DECISION 2008

Official disclaimer: I will attempt to quote a few bloggers and commentators, but, due to my advanced stage of tiredness and the general "cholant" condition of my brain, I do not always remember who said what; for this, my apologies in advance.

In college, during one of the education courses, we were exchanging ideas as to how to make kids remember that every fourth year is a leap year. For some unfathomable reason, I suggested the following solution: presidential elections happen every leap year. The professor liked my idea; plus she deadpanned something to the tune that that explains why we end up with what we end up. Since we are in the leap year again, ergo another presidential election, I felt like musing on the subject a bit (and to borrow the headline from my beloved mainstream TV).

Everyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I am "passionate" about politics. Deep sigh. The truth is, I would rather discuss Harry Potter or Madeline Hunter till your ears wilt and your eyelids droop, than discuss politics. I am way more passionate about my reading material than I am about politics. Being interested in politics and familiar with the issues is a developed self-defense. As I mentioned many times before, for people who have a life, especially a family life, political concerns are not a priority at all. Unfortunately, such lax attitude allowed a small, but extremely loud and malevolent group the almost total destruction of our educational system, passage of draconian laws that are destroying our economy, demoralization of our troupes, and the eventual loss of the war that we actually could have won and that eventually resulted in another country succumbing to the Communist miasma with horrible genocide to follow. And that is just a tip of the iceberg; so, with all due respect, if you care about your children, you have to be concerned about politics, as boring, frustrating, or distasteful the subject may be; which brings me to my next argument.

One of my good friends recently confessed to me her severe disappointment with our political scene. Two party system is not working well at all, one candidate is worse than the other, everyone is corrupted to the extreme and long ago bought up by one lobby or the other, we did not have a decent president in about twenty years, people vote against someone rather than for someone, we are in a protracted war the reasons for which American public was not really informed. Couple of times, when I quoted from a political non-fiction book something that sort of made sense to me, her reply was that she does not really believe in it, since the person who wrote is was probably paid to write this anyway, and is just pursuing his or her agenda. Welcome to the murky, bottom feeding world of politics!

In my humble estimation, there are three basic ways of government: totalitarian, monarchy, and democracy. There are, of course, the variations on these themes, but the basics are limited to these options. I have spent seventeen years, six months, twenty one days, and a few hours (plus the usual gestation period before birth) under the totalitarian regime. All I can say in order to describe this paradise on earth is to use an old cliché about not wishing it on your worst enemy. A person living under a monarch could get lucky if the above mentioned monarch actually cares about his or her county and the people more than he or she cares about the fanfare and the prestige. None the less, the decent existence under a monarchy is basically a matter of chance (or rather Divine Providence). Only in a democracy does a person have a chance (albeit a relatively small one) to choose his or her governing body. This brings me to my next point.

Recently I got re-introduced to the famous quote by Lord Acton. Ironically, it happened while yours truly and a harassed lady from accounting were discussing the latest antiques of the big boss. I, being a nerd, quoted Acton. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." That, in a nutshell, describes the entire political arena under any kind of government, even a democratic one. They all pursue their agenda; the question is: which agenda makes your live easier? If you get a choice, you usually choose the lesser of two evils, because politicians tend to be pretty evil by default. In my estimation, the last time the majority of the Americans voted for someone as opposed to against someone was in 1984; which brings us to the claim of twenty years of bad Presidents.

In my opinion, what he had was this: eight years of a horrendous President, four years of the President who could have done better, and almost eight years of the President who should have known better. For some unexplainable reason, Clinton is remembered by some as wonderful President who "had feelings for the little guy" and brought prosperity to the nation, and by others simply as uncontrollable Don Juan, but over wise pretty harmless. Ha! His uncontrollable tomcatting was actually the least of his problems; we are still paying for all his other "wonderful" acts; unfortunately, the full extent of the damage that he had inflicted on the country is yet to be uncovered. Bush Senior should not have done one thing (raise taxes like he promised), and should have done two: finish Saddam Hussein when he had a chance, and manage his re-election campaign better.

As for Bush Junior... His blunders may be many, and he was definitely "soft" a lot of times when he should have been firm, but his main mistake was in forgetting two simple facts: do not feed a crocodile because he will definitely bite off the feeding hand and do not expose your jugular to the jackals; because, let's face it, The Treason Lobby, oops, the present day Democratic Party plus the main media, which long ago prostituted themselves to the noble causes of America-hating, socialism, communism, and multiculturalism, definitely resembles both animals. One of my favorite political commentators rightly pointed out that if you look at the current President objectively, you see a decent man who was never involved in any major scandal, be it personal or political; he was faced with a tremendous challenge after 9/11, and was able to keep the county safe from another attack for the past seven years; but the media succeeded in making him into a blundering, helpless, pitiful idiot. Again, I am not blind to his mistakes; but the biggest one was trying to bend backwards and forwards in order to "breach the gulf with the other side"; all it got him were too many times in the L-formation, for the better kick from the benevolent "other side".

