It's Just a Blog in Real Time Thing..what difference, at this point, does it make?

Dear America,

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans...Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. Now, honestly, I will do my best to answer your questions about this. The fact is that people were trying, in real time, to get to the best information." Hillary

well, there ya go.
what difference, at this point, does it make -- she asked.

what difference does it make?

seriously?

Well, one difference, just off the top of my head -- is the difference between telling a lie and telling the truth.   We were being told a lie under the pretense of some  variation of  "well, the fact of the matter is" -- whether that fact of the matter was coming out of the mouth of the Secretary of State, the president, or the talking point leader on the day --  US Ambassador Susan Rice.   It was all about homegrown outrage, in real time, over a video.  But perhaps with that little head bump of hers, Hillary may have found it difficult to remember all the nitty gritty details from way back when...

Matter of fact, considering all the things that we know now --  we had calls for help, for more support, from the ambassador in Libya, IN REAL TIME, in the months leading up to the attack;  we had previous attacks on the consulate, IN REAL TIME, as well...in the months leading up to the attack;  we had un-manned drones flying over the consulate, IN REAL TIME, taking pictures!  on the night of the so-called "protests"  -- or was it something more like "guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans."  Because really, what difference does it make, at this point, now that we are here, experiencing another level of real time in real time?

How disrespectful to the families left behind, huh?

"Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo." Ambassador Susan Rice, September 16, 2012

As a matter of fact, just as it's coming to me, here in real time -- why identify something as "fact" when IN FACT it's not fact at all; why not just label it a possibility of many origins to be determined later...perhaps calling it a notion in motion....you know, based upon the information that they had in real time and on the fly way back when...Or is that simply asking too much of my fellow countrymen and women in charge?

Can you just imagine it?  The families of the four fallen Americans in Benghazi have yet to hear the whole truth and nothing but the truth.   This administration was so busy trying to get re-elected in the immediate days following the attack [like flying off to Vegas the very next morning], and the mainstream media was so busy trying to help, all the days and details quickly turned to mush.   And now look at us -- January 23rd and it's the first time the Secretary of State has been in the hot seat according to, and responding to, her real time assessment of that horrific night...

...a night that we now know could have very well been prevented; that is, only if we had provided the Ambassador Stevens everything he asked for when he asked for it -- only if we sent in the reinforcements just waiting in the wings even that very night.

And, now as a matter of record, because we have transcripts -- let's turn to Senator Rand Paul:

"So we have a Review Board. The Review Board finds 64 different things we can change. A lot of them are common sense and can be done, but the question is, it’s a failure of leadership that they weren’t done in advance and 4 American lives were lost because of this. I’m glad that you are accepting responsibility. I think that ultimately with you leaving, you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11, and I really mean that. Had I been President at the time, and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did not read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it is inexcusable.

The thing is, that we can understand you are not reading every cable. I can understand that maybe you are not aware of the cable from the Ambassador in Vienna that asks for $100,000 for an electrical charging station. I can understand that maybe you are not aware that your Department spent $100,000 on 3 comedians who went to India on a promotional tour called Make Chi, Not War, but I think you might be able to understand that you should be aware of the $80 million spent on a consulate in Mahshahr al-Sharif [Readers, I'm not certain what this references and am researching - will update if I find the info] that will never be built.

I think it’s inexcusable that you did not know about this and that you did not read these cables. I think by anybody’s estimation, Libya has to be one of the hottest of hot spots around the world. Not to know of the requests for securities, really I think cost these people their lives. Their lives could have been saved had someone been more available, had someone been aware of these things, more on top of the job, and the thing is, I don’t suspect you of bad motives. The Review Board said, well these people weren’t willfully negligent . I don’t think you were willfully…I don’t suspect your motives for wanting to serve your country, but it was a failure of leadership not to be involved. It was a failure of leadership not to know these things, and so I think it is good that you are accepting responsibility, because no one else is. There is a certain amount of culpability to the worst tragedy since 9/11, and I’m glad you are accepting this.

As a matter of fact, now that I'm thinking about it and before I forget -- I need to extend a great big thank you to "Maggie's Notebook" for the fresh picks from today's hearing  [now that I found you, I will be sure to find my way back from time to time, when chock full of real time to play with -- and highly suggest that you do the same.]  This was the only place I could find that would give me full text of Rand Paul's rant.  But I digress a wee bit.


How about that -- Rand tells her: "I would have relieved you of your post." 

And isn't it about time the right does a little mocking of the left...as in when he digs in with "we can understand you are not reading every cable. I can understand that maybe you are not aware of the cable from the Ambassador in Vienna that asks for $100,000 for an electrical charging station. I can understand that maybe you are not aware that your Department spent $100,000 on 3 comedians who went to India on a promotional tour called Make Chi, Not War, but I think you might be able to understand that you should be aware of the $80 million spent on a consulate in Mahshahr al-Sharif "

That is some good stuff [and that's just a fact].

Oh, but what difference, at this point, does it make?

In real time, according to the twenty-four seven news cycle, by tomorrow morning it will be old news...Phil Mickelson may change his mind on staying in the States for a third day in a row; perhaps the president will decide he really doesn't care for Michelle's new bangs; maybe Manti Te'O will take back the lie about the other lie; maybe we will wake up and every girl in America will qualify for the draft, if, God forbid, we ever have to go through that again.

Oh wait.  I can understand that maybe you don't know that maybe that last one -- about 'Girls Gone Combat' -- may be as good as already true...we're just waiting for morning light.  Leon Panetta is set to announce -- in real time, in the morning -- that women will be allowed in combat.  Praise the Lord, right?  Oh thank heaven for equal rights and everybody being treated the  same, girls and boys alike.  [Now, it's probably fair to say that most likely, Leon will not be posing it quite like that, but when you get to the nitty gritty details, according to the Rule of Law and the way precedence works in real time, in live kinetic military action -- there won't be much, if anything, preventing such a reality to occur ..and just to be clear, we're talking about that draft thing for girls.]

Bring on the dawn.  Bring on the dawn.  And when we all get there...

Make it a Good Day, G

It's the President Being True to Form Thing

Dear America,

happy Tuesday.

so right after he recited the first sentence of the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence, he said this:

"Today we continue a never ending journey to bridge the meaning of these words with the realities of our time.  For history tell us that while these truths may be self-evident, they've never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.  (applause)   The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.  They gave us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed."   President Obama

They've never been "self-executing?"

It's all about the "self-executing"  -- through self-reliance, with a little self-control and determination, and all while venturing through life, whether building a business, being an employee of someone else's business,  fully committed to growing the good for ourselves, our family, as part of the wider, productive, free, compassionate, honest, responsible community in which we live.

But then he adds, "And for more than two hundred years, we have."

And THEN he promptly goes into stating five exceptional examples of how America has done it --

...abolishing slavery
...building infrastructure
...establishing regulations and rules
...caring for the poor and downtrodden
...questioning authority

THEN, he gives us a big BUT; it's the paragraph we reviewed yesterday -- and we'll repeat again today:

"But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.  For the American people can no more meet the demands of today's world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.  No single person can train all the math and science teachers we'll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and  businesses to our shores.  Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people."  (applause)

What a collective crock of caca; this is propaganda, folks.  Welcome to another four years of it.

SO our fidelity to the founding principles is dated, old-fashioned, soooo 1776; now, it's all about the collective saving America, saving the planet, saving the dis-enfranchised -- but in a new way, responding to the new challenges with a new attitude.   And it's fundamental transformation by collective action.

In the next paragraph, we finally hear some words of wisdom on our economy -- you know, the debt and deficit that is robbing our children of any decent future....the one that was sooo unpatriotic back in the campaign of 2008.

No.  Gotcha.

