Monday, December 31, 2012

Biden gets a RAISE, too??

President Barack Obama’s newest executive order put an end to the pay freeze on federal employees, giving some federal workers a raise, including Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden will earn $231,900 beginning March 2013, a roughly $6,000 bump from the previous year, The Weekly Standard reports, citing official disclosure forms.
Members of the House and Senate will also get a small pay increase of $900 as annual compensation for members of Congress will jump to $174,900 in 2013.
President Obama’s executive order lays out the new pay schedule:
President Obama Orders Raise for Biden, Members of Congress & Other Federal Workers
They may not be huge pay increases, but the timing of the executive order is interesting as Obama and Congress are currently trying to avoid going over the so-called “fiscal cliff. Meanwhile, Americans are tightening their belts and preparing for potentially higher taxes.
Finally, a pay raise seems to indicate that Congress and other federal employees have been doing a good enough job to warrant one. Do you think Congress and federal employees like Joe Biden deserve a raise? Information from The Weeekly Standard and Drudge Report...  


So, you think they deserve raises right now? How much CAN a government ignore the facts? WE ARE BROKE. What company gives increases when it's BROKE?  If  I was Biden I'd be so ashamed.

Your thoughts? Z

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sunday Faith Blog

"The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him for the healing of America....  Our country is in need of and ready for a spiritual renewal."  Ronald Reagan.

If he only knew how much we need it today.   Please pray that we can get back to the goodness of God in our country.  Please pray that people will stop pushing God out of the public square.  Only until then will we truly heal.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23 Have a great Sunday.....please ponder the quotes above....our country is so truly lost; 2013 will be a turning point. Z

Saturday, December 29, 2012

ADOPTION and POLITICS?

What do you think of the new bill in Russia which bans Americans from adopting Russian orphans?  

To throw insult to injury, had you known before this happened that they have actually demanded parenting classes before they let kids come here?  Parenting lessons?!   Any drunk, any prostitute, derelicts, unmarried women, etc., can conceive these children and then they're thrown into orphanages and the Russians demand our parents who pay thousands to go visit, support them, and then bring them here have parenting lessons!?   Shouldn't they be kissing the ground our American parents walk on for taking them off their hands and giving them loving homes?

I have friends who adopted a Russian little girl who's got learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and they love her and protect her and do all anybody could ever do for a child.   Think they needed parenting lessons after having raised three amazing sons of their own?

Of course, none of the countries mind giving up their children with special needs, but they're becoming more and more careful about who they're letting be adopted.  Russia's action is suspected to be in retaliation for a law Obama signed criticizing Russian human rights abuses.

In my opinion, keeping orphans in the condition they're kept in Russia is a human rights abuse.  And so Russian children will suffer.  Good job, Putin; typical.

What right do we have criticizing other countries for human rights abuses..?   What's it help?  And what's it do for us?  It's sure done nothing for children who won't be having loving, clean and safe homes anymore.  I'm curious about what you think of that.

Thanks, Z


Friday, December 28, 2012

Obama "CUTS TRIP SHORT"?


Remember when George Bush went to his ranch at Crawford, fully fortified with cabinet members, secretaries, every communication he could need, and how the Democrats (including the media, of course) tore him apart for being gone so often? They also insulted him constantly for playing golf (he stopped playing when the war started). Obama has played more golf than Bush ever dreamed of and nobody insults him.

Obama went to Hawaii for Christmas during some of the most intense economic challenges this country's had and the media's saying he "cut his trip short" (that must be the White House meme because I saw a succession of about 5 mainstream media news readers say that exact phrase...not "left early", not "coming back before schedule"...no, it's "cut his trip short."

Now, you see...if it was a Republican president who'd gone off to a sunny island in the middle of the financial crisis, he'd have been excoriated...and Obama KNEW he'd have to come back early, right? SO what's the "CUT SHORT?" When someone schedules a trip for less days than hoped for because he's got business to do, and shouldn't have left anyway, is that cutting short a trip?

