Well, I have been dealing with a head cold for a couple weeks and thought I was about over it. Woke up with a sore throat Tuesday. By Tuesday night I could not sleep and I was pretty sure it had to be strep throat. I had it two years ago and it about killed me. Finally had to go to Immediate Care (a great clinic, by the way) in the Market Shopping Center on Claremore’s south side. Basically, when I begin to contemplate elaborate suicide schemes I know that it’s strep.

I had a temp of 103! The doc looked at my throat ofr half a second and said “Yep! No culture needed.” He later said I was the sickest person he’s seen all week. Let it never be said that I am an under-achiever. Got started on my meds, and I am finally able to sleep some. Soaked the bed clothes once already from the fever. Jeane changes them and I showered. Just had some soup and I am headed back to bed. Just typing this is taking its toll. I better run. Just wanted to let you know I will be scarce on the WynnBlog and with all my other responsibilities for a while.

Ann Coulter’s most recent column addresses the news story I recently mentioned regarding the Muslim imams removed from a recent flight. She reports some other interesting facts, laced with her typical sarcasm (which I tend to enjoy).

Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

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The idea that a Muslim boycott against US Airways would hurt the airline proves that Arabs are utterly tone-deaf. This is roughly the equivalent of Cindy Sheehan taking a vow of silence. How can we hope to deal with people with no sense of irony? The next thing you know, New York City cab drivers will be threatening to bathe.

She also has strong words about who we choose to let in this country:

Wholly apart from the issue of terrorism, don’t we have a seller’s market for new immigrants? How does a blind Muslim get to the top of the visa list? Is there a shortage of blind, fanatical clerics in this country that I haven’t noticed? Couldn’t we get some Burmese with leprosy instead? A 4-year-old could do a better job choosing visa applicants than the U.S. Department of Immigration.

You should read it all.

You gotta love Tom Coburn. This man is truly what a citizen-legislator should be. He has remarked that Republicans’ huge losses are due to thier abandoning the small-government principles of Reagan and Goldwater. I believe he is right.

Coburn, however, is in a position to do something about it. He and his ally, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, are continuing to throw up major roadblocks the the earmark-laden budget proposals for next year.

OpinionJournal reports that until next year’s budgets pass, the Congress has been passing Continuing Resolutions which fund the government at last year’s levels. And talk about a hissy fit, some federal agencies and departments–not to mention legislators–are ticked. For example, Alaska Senator, Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens is whining that “important projects” in his state are going undone.

In response:

“Any agency that can’t figure out how to function under a one-year CR is incompetent,” a Coburn spokesman tells Congress Daily. “If appropriators took this seriously they wouldn’t be wasting time earmarking and putting stoplights in their districts. The hypocrisy is astounding.”

Their message: stop the earmarks and we’ll vote on the budget.

If the earmarks don’t go, Coburn and DeMint are prepared to offer amendments that will keep Congress in session until long after Santa has started work on next year’s toys. Hooray for Coburn! This is EXACTLY why I voted for the man!

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Obscure reference:

When a President [Senator is close enough] goes through the White House [Senate Chamber] door,
An’ does what he says he’ll do.
We’ll all be drinkin’ free bubble-ubb,
Eatin’ that rainbow stew.

Ever since the Muslim imams were removed from a plane after the big Islam-o-conference last week, we have repeatedly been subjected to the notion that they were “profiled” or that Islamophobia has taken over America. Well, here’s a bit more information for you from the Washington Times:

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks — two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

“That would alarm me,” said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. “They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane.” [emphasis added]

Wonder why there was concern?

SermonCentral.com is carrying a very instructive article by John MacArthur (one of my heroes). He begins by saying:

[Expository] preaching is in short supply these days. There are plenty of gifted communicators in the modern evangelical movement, but today’s sermons tend to be short, shallow, topical homilies that massage people’s egos and focus on fairly insipid subjects like human relationships, “successful” living, emotional issues, and other practical but worldly—and not definitively biblical—themes. These messages are lightweight and without substance, cheap and synthetic, leaving little more than an ephemeral impression on the minds of the hearers.

He, then, very effectively lays out fifteen results of biblically-anemic preaching. See what you think.