Odds 'n Ends

• The pre-Thanksgiving TSA-induced uproar has died down, but the injustices that caused it continue. You can see Wil Wheaton's entirely justified reaction to his pat down on his twitter feed on Tuesday. Being a bit more composed, but still outraged, yesterday he The very definition of a must read.


• I, like many of you, suffered through Rebecca Black's "Friday" (see how nice I am to not link to it?). But there are great ways to cope with it--like Conan's video "Thursday", or Stephen Colbert's great cover of it on Fallon's show. But this essay, just might take the cake, where Jeffrey Tucker reads way too much into the song and tries to turn it into a Libertarian allegory (I agree with the politics/philosophy, just think it's a bad read of the lyrics/video).


• I'm sure you've seen this as it's showing up everywhere I look (or maybe I just spend too much time in the wrong places on the Net), but in case you haven't, hit play here. Last night, I almost broke my laptop watching this--it was on my lap (is that maybe where they got the name for them?) and I laughed so hard I almost launched it across the room.
  
  When Harry Met Sally 2 with Billy Crystal & Helen Mirren from Billy Crystal


• I put up a video from Lovett a few weeks back, and his album came out recently--one of the most eclectic collections of music I have--and pretty much all good. Grab a free track here:
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

A New Favorite Election Day Quotation

haven't read this one since high school (will be starting it Monday again), so it's not a big surprise that I didn't have this one queued up for today/other Election Days.

The most interesting incident Tuesday morning was my walking to a building on Thirty-fourth Street to enter a booth and push levers on a voting machine. I have never understood why anybody passes up that bargain. It doesn't cost a cent, and for that couple of minutes, you're the star of the show, with top billing. It's the only way that really counts for you to say I'm it, I'm the one that decides what's going to happen and who's going to make it happen. It's the only time I really feel important and know I have a right to. Wonderful. Sometimes the feeling lasts all the way home if somebody doesn't bump me.

- Archie Goodwin

Let the Complaining Begin!

As soon as the polls opened today, I went and did my civic duty along with a handful of others (that's not a comment on turnout, btw), many of whom would not qualify for a Senior Citizen discount on anything, so I took heart in that.

One of the nice things about living in the State of Idaho is that I can freely vote my conscience (i.e., not a Republicrat) and be fully certain that the candidate who appears to be the lesser of two evils will make it to office. I'd vote my conscience anyway, but still...

Anyway, according to several T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers that I've seen (if these aren't the true arbiters of what passes for thought in America today, I don't know what is...twitter, I guess), as a voter, I'm now fully qualified to complain. So let me get started:

1. Kids these Days, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that ol' Socrates/Plato/Cicero/someone forever old said,

   "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

   which just goes to show ya that everyone's complained about Kids these Days.
   
   Whatever. It's still true, kids today are manner-less, contemptuous and disrespectful, you know it, I know it and they know it.
   
   Grrr.
2. Two Party System...when are we, the electorate, going to wake up to the fact that this supposed two-party system is just one party masquerading as two, different names for the same stuff? When will we demand actual choices in the forms of multiple parties?
3. Bite-Sized Candy ShrinkageNow this one, I'm really riled up about. Go check out the contents of your kids' plunder from this weekend, or a bag on the shelf of the grocery store if you're not into that--those things are noticeably and significantly smaller than they were even 1 year ago. Now, I'm not one to call for more government interference in our lives/the market, but c'mon, you're telling me the FDA doesn't have an enforceable standard mass for "bite sized" candy bar?

I have truly never felt like voting more than after watching this

...granted, not voting the way moveon.org and The Worst Thing to Happen to House clearly want me to, but hey, I'll definitely be at the polls

Lifting a Pint for Sam

Patriot Samuel Adams was born this day in 1722. Adams was one of the men behind the Boston Tea Party, was a delegate to the Continental Congress 1774-1781, signed the Declaration of Independence, and served as Governor of Massachusetts (1794-1797). When he wasn't showing more political courage, backbone and conviction than every elected person currently in Washington, D. C., he brewed beer. From what I understand, he was a far better politician than a brewer. It's in this connection that most people know about him today (I don't even want to think about how many college freshman know what the Boston Tea Party is...), his name is now attached to a very fine beer (not a great one, mind you), but one worthy of the name.

Thomas Jefferson called him the "Patriarch of Liberty," his cousin John (you may have heard of him) said:

Without the character of Samuel Adams, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. For fifty years his pen, his tongue, his activity, were constantly exerted for his country without fee or reward.

