Hattie Mac 'n' Cheese

The other night I spent some time with my son and his family. My granddaughter Hattie was just finishing up her dinner--

She was having the all time classic kid's favorite, mac and cheese.

As you can see, her smile is not the only thing that's "cheesey".

I thought at first she was just waving, but I see now that she was trying to make the sign for "Grandpa", which is the open hand with the thumb toward the forehead, then wave forward in two loops. What a clever little darling.

"Now I'm ready for my bath!"

"or not!"

It's jammie Hattie!

(Note Mommy's expression is nearly as precious as the daughter's).

And Daddy's arms (and heart) are full.

JEFF HEIN, UTAH ARTIST

Last night I was invited to attend the open gallery at Jeff Hein's Salt Lake gallery and studio. He has several new works on display that will be featured in the New York Armory Show.

Here are Susan Petersen, my daughter-in-law, and her friend Jen Hein, Jeff's wife. They live in the same LDS ward in Salt Lake City.

I couldn't get Jen to actually pose with her husband, but I managed to grab this shot of them while they scmoozed with guests. Jen and Jeff first met while they were serving LDS church missions in Utah. They both grew up in New York state, she in Rochester, and he in Windsor, which is just up the Hudson River from NYC. Incidentally, Jen posed as the model for at least two of Jeff's paintings, which you can view at http://www.jeffreyhein.com/ . See if you can find them.

Here Susan and her husband Christian sit to watch a portion of the featured demo video "Painting the First Shade".

Jeff scored the cover of this year's Spring Salon catalogue of the Springville Museum of Art.

Here is one of the featured new works.

These new paintings will be featured later this month at the New York Armory Show.

He has a distictive, instantly recognizable style. Amazingly, he never studied painting until he got into college. Incidentally, he has studied at Ricks College in Idaho (now Brigham Young University Idaho), Salt Lake Community College, and University of Utah.

I asked Jeff what his policy was regarding photography in his gallery, and he seemed puzzled. He admitted he didn't actually have a policy.

I mentioned to Jeff that I have a photoblog, and that I had included a photo of one of his works in my post about the Spring Salon of the Springville Art Museum. He remembered seeing my blog because I had sent him an email with a link to it. (I'm a shameless self promoter).

Jeff's a quick study. He responded, "Well, here's the new policy--as long as you provide a link to my website on your blog, you can shoot all you want". It's a great policy. And as you may have noticed, I have thoroughly complied with the policy.

This lady is one of Jeff's students at his Academy of Art, posing with her works. I regret that I neglected to get her name, but I believe she posed as a subject for one of Jeff's paintings in 2002. If I'm not mistaken, there is an article about Jeff and this lady in one of the publications featured on Jeff's website. Here's a link to the website: http://www.jeffreyhein.com/ .

This is my photograph of Jeff's work "12 Shades" as it was displayed at the Spring Salon of the Springville Museum of Art earlier this year. Here's a link to that post: http://blog648.blogspot.com/2007/05/spring-salon-at-springville-museum-of.html

Be sure to check out Jeff's website. There's a lot of fascinating stuff there.

NO MO’ “HO HO HO” THIS CHRISTMAS

Steve Kelly cartoon

An Australian company that trains prospective Santas for Christmas has advised its employees to avoid the traditionally festive phrase "ho ho ho" because the term ho could be construed to be demeaning to women. No, really.

What’s up with the Aussies? They’ve turned into worse PC pansies than our most liberal American home grown nannie-thugs.

More details here.

PAPA JACK’S BACON CHILI NACHO LUNCH COMBO

1/2 can Nalley’s Chili Con Carne with beans
1 generous fistful of nacho or tortilla style corn chips
2 slices of bacon
1 tsp of Tabsco Habanero Sauce
3 or 4 slices of sharp cheddar cheese
1 generous dollop of sour cream
1 generous dollop of salsa

Put the bacon on a paper plate, cover with a paper towel and nuke in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Pour half the can of chili in a large cup or small microwaveable bowl, cover with paper towel and nuke for 1 minute.

