The Audacity of a Conservative Court

May 24 2010 by Big Frick in affirmative action, chicago, conservatives, discrimination, liberals, politicians, racism, Supreme Court |No Comments
Like it or not, you gotta love it.
 
If you read the papers today you would see that the Supreme Court ruled 9 – 0 in favor of 6,000 black applicants for firefighter suing the City of Chicago. At least that’s the way it’s being reported.
 
While to phrase it that way is not completely untrue, it was absolutely not the intent of the court, or to be more precise the conservatives on the court, to pass any judgment on the actual lawsuit.
 
What the Supreme Court ruled on today was not the merits of suit, which was filed after blacks claimed they were racially excluded from the civil service hiring process, but rather that the suit itself had all the legal elements necessary to be heard.
 
This suit has been battered back and forth in the courts for the last 15 years. It came to be filed after Chicago held open exams to fill a few hundred firefighter positions in 1995. 26,000 applicants took the test. Because the number of applicants so far outnumbered the available positions, the City of Chicago put in a “cut-off” score of 89 or better for applicants to be considered. This “cut-off” meant a large number of minority applicants did not qualify for employment. The suit claims that the “cut-off” was racially motivated. The city, of course, disagrees. After several court rulings the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals finally ruled the suit had no merit because the applicants had taken too long to file. It was that ruling and that ruling alone that the Supreme Court overturned today with their unanimous decision.
 
So why would Big Frick love the fact that the City of Chicago has to defend itself against a possible racial discrimination judgment that could reach $100 million? Most of you loyal readers know what I think of racial quotas in the workplace and in hiring. And for those that don’t let me explain; they suck. When Barack Obama waxed with his poetic flare and glycerin tears about the days when one of his daughters was very ill he did not mention that they took her to a black doctor, or had her cared for by a black nurse.  No, the Obama’s sought out the most qualified medical personnel money could buy. Shouldn’t the rest of us have the same option? Shouldn’t the citizens of Chicago be given the best, most qualified applicants to protect their life and property? Not according to Congress.  In the law passed in 1991 by Congress employers are not allowed to use an "employment practice" that had a "disparate impact on the basis of race." By those standards the Obama family should have been prevented, as employers, from seeking a doctor based on his superior knowledge of their daughter’s malady and forced to see a minority doctor who, for all intents and purposes, could have provided at least some level of medical care.
 
I love the court’s decision not because I agree with the lawsuit, but because the conservatives on the court did their job. They openly admitted that they disagree with the law as it is written. But they ruled on the law and not on their personal life experiences or their pie in the sky interpretation of how things should be.
 
Commenting on the decision Justice Antonin Scalia (one of my personal hero’s) said the law creates "practical problems for employers" and can "produce puzzling results." He concluded, however, "it is a problem for Congress, not one that federal courts can fix."
 
And that is exactly the point. The Supreme Court is not there to create law; it is there to uphold the constitution. If the law is flawed, as this law obviously is, it is a job for the “law makers” to fix, not the court.
 
This case may well end up back before the high court to rule on the law’s constitutionality, much like the case recently heard regarding the New Haven firefighters. But that was not the question before the court today. The question today was, is there currently a law that allows these applicants to file suit. Every single conservative on the court knows this is a bad law. But every single conservative on the court did his job and ruled yes.
 
The conservative justices did what they were entrusted to do. If you don’t like the law than take it up with the liberal nit wits that made it a law.
 
Your opportunity to be heard is coming in November. 

The Audacity Of Ineptitude

May 15 2010 by Big Frick in Barack Obama, Culture War, eric holder, illegal immigrantion, Uncategorized |No Comments
Did you ever watch the TV show “Cops”?
 
Don’t hold me to it, but “Cops” may have been the first true television reality show. It’s been on the air a long time and folks just can’t seem to get enough of it.
 
A camera crew goes on patrol with the men of women of law enforcement recording them as they do their best to uphold and enforce the law. Invariably they will track down some black guy and begin questioning him about his activities and listen in amused amazement as the guy being questioned spouts some ridiculous gibberish, acting as if he was an expert on the law. The only problem of course is that his ranting doesn’t even come close to the facts, the truth or the law.
 
