I Heart Rush Limbaugh!!

I saw this video of Rush on Hannity and Colmes Monday night and I was just standing up and cheering. Rush rocks!! Marie did an excellent post on it all.

Rush isn't a Marine but his speech reminds me of that quote in "A Few Good Men" where Jack Nicholson says, "You messed with the wrong Marine." In Rush's case, you messed with the wrong Talk Show Host ;-).

What Kind of Reader are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Fad Reader
Book Snob
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

I found this quiz at Patrick's and found it to be fun. I have several friends that I would love to see how they score on this. It only takes a couple of minutes so indulge and share your results in the comments' section.

My Letter to Bill O'Reilly about the Michael Devlin Case

To Bill O'Reilly:

I am a regular watcher of your Tv show and 70% of the time I love your passion and agree with what you have to say. Yet, one issue that I have had a problem with from the start was your questioning of the victim, Shawn Hornbeck. It distressed me at how you questioned and almost blamed him for not escaping earlier.

Now that the details have come out of the torture he endured (even his defense attorneys were horrified at having to watch the videotape of Devlin torturing Shawn) and the "deal" he made to stay alive I think you owe Hornbeck and his family an apology. I see you as a stand up guy who has done so much for the children and I applaud your courageous stand on Jessica's law and your willingness to go after states who aren't passing one.

I live in KC, Missouri so I have followed this issue on my blog and look forward to your response.

Free Burma!

I have been very concerned about the situation in Myanmar/Burma. I have been meaning to do some research and write a post on it. I checked out Incognito's blog last night and she has done some excellent research and written several very comprehensive posts on what is going over there. Please take the time to read them.

In her first post, "Living In Fear in Myanmar fka Burma- and the Buddhist protests", she explains the history of Burma and how they've gotten to the place they are now. In her second one she gives the details on the Free Burma Blogger Campaign. I encourage everyone to go to their site and join the list of participants and to grab one of their graphics and put it on your blog. I've got a smaller version of this graphic in my sidebar.


The above video is one that was smuggled out since there has been a major crackdown there on any communication. It gives just a glimpse of some of the violence that is going on there.

Here are Incognito's posts and other bloggers who have also posted on this important issue, take the time to check them out:
October 4th, Free Burma blogger campaign!
Living In Fear in Myanmar fka Burma- and the Buddhist protests
Gateway Pundit
Horrible Violence in Burma Caught on Tape!--Gateway Pundit
Sister Toldjah
Big Girl Pants
Real World Libertarian
Born Again Redneck

Articles on the Crisis:
Burma: UN envoy meets top general as regime blames foreigners for violence

My Grandfather's Son

I'm a huge fan of Justice Clarence Thomas. He is a great man who has been unfairly demonized by the left. The left tried to bork him and take him down during his confirmation hearing with trumped up charges of sexual harassment. Never mind the fact that we've had a sitting president who actually did commit such acts and was defended by the very feminists who went after Thomas.

Clarence Thomas has said relatively little in his defense up until now. He has come out with his autobiography, My Grandfather's Son. Last night he was on 60 Minutes, go here to see the video. Today, he is going to be on Rush's show for a rare 90 minute interview. I'm very excited, and plan on tuning in. Here is a little of what Rush had to say about it when talking to a caller last week:

"He's going to be in the second and third hour. It's going to be the first 90-minute interview we've ever done with anybody. I taped it after the program yesterday because the first day of the new term of the Supreme Court is on Monday, and he couldn't make it live.

He has two segments on 60 Minutes Sunday night. By the way, the name of the book is My Grandfather's Son. He did two interview segments for 60 minutes. ABC has been following him around, too. Jan Crawford Greenburg is their court writer. She is a good reporter. I don't mean to harm her reputation saying that with her peers, but she's a good reporter. She has followed him around with the crew for I think Primetime or 20/20, whatever the show is. He's going to be all over the place later in the week next week. But I have to tell you something about this interview and I don't want to give any of it away.

Other than to say, I start out with him when his mother gave him up. She couldn't afford him and his brother, and his grandfather took him in, and the title of the book is My Grandfather's Son. I started from there, and I didn't get to the confirmation hearings 'til what was like the end of the first hour. But during this interview -- and I don't want to give away any secrets here -- Dawn, who was here transcribing what he was saying for me in case I had trouble understanding him, which I didn't, cried twice."

I'll have to find room in my budget to purchase both Thomas's & Ann's new book, I'm off to Sam's tomorrow!!

Other interviews:
Clarence Thomas: A Silent Justice Speaks Out

Others blogging:
Patterico's Pontifications
Chip's Church Chat
Born Again Redneck
Bloviating Zeppelin

Jason Whitlock Nails it Again!!

"Jesse and Al, as they’re prone to do, served a kernel of truth stacked on a mountain of lies."--Jason Whitlock

It is ironic to me that Whitlock is a Kansas City Star columnist because every time he has an excellent article I find out about it via the national news. I think it has something to do with the fact that I NEVER, EVER read the sports page. I linked to his page on my blog so I could check in on his articles from time to time but I have been so busy I don't even get to visit a fraction of my favorite blogs.

His recent article is on the Jena Six controversy. As usual, he speaks the truth and makes Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson look like the fools that they are. Here are some excerpts from his column but take the time to read the whole thing:

"Where was our compassion long before Bell got into this kind of trouble?

That’s the question that needed to be asked in Jena and across the country on Thursday. But it wasn’t asked because everyone has been lied to about what really transpired in the small southern town.

There was no “schoolyard fight” as a result of nooses being hung on a whites-only tree.

Justin Barker, the white victim, was cold-cocked from behind, knocked unconscious and stomped by six black athletes. Barker, luckily, sustained no life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital three hours after the attack.

