In my Bible Study class, we are re reading the Old Testament. To Jews, the Tanakh. This is such an old story. When we talk about Ancient Israel, we say the story is about syncretism ( i.e . assimilation) about trading in G-d's commands for popularity and acceptance. And, in the Old Testament, it never leads to anything good.

this is becoming scarily reminiscent of the 30's. Somebody has already been put in jail for daring to diss Islam. I am beginning to look for my mountain retreat.

Here is my reason for owning an "assault" rifle: the Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict. Police were nowhere to be found. Korean store owners protected their property with high capacity rifles from the roofs of their stores. Seraphic Secrets a blog by Robert Avrech, talks about his experience on that day. I don't own an assault rifle, but there are parts of L. A. where I would want to own one. And please don't tell me it can't happen again. It happened twice in Los Angeles.

To the best of my knowledge, the Romney campaign really didn't run a Hispanic campaign at all. Nor did he make much of a reach toward blacks other than the obligatory NAACP appearance. He was late coming to the womens issue and did not speak out distinctly until late.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, this election does not so much signify a left turn by the American people so much as it is a state of confusion. After all, at the same time that they re-elected the most leftwing president we have probably ever had, they re-elected one of the more conservative Houses of Representatives. I think that, facing uncertainty, confusion and not knowing what to do, they voted to stay in the same place. When you are lost in the woods, this is generally a good idea. Those of us who think we know the way to safety are, of course, dismayed. The vast majority of people who are classified as minorities voted for Obama. Romney made them feel uncomfortable in a way that George Bush did not. Michael Medved made the point that if Romney had won the same percentage of the minority vote that Bush did, he would have won. Romney was unable to convey that he understood minority issues and that his administration would not be a closed white man's club. Bush did a much better job because he had courted that vote as Governor of Texas and his brother had courted it as Governor of Florida. Those communities knew the Bushes from before the campaign.

The Dems can afford to come around to minority communities every two years and gather up the votes while doing nothing. Republicans cannot. Telemundo gave Romney a great chance to do something with the Fast and Furious issue and he didn't do it. The Republican party now has to see courting minorities as a 24/7 project. And the project is pretty simple really. It is to reach out to minority communities, many of which are pro-life for the most part, and persuade them, as those two republicans persuaded Susannah Martinez, that they are already, really, Republican. If they believe this is the land of opportunity, if they or their parents or grandparents are what Ronald Reagan called "citizens by choice", who came here to work hard, save, invest and enjoy the freedoms this country has to offer, they belong in the Republican party. That must be an ongoing round the clock message from the Republican party. Luigi Zingales, has written about a People's Capitalism. The Republican leadership should read it and put it in the platform.

Just an addendum to my previous comment-- http://www.workingforest.com/us-forest-service-re... here is a story showing the problem with the feds. They like the big super scooper airplanes. The problem, in California, is that fires most often rage in narrow canyons that helicopters can get into but big airplanes can't. Further, the super scoopers require large bodies of water which, other than the Pacific Ocean, are in short supply in California. The helicopters can suck up water from nearby much smaller ponds and pools and reservoirs that are inaccessible to a big plane. All of which illustrates, local governments know better what is needed than the feds so they should be in charge.

Shortly after the Katrina disaster, residents of my home, California, faced a huge disaster of their own. I don't recall the exact number but it was at least 3 and maybe as many as 5 simultaneous enormous brush/forest fires. Here in California such fires can consume hundreds of thousands of acres, can move 40 miles in an hour, have flames that jump 40 or 50 feet in the air, and can burn at 1200 degrees farenheit. These fires were in Malibu, San Diego, Laguna Beach and the Antelope Valley. I particularly remember the Antelope Valley fire because it moved about 40 miles in the space of an hour threatening a cabin I own. These fires are not only fought with fire trucks, but water dropping helicopters and aircraft. They threatened hundreds of thousands of homes, coming within 10 or 20 feet of thousands of homes and consuming hundreds of homes. Massive evacuations were required and completed. Afterwards, with very little loss of life, some commenters contrasted the efficient response in California to the chaos in New Orleans. In California, and all of the western states there are various agreements for mutual support where municipalities and state agencies agree to coordinate their responses to major disasters. The firefighters who saved my cabin(and about 50 more) near Valencia, California had travelled from Gilroy and Santa Clara California, about 400 miles away, to fight the fire. Local officials are eminently more capable of responding right away and appropriately than FEMA is. As a somewhat bitter side note-- my cabin is on National Forest land. There was a federal fire station just a 1/4 mile from the nearest cabins. They did nothing to protect the cabins. They explained afterward that they didn't fight building fires and had no authority to protect the five cabins literally a 1/4 mile up the road that burned to the ground before the helicopters and other fire trucks could get there.

I have little doubt that Romney is right. It is better for local governments to take responsibility to coordinate disaster relief by a series of agreements like we have in California. The only big dispute that came out of this was a complaint from Orange County (where Laguna Beach is located) that Los Angeles (City and County) refused to loan out their helicopters and aircraft. L. A. apparently had 14 helicopters. But it also had two major fires burning covering hundreds of square miles and threatening a lot of homes (and, indeed, many were lost in Malibu and the Antelope Valley). So maybe the residents of Orange County will vote to spend more money on helicopters in the future. The federal government helped out very little and FEMA was mostly good for coming in late and making loans for rebuilding.

Those who are skeptical of the skepticism of the present polls need to remember the exit polls in 2004. I still remember the glum faces in the Bush field office in Santa Fe New Mexico when the first exit polls came in. The next day at the airport in Albuquerque as we waited for our various planes to take us home (we had been flown in for a voter integrity project) we were the happy few surrounded by a sea of glum Kerry supporters. If a poll taken the day of the election of people who have actually voted can be off as far as that one was, some skepticism of any poll is in order.

Am I the only person who noticed this was Smith Corona? It was a typewriter company. Hello. The people who put it out of business were not employees of Bain Capital. Apple Computer, Microsoft, IBM, Compaq, Dell and others who popularized the personal computer put Smith Corona out of business. Sort of like digital cameras and Polaroid. In the free enterprise system its adapt or die. Isn't it a good thing to let companies that produce products that nobody wants die? We see it over and over again. Anybody remember Wang? How about Underwood and Singer?

One suggestion you left off. "Share on Facebook" sharing conservative comments and news stories on your Facebook account does 2 things. It reinforces other people who are conservative and gives them easy access to specific information to back up their conservative beliefs. It provides information for those independents and liberals who are curious or openminded enough to look now and than at your links. So Share on Facebook is a great way to spread informations.