Why Have A Senate When A "Piggy" Bank Will Do?

If I hadn't heard it with my own ears I'd not have believed it.

“There are 100 senators here and I don’t know that there’s a senator that doesn’t have something in this bill that isn’t important to them,” Reid said. “If they don’t have something in it important to them then it doesn’t speak well of them.”

Here we are belly aching about all the pork or ear marks in legislation like the $400 billion in the recently passed Defense bill yet we have the Senate majority leader chiding those who have neglected their "duty" to their states! This in an administration who's President campaigned on curbing the practice.

I know, I know, when the Republicans are in power they do the same thing. However, considering the economic health of the nation you'd like to think Congress would exercise some prudence. Especially when our chief financier, China, is warning that the world is running out of money to buy U.S. debt.

You'd never know it from the way Democrats are spreading money around among themselves! I've come to the conclusion I have no business commenting on politics. I can muster no respect for anyone involved. The Senate is no more than a piggy bank for those who stand the most firm when it comes to casting a vote for what is mostly bad legislation in the first place.

It is said the Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world. Right. They deliberate who should get how much of our hard earned money for pet projects. They, like Unions, have outgrown their usefulness.

We have a President who has gone from the campaign rhetoric of "we" to the Presidential rhetoric of "I". We have a Congress who has been told by 60 to 70% of the people that they do not want health care reform as it stands yet they are prancing around congratulating themselves for having bribed their way to the necessary votes. What has this country come to? What depths has this Congress and Administration sunk to?

Government has gotten way to big. They've become so sodden with power they ignore why they exist in the first place. We accuse so many countries of corrupt government. Afghanistan where our soldiers are dying for that corrupt government. Iraq, Iran plus so many others. What about our own?

One can't help but notice the increase of activity among militias and neo Nazi groups. Do you suppose our own government is bringing this upon us? I certainly can't say they are blameless.

Nostalgia

There are days I get so upset with the news and it's implications I can't even rant about it. Today is such a day so once again I decided to bury myself in the season.

This is the second time I've felt compelled to bake some cookies so I dug out my Mom's old tin cookie cutters. Do you remember them? Boy, I sure do. I remember my Mom spending hours in the kitchen, working on an old gas stove quite unlike the Viking range in our kitchen. She turned out magic. Animal cookies, caramels, apricot bars, nut balls, rum balls and even an edible fruit cake!

I kept those cookie cutters more for the memories than to actually use. But I have her recipes so I decided to have a go at it. The cookies are on a plate in the dining room waiting for Hub to dig in. The first batch lasted about two days. There are quite a few more this time so no more. He has his own baking to do anyway. He makes stollen every year and it will last us until New Years and maybe a few days beyond! Then it's South Beach diet time for me!

While I'm in nostalgia mode I thought I'd show you some close ups of some of the ornaments. These two are old ! A hand blown glass hot air balloon and an extremely fragile egg shell!

This set includes a gift - a little devil of a nutcracker from Christian Steinbach for my having bought so many of them from him!

The little wooden cutout was from some of our "between opportunity" days when we made our own ornaments. Boy, that was awhile ago!

The cuckoo clock came from one of our many trips to Switzerland

And the angel. Hub's Mom made that and it has been with us forever. Somehow she remains in tact. We will never replace her.

And of course there has to be a Saint Bernard! You rarely see anything related to Saint Bernards so when Hallmark came out with this one several years it had to be added to the collection!

So that's a little trip through time with me. Sometimes it's just better to remember the good things. What isn't will be there tomorrow - or whenever I feel like addressing it. Today's its cookies. I'm wondering if we still have and hot chocolate. For this short period of time I feel like a kid again!

Bought And Paid For!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the House, not a creature was stirring 'cause the Senate was the louse!

Well, one more giant step in the wrong direction for mankind. Heath care, monstrosity that it is, is probably going to pass.

You know what really angers me? The idea that so many, in this case Senators, can be bought! If they really agreed with all that's included in the bill, then all right, vote for it. But tweaking this for that, which probably won't hold in the long run anyway, just grinds me. How much did Nelson squeeze out of Reid behind that closed door? And Lieberman? We know Mary set the bar at $300,000,000. A lot of these bribes were about cutting the state's contributions to medicaid. Why should one state be exempted and another not? For a vote. We should be outraged.

Actually I think most of us are but those we sent to Washington aren't hearing us. It strikes me as strange because even with Nelson, over 60% of his constituents do not want this bill. Somehow he feels his contribution of more pork will win him re-election over and above the health care bill?

