Getting Mad At the Gym, Obamacare 'Substandard' Insurance Edition

KUDLOW FEELS THE SAME

WHAT AN UNSERIOUS WRITER/BLOGGER I'VE BECOME LATELY. I ADMIT IT.

But really, I have an excuse or two:  I got other stuff to do. I don't have time to sit down to read and write anymore.  The government nanny state's got my tongue. I'm in an altered state of big government/culture-shock consciousness.

Sometimes a girls gotta take a chill and try to forget everything but roasting brussel sprouts and making pumpkin pie, now that it's cool enough to turn on the oven. Why should I think or write or read anymore when the federal government wants to do it all for me anyway?

So after a good nights sleep, this rainy Thursday morning, I was minding my own business on some exercise machine at my little anytime Snap Fitness gym, when a clip of our president came on Fox News in front of my very eyes. Mr. Obama was expounding on health insurance and it went something like this:

Hey all you stupid voter vassels out there! It's OK if you really, really, really want to keep your sub-standard health insurance policy. But we in the elite/know-what's-best-for-you  federal government offer you a much better comprehensive coverage and think you ought to take it.

The  more this president talked, the faster and longer I walked,  truly offended to hear yet again that he and the liberal Congress know what's best for me.

How dare he tell me I ought to buy something I have no intention of buying just because he says so!  How dare he?  How dare them?  How dare we as citizens let it come to this?

I mean, how much more of this federal over-reach of our minds, our hearts, our pocketbooks, preferences and most of all our freedoms are we Americans going to stand for?  I happen to like my high-deductible, uncomprehensive  policy and don't want his ridiculous comprehensive coverage at any cost. It isn't insurance anyway, but total, mindless blind coverage for a population apparently hellbent on letting the feds---read that the few remaining tax paying citizens---cover everything  no matter how trivial. That's not insurance.   It's creating health care addiction ando ongoing culture of dependency.

As bad as President Obama is, and he's  the worst president in my lifetime, we, the American people, are worse for letting this happen. We're like frogs being boiled in oil, as the temperature slowly rises, imperceptibly so we don't know what's happening.

When in the name of heaven are we going to say ENOUGH!  If we don't soon, we'llrea ch the point of no return; our country will go the way of even more progressive destruction and degradation with no turning back.

Meanwhile,  I go to the gym and exercise it off as best I can wondering how we can rise up and upgrade from this substandard president.  And  Congress.

Jefferson Bethke---Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus

THE ONE-WAY LOVE OF GOD---YOU CAN'T EXHAUST IT HERE'S A MAN WHO'S DEFINITELY ENGAGING THE CULTURE AND HIS GENERATION FOR CHRIST WITH GREAT SUCCESS. Take a look and see what you think.

Two of My Favorite Writers On the Obamacare Rollout Fiasco--Eating Jalapenos Edition

UPDATE: IS HEALTHCARE.GOV OUR NEWEST BIG DIG?

FIRST, WESLEY PRUDEN, EDITOR EMERITUS OF THE WASHINGTON TIMES, AND WRITER/THINKER EXTRAORDINAIRE nails it again with his piece Putting the Shutdown in the Shade:

Hard times, as a wise old friend of mine was fond of saying, will make a monkey eat red pepper. That’s why Democrats, who only yesterday vowed to hold the Maginot Line forever against Republican demands to delay the implementation of wise and wonderful Obamacare, are lining up now to burn their tongues with a dash or two of jalapeno. We can expect to see Barack Obama join the jalapeno line soon. His health care scheme is crashing around him, with debris falling on friend and foe alike, and the White House is in full panic mode. It’s fun to watch, even if it’s not nice to say so.

