BRICK!

YES! Take that, Rahm!

If It's THAT Expensive, It MUST Be Good!

Um, yeah...

Teachable Moment

The arrest of Henry Gates and the subsequent foot eating spectacle by Our National Treasure jogged my memory of a little "run in" with the police I had not so long ago.

One Saturday night a few years back, as I was preparing to take my wife out for the evening, my then toddler daughter somehow got ahold of the phone when I wasn't looking (my wife and other kids were out picking up the sitter), and was happily pressing buttons by the time I noticed her sitting on the floor with the receiver.

Fearing a hefty long distance bill for an inadvertent call to Auckland, I took the phone from my daughter and disconnected the impending call. I put the girl in her play pen and returned to the business at hand. And then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Yes, sir. This is the police. Did you call 911?"

What a strange question. "No, officer, I didn't."

"Sir, a call to 911 was placed from this number."

"Huh?"

"Yes, Sir."

Eventually it dawned on me what had happened and I started to laugh. I explained to him that the call had been placed by my daughter.

"That's fine, Sir, but we have to dispatch someone to the house."

"Really?"

"Yes, Sir. An officer is en route."

I hung up, bemused. The situation became more amusing to me with each passing minute and I was laughing heartily by the time I opened the door for the police officer. I welcomed him into my home, and explained what happened. He could tell in about two seconds that I was telling the truth, and after fawning over my daughter for a minute or two, he was on his way.

It was a very positive experience. I came away from it with a great story, and grateful that my town is served by decent, professional cops like the one who came to my home.

It certainly did not have to be a positive experience. I could have been an a-hole to the phone dispatcher. I could have stood in the doorway yelling at the cop and refused to let him into my home. I could have concocted some grievance litany or been verbally abusive to the cop. I could have refused the cops orders, and brought an arrest upon myself. I had the power to make things go very, very badly for myself. And instead, I chose to be jovial, friendly, humble, and mature, because I knew that was not only the smarter thing to do, it was also the right thing to do.

I knew all that, and I don't even have a faculty position at Harvard or anything.

Now, as for the President's "acting stupidly." Obama's presumptuous arrogance has been dealt with by others far more intelligent and eloquent than I. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Obama extended the standard-issue non apology. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that it was only offered after Obama had basically been bludgeoned into doing so by an unending din of outrage and steadily declining approval polls. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Obama still had to cast aspersions on the cops by throwing in the "race is still a troubling aspect of our society" remark. But what really makes me mad is the "teachable moment" bit. Obama couldn't just be a man and own that what he did was wrong. No, somehow the cops who did nothing wrong had to take their "fair share" of the blame. And it didn't stop there. No, Obama wanted it to be a "teachable moment" for the entire nation.

Because really, it's all our fault that Obama's a schmuck.

"It's Not About Me."

WhatEVAH. The guy feels the need to issue a public defense of his chick jeans, but the most important piece of legislation for his entire Presidency, the one that currently hangs in the balance and will either make or break him (and, it so happens, the same bill that he's holding his one trillionth press conference to bitch about), isn't about him.

Didn't see the President's press conference tonight. Had more important things to do. Haven't seen ratings, wonder if he pulled more viewers than he did with the ill-fated ABC infomercial.

Rush et al will dissect the speech tomorrow, but for now, here's Hugh Hewitt's take on Obama's performance. Hewitt, who managed the Federal employee health care plan when he worked in government, knows a thing or two about health care. As you'll see, Hugh is less than impressed.

Also, one little snippet from the AP write up caught my attention:

[Obama] said Medicare and Medicaid, government health care programs for the elderly and the poor, are the "biggest driving force behind our federal deficit."

Unless they are tamed, he said to a national TV audience, "we will not be able to control our deficit. If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket."

Got it. The socialized medicine programs we already have are bankrupting the country, so let's dump everybody in the plan instead of just old people. That'll fix things.

As Terry Jones, editor of Investors Business Daily pointed out, Obama's plan for a tax hike on "$1,000,000 families" or "people making over $250,000," or whatever today's metric is, will raise about an additional $500 billion in revenue over the next decade for Obamacare. (This WAPO piece substantiates that figure as a combo of additional taxes and reduced deductions.) Where, Jones asks, is the other trillion going to come from? (This Heritage article suggests Jones might have estimated low. $5 Trillion too low.)

Question: what has two thumbs and is about to get its cocoa-based confectionery goods packed by the Obama administration?

History Was Made.

Belated Post.

On Monday, President Obama met with the three Astronauts of the Apollo 11 space mission--Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins--to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their historic Moon landing and to honor these three men as the inspiration and heroes that they are.

It was a truly historic day, not the least reason being that Barack Obama was able to bring himself to refer to three white guys as "heroes" without spontaneously bursting into flame. Well done, Sir.

Give Us Our Paper Back!

What is going on at the Chicago Sun Times?

Today's Headline:

"County Might Let Pot Smokers Off Easy."

Yesterday's headline, which I can't find online, was something about a killer smirking during the courtroom proceedings while the parents of the victim wept.

Excuse, me, but this is the Sun Times we're talking about right? The same Sun Times that showcases weekly the rabid scrawlings of Mary Mitchell, Rev. Jessie Jackson, and Andrew Greeley? The same Sun Times that for the last two years could have adopted the slogan "The Official Newsletter of the Barack Obama Fan Club?" The same Sun Times whose editorial board has for years taken the leftward position on any and every topic?

