My Sister Made New Hampshire’s Top 40 Under 40
The New Hampshire Union Leader named my little sister to the New Hampshire Top 40 Under 40. She is only 20 years old. You can see the article and her picture here (you’ll have to click through the other winners to find her, unfortunately- her name is Katie Rose). Her website can be seen here. I encourage people to visit and listen to her song samples. Then, of course, buy her CDs. Her first published CD is full of covers from other singers, including Garth Brooks, the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett and Jewel. Her second is all of her own music, including one she sang last year at a Breast Cancer walk and she will sing this year at Breast Cancer walks all over New Hampshire.
1934 Predictions From The Chicago Tribune
MISS ME YET?
Yes, this is real. Found near the town of Wyoming, Minnesota on I-35 you will find a giant George W. Bush waving at you.
Corpse: only the E is Silent.
I don’t mean to dwell on such minutiae, really. However, considering the amount of flack that Former President Bush (43) received over how he pronounced “nuclear,” in what can be considered journalistic fairness, we will look into the same matter with current President Obama.
Some people have difficulties framing certain words a certain way (which tends to be the way others may pronounce them). Sometimes we just can’t seem to get a word right because of our speaking abilities, our accents, or perhaps a good old fat tongue. This can lead to real problems for some people, just ask the Ephraimites in the Book of Judges:
In the story, two Semitic tribes, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, have a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no sh sound in their language, pronounced the word with an s and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered. (The Story of Shibboleth)
I would recommend that you go to a number of your friends, and hear which ones properly pronounce the month Fe-brew-air-ee instead if Fe-byou-air-ee. So picking on people for pronouncing words is a bit childish, but the left made it a part time occupation during Bush’s eight years, as did popular shows like my two personal favorites The Simpsons and Family Guy. This all tied into the “Bush is Stupid” mantra, and Bush supporters gritted their teeth and said “back off” or perhaps even joined in on the linguistic fun.
Slate.com’s Kate Taylor wrote an article entitled “Why Does Bush Go Nucular?” in which she gives a half-hearted defense of the President’s pronunciation of the word:
When speaking about nuclear weapons, George W. Bush invariably pronounces the word “nucular.” Is this an acceptable pronunciation?
Not really. Changing “nu-clee-ar” into “nu-cu-lar” is an example of what linguists call metathesis, which is the switching of two adjacent sounds. (Think of it this way: “nook le yer” becomes “nook ye ler.”) This switching is common in English pronunciation; you might pronounce “iron” as “eye yern” rather than “eye ron.”
Haiti Relief Aid
Some of us here at thelobbyist were interested in helping spread the word about what all of us can do to help with relief aid.
You can also join the A Million Dollars For Haiti Facebook group created by dustin siggins and sponsored by thelobbyist here.
During Katrina and the Asian Tsunami disaster the top three supporters via money and teams on the ground were:
The Red Cross – Direct link to donation information.
The Salvation Army – This is their blog with constant updates on how to donate with links.
Baptist Global Response – This links to all resources and information for donations via the Southern Baptist Conventions Global Response Team. This was one of the first teams into Haiti out of Florida.
Faith Based Organizations
Samaritan’s Purse – Links straight to donation form.
Catholic Relief Services - This links to CRS’ front page blog with updated information for donations and action relief.
Compassion International – Information about the children of Haiti.
Other Organizations
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thelobbyist does not endorse donations to the U.S. government, the Haiti government, or the United Nations because of out flowing evidence this week that corrupt officials have been squandering and stealing resources sent to Haiti in recent months.
A Christmas Thought
During the course of the Christmas weekend, the only thing that saturated the air more than warm Christmas blessings was perhaps the cold snow in much of the Northern-Mid West states. Online friend?s statuses capitulated Yuletide greetings on Facebook; but there was one status that you just looked at and could not help but feel a sense of awe.
God, with us.
Three simple words that reverberate in the breasts of Christians around the world. Providence gracing the world which He created, born of a virgin, and knowing ultimately that He will pay through material life, for the non-material salvation of mankind. How can you not be bewildered by such a premise, or completely awestruck by the ramifications of such a tale?
Of course, there are myriad people who are quick on the draw when it comes to the arguments over the level of ?Pagan influence? in our modern Christmas celebration, or the fact that technically Christ was not born on the day for which we celebrate his birth. Let us not over-complicate this current discussion by throwing all of these ingredients into the Christmas stew; but rather, it would behoove us to truly appreciate how all of these small contributions have helped to create what we understand as an almost universal meaning for Christmas. Nevertheless, the reason why we celebrate Christmas is articulated so beautifully and concisely through the solemn whispering of those three words: God, with us.
Whether or not you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Deist or even atheist, it is important and proper for us to understand the significance of this holiday celebration for Christians. God among man, of flesh and blood. Whether or not you believe that this was the case should be set aside, and for this moment of the year we can reflect on the importance of such a man in history, or such a God among us.
Merry Christmas.
-rj
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Merry Christmas
To our fans and followers, as well as everyone else,
Merry Christmas, and God Bless. May He watch over you, your families and loved ones, those who cannot be with their families today and those who are otherwise struggling with difficulties.
I stole the following from The New Hampshire Union Leader:
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following editorial, first published in The New York Sun in 1897, has become a Christmas favorite for its poetic defense of faith. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Merry Christmas.
DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?Virginia O’Hanlon
115 West Ninety-Fifth St.Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Top 5: Obama Passes School, Apparently List
Have you seen that video where Obama talks about how great he is?? That’s really every video, but this one is the one I’m specifically speaking about.
Couple of things that are starting to cause me to go crazy when I hear them:
- “We inhereted x,y,z.” – At what point does the Obama administration start taking responsibility for problems that currently exist under his administration?
