What Is Your Personality Type?

I just took a quick personality profile test and the results seem pretty accurate.

The ISTJ personality type information is relatively close, with a few differences.

“ISTJs are very loyal, faithful, and dependable. They place great importance on honesty and integrity. They are “good citizens” who can be depended on to do the right thing for their families and communities. While they generally take things very seriously, they also usually have an offbeat sense of humor and can be a lot of fun – especially at family or work-related gatherings.”

And the fictional ISTJs I feel most like are Joe Friday and Puddleglum. It says Math Teacher is a good choice. Imagine that.

Leftist Elitist Pig Gets The Vapors

Are you a drunk? Do you own a gun? Did you drop out of school? Then, obviously you’re a Palin fan. Don’t take my word for it. Just listen to this leftist elitist pig:

The first question that comes to mind is how many empties of moonshine does one have to return to accumulate $1,100?
I wasn’t even aware they had recycling projects in the banjo-pickin’, cousin-marryin’, less learnin’-more earnin’ areas of the country from which Mrs. Palin supporters hail.
While I suppose we should all take comfort the $1,100 spent on the conference admission will reduce attendees’ ammo budget for the next few months, liberals are not the only ones who should be terrified by the idea of President Palin. All bipeds without feathers should be terrified of the notion of that arrogant know-nothing with access to the nuclear codes.
Nothing would ensure the reelection of President Obama than running against Mrs. Palin as the GOP candidate which is why it will never happen. But we can dream…

As Rick at Wizbang points out:

Let’s ignore the fact that Robert can’t seem to correctly reference the story he cites as to the convention’s admission price (it was $349 and not $1,100). Let’s instead hope that he and other liberals continue to make light not only of Palin’s abilities but of those who find her striking a chord.

It will make this November (and November in 2012) that much sweeter.

Keep pushing that idiotic elitist meme, leftists. Please, keep pushing that meme. Nothing works so well as to tell half the nation “I are smart and you is dumb.” I mean, to paint whole swaths of the country as incestuous? To claim whole regions reject recycling? To full-on hate the Second Amendment like that? If that’s your winning hand, play it for all it’s worth.

But if I had a hand like that, I’d call it a foot. Just sayin’.

Boring, Delicious, Heavy Recipes

In the summer, people are interested in light meals. In the winter, they want heavy meals.

I already gave my spicy beef stew recipe, which is heavy and delicious and not quite boring. Over on Common Sense Political Thought, I gave my mac & cheese recipe, which is definitely boring but still heavy and delicious.

Here are two more boring, delicious, heavy recipes (note the lack of specificity in most ingredient quantities):

Potato-Meat Pie

(This is far better than slop on a shingle because you don’t have soggy bread AND you get potatoes.)

Ingredients:
ground beef
Bisquick
mashed potatoes
cheese (optional)

Directions:
brown the beef and drain it
add water to the Bisquick to make a thick dough
line the bottom and sides of a baking dish with the Bisquick dough
fill the baking dish 1/2 to 2/3 full of the ground beef
cover the top with mashed potatoes, heaping it above the top of the dish (extra stiff mashed spuds is called for here)
If you desire, you can cover the top with american processed cheese-like substance or colby or mild cheddar, or you can dust it with finely grated parmano, or you can bypass the cheese altogether.
bake at 350 for an hour or so (use the clean toothpick test to determine if it’s done)

This can be cut into cubes if prepared properly and it’s definitely very heavy.

No name for this one

Ingredients:
2 lbs round steak
3 cans cream of mushroom soup
milk
mashed potatoes

Directions:
cut the round steak in bite-sized chunks and brown it
put the 3 cans of cream of mushroom soup in a baking dish
add a little over half a can of milk for each of the cans of soup
blend together
add the browned round steak (and don’t drain the fatty stuff. That will provide a deep brown and delicious thin crust-like substance when finished)
bake at 350 for about an hour
serve on top of your mashed potatoes (and prepare your spuds the way you like them)

This is very soupy but it is still very heavy and obviously boring (but delicious).

We Don’t Need You Any More

For a couple years, that was the sentence I most loved hearing when I picked up the phone. It was an absolute joy to my ears. It was among the most delicious foods for my soul. “Thank you for all your work, John. We don’t need your services anymore.” It filled me with pride.

