I was able to spend some time at the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, and the Lincoln Monument.  All of them are amazing and unique.  The World War II memorial at night is beautiful.  I got up early Friday morning to head over to the Lincoln Memorial to take some sunrise photos.  The World War II memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol building are all directly east of the Lincoln Memorial, and the sun coming up behind those historic markers is really quite stunning.

One place that seems kind of out of the way, and somewhat forgotten is the Jefferson Memorial.  Maybe because of that, and because he was so intimately involved with writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson has always kind of drawn me.

Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens . . . are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion . . . No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively.

As I stood under the rotunda reading Jefferson’s words, I was moved to tears at the eloquence and simplicity with which he expressed such fundamental principles — and how far from the founding principles of freedom and liberty we have come.

I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

The founding fathers risked everything for the cause of freedom.  To each other for the cause of liberty, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their honor.  With the most powerful nation on the planet, and many of their own colonists against them, Jefferson and his fellow patriots refused to accept the remote rule of a distant, deaf King George.  We know that America is an idea, an experiment in limited government.  Reagan famously talked about America as the “last stand on earth”.  He said, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to.”

I hope we, I hope I, for the sake of preserving freedom for future generations, have what it takes to be more than just a sunshine patriot.

5 Tips for Calming a Hyperactive Liberal

Hyperactivity is a problem with many possible causes and solutions. Here are some simple techniques you can try at home to work to calm your boisterous liberal:

• Ignore the behavior! Liberals seek attention from you. By paying them that attention during hyperactive outbursts, you’re reinforcing the very behavior that you’re trying to eliminate. The next time your liberal is jumping or nipping at you in an overexcited way, give it a try — no touch, no talk, no eye contact — and see how you fare. You might be surprised how quickly the hippie settles down.
• Give your liberal a job! Having a task to focus on can help tremendously. Hyperactivity can come from psychological needs as easily as it can from physical needs. By giving your liberal a job to do, you are removing him from his state of hyperactivity and redirecting his energy elsewhere. The task should have a clear beginning and end, and should never be considered a replacement for physical exercise. Which brings us to…
• Go for a walk! If your liberal has a lot of built-up energy, a really vigorous walk is another excellent way to redirect it where YOU want it to go. Once you’ve burned that extra energy away, your liberal should be pleasantly exhausted and too tuckered out to jump and nip. Without that frustration, he’ll find it much easier to relax.
• Check your own energy! Your liberal is your mirror. Any energy you project, he will reflect back. Are you in a calm assertive state of mind? Are you projecting a confident energy? Are you stressing out over an argument, or burdened with the worries of the work week? Nervous or anxious moods can translate into nervous or anxious body language or tones of voice, and can affect the energy of your liberal.
• Try out aromatherapy! Don’t forget that liberals experience the world primarily by scent! Just as the smell of lavender is said to relax human beings, a soothing smell can also have a very calming effect on your tree hugger. A stranger’s money usually works well, but try not to overdo it, as he will quickly acquire a sense of entitlement and start taking it from others for himself.

Columbus Dispatch The legislation, introduced by Sen. Shirley Smith, D-Cleveland, however, would not stop at ordering courts and police agencies to seal the official record.

It also would require individuals and private businesses to erase the historical record by destroying “records” they hold about the convictions of those whose cases are sealed.

Under threat of a $250,000 fine, the bill would require individuals, newspapers and other news media to delete stories from the Internet and their archives about the arrests and convictions of those who win expungement orders.

If a party knowingly released information about a sealed conviction, they would face a $500,000 fine. The damages would double to $1 million if the banned information was available on the Internet.

This is a blatant attempt to create a de-facto Ministry of Truth – where historical records are destroyed on penalty of massive fines.  Small-town newspapers would be immediately destroyed by even a single one of these fines.

To start with poor convicts who just can’t get a job because of their criminal record is the foot in the door to forcing the erasure of other history.  We have a right to a public trial primarily for the accused.  We have a free and open press so that we have someone keeping an accurate record of history.  As an employer, I have a right to know if someone I’m interviewing has a rap sheet for fraud or bank robbery.

However well intentioned, this is a supremely bad idea.  Every piece of history the government or a politician doesn’t want you to find out about will be erased.  One conviction for a minor offense is a youthful indiscretion.  Multiple DUIs is a pattern – and we the people have a right to know who we’re electing.

There is an unrelated story about how the Columbus City council is trying to grant themselves privileges to move meetings behind closed doors, out of view of the public.  This is the opposite of a government of the people.  This is a government of rulers, who alone will decide what history is kept, what must be changed to reflect their arbitrary declarations, and what must be erased.

