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Saturday, May 27, 2006

It's Time!

It's time for me to leave my blogspot home for my new home. Dagney's Rant has enjoyed success at this site, but I hope you will come to visit me at the new and improved Dagney's Rant. If you have me bookmarked, please make the change. Also, if you have me linked from your page, please change the link url. From now on, I'm at www.dagneysrant.com Come on over and see me sometime!

// posted by DagneyT @ 6:34 AM

Friday, May 26, 2006

Memorial Day - A Day To NOT Forget

As we head off into the long weekend, I hope we all remember who it is this holiday remembers; the brave men and women who gave us the freedom to take off to the lake, or the beach, or the park, to party and enjoy family and friends. Please try to find time this weekend to reflect on what this poet had to say about this day;

"Let's pass on to our children
And to those who never knew
What these soldiers died for
It's the least we can do

Let's not forget their families
Great pain they had to bear
Losing a son, father or husband
They need to know we still care

No matter which war was fought
On the day that they died
I stand here looking at these flags
Filled with American pride."

Find more inspiration here.

// posted by DagneyT @ 1:19 PM

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I Know What's Up!

At least I'll bet I do! Got up this morning, and saw two conflicting headlines on
Drudge this morning. One that says Dennis Hastert is under investigation, and one that says he isn't under investigation. I'm not the only one wanting to understand what is going on; Michelle Malkin has a whole roundup of other bloggers and sources.

So what's going on in our capital? It all boils down to the perpetual leaks from administration insiders who are still holdovers from the Clinton era. They are bound and determined to hinder, stifle, or in any way allow the Bush administration policies to be carried out by congress! It's obviously working, as I pointed out in
my last post.

It's like our entire GOP leadership is operating as though they were shell shocked. It reminds me of a Penn State vs. Florida game many years ago. Penn State coach Joe Paterno's game plan consisted of hitting Florida QB Vinnie Testaverde so many times that he was basically afraid to throw the ball accurately, and ditto on the vicious hitting of all of the receivers, until the entire Florida offense was totally shell shocked. Penn State won the game.

// posted by DagneyT @ 6:31 AM

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Open Letter to Hastert, Boehner, Frist, et al

Gentlemen, I do not believe you know how your shrill complaints sound to the rest of America.

"Hastert raised concerns that the FBI’s unannounced seizure of congressional documents during a raid of Jefferson’s Rayburn office Saturday night violated the separation of powers between the two branches of government as they are defined by the Constitution.

“The Speaker spoke candidly with the president about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid over the weekend,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday in confirming his boss’s remarks."

"Separation of powers" you are complaining about, Mr. Hastert? Explain to me what it was all about when you demanded that VP Cheney turn over documents, etc., of meetings he had with energy experts held during discussions about the administration's energy policy direction? Where were the power separations then?

Y'all sound like you think you are above the law. The FBI can obtain search and seizure orders on my house, but not on congressional offices? If laws are broken, I don't care who you are, you are not above it! Why not save your indignation for the crooks in your midst? You folks in the GOP disgust me! The donks have been on this "culture of corruption" crap for months! Instead of pointing out the obvious, you're bitching at the President!

Get on with closing our borders and fixing our tax system, and let law enforcement do what they do!

// posted by DagneyT @ 1:19 PM

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Parental Warning!

Michelle Malkin has a cautionary vent for parents. Listen to her vent here. Hollywierdos are doing it again, and this time it's on our kids!

// posted by DagneyT @ 1:01 PM

Monday, May 22, 2006

Why Are We Surprised?

If you don't check The Drudge Report daily, as I do, you probably have not heard about the story Drudge had posted first thing this morning alleging that Democrat operatives were sent by The Screamer, Howard Dean to work against Ray Nagin's mayoral campaign. You can be guaranteed that you will not hear about it on any of the mainstream media news programs. Apparently the DNC does check out Drudge, because he has taken down the original post after their denial that Democrat operatives were actively working against Mayor Nagin's re-election in New Orleans. Can't have their black constituents finding out about their history, can they?

The story did remind me of some research I did recently. I get a slew of requests for political donations. If the request comes from a candidate or group with which I'm not familiar, I research them to learn if they are legit. That's how I came across this "Open Letter" to the Democrat Party. History reasserts itself.

