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The Descending Darkness of Obamacare
"Waiting for the Stars to Shine Through"
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
****************

Back in March of 2005, I wrote the following:  “National Health Care is a Socialist dream.  It is also a Conservative’s worst nightmare.”   Americans are about to wake up “to," not “from," that nightmare!

Now, if you really want the government to have control of your life, I mean every facet of your life, then a National Healthcare program is EXACTLY what you want!  If, on the other hand, you want to preserve your freedom, then a national healthcare program is the last thing on this earth you want.

We are, of course, referring to Obamacare, which is now the law of the land.

Look, “womb to tomb healthcare” has so many strings attached that it isn’t worth the hassle , the increase in taxes, and the decrease in the quality of health care that has already begun as a result of the most intrusive government program ever devised by the mind of man.

Already, the damage done to the world’s premier healthcare system has been devastating.  The money saving schemes sold to corporations to reduce that corporation’s expenditure on it’s employees group healthcare programs, of many varieties, has devastated healthcare in the US.

Once, just a few short years ago, the US healthcare system was the envy of the world. No nation on this planet enjoyed the quality of healthcare as did Americans.  That is no longer the case. The US healthcare system has fallen far down the list from the number one position it held a decade, or two, ago.

But, if you happen to suffer from a chronic disease and require frequent medical attention, you already know that.  In my case, I have required 80 some odd hospitalizations since 1965.  Doctor’s office visits for me run about one or more a month or six weeks.  Now, during all those years of experience with doctors and hospitals I have been in an unenviable position, which enabled me to observe the decline of healthcare in this country.

These days hospitals and doctor’s offices run patients through the system at a rate, which approximates that of a downhill bobsled run!

Patients wait in the doctor’s waiting room for an hour to have the privilege of spending 5 or 6  minutes with your doctor.  Does anyone actually expect even the country’s best doctors to be able to accurately diagnose an illness in five minutes? Sure, things like a cold, the flue, etc. But a serious illness is going to be missed.  If the patient insists there is something seriously wrong, then the patient is hit with a battery of tests that cost in the thousands of dollars and yet depend upon the trained eye of the specialist to interpret.  It becomes a circus.

Hospitals are sending patients home “quicker and sicker” than ever before.  In my case the same illness used to require ten days to two weeks of hospital time -- plus 30 days of recovery at home before I could return to work.In the last decade, or so, the same illness requires a hospital stay of three days, four days tops!  What has changed?  The way, in which, the insurance companies pay the hospitals.  These days a hospital is forced to move patients through their system and continuously bring new patients in, and through, the system, at as fast a pace as is possible in order to stay profitable.  Non-profits have to do it to remain open.  It reminds one of the necessity of a shark to maintain forward motion in order to "breathe" and maintain life.

As a result the emphasis, in the American healthcare system today, has shifted from the care of the patient… to the viability of the practice as a business, or the hospital as a business.  The quality of care, for the patient, is nowhere near what it was just 20 years ago.

Now, the dark forces of the American Left have arranged to have the government deliver your healthcare.  That sound you hear is the “death knell” of the American healthcare system.

Back in March of 2005, I wrote the following:

“National Health Insurance” is one of the primary tools used by a government to control her people.  That alone is enough for me to be whole-heartedly against it.

Now, lets get something straight… I believe the health insurance companies, in America, deserve what they get.  They have been, in my opinion, abusing their subscribers for entirely too long.  Rates have risen thru the roof at an undeservedly fast pace.  Sure medical costs have gone up, but not at the percentages your insurance premiums have gone up.  This has to stop.  But National Health Care is a cure worse than the disease.

More government in our lives is more than just a little bit scary.  Once National Healthcare is implemented, and don’t get me wrong, I believe some form will be, your life will be under the control of the administrators of that insurance. 

For Instance, lets say you have an obesity problem.  You have developed a heart problem as a result of the obesity.  You need treatment for your heart. National Health Care says: “OK, we will not pay for the heart treatment until you lose weight”.    Or, they provide all citizens with a chart, approved by the FDA, of the “Approved Foods” all citizens should eat.  They make it clear that if you cannot show proof of having ingested those “approved” foods, on a regular basis, also decided by them, you Health Insurance is no good.  You will not receive treatment.

Or, another example, you may be allowed to have one child only.  It must be a boy. (See China.)  If you choose to have another baby, after the approved ONE, the costs will come out of your pocket.  Get the picture?

