VIDEO: Bush on Leno

I LOVED seeing President George W. Bush on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night! Bush had some great lines, it's really must-see. It was so good to see him doing well - I really miss him!

Funny, engaging, caring, classy - what an honor to have him as president!



Dubya shows some of his paintings - there's a Rembrandt inside him! - and gives Leno a portrait.



The Bushes were on the Kiss Cam at the Houston Texans game. Dubya on bonding with his grandchild: "It was a little slow at first because the kid doesn't say much."



President & Mrs. Bush talk about their work in Africa refurbishing clinics - bonus Dubya dance footage!!!



Now, back to your regularly scheduled Obama misery ...

Obamacare increases minimum premiums in Virginia by more than 350%!

Instant proof Obamacare raises costs that you can check yourself:

I went to ehealthinsurance.com to look up prices for individual health care in Virginia.  When you choose your coverage to begin in 2013, deemed "pre-Obamacare," the prices start at $44.  If you choose it to begin in 2014 to be Obamacare-compliant, the cheapest plan is $202!  That's more than a 359% increase!

2013 Plans:

 

2014 Plans:

Obviously the benefits are different - but that's the point. In 2013, a man isn't required to have maternity coverage, nor is a woman who will not give birth, but in 2014 they are. Coverage they do not want or need, but now they get to pay for it!

I got these two results on this page without yet entering in age, sex, or even a zip code. I wonder what their algorithm is without age and sex. I am assuming the website knows I'm in Virginia because when I typed in zip codes from other states, the numbers changed.

What is the price difference in your state?
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(I got the idea for this post from Capitol City Project's similar inquiry)

5 Best Obamacare Mocking Memes

Star Wars - "Luke, I am your father"

 Condescending Willy Wonka

Office Space - Milton "I was told..."

Austin Powers - Dr. Evil 

The Matrix - Morpheus "What if I told you..."

Saw all these on GenOpp.tumblr.com but they didn't make all of them.

Kids Can't "Choose" Abortion!

LiveActionNews.com had a great analysis last week: Pro-abortion Mom of the Year: “I don’t regret helping my 15-year-old daughter get an abortion”

It's about a post by a feminist state leader who's proud of her 15 year old daughter getting an abortion.  She thinks she has well-equipped her daughter with sex-ed and contraception, and yet somehow this still happened.  I guess because there wasn't enough public school sex ed for the boy.

At one point the mother wrote, "The truth is my daughter was using condoms. Guess what sometimes they fail. Especially, when children who aren’t educated in their use like my child is are the ones placing them on their penis." But earlier in her screed, she had said, "As we sat down all she kept saying was 'I don’t know how this happened' over and over. The truth was in that moment she couldn’t remember having sex the one time with the young man she was seeing."

So, which is it? The girl couldn't remember and didn't understand or she was using condoms that, guess what, fail?

Kristen Hatten makes excellent points about how teaching about contraception, or even how to use them, still doesn't teach emotionally immature hormonal children to actually follow through to use them.

She says it was "likely there was no condom":

How can I say such a thing? Well, because every day across the world about a million girls agree to have sex without a condom because the boy doesn’t want to wear one and the girl wants the boy to like her. (Cue that song from Beauty and the Beast that goes, “Tale as old as time…”)

Inevitably, some of those girls get pregnant. And when their feminist mothers – who made sure they got lots of sex ed and access to birth control - ask, “How on earth did this happen?,” they can’t say, “Well, Mom, you taught me everything about sex except how to handle it like an adult woman because I’m not an adult woman.”

Instead they say, “The condom broke.”

I'd never really thought about it before, but it stands to reason that at least half the time the excuse is "the condom broke," the truth is there was no condom at all.  Especially with girls who should "know better," as this mother said of her daughter, and feel they need to justify their abortions.

You can give kids all the facts and access to condoms and other contraceptives that you want, but they're still KIDS. They aren't mature enough to deal with the realities and emotional aspects of sex and relationships - heck, many women of all ages don't seem to be. Just giving them information without guidance, which liberals often call "judgment," isn't nearly enough.

The mother takes great pains to emphasize how she withheld her own opinions and made sure it was her daughter's choice. But her daughter, and other young girls of that age, just aren't equipped to make and fully understand that decision.

Nowhere is that made more clear than what the daughter says in the end:

Do I regret it? No! Because I know that the spirit I named Mariah will go on to a woman who is ready for her. 

Her immaturity and child's ignorance ring so clear.  Someday she will realize that her BABY (spirit???) Mariah was a unique human being who had only one shot at life in this world and it was HER choice to kill her. I do not begrudge her the pain and heartache when she comes to this realization as she grows and matures and begins to understand her decision as an adult.

When this happens, I hope she gets the healing she needs, instead of burying it and denying it like so many post-abortive women try to do.

