What happens when you try to bite the hand that feeds you?

Woops, Chrysler to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Kind of makes sense, 55% to UAW, 35% to Fiat, 10% to Obama, and how much to investors?? They put money in and they deserve some of the return.

Just can't win

Skin and Bones??

Turncoat

What Specter's Defection Means: Fred Barnes has an assessment of the impact of Specter's defection to the Democrats. Not often a reliable supporter to the Republican Specter returns to his liberal roots. It is sad when your principles are sold for a chance to get reelected.

Chicken Little - The Sky is Falling!

Kind of like putting the Fox in charge of the Hen House: UAW to Own 55% of Equity in a Restructured Chrysler

Dr. Aileen O'Donoghue

Speaking of cool astronomy, check out Dr. Aileen O'Donoghue's website. She and I were doctoral students in physics at New Mexico Tech back in the 1980's.

Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope update

Some cool things happening with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope! Take a look at the large downloadable annotated image at the link above.

Responsive Space®

This week I am in Los Angeles attending the 7th annual Responsive Space Conference.

Some good news for would be parents

Foster-care on the rise!

An important read

The Instapundit's Instawife, Dr. Helen, has an important article on Suicide, men and money. Read it. Kind of sobering given the times we are suffering through.

More coffee please!

Early to bed, early to rise might be a crock???

Blah Blah Blah

This is why I am so glad that I have satellite TV with a Bazillion channels, most of which are not part of the ON (Obama News) Networks: Primetime Obama costing networks millions.

The Washington Examiner

I have added the Washington Examiner to my morning reading list.

A not so great President

From the Washington Examiner an early assessment of the potential for the Obama administration to bring about change. Certainly there will be change and it will be long lasting but it will not be one that most thinking Americans will want to recall in the future. Obama will be known as the Great Spender - a Tax and Squander President. Read the entire article, I especially like the assessment of the Clinton Administration. Obama won't be a do nothing president; his ego won't let him just sit still and let events take their course. He came into office with the single-minded plan to reshape the social structure of this nation. He is another Theoretical Social Engineer.

The First 100 Days

From Fox News Obama’s first 100 days

Here is the list of the accomplishments the White House actively touts, even as it disdains what it calls the "Hallmark Holiday" of the 100th day in office:

• Passing the "largest" economic stimulus bill in American history.
• Ordering the closing of Guantanamo Bay military detention facility and abolishing "enhanced interrogation techniques.
• "Setting a fixed timetable for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq.
• Ordering 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and enlisting, with modest new assistance, European allies in a new multi-layered strategy there and in Pakistan.
• "Returning science to its rightful place" by lifting the Bush restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
• Signing laws to expand children's health insurance (financed by a 61-cent per pack increase in the federal cigarette tax the adviser did not tout).
• Signing a law meant to improve the ability of women who allege pay discrimination to sue their employer.
• Diminishing the role of lobbyists in the White House
• "Forge a meaningful statement from the United Nations" criticizing North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile.
• Lifting travel and remittance restrictions for Cuban Americans who seek to travel more frequently to the island and send more US currency to their immediate family.
• Engaging world leaders in Europe, Turkey, Latin American and the Caribbean with "strength and humility."

"And this is just the beginning," the adviser beamed. "The president is governing consistent with the way he campaigned as a candidate."

If these are what this administration says are major accomplishments then, except for the “largest” waste of tax payer dollars, this is going to be the most inconsequential presidency in American history. Other than the first item of the list, which will plague this nation for the next 100 years, nothing is worth touting as a major accomplishment. Note the comment, ‘…disdains what it calls the “Hallmark Holiday….” This is the White House’s way of lowering our expectations for the Obama presidency. Here’s is how I would interpret this list:

• Squandering yours, your children’s and your grandchildren’s future
• Soft on terrorism and national securityLetting the enemy know our plans in Iraq
• Diverting attention from the war on terror with a drop in the bucket
• Politicizing science, making a decision without thought
• Taxing the poor
• Retroactive retribution – based on a something that didn’t seem to matter when it might actually have been happening
• Tax cheats and friends of the president excepted
• Really harsh pouting at a tin pot dictator
• Socialists unite
• The First Apologist at his best

