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Do you watch Fox News? It’s on quite a bit over here.  My six year old even said the other day, “Why is Glenn Beck always crying?” At that point, I flipped it off and laughed for ten minutes straight.

I choose Fox over MSNBC or CNN because I think it does a better job of reporting the news.  The anchors don’t call other Americans rude and vulgar names, talk about tingles up their leg, or fail to report on major world news like a stolen election in Iran.

Plus, we have Megyn Kelly and they have Rachel Maddow.  Do a quick Google image search if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Maybe because we’re not filled with the bitterness of fighting a non-existent war with The Man (we already know we’re equals, and screw you if you don’t agree), but conservative women just seem to be prettier.  Happy.  Glowy.  Smiley.  I don’t think there’s one unfortunate looking babe female professional news anchor or contributor on Fox News. Well, except for Shep Smith, of course.

And today the news broke that one more intelligent and beautiful woman is joining the ranks: Sarah Palin.  Time will tell if this is a good move on her part, but I know one thing for sure.  This is going to make for some great TV.

Harry Reid is an out of touch dunderhead. This morning, the Senate Majority Leader apologized for his 2008 comments describing then-Senator Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

The more than a year old comments came to light just now because they are included in the book Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.  The book details the 2008 race for the Presidency, and is set to be released Monday.

After excerpts from the book were released this morning, Senator Reid issued a statement:

I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments.

I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama’s legislative agenda.

Moreover, throughout my career, from efforts to integrate the Las Vegas strip and the gaming industry to opposing radical judges and promoting diversity in the Senate, I have worked hard to advance issues important to African American community.

First off, I wouldn’t brag about advancing President Obama’s radical leftist agenda.  People aren’t liking that so much anymore.

Second, why brag about promoting issues important to only one group of people?  That’s rude to other demographics, and it’s demeaning to the group being “helped.”  Think of it this way: Black people, you need government assistance because you’re incapable of making it on your own like us smart white people.  Isn’t that the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard?  Yet liberals vote like that all the time, and Harry Reid just bragged about it.  Yet somehow conservative tea-partiers are the racists. Go figure on that one.

Third, I’m not sure who should should be the most offended by his comments, the darker skinned Americans he specifically apologized to, or everyday, average citizens that he gravely insulted by implying that we’re so small-minded that we could never elect a “truly black” man(whatever that means) to the White House.  I’m deeply offended by his implication that a black man would have to “act white” (again, whatever that means) in order to be elected.

As I was writing this post, I saw a tweet from BreakingNews saying:

Obama accepts Reid apology for racial remark saying ‘the book is closed’ on the issue – BNONews

I’m so glad the book is closed for the white guy in a black guy’s skin (at least according to Harry Reid), but I believe this issue deserves closer examination. Why do top liberals have so little faith in Americans to look past someones skin color? We don’t need programs that benefit one racial group over another. Our differences and diversities should be celebrated, not pitted against each other in a sick political game that no one ever wins.

When I look at someone, I see a person. White, black, or somewhere inbetween, young or old, male or female… we’re all people individually made by the hand and breath of God (yes, even Harry Reid). I wish liberals could see the same thing.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was escorted into a Detroit courtroom today, where his lawyers entered a not guilty plea.

I cannot believe I just wrote that sentence. Let me re-write it:

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (the terrorist) was escorted into a Detroit courtroom today (as if he had the same rights as American citizens), where his lawyers entered a not guilty plea (despite the nearly 300 witnesses on the plane that saw his crotch catch fire as the bomb he was supposed to explode the plane with failed to detonate correctly).

Rudy Giuliani hit the nail on the head this morning during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America:

This isn’t about whether you convict him or not, this is about whether you get information or not. If you put someone in a civilian court, within a short time a lawyer is appointed and the person shuts up. If you have a person in the military system you can question him endlessly for as long as you have to, make sure you’ve gotten the full scope of information, and here’s the most important point, you get it timely.

Yesterday, President Obama lectured the intelligence agencies for failing to keep our homeland safe.  He’s right in that we need to do everything possible to keep terrorists off our planes.  But that should be our second line of defense. The first line of defense should be making them too scared to even think about boarding the plane.

How do you terrify a terrorist?  Not even the death penalty means much, because they’re all suicide bombers.  They’re ready for the afterlife (at least they think they are. I bet meeting Satan sort of sucks…). Do we threaten them with a lifetime in prison without trial on a tropical island, where they get 3 meals a day and free access to pray to their God for The Great Satan(America)’s destruction?  Geez, no wonder the Gitmo detainees don’t want to leave… Sounds a lot better than living in a cave in Yemen!  Even if they do manage to get back to their cave in Yemen, they will have fresh information to spread amongst their brothers about our safety and security procedures.

Is there anyway to scare terrorists off planes, then?  Everyone’s afraid of something… Terrorists are afraid of being tortured into giving up valuable secrets about their organization, location, future plans, or any other information that might be floating about in their twisted little brains. To do so would not only harm their mission, but would bring shame upon them and possibly damnation from their god.

It’s insane that Abdulmutallab is being given a civil trial.  If convicted, he could serve up to a life sentence.  Here’s the message that sends to the other terrorists back home:

Keep up the good work boys! There’s nothing to be afraid of with these silly Americans; they’ll even let you on the plane if they know you work for al-Queda.  Getting through security is not too bad, they’re so busy making sure everyone dumps out their water bottle and has the correct size sandwich baggies that they easily overlook us.  If they do examine you closely, be sure to threaten a discrimination lawsuit. That usually does the trick.  And don’t worry if you screw up and the bomb doesn’t detonate, because you’ll never have to say a thing in The Great Satan’s generous legal system.  If released, you may return immediately to us and rejoin the mission, or if imprisoned, you may pray continually for our cause.

