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Name: Dennis Pemberton
Location: Largo, FL
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The Hill and Bill Show- #163 "You're Putin Me On."

Morning.  On a veranda.  Bill is wearing Toy Story jammies.  Hillary struggles into scene wearing bathrobe and disgusted expression.
Bill:  Wha'd I do now, Hill?
Hill:  For once, it's not you.  It's those #@$%^&* Russians!  And that cretin in the White House!
Bill:  The one you lost to?
Hill:  So help me, Bill, I'll strangle you with the belt of my bathrobe if you don't shut up!
Bill:  Just tryin' (she starts untying her robe)... Okay, Hill (she ties it back)
Bill: (under breath) Thank god for that...
Hill:  It's like he's running for President all over again... "You can't shake our hand unless you unclench your fist."  What kind of #@$%^&* is that?  Where's my bagel!
Bill: (starts spreading cream cheese on bagel)  Comin' up d-
Hill:  You hold your hand out to a Russian and they'll grab hold of it and kick you in the... (takes bagel) Oh, thanks.
Bill:  Your W-
Hill:  But that Chicago schmuck thinks it's working!  "See how much they like me?  Medvedev smiled at me."  Like he's some skinny pimple faced wallflower going gah gah over the captain of the football team, not the leader of the most powerful nation in the world!  And I make the twenty-hour trip to Moscow to get the payoff for disarming Eastern Europe, and I get bupkus!  Worse than bupkus!  They say they reserve the right to preemptive nuclear strikes!  And Mr. Who's-That-Good-Lookin'-Guy-in-the-Mirror just smiles like it's all part of the plan!  Plus I'm retaining water like the #@$%^&* Hoover Dam!
Bill:  I was going to say... No, don't untie that bathrobe!
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Alarum bells

At the end of the horrid movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" (or, as one of my high school teachers called it, "Bora, Bora, Bora"), Admiral Yamamoto stands on the deck of the Yamato as these words come onto the screen: ""I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."  Now the good Admiral may or may not have said that, but I think it is an apt description of what is happening now.  The incrementalism of post-LBJ liberalism caused us to doze through the past 30 years;  even as Reagan and 1994-2000 Bill Clinton reformed the government, it grew bit by bit, nibbling away at our freedoms on the margins- regulation, taxes, indoctrination in the schools, deterioration of the journalistic ethic, etc.  But the election of President Obama was the alarm clock which starts off with soothing beeps only to mature into a persistent, shrieking tone that could not be ignored.  We can't roll over any more, and even liberals have to face the personification of their ideals: the shrill tones of the entitlement culture, the monster from the liberal Id, one hand pointing proudly to self, the other pointing accusingly at us.  Now, the most selfish aspect of a selfish culture is being reappraised by Americans.  

Support for abortion has fallen below a majority.  Opposition is ascendant.  

We can attribute this to President Obama, but that's giving him more credit than he deserves.  One might say that Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol (sans the increasingly repellant Levi Johnston) highlighted a principled stand on life.  But I think that is giving her too much credit.  No, if this is a continuing trend, I believe the falling support for abortion would be emblematic of God working in us all.  Not directing us, but opening our hearts and minds to the decent, the proper, the unselfish, to what is right.  The fact that we are open to His call bodes well for our country, even as government threatens to overshadow liberty. 
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Joe Wilson and incivility

It is amazing that Joe Wilson's outburst is decried as a sign of decreasing civility, buffoonery, etc., when it occurred in the midst of a speech where the President variously called those who oppose him obstructionist, cynical, myopic, and (wait for it) dishonest. Apparently, the President only has to say he wants a civil debate, not actually engage in one, to get a pass.


More "Okay for thee, but not for me" from our Presidnet.


