Heading out to Pahrump to attend a memorial Mass for my late mother-in-law. Have fun, boys and girls!

Geesh:

Fearful that America’s Supreme Court will soon strike down Chicago’s handgun ban, frustrated by the Illinois legislature’s rejection of his anti-gun agenda, and repudiated by American courts and legislatures over his plan to sue federally licensed manufacturers and dealers of firearms for third-party crimes, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D) is showing contempt for his own country’s and state’s institutions, by seeking a foreign entity to enforce his anti-gun agenda against the American people.

This week, Daley called for “redress against the gun industry” in the World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands. Forgetting or not caring who his constituents are, Daley blurted “This is coming from international mayors. They’re saying, ‘We’re tired of your guns, America.’”

For crying out loud – does Daley really think we care what foreigners think of us? Daley, Sr is spinning in his grave…

Wow:

Today ABC News, made the news, with massive job cuts. Please consider Job Cuts at ABC Leave Workers Stunned and Downcast.

If “Good Morning America” or “World News” look any different in the coming weeks, it might be because ABC News is employing nearly 400 fewer people.

Earlier this week, ABC News, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, largely completed one of the most drastic rounds of budget cutbacks at a television news operation in decades, affecting roughly a quarter of the staff.

As Mish points out in the link, this is not exactly the sort of thing you’d see in an inflationary economic cycle. Bad news for Obama who believes that inflation means growth; worse news for the people who are betting on a cycle of hyperinflation.

Think of the economy as being kind of worn out. You can give it a blood transfusion and put it in the pink for a little while, but the fundamental flaws are still there.

We need a new economy – one geared towards producing things; the “make/mine/grow” stuff I’m always harping upon. It also needs to be primarily geared towards the needs of family – specifically those families in the process of raising children. In fact, in a certain sense, the only purpose of an economy is to provide the means of raising up children.

Until we get to that sort of economy, we’re just going to keep spinning our wheels.

On display:

The story of this horrible evil deserves righteous anger. It is entirely appropriate to scream and wail. There doesn’t seem to be nearly enough wailing – that may be what is beginning to bother me most. I am enraged by the overriding hush.

The UK Telegraph reported April 28 that in the town of Rossano, Italy, a 22 week-old baby boy was aborted alive, wrapped in a sheet with his umbilical cord still attached and left alone to die. 20 hours later, he was discovered by a priest who went to pray beside his body and noticed that the baby was moving and breathing. Doctors then had the baby taken to a neighboring hospital to be cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit, where he ultimately died, nearly two days after being ripped from his mother’s womb and discarded like trash.

His mother decided to end his life because prenatal scans suggested he was disabled. Suggested. Possibly disabled; declared unworthy to live. He was murdered by heartless animals wearing lab coats, who have medical degrees hung in frames on their office walls. He was handed over to death by the one who was entrusted by God with his care, and he was killed and thrown away by those who take an oath to “first do no harm.”

God have mercy on all of us. This has gone on long enough – human life is not to be discarded as trash.

If you believe that abortion is ok, then you believe this was ok. You are glad such a thing happened, because you believe that human life is, indeed, trash to be discarded.

Do not try to tell my you have compassion in your heart. Do not try to tell me that you care about the helpless and suffering. You agree with legal abortion, then you agree with this.

Make your choice – your real choice. Are you for life, or for death? Are you human, or a beast in human skin?

UPDATE: The “defect”? It was a completely treatable cleft palate.

UPDATE II: If for some reason you are unclear as to what makes a “beast in human skin”, here’s an example.

The news:

Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

This is the sort of thing which used to be fodder for SNL skits – now its reality in our Orwellian time – our Age of Lies.

Anyone who says the UN has a role to play in decent society is a fool or knave. This isn’t the only proof of that, but no one should need any further proof.

UPDATE: Gay Patriot asks – will Ahmadinejad now be made grand marshal of a Gay Pride parade?

We’ve all heard Obama’s personal proclamation of socialist belief, and now we see how much Obama made in 2009:

In a stump speech in Quincy, Illinois, President Obama suggested that “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

Obama made almost $5.5 million last year, most of which came from book royalties according to his tax return.

This comes on top of the other millions of dollars Obama received in previous years. The fact that Obama has been in the public spotlight as a politician has undoubtedly had an impact on the royalties of his two books as well.

Living in Vegas it is hard not to consider the possibility of that one pull of the lever dropping millions of dollars in to your lap. It does happen – someone has three dollars burning a hole in their pocket, they drop it in to Megabucks and, presto!, they’ve hit for $15 million or some such. Odds are probably better you’ll get struck by lightening, but it does happen. And with such thoughts comes the immediate follow-on: what would you do with it?

Not being rich, most of us have no conception of what to do with a million dollars. We’re happy if at the end of the week we’ve got an extra $100 free and clear to go out to dinner, or see a movie, or something like that. When regular folks ponder such a thing, it usually comes down to pay the bills, pass out some to family and friends and, very often, give a lot to charity. You see, most of us don’t need tens of millions of dollars to be happy – and, in fact, having that amount of money is destructive…makes a person start to think their poop don’t stink.

So, quite honestly, there is a point when a person has made enough money. That point is where a person is debt free, owns their home, has at least a couple year’s supply of money in the bank and a secure retirement account. Beyond that, its all gravy – and probably poisonous gravy, at that. So, on the face of it, nothing wrong with Obama’s statement. Except for one thing.

