Wednesday, February 27, 2013


Mr. Bill from New Hampshire Speaks on Federal Fiscal Mismanagement



I listen to the inept political aristocracy we keep voting into office and seethe.  They would have you believe the Federal Government can’t reorganize and streamline its various agencies, cut fraud, and eliminate waste. 

They would have you believe that cutting 2% of the scheduled growth of the budget will “damage the economy severely …”   The president claims we will have to terminate or cut back employees the federal government doesn’t pay for such as first responders, teachers, daycare, etc. all because of the “sequestration” that Obama, himself, sanctioned in 2011.  

This cuts only $85 billion from planned expenditures –– a mere  three days of current spending levels, yet we’re supposed to believe the sky is falling?   

Obama is using his own rule to try and skewer Republicans who, tried ion 2011 to alleviate the problem through various legislative proposals, only to have Obama threaten to veto whatever they presented. The democratically controlled senate killed every one of these initiatives anyway.  

No one can have it both ways –– not even you ––, so which is it, Mr. President?

We have evidence from the government’s own reports and actions of ways we could reduce the cost of our bloated central government.  Here’s a sampling:

On welfare with an EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card, a person with children can receive an income whose value exceeds that of someone earning $69,000 per year.  

When states put in anti-fraud software, they typically find that anywhere from 6% to 25% of the welfare payments they make have been wasted on fraudulent claims, yet our ruling class in Dee Cee refuses to install this automated safeguard at the federal level. 

The “free” emergency phone program for the poor that enables them to have a way to contact emergency services has created yet another an “entitlement” where 41% of the participants in the eight-billion-dollar program can’t prove they truly need a phone paid for by us taxpayers. 

Last election, activists forced Massachusetts to send welfare recipients absentee ballots only to have 39% of them returned because the addresses provided were false –– yet Massachusetts taxpayers continue to send money to these apparently non-existent people every month.

In the 1990’s a federal study found 159 federal agencies and various departments duplicate each others efforts employing tens of thousands of duplicate employees in the process whose existence cannot be justified.  

There are 70,000 bureaucrats at the State Department alone.  What do they produce?  They are unionized and can’t be touched, therefore economic reform at State is impossible.  

In New Hampshire, the Department of Revenue cut a fill one-third of its staff between 2009 and 2010.  Through automation, they have improved tax collection and thus received more revenue. But nothing as sane as this could possibly be allowed to occur in the District of Columbia!

Recent Ten-Year Government Studies have discovered that, despite spending two-hundred-million dollars on Head Start each year, third grade Head Start students are still behind their peers in reading comprehension. 

The federal government spends over Fve-hundred-seventy-one-billion dollars for education each year in addition to state and local payments, and our children have no clue about the US History, our unique qualities as a nation, are failing at math and science, and are generally unable to reason beyond their vapid, egocentric Facebook activities.  What do the fve-thousand employees of the federal department of education employees actually accomplish?

We spend over two-hundred-billion dollars each year supporting illegal aliens.  This amounts to virtually 20% of the $1.3 Trillion we borrow each year to support criminals.  If Obama succeeds in conferring legal citizenship on all of them, we will add at least three family members per illegal immigrant, and most will be going going on the dole.  Does this mean we will then have to pony up  six-hundred billion –– or more –– to support them?  

Bureaucrats and activists like Obama don’t care about effectiveness, they care about holding and aggrandizing their power –– the the taxpayer’s money they give their pet causes –– and maintaining the appearance they are trying to do something.  They really mean well.  

It is clear Obama’s current objective is to make the cuts he will be forced to accept as painful and humiliating  as possible –– so we will never again demand cutting federal spending. 

This is nothing but a bald-faced campaign of shameless  prevarication emanating directly from the president’s mouth. It's obviously intended to scare constituents into seeing things his way.  

The stench rising from manure being spread to defeat Constitutionalists in 2014 is enough to gag a maggot.  

If the federal government were sincere in their desire to improve the nation’s fiscal condition, they should start by raises they just passed for legislators and unionized government workers. 



UPDATE: 

Obama is trying desperately to stem the “sequester”, or is he?  His government is adding $38,000 per second to the debt.  Doom scenarios of TSA cutbacks, first responders laid off, loss of our entire government is at stake.   He appears to be completing his “fundamental transformation.”

There is a different story.  For example, there is $15 billion in undefined Federal Grants not yet awarded.  Eliminate them this year.
  
There is extra money in Homeland Security.  We can cut the several million dollars for Zombie Apocolypse Emergency Training and other funded fantasies.   
There is also $9 billion in appropriated funds which have not been assigned a purpose.  There is $980,000.00 for an as-yet-undeveloped  Underwater Robot and a few million more for Snow Cone Machines as part of an urban area initiative.
  
Obama keeps yacking on about closing the Corporate Jet “loophole.” If collected for 100 years, would only cover one month of Obama’s current spending levels.    

And then, there are the 800 FEMA “Emergency Camps” set up and populated with guards and administrators around the country.  Interesting that “emergency” camps in the East were not used after Sandy with all the homeless.  Of course the barbed wire surrounding these camps would make for bad pictures.  But we fund them and the guards nonetheless, even though they are empty.

