September 08, 2009
My husband has sent a couple emails lately that show he's been thinking a lot about our daughter. He's wondering what she'll look like and how their relationship will be. I find it endearing. I haven't thought about her much beyond a theoretical level yet, so I found it cute that my husband thinks about her concretely.
But today I realized that someday, like Chuck, my husband will get to do this.
It's the pink jacket. The jacket just made that picture.
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September 07, 2009
Count me in as relieved and thrilled that Van Jones was forced into resignation. He was a big part of the reason I wrote that I was unsettled. The fact that a man like that was anywhere near the White House is chilling.
In light of all we now know, this gauzy January 12 profile of Jones in The New Yorker is well worth a read. What do you see? I see the too-rapid rise of an inexperienced and poorly vetted man (poorly vetted by the entire liberal establishment, not just the White House) adept at getting and wasting vast sums of money for virtually non-existent plans, all based on seductive political rhetoric rather than substance.
I just watched David Axelrod, the top ranking political advisor in the White House, and Robert Gibbs, the President's spokesman on "Meet the Press" and "This Week" respectively. Neither of them was willing, even after repeated questioning, to offer a single negative word about Van Jones. Not one word. A 9/11 Truther and defender of Mumia-Abu Jamal is not radical enough for this White House to distance itself from the man in any way. Again and again, this White House has been offered chances to condemn the man's views and they have willfully and quite deliberately refused.
The point, of course, is that Obama vetted Jones just fine. President Obama is not Mr. Magoo — haplessly gravitating to Truther Van and Ayers and Dohrn and Klonsky and Davis and Wright and the Chicago New Party and ACORN, etc. Jones is a kindred spirit. Obama knows exactly who he is. Jones was given a non-confirmation job precisely because that circumvented the vetting process. This isn't one of those things that just happen. This is Barack "Transparency" Obama gaming the system.
And similarly, from VDH:
When Van Jones talks of the aims of the civil rights movement and its initial minimalist agenda, he references the ultimate desire of 'redistributing all wealth.' When one collates that revelation with Obama's own off-handed "spread the wealth" comment, his 'fair share' sermons, and his 2001 public radio interview thoughts on “the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society,†we begin to see a pattern in which one’s income and wealth do not properly belong to the earner, but are seen as illegitimate and thus legitimately can be redistributed to others.
I am glad that man is gone. But the fact he was ever there in the first place still alarms me.
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September 05, 2009
I read the EJ Dionne opinion piece in my parents' fishwrap and thought blah blah blah and then forgot about it.
There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view boring) encounters between elected representatives and their constituents.
But later I remembered it and connected it to a graph I saw at The Corner:
EJ Dionne's core beef is probably the same as mine: that whatever the media reports is whatever becomes important. Ignore Iraq and Afghanistan altogether and the public quickly forgets it and thinks things are going fine or winding down. Ramp up talks on health care and that skyrockets.
The number of news stories people read or hear on an issue shapes how important they think it is. The media has so much power in this realm. They frame most debates and set the order of importance for national issues.
Oh, but wait, that's not the generic conclusion EJ Dionne came to...
But the only citizens who commanded widespread media coverage last month were the right-wingers. And I bet you thought the media were “liberal.â€
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September 03, 2009
As Jonah Goldberg said, this video clip will hurt your brain.
This is why people are fed up these days. Our politicians are dimwits who cuss at and belittle their constituents when asked simple questions of fact.
People are straight-up tired of pompous politicians, jerks who think they're better than us because they appropriate our money to fly around on fancy jets.
I'm with Glenn Beck: if Congress can't agree to this simple 5 point pledge, then they're worthless.
The more we borrow, the richer we are...seriously? That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
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September 02, 2009
I envision an ugly future. Despite the fact that I have joked with my mother that I was born during the Carter administration and everything turned out OK, I worry. I see my child being born into an America I can't even recognize.
I find myself channeling my inner Sarah Connor lately.
I used to think that we were living Atlas Shrugged. But lately, I think we're seeing a different ending. I don't see the politicians kidnapping Galt and asking him to fix it fix it fix it; I think they want the broken system.
I don't know how to live in a broken system. I feel like I need to spend some time learning how.
And even the plains aren't enough to calm my soul.
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September 01, 2009
Do you see what I see?
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August 29, 2009
I have been trying to log in here since I got back from Nebraska with no luck. I have no idea why it didn't work or why all of a sudden it worked again, but if I disappear for another long chunk of time, at least you'll know why.
So Charlie and I loaded up and headed west again with my mother, across the plains to Nebraska to visit AWTM. I love this part of the country; it makes my heart sing. From Ohio to Nebraska, there isn't a piece of highway that isn't beautiful. AWTM is right: it's the sky. It's seeing sky and clouds and corn as far as your eyes can take you. It's seeing clearly where you've been and where you're going.
Sadly, western Iowa won the Plains Off this year, because it was the only stretch of the drive where we didn't have rain. My plains were dismal this week.
