Free Republic

Comes the time on your flight to Hawaii where they ask you that all important question. “Is it faster by bus or by Schenectady?” No. A good question, though. “Are you trying to bring fruit into Hawaii?” There are a lot of things that I worry about. Like, “I wonder if the dogs ate the dog sitter?” “If Joy Behar talked in a forest, and no one was there, would a tree fall over from the stupid?” “How do chickens kiss?” You know, big important stuff. I have never worried about being called a “mule” for the big fruit cartels,...

We decided (by “We” I mean my wife) that we should celebrate our Son’s big achievement. He got out of bed before noon. No. He graduated. I know. We were all kind of surprised. We needed an appropriate reward, but Miss Oregon was already taken, so we thought a trip would be nice. Yeah. A good trip. A trip to the big luau. That’s right. Seattle. Turns out the whole city was booked up. They were having a coffee stirrers convention or something. You know, I applied for one of those, what do they call them, bannisters, job. You know....stirring...

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends. The Urban Health Initiative, which received the award, was originally based on a smaller program launched during the last decade by Michelle Obama, who was an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center before she departed to become first lady. The UHI is headed up by Obama basketball and golf buddy Whitaker, who has known the president since Obama’s...

Barack Obama’s trips to Hawaii on a chartered Boeing 757 each cost more than twice the price of Sarah Palin’s new clothes. Brad Blakeman, who was in charge of scheduling for President Bush, says a Boeing 757 costs about $20,000 an hour for fuel, crew, and maintenance. Since a trip to Hawaii entails 10 hours of flying time from Chicago, the total cost for each round-trip comes to about $400,000. Obama used the Boeing 757 for trips to Hawaii over the summer for a vacation and again last week to see his failing grandmother. Admirable though that visit was, “By...