The Time Machine to Occupy Wherever

November 1, 2011 | Comments (1)

I am reminded of my Freshman year at UCLA, when I arrived on my 1980s campus one morning to find myself immersed in a crowd of hippies in leather fringe, bell bottoms and long stringy hair.  What the heck happened, I wondered, between the time I went to bed the night before and this bright morning? The filming of some movie, that’s what happened. So no, I had not been transported in my sleep back 20 years to the sixties, and thank God for that.

But now here we are in 2011, awakening to find ourselves immersed in crowds of retro protesters, not, this time, the products of Hollywood’s central casting, but real live sixties throwbacks calling for the downfall of the United States of America. Marching on Wall Street, Los Angeles, Boston, Tampa, Oakland, San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland, and everywhere in between, they call themselves “Occupy wherever,” and from what I have gleaned, I don’t think they have any idea what they are demanding, other than freedom from personal responsibility, freedom from employment, and freedom from basic hygiene.

Coverage of these protests reveals nothing but a flood of imprecision and generalities, punctuated by the catch phrases fed to the protesters by those who are organizing these latter-day love-ins: Down with the corporations. Tax the rich. Legalize Marijuana. Bush is a Nazi. All praise the hammer and sickle. We are the 99 percent. Death to the one percent. You get the drill…

One young woman I heard interviewed was asked just what she and her cohorts want. Like so many others handed the microphone, she couldn’t answer. The interviewer –  obviously not a member of the left’s mainstream media lapdog brigade — explained to the misguided “freedom” fighter that plenty ‘o politicians have sold their souls to the unions and other special interests in sweetheart deals designed to bankrupt the very cities where the occupiers are protesting. Plenty of fat-cat democrat donors, too. She knew none of that. Don’t you think that makes the opportunistic politicians responsible, too, for whatever it is you are protesting? I can’t speak for that, she said. But we’re discussing things, she said, and getting new ideas. What kind of ideas? she was asked.  Uh, well, I can’t really…I don’t….um….when we have talked about it, there will be really good ideas.  Like what? She didn’t care to speak anymore.

The mouthpieces for the protests – the mainstream lapdogs, leftwing politicians, various unions, hired thugs, and yes, even the president of the United States, tell us it’s all about jobs. I have yet to hear any of the protesters speak of jobs. The mouthpieces demand that we celebrate the audacity and purity of the protesters. Ignoring the filth and stench permeating the protest sites, the mouthpieces, by taking the side of the occupiers, are hoping we the people won’t notice that they are aligning themselves with calls for, among so many other issues, forced and universal veganism, the legalization of drugs, the communistic distribution of wealth, the abandonment of the usage of oil (both foreign and domestic), and the forgiveness of all debt (with those members of society who are responsible and productive footing the bill).

The left, including the media hacks and the president of the United States, would have us believe that these protestors, these occupiers, are America’s majority. Don’t believe it. We the people know who they are. And we are asking, rhetorically of course, why they are not marching on the White House. As for me, I keep thinking of the words of a favorite bumper sticker: “Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed of us for what we are putting up with.” And for what we have “put up with” for the last three years.

 

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

So Tired of Feeling Like a Hostage in My Own Country

October 4, 2011 | Comments (2)

It’s getting old, this feeling. This feeling of imprisonment, disbelief and fatigue. For far too many months now, we have lived in a nation held hostage by a gaggle of individuals who have only a sketchy notion of what our country is and hold what little they do know in contempt.

A president travels the country delivering the same tired axioms read with identical cadence from a mechanical device, berating the nation, the people, I love.  Secretly, silently, he grins as rioting leftists demand our nation abandon liberty and capitalism. Meanwhile, the president’s wife travels that same country, pricey entourage in tow, dictating what and how we parents will feed our children  – and mandating what restaurants will and will not serve their customers.

A governor of a southern state suggests we nix elections in 2012 to quell the successful rightwing efforts of an angry electorate, her words simply mirroring ideas the president and his officials have floated themselves. As unemployment skyrockets at breakneck speed, a presidential advisor informs us it is the government’s job to take care of us and provide all we need to live according to what our superiors deem an acceptable level of existence.

The president orchestrates a steady stream of public displays (with military backdrop whenever possible) in his quest for useful campaign photo-ops. That same president orders his minions to intimidate those who oppose him and do whatever they must to make his transformational dreams our nightmare. Meanwhile, we the people hold our collective breath in hopes that the man’s law designed intentionally to gut our health-care system, our bank accounts, and our personal health will be repealed.

