Unique kick-drum

[DUE TO MY STROKE IN JUNE 2009 YOU WILL OCCASIONALLY READ POTENTIAL MISTAKES OR POORLY WRITTEN SENTENCES.  I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE]  

I am sure that most people have heard the song, a one-hit wonder for the 1969 single, "More Today Than Yesterday".    It was done by the American band, Spiral Starecase.  I have heard this song a million times but I recently heard it for the first time.  I actually was listening to the drum part more closely this time.   I've noticed for the first time that the bass drum was pretty darn cool.   On the hi-hat and snare he's playing a simple ride but the bass drum is kind of doing some sort of off-beat stuff which added a very nice touch to it.   It's hard to explain this. 

I suggest that you give it a listen and focus on the bass drum.


I honestly thank Vinny Parello (their drummer) for having the guts to play this very slick bass drum part out of standard bass drumming.  They were not established as superstars which can restrict them to what they are playing.  Any paying recording studio could hear his bass drumming and not like it or thought it was too messy (which it wasn't) and had them re-record it.   Their manager might have said 'you know, the bass drum and bass guitar have to be in sync during the song. Whatayou doin?'   But luckily it was played the way he liked it and it was officially on the record forever..

I Never Joined The Wave

[DUE TO MY STROKE IN JUNE 2009 YOU WILL OCCASIONALLY READ POTENTIAL MISTAKES OR POORLY WRITTEN SENTENCES.  I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE]

In 1982 I was 14 and played in Pembroke's baseball league for the Phillies.  What an amazing team that was.  I was the lead off batter, I played first base and our team was undefeated that year.  There was only one other team that kind of came close to us and we played them in finals.  The A's had two very good pitchers and it kept the finals them kind of close.

I was in left field in the last inning of the last game of the finals.  When the last out happened, the whole team went into celebration pileup around the pitcher mound.

But I can see in head what happened.  As I was jogging in and smiling.  I felt it kind of silly to be jumping into a celebration pileup.  I never threw my worries or embarrassment of whatnot to the side to be in this moment.  I haven't been on a moment like this since.   I probably should have not cared about whatever I was seemingly concerned with.  Was I concerned with being seen doing the jump in the pileup?  Was I embarrassed to get into the celebration?  I guess... I'm not sure.

It seems to be how I approach my life.  I either don't feel like or don't want to fell like the "what's everyone else doing" crew.  It could be that I just feel different to a point.  I mean I can get with a group and play a great game.  But I'm always trying to find a way that the crew is taking something somewhere, a different way.  When the whole group is leaving a place they choose to go this way. I want to find another way.

Would I be alone all my life or would I find the niche in life and make something special happen?

God Bless!

My Right Arm

Good Morning
I feel a good feeling this morning.  Yes I am tired because staying up until 1am will hurt ya.  But I did sleep until 9am.  Your conversation last night with me was (I can't find the right word) respectful and  loving.  GOd bless that.  I feel like there is hope.  I know a respected feeling between us is powerful.   I am sure that the respected and attracted person was put away after a while and a goofy and an angry.


My Right Arm
My right hand just is a pain.  It doesn't fully suck because it good be so much worse.  There are just agravating thing that get in the way.  First it is double clicking on a mouse (computer).  I don't have that easy double click.  I have to almost coordinate to do it quick.

I am back to blog world :-)

Hi there reader. I just want to talk quickly about my latest place in life. I had a stroke on June 11, 2009. Due to this, I cannot yet write how I used to. So I am going to change my style of writing. I am going to write in a short style which include wit but at other time could be more serious.

God Bless everyone who was there for me.

Thank you mostly to my wife for her resolute and unshakable faith which led to many medical decisions that were correct and saved my life. I love you!

A Special Moment

{I got a stroke on June 11, 2009. This happened on November 23, 2009. The poster on this was corrected by his speech therapist.}

I have to mention to you about what happened to me recently. I have a copy sheet containing my list of logins and passwords. I knew that before my stroke I put it in the list and saved it on a copy of an external hard drive. When I first came home from the hospital in July, my first attempt was to get my password list and login to my computer. The problem was I did not find it on the list. For several months I could not use this computer. In late November, I thought I would call work and ask them if they could check on my desk for the password since I don't have it here. I called my friend, Bob, but he could not find it.