Here's a few gems of wisdom from his pen:

If Virtue & Knowledge are diffus'd among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands of those who feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.

The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.

Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?

A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.

How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!

Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.

If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of Almighty God, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.

All might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they should.

He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.

If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.

Thoughts on Earth Day

In an effort to conserve energy and resources (my own), here's a few things I thought were worth reading on the topic of Earth Day.

• from Big Government, an alternative commemoration.
  
• from Big Hollywood, environmentally hypocritical Hollywood
  
• my pal critiques Earth Day
  
• thought I had others, but I guess not, should just preserve electrons, I guess.

Unbearable Hardship for Voters

According to the Idaho Press-Tribune

A bill that would require voters to show identification could slow the election process in Canyon County or force the county to hire more poll workers.

No one wants to hear this, we all lead busy lives and having to put up with a new delay to slow our busy lives is a heckuva drag. As that's the lead to a story drawing attention to a significant problem with a bill working its way through the State Legislature, surely we're talking about a major delay, right? So exactly how much longer is it going to take to vote if this thing becomes a law?

Checking voters' identification would take each voter about 20 seconds longer to vote, Canyon County Deputy Clerk Brad Jackson said.

20 seconds? Twenty whole seconds? Intolerable!! Why, I can type 27 words in that time! Who wants to wait that long? It's like a whole third of the time it should take to get a Whopper. And those crazy people we elected (some of us anyway) would put us through such adversity?

Personally, I've always found it impossible to believe that you don't have to do more to prove who you are to vote--I have a harder time getting Chicago Connection to take a check than I do getting a ballot.

How many of our countrymen have died so that we could vote? How much blood, sweat and tears have been spilt to preserve, to protect, and to make use of that right? And we're gonna complain about a lousy 20 seconds?

To get on a plane anymore we stand like sheep waiting to be shorn and slip off our shoes and let them measure our conditioner and shampoo. Before long, without much more than a murmur, we'll subject ourselves to virtual strip searches--and who knows what other indignities are coming next? We roll over for whatever impingement the Federal Government wants to put on our civil liberties in the name of "safety", "security" or the "war on drugs." But something that will slow things down for us at the polls by less than a minute? That's what gets the exclamation points? Really?

Sure, we could end up having to hire more workers to help out, so there's an economic side to this, and today, that's a legitimate concern. But then again...is helping out with 20 seconds worth that?

Jackson said voter fraud is not a problem in Canyon County and he questions whether the voter identification bill passed by the Idaho House Monday is needed. . . .

But Jackson said voter fraud is so rare in Canyon County that requiring identification to vote like the bill does would be unnecessary.

"If voter fraud was a big issue I would say that checking IDs would make a significant difference," Jackson said. "I just don't see voter fraud as being a sufficient issue."

Now I get that he's speaking from his perspective as a Canyon County worker, but is the lack of a problem in our one county enough to call into question the necessity of a law for the whole state? (and that's granting that it isn't a problem here) Who does he think he works for, Ada County?

"There's a lot more concern about fraud then the reality of the situation," he said.

Thank the Lord for that, Mr. Jackson--isn't that the way it's supposed to be? Are you really suggesting we should be blase about voter fraud until the populace of Kohlerlawn vote Tom Dale in for yet another term?

Trailer for the "Health Care Summit"

just had to share...

Great Speech

Yeah, George Will's an elitist, a snob, etc. (I remember with horror a rant he did against people wearing blue jeans too often in Newsweek last year), but when he's right...he's so, so right. From last week's CPAC gathering, it's worth the time--even if the idea of listening to a CPAC speech fills you with dread and/or gives you hives.
Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

(h/t: HotAir)

A Wonderful Idea that Will Just Never Take

The good people (er, person) over at Treasured Valley today have reposted an opinion piece by a local educator, Steve Hauge, "Sports should be considered when cutting education budget. Incisive, thoughtful, practical, and all-around right. Which means the idea will go nowhere.

Now that Gov. Butch Otter has spoken, let the bleeding begin.

He proposed to amputate part of the budget on education. I suggest it be the testosterone, not the brain. Or rather, the weight room, not the classroom. Bleachers, not desks. Playbooks, not textbooks.

Surely we will hear some claim that football and basketball are financially self-supporting and underwrite other sports, save coaches salaries.

But that is misleading. Multiply the number of coaches by the number of sports by the number of schools in any district by the salary amount, and the figure climbs. Though coaches are underpaid, collectively it all adds up. And don’t think for a moment a varsity sport subsidizes feeder programs at the junior high level. No, it’s the taxpayer again.

