Mark Steyn wrote a love letter, or at least a respect letter, about Cary Grant recently. It’s excellent, a winding tale of the man’s humor and greatness, achievement and memorable moments.
I’m a huge Cary Grant fan. You have no idea how huge. Thus, I had to send Steyn a response. Here is his article. I definitely recommend it. And for you, my committed and not-so-committed readers, is my response.

Cary, our suave Capitalist

You can’t create a character like Cary Grant. But Cary Grant did.

Whatever he was or could be, he became. He isn’t simply the embodiment of style and seduction, if either can be considered simple, but a character of capitalism. He dreamed. He gambled. He risked it all. He walked onto the open road and dreamed a dream. Then he reaped the fruition of his labor.

He personified the spirit of American exceptionalism: from a child of poverty to a man of legend, all without the aid of anything more than his charm. And oh what charm.

I was nine-years-old when he died, not even coming to understand his cinematic and personal significance until decades after his death. Then when I noticed, I noticed. I think all who cross the path of Cary Grant find their motion halted. You have to stop, have to notice. There is something about that man that simply cannot be ignored. He’s Cary Grant. And he understood the responsibility it required.

You’re article was magnificently right. Cary Grant pulled off a feat extinct in today’s glamor brigade, he created a sellable product while never losing appreciation for it’s customers. He could be debonair and rogue, manly and flirtatious, all while receiving devotion in humility. He was real. He was grateful. He was gracious. And in the end, that is what solidified his class.

Cary Grant was something, all right. But he would have been nothing without the worn shoes, undying spirit, unfailing gumption, and capitalistic spirit of Archibald Leach. And they both knew it.

I try to laugh a lot of this stuff off. I really do. During an average day, I sporadically shut down all political information outgoing and ingoing, all to keep my emotions balanced. Basically, so I don’t hurt quite so much.
This man, however, bruised my heart. I never saw his face, but I heard his voice. It was an unsteady sound, one with disappointment and pain. A voice speaking from the hurt of being ignored, pushed around, trampled on and bullied.
He came to speak. He came prepared. He had questions. And as a citizen of this country, he has the right to ask his government representative about his concerns. He pays for that right. He might have even fought for it.

Instead, like many attendees of these town hall meetings, he’s being vilified for his concern. It’s his life that’s on the line. His family’s lives. The very nature of his freedom that is being bantered around and tossed away with only a month’s notice.

And when you get down to it, what we’re talking about is his country. His proud nation. Maybe his chest pinches ever so slightly when he sees the crimson red of the flag in the morning light. Maybe his favorite movie is “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and like Jimmie Stewart’s character, his breath catches at the words “all men are created equal”. Perhaps he even sheds a tear during the National Anthem in his hometown ball games.

This man is me, really. He only wants to be heard, to be counted. He doesn’t want his life altered by a group of politicians who won’t remember him from one instant to the next. He wants to count. And in his country, his proud and robust America, his singular voice has always been honored.

Now, however, his words make him a mob. His congressman won’t take his questions. Even his President wants him silenced.

So his voice wavered. It lilted a little as he refused to be gagged and shuffled out the door. He is but one man, one voice, one soul who demanded his country remember him, like he’s remembering his country.

He’s an American. A free being. And if we lose him, if we can no longer value the individual voice, his voice, his emotion-rich voice, we’ll have lost it all.

I, like him, refuse to be silent…even if my voice trembles.

You look different, he said.

It might have been the new shirt from Target. Or maybe it’s the wind. Either way, despite my aversion to the word “change”, I’ve had some. A friend of mine, and one of my blog readers, sent me a direct message on Twitter today about a recent photo I posted.
“Your countenance has changed. Sarah, Ayn Rand, perhaps a guy, perhaps you’re older-don’t know,” he said.
Whatever has happened, it isn’t a guy. Look at how fast we can narrow our choices! Was it Sarah Palin? Reading “Atlas Shrugged”? My new zest for teff bread? Perhaps we’ll never know. There are mysteries in life that compel educated men to dig in the dirt with little toothbrushes. And still, they only have guesses and conjecture.

I gave it a little thought. A little. And with me, that means I dissected his words into letters and then into sounds and then into groanings of a primal, medieval form.
“You’re blogging increased dramatically. Changed from personal stuff to natl/world matters,” he said. “Definitely more driven. Like somebody plugged you into a light socket. Olderness makes people more production oriented. I’ve observed.”

So I looked older? I’m not going there.
Actually, his thoughts sparked my thought bubble, my light bulb, my zing of understanding. Being driven. I had been thinking about that for days.

