As you may recall, I separated from my wife about a month ago.  Not a long time to readjust one’s life, but at the same time, I am reminded again that one of mankind’s greatest strengths is the ability to adapt.

I am adapting.  My house is mostly cleaned up from the post move wreckage.  I am sleeping pretty well, and my daughter and I seem poised to be OK, minus a tight month or two money wise.  My now separated wife is likewise adjusting well, and seems to be settled in.

I cannot speak for her of course, but my success owes largely to the support of my friends.

At work the entire team has been emotionally supportive all the way, and Dave, Jo and Cynthia still check on me occasionally to make sure all is well.  I cannot express my gratitude to them for their concern.

My company has also been very supportive, the employee care team especially, helping out with kind words and a timely donation of some surplus items to help fill the gaps.

I admit it.  I am up to here sick of liberals.

OK, not all.  Just the idiots who insist on being idiots.

After the Tea Parties I was panned on a liberal blog because I suggested that the protests were effective in making people discuss the issue.

I was wrong.  Conservatives were discussing and debating the issue while most liberals were trying to defer, distract, defend and deflect it.

I am used to that, so no big deal.  But one of the commenters at that liberal blog decided that the real issue was once again the liberals number one excuse regarding anything you might dislike about Obama or his policies:  Racism.

Janeane Garofalo went on Olbermann’s show and opened her pie hole with the same theory.

The tea parties were not about taxes, or spending.  They were not about the constitution and abuse of power.

The existed only because conservatives hate blacks, particularly the one elected president, solely for being black.

It has become the liberal mantra.  No matter what argument the conservatives make, its all about racism.   Never before in the history of politics has race bating become such a finely tuned art.

So the world has gone crazy over Susan Boyle, the singing sensation from Britain’s Got Talent.  She who came on to clear mockery and sang her audience into oblivion.  She who actually made Simon seem nice.

The real story is not that this ordinary looking 47 year old cat woman from Glasgow can sing.  She can.

It is not that she now faces her “chance” to achieve her dream.  She can.

The real story is not even how we love the underdog, how even in our skepticism we wanted her to sing like an angel.  And yes, we did.

The real story is that we are suckers for a well crafted story, and the producers of these shows love to exploit it.

While I too got teary at her success story, and was moved by her music, the fact is that we were set up yet again by TV producers, and every time they do this we beg for more.

Seems as the story has unfolded she is not the unknown we thought.  Those that know her knew she could sing form Karaoke and church.  She even sang a song on benefit CD years ago, so her talent was an open secret.

Source:  Hot Air via Clever S Logan (great name)

Trackposted to The Right Nation, Nuke’s, The Pink Flamingo, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Yes its true, my admittedly lackluster post yesterday about the Tea Parties brought me a new fan.  Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon decided my lowly post was more worthy than any of the dozens or hundreds out there.

Let’s be honest, my blog is at best a D List wanna be.  I don’t have a huge hoard of loyal readers, just a few who get something from my writing.

I’m OK with that, though I admit that someday when the day job is less of a priority, I hope to make a much larger impact.

So it is always gratifying when one of the more popular blogs sits up and takes notice.  I recall a few occasions when Kos and other lefties have taken umbrage at something I said.

But generally, I expect that when I am being snarky and in depth on a hot issue.  I did not expect that on the Tea Parties.  In my blog yesterday I deliberately took a position that avoided the issues and just celebrated the Tea Parties for what they were:  wonderful exercises in free speech, assembly and petitioning the Government.  I noted that even the liberal mockery was something to celebrate as it was proof that they had an impact.

I could not make any of the local Tea Parties, to my great disappointment.

So rather than try and express my own thoughts, I collected links from the day, via Memeorandum.

These links are the good, the bad, the positive and the negative and the fair and the biased.  Browse to your hearts content.

My only comment is that the tea parties made a huge impact, not just on the people bragging about them, but also on the liberals belittling them.

In other words…they worked. I have rarely seen this many links on a single topic…

Scenes From the DC Tea Party: More Photos! — Here’s a supplement to Aaron’s great photo spread from this afternoon’s rally. — Remember: Fox News reported on these rallies. It didn’t promote them! — This was a popular theme, along with references to images of President Obama’s bow to the King of Saudi Arabia.

A NASHVILLE TEA PARTY PICTURE from InstaPundit reader Kathie Fuston

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress: DC Tea Party Protesters Agree: ‘Chairman Maobama’ …

Amanda Marcotte / pandagon.net: Royalists want a little revolutionary action of their own

Veterans are pissed…as they should be.  Funny thing is that now, after this slight, a lot who were not very disgruntled…are.

And Napolitano’s attempt to appease them is pointless when she has said she stands by the report’s conclusions.

US govt faces veteran anger at extremism report

The US Homeland Security Department, under fire for saying US forces returning from the Iraq and Afghan wars were potential right-wing extremist recruits, said Wednesday it honors US veterans.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano sought to douse anger among conservatives and veterans groups like the American Legion over a report from her department warning of a rising threat of right-wing extremism.

“We are on the lookout for criminal and terrorist activity but we do not — nor will we ever — monitor ideology or political beliefs,” Napolitano said in a statement amid charges that the department had done just that.

Which, in fact, they have.

American Legion chief David Rehbein on Tuesday blasted the report as “incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased” and took special aim at its warning that returning veterans having difficulties reintegrating society could be recruited by right-wing groups for possible terrorist attacks.

I love this guy, just for having the brass to say this:

Perry fires up anti-tax crowd

I have to pause and note that the editor slanted the headlinew by calling these rallys “anti Tax” when they are more than that, they are anto waste. anto stupid spending, and most importantly pro responsiblity.

Not that it surpises me.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax “tea party” Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states’ rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, “Secede!”

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall — one of three tea parties he was attending across the state — that officials in Washington have abandoned the country’s founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas’ economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the “federal budget mess.” Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

SHE IS WATCHING YOU…

This was the headline form the Drudge Report today.

The story concerns another report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that warnings about right wing extremists.

Now…no one who remembers Timothy McVeigh cannot help but agree that any kind of extremists are dangerous and bad.  But the definitions proposed and the warning signs presented by DHS are scary in that they take pretty much include any reasonable position of disagreement with the present administration.  They start by blaming the recession:

Recession fueling right-wing extremism, U.S. says

Right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report to law enforcement officials.

The April 7 report, which Reuters and other news media obtained on Tuesday, said such fears were driving a resurgence in “recruitment and radicalization activity” by white supremacist groups, antigovernment extremists and militia movements. It did not identify any by name.

DHS had no specific information about pending violence and said threats had so far been “largely rhetorical.”

Of all the kinds of crisis he would be tested with, and it became Pirates.

Nonetheless he seems to have come through with good reports.  Here is how I break it down.

First of all, kudos and praise to the talents and professionalism of the Navy Seals.  The US special Forces (of all branches) are the best in the world and they proved it yet again.  3 shots=3 kills.

It doesn’t get better than that.

I shed no tears for the pirates, not one.  They forfeited their right to sympathy when they turned into kidnapping terrorists.

Obama:  I hear a lot of muttering, from all spheres in all directions.  Great job….but now they will retaliate.  To that I say that we had a choice:  Appease them and embolden them, or kill them and risk retaliation which, if they have any sense, will be tempered with a sense of caution at what OUR retaliation will be.

I admit, I was impressed that he cut the military loose to do what they do best.  A part of me expected him to play the appeasement role.  I was wrong.