Sign of the times

Sometimes, you just have to chuckle.

We can't all just get along. Why?

I have two of the nicest dogs around. Both of them have lived their lives in the presence of cats and the fabled irreconcilable differences between the canines and the felines is anything but a fine line in the sand.

In recent months there has been a parade of foster kittens and their moms marching through our house. There is more in species fighting amongst the cats than inter-species conflicts involving the wet nosed crotch sniffers. That is not to say that there aren't flare ups.

As the kittens get more bold they begin to expand their roaming into areas often occupied by a sleeping, and much larger, dog. To say that the 50-60 pound barker could dispatch of a still wobbly pound and a half meower faster than 9 six-week long lives could pass before their eyes probably goes without saying. Yet interestingly, the two dogs have different levels of aggravation with the little future fur ball hurlers.

One dog, immediately upon seeing a kitten approach whatever area of floor he has most recently claimed as his sleeping quarters, growls in the low guttural way that states further trespass will be met with retribution that is swift, painful and complete. It isn't long until he is given a wide berth during all exploratory ventures.

The other dog tends to be more forgiving. He tries to get along a bit more. Of course, the very nature of a kitten is to experiment how to kill anything it encounters and it isn't long until the dog's tail or ear becomes a sacrifice to learning the way of the hunt.

What, you are probably asking, does any of this have to do with issues relevant enough to be placed into a soon to be highly read, award winning and often quoted blog such as No Mato Mi Pavo? Allow me to bring this post full circle with a close so perfectly fitting Jessica Simpson could only hope to have a tailor so skilled.

The different approaches of the dogs, and the reactions they receive, reflect well the approaches to the war on terror and the Axis Of Evil by former President George W Bush and the current and already deemed best ever President Barak Obama; two men breeds apart in this effort. The first ever African American President Obama went on Arab television to show he is open to talk. In the campaign it was stated Obama would meet with "no pre-existing conditions" with the nut in charge of Iran. During his inaugural address, The ONE said he was willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".

George W. Bush was less conciliatory.

Iran, of course, is the kitten in this cast of four legged characters. These pussies are hell bent on killing the non-believer and Achmawhackjob, their leader, has openly expressed his desire to hasten the return of the 12th Iman. While the United States was growling and it was clear we had a bite to back up our bark, Iran kept its claws retracked, for the most part.

The recent extension of a paw of discussion by our understanding leader was scratched at so fast as to make our collective tails spin. Animals understand there is a heirarchy in the world and that the strong does, in fact, hold dominion over the weak. If our Alpha dog continues to capitulate the superior power of our country to a country led by a man hell bent on our destruction the "dog house" of our current economic situation will be the least of our problems requiring burying in the backyard.

My patience for this patient's treatment is wearing thin

Is there a doctor in the house? Not a medical doctor but an economic one. One that isn't involved in politics would be preferred as it seems the current crop of economic advisers, specialists and bald headed witch doctors are killing their patient: the United States Economy!

Chief resident Paulson recently announced the patient has stabilized but he's been woefully wrong in his diagnosis before and his suggested method of treatment seems to change weekly. There are still several cancerous tumors growing and I'm afraid the treatment will be worse than this insidious disease.

I know several cancer survivors and recently saw a friend who is undergoing chemotherapy at a mutual friend's wedding. She looked like someone in the battle of her life for her life. Her prognosis, thank God, is good but to judge solely on how she looks you'd think there was no chance.

The entire scope of my medical knowledge was acquired peeking through the slot in the drapes at the cute lady patient next to me in the hospital when I had surgery on my Achilles tendon a few years ago. That stated, it is my extremely simplistic understanding that the theory behind chemotherapy is that it basically kills the patient while killing the cancer. The hope is the cancer dies first. A guy who claimed to be a doctor at the bar last night said that surgery to remove a cancerous tumor is always preferred to this radical solution but, once the cancer has spread so far, there is no other option. I guess it would be somewhat of a malpractice to start with chemo as a first choice.

Right now we've an infirmed capitalist system in our country. Several large tumors have appeared. The treatments the brain surgeons in our government have come up with are more akin to chemotherapy than surgery. By George "what the hell am I thinking" Bush's own admission, he has sacrificed free-market principles in order to save the economy. I refer those of you with public school educations to the preceding paragraph and ask, "Isn't this killing the free-market in an effort to save it?"

Unfortunately, the large tumors of the financial and auto industries are masking an even bigger cancer; big government and the socialist wannabees who are coming to power. They see the chemo of increased spending and government control of the markets as a long term medicine and, once we've been exposed to that virus, the cure is a difficult prescription to fill.

