A Great Article To End Year

In today's Christain Science Monitor:

By the Monitor's Editorial Board / December 31, 2009

Can’t quite settle on a New Year’s resolution? How about this: Resolve not to repeat the media’s mantra of America in decline.

The airwaves and netwaves are full of reviews of the decadem horribilis – a decade of terror attacks, two hot wars, hurricane Katrina, a great recession, a record federal deficit, and more.

The common conclusion is that the American sun has set, much like the end of the British, Ottoman, and Roman empires.

That’s, well, nonsense.

There’s no denying that these past years have been tough for many in the United States, especially military families and the unemployed. But focusing on decline blinds one to the deep well of renewal that has always defined America in difficult times. Accepting a fall as a fait accompli avoids the opportunity to learn from mistakes. It obscures facts that would encourage.

The US is still the world’s largest economy, though fast-growing China moved up to third place in 2009. Despite US trade and fiscal deficits, the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency. The World Economic Forum ranks the US as No. 2 in global competitiveness, and still No. 1 in innovation. That’s hugely important, because new ideas spark new industries and jobs.

Corporate spending on R&D may have slowed, but peek inside engineering schools and home offices. Innovation is humming. The Wall Street Journal reported recently a surge in “tinkering” as plummeting prices on materials and equipment allow individuals to turn their ideas into inventions. Engineering schools are reporting more students wanting to do hands-on work. “Hackerspaces,” where tinkerers can share ideas and tools, are blossoming across the country.

Financial upheaval in the late 19th century sparked a golden age of independent inventors in the US. Will that happen again?

It could be that individuals – as opposed to institutions – lead the way into the next decade. That wouldn’t be surprising. Americans are renowned for their can-do attitude and resourcefulness, and the Internet gives them more voice and opportunity.

Unlike Washington and Wall Street, Americans in general seem to have learned from the Easy Street values that begot the stock market and housing bubbles. Lost wealth jolted them into saving (though whether they’re saving enough is still an open question). They’re also practicing a personal pay-as-you-go policy – choosing debit over credit cards.

Many jobless Americans are doing their utmost to take responsibility for their lives. A December New York Times/CBS poll of unemployed adults found that over 40 percent had moved or were considering moving to find work. Meanwhile, 44 percent have pursued job retraining or other education. Online learning is growing, making it easier for Americans to improve their skills.

Americans also want to help others. Community service has soared over the last 20 years.

“If you want to feel depressed about the country, think about the government. If you want to [be] really optimistic about the country, look at people under 30,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said recently on PBS’s “NewsHour.” Youth violence, crime, and teen pregnancy are all down.

Of course, it’s easy to get down about polarized Washington. But don’t give up yet. Both parties back education reform based on performance – a key ingredient for a healthy economy. And the government has made a down payment on infrastructure, essential to moving goods and people and improving competitiveness.

Concern about the federal debt is mounting on both sides of the aisle. The states, meanwhile, are in the forefront on tough issues like greenhouse gases.

Overseas, America is working hard to win back respectability. Unlike Rome, London, or Istanbul, though, it hasn’t sought an empire. Its interest is the promotion and defense of freedom – the basis of American greatness, but also of world greatness, if countries embrace it.

That national characteristic hasn’t changed. It’s why applications for US citizenship are still rising, despite much higher fees. Outsiders see the promise. Americans should, too.

H/T Instapundit

TCB

Is America Exceptional?

There are only two answers to that question - "yes" and "hell yes". Bill Whittle proves the later.

H/T Tigerhawk

Me Too!

Tehran's Burning

Let's hope the entire country goes up in flames this time. And where is our president when the protesters could use some support? I think he's still out on the golf course.

US Boarder Security Should Follow The Aussie Model

Talking Dog For Sale

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house:

Talking Dog For Sale

He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador Retriever sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says "So, what's your story?"

The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.

"I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.

"I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

"Ten dollars," the guy says.

"Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He never did any of that shit."

H/T Stormbringer

Jeep Techno

I've got a Saturn Vue for sale that I wouldn't mind doing this to - with a bunch of sledge hammers. With any luck, it would be a one time only performance.

H/T Instapundit

Addressing The Great Divide

Marching Orders

From Markos at Daily Kos last night via Twitter:

"Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate."

A Statement Of Principles

I am a huge fan of Maggie's Farm and suggest that you read it routinely in case you do not already do so. This should give you an excellent idea of what to expect there:

People ask me why we seem so predictably and boringly preoccupied with the health care and climate change issues.

There is a simple answer: Those are the two topics which are currently being exploited to the max by Leftist totalitarian-minded folks, who believe themselves to be our moral and intellectual superiors, in their endless efforts to control our lives and to chip away at our freedom and our dignity as sturdy, intelligent, competent, free-thinking adults and families in a free nation with (semi-) free markets.

In history, the battles against central powers were fought on different fronts and, in the future, they will be fought on new fronts that have not been concocted yet in the Gramscian and Alinskian laboratories. It will never end. If Stalin's holocausts didn't end it, if the fall of the Berlin Wall didn't end it, if the evidence of Cuba and North Korea didn't end it, if Pol Pot didn't end it, if the turn of China and Russia to Capitalism didn't end it, if the countless failures of centralized control economies didn't end it, if the attempts to turn Euroland back to free markets and greater freedom didn't end it, if the pathetic return of Euroland to an imperial EU doesn't end it, if the countless failures of hugely-expensive but failed yet immortal government programs didn't end it, then nothing will ever end this battle.

