Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be…

blah, blah and..auld lang…

blah blah blah Blah!

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll take a cup of … blah, blah blah,

For auld lang syne!

Yeah, like any of you knew the lyrics, either.

New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. – Mark Twain

Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to. – P. J. O’Rourke

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. – G. K. Chesterton

What a year, huh?

I can’t say that it was all peaches and cream for me and my family. Losing my father and mother-in-law were just the two hardest parts of a year filled with troubles. On the other hand, my step-daughters wedding was an exceptionally grand and joyful event. As always, we have to take the good with the bad.

If I’m to have a resolution for this year it is to be more patient with everyone – from wife to family to friends to perfect strangers, I want to be much more patient than I’ve ever been before. A gentle answer turneth away wrath.

My hope for the year is that we secure victory in Afghanistan so that we can start to bring our troops home from there. I pray the economy turns around so that people will no longer bear such a burden of worry about the future. I hope that our government changes course and realizes that, just perhaps, the desires of academics and Europeans are not necessarily suitable for the United States.

I hope you all have a very fun and safe new year and I wish to thank you all for coming here and bearing with us here at Blogs for Victory.

Interesting:

How nullification works:

If the federal government passes a law that is unconstitutional a state legislature writes a resolution, passes it, then sends it to the be signed by the governor telling the federal government that the law does not exist in that state This is well within the states duties and rights.

Currently, as many as twenty five states are considering nullification tactics against a wide variety of proposed federal laws such as Real ID, gun control and health care reform. This is the answer for turning back the final health care bill that is ultimately coming.

So, just how does Uncle Sam manage to get so deeply involved in powers not delegated to the federal government? By bribery. Thanks to the misbegotten 16th Amendment, the federal government is awash in income tax dollars and can raise the tax rates at will. The government then uses the money it taxes away from to bribe us in to compliance with federal wishes. And thus if I get on a bus in Las Vegas to go to Reno, I can’t smoke per federal laws and regulations even though my action is not in any way, shape or form inter-State commerce: if Nevada wants to keep the federal spigot open, we have to comply with whatever Uncle Sam says. And this goes for just about everything we do – we have the right to refuse the federal demands, but only at the cost of losing federal subsidies.

Now, it’d be better if Nevadans (and everyone else) would just tell the federal government to jump in a lake. We’d lose massive federal subsidies, but we’d also be free from almost all federal government interference in our day to day lives. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen – and anyone who campaigns on it would be accused of being in favor of granny starving and beating puppies to death. On the other hand, with the ferment of rebellion in the air, this might be the time to at least strike some symbolic blows against federal government intrusion.

So, as far as I’m concerned, let’s have at it – pick an issue which is irksome to your State and see if you can gin up a nullification movement on it. For Nevada, the likely target is the fact that the federal government owns 84% of our land – each State will have its own pet peeve, I’m sure. As part of a general assault upon the legitimacy of federal government intervention in State and local matters, such a movement can only be helpful.

UPDATE: Urban hospitals protest ObamaCare.

The news:

Conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital on Wednesday afternoon with chest pains, sources told KITV.

Paramedics responded to the call at 2:41 p.m. at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Limbaugh suffered from chest pains, sources said. Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition.

He was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Our prayers for Rush and his family.

UPDATE: Liberals keep it nasty, as per usual.

Geesh:

A loophole in a Massachusetts state law has allowed Zeituni Onyango – Barack Obama’s aunt and an illegal immigrant – to live in state-funded public housing in Boston since 2003, even though a federal immigration judge ordered Onyango to leave the country in 2004 after her request for asylum was denied.

The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) told CNSNews.com that illegal immigrants like Onyango can qualify for the state-funded housing in Massachusetts because, unlike federally funded programs, Massachusetts forbids the BHA from even asking about an applicant’s immigration status.

But that begs the question: why doesn’t ICE arrest and deport her?

Those of you who are long time readers here know that I’m “soft” on illegal immigration. Not as soft as liberals, but certainly much softer than the run-of-the-mill conservative. You know – I want a guest-worker program and favor a path to citizenship for illegals long in country and entirely self-supporting. But I’m also “hard” on law and order – and if someone has been found, by a court, to have broken the law, then that person must suffer whatever the law requires. In this case: deportation. It doesn’t matter that Massachusetts, run by dingbat liberals, doesn’t mind shoveling taxpayer money at illegals while citizens and legal immigrants suffer privation – that is Massachusetts’ problem. But it does matter that the federal government – in charge of keeping illegals out – hasn’t apparently done much to see this lady to the border.

If we are to be a nation under the rule of law, then the laws must be enforced. With a keen sense of justice and always erring on the side of mercy, but always enforced. Someone who breaks a law and is found culpable by the courts must suffer a penalty. Period. End of story. Until we get a handle on this and start enforcing our laws, we’ll have a continual erosion of respect for all laws – and in that direction lies anarchy and destruction.

