Barack Obama during his Cairo speech, of June 4, 2009, said: “I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN’S RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. Obama:

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again, those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution? Declaration of Independence? Bill of Rights? Didn’t think so.

Did Muslims fight for this country’s freedom from England? No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not. In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half brother, a devout Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as “pug nosed slaves.” Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family’s “rich Islamic heritage,” doesn’t it Mr. Obama?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present.

There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country’s Woman’s Suffrage era? Again, not present. In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the ‘hajib’ or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women’s rights, aren’t they?

Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazi’s in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren’t flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day. Strangely, the very “moderate” Muslims who’s asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.

And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the “rich heritage” Muslims have here in America.

Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslim.

And now we can add November 5, 2009 – the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That, Mr. Obama is the “Muslim heritage” in America.

Muslim Heritage, my ass.

I’m not going to go intd details about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect IP Act). Let’s just say that the nasty SOPA and it’s evil little sister PIPA are about the two worst things to be proposed for those who use the internet for pretty much anything since…. well since the internet was first built. While the names sound nice enough and maybe something we should all like to see passed, the names are quite deceiving. We all know what happens when politicians get involved in things… they go to SH**. This is another in a long line of bills that Congress has concocted that on the surface look great but dig a bit and, as they say in Britain, it is all fur coat and no knickers.

The one example that I saw on another site that nails it completely is: “The felony streaming provisions of SOPA would, in fact, put Justin Bieber at risk of jail time for uploading videos of himself covering songs without permission of the copyright holder.” Lest we forget, Justin Bieber got his start uploading videos to YouTube of himself singing Usher and Chris Brown tunes.

For those of you who still don’t understand, here’s a better example: I’ve got an extended family member who used to play in a band. This band was fairly popular in southern California and on cruise ships as they played big band tunes. They have uploaded to YouTube videos of them playing these songs. Here’s one such song. (Pretty good, if you ask me!) Under SOPA and/or PIPA, the people in the video would spend 5 years in jail because they did not secure rights to upload the video. And, for the record, that is more jail time than Michael Jackson’s physician got!

Many sites are “going dark” on Wednesday, January 18, 2012. By “going dark” they are shutting down their normal service and displaying a message protesting SOPA and PIPA. Contact your Congressman, your Senator or anyone who can listen and let them know that these two bills MUST go down in flames and NEVER be brought to the light of day again!

I’ve been mulling over this post for about a week now, so here goes.

You know, it’s really kind of sad. Our entire country, heck – most of the world, mourned the loss of Steve Jobs. I’m not really going to go into what kind of person Steve Jobs was here, but let’s not speak ill of the dead just yet and say he was an egomaniac who drove at least as many bright minds away from Apple as he drew to Apple. More on that in another post. Yes, he was a visionary. Yes, he was a great marketer (how else can you get people to buy overpriced hardware?). But he had little to no technical knowledge.

What’s really sad is that only a few in the computer industry mourned the passing of one of the true giants in the computer field Dennis Ritchie. I know, I know… you’re asking “Who the heck is Dennis Ritchie?” Dennis is truly a superstar in the computer field. He is the father of Unix and the C programming language. Not in the sense that Steve Jobs is the father of Apple, but in the sense that he CREATED Unix and he CREATED the C programming language.

So now you’re saying, “So what? Did he bring us all the gadgets that Steve Jobs did?” The answer to that is “No, he didn’t bring us the gadgets. He brought us what makes the gadgets work.” Apples two main operating systems are Mac OS X (on their computers) and iOS (on their handheld devices and tablets). Both are derivatives of Unix. Without Unix, Steve Jobs wouldn’t have been able to leave Apple and creat NeXT. For those of you who conveniently forgot, Steve Jobs was driven out of Apple for his chaotic managerial style. Much of NeXT has been integrated into OS X. And the original Mac OS? Written from the ground up in…. you guessed it… C. Much of Microsoft‘s own software was originally written in C. C and it’s derivative languages are the most popular programming languages out there.

