Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Essie is going on Christmas vacation for a couple of weeks and will keep her opinions to herself during that time. But she'll be back January 1 ready for a healthy, happy, prosperous (and opinionated) 2011.

In the meantime, God's blessings on each of you for this Christmas season and may the new year bring you your heart's fondest desires.

How many chances?

Jose Ramos and Mark Soliz shot a delivery truck driver in Ft. Worth, critically wounding him. Then, they tried to rob a Lowe's employee at Lake Worth. They shot at him, too. They then went to Godley, Texas, where they robbed and killed a 61-year-old woman in her own kitchen. Jose Ramos has 18 previous charges and is wanted in Travis County for parole violation. Soliz has at least 12 previous charges. Veronica Garcia is disgusted. Ramos and Soliz shot up her house the week before they were arrested. "It's ridiculous," she said. "After 10 charges, you'd think they'd keep them locked up." Wonder how many other chances they'll get?


Billy Twayne Gibson is a registered sex offender. His criminal history includes aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, aggravated robbery, unlawful carrying of a weapon, and compelling prostitution by force or threat. He was deemed a sexually violent predator by the courts. For some unknown reason, our system of pardons and paroles let this man out of prison and put him in a halfway house. He cut off his tracking device and disappeared. The police considered him armed and dangerous. He was captured in Florida on September 3. How many more chances should he get?

Lonnie Franklin, Jr. is charged with 10 murders. He has been dubbed the Los Angeles "Grim Sleeper." Turns out he's been arrested at least 15 times in the last 40 years. I thought in California, it was supposed to be three strikes and you're out. He's been convicted of burglary, car theft, firearms possession, and assault. His probation officer urged he receive a maximum sentence, but the judge ignored the advice. At least one of his murder victims was killed right after Franklin was released early from jail because of overcrowding. How many more chances should he get?

Bobby Joe Stovall finally ran out of chances -- maybe. He was sentenced to life in prison for his 9th DWI conviction. But we all know that a life sentence means he'll probably be out by the time the ink is dry on the judge's signature. Stovall also has convictions for burglary, credit card abuse, possession of a controlled substance, theft, and making alcohol available to a minor.

A University Park man was caught recently videotaping a 9-year-old boy playing a saxophone. In 1980, he pleaded guilty to two child sex abuse cases. He was sentenced to seven years' probation in one and two years in prison in the other. He violated probation and was given a five-year prison sentence in 1983 over an assault on a 14-year-old boy who was attending a swim meet at SMU. In 2006, police filed a child sexual assault charge after they were contacted by a person who said the man had assaulted him 10 years earlier. That case resulted in a hung jury, because the victim was a high school student at the time, and some of the jurors were not sure how old he was when the assault occurred. He has no charges filed against him in the videotaping of the 9-year-old. According to police, that is not a crime. How many more chances should he get?

"Police identify men accused in crime spree." The Dallas Morning News; July 4, 2010; p. 9B.
"Murder suspect evaded notice." The Dallas Morning News; July , 2010; p. 10A.
"Man gets life sentence for 9th DWI conviction." The Dallas Morning News; August 12, 2010; p. 3A.
"Man with video has long record." The Dallas Morning News; December 3, 2010; p. 1B.

Let's get the terms right.

In a special session of the Senate December 4, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said that the Republicans were intent on giving billions of dollars to the rich. She was talking about their opposition to the Obama tax increases.

Let's get this straight, Claire. What the Republicans are intent on is letting those people keep the money they've earned. They don't intend to give them a single dime.

Similarly, there was a photo in the paper of a rally outside the offices of Senator Chuck Schumer. One uninformed class-envious nut held up a sign that said, "Our holiday wish: No millionaire bailout." OK, clueless, let's get this straight. We are not talking about bailing out millionaires. We are talking about resisting the urge to confiscate the money they've earned in order to give it to those who haven't earned it.

Now let's get one other thing straight -- we are not talking about tax cuts here. No one is going to pay less in taxes next year. We are talking about not increasing taxes. That's two different things. If you don't think it is, then you can let them not increase your taxes, and I'll take a tax cut. That should make us both happy.

"Broad tax cut deal is sought." The Dallas Morning News; December 3, 2010; p. 1A.

How's that Obamacare working for ya?

According to Merritt Hawkins, a health care research group, 16% of doctors in a national survey of 2,400 said they plan to go to a cash-only practice within the next three years. Yeah, I can see how health care is becoming more affordable under Obamacare.

"Blue Cross-Texas Health spat may raise patient costs." The Dallas Morning News; December 3, 2010; p. 1A.

Is Andrew for real?

Andrew Goldsmith wrote a letter to the editor. He invites us to "picture a school that is half-empty. . .a school district laying of employees . . .school districts that stop placing orders with vendors . . ." He says that's what will happen if we ship out all the illegals. "We can only hope that these hard-working, tax-paying immigrants don't take the rhetoric of fanatics seriously and leave the state. . ."

