Liberty Belle Blog

Thirteen

libertybelleblog — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:58:11 +0000

Happy New Year! This is my first posting of the New Year, and it just so happens to also be Friday the 13^th. For anyone reading this who might be paraskevidekatriaphobic (have a fear of Friday the 13^th), you’ll be happy (or fearful) to know that this is the first of three Friday the 13^th days coming in 2012. Last year, we only had one, usually we have two per year. But not since 1984 have all the unlucky Fridays fallen 13 weeks apart! Thirteen weeks from today will be another Friday the 13^th in April, then we’ll have the third one on July 13^th. It’s enough to make the superstitious among us triskaidekaphobic (fearful of the number 13).

People who arrange their schedules on Friday the 13^th so that they aren’t flying or getting married or doing anything else really important on this day should take note that a random number, or spilling salt or a black cat walking across your path are less to be feared than some other events going on in our world. By a 2 to 1 margin, it seems many Americans are fearful that 2013 will see the current occupant of the White House staying right where he is.

According to a recent US News and World Report survey, Americans fear Obama’s re-election even more than they fear higher taxes or Iran going nuclear. But, that is just one poll and who knows who was polled, but it does go along with this topic. However, we already have three years’ worth of experience to go on with BO in the White House, so we’re familiar with his disdain for the Constitution, his desire to go around it and around Congress to do what he wants, and even his desire to be a dictator, as he said once or twice about how much easier it would be to be “president” of China.

Imagine the HopenChange that awaits us with four years more of Obama completing his “fundamental transformation of America”, unburdened by the prospect of a re-election in his future. I’d rather take a risk on a room full of broken mirrors, black cats and open umbrellas, thank you very much.

Liberal Reindeer Games

libertybelleblog — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:18:15 +0000

         It never fails that at this time of the year when we most enjoy our time-honored traditions, some liberal with too much time on his or her hands has to come along and ruin it. Last week, Professor George Giuliani, of the Department of Special Education at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, aimed his progressive pointer at “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.
      Hawking his new book, “No More Bullies at the North Pole”, Professor Giuliani told Fox News that the story of the little reindeer with the unusual feature is harmful to children. He said Santa is particularly guilty of promoting bad behavior for his treatment of Rudolph at the beginning of the story. He cites the use of the word “misfit” 27 times in the less-than-one-hour show and feels this can have a detrimental effect on children’s psyches. When Rudolph is banned from playing with the other reindeer, he says it sends the wrong message to kids about how to treat children who are different. The professor said, “Rudolph is exceptional, just as children with any emotional, learning or physical disability are…with Santa’s approval, Rudolph was treated unfairly and consistently offended, mocked and bullied by others.”
      Talk about taking a fictional story way too seriously! When I first heard about this last week, I thought that Professor Giuliani must not only be a tenured professor, but he must have come to his conclusion through research provided by a government grant. My suspicions were pretty much confirmed when I happened to catch a showing of “Rudolph” on CBS last weekend (after the good professor’s book hit the shelves). During a commercial break, lo and behold, there was a quick public service announcement with celebrity spokesperson Sharon Osbourne speaking about not being a bully or allowing yourself to be bullied. The short spot came complete with a government website.
      In Professor Giuliani’s world, just watching someone being bullied will cause a person to become a bully or a victim themselves. Since the iconic TV show first aired in 1964, that’s a lot of hurting souls walking around carrying this burden. The story of Rudolph actually came out in 1939 when it was used for an advertising campaign for Montgomery Ward. So, for more than 70 years, generations of children have been harassed by the trials of a red-nosed reindeer who actually overcomes his adversities…and this is where liberals like Professor Giuliani miss the boat.

      I don’t remember ever watching Rudolph when I was growing up and looking for its educational content. It is, you know, just a cartoon meant to entertain children at Christmastime. It accomplishes that mission every year. But let’s be like a liberal for a minute and over-think things.
      No one likes bullies, but that’s not the main point of Rudolph’s story. Instead of seeing Rudolph as a victor, the liberal professor sees him as a victim. He was one for a while, but he didn’t stay there. As he grew up, he learned he had to face who he was, face his enemies and stop running away. Everyone in the story learns something, including Santa, who admits he had been wrong. What’s wrong with a child taking that message away from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?
      One problem liberals/progressives/statists have is that they see everybody as a victim and every situation as a danger. It’s what gives them their power. They want to control everything, make life “fair” for everyone (even though life isn’t fair), equalize everything, take away risks, pain…basically, all of the things that make a person (or a reindeer) stronger.