Now, this does not take into account the reduced quality of care we will receive from the medical community.  Their hearts will not be it.  After 8 years. or so, in school, to learn their profession -- and they -- will become “salaried government employees”.  Need I say more?

The left is hell-bent on imposing such a system on the citizens of this country.  That is another reason we must refuse them power, ever again, in the Congress.  At least in numbers large enough to affect legislation.

National health care is a socialist's dream.  It is also a Conservative’s worst nightmare. 

We must be on our guard, for some form of national health care is about to raise its ugly head in the nation’s legislature.  It is time for conservatives to exercise their power and stop it in its tracks as we did the “Clinton Care” attempt in the ‘90s.

Lets get it done."SOURCE:  INSIGHT on Freedom:  http://www.insightonfreedom.blogspot.com/2006/11/dark-forces-of-left-insistent-on.html

That was written in March of 2005. Some eighteen months after its publication the democrats had control of the Congress.  Their goal was to bring socialist change to this country. They did that as quickly as they could before the American electorate had recovered from the shock of the election.

Let’s face it.  The America my generation grew up with, a global super power, a nation that could not fail… because it did not believe in failure, a nation that had a vision unlimited even by the sky, is gone.  What we are left with is a defeated, deflated, depressed, democrat socialist country, with its core slowly rotting away. 

Obamacare, the national healthcare system we warned America of, will prove to be the last nail in the coffin of a proud, independent, and free, America.

Those Americans among us, who still value freedom, must continue to fight Obamacare even unto our last breath. We must ignore the laughter, the smirks, the out and out denigration from the left and maintain our drive toward repealing Obamacare.

We have been leaderless in the Congress for a long time now.  Now there appears HOPE on the political horizon!

Thank Providence, a leader SEEMS to be morphing from the ranks of the young conservatives who were sent to Washington to stop the backwards slide and the leftward tilt of the GOP, which had seemed dead set on suicide for many long months.
I hesitate to even mention the name of this human "catalyst" for fear that I will be disappointed once again. But I can tell you this:  He has an Hispanic name, is of Cuban extraction, born in Canada, lives in Texas (Where else?), is a lawyer, and is now a junior Senator, who, for all intents and purposes, is powerless -- and yet -- has the power to strike fear in the hearts of the democrats, the entire left, much of the GOP, liberal republicans, the leftist media, and -- a "slew" of conservatives who fear that he is NOT legally qualified to be a candidate for President of the United States.  

I know it appears hopeless. I continue to remind myself -- from deep inside the moribund democratic cloak of darkness smothering freedom in the USA literally "to death," -- that "It must be dark before one can see the stars."

Well, it sure as heck IS dark!  Is that pinprick of light in our darkness a star we see, or is it the brilliant blase of a penny match at the apex of its short but fiery existence?  The answer is yet to be determined. 

© J. D. Longstreet

Milwaukee Police Officer Jesus Gloria and Police District 2 Captain Alfonso Morales

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Governor Rick Perry displaying once again his Fundie judgmental attitude as he essentially trashes his adversary, Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D). Whether the Gov realizes it or not his holier than thou attitude gains him more detractors than it does supporters. Well, other than the Fundies that populate the Bible thumping belt. Gov is only a few breaths removed from the fundamentalist Muslims. IMNHO.

Here's the video of Reverend Gov delivering his judgment on Sen. Davis

TPM - Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) responded to Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday, chiding him for using "small words" that tarnished Lone Star state values.

Perry invoked Davis' experience as a teenage mother at the National Right to Life conference in Dallas Thursday, telling attendees that it was "unfortunate" that she "hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters."

"They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view," Davis told the Associated Press Thursday. "Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test."

She also added that his comment was "without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds."

For more on this story go HERE, and HERE.

Via: Memeorandum

UPDATE:

Just out. Following is a very interesting article by Jonathan Chait from The New York Times. She makes many valid points and pretty much defines the debate with accuracy. To her credit the article is relatively balanced.

The teaser...

... The immediate liberal reaction is that Perry was "attack[ing] her motives and her experiences," or "dismissing her as an unwed, teen mother." But Perry is not attacking Davis here. Perry is pointing to her life as a success. His comments are tantamount to a liberal arguing that Ted Cruz's family history shows why we need more immigration.