Cut bacon into bite size pieces and mix into chili and Tabasco Habanero Sauce.. Nuke for another minute or so.

Leave bacon grease on the paper plate, place corn chips on plate and break into bite size pieces.

Pour chili and bacon over chips, places cheese over chili and nuke until cheese is melted.

Top with generous dollop of sour cream and another of salsa.

Accompany with preferred beverage.

Yum!

Serves one. If you want more, use the whole can of chili and double up on everything else.

Double yum!!

COMBAT PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR REVIEWED BY MICHAEL YON

Michael Yon, a combat reporter in Iraq, gives the most amazing, unique, and hilarious camera review I’ve ever read, and believe me, I’ve read a lot of them. Here’s part 1, and this quote is from part 2:

My cameras—they are both women—started fighting. Pandora sneered at her replacement, "I told you she’s a bitch!" she hissed.

"Don’t say that about Pandora 2," I said gently, masking my unease that Pandora may be right, but still somewhat taken aback by the hostility. "She’s lighter than you, you know. She shoots faster and sees better in the dark."

"The bitch is half blind!" screamed Pandora. "Go ahead. Take her on your next mission and get 10 out-of-focus shots per second!"

"Don’t use that language, please," I said, "Children read this site."

"That word is not even banned from television!" came her rejoinder. "I saw Howard Stern use it!"

"Pandora," I implored, "Howard Stern doesn’t count, and besides, most people have never heard of a talking camera."

"I have an audio function, and you would know about it if you read my manual instead of playing with Pandora 2!" I had never seen a camera so jealous.

"She’s a cheap little tramp!" hissed Pandora.

[Sigh. . . . I should never have opened that box.]


The gear under review in the 2-part series are the following cameras:

Sony F707, an amateur camera used as a back up in case the primary gear is lost or destroyed. It's no long being produced.

Nikon D70, which took a licking and kept on clicking for 7 months of very hard use, before succumbing to "combat stress". Yon's favorite "dummy button" was the "sports" setting. I don't believe the D70 is still in production.

Canon Mark II 1Ds, nicknamed "Pandora", costing $8000.00 body only, intended for use by professional photographers, hence, no "dummy buttons", and no built-in flash.

Canon Mark III EOS 1d, nicknamed "Pandora 2", costing $4,500.00 body only and touting lightweight agility, faster shooting, and greater ability to take great pictures in lowlight situations. The problem is, the autofocus system goes blind in hot bright environments, or in other words, almost any daylight situation in Iraq. Basically a very expensive paperweight. (Note to Canon: get this fixed.)

MITT ROMNEY, SATANIC CULT MEMBER?

Here’s a fellow who wallows in bigotry and hate, in the name of Jesus. He refers to Mitt Romney as a member of a satanic cult, twice. He claims no interested in politics or influence (worldly power is his phrase, I believe), but apparently can’t see how this polemical ranting marginalizes not just himself and his followers, but all people who have a religious view. These are the flames the liberal media would love to fan if they could. They would love to be able to put us all in the same basket, paint us all as frothing religious lunatics, and push us all off onto the margins of political influence.

I won’t quote him directly. Just go to the link and read it for yourself if you’re interested. But be warned, if you’re a person of faith of almost any denomination, but particularly if you’re LDS, this is almost pornographic in nature. It’s truly ugly. This is exactly the kind of bigotry that drove the Mormons from New York to Ohio, from Ohio to Missouri and Illinois, and finally across the plains and over the mountains to Utah. It’s still alive today.

I don't believe this kind of bigotry is truly widespread, but it's exactly the kind of wedge that the liberal left, particularly Democrats, would love to drive into the religious coalition on the right to splinter such groups as evangelicals and right leaning Mormons into bickering, powerless factions. I think we should be aware of it and not over-react.

Incidentally, thanks to Article VI Blog for the tip.