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Ted Kennedy's liberal Soul

Unable to completely whitewash Ted Kennedy's personal behavior, some attempt to place that swinish behavior on a scale, weighing his personal failures against his legislative "triumphs."  However, both his public and private life are of a piece, and are both related to the late Senator's liberal soul.  Whether he was thundering against the Iraq War (after supporting it) and undercutting the troops, or leaving a girl to drown in the back of his car while he slept off a bender;  whether he was throwing a waitress on top of Chris Dodd at La Brasserie prefatory to creating a senatorial sandwich, or crafting immigration legislation in the 60's that dehumanized both us and the Mexicans flocking across the Rio Grande, he was always true to himself.  He was selfish, and he thought little of people.  Oh, he always claimed to work on behalf of the little guy, but it was always on Ted's terms.  You will take his hand and let him lead you, or he will smack you with it for your impudence.  For he cared little about your liberty, just as he cared little for the dignity or lives of scores of women over the years.  And that is the essence of modern liberalism- They will deprive you of liberty, ostensibly to make your life better, but in reality to exercise power over you for the sake of exercising power over you.  Just as rape is less about sex than power, so too is liberal policy less about helping you than creating and maintaining a stranglehold on your freedom.

As an aside, Melissa Lafsky of HuffPo posted an article wondering if Mary Jo Kopechne would think that her death was "worth it."  In my response, I wrote:  

"Would she think what was worth what?  If you mean that his life was worth hers, she would not wonder about that, because her life was not given to save Kennedy's.  He left her to die.  However, you stumble upon something.  Would Mary Jo Kopechne, if she could see the future as she died, would she see that her death prevented Kennedy from becoming President, and think her death was worth that?

Or maybe, as she breathed the last cubic inch of air in that car, she damned his black soul to hell."

Perhaps predictably, the ardent defenders of the 1st Amendment at HuffPo would not post my response.
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HR 2300- part 1 of ??

In the next few posts, I'll put forth what I see as the worst parts of HR 2300, the health care "reform" bill which will make everything all better.  Today, we look at Section 116(a), which states:
  1. A qualified health benefits plan shall meet a medical loss ratio as defined by the Commissioner. For any plan year in which the qualified health benefits plan does not meet such medical loss ratio, QHBP offering entity shall provide in a manner specified by the Commissioner for rebates to enrollees of payment sufficient to meet such loss ratio.
Section 1173(b)(4) states that an acceptable loss ratio can't be less that .85.  What does all this mean?  It means that some bureaucrat in Washington gets to determine how much profit an insurance company can make.  If the insurance doesn’t lose a certain amount of money (at least 85% of premiums), they have to give the overage back.  The government controls the market by stating what kind of profits you can make.  We can see how this works in Florida, where insurers just pull out.  On a national level, one can assume they will just go out of business.
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Jenny Sanford- A Strong Woman; Dems have any of those?

Jenny Sanford.  Now that's a woman who knows the meaning of family values!  I think of Proverbs 31 and the lessons that David's mother taught him.  Then, I think if Chelsea Clinton and the Sanford boys.  Did Hillary model a strong woman or teach Chelsea the meaning of family and marriage when she publicly stood by and supported her husband who didn't even have the decency to admit his indiscretions?  I think not.  She showed that no matter what your own accomplishments or how many times your husband violates his marriage covenant, you should smile and put up with it.  What message does that send - - your husband can lie to you,  treat you like dirt, and defile your marriage bed figuratively if not literally.  Even the Bible sanctions divorce for adultery.

Mark Sanford broke his marriage vow.  He also failed to be the spiritual leader of his family.  Indeed, by spending father's day weekend with his mistress, he served as a stumbling block to his sons, failing to teach them what it means to be a father.  Even though he clearly failed to model being a Christian husband, he could have modeled being a good father - - at least as much as he could under the circumstances.  But no, he decided to forsake his impressionable boys and go for an international booty call.

Jenny Sanford.  Some might say she's cold, but I say "you go girl!"  She's talking about how important her marriage is to her and, God bless her, how she loves her man and wants him back, but she's also taking care of her children, showing them how important they are where their father is clearly not doing that.  She's recognizing that the Gov. is the problem in the marriage and that it's up to him whether or not they can work through this.  While I think I'd be inclined to kick my husband to the curb with a "no returns excepted" sign, I admire her stand and what she's doing.  Now, if she immediately goes out on a husband hunt like Kate of Jon & Kate, I'll have as little respect for her as I do for Hillary Clinton.

