Joy and rapture. All Things Beautiful is back! Always thoughtful and beautifully written, the site is a jewel in the firmament of the blogosphere. Relish and enjoy. She promises to post more often.

Obama needs to lance his own boil, before worrying about the “constant sore” of Israel in US foreign policy. Incredible. Ab-so-lute-ly incredible. Just lately, Ahmadinejad said almost the same thing, calling Israel “filthy bacteria.” I wonder if they traded notes before study hall.

Obama takes the American ethnic word-game double-standard one step further:

Here we have the man himself using the middle name that no evil conservative may speak:

“This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he’s not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,”

Here we go again; it’s just hunky-dory for him to use his middle name to puff his status with Islamofascists but it is absolutely forbidden for us to point out that there may be some significance to his obviously Islamic name and the way he may be viewed by the Muslim world.
American blacks have been working a sly con on whites for far too long with this business of, “It’s OK for us to use certain words and expressions with impunity but if you honkies say it it’s a racist slur.”

Sissy Willis asks the BIG question

Thinking about the power behind the throne, whom would you rather have as first lady/rogue, Michelle, Bubba or Cindy?

Who would give away the silverware first, while the CIC is busy giving the country away? After all, The Messiah that Will Save America doesn’t need no stinkin’ silverware.

By the way, the Latin quote in the title was shamelessly plucked from Alexandra’s comments. Translated, it means “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” I thought it was appropriate, especially when discussing the Obama’s.

(Courtesy of Common Folk Using Common Sense)

A biker is riding by the zoo when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion’s cage.

Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage, and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution (local newspaper) reporter has seen the whole scene and, addressing the biker, says, ‘Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.’

‘Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.’

‘Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist from the AJC, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this on the first page. What motorcycle do you ride and what political affiliation do you have?’

“I ride a Harley Davidson and I am a Republican”

The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys a copy of the AJC to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads on the first page:

“REPUBLICAN BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.”

Case in point.

Leave it to Gagdad Bob to come up with the perfect metaphor - “They worship that dandy Obama like he’s the second coming of Jimi Hendrix!!!”

The swarmy rhetoric continues.

Gateway Pundit has the goods on the charge that “I would speak with leaders of terrorism-supporting nations (Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea) without pre-conditions” as “distortion” of his views by his opponents. Even if we can’t count like you, Obama, we CAN read. It’s recorded in numerous outlets and even on your own website.

While you’re at it, here’s another.

To the question of the moment–What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?–I answer, Obama knew everything, and he’s known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright’s disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor’s political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year’s worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright’s glossy national “lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious,” makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise.

Yep, but according to Obama he never heard Rev. Wright utter anything of the sort. Yep. Yep. Yep. And I’ve got a bridge for sale.

But with “breaking news” like this, who needs to know where he stands on issues? Any issues, at that. Sheesh.

Fifth Grade Geography is to Obama.

Sure, it’s just a goofy, clumsy mispeak that could happen to anyone. The sort of thing I ordinarily wouldn’t even write about because we all misspeak. It happens.

But…I dunno…I’m not a spiteful sort but it seems like there just needs to be some balance, doesn’t it? If Bush had talked about visiting “57 states” we’d see it run on every channel, in an endless loop, for days on end. We’d be hearing “moron, moron, moron,” etc.

Like The Anchoress, I’m not saying Obama is a moron by any stretch of the imagination , but could we just have a little balance here from the sycophant media? A little? Please?

Second Amendment Rights are to Democratic Vote Whores. (h/t InstaPundit)

Democrats have run away from gun control because they think it’s a major reason they lost swing states in the last two presidential elections.

“If it weren’t for guns, President-elect Kerry might now be conferring with incoming Senate Majority Leader Daschle,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in November 2004.

Hmmm… interesting angle here. The Dems aren’t against guns simply because someone might get hurt, but only because it cost them power?

GPS Units are to the GOP. Lieberman checked McCain’s bearings and they are fine.

Real questions are to Real Answers. As HotAir would say, “Nuance.”

Shameless Plugs are to DailyKos. Well, not really. Markos’ mother must be really proud. Well, probably not.

The Clayton County Commissioners are no fools. They can see where the cesspool is heading.

Attorneys for Clayton County commissioners filed a claim Thursday in Atlanta Federal Court seeking protection from legal liability arising from the actions of Sheriff Victor Hill.

[...] The filing alleges that Hill’s “objectionable actions, policies and practices concerning management of the county jail and sheriff’s office personnel negatively impact Clayton County’s reputation and endanger the citizens of Clayton County and the State of Georgia.”

