Michael not Mike

I got a mention and one of my photos posted on Instapundit. But, alas, no link.

Middle Tn Tea Party

Taken as I was walking away after the rally.

Contact: Judson Phillips
Event Info
Middle Tennessee Tea Party
Date: Friday, February 27, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Location: Legislative Plaza
City/Town: Nashville, TN

More information is available via Facebook. I’ll be attending and, hopefully, posting pictures immediately afterward, along with a short report.

If you don’t know what this is all about, here is what got the ball rolling:

The Wall Street Journal opinion piece on the president’s mortgage rescue plan casts doubt on Obama’s pledge that his plan “will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans . . . And it will not reward folks who bought homes they knew from the beginning they would never be able to afford.”  Okay.  Let’s assume it only helps people who made decisions that appeared wise and within their means at the time.

We still shouldn’t help them.  Sometimes life is shit.  Sometimes in life we live with bad things that aren’t our fault.  When those things happen, it is not the role of government to force all our neighbors to rescue us.  Let the market correct.  If shit happens to me, I don’t expect the government to require everyone else to bail me out.  I’m fully aware that my house has lost value and that it would lose more if homeowners around go into foreclosure.

We’ve come a long way from JFK reminding us that “life is not fair” to BHO trying to use government to heal every hurt.  We are now trained to ask only what our country can do for us, not what we can do for ourselves.  Sad.

Rescue me if you want to, but not at the point of a gun.

and George and company.  According to the AP: Wholesale inflation takes biggest jump in 6 months.

I’ve decided to expand my family a bit by getting a dog.  A Havanese puppy named Maggie will be coming home with me.  I’m naming her Maggie, in honor of Margaret Thatcher.  This will be the first time I’ve ever had a dog and I’m kind of nervous about it.  I’m reading all kinds of websites.  I’ve bought a book, How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With.  And, I’ve made a list.  I’m so freaking excited.   She was born a couple of weeks ago and will be allowed to come home some time at the end of March.  Here she  is:

And when that happens, blogging is the first to go.  Work has gotten extremely busy (never a shortage of providers ripping off TennCare); adjusting to going to class and studying has been an adventure (I’m taking this far more seriously than I did when I was at Kansas or Vanderbilt); and trying to maintain a regular exercise schedule and proper diet along with trying to maintain routines so my mild OCD isn’t too much of a problem takes a lot of effort.  I’ve missed giving the world the benefit of my insight on the pressing issues of the day.

Here’s the brief version:

1. The much discussed Obama administration job application has 9 questions about taxes.  Were Geithner, Daschle, Killefer and Solis not required to respond to the questions, did they they provide inaccurate answers or were their answers accurate but ignored?  We should demand release of their responses.
2. Ashley Judd’s attack on Sarah Palin for aerial wolf shooting is silly.  The practice is a legal and appropriate means of controlling predators in order to preserve the caribou and moose population so that the locals can put food on the table.  Judd & friends need to grow up.
3. Michael Phelps puts the lie to the ONDCP’s Burrito Taster ad, which ends with the tag line, “Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren’t many jobs out there for potheads.”  Radly Balko started a list, to which many names were added, of gainfully employed pot smokers.
4. The latest Miley Cyrus photo controversy is silly.
5. I agree with this guy and his post, “The Survivors Of US Airways Flight 1549 Make Me Hate People.”
6. Health care is not a right, it’s a luxury.  To believe that health care is a right is to believe in slavery – someone must be forced to work to pay for it or provide it.
7. Capping executive pay a $500,000 has appeal, every dime of taxpayer money should be spent carefully and as openly as possible, but it has problems.  Talented help needed in times of crisis will leave.  The cap is only for executive pay.  People below executive positions make vast sums of money that could just as easily be said to come from bailout funds.  In some situations, their actions have as much or more to do with company performance as the executives.

That does it for now.  Hopefully, I can return to the keyboard on a regular basis soon.