Freddy Fender and a Great Bowl of Chili

Freddy Fender was a good ole boy from Mexico who sang really great cryin'-in-your beer music. There was nothing fancy about it, it was just plain and corny, as subtle as an electric cattle prod. It was music for cowboys, construction workers in hard hats and big-rig truck drivers with ball caps. And I loved it.

Freddy left us three years ago this October. I do hope they serve cerveza in Heaven.

This is the kind of music Bro and I like to play in bars before an older crowd who like to get a little drunk and cry in their beer remembering the good and bad about love and family. I like this kind of music too -- listening to it is like peeling away the layers of the heart, getting past the callouses and down to the soft tissue where you can still feel life in all its gritty glory. Freddie music gets to your center, boils life down to its essentials. And it is so fun to play!

I think of Freddy Fender music the way I do a great bowl of chili. They both satisfy the soul where fancier fare fails.

Here's the first of Freddy's song for you to consider: Before the Next Teardrop Falls.

Here's the second song: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Vitriolic Harry Reid Scowls "I Hope You Go Out of Business!"

The Review-Journal, the largest newspaper in Nevada, reports Harry Reid's latest shot to the foot. Reid, chief sourpuss of the Senate and radical leftist, doesn't like having anyone criticize him in public or disagree with his big-government policies. So at a Commerce luncheon in Las Vegas last week, as Reid was shaking hands with guests, he popped off at the representative from the Review-Journal. It seems the Review-Journal often disagrees with Reid's policies and Reid resents it.

Sherman Frederick, publisher, writes:

On Wednesday, before he addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Reid joined the chamber's board members for a meet-'n'-greet and a photo. One of the last in line was the Review-Journal's director of advertising, Bob Brown, a hard-working Nevadan who toils every day on behalf of advertisers. He has nothing to do with news coverage or the opinion pages of the Review-Journal.

Yet, as Bob shook hands with our senior U.S. senator in what should have been nothing but a gracious business setting, Reid said: "I hope you go out of business."

If polls hold up, however, it will be Harry Reid who "goes out of business." The nasty little man is currently far behind in the polls and, hopefully, will be booted out of office in the next election cycle. Read the entire Review-Journal article linked below.

Via: Review-Journal

Via: Memeorandum

Wicked

Wifey and I spent the day with her brother the priest and one of her sisters. We rode BART from Fremont to San Francisco where we attended the musical play "Wicked." We have been attending plays and musical plays throughout our marriage and have seen "Camelot," "The Elephant Man," "Birth of the Beatles," "The King and I" (with Yul Brynner a couple of years before his death), "South Pacific," "42nd Street," "Sugar Babies" (with Mickey Rooney), "Grease," "Flower Drum Song," "Jersey Boys" and of course, the best of them all, "Phantom of the Opera."

"Wicked" is a story derived from "The Wizard of Oz," about the two witches, the Good Witch of the North (Glinda) and the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba). The yarn tells of how these two witches met in boarding school, where the ditzy blonde Glinda intially disdains Elphaba, who is green in color and rather sensitive about her unusual complexion. When someone points out that Elphaba is very "bright," Glinda retorts that yes, in fact she is positively phosphorescent. Har dee har har. Both Glinda and Elphaba fall for a male student, Fiyero, and are rivals for his affections. But in the end the ladies become friends. I won't spoil it for you, though. If you want to know who Fiyero gets stuck with, you'll have to see the play.

Apparently this has been a very popular play and won some Tony Awards in 2004. However, I felt the subject matter a bit too light to take seriously -- who really cares if the flying monkeys were persecuted animals or ACORN volunteers? I could never lose any sleep over such profound ruminations. As far as being green, it's been done before. See Shrek's girlfriend and Kermit the frog. Both of these characters were pondering the chartreuse social ramifications long before Elphaba showed up on her broomstick. Nevertheless, this Joanie-come-lately sings passionately through the play about how life handed her limes and she made lime-aid.

The play also touches other problematic sociological phenomena of concern to us all, e.g. whether the Munchkins were being held prisoner by the Wizard of Oz, who apparently wasn't the nice guy he was made out to be in "Oz," and touches on the incipient racism between Munchkins and other species of critter. This latter injustice is demonstrated when the school's professor of history is fired for being a goat. Yes, a goat, but not the John McCain kind: the kind with horns on his head and a goatee, who probably eats tin cans when no one is looking. BAAAAAH Humbug.

The sets and costumes were impressive, the songs not too bad, and the play was laced with humor, interspersed between some really dumb dialogue and gimme-a-break plot twists. If you want to see the play, it's probably worth the money, but if you miss it, don't fret. The price of a ticket would buy a fistful of really good cigars.

If "Phantom of the Opera" earns a solid A for a really classy piece of stage-mongery, then "Wicked" by comparison only gets a grade of C. I spent many blissful moments listening to my CD of "Phantom," and contemplating the tragedy of unrequited love and the songs that were packed with both meaning and emotion, songs like "Think of Me" and "All I Ask of You." However, I can't remember one song from "Wicked." I hate to dump a pail of water on you, but by tomorrow I will probably have forgotten the play completely.

Rush Limbaugh's Quote of the Day on Ted Kennedy

Rush just now noted that Ted Kennedy is being extolled as "a man of the people."

Rush said: "He certainly was a man of the people, especially if they had big boobs."

Ha ha!

A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy

Michael Kelly was a reporter for GQ magazine back in 1990. He wrote a lifestyle piece on Senator Ted Kennedy that is balanced but eye-opening. The article was titled "A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy."

