Memoral Day

Today we remember those who have given their lives in service to our country. We would not have the freedoms that we enjoy and take for granted if it were not for their sacrifice.



Because of you, I'm free.

House Republicans - Stay Strong!!!

Yesterday, the Senate passed its Amnesty Bill. (Yes, I know, it's really called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, but it has nothing to do with immigration.) Truly, it's an awful thing. And to list all of the reasons why it's an awful thing would take an awfully long time. But, at least, I can start.

Here are Senator Jim DeMint's "Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the Senate Amnesty Bill". Incredible stuff. He links to the article in the New York Times by Ed Meese that compares the 2006 Amnesty Bill to the 1986 Amnesty Bill.

Here are Senator Charles Grassley's "TOP 10 FLAWS WITH AMNESTY AND GUEST WORKER OF COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL". Senator Grassley voted for the 1986 Amnesty Bill. To quote Senator Grassley:

I was burned once in 1986 when I voted for amnesty believing that it would solve our problems. Now, we have a 12 million illegal immigrant problem. I'm not getting burned again.

Oh, did you hear? The bill contains a provision requiring Mexico to be consulted and giving them veto power concerning any new border wall construction. I am not joking.

But most of all, Jimmy Carter, our nation's worst president, likes it. Short of the hand of Almighty God ripping this bill to shreds, I can think of no better way to show its worthlessness.

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All of this and more, most of you probably know. But, for some reason, many of our Republican politicians — my beloved President Bush included — have decided to turn their deaf ear toward those of us who simply want our nation protected and our borders treated as . . . well, borders. After all, it is one of the specified duties of Congress listed in Article I Section 8 of our nation's constitution. It's not rocket science. Thankfully, there are Republicans in the House of Representatives who share the desire to see our southern border treated as a border once again and not as a sieve. Since the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed two different versions of what is supposed to be the same bill, a conference committee will be formed with the goal of producing a compromise bill that can be passed by both houses and forwarded to President Bush for his signature and enactment into law.

So, from my humble corner of the cyberuniverse, I wish to send the House Republicans a message:

Stay Strong!!!
Do NOT compromise!
Seal the border FIRST.

And if, because you are uncompromising, you are labeled as stubborn or racists or "nativists", don't worry. We know you are doing the right thing. We know you are doing the job we sent you to Washington, D.C. to do. Let the Liberals and the McCainiacs squeal all they need to. We need you to do the right thing.

A few days ago, I told you of my imaginary dinner with President Bush and the First Lady, and how my imagination wouldn't let me finish the dinner after my first question. Now I know why; I hate nightmares.

His Grace is Still Sufficient for Me

A month ago, I wrote about my little girl's onset of Juvenile Diabetes.

And our first month has been relatively easy. My daughter has taken to her new lifestyle quite handily. We have regulated her blood sugar readings from the too common 300s down to an average range of 100-150. She does her own blood tests when needed (four times a day) without crying and takes her shots very well with some discomfort occasionally. All in all, she seems to be a professional already.

Thank you so much for your prayers for her and for our family. Our first diabetic check-up is later today; I'll provide an update then.

UPDATE - My son's A1c blood test was 7.0 and my daughter's was 8.6. This is a wonderful number for my son. It's a high number for my daughter, but she was over 10 when she was admitted to the emergency room last month, so this is a good report and a good trend.

New Orleans: Stuck on Stupid

The citizens of New Orleans . . . well, that's not right. Let me try that again.

Some people who currently live in New Orleans and some people who claim to have formerly lived in New Orleans but who actually live in other towns (is this a great country or what?) voted yesterday in the New Orleans Mayoral run-off election. The result: New Orleans is "Stuck on Stupid."

A majority of New Orleanians chose . . . oh, I did it again. Sorry.

A majority of the voters in yesterday's election chose Ray "School Bus" Nagin to continue serving . . . good grief, you'd think I'd learn . . . occupying the office of Mayor of the City of New Orleans.

Now, to be honest, half of me really doesn't care what happens in New Orleans. If the people who voted really want the guy who will be remembered for this picture —

— to be mayor again, that's just peachy. And, they really didn't have much of a choice. It was either School Bus or Mitch Landrieu, Louisiana's current Lieutenant Governor, brother of current Louisiana Senator Mary "I'll punch him" Landrieu, and son of former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu. As Rush Limbaugh so expertly put it last Friday, it's like asking who you'd like your daughter to go out on a date with, Teddy Kennedy or Bill Clinton.

But on the other hand, the people who voted in yesterday's election have given the rest of the nation four more years of irresponsibility, incompetence, and whining about a supposed lack of "chocolate." I'm not looking forward to it.

