Things have stacked up again . . . let's get started:

Ye Olde Shell Game

The desire to remake America along the lines of a European-style welfare state is running into the hardest of all possible obstacles: the lack of money. Obama’s new national security stance sends the message that all available resources are going to be shifted to saving his domestic agenda or at least keeping the domestic economic troubles from spinning out of control. That will be problematic because cutting costs must run counter to the concept that government is a solution to ‘problems’. Cap and trade, immigration reform, a vast expansion of health entitlements by definition now become national security issues. At the very least they become political job security issues. Any sufficiently effective effort to create a prosperous economy will require Obama to liquidate his ’solution’s. But they are the point of his presidency, the goal of his legion of spoils-seekers. The President is in the impossible position of standing in his own way.

Or, shorter: We Are Out Of Money. We can't afford all of the big shiny new government ideas and projects that Obama wants in order to remake America into a European-style social-democracy worker's paradise. Hell, Europe can't afford it. The only reason they've staggered along as long as they have is that they've hidden behind the shield of the American military from the various barbarians at the gates, from the Russians to the radical Islamists. The Europeans have partied hearty while we paid the bills in blood and treasure to try to keep the world somewhat civilized. But now, we look with naked envy at all the fun and frivolity the Europeans are having, and via Obama and the Democrats seem bound and determined to get a drink or two of what they're having.

This will not end well.

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fifteen

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May 22 (Saturday, Day 18, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) -

Sunrise, May 22

Filbert woke up at 5:45 AM in order to do some early sealife watching. He didn’t see anything other than a nice sunrise.

More after the jump . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fourteen

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May 21 (Friday, Day 17, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, continued) -

Snookums gets nuzzled

Snookums, Filbert and Judy went on the “Sea Lion Encounter” shore excursion. We took a 30-minute bus ride to Cabo Adventures where they have dolphin and sea lion encounter. Snookums and Filbert swam with dolphins a few years ago in the Bahamas so this time we chose the sea lion adventure. Plus, Filbert does a great imitation of sea lions (and has even had the sea lions in San Francisco on Pier 39 answer in return!)

More after the jump . . .

The Right Needs To Extend The Olive Branch To The Left

When you forgive outright and double down with the refusal to be vindictive, even if it means paying for Social Security, knowing that you’re buying so much air, the Lefty can be helped through depression, into acceptance of the fact that the Progressive Era has been nothing but the most expensive failure in human history.

Emphasis mine. But this is the central message that needs to be hammered home by the liberty community to the American public, in 2010 and beyond: What the "progressives" have tried for the past century has not worked. It's time for something else. It's time to give another try to something we know works: liberty, individual freedom and personal responsibility.

Patience

But Hillary will always have at least one party to talk to whatever happens to Kim Jong Il: China. Behind Pyongyang is Beijing. Both in 1950 and 2010, China pulled North Korea’s strings. It provided and provides Pyongyang with Great Power protection. It uses Pyongyang to advance its agenda against Japan and South Korea. Hillary’s confident declaration that North Korea is a problem which will solve itself no longer looks so certain when one looks slightly beyond the Korean peninsula. In that context it is not terribly clear Hillary is right when she declares “that time is on our side”. Once the problem is defined in terms of America’s relationship with China then the timescales become comparable to those of Cold War with the Soviet Union. Suppose it is Beijing that is displaying strategic patience and not Hillary? Beijing is not likely to gloat publicly. After all Napoleon also counseled, “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

I suspect that it is not wise to play the game on China's terms . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Thirteen

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May 19 (Wednesday, Day 15, Acapulco, Mexico) -

May 19 sunrise

Filbert was up early again, taking pictures and hoping for dolphins. No dolphins today. Just one big honking moth, that Filbert originally thought was a hummingbird because it was so big. It had to be a good six inches long, and five or six inches' wingspan.

More after the jump . . .

AP Exclusive: Palin aides worked to sell gas deal-- OH MY GOD!!!! The AP blows the doors off the sleazy bitch AT LAST!!!!:

"There's a Costco in Juneau, if you know what I mean," Palin wrote. "And my family is quite capable of setting out food and cleaning up afterwards."

Hey, AP! I can see your bias from my back yard! Damn, this was a stupid story. I'm dumber for having read it. It's two minutes of my life I will never have back.

Lunchtime video fun: Governor Awesome on meaning what you say

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twelve

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May 18 (Tuesday, Day 14, Huatulco, Mexico) -

Mom on watch

Mom, Dad, and Judy headed out for a tour, but Mom bailed out after walking a long, long, long way down the pier and onto the dockside, and then finding out they were only half way to their bus. So she headed back to the ship for some quiet alone time.

More after the jump . . .

Axelrod: When We Illegally Offered Sestak the Bribe of a Federal Job to Not Seek Office, We Were Careful to Leave No Evidence of Our Crime

Will Folks: Actually, It Turns Out I Do Have a Lot More To Say About My Alleged Affair With Nikki Haley

Modeling the Polar Bear Tipping Point

America Speaks Out! -- The 'Cuda-approved site:
America Speaking Out -- from the House Republicans . . . actually, to the House Republicans, from the American People . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eleven

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May 17 (Monday, Day 13, Puerto Chiapas, Mexico) -

Sunrise, May 17

Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico and Puerto Chiapas is one of three ports in the state but the only one that handles cruise ships. Puerto Chiapas was built in 2005 and around 11 or 12 cruise ships dock each year. The port has two pyramid-type buildings with thatch roofs. The port area was nicely landscaped, including a fountain between the main pyramid port terminal building and the ship dock. One pyramid houses various gift shops and the other has an outdoor pool (mostly used by crew members). The closest town is Tapachula, 30 minutes away, which is close to the border of Mexico and Guatemala.

