Southern Strategy

Another election is upon us and I am again reading of the horrible Southern Strategy of those evil Republicans. That awful racist, Richard Nixon broke up the old Solid South where the Democratic Party and it's armed force, the Klu Klux Klan had kept the south in the Democrat column since the aftermath of the Civil War. The Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) love to claim that he did this out of racism. After all, there is nothing that the Party of Segregation loves more than accusing the Party that was born of the opposition to slavery and that fought against segregation of racism.

In truth, Nixon's famed Southern Strategy had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the war we were fighting at the time. It was 1968 and the Democrats were fractured. There was a large fissure over race and a larger fissure over the war which was raging. Only four years earlier, Landslide Lyndon Johnson had handily won the election by painting Barry Goldwater as a wildeyed warmonger. I remember that election. There was LBJ promising, promising that "Ah weel nevah send Amurkin boahs to do the job thet Asian boahs should do".

Then by 1968 the Dems were fractured in four camps, with some mutual grounds between them. There was the antiracist northern wing versus the Klu Klux Klan southern section and there was the antiwar faction vs the prowar faction. Nixon knew that the south had always been the section of the country that was most supportive winning wars that we started. Of course the institutional memory of losing a war was much sharper then in the south. The last of those who had endured the abject poverty of the post civil war era were still around. Actually in 1968 the south was still much poorer than the rest of the country. /funny how poverty and Democrats go hand in hand.

In 1968, the Democrat-ruled south is where the poverty was. Today it's the Democrat ruled big cities. But the southern strategy was all about race. Sure. And I'm the King of Sweden.

Last Linda Lou Update For A While

Linda Lou is being transferred to a rehab facility in north Dallas tomorrow and will stay there for the approximately six weeks until the next phase of the surgery. She will be in the rich part of north Dallas, right outside the Park Cities so I'd better not take a wrong turn around there.

The schedule seems to be four to eight weeks, most likely around six until the next phase of surgery. Then back in the hospital for the surgery, and, after the first few days, back to the rich folks rehab center for probably two weeks or so of work with the physical terrorists.

I cannot drive that far more than once or so a week so we will be depending on the phone and the twins between now and the time she can come home. It's going to be a long time. Anybody know a bimbo with a housecleaning fetish?

First Phase Of Surgery Okay

It was an adventure getting up there, we had some certified mail to pick up so I drove to the post office our mail goes through, which is not the closest post office, nor is it even in the same county. Don't ask. So, we hardly ever go to that town but on the rare times we have registered or certified mail. There was a construction sire and I had to drive through it to and fro, just after driving through it on the way back I had a nice blowout. Shucks and other colorful comments. So, after changing the tire in the Texas sun I then got to wait at the tire store, then hit Dallas traffic at rush hour. So I got there late but luckily they were later at the hospital.

The twins were there our youngest boy and only daughter, they pretty much kept me company until the Doc finally showed up after about 11:00 PM. So, here is the latest on The Saga of Linda Lou's Leg. The hardware is all out and there is a batch of antibiotic beads in there. There is a splint on the outside of her leg. There was no gross infection although once that screw poled through the skin they must act as there is infection.

Since there is a severe risk of infection they will not try to repair the break again for at least four but more like six to eight weeks.Until after the weekend Linda Lou will stay in that hospital, after wards they will transfer her to a rehab facility for (most of?) the remaining time until the next surgery.

Every day a new adventure. Meanwhile this hospital is a tad over ninety miles away. The important thing, though, is so far, so good. God treats me better than I deserve.

Back In The Hospital

We saw the new Doc and now Linda Lou is back in the hospital. They are, within the next day or two, going to take all the hardware out of her leg, again. then after a period of antibiotics to kill any possible infection, they will try again. The Doc says that this is the last try to fix the break. If unsuccessful the next step is the "A" word. I was kind of wondering why an almost sixty-five year old woman would need an abortion when it dawned on me that there is a different procedure that begins with "A", amputation. Well we wanted to lose a little weight but this seems extreme.

The Doc is in north Dallas at the Medical City complex. Med City seems to have no beds open right that minute so he sent us up to another hospital where he has a relationship, even further from home, if such is possible. This is some twenty-five miles north of Med City, I was expecting folks to speak Oklahoman or, perhaps, Canadian, eh?

The only good news is that she is in what is normally a pediatric floor, judging by the Old MacDonald pictures on the wall. Linda Lou likes that sort of thing.

The good news is that it's only about ten-fifteen miles from Stephanie and Dean's place so that's something. Anyhow we are still in limbo. I wonder how she'd be doing under Obamacare. Would they have given her the red pill or the blue pill?

Update 9/22/09 1:48 PM: Surgery at 7:00 PM this evening to take that hardware out of her leg. I was taking a nap. I was going to skip the drive up this evening, no such luck now. Coffee and into the car! Oh well, it's payday, I'll grab something good on the way.

Any spare prayers and good wishes you have layin' around would be nice. Time for me to start to practice speaking that Oklahoman/Canadian now, y'all, eh? I thought they did surgery in the morning, eh? Is this just when the Doc has time or is this something really more awful than I thought?

She's Our Witch!

Well it's sure now that my Linda Lou can't run for office on the Republican ticket, after all it's on record that she has a screw loose. (More on that after I vent a little. So, over ten years ago this O'Donnell woman casually mentioned that when she was a lot younger she dabbled in witchcraft. As in she dated a guy who took her to a whatever they call their meeting place and that there was alleged blood on the alter.

So, was it long enough ago that she was the one who turned Gingrich into a Newt? In the Democrat primary I think having dabbled in Wicca before turning to Christianity would be a definite downer, not because of the Wicca but because of the Christianity. Now I do not claim to be the greatest theologist around but I'm pretty sure that it is pretty normal for folks to go down some blind roads before settling into their faith. I also keep remembering that popular bumper sticker: "Christians aren't perfect, they're forgiven."

Meanwhile, alleged Republicans and alleged Christians are demanding explanations from O'Donnell. I saw the headline where Rove said she needed to explain.

Hey Rove! How about you go up to Alaska and slap the Murk a few times? What is it about the concept of "won the Primary" that you do not understand? It's past time you shut up about Delaware where we have a not so perfect woman running against a far left dweeb. Those are two races that we can win. If you idiot Party leaders" shut up; and either get with the parade or get out of the way before you get trampled. The Tea Party is a very important part of the Republican Party, Rove. It's the part of the Party that you have been making promises to for most of my life, and breaking those promises since the end of the Eisenhower Administration.

You "party leaders" are losing your chance to keep the Tea Party in the fold. If you idiots manage to chase O'Donnell out of the race at this late date all those hundreds of thousands of people who went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Gateway Arch and scores of other places in the last year+ will be sitting home in November instead of voting for those you have anointed. O'Donnell, Miller up in Alaska, those people are important to the Tea Party types, some like Linda Lou and I who have never been to one of those big hoo-raws, some like Sarah Palin. We are the ones who usually vote but can stay home when the big race is a foregone conclusion. Tell me, Rove, would you rather the O'Donnell and Miller supporters go to the Polls and pull the straight Republican ticket or stay home? That is the choice, Rove, that you and those other "Party Leaders" are forcing on the Party when, instead, you could roll up your sleeves and help. Just remember, the Tea Party candidates did not win in every Primary. Yet none of those candidates have refused to endorse the eventual winner of the Primary and none have started a write in candidacy. So, Rove, who is it that is failing the party unity test?