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ADVICE NOT TAKEN

Apparently blog648 is not widely read, at least in Orlando, because people are not taking my advice: "Get a Gun, Not a Taser".

A local station in Orlando ran a story about "Taser parties", which are presumably not unlike "Tupperware parties" of yesteryear.

You can get a Taser, even a pink one, here.

But Popular Mechanics notes: "The C2 [Taser] fires once per cartridge, so Taser recommends putting it down and running like hell while your target twitches away."

Good advice, indeed. But I recommend you grab the bad guy’s gun while he’s twitching, and be ready to use it when he regains his capacity for voluntary motion, because he’s going to be very likely to be in a murderous mood.

Case in point: Recently in Atlanta a man used a Taser on an armed carjacker. But apparently the driver was unwilling to take Taser's advice and "run like hell", presumably because he didn't want to give up his car. So when the infuriated thug regained his faculties, he shot the driver five times.

The problem with tasing an armed thug who's holding a gun is the liklehood that as all the muscles clench involuntarily, he's not likely to drop the gun, and if he has his finger on the trigger, he could start firing the gun uncontrollably, a situation that's dangerous for everyone nearby.

My advice: Don't mess with half-measures like Taser; get a gun, learn how to use it, and carry it on you.

Somebody, I forget who, immortalized the words "not responsible for advice not taken".

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit .

Veterans Day

Yesterday was Veterans Day. We've flown the flag here at 648 over the weekend in honor of both the Marine Corps birthday and Veterans who have served our country honorably and well. Thank you to all who serve and all who have served.

NOVEMBER 10th, MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY

On this date in 1776, the Marine Corps started signing up recruits at Tun Tavern in Philiadelphia, PA. At least, that's what they told me in boot camp. And I never doubted my Drill Instructor.

So, happy birthday to my brother Marines.

GET A GUN, NOT A TASER

I read a post on Bersa Talk yesterday about a man in Atlanta who was car-jacked by an armed assailant and used a taser to defend himself. The infuriated car-jacker then shot the driver five times.

People, if you don't want to be a victim and choose to arm yourself, arm yourself with a weapon capable of ending an attack, not just making the bad guy really angry.

Police departments don't usually tase aggressive suspects who are armed with a firearm. If he points the gun at an officer or another person, they shoot the suspect, and they don't try to wound or disable, they shoot to neutralize and end the threat. That almost always means they aim for the center of mass, and the suspect is usually seriously wounded or dies from his injuries. Police officers are under no obligation to let armed suspects fire first before returning fire.

Tasers are generally used on agressive suspects who pose a threat but aren't armed with a firearm. Generally there are more than one officer present, and as soon as the suspect falls down after being tased, he is rushed and subdued by multiple officers.

As one commenter at Bersa Talk said, this poor crime victim brought a taser to a gun fight. And he lost.

Happy Birthday Cindy!!!

Here she is on her first birthday defending her birthday cake from her brothers.

Here she is getting all pretty for Church.

Here she is playing in the dishwasher. No, she wasn't supposed to do that. She's also got a bottle of her mother's nail polish. No, she wasn't supposed to be playing with it. No matter what kind of mischief she got into, she always figured she could charm her way out of trouble. We hope she grows out of it.

Little charmer.

Tiny Dancer.

Pre-school picture.

Easter girls.

Here we are at birthday number four. Summer Schoenrock waits patiently for all the rigamarole to get over with so she can have a piece of cake.

Disneyland, summer '89

Mommy and Cindy at Disneyland.

Cindy and Daddy, 1990.

The Petersens, all grown up.

Cindy and some old guy.

I have to tell this story. I think it’s funny. Others might not.

When we got the news that we were expecting our fifth child, we were thrilled. I was even more thrilled to learn that the due date was Nov 10th, the Marine Corps birthday.

