Who knew?

So, how many beers did you down while watching the Super Bowl? Two, three… fourteen? Feeling a little guilty today are ya? Relax. You have no reason to hang your head (unless of course you have a hangover) because, we devotees of that malted, hoppy, liquid ambrosia are, in reality, drinking our way to better health.

Scoff not you naysayers. Recent studies show that beer contains a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for good bone health. Though past research has suggested beer is chockfull of silicon, little was known about how silicon levels varied with the type of beer and malting process used. So, a pair of researchers took one for the team and ran chemical analyses on beer's raw ingredients. They also picked up 100 commercial beers from the grocery store and measured the silicon content.

The average beer has about 15 mg/L of the bone healthy nutrient, and while there is no official recommendation for daily silicon intake, most people consume between 20-50 mg of silicon each day. With that in mind, downing two or three of the brown bottle’s nectar should do you just fine, in your fight to prevent poor bone health.

For me, I prefer the darker beers to the lighter pale ales, and such. However, the IPA’s seem to have more of the dietary silicon than the darker fare. Which, of course for me, means I will have to consume a little more on a daily basis (oh woe is me).

The type of silicon in beer, called orthosilicic acid, has a 50 percent bioavailability, meaning that much is available for use in the body. Some foods, like bananas are rich in silicon but only 5 percent is bioavailable. This soluble form of silica found in beer could be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue, according to the National Institutes of Health.

And, if you guys out there have used this ancient concoction, on occasion, to further your romantic endeavors, by encouraging your female partners to imbibe heavily, you now have even more ammunition to help convince your partner that this foamy liquid is akin to “the nectar of the Gods.”

Past research has suggested that beer consumption may help fight osteoporosis, a disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue, commonly prevalent in women. A past study involving nearly 1,700 women reported last year showed participants who were light to moderate beer drinkers had much better bone density than non-drinkers.

So, drink up me hearties! You are not only improving your over all general health but, by encouraging others to do so also - especially the women folk - you are joining the ranks of crusaders in that never ending battle for strong bones and healthy teeth they told you about in school as a kid. Milk? I don’t think so. I don’t know about you, but I’m lactose intolerant. I'm all for a new ad campaign, myself. How about, “Got Beer?”

As my name sake was once quoted as saying, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Oilfield Math

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.

That equates to a bit over five million barrels of oil.

Five million barrels is about five hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, five million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million .

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.

I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.

Something's Not 'Right'

Why are we letting the left-wing loons, who obviously are in the minority, rule this country and flush it down the toilet? It's time for the silent majority to be SILENT NO LONGER.

Click to Enlarge

Angie Comics

Angie Comics

Congressional Quail Break For Cover – Conservative Bird Hunt.

IT’S MAGIC! Congressional leftists are finding all sorts of mainstream centrist and even (gasp) right of center issues to take up… as they scatter in all directions trying to distance themselves from a President and a Democratic party leadership who they see as leading them down a rocky road to destruction.

This magic transformation has come about, as predicted by yours truly, by the turn of the new year and the sudden recognition by some REALLY arrogant Democratic Congress critters who have had a really rude awakening, something else I predicted was on the way. Before anyone gets the idea that I’m making claims towards prescience, I’m not and it wasn’t really all that hard. Following the mood of the American people through news research you can get a pretty good idea of how things may go. Once the Virginia and New Jersey races were improbably won by Republicans in predominantly Democratically dominated areas the change in the temper of the electorate started to make itself known loud and clear. Then came Massachusetts and the Democrats were rocked to their core.

Tea Partiers Make Themselves Heard.

The Democrat leadership began to lose their iron grip on the membership, with Senators and Representatives being incessantly hammered by their constituents and any number of the millions of patriots who have been making themselves heard in no uncertain terms. The Obama, Reid and Pelosi brand of hope and change is not what we want and as AMERICANS we really resent having something crammed down our throats or sneaked behind our backs. We pushed back. We stopped the Obama juggernaut in its tracks, super majority not withstanding. We stopped the illegal and unconstitutional theft of our health care, though that battle isn’t over yet. There are other battles yet to fight, but as Conservative challenges have sprung up all over the nation the momentum has begun to change.

Then there was the disclosure of President Obama’s massive budget and deficit figures. With Obama more determined than ever to try and force his agenda on the American people, Americans are more determined than ever to stop him. The 2010 elections may well prove disastrous to the socialist aims of Obama and the Democrats.