I suspect public school sports simply eat up a lot more cash than taxpayers assume. At the very least, taxpayers ought to demand that the financial books are opened and proven otherwise.

Go read the whole thing.

Sure, They'd have to do More Pledge Drives and Hand Out More Tote Bags, but...

Our state economy is in the tank, like pretty much everyone else's, which means that the state government's in financial trouble. Our Governor (with the nickname that people love to hate on) proposed a series of spending cuts and other measures to help us limp through, including phasing out some state agencies and programs. One target for phasing out is Idaho Public Television, and proposing this apparently ranks up there with atrocities like smearing tomato sauce on the Mona Lisa. From all the hue and cry I've read about this, you'd think that most of the state watches IPTV at least 50% of the time--and I don't need to consult Neilsen results to know that's not the case.^*

Adam Graham, over at the Idaho Press Tribune's blog "Give Me Liberty," outlined eight talking points defending Otter's proposal, which pretty much makes the case. I'd quibble over the order he gives them, his number 7, should be number 1.

It is no more the job of the government of Idaho to ensure that that IPTV is on the air in Burley than it is for the state of Idaho to ensure there's an opera house and disco in Burley.

That's the whole point, isn't it? It's not the government's job to provide a television station to provide educational programming (for young or old), entertainment, and biased (or unbiased, for that matter) news. In fact, it's downright dangerous for the state to assume that role, ignoring the dollars and cents of it all.

The fact is, Nickelodeon and other cable channels oriented towards kids, libraries, Netflix, BBCAmerica, 24-hour news channels, CSPAN, etc. do everything that Public Television does--and do it more efficiently, effectively and conveniently. We ought to let them do that, and let the state spend it's money where it's needed.

Sadly, it appears that the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee isn't going along with the idea. I just don't get it.


^* Actually, last week in a story on KTVB, Mark Johnson claimed that southern Idaho was one of the best audiences for The Jay Leno Show, which might say more about the State's troubles than anything.

“Impatience does not diminish but augments the evil.”

Victoria Jackson quoted that Latin proverb at the beginning of her latest blog post, "What's the Rush?".

Victoria (Ms. Jackson if you're nasty) points out the fairly obvious trait of this Congress, this presidential administration: they seem to be in an awful hurry to do things. Ignoring their grandmother's advice, "Haste makes Waste" (assuming their grandmothers are like every other grandmother I know).

I cannot fully agree with everything that Ms. Jackson says, I think her underlying point is sound. One instance she cites:

What’s the Rush?

Okay, we all know that our country has the best medical system in the world, and that the majority of Americans are very happy with their health care. But, what if it was true that we needed to reform this system a little, this system that is already the best in the world? Yes, I said it twice.

…wouldn’t the intelligent thing be to slowly and carefully dissect exactly what the problems are, and then have experts in that field give presentations to back up their carefully thought out solutions? For example, the problem that doctors are being sued so much that they are forced to spend incredible amounts of money on lawsuit protection, thus raising the costs to their patients? Talk. Think. Discuss. Think?

She's really on to something -- especially as I remember reading one of Ron Paul's Facebook Statuses (Statusi?) Tuesday, "This is really outrageous - House leadership just announced that we will be voting on a $75 billion "Jobs" bill tomorrow - and we just got the legislation today."

Deadlines seem to be a big deal on the Health Care "Reform" discussion--remember when something had to be done this summer? And then when that didn't happen, it has to before this year is out? Is every hospital, clinic, doctor's office going to close for good come Jan. 1, 2010? I tell my 10 year old son this all the time--it's more important to get the job done right than it is to get it done. When he remembers that, our dining table and kitchen counters get clean. When he's focused on getting done, crumbs, spilled liquids and trash get left on the supposedly clean surfaces.

Just what's being left on the table after the rush to discuss Man-Made Climate Change laws/treaties; health care bills, etc.? This is the first time in my life that a rush to judgment is being portrayed in a positive light, and I just don't see why.

Sometimes Congress Makes it Too Hard to Complain

I've wondered how much weight I could lose if I hid my remote control and forced myself to get up and manually change channels, adjust volume, etc.--particularly the volume: stand up, walk to the TV, turn the volume on commercials to a comfortable level, return to the couch, wait 3 minutes, stand up, walk to the TV, turn the volume up to a level you can understand what people are saying, return to the couch. Repeat as needed.

Wondered about it. Won't do it. But, man...my thumb strength is up (you don't want to thumb wrestle me).

