The Rooster and the Hen

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey. I wish more people WERE familiar with him and his teachings. Particularly those that are currently in Government positions and are responsible for our BUDGETS and SPENDING.

Anyhow, I stumbled across this poem in one of Dave's books, that was sent to him by his mother when Dave was struggling through a period of economic hardship due to high interest rates in the real estate business.

Again, I wish more people in Government positions would read and listen to Dave. The Rooster and the Hen says it all.

The Rooster and the Hen

Said the Little Red Rooster, "Believe me things are tough! Seems the worms are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough. What's become of all those fat ones? It's a mystery to me. There were thousands through that rainy spell, but now, where can they be?"

But the Old Black Hen who heard him didn't grumble or complain, she had lived through lots of dry spells; she had lived through floods of rain. She picked a new and undug spot, the ground was hard and firm, "I must go to the worms," she said. "The worms won't come to me."

The Rooster vainly spent his day, through habit, by the ways where fat round worms had passed in squads back in the rainy days. When nightfall found him supperless, he growled in accents rough, "I'm hungry as a fowl can be, conditions sure are tough."

But the Old Black Hen hopped to her perch and dropped her eyes to sleep and murmured in a drowsy tone, "Young man, hear this and weep. I'm full of worms and happy for I've eaten like a pig. The worms were there as always, but boy, I had to dig!"

This poem was written during the Depression. Strange how it still applies today, if not more than yesterday.

Recommended Reading, 1/31/09

Obama's Economic Tightrope--Governor Mark Sanford's (SC) take on Obama politics and state bailouts.

A Warning to the President--Genuine bipartisanship means compromises on policy, not photo-ops and hand shakes. The last two Democratic Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, also came to power with big Democratic majorities in Congress, veered far to the left on policy, and quickly came undone. To adapt White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's now famous line, a 70% approval rating is a terrible thing to waste on the ideas of Henry Waxman and Pete Stark.

George Obama Arrested--Just because this headline is interesting...

Peace Rules as Polls Close in Iraq--isn't the headline enough? Thank Goodness for Obama!

GOP Governors Support Bailout--I think my favorite quote is Jindal's..."I'd have voted against it if I were still in Congress...but..."

What a load of crap. Geez. I'd approve it if we took out all the pork and pets and just allocated the money to STIMULUS PLANS.

Limbaugh on Limbaugh, The Coming Socialist Tsunami

Targeting Rush: Saul Alinsky Would Be Proud

In his eight full years as the recipient of endless vile, often-delusional slander, President George W. Bush rarely grumbled, much less counterattacked his tormentors. Yet before he completed his first week in office, President Barack Obama -- a dedicated disciple of Saul Alinsky, who is to left-wing radicalism and social agitation what Karl Marx is to communism -- declared war on Rush Limbaugh.

This was a calculated move by a man who professes to be open to all ideas but apparently brooks no dissent. He not only does not tolerate dissent well but also really doesn't even like to be questioned, as we saw during the campaign, when he accused the normally fawning press of grilling him for merely asking a follow-up question.

We caught another glimpse of this last week, when he showed irritation at the White House press corps for daring to ask him a policy question after he had decreed that the sole purpose of his visit was to press the flesh.

But Obama's effort to target Rush is not just his ego at work. He has begun a full-court press to advance his extreme left-wing agenda and was angling both to garner enough Republican support to insulate himself against future accountability for failure and to validate his self-styled image as a bipartisan uniter.

That's why he invited a group of Beltway conservatives for dinner, in a move reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's "listening tour" -- as if discerning observers believe that listening, as opposed to projecting an image of openness, was either Clinton's or Obama's purpose.

That's why he surrounded himself with big-business CEOs as he unveiled his misnamed "stimulus" package. That's why he often throws meaningless, abstract bones to conservatives in his speeches while having no intention of diluting his specific concrete liberal policies.

Obama is savvy enough to realize he can't eliminate all dissent. But he's enough of an Alinskyite to know that marginalizing and demonizing his strongest opponents could intimidate the fainthearted into supporting or withholding criticism of his policies and increase his chances for success.

Perhaps Alinsky would couch Obama's strategy in different terms, but it is essentially a divide-and-conquer approach.

Make no mistake: The goal is to single Rush out and pick him off.So Obama is trying to parlay his extraordinarily high approval rating to lay a foundation for his shock troops in the press and the party apparatus to discredit and eventually compromise or silence Rush.

As if in conspiratorial lockstep, the media are dutifully responding with round-the-clock distortions and deceitful context manipulation of Rush's clearly articulated statement that he hopes Obama's socialist blueprint for America fails, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is circulating a petition denouncing him.

These are part of their larger goal to emasculate Rush and other conservative radio hosts through the Unfairness Doctrine. Unhappily for them, their plan has backfired so far, as it obviously led to a counteraction, which, in turn, arguably contributed to the consolidation of Republicans in unanimous opposition to Obama's trillion-dollar mega-pork scheme.

But this is no time for Republican gloating -- obviously. Obama is far from dispirited or deterred. He has only just begun. His plan did, after all, pass the House with solely Democratic votes. It has a good chance to sail through the Senate, as well.

For those on the right who still cling to the fantasy that Obama is a bipartisan centrist, I refer you to his recent statement that FDR did not do enough by way of government spending to end the Depression, his decidedly pro-abortion executive order and pronouncement celebrating Roe v. Wade, his Web-documented commitment to the radical homosexual agenda, his announced closure of Gitmo and termination of enhanced interrogation techniques, his planned discontinuation of missile defense systems, his actions on carbon emissions and fuel efficiency in deference to the global warming hoax, his shameless apologies for America to the Muslim world, his arrogant carving out of exemptions for his own staff and appointees from ethical rules he is now otherwise imposing, his groundwork to shut down political criticism, and his government-expansion-on-steroids, non-stimulus pork bill.

The inevitable explosion of federal debt this legislation would cause is reason enough to oppose it, even if it were likely to stimulate the economy. But even some liberals are disputing its potential to stimulate. The hastily crafted bill, with its corrupt funding of ACORN and other favors, is a disgracefully irresponsible effort to expand the public sector, diminish the private sector, empower the autocrats, and further divest us of our individual liberties -- all at the expense of present and future generations.