In the interim the Republicans have their work cut out for them. They will have to challenge the administration and the Democrats in Congress on every item, every word if that’s what it takes. It’s good to see Republicans learning how to fight again and doing it to good result. It’s amazing to see liberal arguments dissolve when challenged on fact and principle.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

And Now For The Real Deal

Anyone with an ounce of sense, who hadn't fallen victim to the "Obama Fog," induced by his campaign back in 2008, which made these Kool-Aid drinking fools walk around with a glazed expression and false sense of euphoria, chanting, "Yes We Can," while parroting slogans like "Change we can believe in," knew the crappola Obama was shoveling about not taxing the middle class was a bunch of doo-doo. Now of course it has come to pass. Welcome to the "Real Deal," you dumb-ass sheep.

Backdoor Taxes to Hit Middle Class

By Terri Cullen

NEW YORK (Reuters.com) --The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.

In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth.

While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.

The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration's Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.

If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.

Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 -- though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.

Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a "patch" that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.

Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year's levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy -- the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.

Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes;

* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies;

* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses;

* Individuals who don't itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid;

* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

Where Does it All End?

He said he knew what he was doing. He ran for President and told us all he had the expertise to fix things. After all, he went to Harvard. He said all we had to do was throw enough money around to stimulate the economy and our problems would be solved. Now he says it’s all the other guy's fault and he was left a mess that was bigger than he anticipated, and that even though he has failed to fix the economy by spending money we don’t have, his newest idea is to spend more.

Does this sound like someone who has clue one what the hell he’s doing? I’ve asked this before, if you had this guy managing your business, would you keep giving him money to flush down the drain? Does anyone really think this guy, who never ran a business, or worked at an executive level, or was responsible for a budget, can really find the answers we need in this country to solve the economic quagmire in which we find ourselves?

President Obama just sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget today for fiscal year 2011. The Senate moved last week to extend the nation's debt limit to $14.3 trillion to accommodate the projected gap for the current spending year, which ends Sept. 30, but with another $1.3 trillion hole next year, the nation's debt could reach $15.6 trillion by Oct. 1, 2011. That would surpass the nation's annual gross domestic product. Does anyone out there understand what that means? Obviously, Obama and his boys either don’t, or they don’t care. One of the ways they “hope” to pay for all this spending is by taxing the hell out of us, which only affects the job market negatively.

He believes keeping budget deficits where they are currently projected will happen only if tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 expire as scheduled at the end of this year. The White House calculates tax hikes would generate $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years.

"We just did an 84 percent increase in a very short period of time of all this new spending. Democrats, since they took over Congress, increased domestic discretionary spending by $1.4 trillion," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on "Fox News Sunday."

"We don't think taking all this money out of the private economy up to Washington and spending it through Washington is the way to create jobs. We believe we should keep that money in the economy," Ryan added.

Anyone who wasn’t a progressive, big-government, tax and spend liberal would be able to figure this out. It seems like Obama and his band of fiscal misfits almost want us to go under economically. Maybe that’s been the plan all along. When the economy collapses, most people will have no choice but to rely on the government for help. But, with our debt surpassing our annual GDP, where does this all end? If this country were a business - which it really is folks - it would go bankrupt, which eventually it will. They will at first inflate the economy by printing more money – which actually has already started - but eventually we will become insolvent, which will be the legacy we pass on to our children. After that, this once great nation will lose its status as a world leader, again, forcing us to rely more on, and be at the mercy of, the “Global Community,” which seems to fit right in, quite nicely, with Obama’s ideology.

Pray that in November the power in Congress shifts and that it’s not too late to turn this country around by then. Otherwise, it’s all down hill from there.

Put Up or Shut Up

So, it looks like President Obama is slightly perplexed, and will now have to re-think the plan to try terrorists in New York City. Either they are tragically naïve, or just plain dumb to not have realized that people were going to have a problem with having their city as a target, with terrorists in their midst for years, and having to shell out $200 million a year for security and all the other trappings that would go along with the dog and pony show it would turn into.

You gotta wonder whether the inmates are running the asylum when they keep making these bonehead moves, and false starts and stops on things. Makes them look wholly incompetent. Of course, these are the same people who can’t seem to vet people properly, without ending up with radical, weirdo, commie, perverts, as advisors and Czars. Or, the same people who can’t understand polls, or elections where a blue state like Massachusetts sends a Republican to the Senate - for the first time in decades - with a mandate to stop all the pending policy-generated legislation they thought would just sail through like crap through a goose.

And now it looks like they are shopping for another location, in anticipation of getting booted from New York City. Wow, that’s going to be a tough sell, eh? “Wanted, one willing city, or municipality, to host a multi-year show trial of radical Islamic terrorists. Must be willing to foot the bill for said trial to the tune of $200 million a year, and run the risk of becoming a target for international terrorists. Apply to the Attorney General of the United States if interested.”

