Trick or Treat!

The kids come up to an old house and shuffle up to the door. It is dark and dusty, and there are cobwebs and spider webs all over.
One of the kids shreiks, "Eeeeww! These are real!
The cutest little girl in the lady bug outfit reaches up to find the doorbell, when she and the other kids realize that there is only a huge, ugly knocker on the ancient ,wooden door. As the tallest kid, in a homemade Transformers costume made of cereal boxes reaches up to knock on the door, the knocker is heavy and makes a loud creaking noise  as he lifts it and lets it fall against the door. Dust and paint particles fall to the ground and all the kids jump a little as the knocker makes an unusually loud boom.
For about ten seconds nothing happens. No one even breathes as they wait to see who, or what, would come to the door.
After another uncomfortable silence they heard heavy footsteps coming slowly towards the door, and when the footsteps fell there was an echo as if they were coming from inside a great hallway or chamber. Finally there was fumbling of locks and latches on the other side of the door and it slowly opened to reveal a man of ghostly white skin and a mane of great hoary hair down to his shoulders.
After the shock of finally seeing the old man the children realized that he was wearing an old red, white, and blue costume that was so old and tattered and dingy that the colors were all fading into a dingy, dirty gray. But after a second it was clear that it was an Uncle Sam costume.
Then the children all sort of choked out a tepid "Trick or treat!"
"Trick or treat, eh?" said the man, in a rather curious Virginia southern drawl as he squinted to look to see all of the children with their parents standing well back behind them.
"You're dressed as Uncle Sam, aren't you?" asked the young boy in the Ninja costume.
"Dressed AS, did you say? Why, my boy, I AM Uncle Sam! And you have come to my home to ask for treats, haven't you?" All the children nodded expectantly, looking to the strange old man.
"Haven't got much of anything for treats,"he said.  He then put his hands in his pockets and his hands poked through holes in his trousers, wriggling his fingers as he did so. The children nearest him stepped back a little when he did this. His old face made a wry grin and he said "But how about a trick, then?" The children, caught slightly off guard, nodded their not-so-enthusiastic approval.
"Well, let's see? Aha!" he said, as he reached into his coat pocket. "I do have something for you kiddies, but first I have to give your folks something." As he pulled his hand out he had several pink envelopes in it. "Young people, this is what grown ups call pink slips. It's what adults get when their employer can't pay them anymore. Go ahead, pass them all out." The kids dutifully handed the pink slips over to their parents. Uncle Sam then looked to the children again and said, "And for you young ones, I have something very special. It's the full bill for your parents' foolishness! You see, they thought that they would never see days like this, with pink slips and such, and they never planned to pay their share when their bills came due, so they just voted to make you little ones pay for it all when you got older. Problem was, they didn't expect the bills to come due so soon, so they didn't leave you with the ability to pay those bills or any inheritance, either. Trick or treat, indeed!"
He chuckled wryly and slowly closed the heavy door, and the latch went click. The end.

Our most divisive President ever?

Two liberal Democrats have written a scathing piece in the Washington Post about Obama's lowering of the presidency even below that of disgraced former president Richard M. Nixon. Read the whole thing here.
Via Theo Sparks

How Great Thou Art

Are we Americans in a trance?

Are we Americans in a trance? Judith Acosta, who writes this thought-provoking piece at The American Thinker blog, thinks we might be. Thanks to fungle jungle for the tip.

Doing things out of fear, unrestrained consumption, having no clue about what is really attractive or beautiful, and being exceedingly self-centered are some of the trances examined by Acosta in this terrific piece.

Thinking about our founders

Do you know the name of the publication Patrick Henry wrote when he announced, "As for me, give me liberty or give me death?" The Henry writings were entitled "The Illusions of Hope."

Who is the only American who presently has a national holiday named in his honor? George Washington? Abraham Lincoln? Thomas Jefferson? None of the above. It is Martin Luther King.

Tom Brokaw wrote a fine book entitled The Greatest Generation. It was about the men who served during World War II. But was it really the greatest generation of Americans? What about the one that produced Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Henry, Madison, Hamilton and so many other founders of our nation?
These are some of the thoughts presented in a book I am reading entitled The Founding Fathers.