[...] Since that time, Thursday’s filing alleges, “sheriff’s personnel have filed more than 67 appeals and grievances with the county’s civil service board alleging illegal, improper and unethical employment policies and actions.”

My, my…Victor has been busy. And don’t forget he’s running for reelection. I wonder if he will try to strong-arm the results of this election, in typical thug fashion.

What I wonder is at what point does the DOJ (or even DHS) get involved? What a fabulous place for a terrorist sleeper cell to set up its nest…close to the interstate, close to the airport, close to a base, incompetent/uncooperative law enforcement, declining home values/schools/job opportunities (plenty of raw materials for recruitement), the list goes on and on. Victor must be very proud of what he has wrought.

Click here to see the astounding pictures of the Chaitén volcano eruption in Chile.

That first one looks eerily like Al Gore Old Smokey literally bellowing forth from his domain to mock humanity at their puny attempts to “Save the Planet.” Who needs Industrial Light and Magic when you’ve got the groove of a good eruption going on down south?

While EveryDayShouldBeSaturday thinks the pictures look like the inside of Nick Saban’s new office, Webutante calls it “one big cosmic belch.”

Wakko would love it.

But seriously keep the people of Chile, the neighboring countries and everyone else downwind in your prayers. The situation is very dangerous and those of that remember the Mount St. Helen’s eruption know that it will take years for the area to recover.

UPDATE: During the subsequent research to this post, I’ve run across The Volcanism Blog. Outstanding stop for the science behind volcanoes (in plain terms even I can understand) along with relevant news. Add it to your blogroll, too. In the meantime, the ash is covering parts of Argentina and the ash cloud is expected to reach Santiago by Sunday. Today in a press conference the Chilean National Geologic Service said the ‘worst case scenario’ parallels Pompeii. Stay tuned.

One of The Hub’s many talents is playing in a bluegrass band with fine fellas from his college days. They sing a song that I would like to dedicate to Hillary, in light of her never-ending campaign for the Oval Office:

How Can I Miss You, When You Won’t Go Away?
(Dan Hicks)

I’ve talked to your mother and I’ve talked to your dad,
They say they’ve tried, but it’s all been in vain.
I’ve begged and I’ve pleaded, I even got mad,
Now we must face it, you give me a pain.

(Chorus - Twice)
How can I miss you when you won’t go away?
I keep telling you day after day,
But you won’t listen, you always stay and stay,
How can I miss you when you won’t go away?

The Anchoress thinks Hillary should suspend her campaign and reappear right before the slugfest convention; refreshed and revitalized when the entire galaxy has reached their gag limit with Obama. Rick Moran wonders if this is the beginning of the end (also at PJM). Fausta outlines two options. MVRWC said that Patrick Ruffini said

I’m hoping Hillary stays in so we can have a full 50 state electoral map of this contest. The demographics will be studied for decades.

In the meantime, Obama tries to feed quarters into the self-annointing Magic Fingers. Interestingly enough, the Mrs. Messiah is seems to be getting more attention these days. For all the wrong reasons.

How can I miss you when you won’t go away?
I keep telling you day after day,
But you won’t listen, you always stay and stay,
How can I miss you when you won’t go ah-waaaayyy-uuuuhhh-aaaayyy?

Yesterday both Fausta and The Anchoress touched on a subject that is always on the top of my rant pile (sorry you’ll just have to read them both - excerpting them here wouldn’t do them justice). Why are most young people unable to have a sincere and loving relationship with the opposite sex? They use each other and then discard each other, like empty french fry wrappers. No courtship, no wooing, no anticipation. Some of my fondest memories are from the days of dating the man that would someday become my husband. Maybe only the mothers of these children are noticing this phenomena… but it is very distressing. What follows is a repost from last year, where I was wailing on the same subject. Seems we are always on the same page…

Carrie Bradshaw Did Not Write The Rule Book
Originally posted 11/1/2007

The last few days I’ve wandered around in flu shot fog (they usually don’t have this effect!) - but a conversation I had over the weekend continued to haunt me. It kept reminding me of something…somewhere…just out there on the fringe of some waking dream….that I’d read before. Then I realized it was a post from The Anchoress, of course, what else would it be?

It was a conversation she had with her boy about girls ….

Another problem, of course, is that intimacy has been defined downward, especially for our young girls, to mean little more than a “hook-up.” Children, especially girls, are being sexualized at ever-earlier ages. The sexual messages begin very young in television commercials and on the clothes-store racks, and most of Buster’s generation grew up watching Friends and Sex in the City and thinking that this was what life was: a series of sexual encounters with no emotional attachments, no repercussions, no pain, no loss of oneself.