Yesterday, I got a call from a friend. It was one of those calls where you instantly know they are frustrated, not with you but with life. Pleasantries are disposed of. Instead they jump right in with, “Have you ever experienced…”
My friend had a problem of progress. He viewed his life, his accomplishments, his economic and personal status, and wanted to achieve more. In pre-Obama, pre-Lefty extremism America, you considered this aversion to status quo an attribute. Reach for those stars. Succeed. Be all that you can be. Success begets success. Those that achieved opened roads to other achievers. Trickle-down economics still dripped.

In all honesty, I’m not so sure we’ve completely given up the dream. We still want success. We want fame (in moderation) and fortune (in a Swiss bank account) and the good life. We want the happy ending, the thrilling beginning, and the comfy middle. We’ve forgotten, however, it required a fight. Or maybe our competitive muscles simply atrophied.

I don’t know if I’m sandwiched between lazy generations or it’s basic misconception. We’ve been taught you’re special for being a color, not a character. Different is only good in thus, thus forms. Individuals outside the box, angling their view around current culture - from questioning global warming to Matt Damon’s political prowess - should be shunned. And for too long, shunned we’ve stayed.

Yesterday, I told my friend, “Personally speaking, I don’t know when I got the ignorant idea life was suppose to be easy. When did I decide success should come because I was ready for it?” I wasn’t raised with that mentality, but my frustration at the fight ahead revealed the ugly truth: I had entitlement issues, too.

So life is hard. Yeah. It’s universally known, printed on coffee mugs and embroidered on pillows. I won’t be recognized as more than a state writer because I want it. That takes earning. And that’s, actually, how I want it.
It won’t come from catching a break. It’ll come from writing a few hundred thousand more words, reading my thesaurus like a Dean Koontz thriller, losing innumerable nights of sleep because inspiration always hits at midnight, and working for it until adjectives produce beads of forehead perspiration.

At some mile marker on this journey, I realized my conservative values, as well, won’t win easily. I might have to attend some rallies, write more blogs, read more history, prepare more arguments, have more conversations, encourage more voters, volunteer more time, actively and purposefully seek more personal drive.
It’s going to take work. Conservatism won’t win simply because we’re ready, we’re annoyed, we’re devastated at the turn of national events. I hope I never forget: I don’t believe in entitlement.

So, yes. I look different. Perhaps it’s the competitive glint back in my eye. Perhaps it was a speck of dust. Whatever he saw, I feel it, like a growl rising from my throat. I’m sick of being silenced, sick of the intimidation, sick of being spurned for my beliefs. And when individual freedom is on the line, losing gracefully is only losing.

I’m so ready for a fight. Cue the cheesy Rocky music.

I take it back. Her announcement I hoped was a political move. That was my initial reaction. Perhaps, it was optimism getting the better of me. But I was wrong.

She’s gone. She’s really, truly gone. Over the last two hours I’ve been searching for every shred of information I can find. Here’s what I’ve come up with - nothing.

If she was planning another political run, planning a go at the Presidency, her PR team and supporters would be taking this influx of attention and spinning it toward bigger and brighter horizons. Instead…it’s silence.

Oh, everyone’s talking. Just not Sarah. Not her team. All is quiet and reflective in Alaska.

I don’t blame her. In fact, considering the unrelenting personal attacks on herself and her children, most would have left by now. Or self imploded. If anyone looks cross-eyed at my family, I crack my knuckles.

For conservatives, it’s been a tough couple of months. We watched a lunatic lefty sworn into office. And hoping against hope the damage he’d inflict could be slowed, we’ve seen those hopes end. In fact, this week the Senate Democrats even got a super majority with Al Franken, a man famous for wearing an adult diaper.

What was once an honorable profession - public office - looks like a collection of adulterers and thieves and greedy egomaniacs. We work everyday, govern our life, and are hammered on the head perpetually about how ignorant we are, how we need government, how we can’t even run our own lives. And all the while, they’re spending money on toad reproduction, pig odor studies, and bridges to nowhere…everywhere.

We, however, are the ignorant ones.

Sarah was one of us…among them. And with her out there, out in the light, righting our fight, we took our place among the producers, kept our head down, and waited for the rallying cry of “victory”.

Instead, another warrior is gone, at least from Washington. A microcosmic city on the edge of this country is making all the decisions of our life, and we have so few representatives. We are the voice unnoticed. We’re so quiet, we often wonder if anyone is speaking for us at all.

So it’s been a hard couple of months. And more are coming. I have no idea about the turning of the tide, or if the tide has set a permanent course. But as a conservative, both politically and socially, I have one last best hope.

