Merry Christmas!

Essie's going on Christmas break.  I'll be back January 1, 2014.  May God's richest blessings be yours as we celebrate the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem, and may the new year hold health, happiness, and prosperity for you and yours.



Guess she just always looks that way.

The photographer who took the embarrassing photos of our President yukking it up and doing selfies with the attractive blond Danish Prime Minister at a memorial service insists that Michelle was not upset. Does that mean she just naturally looks like a shrew?

We just want to be tolerated.

Remember the homosexual mantra from several years ago . . . "we just want to be tolerated"? As Barney Fife used to say of the speeders around Maberry . . . "You give them 40 they'll do 45; you give them 45, they'll do 50; you give them 50, they'll do 55. . ."

Barney had a valid point. Now, we must not only tolerate the queer U.S. citizens, but, according to Sam Fuller of Dallas, we have a mandate to "ensure the basic safety of gay Iranian refugees."

Homosexuality is against the law in Iran. Other governments are turning away the perverts who are trying to flee on the basis that those people could just hide their sexual orientation. I don't see a problem with that, since they are the ones who keep carping on what goes on in their bedrooms is their business. Keep it in the bedroom, and who's the wiser?

But Sam says we need to treat them the same way other victims of human rights abuses are treated. Seems to me the U.S. is treating them that way. Maybe Sam doesn't know about Pastor Abedini. Saeed Abedini is an American citizen. He was arrested in Iran in 2012, tortured, charged with being a Christian, and imprisoned. And what has our President done to free Mr. Abedini? Nada, zilch, nothing. Even when our Secretary of State lowered our standards to negotiate with Iran, neither Mr. Abedini's release nor the release of at least two other Americans being held by this terrorist Islamist state was brought up.

But I can guarantee you, if the plight of queer Iranians is brought to the attention of Obama, we'll start pressing for their rights. Heck, we might even bring one of them over here for a selfie op with Obama.

"Iranian gays facing a crisis." The Dallas Morning News; December 13, 2013; p. 24A.

UNFAIR!

Rene Cantrell thinks the homeless shelter that's been allowing her to stay without charging her a dime is unfair.

Rene says that last September, she found herself homeless. I can't imagine that. Does one just wake up one day to find that the house is gone? Is there no clue that that possibility looms? Rene may say she lost her job -- did she not have an emergency fund stashed back? Rene may say that a natural disaster took her home -- did she not have insurance? At any rate, Rene "found herself" homeless.

She went to a homeless shelter and was given a place to sleep. The second day she was homeless, she got a part-time job. Good for you, Rene! Now comes the complaint. She says that a couple of weeks ago, she came back to the shelter to find that it was full, and they did not have a bed for her. The rules are first come, first served except for those with full-time employment.

She says that every time she walks out the door, there is the possibility that she will lose her spot. She thinks the shelter should "understand" and break the rules for her. The flip side of that, Rene, is that if they break the rules for you, that means some other woman loses a place to sleep. How would you feel if you were next in line, and someone who didn't qualify for a bed under the house rules was given the last bed? I think Rene has the common affliction of today -- an entitlement attitude.

Rene says she is "so thoroughly disgusted." So am I, Rene.

By the way, I have no way of knowing if it's the same Rene Cantrell, but there are a couple of arrest records for someone by that name. Seems as if that Rene has sticky fingers. Wonder if that could have anything to do with a person finding herself homeless.

"Work or stand in line?" The Dallas Morning News; November 23, 2013; p. 26A.

How many times do they have to be reminded?

Robert O'Neill of Denison is one of those who equates discrimination against queers with discrimination against race or gender.

Once again, Robert, race and gender are not sins. Sexual perversion is. They are not the same.

"Inequality by any other name." The Dallas Morning News; November 24, 2013; p. 2P.

Why would we let groups like Urban League and ACORN run Obamacare?

Kathleen Sebelius admitted to Senator John Cornyn that it was possible for convicted felons to be navigators for Obamacare. It's almost a sure thing that will happen when they select the navigators from scandal-ridden organizations like the Urban League and ACORN.

I can't imagine that anyone was surprised when earlier this month a video of navigators urging clients to lie was released. The receptionist in the video tells the cigarette-smoking client, "You lie because your premiums will be higher. I always lie on mine." The Urban League of Greater Dallas explains it away -- the fraud "represented her personal opinion, not that of our organization." It wasn't an opinion! It was advice given by a representative of their organization.

In another video, the navigator trainees tell the client not to list his income from odd jobs. The client has not reported the income on his tax return, so he's cheating the rest of us on two fronts -- no taxes and getting subsidies to which he is not entitled.

The Urban League says it will investigate the "full context" of what occurred. I don't see how you could put this in any context that would make it legitimate.

