Al Gore: Shyster-in-Chief

Al Gore’s finely crafted continuing production on global warming – now known as ‘climate change’ – is coming apart like an unraveling sweater; coming down like a house of cards.

Our Shyster-in-Chief is faced with one inconvenient truth after another these days. Here are couple of the best ones:

The inconvenient truth about malaria

Al Gore has made bold claims that climate change is aiding the spread of insect-borne diseases. The science does not support him, says Paul Reiter.
I am a scientist, not a climatologist, so I don’t dabble in climatology. My speciality is the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. As the film began, I knew Mr Gore would get to mosquitoes: they’re a favourite with climate-change activists. When he got to them, it was all I feared.

This is a good article. It’s a three-pager; be sure to click on the links at the bottom of each page.

Then we have Gore’s statement that there is a 75% chance that within 5 years the Arctic ice cap would be devoid of ice during the summer. He cited a scientist’s work. He was so … serious … about the threat; he was so … serious … with his condescending, patronizing manner that clearly indicated he thinks we are a bunch of dolts. But the yolk is dripping off the Shyster-in-Chief’s nose after the scientist he quoted went public with a statement that Gore was pulling it out of his bunghole. Well … not quite like that, but to the same effect.

Al Gore condemned

Of course, the Shyster-in-Chief is standing by his claim. Like Obama and Giggles Gibbs, fact doesn’t confuse them.

Obama wants cap-and-trade jammed down our throats and rammed up our backsides based on the opinions of clowns like Gore. Obama is not confused by fact, either.

“Shoppin’ local”

“Shopping local” is a big deal.

It’s difficult to support an economy – for example, in a small town – without that ’shoppin’ local’.

Merchants are always going on about “shopping local”.

Chambers of Commerce are always going on about “shopping local”.

It gets to the point that if you are seen outside your “local” area, you almost want to apologize for your effrontery.

But here’s the thing:

How many of the merchants who exhort us all to “shop local” actually do so, themselves? How many of them take the cheapest way out? And how does that play?

We recently looked at an article in the Raleigh News and Observer,  about how crab pot manufacturers in coastal North Carolina were adapting to changing market conditions. How? By converting old crab pots into … Christmas trees. It’s a great article.

It even goes into why there is a surplus of crab pots, and why crab pot manufacturers  were going out of business, and why crab ‘fishermen’ and other types of local seafood snaggers were having real hard times. It really has nothing to do with the economy.

It’s because local merchants are screwing them. The local merchants, the same ones who extoll the virtues of North Carolina seafood, who expect the crabbers to ’shop local’ – don’t shop local themselves. They don’t buy North Carolina seafood. They buy it from overseas. Not only is it not ’shopping local’; it isn’t even shopping American.

And they seriously expect the local people to patronize their places of business.

But it gets even better.

The area where all this is happening is home to the North Carolina Seafood Festival.

Yeah. You got it. They are touting North Carolina seafood to the tourists, but they are feeding them Taiwanese shrimp and Malaysian crabcakes.

Ain’ t that a kick in the butt.

So the local businesses are killing off jobs by not shopping local … yet they expect those erstwhile customers to support them.

How’s that set with them?

Not well.

But it gets even better …

Here in southeastern Colorado, which is some seriously prime beef-raising country, we have heard a lot about how the Army is going to destroy the ranchers’ way of life. Their heritage. Their lifestyle.

Dozens of businesses have pledged support.  The Army has been run out of town on a rail.

How many of those local businesses that pledged support use local beef? How many of them get their beef through Sysco? How many of them actually ’shop local’?

Well … Black Jack’s Saloon, down in Trindad, serves up excellent steaks, provides a great atmosphere, and is well worth a visit. But the last time we had lunch there, they were using Sysco, not the local ranches, as a source of beef.

Doesn’t say much for local beef, does it? About as much as the NC Seafood Festival says for NC seafood.

How about here? How many of the merchants who want us to ’shop local’ actually shop local themselves?

This is one of those “the emperor ain’t wearin’ no clothes” things. I can practically guarantee you that we’ll get all kinds of hate mail, to the tune of  “‘you’re a public employee! you work for us! you owe it to us to shop local! you should be fired!”

I know this from past experience.

It’s unfortunate that this is the reaction.  It’s a ‘business as usual’ reaction, and it doesn’t fix anything. It’s a failure to recognize the effects of that ‘global economy’. Think about it. Businesses are going global. A restaurant in La Junta can buy shrimp, fish, or other seafood cheaper from sources on the other side of the world than it can from the Gulf coast or the south Atlantic coast. Think of the transportation system that supports that. Think of the communication systems that allow orders to be processed across oceans and continents, and across language and cultural barriers.

Yet our business community on the local level expects customers to continue to shop a 1955 market model.

It isn’t going to happen, and the longer merchants continue to expect it to happen, and the longer merchants continue to dream of  ‘how it used to be’, the worse the local economy is going to get. More businesses will dry up, more jobs will be lost, more people will move away.

When are the expectations of the small town commercial sector going to match the shopping habits and practices into which their customers have been forced? The global economy has changed the way they do business. It has also changed the way their customers shop. When are they going to recognize this and adapt to it?

And when are they going to stop blaming the customer for their lack of adaptation?

Tea time?

Here’s an interesting item:

Tea Party Movement evolves as political force

What started as a conservative protest klatch has evolved into a political force with enough muscle to potentially alter the course of the 2010 mid-term elections.

The “tea party” movement that gained steam shortly after President Obama took office is seeing a surge in popularity with a string of candidates and officials willing to take up its cause and a political infrastructure that’s starting to mirror that of an actual political party.

and

The Rasmussen poll spelled out the kind of vote-splitting trouble the tea party movement could stir if it forms a third party. It showed that 23 percent of people would pick a “Tea Party” candidate on a congressional ballot without knowing who that candidate is, while just 18 percent would pick the Republican. Thirty-six percent would pick a Democrat.

I’d sure vote for a Tea Party candidate over a Republican. And for sure over a Democrat.

Here’s an even more interesting tidbit:

The Republican Party would prefer to invite tea partiers into the fold rather than run against them in general elections, and this may force a change in the makeup of the GOP itself.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said his hope is that “we can all come together.”