"An Open Letter to the Democratic Party
By Lt. Colonel Frances Rice,U.S. Army Retired:

Contributor to the LHI

"We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:

Whereas in the early 1600's 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American development,

Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,

Whereas the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices committed against African Americans during the past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations are having on us today,

Whereas the Democratic Party fought to expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to disenfranchise African Americans,

Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them,

Whereas, according to leading historians (both black and white), the horrific atrocities committed against African Americans during slavery and Reconstruction were financed, sponsored, and promoted by the Democratic Party and their Ku Klux Klan supporters,

Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched, mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the Democratic Party,

Whereas Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission,

Whereas the Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African Americans about the history of the Republican Party that:

(a) started as the anti-slavery party in 1854,

(b) fought to free African Americans from slavery,

(c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of unprecedented political power for African Americans,

(d) passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote,

(e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations,

(f) passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws,

(g) established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans proper with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our nation, and

(h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African Americans, Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were established by the Democratic Party,

Whereas after Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the vote of African Americans, he banned African American newspapers from the military shortly after taking office because he was convinced the newspapers were communists,

Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for ignoring civil rights issues.

Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on suspicion of being a communist,

Whereas Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,

Whereas when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr. and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill,

Whereas in the House of Representatives only 61 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act as compared to 80 percent of Republicans, and in the Senate only 69 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, compared to 82 percent of the Republicans,

Whereas Democratic President Bill Clinton sent troops to Europe to protect the citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo while allowing an estimated 800,000 black Rwandans to be massacred in Africa, vetoed the welfare reform law twice before signing it, and refused to comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan,

Whereas Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election was "stolen" from him and that African Americans in Florida were disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the "Miami Herald" and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to vote,

Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government social programs,

Whereas the Democratic Party's use of deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill until this generation of African Americans,

Now, therefore, for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the Democratic party."

So why should we be surprised that they would work against Nagin's re-election, despite what they say? Thank you, Frances Rice, Chairman of Black Republican PAC. The check is in the mail.

// posted by DagneyT @ 1:25 PM

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Edification vs. Lack Thereof

My earlier post was a great example of how learning about history can be edifying. Watching this video is an example of what happens when we do not teach history. On the other hand, at Michael Yon's, this post should teach us the value of parental training. It produces heroes. I'm not sure if it is sad, or perhaps the Hand of God that we have this phenomenon.

"So I became what's now commonly known as a "9/11 Republican." Living in a time of war, disenchanted with the left and disappointed with the obstructionism and lack of vision of the Democratic Party, I threw in my hat with the only party that seemed to be offering solutions, rather than simply tearing away at our country. I went from voting for Ralph Nader in 2000 to proudly casting my ballot for George W. Bush in 2004. This doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with Bush on every issue, but there is enough common ground to support his party overall. In the wake of this political transformation, I discovered that I was not alone. It turned out that there are other 9/11 Republicans out there, both in the Bay Area and beyond, and they have been coming out of the woodwork.

Like many a political convert, I took it on myself to openly oppose the politics of those with which I once shared world views. Beyond writing, I put myself on the front lines of this ideological battle by taking part in counterprotests at the antiwar rallies leading up to the war in Iraq. This turned out to be a further wake-up call, because it was there that I encountered more intolerance than ever before in my life. Holding pro-Iraq-liberation signs and American flags, I was spat on, called names, intimidated, threatened, attacked, cursed and, on a good day, simply argued with. It was clear that any deviation from the prevailing leftist groupthink of the Bay Area was considered a threat to be eliminated as quickly as possible. "


I rather feel that it's His Hand. I feel like the soulmate of this poster, except that my journey began years before 9/11.

// posted by DagneyT @ 1:39 PM
Time to Share

My uncle the professor shared the following with the family. In an age where education does not include much in the way of historical perspective, I thought this would be great to share, not to mention informative:

"The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. [I wonder if this is why Greek Orthodox churches use incense during services?]

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "thresh hold."

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. [Beethoven, for instance, died of lead poisoning.] This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust." Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a "wake."

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a "bone-house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer."

Now, who said history is not interesting?

// posted by DagneyT @ 6:26 AM

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