UPDATE:
Just got back to the Farm and the scale. Not good....
All Time High (April 1 2009): 192.2
Diet start (June 1, 2009): 189
Last Friday: 182 (3/26/10)
Today: 182.6
Goal: Sub 170
I was actually pretty good (not great) this week--I guess I should be thankful there's not more damage than this....
Where has the time gone, friends? We've come around again to your day, the day when you share your thoughts, unburden your consciences, let the rest of the world know what is REALLY BUGGING YOU.
What are you thinking about? What are you reading these days? Any worthwhile objectives lined up for the Summer? What's going on?
Frankly, I'm sick of these ads offering to help out people with credit card debt who "didn't get a bail out." Leaving Wall Street and other stuff for another discussion, where is personal responsibility, or "moral hazard" as the financial types call it? I say if you overspend and can't pay you should go to Debtors Prison.
ReplyDeletebotts 21 sends...
Let's talk about Arizona. As you may know my old college buddy J.D. Hayworth is running for Senate (yes, I can namedrop too CW) so if you get out there this Nov., vote early and vote often.
ReplyDeleteBut I want to talk about immigration enforcement. Arizona has just passed some of the most (depending on your perspective) draconian/effective laws in America to address the problem. This is in response to minor crimes like human trafficking, kidnapping, shoot outs in the streets with Kalashnikovs, cutting people's heads off with chain saws (not to mention overwhelming social services with multitudes of snotty nosed ragamuffins with their hands out)...things like that.
But I want to talk about the political implications of the new laws. As expected the Dems have charged racism, their most overused and most effective (at least for now) arrow in their quiver. But the fact is they are deathly afraid of these reforms. They well know immigration cuts across party lines. They know the union guy in Michigan who's been out of work for a year would, given the chance, vote for Arizona's reforms. They know the housewife in N.J. who has been a lifelong Democrat but hates the rotten education her kids are getting, and sees the money spent on educating illegals, would vote for these reforms. And they know most voters resent the racism charge by disingenuous politicians kowtowing to special interests and race hustlers. The Dems know that if the Arizona approach works, it will spread to other States.
How do I know this? Because after the Dems charge racism they immediately go to the "it's not good for the Republican Party" argument. Right. GWB kissed the sphincter of Hispanics and never pulled more than 50%.
So keep an eye on Arizona. I can assure you every politician in America will be.
Hammer--I will send you a box of Omaha Steaks filets if Hayworth gets more than 47% of the vote.
ReplyDeleteDecent message, wrong vessel.
Yeah I know. McCain has been reborn as a conservative and the national press is doing what they can. BUT, if Hayworth pulls it off it's your ass! I want my steaks.
ReplyDeleteTebow first round, Clausen falls? Character issues?
ReplyDeleteI just read this on WRAL's website. Jesus H. Christ, THIS SOUNDS LIKE ME! Thank God I got an alibi.
ReplyDeleteRaleigh, N.C. — Police investigating a Raleigh man accused of raping and killing a state school board official searched his home and car and seized dozens of items, including knives, a hammer and an AA meeting schedule, according to new search warrants released Friday. Investigators also took from the home a bottle of oil, eight cans of spray paint, two cans of shoe polish, a paperback novel, 30 pairs of panties, numerous CDs, DVDs and diskettes and two laptop computers, among other items.
God bless the BOOBQUAKE movement and please let it be very hot on 26 April!
ReplyDeleteKnowing most of our posters' / commenters' objections to big gov't and a burgeoning nanny/police states, like 'the Hammer' (cannot believe I'm writing that) I'm also interested whether you all are aligned with or in conflict with calls for us citizens to carry and present our papers (passports? Gov't issued ID cards?) within the borders of our states/country?
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, are you for or against the ruling on National Day of Prayer (or Day of Fasting, or Atonement or Day of Loving thy Neighbor, or Day of Good Manners at the Table or whatever the lovely-sentiment-my-government-is-institutionalizing).
I have no problem with the DMV asking for some kind of proof of citizenship when one applies for a driver's license, just as I have no problem with a cop requesting to see a driver's license when one is stopped for an infraction. If one shows up at a hospital and expects the taxpayer to pick up the tab, I'd like some ID presented indicating that one is here legally.
ReplyDeleteLet's try the above to send back those who are in this country illegally, see if that works.
