Restoring America's Glory

I was just reading through the paper when I ran across the article by Don Newberry talking about honoring the U. S. Flag and America’s former glory.  It really reminded me of the things I have been through trying to stimulate some interest in our country right here in this county.

Post 9/11 when we were marching into Iraq, I helped form a Military Support Group.  We had several members and when we put on an event honoring those servicemen and women and their families, during that year’s summer festival, the crowd turned out in the “desert” heat to help do their part to support the cause.  After that event, the group quietly dissolved.

Rebelling Against Obamacare

I just got a $50/month increase in my insurance rate because of Obamacare mandates.  I am ticked...BIG TIME!  I told my husband that I will not pay it.  I will pay the fine instead and let Obama pick up my tab. Congress has until January 25 to repeal the healhcare bill or I will be without insurance.  I have been covered by insurance for years.  The money I have paid in has probably been enough to pay for anything that could happen to me, did I have it, instead of the insurance companies.

Why do you think we have to pay for the increase? 

Do you know that you can get a significantly lower bill if you pay cash for the hospital's services instead of filing it with insurance?  Either it costs the amount billed or it doesn't.  No wonder insurance rates are so high. 

We have to pay not only for our medical expenses, but those that choose not to purchase insurance for whatever reason.  Then, we have to pay for illegals to use the doctors and hospitals that should not even be here at all.  And, how do the insurance big shots justify the money they make?  Ask yourself, if this were a totally free market, wouldn't the people and premium payers be in control of rates and NOT the big shots?  People would be finding insurance companies that would be able to offer them great service for affordable rates. 

And then, how can hospitals and doctors justify some of their charges?  Why do radiologists have to read every single xray?  Aren't medical schools teaching that anymore?  What is so expensive about a sonogram or CAT scan or MRI?  You pay one person to order the test (physician), another to perform the test, another to read it, then the physician again to tell you what the result was AND you have to pay that months payment on the machine plus rent on the rooms.  That's why.  These people are making money somewhere.  You can't tell me they aren't.

I know there are people that simply cannot afford healthcare and I don't mind helping those people.  I've been there myself for a time, although I never (Thank God) had to use the services.  I'm all for help for those that can't help themselves, NOT those that won't help themselves.  Protect the children, and the aged.  The rest are on their own just like the rest of us and are on an as needed basis only, not a mandatory one.  

I DO NOT believe we should be forced to carry insurance by the federal government or the state government.  That is a personal choice, usually brought on by affordability. I DO believe that the system needs some work, but this is not the way. 

I think more people would choose to be insured if rates were realistic, but when medical providers jack the rates up for an insurance bill, someone has to pay the difference.  Ever wonder why it takes 2 surgeons to perform surgery?  Are we paying them to train?  Are you aware that the emergency group that the hospital hires to come in and take care of their emergency room, doesn't necessarily have to accept your insurance even though the hospital does and you do not have to be notified of that?  

When government issues mandate after mandate to control every aspect of our lives, assuring that no one is without insurance, it's too much.  

Yes, I was ticked when the bill passed.  I fought it every step of the way with everything that I could do.  None of our legislators voted in favor of it.  Now that it's law, I am not any happier, but was riding along until it could either be repealed or found to be illegal and unconstitutional.  Now it has affected me directly and I am even more determined NOT to obey this law.  I am officially in rebellion.....like I haven't already been!  LOL 

Maybe I'll calm down before I actually cancel my insurance, but not likely.  I'm just back where I started when it was being manipulated through all the wheeling and dealing by the Socialists in Congress. 

Now, the government is trying to further control our food supply, even our private gardens.  What's next?  What do they NOT have their tenacles into? 

God bless America and the great nation that she has the potential to be!

The Establishment Better Wake Up or Be Left Behind

As County Chair of the Republican Party of my county, I am so proud to be a conservative Patriot surrounded by other conservative Patriots. 

When Ms. O'Donnell won the primary race in Delaware, the response from the establishment Republicans was surprising.  I did not expect that, but my reaction when I heard it was...the National Party is at it again. I am not a big fan of some of the things they do at that level.  I was glad when Senator Cornyn with the NRSC corrected the stance that they were supposedly taking.  Officially, I would not even consider NOT supporting what I refer to as MY candidates.  As a supporter of the Constitution as it was intended by the signers, I believe that when "we, the people" vote, then that's the way it is.  They have spoken. 

