Gilmore Girls!

Several friends and I are watching the show Gilmore Girls on DVD right now. It is an amazing show. I have several great quotes that I will add to this post later when I get a chance.

My Take on Sarah Palin!

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
--From Hamlet (III, ii, 239)

Sarah Palin's resignation had barely hit the airwaves and the convulsions and screaming from the left hit an all time high. High pitched squeals were heard about how this was the end of her career, etc, etc...

Why is it that the left is so afraid of her? Especially, elitist liberal women? And some elitists on the right as well? As the above Hamlet quote says, some are protesting a little too much.

During this past week, I've had many ask me why Sarah Palin isn't running for re-election as Governor and why she is resigning. Since, we've heard the high pitched squeals on the left, lets look at what some others have said.

--Roger Stone gave his insight in his article entitled, Palin's Plan. An excerpt:

As Bill Kristol, the only DC based analyst who "gets it" said the move also frees Palin to "write her book, give speeches, travel the country, and educate herself on some issues." It also frees her to build a net work of fundraisers and supporters throughout the country - many of whom will be her TV viewers.

Palin will also be more in demand as a dinner speaker, fundraiser and campaigner than any other Republican in 2011. She can suspend her TV career and will have a chance to collect countless political IOUs along the way, campaigning for candidates and raising them money and hitting the State Republican dinner circuit. Demand for the "New Palin" will only increase.

Palin's "star-power," charisma, presence and genuineness can not be discounted. No one can discount her moxie, her energy and her inspirational qualities. Her anti-elite middle-class message can have resonance again when the Obama economic polices likely fail. The Ivy leaguers and Hollywood crowd so high on Obama may be riding for a fall. The media has unfairly labeled her as "dumb." All she must do is disprove this...and she can have sixty minutes each week to do it.

Palin's stunning move guarantees an outsider strategy in which Palin is a movement but not a party candidate. No decision on running should be made until 2011 and focus must be on image repair. This is a woman who held off 36 year Senate vet Joe Biden in a 90 minute debate. She may just be up to the task.

--Conservatives for Palin had an extensive post where they listed reactions from many. One of those was from The Anchoress who took the words right out of my mouth. An excerpt:

It’s tough to govern and not go broke when the other side has decided to nibble you to death – and to build up a “record of questionable ethics” against you while they do so. The left and the press, who one might characterize as “at war” with Palin and her family, have tossed together a mess of Palin narratives (she’s “stupid,” they’re “trailer-trash,” the daughters are “sluts,” she looks like a “slutty flight attendant,” they are cornpone, she is inept, she “can see Russia from her window” and oh, yeah, she’s really her son’s grandmother, and one of her “slutty” daughters got pregnant just a few weeks after giving birth to that retarded kid that everyone wishes she [or her daughter, winkwink] had aborted) and they have created an enormous battle-hill out of all of that.

And I suspect Sarah Palin has looked around and decided, no – she is not going to die on that hate-constructed hill. I think she’s going to do her thing, forge her own path by her own lights, and eventually head back into politics on her own damn hill – and with (one fervently hopes) a hum-dinger of a speech-writer.

One of the jobs of a believer -whether Christian or not- is to find meaning in what is going on around and within. I suspect Palin is finding meaning in the abuse she’s been handed. I suspect her interior strength and her interior narrative of faith, family and love of homeland are commingling into a strategy, based on that meaning; a strategy that will be broad in scope, takes the long-view and is played close to the vest.

While, I don't know the exact reason for Sarah Palin's latest move, I do take great offense to how her and her family have been treated by the hate filled left. No one, not even Bush has had their family put through so much torture. Not one hate filled thing has been said about Obama's children and barely a mention was made about Biden's daughter's drug problems. Yet, somehow it is okay to drag Sarah Palin's children and family through the mud. I would think the line would be drawn at making fun of a Downs Syndrome baby, but apparently not.

I conclude with a post from Legal Insurrection by William Jacobsen. He is convinced that the main reason for the Palin Derangement Syndrome is precisely because of her audacity to give birth to Trig, a Downs Syndrome Baby.

My Take on Michael Jackson!

When I was 13 years old and buying my first albums, I bought a copy of Thriller. I liked a couple of his songs and thought he was a good singer. As the years went by his popularity soared and so did his bizarre behavior. To be honest, I didn't pay too much attention. So, I didn't really know much about the first allegations of child sex abuse in 1993.

