ddot's rants

Racist Stupidity In Lousianna

2007-09-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

We all know some stupid white kids put up a noose. This made some black kids angry who could not control themselves and had to assault those responsible.

Who would Martin Luther King support in this instance?
Where is the outrage and where should it be?
Who am I angry with?

The outrage is that the legal system is not set up to condemn stupid people for provocation. It is set up to condemn those who cannot control themselves and strike.
The historical references to Rosa Parks sicken me. She was non violent and protested. She along with Dr. King would surely spank those boys for striking another human.

This protest is wrong. Their anger is displaced because it should be against those stupid white kids. If those black kids had acted as intelligent people these rallys would have those white kids tearfully admitting to their failures on national TV and shaking hands with the sainted black boys. Instead, here we are.

Stupid.

I'm angry with the parents of those white kids. However I'm really angry with the black kids who couldn't stop themselves from hitting someone else. I am even more angry with the money hungry NAACP taking a stance that violence is ok because it is an opportunity to fill their coffers.

Prove me wrong.

Ignorance Defence

2007-09-04T14:37:00.001-07:00

Whoopi has said some things I really like, and sometimes she is dead wrong. An example of something I liked: "I'm NOT an "African-American" I'm an AMERICAN"

Now she defends Michael Vick's pit bull fighting because apparently "down south them backward types are all like that" you know: stupid and cruel. Ignorant of the "rest of the country" and how they view dogs.

She's dead wrong. She made me so mad I almost broke the outhouse door and slapped my sister who is also my first cousin. Is that the south she is referring to?

She actually thinks that Michael Vick would look at this picture and think it's ok? That being a hick makes it ok to be cruel? Is that the crux of her argument? Ignorance blinds him to the obvious? Where else can/has that logic been applied Whoopi?

WMD in UN?

2007-08-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Is a chemical or biological weapon a WMD? Yes. (Leftist crazies will say only nukes are WMDs... of course!)

Did it come from Iraq? At this point all signs say yes.

So the reason we can't find them is because... they were in a filing cabinet in New York city? Who exactly thinks the UN is a competent organization better capable of being a functioning government than our own?

People Really Are Gullible

2007-08-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Clever and crooked people see the countless lemmings out there and have found a new way to milk their collective fears.

Imagine you are in a grocery store. The manager locks the doors and says he is on the phone with a man who is watching the store and there is a bomb. What would you do? Would you take off your clothes in the store? Would you grab a butcher knife and cut off someone's fingers if the guy on the phone said the manager had to tell someone to do this?

Somebody in this article did get nekkid in the store and another almost cut some fingers off.

Get A GRIP people!!! USE your BRAINS! This ain't Spike TV, this is reality!

The unfortunate answer is I believe that people are stupid enough to believe this. You could really do well with this scam in Utah.

Fire up the Resume!

2007-08-07T12:44:00.001-07:00

Clearly there is opportunity in my industry for those with deep pockets and a steady stream of referral business. I'm great with applications and getting cusomers on board but having to turn down a 740 score borrower because they have a loan amount that is 95% of the appraised value no reserves is just too much for me to stomach. I can see a 540 being turned down but a 740? What is going on?

For those of you shopping mortgages out there be warned. The ones that are quoting you rates that sound high are not making it up. The ones that are low balling the rate are trying to bait and switch you.

This is a scary time in the business like I have never seen. I know you have seen this:

of course today's response from Vernake? Hold the rate? AAARUGH!!!!

National City SOS

2007-08-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

W O W ! !

National City bank has officially suspended all applications and approvals for their Wholesale Equity division. Another one is going down. I say that with some confidence because exactly zero of the companies that have suspended applications recently have been able to start back.

The eye of the hurricane has passed us over and now comes the conforming companies. Conforming meaning fannie-freddie product only. Also means big name banks like National City.

Foreclosure Stormclouds Nashville

2007-07-31T07:12:00.000-07:00

National Association of Reators commercial:
"We don't know enough to know what we don't know" from a customer who says he needed a professional Realtor's help in a real estate transaction. I'm sure you have seen these commercials?

Nothing gets my ire up faster than illogical garbage. Check out this quote from Greater Nashville Association of Realtors:

Local Realtors said the storm clouds have been gathering toward the foreclosure.

“Irresponsible lending” to people who previously wouldn’t have been considered credit-worthy, along with bundling all down payments, closing expenses and other home-buying fees into those loans — on top of the home price — were all warning signs, said Richard Courtney, managing broker for Fridrich & Clark and president of the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors.

“You could see this coming for some time. This is a result of that type of lending,” said Courtney.

Take a deep breath and ask nicely:
"Mr. Courtney have or have not Realtors been protecting their clients who are ignorant of how the process works in these transactions that you have deemed to be irresponsible? If so, what portion of blame are Realtors to carry if you participate in the closing of these irresponsible loans? Did your member Realtors ever push the lender to close as quickly as possible or give them time to find the best loan program for your clients? Are your members willing to give back that 6% to these clients who trusted you to lead them through the process?"

I think based on the advertising claims of the local and national associations there is at a minimum some explaining to do. At the most Realtors are criminally culpable in the process you are deriding with these quotes.

Imus and Liberal Rascism

2007-04-10T09:47:00.001-07:00

Which quote lands someone in hot water?

Quote 1:
"... he only defended Janet Reno because she was attacked by a black guy."
Quote 2:
"...they are a rough looking bunch of nappy-headed hoes."
Quote 3:
"If the Jews want to get it on tell them to pin their yammakas back and come over to my house."

Disgusting slurs in all of those quotes, right? Offensive, right?

I'm not saying these people don't have the right to open their mouths and say something stupid. I'm also not saying I like Imus; point of fact he is a fool and anyone who expects him not to say stuff like this is incapable of learning from history. He gets paid well for having these racist points of view that have been expressed multiple times over the years.

So far only Quote 2 has been forced to be apologized for.

What I am saying is that liberals support of racism is illogical in that they permit Sharpton and Clinton as elected officials to make public racist comments. Yet they get angry when talk show idiots spout off presumably who have previously been given carte blanch to do so in the past?

An Edwards Prayer

2007-03-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

Having seen that Ms. Edwards now has a very bad cancer on her bone. I would like to set aside the ideological differences and let them know my family is sending a prayer to his family.

WE WILL ALL DIE!

2007-03-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

Actually I'm writing about how the gloom and doom of an inconvenient fiction has shocked liberals into a rabid frenzy that is to a point of being incoherent. It's a fact that so far all of us are mortal and will die. Climate change is very unlikely to be the cause of it.

Scientists who study thermodynamics tell us there is no such thing as a global temperature. No kiddin'? That star trek term is real science? You mean 100 billion gallons of sea water and tens of millions of cubic yards of air have a heat enthalpy factor that prevents instantaneous changing of the temperature without massive exchanges of energy? Even a one degree change requires a massive amount of energy for that volume of anything.

NOW do you understand my doubts? I'm not saying roll yourself in pesticides and go swimming in the lake. IE: don't be stupid about chemicals, burning and garbage. I am saying that making us think we are killing our children with this is so outlandish as to be, well, stupid.

Clinton Conspiracy

2007-03-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

When is a conspiracy not a conspiracy but actually good truthful reporting? If you are Hillary Clinton then you call the activities of those reporting the questionable activities spiced with marital problems in her relationship with Bill a conspiracy.

I'd also bet that Hillary says that Nixon and his staff were the conspiracy while Woodward and Bernstein were the good guys because of their reporting?

Am I reading that right? Does that mean that when someone reports the less-than-desirable and possibly felonious facts or truths about a republican that is good reporting ON A CONSPIRACY. IF that report of equally less-than-desirable and possibly felonious facts is done against a democrat then the person reporting is THE CONSPIRACY.

I'll say this for Hillary, she's a very twisted form of consistent. She says firing 93 federal attorneys is "no big deal" when she and Bill did it in 1993. Now that Bush has fired 8 of them it is a scandal?

Time, The Right, And the 4 letter response

2007-03-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Time magazine is not always wrong. Sometimes they hit the nail on the head. To mix my metaphors they have gone further in that I think they might have pinged a home run ball off of the foul post by accident:

The conservative leadership is lacking and we need another Ronald Regan to reign it in.

Do we get conservative leadership out of McCain? On a good day yes. Too bad he doesn't have too many of those. Juliani at best is 50-50 on being a conservative or a true liberal depending on the topic. Don't get me wrong, I am in agreement with both on their strong support for finishing Iraq correctly instead of leaving it half-done.

My response to Time's article is a 4 letter word.
It begins with F.

FRED

As in Fred Thompson. I think he has what it takes to be our conservative voice and to force the party back to what wins elections. What wins are strong conservative ideals. He's more than just the tough DA on law and order, he is an old-school smart conservative. I know that he scares the democrats.

DRAFT FRED IN 08!

Greeting Card: Sorry To Inconvenience You

2007-03-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

http://www.4exhale.org

I read this article and thought I would just absolutely vomit. Their thinking is very much in line with what I am writing below, even if their tone and attitude is more socially acceptable:

Dear Mom,
I am so sorry I inconvenienced you. It didn't hurt much or for very long. That family that would have loved me will have a shot at another kid. Heaven is nice and Jesus is holding me.
Thank You for Choosing to Abort Me.
Your child.

Subprime Bloodletting Update

2007-03-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

You really should not listen to what you hear on the news. I have been tracking Elaine Ser-whatever-gamas(?) on CBS and have to say her understanding of the information and the presentation of the data she gathers is not at all clear or accurate.

Paraphrase: "These companies closing will hurt subprime borrowers and make them more likely to foreclose."

That implies that the closing of a subprime company does something bad to the existing mortgage. NO, that is not the case. If the borrower fails to pay his loan that will cause foreclosure. A company closing does not cause my loan to foreclose. It is a secured contract that someone else will buy and service.

If Mr. Borrower has a loan that he can't afford maybe he shouldn't have gotten it in the first place. IF the loan is adjustable that's a slightly different tale: it might adjust a MAXIMUM of 2% TWICE A YEAR. Depending on your home size, that might be significant, but as a percentage of income it is relatively flat as the mortgage to income should be proportional.

Also to keep things in proportion, lets review the numbers. IF we listen to the news we think that it has "NEVER been like this and it is like 300% worse than ever before...?"

rates of default October to December:
2003: 4.97%
2006: 4.95%

HEY! WAIT! THAT MEANS THAT IT ISN'T AS BAD NOW AS IT WAS IN 2003?????

I'm only pointing out the obvious fact in the historical perspective. You have heard "default rates jump 20%" from CBS commentators but the difference of .3% of the total (difference between 4.6 and 4.9%). Is POINT 3 PERCENT a huge jump that should make the market crash or is it just a cyclical correction?

Just so you know, point 3% is still a humongous pile of cash if it were in your checking account. For an investment firm point 3 is what they can spend that on long distance calls and Starbucks in three months.

I would also submit to you that all of these companies who are going under have an acceptable margin of default in ranges from 3 to 5% of portfolio. Any overages have to be bought back. Recently we have seen a trend where investors are forcing more buybacks than usual which put many of these companies in financial crisis.

Other very interesting sources
statistical models for mortgages and defaults (circa 2003-4)
very boring paper with some fascinating distributions
http://www.actuaries.org/AFIR/Colloquia/Boston/VanAkkeren_Hansen.pdf
more concise with nice projection models
http://www.phil.frb.org/files/br/br_q3-2006-3_residential_mortgage.pdf

Bloodletting has been applied and fear has gripped the joe blow investor and some under-informed analysts and newsies. I see rationality on the horizon but will it be soon enough to save these people's jobs?

Firing US Attorneys

2007-03-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

The White House orders the termination of US Attorneys who are investigating politicos. This is criminal! This is wrong!

This was done by the Clintons in 1993 as a "routine" action according to Hillary. They fired 93 including the one investigating the Clintons personally! It's really a shame that I haven't heard a peep about that perspective on NPR, NBC, CBS or ABC?

Well Chuck Schumer, what do you think about that?

