kitchen cabinetry

I saw this kitchen renovation on AT and liked what i saw. If plywood is involved, more than likely I'll be on board. I'm not afraid to say I like materials many people cringe at or think sound cheap: concrete, concrete block, plywood, corrugated metal, it's all very good. I like this kitchen's clean lines, colors (or lack of) and simplicity. I'll file this under my nice interiors section.

political (again?) observations: blasphemy in the temple

"Hey, hundreds of thousands of people- Go home. You're wrong."

It's not that I love politics and I don't spend much of my leisure time at all talking to people about it. But when something seems strange, annoying or frustrating and is always in the news or being talked about on the radio, then I sometimes feel the need to chime in and state what I agree or disagree with.
I've written before on the blog and others in comments about politicians being out of touch with reality or the common people they're supposed to represent. Written also a lot about Obama's campaign of feel good ambiguity, subsequent deification and worship and the whole elitism thing.
I haven't written here lately about the whole health care thing, czars being exposed and thrown under the bus, push for propaganda by artists, etc and etc. Sometimes the material seems like too much, it's too overwhelming. But for now I thought I'd write a quick note on the overall situation.

The majority of American people don't want the health care plan Obama is pushing. He ignores that fact and makes another speech. The dems in congress say things like the Repubs are blocking it and want the status quo. That's two lies in the same sentence: They don't need the Repubs, they can run them over if they have all the Dems, and 2. Repubs don't necessarily want the status quo, I've heard lots of suggestions to fix the system everyone recognizes needs changes. They just don't want the plan that Obama and Pelosi want. It makes perfect sense to me, but this garbage is repeated by them daily. Obama says he's open to ideas and the door is open. McCain says the door has been shut on Repubs since April. I believe McCain, he has a history of working together with people, Obama does not.
But Obama gets to say whatever he wants and gives his speeches almost on a semi-daily basis. He just doesn't want to budge.

In his speech to congress he says things like 'We must stop with the scare tactics...if we do not pass (my) health care reform now, "our deficit will grow, more families will go bankrupt, more business will close, more Americans will loose their coverage when they are sick and need it the most, and more will die as a result." Wow, that's not a scare tactic, people will just be dying as a result. I'm sorry, what? Do as I say, not as I do! What about a shortage of doctors? -nope, that's a scare tactic, ignore it. It really is comical.

When the left protest, they are noble and 'grass roots' and should be listened to. But when people (who happen to be more conservative) all over the country protest government spending and taxing in huge numbers, they're called 'racist' and 'astroturf'. Today, Obama Senior adviser, David Axelrod, says that the thousands and thousands of protesters that came to Washington from all over the country on 9/12 'do not represent the views of the broader public when it comes to health care reform.'

"I don't think it's indicative of the nation's mood," Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "You know, I don't think we ought to be distracted by that. My message to them is, they're wrong."

Talk about elitism on glaring display. What happened to championing free speech? Representing the country? Nope. If you're on the conservative side and have a difference of opinion and you choose to protest, you're wrong. That's all there is to it. End of discussion. You're mocked, ignored, called phony. That's something that I've seen more than once and I think is hilarious, hypocritical and sad.

When Obama is 'disrespected' or shouted at, then the people are 'racist', 'extreme', 'plants' and should be harshly dealt with. To disagree is hateful, shocking and disappointing. Did you see Nancy Pelosi's face when that congressman called Obama a liar during his big health care speech? It could melt your face off. It read: You have blasphemed in the temple of Obama! I know it was maybe wrong place, wrong time, but seriously, what's the big deal? Do you think Bush was never challenged, disrespected, called a liar? If you can say that with a straight face then you're brain dead, I'm sorry. But did you hear Bush complaining? Gasps of shock and disgust that someone disagrees? Calls for apology? NO WAY! Bush said over and over he knew he couldn't please everyone and that people have a right to opinion. He shrugged it off. Man, it makes me appreciate Bush more.

When that reporter in Iraq threw the shoe at Bush, the video was played over and over on the news. All over the radio. Sketches on SNL. It was hilarious and had to be shown to the world! The Iraqi was championed as a hero. The left embraced him as a symbol. Bush's response? 'That guy is entitled to his opinion.' and he laughed about it.

It's clear that Obama has unbelievably thin skin and the Pelosis of the world can't handle disagreement or 'disrespect' of any kind. It's a double standard made apparent over and over in many situations and is, again, hilarious, hypocritical and sad.

And why is dissension during Bush justified and reasonable, but under Obama extreme, hateful and unreasonable? I'm not understanding. I know Obama is relatively new, but at the same time he has done ALOT and I think there has been ample time to critique what he's got going on. When he says things like fundamental change I believe it's important for close and constant dissection, otherwise if we let him work it and question later, then we got a whole new system going on and it might not be pretty or easy to repair. Health care? I think the people know what he wants, it's been discussed, (albeit not always clearly-not the public's fault) for months now. The people have voiced their opposition. His response? 'You're all wrong'. wow.