Did you watch the House Judiciary Committee hearing of Obama’s legal expert Attorney General Eric Holder?
 
Except for the lack of flashing squad car lights it was pretty much the same thing.
 
When asked if he had actually read the new Arizona illegal immigration law, this leader of Obama’s legal braintrust, the Attorney General of the United States of America, the man who had spent an entire weekend damning the law and all those involved in its passage on just about every news show available to him (except Fox News of course), admitted that he had not.
 
Eric Holder, the man who early in his term as Attorney General had no problem condemning America as “a nation of cowards”, spoke on each of the major networks new programs with all faux compassion he could muster, unequivocally stating that the new Arizona law was a danger to not only illegal immigrants but to all Americans and our very way of life. He made those comments knowing full well that he had no idea what the law said. He spoke at length about the likelihood that the Obama administration would sue in federal court to abolish this law, and he did that as well completely ignorant of what the law contained. He admitted on the news shows that the law was not racially motivated, but added that we were entering a “slippery slope” toward racial profiling. How could he possibly make a statement like that when a few days later he admitted to the members of the House Judiciary Committee that, while he “glanced” at the law, he never actually read it? It was pointed out to him that the entire law is only 10 pages long. It couldn’t have taken a man who had an entire weekend to condemn it more than a few minutes to actually read it.  The unmitigated gall of this finger pointing political hack is absolutely astounding. He had to know after his incendiary comments that he would be asked about it. He could have read all 10 pages during the limo ride from his office to Capitol Hill.
 
There is no question that Barack Obama has certainly brought a culture of “Change” to Washington. And the “Change” he has brought was on full display when this neophyte president’s equally amateurish Attorney General embarrassed himself, his boss and the entire American legal system by his remarkably inane and uninformed answers.
 
Holder has done nothing but fan the partisan flames of liberal separatism. So in that sense he is following the Obama administrations playbook to a tee. Likeminded liberal politico’s from around the country are jumping onboard the Obama “Culture War Express” and cutting off all ties with all things Arizona. Never mind that the damage they are doing will be felt most by the very people they are claiming to support.  Los Angeles pulled $8 million out of the Arizona economy by banning all travel for city business to Arizona. Other cities with equally clueless city counsels are threatening to do the same.
 
Do you think this boycott of Arizona is going to do harm to an inanimate state or the politicians that rule over it? Or will this loss of travel dollars be felt most by the working poor who make a living in travel and hospitality industry in Arizona?
 
All I can say to AG Holder is thanks. Thanks for pulling back the curtain on this inept administration and showing a “nation of cowards” what they actually voted for.
 
Now, let’s see what a “nation of cowards” can do with that enlightening information this coming November.

Oh Baby!

May 8 2010 by Big Frick in media, political correctness, stupidity. humor |2 Comments
Sincere thanks to the thousands that wrote to say they miss their regular dose of Big Frick. Unfortunately my schedule has gotten pretty crazy, but I hope to be able to continue to make at least semi-regular additions to the blog.
 
It’s not like there is nothing to write about.
 
We’ve got a president that is claiming his trillion dollar nightmare known as ObamaCare is already helping millions, even though none of the programs have been instituted yet. The most amazing thing is that he is able to say this stuff with a straight face.
 
We’ve got the regular Obama coat-holding media bashing all things Arizona for their life saving law that makes doing things illegal in Arizona illegal. What a concept!
 
We’ve got a plethora of evirno-nuts flying around the country in jet fueled jet planes calling for a ban on the off shore oil drilling that allows their planes to fly.
 
We’ve got yet another Muslim trying his best to blow up innocent Americans in the name of Jihad and a president that has banned the term “war on terror”. Maybe if Obama would just apologize again they would leave us alone.
 
We’ve got a candidate on the short list for the next Supreme Court Justice that has repeatedly had her judicial rulings overturned as being completely unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It’s tough to take a Supreme Court Justice seriously when they have a worse record in the court than Larry Flynt.
 
We’ve got Nashville underwater while the White House remains conspicuously silent, desperately searching for a way to blame it on the Bush administration.
 