(Even when I don't like the results, as in Obama's case, I believe that it must be changed in the next election or go through impeachment proceedings as the Constitution allows.  So I ran for County Chair and decided to educate "we, the people" on how we can change things.)

So what does it take to show establishment Republicans that "we, the people" are fed up to here with the same old politics?!?  Continue to elect the best conservative Republican for the job.  If that is an establishment Republican, so be it, but if it is a new-to-politics candidate, even better.  Politics, the way they have been, are not working.  We don't want the same thing in the next session.  We want people in there who will listen to the will of the people and know that we know how to take care of ourselves apart from government intervention.

I support the Republican Party, especially the Republican Party of Texas, wholeheartedly, or I would not be County Chair.  I chose this party because its State platform is conservative and shares the same values that I have.  I was originally impressed with the Tea Party movement although I was apprehensive because I knew we could not afford to have a third party come into the fray or we would lose everything to the liberals.  I hope to continue to encourage grassroots supported candidates to come into the Republican Party.  We must be the Party of Conservative Values.  Those values are the only thing that will save this country.

I will go on record with Palin and DeMint and say to the establishment Republicans that you better get with the program or you will fall behind as the "sleeping giant" of conservative voters continues to rise up and make noise.

Even Fox News, as conservative and supportive as they are of the grassroots, do not completely understand the movement. Tea Parties are making noise, but there are a lot of people not being heard vocally who will definitely be heard in the upcoming election.  I think after all these months of trying to wake up the sleeping giant of apathy, that we are finally beginning to be aware of the tip of the iceberg as seen in the Tea Parties.  But you must remember that the Tea Parties arose from the grassroots, not visa versa, so there are many, many more out there who don't take on a label.

We, as the Republican Party, absolutely must encourage these voters to come into our party and we absolutely must have the courage, as the Local, State and National Party to say yes, we are the Party of Conservative Values! Come on!  Let's take our country back!

My First Encounter with a Snapping Turtle

Picture this turtle with its jaws wide open snapping at you!

I went down to the barn a few days ago to feed the horses.  As usual, I put the hay and grain in the stalls then went to open the gate to let the horses into the barn.  Scooter went into his stall and immediately began to eat his grain as is his custom.  Shorty went into his stall and immediately began to snort and prance around. 

As I turned to see what was the matter, he spun around on his hind legs and looked down at the ground just outside the barn but still within his run, stomping and snorting.  I glanced over there and was totally amazed that he was reacting that way to a turtle, but looking, again, began to understand. 

This turtle was as big as a dinner plate, had claws and a tail about 9 to 10 inches long and was moving at a fast rate of speed toward my horse.  He looked like a prehistoric monster going after his lunch. 

 I ran to get a garden rake to push the turtle outside the run, still not thinking too much about it until I reached out the rake to "move" him away from the horse.  Bam!  He hit that rake like he was a snake and the war was on.  Not only was I doing battle to protect my horse, now I was determined that this stupid turtle was not going to best me.  I would push him back a ways, then over with the rake and he would flip back over and charge the rake.  I pushed him again and he charged again.  The hare would not have beaten this tortoise!  He moved faster than an armadillo and was a lot more vicious.

I finally managed to push him outside the run, turned him over on his back in a shallow wash and ran to the house to get the shotgun, hoping he would still be there when I got back.  I did not want to run into this ferocious warrior in the dark!

He was there, but turned back over and was covering ground when I got back.  I am embarrassed to say that the first two shots with the 410 missed.  The next one killed him and the fourth one made sure I was not going to be chased by this snapping turtle ever.

If it's another 58 years before I meet another snapping turtle, that will be okay with me.  My first encounter was plenty.

If you want to know more about these common turtles, you can check them out at http://www.critterzone.com/magazineresource/common-snapping-turtle-Chelydra-serpentina.htm. 

Texan or Southern? A Bit about Me

Can a true Texas woman be an authentic Southern Belle? I always considered myself to be a Southern Belle, but to be a true Southern Belle, I would have to agree that I could just as well have been raised in South Carolina or Georgia. Not going to happen!!! My Texas roots are just too deep! No Southern Belle can compete with a true Texas woman anyway.

