So, this morning I actually choked up as the old man said goodbye to my brother, his youngest son, for probably the last time. He teared up too, and the only thing that kept the scene from being maudlin as my brother and sister departed Ohio on their way back to Texas, was that he was a lucid as he’s ever been since his incident. I was proud of him for maintaining his focus, yet it was the most heartbreaking moment I’d seen in the six weeks since he suffered a minor stroke and I’ve been staying with and caring for him

I’m sure sis and bro feel the same way. They most likely will never see him standing and waving goodbye again. We all knew the day was coming, just as we all know our day is coming, sooner or later. But it really hits home when those close to you are involved.

“I so wish I lived closer!” Sis said to me in the last minutes. Maybe so… but it was a source of pride to my parents that their youngest kids had the independence to move out and on, and twenty years ago it was a good excuse to hit the road for nine days. But now we pay for that.

I, on the other hand, live two blocks away, but might have gone six weeks without visiting. Increasing to a couple then maybe 4 times a week after mom died. Until the stroke. Now I’m his ‘visiting nurse’ for most of the day and for the first month, nearly 24/7. Despite the frustrations with his often confused state of mind, caring for him really isnt much of a chore. It’s one of those things that seems daunting until you’re actually involved in doing it. Somehow, now, it seems almost like a privilege.

The next moment is the one I really dread though… the day, coming soon, we check him into the nursing home. Because we know he’ll walk in but never walk out.

The Uigher muslim separatists have said they will do something to call attention to their plight, could be a terror act. And a ‘Free Tibet’ protestor was injured in a fall from the Chinese consulate in SF. Claims are that when she rappeled from the building roof, the Chinese cut her ropes.

Interesting to me:

That for a one-time short-schedule protest. I would assume, then, that if the US allowed ‘Free Tibet’ to invade and occupy the DC Embassy, holding the staff hostage, for 400 plus days, the Chinese would consider it an act of war.
I would agree.

From Soros’ wiki:

There have been suggestions that Soros’s political gifts may have served his own interests. In late 2006, Soros bought about 2 million shares of Halliburton, which had been a major target of criticism (for war profiteering) by MoveOn and the Center for American Progress. Soros’s critics allege that these organizations suddenly stopped criticism of Halliburton after Soros purchased the stock, and subsequently the stock values appreciated significantly, netting substantial profits for Soros.

Also see: Gladwell{dot}com: Blowing Up
I’m not going to excerpt for you, just point out This little gem:

My father {Soros} will sit down and give you theories to explain why he does this or that. But I remember seeing it as a kid and thinking, Jesus Christ, at least half of this is bullshit. I mean, you know the reason he changes his position on the market or whatever is because his back starts killing him. It has nothing to do with reason. He literally goes into a spasm, and it?s this early warning sign.

Barack Obama’s continued ignorance of foreign policy is clear and evident in his editorial posted today at The New York Times. Obama continues to repeat his Far Left talking points that Iraq diverted us from fighting Al-Qaeda. The junior senator from Illinois is still unwilling to acknowledge the thousands of Al-Qaeda fighters that have been lost in Iraq. And, after saying the surge had worked last week, that we had seen “reductions in violence and stabilization”
– Today he’s back to saying it didn’t work.

No matter your view on who lied prior to the action in Iraq. No matter how poorly planned and stupid the Bremer strategy was.  No matter that Petraeus’ COIN strategy needed the involvement of the Sunni Sheiks who finally were fed up with Al Qaeda… the FACT is that AL Qaeda suffered a disaster in Iraq and this could NOT have been done in Afghanistan, even if we’d been able to hunt down and kill bin Laden within a year.

Because it took IRAQ to show the rest of the middle east who Al Qaeda really were.

Because in Afghanistan you couldn’t, and still can’t, easily tell Al Qaeda from the Taliban from just ordinary conservative Islamists.

I said before.. I’ll say again.. if the liberals REALLY wanted to make a meal of the surge, they would take credit for putting pressure on Bush and the Iraqi government. But they aren’t doing that… they are only interested in showing Iraq was a failure and that our military is inept and criminal. Any way they can.

Sunni and secular Iraqi’s are alarmed at the idea of total US withdrawal (which is notable, in itself). Example being Mohammed Fadhil of ‘Iraq the Model’:

As I predicted in an earlier post, Maliki waited before making adjustments in his position towards the deal. However, the change came more dramatically than expected. Maliki apparently yielded to Shiite pressure from Najaf and made his choice. He made two mistakes here.

