and take pictures:

We went by the Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to see their Christmas decorations.  It's a truly beautiful church.  I loved the nativity scene:

and the wise men...

The windows a beautiful:

It was past four by this point so we headed over to The Pub for food.  The lights were just starting to be visible outside:

We were tempted by the burgers which we've had before and know are great, but wanted to try something different.  We both got pizza.  Mine was pepperoni, mushroom and onion.  Everything they serve at The Pub is fresh and made from scratch:

I had to get an order of "pub fries" to take back in the car with me: home made french fries with lots of salt!  OMG.

I'm glad we made this trip when we did because the restaurant will be closed for the month of January.  How mad would I have been to go back and find it closed again after my disappointment in July!

From there we went outside to look at the lights.  I posted a video last night of them, but this lady posted a better one.  It was so peaceful though with the calm river reflecting the lights from the opposite bank and Christmas songs playing in the background from speakers up and down the riverfront.  I liked the tunnel of lights that before Christmas leads up to Santa's House, but Santa isn't there now:




As if we hadn't eaten enough, we bought a funnel cake, sat by the river and shared it while looking at the lights before heading home:

Here's the funnel cake:

Fun day!  One thing I can say about Natchitoches is that we always meet so many nice and friendly people there, whether it's a shopkeeper, a local, or even someone just traveling through.  We''re planning to head back this spring, spend the night, and take a long drive down the Cane River Road.  Beautiful.

Previous posts on Natchitoches:
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation (July 2010)
The Natchitoches Travelogue  (July 2009)