This brings me to my next argument: my voting Republican. Another one of my good friends pointed out recently that you cannot really be affiliated blindly with one party; you have to objectively look at each candidate and make an informed decision. Logical sentiment, aside from one small detail: the last two decent people in the government who had a letter D behind their names were Charlie Wilson and David Moynihan. That's it; for the description of the modern Democratic Party please see above. Last, but not the least, I vote for the Republican, as opposed to independent candidate, again due to the acquired cynicism: I would like the lesser of the two evils to actually win.

OK, introduction is over; now, let's concentrate on "Decision 2008". Personal confession: McCain was not my first, second, or even third choice. Like a true New Yorker, I was rooting for Giuliani; my other choices included Huckabee or Romney; but, once McCain won the official party nomination, he was my candidate of choice, because, as Burt Prelutsky pointed out, he personally will vote for any candidate with an R after his or her name, because, no matter their faults, we are guaranteed that they are still humans and not alien pods impersonating humans (meaning the coven with the letter D attached to them). So, somewhere in the middle of the year, we knew that the choice is between McCain, Clinton, and Obama; and the idiocy manifested itself once again. The big debate: is it more important for America to have a first woman President or a first black President? The fact that all we need to do, as always needed to do, is to choose a candidate better qualified for the job, somehow escaped the idiots on the left; never mind the fact that this woman is a woman strictly in the biological sense, and the black guy is only half black. Morons on the right, on the other hand, decided to assume, or rather, continue assuming, the position of outraged innocence, which they first assumed in 2006, surrendering the country to Nancy Pelosi in the bargain.

Their (the righties') reasoning went along two lines. Line one: Republican Party is getting thoroughly corrupt, the conservative principles are abandoned, so, we will not vote at all, thereby teaching Republicans that we are fed up with the lesser of two evils, and that they have to get their act together and return to conservative base. Wonderful, brilliant reasoning! Aside from the slight caveats: re-read the Acton's quote again, ergo politicians are and will remain politicians; and, if you do not vote, your opinion will not matter anymore, and the worse of two evils will prevail. Obviously, lesson not learned, since, immediately after McCain's victory in the primaries, the second line of reasoning emerged: this election is lost for the conservative base; let us begin to concentrate on 2012, where we most probably will emerge victorious, since Democratic candidate will probably win, country will reach a low point at the end of these four years, and the true conservative will emerge as the next strong President, rectifying whatever blunders were committed in the past four years. As Burt Prelutsky wonderfully summarized this, it is like wishing a lung cancer on the loved one, so he will quit smoking.

Allow me to just add this: as brilliant as Reagan was, he was unable to fix all the "blunders" of the four years of the Carter presidency, the biggest of which is about to threaten us with nukes; Busch Junior, while lacking Reagan's brilliance, has to deal with eight years of Clinton's "blunders", the full extent of which is, unfortunately, yet to come. Plus, as a county, we have already reached the low point, the tragedy of which is worse than all the oil crisis, stock market crashes, and financial meltdowns combined. We have reached it on a sunny, beautiful Tuesday morning seven years ago, when we were attacked on our own soil, by the enemy living amongst us, and using our own passenger airliners. The enemy murdered almost three thousand people, attacked and destroyed our second tallest building; attacked and partially destroyed our army headquarters!; and only brave actions of a handful of patriotic Americans prevented the enemy from reaching their final target, which was either the White House or the Capitol. And we could do nothing. NOTHING!!!!! Merciful Heavenly Father, please protect our country from reaching this or any other low point like this ever again!
And speaking of brilliance, another side note, which concerns my people. For those unfamiliar with our calendar, the Iraq war started in our month of Adar, around Purim. This is the time when we celebrate our miraculous escape from total annihilation and remember our constant battle with Amalek. The fact that the late, unlamented Saddam was a direct descendant of Amalek was never disputed in our learned circles. And, my receding memory lapses notwithstanding, I remember that Adar very clearly. Everyone felt energized: Amalek is being attacked in Adar, which must be a wonderful sigh; promises by hard-core Democratic voters to vote for Busch in gratitude for finally toppling Saddam; and, most importantly, significant shortage of suicide bombers in Israel, since that same Saddam was not available anymore to reward the grieving families with the requisite twenty five thousand ducats, sorry, dollars. Lo and behold, now we have to impeach Busch for starting this war; Saddam was a great guy who kept Iraq in check, ergo provided stability in the region; and my Dad was condescendingly informed that he would not support the war if his son was in the army; to which my Dad, G-d bless him, heatedly replied that he would have enlisted himself, if he was not so old. Go figure!