SECOND, STUART SCHNEIDERMAN @ HAD ENOUGH THERAPY WRITES ANOTHER NEAR-PERFECT PIECE, Kirsten Powers Lets Fly in which he points out how interesting it is to watch and read about the liberal Powers' anguish in seeing her high hopes for Big Government fixes come crashing down----no pun intended---with the failed rollout of the miserable online healthcare exchange:

Kirsten Powers is fast becoming every conservative’s favorite liberal. She has unimpeachable integrity and always tells it like it is. Yesterday, she explained the stakes in the Obamacare website fiasco. Only a true liberal could experience the anguish Powers feels when she sees that her faith in big government is being discredited by ineptitude. Powers wrote:

The rollout of the insurance exchange that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act has been nothing short of a disaster. This failure is a double whammy: it puts the future of Obamacare in even greater peril while placing Obama’s case for activist government on life support. If the government can’t build a functioning website to support the most important initiative of the president’s administration, then how can it be trusted to do anything? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told The Wall Street Journal that the botched launch of the $400 million website was “another challenge that’s no worse than the near-death experiences” the health-care law has seen over the past three years. But it is a million times worse, because it’s self-inflicted. This time, Obama can’t blame Republicans.

Indeed, finally into his second term our intrepid yet inept president has finally succeeded in backing himself and his administration into such a corner, that he simply can't blame any Republicans this time.  Obamacare
is his signature legislation and with it comes the inescapable duty of taking responsibility, the inability of not passing the buck and the possibility of national awakening of epic proportions on the limits of good intentions and of what bureaucrats in Washington can and cannot do.

Is Obamacare mortally wounded?  Probably not, at least not yet.  However like an injured chicken that's pecked to death by its fellow-chickens---no pun intended in the symbolism, or is there?---this grandiose law and massive intrustion by the nanny federal government may be chronically or even terminally ill.  We may not know the prognosis for a while.

Prince George Christened At St. James Palace On St. James Day

FOR INQUIRING MINDS who've been wondering all day why Prince George, chubby, contented little  heir to the British throne, was christened today of all days, a Wednesday, at St. James Palace (  St. James the Less, one of the 12 apostles of Christ.

 Think I  might have the...an...answer.  At least in the Episcopal Church in America, today is the feast day of St. James, one of the 12  Apostles. Or is it the feast day of James the half-brother of Jesus?  There are so many James in the Gospels and book of Acts that  I may be wrong  on this one.  However, I was at an Anglican/Episcopal service this mornig and it was noted that this was the feast day of St.  James.  I think it's St. James who is one of the original apostles.  Not to be confused  with St. James, the brother of John.

Are you confused yet?  I am, a little.

Anyway,  I would think that since the royals were having their little heir christened at the Palace of St. James, doing it on an Anglican feast day honoring one of the St. James---if not all of them---might be why they did it today.  However,  I can find no verification of this in surveying the news.

But makes sense to me...sort of.

Klavan On Worst Minority Group

IN BETTER CELEB NEWS: OPRAH GAVE UNEQUIVOCAL NO! TO SELLING OBAMACARE TO PUBLIC
KLAVAN ON THE CULTURE HITS ANOTHER HOME RUN.  Andrew is always clever and funny....sort of. Mercifully, he spared us of any mention of the Kardashians!

H/T American Digest

Sunday, Musings On Truth Verses Relativism and the Loss of God-Centered Living

FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES

THIS IS AN ESPECIALLY POIGNANT SERMON BY PASTOR MIKE ATKINS OF JACKSON HOLE on the inherent differences betwewn a life founded on rock-solid standards and Biblical principles and those which are not---also known as moral relativism.

When Will Taxpayers Learn? An Embarassed (Freshly Self-Neutered) GOP Needs To Learn To Love the Idea of Default...

.....WHILE STANDING FIRM TO BASELESS INTIMIDATION

The one (mythological) issue that unites right and left is that federal default, even though the numbers involved would be token, would drive a massive recession; this despite the fact that we've defaulted before, not to mention that credit that migrates away from Treasuries would reach real economic ideas. This is the latest big lie unfairly foisted on Americans by the anointed; literally the same people who said failure to bail out Citi would lead to the 'Mother of All Great Depressions.'

By John Tamny @ Forbes

A Wall Street Journal headline from Wednesday in many ways told the ridiculous tale of a very minor federal government shutdown, and the subsequent cave by a scared-of-its-own-rhetoric Republican party.  “Uncertainty Chips Away at Prestige” was the headline, and the article alleged reduced prestige for the U.S. globally in light of a budget fight taking place domestically.

It all sounds very bad until we remember that the headline was mostly aimed at our political clout.  In the politics profession, one’s prestige is a function of how much he or she can fleece the taxpayers for highway systems, airports, space programs, and yes, healthcare on demand that’s ‘generously’ provided by the government.  No doubt in the ‘spending the money of others’ sense, U.S. political class prestige vis-à-vis its serial plunderers globally is well down in light of the just ended budget fight, but then isn’t that the point?