Take a close look at the behavior of any successful pack leader, and you can’t help seeing it mirrored in the behavior of successful people from all walks of life. It’s probably not a coincidence then that as I’ve practiced what I’ve preached to dog owners over the years, I’ve seen improvements in other areas of my life, too. Here are the pack-leading tactics that have helped me most— not just with my dogs but as a husband, a father, and a man. (emphasis mine)

That last part – especially the last three words “…and a man” – struck me.  It shouldn’t have, but quality male role models who understand that they have a unique role to fill in the lives of their families and communities is rare.  At least, this kind of expression of recognizing that manhood has a value in society is rare.  It shouldn’t be.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Dog Owners

Open ended, high-interest loans on things we really can’t afford used to be a source of shame.  In our grandparents’ day, if you couldn’t pay for it, you didn’t buy it.  Simple.

I personally take much more pride in the fact that my car is paid off than what kind of car it is.  I like to think my grandparents would be proud.

Nixa turned 7 this past weekend.  It has been a great 7 years.  We’ve moved 4 times, including a 6 month stint in South Florida, where she spent much of her time herding anything that moved – cats, foxes, raccoons, giant lizards, a turtle (had to give her props for perseverance), and even a kid who was being obnoxious.  We’ve been to the vet more times than I can count, including a few trips to for emergency care in the middle of the night.  We took puppy classes at the vet’s office we still go it, and I think it made a big difference not only in terms of starting her off right with basic obedience and socialization, but being comfortable with the vet’s office itself.  She loves going there, even if we’re just going over to pick up food or say hi to the staff.  Occasionally someone will come out and greet her that I don’t even recognize.  She has made a great, positive impression on the people she’s come in contact with.

She is a rescue dog.  A local pet store hosted one of the county humane societies adoption events, and I was looking to get a dog.  I knew I didn’t want to buy one from a store, so adopting sounded like a good option.  She was in a pen with about 5 or 6 other puppies from the same litter.  All of the dogs except her were climbing over each other, playing and wrestling in a multi-colored furball.  Nixa was off by herself on the other side of the pen, looking kind of bored, and even at only 6 weeks old, just the tiniest bit irritated with the commotion.  I knew she was my dog, and that we were going to get along great.

She turned out to be an incredibly loyal and easy to train puppy.  Some dogs really couldn’t care less, and will take any attention they can get.  Nixa craves positive attention, and really takes negative attention personally.  She tends to pick things up quickly, even things I don’t realize she’s learning.

In 7 years, I’ve only ever seen her get angry 3 times.  Once at a puppy who wandered in to the exam room while we were waiting during one of the late night dog ER visits.  She was in rough shape that night.  She just growled at him, but it was enough.  The obnoxious kid who was harassing her was another time.  She was running around him in circles, barking – basically being a shepherd, but the barking+teeth meant she wasn’t fooling around.  The instant I called, she came right over to me.  Most recently it was a guy from the neighborhood who she didn’t know that walked up to the sliding glass door – and she didn’t know where I was (I happened to be just out of sight from inside the door).  Funny that I could absolutely and immediately hear the change in her bark from ‘warning’ to ‘I don’t know where dad is / I don’t know who you are / Don’t think about coming in my house’ – the neighbor didn’t hear it.  Cat people never do.

She knows when we play outside that she can’t leave toys in the yard so she almost always brings it back inside with her without being told, and always knows what it means when reminded to go bring it back inside.  She usually greets me at the door when I get home from work with one of them.  If not, I’ll sometimes find that she has piled the toys in one place.

Over the years, she has occasionally eaten ends off cables, napkins, and CDs.  One time she even ate my homework. No really.  She’s smart though.  I once had two doughnut holes on the coffee table.  I came around the corner to find her enjoying one of them.  I took it away from her, told her ‘no’ and went to throw it away.  When I came back, the other one was totally gone.  She learned her lesson – eat it faster.

Next: water, agility classes, and a shady character.

The FAA offered an alternative – paint the tower orange and white.

The FAA would prefer a flashing white strobe during the day and red beacon at night, but a possible alternative would be to paint the tower bright orange and white in 8-foot stripes from top to bottom, Papenfuss said. He asked the FAA to wait on its recommendation until town planners state their preference. His preference was clear: “You don’t want that god-awful orange and white paint you see for miles.”

Actually, dumbass, yes you do.  An airplane traveling at 200mph covers 2 miles in about 30 seconds.  That isn’t much time to see the obstruction while busy preparing to land, and avoid it.  Apparently some residents objected to the tower being lit, and after just a day or so complained, referring to it as a “tower of terror” – because of the light.

The article then takes a very SimCity like turn, with these gems:

“I’m totally confused. … I’m moving.”

“It really smells as far as I’m concerned”

the light is “pretty bad. You could get sunburn from it.”

“My house is lit up like a disco. I am inflicted with ocular migraines. … You need to drop their cell tower to where there’s no light, or tear it down.”

This is the type of nonsense you get from an uninformed citizenry crying NIMBY!

Went to see “Despicable Me” the other night.  I rarely go to the movies because I’m bored of the anti-American, anti-midwest values Hollywood tripe.  In the previews it looked funny and harmless.  I guess I should have known better.