“This is the conservative party of the country,” Steele said. “We offer that … political infrastructure, if you will, if you want to run for office or if you want to be involved politically. This is the best place to do it.”

Talk about missing the boat. Steele and his compadres still think the Republicans matter.

They don’t. Not in Congress, and not to a lot more voters than Steele seems to understand.

In that respect, Steele and the Republicans have much in common with Obama’s press secretary, “Giggles” Gibbs. You will recall that Gibbs MTV’d the Gallup poll that showed Obama’s numbers tanking.

I like Tea.

“Improvise … adapt … overcome”

Here is a great article on how the little people are coping with The New World Order:

Crab-pot makers turn traps to trees

Crabbing has been part of North Carolina’s seafood fishing industry for generations. Now, the New World Order is flushing that way of life down the toilet. Note the comments in the article:

“… At 66, Harvey has seen his fishing net business dry up, watched crab-pot demand fall from 3,000 to 300 a year and lived to see the landmark Sanitary Restaurant and Fish Market in Morehead City serve shrimp from Taiwan …”

and

It’s not just crabs. Geraldine Gaskill watched fishermen at Cedar Island pull in buckets of boatloads of scallops last season only to go begging at the restaurants in Morehead City and Beaufort. “They can get it cheaper off the Sysco truck,” she said.

and

“Our crab cakes, they come from Malaysia,” said David West, a chef at Sanitary Restaurant who makes trees part time for Fisherman Creations. “It’s all pasteurized. Don’t get me wrong. The seafood is good.

“It’s just not local.”

It’s just not local.

The Sanitary Restaurant and Fish Market is one of coastal North Carolina’s premier seafood restaurants. Or it was. We won’t be going there on our next visit.

It is also one of the sponsors of … The North Carolina Seafood Festival … which takes place every year in Morehead City.

This is the mission of the NC Seafood Festival:

* Promote the positive social and economic impact of the seafood industry on the citizens of North Carolina;
* Educate the public about seafood and its importance to the state economy;
* Publicize the wide variety of seafood indigenous to North Carolina and provide the opportunity for people to enjoy it;
* Boost tourism and recreation in eastern North Carolina in the non-summer months;
* Establish a scholarship program for educational pursuits related to the seafood industry;
* Provide the opportunity for North Carolina non-profit, civic, church, and educational organizations to raise funds through participation in the festival.

Yet the seafood businesses and related businesses sponsoring this thing don’t serve NC seafood. Because they can buy foreign seafood cheaper through Sysco.

Well I guess that’s good business.

Until the tourists find out.

See? Another example of business owners going on about ’shopping local’ … yet the business owners don’t shop local themselves. I pity that poor guy at Sanitary who let the cat out of the bag. I wonder if he still has a job.

I don’t think we’ll be spending any tourist bucks in Morehead City any time soon.

I can tell you that there is no comparison between real Core Sound shrimp and crabs in Davis, North Carolina, and farm-raised Taiwanese shrimp and Malaysian crab cakes in Morehead City, home of North Carolina’s so-called ’seafood festival’.

The people running those restaurants and businesses, and that sham called the North Carolina Seafood Festival should be ashamed of themselves.

“.. the Way and the Truth and the Life …”

“Steve”, one of our readers, has made this comment to the “Obama hosts White House Muslim Day of Prayer” post:

I find it amazing that folks tend to defend Muslim worship … but it’s the dastardly Christians that are just so evil. Christians are continually labled as hypocrits and many are; it’s just odd that no one points out the hypocricy of the “religion of peace”. Except perhaps this lady:
http://stevex09.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/wafa-sultan-debating-islamic-cleric/

“Steve” is in error on a couple of fronts. First, we here at Blogger Central have made a number of posts, some of them downright scathing, on “The Religion of Peace”. Searching WritingPlaces will demonstrate this. Second, many other bloggers, such as Michelle Malkin, have posted repeatedly on “The Religion of Peace”, and have correctly used the term as a facetious slapdown of Islamic fundamentalism.

But that’s the small potatoes.

What is more disturbing about “Steve’s” comment is his apparent distaste for ‘defending’ Muslim worship. From his other comments, we presume that “Steve” is a Christian, or at least identifies himself as one. We also presume from an admittedly limited context and syntax that “Steve” is an American (a politically incorrect term used by middle-aged white gasbags such as myself  to identify citizens of the United States). We are also presuming that “Steve” is white, also based on that context and syntax. I suppose that makes me racist middle-aged white gasbag as well as just politically incorrect. But we can discuss my social inadequacies some other time.

“Steve’s” viewpoint is a sterling testimonial for the concept of separation of church and state, and a sterling testimonial as to the lack of understanding of those ‘American values’ that American ‘Christians’, especially white ones, like to go on about.

“… defend Muslim worship …”

Yes, “Steve”, I will defend Muslim worship, just as I defend your Christian worship, no matter how hypocritically unsavory I often find both to be. That’s part of those “American values”, and it’s part of why I spent all that time in the armed forces of these United States, and it’s part of why I spent all those years as a police officer, cleaning up society’s messes and wiping the tears of victims of violence and rage, of intolerance and hate … all of which, , incidentally, were always justified as ‘righteous’ by the inflicters thereof.

Islamic worship in these United States is one of those God-given rights, even though which God is at play is somewhat murky. Generally, Islamic worship in this country is in fact peaceful. Generally, Christian worship in this country is in fact peaceful.

If Christians want to have one of those “Million Man” marches in Washington, DC, why shouldn’t they?

If Muslims want to have a Muslim National Day of Prayer in Washington, DC, why shouldn’t they?

Muslims have their fringe groups in this country, just as do Christians. Are they representative of all Muslims?

After all, the White Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan or whatever they call themselves can hold rallies.  After all, Fred Phelps and his perverted, hate-mongering “Christians” can insult veterans and their families, and spew hate-filled invective as they wish. After all, the Reverend Wright can spew his version of “Christian” love, along with all the rabble-rousing garbage from Reverend (what a joke) Jesse Jackson and his ilk. All in the name of Christ. Are these people representative of all Christians?

