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It’s what he says, not does, that counts

“Don’t you knock my man Barack,” a friend says.

“Barack obviously lied that you can keep your doctor, keep your healthcare provider. He has no intention of letting you keep anything that’s worked for you and your family the past ten years. And Barack has lied about the Benghazi deaths and subsequent coverup, not to mention the IRS and NSA government spying on and coercing Americans. And you’re still lovin’ this guy?,” I ask.

“Yup.”

Something is afoot here that bothers liberals tremendously when conservatives do it: Taking something on faith.

Bible-believers, Americans whose faith instructs them to reject modern hedonism and novelty, they are sorely tested and mocked by liberals.

But liberals have no problems taking global warming on faith, or the current president. It’s not that the data runs contrary to the claims that’s important. It’s simply that a person wants to believe, MUST believe.

It appears to be a new religion. It has all the dynamics and starry eyed adherents.  Except here, acts don’t matter. Rather, it’s what is said that carries the weight, that is what is important. Not what is actually done.

And to think that liberals are intellectuals…. my, how America has changed.

Limbaugh wins award, “open-minded” educators show their best censorship

Last night, Rush Limbaugh received the Children’s Choice Book Award for author of the year, for his book “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims.”

Limbaugh defeated big-name writers Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan, and Jeff Kinney, who wrote “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” which my kids have all enjoyed for years.

Enter the “open-minded” educators across the web, who have much to say about this award going to Limbaugh.

The hate-filled, bigoted comments about author Rush Limbaugh say everything about the commenters and zero about Limbaugh.

“Hate-monger,” “fear – monger,” “foul-mouthed,” “bigot”…

From where do these folks get these ideas about Limbaugh? They have nothing to do with Limbaugh, but they sure appear to describe the commenters, who on every website seek censorship of Limbaugh and his political ideas, because they disagree with them.

Hey, folks, have you actually listened to Limbaugh or actually read his books? Are your opinions about Limbaugh based on what others have told you about him, say, political ideologues who oppose his beliefs? Why don’t you develop an opinion about Limbaugh that is based on your own experience?

And to the lady who wrote that kids are not rushing into her book store to buy the Rush Revere book, but rather it was adults buying it, let me ask you a question:  How many kids actually buy their own books?  Most children’s books are purchased by adults for the kids in their lives, a well-worn tradition by both the liberals and conservatives in my own family who want kids to enjoy reading.

Why are so many liberals so intolerant, and so incapable of allowing other people to speak?  Congratulations to Rush Limbaugh, a guy I agree with and disagree with.

For You, Land Dedication this Sunday

This Sunday at 1:00, in Clark’s Valley, Dauphin County, a wonderful ceremony will be held to dedicate a mile-long stretch of Clark’s Creek to the public.  Sold by Flemish Down LLC at a bargain sale price to the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, the pretty property was then flipped to the PA Fish & Boat Commission so that the public can fish and hunt on it until the next glacier comes through.

I had a hand in it.

I remain confused by fellow Americans who see land conservation as some sort of sinister plot, a “land grab,” and other negative epithets.  These same people have no problem with open land being converted to concrete, a permanent alteration of an otherwise functioning system that spews clean air and water without anyone lifting a finger.  If converting to concrete is good, and maintaining as a functional system supporting human life is bad, then I have to say that logic and reason are not behind the opposition.  These are mutually exclusive perspectives.

Put another way, if open land is bad, and developed land is good, from where do we get our food, water, and air?  Is land really only good and valuable if it has been developed?  Can humans replicate the free air- and water-producing services of open land?  No?

Other benefits of this land protection include stable stream banks, wildlife habitat, scenic beauty, public recreation, and so on.  Thanks to the generous Blum + Cameron family, the public now has a quiet place to picnic, fish, hike, and look at.  Last year we documented dozens of native wildflowers there, and to me, they alone are reason enough to keep this property open; I have yet to meet a human (common, easy to find) who looks or smells as good as a pink lady slipper, trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, or bluett (all uncommon, hard to find).

Love your mother, love America

It’s Mothers Day, and you should love your mother. America is our mother. Show her love, support her, fight for her. And if you don’t like her the way she has been taking care of the American family since 1776, then guess what, she’s not your mom and you should probably go find a different place to call home, a different country to call the Motherland. She doesn’t need to be transformed and you aren’t appreciating her.

The trouble with racial double standards

If you are troubled by racism, and if you are feeling fired up about the Don Sterling episode, do an Internet search on “black on white violence.”

The search result you will be treated to is a seemingly endless parade of cell phone videos of white people, many of them children, being beaten into unconsciousness or violently harassed with flagrantly racist language.

You will see lots of sickening violence associated with this racism.

What you will not see is anyone really standing up and calling it out.

Jay Z wears a huge anti-white medallion around his neck.  Spike Lee is a Bigot par Excellence. Al Sharpton, Jeremiah Wright, and Jesse Jackson have perverted what it means to be a “man of God.”  But there are no consequences for these men.  Nothing.  Zero.

