HAS EVERYONE RECOVERED FROM THEIR TURKEY-INDUCED TORPOR?

Sweet sis Linda and I are recovering from two days of merry-making. Somehow we ended up going over to Joyce's house for Thanksgiving dinner - with her entire merry crew of children, grandchildren and adopted grandchildren who are treated in no way different than the blood relations. And a good time was had by all! Then yesterday, I went over to Linda's house, toting the turkey breast we deep fat fried at Joyce's house, and we watched some really good TV movies, played with the livestock (Tim the perfidious Siamese spent a good portion of the afternoon on my lap whilst Zeus and Harley managed to snatch their portion of snuggle time - who can deny that worried pit bull face of Zeus' or Harley's neediness). Today, I relaxed a tad and tomorrow we're doing it again at my house so that Sam can get his share of snuggles from Auntie Linda.

Hope everyone is having the kind of spectacularly family-oriented holiday that we are. It is the unintended and unexpected benefit of our less than hearty financial times that families are doing more things together and spending more quality time together.

Love to you all. Have a great day on Sunday.

PATRICK KENNEDY - MAYBE HE DOESN'T KNOW AS MUCH ABOUT HIS "FAITH" AS HE THINKS HE DOES!

Rep. Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat and son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, was criticized by Bishop Tobin of Providence for his attacks on the Catholic bishops’ opposition to abortion funding in health care legislation. Recently, Kennedy revealed that Bishop Tobin had asked him to refrain from receiving communion because of his public contradiction of Catholic teaching. Rep. Kennedy is playing fast and loose with reality here since the good Bishop asked this of the Representative in 2007 (long before the health care debate even began) and now the whining little scion of the reprehensible Senator is trying to lecture the Catholic Church on how it is supposed to behave and believe vis-a-vis the health care debate as it pertains to abortion, which any intelligent and marginally well-educated Catholic knows is a big no-no! It's called MURDER, Rep. Kennedy. It isn't an elective belief. It's an absolute. Supporting abortion rights, however politically expedient it may seem to you, is an endangerment of your immortal soul.

Rep. Kennedy - quit trying to be a Catholic scholar. You don't have the requisite intelligence to do so. Listen to what your Bishop is telling you and act on it. Or don't receive communion. It's your choice. Just as it's my choice to pray for the health of your immortal soul.

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW MY BLOG -
I TOLD YOU GLOBAL WARMING SCARE TACTICS WERE CRAP!

Suddenly, suddenly the unscientific science behind the global warming terrorism of people around the world is being exposed! Suddenly, it is clear that Albert Gore, Jr., huckster extraordinaire, was spouting bullshit when he wrote "An Inconvenient Truth" and accepted an Academy Award for the film of the same name AND a Nobel Peace Prize which was less deserved than even the one awarded President Obama!

The earth has been cooling over the past ten years. This is a normal cyclical pattern and nothing new except to those who, like Chicken Little, prefer to believe that the sky is falling. Guess what Al Gore? You're an idiot. The earnest, essentially humorless, sanctimonious hucksters such as Al Gore have made a lot - and I do mean a LOT - of money pushing this fraudulent point of view and now they are about to be exposed - maybe even prosecuted for their nonsense.

I think a better policy would be to utterly ignore them henceforth. Never listen to another word they say. That would be the MOST crushing punishment of all. Making them live with how truly insignificant they really are!

I am so happy I stocked up on incandescent light bulbs at BJ's Warehouse store!

I'm really not one to say "I told you so!" but - - - I told you so!

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HAS JUMPED THE SHARK!

The University of Minnesota is apparently ready to demand that its education graduates (future teachers of Minnesota and other locales) confess to their own bigotry in order to remove cultural bigotry from their psyches. In other words, their thought processes are under review and subject to revision by those who think they know better!

The University has program called Teacher Education Redesign. Its purpose is not as one would guess to improve the quality of teaching in Minnesota. Oh no, my friends, its purpose is to reeducate (sounds like something Mao would have thought a good idea) the minds of future teachers so that they achieve something called "cultural competence". To me it sounds like total nonsense and offensive, anti-First Amendment bullshit.