What is the difference between the White Christian Knights of the KKK bombing black churches, and members of the Sword and the Shield of Allah blowing up crowded buses? Both are driven by religious perversion.

Where we see the real lunacy of Islam is overseas, in the Middle East and in other countries that do not have a foundation in Rule of Law.  Where we see the real lunacy of Islam is in the Islamic republics; in those countries where government is driven by, controlled by, religion. Where we see the real lunacy of Islam is where a corrupt culture perverts the religious teachings, where morally corrupt clerics drive the hate based on selective extractions from the Koran. We see the same mindset with the likes of Fred Phelps and his selective extractions from the Bible. The difference is that in this country, people like Phelps cannot get a sufficient hold to be more than an aggravation, or in the case of the KKK and its version of Christianity, any more than a series of criminal episodes. It is the rule of law and the separation of church and state that keeps it so. It is rule of law and the separation of church and state that keeps Christians in check.  A “Christian Republic” is as much an insult to God as is an “Islamic Republic”. God save us from ’selective literalists’.

“… true and saving religion consists in the inward persuasion of the mind, without which nothing can be acceptable to God.” – John Locke

“… God is not pleased when people believe because they have to. God wants people to believe because that is what they desire.” - Alicia Gossman-Steeves

The concept of separation of church and state prevents them from going any further than ranting their mindless rhetoric and spamming the world with it. Whenever a religion, any religion, gains control of a government, or even sufficient influence if not official government status, religious lunacy will prevail. Even with Christianity. The hints of it are in the irrational spamming that started this discussion with “Obama hosts White House Muslim Day of Prayer”, a series of lies and factual error deliberately designed to stir that lunacy. The truth of it lies in the history of Christianity, whenever Christianity has been able to drive the government. The hands of Christians down through the ages are not anointed with the Blood of the Lamb, but are dripping the blood of innocents … just as we see dripping today from the hands of Islamic fundamentalists.  Do we really want that kind of thinking, driven by irrational religious zealotry, willing to spread lies, willing to oppress and browbeat anyone not seen as a True Believer in The One True God, as the power behind our government? Don’t we have enough trouble with the secular government we have? Does anyone really think the type of attitudes and behaviors we are seeing from American “Christians” are morally superior to what we have?

Christ is “.. the Way and the Truth and the Life …”.  He is the Light of the world.  His followers would do well to remember that. If they ever truly understood it. From the frenzied, hateful rhetoric being spread in his name by those followers, I don’t think they do.  The decline of the Christian church in America is not due to the influence of an immoral liberal left but rather to the example set by America’s ‘Christians” … the Pharisees of modern times.

Where’s the Christian outrage

While our Christian brethren and sistren are busying themselves with spamming with world with that “Obama sponsored Muslim National Day of Prayer” stupidity …  we have this:

Obama’s safe schools czar tied to lewd readings for 7th graders

“By first grade I was sexually active with many friends. In fact, a small group of us regularly met in the grammar school lavatory to perform fellatio on one another. A typical week’s schedule would be Aaron and Michael on Monday during lunch; Michael and Johnny on Tuesday after school; Fred and Timmy at noon Wednesday; Aaron and Timmy after school on Thursday. None of us ever got caught, but we never worried about it anyway.”

“Reflections of a Rock Lobster” was recommended in 1995, the year Jennings became GLSEN’s first executive director; “Passages of Pride” made the list in 1997 and “Queer 13″ in 1999. Those are just three out of over 100 books that GLSEN has recommended for students in grades 7-12 since 1990, and all three remain on GLSEN’s recommended reading list.

Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, says the content of the books is shocking, and it raises concerns about Jennings’ judgment.

“The graphic sexual content of these books is so extreme that I think any average parent or citizen, regardless of how they feel about homosexuality, would be shocked at these books being recommended to young people,” Sprigg said.

Shocked.

Ya think?

You see? There’s enough out there to be outraged about that is really attributable to Obama and his regime. You don’t have to make it up.

Christmas traditions

Why are some traditions repeated year after year at Christmas? Here are some reasons behind the traditions that have been held dear for centuries:

Origin: Mention of celebrating the birth of Christ did not appear in church literature until 200 C.E. and there are two theories as to why Dec. 25 was chosen, according to “Biblical Archaeology Review.” The most noted reason is that the date was borrowed as a substitute for pagan celebrations taking place during that time of the year (this was suggested in the 12th century). The second is that Dec. 25 is nine months after March 25, which is the Feast of the Annunciation, or the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. The second reasoning seems to have existed in the 200s.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: the period between Dec. 25 and Jan. 6 (Epiphany).

Nativity set: St. Francis of Assisi created the first living Nativity in 1223 because he wanted to enact the birth of Christ “in all of its impoverished glory” (www.livingcatholicism.com). Before this, mangers bedecked in jewels and gold were set out in churches to represent the king who laid there. Living Nativity enactments continue to this day and there are many different types of sets available for purchase. Many people display the entire set throughout the season, but others try to be more realistic by adding certain characters on certain dates (for example, they place Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas day and add the wise men around Epiphany).

Santa Claus: The legend of Santa Claus is derived from the beneficent character of Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna, who lived in the 4th century A.D, in what is now modern Turkey. Bishop Nicholas used to give gifts to poor children to encourage them. Bishop Nicholas was later named a saint and became the patron saint of children and seafarers (www.historyofchristmas.net)

Wreath: Hanging a wreath at Christmas is also a century’s old tradition. “Most wreathes are circular, and the circle has long been symbolic of the unbroken span of eternity, as well as the circular nature of life itself. Used in mid December at the time of the Winter Solstice, the circle symbolizes the certainty that the endless cycle of seasons will once again bring the return of light,” Elisabeth Ginsburg wrote on www.naturehills.com. Both the Romans and the Germans used this tradition in their homes and early Christians adopted it as a symbol of life and eternity.

Trees: Since ancient times, people have been using greenery to brighten their homes during winter to remind them that spring was coming and to stave off evil spirits and sickness. In 19th century Germany, devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes as a symbol of hope and faith. It is also said that Protestant Reformer Martin Luther first used candles on his Christmas tree after taking inspiration on a starlit evening. Christmas trees became popular in America after German-born Prince Albert, Queen Victoria of England and their family posed before a Christmas tree for a newspaper sketch. Because Queen Victoria was so popular, fashion conscious East Coast observers brought the concept to America (www.history.com).