And speaking of war in Iraq in general terms: again, in my humble opinion, seconded by the opinions of more informed people, not only were we justified in starting this war, we would have already done with it, if not for the stupid idiocy of political correctness. If the army was allowed to do their job the way they see fit, the war would have been over some time ago, and would have cost us less casualties. Pacifists extend considerable efforts in order for this war to turn into second Vietnam; G-d willing, they would fail.

Back to our regular broadcast. Brilliant political scientist Susan Sarandon proclaimed that she is for Obama, and let us see what his position will be. Some time ago Zadornov made a joke to the tune that some politicians take his monologues as a plan of action. Apparently, big wigs at the Democratic Party have adopted the same approach: they would take their official line from their own court jesters: morons and America-haters from Hollywood. So, the official party/media line solidified: we would rather have a first black, rather than first woman. One logical argument was, of course, that Obama was the un-known factor, as opposed to Clinton, whose numerous shenanigans were well known; and the fun began. Hillary Rodham Clinton, so recently darling of the media and the race's favorite horse, so to speak, was submarined by her own party (including, of course, the party's call girls: the media). By the way, as a side note, a little memo to Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of their coven: ladies, I agree with you to the tune that it is still a men's world; moreover, most men are just insensitive, oblivious jerks. Having said that, let us not exaggerate our accomplishments, because USA is the one country in the world where it is really great to be a woman, the above mentioned clueless guys notwithstanding. If you really want to talk about a woman succeeding in a men's world against all odds, please read something rudimentary about queen Elizabeth (not the current one). Here was one girl who succeeded in the men's world big time (using their arrogance and stupidity in the process); and, she, by the way, really loved her country and her people. She looked at her position as sacred responsibility handed to her by Heavens, and, believe it or not, made tremendous amount of personal sacrifices, in the process turning a crumbling country into a superpower. You, girls, on the other hand, look at politics exclusively in the terms of personal gratification and power hunger, and in the process are trying to turn a superpower into a crumbling country, G-d forbid. So, please do not harp to me about the presence of estrogen and progesterone as necessary ingredients for the candidates I am supposed to vote for.

Anyway, young, charismatic, appealing (although I personally think he is pretty ugly) Barak Hussein Obama emerged as the party's official nominee. In the process of this emergence, some very interesting tidbits of information began to creep up. For me, of course, he was not a choice to begin with, due to the reasons listed above. Plus, even if I took him personally, one thing disturbed me from the beginning: his refusal to wear American flag pin and to acknowledge the pledge of allegiance. Yes, I am not a complete nincompoop, and I recognize the political symbolism, but, none the less, there are certain things you just do not do when you are a US Senator. And then, the big fanfare: dear, wonderful, benevolent pastor Wright. Ironically, here is a personal parallel: my family belonged to the same congregation almost our entire life here, in US, which would just about make it twenty years. For most of these years, to my everlasting shame, I have managed to sleep through our Rabbi's speeches. The speeches are always very informative; I just have a tremendous accumulated sleep dept, which manifests itself at strange times. Despite my untimely naps, I was always aware of our Rabbi's political and religious views. So, Barak, dear friend, please do not tell me that after attending this blasted church for twenty years, being married by this guy, and having him baptize your two daughters, you were unaware of the fact that your pastor was a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American loony. But that was not, in my eyes, Obama's biggest crime; it's what he decided to do in response to this story breaking out which still makes me want to vomit. This wonderful lover of the poor and downtrodden, this healer of the racial divide decided, oh so subtly, to trash his own grandmother on the national TV! And I am supposed to trust this guy to protect our country, when he cannot even be loyal to the person who raised him?

Then, of course, the more the merrier. His casual reference to the fact that we eat too much meat and keep our houses at 72 degrees, and the rest of the world not being OK with it. Of course, due to the efforts of the green brown shirts, we cannot afford to eat as much meat as we used to, and if they continue in the same vein, comfortable house temperatures will also disappear. But, still, why should we be answerable to the world about what we eat? His cynical reference to the small town people clinging to their racism, guns and religion. His lady fair, Michelle, claiming that this is the first time she is proud of this country: apparently, while she was attending the Ivy League schools on the affirmative action’s quota while screeching about inherent racism of this country, she did feel any kind of pride, or gratitude for that matter. Obama's connections with absolutely unrepentant former Weather Underground terrorists, who started him on his political career; his endorsement by HAMAS leaders; his connections to the convicted Chicago mobster: all this is being blatantly ignored by the crowds of adoring idiots. The list, of course, is much longer. As Sean Hannity recently pointed out, FBI would not be able to hire him after performing a background check.

