Category: America

We want more expensive gas!

American’s like expensive gasoline. No really. Even with record breaking gas prices, AAA is prediciting an increase of 1.2 percent increase in road travel over the Independence Day holiday. That increase would be set a record of 40.7 million people driving to their vacation destinations for this holiday.

So in spite of our collective griping about high gas prices, we are driving more than ever. Know what that means? It means we aren’t really that upset about it.

Better get used to high gas prices.

World Cup….of what?

The World Cup of Soccer (misnamed “football” to the rest of the world) is taking place in Germany. In the U.S. the games are being shown on ESPN2. That means that the tape delayed World Championship of Poker on ESPN is more popular to Americans than live soccer.

SF governors condemn catholic church

The San Francisco board of governors has passed a resolution criticizing catholic beliefs. The board demands the former Archbishop of San Francisco who now serves at the Vatican to withraw the directive that “Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households.”

In addition the board claims that the church’s position is “an insult to all San Franciscans” apparently even those San Franciscans who support the church’s position.

The resolution concludes by saying, “Archbishop Neiderauer and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy all discriminatory directives of Cardinal Levada.”

Clearly this is an unconstitutional attack on the catholic church. No government is allowed to use its power to prevent the free exercise of religion. The city government does not have the right to demand the catholic church to change its beliefs or practices.

The resolution is non-binding. Is there any doubt that if the city did have the ability to make the resolution binding that it would?

(hat tip: Roman Catholic Blog)

Buck Owens

Buck Owens died today. I expect my boss will not be in the office next week as I’m sure he’ll be taking time off to mourn his favorite country music singer.

Buck Owens was country music back in the 60’s and 70’s. I remember watching the TV show Hee Haw with my grandparents back in the day. Who could forget that red, white, and blue guitar?

Buck Owens even crossed political boundaries. When an avowed liberal like my boss and proud conservatives like the Powerline guys both love Buck Owens, what could be more American than that?

God bless Buck Owens.

 

Batman vs Al Qaeda

Legendary comic book author Frank Miller is writing a graphic novel that he refers to as “a piece of propoganda,” where “Batman kicks al Qaeda’s ass.”

Cool. There was a time when comic books and entertainment media in general were unabashedly pro-American. Not only that, they weren’t afraid of naming our enemies. Captain American fought against the Nazis. John Wayne fight everyone.

Now Hollywood is so afraid of not being politically correct, they change characters in movie adaptations. Remember the movie The Sum of All Fears? The plot is that terrorists detonate a nuclear device in the U.S. In the original book it was Islamic terrorists. The movie would have none of that in a post 9/11 world. They decided that it would be better to make them neo-nazis. Okaaay.

It’s good to see an author who is not afraid of recognizing where the real threats are in the world and sending a message that they should and can be stopped.

(hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Cowboy Bush

President Bush was in Chile this past weekend. The Chileans weren’t too pleased that the Secret Service refused to cede its mission to proctect the president to the Chilean security services. They tried to get some pay back when the President Bush was going into a meeting with the Chilean president.

Law-enforcement authorities said the Chileans, who claimed to be in charge of security for the event, stopped Secret Service agent Nick Trotta as he was escorting Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush into the center, jumping in front of the agent as he approached the building entry. The authorities said the Chilean officers had seemed poised to act.
At least one Secret Service agent was shoved against a wall, the authorities said, as Mr. Trotta continued to push his way into the center. It was then that Mr. Bush responded, pushing into the crowd of angry security officials, pointing at Mr. Trotta and ordering that he be released. Mr. Bush finally reached over and grabbed the agent by the suit collar.
“He’s with me,” Mr. Bush said as he waded into the scuffle and pulled the agent through the crowd.

President Bush is the man. He sees one of his guys getting roughed up and he takes action. Is that too cowboy? No way. It sends a message to world leaders that President Bush does what needs to be done. He doesn’t sit back wringing his hands and worrying about what our allies will think. He does the right thing.

Now, if you were a Secret Service agent and President Bush went into a melee to pull one of your guys out, wouldn’t that instill some loyalty? You betcha.

Target gets targeted

Target has decided not to allow the Salvation Army to place its red kettles and bell ringers at its stores this Christmas season. This could cost the Salvation Army up to $9 million.

Another part of American culture (and English for that matter) may be dying. Salvation Army has used bell ringers and their signature red kettles since 1891. Who doesn’t hear the bell ringing in December and not think its Christmas in the United States?

The Sacramento Bee speculates that Target’s move means the bell ringers are a thing of the past. If so, American culture will surely suffer. The sound of the bell ringers in front of stores reminded us that in the hurry of buying gifts for our loved ones, there are other people in the world who need our help.

The bell ringers also taught us appreciation. How many times during the year do you hear a heart felt “thank you”? But you hear it when you throw some change in the kettle. The ringers thank us because they know that little bit of change adds up to millions of dollars every Christmas.

I remember asking my parents for change to put in the kettle when I was a child. It was part of the joy of experiencing Christmas, giving to others. I hope to be a father in the next couple of years, will my child be able to experience the same joy? If the Salvation Army bell ringers are being told to leave, charity is going with them.

After a Christmas tree disaster last year, Honeybun and I have decided it is time to get an artificial tree. Our next stop was Target. We’ve crossed them off our list this year and won’t be doing any Christmas shopping there. We’ll check out WalMart and go to the malls. Before we do, we’ll make sure we have change for the bell ringers.

Update: Hugh Hewitt linked to me again. Welcome Hugh Hewitt readers. Feel free to leave a comment.