So We Have a New President

Color me surprised....

There's something that's been sticking in my "craw" for a couple of weeks. The recent election of "that one," that Senator from Chicago, to the office of President of the United States of (this great) America only serves to irritate me further:

Obama ran on the platform that he would give a certain tax-refundable credit to 95% of Americans making below $250k a year. Those above the $250k mark would have to pay more in taxes (You know, so it would be "fair" to those who don't pay taxes in the first place). This massive redistribution of wealth/Welfare program is likely the main reason that some of the poorest people turned out at the polls to vote for Obama.

Now, let's pretend for a second that Obama actually plans on following through with this plan. I happen to work for a small business - a chiropractic clinic - that makes just a little over $250k a year. Number one: I don't get paid much because this is considered a "small business." We don't make enough to well support the four persons that work in our office. Sure, we'd like to make more, but a good portion of our income is dependent upon new patients and retail sales, both of which have significantly fallen off during this recession. When people are broke they don't by products. When people are worried, even if they're sick, they won't go to the doctor. Number two: My boss, who is a doctor, doesn't get paid much either. Big shocker for you? It may interest some people to know that doctor's who own their own businesses run on very small profit margins.

So my boss, who makes just enough to support his family, make his bills and mortgage, will be forced by an Obama administration to do two things: First, pay more in taxes, and second, to provide health care which he cannot afford, for the four persons in my office.

Now here's the interesting thing: Obama's going to force my boss to pay more taxes so that he can distribute the money "fairly" to persons like me. Does that make sense to you? Why not stimulate the economy by giving small businesses a tax break, rather than punishing them for making too much money? Does Obama really think that $250k in this economy is too much? Does he really think that a small business making $250k is "wealthy"? Who's he trying to kid?

Media Bias

So last night I was watching our local channel 7 (NBC) around 7:00 and suddenly remembered that the Republican National Convention was supposed to be on. So I flipped over to PBS (local 4) to see that, yes, it was in fact, on at that very moment. I thought that a little strange since there was no other coverage of the RNC on any other channel, whereas last week when the Democratic National Convention was going, at least three other channels besides PBS were covering it. In fact, the local NBC (channel 7) had cut into the regularly scheduled program each night when the DNC opened to cover it. There they were: The regular talking heads in blue suits commenting on every aspect of the DNC, from every conceivable vantagepoint (One could argue that they were practially salivating when Hillary gave her speech). So where was NBC last night? Did they cover the RNC, or did my local station decide not to air it? I received no explanation at all from the local affiliate.

This is a point that's been made all over the internet, and on conservative talk shows: The media barely covers McCain's campaign and is all over Obama's. They consistently (and often) run stories about Obama that are positive and run stories about McCain that poke fun of his age and criticize his campaign.

Here's a perfect example. I took a screenshot of the Drudgereport just a few minutes ago:

Seem fair to you? With Obama the headline is about his relationship with Michelle: "Why Barack Loves Her." With Sarah Palin it's "Babies, Lies, & Scandal."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So they're picking on Sarah Palin now, despite that she's shown herself to be a moral person of integrety. Of course the whacked out Liberal left can't stand that, can they?

So then why all the fuss about Palin's decision to have her baby knowing that it would be born with Down's Syndrome? Why all the fuss about Palin's daughter being pregnant? Wasn't it the Libs that tried to minimize President Clinton's (pant, pant) extra-marrital affair while in the White House by saying, "This is a private affair between the President and his wife. It has nothing to do with Clinton's ability to be President."? Yes. We were told to believe that the President of the united States of America could have an extra-marital affair and still be a fine and moral President.

Don't Liberals hold as a valid argument for abortion diseases like Down's Syndrome and "the burden" of having a baby as a teen? Well here's Sarah Palin, refusing to have an abortion and deciding that her daughter will have the child as well, and get married to the boy partially responsible.

The snarky and rude comments made on the Daily Kos (Which I refue to link to here for the sake of decency) and other Liberal bloggers regarding Sarah Palin reveal the true character of the Liberal Lunatic Left (fringe not included). They expose themselves for who they truly are: Hypocritical dirt-bags that care only for the world as they see it, or as they believe it should be, not for the world as it is. They have no spine, no moral or ethical character, and will waver toward any position that is most expedient for their own selfish ambition.

The liberal media is not much different.