Holly: According to allthingschristmas.com, legend has it that holly plants sprang up from the earth wherever Christ stepped. “The pointed leaves were said to represent the crown of thorns Christ wore while on the cross and the red berries symbolized the blood he shed,” the Web site said.

Stockings: “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care …” Clement Clarke Moore wrote in his famous poem “The Night Before Christmas.” But why? This story comes from ancient times when the generous St. Nicholas heard the plight of three young women whose mother had died and their father could not afford a dowry so that they could get married. The young women, who did all of their own chores, used to hang their stockings by the fire to dry. One night, while the family was sleeping, Saint Nicholas placed a bag of gold into each one, thus giving the father enough money to afford a marriage for each daughter. Since then, children have been hanging Christmas stockings “in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there” (www.allthingschristmas.com).

Mistletoe: Mistletoe has always been revered because it had no roots and stayed green all winter. Ancient cultures believed that mistletoe had “magical healing powers and used it as an antidote for poison, infertility and to ward off evil spirits” (www.allthingschristmas.com). The Romans saw the plant as a symbol of peace and Scandanavians associated the plant with Frigga, their goddess of love. “Those who kissed under the mistletoe had the promise of happiness and good luck in the following year” (www.allthingschristmas.com).

Candy Canes: This sweet treat has been around since the 17th century, despite what anyone tells you about a candy maker from Indiana who wanted to create a candy that symbolized his faith. It’s a nice story, but that’s all it is. Folks from Europe began decorating their Christmas trees with cookies and candy confections, including straight white sugary sticks called candy canes. The red stripes were not added until the 20th century. The one religious connection may be found in a legend that says that candy canes were shaped into crooks to represent the shepherds. These crooks were passed out to children during the living nativity scene at the request of the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany so that they would be quiet (www.allthingschristmas.com and www.snopes.com).

“Xmas”: Should Christians be alarmed when the term “Xmas” is used? Absolutely not. The letter X represents the Greek letter “chi,” which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. The symbol is similar to the letter “X” in the modern Roman alphabet. “The usage is nearly as old as Christianity itself,” according to Snopes.com.

“A non-religious Christmas?”

On a recent Christmas shopping trip, an interesting thing happened.  I was making my purchase and before leaving I said “Have a Merry Christmas” to the friendly clerk.

“Thank you!” she said enthusiastically. This happened more than once that day. In almost every store in which we shopped, the clerks did not wish us a Merry Christmas, but joyfully received our good tidings.

For years, the common greeting “Merry Christmas” has been scorned for its religious overtones and this year the adjective “non-religious” seems to have been attached to the Christmas season.

For example, in the New York Times there is an article describing how the White House’s current social director told former social directors that the Obamas would not be using the traditional creche in the East Room. The reason? The Obamas wanted to celebrate a non-religious holiday this year. The article said that there was an audible gasp from the audience. To keep a long story short, the creche is in its traditional location once again.

In the Los Angeles Times there was an article about humanists groups launching a $40,000 ad campaign that says “No God? No Problem.” Smiling people — some wearing Santa hats — adorned the brightly colored ad. There is even a Web site so that other humanists will know that they’re not alone.

Christmas without God. This is an unattractive yet interesting concept to someone who has spent most of her life in church. How can you have a “non-religious” holiday that is based on one of the most significant religious events in human history?  I don’t, however, feel threatened by the concept. After all, we live in a pluralistic society in which everyone is supposed to respect each other.

The problem is we don’t.

How many times have we heard about Christian groups who are “outraged” over, say, an ad, a movie or a book? There is name calling, vandalism and rage all in the name of Christ. Christian groups even attack stores that don’t say “Merry Christmas.”

On the other side of the coin, some groups want to erase Christianity from our culture.  The Obamas didn’t want to celebrate a “religious” holiday because they wanted to be “inclusive.” How does that fit? We exclude one group — a group that has great significance to our history  — while including all the others? That doesn’t make sense.

According to the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, approximately 78 percent of the population considers themselves “Christian.”  Only 4.7 percent categorize themselves under “other religions” and 16.1 percent consider themselves “unaffiliated.” If such a large percentage of the population aligns themselves with a certain way of thinking and living, why are their fellow Americans attempting to shove them aside? That is definitely not what the founding fathers had in mind constitutionally speaking, and everyone – Christians, non-Christians, atheists, and even Presidents – really must keep that in mind.

So this Christmas season, I still intend to bid others a “Merry Christmas.” If someone chooses not to wish me the same, I’ll respect that, but I hope that they respect me as well. If someone chooses to celebrate the season without God, that’s their prerogative. However, I agree with what Rabbi Elliot Dorff told the Los Angeles Times: “They are depriving themselves of some really rich resources for moral insight.” Merry Christmas, everyone!

Obama hosts Muslim Prayer Day in the White House!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that’s what the “Christians” are spreading around on the Internet now, in a spirit of Christian love as they move to celebrate the birth of  Christ. Unfortunately, like pretty much all of the crap that the Christian Right spreads around, it is exactly that. Crap.

It is true, however,  that The Obamessiah  is guilty as charged by our self-righteous moral watchdogs. He did in fact cancel the National Day of Prayer service:

Obama cancels National Day of Prayer service

For once, he did the right thing. While Truman inaugurated the National Day of Prayer, it is only Bush and Reagan who made it an official White House religious service. An ‘ecumenical service’.

Obama observed:

“For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers.”

Which is true. Bush invited Protestants (who have a lock on the One True God, who is, after all, a registered Republican if I understand Dobson correctly), Catholics (who are not really ‘real’ Christians if I understand the position of many Protestants correctly, being but one step removed from Mormons, JW’s, and other heathen pretenders), and Jews (whom we all know about from those paragons of Christian values, the KKK – “bringing a message of hope and deliverance to White Christian America” – and Fred Phelps of www.godhatesfags.com).