We’ve got new unemployment numbers that show the trillion dollar stimulus package has done absolutely nothing to stimulate and a White House frantically trying to spin that into good news. In the next few weeks when the current number is revised from 9.9% to back up over 10% they will claim that this makes it even better.
 
We’ve got the president’s approval rating deader than Michael Jackson, both of which were caused by the misguided actions of a black guy who didn’t know what the hell he was doing dabbling in the medical care.
 
So what do we write about? How about Sandra Bullock.
 
Yes, Sandra Bullock. America’s sweetheart. Oscar winner. And number one hot hottie on Big Frick’s list of women he would most like to disappoint.
 
It’s obvious this little cutie pop has a dark side, or at least likes her men to have a dark side. I thought at first when she married the motorcycle mad man Jesse James that either opposites really do attract, or maybe old Jesse wasn’t the same bad guy he portrayed in his public persona. James left his second wife, a convict porn star, to hook up with Bullock and together they formed what could only be described as a unique family unit.
 
At least on the surface, the private life for pretty little Sandra looked like all was well. Jesse cleaned up nice and made public appearances next to his mega-celebrity wife only occasionally looking like a turd in a bow tie.
 
But all that fell apart thanks to Jesse James public admission that he had contracted Tiger Woods Syndrome. A condition where a guy with a really, really hot wife has the uncontrollable urge to wallow in the pig pen. I don’t know what went on behind closed doors so I will withhold judgment on the how and the why, but thanks to a media that celebrates slutdom we can’t help but know the who.
 
But now it has come to light that while Sandy and Jesse were still man and wife, they were allowed to adopt a baby from New Orleans. Not just any baby, a black baby.
 
I am in no way condemning the adoption of a black kid by white parents. But who in the hell is doing the background checks in New Orleans? They gave a black baby to a woman married to man with swastikas tattooed on his chest, that had his picture taken in a Nazi outfit giving the Heil Hitler salute and is fighting his porn star ex-wife for custody of his kids. With Jesse James extensive police record and troubled past the Bullock-James family was no more eligible to adopt a baby than Manson family. Except, of course, for the celebrity status.
 
Why is it that People Magazine puts Bullock and her new baby on the cover and all the star struck media report glowingly about this wondrous bonding of mother and child and nobody even questions how a baby could be adopted by a family with this history and proven level of dysfunction.
 
Jesse is gone now. But somebody in New Orleans gave that man a baby. 
 
And if that doesn’t scare the crap out of you than your either not paying attention or simply crapless.

ObamaCare and Old Pat

March 21 2010 by Big Frick in Barack Obama, democrats, ObamaCare |No Comments
I have indeed known some real doozies in my life.
 
Like a fellow I knew named Pat that worked on a road building crew. He would go out every weekend and simply abuse himself to the point of a comatose like blackout. He always claimed he had a great weekend but he could never tell you where he was or what he did. What made it even stranger was that every Monday he would visit the job site Port-A-Potty and deliver what could only be described as the very brimstone of hell. It became almost a pay per view event because not only was the little gift package he left behind absolutely inhuman, it was, well….Technicolor.
 
Bright canary yellow, fluorescent green, deep purple, sky blue, shocking pink…. It was like a very gay interior decorator with a flair for the absurd had invaded his alimentary system. There were actually grown men who would intentionally follow this poor sot into the fiberglass commode to gaze in awe at the remarkable load of crap that he created.  It was hideously offensive and completely disgusting, but believe it or not old Pat couldn’t have been prouder of it. He acted as if he was some sort of artist with a very unusual palette.   
 
As I watch the Democrats celebrate their passage of the ObamaCare trillion dollar debacle I can’t help but be reminded of Pat.
 
Much like Pat this mess was truly something that Democrats were desperate to pass. And while they may all be standing around shaking each other’s hand at the historic nature of this unconstitutional boondoggle it is, none the less, a complete load of crap.
 
To her credit Nancy Pelosi was able to focus her minions on the remarkable palette of this load rather than the substance of it. Every political trick in the book was used to ensure passage because on its own the bill stunk to high heaven. But now that it’s passed Democrats are exiting the Halls of Congress with the same misguided pride my old pal Pat displayed and the same wry sense of accomplishment in saying “Hey look what I did”.
 
