Wake-up Calls

Christian faith tells us that one day the Creator will return, setting a world spinning out of control back on its axis. With all the snowicanes, earthquakes, and financial and moral catastrophes besetting us these days, it would be hard to argue against the proposition that the Day is near.

I'm not in the business of timing such things, but I think it would be wise to take spiritual stock. "Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep," it says in Rom. 13:11 (ESV). "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed."

Tissues

When going to the hospital for surgery, be sure to pack your own tissues. Or you'll be paying through the nose.

Tilly

Turns out Tilly the killer whale that held a trainer underwater until she died had already killed. Isn't it a basic approach to put down or remove animals that have already killed people because they have already lost their fear of man?

Messiah

President Obama is going to put his powers as a political powers as messiah to the test, attempting to (1) sway Republicans to support a health care plan voters have already rejected and (2) blame Republicans if they don't. Meanwhile, the national debt and unemployment continue to explode. What part of "no" doesn't Obama understand? The political life Mr. Obama needs to resurrect may be his own.

Discrimination

Six thousand African Americans who failed a test to join the Chicago police force are suing because of alleged racial discrimination. The discrimination, if I'm not mistaken, is that they were forced to pass the same test as everyone else. Thus, the meaning of discrimination has been turned on its head.

The people they should be suing are those who ran their schools into the ground, the parents who didn't teach them life or academic skills, and themselves for not studying the body of human knowledge that is freely out there for anyone who wants it.

Kid Wisdom

"Why do atheists swear?"

Character

I wasn't really thinking I needed more character building at this point, but I'm getting shoulder surgery today anyway. Here's hoping it works-on my shoulder and on my heart.

Tiger

It's not my business, but I'm willing (with no chips in the game) to give Tiger the benefit of the doubt. Until further notice.

Getting Serious?

Iran is going nuclear, the national debt is threatening national security, the pace of terrorist attacks is increasing, Washington is shut down by snow, and voters are in revolt. Meanwhile, the president is checking his Blackberry every 30 minutes for ... Olympic results?

Unreal

Team Obama seems to have settled on 2 million as the number of jobs "saved or created" by the $800 billion "stimulus" bill. I won't deny that perhaps some jobs were "saved or created"; in Illinois, where they poured in $242 million of "stimulus," it was a banner year for people providing "weatherization" services for government housing. But these are not real jobs, and the taxpayer money used to "save or create" them didn't stimulate anything lasting, except more government debt. As Evan Bayh honestly pointed out, government hasn't created even one job over the last six months in the private sector, which is the engine of the real economy.

Going Nuclear

Barack Obama advocating nuclear power? Maybe he is waking up. Now if he'll only start drilling....

Wrong on Rights

U.S. forces just captured the No. 2 Taliban leader in Karachi. Quick, somebody interrogate him before Eric Holder shows up and reads him his rights.

Global Cult

First, too little snow was evidence of global warming. Now, too much is evidence of global warming (er, "climate change"). When everything is evidence for a theory and the theory becomes nonfalsifiable, it ceases to be science and becommes something akin to ... a cult.

Money

For an author or agent, the money's not in the proposal. It's in the book.

Dancing

Somewhere in Vancouver, representatives of Canada's First Nations are still dancing ....

Overconfidence

FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. For conservatives looking for change this November, the only thing we have to fear is overconfidence.

Red Ink

I heard Gov. Tim Pawlenty yesterday. He said the federal government takes in $2.2 trillion annually and has an annual budget deficit of approximately $1.5 trillion. But he said that's just the beginning. Nancy Pelosi just upped the national debt ceiling from $12 trillion to $14 trillion. Then the taxpayer is also on the hook for $65 trillion in payments for Social Security, Medicare, and so on. Pawlenty said we will have to default, though we won't call it that.

Are you getting fed up with deficit spending yet? More to the point, are you getting scared?

Bipartisanship

President Obama, his plans to ram through health care "reform" without Republican input derailed by the voters, is now calling for bipartisanship. That is fine, as long as he realizes that he has to start over. The Democratic Party's plan was firmly rejected, so there is no use building upon it. Bipartisanship means, at a minimum, that he must now listen to the Republicans-and the voters. Ideological rigidity is the wrong health care prescription.

Necessary Smile

Do what you have to ... with a smile.

Will of the People-Not

The Democratic power brokers of Illinois have pushed out the party's nominee for lietenant governor, Scott Lee Cohen, not because of his checkered past, but because he would pull down "the ticket" (i.e., incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn). Instead of a candidate duly put forward by voters, the bigwigs in Springfield and Chicago will choose someone more to their liking. This is democracy?

Global Warming Alert

From the Wall Street Journal: "Huge snowfall shuts public transport, forces event cancellations and causes hundreds of road accidents; hundreds of thousands lose electricity."

Blind Guides

The Republican leading vote-getter (so far) for governor in Illinois was virtually ignored by the Chicago media. So was the democratic nominee for lietenant governor, whose list of ethical and legal problems is longer than Rod Blagojevich's hair. Too bad we can't sue the journalists for breach of the social contract.

Clowns

The Democratic lieutenant governor nominee and pawnbroker in Illinois is a real prize: There are accusations of holding a knife to the throat of his prostitute girlfriend, 'roid rage, a tax lien, and other items. He'll fit right in with Roland Burris, Rod Blagoyevich, Rahm Emmanuel, and the rest of the clowns.

Aspiring Hypocrite

The ethically challenged Illinois Democratic senatorial candidate, Alexi Giannoulias, is ripping his opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, as a "Washington insider." This doesn't work on at least two levels. First, he plays hoops with Barack Obama, so you can't get much more inside than that. Second, Giannoulias is trying to become a Washington insider, which is precisely what he is criticizing Kirk for. So the best you can say about Giannoulias is that he is aspiring to be a hypocrite.

Runoff Request

Yesterday Illinois held its first-in-the-nation primary, and it looks to be setting up well for the Republicans to take "Barack Obamma's Senate seat" in November.

In the Republican contest for governor, the leading vote-getter is right now just 503 ballots ahead of his nearest rival. Isn't 503 the margin of victory in Florida for George W. Bush and the country over Al Gore in 2000? Every vote does count!

Anyway, the top four Republican gubernatorial candidates all have less than 25 percent of the vote and are extremely close. I think Illinois voters deserve a runoff of the top two candidates to get a clear winner.

President Miranda

President Obama may have a measure of vindication in his (to me) incomprehensible decision to read the Nigerian terrorist his Miranda "rights":

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's cooperation could prove to be a national security victory and a political vindication for President Barack Obama, who has been under fire from lawmakers who contend the administration botched the case by giving Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, rather than interrogating him as a military prisoner.

If the guy talks, for whatever reason, it's a victory for us all, including Obama. But I still think it's a wrong-headed policy.

Era of Big Problems

With his lips Barack Obama says that the era of big government deficit spending needs to be over. But with his proposed $3.8 trillion budget he says, "Not yet." With a deficit of $1.6 trillion just for this fiscal year, that's a new obligation of $5,333 for every man, woman, and child in the United States-and that's before interest, which will likely end up in the pockets of the Chinese.

But don't worry, the president is focusing on what's most important to the American people, such as ending "don't ask, don't tell" in the military. So not only is our financial house in ruins, so is our moral house. And I'm sure this sop to his gay base will help our all-volunteer armed forces in recruiting, so our security house will also be in trouble.

The era of Barack Obama can't end soon enough. I'm not sure we can take much more.

Macmillian and Amazon.com, Part 2

Amazon.com says it will give in to publishing giant Macmillan and agree to sell electronic versions of its books even at prices it considers too high.

By the Associated Press