If you or someone you know is hurting from abortion, there are many great sources of support available.  Please check out Abortion Recovery, Project Rachel, National Helpline for Abortion Recovery, and Rachel’s Vineyard.

Submit to Obamacare or YOU WILL GET CERVICAL CANCER AND DIE!!!

It was only a few short months ago when I saw pictures of little girls holding signs saying, "If I wanted the government in my womb, I'd f*** a senator!" My how times have changed!

Of course, then we were talking about abortion, but now when talking about Obamacare, getting the government all right up in there is A-OK!

Suddenly, when it comes to Obamacare, "My body, my choice" goes right out the window - and anyone who disagrees is pro-cancer!

That's what Brian Beutler from Salon says (Really! I'm not making this up!) in his absurd article "Koch-backed conservatives go pro-cervical cancer," written in reaction to this excellent ad on opting out of Obamacare:


The point of the video is obviously to show how Obamacare puts the government in between you and your doctor, which, DUH, it does! After seeing a creepy Uncle Sam sneak up to a girl in stirrups with a speculum, Beutler tsk, tsks at the makers of the ad, Generation Opportunity.

He warns, unless you give up your health care to the government, YOU WILL GET CERVICAL CANCER AND DIE!!!11! Yes, really:

Here’s what Stan Dorn of of the Urban Institute told me last year: “We know that women with cervical cancer who are uninsured get their cancer detected later … and sometimes die.”

This ad, part of a six-figure campaign, says young women without means would be better off skipping Pap smears than enrolling in Obamacare … which is one of the most dangerous possible reasons to skip Obamacare.

...
But I have to wonder what these people’s consciences say to them about the possibility that dozens or hundreds of women across the country will follow their advice and then get a horrible diagnosis after it’s too late.

Pretty much, if you liked the ad, you love cervical cancer.

While I was having fun going back and forth with @ExJon and others on Twitter mocking this ridiculous yet disgusting article, another liberal who apparently writes for Outside the Beltway hilariously tried to insert himself into the conversation by bringing up transvaginal ultrasounds (dude, don't even GO there!) and then agreed with Beutler:

@AlexaShrugged you’re in favor of forced transvaginal ultrasounds?
— Rob Prather (@robprather) September 20, 2013

Oh, kind, sir, PLEASE tell me more about what a transvaginal ultrasound feels like! (And since when do GYNs ask before poking and prodding you?)

@AlexaShrugged so your in favor of women forgoing Pap smears and getting cervical cancer?
— Rob Prather (@robprather) September 20, 2013

Oh, you got me! It's true, I'm pro-cancer. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

The point lost on these presumably "bro-choice" men's ham-handed attempts at counteracting this clearly effective ad is what "opt out of Obamacare" actually means. It means opt out of Obamacare.

Not opt out of health insurance or opt out of going to the doctor. Opt out of Obamacare only.

They are letting people know that if they don't have insurance, they do not have to enroll in Obamacare, but can instead opt out and get their own cheaper individual insurance. OptOut.org addresses this on the FAQ protion of the website:

Don’t I have to buy into Obamacare? Isn’t it illegal to not buy Obamacare insurance?
No. There is a relatively small tax associated with not buying government-approved health insurance, but you can pay that small penalty and buy a health insurance plan that meets your individual needs.

For example, in Virginia right now there are 87 health care plans sold on the individual market — the cheapest one being $40.84 per month. Not all of those plans would meet the standards to be sold in a government “exchange,” but almost all of them would be a better deal for young Virginians. It’s like that across the country.

It goes on to answer other questions like, "Why would I turn down government assistance to buy health care? It’ll be cheaper (or free) if I get it from the government, right?" etc.

All quite reasonable. So reasonable and effective, in fact, that the left is going NUTS over it!

You know you've struck a nerve when they start screaming YOU WANT WOMEN TO GET CANCER!!! or TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUNDS ARE RAPE!!! or REPUBLICANS WANT TO BAN CONTRACEPTION!!! OR ROMNEY KILLED A WOMAN!!!

The worst part is that we have to respond to such astounding nonsense because common sense isn't enough.

Can you imagine if we resorted to such hysterics?

UNCLE SAM WANTS TO RAPE WOMEN WITH A SPECULUM!!!

Sweet dreams tonight!

Project 2,996 September 11th tribute to Mildred Rose Naiman

Every year, I post a Project 2,996* September 11th tribute to Mildred Rose Naiman. The following is the text from my original 2007 post which was written on the sixth anniversary of 9/11:

My September 11th tribute as part of Project 2,996 is to Mildred Rose Naiman, 81, from Andover, MA, the town next to my hometown. According to WBZ Boston, over 200 people with ties to Massachusetts died on 9-11-01.