This bill will do nothing to improve healthcare, in fact the exact opposite will be true. It adds 35 million to the role of insured but does nothing to increase the number of healthcare professionals that will treat them. It will likely cause many in the healthcare business to reevaluate their business model, forcing some out of business entirely and forcing others to completely change the way they do business. 
 
Seniors and those who will soon be seniors will likely be the first to see the change as more and more doctors will be financially unable to accept new Medicare patients and some will be unable to treat the ones they have. To foolishly claim $500 billion can be taken out of Medicare without reducing the level of healthcare provided is like saying you can buy a Filet Mignon for the same as a McDonald’s hamburger and not lose anything in the quality. The bill is so convoluted that even Barack Obama himself doesn’t understand it. He said this past week that “A year from now millions of adults who are currently uninsured will have insurance”. The fact is that the bills coverage for adults doesn’t start for another 4 years. The only thing that starts next year is the tax increase to pay for this pile of promissory poocaa.
 
As for my old pal Pat, well the years of unregenerate abuse finally caught up with him and he passed away. After years of unregenerate abuse heaped on the American public in the past and for the years of financial disaster this bill all but guarantees in the future I can only hope the political careers of those Democrats that voted for this disaster to our healthcare system will do the same.
 
Barack Obama got ObamaCare passed.
 
But still wouldn’t want to step in it.  
 

The Audacity of Infamy

March 14 2010 by Big Frick in Barack Obama |No Comments
“It’s like a dream come true”
 
How many times we heard that same sentiment, repeated over and over again, that chilly November day when Barack Hussein Obama swept the American public’s hearts and their votes to become the first person with at least some African decent to become President of the United States.
 
But much like December 7, 1941, November 3, 2009 is indeed a day that will live in infamy.
 
Unlike that December day, November 3, 2009 did not see the same countrywide shock and fear. Most of us conservative minded Americans had come to accept the inevitable outcome. The polls had shown Obama with a wide lead for weeks leading up to the election and his opponent John McCain had done nothing extraordinary to sway the last minute undecided voters. With his middle of the road, hands across the aisle approach he did very little to sway his own party either.
 
No, November 3rd was not a day of shock, but for many of us it was indeed a day of fear. It had been an election where nothing, I mean absolutely nothing, of substance mattered. Here was this dark skinned man with a white mother and African father who had no discernable Negro dialect, unless he wanted to, talking about Hope and Change with no definition for either. The black community was understandably ecstatic and energized like never before. The liberal white voting bloc was equally rapturous and the rest of the country was split between those who wanted to believe and those, like me, who had seen what happens when you elect a neophyte like Jimmy Carter to escape what the press had created as a national crisis.
 
But now, here we sit a little more than a year into this four year nightmare and the fear I felt has not only grown in me, but it has spread to those who were once completely euphoric over the election results. Reality is indeed a bitch. And that is what we are dealing with today. The reality of electing the most liberal, inexperienced human being to ever grace the oval office.
 
And what of all that Change? Well, Americans are beginning to see that change is only a good thing of it’s a change for the better. The Obama administration and his minions in Congress have indeed brought change to the national debt. They’ve tripled it from where it was when candidate Obama was warning it was unsustainable. They are trying to change the entire nation’s healthcare system, and even though the American public has shouted stop by a three to one margin, the Obama administration bulls its way ahead. Not because it’s the right thing to do for the country, but simply because it’s the thing to do for this misguided neophytes misguided legacy. And how are they planning to ram this life altering legislation down the still healthy throats of America? By using reconsiliation.  The same old tactics and political gamesmanship that Obama swore he would do away with. Because you cannot use the political tactic of reconciliation unless it concerns a budget item, the Obama administration is now looking to tie student aid (a budget item) to the healthcare bill (a non-budget item) so they only need a simple majority in the reconciliation process rather than the super majority this super mistake would otherwise legally require.
 
On the Sunday talk shows we see yet another major change Barack Hussein Obama is about to undertake. The changing of Israel from a sovereign nation, defending itself against a sea of blood-lusting Muslims into a weak and basically defenseless community of Jews living under the thumb of their sworn enemies.
 