Quite unlike the rest of the world where political power is the rule, the U.S. was founded by very wise men who first granted the federal political class a government, then proceeded to severely limit that same government’s power and prestige.  In that case, a budget impasse driven by frustrated Americans surely is a blow to the political class’s international prestige among politicians. With good reason.  The ability to dole out big sums of other people’s money serves as the proverbial scoreboard in politics.  But then we’re not like the others, and that’s a good thing.

The Republicans gave in on their budget fight, they essentially did so for nothing in return to read the media accounts, and a common explanation for why is that the polls were moving against them.  In short, politics drove their decision to hand President Obama a victory, but by virtue of Obama winning, this wasn’t very good politics.  Either way, the Republicans talk a big game about limiting their time in very alien Washington, D.C., but then given a chance to risk their plush jobs in Congress on their professed belief in limited government, they quickly retreated.

To the above, the popular answer is that for the Republicans to truly shrink government they must control it through elections.  That all sounds nice, but as evidenced by a prescription drug benefit, Sarbanes-Oxley, along with nosebleed spending increases when they controlled Congress in the early part of the 2000s, the notion that Republicans would reveal government-shrinking prudence once in power isn’t terribly compelling.  Better it would be if the GOP had continued to keep the federal government shut down, thus revealing an ability to control as least parts of federal spending. This would have to be better than the post-shutdown headlines we’re seeing now describing how the Republicans lost to President Obama.....

The response to such a strategy beyond the supposed political hazards is that the Republicans would have been foolish to risk a federal default.  Comical here is that if there’s one thing that brings liberals (New York Times editorial page), conservatives (Wall Street Journal editorial page), bombthrowers for the right (AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis), and bombthrowers for the left (Paul Krugman) together, it’s that a federal default would be a “disaster” (Bret Stephens – Wall Street Journal), and that such an occurrence would be quickly followed by a recession.

 Really?

READ the whole great thing and get ready for more, in January, 2014.

Back to the Future Again: Two Stunning Trends For Americans Not Tethered To U.S. Nanny State

AS THE CIRCUS IN WASHINGTON CONTINUES....

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE CREATIVE POWERS OF SMART, FORWARD THINKING INDIVIDUALS TO GO AROUND OUR BOGGED DOWN FEDERAL NANNIES---MAKING THESE TRENDS ONLY GROW AND GROW (WITH INVESTMENT OPPORTUNIES GALORE!)

TREND 1: MEDICAL TOURISM FROM THE US TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO CUT HEALTHCARE COSTS
Sure there are risks to having surgery abroad as they are in our country. In spite of that, this trend will only grow. Expect that after a successful procedure in a foreign country like, say, Costa Rica, many medical tourists may even want to move there. To wit:



TREND 2:  BUYING CITIZENSHIP IN COUNTRIES WANTING BUSINESS INVESTMENT AND SAVVY FOREIGN INVESTOR/CITIZENS

Prepare for a lot of high-end citizenship exodus---or dual citizenship for high-net-worth individuals wanting a friendlier tax environment and less stressful lifestyle---in exchange for investment in that country's economic and indigenous job growth.

Warning: only affluent/business-oriented individuals need apply because of the high price tag. It's the new, reverse legal path to immigration.

Take for instance UK mega-billionaire Richard Bransom who denies he's moved his citizenship and business operations to Necker Island in the Caribbean for tax reasons. No one really believes this for a minute.

Sure there's more sunny weather and less clothes in his closet. Still, he's smart enough to know his country is bankrupt and sold-out to the nanny state---as is USA---so he's getting ahead of the government predatory tax policies curve and taking a pass, while the gettin' is good.

Good for him.  He's only one of many.

Here's the latest country looking for love and investment in all the right places:

Antigua calling out to smart and wealthy, tax-conscious investors.  Expect this trend to grow exponentially as the world realigns itself to the new realities of predatory, stupid governments influenced by the Paul Krugmans of the world.