The other day I was sitting at my desk trying to find what it is. We need to maybe somehow get into the computer to see the now, very important files. I tried a couple of things and that didn't work. In the quiet place I felt the need to bring this issue to God. I prayed to Him and asked. Nothing immediate happened so I turned it off and went off to do something new. However, I don't know, but I had the need the check the password list, even though I had done it a hundred times. I went downstairs and pulled up the password list. The first thing that I saw on the list was the password!! I ran upstairs and tried in the login and password and it worked! I praise God for what I had never seen before but I see now! Praise God.

Trial lawyers hurt the poor

We had a cookout on Sunday for several members of the family. When everyone left I realized that we a bunch of leftover hamburgers and hot dogs. I tried to get family to take some home and they did but I still had a lot left. At that point I could either freeze them or eat burgers every day for a while. However, I thought to myself that it would be great to bring these to a homeless shelter and let those folks eat well at no cost to the shelter.

Then it occurred to me, if one of them gets sick and some trial lawyer can attribute it to the hamburgers I donated then I would be sued. Then again maybe I wouldn't. Not willing to take that risk I put the extra burgers in my freezer for another time. I wonder how much good, fresh food is thrown out daily or put back in the freezer instead of being brought to feed the hungry simply because the donor is afraid of being sued?

The irony here is that trial lawyers typically vote for the Democrat candidate in droves. The same Democrat candidate that will usually demagogue about how the Republicans don't care about the poor and want to starve children.

Think about it.

Another Bush 41 ingrate

I have always had the opinion that George H. W. Bush did two phenomenal things; The appointment of Clarence Thomas and The Gulf War. He also did to disasterous things; The appointment of David Souter and reneging his 'no new taxes' pledge.

I have rarely felt that Souter's opinions while on the Supreme Court were very good, especially his decision on private property a few years ago. However what this ingrate has done now simply makes me shake my head. Why is he retiring from the court now, in 2009? Why couldn't he retire in 2008 to give Bush 43 (the son of the man who appointed him) a chance at another nominee. Instead he waits a year and lets Obama get a pick.

David Souter is one of the greatest supreme court dissapointments in my lifetime and Bush 41's biggest mistake.

Human Nature 101: No one gets treated equally

It takes a person of incredible strength of character to actually apply rules, laws, awards, rewards, etc in a truly just manner. When a person is in a position of authority, when it is their decision that determines who gets what or who gets a law applied to them, they will soon be looked at differently and expectations of them will soon change. They then will have an opportunity to abuse their power and be loved by some and despised by others. Or they can justly administer their power and irritate everyone who wants him to abuse his power to help them.

When you join the workforce you will see that it is not entirely what you know or how good you are but which people in power think you know what you are doing.

Predicable future for Government Motors (formerly General Motors)

Now that the Feds have given money to the automakers and said automakers have taken the money, market forces have officially been removed from the auto market. When an entity takes a large sum of money from the Government they are now at the behest of the Government. Who is the Government? A collection of politicians and bureaucrats. This means the following will happen:

1. Removal of the business leaders from the company and replace them with bureaucrats and friends of those in political power. First thing Obama did was remove the CEO. The new leaders may look like business leaders but they will not make a single business decision without first consulting the political leaders for a political decision.

2. The company will change type of cars they make. This won't happen in one fell swoop. The current models will still be there but we will start to see a series of cars that no one wants but the politicians think are politically correct. For instance you will begin to see "Green friendly" cars - that suck and no one will want - as they begin to phase out the previous un-PC car models.

3. Once the Government realizes that no one wants the crap the the company is now putting out they will begin to pass laws to "encourage" the purchase of their cars. This may include tax breaks for those who purchase them. They will also begin to pass laws to "discourage" the purchase of any car not manufactured by Government Motors. This may come in the form of higher taxes and extensive regulation on a Non-Government Motors car which would drive up the cost of the "competition". It should be noted that any new regulations will not be enforced when it comes to Government Motors.

4. Ten to Fifteen years from now we will learn that Government Motors cars pollute the environment more than anything today and that no one enjoys driving them (except for the pony-tailed guy in the rich part of town). We will also learn that the executives at Government Motors have been overpaid through continuing government "loans" in order to funnel money back to the re-election coffers of the Democrat Party.

True Beauty analogy

There was a new reality show on this season that I found interesting to watch and was kind of hooked on. It was called "True Beauty". The premise was to put these gorgeous people into situations that tested their "inner" beauty through a multitude of hidden cameras. It was only after each was removed from the show that they realized that every moment in the house was being taped and observed.

