Dear Sir Or Madame: July 31, 2011

To the editor of the Guardian news in England:

Dear Sir or Madame:

Kindly unstick your nose from our business. You have not the slightest idea of how American politics goes forth, so you have no authority or standing to “correct” us as we deal with our debt.

If I remember correctly, England is the country which has prostrated itself before its Muslim invaders, sold its birthright as the mightiest empire on earth for a mess of hummus, and has an utter ASS of an heir to the throne now held by a fine English queen, God save her.

And, aren’t you the country whose nuts were raked from the fire of two world wars in the last century by American troops and firepower? My, how short your memory has become.

If I also remember correctly, you are the nation that we beat in war twice in the past two hundred and thirty-five years. As many times as we have contested, you have not prevailed. Please don’t presume to lecture us, a sovereign nation, on how to conduct our own affairs. Do you see American representatives harranguing your Parliament on its conduct, condescending to your electorate as inferior in all ways, or presuming to pontificate to you about the proper way to legislate? Of course you don’t, because, unlike you, we have learned to respect the sovereignty of other nations.

As above: Kindly butt out.

Where Are Our Fighters? July 30, 2011

You can’t listen/watch what’s going on in Washington these days without feeling like you have stepped into some kind of alternate universe. But the truth is, this is more like what we used to see years ago, before everybody was hung up on “compromise,” “civility,” and “can’t everybody just get along?”

It used to be a regular thing in the halls of government to see harangues, bombast, and name-calling. These days, we are so used (by design of the democrats, I am convinced) to seeing whiny nancyboys backing down, sucking up, rolling over, and generally falling all over themselves trying to prove how easy they are to get along with, all the while the country is going to Hell in a handbasket, the middle class is being beaten like a rented mule, Bill Gates has more money than the government, and we expect to see our grandchildren drown in a bottomless ocean of red ink that the current resident filled in just over two years.

Having a somewhat-black chief executive who has prounounced every word, move, or legislation from the Right an act of “racism” makes everybody on the Right nervous and very jumpy, and afraid to speak out or express themselves freely. The good guys, being good guys, hesitate to do or say anything that could be construed as “racist,” so they don’t defend themselves when the bad guys push them around and generally prove that nice guys do finish last, and wind up with no respect. It makes it very hard to believe that presumably intelligent people, in control of their faculties and with knowledge and forethought, actually voted these pantywaists into office to make laws on their behalf.

The budget battle should be a battle, and it actually looks like it might even develop into something vaguely resembling the real, old-fasioned sausage-making we old-timers were used to seeing in the olden days when lawmakers had the courage of their convictions, and actually STOOD for the same things their voters believed in.

If I was going to say something to my GOP representatives and senators, it would go something like this: “You have the TRUTH on your side. Why are you backing down from compulsive liars? Get back in there and prove to the people who sent you to Washington on their behalf that they didn’t waste their votes. We will vote you out if you refuse to do what we sent you to Washington to do. Remember the election of 2010, and be warned.”

Don’t be alarmed by what you see, because the contests are just beginning, and I hope to see more contention, more argumentation, more shouting and gesticulating, and just plain opposition from now on. Let’s see what happens when our chosen representatives actually FIGHT for US.

Little Miseries July 28, 2011

Some people get a lot of satisfaction out of having several maladies they can blame for not doing this, that, or the other dietary or exercise discipline that might be, if not actually lifesaving, at least somewhat beneficial. They would rather tolerate the miseries (real or imagined) of these maladies than to do whatever it might take to get themselves healthy.

For them, getting healthy is presumed to be “out of the question,” and would imply that they no longer need the crutches of their little miseries. And, sometimes, the crutch is more important to them than the reason for using it, and the behavior that invites it becomes hard-wired into the psyche.

It’s easy when one has these “little” ills to blame for any kind of stupid, intolerant, unkind, or just forgetful actions on: “…oh, my (ache, pain, problem) is acting up again today. I just don’t know half of what I’m doing or saying.” This is a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card for saying or doing whatever comes to mind that might be ill-mannered, aggressive, hurt others’ feelings, or piss off someone who is only trying to help. The little miseries are perfect foils for crabby cranks and grouches who don’t want to do whatever it might take to get really well and actually be responsible for themselves –- or their health –- for a change.

And, there really is a downside to this simple solution to their “excuse” quandary. By habituating to unhealthy behavior, they leave themselves wide open to serious physical problems later in life. These pecadilloes have a nasty way of coming back to get their revenge when we lease expect it. We might not think we are doing anything that is going to have long-term consequences, but abusing our bodies for years with habitual behaviors is going to cost us dearly in the long run.

Think you’re going to sit back and enjoy your retirement riding bikes on the beach and dancing under the stars? Not if you keep sticking those cancer-sticks in your face, or eating that daily brick-sized frosted cinnamon roll floating in melted margarine. The human body can only function for so long with this kind of abuse before beginning the slow, expensive, and painful process of disintegration and chronic, disastrous ill-health and death.

