New Format

Dear Friends:

As we age, we all slow down a certain bit---what with normal wear and tear, disease, and accident. Well, I've been laid up with a repaired umbilical hernia and several diseases and degenerations and other things you don't want to know about. Consequently, my energy has led to reduced writing efforts.

As a result, I'm combining all my blogs into one. So, political, personal, and literary blog entries will all appear on the same blog. I will combine them all on the Notes for Ramey site: http://notesforramey.blogspot.com/ I will also be adding a few older entries that you may have missed. This blog will be a real find for you now. Please visit as often as you can. Tell your friends! Subscribe! Comment! Send me emails! I'll have it going within the week after I chase all the nurses away.

Thanks to all: TNM aka Topaz

Trying Souls in the Lemonade Stand

These are again the days that try men's and women's souls. Things are happening in the World and American Society that can't be believed. Here's a sample.

*In re a discussion of 2011 from an article written December 29, 2010: "...There is no way of knowing how long the Islamic Revolution will last. With a history based entirely on conquest and domination, the present fever and fervor may take quite a while to sink back into a dank resentment of everything modern, everything that has to do with individual freedom. When your whole understanding of the world is contained in a single “holy” book deemed the word of Allah, there are few options for reform...

We cannot know how long it will take America to work its way out of its economic problems, mostly based on literally insane spending, borrowing, and the over-regulation of everything...The world is beginning to make plans for a failed America. Our credit rating may drop. How long we can just print money to buy our own debt is anyone’s guess. It’s like moving one’s debt between credit cards. The debt, however, does not go away and the spending (and the waste) never stops...The Russians and Chinese are already using their own currencies to finance their trade deals, not the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, in Europe, nations including Great Britain, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal, are on the razor’s edge of financial collapse. Too much socialism. Too little realism..." --- by Alan Caruba --- Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, and he blogs at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. His book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, is published by Merrill Press.

*“I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”
 
 - Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859), Written in a letter to Arthur de Gobineau, 22 October 1843, reproduced in the “Tocqueville Reader”, p. 229.

*With apologies to Reese of the 1992 Terminator movie: Listen, and understand. The Liberals are out there. They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. -- And we're so much on that road that it's downright frightening. Please go to the polls in 2011 and 2012 and vote back sanity in enough numbers to quiet the Liberals.

*VA censors prayers, bans God Bless You, Jesus and other phrases from being used in funerals in their Houston Cemetery.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/29/houston-veterans-claim-censorship-prayers-ban-on-god-and-jesus/?test=latestnews
I'm looking to be cremated in a reputable place by knowledgeable people before the VA steps in to ban something, like an employing sneezing and being told 'God Bless You.' I figure an urn won't take up so much space somewhere, and the mourner can say a quick prayer for me without anyone bothering him/her.

*Kids fined and lemonade stand shut down.
http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/155167/158/County-Shuts-Down-Kids-Lemonade-Stand-500-FineOfficials are on the hunt. Next, they'll be charging a toll for kids to roller skate or skateboard down the sidewalk tax. Can't we shut down the administration and fine it something, say $1.5 trillion?

*Thieves steal and damage US flags set up for celebration.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/06/27/50-american-flags-stolen-damaged-in-uniontown/First the homeowners associations, and now the thieves and vandals. Where's the spirit of America any more?

Good-bye Osama! Wave to Adolph!

*I'm very glad Osama bin Ladin is dead. I applaud the efforts of the US Navy Seal Teams and the Intelligence backing them. I applaud the action of Obama giving the go-ahead for a dangerous foray into a foreign Country---knowing there will be backlash. The success of this raid took many years of planning and effort from the US Military, the US Intelligence Services, and the administration of George Bush to set the stage for Barack Obama to act.

The question now is: where's the proof? Any and all photos and videos need to be released immediately no matter the sudden Victorian prudery of the Administration. I think the people who experienced their love ones being torn to pieces on 9/11 can bear to see the bloodied body of a homocidal maniac. Besides, for an Administration slowly pushing us financially and socially into the dark ages, I find it's reticence to show the photos curious. Is it the low poll numbers? Does he need to stretch this one success out? Why does it take so long for him to come to an obvious decision? Since Obama has never been particularly honest, how can we believe him now? Does it really take that long to photoshop?

I have no objection to the washing of bin Ladin's body and dressing it in a shroud like he always carried around with him. But I stop short at approving the quick burial at sea with a religious funeral. Bury him at sea? Just throw him to the sharks. Religious funeral? He wasn't a Muslim. In fact, I don't think he was much of anything. And we needed to delay burial and examine his body with a little more detail.

By the time you read this, I'm sure some Resolution has been made by Obama [as long as it's not his scratched desk, right?.] Let's hope it's the correct one.

