You're Secondary in Your Children's Hearts, American Parents

The Young President arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday to snarl traffic, raise campaign funds, and to define his position on government's role in our lives during a speech he delivered to the Urban League convention. He actually uttered the words in quotations. The AP reports:

Obama's message was comprehensive, but he ultimately did not promise anything specific. He spoke of community policing strategies and mental health centers, or programs that steer people away into safe activities instead of gang violence, of ensuring that parents and teachers step in to fill a hole in a child's heart "that government alone cannot fill."

Parents should step up to fill a hole in their children's hearts that government alone cannot fill?!?!" Seriously?!?! Did those words come from the mouth of Barack Obama or Hugo Chavez? Oh. That's what I thought. To repeat the obvious, we simply cannot give this guy a second, lame duck term in the White House.

Sharing the Wealth 101

That's kind of a scary face, too!

Your Government Thinks You're a Dolt

So.  NPR characterizes the Obamacare/Sebelius contraceptives regulation as follows:

This past week, President Barack Obama offered a compromise to his controversial requirement that faith-based institutions provide contraception in employee health plans. Under the new rules, religiously affiliated employers will not be required to offer free contraceptive coverage. Churches were already exempt. Instead, insurance companies would have to offer and pay for contraception.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, while a bit wobbly at first, has now firmed up and declared the mandate to be a "nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchase 'services' to which they have a moral or religious objection," and "an unprecedented attack on religious liberty."

Last week, while some in the liberal press were heaping praise on Obama as the Great Compromiser, I was scratching my head.  I never saw a "compromise" in the proposed regulations; the only shift I saw in the requirement to provide free contraceptives was in pocketbooks -- providing contraceptives moved from the employer's own purse to the employer's checkbook as he writes a check for insurance premiums, then to the insurer's pocketbook which is filled as he cashes the premium check, whose amount has gone up to cover the insurer's "hidden" increased costs.  Everyone will still have access to "free" contraceptives; however, we must bear in mind, as my Daddy taught me -- there is no free lunch.  Anywhere.  Ever.

When the headlines and pundits were screaming that Obama had won, and brokered a "save" for his mandate, there had been no actual "save."  There had not been any distinctive change at all to Government's dictate that we all not only purchase insurance, but that we also purchase insurance that covers what Government decrees.  Contraceptives will still be paid for by everyone through their premiums, even if they're not broken out by line item.  Trust me on this one. 

Did some people actually believe that, simply because there will not be birth control vending machines onsite at workplaces, those employers and employees won't be paying for them anyway?

I really don't have a dog in this hunt because I'm not terribly passionate about reproductive issues.  But -- come on, people!!!!!  Listen, and think!!!  This is little more than the next step by progressive liberals in their quest to protect us all because they know what's best for everyone, and simple people shouldn't be burdened with having to make their own decisions and choices.  And simple people certainly shouldn't be influenced by religious views because religion tends to be a little too steely in its dogma, and simple people certainly shouldn't be snookered into making a decision based on what their churches teach them.

The Supreme Court cannot hear the challenge to this whole tyrannical scheme too soon to suit me, but how much money will have been wasted, how many tears shed, and how much more divided will the nation be by the time an opinion is rendered?

If we still have a nation.

Sorry.  Today is a doom and gloom day.

Random, Unconnected Sunday Thoughts

The second of three Mardi Gras balls is in the rear view. Of course, I actually had to work during this last one instead of simply revelling, so I'm pretty worthless today. I don't remember the last time I spent all day Sunday on the couch without hopping up from time to time to attend to one chore or another. My most noteworthy accomplishment today has probably been to change out rolls of toilet paper and paper towels. I have yet to warm the leftovers for dinner, however, so there may be more strenuous activity in the next few hours. Even though there was no hangover to contend with, I guess I just can't party like it's 1999 anymore.

I already miss football.

For some unbeknownst reason, when I awoke this morning (to let a pushy dog out to attend to his bladder) my voice had dropped at least two octaves. I guess the crud might be returning, just in time for company. So, for the immediate future, just call me Lauren "Moogie" Bacall.

Yeah. We need a few more months of football.

Having two "Mother of the Bride" dresses in the closet from out-of-state weddings does wonders for the Ball wardrobe budget.

Have I mentioned that I miss football?

Our Young President, in my worthy and accurate opinion, is little more than a petulant, arrogant, petty tyrant intent on expanding the reach of a centralized federal government to the point where a representative Republic and separation of powers, as contemplated by the Founders, will fall by the wayside. I just hope it's not too late because we can't wait!

Football. *sigh*

The Tax Debate is Hazardous to My Health

I've avoided it long enough.

It's time for Moogie to weigh in on the tax debate spinning around Washington in a freakin' LAME DUCK Congress!  The chicken sh*ts facing re-election wouldn't even stand up for their "middle class values" in public and hunkered down until after they had been routed at the polls, so now they really feel the need to stick it to us.

