Six months ago today I stuck my toe in the water and started blogging. To be honest, I had no idea if I would learn to "swim" - even floating seemed an unreasonable task - but I had been sitting poolside for too many years.
Addicted to politics and jonesing on blogs, I had been a lurker for the past decade, assembling my list of favorites, checking in daily with some, catching up weekly with others. The writers and contributors on these blogs had become imaginary friends to me as I laughed, commiserated, and often nodded vigorously in agreement at my computer screen. Too many posts for me to count were sent off in emails or linked on Facebook or read aloud to my husband.
So thank you. All of you. For all the wonderful hours of reading.
My only goal for this blog was to "get it off my chest", the suggestion coming from my husband who "needed to get some work done." HAHA! I suppose being followed around the house every day with insistent pleading that he listen to one more post or read one more essay or look at one more political cartoon had reached the point of saturation for him.
But I had no expectation that so many of you would be so kind and welcoming to my living room litanies, my office orations, my sun room summations.
So I just want to say THANK YOU! to everyone. For the links, the comments, the friendship. Your generosity has been nothing short of overwhelming.
The bad part is that it is also encouraging....and you know how that goes....
And for everyone who has seen fit to put me on their blogroll - DANG!!! It's just like being famous, only without all the upside. HAHA!
As for my TOP NOTCH COMMENTERS! Just WOW! You guys are the best. And I mean that in the most conceited and self-important way possible - as inIhave the best commenters! It's like being in a room full of like-minded, intelligent, funny, wise-cracking political junkies. What could be better than that?
Mona Eltahawy, CNN and MSNBC news pundit and former Rueters correspondent, apparently is a little confused about the difference between speech and action. SPEECH is free, Mona. It's the ol' "sticks and stones may break my bones" idea. It's actions that are illegal. Actions like defacing property. That action is called vandalism, and it's not speech - free or otherwise. Might want to look up that little distinction. It will save you a trip downtown in the patrol car. And no, you don't get to keep the fancy bracelet the nice police officer gave you.
What a nasty, mean little piece of work.
The rise in rage and intolerance should not surprise anyone. It is the left that has always protested any opposition to its worldview with rage and destruction.
Burning flags.
Vandalizing businesses.
Screaming threats.
Murder.
All from the left.
The face of tolerance.
Take a good look. You're going to see more of this. It is no coincidence that she feels justified in taking this action as our president apologizes before the UN for our freedom to speak in this country. It is no coincidence that her rage is so openly directed at Israel even as our current administration publicly distances itself from Israel and Netanyahu. It is no coincidence that she expresses such self-righteous arrogance as Ahmadinejad and Iran furiously proceed to develop a nuclear weapon.
The left is on the march. And it always marches toward war.
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of "The Princess Bride". Written by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner, it has become a classic film, remaining as lovable and current as the day it opened a quarter of a century ago.
As You Wish: Little-Known Facts About The Princess Bride on Its 25th Anniversary
But this is a hard film to appreciate properly in words. It is eminently quotable, but that doesn't explain why it's funny. It has all the action a fantasy film could ask for, but how that action manages to ride so easily alongside wit and whimsy is a thesis all its own. It's heartwarming without pandering to us, which is rare enough in a fairytale, but barely touches why we root for Buttercup and Westley to the very end.
Grandpa: [voiceover] Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Westley around. Buttercup: Farm boy, polish my horse's saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning. Westley: As you wish. Grandpa: [voiceover] "As you wish" was all he ever said to her. Buttercup: Farm boy, fill these with water - please. Westley: As you wish. Grandpa: [voiceover] That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back. Buttercup: Farm boy... fetch me that pitcher. [It's right over her head, so he has to stand next to her] Westley: As you wish. [Cut to them kissing] The Grandson: [interrupting] Hold it, hold it. What is this? Are you trying to trick me? Where's the sports? [suspiciously] The Grandson: Is this a kissing book? Grandpa: Wait, just wait. The Grandson: Well, when does it get good? Grandpa: Keep your shirt on, and let me read.
Ace at Ace of Spades HQ brings us the good news from NBC. If Matt Lauer can't yank his ratings out of free fall, he may just lose his big fat contract.
Didn't NBC already fritter away a lot of money on America's sweetheart, Katie Couric? I do think so. They aren't very good at picking'em, are they?
