He Said – We Heard

Two thirds of America is against the Health Care Reform act signed into law by President B.O. The President, who claims victory for being the architect of and responsible for passing into law, this health care reform, has been challenged by the GOP to repeal the law which is unconstitutional on the grounds that it forces Americans to purchase a product or service against their will, and carries a fine for violation of the law, and garnishment of your wages or a jail sentence if you do not pay the fine. In other words, if you have a job, you will pay the fine or have your wages garnished to collect the fine, but if you are one of the 12 million people unemployed because of empty promises by B.O., who cant pay the fine for not having health insurance because you are unemployed, you will go to jail.

Democrat – President John F. Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country". (see full speech here)

President B.O.  states in response to this challenge, “My attitude is, go for it. You try to repeal it” and what we heard was [I dare you]. The absolute smug audacity to say "Go for it", just try it, smacks of the conviction of a dictator who is convinced that he himself has done something that better not be challenged or swift retribution will fall upon those who challenge it.

This does not sound like true leadership that was extremely evident in President Kennedy, or of a president who upholds the Constitution and reveres the Declaration of Independence as the bible of our country. Nor does it sound like a President who understands and holds sacred that as a republic, We the People, are governed by the people through representation. The voice of the people rule this land. Yet this President and the democrat majority in congress feel it is their job to do what they feel is necessary, and ignoring the majority of its citizens, by forcing a bill into law without public approval and consent.

The White House suggests it has the upper hand on the issue politically, arguing the GOP risks a voter backlash because a repeal would take away many benefits. Among them are tax credits for small businesses to provide health care to their workers and $250 rebates for seniors to help pay for their prescription medications.

What the law also requires is that an extra tax be imposed on the sale of all medical devices such as wheel chairs, defibrillators, respirators, oxygen tanks, prosthetics, heart monitors and just about anything you may need for medical reasons. These taxes will be imposed on the manufacturers of these devises and of course will be passed along to you, the consumer, to compensate for the extra cost. [ see news clip at http://news.yahoo.com/video/opinion-15749653/obamacare-tax-shock-18934733 ] So much for a $250 rebate for seniors which pales compared to the extra costs of medical devices.

 

And now for what should have been an April Fool’s joke. GUAM Might Tip over or capsize! The following Video is real, aired on CSPAN and I am sure confounds anyone seeing it. Rep Hank Johnson – 4th Congressional District in Georgia (Democrat) interviewing Admiral of Pacific Forces on the feasibility of costs to send 8000 troops and their families to be stationed in Guam.

 

You may remember him from this video: http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=e9fb54e4-533a-4711-9441-5a84a68a6f2f

Now, I was under the impression that congressmen were drug tested and are not escapees from mental wards, but I have been wrong before.

Health Care Reform – B.O. Politics

As usual, B.O. Politics stinks. Obama hangs himself yet again with the not so sharp double speak he learned so well in order to become a politician. Obama characterizes America’s anger and opposition to reforming health care as a conspiracy theory, a plan to deliberately scare away support for reforming health care.

Yes, some aspects of our current health care system need fixing and tweaking, but Obama feels that the way to fix it is to completely overhaul it and reform it as if health care were a stunning disgrace to society. More double speak from B.O.

CNN reports “Obama and Democratic leaders have accused opponents of health care changes of organizing protests intended to drown out the debate…” What a bunch of crap. Last I checked, if the public wanted something done, changed or stopped in America, you made your voice heard because every voice counts. The now famous Town Halling going on around America seems to be a fantastic way for our congressmen to get it right between the eyes about how the public feels about something. Now that they are getting it right between the eyes, the Democrats and B.O. can’t face it, so they are characterizing it as a conspiracy. I got news for our President, if you ignore the voice of the public, and dismiss our voice as a conspiracy, the next event following is naturally a revolt against the Dictator in office who refuses to “hear the people.”

“What is truly scary, what is truly risky, is to do nothing,” Obama said, noting that premiums paid for health care coverage were rising three times faster than wages and that the government-run Medicare program for senior citizens would run out of money within a decade.

Oh really? You mean like how Democrats in congress swore that businesses were “too big to fail” and that Wall Street and Banks and Auto makers had to be bailed out of their grossly mismanaged and failing businesses? THis turned out to be false, those banks and companies should have been allowed to fail so that the “natural course of economics” could prevail which was for other successful banks and businesses to buy them out. By the way, even after some of the companies got their bailout money, and still failed to recover, they were bought out or merged with successful businesses.