The problem with double standards is that they have a way of quietly really pissing off a large majority of people, who quietly simmer until they have had enough.  That is now happening in America.  Many of the great civil rights triumphs of the 1940s – 1970s are being overshadowed by a slowly awakening American awareness that things did not work out the way most people envisioned.

In fact, despite the great civil rights triumphs, including the election of a black US president, perfectly good people are being called racist, old fools like Don Sterling are being used to falsely impugn entire groups of Americans, and black-on-white violence is being deliberately swept under the rug in order to protect a false narrative about America’s supposed faults.

Meanwhile, the really blatant racists like Spike Lee, Jay Z, Jackson, Sharpton, and Wright are feted, elevated, and paraded before an audience that increasingly sees them wearing no clothes.

Today’s Public Service Announcement: Headlights

Pennsylvania law and common sense require headlights to be ON when the car’s windshield wipers are working.  This is not so the driver of the car in question can see better, but rather so other drivers can see the car more easily.  Seeing the car more easily means safer driving conditions, fewer accidents.

While we are on the subject of highway safety, another reminder is in order: Left lanes are for passing, not cruising.

Pennsylvania law (gees, what’s with all these laws?!  Other states have the same law, too) requires motorists to get out of the Left Lane (AKA Passing Lane) as soon as possible, as soon as they have passed the vehicle(s) in the right lane.  Few acts create road rage faster than a driver determined to camp out in the Passing Lane, thereby keeping faster traffic bottled up behind them.  Drivers do not play the role of traffic cop; it is not the role of drivers to slow down other drivers they think are driving too fast.  That just leads to conflict.

Happy Easter – Rebirth

Easter falls during Passover week, an effort by the early Church to compete with the parent faith.  While Passover marks human liberty, Easter marks birth and rebirth, a compelling concept for a world that too often focuses on simple physical comforts and novelties. Humans obsessed with physical luxuries have an opportunity to reflect more, to contemplate better ways of living.

How meaningful, then, that the showdown on the Bundy ranch in Arizona happened on the eve of Passover and Easter. A rebirth of freedom has followed that showdown.  Growing numbers of American citizens are realizing how empowered they are, how many kindred spirits there are in the quest for keeping government power limited, how united they are in their commitment to liberty.

How the Bundy facedown will ultimately play out is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure: It will not be another Waco (21 years ago today) or Ruby Ridge. And that’s a great thing.  We can thank our Judeo-Christian Biblical heritage for that.

Happy Easter, America.

Happy Passover: Freedom for Everyone

Happy Passover to those who observe the holiday. It is the holiday of freedom, and liberty.

Is it any surprise that the Bundy ranch was liberated on the eve of Passover? While no shots were fired, the standoff at the Bundy ranch had all the ingredients of another Waco or Ruby Ridge. Except that today, millions of Americans are ready to leap to their fellow citizens’ defense. Many patriots who joined the Bundy family made the point that another civil war could start over the standoff. While later news reports indicate that the desert tortoise had zero to do with the BLM removing the Bundy’s cattle, and rather US senator Harry Reid’s son wanted the land for a solar project, the bigger specter of an over-reaching, unnecessarily aggressive, thuggish government mixing it up with armed citizens, and then backing down, was not lost on most watchers.

America regained a shred of liberty this week. Whether you are sitting down to a Seder tonight, or not, you should give thinks for the liberty we have and that which we just won back.

Proof that bigotry is moronic, cowardly

A Jewish Community Center in Kansas City is attacked by a Ku Klux Klan guy. He shoots several innocent, unarmed, unprepared people there while yelling about how great Adolph Hitler was. Three people are dead, two of whom are confirmed to be Methodists, the third Catholic.

Not Jewish.

The murderer’s target group wasn’t there. Their Christian friends and neighbors were.

This attack also demonstrates how integrated America is: Christians celebrating at a Jewish run facility; how religious and skin color differences are easily bridged, much more often than not.

My deepest condolences to the families of the victims. My request to bigots: Wake the hell up, knock it off.

Pickled eggs

Pickled eggs are a regional treat unappreciated by many otherwise redeemable connoisseurs from the flatlands.  My wife and I relish them, our kids turn up their noses, and many other people ask “What?”

So here we go:

Using a gallon-size empty large glass pickle jar, I put in a can of sliced beets (plain, unsalted, if it can be found) with the red juice, 2-4 sliced onions of any color, thinly sliced rounds from 2-3 large carrots, and a dozen hard boiled, peeled eggs.  Pickling solution is made to taste, usually a teaspoon of white sugar and a teaspoon of salt dissolved in a few ounces of warm water, dill, basil, and garlic to taste, about 8-12 ounces of apple vinegar, 1-2 ounces red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, and top it off with warm water. Turn the sealed jar upside down and shake it for a minute.

Set it out on the kitchen counter for a few hours, and then refrigerate (or in the winter, put it in your cold mud room or outside enclosed porch, good natural refrigerators).

After a couple days, everything in that jar is begging to be eaten.  After a week, it is a delicacy.  We eat the eggs whole with the vegetables on the side, or I slice them up into salads that Viv and I eat for lunch.

Three cheers for Central Pennsylvania’s traditional foods!