Just sayin

via American Digestt

"Sit in the back!"

Cartoon found at Theo Spark
Did you catch this from Obama the other day? He actually told the Republicans they would have to "sit in the back" if they decide to "come for the ride." Can you imagine what would happen if a politician with paler skin were to make such a comment?

Needed: a change of archetypes

Washington Rebel linked to this piece in the Wall Street Journal by Shelby Steele, whom I always find to be hitting the nail on its head. This piece is no different. This election, according to Steele, is a referendum on president-as-redeemer. For Obama to pivot back to the center, as Bill Clinton did after the 1994 elections, he will have to do no less than change archetypes.

46 billion Earth-size planets

Researchers are reporting in the journal Science that they now believe there are as many as 46 billion Earth-size planets in our galaxy, and perhaps billions more farther out in the so-called habitable zone. What are the implications of this discovery? How does it relate to our Christian faith? Is our God capable of creating such a huge universe? Why not?

Move over, Jack and Harry!

According to the London Daily Mail, Mohammed is now the most popular name of newborn baby boys in Britain.
Via The Camp of the Saints

CNN Mocks Obama's "Arsenal of Metaphors"

The nation's closest Senate race?

Colorado candidates for the U.S. Senate are nearing the finish line of this long, brutal campaign. Democrats are looking for help from Planned Parenthood, which is making personal calls to women who are identified as being "the right age, the right religion and the right zip code." How much longer will abortion be a winning issue for Democrats? Democrats are also depending on "gay activists" to gather voters. And the Democrats will surely not forget to appeal to racial and ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Ken Buck is speaking to small, but enthusiastic gatherings out on the eastern plains. Buck's message is job development and reining in government spending. Tea Party activists are helping him.

Update: I neglected to mention college students. Democrat candidate Bennet spent the last days of the campaign in Boulder, at the University of Colorado, and Fort Collins, at Colorado State University, to see if the professors had brainwashed the students on those campuses sufficiently to vote for him.

Michelle Malkin on voting fraud

Via Moonbattery

The characters in our Halloween story

While we're thinking about Halloween, the artists at Falling Smile, Inc. are fast at work with their pencils creating cartoon characters for the big day. We begin with the three evil goblins
And, of course, there is Matilda the Vampire
Followed by Mr. Please Don't Hurt Me
Followed by Mr. Robot Assassin
and last, but not least is mighty Mr. Buffs. Feel free to click on any of the images, if you have the courage to see them up close.

Practicing being scary

You can't just go out and do Halloween. You have to practice being scary.

Pat Conroy on being a writer

Pat Conroy writes in My Losing Season about what he envisioned being a writer would look like, when he was still a college student considering writing as a career. From the self-confidence he developed as a starting point guard for the Citadel, he learned that like the point guard, the "novelist needs a strong ego, a sense of arrogance, complete knowledge of tempo and control of the court."

"A writer must notice everything; experience life more deeply and spiritually than anyone else; and let every cell of his body take in every stimulus that comes along. I wanted to develop a curiosity that was oceanic and insatiable, as well as a desire to learn and use every word in the English language that didn't sound pretentious or ditsy. I would write about everything that hurt or touched me or bedazzled me. A writer, like a point guard, is not allowed to show fear. I ordered myself to be brave. I had to turn the writer's eye inward to find the gargoyles and stunted trolls that ate me alive."

Arrests Are Made In France As Protests Turn Violent

TEA-REX

Just for fun, a few more bumper stickers!

Kingdom Triangle Prayer Guide For The Elections!

It's less than a week before the big election here in the States, and if you're like me you've been praying about it, a lot! It seems that many of the same things have happened that occur during political campaigns in general. Accusations back and forth have been thrown between the two major parties and everyone is sure that the other side is to blame. You know, the guys on the other side, right? 

"Throw the bums out!" 

"No, keep the bums in! Uhh, well, you know what I mean!"