CNN reports “Obama defended his call for a government-funded public health insurance plan” and supporting this action as a need for government competition to our current health providers with statements like

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine,” Obama said, referring to private courier services that compete with the U.S. Postal Service. “It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”

Wow, lets just think about this for a minute. Tons of double speak here and of course hanging himself with statements like this. Social Security is a government plan that is going bankrupt, Medicare is a government plan that is going bankrupt, the U.S. Post Office is a government plan that is going bankrupt. Yet in his own words B.O. concedes that UPS, Fed-Ex are doing better. I got news for B.O., our health providers are doing better than medicare and medicaid, IRA’s and Personal retirement companies are doing better than Social Security. Now you are going to tell us that a government Health Care plan is what we need and it has to be done before congress goes on break?

Typical tactic to get something corrupt into the system before anyone can do a double take.

Senator Arlen Specter speaks about the anger and frustration of the public at his town-hall gatherings and dismisses it saying “the rhetoric was ‘within acceptable limits,’ ” Specter told reporters that economic and political anxieties have created a “level of anger in the country” that has not been seen since the Great Depression.

I have more news for the Democrats, we aren’t angry at the economy and it isn’t political anxiety, we are angry at congressmen and women trying to control our economy, our lives, our liberty, our outspoken voices our private businesses, the banking industry, the housing industry, the auto industry, etc.

You tried to bail out Chrysler and General Motors and what did it get you? They are still failing, but wait, Ford refused bailout money, and is doing just fine. Why? Because they aren’t running their company into the ground with greed and corruption.

How many banks and financial firms received bail out money, paid bonuses to their executives anyway, haven’t paid back our tax dollars, still failed and were subsequently bought out by another company? One was too many, let alone four or five.

B.O., the public is angry, we are complaining about you and the Democrats forcing socialism on us, forcing bigger government on us to control our lives. The public is telling you and congress to STOP THE INSANITY!

Rep. Gary Ackerman D-NY Blasts the SEC into speechlessness (mostly by interupting answers)

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., was the first to raise the issue of corporate jets at the earlier Big 3 Auto hearing. He is very boisterous and animated at the Madoff Fraud Allegations [Ponzi Scheme] and Financial Markets Regulation hearing, yet he nailed the SEC to the wall. Mr Ackerman didn’t do this by himself, in fact he was just echoing Harry Markopolos, an independent financial fraud investigator and analyst.

I give Harry Markopolos a gold ribbon for working so hard on the behalf of Americans and I give Rep. Gary Ackerman a blue ribbon for appearing to be on the side of good in a great show at the hearing and publicly pinning the tail on the donkey. Our congressmen and congresswomen should be working for and representing the public interest in congress, being the voice of the public, not echoing the hard work of others such as Harry Markopolos.

Background of the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission):

The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.

This is based on the Securities Act of 1933 often referred to as the “truth in securities” law, the Securities Act of 1933 has two basic objectives:

• require that investors receive financial and other significant information concerning securities being offered for public sale; and
• prohibit deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities.

In the economy of today, with billions of dollars being handed out to Wall Street companies, banking and investment firms, mortgage companies, and big industry, we can not afford or tolerate our one government agency (SEC) assigned to protect our economy from fraud, to be paid for nothing.

In the videos below you will hear Merrill Lynch named and you will hear specifically how the SEC has failed to do what the tax payers are paying them to do.

YouTube – Markopolos: I gift wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to the SEC.

Next is Rep. Gary Ackerman at the helm:

Take the Poll

Fixing America

You may have heard our new fearless leader proclaim that change is what we need and that change must start with fixing America.

Two things come to mind almost immediately with one being that change brings two schools of thought , change for the better, and change for the worse. Change is a great flash word and it was used heavily in President Obama’s campaign, however it is merely a flash word while overstating the obvious that occurs in our lives and our country all the time. Evolution is change. Growth is change. Getting married is change. We have plenty of change already, both good and bad.

The next flashy statement was that America needs to be fixed. Really? I didn’t know America was broken. Congress is broken, yes. The SEC is broken, yes. Government and corporate policies are broken, yes. Our goverment is trying to break its citizens, yes, but America is not broken.