Of course, when he canceled the service, the Christian Fundies went alpha sierra, throwing fits, gnashing their teeth in presumably literal as well as figurative sense, and exuding hate and discontent, all in Christ’s name. I’m not sure who they decided to boycott and drive out of business, but I’m sure they must have drawn a Target on someone. They always do. (waiting now for someone to point out that Christ Targeted, with premeditated malice aforethought, the money-lenders in the temple … so boycotting Godless heathen wishers of “Happy Holidays” is somehow Scripturally justified …).

Meanwhile … where were we … ah … the Godless heathens who are ruining our Christian nation …

Obama and the National Day of Prayer

The National Day of Prayer Task Force, a privately funded organization that focuses on mobilizing the Christian community, says it’s disappointed in this year’s toned down observance, but other groups say the president needs to go a step farther — and ignore the day altogether.

“It’s not his job to tell people to pray,” said David Silverman, national spokesperson for the organization American Atheists.
“We are very happy he did away with the George W. Bush-era celebrations and party, but we wish he wouldn’t do it at all. … When church and state are separate, separate is separate,” he said.

Well … that raises another stink, doesn’t it. Silverman, like many of his brethren, has difficulty with that ’separation’ thing. He sees it as black and white (no relationship to the KKK and Fred Phelps thing mentioned earlier), when in fact it is not. For more on this, I direct your attention to:

A ‘non-religious’ Christmas, which examines the difference between ‘de-religiousing’ a religious holiday in the name of political correctness and the state endorsing religion

and

Separation of church and state which led Stan Riley to a state of emotional apoplexy and caused him to pass judgment on Leece’s ‘fitness’ as a ‘Christian’ for having dared to fail to accept his sanctimonious position on the subject: “I thought you were at one time a Nazarene …”… thereby demonstrating the pastorate’s capacity for pompous asininity.

Was Bush’s ‘ecumenical’ service sufficiently diverse to present the counter-argument that he – as President – was not endorsing a specific religion, and using his influence to peddle same? I would think so, but what do I know, being a simple-minded Separatist myself, and not a learned ’selective literalist’ student of Scripture, who can pick and choose what Biblical aspect is going to be shoved down everyone’s throats today.

As for the Muslim ceremony at the White House … unfortunately for the Rumor Mill, Obama did no such thing. But on September 25, Muslims organized their own “National Prayer Day”, which was held without White House sanction outside the White House, actually over on Capitol Hill, on public property. The nerve of those people, exercising that First Amendment thing. You would think they would know their place as second- or even third-class citizens, not being, like, you know, ‘Christians’ (aka ‘real’ Americans) and go back to their mosques or whatever.

When The Obamessiah canceled the service at the White House on the real National Day of Prayer, some of our local pastors, in a fit of Christian understanding and love, threw royal shit fits here in town, taking their own opportunities to politicize Christ and religion. But that’s another story for another time …

Go in peace, swaddled in Christ’s love and forgiveness. Would that it were that easy … it’s 12 days to Christmas, and like many Americans, I am sick to death of  ‘Christians’.

The nation’s credit card

We all know that credit cards can be fiscal death to individuals and families.

When you max one out, you can always get another one. Or you can raise the limits on the one you have, and then max it out again.

You can max out the cards and be faced with years and years of making minimum payments, plus all that interest. It’s fiscal hell.

You can go bankrupt to get out from under it.

That’s what the Democrats want to do:

Republicans try to freeze national debt limit

with the Repubs trying – almost certainly unsuccessfully – to stop it.

The Dems want to raise the debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion. Why so much, right now? Because then they won’t ‘have’ to do it again in 2010. That way, it won’t be a campaign issue, because they think that We the People are so incredibly stupid, and possessed of such short attention spans, that we will have forgotten it. That’s another measure of the arrogance of our CongressClowns.

What is the position of our Three Stooges – John Salazar, Mike Bennet, and Mark Udall – on this? Do they max out their personal credit cards? Is that how they manage their personal finances?

Then why are they doing it to the nation?

Can anyone explain their thinking in any way that makes sense?

From the article:

For now, it appears Democrats are driving ahead with the move to combine legislation raising the debt limit with a bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans also don’t have the numbers to pass the Scalise bill without Democratic support, and Bolar said none of the co-sponsors are Democrats.

“We have already raised it in the House but we need to have a vehicle so that the Senate can vote on it, and it is our intention to have something on the Department of Defense bill next week,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference Thursday.

But Democrats could face a difficult task in folding the measure into the Defense spending bill, since House rules make that tricky and because attaching a debt measure to a troops funding bill is unpalatable to some lawmakers.

“They have made a habit of taking defense appropriation bills, bills that fund the support of our troops, and adding on there the most distasteful things they can think of, trying to make sure they get it passed on the backs of our soldiers,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “It’s a bad way of doing business.”

Yes, it is. It doesn’t bother Nancy Pelosi, however. She is perfectly willing to screw over the troops with a cheap political shot.

Our Speaker of the House. A cheap political hack, willing to use the men and women of the armed forces as political pawns.

Obama and free speech

From Chris Muir’s “Day by Day”:

Breathless

No more CSAP?

I don’t know about you, but I see CSAP as an exercise in self-serving BS that tends quite strongly to result in less time in the classroom for kids, and more ‘planning’ days for teachers, though what is actually ‘planned’ often escapes me.

Here is a more articulate view of CSAP, with which I agree:

What’s the AIM of the CSAP?

Note that this is written by a teacher, an Australian teacher who was here on an International Teaching Fellowship:

In 2006 I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of an International Teaching Fellowship to Colorado, USA. My host school Lumberg Elementary was located in the small suburb of Edgewater. The City of Edgewater, just 1 mile square, is located in Jefferson County and has an approximate population of 5,211. The school population of 546 comprised approximately 396 Hispanic students with 80.6% of the student population being classified as minority.

Though this summation was written back in 2006, I think it is just as applicable today, if not more so.

So where are we going with this?

Just here:

Hollywood and Howard Zinn’s Marxist education project

Some salient excerpts:

The two most important questions for society, according to the Greek philosopher Plato, are these: What will we teach our children? And who will teach them? Left-wing celebrities have teamed up with one of America’s most radical historians to take control of the classroom in the name of “social justice.” Parents, beware: This Hollywood-backed Marxist education project may be coming to a school near you.