Power, unlike wealth, is a zero-sum game. It is in the nature of governments, which we fully accept as necessary evils, to accumulate power and funds from the citizens - and to regard citizens as children or as subjects. This seems to be something that occurs regardless of the form of government. Some people seem born to seek power over others, some wish to be security-minded subjects, and others simply seek mastery of their own lives. We prefer the latter pursuit, with God's grace, while fully aware that this mortal life we hold so dear may be often full of sound and fury, but signifying little in the end beyond our relationships with the Deity, our family, and our friends.

Without wanting to sound or to be grandiose, people like us at Maggie's and similar sites aim to be perpetual revolutionaries, freedom-fighters, Tea Party Indians, Tom Paines; the minor heirs of our heroic forefathers, attempting to stay true to their ideals of the dominion of individuals seeking their own goals without the oppressive weight of an intrusive government. At least, that is what we aspire to be in our small way.

Individual freedom in relation to the State is close to sacred to us. We pay the State dues to protect us from external enemies and from internal criminals, for justice under law, plus for just a few other minor things. Otherwise, we want to be left alone and to take care of ourselves as best we can in a culture in which every person exercises their morals, their integrity, and their concern for their neighbor by the Golden Rule.

Live and let live, but don't tread on me.

We demand that individual freedom and liberty be part of every political equation - a Constant, like Avogadro's Number. The Constitutional Amendments lX and X remain real and valid to us - delusional though we may be.

We at Maggie's do not even feel entirely comfortable with the notion of "rights." We dislike and distrust the use of the word "rights" in America. In our view, the worthy subject of discussion is that of government powers and their prescribed limits. We the people need no "rights," as the US was conceived. We are free human beings. Free to fail, free to speak, free to do stupid things, free to take risks, free to succeed in our goals - if we have any- free to do almost any damn thing we want to. Yes, maybe we are crazy idealists and maybe we are foolish rubes who produce nothing but superficial cant and pointless rant.

However unheard a voice we at Maggie's may be in the big world, we will use it to resist insidious political maneuvers and manipulations until we turn senile or die - or run out of things to say.

If the latter comes first, we'll cheerfully turn our focus purely on things like shotguns and recipes and wildlife and fishing and salt marshes and architecture and history and philosophy and art and pretty girls and boats and travelogues and God and all of the other joyful, interesting, and delightful things in life.

By the way, if you have friends who might like Maggie's, email our link around. We do not like to be cybersluts (hmm - maybe we do), but we do not want people who might enjoy our eclectic offerings to be deprived of our humble efforts. Let people know that we exist, because our readership is our only reward for our enjoyable efforts here on ye olde Farm.

Doing so would be the finest Christmas present for us.

Put Me On An Ice Floe Now

This defeats the entire reason to have insurance - no one wants to get financially wiped out by a medical crisis. Have these people completely lost their minds?

From The Plum Line:

The internet is buzzing today with the news that Harry Reid quietly inserted a loophole in the Senate health care bill that would let insurance companies put limits on medical care for folks struggling with costly illnesses — angering patient advocates, and in apparent violation of a promise made by Obama this fall.

But in an email to me, Reid’s spokesperson defended the move, arguing it was necessary to hold down premiums.

The news started making the rounds this morning after the Associated Press reported that a “tweak” to the Senate bill had been made, weakening a provision originally banning such limits. Advocates for patients protested that such a ban is a key consumer protection.

The current bill would allow insurance companies to place annual limits on the dollar value of medical care — provided those limits are not “unreasonable,” a term the legislation doesn’t define.

This seems at odds with Obama’s impassioned rhetoric on the issue. As Jane Hamsher notes, Obama vowed in August to stop insurance companies from placing “some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime,” because “no one should go broke because they get sick.”

Asked for comment, Reid spokesman Jim Manley justified the shift in an email:

“We are concerned that banning all annual limits, regardless of whether services are voluntary, could lead to higher premiums. We continue to work with experts on how best to accomplish our goals of preventing insurance companies from imposing arbitrary coverage limits while providing the premium relief American families need and deserve.”

Given Obama’s previous tough talk on the issue, the shift could create a bit of a headache for the White House, and it seems unlikely that such a politically sensitive move would have been made without tacit or overt White House approval. More when I learn it.

A Tee Shirt I'd Like To See

Suggested by Glenn Reynolds:

"Proudly Ungovernable Since 1776"

As Instapundit reader Zachary Terry writes: “That silly, silly Constitution. It always seems to get in the way. In all seriousness, though, wasn’t the United States intended to be relatively ‘ungoverned?’ Why is it not surprising that blatant deviation from the intended structure and function of our national government has led to this quandary?”

Quote Of The Day

"The problem of buying good presents for other people, even people you supposedly know well, illustrates that old familiar Hayekian concept, the knowledge problem. If you can't even give your loved ones the right presents, how likely is it that a central authority could make the right decisions for everyone?"
- Virginia Postrel

Locavores Go Hunting

I am always pleased when I learn that more people are taking up hunting and fishing as activities. I have recounted here the difficulties the young squire and I had when we decided a decade ago to pursue those pastimes since we didn't have anyone to mentor us. Our young miss was the first person I ever heard use "Whole Food" speak to describe hunting; especially for acquaintances and co-workers that had difficulty envisioning her as a hunter let alone condoning hunting as an activity for someone with a college degree. But I have to say I get a particular kick from foodies being driven to hunt as recounted in this recent New York Times article.

