Random Thoughts

He’s not the boss of me

I hate that it’s been two months since my last blog. How did that happen?!

I could blame my silence on the frenzy of wrapping up my college courses and student teaching classes, and the labor of finishing the credentialing process, and the traveling and excitement of Eldest Son’s college graduation/commissioning followed immediately by entertaining inlaws followed by an ongoing series of ridiculously futile attempts including one particularly heartbreaking interviewed-but-not-hired episode to find a teaching position in a state that is laying off teachers right and left.

You get the picture. I clearly lack dedication to my writing. Or something.

Speaking of pictures, this one is a keeper:

Eldest Son (first man on left) has been commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. My baby boy, who entered the world 22 years ago a whopping 4 lbs. 6 oz. preemie, is now a man ready and willing to serve his country.

Along with all the discussions we’ve had lately, we’ve talked about his Commander in Chief. Eldest Son reminded me that Obama IS his boss–which ironically makes ME Eldest Son’s boss, as theoretically our elected officials including the President work for us, the voting citizenry (yes, I know, you can stop the cynical laughter, I said “theoretically”).

Eldest Son reminded me of the oath of enlistment that he swore:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

It’s worth remembering that our soldiers swear first and foremost, above all else, to defend the U.S. Constitution. This does not change, regardless of the current president’s views on that document. While he has agreed to obey the orders of the President, Eldest Son’s loyalty is not to Obama, it is to the U.S> Constitution. That really is a marvelous fact.

Eldest Son also pointed out that he and his fellow soldiers give up their Constitutionally granted right to free speech in order to defend that right for the rest of our country. Obviously that’s something a certain general forgot. Eldest Son has not though, and regardless of what his opinions might be he refuses to engage in dialogue that might be construed as disrespectful to his CINC.

Good man. I could not be more proud of him.

I am not so constrained in my speech however, and I’m frustrated by the willful ignorance that seems to increasingly characterize this administration.

There’s stupid, and then there’s stupid. During his speech on immigration today, President Obama misquoted a line from Emma Lazarus‘ poem “The New Colossus” that appears on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

I don’t expect Obama to know the poem. I do expect him to have people intelligent enough to look it up and provide the accurate text for him to read off his teleprompter. Obviously they’re neither capable nor concerned about little details like that.

Tunku Varadarajan at The Daily Beast comments  that the entire speech sounded like something penned by an overeager 18 year old:

…one is inclined to conclude that his speech was written by someone who has just graduated from high school and has a young head brimming with social studies. This being President Obama, however, one can conclude that he will have written a fair portion of the speech himself, and, in so concluding, one would be struck forcefully by how banal the speech was. It was, if one can say such a thing, the acme of boilerplate, so utterly conventional was it in its narrative of American immigration.

I’ve taught high school students, and most of the ones I taught were capable of better rhetoric than that speech. They also would quote the Lazarus poem correctly. This administration makes Clinton’s look like Mensa candidates.

What really caught my attention though was this line (see the 16th paragraph) Obama spouted:

…being an American is not a matter of blood or birth.  It’s a matter of faith.  It’s a matter of fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear.

Excuse me? Being an American most certainly IS a matter of birth when it comes to citizenship. You aren’t born here, you aren’t an American citizen until you apply for and are given that status. Being an American is spelled out explicitly in the United States Constitution’s 14th Amendment:

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

I would bet real money that neither Obama nor his people are concerned with the 14th Amendment except insofar as they can completely avoid dealing with it on any level.

Days like this I want to wake up and find it’s 2012 already. I’m just thankful that the people actually running the USAF (and all other branches of the military) aren’t Obama cronies, but rather people who will continue to do their jobs long after this administration is only a bad memory.

Recommended reading

In an effort to get my head out of vacation mode where it’s loitered for the past week, and back into functioning synapse mode, I’ve been perusing the blogosphere.

And I’ve found some very worthwhile reading.

Breath of the Beast is perhaps the most thought provoking blog I’ve read in a long time; both the content and the style of Yaacov Ben Moshe are deeply personal yet universal.

…all you have to do is pay attention, believe what you see and hear and have the strength not to deny it. Evil will almost always inform you of its presence and intentions.

And for pure New England clear eyed wit and wisdom, check out New England Republican.

For heartfelt challenge and inspiration, The Doctor is In is a must-read. He had me hooked as soon as I saw him quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, complete with a Dore’ illustration. Of the practice of medicine, he says,

It is a high calling, this profession — words which, while true, seem fatuous and hackneyed in an age marked by hard science and even harder cynicism. It is a vocation fraught with paradoxes and contradictions: compassion and cold steel; empathy and enervation; arrogance and humiliation; deep satisfaction and bone-wrenching sadness. Its rewards, while rich, seemingly come at the cost of your very life, as the slow extravasation from countless battle wounds weaken the spirit and shock the soul, sapping your strength, leaving but an empty, fractured vessel, gloriously engraved on the outside but pervious and parched within.

It is no one thing, this weariness, but a score.

