Life Begins At 40

For the last couple of weeks I have intended to write a post about the milestone of my fortieth birthday. It is a particularly important event for me, since my father never lived to see this age, and my brother died shortly thereafter, both of colon cancer. There was a time when I didn't expect to see this age either, but it wasn't because I feared cancer. No I suffered from a completely different kind of sickness, a sickness of the mind called addiction. I didn't just expect to die young. I actually cried out to God and begged Him to take me. No I wasn't suicidal. I didn't have that much courage.

But drugs were never my problem. They were merely a symptom. My problems were much deeper. What I suffered from was insecurity and fear, an irrational self-centeredness. Everything about this world scared the hell out of me. My only way to deal with this fear was to play the part of the clown, and to be the life of the party. I became popular and made lots of friends, but I never felt like I measured up.

I made it through college, but school was always easy for me. It's participating and competing out in the real world that troubled me. I was too afraid to succeed, so I didn't participate. When my friends were getting married, buying homes, and excelling in their careers, I was going nowhere. However, I did make several trips to the city jail.

I won't bore you anymore with my story, but I will say that at the age of thirty, I decided to "grow up". I joined the rat race, married a beautiful girl, had a son, and later bought a home. I even went back to school and earned my Masters degree, at night of course.

I have changed quite a bit in the last ten years, but who hasn't? I have calmed down considerably. Having a child kind of does that to you, I think. I am much more tolerant of others and less prone to losing my temper than I used to be. My negative mental attitude has mostly been changed to a positive outlook. But most of all I have changed the way I view myself.

I don't beat myself up the way I did in the past. When I mess up, and I often do, I cut myself some slack. When others criticize me, I am able to accept their criticism and consider it, as opposed to stomping off angrily and cursing about their shortcomings. I like myself these days, and because of that, I am able to be a better friend to others. I am able to not only love my enemies, but to forgive them and focus on whatever qualities they have that I admire. I have come to realize that people don't think about me as much as I once thought they did. They have their own problems and their own fears and insecurities. When they act out, it usually has nothing to do with me. They might just be having a bad day, and rather than be angry at them for hurting my precious little feelings, I should have compassion for what they might be going through.

Does life begin at forty? For me, the answer is yes. Rather than lamenting my age, I choose to embrace it and make a point to practice the wisdom that was given to me through my experiences. Yes life would have been much different had I known then what I know now. But I had to learn these things on my own, in my own way. My life, however difficult I chose to make it, had to be just as it was.

Yes I have learned a great deal and made much progress, but I am fully aware that I am not even close to having arrived. There is so much more to learn and so much more growth to be experienced. No, forty isn't old, not for a late bloomer like myself. It really is a beginning.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody.

Frankie's First Jack-o-lantern

I don't know where it came from. But for some reason, there was this really little and shabby looking pumpkin on my counter this afternoon. Even though I had never carved a pumpkin in my entire life, I thought "what the heck" and brought Frank in the kitchen and carved that sucker up. Now I know this is a really amateurish job of carving, but Frank loved it. Notice the mean face he's making. Happy Halloween!

Garcia and Grisman- "Ripple"

What a sweet song! It's definitely one of my favorite Dead tunes, performed here by Jerry and David. Of course, David actually played mandolin on the album version, featured on American Beauty. Excerpt of Robert Hunter's lyrics below.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,
If your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain,
That was not made by the hands of men.

There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.

Enjoy!

T for Texas, T for Tennessee

Damn a bunch of sad posts. I just got off the phone with Sanna, and she is going to allow me to pick up Frank from daycare today. Today is her day, so it's her call, you know. I get to spend a couple of hours with him, before I head out to the Flying Saucer tonight to see my old nemesis/friend Brittney.

Yesterday, when I was sad, I was sitting around playing blues music. My mom, who was still here visiting, walked in and said, you need to put on some happy music. You don't need "no BB King" right now.