We arrived and picked up the kids from school. They are both charming as can be. Pink Ninja decided she was in love with Charlie and wanted to become a tibetan terrier and marry him.
Sir Rowland was very cute too, and spent most of his time asking me about Rokenbok, which I know nothing about. He built an elevator while I was visiting, complete with shaft and pulley system. And while he had no intentions of proposing marriage, he seemed to warm to Charlie too.
The next day, AWTM and I tried to do the entire city in a day. We went to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum. We didn't realize that rotating exhibits means that only a fraction of the quilts are on show at any given time. There just wasn't much to see. So we moved on to the National Roller Skating Museum. AWTM wrote about it here.
We also decided to take one photo of ourselves everywhere and just run with what we got. No do-overs.
We could've used a couple do-overs.
Next was lunch at a down-home ma and pa restaurant. Taters and gravy and rolls and, at the end, pie. Er, wait, this is a Hillbilly Travelogue. I meant to say we ate pah. Peach cream pah, to be exact.
Then we headed to the Capitol. The only unicameral one in the 50 states, you know. And perhaps the only one built without incurring any debt. Good for them; I already want to move to Nebraska just for that reason. You will too, once you read this article:
Nebraska shuns all long-term financial commitments, not just for retirement benefits. The state has no debt. Its Constitution forbids it.
One thing Nebraska does have: A balanced $3.5 billion budget and a $563 million cash reserve.
That should be in the String Beans song.
The entrance to the Capitol is nothing to get excited about, so I wondered why exactly AWTM was making such a big deal of taking me there for a tour. I found out once we rode the elevator up to the main level.
It was the art.
So many types of art in so many styles. All of it depicting the plains and Nebraska. It was beautiful.
My favorite:
And this series reminded me of Objectivism. Can't you just see this one, depicting the 'labors of the mind' on the cover of an Ayn Rand book?
Beautiful. The Capitol was totally worth it.
AWTM wore me out and felt terrible about it. But it was a lot of fun, and I slept like a log when I got home.
Oh, and because this is a Hillbilly Travelogue, I have to end with random pictures of a dog.
Charlie didn't really know where to sit in AWTM's car...
And he did such a good job tolerating Pink Ninja's hugs and tugs the whole time. I grow more confident that he will be a good doggy to our little girl too.
Thank you, AWTM, for sharing your home and your state with me. I traveled 1300 miles in a car to get to you...and it was worth every backache and pain.
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fficial%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=HVGZSum7Moy7twfkt-zCBA 
She did a great job with Charlie and will make a good dog owner of her own someday.August 25, 2009
More later.
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August 23, 2009
VDH: "The fault, dear Barack, is not in our stars, But in ourselves"
Andy McCarthy: Cash-for-clunkers: "No one anticipated ..."
Quote of the day via Mark Steyn:
At any rate, in order to “control costs†Obama says we need to introduce a new trillion-dollar government entitlement. It’s a good thing he’s the smartest president of all time and the greatest orator since Socrates because otherwise one might easily confuse him with some birdbrained Bush type.
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August 21, 2009
Via Amritas, I just learned that Cindy Sheehan is still protesting the war and will camp out at Obama's vacation spot for another vigil. And apparently, the media who thought her protest was oh-so-important four years ago is now finding her lack of moral relativism inconvenient.
Good for her for being anti-war no matter who the president is. Good for her for sticking with her convictions. I disagree with her, but I respect her consistency.
And boo to folks like Charles Gibson, who covered Sheehan's old protests like they were earthshattering news and now can't be bothered to care about her anymore. Shame on him for now saying:
Anybody who has given a son to this country has made an enormous sacrifice, and you have to be sympathetic. But enough already.
When Bush is president, she's "standing her ground." When Obama is president, it's "enough already."
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August 20, 2009
My husband picked that nickname, you'll remember, because John Elway lost three Super Bowls before he won a fourth. We lost three babies and my husband really wanted to win a fourth.
Yesterday the genetic counselor called. I wasn't expecting the call for another week. Guard Wife and I were eating lunch together and my heart went into my throat when I picked up the phone.
But our baby is a John Elway baby. A Super Bowl winner.
The baby has perfect chromosomes. Nothing wrong. Not even the balanced translocation that I have. That means that this child will not have chromosomal infertility later on when it comes time to birth the next generation. Perfect.
Our baby is John Elway in every way.
Except that it's a girl...
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August 18, 2009
So now let me tell you what CVS is like, in case you ever find yourself in stirrups doing the same test. This is what they do:
Only instead of it being a cutesy drawing you'd see in a brochure, it's a grainy, black and white, blurry, constantly moving ultrasound image. And instead of a perfectly still baby, you have a baby that's flailing about and bouncing all over the place. And instead of a catheter that looks like a harmless straw, you have a sharp pointy end and it's poking dangerously close to bouncing baby's head.
And you're watching all this go on on the ultrasound screen while the doctor tries to take part of the baby's placenta and the baby is clearly irate at the vandalism.
Oh, and your bladder is about five times the size of the one in the drawing because it helps steady things. So in addition to trying not to laugh or gasp or breathe too hard for fear of jostling the whole uterus and putting that pincher through baby's head, you're also trying not to pee on the doctor.
I wasn't prepared for how harrowing this would be. I knew it was a risky thing to do, but I didn't really expect to be watching the risk. And I never expected the baby to go berserk like he did. It was my first taste of motherhood, where my child was in distress and I had to watch him suffer.
I'm still glad I did the test and I will probably do it again with the next pregnancy. But it hurt my heart.
*****
I am leaving today for my annual trip home to the Midwest. And since I am almost 12 weeks along, I have just flat out decided that I don't want to be morning sick anymore. I just don't want to. So I am going to exercise mind over matter and just make myself feel better. So, there, done, no more morning sickness.
Now if someone would just tell little Elway to stop treating my belly like it's a speed bag.
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August 17, 2009
[...]
“We actually received a telephone call from WalMart on Hudson Avenue suggesting that there was welfare fraud, and indicating they were going to call the FBI because people were going in and buying X-boxes, Wii systems, flat-screen television sets,†said Kelly Reed, the county’s commissioner of social services.
This is a great example of why it's useless to give a man a fish.
I'm sure non-welfare New Yorkers would like the government to give them money to buy a Wii too.
I hope George Soros is glad that his "help the poor" idea just helped people to afternoons of Guitar Hero.
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Of course, now this means that loons are calling for a boycott of the traitorous lefty store. How dare they oppose Obama?
I take back all the snarky things I've said about Whole Foods. I still don't have any interest in shopping there, but good for their CEO for being brave enough to oppose something that the majority of his clientele supports.
(Links found at Althouse's great post, Are We Having a Conversation Yet?, via Boxenhorn)
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August 15, 2009
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20/20 ran a special a few weeks ago called "Over a Barrel" about oil. First of all, I simply hate the expression "addicted to oil." It's like saying we're addicted to houses or restaurants. It's necessary for our lifestyle. Just because we need it doesn't mean we have to sneer and call it an addiction. And it's not like cigarettes, where we'd be better off if we stopped using them. Our lives would be infinitely worse without oil.
Second, T. Boone Pickins really ticked me off. At the very end of the show, he said:
Um, we are if we're paying for it. You're entitled to anything available on this earth if you come by it fairly and pay for it in the free market.
To say otherwise gets right down to the core of my values and ruffles 'em up.
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Congress authorized monies to extend the Cumberland Road, a roadway that ran from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia. James Monroe, our nation's fifth president, used the only veto of his presidency to defeat the congressional bill, arguing that the road's extension should not be done by the federal government but by the states it passed through—present-day Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
[...]
Franklin Pierce, our fourteenth president, in 1854 vetoed a bill to help the mentally ill saying, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding that to approve such spending "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."
President Grover Cleveland, our twenty-second and twenty-fourth president, in 1887, said when vetoing an appropriation to help drought-stricken counties in Texas, "I feel obligated to withhold my approval of the plan to indulge in benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriate of public funds...I find no warrant for such appropriation in the Constitution."
We've come a long way, baby...
And what high hopes Larry Elder had for President Bush. Would that he had been the man Elder hoped he was.
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August 14, 2009
I am still trying to decide how much I want to share...
But I wanted you to know that I am home and baby was OK as of a few hours ago.
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August 13, 2009
Apparently Medicare only reimburses around $1000 for an amputation, not $30,000.
I want to take something Krauthammer said tonight on Special Report and run with it a little. He said:
Krauthammer then goes on to discuss a CBO letter quoting studies that said that preventative medicine actually costs more in the long run, since you're screening far more people who won't end up with whatever disease you're looking for. The CBO says that all those pittances added up for everyone to get screened for diabetes end up costing more than the couple of feet you have to amputate.
But I want to run in a different direction. Krauthammer got me going. The president keeps saying that we're going to save money through preventative medicine. But he thinks he's comparing "a pittance" to $30,000. So yeah, that makes it sound like we'll save a ton of money if we can get doctors to prevent having to amputate feet. Think of how many people we could get in for a simple preventative appointment with their doctor for $30,000! But if it really costs between $500 and $1000 for an amputation, then that's far fewer preventative appointments for the cost of one amputation.
My question is, Does Pres Obama even know that? I mean, where did he get this $30,000 figure, which he presents so authoritatively? And does he know how much smaller the figure really is?
Is he being deceptive or just ignorant?
If he's deceptive, that's despicable. But I think he's just ignorant. I think he really believes that, at a reimbursement cost of "a pittance," he can help many more Americans by preventing amputations or tonsilectomies or whatever else he thinks greedy doctors are doing just to make extra money.
But that means he actually thinks that doctors see someone with diabetes and think, "Man, if I just bide my time and fatty here loses his foot, then I can buy a new jet ski!"
I just find it worrisome that Pres Obama thinks we're going to save all this money with his new health care plan because he's overestimating how much we currently spend by a factor of thirty!
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VDH: On Dishing It Out...
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