Friday, January 25, 2008

Some Articles You Might Enjoy

At Townhall.com you will find an article by John Hawkins titled "The Ten Most Annoying Things About the Race for the Presidency". This piece highlights some of the problems with the campaigning that's capturing our attention so much.

Townhall also has a couple of articles about the economic stimulus package. One is "Oo Ee Oo Ah Ah, Ting Tang, Walla Walla Stimulus Plan" by Jon Sanders. (If you are wondering what the Oo Ee stuff is, it's part of the chorus of an old novelty song called "Witch Doctor", although apparently it was updated for the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie--I had a hard time finding the original lyrics online.) Another is "Stimulus Plan Needs to be Long Term" by Michael Franc. These two pieces make some good points about the problems with the current economic stimulus package that may surprise you.

There are, of course, any number of articles about, but I found the above three particularly interesting.

I am most disappointed that Fred Thompson dropped out of the race. He was a true conservative with excellent, well thought out policies. Still, life goes on.

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Energy Resources

One thing that frustrates me about our government is the reluctance to develop our own energy resources, whether it is ANWR drilling, offshore drilling, nuclear power, or other sources of power for our use. The Heritage Foundation has an article about alternatives to tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which would only help for a short time and would leave us unprepared for the emergencies the SPR is meant to help with. The article is called "Don't Tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, But Tap Elsewhere" by Ben Lieberman. It explains why we should not use the SPR for temporary price relief and what the SPR is really for.

In a related blog post at The US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Minority Page, there is a 16 January 2008 entry called "EPW FACT OF THE DAY: Committee Hearing on High Energy Prices Should Focus on Actual Solutions". This post talks about the need for domestic energy supply development and the blocking of this development by liberal Democrats in Congress, which hurts our country.

It is foolish to allow special interest groups to block needed domestic energy supply development and I hope you will contact your congressional representives to encourage this needed development.

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

"Which is Broken, the Government or the People?"

I recently read an excellent article at The New Media Journal. It will give you a lot to consider as the presidential campaigning moves through the coming year. It is my greatest hope that American voters will give serious consideration to what the various candidates are advocating and also seriously consider how this country should operate.

The particular article I refer to is "Which is Broken, the Government or the People?" by J. R. Dieckmann. This piece really resonated with me because I feel that too often, people think the government should be a source of largesse for them. We do not have a government to act as a charity--its purpose is to maintain order and to protect us and our freedoms. We do not have a government to redistribute wealth. People don't seem to understand that if we have wealthy citizens and corporations, they invest and they hire. They fire up the economy and everyone benefits.

The title of the article I refer to came from the opening paragraph:
This is starting out to be a most interesting election year. While Republican candidates are telling us that government is broken and the people need to fix it, Democrat candidates are telling us that the people are broken and need the government to fix it.
I find it rather insulting to be told that I'm broken, don't you? As Mr. Dieckmann says about Hillary Clinton:
Mrs. Clinton thinks it “takes a village to raise a child” because parents alone are incapable of doing the job that parents have done for thousands of years. Those same parents are also incapable of providing healthcare and schooling for those children. Men are sexists and need to be more like women and taxes need to be raised to provide a free ride for the poor and services for the middle class because they just can’t do it on their own. Government should play nanny to the American people because they‘re all just children unable to take care of themselves.
Excuse me. I am not a child. So what if I make mistakes sometimes? I'm a grown-up and I can fix them myself and learn from them. For the occasional person who truly needs help from others, private local charity is the best answer by far. Local charities know the local situation and can actually get to know the person they are helping and see what kind of help that person needs. Family, friends, and neighbors can also help and usually are quite willing to do so. People are willing to donate to local charities to help provide needed items and services. To think that the government has any business confiscating our money and then spending it (or should I say, wasting it) is outrageous. There are a few things the government needs money for (infrastructure, law enforcement, fire protection, military), but the rest is none of government's business. Much should be done by the individual states and not by the federal government. When government is local, people can keep a better eye on what is being done and not done (which is probably a big clue as to why some want everything done by the federal government).

