WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING

While we all enjoyed our Christmases, 200-some-odd passengers of a Detroit-bound plane did not. An Islamo-fascist terrorist from Nigeria boarded the plane in the Netherlands without a valid passport, paying cash for a one-way fare without luggage. When it was apparent that the plane was over U.S. air space, his plan to take the plane out of the sky was set into motion. He stood, and ignited something on his person, setting his clothing ablaze. Then, in a Todd Beehmer-like moment, passengers of the flight extinguished the terrorist, tackled him and held him for authorities upon landing in the (formerly) Motor City.

Upon some investigation (the press had to actually engage in real journalism this time) it was learned that this terrorist was on several international cautionary lists and his own father contacted the U.S. embassy to warn them of his son's views and stated intentions! None of these facts, alone or combined, alerted security to "enhance" its screening of this passenger.

Then, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet NAPolitano, actually stated that the system worked (see the TOTUS blog on the right). If the system was to allow a Jihadist onto a U.S.-bound plane and for the passengers to take matters into their own hands or perish, then yeah, I guess the system worked. The President then waited two full days to even comment on the act, and when he did, it was as if he was a prosecuting attorney, not as the President of the country targeted, yet again, by Islamo-fascists.

To top all this off, I heard a report on the radio on my drive home that the sycophantic media is buying a story that BHO is actually a better terror fighter than his predecessor. After I finished laughing out loud while attempting to retain control of my car, I had to think "WWWD" (What Would "W" Do?).

Vote the bums out!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know it is technically after Christmas, but we are still to clelebrate with the only small child in the family as they were delayed by an extra dose of climate change in northwestern Iowa, similar to the climate change experienced in Copenhagen.

The U.S. Senate also was in the giving spirited, as we are to hear 60 of them tell it, as they have continued the slippery slide to economic Armageddon in "giving" us all socialized health insurance by forcing us to take it.

Anyway, Christmas is more than any of the above. Even though a portion of our family was separated geographically, in two different directions, Christ's birth was nevertheless celebrated by us all. Worship services were attended, gifts, in honor if the Greatest Gift, were exchanged and opened and revelry and merriment abounded.

I wish all of you the joy and assurances His birth promises us in His word. God bless you and hope the He will provide the new year as better than the last.

A HUGE SLIDE DOWN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE TO GUBMINT CARE

This past weekend the U.S. Senate, well, 60% of it anyway, voted to continue the process of setting up government-run health care. Officially, the Senate's vote sends their bill to a conference committee to combine its 2000+-page bill with the 1000+-page bill of the Congress where representatives form both houses get to take their favorite parts of both bills to make one large s*!t brick.

During the process, several Senators who were vehemently opposed to this bill received billions of dollars of federal (our) tax money for their respective states in exchange for their affirmative votes. Two states got their entire medicaid and medicare bills paid for by the rest of us! This begs two questions:

1. With what were these Senators threatened for their votes and
2. What were my two Senators, Fiengold and Kohl, doing while these other states got all this graft? Where's MY money!?

As for leadership, the President has been quite silent on the hole deal, especially the part where he promised that the negotiations would be in the open, televised in their entirety on CSPAN, and the bill given a week's airing on the internet, when in reality, the whole mess was decided by a small group of Democrat Senators, in private, with only "talking points" released to the public, part of which was released to the rest of the body only thirty-eight hours before the vote, and, most amazingly, the entire bill STILL has yet to be written. Even the request for a hearing as to the constitutionality of the process, let alone the bill itself, will be denied by a simple majority vote, even if only a small minority of the body is present. Our tax dollars at work.

VOTE THE BUMS OUT!!

SCHWIENHA REVISITED

The pandemic that never was, has been extended due to ineffective vaccine doses. That's right, many doses of the SWINE FLU vaccine are not strong enough and now the "Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" tells all those Kool-Aide drinkers that they need to get themselves exposed a second time to their own scare of a deadly disease because their first dosing wasn't strong enough. And these IDIOTS want us to trust them with our medical care and insurance.

VOTE THE BUMS OUT!!

THE AIR THAT WE BREATHE

Well, now it's official. The One, through his (our) Environmental Protection Agency - not the representative legislative branch - as determined that the most harmful force on earth is anthropological global warming and the gases that produce it. The EPA says the most dangerous of those is...wait for it...carbon dioxide! That's right, the very gas we emit by merely breathing is the greatest danger to the world. I have decided, because of this ruling by those who know far better than me (and 30,000 environmental scientists, meteorologists and climatologists), to petition my employer to shield me from these noxious fumes in my workplace and to provide for my environmental protection on my way to and from work, thereby ensuring my ability to preform my tasks and designated functions at a peak level consistently.

