Ashley Chickens Out

So how long before John Yarmith starts recruiting George Clooney?

I am not surprised that  she blinked.  When Bill Clinton started counseling Allison Lundergren Grimes, it was inevitable that Ashley would come up with some pretext about how now is not the time.

Interesting that She Who Called Breeders Unconsciounable chose "family' as her reason for not running. Maybe she is going to give her sister some emergency dance lessons.  Wynonna,, in case you missed it, is on Dancing With the Stars.  I had to google her to ascertain that she is Ashley's sister, not her mother.

I thought Ashley faced daunting odds going up against Mitch McConnell.  Turning Wynonna into a dancer, however, will be even harder.

Sen, McConnell Hosts Sen. Rubio

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell hosted  Sen. Marco Rubio this afternoon at the McConnell Center at University of Louisville.

While McConnell made his introductory remarks -- saying Rubio personifies the American Dream --Rubio took a seat next to the 40 McConnell Scholars who flanked the stage. What struck me is how boyish Rubio is:  he looked like one of the undergraduates.

Rubio gave what appeared to be an extended version of the stump speech he will use to run for president.  Indeed, McConnell joked about him looking at vacation homes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The main thrust of Rubio's speech was an argument for pro-growth, limited government policies as a way to grow the middle class and ultimately reduce the deficit. Job creation is being strangled in a mass of regulations and a tax code that is both uncertain and too confiscatory.

On immigration, as well as education. Rubio argues that federal policies do not reflect the reality of the 21st Century.

He cautioned against high levels of student loans as the next bubble, and said we must stop stygmatizing vocational educations.  When asked about a call to abolish the Department of Education, he said he thought that CPAC speech had been delivered by Kentucky's other senator, Rand Paul. Rubio would not go so far as to support abolishment of the Department of Education. He did advocate school choice and local control to develop curricula that address the needs of the local economy.

A 21st Century approach to immigration, according to Rubio, must play the cards we are dealt. That is, it must acknowledge that we are a compassionate country as well as a country that believes in rule of law.  Rubio said that the mistaken policy that lead to our current eleven million illegal aliens, that policy was crafted when Rubio was in 9th grade.  Implicitly, he seemed to be saying we have to deal with the consequences and don't blame me; it's not my fault we have millions of undocumented workers.

To the extent that he was referring to Simpson-Mazzoli, I wondered if Rubio knew that the former Congressman Ron  Mazzoli was in the audience.

A few observations about style.  Rubio is charming, humble and has an inspiring tale about his family's emigration from Cuba, so that he could have a better life. He seems to understand the fears of the middle class and the frustrations of those who aspire to be middle class.

As compared to Rand Paul, Rubio conveys more of a sense of warmth; he does not have Paul's clinical detachment when discussing issues.  His sense of humor is not quote so dry as Paul's.

I listen to Rubio -- as well as Paul, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee -- and I am optimistic that the Republican Party will find its way out of the wilderness.  I just pray it doesn't take 40 years.

Hey, Ashley: I Breed and I Vote

Not only that, I breed Republicans, and Number 2 Son will be old enough to vote next year.

Of all the crack-pot comments of Ashley Judd, the most offensive was her assertion that it is "unconscionable to breed."  Her rationale is that Planet Earth is too crowded and there already starving kids, so it is "selfish" to make more.

It's a particularly odd remark when viewed through the prism of Kentucky voters. Many of us chose to live here because it is such a great place to raise children -- much more family friendly then Washington, D.C., for example, from where my family relocated. There are great parks, safe neighborhoods, not much traffic, a variety of good schooling options, a low cost of living. Businesses here tend to recognize the importance of family and the resulting need for flexibility and humane schedules.

In fact, many of us chose to relocate here specifically for the advantages it offers to professionals who still want to spend not just quality time with their children, but quantity time, too.

Given the centrality of family to Kentuckians, Judd's choice of verb  -- "breed" -- is just creepy.  Like she's talking about livestock, not babies.  What is it with liberals and their incessant attempts to come up with new words to describe babies?  First they tried "choice" or "fetus."  (When was the last time you went to a Fetus Shower?)

Judd's contribution to the nomenclature is to shift it from that of constitutional penumbras, or clinical science, to the barnyard. It's beyond politically tone-deaf; it's just crude.

I commend Judd for working with the poor.  But she makes a false dichotomy:  one can care about starving children and still long to feel a baby's first kick.  For some, the choice to have children fulfills the Biblical purpose of a marriage.  Most Kentucky  parents would say that our greatest blessing is to create another life with the love of our life.