I took her advice and found this gem (embedded below) from Lynyrd Skynrd. The band is playing "T for Texas, T for Tennessee", also known as "Blue Yodel Number 9". It's an old song written and recorded by Jimmy Rodgers in the twenties. Of course Rodgers' version features an acoustic guitar, his voice, and last only a couple of minutes. What Skynyrd does to this tune is pretty amazing. They turned this country tune into a rocking blues jam, running about ten minutes, with three guitarists swapping solos. The star of the jam though, in my opinion, is guitarist Steve Gaines. What a talent and what a loss he was to the guitar world. By the way, Gaines is the one with the beard and the least amount of hair. Lots of hair in this clip. Let me warn you, the sound quality is not that good, and the video quality is even worse, but the jam is awesome. For a better quality video and sound, click here. The reason I chose the black and white one over the color one is simple. In the color version, the cameraman ignores Gaines, who is jamming his butt off, and instead follows around vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt, as if he as some type of crush on Ronnie. It really pisses me off. Rock and Roll ain't about singers, as far as I concerned. Rock and Roll is guitar music. Put the camera on the guitar, you dang idiot.

Anyway, notice what Ronnie says at the beginning of the video. "These intermissions in between songs, are brought to you by Budweiser, king of beers." Then bassist Leon Wilkerson remarks, "Not to mention Acapulco Gold". Heh!

Today Is the Big Day

No I am not talking about that stupid primary election. Today is my son Frank's third birthday. It is also the fifth anniversary of my brother's death. My brother was also named Frank, as was my late father. I had made the decision to name my son after my dad and brother when we first found out the baby was going to be a boy. It's just so cool that he came into the world on the same day my brother left the world. I think about my brother a lot, and also my dad. I wish Frank could have known both of them. But he will someday.

Definitely Not That Word I Am Tired Of Hearing

This rant by Southern Beale got me to thinking that maybe its time to write about how much I love women and why. SB's feelings about what I may or may not be do not really bother me that much. It's her point of view. I respect it.

But I am the farthest thing from someone who hates or dislikes women.

Let me tell you why. Unfortunately, my father died when I was ten. At that time, my brother was finishing up High School and soon after that, he would become married and join the Navy. That left me with my Mama, my sister, and my Aunt Mae, who lived right beside us. For the longest time, through my most selfish years, they may have been the only people I really cared anything about. They most certainly cared about me. That's for sure.

My mother grew up a lot differently than I did. Her mother wasn't anything like the mother she would later be. Now don't get me wrong. I loved my grandmother. But I know for a fact that she wasn't a great mother to my mom. But Mama was a great mom. I will never forget the night that daddy died. My mother held me in her arms while I cried saying "Be strong." Throughout my teen years, she did the best she could to steer me right. Like the song "Mama Tried", she certainly did her best, but I was a wild soul, still inwardly angry about my dad dying. Being shy, I naturally turned to outside substances to get me out of my shell and help me escape. Through all of that, she never stopped loving me. A lot of people gave up on me and wrote me off, but my Mama kept praying, even visiting me in jail. I will always be grateful to her for that. I don't tell her nearly as often as I should.

I was also fortunate to have a good sister. Penny was five years older than me, so she didn't live with us too much longer after my dad died. But she was always around and always looking after me. I remember a specific incident at a football game. She was a majorette in the band and I was always getting into fights behind the bleachers. One Friday night a much older and bigger kid was getting ready to give me a whuppin'. I probably deserved it, by the way. But that didn't matter to Penny. She came out of the stands where the band was sitting and started waving that baton at the big kid's face, threatening him. I was so embarrassed that my sister had rescued me. But deep down I really appreciated it. It showed how much she loved her little brother. Like my mom, she also never gave up on me during the bad times.

Now I want to tell you all about my Aunt Mae. Last November she turned eighty-eight. She is actually my great aunt. There are probably a lot of people who would put her on a list like this. Words can't express how much I love that woman. She has always been so good to me. As a kid, I probably spent as much time at her house as I did my own. She loved and still does love to cook for me. Her and I used to pick blackberries together for blackberry cobbler and jam. She is a very religious person, though not very educated. Being born in 1919, and being poor, education wasn't a priority for her as a little girl. She always talked about how she wished she could have had the opportunities to learn that I had. More than she will ever know, she had a lot of influence in me taking advantage of those opportunities. She also taught me to love animals. She calls them "God's creatures". I am thirty-eight years old and she still sends me a check on my birthday and buys me candy on Valentines and Easter. It might sound funny, but that means so much to me. It always puts a smile on my face.