Wise Advice From Exodus 18: How to Humbly Give and Receive Correction

DAVID MURRAY: EXTENDING THE MARRIAGE BOOST BEYOND 2 YEARS

By Jon Bloom @ Desiring God

BECAUSE WE ALL STRUGGLE SO MUCH WITH PRIDE, correction can be difficult to give graciously and difficult to receive graciously.

That’s one reason to be very thankful for Exodus 18. God is so kind to have Jethro and Moses give us a clinic on what humble correction looks like on both sides.

The Context

At this point in the story, Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, had escorted Moses’s wife (his daughter) and two boys to rejoin the wild wilderness adventure and heard first hand all the amazing things that God had done for Israel through Moses. Jethro burst into praise and proclaimed God’s supremacy (verses 10–11).
Then Jethro observed his son-in-law at work. Moses was clearly an extraordinary prophet, leader and judge. But there was a problem. Moses spent his whole day judging one dispute after another. Pending cases were backing up. Jethro could feel the mounting frustration and draining fatigue.
Here’s where the clinic begins.

Corrector: Ask Clarifying Questions

When Moses finally took a break, Jethro asked him a clarifying question: “Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” (verse 14).
Asking this question was wise and kind. Jethro didn’t jump to a conclusion based on his own perspective. He asked first.
This gave Moses a chance to explain what he was doing and why (verses 15–16): The LORD instructed Moses regarding the law, and Moses’s job was to teach the people and help them apply it to their particular situations. That explanation was helpful.

Corrector: Be Graciously Frank

Understanding this, Jethro said to Moses, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone” (verses 17–18).
Jethro was frank: “what you are doing is not good.” No beating around the bush. But Jethro was also gracious. Defective systems can undermine the best mission. His goal was to lift a burden, not tear down intentions.

Corrector: Undergird, Don’t Undermine

Notice that Jethro’s critique wasn’t ad hominem. He didn’t say, “Moses, you’re a lousy leader. It shouldn’t take an administrative genius to see that your system doesn’t scale. Do you think you’re qualified to lead two million people?”
No. Jethro’s goal wasn’t to undermine Moses leadership but undergird him. He observed a problem, sought to understand it, identified the core weakness, and offered a helpful solution (verses 19–23). Jethro aimed to increase the effectiveness of Moses’s time use and the meeting of people’s needs.

Correctee: No Prideful Deflections

Now note Moses’s remarkably humble response: “So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said” (Exodus 18:24).
Moses didn’t bristle defensively at Jethro. He didn’t brush him off as an outsider who didn’t understand the organization. He didn’t try to save face by lying that he’d been thinking about doing that very thing himself. And he didn’t pull spiritual rank on Jethro by reminding him who of the two of them heard directly from God more.
No. Moses gratefully received and immediately implemented Jethro’s counsel.

Correctee: In Correction Listen for God’s Direction

Even though Moses frequently received immediate verbal direction from God, he was not narrow in his understanding of how God speaks and directs. Since God ruled everything he could just as easily direct him through a father-in-law as from a cloud.
If God used Jethro’s correction to direct Moses to greater effectiveness, how much more should we be humbly listening for God’s direction in the correction of those he sends to us?

Correctee: Correction Is a Gift, and Not Only For You

Jethro’s correction wasn’t just God’s provision for Moses, it was also God’s provision for the needs of thousands of people. When God brings correction to us through the loving observation of someone else, it’s a gift, but not only for us. It’s often for many others as well. If we pridefully resist correction, we are likely plugging up a channel of grace to others. There’s more at stake in our humility than we realize.

Summary

So to sum up the lessons from the Exodus 18 Correction Clinic:
When giving correction:

1. Ask clarifying questions to gain a more accurate understanding. Don’t assume.
2. Be graciously frank. Don’t hint or over-qualify. Just say what you see with the humility that you might not be seeing perfectly.
3. Undergird, don’t undermine. Construct, don’t destruct. Be a strength by helping to find a solution that pursues the good of everyone involved.

When receiving correction:

1. No prideful deflections. If the correction is needed, humbly receive it.
2. Listen for God’s direction. God likes to lead us in ways that cultivate our humility.
3. Correction is a gift, and not only for you. Your correction may also be someone else’s provision.

Correction is a form of the Lord’s discipline. And Proverbs 12:1 says, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” May the Lord help us to love knowledge today.