- “Something, something, something, accomplishments.” – Obama hasn’t accomplished anything but spend our money.? What has he accomplished?? Honestly.? I invite any liberal/progressive to explain to me what he has accomplished.? National debt has increased.? Unemployment has increased.? Resolute Middle-East strategy has waned.? Provision of citizenship rights to 9/11 terrorists secured. Appeasement of other countries and disregard for sovereignty assured.? Presidential popularity 30 point decreased affirmed.
- “The 4 hour work week.” – I know more about Obama’s nightly basketball prowess, his weekly dates with his wife, and his gallivanting all over Hollywood tv shows and world tours than I do about any actual work he has performed.? Honestly, when is the guy in the White House to carry out any of his duties.? Makes you wonder whose running the country doesn’t it?
- “Award for what?” – Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize this week.? Does anyone know why?? According to the Nobel Committee, “during the preceding year[...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Did Obama accomplish something in 2008 that I’m not aware of that improved the brotherhood between nations and reduced standing armies?? Seems ironic that he gave his speech the week after he ordered more troops to Afghanistan.? You know members of the committee complained that Toby Keith was playing at the Peace Prize Concert because he sung about his support for the war?? I guess it’s ok to be send more troops to war, but if you sing about it, that’s simply not acceptable.
- “You thought there would be a #5 didn’t you?” – Well I took it from you!? And I’m sharing it with all the unfortunate blogs that could only afford a Top 3.
-nick
Talking Points From The Last Week
Highlights of two interesting conversations I had last week:
First, I ran into two acquaintances in Harris-Teeter a week ago Sunday, and as part of our conversation one of the people- both were women- mentioned that in Freakanomics the point was made that abortion has helped to lower crime, poverty, the welfare rolls etc. because more poor women have abortions than those of other socioeconomic classes. I said that statement made sense, but there were two weaknesses in it. The first was that the ?positive? side of abortion depended on your priorities, in this case murder vs. crime, poverty and welfare. The second was that her statement was analogous to saying black people benefited from slavery because survival of the fittest kicked in to make blacks more athletic in the modern age. (She agreed with me that it was analogous.)
Secondly, in the middle of last week, I got into a long discussion/debate with two Muslim women, one a convert who spent time in the American military before her conversion and the other a lifelong member of Islam who grew up in America. We began discussing Arab and Muslim terrorism against the United States, and particularly the recent shootings at Fort Hood. I made the argument that a high percentage of terrorist attacks against this country have been made by Muslims- see an LA Times article today about the threat of homegrown terrorism- and so I did not find it hard to believe that Americans might be a bit hesitant around someone of the Islamic faith or appearing to be Arabic, and the Fort Hood shootings did not help the Muslim cause in America. The two women made a great case, however, that it was not the fault of the Muslim faith that the Fort Hood shooter went after his fellow soldiers. Instead, they claimed that the man was mentally unstable, and what he said was merely what he knew and how he spoke. The lifelong Muslim said that if a Jew or Christian was to kill a lot of people in a similar manner, she would not blame the Christian faith but would instead chalk it up to mental instability. They also said it was the fault of the Army for not recognizing the man?s mental illness and taking action before he killed his fellow soldiers.
I disagree with that mental illness was the main cause of the Fort Hood attack as opposed to his Muslim faith; but I found their argument very interesting and something I hadn’t considered (that Hasan was merely expressing his thoughts in the way he had been taught) and I definitely agree the Army failed to protect its soldiers.
It’s Our Birthday!
Today, one year ago, I launched thelobbyist.net.? thelobbyist was an idea that was burning a hole in my back pocket for a couple of years.? For good or bad, most of my peers will tell you I’m very opinionated.? Admittedly, often to the point of needing to shut my mouth. (My mother often reminds me of this).? But I had never delved into the foray because my attention was focused on finishing school, work, finishing grad school, and then getting back to work.? Finally, last Fall, after watching the Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time and hearing the immortal words of Andy Dufresne, You gotta get busy living, or get busy dying, it dawned on me that I would most likely never be less pre-occupied.? It was now or never.
So I began the tedious process of putting together what I imagined would be a seldom viewed blog of my thoughts on politics.? In late October I mentioned what I was doing to my close friend Tom Qualtere, currently the Research Assistant for Ed Feulner at The Heritage Foundation.? He was ecstatic about the idea and wanted to get on board as well.
After a few months of us blogging, to our surprise we were gaining a fairly sizable audience for our scope.? Between our first month with roughly only 300 visitors, we had moved to about 4,000 unique visits. (To be specific, a website usually receives many more visitors, but much of the traffic is repeat visitors.? A unique visit is characterized as 1 visit per unique individual.? In other words, a website may received 2000 total visits, but only 500 were unique.? Meaning that each unique visitor visited the site roughly 4 times.)
It was at this time we decided to step it up a notch and revitalize the image of the website into a true commentary presence on politics.? Our friends Dustin Siggins and RJ Caster jumped on board and have been a real boon to our efforts.
Since that time we have grown by leaps and bounds.? This month we are on track to break 20,000 unique visitors and over 100,000 total visits.? That communicates to us that our audience loves what we do, and our growth is obvious evidence of this.? If it wasn’t for our audience, we would obviously just be talking to ourselves.? We thank our fans and friends, who have helped push us forward and keep us motivated to do what we do!
I would also personally like to thank Tom Qualtere, Dustin Siggins, RJ Caster, and Wallace Forman for their fantastic work every month.? And additionally, a special thanks goes out to our contributors Sam Theodosopoulos, Catherine Helsley, and our brother-sister duo of Nick J. and Annie Rohrhoff.? Thanks for all your hard work!
We’ll keep doing what we do, and strive to continue doing it better.? And you guys keep coming back, and we will look forward to celebrating our birthday with you again next year!
-nick r brown
