The snowball is getting bigger...

Not content with just controlling when and where you can smoke a cancer stick, talk on your cell phone, or what your kids can bring to school for lunch, Big Brother is now attempting to set the temperature in your house!

The State of California wants to be able to remotely controll the thermostats in new housing and "substantially modified" buildings and homes. That way, when THEY feel that you should be using less energy to heat or cool your domicile, THEY can just do it. At will. Apparently, customers can override the beurocratic setting, but in cases of "Emergencies" the government will override you. And guess who will get to define what an emergency is???

What the crap?

If I want to keep my house a cool 68 degrees during the summer, I should be able to do so. But I'll pay for it with a higher utility bill. If you really want to controll how much electricity we use, raise the price and usage will eventually go down. Did the morons who wrote this policy skip general Economics 101?

This country was founded on the ideas of individual rights and private property ownership. Day after day, our government is chipping away at these principles. It's like boiling a frog. By slowly turning up the heat, the frog doesn't realize he's about to die until it's too late. Right now, the temperature is pretty warm. Will we realize the danger we are in before we meet the frog's fate???

Latest on the Adoption...

NOTHING!

No new good news. Everytime we get contacted by our agency, they keep telling us that it is going to be longer and longer. The wait time for China to process the adoptions in now over 2 years, and we are being told that it may stretch to 4 years. That means 2009 or later, now. CRAP!

If you're reading this...

This song by Tim McGraw tears me up every time I hear it. John 15:13 quotes Jesus Christ in saying, "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And in this case, his enemies.

Lord, please help me help my stupid self...

One of my favorite songs, by country artist Rodney Adkins. It's called "Watching You."

Global Warming Consensus

Al Gore would have us all believe that Global Warming is sound science. It's not. I've said it before and I'll say it again, science is NOT decided by consensus. Consensus is how you decide what schools need to be repaired, or where a new road should be built.

Now, over 400 scientists from around the world have come to their own consensus-that global warming is far from completely settled and that fear mongering by the left is driving this with a definite agenda.

In the way that liberals do best, they try to vilify anyone who doesn't agree with them. Al Gore called global warming skeptics members of "the flat earth society". He impugns their integrity and their research. If progressives can't win an argument with facts, they resort to emotional outbursts. I can just see Mr Gore now: "Play by my rules or I'm gonna tell my mommy on you!"

What is the Senate doing...

With all the dangers in the world today, for some reason a Senate panel has decided to waste tax payer money by investigating whether or not preachers are making too much money.

They are investigating 6 separate "Christian" ministries. The burning question is, are these specific preachers " complying with IRS rules that bar excessive personal gain through tax-exempt work. "

The ministers in question (Benny Hinn,Joyce Meyer,Eddie Long, Randy & Paula White,and Kenneth and Gloria Copeland) are all advocates of the "Health and Wealth Gospel, or Word of Faith." Personally, I think they are frauds and preach a mutated & warped version of Biblical truth. I will not be upset on the day that they are all thrown in prison for fraud, embezzlement, or whatever else evil they may have performed.

But, what business is it of the Senate? Leave it to the IRS. After all, it was really the IRS, and NOT the senate, that brought down the mobster bosses of the 20's and 30's. If the senate can investigate "preachers", then what is to stop them from investigating other professions? Maybe corporate CEO's that created mutibillion dollar industries "on the backs of the people." Maybe Moguls that "have too much control of the media." Or the movie star who makes $20 million per picture? Or the teacher who makes extra money by staying after school and tutoring struggling students.

Senate, stay out of our checkbooks. You have written enough tax code to rape us on a regular basis. Let the IRS investigate those TV preachers, and instead maybe you should actually work on something that will be good for America (like a constitutional amendment correcting the Kelo v City of New London eminent domain case)

The Middle "Rich" Class

The democrat candidates for president all seem united on one thing: raising taxes on the so called rich. But they don't agree on who's really rich. Some say $500,000 per year. Some $250,000. Some are saying $150,000.