Leslie Cauley: the next Mary Mapes

Remember Mary Mapes? Yes, that >Mary Mapes who lives in some freaky, alternative universe where "fake but accurate" is grounds for producing a television news segment. Well, it seems that Leslie Cauley is trying desperately to take over Ms. Mapes' title as Miss Alternative Universe.

On May 11, USA Today published a story written by Ms. Cauley claiming that several telecommunications companies, BellSouth among them, have provided phone call record data to the National Security Agency. Well, in the rush to publish her story, it seems that Ms. Cauley might not have had all her facts straight. You see, BellSouth is calling for a retraction.

In a letter to the newspaper's publisher, Craig Moon, the company noted that the story said BellSouth is "working under contract with the NSA" to provide "phone call records of tens of millions of Americans" that have been incorporated into the database.

"No such proof was offered by your newspaper because no such contracts exist," stated the letter, portions of which were read by spokesman Jeff Battcher. "You have offered no proof that BellSouth provided massive calling data to the NSA as part of a warrantless program because it simply did not happen."

Oh, by the way, in her May 11 article, Ms. Cauley failed to mention that this story was first reported by the New York Times in December of 2005.

And she also failed to mention that the Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) permits this type of government activity.

And she also failed to mention that CALEA was signed into law in 1994 by the excreable William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, a Democrat.

And she also failed to mention that she's a Democratic campaign donor.

And . . . I'm certain there's more she failed to mention. It just hasn't been discovered yet.

HUGE Hat Tip to NewsBusters - what a wonderful comfort to know that resourceful people like the folks at NewsBusters are watching the Drive-By Media and exposing their bias.

Book Review: Black Hawk Down

Finally, one of those book reviews I mentioned a few weeks ago.

I remember seeing the naked bodies of our soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993. I remember thinking how could some renegade tribal chief on the other side of the world do something like this?

I've just finished reading Black Hawk Down, a narrative history of the events around October 3, 1993 in Somalia, and I now understand much better how something like this could happen.

When our nation's military might is used to conquer bad guys, we commonly assume that the "people" of the bad guy's land want the bad guy conquered. This was not the case in Somalia. Our soldiers, Army Rangers and Delta force members, the vast majority under 24 years old, were faced with an enemy that looked like a mother holding an infant in one arm and a handgun in the other. What would you do? She's about to shoot you, and she's holding a baby.

Author Mark Bowden tells a gripping, fast-paced story. He writes this history as a narrative history, which is my favorite kind. It's not the ordinary, "Private Jones shot first. Private Smith shot next." Anyone could do that. In stead, Bowden takes his readers to the streets of Mogadishu. He tells us what life on the army base is like. Besides the targets they're shooting and the movements they make, Bowden gives us glimpses into the private lives of the Rangers being shot. He even gives us an idea of what some of the Somalis are thinking. A great and eye-opening read. Of course, you could watch the movie.

Next from Bowden is Guests of the Ayatollah, a telling of the Iranian hostage story. Can't wait.

Speech tonight: will he pull a rabbit from his hat?

Our President will address the nation this evening. Unfortunately, I will not be able to watch it, as I will be somewhere near the California-Nevada border at around 30,000 feet.

The professional bloggers have been gearing up for days, it seems. The intrepid Michelle Malkin has a link-fest of a posting on her site, all fantastic information. And, from her site, Allah has posted the "mother-of-all-Bush-speech-posts" on Michelle's companion site, Hot Air. Wow. These are the times that I feel inadequate having a blog. Still, I'll say something.

But first (just so you know my mindset), how do I feel, generally, about George W. Bush? Truthfully, he is the right man for the job. I mean, let's be serious. Can you even imagine where our nation would be today had Albert Gore, Jr. been in the Whitehouse when September 11, 2001 happened? What a nightmare. Similarly, can you imagine what kind of global predicament we'd be experiencing today if John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, had won the 2004 election? I believe the fact that GWB won both of these elections is a blessing from Almighty God. Moreover, the team he assembled — Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condeleza Rice, and so many others — were the right people for those jobs as well. They did their jobs expertly and continue to prosecute this war on terror.

I have quite an imagination, when I have time to employ it. One of the things I have imagined since my late 20's, was receiving a visit from the President of the United States. I've imagined this as sort of like winning a national lottery, if you will. Five or ten citizens are selected at random to receive the Present and the First Lady as guests in their home. I'm selected and fix a nice dinner (under the eyes of Secret Service personnel) for the first couple.

Now, if this had happened before 2001, I would have microwaved a couple of Lean Cuisine dinners, told the verminous, excreable William Jefferson Blythe Clinton what I thought of him, and sent him on his way. I would have said even less to her vileness, his wife, the swamp sow.

