Knock, Knock, Who's There?

I heard someone knocking at the door. I looked ou the window and saw that it was Colleen. I thought,why is she knocking? She does know how to open the door! I went to the door, and guess who tried to walk right in? Precious, our unbroken three-year old horse! Colleen was training him, and thought it would be funny to have him come to the door to ask if he could come in and play with all of the other unbroken three-year-olds!

Naievety

benning's Writing Pad has a terrific post here about Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001. He features photos and the address to Congress and the American people by F.D.R. I hope our nation never returns to the level of naivety that existed prior to December 7, 1941, "The Day That Will Live In Infamy."

Strategy

There are many Americans who would like to see America win the war against the Islamic terrorists. Yet, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama criticize the President for trying to win the war. More than criticize, they actually oppose efforts to provide funding for the troops who are fighting the war! Would someone please explain to me how these Democrat candidates are going to earn the support of Democrat voters who want America to win the war?

Bush finally got the right general to direct the fight. Yet, the principal power and money group that funds and directs Democrat candidates, moveon.org, puts an ad in the New York Times (at a discounted rate) calling General Petraeus "General Betray Us," and the candidates refuse to condemn the America-haters who bought the ad.

How is that a winning strategy for someone who wants to be our Commander in Chief?

Quagmire

Texas Rainmaker says that the Democrats are in a quagmire on how to pander to competing groups of victims! Many Hispanics are not all that in favor of tougher border enforcement. Many "blue collar" whites and blacks, on the other hand, do want stricter enforcement of our borders. Concerns over illegal immigration are widespread among both Democrats and Republicans, and the Democrat candidates are weak on this, as they are on winning the war in Iraq.

Barack Hussein Obama: a Book Review

Bruce Bawer writes in Pajamas Media "Why I Haven't Caught Obama Fever." Bawer recently read Obama's memoirDreams From My Father, and found much of it very disturbing. Obama was raised mostly on the beaches of Hawaii by an "unfailingly selfless and loving mother" and devoted grandparents, all of whom happen to be white. Yet, he mostly ignores them and spends all of the book praising his black father, who abandoned him when Obama was two!

His father, Dr. Obama, went back to Africa, where he was a high ranking official in the Kenyan government. He was a polygamist, and "lousy husband to all his wives." However, to Barack, he was a heroic, near mythic figure. Bawer writes,

One can, of course, well understand why a small boy – or even a young man – might idealize out of all proportion the father he never met. But Obama shows few signs in this book of recognizing that he’s doing this. Meanwhile, perversely, he treats his mother and grandparents, who by his own account raised him with extraordinary devotion, all but dismissively.

Perhaps most discouraging is that Obama reveals himself to be "unbearably self-absorbed – yet, at the same time, astonishingly short on self-knowledge." He seems to feel owed something by the world, and is obsessed with racial injustice of whites against blacks.

"The Last Ax-Swinging Pastor Standing"

To win over the people, a politician must have good press. Republicans have talk radio and Fox News. Democrats have all the major newspapers and national television news. The print media has been very friendly to Huckabee, because he is affable and accessible. However, it would be a great mistake for Huckabee to assume that the press will remain friendly to him when the chips are all on the table. The writers in the print media and television news are overwhelmingly liberal, as are their editors.

I noted yesterday that I heard both Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly warn that the press will turn on Huckabee, if he actually does become the nominee. Here is an example from today's Rocky Mountain News writer Mike Littwin, who is following Huckabee in New Hampshire. "There is no secret what happened in Iowa. In a state with a significant number of Christian conservatives - a significant number of whom couldn't find a candidate to back - they finally settled on the last ax-swinging pastor standing."

The full page article is supposedly favorable to Huckabee. The headline says "Huckabee Finds Stride With "Little Guy." However, it is just as Bill and Rush warned yesterday; the not-so-subtle sarcasm is just below the surface. Here's how Littwin, who obviously thinks he is a very funny writer, sums up Huckabee. "To wrap it up: He's pro little guy, anti-plutocracy, nostalgic for dirt floors."

This One Stinks

I have written about this before, but since I believe it is possibly going to become a national story, I am updating. The Denver Post has assigned a reporter, Karen Crummy, to cover the on-going developments, but talk radio show host Peter Boyles is the one who has kept the story alive.

The man who is now Governor of Colorado is a Democrat named Bill Ritter. His previous job was that he was the Denver D.A. Former Congressman Bob Beauprez was the Republican who ran against Ritter to try to replace Republican Bill Owens, who was term-limited.