More after the jump . . .

U.S. declares fishery disaster in 3 Gulf states

Lord Monckton wins global warming debate at Oxford Union -- Bottom line: global warming alarmists can't cite sources for their assertions. Global warming "skeptics" can.

North Korea cuts ties with South -- Uh-oh? Or just more psychotic North Korean saber-rattling?

Cruise Line Cancels Sailing After Engine Room Fire

NASA calls it quits for Mars Phoenix lander

Jason Killian Meath: Obama Should Send Sarah Palin to Louisiana -- It would be an uncharacteristically non-divisive move from our most partisan President of modern times . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Ten

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May 15 (Saturday, Day 11, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, continued) -

Snowy egret

We continue with pictures of the boat tour of the Guacalillo estuary and Tarcoles River.

More after the jump . . .

A thug too far, part 1 -- "Progressivism" is, at its black, evil heart simply thuggery--but thuggery with outstandingly good P.R. This kind of thing is what you're voting for when you vote for a Democrat--or for that matter, a "moderate" Republican

When It Comes to Security, Think 'Natural': Security Organizations Could Be More Effective If Officials Learn from Nature

Security systems could be more effective if officials looked at how organisms deal with threats in the natural world, University of Arizona researchers suggest in the May 20 edition of the journal Nature. The authors are working with security and disaster management officials to help put some of their recommendations -- such as decentralizing forces and forming alliances -- into practice.

Wow. Decentralizing forces. Forming alliances. Sounds kind of . . . oh, I don't know . . . federal--with a lower-case F. It certainly doesn't sound like a central bureaucratic behemoth of a national government arrogating power to itself and concentrating it in Washington, DC, where it's hours--if not days or weeks--from being able to respond meaningfully to a crisis that needs a rapid response.

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nine

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May 15 (Saturday, Day 11, Puntarenas, Costa Rica) -

Pre-sunrise color, May 15

We all woke up early for our 8:15 departure for our Eco Mangrove River Cruise. Filbert got out on the deck for some early morning dolphin watching, and was rewarded with a couple of encounters.

More after the jump . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eight

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May 13 (Thursday, Day 9, Panama Canal Crossing) -

Approaching the Panama Canal

Filbert woke up around 4AM after not sleeping much due to the bad weather and waves. Snookums heard the tenders being lowered and that woke her up around 4:30AM. (We don’t know why the tenders were being moved. No one was getting off the ship. Maybe they were testing them or something?) We were scheduled to start going through the Panama Canal around 5AM so she just stayed up.

More after the jump . . .

You really can't fault me for leading with . . .

Miss USA Rima Fakih is a champion pole dancer -- no, really. Not a joke . . . not even a Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Tina Fey . . .

What is a Right? -- If you want to know what our problem is, this is it--the fundamental misconception on the part of otherwise fairly smart people on what a right really is. The simplest way to understand it is: A right to engage in a behavior occurs when that behavior does not require another person for you to engage in that behavior. If what you want to do requires somebody else to do something, it can't be a right, because you are dependent on somebody else to give that behavior to you. That is why being left alone is a right. You don't need anybody else to be left alone. Life is a right--you don't require another person to simply exist. Food, clothing, shelter are all rights only to the extent that you can obtain them without the intervention of another person.

When you must engage another person to obtain something, or to engage in a behavior, you have moved beyond the concept of a right, to the much more complex area of interpersonal behavior--which includes social interactions, economic transactions, and politics. But social interactions, economic transactions, and political actions are not--can not be rights. Rights precede all of those interpersonal transactions, and set limits upon them.

Rights are inherent to every individual, do not require another person's action in order to exercise, and set limits upon the behaviors that one individual may perform with or for--or impose upon--another individual.

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Seven

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May 12 (Wednesday, Day 8, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, continued) -

Ant, in the wild

More after the jump . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Six

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May 12 (Wednesday, Day 8, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, continued) -

Butterfly in the hand . . .

More after the jump . . .

The Panama Canal-Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco-20-night Voyage, May 6-26, Regent Seven Seas Navigator

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Five

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May 11 (Tuesday, Day 7, At sea) -

Today was a slow day. Not much interested us on the schedule of activities. Filbert and Snookums were invited to the “Titanium, Platinum and Gold Members” Seven Seas Society gathering at 11:15 since we sailed at least 75 days and are Gold. 80 people were there and the ship has 500 guests on it. That’s a pretty high ratio of very frequent cruisers. We hobnobbed with various officers and Paul, the Cruise Director. Randy Cabral, the master of juggling and comedy, also gave a 5-minute performance for us so that was neat.. Snookums was hoping for some good food, like a light lunch, but had to settle for a dessert waffle bar with various sweet toppings. She actually didn’t have any but instead waited for lunch. Bill was part of the party, too, since he turned Gold on this cruise and was able to finagle an invitation to this event.

Snookums went to “Cardio Circuit” and managed to raise her heart rate a lot for 45 minutes and didn’t pass out. In the meantime, Filbert ate some bad seafood salad and paid the price later. (He didn’t go to dinner since he was sick but felt better immediately after ridding his body of the bad seafood salad.)

Mom, Dad and Snookums went to Randy Cabral’s juggling/comedy show after dinner and once again Mom had to use her inhaler since she laughed so much. Randy does some really stupid tricks and says some really stupid things but he’s hilarious.

May 12 (Wednesday, Day 8, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; 510 Costa Rican colon to the dollar) -

A dreary start

We had an early shore excursion today. We met at 8 AM for a trip to Veragua Rainforest.

More after the jump . . .