Ran today.

it sucked.

That is all.

so First Things sends us this:

Joe Biden, bless his heart, reveals that he never wanted to be a Mayor or anything like that, because that’s too much like having a real job, requiring real work and, you know, real accountability:

Vice President Joe Biden offered a frank assessment of his career in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago Thursday night. According to a White House pool report, Biden, surrounded by the city’s movers and shakers, praised former Mayor Richard M. Daley and then said: “I never had an interest in being a mayor ’cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.”

Biden was elected to the Senate in November 1972, when he was 29 years old. When he took office in January 1973, he had turned 30, the minimum age set in the Constitution for membership in the Senate. Biden served in the Senate from that time until January 2009, when he became vice president.

Just warms the cockles of your hard-working, private-sector heart, doesn’t it?

related?  I was listening to a podcast which mentioned "California's gaping defcit hole" and INSTANTLY pictured Nancy Pelosi.

ick.

been a VERY busy week:

‘Kill Zimmerman’ Twitter Account Launched. “Barack Obama has remained silent as the usual suspects have been busy stirring up hate aimed at George Zimmerman, the Florida Hispanic involved in the shooting death of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. Now the anger has taken a new twist, breaking out on Twitter with an account named ‘Kill Zimmerman.’ It features an image of Zimmerman in crosshairs.”

JIM TREACHER: Has Obama called David and Elaine McClain to make sure they’re holding up okay? “They’re the elderly Florida couple whose address Spike Lee tweeted because he thought it was George Zimmerman’s. Presumably because he wanted people to go there and discuss things calmly. . . . ‘Fearful for their safety, and hoping to escape the spotlight, the couple have temporarily moved to a hotel.’”

Plus: “Somebody please try to justify this. Seriously. Tell me why this is okay. Tell me why this doesn’t matter. Tell me how this helps. Tell me how anyone involved in this fiasco expects us to just forget what they’ve said and done.”

Also: “And remember Obama’s $35K-a-plate fundraiser at Spike’s house just two months ago? I’m sure they’d both prefer if you didn’t.”

JOHN HINDERAKER: “President Obama has fanned the flames of hatred in the Trayvon Martin case, and has not said a single critical word about the outrageous actions of the New Black Panthers, who offered a $10,000 bounty on George Zimmerman–the same New Black Panthers on whose behalf Eric Holder quashed a federal criminal prosecution; or of Spike Lee, who tweeted a wrong address for Zimmerman, presumably to facilitate harassment or even murder; or of the many liberals who have posted on the @killzimmerman Twitter feed; or of the many other Democrats and liberals who have indulged in an orgy of hate with respect to Mr. Zimmerman. President Obama’s interest in the victims of violence is selective: he cares if they look like the hypothetical son he doesn’t have.”

In other words, he’s a racist hatemonger. Just to be clear. So much for hope and change.

the SCOTUS has met and they've cast their votes.  This may CHANGE over the coming weeks but for the most part it's done.  CJ Roberts will assign the task of writing the majority opinion (my bet is to Kennedy if he's in the majority) or, rather, to several judges on each of the four argued issues.

IMHO: 9-0 on the Anti-injuncto Act issues: 9-0.  At WORST 8-1.  Not worth discussing.

Individual mandate - the biggie.  5-4, although I would not be surprised to see this go 6-3, against.  RBG and Sotomeyor are most likely flips*

Severability: For reasons worthy of another post this one is at least 6-3 against, maybe more.  Roberts is a consensus builder (witness the two other big 9-0 setback to the POTUS) so this decision should make fascinatig reading, no less so than the concurring opinios which I expect to be submitted. 

Medicaid cramdown: not solid on this one and not sure I care since IMHO severability gets the boot.  If I'm WAY off on the severability issue then IMHO this sticks as well, 5-4.

*  Have you noticed the MSM has been filled with articles askig in any of the "Conservative" Justices will side with Obamacare but not ONE has asked if any of the "Liberal"  Jstices will sidewith the Constitution?

Found a GREAT site for the Obama Presidential Library .... and we can get it CHEAP!

Jeffrey Toobin, reporting for CNN, called todays arguments over Obamacare @ SCOTUS “a train wreck for the Obama administration.”