On Sunday, December 13, the History Channel will air “The People Speak” – a documentary based on Marxist academic Howard Zinn’s capitalism-bashing, America-dissing, grievance-mongering history textbook, “A People’s History of the United States.” The film was co-produced/written/bankrolled by Zinn’s Boston neighbor and mentee Matt Damon. An all-star cast of Bush-bashing liberals including Danny Glover, Josh Brolin, Bruce Springsteen, Marisa Tomei, and Eddie Vedder, will appear. Zinn’s work is a self-proclaimed “biased account” of American history that rails against white oppressors, the free market, and the military.

and:

No part of the school curriculum is immune from the social justice makeover crew. Zinn’s partners at Rethinking Schools have even issued teaching guides to “Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers” – which rejects the traditional white male patriarchal methods of teaching computation and statistics in favor of p.c.-ified number-crunching:

“Rethinking Mathematics is divided into four parts. The first part is devoted to a broad view of mathematics that includes historical and cultural implications. Part Two includes nine classroom narratives in which teachers describe lessons they have used that infuse social justice issues into their mathematics curriculum. Included here…an AP calculus lesson on income distribution. The third part contains three detailed classroom experiences/lessons. These include a physical depiction of the inequitable distribution of the world’s wealth, the results of a student investigation into how many U.S. Presidents owned slaves, and a wonderful classroom game called ‘Transnational Capital Auction’ in which students take on the role of leaders of Third World countries bidding competitively for new factories from a multinational corporation.

Short lessons, provocative cartoons, and snippets of statistics are scattered throughout Rethinking Mathematics. A partial list of topics includes racial profiling, unemployment rate calculation, the war in Iraq, environmental racism, globalization, wealth distribution and poverty, wheelchair ramps, urban density, HIV/AIDS, deconstructing Barbie, junk food advertising to children, and lotteries.”

Now that’s something that will really keep this nation competitive in the New World Order, isn’t it? Of course, they don’t want us ‘competitive’; that’s entirely too nationalistic.

Here’s another example, this one “Rethinking Thanksgiving” by Vera Stenhouse:

Confronting racism, injustice, prejudice, and stereotypes through a consciousness-raising education is a far cry from the fun-filled, feel-good activities characteristic of how schools approach holidays. With respect to indigenous peoples, I want my students to acknowledge the diverse and unique traditions among Native American cultures and to explore the historic and contemporary legacy of colonial intrusion, brutality, and cultural ignorance. As a teacher educator, I seek to invite my students on a journey of interrogating the fallacy of the “standard” curriculum as neutral and push them to develop an understanding of official knowledge as politically constructed and contestable. Critiquing received fact, such as the first Thanksgiving, is an integral piece of an overall critical approach to teaching and learning. I want my students to recognize that the histories of indigenous peoples have been subverted, silenced, and misrepresented in the curriculum. Equally important: I want my students to recognize that we can do something about it.

Stenhouse is correct when she notes that there was ‘colonial intrusion, brutality, and cultural ignorance’, and that much of what has been taught about American history has been sharply skewed. However, she gives the very solid impression that Native Americans lived in an Eden-like paradise, filled with peace and tranquility … until the Evil Ones arrived. She makes no note of continual inter-tribal warfare, tribal land grabs, famine and starvation or any of the reset of the benefits of living in primitive (perhaps ‘non-technologically-oriented’ would be more politically correct) tribal societies, many of whom supported strong warrior hierarchies. Why would they need warriors in their bucolic, pre-European invasion existence? Conveniently, Stenhouse doesn’t get into that; she is too busy presenting her one equally one-sided version of American history.

It seems that our schools are always coming up with something ‘new’ that will solve all of our kids’ educational deficiencies. Let’s not let them find that ’solution’ to be Zinn and his collection of Marxist revisionists.

More political sleaze …

You’d have to be living on Mars not to be aware of the continuing saga of “Chasing Tiger’s Tail” (pun intended). Tiger Woods, that paragon of sportsmanlike virtue, an Ultimate Role Model, has been banging – allegedly – an entire stable of babes, ranging from night club waitresses to porn stars.

Tacky stuff.

But wait! There’s more … this having nothing to do with Tiger’s Tail. This has to do with Senator Max Baucus, who has dumped his wife of 25 years and who is now shacked up with one of those ‘administrative assistants’:

Report: Baucus’ Girlfriend Worked on His Divorce While on His Staff

Yep. Baucus had his shack rat working on the divorce … while he was busy keeping his wife in the dark over both the impending divorce and the shack rat.

This is our national leadership.

This is the two-timing, sleazebag scum that is so busy burying the country in debt that you have to wonder how he can find the time to get a little dew on the lily, in a manner of speaking.

But wait! There’s even more!

Hanes, the shack rat, was Baucus’ nominee to be a US Attorney … at least until he got bagged. It’s the same kind of thinking we saw with all those Obama nominees and their tax ‘issues’.

That revelation, reported by Lee Newspapers on Thursday, adds a twist of intrigue to a story that broke last week when Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, acknowledged to Mainjustice.com that he was in a relationship with Hanes when he nominated her for U.S. attorney.
Baucus has been on the defensive ever since as details have emerged, including a Politico report Friday that Baucus gave Hanes a $14,000 raise last year and took her on a government-funded trip to Asia and the Middle East.
Hanes withdrew her nomination in March and now works at the Justice Department; she and Baucus, both divorced, now live together in Washington.

Our marvelous national leadership … our future is in their hands …

“Obama’s Jekyll and Hyde Nobel Speech”

Oh … this is  really good:

Obama’s Jekyll and Hyde speech

I loved this excerpt:

He began his speech by admitting his award was not for any achievement toward peace, but his “aspiration” to obtain peace. Upon hearing that, my 12-year-old asked me if he could receive an A on his math test not because he passed it, but because he aspired to pass it.

Having better sense than a Nobel committee member, I told him no.

and then:

It has been noted by some that over the last decade the Peace Prize is lately been given to people for “not being George Bush” (see Carter, Gore and El-Baradei). Yet on the issue of war, the Nobel Committee was hoping for “Bush minus” not “Bush squared.”