Now, to be sure, Davis would respond that giving birth was her choice, and ought to remain her choice. I agree. But this merely pushes the debate back to irreconcilable moral premises. The abortion debate, at its root, pits differing ideas on the fundamental question of what is a human life. Perry's side thinks that sperm plus egg equals human life. My side thinks the fertilized egg does not approach human status until much later in the process, which means the mother's prerogative supercedes any rights it has.

There's no real resolution to this dispute. Nobody even makes much of an effort to resolve it. Both sides advance arguments that only make sense if you already accept their premise about what a human life is. That's what Perry's doing here. He's saying we should force women to give birth even when they don't want to, because babies born in bad circumstances can be happy anyway. That isn't an acceptable burden to place on women, in my opinion, but it surely is if you think abortion is murder... {Read More}

Via: Memeorandum

By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle



And they are doing it fast.  Very fast.

You know that things are heating up in Syria when longtime ally of Bashar al-Assad's Syria is pulling their troops out of Syria.  Add to that Israel going on high alert, President Obama and his Security Council is not concerned, and one can expect the area to blow up soon.

Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus.

“Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts.

In another sign of an impending escalation in Syria, the Israeli Golan brigade staged Wednesday an unannounced war maneuver on the Golan, attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the government’s National Security Council into session in Downing Street on Syria. Opposition leader Ed Milliband was invited to attend the meeting, a custom observed only when issues of the highest security importance are discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, debkafile carried the following report in its special video presentation under the heading: Putin and Obama cross swords on Syrian. What Next?

The sullen confrontation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland last week condemned Syria to five months of escalating, unresolved vicious warfare – that is until the two leaders meet again in September.

For now, tempers are heating up between Washington and Moscow on Syria and other things too, notably the elusive American fugitive Edward Snowden.



Click here if the video doesn't load.

US and Israeli intelligence watchers see the Syrian crisis entering seven ominous phases:

1. The Syrian army plus allies and the fully-mobilized opposition will hurl all their manpower and weapons into winning the city.

Military experts don’t expect the rebels to hold out against Assad’s forces beyond late August.

2. Neither side has enough manpower or game-changing weaponry for winning the war outright.

That is, unless Presidents Obama or Putin steps in to retilt the balance.

3. The US and Russia are poised for more military intervention in the conflict up until a point just short of a military clash on Syrian soil – or elsewhere in the Middle East. US intelligence analysts have judged Putin ready to go all the way on Syria against the US - no holds barred.

The Russian president is meanwhile deliberately goading Washington and raising temperatures by playing hide-and-seek over the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, charged with espionage for stealing and leaking classified intelligence. At home, he is considered variously as a traitor and a brave whistleblower.

For several hours Snowden vanished between Hong Kong and Moscow – until the Russian president admitted he was holed up in the transit area of Moscow airport and would not be extradited by Russia to the United States.

4. Iran, Hizballah and Iraq will likewise ratchet up their battlefield presence.

5. A violent encounter is building up between Middle East Shiites flocking to Syria to save the Assad regime alongside Russia, and the US-backed Sunni-dominated rebel forces.

It could scuttle the secret US-Iranian negotiating track on its nuclear program, which was buoyed up by the election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran.

6. The Geneva-2 Conference for a political solution for the Syrian crisis is dead in the water. Moscow and the US are divided by unbridgeable issues of principle, such whether Bashar Assad should stay or go and Iranian representation.

7. So long as the diplomatic remains stuck in the mud, the prospects of a regional war spreading out of the Syrian conflict are rising. Iran, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon may be dragged in at any moment – if they have not already, like Lebanon.

A small mistake by one of the Syrian warring parties in Syria could, for example, touch off Israeli retaliation and a wholesale spillover of violence.

Source

What we are seeing is the product of President Barack Hussein Obama's foreign policy of leading from behind.  Behind truly is.  As we are getting the shaft right up our Ass.

platomd@gmail.com Twitter.com/americassage. Author of Demons of Democracy and the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. Manager of the group on LinkedIn, Government in Transition.