Since when is dissent something to be suppressed? Certainly when Code Pink was making an ass of itself down in Crawford, Texas - annoying the President of the United States, we were told that dissent is an essential part of our nation's mental health and welfare. How is it any different when the right is dissenting?

I would support a Teacher Education Redesign if it led to our children being taught actual history, reading, writing and how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. I would be thrilled if our children were taught how the federal government worked, so that I wouldn't have to hear pinheads say things like "President Obama passed a law that . . ." No, he did not pass a law you nitwit! Congress passes the law. President Obama only signs it or vetos it. And as it happens, I wish to never ever hear a candidate for U.S. president assert that there are 57 States! So train our teachers to teach more effectively and with less bias and I'll be happy. Mess with their minds in pursuit of some pie-in-the-sky attempt at political correctness and I'm bound and determined to kick your ass with my elderly size 11 boot!

FOR THOSE UNDERGOING CHEMO

If you know any woman currently undergoing Chemo, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides *FREE* housecleaning - 1 time per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service. Please pass this information on to bless a woman going through Breast Cancer treatment. This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women. It's our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care. Be a blessing to someone and pass this information along.

http://www.cleaningforareason.org/index.html

SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT . . .

Captain Zero, our ignoble commander in chief, is going to finally, finally, finally (maybe) going to make a decision vis-a-vis the war in Afghanistan on Tuesday of next week. Meanwhile, American soldiers are dying over there, partially as a result of Zero's dithering!

What a useless piece of excrement someone voted into the Oval Office - and trust me, my vote was for John McCain. Hey - all you people who didn't vote in order to "teach the Republicans a lesson" - how's that working out for you, eh? Morons.

SENATE HEALTH CARE REFORM DEBATE

It is more likely that Jon and Kate Gosselin will reunite and go off into the sunset as a happily married couple than it is that the varying personalities and constituencies of the various Senators will unite to pass any kind of meaningful health care reform bill. In other words, those of us who consider any of the bills presented so far to be disastrous will be the winners if nothing gets passed into infamy!

33% of the Senators are up for re-election in 2010. ALL of the members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election in 2010. The American public has spoken - loudly - and continues to so speak and at some point (probably after the first of the year) it is going to dawn on these clowns that - if they want to keep their jobs - they are going to have to be more thoughtful and more intelligent in their approach to reform. A good start would be tort reform. It is long overdue. That alone will cut health care costs significantly.

I cannot support anything that removes from me the opportunity to continue to consult the team of physicians who have gotten me through 3 serious health care crises during 2009. I have carefully scrutinized their bills and do not find them to be outrageous. I don't have any issues with my insurer either. So why would I want any kind of change? I'm not an idiot. What I do think is necessary is the tort reform and I am expressing that opinion based on a couple of years as a legal secretary in a personal injury defense law firm. Some of the lawsuits were just plain asinine and yet, the insurance companies had to pay to defend them. Just as one example, a woman with a sick baby case who had had gonnorrhea three times during her pregnancy and had smoked and had consumed alcohol AND drugs non-stop throughout that selfsame pregnancy. Her baby was born brain damaged and she had the effrontery to blame the doctor! Talk about brass balls! These are the kinds of baseless lawsuits that must be curtailed in order to reduce costs. People who have experienced genuine injury at the hands of careless physicians certainly should retain their right to seek redress, but people like the sick baby complainant described above - she should be incarcerated in solitary confinement for a lengthy period as her punishment for the egregious harm she deliberately and stupidly inflicted on her own child. Fair comment: I was born unable to bear children and thus have absolutely no patience with women whose ability to bear children is intact and who abuse their bodies or their offspring in some way!

SKATE CANADA

The final qualifying competition for the Grand Prix final took place in Kitchener, Ontario last weekend and was - to say the least - an interesting competition. The astonishing pair of Savchenko and Szalkowy (Germany) took a huge risk after their rather mediocre season debut earlier in the Grand Prix series. The created an entirely new free program just 4 weeks ago and debuted it this weekend, serving notice that the two time and reigning world champions are a force to be reckoned with. The new program looks totally polished and technically challenging and was skated with the speed and precision for which this team is known. And gave them first place in the competition. The Chinese will be a factor in the Grand Prix final, however, and at the Vancouver Olympics.