Why Obama will win the General Election

The sad truth of why Barack Obama will win the general election in November:
He's a rock star. Rolling Stone featured a portrait of him on their March issue with light shining around his head like a halo, like he's some sort of savior. Savior? Rock star? In reality Obama is far from being the rock star or "The Savior" the media makes him to be; the one in whom we can "hope, hope, hope" according to the other "O" (Oprah).



To be completely honest, I am discouraged by the lack of scrutiny I've seen and heard in the 18-24 voting bracket. There are really only three reasons these people are going to turn out in droves on election day: Barack Obama is young, Barack Obama is charismatic, and Barack Obama can lie to the American people like the best used car salesman on the planet. Let's face it, since Bill "Slick Willy" Clinton first played the sax during his '91 campaign, the American people have been looking for another rock star, someone who can walk on water for them.

He's everything that John McCain is not - especially in the youth department. I'd say it's age discrimination, really. The young voting bracket - whether they know or acknowledge it or not - will vote for the candidate they view as being the most virile. Young people cringe at old people - almost as if they don't know what to do with them. I mean my daughter, my daughter refuses to believe that I'm turning 37 this year, because she doesn't want me to be old. Old? At 37 ???

I heard on the radio the other day (so it must be true) that Barack Obama spent a total of 146 days in the Senate before announcing his bid for the presidency. During that 146 days he authored exactly - zero - bills. Sure, he's co-sponsored many bills, and he's introduced various amendments to bills. But as far as actually authoring any bills in the Senate, he's not done one.

So what does it mean to "co-sponsor" a bill? Well, in the most simple terms it means to "support" a bill written by another Senator. It means, "I support the content of this bill." When a Senator authors a bill the first thing he does is pass it around to the other Senators he believes will support the bill. Bills circulate in Congress before they reach the Senate floor accompanied by a summary of what the bills are intended to do (You see, most times your state elected representatives don't actually read the bills they co-sponsor because it would take too much time. They rely upon summaries to tell them what the bill is for, and they base their support on that summary, if they agree.). If the Senator agrees to support the bill they simply sign off on it.

Sometimes a Senator will only sign off on a bill if it includes a provision for a special project, or funds to support a special interest group. This is how "pork-barrel" projects end up in a bill (Although they don't call it "pork-barrel" in Congress, they call those additions "earmarks," but "a pig by any other name..."). Most times support for a bill is done out of political interest or expediency. Rarely does a Senator support a bill strictly on its own merits. So the fact that Obama has co-sponsored what some have estimated as 570 bills, it really means nothing. It doesn't reflect the leadership that must rise to the level of the most powerful man in the Western hemisphere. In fact it's likely the only reason Obama has co-sponsored so many bills in Congress is because he knew that he'd be running for president someday; and who wants to vote for a guy that hasn't done anything in Congress?

Yeah.....a guy who hasn't done anything in Congress.

So what's Obama got going for him? He's got charisma. He's got looks. He's young. He's not John McCain, and he's not George Bush. He's the best used car salesman the world has ever known. And let's face it: Don't we all just love to be pandered to by an empty soulless, gutless, suit with a pretty face? Sure we do.

That's why Barack Hussein Obama will be the next President of the United States of America.


God help us all.

;o)

Dennis Miller on the Greens/Al Gore

This is from Dennis Miller's Show, commentary "The Buck Starts Here":

"Hey folks, tonight I want to talk about Global Warming. Now, the-world-is-flat-n-hot society is growing increasingly hysterical, and that indeed is causing me to sweat a little. In the last month or so I’ve heard suggestions that those skeptical of Al Gore’s spiritual crisis are deniers, and one good way to serve the planet would be to have one less kid. I’ve also read that mankind is “a virus” and human beings are “the AIDS of the earth.”

Global Warming is becoming officially creepy, and I can’t tell yet if it’s fascistic or fetishistic, but it’s kind of like piercing or tattoos: I don’t even want to get one, because I see how hooked people are, and it spooks me. I just find it odd that we’ve come to a point in history where if I don’t concede that Manhattan will be completely submerged in the year 2057, I’m thought to be a delusional contrarian by some of my more zealous fellow citizens. I’m sorry, Angst Squad, but if we commissioned a public works project, let’s call it “The Manhattan Project,” and tried our hardest to submerge Manhattan in the next 50 years, we couldn’t pull it off. Mainly because it wouldn’t be environmentally sound, and you guys would hang it up in the permitting process.

