Hitler would be proud of surrogate son, Obama Dead Eyes

General Motors' chief, Rick Wagoner, was "asked" to resign yesterday, and he did. The person asking (forcing) Mr. Wagoner to quit was not a shareholder or a company board president; it was the current Uterus-in-Chief (aka Obama Dead Eyes). This is a page out of Atlas Shrugged or one of the many ignominious periods in capitalism's history. Here's a letter to the Wall Street Journal I wrote on the subject today and submitted:

____________________________
The expulsion of GM chief Rick Wagoner by President Obama must spook any lover of capitalism – and we surely knew this day would come, once government insinuated itself more forcefully upon the free market with its “bailouts,” and once the corporation chiefs made a devil’s bargain with politicians.
If you’re familiar with history and are sensing déjà vu, read what Time magazine glowingly said about its Man of the Year in 1938:
"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government.”
And yes, Mr. Wagoner, many of those businessmen were “asked” to leave by the “Man of the Year,” Adolf Hitler – not by shareholders or corporate boards, as is done in a truly free world.

Wretches coming after home-schoolers through the back door

At the urging of the public-school mob, Georgia legislators have quietly added provisions to propaganda (aka "schooling") guidelines in a proposed bill for this legislative session. The bill ostensively goes after "truancy" but is a subtle attempt to endanger home-schoolers -- including making us the target of any so-called do-gooder who happens to see us out with our children when they are "supposed" to be in "school." I am a member of several online home-school groups that keep a sharp eye on the shenanigans of the charlatans in the legislature. They caught this stuff and now we are emailing our legislators. If you want to see for yourself how these cagey fucks get stuff through without home-schoolers noticing, read the following excellent remarks by one of the stalwart home-schooling moms named Karen, who posted this to one of the home-school group boards (note the fines and imprisonment terms!):

Provision 1 (a) "... Any parent...having control of any child...who becomes a new resident...shall within 10 days of new residency enroll such child in a ....home study program. Failure to enroll such child ...within 10 days shall constitute a violation of the code section."

(Karen)-- The bill specifically refers to enrolling students in a home study program, within 10 days. Parents who miss the deadline have violated the law.

1 (b) "...approved absences as provided for ...by the local board of education shall be excused absences."

(Karen)-- This grants the local school board - not the parent - authority to determine what constitutes an excused absence. This opens the door - the floodgates, really - to the local school district. If I decide to spend the day hiking with my kids, and an unfriendly person the local school district decides it not an excused absence, it can be counted against me. Not a good thing. There have been many instances over the years where homeschool parents have encountered unfriendly people at their local school districts. There have been many stories over the years of schools officials telling parents that they must file a withdrawal form when pulling their kids out of school to homeschool. This is not required by law. There have been many instances where reps from boards of education have stated verbally and in writing to homeschool parents that certain information was required to be submitted to them by law, information not required under the law.

1 (d) (1) "Local school system officials may make and file a report to the appropriate enforcement agency regarding any parent...having control or charge of any child...subject to mandatory attendance requirements ...who have accumulated 15 days of unexcused absences. Any person required to make a report ...who knowingly and willfully fails to do so shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

(Karen)-- This bill REQUIRES school systems and county school boards to turn in families for SUSPECTED truancy. It makes them - the school system and school officials - guilty of a crime if they don't. This will lead to massive over reporting. The courts will be full of parents reported by school officials.

1 (d) (2) Local school system officials OR OTHER PERSONS (emphasis mine) may make and file a report to the appropriate enforcement agency regarding any parent...having control or charge of any child...subject to mandatory attendance requirements ...whose children are not regularly attending school."

(Karen)-- This allows ANYBODY to file a report against anybody they think is not attending school. If my neighbor doesn't agree with the way I am homeschooling my kids, he or she can turn me in. Not a good thing.This is reminiscent of China's "one child" policy. Citizens are encouraged to rat on their neighbors if they suspect that their neighbor has more than one child. Violators are subject to all kinds of penalties, including less desirable housing, or even losing your job. Chinese orphanages are full of girl children because of this policy. (I digress...) The courts will be full of parents being reported by neighbors and school officials.

1 (e) "No case shall constitute a violation of this code section unless said child has accumulated five or more days of unexcused absences. Each days absence...after...(notification of) the five consecutive days of absence...shall constitute a separate offense."

(Karen)-- This opens the door for schools to automatically report kids truant immediately after notifying parents - IT REQUIRES THEM TO. They will be hyper-vigilant about compliance. More over-reporting and more overloaded courts. It also opens the door for local school systems to file charges against homeschooling parents who do not file attendance forms within 5 days of the first day of the month.

1 (g) (1) "Any parent... who shall fail to send such child (to a) home study program... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor...subject to a fine of not less than $25 and not greater than $100, imprisonment not to exceed 30 days, community service..."

(Karen)-- There is an automatic penalty for not meeting the 5 day requirement.

1 (h) "Nothing in this code section shall be construed to authorize the state board of education, local boards of education or any officers thereof or appropriate enforcement agencies to impose any additional requirements on ...home study programs beyond that specifically included in subsection (a) of this code section and in code section 20-2-690."

(Karen)-- Section 20-2-690 deals with reporting requirements, subject areas, and testing requirements - for parents. The language of SB 239 does not add any additional reporting requirements on the part of the parents. It does open the door for local school systems - not just opens the door , they are REQUIRED - to report cases of 5 unexcused absences. If a parent is ill and is late in getting in an attendance form, this could be interpreted as an unexcused absence. If a parent pulls their child out of school and does not file an attendance form right way, this could be interpreted as an unexcused absence. The authority to determine unexcused absence lies with the school system, school systems who have routinely told homeschoolers that certain information was required by law that really wasn't. In many cases these folks have not been warm and fuzzy, and didn't take too kindly to having the law pointed out to them. This bill gives wide latitude - TOTAL DISCRETION - to principals, superintendents, staff of offices of homeschooling record keeping, to make life miserable for homeschooling families. It will mandate CRIMINAL investigations on parents.

Regarding my points from a previous post -- The bill will negatively impact the parents of the over 40,000 homeschool students in Georgia. There are currently no statutory penalties for not turning in reporting forms. This bill creates statutory penalties for being 5 days late, or withdrawing your kid from school and not getting the forms in within 5 days. It does not require ADDITIONAL reporting on the part of parents -- it does require MANDATORY REPORTING on the part of school systems if they suspect truancy. It will create criminals out of homeschool parents. Parents who move and don't file the forms on time have automatically violated the law. Those who are late due to illness or that of a family member are automatically guilty of a crime, by virtue of the fact that they have not filed a form. There is no opportunity to allow a judge to use discretion, as is the case now under current law. There are currently no proscribed criminal penalties for homeschoolers who do not file forms on time. Current law already provides for enrollment and attendance reporting requirements for homeschoolers.

Current law provides for parents to choose their own school year beginning and ending dates. If a parent schools on a calendar year that is not in line with the local school calendar, the student can be designated as truant under the discretion of the local school system. Homeschoolers should be exempt from this bill. Reporting requirements are already addressed in the current homeschool statute.