Back to some semblance of reality. The people that made this ruling are also those that already have spent us into hock for for over 3 trillion dollars ($3,000,000,000,000) with their freshly voted-in pork package of $1.3T and also want to take over our medical decisions and continue their spend-thrift ways with cap-and-tax legislation in addition to this latest EPA fiasco.

For those of you who claim there is little if no difference between the parties, guess which political party is in charge of the federal purse strings at the moment and has left a national debt of over $12T to your great-great-great grandchildren? I'll give you a hint, its logo is a jackass!

"I GOT YER CLIMATE CHANGE RIGHT HEER"

Just as 20,000 or so uber wealthy "climate change" alarmists and their sycophantic propagandists, the main stream (worldwide) media begin their summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, we here in Wisconsin got socked with our first heavy snow storm with anywhere from 2 to 18 inches of global warming, er, I mean snow with temperatures expected to fall into the single digits (Fahrenheit) by tonight and blizzard conditions. Now THAT'S climate change I can believe in.

Also, our ego maniacal Governor is considering passing executive orders - in order to circumvent the electorate, i.e. you and me - to attempt to LOWER the temperature in Wisconsin so that we are not accused of being among the global warmers. This after one of the coolest Augusts on record. I'm concerned as to how we keep the temperature lowered only within our borders and deny the warmer temps from invading Wisconsin. Oh, I remember, with higher taxes! I guess, even with one of the premier science universities right up the street from his lavish office at his beck and call to analyze data, he's convinced there is no more need for debate or analysis on "climate change" or "global warming" or "the sky is falling", despite recently discovered emails between leading "climate change" alarmists proving they've been "cooking the books" - just like Enron - for thirty years. The latest email even has a "reporter" asking one of the alarmists how he should handle this email discovery!

Where, oh where has my Algore gone?

THE COMPANY CHRISTMAS PARTY

This past Saturday night was my company's Christmas Party. Realize that I have been employed by six different employers (two of which were sold to other larger companies while I was there) over the last thirty-two years, so I have had the opportunity to attend thirty-one Christmas parties (only thirty-one because one company laid me off before Christmas just to avoid having to feed me for free). I have not attended all parties, but have attended parties at five of the six employers (sorry, for another explanation, but for one company I was employed for only one Christmas season before my second lay-off and I could not imagine how boring that party would have been), so I believe I have a very decent perception as to what these events entail.

Now, I am no sycophant, suck-up or brown nose and do not schmooze well at work and certainly not at corporate functions. Some companies for which I worked actually encouraged this, at least in my mind. These events have been, for the most part, in a word, stuffy. They have included endless repetitive small talk, decent food, not enough free adult beverages and, mostly, the obligatory "great year in review" slide show and eventual "awards". YAWN!

Fast forward to my current employer. This one always has a themed party. I chose not attend last year as I had been employed for only 2-1/4 months and was not keen on the cliques and politics. Besides, it was a dress-up affair and I don't like them much. But this year's theme was Mardi Gras, which I thought was odd as Mardi Gras is a Lenten celebration and this is, after all, a Christmas party.
Anyway, my lovely wife thought Mardi Gras would be fun theme to try. She went on line for Mardi Gras accessories ideas to little avail. Even the party supply stores were of little help as Mardi Gras is out of season. But, we bought some beads, a hat and a mask and decided to have a go.

We arrived at the hotel and upon entering the elevator a woman joined us lugging a large suitcase and some Mardi Gras clothing in tow and I commented on them. She responded excitedly about the party and we admitted it was ours too. She asked us our names and she introduced herself. My sceptical alert sounded and I thought "Oh, boy, here we go, a long-term employee's wife pre-judging us". She was the president's wife. She bid us to have a good time and she would see us later. Another sceptical alert. We dressed, photographed and descend to the ballroom


Upon entering, hostess hired by the party people showered us with more beads and we located the bar. Another "oh boy" moment was on me. No one seemed to notice our presence, or care. Some were dressed in costumes from formal ware to Victorian dress. even two boxes of Zatarain's seafood seasoning. We got our free drinks and headed for the hors d'eorves. I finally was acknowledge by a coworker. We grabbed some food and looked for a table at which to park. Most tables seemed to be filled, so we sat at an empty table. We were still basically alone, so we took a walk to inspect the quite impressive decorations. We went back to the table and the president's wife put her drink at our table. She did remember us.

We next decided to have a fortune told by a teller hired by the party organizers. After suffering through that and a very mediocre juggler, we returned to find the president and his wife, an executive V.P., the co-owner and the head of marketing all at our table. Yes, awkward comes to mind. We were assured repeatedly and profusely that we were not out of place and that all are equal. Still, skeptical alert.