I think the motto for the O'Donnell Campaign should be "She turned Gingrich into a Newt! She's our witch!"

About my Linda Lou. She is going to a ortho specialist, the guy works almost exclusively with folks who need joint replacements and have bone cancers. Linda Lou, although she could use two brand new knees, does not have bone cancer, nor will they have to replace any joints. The break, though, is so close to the ankle joints that nothing anyone has done so far has worked. And now that screw is sticking through the skin. Not the pointy part, the head. It's really cute, when we change the dressing.

Patsy, our neighbor, insisted that Linda Lou go over there for a couple of days, before going to the new Doc. She says her house is easier for her and her wheelchair. She is back in the wheelchair, BTW. Whoopie! Ah, it was only February that she broke her leg, we can't expect healing so soon. Grump.

Anyhow, we were getting Linda Lou out the door and into her wheelchair when she simply toppled over. We had to call the volunteer fire department to get her up, they helped us get her next door. Now Linda Lou has gone in and out of that door
ever since she got home from the hospital. She would have this time if not for Patsy kept talking about her falling. Grrr! So, we waited around for the Volunteer Fire Dept. people, they came, lifted her up into the wheelchair and then helped us get her up the stairs and into the house. A little prayer about getting her out of the house Tuesday morning would be nice. I swear, if she falls down this time she can roll to the car.!

So, I'm over here with no wife and two dogs. Seems like I should have some bimbos swinging naked from the ceiling fans or something. No such luck. The dogs do go looking for Linda Lou every hour or two, sniffing around all her spots and then giving me a dirty look. Anybody want to buy a couple of bozo dogs? Cheap! Anyhow, the only good news is that I can watch all the shows on the Western Channel that Linda Lou doesn't like. Tell the truth, I'd rather have the naked bimbos. Or my Linda Lou. (Don't tell her that, she'd get the big head.)

Whining Establishment Republicans, PUMA Republicans

I was a Republican Precinct Chairman from the election that brought George W. Bush to the Governor's Office the first time to '1998 when I had to resign because I moved out here to Dogpatch. I like to think I know politics a little.

I remember well the '96 election where Bob Dole was chosen, mostly because it was His Turn. Pat Buchanan was running an insurgent campaign and he was very popular in my part of Texas. I wasn't too happy with Pat, mainly because his big political office was as a speechwriter, putting on paper the ideas of Ronald Reagan. He did that well. When it came to his own ideas, well I had many disagreements and we'll leave it at that.

On the runup to that '96 election there was a big county Republican meeting where we all had to do things like put a piece of paper with each candidate's name into a hat so we could then draw for ballot placement. A Precinct chair(wo)man, usually one that supported said candidate would then place the paper in the hat for drawing. No one wanted to take Dole's paper and put it in the hat, as a matter of fact there were boos when his name was mentioned.

Finally, just as I was rising, someone else did. When Dole's name was drawn, there were more boos. After the drawing for ballot order (my name didn't have to be drawn because no one dared to run against the Honorable Peter), the County chairman scolded the Buchanan Brigade types for lack of respect and reminded everyone of the Need For Party Unity. Much the same thing happened after the Primary. The Buchanan Brigade types were torqued. We got the same Party Unity speech at the first meeting. Some of the Buchanan Brigade types didn't listen and Clinton, warts and all was reelected.

Funny thing happened in this election. Some of the party chosen were cast out by those impudent voters who did not listen to the People Of High Status. Sitting Senators were cast out. Those Chosen To Assume Their Rightful Promotions were thrown to the curb. And, suddenly Party Regulars were screeching. In '96 George W. Bush was titular head of the Republican Party of Texas. Carl Rove, unless he is plumb senile, should remember '96. The Republican Party was facing a long shot against a fairly popular President.In addition, Gingrich had kind of stepped on his crank while wearing golf shoes.

So, the establishment put out a Party Regular with a good record but little chance. Dole lost. Dole lost against a fairly popular President with many, many negatives that, given a political insurgent knife fighter could have exploited. Establishment Republicans did not learn. George W. Bush kind of blindsided them, no one really expected him to win the Primary in 2000, win it he did, over another Senator who thought it was His Turn. a guy named McCain. You may have heard of him. McCain then put the next eight years of the Bush Presidency "reaching across the aisle and otherwise torpedoing Republicans. Thus it was His Turn again in '08.

I was long retired from the inner workings of the Party, I merely voted against him in the Primary and voted for him in the General. That's the party unity expected by the establishment. This is what we have yet to see in this election. We are lacking in party unity by the very people who demand it of us. I do not know Sharon Angle. I wouldn't know her if she walked up and started talking. I do not know Christine O'Donnell. Nor do I know the guy who beat Murk in Alaska. Still, every one of these was chosen by the voters, every one was attacked by the establishment Republicans before the people voted them in and every one is getting from zero to only lukewarm support of the establishment Republicans who always, ALWAYS lecture us about Party Unity.

So, establishment? How about some of that Party Unity you always lecture us about? And, when, oh when, will you figure out that selecting a Senator to run for the Presidency because it is His Turn is always a losing proposition. Establishment, if you want there to be a Republican Party in 2016 or 2018, you'd better sharpen your wits. There is an upheaval coming. Want to survive, get on board or you won't be able to ride it out.

No Drama, Only Catastrophe

Sunday Linda Lou was all discombobulated, running her walker into things, not being able to talk, just having a very hard time. By bedtime, though, she was somewhat better. When she was on her way to lie down I told her no drama allowed in the morning. So, she woke me up at about 7:30 AM to put Princess out, that dog does not like anyone else coming in the house and Patsy, our neighbor, is helping with Linda Lou's dressings on her leg.

So, I put Princess out and went back to sleep. My assistant sleeper, Bingo T. Pug and I were sleeping the sleep that only those with a clear conscience are allowed when Linda Lou woke me up, too early, BTW, telling me she had a screw coming through her skin and we needed to get her to the Docs to do something about it. Seems the elevation of her leg and the compression bandage was working well enough that the swelling was down so much that the wreckage in her leg was coming through the skin.

The good news, there was no drama, only a catastrophe. Sigh. So, we were convinced that Linda Lou would be in the hospital again so we packed a suitcase and suchlike and headed in to the wound Care Clinic, which locks the door between 12 and one for lunch. They had already told us that there would be no doctor there after noon so, when we couldn't get through by phone when noon came and we were still miles away, through the small town noon traffic, we changed to go to the Emergency Room in the same hospital as the clinic is.

