RoyalOrleans

Check out the big brain on Salt!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hITLFvsf5XY&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Sebelius: Public option not essential[/ame] "You don't turn over the whole new marketplace..." oh so the market belongs to government and they decide who to turn it over to? Sorry.... a bit off the topic at hand, but I had to take a shot at Sebelius.

I say they were getting lapdances.

Goddamn! This guy is good. George Will explains how Obama has established the Social Security COLA as "the capstone to the architecture of the entitlement culture that is modern liberalism's crowning achievement."

A few runner-ups that could easily replace one of my top ten choices when the mood strikes... 1. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell played by Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men. For a man who was aging and fading with the turn of the tide, he was very insightful and retrospective. 2. Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Plainview has to be one of the more recent, well developed characters in cinema history. 3. Bill the Butcher Cutting played by Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York. He died a true American and he taught the Irish to speak English with his knife.

Here is my top ten, but in random order... 1. Sonny Corleone from the Godfather, because he doesn't have to appear (except in reflective scenes) in parts II and III. On top of that, besides having his hide filled with lead, he's a hothead and a womanizer. 2. "The Man With No Name" (played by Clint Eastwood) in the Spaghetti Westerns "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.". Long live cool! 3. Quint the Shark Hunter in Jaws played by Robert Shaw. Survived the wreckage of the USS Indianapolis and tough as nails. 4. Doc Holliday in Tombstone played by Val Kilmer. Kilmer's best role! Can back up his mouth! 5. Not a movie but the HBO series Deadwood's Al Swearengen because of his schemes, his intelligence, the way he speaks, and his ability with a knife. 6. Walt Kowalski from Gran Torino and played by Clint Eastwood. Kowalski reminds me of some of the veterans that I know and equally tragic. 7. US Marshall Rooster Cogburn in True Grit and played by John Wayne. "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" and "Young fella, if you're looking for trouble, I'll accommodate you. Otherwise, leave it alone.". 8. Beowulf in Beowulf voiced by Ray Winstone. "I am Ripper... Tearer... Slasher... Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength... and Lust... and Power! I AM BEOWULF!". Beowulf has long been a favorite hero of mine. 9. Luke Jackson from Cool Hand Luke played by Paul Newman. One of the greatest tragic characters of all time. Despite that, he is a hero to me and a character I try to emulate. 10. Ohh... god. Just about any character ever played by Steve McQueen. I am particularly fond of "Vin" in the Magnificent Seven and "Doc" McCoy in the Getaway.

[attach=full]2592[/attach] Most Americans believe that there is something out there called a Social Security trust fund. They believe that when the government collects its Social Security taxes every year, it takes the money left over after paying all benefits and puts that money aside for future retirees. Americans actually believe this --- but they're wrong. The Social Security trust fund exists in name only. There is no money there. Not one single dollar. It's all gone. Decades ago, when Democrats were running the congressional show, someone came up with the bright idea of taking all of the Social Security taxes that were left over after benefits were paid and use that money to fund some other federal vote-buying social programs. The idea was simple. The free-spending congress would just give an IOU to the Social Security administration for the money that was pilfered and spent. Those IOUs now sit in a grey filing cabinet in some federal office in West Virginia. There's your precious Social Security trust fund. Paper. IOUs from a government that doesn't have the money to pay them. So how is it that Grandma gets her check every month? Social Security is what they call a Ponzi Scheme. If you or I set one of these up, we would be carted off to jail...which happens from time to time, by the way. In a Ponzi Scheme, earlier investors are paid off with later ones, but there's no actual money being invested. Sort of like paying your Visa with your MasterCard....for 40 years. So right now, some schlep is working at your local burger joint to pay for some retiree's check. What is going to happen over time, is the amount paid out will be greater than the amount coming in...and the payout scheme will collapse, since there won't be enough to pay. In just about 11 years, in 2017, we won't be collecting enough in Social Security taxes to pay the benefits that will be due to baby boom retirees. In other words, It will be time to head to that filing cabinet in West Virginia, take some of the IOUs out, and present them to the U.S. Treasury for redemption. But how do you pay off those IOUs when you're already spending every single penny you make? Well ... there's only a few possibilities. You borrow the money and go deeper in debt; you raise taxes on the already tax-oppressed Americans to get the needed funds, or you simply default on the IOU. You could, of course, cut spending in other areas to come up with the money --- but remember who we're talking about here. Even for a congress that has doubled federal spending over the past decade or so, cutting spending even by one single dollar is simply not an option. Privatization? Yeah ... that would have been a partial solution. It would have delayed the financial collapse of Social Security, but private retirement accounts don't serve the purposes of politicians --- especially Democrats. How, after all, can Democrats threaten you with the loss of a retirement account that you own in order to frighten you into voting for Democrats? In every single congressional election since 1960 Democrats have warned voters that if they vote for Republicans the evil Republicans will either reduce or take away their Social Security benefits. And in every single congressional election since 1960 that argument has worked as thousands of frightened and uninformed wizened citizens rush to the polls to reelect their Democrat protectors. Another problem with the idea of privatization is that Americans only have a very superficial love of freedom. The less freedom demands personal responsibility the more people love it. The more freedom demands self-discipline the less freedom is revered. Personal accounts -- private accounts -- would mean that people would actually have to be responsible for investing their funds and, to some extent, managing those investments. That's just a bit too much freedom for many. So -- the crisis looms. Politics rule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." Dr. Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 - November 15, 2005) of Love Worth Finding Ministries, Pastor Emeritus of Bellevue Baptist Church.