"Millie," as she was known to her loved ones, was on her way to California to visit her 2 sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren when she was killed. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to be hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center.

Born on March 24, 1920, Mildred Naiman worked at Western Electric Co. as a tester. In her later years, she lived in a self-proclaimed "bachelorette pad" - her apartment in a retirement community - where she was active in planning and organizing events with her friends.

In a profile published on January 6, 2002, her daughter-in-law, Carol Naiman, told the New York Times, "She had a little bit of a lead foot. She had been stopped for speeding and was totally insulted the officer would give an old woman a ticket."

Although the feisty great-grandmother had had several knee replacement surgeries, cataracts, and other health problems, she still loved to travel. Her son Russ said, "If something was wrong with her, she'd go to the doctor and say, 'Fix me up; I've got a lot of traveling to do.' "

While she needed the help of a wheelchair at the airport, she still managed to visit her family twice a year. The Sunday before her fatal flight, a family member had asked if she was afraid of flying; her granddaughter, Hope, remembers her reply: "No, I've gone everywhere already--to Germany, the Bahamas. I'm not afraid to fly."

Incredibly, on July 24, 2004, the New York Post reported that the medical examiner's office had identified her remains. Many 9-11 victims are still unaccounted for. I hope her family gained some sense of closure with this discovery and was able to finally put her body to rest.

Today, on the sixth anniversary of her death, we celebrate the life of Mildred Rose Naiman.

May she, and the other 2,995 tragically murdered on that day, rest in peace.


9-11: NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET


____________________________________________
*Project 2,996 is an important online initiative to keep the memory of those who died on 9/11 alive and to honor them each through individual memorials.  For those of us who were fortunate to not have lost anyone on that day, it really personalizes and brings home each loss.  Their individual lives can get lost in the intolerable and overwhelming number killed on 9/11, so we owe it to each of them to make them more than just one of 3,000.  Because links have gotten old and broken, there are thousands of 9/11 victims who no longer have a memorial blog post - please go to Project 2,996 to learn more and participate on your own blog.

300,000 Pageviews!

Pretty cool I just hit over 300,000 page views* after such inconsistency in my blogging, especially the last two years (only 3 posts in 2013!)

Here are my very first 3 posts from Sunday, July 30, 2006:

Welcome to my blog!

I wonder if the media will follow up on their initial stories . . .

Sorry, Al Gore

*According to Blogger, between May 2007 – September 2013, I don't know why it won't go earlier than that

Yes, Mitt Romney was Right about Everything

Yesterday BuzzFeed had a great article entitled "Was Mitt Romney Right About Everything?" The answer is Yes, yes he was. It goes on to talk about Russia, Mali, Obamacare, and Detroit's bankruptcy and is worth quoting at length:

In the most actively cited example of the Republican nominee’s foresight, Romneyites point to the candidate’s hardline rhetoric last year against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration. During the campaign, Romney frequently criticized Obama for foolishly attempting to make common cause with the Kremlin, and repeatedly referred to Russia as “our number one geopolitical foe.”

Many observers found this fixation strange, and Democrats tried to turn it into a punchline. A New York Times editorial in March of last year said Romney’s assertions regarding Russia represented either “a shocking lack of knowledge about international affairs or just craven politics.” And in an October debate, Obama sarcastically mocked his opponent’s Russia rhetoric. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” the president quipped at the time.
...
Indeed, earlier this summer, Moscow defiantly refused to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to the United States, prompting Obama to cancel a meeting he had scheduled with Putin during the Group of 20 summit. Russia has blocked United Nations action against Syria. And on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told lawmakers that Russia was one of the countries supplying Syria with chemical weapons.
...
During a foreign policy debate in October, the candidate briefly expressed concern over Islamic extremists taking control of northern Mali — an obscure reference that was mocked on Twitter at the time, including by liberal comedian Bill Maher. Three months later, France sent troops into the country at the behest of the Malian president, bringing the conflict to front pages around the world.

On the domestic front, Obamacare — which Romney spent more time railing against on the stump than perhaps any other progressive policy — is less popular than ever, while the federal government struggles to get the massive, complicated law implemented. (One poll in July found for the first time that a plurality of Americans now support the law’s repeal.)

And while the unemployment rate has, in the first year of Obama’s second term, gradually fallen to post-crisis lows, the still-ailing U.S. economy, which served as the centerpiece for Romney’s unsuccessful case against Obama’s reelection, was given a potent symbol earlier this summer when Detroit became the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy.
...
“It’s frustrating because there’s no way to correct it,” Zwick said.  

I totally agree with Zwick.  While it's nice to be vindicated and see Obama finally exposed, his approval ratings down, NSA and IRS scandals unfolding, his own side turning against him on drones and war with Syria, there is NOTHING we can do about it!

