Loren Heal's blog

While we know not the context for this message from the Reverend, it is clearly applicable to his most famous pew sitter.

Please note that the decepticons at the NRSC want you to believe A) that they played some role in the Brown win and B) that Mark Kirk of Illinois is capable of the same thing there.

There are huge differences in the two races. Illinois last elected a Republican Senator (Peter Fitzgerald) in 1998, not 1972. Downstate Illinois is fairly conservative, but Illinois politics is dominated by leftists.

Remember Rod Blagojevich? Illinoisans do. We never got a chance to vote against him.

Mark Kirk voted for Cap and Trade. He’s not just pro-choice, he’s pro

Patrick Hughes is a conservative Republican candidate for US Senator, running for the seat currently occupied by Roland Burrris.

Sometimes you only know you’re on the wrong road when it leads someplace the right one wouldn’t go. Logicians call that process reductio ad absurdum — the reduction to absurdity.

For instance, this thing with eating your dog. In the Marines I was stationed for a time in Korea. On liberty some buddies and I went to a restaurant and ordered the chicken … I think it was the barkingest chicken ever. There’s a moral in there somewhere.

But global warming Chicken Littles should think about where their argument is taking them (Mild NSFW).

As a member in good standing of the Republican Party of Illinois, I have not yet endorsed a candidate for Governor. But I know who I will not be endorsing: State Senator Kirk Dillard.

In suport of Senator Dillard’s pro-life views, fellow State Sen. Chris Lauzen inadvertently revealed just how much of a big government Republican Dillard is (emphasis added):

It is so easy to be a victim of tactics from pro-abortion advocates that we need to be more generous to our friends. For example, despite his consistent practice of not responding to Planned Parenthood’s questionnaires, Senator Dillard received a misleading score on Project Vote Smart because he voted “Yes” to have insurance companies provide birth control pills as part of pharmaceutical coverage - - this was the only bill on the P.P evaluation that year.This caused an unfair skewing of Senator Dillard’s pro-life record for political opponents to use against him.

So why should insurance companies be forced by law to cover anything? Why in particular should they cover birth control pills? Someone who can vote for that can go awfully squishy if a President he admires gets him on the phone.

Senator Dillard appears to be a member in good standing of the Illinois combine.

It is sometimes said that the Republican Party is the Party of No.

That is to be avoided. We should instead be the Party of Not Just No, But (Mabel, Grab My Pitchfork) No.

There are many problems in our world today, and many more problems on our sister planet, Washington, PC.

On Washington, PC, they look into our world from a pressurized cabin at 30,000 feet, or gain similar insight through a video screen between commercials. With incomplete information the political class then talk among themselves, competing for attention, favor, and office on the basis of who can dream up the most effective way to buy our votes with our own money, or with that of our children. They promise to help us with our problems if we will just give them more power, money, and adulation.

Does that describe everyone on Washington, PC? I hope not. Are there any left who will stand firm for the American values of small government, low taxes, and Constitutionally limited power? I hope so.

Is there no one who will remind us that we are adults, and more, we are Americans, and by that virtue we do not need any help?

Several candidates for the United States Senator from Illinois spoke to a packed house at the Lake Sara pavilion near Effingham Sunday night.

The candidates are vying for the seat once occupied by Barack H. Obama. Obama resigned last year, and his replacement has been dogged by ties to impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich. Roland Burris, appointed by Blagojevich under the cloud of Federal corruption charges, has decided not to seek reelection.

Illinois businessman Eric Petty, not a candidate for elected office, fired up the crowd. Here is his speech, in two parts (both in mp3 format):

Part 1

Part 2

From about the 4:00 mark in part 2:

But as we try to rally and find people who can speak for us, these are the “war veterans” now who will be fighting on our behalf. Fighting for capitalism. Fighting for what we believe in, not socialism or fascism. But we’ve got actors and actresses right now swearing personal allegiance to a man. Get on the Internet and look at this. I swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, period. And so did every other officer who’s in the military. These people here who take office will have to swear that same oath. I will not swear an oath to any man. Unless it’s to the one who was here 2,000 years ago, was born of the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, who was Risen on the third day, who sits at the right hand of the Father, He and he alone will I serve!

(more to come)

Democrats have been trying to come up with a way to spend approximately $1 Trillion that is “deficit neutral”. The debate is framed that way to make it sound like the plan won’t really cost anything, being “neutral”.

Even that ostensible meaning is deceptive. It masks any tax increases included in the plan, and ignores the cost to States, municipalities, and most importantly, to individuals. And being neutral on the deficit is nothing to be proud about, since it simply means that every single dollar spent is one the government does not have the funds to cover.

As Cato’s Dan Mitchell puts it,

This issue is important because the statists are trying to create the conditions for a big tax hike. We got huge spending increases under Bush, and now Obama has picked up the baton and is racing in the same direction. Needless to say, the politicians don’t care about deficits when they are spending money. But when it is time to discuss tax policy, deficits suddenly become a giant threat to the economy and turning more of our money over to the political class is the only solution.

What “deficit neutral” really means, of course, is nothing. The phrase has no meaning, really, because the Democratic majority will fail to live up to whatever cuts they decide they need to promise sell the plan, and when it suddenly causes costs to skyrocket they again will have to decide whether to raise taxes or increase borrowing.

It’s the spending, stupid:

Americans are in pain.

We are in pain because we are being told by the government, the media, and the whiners of society, that the government must rescue us from every calamity, every uncertainty, and keep the pain away. Yet we know, deep in our hearts, what seems to be a law of nature.

Pain, for the lack of a better word, is good.

It is apparently wrong to say it out loud, but we needed the recession, and we still do. I shall now suffer the slings and arrows of outrage, because I dare to suggest that there is anything positive in the discomfort of my fellow citizens.

Now, it isn’t exactly that the pain itself is good. But in striving to get out from under economic difficulty, we improve ourselves and society. It is the stuff of real self-esteem, this accomplishing of things. And more, it is the stuff of virtue.

Read on.

10. Republican subterfuge

9. Feared our inner-city thugs could beat up their inner-city thugs

8. Disappointed that Obama did not wear his White Sox jacket

7. Railroad tie fighting not supposed to be a trial event

6. Michelle’s sacrifice too great, so the IOC could not inflict any more on her

5. Racism!

4. Disappointed that Obama did not wear a Chicago Gangster Hat

3. Concern that community organizers not enough involved in process

2. Disappointed at Michelle’s poor grasp of common Klingon idiom

And the number one reason Chicago lost the Olympics ….