GUESS WHO'S BACK!

I AM!!

Just got clearance from the cardiologist to get back to normal (or in my case, abnormal) activities, so here I am.

My two stents have given me renewed energy and I don't feel tired after walking six feet across the room.

I have watched a lot of news and that helped calm me down when I was stressed...yeah...right.

There are several issues that are burning a hole in my brain at this time, so I will take a few moments to address them.

The one the press seems so uptight about right now is the use of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration of President Elect BO.

The gays are up in arms over it, claiming that the choice of Warren is a slap in the face to them.

Well, frankly, some of them need a good slap in the face, but that's another story.

What if the choice had been Billy Graham?

He has given the inaugural invocation before and has served as spiritual counselor to many presidents.

He believes homosexuality is contrary to nature and an affront to God, and that abortion is an abomination.

What is wrong with "you people" that you think freedom of speech applies to you but not to Evangelical Christians?

"Well," I hear you say, "Someone who does not believe in Christianity might have to hear something Christian at a 'public' function."

To you I say, "Get over it!"

We have to hear you spout off your paganistic hedonism in public places, so what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

It's a PRAYER! Get it? A PRAYER!

It's supposed to be religious.

If you don't hold the religion of the pray-er, don't pray with him/her.

I don't pray with the pray-er when the pray-er is a Muslim!

Yet his/her prayer has never hurt me one bit.

If BO had chosen a Muslim, that would have been his to choose, and that would have been OK.

What he HAS signaled by choosing Rick Warren is that he, himself, is not Muslim (which was a red herring to begin with), and that he is willing to allow freedom of speech to take its course.

That's more than the average liberal is willing to do.

I am the very LAST one to support BO on almost anything he stands for or intends to do.

But for a real, grown up, mature American, this should be a non-issue.

Are you one of those?

Well, this has gotten my blood flowing, so I might as well go on to the second thing that has my attention: The Auto Company and Other Bail-outs.

I was doing some studying about the Great Depression in my down time.

The fact is, depressions come and go.

They sometimes happen all over the world, as they did in the Great Depression, and to different degrees and at different times.

The one thing they have in common is that they afford the government an opportunity to act as "savior," which has inevitably led to a prolonging of the depression.

"But," says the 'well meaning' government, "We have to do something or else it will look like we are not doing anything."

Well, la-dee-da.

Let's give that a try!

The best thing that could happen to our economy at this time, Keynes and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act notwithstanding, is for the government to do exactly what it is supposed to do: NOTHING.

But Americans have made the government the nanny of us all and we think they should get us out of this mess.

They can't.

Whatever they do will only prolong the agony.

But they will, nevertheless, and Americans will say, "Oooo, they're so good," thinking that, when the natural rebound of the economy takes place, although postponed somewhat by government intervention, the feds actually helped.

It will not be so.

Look. This is the greatest country in the world, a world leader of leaders.

We are better than Great Britain, better than France, better than Pakistan, better than India, better than Kenya, better than Canada, and better than Finland.

While there are individuals who do their best to tarnish our image at home and abroad, we continue to rise above them and continue to be what we were destined to be.

There will always be Bernard L. Madoffs in the world, many of them right here in the United States.

Given time, they will be caught, prosecuted and removed from society.

Sadly, in the mean time, many people will be hurt.

It would be nice if we did not have people who think that they should have everything there is to have, even if they have to steal or kill to get it.

I did not say we are a perfect nation...I said we are the greatest nation.

People are still trying to come here, both legally and illegally, more than to any other nation on earth, because, even in the middle of a recession there is more freedom and opportunity here than any other place in the known universe.

BO will be President and we will survive.

We will survive because of our people, not because of our government.

Like some families, we will fuss and fight with each other, but in the end, we are a nation-family and we will continue to rise to new height after new height.

We will recover from this recession and be the stronger for it, with or without the government's help.

We don't have double digit inflation, unemployment or bankruptcies.

In spite of the ridicule he took for saying so, John McCain was right.

Our economy is temporarily in a mess, but it is fundamentally sound.

I, for one, will continue to fight for freedom from unbridled government control and for the opportunities afforded to all willing to take advantage of it.

Join me!