Kelly's research indicated that Ted Kennedy was an effective Senator for liberal causes and well-liked among his colleagues. However, when he wasn't in the Senate promoting bills he was a drunken lush, a misogynistic lout, a flagrant womanizer. Kennedy felt he was above the rules that apply to others.

One of his primary womanizing and boozing buddies was Chris Dodd. Kelly writes:

It is after midnight and Kennedy and Dodd are just finishing up a long dinner in a private room on the first floor of the restaurant’s annex. They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom. (The dates are drunk too. “They’d always get their girls very, very drunk,” says a former Brasserie waitress.) Betty Loh, who served the foursome, also leaves the room. Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie, tells Gaviglio the senators want to see her.

As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.

Kennedy was a walking billboard for loutish behavior. Read the whole article here.

Update: Great minds think alike. Rush Limbaugh just now read the very same passage to his radio audience (10:25 AM PST).

Update 2: Last night our entire town had a blackout due to a damaged power line. Since I couldn't get on the internet, I decided to practice some Photoshop art and created the above image of Ted Kennedy. It's not great but once again I learned something new, how to make use of the smudge tool to blend sections of the drawing.

The Good Die Young: Senator Ted Kennedy Dead at 77

The breaking news of the hour: Senator Ted Kennedy has died of brain cancer at the age of 77.

It would be difficult to imagine an American politician who has done more for evil than Senator Ted Kennedy. His irresponsible behavior that killed Mary Jo Kopechne was the least of his evil deeds. Kennedy was a leader in the Democratic effort to cut off funding to our South Vietnamese allies in 1975, allowing the communists to overrun that country. The result was somewhere in the neighnorhood of 3 million murdered by the victorious reds, in Viet Nam and the killing fields of Cambodia. Kennedy goes to God with their blood on his hands.

Kennedy disgraced himself in other ways as well. One can only recall his slanderous speech that savaged Judge Bork in the confirmation hearings on Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. Kennedy was a ruthless ideologue, a very hateful man.

I can shed no tears for him. He now stands before the judgement seat of God. I for one would not want to be in his shoes.

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

Update: This article by British writer Gerald Warner sums up Ted Kennedy pretty well. He writes (hat tip Bob Belvedere):

In Britain, Kennedy will be remembered for his championing of IRA terror, on the same knee-jerk anti-British principles that inspired his father, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, to support Hitler. Yet Kennedy was awarded an honorary knighthood, just as America gave him its Presidential Medal of Freedom. What for? For being a Kennedy, of course. The Kennedy humbug was incisively deflated by a Republican bumper sticker that memorably claimed: “More people were killed at Chappaquiddick than at Three Mile Island”. Another succinctly said: “No one drowned at Watergate”.

What is it that motivates people in so-called democratic societies to create reverential myths around hollow idols with feet of clay? America is the one country on earth where only the rich are socialists. That East Coast tribe will now indulge in false hero worship and wild hyperbole about a man who, if his surname had been anything other than Kennedy, would have provoked widespread distaste and social ostracism. This time, the liberal elite is burying not just an individual but the political aspirations of a dynasty whose objectives were incompatible with the best interests of America.

Amen, Bro!

Well, as one wag over at Riehl World View said, "At least they won't have to embalm him."

From Theodore's World, a poem:

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician’s corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept : for I had longed to see him hanged.

~~Hillarie Belloc

Via: ABC News

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Riehl World View

The Stogie Report: State of the World Explained

The Demise of the Democrats

It is somewhat satisfying to see the Democrat-Socialist Party come unraveled. Angry "mobs" of fed-up citizens are protesting Obama's policies throughout the nation. The popularity of the Democrat Party continues to fall while Obama's poll numbers plummet.

The Democrats strategy is to call the protesting citizens racists and stooges hired by the insurance companies; but it isn't true and they know it. When the Dems start yelling about racism the argument is over: they've lost.

In spite of the delicious schadenfreude of watching Obama fail, I have mixed feelings. He may be driving the car over a cliff but the rest of us are passengers. I do not take joy in the fact that my last words may be "I TOLD you so!"

The State of the Economy

Profligate government spending and high taxation kill jobs. It's not surprising then that California's jobless rate has risen to 12%, an all-time high. However, it's bad all over.

A friend of mine in Florida, an IT consultant, was out of work from November through July. He finally found some work this month. Another consultant friend here in the Bay Area was out of work for six full months and his home is in foreclosure. I check the job listings every day and there are few quality jobs; when there are, they offer a very low salary. I apply anyway, along with several thousand other people. I expect I will be unemployed for awhile; so I am dusting off my tax prep skills and preparing to return to public practice; I have no other obvious options.

Our home value has declined so that is now worth about what we owe on it. Ten years of equity has evaporated. I am thinking of moving out of this lovely state that I can no longer afford. I will start researching places where I may wish to retire and leave the incredible fools in Sacramento to drown in their own socialist vomit.

Point - Counterpoint

These are my sidekicks and constant companions. I really should get out more. Nevertheless, I find them to be good friends in spite of the barking, claw-sharpening on the furniture and barking/meowing for food.

That's Bogie on the left and Missy on the right. They were rehearsing for a point-counterpoint television show. Bogie starts off with "Missy, you ignorant slut" and Missy replies "Bogie, you lunatic lowlife."

Okay, okay, the truth is that they were both thinking what they are always thinking: "When do we eat?"