However, in one of the Meccas of socialism, Denmark, the rich apparently make a whopping 360,000 Danish kroner, which sounds like a lot until you convert it. That's roughly only $70,000/year. At what tax rate do those greedy,filthy rich pay? A ginormous 63%!

So listen up, America. When your favorite leftist politician says he or she will only raise taxes on the "rich", you'd better understand that to mean "middle class".

The wonderful British Health Service

Whenever liberals talk about health care reform, they almost always talk about 2 Utopian societies: Canada and Great Britain.

Well, apparently the British Health Service has decided that a 108 year old woman deserves a new hearing aid. BUT, she has to wait 18 months before she will qualify for it. I guess in the grand scheme of things, 18 months is nothing for a woman who has lived thru 1296+ months!!!!!

This really sounds like something to which we as Americans should aspire.

As reported in The Guardian, July 30th, 2007.

Another thing that gets on my nerves...

Another concept that really gets on my nerves is the current trend of replacing the terms "A.D." and "B.C" with "CE" and "BCE". AD stands for "anno domini" and BC for "before Christ." CE is "common era" and BCE is "before common era."

The progressive establishment doesn't like the idea that Jesus Christ is used to determine which year it is, so they hope that by replacing the old terminology with more politically correct versions, people won't be offended by the mere thought of His name.

But they forget one thing. The change from BCE to CE still takes place at the same time as the change from BC to AD. Therefore, Jesus Christ is still the reference point! Yes, it's true that we don't really know what year Christ was born, but that doesn't change the fact that 2007 AD is 2007 AD. If they really want to wipe out the memory of Christ, they should pick another historic reference point, and make that the changing point. Like maybe the birth of a non-religious, progressive idol; such as Mao, Stalin, Pot or Hitler.

(The image is Raphael's "The Granduca Madonna", painted in 1505)

Renewable sources of energy...

If you've ever read any of my rants, you know I am not a tree-hugger. But I really like the idea of curtailing our oil addiction. I have no problem at all with the idea of "renewable" sources of energy.

But the term "renewable" gets on my nerves. There is NOTHING renewable about solar or wind energy. We cannot do a danged thing to renew sunlight or the wind. Ethanol is renewable. We can replant corn or switch grass or whatever, year after year. We can't affect by one little bit the fusion taking place on the sun.

They used to call non-petroleum sources of fuel "alternative energy." I don't know why that term became politically incorrect. But in my mind, it's a much better choice of words.

Do you speak Yankee or Dixie

This is a great quiz to take. It's worth the 5 or so minutes it takes to complete.

Click here, y'all!

The ultimate Progressive song...

"The Trees"

Words by Neil Peart, music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson





There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw

Good news for Fatty's like me...

According to the holy temple of secular humanism (ie, the government) being fat ain't so bad. A study by the CDC and the National Cancer Institute found that people who are overweight DO NOT DIE at greater rates than skinny people. In fact, being overweight (BMI of 25-30) actually causes 138,281 fewer deaths! Only for the obese (BMI >35) did the rate of death increase; even then ,only in the rates of death from heart disease and cancer increased. All other causes of death were stable or decreased in that group.

The authors of this study, Katherine Flegal, found that 95,422 deaths were attributable to severe obesity. BUT, she also found that 46,398 deaths were attributable to people who were TOO THIN!!!!! That's just under half the deaths compared to the gravimetrically gifted!!


Why wasn't this front page, breaking news? Because it's against the media's agenda. And because no one has yet figured out who to sue for skinny people.

Slippery Slope

We are travelling down a very dangerous road with a very slippery slope, now, when it comes to the very ideas on which this country was founded. One of the things that separates this country from the rest of the world is our security in the notion that we cannot be forced to do something we find to be against our conscience. I remember a saying I heard growing up, "this is a free country, ain't it?".