After thinking about that a little I walked around my house and wondered, 'what if there were cameras all over here watching me? How would that change how I treated people?'

Then a scripture from Ecclesiastes came to mind "For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecc 12:14

Our whole lives are being monitored and watched - by a benevolent God who loves us and wants the best for us. It I live my life knowing that the greatest watcher in the univerise is watching and judging my every deed, how will that affect my life?

How many liberal messages can we fit in one episode?

Law and Order SVU was on TV last night in the background while I was working on something for my Church's website. Usually I can pick out the heroes and villains on this show easily based on what either unrealistic right wing comments they say or believe or what passionate left wing comments they espouse.

Last night's episode was one for the ages. It included the following:

• An abusive rich, white, controlling husband (who is a second amendment zealot), his helpless victim wife who goes back to him and is eventually killed by him during a fight.
• Negative portrayal of a pharmacist for defending herself from being attacked by a woman who wanted RU-486. 1. Because anything pharmaceutical is bad. 2. She expressed pseudo pro-life concerns.
  
• Sympathy for a woman who murdered her husband in 1974 and had been on the lam for 30+ years after initially tricking the DA and escaping. What was the turning point for the hard-ass DA to go from wanting her persecuted for breaking the law to sympathizing with her and recommending probation? Because the reason the woman escaped from the DA in 1974 was to seek her constitutional duty of aborting her baby. OK, she should have said that in the first place.
  

Lessons from episode:

1. If you are pregnant with your abusive husbands baby, make sure you explain to the DA that all you want is an abortion when you escape custody. Your sentence will be lighter.
2. If you murder your husband in his sleep, explain that you were abused even though there is no physical evidence 30+ years later. This one is troubling because it marginalizes the women who are actually being abused and makes all women less believable.
3. Abusive husbands are typically pro second amendment and rich.

The reason I am writing this blog is to criticize the simplistic, left wing writing of this episode. The portrayal of the bad people with noble beliefs and the use of the holy grail of abortion being once again the way to speak to the rational side of the good guys.

As long as there's a pie...

As long as there is a pie, people will want their piece. This is the case, especially if there is a big fat pie and you don't have to pay for your piece. People just can't help themselves. When they see a frenzy to gobble up a pie, they themselves feel a duty to their ego to dive in too.

Look at our congress. Congressmen write legislation typically to send pet projects to their district. These are called pork barrel projects in reference to piglets suckling their mother. I thought today, if congresspeople are sending borrowed money back to their home districts and their constituents gleefully return the favor by voting for them then what incentive do they have to stop. As a matter of fact, I think, that if someone went to congress and promised not to waste tax payers money by sending home pork projects then that congressmen would not last very long in his seat. I think the majority of his constituents would cry 'where is our piece of the pie??'.

Thus our dilemma. America has been the richest nation in the history of the world (by far) for the last 25 years. However, as the receipts to the treasury rose and fell in a normal cyclical manner, the spending by our congresspeople has always gone up. Can someone say deficits/debt? Unfortunately both sides of the aisle have put people in power who can't help themselves and have spent, spent and spent. This has done nothing but put our future generations on the hook for trillions of dollars owed to other nations.

Now we are in 2009 and our new president seeks to spend our way out of a mess that was caused by spending, regulations and destructive banking requirements on loaning money. When he is done borrowing he is going to print more money (inflation????) because he and his colleagues just can't help themselves to just eating the pie. They have to borrow against future pies ... until everything collapses and there are no pies.

Liberal Mental Disorder: Picking wrong bad guys

Liberals claim that government will always perform a service better because they are not driven by profit.

OK. What does that mean? I claim the opposite is true. Let's try to look at government through the lens of a business that provides a service. The government can write a law that will require its "customers" to pay them a certain amount whether the "customers" get anything back or not. And let's not forget that government is not some building down the road. The government is full of people. People, whether in government or not, want what is best for themselves. At least the private sector businessman is required to provide something to his "customers" before he is rewarded with payment. Doesn't that make him more accountable? Doesn't that make him less inclined to be wasteful with every penny? Doesn't that force him to put a price on his service that does not exceed what his customers can pay (free market)?

Quite the opposite is true with the government guy. Because he is not driven by profit he is far less prudent with the money that comes except when it comes to providing his own needs and lining his own pockets. The mere fact that they have the power to make it illegal not to give them more of what the private sector has, when they demand it, is inherently corruptible.