Hey, I’ve got a novel idea – I get these now and then – how about President Obama have the trial in Washington, D.C.? They do have a Federal Court house there, last time I checked. And, it was one of the symbolic locations of the 9-11 attacks, if they really need the symbolism factor to sell it. I would have thought this would've been his first choice anyway, rather than NYC. I’m sure he could convince the people of the District of Columbia to go along with it. After all, they voted for him by a landslide in the 2008 Presidential election… so they deserve him. I’m sure they would welcome him, and his terrorists, with open arms. Time to put up or shut up, D.C.

Arrogance and Hypocrisy

I hate it when I’m always right. I called this in a recent post. Watching last night’s State of the Union address, our dear leader did exactly as I predicted he would. He never took the great opportunity he had, as Clinton did in his 1995 address, to make a change, pivot to the center, and focus on the issues the majority of the folks are concerned about, no…not Obama. He is way too much of an ideologue for that.

Instead, he doubled down on the issues the voters in Massachusetts rejected, and went forward from there. In his arrogant and highly hypocritical 70 minute speech he managed to lecture and blame everyone who he believed was at fault for his miserable failure of the past year, except of course himself. He insulted the Supreme Court with factually incorrect statements and impugned the concept of Separation of Powers, he scolded the Republicans for saying no to his ideas, which have turned out to be widely unpopular with the majority of the folks, he proudly boasted of his openness and transparency, while having held closed door meetings and reneging on promises to broadcast proceedings on C-SPAN, and he continually made reference to “Washington” not as a location, but as a pejorative term, like he did when on the campaign trail, trying to still act like he is a Washington outsider, not responsible for the goings on in our Capital, when HE is the President, and when HIS party has held a SUPER majority in Congress for over a year. Folks, what he has conveniently forgotten is, HE IS WASHINGTON!

He made it quite clear that he has NO intention of serving the people, as he intends to go forward with his boon-doggle health care bill, which has virtually no chance of passing Congress without more back room deals and political shenanigans, he plans on continuing to pursue “Cap & Trade” which will bankrupt the country even more than his proposed health care bill, and he even has plans to move forward on all the climate change crappola, which went no where in Copenhagen. Can you say, “Beat a dead horse?”

I guess it comes down to the fact that this administration believes it does not have to listen or answer to the folks in what they want or need, believing they know best, and that their ideas involving social engineering are tantamount to the personification of perfection and will be enacted no matter the cost or the consequences. Welcome to the Socialist States of America. Time to send a clear message in November…and again in 2012.

Problem Solved

My spies in Washington have come through. I now know, with certainty, why the Obama administration is doing so poorly trying to fix our economy. It’s a pretty shocking thing to find out, but facts are facts and it’s time to expose the truth. Obama, and his top advisors, obviously failed high school math. Yep, it’s true. That’s the reason they have no concept of anything fiscal. They have no understanding of math. My spies and I have had serious doubts now for months, but our suspicions were finally realized this weekend when Obama and a number of his top advisors were quoted giving figures to questions asked about how many jobs were saved by the trillion-dollar stimulus bill in the past year.

On one occasion recently, Obama said almost 2 million jobs were saved. Of course, he, and the rest of his mathematically challenged group included the term, “saved or created,” when referring to the number. (How do you calculate saved jobs anyway? Must be new math. As a point of reference, in all of American history the metric has NEVER been what a President has "saved or created” when computing job numbers. The concrete, easier-to-determine number of how many jobs were lost and how many were gained has always been the gold standard. There has never before been a "saved" category, EVER, until the Obama administration came up with the concept.)

Robert Gibbs, Obama’s Press Secretary, was quoted as saying on Fox News Sunday, that the stimulus bill saved 1.5 million jobs, not quite agreeing with his boss.

However, Valerie Jarrett, another top Obama advisor was quoted as saying on another Sunday news show this weekend that the stimulus package saved “thousands and thousands” of jobs. Wow, thousands as opposed to millions. She may be the most math challenged of the bunch.

David Axelrod, Obama’s senior advisor, was also on the Sunday news show circuit and was quoted as saying that he was sure the stimulus package had saved 2 million jobs. David was quite certain about this.

It is patently obvious that the problem is a basic lack of fundamental math skills, as was previously thought, and now with these latest revelations from Obama and his numerically challenged crew, we have finally been able to pin down the problem.

It should now be an easy task to single out all those in Obama’s administration who are causing all the confusion, by giving everyone concerned a basic math skills test. The way we can assess whether they pass would be to include the recent numbers that show over the last year we have lost more than three million jobs in this country, so the number of saved jobs would be, of course, minus three million. If they fail to come up with that answer, FIRE THEM.