Aren't we supposed to try to empathize with, or at least understand, the killer? Aren't we expected to extend patience, if not sympathy, to the potheads?

Just what is the world coming to when the Sun Times expects criminals to be held accountable for their crimes?

Duck And Cover Time

As if resistance from dems and republicans alike to the President's plans for socialized medicine and draconian energy regulation--to say nothing of plummeting approval numbers--were not significant harbingers of bad news (for Obama), the White House is now delaying release of the budget update.

I do not envy the situation in which the President finds himself. It is just objective reality that he inherited a disastrous economy, blame for which last seeing lying at the feet of both political parties. However, with the truth about this economy staring him in the face every day since he took office, President Obama is still pressing forward full steam ahead toward socialized medicine.

Yesterday the Nation's governors, parties irrespective, added their voices to the growing chorus of condemnation for the "government option" health care plan that is currently being kicked around both chambers of Congress. Is the President listening? In the end he may be forced to. But delaying the release of the budget update until Congress has recessed, by which time Obama hopes to have his health care bill, appears a craven political maneuver.

I hope between now and the new scheduled release date of the report, Americans will have sufficiently made their voices heard to ensure that "Obamacare" is something we wipe our brows and nervously laugh about a few years from now.

In my backyard...

From Fox News (full article):

A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq's onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has operated discreetly in the U.S. for decades.

Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb of Chicago.

Sounds like a hoot. To boost registration, might I suggest offering the first 500 to sign up a stylish leather suicide bomber vest from Harrods of Riyadh, and a copy of the hot new bestseller, "72 Pick Up Lines for 72 Virgins."

A Two-fer

Boy. Two Biden gaffes in one day. I must have been a good boy recently.

First, "take a look around."

Then, "we have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt."

I don't know what particular cognative deficiency it is in particular that causes Obama to keep Slow Joe around; all I can say is, I'm profoundly greatful for it.

Still, it does seem just wrong that a man like Biden is allowed to hold an office once occupied by the likes of Adams, Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.

HOLY FLIPPITY CRUD.

IDB finds that the current healthcare bill the house is currently mulling will make... well, I'll just let them say it:

It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

Full article.

[HT: Bill Dupray]

Crowder on Canadian Medicine

One of my favorite newer pundits, Stephen Crowder, delivers a brilliant on-location report of the Canadian medical system. Originally posted on PJTV.com, and with thanks to the spunky Wendy Sullivan of twitter.com/rightgirl and Brass Balls Radio fame for the youtube link:

This is what awaits us, people.

Big Spender, Big Grifter

So I saw today that Obama is requesting another $12 Billion for some educational program or other. And I realized my first impression was not to care.

Which got me thinking: Is Obama's game plan to ask for so much money, so fast, to fund his socialist ponzi scheme, that we just stop paying attention? Seriously. After a while, discussion of this billion or even that trillion just becomes so much white noise.

Ultimately Obamanomics will fail, because millions of people will realize that their just as broke and unemployed, and their 401(k)'s just as destitute, as they were a week, a month, six months, a year... ago. But in the meantime, he's doing a pretty good job exploiting people's short term memories when it comes to just how fast and how deep he's digging the hole.

Broken Record

Reminded of They Might Be Giants' song, Ana Ng. "Everything sticks like a broken record." Like a broken record, I keep marvelling at my total absence of will to blog. From whence my sluggardliness cometh?

Partially, because of ennui/cynicism. It's easier to be a grumpy old man and sit there and kvetch at the news verbally rather than in print.

Partially, because, I figure, since Obama & Co are doing such a perfectly good job of making complete ass pies of themselves, what's left for me to contribute?

Partially, because in order to adequately describe the absurdity and stupidity that is the Democrat regime, I would have to invent new words, like "absostupidilliness," and I just...eh.

Holder wants to charge Bush administration officials for War Crimes. Sigh.

Holder isn't worthy of picking up a Bush administration official's dry cleaning.

Dems are trying to make an outrage out of this secret CIA program, never instituted, to assasinate Al Queda terrorists. Let me type that again. No, let me cut and paste, for I lack the strength: Dems are trying to make an outrage out of this secret CIA program, never instituted, to assasinate Al Queda terrorists. Set aside for a moment the fact that the only TRUE outrage is that it was never instituted...

I can just see the next blockbuster headline on the NY Times: "Democrats Outraged at Bush Administration Policy of Feeding Starving Orphans."

If there was a way such a headline would provide cover for Pelosi's bony rump, you know they'd run it.

And now, on the heels of cap n' tax, the dems are going to fast track socialized medicine to President Skippy's desk.

I'm just going to stop here.

Self Evident

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is one of the documents that remains permanently on the (appropriately) right side of my blog. So I won't re quote it.

I will however re quote the final sentence because it gives me chills:

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

What great men signed the Declaration. They knew they were risking their lives, and many lost all in the defense of freedom. As Benjamin Franklin famously said upon signing this great document:

We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately

Ronald Reagan detailed the cost to several of the signers of the declaration in his 1981 Independence Day address [h/t conservapedia]

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton.

Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world.

Praise be to God for such men of courage and altruism. Hopefully I'll spare them more than one thought as I attend parades and barbeques tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day.