Life's Inanities and Ironies

"Republicans on the campaign trail are bashing the president and his agenda... Behind the scenes, key party members are talking a different game." - The Wall Street Journal As I read the passage above in a recent Wall Street Journal piece, my eyebrows raised. But then my worst fears were confirmed when The Journal quoted Congressman Darrell Issa as saying: "It's pretty clear the American people expect us to use the existing gridlock to create compromise... They [the American people] want us to come together after we agree to disagree." "It's pretty clear?" What is Congressman Issa, a generally reliable conservative, talking about? Have our conservative allies in Congress taken complete leave of their senses? Do they just not get it? No, Congressman Issa. With all due respect, the American people do NOT want conservatives in Congress to use gridlock to "create compromise" on Barack Obama’s radical agenda. The American people...

Below is a suggested act for those wonderful members of our legislative branch of government. Congressional Reform Act of 2010 1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below.. A. Two Six-year Senate terms B. Six Two-year House terms C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms 2. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. 4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as...

House Minority Leader John Boehner has suggested several names for the new stimulus bill Democrats rammed through Congress last week — none of them complimentary. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi summoned lawmakers back from summer break and they voted 61 to 39 on Tuesday to approve the emergency $26 billion stimulus-type bill that Democrats said would save 300,000 jobs. President Obama immediately signed it into law. But Democrats were in such a rush to pass the bill that on Sunday night, two days before the vote, the legislation still did not have a name. Congress’ official website called it the “____ Act of ____,” and the Library of Congress referred to it as the “XXXXXX Act of XXXX.” Republicans said the bill is an election-year gift to teachers and public workers unions, CNSNews reported. “A nameless bill for a hopeless cause is a fitting metaphor for a Democratic Congress that refuses to listen to the American people and abandon its job-killing agenda,” said Boehner. The Ohio lawmaker ...

It appears that things ARE getting smaller (including my waistline, thankfully) and we have to pay more for it. Here is an example: The other day I was enjoying a Tootsie Roll Pop and I noticed that it was considerably smaller than what I was used to. Also there wasn’t as much Tootsie Roll inside. Just a taste and that was all. Sticks of gum are smaller and fewer in a package; candy bars are smaller; ice cream cones are smaller. SMALLER, smaller, smaller. This hasn’t just happened over-night. It has been slowly happening over the years. Oh well, I guess this is the coming thing. Now — don’t get me wrong — I’m not picking on only grocery items, but it seems that is the most noticeable commodity. I don’t blame the grocery stores as they must sell what items they get — it’s the manufacturers and marketers who think that we won’t notice that things are getting shorter, smaller, not as many, and costing more. Packaging is another culprit that is trying to deceive us. Larger...

"It is time for the sworn protectors of Liberty, the County Sheriffs, to walk tall and defend their citizens from all enemies of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights." Americans are facing the stark reality that their Constitutional rights are being shredded. Nearly every action taken by the Federal government today violates the Constitution that sheriffs and the military have taken an oath to defend. The Sheriff may truly be the last hope for saving our constitutional Republic and our liberties. Thomas Jefferson wrote in "The value of Constitutions", that "there is no honorable law enforcement authority in Anglo-American law so ancient as that of the county sheriff whose role as a peace officer goes back at least to the time of Alfred the Great." The Office of the Sheriff has existed for over one thousand years and is the oldest law enforcement position in the United States. The word Sheriff is derived from the "Shire-Reeve" (who was the most...