Television: NBC and TLC

Watched an interview with Brian Williams the other day and he said that when he thinks about the Iraq War he gets a picture in his mind of prisoners with bags over their heads and then their treatment at Gitmo.

When I think of prisoners I get this picture in my mind of beheadings of prisoners for the camera and of Daniel Pearl in particular. And I don't get concerned about prisoners with bags over their heads because my initial thought is that they prefer to wear masks anyway. My mind always reverts to the dead Americans being dragged through the streets of Somalia and I wonder why he says "we need to get our arms around this." Around what? We know what happened and we know how many people suffered at Hussein's hands. Agree or disagree, we know humdreds of thousands more would be dead had we not stopped him.

It was an after thought for Palmer when he mentioned that his thoughts turn to the missing towers when he looks in that direction in New York and remembers that people are missing who used to be there. He calls himself a journalist when speaking of his job and I wonder how many of them are truly deserving of that title any more.

Which brings us to reality tv. Should it be capitalized? No matter. I had never heard of John and Kate and their kids until last Sunday. Got home from church and sat down with the Sunday paper, the church bulletin and paper and flipped channels for a couple of minutes and happened on a marathon of the John and Kate show. It was fun for this Grandma to watch the antics of all those little kids and appreciated the fact that Kate would need help, that John really would need a high paying job to support them and that they would have a tough time saving anything for 8 kids college educations. Doing the show really appeared to be the answer for them. And that was that.

Or so I thought. All of a sudden they were all over the news because a sister-in-law was accusing them of child abuse. My take? That lady is carrying a load of green jealousy on her shoulder. The parents have taken the route which they think is the best for their children. If it's child abuse to send a kid to school while their parents are having marital troubles and there is gossip about it, well--join the club! With more divorces than marriages and single parent families without benefit of marriage, where is the abuse? This generation, while it may not be the ideal, is certainly up to handling what are very common problems.

So get over it, people. If you want to gossip, find another topic. This is a problem for God--we have no control and neither do we have influence on anyone in a position of decision making.

God bless...........

ps-Somehow I said Brian "Palmer" rather than "Williams" when I first posted this item. Sorry.

A Gift for You

A friend sent me a posting from the American Thinker.com which describes the case for believing that Bill Ayers wrote the book Obama gets credit for: Dreams From My Father.

Just access the website www.AmericanThinker.com and scroll the Archives list to May 24 for "Who Wrote Dreams and Why It Matters."

Other than that, I'm working on the best way to share the SOS interviews with you.

Have a good 'rest of the weekend' and God bless...........

Secretary of State Candidate Interviews

My first interview was with Michelle McManus, the second this evening with Anne Norlander and I should have the answers from Cameron Brown this weekend. That being said I will post the results over the first 2 or 3 days next week.

Some sample questions to look forward to:

Please prioritize the duties of the Secretary of State as you see them.

What does your expertise allow you to do better or revamp present practices?

Is the SOS budget pretty much cast in stone or would you anticipate changes in areas of emphasis?

What do you consider your particular accomplishments?

Let's get to politics: how do you think your candidacy can help the Republican ticket?

Are you in favor of nominating Republican candidates in May at an early State Convention or waiting until August after the gubernatorial primary?

What is your opinion of absentee voting at any age for any reason?

What organizations are your strongest supporters?

Do you think you can raise the money for a credible campaign?

What do you want the voter to know about you on a personal level?

If you could be Queen, or King, for a Day, what would you do?

I hope these questions pique your interest and satisfy the requests you have made.

Thanks again for your input.

Sleep well--and God bless..............

ps-I wasn't familiar with the Meijer case, but will ask the candidates if they are.

Latina Wisdom!?

Excuse me while I stiffle a giggle. Having trouble getting this picture out of my mind: The Supreme Court nominee believes Latina women have more wisdom than white men? Really? Is that what accounts for the drug smugglers, coyotes smuggling people in horrendous conditions into the U. S., gun runners, crooks of all kinds in Mexico and plying their trade throughout the Southern and up to the northeastern states, infiltrating the prison and security systems in their home country and on and on and on. What kind of Latina women trained up their sons to flaunt the law and take advantage of anyone and everyone they can?

Sorta reminds me of the wives of the Mafia who went to church every day and prayed a gazillion rosaries for their sons and husbands.

Where is the respect for the law? Oh, oh, yes--we need empathy more. At least that is how Obama would like to have the courts react to the law. Hmmmmm. I don't get it. Is this his response to N. Korea? A little tsk, tsk, tsk? Wag your finger in from of Kim's nose and say, No, no-naughty, naughty.

Let's list these under "things I can't do anything about" so it's time to watch my husband cut down that dead birch tree.

God bless.........

P.S. When big brother taxes soft drinks because they're not good for you, you'll get fat, will he exempt diet drinks? Just wondering.

Who is Buried in Grant's Tomb? or Would Buy a Nuke----

What a dumb question. Some commentator today was asking who Korea would find to buy nuclear warheads or missiles. You gotta figure that anyone in just about anyplace with enough money, right? And you really think Obama has a plan to "talk nice" as State Department diplomacy is the answer........

