I own guns--Do you?

"I've decided to have guns in the house."

Those were the simple words of Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, after fending off an armed intruder in his house.

His wife, daughter and grandson were about to hit the sack late Saturday, when the thug broke in, attacking his daughter.

The wily 77 year old tried to stop him, but it was Boswell's grandson's loaded shotgun that caused the punk to flee in the opposite direction.

Yep, if there's one thing you can learn from a shotgun: you never run at one.

Now, publicizing tales like these do nothing but good, for they remind the common thug of a key life or death question: what house would you rob, if you could?

One in which the owner is armed, or not?

And it poses a question to everyone else: if you're the victim, would you rather be armed - or not?

Me - I don't want to depend on the kindness of strangers, I prefer to depend on the accuracy of my shot.

Of course, the biggest gun control advocates will disagree, but they all work in well-protected media networks, surrounded by well-trained, well-armed security.

You don't.

Guns are a conservative, libertarian way of privatizing safety.

It's also the best way to keep good people free.

And bad people scared.

Obama is completely in over his head.

At the end of last week, Goldman Sachs dropped a bomb that does not bode well for reelection chances of The Chosen One. It goes a little something like this …
Following another week of weak economic data, we have cut our estimates for real GDP growth in the second and third quarter of 2011 to 1.5% and 2.5%, respectively, from 2% and 3.25%.

Our forecasts for Q4 and 2012 are under review, but even excluding any further changes we now expect the unemployment rate to come down only modestly to 8.75% at the end of 2012 …

But the slowdown of recent months goes well beyond what can be explained with these temporary effects. … final demand growth has slowed to a pace that is typically only seen in recessions. .. Moreover, if the economy returns to recession—not our forecast, but clearly a possibility given the recent numbers …

So much for keeping our unemployment rate under 8% if we passed his grand stimulus plan. This is also coupled with news of the worst consumer confidence since March 2009. A Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer confidence fell to 63.8, which is the lowest level since the early months of Obama’s presidency. Of course, Bloomberg News reported this fall in confidence as “unexpected.”

I know you’ve heard this before .. but this is the worst recovery from a recession since World War II. In the past we’ve relied on growth in the private sector to bring us out of recessions. Government stimulus programs have NEVER done the job. So what’s the big difference this time? The difference is an anti-capitalist named Barack Obama in the White House and a Democrat Party that has become even more radicalized.

Since being sworn in Obama has done absolutely NOTHING that would cause a small businessman – the ones we depend on for new jobs – to say “Now THAT’S more like it! Now let’s get this business going!”

At this point we’re not going to see business become energized until after the 2012 presidential election – and the defeat of Barack Obama.

Let's make a Deal---(No Thanks)

Could we see a deal today? This is apparently what Barack Obama has told Congressional leaders .. that we need a deal by today or we must start to make contingency plans. This must be because these talks are really starting to crimp the Democrats’ style up there in Washington. Democrat leaders like Nancy Pelosi “are almost too busy” to continue listening to what is going on in the debt limit meetings. Yup, you heard the woman! We need to get this situation resolved because we can’t be bothered to keep up with the debate .. it is taking up too much precious time. Princess Nancy was particularly perturbed at the thought of having to drive all the way to Camp David for meetings. God forbid our rulers in Washington have to actually put themselves out to do the job they were hired to do.

But Barack Obama says that he is willing to risk his job over this battle for a long-term deficit deal. Dear Ruler says, “This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.” This is a crock. You can bet the farm that to Obama his presidency comes first and the fiscal health of this country comes second … or third … or wherever. Any attention he is paying to this situation is centered on preserving his reelection chances. The polls say the voters are concerned – so suddenly Obama is concerned.

But consider his recent history …..

Barack Obama wasn’t insistent on a long-term deficit deal when he ignored the recommendations for his own deficit commission for months.

Barack Obama wasn’t insistent on a long-term deficit deal when he proposed a budget earlier this year that would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion.

Barack Obama wasn’t insistent on a long-term deficit deal when he signed ObamaCare into law, which will likely add $4 to $6 trillion to the deficit over its first 20 years.

Barack Obama wasn’t insistent on a long-term deficit deal when he increased discretionary spending by nearly 25% his first two years in office.

You can’t help but feel, though, that it will be the Republicans who will probably get the blame for any repercussion from this debt ceiling battle. A new Quinnipiac poll released yesterday shows that most voters (48%) would blame congressional Republicans if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. These results were fueled, I believe, by Mitch McConnell’s hair-brain idea to give the president the power to raise the debt ceiling on his own; Republicans are so worried about being blamed and how this will affect the election in 2012.

The Republicans need to remember that they are in charge in the House because of the energized voters on three basic issues in 2010. It was really very simple:

Smaller government.
Lower government spending.
Lower taxes.

Mitch McConnell needs to remember that the voters did not turn out to the polls and put Republicans into office so that they could make phony spending cuts, increase taxes or come up with hare-brained ideas on giving Obama the power to increase our debt ceiling on his own.