My sisters and I were brought up in Texas, which is considered the South by many parts of the country and admittedly, do honor many of the traditional ways of Southern women. Of course, we are not from the Old South like Atlanta, New Orleans, or Charleston; nor would we want to be.


We, like most women of my generation and older, are proud to be Texan, even more so than Southern. After all, Texas is where "men are men and women are senators and governors!" Our mothers made sure we were self-sufficient.


Our self-sufficiency was not due to any lack of "man" power. It was, rather a place where we needed to be so that we could survive even the harshest conditions whether they were economic, physical, emotional or even right alongside our men sharing in the labors of our "harvests".


My mother had survived with her mother and 4 sisters on a small government check after the sudden death of her father at the end of the Depression when she was 12 years old. They lived several miles in the country in a board house patched with tin can lids and an outhouse, no car and no indoor plumbing, walked to a one room school house down the road in the only pair of shoes they got that year for school. They literally wore dresses made from flour sacks. They ate biscuits with weevils in the flour because that's what they had. A neighbor would take my grandmother to town for groceries once per month. These 6 brave, strong women were tough. They survived with hard work, helping each other and doing without a lot that we take for granted.


I often thought that my mother just did not trust men, so she taught me to do whatever I had to do or it would not get done. There just were not any male or female roles. Well, the more I learn about my mother, the more respect that I have for her. She not only taught me to survive, she instilled pride in who I was and a love of family.


My mother has taken the world to raise, it seems sometimes. I can get so jealous of her at times because she is so giving and I am not, then at other times, I'm so awed by her because she is so giving and never asks for anything in return. I know she has been let down by many people, me included, but she is a real heroine to me.


She taught me that I can do anything, that I can be the leader or the follower and either one is okay as long as I do a good job. She taught me that I can take the dryer apart, fix it and put it back together, that I can change my own oil and my own flats. Those things are expensive so I learned to do them as a young mother trying to save money. My mother will tell you to this day that there is no one that can live on as little as I can when I have to do so. Well, that's her teaching me how to take care of myself and my family without having to depend on anyone else when I have to do it.


Being the wife of a Texas rancher (we have 6 cows, a bull and 5 calves, so it's a little ranch) I have had to step up and take care of things while the husband is away on business during the week. We have a neighbor's bull, fighting with our bull over, under and through the barbed wire fence on a regular basis. I have learned to stretch and repair barbed wire and how to shoot a 410 with one hand while driving the Mule with the other chasing the bull back through the gate. I can tell within a week when a calf is going to be born and I can use a post driver. I can drive the tractor and pull a hay rake or a mower. I have fixed a leaky waterer in the dog pen and shot copperheads on the back porch. I load and unload feed and hay and have put round bales out for the cows with the front end loader. I'm not bragging about all these things, but if my mother had not instilled the "can do" attitude in me, I don't know what we would do. We sure could not afford to pay someone.


Mother also taught me how to set a "proper" table, cook the appropriate casseroles for funerals and social gatherings, and not to wear white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day. I can throw a "theme" party if I have to and yes, I can make the punch match the color of the theme. She made sure I knew to use crystal pitchers, real dinnerware and not paper plates or plastic forks and yes, I own a deviled egg plate (3 actually!)
 

Many people think that because women stay home and do not work outside jobs that they are pretty much worthless to society, but let me tell you some of the women I know in  Texas.....are not afraid of work. Not only do they take care of the kids, the house, the yard and can throw a great party, they will get right out there beside their men, put their leather gloves on and unload a truckload of 70 lb. bales of hay, with a baby on one hip and homemade bread in the oven....well, not literally. (The baby was probably in his stroller.)


Along with the teaching of our mothers and fathers, our Texas pride permeates not just its women, but the men as well. How else would you explain the swagger and the stature of our men here in this part of the country? Don't you feel a little taller when you tell someone from another state that you are from Texas? A little bolder...a little more self-confident? Aren't you a little prouder to be from Texas?


My Iowa born husband has commented several times, "like the saying goes, 'I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could!'" and as a 5th generation Texan, I have to admit, he's adapted really well so I guess he's past the "Damn Yankee" stage and I'll let him stay.

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