The universe is full of random, chaotic events that you and I, in all of our arrogance, have absolutely no control over.

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz! Then why didn't you say that in the original post?

What? No Obama t-shirt? I hardly recognized you.

Zima from the can, too!

Fox News is constantly the butt of the liberal biased secular media's jokes, quips, anecdotes, accusations, and rebukes because Fox News is effective. The left is so accustomed to controlling the media they just can't stand it when someone strays off the reservation.. and does it with such devastating effectiveness. Remember, Fox News has ratings way and above those of CNN. It's no wonder the left is upset. People who dog out Fox News cite examples like Hannity and O'Reilly and Beck which are opinion shows! The other eighteen some odd hours is news coverage and reporting, but these moonbats on the ignorant fringe don't see it that way. Turning to opinion shows for the current news is like turning to Leno, Conan, Letterman, et. al. for the news. Fox News won't allow themselves to be put in the same group as CNN, NBC, ABC, etc, and will continue to have ratings until Free Speech is revoked.

So I guess the general question to ask now is " Are you better off now than you were January 19, 2009?" I'd love to see that "statistic". What are the hours?

If I didn't preach to the choir sometimes, I'd have to talk to myself. That is, if you take my meaning.

I hope not! I like to see top teams get knocked off by low ranked or outranked schools! My mind keeps reverting back to that Appalachian State victory over Michigan and the streak South Florida went on in the same season. I recall thinking to myself, "Sh!t, man! I'm pulling for a Florida team? WTF?".

Awww.... fukk! I was livid!

Barack Obama and the White House have decided that their $787 billion economic stimulus bill has been a success. How do they figure?? They base this on the fact that as many as a quarter of the jobs that have "saved or created" are government school teachers. The chief economic adviser for Joe Biden says that recent data shows that at least 250,000 educational jobs have been saved or created. Oddly enough, no one has actually SEEN this report. The Republicans point out that 250,000 jobs were lost last month alone and 3 million have been lost since the economic stimulus bill was signed. But don't slow us down with the facts! Let's celebrate that we have done exactly what we wanted to do: get more people on the government payroll. After all, folks, remember that these teachers are nothing more than glorified government bureaucrats. They are paid by the government, report to the government, abide by government regulations to fulfill their jobs requirement ... they are government employees. So we spend $787 billion to provide pork barrel projects and hire more government workers. That sounds like stimulus to me! Keep in mind that data released last week by the federal government found that federal contracts paid for with stimulus money created or saved 30,383 jobs. That is not a lot of jobs, folks. In fact, the White House at one point had a goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over two years. There is a pretty big gap between 30,000 and 3.5 million, wouldn't you say? So when in doubt, emphasize the fact that you kept the government school teachers around and hope that Americans are too ignorant to realize that the darn thing isn't working. And while we're at it .. you do know this whole "created or saved" thing is a crock, don't you? There is no way the government can accurately tell you how many jobs have been "saved" by stimulus spending. What we have here is the local governments telling the federal government "Oh yeah! Thanks for the money! If it hadn't been for that money we would have fired a bunch of people!" Buuullllsheeeeet! This is nothing but a transparent PR scam designed to convince the public that this stimulus plan is working. Try to get some private business to talk about jobs saved. I mean, sh!t, do any of you want to hear the woes of RO and his paint and body shop? It's depressing! You get a warm and fuzzy, hopey-changey entropic feeling when you are coerced into believing your vote wasn't in error!

