Monthly Archives: March 2010

Is it wrong to hate myself for using IM/Twitter abbreviations as frequently as I do? I mean, I’ve resisted for so long, even back in my #irc days. It’s just so much easier to ROFL than it is to roll on the floor laughing.

Next thing you know, I’ll be using emoticons in my blog posts and “gorwn-up” emails. I will be officially stupider than I was a month ago.

Excuse the laziness, but I need to ask the Browncoats something. What does Mal say to Simon at the end of Serenity Pt. 2 (Firefly, not the movie) about killing him? I can’t remember and though I could look it up, it’s so much easier not to.

Is Mark Steyn really talking about moobs? OMG.

Isn’t it interesting that there is always a Christian militia to take down when Dems are in charge? Nothing butches up your image and scores you some street cred with the Daily Show crowd like takin’ down some redneck, Jesus-freak apocalyptos. Not that Christian militias aren’t a terrible threat to the Republic, obviously more so than radical Islamists. Didn’t the great sage Rosie O’Donnell observe that Christians are just as threatening as radical Muslims? Or more so? I can’t remember exactly; all of her wisdom seems to run together like a preschooler’s chalk drawing in the rain.

I bet Big Sis, (as Matt Drudge refers to her), is quite pleased with herself. I’ll bet she’s got her aides scouring Miami for a poor Cuban orphan boy to play tug-of-war with. Maybe Cuban is too 1990′s–what’s the disenfranchised race of the 21st century? Perhaps an Iranian orphan. Has Africa just been done to death? Once Madonna started buying her kids there, we all knew it was over. Maybe something really exotic, like Moroccan. Unfortunately, I don’t think of poor street kids when I think of Morocco; I just think of Talitha Getty in a caftan. Now I want to buy an exotic caftan to wear over my swimsuit and lounge around in the sun, barefoot. Brilliant.

I just wanted to wish a safe, happy Passover to everyone. Regardless of what our Dear Leader wants, Next year in Jerusalem.

It’s spring and therefore time to update. Hence the wood paneling, the Pabst on tap, and the updated intro page. The Discussion page is still for discussing pretty much anything your little hearts desire, the Browncoat page is still waiting for more Browncoats to stop by, and the Wasteland is just a page I added. It can be a discussion page as well. Whatever.

I’m going to overhaul the quotes page and try to add some real ones from people other than my mom, but I can’t make any promises. Someone is sure to say something nice (or nasty) about me sometime.

Sometimes I wish my daddy was a career politician so that I didn’t have to be intelligent or relevant to be a paid pundit. But then I remember that my dad is actually making a difference, that I can confidently say that he is one of the most principled men I’ve ever known, and then I don’t feel bad at all. When my dad says he’s a conservative, it’s not to keep his job, it’s because he’s actually thought about the issues and has come to a logical conclusion. I also know that when he takes a position, he’ll maintain that position as long as reason supports it, regardless of popular opinion.

So, I kind of think I’m better off, even if I don’t get paid for this.

Exactly!

Really? Honestly, I’m not even all that worked up. I’m disappointed that this guy is apparently the best we’ve got.

While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC’s last three months of filings…

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.

Hey there Steyn fans and Cornerites. Feel free to hang out in my ’70′s rec room. I put up the wood paneling for you.

Btw, Obama apparently told Bibi that when Jews says “Next Year in Jerusalem” at Passover, it is “provocative”. He wants Israelis…to say “next year in Tel Aviv” or “next year in peace” instead. I’m serious. This is now approaching parody with Obama.

But don’t worry, liberals assure us, he is a friend of Israel!

This is from Erick Stakelbeck, via Twitter. Browncoat linkmaster C5 found it, and my first reaction was that it was some sort of joke. I mean, “Next year in Jerusalem” is provocative? That’s just absurd. Has Obama no concept of tradition or history? I’m a Gentile and I still wouldn’t say something that stupid. My guess is that he just doesn’t care. He’s provoking Israel to see what he can get away with, or he’s just being an asshole. At this point, I’m voting for asshole.

Throughout this healthcare debate, I have been engaging in a bit of self-examination and analysis of my position. I ask myself, “What if I’m wrong?” Could I be on the “wrong side”? From my Obama zombie peers I hear that this is the dawn of a new age of equality and justice. Could they be right?

On the surface, Obamacare offers some seemingly harmless and wonderful benefits. No pre-existing conditions and the ability to keep kids on family plans until they are 26 seem to be the focus of the media jubilation. I’ve got a problem with this last one, and it is a problem of language. I keep hearing 26 year olds referred to as “children”–as in, “Parents can keep children up to the age of 26 on their plans!” One ceases being a child at the age of 18 in the eyes of the law, for whatever that’s worth. At the age of 26 I had been on my own for over six years, and had already lost my oldest child. I was not anything even remotely resembling a “child”. I’d gotten my own healthcare in my early 20′s through my work, but when that lapsed, I didn’t feel the need to renew it. This may sound like I had my stuff together, but I didn’t–not even close. But, for someone making hardly any money, health insurance was still available for something like $70 a month, if I remember correctly. I was working six days a week as a waitress in a trendy bistro, and my boss, a wealthy drunk, could barely manage the funds well enough to keep our paychecks from bouncing. Would it have been nice to be on my parents’ health insurance? Sure. Did I need it? Yep, especially when I broke my collarbone a year later. But I had made the choice to move away and start my life, which meant I was responsible for myownself from that point on.