A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the “Jena Six” case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker’s assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the “Jena Six” in reaction to Walters’ extreme charges of attempted murder.

Much has been written about Bell’s trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell’s public defender was black.

It’s almost never mentioned that Bell’s absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son’s life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges. At a bond hearing in August, Bell’s father and a parade of local ministers promised a judge that they would supervise Bell if he was released from prison.

Where were the promises and supervision before any of this?

It’s rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker’s attack. And it’s never mentioned that white people in the “racist” town of Jena provided Bell support and protected his football career long before Jesse, Al, Bell’s father and all the others took a sincere interest in Mychal Bell.

You won’t hear about any of that because it doesn’t fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves."

His conclusion:
"But the kids responsible for Barker’s beating deserve to be punished. The prosecutor needed to be challenged on his excessive charges. And we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once they’re in harm’s way.

I’ve been the spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City for six years. Getting black men to volunteer to mentor for just two hours a week to the more than 100 black boys on a waiting list is a yearly crisis. It’s a nationwide crisis for the organization. In Kansas City, we’re lucky if we get 20 black Big Brothers a year.

You don’t want to see any more “Jena Six” cases? Love Mychal Bell before he violently breaks the law."

Lincoln--A stupid baboon?

"We admire Lincoln today as an American folk hero. During the Civil War, however, he was the most unpopular president the nation had ever known. His critics called him a tyrant, a hick, a stupid baboon who was unfit for office. As commander in chief of the armed forces, he was denounced as a bungling amateur who meddled in military affairs he knew nothing about."

--Russell Freedman from his book, Lincoln A Photobiography

Does the above quote sound familiar? I am currently reading, Lincoln A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. I was struck by the similar attacks that the critics expressed over 140 years ago about Lincoln to what Bush's critics accuse him of today. As Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun."

History has since regarded Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents and very few people remember what his critics had to say. I think history will view Bush in a much more favorable way than he is viewed now and his critics will be forgotten over time.

It is always important to be a student of history so we can see the big picture and realize that life is much more than what is talked about in the latest poll. Bush is a student of history and he realizes that. This is why he is willing to stand on principle and do what is right despite how much criticism he gets and no matter how low his poll numbers go. He sees beyond the latest poll to what is best for this country 40 years from now.

According to one of Clinton's own advisors, Clinton didn't deal with the terrorism problem while he was in office because he knew his poll numbers might suffer as a result. He cared more about his poll numbers than protecting this country. He was offered Bin Laden on a silver platter and turned it down because of fears of what public opinion might be. We should all be thank-ful that Bush cares more about protecting this country than about his poll numbers.

Bush's Speech

I am knee deep in my projects so no time to post. Check out Mike's excellent post on Bush's speech. As for the Democrats' response, D is for Defeat!! Gateway Pundit calls them whiny :-).

I only had a chance to check several blogs so if you've done a post on his speech let me know in the comments' section and I'll add it to my list below. Thanks!!

Others blogging:
Sister Toldjah
Gateway Pundit
The Oxford Medievalist

Also, wonder why I love both Fred and Rudy? Check this out!!

Becoming Jane

As most of you know I am a HUGE Jane Austen fan. I have seen the movies: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion so many times that I probably have them memorized. I also have the movie Mansfield Park but it is my least favorite. Austen's other book Northanger Abbey has yet to have a decent movie done on it, I saw a BBC version once and it was horrible. I have read the actual books of my 4 favorites but have yet to read the other 2.

For my birthday a friend took me to see the movie, Becoming Jane which is a movie about her real life and romance. At first when I watched the movie I was confused because they were having her life be similar to Pride and Prejudice and I had always heard that her story was similar to Persuasion.

So when I got home I did some research. I found out that she had 2 different romances and one of them was similar to Pride and Prejudice and the other to Persuasion which made it all make sense. Jane's sister, Charlotte destroyed most of their letters so little is known about how serious either of these romances were.

What I found fascinating is that without even thinking about it I had always pictured Jane Austen to be very like the heroine Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. And that is how the movie portrays her so that was very encouraging to me because it fit what my perception of her was.

Of course, the movie on her real life doesn't necessarily have a happy ending (at least romantically) like her novels do. Neither of her romances worked out and she died at the age of 41, unmarried. She also died without having a clue how extremely popular her novels would really become.

Yet, the movie was good because it was the true story about a woman fulfilling her dream of being a writer when women didn't have professions back then and didn't make their living by being a writer. She also did have a marriage proposal from someone whom she didn't love but who had money and she didn't settle for him. She was above settling and was willing to make her own way in the world. That is hard enough to do today let alone back then when it was unheard of.

It is a great movie and I highly recommend it, 2 thumbs up!!

September 11th--My Generation's Pearl Harbor

I spent a lot of time trying to find the right videos for today. Something different, but equally as moving as some of those I've seen in the past. I thought both of these were good.

I am grieved today and it is not just over the horrible tragedy we suffered 6 years ago. I am also grieved at how callous and hateful many have become and how they seem to have forgotten we were all attacked that day. This growing conspiracy theory about how 9/11 was an inside job is such a slap in the face to all the victims.

Terrorists attacked us that day and they have caused unending horror for so many people. I watched some videos of 911 calls that day of people who were scared because they were afraid they were going to die. How many 911 operators have post traumatic stress disorder because of what they experienced that day? It seems to me that anyone who experienced and then survived the events of that day had a hard time picking up the pieces of their life.

September 11th is one of those days that anyone who lived through it will remember what they were doing that day. It is an event seared in people's minds like Pearl Harbor or the assassination of JFK. The reason it is so important not to forget is so we don't have to live through a similar event again.

May we never forget!!

Previous posts:
9/11 Tribute
The Importance of Remembering 9/11