Hair today, gone tomorrow

What a great country. I am writing this while traveling down the interstate at 85 miles an hour (Ed note: I am not driving) with the sun setting over the beautiful mountains to the west. My Verizon wireless card is enabling me to work (yes, I am swamped trying to complete a huge project) in to the evening without sacrificing on a scheduled climbing trip to southern Utah.

Mrs. Bald Man just informed me we will be stopping at a McDonalds to fill our ever expanding American bellies with fatty food served in land fill filling Styrofoam containers.

There is American brewed beer chilling in the cooler and those caps will be popped within minutes of arriving at our campsite. Life is good.

So what does a follicle challenged knee jerk conservative have to complain about? Perhaps it is the possibility of this great country being forever changed in a way that, just a few short decades ago, was considered impossible. Yeah, that seems knee jerky enough to warrant a few lines of text.

Much has been written, including on this blog, about our march to Socialism. I agree with recent pronouncements by Thomas Sowell that the march is to Fascism but who am I to split hairs when it comes to our parting ways with our country's capitalist roots. No matter how you style it, the future seems to be one that would turn the heads of our founding fathers prematurely gray under those wigs they were so fond of wearing.

It isn't just those of us on the right who see this. I've been combing through papers and websites that approach politics from the other side of the spectrum and there too comments are appearing regarding our move from a free market society. Of course, in many of these articles, the move is heralded as a good thing.

Even sources within our former top foe Russia acknowledge America is in a transitional stage. Read this from American Language Pravda and prepare yourself to be a little bit sickened in the realization the socialist press overseas is willing to report what the socialist press here in our own country refuses to.

S2

You won't be driving the road to socialism in a Chrysler

The following was forwarded to me by a co-worker. This dealership was a customer of my company's. We will be removing our equipment from them tomorrow.

Letter from a Dodge dealer

letter to the editor (Ed. No mention of the original paper was made)

My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.

We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.

I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.

On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.

Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.

HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?

THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY

This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.

This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.

HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.

Sincerely,

George C. Joseph
President & Owner
Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu

If you remember a few short months ago when I "hinted" at the possibility of eroding freedoms and a move toward, not a socialist, a facist state you will see I am not completely nuts. News this morning is that the United States Government will soon be, for all intents and purposes, running General Motors.

Time to go lay flowers on the grave of Free Market Capitalism.

S2

This statement is more than the sum of its parse

Way back in the 1980's the group Missing Persons had a quasi hit song called "Words". One of the lines in the refrain was "What are words for, if no one listens anyway." Looking back on the video today I am somewhat embarrassed to admit this was (actually still is) one of my favorite songs. It has also been playing in my mind quite a lot since the coronation of Barack Obama.

So much is made of the oratory skills of The ONE that I've made it a point to listen carefully to him every time he speaks. Sure, the majority of the time he is simply reading from his teleprompter but, on occasion, actual audio leaks of him speaking as extemporaneously as any President ever speaks. It is during these times the real Barack "above my pay grade to decide when Life begins" Obama is revealed.

The other day a New York Times reporter, in an interview on Air Force one, asked the First African American President of the United States if he was a socialist. Obama sort of laughed off the question but it must have left an impression. So much so that the President made it a point to call the reporter to clarify a few things.

Here is a portion of the audio from that Oval Office call and my painstakingly crafted transcription of it:

"...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."

"Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."

The New York Times asked, "So whose watch are we talking about here sir?" but Obama wouldn't name names.

"Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it. I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system. uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."

He concluded the brief call by saying, "I think that covers it."

-----End Transcription and resume scintillating commentary-----

That call may have covered it but it didn't answer it! Like learning what the meaning of "Is" is, often more is revealed in what isn't said than in what words are used. Let's look, just like the President said he would do at the budget in search of earmarks, line by line at uh the uh eloquence of The ONE and see if we can ascertain the meaning behind the uhs and the points he is trying to make.

Obama: "...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."

Bald One: Right off the bat, the President needs to demonstrate his manliness while simultaneously establishing his authority by citing he rides in a "copter" to and from the corner grocery and not in a Prius like most reporters for the New York Times. He also finds it surprising, not that he was thought of as being a socialist but, that someone from his sycophantic media actually asked him the question out loud and on the record.

Obama: "Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch."

Bald One: Citing this as evidence that he isn't a socialist is akin to telling the nice Officer, after blowing a 0.08 on the breathalyzer, that you are aren't drunk because your buddy who's passed out in the back seat started drinking first. The ONE didn't start the bank bailouts but he and his tax evading Treasury Secretary sure aren't changing the strategy much.

Obama: "And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding."

Bald One: No, it was on his watch that a Trillion dollar stimulus package was passed, uh, without a source of funding. And now a nearly half trillion dollar spending package with close to 9,000 earmarks in it is about to pass and will be signed by him.