As the current administration stands accused of allegedly placing guns in to the hands of drug lords in a neighboring country, people from that and other countries stream across our borders without sanction (presidential relatives among them), knowing that despite such open defiance of our laws, they will be showered with social services and our tax dollars upon their arrival. Meanwhile the narcissism, panic and abandonment issues of the petulant leader of the free world become more evident – and more dangerous – every day.

In short, we find ourselves trapped in a lawless nation, the perpetrators of our confinement carrying out their tasks openly, brazenly and with unabashed arrogance. And I for one am tired of being their hostage. Until this day, I never believed we as a nation would live to see, let alone tolerate, what now occurs within our great nation almost daily. But, despite my own moments of fatigue, I know in my heart that I am not alone. This nation teems with others, my fellow hostages, who share my love for this country and the resolve to wrest her free from our captors.

Carve away that hard crusty shell of betrayal and tyranny that has encapsulated the Tree of Liberty over these three difficult years, and you will find a moist green pulp still living and breathing at the tree’s heart. Those of us who love this country will continue to nurture that tree, and, like the political prisoners who found their own salvation, their own inspiration, in the words of Ronald Reagan that were smuggled into the frozen Gulag of Siberia years ago, we will wait for that moment when we, too, will at last be liberated from this modern-day tyranny, free to be America once more.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

No Surprises in Obama’s Reelection Bid

April 6, 2011 | Comments (0)

On April 4th, Barack Obama announced his intention to seek reelection for 2012, after having done nothing but campaign since he took office back in January of 2010. Indeed traveling the world in high style making canned teleprompted speeches is all the man knows how to do – that and voting “present,” apologizing for America, fraternizing with radicals, dismantling America’s economy, punishing business and taxpayers, and golfing. Now he makes official his “hope” that America will keep him on the dole, ensuring that he and his wife continue to live in the style to which they have become accustomed while he carries out his mission to transform our country into the banana republic of his dreams.

And wouldn’t you know it, the very day he declares his reelection ambitions, the Obama Justice Department announces that it will prosecute accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed via military tribunal after all, scrapping the explosive plan to provide him a civil trial in New York City with all the rights and privileges of an American citizen. Ahh, the perfect plan to convince the masses that he, Obama, is a true warrior and patriot after all. We masses couldn’t possibly see through this shameless exploitation of 9/11, its victims and its victims’ families, the ideal tools for the furthering of a man’s political luxury-lifestyle agenda.

Hoping to fill his campaign coffers with upwards of $1 billion, Obama and his handlers knew they had to start early to get the network in place. His announcement sends the minions the message to get out there and start registering voters, ramp up the slobbering media coverage, and protect Obamacare at all costs.

Wasting not a moment himself, the president has planned a “town hall” at Facebook in the San Francisco Bay Area, his brain trust no doubt believing this will click with all the young whippersnappers who find Facebook so very cool.  The team probably figures, as well, that Facebook and a friendly relationship with its top tier (who may not have contemplated the potential consequences of this alliance to their brand), will play key roles in the Internet arm of the campaign.

What this American is hoping is that such tactics used so confidently the first time around will fall flat in a more somber, sadder, more jaded Obama America, an America that will not tolerate a so-called mainstream media that fails to investigate the origins and legality of campaign contributions, that ignores threatening behavior by administration-sanctioned thugs at town halls and polling places, and that vets only those candidates with the audacity to run against their immortal beloved. Meanwhile, said beloved, with his early campaign launch, will be spending a fair amount of time running against, oh, maybe George W. Certainly the Tea Party. Probably a plumber or two, a doctor, and the Chamber or Commerce. And perhaps. . .insert theme from Jaws. . . the real reason he launched early: Hillary.

Feeling nauseous in the wake of Obama’s announcement and the televised commentary that followed, I hit the channel button to escape and landed on HBO, which at that moment was airing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. At that very moment, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was uttering a favorite passage that I have noted here before, warning his school that “every day, every hour, this very minute perhaps, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle’s walls.” Yes they do, Professor.  And we the people are left to decide. Will we resist those evil forces and their designs on our nation, or will we, as George Washington warned, instead “be led, like sheep, to the slaughter?” We’ll just have to see, won’t we?