The Lockerbie Atrocity, Part II

On December 21, 1988 Pam Am Flight 103 was torn asunder by a bomb planted in its hold by a Muslim terrorist. The plane was over Lockerbie, Scotland when the bomb went off, ripping off the crew cabin and sending the plane crashing into a neigborhood below. 270 people were killed, all of the passengers and crew as well as eleven people on the ground. Their crime: they weren't Muslims.

A Libyan terrorist, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, was convicted of the deed and sentenced to a minimum of 27 years of imprisonment by a special Netherlands court in 2001. This week a Scottish court released the terrorist on "humanitarian" grounds, as the mass murderer is said to be suffering from terminal prostrate cancer.

Al Meghahi was given a hero's welcome upon his return to Libya, a hellhole where they rejoice in such atrocities and crimes against humanity. I personally hope Al Meghali's last few weeks of life are acutely painful and that those who released him will pay for their "humanitarianism" in shame, social ostracism and shortened careers.

Jumpers: Suicides and the Golden Gate Bridge

Bro (my older brother) told me about some documentaries available on suicides by people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay. I looked into it and found the topic fascinating but very sad. It impressed on me the realization that, no matter how rough you may have it at any point in time, there are people who have it worse and can't cope.

A few years ago I walked the footpath on the Golden Gate Bridge. I was nervous about the four foot high guard rail that separated me from a very long drop. The barrier seemed fragile and insubstantial. I peered over the side at the water 220 feet below and my guts turned to jelly. I wondered how anyone could have the courage to jump.

This week I read a fascinating article in the New Yorker magazine called "Jumpers." The article (by Tad Friend) describes "the fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge," documenting the fact that about 24 souls per year depart this world by jumping off.

People come from all over just to jump off the bridge. They fly from out of state, take busses or trains or drive. One of the reasons is that the bridge is an easy way to arrange your own suicide. The rail on the bridge's walkway is only 4 feet high and easily scalable by most adults. Anyone who wants can walk the bridge, find an appropriate place, climb the rail and jump.

The Bridge is a cheap, sure and easy way to end one's life, but there is apparently a kind of fatal romance about it too. One's final view of this world is usually one of beauty.

Most jumpers do it on the side of the bridge facing the coast (the opposite side faces out to sea). The jumper can see Angel Island, Alacatraz Island, Treasure Island, and a Bay filled with sailboats and windsurfers. More people have committed suicide from the Bridge than anywhere else in the world.
..

There is a 32 inch beam just behind the barrier that is known as "the chord." Often jumpers stand there for a few moments to get up their nerve. Beyond the chord there is only space and, 220 feet below, the Pacific Ocean. At that distance a body can accelerate to about 80 miles per hour in free fall. The impact generally shatters the rib cage or spine, exploding bone fragments through the internal organs of the heart, spleen, liver and lungs. The Coast Guard usually recovers the bodies but not all of them. Some are swept out to sea and never recovered, becoming food for the crabs. According to the television documentary "The Bridge," 24 people jumped to their deaths in 2004, three of whose bodies were never recovered.
..

You can watch "The Bridge" on YouTube and it is touching and thought-provoking. Here's what the YouTube info says about it:

"The Bridge" is a 2006 documentary film by Eric Steel that tells the stories of a handful of individuals who committed suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. The film was inspired by an article entitled "Jumpers," written by Tad Friend appearing in The New Yorker magazine in 2003.

The Bridge focuses on the large number of suicides that occur each year at the Golden Gate Bridge, capturing footage of the suicides and interviewing family members. Also interviewed are people who have attempted suicide at the bridge, witnesses of the suicides, and a jump survivor.

The movie was shot with multiple cameras pointed at a notorious suicide spot on the bridge during 2004. It captured 19 people as they took their final plunge, and then offers interviews with grieving families.

There are nine segments on YouTube, linked below in order to help you find them. I watched them all on Tuesday. I live near San Francisco and have been on the Golden Gate Bridge many times. The soft gray fog is cool and refreshing, the views spectacular. The film captures this and accentuates it with soft music, creating an almost meditative mood.
..

I was particularly touched by a young thirty-something man with long, flowing hair, black sunglasses, a black leather jacket and black pants. His name was Gene Sprague and he was from San Jose, California. The cameras caught him walking back and forth along the safety barrier for some 90 minutes. Occasionally he paused by the barrier and appeared to be looking at the horizon, no doubt thinking about what he had come to do. I felt myself wishing I could have been there to try and talk him out of it.

..

Finally, he climbs the barrier and stands on it, his back to the abyss. Then he gracefully falls backward off of the bridge (photo, above left), plunging downward. Another camera picks up the splash as he hits the Bay. The splash is violent, a tall geyser of white foam, followed by a lesser one seconds later. He does not reappear on the surface. He is dead. What a waste.
..

Another segment of the film ends better. A man, Richard Waters of Pittsburgh, was walking the bridge and spies a young woman who has climbed over the barrier and is sitting on the chord, quietly staring at the watery depths below. At first Waters takes photographs of her and then realizes she is about to kill herself. He reaches over the barrier, grabs the collar of her coat and hoists her head first back over the barrier. She fights so he sits on her chest, using his cell phone to dial 911. Rescue personnel arrive quickly on the scene to take the woman away for psychiatric evaluation.
..

I really admire private citizens who do heroic things on the spur of the moment. Richard Waters is a hero in my book.
..

I do hope that anyone reading this, who is depressed or in psychic pain, gets help because a lot of people do care about you, whether you know it or not. Don't go over the Bridge. Death is permanent and irrevocable. Once you step off into space there is no changing your mind. Be a survivor, not a victim.