NEW CENTURY PULSE!

2007-03-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

FACT: As of today, they are not accepting new loans. Stock at $3 and a EITHER a worthless piece of paper or a bargain.

RUMOR: JP Morgan bought them today? If true then a big TOLD YA SO from me.

SI Global Warming

2007-03-08T13:01:00.000-08:00

Thank the good lord that a real authority has finally published the difinitive piece on global warming. I was nursing a budweiser flipping between sports channels on the satelite when I noticed that cover and had to read more.

Yeah, right.

While I do feel for the ski people and the variances in weather that have caused them to not be able to enjoy their pastime I still lack something concrete. Concrete as in PROOF. PROVE to me that climate is supposed to be static! PROVE to me that we could change weather if we wanted to?

Did man change the Sahara into desert from lush tropics or did climate change?
Did man change the antarctic into a frozen wasteland was it a natural process (tectonic shift)?

HERE is an apt way to respond:
Lay a pencil on the goal line of a football field. That field represents our atmosphere. That pencil represents the billions of tons of CO2 we have put into the air. NOW prove to me how that pencil makes a difference in temperature?

It makes us feel good to be green and I'm not saying that's bad. I am saying that the association of the doom-and-gloom end-of-the-world garbage has got to stop.

Media Matters, Shower Time

2007-03-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

Having spent half an hour clicking through this site my head would benefit from a nice hot soapy shower. Let's look at Dick Morris on Hannity's show for a sample-it's linked in my title.

Apparently Hillary does not believe in a Nanny state is what Media Matters is trying to push. If cradle to grave isn't a nanny state on the issue of health care then I need a new definition from someone. However if she did believe in the Nanny state according the commentors that would make her a Christian because of a dozen different quotes supplied by Southparkliberal who was on his way to becoming a Lutheran minister at one point in his life. Here they are:

Mat. 25:34 "Then I, the King, shall say to those at my right, 'Come, blessed of my Father, into the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. Mat. 25:35 For I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; Mat. 25:36 naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you visited me.' Mat. 25:37 "Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Sir, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you anything to drink? Mat. 25:38 Or a stranger, and help you? Or naked, and clothe you? Mat. 25:39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' Mat. 25:40 "And I, the King, will tell them, 'When you did it to these my brothers you were doing it to me!' Mat. 25:41 Then I will turn to those on my left and say, 'Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. Mat. 25:42 For I was hungry and you wouldn't feed me; thirsty, and you wouldn't give me anything to drink; Mat 25:43 a stranger, and you refused me hospitality; naked, and you wouldn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me.' Mat. 25:44 "Then they will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?' Mat 25:45 "And I will answer, 'When you refused to help the least of these my brothers, you were refusing help to me.' Mat. 25:46 "And they shall go away into eternal punishment; but the righteous into everlasting life."

Wow. A liberal after reading the Bible, okkkkkkkayyyyyy.... All republicans are going to hell? Let's do an exercise whereby we actually analyze what was said rather than pulling out what we want to hear. Read all those lines carefully and answer this question:

Where does it say: "and ye shall fork over taxes so the govmint' can impose this service" as I am reading that "YOU" are the one responsible personally for being giving?

I don't see welfare checks. I don't see homeless shelters. I don't see federal programs. I see personal, direct action.
As in: YOU open your home.
YOU gave me water.
YOU gave me clothing.
I don't see "YOU gave money so someone else could give me these services and you could keep your hands clean."

Come on libs! Where did Jesus say it was up to the federal govmnt for that? I wonder if Edwards house has ever hosted a homeless guy? Are any of you volunteering in children's programs? Are any of you doing more than spouting off?

Of Living and Death

2007-03-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

Today when I opened my Yahoo mailbox the obligatory news headlines were summarized under my mail. Most times I completely ignore these, but the tag line about Ernest Gallo the wine maker passing at age 97 caught my eye.

You see, my dad was into running/jogging in the 70's and 80's and how healthy that is. He read Jim Fixx's book about running and how wonderful it can be for your body. Jim Fixx died at age 52 of a heart attack.

My dad was and still is heavily into nutritional supplements. Did you take your vitamins? I fondly point out that the Herbalife founder Mark Reynolds Hughes died at age 44.

To my dad I pass this note: yes I have curtailed French fries to near zero. I am eating much better than I used to. However I don't fret over this stuff because I don't think I will live one day longer than I am supposed to. I do think that how you live your life is more important than what you eat or how you exercise. I think that having emotional health, good friends and a loving family trumps pills and push ups. Everything else is just a fad.

Then after I romanticized about this, I read the rest of the article about what a gangster this guy was in the wine business? Again I am reminded of how much I have to learn!

Freemont Quits Subprime

2007-03-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

HA! NOBODY wants to see bad things happen but it is fun when I get a prediction right! Freemont is quitting subprime. I've been saying they were next ever since I predicted MLN to go around Christmas (they closed at New Year, a week later).

Let's see...

Option One will survive with almost no subprime product. They will look suspiciously like Countrywide's lending matrix before long. Speaking of Countrywide, I wonder what they will do with Full Spectrum and their BC reps now that they have all A and Alt-A products which they already have retail and wholesale ops for? I'll bet they close them up.

New Century is tanking rapidly...73% off stock price at opening as I type??? but ain't gone yet. I look for them to go private if the stock hits a low-enough point. Their investors will buy in and save it.

Argent is the big question mark for me. How are they staying up? They've had bad paper for a very, very long time...?

There are a number of other companies that will cease operations. The one that is going to be the shocker to all in my opinion is going to be Decision One. Their pockets are deep, but HSBC is fed up with that market and owns them. I do look for regional banks to go into the BC market with small cap lending on borrowers with high residual income and/or deep reserves in 401k programs even if the scores stink.

The bottom is nearing rapidly. Let's see where the ride ends and the uptick starts!

Pit Bull No More

2007-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

I am a dog lover. I can't help it; they love you no matter what. I am very fond of Shetland Sheepdogs but almost any dog and I get a long really well. We are rescue friends and have housed over a dozen dogs and found homes for almost all of them. We love almost any dog.

Almost any.

My wife came home one night with a "lab mix" dog she found in the cold rain at Kroger in the parking lot. I took one look at the head and pronounced to my wife that she was nuts and had brought a Pitt Bull! That was in the late winter of 2004.

The Pitt Bull rescue was extremely helpful to us and gave us cash to have her fixed and posted her information on their adoption site. However they are still full from Katrina rescues and had no place to offer. We did try to place her with a lady, who-it turns out- sells Pitts to anyone with $100 and asks no questions. Fortunately we were able to find out she was bad news and got the Pitt back from her and kept her until this weekend.

This dog was a big slug. Her favorite pastime was laying in your lap or in an impossibly small ball next to you. So still and happy. So wonderfully nice and gentle for such a strong dog. She was so sweet except for two instances with one (of our three) cats whom she could not get along with. Twice she picked him up by his face and just held him in her jaws. Both times we were able to free the cat relatively unscathed. We thought it was the exception to the rule but it should have been the warning.

Yesterday I was walking our 3 dogs in the yard with the two Shelties running free and the Pitt on a leash when a strange car turned around in the cul-de-sac. When I got my youngest and most spastic Sheltie back from barking the car and calmed her, the Pitt (who I had on a retractable leash) jumped the just scolded-but then loved on and complimented Sheltie. It was, horribly scary and felt like an eternity, in hindsight it was like under 3 minutes.

Today I have a bandage over a gash in my thumb, multiple bruises and a few punctures and a teatnus shot. The Pitt is put down. The Sheltie is missing some fur but othewise unharmed because her thick fur protected her from the worst of it. Likely also because my thumb was in the Pitt's jaw when she chewed and shook at the neck. I'm quite sure the Pitt could have been more forceful; and that I was stupid in how I grabbed her mouth.

I should have remained calm and offered a treat. My wife should have grabbed the hose and sprayed. My wife did rub her chest and talk gently to the Pitt and that's when she released. Hindsight lessons. Scars are stupid tax.

Before today I would have said it's the owners. Now I know there really is a switch inside Pitt Bulls that can be triggered without warning. I have a 5 year old and did not hesitate to put that dog to sleep. Yet as I write this I have regrets and sorrow. Then common sense tells me that could have been my child and I fight back the lingering doubts about our choice.

GOOGLE FRUSTRATION

2007-03-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

The boss decided that we all needed to use google installer and do our virus software through them. No big deal.

Now I come in this morning to find my Adobe Acrobat uninstalled?? What-in-the-heck?????? I use this program EVERY DAY, MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY AND THEY UNISTALLED IT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?!!!

What I'd really like to know is why the heck they did that. Not cool.

GLOBAL WARMING (mars)

2007-03-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

So if I read this correctly, National Geographic says we have global warming on Mars.

I wonder what Al and the other eco purists say about this?

Child Safety Warning

2007-02-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

When is safety bad? When is saving children not worth the cost? What if you could virtually eliminate the number one cause of death and/or injury in the United States for citizens 1-24 years old?

The liberal will leap to the keyboard and say we must do whatever it is-then might smell a rat.
The conservative might think the same thing but will smell a rat.

Ready with your response?

Here is the Census bureau statistical breakdown for 2003. Note transportation and accident statistics for ages 1-24.

excel sheet here

What If I told you that writing a law reducing the speed limit on all roads to 10 miles per hour would virtually eliminate fatal car accidents? This law would reduce those accidents by a margin approaching 98%.

The liberal has to twist their logic to make the argument work. The conservative sees the absurdity of ends without weighing the cost and knows that this proposal is ridiculous. What other laws mandate safety without consideration of the cost?

Clinton Woes Show Smoke

2007-02-26T08:27:00.000-08:00

I genuinely think she is setting us up. She being Hillary. The setup being the only choice she has and that is to dump her schmuck cheating husband and have the fortitude to go into the election cycle as a divorce'.

"But Dave" you think: "Aren't you a Christian!?"

Sure I am. I will tell you that the definitive acceptable Christian measure for divorce is infidelity. We all know that Bill ain't monogamous. Why so many women still flock to this guy and vote for him is way beyond my understanding but they do. Very few women would tolerate what has been proven true, let alone the accusations of rape, in their own spouses.

I say again: Hillary will divorce Bill and be our first female President. She will carry a margin of respect and support beyond reproach if she dumps the schmuck. I've said this for years and know beyond a doubt that it would make her unstoppable.

Just Good TV

2007-02-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

James Cameron has thrilled us with the Terminator, True Lies and many have enjoyed Titanic. Now he is saying he has found the tomb of Jesus Christ.

Sounds like more entertaining fiction from a man who is gifted in making entertainment. Scholars will disagree with the level of archaeological accuracy as you can find sourced in the link in my title. I was not decieved by the Davinci Code and I'm not moved now. It's the same conspiracy theroy by the same conspirators.

If you want to know more about Jesus, pick up a New Testament for yourself. Just not the Mormon version.

Farrakhan's Prophecy

2007-02-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Is a prophet of God ever wrong?

It is a fair question. I'm asking because Mr. Farrakhan is giving his farewell speech. It would seem that a very stout prophecy he gave some years ago regarding his trip to the big wheel in the sky to visit the mother ship was somewhat erroneous. The one where he declared that his brothers and sisters would be rescued from oppression and taken up in the mother ship?

Any takers on that quote? Anyone still following this nut after that kind of proclamation? If you do please tell me why you choose to ignore some of what he said?

I would tell you that I believe that Jesus was never wrong. I would also tell you that I lump Farrakhan in with Joseph Smith and Muhammad of Islam as being false prophets. If that makes me a bigot in the sense that I am intolerant but still respectful of my on religion then so be it. I'd rather be labeled with a name than wrong.

Mexico's Irritation My Fun

2007-02-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

Mexico is outraged that contractors building our fence went 10 meters-about 30 feet- into their soverign soil.

ROFLOL... sorry! Had to put that here. Let me explain:

They have a lovely website created by their government that tells their citizens

EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS on how to

1) violate our border
2) pack to survive the crossing
3) where border watchers are active
4) how to get help once they get here.