Then, as an adult, I started to see how tormented Michael Jackson seemed to be, as the surgeries and behavior increased. By the time the second set of allegations of abuse against Jackson were filed in 2005, I was paying attention. The surgeries, the behavior and the allegations all pointed to someone who was a very tormented individual.

I watched a documentary on him that showed how he kept having surgeries so he could look like his hero, Peter Pan. He named his ranch, Neverland and he spent time with young boys. Jackson never had a childhood and seemed determined to spend the rest of his life attempting to re-create one.

Micheal Jackson's death is tragic, as any loss of life is. We don't know yet how culpable any of his Doctors will be in his death. Yet, the bottom line is he had insomnia, he wasn't at peace with himself or his life and he was willing to go to great lengths to find drugs to help him sleep. While I feel sad about the loss of life and empathy for his children, this man was not a god to be worshiped. He was a great entertainer, but one who like Presley and many others found fame fleeting and needed more out of life and didn't find it.

Gerald Ford Presidential Museum

My thanks to Mike and Rivka for the great guest blogging while I was gone. I want to weigh in on numerous issues this week but I'll start off with something I did while on my trip.

I always go and visit family in Michigan every summer. While I was there this time, my Mom and my 2 youngest kids and I went to the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. Ford wasn't one of my favorite presidents, but my goal is to make it to all of the presidential museums. So, Ford's was a lot easier than Clinton's will be, and I'm not sure I will even be able to bring myself to go to Carter's.

What I liked about the Museum:

--It was a very nice museum overall
--They had a really nice set-up covering Ford's funeral. They had recordings of the speeches at his funeral and you could hear each of them by pushing different buttons. I was able to hear Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld's comments.
--A re-creation of what the Oval Office looked like during Ford's term
--They had a temporary exhibit of Caroline Kennedy's Doll Collection which was fascinating.

Interesting Facts that I learned:

--Ford was on the Warren Commission and he wrote a book on it
--Ford's vast experience
--That Rockefeller was his initial VP but because he was such a liberal Republican Ford dumped him for Bob Dole when he ran for President because of the challenge by the conservative Ronald Reagan

Some of my Thoughts:

--I always have to buy fun stuff at the Presidential Museum gift shops. I bought the book to the left by Betty Ford. Although, I didn't choose to get the autographed copy which was $50.
--While Ford and Dole are 2 of the most patriotic and experienced men to be on a ticket, I can't think of 2 more boring men. Is there any wonder why they lost? The best thing they did was deliver us Jimmy Carter who in turn gave us Ronald Reagan.

The Palin's Taking On The Left!

Don't mess with Sarah! Late last night to my delight I stumbed across this from Gateway Pundit:

It's On! Palin's Legal Counsel Threatens to Sue Liberal Blogs and State Run Media For Slander.

we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation.
This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law.

I am with Jim- Go for it Sarah, it is about time!

By the way, those who say that Sarah ruined her political career by resigning are wrong. IF her political career is ruined it is because of the liberal slugs who made her look like an idiot either by comedy, or slander or defamation of her character. I also blame the tin foil hats who continue to regurgitate the lies they hear.

The left did the same thing to Bush and that is how Obama got elected.

I hope Sarah sets a precedence by sending a STRONG message to Liberals that they can't do a Saul Alinsky on Conservatives and their children anymore and get away with it.

UPDATE: I found a great analysis regarding Palin's resignation. Click here.

UPDATE #2: Click here for Mark Levin's assessment based on what he knows as of yesterday, not based on 'speculation' as to 'why' she resigned.

The Declaration Of Independence... READ IT!

I challenge you to read this to your family tonight. Happy 4th of July!
~Rivka

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock
Button Gwinnett
Lyman hall
Geo Walton
Wm Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thos Heyward, Junr.
Thomas Lynch, Junr.
Arthur Middleton
Samuel Chase
Thos. Stone
George Wythe
Charles Carrol of Carrollton
Richard Henry Lee
Th Jefferson
Benja. Harrison
Thos Nelson, jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Robt Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benj. Franklin
John Morton
Geo. Clymer Smith
Geo Taylor
James Wilson
Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney
Geo. Read
Tho M: Kean
Wm. Floyd
Phil. Livingston
Frans. Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richd. Stockton
Jno.WItherspoon
Fras. Hopkinson
John Hart
Abra. Clark
Josiah Bartlett
Wm. Whipple
Saml. Adams
John Adams
Robt. Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Saml Huntington
Wm. Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thorton

How many of these 'acts of the king' do you find eerily familiar in this day and age? I will give you one: "Imposing taxes on us without our consent".