Finally, I want to talk about my wife Sanna, the most beautiful woman in the world. I really don't know why God blessed me with such a prize as Sanna. I certainly did not do anything to deserve her. She has such a sweet and caring heart. She always encourages me. When we first met, she saw something in me that I didn't know was there. She is not very materialistic at all. She doesn't care for jewelry or nice clothes. All she wants is to spend the rest of her life with me. She is also a great mother. She isn't perfect by any means and neither am I, but she is close enough for me. February will mark our fourth year as husband and wife, and I am still just as much in love with her now as I was when we first started dating. I still can't take my eyes off of her.

No I don't dislike women. I love women very much. But there is no doubt that men and women are different. If recognizing that makes me a sexist, then so be it. We are still equal though, but we are way, way different. Thank goodness for that.

The Problem with Populists

George Will on the Populists:

Like Job after losing his camels and acquiring boils, the conservative movement is in distress. Mike Huckabee shreds the compact that has held the movement's two tendencies in sometimes uneasy equipoise. Social conservatives, many of whom share Huckabee's desire to "take back this nation for Christ," have collaborated with limited-government, market-oriented, capitalism-defending conservatives who want to take back the nation for James Madison. Under the doctrine that conservatives call "fusion," each faction has respected the other's agenda. Huckabee aggressively repudiates the Madisonians.

Indeed. I highly suggest you read the rest of the article. Will nails it, and as for that shrinking middle class.

Economist Stephen Rose, defining the middle class as households with annual incomes between $30,000 and $100,000, says a smaller percentage of Americans are in that category than in 1979 -- because the percentage of Americans earning more than $100,000 has doubled from 12 to 24, while the percentage earning less than $30,000 is unchanged. "So," Rose says, "the entire 'decline' of the middle class came from people moving up the income ladder."

Heh! Reality and truth are often populisms biggest enemies.

My First Trip To Starbucks

I had ridden by the place several times over the years, but never dared to enter it's walls. It seemed like a different world, a different culture. I wasn't really that curious about the place though. I don't like coffee and my stereotype of the type of person known to hang out in there was quite unappealing.

But then it happened. My wife and I had a little bit of time to kill yesterday afternoon and she asked me to do the unthinkable. She asked me to go with her to Starbucks. I initially refused vehemently. There was no way that I would be caught dead in that place. Not only that, but surely the patrons would figure out that I was an outsider and demand that I leave, perhaps even refusing to serve me. She insisted that I come though, saying that she really wanted to see me in there.

Upon entering, my stereotype was quickly verified. Right there on a piece of living room furniture was "pony-tail guy" reading a book. At one table were these two thin, neat looking, young men. They looked like they were really close friends, really close. A few of the people in there actually had textbooks. Some were wearing those really small eyeglasses, the kind Brittney Gilbert wears. Some people were reading and some were having discussions, but I don't think any of them were talking about who they were going to vote for in the Republican Primary. I knew right away that I didn't belong there. I wanted to leave. My lovely wife could see how I was feeling. She was quite amused.

After ordering, we sat down and I inquired about this strange culture. I couldn't believe that a business survived by selling coffee and having people come in, sit down and talk to each other. She became irritated with my wanting to leave and said that we had nothing in common. I agreed and then reminded her of how that was a good thing. "Would you really want to be with me if I was the type of guy that hung out in Starbucks?", I asked. "I guess not," she said.

Finally she finished her coffee and I got out of there, never to return again.

Huckabee, The Leader Of The Christian Left

Finally, a conservative pundit is attacking the campaign of Mike Huckabee.
Bob Novak writes:

Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the "Club for Greed"? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender -- definitely in Iowa and perhaps nationally. Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist, big-government advocate of a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans.

Novak is right. Huckabee is no conservative. He is a big spending, bleeding heart liberal. Sure he may be "socially conservative", but that term is an oxymoron.

