Stunning Footnote In Healthcare Ruling

WEDNESDAY: ISSUE OF LACK OF SEVERABILITY IN OBAMACARE

TUESDAY: MAKING A POINT: SD BILL MANDATES ALL CITIZENS TO BUY A GUN FOR SELF-DEFENSE

"I MUST RELUCTANTLY conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate," Vinson writes. "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void. ---Judge Roger Vinson in ruling Obamacare uncontitutional

REQUIRED TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY, THAT IS THE QUESTION

IN A MAJOR SETBACK FOR THE OBAMACARE BILL, please note:

In ruling against President Obama‘s health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama‘s own position from the 2008 campaign against him, arguing that there are other ways to tackle health care short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

“I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that ‘if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house,’” Judge Vinson wrote in a footnote toward the end of the 78-page ruling Monday.

In essence, the judge, and candidate Obama of 2008, conclude that if you mandate health care on the American people what's to keep Congress from mandating home ownership? Buffalo burgers? Priuses? Or....You get the picture.

A federal mandate for Americans to buy anything is setting a very dangerous precedent. First there's health insurance, then car insurance. Then solar water heaters. Then there'll be mandates NOT to buy things like cigarettes, red wine, hellium balloons and salted peanuts for heavens sakes. And where she stops, no body knows!

Why not give up the idea of unconstitutional, unenumerated mandates and let people live by the consequences of their choices to buy or not to buy? That's the trillion dollar question.

'Egyptian 'Pharoah' Mubarak and Wife Suzanne Amass Billions

ALJAZEERA EQUIPMENT CONFISCATED IN CAIRO
WORLD'S LARGEST CONTAINER OPERATOR MAERSK SUSPENDS OPERATIONS IN EGYPTTHIS REPORT FROM THE DAILY MAIL certainly caught my eye today. Considering the average Egyptian lives on $2 a day (in spite of generous foreign aid for decades), this disparty is eye-popping. While the gap between the super-rich and poor grows wider, it's becoming apparent radical Iranians and Muslim Brotherhood extremists are chopping at the bit to take over where Hosni and family will soon leave off:

Dubbed ‘the Pharaoh’ for his 30-year iron rule, President Hosni Mubarak is said to have amassed a fortune of £25 billion for his family.

Mubarak, 82, his half-Welsh wife Suzanne and sons Gamal and Alaa are seen in Egypt as symbols of nepotism and corruption with properties and business interests worldwide, including London.
The First Lady keeps a firm grip on Egypt’s leading social circles and is often pictured at diplomatic and charity events in stylish outfits alongside dignitaries’ wives including Carla Bruni.

Her charity donations total millions of pounds a year, though rumours have swirled that some of this money has found its way into her bank accounts. As her profile in the state-controlled media has soared, critics have likened her to French Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Critics say the closest their sons have got to ordinary Egyptians was when they were driven past them in limousines. Both sons have been linked to arms-dealing.

Mubarak has survived at least six assassination attempts and fears have also been growing that he plans to groom the more political Gamal to inherit the throne.

Sunday, Why Pastor Mark Driscoll Hates Religion

WHO'S YOUR DADDY? The pervasiveness of false 'religious' teachings based on human works, religious rules, institutions and accomplishments always leads to pride, deadly self-righteousness and dullness. Until we adopt a stance that we're all, ALL, sinners in need of the finished saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, we haven't grasped the revolutionary good news of the Gospels. We can't be humble no matter how meekly we may portray ourselves. Our minds can't be transformed by The Word, our fallen lives slowly redeemed.

It's never about religion. It is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, first and foremost. And it is about being adopted into the invisible, supernatural church, the true Body of Christ.

Tim Keller has more:

Perfect Winter Day For Fishing

TEMPERATURES FOR THIS FREEZING COLD JANUARY ROSE TO THE MID 50S.

The water was gin clear, wind down, sky cereleun blue, company outstanding and fish (browns, rainbows and brookies) were feeding on the surface and deeper down---on marabous with doll eyes, and zoo-cougars. Spending today with David---one of the finest fly fishermen/boatsman--- on the Caney in a driftboat was such a treat. Thank you David. It simply doesn't get any more fun.

And While We're Housecleaning in the Middle East....

HOW BOUT THIS DREARY ONE bedraped in a canary-yellow shower curtain liner? Really. Isn't forty years enough for any one dictator, especially one with with seven mostly depraved sons who're living the life of privileged chaos?

