I want to take a moment to apologize for up and disappearing on all of you several months ago. I’m afraid that shortly before the Christmas holidays, things got kind of crazy around my house. I found myself having some health problems, and in the midst of doctors and tests and things, I just couldn’t handle politics.

I kept meaning to come on here and write a post, explaining where I was and that I’d be taking a short break. But honestly, I was so mentally loopy from all the pain medication and just being under the weather, that I literally just forgot!! I’m so sorry!

I feel especially bad about all my friends who were concerned about me. I’m so sorry to make you all worry! But thank you to everyone who sent me concerned emails, checking in on me to make sure I wasn’t dead, hehe. Don’t worry, I’m still here!

Despite taking my little siesta from politics, I was kind of snapped back into it with all the drama surrounding the special election in Massachusetts for the late Ted Kennedy’s seat. I’m sure like many of you, I was glued to the news Tuesday night, waiting to see which way the voters of Massachusetts would go.

Let me just say, holy crap, was I ever shocked!! I mean, obviously I had hoped that the tides would turn and people would start to wake up to what the progressives have been doing within the Democratic party, and the effect their policies have been having on our nation after only one year of the Obama administration. But I seriously didn’t think that enough people had woken up yet to really sway an election away from the Democrats in Massachusetts!! It’s Massa-freaking-chusetts!!

But wow, I seriously couldn’t be more proud of my fellow Independents in Massachusetts! I’m not excited about this election because of Scott Brown, or because he’s a Republican – I refuse to put hope in a single candidate, or even a single party.

Rather, I’m thrilled with the outcome of this election because of the Independents of Massachusetts, taking a stand against monarchistic politics, rising up and declaring their independence from anyone’s political machine. Way. To. Go! The news kept making a big deal about how Democrats out-number Republicans something like 3-to-1 in Massachusetts, but what most people need to realize, they’re ALL out-numbered by Independents like me. And that’s what made the difference: independence.

I wish more people in this country would wake up and realize that loyalty to a single party or a single candidate isn’t the answer. Any one person can – and most likely will – let you down. And worse, party loyalty I think is just a tool to drive us apart.

Rather, I think the answer should be loyalty to principles. Loyalty to standards, beliefs, convictions; loyalty to our country, to what it stands for, its history, and how very bright its future could be if we stand by the principles we were founded on and the principles so many of us still believe in today.

But that can’t happen until more of us wake up and realize that our history has been skewed by far too many people with far too many agendas. We need to wake up, we need to familiarize ourselves once again with our own true shared history, and realize the legacy that we’re risking because of our complacency. We simply cannot be the generation that ends the dream of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Adams, Paine, and all the other brave men and women who risked their lives, honor, and sacred fortunes to give us all freedom, liberty, and the prosperity we have all enjoyed for so very long.

So let’s keep it up! Let’s keep learning, keep educating others, keep rediscovering our principles, and keep fightin’ peacefully – but purposefully – for what we believe in. Massachusetts is just the beginning. We simply cannot stop now!!

I have so much more to say over the coming days. During my little siesta I had lots of time to think and I have a lot of thoughts I’d like to share with you. Particularly some thoughts I had recently about the other side of Alinsky’s influence on Progressives and the Democrat party. After having what I thought was just a friendly political discussion with a liberal friend – which he interpreted to be an argument – I was struck with an interesting thought about the other side of Alinsky’s tactics that I don’t think many people notice. Or at least, they don’t seem to talk about. Meaning, the effect those tactics have on Democrats, on liberals; what it means to them.

But I shall save that for another day, since this is long enough and I have to get some sleep! Congratulations to Scott Brown, but you should know, sir, we’re gonna watch you like a hawk!

But most importantly, congratulations to the people of Massachusetts! Congratulations on your hard-fought, hard-won independence!!

    Have you ever read a story where you felt such a kinship with one of the characters, such a relatable connection, that you felt as though they were so real, so familiar, that they’d jump right off the page and into your life? That’s happened to me multiple times with fictional stories, but just recently, it happened again with a story I read about someone we lost.