But for now, although I don't encourage human role models, particularly those in the political arena, Mrs. Sanford stands head and shoulders above those women like Mrs. Clinton who stood by their lying, cheating, skanks of husbands.
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United Caliphate of America

"Now, the flip side is I think that the United States and the West generally, we have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam. And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslims Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. And so there's got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples."

Everything that is wrong about the President and his administration is encapsulated in these three sentences.  He thinks we're ignorant, and lectures us not to be ignorant.  Mind you, usually when someone takes the trouble to learn about Islam and the freedom crushing regimes it has spawned, then tries to talk about it- they're labeled ignorant.  Then, he exhibits his own ignorance.  The United States is in no way one of the largest Muslim countries.  Not in terms of numbers of Muslims, not in terms of land mass, not in terms of overall population, not in terms of governmental orientation (unless the President is going to cop to being a Muslim).  And of course, the answer to everything is talk, talk, talk.  Unless you're an American (see GM bondholders) or American ally (see Israel).  In those cases, bring on the Chicago sharp elbows, character assassination, and threats.  Finally, the media is either blissfully ignorant or conspiratorially silent about the whole episode.

We'll see what happens when he apologizes for firebombing Nazis.
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Aaaargh, methinks we've got a yellow one here!

 

The response of the Obama administration to the seizing of an American merchant vessel for the first time in over two hundred years led to quick action.  Ducking, to be precise:  Washington (AP) - President Barack Obama has declined to answer questions about the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia.  The president was asked about the incident as he met with U.S. homeowners about refinancing mortgages. At the close of a Roosevelt Room event, the president was asked by a reporter if he were concerned about the piracy incident. Obama responded: "Guys, we're talking about housing right now."  The new Secretary of State, perhaps bereft of an explanation that blamed the United States for the incident, gave a strongly non-committal "We are watching this very closely..."  For the sake of God, Mom, and Apple Pie, is this what we've come to?  All the news stories talk about the difficulty of patrolling such a large area, too much water, too many ships... blah, blah, blah.  

Come on, it's not like there's no historical precedent here!  In 1801, the Dey of Tripolitania wrote Thomas Jefferson a note congratulating him on becoming President and to demanding 250 grand to refrain from capturing American vessels and selling their crews into slavery (Why?  because, as his representatives had earlier told Adams and Jefferson, we're Muslims, you're not).   TJ, despite having a Navy a twentieth the size of President Obama's, told him thankee very much, let's sees how you like a blockade.  For a year, commerce into Tripoli was shut down, and the Dey eventually agreed to return all the vessels and sailors.  


Why can't we do something similar now?  Because it would take a small amount of spine, and would not be "smart power," but "grab-them-by the-throats-until-they-squeak-out-'Uncle!' power."  Anything that has the whiff of American exceptionalism is passe'.  God Save the United States of America, because He's about the only one who can.

 



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Willy the Shake and O-topia

From Henry IV, pt 2;  Act IV, Scene 2:
 
JACK CADE.
Be brave, then; for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be in England seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer: all the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass: and when I am king,- as king I will be,-

ALL.
God save your majesty!

JACK CADE.
I thank you, good people:- there shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.
The audiences in Elizabethan England laughed long and hard at this, a fool describing how he would legislate Utopia.  Now, the agenda of the Blamer in Chief is hailed as visionary, and all who dare laugh at him are mocked themselves.  All hail!
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AIG and the Bolsheviks

Herbert Hoover started out as a mining engineer, who specialized in turning around failing mines, both their output, and their operations.  One of his projects was to revive a failing mine in Czarist Russia.  He found that they were using the wrong kind of furnaces, brought in experts from the United States, and realigned the mine using newer, more sophisticated processing equipment.  The output of the mine, upon which 100,000 people depended for their livelihood, increased greatly, and the workers' wages were raised 25%.  The the Bolsheviks took over.  They gave everybody a 100% raise, kicked out the Americans, and executed the Russian engineers.  The new equipment failed in a week.  Everyone was destitute.