*Why doesn't Al-Quaeda give their bombers a little taste before killing themselves? Oh, I see. All the Muslim virgins are gone. They've been murdered and raped as part of the Muslim culture. So, the logical question appears. Where are all these virgins in the Muslim Heaven going to come from? There are only so many convents that the Muslim tribes haven't destroyed. Don't any of the potential bombers wonder about this dearth of glory? Of course not. They're still mired in the Seventh Century, fantasies and all.

*Donald Trump has shown his Democrat/Liberal leanings in the past using invasive government to do his bidding, so why is he suddenly declaring Republican and Presidential candidate? He's very smart, and very tricky. He's totally for Obama, and anything he does is calculated to help Obama get re-elected. By bringing up the birth certificate of Obama [he really hasn't shown a real US one], he gains notoriety and some Conservative backing, and he defuses the issue for the election cycle. By declaring himself Republican [and then Independent when he isn't the Republican candidate] he gathers much support. All the current Trump criticism about Obama cannot to be trusted. His plan is to go Independent and siphon votes from the Republicans, thus leading to a victory by Obama. He'll probably get a Cabinet or Czar appointment in return. No thanks Mr Hairy ego. You're too Liberal for us. [Another pertinent opinion, this one by Michelle Malkin: http://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2011/04/22/donald_trumps_eminent-domain_empire/page/full/ ]

*Per Fox News in early April: "...Girl feels excluded by the words 'Heavenly Father' and 'amen' on banner in school's auditorium..." I saw and heard this girl in a video clip, and she's nothing but an ACLU shill looking for her fifteen minutes. It's clear that she's being manipulated by her lawyer and ACLU. The Constitution guarantees the free expression of religion. Atheism is not a religion. Therefore, she has no right to interfere with other's freedom of religious expression. ACLU---via this girl---is upset at 'Heavenly Father' and 'Amen' but have not problem with rap music's often disgusting lyrics, the murder of unborn children, or the continued Democrat attack on the US. A pox on her, and the usual pox on those idiots at ACLU.

*Does President Obama have a passport? Does he need one? If so, how can he get one without a real birth certificate?

*As heard on the Glen Beck program and in print elsewhere: "...The State Department reportedly will propose a new questionnaire for 'some' passport applicants -- an otherwise uneventful bit of news if it weren’t for the questions themselves. Nearly impossible to remember details such as all addresses since birth, lifetime employment history including employer and supervisor names, addresses, and telephone numbers; mother's address one year prior to your birth and on and on and on. Fail to provide any details? It 'may result in the denial of your U.S. passport application' the form states. Why in the world would they want to do this?.." --- Keep all this in mind when you think about the President. He didn't have to answer any questions to be a candidate or President. He didn't even prove he's a citizen of the United States---and why would someone pay millions of dollars to keep his birth certificate and student records and records of his State Senatorship secret if there is nothing to hide?

5/4/11 Update:
From the latest news we know now that Obama couldn't make up his mind about the bin Ladin raid, being his usual wishy-washy self. We're told that Obama was never in charge and was being manipulated---predominately by Valerie Jarrett. As we all know from the past few years, this man is not a leader. He had to be dragged away from the golf course to even participate in the final bin Ladin raid planning. Look at the now famous photo of Obama and members of his Administration watching the real-time video of the raid. Does Obama look like he's in charge? He looks like his presence there is an after thought, and he was humbly sitting to the side while the adults ran the session. And now we're told that he wont release any of the raid photos of the dead Osama bin Ladin. We're supposed to believe him that the death occurred? Believe a President who uses lies and misinformation to administer his Presidency? We're supposed to believe that this whole event [including photo ops at Ground Zero] is not a political ploy to help his poll numbers? It took him two years of criticism to force him to release what he claims to be his birth certificate. Most knowledgeable people tell us that it: isn't a birth certificate; has no seal; has been apparently photo shopped with info that is not in context with 1961 or other realities. Now, how long will we wait for the photos and videos? Will they be phot shopped? Doesn't Obama know that they'll be leaked as soon as an opportunity arises?

The Elephant and the Donkey

*Whyfore the Donkey? It first appeared as a symbol for the Democrat Party in the time of Andrew Jackson [1830s.] It continued as a symbol, along with a [crowing] rooster up through the 1880s. Thomas Nast, the cartoonist, first used the Donkey symbol in an 1870 cartoon, 'A Live Jackas*s Kicking a Dead Lion. The donkey [or as*s] has long been the representation of ignorance, and we can find examples in Aesop's 'Fables,' Apuleius's 'The Golden As*s,' and Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' In the twentieth---and now the twenty-first---century, the donkey symbol has grown to be the perfect denotation of what the Democrat Party is and and how it acts: Common sense! Common decency! Common truth! Oh, wherefore art thou in the heart of the left?