His words are all the more powerful given the radical shifts occurring in our health care system.

Check out those blogs; they’re well worth the time. And now, I’m going to spend some time compiling lesson plans, because Monday will come, and I’d better be ready for it.

Coffee and guns

Maybe I should make this a monthly blog. At least I’d feel less guilt. Then again, I could just pull a Rachel Lucas, except that I refuse to Twitter. I have to draw the line somewhere!

So, this just cracks me up, in a good way:

SEATTLE – Coffee chain Starbucks Corp. is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it’s legal and said it does not want to be put in the middle of a larger gun-control debate.

The company’s statement, issued Wednesday, stems from recent campaign by some gun owners, who have walked into Starbucks and other businesses to test state laws that allow gun owners to carry weapons openly in public places. Gun control advocates have protested.

The fight began heating up in January in Northern California and has since spread to other states and other companies, bolstered by the pro-gun group OpenCarry.org.

Some of the events were spontaneous, with just one or two gun owners walking into a store. Others were organized parades of dozens of gun owners walking into restaurants with their firearms proudly at their sides.

Now, gun control advocates are protesting the policy. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, launched a petition drive demanding that the company “offer espresso shots, not gunshots” and declare its coffeehouses “gun-free zones.” And Wednesday, that group delivered 28,000 signatures to the coffee giant’s headquarters in Seattle.

The group also held a press conference near Seattle’s Pike Place Market, just a few yards away from where the first Starbucks cafe opened. Gun rights advocates showed up as well, some carrying handguns in holsters around their waists.

Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign said carrying guns intimidates and frightens people, and said the group thinks Starbucks will “do the right thing” and change its policy.

“They’re putting their workers in harm’s way by allowing people to carry guns into their stores, especially open carry,” Malte said.

Heh. Heh heh heh. “Carrying guns intimidates and frightens people?” Yeah, if the people are bent on holding up a store, or robbing customers, then I expect the weapons WOULD intimidate them. I hope to heck they are frightened.

Personally, I feel very safe when I’m around people who are licensed to carry weapons and have them at hand. I do find it all kinds of funny that anti-gun people would try to pressure Starbucks into kicking customers out of their stores, and in defiance of the law. No end to the arrogance…

H/T My Gun Fun Blog

Along these lines, courtesy of Instapundit, a must-read : The Path to Tyranny: A History of Free Society’s Descent into Tyranny.

Throughout history, free societies descended into tyranny when their populations realized they can use the power of government to give themselves benefits at the expense of others. The Path To Tyranny examines how and why each of these free societies descended into tyranny and evaluates the current prospects for the United States.

It doesn’t get much more relevant than that.

Tacky is as tacky does…

The only thing that surprises me is that anyone is surprised Rahm Emmanuel used the phrase “f—ing retards” in a White House meeting.

We knew he was a snake when Obama picked him up. He’s probably just echoing what his boss thinks anyway.

His apology is worthless at this point; let the man display better behavior for a year or two and then I’ll believe he’s truly changed his crude speaking ways.

And pigs will fly. Backwards. Through the Oval Office.

Allahpundit over at HotAir points out just how ridiculous Rahm’s apology really is.

The Obama Administration: The epitome of class and dignity. Only really, really not.

And in other news, FLOTUS Michelle publicly humiliates her daughters to authenticate her new pet cause: Childhood obesity.

Nothing like having your mama air your personal health concerns in front of the entire freaking world.

These people redefine classless and tacky on a daily basis.

Pause, reflect

I am really looking forward to the day when this woman will be out of a job.

It’s one thing to be a hypocrite. It’s one thing to lie. But to be a lying, in your face, serious as a heart attack hypocrite takes some kind of evil skill I can’t even fathom.

“We’re not in a big rush” on health care, Pelosi said. “Pause, reflect.”

I read that, and I almost had an out-of-body experience. Like I was suddenly set down on another planet. Because this is the woman who has been shoving universal health care down America’s collective throat like there is no tomorrow.

August 2009:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed on Wednesday to push through the government-sponsored health care program that the late Ted Kennedy characterized as his life’s work. “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration,” Pelosi said in a statement.

October 2009

“Leaders of all political parties starting over a century ago with President Theodore Roosevelt have called and fought for health care reform and health insurance reform,” Pelosi said. “Today we are about to deliver on the promise.”

December 2009

“We would do almost anything if it meant we would pass health care for all Americans (by) the Christmas holidays,” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. “Maybe we can’t,” she said, in which case Congress could deliver “a New Year’s present for the American people.”

6 January 2010

Lawmakers are “very close” to resolving differences between the House and Senate health care bills and sending a final version to President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.

And now she says “not a big rush,” and “pause, reflect.” I suppose the stunning failure of Democrats to hang on to Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat wouldn’t have anything to do with Ms. Pelosi’s dramatic change of attitude. Not that she’s capable of understanding what Massachusetts’ voters decision represents,

“Massachusetts has health care and so the rest of the country would like to have that too,” Pelosi said, referring to the state’s health care program. “So we don’t [think] a state that already has health care should determine whether the rest of the country should.”