Did it happened to you to leave the house when there was a beautiful weather outside and right when you got to your destination to start to rain heavily? This is what happened to me when I went to Philadelphia last week. I saw how the rain started and it became stronger and stronger... and I was thinking: this is a summer rain and I'll be completely wet. This is exactly what happened, but at least I was smiling in the rain :)





                                                                                  Top: thanks to Keds/ Here
                                                                                  Shorts: thanks to Keds/ Here
                                                                                  Espadrilles: Stella McCartney/ Here and Here
                                                                                  Bag: 3.1 Phillip Lim/ I also love Here
                                                                                  Necklace: Anadna/ option Here and Here 
                                                                                  Leather bracelet: thanks to Poshlocket/ similar Here 
                                                                                  Sunglasses: Ralph Lauren/ option Here 

Obama's New Crisis:  Global Warming
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************
Ever since Obama's swearing in the US has lurched from one crisis to another, ever off kilter, never quite getting a grasp of the real situation, rushed toward an Obama sponsored answer to a problem that we are not quite sure actually IS a problem to begin with.

This, dear reader, is a methodology as old as con men. And who can dispute we have a world class con man splendidly hunkered down in the Oval Office of the US government?

For the past four-and-a-half years the whole country has been subject to a good old-fashioned "bum's rush" by Obama and his Progressive/Marxist/Socialist minions. It has been well planned, well orchestrated and well played, for the most part, by the legions of experts at Obama's beck and call.   As a result America has something we call "Obamacare" a form of socialized medicine that has already begun to deconstruct the
world's finest healthcare system in favor of a slide back to the days when doctor's danced around the bedside of the sick waving fathers, blowing smoke, and shaking gourds containing a few loose grains of sand, some dried beans, and an okra seed or two to enhance the, er, music, with which the healing spirits are summoned from that night sky galaxy containing the campfires of the dead.  It's all very "Hollywoodish," but not very effective at healing the sick and/or the wounded.

Currently, even as I write, Obama and his henchmen are ramming a so-called Immigration Reform bill through the Congress.  Most of America is reeling from the  lightening like speed with which the bill is moving.   It is ONLY 1200 pages of new law, yet practically nobody has actually read the accursed thing -- but -- they are going to vote to pass that piece of garbage into law. (At least the Senate is expected to pass immigration reform.  The House of Representatives MAY NOT.)

And already, the initial steps are being set up, and played out just outside the spotlight, to ram through the next big Obama nocturnal emission -- saving the world from Global Warming.

Never mind that there is no such thing as Global Warming.  That doesn't matter, you see. It's just more of the same --  a continuing, all encompassing,  power grab by the "progressive overlords of the USA."         

Just as Obamacare was so carefully designed by its creators to fail, so will be the new war on global warming.  Both are crafty "herding" and "shepherding" machinations intended to drive great masses of Americans into the arms of government for succor.   Obamacare is, of course, intended to eventually become a single payer, one hundred percent, government run healthcare program -- just as soon as the current iteration crashes and burns and the voters demand something to replace it. 

Obama's war of global warming is something else altogether, but it, too, is designed to regulate practically every aspect of your life.  Put the two together -- Obamacare and the WGW (War on Global Warming) and the end result is a people totally dependent upon the government for their day to day existence.  We are describing a dictatorship, here -- a Marxist/Socialist/Communist dictatorship -- where the USA used to reside.

Obama's Ministry of Propaganda, otherwise known as the Mainstream Media, has already taken its cue and  pranced to center stage with a myriad of stories, articles, features, and pubic service announcements assuring us of the imminent end of the world due to man's polluting the globe with his existence upon it.  You can expect this avalanche of global warming propaganda to only become deeper -- and more insistent -- as Obama nears a launching day for his proposed laws to save mankind from himself.

"Not only has our planet stopped warming, but we may be headed toward a vast cooling period."  SOURCE: http://www.policymic.com/articles/3824/a-really-inconvenient-truth-global-warming-is-not-real

Read the next paragraph slowly and digest it carefully:

"New data shows that in fact the Earth has not warmed at all over the last 15 years. In fact, the Daily Mail reports that the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, after taking data from nearly 30,000 stations around the world, have found that the earth stopped warming in 1997. The report suggests we are headed toward a new solar cycle, Cycle 25, which NASA scientists have predicted will be significantly cooler than Cycle 24 which we are in now. This data largely contradicts the accepted theory among the public that carbon dioxide pollution is causing global warming and even proposes that we are actually heading toward global cooling."  SOURCE:  http://www.policymic.com/articles/3824/a-really-inconvenient-truth-global-warming-is-not-real

(We recommend you read the entire article at Policymic.com here:  http://www.policymic.com/articles/3824/a-really-inconvenient-truth-global-warming-is-not-real )

When the big push begins and Obama's troops take to the field to convince Americans that global warming is not only real but WE are the cause of it, we will be exposed to the greatest up-ending of truth ever experienced by man.  That which is truth will become a lie and that which is a lie will become the truth.