Any leftwinger who STILL doesn't believe in leftist media bias isn't awake. The double standard's palpable.

By the way...did you see Obama refer to himself as an OPTIMIST? What PLANET does he LIVE ON?

z

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas FOOD from Z's :-) and a movie recommendation

Some of you have emailed me asking for shots of my Christmas dinner, since my food blog has carried Easter and Thanksgiving food shots....so they're there!  I hope you enjoy!
Click on the Mac 'n Geeez link to the right..........

BY THE WAY....I just saw LES MISERABLES and it is BEYOND FABULOUS. The singing is astonishing and the acting is sublime....Hugh Jackman and Eddie Redmayne (be still, my silly heart..)ROCK. Some of THE best singing EVER. Crowe isn't a singer but he was definitely adequate. Ann Hathaway was quite good. I HIGHLY recommmend this film. (oh, bring Kleenex) :-) z

What was your favorite present....got or given?

Anybody want to share a favorite gift your got or gave? 

I just saw THIS VIDEO and thought about Christmases where our family's had reactions like that, too!

My favorite gift was one I gave...I'd bought a book by Magic Johnson at a fund raiser, signed by him with the number 32, and I gave it to my huge backetball fan-nephew! He was pretty excited. I was more :-) Got any fun thing you'd like to share?

I hope your Christmas was wonderful.

xx Z

Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas...........

Have a beautiful Christmas...........have fun and have faith.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son.." John 3:16 Love, Z

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Sunday Faith Blog


Yes, it's me....playing and singing. The recording is from a cell phone in a crowd, live. Sorry for the bad quality. I just hope you enjoy it. I love the lyrics... Merry Sunday before Christmas! Love, Z (thanks again to the amazing Miradena for putting this together xx)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

It WAS easy being GREEN! :-)


This is so true.... Being Green

At the store checkout line the young girl cashier suggested to the older woman customer that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags were bad for the environment. The woman apologized and confessed, "We didn't have this green thing when I was your age." The young clerk replied, "That's what is causing our problems today. Your generation did not care enough to save the environment for future generations." 

She is right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized and refilled, so the same bottles could be used over and over. They really were "recycled". But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We took our groceries home in brown paper bags that we reused for many purposes. Most memorable, besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked most places and didn't climb behind the wheel of a 300-horsepower vehicle whenever we had to go two blocks. Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up hundreds of watts -- we used wind and solar power to dry our clothes back in those days. Kids wore hand-me-downs from their brothers or sisters instead of getting brand-new clothes all the time. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV or radio in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen we blended and stirred our food by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on muscle power. We exercised so much by working that we didn't need to go to a health club and run on treadmills operated by electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we wanted a drink of water. We refilled fountain pens with ink instead of buying a new ones and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole thing just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then. People took the streetcar or bus to go downtown and kids walked or rode their bikes to school instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint. But isn't it nice of the current generation to point out how wasteful we old folks were because we didn't have the green thing back then?
 Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lecture on conservation from a smart-ass young person... We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off. END

Z:  Pris sent this and I thought it was terrific............do you remember NOT BEING GREEN?!  And being WAY more GREEN than the loons like to say they are today?! :-)

I know...this hasn't anything to do with the post, but it's GREEN and I'm getting in the Christmas-post mood! Humor me :-) Sometimes, GREEN is SO good! z

Friday, December 21, 2012

Captions...laugh and write your own!

Got a good caption for this?
I'd love to hear it.     (I think!)

xx Z

The last day of earth

If you're reading this on Thursday morning, the earth again survived the doomsday scenario predicted by the Mayans.   I got to thinking this:

IF YOU DID BELIEVE FRIDAY WAS THE LAST DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE YESTERDAY? :)

Z

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Bill Whittle...wrong?


No, of course not....Bill's usually right.  But, see his excellent points he makes and then ask yourself if that guy on the left in the video's advice, which Bill agrees with, can work?  Or are things too far gone to have that work?

