kitteh BIG!!

Two rallies, one by the right in Searchlight Nevada, and one by the left in LA. Which one do you think you would rather go to?

And in LA, the left goes nuts.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

pajamasmedia.com/zombie/2010/03/29/searchlight-vs-l-a-rival-rallies-reveal-stark-rightleft-divide/?singlepage=true

Closer..... just a little closer....

Remember that tea party at Searchlight, Nevada? CNN says there were "hundreds of people, at least dozens." Look at the views of the crowds below and see what you think. Walter Duranty would be proud.

Heh. With props to Cold Fury and of course to Day by Day.

Searchlight is a town in Nevada, and is famous as Harry Reid's hometown. Today, there was a tea party there, and attendance was 10 t0 20 thousand. Counter protesters for Harry were counted at 35, literally. Here are some pictures from the event. I think Harry is going home in November.

My personal favorite above.

Autumn rainbow, and proverbial pot of gold right over there!

Dog happiness.

Pyramid Peak, Crystal Range, from the southwest. I can't wait for summer!

Palin campaigning for McCain in Arizona yesterday. In black leather. Uh, OMG.

Saturday porch picture.

Lenin. Communist dictator.... basketball star.

Here is your palate cleanser for the week past. The news of the day. A moment in time. Thanks to American Digest.

Do you think there might be a connection between this:

www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/economy/25social.html?hp

And this?

finance.yahoo.com/news/Summary-Box-Rates-rise-after-apf-2982833604.html?x=0&.v=2

Most certainly there is. Hey, I got an idea. Lets add a huge new government entitlement program to the mix. Make it one that is valued in the trillions. Lets pass that entitlement law in spite of the fact most Americans are against it.

Isn't the ability of the country to finance its colossal and now growing even faster debt dependent on the interest rate it has to pay to sell treasury bonds? Isn't the ability of the country to pay for the bonds dependent on its ability to tax the people to generate money? If there is no more tax money to be squeezed out of the masses, why would anyone believe that the nation's new debts can be serviced?

Do you think the ability of people to afford a loan for a house is good? Do you think its important for business to be able to afford a loan to expand business?

This, my friends, is all going to end very badly. Thanks to Obama and his enablers, change we can believe in.

I don't want to hear any more of this whining from Democrats about threats of violence. Check out the link for examples of the frequent assassination threats made against President Bush while he was in office. When the middle age, clean cut tea party makes a movie about shooting the current occupant of the White house, like the progressives did to Bush, then and only then will there be a reason to do something.

Grow up liberals. If you can't stand the heat (and the current temperature is nothing like what Republicans routinely endure), then just wait for November.

Oh yeah, and who was it that coined the term "teabaggers?" And you are surprised people are mad at you?

binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html

Obama's legacy, and the country's curse. Two and a half more years of this clown, but hopefully only a few more months of Democratic control of Congress. How much damage the two of them can do this summer will be interesting to see.

From the American Thinker:

In November 2008, Americans elected a socialist as their president. In March 2010, they woke up stunned to find themselves living in a socialist country.

Health insurers -- once private companies -- are now organs of the federal government. Every citizen is a ward of the state, which can now compel you to have insurance, punish you if you don't; determine if your insurance is acceptable, punish you if it isn't. Thousands of new federal bureaucrats will soon spill from the D.C. Beltway and flood the country, scrutinizing our finances to verify compliance with this new law.

A government that grants itself this kind of power over us can conceivably do anything to us. For our own good, of course. Such a country is in no meaningful sense "free."

www.4-blockworld.com/2010/03/under-obamacare.html

Sunday cozy cabin.

Kitteh goes for a ride.

A classic midwestern screened in porch. I think I can smell the apple pie!

And now, a palate cleanser, to rid the mind of the stench of what is happening in Washington this weekend. Here is a picture taken by a buddy of mine of one of the remotest parts of Yosemite National Park. Absolutely no trails, exceptionally rugged, thick with wildlife. Large waterfalls without a name, lush pockets of meadow and greenery among the expansive granite slabs, and lakes big and small. This eden shall remain nameless and unidentified, but it's paradoxically in one of the most popular national parks in the country. Click, enlarge and enjoy.

At the link below Legal Insurrection has posted a handy chart detailing the very numerous falsehoods in the Obama health care bill. Its unbelievable how dishonest Congress is being in this bill, apparently in thrall to their God. Further, we commoners get to pay four years of increased taxes before we even see one "benefit" from this monstrosity. Its bad for everyone, and the fight to pass it has made the partisan divide even worse than it has been in the recent past. Who knows where we go from here, but the road forward for us is cloudier and more dangerous than I can ever recall.

legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/

It is said that the Obamacare proposal has an increase in tax on investment income of 3.8%. When you can only write off 3K of loss in a year, and your positive investments are taxed at 15% and up, and now by another 3.8%, you wonder why anyone would bother to invest in the stock market at all. The risk/reward ratio is so skewed that unless you are really successful, and successful year after year, its likely not worth the risk. You could easily have a heavy tax bill on a year where you lost money, negating the returns on many good years.

That sucks.

Better to get a certain 3 or 4% in bonds or CD's than put your money in the market.

What do you think that will do to the stock market once this is widely realized?

Hah! Supposedly from somewhere in Colorado. I can only hope that its true, and not a photoshop.