I don't want to continue on with more stuff, but just wanted to get some thoughts out onto computer screen.
It's because of stuff like this that I continue to see the left as more extreme, hateful, intolerant and hypocritical than the right. It's as simple as that. And I totally agree with Courtney that labels are stupid and unproductive. When discussing things like politics right now i don't know any other way to distinguish the two sides than to use words like left, right, conservative, liberal, etc., And since our system only has two sides at the moment I have to look at it accordingly. When people step up to be bi-partisan I'll check them out. So far I haven't really seen that. Hopefully next election will allow us to bring in some new blood who aren't so divisive/ set in their party line ways. And I don't agree with Republicans 100% of the time, but time and again I have seen things happen like the above examples that make me think that Republicans/ Conservatives tend to be less ridiculous than non-conservatives. They tend to use reason and common sense over emotion and trends.


**breaking news**: As I was about to post this I see an article on Obama being on 60 minutes tonight, I suppose as part of his semi-daily health care speech schedule. He is going to say - "There are those in the Republican party who think the best thing to do is just to kill reform. That that will be good politics." He's still got the talking points going! Keep it up, It's really effective! Obama's door is open (as long as your ideas align identically with his!) He's missing just three words keeping that first line from being truthful: My Version Of.

"...kill my version of reform..." That would be openness and transparency.

interesting conversation in The Fountainhead

Was just reading a little tonight in Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. I thought a conversation between Ellsworth Toohey and some of his followers, a group of educated and cultured men and women who like to sit around commentating on society and how great they think they are, was pretty interesting. One in the group refers to them all as 'liberal businessmen'. I became confused and disoriented as to whether I was still reading the book or had magically and secretly transported to a meeting held by Obama and the liberal empire in Washington. Some quotes from the conversation:

"The basic trouble with the modern world is the intellectual fallacy that freedom and compulsion are opposites. To solve the gigantic problems crushing the world today, we must clarify our mental confusion. We must acquire a philosophical perspective. In essence, freedom and compulsion are one. Let me give you a simple illustration. Traffic lights restrain your freedom to cross the street whenever you wish. But this retrain gives you the freedom from being run over by a truck... Whenever a new compulsion is imposed upon us, we automatically gain a new freedom. The two are inseparable. Only by accepting total compulsion can we achieve total freedom."

"People make too damn much fuss about freedom...I'm not even sure it's such a blessing. I think people would be much happier in a regulated society that had a definite pattern and a unified form- like a folk dance. You know how beautiful a folk dance is...That's because it took generations to work it out and they don't let just any chance fool come along to change it."

"What makes people unhappy is not too little choice, but too much...Having to decide...torn every which way all of the time. Now in a society of pattern, man could feel safe..."

"No intelligent person believes in freedom nowadays. It's dated. The future belongs to social planning. Compulsion is a law of nature..."

"Everybody can't be as competent as you...We must help the others. It's the moral duty of the intellectual leaders. What I mean is we ought to lose that bugaboo of being scared of the word compulsion. It's not compulsion when it's for a good cause...But I don't know how we can make this country understand it. American's are so stuffy."

"It's stupid to talk about personal choice. It's old-fashioned. There's no such thing as a person. There's only a collective entity..."

"Something's got to be done about the masses. They've got to be led. They don't understand what's good for them... I can't understand why people of culture and position like us understand the great ideal of collectivism so well and are willing to sacrifice our personal advantages, while the working man who has everything to gain from it remains so stupidly indifferent..."

"No, you would never be able to match Gail ('evil' self-made capitalist) Wynand's career. Not with your sensitive spirit and humanitarian instincts. That's what's holding you down, not your money. Who cares about money? The age of money is past. It's your nature that's too fine for the brute competition of our capitalistic system. But that, too, is passing."

Rand wrote this in 1943 and now people with the same mindset as those in this fictional group are running the country. Capitalism is evil, we must teach the masses the correct way, we are so much more enlightened, we must force people to rejoice in collectivism, we must bring CHANGE to this old-fashioned society. Sound familiar?
Kind of eerie.

Change one word in this sentence from above and you have the theme of a cover article from Newsweek since Obama was elected: 'What I mean is we ought to lose that bugaboo of being scared of the word socialism'.

No thanks. Compulsion and freedom aren't the same. Is this the change people believed in and voted for, honestly?

well said, jon voight

I heard some of this speech and had to go listen to the whole thing. I haven't written about politics or 'The Messiah' for a while- I don't know what to say, there is too much. I'll let my friend Jon Voight say things for now. I think he does a pretty great job of laying it out and describing our current situation to the T.