Please watch...I know videos are not often popular on blogs because they take a second to watch, but it takes a second to read some of our more long-winded blogger friends, so watch this, please!

I've often said what Bill says here...how could Obama be anything but what he is, considering his upbringing and his mentors he surrounded himself with?  And how could this nothing with so little experience get published (2 books!) and then become president on his own? 

But, what DO WE DO?   The answer simply can't be what's suggested here "Start at your school board level, get involved!"  We don't have the time.

what do you think we can do that would be effective?  Why isn't Bill Whittle, who is so effective in videos, more effective in substance, in real life, in INFORMING PEOPLE?

If our media was honest and he was allowed a voice, he'd be listened to!  But, instead, the leftwingers like Piers Morgan tell guests who don't share his opinions to "come back when you've changed your opinion!" and the media's cool with that.

Message to BILL WHITTLE:  DO SOMETHING MORE!!  GET HEARD?  Any ideas, geeeZ readers? HOW DO OUR EXCELLENT CONSERVATIVES GET HEARD?



z

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Just get used to it...JUST GET USED TO IT

I've listened to a lot of experts on the subject of guns and mental illness the last few days for obvious reasons........having just listened to a world-renowned expert this morning on the radio, I've come to the following conclusion:

NOTHING IS EVER EVER GOING TO STOP THE TINY PERCENTAGE OF NUT CASES WHO WILL KILL INNOCENT, UNDESERVING AMERICANS.

No matter how much the news venues financially reap from this hideous harvest of information; no matter how many mental health experts expound on what drugs do what and how to recognize that tiny percentage of those who'll actually kill; no matter how many commissions are created to reinvent the wheel on guns and gun law..............there is a small percentage of crazies who are going to kill.  With a gun or otherwise.

We've turned tragedy that deserves sadness and tears into a time to tear our hair out in anger with each other over gun control and the NRA, and is it really kind to institutionalize or drug the mentally ill...........when, really, we should be tearing our hair out over the fact that it's all in vain when we don't turn the mirror on ourselves and ask WHAT THE HECK'S HAPPENED TO AMERICAN CULTURE AND ETHOS AND GOODNESS?

That's my take, anyway.

Meanwhile, 20 dear little children are dead and Yahoo's news page headline right now is about the two Ecclestone sisters "the most spoiled rotten girls in the world."   perfect.
Z


RGIII: Free Thinking Superstar

Most of you've heard this story: Let's talk about it. How do we get around Black liberal nonsense like this?

Blackness Gestapo Attack on RGIII Typical

RGIII (Robert Griffin III), superstar quarterback of the Washington Redskins is the latest black under attack by the Blackness Gestapo. The Blackness Gestapo are racists, black and white, who troll the airways keeping blacks in-check, faithful to their blackness. They believe to be authentically black, one must behave and think in certain ways. Blackness Gestapo mandated authorized black behavior includes having a chip on your shoulder against whites, maintaining an eternal victim and entitlement mindset, never achieving success without Democratic Party programs and never ever voting Republican. Blacks must call themselves African-Americans and display an urban edge via their speech, attire and attitude.

Blackness Gestapo enforcer, ESPN analyst Rob Parker accused RGIII of not being black enough. Griffin comes from a great military family. His fiance is white. He is extremely articulate. He wants to be judged by his performance on the football field without regard of his skin color. Wow, what a radical concept in our new “everything-is-about-race” Obama America. Doesn't RGIII sound like he embraces the dream of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr that people be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin?

But worst of all, rumor has it that Griffin might be a Republican.

The idiotic self imposed suppression of black liberation and growth by the Blackness Gestapo goes way back.

In the 70s, I remember watching an episode of the sitcom, “Good Times”. A black politician was criticized by the black community for coming across too white. To prove his blackness and win black voters, the politician had to show he could speak an urban language called The Dozens. Clearly, the absurd restrictive message of the episode was regardless of ones education, racial loyalty requires that blacks maintain remnants of the hood.

