When you have limited time, you have to use bloggers math to decide how to post on multiple topics at one time. Plus I know you're all too busy to read my crap all day long. So, for example, adding this story about John Cusack calling Obama an asshole to this story about rabbits chewing through ignition wires at Denver Airport yields the following, much more interesting, video:
You need to be following #sequestertales on Twitter. Jonah G is killing me (and trying to eat my pancreas, LOL.)
I'm really starting to like Senator Rand Paul. Here's his take on the sequester. Excerpt:
President Obama has dramatically expanded our federal government, and the American taxpayers should not have to endure more tax increases to fund it.
We have to start cutting back.
The forced sequester is not the most ideal scenario, which is why I have an alternative plan that invokes targeted spending to eliminate any threat of layoffs.
President Obama has provoked a sense of unrest within our nation by using outlandish rhetoric and making false claims about the effects of sequestration.
As opposed to stirring the pot, he should attempt to solve the problem.
What President Obama needs to realize is his fiscal cliffs, ceilings and sequesters ruin American confidence and make people wonder if we are working in their best interests.
As Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal pointed out, "Government freakout carries a price. It wears people down. It doesn't inject a sense of energy, purpose or confidence in those who do business in America. It does the opposite."
Kevin O'Brien narrates it perfectly in the Plain Dealer today. Congrats on hitting the RCP Front Page, Kevin! This Clevelander wouldn't be reading it otherwise. Excerpt:
President: "If you make me do what I said I would do, which I now say is The Worst Thing Ever, I'm going to blame you."
House Republicans: "For what?"
President: "When airliners start falling out of the sky, you're going to be held responsible. When something happens in Whateveristan and the American people find out the Navy didn't build the ship we needed to send there, it's going to be all your fault. When all the teachers lose their jobs and undocumented immigrants come streaming across the border and firehouses and police stations go dark, it's all on you."
House Republicans: "Right, right. You forgot, 'When thousands of lawbreaking illegals are released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cells.' "
President:"We already did that, just to show that we're serious about making sure these cuts hurt."
House Republicans: "Hold on. Did you really just say that? Rather than adjust what gets cut, you would knowingly and intentionally inflict pain on Americans?"
President: "No. Of course I didn't just say that. Did I, guys?"
Associated Press: "If you did, I must have missed it."
Maybe this will change when Rod's book comes out, but currently these are the top ten suggestions when you Google the name Ruthie:
1. Ruthie Henshall - There are reasons she's at the top, IMHO.
2. Ruthie Davis - Like, shoes and sutff.
3. Ruthie Foster - Blues singer.
4. Ruthie from 7th Heaven - Cute actress Mackenzie Rosman.
5. Ruthie Camden - Same as #4.
6. Ruthie Alcaide - Alcoholic tattoo chick from real world.
7. Ruthie Real World - Same as 6.
8. Ruthie Knox - Soft-core hack.
9. Ruthie and Moe's Diner - Wow, it's in Cleveland. I'll have to check it out sometime.
10. Ruthie Sommers - Upscale interior decorator.
Check out Ruthie Sommers's pictures on that last link. She's a pretty good designer. Well, I suppose her upscale business isn't going to be affected too much by a new Ruthie on the block. Everyone knows her last name, unlike Ruthie from 7th Heaven and Ruthie Real World.
We'll check back in May '13 and see the new Ruthie list, who's in, who's out.
Someone emailed me this, so I'm just cutting and pasting it.
BENEDICT XVI'S FINAL GENERAL AUDIENCE: “I ASKED GOD TO ENLIGHTEN ME TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION, NOT FOR MY OWN GOOD, BUT FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH.”
Vatican City, 27 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, Benedict XVI celebrated his last general audience. In St. Peter's Square, crowded with tens of thousands of people wishing to bid him farewell, the Pontiff said: “Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this, my last general audience. Thank you, I am truly moved! And I see the Church is alive! I think we also have to thank the Creator for the beautiful weather that He is giving us now, even in winter.”
Following is the entire text of the Holy Father's words.
“Like the Apostle Paul in the Biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart that I have to especially thank God who guides and builds up the Church, who plants His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His People. At this moment my heart expands and embraces the whole Church throughout the world and I thank God for the 'news' that, in these years of my Petrine ministry, I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love that truly circulates in the Body of the Church, making it to live in the love and the hope that opens us to and guides us towards the fullness of life, towards our heavenly homeland.”
“I feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).”
“At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.”
“When, on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every day. It has been a stretch of the Church's path that has had moments of joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the Apostles in the boat on the See of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful, but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His love.”
“We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every morning, say: 'I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian...' Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us to also love Him!”
