Happy Thanksgiving

To quote the greatest Holiday movie ever made: I have plenty to be Thankful for.

Mendacity

Putting JFK into perspective

Thank goodness "that" is over. At least for this year. By "that" I mean the annual revisionist telling of the day that shook the world; the killing of President Kennedy. In the multiple and unending retelling of the JFK life somehow much is forgotten or left out of the tale. In the various retrospectives I missed the part where John was sent to the Pacific after it was noticed he was cavorting around Washington with a known Nazi spy during The Big One. Or somehow we have forgotten JFK was elected President with election shenanigans that would make even the most hard-core "Bush Stole the election" fanatic sit up and exclaim "Now that is how it is done". Should I mention how Kennedy's indecisiveness and withholding air cover doomed the Bay of Pigs invasion? Should we discuss how he got us involved in Vietnam against the advice of the Joint Chiefs? Do Democrats decry his military excursions into the Congo? It is funny how the documentaries gloss over the serial affairs and adultery. The whole Camelot in the White House scenario only works if you cast JFK as the philandering Guinevere.

Recent polls reveal JFK was voted the best president of the twentieth century. At the time of his death he was in a severe re-election fight. There was no guarantee he would get the party nomination or re-election. Like Obama, people liked him, but thought he was a lousy Chief Executive. At the risk of scorn and abuse, I maintain that like Elvis, dying was a great career move for JFK. He was imminently more popular on November 23 than he was on November 22, 1963 when he was murdered by a communist loser.

I suppose you can claim I was but a tot when the world lost JFK, so my perspective is off. Yet, in the end, history never lies, only historians.

Weekend Funny

Weekend Funny

Friday Music

If you were in school in the dinosaur days of the 1970's you likely danced with your chick or dude to this tune.

Slow dance? Fast dance? It is right in the middle. What say we get something to drink and make out?

Head Scratchin'

100,000,000 Americans will lose their insurance by this time next year so 30 million can have insurance. Only an economically challenged Democrat could devise such a plan,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends...

The Constitution of The United States is the Supreme Law of the Land. The President must make an oath agreeing to uphold the Constitution. According to Article Two, Section One, Clause Eight:

Before he enters on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:— “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

According to that same Constitution, and supported by an excellent School House Rock presentation, 

Congress passes a bill, the President signs it and the bill becomes a law. No individual Congressman, Senator, or President has the power to make law, change a law, or void a law. failure to enforce a law puts the President in violation of his oath and the Constitution.

The Constitution is deliberately designed with a balance of power. The Congress makes law, The Courts interpret the law, the Executive branch carries it out. You should have learned this is 9th grade civics. The President is not a king, he cannot dictate law, or change a law.  He is a chief executive, no more. The founders just fought a war to get rid of a king, and wanted no part of another.

As pointed out by Mr. B, when the President fails to obey a law, why should the average Joe? Look, ObamaCare is a disaster. Without arguing the merits of the idea, the law itself is poorly written and conceived. But it is not up to the President to determine what parts of the law he likes and doesn't. Failure to enforce the law as written is grounds for impeachment.

The President may have slammed back a tumbler of bathtub gin during Prohibition, but he still sent Elliott Ness out to enforce the law. It can be no other way. Enforce the Law until it is changed legally by Congress. There is no second option. No matter how much ObamaCare it hurts you, me or my neighbor it is the law. We cannot live in a free society when the President functions like a King.

Are you kidding me?

I checked into my hotel this evening after a six hour drive through some of the most boring terrain on Earth. I put down my bag and padded into the bathroom to take a piss. I flushed, washed my hands and watched the clogged toilet overflow on to the floor.

If my life has to be a rerun, why can't it be repeatedly getting laid?

Sh*%ing bricks

It appears I need to back off the fiber a bit. I managed to plug up the toilet in the hall bathroom completely. The stoppage is not composed of toilet paper either.  Even Sheryl Crowe would have thought my few squares was appropriate. I have plunged and plunged and plunged. The blockage is solid (heh, solid). I even went to get a better, more efficient plunger late last night (these things never happen in the middle of the afternoon, do they?) but it has not fared any better. I hoped gravity and time would help, so I left it overnight, but the toilet failed to flush this morning. I suppose I will plunge for a while more then I am going to have to call a plumber.

It is time to step up and be the Boss

Firing employees is never pleasant, even when they deserve it. As one boss told me years ago, anyone can pass out raises, the reason we pay you to be a manager is to do the unpleasant stuff.