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Patriotism Is in the Details

March 9, 2011 | Comments (1)

In January, 2010, I wrote about my attempts to cancel my subscription to Golf Digest when they decided to feature Tiger Woods and Barack Obama on their cover. The issue in question accosted readers, from said cover to pages and pages inside, with ridiculous images of Obama coaching golfer Woods on the fine art of posing for a camera – an activity in which the current president of the United States has spent far too much time.  While Woods, despite his troubles, is a golfer and would belong in a golf magazine, Obama….not appropriate on so many levels.

Well, I am happy to announce that after a year of my repeated cancellation efforts, Golf Digest has finally cancelled this subscription.  We weren’t even paying for it anymore, the freebee no doubt their acknowledgement of a mistaken decision that I have a feeling cost them quite a few subscribers. But I persisted (and let them know why), just as everyday Americans are persisting all over the country, performing small acts of revolt – the small details — that are fueling the rising tide of patriotism we are seeing everywhere.

Beyond the election results, the Tea Party events and the town-hall meetings that have sent elected officials hiding under rocks over the past two years, we find testament to the fact that Americans do not intend to see their nation go softly into the dark night of the left’s efforts to “transform” this country in the details. A few examples:

  • Record sales of guns and ammunition, resulting in Barack Obama being repeatedly named “gun salesman of the year” (and probably the century).
  • Flash mobs spontaneously erupting at Christmastime, with thousands of people singing undeniably Christian Christmas songs – so many thousands that one mall even had to be closed because of the threat to the building’s foundational structure.
  • Thousands of seniors cancelling their memberships with AARP because of that organization’s support of Obamacare with its blue pills and bureaucratic “death panels” that spell doom for America’s elderly.
  • Enraged parents (myself included) contacting the Disney Channel for repeatedly featuring Michelle “let-them-eat-cake/do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do/for-the-first-time-I’m-proud-of-my-country” Obama and her lectures to the peasants about what and how much to feed our children.
  • Car buyers shying away from companies that are owned by a partnership of the United States government and labor unions.
  • Air travelers happily giving their seats on overbooked flights to men and women in uniform flying home to see their families.

Also pervasive in my own life – and in many other American lives as I have discovered – is the effect the current political climate has had on my choice of the movies I see. I am and always have been a profound lover of movies, back in the day attending once a week or more. All that changed post-9/11 when Hollywood’s true colors emerged as never before. From that time forward, I have found it impossible to see past the virulent anti-American, hypocritical rants of certain Hollywood players, despite their lacking expertise in military strategy, economic theory, historical context, or, I suspect, even high-school diplomas — no matter how great their performances on the silver screen.

Show me a trailer featuring one of these nimrods, and my kids roll their eyes, waiting for my own rant to begin, knowing that here is yet another film to be stricken from the list of those for which I would be willing to shell out cash to see. Ignorance being bliss, I carefully guard the names of those performers I love who have not yet to my knowledge spouted off about how our nation should be run into the ground.

What fuels my optimism is knowing I am not alone in my own small acts of revolt, and I encourage those who believe in this country to keep up the good work. Make decisions for the future of our nation, and let those who stand to profit or lose from those decisions know about it. God is in the details, and so is patriotism and the salvation of our country.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

California Conservatism on the Eve of 2011

December 31, 2010 | Comments (0)

Made it back to New York from California on this eve of 2011, and it was a rewarding journey all around. The highlight: nine airports all over the western United States in as many days, and not a single body scan, not a single pat-down. I’d like to think it’s because my little clan exudes a don’t-tread-on-me vibe, but I don’t think so. Let’s just say I thank the TSA for profiling, and I thank them for treating us with dignity.

I was equally pleased throughout my journey from the results of my completely non-scientific survey of bumper stickers observed on the many freeways I traversed throughout the state of California, north to south and back again. Though I spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area, I saw only one Obama sticker. One. And that one was the only liberal-leaning message I would see on those West Coast cars throughout those nine days.

Indeed even more stunning than the lack of Obama/Pelosi/leftist accolades in my completely unscientific survey, was the overwhelming avalanche of conservative-minded comments people had slapped on their cars.  Many of those cars were big, gas-guzzling SUVs, including the one sporting a “Capitalist” sticker, the answer to the politically correct “Coexist” message liberals like to paste to their tiny, tinny, death-trappy “smart” cars.

Yes, throughout those California freeways, from north to south and back again, I found drivers proclaiming proudly their belief in Tea Party patriotism; the hope of Election Day, November 2012; the radicalism of our nation’s founders; the Don’t-Tread-on-Me mindset; and anything and everything to do with gun rights; as well as the command that this administration “Change it Back!” And not a single one of these vehicles appeared to have been keyed or vandalized in any way.