Well, as we were sitting in the waiting room of the ER, the Wound Care Clinic called us on the cell phone and said they were waiting for us so, back to the car, around the front of the hospital, into the main entrance, up the elevator and down the hall, and there we were.

The looked at it and called the Orthopod. Meanwhile, the Doc they Shanghaied to look at her there started lecturing her about how she could lose her leg and to start following directions. I don't know that it did much good but I do have a little hope.

From there we went to the Orthopedist's office and sat around while waiting to be squoze in between appointments. More X-rays and waiting and we finally got told we have to see another surgeon who will go in, take all of the hardware our of her leg, put one of those outside frameworks screwed into the bones from the outside and, hopefully, after two unsuccessful tries, fix the broken bones so they can heal.

I only hope this new Doc has the sense to look at my Linda Lou and figure out that she is not some 92 pound ballerina trying to lose five pounds. We'll see him (?) next Tuesday. This Doc works out of Medical City in Dallas where I ended up after my stroke. Med City is one of the premier hospitals in the State so I fully expect it to be on the chopping block once Obamacare hits, unless the Republicans win with margin enough to kill this monster. Yes, everybody knows we need some form of medical reform, a couple thousand page bill that no one read before passing, ain't it.

Anyhow, we finally got out of there a bit after five PM. Since I left without breakfast, by then my stomach was gnawing on the back of my belt buckle. The last time we'd been to town we were going to this little take out Pizza joint, Peddler's Pizza that we like. Then they'd had a transformer blow up on the pole outside and so we were out of luck. The only good news of the whole day was they had lots and lots of volts and amps so I ordered a couple of pies, one for me and one for Linda Lou. She, somehow, decided she's a California girl and wants pineapple on her pies. I hope no old Moustache Pete Mafioso ever sees one of those, he'd machine gun the whole joint.

The good news, I had something to eat. the bad news, I had to smell it all the way home. The worst news of all, I had to stop and pick up a couple of scripts for Linda Lou and Wally World. The have a new policy. You go in and wait. Then you finally get up to the cashier and she gets the pills and rings them up and I get the honor of paying for them. At that point, those pills are my property, right? I've paid for them. But, noooo! Now I have to move down and wait for the pharmacist to stop whatever he's doing, like filling a scrip, and come up and check to see that he did his job right, meanwhile, causing me to wait and whoever in sitting on those stupid steel benches waiting for their meds to wait longer.

You may not believe this but I had a little something to say about it all. I do not understand a business that is bases on customer service to go around making life more difficult for the customer. We transferred all of our scrips from Brookshire's, a state of Texas grocery chain, to Wal Mart when we retired so we could get a scrip wherever we traveled in retirement. then the Donks took Congress in '06 and, since then, we haven't been able to go to the mail box every day. I moved my scrips back to Brookshire's because I kept getting excuses instead of a full prescription. Looks like I'll have to do the same with Linda Lou's scrips.

Anyhow, I finally got home and got something to eat. I deserved it. Bingo and Miss Priss got Pizza Bones. They deserved those.

The Wound Care Clinic And Other Adventures

Linda Lou had her second surgery on her broken leg back in May, the lowest inch or inch and a half of the incision still isn't healed. So, after months of asking various doctors, like every one we saw, including Docs we met in, say, the supermarket about it, our family practice Doc finally referred her to the Wound Care Clinic. So, we drove to town for the morning appointment ( you do know how much I love mornings, right?) and we were going to the lab to have blood drawn, too. I have a standing order, seems that I need this test called an "INR" that checks to see that my blood thinner is working right.

So we got there earlier than we were supposed to but, unfortunately, not early enough to be comfortable with going to the lab first so we had lots of time after Linda Lou filled out the new patient paperwork. Eventually, though we got is and did the rest of the new patient stuff. We finally saw the new Doc, nice enough guy, who explained that the reason Linda Lou's wound isn't healing is because she keeps her feet down too much and her lower legs and ankles swell. So, now we have this oddball sort of thing like a finely woven Ace Wrap only with little squares and rectangles in brown and green on it. Seems that if you pull it tight enough to make the brown rectangles into squares, you have so much pressure to keep the swelling down. This. BTW, turns the green squares into rectangles. They say that later we'll pull it tighter to where the green squares which turned into rectangles become square again.

Even more fun, Linda Lou is supposed to either lie down or sit in the recliner with her feet up, only a half hour at a time sitting in a normal chair or standing on the walker.

Now this, while exciting enough, is not the half of it. Linda Lou's breaks are "collapsing" and her leg isn't healing straight. So, after November, when her Medicare kicks in, she gets to go BACK in the hospital for the third surgery, please note that the original break was toward the end of February. and people wonder why I'm in a bad mood all the time. Oh, and the first trip to this Wound Care Clinic was Thursday morning, when we changed the dressing, she was bleeding from another spot on that leg. I think that one of the rods is starting to stick through the skin now that the swelling is starting to go down. This means that it may well not be able to wait until November.

You know I never really believed that it was possible for someone with halfway decent medical insurance to need to declare bankruptcy over medical bills. This, though, is really killing up. I do believe, though, that we may finally have paid enough to where we don't have that stupid percentage thing left for the rest of the year. I'm really spoiled with my insurance. Everything that Medicare doesn't cover, our insurance does. this is what Linda Lou will have, after November, assuming we make it that long.

By the time we finally got out of the Wound Care Center and into the car, it was after noon. Naturally, the lab closes at noon for lunch, until one. Did I mention that Linda's lab work was fasting? And that I had not eaten anything in solidarity? No wonder I'm always in a bad mood. So, we finally got into the lab and out in just minutes. If you have a Quest Diagnostics around and need lab work, try them. I have needed bloodwork every month for the last five years, since that stroke. In all that time I have only gotten one bad stick.

We then went to Wally World to get a few groceries and some dog food, as well as a tad of cash. We went, from there to Peddlar's Pizza, we don't often get to the county seat but, when we do, we sometimes go there. I don't think they are a big chain but it's a buy one, get one free place and it's some pretty fair pizza. So, we drove by the place on our way to Wally World and they were nice and open, by the time we got back they were sort of closed because the power was out, the transformer blew. I used an ugly word. My mouth was set for Pizza, I ended up at Taco bueno. Shucks and other colorful comments. Then home we went with one last stop for Linda Lou's burger.

Every day a new adventure.

About t Those Flamable Korans

Dear Washington:

You have been jawing about this little fifty-member Church down in Florida that wants to make a point about how if the Muslims get to build a center that includes all kinds of things, including a Mosque, they can burn some Korans. Washington, you have put yourself squarely in the middle of this, why? Washington, perhaps you might go to the records office or, perhaps a musty old encylopedia, and read the charter that exists between you and America.

Then look back on a couple of hundred years of Supreme Court decisions. Let us start with that old parcchment, especially that paragraph reading "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech...it goes on but that should be enough to get you the faint glimmering of the idea that this whole bruhaha is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. I wish I were one of those computer super geniuses who know how to make letters in words an inch tall, maybe then you peabreains would lern how to say about an issue, I am prohibited by the Constitution of the United States of America from doing anything about this mess so go talk to someone who is not so prohibited.