I'm not a licensed doctor but I did stay at Holiday Inn Express last night and I suggest starving the cancer (the economical equivalence of an operation) by letting it fend for itself. There is every chance these industries will cure themselves. Too radical an approach will not save them, it will only delay their inevitable demise.

For those of you unconvinced, I offer the words of someone who, like most people, is a lot smarter than me. I implore you, take seven minutes and watch this. It is very informative and reinforces my opinion that my college admitted socialist Macro Economics professor was full of crap.

It's my party and I'll whine if i want to

Is it me or does the media following the current holder of the Office of President-elect around remind you of those Verizon commercials with that crowd of people always showing up? Yep, they are a group of sycophants sharing a collective vision for our country.

It will only get worse come the inauguration. The January 20th party, in addition to being the start of the recovery, is on track to be one hell of a partaayyy. In recent weeks the media has held details of the expenditures closer to the vest than a paranoid internet poker player who covers his monitor “just in case”. I guess the fourth estate is gambling nobody will notice their hypocrisy in how they are covering BHO’s big bash versus how they covered GWB’s. What a difference four years can make in attitude.

Bars are being allowed to stay open all night, they are looking for parking for 10,000 charter buses and hotels are booked as far away as Philadelphia. 1300 groups have applied to march. Wow. It is exciting to see this enthusiasm and could be easy to get caught up in. But where is the questioning of the appropriateness of these expenses like there was when Dubya was holding his soiree? I guess since the media is smack dab in the center of this party with lampshades on their heads, they don’t realize how loud it has gotten. In fact, they can't wait for it to get started!

Websites on the left that I refuse to mention per chance you’d go there and give them the traffic are celebrating that their tickets have arrived for the inaugural ball. These same sites had posts lamenting how many spotted owls could have been saved or tsunamis prevented for the millions spent on Bush’s party. I actually agree that these inaugurations have become far too extravagant. But I am not going to start bitching about it now just because my guy lost.

When Ronald “please let there be such a thing a reincarnation” Reagan took the oath of office in 1981 he stated "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem."

I am afraid our problems are just starting. Party on!

S2

Stop them if you've heard this before

**Updated: See end of post**

There’s that old saying that goes something like “those who don’t learn from history are destined to go in to politics”. The problem with history is that, the way it is taught in most schoolrooms, it is so boring as to make a student look forward to English class. Another problem is that as time goes by there seems to be more of it to learn.

There is another saying that says “history belongs to the victors”. The very idea that history may not actually be historically accurate is disturbing but we can talk about that another time. For now I am going to hold to the fact that Greta Garbo, Betty Grable and Audrey Hepburn were in fact hot.

As just announced by The One, come January our country is going to be bellying up to the political poker table for a round of new “New Deal” gambles that will make the old New Deal look like an office football pool. For decades, we’ve been taught that the New Deal brought us out of recession and put the United States on a winning streak. The truth may be that just the opposite happened. The New Deal prolonged the depression. I guess time does change everything. Where is a good history teacher when you need one?

Sometimes people fail to see the lessons in more recent history. San Francisco is scenic, vibrant and full of wackos. If there is a far left, anti-capitalist, hate George W. Bush position to be found, it will be found in the city by the bay and with enough people behind it to put it to a public ballot. In addition to being home to not so family friendly events like the Folsom Street Fair and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Parade, the city where so many bleeding hearts have been left is full of bath houses, porno shops, massage parlors and is a place where the homeless have voice mail.

The tolerant in this town recently tried to legalize prostitution. They’ve already got gambling and decriminalized marijuana; why not go for the trifecta of vices? San Francisco wants to be a liberal nirvana where social injustice is as non-existent as the JROTC and conservative ideas are as popular as the decommissioned vessels that were responsible for keeping the freedoms that enable them to be this stupid.

All San Francisco needs to do is to look at how successful these policies have been elsewhere to see how wise they are being. How about Amsterdam? The similarities between the hedonistic city where they speak Dutch and the hedonistic city where gay couples often go Dutch are amazing. One problem though, Amsterdam has learned its lesson and is turning away from these activities while San Fran is on a trolley car of progressive ideals barreling toward them.

Thankfully there remain enough voters willing to stand guard at the Golden Gate of rational thinking to defeat many of the more radical propositions, but as New Deals are re-struck and the pendulum shifts further to the left, history may once again repeat itself.

Another example of not looking at recent history when making choices was left out of this post because I ran out of beer. Look here and here and draw your own conclusions.

Someday he will be a real boy.

In a short meeting with congressional leaders, soon to be former President George W. Bush sees Democratic "growth" in it's truest form.



If only Mr. Reid had a cricket to guide him.