There you have it - hunting, gardening and canning have come full circle and are now "hip" from a green standpoint. All I can say is "Spare me".

Update: For those that like to keep track of such things, our young miss, her young man and the young squire have taken six deer this season (two bucks and four does) as of yesterday. The freezers are filling up and the eating will be good for the foreseeable future.

The Next James Bond Automobile

May I be so bold as to suggest the stylized rendition of the Aston Martin DB9 shown below as the next James Bond Car?

Sweet!

KSM In NYC

The best round up on this situation courtesy of Andy McCarthy:

"Our enemies will be given a full-blown civilian trial with all the rights of the American citizens they are sworn to kill. They will get a year or more to sift through our national defense secrets. They will have wide latitude to turn the case into a trial of the Bush administration - publicizing information about anti-terrorism tactics that leftist lawyers will exploit in their quest for war crimes prosecutions in foreign courts against current and former U.S. officials.

In the military system, we could have denied them access to classified information, forcing them to accept military lawyers with security clearances who could see such intelligence but not share it with our enemies. In civilian court, the Supreme Court has held an accused has an absolute right to conduct his own defense. If KSM asserts that right - as he tried to do in the military commission - he will have a strong argument that we must surrender relevant, top-secret information directly to him. And we know that indicted terrorists share what they learn with their confederates on the outside.

Finally, as policy, the administration's decision is perverse. A half-century of humanitarian law, beginning with the Geneva Conventions, sought to civilize warfare. To receive enhanced protection, combatants must adhere to the laws of war and refrain from targeting civilians. Under Obama-logic, the Cole bombers get a military commission while the 9/11 savages are clothed in the majesty of the Bill of Rights.

So here's the message to terrorists: If you kill thousands of civilians, we will give you better rights than if you attack military assets. That is dangerously irresponsible."

This show trial is strictly political in nature. KSM will spend the rest of his life behind bars in the US regardless of the outcome here. This trial is strictly red meat pay back for Obama's supporters who want revenge against the Bush administration. It will also act as a suitable shiny bauble distraction while the balance of the progressive agenda gets ram roded through the Congress.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain....

Quote Of The Day

"We are all time travellers moving at the speed of exactly 60 minutes per hour."

My Kind Of Skeet Shooting

This Is Cute

I was never much of a Lego fan but this is too cool:

Let your imagination run wild! Seems like the perfect Christmas stocking stuffer.

H/T Boing Boing

So, I've Been Gone For A While....

Needless to say, I would rather have been posting on my blog. But Noooooo, I've been in the hospital with pneumonia instead. I haven't really felt like posting and seem, beyond my obvious physical issues, to be suffering from some sort of Obama malaise. God save us all from this man and his progressive agenda for our country.

Funny Thread

Over at Serious Eats they are holding a form of foodie confessional - the topic being The Most Unhealthy Thing You Have Ever Made. Here is my favorite comment:

"I've made a cheeseburger with grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. Hell yes, it was good!"

I'm Not There

I recently watched "I'm Not There", the film about Bob Dylan with a number of actors portraying Dylan at various points in his career - Cate Blanchett is phenomenal. To say the film is kaleidoscopic would be an understatement but if you know Bob's music it all fits together. Highly recommended for Dylan fans - all others beware as it will make very little sense.

Below are a couple of musical moments from the film I particularly enjoyed:

Maize

According to Theo "Found on Rt 6 between Sandusky & Fremont, OH".

Limbaugh v. NFL, CNN, MSNBC et. al.

I have not bothered to post anything about the latest double standard inflicted on Rush Limbaugh by the news media and the NFL. Rush is a big boy and he knows how to defend himself. But when word leaked out about his participation in group of investors pursuing the purchase of the LA Rams - well, you could just see this coming.

Since the dust from the electronic lynch mob has settled and Rush is no longer an investor in the group I sincerely hope he turns his lawyers loose on every single media source that slandered him. And then finds another group of investors willing to take on the NFL.

Celebrity Shoppers

I was reading a post about Mick Jagger shopping in a toy store and what an SOB he was to the staff. As I paged through the comments which were filled with similar stories I came upon this one:

scifijazznik October 15, 2009 2:16 PM Reply
I worked at Amoeba Music in Hollywood a few years back and we got all kinds of celebrity shoppers. James Spader and Jim Jarmusch were fairly regular, with Spader wearing one of the best "I'm totally inconspicuous" hats ever. In addition to the hundreds of in-stores, we had a lot of rockstar shoppers like Tom Petty & Dwight Yoakum. But one of the best was Robert Plant. As he shopped, everyone maintained a very respectful distance. When he checked out, the guy at the register said something like "I can't believe I'm selling music to Robert Plant." To which he said "Kind of a mind-fuck, isn't it?"

Americans Win Golden Spurtle

According to the BBC the American team sponsored by Bob's Red Mill has won the World Porridge Championship in Scotland using this recipe:

Oregon Orchard Oat Brulee

Ingredients:

for oatmeal:
1/2 cup steel cut oats, raw
1/2 cup steel cut oats, toasted
2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

for compote:

1-1/2 cups diced unpeeled pear (2 or 3 pears should do it)
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3/4 teaspoon toasted crushed coriander seed
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (for cinnamon sugar)
3/4 teaspoon sugar (for cinnamon sugar)
pinch of salt
3/4 cup dried sweet cherries
1/2 cup Clear Creek Distillery Pear Eau de Vie
3/4 cup granulated sugar for flambe
finely chopped hazelnuts for garnish

Directions:

1. Soak oats in water overnight, covered.

2. Bring water and oats to a boil in a small saucepan. Add salt and cream.

3. Cook 17-18 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat, cover and let set while preparing compote (below).