He doesn't really get into it; but he does give us a drive-by -- making a comfortable generalization  of the homegrown economic good that his administration has set forth, to be fully revealed later:

"A decade of war is now ending.  (applause)  An economic recovery has begun.  (applause)  America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive;  diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.  My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together."  (applause)

once again, the collective gets the nod; and does this president have the knack for being the Commander-in-Chief of the Reinvention Department, or what? It's a gift, I tell you; and he is seizing it and running with it, with scissors, Executive Orders, hidden agendas, liberal think tanks, an army of mainstream media and minions and more.   For the president, it's Go time. (Remember now, he believes he won the election in a landslide!)

Anywho, the next paragraph is a humdinger:

"For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. (applause)  [like that's really our reality, right]   We believe that America's prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.  [right, because the risk takers who put up the investment to create an Apple, a Microsoft, a GE, a McDonald's, a Walmart, etc, etc...as it would take us days to acknowledge every businessperson who created a job, a paycheck, a life for someone else!...have nothing to do with it]   We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.  [um, we can have that right now when we individually align with that ambition]  We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own. [like Oprah?  even sexual abuse didn't keep her spirit down]   (applause)"

but once again, he builds up this collective voice, as if we are not capable of really doing all these things as individuals forming a more perfect union...

How about this twist of entitlement --  "The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us.  (applause)  They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.  (applause)"

Say what?  Does this feel like these things are strengthening us right about now?   These things are also unfunded liabilities, saddling our children with 150,000 dollars in debt on the day they are born; these things are irresponsible, fiscally reprehensible, and as with all debt, transfer an immoral, un-Godly burden from one generation to the next until the issues of affordability and feasibility have been resolved.   But nice dig dating back to the "collective perceptions" of the 2012 campaign.

And then, we build a crescendo of agenda, hot topics, double-speak, rhetoric, long standing liberal injustices complete with the progressive means to the transformative ends,  rehashing well-worn talking points to effect change...globally, domestically, collectively, together.

The more we listen to this president, the more we recognize his inherent, deep-seated, dreams from my father, desire to manipulate our principles, undermine our Constitution, with his greatest ambition being a simple one -- to break America.   At least Martin Luther King was speaking in terms of changing the individual, changing ourselves, to fit within the timelessness and framework of our principles and values.   But Obama despises America from her roots; he can't escape these things  -- I mean, progress -- fast enough.

Let us remind the president -- and his 51% -- there remains another half.   Oh, alright, 49%.   And like you said, Mr. President, as you were beginning to wrap things up all tightly in a bow -- rainbow colored, we might add:  "Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life.  It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.  Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.  (applause)"

and thank goodness we have long done away with settling debates by duel... there is that, too.

Yes, indeed.   There he goes again.  Little does he realize that with every transition into power, America -- WE, the people -- decides the role of government; it's only because a rather perverse progressive mindset has taken a foothold amongst the collective that this man, this president, gained enough approval for a second term.

And at this point, we can only be assured of one thing:  HE will ACT in our time.

"Let us, each of us, now embrace with solemn duty and awesome joy what is our lasting birthright.  With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom."

even though,
like he mentioned two paragraphs ago --

"Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life.  It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness."

In the end -- "we all have an obligation to shape the debates of our time  -- not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals. (applause). "  Evidently, we can shape them, we just can't settle them.   Oh how the man goes round and round; let's just consider it a president being true to form thing.

And all in all, it's just another day in the life of an American girl....me....G; just self-executing "these truths" we hold self-evident, under God.  amen.

Make it a Good Day, G  

One last thing before I go --
and oh and how does our government grow? 

when in carmen, san diego...our new mayor is about to open an auxiliary administrative office in --    wait for it ----   wait for it --  Tijuana, Mexico!  And more than that, he is so  serious about controlling costs, he's even seriously considering changing the Tijuana area code to save on the monthly phone bill.   I KID YOU NOT.   I guess he hasn't become acquainted with Vonage, but still.  Can you believe this?  this is how bureaucrats think -- and even ACT on these thoughts -- every day.

It's We Cannot Mistake Absolutism for Principle Thing....again...that is for another four years thing

Dear America,

"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious." --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

is this quote amazing, or what?

It's another inauguration day for the people of these United States of America.

The quote -- I didn't find on my own; the best quotes always seem to come from a place I think of as Lady Liberty's fountain of youth and excellence in reformation @The Patriot Post.

Right now -- you still think history doesn't repeat itself?    America is opting for "more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious."

For proof, all we need to do, is turn our attention to this inauguration of a second term of a man who stands for a stately arrogance of power and force under the guise of serving the American people.

And more than that --  the coincidence of  this day falling upon the celebration of life of Martin Luther King makes a striking argument in the moment to give pause, taking full advantage of the juxtaposition of the two leaders.   [Again, must give necessary commendations to The Patriot Post for its use of Star Parker's recollection of the "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" in a column for the Post, here]

As Star leaves things -- at the end of her essay titled, "Could Dr. King Have Given the Inaugural Benediction?" -- she poses two questions:

"Would the Rev. Dr. King be ejected from the stage of this president's inaugural if he called this law, produced by this administration, unjust?

Would there even have been a civil rights movement without the Christian values that today's left calls bigotry?"

Why the dilemma?

Because the Reverend Dr. King was a Christian man, and reverend.  He lived with his Christianity leading the way.  And oh, by the way, he was quite clear where he stood, and how to interpret life under the Constitution.

Parker plucks a profound understanding of the rule of law in America, through the lens of this leader for civil rights in America, found deep into the famous "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" -- dated April 16, 1963; it's rather long...read for yourself, here.    This is it:

"Now, what is the difference between the two?  How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust?   A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.  An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.  To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law."

Are we really interacting with the Rule of Law as if it's still intimately connected with the moral law or the law of God?

I think not.

But this letter!   I have never read it before; I am overwhelmed by it's sincerity of thought, it's explanation of action and inaction, both direct and indirect; I find myself thoroughly enthralled by the extent of Dr. King's deliberate pleas set in motion, the call for peaceful resolution, even as he laments the daily struggle to overcome the label of "extremist".  He just seems so firm in faith...

"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we viii be. We we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

I would venture to say that this nation cannot survive half slave and half free all over again;  I might also second the motion, when King says, "so the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be."

I believe that by siding with the sort of extremism aligned with 'love, truth and  goodness,'  -- much like King, St. Paul, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Jesus --  it may just be the only way we survive.

But since 'love and goodness' may be asking a wee bit too much from this imposter of a government acting under the Rule of Law for one day -- how about we begin with telling the truth.

Remember that press conference of last week?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, look, Chuck, there -- there are -- there’s a pretty straightforward way of doing this, and that is to set the debt ceiling aside, we pay our bills and then we have a vigorous debate about how we’re going to do further deficit reduction in a balanced way.

I keep in mind that, you know, what we’ve heard from some Republicans in both the House and the Senate is that they will only increase the debt ceiling by the amount of spending cuts that they’re able to push through. And in order to replace the automatic spending cut, the sequester, that’s $1.2 trillion. Say it takes another trillion (dollars) or trillion two to get us through one more year. They’d have to identify $2.5 trillion in cuts just to get the debt ceiling extended to next year -- 2.5 trillion (dollars).

They can’t even -- Congress has not been able to identify $1.2 trillion in cuts that they’re happy with, because these same Republicans say they don’t want to cut defense. They claim that they don’t want to gut Medicare or harm the vulnerable, but the truth of the matter is, is that you can’t meet their own criteria without drastically cutting Medicare or having an impact on Medicaid or affecting our defense spending. So the math just doesn’t add up.

Now, what -- here’s what would work. What would work would be for us to say, we’ve already done close to $2 trillion in deficit reduction, and if you add the interest that we won’t be paying because of less spending and increased revenue, it adds up to about $2.5 trillion.

