Santa

Hillary tree topper

What should I do with this Christmas tree?

Pelosi Redux

Paul Ryan talks a good game ... but his performance on the field is sub par. When Ryan took over as Speaker of the House last fall he promised (read my lips) that he would follow "regular order" and pass a series of budget resolutions funding each department of our government separately ... obviating what had been the Democrats' strategy of leaving everything until the last minute. He hasn't done that ... for reasons one can speculate on ... but, as a consequence, the House is once again faced with passing an omnibus budget resolution which probably will be another Nancy Pelosi Christmas tree ... laden with billions of dollars of profligate spending. That is, if it is passed at all ... and, if not, another government shutdown looms ... see: Breitbart Article.

Yes, Republican Speaker John Boehner ran things between Pelosi and Ryan and he was no better at returning to "regular order." I guess that this means that irregular order is now regular order because it  provides so many opportunities for both parties to spend and spend ... although bad for our country, good for these sleazy politicians. This is another sad commentary on where we are now politically ... and why someone as marginal as Donald Trump can now have a shot at the presidency. Whether he will fix things is still a question, but we do know that the Democrats won't. "The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars ..."

Old MacDonald

The U.S. Congress has just passed a pork-laden farm bill that ostensibly cuts food stamp costs by $8 billion over ten years … see: CATO Institute Analysis.  La-di-f-ing-da … $8 billion out of $784 billion. That’s effectively nothing!  Food stamps (read EBT cards) now represent $776 billion out of $950 billion of “farm” bill spending over ten years.  That’s almost 82% of this bill’s total being spent on debit cards for the “poor” people in this country.  These debit cards are supposed to be used to buy food for children (the reason this amount is in the farm bill), but increasingly it is spent on anything but food.  If you need to raise your blood pressure, please read: Another Liberal Morphing.

Apart from the outrageous amounts being allocated for EBT cards, this bill has lots and lots of payments to special-interest farm groups … please refer back to the above CATO Institute analysis for more hypertension.  Congress people, both Democrat and Republican, apparently can’t help themselves. Once a program is started, for whatever noble purpose, it becomes a Christmas tree upon which more and more silly spending ornaments are hung … often bearing little relation to the original intended purpose.

 So, American farmers (now often large agri-businesses) are also sucking $166 billion out of American taxpayers over the next ten years for these farm-bill ornaments. This is primarily because we, the taxpayers, are not paying attention.  For instance, we allow our government to borrow $17 million a year from the Chinese to pay for our catfish oversight program.

E-I-E-I-O

The Christmas-Tree Angel

This is a story about how an angel came to be traditionally on top of a Christmas tree.

It seems that many years ago Santa came down with a serious case of the croup a few weeks before Christmas and Mrs. Claus had to minister to his illness.  She was up and down the steps all day with hot chicken soup, orange juice, and NyQuil.

Then two weeks before Christmas Santa's elves went on strike demanding time-and-a-half pay for weekend and evening work.  So Mrs. Claus, when she was not up and down the stairs with the hot soup, was out in the workshop putting the finishing touches on all the children's toys.

Then a week before Christmas Santa’s reindeer all got the trots.  So Mrs. Claus, when she was not up and down the stairs with the hot soup and out in the workshop putting the finishing touches on all the toys, was in the stable changing the reindeer's bedding straw and giving them Kaopectate.

Finally Christmas Eve came and Santa was up on wobbly legs, the elves had packed up the toys under binding arbitration, and the reindeer were sufficiently recovered to perform their annual flight.  Santa’s sleigh was piled high with his goodies for all the children of the world.  Santa got into his sleigh, gave his team a whistle, and they were off at last.

Mrs. Claus went back into the house and, with a deep sigh, sank into Santa’s big easy chair by the roaring fire.  Just then there came a tiny knock at the front door.  Grumpily, Mrs. Claus left her soft chair to go see what new trouble had befallen her.  When she opened the door, there was standing the most beautiful little angel holding a lovely Christmas tree she had brought for the Claus’s.

She sweetly said to the scowling Mrs. Claus, “I have brought you your Christmas tree.  Where would you like me to put it?”