“It is not only God who I wish to thank at this time. A pope is not alone in guiding Peter's barque, even if it is his primary responsibility. I have never felt alone in bearing the joy and the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed at my side so many people who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me. First of all, you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your advice, and your friendship have been precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my secretary of state who has accompanied me faithfully over the years; the Secretariat of State and the whole of the Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in their various areas, serve the Holy See. There are many faces that are never seen, remaining in obscurity, but precisely in their silence, in their daily dedication in a spirit of faith and humility, they were a sure and reliable support to me. A special thought goes to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot forget my Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, consecrated persons, and the entire People of God. In my pastoral visits, meetings, audiences, and trips I always felt great care and deep affection, but I have also loved each and every one of you, without exception, with that pastoral love that is the heart of every pastor, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I held each of you in prayer, with a father's heart.”
“I wish to send my greetings and my thanks to all: a pope's heart extends to the whole world. And I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes the great family of Nations present here. Here I am also thinking of all those who work for good communication and I thank them for their important service.”
“At this point I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all of the many people around the world who, in recent weeks, have sent me touching tokens of concern, friendship, and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone. I feel this again now in such a great way that it touches my heart. The Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel very close to him. It's true that I receive letters from the world's notables—from heads of states, from religious leaders, from representatives of the world of culture, etc. But I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their hearts and make me feel their affection, which is born of our being together with Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write to me the way one would write, for example, to a prince or a dignitary that they don't know. They write to me as brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with the sense of a very affectionate family tie. In this you can touch what the Church is—not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian ends, but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ who unites us all. Experiencing the Church in this way and being able to almost touch with our hands the strength of His truth and His love is a reason for joy at a time when many are speaking of its decline. See how the Church is alive today!”
“In these last months I have felt that my strength had diminished and I asked God earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its seriousness and also its newness, but with a profound peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, agonized choices, always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not of oneself.”
“Allow me here to return once again to 19 April, 2005. The gravity of the decision lay precisely in the fact that, from that moment on, I was always and for always engaged by the Lord. Always—whoever assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and entirely to everyone, to the whole Church. His life, so to speak, is totally deprived of its private dimension. I experienced, and I am experiencing it precisely now, that one receives life precisely when they give it. Before I said that many people who love the Lord also love St. Peter's Successor and are fond of him; that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion; because he no longer belongs to himself but he belongs to all and all belong to him.”
“'Always' is also 'forever'--there is no return to private life. My decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I am not returning to private life, to a life of trips, meetings, receptions, conferences, etc. I am not abandoning the cross, but am remaining beside the Crucified Lord in a new way. I no longer bear the power of the office for the governance of the Church, but I remain in the service of prayer, within St. Peter's paddock, so to speak. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example to me in this. He has shown us the way for a life that, active or passive, belongs wholly to God's work.”
“I also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to accompany the Church's journey through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. Many the Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.”
“We call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.”
“Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.”
Here's a link.
I have to concur with Phil Lawler's opinion that although a homosexual cabal is alive and well in the Vatican, no report of this would be news to the Pope, nor would it cause him to suddenly decide he'd better resign.
Suppose, for the sake of the argument, that the Pope suddenly became aware of a powerful homosexual cabal. What would he be likely to do? Why would he resign? Why wouldn’t he stay and fight to restore the integrity of the Church? Throughout his life Pope Benedict has shown a consistent willingness to take on tough problems, even when his actions are likely to prove unpopular. He has always been ready to do whatever he can do to promote Catholic doctrine and discipline.
”Whatever he can do”—ah, there’s the rub. This Pope is no coward; he is not a man to run away from a problem. But there is a limit to his strength and he has reached it.
There have been other reports, unconfirmed but credible, that the Pope’s health is rapidly deteriorating. If he is indeed losing his eyesight and his hearing, if his blood pressure is spiking and his energy is flagging, those would be plausible reasons for the Pope to step down. Not coincidentally, those factors would also match the reasons that the Pope himself cited for his resignation.
I bet this wacko Congressman thinks he won this "argument". He seems to have taken the gig knowing that he was going to give this type of performance. It's sort of a throw everything at the enemy strategy and see if anything lands on him. The danger is that it makes you look stupid to anyone who has ever witnessed a real argument or debate.
By the way, our family sequestration party will be held on Friday, March 1. We will start serving bread and water at 11am. Remember to say the password to be allowed in, and bring a few spuds for the potato nudging contest.
More news for the This is your brain on Islam file. At least he shot them before cutting their heads off. Allah is merciful, right?
Just for the sake of any low information types out there, New Jersey is one of the 50 states which make up the country called the United States of America. So Jihad followed these Egyptian Copts to our shores.
H/T Revealing Politics.
I still think the guy had a stroke some time within the last several years.