My favorite part of all of this has been the homemade signs with the misspelled words on them. Look folks, if you're going to be insulting and/or intimidating on a sign, at least you could spell the words right: it's h-i-t-l-e-r, not h-i-l-t-e-r, OK! 

Uh, where were we? Oh, yeah, prayer! So whose side is God on in this? According to Joshua, the famous military commander of scripture, the answer is: Neither! Get over it! Go read it for yourself if you think I'm lying. It's in Joshua chapter 5, at the end of the chapter. Go ahead. I'll wait.

See, I told you! 

Anyway, what is really going on is something more like the prodigal son story. Only the Democrats are the sons who came back to waste the family fortune, while the Republicans are the ones that are p***ed off about not being able to have their own exclusive victory party. "Oh, by the way, Dad, the reason I couldn't come in to the party is that I have been busy wasting the family fortune trying to build it. You understand, right? You know, on second thought, I think I will come in to that party. I need a drink! Bartender! Hey look, it's Barney Frank! Drinks are on the house! Barney's paying!"

I kid! I kid!

But, fatherlessness has gotten us here, you know. When our leaders are fatherless and fathers are mocked and disrespected as a rule we set ourselves up for following almost anyone with an ear-tickling message. Been there, done that! Now let's move on, shall we. 

First, we have to regain a sense of the goodness of life and turn back to the faith of our fathers. We have lost our basic trust in God and one another, and we must move forward to a deeper level of understanding the life we live by rediscovering our purpose, potential and destiny. Connection to God leads to purposeful living from a selfless standpoint, allowing us to tap all of the resources within us and resulting in a fulfilled life. We need to return back to faith in all of it's aspects.

Next, we need to restore trust. This really is huge. Our government and our respected leaders in politics and business have broken our trust in them. Every one of them seems to be reaching out to say "It wasn't me, I swear!" while simultaneously reaching into our pockets to steal whatever they can. The conservatives did it with deregulation and wild, out of control greed, and the liberals did it with dirty politics and back room double dealing. No one is innocent in this. NO ONE! In order to restore trust there must be an acknowledgment of breach of trust and a clear plan to regain trust. What will it take to turn this around? I don't know, but it might look something like a restoration of honor and respect. 

Thirdly, there must be a restoration of justice. We live in a time of deep consequence of our own selfishness and greed. We must admit our part in enabling this situation and see that those who robbed or stole are dealt with and also those who took advantage of the situation are dealt with as well. Our trust in leadership will not be complete until there is justice. Vengeance, however, belongs to God alone. 

Now, because I lack objectivity in a lot of all this, I like to use words from scripture and prayers and hymns that have been penned by people who have been through more than any of us have.

After the physical, moral and spiritual devastation of WW I, a man wrote the following poem that I have been praying:

   

Almighty Father, who dost give

the gift of life to all who live,

look down on all earth's sin and strife

and lift us to a nobler life.

Lift up our hearts, O King of kings,

to brighter hopes and kindlier things,

to visions of a larger good,

and holy dreams of brotherhood.

The world is weary of its pain,

of selfish greed and fruitless gain,

of tarnished honor, falsely strong,

and all its ancient deeds of wrong.

Hear thou the prayer thy servants pray

uprising from all lands today.

And, o'er the vanquished powers of sin,

O bring thy great salvation in!

(by John Howard Bertram Masterman, 1922)

I've been praying through two bible passages. The first one is fairly straightforward:

2Chronicles 7:14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

The second passage is King David's response after having been discovered in acts of adultery, murder and the cover up of that murder:

Psalm 51 

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

I hope this helps you pray through this time in our nation. Just remember to let God be God, and leave the results to Him. He is able to restore us in faith, trust and justice.

 And don't forget: use your powers for good and not evil. 

Another inspiring story related to basketball

I have been immersed in the game of basketball since reading Pat Conroy's My Losing Season. I was delighted, then, to see the Denver Post feature this article today about Denver Nuggets coach George Karl. Coach Karl had to miss the final games of last season, because he was battling throat and neck cancer. With the help of two wonderful females, his young daughter, Kaci, and his beautiful "life partner," Kim Van Dera, he appears to have licked cancer for a second time.