The story basically surrounds two competing villains, Gru and Vector, each trying to be the biggest and baddest thief on the planet.  The real villain in the story turns out to be the banker.  As the main character, Gru, enters the cavernous office of the bank president to beg for a loan, the sign over the door says “BANK of EVIL” and in small letters under that says “Formerly Lehman Brothers”  We find out later that BoE turned down Gru’s loan application because Vector is actually the BoE president’s son.

The whole think smacks of nepotism – which was exactly the point.  Big bad banks are evil and are going to steal your business plans (evil plot, in this case) and give them to their family and friends to execute.  The banks will do everything in their power to destroy you and help themselves.

In a completely unrelated matter, the leading news network (which sets up the story in the beginning and narrates a couple of times throughout) in this fictional world is “MSNBC”. Not some fake news outlet like GNN or World News In a Flash – MSNBC.  The NBC logo is even displayed prominently over a fictional Times Square Jumbotron in NYC.

A nice, funny story about an evil criminal who finds redemption when he adopts three orphan girls who change his heart is drowned out by the blatantly anti-capitalist, banks-are-evil subtext.

Bloomberg: Investigating 9/11 Mosque Is Un-American

NEW YORK (AP) – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it would be un-American to investigate a mosque that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood.

(h/t @DanRiehl)

Let me make a list for Mayor Bloomberg, to refresh his memory, of things that are Un-American:

• Honor killings
• Honor “rape”, or just rape in general
• Beatings for women going out in public unescorted by a male relative
• Not allowing women to go to school, or learn to read
• Killing Christians who won’t covert
• Killing Jews because they’re, well, Jewish
• Refusing to drive a cab for passengers who have an unopened bottle of wine, or a dog
• Flying planes full of people into buildings full of people
• Suicide bombings
• Strapping explosives to women, children, and the mentally retarded – turning them into bombs
• Shari’ah law superceding American law
• Beheadings, including of journalists like Daniel Pearl.
• Burning the bodies of Americans, dragging them through the streets, and then hanging them from a bridge
• Promising to drive all the Jews into the sea
• Declaring that the Muslim flag will fly over the Whitehouse
• Killing and/or threatening to kill people over newspaper cartoons
• Cheering in the streets when the towers fell
• Screaming ‘Allah Akbar’ and shooting up a room full of unarmed people on an American military base

There are more, but here is my last one: sticking a fork in the eye of the American people by building a huge mosque within spitting distance of and overlooking the pit where buildings once stood and 2,500 people, most American, were murdered by Muslim fanatics on 9/11.

These things alone are reprehensible on their face.  They are not a reason to investigate a simple, humble religious building being constructed in Manhattan.  That the folks behind the mosque might be funding terrorism is a reason to investigate.  That the folks running the mosque may use it to incite more terrorism is a reason to investigate.  I’m sorry that the symbolism of the mosque’s size and location are lost on you, Mr. Mayor.  I’m pretty sure it isn’t lost on the Muslim world.

Please stay the hell away from Columbus.  Especially when we’re trying to train and prepare for a real disaster.  You knew we were running an all-day exercise that hard-working folks have been planning for over a year.  You knew your visit would mean sucking away resources from our exercise and leaving us short-handed on first responders.  You gave us barely two days notice (based on the publication of the initial TFR), and wanted us to cancel our plans – for you.

I don’t think you give a shit.  We’re just flyover country.  We’re mostly just typical white people who cling to our God and our guns, and what we’re doing doesn’t really matter.  You’re the king, and if you want to come to give a 10 minute speech on the one day we need you to not be here f’ing things up, we’ll just have to suffer.  You have no respect for the American people, let alone the good citizens of Columbus.

How many of our first responders were not able to participate because you had to come to town?  They had to line your parade route to make sure they were available if anything happened to YOU.  It is always about YOU.  How many of our firefighters and police missed out on valuable, irreplaceable training?  How much less prepared are we now, and how much benefit in emergency services have the tax payers of central Ohio lost because of you?

Let me be clear Mr. President.  This wasn’t some little mom-and-pop operation in a rural firehouse in the sticks.  We’re a major city, and this involved the entire Columbus metro area, including a major airport, 9 major local hospitals, and more fire-rescue departments than I can count.  Two hospitals bailed at the last minute – one because you were going to be in their way.  Many agencies were only able to send EMTs.  There were only a couple of fire trucks and almost no police.  Does that make sense in a major disaster?  Of course not.  Because I suspect they were all pulled off the exercise to come babysit you for your 58 minutes on the ground here in town.

You couldn’t pick another day on YOUR busy schedule.  You just had to fly in, spend 10 whole minutes talking about jobs – while the workers on the site you chose for your theatre had to go home without pay.  Your 10 minutes pretty much ruined months and months of careful planning and coordination from multiple agencies, and a whole day for all of the unpaid volunteers.  Go back to Washington and stay the hell out of my city.

Sincerely,
Me

Update: Found a CBS article saying the 10 minute speech cost the tax payers somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000.  Salt in the wound.