Fore warned is fore armed.  We know it is coming. We also know that too much of our legislative branch of the government is weak-kneed enough that they will present no barrier, no impediment, at all, to implementation of Obama's scheme to regulate the freedom of Americans into oblivion. 

Consider this:  "Since 1998, 31,000 scientists have signed a petition agreeing with the fact that there is no scientific evidence or consensus that man-made global warming exists while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has the support of only 2,500 scientists. Yet, for some reason it is accepted that global warming is scientifically undeniable."  SOURCE:   http://www.policymic.com/articles/3824/a-really-inconvenient-truth-global-warming-is-not-real

Why, do you suppose, so much of the world has bought into the lie that is global warming?  Could it be there's something else going here, I mean -- other than climatology and meteorology?

© J. D. Longstreet

Aaron Hernández

Days after La Cucaracha business deposit in San Fernando was singled out as a Zeta hangout by Valor por Tamaulipas on Facebook, gunmen went to the business and killed the owner, her dentist son, an employee and a customer.

Husband pleaded guilty to murdering his wife, a Wauwatosa Police Officer on Christmas Eve.

By H. Nelson Goodson
June 26, 2013

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Wednesday, Benjamin Sebena, 30, pled guilty to killing his wife, Wauwatosa Police Officer Jennifer Lynn Sebena, 30, on Christmas Eve 2012 under a plea agreement to seek parole within 50 to 60 years of his sentence. His sentencing on the case is set for August.

Anne Frank House Muesum


Película en español "El Diario de Anne Frank"  video

The Diary of a Young Girl (English version)  video

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

But in a move that is sure to deepen tension between the right wing and the House leadership, social conservatives are gearing up to reignite the fight in D.C.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), speaking at a Tuesday meeting between reporters and conservative lawmakers, said he will file a constitutional amendment in Congress late this week to restore DOMA. Huelskamp said he will be joined by other conservatives.

“My response to this [decision] will be later this week to file a federal marriage amendment,” he said.

And so we see yet more republican bigotry and unwillingness to accept that which is ethically and morally right. While many who are fiscally conservative and socially libertarian had hoped reason would ultimately prevail in the republican party, and more specifically it's Fundie faction, such will not be.

The full story from POLITICO...

Congressional Republican leaders are speaking with resounding unity: the same-sex marriage fight is ending on Capitol Hill.

While conservative rank-and-file want to continue the fight that has, in part, defined the Republican Party for much of the last few decades, leadership is eager to shift it to state capitals across the country.

House Speaker John Boehner, whose leadership spent millions to defend DOMA, said he was “disappointed” in the decision, but did not promise action in the Republican House.

“While I am obviously disappointed in the ruling, it is always critical that we protect our system of checks and balances,” Boehner said in a statement. “A robust national debate over marriage will continue in the public square, and it is my hope that states will define marriage as the union between one man and one woman.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said he’s “disappointed in this decision, and the marriage debate will continue in the states”

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No 2. Senate Republican, said “like it or not, the Supreme Court is the final word on constitutional matters.”

“It sounds to me that that battle will be moving to the states,” Cornyn said. “The issue is not going away and there are going to be havens of traditional values like Texas where I don’t think the law is going to be changed.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) simply flashed a smile and ignored a reporter’s question about the court’s decision Wednesday.

Skip

When asked if leadership is likely to support efforts to restore DOMA, Huelskamp said he was encouraged by the Boehner’s statement after the ruling. “I give tremendous credit to the Speaker of House,” Huelskamp said.

It would be a drastic understatement to say the political dynamics of gay rights and gay marriage are shifting. National Republican politics and policy reflects the changing electorate.

The congressional GOP leadership that spent much of the last few decades trying to write into the Constitution its opposition to gay marriage, now appears to be waving the white flag when it comes to national policy. The party does face a shifting electorate, which is increasingly more comfortable with same-sex marriage, and several congressional Republicans — including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman — have endorsed same-sex marriage.

Unfortunately the "... several congressional Republicans — including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman — have endorsed same-sex marriage" are in the decided minority. Therein lies one the reason the republican party is rapidly losing much of the nation to the Libertarian Party and the Democratic Party.