Maybe it's just cause it's January, but seems to me a larger portion of leaders and would be power brokers are so passe, so 20th century. Who might they be? Since I'm going fishing today, I'll list them quickly as they pass through my mind.

People/places and things that seem stale to over to me:

Libya's Qaddafi, Egypt's Mubarak, Italy's Berlusconi, Columbia's Chavez, Davos and perpetual WEF smoozer- celebrities like Bono, Soros, Sean Penn and big bank peacocks, along with aging, perpetual Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich just to name a few. Palin could, might, should be next on this list though I'm not ready to put here there quite yet.

None of them know how to take a chair or let some fresh air into the room.

These are just a few of dozens who beat dead horses to death and never want to move on. It's refreshing when they do, but when left to their own devices they cling to more, then have to be run out of town on a rail, or tossed in the Nile.

Down with passe, stale, I say! Defeat the dullards!

Revolution: Internet Goes Down, Subways Halted, Egypt Goes Rogue

DOMINOS FALLING: SYRIA NOW SHUTS DOWN INTERNET.

KEEPING A GUARDED EYE ON THE ARAB REVOLT: History teaches that revolutions are always attractive in their infancy, when freedom is in the air and the rebellion seems spontaneous. But from the French and Russian revolutions to the Iranian uprising of 1979, the idealistic but disorganized street protesters usually give way to a manipulative revolutionary elite -- the "Revolutionary Guard," as the Iranians like to call them.This life cycle of revolution was evoked by scenes of protesters battling riot police in Tahrir Square in Cairo this week. The square's name means liberation, and it was named for Gamal Abdel Nasser's revolution against the monarchy in 1952. But one set of Egyptian autocrats was gradually replaced by another.

UNPRECEDENTED INTERNET SHUTDOWN
UPDATE: PROTEST ORGANIZER SALAH MISSING
AS VIOLENCE FOR FREEDOM AND ULTIMATE PEACE ESCALATES. There's no end in sight.

This is a big global deal as protests spread around the Middle East.

It's Snowtime Again In the East

THE SEEMING NEVER-ENDING WINTER BLAST on the East Coast has come and gone again and with it lots of travel slow-downs and snow shoveling. I'm frankly glad not to be there for this one, though many of my loved ones are.

Back in middle America, there was a dusting of snow Tuesday night bringing patches of ice and lots of chilly temperatures, though nothing like in the east. Still it's a great time to hole up and recharge batteries even if it's only for a few days or weeks. It's back to the barest of basics. Last night I fell asleep reading and must have clocked almost 11 hours of shut eye. That's close to a scandalous world record for me.

Today the sun is shining brightly--- glorious to behold. Though I have to go out this afternoon, I am resisting getting my life up and running at full tilt just yet. I like the ennui time of year and think it's part of the deep, quiet ebb and flow of all things in nature. While it won't last much longer, it resets my life and priorities back to sanity. Cleaning out drawers and closets, throwing stuff away, giving clothes to those who need them, are some of the best uses of my time for the next few days.

Along with that, I rejoined my favorite little store-front gym at Snap Fitness nearby and started reading a book on options trading in some of my waking hours. I won't say what book I was reading last night when I fell asleep so early.... but let it be known, I am bound and determined to learn how to trade options in 2011. It's one of my 2011 resolutions. It may take a while though.

SOTU Speech: President Attempts to Reinvent Himself Rightward, Bankward

JUDGES NOT TRUE ALITO AND THOMAS DON'T GO
SINCE MR. OBAMA'S APPEARANCE in Tucson several weeks ago to console and commemorate the victims' of the grisly mass shooting in that city, the president's popularity and poll numbers have gone up considerably. I admit it was a good and appropriate speech that mercifully took the focus off---even for a few hours---the increasing invective of partisan politics and finger pointing and put it back on the people and families that were so deeply affected.

I wrote about my experience for Pajamas Media while at a retreat center outside of Tucson at that time.

Since that speech in Tucson, much has been written in the MSM and online about the liklihood of President Obama handily winning a second term. Roger Simon led the charge.

There's no question that since the democratic shellacking in the midterm elections, our president has hot-footed it to the right, towards the center of the political spectrum. This can't---at least in theory---be bad for the country. Or so it would seem. With a split Congress, Obama's erstwhile radical agenda would forever be eclipsed in a second term, right? Well sort of. But much of the damage has already been done, in more ways than one.

