Thank You, Pres. Obama!

I was anxiously awaiting the headline indicating the captain's rescue from the sea pirates... and I was overjoyed to see it.

Glenn Beck pointed out this morning - and I agree - that finally, President Obama, here's something we can totally support you on - rescuing US citizens being held hostage.

Awesome.

Thank you, sincerely, Mr. President.

If your hesitation was due to uncertainty on popular support for instant action, please know that even Congressmen from New Jersey feel we have the right to defend our citizens abroad.

Thank you again, and let's keep working together on this one. (h/t: Drudge)

A GREAT Question

I spend a lot of time pointing out what's wrong with what's going on.

I don't generally spend a lot of time explaining the background of my thoughts, or even necessarily the full context.

But a recent commenter, "It's Just Me," said this in part of her comment on my last post:

I would love to hear what you would recommend to fix this mess...

And you know, I think having to put my thoughts into words is a great idea. So here's my reply:

Like she said in her comment, there's quite a bit of blame to go around - including every person who keeps voting the corrupt ones back into office. Fire every single career Congressman and Senator - and why allow two terms? Make it one! Minimize the potential for damage, and maximize opportunity and participation.

Dismiss every single "aye" voter on the Bailout or the nationalization that's happened since. Also every cabinet member and nominee who thinks any law supersedes the Constitution or who can't figure out how to file their taxes. Also every single individual ANYWHERE in government who does not acknowledge the Constitution as the supreme law of our land. I mean, you swore an OATH, people!!!

I have ideas for appropriate "corrective action," starting with expulsion and a swift kick in the rear, or wherever; but since that last part would constitute assault, I'll have to content myself with expulsion from anything related to government and being stripped of voting privileges.

My idea for fixing the mess is to LET. IT. FAIL.

Let the banks fail.

Let the businesses fail.

In other words, let it reset. Get us back to a REAL market instead of a paper one.

Let the bureaucracy fail. Get us back to a REAL understanding of the Constitution, because its founding principles and balances will save us.

Let people fall into each other's arms - REAL arms - instead of discouraging private charitable donations in order to force the helpless into the illusory, seductive, suffocating embrace of "government charity."

Let the market system - which has been squeezed into the ever-tighter corset of federal manipulation since the 1910s - breathe. That's the ONLY way that it will truly correct, and the BEST way that we can keep at least some of our personal and local resources intact for recovery.

Let people keep what they produce instead of confiscating it toward greater bureaucratic waste. Let them put it to use in their lives to help themselves and their neighbors get through this.

Stop spending money we don't have.

Stop devaluing our currency (not that the damage is reversible).

Stop subjugating future generations to foreign fuel and financiers.

Those are a few ideas off the top of my head for how to start to fix things. I don't think most people want to hear those ideas, though, which is why they voted for people who promised to "help" them instead.

Together, though, we CAN get through this failing mess. I can help those around me, and others can help those around them.

But it's going to be a heck of a lot harder if our increasingly ravenous government keeps reinforcing a culture of dependency by confiscating more of our resources and putting a lien on our future.

This is Interesting

A Trading Floor revolt?

It's about 5 minutes long, but it certainly is interesting to see someone in business openly voice concern about what "our" government is doing... almost as interesting as seeing the reactions of the anchors!

Oh - forgot: h/t Drudge

Update: Finally, an embeddable YouTube video (h/t: Code Monkey):

We Are NOT All Socialists.

Excuse me, Newsweek, but I have to disagree.

I try very hard to remain somewhat level-headed on this blog, but now is not a time for calm.

"We" are NOT all socialists.

In fact, I not only take that as a slur - I take it as a personal threat.

"We" NOTHING!!!

I am not, never have been, and NEVER WILL BE a SOCIALIST. I have too much respect and appreciation for the true government our founders set up!

NEVER will I surrender the innate gifts - freedom and accountability - that our founders were guided by GOD to protect with a new form of government.

A form of government that has been co-opted and corrupted by its enemies.

