Littlestuff Weekender-3-10-2012

At 2:00am Sunday morning our ‘time” is magically transformed, and we begin to save daylight. This maneuver has always puzzled me because “saving” suggests some form of storing, and I’ve never found a system that will successfully retain daylight for more than several hours. Maybe our new emphasis on green energy development can include a daylight storage component. We can pass out billions of research and development dollars to well-placed friends of politicians who will, in turn, hire tens (perhaps even dozens of people) of people to resolve the problem. If anyone can possibly save daylight for an extended of time without its molding or rusting, our efficient government bureaucracy armed with unlimited cheapening dollars will find a way….or not.

One other aspect of Daylight Savings Time that perplexes me is why do we go back to Standard Time for such a short period? From the end of October to mid-March isn’t very long, so why bother? Perhaps it’s an extension of Obamacare as the government gurus assume that several senior citizens will tumble from ladders while changing clocks thus saving dollars for Medicare and Medicaid after they break their fragile necks. Just a tin-foil thought. Almighty God has cautioned us that His ways are not our ways, and we are incapable of totally understanding everything about Him. Obviously our government and its representatives believe they are godly because nearly everything they do is beyond human comprehension. Frankly, I trust the Original Creator, but fear and distrust the interloping copycat.

For those of us who remain transfixed by the GOP race for the presidential nomination….the Kansas caucuses are today (Saturday) and Mississippi and Alabama selections are coming this week. The three leading contenders are all predicting victory. I suspect that none of them will be correct. The mess marches on.

Greece has technically defaulted although the true default was nearly two years ago. Once again bond holders will be holding the bag. If you were one of those, you deserve your “haircut.” Greek bondholders are being transformed into “skin heads” right before our very eyes.

What a jolt as Chevy suspended production of the VOLT. Purchases by government and General Electric were not enough to prop up this latest socialist-managed-economy-government-meddling fiasco. I suggest you hold off placing your order until after the new GM-Puegot merger has been finalized wherein you might qualify for a 100% subsidy. Of course you’ll have to supply your own batteries at $12K each, your 40-mile extension cord and your very-own EPA-DOE approved charging station (roughly $275,000 plus ten years delay for impact studies). It’s really tough to top those wonderful government subsidies. Geeeesh.

So President Obama and his covey of clowns are becoming quite perturbed because the “new media” are vetting him. Andrew Breitbart’s recent death has generated more interest in his site’s recently released videos about BHO’s college years. Unlike Anthony Weiner, the President doesn’t want to be ‘exposed.’ Our modern-day Manchurian Commander-in-Chief confidently believes that he can fool all the people all the time…..well, except for those pesky right-wing zealots. It will be up to individual states to determine if Obama is qualified for their respective November ballots. Clearly….the distribution of Democrats versus Republicans will factor into each state’s decision-making process. It must be states who take the lead because Boehner is too cowardly and Harry Reid is too far in the tank for Obama to assure a fair and just Congressional effort.

http://youtu.be/lxn48wSiCzg

As the conference tournaments wrap up this weekend, we surge into March Madness next week. There will probably be enough money wagered in office pools to severely dent the national debt. Just like career politicians and bureaucrats, many of those who gamble will have little real knowledge about the vagaries of college hoops. They will generally really on the S.W.A.G. method for designing their brackets (SWAG = Scientific Wild-A$$ed Guess)….just like government only without the “scientific” part. Good luck and NEVER choose a 16 seed to win it all.

Earlier I wrote a column that briefly addressed the Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh kerfluffle (“Sluts and Nuts,” 3-7-2012). This little news item is unworthy of prolonged consideration because it was a movement by strident socialist women to move the contraception debate away from Church-State-1^st Amendment issues into the realm of anecdotal downtrodden victim of the system. They chose the wrong representative. Fluke is not a sympathetic character, so when Limbaugh stepped in it and rendered his infallible judgment, the focus quickly shifted toward his supposedly misogynistic attitudes. The old line is “when you wrestle with pigs you have to get into the mud with them….and they have the advantage there.” Still it is much ado about nothing yet it has eaten up bandwidth and print space.

