Count the Number of the Beast and Its Number is 111

The 111th Congress has, thankfully, finally folded tent and gone home. Never in my life has a session of Congress been so productive (read: evil). The damage they did might be more than we can ever recover from. Any Republican that helped shall surely suffer in Purgatory.

As to the title of this blog? The actual quote: Let the one having reason count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man-and its number is 666 (for those who care, the reference is Revelation 13:18).

On Christmas Eve, I am sure that Obama fell asleep with visions of candy canes and sugar plums dancing in his head.
Witness his accomplishments in cahoots with the 111th Congress:

**$1 trillion ‘stimulus’ package that did not stimulate the economy, but did enrich gov’t programs and employees, and they are clamoring for more

**$1 trillion federal budget deficits now considered to be normal and acceptable

**total gov’t control over student loans

**total EPA control over anything that uses energy (read: emits CO2)

**total gov’t control over healthcare, akin in magnitude to Lyndon Johnson’s invention of Welfare or Roosevelt’s invention of Social Security

**forcing the armed forces to accept openly gay soldiers

**new arms control treaty, permanently putting the kibosh on any American ABM system

To my mind, these represent the Hard-Left, Alinsky, Rev. Wright, Socialist, Karl Marx, Bolshevik, Communist Shangri-La, and it has now come to the United States of America.

If anyone has a plan to reverse this, I would surely like to hear about it.
Sweet dreams, Mr. President.

START Treaty? A Really, Really Bad Idea

This puppy may actually pass the Senate in the next day or so. This is even more remarkable in that it requires 67 votes to pass. Not only does this require Republican support, it is being done in a lame duck session. This is pure dog crap.

I read the media article that every single living SecState supports it. Forgive my arrogance, but every one of these SS’ is an idiot who does not understand what he is talking about.

If you missed it, a prominent senator appeared on one of those Sunday morning talking head shows. He stated that the nee-USSR understood the preamble to be an absolute prohibition against any US ABM development, and it was this under this understanding that the nee-USSR signed the treaty.

We need a fully developed ABM system to guard ourselves against the rogue nuclear tipped ballistic missile launched by such mental idiots like Iran, N Korea or China. Let us admit, once and for all, that we no longer regard the nee-USSR as a nuclear military threat against our country. Rather, we fear the nut jobs and mentally unstable rulers of said countries.

Note to Putin: we understand that we have demonstrated our ability to deploy a workable ABM system, whereas your country cannot. We sympathize that this really, really sticks in your craw. However: please give it a rest. We are worried about punky nut-jobs, not the nee-USSR.

Gays in the Military - did anyone bother asking the JCS?

The US military is not the place for social experimentation. Any such changes in personnel policy should come from the JCS first, not from a very small but very vocal special interest group who happens to have the ear of the CIC.

Chucking the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy during a Lame Duck session is improper. The politicians should have waited for a full session of the House and Senate, where such things can be fully debated and not rammed through. I view the bill as not legitimate. The proper course would have been for the CIC to make the occasional inquiry of the JCS and ask if allowing gays to serve openly in the armed services would no longer affect efficiency and unit cohesion. Surely the first few inquiries would yield a negative answer, but eventually the CIC would receive a unanimous thumbs up, at which point the new policy gets greenlighted.

It should not have been, as it was a few days ago, because it satisfies the Dems sense of egalitarianism, giving them a warm, fuzzy feeling that they have just struck a blow for equality. The goal of the US military is not fairness and justice, but to efficiently destroy things and kill humans

Tea Party: First Senatorial Victory

The Tea Party seems to have scored their first victory. The Senate, worried over the powerful successes of the Tea Party, defeated another continuing resolution that was really a $1 trillion Christmas tree loaded with pretty ornaments (read: earmarks) that was, in fact, another economic stimulus attempt that Dems tried to sneak into law before the new, Tea Party dominated Senate and Congress were seated. The bill was withdrawn from consideration this week by Sen. Reid (D-NV).

Winner and Still Champion: Barack Hussein Obama

It is the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. We wake up with a hangover, realizing: OMG, Obama has won a second term as President. We then think: how did such a thing come to pass?

We can safely trace back the beginning of this unlikely event to the Bush tax bill debate during the lame duck session of the 111 Congress during December of 2010. See, he cut a deal with Republicans to not raise taxes on ‘rich millionaires’ (which level was set at $250k). He was pasted by the Left for cutting taxes for the rich, and similarly pasted by the Right for thinking that ‘rich’ people started at $250k per annum.