4. Sprinkle diced pear with lemon juice, set aside.

5. Mix ingredients for cinnamon sugar (the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon sugar) together, set aside.

6. Melt butter over low flame in saute pan. When butter is just beginning to color, add coriander and let it perfume the butter for a few seconds. Add the pears, and give the pan a shake. Sprinkle 3/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar over the pears, sprinkle salt over pears, and toss again to coat evenly.

7. Add cherries and toss to coat. Turn the flame up and pour in the eau de vie. Tilt the pan to catch the gas flame and let the alcohol burn off. (Note: This would be the "not for amateurs" department.)

8. Continue to let the compote simmer until the juices begin to caramelize. Add to the oats and mix in gently. Spoon into three small bowls, mounding the tops.

9. Garnish with granulated sugar. Flambe. (See, again, under "not for amateurs.") Add topping of finely chopped hazelnuts.

Serves 3.

WOW!!!

Day By Day hammers it this morning. I feel Damon's pain.

Bumper Sticker Sighting

Red, white and blue election sticker circa 2008:

"GI John and Superwoman"

Flowers Along The Picket Fence

I love the fall. At least we get one last color treat before the monochrome of winter takes over.

The flowers are what M'Lady refers to as "volunteers" - seeds from some of last years plants, the wind or the birds. If they're tough enough to survive and come back in the spring she lets them grow where ever they appear.

Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

For not being George W. Bush. Nominated after only 10 days in office - how can this be perceived as anything other than some sort of ridiculous joke?

Cue the rainbows and unicorns.

Olympics Chicago-style

I Went Down To The Chelsea Drugstore....

Bumper Sticker Sighting

"Still pissed at Yoko."

They're Everywhere!!!

This map represents every McDonald's restaurant in the United States. From Stephen Von Worley at Weather Sealed:
"As expected, McDonald’s cluster at the population centers and hug the highway grid. East of the Mississippi, there’s wall-to-wall coverage, except for a handful of meager gaps centered on the Adirondacks, inland Maine, the Everglades, and outlying West Virginia.

For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map: the barren deserts of central Nevada, the arid hills of southeastern Oregon, the rugged wilderness of Idaho’s Salmon River Mountains, and the conspicuous well of blackness on the high plains of northwestern South Dakota. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer.

Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!"

Cider Man

Over the weekend the young squire and I pressed our first ever batch of apple cider using a cider press our young miss picked up at an auction. We ended up with 12 gallons - 10 of which we are going to turn into hard cider. It's already in the cellar beginning its primary fermentation. We hope to have 25 gallons of hard cider by the time the season is over and are already looking forward to offering it to our guests at Thanksgiving.

This is definitely a job for more than two people as it literally took us all weekend to make 12 gallons. But we took our time and picked through all of the apples, removing any questionable spots or bruises. As a result, the juice we got was delicious and we are hopeful it will make drinkable hard cider.

I Got A Feevah And The Only Rx Is....

222 Years Ago Today

September 17, 1787, the United States Constitution was signed. You can visit The National Constitution Center and read all about it. In addition, you can take part in an interesting quiz which will tell you which Founding Father you resemble most. Believe it or not, I was told I resemble James Madison. I'll take that as a great compliment!

9/12 March On Washington, DC

From The Rhetorican:

"I dunno if that’s 2 million. But really, who the hell cares? Put any number you want on them. The video speaks for itself. And this is what it says: It’s not just a Mob. It’s a popular movement."


It was easy for the administration and the MSM to dismiss the the Tea Parties because they were dispersed all over the country. But if you took the time to tally up attendance numbers you would have found 500,000 in March, over a 1,000,000 in July and the only thing I can say about the August town halls is Congress is lucky there were only 31 days in the month. EVERYDAY CITIZENS DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO TRAVEL TO DC. WE'RE BUSY MAKING THIS COUNTRY WORK AND WE ONLY WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO GET OUT OF THE WAY.

But yet here they are, and yes indeed, that is a lot of folks by any measure. As I have said from the very beginning - this administration is working overtime to piss off all the wrong people. I wish I could have been there myself but instead I am flying my Gadsden flag and am there in spirit. When you have that many everyday citizens that feel they need to march on Washington to show their disapproval for the current administration's policies, someone, somewhere had better start to pay attention. If they don't, this isn't going to end well for them.

Any other interesting side note from Instapundit:
"I’ll tell you what I find impressive. I’m watching the Fox news video about 15 minutes after the end of the event. The crowd has thinned out enough that you can see the ground and there is not a speck of trash on the grass. Absolutely clean. To contrast, google ‘pictures of litter on the mall after the inauguration.’”

In My E-Mail

I recently received an e-mail from Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee Chairman entitled "Voice your patriotism: Remind the Democrats who they work for...". In this smarmy e-mail Steele asks me to send a “virtual postcard” to the Democrats telling them “I won’t tolerate their socialist power grab”. Steele then reminds me “Our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Those aren't just fancy words. They are the bedrock upon which our republic was founded. Whether power hungry officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill like it or not, they are to serve the interests of the people -- not the other way around.” And “That's why you still need to show your support for the principled position of fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, and unfettered liberty as opposed to the Obama Democrats in Washington who are trying to force leftist "change" upon our country. Oh, and don’t forget to make a contribution to the Republican Party.