It is no secret and undeniable that President Obama was lacking in executive experience when he was elected to office. Even his most ardent supporters have to agree. That lack of experience is evident in his failure to hold those under him accountable for failure.  The complete disaster of the ObamaCare website is inexcusable. If Obama's underlings filed to inform him the website was not ready, as he claims, they should be fired. Even if Sebelius did tell Obama, she should be canned anyway. This roll-out surpasses even the New Coke debacle as the worst product launch in history. 

It is often said the Government is the landing place for those who cannot make it in the private sector. Make no doubt, if the CEO of a company had made the promises of Obama, he would be in jail for fraud (see Bernie Madoff). If any executive had performed like Sebelius, she would have been fired already.

Weekend Funny

Friday Music -- ObamaCare version

Yep, The Obama is sorry.  Not so sorry he will back away from his eponymous disaster, though.  He is just sorry we are all screwed. Just sorry so many actually believed his filthy lies.

Too bad for you. Too bad for me.

Riveting

I could rant about the failures of ObamaCare and offer up a slop bucket of I Told You So. But you are already on board that train. In reality I have a big old bag of nothin' to offer you today. Perhaps something will occur to me later, but I doubt it. You are not interested in my tales of window coverings and decorating.  Hell, I am bored by it all at this point.

say, you tech savvy readers might help me out. Is there such a thing as an ethernet hub, or a multiplug for an ethernet cable?  My modem needs one more port to connect everything at once. I can find out by a quick internet search or a trip to Radio Shack/Best Buy/Frye's. I just have not started looking for answers yet since the problem only came up this morning when I tried to connect the ancient steam powered desktop dinosaur to the interwebz.

Winter is coming

I wanted a house with mature trees. Now I have a billion and seven leaves on my yard. The rain and wind yesterday brought down many who still stubbornly held on to their wooden perches high above the ground. Golden and brown they flew through the air under cloudy skies. A thin dusting of snow covered them in the evening hours. Winter is upon us. Now I have a soggy mess I need to clean up at some point. Mostly I was waiting on the big maple out front to finally turn and shed its leaves and now it is doing so in massive quantities. Still, I love living on a property with trees, even though my slice of heaven is pretty small, even for an urban setting.

The garage is still full of...stuff...waiting to be unpacked and distributed. It is mostly the wife's knick knacks, baskets, pictures, etc. There is also sundry garage type stuff, tools, cushions for the outdoor chairs, coolers, baseball bags, brooms, tennis rackets; the detritus we all collect. I just have not found their proper place yet. In a few weeks we will be dragging the Christmas decoration boxes out of the attic and that will only add to the clutter.

I'm OK with it all. Life has been pretty good. I just keep waiting on the other shoe to drop. A lifetime pf pessimism is hard to shed.

Thank You

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month...

Thank you Veterans. Your service ensures my freedom.

Weekend Funny

WTF?

I can not believe how many people have their houses decorated for Christmas already.

Friday Music

I think this is a beautiful song

The Democrats are responsible

www.photos.com

This is one of the 10, 30, 20, 40 million uninsured prior to the implementation of ObamaCare. He had access to health care, Reagan signed that law. This uninsured man got his healthcare for free if he could not afford it at any emergency room or hospital. But he did not have insurance and that is why we needed to destroy the healthcare system in the United States according to the Democrats who passed ObamaCare. The 90%+ who had insurance they liked, doctors they liked, plans they liked are now finding out that President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid were liars. I guess when President Obama promised us twenty-plus times our premiums who go down by $2,500 a year he misspoke. Thinking there are 57 states after a long day of campaigning is an error. Telling us multiple times our premiums are going down is an outright falsehood.

Guess what? The guy in the picture still will not be covered under ObamaCare. Do you think this guy is going to a computer to sign up for the exchanges? Is he calling in to the phone banks? Do you think he is filing taxes? Do you think he is paying the tax if he fails to sign up? Me neither.

A massive failure to launch

If you have read here for more than a month or two you know I like to be right. I am not shy about pointing it out, either. I can crow and you liberals can eat the same when it comes to ObamaCare.  Everything the critics said about the law is coming true. It is a disaster. It is a failure. It is an expensive Exhibit A for the what goes wrong when Big Government gets involved. At this point we should have just given a few thousand bucks to every supposedly uninsured in the country and we would all be better off.

