God Bless America.

The finest, most powerful, most beneficial, most reviled political experiment any group of mongrels, misfits, rejects and risk-takers ever assembled into a nation.

And let’s please say Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps, celebrating its 230th year — the few, the proud, the Marines — and once a Marine, always a Marine. Semper Fidelis.

After several attempts by the American colonies reconcile the Crown and the American people, the Colonial Congress decided to assume a more serious attitude. A congressional committee drafted a resolution that created a new unit: the Continental Marines. The entire legislative body approved the resolution on November 10, 1775, the celebrated birthday of the US Marines. Robert Mullan (owner of Tun Tavern, the Philadelphia inn where the original resolution was drafted) was named a Marine Captain, and Samuel Nicholas (owner of another local tavern) was designated commandant of the Continental Marines.

By the time you read this, it will be Friday, November 11th, Veteran’s Day. I wrote this post three times; the first was a lengthy missive detailing the history of the US military. Too long. I wrote a second piece; still too long and too over-the-top.

I’m making the newest post much shorter, and it gets down to this: 652,000 + Americans have given up their lives for this country, with almost 1.5 million wounded. The United States is an honorable and good country, no matter what anyone says. And our soldier have been, are, and always will be the best of the best.

Without a strong military, without men and women willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, without secure borders, everything else we do is secondary and, truly, of little consequence. How quickly we seem to forget this, even on Veteran’s Day.

If you see a soldier today, walk up to them, shake their hand and thank them for their service. Go to Soldier’s Angels and support a young soldier in Iraq. And take a moment, if you will, to reflect on what it means to be an American — and ask yourself why it is that so many people, if we are such a bad country, still die trying to reach our shores.

Yes, God Bless America, and God Bless the American soldiers, for they keep us safe and secure.

I just left some comments on Fetching Jen’s blog (go there now and read her newest post!) and those comments got me to thinking: time to expand on similar issues here.

Using a phrase I like, “doing the logical extension,” I have attempted to forecast and plot the future for the Fornicalia Republican party, and here is what I conclude:

We conservatives and Republicans left Arnold twisting in the wind yesterday. Unfortunately, he didn’t do himself many favors either.

I believe, in general, Republicans need to get out of the Nice Guy mindset and start to FIGHT. I want Bush to fight. I want Arnold to fight. Show me some guts! Show me flame and spirit! Yank out the truth and trumpet it long and hard! Precisely what Arnold didn’t do when the Dem Machine made the propositions not about the issues, but about him. He needed to do that the microsecond the Dem gloves came off.

To me, Arnold has shown a growing interest in carrying out a number of conservative ideas: no licenses for illegal immigrants, no gay marriage blessing, repeal of the fiscally onerous vehicle registration tax, the advocation via our recent propositions of state fiscal responsibility and accountability, the limiting of those very special interests, redistricting —

Okay, sidebar rant for a moment: Thank you, John Doolittle, Republican, for spending GOP money to oppose Proposition 77, you conehead! By the way, sir, I live in your district so take a wild, fanciful guess who I’m not voting for next time around?

Ideally, for governor I’d like to see Tom McClintock sitting in that chair, period. Despite the fact that I sent him $500 of my hard-earned money and received nothing in recognition — I just wanted a “thank you” letter, sir, though I see you cashed my check. I dislike being set on Ignore Mode. Grrrr. . .

Despite that, McClintock can be a bit overwhelming because he’s too logical for a politician and may actually scare people with his laser beam-like issue focus. The best part about Tom McClintock? He actually has answers to issues. Detailed answers, insights and, more importantly, actual solutions and ideas.

McClintock can, admittedly, come off as a tad aloof and arrogant. But there’s no denial that his thoughts and plans utilize logic, common sense, and are based on his senatorial and political experience. He is no neophyte to the political or budgetary games in Fornicalia.

Thinking further, McClintock is in the running for Lt. Governor of Fornicalia. We could theoretically end up with Arnold re-elected, and Tom as LG. If so, it would seem, to me, that it’s always easier to make a run for governor from the inside, so to speak.

Therefore: Arnold needs all the support he can get so that McClintock can step up when Arnold steps down.

We left the Austrian Oak wafting about last Tuesday and that was wrong; now we need to support him more than ever for two reasons: to enable the fruition of his visions (please don’t go centrist, Arnold), and to slot McClintock in for the future governship.

To those of us in the Right-thinking vein, this gets applied under the “common sense and logic” category; to some strata of overeducated white people and some Liberals, there will be a severe intake of breath and perhaps even an attempt to push a very important study to the side.

Go here to see the abstract of a referenced study from the November 2005 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Go here if you wish to see the full text of the article.