The bill has already gone through committee and it is too late to attach any exemption for homeschoolers. Here are some facts. It will lead to criminal charges and jail time for homeschool parents. (See above) It mandates a criminal investigation of all reports of a perceived violation. It requires that any violation must be prosecuted and the parent will be be fined and may be imprisoned for up to 30 days. It will expand the reach of local school systems into homeschooling families - school systems these families have chosen to leave. It gives an incredible amount of power to local schools and school systems to intrude in the lives of homeschoolers. Many such attempts have been made in the past in the form of demands for information not required under the law. Because we have been able to point to the law, many unpleasant experiences have been avoided. It will lead to anger and confusion. It will clog the courts.

I repeat - this is a dangerous bill. The danger lies in the idea that it includes language that says it does not impose additional requirements - ON PARENTS. They don't have to report anything new, they just have to report earlier - 10 days instead of 30.The new requirements mandated by the bill relate to required action on the part of the SCHOOL SYSTEMS and its EMPLOYEES under penalty of law. This bill grants broad new powers to school systems, and automatically imposes convictions and penalties on parents who in the eyes of the local school system have kids with at least 5 unexcused absences. Please do not think that this will not be used in this way - at some point it will.

I cannot overemphasize how important this point is. When the law grants power, the power is eventually used. And often in ways it was never intended to be used. This bill allows school system employees to determine what constitutes unexcused absences. IT WILL BE USED at some point against homeschoolers. Maybe not next year or the following year, but at some point it will be used. This is exactly what happened with joint enrollment. University system policy had stringent requirements for joint enrollment, and allowed individual institutions to grant exceptions. For 10 years homeschoolers rocked along, with many being admitted into joint enrollment without third party oversight - 3PO. Then 2 years ago we began hearing that schools that used to permit joint enrollment without 3PO under their exceptions were no longer doing it. The admissions people just pointed to the policy, which allowed them to do what they were doing. Some admissions people realized the unfair nature of the policy, and couldn't understand why it was being enforced so stringently. They even went to bat for individual students - they requested exceptions to the policy. But none were granted. No reason was ever given by anybody - either at the university admissions level, or Board of Regents staff level - as to why the practice was changed. All anybody ever did was to point to the policy.

This is what will happen if this bill is passed. Any law that allows those who are unfriendly to homeschoolers to wield power will eventually be used against us, just like the joint enrollment policy was used. And they will just point to the law, no matter how crazy the law seems. About 12 years ago many citizens opposed the extension of GA 400 between I 285 and I 85. One of the concerns was that the toll booths would be used as a perpetual money collection system. Those who supported the road assured citizens that the toll would only be used to cover the cost of the road, and that the statute establishing the authority to collect the toll had an automatic drop dead date - it would automatically expire and the toll would go away.

Fast forward 10 years. Immediately before the automatic expiration date the statute was quietly amended. Tolls continue to be collected, years after the road has been paid for. Very few people remember that the toll was supposed to go away after the road was paid for. Power granted by law will be used, many times in ways that were originally unintended. I repeat - this is a dangerous bill. Homeschoolers should be completely exempt from all its provisions. Since it is too late to add an exemption, the bill should be defeated. Please urge your senators and representatives to oppose this bill. It will be a sad, sad day if homeschool families in Georgia are criminalized years from now because we failed to act today.

A robber's justice is just, well, poetic

I read two newspapers each day and usually avoid all stories about common criminals (outside of Congress and the Ovum Office), but a headline grabbed my attention: "Car strikes robbery suspect leaving store."

Yeah, instant justice! Gotta love it!

But it gets better. Turns out that while fleeing a jewelry story clutching a $10,000 bracelet and being chased by an off-duty police officer, the robber turned to see where his pursuer was and the robber was struck by someone driving a Buick, which then ran over the robber's head before being able to stop. Ouch!

The irony is delicious: Robber goes through life refusing to use his head, and now a lowly GM product has relieved him of it.

Any jury would be envious of that Buick. Makes me almost want to buy one. ...

Nah!!

Nuclear-energy CEO will reap bounty off his "concern" for "global warming"

I wrote the following letter to the editor to the Wall Street Journal after reading an interview with J. Wayne Leonard in the paper, in which Leonard showed great "concern" for global warming and human emissions -- all of which helps legislation that would hurt his coal competition and reap great bounties for his company.

____________________________
Dear editor,

Objective study of the two global warming pitches (caused by man or by nature) has shown over the last several years that it is clearly a natural occurrence – if it is happening at all. This understanding is the knowledge in a closet, whose door no big businessman will open, for fear of political retribution. And so we have CEOs who make luke-warm and appropriately disingenuous comments about their alleged support of global warming policies.

J. Wayne Leonard, however, has a “deep-seated concern about climate change,” as Joseph Rago put it, and supports Barack Obama’s farrago for slashing emissions by 80% by 2050. Considering Mr. Leonard’s occupation (a chief in the nuclear-power industry), this reader could not help but chuckle at Mr. Leonard’s climate and emission worries – and the bounty his company will reap if those worries translate to strong support for anti-carbon legislation.

As with all businessmen who become bed-mates with politicians, Mr. Leonard will find himself kicked from the covers and to the floor when he is no longer useful to the current cabal on Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, I don’t know how this “avuncular” man can sleep at night.

Top 10 Reasons to be Unschooled

10) Never ever ever ever have to read "Catcher in the Rye."
9) Get entire theater to yourself at 12:30 Friday premiere of "Monsters vs. Aliens."
8) "Hmm. Couch or desk? ... Couch!"
7) Hearing "pupil" makes you think of "eye."
6) Lunch line is at Chick-Fil-A.
5) The phrase "class assignment" refers to botany.
4) Gazing out windows.
3) Standing on your head and counting backwards from 100 while wiggling your toes does not get you detention.
2) When you're told what to do, you're doing the telling.
1) Get to wave at kids on big yellow school bus.

Fargo or farragoes

I'm confused, bewildered.

I've tried for days to figure out which government agency is behind the Fargo phenomenon -- where thousands of private citizens are filling and placing 2 million sandbags around the North Dakota city to protect it and neighbors' homes from the rising Red River.

Which of Mr. Dead Eyes' thug departments is forcing the nice folks of Fargo into "public service"?! Why are his hooligans not in front of TV cameras praising themselves for fostering this "public service"?! Why is Dead Eyes not stating that "th-th-th-this is why, this is why ... this is what we had in mind about "public service" when we assed, uh, asked our citizens to join hands with their government in a new eerie, uh, era of opportunity and sacrifice to others -- and that ... this is what our programs were intended for, to make ... help our great citizenry understand why ... what it means to help their fellow citizens." (head tilted back, voice appropriately resonate, dick hard)

Are these people in Fargo TRULY volunteering?! I mean, nobody is MAKING them help their neighbors?! Why would they do THAT?! Why didn't they wait until Dead Eyes signed "public service" legislation so they could get praise from Dead Eyes personally and hear about how if it wasn't for Dead Eyes, they would've never been helping their neighbors and there never would've been a spirit of "giving back"?! Why why why?!