Karl compares the pain and suffering of the cancer treatment experience with losing in basketball. "The job is about turning losing into a teacher," Karl explains. "Good, positive energy is a part of healing yourself." "Patience and perseverance can become a strength through the process." But, it is a long season, and Karl doesn't have the time nor energy nor voice to debate with players. He plans to be more "demanding" and less "diplomatic." I like the sound of that.

One-Ninth of US Nuclear Intercontinental Missiles Down Last Saturday

President Barack Obama has been informed that the country defense forces lost complete command and control of one-ninth of the US nuclear arsenal last Saturday. Administration officials stressed that the problem was only temporary, but that doesn't mean it wasn't big.

In fact, according to The Atlantic, a military officer briefed on the matter said that they have never experienced something so big: "[w]e can deal with maybe 5, 6, or 7 at a time, but we've never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs."

The US Air Force has declared that there was no danger to the population, while administration officials said that "at no time did the President's ability decrease." My guess is that taking one-ninth of the arsenal off line decreases the President's ability to order a full nuclear strike at least one-ninth.
(read more at gizmodo)

Harry's name is already checked!

Some voters in Nevada are finding that Harry Reid's name was already checked when they went to vote early in Boulder City.
Via Moonbattery

On Fate.. and the Hand of God

"Fate hides in veils and appproaches from behind with cards marked and chess pieces disfigurerd. You never know when a door you left unlocked will usher in a lost exterminator, a deposed queen, or.. the love of your life." "My fate, a work of tortuous process, received an imperceptible notch, a marking of inevitability and mystery that makes me believe in both magic and the hand of God."
Some quotes from Pat Conroy's My Losing Season

Choices

Via Theo Sparks

More and more and more Anti-Obama stickers

Tancredo, a hero to Africans

Did you know that Tom Tancredo, candidate for Governor of Colorado, is a hero to the people of Sudan? I didn't, until I read this wonderful post. Tancredo, leading among Hispanic voters, has been labeled a racist by the left. He was the primary sponsor of The Sudan Peace Act, which, after garnering bipartisan support, was later signed into law by President George W. Bush. That act focused on stopping a decades-long genocide as well as the slave trade and the Sudanese government's use of force to support slaving.

Iraqi court sentences Tariq Aziz to death

(CNN) -- Tariq Aziz, one of the best-known faces of the Iraqi government from 1981 to 2003, was sentenced to death Tuesday by the Iraqi High Tribunal court for his role in eliminating religious parties during Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq's State Television reported.
In March 2009, Aziz was sentenced to 15 years in prison in connection with the 1992 executions of 42 merchants.
Aziz served as deputy prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and also held the post of foreign minister for part of that time.
Abed Hameed Mahmoud and Sadoon Shaker, top former regime Baathists, were also sentenced to death for their involvement, State TV said.

Too Big To Fail...

College Republicans "I Am Debt" ad

Call Me Senator!

Dealing with Adversity

Novelist Pat Conroy grew up being abused by his father, who also beat Pat's mother and siblings. Then, when Pat played college basketball at The Citadel, he had a coach whose talent was to destroy morale. Do you have someone in your life who is Hell-bent on destroying you? Who loathes you? Who demeans everything about you? Who yells at you, rages at you? Who makes you think that hope is vain and the future unthinkable?

What are you going to do? Pat finally found a voice deep inside of him (the Holy Spirit?) that urged him not to listen to people who were bad for him. Conroy asserts in his non-fiction book My Losing Season that the voice he heard was "the truest part of me. It was the most valiant flowering of my character, a source of pure light and water streaming out of unexplored caverns deep within me." Conroy writes about these "miraculous visitations" that brought him "breathtaking assurance."

Playing basketball one summer with one of the best players in the country, Pat learned "to be alive in the moment, to be open to every possibility and configuration, and to make that moment his, again and again." Conroy learned to open himself to all the possibilities around him, to hold nothing back, to put himself on the line.

Once again, I am being fed most nutritiously by Mr. Conroy.

It's Barney Frank Cartoons, Kids!