Two things stuck in my memory about the Democratic convention: Barakopolis and thousands of American flags that were trashed as soon as the cameras were not pointed at them. Very telling. Then came the Republican convention, and the circus started again. First there were the reports of the local police officers raiding the homes of possible protesters and confiscating some very interesting stuff, body waste being the most notable. Forgive me, but how sick do you have to be in order to collect body waste in preparation for a protest? Needless to say, there were no similar reports before the Democratic convention. Then, as you remember, the first day of the convention corresponded with the hurricane. McCain showed humanity and pointed out that there is no place for fanfare when our citizens' lives are threatened. Media took this as Republican attempt to acquit themselves after Katrina. Acquit themselves for what? The act of G-d? The chocolate politicians squandering the money for about ten years instead of repairing the levees? The people ignoring the hurricane warnings and insisting on staying put? For chocolate people looting everywhere, attacking and raping their own chocolate sisters? But, of course, all these things were Republicans' fault, and Katrina was specifically designed against black people. On with the convention. Count me naive, but I love listening to speeches which end with "G-d bless all of you and G-d bless America"; and I know that thousands of American flags were not relegated to the trash heap after the convention. Did I agree with everything McCain said in his speech? Heck, no; but I was touched when he urged people to fight with him for our country.

Speaking of McCain: there were lots of snide remarks made to the tune of him being shot down in Vietnam as his only claim to fame. How many people knew before the convention that he had an opportunity to be set free as a son and grandson of important Navy people and refused it because he did not want to give enemy a chance to make a political spectacle out of him and be released before the people who were captives longer than him? For spoiled American brats, especially of the younger generation, it is all the same: we torture war prisoners, somebody else tortured ours. Yea, right! That, of course, is another long discussion. But try to just imagine, ungrateful brats, almost five more years of inhumane conditions and torture! That act of honour and courage alone shows McCain as a basically decent human being as opposed to his counterpart, who constantly feels it his duty to apologize for America to the rest of the world. Another convention revelation: how many people knew about Bridgett? I dare Michelle Obama to adopt a child of another race who needed lengthy and expensive medical treatment; but somehow I do not see her rushing to this dare, if Barak's own half-brother lives in poverty in Kenya on less than fifteen bucks a year. No, all that Michelle is capable of is donning a dress costing less than two hundred dollars, going on "The View", and there exposing herself again as a racist snob and nouveau riche harpy.

Now, let us briefly touch on the candidates for VP. Just one little fact about Biden: forget about his voting record, especially when it came to the matters pertaining to Israel, or his feet constantly sticking from his mouth, for which media long ago gave him a blank pass. Recently, old Russian dissidents published something very disturbing about Biden, but, since Russian dissidents are no longer in vogue, I doubt a lot of people paid attention to it. Apparently, back in 1979, our dear senator traveled to when USSR as a part of American delegation to discuss certain matters with Brezhnev. Secret memo by an important USSR politician surfaced, claiming Biden's unofficial announcement that USA is willing to ignore the matter of Russian dissidents as long as agreements are reached; that USA does not wish to spoil their relationship over this matter. Nice! And I am supposed to voluntarily put this guy in a position to potentially head this country?

As for Sara Palin, all I can say, aside from the fact that I loved her speech, is that the tremendous hypocrisy of the lefties is more glaring in her case than ever before. Savage media attacks, unbelievable sexism, idiotic nitpicking and investigations into minute and non-existing matters. What really made me laugh was the fact that she supposedly banned Harry Potter books from the public library in 1996. Could you people just check your facts before you lie so blatantly: "Philosopher's stone" was published in 1997! But, of course, Lenin's, Stalin's and Goebbels' mantra works very well: the more shameless the lie, the better is works, as long as you have Chutzpah to lie, well, shamelessly. Another thing that made me chuckle was this whole Jesus-community organizer-Pilate-governor thing. What I really adore in this is when this party of separation of church and state all of a sudden starts using religious similes. Of course, due to their ignorance of the religious matters, they usually come out that much more ridiculous. As for the lipstick thing, her promise was heard loud and clear: I will protect your children as fiercely as I protect mine; Obama, on the other hand, came out really looking like a pig.

Pat Buchanan recently called the media "camp followers". I rarely agree with this esteemed individual, but this time he had really nailed it. Obama was crowned as messiah and demy-god that could do no wrong; any and all criticism of this new deity is automatically shouted down as racism. All his shady connections to past and present terrorists, America and Israel haters, shady dealings and convicted felons are ignored. I mean, the guy stinks more than the yearly accumulation of cow manure after a strong rain, yet to millions and millions of screaming, half fainting morons he smells sweater than roses. "Change we can believe in"; oh, I can definitely believe in it; I just do not want it.

I do not believe in outlawing abortions for the simple reason that anything outlawed automatically creates organized crime around it. But to kill Born Again Act? It would take more than a monster to do that. Try reading some of Jill Stanek's articles; just be warned, they are not for the faint of heart; and then please explain to me how he could have listened to her testimony, killed that law, and then blithely told that those things are above his pay grade; only a heartless monster could do it.