Have you noticed that when people in government get rich solely from being in government, it is more publicly accepted than people who risk everything to provide a service to others and gets rich from it? Why is that? Why is it that Joe Senator, whose only major accomplishment was to get at least 51% of the people in his home state to vote for him instead of the other guy, can get away with amassing a personal fortune through the public trough and influence peddling and not have it seen as immoral?

While likewise, Joe Private Creator, a man who started with nothing and created an entity that is beneficial to the world that subsequently brings him riches is looked at as a pariah who must be punished by Joe Senator by taking a large portion of what Joe Private Creator has made made to be given to Joe Layabout to ensure Joe Layabout's vote every 6 years for Joe Senator?

In the long term we would all be better off if Joe Private Creator were able to keep more of his money to create more and invest more. Joe Layabout would be better off too as there would be more private ventures that would be seeking his employment. And to keep our roads and bridges safe and our police paid, Joe Senator and Joe Local Government would thus have more revenues coming in to fund their pet projects that help keep their talentless rear ends employed in the government.

{This blog is written with the understanding that government has had very good people, like Ronald Reagan, and the private sector has had very bad people, like Bernie Madoff}

God save the republic

Under the auspices of making the bad people think that we are not meanies.

Well Mr. Obama has been in office less than 48 hours and he has quickly handed the terrorists 2 early victories.

Victory #1:

Gitmo war crimes court halted at Obama request

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer Ben Fox, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jan 21, 5:18 pm ET

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba – The Guantanamo Bay war crimes court came to an abrupt halt Wednesday as military judges granted President Barack Obama's request to suspend proceedings while he reviews his predecessor's strategy for prosecuting terrorists.

The judges quickly agreed to a 120-day suspension of the cases of a Canadian accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan and five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks. Similar orders are expected in other pending cases pending before the Guantanamo military commissions.

Full article

Put yourself in the mind of a terrorist. How would this make you feel? Would it bring you comfort or put fear in you? I guess Obama and his ilk believe that this sign of good will would have a positive affect on those who hate us anyway. Obama believes that if the terrorists believe they have someone in the white house that will be fair to them then they will be less likely to attack the country while he is in office. That is the naivate of this man and liberals in general. The terrorists hate free Judeo Christian nations and want us dead unless we convert to islam. What is so difficult to understand.

Victory #2:

Obama to close terror war black sites

Orders limit interrogations

Sara A. Carter and Eli Lake THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Thursday, January 22, 2009

President Obama on Thursday will order the closure of so-called black sites, where CIA and European security services have interrogated terrorist suspects, under executive orders dismantling much of the Bush administration's architecture for the war on terror, according to four individuals familiar with a draft executive order.

Mr. Obama will shutter "all permanent detention facilities overseas," the draft said, according to the individuals, who asked not to be named because the orders had not been signed. There are at least eight such prisons, according to published reports. The Bush administration never revealed the number or locations of the facilities, although several were said to be in Eastern Europe.

Full article


Oh my. Our enemy only understands and only respects the use of force. This is a huge victory for them. They have to feel re-energized. No question about it. Knowing that they will not be tortured into giving up plots against the U.S. has to be incredibly encouraging to them.


Up next on the Obama agenda is government takeover of the banking and health care systems, implementation of the "fairness doctrine" to make it difficult for dissenting voices to be heard, open the borders so un-assimilated anti-Americans can vote for Democrats ad infinitem, etc, etc...

While Obama is closing ... he is keeping open the so called "warrentless wiretaps", etc... So he is retaining powers that can be used against U. S. citizens.

God save our beloved republic.

Ze Verd Christmas is now hereby forbidden!

Ok. It is December and retailers and businesses want our money again. However these same retailers have again fallen for the myth that the majority of their customers are offended by the word Christmas but not by the more generic word Holiday. Or perhaps they feel safer lumping all of the big holidays into the word "Holiday" so when you do your Kwaanza and Hannakah shopping you will shop at their store. The irony is that 90% of their potential customers, even the athiests, are buying stuff to give as gifts on Christmas!

Every year it gets worse but this year I am seeing the effort to avoid mentioning the word Christmas at all cost, actually to a point where it doesn't make sense.

