Coals to Newcastle

Just as Newcastle on Tyne in England was well known for coal mining and the UK's first coal exporting port, my Mother is world renown (in my mind) for her biscuits.

A very good friend gave us some homemade peach and strawberry jam Saturday night and yesterday morning I was required by law to make biscuits to go with the jams for breakfast. Although it was my first attempt ever to make them from "scratch" they turned out better that expected. Not as good as Mother's of course, but better that the hockey pucks my wife had envisioned. In fact wanting to share my new found talent as gourmet cook I humbly "carried coals to Newcastle" by taking Mother some along with a taste of the new jams.

Her call late yesterday informed me that she had them for supper and praised my culinary attempt bragging about how good they were. Since she has not done a lot of cooking recently there was nothing to compare them to though. Actually I know she would have been gracious and complimentary even if they had turned out like hockey pucks because that's what good Mothers do.

I'm Just Saying - You don't have to make world class biscuits for your Mother to love you!

Discriminate

discriminate - (from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary )

transitive verb
1 a: to mark or perceive the distinguishing or peculiar features of
b: distinguish, differentiate
intransitive verb
1 a: to make a distinction
b: to use good judgment

I discriminate. So do you and everyone you know. I start each morning by discriminating which coffee, cereal, milk, toothpaste, clothes, etc, etc, - you get the idea. So when did discriminate become an exclusively racial idiom?

We are told that if you criticize Obama you are racist and discriminating against him because he is black (half actually, but who’s counting.) As you can see in 1b of the intransitive verb (look it up, I did) form of the definition it states “to use good judgment.” Well my good judgment tells me that I should be discriminating against him for his political views even if they are a moving target.

Certainly racial discrimination exist today although not to the degree it did in the past. More prevalent today is what some refer to as "reverse discrimination" better known as affirmative action. Call it what you want but it is still racial discrimination and not in better just because the colors are reversed.

Make your choices based on the distinguishing features, distinctions, or your good judgement - not skin color, I do.

I'm Just Saying - maybe we all should be a little more discriminating.

Flip Flops

Some of the Kool-Aid drinkers are beginning to choke on campaign promises of their messiah Obama as they are slowly being regurgitated. From the innocuous flag pin to the realization that our troops cannot just leave in the middle of a war his constituents are watching the Democrat party's presumptive nominee “shifting” (i.e. flip-flopping) his positions to more centrist views.

Here are his latest;

On Iraq, Obama said Thursday that his upcoming trip there might lead him to refine his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war.

He now supports broader authority for the government's eavesdropping program and legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in it, after opposing a similar bill last year.

After the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's gun ban, the handgun control proponent said he favors both an individual's right to own a gun as well as government's right to regulate ownership.

Obama became the first major-party candidate to reject public financing for the general election after earlier promises to accept it.

He not only embraced but promised to expand Bush's program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups, a split with Democratic orthodoxy.

He objected to the Supreme Court's decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists, even though he's been anti-capital punishment.

Obama also said "mental distress" should not count as a health exception that would permit a late-term abortion, saying "it has to be a serious physical issue," addressing a matter considered crucial to abortion rights activists.

As Alex Conant, a spokesman for the national Republican Party said, "There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience".

I’m Just Saying – How long will it be until he also comes moves right of McCain?

Mowing Grass

Just got this in an email and had to post it for the 4th.

Here is a soldier in Iraq, stationed in a big sand box. He asked his wife to send him dirt (U.S. soil), fertilizer, and some grass seed so that he can have the sweet aroma and feel the grass grow beneath his feet. When the men of the outfit have a mission that they are going on, they take turns walking through the grass and the American soil -- to bring them good luck.

If you notice, he is even cutting the grass with a pair of a scissors. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we don't stop and think about the little things that we take for granted.(Note his rifle nearby)

By the way, as I post this it's just after midnight in Baghdad and still 95 degrees.

I'm Just Saying - maybe we ought to be a little more thankful for the freedom that we have.

Disappointment

I sent the following to my county Republican chairman in reply to his latest update;

Thanks for the update. I'm very concerned about the fate of the Republican party and their abandonment of the conservative movement. I realize that the Northeast press had a lot to do with anointing McCain before the more conservative states had a chance to vote but the rest of our elected representatives are directly responsible for the run-a-way spending spree. To say I’m disappointed with our current Republican leadership would be an extreme understatement.