(Note to Lefties: The above content was tongue-in-cheek.)

The truth, as many or most of us Americans know it, is that most Americans are incredibly loving and caring of their neighbors, and that Americans give more money to charity (by amount and per capita) than any country on Earth (or Mars) and in the history of civilization (and before that, I suppose). We have done so because we have been free or mostly free of government intrusions into our private lives for most of the history of this country. Freedom fosters benevolence.

That benevolence is an exotic animal that Lefties couldn't see even if a government handout gave them 3-D glasses. The Lefties don't care about charity. Their calls for "public service" are not about the public or about service. They are about the cynical totalitarian mindset that only the Leviathan (government) knows best where private people's energies must be spent -- and, more important, it is about the Lefties' getting a psychological stranglehold on the minds (and a grimy, filthy hand on the pocketbooks) of Americans. Not even your free time, my friends, is to be free anymore. Not even your unrobbed ("taxed") dollar is to be yours anymore. The enslavement of socialism begins not with a cannon, but with a canon.

And then our freedom is merely cannon fodder.

Hitler would be proud of Dead Eyes and his lipstick brigade's farragoes.

I'm proud of Fargo.

Needle and thread and what's in a kid's head

As many of you know, I unschool, which is to say that I don't school my child. She learns from daily experience and gets zero direction from me as to what is important in her life to learn and be captivated by.

Today, she asked me how Mary, our neighbor, learned how to sew. I told her that Mary's mom taught her. The following dialog ensued:

Livy: Where did Mary's mom learn how to sew?
Dad: I reckon her mom (I knew where the conversation was going, but I don't like to lead the witness.)
L: Where did she learn how to sew?
D: From her mom, probably.
(Pause)
L: Somebody learned how to sew first.
D: Yep, somebody thousands of years ago was the very first person to think about how to do it. I think it was a person who used a tiny fishbone and put a hole in one end and then put some thread in that to make clothes faster and better. That was the very FIRST person, and then that person taught other people, and those people taught other people, and then after thousands of years, Mary's family and other families learned it, and that's how Mary learned how to sew.
L: Yep.
D: That's how the wheel was invented, too. "Invented" means somebody thought about it first, about how to take things in nature and create something from that. There are things made by nature, and there are things made by humans, and those things are called man-made, like needles, thread, wheels ...
L: And cars and tables and ... coffee makers.
D: Yep. Somebody thousands of years ago probably saw a rock rolling down a hill and thought "I wonder if I could make something like that that would roll so I can carry my food with me when I go places," so he or she came up with the idea to create a wheel, and then they made wagons and carts, and later people made bikes and cars with those wheels.
L: Yep.
D: Do squirrels make wheels and needles and tables?
L: Noooooooo, silly. They aren't smart like people.
D: Yep (laughing).

After this conversation, I realized yet again how much I love unschooling, watching the child's momentary wonderment and curiosity create an avenue of contemplation, reflection and insight -- and the giddy fun that follows. And I enjoyed yet again my own wonderment at what's in a kid's head.

You and I pay for the politicians' call for "corporate taxes"

I've been saying it for years, but we (you and I) are the ones who pay for taxes on corporations that the politicians love to label as "going after the big guys."

Here's a terrific column on the subject by a great thinker and national columnist.

I'm no Brad Pitt, but I'm a peach of a guy

I unsubscribed from the dating service Match.com a long time ago when I was 7 years old. OK, it was just four months ago, but it SEEMS like forever because they keep sending me emails that say "your new matches from match.com" with pictures of whales and toothless hyenas (what is this, National Geographic?!) and Icabod Crane lookalikes saying things like "yourGeorgiapeach" (obviously never seen that a peach looks like a big butt on one side) and "goodPEACH4u" and "GApeachpie" and "classyatlpeach" and "cantpassthispeachup" and, well, you get the idea.

I now have to go to counseling because when I hear the word "peach" I get hives.

Yes, this is Georgia, and yes, the peach is the state symbol, but I'm overdosing on vitamin C here, ladies!!! How about a little honesty in advertising, PLEASE?! Like this:

"fatbutfunny"
"noteethgoodhead"
"porkbellypudentang"
"haveteethwilltravel"
"fornicationvacation"
"skinnybutnotsmelly
"sassysarsparilla"

Your humor may just get you a date with me. After all, I'm a peach of a guy!

Slip of the tongue reveals two-faced slut behind dead eyes

Heh heh. ... Mr. Dead Eyes said "Special Olympics or something." ... heh heh.

Dontcha just love those oh-so-special moments in life when a comment by a hypocrite reveals his ugly secret for the world to savor?

(That was a rhetorical question, Liberal, so if you answered "no," return to special education class immediately. Tomorrow morning, go to the blackboard, and spell out 100 times G-O-N-A-D-S.)

I know I'm coming to this Special Olympics crucifixion/deification party late, but, gosh darnit, rational people just wanna have fun (my apologies, Cindi Lauper). (As an aside, dontcha love it when people "sincerely" say "my apologies," because it really means they aren't sorry. They should be flayed and forced to listen to all of Mr. Dead Eyes' campaign-trail snore-fests.)

The media would like us (the ignorant masses) to think that Mr. Dead Eyes' "sincere" apology to the retarded and all of those who have Dionysian orgies over the retarded shows his true feelings for the retarded. Ha, that's a good one. Did you hear the one about the ...?

Let's think about faux pas for a moment. They are almost always (I might actually say "always") indicators of a person's true thoughts. Here are a few examples:

• Hetero man is talking to woman with big boobs. (Let me pause for a moment as I get a visual. OK. Ready.) Woman says, "I won't tip much if the waiter sucks." Man says, "I don't tit, I mean, TIP much either?" (you know where the man's head's at)
• Person who lies all the time. "I hate it when people just lie to me. I never tell the truth, I mean, I never tell lies." (liar actually said that to me once)
• Nancy Pelosi comes up Dead Eyes and hugs him from behind after he signs new No Child Left Behind legislation. At microphone, Dead Eyes refers to legislation as No Tits In My Behind.

The subconscious is a wonderful closet-door opener, especially when people's mouths are set to automatic after they get relaxed, as Dead Eyes' was on Lefty Leno's show, once Leno greased him with his groveling. Dead Eyes' comment was not singular; it represents the ugly monster in the liberal closet: the fact that the charlatans truly despise the very people they allegedly champion: the "down and out," the retarded (more accurate term than the meaningless "handicapped" or the erroneous "disabled"), the sickly, the elderly, the skin-colored, etc. (The cliterati use the "downtrodden" as an excuse to aggrandize government and to ghetto-ize those they say they want to associate with but really don't.)