Thomas Sowell - Frankly Ruthless

Rep. Barney Frank has abused his regulatory power for years.

Among long-time politicians who are being seriously challenged for the first time this election year, Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts best epitomizes the cynical ruthlessness that hides behind their lofty rhetoric.

Having been a key figure in promoting the risky mortgage-lending practices imposed by the federal government on lenders — and in encouraging Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy these risky mortgages from the lenders — Barney Frank blamed the resulting collapse of financial markets and the economy on everybody except Barney Frank.

In February 2009, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Frank summoned before the committee the heads of some of the biggest banks in the country before his committee. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, these bankers “endured hours of hectoring” by “indignant lawmakers” on that committee.

These bankers were in no position to talk back to members of this committee, much less point out how committee members — including Chairman Barney Frank — had themselves promoted laws and policies responsible for the current economic disaster.

This is a committee with the power to promote legislation detrimental to this heavily regulated industry. That in turn gives the committee the power to force others to sit there and take it, when they are demonized on nationwide TV.

Congressman Barney Frank has never hesitated to use his power ruthlessly. On one occasion, he threatened bankers with summoning them before his committee and forcing them to reveal their home addresses — which would of course put their spouses and children at the mercy of any kooks that might come along.

Meanwhile, Congressman Frank could piously invoke “social justice” in defense of similarly ruthless community activist groups like ACORN or National People’s Action, which had in fact besieged the homes not only of bankers but also of public officials who had dared to oppose their agendas. In Barney Frank’s words, these groups were simply people who “cared about equity” and who were just “trying very hard to preserve some equity and some social justice.”

But the harassment and shakedown activities of such groups were perhaps best captured by the words of a leader of one of these groups, who addressed her followers by saying: “We want it. They’ve got it. Let’s go get it.”

These were not just idle words. The dirty little secret that few in the media seem to want to discuss is that community activists, including Jesse Jackson, have over the years extracted literally billions of dollars from financial institutions, as the price of peace and of not challenging these institutions in hearings before federal regulators, as these groups are empowered to do under the Community Reinvestment Act.

Much of this money has been extracted in the form of risky mortgage loans of the sort that have been at the center of the housing boom and bust, and its repercussions in financial markets and in the economy as a whole.

Among others who have been at the heart of the risky lending behind the financial meltdown are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whom Congressman Barney Frank has also championed and protected. When federal regulators uncovered irregularities in Fannie Mae’s accounting, and in 2004 issued what Barron’s magazine called “a blistering 211-page report,” Barney Frank lashed out — not at Fannie Mae, but at the regulators who uncovered Fannie Mae’s misdeeds. He said “a leadership change” in the regulatory agency was “overdue.”

Politicians who say we need more regulation almost never mean regulation in the sense of impartially enforcing explicit rules, such as the accounting rules that Fannie Mae was violating to cover up its own risks. They mean regulation with arbitrary powers, such as those under the Community Reinvestment Act, which enable regulators to carry out the agendas that politicians give them.

When Congressman Jim Leach tried to get stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back in 1992, and when President George W. Bush did so in 2004, Barney Frank opposed them.

A reining in of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a reining in of Barney Frank’s power. But he can’t stop the voters from reining in his power, unless he can once more get by this election year with pious rhetoric to conceal his cynical actions.

(from national review)

Barney Frank - in his own defense

Deadpan, Frank tells the crowd that Obama “downplayed” the extent of the economic crisis he inherited out of a desire to be “conciliatory” toward Republicans. He downplays the role the GSE policies he engineered played in the financial crisis, even as he admits that he never foresaw Fannie and Freddie’s impending doom. He volunteers that he has been a “consistent opponent” of free-trade agreements and advocates getting “much tougher” with China.  He touches on his desire to cut defense spending by as much as $100 billion a year, saying that America’s military presence around the world “does more harm than good” and that “the era of the U.S. being military protector of the entire world . . . is over.” He touts the dubious “Cash for Clunkers” and first-time homebuyer subsidy programs he supported as “tax cuts,” and tells them he believes more “short-term stimulus” is necessary.

