I know, I know. It is still Thursday. But I'm going to bed, and I didn't want you night owls to be without a place to post your Free For All Friday thoughts. Remember...the purpose of this entry is to give you--the reader--a chance to freely opine on subjects you consider important. Or, perhaps you'd like to question me on a view I've expressed (or haven't). I'll cut and paste some of the most worthy submissions as blog entries of their own. Enjoy!
Absolutely The MOST PATHETIC Joke Ever ! . . . ON US
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody out there have any memory of the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter Administration? Anybody? Anything? No? Didn't think so. Bottom line . . we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember.
Ready? It was very simple, and at the time e v e r y o n e thought it very appropriate.
The Department of Energy (located very inappropriately at 1000 Independence Ave ) was instituted 8-04-1977
TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. HEY, PRETTY EFFICIENT, HUH?
AND NOW IT'S 2008, 31 YEARS LATER, AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS NECESSARY DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR, THEY HAVE 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES. This is your government at work.
ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF UNBELIEVABLE GOVERNMENT WASTE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS, AND NOW THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO RUN OUR BANKING SYSTEM!
Goodbye America, we loved you.
ReplyDeleteThe totally unchallenged bias from the main stream media is so obvious that it causes a visceral disgust to rise within me.
I am sad to say that the America that you and I grew up in, served and fought for is no more and will soon be a footnote in the history books along side the empires of Greece, Rome and Britain.
I believe smmoothur's on to something. Want another indicator? "Texting." These kids would rather text than talk to a real person. I've had concerns since the advent of e-mail, then IM, now texting about our society's ability to document culture and history in the electronic world. Ask brother Kurt, the writing professor, about this trend. Not that the "Letters of Obama" would ever be a classic anyway, but there simply won't be letter compendia to document the next, last hundred years of our culture.
ReplyDeleteSorry....smoothfur. My eyes still have sleepies in them doncha know.
ReplyDelete"Free" for "all"?
ReplyDeleteAre we discussing our future "Dear Leader's" healthcare or housing plan?
CW
ReplyDeleteAs our economy and society enters Obama's recession, what effect will it have on the "Kindergarchy"?
What will happen to the weekend traveling soccer league or the numerous tae-kwon-do schools? What is to become of the restaurants that have counted on the 6 year olds making the dining decisions for the family?
Will consumers cut back on spending directed towards "the children"?
De plume...
ReplyDeleteYou meant chirrens, right?
Ok here's my free for all point. I think the McCain campaign has missed a huge opportunity.
ReplyDeleteObama is a product of the Chicago political machine. He was not born in Chicago, he was not educated in Chicago, he chose Chicago. McCain should hang Chicago around his neck. We all know Chicago politics are the dirtiest in the country. From Daley Sr. to Harold Washington to Jane Byrne to Daley Jr. and before, Chicago has always been a hotbed of voter fraud, intimidation and corruption. We all remember the 1960 election when Kennedy won Illinois on the strength of voter fraud. McCain should have pounded this issue along the lines of Obama wants to impose Chicago style politics on the country. Ragging on Chicago and its corruption is a goldmine that should have been exploited. We all remember Dukakis and how Bush Sr. tied the filthy Boston Harbor to him. It's a tactic that works, and it hasn't been used. Too bad.
John S.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected.
Greg Dail
You might as well attack Jesus for only bringing 7 loaves and 2 fish to feed 5000.
Nothing McCain says will have any effect. Hell, Obama is friends with an American terrorist. Obama's pastor preached hatred of America and the white man. Obama is on video saying that spreading the wealth is a good thing. Farrakan praises Obama as the messiah.
I give it another 2 or 3 days before Obama announces that should Osama bin Laden be captured during his regime, OBL will be granted a tenured faculty position at the University of Chicago.
You think ties to a crooked Democrat political machine will have ANY effect?
Catching Wild Pigs
ReplyDeleteA chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the
gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.
One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America , you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
In this 'very important' election year, listen closely to what the candidates are promising you !!
Just maybe you will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America .
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have!!! Think on this fact before you vote.
Thomas Jefferson
Good interchange so far; Smoothfur, what portion of the Pig story came from Thomas Jefferson? Seems a bit odd, given that Marx didn't write the Communist Manifesto until something like 22 years after TJ died....
ReplyDelete"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." .. Thomas Jefferson...
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am sure Mr. Jefferson also would have been happy to claim authorship of the pig analogy .
"Obama: Grandma may not see Nov. 4"
ReplyDeleteI remember in '92 when Slick Willy executed the retarded guy to guarantee his victory.
Wouldn't put it past Obama to off Grandma in order to round up a few more sympathy votes.
Obama isn't in Hawaii to see Grandma. Come on-she's critically ill so he's going to visit her...three days later? She really wasn't going to last 11 more days? Where's Michelle-is Hawaii too mean a part of the country for her?
ReplyDeleteHe's in Hawaii to destroy any trace of anything Grandma may have that reveals his true birthplace of Kenya.
"He's in Hawaii to destroy any trace of anything Grandma may have that reveals his true birthplace of Kenya."
ReplyDeleteMy point exactly. Can't have Granny making any deathbed confessions or saying the wrong thing in a confused state of mind.
I did not realize "Free For All Friday" would turn into "Conspiracy Theory Friday".
ReplyDeleteCW - Perhaps I can bring it back a bit...
ReplyDeleteYesterday, there was a great exchange between Jonah Goldberg and others on NRO's blog The Corner (I have to go somewhere in between your postings). The back and forth had to do with whether or not conversatism accepts the role of a welfare state.
Goldberg, I think rightly, feels that there is indeed room for a limited and means-tested welfare state, and the existence of one isn't necessarily a contradiction of conservatism's principles.
Your thoughts??
A free for all topic:
ReplyDeleteOnce the huddled masses in a democracy figure out they can vote for more money for themselves the gig is up. They are on the brink of becoming self aware (a la Skynet). Two to three generations hence and the US will implode as the previously uncaring, disenfranchised masses vote themselves each a house and a $100,000/year annual bonus. The fat lady is warming up.
Or maybe I just got caught up in the thread...
Since we're on conspiracies...as has been well established, the MSM is entirely in the tank for BHO. There are plenty of polls out there, both state and nationwide, indicating that it's still a race out there, people. The media will only trumpet the results of the polls favoring their boy, so therefore we'll think it's hopeless, say 'screw it' and stay home on Election Day. Please, PLEASE don't do this, and please make sure everyone you know gets out there too (unless you live in Massachusetts or some other hopeless state).
ReplyDeleteBarney Frank Wants to Cut Defense Budget by 25 Percent
ReplyDeleteuh oh.
GG - That wouldn't concern me in the least if I had a shred of confidence in our acquisition officials that this would finally force them to start acting like discerning customers instead of "team mates" with a handful of industry primes who take 8-12 years to deliver 20 year old technology at premium prices and then reward them with bonuses despite being over cost, behind schedule and under performance...repeatedly. When I hear them trumpet "the government-industry team" I want to scream. We tax payers are getting cleaned while these select primes are reaping record profits...and the warfighters ask "where's our stuff and why doesn't it work when it gets here?" Frankly, no pun intended, 25% isn't enough to drive the kind of change we need in Defense Acquisition. And it kills me to think that I might in any way give Barney Frank any semblance of an endorsement for anything.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mudge, good points.
ReplyDeleteI was more concerned with CW's fledging career in business development. Hard to sell in an environment like that...