However well or poorly the president does tonight in his SOTU, whatever the bipartisan comraderie, in the beginning, middle and the end, President Obama can andwill only get re-elected if two things are happen: 1) jobs improvement and 2) a stronger dollar.

Let me say it again: JOBS and a STRONGER DOLLAR. Don't believe it? Think Tunisia where jobs are disappearing at warp speed and its currency buys less and less; it's not pretty.

There's no getting around it. The job market has to improve in a way that middle America tangibly feels, and the buying power of our money needs to stop declining, stabilize and even increase so that it buys food, gasoline and other staples at reasonable, rather than sky-high prices. A stronger dollar means a drop in gold and silver prices.

However well Mr. Obama grandstands tonight about Congress freezing/cutting spending, prohibiting earmarks---all of which need to be done and much more---none of it matters if the jobs and dollar picture don't improve.

It's not going to be as easy as Mr. O may make it sound. Then again, it will probably happen just in time for the 2012 election. And when and if President Obama is re-elected, watch the dollar plummet again while food, gasoline, gold and silver blast off again to the stars.

Grace Gems, Secret Of True Happiness

The Fourth American Revolution, Or Winter Must Be Dealt With

MUST READ @ ZERO HEDGE. Below, a teaser:

THE MASS MURDER in Tucson is another brick in the wall of this Fourth Turning Crisis. The importance of this tragic event is not what happened in that Safeway parking lot, but the reaction in the aftermath of the shooting. Turnings are not about specific events, but how generations react to the events based on their stages of life. A turning is an era with a characteristic social mood, a new twist on how people feel about themselves and their nation. It results from the aging of the generational constellation. A society enters a turning once every twenty years or so, when all living generations begin to enter their next phases of life. We entered this Fourth Turning between 2005 and 2008, with the collapse of the housing market and subsequent financial system implosion.

We have crossed the threshold into a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime will propel the replacement of the old civic order with a new one. The Silent Generation (1925-1942) is dying off, Baby Boomers (1943-1960) are entering elder hood, Generation X is entering midlife, Millenials are entering young adulthood—and a new generation of child Artists are being born. Strauss & Howe have documented that a long human life of 80 to 100 years makes up a social cycle of growth, maturation, entropy, and death (and rebirth) known as a Saeculum. Within each cycle, four generations proceed through their four stages of life. Every 15 to 25 years a new Turning surprises those who only think of history in a linear way. Strauss & Howe are historians who have been able to document this generational cycle going back to the 1400s.

Too Sweet Not To Post

FIRST BLUSH OF MOTHERHOOD

WHAT CAN I SAY? This photo of mother and child, taken by the proud pater, is just too sweet and touching not to put up. In this day of far too much revealed information, I find it rare indeed to find said info portrayed as it was originally meant to be. Simply perfectly.

More on Miranda and Orlando Bloom and their newborn son Flynn.

Meanwhile In Tunis, Tunisia

RELOAFING

MAN WITH LOAF OF BREAD AIMED like a gun in Tunis, as police arrive. Police forcefully put down a demonstration Tuesday that toppled the country’s longtime ruler last week, even as four ministers quit the new unity government. (Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

MORE: The Dictator's Brutal Wife Who Helped Cause the Insurrection As She Fled the Country With Over a Ton of Gold

Source: WSJ PHOTOJOURNAL

Several Pieces Worth A Look

FIRST: HOW MUCH RESPONSIBILITY MUST THE PARENTS of Jared Loughner ultimately take for their son's horrific crime spree last week in Tucson that killed 6 and wounded more than twice that number?

Kyle-Anne Shriver writes at Pajamas Media. She wonders how a kid living at home who's dropped out of high school with drug, alcohol and mental problems and has no visible means of support gets the money to buy guns and ammunition on top of drugs and alcohol? It's a good question in this era of ever-increasing permissiveness, low to no consequences for bad behavior and child-focused families.

I mean, it isn't rocket science that a lot of balls were dropped in the last few years leading up to this disaster, and one of them was the parental supervision ball before and during Jared's downward spiral into insanity. They needed help, their child desperatedly needed help. And society needed to be protected from this young man's increasing menacing, erratic behavior.

If we don't ask these questions and assess some responsibility, however painful, then we can certainly expect this to happen more.