In fact, anytime the word social is put in front of the word conservative, just go ahead and cross out the conservative part, because the politician in question surely isn't one. Huckabee is a disaster. In fact he is even less conservative than George Bush, the President who expanded government even more than Lyndon Johnson.

Huckabee, Guiliani, no this isn't your father's Republican Party. It might be your father's Democratic Party, which by the way, looks quite conservative compared to today's Democrats.

Novak sums up the evolution of the Republican Party with this statement:

The rise of evangelical Christians as the motive force that blasted the GOP out of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent danger if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a conventional conservative but one of their own.
The danger is a serious contender for the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the conservative-libertarian model of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

As one of those conservative-libertarian, Goldwater/Reagan types, who also happens to be an evangelical, that truth breaks my heart. Regardless of the way the media covers most church types, they are actually more in line with modern liberalism than conservatism. Most are not really that conservative at all, but part of that group once called Reagan Democrats. If you don't believe me, ask the average Baptist what he or she (especially she) thinks of TennCare? Why do you think we have TennCare in this Bible Belt state?

Jena Six Idiots Are Nothing New To This World

Jason Whitlock has written an excellent article about the Jena 6, in which he does something very unusual for a modern journalist, he relies on facts. He exposes the truth behind all of the made up stories and the unnecessary black eye that this small southern community has received, thanks to poor journalism and one man's "moral" mission.

Every journalist, every blogger, and every private citizen that jumped to conclusions without looking into the facts is..... How do I put this? You all are nothing but a bunch of idiots, stupid gullible idiots. I know that sounds harsh and mean, but it is true. You people are dangerous and you are precisely the reason that our country should be more like a republic and less like a democracy. You are why populist politicians exist and you are precisely why this republic will eventually vote itself into bankruptcy.

But you all were not born out of the situation in Jena, you have always been with us. You were in Russia in 1917 and Cuba in the 1950's? You were there when Marie Antoinette lost her head. You were in Italy screaming "Il Duce", and in Germany chanting "Heil Hitler". You were in Louisiana cheering along Huey Long, and in Alabama clapping for George Wallace. You were there making a spectacle of yourself at the Scopes Monkey Trial. Remember the McCarthy hearings? Yeah that was you. Flag burning and gay marriage? Yep, you again. Global warming hysteria and class envy? Guess who? You people are easy to manipulate, easy to stir into a mob. That's because you don't think. You act on your emotions. Your main characteristics are fear and envy, which makes you a magnet for the populist and his clever manipulation. Thanks to you, we'll probably end up with an inferior government run health care system. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, you people are idiots. If you all would just think, and not take the words of an entertainer/journalist or rabble rousing populist at face value, then maybe you would not cause so much harm.

Just please, use your brains. If that is too much to ask, then please please, promise that you will never vote again. Please!

Should Have Been A Pardon

Well at least he did something. He should have pardoned him though.

What a miscarriage of justice. Scooter Libby was convicted of lying about a crime that never happened. The so-called leaker was actually Richard Armitege, but he really didn't leak anything. Fitzgerald knew that no crime had been committed, yet he still questioned people. Why? If it was evident that the issue did not fall within the statute, for what reason did the special prosecutor continue on?

We all know the answer to that question, don't we? What is so nasty and stinky about this whole thing is that many on the left realize all of this to be true, and that what happened was not exactly right, yet they still approved. They are so full of hatred, that they are willing to allow a special prosecutor to go on a fishing expedition in order to send somebody, anybody to jail. Libby's trial and conviction was nothing but political theater. It never should have happened.

Ironically, the President's Justice Department allowed Sandy Bergler to get off with a slap on the wrist for stuffing classified documents in his britches. Bergler is a Clinton guy and Libby is supposedly a Bush guy. Weird. He sells out his own and lets an opponent get off Scott free.

Amidst all of the statements today, they are still telling the same lies over and over again.

First, President Bush said any person who leaked would no longer work in his administration. Nonetheless, Scooter Libby didn't leave office until he was indicted and Karl Rove works in the White House even today. - Melanie Sloan, lawyer for Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson

She knows that neither Libby nor Rove leaked anything and she knows that her client was not covert as defined in the statute. Still though, she suffers from diarrhea of the mouth.