"Spread the wealth"; why should the government rob us of our honestly earned money in order to expand the welfare state? And Barak, at least one time, put your money where your mouth is: how about helping your own bro before "volunteering" the rest of us for the charity of your choosing especially if it is not even in this country? And I still do not know if your charming lady wife finally decided to be proud of this country.

McCain, on the other hand, is a rich white guy, totally disconnected from the people. Of course he is; that was why he, albeit misguidedly, wanted to postpone the first presidential debate in order to return to the Senate and try to deal with the financial crisis. He does not know how many houses he had; sure, that is so horrible. Let me spell it out for you: do you know to the penny how much you have in all of your investment accounts? I personally never know exactly how much I have in my savings account at any given moment, or, for that matter, exactly how many books or Barbie dolls I possess, and, though by the grace of G-d I am not poor, rich I am definitely not. Yes, he is a rich guy; but what he said precisely was that he was not sure; he needed to check up on it. This is his wife's property, not his; gentlemen, do each one of you knew exactly, to the cent, what your wives possessed when you married them? Case closed.

Two more personal notes. One, there is one uneducated housewife who prays daily for the win of the McCain/Palin and the defeat of Obama/Biden. That woman is my mother; and I used that unflattering epithet in stupid sociological terms only, because everyone with a modicum of understanding knows what tremendous talents you need in order to raise four kids. Second: our Rabbi always makes two speeches on Yom Kippur, one in the beginning and one towards the end. This time, amongst other things, he made one simple suggestion: this was always a free country; let us pray that is continues to be so. Needless to say, my prayers go along the same lines.

One of my very dear friends, whom I like and admire very much, for some reason, decided that he supports Obama. Recently he made a joking remark that, while talking to his friends in Moscow, he told them to wait till November 4th; then, either they should come to him here (if Obama wins, G-d forbid from my side), or, if Obama loses, my friend is going to Russia to seek political asylum. Ha! Nothing could be further from the truth! This is the only country in the world where you could truly seek political asylum. And if, G-d forbid, Obama wins, there would be no place to seek political asylum anymore: just look at Jessica Hughes. That woman, a former Marine and a mother of three, had Secret Service show at her door, after she rebuffed an Obama staffer on the phone, telling her that she, Hughes, would not vote for Obama due to his support of the horrific baby-killing laws. Clintons were such babes in just sending IRS after their enemies! That one sends Secret Service right away, simply on the word of one of his volunteers. Paradise on earth!

I am not even going to delve in the current financial upheaval. Clinton's and Congressional Democrats' handiwork somehow, of course, thanks again to the camp followers, ended up being the fault of the Republicans in general and Busch's Administration in particular. The cure for most of our financial woes, as always in my opinion, is pretty simple: enough taxes and government interference. Free market should be free of those first and foremost; then we will bounce back in absolutely no time. But, with all due respect to ordinary people experiencing financial difficulties, please remember one thing: as much or as little as you have in terms of wealth, you cannot really enjoy it if you are not free, or, G-d forbid, dead. As Burt Prelutsky very nicely put it, if Al Qaida levels Empire State Building or Iran drops a nuke, nobody would remember who the heck Paulson or Bernake are or were. That, by the way, is the first and the most important function of the government: the protection of its citizens, and not the free education, free health care, or involuntary wealth redistribution.

Every tyrant, every terrorist, every miscreant, every bastard son of a whoremonger on the international political scene, be he big or small, is waiting with baited breath for Obama to win; then they can move in their final plans for the destruction of the Big (and in the bargain the Small) Satan. And the only people who stand between that tragedy and the United States are an old Vietnam Vet, a young moose hunting mother of five from a little town in Alaska, and every American citizen still in possession of his or her thinking faculties. My friends, this is really no time to impersonate Childe Harold. Get your butts to the voting booths! It does not matter if you live in a swing state or not; every vote counts! You actually have no idea, but you plus five of your world-weary twenty something friends could actually swing the votes! This country is the last remaining bastion of freedom; let it continue to be that way! Not only tyrants, but all the political dissidents, all the freedom fighters around the world look to this country with hope, as yours truly once longingly looked at the now destroyed Twin Towers in her mind, hoping one day to be free. May G-d bless America!

20 YEARS

Yesterday, September 22, 2008, was the 20th Anniversary of our family's landing on Ellis Island, I mean JFK.

A lot happened in twenty years, both wonderful and heartbreaking. But one thing remained: our quest for personal freedom and profound appreciation of it. People have different understating of what constitutes as live's necessities for them. In this vein, a very old lesson from the book of Deuteronomy comes to mind. This lesson took place about nineteen years ago, and the teacher who taught it that day had since when passed away; but the message remained. How do we determine what is necessity and what is luxury? Things that we do not appreciate while we have them, but can not live without are necessities; things that we can live without, but get very excited once we have them are luxuries; as simple as that. For our family, life in Communist Russia was miserable and suffocating (and the miserable economic conditions were the least of it). Living in America and being free is just that: living; not just existing and fighting for survival. Freedom is just there: unnoticed as much as the air we breathe, till it is taken away, and we start to suffocate.