That may be changing. There is a growing trend in this country to force people to do certain things "for the public good." The latest controversy involves the medical use of estrogen and progesterone. The "morning after" pills in question are high dose hormone pills that keep a fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus. If this newly fertilized egg( called a blastocyst) cannot attach to the wall of the uterus, it will not be able to further divide and ultimately become a viable pregnancy.

Many people, rightly or wrongly, find this to be tantamount to abortion. In Washington state, a law was passed to FORCE pharmacists to dispense this medication to women, regardless of their personal moral beliefs.

Those who wish to force the issue are concerned that, if pharmacists can refuse to deal with "morning after" pills, what's to stop them from refusing other medication, like birth control in general or Viagra to single men?

This is the slippery slope I'm concerned about. Personally, I believe that an independent,private individual MUST have the right to refuse to perform an action they hold to be morally objectionable. If he (or she) can be forced to do this one, small thing, I'm afraid the government will snowball this. What else can the government force us to do, in the name of the "public good?"

In my state of Tennessee, they passed a law making it illegal to smoke in public buildings. On the surface of it, I love this law. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. I've heard people say on the radio here that that's as far as the ban can possibly go. "They" could never come into our homes to ban smoking. Well, in California, it's now illegal in many places to smoke in your own apartment. In New Jersey, they are proposing making it illegal to smoke in your car. Again, I like the concept of this law, especially when it comes to small children.

But where will these laws end? What else will the bureaucrats in Washington, or Nashville, or Sacramento, or Trenton, be able to make us do???????

A great interview with the sensational Paul Potts.

Real American Hero

No matter what you think of him, you've got to admit that John McCain is a real American hero!!!

2007 the worst hurricane season ever...

At least it was the worst season ever for the Global Warming ideologues. For the second year in a row, the Chicken Littles of the world were wrong in their forecasts. This year was going to be one of the worst hurricane seasons ever. Global warming was churning up the seas of destruction. Whole coastal cities would be wiped of the map. But it didn't happen.

Apparently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) can't accurately predict the weather just a few weeks or months away. So why does Al Gore think they can predict 100 years from now????

Atlas Shrugged

I'm currently reading the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'm only about 1/4 of the way thru it right now (it's 1000+ pages), but I can't help but be impressed by Ms Rand's prognostic ability. For those of you who have never heard of the book, I will begin with a very brief, and probably very bad, summary of the book.

It's about a world in which "moochers" and "looters" rule over everybody with an iron fist. Private property is routinely taken by the government in the name of public good. The productive members of society have had enough, and go on strike, thus bringing the world to it's knees.

It was published back in 1957. This year is the 50th anniversary of the book. What amazes me is how many of Ms Rand's ideas have come true. The socialists of the day are constantly calling themselves and their ideas "progressive." They pass laws making it illegal to be "too successful." They try to regulate the oil industry with taxes and legislation, leading to nation-wide fuel shortages. And they frequently use guilt as a means to destroy the productive. They are advocates of taking from the successful and giving to the needy because the needy are unable to earn for themselves.

Ms Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, has a lot I don't agree with, but the majority of it's precepts seem spot on to me.

R.I.P. Robert Jordan

After struggling with a disease called Amyloidosis, author Robert Jordan (real name James Oliver Rigney, Jr) died on September 16th, 2007. He was (and still is) one of my favorite writers. I loved his Wheel of Time series. The series was about a young man, Rand, who suddenly found himself at the center of the ultimate battle between Good and Evil. Ever the reluctant hero, Rand and his friends grew with each installment, with the penultimate book being the last one Mr Jordan was able to write.

He will be greatly missed. His influence in the world of Fantasy fiction will be felt for generations to come.

(The above picture was found at the website Dragonmount.com.)

Andy McKee

If you like the sound of a guitar, this guy is awesome. I don't know what you call his playing style, but it's incredible to listen to.