Remember, the 90s comedy TV show, “In Living Color”? A standard joke of the program was the black guy who did not sound or behave like he came from the ghetto. The message was blacks who speak English correctly and prefer sushi over fried chicken are traitors trying to be white.

I witnessed the same brain-dead behavior from blacks here in Florida when brilliant articulate black Republican Jennifer Carroll ran for Congress against the Democrat incumbent do-nothing-for-her -constituents Corrine Brown. Brown's district was mostly black and ghetto. Brown had been in office forever without much positive change in her district. Carroll was smart and loaded with fresh new ideas. Brown won reelection hands down. Word on the street was Carroll sounded too white. Give me a break! Racist idiots!

Blackness Gestapo Generals Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton had a “tude” against Obama for running for president without hood “creds” such as theirs. Obama had to prove his blackness by spending 20 years in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racist church. The mainstream media partnered with the Democrats in hiding Rev. Wright's racist rants from the public to protect their first black serious socialistic/progressive contender for the Oval Office.

If I sound a bit frank in my language, it is because I am tired of Blackness Gestapo thugs threatening and stifling the growth of blacks. How dare they dictate the behavior of myself and other blacks.

American blacks are blessed to be born in the greatest land of opportunity on the planet. Just as whites are not monolithic, neither are blacks. We are individuals. Our God given birthright of freedom grants us opportunity to explore limitless tastes and behaviors without being chained by Authorized Blackness.

Forty years ago, I met a black fencing master – as in sword fighting. I was elated. I carted the brother to recreation centers across Baltimore. I wanted black kids to see black excellence beyond basketball, football, baseball and entertainment. I wanted them to see that blacks need not be limited in their abilities, hopes and dreams.

So Blackness Gestapo thug Rob Parker, get a life and mind your own business. RGIII is free to be whomever and whatever he wishes without you and your homey's approval. Wimp conservatives/Republicans say we must pander to your ilk to win the urban vote. That “ain't happenin'” as far as I am concerned. I will never sacrifice principles and values that I know are right and best for all people to the false god of votes. Racist thugs like you must and will be defeated.

Heck, this RGIII kid is so good, I just might become a Redskins fan. ...Nah. Go Ravens!

Lloyd Marcus, Proud Unhyphenated American
LloydMarcus.com

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"God Help Us" is right, Mr. Stein

Ben Stein's Diary

God Help Us

A massacre that has turned the world upside down.
Sunday I learned about the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school while we were setting up at Fox News to tape Cavuto on Business. The news was so horrible that we all felt as if we had lost our legs and could no longer stand. It was such horrible news that it simply turned the world upside down.

It still is that kind of news, and it’s incredibly depressing about the nature of humanity. And my wife and I pray all day for the souls of those dear children and for the peace, if there ever will be peace, of their families… and for the souls of the adults and the peace of those who knew and loved them.

As usual, the smartest comment about the whole subject came from John R. Coyne, Jr. “There is evil in the world. It’s beyond mental illness, beyond gun control. It is evil.”

The killer got his weapons from his mother, who apparently had bought them legally and registered them. That tells us something about what anti-gun laws would do, although maybe the mother should not have had them either. In this world, a killer devil can kill his mother and steal her guns to kill six year olds. That’s what some humans are and I am not sure what laws will stop them.

Second, I read that the killer was socially awkward (putting it mildly) and “reserved.” I know what that often means. He spent much of his miserable life playing shoot ’em up video games on line or on machines. I see a troubled young man doing that often.

Up close and personal.

In these games, the “player” just spends his whole day attempting to exercise and exorcize his loneliness and low self-esteem by shooting imaginary creatures and creating damage all day long.
At a certain point, just “killing” on the console blurs into doing it in real life. “Killing” is just what the kid does all his life. How much of a stretch is it for him to shoot into a movie theater or a political gathering or a kindergarten in “real life” if his life is so pitiful that he does not know what’s real and what is not? If you are looking for a villain, try shoot ’em up games.

