Why We Are Fat

This link is to an interview of the author of the book Why We Are Fat by Gary Taubes. The book is great and the counterintuitiveness of his thesis is delightful.

VDH Rides Again

Reading Victor Davis Hanson is an education in itself. This classicist and remarkable thinker does it again in this well thought out piece. Dr. Hanson is a gentleman. He makes his point and his argument with well chosen words and I never seen him use ad hominem attacks. He is a national treasure of thought and knowledge; of what the world was, what it is and what it will be.

The State Department Stuck on Stupid

Having been to the country of Honduras on 3 occasions serving the people there on dental humanitarian trips, I have made many friends and I have observed the country and it's people. I continue to hear things like this coming from the State Department and the Administration. Just before Christmas we spent time with some friends from Honduras who were in Salt Lake for their daughter's wedding. This girl's father looked me in the eye and asked, "What is going on in your country? We don't understand what your government is trying to do to us." Enough said. When this incident started in Honduras President Obama and Secretary Clinton immediately took the absolutely incorrect position on this issue and they are doing all they can now to defy the Constitution of Honduras and move the country into the direction that Venezuela now suffers under with Hugo Chavez.

Grandpa and Granddaughter

There are few things in the world more idyllic than napping with a grandchild. Here Addie shows she already loves her Grandpa.

Maher and Civility

I want to be up front on this; I enjoy saying things to see how people react. In certain situations it can be fun and it can lead to a civil and interesting discussion. I saw a clip of Bill Maher and he referred to the NRA as the 'assassins lobby'. I have never thought that Bill Maher was a polite person, at least on camera. He may be charming and interesting in 'real life'. I find his positions politically bizarre and I am sure the Founding Fathers would look at him as some kind of alien life form. Here you can find some links to clips and Hugh Hewitt's assessment of Maher and others like him. I think it is spot on. I wonder why politicians who seem to think civility has ebbed never ever refer to the entertainment and the pseudo-news businesses and their effect on society?

The President's speech was oratorically good and he emphasized improving how we treat each other. Because we disagree on things does not mean we cannot be civil. In my mind it also means we do not have to give up passion. I listened to part of it on the radio in my car. I was unsettled by the immature collegiate atmosphere that I sensed with my ears and mind as I listened; not seeing what was going on. Many pundits have lauded the speech, excusing the atmosphere as an Irish wake-like milieu, but I believe it showed in itself a lack of civility, a lack of compassion, a shallowness of feeling towards the victims and their families. A true leader while at the podium would have said directly, in no uncertain terms, "This is not the place for loud applause and cheering." The retreaded theme on the shirts that were passed out only added to, what I sensed at least, the mockery being displayed as solemn recognition over the deep seriousness of the brutal act and it's consequences.

I did not see civility coming to the soldiers slaughtered by an Islamic fanatic nutcase at Ft. Hood. The President declared that we not jump to conclusions. Yet, the major shakers and screamers in the media within hours were blaming this tragedy on everyone and everything except what it was, a disturbed, damaged, pathological human being. I want to declare, unabashedly, I did not have anything to do with it, nobody I know had anything to do with it; it happened because of a choice this suspect made with his diseased mind. No politics, no Tea Party, no NRA; the foundation of this could have been family, maybe peers, who knows. What bothers me is how more than a few people think it was caused by rhetoric, talk radio, etc. Are there really that many ill-informed, ignorant people out there?

Now, we have, probably in the moment of a delusional attack in his own mind, Rep. Peter King in NY(R) who wants a law to forbid anyone being within 1000 feet of a federal official with a weapon. Why is a federal official any better than the rest of us? No, I do not want people out shooting them, but from a governing standpoint it would not hurt if we did have quite a few less federal officials. 1000' is 3 and 1/3 football fields. I wonder, why this episode has had such a profound effect? Here near my home a few years ago a guy went into a mall, Trolley Square, and started shooting and killing. Is it really manifestly more terrible because a judge and a US Representative were shot? Are they really more important than the rest of us? Maybe Vince Flynn is to blame. He wrote a novel, Term Limits (a great read by the way if you want some action and intrigue) which describes the Speaker of the House and a Senator being assassinated in an attempt to get the Congress thinking correctly about their duties, how they spend and tax and waste. Do we know if Loughner read Term Limits. Get Mitch Rapp on the case. Maybe every member of Congress should read it.

I am thrilled to hear Rep. Giffords appears to be improving. Whether she will be fully functional is unknown and maybe unknowable. Certainly, pain and destruction has affected many because of one person's actions. I fear we will see it again sometime.

Factual Inaccuracies

The Fannie Freddie debacle causes some folks to come unglued. Here it is. Follow all the links. Be warned--there are graphs in these articles.

My 2010 Reading List

Gridlock by Randal O’Toole ♥♥♥

Shakedown by Ezra Levant ♥♥1/2

From Poverty to Prosperity by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz. ♥♥1/2

