...the company you keep...

Dear Congressman Paul Ryan,

As recently as one week ago, I would have considered your entry into the Presidential race a welcome miracle. Now I begin to wonder if I might have been too hasty in my opinion of you.

I am not suggesting that you aren't everything I thought. Your "Cut, Cap, and Balance" plan, although doomed from the beginning, had the sort of defiant-in-the-face-of-certain-defeat that characterizes the Thermopylaean position true conservatives face these days: facing an uneducated army of looters, moochers, union thugs, and race-baiters, led by ideologically-driven college professors, "community organizers" etc.

Then I read this Weekly Standard article, and it gave me pause.

If your closest friends and confidants include this brand of political elites, then I fear I misjudged you. I mean, come on; let's be honest. It is exactly this crowd that began our slide into this mess...not to take anything away from our current President, who turned our skid into a full-on, fishtailing, multiple turn-over interstate crash, of course.

But if we are ever to get out of this mess, you might want to consider talking to people for advice who have a bit more credibility as real conservatives, and not just the New England Yacht Club.

Sincerely,
MOCKBADOC

The IBEW thug stereotype confirmed. Well done.

I guess we won't have to wait any longer for the union thuggery to recommence this election season. This poor guy in Michigan learned the hard way that "collective bargaining" is, to paraphrase Don Corleone, "an offer one can't refuse".

Funny Picture on Drudge

I'm sorry. This is just funny. Or maybe I'm just exhausted. Either way, it makes me smile.

A Tribute to Ron Paul

I respect Congressman Ron Paul very much. In fact, I think I'd like to just hang out with Ron Paul and his son Rand. I really can't think of a single issue on which I think he is simply dead wrong. And while I consider myself a Constitutionalist more than a Libertarian, I feel that his presence in the office of President would be a wonderful thing for the office.

However...

All of this having been said, I just don't see how he could ever beat Obama in a general election. There are a number of reasons for this, in my opinion.

1. While a very intelligent man with very well-considered (and correct) opinions on a myriad of issues, his delivery lacks a certain something. He comes off a bit whiny and a bit professorial at times. Like it or not, leaders have to have a bit of gravitas, and I fear he may be a bit lacking in that department
2. Tea Party aside, many in our country - and it is to our shame, incidentally - just simply don't see the sort of danger we are in as a country. For these citizens, voting someone who openly advocates the sort of austerity measures he does would be nearly impossible.
3. Obama, for all his obvious flaws, can absolutely count on his Mooter and Looter Coalition to vote for him to keep the hand-outs coming just a little longer. Whoever we nominate to oppose him must be able to unite a vast coalition of people, not just little bits and pieces of the conservative-leaning people in the country.

In my humble opinion, Ron Paul has been a wonderful thing for the Conservative movement despite these facts, and despite (and probably because) he has not been, and likely never will be the Republican nominee for President. So thank you, Mr. Ron Paul. Thank you for being a wonderful, brilliant man with equally brilliant ideas and a wonderful heart. But please don't start undermining one of the other nominees that almost certainly will be the person running against Obama next year. Another 4 years of that maniac will be our end, and despite what you may think about your Republican opponents, any one of them would be better than four more years of Obama.

So let's all make nice and get behind Rick Perry, even if some of you have to hold your noses to vote for him. He beats the hell out of the alternative. Then, we'll hold his feet to the fire like we never did with Bush, and we Conservatives will make a good President out of him, whether he likes it or not. My gut tells me that he will be great (one way or another).

BATFE Agents Promoted

I really don't know what all the fuss is about. People generally do tend to get promoted for a job well-done. And since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) mission is, apparently, to kill American civilians, these guys really do deserve to be promoted. The brilliance of their success lies in the fact that Americans will continue to be gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers with ATF guns for decades to come. Well played, gentlemen.

It should be noted, however, that bonus points would have been given if they'd been able to (a) shoot someone's children with a sniper rifle or (b) burn a bunch of people and their children alive. Keep up the good work, guys.