 Third, what motivates “great” deeds? So that a man’s name will not be forgotten and he will be sung about even after his death, goes the ancient saying. That’s what you get if you slaughter 26 totally innocent people at a grade school. If you want another villain, try the media itself, which has now given Adam Lanza fame beyond what he could have dreamt of. It is impossible to blame the media, but evil men like Adam Lanza have gamed the system to perfection.

Fourth, why are these killers always men? What is it that we teach our young men in this world that makes them think it’s a mark of manliness to kill the unarmed and innocent? Whatever it is, it’s disgusting. It’s not manly to kill any unarmed human. It’s miserable, crawling cowardice.

Finally, a comment that will enrage the beautiful people. The whole world is rightly overwrought and crazed with grief over the murder of twenty totally innocent and blameless souls last Friday in Newtown. It was and is a catastrophe for the ages.But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promises to kill every Jew in Israel and then in the whole world, including babies… and he had his defenders, even at the Democratic National Convention. And it was daily life in Nazi-occupied Europe from 1939 to 1941 to kill thousands of Jewish children every day. But powerful, intelligent men and women in this country defended Hitler, spoke up for him and for keeping America from even sending arms to Britain when England stood alone. What are we to make of that? 

No one even mentions, no one even knows about the horrendous Armenian genocide by the Turks in 1915, when well over a million of the most talented people on the planet were wantonly murdered — and the world has still not officially called it genocide — and Hitler explicitly said it was a model for him. Who today even talks of the purposeful mass starvation of millions of beautiful Ukrainian children by Stalin? The U.S. did not say one word about it as a government. The U.S. still will not confront Turkey seriously about the Armenian children.

Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge killed roughly one third of all of its people, including children, from 1974 to about 1977 — and it was U.S. policy to avoid doing anything to stop them — because they were opposed to the North Vietnamese Communists and Communist Vietnam, which had just taken over South Vietnam — our ally. What can we say to that? We cheered the deposing of the President — Richard Nixon — who would have stopped the Khmer Rouge from taking power. There is plenty of Cambodian blood on our hands. There is plenty of blood of all kinds on our hands, especially of the most innocent and blameless among us… real babies, truly innocent.

God help us. Man is made of such crooked stuff that it is impossible to set him straight, said a famous philosopher. God help us.

Z;  Excellent piece.  Thanks, Elbro.  (I particularly appreciate someone remembering the Armenian genocide...there are people who never heard of it).  
What part could anybody disagree with?  ANYTHING?   Tell me.

thanks. z

Monday, December 17, 2012

Guns...or what?

So, we've got many more mass murders lately..........more and more and more.
Is that the gun's fault?   Farmers and ranchers have exposed their kids to guns all their lives...for years.  I haven't heard of mass killings in the last 200 years by kids who decided blowing as many people off as possible was a good  idea.

So, it's not guns.  Are we safe to say that?  But, I know, the leftwingers insist IT'S THE GUNS!!!

It's pretty clear that having guns readily available isn't a good idea for the mentally challenged, I'll agree to that extent.   But, are there more mentally challenged people lately?  WHY?

It's not guns............

Lately, on talk radio , I've been stunned to hear "Do you think the killer went to church?"  DO YOU?


Very disappointing to hear Obama say beforehand that his talk at the prayer service was not the time for talking about gun control because a lot of his speech did bandy about subject.  Sad.
By the way,...why the muslim clergy represented?   Any muslim kids killed??    No, I don't think so, either.

Let's stop shunning God....dissing Him to kids....not permitting prayer of any kind or even moments of silence. This is about GOD, not a RELIGION. Wake up, America...take notice about when things started to go SO WRONG. z

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Sunday Faith Blog

Mark 10:14 Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God....16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
There is no understanding this tragedy. God, be with them. Reveal yourself as you see fit. Be with America whose heart is broken and cannot grieve fully but puts politics first. Help us stop being angry and help our hearts to love.