Now I realize California disappointed us mightily back on Election Day 2010 – though I still believe part of that blame rests with the “mainstream” republican party that was, and perhaps still is, trying to play nice-nice with the left. Nevertheless, on this eve of 2011, my own completely unscientific survey left me feeling pretty hopeful that perhaps California – and that misguided republican party – will change its course in the next couple of years.

Don’t let us down next time, California (and misguided mainstream republican party). As your economy plummets toward bankruptcy, thanks to the liberal policies and the greedy politicians that guide them, take note of those little signs on your freeways. I, in the meantime, will be thinking positively for our country as a whole on this eve of 2011, hoping and believing that what we witnessed during the bloodbath that was Election Day 2010, was only the spark for what lies ahead in the next two years.  Happy 2011, everyone. Keep the faith.

Betsy Siino | Comments (0)

Disneyland’s Lincoln Warns Us of Dangers Within

August 22, 2010 | Comments (1)

I don’t think I have mentioned in these posts that I am a fanatic for Disneyland (the original in California). Having grown up practically next door to the park, and working there summers during college, I have never gotten the place out of my system.

I was thus thrilled during my recent visit to the park to see that Abraham Lincoln has returned after a several-year absence in the legendary “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.” The President returns in the audioanimatronic form and setting in which he was originally seen in the 1960s, original introductory narrative, graphics, and speech intact, said speech featuring prominently our 16th President’s profound belief in liberty; the American people; and the notion that if America is ever to be destroyed, it will be from within.

You could not be more timely, Mr. President.

This experience took me back to my one and only visit to Walt Disney World in Florida six years ago. A highlight was the Hall of Presidents, a seemingly living gathering of all American Presidents, past and present. I was fortunate to see an audioanimatronic George W. give the keynote address, as the sitting President is granted that honor. Needless to say, I won’t be returning to the great hall as long as an audioanimatronic you-know-who is featured speaker.

But seeing Disneyland’s tribute to Abraham Lincoln got me thinking: Perhaps the Powers-that-Be at Walt Disney World should consider changing things up a bit at the Florida outpost. Perhaps they should grant the speaking position to the certainly deserving President Lincoln.

Think about it, Disney-World-Powers-that-Be, would you please? Imagine Mr. Lincoln, flanked by his presidential colleagues, delivering the same words he shares with us in California:

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty. And the American people, just now, are much in want of one.

What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and our independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant, to step the ocean, and crush us at a blow?

Never!

All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer: that if it ever is to reach us, it must spring from amongst us….If destruction be our lot, we, ourselves, must be its authors and finishers. As a nation of free men, we must live through all times, or die by suicide.

“Or die by suicide.” Think about that. And look around.

He turns then to face the current President who stands arrogantly nearby nodding to the adoring masses in his spindly designer suit. The 16th President points a long index finger at the 44th.

“I’m talking to you, Obama,” he growls.

Then, turning back to his audience, he concludes: “Let us have faith that right makes might,” he says, “and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Ah, well, I can wish upon a star, can’t I?

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

Happy Birthday to Our Nation

July 4, 2010 | Comments (1)

I have always loved the 4th of July for what it represents: the birth of our nation, a nation unlike any other in any imagination, at any time, anywhere. I revere the men who risked their lives to create this grand experiment, and the men, women and families who have sacrificed their lives for us to keep it.

But today I find myself reflecting on the fact that this year we observe a 4th like no other. We celebrate our nation’s birth at a time when she faces a great danger unlike any other. Certainly our nation has faced danger before, particularly back in the 1860s during a war that threatened to tear us apart. But our threat today comes from forces within our own government who seek to tear our nation down and rewrite her story to fit a twisted view that in no way resembles what she is and what she is meant to be.

I refuse to see this happen. And I end today, as I listen to the songs that celebrate the greatness of our nation and the people throughout our history who have created and preserved that greatness, knowing I am not alone in my resolve. I remain faithful, even as those in Washington attempt to dismantle and shred the Constitution that is our backbone, that the vast majority of us beyond those cloistered DC walls feel the same in our collective devotion to that nation we are blessed to call home. I thank all of you who over this last year since I began writing on these pages have stood up with me and confirmed what we all know to be true about the American spirit and its endurance.