There are so many things happening at once as we've all noted before. It seems that every day there's something new on Obama's plate. He just flits from one program to the next. And that's what has me worried.

Grant's tomb was my first analogy of the day and the second has to do with how long it takes to turn an aircraft carrier around. I understand it takes miles and miles and that's when everyone wants to turn around. What do you think our chances of getting back to capitalism after some of our largest industries and services are nationalized might be? Particularly in view of the fact that the libs want to keep the socialized system so they're not all steering in the same direction.

Let's start counting and don't forget that we're talking about some of the largest corporations in the country:

Automobiles--where will investors come from who would put money in a union/government business when the owner (Obama) considers private investors to be speculators and money grabbers.
Insurance companies--who will buy? "Protection" insurance will be totally over priced and term/life types might go under.
Banks--It's hard to wrap our arms around the myriad services and figure which ones can stand alone and which ones will need government guarantees. Who will want to take a chance?
Healthcare--I can't imagine how long (quickly) all businesses will divest their fringe benefit program of healthcare and everyone except seniors who are forced into Medicare and Medigap coverage will be in the government single payer plan. And these private plans will be forced out in that New York minute.

It will look like those intricate domino designs which takes hours and hours to construct and then the key tile is pushed and it's destroyed in minutes. Who is going to make the investment of time and money to reconstruct the design?

I just don't see how the optimism level was reported as higher today. It is really a sad scenario.

Good nite and God bless............

Heard or Read this Week-end

1-The Ten Commandments didn't come with footnotes

2-Coincidences may just be miracles God does anonymously

3-The two words I want in my obituary: disciple and patriot

4-Pray for the President to learn to respect Netanyahu - after dissing him last week

5-Repower America's website doesn't want any dialog

6-A friend wonders why I didn't entitle my blog "Whatever Lola Wants"
(Some day I'll tell you)

7-Overheard line in a classic "cowboy" show: Sometimes we work so hard at living
that we forget how to live

Last--remember when we discussed what it takes to make people react with lifestyle changes when government programs start costing more and more?

A friend of #2 son started out with 2 trucks about 14 years ago hauling different kinds of product throughout the eastern states. He did this with 2 teenage sons, himself as the mechanic and scheduler plus most driving in the early years. He now has 16 trucks and several drivers. The cost of licensing the trucks is much, much higher in Michigan than in Maine so he looked into licensing fees in Maine and determined since he is involved in interstate trucking he could legally make the change. After being threatened by the MHP he has decided to re-license in Michigan for the present. But I wonder what the back breaking straw will be that will cause the family to actually move to Maine with college educated children, a going business and an expanding family? It probably won't be too long now.

This has been an interesting Memorial Day/weekend. Outer space involving the Hubble telescope and a shuttle involved; local communities having many events including parades, picnics and fireworks; church events and memorials plus televised programming for those who can't get around so well any more including the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At times in the past 3 day patriotic weekends have been more well-known for their sales at the mall and elsewhere than for appropriate events. It's good to see.

It bears repeating: Not many more important things in life than discipleship and patriotism. God bless.........

WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY? (Or Grandma)

Depending on your age, guys, this could have meant WWII, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq or any number of defensive tactics and maintenance of the military through the years.

Now there are more and more women who can answer the question as well. And it occurred to me that I might be asked the question also. How might I answer?
First I'd have to define "war" in the mind of my kid or grandkid or you.

In light of the fact that Obama says there should be no more "war on terror" or "war on drugs" or whatever, I need to say that just as he does not speak for me as far as religion is concerned, he does not speak for me as to his definition of war.

I used to say that when my children were young I feared for their physical safety and as they grew up I feared more for their spiritual and intellectual safety. Today I would add that I fear for their loss of freedom and initiative and ideas. I am concerned that in this country where we have had an abumdance of freedoms in the abstract, those same freedoms are eroding at an every increasing speed.

Whenever I am tempted to back off of what looks like a losing battle because of the political climate of the day, I need to remind myself that I should be answering this question for myself. And my answer should always be that I never retired from the "war against socialism" which is a true battle for the hearts and souls of all folks who hold core moral values based on JudeoChristian concepts because that's all I knew when I was developing my worldview during the last 50-60 years of the 20th century.

I apologize to no one except in a general sense because I was fortunate enough to live in a time when American values were admired and today's younger people are not that lucky. Too many of your generation have been influenced by those who believe that there is more wrong than right about our country and want to follow sharia or international law. Or believe that Socialism is really the way we should be going. Or don't understand that if you don't wish to look at abortion as a moral value, please look at it as an economic value. In good part due to abortion, this country has a birth rate below what it takes to replace outselves. That, friends, is the beginning of the end.

And that's the end for today, the first day of a Memorial week-end meant to honor the men and women who have given their lives for the freedoms we enjoy and so-o-o
take for granted. Democracy is not free.

God bless.........