The Wright Mansion

If you go back to a previous post I had about Trinity United Church of Christ, where Rev. Jeremiah Wright is the former pastor and Obama is a regular attender you should recall something that is part of the church's basic mission "Economic parity". If you don't understand PC terms, that means they believe in Marxism (basically). Rev Wright preached for years how people should avoid the ills of materialism.

But, Fox News did a little homework and found out that they Rev isn't TOTALLY against some materialism. Well, maybe that's not fair, does a $1.6 MILLION dollar home really count as a material possession?

According to the pastor's words on the web page:
"The fortunate who are among us combine forces with the less fortunate to become agents of change for God who is not pleased with America’s economic mal-distribution!"

I guess that's good news for the rest of the members of Trinity! Get in line guys! Who wants the next 10K square foot house?!

Of course there was a $10 million dollar line of credit opened up against the property too... hmm... is that the rest of his retirement package? Or just some really nice furniture for the house?

Obama's Plan: Higher Taxes and MORE Government Regulation

Ben Smith at politico.com has the transcript of the interview.

Not just increasing capital gains taxes, but nearly DOUBLING them. Nice. You aren't supposed to pay attention to what he will TAKE from you, but rather what he is going to do with that money. After of course Congress pays for their pork barrel projects and the fed highers some more government workers to manage all of that extra money. Of course the bureaucrats at the top will need some raises and bonuses because they are doing such a good job.

After that, don't worry he will use that extra money to give tax breaks to lower and middle income Americans. Of course, if any of them get any stock options or make an investments, he'll rob them blind on capital gains, but... hey they'll get 10 cents on the dollar back in tax cuts.

(warning: the following paragraph is dripping with sarcasm)
I just can't imagine a BETTER plan to re-invigorating the stock market than nearly doubling the capital gains taxes. What a genius! Of course, the stock market is just for the ultra rich people, you know the ones that have a 401K or an IRA or some other type of retirement account because they know they can't bank on Social Security.

PAY ATTENTION: This is the CHANGE that Obama is selling. I know, it may look like typical LIBERAL tax and spend, but that's just because it is. The funny thing is, that this might actually be what Obama is talking about when he says that he is a uniter and someone that can bring the country together. You know, like when the country came together to elect Reagan and get Carter out of the White House. Let's just save Sen Obama the trouble of making two moves in four years and just elect McCain now(granted, McCain ain't no Reagan... but that's a different post).

Splenda No Buena

In my effort to lose weight I tried to make the switch to artificial sweeteners. I have always hated the after taste from aspartame(Equal) and saccharin(Sweet n Low), so I decided to try sucralose (Splenda).

I have to admit that it didn't taste quite like sugar, but it was a lot better than the others, so I started using it in my coffee. To get use to the taste I started with half Splenda and half sugar, then eventually shifted to all Splenda or Splenda and Hershey's Syrup (okay, if you have ever tried this, especially with French press coffee... you KNOW why... oh yeah!).

Anyway, I'm not the most calm person in the world and occasionally can get irritated with more than just politics, but I found myself being EXTREMELY edgy, especially after I had my coffee, which is really strange because that is normally 'happy time'. Well, it was getting worse and worse. Not only that but I was getting this shaky feeling a couple of hours after I had it. I would also break out sweating in ridiculous amounts and generally feel horrible.

So... I went on-line and started looking at adverse affects to Splenda. I was really surprised by some of the things I found. People have had all kinds of reactions to this stuff, everything from skin irritations to rheumatoid-like symptoms. After reading all that my shakiness and irritability didn't sound too bad.

I have been off the stuff for about a week. I've had no shakiness and no extreme irritability (although my wife might dispute that). For the most part I have been feeling a lot better and post coffee time has turned back into 'happy time'.

Anyway, I just thought I would share. Hopefully you all either don't use it or don't have the same type of reactions, but it is something to be aware of.

Thanks.

Vision vs Pandering

There is a great piece at HumanEvents.com talking about what Obama should have done to distance himself ideologically from Rev Wright and the ills and evils of Liberation Theology(read Marxists hiding a gun behind a picture of a Bible).

It really supports something that has been bothering me for quite some time and was echoed in a section I read from The Downing Street Years last night. In the book PM Thatcher talks about Jimmy Carter, not that I have been thinking about Jimmy Carter, but rather look at Carter as the quintessential mold of a naive liberal. I am amazed at how perceptive she is and how insightful her views into American politics are. Her impression of President Carter was that he was a very kind and genuine person, she actually liked him a lot. However she was disappointed at his lack of vision for his own country. Rather than knowing where he wanted to take the US he was more concerned with fighting fires and dealing with individual issues. This is a huge contrast to PM Thatcher and her clear goals when she came into office. Truly everything she did and all of her interactions as the PM of England were based on her vision for where her country needed to go. It was inspiring.

It emphasizes what we AREN'T hearing from the candidates right now, particularly on the left. All we hear is pandering. It's all about what they are going to do for this group, or that group, or for EVERYBODY! The speech that McCain made yesterday comes the closest to someone actually trying to cast their vision for the country. Unfortunately I didn't like all of what he was trying to envision. But, at least he seems to have A vision.

