Just A Year Ago...

...there was a huge brouhaha over the newly elected Pope. Remember the abuse the MSM heaped on Benny. Pope Benedict was the worst of the worst it seemed to those of us who read the accounts and listened to network news.

Does anybody remember any earth shattering news from Benny in the last year?

Just a thought.

High Gas Prices and Democrats

Ann Coulter remembers. Amazing how those Democrats forget things they propose from time to time. Ann doesn't let them off the hook.

The last time the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency
was in 1993. Immediately after trying to put gays in the military and socialize
all health care, Clinton's next order of business was to propose an energy tax
on all fuels, including a 26-cent tax on gas. I think the bill was called
"putting people first in line at the bus station." Al Gore defended the gas tax,
vowing that it was "absolutely not coming out" of the energy bill regardless of
"how much trouble it causes the entire package." The important thing was to
force Americans to stop their infernal car-driving, no matter how much it cost.

Yeah, I remember that. It just slipped my mind for a little while. Amazing how the media doesn't remind us these things. Remember this?

Gary Hart, another whimsical demonstration of what Democrats think a
president should be like, said at the time, "I certainly favor consumption
taxes, particularly on energy." Then there's John Kerry, who favored a 50-cent
increase in the gas tax in 1994. If he were a rap artist, Kerry's stage name
would be "Fifty Cent a Gallon."

Oh that Ann. What a sense of humor. Sometimes it tends to cloud the points she makes. That's a shame because normally her points are pretty clear. Like this one.

The Democrats' only objection to current gas prices is that the federal
government's cut is a mere 18.4 cents a gallon. States like New York get another
44 cents per gallon in taxes. The Democratic brain processes the fact that "big
oil companies" get nearly 9 cents a gallon and thinks: WE SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT
MONEY! When the free market does the exact thing liberals have been itching to
do through taxation, they pretend to be appalled by high gas prices, hoping the
public will forget that high gas prices are part of their agenda.

So you see, ladies and gentlemen, as the Democrats whine and carp about gasoline prices, they are merely campaigning for votes. They will not be exposed by most media sources for some reason. But people like Ann Coulter will point things out that most of us have forgotten.

Just an observation.

Supreme Court Cameras Not A Good Idea

Allow Ol' BC to disagree with this high profile MSNBC blogger. I personally believe that cameras have no place in the SCOTUS. Period. I have no idea what the Senate Judiciary Committee was thinking. The blog had one interesting comment -

Well this could mean Justice Souter will be taken out on a gurney.
After all, he once said, “The day you see a camera in our courtroom is going to
be over my dead body.”

While it seems I seldom agree with Justice Souter, in this case I do.

Then there's Justice Scalia who said he would not be opposed to a camera if
and only if somehow the media could be forced to present the arguments from
beginning to end.

Well, I happen to think the world of Scalia. In this case, however, I think he should know better. This would never happen. The media always seems to edit to meet their own ends. I guess it could be said ...they lie. Some traditions are better left alone.

Just a thought.

Justice Stevens To Retire?

You heard it here. It could happen in a couple of weeks. Cross your fingers everyone.

Can you imagine the war of wars if Dubya puts forth a real conservative? Those committee hearings could be landmark types. Venom could be spewing all over the room. Wow!

Just a thought.

Back From Vacation!! Now Read This.

After spending several days in sunny Florida, I returned home to find an e-mail from my son with a really good post. It says so much of what I've been saying for quite some time now. For example -

Most of all, I resent you spending my money and the money of my children,
my future grandchildren and maybe my great grandchildren as well. You did one
good thing by passing a significant tax cut. Because of that, the economy is
doing well, but if you don't tie spending restraint into this picture, you won't
like it when the picture changes.
You have failed miserably at reforming the
way government works. And, I'm not sure you even think we have noticed. You are
going blithely about your business as though we were too stupid not to notice.
Well, you are wrong. Further, you are wrong on so many counts. We expect good
government and we are not getting it with you in charge. If we wanted all this
scandal, spending like there is no tomorrow etc., we would have kept the
Democrats in place in '94. But, we wanted change. You started off right but
quickly lost your way.
So, I'm putting you on notice. You will have to EARN
my vote this year, and you have damn little time to do it. You need to clean up
your act and you need to start now. Not next week, not next month, not next
year. Now!

That sums it up nicely. It is worth a couple of minutes to read the entire post, however.

Just an observation.

Closed Heart Surgery - Yeah!!

The thought of having heart surgery without having your ribs split and your rib cage laid open sounds much more appealing to Ol' BC. How about not having to stop your heart? Now were talking. Read about it here.

The need for a less invasive alternative is huge, and growing. Already,
about 50,000 Americans undergo open-heart surgery every year to replace the
aortic valve: Surgeons saw the breastbone in half, stop the heart, cut out the
old valve and sew in a new one. Even the best patients spend a week in the
hospital and require two or three months to recuperate.
Thousands more are
turned away, deemed too ill to survive that operation and out of options. Demand
is poised to skyrocket as the baby boomers gray, because the aortic valve is
particularly vulnerable to rusting shut with age.

Awesome baby!!

Just an observation.