Our chance to fix and prevent this came on November 6, 2012. Now there is nothing we can do, short of impeachment, in which case we'll get President Joe Biden (shudder). We can only sit and watch Obama run this country into the ground.

Even if we manage to get a majority in the Senate in 2014, that would only allow us to stop Obama legislatively and we know that doesn't matter to him, he is perfectly willing to govern through executive order or simply ignore the rule of law.

2016 is a political lifetime away and if a Republican somehow managed to win the presidency, I don't think that will even matter because the damage will be irrevocable by then.

2012 was our chance. Mitt Romney was the man for the moment. America blew it.

As an old Obama buddy once said, "America's chickens are coming home to ROOST!"
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[WOO HOO MY FIRST INSTALANCHE!!!]

Seeing the Pro-Life Generation in Austin

Last week I went to Austin with Students for Life of America.  SFLA spans more than 750 pro-life groups on high school and university campuses across the country. These students are the pro-life generation. They are more pro-life than any other generation, their parents or grandparents, because they've seen the reality of abortion, whether it be the humanity of the pre-born in the womb via ultrasound, or the bloody pictures of aborted babies, or friends and family who have been harmed by abortion.

But in Austin I saw an even younger pro-life generation. Children, no more than 10 years old, were there smiling and holding pro-life signs full of hope as an abortion battle raged on over a pro-life bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks and increase safety standards for abortions.

It was hard to see these kids amidst the the hatred and vulgarity of the pro-abortion mob. But it was also inspiring to have them there as a reminder of what we are fighting for.  We are fighting for a culture of life for these children. We can still change things for these little ones when they become teenagers and young adults, so that they aren't faced with the same destructive lies about abortion being a quick and easy fix that we dealt with.

That little girl I saw in the line to the gallery clutching her baby doll with an "Abortion Hurts" sticker – I don't ever want her to feel the pain and victimization of abortion. I don't want her think that's her only choice and all she deserves. I want her to love herself and see that there's so much more to her than just her reproductive organs, as the pro-"choice" women reduced themselves to in the Texas Capitol Building.  I want her to respect herself and demand the respect from men that she deserves.  And if she finds herself in an unplanned or troubled pregnancy, I want abortion to be unthinkable because she has all the support and resources she needs to proudly bring life into this world.

That little boy I saw in the rotunda with the red LIFE tape over his mouth – I don't ever want him to become "bro-choice" - supporting abortion for his own selfish sexual desires. I don't want him taking advantage of women and pushing them to get abortions. I want him to grow up loving, supporting, and respecting women.  And if he ever faces a crisis pregnancy, I want him to stand up and do whatever it takes to support and love his child for the rest of his life.

How sad is it that my dreams and wishes for these children will be scoffed at by some and treated as draconian by others.  But standing in the Capitol in Austin last week, I saw that future and the future we are fighting for: A true pro-life generation that abolishes abortion and replaces it with a culture of Life.  I saw the future in Austin. That future starts now.

Back from the Post-Election Apocalypse

Wow. I can't believe I haven't blogged since October. This blog has been frozen in time. Frozen in a much happier time, when we didn't know the election results yet and there was still hope and excitement for a Romney-Ryan win.

Take a look at my election countdown on the top right column: "Time Left to Save the Country: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes" - couldn't be more true. November 6th was our last chance. And we blew it.

That election hit me like a ton of bricks. I've been like a zombie walking through a post-election apocalypse. I'm still not recovered. Will I (and the country) ever recover? Too soon to tell.

When Rush said the other day this sequester business was the first time in his life he's been ashamed of his country, I was shocked. I've been ashamed of my country since Obama was elected in 2008. 2012 went beyond even that. I don't know that I can ever forgive the American electorate and its idiot (excuse me, "low, low information") voters for betraying me for a second time.

I've been meaning to blog the last couple months, but I've just been so bitter, cynical, and jaded. I haven't even wanted to think about politics lately, it just brings up feelings of pain and hopelessness.

I have several partially written posts, including one titled "Blame Blaming Bush" about how we as conservatives should have defended Bush's economic policies more instead of running away from him. We let our concession that Obama inherited a terrible economy turn into the idea that all 8 years of Bush were terrible economic times, instead of the just last two when Democrats controlled Congress (another point we should have hammered home) to the extent that an exit poll said 53% of voters blamed Bush for the bad economy while only 38% blamed Obama. That whole "It took Bush 8 years to ruin the economy, it's going to take more than 4 for Obama to bring it back" really sunk in and we shouldn't have let that happen.

But I haven't had the time or the energy to sit down and write about politics. And as the months passed, I felt like I needed to come up with some really grand comeback post and the pressure held me back from blogging. But really I just needed to break the ice.

So now I'm breaking it. And I'm back. For better or for worse.

Developing ...