Just as an aside, Washington, if you would only learn to butt out of things you are not supposed to be doing, you might just have a few minutes a day to do what you are supposed to do.

Anyhow, this whole mess is far bigger than it needs to be. The building that isn't a Mosque but will contain a Muslim Worship Center, that is not at Ground Zero but is two blocks away where a building that was damaged by an engine of one of the planes that created Ground Zero (that is quite a name for it) may well be built long before anyone finishes doing much of anything at Ground Zero.

Meanwhile that little Church down in Florida seems to have backed off on it's plan on a Koran BBQ but that sick cult led by that expletive deleted Fred Phelps, the failed Democrat politician from Topeka, has picked up the challenged. And you all should know that Phelps will do almost anything it it grants him access to the news.

Anyhow, Washington, seeing as how you cannot do anything about The Incredible Flaming Koran Disaster, why don't you do something you can control, like finish the fence on the border.

Oh, and you should have kept your mouth shut about those Korans because, either way it's a danger to our troops and to US interests in general. If you, Washington, had kept your mouth shut, it would have been a small issue, unless flogged by the Democrat loving "free press" that gave us the "flushed Korans" disaster a few years back when it could harm Bush. Sure, if that bunch of "journalists" had gotten off their knees on their Obama prayer rugs long enough to file the story, certain wild eyed Muslims around the world would get all excited and burn some flags and kill off a few of each other.

Now, with all this excitement, if Phelps and his gang of thugs get together and burn some Korans, the excitable morons of the Muslim world will get together and burn more flags and kill more of each other. Now I'm trying pretty hard to figure out how people killing each other on the other side of the world bothers me. Y'know, Washington, it doesn't. I mean, okay. If big crowds of Muslims gather shouting Death To America! I have the old fashioned idea that we should drop a few cluster bombs in the middle of the crowd, eventually they might learn to shout Okay, America, We Will Be Nice To Our Neighbors And Stop Killing Folks! Or perhaps they'd just learn to shout In The Name Of Allah, Please Stop! and then we could send them all to "be nice to our neighbors and stop treating women like slaves" school. Ah, but that would fail the multiculti test, sorry.

You know, Washington, I've been saying for a few decades now, stop arming anyone who treats people like slaves. Every time we do that those guns eventually end up pointed at us.

All that aside, Washington, what is it exactly that brings you people "home" for election time where you talk like you actually can walk, chew bubble gum and watch for traffic, all at the same time, and then go back to your real home, Washington and act like the people my late mother, God rest her soul, called fatheads? Hmmm?

So, Washington, please stay out of things that do not concern you. You have enough to do fixing that idiotic Ponzi scheme you call Social Security. And the border. And our worn out military equipment. You know, Washington, that you've been using the heck out of our trucks, rifles, humvees, ships airplanes, not to mention boots. Meanwhile they're not getting replaced as they wear. You can only fix an airplane so many times, Washington. After enough time at sea a ship needs more and more time tied up for repairs, not to mention in a drydock. Meanwhile you are talking about giving Mexico another billion plus dollars so they can drill in the Gulf while we can't. Um, Washington, we don't HAVE an extra billion bucks, remember? If Mexico needs to borrow billions, let them do it like we do, borrow from the Chinese. If you can find a borrowed billion to give to Mexico, use it to repair or replace some tiny bit of the worn out gear in the military. That, Washington, is your job, not borrowing money to give to an oligarchy. Fatheads.

Washington, I turned ten in 1957. Back then a kid could leave the house in the summer, after chores of course, and be gone until suppertime. If said kid was near home at lunchtime,(s)he and all the other kids in the pack would storm the house for peaner butter 'n jelly sammiches and milk or Koolaid. Nobody worried. Often, near suppertime, phone calls were made for a kid to eat over.

Washington, those kids were safe, barring getting chased by dogs or angry cows we tried to ride. Washington, it was your changes in policy that made the whole durned country unsafe for kids. You want to know why we're in the TEA Party movement, Washington? It's because we remember when we were kids and could go outside, safely. That is the America we were born in Washington and we want our country back!

Wealth Creation, Continued

So the left, while run by the wealthy, does not want poor people to create or accumulate wealth of their own. The answer to that is for people to ignore the wealthy leftists and create their own. Those wealthy enough to provide for their own needs do not need the left.

Wealth creation is actually pretty simple, even for the poor. Assume the kid who gets out of high school knowing how to read, write and do simple arithmetic. He's already ahead of those who dropped out or majored in real loud crappy "music" and wearing his belt four inches above the knees.

The smart kid goes on to college or gets a job. The college-bound kid then takes classes that actually stretches his mind, no I'm a victim studies for him. He takes classes that will teach him something useful, something an employer might actually find valuable. When (s)he graduates he's way ahead of the angry studies major. The kid does not get a humongous dept going through school, either. There are darned few people who really care if one's degree is from Haaavud or Slippery Rock. That kid with the English Major from Yale and a $300,000.00 school loan is way behind the Kid with the four year degree in engineering, two years of which came from the local community college and two years from North Texas State and $1.98 in school loans.

The kid who graduates high school without enough money for a University education? How about a two year community college degree in auto mechanics or an apprenticeship in pluming? Plumbers make a nice dollar. Or, how about a hitch in the Service? The Service will teach a kid a LOT of valuable things. A kid shows up with an Honorable Discharge the prospective boss already knows some important things, like being on time. Doing what he's told, the way he's told, when he's told. Do you have any idea how many kids don't know that?

The whole idea is to get out of "school" knowing something valuable to others. My education, such as it is, is thanks to my parents who taught me to read, before Kindergarten. Then the Service and the Public Library. True story: I have known a couple of bosses who asked each applicant if he could see their library card. No card, no job.

So, our kid is now working, with no drug habit and has neither born nor fathered a child before marriage. Now comes the wealth accumulation. Each payday the kid buys something that is not consumed immediately, then, if there is anything left, a few bucks into savings. Along will come Miss or Mr. Right, sooner or later. Here comes something really important. Divorce will set you back to below zero. It takes forever and a day to climb out of one divorce. Forever and a year if there are kids involved, to say nothing of the damage to the kids.

Now most all of our paychecks do not help us accumulate wealth. My supper did not create wealth. Funny, though, that extra can of Spam I bought that I won't eat this pay period is a form of wealth. In case of some kind of emergency, extra food that does not have to be kept refrigerated or need to be cooked is wealth. When there is no way to buy food in the stores, say after a hurricane, the guy with canned pork and beans, Spam is wealthier than the guy with ten thousand dollars cash and nothing to eat.

There are many forms of wealth, aside from money. Money, though important, is a constantly depreciating asset. That money in the savings account draws less in interest that the politicians take away by constantly inflating the currency. True story: In the 1880s, after Colt's Firearms finished filling the orders from the Army a Colt Single Action Army, a holster and belt and a box of cartridges could be bought for a twenty dollar gold piece. You can still buy a new Colt SAA, gunbelt and box of cartridges for a twenty dollar gold piece. Meanwhile a twenty dollar bill will not buy a box of .45s, and I don't even want to think of the tiny size of a piece of gold that a twenty dollar bill will buy.