With Dear Leader leading the charge against your 1st Amendment right to free speech, I believe this video of Michael Badnarik is timely.
His entire Constitution Class is online. If you've got 6 hours to learn what this country is before Obama completely dismantles it...oh! pardon me..."fundamentally transforms" it, you might want to watch it.
Actually everyone in America should have to PROVE they've watched it before they can vote.
“Guess what, the cheerleaders in college are the best athletes in college. You think, I’m joking, they’re almost all gymnasts, the stuff they do on hard wood, it blows my mind.”
Thanks, Joe. But we don't really want to know what blows any part of your body. Ever. Keep it to yourself.
I am not part of of this new America - this country where citizens no longer pledge their allegiance and honor to the ideas of liberty and justice for all but instead pledge their love and support to Obama in exchange for goodies and protections and privileges "for all". This is an America I do not recognize. This is an America that so disrespects its history and symbols that it allows a man who promised to uphold them to instead denigrate them.
Obama's flag. Not my flag.
Gone are the 50 stars representing the power of the individual states against the tyranny of a centralized, federal government. Now only one symbol is displayed.
For all. For Obama.
This is not my America. This is tyranny.
This America asks you to pledge your support for Obama and send in your request for whatever you want while you do it. What is it that you want from Obama? What gift? What privilege? What promise? Just ask. For Obama is all.
No longer is this a country of "we the people." Now we are a country of Obama's people.
For all. For Obama.
This is not my America. This is tyranny.
Free healthcare. Free education. Free respect.
You are no longer expected to earn anything.
Obama will provide "for all" for Obama IS all.
It's so cool.
As they pledge their allegiance to Obama, begging for goodies and treats, realize that--despite the smiles--they are demanding these things from you. Obama can not provide free healthcare or free education or even free respect. But he can make you provide it. And he will.
Remember how this picture gave us our talking points? How we were supposed to mock her patrician, out of touch "hobbies", the disgraceful way she threw around her money...on a horse!??! How DARE she? This was all the proof the left needed that the Romneys were completely evil. They didn't care! They owned a horse, ferchrissakes!
Get the freaking pitchforks and torches!
But when Obama sidesteps a meeting with Netanyahu on the heels of attacks on our embassies, attacks that left Americans dead, misses his security meeting and flies off to Vegas for a fundraiser, we're supposed to be reassured that he is staying on top of things with his iPad or something. He's just that smart.
And we are never to forget that he cares. About us. The little people. Very little.
This little soiree with Beyonce and Jay-Z and a $105,000 tower of champagne at a fundraiser that cost $40,000 a pop to attend is just another example of the kind of hard, tough choices that Obama makes for us every day.
Bless him. The sacrifices he makes for us all.
Just remember, Ann Romney owns a horse. That's all you need to know.
Even though she was Speaker of the House, and God knows she's been in office long enough...she doesn't seem to understand how the Constitution is amended. Bless her heart. She will no doubt have to read it to find out what's in it.
And, of couse, we must never EVER forget this:
So this is NOT a joking matter, kittens. Well, okay...it's funny as hell, but it still isn't a joke. These ancient, shaky idjits are running things.
I found this excellent video over at Stephen Green's Vodkapundit. It's funny, but it's chilling in its implications.
"The good news is our emissions are way down because of the recession."-- Senator Claire McCaskill
This is the heart of everything you are seeing happening around you right now, kittens. As difficult as it may be to believe, as insane as this may sound, we are witnessing the Democratic party engage in deliberate, long-term government intervention in energy production and prices with the intent of reducing YOUR access to energy.
YOUR access. Not theirs. YOURS.
What does this mean? It means less of everything. It means the horizons will shrink for you. It means that they will be in charge of the production of wealth, not you. To control energy is to control the creation of wealth. To control the creation of wealth is to control the markets. To control the markets is to control you.
Mitt Romney really, really, REALLY wants to lay you off. In fact, the only reason why he ever went into business was to destroy people's lives. Making money was just a bonus. A NICE bonus, you understand, but not the goal, because capitalism is really about creating misery, not wealth. That's why there are so many people in America living in three-bedroom homes, with two cars in the garage and children attending nice schools...wait...now I'm confused.
