Saturday, January 31, 2009

Scumbags demand more

Take a look at this post, and follow the links, at W-4. This attitude I don't understand, nor do I want to understand, anymore than I give a rat's behind about understanding why murderous Muslim terrorists engage in the barbaric behavior of sawing the heads off their helpless victims with a knife, for whatever reason.

If we lived in a just society, a moral society, these people would be given a one-way ticket out of this country forthwith.

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Good discussions today at VFR

There are some good discussions, ongoing, today at VFR. Here, here, and here.

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Don Wildmon on the Democrat "stimulus" scheme

I received today an email from Mr. Wildmon's AFA Action Alert, the title of which reads as follows:

The House just passed a bill raising taxes on every citizen by $3,333.

A few excerpts from the email:

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1). This bill, which eventually will cost one trillion dollars, will increase the amount of taxes owed by every person in America by $3,333.

But you don't need to worry because you will never have to pay it. Neither will your children. It will be your grandchildren and their children who will pay this tax. It is utterly immoral to force our great-grandchilden to pay off our debt.

Add this amount to the $35,000 which every individual already owes, and that increases each individual's debt to $38,000.

Okay, okay, enough already!

I do not take exception to these claims for the sake of taking exception to them, and I respect Mr. Wildmon and the work he does, truly, but this is just b.s.; a simple misrepresentation of the facts taken right out of the leftist playbook. As if to say that every citizen, or, every great grandchild of every citizen now living, owns an equal share of this debt. Bull!

Let's be honest (i.e., non-liberal), a dwindling minority in this country are actual net-taxpayers. And unless we have a mass epiphany in this country, and completely change the way we collectively think in terms of government taxation and spending, which isn't going to happen, by the time it comes time to "pay up" there won't be enough taxpayers left to pay the interest on our debt, much less to make a dent in the principal.

But look, at this point in the game we might just as well devote our energies to developing a massive cork to put in Vesuvius. If you catch my drift.

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Allow me to put to an end...

...all the hype and the hope.

Given that not a single Repbulican House member voted for the Democrat's so-called "stimulus package" (I heard earlier today Obama call it a "recovery package" -- something about the word "package" used to describe an 825 Billion dollar, out-of-thin-air Marxist redistribution scheme doesn't set quite well with me) which was easily passed in the leftist controlled HoR, will the Republicans in the Senate stand firm with, and emulate their lower-house colleagues?

No.

The John Galt Option is sounding better all the time. You see, "a country boy will survive," and this country boy has absolutely no interest in indebting his great, great grandchildren with a debt they cannot pay (not to mention that they didn't themselves assent to) before they're even born. So you democrats can take your "stimulus" package and screw yourselves with it. As for me and my house, we will not participate.

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Nothin' better to do



I've just been sitting at the computer this morning, reading various articles and going through some of our old photos. The picture you see above is, of course, my wife and I and two of our daughters at our table at the State Gymnastics Banquet, August, 2008.

I have some good lookin' females in my life, wouldn't you agree? (If you're considering answering that question, and you're not another female, ... watch it!) ;-)

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Americanism of Russian-American Master Artist Alexei Antonov

I met and became friends with Alexei Antonov soon after he moved his family into our apartment complex in Peter's Creek, Alaska back in the early 1990s when I was a young Airman stationed at Elmendorf AFB, and my wife and I worked in a semi-managerial capacity on the property (We took care of new applications, some maintenance, problems with problem-tenants, etc...).

Actually, Alexei and I became friends through our wives, as Alexei's wife spoke English very well. Our boys were close to the same age and played together, and so forth and so on, and our families, despite our cultural differences, had quite a bit in common at the time. For example, we were just poor folk and young family men trying to make our way in world. Alexei and I also shared another commonality, we both believed strongly in hard work and self-discipline, self-reliance, delayed gratification and all that. And neither of us could abide the thought of taking a handout, particularly from the government.

I thought about Alexei and his family today as I was reading Mark Presco's entry at his blog, The Politically Incorrect Iconoclast. You see, Alexei and his family did not immigrate to America alone. He and his family came to America with another Russian family, with the aid of the Russian Orthodox Church which both families were members of. The differences in these two families, and the two men, were, however, striking. I personally had absolutely nothing in common with the other family. But other than their common nationality, neither did Alexei and his family.