I am old enough to remember a trip to the grocery store with forty dollars filling the hole back of that Mercury Station Wagon. Today? Two twenty dollar bulls buys not much. Two twenty dollar gold pieces? Get a trailer.

Rent is not wealth. Renting accumulates wealth for someone else. So, buy a house as soon as possible and then, stay there as long as you can. Do not take home equity loans. A few years back there was a book titled The Millionaire Next Door. One of the more striking things about that book was that ordinary people who became wealthy did so by not buying more house than they could afford when they were young and staying in that house, paying the loan down. They were also far more likely to drive a Buick than a Caddy or Rolls, even when they could afford the more expensive car. Flash is not wealth, nor is bling.

See that guy driving down the road with those fancy custom wheels on his car? He'll never have any real wealth. A share of stock can be wealth but one should be very careful about that. Stocks are an important investment for those who can afford to lose.

My parents loved to go to Reno, to the casinos. They had an iron rule, though: never gamble with anything you can't afford to lose and smile after losing saying, thanks, I had a good time. When you gamble with games or stocks, you take a risk. In 1899 stock in the Acme Buggy Whip Company was a good buy. Funny how by 1910 or so, not so good a buy, nor a good choice for your retirement money.

Today, more than ever, it's important to have a little something that the government doesn't know you have. From that old .38 revolver you bought from a newspaper ad, no paperwork needed to that little gold necklace you paid cash for at the jewelry store and walked out with them saying "I need your name and phone number".

And another thing! Information is wealth for someone. Never give any information you don't need to.The sales clerk that wants your phone number for a cash purchase? Don't give it. Same with the address so they can send you ads you don't want. We complain about Spam E-mails, my mailbox is always packed with catalogs from people with whom I have never done business, nor will I. Retailers sell your information! so don't give it away.

Anyhow, before buying a single share of stock you should have a big chunk of your house not paid off, plus have started building up some hard assets such as some gold, some silver, that sort of thing, plus a month or so worth of stored food. I'm not really one to talk a lot about stock seeing as how I own not a single share, although I have. Still, in the Age of Obama, I would not buy a single share of any stock. We know that the Obama Admin picks winners and losers according to some secret formula only Soros knows, if your life's savings are locked up in a company they pick to loot, well, that's your tough luck. As your life's savings disappears you can think of the wonderful Obamacare you'll get. Bend over, here it comes again!

Wealth is nothing more than being able to be self sufficient. This is why the left does not want you to accumulate wealth.There are many types of wealth, from the food you have stored to a shootin' arn and a box of ca'tridges to money. None will replace the other very well. A years supply of food will not stop a rapist, he's just go away satisfied on more than one level. That .38 that will stop a rapist? Won't feed you very well unless you live where you can hunt. That hundred grand worth of stock? Won't get you up and inland very well if your tank is empty and the gas stations are closed and that hurricane is bearing down.

Wealth? There are many ways to accumulate many different kinds of wealth. the left doesn't want us to have any of it, and does nothing to create it. I have my differences with the Ayn Rand types but she was very clear-eyed when she saw the left as what they are, looters.

Now I'm going to shut up about wealth. Our kids will inherit our half acre, a falling down house, books, shootin' irons and not much else. Oh, and they already have something. the ability to make their own way. That's the best we could do.

Wealth Creation

There is something seriously wrong with wealthy leftists, The Kennedys, the Obamas, the Soros types have one thing in common. They either made their pile under somewhat suspicious circumstances (who wrote that book, Barry?) or inherited it. They got to the top, now they are sawing the ladder down so no one else gets there. Worse, while they are doing it, they accuse the right of wanting the poor to suffer.

I'm kind of curious. When George Soros wiped out the savings of all those Brits, how many jobs did he create? I know that, today, he finances a lot of lefties to help destroy my country and turn it into something the Constitution doesn't allow but is that worth the savings and jobs of thousands of people?

That fat pig, Ted Kennedy never created a single job, he was directly responsible for making it harder to find a job. That drunken lout was one of one hundred Senators who helped destroy the black family and yet, there he was, the Liberal Lion of the Senate. Why? The guy that left a low level campaign worker, a woman, to die, then became infamous for that waitress sandwich with Chris Dodd somehow became a champion of women. Huh. Meanwhile cops spend ten years in the sex crimes squad are Pigs to the lefties. Go figure.

It really doesn't matter which. The Pelosis won't let union labor on their vineyard but demand other people submit to card check. Cool. That will help with unemployment!

Meanwhile this Obama feller. The one claiming that he inherited the economic mess we're in. Excuse me, my memory isn't what it was before my stroke but I don't recall the country dying and leaving the economy to him. I seem to remember a rather ugly election with Obama not just running but refusing to say a word about some really ugly reports of cheating by his people. He didn't inherit anything in '08 unless his grandmother left him something. He fought for the job, he didn't inherit it. Although he does kind of act like one of those dumb kids inheriting too much money without ever having to work for it. Funny, he's still not working for it. Go figure.

There is a real problem with our truth in advertising laws. The Democrats tout themselves as the Party of the little guy and that may once have been true. I don't recall exactly when but, okay it might have been back in General Jackson's day, maybe. Today it is the party of making sure the little guy stays little.

Democrats run every big city with a substantial minority population which is pretty much all of them. Democrats have run the minority sections of the big cities even longer. Notice how wonderful the minority areas of big cities are these days? The left has really improved things, right? What, they haven't?

If we want to improve the lives of the poor, we need to let them create wealth. Not give them anything but let the poor get educated. Real education, not that pap in big city schools where the most important subject is grievances. Bring back shop class, too. I don't know how many kids I've seen since I got out of the Service that do not seem to realize that a job is not the place to spend all day on the phone with the girlfriends. I've seen a lot of high school graduates who cannot read the directions. Many who have been outraged that the whole idea of a job is to work. Too bad all kids can't go to work for the Post Office but, there it is. (I say this as the husband of a postal retiree. The only difference between a Postal retiree and about half of the postal workers in an MPO is that the retiree doesn't have to commute to do nothing.)

Even as poor as the big city schools have gotten, there is an almost guaranteed way to avoid poverty. Graduate high school. Avoid drugs. Do not have or father children until married. This does not promise riches, only that one will avoid poverty. Still, no matter how poor the first job, with those three things one's lot should improve. Even if that first job is janitor or burger flipper. Do you know how many McDonald's Franchise owners started as burger flippers? Most of them.

Almost all of the fast food companies try hard to promote and to offer a way up. So, naturally the Democrats hate the fast food companies. Figures.

Oh well, it's time to end this.It's past time to put a stop to the Party of Obama and George Soros being the Party of the little guy.

Birthday Meeting.

