BOO

11/08/08

No, this isn't a belated Halloween post. I've just been getting weirded-out by the increasingly bizarre news stories coming out of Washington, San Francisco and, yes, even Antigua and Barbados, so I've decided to write about my gray-and-white parakeet, Boo. (See photo on sidebar!)

His proper name is Birdie Boo, but he also responds to Boo-Boo, Baby Boo, Sweetie Boo — and nearly anything else I call him, as long as it contains the name Boo.

I purchased Boo at a local pet shop a couple of years ago. I'd fully intended to get a standard green-and-yellow parakeet, but the green birds the shop had were splotchy to the point of being unattractive — to my eye, at least. However, there in the middle of the top perch, tucked in among assorted blues and greens, was a little guy who looked like he was wearing formal white tails. He immediately stole my heart, and I knew he was the bird for me!

Boo has a light gray-and-white breast, dark gray back and pure white wings and tail — an absolutely gorgeous little bird, as you can clearly see! He scolded like crazy while waiting in the little cardboard box for me to pay for him but then didn't open his mouth for six months after I got him home.

Now, however, I can't shut him up and he's a regular showoff! He loves music — almost any kind, loves to play on his homemade play tree (a black walnut sapling) with it's assortment of toys, enjoys conversing with his outdoor sparrow friends, and is fond of taking naps while sitting on my hand. When I use the desktop PC in "his" room, he plays on the keyboard, and when I write on my laptop, he perches on the rim of the lid and twitters away as I type.

Boo is particularly fond of molting/conditioning food, which purports to enhance feather color. I believe it, for my little gray-and-white bird now has a small cobalt blue patch of feathers on his rump and a slightly blue cast to some of the feathers on one side. But I let him eat the stuff, anyway, because for him, it's like ice cream.

His favorite treats are dandelion leaves and stems of grass seeds plucked straight from the front yard. In wintertime, a bit of lettuce or apple or broccoli will do.

He loves to show off his acrobatic skills, which he hones by practicing on a string of 8 interlocking plastic rings. He especially enjoys being praised for his prowess when he sits in the topmost ring. If I don't happen to notice him, he'll sit there patiently and whistle at me until I turn around and applaud his marvelous feat.

Oh, yes, and he talks. But only when he wants to! He has quite a repertoire: Boo's a pretty boy! (His favorite, and often accompanied by a wolf whistle.) Birdie-boo. Hello! You wait here! (That one's a long story…) Boo's a big boy! and various other jabberings. You never know just what will come out of that sassy little beak!

Just now, he's out of his cage and has decided it's nap time. He has settled on my left forefinger, making it particularly difficult to type. Somehow, his feather-light weight and warm little bird feet are comforting. He has just pulled one foot up and tucked his beak into the feathers of his back. That he trusts me enough to sleep that way on my hand makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

You might not think that such a tiny creature could be a good companion, but you'd be wrong. He's an enjoyable little feathered friend!

© 2008 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.

DRINKING THE KOOL-AID

11/08/08

You may have noticed the way the mainstream media nearly swooned over Obama during the primaries and, later, during the presidential campaign.

Perhaps the most famous quip is Chris Matthews' excited description while covering one of Obama's primary speeches: "I have to tell you, it's part of reporting this case, this election — the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg! I mean, I don't have that too often. No, seriously, it's a dramatic event!… And that's an objective assessment."

Of course, it is, Chris. I can't imagine anyone suggesting you weren't being objective. I mean, is the Pope Catholic?!

Describing another of Obama's victory speeches during a primary campaign, Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, gushed, "If anybody in America has heard a better speech in modern American political history, please email me!" Pul-eeze!!

Chris Matthews, "objective" anchor of MSNBC's Hardball, was even more effusive. "Two days before, I heard him speak before hundreds of people in the old Palace Theater in Manchester. It was the best speech I've ever heard! …first it was conversational, then it was unbelievable, and I'm tearing up and I'm writing down notes…. And he did it again that night at midnight."

Since the election on Tuesday, the press coverage has gotten even more bizarre. Take this item from Friday's news broadcast, for instance, in which Chris Matthews admits that he will no longer even try to be objective.

Matthews told Joe Scarborough, "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work."

Scarborough asked him, "Is that your job? You just talked about being a journalist."

Matthews replied, "Yes, it is my job. My job is to help this country…. To make this work successfully. This country needs a successful presidency."

Can you believe it? After eight years of Bush-bashing, a mainstream news anchor has suddenly decided that it's his job to make the Obama presidency successful??

You may remember that in a campaign speech, Barack Obama told the crowd, "A light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, 'I have to vote for Barack!'"

It sounds like that light shined down on Chris Matthews from somewhere (I won't hazard a guess as to its source.) and he experienced that epiphany and he suddenly knew he just had to support the Obama presidency.

This is getting scary, folks.

© 2008 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.

THOUGHTS ON THE DAY AFTER

11/05/2008

Did any of you watch the news on the days following election day? Did you note the bizarre images that assaulted you and the absolute cluelessness of the news anchors, commentators and political pundits — and their glee that the rest of the world finally loves us?

I watched Barack Hussein Obama's extended family marching through the streets of Nairobi carrying a portrait of their homeboy and an upside-down American flag and it struck me as totally bizarre for several reasons.