So if you will forgive me, I truly could not give the width of a frog's hair of care about how mad they are about us violating their soverginty. They have been publishing instructions on how to violate ours for years and continute to do so!

Cheney's Brass Ones

2007-02-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

The problem with the Democrats is that no one calls them out on the omissions of fact. They are quick to point out the Republican administration mistakes and create feel good responses. The part that stinks is that no one has called a spade a spade until now. Every bit of what he is saying is absolutely true to anyone willing to lay politics and wishful thinking aside. Here are the quotes:

CHENEY: I'm not sure what part of it is that Nancy disagreed with. She accused me of questioning her patriotism. I didn't question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment. Al-Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That's their fundamental underlying strategy. My statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that we will validate the strategy of Al-Qaeda. I said it, and I meant it. And I'm not backing down.

Vice President Dick Cheney to GMA correspondant Johnathan Karl after an earlier comment that had Speaker Pelosi calling the White House to complain.

Response from Jonathan Karl:“But hasn't our strategy been failing? Isn't that why the president has had to come out with a new strategy?”

Cheney:A failed strategy. Let's see. We didn't fail when we got rid of Saddam. We didn't fail when we held elections. We didn't fail when we got a constitution written. They’re all success stories.

KARL: Didn't we fail when 3,000 American soldiers are all killed --

CHENEY: You wish there was never a casualty, Jonathan. Always a regret when you have casualties. But we are at war.

Rock on Dick. You are the man!!!!!

Nuke Disamament and Knights

2007-02-23T12:34:00.000-08:00

Today there was a link in Drudge detailing how a British group was against a Star Wars (junior) system being placed on British soil. Their seemingly baseless reason is because it would make the US confident enough to do a first strike.

Their words, not mine. I seriously hope I don't have to tell anyone how stupid that is.

I went to their website to see where their thoughts are. Rattling around my head was a bit of the history of weapons and the fact that these folks are British. I couldn't help but think of their lack of logic and compare it to knights in shining armor.

Once upon a time, a knight's armor was the apex of military might. There was no single weapon sufficiently strong to overcome it until the longbow and the death knell of both armor and castles: gunpowder.

If you consider that todays intercontinental ballistic nukes are the apex of military might then the historical perspective says there will come a technology that will make those nukes obsolete. That "Star Wars" tech will lead to the elimination of the ballistic missile as a delivery device for a nuclear weapon when it becomes perfected.

My question after reviewing their site is: why aren't you in favor of the Star Wars shield since it will lead to the eventual fall of the ballistic missile? Wouldn't that be the goal of your group?

My Fault or YOUR Fault?

2007-02-22T14:30:00.000-08:00

I am a mortgage broker.

I'll wait a moment for the hissing and boos to die down before I continue...

I guess it's just NPR getting under my skin about me being responsible for the actions of an irresponsible adult. Doesn't the old lady taking out that loan that she can't afford have some responsibility for her own decisions?

I can look anyone in the eye and tell them that I was up front and warned them that they were gambling that the equity would last when the situation merited. They begged me for the loan that I knew would not benefit them in the long run.

I remember my parents 14% loan back when Jimmy Carter was president. The days of 4% three years ago had to be a short-lived phenomenon and it truly was.

This is the case in many situations across America. Unfortunately, there are also many situations where the loan originator promised the moon and closed with a cow pie. YOU know who you are, you told loan officers who are honest like me I was a "too high" because I was with your situation. Then you selected someone else and you closed with a totally jacked variable rate and high costs at the closing table. YOU were too lazy or ashamed to call me during your three day right of recision period and ask for my help. YOU are the geniuses I am writing to. Many of you are the same ones who again ran up debts beyond your ability to pay and are struggling.

Am I perfect? By far no. We all make mistakes. However I do have a 20 year fixed rate on my loan and I have always advocated shorter fixed loans to all my clients first.

Yeah, they could save the cash difference but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that they spend the money on eating out so don't get all puffy with me about the advantages of mortgage debt. I live in the real world. I advocate considering your retirement income situation when you are 35 and making sacrifices ahead so you won't be refinancing at 50 to a 40-year term. Sure you can invest the difference but most people won't/don't. Why not pay off that mortgage instead of retiring to wal-mart greeter status?

It's so easy to blame someone else. Let's remind everyone of the federally mandated 3 day right of recision for refinances (against the home ATM comment) and that realtors are complicit in the 2-year-arm high-rate closed sale situations.

Yet somehow the Loan Officer should be paying? Perhaps some should, but I take exception to that label.

Climate M&Ms

2007-02-16T07:08:00.000-08:00

History has shown irrational hysteria that has later been proven false many times. Many bloggers may not know that red m&ms were thought to cause cancer so they were

eliminated in 1976

only to be brought back in 1987.

Please read the last line of the article linked in the title, a quote from David Bromwich, professor of professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Geography researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University:

"It isn't surprising that these models are not doing as well in these remote parts of the world. These are global models and shouldn't be expected to be equally exact for all locations," he said.

The same time you admit that our climate models don't work yet we are hearing there is a crisis? Which is it exactly? Where is our level of understanding?

I'll tell you where it is: we are at the discovery of penicillin stage of our understanding of weather. Do you think that Sir Fleming would have concieved of magnetic imaging technology? That medical miracle is used thousands of times a day in routine medical procedures. That's where our weather and climate experts are today: eighty years away from a ten-fold leap in understanding. Yet there is a panic running rampant from good intentioned but irresponsible flakes saying the earth is ending?

Another extremely problematic phrase:
"We're looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment," he said.

When it comes to intelligence on WMD's it is a criminal act to have looked for and assumed they were present. Yet the good professor here seems to admit to a predispostion to intepretation of data for the impact of "human causation" on weather. Why not just accept data as it is collected without trying to force a conclusion? Isn't that the root of the scientific method?

In all fairness I totally appreciate the good intentions of those who want to save us. However, until you prove your fear is accurate I'll keep eating the red m&m's while driving my SUV.

Iran's Act Of War

2007-02-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

The Democrats apparently support troops if you listen to them.

If you listen carefully, you will hear a qualifier:

We support the troops.
Mr. Bush you have no authority to go to war with Iran.
We support the troops.
The evidence that Iran has participated in the attacks on US Soldiers is not sufficent reason to go to war.
We support the troops.
We want to sit down to negotiations with Iran and ask them to help with the formation of Iraq.
We support the troops.

The horrific thing about the liberal logic is they don't see the contradiction. They don't see that their statements essentially say "We democrats support the troops unless they are killed through the actions of a foreign government acting directly against them. When that happens we just want to negotiate, ask the aggressor to join us, or better yet just pull out and go home."

Someone try to tell me that Amenijad doesn't think that when he watches our newscasts? Someone please tell me I am wrong. Please tell me the democrats are not this wrapped up in themselves and their hatred of Bush that they deny other perspectives?

Merrill Lynch Wasting Your Cash

2007-02-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

I'm checking my investments now to make sure I don't have anything manged by Merrill Lynch. They seem to think it is a worthwile thing to hire Harold Ford Jr.

'nuff said.

Peacock Congress

2007-02-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

I'm actually quite satisfied to see Congress spending 2 weeks doing nothing but blustering. When they are blustering and prancing around showing their feathers they aren't creating regulations and laws that take more money or time from me.

What does concern me is their pecking away at Iraq and our soldiers. During the campaign every single Democrat said "We need more troops and Bush will have to use the draft to get them." Last week every single Democrat said "We don't need more troops because Bush is the one asking for them." Now that's a democrat politician! Whatever is said is good for the next 5 minutes or until it doesn't serve me anymore. Heaven forbid you are held to your word on anything.

I'm concerned that we are going to see a pattern of bird brained political sabotoge of troop movement. Murtha said on NPR that he and his allies in Congress are planning on using "not sending troops that aren't ready" as an excuse not to supplement or replace existing troops. My thought is that the law of unintended consequences is going to come back and bite those democrats in the rear end. I'm not sure exactly what the consequence will be, but I am sure it's going to come at the cost of one of our volunteer soldier's blood.

Are Democrats interested in winning in Iraq is the best question I have heard so far. The answer of course for anything involved with the Democrats is "What's in it for me. If it's good for me, then we are for it. If it involves something that might cost me my re-election or help Bush then we are against it."

Poland Honoring the Gipper?

2007-02-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

It appears that some individuals in the world really do appreciate history. This group wants to tear down a Soviet statue in Poland and replace it with one honoring Ronald Reagan as a "beacon of liberty."

Wow. I'm speechles!

They only need $168000 dollars to do it. Where do I send my dollar for the cause? Heck, I'll pledge $10.

Edwards' America

2007-02-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

For years you have heard that Democrats pay lip service to the poor from us evil Republican rich people. So how do you feel about Edward's house?

Romney's Cult?

2007-02-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

It's becoming an important question: Are Mormons Christian? That answer is central to the answer of if Mormonism is a cult or not. I am a Christian and because Mormons assert that they too are Christian then the Bible will be our basis for examination of the question at hand.

Let's define Cult:
A religious group that follows a particular theological system. In the context of Christianity...it is a group that uses the Bible but distorts the doctrines that affect salvation sufficiently to cause salvation to be unattainable.
OR
A religious group which denies the essential doctrines of Christianity.

Let's define Christian:
Literal definition is to be like Christ.
Accurate definition is the belief in the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God and that through faith and belief in his ressurection as the salvation for our sin is the only method to get into heaven and avoid eternal damnation.

Let's define un-Christian:
Belief that actions, thoughts and behavior outside of a faith in Jesus will raise the spiritual level of a person after death
OR
Belief that there is no heaven or hell.

Now we will define Mormonism:
Joseph Smith was convinced in the 1820s (exact date somewhat debated in different versions of Joe's writings) that all protestant religions were false and that either one or two beings of light or angels appeared to him with golden tablets and a mission to preach a new gospel. God is a man (corporeal being) who came to Earth. The belief system asserts that God as a man had intercourse with the Virgin Mary to create Jesus.

Joseph Smith was very specific that the Bible was accurate and true and that nothing in the third testament should ever contradict it.

To attain a good seat in heaven a Mormon must abstain from alcohol, tobacco, caffeine,narcotics and any form of extra-marital sex. A Mormon must diligently work for the church and serve as a missionary for two years while barred from speaking with his family. A good Mormon will wear all white and volunteer to serve at the local temple. The armor of God is to be worn to protect them from enemy attack and that consists of "long underwear" with an embroidered fig leaf. They are urged to have many children.

Mormonism from a Christian perspective is based on the works of the individual. A good argument from them is that "faith without works is dead" an excellent biblical basis. However the Christian also recognizes this verse: "I will pay each of my laborers the same wage-regardless of work put in"

The IMPORTANT flaw in the Mormon theology is Paul's very blunt warning that completely contradicts the pivotal founding moment of Mormonism:
"Do not accept any additional information even if presented by a being of light."

I have never found any Mormon who could answer my question about Galatians 1:8.

To wrap up: Mormonism is a cult because it believes that Jesus was not formed supernaturally. It reports that the method to get to heaven is through work and being careful of what you eat and drink, not through the grace of Jesus. The formation of the religion is based on an event that is specifically mentioned as being a deception in the new Testament.

I would never say the Mormons are bad people. Most I have known are amazingly generous and kind. However being good does not get anyone into heaven, period.

Mortgage Insider

2007-02-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

Here is an update from my perspective in mortgage lending as a loan officer:

First: people are still going to lending tree and getting totally hammered on fees and loving it. How stupid is that?

Second: If your credit ain't perfect the market is so radically changing it's scary.

Third: If you like your loan officer you will close with them. If you don't, you'll go somewhere else.

Since one and three are old news I'll get to the why of #2.

In the old days of mid 2005 there were hundreds of companies funding paper from brokers on less than perfect credit deals. Maybe you have heard of Wells Fargo or Saxon, but you have never heard of MLN or Sebring?