    A few weeks ago I volunteered with the 2,996 Project, a blogging initiative started a few years ago in an effort to keep the memories of those we lost on September 11th alive. Each year on September 11th, two thousand nine hundred and ninety six bloggers come together, one for each of the lives lost that day. Each blogger is assigned a different victim from that terrible day, whom they will write about on their blog to share the stories of the lives that were cut short in that act of terror.

    A friend of mine volunteered for the project last year, which inspired me to participate this year. But as I read about the life behind the name I was randomly assigned, that special kinship with characters in fictions read in years past took on a new dimension. This time, that special kinship was with someone real, someone whose mark was indelibly left on this world when they were so cruelly taken from us.

Click to view gallery

The name I was assigned was that of Michael Craig Rothberg. The more I learned about him, the more his life, his personality, made me feel that I knew him, that he’d leap right out of what I was reading; that he’d come back. He feels like someone I know, someone from my family, someone who’d fit right in at my family’s dinner table as we talk, joke, and laugh.     It was that familiarity that, I think, caused me to delay writing this tribute until today. Michael’s life hits just a little too close to home, reminding me of what I very nearly lost that day.

    My Father was scheduled to fly on the plane that hit the Pentagon. But thanks to a fluke of family planning, he decided to skip the trip that would have killed him. Now, thinking about what to write of a man who seems so similar to my brothers, my Dad, brings all of that back up.

    Michael, born and raised in Sharon, Massachusetts, seems to have had a gift for finding amusement and joy in the most unlikely of places. I found a story about him in the New York Times, where they related a pet peeve of Michael’s about his letterhead at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he worked as the Director of Program Trading. He jokingly complained that his phone number was listed with a 1 prior to the area code. He reasoned, no adult sophisticated enough to call a bond-trading firm needed to be told to dial a 1 before the area code.

His quick wit, charm, and sense of humor were matched by his athleticism, compassion, and keen analytical mind. That analytical mind propelled him to McGill University in Montreal, where he earned both undergraduate and masters degrees in math and computer science. He soon won great respect on Wall Street with his first employer, Bear Stearns, for his exceptionally adept understanding of complex financial transactions, as well as his innovative approach to finding solutions to whatever stood in his way. He not only understood the technical side of his profession, the computer systems used for program training, but he also intimately understood the communication skills – the compassion – needed to relate to his clients.

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    Soon enough, his analytical creativity and human approach to trading propelled him to Kidder Peabody & Company, where he became a team leader. He became such an adept leader, that when he later became the Managing Director of Program Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald, his employees came with him. They weren’t just employees to him, though; he called them his colleagues.

    Everything I’ve read about Michael tells me that he was so much more than his job. His compassion propelled him to not only donate money, but to donate his time, efforts, and every resource at his disposal, to causes he deeply believed in. He wasn’t just a philanthropist; he invested his heart and soul in everything he believed in. He gave generously in every way he could to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and Mutual Funds Against Cancer. As Jamie Bolton, a good friend of his once said, “He was looking out for people.”

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He loved his family. He was a loving son, brother, grandson, cousin, and nephew. Whenever he heard a complaint, he tried to do something about it, something to help. It was Michael who gave his sister, Rhonda the encouragement and support to start her own business.     Michael reached the top through working hard and maintaining his compassion for everyone around him. He loved deeply, he gave generously, and he maintained his integrity.

    On September 11, 2001, Michael Rothberg was in his office on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. His life was cut short by an act of cowardice and terror. The lives of his family and friends were forever altered. The world lost a truly remarkable human being, one whose life was a testament to kindness, generosity, and hard work.

