On Politics. Seneca said,"Flies follow honey, wolves corpses, ants food, the mob follows the pay, not the man."(Emphasis mine) Isn't it interesting. Makes you wonder about the legitimacy of a presidency won by the promise of handouts.

On Politics. Day one of Obamanation has begun and Hillary is Secretary of State. Yeah.
Many commentators said it was a bad speech for Obama. I think I know why I did not think it was so bad. It was because it was not a typical Obama speech. It lacked the usually Obama soaring rhetoric that I cannot stand. He might not have said anything of substance yesterday, but at least he did not do it with all the empty, towering, flowery language. I can barely stand to listen to him normally; coupled with all the stuttering when he is off the teleprompter,empty rhetoric drives me crazy.
The big story of the day is Obama ordering the closing of Guantanamo. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, the most important one being that these guys are dangerous and cannot be released. Nor should they be brought to the United States under any circumstances. Nor should they be given access to American courts. They were trying to kill us without the benefit of a uniform. This little detail puts them out of the jurisdiction of conventional prisoner of war rights. He will be making a big mistake if he actually can pull this off.
The stock market dropped yesterday for the largest inaugural day sell off ever. That does not bode well for the future years of the Obama administration. If he continues with the economic policies of his, it is going to continue to drop because his policies undermine the economy with debt, individual responsibility with handouts, and business with regulation. As Ronald Reagan said, "Government is not the answer to the problem; government is the problem." And that is still true, if not more so today.

On Politics. Well, it is done. He is now President Obama and the resistance, the loyal opposition must go to work. His speech is, of course, good speechifying, but he made his first mistake in his first sentences. He is the forty-fourth president, but only forty-three men have taken the oath. Grover Cleveland was sworn in twice in non-consecutive terms, making him the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth president. Obama began by saying that forty-four men had taken that oath. So we have mistake number one. And we will be watching for the rest of them, and we will oppose him at every turn that takes this country away from the foundational, conservative principles on which this country was built. The economic principles are the real tripping point, but they grow out of a misguided understanding of what has made this country great and what the principles are that will ultimately preserve her.
His "New Era of Responsibility" is undermined by the government's promise of rescue from hardship and of guarantees against failure. Responsibility is only supported by the ultimate need to survive on our own, not by looking to government for a handout. These are interesting times, indeed.
Over all it was a good speech; however, it is what he takes his words to really mean and to what degree he is actually able to carry them out that is important here. Unfortunately, I believe that the meaning he places on words like "freedom", "liberty", and "responsibility" may not be the same as a conservative might place on them. We'll have to wait and see.
On the positive side thought, this peaceful transfer of power is perhaps the most remarkable of American experiences, and today added to that is the fact that a black man who once would not have been allowed to work in the White House except as domestic help is accepting that mantel of power. I need to look up the exact circumstance, but in 1939 black singer, Marian Anderson was forced to sing on the steps of the Lincoln memorial because she was not allowed in Constitutional Hall, the concert hall in Washington, D.C. Today a black man will live in the White House as president. It is a historic moment.
The ideologies of the man, however, are Marxist, and because of that vigilance will be required to preserve this nation. Whether his policies reflect his ideology or simply political expediency remains to be seen. There is no division of power that occurs when one party controls the White House and the other controls the Congress. If he can get the Congress to go along with him, he has an open field down which to run the ball. I have absolutely no doubt that he will take full and complete advantage of that.
Also, the stock market is down today which is not being mentioned anywhere. Hopefully, someone will get around to noticing at some point today.
I am going to quit before I depress myself any further and go read the Faerie Queene, that 16th century best-seller by Edmund Spenser. More on that later.

When Politics and Literature Meet. I am preparing for my first literature test, and I started re-reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when I was taken aback by the first lines: "The knight that had knotted the nets of deceit/ Was impeached for his perfidy, proven most true." If our politicians are the modern day knights then Blago is the knight in these lines. It is very poetic that the translation even uses the word "impeached."

Well, today Rush said what I said two days ago. We should not be rooting Obama to succeed. If he does succeed, he will be implementing policy that is blatantly Marxist and will harm our nation for years if not generation to come. He is not pro-capitalism. He is not pro-small government. He is not even pro-liberty and freedom. He wants to take away our freedom and liberty in the name of saving us from ourselves. He will destroy capitalism in the name of helping us through this financial crisis. He will do it all by implementing Marxist policies that failed in the old Soviet Union and at Jamestown and Plymouth in the early days of our county. Yes, that is right, we have already tried ties principles of community and government control and they failed. It was called the Common Store system. All land was held in common and all goods produced from that land were put in a common storehouse. In return everyone could take what they needed regardless of what they had contributed. In both cases most of the colony died before individual responsibility and initiative was reinstated in the form of free enterprise and capitalism. Then the colonies prospered and grew. That is the lesson from our history that is no longer taught and is ignored by the politicians in this country in their lust for power. What better way to hold sway and power over the people than to convince them that they cannot care for themselves, nothing is their fault, and that the government can do a better job and that everyone will be better off than ever before.

We are being lied to, and no one is calling them on it. Well, many people are but not the people in the House and the Senate or any of the people Obama is appointing to make up his government.

We are in deep trouble. It is time for right thinking Americans to speak out, get involved, and stop this nonsense.

On Politics. This was a great day in the annals of crazy American politics. The Senate refused to seat Roland Burris, Gov. Blago's appointed choice to take Obama's Senate seat. This is an ironic situation since the very Democrats who say they are against racism are now practicing it. It is hard to call it anything else since that seat had belonged to a black man and it makes perfect sense to appoint another one to the seat. Well, maybe. I don't believe that, but there are plenty of people who do and they are not happy. In addition, I suspect that the appointment is legal and Senator Reid has no grounds for not seating him except for the fact that the Illinois Secretary of State refused to certify his paperwork. That will no doubt be remedied by the Illinois court very soon and then he will have to be seated. The problem will be in what everyone says and does in the meantime. The whole Illinois situation has been ridiculous and it shows no sign of getting better, so the drama will continue. I must say that I thought there would be nothing to do after the election was over, but I got that one wrong. This is keeping me listening and reading almost as much as during the endless campaign.
Also I do have one thing to say about Obama's line about there only being one president at a time.... Hey, you are not him. If he makes one more announcement/proclamation with a wall of flags behind him, I will be sick. I think he could be in a real hole by the time he is sworn in. I hope so anyway. Unlike many so called conservatives for whom I no longer have any respect, I do not wish him well, nor do I want him to succeed. I want him to be miserable and to earn a Republican legislature in 2010 and a ticket back to Chicago in 2012.
On Books. I have just finished reading Little Brother by Corey Doctorow. The tech geeks and hackers win by spying on Big Brother. It is full of scary things that can be done with a computer and should give those of us who only know how to check our email pause. My advice after reading it is to get a good security program and then don't do anything illegal. 'Nuf said.
On Walking. I am doing a great deal of it now. This is my sole New Year's resolution. I figure I need to be walking 40 or 50 miles a week to get ready to hike the Appalachian Trail. I have to clock the trip in the car but is a mile and half from the park to the end of the trail. Then to the Family Video is maybe another mile. At any rate, walking with no radio was actually nice. The news is easy to catch up on later.