This was back in the "olden days", (23 years ago) before ultrasounds were commonly available for the masses, so we had no way of knowing if our child would be a boy or a girl. I told Kathy that if we had a little girl, and she was born on Nov 10th, we would name her Marina Cora, in honor of the Marine Corps birthday. She didn’t like it at all, and told me so. (I didn’t like it either, but I had fun teasing my wife.) I convinced her that I was serious, but it would only happen if we had a little girl, and she was born on Nov 10th. Then, just to spite me, Kathy gave birth to Cindy Kaye Petersen on Nov. 8th 1984.

So, happy birthday, Marina...er, Cindy. And many more.

MEDIOCRITY VS. MERITOCRACY

Here’s my take on the current debate on Referendum 1 and school vouchers.

Utahns have a choice between the status quo, which consists of deeply entrenched mediocrity and a bureaucratic monopoly on elementary and secondary education in this state, and the opportunity for parents to take back the power over their children’s education.

If we say no to Referendum 1, then the power of the teachers’ union becomes even more powerfully entrenched and hard to break. And you can bet our taxes will go up, and they will lobby for that, because their solution for every problem is to throw more money at it.

And where will the bulk of the money go? Probably more to administrative costs, because that’s been the recent trend. In other words, salaries, but not necessarily for teachers, but for administrators. Administrators have the power, and see themselves as CEOs. School children won’t benefit at all.

One thing that irritates me about the argument that Utah spends less money per student than any other state, is that I don’t believe that’s necessarily a bad thing. So we can raise taxes and throw more money at this problem, but that’s not going to solve it.

Competition works in business. Competition worked to make things better for consumers of communications services. I know because I retired from Mountain Bell, U S West and Qwest Communications. Competition made those companies much more responsive to the needs of our customers, because we knew if we didn’t provide the services required, our customers would go somewhere else (and did, in a lot of cases). Before the break-up of the Bell System in 1984, there simply wasn’t someplace else our customers could go. They were stuck with Mountain Bell, whether they liked it or not, and a lot didn’t.

Competition will work in education, too, because if parents have the option of going someplace where the teachers and administrators are more reponsive to their concerns, it forces public schools to do the same.

The UEA, NEA and other education power lobbies in this state and all over the country are very concerned about Referendum 1. It chips away at the foundation of their source of power, which is the monopoly they have over educational resources in our society.

There’s been a lot of dishonesty in the arguments by opponents of Referendum 1. Ed Morrissey over at Captain’s Quarters has a lot to say about this issue. It’s something that’s attracted a lot of attention outside the state because this is a problem all over the country, and right now, all eyes are on Utah. Read the whole article, it’s worth your time.

Tomorrow is Election Day, when Utahns will go to the polls and decide this issue. It will have a huge impact, one way or the other, on the future of education, not only in Utah, but all over the country. This is a national story.

So please, if you want to take back the power over your children's education, go to the polls tomorrow and vote FOR REFEREDUM 1. If you'd rather maintain the status quo, well, just stay home. (Grin).

ROOFTOP FIREFIGHT IN SAMARRA

Here’s a gripping story of courage, honor, sacrifice, that you won’t see on the network news or in the main stream media. Why? Because it doesn’t fit the narrative. And yet it happened.

It’s the true story of two soldiers who saw half their squad cut down before their eyes, and yet, in spite of overwhelming 20-to-1 odds, fought on and held their ground, inflicting many casualties themselves, until their attackers abandoned the fight.

It's entitled " The Longest Morning" and appears as the cover article of this month's American Spectator. The author is Jeff Emanuel, who is embedded with the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. Read the whole article. Or only read half of it, if you can tear yourself away.

HALLOWE'EN VISITORS

It was Hallowe'en at 648, and we had visitors.

These are the boys next door.

And these boys are from down the street, I'm not sure exactly where.

More neighborhood kids.

Elmo and a local ninja.

H.P. and Peter Pan.

Princess Rachel from accross the street.

And her little brother Jesse, who must have forgotten his line, because he couldn't remember what he was supposed to say, even though he had practiced all day...

Cute kids.

And, um, well...maybe not so cute.

This little Valley Girl was actually on her cell phone when I opened the door, but when I grabbed the camera to take a picture, she got embarrassed, hung up and put it away.