What's next? Charlie Brown trees for everyone?

The Greatest Generation

libertybelleblog — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:43:05 +0000

It wouldn’t be right for this day to pass by without recognizing that this is the 70th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,390 American servicemen and civilians and wounding 1,282. All 8 battleships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or badly damaged – including the U.S.S. Arizona. The sudden attack prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to make his famous “Day of Infamy” speech where he stated, “With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounded determination of our people — we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.” That was back when we had a president that believed in the military (and in achieving a victory!) and in the resilience of the American people. In fact, that generation of Americans sacrificed so much to get through those years that then ushered in some of the most prosperous times in our nation’s history. As The Greatest Generation daily passes on, it’s up to the rest of us to keep their sacrifice in mind as we strive to hang on to what’s left of our freedom. If you want to see some rarely-seen footage of the attack, check it out here. Even in black and white, the images are frightening and give us just a small glimpse of what it must have been like on that day.

The USS Arizona burns on December 7, 1941

Turkeys on Parade

libertybelleblog — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:34:29 +0000

     Just in time for Thanksgiving, I thought I’d pull together some of the more recent “things you just can’t make up” that would make the turkey on your table seem like a Rhodes Scholar. Here’s a cornucopia of idiocy from those who make the headlines:
     President Obama’s been busy bad-mouthing the American people once again. A couple weeks ago, he spoke to a group of Pacific-rim business leaders and told them that “we’ve been a little lazy” in trying to get foreign investors to come here and do business. Were you using the “royal we”, Mr. President? It seems most of us have to work pretty hard just to keep up after all of your HopenChange. Most of us don’t get to take exotic vacations every other month on someone else’s dime. Incidentally, I’m sure your anti-business policies have nothing to do with turning foreigners off from the prospect of doing business here, since we have the 2nd highest corporate taxes in the world, with only Japan topping us.
     …this happened after he made the big mistake of either forgetting where he was, or maybe just not knowing it to begin with when he was speaking to an audience in Hawaii. He said, “When I meet with world leaders, what’s striking — whether it’s in Europe or here in Asia…”   Uh…you’d think he’d remember he was in his home state, the place where he was born. I guess he forgot that Hawaii is, in fact, one of the 57 states he spoke of back in the glory days of the 2008 campaign.
     Meanwhile, his friend and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Dimwit-CA) has decided that the government should run its own babysitting service. She wants to do to child care what the government has done to health care (OH NO!). She said, “When it comes to “unleashing women” in a way that would boost the economy…this is a missing link.” So, I guess she sees women who decide to have children and raise a family as being some kind of on-going detriment to our economy because they’re chained to these ghastly children. Even more hilarious is that she, a multi-millionaire, claims to know how difficult it is to find quality child care for her children. She blathered on: “I could never get a babysitter — have five kids in six years and no one wants to come to your house. . . . And everywhere I go, women say the same thing.”   Maybe the problem wasn’t a lack of good caretakers as much as it was a lack of interest in working for her. Nancy, the missing link is between the brains and the hands of the people who keep pushing the button/ pulling the lever to keep you in your position.
     Finally, the Occupy Wherever movement, that once received praise from Nancy Pelosi (“God bless them”) and other Democrats appears to be growing…but not with human participants. It seems lice, fleas, TB, ringworm, scabies (yes, that’s right, scabies!) and a new condition called “Zucotti Lung” are appearing among the occupiers in various cities. The only time I’ve ever heard of scabies was in my sixth grade health class when we learned about diseases that people in Third World nations get. Furthermore, if a movement gets its own contagious disease named after the primary location of the movement, this is not an attractive selling point. I heard one occupier being interviewed tell the reporter that these camps were small samples of what they hoped society would become. God help us! He said that with a straight face, by the way.
     Speaking of God, it’s time to wrap this up by wishing you, wherever you are, a very Happy Thanksgiving and God’s blessings on you and your family, even if you don’t believe in Him. He still believes in you and that’s something to be thankful for in these chaotic times.