Sure, there are other ways to deal with the louder-than-everything-else commercial volume, my dad's approach, for example, is to adjust for the commercial volume and then strain to hear 80% (at best) of the dialogue on whatever show you're watching. Reason #1 I don't watch anything I care about in his house.

But now, the government is stepping in to help--a frightening concept, indeed. Frankly, I think Congress has as much business messing around with this as they do College Football (read: None.At.All.), but man...it's hard not to be happy to read on USAToday's site:

The House passed has passed a bill that would bar TV commercials from being louder than the programs in which they appear.

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) passed Tuesday on a voice vote, presumably expressed at a comfortable level.

It now goes to the Senate, which is considering an identical bill...

(the whole article is here)

Carly Fiorina on Health Care Reform

GOP Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina delivered the weekly GOP talking point snoozefestradio address this week -- without mention of parties, election campaigns, or any individual politician, that alone should warrant a lot of attention. Maybe even a Congressional Medal of Honor or something.

Anyway, this particular breast cancer survivor looks at the effect that the recent recommendations from that task force on changing when women should get mammograms would have under proposed Heath Care Reform bills. And the picture she paints ain't pretty.

Multiply that out over the effect such committees could have over all sorts of medical tests/procedures, and you begin to get an idea of what a devastating impact this reform could have on lives (ignoring quality of care, economics, taxes, etc.).

Here's what she said:

Hello. This is Carly Fiorina. And today I’d like to speak to you as one of the more than two and a half million women in America who have been diagnosed with breast cancer — and beaten it.

Like everyone else who’s diagnosed with cancer, I never thought it would happen to me. I was fit, healthy, and active. I even got regular check-ups. But earlier this year, just two weeks after a clear mammogram, I discovered a lump through a self-exam.

Soon after that came the diagnosis, the surgery, the long and difficult treatment regimen, and the painful experience of wondering whether I would make it, whether I’d pull through.

I’m fortunate to live near one of the greatest cancer centers in the world. I’m fortunate to have the incredible love and support of family and friends. And my diagnosis gave me time to think about my future — because one of the things that happens when you have to face your fears, including the fear of dying, is that you can face your future with renewed hope and enthusiasm.

My doctors tell me I have won my battle with cancer. And, I realize that this makes me one of the lucky ones. Last year alone, more than 40,000 Americans died from breast cancer. Aside from lung cancer, breast cancer is the most fatal form of cancer for American women. Nearly 200,000 new cases were reported last year alone.

That’s why a recent recommendation on mammograms by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-run panel of health care professionals that makes recommendations on prevention, struck such a nerve. The task force did not include an oncologist or a radiologist, in other words cancer experts did not develop this recommendation. They said that most women under 50 don’t need regular mammograms and that women over 50 should only get them every other year. And yet we all know that the chances of surviving cancer are greater the earlier it’s detected. If I’d followed this new recommendation and waited another two years, I’m not sure I’d be alive today.

What’s more this task force was explicitly asked to focus on costs, not just prevention. As it turned out, costs were a significant factor in this recommendation. Will a bureaucrat determine that my life isn’t worth saving?

All this takes on even greater urgency in the midst of the ongoing health care debate in Washington. We wonder if we are heading down a path where the federal government will at first suggest and then mandate new standards for prevention and treatment. Do we really want government bureaucrats rather than doctors dictating how we prevent and treat something like breast cancer?

The response we’ve gotten to these questions has been less than encouraging. In the face of a national outcry over the recent task force recommendations, the Secretary of Health and Human Services said the Preventive Services Task Force doesn’t set federal policy. The real question, though, is whether bodies like this would set policy under the $2.5 trillion, 2,074-page plan that’s now making its way through Congress?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question isn’t encouraging either. The health care bill now being debated in the Senate explicitly empowers this very task force to influence future coverage and preventive care. Section 4105, for example, authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny payment for prevention services the task force recommends against. Another section requires every health plan in America to cover task force recommended preventive services. In fact, there are more than a dozen examples in the bill where this task force is empowered to influence care.

There is a reason American women with breast cancer have a higher survival rate than women in countries with government-run health care. Unlike those countries, our government doesn’t dictate what prevention and treatments women can get.

While some defend the idea of a government task force, my experience with cancer tells me it’s wrong. Cutting down on mammograms might save the government some money that it will then spend on something else. But it won’t save lives. And isn’t that what health care reform was supposed to be all about?