Have a special weekend as you “spring forward.” Monday’s column will be “The Placebo Effect”  …. Unless I change my mind.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Just a Little Bit

As we survey the social, economic and political issues around us, it is rather easy to become dismayed. I know. I have felt so overwhelmed at times that I was ready to curl up into a fetal ball and let the world move on without my participation. Upon further reflection, I decided that withdrawal wasn’t an effective strategy for dealing with our nation’s problems. I have children and grandchildren whose lives will be sorely limited by the onerous direction our land is pursuing. My obligation as the patriarch of our little clan is to preserve and protect their liberties to the best of my limited ability. And so….I have determined that if I cannot make all the difference in our national drift, I must make some difference….have some impact….do my share….if only a little bit.

Faced with an aging body that is reaping the consequences of a lifetime of unhealthy living, I find that my energy and my capabilities are limited. Even if I had an engorged super-hero complex, the aching bones and rigid nap times would minimize my capacity for turning things around. Some of you (the ones with bluer hair or fewer hairs) may remember the Brylcreme commercials. “A little dab will do ya’” they confidently stated about the unmovable hair grease. That’s where I am these days….dibbing and dabbing and hoping to motivate those who have more strength and energy than I have. I let the Founders and Framers carry the wood and start the fire. I’m the old guy with the poker in my hand who stirs the fire from time to time …. hoping to keep it going until the youngsters can haul in more fuel for the hearth and raise the temperature for the nation.

One of the advantages of growing older (aside from the obvious one of being on TOP of the grass) is that as one’s physical abilities diminish, one’s wisdom about how and when to get physical increases ( well, usually ). It’s called “choosing the moment.” Usually a crisis or opportunity emerges and I engage in frenzied activity to address it followed by high-intensity napping. Some of my “little bits” take place in the middle of the night as I spring awake from a deep slumber. It may be the “call of nature” that sets off my internal alarm or the throbbing sensation in my battered knees that interrupt my sleep. Facing the improbability of returning to the blissful quiet of a sound sleep, I stumble to the office to write some profound words about how our government is destroying our personal liberties. For me and perhaps for you also, the act of reviewing my writing recaptures the slumber bug and allows me to drift off for a couple more hours.

The purpose of this column isn’t to regale you with my sleep habits or patterns, but to suggest that each of us can do a little bit beyond thinking about our problems. If you wake in the middle of the night, write a letter to the editor or to a politician….that will put you back to sleep. As a cautionary note, I recommend that you review the letter in the morning before mailing it. Trust me on this. You don’t wish to be placed on another “watch list” just because you engaged in highly inflammatory language at 3:00am. Many of you are gardeners and you can take a short amount of time during lunch (the hottest time of day) to jot a note or an email expressing your concerns. The little bits for most of us can be squeezed into precious moments between activities or when first arising or at bedtime.

Most of us have neither the time nor the talent to accomplish great things for liberty. Our personal “little bits of difference” can add to the efforts of others. Cumulatively we can combine our “bits” and move the nation back to its moorings. Let me be clear here at the risk of offending you. Just attending the meetings and reading the email threads is not enough. Those efforts are pre-“little bits.” It’s the next step of involvement that moves you from a mere participant to a neophyte activist. Little bits by citizens who love liberty can seem like incessant drops of water torture to those politicians who believe they can woo us then ignore us. Little bits of letter writing and email campaigns may convince the editorial pages and program directors that we are here, we are angry, we are serious and we are numerous.

Even if you or I may not have the strength and endurance to lead the charge up Liberty Hill, we can do our little bits by loading the cartridges, holding the horses and joining the swarm when our stronger leaders reach the crest. Every little bit helps. Every little bit is needed. Every little bit counts.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Sluts and Nuts