According to Obama we can’t even cut 2% from the rate of growth of government expenditure let alone real expenses.  

This Administration is a fraudulent fiscal disaster that appears poised to implement tyrannical control when it feels the time may be ripe.

~ Mr. Bill

Tuesday, February 26, 2013


Is there a difference between 
politeness and hypocrisy?

If so, how would you define it?

Monday, February 25, 2013


A Feline’s Folly

A cat can offer much bound to enchant. 
Felines, ever charming, but capricious
Eventually –– no matter how you slant ––
Lenient, strict, indulgent, or judicious ––

It seems the little fuzzball will prevail.
No worthy feline ever lets you win.
Even so, the smartest never fail,
‘Tis certain, to enchant you while they sin. 

So easily do cats cast spells beguiling
Foolish folk enraptured by their antics
Only laugh when cats deserve reviling 
Leaving cats to prove their  fans romantics.

Letting pussy get away with mischief
Yields ire-dissolving mirth, and thus a missed tiff!  


~ § ~

Nothing can derail a human spat
Faster than a charming household cat!

~ FreeThinke - 2/24/13

Sunday, February 24, 2013

TODAY

A Miracle Has Occurred


'Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy!
If I should fail, what poverty!
And yet, as poor as I,
Have ventured all upon a throw!
Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so —
This side the Victory!

Life is but Life! And Death, but Death!
Bliss is but Bliss, and Breath but Breath!
And if indeed I fail,
At least, to know the worst, is sweet!
Defeat means nothing but Defeat,
No drearier, can befall!


And if I gain! Oh Gun at Sea!
Oh Bells, that in the Steeples be!
At first, repeat it slow!
For Heaven is a different thing,
Conjectured, and waked sudden in —
And might o’erwhelm me so!

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1885)


After missing a full week, my little friend has just come home! 
She thinks I'm very silly to be making such a fuss.
She's probably right, but I don't care.




LAST WEEK





I shall know why – when Time is over –
And I have ceased to wonder why –
Christ will explain each separate anguish
In the fair schoolroom of the sky –

He will tell me what "Peter" promised –
And I – for wonder at His woe –
I shall forget the drop of Anguish
That scalds me now – that scalds me now!

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Saturday, February 23, 2013

A Beloved Relic from Childhood 

BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

a novelty song featured in

NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER (1949)

Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban

Betty Garrett and Red Skelton



FORMAL NOTICE:

Comments unrelated to the material presented in each daily post will be summarily deleted, UNLESS I, myself, find them of potential value to others and particular interest to me, personally.

~ FreeThinke

Friday, February 22, 2013



JOAN COLLINS at AGE 79!

She Just Keeps Getting Better! Joan Collins, 79, Dazzles in Sequined Biker Jacket 
at Pre-Grammy Shindig 




10 February 2013 

She outshone women half her age at the star-studded gala. As Alexis Carrington in the 1980s soap opera Dynasty, Joan Collins was known for her chic outfits and blood-red talons. And it seems some things never change, as she proved on the red carpet at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party in Beverly Hills on Saturday.


Still got it! Joan Collins looked spectacular in sequins at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy bash at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday. Posing like the professional that she is, the veteran actress wowed in a shimmering, slinky black floor length gown.
Adding sparkle to match her vivacious personality, the mother-of-three sported a fashionable black sequinned biker jacket, left open to show off her enviable figure.

Her glossy hair, perfectly coiffured as always, framed a face that belied her 79 years .

Although she has admitted to trying Botox, the Dynasty star famously declared that sex was better than Botox for staving off the aging process, but clearly a dash of vermillion lipstick helps too.

Adding to the glitz, Joan accessorized with a sparkling diamond bracelet, as well a necklace, dangly earrings and a large shell-shaped ring.

A black Fendi bag slung over one shoulder completed the picture.

Dynasty comeback? With Dallas a success again, Joan is up for bringing Alexis back 
On her fifth marriage, Joan appeared at the event, which was held in honour of X Factor judge and record producer L.A. Reid, without her husband Percy Gibson, who is 32 years her junior.

She tweeted on Friday: ‘It’s freezing in Hollywood!’ but the cold weather isn’t dictating her style.

She was photographed enjoying a night out in Hollywood in January, wearing an equally glamourous outfit, but sporting a shorter hemline.

Earlier in 2013, Miss Collins tweeted a series of slimming tips, ranging from tongue-in-cheek to downright ridiculous.

Queen of the red carpet: Joan loved being the centre of attention
The advice, which she began sharing on January 8, included eating nothing but eggs one day a week, brushing your teeth with peppermint toothpaste to quash hunger pangs and drinking tequila instead of wine.

Collins recently admitted that she wants to sign up for the newly revamped Dallas.

She told the Daily Star that she would love for her scheming alter-ego Alexis Carrington to turn up in the show to cause trouble for the Southfork residents.

'I think it's a brilliant idea. It's a great idea. I love it,' Collins said.

