What's for Dinner?

I like a good hot dog now and then for dinner like a lot of people, but Fido? It has been an amusing dust-up over the last 10 days of "Dog Wars" between the Presidential candidates. First Romney is accused of being an insensitive brute for putting the family pooch on top of the station wagon on the way to the beach house. Then we learn that Obama didn't transport them - he ate them! As Bill Whittle says, Obama may not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but apparently a Golden Lab is a different story.

Actually, the most interesting thing about these stories is not the stories themselves but the fact that Romney clearly has a nimble campaign organization that reacts quickly, hard, and with humor to the bilge that the Democrats routinely spoon out in Presidential campaigns. If this had been the McCain campaign of four years ago the only response to such a charge would have been crickets chirping and McCain would have been a punching bag for several nights for Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel.  Instead, Obama gets to experience equal opportunity in being a punching bag. This promises to be a very interesting - and entertaining - campaign.

I Want to be Like Alfred

Just like the fellow on the left, why should I be worried that the government committee charged with such things now says that Medicare is going to run out even sooner than previously thought (in 2024) and Social Security isn't far behind in 2033? My elected representatives in Congress aren't worried, which may have something to do with the fact that they have a separate retirement system. Ditto for President Obama - he's not worried. I'm sure it will all work out. Ask Greece.

www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jknihmklzkG-LeSR6VN1gKEzMwgw?docId=5b6e8181dc374865bb012d1ec2983017

Back to the Wild

Michael Barone has an insightful column today about why the old-style "lifetime" jobs like working for the Detroit auto companies at a hugely high hourly rate and then retiring with beaucoup benefits simply do not exist any longer. The challenge faced by our kids is at once more difficult and more exciting:

"The bad news for the Millennial generation that is entering its work years is that the economy of the future won't look like the economy we've grown accustomed to. The "hope and change" that Barack Obama promised hasn't produced much more than college loans that will be hard to pay off and a health care law that lets them stay on Mommy and Daddy's health insurance till they're 26.

The good news is that information technology provides the iPod/Facebook generation with the means to find work and create careers that build on their own personal talents and interests.

As Walter Russell Mead writes in his brilliant the-american-interest.com blog, "The career paths that (young people) have been trained for are narrowing, and they are going to have to launch out in directions they and their teachers didn't expect. They were bred and groomed to live as house pets; they are going to have to learn to thrive in the wild."

But, as Mead continues, "The future is filled with enterprises not yet born, jobs that don't yet exist, wealth that hasn't been created, wonderful products and life-altering service not yet given form."

Interesting, if disconcerting, but something that Americans have always excelled doing. The challenge is now passed to the next generation.

townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2012/04/23/liberal_nostalgiacs_dont_understand_jobs_of_the_future

Do Dogs Go to Heaven?

For anybody who has ever led a small group in Christian circles, especially a youth group, this question is a perennial favorite. The article below is the most in-depth discussion that I have ever seen on the subject and they all end up at the same place: there is no specific Scripture in point to say "yes." Several interesting points are made, however, that are worth reading.

C.S. Lewis speculated in The Problem of Pain that pets might gain entry to heaven via their relationship with their humans, in the same way as humans through their relationship with Christ. Acts 16:31. Another one of the writers notes that God has periodically made covenants with animals (Gen. 6:18-19; Hosea 2:18) and more importantly, when the New Earth comes it will have animals - the wolf will lie down with the lamb. Isaiah 11:6.  If wolves lie down with lambs, might not our dog Sadie lie down with kitties? Color me skeptical, at least as regards Sadie, but I cannot rule it out and that in itself is a miracle.

www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/april/do-pets-go-to-heaven.html

Where are the Grownups?

I commend Peggy Noonan's column to you in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about our eroding national character. Noonan, the writer of some of Bush 41's best speeches, thinks we have a problem. She is right. Cool is cool; not performance or judgment or being resolute. The dry rot is reaching into the very heart of our nation and unfortunately for us, it invites trouble from those in the world who believe that we are the chief purveyors of such decadence to nations that do not want to be contaminated by it. The world is a serious and dangerous place. It's time for the grownups again.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303513404577354221282508372.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Youth Bows

I love it when the old guys win! Jamie Moyer at age 49 just became the oldest pitcher to ever win a major league game. In doing so, he joins other pitchers like Whitey Ford, Warren Spahn, Satchel Paige, Hoyt Wilhelm and Greg Maddux, who were true pitchers. If you have a 98 mph fastball you can just rear back and throw and blow away hitters. Eventually, though, the hitters catch up with you and/or you lose a couple of mph off your fastball and your career dissipation light begins to blink. You then either adjust or go home. Guys like Moyer and the others above never had a fastball that came close to 90 so they had to out think the batters and maintain pinpoint control from the get go. Hats off to you Jamie Moyer and all the other pitchers who have made baseball such an interesting game all these years!

www.kgw.com/sports/Moyer-49-becomes-oldest-pitcher-to-win-MLB-game-147939985.html

This is Wrong

Having been the father of the bride twice now, I know it can get a little crazy during wedding prep. A new fad in the wedding industry isn't just crazy, though, it's wrong.

On the final countdown to the walk down the aisle brides are now stopping in to their favorite clinic and having an NG tube run down their nose and throat to quickly drop a bunch of pounds. The picture to the left is a real bride. No longer will we have radiant brides - we will have young ladies on the edge of cardiac arrest. Caterer - check; florist - check; cardiologist - check. Great foundation for a marriage!

www.kgw.com/lifestyle/Feeding-tubes-take-wedding-diets-to-a-new-level-147676195.html