I have no sympathy for the fascist currently occupying the Ovum Office. But if he'd actually been truthful about the "Special Olympics," I'd give him his propers. Here's what he should've said. "Yeah, OK, I slipped up, but it's TRUE! I mean, come on, to call what retarded people do when they are, heh heh, slobbering and stumbling down the track the "olympics" is like trying to call a softball game between a bunch of middle-aged drunken guys 'The World Series.' The only people who watch that embarrassing stuff are the cliterati and guys who smoke weed and can't stop giggling. No, I take that back. The cliterati SAY they watch that stuff, but they're actually just sitting around trying to figure out how not to pay their taxes and finding ways to get other Americans to pay more taxes."

Now, if Dead Eyes had said THAT, oh my goodness, he'd have a smidgen of respect from me all the way up until the day his scrawny, toothpick, two-faced bitch-ass got kicked back to where he came from: A Dickens novel.

The Oval Office Asylum

One of the things I find interesting (and revealing) about the national media concerning Dead Eyes (that's Obama for you who dare not to read this blog) is the amount of times they use the term “presidential” in describing DE, as if trying to convince themselves and others of substance and to apologize for the lack thereof. It’s like their apologies for blacks, referring to their “caught in a cycle of poverty” as reason for high crime rates and malaise. It reminds me, also, of their constant references to Clinton’s “ability to hold facts” and to his being a Rhodes Scholar to offset his depravity and paper-mache ego.

Dead Eyes’ unctuous paternalism is showing itself clearly now in his “national service” proposals. What I find so disturbing about him and most of the presidents of the last 100 years is the ulterior motives behind their desire to run this country. They are truly, psychologically, fucked up, and making up for their ego-tattered mentalities by attaining the most prestigious office in the world – and then, because they cannot run their own lives, insisting on running the lives of hundreds of millions. I know this is psychologizing, but I think I’m not far off the mark, considering their paternalistic policies. And much of the black male culture in America is the worst in this country, rivaling the paternalism of Third World men.

Dead Eyes has the same mannerisms as Clinton, in this regard: the stuffy superciliousness; the condescending tilt of the head; the prickly meanness; the self-conscious bully bounce in his walk; the pulpit-speak; the reproach-invincibility facade. I find myself sometimes wondering, “Am I the only fucking person in America (present company excluded) who sees these things and wonders about the fate of freedom and the psyche of Americans?” This guy’s a charlatan of the highest order, a farce, a sniveling class tattletale, the disgruntled eminence grise who kills his competition with lies and conceits and becomes eminence rouge.

The office of president of the United States has become an asylum.

"Buying American" is un-American

I sent the following letter to the editor to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today concerning two columns it printed today on whether Americans should buy only American products.
_______________________________
Both columnists discussing whether Americans should “buy American” missed the fundamental point – though Mr. Murphy at least is right that we shouldn’t be isolationist.

As the Ayn Rand Institute has been saying for years, “buying American is un-American” because it does not reward hard work and efficiency wherever it may reside. The American way since the early days of the American experiment is that you work hard and let others decide whether your work is worthy of their money. If some foreigners can do better work at better prices than some Americans, then “the American way” dictates that we Americans should reward these foreigners with our business as an appreciation for their “American” work ethic.

Are we afraid of competition? Are YOU afraid of competition? I’m not, and neither should any proud American.

Any other personal policy is simply un-American.

Atlas Shrugged tops Amazon best-seller list

Here's a recent press release from ARC (The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights):

Washington, D.C., March 18, 2009--Earlier this year Ayn Rand’s prophetic novel Atlas Shrugged was selling at triple the rate it sold at in the beginning of 2008. Now the novel is soaring to even greater heights, and its trade paperback edition is currently in first place in the Classics category on Amazon.com’s best-seller list for sales in the United States. The 50th anniversary mass-market paperback edition of Atlas Shrugged ranks as #2 and the trade paperback Centennial edition ranks as #3.

For several weeks Atlas Shrugged has been holding steady in the top 10 best-sellers in the broader United States Literature and Fiction category, and as of the writing of this release, different editions of the novel stand at #3, #5 and #6 in Amazon’s ranking.

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, explained the parallels between Atlas Shrugged and today’s events.
“In Atlas Shrugged, Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?”

Brook also stressed the importance today of the book’s often overlooked message that capitalism cannot be properly defended without morally defending profit and self-interest: “. . . only an ethic of rational selfishness can justify the pursuit of profit that is the basis of capitalism -- and that as long as self-interest is tainted by moral suspicion, the profit motive will continue to take the rap for every imaginable (or imagined) social ill and economic disaster. Just look how our present crisis has been attributed to the free market instead of government intervention--and how proposed solutions inevitably involve yet more government intervention to rein in the pursuit of self-interest.”

Those interested in understanding the morality of capitalism can learn more in Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness--which, at #12 in the Classics category, is setting records of its own.

Sign the FairTax petition

As I've blogged before, the Fair Tax ain't perfect, but it's better than what we have now. The folks in charge of the Fair Tax drive are trying to get together 100,000 signatures supporting the Fair Tax.

Here's where to go to sign the petition.

I love you, Earth, for Cheerios and edible underwear

There are many campaigns planned for March 28 at 8:30 p.m. (so-called Earth Hour) by people who actually like living on Earth and like what the Earth provides and like what we rational beings take from the Earth. You might call that "exploiting," but ... oh, what the hell, let's call it "exploiting Earth." Yes we are exploiters, and tell me you could live without your iPod or iPhone or computer or house or car or frig or DVD player or Xbox or lights or electricity or Cheerios or coffee maker or Calphalon pans or cable/satellite TV or Calvin Kleins or glasses or edible underwear or watch or cologne/perfume or dining room table or Nike shoes or lawnmower or Twinkies.

All of the above were created by ingenious and hardworking men and women by exploiting this Earth and emitting carbon dioxide in the process. Gang Green would have you deplore such activity. But I and many others would have you celebrate it. Celebrate our emissions as a metaphor for our happiness, for our belongings, for our unique and wondrous mind.

So join me and many others on Facebook in celebrating on the 28th at 8:30 p.m. I can't wait. I'll leave all the lights on in my house, turn the AC down to 63, drive around in my car while playing "The Fountainhead" on my portable DVD player, smoke a few cigarettes, call up Motel 6 and thank them for their "we'll keep the lights on for ya" campaign, harass Gang Green, breathe a lot, have sex (so I can breathe a lot more), mow my yard under the floodlights, harass Gang Green some more, call Al Gore and tell him that I hid his box of Twinkies under the radioactive rods at the Tennessee Valley Nuclear Plant right next to his granny-tighty-whities, and be sure to tell each adherent of Gang Green fascism that they are not doing nearly enough to stop pollution and that if they had any dignity at all they would cease all breathing immediately.

Going to be a busy and lovely night. Here's to you and me. Here's to lovely Earth. Here's to the mind of humans.

Don't try this at home or your cat may fly up over the fireplace

A friend passed this hilarious piece on to me; it may be the funniest thing I've ever read!

___________________________________
Pocket Tazer Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Tazer for their anniversary submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized tazer. The effects of the tazer were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety....?? WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button and pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right? There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and tazer in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, 'no possible way!' What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.. .?