SECOND: SAW THIS PIECE ON CNBC and find it fascinating:

Even as the far left decries it, President Obama is moving to the center on fiscal matters and the U.S. economy. Someone has finally gotten through to him that if he wants to be re-elected to a second term then he needs to get serious about job creation in the next few years. This includes business tax incentives and easing of regulations that stiffle profits and hinders jobs.

Since the president wants to be re-elected more than he wants to kill the economy, it seems that the loosening of the noose on business---large and small---is at hand. That could be good news for all of us.

Stay tuned.

On Martin Luther King Day, Excerpts From Uncle Tom's Cabin

UPDATE: MARTIN LUTHER KING AND GUN OWNERSHIP

BEST SELLING BOOK of the 19th Century, and story that helped ignite the Civil War and end slavery in America according to then President Abraham Lincoln when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, its author, in 1860.

Today the politically correct often incorrectly take Uncle Tom to be a handkerchief head in his time, but nothing is further from the truth. Tom is beautifully portrayed in the book as the ultimate Christ-like suffering servant who refuses to turn from the truth of the Gospel as well as retaliate or betray his enslaved family and friends attempting to escape their terrible plight, no matter what the cost.

In the end, Tom pays the ultimate price---as did Martin Luther King---in a heart-breaking murder/beating at the wicked hands of Simon LeGree---the embodiment of unredeemed evil and depravity---his last owner and master.

On this, Martin Luther King Day 2011, I'd like to publish several quotes from this treasure of a book and encourage anyone who hasn't read, or wants to reread, it to run, not walk to their nearest library or bookstore to get it.

I will add more to the quotes later today:

----Liberty!--electric word! What is it? Is there anything more in it than a name---a rhetorical flourish? Why, men and women of America, does your heart's blood thrill at that word, for which your fathers bled, and your braver mothers were willing that their noblest and best (sons) should die?

Is there anything in it glorious and dear for a nation, that is not also glorious and dear for a man?

----My soul an't your, Mas'r! You haven't bought it,---ye can't buy it! It's been bought and paid for, by One that is able to keep it.

----I an't afeard to die. I'd soon as die as not. Ye may whip me, starve me, burn me---it'll only send me sooner to where I want to go.

----Tom looked up to his master and answered, 'Mas'r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I'd give ye my heart's blood in this poor old body would it save your precious soul. I'd give 'em freely as the Lord gave his for me. O, Mas'r! don't bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than twill me! Do the worst you can, my troubles'll be over soon; but if you don't repent, yours won't never end!

----I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and confort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow.

J. C. Ryle: First Small Steps Towards Grace

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE work of grace in a sinner are generally exceedingly small. It is like the mixture of leaven with a lump of dough:

A single sentence of a sermon…
A single verse of Holy Scripture…
A word of rebuke from a friend…
A casual religious remark overheard…
A tract given by a stranger…
A trifling act of kindness received from a Christian…

…some of these things are often the starting-point in the life of a soul. The first acts of the spiritual life are often small in the extreme–so small, that for a long time they are not known except by the person who is the subject of them, and even by them not fully understood:

A few serious thoughts and prickings of conscience…
A desire to pray for real and not formally…
A determination to begin reading the Bible in private…
A gradual drawing towards means of grace…
An increasing interest in the subject of religion…
A growing distaste for evil habits and bad companions…

…these are often the first symptoms of grace beginning to move the heart of man. They are symptoms which worldly men may not perceive, and ignorant believers may despise, and even old Christians may mistake. Yet they are often the first steps in the mighty business of conversion. They are often the “leaven” of grace working in a heart.

---J. C. Ryle

With All Due Respect....

I CANNOT REMEMBER A MEMORIAL SERVICE being more moving, appropriate and truly above the political fray than the one that unfolded in Tucson tonight at the University of Arizona stadium honoring the victims of last Saturday's horrific shooting.

It was near perfection.

It's late and I'm the world's biggest sleepy head. However, I commend all those who participated---citizens and officials alike---in this Shining City on A Hill moment in our country's time of need.

May God bless all these people and our country and bring the highest possible good from this great tragedy.

Good evening.

Earth to MSM and Lefty Finger Pointers...

ROGER SIMON: MON SEMBLABLE, MON FRERE (OR TODAY'S HYSTERICAL PIPSQUEAKS WOULDN'T KNOW REAL POLITICAL VIOLENCE IF IT HIT 'EM IN THE HEAD)


THIS MASSIVE FINGER pointing spasm of the left against the political right---from the hallowed halls of the chancellor of Berkeley to the high sheriff of Pima County and all muddled places in between---has become so absurd as to be truly laughable.

