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My Trip to Candy Cane Lane

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Friday, November 28, 2008 11:01:30 PM
Those who are not from Los Angeles probably aren't aware of Candy Cane Lane, or more precisely Lubao St. in Woodland Hills.  CCL is a street where every house is decorated with elaborate decorations for Christmas.  Tonight however, my children sat patiently in the car as we found about 2 houses decorated and they gasped with excitement as if they'd seen Elvis instead of a lone lighted plastic Santa.  It seems that it is very difficult to find the start date for CCL.  The end is after New Years.  Some neighbors told me to come back in a couple of weeks. But Burbank's very own Florence St is its own sort of CCL thanks to one house who is just getting going this year. For your enjoyment : http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3067482652/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3066641001/ ,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3067479390/ , and http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3067478078/ . We'll give it another go next weekend and update you on the results.

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Black Friday Update

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Friday, November 28, 2008 5:21:49 PM
I went to a couple of stores and the sales lines are very short.  There didn't appear to be many shoppers at all. True I went to Rite Aid and Trader Joe's but there didn't seem to be mad rush to shop for cotton balls or canned sardines for loved ones this year.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Thursday, November 27, 2008 9:09:40 AM
Other than Independence Day, Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday. Many of the Jewish holidays' celebrations are at the dinner table.  Thanksgiving is the American Seder.  It is a holiday to express gratitude, gratitude to God for the blessings given.  Dennis Prager says that gratitude is a primary ingredient for happiness and without happiness is impossible.  We have much to be grateful for as a people.  This is still the greatest nation on earth, the greatest in the history of mankind.   We are blessed to live here. We all should be grateful to the soldiers who are away from their families to keep us a free nation.  They fight so we don't have to. We should be also grateful to the soldier's families who sacrifice their loved ones at this time and throughout the year. There have been many proclamations over the years but I am partial to Abraham Lincoln's http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm . 

Myself I am grateful for my salvation and faith, my wife and children, my mom and dad, brothers and sisters, their spouses and my nephews. I am grateful for my grandmother.  I am grateful for my wife's family.  I am grateful for very good friends some old (I mean I have known a long time) and some recent.  I am grateful for my job and our company which has weathered tough times in the past and God willing will weather these as well.  I am grateful for life and health.   

Happy Thanksgiving and may God bless you and keep you.

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Question Authority

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 1:06:28 PM
I was wondering if all the nutjobs who "question authority" are going to continue now that the authority is their guy.  The same folks who think 9/11 is an inside job will trust anything the new government does because he is one of them.  People on the left never do anything bad.  I agree with Dennis Prager that big everything is usually bad and at the least inefficient.  I don't like big business as well as big government.  The left puts its faith in government bureaucrats but hate big business who pay the freight.  The thought occurred to me this morning as I ponder the rush to throw even more platitudes on the President Elect. He is the best President Elect ever.  Why can't he take over right now?  He's been compared to Lincoln and Jesus Christ without doing any governing yet.  Will the left embrace tax cuts if their leader supports them to spur the economy? Will the left accept the change of appointing the entire Clinton administration including Sox the cat (thank you Iowahawk)?  We shall see but I suspect the hysteria is just beginning.
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Another Reason to Be Happy?

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Monday, November 24, 2008 6:29:13 PM
We still have Iowahawk. Read this and not cry laughing. I dare you. http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/11/obama-names-bill-clinton-to-president-post.html
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Went to Costco Today

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Sunday, November 23, 2008 8:22:28 PM
I have a couple of observations.  Costco should scrap charging for membership and start charging for parking.  I think the average shopper would have preferred to pay a valet 10 bucks vs the stalking shoppers like a shark stalking swimmers in shallow water to paraphrase Dave Barry.  After a nearly twenty minute crawl the the parking lot looking for a place or just looking for a chance to leave, I finally found a spot and rushed inside to get the 2 items that I forgot from last night's run.  Inside was the same gridlock of shopping carts throughout the store.  I found myself driving my cart in such an aggressive manner that had it been my car, my insurance would have been revoked.  This was further complicated by two things : 1.) Costco employees moving up and down the cramped aisles with hand trucks to refill the shelves.  I do consider this a necessary evil but 2.) The sample tables.  Anyone who has been to Costco knows the routine.  People are hired to give shoppers samplers of various products like sausage, cheese, crackers, etc.  On a good day where time wasn't a factor, one could have a complete meal of small samples, a Costco Tapas if you will.  True the combination of random foods may not sit well in your stomach but no one is worse for wear and some times you actually buy something being showcased.  But for the love of all that is good, couldn't Costco forgo this from now until after Christmas?  People will jam up an aisle to get their sausage sample and you just want to get past them.  Unfortunately for Costco, the economy as a whole, but fortunate for me personally, no one was buying anything and I got out in under five minutes.  It seems there was a lot of people just hanging out there or perhaps with the collapse of all other investments, maybe the most valuable assets people have at Costco are their parking spaces and are waiting for the price to go up before they leave or perhaps they are just having dinner. 
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Thoughts on Prop. 8