With the uber creepy #ForAll campaign in full swing, I am reminded of the 2008 campaign where O-bots were implored to give their creative talents free rein to immortalize The O in His bid for President of the Nuthouse United States. At the time I had never experienced anything quite as creepy and alarming in politics. When Harvey at IMAO.US did this rundown of the poster winners, complete with his original captions, I saved them, adding my own little sidebar comments, all those years ago. I put this together as an email to friends, as I wasn't blogging then, I was only bugging the crap out of friends who have long since instructed me to shut up! So now I blog. HAHA!
Now the nuts are texting images of themselves with their hands OVER THEIR HEARTS like a freaking Pledge of Allegiance -- but allegiance to a MAN, kittens, NOT a flag or country or idea -- a MAN-- and we are back in the deep end of the Insanity Pool.
I concur. I am shocked but not surprised. Evil always shows itself. It must, because it glories in its depravity and ultimately WANTS you to know it for its true self. To hide is to pretend to be GOOD and that is abhorrent to its very nature. So while it will use deceit for a time to gain power, posturing as good, it can not help but eventually let the mask slip. It must.
I am the first to confess astonishment at the "notion" that our president, Champion of free markets and free people, Defender of the Constitution, Unicorn Prince, Golfer, and Friend to the little lazy voters, would EVER say "...I actually believe in redistribution..."
Say it isn't so!
Oh...wait a minute. This was in 1998. Never mind.
With Obama, nothing in his past is worth being concerned about. Nothing. Not his father's dreams, or his mother's misbehavior. Not his bestest big friend, Frank Marshall Davis or his neighborhood pal, Bill Ayers. Not his association with the methods of Alinsky or his affiliation with the New Party in Chicago.
Nothing. In fact, I think you are a RACIST! Shut UP! RACIST!
I have absolutely no reason for posting this except it makes me laugh. And I do kind of think this may be how they handle Saint Joseph the Traveler around the White House.
You know, I don’t mind that the press buys kneepads by the truckload when a Democrat is in office. What I do mind is that they fail to wipe off their chins before they turn around to lecture the rest of us.
Holy effing shit.
There's no bias in the media. None. Now go back to sleep. Oh! And give to the Obama campaign RIGHT NOW! Time's a-wasting!
A little shame in a society is a healthy thing. It serves not only to punish and correct the behavior of the person who has transgressed society's norms, but -- perhaps more importantly -- it serves to reaffirm society's agreement with those norms.
No one likes to be shamed. That's why it works, kittens.
Actually, we still experience shame in society, for it will always be a powerful motivator of human behavior. But now, ironically, shame is meted out by the left for transgressions against political correctness and wrong thinking. CODE!
And if that doesn't work, there's always jail time.
"Innocence of Muslims" filmmaker being taken in for questioning.
So shame never goes away, but it's important to realize who metes it out and for what crimes.
Andrew Klavan, in his usually witty style, illustrates the absurdity of where shame is leading us now that the left is in charge of it.
Of course, blashpemy laws in America do little to mitigate the "smart ass" gene that seems to run throughout America. So I was not surprised to see that the newest internet meme has taken hold.
Look! Mom is taking a picture of the little prince. For posterity.
This is child abuse. Does anyone on the left get that? Anyone?
And these adorable little tykes grow up to become the men scaling the walls of our embassies and butchering our ambassadors and diplomatic personnel. And we wring our hands and wonder what we did. We didn't do shit, kittens. Their own mothers made them insane.
RACHAEL BROWN: Do you also object to the killings of the ambassador and three other people in Libya?
SAIFUL ISLAM: See, the thing with these killings and what is happening, obviously this was going to be expected. Obviously when you do something like this it’s going to ignite and it’s going to cause violence.
RACHAEL BROWN: So you’re not surprised there were deaths?
SAIFUL ISLAM: I’m not surprised at all, I’m expecting obviously more carnage and more violence, and it’s going to escalate.
Translation? Nothing I do is my responsibility or my fault. Everything is provoked by you and I have absolutely no control whatsoever over my own behavior. So YOU must control yours or bad things will happen.
And it will be all your fault. Always.
I give up. I am crawling into my Drinking Closet now. Rachel Lucas came up with the idea and I believe it is high time I put it to good use.