Canada's occasionally inconsistent Joanie Rochette won the Ladies' competition but not by a lot over America's enchanting Alissa Czizny. It appears to me that Yu-Na Kim will have some solid competition at the Grand Prix Final and also at the Olympics in Vancouver.

Jeremy Abbott of the United States won the men's competition, skating with some emotional turmoil (the skiing accident death of a dear friend of his just a few days before) over Takahashi of Japan who is recovering from knee surgery and skating better than anyone could hope to expect. Of course, for all of them, there is the spectre of Plushenko at the Olympics, but he won't be at the Grand Prix final and thus, the competition is between these two and Evan Lysacek, also of the U.S. Great skating expected.

As to ice dancing, Virtue and Moir of Canada won, thus setting up some serious competitiveness for the Olympics. Belbin and Agosto, White and Davis and Virtue and Moir all will be challenging for the gold medal.

Now for the carp! The women of ice dancing have a bad habit of showing up for competitions in beautiful outfits with filthy skates. Not just the laces, although those tend to be disgracefully dirty but the skates themselves! Ladies, there's this new invention called shoe polish! Use it!

Dark roots seem to be fewer and fewer between but men with 5-o'clock shadow are my new gripe. Is the idea of a competition for which you and your families and sponsors have spent thousands of dollars preparing not sufficiently important to cause you to SHAVE? Come on! No point in looking like a bum from the neck up fellows! Scruffy is a look, but not a good look!

INTENTIONAL DISCONNECT?

The headline on the Associated Press story in my local newspaper read "Hundreds Turn Out for Palin" while the article started out "More than 1,000 fans cheer former Alaska Governor in Michigan for Book Tour," and the subsequent online story read: "Thousands gathered outside a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Grand Rapids to get a signed copy of Sarah Palin's new book." So which was it AP? Did y'all fail basic math?

Is this kind of nonsense really necessary or useful? It's no wonder that the credibility of the formerly elite media is at an all time low! And to be very realistic, we need them to be vibrant and healthy and successful because they should be the watchdogs over elected officials - reporting the facts without fear or favor! Doesn't happen, kids. Doesn't happen at all. Which is why the newspaper business is dying and TV news programs have ever slimmer audience share.

You'd think they'd learn but they are so deep in thrall to the present administration as to be wholly deaf to reality!

AMATEUR HOUR OR DELIBERATE FOUL-UP?

Are BHO and company deliberately throwing the KSM prosecution? That question was asked this morning during our [too lengthy] commute from Fredericksburg into the District by someone whose intelligence I very much respect.

I will grant you that the Left prefers to see the prosecution of Khalid Sheik Mohammed as a law-enforcement matter, rather than the prosecution of a person who has been part of a deliberate and violent act of war towards our country, but even so, both our President and Attorney General Eric Holder (for whom I have no admiration and no respect - fair disclosure here - nobody calls me a coward and keeps my good regard) should know that their flat-out statements yesterday and the day before could easily be seen as poisoning the potential jury pool. And that is if, in fact, it is even possible to get an unbiased jury in New York City. Suspicious minds could easily posit that this is a deliberate and coordinated effort to so poison the atmosphere at a potential trial that the murdering bastard who admitted proudly to being the mastermind behind 9/11 will get off scot-free!

I'm not usually big on conspiracy theories, but this one resonates a bit with me. Is it possible that the reason for all of the huge amounts of money spent to elect Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency and the smooth confirmation of his incompetent and hate-spewing Attorney General was all geared toward getting KSM out from under the charges and the execution by a firing squad using bullets soaked in pig's blood he so richly deserves? I'm just wondering.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY - AN APPRECIATION!

I was fortunate enough to spend my college years in Columbus, Ohio where I majored in journalism at The Ohio State University and learned to appreciate the game of football, fraternity men, and quarterbacks! The advisor to my sorority was Anne Hayes, wife of Woody, who was an exceptional and fascinating gentleman. Forget the neanderthal reputation foisted upon him by nasty newspaper persons (most of whom probably went to that "school up north"), Woody was a true gentleman and a scholar.

Jim Tressell is now the coach of The Ohio State University football team and a better example for his young charges I cannot imagine. The Coach believes in proper behavior both on and off the field and takes the descriptive phrase scholar-athlete very seriously. Bad grades and free rides in class are not his cup of tea. He believes in preparing the young men under his tutelage for a full life after college - whether or not they manage to make it to the NFL.