I never understood how Obama carried such a large percentage of the American Jewish vote having sat at the feet of the right anti-Semitic and far less right reverend Jeremiah Wright for over 20 years. I can only wonder what those Jewish Obama voters are feeling today. Deceived? Bamboozled? Angry?
 
Maybe all those things. And probably one more as well.
 
Fear. Lots and lots of fear.

The Audacity Of Memory

February 18 2010 by Big Frick in automakers, bailout, banks, Barack Obama, economy |No Comments

It really is getting harder and harder to maintain at least a modicum of decorum in these essays.
 
Just how long this White House thinks they can continue to blame the Bush administration and get away with it remains to be seen. It has become apparent that passing the buck is in fact the only thing the Obama administration has been successful at through its first year in power.
 
In a letter to Congress that was designed far more for the national media than for his minions on Capitol Hill, the president said of his economic agenda “I can report that over the past year, this work has begun. In the coming year this work continues.” The president then went on to say “But to understand where we must go in the next year and beyond, it is important to remember where we began one year ago.”
 
The latter quote was a none-too subtle attempt to snipe at the previous administration, but if you take the words at their face value, I actually agree. It is indeed important to remember where we were one year ago.
 
 One year ago our national debt was 300% less than it is today. Our unemployment was 35% less and well under today’s 10% mark, a mark that candidate Obama ominously warned would be the ruin of the country and only occur if John McCain was elected.   A year ago it was all about his plan and how wrong the Bush administration was, a year and nothing but negative results later, it’s still about his plan and how wrong the Bush administration was.
 
Speaking personally, I have far less money than I did a year ago. The manufacturing sector, which has supported me and my family for over 30 years, is far more depleted than it was a year ago. And I feel far less secure than I did a year ago both financially and physically.
 
A year ago the Obama administration dropped the use of the term “War on Terror”, but the terrorists never really cared what we called it anyway and have continued their mission of death and destruction. We changed the way we referred to them, but “Death to America” is still the phrase they use to refer to us.
 
A year ago consumers weren’t spending out of fear. Today consumers aren’t spending out of increased fear. American consumers are saving their money at a consistently higher rate than they were a year ago. Estimates are that American’s are now saving at between 5 and 7 percent. That’s not a prudent savings for a rainy day, that’s a panicked savings for a coming tsunami.
 
A year ago bank credit was tight. Today bank credit is even tighter and getting to the point of strangling the economy. And what is the plan to help ease this massive retraction in lending? Charging unconstitutional federal fees to a handpicked group of 15 banks. This will only cause these 15 banks to pull back their lending even further to insure proper capital reserves and cause the others to do the same out of fear of who’s next on the presidential hit list.
 
A year ago the Big Three Automakers were in shambles. A year later only one of the fabled three has been able to pull itself out of the death spiral and actually make money. Which one was able to do this seemingly impossible feat? Ford Motor Company. The one that thanks to the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally decided not to sell its soul to the devil and took no federal bailout money. Mulally saw firsthand from his time as executive vice-president of Boeing just what a bad business partner the federal government can be. Ford won by passing on the Obama plan, the other two were not as insightful and are still paying the price.
 
A year ago Obama was just making up imaginary numbers to support his plan.
 
A year later…well…I guess some things will never change.

Bye Bayh

February 16 2010 by Big Frick in congress, democrats, partisan politics |No Comments
What a difference a year makes.
 
Think back just 12 short months ago when the new popinjay Messiah was just installed into the oval office and Democrats were preparing for their one thousand year Reich. Nancy Pelosi was all-powerful in the House and Harry Reid was running the show on the Senate side. It was a dream team made in liberal heaven and after years of subjugation the Dem’s were going to show those mean old Republicans how a country is supposed to be run.
 
Now, skip forward one year and several trillion dollars later and look at the results of this liberal brain trust. The only graphs showing an increase are the ones detailing the national debt and unemployment.  The filibuster-proof Congress has been incapable of passing any meaningful legislation other than massive spending bills like the near trillion dollar non-stimulating stimulus package and the front man in the White House of Hope and Change has been unable to fill the leadership positions of some of the most important governmental departments like the Transportation Safety Administration and the National Border Protection Agency.
 