Whew.

There is one more holdout I've heard nothing about. Roland Burris. Remember him? The Senator, who under the strangest of circumstances, took Obama's seat? No one seems to be talking about him and unless Snow or some other Republican is lurking out there as the 60th vote, it should be Burris.

He vowed not to vote for a bill that does not have the public option. Well?? Wouldn't it be something if he was the one to rise from the ashes of obscurity to cast the defeating vote. Could it happen? I'd love it. It would be monumental and he already has one to himself that would be quite fitting.

Look what it would save the government. It, too, is bought and paid for!

Christmas, Pure And Simple

I just finished browsing the headlines and could find little to cheer. So. In the spirit of the season I'll share with you some of ours. As you probably know, you can click on the photos to enlarge them. This is our house. It's a hodge podge of items we've accumulated over the years. Luminaria from Santa Fe. The choir figures were made by Hub's Mom when he was a youngster. They are older than old and we love them!

This is Bacchus helping out last year. It was our last Christmas with him. : (

This is where all our "kids" rest and this is their tree.

This would be our tree with its thousand points of light and lifetimes of memories. We have ornaments from our parents from when they were youngsters, we've ornaments we've collected from all over the world along side those that were gifts and old wooden cut outs we painted ourselves when times were tough. As I said, a lifetime.

I had a wonderful early present yesterday afternoon. Our vet called. No. My friend who was our vet called. I hadn't seen her for awhile. Things at the clinic were slow. She came by and we visited for two hours before she had to leave to pick up her husband who is also a vet at another clinic. It was wonderful. We talked dogs. Animals. Bacchus. She had her dog with her. As they were leaving she let Abby out of the car to stretch her legs. She wagged and romped and got her ribs and chin thoroughly scratched by me. Then just before she got back into her car she gave me the gift of a wonderful memory. She ran into a pile of snow and made an angel. Somehow I think Bacchus was with her.

The Trouble With Congress...

Boy, I've got to say the The Wall Street Journal opinion page in today's paper should be required reading for everyone. There is a piece by Dan Henninger on the Liberal obsession with health care. Karl Rove tells why Obama's rating of his own performance as a B+ is dead wrong and a whole lot more.

The piece on climate change by Howard Bloom was of special interest to me. He explains, in very understandable terms, just how we came to be and how our little piece of the universe works in conjunction with the sun. Actually, anyone who took science courses in school should know all of this, but...

I got to thinking about all the world leaders about to converge in Copenhagen to make decisions based on inaccurate information at best. Our health care debate is about the same. We have all these Congressmen writing legislation, debating it, and voting on it without truly understanding the subject nor it's implications on the rest of us.

They are not unintelligent, they just aren't sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject about which they speak. They are pursuing an agenda rather than fixing the problem of health care costs. The agenda, with the Democrats in power, is to take as much away from we individuals as possible and put it under governmental control.

Hub spent his career designing pension and benefit plans for both domestic and foreign corporations. He has worked on all sides of the spectrum. The insurance side, the corporate side and the government side. I can't think of anyone that has a more well rounded view of the issue than he does. To listen to him break it down into fixes that are cost and coverage effective for everyone and simple to incorporate is mind boggling when you consider what Congress is trying to shove down our throats. But then, they don't really have you and me or our doctors in mind.

The same goes with climate change. No attention is being paid to the real problems being faced by the people of emerging nations. Simple things like food, clothing and shelter. Not unlike here, a way to make a decent living!

What is it about human nature that we always pursue overkill? That's what this health care monstrosity is. That's what climate change is. There is nothing we can do to change what Mother Nature has been doing for millions of years.

Funny, we people as a whole have managed to muddle our way through some 120,000 years since we first became homo sapiens without the help of government dictates on how we live our lives other than for law and order. We're a creative bunch as a whole and those who stray from the path of good usually meet up with the folly of their ways.

Harry Reid needs to let the Senate adjourn and go home. Begin again in the new year. Obama needs to understand that health care reform is more likely to break his Presidency rather than make it.

The rest of us need to broaden our horizons and realize the likes of Al Gore are not all knowing when it comes to trying to outsmart Mother Nature.

Whether or not their is a God I do not know. I do know ole Ma Nature has a long and traceable history of change and adaptation. I'll willingly bow to her whims. I will not to man's manipulation.