How those guys all worked was to write a check on a humongous credit line and fund the loans. Then they would go to their top three money guys who represent those investment fund groups where your 401k money is parked. Those guys would review the "stack" of loans and decide if they wanted them. If they like them, they wrote a check and took them. The investment guys never really understood how mortgage people make money so they just kept a small distance and protected themselves- at a margin cost because nobody works for free.

On the borrower's side that's where the note comes in the mail that your mortgage payment is going to Buffalo instead of Atlanta or Chicago instead of Tempe... etc.

Then something strange happened. The guys from those big investment houses finally decided to remove the middle man or at least eliminate a step. Leahman brothers, Bear-Stearns, ING, Dewey Cheatham and Howe-- or whoever just went out and wrote a big freaking check and bought the companies that were funding those loans. When that happened, they stopped buying stacks of paper from the myriad of companies selling them and only bought their own companies funded loans.

Time for pink slips. Old time big alternative paper lenders started dropping like flies. Sebring, Mortgage Lenders Network, and we are all betting Freemont to be next are going down. Decision 1- bought by household just 3 years ago- is seeing some serious rumors about a demise. Option 1 (owned by HR Block) has not made money in ages and has been for sale- not good omen.

If you have heard of Centex you will be happy to know you will never get a loan from those theiving jerks again. They are long gone. Same for Oak Street / Crestleigh Bankcorp and even United Financial Mortgage Corporation. All gone bye-bye. The death of these companies is a good thing for consumers, none of them ever closed a loan for less than 5% fees on the FRONT with up to 4% on the BACK on TOP of that outrageous fee!

Anyway, the market for low-credit-first time homebuyers is drying up thanks largely to a 30++% foreclosure rate in that paper last quarter. Thanks a lot! Ruin it for everyone! You have to have a 620 middle credit score and some reserves to do anything now. A year ago I could get a 560 score with no reserves and outstanding collections done at 100%. The 100% on a 580 can still be found but is harder to close than ever.

Did I mention that Equifax is still selling your mortgage and social security number information to anyone who wants it?

You Funded Perversion

2007-02-07T07:15:00.000-08:00

A depiction of a 12 year old being raped and a man having sex with a farm animal might not be bad to you. If not, then you likely aren't concerned where our tax dollars are related to the subject matter so don't bother reading further.

As informed individuals might have heard, these were scenes from movies featured in fimls at the Sundance festival. The tax dollar connection is the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS sending money to Sundance. PBS is now only partially funded with tax dollars but the Endowment is totally funded with money that is drawn out of your paycheck and sent to the IRS.

Contact your representative today. I have an link to the congressional contact information on the right column, look for the picture of the capitol building below previous posts and above archives.

Rubicks Cheating

2007-02-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

I am a child of the 80's and was glad to see the nostalgic comeback of the cube in the last few years as a short-lived fad. I fondly remember throwing mine away in teenage disgust the first time I owned one only to come back to it and get irritated again.

Eventually my friends took the stickers off and put them in the right place. This didn't ever look quite right so I took a screwdriver to mine and pried out a mid point outside piece and pulled the whole thing apart, reassembling the pieces correctly. The center squares are the axis/frame incase you wondered.

That was 15...no.. 17 (?) years ago?

One of my sales reps came by and dumped a bunch of these irritating puzzles on us with their logo prominently featured. It took a month before someone did the sticker thing to fix theirs. I have to pause and consider the subliminal ramifications of the cube as promotion for a B/C credit underwriting company. Much like the company that had pigs-with-wings with their logo (we said "you'll close with them when pigs fly") I must think that we are to cheat to assemble the file to make it look right for them to close? Maybe move the stickers around or a brute-force-screwdriver maneuver?

Now there is a better answer! (to the cube, not the loan)

Click on the link in the title and you can solve your rubick. That's right, follow the directions and tell the program where your cube is now. It will give you the moves to fix it.

The guy in the next cube did his in 80 moves. Kudos to whomever wrote this program!

As an aside, this was purely for fun and I stringently abide by every rule for mortgage lending in every file and never move the stickers or take a screwdriver to a file to make it work.

Drowning Polar Bears

2007-02-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

Those poor cute fuzzy polar bears are going to drown! It's all my SUV's fault!

Riiiiight.

First fact: polar bears can swim a lot farther than you or I can.
Second fact: this isn't the first bear to be on an iceflow.
Third fact: we don't know enough about weather to predict next month, let alone 80 years from now.
Fourth fact: IF HUMANS decided to increase global temps on purpose by 2 degrees in a decade we could not do it.

Personally if I were going to apply a subject to this picture it would be: "HEY you with the camera; I'm bathing here! Go away before I come over there and maul you!"

BIG CHICKEN LITTLE

2007-02-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

The UN has released a "difinitive report" that "man's actions are causing climate change, everybody run because the sky is falling."

Forgive me if I am a skeptic of anything the UN says:

My first instinct when I hear their report is to wonder who would benefit financially from this report and see if there is some cash being slid under the table to get it released.

My logical thought says if the UN can't feed children and protect refugees what exactly can they do to fix the weather?

Heck, they WON'T even enforce their own edicts/demands/sanctions. Why do they still have credibility?

God Does Love Osama

2007-02-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

This is a classic example of the way society thinks versus the way a Christian is supposed to think. "GOD loves Osama" in front of an Australian Church is being villified as horribly wrong. The Austrailian Prime Minister has shown an amazing level of ignorance in his quote:

"I understand the Christian motivation of the Baptist church, But I hope they will understand that a lot of Australians, including many Australian Christians, will think that the prayer priority of the church on this occasion could have been elsewhere."

Should he have even opened his mouth on this topic?

Clearly sir, you don't understand. The priority of prayer and love is for those who attack you. We pray for those who are lost and decieved.

HELP ME TOM CRUISE!

2007-01-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Admittedly the only thing I know about Talladaga nights is the myriad of clips from the previews. I do recall lead character Ricky Bobby running around a racetrack in his underwear and race helmet saying "Help me Jesus, help me Jewish guys, help me Tom Cruise!" I thought that bit was very funny.

As it turns out, it is also very ironic.

Scientology has officially announced that Tom Cruise is their personal Jesus Christ (click the title for the link). If there ever were a doubt in my mind of the destiny of Scientologists then this definitely affirms their future eternity... No amount of electro shock therapy is going to change that.

Race-Based Purity

2007-01-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

This group is exclusively for our race. You are told not to apply if your skin color is not correct. We will actively work to prevent the "wrong types" from coming into our club.

Sounds like a bunch of white racist republicans, doesn't it? Did David Duke say this? It's actually the Congressional Black Cauccus. They told the Democrat

What really gets me is how amazingly shallow their definition of black is. Harold Ford Jr. is a small percentage black but he was permitted in the group. In a continuation of the revulsion I have of this group's exclusions and ideology: I wonder if you have to pass the pencil test to get in?

If you don't know what the pencil test is: it involves the ability of curly hair to hold a pencil. At some point in black history there was a test where a pencil was used to determine if your hair was too curly (held the pencil) to let you in. Hint: if it stayed in you didn't get in.

Happiness Expectations

2007-01-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

The link in the title takes you to an article where a French Buddhist is the happiest man in the world. Ahem: French-Buddhist, nuff said?

Permit me to help you be more happy. I'll illustrate my point:

You are at Outback Steakhouse and the hostess says your wait will be 25 minutes. You glance at your watch and take the buzzer. How happy would you be if:

If you are seated in 5 minutes.
If you are seated in 25 minutes.
If you are seated in 45 minutes.

File those responses for me and read on.

Either way you have waited and are inconvenienced for time that you can never recover. However you choose to spend this time for the steak or fried onion or whatever floats your epicurial boat. No matter how long it takes you ultimately get what you were looking for assuming the servers skills and food prep was par.

The only difference is your perceived inconvenience or surprise bonus. If you are seated in 5 minutes you are thrilled with the luck and have a good feeling. If you wait an extra 20 minutes you might feel slighted or angry.

The life lesson is to have a reasonable expectation of everything. Expect the server to not really know how long it will take to seat you. Expect others to not be perfect all the time. I do not advocate being a slug and never pushing yourself or those around you. However if you set the expectation of perfection you will rarely find it here in this world.

Of course ignorance is also bliss as that is a form of lower expectations.

Indictment: Iraqi Scandal

2007-01-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

Reuters article linked in title

Actually, it's Kofi's Brother-in-law who is indicted in the scandal. Of course Kofi knew nothing about his subordinate-brother-in-law's-lucrative-illegal-activities dealing with a country under UN Sanctions and a UN program for humanatarian aid. The humanatarian aid that mainly consisted of rotten food being sold moved to Iraq?

Nah, Kofi is a liberal's saint.

Senate's Red Tape Gag

2007-01-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

What is the priority of the Democratic majority Senate? Is it...

Iraq?
Environment?
Taxes?
Spending?

ALL THOSE ARE WRONG??? "NO WAY" You say? Give up?

Senate bill 1: (paraphrased)
"Any grassroots organization's communication regarding a legislative topic directly to a legislative member or to an individual whereby an individual then contacts a legislative member regarding that topic becomes subject to spending tracking"...

Translation:
It's an interesting monitoring of grass roots organizations and their spending. That is, the wording says that every INDIVIDUAL expense incurred on behalf of every INDIVIDUAL topic must be documented and is subject to federal review or penalties of $100,000. If you are against guns as a grassroots then you would have to track every individual expense and donation for the individual causes of concealed carry, assault rifles, gun safety...etc on separate ledgers for each individual topic. Some grassroots efforts are spread among 10 or more topics at any given moment.

IF a grassroots group sends you an email that makes you stand up and call your representative then that group is subject to intense scrutiny. If you are say, big labor or a corporate entity you are exempt from these invasive rules.

THIS CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN! I have total faith that it will not last 5 minutes in front of an intelligent court.

I wish I could say I'm surprised, but remember I did say "Congrats and Hang On!"

Ellison's Misconception

2007-01-05T04:13:00.000-08:00

"It was good, we did it, it's over, and now it's time to get down to business," Keith Ellison said after he was sworn in using a Quoran with lots of very impressive provenance.

I have some reasonable and logical questions to ask:

If newly sworn in Keith Ellison really wanted to focus on the issues that are important why did he make a big deal out of insisting to use a Quoran instead of the Bible?

Has Mr. Ellison actually read the Quoran?

Does Mr. Ellison genuinely believe that the founding fathers would have approved of using the text that asserts its believers kill Christians that refuse to convert?

I would submit to Mr. Ellison that his misconception is that this is over. No, it isn't, sir. You have chosen to start something that will definitely overshadow anything accomplish from now on. Think of it as the asterik beside the baseball record of Mark McGuire.

Know this too Mr. Ellison: the true believers of Islam are not the ones who call it a religion of tolerance and peace. The true Muslims are those who commit acts with no regard for their own safety.

What's Wrong With Bratz?

2006-12-30T05:35:00.000-08:00

What's wrong with cute Bratz dolls for little girls to play with? They wear tons of makeup, and really sexy clothing like midriff showing tops and skirts with thongs. Don't we want our k-5 girls learning how to be hoes? Now for the pre-k we even have baby Bratz with tons of makeup and sexy clothes over their diapers.

There is not a thing wrong with Bratz if you are a pedophile.

That's about the nicest thing I can say about these perverted toys for girls. I used to not really care about kids toys. Now that I have a daughter I am HORRIFIED at the Bratz. I remember when they first came out. We were in ToysRUs and I called my wife over to the display. We were beside ourselves.

If you are thinking "What a prude!" then I ask: do you let your daughter act and look this way? No? Then why encourage it with the toy? If you do let your daughter act this way then you may need to step back and look at her from the prospective of teenage boys and the monsters I mentioned previously.

Beer Joke Guilt

2006-12-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

I saw the Drudge Headline "Man shot over warm beer" and laughed with most everyone else. I thought it was very strange to have a warm beer in St. Louis during the middle of a huge snowstorm and laughed at the irony.

Today I read this piece (link in title) from an author who went to the funeral of Robert Jones, the man who was shot. I'm not laughing anymore.