Someone did a study and discovered that, of the hundreds who have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, 28 have survived. All of them have said, that once they reached free fall, the first thing in their mind was "Oh God, I don't want to die." See an example of one of these survivors here.
..

RELATED LINKS:

Here are the links to the YouTube videos of "The Bridge":

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 5

Segment 6

Segment 7

Segment 8

Segment 9
..

Other links:

Related article from the U.K. Guardian, "Get Your Suicides Here Folks."

Related article from the U.K. Times Online, "The Bridge of Broken Dreams."

Related article from the U.K. Independent, "Bridge to Nowhere."

Suicide Prevention: If you are contemplating taking your own life, seek help.

All Wee-Weed Up!

The public: all wee-weed up, or just pissed off?

Via: No Sheeples Here

Via: Another Black Conservative

Via: The Note

Via: Memeorandum

Distribute freely, use as you like.

A Tribute to Pamela Geller and "Atlas Shrugs"

There's a scene in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" where Dagny gets out of the train to investigate a delay. She's the brains behind Taggart Railroad and soon has the train running on time. The Photoshop on the left was inspired by that scene.

Pamela Geller named her blog "Atlas Shrugs" in honor of Ayn Rand's great novel of economic freedom. Today I created this Photoshop tribute to Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs Blog, "Atlas Shrugged" the novel, and of course, to Ayn Rand.

The Dagny character in this Photoshop tribute looks a lot like Pamela Geller and why not? Dagny was a beautiful woman. So is Pamela.

Now if I could just convince Pamela to use this image as part of her blog banner.

Update: Pamela has linked to this post. Thanks Pamela!

A Rockin' Sunday at Stogie's

Yesterday was a great day at our place. My older brother, "Bro" drove over from Nevada. He brought his keyboard with him. He, I and an old friend/musical associate spent the day jamming. We played music until our hands and fingers were sore. We loved it.

I haven't had any significant practice with a band in quite some time. I have spent the past several months practicing scales on my bass and playing along to recordings. That practice has really paid off: my ear has never been better; for songs that were new to me, I could ascertain keys and chords immediately. I felt a great confidence in my playing that wasn't there before.

Even better, my grandchildren were all in attendance, as well as all three of my sons.

It was glorious!

I Am A Birther

I am a "Birther."

Here's why.

Resistance to Obama Is Clearly Racism

My wife and I are getting older. I'm in great health but my wife is not: thyroid problems, problem heart, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol that is off the charts. Our medical insurance runs about $1,000 a month, but we are happy with the service it provides. We also get a big break on prescription drugs through our HMO. This is good because my wife swallows more pills in a day than Timothy Leary.

Now with wifey's somewhat fragile health, we are not real enthusiastic about the chaos, red tape and expected government snafus during the changeover from what works to what is highly dubious. If you've ever dealt with the government on anything, you can appreciate the feeling. They're a monopoly; they have power to act arbitrarily; they are insensitive to your needs and could care less if you don't like the service. After all, you can't take your business elsewhere.

However, we have been outted by one Kathleen Parker who has shown our opposition for what it is, pure racism. Ann Coulter has the story. She writes:

The latest fake insider/whistleblower is Kathleen Parker, the Barry Lynn of the South. Fresh off her mainstream media tour as a Sarah Palin-hating "conservative," Parker is now a self-proclaimed Southerner blaming opposition to Obama's policies on the region's reputed racism.

Racism?? Naive me, I thought I opposed Obama because I'm afraid of him really screwing things up. Now I know, it must be because I'm a raging bigot.

The truth: Many Americans don't support the policies of a trendy campus radical with a bumper sticker ideology who has never run so much as a lemonade stand, to take over the economy and impose socialism on us. Socialism: you may know it by its other names, i.e. scarcity, poverty, rationing, astronomical taxes, raging inflation, heavy-handed government regulation and ultimately, national bankruptcy.

\Sarcasm on

Of course, if Obama were a WHITE socialist, we'd say "Sign me up!" You see, we don't mind scarcity, rationing, poverty, despotism and despair, as long as the boot on our neck belongs to a white guy.

Hat tip to The Other McCain

Town Hall Plants and Democrat Spin

The townhall meetings on nationalized health care have become raucous and angry. This reflects the majority's fear of a government run monopoly taking the place of their private health plans.

The fears, based on actual experiences in Canada, the U.K. and other parts of the E.U., are real. However, the Democrats have armed their minions with the proper talking points and sent them out to opine, blog and editorialize on the publc groundswell of anger and anxiety. Their message: the public outrage isn't really based on a knowledge of Obamacare. It's caused by conservative pundits hawking falsehoods, especially Rush Limbaugh. In fact, the public opposition to Obamacare is really a subtle form of racism -- or so they would have you believe. The public isn't buying it, however.

The Democrats have tried to fight back in traditional Democrat fashion, by spinning, lying and planting their speakers and agents in the town hall meetings. A little girl is called on to opine about the mean signs outside the hall; she is later outted as a plant, i.e. someone who was set up to voice opinions and ask questions supplied in advance.

Union members show up posing as conservatives, carrying signs and posters depicting Obama as Hitler. Their goal is to provide propaganda for the MSM cameras: to foster a false impression of conservatives as kooks or extremists.

The Democrats, as usual, are a study in Machiavellian dirty tricks and poisoned politics. Be informed.

Cartoon: Credit is due Clifton of Another Black Conservative for the inspiration.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Patterico's Pontifications

In Europe, Modernity vs. The Medieval

I found this photo on the excellent French blog DRZZ. A photo is indeed worth a thousand words. As Muslims continue to immigrate to Europe in large numbers, the cultural divide becomes increasingly obvious.

Where do you stand, in favor of modernity or the medieval? Personal freedom and self-expression or the suffocation of a rigid, backward and anal ideology?

Note the expression on the burqua bearing women. Is it one of envy, outrage or frustration?

Anger Over Obamacare Spreading Like Wildfire

From the Astute Bloggers, a post title that is surely the quote of the day:

NYTIMES ADMITS WHAT DEMS WON'T: ANGER OVER OBAMACARE IS REAL, DEEP, WIDESPREAD - AND GROWING!

Read it here.

Banning Burquini Bothers Bather

This morning I am getting a heavy stream of new visitors. Sitemeter shows that the hits are coming from Google searches and the page visited is one about the Islamic burquini (see photo, right), a swimsuit for women that covers the entire body. See that 2007 post here...

Apparently, this renewed interest in the burquini comes from the A.P., which has run a story about French officials banning burquinis from a public swimming pool. Curious folks want to see what the burquini is all about, so via Google they are visiting Saber Point. Welcome to all aficionados of barbaric swimwear!

..

See the French blog DRZZ for another take on this story (you can translate it into English there with an online translator).

..

Photo: A young Muslim woman models "the Smurf," one of the fashionable burquinis available to Muslim women. This burquini also comes in green and is known as "the Gumby."

..

Hat tip DRZZ.

..

Hat tip to Jammiewearingfool for the Yahoo link.

An Update to Saber Point's Banner

Today I updated my blog banner. I found a saber I liked better and used Photoshop to impart the shiny metal of a saber blade to the words "Saber Point." On the rightmost side of the banner I added a cavalryman on horseback. He may not be visible to those with smaller screens.

Sunrise and the Statue of Liberty

Tonight I was experimenting with some images in Photoshop and created this one, "Sunrise and the Statue of Liberty."

If you like it use it.

Conservative Bloggers: Friends Helping Friends

My blog buddy Carol at No Sheeples Here created a couple of very nifty graphics; see the "Why So Radical?" Obama as Joker graphic in the left sidebar. She also made specifically for me the round "Certified Fishy" graphic underneath.

Last night Clifton (of Another Black Conservative) and I stayed up late working on his new blog banner. Actually, the banner only took a couple of hours, three at most. Making a banner is fast and easy, but getting it to fit on your blog is another thing altogether. You have to decide what graphics or pictures you want, the order of those pics, the background color, etc. Finally we got it done. Take a look.

David Frum is a RINO and Has No Credibility

David Frum has been positioning himself as a "maverick" for awhile now. I'm surprised he didn't endorse Obama during the election campaign.

Today he is lamenting the fact that if we Republicans successfully oppose Obamacare, it will be a victory for "inertia." However, if the choice is sitting still or rolling off a cliff, inertia can be a good thing (i.e., inertia being defined as "an indisposition to motion.")

David Frum has no credibility left with me. He's a RINO, one of those politicos who are loyal only to their own popularity. No doubt he thinks he will get invited on some liberal talk shoes, or paid to give speeches to liberal audiences, or invited to some Beltway cocktail parties. He's not the first sell-out we've ever seen and he won't be the last. Ignore him.

Via: The New Majority

Via: Memeorandum

Health Care Mobs Are Out of Control!

This week has been especially illumintating about our Thug-In-Chief. People are worried and upset about the TIC's attempt to seize the health care industry. And for good reason.

Many, if not most of those attending the Town Halls are senior citizens. They have health care issues and health care plans to deal with them. They don't want that messed with in the final third of their lives.

So Democrats, Republicans and independents show up at the so-called Town Hall meetings to angrily voice their concerns. They know that socialized medicine, like that in the U.K., France and Canada, require rationing of health care and long waits for critical operations. If you're obese or old or a smoker, you may just be told to take a pain pill and wait for the grim reaper because you aren't worth the "investment."

The public anger is reaching the boiling point and the Democrats are trying to spin it or suppress it. The Thug-In-Chief has ordered his myrmidons to "punch back twice as hard." The TIC's followers hear and obey, showing up in St. Louis to severely beat a black conservative, Kenneth Gladney, who was merely handing out yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags to people attending.

If you are paying through the nose for health care now, after Obamacare you will still be paying through the nose. Obamacare doesn't address the greatest factor in the raging costs of health care: runaway litigation. Attorneys are a major Democrat constituent. Tort reform would suppress lawyer raiding of insurance treasuries. That in turn would lower the huge liability insurance premiums doctors now have to pay. (Paying $100,000 or more per year is not uncommon.) However, the Dems need the attorneys' backing and their votes, so will not address tort reform.

Yes, under Obamacare you will still be paying through the nose, but you will no longer get the same benefits. The health care you are paying for will no longer be yours. It will be the government's to give away to others as they see fit.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Atlas Shrugs

Via: Hot Air

Via: Seiu.Org

Via: No Sheeples Here

Via: Faultline USA

Turning Myself In: "I Publicly Admit My Guilt, Comrade Obama!"

To: flag@whitehouse.gov

Reporting Fishy Goings-On at Saberpoint Blog

Comrade President,

I wish to report a right wing blog that is dedicated to the destruction of your glorious government run health care plan. The owner of this blog, one capitalist war-monger named Stogie Chomper, regularly posts jokes and caricatures about you. He thinks your health care goals will result in rationed health care and will bankrupt the country. Furthermore, he thinks you are completely nuts, unqualified to run the country and out of your element. He says your Marxist/collectivist ideology will seriously deplete both human freedom and economic prosperity in the United States.

