Only the Government knows what's right

Senator Obama has been letting more sneak out about his true agenda. The other day in Oregon, the omniscient Senator said "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times".

How dare someone actually set their thermostat at such an unacceptable temperature? Only the enlightened Looters in Washington know the proper settings for your house. In fact, if the Looters had their way, we'd all be driving monochrome, compact hybrid cars; wearing uniform, brown suits; and going to bed at the same time. We'll all have a meal plan to ensure that no one is more nutritionally advantaged than others. Perhaps everyone's income will be legislated to be equal, as well.

Every light fixture in your house would have those magnificent, completely environmentally safe twisty-bulbs. We'll just use our collective will to keep the mercury in them from causing problems. After all, AlGore says those bulbs are the savior of the planet, right? And don't forget, corn should be used to make ethanol, not food.

Besides, America is full of too many evil, rich people. We'll just raise taxes, because who doesn't want to pay their "fair share", anyway? During the race to become POTUS, the definition of "rich" has been ratcheted down from $1,000,000.00 per year to $500k, to $250k. Now apparently $102,000 per family is rich. And since private citizens don't really know which charities to give to, the Looters will redistribute that money for us.

And, now that the Supreme Court has set the precedent with the Kelo v. City of New London decision, your home is not really even yours. If the Looters discover that you set your thermostat too high or low, leave a light on in your house, flush your toilet twice or use more that 3 squares of toilet paper, they might just condemn your house, so they can put in a shopping mall, to be built by the Looter's cousin.

Millionaire's tax

Did you read about the new "millionaire's tax" the Democrats are proposing. It's just a 1/2 % income tax on income above 1 million dollars. Mike Ross (D_Ark) says "someone who earns $2 million a year would pay $5,000. ... They're not going to miss it."

There never gonna miss it??!?!?!? That pisses me off. It's their fricken money, not yours, Mr Ross. You gonna kill their dog, too, because "it's just a dog, they're never gonna miss it"????

And to make matters worse, this really isn't even a millionaires tax. The $1 million dollar level would apply to couples. Individuals would pay the surcharge on money over $500,000. So the democrats don't even know basic stinking math. 500k doesn't a Million make.

It won't be long until the "rich" are $250k. Then $125k. Then $75k. The Looters will NEVER stop until they take everything you have, and even then they'll attempt to grind you into the ground.

Paris, France 2008

My wife and I just got back from a 1 week vacation to Paris, France. I figured with the French election of President Sarkozy, now was as good a time to go as any. I booked this vacation about 6 months ago, so the costs were all locked with a better exchange rate. With the dollar being down against the Euro, I thought for sure there wouldn't be very many Americans there, but I was wrong. There were literally tons of Americans everywhere we went.

We had an awesome time. We found the French people to be polite, kind and very helpful. I took 3 years of French in school, but had forgotten most of it during the past couple (ahem) of years, so I bought a CD set to refresh my memory. I knew enough French to get around, order at the restaurant, etc, and found that as long as you tried to speak their language, they were more than happy to switch to English when I struggled.

The monuments and attractions we saw were all incredible. We started the trip with a visit to the Eiffel tower. After waiting in line for over 90 minutes, I actually got my wife to ride the elevator to the top. Approximately 990 feet in the air. That high up, the view of Paris was incredible.

Next, we wandered around the Isle de Cite and found Notre Dame. It's quite impressive being inside this place of Christian worship. We were lucky enough to get there as they were wrapping up a night time Mass. I can still smell the incense being burned.

We also spent about 5 hours in the Louvre. To tell the truth, the last 2 hours of that time was just spent trying to find the exit. My wife finally found the door to the outside world. That place is fricking huge! The "Mona Lisa" was actually a disappointment. The painting is kinda small, and it is in a room jam packed with people, pushing and shoving to try to see it. After being impaled by about a thousand elbows, I shot a quick picture and left, not getting to really appreciate the painting. We also got to see the "Venus de Milo", "Winged Victory" and Michelangelo's "Dying Slave" and "Rebellious Slave".

We also visited Montmartre, which is a Paris neighborhood. This area contains a hill that is the highest point of land in Paris. On it's peak, is a beautiful church, the Basilica Sacre Coeur.

The best part of the trip was a tour of the Normandy Beach landing sites. My grandfather landed there on D-day, and fortunately made it home safely after the war. It was awesome (in the original sense of the word) to stand in the same spot he stood decades before. The American cemetery is breathtaking. And at Point du Hoc, there are still hundreds of craters from the American battleships' guns. Grass and flowers have grown over them, but if you close your eyes, you can still hear the explosions.



The food ranged from awesome (a Moroccan place called "404") to mediocre(cafe on the street). You could buy an entire bottle of wine for the cost of about 2 Cokes. We had snails (actually quite tasty when drowned in garlic butter), lamb, duck, quail and crepes. I liked the bread, with it's hard outer crust.

I brought a pedometer with us because I knew we would be walking quite a bit. Not counting the travel days, we walked 14.14 miles. Our feet hurt at the end of each day, but no pain, no gain, they say. We also heavily used the Paris Metro, which is clean and easy to use.

This was our second trip to Europe. The first was a guided tour in Italy. This trip was on our own. There are pros and cons to each method, so it's really hard to say which is the best way to go. However, overall, this trip was worth every Euro we paid.