The consensus is we need about $4 trillion to stabilize our debt and our deficit, which means we need about $1.5 trillion more. The package that I offered to Speaker Boehner before we -- before the new year would achieve that. We were actually fairly close in terms of arriving at that number.

So -- so if the goal is to make sure that we are being responsible about our debt and our deficit, if that’s the conversation we’re having, I’m happy to have that conversation. And by closing some additional loopholes through tax reform -- which Speaker Boehner has acknowledged can raise money in a sensible way -- and by doing some additional cuts, including making sure that we are reducing our health care spending, which is the main driver of our deficits, we can arrive at a package to get this thing done. I’m happy to have that conversation.

What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people; the threat that unless we get our way, unless you gut Medicare or Medicaid or, you know, otherwise slash things that the American people don’t believe should be slashed, that we’re going to threaten to wreck the entire economy. That is not how historically this has been done. That’s not how we’re going to do it this time.

THIS WAS A President's ANSWER to a question.   And correction -- he wasn't finished:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Chuck, what I’m saying to you is that there is no simpler solution; no ready, credible solution other than Congress either give me the authority to raise the debt ceiling, or exercise the responsibility that they have kept for themselves and raise the debt ceiling, because this is about paying your bills.

Everybody -- everybody here understands this. I mean, this is not a complicated concept. You don’t go out to dinner and then, you know, eat all you want and then leave without paying the check. And if you do, you’re breaking the law.

And Congress is -- should think about it the same way that the American people do. You don’t -- now if -- if Congress wants to have a debate about maybe we shouldn’t go out to dinner next time, maybe we should go to a more modest restaurant, that’s fine. That -- that’s a debate that we should have. But you don’t -- you don’t say, in order for me to control my appetites, I’m going to not pay the people who are provided me services, people who already lent me the money. That -- that’s not -- that’s not showing any discipline. All that’s doing is not meeting your obligations. You can’t do that.

And -- and -- and -- and that’s not a credible way to run this government. We -- we’ve got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis when there’s this clear path ahead of us that simply requires some discipline, some responsibility and some compromise. That’s where we need to go. That’s how this needs to work.

 All this from a president not operating from a budget for the last four years, with every intention of going through the next four doing the very same thing.  [did you know, according to government protocol, every department simply continues to operate from the most current budget -- that being the budget authorizing all kinds of stimulus spending...And we wonder where the trillion dollar deficits are coming from...]

But I digress.

Today, the president spoke of the collective in a very big way...

Like this:

"But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.  For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.  No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores.  Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people. "

Read his full remarks here.

Still choking on this point -- "that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action."   Going further along, we get to this fascinating interpretation:

"For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay.  We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.  We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall."

wow. right.   And even though this may sound totally absurd, I'm just gonna say it anyway -- me thinks a Barack Hussein Obama might have called Martin Luther King an extremist, too...for all the wrong reasons, of course.   And may I be the first to ponder just who is substituting  absolutes for principles, making a spectacle of office, and otherwise ridiculing opponents left and right, stifling the freedom for a full and fair debate?  

More and more, the radicalized tactics of this presidency shine through -- contrary to popular belief and the inner workings of his own mind,  he isn't really "happy to have that conversation" about anything.   He looks upon any opposition as being extremists -- and has no patience for it;  all he wants is a  mushy, moderate middle that can be easily molded and transformed into a collective mindset he can control in every way. 

But what we need more of is just the opposite.
What we need is more people standing up and speaking up for what is right -- morally --  under Natural Law -- in order to save the collective. 

We all have a right to speak up -- even to act! -- 'knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today's victories will be only partial...'

and, and, and  knowing..... that, " 'that’s' not a credible way to run this government. We -- we’ve got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis when there’s this clear path ahead of us that simply requires some discipline, some responsibility and some compromise. That’s where we need to go. That’s how this needs to work."

The thing is -- the truth is -- rhetoric cuts, I mean, works, both ways.  

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Through the Lens of Politics Thing

Dear America,

my starting point...

"My starting point is not to worry about the politics; my starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works; what should we be doing to make sure that our children are safe and that we're reducing the incidents of gun violence.  And I think we can do that in a sensible way that comports with the Second Amendment."

This, my friends, was Monday; of course, you should have recognized it's origination if you actually did what I asked you to do, which was to read the full transcript on the day (Jan. 14, 2013).   It was simply a stunning display of a world power elitist in his element.

So, like I said -- this "starting point" was Monday, and then we had Wednesday; Wednesday we watched a day in the life of an American president introduce 23 Executive Orders to satisfy the Left's salacious appetite to set up and secure the jurisdiction for long term, Constitutionally jeopardizing, change.  Just all in a day's work when fundamentally transforming these United States...

Oh, and for dinner and a movie -- possibly Scary Movie #7 -- how about that press conference with the kids in the backdrop?

What's creepy is this list of the twenty three Executive Orders.

So the family doctor is going to begin asking us if we have a gun in the home -- and then, I guess, run back to tattle tale on us to the president, or better yet, to the latest ATF Director, should the nomination be accepted?

And considering many of the things on this list, at first blush, seem to fall into a category of rather innocuous; other things seem to fit into a category of something I like to call "DUH".  Like for instance, number one:

"Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system." 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/16/list-executive-actions-obama-plans-to-take-as-part-anti-gun-violence-plan/#ixzz2IFrXlDx2


I mean, seriously, did this require an Executive Order?

And, are we really in a place where we need "incentives" for states to share data with one another on vital background check information?

Or Number 5:   "Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun."   Um, duh.

Or, Number 11:  "Nominate an ATF Director."   Um, don't you mean nominate, get approval through Congress, and swear them into their official duties, like, yesterday?  You know, especially since no one has been fully responsible for that position since, like, 2006?

 And here's a good one, Number 14:

"Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."

Okay.  Let's not dwell on the ridiculous.  Let's go back to the "starting point."

"My starting point is not to worry about the politics."

Oh he's good. This is when he is at his best, right?  Playing politics, talking politics, when he swears he doesn't want to have anything to do with politics.  It     is     rich, isn't it?

hmmmmm I think somebody should be examining their own conscience, just sayin'.

"And then members of Congress I think are going to have to have a debate and examine their own conscience --- because if, in fact, and I believe this is true -- everybody across party lines was as deeply moved and saddened as I was by what happened in Newtown, then we're going to have to vote based on what we think is best.  We're going to have to come up with answers that set politics aside.  And that's what I expect Congress to do."  Obama, immediately following 'the starting point'

Of course, the meat of the president's anti-gun violence agenda will be presented later in the week, including orders for an assault weapons ban in Congress.

But there he is, presenting this list of twenty three "Executive Orders" to save the children -- surrounded by children.   As flashbacks of the ghosts of propaganda past stream violently and hauntingly through the windows of my mind.   At least he's predictable.

I happened to have been in the car yesterday, listening to the Glenn Beck program, when the great GB, and sidekicks, started this entire segment kicking around how ludicrous it is to form public policy under the direction of seven year olds.   It was hilarious, actually -- their usual sarcasm was on fire...But I digress --  of course our children are going to find themselves scared at the news of Sandy Hook!   Duh.   Of course they are going to want the president to do something about it -- with or without Congress. [double dog dare you...]

We're all scared of the possibility and horrified by the reality.

But if this president were to stop for one minute and take a breath; if he were to pause for a moment and stop playing politics for a day, or 365; if he were to take a step back and just look at himself --  and stop using props to make his case and manufacture a heightened, irrational approach to nearly everything he does --  he would recognize a widely held belief:   children have yet to grow up and see the world in the full screen view.  

As genuine and pure and honest and true as they are, experiencing and communicating their immediate concerns and emotions as they come -- children are what they are....children.