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Sunday, November 23, 2008 1:03:47 PM
and the fallout.  For the record, I voted for Prop 8 but think the courts and activists for same sex marriage have not helped their cause and have probably helped fuel the anti-same sex marriage side.  Ironically, Barack Obama helped get Prop. 8 passed.  Over 70% of blacks in California voted for the measure. Many blacks in California and the country as a whole were voting for the first time enthused by the prospect of the first black President.  Many blacks are devout Christians who feel, as it is stated in the Bible, that homosexuality is an abomination to God.  Many also resent the parallel being drawn between their struggle with civil rights and equality.  Say what you will but homosexuals are not struggling economically.  They tend to be more educated and when you combine that with the lack of children generally, they are more affluent than their hetero counterparts.  Children bring riches beyond measure but not in the pocket book.  My daughter wants to look in my wallet and I reply, "nothing has been in there since you and your brother were born." 

The problem is, as I see it, that ultimately the two positions are not reconcilable because they are mutually exclusive.  I see a parallel with the Palestinians and the Jews.  There will NEVER be peace between the two because they both want the same piece of land, the land that is Israel today.  The Palestinians could have today a working state in the West Bank and Gaza. They don't want it. They see their land extending to the Mediterranean. Similarly civil unions will never be acceptable as an alternative for activist gays because it is something different from marriage even if by name only. In California today people can have all the rights of marriage except to call it marriage under civil unions.  They want marriage.  I don't believe they want marriage to get married.   They want it because it would mean societal acceptance of them and homosexuality.  Much like I think many blacks wanted any black President more than they wanted Barack because it would mean the society as a whole has accepted them.  Society already has.  If entertainment and sports are any guide, the most popular members of our society are black. I thought it funny that someone with the money and ultimate power of Oprah Winfrey needed Barack's win.  She needed a black President. 

I am neither black nor gay so perhaps my perspective would be different if I were members of these groups.  The courts are not the solution however.  Just as court ordered affirmative action didn't help move along black acceptance.  Court ordered gay marriage will not force society accept gays either.  To the contrary, societal change happens better slowly and incrementally.  Like Roe vs Wade fired up the religious right, a group that always stayed clear of political action, court decisions regarding gay marriage will only and fuel to the fire of those against and will not help their cause either.

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Oh Happy Day.....

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Sunday, November 23, 2008 11:29:10 AM
I am in a good mood.  I was on Friday and mostly still am.  Sure the market finally had a good day. President Elect Obama seems to be appointing grown ups and pragmatists to the cabinet.  I had a decent week at work.  Jack managed to crank out three good songs in a row on my commute home.  Does anyone else remember "On the Loose" by Saga? Love that song. 

I got my Christmas ornaments and house decorations out of storage. Since our plan is to decorate on Thanksgiving day, I needed to get them this weekend when I had the chance.  I am the guy with the ridiculously large inflatable lighted Christmas decorations on his tiny front lawn.  I own a total of five but could only put up three for space and electric issues.  Since the giant snow globe (something like this but bigger http://www.netshops.com/cart/shopper.cfm?action=view&key=JMW012&tid=JMW012&source=channel_intelligence_gbase&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=JMW012-1)
takes up half the lawn, I only have room for the inflatable Christmas tree and Homer Santa.  I asked my daughter if we should remove one of the three for the inflatable polar bears and she said no.  We put them up yesterday morning and already had neighbors come by to see. 
I love Christmas and the Christmas season.  For us Christians, the Nativity followed by the Resurrection represents real hope for mankind and not false hope in elected leaders.  Ultimately our fate as a nation, people and individually is in God's hands and my personal hope is that like Abraham negotiating with God over the fate of Sodom, we will have at least ten righteous people that make us worth sparing in the eyes of the Almighty.  As long as I can keep focused on things eternal, I will keep in joyous mood. 