And just when things were looking their bleakest for the Democrats, having just lost the most important battle to date in the defeat of the bloated and unworkable ObamaCare healthcare package, long time Democrat Senator from Indiana Evan Bayh announces his refusal to run for reelection.
 
And Bayh not only quit. He quit with a vengeance.
 
Bayh notified Barack Obama of his intent to quit and remained unwavering in his decision even after some good old fashioned arm twisting and cajoling by the president and his Chicago hit man qua Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. In a blatantly obvious snub, Bayh did not notify his Senate Leader Harry Reid prior to his public announcement. Further, in what can only be seen as intentional sabotage toward the Democrat Party, Bayh held off his announcement until just 24 hours before the deadline to submit petitions for a ballot spot. At the time of his announcement there was only one other Democrat candidate collecting signatures, a woman named Tamyra D’Ippolito, who owns a small roadside diner. D’Ippolito was just 1000 signatures short of gaining a spot on the ballot. She has since failed leaving the spot open for a Democrat Committee appointee to fill in.
 
 Bayh made clear his reasoning behind the blockbuster announcement ending his 10 plus year run as Senator; the partisanship under the Democrat leadership of Congress makes it impossible to get anything done. “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress – too much ideology and not enough practical problem solving” he said. He went on to say that his decision should not be taken as a slam against Obama saying he believed the president’s agenda is “the right agenda for America”. Democrats were quick to portray this as tacit support for Obama. The fact is it was just another swipe at the feckless left-wing Democrat leadership currently running Congress.  Bayh isn’t intent on hurting Obama, who isn’t up for reelection this November, but he certainly doesn’t intend to lend support to any of the congressional Democrats who are. 
 
What Bayh is saying by his resignation and in his explanation is that even with the overwhelming popularity that swept Barack Obama from an obscure community activist into the seat of ultimate power, Democrats are too dysfunctional to enact policies that benefit anybody other than themselves. Trillions have been spent on pure pork projects and an entire year has been spent bribing congressional leaders to vote for an unworkable healthcare package, all to no avail. He is embarrassed to be part of it and he wants out.
 
While the president was quick to praise Bayh for his past service the White House’s official statement was terse and demeaning, claiming Bayh was “by nature a governor not a senator.” It is exactly that insulting elitist attitude that has Evan Bayh heading for the hills along with a passel of other long time Democrat Senators and House members.
 
Did Evan Bayh walk away from an assured reelection as senator for the possibility of a future run as president? Maybe so. Or maybe he believes the old adage that says “if you sleep with dogs you wake up with fleas”.
 
Perhaps Evan Bayh just got tired of scratching.
 

The Opportunity Of Tragedy

February 15 2010 by Big Frick in NBC, olympics |No Comments
I am truly not the heartless a-hole that many will presume from this next statement, but:
 
Enough already with Nodar Kumaritashvili.
 
Nodar Kumaritashvili is the Georgian luger that tragically lost his life on a practice run in this year’s Winter Olympics. He was only 21 years old when his single man sled lost control on the very fast luge course causing him to leave the track, his body slamming into an unprotected metal pole. It is estimated that he was going about 90 mph at the time of the accident.
 
It is the greatest tragedy in sports when a competitor makes just a slight mistake and pays the ultimate price. It is horribly sad that it happened and it will indeed be a dark cloud over these Olympic Games. Kumaritashvili was remembered during the opening ceremony, as it should be, and will be remembered and memorialized by the athletes in his and other fields of sport for many years to come.
 
Out of supposed respect, NBC has committed to not showing the videos of Kumaritashvili’s fatal run for as long as the games are in progress. But that doesn’t mean they won’t bring it up every chance they get. Every interview and every report of every event has an NBC reporter desperately searching for some segway to bring up the tragic death of this young Georgian athlete “Here we are at the speed skating rink where the ice is perfect and the times should be fast, but not as fast as that luge course where young Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed……” It has gone from the point of being disrespectfully repetitive to being downright insultingly abusive.
 
Every possible talking head has been brought in to put their two cents into the debate. Is the course to steep? Is the track too fast? Is the turn banked too much? Is the turn banked too little? Do the participants know what they are getting themselves into? Was Kumaritashvili experienced enough to be at this level of competition? And on and on and on.
 