I love his descriptions of Obama. It's not often that people (on tv, news, from hollywood, from hawaii, etc, etc) look at him critically, realistically, logically or with any degree of common sense. The blind faith, obedience and unfounded trust of his followers is scary and frustrating, as I have gone on and on about before...

It is refreshing to hear someone who is well known speak critically of His Highness. Thanks Jon.

let us mourn on earth day

"...bring me to this rock, that has the most incredible life..."

-i know that inspired me to be a better human.

no more nukes! no more nukes!

weird. even SLATE agrees that Obama wanting to disarm the U.S. to help transform the world into a place of peace and tranquility without nuclear weapons is unrealistic. To live in a Utopia sounds nice, that's why he sends chills through you when he describes the world he's going to create. But the real world we live in doesn't function the way it does in his dreams. and to pretend it does, or that he has the power to change it into his idyllic vision, is not only unrealistic but dangerous for the rest of us.

presidential update

I hate to waste energy dwelling on this stuff, but our President is doing too much good in the world to ignore.
The Obamas went to Europe for the G-20 recently - where some fans in the streets still cheered as they did before his election, but many world leaders weren't quite as in love. He asked for other countries to pour money into their economies to bail out banks and other hurting companies/ industries, preaching what he does here, that the government is the answer (and also that the key fixing a huge deficit is to increase it). Some European (Germany, France, etc)countries' leaders said no thanks, they've been there before.
Funny how Obama dreams of making the U.S. more European while much of Europe becomes more conservative and less like the Europe Obama romanticizes about. He's still convinced socialism is the solution. Meanwhile countries that have been down that road are now turning away from it.

Obama's trip has turned into an apology tour, telling the world he's sorry for the U.S. being a superpower, sorry for the last 8 years, sorry for being so bossy and independent. And then he goes around saying how the U.S. and the world needs to get rid of nuclear weapons and will quit being so annoying and pushy. We'll quit trying to lead the world and just work towards a one world government where our constitution is replaced with a panel of leaders from around the world representing different cultures.

I think he looks weak and naive and is making the U.S. look pathetic.

Now a word about Obama making himself the CEO and head car designer of GM and Chrysler.
I already wasn't into most American cars due to there ugliness and my belief that other car companies like Honda or Subaru make better cars. Thus, I (along with many, many Americans) wasn't planning on buying one from them. That's why they're failing (that and labor unions, also something Obama won't let go away)! Obama somehow thinks that by the government taking over these car companies and then dictating what type of car they should make, people like myself will suddenly buy a GM. I actually am now even more, far more, inclined to avoid buying from these companies because of this. I think Obama's vision will fail and companies that continue to do their own research and development and make cars accordingly will succeed. Obama will probably tax us all if we buy a non Obama-motors car so we slowly all must obey, at which time I'll move to New Zealand.

A caller on the radio made this comparison: it's like sending a package to someone. You know the Post Office is probably the cheapest, but FED Ex or UPS is probably faster and will get the package there more reliably. That's the nice thing about having choices. The government does some things that are fine, but often times private companies do the same things better and more efficiently. Imagine your car being designed and made by government employees now. No incentive to be inventive or excel beyond the minimal requirements. Sound good? I'm just afraid that by using taxes, Obama will try to MAKE it sound good.

I enjoy and take seriously the power I have as a buyer and consumer (and want to write posts on the subject more, what items i like, which business deserve our business, etc). I know that we are the backbone of a capitalist economy. If stores sell things we want at the price we want, they succeed. If not, they fail and disappear. Obama and his minions, as the elite humans they are, believe their opinions and preferences have more weight than we the buying public. They, for some reason, think they have the power to take companies over, tell CEOs they don't like to quit, and then tell those companies how to do business. That is not capitalism, that's not even constitutional, as far as i can tell.

New polls show Obama is already one of the most divisive presidents in history, shown by the huge numbers of approval by Democrats and huge disapproval numbers by Republicans. He said he was beyond partisanship, he was going to be a uniter! But we've quickly learned it's his way or the highway and his way is just as extreme as some of us feared. His followers in the Democratic party fell in love with his image and his promises of change, even though he never really outlined what the change would be. Strangely, now that we see him taking the country to a place it shouldn't be, many of his devoted are willing to close their eyes and trust in him- This is supported by the polls showing a much lower percentage of people that approve of his policies than of him in general.

I am excited for the day that people wake up and realize the mess he's making.

ps: no, the fact that Michelle is planting an organic garden at the White House doesn't cancel out all the other crap her husband is doing. I still cannot support the Obamas. My priorities must be messed up.


photo: Obamas taking care of business- breaking protocol (left) and bowing to the Saudi King (right).