Filed under: Abortion, Liberalism, Politics | Tags: Democrats, Obama, Politics, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh
I keep saying I’m looking forward to 2010 to see the Democrats lose, but if we keep going the way we–conservatives and Republicans–have in the first seven days of the Obama presidency, it’s going to be a long, long time before we can even have a serious hope of winning
From the Politico:
“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.”
The comments come amidst sparing between El Rushbo and, well, just about everyone else.
Rush is right in all that he has said. Firstly in that he wants the policies of Barack H. Obama to fail. I do, too, if those policies are bailouts, socialized healthcare, continuing to dump huge sums of money into public education and NCLB without seeing any real results (NCLB is a topic for later), failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, bowing to Hamas and Iran, signing executive orders allowing the murder of unborn partially born children, providing funding for infanticide abroad, etc. etc. As always, Rush said it best when he said, to paraphrase, “What’s the difference between what the Democrats said and what I [Rush] am saying? They supported the troops but condemned the mission; I support the President but hope his policies fail. Whats’ the difference?” There is no difference aside from the fact that Rush’s position is what is best for the nation, whereas the Democrats took a position that would harm our security, reputation and most importantly our men and women fighting the terrorists.
Now, because certainly there is nothing better for our political leadership to be debating, Democrats are petitioning against Rush for taking the same position they took. Why are they angry. They cite 19 words:
“If I wanted Obama to succeed, I’d be happy the Republicans have laid down. I don’t want this to work. So I’m thinking of replying to this guy, say ‘okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.’”
Which brings me to my second point: As if it weren’t bad enough that Rush has to face Obama–who could, as Rush rightly noted today, end the Rush Limbaugh Program with a penstroke across an Executive Order which reinstates some revamped “Fairness Doctrine,” he has no support from Republicans who have, as he said, “Laid down.” Indeed. And they–the Republican lack-of-Leadership–are angry that he would dare criticize them!
Boehner isn’t taking the right approach, as Gingrey suggests above. When he was given the chance in September to take take that “right approach” against the so called TARP bill, he said that he was supporting something–by voting for it–that he, in principle at least, didn’t support.
“Nobody wants to be there around (this bill). I don’t blame you, I don’t want to be around it,” Boehner told colleagues on the House floor. “We have an imperfect product, but we have a product that may work – a product that may work if we can get the votes to pass it.”
Boehner described the bill as a ‘mud sandwich,’ and told colleagues that only the magnitude of the crisis made him feel compelled to vote for it. “If I didn’t think we were on the brink of an economic disaster, it would be easy for me to say no, he said. “These are the kind of votes where we have to look into our souls and ask the question ‘What’s in the best interest of our country’? I believe what’s in the best interests of this country is to vote for this bill.”
Why, Mr. Boehner, if you know it is against conservative principles–principles which you say guide you in the way you govern, principles which the people of your state elected you to serve with, principles which you believe are best for our nation, principles which–if you truly believe they are right–you wouldn’t even be willing to compromise on–would you bow-down to Democrats and then be angry when a man who has never been afraid to self-identify with his conservative principles (Rush) rightly chastises you.
So long as Republican leaders “lay down” and take what’s coming to them, so long as they vote for bills they know are against conservative–nay, republican (with a small r)–principles, so long as they find testicular fortitude only when taking on the one man–Rush–who is standing, unashamedly I might add, for conservatism and for America, this party and this nation is at risk.
Simply, Rush does not, as Gingrey says, need to back off! Gingrey, Boehner and every single Republican and patriotic American needs to stand up. After all, isn’t dissent the best form of patriotism?
Filed under: Food
I think I only actually take time to write when I’m bored. It’s not that I lack time–certainly I could have taken some of the countless hours I’ve spent in the past two weeks watching the entire second season of the Tudors on DVD to write. It’s not that I lack a want to write either–I’ve been wanting to write about how much I already miss George W. Bush, about how I detest that woman who actually said babies are a drain on the economy or about the alleged closing of Gitmo. But I just haven’t done it. I don’t know why. And now that I’m actually on here, writing something, it has nothing to do with any of the weighty topics aforementioned.
Instead it has to do with bread and boredom. Both of which I squared off with today. First, on boredom…today was a snow day as we experience a frightening 1 1/2-2 inches of snowfall today. Thank goodness I’m not out in the treacherous mess. What whimps we have become. I don’t remember having days off for this when I was a student in high school. Even though the unexpected day off has been nice, it left me bored. I made myself two fluffy and delicious whole-wheat pancakes; then I watched Frasier on Lifetime (I know, I’m a woman…) Next, I cleaned–I mean thoroughly cleaned–the apartment. Swept. Vacuumed (including the curtains, couch and every corner of the floor). Polished. Scrubbed. Disinfected. I even cleaned the scooper for the littler box. Fun!
When cleaning could not longer passify me, I decided to bake some bread. I had never baked whole wheat bread from scratch before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I followed the instructions on the back of the King Athur Whole Wheat Flour bag:
- 3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
- 1 packet active yeast, dissolved in 2 tbsp. of water
- 1/4 cup dry milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
Knead for 6-8 minutes, place in a lightly greased bowl and allow to rise for about an hour. Next, shape into a 4×8″ “log” and place in a lightly greased breadpan (I used a Pampered Chef pan). Let rise another 30-60 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then tent with foil and bake a final 20 minutes. Flip onto a cooling rack and let cool before slicing.