This is just one in many examples of serious problems with this healthcare reform legislation. Rather than remaking the entire national healthcare system at the cost of higher taxes and exploding deficits, we should build on what works, such as expanding access to integrated care and to community clinics that will give those most in need appropriate care at a reasonable price.

Congress should reform medical malpractice to match what we have in California where frivolous lawsuits are a thing of the past. We should permit consumers to purchase health insurance from any company in the country, expanding consumer choice and driving down cost and unnecessary mandates.

People want to know that their care will stay where it belongs: in the hands of doctors and patients. Unfortunately, the path Congress is on in this debate is not giving us the confidence that it will.

Thank you.

Some Things to Ponder

Another one of those days where as much as I might sit and stare at the blank white space here, nothing fills it.

• Fantasy author Jim C. Hines has a spot-on piece, "Lincoln U’s Big Fat Fail"

  In 2006, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania instituted a policy that students with a BMI of 30 or higher must take a "Fitness for Life" class. The students affected by this rule are now seniors, some of whom may not be able to graduate, either because they haven’t gotten their BMI tested by the university or because they have a BMI of 30 or higher and haven’t taken the class.

  As a follow-up, he posted a link to Kate Harding’s slideshow of various BMI ranges
• TV Writer Ken Levine tells some of the behind-the-scenes tales from A Charlie Brown Christmas that make our possession of this treat seem even more special.

  A holiday tradition is A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS and we pretty much have a Mad Man to thank for it. John Allen was a Don Draper at McCann-Erickson in the mid 60s. On behalf of Coca-Cola he was lobbying for Charlie Brown. It would be the first animated adaptation of Charles M. Schultz’s classic PEANUTS comic strip. But Allen had to really twist arms because in typical fashion, CBS hated it.
  
  They thought the animation was awful, the story too thin and depressing, the jazz score inappropriate for kids, and of course wanted a laugh-track.

• Over at the Campaign for Liberty, Sheldon Richman discusses the similarities between Inconsistent Conservatives and ProgressivesListening to the leading voices of conservatism and progressivism, one gets the feeling they are not quite listening to themselves. On any given day you are likely to hear each side make arguments against the other that fully apply to itself in some area of public policy.
• Last, but not least, Jon Stewart on Climate-gate/problems the Left is having under our new prez

  The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
  Scientists Hide Global Warming Data
  www.thedailyshow.com
  Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

  
  

Will Thanksgiving 2010 be in September?

If our president, who was so often and favorably compared to FDR earlier this year, continues to try to tinker with the economy, it wouldn't surprise me (but I'm mostly engaging in hyperbole here).

What got me thinking was this very interesting (and brief) history of the holiday -- both in its inception and eventual federalization -- that The Front Porch Republic recently ran by Bill Kauffman.

George Washington issued the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation on November 26, 1789, but the early presidents, disproportionately Virginian and of a states' rights disposition, regarded such proclamations as excessively Yankee and Federalist. Even John Quincy Adams...was reluctant to be seen as "introducing New England manners" by a public acknowledgement of Thanksgiving.

...The indefatigable [antebellum New England novelist and editor Sarah Josepha] Hale propagandized ceaselessly for the glory of late November Thursdays, pumpkin pie, roasted turkey, "savory stuffing"—everything but the Detroit Lions. It took 35 years and a civil war, but Mrs. Hale's efforts paid off when President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a national day of Thanksgiving and a legal holiday.

Lincoln's successor's fiddled with the date a little, but in the end, for 70 years, the last Thursday of November was the holiday (which many states didn't recognize, or recognized when they wanted to).

It seems that in 1939 Thanksgiving was to fall on November 30th, a matter of consternation to the big merchants of the National Retail Dry Goods Association (NRDGA). The presidents of Gimbel Brothers, Lord & Taylor, and other unsentimental vendors petitioned President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to the previous Thursday, November 23, thus creating an additional week of Christmas shopping—and to the astonishment of those Americans without dollar signs in their eyes, the President did so. (Not all merchants favored the shift. One Kokomo shopkeeper hung a sign in his window reading, "Do your shopping now. Who knows, tomorrow may be Christmas.")

Opinion polls revealed that more than 60 percent of Americans opposed the Rooseveltian ukase; dissent was especially vigorous in New England. The selectmen of Plymouth, Massachusetts informed the President, "It is a religious holiday and [you] have no right to change it for commercial reasons." Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks to the Almighty, harrumphed Governor Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts, "and not for the inauguration of Christmas shopping."