The other man was supposed to be some kind of an artist too, and though his artwork wasn't that bad, it was (and is, I'm sure), trust me, much, much, much inferior to the work of Alexei Antonov. This man was simply not gifted with Alexei's talent, nor with Alexei's work ethic, but this didn't stop him from demanding from Alexei more and more and more of the proceeds derived from Alexei's work as art enthusiasts became aware of the work of Antonov, and the proceeds naturally followed. I could tell you some stories. And Alexei and I engaged, through his interpreter-wife, in several conversations on the subject. I said to Alexei more than a few times during these conversations, "This is America, not Communist Russia. Part of the American Dream is for a person to be able to use his talents and giftings to create wealth and make his own way in the world, not for someone else to do it for us as we complain, no matter how much they're giving us, that they're not doing enough for us."

Anyway, I've checked on Alexei and his family from time to time since we left Alaska in October of 1992, just to see how they were getting along. And it's good to see, though in no way surprising, that they're doing so well. If you're an art enthusiast, particularly of Classical Painting and the works of Masters of Classical Painting techniques, and if you have ten or fifteen thousand dollars to spend, then maybe you can own your own Antonov.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

On the Great Ice Storm of 2009

Digital images added at 3:34pm CST; taken a bit earlier outside our house.




Just to let my readers and correspondents know, we're hunkering down getting ready for the worst, yet hoping for the best. I would say we have, currently, about 1/4 inch of ice on the trees and powerlines, and the rain is coming steadily. It is predicted that we'll recieve another 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice in the next 24 hrs., which means, essentially, weeks-long power outages and a big ol' mess t'boot.

But don't worry too much about us. We have plenty of food and water at the house, an alternative source of heat, and I just went out and started the generator for good measure's sake. I'm going to try my best to stay off the roads until this thing blows over. And I'll try to keep you updated. More later.

Update, 3:00 pm local time:

The temperature has dropped two or three degrees in the last couple of hours, and the precipitation, locally, has changed from rain to sleet. We've had, by my count, five separate (local) occurances of temporary power outages, lasting not more than a few seconds, since about 10:00 am today. And the roads are getting treacherous.

Update no. 2, Jan. 29, 7:40am

Though we're currently froze up pretty solid, and the roads are still hazardous, it looks like Providence smiled upon us this go 'round, at least in my little neighborhood, as we still have all of our utilities despite the fact that the ice continued to accumulate. But after the destructive ice storm of 2007, probably a full half of our power lines and poles were replaced with new ones, which certainly didn't hurt matters in this case. Not to mention that the trees were cut away then, mainly by nature, from the power lines. Nonetheless, the generator remains on standby. :-)

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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Webster's on Wilders

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

The quote above, which you see also permanently displayed in this blog's header and attributed to its namesake, defines in a nutshell the basic mission and purpose of this site and its owner, and the worldview from whence it is derived.

This blog supports Geert Wilders. Without reservation!

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Sunday, January 4, 2009

Weighing the Positives against the Negatives




Over at BadEagle.com Dr. Yeagley posts a whole laundry-list of personal negatives attending the use of the Gregorian calendar. I, of course, come at it from a different perspective. For one thing, I'm not personally inclined to believe that "easy" is always the best route to take. Taking the path of least resistance is sometimes the best way, but not always. But when you boil it all down, and as I said to Dr. Yeagley in my initial comment to the entry, the Gregorian calendar ain't that difficult to understand. Here's a good Wikipedia article on the benefits of the Gregorian calendar.

Also, there is a close correlation between distance and time. While Dr. Yeagley complains that I invoke our consistency in applying the Gregorian method to angular measurements on the surface of the globe, I think the comparison is legitimate because, as I said, there is a close correlation between distance and time. We also project the artificial divisions of the surface of our planet onto the celestial sphere. This enables us to detect and measure certain anomalies such as Precession. (Scroll up the page to read the full article.)

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