Until now, it appeared that the President merely turned a blind eye to a high ranking Administration official leaking classified information. The President's action today makes it clear that he condones such activity.- John Conyers

Another liar. Conyers knows that Libby did not leak classified information, but he realizes that the media will not challenge him. If Conyers really cared about classified information being leaked, he would call for the arrest of fellow Democrat Patrick "Leaky" Leahy.

The President's decision to commute Mr. Libby's sentence is disgraceful. Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq War.- Harry Reid

Speaking of diarrhea of the mouth. This guy ought to be diagnosed with oral IBS. Reid and everybody else in Washington knows that Joe Wilson was the real liar. Is there suddenly something wrong with discrediting a liar. If the liar is on your side, I guess there is.

The sad fact is that the general public mostly believes these lies. Like I said earlier, the media refuses to challenge these habitual liars. I wonder if any of them remember the Mark Rich pardon. Oh but that was different. Right.

Cats Are Liberals

Nothing exemplifies the welfare state better than the life of the average cat. My cats Rolo and Harpeth are perfect examples. Their food and water bowls are always full. They come and go as they please, sometimes staying out all night doing God knows what. They are incredibly ungrateful, sometimes sharpening their claws on the furniture and laying in the laundry basket. They have everything they need, yet they still whine and moan as if they are entitled to more. When they get in fights or become sick, they receive free health care. They never take responsibility for any of their behavior. They have an entitlement mentality, passed down from generation to generation. They refuse to work and they lay around all day.

Now I realize that all liberals aren't cats. Some liberals are idealistic and hard working. They are the ones who enable the manipulative felines.

Wait a minute, does that make me a liberal? Aaagh!

Nativist, Xenophobic, Or How To Argue Against Enforcement of Immigration Laws

Racism, xenophobia, and nativism. If you are a left winger and looking to enter any discussion about illegal immigration, be sure to arm yourselves with those words. They offer you your best chance of victory. Never ever try to argue on an intellectual basis. Forget about the message. Just gun for the messenger. If you do this, victory is yours, regardless of how wrong you are.

I really don't understand the cynicism that people like S-Town Mike have toward their neighbors. Do Mike and his friends, like commenter Ginger, really believe that every one who opposes illegal immigration is a hate filled racist? If they do believe that, no wonder they are so angry.

After hearing this story yesterday, I reacted like most people. A very bright young student, a track star at TSU, and a future law school student, was killed yesterday by a drunk driver. That alone is enough to leave you bothered. Every life is valuable regardless of one's potential, but it especially hurts when an all American girl like this has her life cut short. Maybe we are wrong to seemingly put more value on this young lady's life than others. I don't know, but that's not the point. The point is, a young person was killed by a drunk driver.

Not only though was she killed by a drunk driver, she was killed by a drunk driver who was in this country illegally. But wait, it gets worse. Not only was this guy in this country illegally, but he was arrested four other times for various crimes, including car burglary and public intoxication. That's four times that this man was in the custody of law enforcement without being sent home.

I don't know what sources Mike uses to make his judgments about conservatives, but his immediate assumption that racism has fueled this discussion is just plain wrong. Are people angry and upset? Yes they are, but I haven't seen any protesters walking up and down Nolensville Pike wearing sheets and hoods. No the anger that most Americans feel today, is not aimed at the illegal aliens themselves.

The anger that most Americans feel today, is squarely aimed at the government. Americans don't hate Mexicans. Most Americans probably understand the reasons why illegals come here. As far as the government is concerned though, the average American feels betrayed. They feel like their President, their Senators and Congressmen, their governor, and their state legislators do not care about them nor listen to them. The public has grown increasingly cynical because they lobbied hard to have a fence built, and it has barely been started. The President that they helped elect, has resorted to calling them names, the same names used by lefties like S-Town Mike. When private citizens took time out of their lives to go down to the border and do a job that the government should have been doing, the President even called them "vigilantes". That kind of stuff has left the public angry and they have a right to be angry. When the average American looks at our government, he sees a collection of men and women who pander to special interest groups, rather than the public they are supposed to represent. Some of those groups even represent people that are in this country illegally.