When I was in college, I had all sorts of jobs. In fact, there was a time where I was actually putting in 85 hours a week at work. Just to try to pay for college. And that didn’t include my “one weekend a month” deal with the USMC. (And I still couldn’t afford to stay in college, but that’s a different story.)

So, when is it that “we don’t need your services anymore” is a glorious affirmation? I’ll tell you in a minute. But first, let me tell you about my 85-hour-per-week work schedule while maintaining a full-time college schedule.

When I got off work as a casual (meaning temp that can’t be hired) at the Canton, OH main branch of the USPS at 6AM, I walked across the field separating the USPS from Malone College (now Malone University) and straight to the cafeteria, where they had an uncut grapefruit specially for me so I could peel it and eat it like an orange instead of sugaring it and spooning it out. After my breakfast of that grapefruit, whatever they were serving (including free seconds), 8 servings of various fruit juices, 16 ounces of Pepsi, I headed off to bed to miss my Calculus II class while I slept. I taught myself Calc II and only attended the 9AM class on test days. I also taught myself Statistics and slept in-class during that course, except for test days.

I had a late-morning, early-afternoon, 25-hour-per-week part-time job packing veterinary supplies for non-vet animal owners (such as horse wormers and the like). After that, and making room for my afternoon classes, I had an afternoon, 15-hour-per week job sitting in the math lab to tutor college students in their collegiate math courses. In addition, I spent 10 hours a week in the evenings tutoring high school kids in their math courses. And to finish it off, I had my recurring temp position with the USPS working 35 hours a week (overtime during Christmas) on the graveyard shift.

Again, that does not include my USMC Reserves duty.

While in college, my Chemistry professor told me “You have too many irons in the fire. If you want to succeed in college, you need to pull some of your irons out of the fire.” I responded “If I want to stay in college, I need to find more irons to put in the fire.” I didn’t find more irons to put in the fire so I had to leave college, due to a lack of money (but, again, that is a different story).

During my time in college, there was this ad on the radio that said something like “If we don’t improve your kid’s letter grade by one grade level in nine weeks, we’ll reimburse you all your costs” or something like that. Every time I heard that ad on the radio, I laughed derisively. I knew my own record. Junior High and High school kids under my tutelage went from F-D level work to A-B level work in far less than 9 weeks.

How did I make such a change in grade level? Along with teaching the kids one-on-one the material itself (which is the absolute minimum of educators), I also taught them how to learn the material. And, after a week or two of getting to know them mathematically, I also told them “You already know this stuff; you just don’t know you do.” And those two things were the key. Teach them how to learn and affirm they know what they know (which is different than developing a self-esteem based on falsities).

And that’s when I started getting phone calls shutting down my services. Every phone call I got that shut down my services was from someone exceedingly pleased with the results of my work. “You did a great job with my kid. He (or she) is not struggling anymore. In fact, he (or she) is doing great in math. Your services are no longer needed.” I thanked them for their call and cancelled their portion of my work schedule and whispered a quick prayer to Providence thanking Him for giving me the ability to get the kid straightened out in math.

And I reveled in the glory of successfully opening another student’s mind to the point another student no longer needed special assistance. Every single phone call from a parent saying “your services are no longer needed” was another astronomical emotional high to me, and I got at least 20 of those phone calls during my off-campus tutoring time.

Every one of my “students” had at least a 2-grade jump in less than 7 weeks. Every single one of them. And, quite frankly, it was because of my two basics:
1)Teach them how to learn.
2)Affirm in them the fact they already know.

While schools are busily planting a self-esteem in kids’ heads based on abject falsehoods, I pumped up their self-esteem based on facts: they knew the stuff but didn’t trust their own knowledge. While schools were busily shoving the flocks from one grade to the next, I taught them how to teach themselves. And that is the biggest key. Schools (and all libs in general) give kids a fish. I taught the kids how to fish. And that made all the difference.

And Now, A Musical Interlude

I am very much all over the map in topics I want to discuss but they all take lots of research and multiple links and all sorts of other things. I want to talk about Social Security, Tough Love, Taxation, Deficit Spending (enter Cloward-Piven), and many more things, but that takes a lot of time, effort and work. And procrastinators point at me as proof they don’t put things off.