The correct term for what I'm feeling is convicted. Meaning, I'm guilty of something I realize I should not have done. Read the article if you didn't laugh at the story. If you are man enough to admit you laughed, it will be good for you to read the article too.

Political & Predatorial Time Bomb

2006-12-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

He has a record of making unwanted advances and saying lude things to subordinates. His behavior is well known but covered up by party leadership. It is good that he is no longer serving in office.

Am I talking about Foley? NO! I'm talking about Bill Clinton!

There is at least one credible charge of assault against Clinton yet he is still lauded and loved by the Democrats. Remember the James Carville discredit of "drag a hundred-dollah bill thru a trailer park" comment? Foley sends some dirty emails, keeps his hands to himself, and is called a ticking "time bomb" by the press.

I guess if you are a Republican you have to be straight laced, and I don't have a problem with that. However the double standard of permitting a rapist to go untouched because he is a Democrat is a little hard to swallow.

Kofi's Twisted Perspective

2006-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

Can it be the same United Nations who could not enforce a single resolution against Iraq? Can it be the same UN that had the most corrupt oil-for-food program with Saddam? Can this be the same organization whose leader now says "Iraqis are worse off now than they were under Saddam?... Because he (kofi) could not prevent Bush-Blair's invasion?"

Kofi did not have the leadership to enforce edicts issued under his leadership. Nor was Kofi even able to make his son behave, so why would we expect him to have any ability to "stop Bush and Blair"?

Kofi's comments give us a view inside a man who is not strong enough to admit mistakes.

ACLU Christmas Surprise

2006-11-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

When the bad guys do something unexpected and nice it's good to point it out. They said it's ok to screen THE NATIVITY STORY movie at a public school.

Go figure.

Nativity Excommunicated

2006-11-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

Check out the MYWAY news article from Chicago linked in the title.

The celebration of Christmas cannot be marred by the theme of the nativity? Does that make sense? Does your office buy a birthday cake for your birthday then exclude you from the party? Is it MLK day without MLK- who was a minister so isn't that religious? Is Saint Patricks day next (hey, he's a saint and that's Catholic) because the color green offends non-catholics who are forced to think about some Catholic guy?

I'll step back into history and recognize that December 25th was originally a pagan holiday that the council of Nicea set as Christ's birthday...

I'll stop there since most people glaze over that far into a history lesson. Let's just end with the absense of common sense is beginning to make me sick. For those of you who really get it, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Titans Vs. Giants: NEVER GIVE UP

2006-11-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

alternate title: THE VINCE YOUNG ERA BEGINS

VINCE YOUNG

NFL HISTORY was made Sunday. Down 21 to nothing in the 4th quarter, the Titans came back to stun everyone by beating the Giants in final score of 24 to 21. A great play by play and detailed account is linked in the title. I found out about it when I came back home and heard Al Michales talking about it on Sunday Night Football and found myself dropping what was in my hand in shock and cheering in the kitchen.

The only part I'm mad about is I had to leave and walked away from the game right as the late hit was called against Giants cornerback Walker for the elbow to Young's helmet out of bounds. That apparently was the play that changed everything.

The second alternatie title for my rant: Pacman's redemption.

What a game!

Scholarship & Logic

2006-11-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

Read the link about the Boston University group offering a $250 scholarship to anyone who is "at least 25% white"; then think.

If you are going to fight racism can you do it with racism? Can you battle evil with evil? Can you overcome selective segregation with reverse segregation?

If you are thinking that this doesn't work then you get the point these students are trying to make. Also note that they had to talk the University into allowing this scholarship because initially the reaction was "this is racist and we won't allow it". This lack of logic should not have to be explained!

Obviously it needs to be explained if you are a liberal. Then if you are a liberal it's ok to put down this generation of white people for something their great-grandparents leaders might have done. You might even go so far as to demand money from this generations for something done 150 years ago to someone else's great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

Speaking of which, as a descendant of a formerly oppressed group I want my reparations from the English for the slavery of my Irish ancestors. If I ran the numbers right then 25% of me owes the other 75% some cash.

Freedom firsts GLARING Omission

2006-11-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

I stumbled into some interesting thinking. I choose the positive term interesting versus the negative term of twisted. Freedom First is a great site to go to if you are against prayer in school, against the religious right in politics, against creationism and last but not least if you are pro-abortion.

Frankly they advocate topics that I'm generally at odds with. If I remember at least one old joke that "as long as there are tests there will be prayer in school" rings true and could be called quixotic pursuit on their part. However I do credit them for their attempt at making a credible link to the founding fathers writings and philosophies. It has nice packaging and a smooth interface and is easy to navigate. The topics are concisely covered for my commercial-break level attention span which can be readily found in the masses of souls educated in our liberal school system.

Then there was the glaring omission. IF you are for free speech. IF you are for separation of religion and politics. IF you genuinely think that those topics are part of our founding father's core beliefs then why do you actively ignore the amendments to the Constitution?

WHERE is the button that says "NO GUN CONTROL" with the caption of "Our founding fathers knew that the key to keeping government honest was to have an armed populace who could defend themselves from tyranny. We advocate every American legally possessing a fire arm. Click here to join or learn more about how you can support the Second Amendment."

Is that so shocking a question in context?

I think if I email that question to the web guys there I'll be ignored. I think if I question the members I'll be branded a "gun pushing nutcase" or something equally unkind and will find my thoughts deleted.

Permit me to label the argument to all the Baptists out there who are big fans of that site: it's like the Bible. We cannot pick and choose to overlook Biblical verses where women are not to teach men and that a church should have elders who decide and deacons who work. That clearly Jesus stated that work is meaningless if your heart is not for God first. That the only way to heaven is through Jesus. So also we cannot invent the idea that a religious man (such as Dr. Dobson but not a specific endorsement of him) organizing other like minded people to vote a certain way is in some way pushing religion instead of defending a moral ideal. That the religious man's actions in some way constitute an imposition of religion where all that is intended is for the limitations of forcing legal acceptance of issues where our founding fathers never dreamed we would tread.

Telling someone that you don't want a Judge to change morality is not the same as forcing someone to worship under a state religion. Quite frankly I'm tired of hearing this ignorant argument.

What Fiscal Problem?

2006-11-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

click the title, the WSJ article says it all, thank you for reading

Chinese Long Term Plan

2006-11-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese sub stalks US carrier and surfaces well within torpedo range, article linked in title.

XIA SSN
It's been almost half a year since I wrote a regular piece about China. I feel that they are looking to take the US on at some point in the near future. Every time I say something like that I have some love-and-cookies type tell me I'm nuts. By the time I show them the evidence even the die-hard peace lover starts to be paranoid.

Then this sub incident. What does it look like from a military perspective?

It looks like China just shot us the military middle finger. They used their ultra-quiet submarine from Russia, snuck past the layers of security including our own submarines and surface-anti-sub ships. They got within sight distance of a carrier and hung out laughing at us. If they had an inkling, two torpedoes would have completely disabled our carrier or possibly sunk it.

Why is that a big deal? A carrier is more than a ship. It is the key to the projection of our power and influence. While the liberal peace lovers might say we don't deserve this ability, they should also remember that Taiwan certainly deserves the right to exist as a sovereign nation. Then factor in China's resolve to return the "renegade Provence" back to their control and you might see a problem even for a liberal.

So, let's review the evidence:
1) steal ballistic missile data
2) steal aegis plans and build a copy

PLN'S AEGIS COPY
3) purchase quiet Russian subs

CHINESE SUB BASE
4) refurbish Russian aircraft carrier (a gray casino? riiiight)

5) ally with major oil producer and US enemy Iran

IRANIAN PRESIDENT
6) buy top-notch US equipment from idiotic US ally Israel
7) stockpile oil reserves-useful if you expect interruptions from war
8) show the US Navy the middle finger.

I'd say we are closer to war than I would like. My biggest concern of all: that the USA is so short-sighted that we will be caught with our pants down. Here is a plausible plan from the Chi-commies:

Amass a large force ready to strike Taiwan. Send one submarine to put missiles into our Alaskan oil production facility bottlenecks. Followed by a couple of strikes on power generation facilities on the west coast. Torpedo the stern of our carrier presence in western Pacific. Simultaneously Iran sabotages the oil terminals of its rivals in the gulf and maybe plants a nuke in Israel. China would need to take out Diego Garcia to stretch our long range capabilities. While the USA wonders what happened and licks its wounds, take back Taiwan.

Several fiction writers have come up with these scenarios already so I'm not writing anything fresh or new. My question is what stage of planning are they in and what do we not know?

How do you think Pelosi would react to this scenario? What about Hillary?

Congrats and Hang On

2006-11-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I rented MI3 and my family had a quiet evening away from broadcast news. I highly recommend that formula for a reduced-stress life. BTW: I didn't like the movie, it was disjointed and empty but had some great action.

Speaking of disjointed and empty: Pelosi is the speaker of the house. This is a condition I virtually guarantee will not continue through the 2008 cycle. Once the democrats hammer us with their anti-semetic Chalie Rangel as head (?) of the finance committee we will get a taste of why Republicans are the lesser of the two evils.

I am thrilled to see so many marriage amendments go in favor of traditional marriage! It's nice to see that common sense isn't lost on so many Americans.

The Senate is still up for grabs as I write this. At least those of us in Tennessee did our part and voted in Corker instead of the former "bellweather shoe-in Ford".

Funny how Tennessee isn't a bellweather anymore when Ford loses.

MEMPHIS VOTING PROBLEM: BIG SURPRISE!

2006-11-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Voting cards are missing from an early polling place in Tennessee. In a state whose length from Memphis to Kingsport is greater than the distance from Nashville to Canada, guess where it happened?

Could it possibly be happening in Shelby County AKA Memphis? Home of the infamous Ford

political machine?

The same group credited with making sure that dead people voted for

Ophelia Ford?

Naw, couldn't happen there with all those good

honest

Ford supporters!

While Jr. may love his family he's got to love the support that name automatically earns!

French News Channel?

2006-10-31T14:25:00.000-08:00

Look out BBC and CNN, there is a new world power in media! (Click link in title)

Apparently we need the French's perspective on world events. Crack me up! Here are the tasteful jokes, snide remarks and historical references:

Will they bother to have a war correspondant?
Relevant topics important to the French in programming? I thought there already was a food network.
Look for the Crossforks program where they debate the merits of vintages of wine.
Do they realize there is a world outside of their border to report on?
I wonder how deeply they will investigate wine bottle and label cloning from the Chinese?

I am so looking forward to this developing story.

Bible VS Stun Gun

2006-10-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

As much as I am taken aback by this story (linked in title) of Jerseyville Police who used tazers to take down a kid yelling "I want Jesus" and waiving a bible, I must be consistent.

This young man did not obey and respond to the authorities when they attempted to calm him. They used a tool they have when someone is unruly and not responding to their requests. They tazed him twice. He is now dead after having being taken to an ER.

A horrifying situation? Yes. The truth is that he should have responded and submitted to police authority. Even if the kid was unarmed and doing nothing wrong, he should have submitted.

Republicans Win Big Predicition

2006-10-31T08:36:00.000-08:00

Where will we be on November 5th when the Republicans still hold both houses? Where will we be if they only hold one of the two?

Exactly where I expect we'll be.

My only question is where will the media put this. If Democrats fail to win either one or both houses will it be called the outright failure that it is? Perhaps the excuse they have been needing to eliminate Howard Dean as leader once and for all? Will it be seen as a testament for Bush and against gay marriage?

I'm going on record:
I will be surprised if the marriage amendments fail anywhere.
I will be surprised if the democrats win one (senate or congress).

Why do I go out on the limb and say such a prediction? Because I believe this generation of voters has the intelligence and fortitude to understand the issues involved here. I think the Democrats have placed themselves sqarely in the ultra-liberal camp of gay and polygamist marriages. That Democrats need to see defeat in Iraq to be politically victorious here.

I do not think America has lost heart as the media would have us believe. I believe that Ronald Reagan was right: the American people are not easliy fooled.