Further down in the article, Mr. Dieckmann points out what the Democrats want:
The point is that these three leading Democrat candidates all intend to use the power of government to change the people rather than to represent the people. In their view, it’s the people who are broken and need to be fixed by government. By some magical transformation when elected, suddenly politicians know more about everything than the industry experts who have devoted their lives to making a better living standard for Americans.
Excuse me again. Government is meant to represent the people, not change them or "fix" them! Then there is this:
That is the big difference between Democrats and Republicans. With self reliance and taking personal responsibility comes freedom and liberty. Conservatives understand this. Liberals want to be taken care of by big government but don’t seem to understand that by doing so, they sacrifice their freedom and liberty and become the wholly owned property of the federal government and the Democrat Party. By their own choice, they become political slaves to their masters in Washington.

For the past 40 years, the Democrat Party has been doing everything it can to dumb down Americans, convince them that they are incapable of taking care of themselves, and make them dependent on big federal government. Unfortunately, they have succeeded enough to the extent that they are still a viable political party.

By controlling the schools, the courts, and the media, they have misled Americans away from the founding principles of democracy and directly into socialism and communism. Most young Americans today don’t even know what liberty means because they have been taught that government is there to take care of them. They don’t realize the freedom that America was founded for because they have been told that Europe is the model that America should strive for.

This trend will continue unless we elect a real conservative to serve as president for the next 8 years. A president who understands the difference between America and Europe; a president who understands the freedom and liberty that has been lost in America; a president who won’t give into wasteful, liberal government spending and nanny state socialist programs; a president who will hold congress responsible for doing the job outlined in the Constitution instead of pandering with taxpayers’ money for reelection; and a president who will enforce a foreign policy that puts American interests and defense first rather than worry so much about what Europe and Islamic countries think of us.
And finally, for your consideration:
Our future and the future of our country depends now on electing the right man for the job in this most critical period in our history. These primary elections and the vote in November will determine whether America again becomes the shining beacon on the hill, or sinks into European style socialism.

It’s up to those of us who understand what kind of country we want to do the right thing and elect the right candidate for president.
Read the article. Think like a grown-up. Vote like a grown-up. We are, after all, grown-ups.

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

The Run for the Presidency

We are in for another 10 long months of campaigning for the office of the president of the United States of America. It makes me tired just thinking about it. However, voters need to persist in learning about the candidates and making the best possible choice for our country.

In my opinion, the Democratic candidates are all bad choices--too liberal, too much in favor of Big Government, too directed toward bleeding us dry with taxes. They favor a poor brand of foreign policy which amounts to shows of weakness instead of the necessary shows of strength.

My personal choice so far is Fred Thompson. He is too grown-up to provide the flash and the sound bites that the MSM prefers, but he is by far the best candidate in the race. An article at Human Events endorses Fred Thompson, but also evaluates the other Republican candidates. The article, titled "HUMAN EVENTS endorses Fred Thompson" is a good read and I recommend it highly. I also recommend visiting the candidates' websites and reading their position papers on various issues. The Fred Thompson site is here and Mitt Romney's is here. You can Google any of the candidates, though, and find their websites.

At Townhall you can read Rich Tucker's article "What's a President For?". I recommend it for some thought-provoking ideas.

In the age of the internet, it isn't hard to find information on the candidates. I don't recommend relying only on the MSM, but do recommend searching around and reading a variety of material for a good perspective. I encourage everyone to vote, but please make it an informed vote!!!

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Hungry for Cheese?

Take a trip to I Love Cheese! for a cheese guide, recipes, and health facts about American-made cow's-milk cheeses. Yummy stuff!

Another website is Cheese Guide--All About Cheese! which has recipes, how-tos, and descriptions of some cheeses from around the world. This is one of the pages of the Reluctant Gourmet which has lots of cooking information.

Here's a website about making cheese. Called New England Cheesemaking Supply, they sell kits and books and such, but they also have a page of recipes for making some cheeses right on their website.

There's also a good site at Wisconsin Cheese and Dairy Product Information. They have a "cheesecyclopedia", tips for pairing cheeses with various foods and drinks, and recipes.

The Food Network also has a "Cheese Guide" that might be helpful to you. Gourmet Sleuth has recipes for making different kinds of cheese on this page. You can also check out Cheese.com for lots of information about specific cheeses. Wikipedia has an interesting article on "Cheese" as well.

Get out there and try some new kinds of cheese. Try some new recipes. And how about trying your hand at making cheese?

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