I forget to mention my twenty-five year birthday meeting, actually a meeting where the whole group celebrates all of the "year anniversaries" for the month. We left the kids at Germ Gardens and started wending our way back home, unfortunately Linda Lou turns into a pumpkin and cannot do a midnight meeting any more. Which meant that I got her home, got to visit my own bathroom and then had to get into the car and drive again to the group where I sobered up. Lucky they're giving gasoline away these days.

So, I drove another fifty-odd miles, in a slightly different direction, to the group I first sobered up in. I don't go there very often, just to celebrate these days. It's mostly a beginner's group, I fear it might be on it's last legs. The Saturday Midnight birthday meetings were once crowded and lively, this one was sad and attendance was sparse.

Worse were the people "celebrating". There was no joy. Well, I brought a few bucketsful but I don't know that it was enough to dispel all the gloom. If I was sitting out there with one day or one week sober I might have gone out for a bottle after some of those folks celebrating.

There is a reason we celebrate our AA "birthdays" and it has little or nothing to do with cake or a shiny new medallion, or "look at me, I'm special!" We celebrate birthdays because life as an active drinking alcoholic bites the big one. Getting and staying sober for the first few years is HARD! Things do, though, get better. Much better, eventually.

The whole purpose of celebrating those birthdays is to say, "I've been where you are". I am not anything special. I did a few simple (not particularly easy) things and now my life is much better. If I can do this, so can you. Come join me where life is better. I will help you but you must do it.

That is why we celebrate. If I had not stopped drinking those 25 years ago, I would not be alive today. This I know. We in AA have no opinion about other people's drinking, all we say is come see us if it causes problems in your life. We get asked a lot "what makes an alcoholic?" We don't know. There is a simple answer to those wondering "am I an alcoholic?" The answer? If it causes problems, it is a problem.

I got sober when AA was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the forming of the first AA group. Well, now AA is seventy-five. And I have been sober for one third of that. And so, we look for the next drunk, wanting to change his or her life. So AA can have it's 100th anniversary. I doubt, with my health, I'll see it from this side of the grass. I hope many will, and are just as glad to live free and sober as I am.

Oh, speaking of "birthday presents", our number two boy called from North Carolina. He managed a promotion at his job and his wife is pregnant again. Grandchild number eleven will be here about next April. They're hoping for a girl, they already have four boys. We ran long on boys and short on cash around here. Anyhow, I don't know how many are in a full squad these days but it used to be eleven in a rifle squad, not that I ever saw any up to full strength. So, my dream of a squad in the Armed Services of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is almost complete.

Those disreputable looking fellers up top? Pals of mine in recovery, Doug, JT, Steve and the bald fat guy.

Josiah's Birthday Party

Instead of being in Washington DC at the big rally, I had to take Linda Lou to our Grandon Josiah' birthday party. It was held at one of the MickeyD's Virus Palaces, otherwise known as a playland. I think it would have been quieter at the big shindig with Beck, Palin, etc. Just as a matter of curiosity, is it real smart to hold a big outdoor event in DC in late August? Shouldn't events like this be in , oh I dunno, Idaho in August and DC in mid April?

Anyhow, we got in the car and drove to the McD, only to discover that, after unloading Linda Lou and her walker, we were in the wrong one. Sigh. Thirty years ago I could have read that tiny sign. Of course, thirty years ago, no grandkids. So, we got back in the car and then finally drove to the right Bacteria Farm and there they were, five of ours and their friends.

The trouble with not being liberals is there aren't four, six or ten grandparents , two now adult kids and one grandchild. That is, of course, why we will eventually beat the left and why they are trying so hard to take over education, they don't have kids much so they try to steal ours. Anyway, there were about forty-one thousand kids between the ages of months old to tweens, none using "their indoor voices". MickeyD's Plague Palaces have no soundproofing.

I find it strange that only a few of the adults took refuge, temporarily in the main part of the place. I had to. Oddly, as deaf as I am, noise bothers me more than it did. Oh well, I shall not ponder the strange things that come with getting old. Otherwise I might start thinking about the things that should be limber are now stiff and vice versa. Sigh.

Anyhow, I would duck in for as long as I could stand it, taking pictures, and then retreat to a table in the "adult section", which is not the same as the adult section in a seedy bookstore in the tough part of town. Then, when the sound shockwaves slowed to a jangle I would take a deep breath, say a short prayer and head back into Germ Garden. This was much like when I was in the Service, every time I did something worth a big medal, no one was looking. I will say that every time I looked, Josiah was surrounded by girls. Well, he should be. Anyhow, here are the pictures. We might not have outnumbered the Beck confab, we did out noise them.

General Quarters, General Quarters! This Is No Drill! All Hands Man Your Battle Stations!

The Obama Administration seems to be totally suicidal. The EPA is now considering banning lead ammunition. Even dumber, they have opened comments on the scheme, comments closing on October 31. The election being November the second. Way to bring us bitter clingers to the polls!

I am trying to link the story Here. Lets see if this works. Ha! Seems like it did. My blog-fu is improving!

Anyhow, you should follow the directions and send a nice little note to the EPA on this. You should also call or write your Representative in Congress, plus both Senators.

Oddly I have read that when Congress allowed the EPA to lord it over lead, they specifically exempted ammunition, mainly for fear the military would end up on the short end, also because they remember '94, after the "assault weapons" ban. What, are you silly enough to think that it was all Newt and the Contract?

Okay, I understand that the upper ranks of this Administration (or is it a regime?) have little or no practical experience. Still, you would think that someone there would like a tiny bit of help from Congress. As the word trickles out about this jackass move, everyone ready to give up on Republicans will be enraged and energized. Does anyone in this regime know that when you go bear hunting you do not cover yourself in lard, fish and berries and then arm yourself only with a thin willow switch? Peabrains. Worse. Brains rattling around in their heads like a BB in a boxcar. Oh, and BBs have lead cores. Actually BB shot is usually all lead. For some strange reason, the BBs used in BB guns is slightly bigger than the size of BB shot for shotguns. I never really understood that. The only reason I can think of for that is so a proud owner of a Red Ryder BB gun can't buy a 25 pound bag of shot and be in business for a year or so. But, I digress.

And these people claim to be smart. Lord help me. Obama, if you don't pee on this fire right now, you can just "Say Good Night, Gracie".

It is up to us, the bitter clingers, to put a stop to this nonsense.

Update, 3:10 AM 8/29/10: Between the time I wrote the above and the time I got home from the midnight "birthday meeting" of the AA group where I sobered up all those years ago, the EPA says that it has rejected banning lead ammunition. Okay, good. We still need to keep an eye on 'em, though. I'll post something soon about the birthday meeting and my grandson Josiah's fourth birthday party soon.

Happy "Birthday" To Me.

It was 1985 when I woke up to my very last hangover (so far, anyway). I have been sober now for twenty-five years. I by no means did this alone. Without the loving help of a gracious and forgiving God I would never had a chance, and that is just the beginning. Although He is the most important.

My family, too was very important, I doubt I'd even be alive, much less sober and fairly happy, without my Linda Lou. The added "family" from AA was the last thing that made the difference.