First For 2016 Football: Back to the Future As UT Vols To Play VA Tech At Gargantuan Bristol Motor Speedway

FORGET THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, OBAMACARE, PRINCE GEORGE'S CHRISTENING AND DEBT CEILING DEBACLE

PREDICTED TO BREAK---SHATTER!---ALL SPEED, I MEAN ATTENDANCE RECORDS FOR US SPORTS EVENTS, this from  today's Tennessean:

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee will play Virginia Tech in 2016 in a football game that could shatter every major attendance record for team sports in the United States.

The long-discussed meeting at Bristol Motor Speedway is expected to be officially announced Monday at the facility. The speedway has scheduled a news conference at 11 a.m. to make a “major announcement.”

ESPN’s Joe Schad and CBS Sports’ Bruce Feldman tweeted the news of the game nearly simultaneously Wednesday. Neither Tennessee nor Virginia Tech would confirm the report.

I mean when football and NASCAR manias join up in East Tennessee, there won't have been anything like it before.  Nary a motel/hotel room for hundreds of miles in all directions---including  but not limited to outer space. And don't even want to contemplate the clogged interestates....



It's hard to over-estimate the size of this place. When I drive in to fish nearby on the South Holston River,  I'm always in awe of  this massive monument to Americana and what's it's done and doing for the economy in the hills and hollers of East Tennessee and how it all got started  with making  illegal moonshine and delivering it to customers by outrunning sheriff's deputies in souped up drag cars.

Rev your engines, spike your footballs and secure your tailgates ladies and gentlemen!  The greatest show on earth is about to take place.

What's Going On In America Today Described In 3 Well-Traveled Highways-- NYC's Henry Hudson, D.C.'s I-495 Beltway and America's Blue Ridge Pky

LISTEN MY CHILD AND YOU WILL HEAR THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF....

WANT TO KNOW THE DEEP ISSUES PLAYING OUT IN  REAL AMERICA TODAY AND THEATERS THEY APPEAR IN?

 Look no further than several of my fav,  most well-traveled highways, if you dare, except for the one that has all the curves.  I'd rather hike them than drive 'em. But anyway...

Is anything more fun than coming into Manhattan across the GW Bridge (after Bloomberg takes your last $17) hanging a hard right, then peeling off down the Henry Hudson (aka West Side Hwy)  along the Hudson River at a very good clip.  It's one of my favorite driving thrills, only after the unparalleled drive from DuBois, WY to Jackson Hole over Togwotee Pass.

Also love to slide into D.C. off  I-66 or I-270 onto the dreaded I-495 beltway, crossing the Potomac from the south, then peeling off to the Clara Barton Parkway to MacArthur Blvd. and the safely of western D.C. and Bethesda.  It's fun and easy to do.

But on three occasions, besides rush hour,  I wouldn't want to be on any of these highways:

First: On the Henry Hudson, a  darling family celebrating their first anniversary and  birth of a  baby daughter last week was targeted, harassed and bullied by a group of  (black?) bikers. The father and driver of the SUV was so panicked at the harassment that he finally drove through the mess and ran over a biker in the process.  Angry bikers followed in hot pursuit, overcoming family's car, pulling the dad out of the driver's seat and beating him to a pulp.  Turns out an off-duty police officer came on the scene at some point, joined the gang and didn't help the situation at all.

This is a developing story, however,  typical of America today:  Family minding its own business, gets targeted by bullies, defends itself against thugs before running for their lives then getting beaten and terrorized within an inch of their lives. Latest in ongoing story.

Second, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a private concession for the  federal BR highway called the Pisgah Inn---really a glorified motel with stunning views outside Asheville,  N.C.---gets shut down by the feds.  Inn officials say they are a private, non-government entity and refuse to close.  But in a very short time,  federal rangers come in  in full force and stand guard against anyone entering the grounds of the Inn.  The  Feds use strong-arm tactics to make a private concession---and probably a conservative business owner and his employees---suffer and lose business in high season for tourism.

 My heart goes out for this business and many others like them, tethered to the federal government.  Anyone depending on the feds in any way, can look forward to being shut down at some time.  The only partial solution is unhooking from  dependency as much as possible now and in the future.

