Slicin’ ‘n’ Dicin’ with the Juice…

Tis the day before Thanksgiving and I am pondering, aside from my health, and the health of my family, what I have to be thankful for. My country is rapidly turning into a police state, and the people go about their business like nothing out of the ordinary is happening. I know you probably do not want to hear this kind of news, especially the day before a holiday, yet it needs to be said.

“If you have never known freedom
It’s impossible to see,
Why it is so important,
To you and me.”

“You can’t see freedom
You can only be free.
You can’t touch freedom,
It’s a phantom you see.”

“A phantom we hold
In our hearts and minds.
A fleeting memory we are told,
Should we it let slip away,
On the winds of time.”

Excerpts from a poem by Ron Ewart entitled, “FREEDOM”

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been anointed with more power than the “divine right of kings”. Americans are divided in their tepid thoughts regarding another attack on amendments 1, 2, 4, & 10. Those that are in sync with the activities of the TSA are indeed very shallow in their thought processes.

The lame duck session is underway – and various members of Congress have made it clear that they will try to cut a deal that would extend existing ethanol subsidies and protective tariffs. Congressional inaction would save taxpayers $6 billion, and bring other benefits too.

What am I missing? There must be some aspect of our insane energy policies that I fail to appreciate.

Students sue for the right to love boobs. Or at least there was a case filed for the right to wear a t-shirt attesting to such fondness in regards to breast cancer awareness. Will there be parity for testicles along with the opportunity to wear paraphernalia referencing the bawdy vernacular often used to describe those bodily organs.

If Michael Kinsley is going to look down his nose at Marco Rubio for insisting that America is the greatest country in history, perhaps in the spirit of international balance, perhaps Kinsley and his family should be sent to take the place vacated by Rubio’s family in Communist Cuba. Am sure Kinsley’s Parkinson’s will get the treatment it needs under the wonders of Castro’s glorious healthcare program.

What kind of government deliberately denies its citizens access to the energy they need to live, to conduct business, to transport goods, to travel, and to just turn on the lights? Answer: The United States of America.

In a letter to members of the G-20, the finance ministers and central bankers of leading industrial nations, President Obama said, “We should make sustained effort to carry through with our groundbreaking Pittsburgh commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.”

CHURCHVILLE, VA—Today, farmers are accused of “tampering with Nature.” But farmers have been doing such tampering for thousands of years. We had to, for survival. As one dramatic example, wild sheep didn’t have wool. Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep still don’t! Nature gave sheep a long, coarse hair coat instead. In the beginning, the wool was just a short insulating undercoat with fuzzy fibers too short to make thread. For the first 4,000 years we herded sheep, it was only for their meat.

The title from this issue of Foreign Affairs struck me as rather odd, in particular the subtitle “New Challenges Call for New Policies. Are the U.S. and Israel Ready to Change Course?” (September/October 2010) The U.S. has been trying to remake the Middle East for quite some decades now as it gradually took over the role of the British and French as the local imperial power.