    Michael’s family has set up a scholarship in his name for the students of his high school alma mater in Sharon, Massachusetts. Each May since his death in 2001, the scholarship has been awarded to students at Sharon High School who most exemplify Michael’s qualities of academic promise, ethical conduct, and service to community. I’d like to encourage all of you to make a donation to the scholarship, in Michael’s memory. You can learn more about the scholarship & make a donation at their website, MichaelRothbergScholarship.com.

    Just like those beloved characters in the novels I read as a child, I feel that he’s someone I know. But there’s so much more to it than that; I feel the reality of who he was, how he lived, and how he looked at life. He feels not only real, but familiar; he feels like a brother to me.

    Because of the events of that horrific day eight years ago, there’s an incongruous feeling, a feeling I’ve had that never had the chance to be confirmed by reality. That opportunity was taken, the opportunity to meet Michael, befriend him, know him. But I can remember him. We can all remember him, so we can keep his spirit alive as a friend, as a brother; a man whose story will never be forgotten by those who love him.

Click here to view the Michael C. Rothberg Photo Gallery

    I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to Michael’s parents, Iris & Jay Rothberg, and his sister Rhonda, for their support, encouragement, and assistance with preparing and editing this tribute. Your kindness and support has meant the world to me, and it has inspired me throughout the process of preparing this tribute. I’m not sure I could have done it without your help, your blessing, and your love. My thoughts, prayers, and love are with you today, and will be always.

Word surfaced over this past weekend about a book that’s recently been added to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of publications to be distributed to veterans, despite the fact it was deliberately removed several years ago due to material that the leaders of the VA deemed objectionable. Now that we have a new administration in town, apparently even though they haven’t seen fit to fill more than half of the vacant presidential appointments, someone thought it urgent that this book be reinstated. Someone has great priorities.
If you haven’t yet seen the book, you need to read it. Then you might understand why I’m a bit miffed about this.

The book is called ‘Your Life, Your Choices’ – a title which seems strangely apt given the recent debate over government-run health care. While normally such a title should be appealing to me, the content is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. The reason for my disgust?
It’s an end of life planning counseling book written by Dr. Robert Pearlman, a major proponent of assisted suicide. In fact, Dr. Pearlman has testified repeatedly in multiple court cases wherein he advocated for physician-assisted suicide.
Brilliant. Just who I’d want to get compassionate, sensitive, and humane guidance from about how to make the most out of my life and maintain my dignity, no matter what physical condition I might find myself in.

I have to admit, I was not able to read the entire book. It was just too emotional for me, and I’ll explain why in a minute. But first, I want to give you a sampling of what the book has to offer: a checklist of ways to tell if your life has devolved to the point where you might want to consider that maybe it’s just not worth living anymore. At least, according to Dr. Pearlman.

Click to enlarge

You know what I noticed first? The options. Nowhere is there an option where you can provide an answer that life is more than just “difficult, but acceptable”, but actually valid, enjoyable, dignified, engaging, and valued. That tells you a helluva lot, doesn’t it? What do you think that says to the veteran who’s reading it?

Let me tell you the second thing I noticed. Out of the 18 direct questions, I qualify for at least 11 of them, maybe 12. According to this book, I’d be a more than valid candidate for assisted-suicide. According to them, my life – at best – is “difficult, but acceptable”.

I’m only 24 years old.

Does that mean my life isn’t worth living? Does that mean my life isn’t dignified? Does that mean my life is “difficult, but acceptable”, or “worth living, but just barely”? Does that mean as a human being, I’m not to be valued as much as someone with an able body? Does that mean that I should just roll over and die because life didn’t turn out the way I thought it would?

I’m sorry, but I refuse to see if that way. I find it disgusting and so incredibly offensive that this book doesn’t even begin to recognize the value of every life, able, disabled, or otherwise. I’ve been seriously ill for over half of my life, and yet I’ve been able to contribute in ways most able-bodied people never do. Yet according to the words of this booklet, handed out to veterans by the VA, I rate just barely beyond “acceptable”.