In a language this president is sure to understand, considering how often he goes there -- this girl would be "happy to have that conversation."  Is the backdrop of innocent and ingenuous faces  really necessary?   Haven't we learned anything about "acting stupidly" from anywhere in our past?  Is the Second Amendment really that open for discussion?

Mr. President -- having a conversation with you, complete with your ideology in check and in full range of motion, is like discussing gun control with you while you hold a pillow in front of your AK-47  -- propaganda and politics and props come at a rapid fire, sounding much like soft tyranny running amuck.  The problem is, some of us within range have no idea they've been hit.

But like you said, your "starting point" is not to worry about the politics.  And why should you?  You are just concerned with 'what works' -- ways to keep the children safe -- "in a sensible way that comports with the Second Amendment."  

Right.  And as long as both sides of the aisle accept these "sensible ways," comporting with the views and policy of the this administration, by Executive Order and by any other upcoming directives to be decided later,  the rest of us aren't interested in any of that.   

Whether it's gun control, deficit contraction, deficit spending, debt ceiling raising, debt ceiling holding -- it's all pretty simple, isn't it;  the answers come pretty easily, don't they, Mr. President?   Just a full court press dribbling your own nonsense; ideology proven to have never worked in all of history.  But don't let that get in your way...

"It turns out the American people agree with me.  They've listened to an entire year's debate over this issue, and they made a clear decision about the approach they prefer...So they want us to get our books in order in a balanced way, where everybody pulls their weight, everybody does their part.

That's what I want as well.  That's what I've proposed.  And we can get it done, but we're going to have to make sure that people are looking at this in a responsible way rather than just through the lens of politics."

Yes.  Indeed... Because public policy by Second Graders has the power to totally dismantle the Second Amendment, and apparently, according to this president, there isn't anyone left in America who might have another way of looking at any of this.  Because that would just be irresponsible and absurd.   And moreover, public policy on emotional impulses is really, really smart.  It's so balanced -- it would pass a background check.

Politics....from start to finish. 
And it's just business as usual in rapid fire.

Stay calm and carry on.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Press Conference Solely for the Press Thing

Dear America,

I'm not happy.

No, that's not it; it's more like annoyed, actually.

It's taken me all darn day just to relax -- having tried multiple times to write.  Luckily, somebody rang my bell just in the nick of time --  and suddenly,  little ole G was face to face with a more productive option, allowing me to fill the idle frustration over heavy negotiations with a seven year old, who -- over the course of her morning -- came down with a sore throat and tummy troubles.

And only fitting, as she thought her unexpected, yet gladly accepted ...in a 'never let a crisis go to waste', sort of way... set of circumstances would be enough get her out of doing her regularly scheduled duties -- like homework.  Not.

Of course, my annoyances could stem from NONE of my picks made it into the playoffs after this weekend.  Did you catch that?  None.  Not Green Bay; not Seahawks; not Texans (just cuz I can't stand the Patriots) and last, but not least, as they are actually my most -- Broncos...and all because they have my Peyton.   Incredible loss beginning with the last thirty two seconds in regulation. So coming off all that and moving straight into this:

"What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people; the threat that unless we get our way, unless you gut Medicare or Medicaid or, you know, otherwise slash things that the American people don’t believe should be slashed, that we’re going to threaten to wreck the entire economy. That is not how historically this has been done. That’s not how we’re going to do it this time." President Obama, Monday.   Striking hard and often.

And then suddenly everything clicked. 

Wrestling with a narcissist, a socialist, a seven year old  on the debt ceiling -- pick one or all of the above.

It's about that press conference.

And about that gaffe, about half way through -- "what I will not do is have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people."  Um...Have you ever heard the expression, "too soon," Mr. President?   Unbelievable.  

But let's not dwell, shall we...everybody else seems to let you get away with things like that.

What's more important -- who's really talking in terms of "unless we get our way?"   Who has already gutted Medicare [by 500 billion!] -- through the terms of Obamacare -- you know, and "otherwise slash things that the American people don't believe should be slashed"?    YOU! deux!

His Excellency and Arrogance was overfloweth.

It was a press conference solely for the press -- popularity and propaganda and politics.

I just don't get it anymore  (ah who's kidding who...I never really did); I just don't understand how people have the patience to put up with this nonsense, let alone extend such power to one man.  And making things all the more intolerable, he's just so full of himself these days -- oh my goodness -- what are the chances he just might pop?

But if you were one of the lucky ones to have missed the press conference, I really hate to be the one to break it to you, because, you must still read the transcript.  It's really non-negotiable; not going to take no for an answer.

The thing is -- there is simply way to much for me to pick out and nit pick; perhaps over the next few days I will try, for there are some real beauts.

But for kicks and giggles and migraines and more, go here...it takes you to the N.Y. Times for a nice, clean straightforward copy of all of it.  Scratch that, it's simply documentation of a dirty rotten scoundrel pontificating in dirty rotten scoundrel speak.  Keep a pack of Tums by your side, just a suggestion.

And that's my update and I'm stickin' to it.  It's been a long day and this needs to go to print.  It's a deadline thing.  hardy har har...me thinks G is a wee bit too easily entertained.

Good Night and sleep tight.

Make Tomorrow a Good Day, G

 

It's About Keeping Good Going Thing

Dear America,

it's all about the two new buzz words...gun and control.

as if...

Wonder how that's going over with the bad guys?

What about jackass control?  How about congressional corruption control -- or perhaps, ordering a little self-control on pushing the Executive Order button, currently running out of control?  No, no, here's a good one -- how about fiscal suicide control, massive intervention and prevention of America going belly up before the next presidential election?    Or what about simply showing just a modicum of restraint, self-control and allegiance to keeping some kind of moral backbone for today and tomorrow -- or operating under the Rule of Law as intended by our founders under what's called the Constitution?   Could we possibly see some movement on any of that before the end of the day?

oh my.

We have proven -- in America -- that plenty of us own guns for protection, hunting, and target practice...having shown complete self-control, not to mention, full knowledge and responsibility to carry and respect guns.   America owns lots of guns.   States have laws regarding gun ownership that are designed to prevent  people who cannot be trusted with gun ownership from getting one, let alone amass a small scale armory in the basement.  And yet somehow we seem surprised that tragedy can still happen;  accidents and even the unimaginable murder of innocents is still possible.

There just seems to be a great disconnect going on between the perceived increase in gun violence based simply upon the prevalence of gun ownership, specifically "assault weapons," and the increase in gun violence as a result of massive levels of dysfunction within our society.

Certainly, at the risk of sounding like a broken record -- it's not about the gun, no matter what kind of gun we choose.

Even if I owned a gun, as a loving human being who respects life itself in every way, never would I ever open fire upon a school, a theater, a crowded restaurant, a stadium, a park, a bus, train, subway...you get my drift.  If I owned a gun -- and currently considering it -- it would be for protection...and I would gladly take whatever number of classes required to feel secure in it's operation and be legally entitled to use one.  

How do I know this?  Because I am pretty sure I am sane! And, I prefer to do things by the book and hold myself fully and solely accountable for the handling and ownership of such a great responsibility  -- as I believe most of us do.   Otherwise, wouldn't we be witnessing some kind of wild, wild west, east, north and south?   But this just isn't the case, is it;  because the majority of us actually do the right thing when it comes to guns.

So what should this tell us?

It should tell us that it isn't the gun's fault; it isn't about whether it is a .38 caliber or nine gauge, assault weapon or handgun, or the size of the magazine -- whatever the heck that means.   These things are neither broken or need controlling (in the way this administration believes, that is) for they are inanimate objects.

It's the broken hearts and minds that need the fix.   And, as with most everything under the sun, the fix starts at home.  Where is the motivation to look there?  Where is the pitch, perhaps, to focus our energies into the place and circumstances and environment where we might actually see the good and tangible and inspiring results of our actions?  Maybe we need a mission statement or a motto...