So without Dennis Ritchie and his monumental creations, Steve Jobs (and many other so-called computer wiz-kids) wouldn’t have been able to get out of their parent’s basements. Well, in Steve Jobs’ case it would have been Steve Wozniak who did all the work to get them both out of Jobs’ parents’ living room. Jobs has always had very little to offer in technical knowledge. It has been said that his contribution to the original Apple computer was “Beige plastic… make the case beige plastic”. He was the “front man” for Apple.

But without Dennis Ritchie, none of the gadgets we have today would have been possible. They ALL use either a Unix derivative for their operating system or have used C or one if its derivatives to make them work. Here’s to Dennis Ritchie. A true giant of the computer industry.

—————-
Now playing: Evan Olson – Not What I Wanted
via FoxyTunes

Oh My God! Are these fools for real? The “Occupy Wall Street” protest group (or should I say loony left gathering?) has published thirteen “demands”. Here’s the list of “demands”. This post is going to be somewhat longer than most of my posts as I’m going to go through and critique each of their “demands”. I know that I can’t persuade any of these goofballs to look at facts, but maybe I can make someone see the lack of reason in their “demands”. Also, I have not edited their list of “demands” for spelling, capitalization or syntax.

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

The minimum wage has NEVER been a living wage. EVER. Of course, we haven’t had a minimum wage here in the US for very long; only since 1938. And many European nations (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy) do not have a minimum wage – they rely on trade groups and management to come to such a figure through collective bargaining. And imposing tariffs as well as raising the minimum wage will raise prices on all goods and services; to which they will again demand a raise in the minimum wage and then goods and services will raise… an endless cycle.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

The government does such a great job in its other endeavors that we should allow them to run health care? Really? (It has to be government to run this because we couldn’t have it privately run, could we?) Private insurers banned because they take money from doctors, nurses and hospitals? It’s the government that puts regulations on such things that prevents them from doing their jobs. And the private insurers hand the money they earn to Wall Street investors? Instead of the shareholders? Right….

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Ah, so you want a “living wage” (apparently the magical $20 per hour figure from demand one) regardless of the job? So the guy who mows lawns should get the same as the guy who repairs electrical grid systems for municipalities? Or are you saying, with the “regardless of employment” phrase that everyone should be paid a “living wage” even if they are not employed?

Demand four: Free college education.

I imagine that professors and deans and such (as well as the support and infrastructure staff of colleges and universities) really do want to work for free, right? Oh, they will still get paid? How? Raise taxes to pay for it? Well, since everyone will be making a lot more because of the “living wage” there will be a lot more collected in taxes.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

I’m all for this as long as we don’t ration the amount of energy we currently consume. But right now, with today’s technology, alternative energy sources simply aren’t up to the task of running our economy. I, for one, don’t want to take steps backwards.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Uhhhhhh….. what was the stimulus package again? To rebuild all of the infrastructure you talk about here, wasn’t it? And just how did that work out? Judging by the fact that you are making it one of your demands, I’d say “That didn’t work out so well, did it?”. What makes you think that another trillion dollars would make a difference? It’s been a liberal mantra for as long as I’ve been alive that “we just didn’t spend enough money or it would have worked out”.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.

Well, since the trillion dollars spent for infrastructure worked out so well, why not a trillion on these things? I know of several towns near where I live that if we allowed “the natural flow of river systems” to happen, these towns would cease to exist. And really? Decommission nuclear power plants? Do you actually believe the dramatizations in movies? Or have you looked around Europe and seen all of the safe nuclear power plants there? All this demand is going to do is cost us a trillion dollars and kill jobs.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Let’s see. 1972′s Equal Rights Amendment pretty much covers it. Of course, it’s not an official amendment because enough states didn’t vote for it (as laid out in the Constitution). But it is common business practice today (EEOC ring a bell?)

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Now wait a second. First, in demand one, you state “This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market” and now you want to reinstate free trade so anyone can work and live anywhere? Oh yeah, try moving to Mexico to live and work there and see how far you’ll get.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Riiiiiight…. and it happens now in the dead of night with no one watching. In fact, those people counting the ballots just make up numbers and turn them in, don’t they?