UPDATE: This is Ashtyn Day, who is in our ward. She was on the phone talking to her mother. Her mom told my wife later that she could hear me teasing her daughter. (I was sure her face was familiar.

Here's a link to the River Trail Ward PHOTOBLOG where she appears in her family picture. See if you can pick her out. (Even though it's labeled, it's not that obvious).

John Stossel, Others Join Utah's Debate On Referendum 1

John Stossel has a column today at the World Jewish Review online calling attention to the debate over Referendum 1 and the opportunity Utahns have to vote for school choice.

Entitled "Utahns can vote for school choice Tuesday", the article comes down on the side of the proponents. From the article:

Next Tuesday, Utah voters go to the polls to decide if their state will become the first in the nation to offer school vouchers statewide. Referendum 1 would make all public-school kids eligible for vouchers worth from $500 to $3,000 a year, depending on family income. Parents could then use the vouchers to send their children to private schools.

What a great idea. Finally, parents will have choices that wealthy parents have always had. The resulting competition would create better private schools and even improve the government schools.

But wait. Arrayed against the vouchers are the usual opponents. They call themselves Utahns for Public Schools [http://tinyurl.com/25sbtu]. They include, predictably, the Utah Education Association (the teachers union), Utah School Boards Association, Utah School Employees Union, Utah School Superintendents Association, the elementary and secondary school principals associations, and the PTA. No to vouchers! they protest. Trust us. We know what's best for your kids.

They say they're all for improving education but not by introducing choice....

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Vouchers will make schools accountable to parents rather than a bureaucracy. Principals and administrators will have to convince parents that they are doing a good job. That's real accountability. And the Utah law requires private schools to submit to independent financial audits and give students a nationally recognized test each year. The results would be publicly disclosed, giving parents information they can use to judge schools.

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For over a century, American children have been in the hands of education bureaucrats. For over 40 years, the government's system has been dominated by a protectionist teachers' union that puts itself ahead of the children entrusted to its members. The results are what we should expect from a monopoly financed with money extracted from taxpayers: poor quality, lack of innovation and bored children.

The parents of Utah should be the envy of the rest of the country because on Tuesday, they have a chance to take back control of their children's education.

It's well worth reading the whole thing.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters joins the debate, with a post he titles "Parents Taking Power Back".

From his post:

What Stossel misses is why voucher programs have become a burgeoning movement, along with home schooling and the demand for charter schools. It springs from the loss of power from parents and the local communities to the federal government over the last four decades. The shift of control over curricula, standards, and mandates from local school boards to a vast federal bureaucracy -- abetted by the NEA -- has provoked this reaction. Parents want as much influence over the education of their children as possible, and federal control gives them no influence or say over how their children are taught. Power has shifted into the hands of the lobbyists, like the NEA, who represent teachers and administrators first, and children secondarily if at all, as I noted two years ago.

Vouchers simply provide parents with the power always envisioned by the public school system. It simply replaces the school board with a capitalist lever on quality of delivery. It requires more from the parents in terms of involvement, but at least in this system, their involvement actually gets rewarded. Right now, schools have so many mandates and top-down requirements that parents have little say any more -- and when they do attempt to make changes, get treated with dismissive attitudes from the "experts" who assume they know the children better than the parents.

The NEA and the Department of Education drove parents to voucher programs. Utah will likely be the first to pass the program, but in ten years, expect to see it spreading like wildfire. One way or another, parents will take back control over the education of their children, and dinosaurs like the NEA will either adapt or die.

Well, I know where I stand on the issue of Referendum 1. How about you?

WE HAVE MOMENTUM IN IRAQ; CAN WE SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESS IN THE “LONG WAR”?

Frederick W. Kagan, in an article entitled "Winning One Battle, Fighting the Next" that appeared in the Weekly Standard online suggests that we have the momentum in Iraq and need to seize the opportunity that affords us.

