Happy New Year

Hey Crew,
  First of all, I would like to say Happy New Year to everyone.  Have fun but be safe and be careful out there!
  2011 has been quite an eventful year.  From the shooting in January of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to most recently the death of North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Il, and in between the deadly tornadoes in Alabama and closer to home for me, in Joplin and right here in St. Louis on Good Friday. Of course, what Gateway Blogger worth their salt would not mention the best part of this year - our 11 time World Champion St. Louis Cardinals!
  I know it is usually customary at this point for the author to come up with some sort of profound and/or pithy thought or speech for the coming year.  I got nothin'.
  What I will say is this.  I am very optimistic about 2012.  I think it is pretty safe to say that the one thing that will consume our attention will be the Presidential election.  It will be a bloody race, the likes of which I don't think anyone has ever seen before.  But I have to believe that the American people, at least enough of them will realize what a pivotal time in our history this is. 
  I am like a million other people.  I plan to start working out - more exercise, less cookies, be more organized, you know, all of those New Year's resolutions we all try to keep. Some we do, some, not so much.

  So, as 2011 slips away, I will say to all of you, 2012 is going to be awesome! See you next year, and be prepared for one wild ride!      

Merry Christmas and Other Evil Thoughts

Hey Gang,
  First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you guys. Thanks for reading all year long. You guys are the best!
  Now, I feel like I need to combine a few things. A "two-fer", if you will. It's that time of year again. When Atheists get their panties all in a bunch over nativity scenes, Mayors of small towns think they can get away with putting up "Holiday" trees in the town square, and the local high school band gets ready to put on their annual "Winter" concert.
  But this year, there is a cherry on the cake of all of this madness. Tim Tebow.  I realize that the last person Tim or anyone else expects to defend him is a Wiccan. But that is exactly what I want to do.
  What is the big deal?! I don't understand.  Why do people seem to be so offended by Christianity?  America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.  It is what makes the system imperfect at times, it is what makes the system work all the time.
  I don't have a problem with Tim Tebow praying after a win.  I don't have a problem with my neighbor's nativity scene.  I am a person who is secure enough in my faith and my beliefs that I don't feel the need to get outraged when someone else expresses theirs.  Is it that we have become such an "anything goes" society that we see it somehow as someone trying to say they are better than us if they openly try to live their faith?  If that is the case, then at the risk of getting really deep, do all of us need to look inward and honestly examine what it is about Tim Tebow getting down on one knee to pray after a victory or people saying "Merry Christmas" that automatically puts us on the defensive, makes us uncomfortable, and leads us right into "offended"?
  As someone who rarely gets their holidays recognized, with the possible exception of Halloween, you might think I have a big problem with all of this Christianity going on around me.  But in the grand scheme of what is going on in the world around us, it seems pretty minor.  So if it is not offending any of my Pagan or Wiccan brethren, I am going to eat Christmas cookies, listen to my "A Charlie Brown Christmas" CD, and look at my beautiful Christmas tree.  Then I will go to work and listen to my co-worker's Christmas music.

And oh, one more thing...Happy Winter Solstice!    

The Destruction of Herman Cain (or fill in the blank with any other Black Conservative)

Hey Everyone,
  Hope everyone is having a great holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate.
    Liberals are a curious lot.  They love to ramble on about how "tolerant" they are.  But if you belong to a certain voting bloc, be it women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Gays and Lesbians, you get the idea. If you DARE to use the brain in your head and have the audacity to think for yourself, come to your own conclusions, and the unpardonable sin of coming from humble beginnings, get an education, perhaps do a stint in the military, work your way up the ladder of your chosen profession, but do not see yourself as a victim, and take no help from any government program, such as, oh I don't know, Affirmative Action, and along the way become, dare I say it, Conservative, God or any other deity help you if you decide to run for President.
  In the words of the great Rush Limbaugh, Liberals will always tell you who they are afraid of.
  Wow. Are they EVER scared right out of their Birkenstock's of Herman Cain! The last month or so has been solely dedicated to his demise politically and his reputation and good name personally.
  First, they tried the never-ending parade of women who claimed to have been groped, fondled,or in any way felt-up by Cain. When he did not seem to be going away quietly, out trotted Ginger White.  White claims to have had a 13-year long affair with Cain.  What do ya' know, this one actually worked!
  Recent polling data has shown that in President Obama's most solid voting blocs, except for Blacks, all of his numbers are sliding.  But let's be brutally honest here. What we are really talking about is the Black vote.  For Democrats, a Black Conservative Republican nominee is like NASCAR fans for Michelle Obama. They know he cannot run on his abysmal record, so as soon as Herman Cain looked like he might actually have some traction, out came the big guns.
  I would never presume to know the feelings of African-Americans, even Conservative ones.  But how can it not be the ultimate insult to tell an entire group of people, "if you dare to think in a way other than that which we and the 'leaders' we have hood-winked and put in front of you have tried to brainwash and scare you into thinking, and THEN, go out and proclaim it to the rest of the world in a vehicle like a Presidential campaign ?! We will make an example of you and destroy you."
 This is what has happened to Herman Cain.

  Let that be a lesson to the next Herman Cain.