UPDATE: I decided the polar bears would be lonely in the garage and had to get them up to.  To see a picture of the scene (mess) in my front lawn, click here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3054009002/ and here at night : http://www.flickr.com/photos/32730061@N06/3054821988/


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Iowahawk's Talk on Auto Bailout

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Sunday, November 23, 2008 11:15:15 AM
I must say that I am still torn on the issue.  I have heard good arguments on both sides and naturally my libertarian tendencies would lead me to take a position solidly against.  We still need an industrial base as a nation however. We still need someone to make tanks and humvees for our military.  The problem is that the American auto industry is not competitive with the Japanese.  The Japanese are now operating manufacturing plants in our country without the UAW and with much lower labor costs. The labor costs include the wages, medical benefits, and of course retirement of workers.  Because of contracts negotiated during the salad days, the American car companies are forced to pay out ridiculously generous medical benefits and pensions to past workers.  This is by definition are a drain on productivity.   This is  not a 401k where money is set aside for the worker to do as he/she wishes after retirement.  This is set income benefit that is paid regardless of amount paid into any fund and regardless of the financial situation of the company itself.  The only other place you see such unsustainable benefits is in government which brings me to Iowahawk and his take on the bailout. http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2008/11/lemon.html

Now if the bailout included a renegotiation of union contracts to substantially lower the health care costs and pension benefits to make the industry more profitable, I would come down solidly on the bailout side. The problem is the Obama, Pelosi and Reid.  Does anyone think they would make the slightest move that is seen as anti labor?  So in the end the money will likely be more and more thrown in the wormhole and we'll be back here in a year or less with more money being needed by the taxpayer.  Even worse, the government takes over the running of the auto industry and does so with the same efficiency as Amtrak and Medicare.

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News News News

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Friday, November 21, 2008 2:58:04 AM
With our stock portfolio in the toilet, my business down, and all around gloominess everywhere, I am desperate to find some good news.  My friend Ken is an optimist.  He actually thought McCain was going to win. He didn't hope it so, he thought it so, until Ohio and then we were done.  I would look to him for a bit of good news regarding the election and like the kid digging through the manure looking for the pony, he would provide some poll or article or theory as to why McCain would ultimately win. 

I now find myself out there searching for good news amid the bad news.  Here is a taste of the bad news round up from today : Here's a ditty from Reuters saying the sun has set on the U.S. as the dominant wold super power.  http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSN2041155720081120Now our friends on the left rejoice in this fact but people should remember how the dark ages followed the fall of Rome. 

The world economies are dominated by fear according to Financial Times of London. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b5f0d60-b743-11dd-8e01-0000779fd18c.html . That can't be good.

Pirates rule the seas. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5192674.ece

The government is warning of a massive quake....in Missouri. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AJ9EV20081120?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Even the Weather Channel is laying off staff.  http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2008/11/19/weather_channel_layoffs.html .

So here is the only good news, by comparison, I could find. Secretary of State Hillary. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94J2P682&show_article=1
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My Daughter

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Monday, November 17, 2008 11:26:07 PM
Announced tonight that she isn't going to work or do anything when she gets older.  She is just going to be given stuff.  Our first reaction was, how did we raise a Democrat? But alas, she is only 4 and I think they, children, all start out as Democrats whining about everything and wanting to be given everything without anything in return. Hopefully we can change that. Hope and Change we can can believe in.
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How Obama Got Elected

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Monday, November 17, 2008 10:49:34 PM
This is the new film project by John Ziegler, former talk show host at KFI in Los Angeles. His previous documentary "Blocking the Path to 9/11" about ABC's refusal to release the made for TV film "Path to 9/11" on DVD for purely political reasons, was well received. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305546/.  Here he exposes an ignorant electorate made so by a media actively campaigning for Obama.  Check out the 10 minute tease from the upcoming documentary and you'll be shocked and outraged. http://www.howobamagotelected.com/
You can check out Ziegler on H&C here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hppMh1DC2z4
When you also listen to this segment from the Howard Stern show where his interviewer interviews voters in Harlem about the upcoming election, you get a picture of an ignorant electorate, an electorate that can be easily lead down any path.  http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=194983


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Oh, Why Didn't Anyone Think of That Before

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Sunday, November 16, 2008 10:52:52 PM
The problem of the Arabs and the Jews is simple yet unresolvable.  The Jews would like to have their land that even discounting divine promise, they have lived on for hundred of years.  Most of the land was purchased by Jews moving to Israel from their scattered places throughout the globe.  The rest has been won in war, wars that Israel did not start. There has NEVER been an Arab state operating on the land that is Israel.  Mohamed never even set foot there.  The Arabs use the Palestinians as a tool. They can appease their own people by constantly blaming Israel and the Jews for all of their woes.  The Arabs, on the other hand, want all of the land the Jews "occupy" which runs right up to the Mediterranean Ocean.  I believe that even if the Jews gave them that and moved to say, New Jersey, Arabs would be hunting down and killing them there, the hatred runs that deep. Much of the "occupied" land including the west bank and the Golan heights exist to buffer Israel from attack.  Right now Hamas is launching rockets from Gaza into Israel.  This is land Israel gave back. The exact same thing would happen from the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.  It is unfortunate by true that every time Israel has tried to make peace, they have been attacked, savagely.  For the record, there was an Arab country that had peace with Israel, it was when Lebanon was a majority Christian country.  It was also a democracy, a working one at that. It used to be described as the Miami or Paris of the middle east.  No more. 