Tim McKinney, chief executive of United Way of Tarrant County, said, "It's unfortunate that the video pointed out some ill actions by other navigators." I guess so -- nobody likes to get caught with their hands in the cookie jar! But those of us who view it from the side of footing the bills for these frauds find the video to be most useful in rooting out this corruption -- and that is most fortunate!

"'Navigators,' in video, urge applicant to lie." The Dallas Morning News; November 13, 2013; p. 3A.

Let the bank robbers stay!

We’ve been bombarded with stories about the poor illegal immigrant families who will be split up without immigration reform. We’ve been told that these people just want a shot at the American dream, that they are good for our economy, that they are hard workers, and that we’re heartless and insensitive if we expect them to follow the laws of our land.

I feel very safe in saying that you won’t see those fighting for immigration reform holding up (no pun intended) Luis de la Garza as an example, even though they’ve done so many times before. In fact, Luis, himself, has been on the frontlines demanding fairness for those who don’t play fair themselves. Unfortunately, we also caught Luis at the front of several bank teller lines making unauthorized withdrawals (armed robbery).

Luis is the infamous Mesh Mask Bandit, so-named because of the strange mask he wore. Luis is an immigrant rights activist, and he’s admitted to robbing 18 banks. Who knows how many others he’s knocked over.  Luis’s friends say he came here with nothing and made something of himself. “He seems to be a good businessman,” says Hector Flores. I guess most anybody can be successful if they can just run down to the bank and withdraw as much money as they want from other people’s accounts.

Public records on Luis tell a little different story about his success. He has had several federal tax liens and judgments against him. He pleaded guilty in 2005 to failing to file a corporate tax return. He was given probation on that conviction. In 2009, a $25,844 federal tax lien was filed against him. In 2007, a bank foreclosed on a house he owned. Then he lost his Farmers Branch home (valued at more than $331,400). Kind of makes you wonder what he did with all that money he stole.

“Mesh Mask Bandit enters guilty plea.” The Dallas Morning News; November 20, 2013; p. 1B.

Will you put me in your will?

I have a request for Glendy Martinez. I want her to put me in her will. I would like to have her gall.

Glendy is in this country illegally. She doesn't care if she's a citizen or not -- she just wants to keep working and sending money back to Nicaragua without contributing a darn thing to this country. Glendy is 30 years old. She has one child who was born after she stole across the border. She left three others back in Nicaragua. She says, "It would be such a help if we could work in peace and go back sometimes to see our children."

And it would be a help to us if we could work without paying taxes to support illegals. Oscar Chacon of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, an organization that advocates for these law-breakers, says, "What they really care about is a solution that allows them to overcome their greatest vulnerabilities." I'm not sure what that means. I suppose if you applied it to, say, bank robbers, it would mean passing a law that the police cannot shoot at them as they are fleeing the bank with the loot. It would mean that they could not be arrested just because they were found with the marked money in the getaway car. It would mean "finders keepers" so they wouldn't have to give back the money they took. It would mean granting them amnesty so they could live to rob another day.

Yes, Glendy, I'd sure like to have your gall.

"Citizenship not ambition for all." The Dallas Morning News; November 21, 2013; p. 7A. 

How can you identify a real prophet?

On November 20, Sylvia Browne died at the age of 77. She had predicted to Larry King that she would die at the age of 88. Browne was a fairly well-known psychic. She said she discovered she had the gift for telling the future when she was three years old. She told the parents of Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 that he was dead. Shawn was found alive in 2006. She also told the mother of Amanda Berry in 2004 that she was dead. Amanda, of course, was rescued just this year from the sick pervert who had held her captive for a decade.

Browne explained away those goofs by saying that even the best psychics don't get it right every time. Oops! She goofed again:

"When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."

True prophets are right every time!

I daresay I could have made as many accurate "predictions" as she did -- all one has to do is use some common sense along with common experience and a little bit of knowledge of human nature. Watch a few episodes of "The Mentalist" and you'll see what I mean.

"Renowned psychic was hit, miss with predictions." The Dallas Morning News; November 22, 2013 ; p. 8B.

It's unfair!

Bobbie Bell is screaming, "Unfair!" She has been on Section 8 for more than twenty years. According to rules for Section 8, a drug offense by any occupant of the home is basis for revoking the voucher. And Bobbie's teenage grandson, K'Darion, got  caught with marijuana.

Bobbie says she has no other way of making a home for herself, because she is disabled. Perhaps K'Darion should have thought about that before he endangered his grandmother's security. Bobbie's beef should be with her grandson -- not with the agency that's following the rules.

Being the nosy person that I am, I did a little research. I found, not counting Bobbie, seven adults listed at her address. Age ranges for these adults go from 19 to 62, with the average age being 35. I wonder if there's some reason that between them, they can't make enough money to pay the rent.