Personally, I am pretty liberal on immigration. I believe we should change our laws to make it easier for people to come here. I also believe we should spend whatever amount it takes to build a fence along the southern border. As far as amnesty is concerned, I don't really care. But before we even start talking about granting anybody amnesty, we need to erect that fence. After we build that fence, then we can talk about amnesty. What is the point in having laws if you are not going to enforce them? The cynical side of me believes that laws passed by Congress merely amount to lip service. They calm the masses for a little bit, while not really amounting to anything. That's why I haven't paid much attention to the immigration bill debate. It just seems like business as usual.

I don't have much else to say about this subject, except that I am tired of seeing descent people labeled racist and xenophobic. That just isn't right and it is far from the truth.

Recovering Southerner Syndrome

Dinesh D'souza on Mike Nifong and the Duke professors.

Nifong seems to be suffering from Recovering Southerner Syndrome. This is the ailment, first named on this blog, in which Southerners feel so guilty about slavery and segregation that they perform undignified backward somersaults to prove that they are "not really Southern." When they encounter something Southern--like white Southern frat boys at a party--their mind immediately conjures up images of segregated water fountains and they draw their swords and go into Crusader Against Racism mode. Viewed in this way, Nifong saw himself as a kind of white knight slaying the dragons of Southern bigotry. Nifong was not alone in this: dozens of Duke professors reacted to the incident in exactly the same way.

It's like this. You will never ever see me treating black people "differently". Not better, not worse. If you really care about black people and believe that we are all created equal, then treat them the same way you treat white people. Let me warn you though. If you do, there is a good chance you will be labeled a racist.

Reagan and the Wall

Yesterday was the anniversary of Reagan's Berlin Wall speech where he famously said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Of course if you listen to the revisionists, Reagan had nothing to do with the wall coming down or the Soviet Union falling to pieces. No, he merely just happened to be at the right place at the right time. To them, Gorbachev was the hero. Yes the communist who tried to save communism and the loser of the Cold War is the one they admire, not Reagan, not Thatcher.

Lech Walesa knows the truth about Reagan though.

When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty.

As do many.

When liberals talk about human rights, they often mention protesters and even a little peanut farmer from Georgia who used to talk about the subject, while never really doing anything. But no man has ever done more for human rights and liberty than Ronald Reagan. He didn't protest. He confronted evil and demanded change. Yet, the so called human rights crowd hated him. Weird.

The Dirty Word "Profit"

John Stossel is spot on as usual. He asks:

When did profit become a dirty word?"

I wish the oil executives would face the media. They could say something like:

"What are you complaining about? What do you think we do with our profits? Buy fancy cars and homes? Well, we do, actually, but nearly all the money goes to looking for more oil and following environmental rules that you want us to follow. You should want us to make more profit. Anyway, we make less profit per gallon than your beloved government takes in taxes."

Envy, which happens to be one of the seven deadlies, is what drives American populism. I have a question for all of you economic populists that often complain about the gap between the rich and poor. If you make a rich man less rich, what does it gain the poor man? The answer is nothing. Milton Friedman once said, "Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another."

Left wing populism my friend, is the very definition of an economic fallacy. It doesn't make sense, but then again it doesn't have to. All it has to do is make people angry and envious, so that when they vote, they will vote Democrat.

Would You Liberals Please Stop Calling Bush A Conservative

It is really getting old. It seems like that every time I or anybody else writes something about the philosophy of conservatism, or right libertarianism, someone from the left enters into the argument by telling us how much George Bush sucks. Even though I and others have repeated this a million times, I will go ahead and do it again, GEORGE BUSH IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE. If you have a brain, perform a Google search and find out how conservatives define conservatism and compare it to the way that George Bush has governed. Better yet, read some conservative writers and even listen to some talk radio (skip Hannity, he is an idiot). You will find that, not even Rush Limbaugh considers George Bush to be a conservative.

I realize that it is a lot easier for you to just throw in "George Bush sucks" to every philosophical discussion, but by doing so you are revealing yourself to be an idiot. Perhaps you are okay with that. It sure seems like it.