One coach was quoted as saying that sport should not mean getting killed by making a small mistake. The truth is that in many of the extreme sports, particularly those that involve high speed and superhuman reflexes, that outcome is always a possibility.
 
Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed at a part of the track that is not particularly challenging. There was no retaining wall there because, at this level, lugers would not be expected to make the kind of mistake that Kumaritashvili made. But rather than holding the poor victim to his rightful responsibility for not being able to navigate a course designed for the world’s most elite, the blame immediately turns to the design of the course and to those who designed and maintained it.
 
Most mortals understand that they have limits. Common sense or abject fear drives us to limit our thrill seeking to things we are fairly sure won’t kill us. Most athletes are somehow able to overcome that fear and press on to do remarkable feats. That’s what makes them special and that’s why we pay money to watch them. But just as some are now saying that measures need to be taken to limit the risk of athletic endeavors, many others who engage in those endeavors are saying “Let me be the judge” and more importantly “Let me do what nobody has done before and put my name in the record book”. Athletes are not so much interested in doing the best that year. They work and train relentlessly so they can do it the best ever. Safety is always a concern. Nobody wants to see young athletes get killed. But if the mentality changes to one of reduced expectations it completely eliminates the reason for competing.
 
If we were to have seen several lugers’ crash or leave the track in a particular area we could then be assured that the track had a problem. But to have one incident, as tragic as it was, tells me that the track is not the problem, but the guy flying down it is. The accident occurred on his fifth run down this particular track. The track stayed the same. His reactions were flawed.
 
I am deeply saddened for the loss of this young man’s life. I am heartbroken for his family and friends. But enough already with comparing every single incident that happens over the rest of these Olympic Games to what happened to Nodar Kumaritashvili.
 
By doing so NBC only diminishes the honor of his memory.

Pointing Fingers

February 10 2010 by Big Frick in Barack Obama, congress, democrats, republicans |No Comments
Yea, but he started it.
 
The childish antics of our elected officials continue. Republicans are being accused of maliciously blocking proposals by Democrats, Democrats are locking out Republicans from key negotiations and the president, who only spent enough time in the Hallowed Halls of Congress to have a cup of coffee, is clueless as to how to get anything done using the standard mechanisms in place in both Houses.
 
It has become obvious that this president’s first year, rapt in historic encomium and bolstered by a wave of nebulous hyperbole, was as good as it is going to get for this administration of Hope and Change and Inexperience.
 
Entering the oval office with a filibuster-proof majority in both Houses, Barack Obama looked to inflict his vision for America onto the voters that swept him into power. But Hope and Change means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It was the audacity of ambiguity that got him elected and it is that same audaciousness that is now causing many of his once-adoring supporters to turn against him. Even those Democrats who appeared to be unshakable in their support for this new Messiah are looking for ways to distance themselves and save their political skin to fight another day. The collapse of the once all but certain ObamaCare bill proves that the stalemate stymie currently paralyzing Congress can be traced directly back to the inept leadership coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
 
And just like a schoolyard fracas when the teacher shows up the bully who started the whole thing is all too eager to point his finger and claim victimization.
 
Barack Obama began his term as president with less legislative experience than most congressional interns. He had a totally new agenda in mind for the country which included some lofty goals and a supercilious socialist ilk. Quite frankly, had the country not been in such desperate need of an experienced leader who could focus his attention on the economic woes we faced, much of his exalted schema would have passed through congress with very little successful opposition. With his iron fisted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and condescending Senate Leader Harry Reid, Obama’s first major legislative act was a near trillion dollar stimulus package that was 99% earmarked payback pork.   Next up was to be the complete destruction of the healthcare system as we know it to be replaced by the ObamaCare system of reduced choice and mandatory participation. Much like the non-stimulating stimulus package the Democrats needed no Republican votes to get this monstrosity passed, so Republicans were locked out of the process both literally and figuratively.
 
Because this community activist qua president lost sight of America’s priorities for the sake of his own, the support he once enjoyed both inside the beltway and beyond began to dwindle. And as the polls go so goes the support of the elected elite whose continuing employment depends upon public sentiment. With the impending mid-term election coming Obama tried his best to ram through an unworkably expensive and graft laden healthcare bill that made nobody happy.   Following the directions of his Chicago machine politics advisors he used muscle instead of mediation.  And as a result he not only lost the battle but a number of defectors amongst the ranks of his once faithful as well.
 