God be with the families, and be with all of us. Amen.

Have a blessed Sunday, everyone. Z

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Guns vs Evil?

Before you read more, I wanted to add something to the post I wrote earlier because it's the third time I've heard it just this morning.."the Republicans won't vote for gun control WITH THIS PRESIDENT."   Um....what's this president have to do with it?  Have they ever been for controlling guns to the point that the left wants to?  And does it mean necessarily that they want NO gun control as is implied?   I'm so sick of the nauseatingly dishonest implications.  What, "not with this president" because he's black?  They hate him?  he's extreme?  Which?
After the horrid shooting of innocent children we all by know about by now, CNN immediately went into overdrive with "THIS MASSACRE IS THE GUN'S FAULT!" ..to the point where I heard a gun control slug fest on Piers Morgan last night and Morgan's parting comment to the man with facts which did

FOX immediately went into overdrive with the psychological implications...and how now is a time for grieving.

CNN countered this morning with "This might be a time for grieving but this IS the time to talk about gun control! Or we'll NEVER talk about it! Congress has to learn!"

What's your opinion? Do we blame the gun? Do we blame the mental condition? Do we blame both? And, can't differing opinions be respected? And does Congress have to 'learn' only the anti-gun sentiment? I found that odd and close minded from Morgan and CNN. Again.


Please pray for the families.  This is a living nightmare.

Z

Friday, December 14, 2012

Person of the Year............YOU!?

Who would you vote for in Time's search for PERSON OF THE YEAR?   HIM??   Imagine?

Seriously....who do you think should get selected and why?

Thanks! 

Z

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Banning POT from SCHOOL? What's NEXT?!

Amsterdam to ban smoking pot in school By TOBY STERLING | Associated Press –


AMSTERDAM (AP) — >Amsterdam's mayor said Wednesday he would formally ban students from smoking marijuana at school, making the Dutch capital the first city in the Netherlands to do so.
Eberhard van der Laan's introduction of a law that in other countries either already exists or seems so obvious it wouldn't even require a rule is the result of the Netherlands' unique drugs policy. Under the "tolerance" principle, marijuana is technically illegal here, but police can't prosecute people for possession of small amounts.
That's the loophole that made possible Amsterdam's famed "coffee shops" — cafes where marijuana is sold openly. But it has also had the unwanted side effect that Dutch children are frequently exposed to the drug in public areas.
City spokeswoman Iris Reshef says schools have always forbidden pot, but found it difficult to enforce the policy when students smoked on or near campus and challenged administrators to do anything about it.
"It's not really what you have in mind as an educator, that children would be turning up for class stoned, or drunk either for that matter," she said. "But it has been a problem for some schools."
After a change in national law, the city will now be able to declare as of Jan. 1 "no toking zones" — areas like schools and playgrounds where weed-smoking is forbidden — under a public nuisance ordinance. Police can then levy fines against students or anybody else who flouts the rules.
The move is closely paired with a decision by the new government to ditch plans for a national "weed pass" that would have blocked tourists from buying marijuana.
That was a measure years in the making, and greatly desired by southern cities such as Maastricht that have been flooded with dealers from Belgium and Germany who drive across the border to buy weed in bulk. But the weed pass was opposed by Amsterdam, where drug tourists are not generally seen as causing many problems.
Last month, Van der Laan proclaimed that coffee shops would stay open for tourists after all. In a letter Wednesday, he noted that one in three tourists who come to Amsterdam try marijuana while they're here, more than previously estimated.
Wednesday's decision seems to signal a typically Dutch compromise outcome: the drug will remain available for adults and tourists who want to try it, but access for children will be restricted.
After several decades of the tolerance policy, Dutch marijuana usage rates are in the middle of international norms, higher than those in neighboring Germany, but lower than those in France, Britain or the United States.
Z: Tough times in Amsterdam, huh? What do you think of this? And does ANYBODY believe the stat that one in three tourists go all the way to Amsterdam to try pot? REALLY? Z

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Free .... at the peril of us?

