That’s Right Nate

One of the conditions of my trip with Emily to visit self storage places in the West was that I’d allow her to give her opinion on the health care debate.   As I have Emily this weekend, this seemed like the ideal time to have her give her opinion.  However, my blog has a reputation for hard hitting conservative commentary and while my daughter is quite intelligent for a girl, she’s only 13 years old.   Therefore, I thought I’d let her give her opinion in the form of a debate, which I thought would be educational for both her and my readers.

Nate: Welcome Emily.   Why do you want socialist health care that would kill your grandmother?

Emily: Dad, it’s not socialist.   That’s just a talking point you Republicans use.  We pay more for health care then anybody else in the world yet the World Health Organization ranks us 37^th right after Costa Rica.   Don’t you think that as Americans we can do better?

Nate: Emily, the World Health Organization is a biased liberal organization.  They have a bunch of scientists working for them of course they’re going to be on the socialists’ side.

Emily: Knowing stuff doesn’t make you a liberal dad…Hmm, maybe it does.

Nate: Getting back to health care.  I don’t want my tax dollars paying for some illegal immigrant’s medical care.

Emily: You are already dad.

Nate: How do you figure?

Emily: When an illegal immigrant is injured they go to the emergency room.   In fact, that World Net Daily link you sent me last year said that ¼ of all emergency room patients in Florida were illegals.  The government spent $40 billion covering the medical costs of the uninsured last year, so figure we spent $10 billion or so on the medical care for illegal aliens.

Nate: That’s ridiculous.  If it’s life threatening sure, but if they’re going to the emergency room for the flu or something then throw the bums out.

Emily: The flu? You mean like swine flu dad?  Have you ever heard the word pandemic?

Nate: That’s like a disease striking pandas right?

Emily: Yeah, sure dad.   Anyway,  if we don’t treat people with the flu it can spread.

Nate: It’s still socialism Emily and that’s something I won’t put up with in this house?

Emily: You mean like the electricity and the running water?  How about that reduced price lunch I get at school everyday.

Nate: Don’t blame me for that.  I’ve been telling your mother you don’t need to eat lunch until you’re under 110 pounds.

Emily: I know dad and running in the hot Oklahoma sun chasing after the car is good for me.

Nate: It builds character.  Listen, I don’t want a medical system like Canada?

Emily: Canadians love it, but besides that as Americans why would we ever put the Canadians accomplishments as the upper limit of our own potential in anything, but ice hockey.  No offense to Canada, but don’t you love this country?  Don’t you think we’re better than Canada?

Nate: Yes, of course.

Emily: Then why couldn’t our health care be better than theirs if we tried a public option?

Nate: We can’t have a public option competing with private insurance.  The public option doesn’t worry about profits and can undercut the private companies.  The Heritage Foundation says it’s ridiculous for a private company to try to compete with the government when the government sets the rules?

Emily: This is the same Heritage Foundation that’s a huge advocate of charter schools like the one you keep trying to send me to?

Nate: Yeah

Emily: I wonder if they teach irony in charter schools.

Nate: You are so pigheaded young lady.   How can you defend death panels?

Emily: There are no death panels.

Nate: Yes there are.  Sarah Palin and Michelle Malkin say there are.

Emily: So what would a death panel do?

Nate: When I get old, they’ll come and ask me if I get sick if I want them to pull the plug.

Emily: Who makes that decision now?

Nate: You do.

Emily: You know if I had a daughter that I tried to make run after the car in 95 degree weather in Oklahoma or fought with her teachers every year because they were trying to make her a liberal or had her first 11 birthday parties at my self storage business, I might want an impartial panel making that decision instead.

Nate: Go to your room Emily.

Emily: Did I mention having to give my friends unclaimed self storage items for Christmas and birthday presents?

Nate: Emily!

Emily: I’m going.

I apologize for the awkward ending, but hopefully both Emily and my readers have learned exactly why the Obama health care scheme would be horrible for our country and needs to be stopped.