A decade or so ago I attended a HS football game between my alma mater and a Columbus City League school (ie - big).  Both teams were 3-0.  Tiny lille WJ had beaten three teams that stood at 6-3 by an average score of 18ppg.  Our opponent had beater three winless scools by a TOTAL of 24 points.  I left at the end of the 3rd qtr with the Roughriders up by 48.  In the parking lot a later arrival asked me how the game was going.  "It's a route."  "Who's winning?" He asked.  I laughed and said "you're kidding, right?"

Boy I was in good shape and quite fast back then.

The ONLY way today could be viewed as a trainwreck is if you had an almost TOTAL lack of understanding of what has/is and was happening.  The right and Libertarians appear to understand that this is a close issue.  I for one will not be surprised if we see a Roe-like muddle of opinions.  The ALA arguement from yesterday will go 9-0 against POTUS.  Today's arguement will be close but is likely 5-4. I can see some issues going 6-3 but if they do I fully expect three or four concurring opinions and two or three dissents.  The left expected a slam dunk but had no real basis to support one - just like WJHS's week four opponent a decade ago.

Excerpted from member Dave Carter over at Ricochet.com

I'm just crazy enough to believe that the condition of mankind is one of inherent imperfection, and that this condition cannot be remedied by the utopian dictates of other men who are no less imperfect just because they happen to hold public office.

I'm just crazy enough to reject the idea that our forebears fought and bled during the American Revolution in order to secure the blessings of a centralized authority which tramples on religious freedom and dictates everything from the plumbing in our homes to the nutritional contents of the lunches we prepare for our children at school.  I'm just crazy enough to believe that our forebears were fighting AGAINST intrusive government, not for it.

I'm just crazy enough to believe the Biblical injunction that I am my brother's keeper,…not his slave; and that charity is an act of voluntary compassion rather than an armed robbery facilitated by the IRS.

I'm just crazy enough to believe that when you spread the wealth around, everyone loses because plunder robs all involved of the incentive to fully realize their God-given potential.

I'm just crazy enough to believe that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not favors bestowed by imperfect mortals in government and are therefore not the government's to take away.  

I'm just crazy enough to believe that any perceived "right" which makes demands on the time, property, or freedom of another person is not a right at all, and that legitimate rights exist in harmony with one another.

I'm just crazy enough to believe that any government which requires me to enter into a contract to purchase a good or service from another private entity as a condition of my very existence, has overstepped its limits.  The citizen who is pushed around by state or local governments rather than federal authorities is no less bullied or harassed.  Regardless of its source, such a mandate is an attack on the sovereignty of the individual.

I'm just crazy enough to believe the Good Book's admonishment to turn the other cheek, …but when both cheeks are bloody, there's going to be trouble.  My right to defend myself, my family, and my property is non-negotiable.

I'm just crazy enough to hold a door open for a lady, to greet everyone with a smile and a pleasant word, and to believe that if more people extended such simple courtesies to each other, they themselves would be the primary beneficiaries.

I'm just crazy enough to believe that the Constitution is a dead document, not a living one; that it is a contract between citizens and their government and that its meaning is no more changing than the terms of any other legally binding document.   If you tell the bank that you want to sign a living and breathing car loan, the response will not likely be suitable for inclusion in a Sunday School book.    

-----

I'm just crazy enough to believe that an American President who evicts a bust of Winston Churchill from the White House but bows to despots; who announces his intention to send $1 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood but lectures Israel on the virtues of procrastination in her own defense, has no legitimate claim to the title, "Leader of the Free World," and is no friend of liberty.

I am a free man.  And I'm just crazy enough to stay that way. 

It's a question I get alot, especially at school.  My Dept Head believes my buds are surgically attached to my ears.

Today?

Oral argument in HHS vs Florida.  So at least it's job related.

I skipped yesterdays.  The next two days will be "must hear."

Don't Laugh

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952)

I've seen The Egg and I (1947) and a couple other entries, but thought I should watch them all.  Formulaic.  Dated.  Stereotypical.  But At the Fair is a winner.  Why?  Because it'sabout "good."  And "nice."  Without giving too much away, Pa's plowhourse ends up leading the county fair sulky races and Ma makes it break stride, thus losing.  The whole town had bet on "Dixie" and if Pa had won the whole town would be broke.  These folks gave up a ton o' money to save the town, who then actualy APPRECIATED it!  Feel good.

So yes, it's now 722 out of 5400 on my list.  And deservedly so.