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, 'don't do it dipshit,' reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . . . HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs? The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to 'mug' yourself with a tazer, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor... A three second burst would be considered conservative? IT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling. Apparently I pooped on myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair. I'm still looking for my nuts and I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return!

P.S... My wife, can't stop laughing about my experience, loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

"Let them (the wealthy) eat bread and die"

The following is a letter I sent today to the WSJ on the liberal larceny of Wall Street bonuses:

______________________________
Jonathan Clements is being much too charitable in calling the punitive tax on bonuses at groveling U.S. companies “stupid.” It is congressional hallway robbery. It is immoral. It is unconstitutional and ex post facto larceny (as the WSJ rightly pointed out).

It is the next stop on liberals’ capitalism-evisceration junket, which is (and always has been), “Let’s get our statist feet in the door of big business, and then we’ll put these rich bastards in their places, and we shall then be loved and adored by our victimized public. To hell with contracts! We are Congress! We’ll lynch you faster than you can say ‘the mob is always right’!”

I have great sympathy for Mr. Clements, and he is right about the disincentives created by such confiscation. But what else must we expect from America’s strong-arm elitists, who despise Adam Smith’s invisible hand? Their schadenfreude barometer on Wall Street’s ills is off the scale. They hate the power of free money and covet the power of office. They prosecute the wealthy by way of their groupies, the press. They breed and feed on ignorance.

And those very productive members of a once-free society, like Mr. Clements, have become the true victims.

Meow meow, hiss hiss, fuck off, take me to kitty cemetery

OK, by the time you've gotten to be 48 years old, you think you've seen or heard almost everything, but you know you haven't and you wonder when that next divinely ridiculous moment will arrive.

For me, it was at 1:13 a.m. today. It was a post from a wacky-zany-lovey-dovey homeschooling mom on one of the Yahoo estrogen homeschooling groups I'm a member of (and about the only testosterone member of). Here's the post under the heading "anyone know an animal communicator?" (hey, you, in the back row, stop giggling!):

"I would much rather get a recommendation from someone here than a website or google! Does anyone know of a pet communicator in the Atlanta/North area? We are in Woodstock and I just don't trust myself on this issue. I'm too close. I could really use someone who can help me know our cat's thoughts/feelings. I would be most appreciative." -- Ms. R

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Oh, I'm not done with you yet, my dear readers. There's more. Here are a few responses to that email:

"I am one. I am also a medium. I'm in Kennesaw." -- Ms. T

"I am checking on one for you. I know she talks with dogs, not so sure abouts cats. I'll forward on when I get the info." -- Ms. A

(Well, duh, cats speak the language of "fuck off and leave me alone" and dogs speak the language of Sally Fields: "You like me! You really like me!")

Here's M. R's response to Ms. T.

"T-----, I would really appreciate your help on this. Would you want to come here, or do it from home, how do you work? What are your rates for this? Tinker is ill and various body functions are starting to fail. I don't want her to hang on just for us, but I don't want to push her away before she is ready either."

If I speak now, I ruin the moment. Talk amongst yourselves.

Look Look Look Look Look Look Look Look Look

I hardly ever turn on the TV, and have an especially strong aversion to oxymoronic TV news, so I've actually only seen our new fascist leader speak probably four times, including the inauguration and a debate and, now, his appearance on Lefty Leno's program last night (which I actually caught on NBC's web site after the fact because of the uproar about The Extra-Sweet And Oh-So-So-So Special Olympics flatulence -- a delicious subject that another blog entry will soon undress).

So anyway, NBC, of course, has it set up where you have to watch commercials ad infinitum to get to the meat, so while I read my newspaper I mostly listened to the Toothpick Wretch With The Dead Eyes drone on and sssssssttttttutter about this robbery and that thievery by the government. The "olympics" comment didn't come for 25 minutes (GAWD!), but what caught my attention in the intervening 25 minutes was the Nanny-In-State's continual and condescending use of the word "look."

"Look, Jay, what we have here ..." "Look, most people ..." "Look, Tim is a ..." "Look, these are tough times, but ..."

Each time Mr. Dead Eyes started with "look," he pushed the I-need-to-seem-presidential button (you know, tilted head, open hands in vertical-parallel, somber mien, deep voice -- which he does even better than My Finger Is Always Bent When I'm Lying Bill Clinton) whenever he said LOOK to Lefty, who obediently crinkled his brow and adopted appropriately serious pose as he awaited word from The Heavenly Guest.

As common folks like us know, you generally don't use the term "look" to begin a sentence unless you perceive an injustice with your interlocutor (for any liberals chancing upon reading this erudite blog, that means "somebody taking part in a conversation," and a "conversation" is something that happens when two people talk TO each other and not AT each other with hidden liberal intentions of theft, robbery and treacly-special-victim giveaways).

So for most of us regular people who respect the person we're talking with, we would use the word "look" in possibly some of the following ways: "Look, I've had just about enough of that!" or "Look, what I meant was this." or "Look, Obama has a booger bigger than the tax hike on people who actually work."

Not so with the Lefties. They use "look" as a term of condescension with those (everyone else) who simply cannot understand the utter gravity, import and necessity of understanding the liberals' godlike grasp of fascist altruism.

I, however, use "look" in a more constructive manner with the slight help of sleight of hand (I'll show how smart I am and tell you that the French call it legerdemain). Here's an example:

I walk up to the Punkster-in-Chief and shout "LOOK!" while pointing at the wall nearby. Mr. Dead Eyes shoots his head around to look at the wall, and then I slap the ever-loving shit out of his toothpick self. "Gotcha, muthuh-fuckah."

It'd be the easiest two years in prison I ever spent -- not that I've ever been to prison!

Ayn Rand letters take up half of WSJ editorial page

Several letters (mostly praising) were printed today in the Wall Street Journal in response to Yaron Brook's opinion piece on March 14 titled "Is Rand Relevant?"

The letters comprised almost half of the Letters section of the Editorial Page. This fact and the fact that they printed Brook's piece to begin with says much about how far this rational movement has come since Rand's death 27 years ago.

When I became an Objectivist in 1991, just mentioning Rand's name elicited either blank looks (because of her obscurity in the mainstream) or scoffing dismissal from the "intellectual elite." Now, though, she is taken seriously as the enemy by the elite, who are chafing at her popularity. In colleges and high schools, her name and books are almost common knowledge, thanks largely to the extraordinary work done at the Ayn Rand Institute and to people like many of my readers.

The WSJ is arguably the most prestigious paper in the country, printing letters or columns almost daily by Congressmen, Senators, international heads of state, heads of the most prestigious colleges around the world and much more. And the WSJ now prints a mention of Rand in the letters section or in a story or in a column about once a week.

We're catching up!

I just LOVE pissing off liberals

I went to my mailbox today and among the bills was a letter to me with no return address and a peace/love stamp on it, so of course the first thing that popped to mind was that a hippie had a wholesome soul-searching and was returning thousands of dollars to me that he'd robbed me of via the federal government. Right?