He accomplished, either by accident or by design (probably the former), into making voters think that he is a centrist moderate. The fact that he demagogued the issue of taxing the rich to give to the poor during the Presidential campaign of fall 2012 not withstanding.

Senate Tax Bill - win, lose, or draw?

I call it a draw. We will not be taxing the rich (small business owners) to give to the poor (welfare, food stamps, education, Medicaid, etc.). On the other hand, the bill is replete with Christmas ornaments galore (real pretty, that), and Senate Republicans are OK with that, telling me that they have not changed their big-spending ways that sunk Bush 43.
On the good side, the following issues are dead:
**amnesty
**cap and trade energy tax
**gays in the military
**card check
So, let us call it a draw. You win some, you lose some, but the outlook is bleak, at least in the Senate. We shall see what happens when the 112th Congress is seated, but I am not hopeful.

Pleasure Reading - interlinear New Testament and Madison Constitution Diary

Perhaps you have been wondering what I have been up to since the Election? Mainly, pleasure reading:

**Greek-English Interlinear New Testament (trans. Green)
**Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison

Well, not exactly light reading, but these 2 are very enjoyable.

I like the Green translation because it has the same literal translation in readable fashion in the margins. If you have never read an interlinear translation, it is remarkable to what degree even good translations are, at best, paraphrases.

As to the Madison diary, I had not idea until a few months ago that such a thing even existed. It details day by day and speech by speech, the daily arguments and bickering that led to every word in the Constitution. Perhaps you have wondered how they came up with such a thing? Now you can know. By the way, upon reading this, it is clear that the 17th amendment was a serious mistake: senators should be elected by the state legislatures, not by popular vote; if this were still the way, we might not be in the pickle we are currently in.

Senate Republicans Off To a Good Start

They have announced that all business in the Senate will come to a screeching halt, until they take up the tax issue first. This is the sort of mettle I hope becomes an everyday thing in the Senate, where Republicans do not have a majority, and the Dems margin of power is only a couple of votes. My hope is that this is the beginning of a new attitude by Republicans: business as usual is no longer acceptable. The time for substantial, fundamental change in the way the Federal Government operates and what it is, is now.

Truthfully, I was reasonably sure that Senate Republicans would simply lie down and be Obama’s doormat during the lame duck session, much as they were before the election. All of the liberal Shangri La’s would simply come to pass, and the GOP would be too cowardly to stop any of it.

I am happy to note that GOP mettle in the Senate, so far, has held. Reid has taken a number of test votes, and all have fallen short of the filibuster-proof-majority needed. Thus far, nothing has reached Obama’s desk. One hopes that the same fate awaits the partial amnesty act that has just passed the House.

And, yes, I do favor elimination of the ‘Lame Duck’ sessions of the House and Senate. They have never accomplished anything important in my lifetime, and, moreover, are simply an open invitation to making mischief.

TSA Pat Downs: What a Waste of Time

My favorite quote is from an official of El Al, the Jewish airline. He said that all these intrusive searches of passengers at American airports only gave the illusion of security, not real security. This quote is from a few years ago, about x-ray scanners for your carry-on junk and metal detectors that you walked through.

Witness: Muslim terrorists use razor blades and Swiss Army knives to hijack an airplane; several months later, we get a protocol banning razors in your toiletries kit and pocket knives. They then try to mix carry-on liquids in flight to create an explosion; several months later, we get a protocol limiting the volume of any liquids you can carry with you. Next, they put plastic explosives in the sole of their shoes; several months later, we get a protocol making passengers take off their shoes for inspection. Then, they stick explosives in their jockstraps; several months later, there is an x-ray machine that will see through your clothes and an added procedure for physically examining the genitalia of passengers.

Are you beginning to sense a pattern? None of these protocols make us any safer, because the TSA is always behind the curve; the terrorists are already working on a new, clever way to bring bombs onto airplanes. The Muslim terrorists are always one step ahead. Hey, if even I can figure out how to slip explosive past current TSA screening procedures, then surely the bad guys can as well. The TSA procedures are reactive rather than proactive.

The only real way to make flying safer is to use profiling. Also, a skilled, trained person can interview passengers with a couple of questions and be more effective at detecting potential terrorists. More bomb sniffing dogs would also be helpful, and much cheaper and more effective than hiring a gazillion TSA pat-down-employees or those new, idiotic body scanner thingies.