Useful Idiots of Saddam

If you haven't heard the story yet, here it is. To sum it up, three Dem congressman took a trip to Iraq right before the Iraq war to make a statement that the US should not invade and oust Hussein.

Well, it turns out that they made this trip at the request of a Saddam Hussein operative. Of course, they didn't actually know that he was working for the Iraqi dictator and illegally collecting 2 million barrels of oil for his services (through the corrupt UN Oil for Food program), but they didn't look into it either, or even question the motives of the man.

The fact is that they were stupid. Very stupid. Personally I think they should resign for sheer incompetence.

Dem Crossover Votes for McCain

There is some pretty interesting stuff happening in this primary. It looks like the Dems are pretty bitter and split about this whole battle. Kind of funny considering there is really zero difference between the candidates on anything OTHER than personality.

Rush Limbaugh and other talk show hosts have been doing what they can to add fuel to the fire. Limbaugh is working what he calls "Operation Chaos" to get Rep voters to cross over and vote for Hillary in order to prolong the whole nomination process. The good news is that it appears to be working.

In the meantime, some Dems are actually threatening to sue Limbaugh for "Operation Chaos", while they are also trying to get Reps to vote for their candidate. Are they going to sue themselves next? The whole thing is a mess, which is of course what Limbaugh wanted in the first place.

I know a lot of people don't like the man, but quite frankly, he's a genius when it comes to this stuff.

At this point it's pretty entertaining.

Great Quote from the Federalist

I found an interesting quote while reading the Federalist, actually I’ve found multitudes of them. The genius and wisdom of these men was far beyond their years and far beyond themselves.

As a background, the Federalist is actually a collection of essays published in various newspapers throughout the country during the late eighteenth century. It was an attempt by Publius (actually Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison) to convince the people that the newly created Constitution was the best solution for the country. Up until that time the infant country had been loosely governed by the ineffective and remarkably deficient Articles of Confederation. At the time of the drafting of the Constitution, all options were on the table, including breaking up the fledgling country into separate confederacies. The authors sought to convince the people that what was needed was a stronger union of the states, hence the preamble of the Constitution, “…in order to form a more perfect union…”

Great stuff.

In any case, here is the quote.

“On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is
essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and
well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a
dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the
rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the
firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has
been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the
latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics,
the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the
people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.”

You are probably shaking your head at this point. Really to understand the writing as it is you have to read it for a while, then you don’t get so hung up on the language and the highly educated verbage of the day.

In essence it says that you have to listen to what a politician is telling you and what he is doing. People pandering to groups of individuals are usually the ones that you need to fear, rather than the ones that are trying to build a fair and efficient government. “The former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter…”

Now turn on your TV and listen to the presidential candidates.
Are they talking about helping out low income families?
Are they talking about paying for your child’s college?
Are they talking about the plight of those who have fallen prey to corporate greed?
Are they talking about delivering people from the current “tyrant”?
Are they talking about saving families from their mortgage mess?

Do you hear anyone talking about improving the efficiency of the federal government?
Do you hear anyone talking about speeding up the judicial process?
Do you hear anyone talking about cutting taxes and decreasing government spending across the board?
Do you hear anyone talking about limiting government’s roll in your life?

So my question then is, what kind of politicians are we setting ourselves up with?
Are we creating despots or securing our liberties?

Victim Status for Minorities, breeding anger instead of hope

There is a great article at the American Thinker concerning the differences between blacks and other minorities and how they have succeeded or failed.

It supports what I said earlier about Black Liberation Theology and how it actually does more damage than good to everyone, but especially to those who follow it.

It is very sad.

It makes me wonder how many people out there fail to achieve their potential because they are harboring hatred and animosity towards others?

How many people live their lives as victims of their situation?

America truly IS a land of opportunity. That doesn't mean that the world will be handed to you on a silver platter. It merely means that you have the CHANCE to dream and to work you butt off to see that dream come true. The American Dream isn't the promise of a government check, but the chance to make your future what you want it to be.

CAIR part 1

I had to laugh when the email came out about Obama being educated as a Muslim and the dangers of a Manchurian Candidate scenario.

The truth is that Islamic fundamentalists are absolutely working to influence our government and I do believe that their greatest proponent would be Obama, not because of his background, but because of his unrealistic view of groups like Hamas. Lately he has been trying to say that he is pro-Israel, but his actions and other statements contradict him repeatedly. Especially when it comes to choosing his advisers. Samantha Power in particular, who just resigned over some insulting comments about Hillary, was actually sought out by Obama. Her comments about Israel and the "peace process" in the middle east are disturbing at best.

I wonder how much of an influence groups like CAIR would have over an Obama administration and their approach to Israel. Any approach that doesn't acknowledge that #1 Israel is our greatest allie in the middle east, if not the world and that #2 there are forces that are actively engaged in trying to destroy Israel both here and in their own backyard, is misguided and wrong.

Check out this piece on CAIR and their founders. Very enlightening.

Hillary Clinton, evidently she did gain experience being first lady

She got to watch every day as a first rate liar performed his magic.

Evidently it rubbed off.

Surprisingly enough the media actually chronicled it. Oops.

Don't lie in the YOUTube generation, it WILL come back to haunt you. Usually in your own words.