SO, a dear close relative of mine is paying through the nose for her son to be educated at Berkeley.........but HERE is a story about illegal aliens getting it for free.   Do I think some kids deserve help?  Of course.  Do I think it's fair for my relative and even friends of mine to borrow money for their children to attend good schools (LOTS of money$$$)...NO.

 Your thoughts?   Isn't this demoralizing for any American kid?   So sad.   What do you think?

And, by the way, who's paying for these kids? My relative and my friends. And us.
z

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

THE FIVE

You know FOX's talk show, THE FIVE....Bob Beckel, Dana Perino, Greg Gutfeld, Andrea Tantaros, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Juan Williams....depending on which five is available that day, I guess.

What FIVE people would you prefer do a political talk show? I'd like to know!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Most beautiful people alive today............

Pick a TOP MAN and TOP WOMAN who has your idea of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL APPEARANCE.

We know you married couples think your spouse is, and that's so nice, but give us a famous person you think is THE TOP, man and/or woman, and why!  I'd like to hear.

Thanks!

z   I can't use an image with this post because I don't want to sway you!!


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday Faith Blog

What have you learned this year regarding trusting in God?   What issue has caused you or someone you love (if you're more comfortable sharing a story of a friend or loved on than yourself, please do) to turn more to God this year than at any other time?    I think this might be an encouraging discussion.

"Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.."  Psalms 40:4

have a blessed Sunday..........

Z

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Bookish

So, what book are you reading? I'm SICK of politics. Tell us about the book and do you recommend it? Thanks! Z

Thursday, December 6, 2012

TAX THE RICH!

Tell me something, friends; Obama is SO adamant about the rich "paying their fair share" yet the top 5% already pay 40% of ALL American taxes. The next richest 5% probably pay about 30% of them, don't they? The facts differ but they're all in that ballpark. Obviously, a huge percentage of Americans on the lower scale, though working, pay no taxes.

Since it's been proven that taxing the rich even more won't do much to help, why is he so adamant?

Is this about money going into American coffers or is it about IDEOLOGY? Is it about punishing those who've made it? Is it about taking resentment out on those who were talented enough to make it when so many aren't? It seems almost stupid to stick to his guns this hard. Or is it all about sticking it to the Republicans because they at least KNOW that the rich are job creators and this could hurt the GOP in the way the media will discuss it WHEN we go over the cliff (as if taxing the rich could have stopped it, which most uninformed Americans actually DO think!!)

Geithner says they're perfectly happy to over the Fiscal Cliff over THIS. That's ALL IDEOLOGY (and not a little insane...watch his eyes when he insists...creepy) What are your thoughts?

Thanks, Z

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Islam; can it work anywhere?

'The real strength of the Nationalist movement in Egypt…lay not with these Levantines of the café but with the mass of practically unchanged bigoted Moslems to whom the movement meant driving out the foreigner, plundering and slaying the local Christian, and a return to all the violence and corruption which festered under the old-style Moslem rule, whether Asiatic or African.'


Theodore Roosevelt penned these remarkably prescient words in a 1911 letter to his longtime correspondent and friend, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, reflecting upon Roosevelt’s post-presidency visit to Cairo, Egypt, the previous year.

I found that fascinating.............here we are with Egypt becoming a despotic Islamist state when everyone was so excited about their supposed freedoms being restored after Mubarek.
Be careful what you ask for, I guess.

Do you think it's the faith of Islam which propagates these nightmare scenarios of its past or the kind of people who practice it, or...........what?   Obviously, there are millions of peaceful muslims, but the corporate history is mostly as described above 101 years ago.....and the future..?

What do you think the future is for the Western world and Islamists?

z