That is the reason for my deep love for this country: my ability to breathe and be free. This country offered me shelter; most probably, it basically saved my life: outspoken non-conformists of Jewish descent who are proud of that connection do not really thrive in Russia under any regime. That is why I add a request for the safety of USA to my morning prayers; and that is why I extend whatever puny efforts I could to protect this safety.

So, here it to us, seven Jews who landed on these shores twenty years ago, the day after Yom Kippur, to begin a new life. Grandma, may she rest in piece, a crusty lady who always hated Communists and loved this country, tried to learn English and enjoyed life; Dad, who always tried to shelter us from the vicious attacks of anti-Semites and was always proud of his outspoken anti-Communist first-born (your humble servant); Mom, who lost her health after giving birth to four children under the extremely humane conditions of Russian Communist medicine and protecting them from anti-Semites both young and old; my three wonderfully unique siblings; and also, to my sister's two munchkins, may G-d bless their fluffy Jewish heads, the first and second members of our family to be born on American soil. Happy Anniversary!

MY ECONOMIC PLAN

For the past few months the general media, in the usual traditions of the election year during the Republican administration, has been continuously harping about the dreadful state of our economy. The reasons, of course, are crystal clear: despite the many attempts of the current administration to bend over backwards and forwards in order to satisfy the opposition as regarding the domestic matters, they still came out as dreadful proponents of the rich exclusively and the ban of the poor and the poor working middle class. I am going to save my arguments about these matters for another time; suffice it to say that, yellow journalism aside, our economy is experiencing problems that need to be addressed. So, in a nutshell, here is my economic plan:

1. Our immediate severance of our membership in the UN, which includes immediate closing of the money tap. Let UN move anywhere they want: Tripoli, Adis Ababa, Moscow; as long as it is not on American territory, let them settle wherever they want. UN building and all the real estate currently belonging to the so-called diplomats attached to the UN becomes the property of New York city in lieu of millions in unpaid parking tickets by the said diplomats, plus the partial reimbursement for all the man hours of the NYPD. NYC, in turn, should sell all this real estate immediately to any private entity (since the city's bureaucracy can not and should not manage it).

2. Tell the entire red, oops green, environmental lobby to go to the warm basement and remain there. No more yaps and squeaks about excess of CO2, Kyoto and supposed man-made global warming, no more biofuel, no more government dictates about what we should drive, which light bulbs to use, how much water to flush our toilets with, no more nonsensical energy conservation tips, or not repairing levees because that would disturb the local fauna. All the green loonies are more than welcome to use their restrictions on themselves; I do not care if they haul their ugly reusable bags everywhere, or ride bicycles for two hours to work each day, or eat only raw wheat and vegetables that they grew themselves; but absolutely no lobbying the government, either federal, or state, or local, to impose their idiocy on the rest of the country! In the same vein, drill for oil and gas anywhere and everywhere on our territory whenever oil and gas could be found. Alternative energy should be developed by private entities without government's big brother breathing down their necks or supplying their research at taxpayer's expanse.

3. Immediate deportation of all the illegals. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next year; now! In the meantime, no access to any kind of public funds without valid proof of citizenship. Meanwhile, build the bloody fences along both borders, especially the southern one! By the way, Jackie Mason proposed a brilliant solution: put retired Jews along the border and let them watch it; just give them coffee and cheesecake.

4. Enough with affirmative actions and the attached virulent racism, be it education or workforce.

5. Reduce government spending by reducing government workers. In my humble estimation, one bureaucrat could really do the work of at least three; providing he or she actually works during the working hours.

6. No more foreign aid to ungrateful swine; let Brangelina and Co. support all the poor and downtrodden on their dime exclusively, without dipping into the US Treasury.

7. Lower taxes across the board, individual and corporate alike. Eventually, getting rid of the IRS would be the order of the day.

8. Last, but not least: enough with constant government interference in private enterprise. Sub prime mortgage mess, by the way, is a prime example (no pun intended). Let the free market be free!

A COMMENT THAT TOUCHED ME

I usually enjoy reading comments from my readers. The rub is, I know who left the comment, since most of my readers, with rare exceptions, are my friends. As a matter of fact, exchanging blog comments is our way of socializing within our crazy busy hectic lives.

Lo and behold, on one of my posts dedicated to 9/11, I got a comment from Whitney in Twin Cities that touched me more I can possibly explain.