Saluting the Seven Percent

libertybelleblog — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:10:28 +0000

     Happy Veteran’s Day to all those who have served, past and present. You’ve put your lives on the line, put careers on hold, spent months or years separated from loved ones…and in many cases, gave the untimate sacrifice. You did all this to preserve freedom and to bring it to those around the world who only knew oppression. We’re thankful, and it’s a debt of gratitude we’ll never be able to repay.
     Since it seems fashionable these days to speak of “percents”, i.e, ‘the 99%”, “the 1%”, “the 53%”, it doesn’t hurt to remember on this day that only a small percentage of us have ever taken the plunge to serve in some capacity in the U.S. military.
     So while “the 99%” is out in the streets creating havoc in New York, Washington, DC, Portland and Oakland, men and women better than themselves are setting aside their lives in parts of the world many of us would never venture into. The video linked here, produced in 2009 is called “It Takes a Hero” and it’s a tribute to their sacrifice.

Obamastein’s Monster

libertybelleblog — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:17:49 +0000

          Flash back three years ago to the weeks before the 2008 election. This video surfaced of a woman from Florida. This Obama supporter, who later became known only as “Peggy the Mooch”, unknowingly set the stage for the theme of the Obama presidency. When she said, “I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know. If I help [Obama], he’s gonna help me.”, she became the poster child of the entitlement mentality. And many people followed suit.
          I don’t know whatever happened to Peggy. If I had to make a guess, I’d say she’s probably still struggling even more now than she was three years ago. In spite of 3 years’ worth of stimulus boondoggles and bailouts for select groups (some student loan holders are the latest- more on that later), the economy continues to be unstable and unemployment remains high.
          Now, there’s a whole movement full of people marching in the streets, occupying major cities, demanding their “fair share” of the good life that many of them seem to believe has been denied to them. After years of indoctrination by left-wing teachers and professors, these young people- who came out in droves for Obama in 2008- look at life in America as an oppressive, unfair life where it’s impossible for the little guy to get ahead.
           Forget that many of these people protesting are attending very elite northeastern schools and major in such things as women’s studies and the oppression of underdeveloped people. They then graduate with no marketable skills in the real world, lots of debt, and they can’t find a job. So they go on for more education, taking out more loans, and the cycle goes on. They should try occupying reality and take their placards and mindless chants to the brick-lined lawns of their hallowed ivy-league schools that overcharge them for an education they have no place to use in the real world.
          But, I digress. The Occupier’s recently-released list of demands reads like a Progressive/ Socialist/ Communist utopia that, when attempted in reality, leads to no good for the general population.
          One of their demands, of course, is to have all student loan debt forgiven. As if on cue, Obama, again circumventing Congress, issued an executive order that will move up the timeline on changes to the student loan program that were part of Obamacare in 2010.
          The plan is supposed to cap student loan repayment rates at ten percent of a debtor’s income (down from 15%), and will forgive the balance of the loan after 20 years (currently 25 years in Obamacare).
          However, according to Daniel Indiviglio, associate editor of The Atlantic, the changes will unlikely have any effect on anyone over the age of 32. So if you’ve already been paying your loans off for 15 or 20 years, don’t get your hopes up. Nor will it do much to spur on the economy. Indiviglio states, “savings for the average student loan borrower would be between $4.50 and $7.75 per month.”

        Way to get the economy going! But at least we know now what the going rate is for the votes of “Gimme Generation”.  Will this get them to the polls in 2012? Time will tell. But they aren’t called “O-bots”, “Obamatons” and “Obama Zombies” for nothing.
          So go ahead kids…get your bachelors degree in basket weaving on the 8 or 10-year plan, then go on for your masters and Ph.D.’s. If you stay in school long enough, you just might not have to pay anything! Uncle Obama’s got your back.
          Isn’t this just the kind of sense of responsibility and work ethic that we want from the leaders of tomorrow?   SCARY!!!!

Fools Rush In

libertybelleblog — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:56:22 +0000