Now, firstly, the kneading was an issue. Despite my having greased my surface prior to starting–as per King Arthur’s instructions–the damn dough kept sticking. I did my best until I could knead no more–strike 1. I threw the bread in the bowl. In theory, it was to “double in volume.” I don’t think mine did. That was strike 2. Finally, I shaped it into a “log” (I think that sounds disgusting) and placed it in the breadpan, loosly covered with plastic wrap, where it was to rise “until it crowns about 1/2″ over the edge of the pan.” After an hour it was still the same size as when we began. I could wait no longer; I chucked it in the preheated oven–strike 3.
Having three strikes, I suspected the bread would not turn out right. After the forty minutes of baking, I open the oven, peaked under the tinfoil tent and found what appeared to be a regular ole loaf of bread:
Yum-bread, sans one slice which I enjoyed prior to taking the photography...
You cannot see in this picture, but the left side was slightly deformed. It was a little, I guess you would say, folded? I don’t know. Not how bread should look, that’s fer sure. I sliced it while it was still warm. YUM! Very dense, lots of whole-wheat flavor (I know, who would have suspected, right?) with a touch of sweetness from the honey. The outside crust is thin and crisp-not hard, but crisp. Even the heal was tasty.
Total time to make: 3 hours.
King Arthur says it will store in a plastic bag for nearly a week at room temperature. I hope so, but I doubt it will last that long. Now I wish I had the needed culinary goodies to make homemade chicken soup. Unfortunately, I do not…
When the bread was all baked and done, it was only 2 pm. I still had time to kill.
I’ve spent the last 2-3 hours skimming the internet and working on finishing Jon Mecham’s American Lion, another Andrew Jackson biography. (I’ve read two specifically on Jackson and several more on the “Jacksonian Era.”)
So, as the snow continues to fall, I say–here’s to bread and boredom on a snowy January day. (An awkward end to the post, I know, but I don’t feel like writing any more…)
Filed under: Reflections
This blog has evolved more and more from a place for news analysis (because not anybody can summarize and anyalyze the news quite like a high school history teacher with zero policy analysis or journalism experience…) and more for a place of observation and reflection…
With that said here are a few observations and reflections
- I am not in school today because I have jury duty. On Tuesday, while my collegues and students enjoyed a day off due to the ice, I trudged to the Federal District Court in Martinsburg to undergo jury selection (makes me think of Arlo Gutherie–I was neglected, inspected, detected and selected). Unfortunately I was selected. Although I don’t really want to go sit on this case, it was nice to sleep in this morning (the case isn’t until 1pm) AND it’s nice to sit here at my desk, drink my coffee, read the news and look out the window as Winchester is being draped in a very light covering of snow. Coffee. News. Snow. I don’t need much more in life to be happy.
- Speaking of jury duty, and perhaps it is unethical of me to make these comments on a day when I am about to serve but I somehow doubt it, I could not help but be discouraged by the jury pool AND the excuses prospective jurors tried to employ in order to be excused. “My back hurts if I sit.” “I need to eat 4-5 times a day.” “The weather is bad and I can’t stay late.” Look, fellow Americans, I don’t want to sit for hours and listen to lawyers go on and on, but it is my our civic duty to do such. Get over it and serve.
- More on the case–the judge had a big wad of tobacco in his mouth throughout the duration of the proceedings. He expelled the tobacco juice into a paper-cup repeatedly. When he asked “does anybody have any reason they believe would interfere with their ability to be objective,” maybe I should have said, “YES, your tobacco spitting offends me. Disgusting.” But I did not.
To change directions–my appartment is tiny. I knew that when I moved it. What I didn’t know was how quickly I would begin wishing I had a bigger place. I love the location and the house that the appartment is located in, but the actual appartment is just TOO SMALL.
Since I moved in, I have been trying to find an effective furniture configuration and have rearranged my furniture many, many times. Chiefly annoying are these three items
New "command center" for research, lesson preparation and the odd-blog posting. Notice Merle has taken up residence on the right of the desk.
- I had no WORK space for my desk. This problem was compounded by the fact that I was given a roll-top desk that has ZERO work space on it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the desk–and gladly accepted it–but it’s not practical for somebody like me who tends to spread things out. I have resolved this issue by borrowing a sewing table to sit beside it. On my sewing table I have placed an “editor’s desk” which was built for me for Christmas based on the model available at Levengers.com. Merle, the name which has stuck for the cat formerly known as “orange dog,” likes to site in the window sill and peak over the editors desk. Write now all I see are his ears as he is watching the snow fly by.
- I hate that I have NO ROOM for a kitchen table.
- My “bedrooom” isn’t a bedroom so much as a big closet that I put my bed in. I want a real bedroom.
I just needed to get that off of my chest.
Finally, I am looking for part-time work. Particularly, I’d like to get into some sort of freelace writing. I haven’t found much of anything that I’m really even qualified to do. If you have any tips for a non-English/journalism major looking to enter the field of freelance writing, please leave them in the comment section.