For all of those who say that we don’t have a purpose in a fight for someone else’s liberty:

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. – St Thomas Aquinas

They never give up:

…in New York’s Columbia County, a two-hour drive up the Hudson River from New York City. Local Democrats have encouraged weekend residents to register and vote on the theory that their ballots aren’t needed in New York City, where Democrats already hold an overwhelming registration edge. In a lightly-populated upstate community, however, a few transplant votes can represent the balance of power.

That was certainly the case last month in the town of Taghkanic, which has about 1,500 people. In a closely contested race for local offices, more than 20% of the ballots were cast by absentees, almost all of them by weekend residents who appeared to have delivered narrow victories to local Democrats. In response, Republicans have sued, pointing to evidence that many of the absentees were people whose jobs, drivers licenses and primary residences were in New York City and legally should have voted there. Some may even have voted in both jurisdictions. Approximately 60 absentee ballots are at issue and could sway the result of some races if disqualified.

The case will be heard by a local judge in State Supreme Court in Columbia County tomorrow. Evidence before him will include spreadsheets showing that many of the county’s absentee voters had signed affidavits for property tax exemptions on homes outside of Columbia County or signed second-home riders on mortgages securing their Columbia County property. Those riders explicitly say their primary residences are elsewhere.

As Democrats head in to an increasingly harsh electoral environment, we can expect ever more efforts to cheat. Cheating, remember, is not something that happens from time to time, it is something Democrats do whenever they can. And they are quite good at it. And also quite good at playing the injured party (as in Florida in 2000, or in Ohio in 2004) – naturally, most of the MSM will come down hard on the side of the Democrats.

The good news is that stories like these do show an increasingly desperate Democrat party – a party which knows it betrayed the American people and is about to get punished for it.

Our task is to both remain vigilant for these efforts while, also, working to run up our vote totals to the point where cheating won’t be able to change the outcome.

Sorry guys and gals, just couldn’t think of anyth8ing good to write for the AM. Have at it.

Interesting:

The Department of Homeland Security has placed an order for 200 million rounds of pistol ammunition (.40 caliber, hollow-point) over the next five years for use by its Immigration, Customs and Enforcement division.

Let’s see now, ICE has approximately 15,000 employees. Not all of them are licensed to carry firearms, but just to keep the math simple, we’ll divide the whole shebang into 200 million. That works out to a little over 13,000 rounds per employee over five years, or approximately 2,600 per employee per year.

Now, in case the entire population of Mexico tries to cross the border over the next five years, this would be enough to shoot everybody twice; however, this event seems unlikely, and would represent a pretty harsh response, anyway.

So, what’s it all about, Janet?

Update: Winchester confirms. This news has been out there for a while, incidentally, but I’m just finding out about it.

Given that boarder security is already being slighted by Napolitano’s DHS, it seems odd that we would be getting enough ammo to fight a small war. So, indeed, what’s it all about, Janet?

Some possibilities:

1. Its something being “lost in the estimates” – the money is really for something else highly classified, and this is just the cover.

2. Its just a bit of boneheaded government waste.

3. Its a payoff to someone who donated to Obama.

4. Its to keep it out of our hands.

What do you think?

Michel Ledeen updates:

Here are the key points from Iran over the last 3-4 days: First, in line with my basic sermon these many years, if you study the videos you will see many many women in the front ranks. They have every reason to be there, as the Islamic Republic (like so many Islamic regimes) is built on the sludge of misogyny.

Second, many of the evil Basij goons wore masks. This is new, and it indicates fear that they will be identified and hunted down. The conflict is ever more violent: On several occasions, crowds attacked security forces, even dragging them out of cars — and then, cursing them, letting them run away.

Third, in another ominous development for the regime, people from the southern (lower-class) neighborhoods of Tehran joined in. The revolt is now very broad based. But it is not yet powerful enough for the Bazaaris to join: Today the Tehran Bazaar was open for business.

Fourth, the regime has been stripped of religious legitimacy by its own panic-driven brutality. By invading mosques and hosseiniyas, by assaulting family members of leading clerics (Grand Ayatollah Sanei is under house arrest), and by ordering murder on Ashura, the supreme leader has violated a whole series of previously sacrosanct rules. I will be surprised if we do not soon hear from Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

Finally, there is still no national strike of the sort that paralyzed the shah’s regime 31 years ago. But this may come: There were Twitter reports yesterday saying that Mousavi was calling for a strike on January 7.

Our prayers for the people of Iran – but I don’t see quite enough rebellion to actually bring down the regime. Right now, unless the army actively starts supporting the rebels, I believe the regime will regain control, even if only for a while. If there’s anything we can do to help (ie, provide communications, throw wrenches in the Iranian government machinery, etc), then we should do it, now. The more pressure on the regime, the more likely it is to topple.