So who's the racist. . .

Michelle Williams is the Tampa Bay- St Petersburg New Black Panther Party Chapter Chief of Staff.  This is what she said in a phone call to the members:

"I just want to say to all the listeners on this phone call, that if you are having any doubt about getting suited, booted, and armed up for this race war that we’re in that has never ended, let me tell you somethin…the thing that’s about to happen these honkies, these crackers, these pigs, these pink people, these motherf*er purple people…it has been long overdue.”

No excuse, absolutely no excuse for this.

Idiot Savants

It turns out that the word pundit has a Hindi origin and means a learned person or expert. And a synonym for pundit is savant. I was watching the Super Tuesday results last night and was struck by the stupidity of the pundits on CNN. I will concede that many pundits on both sides of the political spectrum qualify as idiots but wow, Hilary Rosen on CNN was the poster girl last night.

I spent most of my time watching on FoxNews but was enjoying the race between them and CNN to see who could update Ohio results faster. CNN had their pundits in-house to analyze the results.   As CNN dissected Ohio county be county it became obvious that Rick Santorum was cleaning up in rural counties and Mitt Romney won the major, urban counties.

This fact led Hilary Rosen to deduce that this will be a problem for the Republicans in the general election, if Romney is the candidate, because the urban counties are where Obama is strong. She is absolutely entitled to her opinion but she, as all pundits today do, states this as a indisputable fact and no one else on the CNN panel even questions it! (speak up Ari Fleischer)

How about this scenario? Those rural counties in Ohio trend pretty strongly Republican. They are not at all likely to vote for Obama no matter who is opponent is. So Mitt Romney will get their votes plus a fair share from the urban counties. This would actually be a good thing for Republicans. And not a peep out of the other pundits at the table.

Democratic pundits like Hilary Rosen are trying to frame the election by making suspect analysis like this seem like absolute fact and all of the other pundits just fall in line. We should just start calling them savants instead of pundits. That way the term idiot will just roll off the tongue.

You are what you do

They say you are what you eat but my recent experience has me believing my slogan more. I had open heart surgery on 11/30 and have been recovering ever since. It kind of beats the crap out of you so you don't do much for six+ weeks.  That made me a very boring person.

We are a collection of our experiences. So while I sat here all this time with my only experiences being catching up on Everybody Loves Raymond and the incessant Law and Order marathons, I found it hard to engage in meaningful conversations with family and friends.

I had a valid excuse to be a couch potato but once I recover - watch out world. I can't wait to re-engage you. I'm sure I've been called a lot of things in my life but boring was never one of them. I aim to make sure it stays that way.

Unfortunately my re-emergence will be delayed because I have to go back in the hospital for two follow up surgeries but at least now I have something to look forward to!

Too many damn people

As Thanksgiving Day approaches I look forward to our yearly tradition of 30 or so of my favorite in-laws celebrating with us at our house. It is always fun. I also enjoy the inevitable political discussions I will have with my father-in-law. He used to get me with the old “It’s not fair to the poor” argument. I silenced him with my eventual reply (several years in the making) of “you’re right it’s not – it sucks to be poor. Let’s help them not be poor”.

I am expecting him to have new ammo for me this year so I figure I need a new comeback. I’m going to go with there are just “Too many damn people”. Let’s see how he responds to that! Let’s look at some facts:

The world population is up to 7 billion and still growing. The US population is up to 300 million, probably doesn’t include several million illegal immigrants, and is still growing. So you see it’s an easy and effective argument killer.

Climate change
We’re using up all of our planet’s resources. We’re producing too many greenhouse gasses.

Too many damn people

Energy
We’re using too many fossil fuels.  Gas prices are too high.  Alternative energy can’t fulfill our needs.

Too many damn people

The National Debit
We have too many entitlement recipients - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid – people are living too long.

Too many damn people

Unemployment
Not too few jobs but, you guessed it –

Too many damn people

Wow, this may work for any argument. The important thing about this comeback is that no one, and I mean no one, will be willing to say out loud the one thing that will defeat the reasoning. Why? Because they’ll have to admit we need to eliminate a billion or so people worldwide and put in population controls. That would stop the dinner conversation wouldn’t it? Only China is allowed to do that.