Americans were outraged when the big 3 auto makers flew to Washington D.C. on their expensive corporate jets to extort our government with “give us some bail out money or we will fire 3,000,000 employees” and now we have the President of the United States flying from Andrews AFB to Williamsburgh (155 miles – 12 minute flight) to listen to and speak to the Democtratic Conference.

This is not a cheap flight. When Air Force 1(747) flies, so does the backup 747. The cost of both jets flying 155 miles and then the return trip is huge. The President touts his tech saviness all the time. There is no reason why he couldn’t have video conferenced.

TYLER WHITLEY AND BILL GEROUX TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
Published: February 6, 2009

WILLIAMSBURG — President Barack Obama made a quick trip to Virginia last night…

…Aboard the plane, the president wore a new blue jacket stitched with the words Air Force One in cursive and the presidential seal on his right side and “Barack Obama” on the left side.

“I’ve got my spiffy jacket so I thought I’d come and show it off,” he joked with reporters.

“What do you think about this spiffy ride? It’s not bad.”

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am getting the severe impression that our new President thinks this is fun and games at the tax payers expense.

Stay tuned for:

“Immoral Mothers against Immoral Athletes”

“An Oil Barrel of Monkeys”

“Stimulus Package Stimulates Debt and Abuse”

“Illegal Immigrants Employed, Americans Unemployed”

“$75 Billion to Keep you on Welfare”

“D- Gary Ackerman Blasts the SEC into speechlessness”

Swindled in America

On a daily basis I am surprised at how easy it is to swindle Americans out of their money and a vote.

In the 1960’s JFK made a speech that implored you to ask not what your country can do for you, instead, ask what you can do for your country. For two years Obama campaigned the exact opposite, and spent your campaign dollars telling you what he will do for you. As history now shows, you bought it.

How could this have happened? Could it have been a simple case of lack of education and the structure of our own government? Could it have been just a great Hollywood performance? Could it be that you wanted to hear certain words like “change” (be it for good or bad), and “united”?

We have Joe Public who goes down to a car dealer to buy a new car. He saw an advertisement on TV that told him he would get a $5000 off deal, or a $5000 trade in allowance, or some BS gimmick whre there is no savings at all of any kind let alone $5000 worth. Joe Public ends up buying a car for 3 times its actual value. Why? because the car makers have to pay union wages which are 3 times the cost of non-union wages and they car makers have to offset this with the price of the car to still make a profit. As Joe public drives off the car lot with a car he paid three times what its worth, he understands the value of the car is just got cut in half by simply driving off the lot with it. This is OK with Joe, because the key word “New” is still in his head and in his nostrils. He got swindled out of his hard earned money, but is it new.

Now Joe Public sees on TV that the Big 3 have gone to congress to ask for “more” of his hard earned money he paid in taxes. They got it. Now Joe is feeling even more swindled. Then Joe realizes, this isn’t the only time. Other privately owned companies have gone to congress, as if congress were a bank, and asks for more of his money.

Meanwhile, Joe finds out that he is losing his mortgage and is facing a layoff at work. How can this be? In his depression, Joe mutters profanities at the President of the United States, not realizing that this blame is misplaced. See, Joe Public didn’t get a great education so he doesn’t understand the “limited powers” of the executive branch of the government, in fact didn’t even know there was a branch. Joe also doesn’t realize that the true power to approve or disapprove where his tax money is spent lies within congress, not the office of the president.

Joe Public is very depressed now as he turns on C-Span and watches where his tax dollars (33% of his income) is being spent and wonders “why did I vote for a powerless president? I don’t even see him sitting in congress.” Then it hits him as Joe recognizes the people he voted for, sitting in congress, giving away his money to the people he just gave money to for a new car, gave even more money to for his house and other companies getting a load of his money.

Joe says to himself, “I should have put more importance on who I hired into congress, than on voting for a President that can’t really do anything for me. I’m supposed to be doing something for my country to make it a better place, not relying on a double talking president to do it for me.”