Finally,  I don't want to be on the D.C I-495 this Friday when thousands of truckers bring their big tractor-trailer rigs onto the beltway in protest of all sorts of federal shenanigans. Truckers for the Constitution plan to show up in massive numbers to slow things down in D.C.  and lobby for the arrest of certain government officials and congressmen. They are also not pleased with the President.

While I like the  Beltway sometimes, but wouldn't want to be within a thousand miles of it  on Friday.

Stay tuned as these stories of America Today unfold. It's not always pretty.

Keller: Walking Through Pain and Suffering God's Way

SWEET STORY FROM LAST YEAR ABOUT CHRISTIANS WHO LOVED AND HELPED SICK ATHEIST RECOVER AND BE CONVERTED

PEYTON MANNING TO THE RESCUE


ALL SUFFERING MAKES US EITHER STRONGER, MORE COURAGEOUS OR WEAKER, MORE FRIGHTENED AND ALOOF.  Also it  makes us either  more self-centered/narcissistic or God/other-centered.

The Movie Gravity: All Style And Formula Thrills With A Shot of Vodka And A Tiny Twist of Substance

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON TWEETS BIGGEST ERRORS IN GRAVITY

SIGN OF OUR TIMES: LONELINESS/ ISOLATION WITH HIGH ADRENALINE IN A VENUE OF OUTER DARKNESS....SOUND ABOUT RIGHT?

BEEN MIA RECENTLY while working to pick up the pieces of my life back in Tennessee.  There's still a pile of undealt-with mail on my dining room table and several unpacked L.L. Bean bags with hiking gear and yoga clothes in my bedroom.  Though I'm getting things in order,  it's slower than I'd like in almost 90 degree weather.

 I did manage to watch both the tail-end of the Tennessee-Georgia SEC football game with HG this afternoon as well  as catch the 4:30  screening of  Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  After reading several glowing reviews---and seeing a 98 score on Rotten Tomatoes,  I decided to drop everything because it had to be the blockbuster/must-see survival thriller of the year and one that will run away with the Oscars/

Boy was I disappointed.  Sure it's got Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in tethered spacesuits twirling wildly out-of-control  around wrecked space stations and space debris with almost no oxygen.  While the special effects are fine and dandy,  the rest of the movie is short on substance no matter how you cut it.

See it if you must, but the best of the  movie is in the trailer below.

The best part for me was after Clooney unhooks his tether from Bullock---so she can survive and he  can float away and die looking down on the sunrise on the Ganges.  He comes back as a apparition into the Russian space capsule she's managed to find and climb into as she starts to give up and asks if she's found the world-class vodka that's stashed there. She replies in the negative but undeterred, he finds it.  He takes a swig as only a ghost can do, inspires her to go on living---in spite of her toddler daughter's mysterious and sudden death---and get back to planet earth. He then disappears back into the darkness  and whatever afterlife from whence he came.

The only reference to God or faith came when Bullock's character said in a moment of complete despair that no one would be praying for her and no one had taught her to pray when she was growing up.  In other words, sadly, she was dangling by a dark thread even before she went into space.  One can only hope her thankfulness at getting back alive might have caused her to look into her spiritual impoverishment but the movie stops before that.

Anyway, it was  very long on action and short on characters the audience can sink its teeth in.  Bullock outdid herself in The Blind Side, but under-did herself here in spite of her non-stop action and fairly decent acting.  Clooney played his supporting role fair enough
.
Below the clip that hooks you big time with the rest of the movie just more of the same adrenaline only with  diminishing returns.  If you're really stretched for cash, just go have a double espresso before going for a walk across the Henry Hudson Parkway....

Hang Tough Evil Good-Guys---Country Music Talks: Ain't Goin Down Till....

....THE SUN COMES UP


OH YEAH! Hang tough all you evil, bad-good conservatives in Congress as you're demonized by the likes of Henry Blogett---who thinks America is a democracy rather than a republic---and others who are grossly misinformed from drinking the Koolaid.  How embarrassing.

Sorry Henry, NO CIGAR.

While you're at it evil bad guys, why not come on out in cowboy hats, holsters and boots to go-with-the-flow and meet with the president and Fast Harry Reid? And cute Henry too?  Why not have fun and take to the max all this evil, bad guy silly stuff? Go with it, rather than against it....

Meanwhile,  Michael Ledeen:  Davy Crockett and the Great Shutdown of '13.