I find this so far beyond deplorable that I don’t have words adequate enough to express my outrage. Some are calling this a “death book.” I certainly wouldn’t go that far or be that trite about it. But I would call it an absolutely appalling example of outright prejudice against the disabled. To devalue any human being should be outrageous to all of us. Because the minute we can devalue someone is the minute we can devalue anyone.

Veterans don’t need to be told that their lives are only barely acceptable if they’ve been injured or suddenly find themselves severely ill. They need to be encouraged, uplifted, loved, and reminded that they can overcome the challenges and obstacles they face, ultimately becoming stronger in ways they may not have previously imagined. I know I have. Sure, life isn’t always easy, but is it ever easy for anyone? Sure, I’ve had to deal with a lot of pain. But I’ve learned and grown as a person because of it. Those veterans can too.
But they won’t, if they’re told by our government that they can’t, that their lives are now worthless, and that they might as well just give up. We can’t devalue them this way, we can’t disrespect their humanity, we can’t just dismiss them. Just like we shouldn’t dismiss anyone with a disability, whether seen or unseen. We’re all human, we’re all born with different abilities, and throughout our lives, those abilities will surely change and transform. But we are all still human and we are all still deserving of the same rights, respect, and validation. How dare the VA even begin to say otherwise.

One final thought; this is how our government is treating our veterans’, how they’re influencing their health care decisions. If that’s how the heroes among us are treated, how would they treat the rest of us if they were in charge of our health care decisions? How much do you want to bet we’d all be reading a book like this one?
Are you willing to bet your life? It is, after all, your life, and your choice. At least, it is for now. I, for one, would like to keep it that way.

If you’d like to download and read the entire booklet, you can read it here on the official Department of Veterans Affairs website. Yup, even though the VA is saying it’s not an official VA document, it’s still available on their website, and the website says otherwise. It says it was created specifically for the VA via a generous grant of your tax dollars. Although it is allegedly under revision, it’s still being handed out in print in its current form to veterans.
And just in case it suddenly disappears, I’ve archived a copy here.

I want to marry this man and have his cute little cartoony babies!

That cartoon is by the brilliant Michael Ramirez, the editorial cartoonist from Investor’s Business Daily. I’ve been a huge fan of his for a while, but now, I just absolutely love him! I’ve never seen anyone summarize this harsh truth about the uninsured as brilliantly as he has!
A post is forthcoming on this very issue, following a bizarre encounter I had with a nurse at a recent trip to the doctor’s office. But I just couldn’t wait to post this as soon as I saw it. Please, forward this comic to everyone you know. More people deserve to know the truth about just how many people are uninsured in this country, but most importantly, just how many of those individuals are uninsured by choice.
If you’d like even more information about this issue, check out this previous blog entry, where I covered this exact topic.
Seriously, Mr. Ramirez, fantastic job!

I’m starting to really like this guy!

I need to go see if I can find a copy of that book… I know I read it as a kid, but that’s far too long ago for my memory to keep track of.

I’d also recommend this video by Andrew Klavan, cause it made me giggle, and this one cause it’s oh so very true. Enjoy!

Who knew the writers at the Wall Street Journal watched South Park?!
Well, apparently they do! And one such writer just produced a hilarious new article examining President Obama’s many “plans” for this nation through South-Park-colored glasses. It’s definitely worth a read, cause hey, not only is it accurate but it’s surprisingly funny.
Click here to check it out.

I don’t know anything about that guy, but I’d say he did a pretty darn good job of summing up “political correctness”, the ‘Fairness Doctrine’, and pretty much all the other Leftist attempts to get their way, no matter what the people or their laws have to say about it. Not all individual leftists, mind you, but the movement as a whole and where it’s heading today? Definitely.
So do me a favor, won’t you? Don’t shut up.

I just found a brilliant blog entry written by a former Marine & Massachusetts state senator. You’ve really got to read it; it sums up absolutely everything I’ve been feeling for a very, very long time. And I suspect that at least some of you might feel the same way.
Click here to read “I’m Tired”. You’ll be glad you did.