Having thought about the healthcare mess and the contortions that the Dems have been going through to get it passed, I believe that their plan has really nothing to do with healthcare at all. In reality, they want to ensure that Dem/ liberals will never really go out of power by creating a dependent class of people who either work for the government run healthcare industry or who can be influenced to vote for Dem/libs by manipulating their benefits. This is a tried and proven plan that has made formerly affluent and liberal (in the old, positive sense) states into solidly reliable liberal voting fortresses , even as these states decline in freedom and wealth.

With that established, the Dem/libs have overlooked one major thing that may well turn out to be their Achilles' heel. Seniors and baby boomers who are now retiring in greater and greater numbers will rabidly guard their right to healthcare. They vote out of all proportion to their numbers, and their numbers are and will continue to increase as the baby boomers age. The healthcare the Dem/libs want now requires tax money to support, and in a declining economy with lower tax receipts, there is only one real way to control costs. That way is to ration care.

How do you think grandma and gramps will take it when they are told they have to wait six months for needed treatment, as happens all the time in nations like Canada with more established nationalized medicine? I think there will be a sh!tstorm of angry people that will swamp the polls once they realize that they have been scammed. Many of those will be retired seniors. Look at who you commonly see packing the tea party meetings now. White hair everywhere.

Even if the Dem/libs get this horrible plan passed, and they might, I don't believe that they will have the easy sailing they anticipate at election time. I for one am looking forward to the tar and feathers.

And its only gotten worse since he spoke these words.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.... were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it tho us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others....

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and the end of government, viz. freedom and security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will say, 'tis right.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

No matter how bad you think the current occupant of the oval office is, you can bet you will never see him in a picture like this. Hail to Jimmah Carter, still the undisputed second worst president the country has had in a hundred years, after O'Christ.

Porch picture, antebellum style.

cozy cabin picture.

Wild eyed mad scientist creates genetically mutated super trout. And instead of a hunchback named Igor, his assistant is a hawt red head. Warning: mildly disturbing trout milking sequence.

In the best tradition of Edward Abbey, this is how many people will fill out the census form in this supposedly post racial world in which we live. I whole heartedly approve! Monkeywrenching lives!

From American Digest, a family in time. We all know we should have done this, although it really is bittersweet to watch the effects. Bitter for the parents, sweet for the kids. I wonder if the three boys will continue the tradition through their own families - now that would be truly awesome.

americandigest.org/mt-archives/grace_notes/a_family_in_time.php#012040

The man in blue is over six feet tall. The picture was taken in the Owyhee area of Oregon/Idaho. Next, at the link is the story of a possible wolf attack in Alaska. These animals aren't like Fido. If you are going into country where these animal live, prepare accordingly.
www.adn.com/2010/03/09/1175725/wolf-blamed-in-death-of-villager.html

Update: Confirmed, it was indeed wolves. Too bad she didn't simply carry a sidearm, that would have prevented this, but that isn't what someone from Pennsylvania thinks about when they go running in Alaska.

www.adn.com/2010/03/11/1179489/troopers-release-statement-today.html

Every kid wants one!

Frozen motion.

As opposed to the Wight Fook Hing book store.

There is something about a van that attracts the loner, the socially marginal personality, or the ex con types. We have all seen them. The van that loiters 'down by the river, the creepy van that is seen circling the local school, the smelly hippy van. Here is a web site that collects them all, with appropriate captions. Click and enjoy.

The "I took too much acid in the sixties" van.

The "keep the kids away from it" van.

suspiciousvans.com/Suspicious_Vans.com/Suspicious_Vans_Gallery.html

Cozy cabin picture.

Start your day with this. Exceptionally good.

What is time? If you've ever wondered, check out this article that seek to explain one scientist's theory.

www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/what-is-time/

From today's modern military dating service.

Ok, kids, using this simple formula, find x.

Saturday porch

Yosemite Valley this morning.

Here is my idea of a true getaway destination. I guess you have to come in by helicopter or catapult.

The most succinct dissertation I have yet seen on the problem with passing Obamacare through reconciliation is at the link, and is a must read. I have no idea why Republicans haven't pointed out the trenchant fact that none other than Dem stalwart Robert Byrd argued against using reconciliation when Hillary wanted to pass her version, and was successful in convincing President Clinton not to use it.

The further unexplained thing about all this is why the Dems would ever vote for this through this technique. The theory is that once passed, it will be impossible to revoke, but given the political passions that would be inflamed once this plan is successful, I can't help but believe the Dems must see the real possibility that it will be revoked and then the Dems will spend a generation in the political wilderness. How many of them will hang from telephone poles is also an important question I would think should be asked in caucus.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704625004575089362731862750.html

Looking at this from a broader perspective, lets just face the raw political facts. This isn't about healthcare. This legislation is just a vehicle to create a huge new government entitlement program that will need huge numbers of government workers. Those workers will be dependent on the government for their livelihood, for their benefits, retirement, raises, etc., and will be all dependable Democratic voters, very much as public employee unions are today in bankrupt liberal hellholes like California. It is a brilliant plan. It has been proven successful in multiple states. To these people can be added a significant portion of normal everyday people who will now see government as the source of their needed healthcare, and whose votes can be reliably bought through political promises to massage their available benefits. Its all a simple, proven recipe for de facto Democratic control of government forever, or until the inevitable revolution. Looked at like this, it all makes perfect sense.