These counter-revolutionary sentiments are now making themselves known as the Kulaks and peasants yell and scream and make trouble at the Town Hall meetings. People are really pissed, Comrade President. "Serf's Up," you might say.

Comrade Stogie Chomper also believes that you should resign and return to the country of your birth, Kenya.

I am awaiting further orders from you Comrade President. We must deal with these counter-revolutionaries as we did the Kulaks. We must hope for change in this situation, Comrade President. Or as Comrade Lenin used to sing in the shower, "Hope and change, change and hope, tie up a Kulak with a rope."

Yours for a Glorious Future where everything is free and no one has to work any more, except the rich, so they can support the rest of us.

Comrade S. Chomper

www.saberpoint.blogspot.com

The Taliban: Another One Bites The Dust?

The media is reporting that the head of the Pakistani Taliban has been killed by a Predator strike. Oh I hope so. Then I can play that song "Another One Bites the Dust" and boogie around the living room.

The Predator Drone is an unmanned aircraft that just sort of creeps up on terrorists and sends them off to collect their virgins.

Typical scenario:

"Oh Qaseem, what is that strange buzzing sound?"

"I don't know, Mukhtar. I--"

KABOOOM!

The terrorists want to die for Allah and we want them to die also, for Allah or Abraxas, Bacchus or Beelzebub, it's all the same to us. As long as they're dead. It's a win-win for all.

Raucous Townhall Meetings - Angry Citizens or Agents Provocateurs?

The Democrats have been having "Town Hall" meetings all over the country to solicit support for their socialized health care plan and answer questions from citizens. However, they have been encountering angry citizens and raucous crowds at a number of locations. Democrat speakers are being laughed at and booed by the crowds.

The reason for the angry crowds is that there is a growing number of citizens who are opposed to nationalized health care and other Democrat boondoggles, like Cap and Trade and the no-stimulus Stimulus. However, the Dems want the public to believe that the angry citizens are really Republican "agents provocateurs" -- organized demonstrators, a "Rent-A-Mob" put up to it by their Right Wing masters. The Dems point to such telltale signs as the clothing and grooming of the protestors -- they wear nice clothes and have haircuts, so they must be Republicans.

It isn't true but the Democrats want you to think it is. After all, REAL citizens wouldn't protest crushing taxation, soaring energy prices, the loss of millions of jobs and Health Care Bureaucracy...would they?

This is merely Democrat spin control and misdirection -- they always try to turn a controvery around and point it away from themselves. Angry mobs at public meetings don't mean their popularity with the electorate is plummeting; it means that the opposition is resorting to dirty tactics. Maybe when there are long bread lines in major cities the Dems will claim the down-and-out are Republican plants.

Related articles: The hypocrisy and lies by the Left regarding Town Hall protests are adding fuel to the fire, by Kimberly Morin at the Boston Conservative Independent Examiner. Read it here.

Angry Protestors Confront Democratic Lawmakers at Health Care Town Halls - Fox News. Read it here.

American Power has an excellent article along these lines: The Definitive Case for How Freaking Scared the Left is. Read it here.

Via: Memeorandum

R.S. McCain Winds Up His Investigation of Jesse Griffin

R.S. McCain of the Other McCain wound up his investigation of Jesse Griffin today and moved on to other reporting projects. His post on the subject "Of Moonbats and Minions" is here.

The result of the investigation can be summarized thus:

1. The "Palin Divorce" smear started by Jesse Griffin and Denniz Zaki is and was completely false.

2. Jesse Griffin is an egregious liar. Apparently as a result of McCain's and Riehl's disclosures about Griffin -- his public lies, his sexually explicit, profanity-filled website, Griffin is no longer employed as a Teacher's Assistant at an Anchorage kindergarten.

3. Dennis Zaki is a "clueless Bozo," per McCain and that's hard to argue with. I personally would describe Whacky Zaki as an incompetent journalist who is both ruthless and reckless about printing false information that is damaging to others.

The most important thing about this Griffin affair is that it FINALLY fires a needed shot across the bow of the gaggle of Alaskan PDS bloggers who are obsessed with the personal destruction of Sarah Palin. Those bloggers include Jesse Griffin, Jeanne Devon, Linda Kellen Biegel and Shannyn Moore -- obnoxious liars, all.

Updates on the Riehl-McCain Investigation of Jesse Griffin

Dan Riehl has learned that Jesse Griffin will not be returning to work as a Teacher's Assistant for the coming school year. Apparently, Griffin has known for some time that he wouldn't and claims that he resigned to pursue other projects. However, he didn't reveal that to his fans and blog readers, and allowed Jeanne Devon to make a fool of herself opining that the lawsuit would somehow terrorize the kindergartners where Griffin used to work.

See Dan's current post on the matter here.

Update: Stacy McCain has posted the latest update at The Other McCain:

EXIT, LYING: SCHOOL'S OUT FOR
ANTI-PALIN BLOGGER GRIFFIN

ANCHORAGE KINDERGARTEN AIDE
RESIGNS FOLLOWING DISCLOSURE

Read it here.

Thoughts on a Young French Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

Foreword

This article, which I have translated, was taken from the French blog "La Pensee Neoconservatrice." It is about a young French soldier who was recently killed in Afghanistan; the author criticizes the pacifist attitudes of his countrymen, while explaining just what it is that the soldier died for.

The article is titled "Mort Pour La France?" This phrase "Mort Pour La France" (Died for France) is usually engraved on the tombstones of French soldiers who have fallen in battle.

Did He Die for France? (by David Martin of La Pensee Neoconservatrice)

Once again a French soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. Once more the parade of cowards and appeasers has flooded the media with this question: "did he die for France?" The point of the question is to immediately imply the Politically Correct response: No. For the pacifist media, this corporal of 22 years of age died for nothing, in a country far away, for people who didn't want him there.

One finds in these statements all of the contempt of the French middle class for the people liberated since 2001, and the latent racism in the statement "they do not want democracy." It is an easy thing to say when you are living in a democracy.

This is also an easy excuse for those who want nothing to change. Let the Afghanis deal with the Taliban. After all, they must find their own solution, right? This is a sickening attitude on the part of most of the French people, illustrating so well a people who so easily accepted the collaboration with Germany, who so quickly yielded up their Jews to the Nazis. Nothing has changed in the "Country for the Rights of Man."

Did he die then for France? No!! He died for liberty, died for a people able to hope for something other than Islamic barbarism, died for the idea that to live with such opinions is not a crime.

He died only for a small minority in France: those who refused Vichy, those who fought against Communism, those who have dared to state that the intervention in Iraq was just. He did not die for the scum who wallow in the putrid swamps of collaboration and surrender.

May he rest in peace.

Bill O'Reilly Discusses Jesse Griffin's "Palin Divorce" Smear

Bill O'Reilly feels that Sarah Palin should press forward with her lawsuit against Jesse Griffin. I hope she does too. Win or lose, it would be worth what could be learned in discovery and who knows, maybe the good guys will win one for a change.

It must be a nightmare for Jesse Griffin, who has lost his "secret identity." Not only does O'Reilly name him, his photo is displayed for millions to see. Furthermore, O'Reilly and friends are less than complimentary of Griffin's opinions and accomplishments.

Hat tip: Conservatives4Palin

Pamela Geller Joins Newsmax, Discusses Obama Birth Certificate Controversy

Pamela Geller has announced that she has joined Newsmax, a topnotch conservative news magazine. Her first article is about the Obama birth certificate controversy and it contains some excellent background on how and why the controversy grew.

Those readers who disparage the "birthers" as "kooks" and "nuts" would do well to read it. However, Geller is right in asserting that, though the birthers have a point, we on the right should not allow the desciples of Alinsky to use it to divide and distract us.

Read it here.

Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain Publish Their Investigation of Jesse Griffin

Dan Riehl and Stacy McCain have been researching Jesse Griffin of the "Palin Divorce" rumor. You can read Riehl's report here. McCain didn't write a report so much as he wrote an email to Griffin, which was published here. There wasn't much yet in Riehl's report but there may be more later on.

Riehl's message was this:

1. Jesse Griffin has published some vulgar material on his blog (text not photos) that uses profanity, makes ugly and obscene slurs at Sarah Palin and in one case, advocates homosexuality to avoid service in Iraq.

In other words, Griffin is a walking monument to bad taste, but we knew that already. The slurs against Palin may be useful in court, but that's for the Palin attorney to decide.

2. Jesse Griffin's MySpace page makes his identity obvious and it also links to his blog, "Immoral Minority," so Griffin moaning about how he's been "outed" rings a bit false. If he didn't want people to know his real name, then why did he do such a poor job of hiding it? This is the most substantive and useful point in Riehl's report.

3. Since Griffin's MySpace page is easily accessible on the Internet, his students could potentially find it and then follow the link to his blog, where they would read sexually explicit language and profanity. Since kindergartners are around the age of 5, I doubt that many of them are that computer literate so I doubt that there is much to worry about.

Update: Dan Riehl has explained at his blog that the above is just the opening shot. There is more to come. Stay tuned.

Lefty Alaskan Bloggers Use Kindergarten Kids as Props in Palin Controversy

Jeanne Devon of leftist Alaskan blog, The Mudflats, is up to her usual mendacity. Sarah Palin is on the verge of suing Jesse Griffin of the "Immoral Minority" for publishing a false story about the Palins divorcing. Palin's attorney sent Griffin a letter asking him if he would rather be served with a summons at home or at work, giving Griffin a choice. However, the lefty Alaskan bloggers have seized on that to scream that Palin's attorney is going to serve Griffin right in front of the kindergartners that he teaches.

Devious Devon has posted an article on her blog today called "Leave the Kids Alone!" It is a transparent attempt at misdirection, to turn the public conversation about the misdeeds of Griffin in a different direction, painting the Palin team as child abusers and transforming Griffin from culprit to victim. She writes:

...the “leaving kids alone” philosophy shouldn’t be applied too broadly, according to the Palins. The latest dastardly deed from Palin lawyer and Snidely Whiplash Wannabee, Thomas Van Flein, involves bringing down the iron-fisted, pointy-knuckled wrath of Sarah Palin in front of…(wait for it)… a classroom full of five-year-olds.

Like most everything Devon publishes on her blog, it is thoroughly dishonest and Machiavellian. For one thing, the lawsuit would not be served by the attorney himself; they use independent third party process servers for that task. This is so the server can later testify that the summons was indeed served, should the defendant dispute it. The process server has no stake in the case one way or the other.