Although the states customarily followed the federal government’s lead on Thanksgiving, they retained the right to set their own date for the holiday, so 48 battles erupted. As usual, New Deal foes had all the wit, if not the votes. A New Hampshire senator urged the President to abolish winter; the Oregon attorney general versified:

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November;

All the rest have thirty-one.

Until we hear from Washington.

Ack, I've quoted, too much, go read the rest of Kauffman's piece, which I'd just reproduce totally here, but I hate when blogs do that...so go, read, and head over the river and through the woods and find yourself some turkey.

Just Weird to Watch SNL Go Political and Agree with It

it happens occasionally, but still weirds me out each time.

Health Care Debacle

Lots of great articles on the Health Care mess over the last week or so--too many to cope with.

One I appreciated was "Tom Mullen's The Democrats Are Privatizing Wealth Redistribution"

The price of this corporate welfare, of course, is that any remaining vestiges of voluntary contracts between insurer and insured that health insurance still retained has been eliminated. Insurers are no longer allowed to determine rates demographically and based upon a real risk model. They are no longer allowed to offer diverse coverage packages to compete with one another for different customer groups. They now must offer low rates and uniform benefits to everyone as entitlements. Like individual welfare recipients, they have surrendered all of their liberty and property rights in return for other people's money. They are now just one more arm of the state bureaucracy.

The worst aspect of this great fraud is the implications it has for the liberty of every American. The closest parallel to this heretofore has been automobile insurance. Americans have been forced to buy auto insurance directly from an auto insurer in order to exercise the "privilege" of driving on the government's roads. This was of course enacted for the public good, to ensure that poor drivers could not bankrupt the innocent by demolishing their cars or saddling them with exorbitant hospital bills. However, as hostile to liberty as these laws are, they still leave the driver a choice. He can choose not to drive, however impractical or unrealistic that choice might be.

However, with this new bill, even that smattering of liberty is ripped away. Americans are now forced to purchase insurance from a government-protected and subsidized health insurance company merely because they are alive. Worse yet, they are not merely forced to make a single payment of tribute to satisfy their "individual responsibility." They must go on paying, year in and year out, for as long as they live. They cannot decline. They cannot conscientiously object. There is no escape from this tyranny save one: death. For those individuals that can demonstrate that they are completely incapable of paying, someone else will be forced to pay for them. No matter what, the government's corporation will be paid. Even life is no longer a right, but a privilege that the government extends to its subjects for a fee.

.

There's still time to stop this--call and write your Senators. Tell your friends and neighbors to do the same. Maybe even talk to all of the above about The Health Freedom Plan: H.R. 1495, H.R. 2629, and H.R. 3217

Time to Shuffle the Deck...

I got this issue of Newsweek in the mail the other day, but haven't gotten around to reading the cover article. I halfway suspect one of the first criterion given a parent to determine if a baby is, in fact, a racist is "has the baby ever been critical of Barack Obama's policies?"

Jimmy Carter has joined the growing ranks of those saying that those who disagree with/protest against/don't like Obama's policies are motivated in large part by racism. I'm soooooooooo sick and tired of this, almost as tired as I am of the phrase "Race Card."

Can those throwing around this accusation grow up and stop this? I.don't.care.if.he's.black. I care that from where I'm standing, our President's economic, budgetary, medical, policies (and many others) are a direct violation of the principles this country was founded on and should continue to function under.

I agree, the guy is wicked smart. But that doesn't mean everything he says is correct. Doesn't mean that I can't find fault in his philosophies, ideas, theories, plans on their merits.

If Obama was purple, I'd disagree with him (and then check the color adjustment on my TV). If Obama was Hispanic, I'd disagree with him. If Obama was a white guy, I'd disagree with him. If he was elected on a Republican ticket, I'd disagree with him.

Tea Party protesters are clearly 100% Aryans. Not even 100% Caucasians. And those protesters "of color" aren't self-hating, sell outs either. For the pundits, elected officials and fellow blogging blowhards to just label all detractors "racist" is insulting. Before long, Godwin's Law will have a corollary about this knee-jerk response (or at least it should).

I'm sure there are elements on the fringe who will despise everything he does because of our President's ethnic background--and there are some on another fringe who will give him carte blanche to do whatever for the same reason. But that's why we have fringes--for those people to be on (that and to look cool on clothing in the minds of many people who ride motorcycles). But the rest of us do live on this little plain I like to call reality, and we'll like/dislike his policies/actions for a myriad of other reasons--many of which are principled (many others have to do with the way he acted on Leno, O'Brien, etc.)

Free your minds.

The Government Can

a little comic relief: