"All new for 2012, the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition is the mandatory American car so advanced it took $100 billion and an entire Congress to design it. We started with same reliable 7-way hybrid ethanol-biodeisel-electric-clean coal-wind-solar-pedal power plant behind the base model Pelosi, but packed it with extra oomph and the sassy styling pizazz that tells the world that 1974 Detroit is back again -- with a vengeance."



Now if I could just find me some Hai Karate... 

Oh, Yeah.

Nobody does satire quite like the folks at Salvo Magazine. Give it read. You won't be disappointed.

... than angry scowls.

A smart commenter, named Sharon, at Dirty Harry's Place reminded me that smiles are much more important, and healthy, than angry scowls. This creation is just brilliant. A bit Geeky, but brilliant nonetheless.



"Kiss a wookiiieee ... Kick the 'droid.
Fly the Falcon through an asteroid."

Brilliant.

I was given this at the end of the Liturgy a few weeks back. I thought I'd share it with whomever stops by my corner of the blogosphere. If you are so inclined pray and reflect on it at the start of each day. It might just smooth out some of the day's coming rough spots.

This is how good Americans will win the culture back from the radical Left.



Politics has its place, but as long as good Americans let people like Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, George Clooney, Paul Hagis, Brian Ee Palma, et al.

America would be a much better place with more Democrats like Orson Scott Card.

And, yes, Mr. Card is a Democrat.

A political time out. My question today, to anyone who comes by little corner of the blogosphere, is have you stopped three feet from gold?

There is a story in Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich about R. U. Darby's uncle's desire for gold. I cannot suggest this book enough. Here is one of the many inspirational stories that can be found in this classic.

THREE FEET FROM GOLD

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.

An uncle of R. U. Darby was caught by the "gold fever" in the gold-rush days, and went west to DIG AND GROW RICH. He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.

After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the "strike." They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.

Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again--all to no avail.

Finally, they decided to quit.

They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. Some "junk" men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed, because the owners were not familiar with "fault lines." His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! That is exactly where it was found!

The "Junk" man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.

Most of the money which went into the machinery was procured through the efforts of R. U. Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives and neighbors, because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.

Long afterward, Mr. Darby recouped his loss many times over, when he made the discovery that DESIRE can be transmuted into gold. The discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance.

Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, because he STOPPED three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself, "I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance."

If you think there is somewhere in your life that you've stopped three feet from gold, and would be willing to talk to someone who might help you find that gold?

On November 3rd the McCain campaign made a last minute appeal for the women's vote. How did he do this? According James (don't call him Jim) Lileks, at Screedblog, the McCain campaign sent out a postcard to potential voters in swing states.

The postcard included the following text:

“As the father of three daughters, I owe _________ a debt for inspiring them and millions of other women to believe nothing in this great country is beyond their reach. . . I share _________'s goal of promoting women to more important roles throughout our government. By the end of my first term, I promise you will see a dramatic increase in the presence of women in every part of the government. You have my word on it. John McCain.”

Here is Senator McCain fondly gazing at the person whose name has been excised from the text above.


And here's the blurb beneath John's beaming gaze:


So who is all this warm, fondness and praise directed at? It's not who you think ... or maybe it is.



And some still think it would have been a good thing to have this man as the Republican standard bearer for the next four years. Was God's guiding hand involved in John McCain's loss? It is something to think about.

John Nolte wrote at Dirty Harry's Place, in response to the Anti-Democratic 'No on Prop 8' protesters disrupting religious services throughout California and elsewhere, "if you [No on Prop 8 Protesters] can’t take a breath and a moment to appreciate where we’re coming from, why would we continue to for a bunch of, well, religophobes?"

He didn't have to create a new word for these folks. It already exists. The word is BIGOT. Add further descriptors as you desire. I prefer 'hate-filled' and 'ignorant'

If people didn't see this coming then they just aren't paying attention.  What did folks think was going to happen the first time a church denied a same-sex couple a wedding ceremony? Did you think they would simply shrug their shoulders and go home? This movement has never been about marriage or equality. It is about power to recreate the central element of Western Civilization - The Traditional Family.

Is much attention being paid to the case in Hayward, CA where a kindergarten teacher had 5 year olds sign a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender loyalty oaths.

Don't believe me. Believe the Radicals now disrupting Mormon, Catholic and Evangelical religious services. Their goals were spelled out more than 2 years ago in Beyond Marriage.

The independent, traditional family has made America what it is. And the Left hates what America is. What better way to "fundamentally" change America, then to fundamentally change what a family is? And once you have the children, the rest is easy.

You better think again if you think it ends with marriage redefinition. Here's a few choice goals from that Beyond Marriage document linked above:

"Ø The separation of benefits and recognition from marital status, citizenship status, and the requirement that “legitimate” relationships be conjugal
"Ø Separation of church and state in all matters, including regulation and recognition of relationships, households, and families
"Ø Access for all to vital government support programs, including but not limited to: affordable and adequate health care, affordable housing, a secure and enhanced Social Security system, genuine disaster recovery assistance, welfare for the poor
"Ø Freedom from a narrow definition of our sexual lives and gender choices, identities, and expression

While most folks marching outside of Mormon Temples, Catholic and Evangelical Churches might not have heard of "Beyond Marriage", but I'm sure the ones instigating the protests have. In fact, lots and lots of folks know about this document. Including: "Gloria Steinem, Cornel West, Rabbi Michael Lerner (of Tikkun Magazine), and Barbara Ehrenreich ... over 90 professors ... a great many from top schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Brown, Cornell, Williams, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Dartmouth, and U.C. Berkeley. Quite a few of these schools had more than one faculty member sign on. Popular writers like Terrence McNally, Armistead Maupin, and Susie Bright joined big-name academics like Judith Stacey and Judith Butler ... Quite a few professors from top law schools (e.g., Yale, Columbia, Georgetown) also endorsed the statement."