Our embassies are burning. This is Obama's first tweet of the day -> RT @barackobama The election is in 53 days—pitch in $10 now
— RB (@RBPundit) September 14, 2012
Gotta love a guy who can stay focused on what's important. GIVE. ME. MONEY.
The "change" Obama has brought to the world is not all we had hoped. We are now realizing, as events unfold with startlingly rapidity, that the changes he promised have a common end. The reduction of American power, both at home and abroad. The last few days have shown clearly that Obama's efforts to reduce American influence abroad have been successful. The Islamic world has taken note of our president's desire to "equalize" the international playing field.
As a nation we have been asleep, lulled to slumber by pretty words and a belief in American military might that could not be shaken, even by the unusual circumstance of a man who rose to power on words of apology for our greatness and aggrandizement of his own unique contribution to world peace.
In 2007 Obama said in a radio interview: "I truly believe that the day I'm inaugurated, not only does the country look at itself differently, but the world looks at America differently. If I'm reaching out to the Muslim world, they understand that I've lived in a Muslim country."
In 2009, in his speech to the Egyptian people and all of the Arab world, Obama said, "More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations."
This is clearly an assignment of guilt on the part of the United States and the West. He goes on to re-affirm that guilt by insisting that America is interested in a new beginning, achieved, in no small part, by a change in OUR policies:
"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition."
Obama states unequivocally that he stands not on the side of America and so many AMERICAN men and women who have lost their lives to Islamic extremism throughout our nation's history, but with Muslims who might be seen negatively because of their barbaric, religiously-dictated actions. Obama stands for Muslims as President of the United States. "And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."
No, Mr. President, this is not part of your responsibility. Negative stereotypes of Islam are the Muslims' responsibility. Perhaps if they chose to act differently, people would think of them differently.
Finally, he delivers the death blow to American supremacy and exceptionalism:
"Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail. So whatever we think of the past, we must not be prisoners of it. Our problems must be dealt with through partnership; progress must be shared."
This is the Age of Obama. A world where all are equal, where progress is shared. A world where we are not prisoners of the past, but are released from the lessons of history to look forward to what has never been. A world where truth is shaped for us by soaring rhetoric instead of often cruel outcomes. The Age of Obama.
But Obama's ascent to power has not gone unquestioned by those he would woo with pretty words and empty gestures; with promises of appeasement and conciliation.In the Age of Obama America has become the weak horse to the Islamic world.
"When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature,
they will like the strong horse." --Osama bin Laden
When Obama arrived in Cairo to tell the Muslims of the world that America does not want to fight, let alone win, he was declaring that America was now the weak horse. "We do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan," he assured the Muslim Brotherhood attendees, and told them that, "events in Iraq have reminded America of the need to use diplomacy."
The bearded men glowering at him heard from the new leader of the United States that he had come "to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world… based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition." What they understood was that the competition was over and that Islam had won.
Mr. Greenfield goes on to brilliantly sum up the last few years and their inevitable outcome:
Obama chose to turn America into a weak horse and dragged down Mubarak and a number of other regional allies with him. Netanyahu has resisted accepting the weak horse status assigned to him by Washington and that has been a major source of tension with the Obama White House. The attacks in Cairo and Benghazi are a reminder that the United States cannot opt out of the competition with the Muslim world. All it can do is stop in the middle of the track and offer itself up to them as a dead horse.
Horse racing is a popular sport in the Middle East, though perhaps not as much as camel racing. Camels run somewhat slower than horses, but they do better on rougher terrain. To transform a race from a contest of speed and skill to a contest of endurance and orneriness, the conditions of the race have to be made rougher and more difficult.
Making the conditions of the race more difficult is what the Islamists have been doing to the region all along. They wrecked the track, turned on the sandstorm machines and bet on the strong camel to outlast the weak horse.
Camel racing in the Middle East has depended on imported child jockeys, and while that may seem ugly to Western eyes, like child suicide bombers, it is a reminder that there is no tactic that is considered too dirty when it comes to winning the race. The Islamists may not be able to win on strength, speed or agility, but they can always win by default if they can convince the fast, strong and agile American horse not to run.
The murder of an American ambassador and the sight of his corpse being dragged through the streets by a mob should serve as a reminder that the United States can either be a strong horse or it can be a dead horse, but it cannot, as Obama tried to do, choose not to run.
Winston Churchill once said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” On September 11, Christopher Stevens, a career diplomat, became one of the first Americans in Libya to feed the crocodile of Ansar Al-Sharia and learned too late that while appeasers may hope to be eaten last, they are often eaten first.
Christopher Stevens was a Middle Eastern diplomat who typified the new breed going from the University of Berkeley and the Peace Corps to desks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. He taught English to Moroccan children in the Peace Corps and helped Palestinian Arabs in the East Jerusalem Consulate, which has a firm policy of pretending that Israel does not exist.
[...]
Stevens was the connection between the Islamist Benghazi rebels and the Obama administration’s illegal war to overthrow Gaddafi. His mission, like the true mission of the war, was secret, and the consulate, marginally fortified and devoid of Marines, reflected that secrecy. Stevens did not think that he had anything to fear from the Islamists because they were his friends.
[...]
The only reason Christopher Stevens had lasted this long is that the jihadist fighters had known a useful man when they met him. And Stevens proved to be very useful, but his usefulness ended with Gaddafi’s death. Once the US successfully overthrew Gaddafi and began focusing on stabilizing Libya, Stevens ceased to be a useful idiot and became a useless nuisance. Attacks soon followed on the Benghazi consulate and on other consulates as well, but the Marines were not brought in and Stevens continued relying on local goodwill to secure his offices. It was only a matter of time until the attackers got through.
It should be noted that the late Ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered by the very extremists he helped put in power. Stevens wasn’t just an Islamo-pandering cheerleader, he dedicated his career to romanticizing, whitewashing, aiding, abetting, and enabling Islamic extremism. Watch the video, below, from last night’s “NBC Nightly News” broadcast, beginning at 1:13 into the video. It confirms that the far-left Stevens was the liaison for the Obama administration to the Libyan rebels. He was a big part of the Obama plan to remove Qaddafi (with whom we had a de facto peace and an agreement pursuant to which he gave up all weapons of mass destruction) from power and install these animals in his place. As you’ll note, Stevens made a pandering video to Libyan extremists, introducing himself as the new ambassador. And he wanted to become U.S. Ambassador to Iran, where we deliberately DON’T have an ambassador or an embassy, something Stevens wanted to change, because he was constantly in bed with the worst elements of an already dangerous Islam.
Ambassador Stevens is dead, the Middle East is in flames, and Obama is campaigning for re-election. In the Age of Obama, feeding the crocodile with the bodies of one's own countrymen is not just appeasement of the realities of Islamic hatred, it is atonement for the superiority of American power.
“The German embassy in Khartoum is currently the target of attacks by violent demonstrators. The embassy staff are safe. The crisis cell at the foreign ministry (in Berlin) is meeting and is in contact with the embassy,” he said in a statement.
The British embassy next door got its share of "loving."
With protests escalating across the Middle East and North Africa, one demonstrator was killed and 25 injured in Tripoli, Lebanon and in Tunis thousands of protestors laid seige to the US embassy and black smoke was seen rising from its grounds.
In Sudan, more than 5,000 demonstrators converged on the UK diplomatic compound in Khartoum.
"We can confirm that a demonstration is taking place in front of the embassy and that local police are at the scene," a Foreign Office spokesman said of the situation in Sudan.
It is not known if the ambassador and members of the staff are in the building as office hours are over.
All this outpouring of peace and love over an insanely amateurish and silly movie entitled "The Innocence of Muslims." Does anyone else get the irony in that title? The INNOCENCE of Muslims who murder, riot and destroy because they've been offended?
Because the film maker is the guilty one. He hurted their widdle feelings.
LAS VEGAS – President Obama may be consumed with an international crisis, but the campaign goes on as planned, at least at this point. The president is still scheduled to start a Western campaign swing Wednesday night, with a rally here in Las Vegas and another in Colorado on Thursday.
Mr. Obama’s aides indicated that he would have reconsidered his trip had the violence in Libya and Egypt spilled into a second day in a major way. But with any follow-up protests remaining relatively modest, the president will monitor events from Air Force One as he makes his way here, aides said. (Emphasis mine, of course.)
"[The violence] is in response not to United States policy, not, obviously, to the administration, not to the American people -- it is in response to a video, a film, that we have judged to be reprehensible, disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it. But this is not a case of protest directed at the United States writ large or U.S. policy -- this is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims."