Simply put, I can’t worry about the earth right now because I’m too worried about the world. Why can’t I take terrorism as seriously as Al Gore takes Global Warming? There are times you think that Liberals only fear car bombs if they have leaky exhaust systems. And why am I constantly beaten over the head with the phrase, “The delicate balance of nature”? Am I the only one who watches Animal Planet? Everytime I turned it on I see some demented Harp Seal chucking penguins down his gullet like they were maitre de’ Tic Tacs. To me nature appears more unbalanced than Gary Busey with a clogged eustachian tube.

Listen, the weather’s just like Hillary’s explanation of her war vote: We just don’t know, do we? We hit or miss our next Tuesday’s weather, much less the year 2057. Relax, we’ll replace oil when we need to. American ingenuity will kick in, and the next great fortune will be made. It’s not pretty but it is historically accurate. We need to run out of oil first. And that’s why I drive an SUV, so we’ll run out of it more quickly. I consider myself to be at the vanguard of the environmental movement, and I think that individuals who insist on driving hybrids are just prolonging our dilemma; and I think that’s just selfish. Come on, don’t you care about Mother Earth? Don’t ya’?"

Great Choices for the Dems

Liar, deceiver, compromiser, prone to outbursts of anger, cold and uncaring.




Used car salesman, slick talker, liar, practically a Marxist.


Well maybe we Republicans don't have much a choice ourselves either (Old guy, pseudo-Conservative who will probably have a heart attack his first week in office).

New Ponderings

Some ponderings I've had over the past couple of weeks:

1) For the life of me, I can't figure out what makes Britney Spears so compelling as a person. Not that she's compelling for me but she appears to be so compelling for most of the nation. Is she like that horrible train wreck that we just can't avoid turning our heads at, or is there something about her personality that people just like? Is it the tabloid media that's responsible for all the press she's been getting, or is she just a media whore. I will never understand the enigma that is "Britney."

2) Is it just me, or does anybody else feel like Obama is a used care salesman, Hillary is a lying sycophant, and McCain looks like he's stroke out within the first week if he were elected into office? What do we have to look forward to in the next 10 years of this country?

3) I wonder if the same people that now bitch about gas prices have ever, in their lives, bitched about the price of their "Venti half-caf/half-decaf, sugar-free, soy mocha lattes" from Starbucks?

4) Have you ever gotten a dozen eggs in which one of those eggs was fertilized, and then you didn't discover it until you had cracked the egg into a hot frying pan and seen the bloody yolk. Did you eat it anyway, or did you throw it away with the faint wondering of what it would have tasted like?

Okay, so I came back to Blogger

Tried Wordpress, hated it (Because I couldn't edit the .CSS template without having to pay something), and now I'm back.

So here's the deal: Because I didn't know what a a good thing I had until I left it, I moved all my old posts over to Wordpress. Problem is, now I can't get them BACK without cutting and pasting each and every one of them. And since I don't have the time or inclination for that pain-in-the ass process, I'm going to leave my posts on Wordpress as an archive. The last posing on that site will lead to this new "Ponderings."

So.....Back to Blogger: I have NOW CREATED A NEW "Ovedya's Ponderings" right here, where I can do all the neat funky design-thingies that Blogger started.

Everyone get it, now? You'll all have to update your site links to lead HERE, not THERE, and definitely not THERE.

What a pain I am, eh?

BTW: The last few posts I did cut-n-paste, because I think they are among the more brilliant in my archive. Please feel free to re-enjoy them.

~O

Words of Wisdom - Fred Rogers

Picked up a book last night: "The World According to Moster Rogers - Important Things to Remember." It's really a great book, filled with great words of wisdom from the man many of us enjoyed watching as children:

The Courage to Be Yourself

Part of the problem with the word disabilities is that it immediately suggests an inability to see or hear or walk or do other things that many of us take for granted. But what of people who can't feel? Or talk about their feelings? Or manage their feelings in constructive ways? What of people who aren't able to form close and strong relationships? And people who cannot find fulfillment in their lives, or those who have lost hope, who live in disappointment and bitterness and find in life no joy, no love? These, it seems to me are the real disabilities.

People have said, "Don't cry" to other people for years and years, and all it has ever meant is, "I'm too uncomfortable when you show your feelings. Don't cry." I'd rather have them say, "Go ahead and cry. I'm here to be with you."

Understanding Love

Love and trust, in the space between what's said and what's heard in life, can make all the difference in this world.

In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.

The greatest gift you can ever give is your honest self.

In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of - moments when we human beings can say "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible, imperishable good stuff.