On the other hand, the Republicans have the Elephant. Since Roman times, the Elephant has been a sign of strength. It seems to have been applied as a representation of the Republican Party since an Illinois newspaper used it in commenting on the 1860 Presidential Campaign of Abraham Lincoln. Cartoonist Thomas Nast, who was a steadfast Republican, cemented its use [as best a cartoonist could] in welcoming the Elephant as the symbol for Republican Party in an 1874 cartoon. He was attracted by the animal's great size, intelligence, strength, and dignity.

Hmmm. Should I choose a Party with a symbol of ignorance or a symbol of strength, intelligence and dignity? A really hard decision, isn't it? Especially since the symbols fit the parties so well.

*Treasury pays out 8 times the income during March: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/march-madness-feds-spent-more-eight-time Sounds about right for a bankrupt Country.

*George Soros is at it again. "The country could, actually, absorb some more debt in order to get the economy going," George Soros told Bloomberg television over the weekend. [a few weeks ago] Just as an example, let's reduce Soros' income to less than his expenses and freeze all his assets. I wonder how long he could get by with more borrowing? What is his limit? With frozen assets and a poor income flow, he'd be bankrupt very soon. [and his World would be falling to pieces around him---not a bad thing.]

*We note that the California Federation of Teachers has voiced support for a convicted cop killer [Muslim.] The union is putting itself up as a judicial organization of the pardon while it's idling around---sometimes even teaching our kids the basics of socialism and weenie-ism.

*We have the Muslim nations of Africa and the Middle East in turmoil. Some in the West are hailing these revolutions as a victory for Democracy. I see it as a consolidation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the complete subjugation of the citizens in each Country as they all mass together to forge Muslim influence. Things won't get better, nor will the citizenry have any freedom in the long run. They'll get worse with the Muslim religious fanatics taking over Country after Country while all the population is pushed back into 7th Century living quality---except for the elite Muslims, of course.

Speedo to Sharko!!

*From the Press-Telegram [via AP] in Paramount CA: "The assistant principal at a California high school has been placed on leave after a campus talent show where male students pranced seductively in underwear and Speedos..." Was this 'show and tell'? And these teachers are the ones who expect high pay and obtuse benefits for this?

*Fox News.com: "In final edits leading up to the vote, conservatives rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D. They also required that public school students in Texas evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty. During the months' long process of creating the guidelines, conservatives successfully strengthened the requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and attempted to water down rationale for the separation of church and state...The standards will refer to the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard."

[Me: The trouble with leaving the history writing to historians is that many are Liberal and they freely allow their Liberal ideology to drip into their writing. Besides, these are only guidelines, they aren't the actual writing. The Liberal bias in schoolbooks has for years brought about the so-called 'education' of a bunch of Liberal non-thinkers. The worst of the lot show themselves here with their hatred and mis-educated thoughts. They aren't evil, they're just ignorant of truth and even-ness in society---like slavery. Most comments [on this article] I've seen are wrong. Slavery was wrong but it was accepted in society for a number of years. That doesn't make it right. These people were educated into such a mindset, just like the Liberals of today were taught intolerance and incorrect history based on the leftist view.]

*Townhall.com [via AP by Christina Hoag]: "Next month's opening [September 2010] of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968...With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever..." And we wonder why education eats up so much money and produces so little in result. This type of spending is obscene, and it should never be repeated---even by a small percentage.

*Townhall.com [via Chuck Norris]: "The Arabic studies program -- funded by a five-year, $1.3 million Foreign Language Assistance Program federal grant -- was to begin this semester at Cross Timbers Intermediate School [TX] and then spread to neighboring schools in the Mansfield Independent School District. Thank God for the parental passions and patriot fires of the almost 200 parents who showed up at a meeting last week to question the wisdom of school officials. They are fighting in their own personal education Alamo and presently have the upper hand. For the moment, the school district has backed off plans for its Arabic studies program. With 14 percent of American adults (32 million) incapable of reading a newspaper or instructions on a prescription bottle, don't you think federal monies could be put to better use by helping Americans learn to read and write English?.." Per Barbara Bush: " 'I'm against English as a second language. My great-grandmother came here as a German. She didn't have someone give her English as a second language. She learned it in three months. It's survival.' " -- Common sense does sometimes prevail over the Third Worlder Liberals.