The point of the article is this: young children who live with their mothers’ boyfriends or other unrelated adults are 48 times more likely to die from child abuse.

Not twice as likely; not ten times as likely. Almost 50 times as likely.

Please first note what isn’t here: not likely to die from fathers.

Also: single parenthood is not the culprit, mother or father.

It is the “presence in the household of unrelated adults, usually a male boyfriend, that dramatically increases the risk.”

The core of their paper:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate household composition as an independent risk factor for fatal inflicted injuries among young children. We analyzed 8 years of the Missouri CFRP data to test 2 hypotheses: (1) that children residing in households with adults unrelated to them are at higher risk of inflicted-injury death than children residing in households with 2 parents and no other adults; and (2) that children living with a single parent were at no greater risk of inflicted-injury death than children living with 2 parents as long as no other adults lived in the home. Secondary objectives included conducting a descriptive analysis of perpetrator characteristics including gender, relationship to decedent child, and whether the perpetrator was a member of the decedent’s household at the time of the child’s death.

Two important factors the authors discovered:

• There was no increased risk to children in households with step or foster parents or with a single parent and no other adults.
• It is a misconception that children in single-parent households are more likely to die from inflicted injury.

I repeat (and will continue to believe, as will many of my fellow bloggers): there is no other ideal for a child other than a full and complete traditional family to include one biological mother, one biological father, and a strong, lasting relationship between the two.

On one level: a very important study. On another: so very sad.

In Fornicalia, every proposition on our ballot went down in engulfing flames. Not just little but Bigly and Ugly. At first blush, our electorate took their collective right fist and rammed it into Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger’s stomach. For someone who knows how to punch and fight, Arnold exhibited little if any will to put up his dukes, much less unleash his own barrage of counter-blows.

Common sense got beaten down by a barrage of repetitive, misleading ads that were occasionally outright lies. The campaign against Gov. Arnold was absolutely effective and, as such, Fornicalians sent a remarkably conflicting message to the rest of the country, and that would be: yes, we hated Gray Davis and voted him out, voting Arnold in under the guise of regime change trumpeting our need to turn government “back to the people” and remove the influence of “special interests.” Then we said we liked things just as they were via this election. Huh?

Except, of course, that “our own” oxen were subject to becoming gored and special interests once again stomped on clearheaded ideas. As I’ve always indicated, never let rationality, common sense, proportion and logic get in the way of a good screwed-up decision process. Hence, the ill-educated Fornicalia electorate spoke; and what they said is:

• We can’t be bothered to actually read the propositions;
• We are confused when more than a couple propositions are on the ballot;
• When we hear lies repeated more than twice, we believe them;
• When things are the least bit confusing or we as voters are the least bit fatigued, it’s easiest to simply vote no;

So here’s what we believe in Fornicalia:

• Parents have no right to be notified before abortions can be performed on girls under 18;
• Teacher tenure will continue to be 2 instead of 5 years;
• Any Fornicalia union can continue to use members’ dues for any political purpose against the wish of the individual member, who has no say;
• There are no spending limits for the State of Fornicalia; we may continue to spend more than we receive in taxes from the taxpayers;
• We like our gerrymandered districts in Fornicalia; it keeps those currently in power and gosh, why should we brook those pesky incumbents?
• There should be no discount prescription drug program for the state (fine by me);
• There should be no incentives paid by the state to prescription drug companies (fine by me);
• We will not re-regulate our energy market (fine by me).

In San Francisco (you’ll really appreciate this!), voters decided to ban handguns and oppose the presence of military recruiters in city schools. City of San Francisco residents passed their Proposition H, which requires city residents who already own guns to turn them in to police by April 1, 2006, and makes it illegal to buy, sell, distribute and manufacture firearms and ammunition in the city.

One out of 8 US citizens currently live in Fornicalia, the 6th largest economy in the entire world, not just our nation. Sturdy American stock of all ethnicities settled in Fornicalia originally because it offered the dawn of a new tomorrow, there was promise of an unfettered future where people could make their fortunes with hard work, minimal if any regulation, new hopes and adventures.

But here’s the rub: according to the New York Times, in 2004 half a million people left Fornicalia for other parts of the United States, while fewer than 400,000 Americans moved into the state. The net outflow has risen fivefold, to more than 100,000, since 2001, an analysis by Economy.com, a research company, shows — except that immigration from other countries and births have kept the state’s population growing.

In the San Francisco, Fornicalia area, more people are leaving than arriving. Housing prices are beyond horrendous and this has the the literal driving force behind the trend. Most people move to adjoining states like Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Arizona, but the trending also indicates more folks moving to the Southeast and Midwest.