IF I am wrong I will be completely shocked. Then I will work tirelessly to bring back the common sense of the generations who fought WWI and WWII. Wars that were 60 to 80 years ago yet we still maintain troops in locations because of those conflicts.

Guinea Pig VS Pioneer

2006-10-31T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a basic analysis of word usage to manipulate the thinking of the person hearing the statement.

Today on NPR you will hear a report about stem cell research. This is the paraphrased quote from the teaser:
"When we take these stem cells and inject them into the brains of these patients we don't know what will happen. They are pioneers in stem cell research."
I was driving when I heard this (that's why it's paraphrased) and knew I had to blog it.

Accurate? Mostly. We know that these individuals are volunteering for the process which could be dangerous. That is an accurate application of the term pioneer. However we also know in the past that other individuals have volunteered to take medical experimentation with the belief that there would be positive results. We also know that those results have not always been positive.

Case in point: when we review back in the deep dark history of last year we find the tale of TGN1412 and the disastrous results. Remember the people in Britain who "swelled" and some died in a medical experiment. The doctors working with these patients have been tried and convicted in the media for using "human Guinea Pigs" for their testing.

CAVIA PORCELLUS

It would be more accurate to say that the individuals involved in this stem cell test are in fact human guinea pigs. Yet because there is a negative connotation they choose "pioneer" to positively spin the test.

As a conservative who is concerned with the blind push for stem cell research should I view this as an "accidental" choice of words? Or should I see it as an intentional manipulation to cover up the fact that the best minds have absolutely no clue what will happen with stem cells and they are just throwing ideas against the wall until something sticks?

Ford: Artificial Racism

2006-10-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

Does this commercial play on "racist fears of Tennessee redneck-hick-kkk voters"??? That is the spin being shoved down our throats.

"Harold, c a l l m e "

Watch it and tell me what you think?

Along with my fellow Tennesseans I watched this commercial from Thursday the 19th until Monday and then another WEEK on top of that before we got the "racism" accusation. Think about that for a moment. Why did it take so long for the "racism" accusation to come out? The Boston Globe article is dated the 28th.

"FORD is right, I have too many guns"
I heard people laughing about this superbly done commercial. I never heard anybody think it was racist until over a week later?

I would submit that the RNC knows the cycle of the spinners for the DNC and timed the ad for maximum confusion. The DNC and Ford campaigns were totally caught flat-footed. The FORD-DNC response was slow because the DNC first went to the accusations of the ad and found that each one was CITED (check the youtube again, roll call & news accounts cited!). After tearing apart the ad for a week someone finally hit on the "white chick with black guy" and took it to the focus groups. When the focus group reacted to that spin, the democrats went national with the response.

Suddenly (2 weeks from the air date of the ad) I'm hearing commentators from PBS Newshour calling the ad racist. Thankfully there was a smart guy next to him shaking his head "NO" at the racism stupidity.

The unanswered question:
IF the commercial was SO OVERTLY racist, why did it take 10 days for that to come to the realization of the media?

I cracked up when I saw this commercial. I would have put this on the air in a heartbeat. It is factual and funny. You can't beat that.

Vincente Fox and the Fence

2006-10-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

While Latinoissues may do a much better job of knowing the issues I'll take a stab with some common-sense insight. In the title is an article link to comments made by Fox about the 700-mile fence that Bush is putting up.

We know that Mexico's government ACTIVELY encourages, enables and instructs their citizens on how to illegally immigrate into the USA. They are obviously not concerned with the laws of the United States when they actively work to help their citizens violate them.

What Fox actually said:
"The decision made by Congress and the U.S. government is deplorable," Calderon said while on tour in Canada. "Humanity committed a grave error by constructing the Berlin wall and I am sure that today the United States is committing a grave error in constructing a wall along our northern border."

Stepping back for a moment and setting aside all issues except for his specific statement let's view the underlying message from Mexico's highest elected official: The United States is equal to the Communist Soviets who built the wall to keep their people in their country.

Is this a true and valid statement? Obviously not because our citizens are free to come and go as they please. We are trying to keep people out of our country who haven't followed proper channels to come into the country. Clearly our border fence is not equal to the wall he mentioned in any context unless viewed by someone with a short memory and poor thinking skills.

Why would Fox say such an inflated statement? Possibly because in order to maintain a stable economy and government our neighbors to the south must encourage illegal immigration. Immigrants send millions of dollars back to family members still in Mexico so encouraging immigration of any form is a way of building their economy. I would also submit that a populace that is unemployed with little options for work is ripe for unrest.

A second possibility is that he knows his statement will resonate with the liberal voters of the Los Estados Unitos who are generally equipped with poor thinking skills combined with bleeding hearts.

I am not cold to the realities of Mexico and limitations of their economy. However our reality is that we must restrain the tide at our borders as long as there are groups of individuals who are willing to kill themselves in order to harm us. Is the fence a finger in the dike? Possibly so. We have to start somewhere. Every day we delay action we increase the odds that the weak border will be taken advantage of by someone who isn't simply looking for a job. Someone who instead is looking to help attack the great Satan.

Ewww, Check Your Shoe!

2006-10-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Is your ecological footprint squishing the future and killing cute fuzzy polar bears? Check the article linked in the title to find out more!

Maybe I'm the jackass penguin here (60% decline 1977-1992 according to this scary article) but a very skeptical part of me is not very concerned about the consumption patterns of Finland (apparently the worst offender). I just can't help but wonder that the WWF is selling something here. I mean, if there were positive news would there be a need for donations to the WWF? Doesn't the negative news mean that the bleeding hearts need to pour out their sympathies via check, money order or credit card transactions?

Everyone check their shoes because it just might be your fault!

Looking at the conservative side, where in the globe have the greatest contributions in technology, effeciency and conservation come from? Where would the world be if the ecological "depositors" were in charge?

Like I said, it's all about money.

Michael J. Fox-Oops!

2006-10-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

There is the big hullabaloo over voting Democrat to support stem cell research and bring the star power of Michael J. Fox in with MS to support it. Yet the market the democrats decide to open the ad in is where the Democrat incumbent voted against it?

Oops! What else can you say?

Maybe that's why I pay to watch his movies and don't pay to hear his political views.

Sheehan's Can-O-Worms

2006-10-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

When you voluteer to be a media icon, you may sometimes forget the law of unintended consequences. Cindy has put her grief into a dog-and-pony campaign aginst everything Bush and is shocked that someone would target her back?

While I am not an advocate of the in-depth type of expose that is in this

American Mourning book,

I did expect someone to write it. The public records that are there along with the infomation that has come forward behind her beginnings (a Kerry aide at the funeral asking Cindy to make public statements during the Kerry-Bush competition for president?) are all valid for publication.

The personal stuff is going to become public once (if) the lawsuit hits. For her sake I pray she is strong enough to handle it.

Foley Slander

2006-10-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, what Foley did do wasn't pretty. Apparently it wasn't illegal, it definitely wasn't moral, and he's out of office in the closest thing to a rehab program there can be for what he did.

Read them for yourself

When did it become true that because he's a Republican means he has to be a Saint? Only a Democrat would confuse perfection with politics. Democrats think that their law is their God so that means they expect the Republicans to think of their representatives as Saints just because we claim the moral high ground.

Let me elaborate:
Conservatives are imperfect individuals who generally aspire to make the law something like what was modeled by God. Liberals think there is no God and try to use the law as a religion to make themselves fell less imperfect.

I can't help but think that the label of pediophile is a pretty strong word. Since ABC is reporting that the FBI can't find any evidence of Clinton-style contact you must wonder when Foley's lawyer will start filing libel & defamation suits.

Ford Embellished Resume

2006-10-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Pretty boy democrat senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. is caught in yet another bold-face lie. He calls himself a lawyer but has never passed the Bar exam.

I really don't understand his need to embellish this since he has already been elected to Congress and has served in politics. Yet he does so anyway? I guess it's just the Ford genes making him to be a liar.

McCain-North Korea Nuke Reminder

2006-10-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

The one Renegade Republican bulldog who always acts as the conscience of the party and who can be relied upon to shoot straight with the American people (at least according to most of the media in the previous 6 years) is targeting Hillary?

Whatever will the media say about this? Will we have Chris Matthews bring him on to talk about the Clinton era's collossal failure to control Kim Jung Il's nuke aspirations?

KIM JUNG IL ABOUT TO SPIT OUT HIS DRINK LAUGHING AT THE US

Will we hear it bashed into our heads by Tim Russert that our country may have unwittingly FUNDED their nuke program thanks to Clinton sending Jimmy Carter over there to negotiate for us?

DIDN'T HE WIN THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR THAT?

Here's some lovely reference sites:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_2002_Winter/ai_95841636
http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2728.html

Is it a timely reminder to vote Republican? The Dems must surely be scared of it because they have labeled the nuke test a "Karl Rove orchestrated October surprise" with a certain amount of frequency and flair that is somewhat paranoid sounding. Even if they are saying it with tongue planted in cheek the frequency makes it worth noting their obvious fear.

I certainly hope so!

By the way, Corker is AHEAD for the Tenneessee seat... in case anyone missed it.

PETA: Fire the Bug Guy

2006-10-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has protested Six Flags contest to eat a roach and get to be in the front of the line for the roller coasters.

ROFLOL

HISSING COCKROACHES
I wonder if roaches get the same respect in their kitchens at home?

Chavez Kids?

2006-10-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

The first thing I thought of when I read this article about the Venezuelan slums is how Chavez buddied up with Cindy Sheehan.

BUSH HATER CLUB

This is what gets me about wacko nutcase liberals (or even regular liberals). They will tend to be so singularly focused on their emotional hatred of something like Bush that they will lose sight of who they are teaming with or what the unintended consequences might be. Does a mom who is angry about losing her son want to support the Communist ruler of an oil rich country where thousands of sons and daughters die each year in horrible economic conditions? Isn't communism supposed to be wealth-sharing?

What about the mothers of the children who live in that slum Cindy? Why don't you get on the horn and call your buddy Chavez and ask him to do something about that. Ask him to help the sons and daughters who are still alive and under his authority.

Who is the devil. Is he the one who decries riches and proclaims the shared wealth of the people and lives in luxury while others starve in the same city? Did Chavez act as the pot calling the kettle black?

Haynesworth

2006-10-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed Haynesworth when he was a VOL and as a Titan. Today I am writing because I am ashamed of what I saw a grown man do to another man on that field Sunday.
Kicking that helmet off and then stomping the exposed head like that to me is certainly criminal and should be prosecuted.

I love football as a sport. To protect the integrity of the game you must sometimes do what hurts. It would hurt to lose Albert. It would hurt the team and the Haynesworth family. With that said, 5 games is not enough. He needs to be banned from the league and he needs to be prosecuted for assault.

IF Dems Won...

2006-09-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

It may sound odd but if the democrats win it is a gain for the Republicans as much if the Republicans win.

Why would I ever say such blasphemy?

Well, take a look at who stands to come into power:

Nancy Pellosi -Speaker
Charlie Rangle -Ways and Means (think $$)
Harry Reid -judicial(?)

The tax-spend-and-crush-traditional-morals crowd just went jubilant, moderates just took antacid while conservative democrats are popping Notre pills and gripping their left arm.

Give this country 2 years of these certified and certifiable left wing "radical liberals" and you will virtually usher in a Republican president, house and senate in 2008. Assuming of course we aren't all praising Allah in those 24 months.

Hey, they could raise taxes on everything but I doubt... No make that cringe to think that the democrats could actually spend more than my supposedly conservative Republicans have managed to do in the past 6 years.

The good news is that it looks like pretty boy Ford is running behind Corker so at least Tennessee's Senate slot seems to be going the right direction. See what else is going on

thanks to Tre's site here.

To Vote Democrat

2006-09-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

WHAT must you believe to vote democrat in the upcoming election?

That high gas prices are Bush's fault but he had nothing to do with low prices.

That the agencies involved in creating our intelligence were liars and deceptive prior to the Iraq war but exactly right on the recent release.

That nothing has been done to help Medicare prescription plan elderly citizens even though 75% are very satisfied with their new coverage.