As Joe hears in the background that another $800 billion and another $350 billion behind that are going to be used to “stimulate” the economy, a thought occurs to him. There are roughly 300 millions people in America, 7% (21 million) illegal immigrants, 150 million under the age of 18, (2.5 kids per household) 6 – 11% unemployed or on welfare (18 to 33 million) which leaves about 100 million employed working Americans. If I were a congressmen I could save a lot of the tax payers dollars by giving it back to them to stimulate the econmy, instead of giving it to these failing private companies. Yes, if I gave everyone $1000 back to the  100 million working Americans that would only be $100 billion. I could tell car companies to shut down their plants overseas and put that saved money into operations here at home. I could reverse NAFTA so that Dupont and Hershey and other major companies brought jobs back to America. I could take the unemployed and train them up to be border patrol agents with the hundrds of billions of dollars in tax payers money I saved from not giving it to failing companies. I could randomly drug test welfare recipients every month and for everyone that fails the drug test, they are permanently denied welfare which would save billions more dollars that can be given back to hard working Americans.

Joe Public starts to light up as all these simple solutions that he never heard utterd by “Both Ways Obama” in the entire two years of his campaign.  Joe beams even more as he realizes he can “fire” [with a vote] these crooks in congress with the real power, handling his tax dollars, just as easily as he “hired” them. Afterall, they aren’t performing to the level of expectations and job requirements, and someone who can do the job are waiting to be hired. Why have we been paying Ted Kenndy all these years? Yes, I do want change, I want these crooks and criminals in congress FIRED!

Political Humor

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She decreased her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him

Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.   

 The man consulted his portable GPS and replied

You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 4119 feet above sea level. You are at 35 degrees, .07 minutes north latitude and 83 degrees, 18 minutes west longitude.   

 She rolled her eyes and said

You must be a Republican.   

 The man replied

How did you know?   

 The balloonist answered

Everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.   

 The man smiled and responded

You must be a Democrat.  

I am, replied the balloonist. How did you know? 

 The man said

You don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to  solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow now it’s my fault.  

Welfare Addiction

Many times I have talked with friends about the idea an anonymous man had for trimming the fat from our welfare system. All too often we have heard how much of our hard earned money from the “working Americans” is going into the welfare system, and how few people actually deserve the check.

I wont go into how many illegal immigrants are earning money in America and not paying a single penny into the federal system that pays for welfare and other community programs. I will save that for another post. Right now is as good a time as any to start trimming the fat from the welfare system.

One way we can do that is to change a small way the welfare system works, and that is to require each welfare applicant to take a drug test during the submission of their application and to take a drug test once a month, on a random date, while they are on the program. The first time someone fails the drug test, they lose their welfare and are banned from collecting welfare ever again, ever. The money that would be saved from paying drug addicts to be on welfare would more than pay for the new testing, and the rest could go to people who actually need the assistance or other programs.

Now as it would happen, I was talking to a friend of mine that I used to chat with in public chat rooms frequently, and we agreed we had both seen many conversations of people that are on welfare, in a chat room. These people were supporting , of course, how necessary the welfare system is and how it helps so many people. A great many of us did agree it is important to an extent, however, how is it possible that a welfare recipient can pay for an internet connection and a computer, if they are on welfare? Welfare is meant to give assistance to those who can not afford the basic necessities for survival.

Access to the Internet and purchasing a computer, is a luxury, not a necessity. So it would stand to reason that the welfare department should be doing random inspections of the homes of welfare recipients, and a review of their utility bills to verify that no luxuries are being purchased such as internet access and computers.

The whole idea is not to enable an addict, even someone addicted to welfare. If someone needs Internet access to find a job instead of using their feet, then it isn’t an unsurmountable task to walk up to the public library and use their computers, or even go to the employment office and use their computers.

It’s time to stop funneling money into the hands of addicts through government programs. How can you help? Elect an official to oversee where your hard earned money is going, and stop electing politicians who thrive on special interest groups and padding their own pockets.

The Dilemma

Why is the question of gay marriage such a dilemma? To the majority of the world (85% Christian), it’s not, it’s simply wrong. Two issues arise from this dilemma. 1) Who are the lawmakers, and 2) why is it being debated? I am not going to address the first one (who are the lawmakers) in this post, but instead address the question of why is it being debated or contemplated at all.