During the campaign Beauprez revealed that as D.A., Ritter routinely allowed illegal immigrants with long criminal records, who committed crimes in Denver, to get off scott-free by pleading guilty to a manufactured charge of "agricultural trespass." They entered their plea, then went on their merry way committing crimes wherever they went in the U.S.

The person who supplied Beauprez with the information about the criminal illegal immigrants was Cory Voorhis, a federal immigration agent. Ritter cleverly turned the heat back on Beauprez, saying that the information about the Mexican criminals had been obtained by someone who illegally accessed a government crime database. It was a successful tactic for Ritter, who won the election in a landslide.

Charges were filed against Voorhis. However, he was not the only person who accessed the database. So far the case reaches to Texas and Pennsylvania, where additional persons accessed the database. Beauprez is not standing with the man who tried to expose the truth about Ritter. No one is willing to step forward and tell the truth about their own involvement with accessing the crime database. Everyone is willing to let Voorhis be the fall guy. Voorhis is an agent with an outstanding record of going after Mexican crime individuals and groups.

Voorhis is soon coming into federal court to face three misdemeaner charges of using the National Crime Information Center to track down the aliases of an illegal alien with a long criminal history, who had been given the phony "agricultural trespass" plea deal by Ritter. As they say in talk radio, stay tuned!

Rush and Bill On The Same Page Today

I caught pieces of both Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly on their radio shows today. Both men, regardless of whether you agree with them, are veteran observers of the American political scene. What I found fascinating is that both men said exactly the same thing about the media's current buzz about the Huckabee candidacy.

Here is what both men said. They both believe that the media is holding up Huckabee in hopes that he might become the Republican nominee. If he wins the nomination, they will then turn on him to make sure the Democrat wins. I thought it was very interesting that both men would say the exact same thing about the media on the same day.

O'Reilly believes that Giuliani is the strongest candidate for the Republicans, in terms of competing in the general election, but he also believes Romney, Thompson, and Mc Cain could be formidable candidates. He does not believe Huckabee would be competitve in the general election. Rush believes Thompson is the most conservative candidate among the front runners, which I take to mean that Thompson is the one Rush hopes is the candidate, although he did not say that.

Tonight's Sunset

The entire sky was beautifully lit up tonight in all directions. I took as many pictures as I could, before the camera posted a message, saying "change battery pack." It was the most spectacular sunset I have seen since we moved out here to the high plains in July. It lasted at least a half-hour.

Is Liberty Obsolete?

Hillary Clinton says,

“We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?”

Maggie's Farm has an answer. My favorite quote:

I believe that she is saying that "liberty and opportunity" are obsolete. Show me one sick child in America who is denied medical care, but, before you begin looking, I will warn you that you will not find one. (Me? I just want free legal care when I get my DUI. And free gas, please, for my truck - and would you throw in free car insurance, please?)

The Stem Cell Debate Is Over: Vindication (Again) For President Bush

Surprsingly, I have not seen much on the web about the recent announcement of an amazing discovery by two scientists, James Thomson and Shinya Yamanaka, that has ended the stem cell debate. Now, instead of having to destroy human embryos for research, scientists know that they can produce genetically matched stem cells by injecting only four genes (from "de-differentiating" adult stem cells), creating a stem cell that can become "bone or brain or heart." I am quoting from a column I read today by Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post. He was a member of the bioethics commission appointed by President Bush. Remember when President Bush was villified by the left for insisting that moral considerations be given as much importance as scientific possibilities? As Krauthammer points out, President Bush has been completely vindicated for the moral stand he took.

Isn't She Just So Presidential?

Now the MSM will be talking about how wonderfully Hillary Clinton handled the hostage crisis in her New Hampshire office, although whe was hundreds of miles away. Clarice Feldman, writing in The American Thinker, has some pertinent analysis here. My favorite quote about the hostage-taker:

He'd been scheduled that afternoon to make an appearance in a domestic violence hearing and I suppose this notion of making himself the center of the drama was a more appealing choice to him than punishment for banal, anti-social behavior alone.

Idle Hands ARE The Devil's Workshop!

Usually we eat altogether as a family. Tonight we ate in two shifts. First, Mom and Dad sat down with the two littlest ones, Mau and Linebacker Dude. Then, the two little ones got down and the other group sat down for supper. It was a great supper, so I stayed on for both shifts. The two little ones went downstairs to the rec room.

Now, let me ask you a question. How do you buy your eggs? We used to just buy them by the dozen, but for some time now we have been buying them in cartons of eighteen, since we eat so many of them. Before dinner I noted that we were down to one carton, and we would need to replenish the supply tomorrow, Why do I interrupt this story to talk about eggs?

