Recommended Reading (12/05/09)

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Dec. 5, 2009

Recommended reading

Here are, in my view, interesting, noteworthy columns and articles from the past week that I highly recommend (You will note that on occasion, I do not endorse the opinions of the author and may point that out. Despite my disagreements, I still feel the piece is worth a read).


Tiger falls, takes last sports hero with him

"Woods had so much hubris, he believed he could see a socialite in New York and a waitress in Los Angeles and that nobody would ever know. Meanwhile, we were dumb enough to believe he could possibly live up to his persona."


Another 'hero' bites the dust

"It turns out that the guy who has more money than any of us could ever imagine - the up-to-now oh-so private man off the course who draws so much attention world wide when he's on it - is not Superman after all."


Does Obama listen to himself?

"Barack Obama is demonstrating bottomless reservoirs of gracelessness. A full 13 months after his election, in the course of justifying the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, President Obama could not spare a word of praise for George W. Bush — not even when recounting the nation’s 'unified' response to 9/11. To the contrary, throughout his pained recitation of the choices we face in Afghanistan, he adverted at least half a dozen times to the supposed blunders of his predecessor.

It’s beginning to sound whiny — and unpresidential."


Do smoking guns cause global warming, too?

"The way this episode is unfolding, the environmentalists may be forced to drop their phantom threat of global warming and go back to the phantom threat of global cooling."


What happens when a PI dumpster dives behind a San Diego ACORN office?

"He strikes the flippin’ mother lode! At least that’s what happened to private investigator Derrick Roach at the National City (San Diego) ACORN office. Yep, Roach scored big-time on the cockroaches of ACORN when he staked out their San Diego workplace.”


Working two jobs and still underemployed

"Mr. Crane is part of a growing group of underemployed -- people in part-time jobs who want full-time work or people in jobs that don't employ their skills. Since the recession began two years ago, the number of people involuntarily working part-time jobs has more than doubled to 9.3 million, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest number on record."


When it's time to pass the baton

"This New Year's Eve, Dick Clark will again be on TV, counting down the seconds to midnight. But in his slurred speech, the result of a 2004 stroke, some of us can't help but hear the countdowns in our own lives—to the end of our careers, to the difficulties of old age, to the decisions we must make about closing chapters that defined us."


More men have something they want to get off their chests----their shirts

"Man cleavage -- plunging necklines slit open to reveal chest hair, pectoral muscles, maybe more -- is back."

Obama and the Dems are anti-business: This says it all

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Dec. 6, 2009

The real St. Nicholas

Posted by Kevin Fischer on Dec. 6, 2009

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas. From Christianity Today:

“In the most famous story about his life, he threw bags of gold through the windows of three girls about to be forced into lives of prostitution. At least that's the most common version of the story; there are others, including an excessively grim one where the three girls are beheaded by an innkeeper and pickled in a tub of brine until Nicholas resurrects them.”

Ooooohhh, not good storytelling while you’re going through those stockings this morning.

You did remember to hang them last night, didn’t you?

Read how St. Nicholas is celebrated around the world, including Austria where St. Nicholas doesn’t work alone. He’s aided by a gruesome monster.