The wonderful thing about AA is that almost never did an alcoholic recover from drunkenness before Bill W. and Dr. Bob sobered up in 1935 and wrote down what they did. That, I believe, is the key to AA's success. Before AA it was always some smart person looking down his nose at a drunk and saying "this is what you should do". Much like those idiots in Washington, DC, most of whom have never run a hot dog stand, trying to run American business from afar. We see how this is working. How about that Recovery Summer, Barry?

Bill W. and Dr. Bob did not do that. They sobered up. Then they wrote down what they did. In a way it's kind of depressing to stand in front of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and look out over the group. Experience has shown that more than half of the people will die as wet drunks. Those who do not recover are the ones too smart to follow directions.And it's really that simple. Those willing to follow some simple (not easy, simple) directions are the ones who recover.

I believe that it also takes a certain amount of stubbornness. We alcoholics say that, in order to recover, one must "hit bottom", have one's life get so awful that one is willing to make the effort to change. This is why trust fund kids and actors and famous athletes are so often train wrecks. A lot of money can insulate one from the damage. Anyhow, once one has hit bottom and started the recovery process it takes a peculiar combination of willingness to follow directions and enough stubbornness to keep on when things get hard. It also take the knowledge that there is always another bottom, always lower and worse than the one before.

I do not know that if anyone new in sobriety will ever read this. If one does I have a special message. Try to remember the pain. To recover I need to remember that pain and live with the knowledge that I don't ever have to feel that way again. That is one of the main reasons we keep going to meeting once we have a year or so sober, by the way. Humans are hard wired to forget our own pain. I usually prove this by noting all the women out there with two or more babies. Going to meetings, though, and seeing the newcomers struggling with trying to get, and stay, sober reminds us of our own pain.

Yes, the bad news is that half will fail. The good news, half will win. Todauy I am a winner. It's my twenty-fifth "birthday" Too bad my knees and back (and a few other parts which I shall not name.You're welcome.) do not believe I'm twenty-five.

Just Crazy Talk

Well I see that the news is not about the economy sinking like a lead canoe, nor is it about Congress looking like it will swing hard right after the election. It's not even about The President's polls reaching, in less than two years, numbers that look like what it took the media seven years to give George Bush.

No, the big news is that some one fifth to one quarter of the population thinks Barack Hussein Obama is Muslim.

Naturally, the media types say that this makes the population stupid. Sure. I mean, someone who called himself Barry until after college now calls himself Barack. Sure the guy had a Muslim father and, according to the rules of Islam, that makes him one too. Silly things like when he was in that school in Indonesia, the paperwork had him as a Muslim and that his stepfather was Muslim, why should anyone think any of that makes him a Muslim. That's just crazy talk.

Next some percentage of the population might think that someone named Francis Terrence O'Callahan might be Catholic. Just crazy talk.

In other odd news the New York Times had this editorial out about Tom DeLay finally being cleared of all federal charges. In it they comment that he was only cleared because lawmakers had not made his actions illegal. Well, duh. That has got to be one of the silliest thing I've ever seen. Well, yeah, NYT, and the only reason it's legal for you numb skulls to breathe air is the lawmakers haven't made it illegal for you to do so. No, New York Times, the reason DeLay has been cleared of federal charges is that he followed the laws as they were written. If the laws had been written differently he would have followed them as they were written then. Now they have not yet made it illegal to be a Republican, as much as the NYT would like that. Idiots.

I've been remiss in posting lately, I've been doing a little extra reading. In addition to my "regular" reading and the internet reading, I have just got a CD ROM from Handloader Magazine called The Art of Bullet Casting. This six hundred page tome on a CD-ROM is keeping me busy. I swear, though, some of it carries less knowledge than Joe Schmoe the handloader. Oh well, I am learning something, even though much of the "book" is about loading for cartridges I will never own, nor have I any interest in owning, even if I won the lottery. I doubt I'll win the lottery, too, considering that I don't buy tickets.

Anyhow, I'm around, just busy.

Barnaby Jones Pickles, RIP

I got online and, in addition to the current Washington regime trying to wreck the whole country I discovered heartbreak in the Texas Hill Country. Jenny the Bloggess lost her Pug, Barnaby Jones.

I doubt that Jenny and her lovely daughter Hailey has ever heard of me. I only hope that when Barnaby got to The Bridge that Captain Fatbob, The Black Pug of Doom and Ming the Merciless, our grumpy old lady Pug were there to greet him and show him where the special stash of treats is.

I hope that Jenny and her husband, Victor take their Hailey and get another dog soon. Yes, losing a dog is heartbreaking. I know. Yet, not having that little (or sometimes not so little) four footed bundle of absolute love and devotion is even more heartbreaking.

Goodbye, Barnaby Jones Pickles. I never met you in this life but, when I go I'll have a big bag of treats with me. Keep an eye on my dogs and follow them, I'll have a little something for you, too.

I see that, as usual, my Blog-fu is not good enough to link to that post. Just type in The Bloggess and you'll get there.

Build The Fence.

A couple of years back I put up a fence around my back yard. It was only a minor fence, able to keep our German shepherd dog in the back yard. Still, it was one day to dig the important holes and pour concrete around those posts, then another day to put up the other posts and stretch the goat wire. Viola! The fence was built. At no cost to the taxpayer. Well, the taxpayer provided my pension, which paid for the fence but, the pension would have come, anyhow.

Meanwhile, they just passed another six hundred million dollar border bill up there in Washington, on top of all the billions spent so far. and they still cannot build the fence. This bill is going to pay for some new Border Patrol agents and some drones. One would think they have enough drones in government.

I would like to take a look at the houses of all these Congresscritters. I would suspect that pretty much all of them have a durned fence. Yet they can't seem to manage a fence across our border.

Now I realize that there is somewhat more to a fence along the whole southern border (we'll get to the northern border next) is somewhat of a bigger deal than the fence that keeps Cochise Apache Princess from running out and getting shot or run over. Still, I built the fence according to my needs.

So, why can't this government, with it's trillion dollar deficits, build a big ol' fence? Every day some bunch of government types are prancing around telling us how smart they are, yet they cannot build a fence.

How about this election cycle we simply require everyone running for a federal post to declare whether or not they would commit to a fence along the border, to be completely finished by 2013. Then anti-tunneling by 2015. Then start on the northern border. This, because the border is longer, plus problems like snow, ice and mountains would take somewhat longer. Not to mention the Great Lakes. Still, almost every homeowner in the country has a fence. Seems like if we can do it, why can't the Federal Government.

Shouldn't we insist on a fence before we are willing to even discuss any kind of immigration reform? Isn't it time we put our foot down and insist that government listen to us?

Why I Am A Sort Of Birther

Every few days I still see a little blurb somewhere saying how much better we all, especially conservatives, would be if no one was a "birther". The sophisticated view is that only those with an IQ under 80 or so would like to see the un-redacted, complete birth certificate of Barry Obama.