          The media continues to pump up the Occupy Wall Street protests as the far left’s answer to the Tea Parties. Anyone who really believes that doesn’t understand either movement. Where the Tea Parties have a concise, clear central message of stopping big government spending and promoting individual liberty, Occupy Wall Street (or whatever location protests are popping up) seems to run the gamut from college students who want their student loans erased, to anti-Semitic rants, anti-capitalists, killing corporate CEO’s, anarchists, old hippies and even some Tea Partiers who agree with the protesters on getting rid of the Federal Reserve and opposing bank bail-outs.
          The protests have taken place across the country including Tampa, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. Seattle, Tulsa and Nashville. Their only cohesive message seems to be their rallying cry of, “We are the 99 percent!” This, they say, refers to the majority of us who are being ruled by the wealthiest one percent (i.e. “greedy corporations”). One protestor in Sacramento, who helped organize the protests there, admitted that his team’s message was still “kind of vague” but they’re working on it. And he’s the leader of the group?
          In the nation’s capitol, The Daily Caller found several Hispanic protesters who had been paid to be there by a non-profit organization that supports rent control in D.C. They could neither understand what the signs in their hands said (the signs were in English), nor could they explain their reason for being there when the reporter asked them in Spanish.
          I suspect they may not be the only ones getting paid to protest, but that’s just my suspicion. When you peel back the layers of the Occupy movement, you find this is one onion that stinks to high heaven. It’s a little more sinister than just a bunch of college grads that are overwhelmed by debt and the fact that they can’t find a decent job.
          By all accounts, Canadian-based Adbusters.org is the catalyst for Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots. According to the website, they are primarily an “ecological magazine” (read: green extremists) that says of themselves, “Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we live in the 21st century.” [emphasis mine] Sounds a lot like Obama’s desire to “fundamentally transform America” doesn’t it? How’s that working for us?
          Many of the Wall Streeters have said they want Obama to be re-elected. They must be turning a blind eye to he who perfected the very crony capitalism they’re claiming to hate, as evidenced by his administration’s cozy ties to corporate giant General Electric (which also still has partial ownership of NBC). They have to be looking past the fact that Wall Street, by and large, supported Obama and the Democrats in 2008. Is this the one percent that the 99’ers are griping about? Somehow, I doubt it.
          You can’t watch videos of these protests without noticing the thread of hypocrisy that runs through them. Even as they rail against the big corporations that have supposedly made their lives a living hell, they reach into their Abercrombie & Fitch sweatshirts, pull out their iPhones and tweet about their activities or post pictures on their Facebook walls. Apparently, some big corporations are okay.
          Though their message(s) are all over the place, make no mistake: this is a well-funded operation. Occupy Wall Street has their own health care stations set up and its own newspaper. I never saw that at a Tea Party. Whose money is pouring into the movement? There are reports that multiple, far-left organizations are financing it, such as The Tides Foundation (connections to George Soros) and the infamous labor union, the SEIU. Suffice it to say this is no Tea Party.
          If you happen to be a conservative, libertarian or Tea Partier who’s thinking of joining in the protests, here’s a word of caution: make sure you know who it is you’re locking arms with. The protester next to you may just be someone who wants to “topple existing power structures” and replace them with something they can’t—or refuse to—identify.

September 11th- Tenth Anniversary Tribute (video)

libertybelleblog — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:01:36 +0000

     For the past decade, we’ve seen them in home videos and grainy photographs taken by friends and family, as well as professional portfolio pictures. Many are in uniform, while others are dressed for formal occasions or the beach. Most are smiling. Some of their faces have become familiar to us over the years because of their heroic actions on that day ten years ago. Some are heroes only to those who shared their lives.
     These are the faces of the victims of September 11, 2001.
In putting together this tribute for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, I spent many hours looking through lists of victims from all three sites. I read their stories and comments made about them on memorial websites by those who loved them. With the exception of just a handful of the 80 people shown, I chose them pretty randomly. I tried to give a good representation of the age range and walks of life of the people who died that day. I hope I succeeded.
     This is dedicated to all of the victims and their families.

Gone Too Soon

libertybelleblog — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:23:40 +0000