Sarah Palin ~Breaking The Mold Again!

As you already know, Sarah Palin has stepped down and said she is not retreating but is moving forward!

I think Sarah is just doing what she always does. She isn't 'leaving the scene', she is just moving forward! Much to the leftist chagrin. There is nothing wrong with resigning in order to move forward to a possible run for president or to support real Conservatives running for office.

It is humorous hearing the left say that by resigning she is ruining her political career. After all, Obama being in a hate-filled racist church for 20 years and buddying up with people like Ayers didn't seem to make a difference in getting elected. Barry's lack of experience, especially compared to Palin, didn't matter either.

Sarah Palin is a leader, she is strong. Today I saw her as someone who is made in the Reagan/Thatcher mold. I am convinced she is the one we need in 2012 or 2016 who will reverse the damage Obama has done. She has the guts to do it. She has more guts than any man I have seen who has run or is rumored to run on our side. She won't drop her convictions to 'get along' like so many other Republicans have done.

I can see why she stepped down. She is a mover and a shaker and doesn't want to waste her time and Alaskans money to have to work on defending herself from the wild accusations from the wacko statists who hate her in Alaska. Why waste time doing that when she can get out there and make a difference and perhaps save this country from the downward spiral into socialism with Obama and the leftist nuts in charge.

I say go for it Palin!

By Rivka

4th of July Bombshell: Sarah Palin to Resign as Alaska Governor July 26

Does this signal readiness for a run in 2012?




More to come... stay tuned!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

photo by Mike's America

I'm so thankful I was born here!

You know how some people celebrate Christmas in July. I like to celebrate Thanksgiving on the 4th of July.

It's a day to be truly thankful to be an American. It's such an amazing country that millions around the world will stake everything they have to get here and enjoy the same freedom that those of us who were born here enjoy every day. Some new arrivals may think we take our freedom for granted (read the story of one first generation American who thanks his mother for coming here). Well, that may be true for some Americans (and we know who we are talking about don't we?) but it's not true for me.

Today is a celebration of Thanksgiving for being so fortunate to live in one of the greatest nations that ever blessed the surface of the earth.

It's a day to be proud of our accomplisments, our history and the hard won freedom that made it all possible.

Celebrate with music

Two favorites here: Lee Greenwoods "Proud to be an American" and the US Air Force Band's jazz version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." If you are done with loud sounds for the day and ready to mellow out, how about the USAF Band's instrumental version of "America the Beautiful?"





More links to patriotic music downloads at the bottom of this post.

Contrasting Demonstrations in Honduras: Violent Communists for Dictatorship vs. Peaceful Democracy

Guess which side Obama is on?

Citizens of the small Central American country Honduras are getting tired of the bad rap they have taken by removing their President before he could declare a dicatorship. They've taken to the streets for the past few days eager to send us all a message about what is really happening.

A pictorial of their demonstrations contrasts with the image of communist inspired violence in the streets:

People demonstrate against ousted president Manuel Zelaya and in demand of peace and democracy, at Morazan Square in central Tegucigalpa, on June 30, 2009. Tensions were running high in Honduras Tuesday with new street protests planned as deposed Zelaya vowed to return only days after being ousted in an army-backed coup.

Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya hold up placards during a march in downtown Tegucigalpa July 1, 2009.

A man holds a banner during a demonstration against ousted president Manuel Zelaya and in demand of peace and democracy, at Morazan Square in central Tegucigalpa, on June 30, 2009.

The poster reads, "Yes to democracy, not to dictatorship of Chavez".

A woman holds a sign reading: "We are happy Mel. Do not come back."

Contrast the above with this:

A demonstrator throws a Molotov cocktail during clashes between supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and armed forces in Tegucigalpa on June 29, 2009.

And if you want to know who is behind the violence, here's a clue:

A demonstrator holds a banner of the late Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a show of support for ousted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya outside the Ministry of Foreign Relations in San Jose July 1, 2009.

Yep, the same old communist evil that has been directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands and the oppression of millions more thoughout Latin America.