Caveat -- Moogie offers her thoughts and opinions at the risk of bringing on apoplexy.

Perhaps it is a character flaw, or greed, or some other misfire in my make-up, but I cannot find a way even to comprehend the liberal view that some people are more equal than others.  The liberal view appears to favor low income folks over those who have higher incomes or pricier possessions.  Some low-income folks are not required to share their stuff with others at all while the more "fortunate" are expected to fork over nearly half of what they work to produce, or more.  Even after they're dead!

Let me tell you -- Pepper came from dirt poor to nicely comfortable not through some nebulous cosmic good fortune or roll of the dice, but rather by the sweat of his brow and backbreaking work and stressful dedication.  And, I might add, I did my part, too, since I was about 13 working in my parents' small family business, working my way through law school as a bartender and cocktail waitress, all the way through practicing law and then teaching it, and even doing another part-time retail stint, all while maintaining a pretty nice home life and raising some pretty good kids.  Neither of us ever worked fewer hours than people making minimum wage -- we probably worked longer hours since we weren't subject to overtime ramifications -- yet we are expected to contribute considerably more of our income to the public weal than minimum wagers.  WTF?!?!

And what about those people who work "for cash?"  They pay nothing in, yet send their children to public schools and accept the services of first responders and use the public roadways.  Yet another WTF.  But, some might say, those work-for-cashers do so in exchange for receiving no social security benefits upon retirement.  To that argument I say, WTF?!?!  Social security was never intended to be a total retirement income; it was sold by FDR as simply a supplement to one's own savings or pension to keep the wolf off the front stoop of really old  65-year-old folks (life expectancy in 1935 was roughly 61 years.).  But today, it has become a giant cache of cash that can be accessed by those who know how to game the system.

So, in essence, liberals in Congress, under the guise of "helping those less fortunate" are stealing from the producers and giving it to heaven only knows who.  Estate taxes are nothing less than a confiscation of private property without compensation and have no place in modern society; they're nothing less than an effort to prevent the endowment of an American privileged "class."  Well, folks, I'm here to tell you that there are several "privileged" classes in this country -- finding them only takes a tweaking of the definition of the adjective "privileged" and I'm pretty fed up with being the source of their endowments.

So, soon to be ex-Speaker Pelosi has marshaled her troops for one last ultra-liberal, communist hoorah to fight an extension of the current tax rates for everyone (while still retaining the very worst marriage penalty in eons) and to gig anyone for having the gall to die with accumulated wealth of over five million dollars (and that would not be Moogie or Pepper, if anyone's curious, so I don't have an actual dog in this hunt.  But it surely could be small business owners or family farms, and I do eat!).  I say it's time to put the "Speaker" in suspended animation until the next Congress convenes.  She and her minions are nothing more than anachronistic hold-over hippies, dreaming of an impossible idyllic communal life, and they need to heed the voters who recently told them to STFU.

I am sooooo ready for 2012.

Pardon my rather salty language today.  I had to do something to let off steam and hold apoplexy in abeyance.

On the bright side, I had a very good six-month follow-up screening yesterday and am good to go until June!  Woo hoo!

Victoria Jackson is Right!

Remember this post? The one in which Victoria Jackson sings a clever song about there being a communist in the White House?

She was right. I know it for a fact.

How, you say, do you know it for a fact, Moogie?

Okay. I'll fess up.

I always wanted to be The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. or Mrs. Peel (of "The Avengers") when I grew up. My aspirations and inclinations toward espionage seem to have compelled me recently to become a "mole" in several liberal organizations so I can keep up with their shenanigans. One of those organizations is a particular political party fundraiser that counts the Young President among its membership,

Hence, and unfortunately, I receive several emails daily seeking monetary donations so they can "continue to keep pace with the Republicans." I mean, these folks are relentless money-grubbers! Today's offerings included this:

In appreciation of your support, we're offering a limited-edition poster of President Obama from renowned artist Anne Savage with a gift of $35 or more to the DSCC. "Out of Many, We Are One" has been featured in numerous publications including Time magazine, and pieces together faces of thousands of Obama supporters into a stunning mosaic of our president. "Out of Many, We Are One" perfectly captures the diversity of Americans who stand behind President Obama. It is truly a remarkable, one-of-a-kind work.

This is the poster:

"Remarkable," indeed. Folks, if this isn't the very definition of "communism" in graphic form, I'll eat my hat. I'll eat my hat smeared with liver baby food. (And if the very thought of liver baby food doesn't make you gag, there's something wrong with you!)

Do they really believe we're that naive? They might as well re-title the poster, "Out of Mao, We Are One."

There ain't no "e pluribus" there -- just the "unum."

The Cat's Out of the Bag!

This is absolutely erudite, profound, and downright funny. I wondered what Victoria Jackson had been up to since her Saturday Night Live days!

I also wonder how many black helicopters and guys in dark glasses with squiggly things coming out of their ears are monitoring her movements these days.