After being in charge for 10 years they not only failed to rein in spending they expanded government to unbelievable largess. Not only the pork Democrats had approved in the past began to pale by comparison they also expanded government health to include a prescription benefit that is unsustainable and seems to help the pharmaceutical companies more than the intended. I thought ethics violations, big government, moral failures, and cronyism where a platform to the Democrat party, not ours. Pete Olson’s association with Delay and Graham are certainly not going to help in this year’s election especially since on top of everything else we have the Blue Dog Democrat coalition to be concerned with as they appear to be moving right of their Republican opponents.

For example, here in District 22 as you know, we have Nick Lampson that seems to be moving farther right with each newsletter he issues. I assume you subscribe but his latest newsletter can be read here and notice he does not even mention the fact that he is a Democrat. Here are a few excerpts;

(See I've Seen The Enemy)

Our finest Republican representatives couldn’t have said it any better. Between these Blue Dog Democrats and the overwhelming apathy felt by conservative Republicans I’m not looking forward to the next four years.

I'm Just Saying - Is it already too late?

I've Seen The Enemy

To keep an eye on the “enemy” I signed up for my Congressman’s newsletter. Nick Lampson (D) is part of the conservative Blue Dog Democrat movement started in 1994 to give more conservative members of the party a unified voice. He was a congressman in Texas’s 9th congressional district from 1997 to 2005. He lost his seat after the big controversial redistricting and returned in 2007 after the Tom Delay (1985-2006) debacle. I’ve watched as he increasingly moves to the right on each of the major issues and I believe that he exemplifies the reason that Democrats will probably remain in power after the next election. It seems that more of them are moving to the right of Republicans (including McCain) although that certainly would not be difficult to do.

The entire newsletter can be read here and doesn’t even mention the fact that he is a Democrat. Here are a few excerpts;

I urged them (Democrat leadership) to allow debate and votes on legislation to increase domestic energy production…

I have consistently voted against proposals to raise taxes on domestic energy producers…

I have called on Speaker Pelosi to allow genuine debate and a vote on this issue…

I believe that we will not be able to accomplish anything, let alone lead our nation to energy independence, if we are unable to have a civil debate and are unwilling to allow all options on the table.

I’m Just Saying – do they really mean it or is it just a ploy to get/stay elected?

Perfect Storm

Looks like it’s shaping up as the “perfect storm” for oil.

Due to the red tape involved it’s been over 30 years since a new refinery has been built in the US. For example, Arizona Clean Fuels, has been trying to build a small refinery outside Yuma for almost 10 years. It took five years just to get air-quality permits. Now they hope to be operational in 2010, 15 years after they started the project.

The more expensive sweet crude is in short supply while currently we have a good supply of sour crude but the sulfur content makes it considerably more expensive to refine.

More taxes are paid to the federal government than oil companies make in profit.

Officials at OPEC and the IEA say oil production is decreasing in 54 of the world’s top 60 oil producing nations.

The US is competing with the nationalized foreign oil companies that control 75% of the world’s oil and we rank 14th in petroleum reserves.

Worldwide increased demand, China has 1.6 billion people and its growing economy is putting more of those people in a position to afford an automobile.

Democrats and a handful of RINO’s (including John McCain) have been blocking any attempt to drill the known reserves in ANRW for years.

And yes the oil speculators do have a part in driving up the price, albeit less than what our legislators imply.

Then on top of that something I never really thought about was the value (devaluing actually) of the dollar as pointed out in this excerpt from an online article;

……….

David T. King, a former chief of the New York Federal Reserve’s Industrial Economies Division, noted on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, when oil prices were at around $120, that last August the dollar price of oil was $70. King points out that the current spike in oil and other commodity prices coincides almost exactly with the Fed’s decision to turn on the monetary spigots to save Wall Street.
The day that the barrel price of oil in dollars was exactly the same as in Euros was in 2002, when both were about 25, King notes. Since then oil has risen by 50 Euros in the past five and a half years. It now stands at 75 Euros, triple what it was then.
But check this out: in the US, the price is over $120, about five times what it was then, King says. He says that the collapse of the dollar exchange rate explains at least half of the increase in the pump price of gas over the past five years.

……………..

I’m Just Saying – When you add it all up I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.