But if George and Laura Bush came to visit, well . . .

I would get out the fine china. I'd fix one of my best recipes. My wife would look stunning, as she can so easily do. My children would be squeaky clean and dressed like catalog-model children. The Bushes would enter. I might be overcome to tears at seeing them enter my house. We'd have some small talk, let them meet the kids, see our house. Then we'd all sit down to dinner. I would pray and thank God for our meal, for our President, for our nation, for the many blessings we have as Americans. We'd eat, and hopefully they'd like it. Then I'd ask my first question:

Mr. President, last night it is estimated that over 30,000 people illegally crossed the border from Mexico into the United States. Can you guarantee me that not one of those 30,000 people were carrying a suitcase nuclear weapon? And if you can't, what did you do today and what will you do tomorrow that will reduce that number from 30,000 down to 0 by tomorrow?

That's where my imagination stops, because I think I don't want to finish the scene.

I pray that, with his speech tonight, he will change this scene in my imagination from a nightmare into a hopeful dream.

Communism has been very, very good to Fidel

Have you seen or heard about this? Forbes magazine does a yearly listing of the richest people, actors, whatever. This year they did the same for world rulers.

Do you know who came in at number seven? Fidel Castro at $900 million. Yes, that Fidel, the same guy who runs a government ostensibly promoting common ownership of all property, where no one is richer than his or her neighbor, and everyone receives what he or she needs.

Ain't hypocracy grand?

"Los Rangers" on "Cinco de Mayo" are "Stupido"

All of us learn at different speeds on different levels and in different ways. Apparently the Texas Rangers baseball team is on a learning plane far removed from the rest of us. Michelle Malkin has the details. You've really got to see it to believe it.

Moussaoui Verdict: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

For his involvement in the heinous acts of September 11, 2001, Zacharias Moussaoui has been blessed with life at a taxpayer cost of over $100,000 per year. This is incredibly distressing to me. It means that twelve Americans sat together for days, deliberated a verdict, answered an onerous verdict form, and couldn't arrive at the correct one.

"The correct one" you may ask? Indeed, the correct one. And here is a wonderful argument for its justification from Patrick Buchanan's Right from the Beginning:

A modern society that outlaws the death penalty does not send a message of reverence for life, but a message of moral confusion. When we outlaw the death penalty, we tell the murderer, the rapist, the cutthroat that, no matter what he may do to innocent people in our custody and care, women, children, old people, his most treasured possession, his life, is secure. We guarantee it — in advance. Just as a nation that declares that nothing will make it go to war finds itself at the mercy of warlike regimes, so a society that will not put the worst of its criminals to death will find itself at the mercy of criminals who have no qualms about putting innocent people to death.

How prescient Buchanan was then. And how awful the verdict is today.

Is it any wonder the terrorists do not fear us?

UPDATE: The always-eloquent Peggy Noonan weighs in on this subject.

The new May Day - do it all again tomorrow!!!

I want to echo a sentiment that I've heard all day long, even from those who comment on my blog.
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Dear Illegal Aliens,

Please do it all again tomorrow! Driving to work was easy. There was less traffic and far less fear of being hit by an uninsured motorist. I was able to get my clothes cleaned (thanks to a wonderful cleaners run by an Asian American family (who undoubtedly consider themselves Americans first!)). I took my kids out to eat—Italian.

And our country is still standing. So, please, do it all again tomorrow and on and on and on.

Sincerely,

Mr. Light Bulb

Things to do on the new May Day

Here are some things you might consider doing today:

• Eat out - Italian or Greek or Chinese or even American
  


• Watch "The Alamo"
  


• Read A Line in the Sand

What did you do on the new May Day?

It's the new May Day

During the Cold War, which was won by Ronald Reagan, the former Soviet Union, which now lies on the ash heap of history, needed to continually prove to the world that Communism and Socialism really worked. One of the ways it tried to accomplish this impossible task was to put its military strength on display from time to time for all the world to see—in a completely non-threatening, warm-fuzzy-inducing kind of way, of course. Much the same way a mugger might approach you and say:

Greetings, fellow citizen. I'd like to prove to you that thievery and violence are perfectly acceptable, functional, and sustainable ways of life. See my shiny new gun? It has the capability of blowing your brains out, should I choose to fire it at you. I see that you're impressed. Now would be the appropriate time to hand over all of your money.

The former Soviet Union did this each year on May 1st, or May Day. Across, over, and through Moscow Square, missiles and tanks would roll, planes would fly, and troops would parade past the sitting Soviet leader, as a show to the world that Communism and Socialism would one day be coming to an economy and government near you.

I wonder what sentiments we can infer from today's May Day activities here on our very own soil?

More as the day progresses...

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