For me, my motto is a lot like that of the company, New York Life, which aligns a simple thought with it's ambitions to "Keep Good Going."    As soon as I heard that, I was like, hey, that's like me, G! venturing to spread the good everyday.  Of course, the more the merrier; there is plenty of good to make to go around, right...    But who knew this idea of keeping the good going would envelope my entire world?   But now, hindsight being what it is -- this pithy advertising genius describes my parental aims in three words.  I just never had a slogan for it until now.

What a beautiful, beautiful world it would be if our number one goal as parents, as humans, was to simply "keep good going".   For rich or for poorer, it doesn't matter; we can all be and do and make good.  It's non-discriminating.   It's powerful.  It's brilliant.   It's instant!

Where am I going with this...
the thing is, if we have issues within our own families, then it is up to us to fix them.   If there is mental illness, substance abuse, a member of a gang, a person making a living off of criminal activity, etc. living within our domain, then we need to tend to them.   We need to face the sins and troubles of our own  -- calling attention and resolution to the cries for help within the intimacy and boundary of family -- and mend the broken hearts and minds.   If overwhelmed and need assistance, get help; reach out to your local churches and charitable organizations.  Just take aim to keep good going and do something.

The truth is, Washington has little affect upon the day to day realities other than get in the way of progress; while the message they send, all but ignores personal accountability and duty.   This twists apart America's most basic tenet, carefully crafting responsibility and duty with every right and privilege.

The nation's security and future was founded -- and compounded -- with the arrival of every generation, whether native born or immigrant, to uphold the continuation of a culture built upon good character and virtue. 

And  very quickly we realize, we ALL rely upon the sane, taking care of the insane, incompetent, as well as, our young and vulnerable, on every level.

How about this news coming out of The Heritage Foundation?  It's simply titled, "When the Government Fails Completely"...  

Hmmm.  Head Start, as it turns out, isn't actually getting the job done. 

Wonder what's happening in the home?  Don't hate; it's a fair question.

Make it a Good Day, G

 

It's Sometimes, Less Shelter is More Thing

Dear America,

so even though this week's entries have been a wee bit all over the place, as this girl tries to steady herself into the new year...yesterday highlighted a rather clear distinction on where the Left wants to go with this country.  And it's funny how it ties in with the idea of how parenthood, itself, has evolved in America.

Of course, when it comes to our children, we want to give them shelter.  We want to protect them, love them, support them, and honor their personhood as best we can.   The primary role of being a parent is all of these things, AND  preparing our babies for the real world all along the way.

As a parent, I realize I can't shelter my girl forever.  Eventually, she needs to grow up.

But the Left seems perfectly fine taking over in the "shelter" department; matter of fact, let's just go ahead and add indoctrinate, influence, control, mind meld, and otherwise, fully take over their lives -- because 'they' know better.  Heaven forbid we actually hold someone fully accountable for their actions, their education, their bodies, their pursuit of happiness in their own lives...

Gone is the beauty and independence of critical thinking on our very own -- and understanding why something is right and something is wrong.  Gone is the personal responsibility and connection back behind eating/drinking the right foods; gone is the personal responsibility and connection to showing up for class and doing our homework and raising the test scores in the U.S.  (ergo it isn't the fault of our teachers or enough money thrown into the system...the responsibility is up to the parent and child); gone is the personal responsibility and connection to treating people the way you want to be treated; gone is the personal responsibility and connection to understanding a gun, and treating it and the lives we are surrounded with total respect.

If you can't control what you eat (as one bad apple after another seems to spoil it for the whole bunch)  -- the Left will fix the problem by telling us what to eat.  No matter how many times a gun has saved lives, if someone abuses this American-made right,  the Left will fix the problem by simply taking this right away.

If the Left could have it's way, it would take personal responsibility and connection out of the equation altogether.  It's called the more we can do for you, the less you can do for yourselves; it's called creating a controllable body of dependent citizens...also known as sheep, with no more value than it's digit.

Which is weird.

There was a time, in America, when we all stood for the same, reasonable, productive, forward-thinking ideas all together, Left and Right.  America created a culture that spoke for all of us. This is what gets me these days... There was a time, in America, when we all stood for raising our children with self-reliance and independence -- not raising Cain and dependence.

But seems ever since the days of Woodstock (just for an easy frame of reference), there has been a prevailing, suffocating, yet highly satisfying and intoxicating cloud hanging over all of us.  Of course, the cloud really started to take formation years, if not decades, before.  Yet now, after the full scope and evolution has clearly settled into the halls of Washington -- granting bureaucracy greater power over us while commandeering the people's house and money -- self-reliance, the mainstay of freedom and liberty, has been all but snuffed right our of us.  

All in all, this brings us to today, finding ourselves subject to a re-awakening of our most finest attributes and convictions...that is, if it's not too late.

The thing is -- bearing in mind our first intentions and our mission on Earth,  (until now) America has never stood for government giving us everything we ever need, including food, phones, and shelter.  We all had to work for it.  And while some made more money than others, others made more jobs than others, and still others gave more back than others.  Sure, it's sounds complex, doesn't it.  But there was a time when all of us understood this dynamic and more than that, respected it.  Even thrived off of it.

The Left would like to have us all believe business -- especially big business -- is bad...vewy, vewy bad.   Which is hilarious, considering how many of us are intimately connected to the industry of big business.   Gone to market lately?  Get gas?   Buy a car?   Go to the mall?  Go to the bank?  Own a computer, use one, or depend upon one every single living breathing day?  

Think about how many jobs come out of HP, Apple, Walmart, Kmart, Target, Mobile, Chevron, Geico, Kaiser Permanente -- think about how many sales people, and entrepreneurs, and CEO's travel by United, Southwest, American Airlines, Jet Blue...everyday...and all the vendors associated with keeping all the balls in the air.   Personally,  almost everyone I know is someone directly employed by big business.

 Personally, I can't imagine an America without big business.  It's a life force and pathway to success, feeding the ambitions of everyday Americans everyday.

And even though big business is the bomb -- in the full context of America, small business is equally as wonderful; for the business of being industrious is not prejudice to either large or small, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, or even rich or poor.   It's probably one of the most non-discriminating things, offering the greatest potential for wealth,  America has to offer.

But I digress.

I think where we seem to go wrong is in the sheltering -- a noxious mix of either not doing enough to instill self-reliance, industry, and personal responsibility AND doing too much.

It's seems to be a fine line, too.  A tightrope.

But it would help if we all walked the same line, talked the same talk, that's all.

As I finished the day yesterday, I turned on the radio to catch a little bit of Rush.  And he was in the middle of making the greatest analogy --

The subject was the proposed Executive Order to put the fix on gun control ..offering up a 'what if' scenario.  And paraphrasing here, he went on to say something like, 'what if the Right approached the Pro Life argument applying an Executive Order ORDERING brand spanking new abortion regulations?'  And quickly added, 'we can't legislate by ideology, like a dictatorship...  Imagine the Left's response if we did that?'

And then he took a couple phone calls.

And then I learned something new -- something to pass on as food for thought leading us into the weekend.  A caller, going by "Mike from Fairfield" reminded Rush that the Revolutionary War actually started when the Brits started to confiscate guns.  Over a commercial break, sure enough, Rush took a minute to validate the claim online, using apparently the website, Old North Church.  So, of course, I had to look it up, too.  And sure enough, there it was...go here.

Flash forward back to today -- this administration may get there, too, by way of telling us it's for our own good.   But, if we apply some of the life skills we have discussed over the last couple of days, we realize that sometimes this does more harm than good.

