What Can't They Do?

I've been trying to decide how to respond to the Health Care Reform vote (a.k.a. the screw you America vote) since Sunday. I've thought about comparing Barack Obama to a 3 year old who whined until he got his way. I've pondered going with anger and resentment. I've even thought about calling for term limits. None of those seemed quite right.

Then today a fellow conservative and all around good guy asked me a simple question..."If the Federal Government can mandate that you have to buy insurance, what can't they do?" I had no answer to that question at the time. He's right, now that Barack, Nancy and the gang have shredded the constitution and essentially told the American people to sit down and shut up, what can't they do? Sure, there will be court challenges to this, but those probably won't go anywhere. If the Republicans get power back, they can defund this monstrosity, but this precedent has been set, and frankly that scares me.

If they can mandate we buy health insurance, what else can they mandate? Well, since Michelle Obama is on this obesity kick, I'm sure she could convince her husband to mandate everyone join a gym. Why stop there, why not mandate that we have to go to the gym 3 times a week? Let the IRS track that too, because the IRS isn't big enough.

Hmmm, what else? They could go ahead and mandate that everyone must go to college. After all, the liberals run most colleges and universities, so they could indoctrinate more people on why giving up control to the Federal Government is good, and why nothing the Federal Government does is bad.

I'm sure some liberal is reading this right now and thinking...those are really good ideas. Yes, I'm illustrating absurdity by being absurd, to borrow a saying from Rush, but if you are like me, this is a scary precedent. We live in a Representative Republic, specifically so the government can go against the whims of the people when absolutely necessary, but I doubt the Founding Fathers ever intended this. This bill is horribly unpopular, accomplishes nothing substantial in terms of reducing health care costs, doesn't extend benefits to every American until 2019, and will lead to an even larger Federal Deficit, regardless of what the CBO says...funny how when Bush got numbers from the CBO for his tax cuts they weren't believable, but they are when Obama gets them. The people who wrote this bill exempted themselves and their staff from it, and they even admit it's "not perfect, but just a first step." There is no reason this ever should have happened.

Well, one reason....our President wanted this to happen. That shouldn't have been enough, last I checked we weren't a dictatorship, though the lines are blurring every day, but this time it was enough. Barack Obama's ego wanted this. He wants to be able to say he did something no other President could do. As he said on the campaign trail, he wants to fundamentally change this country. Sadly, he is going to change it into something that none of us recognize and few of us want. Barack Obama is attempting the same things that have failed everywhere they've been tried, and yet somehow he is delusional enough to think he will do them better. And, with this precedent, who can stop him...especially if Congress remains Democrat. This is a sad week in American history my friends, very sad indeed.

Unbiased History

Yesterday on a local conservative radio program, I heard discussion about the Texas American history text book controversy. In Texas, conservatives have taken control of the Texas State School Board, and are trying to order text books that put a different slant on U.S. history...specifically a conservative one. This is important because Texas orders more school text books than any other state, so as Texas goes, so goes the nation.

To his credit, the conservative host was against this mostly. While he agreed that some balance is needed in the history curriculum in this country and even applauded some of the suggested changes, he said the conservatives should run this organization with more class than the liberals who have run education in this country for years. And, to the Texas State school board's credit, some of their suggested changes do make a lot of sense...I was unaware that many American history curriculms are now glossing over the fact that this country was founded on religious principles.

Here's my thought...teach what happened!!! It's history, it's already happened, and we know what happened. Teach that! Don't slant it to emphasize anything...tell these kids what happened, good and bad, and let the kids figure it out for themselves.

For example, we should be teaching that this country was founded by people seeking religious freedom, and it was founded on a religious code...specifically the 10 commandments. That is fact! For some reason, liberals have seen fit to de-emphasize this, and the conservatives want to put that back in. We should also teach about slavery and the civil rights movement. The conservatives want to lessen the emphasis on that. We need to teach both!

These conservatives in Texas should be ashamed of themselves. Some have suggested they are doing this to prove a point to the liberals, and will come back to a more reasoned stance, and I hope that is right. As conservatives, we need to be better than the liberals, and we need to trust that our children will make the correct choices when given all the facts.

Our education system is failing our children for many reasons, but this is one of them. The education system should not be a tool used to breed a certain type of political thinking. Instead, it should be used to teach our children the skills they need to survive in this world, and a strong knowledge of history, all history, is important. If we don't understand our history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Daylight Savings Time - Pros and Cons

On Sunday morning at 2 a.m., we officially "sprung forward" and began daylight savings time. As someone who had to play piano at the 7 a.m. mass this past Sunday, I was not a fan of daylight savings time this time around. Though, as a golfer, I love it when it lets me golf later in the evenings. And, that's really the idea...give us more time in the summer evenings to enjoy the outdoors.

However, daylight savings time is fraught with problems, and I'm not just talking about 7 a.m. mass. For example, this past weekend, everybody's weekend got shortened by 1 hour. Sure, you get it back in the fall, but it never feels quite the same. Also, since it's darker in the morning once daylight savings time hits, it's much harder to get up and go to work. There's a bit of a safety concern with this as well, because kids are waiting for school buses when it's darker, and groggy people are driving to work in the dark.

On the bright side, it's not dark when I drive home anymore, which is nice. Nothing is more tedious than going to work when it's dark and coming home when it's dark. Also, as stated, when it's golf season, it's really nice to have that extra hour of daylight. I guess it's nice when mowing too, but who wants to talk about yard work at a time like this?

I guess I'm on the fence about Daylight Savings time. It annoys me, but it also has benefits. I've always lived with it, so I don't know any difference. I got it...how about we spring forward and stay there? Permanent daylight savings time. That might just be crazy enough to work!