Easter is an amazing time of year that is often neglected for Christmas.  We all celebrate the holiday in our own way, but it would be nice for everybody in this world regardless of religion or denomination to get together and remember what unifies us–that Jesus Christ died for our sins, that his appointing Peter to lead the church in no way made him Pope, and that we can all be saved if we come to Jesus and ask him to change our sexual orientation, political affiliation, or religions denomination.

The Swedish celebrated Easter this year, the way they celebrate everything–with Legos.   Their giant 6 foot tall statue of Jesus took the parishioners of a church in Vasteras, Sweden one and a half years to build and over 30,000 pieces.   It is quite impressive to look at, but I would like to remind them that if they used a good old fashioned American erector set, they could have made a Jesus that walked and would have probably been more inspirational.

Halfway around the world in Australia, artist Mitch Mitchell has used his sculpting talents not to honor Jesus as those Lego sculptors in Sweden had, but to mock Christianity by creating a statue of a naked woman on a cross.   Needless to say, God sent his only son to save us, not his only daughter.   I’m not saying that a woman couldn’t have done the job so please don’t email me hate mail, but if a woman was capable of saving the world as Jesus did,  God probably would have had a daughter too.   Anybody who has seen Mel Gibson’s wonderful movie on the life of Jesus, knows that he was brutalized at the end of that movie.  It is ridiculous to think that a smaller and frailer woman would have been able to stand up to that kind of punishment.

Regardless of your family’s religion I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday.  I’ve been a bit slow with my posting this week, but I hope to be up to a fuller schedule for next week.

Thanksgiving was always a special time for my family when I was growing up.  My father worked very hard to give us an upper middle class lifestyle, but he never wanted us to forget the type of poverty that his father used to pretend he came from.

On Thanksgiving, we didn’t have a fancy feast.  We used to go down to the local kitchen where we would see those much less fortunate than ourselves and we would stand in line to eat their simple fair.   It wasn’t fancy, but you could see that for some of these people it was the only real food they’d get that day and maybe that week.  My dad taught us not to complain as we sat at the folding tables and dined with these poor and simple folk.  My dad would give them colorful nicknames like “Harmonica Bob” or “Crazy Cat Lady” or “Black Comb Head”

At first my sister and I were frightened by the odd people around us.  I remember one year we sat across from a guy who was having a very loud argument with himself.  Instinctively my sister and I recoiled, but my father taught us we didn’t need to be afraid of the man because he was one of God’s children too and it was alright for us to laugh at him.   My dad would even offer his piece of pumpkin pie to the bum who did the best trick for us.  Sometimes we’d get thrown out, but mostly we just sat there enjoying Thanksgiving as a family forgetting how much money we had in our Cape Cod in that exclusive neighborhood where we lived.

We’d be home by 7PM and my parents would tell us we should go right to bed and think about the people we had met.  They’d remind us that if the Democrats got elected we could all be living in a homeless shelter for real and then we’d be asleep by 7:30.  It was only by accident that I later discovered that when my sister and I were asleep, mom and dad would go out to a very nice restaurant and have an elegant Thanksgiving dinner together.

I had wanted to keep this tradition alive with my own daughter Emily, but my ex would have none of it.  She insisted that we have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner like families do.  Though calling us a family was certainly a stretch.  Afterall, in a family one of the spouses isn’t usually getting it on with the neighbor across the street while the other spouse is working late to put food on the table and Lord knows those two ate enough.   Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving from the Peel family such that is to your family.

I found myself only able to make one post last night and for those looking for WMDs I’ve fallen way behind on my White Males of Distinction, but last night was daddy to the rescue time.  My daughter was having a hard time so I tookher to a movie.   She wanted to see The Dark Knight which was out of bounds for obvious reasons and she had no interest in the mummy sequel so I agreed to her second choice–Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

I have a favorite theatre for popcorn so we drove a little bit further, but it was worth it.  The movie wasn’t too crowded, but I really thought it was quality entertainment for young women.  The best part for me was the character of Carmen who is chubby like a lot of Hispanic girls get.  When my daughter kept reaching into our communal popcorn tub a little too much, I used Carmen’s weight problem to open up a dialogue with my daughter.  I told her “I bet Carmen pigs out on popcorn too” and I could tell it made an impact.