The Challenges of Inner Discipline

What makes the difference between wishing and realizing our wishes? Lots of things, of course, but the main one, I think, is whether we link our wishes to our active work. It may take months or years, but it's far more likely to happen when we care so much that we'll work as hard as we can to make it happen. And when we're working toward the realization of our wishes, some of our greatest strengths come from the encouragement of people who care about us.

It came to me ever so slowly that the best way to know the truth was to begin trusting what my inner truth was...and trying to share it - not right away - only after I had worked hard at trying to understand it.


We Are All Neighbors

All of us, at some time or another, need help. Whether we're giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That's one of the things that connects us to our neighbors - in our own way, each of us is a giver and a receiver.

If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.

10/4

Ad Slogans...

Been having a lot of fun the past couple of days playing with the Ad Slogan Generator.

Here are the ones that cracked me up the most:

Plugged in "Ovedya" and got:

"Snap into an Ovedya!"

"Feel The Raw Naked Ovedya Of The Road."

"Four out of Five Dentists Recommend Ovedya."

"Little. Yellow. Different. Ovedya."

Plugged in "shag carpeting" and got:

"Whenever There's a Snack Gap, Shag Carpeting Fits."

"Shag Carpeting - The Appetizer!"

"It's the Bright One, it's the Right One, that's Shag Carpeting."

"Shag Carpeting - It Looks Good on You."

"Break Me Off a Piece of That Shag Carpeting."

Finally, I like to call my little beard, "the chin kitty." Don't ask me why, though I think it has something to do with the fact that it disturbs people on a subliminal level; and that's pleasing to me.

So I plugged in "chin kitty" and got:

"How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Chin Kitty?"

"The Chin Kitty that Smiles Back."

"Hungry? Why Wait? Grab a Chin Kitty."

"I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Chin Kitty."

"Promise Her Anything, But Give Her Chin Kitty."

"We Don't Make Chin Kitty. We Make Chin Kitty Better."

"Nothing Sucks Like A Chin Kitty."

And finally, my personal favorite, "From the Strong Come Forth Chin Kitty."

;o)

Growing Old

Let's grow old together:


Will someone please tell me what the hell is wrong with growing old?

A couple of weeks ago I went out with a buddy of mine to see the movie "300." It was opening night of the film, on a Friday night, so obviously the theater was packed with mostly younger - high-school-aged - people. Amongst the usual plethora of movie previews and commercials, one commercial came on the screen for Dove Bath Soap (Part of Dove's apparent "Campaign for Real Beauty") . The ad featured a handful of naked women, all mostly in their late 50s to mid 60s. The commercial very tasteful and very respectful (Watch it Here: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ )

About halfway through the ad a young man just behind me and to the right tells his buddy next to him "Eeew. That's disgusting. Man, who wants to see a buncha' wrinkly old women?"

It pissed me off.

What is truly "disgusting" is the fact that, for the past 30 years or so American culture has bought into the false dilemma created by advertising and marketing institutions that aging should be combatted with every fiber in our being; that we should buy products and submit ourselves to every new fad in plastic surgery - from stretching our skin to injecting ourselves with botulism (botulinum toxin, "one of the most poisonous naturally occuring substances in the world," according to Wikipedia). Americans spend billions each year trying to fight the aging process, and each and every effort eventually proves fruitless, giving further credence to the old addage, "You can't fight the inevitable."

So what's wrong with growing old? What exactly is so distressing about getting wrinkles around your eyes, on your forehead, around your knees; and what's wrong with frailty? Exactly nothing. Nothing is wrong with growing old. It's one of those things that every one and every thing on this planet have in common.

Dear reader, I would like to submit for your consideration the following idea. This idea might just free you from the years of needless stress, anxiety, and perhaps thousands of dollars in so-called "beauty products." That is, simply, "You are growing old. Deal with it. Age gracefully - that is, age with grace and dignity - and forget about all those idiots out there who tell you that aging is bad; that it's the enemy. Growing old is not bad. it's not "wrong." It just is. Why create a crisis for yourself? Why add to the stress that you already have to deal with? Learn to embrace your getting old.

Besides, many of us have spent many years and in some cases a lot of money trying to earn the respect of their peers and their elders. How rewarding it will be when we get to an age where young people come to us for advice. How rewarding it will be when other respect our opinions and wisdom just because we are older and more experienced.

Ladies and gentlemen: Age. And age well.

;o)