VDH Rides Again

Victor Davis Hanson always hits the nail on the head. Here you see the point of impact.

The Lifecycle of Democracy

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.

Anonymous

Washington's Birthday

I have never really liked President's Day. I mean, there are a lot of Presidents that don't deserve to really have a day to be honored. I think it was President Nixon who declared the President's Day Holiday and there are a lot of things he did I don't want to remember and that doesn't include Watergate. Woodrow Wilson is another; there are others but I will stop there.

George Washington the Father of Our Country is special; incredibly unique and probably had more character, honestly and respect from his fellow men than anyone else who has served and he was the First President. It was George Washington that said the President should be addressed as Mr. President--simple,direct and not majestic in anyway. I think Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee said it best in 1799:

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere; uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting. To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues."

Now, there have been some Presidents in my life time that I have personally felt were above the ordinary, but none I could describe like the above. February 22nd is George Washington's Birthday. Lest we forget.

I Think He Has This Right

Andrew McCarthy at the National Review posits this. It seems right to me.

A Birthday

Our grandson Weston turned 6 today and the requisite get together happened without a hitch. Becki and Kyle took us to lunch at a Mexican place that I used to frequent quite a lot. Some of Weston's friends came for cake and ice cream, games and tomfoolery. Of course, we got to see our little Adelaide. She was wide awake for a while and looking around at everything. She even smiled and grinned but I doubt she knew what she was doing. Joyce gave Wes one of the double Jedi light saber things and they had several light saber fights on the patio as shown in the photo. Life keeps going on.

Power is Everything

Whoa, whoa, guys--Power is everything. Without it they don't talk to us, they don't correct the trajectory, they don't turn the heat shield around.

And so it goes. Most of you will remember that is the quote from Apollo 13, the movie with Tom Hanks. Well, Power is Everything, energy is everything on our planet and I wonder if the folks at the Department of Energy know that; I wonder if the theocratic environmentalists understand it, because it doesn't appear to me that anybody in Washington DC seems to be worried about it.

Health, prosperity and progress depends on power; not political power but the kind we get that makes engines run, turns on lights and warms and cools us. I don't see much of anything going on and I haven't for some time. We are under capacity in oil refining, we haven't really thought of building any nuclear power plants. (It was heartening to hear President Obama mention a couple of weeks ago that we need to do more in this area, but we'll see.)

People think it is a great idea to build those avian osterizers that chop up birds and make a little electricity when the wind blows. Geothermal output looks decades if not centuries away and as carbon is politically cursed it is practically the cheapest, easiest and best method to make power.

Without more power we can't turn this thing around that we are stuck in right now; this anemic and sputtering economy that has received stimuli that have been declared successful though I don't see much happening and I don't expect much.

Our economic house needs to be put in order and it cannot happen without more power; more and cheaper energy. I don't know why people think that is so hard to understand.

The Right of Assembly

Well, this post gives some sense of proportion to what is going one with the public union sector protests compared to those cursed Tea Party protesters. Which group looks like real Americans, you know the kind of people that pursue life, liberty and happiness--instead of having it handed to them.

Jedi's and Angels

This morning we had a minor invasion. The Jedi knights you can see were here in force with all their karate and jedi moves, running around and yelling and wrestling. And Adelaide came too with her brothers. She was wide awake most of the time, looking around at all the colors in the house. Here you catch a quick glimpse of her napping on a full tummy. She is almost 8 weeks old. I really didn't expect grandkids to be this fun. My grandparents didn't act like we were that much fun when I was a kid.

Egypt Has Come A Long Way

Here you can see the changes over the years in Egypt. Notice the difference in the woman in the photos.

She's Made It A Month

Here is Adelaide in a little dress my wife made 25 years ago. She made it for her sister's girl for her blessing day in church. Now Addie fills it out nicely with all the accoutrements, ie bracelet, ribbons, shoes.