     Eleven-year-old Bernard Curtis Brown, II was like many boys his age. He liked playing basketball, even getting up early on Saturday mornings to practice. But unlike some boys his age, he loved to go to school. Because of his passion to learn, he was selected to attend a four-day National Geographic trip to California. Along with two other Washington, D.C. area students, he was looking forward to having an educational adventure at the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary.
     As the trip drew near, Bernard told his father, a Navy chief petty officer who worked at the Pentagon, that he was scared to fly. As dads do, he tried to reassure his son that he’d be all right. Ironically, as his father would later say, they talked about death during that conversation. He told his son not to be afraid, because everyone would die someday.
     When Bernard and the other two students, Asia Cottom and Rodney Dickens, both 11, boarded American Airlines Flight 77 with their chaperone, it was the morning of September 11, 2001. They never made it to their destination. Flight 77 was the plane hijacked by terrorists that crashed into the Pentagon.
     Friends and relatives of Bernard’s family called his mother, Sinita, because they were concerned about the boy’s father. To his mother’s relief, Bernard Senior was out of the office that morning. But her relief didn’t last long when she realized that the plane that crashed into the Pentagon was the one carrying her young son.
     As we look at pictures and videos of that day of terror ten years ago, we mostly see the grown-ups who were lost as they went about a regular day at work. It’s easy to forget about 9-11’s littlest victims, who boarded planes with their elders to begin what should have been an exciting new adventure.
     For the three oldest children, Bernard, Asia and Rodney, life was cut short just as they were beginning to dream about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Described as a happy and fun-loving boy, Bernard planned to take his basketball skills all the way to the top. Asia, who excelled in science and math, dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. After her death, Asia’s mother, Michelle, told NBC that God must have had a much bigger plan for her, a little girl who loved Him so much. She said, “Like most children believe in Santa Claus, this child believed in God. Who better to show the world Jesus than through a child?” As for Rodney, a 6th grader who always made the honor roll, he loved computer games and watching professional wrestling. His future looked bright, and classmates said he was always kind to other kids who needed help with their homework.
     Also on board Flight 77 was the Falkenberg family from Maryland. Dana, age 3, and Zoe, age 8, along with their parents, ended up on the doomed flight after missing a previous connecting flight on their first leg of a vacation to Australia. Dana was a typical active toddler, and Zoe excelled in school, ballet and the swim team. An entire family, gone in one tragic morning.
     Such was also the case with the young victims that were passengers on Flight 175 that struck the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Juliana McCourt, age 4, was traveling with her mother to California. In a sad twist of fate, her mother’s best friend, who was meeting them out there, was on Flight 11, which flew into the North Tower. Three-year old David Brandhorst travelled with his adopted parents, and Christine Lee Hanson, at age 2, was the youngest victim of the September 11th attacks. She was flying with her parents Peter and Sue Kim. All three families were planning to visit Disneyland.
     When a child dies, there’s something just a bit more tragic about it. It’s just not supposed to be that way. Children represent the future. When they leave, all of their potential– their gifts, their hopes and dreams– leave too. But one thing is certain: a brief life can still be a full life. After reading through memorials to these children, it seems they’ve all left their mark on the lives of those who knew them…and those who didn’t.

The Real Story

libertybelleblog — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:30:03 +0000

After a summer full of debt ceiling haggling, Republican cave-ins, pre-election season debates, presidential vacations, presidential golf games, East coast earthquakes and a hurricane (in the same week!)…the media will give Summer 2011 a big finale with their coverage of the Tenth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Beginning this weekend and continuing through September, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any major network or cable channel that will not have some sort of special to air or live coverage the day of the anniversary. The Weather Channel may be the only one, and I’m not sure they aren’t planning to cover it in some way.

Perhaps the most outrageous special that I’ve seen advertised will be on the Biography Channel, where you’d expect things to have a little more substance. However, ”When Pop Culture Saved America: The 9-11 Story” sounds like it will be more fluff from a bunch of mostly B-list celebrities telling us how they felt it was their duty to get the country laughing again. Gee, I don’t know what I would have done in the days following 9-11 without the comedic genius of Gilbert Gottfried. You’ve got to be kidding me! Come on, Biography Channel, you can do better than that.

Pop culture most definitely did NOT save America after 9-11-01. Americans saved America by putting aside our differences to pray for the victims and their families…by volunteering in our communities…by donating blood to the point where blood drives were turning people away…and by attending church in record numbers. Americans looked to each other, and to God- not Hollywood- for comfort. It’s a foolish individual indeed, who turns to Hollywood and, I might add, Washington, in times of trial and tragedy. This is just another way to turn a world event into another “look at me” moment for people constantly needing to make the story about themselves.

The specials that I’m planning to watch are going to focus on what happened and to whom. I don’t care about commentary from Dan Rather or Gilbert Gottfried. I want to know how the survivors who escaped from the buildings are doing now. I want to hear from the wives of the firefighters who left home that morning and never returned. What about a special on the stories of New York City 9-1-1 operators who took some of those calls from people trapped in the World Trade Center? How is Lisa Beamer and her family been doing in the ten years since losing their husband and father (Todd Beamer, United 93)? Who could tire of the accounts of the heroes who rushed in to save people, and everyday office workers who became heroes when they led their colleagues through smoke and fire to get to safety, just in the nick of time?

There are millions of stories like these that can and should be told every year on the anniversary. We shouldn’t rest until every story is told. Only in remembering what we lost that day can we stay vigilant, so that it never happens again.