Here is the response I sent:

Dear Mr. Steele,

You are as breathtakingly ignorant as the Democrats. Take me off this ridiculous mailing list and never bother me with these pathetically disguised money requests again. For your information, any attempt on your part to co-opt the grass roots protest movement going on in this country will not end well for you. In case you didn't notice, Conservatives didn't wait for or accept marching orders from the GOP. You and your party are as much to blame for the current state of affairs as the Democrats.

Rest assured, when we come to Washington, we're coming for all of you!

A plague on both your houses.

I Think His 15 Minutes Are Just About Up

H/T American Digest

Krauthammer On Obama

From The Washington Post:

"After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He's regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform -- and his own standing -- with yet another prime-time speech.

But for the first time since election night in Grant Park, he will appear in the most unfamiliar of guises -- mere mortal, a treacherous transformation to which a man of Obama's supreme self-regard may never adapt."

Quote Of The Day

"As I understand it, what we're supposed to miss about US newspapers will be the "layers of fact-checking" and rigorous editing. In reality, a significant percentage of American newspapering is little more than provincial wannabes doing New York Times karaoke..."
- Mark Steyn

It's Not A Threat, It's A Promise

Just The Facts

If It Walks Like A Duck....

Liberal Of The Month

Gateway Pundit has an entire wrap up on our latest liberal of the the month - Elston McGowan. You may not recognize the name but you're sure to recognize him from the video after the Russ Carnahan town hall meeting last month where he was busy beating up Ken Gladney.

It seems Mr. McGowan sustained an injury at the town hall for which he filed a worker's comp claim! Read the whole revolting thing. Fact is often stranger than fiction.

Anarchy In The Victorian UK

These steampunk people have a real sense of humor!

Van Jones - The Gift That Keeps On Giving

UPDATE SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6: VAN JONES RESIGNS. From a Washington Post blog: "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

He continued: "I have been inundated with calls -- from across the political spectrum -- urging me to 'stay and fight.' But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past."

Could it be that no one has that much time and energy?

And how will all those MSM outlets Byron York mentions below explain this to their readers/viewers - that an Obama appointed czar given $30 billion tax payer dollars to spend on "green jobs" has suddenly resigned? And their readers/viewers don't even begin to have a clue why? They don't have a clue because their sources for news are so in the tank for Obama. And the MSM figures if they don't report on it, it's not newsworthy. Out with the old media - in with the new. If you were getting your news on the web you knew about Van Jones weeks ago.

One down...

My original post begins here.

And to think that I was getting tired of the Van Jones-athon on Glenn Beck's radio show. I think Van is about to meet Obama's grandmother - under the bus.

From Glenn Thrush at Politico:

Rep. Mike Pence, the no. 3 Republican in the House, is calling on Obama green jobs czar Van Jones to resign.

This sort of thing would usually be laughed off by Democrats -- a conservative Republican telling a Democratic appointee to quit.

But the Obama team isn't exactly jumping to back Jones today in wake of revelations that in the past he signed on to one of the "truther" groups that claimed 9/11 was an inside job. Oh, and he called Republicans a**holes in a video earlier this year before he was appointed.

Asked about Jones' affiliations with the 9/11 group at the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would only say: "It's not something that the president agrees with." And then Gibbs referred other questions to a statement Thursday by the Council on Environmental Quality in which Jones said he never backed any of these 9/11 conspiracy groups.

"Given recent revelations concerning the associations and statements of the president's green jobs czar, Van Jones should resign his position and if he is unwilling to do so, the president should demand his resignation. His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this Administration or the public debate," Pence said. "The Constitution of the United States vests Congress with the responsibility to advise and consent in the appointment of high ranking officials by the president. To date, President Obama has appointed more than thirty individuals to ‘czar’ positions within his Administration without permitting the Congress or the American people to properly examine their backgrounds or public records."





The Van Jones (non) feeding frenzy
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
09/04/09 11:30 AM EDT
From a Nexis search a few moments ago:

Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.

If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the line -- otherwise, Jones, who is quite well thought of in Obama circles, would be history.

H/T The Drudge Report

Suffer The Little Children To Come Unto Me

Our president has officially "jumped the shark" with his proposed address to the nation's schoochildren (sic), as The White House web site put it the other day. The emphasis on governmental authority figures in the speech and accompanying teacher's study guide is truly appalling. The authority figures children should be dealing with are their parents - not the government. I would certainly not expose my children to this propaganda.

Ask yourself - if this isn't about indoctrination then why is the president even concerned about addressing children in the first place? Has he run out of adults to talk to? And whatever happened to "I went to my congressman and he said - quote - I'd like to help you son but you're too young to vote."?

God give me strength. This man is such a maroon.

...And A Bank, And A Car Company And A Hospital

Quote Of The Day

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."
- Dennis Prager

H/T American Digest

The Sad Part Is - I Know People Like This

Ever since M'Lady and I moved to our current pastoral setting this kind of thing keeps getting funnier and funnier. If the commercial isn't enough for you - try this story about paying to work on a farm as a vacation.

Still want to find out where your food comes from? I would be willing to let you clean our chicken coop if you paid me $50.00. But you can't keep the eggs or "the compost".