The food was now being served, so the awkward small talk was skipped and dinner talk ensued. The drinks, by the way, were still free and flowing. Dinner went by quite enjoyably with no shop talk or even inside jokes among the higher-ups. This was actually becoming an enjoyable evening. The slide presentation was actually enjoyable as the president showed the lighter sdie of our industry with his sense of humor, it lasted only about fifteen minutes and included a photo of our granddaughter. Cool. A dumb trivia game show mixer was played and then the party really started. A pair of piano players hit the stage and jumped-started the festivities. Dancing and drinking ensued and continued into the night with a DJ. Our table as that of party animals. We were complimented numerous times for our partying. Kudos to us!

We will attend the party next year, God willing. We're hoping our party skills now keep me employed as my hard work hasn't paid off that much to this point.

LET IT SNOW - SOMEWHERE ELSE!

The first snow of the season is always a time of mixed feelings. The first few flakes gently drifting from the sky and lighting on ones eyelids and dark clothing causes reflecting of childhood memories of winter storms, ice skating, sledding, hot chocolate, caroling and snowball fights. Then, as the snow fall intensifies and one realizes that this could accumulate, different memories bombard us - traffic tie-ups, cars in the ditch, fender benders, black ice, shoveling, slipping and near-falls. Today, I had both of these, though the former was very short-lived. My wife's blog (see the "Grandmaville" link below) characterizes this well. My experience his evening was mostly the latter. My normally unenjoyable homeward drive on Madison's Beltline Highway was more than doubled in time as the two inches of snow was treated as nine as it was the first and the temperatures fell quickly.

I HATE MADISON DRIVERS!!! They are normally bad, but in bad weather they're worse! After about a mile of 60 mph, the remainder of my drive was mostly in a low gear, and the fastest at any time was 35mph. While the pavement was slick in spots and snow covered out side of travel lanes, there was little else to cause this crawl except for lack of confidence in their own driving abilities worsened by the inane repeating of "stay off the Beltline" by the traffic reporters. I was yelling at the radio for them to shut up already, there IS no alternate route around Madison! I guess they could not hear me.

Snow- bah, humbug!

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWER CHILDREN GONE?

While taking a walk along one of the usual routes, I came upon a house that, during President W's second term, had a "stop the war" sign perpetually poked into the front lawn. I was curious as to where the sign had disappeared.

Then it struck me, this is a time of peace. There are no more conflicts in which we have daily losses of service personnel. All our people are home and we no longer need recruits for the volunteer military, right? Well, that's the impression we are receiving from the main stream media (MSM). Even Ms. Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer protesting "the war". Oh, she's still protesting, it's what she does. However, because "her" president is now surrenderer-in-chief, she has turned her efforts to predator drones. She believes that it is unfair for the nasty U.S. Air Force to utilize its superior technology against the lowly tenth-century-living Taliban (now, officially pronounced "TAH-lee-bon"). She would prefer our human military to risk death, which she protested less than a year ago. Sheesh!. Do these idiots really think about their hypocrisy?

PAYING FOR HEALTH CARE OR THE MILITARY

Our own U.S, Congressman, David Obey (D-Moscow), the Chairman of the congressional Appropriations committee, stated recently something to the effect of ...how can we pay for health care reform and the overseas contingency operation (the administration's title) on Afghanistan without taxing the wealthy some more? His point, I believe, is that, in his screwy socialist mind, health care is a higher fiscal priority than the security of the Republic, the Constitution be damned! Even the founders thought expenditures for things not specified by the constitution were, in a word, unconstitutional.

Obey is pushing a plan to tax all wage earners of $150,000+ an extra 1% and those over $250,000 an extra 5% to help "pay for the war in Afghanistan". Let's see...who is who hire people and run businesses? Is it poor schleps like you an me or is it people "of means"? What will happen to prices of EVERYTHING when extra taxes are imposed on these "special" Americans? I don't suppose prices will go down. I don't even believe they will remain the level. The TRUTH is, simple economics shows us that when governments raise taxes, impose fees or establish unfunded mandates on the private sector or on other governmental agencies over which the first has jurisdiction, the "lower" entity MUST raise its fees, prices or its own taxes, there by continuing this upward-spiraling financial cycle.

Take this stupid stimulus at the federal level. What has Joe Sixpack gotten out of this $878,000,000,000? THE BILL! Now the geniuses in Congress want to spend another $891,000,000,000 on "health care reform - which they claim will NOT raise taxes or the deficit or the debt by 10 cents - and they're contemplating another $890,000,000,000 boondoggle for cap 'n tax to pay off GE, Algore and the Eco-Nazis that got them elected. In round numbers, that's $3,000,000,000,000 for only three new UNCONSTITUTIONAL programs. That doesn't even include all the unfunded mandates these bills produce(d), nor does it include "rescuing" failing 40-year-old programs from financial ruin, fraud and governmental mismanagement or our current debts of over $1,300,000,000,000.

If, by the way, you happen to disagree with me, you're most likely a racist!