And since it is the eve of another weekend, let me give you some more homework to look into.  It gets into some real numbers on guns, violence, crime rates and comes to us from the creative evolution of the Piers Morgan/Alex Jones beat down.  An honorable mention must also go to  one of my favorite websites in the world:  The Patriot Post.  The Post gives us a link to Fox 19, out of Kentucky.  Ben Swann treats us to a breakdown of gun violence around the world, schooling Piers just a wee bit...go here and click into the short video.

Don't you just love Alex Jones, there?  "You gonna ban your fist now?"

Just like banning alcohol to stop murder by DUI...

But that's not the thought I want us dwell...

How about Ben Swann at the very end, when he gives us something like this:

"[violence] not the result of the gun or tool...

Overall numbers show

it's the result

of what's in the heart of men and women."

indeed, Ben, indeed.

and we're back to the role of what we teach our children, starting at home, compounded in our schools and churches, and carried with them all the days of their lives.   The greatest security measure we could ever take is generated from the most humblest of beginnings -- and looks a whole lot like becoming more industrious in the production of better human beings in every way possible from the start. 

...And sometimes, it may just be that, less shelter is more.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Fundamental Duty Thing

Dear America,

happy thursday.

sometimes I feel like a chicken with her head cut off...I turn around sometimes and feel like I have lost days, sometimes even entire weeks, jumping from one thing to do to the next.  And sometimes, even taking on Other People's Things To Do, totally believing I am helping, not harming.  This is especially in reference to my girl -- and more specifically, her things.

But I've realized something.   Sometimes this Type A, highly overzealous activity, may serve as a disservice to the both of us.   She doesn't learn how to "multi-task," nor does she begin to recognize how the everyday tasks -- the ones that  maintain order all around her -- magically get done.   And the other side of this, of course, is that I just get too damn tired.  And with that, it begins to show in the quality of work of the things I DO...and let's  face it, G gets a wee bit cranky.

The truth is, she is getting older.   She is actually dangerously close to experiencing for the first time being away from home.  What does this mean?  She can begin to see more into the actions taken by the mysterious little fairy that bounces into her world to do her laundry, vacuum her room, clean the girl's room, shop for groceries, and pull together an array of meals every single day of the week, including Sundays.   And not only see it, but DO it. 

Over time, her responsibilities can adapt to her level of rising maturity; this kind of compound interest, shaping her growing and impressionable young mind, helps her grow more independent.  It's a slow, methodical process taking advantage of all the tools available -- concerned and engaged parents, school, athletics, technology and communication, one's faith, all working in concert with one another....kind of like a village, but not really. 

The thing is, it really doesn't take a village.  It takes a good family.

From John Locke's Second Essay Concerning Civil Government, we gain incite as to how this idea applies to the framework of early America:

"The power, then, that parents have over their children arises from that duty which is incumbent on them, to take care of their offspring during the imperfect state of childhood.  To inform their mind, and govern the actions of their yet ignorant nonage, till reason shall take its place and ease them of that trouble, is what the children want, and the parents are bound to [provide]."

and goes on to add:

"When he has acquired that state [of maturity], he is presumed to know how far that law is to be his guide, and how far he may make use of his freedom, and so comes to have it; till then, somebody else must guide him, who is presumed to know how far the law allows a liberty...Till then, we see the law allows the son to have no will, but he is to be guided by the will of his father or guardian, who is to understand for him..."

We are about to dramatically alter our second amendment rights by Executive Order.

What we are watching right now -- in Washington -- is Biden, and Congressmen, and even our president, scrambling around in an area it doesn't belong.    Chickens with their heads cut off -- dropping everything and jumping into the confiscation of guns, ammo, and an everyday right for everyday citizens of everyday America.  

Bureaucratic energies...all going to the wrong place. 

Misguided for all the right reasons (as it appears to be), they are in the midst of providing a great disservice to the American people, as well to themselves.

More gun control is not going to fix our problem; that simply takes the responsibility of understanding the law and the task and how it works out of the hands of good citizens, and thereby protecting the unlawful use of the law and the task and how it works safely into the liberty of bad citizens.

We have more gun violence upon innocents because we have more crazy people raising crazy people; we have more abandonment of parental responsibility to raise children into healthy, law abiding, thoughtful adults; we have more mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse,  and the like, directly affecting the welfare of entire communities and surviving without the proper resources or attention.

It's a fundamental duty as parents to be fully responsible to our duty as a parent! for the good of our own children and to the community we are surrounded.  I don't even care if that sounds like I was being redundant.  It's called having a lot of duty going around.  Crazy town duty.

But our society has grown so rampantly dysfunctional, we consider it to be totally normal.

And what do we do?  We respond, we overreact like fool's rushing in to solve the symptom, not the cause.  How do we immediately make a course correction on the fly?  We take away personal responsibility, self-reliance, accountability, and duty; our knee jerk, chicken-footed, reaction looks like we take away an everyday liberty from all of us.

Yes.  Tragedy happened in Sandy Hook.    Unspeakable, unimaginable, unconscionable, tragedy. 

But today, it feels like the entire nation is running around with it's head cut off.

This is a fascinating twist, go here.   Who knew, right?  Surely, we hate the law, Obamacare, but gotta love that news!   But the greater truth is -- we knew this attack on "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" was coming from the Left.  It was just waiting for the crisis to appear.

We have more to talk about; but we will have to save it for another day; G has things to do...

... need to leave a little love note for my girl, outlining just a couple things for her to add to her list of things to do today.   [joy to the world...]

Just between you and me, let me leave things on this note:   Duty never sleeps as a parent, as Allstate, and as a citizen of these fine United States.  This much is true today as it was yesterday, just as it ever was two hundred years ago; and this duty never, ever goes away...even when they go away to college...even when 'the collective' gangs up upon the individual, using bully tactics to fundamentally transform everything this country is good for.

Make it a Good Day, G
  

It's About Billions of Dust Bunnies Thing

Dear America,

"The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the latest triumphant deal includes $2 billion of cuts for fiscal year 2013. Wow! That's what the Government of the United States borrows every 10 hours and 38 minutes. Spending two months negotiating 10 hours of savings is like driving to a supermarket three states away to save a nickel on your grocery bill."  columnist Mark Steyn, plucked from The Patriot Post this morning...go here for more from them...

and right under it... came this little beauty --

"By all accounts, President Obama won the fiscal cliff showdown. Why anyone would take much pride in this kind of 'win' is beyond me. It's a bit like being the least filthy toddler in the mud pit." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

I believe what we have here is a failure to communicate clearly.

How can we expect the average citizen to really get a grasp of how little is being accomplished?   For the majority of us, we are just now getting a grip on getting the kids up on time and back to school, making sure the dog's been out, and paying the gas & electric -- nit-picking upon the various details of the fiscal cliff, pull leeze, spare me.

Awareness is everything, isn't it?

I mean, that's kinda been part of the problem; Americans have had their heads stuck in the sand for approximately WAY too long.

Sometimes, all it takes it a shift in perspective to see it -- or, to put it another way... the student is ready when the teacher appears.

Just maybe...given the dire financial reality, and considering the escalating greater concern of the next generation inheriting it -- the collective will be willing to see the truth.

Just this past weekend, as I was bouncing around with great hopes of restoring order to the homestead, the television was left on the Travel Channel for some background company.  Bizarre Foods America was highlighting our very own San Diego Zoo when I heard something that hit me surprisingly hard.

I never knew little white fluffy bunnies are fed to the lions by the pound full everyday.   The camera even zoomed into a well placed bin just to give us a good look at them --  and there they were....little fluffy white cotton tails and pink noses and all.

But the thing is, all of a sudden I became acutely aware that I have never even considered what we feed the lions at all, let alone the thought of sending peter, paul and mary cottontail to the lion's den every single day.

Instant lightbulb, bing!

Don't get me wrong, however -- I mean, a lion must be fed; if in the wild, surely a few bunnies bite the dust all the time.  I get that.   Circle of life, circle of life...and death.