From a religious standpoint the origin of marriage can be identified with the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. The father and mother of life. A man and a woman created in order to procreate and populate the world. A physical manifestation of God’s love. God outlined Adam’s duties and responsibilities to his wife, Eve, and also outlined Eve’s responsibilities and duties to her husband, Adam.

There is probably good reason why God didn’t create two men first and tell them to love one another as I have loved you and to go forth and procreate as well as not creating two women first and telling them the same thing.

Now Adam and Eve would be the symbolic origin of marriage, however, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony didn’t come into play until some time later. In the Old Testament, marriage is most frequently treated as a patriarchal institution for the perpetuation of the tribe. However, late in the history of Israel, we can see signs of a growing sacramental awareness in the creation stories of Genesis and in the prophetic literature. In the New Testament, all three Synoptic Gospels record Jesus affirming the permanence of marriage. In both Mark and Matthew, Jesus makes reference to Gen. 2:24 which speaks of the union of man and woman as part of God’s divine plan. Similar references are outlined in the Qur’an (Homosexual acts are condemned as unnatural. 7:80-81, homosexual activities are condemned as unnatural. 26:165-6, homosexuals commit abominations and act senselessly. 27:54-55).
One significant development which occurred in the Middle Ages, was the rise of ecclesiastical marriage ceremonies and legislation. Prior to this period, it was left to civil authorities to legislate marriages. The Church concerned itself with only the moral dimension of the marriage relationship. In the Roman culture, a marriage was legal and binding on the basis of consent between the spouses and their guardians. In the Frankish and Germanic traditions, a marriage was not considered binding until consummated by sexual intercourse.

Throughout the Church’s history, theologians have been somewhat skittish about the religious significance of the marriage institution. The attacks of the Albigensians and Waldensians on the goodness of sexuality, much like the Gnostics and Manichaeans of an earlier time, led the Church to speak explicitly of the sacramentality of marriage. It was included as a sacrament in Pope Innocent III’s Profession of Faith in 1208 and was listed definitively by the Council of Trent in 1563.

Now, I don’t know a single religion that recognizes or condones gay relationships or marriages, but I only say that because I can’t name one that does. There might be one out there somewhere, but there is always an exception to every rule.

Now for the social and legal ramification and basis of the socially acceptable union of a man and a woman. It is generally accepted that our civil laws are based in whole or in part on religious laws (i.e. the ten commandments, the bible in general). However, I see two significant reasons for the civil marriage (outside of religious grounds) and that is the importance of identifying a person as a “naturally born citizen” of a particular country, born of two citizens married in said country. The other issue being the legality of having sex as it pertains to the illegal act of sex called prostitution. This brings to mind a number of interesting situations. Outside of homosexuality being wrong to 85% of the population that has a Christian or religious upbringing, if gay marriages are made legal ( as has been the case in a couple of states) they can’t bring any children into this world (between two men) as natural born citizens. Obviously two gay women married to each other can bring a child into the world as a natural born citizen but wont be a product of their marriage, since one or both would have to be impregnated artificially or have sex outside the marriage constituting a natural act of heterosexuality. The only other option is to adopt a child.

It’s interesting to note that most prostitution is between a man and a woman. How often do you hear or read or see a situation where a man pays for sex from another man and is arrested for prostitution, or a woman paying another woman for that matter? Heterosexual prostitution, yes, child pornography, yes, rape of a woman by a man, yes, rape of a man by another man?(usually restricted to prisons) rape of a woman by another woman? Where are these stories?

There are a whole slew of issues and problems and situations that are going to be created from legalizing gay marriages just from a civil standpoint. Obviously from a religious standpoint it is and always will be wrong in the eyes of God. Probably a darn good reason for that. God said it’s wrong. Who am I to put myself above God and say otherwise. How much of an idiot would I have to be, not knowing what comes after this life, to take the risk of superseding, preempting, or rescinding God’s law?

Now, the judges, politicians, lawmakers who make a ruling from a legal/civil standpoint, what must be going through their minds if they are at all religious? Supposing there is nothing after this life, how important is their career or their job or their social status to use it to preempt God’s law if that judge or politician or lawmaker is a Christian or religious and takes that risk?

We all talk about separation of church and state. But how in the world does a judge, a governor, a president or ANYONE separate their religious belief and upbringing from civil law, especially if the law is in contradiction to the religion? This certainly sounds like a conflict of interest in view of the fact that civil law is based in whole or in part on religious law.