I think I'll holler "unfair" right along with Bobbie. It's unfair that we're paying the rent for all these people when they can't even obey a simple rule like not buying/dealing drugs.

"Voucher pulled, she must move." The Dallas Morning News; November 22, 2013; p. 1B.

You have no credibility . . .period.

Raymond Russell of Sweeny says, "Eighty percent of the medically insured in the U.S. get their insurance through their employer or through government-run agencies such as Medicare, Medicaid or Veterans Administration. It is important to understand here that this 80 percent is not affected in any way by Obamacare, period."

If Raymond wants any credibility at all, he should have used different phrasing. I think Obama's, "If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance, period" is still a little too fresh on our minds.

So let's just see how credible Raymond's statements are.

Employer provided plans: "In the years to come, some workers with employer-provided benefits will see their benefits scaled back because of an Obamacare tax. That portion of the law -- known as the 'Cadillac tax' -- isn't set to take effect until 2018, but it's already influencing the benefits packages that employers offer." Economists are also saying that when the employer mandate takes effect in 2015, we'll see cancellation notices going out from insurers to the employers just the same as we've seen for those who buy their own insurance.

Medicare: Under the ACA, higher-income Medicare beneficiaries pay more for prescription drug coverage under Medicare Part D.  According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Obamacare will reduce Medicare reimbursements by $716 billion over 10 years. These cuts will hit Part A providers such as hospitals, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and hospices, along with Medicare Advantage plans. The trustees predict that if Congress allows these cuts to go into effect, 15 percent of Medicare providers will go into the red by 2019, 25 percent by 2030, and 40 percent by 2050. Medicare “savings” are spent on other parts of Obamacare. Obamacare’s Medicare “savings” and increased Medicare payroll tax are often touted as increasing the solvency of the Part A trust fund, but that simply is not true. The money is counted as paying for new entitlement spending in Obamacare. This will absolutely impact seniors’ ability to access medical care.

Medicaid:  Expands Medicaid eligibility to even more deadbeats. Young adults with no handicaps and no children now qualify. They will get health care and pay nothing. Since they are paying nothing, the rest of us will be affected, because somebody has to pay for it.

 http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57611192/how-obamacare-will-change-employer-provided-insurance/

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-insurance/articles/2013/08/19/will-obamacare-affect-medicare-myths-and-facts

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/03/morning-bell-obamacares-negative-impact-on-seniors/

He should be put in the stocks on the town square!

The Richardson ISD is falling all over itself issuing apologies for having Justin Lookadoo speak at the school. Parents are coming unglued, and students are in rebellion over this man who has tried to corrupt our children. Just to show you what a terrible, terrible influence this man is, I'm going to post some of his points and quotes. Then you can see for yourself how dangerous he is.

• Girls are nastier to each other than boys are.
• Being a man means protecting the weak -- and women.
• High school boys and girls should be wary of putting too much into a romance that is almost certain to dissolve.
• Boys and girls should be true to themselves and not compromise to keep a relationship.
• Men should be honest, chivalrous, wild and adventurous.
• Women should be feminine, mysterious and confident and let men lead.
• Girls are their own worst enemies -- "The reason it's so hard for you to succeed these days is not because of guys. You're doing it to yourselves."
• "Somewhere between the modern church and the feminist movement, guys turned into pansies. Stand up and be a man! Do something with your life!"

The concern of the kids who surrounded him after his speech? What about gay, lesbian or transgender kids? What about high school relationships that do work out?

Isaiah 5:20.

"Motivational . . . or maddening?" The Dallas Morning News; November 14, 2013; p. 1B.

Would you like pepper with that?

Josh Hyden tried to hold up the wrong ice cream vendor last summer. Hyden pulled a gun on the vendor and demanded all his money. The vendor pulled out his pepper spray and Josh got a face full. Josh was tracked to his nearby apartment where his wife said he had just come home and taken a shower. Sometimes, criminals are good for a big belly laugh!

"Police say ice cream man pepper-sprayed robber." The Dallas Morning News; August 16, 2013; p. 2B.

I guess that makes it OK.

Have you ever noticed that when a sin or failure is brought to someone's attention, he immediately comes back with, "Well you did such-and-such," or "that's better than so-and-so"? The implication is that if I sin, but you sinned, too, then my sin must be OK.

Joe Palmer has that blind spot. He says that "a man having consensual sex with another man is more 'morally straight' than a man raping a 12-year-old boy."

That's a bit like saying that burglarizing a bank in the dark of night is better than holding it up in broad daylight. Maybe so, but the bank is still being robbed, and the perpetrators are still thieves. The same is true of the sexual deviant -- one man raping a child does not suddenly make another man engaged in immorality into a paragon of virtue.

"Get sexual deviation straight." The Dallas Morning News; October 13, 2012; p. 20A.