But now, here we are -- all of us -- sitting in the catbird seat and KNOWING full and well the history of tyranny all through the ages, whether it be soft, hard or something in-between and intangible -- and for WAY too many of us, we find ourselves still looking the other way.

But don't kid yourselves, we have really  put ourselves into a sticky wicket this time.

There is no way out but through the restoration of order in the kingdom, even if it's comes by picking up one thing at a time and putting it back to its proper place.

Which is reminding me of the tattered and torn newspaper clipping dating back twenty years above my desk...a column from Ann Landers... and basically it's this girl complaining about her parents always being on her back "...I'm a nervous wreck from getting yelled at" she says.  "All I hear from morning till night is 'stop smoking, get off the phone, hang up your clothes, do your homework, clean up your room.'  How do I get them off my case?"

what did Ann say?

"Stop smoking.

Get off the phone. 

 Hang up your clothes. 

Do your homework,

and clean up your room."

exactly.

Look with your own two eyes...
billions of dust bunnies.


Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Gitty Up and Go Now Thing

Dear America,

first, let me just say this: I really hate dropping off the face of the planet like that.  one minute it's a Thursday and the next, it's like Tuesday.  I believe we might call it being back in the saddle again.

And not a moment too soon, right.   All that lack of routine and modern day discipline just bit the dust for a wee bit...between the holidays, a stubborn head cold after flying across the country and back, and a few too many humongous issues going on with my personal computer, leading me to a whole new world on Windows 8, all while getting to know my brand new HP notebook...oh yes!  Happy day to me!  But oh how good to be back.

All I wanna say is I LOVE Technology when it works! It's a beautiful thing!   My bonnet's off to all the super smart people who make it, imagine it, create it from nothing and even, dare I say, find happiness and profit from it in every way.

But now, today, little G has a dream -- I would really just like to show up two days in a row, right here, like right now, with you.

So let's get right to it -- while we were all getting fat and happy over the holidays, so was our government.

Here's some follow up for you from where we left off last week...It comes from The Examiner, and simply titled, Super Pork Storm Sandy...

Now wouldn't it be nice to know who the recipient(s) of some of that 58.8 million dollars for forest restoration on private land goes to...hmmmm

And don't you just love it when a compilation like this simply calls a spade a spade, as in the 17 billion dollars going to "wasteful Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), a program that has become notorious for its use as a backdoor earmark program."

This is how we spend 620 billion dollars -- OVER TEN YEARS, mind you -- in brand new revenue, through manipulation and coercion by methods of taxation tyranny.   We spend it faster than we can bring it in.

Is Windows 8 wonderful, or what?  No segue, just a hop, skip to a whole 'nother topic.

Honestly, the whole thing is really above my pay grade.  And just when I thought I knew everything, too.  : )

Okay...that was to give us all a little chuckle there...

If you really know me, you would know this, too -- I find the more I know, the more I really don't know.  And I marvel in that reality everyday.

And above all else, I know, without a doubt, I do NOT know everything. 

Matter of fact -- if I knew everything right now -- where oh where would the fun be in that?   You know?    Heaven help us the day we wake up thinking we are all that and have nothing left to learn, whether it be something about ourselves, or the world around us, or our past, or the level of imagination and creation set forth by our founding fathers.   yeah, you like that?

What a wonderful world it would be if we simply responded to the call of duty as citizens much like the immediate swoosh of the windows on this contraption.  Organized, active, jumping into the finely tuned pockets of our world with such command; living with a sense of purpose and responsibility and integrity with everything and everyone we personally deem essential...things we can't live without.

One of the most amazing features is this crazy cool travel app that immediately sends you anywhere your heart wants to go...right down to the choices of where to lay your head down at the end of the day to where to find the best pizza in town.

But basically, the "Start" page begins everyday nestled in tow with us no matter where we are in the world -- even if we are comfortably back home where we belong -- and lays out a colorful kaleidoscope of our life right before our eyes.   And if nothing else, the magnificence of it certainly contains all the possibility in the world for a chance to keep up with it all...there is that.

again, we return to the idea we started with...a girl can dream.

The truth is -- the scary truth -- is that our world in America is changing at the speed of light.  Between things like Al Gore-zeera, the attacks upon our second amendment rights, the caving on the fiscal cliff, the coming debt ceiling battle, the reformation of entitlements, and illegal immigration amnesty on the horizon, it challenges us in the everyday  to keep a watchful eye and stay involved...  As if we don't have enough to worry about in our own world.

America, we are all back in the saddle now.   And if you happen to be one of those sort of slipping off the side right about now, DON'T!   Stay alert, stay tuned, and stay committed to the process.  Pretend to have your own little version of Intel deep down inside, making full capability for your whole world to hum along with the rest of us.  We have so much to do, so little time.

And for starters, let's go to a little Thomas Jefferson:

"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the states are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations.  Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage themselves, and our general government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants."

right.

now gitty up.

Make it a Good Day, G
 

It's a Viscious Cycle We Weave Thing

Dear America,

again, this entry into the day and the life of an American girl is gonna be short and sweet.   Real life is pulling me in various opposite directions as this year gets started...which is a good thing, too.  Living totally and vicariously through a blaaah-blaaah-blaaah-blahg 24/7 is sooo 2012, you know.  G has real places to go and people to see and things to do.

So let me get right to it like the mouth that unknowingly set the stage today and talk Christie.  This won't take long; for when talking Christie we can be as brash and off-putting and obnoxious as the big man himself.

Apparently he is "furious and fuming."  Did you click that?  It explains everything.

Now, without getting into the area of judging whether or not New Jersey and New York actually need a little help getting through the recovery from Hurricane Sandy, we are going to direct our attention to just the numbers.    [We simply don't have time to discuss the entire scope and nature of the federal government bailing out every act of destruction mother nature lays out...today]

Shut up, G, and get on with it --

Christie is outraged over the fact that Boner and the rest of the House Republicans have put off the full vote for aid -- Friday, they will decide on about 9 billion and the rest will be taken up in a couple weeks, or something like that.  

What Christie wants to play with (I guess, sharing with New York, but does it really matter)?   60.4 BILLION dollars.  


And while this may not seem like much when we realize the federal government revolves around a budget of something like 3.7 Trillion dollars each year...

 (even though, that obscene number usually creates a deficit of about 1.3 Trillion dollars...but who really cares anymore, right?)   

 (and who really knows anymore, given we haven't operated around a real budget in YEARS!)

 -- But WHEN we put the Hurricane Aid number of 60 B's up against the so-called fiscal cliff legislation that supposedly has saved us from all hell breaking loose -- that number being what? -- oh right creating an additional 620 B's in new revenue (i.e. TAXES) that hurricane band-aide comes to a whopping 10% of the money we just created out of thin air.

TEN PERCENT!

Gone.
Poof.
We spend money like it's not even real.

And doing so within all of about 15 minutes in DAWG years -- that's Derelicts Amassing Wanton Government. (And chewing on the reality that we are borrowing 40% of every dollar to keep all the balls in the air...you can understand the immediate use of the widely worn out phrase:  "O   M   G"  -- with my apologies, of course)

Government only knows how to spend money (our money); it doesn't save or create anything, except debt.

Money in, money out.  Wax on, wax off.  It's a motion solidifying bad intentions all the way around, almost as if they are in a trance and have no idea what they do.   [I said "almost"]   They know exactly what they do; while they have completely lost the will power, the virtues, the guts, to stop or change the course.

And Christie -- you should be ashamed of yourself. 

Perhaps tempering your comments with just a wee bit of a bigger picture understanding might have been in order -- as if that would be possible.  Under the current conditions, our revenue stream has been cut off at its knees, while the latest bill does nothing in long term entitlement reform.   Unlike your stomach, which could probably benefit from a lap band -- our government needs to stop spending more than it takes in.  It's as simple as that.