Now our political class, mostly Democrats, and its terror arm, ACORN, has seen fit to demonize employees of AIG.  While no one's being executed, the employee's livelihoods and personal security are being threatened.  So they're leaving AIG.  And the company that was "too big to fail" now has no one to run it.  There is an immutable law that actions have consequences.  It is a law of God which the godless Bolsheviks and the State worshipping Left thought they could avoid by fiat.  It may have felt good to kill the Czarists, and it may feel good to attack Wall Streeters, but they're the ones who know how things work, and you can't replace people like that with Hope and Change.
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The Problem with Michael Steele

There is a scene in "Grand Torino" where the Hmong girl's white boyfriend tries to ingratiate himself to some black fellows.  He has his hat on sideways, his pants are loose, he drops the "hey bro's" and flicks his hand around with a ghetto salute.  And he just looks stupid.  

That white guy is Michael Steele.  His urbanized patois is inauthentic, and his glib, easy manner betrays a lack of substance.  He's a black guy trying really hard to be a black guy, and it comes off lame.  He's a dork, uncomfortable in either world he wants to inhabit, and he is ineffective as a result.  We don't need a spokesman for the conservative message who doesn't even know himself.
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Post from the Missus- The Obama Legacy


Robin Givhan on Michelle Obama's arms and arm-baring wrote, "[t]hose arms represent personal time. They are evidence of a forty-five-year-old woman’s refusal to give up every free moment in service to husband, kids, and all the nagging distractions that could have filled her days and left her tuning in to “Oprah,” trying to figure out how she’d lost herself along the way. The arms imply vanity and power: two things that make many women uncomfortable and yet are fundamental to self-confidence."  "Michelle Obama reminds women that they can make a place for vanity in their lives, and that, when they do, a little fashion can be supremely empowering."

According to Merriam Webster, Vanity means, "something that is vain, empty, or valueless."  The third definition is "inflated pride in oneself or one's appearance."  It took President Clinton more than one term in the Oval Office to teach our kids that sex is how you personally define it- so go ahead, go all the way, go part of the way, just don't go to whatever arbitrary line you label "sexual relations" and you can claim virginity, deny adultery, or otherwise pretend you're not morally vapid if not completely immoral.  Yet in less than 55 days in the White House, Michelle Obama has taught the youth of America to ignore timeless tradition, equate being a devoted wife and mother with losing one's self, and elevate vanity to a virtue.

In discussing communism and the persecution of Christians in China, my daughter was asking how our missionary friends could spot "fake Christians" the Party spies posing as Christians to infiltrate home churches and report back to the government.  I told her that being a true Christian was more than professing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior - - true Christianity could be detected through close scrutiny of one's life.  I told her that it's easy to talk the talk, but harder to walk the walk.  The Lord will walk beside you wherever you go.  Even if you're not walking with Him, He's walking with you.  But when you're walking with the Lord, you work hard not to take Him places that cause Him anger or sorrow.

A dedicated wife and mother who finds herself through the giving of herself to her family is a priceless treasure.  As the Bible says in Proverbs 31: 10 "[a]excellent wife, who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels." (NASB)  Although, according to the characterizations of Ms. Givhan, Michelle Obama is not a Proverbs 31 woman, worth far more than jewels, Ms. Givhan's characterization is correct.  Perhaps Proverbs 22:8 sheds light on the ways of Ms. Obama (and her husband for that matter), stating, "[h]e who sows iniquity will reap vanity."  Taking money from the hardworking and giving it to those who made bad choices or lived beyond their means, sows iniquity.  Charging veterans for the care they receive at the V.A. hospital sows iniquity.  Turning state constitutions inside out and giving legislators veto power over governors who decide not to take stimulus money, sows iniquities.

None can really doubt the vanity of President and Mrs. Obama.  The President with his chin stuck up in the air and his unnatural reliance on teleprompters for every little public speech.  Michelle baring her arms at every opportunity, showing a complete lack of decorum and respect by attending a special joint session of Congress dressed as if she's going to a cocktail party.  We the American people elected vanity and iniquities we will reap.

