How was your summer?

This summer I played golf, spent time on Spanish beaches, enjoyed the coast of Maine, and, of course, went to Martha's Vineyard. Didn't everyone?




A few numbers, courtesy of Keith Hennessey's piece last month in the New York Daily News:

Average unemployment under Carter: 6.5%
Average unemployment under Clinton: 5.2%
Average unemployment under Bush: 5.3%
Current unemployment under Obama: 9.6%

But Obama assures us we've been in a Recovery Summer and everything is moving in the right direction. What is the right direction?

- $862 billion stimulus with nothing to show for it
- $788 billion health care already costing individuals and businesses more
- $2.5 trillion more in debt since Obama took office

And free trade agreements with our allies that should have been sent to Congress for approval, but instead sit on his desk while he plays golf, vacations, and talks to the women on The View.

Signed free trade agreements with allies Colombia, Panama, and Korea have not been ratified by Congress because the President has not submitted them for approval. For 18 months, all three have sat in his inbox.

What is Obama's answer to the Recession that keeps looking more and more like a Depression? Why, roads, of course. Build more roads!
He's announced another stimulus, $50 billion, to go toward roads, railroads, and runways. The first $862 billion toward roads and "shovel-ready" jobs worked so well, as is apparent by the dropping house prices, declining consumer confidence, mounting unemployment, and out of control deficit spending, we're going to play it again Sam.

They recently repaved a highway not far from my house. I have no idea why. It was a great highway. Quite nice, actually. No pot holes. No cracks. Fairly new. Next thing I know, they're ripping up the entire thing for miles and laying new asphalt. Now nearly done, the only discernible difference is that the road is a different color.

Forget personal success, the realization of dreams, freedom to make my own spending decisions, less red-tape as a self-employed member of the private sector, and a growing economy where my business will thrive so I can hire more labor. I just want darker asphalt.

Last week, Noel Sheppard from NewsBusters.org wrapped up this entire argument rather neatly. He was responding to Chris "tingly legged" Matthews confusion over why voters would want George W. Bush back. Possibly a new PPP poll was killling the buzz up his gams. The poll found that Ohio voters preferred Bush over Obama, 50 to 42.

Here's Matthews:

Let`s make the points through the numbers. Unemployment when Bush came in was 4.2 percent. When he left office, it was up to 7.6 percent, way up from where he came in. When Bush came into office, we had a $281 billion Clinton-led surplus. When he left, we had a $1.2 trillion deficit. And he doubled the national debt. Those are the facts on the table.

Actually, those are Matthew's cherry-picked facts on the table. He probably buys pants with fantasy sizing, too. Here's the whole truth, courtesy of Sheppard.

But that's only half the story, for the Democrats (ME: that included then-Sen. Obama) have controlled Congress since January 2007. As this is a Congressional election, it is a referendum on what the Party controlling the House and the Senate have done since they took over.

Here, the numbers are even more glaring, as the unemployment rate that month was 4.6 percent. Over 7 million people have lost their jobs since the Democrats took over Congress.

As for fiscal policy, the last budget created by the Republican-controlled Congress had a deficit of $160 billion. This year, with Obama and Democrats controlling everything, we're on pace for close to a $1.6 trillion deficit, or TEN TIMES 2007's shortfall.

I keep hearing Toby Keith's song, "How do you like me now?", playing over and over in my head.

Find Your Inner "Norris"

Conservatives have a great sense of humor, even when making a spoof about ourselves. Example below.

The line that always gets me: "Well guess who just put some money down on a pop-up camper. Randy did."

Holiday Road to Recovery

When President Obama says we're on the road to recovery, is he thinking about the road at the end of Thelma & Louise that ended off a cliff?

Reason TV's Nanny of the Month: No free rides to save lives

New road signs that should be posted in Quincy, Illinois:

"Don't drink and drive. If you drink, get a ride. But if you get a ride, make sure it's not free. And if it is free, don't tip the driver."

Terrorizing little girls and putting drunk drivers on the roads - it's work and you're paying for it. Thanks yo. Those greedy 3-year-olds are a blight on the public sector's coffer. Down with lemonade stands! Up with extended unemployment!

Reparations alive, well, and growing

Money for nothing and your chicks for free?

Maybe. If you're talking about government green and baby poultry. A discrimination lawsuit against the USDA has already cost taxpayers - of all shapes, sizes, and colors - $1 billion. And if Obama extends the booty, it will cost $1.2 billion more.

Gateway Pundit has an excellent description of what stinks in suburbia:

Pigford v. Glickman was a class action lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), alleging racial discrimination in its allocation of farm loans and assistance between 1983 and 1997. The lawsuit ended with a settlement in which the U.S. government agreed to pay African American farmers $50,000 each if they had attempted to get USDA help but failed. To date, almost $1 billion has been paid or credited to the farmers under the settlement’s consent decree. Democrats want to add another $1.2 billion to the money pot and continue with the reparations.

Economic bondage for everyone!

"Fireproof" crew back with "Courageous", honoring fatherhood

Sherwood Films is back with another moving project that looks, per their usual, like quality. I've been a big fan since their hit "Facing the Giants" and had the opportunity to interview Alex Kendrick when that movie put a baptist church in Georgia on Hollywood's map.

Then they knocked one out of the park with "Fireproof," a movie honoring and valuing marriages. Now, they are taking on the role of fathers in "Courageous."

"What we need in our society today and in our churches are strong men who stand up for the Lord Jesus," J. Robert White, executive director, Georgia Baptist Convention.

Amen Mr. White. Amen and Amen again. This world needs Godly men.




I heard a quote from Jennifer Aniston the other day where she degraded the role of fatherhood, all in the effort to promote a movie. Yep. This is why celebrities should be interviewed and their opinions coveted.
Next year, she'll do a romance movie and talk about her great desire to find a man.

Danielle Bean at The Washington Post tackled this subject, prompted by Aniston's quote. It's an excellent article of truth. Love those. Here's the link and here's the money quote:

Who needs a dad? Every child does. Even unbiased studies and statistics say so. Boys raised without fathers are twice as likely to end up in jail. Girls raised without fathers are eight times more likely to wind up pregnant as teens. The childhood rates of depression, suicide, drug use, and sexually promiscuity all rise when a father is not present in the home.

What the scientific data can't quantify, though, is the pain of loss a child experiences when he is denied the right to two parents. All of the nice talk about "love is love" won't make that gaping hole go away. In fact, pretending the loss is not real is the cruelest thing you can do to a child who is growing up fatherless.

I cannot, in any suitable words, explain the importance my father has had in my life. Monumental doesn't cover it. Imperative doesn't cover it. Paramount. does. not. cover. it.

Klavan: the Bald and the Beautiful

Andrew Klavan and his bald head, one of my favorite bald heads in the business, are back and taking on the culture.

He gives those groovy kids out there a lesson on the Constitution while trying not to harsh their mellow, or some such thing. I didn't really get it. So I took another drag and watched the video.



Crinkley white people - a new description for our founding fathers, as well as this year's hot Christmas toy.