So I decided to do a musical interlude (which will likely put you to sleep, due to my taste in music).

Thinking about how Obama has promised the moon (Jimmy Stewart reference) and delivered the finger, along with many faux pas on which the mainstream media gives him a pass but regular people who hear about it don’t, I thought of my favorite pop-rock band.

(This was before they became famous.)

Thinking about all the unconstitutional power-grabbing and unconstitutional czars swirling around Obama and his henchment, I thought of this song.

Thinking about the dire straits we’re in with all the government overreach into every aspect of our lives and the outcry of the small voices of regular people in concert, I thought of this happy song about a different sad and desperate situation.

Speaking of Dire Straits, we have a song about Class Envy.

(Need I mention all the anti-PC stuff in that song?)

Twin Revivals In Our Land

Revival defined:

1. restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.
2. restoration to use, acceptance, or currency: the revival of old customs.
3. a new production of an old play.
4. a showing of an old motion picture.
5. an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.
6. an evangelistic service or a series of services for the purpose of effecting a religious awakening: to hold a revival.
7. the act of reviving.
8. the state of being revived.
9. Law. the reestablishment of legal force and effect.

(emphasis mine)

On December 7, 1941, our country experienced a national revival. The slumbering giant awoke.

The Japanese Empire was the catalyst for this revival. And history tells how this national revival changed the world.

November 2008 was the catalyst for a new national revival. While the catalyst was very much different and was (and is still) slow-acting, the national revival has begun. There has been a true ground-swell of activism from millions of people who would’ve never dreamed of activism before. They were always the “silent majority” who went about their business and didn’t “get into politics.” No longer. That slumbering giant has indeed awakened, although it is still groggy from its slumber. But the grogginess is wearing off and the giant is beginning to fight back against its attacker.

And that is the first of the twin revivals taking place in our nation and, more importantly, in the world. The second of the twin revivals is spiritual. A Christian revival, and not a faux revival as seen six times a year in some churches (note: capitalization is very important to me), but a real revival in the Church. There is a definite energization in the Church as hasn’t been seen in some time. This slumbering giant has been very difficult to awaken from its slumber, which started years before the infamous 1962 SCOTUS ruling.

But awaken, it has. It took a Mojave-sized chunk of smelling salts but it has finally awakened. As the Bible says, the End Times will be marked by two polar opposites: the huge power-grab of the great evil in all the world, and a huge awakening, activism, growth in the Church. And this is what I see.

The confluence of a great many things at this time all boil down to a massive, cataclysmic upsurge in great evil and a massive upsurge in Christian conversion and Christian activism. A Tale of Two Cities proclaimed a paradox: It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Today, we are living that paradox. Today is a day for great fear and great joy.

A Rifqa Bary Update

The Jawa Report has the skinny on Rifqa’s situation. Included is a letter from her Florida attorney. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel but she’s not out of the woods yet (to mix metaphors). She still needs prayer and she has asked for donations. If you can find it in you, send up your prayers and send out your charity for a young lady in need of both.

Rifqa’s parents are represented by CAIR, the unindicted co-conspirator in a money-funneling scheme to benefit Islamo-terrorists abroad.

A Quote To Remember

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage.

–Dr Alexander Tytler, Scotsman, history professor at the University of Edinborough on The Fall of The Athenian Republic around the time of the birth of the US

You Who Proudly Wear The Uniform Should Die

So says a certain New Zealander who has been rightfully banned on many Conservative blogsites (and he will be banned here if he comments here (and I figure out this whole thing)). You are nothing but bloodsucking parasites who should be shot.

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to him.

donviti:

I like how Dana slipped in “retirement earned” and none of you boneheads called him out on his socialistic wantings. It’s a complete socialist program and yet here is Dana supporting it.

A half informed voter is a dangerous one.
1 February 2010, 8:10 pm

Phoenician in a time of Romans:

Mmm – especially since IIRC he has called for social security to be ceased and people to be responsible for their own retirement investing. And if your retirement savings are swindled away by some Wall Street wide boy, you deserve to starve in your old age – it’s the Republican way!
1 February 2010, 9:18 pm

John Hitchcock:

It seems my daughter may earn her way to a government retirement check, and it won’t be a SocSec check. So put that in your smipe and poke it, india delta ten tango snarkfiends.
1 February 2010, 11:48 pm

John Hitchcock:

I would also like to take this time to note the “where were you” crowd on the left has just seen two articles by two different authors in a short span where we have smacked the Republican Party around. And yet they’ll ignore it and continue to ask “where were you” and throw that hypocrite word around like it’s actually going to stick to something.