*sntp.com [Say No to Psychiatry]: "Modern education, especially as it exists in the government controlled public schools, has deteriorated continually over the past 100 years. There are no "education specialists" who aren't now actually behavioral psychologists or psychiatrists. The field of psychology has very much taken over the public school system, and is doing its best to take over private schools. Through covert tactics, extensive lobbying efforts, and setting government mandated "educational standards", even home-schooling may have to conform to the dictates of psychologists..."

[Me: Sadly, this rings the bell of truth.]

*Michelle Obama continues to speak out about fat and obesity, especially in children. Nevertheless, while in Aspen over Presidents Day Weekend she enjoyed a braised pork short-rib dinner, boasting of [meat only] 1575 calories, 142 grams of fat, and 287 grams cholesterol. I guess it's still the old Liberal mantra: do as I say, not as I do.

*Obama claims to be a home brewer, but does he actually do the brewing? Probably not. His chefs are the ones doing it. Doesn't that remove the process from the term 'home brewing?' If he or Michelle isn't actually doing the work, then the 1978 law doesn't apply. So. Does he have a liquor license like the micro-brewers must have? Does he pay all the federal and state taxes on the production? I doubt very much he does. Aren't the chefs public employees? Isn't he using them for personal aggrandizement? Shouldn't he be prosecuted for breaking the law?



*All 3rd World Countries and the UN want the US to give money and aid all over the World for their benefits---whether disaster strikes or not. The UN wants to redistribute US money to other Countries who waste what they have. They assume the US is inexhaustibly rich. They assume wrong. Besides, why aren't the Chinese handing out money left and right? Isn't their economy booming? We're headed towards an equalized World---everyone and every Country will be poor except China. Way to go oh Liberal thinking!

* There is a story on National Geographic Channel about a killer whale fighting and killing a great white shark in the ocean. The whale ate the shark's liver and moved on. Where is the wrath of the Liberals? Compare that to a human hunting and killing a large animal, say a predatory lion or tiger, eating just the liver and leaving the body for the scavengers [who have to eat to live as well.]

In the latter case, the Liberal's and media would be tripping over themselves to destroy the hunter, blaming it on the NRA, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and George Bush. It shows the lack of understanding of people and animals on this planet. In the Bible, God gives man dominion over all the animal life on Earth. Should we hunt down and destroy that killer whale for destroying another animal?

Should a man be excoriated for doing the same thing? Does having a choice condemn the man? Who knows the reasoning behind the whale's attack? Of course man---us---should exercise caution and restraint in handling animals. But does that correlate with a man-eating predator? It's not like there was a mass extinction---which by the way is the natural order. I believe something like 90% of all animal life ever on earth has become extinct. We may be responsible for some, but certainly so tiny a percentage of the total as to be miniscule. Our Liberal friends and animal lovers must get a grip and face reality. Human rights are not endowed upon other animals.

Obama Bows Again or Who is Hu?

*This picture of our President Obama meeting Chinese President Hu here in 2010 again shows how Obama simply can't help himself. He bows before every foreign power he can, and this time to a murderous Communist who happens to control a vast economy. And just earlier in the year, February, his protocol chief led the Dalai Lama out of the White House via a side door, next to piles of trash and garbage bags. I guess to get lavish treatment in the Obama White House you have to be responsible for massive human rights violations and other crimes against humanity.

*I was watching 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' and something dawned on me. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Charlie Rangel, Chucky Schumer, Maxine Waters, Rosa DeLauro and the rest of their wimpy Democrat Friends would never have done anything that Sarah has done: no mountain climbing, skiing, bear or moose hunting, mushing, gold panning---even skeet shooting for them. They'd never have a chance. Nor would they survive if they were younger and in better shape. I'll bet they wouldn't know what to do with a vacuum cleaner either. You see, when you concentrate too much on politics, you don't learn anything of real life. Do we have another Teddy Roosevelt in our midst?

*In re Juan Williams idea that Sarah Palin is not at the intellectual level of Obama: The 'intellectual' Liberal chowderheads don't think anyone is their equal. Meanwhile they and their policies continue to sink our Country, municipality by municipality, city by city, State by State, and our Country as a whole. We don't want them!! I don't care how intelligent they think they are. After all, 'intelligent' is the adjective provided by fellow Liberals. And who can trust a Liberal anymore? Juan Williams is a Liberal, and an Obama fawn. His opinion counts for zilch. The Conservatives only watch him for fodder for their columns and speeches. He never adds anything substantive. Sarah Palin is a full American, not an elite Ivy Leaguer who thinks the World must bow down before his policies, and he must bow down to foreign potentates. She's lived a normal life, had to finance her education, has quickly adapted herself to the center stage and preached common sense [something Obama knows nothing about.] I'd vote for her over Obama in a heartbeat.

*A quote from the Declaration of Independence 1776: "...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security..." 2012 can't come soon enough for me.