I received an excellent education in my years at Ohio State - even though there were times when I seldom attended classes. They kept giving me 8 o'clock classes and I don't DO mornings! A pledge in my sorority was persuaded to attend the class in my stead with a tape recorder. With over 500 students in each class (the leading edge of the baby boom don't you know), there was nobody taking attendance. Let the record show that I managed to "ace" most of those courses because my note taking was so first-rate!

Now, once again, the school I so proudly call my alma mater has managed to secure the Big Ten Championship. This coming Saturday, they are scheduled to play "that team up north" and then they will be playing the Pac-10 champions in the Rose Bowl. And I will, again, complain that the network broadcasting the game has not shown the Marching Band doing Script Ohio. It's on YouTube folks - I recommend it.

The elites who seem to think they are our rulers, not our employees, tend to look down their narrow noses at those of us who attended local and state-run colleges. Pfui on them. I got a great education at a reasonable cost, although I'm told that it isn't as affordable now as it was when I was there and it was only $100 per quarter! That's unfortunate.

THINGS/PEOPLE THAT MAKE ME HAPPY!

Last night I stopped at Sis's house to pick up some back meds (OTC) from her because we have had a lot of rain lately and more is predicted. My back is totally out and I feel like my bum is sprained! Don't you hate when that happens?

Anyway, I went running into her house (limping is more accurate actually) and she was putting a good sized portion of freshly made potato soup into a plastic container for me to take home with me! Then she sprinkled the top of the soup with gorgonzola cheese, minced up tomato and green onion. When I got home, I had a spoonful of the soup and then I dove in because it was GOOD beyond my wildest imagination. I have to hand it to her - she's a great cook!

Then this morning, as I was struggling to get dressed and ready for work, I happened to spot Sam the Wonder Cat staying out of my way in the dining room, sound asleep on his back, all 4 paws sticking straight up in the air. I had to laugh. Not a bad way to start the day! He is, after all, the clown prince of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

BECAUSE THEY'VE HANDLED "CASH FOR CLUNKERS" AND MEDICARE SO EFFICIENTLY!

Now they are seeking to take over the safety regulation of all the subway stations in this nation under their control.

The Obama administration will propose that the federal government take over safety regulation of the nation's subway and light-rail systems, responding to what it says is haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies.

Did it even begin to occur to these moronic twits that what they propose to do is unconstitutional? Of course it didn't.

CANCER.NET SKATE AMERICA

A few things happened in this competition. Ryan Bradley of the U.S. utterly charmed me and the entire live audience during his free skate on Saturday. Skating to a selection of chamber music, Mr. Bradley performed 2 quads, a number of very difficult triple jumps AND he was utterly delightful while doing so. I haven't ever been a big fan of his, but any skater that can make Scott Hamilton giggle nonstop throughout a performance has to be doing something right.

Belbin and Agosto won the Ice Dancing gold medal to the surprise of absolutely nobody. Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao turned in a workmanlike but flawed performance that was still many miles above what any of their competitors are putting out there. Evan Lysacek won the men's competition to the surprise of absolutely nobody, but Ryan Bradley was still a standout!

Now for my rant. Zoe BLANC and Pierre-Loup BOUQUET placed 8th in the ice dancing competition - they should have been deported before being permitted to sully the venue with their sloppy appearance. It was opined that they pride themselves on being cutting edge! Too bad they do not pride themselves on bathing and polishing their skates. Get a decent haircut and wash your hair. Do your roots, chica! They would be decent ice dancers if they'd quite trying so hard to be "cutting edge" and instead learned the basics of ice dancing - like good edges! A number of female skaters were not only guilty of dirty skate laces, some of them had the lack of respect for themselves and the occasion to show up with filthy SKATES as well.

Kim Yu-Na proved she was human by delivering a very flawed long program. She was, however, so far ahead in points that even Rachael Flatt's riveting performance could not prevent the pride of South Korea from winning the competition.