H/T: Instapundit

Day By Day Strikes Again

And the article the strip links to can be found here.

Quote Of The Day

"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm."
- Anon

Quote Of The Day

"A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon
you're talking about unreal money."
-Vanderleun

Juxtapositions

Dr. Andrew Weil has an interesting article at The Huffington Post entitled Should You Get Your Drug Information From An Actor? Dr. Weil makes a fair case against direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing but then goes off the rails at the end of the article when he recommends a government solution to this "problem". Not much of a surprise considering where the article is posted.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time getting my primary care physician to do anything he doesn't want to do. A few years ago I had a much worse than usual case of the flu and my doc basically said "What do you want me to do? You're sick. You have the flu, go home, force fluids and rest. And no I won't give you any antibiotics - they're over-prescribed as it is." Now how much luck do you think I would have getting him to give me a prescription for some medication I saw pitched on television? Not that I would even ask - that's why I go to him. He's my expert and if he thinks this test or that prescription is a good idea, we talk about it and then I do it. I hired him for his expertise because I don't even play a doctor on TV.

So if direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing works as well as Dr. Weil suggests there is something wrong with the medical profession and government intervention ain't going to fix it. Perhaps they should just let us self-diagnose, put vending machines in the waiting rooms and call it close enough.

But Dr. Weil's point about where and from whom we get our information is a very valid. I have repeatedly expressed the same concern in the political arena. In politics, everyone is allowed an opinion, no matter how illogical or uninformed it is. But when an opinion is given more crediance because it came from this actor or that musician we have a problem. For years I have been telling people "When I want the lastest information about geo-politics I consult the Dixie Chicks." I usually just get a blank stare.

Which leads me to the juxtaposition I found so interesting at The Huffington Post. Among their guest bloggers are Bill Maher (comedian), Larry Flint (pornographer) and Eve Ensler (playwright/actress). In addition, one of the most commented on posts was a video of Jon Stewart (comedian/news caster/comedian) and with whom I have a major problem - see here and here. I have to ask - how is this any different than Sally Fields hawking Boniva to the great unwashed? Especially if the readers are not very discerning? How does this elevate the discourse?

Priceless

Priceless Date Video - Watch more Funny Videos

I'm Somebody Now!

No, no - the telephone book came last week. I was just looking at Google Analytics for my little blog or as I refer to it - my digital scrapbook (want to know when the wild blackberries will be ready for pie - just type "blackberry" in the search box). Anyway, as you can see, I don't take this blog very seriously. It's mostly me just howling at the moon and throwing things in the "digital box" that I might want to refer to again. I've never had an Instalanche and because my blog is pretty mundane I don't expect that will ever happen.

But every once in a great while I amuse myself by looking at where my small trickle of blog traffic comes from. I suddenly noticed something interesting and, lo and behold, I made Sippican Cottage's blog role! This is truly an honor for me because I think Sippican Cottage is one of the finest sites on the Internet. If you have never visited Sippican Cottage before, make it a point to do so now. Don't forget to check out the furniture - where antiques are made fresh daily. M'Lady and I can personally attest to the high quality of these products. And while you're at it visit The Borderline Sociopathic Blog For Boys. My childhood comes to life again - when boys truly could be boys and people still read "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel".

Thanks Sipp!

WTF?

Album art re-made from disassembled Rubik's Cubes. They finally found a use for those damn things! The manufacturer could have doubled their money if they had been sold with a hammer.

And they replicate one of my favorite album covers too. The music ain't half bad either - it brings back a certain time and place for me.




H/T BoingBoing

Blogging Explained

Now read "The Difference Between Informative and Insightful" at Sippican Cottage, where insight reigns supreme.

Who Is Craig Fugate?

File this under "Only Nixon Could Go To China". Craig Fugate is the Obama appointed head of FEMA. If Michael Brown said this after Katrina he would have been drawn and quartered. From The Atlantic (emphasis added):

“We need to change behavior in this country,” he told about 400 emergency-management instructors at a conference in June, lambasting the “government-centric” approach to disasters. He learned a perverse lesson in Florida: the more the federal government does in routine emergencies, the greater the odds of catastrophic failure in a big disaster. “It’s like a Chinese finger trap,” he told me last spring, as a hailstorm fittingly raged outside his office. If the feds do more, the public, along with state and local officials, do less. They come to expect ice and water in 24 hours and full reimbursement for sodden carpets. But as part of a federal system, FEMA is designed to defer to state and local officials. If another Katrina hits, and the locals are overwhelmed, a full-strength federal response will inevitably take time. People who need help the most—the elderly, the disabled, and the poor—may not get it fast enough."

I have to say I like this guy and the self sufficiency he stands for - because during the next big disaster he's going to need help - from you:

To avoid “system collapse,” as he puts it, Fugate insists that the government must draft the public. “We tend to look at the public as a liability. [But] who is going to be the fastest responder when your house falls on your head? Your neighbor.” He criticizes the media for “celebrating” people who choose not to evacuate and then have to be rescued on live TV—while ignoring all the people who were prepared. “This is a tragedy, this whole Shakespearean circle we’re in. You never hear the media say, ‘Hey, you’re putting this rescue worker in danger.’”

It seems Mr. Fugate watched what happened right after 9/11 when people were still being dragged out of the rubble. Or how the ferry boat captains and others immediately organized to rescue the airplane passengers and crew that crash landed in the Hudson River. For the most part this is how we Americans roll. You do what needs to be done because most of us sure don't sit around waiting for the government to do it for us.