Willfully blind and deaf partisans.
1 February 2010, 11:57 pm

Phoenician in a time of Romans:

It seems my daughter may earn her way to a government retirement check,

In other words, she’s a parasite on the community who deserves to be shot by a patriot?
2 February 2010, 12:37 am

John Hitchcock:

No, Pooter, that means she has you in her sights and she’s a better shot than most soldiers (all of whom are better shots than you). But thanks for wishing my daughter (and every American who defended your island in the 1940s) dead. It only clarifies your (lack of) value to the human race, as if that needed clarification.
2 February 2010, 12:54 am

Phoenician in a time of Romans:

Ah, so she *is* a government parasite bloodsucking off the taxes of honest hard-working Americans then.
2 February 2010, 1:00 am

John Hitchcock:

Pooter, back when I said I wouldn’t ban you, I was telling the truth. Since then, you have very much become bannable in my mind (just like you have been banned from more than one other site). But since I don’t ban people from sites I don’t run, count yourself lucky, piss-ant.
2 February 2010, 1:14 am

Phoenician in a time of Romans:

What does this have to do with the fact that your daughter is nothing but a government parasite bloodsucking off the taxes of honest hard-working Americans, Penis-breath?
2 February 2010, 1:40 am

John Hitchcock:

I’ll let her deal with you in about 6 hours, S4B. She can easily handle my light work. Oh, btw, you also called 2 of Mr Pico’s daughters and JohnC the exact same thing. Good luck with that.
2 February 2010, 1:56 am

John Hitchcock:

As homework, Pooter, I suggest you go to work and start reading 940.53 and 940.54 and don’t stop until you’ve read everything there. You do know how to find 940.53 and 940.54, don’t you?
2 February 2010, 2:04 am

(I started with donviti because that provided answers to some of the other comments.)

You are known by the company you keep, to borrow from a wiser man than I. While it is very early yet, so none of the leftists have logged on to see the kerfufle, I highly doubt any of the regular leftists will even try to shout Phoenician in a Time of Romans (aka PIATOR to all who’ve had the displeasure of dealing with him) down. If history holds true, they will ignore Pooter’s outrageous statements. And they will be known by the company they keep.

Obama’s “Spending Freeze” In Perspective

President Barack Obama’s detailed 2010 budget plan, due out Thursday, will propose to eliminate or consolidate 121 domestic and defense programs to save $17 billion, administration officials said Wednesday.

Now, the WSJ points out this is about .5% of this year’s increases, and half of that is military cuts, but this is a much better yardstick:

They’re spending 0.22 billion this year on new planes for the “senior gov’t officials” to fly around in.  That’s not all–Pelosi, for example, averages over a million a year in flight expenses all by her self.  (Well, with her family and friends– why, exactly, are we buying booze for these guys?  Wish the Navy had bought me drinks when I was serving… of course, I had to fly commercial for everything but going from port to ship, too.)

Maybe Obama could cut down to an average of one party a week?

How about putting the Congress Critters on Tricare?  I really like that idea– offer one insurance system for all Federal employees.  Maybe with an option for actively serving gov’t officials to use military doctors…. (Trust me, once they go to a military dentist, they’re unlikely to go back!)

Maybe work on some Congressional staffer cuts?  Give each office-holder a budget and tell ‘em to go for it might work….

I really like the idea of removing the Federal Department of Education– do we really need to be giving FEDERAL LOANS when we’re already strapped for cash?  I mean, really?  Both of my parents managed to go through college without loans, Elf and I haven’t taken Federal loans…. Come to that, why do we call them loans when they’re not even designed to be repaid by the person who takes them out?

Slowly removing Federal involvement in agriculture and…oh, shoot, just go through this and ask yourself: do we really need a federal agency for that? (I say slowly because there’s nothing that sets stuff up for failure as well as trying to correct things instantly; when you’re trying to train a tree, you bend it, you don’t snap branches off.)