Obama: "Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."

Bald One: If by free market principles he means fascist control of banks and laying the groundwork for a socialist take over of our health care system and a Marxist redistribution of wealth through confiscatory taxation I don't disagree with anything he said there. Even former socialist country leaders think he is on the wrong path. So does the leader of my next homeland.

Obama: "Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it."

Bald Man: The best "infusion" of "taxpayer" money in to any financial system would be to allow the taxpayer to keep a bit more of his or her hard earned money to infuse when and where he or she sees fit and let real free market principles work. But basically the main point to take away from this sentence is that the President is wrong. I, and millions like me, would be far happier if he stayed out of it.

Obama: I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system."

Bald One: He has plenty to do with a White House party night every Wednesday and attending every festivity that is a Copter flight away from the nearest runway large enough to land Air Force One. Is it any wonder he was "too tired" to properly receive the British Prime Minister last week?

Obama: uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."

Bald One: Actually the fact that he has taken these particular measures and ignored free market/capitalist solutions to these "extraordinary" measures is truly an indication of his ideological preference. Combine these actions with his rabid support of Card Check for Unions, disregard for the lives of the innocent in his support of the Freedom of Choice Act and reversal of Bush's Stem Cell Research ban and his effort of having government encroach in to virtually every aspect of a United States (and soon the World's) citizen's life and he reinforces his "ideological preference. I would mention his affiliation with Reverend "God Damn Amerikka" Wright and William "let me stand on this flag and blow up this building over here" Ayers but it seems these are being scrubbed from the public record.

Obama: "I think that covers it."

Bald One: This doesn't begin to cover it. It was true in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan said "Government is not the solution, it is the problem" (slightly paraphrased) and it is true today; Words mean things.

If Nancy Pelosi and her ilk in Congress have their way, soon the words of many free thinking Americans will be stifled under the latest incarnation of the Fairness Doctrine. We might lose our right to question out loud whether the President is a socialist. He is already rallying his Hitler Youth like base via the internet as the campaign has begun. Those on the left continue to call Republicans Nazi's without consequence and our public officials are becoming more and more arrogant.

The author of the Audacity of Hope who exhibits the arrogance of victory has nothing on these two:












I'd like to have a word or two with them sometime.

S2

There is no time like the present to lament the future.

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."--Franklin D. Roosevelt

Quotes like this from FDR scare me more than the prospect of the TV Remote batteries dying while the set is tuned to PBS during a Teletubbies marathon and make me think the Home School crowd, in addition to producing the smartest kids in the room, represent the smartest parents in the country. In the sixties, public education became the last vestige for radical communists and Weather Underground terrorists and their influence on each subsequent generation is becoming more evident and is gaining speed as indoctrination supplants core curriculum in students' daily schedule. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic are being pushed aside like a skinny kid at an Ice Cream truck to make room for Diversity Training, Green studies and playing games where no score is kept.

A perfect example of this comes in the form of a book of letters written by children to Barack Obama being sold by McSweeney's. The letter writers were students at non-pprofit literacy center in, where else, San Francisco. A chill went up my spine reading editor Jory John's comment regarding the students reaction to November's election results: "They'd only known one president all their lives, and he didn't look like them. But when Obama won, it was like Christmas had been declared a permanent state of being." If The ONE's spending and giveaway programs are any indication, the comparison to Santa isn't that far off.

In itself, encouraging young minds full of mush to express themselves to the leader of the country is not a bad thing. I just don't recall much of this happening while George Bush was president. In fact, I remember stories about teachers having students write letters of protest to GW and giving poor grades to patriotic kids who dared be supportive of "that" president. There was an assignment having students renounce their citizenship. And, of course, there were stories of letters from students asking Bush to "stop violating human rights" and protesting the Iraq War.

To say the tenor has changed in the chorus of voices speaking about the presidency in our schools is as understated as an Obama cabinet nominee's taxable income.

For all the arrogance I ascribe to The ONE, it does seem he is taking to heart some of the words written by these kids. Before you read the excerpted letters, keep in mind how much influence your child's teachers have on them and their opinions regarding everything from sexual mores to the role of big government in their everyday lives.

Josef Stalin summed up the opinions of those who seek to indoctrinate: "Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed."

Before you send junior off to the school bus, keep in mind these words: "Our children are our only hope for the future, but we are their only hope for their present and their future."--Zig Ziglar

Dear President Obama,

I know you want to save the earth, but people don't want to clean. My life is to clean up all the world and help you to clean. I always dream of cleaning the world with you. I'll do anything for you because you are the president in this world.

Stephanie Gonzalez, age 7
Los Angeles

Dear Obama family,

When you move into the White House, turn on the heater so it won't be cold. You could also take hot baths in your new antique bathtubs. Or you could make hot tea and coffee. When I moved to a new house, I helped my dad. He took apart a chair and I carried pieces of it. If I were your helper when you move in, I could move everything! Have a nice day being the first family.