Via: Memeorandum

The Lynching of Paula Deen
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

What we are experiencing with Paula Deen is nothing more than a modern day lynching. 

Let's be clear:  I don't care for Ms. Deen's politics.  I don't even like her cooking show -- and I am a born and bred southerner.  In fact, I am a bit embarrassed at what appears to be the forced over-usage of the southern word "y'all" by Ms. Deen. 


But what got my dander up was the vicious attack on a woman honorable enough to answer a lawyer's question truthfully. 

Look. Ms Deen did not HAVE to tell the truth.  She could have lied -- as our President is fast becoming infamous for doing. 

I am also sick and tired of the hypocrisy of the black community, a "protected" minority, in America.  If they can use the "N" word,  then white folks ought to be allowed to use it just as easily, and as frequently, as they do -- and with absolutely no repercussions.

There is an old expression:  "If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas."  It's another way of saying be careful with whom you associate. 
Ms. Deen is reported to have campaigned for President Obama and even had Mrs. Obama as a guest on her TV show.  She could not have associated herself with more leftist leftists!  Yet, it is the political left after her head today.  She has learned, too late, that no matter who you are -- the left will throw you under the bus if they even THINK it is expedient to further their progressive agenda.

In my opinion, Ms. Deen should never, never, have apologized.  It was a sign of weakness and only emboldened her attackers who stepped up the ferocity of their crazed mob-like assault. 

We love to sand atop our soap boxes and proclaim our love for, and defense of, freedom of speech in America. 

We're lying!

You want to wind up like Ms. Deen?  Try speaking your mind openly in America today.  Freedom of speech in America today is saying only that which those in power agree with. 
Look.  Ms. Deen's attackers are hammering her for using a single word thirty years ago -- in PRIVATE!  What the heck do you suppose will happen to US today if we step out side the traces -- what with our government's 24/7 monitoring of everything we say and do?  Something I say today can be pulled out of the government files -- thirty years down the road -- and used against me. 

So -- this is where we are in America today.  I have to tell you -- this is pathetic.  I suppose it just puts the lie to the very old adage: "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but WORDS can never hurt me."

How pathetic, how weak, how sissified, we have become when we recoil in utter horror at the sound of a single WORD, a simple utterance of sound.

But here's the thing: Much, if not most, of that horror is feigned!  I dare say if the host of Deen's attackers were held to the biblical test of "he who is without sin cast the first stone" -- the crowd would melt away.  Of course, in this day and age, when psychopaths hold respectable places in our communities and our society,  there are those tossing stones with great enthusiasm, all the while loudly proclaiming their defense of the defenseless and demanding that we all pay attention to, and praise them for,  the zeal with which they practice their high tech lynching of an honorable woman.  

There are two lessons here for all American young people.   Avoid honesty at all costs.  For, as we have seen with Ms. Deen, being honest can cost you dearly. And secondly, forget freedom of speech.  The constitution is dead. Today you may only utter the words approved by the political left -- or suffer the consequences.

And yes, I am a southern gentleman offering a defense of a southern lady's honor.  I'm old-fashioned that way.  I suspect, had we not outlawed dueling, there would be echoes of gunfire and/or the clash of dueling rapiers along the Savannah River at sunrise.

Make no mistake.  This is a seminal event. The seeds for future modern day lynchings have been sown now.  Worse even, the seeds of FEAR have been sown --  fear of words, which are nothing more than THOUGHTS.

The thought police are abroad in the land seeking those they can devour who, like Ms. Deen, used a word they are forbidden to use due to the color of their skin.  Does  anyone see the irony in this?  No.  The REAL question is:  Does anyone see the bigotry in this?  For, after all, that is EXACTLY what it is.

© J. D. Longstreet

I couldn't resist not showing you this statement pair of shoes... or art work?
Yes, these shoes are totally a work of art and even though they are not my everyday shoes option, they definitely are a show stopper!
For more f a b u l o u s shoes visit I' alave.com 





                                                                        Shoes: thanks to I'alave/ Here 

We've been spending a lot of time outside this week. One of the benefits to potty training in the summer  is enjoying the privacy of your own backyard in your underwear. We get a lot of fresh air and accidents are a lot easier to take on the grass than on my rug. Too much information first thing? Moving on.

So with all of this outside time, we've been using the deck like crazy. In fact, we've used the deck more this spring/summer than we have the whole time we've lived here. And since I still get questions weekly about our deck makeover (read about it here), I thought I would give a progress report.