So now together we embark on the road to the next 4th. Together let us pray – especially after an important wake-up call we are confident will be coming in November to push those deadly forces back – that this time next year we will be breathing a great sigh of relief, knowing we are headed back from the brink. In the meantime, my humble thanks go out as they do every year to our founders, to our troops who keep and have always kept our nation and our children safe, to the courageous and often unsung heroes who have made the nation what she is, and to our God for remaining with us in our past and in our present. Happy birthday, America. Not a day goes by that we are not grateful for you.

Betsy Siino | Comments (1)

At Least Five Supreme Court Justices Believe in the Constitution

June 28, 2010 | Comments (2)

We who believe in the Second Amendment, and, by extension, the U.S  Constitution, are supposed to look at today as a big day for gun rights. Our opposition probably assumed we would be dancing in the streets right now, celebrating wildly in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5 to 4 vote, ruling that local governments (such as Chicago and Washington, DC) cannot pass laws denying gun ownership that override the second amendment of the Constitution that grants we the people the unalienable right to bear arms.

But I’m not celebrating, and I’m not hearing many whoops and hollers from others who happen to believe in the Constitution as the law of our land, either. Instead, I am feeling sad, confused and, not surprisingly in our nation’s current climate, angry yet again. I don’t happen to see why there is even a question here. I don’t understand how this case ever found a place on the docket in the first place.

Until further notice, and despite the current administration’s and Congress’ efforts to change this, our nation is governed by the laws set out clearly in black ink and parchment on that legendary document assembled and signed by our founders more than two centuries ago. Stated clearly, alongside our rights to assemble, to speak freely and to practice our chosen faiths, is our right as Americans to protect our homes, our families, and our country, by whatever means necessary. And the Mayor of Chicago, the City Council of Anytown, USA, nor the President of the United States can’t change that. Period. Case closed. No interpretation necessary.

But today four so-called Americans assigned the duty to ensure our nation remains true to its rule of law, the U.S. Constitution, made clear their hostility and disregard for this great document. They announced clearly to all who would listen (and it’s a safe bet, I think, that if confirmed, Elena Kagan, would have joined their chorus, as well) that they are willing shamelessly to cast the Constitution aside in favor of their own leftwing worldview (without forfeiting their own armed bodyguards, of course). This is nothing new, I know, but today’s ruling just seems somehow more blatant than other more subtle, obscure, even complicated rulings of years past.

If I didn’t know plenty of people, including my own son, who have seen the Constitution in person over the last few months, I would guess that if we looked, we would find it in shreds at the bottom of the White House paper shredder having been replaced by an angelic portrait of Barack Obama. But in truth it has been shredded. In spirit if not in fiber. And it leads us to yet another sad day for America. I just don’t know how many more of these we can take.

Betsy Siino | Comments (2)

Scott Brown and the People’s Seat

January 15, 2010 | Comments (0)

January 15, 2010 | Comments

Back in November, the dems pretended they were not at all concerned when republican candidates decisively claimed the governorships of New Jersey (New Jersey?!) and Virginia.  They have attempted to feign the same nonchalance now, as Massachusetts approaches the special election for the Senatorial seat left vacant by Ted Kennedy last year. But, given the revolutionary events of the last few weeks, they have officially given up the ghost, now running scared, panicked, hysterical – they couldn’t hide it if they wanted to.

On Tuesday, January 19th, Massachusetts voters will go to the polls to cast their votes for either republican Scott Brown or democrat Martha Coakley. The latter, willing to vote however Ted Kennedy would have voted (and however the current President might command), seemed at the outset to be a shoo-in. This is Massachusetts. This is what Uncle Teddy would have wanted. She won the endorsement of the Kennedy family. She has vowed to support health care reform at all costs. The President says she will be his ally. This is what dems want, right? Again, it’s Massachusetts. Piece of cake.

Not so fast, Martha. Put the cake down.

Call it a belated Christmas miracle — a response, perhaps, to the Christmas Eve Massacre perpetrated when Senate democrats voted to pass the health-care reform bill on that most sacred December day. However we might see it, in a shocking twist, after months of trailing state Attorney General Martha Coakley in double-digit territory, Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown has come thundering like a rocket from the right, campaigning tirelessly during the holidays, despite the frigid Arctic blast that hit the Northeast. As Brown’s poll numbers climb daily, as his name becomes a household word and a call to action nationwide, his momentum has left Martha standing in his dust, looking every bit the victim of a marauding Mack truck.

