Tebow’s Ad a Success of Modesty

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I’m a huge Georgia Bulldogs fan.  As such, I was pretty happy to see Florida lose to Alabama in the SEC Championship game.  I was even slightly glad to see Tim Tebow cry when the game ended.  But I got over it and even got upset at the people who rode that horse for weeks; because despite putting the hurt on Georgia three of his four years at Florida, Tim is a class act and an overall really nice guy.  I wouldn’t be surprised if, when he gets to the NFL, he gets a reputation along the lines of Doug Floutie or Darrell Green, who are considered to be among the nicest, most consciencious guys to ever don the uniform.

So, in case you missed it, here’s Tim Tebow & Mom’s Super Bowl Ad:

Yeah, that was worth all the shouting and harranging by the National Organization for Women (the same organization that supported Bill Clinton in defending his sexual harrassment lawsuit).  This and other “women’s” groups and “pro-choice” groups spent many hours in the weeks preceding the Super Bowl denouncing the ad as “inappropriate” for the venue, “anti-choice” and “anti-women.”

I’ve been wanting to say all this ever since I saw the ad last night, but amazingly enough, a pro-choice liberal has already said it all for me.  She said it almost a week before the ad aired, and there is very little I could add to the conversation that would be at all helpful.  But I’ll still try.

Filed under: liberty, media, politics, speech , abortion, tebow, tim tebow, ad, focus on the family, CBS, Super Bowl, SB44, XLVI, pro-life, pro-choice

Fix the Balance Sheet, Fix the Economy

Just about everybody realizes that the Stimulus did did not stimulate our economy. In fact, it was probably quite counter-productive, since the borrowed debt and newly printed Dollar Bills have severely weakened the Dollar in comparison to other currencies like the Euro, Yen and Pound Sterling. Now, with the realization fully in the mind of the American people, President Obama and others are suggesting that we pull the repaid from the TARP program and unspent stimulus funds to spend it on “job creation.” Fortunately, some in Washington oppose these ideas.

Pardon me, but wasn’t this what the Stimulus Bill was for? Wasn’t it passed to stem the rising unemployment rate at no more than 8 percent? Shouldn’t the funds in the Stimulus Bill have already been spent “creating” jobs?

The answer, of course, is no.

Filed under: economics, taxes, wealth , borrowing, debt, keynes, keynesian, stimulus

Reverse Course to Right Our Economy

Can we just admit that the Stimulus was an $800 billion mistake that did absolutely nothing to help the economy or stimulate jobs?

Can we admit that Keynesian economics are, at best, a scalpel being wielded as though a they were a machete?

Can we admit that no centralized government planning will ever lead to greater economic prosperity?

Because if you really can’t admit that, you really haven’t been paying attention.

For the past several years, we’ve been told that America needs more regulation, that the wealthy need to pay their “fair share,” that free market economics aren’t enough any more.  We’ve been told some companies and some banks are just “too big to fail,” and that we the taxpayers have to step in and “save” them from their failures.  We’ve been told that the managers of these companies, even the ones that have righted their boats, don’t deserve the high levels of compensation they earn.  That if these wealthy people weren’t so greedy, we’d all have more.

The media and the Democrats will tell you that the the CEOs and senior executives of these big corporations are giving themselves big bonuses and big pay-raises.  There’s just one problem with that concept:

Filed under: economics, health care, socialism, taxes, wealth , executive pay, keynesian, proactive passivism

To control spending, start with the basics

Nancy Pelosi likes spending your money.

If you’re reading this, you probably already knew that.  What you didn’t know is just how much and how carelessly Ms. Pelosi likes to spend your hard-earned tax dollars.  According to Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Air Force detailing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of United States Air Force aircraft for Congressional Delegations (CODELs). According to the documents, obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Speaker’s military travel cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol.

Use of military aircraft aside, the expenditures also includes vast amounts of premium alcohol and special trips for family members.  A trip to Iraq also included large amounts of alcohol, a luxury officially denied to the uniformed men and women fighting Al-Qaeda and its surrogates there.

So much for the “most open and ethical Congress in history.”

Filed under: Government, taxes , expenditure, foia, judicial watch, pelosi, speaker of the house, spending, waste

An Open Letter to the Oxford University Press

Timothy Barton
President, OUP USA
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016 U.S.A.
Phone: 212-726-6000

Dear Mr. Barton,

I am writing this letter as a formal complaint.  It has come to my attention that the New Oxford American Dictionary has defined the term “teabagger” as “a person who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as “Tea Party” protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773).”  I believe this definition is in error and must be corrected if the New Oxford American Dictionary is going to continue in the “Oxford Tradition” as the “Definitive Record of the English Language.”

The verb “to teabag” is a sexual act that involves oral stimulation of the male genitalia, the details of which I will not describe here except to say that what one does with a tea bag in a cup of water is highly descriptive.  This term was later adopted by participants in multiplayer First Person Shooter games, who would, after defeating an opponent, have their on-screen character kneel over the head of their opponent’s virtual corpse to simulate the sexual act as an act of domination over the vanquished foe.