Besides, I've been looking for a reason to post this video.


H/T TigerHawk

Scenes From A New America

So I dropped the girls off at a movie, and — since the Insta-wife was lunching with her mom — stopped at a Sonny’s Barbecue for lunch. A man — late 40s, big, with a wife and a daughter — came in with an empty holster on his belt. As he sat down at the booth next to mine, the manager came by and asked him if he’d left his gun in the car. Yes, said the man, who had a permit but thought he wasn’t allowed to carry in restaurants in Tennessee.. Well, they’ve changed the law, said the manager, and if you want to go get it that’s fine with us. It’s legal now, and I’m happy to have you carrying — if somebody tries to rob me, it’s two against one.

The man stepped outside and returned with a Springfield XD in the holster, chatted with the manager for a bit about guns, and then sat down and had lunch with his family.

Posted at by Glenn Reynolds at 2:24 pm

Different Drum

I have always been a big fan of Matthew Sweet. And tell me who doesn't love Susanna Hoffs? Check out more tracks from their most recent collaboration "Under the Covers - Vol 2" on their MySpace page.

Professor Gates v. Bob Dylan

Or maybe it's just a matter of class. Anyway, I thought the juxtaposition of the two was interesting since they took place within a week of each other. Dylan could have easily dismissed the police as idiots, which musically speaking they are, but instead he completely co-operated with them. Problem solved.

From the AP:

By WAYNE PARRY

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.

Quote Of The Day

"When I was waiting in the lobby for the doctor to see me, the "Town Hall" meeting with President Obama was on the television. It occurred to me that I'd never listened to the guy give a speech, same as his predecessor. It was surreal for my wife and I to sit there and listen to us being discussed like we were a kind of furniture that needed rearranging. It's supposedly a time for questions, but I only have one question, and it's for the audience, not the dais demagogue -- for anyone that would watch or participate in such an event, pro or con:

Why would you let someone who knows precisely nothing of value about you talk to you like that?"
- Sippican Cottage

In Case You Have Any Doubts Left That Harry Reid Is A Complete And Utter Moron

From Jill Lawrence at Politics Daily:

"LAS VEGAS – Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, was having second thoughts – or was he? – about the way he had characterized people who are disrupting town halls with "lies, innuendo and rumor," and not letting others speak. They are, he had said, "evil-mongers."

A day after tossing out the term "evil-mongers" in the closing speech of his annual clean energy conference, Reid was alternating between pride in his coinage and knowing that he probably should be trying to defuse, not escalate, the turmoil erupting at town meetings across the country on health care reform.

"It was an original with me. I maybe could have been less descriptive," Reid said. He also said, "I doubt that you'll hear it from me again." But a few minutes later, he couldn't resist a sardonic little joke. "I feel I haven't done anything to embarrass them," Reid said of his children. "Except maybe call somebody an evil-monger."

"Got To Be Good Lookin', 'Cause He's So Hard To See" AKA Bart's Dead

The Truth Hurts

Quote Of The Day

"The future of this Republic will be decided in the streets, Chicago style.

This is what Obama wants after all. He threatens that “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”

Deal. We will both bring guns. Out of the 200,000,000 guns in this Republic, how many belong to the enemies of liberty?

Game. Set. Match."

- The Return Of Scipio

Reductio Ad Hitlerum

As defined by Wikipedia:

"Reductio ad Hitlerum is rationally unsound as guilt by association (a form of association fallacy), it illogically attempts to shift culpability from a villain to an idea regardless of who is espousing it and why."

Apparently Nancy Pellosi has not heard of this or Godwin's Law. Again, citing Wikipedia:

"For example, there is a tradition in many newsgroups and other Internet discussion forums that once such a comparison is made, the thread is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically "lost" whatever debate was in progress. This principle itself is frequently referred to as Godwin's Law."

Speaker Pellosi recently accused the "AstroTurf" protesters of showing up at town hall meetings carrying swastikas.



What????????? I've seen a lot of American flags but no swastikas. And I wouldn't really think the Nazi Party or any of their symbolism would get any kind of love or understanding from a Tea Party type of crowd. However it does make for a pretty wide brush to smear your opponents with, now doesn't it?

And you know, I wasn't going to put up a copy of the poster that is taking L.A. and the Internet by storm - until I ran into an article in The Washington Post that contends the poster is racist.

Edgy? Yes. Racist? Give me a break. The tortured logic (if you can call it logic) employed by the writer doesn't stand up to even casual scrutiny. But it sure is effective when it comes to quelling that viral poster and branding anyone associated with it.

This is already ugly and it's going to get worse.

UPDATE - Frank J. Fleming weighs in:
"In reality, it’s up to the Republicans to stop Obama. And as they try to work with him and make some compromises with him, I have something to tell them: some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like bipartisan support. They can’t be influenced by polls, reasoned with, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

We The People

Quote Of The Day

'Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.'
- Anon.

They Certainly Don't

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry

Paul over at Powerline:

"Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Arlen Specter held a town hall meeting on health care today in Philadelphia. The audience appears to have been mostly hostile.

In the one exchange I've seen, Specter tried to explain how he goes about learning what's in a 1,000 page piece of legislation. Specter said that, because of time constraints, his practice is to divide responsibility for reading the bill among his staffers. This explanation brought boos from the crowd.