Dear Whitney! Thank you for your kind words! And you gave me a great idea: below is the link to the Flight 93 petition protesting their travesty of a design; I will start posting the petitions that I think are worthwhile. G-d bless you and your family! G-d bless America and American people!

http://www.petitiononline.com/NOCRSCNT/petition.html

9/11/2008

In memory of all the people killed seven years ago

At the World Trade Center

At the Pentagon

For all the passengers and crew members of

American Airlines Flight 11

United Airlines Flight 175

American Airlines Flight 77

United Airlines Flight 93

May the Almighty grant their families and friends some measure of peace. May He protect this great country against all enemies, both external and internal. May he watch over our brave soldiers, who are fighting for our safety against great odds, and despite pacifists propaganda. May we never forget. May we always turn our eyes to the Master of the Universe, in times of sorrow and in times of joy.

G-d bless America!

In Memoriam - Remembering September 11, 2001

MEMORIES

The Seventh Anniversary is tomorrow. In my naivete, or maybe just unbeatable hope, I assumed that time had worked its healing magic, and I am at least free of tears and depressing thoughts. Last night I found out that I am wrong.

Unfortunately, time had worked its magic on the media and all the loudmouths in the country. The story just became an extra weapon in the attack on the people not responsible for it; just another murky political issue; just more fodder for the conspiracy theories. Tomorrow, there will be a whole bunch of speeches, which I have no desire to listen to, because most of them will just going to be a bunch of hot air; literally. Meanwhile, the people truly responsible and their followers just live amongst us, multiply with astonishing rates (mostly on our tax dollars), pretend to be abused, marginalized and persecuted, while funneling the money to their fighting brothers and sisters under the guise of charitable work. Their "peaceful" religion is shoved down our throats by the brotherhood of multiculturalism as something that we are supposed to not only accept, but respect and revere.

And the majority just prefers their favorite game: impersonating ostriches. After all, it's just easier on the psyche not to think about it, subconsciously hoping that nothing even remotely resembling this tragedy will ever happen any time soon. Few months ago I signed an on-line petition protesting the current design of the Shanksville Memorial, which is planned to be a crescent - Muslim symbol of faith! I forwarded that petition to all my friends, with the request to sign and pass it on to as many as they could. I can only hope that they actually did it, because I only got two responses: one, full of indignation about this disgusting matter, and another one sheepishly informing me that there were reasons not to sign. Great! Just great!

A couple of years ago I started to write sort of an article, trying to put all my memories and jumbled emotions on paper. I am yet to finish it, mostly because I do not want to feel the way I did that night when I started; but one day, with G-d's help, I will finish it. I also did not climb on the top of the Empire State Building in all these years; I can not look south. Maybe I will tomorrow.

Otherwise, tomorrow will be business as usual. People will rise, some of them will even shine, and all of them will start preparing for a normal work day. Some will even tune in to watch and listen to all the planned ceremonies; most will just go on with their usual Thursday activities. For us, it will be a 401-K meeting, with people from our main office flying in, and me ordering lunch. All of our office will assemble to listen to their proposed retirement, munching on that free lunch and asking dumb questions.

And for Michael Sweeney, a modest police officer from Massachusetts, it will be exactly seven years since he lost his wife Amy (according to the last information I have, he still requires therapy). At the time of her murder she was younger than I am now; she left behind two kids, who were at that time six and four. Amy helped to jump start the investigation by calling the flight operations center and relaying the information about the hijackers. And then she told about the plain's rapid descent, and her seeing water and buildings. Few seconds later that plain rammed into the North Tower of the WTC, killing, amongst many others, a young woman from Queens who just found out that morning that she was pregnant with her first child. For her husband, just as for Amy's, tomorrow will not be just another Thursday; just as it won't be for Todd Beamer's widow (even if she has re-married), nor for his children, the third of which was born few months after those brutal murders.

The following article was posted on September 13, 2001. Ann was attacked for the sentiments expressed there; somebody tried to clumsily defend her by saying that she was just reacting to the death of a friend and a former colleague. However, she stood by those sentiments all these years; and now, seven years after, her proposed basic plan of action is more important than ever.


"This Is WarWe should invade their countries.
Ms. Coulter is also a syndicated columnistSeptember 13, 2001 9:05 a.m.