61 Hours by Lee Child ♥♥♥♥

The Age of Reagan by Steven F. Hayward ♥♥♥1/2

Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove ♥♥♥

Scientific Discoveries by Dan Neville ♥♥♥

The Confessor by Daniel Silva ♥♥♥

The English Assassin by Daniel Silva ♥♥♥

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis ♥♥♥1/2

One Eternal Round by Hugh Nibley and Michael Rhodes ♥♥♥

No Apology by Mitt Romney ♥♥1/2

Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One by Zev Chafets ♥♥♥

How the Left Swiftboated America by John Gibson ♥♥1/2

Physics for Future Presidents by Richard A. Muller ♥♥♥

Real Education by Charles Murray

The Reagan I Knew by William F. Buckley Jr. ♥♥1/2

Lights Out by Mark Steyn ♥♥1/2

Culture of Corruption by Michelle Malkin ♥♥♥

Binge: What Your College Student Won’t Tell You by Barrett Seaman

In The President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler♥♥♥

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer ♥♥1/2

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

On The Wealth of Nations by P. J. O’Rourke ♥♥1/2

Common Sense by Glenn Beck

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki ♥♥1/2

Hollywood, Interrupted by Andrew Breitbart ♥♥♥1/2

The Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton ♥♥♥♥

Wicked Prey by John Sanford ♥♥

Bonk by Mary Roach ♥♥1/2

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ♥♥♥♥

Never Enough by William Voegeli ♥♥♥

Dismantling America by Thomas Sowell ♥♥♥♥

Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things by Madeleine L Van Hecke ♥♥♥

The Battle by Arthur C. Brooks

♥♥♥♥

The World Turned Upside Down by Melanie Phillips ♥♥♥

The Overton Window by Glenn Beck ♥♥♥

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson ♥♥♥♥

Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman ♥♥♥

Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef with Ron Brackin ♥♥♥

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War by Phillip Jennings ♥♥♥♥

The Great Global Warming Blunder by Roy Spencer ♥♥♥♥

The Post American Presidency by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer ♥♥♥

A Charge Kept by Marc Thiessen ♥♥♥

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ♥♥♥

Stan the Man by Wayne Stewart ♥♥

The Greedy Hand by Amity Shlaes ♥♥1/2

This Time It Is Different by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff ♥♥♥

Persons Missing or Dead by Cliff Black ♥♥1/2

Why Johnny Can’t Think by Robert W. Whitaker ♥♥

The Confession by John Grisham ♥♥♥1/2

Radical-In-Chief by Stanley Kurtz ♥♥♥♥

Worth Dying For by Lee Child ♥♥♥

There is No Alternative by Claire Berlinski ♥♥♥

The New Road to Serfdon by Daniel Hannan ♥♥♥

Younger Next Year by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge MD ♥♥♥

The Last Boy by Jane Leavy ♥♥♥

The Soul of Battle by Victor Davis Hanson ♥♥1/2

Evidence by Jonathan Kellerman ♥♥♥

Saving Freedom by Jim DeMint ♥♥1/2

Past New Year's

I was talking to my wife of some of the past New Year's that I remember. They may not seem like much because they were mostly sedentary--no physical action here. For some years we would spend time in Logan with my in-laws and my father-in-law and I would watch football games. Usually we would bounce from one game to another in the morning, but the Rose Bowl was always a must game along with the Orange Bowl. Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen did the play by play in the Arroyo Seco, called the Daddy of Them All as it was known; The Rose Bowl. USC played often and the Big Ten teams were usually Ohio State or Michigan, but not always. The Orange Bowl was the last game and it was late at night in Miami by the time it finished. The Big Eight conference representative was usually Nebraska or Oklahoma and they were usually fast paced and high scoring games. Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy did the play by play. Each broadcast team had their own style. My father-in-law and I would "veg out" on his bed from 11:00 AM to 10:30 PM, barely leaving our hibernaculum for sustenance--usually brought in by my accommodating and doting mother-in-law. They are both gone now and New Year's day is different. Most of the games are on ESPN, I don't have cable and I feel guilty if I lay around watching football. Ah, to be young again.

Rev. C. L. Bryant

I have never heard of this guy--until I happened to be thumbing through Townhall magazine, the December 2010 issue and found on Page 66 an article entitled Breaking the Shackles. Bryant evidently was what could be described as an NAACP radical. He is now what is known as a Tea Partier, go figure. He is involved in a documentary entitled "Runaway Slave".

I have often thought that our black community has enslaved themselves because they have become politically attached to and controlled by liberal Democrats, and controlled is the key word. They are on the plantation, controlled by a different sort of master. He says, "Race is a great tool that liberals have used for at least 50 years to keep races divided, to keep them subdued and under their control." Tough words from a black Reverend.

He strongly believes that liberal politicians use the black community for votes to keep power and points out that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have provided over the years a lot of votes, but have never received a cabinet position or ambassadorship.

"On the plantation, the masters who actually owned the land, they would provide the clothes, shelter, food, for those who worked the land, for those who worked the plantation. On the plantation, you were told what job you were to do, and you had overseers making certain you did that job." He says that Sharpton and Jackson are the overseers, the liberal Democrat Party is the master.

His final comment, "The tea party, if it is embraced by people of color, people who are downtrodden or people who claim to be downtrodden, believe me, the movement would be something that would lift them up."

I thought I was the only one who thought this way.

Buckley

I have been an admirer and a consumer of William F. Buckley, Jr. and his writings. I have most of his novels, and quite a few of his political books. His first was entitled Man and God at Yale. It did not endear him to many at his alma mater, but no matter, it became the harbinger of more to come. Now I picked up Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations. A William F. Buckley Jr., Omnibus. It is edited by Linda Bridges and Roger Kimball.

Buckley was a man of thoughts and words. He used exactly the words he wanted, the way they were meant, in exactly the right situations. I found this which, I think, describes Buckley and almost everyone in the conservative side of the political ledger.

But the historical responsibility of the conservatives is altogether clear: It is to defend what is best in America. At all costs. Against any enemy, foreign or domestic. From the New York Times Almanac, April 1969.

I know he meant that, believed it and lived it. I believe, until they can prove otherwise, that progressives cannot say that with a straight face and in full honesty. That is not to say that from a military standpoint progressives do not defend America, but my observation is politically they do not know what is best in America, because they want America to be something else.