Nah, it was better. It was a little anonymous tantrum against my blistering letter to the editor on the liberal media. Here's the tantrum:

Now, as you can tell, this is a snot-nosed liberal trying with all his cold heart to be clever. Note the wonderment at whether my humor was "intentional." One of the things I love about liberals is they wouldn't know humor if a giant welfare queen fell on Barack Obama and smothered the stick figure.

And please don't tell Mr. Anonymous that my letter (I'm whispering, so he doesn't hear me and start flailing his arms and legs and falling on the floor balling) took 8 to 10 minutes tops. It just so happens that I'm funny and clever and smart, ahem, which are traits that might as well be a sixth sense beyond the reach of the fritterati.

I hope you, my dear readers, will not feel left out in this withering broadside, since you most likely cannot spell "erudite," much less know what it means, as our anonymous tantrum-thrower most assuredly does since he uses such high-falutin phrases as "rat's ass"

You know, I haven't listened to Limbaugh in 12 years, but I kinda got a yearning to tune in tomorrow, especially since I just discovered I'm a conservative. After all, Limbaugh LOVES to piss off liberals, too. They're just so funny when their faces get red and that inbred look twists into something resembling a gothic statuette.

My adorable little fan (they love to hate me) lost his pen and gonads, so I cannot lovingly write back with my autograph. But I'm happy to share these fun times with you, my dear friends.

Peace out!

"Fair Tax" discussion in Congress at 4 p.m. EST

As you all know, a "fair tax" is tantamount to "fair theft," but at least it would mean that we all would get robbed equally instead of "progressively." So I'm for it as an interim measure toward an ultimate goal of ending taxation and making "contributions to government voluntary. The folks at www.fairtax.org have been working diligently to get it discussed and, with the help of some congressmen, will get the discussion to the House floor today at 4. Here's the info that the organization sent out:
_____________________________________
Dear FairTax supporter,

Your voice is being heard! Today at 4:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) Iowa Congressman Steve King is going to host a "Special Order" on the floor of the House of Representatives on the FairTax! For one full hour Members of Congress will discuss the FairTax and how our legislation can save the US economy! As we speak, Congressman King is working to have several other members join him on the floor today. House leadership has asked Congressman King to mention President Obama’s plans for tax increases, so the Congressman and other members will be contrasting these planned tax hikes with the FairTax and all it can do to stimulate our economy. Here’s what you can do right now to strengthen the hand of Congressional co-sponsors and help the FairTax cause.

1.Contact your Representative:
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Start by thanking your co-sponsoring Representative for supporting H.R. 25 (the FairTax bill), but then ask them to please join Congressman King on the floor today in support of the FairTax during this highly-visible floor session.

2.Tune in to watch the FairTax Special Order live on C-SPAN at 4:00 p.m. You can stream it live at http://www.cspan.org/. Be sure to tell you friends and colleagues to tune-in as well. Please note this time is subject to change because of House floor activities that may run long. However, please stay tuned to C-SPAN to catch the session whenever it begins. Again, this is an incredible opportunity to promote the FairTax as a real and permanent stimulus plan that America needs. Let’s make sure that we have a strong showing.

Sincerely, Ken Hoagland, National Communications Director

Friend's superb letter on vouchers printed in AJC

My friend Aquinas Heard had a sterling letter to the editor published in today's edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on so-called school vouchers. It is not only the first time I've seen the subject broached honestly, but also the first time I've seen such a compelling and eloquent analogy of the voucher idea's anti-liberty principle.

If 10,000 of us Objectivists wrote such letters every day, imagine the liberating consequences!

You can read Aquinas' letter HERE.

The Orwellian fascists on Capitol Hill

The following letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal today in response to a letter to the WSJ by two liberal senators rationalizing legislation that intrudes on private business.

Sens. Diane Feinstein and Olympia Snowe (Letter, 3-16) have mastered the art of Orwellian double-speak. But what’s more frightening is that, unlike their cynical and overtly sinister fictional counterparts, these two statist mavens actually believe in government monitoring of “unnecessary expenditures” and “sensible limits,” as well as government-theft “financial lifelines” concerning private business.

We find no hint of irony in their supercilious fascism. Let’s not mince words. The fascist rulers of 20th-century Europe cannily understood the import of taking over of industry by regulation and monitoring, without the messy ownership issue – so as to exact maximum proceeds under the guise of “the common good.”

These two senators and their authoritarian peers have assumed the alleged righteousness of government intervention in the private economy for decades, thereby allowing libertine political takeovers of companies and Star Chamber interrogations of CEOs before a less-than-candid world. It reminds one of the intrusive parent who creates the rebellious child – and then becomes brutal in punitive and unctuous self-righteousness.

Perhaps that explains the ubiquitous grins on liberal faces these days.

Business phone calls and extended farting

(Warning, the following blog entry is not meant for mature audiences.)

OK, it's early Sunday afternoon and I'm in the middle of a business phone call to New York. I'm sitting in my easy chair in the livingroom, the front door is closed, the father of the Hispanic family next door is in his driveway working on the engine of his expensive pickup (must be some gene that Hispanic men have.)

As the New Yorker asks me a question, the Hispanic neighbor uses his air-gun socket wrench on a bolt in his engine -- the kind that when it finishes tightening, it starts slipping and making a loud farting noise. My neighbor is one of those men who ignores the noise, believing that the longer the farting noise continues, the tighter the bolt and the more manly he becomes.

Subsequent dialog with New York businessman (who is a pretty good acquaintance):

NYB: Uh, what was that?

Me (snickering): You're not going to believe this, but that was my neighbor's wrench air gun next door.

NYB: Uhuh!! Yeah, right!

Me: No, seriously, Ken. I swear it wasn't me. (chuckling)

NYB: Man, you better get some medicine.

Me: (laughing too hard to respond)

NYB: Do you just let her rip whenever you're on a business call, David, my man?!

Me: (laughing too hard to respond)

NYB: (laughing too hard to speak)

Me: (still chuckling) No matter what I say, you're not going to believe it wasn't me, right?

NYB: Hell no!

Me: OK, it was me.

NYB: No it wasn't. (laughing) NOBODY could fart THAT long!

Me: You didn't know me when I was younger. I about poisoned-gassed my family on long road trips.

NYB: I'll remember that when you finally come up here.

Me: I promise to give you a warning.

NYB: Hell, I won't need a warning. You're loud as shit!

(Both laughing)

...

The Bard -- Or Not The Bard

A new portrait of Shakespeare (left) has seen public light after a member of the Cobbe family saw an exhibition by the Folger Shakespeare Library of Washington came to London in 2006. The family member saw the famous Janssen portrait (right) and was stunned by the likeness to a portrait in his own collection, which was handed down by the descendants of the Earl of Southampton, which was a patron of Shakespeare's.