Indeed, given some of her recent comments, candidate Coakley seems to be exhibiting clear signs of concussion. Catholics shouldn’t work in emergency rooms if they oppose abortion, she tells us. Taxes need to be higher and there are no more terrorists in Afghanistan, she stammered during last weekend’s debate with Brown. After the debate, she hightailed it to D.C. for a fundraiser, smirking that she would rather collect donations from big-money special interests in Washington than stand out in the cold campaigning in her home state.

In addition, it seems that Martha’s refusal in 2005 as then-District-Attorney to bring charges against a child rapist whose weapon of choice against his 23-month-old victim was a curling iron has also failed to resonate positively among voters (especially among those who happen to be Grizzly Moms and Grizzly Dads, I’m sure). It’s yet to be seen if last-minute campaign pleas from Bill Clinton and the President will help (here’s hoping they garner the same results they did last November in Virginia and New Jersey). Also yet to be seen is whether dead, undocumented and fictitious voters will turn out in droves on Tuesday as they did in 2008, or whether Massachusetts voters will be deterred by club-wielding thugs guarding the polling places.  

Meanwhile, Scott Brown is making history, not only with his potential victory in bluest-of-blue Massachusetts in one of the most critical elections in our history, but also by answering a commentator’s question about Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat with his now-legendary response: “Well, with all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat, and it’s not the democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.”

And that has resonated with voters – those in Massachusetts and in every other state of this union, who understand that the election of Scott Brown could be the first step toward bringing us back from the brink of the precipice on which our nation now stands.

It seems fitting, doesn’t it, that the first salvo in this battle should be fired in Massachusetts? Having played host and homeland to our founders; to the courageous belief in independence and liberty; and soaked in the blood of patriots who risked all for this great nation, Massachusetts is now once more being called to action. Though the Bay State has swung hard left in recent history, we ask her people to hear the call that still resides within their DNA, the call that more than two centuries ago spawned the revolutionary miracle that was, and is, America. We’re depending on you, Massachusetts. Please make it happen on Tuesday.

As for those of us who don’t happen to reside in Massachusetts, well, as I posted here on January 5th, now is the time for all proud Americans with checkbooks to donate to those candidates who represent the best interests of America. We have now been offered such a candidate, whose election would destroy the democratic super-majority in the U.S. Senate, and thus hinder the devastating agenda – nationalized health care, for one — of this administration and the democratic leadership driving it. I have made my donation to Scott Brown (www.brownforussenate.com), and countless others have joined me nationwide. We can’t afford to squander this golden opportunity. Our children are depending on us.

Betsy Siino | Comments

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Happy New Year, One Day Late

January 2, 2010 | Comments (0)

January 2, 2010 | Comments

Welcome 2010. Glad to bid farewell to 2009 (I don’t have the energy or the inclination to rehash the reasons, but I know I’m not alone in that), even though I’m doing so here a day late. My delay is not because of delays experienced flying from one coast to the other in the midst of post-terrorist chaos/denial (which, according to this administration, is all George Bush’s fault). Oh, we felt perfectly safe as we watched two wheelchair-bound grandmas in the San Fancisco Bay Area get the full-boar anti-terrorist security treatment. They didn’t at all strike me as would-be believers in Sharia law, but you can’t be too careful now, can you. Dog person that I am, I did love seeing all the dogs on duty, and I thanked them and their handlers for truly keeping us safe.

No, my delay here was not related to homeland security; it was viral and respiratory in nature. Now that I’m on the mend, I look back at this Christmas, this New Year’s, and I have to believe it was different for families all over the country. Our own family visits, despite our best efforts to keep the Christmas in Christmas and avoid certain incendiary topics, did have momentary erruptions into the political arena. As my husband said, this probably happened in households all over the country, despite best efforts to keep the conversation from turning in that direction. Things are running way too hot right now for political neutrality. The palpable fury, sparked at the summer’s tea parties, in Washington, D.C., on September 12th, and coursing through the veins of those Americans who know we are not being represented by our government, that fury just won’t be contained. No matter how we might try.

So now, armed with that fury, we greet the year about which so many have spoken for months: 2010. Despite my own disgust with this administration, this Congress and the blatant disregard for our Constitution, I greet this new year with confidence that the will of our founders and the true spirit of America will prevail. We have no choice but to believe that. The alternative is to see the destruction of our nation, and I will not even give life to such a thought. So happy 2010, America. Thy will be done.

Betsy Siino | Comments

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