Sandra Fluke is a slut. A 30-year old woman who is studying law at one of the nation’s premier law schools should not ask blue-collar hard-working people to pay for birth control products that would allow her uncontrolled libido to screw the American taxpayers and premium payers. She is a slut because she is willing to exchange her dignity, her self-respect and her reasoning ability for 15 minutes of fame and unrestricted sexual activity. That represents a barter…a type of exchange wherein each party supposedly receives something of value to offset the loss of the assumed value of the object being traded. Just as “will screw for food” would be considered prostitution in most cities (generally controlled by progressive Democrats), as well as “will trade privacy, dignity and principles for sex.” She sold her soul for a big-government looter’s agenda. Rush Limbaugh was correct. When one expects “someone” to pay for one’s nymphomania, one is being paid to have unlimited sexual activity. With generic birth control pills selling for $9.00 per month at Wal-Mart, that leaves approximately $892.00 per year for condoms and other additional “protections” based on Ms. Fluke’s $1000.00 per year estimated cost for her or others’ profligacy.

Rush Limbaugh and his little butt-kissing buddies, Hannity and Levin, are also sluts. While Limbaugh attempts to use the absurd to illustrate the absurdity of Ms. Fluke’s demand, he fails to recognize the inconsistencies of his own positions. He and his cohorts claim the mantle of constitutionalism, but nevertheless do not hold Congress and the Administration accountable for some of their more egregious constitutional abuses….because those unconstitutional acts coincide with the subjective world-views of Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin. Whores and sluts sell their bodies either for pleasure or because of hard-core commercial purposes. Limbaugh and his little band of merry men sell out their constitutional principles either for their own self-serving purposes or to curry favor with their audiences and their supreme government masters. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States clearly identifies that Congress has the authority (and the obligation after careful and thoughtful consideration) to declare war. Yet, since December 8^th, 1941 Congress has NOT declared war even though we have been engaged in three decade-long conflicts plus the Korean “police action” in the interim. Why has the triumvirate of conservative talk radio cavalierly ignored this constitutional proviso? Perhaps….it doesn’t fit into their preferences for the unbridled exercise of government power, so they ignore the requirement/mandate. They are sluts and whores because despite their professed love for the Founders, the Framers and our constitutional republic, they willingly sell their souls, their integrity and their principles to unconstitutional activity. Progressives and conservatives, liberals and moderates have all chosen to selectively support the Constitution. All of…..or rather too many of them view the Constitution of the United States as a buffet of privilege for themselves and of limitations for their opponents. No wonder we are in the pit we are in when the supporters of our primary document distort it beyond recognition.  

Most of the mass media are sluts. I know….that’s redundant. Screwing the nation, the regular folks and constitutionalists is the number one activity for most media types. It is not too difficult to assume that the excessive carnal efforts by the media have resulted in debilitating STDs. Their diminished mental capacities would suggest that the spirochete bacterium of syphilis had occupied and destroyed their cognitive abilities. Their observations and reporting are primarily agenda-driven, and for the most part their agendas do NOT coincide with most citizens or with the Constitution. The members of the media can be excused at some level for their shortcomings because of their limited mental acuity. Reading and understanding the Constitution probably requires an eighth grade proficiency which is far beyond the capacity of many who chose to follow journalistic endeavors.

Obviously, the career politicians who unceasingly abuse our rights and ignore our Constitution are the “Sultans of Slut-dom.” They take oaths of office following their elections and proceed to systematically violate them at every turn. Not only are many of our political class… whores, they are cheap whores. They routinely sell out for campaign funds from their favored interest group or for ground troops for their re-election campaigns. They consistently pass new legislation to “clean up” the process but simultaneously open new loopholes and crevices for circumventing the law. They sell out and roll over at the mere glimpse of a dollar or a favor. Their favorite pastimes are screwing the constituency, screwing the nation and violating their sacred trusts. They are whores, sluts and hookers of the highest order. They are committed to their assumed profession and ignorant of their public obligation.

The title of this column is “Sluts and Nuts.” This is a term that most large-scale political campaigns know. There is an element of society that “hangs around” the campaign seeking opportunities for engaging the candidate or upper staff in questionable activity. Some politicians appreciate their presence but fear their disclosures. Others tremble when the sluts and nuts are nearby, but they are a common element of our political life. In light of my previous ranting about the “sluts” in our political structure, allow me to posit that we, the voters and citizens, are the nuts. We are nuts because we allow the sluts to do what they do to us, our Constitution and our republic.