Filed under: media, politics, speech, stupidity , definitions, etymology, obscenity, oxford american dictionary, oxford english dictionary, oxford university press, protest, tea party, teabagger

Caulk won’t save our economy.

To improve our economy, President Obama wants us to spend tens of billions of dollars on… Caulk.

That’s right. The President believes that both our energy situation and the unemployment issues that far out-strip any projections made by his economic team can be solved by “weatherizing” our homes. All we need to do is hire hundreds of thousands of union laborers to add weatherstripping and caulk to lower our energy costs. This will have a ripple-effect that will resonate throughout our economy and kick-start the jobs machine. To do this, the Stimulus Package already signed into law provided billions of dollars for training workers to install caulk and other weatherizing improvements into people’s homes.

This is all part of President Obama’s “Green Jobs” initiative, which he extensively campaigned on and continues to hold up as the future of our domestic economy. He even went so far as to call insulation “sexy.”

I have a “sexy” idea for President Obama: Instead of focusing on “green jobs,” how about focusing on “jobs?” We can worry about the “green” part when we get back to that 8% unemployment level that he said his magical stimulus would prevent us from ever topping.

Filed under: Government, economics, environment, politics, taxes, wealth , caulk, copenhagen, economy, fail, manbearpig, obama, stimulus, taxes, weatherize

Telegraph: Climategate is no problem! Just ask those under suspicion!

The London Telegraph was so profoundly upset by the news that the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (CRU) had allegedly falsified data that they felt compelled to issue a press release:

Sceptics claim the emails show climate change data was being manipulated.

Prof Jones, director of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), has said he “absolutely” stands by the science produced by the centre – and that suggestions of a conspiracy to alter evidence to support a theory of man-made global warming were “complete rubbish”.

Nowhere in the article does the Telegraph cite any Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) skeptic, but byline-free (no author listed) article managed to talk to four individuals closely associated with the CRU to find their take on the matter, now that the unit’s director is temporarily stepping down while an “independent investigation” is launched.

Filed under: environment, media, science , agw, climate, climate change, climategate, cru, global warming, scandal, telegraph

PETA: The straight-jacket brigade

I’m not going to say much, just state my piece.  PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wants the University of Georgia to replace Uga VII, its recently and suddenly deceased mascot, with an animatronic robot.  Apparently, the folks at PETA are upset about the inbreeding of the English Bulldog and the poor care given to these animals.

I can’t comment too intelligently about inbreeding, except to say it’s far more common when the animals are being “miniaturized.”  But I can comment on the care these animals receive.  You see, I’ve met both Uga VI and Uga VII and his owner.

Filed under: pet peeve, stupidity , bulldogs, english bulldog, Georgia, PETA, robot, UGA

Atheism is a Religion

I cannot stand to talk with people who insist that Atheism is not a religion. Atheism is the affirmative belief that there is no God.  Atheists argue that, because their belief system includes no God figure, it is not a religion.  Atheists argue a God figure is a necessity for a religion, and it is true that Webster’s does define a religion as a “belief in a divine or superhuman power or powers to be obeyed and worshiped as the creator(s) and ruler(s) of the universe.”  (Webster’s New World Dictionary – Third Collegiate Edition. (c) 1994, Simon & Schuster/Prentice Hall General Reference, New York)

However, the definition misses the principle basis for such a belief system: Faith.  Such a simple word.  Five letters arranged in one syllable.  It’s definition is equally simple: “Unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.”

In this manner, all religions are based in faith.  As yet, there is no scientific proof of a God figure, reincarnation, karma, or that our ancestors can hear us in death.  There is no scientific proof that the spirits of animals and trees guide us and bind us.  Religion is, therefore, based upon faith that such things are real and guide us.

Atheists counter their belief, that there is no God, is the anti-religion.  They affirm that because they have no God figure, they have no religion, no religious beliefs, no system of faith.

Except that is entirely untrue.

Filed under: religion , atheism, belief, duck test, faith, religion

Time Magazine to small business owners: Take your medicine!

It seems the writers and editors at Time Magazine can’t comprehend why small business owners would not want to have the Democrat’s House Health Care “Reform” bill enacted into law. Why wouldn’t these small business owners want to increase their regulatory and financial burden? Don’t they realize that we have 5-10 million people who legitimately cannot afford health insurance? Don’t they realize that their profits and the future of their businesses are just gifts given them by our magnanimous Federal Government?

I apologize for the sarcasm, but the article from Time’s website is ridiculous:

When it comes to finding quality, affordable health insurance, few have it worse than small-business owners and their workers shopping for coverage on the open market. They are charged the most per person, have the least amount of choice and, as a result, are some of the most likely to be uninsured.

Lawmakers know this, which is why many of the key elements in the health care bill just passed by the House — and being considered in the Senate — are aimed squarely at small business. A wide array of economists and health-policy experts say insurance reforms (like prohibiting insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions), a new transparent marketplace to shop for coverage and a government-run insurance plan all have the potential to help small business.

Nowhere does the article cite any source for its assertion that “a wide array of economists and health-policy experts” say these reforms will be helpful to business. This is simply presented as accepted common knowledge.

Filed under: economics, insurance, media, taxes , Chamber of Commerce, health care, insurance, NFIB, small business, Time Magazine