I love the sensitivity and yet probing look of the new painting. It is now believed that the Janssen portrait may have been an 18th century knock-off of the Cobbe portrait. The two most famous likenesses of Shakespeare that have garnered almost universal acceptance of authenticity are the Chandos portrait (left), which was painted during Shakespeare's life, and the engraving (below, right) on the title page of the posthumous First Folio in 1623, which was praised by the writer Ben Jonson as a terrific likeness of The Bard. Whichever is the best likeness, it is apparent that the man for all seasons had wonderful character in those eyes.

Letter to WSJ on link between morality and politics

Daniel Henninger’s Rosetta Stone comments on President Obama’s mind were chilling – and much anticipated by those familiar with Ayn Rand’s famous remarks linking morality and politics. Tell me what a man thinks is right and wrong, she said, and I’ll tell you what kind of government he will demand and vote for. “Politics is based on three … philosophical doctrines: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics – on a theory of man’s nature and of man’s relationship with existence,” she said.

Mr. Obama believes in the morality of altruism, wherein the alleged “strong” must sacrifice their lives and money to the “weak.” He believes that strong (rich) do not deserve their rewards for their hard work and education. He believes in victimhood. He is a Hobbesian skeptic, believing that human nature is corrupt, incapable of efficacy and self-determination, and in need of a “guiding” statist hand.

Here’s one more prescient quote from Ms. Rand almost 50 years ago: “The basic and crucial political issue of our age is: capitalism versus socialism, or freedom versus statism.” The little Russian-American lady would’ve had a field day with the immorality and concomitant statism of our new commander-in-chief.

God is talking after sex

I just realized that that headline could be taken two (or more) ways, so let me get down to the, ahem, nut here.

You know that time after sex when you and your partner have satisfied each other emotionally and physically and there is oneness with the universe and there is no acrimony, no disharmony, no nothing-bad? (OK, I know I haven't gotten to the nut yet, so keep your britches on). Anyway, everything is whispers and hugging and stroking and "ohmygod"-ing. Stress has expired. Sweat is beading. Nerves are happy. Your toes relax. You wonder why the hell you gave up cigarettes. You see the eyes of wonder and love staring back at you with an understanding that this moment, this very moment, is alive. You are alive together. Your soul and body are bared. You bask in the vulnerability of your being. You thank her/him with your eyes and your lips. Each second, each minute encompasses the universe's beginning and end and everything in between.

Whew, excuse me for a moment. ... OK, I'm back. ... Whoopsie. Excuse me. ... OK. I'm back.

All right. The nut. I was listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" a while ago and it reminded me of a moment in time with a woman. I realized that the person I was with at the time actually disgusts me now -- and sort of did sometimes then -- but I still love the moment. I was singing "Songbird" to her on the living room floor after we'd made love, and she was crying. (I hope it was just my voice.) What I was thinking of when listening to "Songbird" again a while ago was, "Why does that moment mean so much to me if she doesn't and sort-of didn't mean so much to me?"

The only answer I had was that it was a momentary silence of all that is bad in the world. It was the eternal in the moment. It wasn't the perfect immortality of the moment, as I would have later in relationships, but it was still being there with tendrils of exquisite awareness of another and of life itself. It is what almost all people seek with their relationships with their gods: That perfection of communication. The oneness of being. That absence of dissonance. That ecstasy of living without even an iota of badness. That perfection of spirit and love and joyful celebration of life that is best celebrated with another spirit of equal being. That knowledge that your vulnerability will not be taken advantage of. That understanding that your soft mortality is being represented in your eyes and being met by a being of equal softness.

The religious person is not finding such love on Earth, and so he/she picks what's behind Door # 3: God -- an Immaculate Conception of Perfect Benevolence. The rational human mind is a wondrous thing. It visualizes perfection, love, kindness, benevolence. It takes us back to a time in our childhood when we were "innocent" and every moment held the possibility of sweetness and happy eyes. It soon finds that people, goddamnit, are just FUCKED UP! "What the hell is going on here?! Can't we just have fun and love each other." (Ohmygod, I'm hearing "Come on people now, love one another.") But, really, we kids really did love each other. We loved life. It was the fricking adults who were REALLY FUCKED UP.

They were stale and boring and bought into false history and bromides. And some of us -- you and me, for a while -- became LIKE THE ADULTS and sought an easy way back to the innocence of youth. When I say "easy," I mean a way back without the mental work to get back, a way back to purity of soul and spirit. We found Ayn Rand. And others?

Enter "God" -- that leper with a propensity for cigars and murder who happens to represent benevolence for most of mankind in some sordid anthropomorphism. Some bought it. You and I didn't. Some think their soul finds happiness in a make-believe "spirit." You and I know we find it in the eyes and the beads of sweat and the toes and the strokes of love.

Of course, there are no gods. There is only you and me and the tender life-moment. We will not have it one day, but we are not cowards, you and I. Our understanding of the ephemeral adds to our vulnerability and the warm, eye-locked kiss.

God is talking after sex.

Letter blasting media is printed in AJC on 3-12-09

You can find the letter HERE.

God has FINALLY been found!!!!

Go HERE to discover where scientists finally discovered him/her/it/that.

Hint: If you have empathy, you may have found him/her/it/that first.

AJC will print "media romps" letter

The letter to the Altanta Journal-Constitution that I mentioned in my March 7 post concerning the media being simply a lapdog of government instead of a watchdog will be printed this week, according to the paper's letters editor, who called me today.

I'm a DOCTOR, damnit! Shut the f--- up, worm food!

The online ratings services Zagat's and Angie's List are popular. They allow consumers to rate the service of restaurants, plumbers and much more. They've just added medical care to their list, so the complaints are rolling in against the medical profession like, well, like cash into medical coffers -- and doctors have dropped their grapes, thrown on their togas and descended from Mount Olympus faster than you can say "bend over and relax."

Yes, doctors are mad and they're not going to take it anymore when they get back from their three-week cruise. They've vowed to double the current wait times for their beneficence (OK, that's not technically true -- yet). But this is true. Some of them are making patients sign waivers to promise not to say anything negative about them on the Internet.

Yes, you read that right. The priss-pusses who speak and write English as a foreign language (or no language at all) and forgot to tell time the minute they ascended the marble thrown at medical school and cross out the name "Jesus" in the Bibles they don't read and put their own name in Jesus' place had not dare to hear negative chatter from the hoi polloi whom the Jesuses deign to see.

The clever fellow who thought up the waiver idea (he's a doctor, so "guy" is out) is a certain Jeffrey Segal, an N.C. neurosurgeon. He's helping doctors find the rascals who betray their saviors and to purge their comments. Mr. Segal (I save "Dr." for my computer geek guys who always fix my computer, don't charge much, never make me wait and are cool as shit) says that sniping postings say nothing about what should matter to patients: medical skills. Gotta love it when doctors tell us what should matter to us. Uhm, Mr. Segal, most restaurants know how to make a burger fairly well and most doctors know their medical shit pretty well, so it's the SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE that matters, you snooty bitch!

