a morning prayer

Dear Lord, this past year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farah Fawcett, my favorite musician, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mayes. I just wanted to let you know that my favorite president is Barack Obama. Amen

and it is about time!

missred has a job interview friday morning 8.30 am. i think i might need a wake up call
the job and the boss sound like just the ticket .. more to come


update: i think the interview went swell - i liked both future bosses and i am sure they liked me. now let's hope my instincts are right and i get the job!

it can be undone

The most promising development by far over the past year has been the visible emergence of the spirit of liberty among ordinary citizens. It is the spirit of liberty that is the seedbed of resistance to Obama and his works. We must take heart from the fact that so many of our fellow citizens came to oppose Obamacare despite the big lies on which it is founded.
20 ways duh'won care wll take away our freedoms
h/t: instapundit

i know that the grassroots movements to overturn congress in november and boot out obama in 2012 will maintain momentum. i also know that the union thugs and acorn types will be at the polls to intimidate voter participation. i know that very well. and it must be anticipated to be stopped.

chilling

h/t: the shadowlands

oh yea baby, give me a ride on this

h/t theo spark

happy st. patrick's day

Comments and Graphics - St Patrick's Day Layouts - Photobucket

and now something for the ladies

a lesson in fiscal responsibility

Now here is a great idea!!!
When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen are they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street, and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of "tough decision", and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

I feel our government should not be immune from similar risks. I therefore am recommending the following cuts to be implemented by the next president elect.

Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to 218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State). Also reduce remaining staff by 25%. Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting. Some yearly monetary gains include:

$44,108,400 for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay / member / yr.) $97,175,000 for elimination of the above people's staff. (estimate $1.3 Mil in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Mil in staff per each member of the Senate every year) $240,294 for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (those members who's jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion / yr) The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country? We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing. Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in 1911 when the current number of representatives was established. (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note: Congress did not hesitate to jump on a train for home this week when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators & congress.

Summary of opportunity: $ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members. $282,100,000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff. $150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff. $ 59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members. $ 37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members. $ 7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$ 8,073,383,400 per year, estimated total savings.

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

from the ramblings at the free state of pig

james bond was born today

On 11 March 1911, Sir Fitzroy MacLean, the Scottish soldier, diplomat, politician and author was born. A founder member of the SAS and reportedly the inspiration for Ian Fleming's character, James Bond, he is probably best known for his exploits during the Second World War.
Fitzroy Maclean owes his place in history to the extraordinary 18 months he spent as Winston Churchill's special envoy to the Yugoslav leader Josip Tito in 1943-45. He sometimes expressed regret that, as with his hero Bonnie Prince Charlie, the historically significant portion of his life was compressed into 18 months at a comparatively young age. More dispassionate commentators would say that he packed an unbelievable amount into his 85 years. Maclean always believed in the motto that it was better to live a day as a tiger than a year as a donkey, but in fact he managed to combine the excitement of the one with the longevity of the other.
His background as member of a Scottish clan and its Jacobite connection was extremely important to him. "Thank God I am a Maclean" was the family motto.

read more here

sexy chrome at paco's

from this link
this car suits the redhead
daimler

and of course this suits the man with the fedora
bugatti

are airline pilots overpaid

from jethead

more oz travels with my daughter

hello from Byron bay, new south wales! ill have to warn you grammar
errors might incur in this email. so this is my fourth week in oz.
hard to believe where the time has gone! it is really beautiful here.
reminds me a lot of cape henoplen with a lighthouse! byron bay is also
cape byron. go figure. my newfound friends and I went for a drive in
the country two days ago. let me tell you this, the grass is greener!
i couldn't take my eyes off the view to read a book! my jaw was
dropping low and wide! I have in motion pictures to show you. I can
understand why Aussie has been said to have the best wine!
in the last month, I have been to Melbourne and Sydney. I stayed with
Shay and Lia from Canada for almost two weeks in Melbourne. they lived
right in the center of the city which was really nice. Shay introduced
me to one of her good friends from Canada, Denise whom i'm traveling
with at this moment. During my stay in Melbourne, the girls and I went
out to Inverloch to relax at one of their friends' beach house.
Inverloch is close to Philip Island and Gippsland. Gorgeous view! Too
bad it nearly rained the whole time we stayed there. it was nice to
get myself rejuvenated before I began my trip up north.
the day after Valentine's day, Denise and I hopped on greyhound bus
for our 12 hours overnight trip to Sydney! we arrived deciding we
would see as much as we wanted in three days' time! The mission was
accomplished on feet! yes, my feet were sore for hours! foot rubs
never felt that good unless u walked that much! Opera house, The rocks
(colonial town: reminds me of Georgetown and Harpers Ferry combined),
Manly and Bondi beach, Sydney Observatory, the famous bridge by Opera
house, Royal Botanics Garden, Hyde Park, National maritime history
museum, darling harbor strongly resembled Annapolis, Took a ferry
boat, and that's all in 3 days. opera house is stunning and humongous!
sydney is bigger than Melbourne. I will tell you more about Melbourne
in other email. so tired and ready to depart for Byron bay which was
other 12 hours trip on the bus. I slept easily this time because I was
so worn out. I don't know how I did this in Europe!

pictures to follow

beautiful

more photos from the north of scotland (thanks, martin)

a prayer from the living

You may be afraid to face the years ahead. You’re not the only one, and if you extinguish the light of your faith and wisdom, you consign others to darkness. You might see death by your own hand as the end of unbearable pain… but I ask you to think about Walter Koenig, facing a wall of cameras with quiet grace in the hours after finding his son’s body, and understand that it’s only the beginning of agony

read the rest of it here

h/t the dc crawler