America needs to be heartened by our success in Iraq, and seize a victory.

How did we achieve this success? Before the surge began, American forces in Iraq had attempted to fight al Qaeda primarily with the sort of intelligence-driven, targeted raids that many advocates of immediate withdrawal claim they want to continue. Those efforts failed. Our skilled soldiers captured and killed many al Qaeda leaders, including Abu Musab al Zarqawi, but the terrorists were able to replace them faster than we could kill them. Success came with a new strategy.

Al Qaeda’s brutal tactics against local Sunnis caused area leaders to reconsider their loyalties. But without American help, resistance was futile, because any leaders who spoke out against the takfiris were tortured and murdered. The Sunnis needed the American military muscle to protect their populace, and the Americans needed the intelligence that the Sunnis were able to provide in order to run al Qaeda to ground.

But the American forces that were available then weren’t sufficient in number to make the gains permanent, and the "surge" was required so that commanders would have the resources to operate multiple simultaneous and consecutive operations to make sure terrorists were under constant pressure to run and hide instead of attack civilians and coalition forces. When al Qaeda operatives went on the run, the combination of locals cooperating with the additional American forces made it impossible for them to get where they wanted to go. They were cut off from their safe havens, captured, killed and otherwise decimated.

And so that battle was won, but there are more battles to fight in this "long war".

Some now say that, although America's soldiers were successful in this task, the next battle is hopeless. We cannot control the Shia militias, they say. The Iraqis will never "reconcile." The government will not make the decisions it must make to sustain the current progress, and all will collapse. Perhaps. But those who now proclaim the hopelessness of future efforts also ridiculed the possibility of the success we have just achieved. If one predicts failure long enough, one may turn out to be right. But the credibility of the prophets of doom--those who questioned the veracity and integrity of General David Petraeus when he dared to report progress--is at a low ebb.


There is a long struggle ahead in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere against al Qaeda and its allies in extremism. We can still lose. American forces and Afghan allies defeated al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001 as completely as we are defeating it in Iraq. But mistakes and a lack of commitment by both the United States and the NATO forces to whom we handed off responsibility have allowed a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan. We must not repeat that mistake in Iraq where the stakes are so much higher. America must not try to pocket the success we have achieved in Iraq and declare a premature and meaningless victory. Instead, let us be heartened by success. We have avoided for the moment a terrible danger and created a dramatic opportunity. Let's seize it.

In September I posted in this blog about the possibility that we had fought and won the Battle of Gettysburg in the Iraq conflict and had in fact turned the corner and started to move toward victory. I cited Mr. Kagan as my principal source in "The Gettysburg of This War" which appeared in the National Review Online. I agree with him, that we’ve made innumerable and costly mistakes in Iraq that have nearly brought us to disaster. But we’ve learned from those mistakes and our troops have been persistent and successful in earning a great victory.

One of the biggest mistakes we could have made was to heed the Democrats (and al Qaeda propagandists) who insisted that America had lost the war and we needed to withdraw immediately to cut our losses. Because we didn’t listen to the voices of defeat, opportunities now abound for continued success if we press forward.

Hat tip: Dafydd ab Hugh at Big Lizards.

THE MOTHER OF ALL TAX HIKES IS HEADED OUR WAY

If you’re a small business owner, a wage earner or a married couple in America, you need to read John Boehner’s column about the tax hike the Dems are preparing for you in order to pay for all the pork they have planned after their successful bid for the White House in 2008.



From the column:



So what exactly will the Pelosi-Rangel tax increase mean for families?


The most striking feature of the Mother of All Tax Hikes is that it raises taxes on literally every single taxpayer. In 2001, the Republican-led Congress and the president enacted a sweeping tax cut plan that lowered taxes for every American.


The Pelosi-Rangel plan would eliminate those tax cuts, raising taxes for every single tax bracket and eliminating the new 10 percent rate Congress established specifically to reduce the tax burden on low- and middle-income working families.