The Senate fancies itself "the world's greatest deliberative body." But it's becoming increasingly clear that the Senate is not a deliberative body at all -- not when Senators concede that they would vote on legislation to overhaul one-sixth of our economy, and arguably the most important sixth, without having read the legislation. Specter's defense that there's not enough time for him to read it all himself simply raises the problem in a more acute from: why would the world's greatest deliberative body consider legislation on a timetable that leaves Senators with insufficient to see for themselves exactly what's in the bill?

Americans inevitably will disagree over how our health care system should operate. But nearly every American would agree that Senators should know what's in major health care legislation before they vote on it, and that such legislation should not be enacted in a rush.

The problem is not unique to health care legislation. The same thing happened last year with comprehensive immigration reform and earlier this year with the stimulus bill. Congress is at risk of losing the confidence of the American people based on purely procedural concerns."

H/T Instapundit

Ohio Tea Party

Glenn Reynolds provides this picture of the Ohio State House in Columbus. It seems a few folks turned out for the latest Tea Party today. As I have been telling everyone, this new Washington crowd has made and continues to make a very basic mistake - they keep pissing off the wrong people. This is not a rent-a-mob provided by a union or ACORN. These are grassroots events organized by common, everyday people that are greatly concerned about where this country is headed. These are the people that make this country work and most of them are too busy to protest - though they have made the time to make their views known. And they are not going away any time soon.

New Bumper Sticker

The Solution For Bills That Are Too Big To Read

Mark Steyn brings it into focus with this post on NRO (emphasis added):

"Rep. John Conyers can't see why lawmakers should read the laws they make. What's the point? They wouldn't understand 'em anyway:

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

As Betsy Newmark comments:

At least some representative's aides somewhere have read some part of the bill so that should be enough, right? Who says that when you're rejiggering over one-sixth of the US economy and incurring massive future debt that you need to know what it is you're voting on.

Thousand-page bills, unread and indeed unwritten at the time of passage, are the death of representative government. They also provide a clue as to why, in a country this large, national government should be minimal and constrained. Even if you doubled or trebled the size of the legislature, the Conyers conundrum would still hold: No individual can read these bills and understand what he's voting on. That's why the bulk of these responsibilities should be left to states and subsidiary jurisdictions, which can legislate on such matters at readable length and in comprehensible language.

As for optimum bill size, the 1773 Tea Act, which provoked the Boston Tea Party, was 2,263 words. That sounds about right."

H/T Instapundit

Send In The Clowns

Though admittedly an unscientific poll - somehow, it doesn't surprise me in the least. It also explains a lot. H/T Theo.

Any Questions?

Latest Bumper Sticker

Dissent is patriotic, right? From American Digest:

Rights Defined

From Theo:

"I'd like to clarify something that some people seemed to be confused about.

Health care is not a right. (Neither is education, or food, or housing, or a job.)

How can I be so sure?

Anything that requires the labor of someone else cannot be a universal human right.

Our Constitutional, Natural Law rights require only that others leave us alone. They require no labor, action, payment, participation or sacrifice of anyone else on our behalf.

We have the right to NOT be interfered with when we speak, practice religion, gather, or bear arms. We have the right NOT to be imprisoned without due-process, to be searched without cause, to be made to testify against ourselves.

See how that works?"

'Cigarettes, Whisky And Wild, Wild Women'.

The world's oldest man, Mr. Henry Allingham has died at 113 years of age. When he was once asked to what did he attribute his longevity, he is said to have replied 'cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women'.

Iran Update

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.

Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charged thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested, piled in trucks and taken away, witnesses said.

Smart Puppy

An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard; I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.

He calmly came over to me, I gave him a few pats on his head; he then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner, and fell asleep.

An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.
The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside, resumed his spot in the hall, and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.

Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: “I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.”

The next day he arrived for his nap with a different note pinned to his collar: “He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3. He's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?”

Run For Your Life

Dr. Szasz at The Wall Street Journal:

"The idea that every life is infinitely precious and therefore everyone deserves the same kind of optimal medical care is a fine religious sentiment and moral ideal. As political and economic policy, it is vainglorious delusion. Rich and educated people not only receive better goods and services in all areas of life than do poor and uneducated people, they also tend to take better care of themselves and their possessions, which in turn leads to better health. The first requirement for better health care for all is not equal health care for everyone but educational and economic advancement for everyone.

Our national conversation about curbing the cost of health care is crippled by the vocabulary in which we conduct it. We must stop talking about "health care" as if it were some kind of collective public service, like fire protection, provided equally to everyone who needs it. No government can provide the same high quality body repair services to everyone. Not all doctors are equally good physicians, and not all sick persons are equally good patients.

If we persevere in our quixotic quest for a fetishized medical equality we will sacrifice personal freedom as its price. We will become the voluntary slaves of a "compassionate" government that will provide the same low quality health care to everyone.

Henry David Thoreau famously remarked, "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life." Thoreau feared a single, unarmed man approaching him with such a passion in his heart. Too many people now embrace the coercive apparatus of the modern state professing the same design."

CWCID: Maggie's Farm

Nighthawks On The Internet

CWCID: American Digest

Guy Rules

We always hear “the rules” from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules! Please note...these are all numbered “1” ON PURPOSE!


1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem... See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won’t dress like the Victoria’s Secret girls, don’t expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of them makes you sad or angry, then we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” we will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle, besides we know you will bring it up again later.

1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... really.

1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight. But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.