Sexualized early, many girls are either overly jaded or mistrustful and remote. Buster says a troubling number of girls his age are sexually hyper-active, but unhappy and lonely - they cannot make good, healthy connections with respectable young men, because they don’t “get” the guys who open car doors for them and who look for a relationship to be about more than a “hook-up” or perfunctory oral sex. (A romance recently busted up because Buster wanted a real relationship, and the girl, a nice-enough kid, simply did not know what that meant!)

While the girls are untethered and confused balls of sexuality, too many boys are learning to see the girls not as young women to be respected, admired and (in a chivalrous sense) looked after, but as disposable spittoons for their disregarded and misunderstood sperm. I’ve heard my sons and his friends complain about it - that their generation is very screwed up about how to relate to each other, that too many of both gender have no idea what self-respect is, that they treat themselves, and each other, badly. They crave intimacy but have no idea how to achieve it when they’ve been raised to throw everything - their virginity, their standards, their drive to succeed (it’s not cool to get good grades) - their potential, their very selves away. You cannot learn or achieve intimacy if you’re busy conforming to the Culture of Now - what Flip Wilson used to call The Church of What’s Happening Now - you’re too busy just trying to keep up.

Lookin’ for love - in all the wrong places. She’s right…just throwing themselves away to the first person that shows the slightest bit of interest. What every happened to The Hunt? When a young man pursued a young lady, courted, wooed…. What? That doesn’t fit into your Speed-Dating Agenda? Then Fausta, yesterday, in the depth of my fog, said this l (I meant to comment, but everyone else had such thoughtful responses - who needed the wonked-out ramblings of a congested blockhead?)

My friend, whose second husband had just left her, also talked about The Rules. The Rules essentially says that women should live the best lives they can and let men chase them.

Sounds good to me. I’ve been married for decades so I wouldn’t know whether The Rules work in today’s convoluted courtship capers. The Rules has been accused of being manipulative but I would wager that the fact still remains that men still like to chase women and women still want to be chased.

The problem comes up when one is trying to control the other.

A lot of women want to dominate everyone around them. They are driven mostly by insecurity but also by anger, and sometimes the wish for power. Most men actively resent domineering women and can be driven to all sorts of crazy behavior out of spite. Some men want to dominate, too. While independent women like myself are not interested in domineering men, some domineering men see this as a bull sees a red cape and charge ahead.

So why do the youngsters of today rush things so? Siggy talked about the Abraham/Sarah/Hagar triangle that continues to rock the world, saying

Perhaps one lesson that can be learned here is that Abraham never attempted to assert control or dominion over that which he knew was in God’s purview. Each of his sons were promised great legacies and Abraham trusted enough in God to not interfere, despite what must have been clearly a great conflict within himself. Not to assert control or domination but to trust in God- really trust in Him- takes a kind of maturity, not so easily learned.

The Big Picture isn’t so easily recognizable, but what we comprehend is that control and domination serves to degrade and not elevate. Those who attempt to assert control over others simply for the sake of control and domination will find that destiny will in the end, not favor them….

When did the children we raised, steeped in music and love and faith and fun and silly words, lose their way? Not just a few Lost Boys in Neverland, but a whole generation of our best and brightest are falling into the trap of entitlement. Everything else has been practically given to them by either schools or governments or doting parents - so why should they have to work at any kind of relationship? I’m not just talkin’ about L-U-V, baby. Every person - every relationship. Not just boyfriend/girlfriend, but teachers, students, people in traffic, friends, the girl behind the counter at the coffee shop. Think that acting out like a spoiled three year old will get you that promotion? Go right ahead. As Siggy wisely noted, even Sarah found out that you reap what you sow, no matter what your original intention.

Every parent’s wants nothing but the best for their children. After all, their baby is perfect in every way, at least in their eyes. Their real nightmare is that their darling babies will take a bad turn in life and end up with less than their brightest dreams. Oh wait, let me rephrase that - every parent who has any values/morals and who tried to instill those values/morals and raise their precious babes to keep their knees together and/or their little soldiers to themselves until marriage - THEIR worse nightmare is that the apple of their eye will turn out like one of the trollops on SATC or the docs on Nip/Tuck. After all, they live by what they created - The Modern and Newly Abridged Rules.

What they don’t realize, because they haven’t had the kind of experience that years bring, the glamorous, enviable and free-spirited Carrie is really just another Britney, just with better shoes.

I can finally gaze upon my blog-mother’s face (h/t MVRWC). And what a sweet face it is!

After years of writing anonymously, she finally drops the veil and admits to a name. An Irish/Italian name at that (see it really was true!).

It feels like a long, lost friend has just walked through the door….