Of one mind

Everyone is beating up on Janet Napolitano, Secretary of DHS, over the Right-wing Extremist report that came out a couple of weeks ago. But, is it fair to be doing so? One could say yes and no. Yes, because as a supposeldy thinking person she should have known better and have taken a more considered approach. No, because after all she is only parroting the Obama administration's view of the world. One cannot believe that in this Mono-mind administration that there would be the possibility of independently thinking cabinet members. There is only one Groupthought and that thought is Obama's. Nothing that comes out of the mouths of Obama's cabinet people, or from any other member of his administration, is an original idea or view. If it isn't Obama's thought then it is nobody's thought; people in his administration just don't think outside of his box. That is one reason why one never hears anything original out of Secretary of State Clinton's mouth. She has, sadly, become Obama's parrot, just as he has become the parrot of left wing groups like moveon.org I don't particularly like Hillary Clinton but it is sad to see her reduced to an Obama mouthpiece. You don't see much of her because it is kind of redundant to repeat everything that he has already said in one of his numerous (too many) press conferences. The Obama administration has one mind and it is shared - not equally as it turns out - by all members of that administration.

Not what you think Goldilocks tyrannosaur

On the WSJ editorial page: A President can't placate the left and keep America safe.

The risk-averse CIA that so grievously failed in the run-up to 9/11 was a product of a spy culture that still remembered the Church Committee of the 1970s and the Iran-Contra recriminations of the 1980s. Mr. Obama needs to stop this score-settling now, and he can start by promptly releasing the documents that reveal what the CIA learned from its interrogations.

To follow up on this, one cannot help but believe that the release of the CIA memos by Obama was done to embarrass the Agency. It was not a balanced, fair release of information. If his intent was not to embarrass the agency, which might be inferred by his immediate damage control visit to the CIA, then one can't help but believe that so far his administration has been nothing but a comedy of errors. ♦

Obamatopia, maybe it will be in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - read the entire piece.

With the 10th anniversary of Columbine here maybe this book should have been been written 20 years ago A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting

New Mexico Dachshund Rescue

New Mexico Dachshund Rescue is a wonderful organization that attempts to find and provide new homes for the four-legged critters of the Doxie persuasion. My wife and I have been members for several years now and specialize in fostering the medically needy Dachshunds – mostly those that have back problems. We attempt to rehabilitate the ones that have had back surgery. We have been reasonably successful though we have had couple who have refused to even try to learn how to walk again. For them we purchase carts from Doggon’ Wheels. We have kept several of the Rescue Doxies but most end up in wonderful loving homes. Here’s a picture of the girls, all of which have come to us through NMDR and stayed. On the left is Heidi. When she came to us she had had surgery but was not yet walking. After a few months was rampaging around the house on all fours. In the middle is our most recent family member, Sugar from Lubbock Texas. She has had back surgery and walks fairly well, though she also spends a lot of time scooting around on her butt! On the right is Rosie. She came to us from eastern New Mexico and by the time we got her it was too late for surgery to help. She doesn’t walk with all fours unless she is on a not skid surface like a carpet then she gets around pretty good – they call it spinal walking. She has not control on the legs for scratching or pushing her rear end up off the floor.

Tax and Squander meets Socialist

Which one is the student and which one is the teacher?

I have added Paul Barford's blog page to my "Blogs of Shame" list - not because he is someone to avoid but because by drawing attention to his notoriety you might actually visit and read his page. He is his own worst enemy and as such it is best for people to see for themselves. As has been noted, time and time again, collectors of ancient coins have a responsibility to help stop the looting of archaeological sites - we admit it and we stand by it - but unfortunately Paul cannot understand this and keeps on harping that collectors are the sole reason for the destruction of archeological sites. He overlooks the role that archaeologists themselves play in the destruction of the same sites. One day I would like to meet Paul. I think that we are a lot alike!!

And we want to actually talk to this country
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124005279095031897.html#mod=djemalertNEWS