Sacrifice

From The Rush Limbaugh Show, March 31, 2009

"It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings, Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master." - Ayn Rand

My Mother is Almost 80

And Spring Moose

We had a large family and friends gathering yesterday, a surprise party. She was very pleased. Her actual birthday is about a week away but everyone except my son the, Alaska Architect Geek student trapped in Montana, was in town this weekend. On the way home last evening my daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and I saw 12 moose alongside the road in about 6 miles. The first four were running in single file across an open field glancing nervously back at where they came from.

Defenders of Wild Food

Defending Wild Food

Apparently Ashley Judd isn't too busy these days ... She's been out attacking Sarah Palin for supporting the "brutal Aerial killing of wolves," as part of Alaska's wildlife management program....An Alaska organization, Defenders of Wild Food, has crafted a response that's currently airing on TV in Anchorage and Fairbanks. It's one of the best political ads I've seen in a long time, and the ending is priceless:

http://www.defendersofwildfood.org/


http://corner.nationalreview.com/

Six Months

"Wait a year."

Tomorrow it will have been six months. Everyone told me wait at least a year before you try to make plans. They were right. At six months I have little enthusiasm for anything. I find myself unable to even figure out what to do each day, much less in the future. Everything I had planned to do involved Kate.
I survived, at least for now, the latest lay offs. This is a good thing because I couldn't afford to retire and really would have hated going and looking for a new job after 22 years at the current one. After the sigh of relief came the depression. I was pretty sure I wouldn't survive these layoffs and was already thinking about taking the summer off before I started looking for a new job. Now instead of that reality I have to, at a minimum for another four years, get up every morning and commute 50 miles to a job I have no interest in except the pay check. Of course my partner for 20 of those years was my Kate. Consequently everything and everybody reminds me of her all day long.
Maybe it'll get better in another six months.

"Change We Can Believe In"

Keep the Change

"Last week’s health-care summit made clear that, as far as the president is concerned, the question is not whether the U.S. will enact universal coverage but how. When Obama gets it enacted, most historians will revere him as the president who finally dragged barbaric Americans into the modern world. But some may note that the Obama system worsened results for the sick and killed the promising genomic industry, in which the U.S. currently enjoys a world-wide lead. These are the inevitable results of the Obama administration’s push for a statist health-insurance market that contains an underpriced Medicare as an option. The phony pricing for Medicare will draw vast numbers of enrollees, over 100 million in one estimate, and create a virtual single-payer health-insurance system. This system would control costs by rationing health care to the sick, especially when it comes to powerful, expensive new drugs. The U.K., for example, ranks last among the biggest economies in Europe in its uptake of cancer drugs and has the dreadful survival rates to prove it. If the U.S., which is by far the largest market for such drugs and the largest source of capital for their development, becomes a single-payer system, we can kiss this industry good-bye."