Heaven Forbid, A Business Is Making Money

Populist anti-oil company post of the day:

First of all, there’s nothing “free” about this market: the world runs on oil. There’s no other alternative. We all have to use it, like it or not. Even if you bike to work. Even if you have a wood stove. Unless you’re a hermit that lives like Jeremiah Johnson, you’re as much a part of the oil economy as everyone else, and you need oil.

Oil companies also control every aspect of their product’s production and distribution, from the drilling to the refining to the price at the gas station. There’s little room for the “free hand of the market” to work in a commodity monopoly.

So if you’re pissed off about the price of gasoline, there’s really very little you can do about it.

Oil companies are the only businesses that ever get criticized for making money. When they were losing money, like they did when the price of oil was low, nobody cared. But now that they are making money, everybody freaks. I don't get it. Energy is the most heavily regulated industry in the country. The very people who stir up populism against the oil industry also happen to be the very people who push for more regulation of it. They also are the very people who have prevented a refinery from being built in the last 25 years. They also are the very people who have successfully prevented increased oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and the Rockies. They also are the very people who oppose nuclear power plants. Not only that, but they also are the very people, who believing in man made global warming, actually cheer high gas prices because they think it might lead to less demand. Then they turn around and stir up populist rabble against the oil companies. To make matters worse, the common man buys that nonsense.

Think about what the blogger is saying in her post. "Oil companies also control every aspect of their product’s production and distribution, from the drilling to the refining to the price at the gas station." So in other words, oil companies spend millions of dollars drilling for oil, and operating refineries that convert it into gasoline. Since they invest the money and take the risk, should they not receive a profit?

Government spends nothing. Government takes no risk. Yet government gets 38 cents for every gallon of gas sold by oil companies.

She also says "First of all, there’s nothing “free” about this market: the world runs on oil. There’s no other alternative." First of all, that is not true. There wasn't any oil in the 18th century and people still survived. But I will go along with her and agree that the free world would not enjoy the standard of living that we have today if not for oil. You might say that oil is the fuel of a free society. Knowing that, why do we hate the people who deliver this precious commodity? What if they just decided to stop supplying this need? What would we do then?

Over the last ten years, the economies of China and India have blossomed. The United States has also prospered. As a result, demand for oil and gasoline has increased tremendously. Like I said earlier though, our government has not allowed the oil companies to do anything to support the supply side of this equation.

Gas is much higher than it was last year and yet Memorial Day travel actually increased. Still some of us expect prices to go down. There is no such thing as a business that lowers the cost when supply is low and demand is high. There never has been.

We are living in the most prosperous time that this country has ever seen. I don't like high gas prices anymore than the next guy, but before I ever start complaining, I will probably begin cutting back on things like that super cable package and eating out a couple of times a week.

People stop bitching. If you don't want to pay high gas prices, drive less or buy a small car. Get over it.

Larry Flynt and the Loving Preacher

Larry Flynt has written an incredibly interesting article with the heading "My Friend, Jerry Falwell". He discusses Dr. Falwell's lawsuit with Flynt and how the Supreme Court had correctly ruled in his favor. I am not really an expert on that case. In fact, I am not an expert on any case, being that I am not a lawyer. But I will say that regardless of how offensive Flynt's parody was, I am really proud that our Supreme Court put the Constitution ahead of personal feelings. Falwell had a lot of bad moments, but that suit was one of the worst. Sometimes it is better to let things go and to think about how awesome it is to live in a country where people are still allowed to express themselves freely.

Flynt's article paints a picture of Falwell that I have always believed to be true. I have always thought that the public persona and the man were two different people. I don't think Falwell ever hated anybody. Believing that homosexuality and pornography is sin, doesn't mean that you hate gays and pornographers. Obviously, he didn't hate Flynt. Obviously, he loved him.

I really don't understand why people think it is healthy to hate people that they "consider" to be hateful. Do you think that you are hurting the people that you are hating? No, you are only hurting yourself with that poison. You are only making yourself miserable. Last week, when Falwell died, I abstained from shaming the people who said nasty things about Dr. Falwell. If anything, I felt compassion for them. To have that much hate inside must be a miserable existence.

God bless 'em.