Something I haven't heard anyone say yet (though I am somewhat limited to online time at this retreat center), is that most of the left's murderous rage and rhetoric is really its massive projection onto this nutty, mixed-up killer of their own desire to kill, maim or otherwise destroy at least half of the political spectrum--sooner rather than later---as they ascribe to Laughner their own murderous motives. The left is monumentally threatened by the turn of events of the past several years in the US.

I've also come to believe that most people don't understand the First Amendment and the concept of The Market Place of Ideas anymore. Nor do they understand the responsibility each of us has to walk away, turn off the radio etc, if we don't like or agree with what we're hearing or seeing. Listening to something I find unsavory doesn't mean I wouldn't/shouldn't/couldn't defend someone's right to say it. BUT, I can decide what I'll listen to or buy or support with my time and money. I can also work through the political process or run for office.

I mean, this inflamed blamefest is as insane, confused, immature and out-of-control as the young man who took his Glock to the Safeway Saturday. BTW, some of my unpublished comments are of this ilk---as angry and scapegoating as I've seen. For that reason I am committed to keeping it toned down here and simply won't publish them.

As President Obama--The One--jets into Tucson today, I hope that he'll be wise enough to tone down the over-politicizing of what was clearly not a politically motivated rampage, and not seek to make a lot of poltical hay from this. Let the real issues be the issues. Let's hope---do you remember that word?--that he can rise above the disparing remarks and exhibit leadership rather than petty politics.

Otherwise, Mr. Obama will only up the ante and cause much, much more trouble down the road for himself and our country. His tone and demeanor will be of paramount importance. Caution for Mr. Obama: minefields ahead.

By now, I'm sure most people have seen or heard about ABC's interview with Jared's erstwhile best friend Zach Osler, but it bears repeating and listening to:

ARIZONA gunman Jared Loughner's downward spiral may have been touched off by a broken high school romance and fueled by drug use -- but it was not politically motivated, according to his best friend in high school.

Zach Osler, in an interview Wednesday with ABC's "Good Morning America," said: "He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right."

You can read the whole thing.

Quick History Of The Recent Climate of Political Finger Pointing

GOOD READ: TURNING INSANITY INTO BIG POLITICS
UPDATE: PUBLIC NOT BUYING PARTISAN POLITICAL SPIN
MICHELLE MALKIN HAS HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF LEFTIES BLAMING EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink on 'hateful' conservativism. In her fed-up-ness, she's given us a short, illustrated history lesson on the progressive climate of hate, circa 2000-2010.

Whichever side of the political aisle you're on, even it's in the middle eating popcorn, this will surely make you wince. It should also recall that old playground truism: when we're shaking our finger at someone else, three of our pinkies are always pointing back at ourselves.

The uber-politicalization and scapegoating game after the dreadful shooting here in Tucson last weekend is a predictable but extremely cheap shot---NPI---especially by the Sheriff of Pima County who's gone off half-cocked on Rush Limbaugh for heavens sakes. We all know it only makes things worse. And ups the ante.

Beyond being a tad inappropriate and unprofessional, it's monumentally boring and if it isn't, then we all need to take up some new pursuits. (But please don't take up fly fishing cause the trout streams are crowded enough.)

Meanwhile I, along with millions of others, continue to pray for all the victims and their families, as well as for a miraculous and complete recovery for Congressman Gabby Gifford.

Our Fallen Human State and God's Remedy

A VERY HEAVY VIDEO, FROM THE PURITANS AND GRACE GEMS. But prescient on this very sad and tragic weekend. None of us are exempt from this falleness. God help us all.

Another heavy video that non-believers don't buy into but that true believers and followers of Christ know is true. Warning: Watch at your own Risk. Truly the Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom and those who ignore this truth do so at their great ultimate peril. Governments and man cannot really fix what ails us though we never cease trying.

In Tucson.....

....CONGRESSWOMAN GABBY GIFFORD WOKE UP AFTER SURGERY and recognized her husband, even as Christina Taylor Green's (born on 9-11) and Judge John Roll's families among others--6 bystanders dead, 12 seriously injured---grieved deeply their losses in today's Congress-On-Your-Corner townhall meeting that ended so very tragically. The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, remained in jail.