Knowing that the nation's schools are doing so poorly teaching basic math skills to our children; and assuming that parents, being the ultra-responsible lot that you are, will try to fill in the gaps with some home schooling --- I thought it might be useful to present you with some numbers you might want to use in your remedial education efforts. The added bonus here is that you can also use these numbers to reinforce in your children that President Barack Obama really is, as has been written, "sort of" a God and is clearly succeeding in his quest to lead America to a golden new economic age. 30,383 That's the number of jobs the Obama Administration claimed to have "saved or created" in a statement last Thursday. The trouble is, there is no clearly defined way to determine jobs "saved or created." You can pretty much choose any number and run with it. The New York Post tells us that the tab comes out to $71,500 per saved-or-created job. Ask you child what they think might happen if small businesses had this money through tax cuts to use to expand and grow their businesses. 48,000,000 Since we're speaking of jobs, that's the approximate number of people employed by America's small businesses - specifically the ones that employ between 1 and 49 people. Medium-sized businesses employing 50 to 499 workers count for another 42,000,000 jobs. What about large businesses that employ over 500 people? Try 17,000,000. Surprising, isn't it? Now while you're working through these numbers with your kids be sure to tell them that the vast majority of these small and medium-sized businesses report their business income on their owner's personal tax return. These business owners, then, will be the ones hit when Barack Obama gets his tax increases on people earning over $250,000 a year. They employ most of our workers, and they're going to take the tax hit. Ask your child how they think this is going to work out! If you work for one of these small businesses you may want to give that some thought yourself. $2,300,000 That's the amount of borrowed stimulus money that was sent to beauty schools in the Tampa, Florida area to train hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians. People who are already licensed to do hair, nails and give massages in the Tampa area are looking for work. There will be no jobs waiting for the students who use this money to get their "beauty" licenses. The Florida Cosmetology Association says only 1% to 2% of beauty school grads will be working in that field five years after graduation. Use these numbers to try to convince your child that there are better things for them to train for than cutting hair, polishing nails and giving massages in Tampa. 61.4% Percentages are fun! It's bonus time when you can use percentages to teach your children about the perils of debt. At the end of 1999, as we were moving into the last year of the Clinton Administration, the amount of money our government owed was 61.4% of our GDP; the total value of all goods and services produced in this country during that year. By the time George Bush was through that figure had gone up by 8.8 percentage points to 70.2%. Not good. But ... by the time Barack Obama gets his first year all wrapped up that figure will have risen another 20.2 percentage points to 90.4%! We're on a roll! And here's your final fun percentage figure: In 2011 that figure will reach the magic 100%. At that point we owe more than the total value of our economy. That has to be the definition of something! Bankruptcy? Oh ... and we're not even talking unfunded liabilities here. Finally ... 9% That's an unemployment figure. That's how high Barack Obama said our unemployment figure would go if we did not quickly pass his super-effective stimulus plan earlier this year. 7.9% That's how high Obama said unemployment would rise if we would just give him over $750 billion dollars to stimulate our economy. We did; and .... 9.8% That's our latest unemployment figure. Looks like the stimulus worked! The figure includes hairdressers, nail techs and massage therapists - in case you're wondering. #1 As in Rule No. 1. Elections have consequences.

I was glad that Virginia Tech got beat even if it was at the hands of my in-state rivals, Georgia Tech. Ohh... and that Arkansas QB Mallett will be a handful once he gets some control and accuracy down. Next season will prove he's got sand.

Without Kurt, talented receivers like Larry Fitzgerald would be in Dallas or New England. Maybe even New Orleans.

It's me, Buildy-poo! My dentist IS mighty proud. Fixed me right up with some dentures and now I look like Clark Gable!

Like we need a post to point that out! Given the opportunity, I'd love.... LOVE to punch Jon Gosselin right square in the face. Kate deserves about the same treatment, however Jon won't shut that mouth. He just talks and talks and talks and talks without making himself look any better. Like my old man used to say, "No one is above an ass-whipping!" and that is exactly what Jon needs. (And I'd dare say two-thirds of Earth's population could use a thorough whipping.) At any rate, Jon and Kate are media grubbing attention whores that have no real plan of action to ensure a strong future for those eight beautiful children.

Hahahahahaha.... I can't believe how cold it was that night.

Builder? Fukken Builder? Some rocks are best left unturned. Welcome back, you Aussie bastard.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plhIm2-ZkYQ&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Obama Gets Tough Question From Fourth Grader[/ame] I like the way Obama drops down his rhetoric a notch to street level and start using the "that's what I'm talkin' about" message. He never really answers the question, but puts as many "important" words that people need to hear into the answer as possible - politics, healthcare, jobs, etc. Then Obama comments that he's a "tough kid". Also note the racial significance of the thing. A sweet little black boy with a squeaky voice asking the first black president why people hate him, lower lip thrust out and eyes shining. Just look at the white people in the audience lock up with nervous GUILT. It's funny and it's sickening at the same time.