We don't have the money -- but whatever we, the tax payers, ultimately give to you, it will be the tax payers you have to thank, not the Fed.  And to that end, everything this government gone wild does falls on the backs of the taxpayers.  The House realizes that the people are watching every move they make, every dollar they spend, fully aware they are already find themselves sitting in the people's dog house.

Christie -- dare I say, I used to think you were special.  But your response, all that comes to mind is this: 'typical'.  Typical of every politician who walks the earth, just a bunch of wild Neanderthal dogs just out to get while the getting is good, taking what's not theirs, and leaving a barren path behind them.  You and Hurricane Sandy have much in common.

So let's see....hmmmm... what to do with the other "560 B's," right?

oh the viscious cycle we weave...what a find....believe it dates back 5000 years or something.

ugh.
that awtta do it.
gotta run.
we'll sit down and have a civilized conversation real soon.  promise. 

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Called a Ten Year Hangover Thing

Dear America,

so we don't have much time.

and when I say, "we" -- I mean, me.

But I have just enough time to drop a teaser into our next conversation,  which begins going a little something like this:

I think I need to throw up.

620 billion over ten years -- with virtually nothing on spending -- when, in fact, we are running OVER One Trillion dollars in deficits and sitting at 16 Trillion in debt and realizing we have OVER a hundred trillion in unfunded liabilities facing the nation?

How can anyone -- especially republicans -- figure out a way to cave while standing on a cliff?

Oh, and to you who think Obama and his minions deserve a congratulatory pat on the back?  I would hold up on that -- just keep your arm up for awhile without making contact -- then after you have lost all feeling in your upper extremities, we can talk about what just happened.

Oh, and what's up with all that talk about Bush this, Bush that in the campaign and over the last four years -- when, in fact, this administration just re-enacted another round of BUSH tax cuts for 98% of the taxpayers -- albeit just on their federal income taxes, but details, schmeetails, right?

You think you have all come to the edge of the cliff and have lived to see another day? -- think again.

Oh, and wake up and smell the payroll taxes -- can you say, "up"; take a big whiff of the capital gains rise -- up; estate taxes -- up     Where did the incentives go?  TO green energy companies, for starters; and we sure know how that works out, don't we.  Then of course, in the little itty bitty fine print, we see Obamacare surcharges, added to things that you would think have absolutely no relation.

Oh, to the latest dis-enchantment with everyday life...

We are all behaving stupidly to put up with this kind of nonsense.

Oh the places we will go; our future is smacking us upside the head and we still don't get it

And yet, this is where I must leave it. 
But let me direct you to some of my favorite haunts to save you from idling over the proverbial edge of sanity --  The Heritage Foundation, here; The Patriot Post, here.

Happy New Year.
yayyy.

This hangover is gonna stay with us for quite some time, that you can be sure (and brace yourself, it's gonna hurt...recovery requires swallowing a bitter, jagged pill).  Have a super spark-ly day!

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a New Year Thing

Dear America,

happy new year...I guess.

And on that note,  let me preface whatever it is I have to say today with this:   this is G just going through the motions.

It's called getting my feet wet -- fully recognizing this girl is still half stuck in the remains of 2012.  Completely overwrought with how it all came to a close, it seems rather useless to think we can start the year with any semblance of a new attitude.  And yet, we try.

The ability to keep trying, striving to give life our very best, is what we do as human beings (at least for the upright, decent, accountable, and good ones, right).  And really, when we really think about it, there seems to be little value to a life that comes too easily; as though it is only through adversity, challenges, and the testing of one's soul that we discover who we really are deep down inside.

And with that, sometimes, what shocks a peaceful neck of the woods far, far away ricochets off the back of the universe, bouncing from the edge of reason and through the heart of everyone in it's wake, settling in to stay with us for some time to come.  Is it fair for me to have had such a blessed Christmas when the entire community of Newtown, Connecticut was brought to it's knees?

It's not even fair to answer.

And then there are things that happen worlds away -- every     single    day.

Did you happen to see the story out of Oregon over the past week, after the discovery of a plea for help from a Chinese labor camp?   It was a message in a box of Halloween decorations, click here.

"If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization,” the unsigned letter read. “Thousands people here who are under the persicution [sic] of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever."

Noted in the article on Fox News.com,

"The writer said the product was made in Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China, where laborers work for 15 hours a day without time off on the weekends and holidays, making only 10 yuan ($1.61) per month.

The China director at Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, told The Oregonian that the organization could not confirm the origin or authenticity of the letter."

Really?  

Doesn't something like this just scream look into it anyway?

A nearby link to another article, "In 2013, don't count on UN to lead on human rights" goes something like this:

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded the world that the very idea of the United Nations emerged from the ashes of World War II and the Nazi Holocaust. The ashes of the dead can inspire progress towards peace. They can also serve to diminish the value of being human, evidenced by the wanton butchery in Syria and a heartless artist in Sweden."

The article was written by a rabbi -- Rabbi Abraham Cooper.   About mid-stream he gave us this little tidbit of wisdom:

"Let's start with what do we mean by the “human” in human rights. Do we still believe that there is something so special, so different in the human condition, that we see a kind of divinity to the life of every man, woman and child on the face of the globe? If we do, we need to respect and protect the specialness of the human condition."

and immediately adding,

"But not everyone does."

No.  Not everyone does.

But for the rest of us -- through adversity --  our heart and soul teaches us to respond as one human being to another; it's the kind of knee-jerk reaction God looks for in all of us, to fix what is broken, to protect those who can't protect themselves.

What has to take precedence within any upstanding society then becomes very simple; it begins with teaching the divinity of being human and builds a foundation upon the principles that fully support the value of being human in every way possible, for everyones protection.

What happened in America just over two hundred years ago gave us the footprint to fill, to follow through the meandering mountains and valleys, in good times and bad.  The founders declared that our rights -- what's commonly referred to as our "universal rights," as part of the human condition -- came directly from God.   We, as a people, recognized with every fiber of our being, that each and every right to live, prosper and find our happiness came from Something far greater than man.  And to that end, government -- as limited as we could ever make it --  has absolutely nothing to do with it.

We continued to follow this path for quite some time -- taking time out of our busy lives to worship on Sundays, taking a moment of prayer or silence in schools, waking up to be of service to humanity in the every day. 

With respect to the now in the every day, the clear and present danger of the disconnection to the divinity of life and where it comes, is showing.

A great many of us are losing all perspective.  

Come to think of it, Biden couldn't have given us a better example.

When asked -- in the wake of the 11th-hour lame duck solution that legislates absolutely nothing of real value to the people --  what made all the difference?   He reportedly said -- and I kid you not --  "me."

Oh the cockiness of a Vice President, a President, a Congress, a Senate, believing salvation of the collective comes from within the confines of Washington.   Such small minds, these men and women beholden to the un-limitedness and overwhelming expanse of a truly misguided government, so chock-full of their own humanity they are choking on it.   [For more on the audacity of politics agenda, go here for full replay of the president from yesterday, just hours before Biden saved us from ruin.]

Does it always have to end this way?

I know, I know, the year has only just begun.

...and a big fat happy new year to you, too -- and you, and you, and you sitting over there in the corner 'wondering what kind of difference could little old me ever make?'

There is possibly a letter to write -- maybe even risking life and limb to stuff it into a box -- so that one day somebody clear across the other side of the world could find it and plaster it all over the world-wide-web for all to see.  For in this day, we all see you Shenyang, China.

Will it be a new year, same people, same as the last or same as the first?  It's a good question.

In this new year, let us do everything in our own power to put our best foot forward for the betterment of all of humanity, shall we?  All of us.  It's just an all-round good way to start, doncha think?

Make it a Good Day, G