Almost 2,000 doctors have signed up for one of the waivers from Mr. Segal's ironically named company: Medical Justice. But there's good news from the rebellious online universe. The ratings services are telling doctors to go to hell when the doctors contact them and notify the services that a certain complaint came from a patient who had signed the waiver. Hopefully, the online service folks are making the doctors wait 1 hour and 10 minutes before getting through on the phone.

But let's go one further here, folks. If your doctor wants you to sign a waiver, tell him to stick his EpiPen where the sun don't shine, and then do your best Liza Minnelli drama exit from the building. And then go tell anyone else about the doctor's waiver requirements and post it to as many places as you can. Any doctor worried about patients' comments is a doctor that ain't worthy of his cross. (What great irony, indeed, it would be to see doctors losing their practice because their demand for waivers was the biggest complaint on the online services.)

If your doctor calls you to complain, just tell him to take a deep breath and bend over and relax.

Are anti-drugs crusaders on drugs?!

I sent the following letter to the WSJ today concerning a column (by John Walters) stating that drug legalization isn't the answer to the latest wave of murder and kidnapping perpetrated by drug traffickers in Mexico and America.

_______________________
John Walters said “narco-terrorists want power, not control of the drug trade” and “the drug trade is a tool, not the cause of these violent criminal groups.”

No. Narco-terrorists want money, and the illegal drug trade is their tool, their means. When we legalize drugs, the outlaws will lose the competitive edge to savvy businessmen – and the outlaws will lose their power or money or whatever you want to call their motivation.

But let’s put aside psychoanalysis and rationalizations. America has had its 100-years war with drug traffickers, and America still hasn’t learned its lesson: The minute you outlaw a commodity is the minute that the scum of the Earth set up shop and begin murdering people.

Like every other major opinion writer on the drug issue, Mr. Walters eschews fundamentals. The real issue here is liberty. People have a right to do with their bodies as they please, including the ingestion of harmful substances – and live with the ramifications of their often-irrational actions.

And as long as the rationalizations continue for a “drug war,” we will continue to see hundreds of innocent people (including the valiant officers who carry out such horrendous laws) lying in pools of their own blood.

Let’s stop the puritanical insanity.

Shrugging Atlas

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution prints a section each day for anonymous "vents" from readers. And so today, I saw this delightful one:

"If you feel a rumble in the ground anytime soon, it is Atlas beginning to shrug."

That's what I'm talking about! Thank you, fellow freedom lover!

Media romp under covers with government

Objective observers of the media know the drill: Liberal government announces newest fascist proposal, and media breathlessly and "objectively" reports it, extrapolating on the alleged benefits to the economy and public -- with the assumption that the government should have anything to do with the economy and that the "public" is the so-called downtrodden.

And so the chickens have been coming home to roost for the media for many years, with subscriptions and TV viewership declining rapidly, and now many media companies are going bankrupt -- something unfathomable just 10 years ago. I wrote that last sentence with a big grin, knowing that justice has finally paid a visit to the abominable and morally corrupt media establishment.

But there are those who blame American ignorance and apathy for the media blues, including Jeffrey McCall, a communications professor at DePauw University who on Thursday had a column printed nationally in which he blasted Americans for their un-interest in national politics, newspaper reading and TV news-show viewership. And so I penned the following letter to the editor to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Mr. McCall's ignorance:

_____________________________
Jeffrey McCall laments that “the citizenry is not holding up its end” in reading newspapers to stay informed, but then he inadvertently finds the answer to this lament at the end of his column: the media are awful.

Let me be a little clearer for Mr. McCall. The media have gone from being the Fourth Estate to the Fourth Branch of government. They are mouthpieces and bullhorns instead of patriotic spies and probing intellects. They are now lapdogs instead of watchdogs.

Government has become their raison d’etre. They dine on a liberal cuisine of welfare, socialized medicine, international appeasement, Obama adulation, wealth jealousy, racism “dialogue,” punitive taxation and a plethora of slogging, cumbersome, uncommunicative, inept government services. Then they smack their self-satisfied lips and wash down their scandalous repast with a snifter of global warming, a glass of recycling and a bottle of environmentalism.

Never has government been so happy to welcome a new bed partner. And as these four romp and giggle under the covers, true American liberty gets a kick in the head – and the media become our avowed enemy.

My letter on Bill Moyers published in Wall Street Journal

The following letter I wrote to the Wall Street Journal was published today. Moyers had written a long letter himself to the WSJ on Feb. 26 attempting to defend his actions as a chief of staff under the cretin Lyndon Johnson in which Moyers and Johnson used the abominable FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover to spy on White House staff that may have engaged in homosexual behavior and other private matters. The WSJ had printed an earlier column correctly excoriating Moyers for his contemptible actions.

My letter to the editor:
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Bill Moyers says that he and Lyndon Johnson decided to "follow up on a handful of [Hoover's] reports" concerning the private lives of administration staff. Let me put that a little more candidly. Mr. Moyers and President Johnson decided to save their behinds by unleashing a corrupt FBI chief on the civil rights of White House staff.

Mr. Moyers is blind to his own culpability and immorality in this matter, as we see in his final paragraph wherein he states that "no harm came to a single person." Indeed, just to the Constitution.

Conservative columnist job at AJC

I haven't mentioned in these pages that I've been trying for a month and a half to become a conservative columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I and 200 other Atlanta-area folks filled out an extensive questionnaire in late February for the post, and I have just learned that I am not one of 10 finalists for the position.

That is unfortunate. I think I could bring a fresh voice (some might call it a "radical" voice) to the conservative movement -- one that would make Rush Limbaugh seem like Nancy Pelosi (my apologies to Mr. Limbaugh's bona fides).

I'm still in contact with Matt Kempner, the editor in charge of the questionnaires, at insideajc@ajc.com concerning the position and sent him 3 of my columns I wrote for this blog in late February on torture, the water crisis and the "liberal tsunami" that hit the American economy. And Mr. Kempner was kind enough to pass my 3 columns along to the current AJC conservative columnist, Jim Wooten, to read. But this is most likely a long-shot -- though hopefully, not. We'll see.

As many of you know, my conservative (one might even say "Jeffersonian conservative") positions on all subjects are based upon a philosophical position that humans have a complete and total right to their own lives -- something amiss in the modern GOP, and something that needs an eloquent and unmitigated proponent in print. It is still my hope that the AJC will see this as a positive and perhaps bring me in for an interview. It is a job of a lifetime, and I would sorely hate to lose it.

Good sports

With so many people and politicians doing bad things nowadays, I'm happy to blog on something terrific that was done by some baseball players. Here's the story from the AJC:

"Western Oregon University senior Sara Tucholsky homered against Central Washington University. Stumbling around first base, Tucholsky collapsed with a badly injured knee. The teams were informed that she would be credited with only a single unless she could continue to round all the bases. Her own team was not allowed to help her. Instead, two Central Washington players picked up Tucholsky and carried her around the bases to home plate. Central Washington lost 4-2 and was eliminated from postseason contention."

Here's the video (you might get some tissue handy): Girl carried around bases

This is such a terrific story about justice and one team recognizing that the girl earned her homer and deserved it and should get it.