But this wrapper had the most inspiring message evah: “Smiting is free!“

Yeah!

Then I saw that it actually read, “Smiling is free.” Oh, well, if you say so.

To the Whiner-in-Chief’s complaint that a short-term debt limit increase means the Grinch will steal Christmas, there is a very simple answer: so, spend less and thus buy time before the debt ceiling negotiations need to begin again. Couldn’t this administration do that little bit for the country? (That is of course taking the complaint at face value; when we all quite reasonably suspect that really he’s just campaigning again. Does the man ever stop campaigning? Although, campaigning is the only thing he has talent for, so it is probably too much to hope that he could change his ways, just for a few months.)

To the Whiner-in-Chief & all of Congress, a point I made in an email to my Congressman the other day: you are borrowing 40¢ of every dollar you spend. I defy you to try that in your personal finances, and I cannot believe you have ever been so irresponsible when you were spending your own personal money.

To the Whiner-in-Chief & all the Democrats in Congress: You are collectively profligate beyond comprehension, and your contempt for honest, hard-working Americans, whose money you see fit to toss into the abyss, is appalling. Your profligacy ought to be seen as treason. You belong in debtor’s prisons, not in our federal government.

To all the Republicans in Congress who are resisting the level-headedness of the new (tea party elected) representatives: You are not much better. In fact, you may be worse: the (presumably) good men who did nothing to stop a great evil. AKA, enablers. You too wish to throw our money down the abyss. How dare you?!

Beyond that, Philmon has the best sum up of the situation. Go read him.

(And with the cherries, some of my natural optimism returns.)

I’ve been wondering: is this how it felt in 1937? or maybe 1914?

I see the maelstrom approaching: an ever-encroaching federal government, nearly a failure at what it is supposed to do but dedicated to assaulting liberty and individuality more each day; the worldwide rise of anti-Semitism; the worldwide debt and currency crisis; the food crisis.

I see how we have already been affected. We haven’t travelled in years, not even a weekend away for our anniversary. We have cut out as much spending as possible. We need to cut some more. What we’ve got isn’t going to be worth much of anything, and it will need to last an indeterminate amount of time. This does not inspire confidence!

I see my neighbors, nearly all retirees living “the good life” and seemingly oblivious to the disaster that is preparing to pounce. They travel, they shop, they praise ObamaCare. When I wonder about their style of living, I remind myself that many of them have pensions paid for by taxpayers. They may feel insulated from financial difficulties now, but that situation will be changing, probably sooner rather than later. They do not seem even to have noticed that their financial situations are precarious.

And it is not just money, of course. The respect currently given to pernicious ideas takes my breath away.

Is this how it felt to be on the brink of world war, to witness the beginnings of the Holocaust?

We have all lived so well for so long. Do we have what it takes to weather the approaching storm? Is there anything at all that we can do to ameliorate the hard times coming?

We’re in cougar country. You can hike around any time of the day you like, even dusk and dawn; but if you fail to keep a lookout, it will be your own skin.

(I do still believe we’ll muddle through!)

If you haven’t watched Top Shot on the History Channel, season 2 of which just concluded, then you will be bored to tears by this post; probably best just to leave now.

Also, if you think you will watch it, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, well, best to go away now. Big time spoiler alert.

Top Shot is a marksmanship competition/reality show that begins with 16 excellent shooters divided into two teams and ends with four individuals competing for the title of Top Shot and a prize of $100 K.

You have to have seen the season that concluded last night for anything else I’m going to write here to make any sense at all. So here it is:

George Reinas is the ideal American, and we’d be a hell of a lot better off as a country if more of us were more like George.

For most of this season, to me, George was aggravating as all get out, with his cocky comments about other shooters, his arrogance, his utter irrepressibility.

He was also competent as all get out, a sniper instructor who sniped the sniper challenge — “one shot, one kill” — even if that meant another contestant actually won the challenge by getting a quicker ”kill” on the target using two shots. George stayed loyal to his own standards.

George was great TV, but that’s not why I see him as the ideal American. He was great TV because he was willing to be seen. When another competitor shot poorly, there’s the interview where George says, “He sucked!” When George shot poorly, there’s the interview where George says, “I sucked!” George clearly is someone who can both dish it out and take it.

When the challenge involved dropping from 120 feet while shooting at balloons, and George doesn’t apparently like heights very much, he put on his game face and smoked the competition. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen was in that episode: George starting with his laughing letting-it-all-hang-out face and drawing his hand down, leaving behind his scary game face mask. In a second he went from the jerk at the beach to a serious fighter, someone not to cross.

George was also an amazing shooter, and part of the reason I see him as the ideal American is that all his cocky talk was backed up by his competence. After all, is it really arrogance if you really are that good?

He also stayed loyal to his people, and there’s where he went from an excellent and intimidating competitor, fighter and shooter, to an ideal we all need to be trying to achieve.