Welcome aboard flight number…

After being briefed on the findings of the security reviews that he ordered on the failed panty-bomber on Christmas day, Barack Obama has figured out how to make it safer to travel the used-to-be-friendly skies.  In a press conference this afternoon, Obama gave his 24,374th speech since assuming the Presidency to assure the public that he really (really!) is doing his job.

He said that our government failed to connect the dots to prevent a known terrorist from boarding a plane inbound to the United States and attempting to detonate a bomb. It was the shortcomings of our intelligence agencies, and their inability to connect the dots that allowed Abdulmutallab to board a plane in Amsterdam with a bomb in his underpants.

Even though our intelligence agencies had info on al-Qaeda’s presence in Yemen, they did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack.  This contributed to a failure of analysis and connecting the dots across the intelligence community.  Which in turn led to shortcomings in the watch system that failed to place the man on the no-fly list.

Since it was not a failure to collect the intelligence, but to integrate the intelligence, the President came up with a four part plan for other people to do their job better.

Step 1: The intelligence community should assign specific responsibility on high priority threats. Not just some of the time, but all of the time. Clear lines of responsibility will lead to clearer communication.

Step 2: When threats to the United States are identified, they should be spread rapidly and widely.

Step 3: They must strengthen the analytical process, including how the annalists examine the intelligence gathered.

Step 4: They must strengthen the criteria for adding people to the watch list and no-fly list.

Obama stated, “My new reforms will help our intelligence community do its job even better, and protect American lives.  Even so, we need security at our airports and borders and through our partnerships with other nations.”  He also told us that it will require significant investments into this area- including 1 billion dollars in new systems and technologies, more baggage screening, more passenger screening, and more advanced explosive detection capabilities.  I think that it’s been proven time and again with education, with the automobile industry, with the banks, with poverty, and with so many other things that the solution is not to throw money at a problem.  It never works.

The President said, “In the never ending race to protect our country, we have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary.  That’s what these steps are designed to do…We are at war… war against al-Qaeda…and we will do whatever it takes to defeat them.”

President Obama is blaming the intelligence community of the United States for the attempted attack, but it’s politically correct over-thinking and the lack of common sense that led to Abdulmutallab boarding that plane.  Less intellectual intelligence and more smarts please.  That’s what will keep terrorists off of our planes.  Not a billion dollars worth of nekkid body scanners.

If we will do whatever it takes to keep our citizens safe, why is airport security wasting time confiscating my bottled water, instead of profiling passengers that fit the description of al-Qaeda operatives?

The New York City Health Department just spent $32,000 of tax-payer money to print out 70,000 pamphlets with ten tips for safe use of… heroin. It’s true!  Now intravenous drug addicts will no longer needlessly worry about whether they should share needles, or spring the extra two dollars for a fresh one?  The booklet also includes tips on disposing your sharps, finding your veins, and seeking treatment for Hepatitis.

My favorite tip is number nine: Get help for depression.

Un-freaking-believable.

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

Mayo’s hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program’s payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.

Those greedy, selfish doctors.  They only want to help themselves and those horrible insurance companies.  Except, you know, health insurance companies only made about 2.2% profit in 2008. And those doctors are just trying to succeed in their chosen careers, running businesses (offices and hospitals, or in this case the Mayo Clinic), raising families, and paying off an average of $140,000 in medical school debt.

Let’s do some basic reasoning, shall we?  It costs money to treat patients.  The medical equipment, the drugs, the cost the building, salaries for receptionists, accountants, and other administrative staff… well, the list could go on, but I don’t have all day here.  Since it costs money to treat people, medical professionals charge their patients for their services.  Just like one pays for their home, clothing, groceries, transportation, and other necessities and/or frivolities.  That’s just the way life works.  If you want something, including medical care, you pay for it or find someone willing to give it to you.

Insert the government.  The government has stepped into an arena where it has no business being, and demands that doctors not charge certain patients more than a given amount, regardless of the patient’s history or circumstances, and regardless of how much it actually costs to treat that patient.  As stated above, the Mayo Clinic was only able to charge the government for about half of the cost spent treating Medicare patients.  Well, the Mayo Clinic has bills to pay, so they have to get that money from somewhere.  Guess where?  The privately patients paying out of pocket or through their own private health insurance. Which is one of many reasons health insurance is so expensive.

The Mayo Clinic has given up trying to recoup any of the money lost to a government run health plan.  They need to pay their bills.  They need to make a profit so they can hire more doctors and researchers and scientists to discover and develop new ways to fight disease and illness.  They can’t keep bleeding money to the government, and it’s not fair to their other patients, who have to involuntarily pick up the extra expenses.

How long before other facilities close their doors to government health care plans?  How long before the government will force them to remain open?  How long before the doctors quit?  How long before the government forces them to remain doctors?  I know it sounds extreme, but let’s follow the line along the path.  The government will make it so unpleasant and unprofitable to practice medicine that no one will want to do it.  Then to “fix” the problem that it created, the government might begin assigning careers to people…like they do in Communist China.

That’s a worst case scenario, of course.  But why even take one step down that path?  Let’s turn around and run the other way.  Let’s privatize health care again.  It’s the only system proven to truly work.