The left's worship of the Obamas has probably done more to advance the feminist agenda than anyone or anything since Roe v. Wade.  Now, not only do we applaud women who abort their babies, but we applaud women who flaunt their vanity and applaud them, even as we admit that they carve out time away from precious families to chase after emptiness and conceit.  Taking time to work out is important, I should do it more often, because a healthy wife and mother has a much greater life expectancy.  I don't begrudge Ms. Obama her work-out time, but I do begrudge the message she is sending with her vanity.  If the left recognizes and applauds her vanity, I'm not the only one who recognizes it. Perhaps I was just ahead of the curve two weeks ago when I spoke with my Sunday school girls about modesty and used Ms. Obama's improper attire as an example of immodesty and pridefulness. :) 

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Smartest President... Everrrrr!!!!!

To justify spending tax dollars to kill embryos to make our lives better, President Obama said yesterday that "Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident."  I know that he's the smartest President ever, much smarter than that dolt Bush, but the depth of his ignorance of history is breathtaking.  Probably the greatest medical miracle, penicillin, was discovered by a guy who didn't clean his petri dish.  Quinine, the miracle treatment for malaria, was discovered by a thirsty Andean with a fever.  The discovery of smallpox vaccination was initiated by a milkmaid who noticed that people who got cowpox didn't get smallpox.  Roentgen discovered x-rays quite by accident while noodling around with cathode rays.  

He's either ignorant of history, or thinks you are, and is trying to fool you.  I think it is actually a large measure of both.  But man, can he read a teleprompter!
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FSU, the NCAA, and Liberal Fascism

One of the hallmarks of autocratic regimes is the way they rewrite history.  Ernst Rohm was one of Hitler's ablest lieutenants, effusively praised, until he became inconvenient and was erased (both figuratively and literally).  And Kremlin watchers from the Cold War and before remember the Communists' use of the airbrush as a political weapon.  One minute, Molotov;  a little airbrush and Molotove no more!  

The NCAA's recent actions confirmed what Jonah Goldberg has written about in Liberal Fascism.  Since Woodrow Wilson, the University has been a hotbed of Fascistic Socialism- the belief that one group of people, because of their progressivist intellect, are entitled to tell the rest of us what to do.  And, because they are so enlightened, the apex of human intelligence, they are to a large extent exempt from old fashioned concepts like morality.  Or history.  So when the NCAA, made up of University Presidents who no doubt despise athletics even as it dumps millions into their coffers, decided this weekend to strip Florida State of victories already won, it was acting according to form and inclination.  "Progressives" like nothing better than altering history, from FDR making the Depression longer than it had to be, to JFK being a civil rights martyr, to Barack Obama's leftist affiliations.  So, by taking the airbrush to Florida State's victories, the NCAA is indulging in the fetishistic hobby of the elite- making our past disappear, so they can tell us what was, what is, and what will be.

And before you Gators chime in, remember... "First they came for the Seminoles, and I said nothing, for I was not a Seminole..."
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Classy Guy, Our President...

From British newspaper The Daily Mail:

Gordon Brown has been given a collection of 25 classic American films on DVD as his official gift from Barack Obama. 

The Prime Minister flew home from his successful trip to Washington this morning with the 'special collector's box' of films hidden in his luggage. 

No 10 had tried to keep the present a secret, refusing to answer reporters who asked what President Obama had given to mark the reaffirmation of the special relationship.

However, the London Evening Standard reported, the prime minister received the collection of DVDs as his gift. 

It is not known which DVDs were included, but one is thought to be the Dreamworks film Toy Story.

One reason for the secrecy might be that the gift seems markedly less generous and thoughtful than the presents taken to Washington by the Prime Minister. 

Mr Brown's gifts included an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President. 

Mr Obama was so delighted he has already put it in pride of place in the Oval Office on the Resolute desk which was carved from timbers of Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute. 


 

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