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Nice. So all the people who have borrowed money now have no incentive to work to pay off the loans they have taken out. I guess in a convoluted way that fits right in with demand one. But seriously, just forgive all debt and claim a “do over”? Are you and adult or in elementary school?

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Of course, if demand eleven is followed through with then why have demand twelve at all? There won’t be any debt and certainly no use for credit reporting agencies. Unless you allow credit companies and loans to come about again, but why would you? According to demand one everyone will be getting a “living wage” and won’t want for anything, right?

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

This contradicts demand one and demand three. What good is a union if everyone is making a “living wage” and we are all paid equal? Isn’t that what a union is all about? Paying everyone equally regardless of talent, skill or abilities? Why have a union if this is already in place?

And to top it all off the goofballs that wrote these demands end with this statement:

These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

I can’t believe that someone can grow up in the United States and believe in any of these thirteen demands. And yet they are vowing to continue their protest on Wall Street until these demands are met. I’m betting on Mother Nature ending the protest some time in January at the latest. We all know about the New York winters.

Forbes’ annual list of America’s best undergraduate institutions. Click here to see the full list. From the website: “Our annual ranking of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the things that matter the most to students: quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates and low levels of debt. Unlike other lists, we pointedly ignore ephemeral measures such as school “reputation” and ill-conceived metrics that reward wasteful spending.”

After checking out the list, it’s interesting how the smaller schools in Iowa do so much better than the larger ones, considering nearly everyone I know says the small schools are not as good as the public universities. The results for Iowa of the schools that qualified in the top 650 nationally, along with their national ranking:

• #68 Grinnell College, annual tuition $49,062, enrollment 1,688
• #139 Luther College, annual tuition $42,720, enrollment 2,519
• #157 Wartburg College (my alma mater!), annual tuition $39,395, enrollment 1,800
• #204 Coe College, annual tuition $41,750, enrollment 1,300
• #271 Cornell College, annual tuition $42,820, enrollment 1,133
• #290 Simpson College, annual tuition $38,156, enrollment 2,025
• #302 Drake University, annual tuition $39,550, enrollment 5,653
• #305 Clarke University, annual tuition $35,490, enrollment 1,202
• #328 Dordt College, annual tuition $33,900, enrollment 1,322
• #352 Northwestern College, annual tuition $34,438, enrollment 1,206
• #429 Central College, annual tuition $38,962, enrollment 1,636
• #434 University of Iowa, annual tuition $36,649, enrollment 28,987
• #514 Iowa State University, annual tuition $30,487, enrollment 27,945
• #517 University of Northern Iowa, annual tuition $26,992, enrollment 13,303

So maybe the larger schools with lower tuition may NOT be the best deal, eh? Of course, I’ve said this for years (so has the wife). But many friends blindly look at the initial tuition numbers and then look elsewhere.

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco, TX Nov 18, 2010. Here’s the link to the original story, but you need a subscription.

Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your “home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or XBox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good”.

Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem”, consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

SOME OF YOU MAY APPRECIATE THIS AND SOME OF YOU MAY NOT

If any other of our presidents had:

• doubled the national debt in one year, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, would you have approved?
• then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
• criticized a state law that he admitted he never even read, would you think that he is just an ignorant hot head?
• joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration, would you question his patriotism and wonder who’s side he was on?
• pronounced the Marine Corps like Marine Corpse, would you think him an idiot?
• put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident, would you have agreed?
• used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87,000 American workers unemployed would you support him?
• been the first President to need a Teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
• spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take his First Lady to a play in New York City, would you have approved?
• reduced your retirement plan holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?
• made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
• given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
• given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought it a proud moment for America?
• visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?
• filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?
• stated that there were 57 states in the United States, wouldn’t you have had second thoughts about his capabilities?
• flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in his home town, would you not have thought he was a self-important, conceited, egotistical jerk?
• been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, wouldn’t you have winced in embarrassment?
• burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?
• okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?
• failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
• created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have ever approved?
• ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?

Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 24 months – so you have that much time to come up with an answer.

Every statement and action in this email is factual and directly attributable to Barrack Hussein Obama. Every bumble is a matter of record and completely verifiable. (Thanks, Ron)

“I’m 63 and I’m Tired”
by Robert A. Hall
(Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.)

I’m 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked hard since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought Mc Mansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela .

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor”; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers”; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery”; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I #@*# sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military…. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the ” Illinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I’m tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to have to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

(I checked this out on Snopes and it is verified as true there.)

I want to preface this before asking this question.

• I do not smoke. It’s a choice I made after trying it many years ago and I stick to that choice.
• I’m not against anyone else smoking. Hey, if someone wants to smoke who am I to tell them “NO”? I have a hard enough time managing my personal life that I don’t need to manage anyone else’s personal life.
• I am against the government telling bars and restaurants that they had to ban smoking. No, I’m not a fan of smoky bars. I just feel that the business should determine its own policies (within the law), not government. Here in town there were successful businesses that didn’t allow smoking when it was legal. That was their choice and I applaud that.
• I’m against the government telling casinos that they need to ban smoking. (That’s a law that is currently being discussed here in Iowa). Again, it shouldn’t be up to the government; it should be up to the business. Of course, all things being equal (and they NEVER are) bars, restaurants and casinos should be subject to the same laws.
• If the government votes out smoking for businesses, no government institution should allow smoking. Period. There should be NO exceptions. Public schools (including universities), government buildings (including the Governor’s mansion which is currently exempt), etc. should ALL be subject to these laws. We shouldn’t pick and choose which to enforce.

My question is this: Why do so many smokers think the entire outdoors is their ash tray?

I see it time and again. Going down the highway and you see ashes or cigarette butts flicked out of the window. You see cigarette butts lined on sidewalks in places where it is clearly marked that there is no smoking allowed (like the business where I work).

Smoking has been stigmatized in our society. Yes, I know it’s unhealthy and it is definitely a dirty habit. It is the target of many groups in the media who use TV, radio and web ads to urge people not to smoke. It is taxed plenty. Here in Iowa, each pack of cigarettes has $1.36 in state tax on it. (New York is the highest with a $2.75 per pack tax.) The feds tax every pack at $1.01, which makes each pack of cigarettes sold in Iowa have $2.37 in taxes alone.

With all of this taxing going on and the media blitz demonizing tobacco products, you’d think that smokers would take note and be as clean and conscientious as possible. You’d think they’d be model citizens so as not do draw attention to themselves. You’d think they would simply respect others. But you don’t. I still see them taking that final inhale before entering the grocery store or some other store or restaurant, flicking their cigarette butts onto the sidewalk outside the door where there is clearly a bin to dispose of these butts and then going in to the establishment before exhaling the smoke. I see them driving both on the highway and in town flicking ashes and cigarette butts out the window.

So I ask: Why do so many smokers think the entire outdoors is their ash tray?

Here is are a few points I’d like to see in new immigration laws that SHOULD be passed by our Congress. Read the entire post before you pass judgment. (Thanks, Ron!)

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.
2. All ballots will be in this nation’s language.
3. All government business will be conducted in our language.
4. 4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.
5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office.
6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.
7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.
8. If foreigners come here and buy land… options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.
9. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.
10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted &, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.

Too strict? The above laws are current immigration laws of MEXICO!

These sound fine to me. Now, how can we get these laws to be America’s Immigration Laws?

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Listening to: Danny Elfman – The Little Things
via FoxyTunes

I don’t watch much network TV. It’s usually movies and sports for me. I do watch the occasional cable TV movie, but most of the movies I watch are on the Showtime or Starz multiplexes or DVDs. I really don’t like watching commercials; not just because I think they are silly but some are just out and out lies.

Speaking of lies, listening to commercials for our local cable TV and Internet provider here is rather interesting. The commercial is a young married couple talking while their laptop computer is running and goes something like this:

Her: Come on, honey, I it’s time to go to the party!
Him: Wait! I’m uploading photos to our web site…
Her: Why don’t we go to our neighbor’s? They have “lightening fast” {provider name} Cable Internet. It’s much faster than our DSL!
Him: Maybe we should switch?