If the Stupid Party had been behind such a disaster the Democrats Liberals Progressives Hypocrites on the Left would be marching and wailing in near apoplectic rage. Instead liberal bloggers are as quiet as church mice as their dream slowly turns into a nightmare. I am not surprised. Most liberals lack the character and moral fortitude to actually criticize their own. To their credit, that is why they win elections.  When you lack a strong moral foundation it is far easier to hold your nose and pull the lever in the voting booth.

Next year they will start on Labor day

I watched the Sunday Night Football Game on NBC last night. I was appalled. I am not talking about the Colts play in the first three quarters either (that was plain disgusting). No, I lost count of the number of Christmas and New Year's themed commercials. The Halloween candy is not even put away yet. I love Christmas as much as anybody, but sheesh, can't we have a week or two without a holiday theme in the commercials?  Can't we agree to hold off on the Christmas marketing until mid-November?

Is it Possible

Do you think, somewhere in the deepest recesses of his narcissistic mind President Obama is furious over the failures of ObamaCare and wishes he had instead encourage media, government officials and the public at large to call it the Affordable Care Act instead? Do you think he has screamed at Sebelius and told her "This is named after ME!  Make it work. I won't have this mess as my legacy."

Nah, Liberals can never see their shortcomings. They see Venezuela and Cuba as worker's paradises and a great success.

It fits like a well-made suit

On a whim we went to look at a house back in April. The wife saw it depicted in an open house ad in the local paper. We looked. We liked. We looked again. We offered and lost out on the house in a bidding war. We were disappointed, but we were not even looking for a new abode at the time. We then started looking at more houses.  Lots of houses, including every single suitable (and some not so suitable) in the town where we lived.

My daughter suggested we look at homes on the North side of Indy. She pointed out we had no ties to the town where we lived except for residing there 24 years -- no family, few friends. Moving to the North side made a lot of sense. It was closer to two of my three kids and no further for the one in college. It was closer to both of our families who live in North Central Indiana. Plus there was a much better selection of homes for sale. To my surprise, despite being one of the fastest growing cities and counties in the nation, housing prices were more reasonable than in my small town! The laws of supply and demand work even in Indiana!

We looked and looked and looked. Finally we made an offer on a house. It was more than we wanted to pay, but we liked the house. I thought my wife loved it, so I went along. The day the offer was accepted I had regrets. Big regrets. The house cost too much and had many of the shortcomings we had found in other properties. But the spouse loved the place. Until she mentioned after the inspections that she wished we had not bought the house. She mentioned the price, the shortcomings and said she went along 'cause she thought I loved the place. What we had here was a failure to communicate. We backed out of the deal. We pissed off a lot of people. We lost a lot of money, but better to lose money than spend hundreds more every month for years on a house you do not want.

The view from my "office" window

The wife went back to the internet searches. She found one that looked intriguing. The daughter drove over for an outside glimpse and said we would love it. We drove up and took a twilight look at the outside. The shorten a very long story we bought the house. It was perfect as a home we could get in our price range.

From the first day, weeks before we moved in, the house has been comfortable. I showed up to paint and never felt like I was in a strange home. The first night we slept here the place felt like we had been here for years. There are still boxes all about. The wife has not done her decorating. But I have not felt so 'at home' in a long time.

Stuff happens for a reason.

In the mood

I may be in the mood for love, but not for blogging. Read some of the links over there on the right.

Have a great Saturday

A short / medium length post wherein I ramble a bit and provide some Friday Music

How about a little of the Floyd for Friday music? None of the "The Wall" commercial nonsense, either.

It is done, we are out of the southern homestead lock, stock and barrel. Does anyone say that anymore? Sometimes I trot forth an anachronistic phrase and my kids and co-workers look at me like I am crazy. For example a few weeks ago one of the marketing guys told me not to worry about a certain event. I told him it would roll off me "like water on a duck's back". He thought that was the weirdest thing he had ever heard. He claimed no one in his life had uttered such a phrase in his presence.  He allowed it must be a Hoosier thing. I submit he is far poorer for language since he lives in New Yawk (albeit upstate). Now I am concerned  I routinely speak in an unique AppalachianHoosierAmishRedneck dialect.

It rained in buckets last night. The weather girl said we had the equivalent of a Midwestern hurricane with 70 mph winds, very low pressure and drenching rains. There were no coconuts flying through the air to smash windows like nature's cannonballs though. Besides, the storm moved through faster than a hurricane does. A mere couple of hours and the worst of it had passed.