The reactions you are seeing is being driven by the Radical Leftists behind "Beyond Marriage". They are pissed that so many people will not fall in line with their Socialist Utopian vision for America, a place where the traditional family is dead.

I would like to think that these protests will wake some people up, but I'm not counting on it. Most Americans will do like most Germans did during WWII when they pretended they had no idea what "that place" over the hill was and somehow never noticed strange smell.

Same-Sex Marriage activists are attacking the Mormon Church.

"They'll see. They'll see and they'll know. Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly."

The answer that I am starting to come up with to the question above is: Yes. John McCain as President would have done more damage to Republicans, in four short years, than anything Pres. Bush and many of the inept Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senators have done in the past eight years.

I am led to the conclusion based on recent events following the election.

Mark Steyn writes,

"Joe Kenney, the Republican gubernatorial candidate for New Hampshire and a current state senator*, told me the McCain team refused to allow him to appear on stage at the rally. The official explanation was that he hadn't had a Secret Service background check, and it would not be possible to arrange one in time. Needless to say, this was not persuasive.

(*and a USMC Active Reserves officer who's done two tours in Iraq. Didn't have problems getting clearance for killing his country's enemies, but the McCain camp evidently has tougher entry qualifications.)"

Andy McCarthy, also at NRO, wrote recently about McCain's failure to defend Gov. Sarah Palin from the two-faced, backstabbing louts in his own campaign who devolved into Norman Bates, bringing out the knives for the Alaskan Governor, following McCain's loss.

"Sen. McCain did not allow a nanosecond to go buy without issuing a sanctimonius, full-throated condemnation of any Republican who dared use Sen. Obama's middle name, mention Jeremiah Wright, or otherwise trash The One.

So where is the vigorous defense of his running-mate?"

Not having McCain as the Republican Standard Bearer for four years looks to be a blessing in disguise.

Here's a suggestion on getting through the next four years, or perhaps two if the American polis and the Republican Party gets its head straight and puts good Republicans back in charge of Congress.

Once I get the meaningful employment thing back in place, after suffering a layoff at the end of October (and readers can help by going here) I can start working my way through these meaty tomes.


Winston Churchill's 6 volume history of World War II

Those books I already have. The following, however, will have to wait till I get more business (again please stop by my place and have a look around).


The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian

David Brooks has a dream. He dreams of a place of "a happy place. [Where there are] flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles." It is a wonderful "postpartisan" Candy Land where the word of the day is always "bipartisanship". ... screeeech ... Wait a minute ... Postpartisan? ... Bipartisan? ... Huh?

A Partisan, according to Merriam-Webster.com, is "a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person".  Let's read "postpartisan" as similar in meaning to "postmodern", that is, "relating to, or being an era after" a partisan one. Therefore, "postpartisan" is an era in which people are no longer firm adherents to a party, faction, cause or person.

So if we are all no longer adhering to our political parties or causes, then how do we become "bipartisan", which is defined as " involving members of two parties [that is, two partisans]; specifically: marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties."

It strikes me that we are either living in the wonderful happy land of "postpartisan" America or we are all partisans but living in the warm glow of cooperation, agreement and compromise. How is one both Modern and Postmodern? How is one both Postpartisan and Bipartisan? I don't understand. But then I'm not a "conservative" writing for the Democrat Times of New York.

Bipartisan has one meaning that everyone recognizes, but most, especially elites living and working in the New York - Washington D.C. corridor, refuse to admit. Bipartisanship is when Republicans give in  to Democrat demands.

David Brooks "dream" for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime, is just that, a dream. It is pure fantasy. Where has Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, John Kerry or any of the other numerous radical Lefties now running Congress and the White House ever shown themselves as bipartisan, let alone "postpartisan"? In the midst of a "bipartisan" financial market bailout boondogle what did Speaker of the House Pelosi do? Launched herself into a bitter partisan tirade against Pres. Bush and Republicans. What did Mr. Obama do in the middle of his first news conference? Throw an ignorant insult at former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

But these are the folks that Mr. Brooks think will be "postpartisan" or at least bipartisan enough to appoint Republicans like Robert Gates at the Defense Department or Diane Ravitch or Jim Talent to "important jobs" not just "marginal jobs" (how about any job?).

They must put something in the water at the Democrat Times of New York offices.

Either that or Mr. Brooks is making a bid for a new career as an author of fantasy fiction.

Art above by Egor Malygin.

First Press Conference out of the gate and he insults Nancy Reagan



Will all the conservatives crowding the "lets wait and see, he might moderate his Leftism" bus now shut up? Or is insulting former a First Lady who is in her late 80s and suffering from health problems what one can expect from a "moderate" Lefty?

Is it to early to start calling Obama, President Jerk?

Goes to Red Planet Cartoons.



I just wish they updated more often. But when they do each piece is great art and great political commentary. You should have them bookmarked.