Well, Andrew, let's picture hospital emergency rooms that are not so crowded with Spanish speaking illegals that American citizens can't get the care they need. Let's picture Texas school districts saving the estimated at least $1 billion it takes to educate a bunch of illegal kids whose parents return nothing in taxes. Let's picture highways where drunk Mexicans aren't killing our citizens. Let's picture the jobs that will be open to citizens when there aren't illegals getting paid under the table. In case you weren't aware of it, Andrew, illegals pay no taxes, but they do draw benefits. They are a drain, not an asset.

"Picture the impact." The Dallas Morning News; November 26, 2010; p. 24A.

Dream Wedding and Children -- All on the Taxpayer's Dime

Rachelle Friedman was paralyzed from the chest down as the result of a prank shove into a swimming pool. She was engaged to be married the following month. She has my heartfelt sympathy -- I can't imagine how confined she must feel.

She is now on Medicaid. She says if she marries, she will lose the Medicaid benefits because their combined incomes will be too much, so she and her fiance are just living together. In other words, they are defrauding the taxpayers.

She says as soon as they figure out their insurance issues, they're going to have the dream wedding they had planned for last June -- while they are defrauding the taxpayers. She says they even plan to start a family -- while they are defrauding the taxpayers. I suspect the babies will be on Medicaid, too.

"Health insurance concerns postpone wedding." The Dallas Morning News; November 24, 2010; p. 11A.

Well, except for . . .

Obama's commission on the economy has come up with a plan.

Obama has repeatedly promised that no one making under $250,000 would see an increase in taxes . . . well, except for 15 cents a gallon on gasoline.

Obama has repeatedly promised that no one making under $250,000 would see an increase in taxes . . . well, except for eliminating the deduction for mortgage loan interest.

Obama has repeatedly promised that no one making under $250,000 would see an increase in taxes . . .well, except for taxing you on what your employer pays for your health insurance.

Obama has repeatedly promised that no one making under $250,000 would see an increase in taxes . . .well, except for those who make over $106,800 who will now have to pay social security tax on 90% of their income without realizing any additional retirement benefit.

Obama has repeatedly promised that no one making under $250,000 would see an increase in taxes . . . maybe he thinks we're all blind.

"All pay in plan to cut debt." The Dallas Morning News; December 2, 2010; p. 1A.

If you don't like that pesky truth, just change it!

Some of the scientists who studied the gulf oil spill are a tad put out with the White House. It seems Obama's folks didn't think the scientists' report reflected exactly what they wanted it to say, so they just edited it.

A report by the Interior Department's inspector general concluded that the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it falsely appear that scientists and experts supported the administration's six-month ban on new deepwater drilling. Seven experts reviewed the reports, and all seven expressed concern about the change made by the White House, saying that it differed in important ways from the draft they had approved.

I'm just completely shocked! I would have never thought Barack Obama would do something dishonest to further his own agenda! I also believe that the moon is made of green cheese and piggies can fly.

"White House report upsets science advisers." The Dallas Morning News; Novemer 11, 2010; p. 5A.

Page 18 News

Buried way back on page 18 of the newspaper is a small item about Muslims burning ten homes belonging to Coptic Christians in Egypt because there was a rumor that one of the Christians had an affair with a Muslim girl.

Do you suppose that if the Christians had burned the homes of the Muslims, this would have rated several columns on the front page?

"Muslims burn homes of Christian Egyptians." The Dallas Morning News; November 17, 2010; p. 18A.

What were they thinking?

Kelsee Williams was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. She was killed in an automobile accident in October. The driver of the car was 16. There were other teenagers in the car, but no adults. Kelsee was "on a date."

What were her parents thinking???? Who lets a 13-year-old child go out with a bunch of teenagers? I just don't get it.

"Teen killed in SUV rollover." The Dallas Morning News; October 17, 2010; p. 1B.

And this is relevant how?

Andrew Vracin takes issue with Sarah Palin's recent speech in Dallas. She said, "Thank you, Dallas, for clinging to your God and your guns and your Constitution." He thinks that was incredibly insensitive since a U.S. President was assassinated in Dallas.

I guess I may be a little dense, but I can't see that our desire to honor God, protect our 2nd Amendment rights, and abide by the laws set forth in our country's Constitution have anything to do with a nutcase who murdered the President 47 years ago.

"Choose a different venue." The Dallas Morning News; November 13, 2010; p. 24A.

And Obama wants to run the whole shooting match!

Today, doctors will take a 23% reduction in Medicare reimbursements unless Congress does something. "Well, they're all rich enough anyway," the class envious person responds. But what does that mean to the Medicare patient? It means that doctors will refuse new Medicare patients which will result in a shortage of quality medical care. Medical groups estimate that as many as two-thirds of doctors will stop taking new Medicare patients affecting 46 million older and disabled patients.

The cost of not enacting the reduction will be about $1 billion per month. Looks like Medicare is an abysmal failure, and Obama wants us to let him run the whole shooting match!

"Doctors brace for possible Medicare pay cuts." The Dallas Morning News; November 13, 2010; p. 10A.