Yeah, it was worse than a chick flick it was a teen chick flick, but it was a good one and these are the types of memories of her old man that my daughter will cherish into adulthood.  She said there weren’t any other movies coming out that she wanted to see this year, but I think we might just make this a family tradition.

I promised you a few memories of my late father, John Peele for Father’s Day.  Thanks to Commonwealth Edison we’re a day late, but I thought I’d share my cherished memory of my first lemonade stand.

One day when I was about 7 or 8, I had it in my mind that I was going to make a lot of money by openning a lemonade stand.  I asked my dad and though it was his offday he was happy to give me the money to get the things I’d need.  I got some Wyler’s lemonade powder and some paper cups and since my dad explained to me how important marketing was, I spent a couple hours making a huge sign that said Lemon Nate. 

Now my dad explained to me that since it cost him $2.50 cents for the ingredients, if I sold the lemonade for 10 cents a cup he’d get all the money for the first 25 cups and then we’d split anything more than that I sold 60/40 in his favor.  I think my dad was really getting into teaching me math with this exercise.

It was a hot day, and business was OK.  I sold some lemonade, but after a few hours I was tired and wanted to close up shop.  My dad explained to me that I hadn’t paid him back yet so he sent me back out to work until my mom insisted I come in for dinner.  I could tell dad was disapointed in me so I was determined to go out the next day and make back the money he loaned me.

I started bright and early at 9:00.  I sold more lemonade.  I think some of our neighbors bought pity lemonade because they saw how hard I was working.  Around noon, my friend Paul came over.  Paul’s parents were out so he asked me if he could have a cup of lemonade and he’d pay me later.  I told him “sure” and gave him a cup.   A few moments later I hear the door slam open and my dad’s booming voice yelling, “Embezzler!  Don’t you dare give free drinks.  You have a feduciary responsibility to me!” I had no idea what that meant, but I sure knew it couldn’t be good.

My dad knocked over my stand sending lemonade spilling everywhere and sent me up to my room.  This was in the 70s so I had no televsion, no video games, no email to keep me busy.  A while later I heard laughing outside and I looked to see that Lemon Nate’s had been turned over to Paul and another kid down the block Julie.  That was the first and only time I was ever fired.  Later my dad came up to explain that stealing was wrong and he gave me a quick spanking, but knowing I disapointed him hurt me far more.

My dad was no fan of Mr. Spock.  He fathered with a firm and heavy hand, but he took the time out to teach me about business when a lot of other fathers would have wasted my time by playing catch with me or taking me to see a movie or something.  Wherever you are looking down on this John Peele, Happy Father’s Day to you!

During the 2000 Election there was a great deal of discussion about John McCain’s dughter.  The story that his campaign told was that he adopted her from Bangladesh.  The story that Karl Rove and George Bush told was that she was his daughter from a tryst with a black woman. 

I thought about and prayed about this question for some time before finally accepting the Bush/Rove story as truth.  I wasn’t surprised that a politician would do this sort of thing and I thought McCain had done the honorable thing by raising this girl as his own.

Recently, Karl Rove was on Fox News praising McCain for adopting his daughter from  Bangladesh.  I was more confused them ever and at the time accused Rove of lying to get behind McCain.  However, this blogger did a little bit of digging.  As you can see in this picture McCain’s daughter doesn’t appear to be the slightest bit African-American.  In a way that’s a shame because it would take some of the steam out of Obama.  However, now that I have seen pictures and knowing that having McCain’s genes would naturally obscure some ethnic featuresI truely believe McCain’s daughter must be from Bangladesh.  There is no other way to explain the fair skin and blonde hair.

What’s more, she seems to be a pretty cool chick.  She has her own blog at http://www.mccainblogette.com/ which I think will really appeal to young voters.  She’s kind of got a Hanna Montana quality to her and loves rock and roll.  Her blog includes playlists of music she likes to listen to and other pop culture as well as political topics.  Parents out there you may want to send that link to your kids who may have got swept up in this Obama thing to show them that Republicans can be cool too.