Sorry, the birth certificate is only part of it. I wanted to know during the election, and still want to know, a whole lot about this man that is a secret. The man spent a whole slew of money in court getting judges to say we had no right to see this birth certificate. Why? My certified copy cost twenty dollars, I needed it when, a few decades ago, I lost my wallet. I had to get a new drivers license and for some reason I couldn't find my original BC. So, why did the man spend so much money to avoid showing a twenty dollar document? Next question: Whose money was it?

For that matter, should a person have to prove his qualifications for the job? Much was made of the "gentleman's C" grades that Bush got, mostly by people trying to say that Gore and Kerry are smart, yet Bush showed his transcripts. Why did Obama refuse?

How did Obama get to "Pockistan" at a time when the State Dept. had a travel advisory against Americans going there? How did he pay for the trip at a time when, according to his "autobiography" he could not afford a cab ride?

There are several other questions of this sort. The most important question is how, almost two years after the election, do we not have the answers to these. The New York times manages to publish top secret national security information but they can't even find out who paid for Obama's trip to Pakistan? No wonder the media is going broke.

Consent Of The Governed?

I believe we are heading for a real fight in the next few years. Our whole government and Constitution rest on the consent of the governed. In the short run, governing without the consent of a large number of the US population will lead to rapid changes in which political party has the majority on Congress and the Presidency.

Trouble is, neither Party seems to care about governing from the middle. George W. was close, if he had been satisfied to knock the Taliban out of the government of Afghanistan and had set the military loose to kill every single one of the clowns slipping over the borders in Iraq, with a stern warning to Damascus, Riyadh and Tehran that they would get some ugly results, care of the US Air Force, Navy and the redlegs of the artillery, repeated as necessary. He would have also had to remember the borders.

Bill Clinton, though hard left to his shrivelled black soul, governed more to the center once the Republicans took Congress although the Donks did everything they could to deny the voters their victory. Then, of course, the Republicans themselves did their very best to deny the voters their victory, governing not as center conservatives but as Democrat Lite. Meanwhile the Democrats do not govern as center left but as wild-eyed Bolsheviks.

So, neither Party in Washington is paying much attention to the voters, no matter the huge throngs at TEA Party events, nor minor details like that election in Missouri where the voters went against Obamacare by a 70-30 margin.

This, of course, does not mention the Me-chelle O trip to Spain with how many of her closest friends, along with enough Secret Service Agents to take down a rifle company. This is, what, her sixth vacation this summer? Democrats of course tell us all that as a private citizen Me-chelle can go anywhere she wants. Okay, fine. So, if she is a private citizen, let her pay for the Air Force jet and Secret Service. Oh, Peter, that's different. Well, no. Either she is a private citizen or a federal official. Now, Laura Bush had a staff of one. To Me-chelle's 21. This is an inbalance. If she is a private citizen, how come such a big staff? And who pays for this staff? Laura went on a number of state trips with her husband. You remember Laura's husband, the guy that gave up golf during the war. The guy the Democrats screeched about his many vacations to Crawford, Texas. Has anyone heard one word from a Democrat leader about this little jaunt? To a foreign country during a huge recession? Did they ever shut up during the Bush terms?

The Washington establishment didn't seem to notice that a Federal Judge could not find it constitutional for the Congress to demand that people buy a particular kind of health insurance. This is especially odd considering all the "rights" that Federal Judges have found, when there is no mention at all of these "rights" anywhere in the founding documents.

It would be really nice if our law schools would require a few simple reading comprehension classes to be a prerequisite to enter. This class could focus on a few simple phrases like "Congress shall make no law..." I can see it now, the pop quiz and the arguments over exactly how many laws are "no law". They could have other interesting phrases like "shall not be infringed".

Of course, if you want to see heads explode in the pre-law classes, try "The powers not delegated to to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to to the States, respectively, or to the people." Now, a person of medium-low intelligence, or better, would on reading this, know that this means that Congress and the Federal Courts, not to mention the Executive, should butt out.

This means, of course that the Feds have no right to come up with the Defense of Marriage Act. It also means that that Federal Judge out in California has no right to butt into the California initiative on gay and lesbian marriage. It seems that gay marriage is one of those emanations of a penumbra that only lawyers can find when reading the plain and simple English of the late 18th Century.

Now I have heard some pretty fair arguments on both sides of the gay marriage issue. What I haven't seen is where it's the business of the Federal Bench. What I do see is that since marriage is not mentioned in the Constitution at all, it's one of those issues left to the people or to the States, respectively.

What would work is if the States would arrest and try Federal officials for overstepping their bounds. I know that the unpleasantness of 1932-2010 told people, wrongly, that the people and the States have no power over the Feds.


It also occurs to me that if we reintroduced dueling by sword and pistol for lying about a politician, or for that matter, a voter, we would go a long way toward a restoration of government by the people. Seems simpler than pitchforks and torches.

Another idea: Any politician who breaks a promise made during his or her term is subject to a binding recall vote within sixty days. Then we wouldn't be messing with those "95% of you will not see your taxes raised one dime" business. True, election seasons would be a little more boring but, they'd be a lot more careful with those promises. And, if there was some kind of emergency where a promise had to be broken, we'd have the recall election where the Pol could explain. If there were a good enough reason, the majority of the voters would understand.

I wonder how different my late teens would have been with no "Ah weel nevah send Murken boahs to do the job that Asian boahs should do" from LBJ. Remember the election of '64? "And we ah at peace" And we weel stay at peace" Meanwhile, painting Goldwater as a warmonger. Now, y'all forgive me for being a poor lowly enlisted man during that time but from the promise of peace to the first landing at Da Nang was about five months, total. The election of '64 to the first landings at Chu Lai was six months. Now I am no great military strategist. Still, no one can ever convince me that we could have two seaborne invasions in six months, starting from plans for peace. It just takes too long to gather all that gear and all those men.

This is another thing that bothers me. Congress, since December eighth, 1941 has not actually declared war. Instead they keep "authorizing the use of military force". Then they start screeching that there hasn't been a declaration of war. Pardon me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but when the United States government sent be halfway around the world, made me wear funny clothes and carry a gun while people I'd never even met were trying their best to kill me, that was a war.

Can we please have a rule, something like the War Powers Act that requires Congress to agree to a certain wording where we either use the military to go in and kick ass and chew bubble gum or come home. Oh, and they're all out of bubble gum. Sixty day from the first boot on the ground is plenty of time to decide if what we are doing is worth the lives and health of our young men and women. If it isn't worth it, come home. If it is, then fight. Is that to much to ask of our politicians? Can we please stop with the using our young men and women to prove how tough a politician is? We have a whole slew of pols who voted for whatever it is we're doing. About a week later they started crying about how we shouldn't be there. New rules: Rule one. A binding vote on whether or not our troops should be in action. Rule two. Once they are in action, fight to win. Rule three. No crying if the enemies are hurt or killed. If you politicians don't want the bad guys killed, don't send the military. Send politicians. Rule four. Try to remember that those men and women in a combat zone are there because you sent them. Pretend that you are on their side.