Impeach John Edwards BEFORE he gets to the Whitehouse

Lawyers are paid to find a loophole in the law to turn their guilty client into innocent by-standers. They are paid well to sue the wrong person or entity. They are ingratiated with public status and notoriety for winning regardless of their client’s guilt. And we want one for a President?

John Edwards Blog:

tapster in Diaries

7/05/2007 at 1:28 PM EST

This is exactly the type of case that John describes in “Four Trials”. Read this, and then decide on the best response when Righties are critical of John for being a trail lawyer!:

Pool Drain Pulls Small Intestine Out Of Young Girl

Minneapolis – A 6-year-old Edina, Minn. girl has been hospitalized after a horrific accident at a swimming pool.

Abigail Taylor was severely injured Friday when she sat over an open drain hole in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club. Now Abigail’s father has a warning to other families: Pool and hot tub drain accidents are a hidden danger that many of us don’t understand. [Scott Taylor never said this]

Abigail has big brown eyes, a dazzling smile and at just 6 years old she has already competed in local swim meets.

“She loves to swim,” said her father Scott Taylor.

Her love of swimming is why her family didn’t think twice when she played at a kiddie pool at the family’s golf club on Friday night. Taylor said as Abigail was getting out of the pool, she fell.

“She more or less blacked out, she passed out, fell face-first onto the pool decking,” he said. The family thought it was a seizure. [I don’t know where tapster gets his information, but NBC news quotes Mrs Taylor: “Her mom says Abbey somehow pulled herself off the drain and out of the pool before collapsing into the deep end of the regular pool.” Why would Mr Taylor say something contrary to what Mrs Taylor said?]

An ambulance rushed her to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. Several hours later a surgeon said Abigail was lucky to be alive.

“The suction had caused a two-inch tear in her rectum and had basically disemboweled her by pulling out her small intestines, almost all of it,” said Taylor.

Her father said a search of the pool filter turned up Abigail’s intestine. He said Abigail was seriously wounded because the cover of the drain had been removed. [And this is somehow the pool manufacturers fault???]

In most public pools the drain cover is screwed in and cannot be pulled off. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the pressure on some pool drains can be as strong as 300 pounds per square inch.

“It never even crosses anybody’s mind that potential at the bottom of that pool is enough force to literally disembowel a child, an adult,” said Taylor.

Abigail will have to be fed intravenously for the rest of her life and will have to have a colostomy bag.

“We view it as a miracle that she’s still with us,” her father said.

She is improving. Wednesday morning she stunned her family by asking a question.

“She said, ‘Am I going to be on the news?’ She said, ‘Why do you ask?’ She said, ‘Because I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,'” recalled Taylor.

Since 1990, 170 people, mostly children, have been caught in drains and 27 of them have died. Legislation is pending that would require pools and hot tubs to have multiple drains to ease the suction. [Oh, there’s a real solution. Don’t require a business to properly maintain a perfectly good pool or staff their business with certified pool technicians and maintenance personnel, instead put the burden on the manufacturer.]

Some pools have a safety vacuum cutoff which shuts down if someone is trapped. New drain covers which cost less than $50 can also help.

According to the Associated Press, an official at the golf club expressed sympathy for the family and said he didn’t think anything was wrong with the pool, but referred questions to the club’s attorney, who declined to comment. [Gosh, I wonder why? Could it be that the Golf Club is negligent and not the pool manufacturer??]

 

 

John Edwards isn’t even a good lawyer, let alone a good candidate for President. Why would you want a president that doesn’t even recognize where the origin of the negligence is? Could it be that John is worried that if he sued the Club instead of the manufacturer, that he might be sneared at, at HIS Golf Club? Maybe he might lose tee time privileges. John may not be an ambulance chaser as some accuse him, but he sure as hell doesn’t gather his facts well, and will definitely put the blame where it doesn’t belong.

re: original post on John Edwards blog.

Ant and the Grasshopper

The original version of the Ant and the Grasshopper is a great story to tell our kids and grandkids. It teaches us the truth about responsibility for yourself, our survival and preparing for the future.The story goes like this:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself and prepared for necessity!

Now the modern version is very similar and goes like this:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, “It’s Not Easy Being Green.”

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news media film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful and responsible about voting.