And perhaps most remarkable in a political season that is as hostile to pork as any in recent memory, Frank tells these businessmen he is “proud” of his earmarks — rattling off a series of local bridges and interchanges he secured congressional funding for and highlighting the more than half a million dollars he lined up for cranberry research.

Only on taxes does he take what might be construed as a nominally pro-market slant, guaranteeing that an onerous 1099 expensing requirement in Obamacare will be repealed in the lame-duck session — though leaving open the question of “how you offset it” — and suggesting that he would support an “accommodation” on capital-gains rates set to spike at the end of the year.

(from national review) 

Three Charts that say it all...Where could they lead?

ObamaCare Organization Chart of Bureaucracy

Where Stimulus Money Actually Went

Who benefits the most under Obama's "rule."

(for more information on these charts go to 

nationalreview.com)

Find God in 60 Days or your money back!

Hey, look! Anti-Obama stickies!

Non-partisan?

The "non-partisan" League of Women Voters moderator of a Congressional debate in Illinois gets a surprise from the audience:
Read the whole story here.

The Politics of Destruction

Dan Haley has written an excellent piece this morning in the Denver Post about the horrendous effect that negative tv commercials are having on our political process. Haley writes:

These grossly unfair ads only lead to a deeper distrust of government and politicians.

The ads are so over-the-top creepy and misleading that they begin to strip away a candidate's humanity, which makes it easier to hate them.

It can't be good for democracy if, by the time a candidate wins office, half the electorate wants to pop him in the face.

One of our letter-writers, Paul Kaempfer of Aurora, has grown so tired of political ads in the Senate race that he plans to cast a vote for a third-party candidate. "Congratulations to the campaign managers of both Ken Buck and Michael Bennet," he wrote. "They have mutually convinced me that both candidates are completely unqualified to serve as U.S. senator."

The entire process has turned him off, and understandably so.

So here we are, another year in which the politics of destruction has torn down two otherwise good men — both of whom are qualified and competent to represent us.

If there aren't some changes to the process, you have to wonder: Who in their right mind would ever want to run for public office?

When we moved out here to the country three years ago in July, we made the conscious decision not to hook up the television set for anything except movies we rent, so, thankfully, I have not seen any of these ads. I have long ago been turned off by the politics of destruction. Yet, the ads appear to work, in terms of achieving the result they are aiming for. But, as Haley writes, they are also, at the same time, achieving other results that are not good for our country.

Got it?

Biden shows us how to lie with smoothness and ease

Joe Biden is a man who lies as easily as most of us breathe. Watch him as he claims that the reason Democrats are losing is because $200 billion is being spent on ads against Democrats!
from The Blaze

A new verb

Joan of Argghh! has a good suggestion this morning: we should now make NPR a verb. As in, I was going to say something honest, but I realized I might get NPR"d, so I kept my mouth shut.

Pat Conroy on Loss

From Conroy's book My Losing Season: "Losses make their approach with all their capacities to wound intact." "Loss is a fierce, uncompromising teacher, cold-hearted but clear-eyed in its understanding that life is more dilemma than gain and more trial than free pass."

Hickenlooper talks about the "backwards thinking in rural western communities"

I think Tancredo just gained a few more percentage points. Hick's comments about backwards thinking rural westerners begin at the 1:55 point in the tape.

Vivian Schiller on Juan Williams - Psychiatrist or Publicist gaffe

The Latest On Juan Williams' Firing by NPR - Fox News

Juan Williams Fires Back At NPR

"Years ago NPR tried to stop me from going on "The Factor." When I refused they insisted that I not identify myself as an NPR journalist. I asked them if they thought people did not know where I appeared on the air as a daily talk show host, national correspondent and news analyst. They refused to budge.

This self-reverential attitude was on display several years ago when NPR asked me to help them get an interview with President George W. Bush. I have longstanding relationships with some of the key players in his White House due to my years as a political writer at The Washington Post. When I got the interview some in management expressed anger that in the course of the interview I said to the president that Americans pray for him but don’t understand some of his actions. They said it was wrong to say Americans pray for him." (from Foxnews.com)

This is just a taste of what Juan Williams reveals he had to put up with at NPR in his first op-ed piece as a full-time Fox News contributor. Congratulations on the new position, strength of character, candor and true journalistic grit.