This is how the deck looked when we finished it exactly one year ago this week.


And this is how the deck looked yesterday. I took my flower boxes down during the last storm and haven't put them back up, and we have an umbrella now, but otherwise these shots are just like the Olsen twins - identical...and a bit boho.

Oh, and one side note - I failed to sweep sufficiently before I took these pictures so enjoy the real life shots. And if you are disgusted by my lack of sweeping, the public flogging is tomorrow at noon.

I am happy to report that we are thrilled with our decision to use Restore Deck Liquid Armor Resurfacer.  (I see that this is a Rustoleum product which might explain why it is so awesome. Rustoleum, I'm happy to become your spokeswoman and I'm not above wearing a spray paint costume on the streets to sing your praises.)

Our deck is pummeled on an hourly basis by several 100+ year old oak trees, a small sanctuary full of birds (thanks to my neighbor and his damn bird feeder) and at least a pound of sidewalk chalk. And it is as if we just painted yesterday.


The color is gray for the many that have asked. And yes, it is just 'gray'. I even double checked the box to make sure. I guess I have gotten used to Benjamin Moore and their snazzy paint names, I'm not used to such a straight forward paint color.


Many have also asked how the texture feels on bare feet. I will tell you that initially there was a bit of a pebbly feel to the floor but quickly that hard texture softened and over time it has just gotten more and more comfortable. As someone who is barefoot as much as the law allows from March to October, I would never allow something that I walk on several times a day to be scratchy or uncomfortable. And Eve has spent a fair amount of time with her bare bum on that floor this week (again, potty training) and has been nothing but smiles. How's that for a ringing endorsement.

That texture is also a help in the rain and ice as it gives you just enough traction to prevent slipping. And it also stays nice and cool to the touch. A very big deal in a place where we have 90+ temps for months on end.

That hard candy shell also does a great job of protecting the finish. Over the past year we've had a few hard storms that have sent pretty big branches straight onto our deck and there is not one mark to show for it. We also kept our table on it throughout the winter and when we picked it up to move it for the party there was not one mark on the deck. Super durable is an understatement. There has been no chipping, peeling, bubbling or any other 'ing'.

The only negative I can come up with is that it does seem to trap dirt a bit in high traffic areas. But it is nothing that a strong hose can't handle. We've power washed it twice and both times the dirt came up with no problems. In fact, when I was at Home Depot the other day I noticed Restore now has a cleaning solution. Fancy. I haven't tried that out yet but I have plans to over the holiday. Do I know how to celebrate America or what?

Oh, and for all of those that were crazed over the fact that we didn't put the stair railings back up...


happy now?

We got that up right before the hospital stay/party. The other side of the railing will come, someday.

So to recap - Restore Liquid Deck Armor is aces. I give it two thumbs up and I would recommend it to any and all of you.

Have you tried any new products lately? Any plans to update your deck? Any ideas on how to hide my neighbors bird feeder?

Senator Wendy R. Davis

A man walking his dog along lake Michigan in Cudahy's lakeshore finds pitbull shot multiple times and left for dead.

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Courtesy of Melanie Capobianco Veronica in 2011. She should not have been taken from her adoptive parents, the Supreme Court ruled.

A child given up by her natural parents and placed in the home of of responsible white people (who were in the process of adopting her) was returned to the "father" (IE: the sperm donor dude) who had signed his rights as father away at birth, giving full legal rights to the child's mother. Subsequently the "mother" (IE: the egg donor women) gave up her rights and placed the child up for adoption.

The "father", or sperm donor dude, upon hearing the mother, or egg donor women, had signed her rights away suddenly decided he wanted the child back. This of course without regard to the reality that the only family the child had known were the people (real parents) that were attempting to adopt her.

Please read the following text. I have more comments following.

New York Times - An American Indian child being raised by her biological father should not have been taken from her adoptive parents, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, saying that a federal law devised to keep Indian families together did not apply in the case.

The 5-to-4 decision, which reversed a ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court, found that the case represented an exception to the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law that made it more difficult for American Indian children to be removed from their families. That landmark legislation effectively ended the practice of taking Indian children from their homes and placing them in boarding schools and foster care.

The court’s majority held Tuesday that the case, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, No. 12-399, did not involve removing a child from an Indian home because the girl’s father had relinquished his parental rights before the girl’s birth and her biological mother had agreed to allow the South Carolina couple to adopt the girl.