What happens when you make brash generalizations? You make yourself look like a fool. What happens when you make generalized assumptions about an entire group of people? You betray your own prejudices.

That’s what I believe has happened – among other things – with the vilification of generalized, anonymous, faceless A.I.G. “Executives”. Certain members of Congress, along with the Attorneys General of various states, would have us believe that every executive who ever worked at A.I.G. is directly responsible for all the credit default swaps that landed them and the American economy in such turmoil. Furthermore, not only is it every executive’s fault – regardless of whether they were even in the same departments that handled those credit default swaps or not – all of those executives are also totally heartless, greedy, disgusting bastards who deserve to die for so blatantly disrespecting and victimizing the tax-payers by doing something so wrong, so dastardly, so disgusting as… receiving payment for their hard work, as dictated by contracts signed by those in charge, both at A.I.G. and in the Federal government. If we believe what we’re being told by the likes of Barney Frank, *every* executive is a criminal who deserves to be “named and shamed”, who deserves no sympathy for the death threats they and their families are being subjected to, and who ultimately deserves the first ever retroactive, personally targeted, over-the-top, 90% taxation that was just enacted by Congress, despite the fact such taxation legislation so blatantly violates the Constitution (another contract that no one seems to hold must esteem for these days.)

This is another rash generalization. Not only does it make those who make such generalizations look like fools, and not only does it betray their prejudices, but good people who have done absolutely nothing wrong are being hurt in the process.
Oh, and we, the American people, are also being hopelessly distracted from much more important and pressing issues.

This point is beautifully illustrated by none other than one of those awful executives from A.I.G, Mr. Jake DeSantis. He’s taking an awful risk revealing his name, but I believe that what he has to say is important. After all, didn’t our parents teach us to walk a mile in another man’s shoes before we criticize them? And no, not just so that when we do criticize them we’re a mile away and we have their shoes. No, no, the point is, we need to look at both sides before grabbing our pitchforks and running people out of town who may be completely and utterly innocent. Mob rule isn’t the answer here; reason is.
So for the sake of reason, I beg you to take a look at the letter of resignation which Mr. Jake DeSantis sent to Edward M. Liddy, the Chief Executive of A.I.G. It explains a few things from the point of view of the executives that we’re all being riled up to hate.

Click here to check it out.

Before any of us say another word about these executives, I wish we’d all calm down for a minute and think about a few things. First, contracts should be sacred and the government has no right to interfere with them, especially with regard to contracts that they themselves agreed to.

Secondly, before we let mob rule trump our reason, perhaps we should ask ourselves, who is it that’s trying to get us to behave like a bunch of vicious, thoughtless, violent rioters in the first place? Perhaps then we might have a better idea about what really went on here, and who’s really to blame. Not some faceless, nameless, villain of an executive, but some politicians who didn’t even bother to read the biggest, most expensive bill in the history of our country before they voted for it. They’re the ones who signed a contract before reading the fine print (hell, they didn’t even let us read it!) If that happened to us, the little people, we’d be the ones to blame. We’d be the ones with our credit ruined and our possessions being taken away. Yet Congress is trying to shift the blame and attention onto others, hoping they’ll get away with something tremendously stupid – which, by the way, we’re currently paying the price for. Congress entered into this contract, a contract which simply stated that executives – like any other employee of a company – should be compensated for their work. Whether the Congressmen and Senators now feel that compensation was too high, it’s too bad, so sad. It’s their fault for not reading the fine print. So hold them responsible, not the people who simply got paid for doing their job. If that contract can’t stand, if the government can interfere in that contract, then who’s to say they can’t interfere in one of yours? Who’s to say you won’t be the next villain to distract the people of America from yet another of Congress’ sins? Walk a mile in the shoes of those executives before being so quick to judgment, then maybe you’ll understand why this entire situation is so entirely wrong.