Note to Ms. Fluke: If you’re playing the game and seek the fame, don’t complain about the name.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

    

Biting the Bullet

Are our politicians too stupid or too selfish to understand that it’s time to bite the bullet? Just like Gurkhas and the Sikhs in the British Armed Forces in the South Asian theater who had cartridges covered with lard-based cosmoline, sometimes you have to bite the bullet. Can kicking has become a national pastime for our local, state and federal politicians. With a few exceptions at the local and state levels they go about their (our) business as if the golden la-la land will go on forever. With our national debt now exceeding $16 trillion they have made no effort to balance the budget in order to freeze the debt at its current ‘greater than national GDP’ levels. With our massive indebtedness and more than $100 trillion in unfunded future obligations they have made no effort to eliminate the deadly spending growth inherently present in ‘base line budgeting.’ They have made NO effort.

Clearly the career politicians are afraid to face the political heat from special and favored interests who are the primary stakeholders in huge government spending. That’s their fault. The fact that greater heat has NOT been generated to stop the spending….cease the borrowing….and abandon the base line…is our fault. If we truly want our elected officials to bite the bullet, then we must overcome our own inhibitions and do the uncomfortable things that will get their attention. Writing letters (the old fashioned kind), transmitting emails, telephoning and face-to-face questioning at their public events may nudge them towards the realization that we have reached our upper limits of tolerance. The face-to-face encounters can be particularly effective if the questioner is polite and restrained. Because of others in the audience who may not be totally aware of our diminished liberties, the open Q & A could prompt them to begin the mental journey that leads to insight.

If one were to chamber a cartridge that had been preserved in the old lard-laden way without first biting the end and cleaning the grease from the casing, one could have a misfire. Metaphorically, we must do the uncomfortable before we can ever hope to affect our friends, neighbors and loved ones. Unending email threads and marathon discussions at Tea Party or Liberty events do not sway anyone. Most of those who attend, and all of those on the subscriber list are convinced that our nation is in peril. “Biting the bullet” means that we step out beyond our comfortable cocoon and challenge others with respect, dignity and love. These ideas are not so novel. Jesus the Christ taught them as the tools of evangelism, and the Apostle Paul was even more expansive about the techniques for sharing the Good News.

“Biting the Bullet” is suggestive of another aspect of our battle for liberty. One never chambered the cartridge unless the threat was imminent. If a warrior loaded the weapon too early, an accidental discharge could warn the foe, or even worse, harm oneself…you know that shooting oneself in the foot embarrassment. In the matter involving our liberty….the threat is imminent…..we are surrounded and can see the whites of their eyes. It’s time….actually past time….for biting the bullet and chambering the cartridge. We have no more time for internal squabbling among the family of patriots, tea partiers and liberty advocates. If we all agree that individual liberty is threatened and if we concur that freedom is vital, we can deal with our large or petty differences after the field has been taken….after the battle has been won. It’s bullet biting time on the battlefield of freedom.

There will be no shots fired for liberty until the “lock and load’ maneuver is complete. The lock and load must be preceded by biting the bullet to prepare the cartridge for chambering and firing. Most of the endeavors that we find worthwhile require some level of discomfort before we can truly enjoy the activity. If we wish to enjoy the benefits and advantages of individual liberty, we must be willing to engage in the “grunt’ work that brings those results to fruition. We must bite the distasteful wad or plug to open up the potential for our cartridge to complete its designated task. Locking is the equivalent of getting our facts together….of knowing the legislative calendars and voting records of elected politicians. The loading aspect arises when we devise responses, answers and information to counter their arguments. Biting the bullet is when we confront them…either indirectly or personally. Chambering the slug is akin to notifying others who share our views about the stupidity, immorality or perfidy of the politician, and finally…..the gentle squeeze of the trigger represents our efforts to ‘fire” them from their jobs for failing to perform and violating the oath of office.

The time has come to bite the bullet. Just be certain that you don’t swallow the words of the defensive politician. It could lead to indigestion.

cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

Tuesday evening 6:00-7:00pm, 1370 WSPD.  www.wspd.com