I wouldn't go there, then.

The do-gooders are all upset about our poor Texas prison inmates. In the summertime, the felons don't have air conditioning. But the pigs they raise in the pig-farming program have six climate-controlled barns.

"TDCJ has literally made the decision that protecting its bacon is more important than protecting human lives," said Scott Medlock, an Austin civil rights attorney.

I disagree, Scott. Those inmates weren't picked up at random and dropped into that prison. They were sent there to "protect human lives" from their criminal activity. They deserve to be where they are. The pigs, on the other hand, haven't done anything wrong.

At least one-third of Texas prisoners have served previous sentences in the penal system. If the prison is all that bad, I think I'd do whatever was necessary to stay out and enjoy my a/c.

"Prisons cool swine while inmates swelter." The Dallas Morning News; August 18, 2013; p. 2A.

Get a Life, Sue!

Sue Lucas of Garland has suffered discrimination! And it's all the fault of the Republicans. Evidently, Sue doesn't read the newspapers very much. I had read several days before the November elections that the name on your photo ID had to match exactly the name on your voter registration. For example, a woman whose maiden name was used in place of her middle name would have to provide documentation that she was the person who was entitled to vote.

Sue didn't know this. So she showed up to vote with her drivers license which had her maiden name on it. Her middle name was on the voter registration. Sue was not turned away. She was allowed to vote on a provisional ballot which would be counted as soon as she provided the documentation required. But now she knows "the true pain of discrimination." Get a life, Sue! You suffered discrimination only if they let everybody else with non-matching names vote with no verification. And you presented not one shred of evidence that had occurred.

"Now I know what it's like." The Dallas Morning News; November 10, 2013; p. 3P.

It's all their fault.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder what planet people have been living on. I'm sure all of you remember the case of the girl in the closet. Little Lauren was about eight-years-old when she was found in her mother and step-father's home in Hutchins, Texas. The home was filthy, but even filthier was the small bedroom closet where Lauren spent her life. She was not allowed to eat, to come out and play with the other children, or even to come out to go to the bathroom.

Lauren's mother, Barbara Atkinson, had initially given Lauren up for adoption when she was born. The Kavanaugh's took the child as their own. But Barbara changed her mind, and some idiot judge gave the child back to Barbara despite evidence that she was abusive to the infant. And poor little Lauren spent the next six years in a literal hell.

We get that Barbara and her husband are less than human. What I don't get is Barbara's mother, Doris Calhoun. This woman is supposedly intelligent, but it's certainly not evident in what she says. You see, the whole reason that Barbara and her husband treated Lauren the way they did wasn't because they were sadistic and wicked. It was the Kavanaugh's fault. Yes, that's right -- the loving parents who did not even see Lauren from the time she was 20 months old until she was rescued at the age of eight. She says the Kavanaughs "broke the parent-child relationship, so it never was established strongly like it should have been. That's what happened between Lauren and Barbie."

If that woman really believes that, she's as dangerous as her evil daughter, and she needs to be locked up right beside her.

"Bundle of joy to burden of sorrow." The Dallas Morning News; October 21, 2013; p. 7A.

Green Hypocrites

Remember when everyone was touting ethanol, and the government mandated that refineries put more and more ethanol into their formulas? As it turns out, we find that government interference and ethanol aren't as green as they're cracked up to be. Yet the Obama administration won't back down in the face of scientific evidence.

What's wrong with government interference and ethanol? Well, for one thing, farmers started wiping out forested land and wetlands so they could grow corn to keep up with the rising demand and prices. In the process, they destroyed habitat and contaminated water supplies with fertilizers and pesticides. Obama -- the President who won't allow the Keystone pipeline -- presided over the conversion of over five million acres of conservation land. That's more than Yellowstone, the Everglades, and Yosemite combined. And the Gulf of Mexico dead zone (where marine life can't survive) has increased in size.

Many scientists and environmentalists now say that ethanol is bad environmental policy. "I'd have to think really hard to come up with a scenario where it's a net positive," said Silvia Secchi, a Southern Illinois University agriculture economist. However, Obama, the green hypocrite, continues to stand by the ethanol mandates.

"Golden corn not so green." The Dallas Morning News; November 12, 2013; p. 4A.

We need stricter fist control policies.

In New Braunfels last month, Logan Davidson was attacked by another student at his high school. The attacker hit Logan in the head with his fists, and Logan fell back against a wall and sustained fatal injuries.

Where are all the people demanding stricter fist control policies? Why wasn't this murder called "fist violence"? Where are all the hearings on restricting fists? Maybe the media is just derelict in not reporting on them, for, undoubtedly, they must be taking place.

"Motive sought in school assault death." The Dallas Morning News; November 16, 2013; p. 2a.