You see, he’s not talking about his own money – he’s talking about the money others are making by the sweat of their brow. He’s justifying taking ever larger amounts of other peoples’ money – and, worse than that, taking the money from the most productive part of our citizenry at the time when they are doing the most good for our society, as a whole.

President Obama is free to live his morality – once he’s paid for a house, secured a retirement, got a reserve in the bank and set up his daughters for college, then it would be a wonderful thing if he gave away every additional cent. But he has no business telling other people what to do with theirs – and it is actually immoral for him to suggest that the government has a claim on anyone’s surplus wealth.

Here is the poll – and the conclusion:

Most Americans have heard about Arizona’s tough new immigration law, and they generally support it. The law was passed partly in response to a lack of federal action on the issue. Since the Arizona bill became law, congressional Democrats have considered taking up the issue in the coming weeks, though this initial read on public opinion toward the Arizona law suggests Americans may not necessarily back an attempt to supersede or otherwise undermine it.

Which is why, all of a sudden, Democrats are saying they want the comprehensive immigration reform bill to be long on security, short on amnesty. While the DNC meme shooting through the MSM is that the GOP has got itself in a pickle over this issue, the reality is that the American people by and large support the bill – and the more they hear about it, the more they tend to like it.

You see, when liberals try to make a thrill of horror go down our backs by saying, in effect, “the bill allows cops to question people if they think they’re illegal”, this tends to provoke a “well, that’s good” response. Of course, the law doesn’t really do that – it merely allows the cops to determine the immigrant status of anyone detained for other crimes. But that is at this juncture entirely besides the point.

Anyone who lives in any community with a large illegal population knows precisely who the illegals are – where they hang out, what they tend to do for a living, and all that (yes, long domiciled illegals are harder to spot as they are more integrated in to American society – but they are also not really the problem). As we, the people, know where the illegals are and have always kinda wondered why the cops don’t round them up, when we hear that a law will do that, it seems like a good idea.

What this ultimately amounts to is the final breakdown of the old media’s ability to control the debate. This loss of power was on display during the previous debate on comprehensive immigration reform, but it was temporarily muted by the part the MSM played in helping Obama win in 2008 (it wasn’t really that big a role, but it appeared so given the slavish devotion to Obama on the part of the MSM).

But its all gone, now – the DNC/MSM has tried to sell a narrative which has it that border security is another “third rail” in American politics. That to demand such is proof of racism and will consequently destroy support among hispanics who are set to become all-powerful in American politics in a decade or two. That hispanics never will be as powerful as all that is neither here nor there – the DNC/MSM sold the idea and the elite bought it, including a lot of GOP elite, which is why we saw some immediate grovelling to the DNC/MSM-meme about the Arizona law from prominent GOPers.

But the people aren’t buying it. Border security is not about race – heck, its not even so much about illegal immigrants, themselves. It is about enforcing the law. Its absurd to have laws on the books and not enforce them – and the resultant criminality rampant on the border just emphasizes this…and makes popular support for security all the stronger.

This issue will work to the GOP’s very strong advantage as we approach November. And the more the left tries to demagogue the issue, the better it will get for the GOP.

UPDATE: A clear explanation of the law.

UPDATE II: BUYcott Arizona.

Al Gore, hypocrite:

Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.

The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.

I’m sure he’ll recycle to reduce his carbon footprint…

I have participated in my company’s flex plan for quite some time now. It was a way for families to reduce the cost of their health care by making the money you spend on non-prescription, non-direct care medically-related items into pre-tax deductions, and reimbursed as you go along.

Well…wouldn’t you know that His Royal Arrogance, Barack Hussein Obama (D-Mm-Mm-Mm), in all his beneficence and amidst all his promises to make health care more affordable, just made my healthcare more expensive (please click on the pic below for full size):

Not only that, but my wife happens to work for a subsidiary of Baxter medical. A number of years ago, employees were awarded 100 shares each of Baxter stock- a great company with stature and a promising future in the medical field.

Well, wouldn’t you know, that with a stroke of a pen, His Royal Arrogance, Barack Hussein Obama (D-Mm-Mm-Mm-pbuh), took over $1300 out of our pockets with his signing of that miraculous “health care reform” bill:

Shares of Baxter International Inc. dropped 13 percent Thursday after the company lowered its 2010 financial outlook, citing the loss of market share for key plasma-derived therapies and the impact of the government’s massive health care overhaul..

Yeah, quiz kid. You certainly did “do it.”

Politico notes the trend:

Polls show at least four candidates favored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee would lose their primaries if the elections were held today. And five other committee-preferred candidates are entangled in competitive contests that are far from sure bets.

In the early stages of the election cycle, the NRSC’s ability to lock in top-tier talent like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, former Connecticut Rep. Rob Simmons, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in California appeared to be huge wins for the party, not to mention shrewd political plays.

But now, GOP primary fields in some of the most competitive Senate races in the country have been turned upside down.

Crist is just the first careerist insider to be given the boot. Others will follow – and it is to be hoped that the GOP powers-that-be will learn the lesson: don’t get involved in a primary fight. Don’t try to pick the candidates for the party faithful: let the party faithful pick the candidates.

The Democrats are being much slower on the uptake here – as a for-instance, it looks like the party will successfully shove Specter down the throats of Pennsylvania Democrats…and I’m betting that Specter gets crushed in November (if, on the other hand, Specter loses, then the GOP candidate will probably win…but in a very tight race). The time of the elite is over in America – a new Era of the People has dawned.

God bless it.