Barbara Olson kept her cool. In the hysteria and terror of hijackers herding passengers to the rear of the plane, she retrieved her cell phone and called her husband, Ted, the solicitor general of the United States. She informed him that he had better call the FBI — the plane had been hijacked. According to reports, Barbara was still on the phone with Ted when her plane plunged in a fiery explosion directly into the Pentagon.
Barbara risked having her neck slit to warn the country of a terrorist attack. She was a patriot to the very end.
This is not to engage in the media's typical hallucinatory overstatement about anyone who is the victim of a horrible tragedy. The furtive cell phone call was an act of incredible daring and panache. If it were not, we'd be hearing reports of a hundred more cell phone calls. (Even people who swear to hate cell phones carry them for commercial air travel.)
The last time I saw Barbara in person was about three weeks ago. She generously praised one of my recent columns and told me I had really found my niche. Ted, she said, had taken to reading my columns aloud to her over breakfast.
I mention that to say three things about Barbara. First, she was really nice. A lot of people on TV seem nice, but aren't. (And some who don't seem nice, are.) But Barbara was always her charming, graceful, vebullient self. "Nice" is an amazingly rare quality among writers. In the opinion business, bitter, jealous hatred is the norm. Barbara had reason to be secure.
Second, it was actually easy to imagine Ted reading political columns aloud to Barbara at the breakfast table. Theirs was a relationship that could only be cheaply imitated by Bill and Hillary — the latter being a subject of Barbara's appropriately biting bestseller, Hell to Pay. Hillary claimed preposterously in the Talk magazine interview that she discussed policy with Bill while cutting his grapefruit in the morning. Ted and Barbara really did talk politics — and really did have breakfast together.
It's "Ted and Barbara" just like it's Fred and Ginger, and George and Gracie. They were so perfect together, so obvious, that their friends were as happy they were on their wedding day. This is more than the death of a great person and patriotic American. It's a human amputation.
Third, since Barbara's compliment, I've been writing my columns for Ted and Barbara. I'm always writing to someone in my head. Now I don't know who to write to. Ted-and-Barbara were a good muse.
Apart from hearing that this beautiful light has been extinguished from the world, only one other news flash broke beyond the numbingly omnipresent horror of the entire day. That evening, CNN reported that bombs were dropping in Afghanistan — and then updated the report to say they weren't our bombs.
They should have been ours. I want them to be ours.
This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. Those responsible include anyone anywhere in the world who smiled in response to the annihilation of patriots like Barbara Olson.
We don't need long investigations of the forensic evidence to determine with scientific accuracy the person or persons who ordered this specific attack. We don't need an "international coalition." We don't need a study on "terrorism." We certainly didn't need a congressional resolution condemning the attack this week.
The nation has been invaded by a fanatical, murderous cult. And we welcome them. We are so good and so pure we would never engage in discriminatory racial or "religious" profiling.
People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty.
"All of our lives" don't need to change, as they keep prattling on TV. Every single time there is a terrorist attack — or a plane crashes because of pilot error — Americans allow their rights to be contracted for no purpose whatsoever.
The airport kabuki theater of magnetometers, asinine questions about whether passengers "packed their own bags," and the hostile, lumpen mesomorphs ripping open our luggage somehow allowed over a dozen armed hijackers to board four American planes almost simultaneously on Bloody Tuesday. (Did those fabulous security procedures stop a single hijacker anyplace in America that day?)
Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac. We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
© 2001 Universal Press Syndicate"

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

A bit belated, but most sincere Happy Anniversary to my sis and her husband (who sometimes doubles as my brother in law)!

Dyslexia struck again: I remembered that the Anniversary was on the seventh, but for some reason though that that would be today. According to my sis that constituted at least technically forgetting her anniversary. Hey, I am not perfect! But the good wishes remain the same!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Here is a short summary of my long weekend:

On Sunday, I planned to thoroughly clean my apartment. After psyching myself for some time for this very pleasant duty, I bravely cleaned my brother's room. Since he is a recent college graduate, his room definitely resembled a dorm room in the best traditions of the dorm rooms. Needless to say, after that time consuming effort and all the inhaled dust, the rest of the pad remained uncleaned. Hey, baby steps work sometimes!

Monday was way more fun, since I have spend it with Mini Me. Later in the day I was treated to the rest of her family's company, a great picnic, and a very entertaining ride home; but most of the day it was just her and me. So, I introduced her to a new culinary delight: "juicy juice made from ice cream that you can drink". For the uninitiated, there are two types of ice cream: one you can eat (in a cup or a cone), and one you can drink (milk shake). The latest delight, however, is a fruit shake, which was met with enthusiasm and consumed with gusto.

The best part, however, was when Mini Me decided to have a snack. I tried to feed her a sandwich first, but she, being a bright Jewish child, immediately spied a DD bag, and requested to have its contents. Slight disappointment followed, since I did not buy her favorite chocolate donut with sprinkles; but, since she is used to taking life's small disappointments in stride, soon she was happily munching on a croissant. At which point she was spied by another baby, who tried to initiate a grab of the above mentioned pastry, but was thwarted by his parents. I offered them the second one I had, but they declined with a sheepish smile. After consuming hers for a little while, Mini Me requested "the bag" again, rummaged in it, extracted the second croissant, and with "here, baby", offered it to the above mentioned toddler. At which point his parents had to capitulate and offer him at least a little piece of the pastry (at which point his organic yogurt was obviously forgotten). Kudos to you, our Golden Delicious! Stay that way!