Here are some examples:

• I got something in the mail from St. Mary's Bank. If I open an account with them I will get a "free holiday DVD". However ALL of the DVDs I can choose from are Christmas DVDs! So St. Mary's Bank is calling a stack of Christmas DVDs, "holiday DVDs", so as to entice me to give them my business.
• I heard an eBay radio ad the other day in which Santa bellows "Happy Holidays America". OK, well what other holiday does Santa Clause come on besides Christmas? Has he ever been associated with Kwaanza or Hannakah? It's kind of like George Steinbrenner cheering "go organized teams!" from his owners booth so as not to offend fans of other teams or other sports.
• In a UPS ad, the driver talks about the job 'driver helper' as a way to "make extra cash for the holiday". He talks about the joy of bringing people their packages and how happy they are to see him. However, at the end of the spiel but he says "when December 25th hits... you did a good job and I'll see you next year." I guess saying "when holiday hits..." would sound kind of weird so I imagine the spinless marketeers at UPS probably said "well just say 'December 25th' since holiday doesn't fit so well."
  

Anyway, more observations may come but in honor of thought police around the world I say Merry December 25th and a Happy January 1st!

I Get A Peaceful, Uneasy Feeling...

Remember that ditty by the Eagles. Well... I decided to modify it because I am feeling uneasy right now. China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba all seem to be on the same page right now. They are feeling empowered and unchallenged as they begin to set up strategic alliances and positions in the western hemisphere. Iran is finalizing its first nuclear weapon and is salivating about "wiping Israel off the map". Russia has a new friend in Venezuela. The ingrates of Iraq are burning effigies of President Bush as the lame duck U.S. administration wants to continue to be polite to the incoming administration, who really couldn't care much less about foreign affairs

The incoming administration is, itself, salivating over the collapse of the American economy so they can make a complete power grab once inaugurated. Since Obama is such a charismatic speaker and the American public is so apathetic, Obama plans to easily have the government take over our private health care system, automobile industry, banking industry and whatever else he will be allowed to grab. When all is said and done, the leftists, taking over in January, will attempt to own as much of the private economy as the awestruck and ignorant majority will allow.

It appears that people are now accepting the fact that government will do make things right, not because there is evidence to support that (there is actually reams of evidence to support the opposite) but because they believe that the private sector failed. Nowhere is the understanding that the government (hello Fannie and Freddie) getting its non-market force hands into the private sector actually was the catalyst to the current malaise.

So two forces are at work here. The evil nations of the the world are feeling emboldened to flex their muscles in America's backyard and the incoming Obama administration is looking forward to a government power grab of the economy under the guise of saving it.

I am getting that uneasy feeling.

So where is the peace? Don't those on the left worship the concept of peace? Well, their peace requires one to put their head in the sand and make pretend there are no bad people. I am talking a different peace. Is it pie-in-the-sky to believe that a higher power is at work here and has a plan? I am not a scholar of biblical prophecy but I can't shake the thought that the Good Book has already predicted the times we may be entering. I also find that during difficult times, we tend to turn to the spiritual. Thus the best answer for that is turning to the Prince of Peace.

Turn to Him and let that peaceful feeling rule your uneasy feeling.

Shame on New Hampshire

Shame on you New Hampshire. Once a red beacon of freedom loving light in a sea of blue, big government-loving darkness, the granite state has sought to be like it derelict neighbors. Remember the NH advantage? Well it appears NH no longer thinks it fair that we are head and shoulders above the rest of the New England states or maybe they just forgot why have been.

NH has an advantage because we didn't vote for big government. MA, VT, RE, ME all do. Apparently NH voters now believe it is better if we become like Massachusetts - you know, the corrupt, over-taxed, one-party state to our south?

The biggest tragedy occurred in NH's 2008 Senate Race. John Sununu is the only Engineer in the US Senate is from NH. He is a brilliant and honest man. Unfortunately for voters it doesn't matter what good you've accomplished. If they believe the economy is bad, they throw out members of the senate who are in the same party as the president, even if the Sununu and Bush didn't cause this financial mess.

As a matter of fact Sununu is on the banking committee in the Senate. He sponsored legislation more than once to reign in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All the Republicans on the banking committee voted for it and all the Democrats voted against it. Chuck Schumer and Chris Dodd would not let it go to the floor of the Senate. As we all know, Fannie and Freddie's sub prime loans practice was the catalyst to the collapse of the banking industry.

So I ask, why would someone who tried to stop the collapse get voted out and replaced with someone who would have voted for the continued practices of Fannie and Freddie? Do you really think Jeanne Shaheen would write legislation to regulate the Democrat's piggy bank? I don't think so.

So I say shame on you New Hampshire for voting out someone who tried to do the right thing only to replace him with a rubber stamp of those who really caused the economic mess.