That being in Iraq makes more terrorists and having left Saddam in power would have made the world a safer place.

That if we weren't in Iraq there wouldn't be terrorists.

That if we weren't in Iraq, those insurgents would not be in the USA attempting to attack us rather would be herding goats.

That we can negotiate with people whose sole goal is to see us worship Allah or kill us if we refuse, and who aren't afraid to die trying.

That we should remove the Patriot Act in spite of the fact that the act does what the 911 commission says we should have done to prevent that attack.

That Democrats would be good at handling Middle East policy, like Jimmy Carter!

That all Americans are being illegally wiretapped. Not just the ones making & receiving overseas calls from known terrorist operatives or states.

That the military force is made up of drafted poor children and not by an all volunteer force that is disporportionately represented by the sons and daughters of
elected officials. (Expressed as a percentage of elected officials with serving children versus percentage of non-elected general population parents with serving children).

That Clinton was serious about getting Bin Laden and never said that the first WTC attack was a "local law enforcement problem."

That judges should tell us what the law should say rather than applying it as written.

That after being born it's ok to become pro-choice since it's someone else's life.

***

And for Tennessee:
That Harold Ford Jr. can attack the largest company retailing biodiesel as "big oil" (Jimmy Haslam, Pilot Gas Stations & Corkers Campaign Financial Manager) and be supportive of marketing biodiesel.

That there were any major construction projects in Tennessee in the 80's and 90's that did not have illegal immigrants working there.

That Ford can vote against Anwar drilling and support ending our dependence on foreign oil.

That Ford who went to law school in Pennsylvania and private schools in DC is a good ole country boy.

That Ford being a big buddy with Bush on Iraq is ok but that the Democratic party canned Lieberman for doing exactly the same thing is ok.

NOW DO YOU SEE WHY I CANNOT FATHOM THOSE WHO WANT TO VOTE DEMOCRAT?

Chopsticks in the Keyhole

2006-09-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

What is the motive for having the abiltiy to blind the sattelites of the USA?

If you are China, let's just consider that maybe the motive isn't a warm and fuzzy one.

Consider the amounts of money spent to make this possible and add that into the theft of the Aegis system (check my site, it's a missile defense platform for carrier fleets). Consider the thefts of nuclear warhead tech and the theft of intercontinental ballistic missile data by China. Consider the remodeled Russian carrier that the Chinese claim will be a floating casino.

Consider China's partnership with Iran.

Consider China's position on Taiwan and our clear support of that fellow Democracy.

Take all those points into account and tell me what their motive is.

Pro-Life Head in Sand

2006-09-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

As a conservative and personal pro-life supporter I often find extreme asinine frustration with the official pro-life political machine. A prime example of this is Corker versus Ford in Tennessee for Senate.

What they say is that Corker (the Republican candidate) is not firm on being pro life. His opponent Ford is clearly pro-choice as is the standard mantra in the black portion of the pseudo-Christian democratic south**.

Because of this question they "refuse to support or campaign for Corker."

My question to the pro-life political machine is this: of the two parties which is more in your camp? Clearly the Republicans are more likely to be pro-life than the liberal controlled democratic party. IF you support republicans you are helping the majority go to the party more likely in your camp even if the particular individual is mildly pro-life or not promoting the overturn of Roe.

That support of Republicans gets nominations to the judiciary more strength of passage with more votes. The judiciary is the battleground for this war and is where we need to focus the fight. Granted you cannot guarantee choices in the judiciary, but at least you can more likely get the candidates that would be favorable to a conservative position.

That's about the only goal that is truly attainable: a conservative judiciary.

**(a completely different topic very worthy of discussion)

Clooney, UN, Darfur

2006-09-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

It is a good thing to see Clooney addressing the genocide in Darfur before the UN Security Council.

My question is what result does he expect?

First, the people in danger are within their own country and under attack from portions of their own government. That severly limits the UN's "ability to act". {The term in quotes is so because the "ablility of the UN to act" is virtually a joke that everyone seems to recognize or get except for liberals.} If those being persecuted were outside their own borders then the UN has more power to act.

Assuming that there would be a will to act is the greater falsehood.

September 12th

2006-09-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

Here is the question I pose to the anti-Bush crowd:

Let's roll back the clock to September 12 2001. Say Gore is president. What do you propose or suggest that he would do? What would you have him do?

It is a difficult question.

Say it this way: what would YOU do?

What our President did was take the information he had in hand and make decisions. One of those decisions was to trash the ineffective previous policies of the United States when it came to the Middle East. The policies of Reagan, Bush, Clinton... were wrong and clearly did not work. It was time to lay aside the fear of destabilizing the Middle East in favor of pushing the tool we know works: a democratic state. The first mistake Bush's father made was to not remove Saddam and/or support the Kurds when he had the chance.

Wars do not stop despotism. They only give the populace a chance to effect change.

That statement lends a question: Is the insurgency a huge part of the Iraqi populace or a small fraction making big news?

I would hate to fry the circuits of those who still try to tune into Air America with too many questions. Let's see if I get any good responses.

BYU Physics Nut?

2006-09-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

Forgive my blunt statement but that's an unnecessary repetition. Dr. Stephen Jones, physics professor, asserts that the govmint' pre-positioned explosives in the WTC to make it fall so BYU puts him on leave. Check out the article linked in the title.

It's a good idea to question that guy's nonsense because it was a nutty thing he wrote. Now let's issue some challenges to the rest of BYU's Mormon faith based institution:

1) Show me the golden tablets. Grab a digital camera and snap a picture.
2) IF you cannot for some obscure faith reason show any photographic representation of those, Google Map the locations of the miracles cited in your text that happened in the 1800's while the group was traveling.
3) Reconcile Joe Smith's assertion that the "Bible is completely true" with Galatians 1:8 and Joe's vision.

NICE PAINTING OF JOSEPH SMITH'S VISION THAT LED TO THE MORMON CHURCH

Galatians 1:8

8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

Any good believer should be able to answer #2 & #3 from his computer. I have yet to find one that can or will give me a straight answer on it.

Hitler At The UN

2006-09-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

Read the Sun article linked in the title. 'Nuff said.

FOUND: Bubba's Legacy!

2006-09-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

There were many searches for the truth in the 90's. One of them was OJ's search for his wife's killer (apparently not involving mirrors). The other individual who was involved in major searches was Bubba Clinton.

His search ostensibly was for his core values and the legacy of his presidency. ABC seems to have found a major clue in a new movie.

"The Path to 9/11" puts a factual focus on the decisions, actions and lack of action of the United States under Clinton to terrorist operations. Those operations include the USS Cole, Embassy bombings and the first car bomb attack on the WTC.

I wonder if wacky Cindy Sheehan realizes that if Clinton had handled these events with a firm hand that would have merited respect and fear in the hearts of terrorists that her son might still be alive?

Should the "radical lefties" consider that Clinton not only turned down several opportunities to apprehend Bin Laden but also bolstered the terrorist leader's confidence?

What do you say leftie bloggers? Is there truth in my statements or are you going to continue to define the word "is"?

Crocodile Hunter No More

2006-09-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

STEVE IRWIN

As you might have expected with his exuberance around deadly creatures his luck finally ran out. I think we are all at a loss after this encounter with a stingray (of all things? I mean the guy wrestled with Crocodiles and poisonous snakes all his life and gets taken out by a fish?).

Please say a prayer for Terri and the rest of his organization.

Ford Jr's BioDoublespeak

2006-08-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

"What if the next big oil field was right here in Tennessee...I want to make alterative energy sources to reduce our reliance on middle eastern oil..."
"Corker's campaign has sold out to big oil" -Harold Ford Jr.

QUOTED FROM FORD'S COMMERCIALS IN TOP BAR OF HIS WEBSITE

If you don't see the contradiction, permit me to enlighten:

JIM HASLAM, PILOT OIL CEO
Pilot Oil's CEO, Jim Haslam is the campaign finance manager for Bob Corker, Ford's republican opponent for the vacant seat from Tennessee in the Senate to replace Bill Frist (R). The accusation from Ford about big oil is a lie because Pilot Oil, a Tennesse based retail chain of gas stations, doesn't buy oil commodities, just refined gasoline (and gas commodities) and diesel for retail consumption. Pilot oil also happens to be one of the largest retailers of alternative fuel in the country!

KnoxNews bottom paragraphs

So, which is it Junior? Are you supportive of alternative fuels or are you against the mid sized companies that are willing to market alternative fuels?

Is this the first major obfuscation of the truth (pc for "bold faced lie") from Jr.? Hardly! Consider this quote:

"Excuse my ignorance as I'm just a poor country boy from the south." Harold Ford Jr.

Actually: Attended private school in Washington DC. Congressman Ford received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American History from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. With a pedigree like that it makes me wonder if he uses carpeted suitcases! That guy is about as country as Hillary Clinton!

Dirty Dems: Target CORKER

2006-08-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

Bob Corker wins the primary nod to be the next Republican senator from Tennessee taking on Harry Ford Jr. (who continues to claim he is not corrupt like his family).

BOB CORKER
Bob was a contractor and land developer prior to politics. Of course that means his job site had illegal immigrants so only an idiot (or democrat)would be shocked at that-but that isn't what I'm looking at today. One of the deals he put together as a private citizen involved a protected piece of watershed/conservation or whatever type property. The wording of the deal included the rights to a road access to an adjacent parcel to the protected piece.

The "Evil Republican" Corker made a deal with the "Evil Corporation" Wal-Mart to build on the adjacent property. There were the required open forum meetings for the approval. After construction begins Democrat tree-huggers filed a suit that was later dismissed because no portion of the agreement was broken in the deal with the protected property and the Wal-Mart occupied space.

Now that Corker is fully running for Senate as a Republican, a Democrat Joe Prochaska acting as attorney for the Tennessee Environmental Council and a Chattanooga citizens group files an appeal and gets a new look at the grossly exaggerated issue over this land.

Just a heads up, it's already been to the State Supreme Court once.

Is the timing political? The original suit was in 2003 and Prochaska took the helm of the case in 2005. Prochaska's wife has given $500 to Harry Ford Jr's campaign fund (Ahem, Ms. Prochaska would never dream of colluding with her husband against their candidates opponent). Shucks naw, it ain't nuthin political! {fingers crossed behind back}. I smell the south end of a north bound jackass.

Keep in mind that Harry Ford Jr. says he is not corrupt like his uncle...

10 Million Women Dead

2006-08-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

The irony of the argument is the pro-choice side that says "Women have the right to choose what to do with their bodies."

What happens in a culture where human life is not highly valued because of a complex set of reincarnation beliefs if you combine the status of a male child with the technology to predict the sex and abort based on the outcome? The wholesale slaughter of women. Ten million is the estimate in the previous 20 years?

""We must end the crime of female foeticide. We must eliminate gender disparity," Singh said in an address to the nation."

What would those women have done? What difference would they have made? What about their rights with their bodies?

DAY 56

I am torn by this article. Torn because of the joy of hearing truth from the lips of a leader of a country. The frustration that is still there because of the ongoing slaughter and blatant turning of heads to ignore the facts. Frustrated because you won't hear this major proclamation on your nightly news cast because it doesn't fit the left leaning media's program.

McKinney: Buy A Mirror

2006-08-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

Cynthia "Cop-Slugger" McKinney is spouting off again. It's the fault of the electronic voting machines that she lost. It's the fault of the media that she lost. It's the brain-dead black politic (sorry, she said "comatose" which isn't brain dead but by her usage is essentially saying they are asleep) that she lost.

SLUGGER BEFORE NICKNAME AND AFTER NICKNAME

Hey Slugger, buy a mirror. Maybe it's because you are a violent, self-absorbed, fruitloop.

Something else that bothers me: why isn't it your fault Cynthia? Why is there no personal responsibility in this matter? I think that the tone of your post-loss rhetoric says more about the issues of your community than the actual vote does. I think you should take responsibility and show leadership. Admit your faults and find the strength there. Focus on what you can do for you, not what someone else has done against you to make you who you are.