Now, instead of learning from his mistakes in both principle and process, Obama is satisfied to make yet another political grandstand play and call the Republicans to a special televised meeting where he hopes to portray his new commitment to bipartisan participation. The reason for this newfound love of live television is so he can ratchet up the blame game and call the now filibuster-able Republicans to task for what he and his remaining Democrat minions will depict as obstructionism.
 
The Republicans, who are still smarting from a year of complete legislative domination, are in no mood to lose their newly attained political momentum and will likely not give an inch to this neophyte negotiator.
 
It will all make for good television and even better political pundit fodder. But it will not make for a productive legislative session unless the focus turns to real solutions for the ailing economy, the painful unemployment rates and the unsustainable national debt.
 
As Democrats, Republicans and this quickly fading presidential phenom point fingers at each other the public will continue to become more disenchanted with the entire lot.
 
And in November many of those looking to extend their congressional stay will not like the finger we use to point back.

Phenomenal Failure

February 9 2010 by Big Frick in Barack Obama, Michelle Obama |No Comments
Once again the White House has shown that failure, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
 
Michelle Obama gave an interview to the All Barack Channel’s Good Morning America in which she said her husband, the community activist who would be king, "has done a phenomenal job". She then added that people have a right to criticize him.
 
That just doesn’t make sense to me. If I felt somebody was doing a “phenomenal job”, regardless of whether it was my spouse, my president, or a complete stranger, I would find it impossible to give acquiescence to unwarranted criticism as justified. Perhaps the first lady was simply being dismissive of the criticism and stating that it is constitutionally protected free speech. But regardless of its legal protections I would still find it necessary to debate what I saw as superfluous negativity on its merits alone. Of course, then I would need to be prepared to defend my “phenomenal job” appraisal with some facts and figures of phenomenal accomplishments.  And therein lays the rub.
 
The first lady admitted that people are still suffering and that unemployment is still tragically high, but she insists that the president “wakes up serious and focused and committed to pushing this stuff through.” And that may be the most telling comment of all. It shows just how out of touch this White House administration is with reality. The major problem the country faces is that “this stuff”, of which she speaks, is the leading hindrance to the nation’s economic recovery.
 
It is “this stuff” that has taken a national deficit that candidate Obama vigorously campaigned against as being untenable and tripled it to the level of catastrophic. It is “this stuff” that had the newly elected president signing an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay while a year later still having no idea where to even hold the trial of the accused much less detain and house them. It is “this stuff” that nationalized once private industries like the automakers  only to find them a year later still completely incapable of overcoming their labor cost inequities with the rest of the world market and equally incapable of financial independence through profitability. It is “this stuff” that literally locked out opposing views to the nationalization of health care and brought all other important legislation to a grinding halt until its ultimate defeat at the hands of a Massachusetts  Senate seat special election. It is “this stuff” that gave the constitutional rights that tens of thousands of Americans have given their life to protect, to wanton terrorists whose only goal in life is to dismantle or destroy them. It is “this stuff” which threatens the nation’s financial institutions with a discriminatory method of penalization that will do nothing but increase the reluctance of banks to free up credit and grow the economy. It is “this stuff” that threatens the nation’s industrial base with plans for untenable and useless cap and trade penalties that will do nothing to protect the environment and simply increase the cost base inequities between American products and those of developing nations. It is “this stuff” that has Democrats looking for an exit strategy before they institute a battle plan in Afghanistan and it is “this stuff” that has the same Democrats looking for a political exit strategy before the voters go the polls in November.
 
I understand Michelle Obama’s desire to defend her husband and would expect nothing less than her lending him her full public support. But to claim that the job he has done through the first quarter of his term as being phenomenal is, quite frankly, more than I can swallow. Perhaps if Mrs. Obama’s betrothed was still a community activist one could argue that his ideas are what makes him phenomenal. But as President of the United States there is only one word to describe his results.
 
And phenomenal ain’t it.
 
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