OK. First off, the cable internet provider is the ONLY cable Internet provider in town. It is also only provided here in town. The DSL provider (which I subscribe to) is the ONLY DSL provider in town. It is a major national Internet provider.

Also, I used to subscribe to the cable Internet provider (still do subscribe to their cable TV as they are the only game in town), but now I subscribe to the DSL provider. I left the cable provider for a number of reasons. I was having to reboot my cable modem and my wireless router weekly because for some reason unknown to the cable provider, my cable modem signal would just drop. Also, at the time I used the web space provided by them and asked about using PHP on that web site. The answer I got from all levels of their tech support is “PHP is a security risk and we do not allow it on our web space.” WTF? PHP a security risk? Riiiiiight. Over half of the web pages on the Internet are served up by PHP!

So, I changed to the DSL provider. At the same time I changed my telephone service to the same company. The first thing I noticed was an increase of speed, both downstream and upstream. At that time the cable provider had a 1Mb/256Kb downstream/upstream; the DSL provider had a 1.5Mb/768Kb connection. The cable provider does not offer that package any more. The DSL provider does offer the same package. Difference in price at the time: $39.99 for cable Internet vs. $26.99 for DSL. That’s $13 per month less for faster service!

Fast forward to today. The DSL provider still offers that package for $19.99 now. The cable provider offers a slower connection (512Kb/256Kb) for $21.95. I currently have the next faster DSL package (7Mb/5Mb) for $25 per month. The cable provider has what they call a Turbo package (5Mb/1Mb) for $39.99. The cable provider has a maximum residential package called Mega (10Mb/3Mb) for $59.95; the DSL provider has a maximum residential package (20Mb/5mb) for $45.

So going back to the original beef, how in the heck can the cable internet provider make the claim that their service is in any way, shape or form FASTER than DSL? If they compare their faster service with the DSL basic service? And the cost? Not even close! No thank you, I’ll stick with my reliable, fast DSL service!

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Now playing: Weezer – Pork & Beans
via FoxyTunes

So, have YOU got an opinion on the Arizona immigration law? You know, the law that is more restrictive to police there than the federal border laws? The law that is more lenient to the illegal alien (that’s right, ILLEGAL) than the federal law? The one that the media is bashing every chance they get? Well, here’s the text from an email (thanks, Ron!) that explains illegal immigration in an easy to understand way. It’s an old email, but it is still valid (maybe because the feds aren’t doing their job?):

A lady wrote the best letter in the editorials in ages!!! It explains things better than all the baloney you hear on TV. Her point: Recently large demonstrations have taken place across the country protesting the fact that Congress is finally addressing the issue of illegal immigration.

Certain people are angry that the US might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely.

Let me see if I correctly understand the thinking behind these protests.

Let’s say I break into your house.

Let’s say that when you discover me in your house, you insist that I leave.

But I say, ‘No! I like it here. It’s better than my house. I’ve made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors. I’ve done all the things you don’t like to do. I’m hard-working and honest (except for when I broke into your house).

According to the protesters:

• You are Required to let me stay in your house
• You are Required to feed me
• You are Required to add me to your family’s insurance plan
• You are Required to Educate my kids
• You are Required to Provide other benefits to me & to my family

My husband will do all of your yard work because he is also hard-working and honest. (except for that breaking in part).

If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my RIGHT to be there.

It’s only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I’m just trying to better myself. I’m a hard-working and honest, person, except for well, you know, I did break into your house. And what a deal it is for me!!!

I live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of cold, uncaring, selfish, prejudiced, and bigoted behavior.

Oh yeah, and I DEMAND that you learn MY LANGUAGE!!! so that you can communicate with me.

Why can’t people see how ridiculous this is?!

If you agree, let me know (in English). If not blow it off……… along with your future Social Security funds and a lot of the former benefits of being an American Citizen.

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Listening to: Buckcherry – Everything
via FoxyTunes