We who live outside of your district teach our children these lessons. Maybe you should grow up and accept responsibility too.

JOB QUEST SAGA

2006-08-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

ALTERNATE TITLE: STRESS IS FUN?

I my astounding efforts to avoid minimum-wage-dom I have managed to land in a company only to have the entire staff -including the guy who hired me- quit!?!

In case you are wondering it is a mortgage company. There was some shakeup at the time I came on. The underwriting department essentially "crashed" and quit approving anything. Shortly thereafter all of the existing loan officers quit and the team manager, except me!

Um, yeah, got a first class ticket on the Titanic!

Other opportunities are out there. Prayers for my search are greatly appreciated! The local Mapco c-store is still hiring for $10 per hour and I'm giving it serious consideration at this point! Well, maybe a little serious but I don't speak enough spanish for that neighborhood. Espanola un poco, uh, only.

Election Question: TENNESSEE

2006-08-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

The question really isn't who will run against pretty-boy Harry Ford Jr. for the open seat from Tennessee. The question is can enough voters turn out to keep the "Ford Political Machine" from rigging the election.

Bryant, VanHillary and yes I'd even vote for Bob Corker before I'd see a Ford in office. Personally I voted for Bryant as did most people I know.

Too bad I'm too busy to spend more time focusing some attention on this. Hopefully I'll be able to shed some more light on my personal anybody but Ford campaign in the near future.

ANYBODY BUT HAROLD FORD JR IN 06!

I VOTED!

2006-08-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

I voted today!

I have a decent clue what is going on. I stay informed. I exercised my rights with a respect for the process by knowing the issues and the decisions before me!

With that said, do not dare go out and disrespect the process by being an imbecile who doesn't know the name of the Governor or what position the person you are voting against will even hold!

In this case for the most part the decision was "who will run against the other party to get a shot at that position" vote. If you didn't already know that, maybe it's good you didn't vote!

If you have bought a bumper sticker that says "I miss Clinton" then you should be blocked from coming near a voting booth!

"I Miss Clinton" stickers...

2006-08-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

So you went and paid good minimum wage earned money to put the sticker on your car "I miss Bill Clinton" or some variation thereof.

Shall we review what you think you miss?

You miss a boss who takes advantage of his female subordinates. There is good evidence he went as far as being a rapist and threatened to kill those who would expose him.

You miss a lawyer who perjured himself in front of a Federal Judge.

You miss the 31 people who died in "very mysterious circumstances" who were associated with the Clintons.

There is much much more here with tons of links at the

Clinton Legacy.

You know who else misses Clinton with you?

Osama Bin Laden misses Bill Clinton too. After all, Clinton did turn down an opportunity to have him extradited to the US when he was in custody pre 9-11. Bin Laden also claims that the weak responses were the reason he was bold to attack the WTC.

So, what does having this sticker say about you?

OLIVE THE $$

2006-07-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

Alternate title: CRUSHING THE OLIVE

My wife had a VERY BAD DAY at work and wanted to go to the Olive Garden for a relaxing dinner. Only it turned out badly.

As you may know, the Olive Garden is a theme restaurant with identical menus and items of Italian style cuisine in every decent sized shopping district of the continental USA. Go there any mealtime and you are greeted with long lines because the food is reasonably good and usually done with excellent service. We have been going to Olive Garden for 20 years and know what to expect.

Correction: we thought we knew what to expect.

Now it seems that they are dropping their "old menu" in favor of a more "real Italian" menu. I hate to say it but this ain't fresh olives they are working with. They are toying with a tried and true system supposedly to make it better for the customers. They have managed to eliminate the cataloni and ravoli from the selection. We are really hacked about this because those were our favorite items.

The suggested replacement was some kind of cheese stuffed shells with roast beef and red-wine gravy. It tasted just like roast beef and gravy with cheese shells. When you are looking for pasta in the USA you aren't usually thinking of gravy-well we aren't. My point is I don't go to Olive Garden for "genuine" Italian cuisine. I go there for "Americanized cuisine that I like" and know. If I want "genuine" Italian I seek out a family restaurant not a chain! Only the people who think "Red Lobster" is a good place to get fish think that the OG is a "real" Italian restaurant (they are owned by the same parent company).

Then it hit me: the Breadsticks! The OG management aren't really interested in genuine Italian! If they were the first thing they would do is quit buying those tubes of bread with fake butter-garlic smeared on them and start serving fresh made loaves with olive oil and freshly crushed pepper to dip in! They are only interested in eliminating items off the menu that used to be $8-9 per plate and replace them with $11-14 items. Doing "real" Italian bread cost big bucks, especially in olive oil, which is suspiciously absent from their tables.

It's all about the money. Apparently Hospitaliano is a thing of the past, I look for this chain to wither on the vine and join other good restaurants in the graveyard of "fixed what wasn't broken" ideas.

LENDING TREE IDIOTS

2006-07-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Here is an old-style rant for you...

Let's say your name is Xxxxxx and you put you and your spouse's financial information on Lending Tree including both social security numbers and birth dates.

The loan officer who gets your information does what he gets paid to do: call you to confirm the information and make the offer. Only, you go on vacation after applying. For 5 days straight at slightly different times of the day you get a similar message "...regarding Lending Tree, please call..." from this guy. He is trying to catch you at home because you asked him to. When you get back from vacation you are annoyed at him for the messages.

How stupid are you, Xxxxxx?

First, you put your name and phone number and asked to be called. He did as he was told to by you. Yet you are frustrated and hang up on him? Is it really smart to hang up on a guy who is carrying your personal information in this day and age? Maybe he has a blog and will post all your important details for the whole world to steal your identities? (Which I would never ever do but there are some individuals who would!)

To vent, you call his boss. His boss says "sorry about your luck" and doesn't help. As soon as you get off the phone, that Loan Officer is patted on the back for doing his job by the boss and held up as the example to follow to the whole office. Is that really the outcome you wanted when you called his boss?

I know I feel better getting this off my chest.

No More FORDS for Tennessee

2006-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

ALTERNATE TITLE: Fords Under The MAN

If you are wondering what could fuel such aversion to a family name look no further than the history of the Ford clan. I cannot say that Junior is actually guilty of any wrong doing in any way, shape, or form. However I can assert that the sins of the father truly do pass through family lineage and there are some serious issues with his family.

The core 20% democrats who'd vote for Ford's dog say the MAN is just out to get him. I say where there is smoke or an FBI warrant you had better expect some fire. No, there aren't any warrants for Junior yet, just for all of the fathers and uncles that he was raised by.

Ironically, some Black publications are adamantly opposed to Ford too. They say his positions are too

conservative.

Is Junior a Liberal in conservative guise? Maybe there is such a thing as a new democrat but I smell a lot of pandering to the conservative voters of Tennessee.

Guilt by association? Family profiling? Maybe I am doing these things. That doesn't mean I'm wrong!

My ultimate point here is neither conservatives or liberals seem to trust this guy and perhaps with good reason.

Suggested reading:
Google search Operation Tennessee Waltz for his family's current troubles.
USA TODAY FORD FAMILY ARTICLE for history of the clan, good and bad.

Harry Ford Jr.

2006-07-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

Pretty boy Democrat Harold Ford Jr is a darling to the lefties in the upcoming election. The prospect of him replacing Frist has salivating dems writing checks from New York to California.

JUNIOR'S KEYNOTE

In a recent article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press they endorsed Junior(much to the surprise of some guy living under a rock in Australia who knows nothing about the political stance of the Times Free Press). Instead of writing the article themselves they asked a PR guy from Ford's office to do it for them. Bear with me as my questions will make it worth it. Let's read it and confirm that suspicion:
*************************************
Harold Ford Jr. for U.S. Senate

Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., is one of five candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, hoping, ultimately, to fill the seat of retiring Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Of the five, Rep. Ford is the most experienced, the most thoughtful and the most attuned to national issues. We recommend him as the Democratic standard-bearer in what promises to be one of the nation's most hotly contested U.S. Senate races of the fall.

Rep. Ford, who has represented his West Tennessee district ably in the U.S. House since 1996, is a proven vote-getter. He's been returned to office four times by an average of 80 percent of the vote. The total is indicative of a wide appeal that transcends traditional party lines and voting patterns.

Rep. Ford's attention to detail and understanding of the often arcane ways of the legislative branch make him an effective legislator. Moreover, a calm demeanor and refreshing willingness to work across party lines without sacrificing his party's ideals have made him a formidable presence in Congress. Those qualities, buttressed by his keen intellect and thoughtful stances on key national issues, validate his Senate candidacy.

In a recent meeting with this newspaper's editorial board, Rep. Ford identified Iraq, immigration, health care, the energy shortage, the deficit and education as issues that must be resolved if citizens and the nation are to prosper. He is, of course, correct in that assessment, and his views on each are instructive.

Rep. Ford voted for the Iraq war resolution but recognizes that the administration's war policies have gone terribly awry. Even so, he's opposed to an immediate pullout. He prefers a more measured approach that explores new policies to protect U.S. interests and lives while allowing Iraqis to build their own future. That's not a perfect answer but reflects the realities of a nasty, politicized war that continues to sap both the strength and treasury of the nation.

His views on other pressing issues reflect a similar desire to focus on finding solutions rather than indulging in the finger-pointing that now passes for political debate in Congress. He would, for example, create incentives to improve vehicular fuel efficiency. He would couple them with increased research into the use of sun, wind, hydrogen and farm products as alternative sources of energy, rather than subsidize continued use of fossil fuel.

Rep. Ford favors a balanced budget, health care initiatives that expand rather than reduce access, education policies that provide federal funding to cover federal mandates and an immigration policy that strengthens border controls and provides penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers.

Generally, Rep. Ford's views reflect those of most centrist Democrats. The congressman rarely has deviated from that position during his public career. And while some Democrats might be troubled by his more conservative views on gun control, abortion, gay marriage and flag burning, he has been consistent on those issues as well. He's not changed long-held views to pander to a statewide electorate far more diverse than the voters in his congressional district.

Rep. Ford has only token opposition in the primary and is expected to win the nomination handily. His real test will come in the November general election. There he'll face the winner of a bruising and divisive three-man GOP primary. Whatever the matchup in the fall, Rep. Ford will be a strong candidate. His possible opponents concede as much.

Former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker has said, " ... he [Rep. Ford] will be a difficult candidate to beat." Ed Bryant has said, "Ford is formidable and should not be taken for granted." Both are correct.

Tennessee Democrats, for the first time in recent election cycles, have the opportunity to nominate a strong, politically attractive candidate with a statewide constituency for U.S. Senate. We strongly endorse Rep. Ford for his party's nomination.
******************************

Blah blah blah! Someone convince me that whomever wrote this was employed by the paper and not actively working for the Ford campaign? Ok, now that you survived that piece of yellow journalism let's ask some pertinent questions:

I'm curious why we are so excited that the Times Free Press is endorsing Ford. That's kind of like saying we expect the sun to come up in a blue sky tomorrow isn't it? Have they ever endorsed a truly conservative candidate?

Ford was for the war but is against how Bush is handling it: what exactly is his alternative plan since not pulling out is what is going to happen anyway? What in his infinite 20/20 hindsight will fix the victory we have already acquired but are just mopping up?

Energy situation: what has Ford voted in favor of in the past that would reduce the US dependency on foreign oil? Even if we exponentially expanded alternative energy sources can we get away from oil in the next 100 years? Heck no!

Immigration: DUH> anyone disagree (besides Barbara Boxer)?

Balanced Budget and Healthcare: As Tenncare has taught us, open access and controlled spending do not happen in tandem. How does his plan rectify that with cutting taxes?

Possibly outside of Van Hillary (sorry, that wasn't a nice joke) are any of the candidates stupid or is this glowing assertion of his intellect some kind of journalistic throwback to the racial mentality of the deep south (blacks aren't smart but great athletes). In all deference to what I do believe is an intelligent candidate in Junior I must ask him: Do you assume your voters don't know about your liberal record, the facts about energy, and that you are blustering against Bush to pander for votes?