And as if that is not enough, the Pelosi-Rangel plan also would reinstate the marriage penalty, which — before Congress began to phase it out in 2001 — punished couples by taxing them at a higher rate than they would have been taxed had they filed individually. Indeed, no family would be protected from the Mother of All Tax Hikes.



What do the Dems need all this tax money for? And what will all these tax increases do to our economy? I don’t think they’ve thought that far ahead. I just know that Congress seems to see American taxpayers as a great herd of cash cows, and they’re determined to milk us for all we’re worth. It’s reprehensible, and this trend has got to be reversed.


John Boehner is a Republican Congressman from Ohio and the House Minority Leader, so he know whereof he speaks. Read the whole column, it’s frightening. Appropriate for the upcoming Halloween season.

Dan Habib/Monitor Staff photo

John Edwards, Democratic candidate for President, obviously would make a very handsome President. Unfortunately however, I believe his Presidential qualifications end right there.

At the Concord Monitor Online, Lauren Dorgan has an article detailing John Edwards’ plans for our Republic once he takes office in 2009.

In the article, titled "Edwards plans big for presidency", she quotes Mr. Edwards directly:

"It is central to what I want to do as president to do something about economic inequality. I do not believe it is okay for the United States of America to have 37 million people living in poverty," he said in a meeting with Monitor reporters and editors this week. "And I think we need, desperately need, a president who will say that to America and call on Americans to show their character."

At every stop, Edwards said, he tells voters he'll ask them to sacrifice. Asked to describe what he means, he described his plan for increases in capital gains taxes, saying taxes on "wealth income" should be in line with those on work income.

"I think if we want to fund the things that I think are important to share in prosperity, then people who have done well in this country, including me, have more of a responsibility to give back," he said. Later, he added: "There are no free meals."

Like other Democrats, Edwards named his top three priorities as ending the war in Iraq, enacting universal health care and overhauling the American energy system. "Those are three things instantly I would do," he said.

Well, none of that sounds like it wouldn’t cost a lot of money, money that has to come from my pocket and your pocket in order to make it work. This is a creeping form of socialism, and it will eventually send our economy into a skid and produce a nanny state like France or Sweden, and a deplorable National Health System like Great Britain. That’s not the direction I’d like to see this country take. Maybe you feel differently.

THE BIG SOCIAL SECURITY "I.O.U."

The problem with our so-called Social Security system is that it’s being run on a deficit.

For over twenty-nine years I contributed a goodly portion of my income to the Social Security system, with the understanding that I'd get that money back in benefits after I retired. But in addition to the money I paid to Social Security, I also put a portion of my earnings into a 401(k) savings plan, where the money actually went into an account where it grew into a nest-egg that allowed me to retire at the age of 56 in early 2004. I haven't collected a dime of Social Security benefits yet.

Everybody who get’s a pay-check and has taxes deducted also pays into Social Security. But Congress isn’t putting that money away and saving it for us. They’re just taking the money that goes into it, paying the current benefits of those who are entitled, and spending the rest. It’s not going into a savings account or into Ft. Knox or any where else. Congress is spending it and writing a big I.O.U.

It’s incredibly irresponsible. Instead of making the program pay for itself, they're passing the debt (and the difficult task of fixing the problem) on to future generations. Any corporate officers who ran a business this way would be guilty of negligence and fraud and would face charges with the potential for years in prison.

But Congress can act like a crew of pirates as they plunder our retirement funds to pay for their favorite pork projects, and they've been getting away with it for years, while we quietly and obediently acquiesce and keep pouring our money into the black hole. Congressmen don't have to worry about their retirement, because they've already provided for themselves, and they get great benefits that are guaranteed.

But we get no such guarantee. Congress has made a promise to pay the money back, but they are under no legal obligation to actually do it.

Here’s an interesting illustration of exactly how it works at The Further Adventures of Silence DoGood. It’s chilling.

Um, one word of caution. The linked post doesn't exactly meet, um, Church Standards, shall we say. Yeah, the language gets a little...colorful.

Have a nice day.