The people pushing this agenda aren't even socialists anymore - they're full-out communists. Government seeks to tell us everything we can and can't do: what we can and can't say, what medical care we may receive, how warm or cool we can keep our houses, how much we can drive, how much money we're allowed to make... all to make sure that THEY ALONE have the power! While they spew their lies and fly their jets to self-congratulatory banquets! Bunch of evil, EVIL hypocrites!!! Using orchestrated class warfare to finally separate us into a class of mediocres and their RULERS.

(Can you hear the bile? It's flowing, OH it's flowing now...)

This is the perversion of everything that America can represent! And it's possible because so many in this country have been falsely educated. The LIES we've been taught have reached maturity, and I'm truly afraid for society to reap the consequences.

NO, we are NOT all socialists.

But we're all going to suffer like them, likely by a razor-thin margin of passage.

I was never a fan of collective punishment in elementary school, and I'm REALLY not a fan of it now. I would betray my ancestors' courage and my child's trust by surrendering to this media-created tide. I will fight it in EVERY WAY I can.

How DARE you, CONGRESS?!?!

How DARE YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA?!?!

HOW DARE YOU, FELLOW CITIZENS?!?!?!?!

You would STEAL my CHILD'S FREEDOM and economic future for your own comfort and political aggrandizement?!?!

You COWARDS!

You use my tax dollars? You function the way you're supposed to.

You expect my support? You learn to READ THE CONSTITUTION.

You want my cooperation? You DON'T talk down to me like the threat you pose is some antiquated conspiracy theory, and I'm just too STOOOPID to understand reality.

But you want "socialism?" You take your evil, simultaneously namby-pamby and oppressive ideas somewhere else, and stay away from me.

Because I've read history, and I know what happens when a government gets as much power as you're trying to take.

And I will NOT remain silent while you destroy my son's future.

Welcome, President Obama

Quite an emotional inauguration! I caught the last half hour or so and saw the swearings-in.

(And might I add, heaven help us after the "digital transition" - the consistency of the signals we receive leaves quite a bit to be desired... analog gets fuzzy; digital gets full-out unwatchable.)

Truly a historic occasion. Our morning prayer was quite tender, and it was very moving to read people's faces on TV and see a little part of what this morning meant to them.

Perhaps I'll parse his speech later, but speeches are one thing, and speculating about what he means by which phrases won't mean nearly as much as watching what he does.

May God bless him with discernment, strength, and courage... and the rest of us likewise.

Okay, Tell Me These Are Unrelated.

FBI hiring spree

Obama wants a civilian national security force

Federal military training for civil defense (btw, the last word in the second linked article there should be "dissidents," not "decedents." I'm just sayin'.)

I'm going to have to start using cash more often, aren't I?

(Feel free to contribute your own "coming nanny state" links...)

Time to Get Our Houses in Order

Not "again."

STILL.

$700 billion has all of a sudden ballooned in size to $7.4 TRILLION. (h/t: Drudge)

Things are going to get a heck of a lot worse, a heck of a lot faster.

All I can say is to get your house solvent, because our country is not... and it will never be as long as our runaway government keeps promising more of our FUTURE INCOME.

Also, CALL your representatives, senators, and the President. Tell them to stop the madness. Do your part to fight this grand theft while you're still allowed to do so.

Mourning One of the Greats

Tony Snow died this morning.

I'm so glad that he's no longer in pain, but his family and his country will miss him terribly.

What a great, great man. Always gracious and straightforward. Brilliant. Devoted to his family. Devoted to his country. Defending his convictions with eloquence and wit. We don't have many like him around, and it remains to be seen whether anyone of his caliber will ever enter public service again.

For me, he represented one of the few glimmers of hope for genuine integrity and goodness in government.

I hope his spark has caught on.

Time to Start Paying Attention?

Here's the latest from Iran's nutjob president (and actually, he's been saying these same things for his entire presidency, but we haven't been hearing them on the 6 o'clock news):

I must announce that the Zionist regime, with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene

and then - (I can't believe he's actually been quoted accurately about this in media, although it's definitely not in the headline):

Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started.

Emphasis OBVIOUSLY mine.

And yet we're being pressured both internationally and intra-nationally to give this guy the freedom to develop his nukes! (Oh - I forgot - we can strenuously object in the UN...) You know, I'm pretty sure he's been saying just what he'd do with them; I wonder how people might feel if they actually realized he's not just talking about Israel...