Nazrawit Dessie, age 7
Seattle

Dear President Obama,

If I want anybody to be president, it's me. I would clean the streets and give myself more money. I would also give everybody a piece of a Reese's candy. Every homeless guy or girl would get $50 for help and a place to sleep for the winter. My family and other families would get free gas for our cars; single people with no kids would have to pay. The money would come from copying other bills. The $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills would be copied one thousand times.

The paper would not come from trees but from hardened glue. The way to make it is by mixing water and glue together so that it looks like paper. You then put it in a fire, then let it cool in the freezer.

Weslie Jackson, age 12
Chicago

Dear President Obama,

I am 10 years old. I am a nice girl and I like to write. I wish you could be the first president of all the world. Obama, when I went trick-or-treating on Halloween, people were giving me candy and telling me to vote for you. Obama, I think it will be better if you tell the people that sell TVs, and all those things, to sell them for a lower price, because my mom and my dad are not working and not getting a lot of money. I want people that are not in a house and don't work to get something for Christmas. Obama, if I were president, I would change a lot of things in this world.

Paulina Rojas, age 10
Los Angeles

Dear President Obama,

Be a good president. I voted for you because you are nicer than the others. Me and my family think you are more helpful than McCain. Obama, if I were a president, I would copy the same things you are doing, because you are helping people who are from Mexico. Good luck, President Obama, on being a president. I am happy you are the new president. Obama, my sister is intelligent and so am I. I like to play my Nintendo DS. We are working hard for you. You are more intelligent than the others.

Sincerely,

Citlali Mora, age 9
Los Angeles


Dear Barack Obama,

I have a great idea for you: you should set up a special phone, a special place just for kids to call the president if they find things that are dangerous and can affect people, like someone smoking. This would be a special place for kids to talk to Barack Obama and let him know what's going on.

Another important thing that I want to talk to you about is cars and buses. There is a bus called the Galactic Wizard which runs on biofuel or vegetable oil. I think, instead of polluting the environment, scientists should work on those buses. You should make it so that everyone turns off any light whenever they are not in the room—that way we can save the environment and also pay less on our electricity. We can't just use up the environment until we have nothing, or we will starve to death. Nobody wants that, do they? I want to tell you, Barack Obama, if one day I could travel around the world and help people, I would definitely do it.

Dhamaril Nunez, age 9
Boston

Dear Barack Obama,

Congrats on becoming the president of the United States and slaughtering John McCain. I think that, unlike W., you should dodge other countries and not shoes. You should not be so quick to go to war and negotiate with terrorists. I like what you said about bringing the troops home from Iraq.

If you like my letter, know that it's from

D'andre "the King" Legrand, age 12
Brooklyn

Dear President Obama,

I want to tell you hi. Do you work with Santa Claus? Can I meet you in your house? Can I say bye to you after I meet you? And then can I meet you again? And then again after that?

Sergio Magana, age 5
San Francisco

"If I were president, I would help all nations, even Hawaii."
— Chad Timsing, age 9, Los Angeles

"I really hope you put America back together. No pressure though."
— Sheenie Shannon Yip, age 13, Seattle

Reasons 343 through 353 to not have children

It is no secret that Mrs. Bald Man and I prefer spending our time tending to four legged little ones than their two legged, drooling, diaper soiling human counterparts. In our house the pitter patter of little feet is instead the clickity clack of paws when we are remiss in clipping the dogs nails and late night cry fests are replaced with the occasional bark to be let in or a whine to go out from the dogs. The cats bitch about everything but they aren't too loud when they do it.

Knowing this, you'll realize my call to arms tonight is more self-serving than altruistic but I beseech you breeders out there to keep reading for this is important and has ramifications well beyond concern for the blood pressure of your humble follicly challenged author. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, often referred to as CRC or UNCRC, is an international convention setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature on 20 November 1989 and as of last December 193 countries of fertile loins and less fertile savvy ratified the convention and are now bound by it. As was bemoaned by the soon to be First African American President of the United States on the campaign trail last year, this count of countries includes every member nation of the United Nations with the exception of the United States and Somalia.

I can't comment on why the Somali warlords haven't taken a break from training the prepubescents in their country to fire RPGs at Black Hawk helicopters to hunt for a pen and scratch their illiterate X on the dotted line of the CRC but I am imagining the optional protocols banning the involvement of children in military conflicts, and the second one prohibiting the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography may be giving Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his ilk pause. So that leaves just the good ole U S of About to be socialists left to pony up and make the world safe for children to eat ice cream and ride ponies.