Book Review: "The Last Olympian"

I finished the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series this week. The final book, "The Last Olympian" caps off the series very well. Rick Riordan is now one of my favorite authors. Anyone who can put together a series that rivals Harry Potter is top notch in my book.

In "The Last Olympian", the final battle against the Titans is looming. Percy is nearing his destiny, and he's not sure if he's prepared. Fortunately for Percy he has Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, Nico and Thalia to help him along the way. Does Percy find it within himself to be the leader his friends need, and fulfill the prophecy, or will the Titans destroy Western Civilization?

In a lot of ways, I liked this book more than the final Harry Potter book. What I really liked is the wrap-up. There were 3 chapters of wrap-up, rather than a cryptic final chapter that leaves lots of open questions. One struggle I had with "The Last Olympian" was putting it down. It's about 335 pages of battles, followed by 50 pages of wrap-up. Very difficult to put down when it's just one battle after another.

The biggest issue for me is the same issue I always have when I finish a series like this...the sadness of being done. I love to read series like this, and I hate to finish them. These books brought me so much joy, and it's sad to see it go. I can't wait to read these books again with my kids when they are older.

Now That's a Movie Trailer!

In just a little under 3 weeks, the first highly anticipated film of 2010 will be released. "Clash of the Titans" is a remake of the original 1981 film that employed stop-motion animation for the monsters and starred Harry Hamlin as Perseus and Laurence Olivier as Zeus. This one looks like it will be a little better, at least in the animation department. Plus, Liam Neeson saying "Release the Kraken!" is going to be most excellent.

Here's a link to the trailer: Clash of the Titan's Trailer

I would have embedded a video, but the embedding doesn't work so well in my opinion. After you watch this trailer, ask yourself, "is that the best trailer I've ever seen?" I'm guessing your answer will be yes. Never has a trailer gotten me so psyched up for a movie. Now, the movie may be terrible, but from that trailer, I anticipate nothing but action packed goodness and joy. If I were making a movie, I'd hire who ever cut that trailer to do mine...that's how good it is.

I'm thinking this may be an opening weekend movie, so look for a review in 3 weeks or so.

Darth Obama?

I'm starting to think President Obama might be a Dark Lord of the Sith. Or, possibly he's just crazy, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm going with Dark Lord of the Sith. From what I just read on MSNBC, which is usually reliable for just spouting Obama talking points, it appears that Obama believes he possesses some sort of Sith mind control. According to the article, Obama has been talking to Democrat lawmakers about his destroy America's Health Care plan, trying to push forward a darkside-like scheme that would circumvent Senate rules and allow the measure to pass with 51 votes. As the article states, "Obama is calling for political courage, citing historic opportunities and essentially saying "trust me" in areas inherently murky, uncertain and out of his control." I can picture him waving his hand as he's saying this to Democrat lawmakers.

I'm sure this makes sense to the nut job liberals out there, but for the rest of us, it's just seems like this health care battle has pushed Obama over the edge and forced him to reveal his Sith nature. He's asking his party to destroy itself, for a bill that helps no one and that his party and the public don't support. And he's doing this because he says it's a 1st step to better health care. That's where he's wrong...it's a first step to government controlled health care, which is not better, in fact it will probably be worse. But that's what his crazy Sith/socialist mind wants...he wants to control health care because then he controls our lives. If the government decides who gets health care and who doesn't, then we'll have to bend to their will in a lot of areas and give up a great deal of our freedom. For example, if they control the health care we get, they can control what we eat, how much we exercise, what that exercise is, and on and on and on. It's a slippery slope, which is why so many of us are against it.

By the way, the Sith are Socialists/Communists...I'll explain that in another blog sometime.

The Republicans, apparently immune to the mind trick on this one, are sticking to their guns, and even warning the Democrats that this will be political suicide if they push this through now. Darth Obama's dark side minions are countering with, "well if it's so bad, why don't you let us pass it and then we'll get voted out in November." That's obvious to a logical thinking person but I'll elaborate for those under Obama's Sith powers. This bill is bad for America, and the Republicans don't want it just like the American people don't want it!

Maybe now that I've unmasked Darth Obama as a Sith Lord, more moderates who voted for him will realize they've been under Sith mind control, and fully regain their senses. I know there is no hope of freeing the stormtroopers under his control (a.k.a the true liberals), but we can get the everyday citizens who were fooled in the election of 2008. I think the fog has been lifting for quite some time, but hopefully by reading the truth, more will come out of the Sith induced fog.

The only question remaining is, if Obama is a Sith Lord, is he the master....or the apprentice? "Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice."

Book Review: "The Battle of the Labyrinth"

I recently finished the 4th book in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series, called "The Battle of the Labyrinth." You may see a lot of "This book" for the rest of this post, because Labyrinth is hard to spell.

"The Battle of the Labyrinth" is my favorite book in the series. As with the Harry Potter books, the Percy Jackson books seems to get more complex as Percy gets older. In this book, Percy is almost 15 years old, and the prophecy about him is only a year away. During a training exercise at Camp Half-Blood, Percy and Annabeth stumble across an entrance to the famed Labyrinth. They quickly realize that the villainous Luke can use the entrance to get his army of monsters into camp without having to pass the magical borders. So, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Grover set off into the labyrinth to find Daedelus, it's creator, and stop him from giving Luke the key to passing through the maze.

Like I said, I really liked this book. Percy is older and wiser, and his life is getting more complicated. Percy is discovering new abilities, and new feelings for Annabeth. We also get to see the relationship between Percy and Poseidon grow some in this book. Overall, I think the story went up a notch in this book, and I look forward to finishing the series with the 5th and final book.