So after a couple of thousand years of Jew hatred in the Arab world and sixty years since Israel's founding, apparently the solution is something simple. http://hotair.com/archives/2008/11/16/obama-will-back-saudi-peace-plan/

Glad we'll have that settled then.  If the above story is true, naivete and/or supreme arrogance can only be used to describe our President Elect in this matter.  It may be they he is once again floating a trial balloon to see what flies like the Hillary Secretary of State which is something that I think would be good for President Obama and the country.

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Secretary of State Clinton

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:36:54 PM
I heard today that President Elect Obama is strongly considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/13/hillary_clinton_secretary_of_s.html?hpid=topnews . This would be smart move for Obama on several levels. First and foremost he'd be following the advice of political strategist Michael Corleone, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." I am convinced that outside the Bible, much of human wisdom is found in GF I and II.  She may want to challenge him in 2012 particularly if things aren't going well. This will be nearly impossible from within his administration. Secondly it gets her involved in an area that she has no expertise really.  A big threat to him would be her meddling in health care for example.  Third this would assure Hillary supporters come back to the fold of Obama.  Despite all the hype, many did vote for McCain Palin after all.  The real question is would she want it. It did give me some joy to hear the Arab countries hate him now because of his selection of a Jew as chief of staff.  The honeymoon was short lived indeed. As I have said before, his support for Israel is irrelevant if perception is to the contrary. Even if Barack loves Israel in his heart, it doesn't matter if Tehran perceives him to be wavering and uses the opportunity to attack.  Hopefully, God willing, it won't come to that.
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Obama Plans to Reverse Bush Policy on Stem Cell Research and Off Shore Drilling

Posted by RepublicanEvangelist on Monday, November 10, 2008 11:11:42 PM
The headline from the Times of London says it all http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5122336.ece  .

A President Obama is paying back two of his key constituents : the environmentalists and the abortion lobby.  I am a Christian who believes life begins at conception.  I am also a man who's wife lost four babies to miscarriage before our daughter was born.  Not one of those miscarriages was considered or referred to as a fetus by us or anyone else.  We lost our babies.  To me there is something fundamentally wrong to sacrifice the young to preserve the old.  It is like the movie Soylent Green in reverse http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/  . If you haven't seen, the movie takes place in the future where the world has run out of food so old people were sent off to be put down and turned into food.  Even if embryonic stem cell research yielded a cure (it hasn't although adult stem cell research has proved promising), I would still be against federal funding of it on moral grounds.  I am also against government funding of research on libertarian grounds as well.  As a general rule,  things that cannot be funded by the private sector using the market are probably not promising in the first place. Private investors want to make money and they put their money into things that have upside potential.  Why is it that liberal talk radio must be subsidized and conservative talk radio survives on private money? The reason is no one wants to listen to liberal talk radio and it needs to be subsidized.  Here is a private sector example of subsidies not working: the WNBA.  No one goes to the games at least compared to their male counterpart. I would bet money that more women attend NBA games than WNBA games.  They are subsidized by their male counterpart because they cannot survive on their own. This subsidy I don't object to because it is private money.  If the average NBA fan doesn't mind paying an extra 5 bucks or so a ticket to subsidize something they aren't watching, it is none of mine or anyone else's business.  With government funding of research, they are replacing the private sector and the market with bureaucrats.  One more example of government subsidizing inefficiencies, the switchover to digital television which will happen in February of 2009.  In case you didn't know, the government is sending out coupons worth $40 to people to keep their old televisions working. That is right, the taxpayers are subsidizing technology that is over 60 years old.  I am sure it cost the government substantially more than $40 per coupon to administer the program.  Government involvement in the arts has mostly been a disaster for the arts. Why is it that the best classical music being made these days, according to Dennis Prager, is being done as soundtracks?  This is because if something is good, for the most part, they can sell it. If something is bad, you need a government subsidy to keep it going, like at a university.  Do you think classical music would have been as great if they money were handed out by German bureaucrats?  Do you think the great painters would have produced such great art if they were existing on government subsidies and didn't have to please people?  Just remember that Shakespeare sold tickets to people at the Globe and therefore had to produce something they wanted to buy.


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