The best I can muster is to say they need our continuing, fervent prayers. May God bless and uphold all those touched by this terrible, terrible event including Gabby and others' doctors and law enforcement officials.

As fate would have it, I'll be in Tucson for the next two weeks at a prayer retreat. I've been to the same Safeway in NW Tucson where the shooting occurred since it's in the neighborhood of where I stay off of Picture Rocks Road. Needless to say I'll report anything from here I think might add to the massive conversation that will ensue. However, I believe my main calling through this gap is to be in prayer for these people.

Much political speculation and a plethora of motives and blame will come forth by talking heads in the days ahead, not to mention billions of taxpayers' dollars spent on investigations; however, in the end, this was an assassination by a young, unstable, mixed up nut job with a screw loose, lots of confused ideas, pent up frustrations and obviously delusions of grandeur.

To Ladies of The (Latest) Blizzard

DEAR GIRL FRIENDS, You look toasty warm. I commend you also for staying vertical in the new round of snow in Manhattan. Keep up the good work! Think I've been in every major East coast snowstorm of 20'' or more--between D.C. and New York City--in the past 12 months. So I've decided to sit this one out. Hope you don't mind. I'm on my way to where the sun don't never stop shining and the weather forecast is a scandalous sunny and 70s for the next week!

Thanks for holding down the snow fort. Will send a postcard with Saguaro cacti and a few lizards. Meanwhile, watch out for falling limbs in Central Park and stay warm and upright. Oh and give Mike my regards. I'm sure he'll be working overtime on snow removal for the rest of the winter, or the rest of his life, whichever comes first.

Warmest wishes,
Webutante

When Bad Fashion Happens to Pretty Good People

A WOMAN IN THERE SOMEWHERE?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A FAIRLY DECENT-LOOKING MIDDLE-AGED DAME leaves her homeland and takes up residence in---or just visits---another country? Does she take leave of her fashion senses? Is that the reason we take vacations? Is she desperate for attention at any cost? Or does she no longer care? Is red the most attention-getting color on the planet?

I can't answer any of these questions for sure. I can say with certainty that I find this get-up most unattractive for many reasons: the screaming color, the way it's used and comportment of the model. It would be one thing if we can do this in the privacy of our homes or compounds or on a back-country trail where there's a chance we might get lost and need a helicopter rescue. But this indiscretion has been broadcast round the world and it's unfortunate for women everywhere. Middle age should be a time of fashion improvement and simplifying and not a time of flaming hubris. There's one and only one viable excuse for this: Dame Helen was leaving an (unsuccessful) audition for the lead in a remake of a low-budget Little Red Riding Hood.

HERE'S MORE, if you can bear to look.

The Hopium Tank: Printing a Recovery

PELOSI'S FINAL SPEAKER'S FEE: $5.34 TRILLION IN NEW DEBT, A MERE $3.66 BIL/DAY
ILENE @ ZERO HEDGE HAS POSTED AN article by Mike Whitney that's well worth a read. The above art says it all. It's a primer in Counterfeiting 101, and the re-creation of the same asset bubbles that led to the great 2008-2009 financial swoon. These shenanigans will create the next even more painful and prolonged crisis in which our dollars continue to buy less and the prices of commodities like gas, food, water and, yes, gold and silver continue their meteoric upwards climb. Make no mistake, this will affect every aspect of our and our progeny's lives for decades to come.

This circular boom-bust process will no doubt continue until the pain is so great that we---our country and its lawmakers, businessmen and grassroots citizens---say no more of this, and mean it. Are we there yet? I don't think so and I hope I'm wrong.

Two Pauls On A Hill

ONE IN THE HOUSE, ONE NOW, THE SENATE. Both telling the harsh truth that the United States is broke, can't pay its bills without printing money and moving towards an even more painful, prolonged debt crisis which is now probably unavoidable. It's not a matter of if, so much as as WHEN.

I can remember not so long ago when most respectable Republicans turned up their noses at Rand Paul and his cadre of supporters whom they considered over-zealous rift-raft. They avoided him and them like the plague. What a difference a few years make with much of the country now taking up their cry of returning to fiscal sanity. As the United States debt becomes more extreme, the Pauls seem ever less so.

The fact that newly elected to the Senate, Rand, will be conducting hearings on the out-of-control with no accountability Fed---and Bernanke's various Quantitative Easings---should be a source of some great political theater this year if nothing else.