Face it, we peasants are just "whack jobs" who need psychiatric treatment!

Bob Belvedere, at his excellent The Camp of the Saints blog is also commenting on the tactic the left is now applying: accusing us peasants of being mentally ill "whack jobs." Belvedere has studied how the same tactic was used by the left in Russia during the last fifteen years of Soviet rule. People expressing opposition to the Soviet rulers were put into psychiatric hospitals, where they were

"subjected to ‘various forms of restraint, electric shocks, electromagnetic torture, radiation torture, entrapment, servitude, a range of drugs (such as narcotics, tranquilizers, and insulin) that cause long lasting side effects, and sometimes involved beatings… inhumane uses of medical procedures such as lumbar punctures’. Others were stripped of their offices and privileges and, in a sense, declared unfit for anything but manual labor. Some were sent to the Gulags."

I think Belvedere is on to something. Have you noticed how the American left has portrayed Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, and now, Juan Williams?

"Anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome"

Charles Krauthammer, himself a psychiatrist, has noticed that "Dr. Obama" has "diagnosed a heretofore undiscovered psychological derangement: anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome." Obama has noticed that we are fearful, and "the fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., vote Republican."

But Krauthammer advises us to fear not, for on November 2 "the American peasantry will be presiding."
from the Washington Post
Cross-posted at Bob's Blog

News of the day

Item number one: FreedomWorks, the pro Tea Party group, was victimized by a highly sophisticated cyber attack this morning just moments before Glenn Beck announced a major fund-raising drive for the group. FreedomWorks is headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
from the Wall Street Journal

Item number two: You're right, Harry, it does no good for you to tell us:
From Breitbart.tv

Item number three: Once again, Peggy Noonan and Rush Limbaugh are saying exactly the same thing, although Peggy does it prettier. She points out in one of her best columns ever, that the Tea Party groups are saving the Republican Party in this election, and that this election is all about one man, Barack Obama.
from Peggy's Wall Street Journal column today
Cross-posted at Bob's Blog

It all begins with thoughts.

I found this prayer at the blog Holy Experience. I like the prioritizing, starting with thoughts and ending in actions and protection.


Breathe in me,
O Holy Spirit,
that my thoughts may all be holy.

Act in me,
O Holy Spirit,
that my work, too, may be holy.

Draw my heart,
O Holy Spirit,
that I love but what is holy.

Strengthen me,
O Holy Spirit,
to defend all that is holy.

Guard me, then,
O Holy Spirit,
that I always may be holy.

Amen.

Cross-posted at Bob's Blog

Fox News Protects Juan Williams' Freedom of Speech

Roger Ailes comes through like a champ: "Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Ailes said in a statement, adding a jab at NPR: “He’s an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis.” Ailes is the Chief Executive of Fox News.
from the L.A. Times
Cross-posted at Bob's Blog

More News of the Day

Charles Johnson is reporting at Little Green Footballs that Juan Williams has been given a new contract at Fox News to work there exclusively. His new contract is reportedly worth two million dollars.

News of the day

Story number one: Cliff Stewart reported on The Kingdom Triangle Network News blog that Juan Williams has been fired by PBS. Williams had concurred with Bill O'Reilly, who said on his Fox program that "the cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet." Williams admitted that when he sees people at airports in Muslim garb, he gets nervous. That statement got him fired. O'Reilly is now leading an effort to suspend immediately taxpayer funding of NPR.

Story number two: Rush Limbaugh says the problem in Washington D.C. is "greedy authoritarian elitist snobs" of both parties. In the Governor's race in Colorado, the Republican Party has become a non-factor. Rush warns that the same thing will happen nationally if the Republicans take the predicted November Tea Party victories to mean that they should now "work with the Democrats," instead of working for the American people.
Cross-posted at Bob's Blog

Sky-Diver Died and Returned to tell his Life Experience

Analyze This!