Four months after the child’s birth, the father, Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee tribe, changed his mind and sought custody of his daughter. He said he had not realized that his former fiancée was going to put the child up for adoption.

The girl was in the process of being legally adopted by Matt and Melanie Capobianco, a white couple who raised her for 27 months before South Carolina courts ruled in favor of Mr. Brown. The child, now nearly 4, has been living with Mr. Brown in Oklahoma for the past year and a half. The state courts found that both the Capobianco family and Mr. Brown had provided the girl with safe, loving homes.

The Baby Veronica case, named for the girl at the center of the dispute, has stirred powerful emotional responses from child welfare groups, adoptive parents and Indian tribes, all of whom have sought a clearer legal standard of how the Indian Child Welfare Act should be applied when it appears to conflict with state law. In the Baby Veronica case, for instance, South Carolina law would have allowed the toddler to remain with the Capobiancos, but that state’s courts found that Mr. Brown’s parental rights under the federal law trumped state law.

The Supreme Court ruling however, decided the case along fairly narrow lines.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the court’s majority that the Indian Child Welfare Act “does not apply where the Indian parent never had custody of the Indian child.”

Instead, Justice Alito wrote, the federal law “was designed primarily to counteract the unwarranted removal of Indian children from Indian families,” not as part of a custody dispute in which “an Indian child’s adoption is voluntarily and lawfully initiated by a non-Indian parent with sole custodial rights.”

Justice Alito was joined in the majority opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer. Justices Thomas and Breyer concurred separately.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the principal dissent, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who agreed in part with the dissent, wrote that the court’s majority opinion “needlessly demeans the rights of parenthood,” and added: “This father wants to raise his daughter, and the statute amply protects his right to do so. There is no reason in law or policy to dilute that protection.”

Mark D. Fiddler, a lawyer for the Capobianco family, said the adoptive parents burst into “tears of joy” when the ruling was announced. They planned to return to the South Carolina state court system, which Mr. Fiddler said needed to figure out how to ease Veronica’s transition back to the Capobiancos and address a pending adoption.

But when, or even if, Veronica will be sent back to the Capobiancos is far from clear.

“This is his daughter, his whole life,” John Nichols, one of Mr. Brown’s lawyers wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday. “He will fight for her right to stay with her family. He loves her and she loves him, and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his daughter.”

Mr. Brown said in a statement that he was “very disappointed” with the decision and that his daughter was part of a happy and loving extended family.

“I would not want any other parent to be in this position, having to struggle this hard and this long for the right to raise their own child,” he said. “I have fought for my daughter and will continue to fight for her and her right to be raised by her family.”

Family courts ordinarily base custody decisions on the best interests of the child before them. Joan Heifetz Hollinger, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who filed a brief in support of the child’s interests, said that if the State of South Carolina holds a custody hearing for Baby Veronica that “there would be strong presumption that the child’s best interests are to allow her to remain where she is, absent evidence of abuse or neglect by dad.”

“If, however, the court resumes the original adoption proceeding,” she said, “the outcome is likely to be in favor of a return to the adoptive parents.”

What I find most interesting, or perhaps more accurately stated reprehensible, is that the primary issue here is, or should be the child. Yet is not. Front and center is the legal aspect and a bunch of belated bullshit about the sperm donor dude who belatedly decided, for whatever reason, he wanted the child he gave up over two years prior back.

Having experienced similar circumstances when I was about five years old (when my egg donor women "biological mother" gave up her right's as a mother) I somehow understand how this young Indian girl must feel. Something like a football I imagine. Yet the legalities will keep her in a state of uncertainty and emotional distress while the courts and the state decide what is best for her. Someone should be asking at what cost to this young and tender child who has an adoptive family (pending) who loves her and took care of her for over two years.

SCOTUS got it half right. What the High Court SHOULD have decided is the adoptive couple posses sole and exclusive parental rights, and the "sperm and egg donors" by their actions shouls have none.

By the way, on my MOTHER's 65th birthday my brother and I "adopted" our mother so she was recognized as our "legal" mother as well as the REAL mother that she was for over forty eight years. She passed almost five years ago. I still miss her and always will.

Some have said blood is thicker than water. I can speak with authority when I say often water is can be thicker than blood and occasionally is infinitely SWEETER than blood.

That's my take. What's yours?

Via: New York Times