GHP I have a passport. I've had one since 1975. If in order maintain public order I was required to carry my passport so as to identify myself as an American citizen, I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. I have not a thing against immigrants. I' am the progeny of immigrants (Cromwellian Prods from Ulster). But the World is full of poor people and like the lifeboat Capt., we can only take so many or the boat will founder and we'll all drown.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware this argument might not work for you but there it is. Oh by the way, you liberals were screaming Nazi, fascist everywhere a Klansman when GWB was proposing we read FOREIGH emails from suspected terrorists. Well as it happens as part of Obama's Cap 'n Trade, an agency (funded at $500mil) will sweep ALL, again ALL, financial transactions for "policy purposes". That's right, every credit card charge, every bank deposit, every stock or commodity trade will be monitored and recorded and archived by the FEDS. Brave New World indeed!
Exactly what would it take to piss you people off??
TdP & Hammer, are there boundaries to the situations in which you be willing to be checked for your passport or national ID?
ReplyDeleteYou mention hospitals. I currently have to show my ID at hospitals, and have had to produce my daughter's birth certificate & her green card (we're waiting on passport) the last few times we were there for surgery and in the emergency room. I struggle with the fear of losing those precious and VERY difficult to replace docs to a mugger or my own stupidity (eg, leaving my wallet on top of the car roof while gassing up) and a fear of losing my daughter to someone who doesn't believe she's mine :) and so I always carry proof of motherhood. We already do have to show ID at hospitals to even begin the triage process -- a couple of years ago I stood at a desk gushing blood from a minor but terribly bloody farm implement accident while rummaging through my handbag for insurance, drivers license, and copay before anyone would even take a peek at my poor foot. I object to that.
So, voting and hospitals -- already in place. But with this new AZ requirement, what new occasions will trigger an investigation into my citizenship? Shopping? Driving? Attending a public event? If I'm visiting this country from another, will I need to carry my visa with me in any public venue or risk detainment? I imagine there will be an awful lot of black market visas printed up, and a lot of paper muggings for these valuable documents we'll be carrying about every day.
I ALWAYS get my bags searched at airports -- I'm convinced that either I fit some profile (middle-aged white woman mule) or I'm the perfect foil to balance out the profiling of minorities. Will I now fit that bill when walking down the street -- checked at every Target entrance, waved out of the fastlane to be checked on I495, detained at the entrance to Fenway?
Is it where we want our valuable police force to be exerting their efforts? Will our local police forces begin following up on our status with the IRS, as well? Checking whether we're in arrears on paying our taxes before allowing us through the stoplight? Are you OK with this level of local policing of a national ID?
Jesus GHP, take a breath and have a drink. I'm sorry you were inconvenienced at a hospital that actually wanted payment for services. Do you get pissed off at the McDonalds drive thru when they require payment? I do. It's such a hassle!
ReplyDeleteListen, given illegal access to social services is like giving illegal access to your bank account...INVOLUNTARILY! If you want to take the bread out of your children's mouth because of some guilt complex off you go. But don't force me to be charitable towards people I don't feel charitable towards. And by the way, don't move to small town Arizona. They don't have any hospitals. The illegals have run them into the ground.
Sorry Hammer, I don't follow: I was stating that requiring ID and proof of insurance before receiving care in hospitals is already in place. I don't object to paying my bill.
ReplyDeleteI'll simplify part of my question: If you are calling for smaller government, greater individual freedoms, and a closer adherence to the Constitution, can you also support the argument for local police and judicial resources to be allocated towards enforcement of national residency requirements as required by the new AZ immigration law? Do you see a conflict in requiring local law enforcement to make a probable cause determination of "possible immigrant" vs. 4th amendment rights?
What GHP? Do I hear a budding Libertarian in you? Are you actually against activist government?
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem carrying an id card. I don't have a problem with a cop asking me to present it under any circumstances. We have a national emergency. We have 20 to 30 million illegal aliens living in our country, 21% of whom receive some sort of welfare handout. And that's not even counting schools etc. So there you go, question answered.
ReplyDeleteIf you such a damned libertarian GHP answer the question about Obama's Cap and Trade. Sweeping private financial data with no probable cause, no reason to think a crime has occured, no oversight, they just do it! This must drive good libertarians like you crazy!
Hey Ghosty
ReplyDeleteLocal paper had article the other day about 3 illegal a$$holes martching from Florida to Washington to publicize the plight of their particular criminal sub-group. They stop along the way to give press conferences!
No determination of probable cause needed. They should be arrested and deported pronto.
We can start with them, and then move on to the nannies and gardeners of your neighbors.