Dallas returned to the small screen recently after a 23-year absence, but it was dealt a huge blow when Larry Hagman –– who was known for portraying evil oil baron JR Ewing –– died in November.




Thursday, February 21, 2013

LIZA MINNELLI

sings

BUT THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND

from

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

by

Kander and Ebb




Sometimes you're happy, sometimes you're sad
But the world goes 'round
Sometimes you lose every nickel you had
But the world goes 'round

Sometimes your dreams get broken in pieces
But that doesn't alter a thing
Take it from me, there's still gonna be
A summer, a winter, a fall and a spring

And sometimes a friend starts treating you bad
But the world goes 'round
And sometimes your heart breaks with a deafening sound

Somebody loses and somebody wins
And one day it's kicks, then it's kicks in the shins
But the planet spins, and the world goes 'round-
But the world goes 'round
But the world goes 'round

Sometimes your dreams get broken in pieces
But that doesn't matter at all
Take it from me, there's still gonna be
A summer, a winter, a spring and a fall

And sometimes a friend starts treating you bad
But the world goes 'round
And sometimes your heart breaks with a deafening sound

Somebody loses and somebody wins
Then one day it's kicks, then it's kicks in the shins
But the planet spins, and the world goes 'round
And 'round and 'round and 'round and 'round
The world goes 'round and 'round and 'round
And 'round!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013


I had a guinea golden;
I lost it in the sand,
And though the sum was simple,
And pounds were in the land,
Still had it such a value
Unto my frugal eye,
That when I could not find it
I sat me down to sigh.

I had a crimson robin
Who sang full many a day,
But when the woods were painted
He, too, did fly away.
Time brought me other robins ~~
Their ballads were the same, ~~
Still for my missing troubadour
I kept the "house at hame."

I had a star in heaven;
One Pleiad was its name,
And when I was not heeding
It wandered from the same.
And though the skies are crowded,
And all the night ashine,
I do not care about it,
Since none of them are mine.

My story has a moral:
I have a missing friend, ~~
Pleiad its name, and robin,
And guinea in the sand, ~~
And when this mournful ditty,
Accompanied with tear,
Shall meet the eye of traitor
In country far from here,
Grant that repentance solemn
May seize upon his mind,
And he no consolation
Beneath the sun may find.

~ § ~

~ Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Monday, February 18, 2013


NOTICE

This blog will be shut down 
for the next day or two at least.

The mysterious disappearance 
of a beloved pet has put our family in a 
profound state of shock and grief.

May God bless everyone who stops by 
to read these pages.


~ FreeThinke

Sunday, February 17, 2013

WINTER MUSIC

Winter Words ~ Benjamin Britten

Thomas Allen, baritone, Roger Vignoles, piano

Dedicated to the sudden, tragic loss today of my dear little friend, Priscilla
May God bless her and keep her wherever she is.


Snow Scenes in Sound

Snowflakes ~ Selim Palmgren

Izumi Tateno, piano 


The Snow is Dancing ~ Claude Debussy

from The Children's Corner

Alfred Cortot, piano

Friday, February 15, 2013


WHO KNEW?

Greatest Living President 
is Also Fantastic Painter

"George W. Bush in the Bathtub" by George W. Bush

"George W. Bush in the Shower" by George W. Bush

February 8, 2013 12:23 pm

The illegal hacking of Bush family email accounts had an unanticipated consequence, The Smoking Gun reports:
“The hacker also intercepted photos that George W. Bush e-mailed two months ago to his sister showing paintings that he was working on, including self-portraits of him showering and in a bathtub. Another image shows the former president painting at the family’s Maine retreat. His subject is St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, a historic seaside chapel down the road from the sprawling Kennebunkport compound.”
The paintings demonstrate a command of line and color that is rarely seen in the modern-day “art” world. Former President George W. Bush appears to be influenced by such painters as Edgar Degas  and Edouard Manet. The portraits also clearly capture the personality of their subject.

Thursday, February 14, 2013



APOLOGY to YESTERDAY'S PARTICIPANTS:

Somehow, at least half the posts to this thread disappeared overnight. I have no idea how or why it happened, but no one is sorrier about it than I. 

Whatever caused this please be assured it was NOT "CENSORSHIP." 

I think this blog 

may have been HACKED.

~ § ~
SPECIAL ADDED NOTE:

Our friend Andie -- aka Divine Theatre -- shared a beautiful retelling of the story of St. Valentine -- who he was, when he lived, what he stood for, what he endured and how he died at the following link:


I highly recommend it.

~ FreeThinke

~ § ~

It’s Saint Valentine’s Day!



Affection is the pearl of greatest price.
Value it above material wealth.
A chance for closeness may not happen twice.
Loving truly can improve one’s health.
Ease of conquest should not be the goal.
Nesting instincts point to more than that.
Trust and loyal caring make us whole.
Involvement and commitment long have sat
Nobly ruling high on Virtue’s throne.
Eros from morality detached
Crudely goads into a trap well known:
Amour becomes a mere itch to be scratched.
Redemption from the loneliness of lust
Demands we work to earn our loved one’s trust.



Love and Good Wishes to All from
... FreeThinke ...