In the finale, which aired last night, we see George deliberately miss a plate with a pistol shot at 25 feet, what had to be a very easy shot for him. But Chris Reed would have been eliminated immediately had George made that shot, and George obviously believed Chris deserved and needed to fight for his place in the competition. Chris was in the midst of an uncharacteristic bad run — this was the only time Chris seemed to be struggling; Chris had picked the strongest team at the outset of the competition and performed superbly all the way through; George was Chris’ first pick, in fact.

George’s loyalty to Chris inspired his decision to allow Chris a path to remain in the competition. And then Chris hit the plate, tying with George and avoiding elimination. And then Chris beat George in the next competition, using a Sharp’s rifle to shoot a plate at 50 yards.

AND THEN Chris beat Gunny Brian Zins in the very final competition to win Top Shot.

If George had hit the plate with the pistol shot, Chris would have been eliminated and the finalists would have been George and Gunny. George didn’t throw the competition to Chris; he just gave Chris the chance to stay in it, and Chris shook off his own funk and got right back in it. It was a gift, and Chris knew enough to seize the chance and not dishonor himself & George both by refusing the gift. This episode was so amazing to watch, we were shrieking at the TV.

So here’s George: bright, brash, skilled, a fierce competitor; confident to the point of arrogance; saying what he felt about everyone, including himself. At times infuriating, but always so honest that it was easy to forgive him. It didn’t appear that he held grudges, he just let it all out immediately and then returned to excelling at the task at hand. When he might have had a chance to win, he revealed something about himself we could easily have missed: a huge heart and a sense of loyalty.

I spent a lot of season 2 of Top Shot feeling quite annoyed at George, and I imagine if life conspired to make us friends, I’d still get annoyed at him frequently. But I would also spend all my time trying to deserve his loyalty and respect, because his loyalty and respect is worth deserving. George is who we want at our back (and he’s an Air Force sniper instructor, so we have him at our back!) and he is who we never want to let down.

This is what America and Americans used to be: bright, brash, skillful, fiercely competitive, confident to the point of arrogance, loud, sometimes infuriating, and blessed with honor, loyalty, and huge heart. This is the spirit we need to revive, whether we call it cowboy spirit or Jersey attitude.

George Reinas is the ideal American. I hope I get to tell him that someday!

Defund BATFE.

Fait accompli!

What the hell, you may ask, was Libya doing on the Human Rights Council in the first place?

Well, see, we are most unfortunately living in a world where those who really ought to know better just want to be nice.

See, if we, who (used to) have morals and compassion and basic human virtues, are very very nice, share our toys, submit ourselves, accept all behaviors as the moral equivalent of ours — well, then everybody else will play nice too. Because, see, they only misbehave because we are just too, too aggravating. So we are very very nice, and that means they’ll be nice too, and then there won’t be any more wars, or dictators enslaving their populaces for their own greed or power-trips. No more Rwandan massacres. There won’t be greed, or starvation, or indeed anything uncomfortable, because all those things exist just because we are so very very aggravating.

See, there really isn’t any such thing as evil. Greed does not exist in & of itself. The hatred that others may exhibit is always caused by our own defects. (This phenomenon shows itself a zillion-fold as regards the Jews, who have managed for millenia to be extremely aggravating, really the most aggravating people possible, because they were chosen by God to be His People, blah blah blah; and we just can’t have that. In fact, we can’t even have a people listening to God and trying to be His People; that will just cause trouble. Really, we just must rid ourselves of all these would-be moral troublemakers, and then there won’t be any trouble at all.)

So, because we are being so very very nice now and believing (hoping against hope, more like) that there is no such thing as evil (it only looks that way when others have to react against us because we haven’t been nice enough) well then: everyone is morally equivalent. So, this lovely Libya, with its brutal terrorism-sponsoring dictator, just obviously belongs on the Human Rights Council. Because of course no one knows Human Rights like those who dedicate themselves to eradicating them.

oops — — I slipped the mask and my true colors showed. I may as well drop the sarcasm and come right to the point: Yes, Virginia, there is evil. Greed and hatred exist. Pretending they’ll go away just because we are so very very nice we cannot bother to name them and despise them and shun them; well, that pretense will kill us, someday.

Western civilization committing suicide — that is what Libya’s presence on the Human Rights Council demonstrated. The Enlightenment West just up & gave up, a few decades ago. We don’t defend Israel as we ought; we don’t condemn terrorists and those who support & fund them; most of the time we don’t even blame criminals for the crimes they commit.

So this evening’s action by the UN General Assembly is some good news. Too bad it should have been unnecessary.

His “work even had ‘extraordinary potential to inform national policy and military strategy.’”

Yeah, right.

Why isn’t untreated mental illness the issue? Why isn’t the appalling lack of follow-up to the warning signs Loughner exhibited the core issue?

We understand that you still need to carry water for the half-dozen leftists who keep you in business. But there is something core which you have missed.

Dear Mr. Newsweek: you no longer own the language-space and you no longer are the arbiter of the core issues of anything. Go away.