First, he forgot that while he feels that he’s got to listen to what Najaf says, America does not. Neither do Sunnis, Kurds or even many among Shiite Iraqis. Second, by making unrealistic and unacceptable demands he put himself in an embarrassing position. He may have thought that America needs the deal so badly that it will be willing to make huge concessions that he can exploit in order to please Tehran and Najaf.

Read it

Our hope and change candidate should try it.. he’ll come up with a lot of interesting stuff. Not the least interesting is his indirect ‘lint’ from Illinois Super Corp: Archer Daniels Midland, ADM. If Obama wants change, maybe he’ll go against the grain {heh} and denounce corn ethanol as the fraud and waste it truly is.

I’m sure even my liberal friends will acknowledge I’ve been posting against grain ethanol for years.. and not because I’m an expert, because no one with any rudimentary common sense knowledge of the agricultural process can fail to see it. In other words, no MBA needed!

If conservatives, even Investors Business Daily point this out, where is the outrage from the left?

I dont think McCain is totally on point, either. Certainly, though, he is not as deeply in ADM’s pocket.

Hope.. always, no matter what. Change.. not so much.
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As far as Cane and Switch Grass/ ‘agricultural waste’ ethanol though… I say again: there is NO SUCH THING as ‘agricultural waste’. Any kid who grew up on a family farm and paid the least attention knows that.
Any such use of crop growing land, no matter how poor for other crops, and no matter what residue is used for growing fuel is absurd and ultimately unsound for the environment the lefties claim to be protecting!

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Update on Teflon Obama and Methanol:

heh.. Even the Guardian has seen the light.  There’s always good reason for putting up with Liberal Publishing idiocies.. and Protein Wisdom points out that reason.

If you dont want to read a ‘Conservative Blog’, just consider that a Lib will only listen to his own choir.

Juan Cole repeats Ahmadinejad’s ridiculous claim that the US planned to kidnap or assassinate him on his recent trip to Baghdad.

Even Cole’s commenters found that to be just a little too far out.

Pat Buchanan claims the Holocaust was preventable.

If Britain had only not guaranteed Poland’s safety, of course. Because then there would have been no larger war. Never mind he had started terrorizing Jews from the outset.

Finally Rep Hinchey retracted what he said here:

Link: sevenload.com

- sorry, I dont buy the retraction. First Maxine Waters threatened it, now Hinchey. When under stress you say what you really mean. I do, dont you?

Suicidal Spending

- Perot’s foreword is here: Perotcharts{dot}com

Watch the entire thing… and please think about what you are seeing there, before you grab onto a single kernel of truth. Consider it in its entirety; The truth is not always able to slap you in the face.
I fully expect some to use that presentation selectively as fodder for their views on particular administrations, but the presentations do not reflect the true states of the economies, should changes not have been enacted.

Example: The late nineties budget surpluses.

This has been used to show that the Clinton Administration with the Republican fiscal conservative congress produced what we all want. True.. and False. Dont forget that a large part of the economy at that point in time was based on speculative gross product…i.e; the Internet Boom which fueled huge growth in the IT and Commercial Real Estate sectors. In the end much of the ‘Product’ was vaporware, much of the taxable income based on jobs which were a result of that boom.

The conclusions I draw are simple:

1. We cannot tax ourselves out of deficit. It LOOKS like we could if you accept one or two charts at face value, but the entirety of the piece shows otherwise.

2. The proposals for a National Health plan must be very carefully considered in the light of what we can see as a result of current limited programs.

In a practical sense, attempts to curb mandatory Health and Retirement spending growth suffer the inevitable backlash from the ‘entitled’, who object to any change which might reduce their expected standards of support.

A few minutes later the girl at the desk went on break and saw my wife in the employee lounge.

“There was a gentleman looking for you to take you to lunch.”

“Oh, what did he look like?”

“He was a fairly tall elderly man…”

The wife just couldn’t wait to tell me about that.

Added:
I should also have noted that the same kid ALSO gave me my own Domain name.. thus this blogspot based rant-fest also appears on ‘Pettyfoggery{dot}com’.

In the future, I’ll probably use the Wordpress module he installed as well, but for now the blogger edition is reflected on the site.