I don't condemn Judd's decision not to have children. Her lack of respect for the decision of so many Kentuckians to have babies shows that she does not share our values. Having a baby is a lifestyle choice, after all.  Democrats say they are all about lifestyle choice.

Over 20,000 Pages of Obamacare Regulations

Kentucky's Senator Becomes America's Senator

Sen. Rand Paul was just magnificent.  I tuned in last night for the ninth hour of Sen.Paul's filibuster, and was shocked to see how composed he still was; he didn't even break a sweat  No reading of the telephone book. Just a cogent explanation of the issue of drone strikes on Americans. After five years of Governance By Teleprompter, how refreshing to see a politician smart enough to ad lib.

As far as the underlying issue of the filibuster, I don't particularly care if Americans who have turned enemy combatants get killed in a drone strike on a foreign battlefield. As far as I am concerned, that person is a traitor who has relinquished his citizenship. Change the location to the United States, however, and the prospect of domestic drone strikes becomes more troubling.

Last night the substantive issue was secondary to the character Sen. Paul displayed. His singleness of purpose, discipline and tenacity were something to behold.  He mesmerized millions, and yet it did not look like self-aggrandizement (because it was not).

 Simply put, Sen. Paul has a reverence for our Constitution that makes him its relentless champion. What Americans saw last night is a man who disregards personal comfort and does not care who mocks him or how long the odds are.  He was doing what he thought was right, literally standing on principle.  For those who worry that the Republican Party has gone soft, it gave hope that we have new leaders who have the courage, as WFB put it, to stand athwart history and yell "Stop!"

The tweets were flying  during Paul's filibuster; the number one trending hash tag last night was #standwithrand.  My favorite tweet:  "Don't drone me, bro!"

When Sen. Mike Lee, as well as Sen. Cruz and Sen. Rubio took to the podium to give Paul a breather, it  sent a message not just of courtesy and collegiality, but of ideological solidarity. It provided a glimpse of a future for America that will be brighter than what we've endured under the Obama regime.

Sketchy Nutricional Advice from "MyPyramid.org"

Pictured above is the MyPyramid, created by the USDA in 2005
to push for a balanced diet and increased physical activity

If you haven't heard of it, MyPyramid was the USDA's failed attempt to push for more exercise and physical activity. While I applaud the government for its efforts, obesity is still very much on the rise. In an effort to come up with a better system, MyPyramid was replaced by MyPlate. I didn't know that, and nor did my health teacher when he asked us to search for it today during class.

Look at the screenshot below:

Notice that the first result is called "My Pyramid Plan." Almost anyone searching for MyPyramid would go ahead and click it, assuming that it's what they are looking for. It's been several years since I last logged onto the MyPyramid site, but everything looked consistent with how I remembered it. The site quickly promoted me to enter generic information about my age and physical activity. 

I knew something was not right when "greater than eleven minutes" was the highest option for daily physical activity. My first thought was that we must be a very obese nation, much more than I had originally thought if getting eleven minutes of physical activity is considered good. If I remember correctly, "greater than sixty minutes" used to be the top choice, but I do know that the government has been trying to scale back some of its overly ambitious health goals as they've failed, one by one.

Next I was taken to a page with general information about each food group. Everything on this page was a direct contradiction of anything I have ever heard about nutrition. 

Here's and example from the fruit section: 

          "...Some fruits can be rather tart or tangy, so a smart way to make these more appealing to children is to           

            select products with added sweetners."

Now from the meat section:
          "Liver and other organ meats are high in cholesterol. Just so you know. But who eats those creepy parts
           anyways, right?

Liver is actually extremely good for you, although I do find it revolting.

Finally, take a look at the "about" page:

Screenshot from the "About us" page.

So at this point, I know something is up. Could this site have been hacked? It seems to be mocking the government, and it would not be the first time a government website has been hit (i.e., the CIA). No, this site has not been hacked. Through a WHOIS domain search, I found out that the domain "MyPyramid.org" is in fact legally owned by Stephen Eisenmenger out of Minneapolis. Notice that he has a .org domain, not a .gov domain. Who would have noticed that, especially with it being the first search result? I sure didn't.

While I was at it, I thought I might see what else was going on at other .org and .com websites with similar names to official government ones. If you go to WhiteHouse.com, you'll notice adds for "Beautiful Spanish Girls," or "Top 10 Dating Sites of 2013." Hmmm...

I'm glad the President is making a point about increasing our cyber defenses. I think one way to start would be buying domains similar to .gov ones so as to not deceive American citizens. Someone could easily set up a fake government website and fool you into giving up personal information. Even high level government officials were fooled into giving their GMail passwords to Chinese hackers.