Obama has proved to be “Bush on steroids” when it comes to war. Since winning the Peace Prize he has not created any peace but he’s tripled the amount of troops in Afghanistan that Bush left him with. In his speech today Obama noted that those soldiers will both “kill and be killed.” One has to wonder if Gandhi, mentioned by Obama in his speech (who never won the Peace Prize himself) would disagree about killing being in any way “peaceful.”

Note that Obama has shown no compunction whatsoever regarding the use of drones; in fact, his sidekick Joltin’ Joe Biden wants to use drones as the primary means of fighting Al Quaeda. The collateral damage (read that ‘dead civilians’) has been shocking … yet where is the outrage from CNN? From MSNBC? Whenever there was ‘collateral damage’ from such strikes during “Bush’s war”, the mainstream media, Hollywood’s political experts, and the likes of Pelosi, Reid, and the rest went alpha sierra. Apparently Pakistani and Afghan civilians are more expendable by the lights of the Democratic Party.

Obama green-lights expansion of Pakistan drone program

Tell me how expanding a program known to have a high kill rate on civilians is morally superior to ‘torturing’ terrorists? Apparently moral superiority or lack thereof is based on one’s politics. It’s also useful to have a very pliable and morally flexible Attorney General in your pocket when it comes to evaluating what constitutes ‘war crimes’ and ‘torture’ and such-like.

Obama’s policy means more bombs, more drone attacks and more bloodshed in the region‘.

The Obama view of America

From Michael Ramirez:

Nobody knows da trubbles I seen …”

Once Obama’s EPA has finished crapping all over the American economy, and once the Democrats have fleeced everything they can out of the pockets of the middle class … this is a fairly accurate picture of where we’ll be.

Obama’s rape of the middle class

Get Ready for Health Care ‘Sticker Shock’

Have your checkbooks and credit cards ready. There’s a price for health care security — particularly for solid middle-class households, who wouldn’t get much help with premiums.

We in the middle class aren’t going to be all that solid once Obama and the Democratic Party are done bleeding us dry, sucking the economic lifeblood out of us to pay for all their hare-brained schemes … once the EPA destroys the American economy and we get stuck with the bill for the rest of Amateur Night at the White House.

Health care overhaul now looks like it really will happen, with a compromise coming together in the Senate to give uninsured Americans options they’ve never had before. But it won’t be a free ride.

Have your checkbooks and credit cards ready. There’s a price for health care security — particularly for solid middle-class households, who wouldn’t get much help with premiums.

President Barack Obama hailed the Senate agreement Wednesday, building expectations that the yearlong fight over revamping health care had finally come down to the bill now emerging.

Our Three Stooges – Obama’s stooges – John Salazar, Mike Bennet, and Mark Udall – are all on board, sucking down the purple Kool-Aid by the gallon. Don’t expect any support for the middle class from that collection of self-serving sycophantic political whores.

AARP has sold itself to the devil by endorsing ObamaCare:

The rest of the financing would come mainly from cuts in federal payments to insurers, hospitals, home health care agencies and other medical providers serving Medicare.

Preventive benefits for seniors would be improved. So would prescription coverage. But people enrolled in private plans through the Medicare Advantage program are likely to see higher out-of-pocket costs and reduced benefits as overpayments to insurers are scaled back.

and

And what about Medicare? It is widely accepted, with 74 percent of doctors saying in a recent survey that they’re taking most or all new Medicare patients. But buying into Medicare won’t be cheap, about $7,600 a year not counting out-of-pocket costs for deductibles and copayments.

We already have some local docs opting out of Medicare, not accepting new patients and telling existing ones they aren’t taking it any more. If you don’t believe that, ask your doc about it.

I was an AARP member until last week, when I sent them my shredded membership card and told them where to shove their membership.

Time to vote these buffoons out of office while we still have the remnants of our country to rebuild.

Oh … a year into it, and Obama is still blaming … Bush.

Sorry, Barry … that’s a dog that don’t hunt.

“… command and control …”

That’s from the EPA, which is threatening the United States Congress, and by extension, We the People:

The Obama administration is warning Congress that if it doesn’t move to regulate greenhouse gases, the Environmental Protection Agency will take a “command-and-control” role over the process in a way that could hurt business.

The warning, from a top White House economic official who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity, came on the eve of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s address to the international conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jackson, however, tried to strike a tone of cooperation in her address Wednesday, explaining that the EPA’s new powers to regulate greenhouse gases will be used to complement legislation pending in Congress, not replace it.

“This is not an ‘either-or’ moment. It’s a ‘both-and’ moment,” she said.

But while administration officials have long said they prefer Congress take action on climate change, the economic official who spoke with reporters Tuesday night made clear that the EPA will not wait and is prepared to act on its own.

And it won’t be pretty.

“If you don’t pass this legislation, then … the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area,” the official said. “And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it’s going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty.”

That is from a top economic official in the Obama regime.

Charles Krauthammer referred to it this evening, on “Special Report”, as a “Constitutional obscenity”.

The White House – and Obama – have not backed away from that comment. So we can presume it was said with Obama’s approval. In fact, most reports have it as the White House warning Congress that they are going to essentially turn loose the EPA dogs.

What does it mean? It means that a government regulatory agency – not the Congress – is going to ram another huge crap sandwich down our throats, and apparently, they believe there is nothing we can do about it. This is a collection of clerks and bureaucrats deciding to pretty much knock the foundation out from under the American economy.

That fits with “Giggles” Gibbs childishly petulant dismissal of the Gallup Poll earlier this week.

Obama says his priority is creating jobs. Yet we have this from his administration:

The economic official explained that congressional action could be better for the economy, since it would provide “compensation” for higher energy prices, especially for small businesses dealing with those higher energy costs. Otherwise, the official warned that the kind of “uncertainty” generated by unilateral EPA action would be a huge “deterrent to investment,” in an economy already desperate for jobs.

Is that more of that Obamanian acting ‘boldly and swiftly’?