I’m just now watching Obama’s appearance on last night’s Tonight Show – thank you, Tivo! – and I just had to pause it. I couldn’t go any further without commenting on a few things, so this won’t be a full analysis, this is just me having to sound off now before I forget my initial reaction.

First off, here’s a direct quote I just transcribed from Obama. I’ll try to get an exact video clip of this line later on.

“”No, no, no, but, no, th-th-th-th… This is the point that I made, I think two days ago, when somebody asked, ‘Well, do you have confidence in Tim Geithner?’ I said, ‘Look, I’m the President. So ih-eh-uh, ultimately, all of this stuff is my responsibility. If I’m not, uh, giving him the tools that he needs, uh, to make sure that we’re moving this forward, then people need to look at me.”
- Barack Obama, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 03-19-09, roughly 35-40 minutes into the broadcast.

Um, Mr. President, if it’s your responsibility to get Tim Geithner all the tools he needs to solve what you and your administration repeatedly refer to as the greatest financial and economic disaster to strike this country since the Great Depression, then why is it that you have time to go on a late night chat show, and yet you haven’t had enough time to fill the remaining 17 out of 18 presidential appointments within the Treasury Department? Tim Geithner is the only one you’ve appointed out of those 18 appointments, meaning Tim Geithner is operating without a full compliment of appointees on his staff, to assist him with this massive crisis.
Wouldn’t you say that’s a pretty big error on your part? Wouldn’t you say that’s an instance of you not giving Tim Geithner the “tools that he needs to make sure we’re moving forward”? Don’t you think filling those 17 appointments should be a higher priority than chatting it up with Jay Leno?
Hey, Mr. Obama, you asked us to look at you, you said this was your responsibility. We’re looking at you now.

Secondly, I will say that I was impressed with one question in particular that Jay Leno addressed to Obama. When he asked specifically about his concerns over Congress targeting specific individuals with 90% taxation legislation, did you notice that Obama didn’t even answer the question? He completely deflected and didn’t even come close to addressing Leno’s very legitimate concerns!
But then again, I guess you wouldn’t want to answer that question either, if you were presiding over a Congress that just passed legislation which violated the Constitution not just once, but twice.
Yet again, Mr. Obama, I’m looking at you. This is your responsibility, and you can’t even answer a drastically important question such as the one Jay Leno presented to you?
I sincerely hope I wasn’t the only one who picked up on that deflection, because that’s a very, very, very important question that we should all be demanding a satisfactory answer to.

Lastly, didn’t you just love how in every single answer, the only solution Obama presented to both the economic crisis AND the big AIG mess, was more regulation and oversight? That’s pretty funny, coming from the golden boy of the same Democratic party who repeatedly rejected Republican attempts at providing more regulation and oversight before this crisis even erupted, in an effort to put on the brakes before we hit an absolute catastrophe. Wasn’t it the Democrats who said that Fannie and Freddie were just fine, and that Republicans were doing nothing more than being evil “fear-mongers” for suggesting that a major global financial crisis was on the horizon and that we’d better act now through regulation and oversight?
Kinda funny that Obama thinks we should trust those very same Democrats to effectively implement that regulation and oversight now that the very same crisis the Republicans predicted has hit us at full force, that crisis the Democrats said didn’t exist and was nothing more than a Republican fantasy. But not only did the Democrats fail in that regard, but they also failed to put in any regulation and oversight into the massive stimulus bills they passed which led to this big AIG mess that Obama was commenting on.
Hmm, that’s at least two strikes, if not more. How many strikes will we allow the Democrats before we realize, hey, they have absolutely no track record of success and they flat out suck at implementing any kind of effective regulation and oversight, like the kind Obama was touting on Jay Leno?

Alright, now to hit play and finish the rest of it. I swear, I feel like pulling my hair out, this is so frustrating to listen to. So before my brain just fizzles out, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole debacle, so please, comment away and let me know what you think!

Oh, and by the way, just to add my voice to the chorus – let’s impeach Chris Dodd, shall we?