So after this year’s engaging Thanksgiving discussions, and all the relatives have left our house, I expect my daughters will be complaining about cleaning up the mess. And you know what I’m going to say . . .

Too many damn people

All the best to you and yours this Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

Fair is a place where you get cotton candy

I am tired of all the talk about fairness. I’m afraid we’re going to hear it for another 13 months. It appears to be Obama’s re-election campaign slogan. It is a great tagline but what does it really mean?

The problem is that “Fair” is not an absolute. It is riddled with personal and circumstantial bias. Is it fair that a bank shouldn’t be allowed to make a profit but Apple can? Everyone applauds Steve Jobs for everything he did to change the world (and we should) but guess what – he made billions doing it. Is that fair? Maybe Apple should sell their products for less so more people can afford them. That seems fair to me.

While we’re at it, Hollywood should base movie ticket prices on our income level. If a progressive tax system is fair then why not a progressive movie ticket price? Paying $8 to $10 to see a movie is a bigger sacrifice to someone living at the poverty level. Are you listening Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn?

We need to get back to the truest of all of life’s axioms – Life is not fair.

There’s a great quote that has been attributed to many people over the years - “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor – rich is better”. The bottom line is that it sucks to be poor”. If it didn’t we’d all be poor. There’d be no incentive to be rich. I don’t know if that’s fair or not but that’s the way it is and must be in a free society.

We must do what we can to help the poor rise up but government directed redistribution of wealth is not the answer. Either is creating a rift in this country between the haves and have nots. That’s not leadership it’s just campaigning.

So if you want the cotton candy, go to the fair; but bring your wallet because it’s not free.

So now he's a racist!

I watched in amazement the last couple of years as the Republicans put forth female candidates.  I thought that the enlightened, forward thinking (dare I say progressive) liberal media would have given them a fair shake.  And the equal rights touting, bra burning NOWers would have as well.  I was quite surprised at the backlash they all received.  The incredible furor of Sarah Palin could not be matched but they sure tried with Michelle Bachmann.  I am in no way endorsing either woman but the vitriol and biased reporting stunned me.

So you would think I would not be surprised when this same "enlightened" group went after Herman Cain so quickly.  But alas I was.  The moment Cain showed significant positive movement in the polls, the hate and fear mongers came out, and came out loud.  Janeane Garofalo was quick to talk nonsense about Cain being paid to run to hide the Republican racist agenda.  She couldn't give a black man credit for being his own man with his own ideas?  And who's the racist?

Then Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher (whoever he is) called Herman Cain a racist because he suggested that the African American community was brainwashed into voting for Obama.  Ok maybe Herman should have said fooled into voting for Obama (like half of America was) but still - a racist?  I tried to give liberals (and the press that covers them) the benefit of the doubt once - but not anymore.  They will use any tactic they can, no matter how low, to discredit a challenger to the Messiah.  All this even after Obama has repeatedly shown he does not, nor never did, walk on water.

Just remember - when you are discussing politics with someone, and they throw the racist term in your face - you've won.

I tried to stay out of this, but. . .

I keep hearing all the talk about raising the debt ceiling.  Of course we have to raise it so America does not default, cause a financial crisis, and effectively destroy the human race!  But raise it at what cost?  I like to use analogies to make sense of complicated issues.  I relate the country's finances to those of the average household.  If you get in trouble with your credit card and hit the limit you can easily contact the bank and ask them to raise your debt ceiling.  Usually they'll be more than happy to do so. 

Is that going to solve your household budgeting problem?  No.  Most families cannot appreciably raise the amount of revenue they bring in (especially in this economy) so what to do, what to do.  To solve the problem you have to cut spending and actually live below your means.

The government has the unique opportunity to raise more revenue (in theory) by raising taxes.  (I tend to believe this actually does not raise revenue but I'll save that for another post)  But should they?  Isn't that like giving more crack to the addict?  We have to break the cycle of outrageous over spending.  Both parties have contributed to this in the past so there is plenty of blame to go around.  But now one party is saying No - we are not going to give you more revenue, just make the necessary cuts. 

In the end I believe a deal will be struck and, yes, the Republicans will have to give a little, but hold firm to your principles people and let's get our fiscal household under control.