One example of what we could be doing: everyone on the terrorist watch list is automatically on the no-fly list. Or: anytime someone from the watch list tries to fly, they automatically get the super-duper-naked-X-ray machine and the new, genital exploring TSA pat-downs. Most airline passengers will go through the old metal-detector jazz.

Obama Will Not Move To the Center

Many political pundits have predicted that Obama, now chastised by the disastrous 2010 election, will do as Clinton faced with a similar situation: that is, move to the center and govern as a moderate.

Horse hockey.
Anyone who thinks this, clearly does not understand why Obama wanted to become President in the first place. Even someone as perceptive as Karl Rove has stated that this president has a tin ear, politically. This is not true: he knows exactly what he is doing.

Obama views himself as an ideological warrior. He has a European Socialist view for America, and he will do his best to install as much of his vision as he can. The political fallout from his actions are, in his view, irrelevant. Think: damn the torpedoes full speed ahead; or: I know best, just open up your mouth and take your medicine like a man.

Witness: his first press conference on the day after the election, he stated clearly and firmly that: OK, Republicans, tell me your ideas and I will listen. This makes it crystal clear that he has no intention of changing course.
Even Rush has speculated that Obama is spoiling to be a one term President. Even more horse hockey. He will do his best to get reelected, so he can have another 4 years to pass even more of his socialist dream. There is still so much to do: Cap and Trade, Amnesty, Gays in the Military, Union Card Check, and so forth.

I realize that he has compromised on taxes. However, rest assured that he is not surrendering his principles. He will use this to demagogue come 2012; he will say something on the order of ‘I had to compromise with those evil Republicans and give tax breaks to the rich so I could give unemployment $$$ to those without a job and the poor. See? You need to be grateful to me, and thank me on your hands and knees’. His curious remarks about his tax compromise and ‘hostages’ is merely the opening salvo in a continuous barrage that will take him clear to 2012.

Obama and Class Warfare

I wish to jog your memory. During the first few days of the Gulf Oil Spill, his most prominent speech was castigating investment bankers. He said: that at some point, you have earned enough (money). Meaning, if you earn too much money, you are doing something wrong.

Today, witness: his plan for preventing a tax increase applies only to those earning less than $250K. OK, since when is some earning $250K a ‘millionaire’? Is Obama’s calculator goofed up somehow?

This is classic class warfare right out of the pages of Das Kapital by Karl Marx. It is the proletariat (those earning less than $250K) vs. the bourgeoisie (who earn more than $250K).

There is one aspect of Obama’s attitude that annoys me. Of those earning more than $250K, these moneys are the result of blood, sweat, and tears. This is the reward for difficult, daily, back-breaking work; not the result of the idle rich who win the powerball lottery every other month.

Misunderstanding the 2010 Election

My congratulations to the new Republican members of the 112th Congress; I regret that I will not be joining you (at least not this time around). Now, however, an even harder task lies before you, since the Dems still control the Senate and the White House.
The political punditsphere has been busing cranking out stuff, much of it not entirely correct. So, here goes:

It Is Not A Republican Tide
What happened on Nov. 2 was the Democratic tide, which swept in 2008, sweeping back out to sea, and the Republicans happened to be left standing, kinda like the barnacles on the wooden legs of a pier. Have no doubt: it will be back. It is not a question of if, but when.

Voters Are Voting Their Pocketbooks, As Always
In 2008, the economy was in the toilet, so they voted out the political party in power, as they always do. In 2010, the exact same thing happened. If the economy in 2012 is still crappy, the same thing will happen again; it is only a question of whom the voters will blame.

It Is Not An Endorsement Of Establishment Republicanism
Many establishment Republicans are puffy out their chests, and crowing about now being their turn. The stunning success of the 112th class has nothing to do with standard, country club Republicans, who they are, or what they believe in. If I were them, I would not be so cocky.

It’s The Tea Party, Stupid
The energy and strength of the Republican candidates stemmed almost entirely from the Tea Party. To them we owe the victory on Nov. 2.

The Republican Party Now Has A Constitutionalist Wing
Perhaps largely unnoticed or mostly ridiculed is that many of the new Republicans are Tea Partiers who have read and understand the Federalist Papers, and the original meaning of the Constitution. They are going to demand that the behavior of the Federal Government resemble the vision of our Founding Fathers. This is just as likely to upset the Republican as well as Democratic apple cart. It is only a question of the Tea Partiers being political savy enough to make their voices felt and translated into legislation.