I can't take it anymore...

I know it's been an eon since I've posted, but Facebook has taken control of my online life. If you really want to know what's up with me, go there. Now, for the reason I've posted.

I am going to officially boycott history Tuesday. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION. I'll tell you why.

The consistent cross-outlet fawning over PE Obama is disgusting. The ten official inaugural balls are opulence in a time where frugality is needed. $150M? Come on. Four years ago, the media decried Pres. Bush for having any sort of gala at all. "Too expensive." "Unnecessary." Where are they now? They are silent and complicit in this. It is, after all, their doom and glooming which in my opinion, contributed to the outcome of the election. The consistent character assassination of both Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, playing the old "Republicans are doofuses, dummies and dolts" card, was so transparent. The hero worship aboard Obama Force One by media reporters was about as far from objective journalism as you can get. Chris Matthews's tingle on his leg moment actually made me wretch a little in my mouth.

What did the losing side do in 2001? They cried "thief" when the election was won in the Electoral College by G.W. Bush. They then spent the next four years complaining about the illegitimate president who "stole" the White House. When he kicked Kerry's can in 2004, they complained again that "millions were disenfranchised." Complain. Complain. Complain. We just found out what the liberal loudmouth machine does when their guy wins: they spend millions of dollars--many of them my and your tax dollars--and throw a party...er...multiple parties.

What does $150M buy?

• At $250K a pop, you could apply a personal housing bailout to 600 people.
  
• At the new low price of oil of about $60 a barrel, you could add almost 4.2 million barrels of oil to the strategic reserve.
• The military could purchase 18 additional Predator MQ-9Bs and drop some crap on idiots around the world who are causing such a ruckus--like Hamas kooks in Gaza or Taliban fools in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
• Give every teacher in my now-home state of Idaho an $11,000 raise. (That's the 13,328 non-administrative members of the IEA--the union leadership doesn't need a raise. They need to be fired, along with every other teacher union hack in America.)

I could think of a million other uses for Obama's millions, but The One has decided that the best use of these funds, and the taxpayer dollars used to secure law enforcement support, etc. is to have a Bruce Springsteen concert for Mom and Dad and the JoBros with Miley Cyrus for the kids.

Guess which mouse-themed network we will NOT be watching in our house come Tuesday?

Current Temperature in Hell: 34 degrees Fahrenheit and falling?

If you're familiar with the UK weekly "The Guardian" then you're aware that their M.O. is usually to bash the U.S., and over the last eight years, to ridicule, belittle and besmirch the Bush administration. That's what makes this column all the more unexpected.

It basically sums up--from a much larger pulpit--what I've felt all along: George W. Bush, although not perfect, has been right on the War on Terror in general and the pursuit of al-Qaeda elsewhere in the world. He understood clearly, post-9/11, the threat that islamists would pose to freedom and democracy worldwide, and took the fight to their yard. A few excerpts:

The theocratic barbarism responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers was driven not by what America and its allies had done, but by what we represented.

He continues:

The most fundamental decision in western security policy in the past seven years has not been the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It has been the recognition that the most voluble adversaries of western society are not merely a criminal subculture, and still less an incipient liberation movement. Rather, they are a reactionary, millenarian and atavistic force with whom accommodation is impossible as well as intensely undesirable.

Read the entire article. It's not a pro-Bush honk, but a seemingly objective look at the overall Bush policy of pursuit in lieu of passivity.

Mitt and Jeff Jacoby

Jeff Jacoby is an opinion columnist for the decidedly non-conservative Boston Globe. I recently was emailed a column in which former Massachusetts governor and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the subject.

In it, Mr. Jacoby documents some of the recent religious bigotry that has been on display as Mr. Romney has campaigned for office. In my observation of Mr. Romney, I have seen a man who, together with his family, has been nothing but gracious to those who hate him not for the man he is, but for the faith he professes, and a man who has shown nothing but class in the face of this medieval approach to religion in America.

Mr. Jacoby offers up this little nugget from our Constitution. So ask yourself: Who, in this dialogue, is being more "un-American" in light of the Constitution? The candidate or the mudslinger?

Read what the mudslingers Mr. Jacoby refers to have to say and you be the judge:

- In Florida, televangelist Bill Keller informs his 2.4 million e-mail subscribers: "If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!"

- Another evangelical leader, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president R. Philip Roberts, tells an international Christian conference that the Mormon claim to be the true Christian church is the "overarching and primary concern" behind evangelical opposition to Romney's candidacy.

- The Associated Press reports that a Romney trip to New Hampshire "started on a sour note" when Al Michaud, a Dover resident and self-identified liberal, shouted, "I'm one person who will not vote for a Mormon" and refused to shake Romney's hand.

- In Warren County, Iowa, the local chairman of Senator John McCain's presidential campaign reportedly tells Republican activists that the Mormon Church funds the terrorist organization Hamas and treats women the way the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

- Al Sharpton, during a debate with atheist Christopher Hitchens, gratuitously says of Romney: "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways."

- The Politico, a popular Washington e-zine, publishes an essay by veteran Democratic strategist Garry South, who says Romney should be hectored on whether he "personally believes" Mormonism's "offensive" teaching that mainstream Christianity is "an abomination."

Now go back and read that little nugget I referred to from the Constitution. Who's trying to rewrite that document? Who's trying to apply a religious test? Who needs to go back to school for a little historical remediation?