Can Conservatives Pull It Off?

ROGER SIMON @ PAJAMAS ON BOEHNERNEW HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER TOOK THE GAVEL FROM OUTGOING NANCY PELOSI in humblest fashion. It was impressive to again see the peaceful transfer of power. Boehner now presides over the most youthful, tech savvy group of commuting Congressmen we've ever elected. All the better to keep our new citizen politicians' feet planted firmly with their constituents rather than on the banks of the Potomac where the fever of power can so quickly overtake them.

Tomorrow, the Constitution will be read on the House floor for the first time in history, as this group begins a 20-day blitz aimed at turning the tide towards spending reforms on the heels of frightening, even nightmarish, government debt and expansion away from enumerated powers during the last session.

I'm truly impressed and hopeful that these energized men and women can make visible headway quickly.

However, whatever happens over the next 20 days, the jury will be out for much, much longer. Theirs will not be a sprint, but a long marathon slog. Only the strongest, most dedicated of souls can survive and endure what's ahead. There will be discouragement.

Like the sexual revolution of the sixties and seventies that had myriad consequences we never dreamed, our government's credit and spending revolution---binge--- which began decades ago, is now taking us to the edge of the abyss. The turnaround---if there is to be one---will be like turning an aircraft carrier around at full speed.

Meanwhile, expect hysterical opposition to fiscal restraint and budget cuts, the filibuster and limiting earmarks. There will be war cries of financial collapse--- the end of the world. Only the strongest resolve by the Grace of God can help this group stay the course, then stay it again.

God be with them and us all. It won't be easy or quick.

At 12 Noon the 112th Takes Over

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE EXPECTATIONS WERE SO EXTREMELY HIGH FOR the changing of the guard in Washington. But today at noon Eastern time, new conservative House members---the class of 2012-- will take their chairs and begin firing numerous rounds of ammunition. I'll be back a little later to talk about what's realistic and what's not when it comes to hope and change that can be wrought by the freshmen class of mostly conservative new Congressmen.

Oh and iPads will be allowed on the House floor and even on the podium. However, cowgirl hats--or any kind of hat--will not.

Sen. Tom Coburn: The Real Problem With America

SHALL WE REVIEW?


SEN COBURN TELLS IT LIKE IT IS; I COULDN'T AGREE MORE: Our government is out of control, we've abandoned the principles that made America exceptional, we've gone for short-term fixes rather than long cures....Sacrifice is the order of the day if we're to survive and our grandchildren are to live free.

THEN THERE'S THIS SHOCKER; Whadda you think this guy's been smoking, er kissing?

Sunday, The Harlot of Pleasure

WATCH, THEN WATCH AGAIN BELOW: A Beautiful Harlot Sitting In Her ChariotI'VE RECENTLY DISCOVERED THE MOST WONDERFUL WEBSITE which I'll be featuring here on many Sundays in 2011. Called Grace Gems, it highlights some of the classic Bible teachings/devotional writings from days of old, especially from classic, reformed Puritanism (The website's purpose: To humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation and to promote real holiness in heart and life.)

Puritanism, you will remember, has gotten a bad wrap from people who have no knowledge of the breadth and depth of its teachings and lifestyle. Though Puritans had the reputation in modern times of being prudish sticklers, in truth Puritan married couples enjoyed the best, most uninhibited lifelong sexual relationships of any people---married or otherwise---on the planet. Of course, this unfolding and deepening pleasure was within the confines of a committed and covenantial marital relationship involving piety, discipline. From this clip at Wikipedia:

Puritans by definition felt that the English Reformation had not gone far enough, and that the Church of England was tolerant of practices which they associated with the Catholic Church. They formed into and identified with various religious groups advocating greater "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and in that sense were Calvinists (as many of their earlier opponents were, too), but also took note of radical views critical of Zwingli in Zurich and Calvin in Geneva. In church polity, some advocated for separation from all other Christians, in favor of autonomous gathered churches. These separatist and independent strands of Puritanism became prominent in the 1640s, when the supporters of a presbyterian polity in the Westminster Assembly were unable to forge a new English national church.

I consider it my great good fortune to know about Grace Gems and in 2011 plan to post frequently from its site and YouTube channel. I'll post what I most need to hear and take deeply to heart. Hopefully you'll find a connection and Godly inspiration there too.

1-1-11

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH 1-11-11, 11-1-11, 11-11-11.