For another thing, school hasn't started yet, so if Griffin is at work, there won't be any kids there. Even if there were, the lawsuit would not be served on him in the middle of the classroom. He would be called out of class, probably by the principal, to be served away from the kids. Serving a summons merely consists of handing a sealed envelope to the person served, that's it. It isn't necessary, for example, to tackle the servee and smack him in the jaw while screaming profanities.

The false picture that the PDS* bloggers are trying to paint is ridiculous on its face -- that the Palin attorney is going to barge unannounced into a kindergarten class and hand a summons to Griffin, somehow terrorizing the kindergartners in the process. Pathetic.

***

*PDS stands for Palin Derangement Syndrome

Why the Alaskan Blogger Jesse Griffin May Be In Trouble

Sarah Palin is a public figure and public figures have a higher standard of proof in libel cases. So if Sarah does have to sue Jesse Griffin of "The Immoral Minority," she will have to prove actual malice, i.e. that Griffin started the Palin divorce rumor knowing very well that the rumor was false, or in reckless disregard as to the truth.

I am not an attorney; I got this information from the Expert Law website.

This is just a layman's speculation, but it seems to me that Griffin could be found culpable of libel for these reasons:

1. He was given a chance to retract his statement and apologize; he did not take it.
2. He continues to opine that his statement was and is true, in spite of denials by the Palins and an apparent lack of any proof, though he may still present evidence at trial;
3. His malice towards Palin is well documented at his own blog, where he constantly insults her, pushes conspiracy theories (like the Trig birth smear) and wishes her bodily harm, specifically, that she fall off the curb and break an ankle. (There may be more examples, I have not exhaustively searched his blog. You can bet that Palin's attorneys have, however.)

Litigation is a crap shoot. You can never tell where a judge or jury will come down on an issue; however, Griffin would do himself a favor by apologizing, retracting his statement and moving on.

Related: Both Stacy McCain at The Other McCain and Dan Riehl at Riehl World View have coordinated their efforts to investigate Jesse Griffin. They imply that they have uncovered information of great interest but are checking with an attorney before publishing it.

Another Black Conservative has summarized the events leading to the outting of Alaskan Blogger Jesse Griffin; it's an informative read.

Sarah Palin To Sue Alaskan Blogger for Defamation?

An Alaskan anti-Palin blogger is in danger of getting his butt sued off by Sarah Palin for propagating the "Palin Divorce" rumor. Oh I hope so. I have been asking this for weeks: can't Palin or Palin supporters or somebody SUE the cabal of Alaskan bloggers who have filed false ethics complaints and spread lies and rumors about the Palin family? Why are these vermin allowed to get away with their hateful and illegal acts? Is there no avenue of redress for us conservatives?

Stacy McCain has the story at American Spectator. The target of the Palin lawsuit is a part time kindergarten teacher named Jesse Griffin whose blog is the appropriately named "Immoral Minority." Apparently, the false rumor that the Palins were divorcing originated with Griffin before it was picked up by CNN. Palin's attorney sent Griffin a letter this week demanding a retraction or face legal action. Griffin has shown no sign that he will back down from the allegations. That's fine with me. A successful lawsuit against the immoral liars might tend to dampen their enthusiasm for further libel.

Dan Riehl has further details on Jesse Griffin and the threatened lawsuit here.

See Stacy McCain's blog articles at the Other McCain for some very interesting facts on Jesse Griffin.

Via Memeorandum

Via The Other McCain

Barack Obama: Another Birth Certificate Surfaces...From Kenya?

World Net Daily has obtained a copy of a Kenyan birth certificate purporting to record the Kenyan birth of Barack Obama. The document looks real in a photograph and WND says it contains no tell tale signs of being fraudulent.

The birth certificate is being used as evidence by an attorney who has filed multiple lawsuits in an effort to obtain certification of Obama's birthplace.

Read it all here.

Via Memeorandum

Update: Joseph Fara of World Net Daily discusses WND's decision to publish the purported birth certificate. He makes a lot of sense. Read it here.

Update: Not surprisingly, this birth certificate also turned out to be a fake and was a joke by a liberal.

Henry Waxman Reunited With Twin Brother

There are those misguided souls who think Henry Waxman looks like a bat. They are wrong.

Henry Waxman looks like his long lost twin brother, with whom he was reunited this week.

His brother chose to retain the original family name of Potatohead.

As you can see the similarity is simply stunning.

Waxman is on the right. I think.

"Ethicsgate" Video Available at NMATV.COM

Jeanne Devon, perhaps fearing legal consequences for false complaints against Palin (illegal under Alaskan law), has again had the "Ethicsgate" video removed from YouTube. If you click on the link in the previous post, you will get YouTube's copyright message.

You can also see the video at NMATV.COM and get the embed code if you want to post this on your blog.

NMATV.COM has taken the position that the use of Jeanne Devon's images in the video meet the Fair Use rules of copyright law and therefore NMATV.COM will not remove the video. Bob Parks, the Executive Director of NMATV, said this:

And after further review (as Executive Director of NMATV), I will not censor the video in question.

The Fair Use Clause of the Copyright Law of 1976 allows for the rebroadcast of copyrighted works for the purpose of education, commentary, and criticism.

While Ms. Devon feels she may have been violated, I think the only violation is that these malicious liberal thugs got caught, have been publicly outed, and are justifiably paranoid of potential legal trouble from Mrs. Palin. Note, Ms. Devon doesn’t dispute the content of the video; just the fact her mug was inserted therein.

Meaner things have been done to Sarah Palin.

Go here to get the embed code.

Bob Parks, you are a hero. Thank you.