All in all, it was a very interesting and entertaining weekend of skating. The grooming issues aside, most of the skaters delivered halfway decent performances, although it was indeed distressing to see Emily Hughes back on the scene. The commentators kept commenting on how "in shape" she looked. I think she looked like she'd been hitting the mac and cheese a little too frequently at Harvard. Granted, she has never been a slender skater - but her ass and thighs are gigantic! That is not "in shape" to me. And frankly, she gets the attention that she does because of her vastly overrated older sister Sarah Hughes, Olympic gold medalist by accident! Emily Hughes simply is not that good a skater! She is merely mediocre.

Finally, I was sorry to see Sasha Cohen was unable to return to competition at Skate America. She would be an exquisite addition to the competitive ranks.

OUR PRESIDENT CANNOT SALUTE OUR FLAG, BUT HE CAN BOW (90 DEGREE ANGLE) TO THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN!

In his continuing effort to deny and denigrate American exceptionalism, our President was seen bowing to the Emperor of Japan. How many American Presidents have done this? One! The current occupant of the Oval Office. What is wrong with our president? Does he not listen to the people whose job it is to teach him protocol and proper behavior? Was TOTUS turned off that day? Is he an anti-American tool?

In the picture below, we can see him not showing proper respect to the American flag. Now this! Grounds for impeachment? Not just yet - but soon!

OUR PRESIDENT SHOWING HIS USUAL RESPECT FOR THE FLAG OF THE NATION HE IS SUPPOSED TO LEAD! DESPICABLE CRETIN THAT HE IS!

JUST WHEN A TEENSY GLIMMER OF HOPE
CREPT IN!

This:

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, an Obama administration official said Friday. The official said Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce the decision later in the morning. The official is not authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement, so spoke on condition of anonymity . . .

Has Holder lost his itty bitty little mind? Does he WANT to see New York City decimated by bombings? Does he want to see our economy totally destroyed by the clearly insane but still utterly dangerous jihadists?

I knew the appointment of Eric Holder was a huge mistake; I just didn't recognize how monumentally stupid it was! Our president is an idiot and even those of us who did not vote for him will pay the price! Again, and again and again!

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

I'm beginning to think my friend David is correct when he says that historically all republics fail after some 200-300 years due to the dead weight of its leadership as it evolves. Or non-leadership as the case may be. In our nation's case, political correctness is the poisoned arrow that is destroying one of the grandest experiments ever attempted by mankind!

That murderous son-of-a-bitch who slaughtered 14 fine Americans and put 30 additional fine Americans in the hospital (and having been in the hospital several times of late - in a GOOD hospital - I can tell you that putting someone in the hospital can qualify as "cruel and unusual" on any scale you'd like to name) who was shouting Allah Akbar and wearing his Jihadists draperies - he is just a misunderstood, stressed out sufferer of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome ahead of the fact of actually being deployed into the war zone.

Give me a break!

Maj. Nidal Hasan committed an act of TERROR folks! Nothing less. And anyone who tells you to the contrary is (1) a fool or (2) an enemy of this nation. Period.

Unless and until we start calling terror precisely what it is when it happens, we are all going to be destroyed by these 7th Century lunatics. I'm not saying it is Islam's fault. What I AM saying is that it is RADICAL Islam's fault. It's entirely possible however that all Islam is Radical Islam but you can't prove it one way or the other by me!

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Just go read this and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

VETERANS' DAY AND ALL THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WHO DESERVE OUR THANKS

Starting in 1775, this nation has always been blessed with heroes who have by their actions made this country not only possible but exceptional (yes, President Obama, EXCEPTIONAL). In a world that is p.c.-crazy, I refuse to be stomped into accepting that other countries have just as much claim to exceptionalism as do we. T'ain't so. They'd be speaking German in Paris were it not for us. And had Lyndon Baines Johnson not decided that he was a wartime tactician, South Vietnam would not be dominated by North Vietnam. There will always be an England but it might not be the England we know and frequently love, were it not for us. A lot of monuments would have bit it had our brave soldiers not joined in the European war effort. And had Harry Truman not made the tough decision to drop the A bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese citizens might have died before the War in the Pacific ended. Were it not for our military, South Korea might not be as vibrantly free as it is today and it could not have produced the radiant Yu-Na Kim.

So thank you my dear Veterans. I appreciate your sacrifice and your hard work on behalf of a country that seems to only really express its gratitude once per year, another luxury you have won for us!