Whereas financial issues weigh heavily upon the minds of those leaving Fornicalia, I submit that an even greater emerging issue will be social and political philosophies.

To all this I say: Fornicalians will in fact reap what they sow; this is the Dawn of a New Tomorrow, taxpayers will foot the ultimate price, and we get what we deserve.

To the rest of you in other states: beware. What happens in Fornicalia first happens elsewhere later. So guess what? Here come our “state-d” thoughts, beliefs and trends!

Are ya ready?

_______________________

An afterthought: Arnold Schwarzennegger really is a fighter at heart. He’s been a huge competitor and this has translated to his being a clever and productive businessman. Arnold has taken a big hit; he may be down but don’t count him out.

Since beginning to regularly post in October of this year (though I’ve been on Blogger since June of 2004), in one meagre month I’ve somehow managed to cultivate a loyal band of readers, some new friends, and insight into the worlds of other Bloggers. I’ve been in digital contact with Kansas, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, New York and other portions of Fornicalia.

I find this absolutely astounding. And quite admittedly, a whole lot of fun.

It became more fun when I updated the look of the blog itself, figured out how to add links, add photographs (like the Northern Fornicalia Mesomorphic Zippered Squirrel to the left — not your average rodent and found only in the Sierra Nevada Mountains), change titles and the like.

In other words, personalize and customize it just a bit more. I’m still working on the “add a photo to your profile” thing. And some day I’ll figure out how to add more titles to the blogroll bar.

Oddly enough, that nicely transitions to an update of my blogroll. I had initial aspirations of linking up with the Western Alliance in the Sacramento, Fornicalia area (where I work), but there exists no application form for this and I fear my request to Eric Hogue, who likely receives 179 e-mails per day from various nutjobs like myself, has been placed on Ignore Mode.

With that in mind, and in consideration of those who have so scrupulously supported me in my freshman blogging efforts, I realize I must remake my blogroll. To wit:

You may already know Mahndisa Rigmaiden from Manhdisa’s Thoughts, an exquisite and detailed blog consisting of “ethics and morality discussions with a bit o’ physics.” Her posts are heavily researched, annotated, and open a wide variety of discussions on tons of topics — hence her vast comment sourcing and the reason for her being a comment magnet of the First Degree in the Blogosphere. She has been an unflagging supporter and promoter of my site, and for this I humbly doff my hat. Thanks, Mahndisa!

Speaking of hats, one must always visit the Big White Hat, a God-fearing Texan with a Texas-sized heart who couples his thoughts by way of an incredibly facile writing style. BWH can put more thought, emotion and insight into one paragraph than I can in an entire post. I challenge you to read one of his posts and not pause, exhale, and reflect on the deep meaning within. He’s just that good.

Fetching Jen delves into local (meaning: Sacramento, Fornicalia) power politics and describes herself as “a modish, semi-hip, conservative woman of today’s world.” She’s a founding member of the Western Alliance of bloggers, and absolutely had me hooked when I first read her post about a “right student,” where her son delivered a remarkably mature analysis of abortion in his class at school. Go here and see what her son said — and don’t dare miss her posts!

Eddie Lamperts’ A Conservative’s Conservative blog offers the “deep thoughts of a proud right winger,” by way of erudite, educated observations of the political world. Eddie is precisely what he professes to be: a true Right Winger and sharp-witted advocate of the GOP. Smartly equipped to handle the most acerbic of left wing attack, Eddie writes with panache, a touch of sarcasm and an eye to God.

One day Little Miss Chatterbox started appearing on my comments, and I knew I had to find her blog, The Chatterbox Chronicles. I can relate to her having a bit of an epiphany whilst upgrading the look of her blog — and a very nice job you’ve done, I might add! She asks: “What happened on Fox News? What is Rush talking about today? Has something happened to provoke the ire of conservatives everywhere? Little Miss Chatterbox is happy to tell you all about it!” A mother of four with wonderful religious insight, LMC writes with authority, style and charm.

A resident of America’s true Kansas heartland, Rebecca of Revka’s Take is a mother, likewise with four children (all sons — kinda like my mom!), who has taken on the huge task of homeschooling her eldest — and I can sure see why, with the 9th Circuit’s recent ruling! A big fan of Anne Coulter (and what Right-thinking person isn’t?), Rebecca is pondering the transition from a political bent to a bit of a home journal about the raising of autistic children. She writes with clear and present passion and, quite frankly, I’d kinda hate to see her give up the political spectrum entirely. When I want to immerse myself in the passionate right artery, I go see her!

And, of course, the usual assortment of high-powered suspects, bloggers and idealogues.

All subject to change. Member FDIC. Batteries not included. Contents may have settled during shipping. Go get ’em!