BTW … from 1996, in the City Business Journal:

EPA supports more market incentives, less command-and-control

Pooh-poohing the Gallup Poll

The latest Gallup Poll shows Obama with a 47% approval rating … the lowest of any president at this point in his term since Gallup started polling. Here is an excerpt from the FoxNews article:

– George W. Bush, 86 percent
– Bill Clinton, 52 percent
– George H.W. Bush, 71 percent
– Ronald Reagan, 49 percent
– Jimmy Carter, 57 percent
– Gerald Ford, 52 percent
– Richard Nixon, 59 percent
– Lyndon Johnson, 74 percent
– John Kennedy, 77 percent
– Dwight Eisenhower, 69 percent
– Harry Truman, 49 percent

White House Press Secretary Robert “Giggles” Gibbs rather predictably pooh-poohed the whole thing:

“If I was a heart patient and Gallup was my EKG, I’d visit my doctor,” Gibbs told reporters. “Five days ago there was an 11-point spread, now there is a 1-point spread. I’m sure a six-year-old with a Crayon could do something not unlike that. I don’t put a lot of stake in, never have, in the EKG that is daily Gallup trend. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the meaninglessness of it.”

That’s from our White House. That’s the best these amateurs can do. Gibbs sounds like he’s throwing down with one of the freshman in the halls of La Junta High School rather than issuing a comment on behalf of the President of the United States.

The poll results reflect this observation from Eric Mextas, in his article on the White House’s original plan to ban Christ from the White House Christmas:

In the next sentence we learn that this radical idea was eventually scotched. (Perhaps the “audible gasp” from the bipartisan audience tipped them off.) But the fact that it was going to happen reveals a level of political tone-deafness in the current administration that is staggering. To most average Americans — who did not grow up in an Ivy-League, inside-the-Beltway hothouse governed by the rules of the French Revolution — the idea of keeping Jesus out of “the people’s house” at Christmas evokes disturbing images of the Holy Family being turned away from the Inn, or worse yet, images of Herod. But to a super-secular White House afraid to offend anyone — except for average Americans — it probably just seemed like another fab “progressive” innovation.

It’s amazing how allegedly ‘professional’ politicians can continually tell a major block of the voting public that they don’t matter. Not only that they do not matter, but demonstrate that they also hold those voters in complete contempt. The Democrats may still be swilling the purple Kool-Aid, but the Independents are not. Obama and “Giggles” Gibbs and the rest of the Chikaga gang now infesting the White House really ought to pay more attention to the numbers; the last election was no landslide. George Bush made the mistake of thinking his narrow victory gave him a mandate. The Dems may get away with selling the country to the Chinese, screwing the Medicare crowd, and giving away billions and billions and billions to Obama’s purple-shirted mafia … but they really should keep the mid-terms in mind, and they really should remember that Obama is not guaranteed a second term.

“Wanted – Dead or Alive!”

OK … so they didn’t go quite that far, but you gotta wonder … if they thought they could get away with it, would they have done so?

The Wanted poster for US Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue is a story fading fast in the wake of the most recent Baghdad bombings, the Democrats’ latest end run with their ‘watered down’ so-called ‘public option’ … and of course, the latest hoo-hah from Tiger Woods.

Nonetheless, the story is an excellent bit of insight into the mentality of the far left:

A network of liberal groups known as Velvet Revolution started an ad campaign offering $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man whose trade organization has become a thorn in the side of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

Donohue and the Chamber of Commerce, having failed to fall into lockstep with the Obamanians over The One’s plans to Make Us All One World, have made the leftie hit list. It’s like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi – and Obama: if you fail to drink the purple Kool-Aid, they will do everything they can to destroy you. In Donohue’s case, they are putting up a reward for every muckraker, sleazebag, and tabloid (yeah, we’re a bit redundant this morning) to make Donohue’s life miserable.

It’s the New American Way under Obama and the Democrats. That’s not to say it hasn’t been done – just take a look at any Congressional or presidential election – but these bozos are taking it to new heights.

Harry is remarkably quiet this morning. Perhaps he is exhausted from his anti-slavery rants from earlier this week. And has anyone heard from Nancy Pelosi lately?

Harry snaps his shower cap …

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago.

The Nevada Democrat, in a sweeping set of accusations on the Senate floor, also compared health care foes to those who opposed women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement — even though it was Sen. Strom Thurmond, then a Democrat, who unsuccessfully tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and it was Republicans who led the charge against slavery.

Where do we find these idiots? And how are they elected? And re-elected? And re-re-elected ad nauseam?

Well … take a look at Facebook, and you will know. Facebook, like an endless roll of virtual toilet paper, is where Americans of all kinds scribble inanities, play games authored by people so illiterate they take butchering grammar and spelling to new heights, and generally demonstrate exactly the reasoning and thinking – or lack thereof – that elected Obama and keeps the likes of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, et al and ad nauseam, in office. But that’s another story.

What we are seeing with Harry is exactly what Obama means when he babbles on about “bipartisanship”.

You swallow the Obamanian crap sandwich without question, or you find yourself subjected to endless incoherent attacks, like Harry’s latest, which demonstrate a complete lack of knowledge about our history, about fact, about logic, about reason.

Meanwhile, Obama’s henchmen in ACORN have gotten a whitewash by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger:

“We did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff involved; in fact, no action, illegal or otherwise, was ever taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers,” Harshbarger said in a statement. “Instead, the videos represent the byproduct of ACORN’s longstanding management weaknesses, including a lack of training, a lack of procedures and a lack of on-site supervision.”

Filmmaker James O’Keefe, who posed as a pimp on the videos along with purported prostitute Hannah Giles, dismissed the report on Monday.

“They probably didn’t find anything wrong because Harshbarger probably spent more time investigating me than ACORN,” O’Keefe told FoxNews.com. “The videos speak for themselves, really. Just watch the videos, the content is all there. You’ll see the illicit conduct on the videos.”

Yes, the videos speak for themselves. ACORN workers were quite willing to aid and abet trafficking in juvenile females for prostitution; they were quite willing to cheat the tax laws. It’s interesting, however, that Harshbarger refers to ACORN’s “… longstanding management weaknesses …” because whenever this was brought up in the past, it was all shoved under the carpet.

Facts. Let’s not confuse the Democrats which such inconsequential trivia.