Of course we all die. Of COURSE. That’s not at issue here. But it is possible for us to make what years we have as healthy as we can by the simple care of our bodies. But, we commit the kinds of slow-motion suicide during our lifetimes that bring our demise on long before we should have to experience it. It isn’t a matter of not caring if we live forever. “It’s not the years in your life that’s important; it’s the life in your years.” I don’t know who said it, but they were right. If I can live to normal old age with only a minimum of pain, misery, and chronic illness, and all it’s going to cost me is the giving up of some of my habits, I’m going to try to everything I can to do so.

Of course, there are those who don’t care when or how they die. For base-jumpers, soldiers of fortune, and snake handlers, this is not a problem. But eating junk, drinking poisonous brews, or otherwise doing the kinds of destructive things that a lot of Americans do to their bodies is just as risky. Living on the edge can be as flamboyant as jumping off the Flaming Gorge bridge, or insisting on a synthetic, manipulated, manufactured diet. You can only keep it up for just so long. Thrillseeking is thrillseeking, with or without the adrenalin. Quite a price to pay for avoiding doing the right thing for one’s body.

The Actual Cost of Government July 25, 2011

The more government we have, the more it costs us. Have you noticed?

The more regulations there are, the more expensive government becomes. Fees, assessments, fines, taxes, etc. all add to the expensive burden of government. These are added through regulation. Regulations don’t need to be passed legislatively, so they can be imposed at any level by virtually any official or judge. Just thinking about this for a while will really open your eyes to the reality of topheavy, expensive, burdensome government.

Be AWARE, and pay attention to the regulations with which you must comply in a day’s business. (Can I just say, “Beware!”?)

Memories… July 23, 2011

If you have been reading on the Sourdough for any length of time, you know that I occasionally wander off into nostalgia. I’m old enough to remember the really old good old days, and it’s fun talking about ice boxes that used real ice, or roller skates that used a wrench called a “key.”

But I hadn’t realized how long I’ve been on the internet until I found this article on Yahoo dot com about what technology our kids (and grandkids) are never going to even hear about, let alone remember. Feel free to add anything you can think of that has come (and gone) since you’ve been connected, and enjoy!

Head Them Off At The Pass July 22, 2011

The democrat party is notorious for election theft. The easiest elections to make off with are the close ones, and the easiest way to thwart this habitual thievery and felonious manipulation is to turn out in record numbers and vote against them like your life depends on it, because, this next election could very well prove that it does.

Be aware of the Secretary of State Project owned by George Soros. This group is focused on manipulating elections through placing their own operatives in Secretary of State positions in all the states, since the SoS is generally responsible for the elections in each state. Vet SoS candidates THOROUGHLY.

A close election is easy to steal, but a landslide can’t be bought. Stealing elections is the democrat specialty. They are experts at ballot destruction, fraudulent ballot creation, “losing” ballots, registration manipulation, count fraud, electronic fraud, right down to carrying voting machines and boxes of punched ballots in their automobiles (as was discovered when a dem operative in Minnesota some years ago was arrested with these items in his car trunk. For some strange reason, he had “…NO IDEA!” how they got there (of course)!

The level of democrat hypocrisy surrounding elections is staggering. Their only reason for existence is to consolidate power through election manipulation. Let’s head them off at the pass!

Handy Palin Facts Page July 18, 2011

A new compilation of information on Gov. Palin’s experience as a public servant in Alaska is posted on the Handy Palin Facts page (above). Stop by and check it out.

There is also a new article on the “Food For Thought” page. Don’t forget to stop by and give it a look.

Thinking Caps July 18, 2011

Sometimes we write things we love. Most of the time, we don’t, unfortunately. But this is one of my all-time favorite offerings. I can’t recall how old it is, but I just want to share it again. I hope you enjoy it.
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Once upon a time, we didn’t know anything. Then, one day, something stuck, so we could know we didn’t know anything. Pretty soon, we found out that we didn’t know what it was that we didn’t know about, so we thought about it some more for a long time.

Then, one day, we realized that there were some things we knew about that we didn’t really know, which helped us think about the things we knew so we didn’t have to keep repeating ourselves and getting mixed up. Then we thought about it some more for a while, and discovered that we just couldn’t know everything, not only about stuff we didn’t know about things we knew about, but also all the stuff we knew we didn’t know about anything we knew about.

Nowadays, thanks to our quick thinking, we are smarter. We know we don’t know things, and that doesn’t bother us too much. But we just don’t know what to think about all that stuff we know we don’t know about what we know; let alone all the stuff we don’t know we don’t know. But we are learning.

Pretty soon, we will know what it is we don’t know about the things we know about, and then we will FINALLY learn just what it is we need to learn about the stuff we don’t know about, and what we don’t know about what it is we know.

When we can know what we don’t know about what we know, we will know what it is we need to learn, then we can start thinking about that, too.

Bluebloods And Friends July 17, 2011

“John Boehner is an old-style Republican. He’s conservative, but he doesn’t breathe fire,” said Randall Ripley, emeritus professor of political science at Ohio State University. “He was not prepared for just how far to the right these freshmen are, or for the extreme inflexibility of these people.” –Konrad Yakobusky, Toronto Gobe and Mail

Some House GOP freshmen have indicated they will not vote to increase the debt ceiling – period. Others have made their vote conditional on trillions of dollars in spending cuts over the next decade – and no tax increases.”

The people in the press — even the international press — appear to be as invincibly ignorant as the pundits and the Beltway bluebloods, who just can’t believe that WE THE PEOPLE have had enough of their compromising, suckup, lazy, self-interest regarding the government of this country.

They are astounded that WE THE PEOPLE have elected and sent to Washington people we really expect to obey not just the letter of the Constitution, but its spirit. And, isn’t it amazing that WE THE PEOPLE seem to know and understand more about the Constitution than the people we have elected and sent to Washington? Maybe we’ve learned our lesson.

It has always been, in their comfy, crisis-less world, the routine that they get their friends elected to go to Washington to make things easier for them. Those friends find other friends they invite to come along and help them with the easier-making. To them, WE THE PEOPLE are not worth paying attention to, let alone allowing to get into Congress and the Senate and actually MAKE LAWS that benefit the WTP crowds out here in flyover country. Funny how that works…the law makers have forgotten the law.

So it comes as a shock to them when they see a group of Republican freshmen standing their ground, actually facing down the good ol’ boys, and insisting that government stop spending and demand that they come up with a budget.

They are flabbergasted when they see real Conservatives demanding that the government stop wasting WTP’s money, flinging it about with delirious abandon. I guess those hoity-toity bluebloods haven’t noticed that the United States has a reputation for being one of the most corrupt governments in the world. It’s not so much that they “haven’t noticed,” but more a case of their guilty consciences, since the odds are very good that they themselves have a hand in that corruption.

But WTP have had a bellyful of their shmoozing, good ‘ol boy, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” ruling-class style of national politics, while WTP have paid all the bills (after having been taxed until our eyeballs bleed), to make sure this bunch of privileged aristocratic dilletants get to keep playing at politics.

The game is over, and the grownups are on the way home. The bluebloods had better decide whose government they want to support, because 2012 is going to tell an entirely new story.

Remember The Record July 15, 2011

Remember when Sarah Palin was first asked to run with John McCain? Word of her popularity and effectiveness in Alaska quickly spread. But after her barn-burner speech, it was quickly squelched, as pundits and kingmakers realized that here was a SERIOUS politician, one with some mighty big chops and the integrity to make it all stick. Of course, it turned out that voters voted for her, instead of the top name on the ticket, who was completely eclipsed by her ability, IN SPITE OF the sabotage of the top name’s staff, who sensed in her the kind of leader they could only hope their boss could be.

Her record while in office in Juneau was anything but a smooth hayride. The CBC (Corrupt Bastards Club) tried everything to undo, undermine, and unseat her, and she literally just stared them down, prosecuted them, and sent some of them to jail. She smote crooks, politicians (but I repeat myself), and graft right and left, and sent guys who thought they had a berth on the gravy train for life to the Crowbar Hilton, where some of them still cool their heels. All of this was accomplished in half of a four-year term.

But since the 2008 national mid-term elections, news and discussion of her spectacular ability as a chief executive has been buried at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. The RINOs are petrified that that stellar record will resurface, show them up to be the petty manipulators they really are, and give them a good reason to fear for their cushy jobs. She has them all beat. Her term as governor, short as it was, was more effective than most two-term governors in any other state. She proved that honest politics, smart budgeting, and spending cuts were really possible, and that corruption was not invincible.

The only problem is, that by doing so, Palin made enemies everywhere she went. All she had to do was appear, and the shock troops pounced. Every article that appeared about her, pro or con, had long queues of foul comments from leftists, all denouncing her for being stupid and desperately trying to keep her record from resurfacing. Pundits and inside-the-beltway smart alecks tried every ruse and trick they could think up to prove that she was so stupid she couldn’t possibly have “enough experience” to make a good Chief Executive. Rumors, innuendo, “tell-all” books, snide portrayals on television; it was all tried. She made the record of every Republican politician since Ronald Reagan look like a lazy kindergartener’s report card.

Her recent (7/13/11) interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News shows that she still has these wise executive abilities and careful budget practices, and she knows that “QE’s” and printing presses, without spending cuts, is no way to restore a nation’s economy. Listen carefully to her answers in this interview. She has a plan.

No wonder they are desperate to stop her. Both sides of the aisle are trying their darnedest to play down her impressive and PROVEN RECORD. Even sifting through 24,000 emails with an eye toward finding even one word amiss was a total waste of liberal time. NOT ONE WORD was found! In all those emails, all they uncovered was the record of a very capable public servant actually SERVING, actually accomplishing things, and really LEADING.

First, I recommend that you all watch the Convention speech again (and, don’t miss the snotty comments that follow it), at the link above, just to remember what she brought to the 2008 campaign, and remind yourselves about what Sarah Palin has to offer and why the left is so scared of her. The enumerating of her record as governor begins right after the 19 minute mark.

Then, I suggest that you invest in some good rain gear, folks, because, if she decides to go for it, and her record resurfaces and becomes common knowledge among the electorate, liberal heads everywhere are going to start exploding.