• First -person accounts of Obama's birth indicate that he is a native-born citizen of Kenya, not of the United States of America — thereby making him ineligible to run for the presidency. Even if he later became a naturalized citizen, Obama would still be ineligible for the presidency. Some journalists insist that Obama holds dual citizenship, both American and Kenyan — possibly even Indonesian, since his school records in that country list him as a citizen, made so by adoption by his Indonesian stepfather. Contrary to what you might believe if you've been listening to the mainstream media, Lady Liberty is a jealous mistress. The United States has never permitted dual citizenship. When you take the oath to become a citizen of this country, you are required to renounce every other allegiance.

• That Obama's African kinsmen were carrying the flag upside-down was more appropriate than they may have known. An upside-down flag is a universal distress signal.

News anchors seem to be delighted that, at last! the rest of the world appears to love us — or, at least, to love Obama. Oh, joy! All over the world, people are celebrating Obama's election to the highest office in our land. Perhaps someone can explain to me why that is a good thing?

• The rest of the world has never had America's best interest at heart. They hold out their hands for our billions in foreign aid but couldn't care less if we were completely destroyed.

• The world despises America for its wealth and strength. They would like nothing better than to see us get our comeuppance. They would love to see us reduced to their level, to be one of them and no longer the leader of the free world.

• Does anyone remember the dancing in the streets after the attacks of September 11, 2001?

The stock market plunged nearly 500 points after news of Obama's win and "analysts" and "experts" were baffled. Me, I'm baffled that the analysts were clueless. Haven't they been paying attention to what Obama has been saying? And if they have, why are they surprised that the Dow dropped like a rock when he was elected president? I'm surprised it didn't completely tank.

• Obama said he wants to "spread the wealth around". That's a loose interpretation of the Marxist dogma, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need." As anyone with any brains should realize by now, under a Marxist regime, there is no incentive for anyone to succeed, since any profit a man might make belongs to the collective. Such societies have always failed. Wouldn't you think a Harvard grad like Obama would be smart enough to know that? Or has his lust for power simply overshadowed his common sense?

• Obama has clearly stated that he intends to raise the capital gains tax.

• Obama has threatened to bankrupt any company that tries to build a plant using coal power, no matter how cleanly it is burned. This is not only bad news for power companies, it is the death knell for the West Virginia and Pennsylvania coal industry.

• Jim Moran, Democratic Congressman of Virginia and Obama supporter, condemned the Bush administration for believing "in this simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it." Yes, you DID read that correctly. Democrats think it's simplistic for you to expect to keep the money you've earned by the sweat of your brow.

All in all, it's been an interesting day — and I'm sure that, as the saying goes, we ain't seen nothin' yet

© 2008 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.

CAN WE?

11/05/2008

Some things are inevitable — like the passage of time, the motion of the tides… and the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency.

From the early days of the primaries, when Democrats and "independents" (translation: Democrats who delude themselves into thinking they might someday vote for someone other than the Democrat candidate) deliberately chose the weakest Republican candidate in those states with "open" primaries.

They chose a man with a history of stabbing President Bush in the back and compromising with liberals on important issues on which he would have done better to have stood his ground. They chose a man who had consistently alienated the conservative base of the Republican Party. They chose a man who would not be able to sufficiently differentiate himself from his Democrat opponent. They chose a man they knew they could defeat in the November general election.

And then, against all odds, Barack Obama swept in from nowhere and stole the Democrat nomination from president-in-waiting, Hillary Clinton. Obama had charisma. Obama had the support of the Chicago Socialist Party, of which he was formerly a member, and of rich extremists like George Soros, who has been working for years to bring about a world government.

Obama became the rock-star candidate who mesmerized crowds with neurolinguistic programming and covert hypnotic suggestions that peppered his speeches. Obama presented a blank mask to voters, a mask they could paint with whatever colors they wanted. Only rarely did we catch glimpses of the man behind the mask and when we did, his campaign hurriedly did damage-control to restore the blank façade.

Jeremiah Wright, with his racist rants and anti-American hatemongering, was tossed aside. He'd served his purpose and was no longer needed.

William Ayers was shrugged off as inconsequential.

Any mention or acknowledgment of George Soros was carefully avoided.

His birth records were hurriedly sealed when some people became curious about the real circumstances of his birth and whether or not he was eligible to run for the presidency.

He retaliated against newspapers which endorsed his opponent by kicking their reporters off his campaign plane and his staff excused his vindictiveness by saying the great man had needed to make room for Ebony staff.

Always, the mask remained blank and Obama made vague promises of "hope" and "change" that could be interpreted any way his listeners liked.

And yesterday in Pennsylvania, people who voted Republican on the rest of the ballot mysteriously voted for Obama for president. It looks like those subliminal suggestions really worked.

Today, we must face the reality of the election, the result of our naivete. Today, we must deal with a president-elect who hates this country, who fully intends to dismantle our defenses, who thinks our Constitution is deeply flawed because it doesn't provide for a welfare state nor reparations to the descendants of slaves, and who, in his own words, intends to "spread the wealth around".

Today, we must face the fact that we have elected to the presidency a man who may not even be eligible to hold the office.

Today, we must accept the consequences of our stupidity and greed.

Perhaps not tomorrow, but eventually, we will discover the reality of the man behind the blank mask; we will find out whom it is that we elected to the highest office in the land. But tomorrow, it will be too late to change our decision.

I don't know how you feel today, but I feel as though the entire cosmos is holding its breath… waiting… for that man to be revealed.

And springing, unbidden, from my spirit is the worship song from the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation: "To Him who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb be blessing and glory and honor and power forever!"

It's the song sung by those gathered around God's throne just before the first of the seven seals is opened.

2008 by Libbi Adams. All rights reserved.