It’s not complicated, Ms. Pelosi. Americans simply don’t want to pay for universal health care.

We can only hope that this is an epic fail for what has to be the worst bill in the history of US government.

Right voices thinks it could be the beginning of the end for Pelosi.

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit calls it a quagmire.

And Instapundit…oh jeeze, it hurts to laugh this hard.

Could we Californians hope for a Barbara Boxer reelection loss? American Power thinks so. Oh, be still my heart.

And in the meantime…

I am brushing off the cyber equivalent of cobwebs here. I ought to be ashamed of myself, for all but abandoning my blog for two months.

My blog email is full of spam, understandably, but why is it written in Russian? What did I post last that issued an invite to Russian spammers?! Nevermind, I’ll just hit “delete” repeatedly.

Nothing bad happened to me in the interval between my last post and this one. My only excuse for dropping out of the blogosphere was the hurricane of life: Committing to writing NaNoWriMo, then having a full court press California state mandated teaching performance assessment followed by holiday craziness. Blog? I have a blog? Does anyone read it? Will they notice if it falls silent for a few weeks, or months?

I did not finish NaNoWriMo, but I did find my creative (fiction) voice again. That’s been fun. I’d forgotten the pleasure of playing with characters, of letting them interact and typing the result. So, for me, NaNoWriMo was a success. And I nailed a major win on the state requirement, with a perfect score and the evaluator’s comment “This is the best TPA 2 I have scored.” It felt really good to kick butt on that one.

The holidays were a success too. Though my family has narrowed down to MrRT and the four RT offspring, three of whom no longer live at home, this meant the holidays really were happy. No ugly scenes, no unpleasant relatives, just good food and good times. Christmas especially, when all six of us were together.

Nothing, and I do mean nothing, makes me happier than watching my kids thoroughly enjoy each other’s company. That is the best part of parenthood, right there.

So, it’s January now–heck, January is half over–and I’m preparing to walk into a 12th grade classroom and teach English to high school seniors who are already half checked out and heading for graduation. I must be out of my mind. Not that I have a choice; it’s the final part of the teacher credentialing process. Since they put me with 6th graders last semester, they (whomever “they” is at my university) apparently figured I needed to experience the other end of the spectrum.

Hey, if I can teach 6th grade (and I can) and 12th grade, then surely I can cover everything in between.

At least in theory.

Meanwhile, life goes on in strange and terrible ways.

One one hand, Massachusetts voters finally grew brains.

Brutally Honest calls this triumph “Obama being spanked.” Brilliant metaphor, and so apt.

Right Voices offers up a gem of humor from Jon Stewart on the election.

And Michelle Malkin calls it a miracle. Yes, they do happen.

On one hand is US politics, sometimes depressing, sometimes wonderful, often surprising.

On the other hand, we have the horrible tragedy in Haiti:

I can not even fathom this.

There are so many ways we can help these devastated people, without even leaving home. First and foremost there’s the financial, through reputable organizations like the Red Cross, Child Hope, World Vision, Compassion International, Samaritan’s Purse, and in Haiti itself, the Real Hope Rescue Center. 

A fairly comprehensive list of charities working in Haiti is available here.

Even five or ten dollars matters in a country so poor they’re beyond desperate on a good day. They haven’t had a good day since January 12. They’re not likely to see another one for a long time.

And you might want to bookmark The Anchoress as you keep Haiti’s people in your thoughts and prayers.

I’m back. I’m writing. And I’ll be posting more on these and other stories very soon.

Comedy gold

My nominee for the best write up on Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize:  Frank J. Fleming at Pajamas Media with “The ‘I’m-Not-Bush’ Prize and its Uselessness.”

It’s like they have a Nobel Prize for Unicorns to hand out, and since there really isn’t anyone who makes much sense for it, they just hand it out to whoever fits their political agenda. And, being part of the international community — which is stupid — the committee’s choices have started to be just mind-numbingly ludicrous until they reached the low point on Friday morning.

Obama was nominated for the Peace Prize twelve days into his presidency — before he even began to aspire to become as useless as he’s been so far — and somehow this Nobel committee came to the conclusion that he did something worthy of an award. Their justification for giving him the prize, in its entirety?

“Hee not Booosh! Scroo u Booosh!”

…An awesome response would be for Obama to bomb Iran’s nuclear facility the day after receiving the prize, but that’s something a man would do. That’s something Reagan would do. Obama’s too much of a sissy for awesomeness like that, and that’s why the international community loves him. So, in my opinion, should Obama have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Of course he should have; it’s a useless-moron prize. Obama is the most prominent useless idiot out there right now; I can’t name a better candidate.

Even SNL can’t resist mocking the situation.

And as far as cartoon fodder goes, it’s priceless. Check out TMFo at Christmas Ghost.

This entire administration would be pure comedy gold, if only our country’s future wasn’t at stake.