Ultimately, it is not the “healthcare for all” proposal I am against, it is the importation of the European idea of prolonged adolescence to America. It is the legitimization of the idea that the government should take care of me, that it is my “right” to be provided with a safety net from cradle to grave. The idea of the nanny state is very seductive–I can feel the siren call tugging at my soul this very instant–but it costs us much more than large percentages of our income. One of the most terrifying (and exciting) things about becoming an adult is the realization that you have no safety net. You are on your own, walking that tightrope across the Grand Canyon. You are able to make your own decisions, but you also have to suffer the consequences of said decisions. At 23, when I convinced myself that I needed to spend my utility money on those perfect red shoes, I did indeed get those red shoes. My power also got disconnected for a bit and I ended up paying more to get it reconnected than I would have if I had just delayed my gratification until the shoes had gone on sale. It would have been nice to have universal electric service, but I’d never have learned to forego my own pleasure to fulfill my responsibilities.

We do not have the kind of glorious single-payer healthcare system seen throughout Europe–yet. Obama has stated numerous times that this is his ultimate goal, and I’m not like some conservatives who convince themselves that he means something other than what he says. He’s a true believer, and he won’t stop until he’s achieved the change he’s been promising. Rationing and higher taxes are an obvious result of this transformation, but the ultimate consequence is the infantilization of an entire culture. Because once we’ve got healthcare for “free”, we’ll want everything else. “Free” university, shorter work weeks with extended paid vacations–an entire culture of instant gratification and no incentive to work for what we want.

I’d love to have a safety net, to never have to worry about basic “needs”, but the sacrifice is too great. When we give up responsibility, we also give up our freedom–freedom to choose tanning beds over government-recommended SPF70 sunblock, freedom to smoke, freedom to make our own informed decisions. Single-payer healthcare isn’t the endgame, it’s just the beginning. With every “right” we demand–and get–from an ever-expansive government, we cede more power to the bureaucracy. And these “rights” don’t come free. I’m not talking of a monetary charge (though higher taxes and less take-home is inevitable), I’m talking about the charge the government exacts on our personal freedom. If the government is handing out livers and you need one, you better hope your government-regulated medical records don’t chronicle all of the drinking you’ve been doing.

It’s hard to see the forest for the trees in our ADD culture, but we’re selling our souls. Sometimes we have to sacrifice, but sacrifice builds character. There’s a shortage of that nowadays.

Ultimately, I can only look at both sides of the argument and form my own opinion. In the end, it doesn’t matter what Mark Steyn says (although it seems sometimes like he’s reading my mind) or what David Frum says (don’t have the same experience with David) or what Barry O or the guys from the New Republic say–what matters is the conclusion I come to after putting some serious thought into the matter. Am I on the wrong side of this healthcare debate? When I step back and look at the Big Picture, I am as confident as I can be that I am not. I am sympathetic to the plight of the uninsured, but Obamacare is not about insuring the uninsured. It is about power, about shifting this country irrevocably left by getting us hooked on the opiate of Big Government. Giving us candy in exchange for our freedom. The fact that this exchange was forced on us, against the will of the people, is a post for another time. In a few years, the majority of the nation will be on board with this, because free candy always wins.

This is just the beginning.

So I know that I’m not allowed and I’m sure that under Obamacare’s mighty umbrella I will be taxed for it, but I am going to lay in the sun for as long as possible this afternoon. I know the sun causes cancer–just as everything pleasurable is deadly–but I love the way I look with a tan. And I love laying in the sun like the cold-blooded creature that I am, soaking up the radiation and trying to get the chill out of my bones. It feels like I’ve been cold since I moved from the desert to these more temperate climes.

I’m not a fan of sand, but I can definitely put up with it for some real, unadulterated sunlight. Or I could just lay out in the backyard and avoid the icky sand altogether. I don’t do tanning beds, so I’m glad I live in San Diego. I’d never have a tan otherwise. I do worry about skin cancer, but I’m still young enough to feel I can play the odds. And besides, I’ve given up almost everything I enjoy. I’m laying in the sun for a few hours, dammit.

The one thing I truly worry about is looking old. Which reveals a bit more about my vanity than I’m comfortable with.

Remember what I said about being unable to reconcile my worldview with the president’s? Yeah, it’s little things like this that make it impossible for me to like him.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

And yet Iran gets the full rockstar treatment. What an asshole.

I’m sorry, but I don’t care who you are, you don’t treat an ally like this. Regardless of how much Obama wants to be BFFs with Palestine, Israel’s had our back for ages. This is disgusting behavior from the leader of the free world, (or whatever). I almost wish there were no term limits for the presidency so that Obama could reap what he’s sowing.

(The cons of that wish vastly outweigh the pros, make no mistake. File that in the “be careful what you wish for” category.)