Actually, it is not an interruption. After a few minutes, we decided to go down and check on the two little ones. One of them had opened the refrigerator door and taken the last carton of eighteen eggs. When mom arrived downstairs, she found that they had thrown all eighteen eggs on the carpet and against the wall. They both got early bedtimes, and I sure do hope they enjoy the Rice Krispies, Cheerios, toast and orange juice that they will be served for the next several months!

Nivera R.I.P.

Our beautiful paint horse Nivera died last night. She had a history of being colicky. We were always very careful how much grain we gave her. Yesterday was a warm day, then it drizzled and turned very cold overnight; thus the frost on the trees, as seen in my last post. Colleen had given her a small amount of grain, which she had not had for several days. Now we are told that sudden changes in the weather, along with something different in the diet, can quickly kill this powerful, majestic animal.

We all loved her. Actually, I especially admired her beauty, and often remarked to Colleen what a great job she did in picking this beautiful horse to purchase. She was a beautiful, reddish brown, along with the white. Naturally, Colleen is feeling terrible guilt, for having given her the small amount of grain. She does not want me to tell her mother, because she believes that her mother believes that Colleen can never measure up to what she thinks Colleen ought to be.

After she died, the coyotes picked up the scent of death, and came into the paddock area to tear apart the carcass. She died sometime after midnight. Colleen discovered the body this morning. We paid a company to remove the body while we went to church.

The sermon in church was about the Lamb of God, Jesus, who was in the Beginning, long before Bethlehem, but was sent by His Father to this earth, and by His death and resurrection, wiped away the sins of all who believe in Him and seek to do His will on this earth.

Jack Frost Comes A'Nippin

These Australian Pines, or, as we like to call them out west, Ponderosa Pines, were touched up by Jack Frost last night. It is a beautiful morning!

"The Hunted, Not The Hunters"

Webutante brings us a wonderful piece (although nine days old) in the New York Post by Ralph Peters. My favorite line: "Contrary to the myths of the left, peace can only be built over the corpses of evil men." Peters points out that

Fanatical enemies: We lucked out when al Qaeda declared Iraq the central front in its war against civilization. Our monstrous foes alienated their local allies so utterly that al Qaeda in Iraq is now largely a spent force - the hunted, not the hunters. The terrorists have suffered a strategic humiliation.

Read the whole thing here.

Precious

Precious is our new three-year-old horse who has never been ridden. Mom and daughter both sat on her this afternoon. She held steady, perhaps because there was a wonderful patch of green, green grass right there next to the corral. Mom and daughter both described the experience as "freaky, yet exhilarating!"

Bad Words

This morning a friend called and asked if her six-year-old son could come over for the day, because he was too sick to go to school, and too sick to go with her to a doctor appointment. He wasn't really very sick, and played non-stop with our kids.

At one point, I asked the kids to go downstairs and put on a movie, because they were keeping Mau Mau awake when she needed to be napping. The little boy apparently knows our movie selection, and said he did not want to watch our "baby" movies. "I just want to watch adult movies that have bad words." They watched Peter and The Wolf.

Sorry, young man, it is the best we can do!

CNN: A Very Unfunny Joke

Everyone is all abuzz about CNN letting Democrat operatives pose as Republican questioners in last night's debate. You expected CNN to be fair and balanced? You expected them to google questioners, to make sure they were not Clinton, Edwards, or Obama plants? They really should be renamed The Democrat Network. Still, from what I can gather, the Republican candidates answered the questions well.

CNN is dwindling, spiraling downward to become a very unfunny joke, except for Glenn Beck, of course. I love Glenn Beck!

Atheism's Answer To Narnia?

Confessions of a Closet Republican has this to say about Hollywood's latest anti-God effort:

There seems to be an on-going tug of war between those atheists who want a world devoid of God, and those who believe a God-less world will be the downfall of humanity. And atheists seem to be gaining ground in that battle- including in the realm of Hollywood. On December 7th, 2007 a children's film entitled "The Golden Compass", starring Nicole Kidman and other major players, is being released. It's based on the first novel "Northern Lights" in Philip Pullman's trilogy "His Dark Materials". Seemingly innocuous, it's actually atheism's answer to the Narnia Trilogy. And although all religious (or rather anti-religious references) have been removed, Christian groups are still calling for a boycott. Their main concern is that children will be inspired to read the trilogy after viewing the film (in its watered-down version), and that unsuspecting parents will then purchase the books, which have a decidedly anti-Church, anti-religious theme. In fact, God is portrayed as a drooling, senile old man, and is killed off at the end, by the young protagonists. Pullman, an avowed atheist makes no apologies for his writings, and has openly admitted:
"My books are about killing God."
And:
"I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality."