Romney Quits!

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has decided to bow out of the race, leaving McCain and Huckabee as the last men standing. Depressing isn't it? I am impressed however that Romney has the graciousness and good sportsmanship to concede defeat and not continue to drag out the race. If Huckabee had been as kind perhaps Super Tuesday would have had a different result and conservatives across America would not be swearing not to vote in November.
After casting my vote for Romney on Tuesday, as I watched the returns come in, including my state going to McCain; I thought of why Romney was losing. Being a Republican from Massachusetts was his major problem, conservatives in the South consider him as being a Northeast Republican (notoriously the worst kind of Republican), while Northeast Republicans considered him too conservative. He was, to paraphrase a book I'm reading, "Cursed for what he is, cursed for what he isn't."
Romney's second problem was his Mormon faith, evangelical conservatives in the South considered him unworthy to hold office solely because of his faith. I admit that for a while I was wary of Romney for that reason, but when compared to the other contenders Romney stood forth as the only candidate who was likely to support family values and morals.
Right now evangelicals are shouting, "What about Huckabee?" I know that Huckabee is a former Baptist preacher and should stand for these things as well. But Huckabee has a slyness about him that I find disturbing; that and the fact that he attacked the only other candidate who believed in family values while buddying up with John McCain, who does not have a good record on either of these issues. So to all those of you who voted for Huckabee this year, congratulations you have just shot yourselves in the foot. You abandoned the only candidate who really cared about what you cared about, and have left McCain to take the nomination and whether or not he wins the Presidency the result will basically be the same. McCain, Hillary and Obama cut from the same cloth only McCain claims to be one of us, and we have given him what he wants.

"The Best Man For The Job"

UPDATE (Jan. 20)
Hunter has dropped out of the race. Therefore Mitt Romney is now the candidate of choice.

After long deliberation (some might say too long) I have arrived at my choice in the Republican primary. As long as he is still on the ballot on Super Tuesday (February 5th) my vote will go to... Duncan Hunter.
The first argument that others would make against voting for Hunter is that he has no chance of winning the nomination and I will be wasting my vote. My answer is, true, barring a miracle, Hunter will not get the nomination, but I will not be wasting my vote, I believe that Hunter is the best candidate and am voting on that litmus test, electability is the last thing I considered when reviewing the candidates.
If Hunter is not on the ballot on Super Tuesday then I will have to choose someone else, but I can guarantee that I will not be voting for Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee. Romney is most likely my second choice barring another entrant before the 5th.

Dead and Famous...or just DEAD?

Once again the news headlines are filled with words of death and violence. Once again liberals will scream about gun control. Unless you are completely cut off from the outside world you will have heard how a teenage gunman killed 8 people in a mall before turning the gun on himself. Experts and analysts have gone back and forth over the teenager's motives. They claim depression or just hatred of the world in general.
My view is quite different and I believe correct, the gunman wanted his ten seconds of fame whether he was around to see it or not. How do I come to this conclusion? From his suicide note. In it he told family and friends they would be better off without him in their lives, "I've been a piece of (expletive) my entire life it seems this is my only option." He then changes tone, "Just think tho I'm gonna be (expletive) famous." There in the words of the killer himself is the reason he did what he did.
If the media would quit giving these shooters so much attention I believe the majority of public shootings would stop. Fame seems to have been the motive behind this shooter and the shooters at many other places including Virginia Tech. So message to the MSM( mainstream media), "Don't give this guy the attention he wanted, then others will realize that the only thing they're going to be is dead, not dead and famous. Now give us some real news, and I don't mean about Britney Spears' latest binge or Paris Hilton's Chihuahua."

A Bear Named Muhammed

Sudanese Muslims are in an uproar over an incident regarding a British-born teacher, in Khartoum, who allowed her students to name their class teddy bear "Muhammad". Apparently this is an insult to the Islamic "prophet" and the Muslim population is not going to sit still over this. They want the teacher executed, perhaps President Bush could remind them that they are supposed to be a "religion of peace" again?
If anything this incident should open people's eyes to the real Islam, a religion driven by fear and death. Any honest scholar of history will tell you that the reason Islam spread so fast was because "infidels" were given two choices convert or die. Islam was never about peace, is not about peace and never will be about peace, just ask the Israelis.
The teacher has been imprisoned for 15 days and faces deportation back to the United Kingdom, hopefully the government won't give in to the mobs, but you never know. Just a quick question to any Muslims out there, what is so offensive about Teddy Bears?

Note: I did come up with an answer to that question but I would prefer not to have my name put on the next Jihad blacklist.

Demublicans or Republocrats?

Once again the hypocrisy of Republicans is revealed. Idaho Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in an airport men's room, the undercover cop who witnessed the scene described Craig's actions as solicitation of sex. Craig is now backpedaling and saying the he only pleaded guilty because he wanted the whole thing to go away, the Boise newspaper Boise Statesman was conducting an investigation into Craig's "sexual orientation", for the past eight months.
Several Republican senators have called for Craig’s resignation and I agree…call the newspapers I agree with John McCain! If any Democrat was caught in such an act (not that he would be, the Democrats have experience avoiding detection, and if they are can always bribe the witnesses) I would expect nothing less, which definitely means that Senator Craig shouldn't get off the hook.
I’m beginning to think that the Republican Party needs to start over from the ground up; too many Republicans are indeterminable from Democrats except that when Republicans are caught it makes headlines, Democrats tend to have their stories buried on page 12 right next to Soap Opera reviews. Republicans are becoming more and more like Democrats, which is why they lost the 2006 elections, voters couldn’t tell the difference except that the Democrats ostensibly were more conservative. Republicans spend taxpayers’ money like Democrats-take bribes like Democrats-are as corrupt and immoral as Democrats-in my book it’s starting to become a no-party nation.
President Bush’s best response to this could be borrowed from Warren Harding, “I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies in a fight. But my d--n friends, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor nights.”

Unless you live in a cave or are deaf and blind you no doubt know that this past Saturday the last in the Harry Potter series came out. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows is perhaps the most hyped-up book since...well, since the last Harry Potter. Posters advertising it are everywhere, "Will you be with Harry at the end?" and various other slogans were (and are) plastered all over. Yahoo news and AOL news ran endless stories on everything from supposed pirated copies to fans' guesses as to the ending of this series. I (as much as it may shock some of you) have read two of the Harry Potter books (Chamber of Secrets & Goblet of Fire), and while I didn't come across anything that I particularly objected to and I must admit that they were well-written and fairly interesting (to fantasy readers) I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. Many claim that they are anti-Christian and no true Christian should read them, others claim that they are in fact "Christian" books (in the sense that they endorse Christian truths). I found no evidence that supports one claim above the rest, the books in themselves seem to be fairly harmless, a good story with some good ideals. My main problem with this series is the cult-like following that they have caused to spring up, kids and adults who are so obsessed with them that they dress up and stand in lines for hours (sometimes days) to see the movies or buy the books; and the obsession for witchcraft which has swept the world. Another is the controversy they cause between Christians, some are accused of being narrow minded because they don't read or let their kids read the books or see the movies, others are accused of being too tolerant because they read the books and love the movies, I prefer to think that your response to Harry Potter is your own business, there most probably is no right answer. Some families may like the adventures of the boy wizard others may be wary of it, but in the end it is a personal choice, but just because someone doesn't subscribe to your view doesn't mean you should beat them over the head with it. The reason that Harry Potter has grown to this dimension is most probably due to the controversy among Christians, case-in-point: The DaVinci Code, until the church began reacting to its ridiculous claims it was relatively small, the very fact that there was controversy made lots of people, including Christians, read the book or see the movie. So it is with Harry Potter, let's hope that now the end has come (ostensibly) we can go back to normalcy.

Happy 4th

Nothing says it better than this:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Happy 4th of July!

President Sticky Rice?

Election officials in Boston are concerned about plans to create election ballots in Chinese, state officials have introduced a plan calling for Chinese ballots to be distributed in precincts with prominent Chinese-speaking populations. Because of the lack of Chinese characters that match presidential candidates' last names, the translators have been picking characters that match the syllables of those names. Thus Mitt Romney will be known as "Sticky Rice" and Barack Obama as "Oh Bus Horse".
I have a suggestion for these concerned officials, stick with English...it's worked pretty good for this long. If these people live in America and want to vote in America they should at least learn English enough to participate in the everyday affairs of this country. If they want to speak Chinese among their friends and family, read Chinese, write Chinese so be it, but at least demonstrate your willingness to contribute to society by learning English. This country shouldn't have to bend over backwards for people who won't try to fit in. This isn't just for the Chinese either, any person of any nationality who is unwilling to make that smallest of efforts to become an American shouldn't even be granted citizenship.