Hello end of the greatest idea in human history

The grim reality is history fades, people die and new people repeat history. Only those who live through an historic event and its uncertainty will understand that time period in a way that they will not want to repeat it. However, their children and grandchildren will only read about or hear about it from parents and grandparents.

But then the parents and grandparents, who live through it, die and so goes the first hand account. It's a first hand account of how the days were long and people in the coffee shop thought it was end of the world. Future generations have the luxury of knowing it was not the end of the world, instead they are convinced that what they are facing is the end of the world.

We have the luxury today of having hours of film and reams of newspapers from WWII, not to mention that many from that generation are still alive to relay what it was like. Again, though, the greatest generation is dying away as naturally would be the case. Have we learned from their lessons?

I'd say it is doubtful. In WWII, the US fought and defeated a fascist (Mussolini), a national socialist (Hitler) and an imperialist (Japan). It was not easy but the love of America and its freedoms prevailed.

Today we are about to elect our first unabashed Marxist to lead our nation. Why? Because most voters are uninformed and they believe that Bush caused the current economic problems. However the truth is Barack and his ilk in congress protected the cancer that was Fannie and Freddy. When Fannie and Freddie collapsed, it affected everything. The fact that Bush tried to stop it and the Dems wouldn't let him doesn't matter. The fact that the Bush tax cuts helped strengthen our economy in spite of the Dems doesn't matter.

What is the lesson today? If a republican is in the Oval Office, the Dems can destroy the economy and be rewarded by the voters by winning in a landslide.

Hello high taxes. Hello 20 million immigrants from 3rd world countries. Hello 'Fairness Doctrine' to stifle opposing opinion. Goodbye America, the greatest idea in the history of human civilization. :-(

The Power of the Great Uninformed

All voters fall somewhere along a spectrum.

Informed conservative - listen to talk radio and read the news regularly. They are well informed and tend to vote conservative. They vote for Republicans typically.

Informed liberal - they read the New York Times and watch the network news. They read the internet and listen to some talk radio. They know conservatives are right but they love centralized power so they will usually vote for the most liberal Democrat.

Now it gets more gray:

Minimally informed conservative - They tend to have been raised in a conservative Republican home. They don't keep up with the news but they have a sixth sense about what is right. They usually vote Republican.

Minimally informed liberal - they watch the network news. They pride themselves on being open minded. They tend to have been raised in a liberal Democrat family. They know when they vote Democrat that it doesn't feel right but they tend to do it anyway.

Now here is where the power resides:
The Great Uninformed - They know very little about any of the issues and like it that way. In every presidential election they are generally uninformed on the cantidates. They base their vote on how they feel about the economy and how the two candidates make them feel. It is usually not based on anything concrete but the are adament about who they are voting for. They recycle talking points when they are asked why they are voting for x or y. This group will vote Democrat or Republican. It all depends on how they currently feel.

The Rush Limbaugh imprint on the future

God Bless the soul of Ronald Reagan. It is without question where he stands in history. His tax cuts spawned 20 years of economic growth, thus bringing in a standard of living never seen before in the history of human civilization. His defeat of the Soviets led to a world where the benevolent U.S. is more powerful than everyone else combined, thus bringing unprecedented world peace. However it was another change that Ronald Reagan made that could have much longer lasting effects for many generations. Through his leadership, in August 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. On August 1, 1988 Rush Limbaugh went national.

I am 40 years old and came of age in the late 80's. The fact is I have listened to Rush my entire adult life. His affect on my ability to think critically cannot be overstated. He solidified my love for the founding principles of this nation. He solidified and reinforced my conservative values like no one before and no one since.

In 2008 we were introduced to Sarah Palin, 44. When she was first interviewed by Rush on his show, I wasn't sure who was more giddy to talk to the other. Sarah started the conversation with "dittos" and ended it by saying "we'll keep listening". I can only assume she has listened to Rush throughout her adult life as well. As a matter of fact all of those considered rising stars in the party - Gov. Bobby Jindal, La., 37, Rep. Adam Putnam, Fla., 29, Rep. Mike Pence, Ind, 49, Rep. Eric Cantor, Va., 45 - have had access to Rush for a majority of their adult lives and I can assume are probably dittoheads at some level as well.

So for those conservatives under 50 who are sick of the get-along, placating "Republicans" that the party puts up like Ford, Dole and McCain and those who believe fighting for conservative principles is more important than making the press and the Dems like us, then rest-assured in that future of the party has been properly influenced.