You contributors to global overpopulation are probably at this very moment looking at your progeny wondering what is wrong with our country that it is not immediately jumping on the little red bandwagon that is the CRC so that we too can ensure this country, like the rest of the civilized world, is one big happy sandbox for the diapers and short pants crowd. Numerous Churches, from the American Baptists to the United Methodists support it as does nearly every liberal "every child is a wanted child" group. Picture that same chocolate covered urchin front toothlessly smiling up at you now as a self-serving unrestrained power hungry tween running roughshod over you in a Lord of the Flies like coup after you insist he do his homework in order to have the car on Saturday night. If you think it is hard to make Junior brush his teeth, take a bath and not paint the dog blue to match his recently painted sister now, it will be damn near impossible if the CRC is ratified.

Once ratified, the CRC would be an international treaty that, albeit arguably, would supersede our domestic constitution and would make parental rights the purview of an international court. That is not the drunken rambling of an empty nester. Yes, I have been drinking but only to sooth the dull pain in my head that arose reading the entire CRC while listening to heavy footed ankle biters in the hotel room above me running to and fro and fro and to and back to fro once again.

The obviously socially inept home schooling types have somehow banded together to educate the masses who don't happen to live with them on this bill and they point out that in Missouri v. Holland, (252 U.S. 416), the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the Supremacy Clause a treaty made by the President, with concurrence of two-thirds of the Senate present at the time of voting, would become the supreme law and take precedent over contrary state laws. Thus, the U.N. Convention would constitute legally binding law in all 50 states.

Ten things you need to know about the substance of the CRC.

1. Parents would no longer be able to administer reasonable spankings to their children.
2. A murderer aged 17 years, 11 months and 29 days at the time of his crime could no longer be sentenced to life in prison.
3. Children would have the ability to choose their own religion while parents would only have the authority to give their children advice about religion.
4. The best interest of the child principle would give the government the ability to override every decision made by every parent if a government worker disagreed with the parent’s decision.
5. A child’s “right to be heard” would allow him (or her) to seek governmental review of every parental decision with which the child disagreed.
6. According to existing interpretation, it would be illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children’s welfare.
7. Children would acquire a legally enforceable right to leisure.
8. Teaching children about Christianity in schools has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
9. Allowing parents to opt their children out of sex education has been held to be out of compliance with the CRC.
10. Children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions, without parental knowledge or consent.

As if that isn't enough, how about this:

Article 7: In order to insure State and U.N. control over their development, all children must be immediately registered after birth.

Article 15: This article declares "the right of the child to l freedom of association." If this measure were to be taken seriously, parents could be prevented from forbidding their child to associate with people deemed to be objectionable companions. Under Article 15, children could claim a "fundamental" right to join gangs, cults, and racist organizations over parental objection. Parental rights and responsibilities are unmentioned.

Article 29: It is the goal of the State to direct the education of the people it governs toward the philosophy of the New World Order as "enshrined in the charter of the United Nations." Each child must be prepared to be a responsible citizen by having "the spirit of understanding, peace, toleration, equity of sexes, and friendship [for] all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups of indigenous origin," including, presumably, cultic, anti-Christian religions, and those regimes which embody authoritarianism and intolerance.

Article 43: An international committee of 10 "experts" is to be established to oversee the progress of the implementation of the Treaty.

If you are brave enough, there is even more here.

When I first found reference to this convention online I figured it could never happen here. In fact it took an hour of searching to find postings and articles opposing it. Recent actions by our newly elected leaders and the perennial governing class in the Congress are making me think this is right on course for the direction our country is heading. Nationalization, or whatever Harry Reid wants to call it, of our banking system is soon to come as are more restrictions on gun ownership. Why would the taking of parental rights and giving them to the Village Hillary says it takes be out of lock step for this crowd. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer has asked that this convention come to the floor of the Senate within sixty days as she feels the CRC would protect "the most vulnerable people of society." Of course in Boxer's world the most vulnerable are on their own from conception until they push their way in to the world. Once out, then we can worry about them.

The Family Research Council is warning that the man about to be named number two in the Justice Department is fully on-board with the CRC and the President will surely sign it once it reaches his desk and he is off the campaign trail where he is signing more spending packages.

There are groups trying to fight this travesty and they put forth excellent arguments. They even take the time to refute those challenging them. I suggest you lock the kids in a room in front of a properly parentally controlled newly HD converted television and take the time to follow some of the links on this post and decide for yourself if my concern is valid or just a flair up of rug ratitus caused by my having to cross through the children's section of WalMart on my way to buy a belt this morning. I think you will see I am not a hypochondriac and that, once again, we need to scream and yell like we are five year olds at a Wiggles concert so that everyone within the sounds of our voices hears us and makes it known to our representatives in that childlike city of power in the District of Colombia that this can not pass. If you don't, the next time you kid asks to borrow the car you won't be able to say, "go ask your mother or father". You will have to say, "go ask the UN." Then again, they won't even have to ask permission, it will be their right to take it.

S2