Divine faith.

No matter if our political statues rise or fall, there is still a plan beyond the petty bickering of this ant hill. There is a hope higher, grander, greater. And even if the mountains, political or physical, crumble into the sea, we are never alone.

So long Sarah. Thanks for the good fight. Thanks for being our voice for a time. The future is open and yours. Perhaps we’ll cross paths again on the battle lines. Until then, God bless you.

But back to my sunburn. I can’t stop thinking about it. It won’t let me.
I thought about it when I read about Obama issuing a generic statement about Iran before heading out for ice cream with his daughters.
I thought about it when I listened to a poem an Iranian woman recited over the nighttime sounds of chanting, screaming, and gunshots.
I thought about it when I watched a young girl, observing the protests with her father, targeted by the regime and shot in the heart. I couldn’t stop thinking about it while this strikingly beautiful young woman bled to death before my eyes, before the eyes of the world, before the eyes of her father. I just couldn’t stop thinking about my sunburn.

Humans, we’re imperfect. We are. Gloriously defunct. We make mistakes, sometimes the same ones, over and over again. Our choices are often wrong. Our opinions are often misinformed. Our actions are often poorly motivated.
We’re gaffe masters. And if not given the leg room to stretch out our faux paus, we’ll never learn. We’ll never really live.
That is what the Iranian protesters are fighting for: the right to make their own mistakes without fear of government punishment. To fail and succeed. To choose one or the other. To truly live. They are so hungry for freedom, they are dying in the streets to obtain it.
For big government advocates, control is compassion. We’ve got to stop people from making mistakes so we’ll imprison them with mandatory regulations.
In truth, this is only a trade. Government lovers swap the choice to make your own mistakes for the lack of choice to make the government’s mistakes.
Governments err, too. They are comprised of humans, of course they err. In fact, the bigger they are, the more errant they become. Why? My hypothesis is it takes more people to control more people.
The Iranian protests simply want to be individuals. Singular malfunctioning humans.
And that will always be under attack. The free mind is the only real threat of dictators, socialist rulers, and big government advocates. The free mind cannot be governed. Cannot be controlled. Cannot be enslaved.
The free mind chooses whether to apply sunscreen or whether to suffer the consequences later. The major difference: when I made my mistake, the only one burned was myself.

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”

He must have seen this chart about himself:

$1.85 trillion deficit. Obama should use his powers of persuasion on himself.

Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending.

Actually, Obama (one of them) mocked $18 billion in budget cuts, but that was when McCain proposed it during the campaign. And this is what Obama, the former not the latter, said.

“Earmarks account for one half of one percent of the total federal budget. But it’s not going to solve the problem.”

Now, $17 billion matters.

“$17 billion dollars taken out of our discretionary, non-defense budget, as well as portions of our defense budget, are significant. They mean something.”

(Notice the word play? Taken out of our…non-defense budget, as well as…defense. Why not just say taken out of defense? Oh that Clinton play on words - saying opposing things at once. I’ve not missed it.)

True, Obama - one of you. It does “mean something”. They mean the loss of 30,000 jobs in St. Louis, Missouri. Defense cuts will slow the production of C-17 cargo planes, made at Boeing - the second largest employer in St. Louis.

The bottom line is Boeing needs to get through to President Obama, Congress and Secretary Gates. If not, they stand to lose more than 5,000 jobs at Boeing in St. Louis, and 30,000 total local jobs, including suppliers.

Boeing executives are reaching out to anyone who will listen. They’re trying to get Congress to put the planes back in the budget.

“If that message doesn’t get through, we’ve got to start reacting to the news,” said Vice President of Operations John Van Gels. “And that means start laying off people by the end of the year.”

Employees said that would deliver a devastating blow to Boeing and St. Louis.

“It would just amaze me to think that one day I’m coming here to build the best cargo plane in the world, and the next I’m going to the unemployment office,” Moran said.

Gateway has more on Obama’s spending that is coming under fire from Obama:

Obama will quadruple the deficit this year.
Obama’s budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, and adds more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined.

They are in the business, remember, of getting an ever growing audience. And if their reporting style doesn’t do it, and their elite snottiness guarantees that, then they’ve got to entice you with whatever arsenal they have left: fear.
An anxious population tunes in every day, maybe every hour, to hear the newest alert and follow instruction on how to best live their lives. That’s the media’s drug of choice, no matches, needles, or messiness necessary. Just pure power. What a rush.

For a sector of individuals so opposed to weapons that cause human destruction, they have no problem being one.

So yeah, there’s a swine flu. How lucky for all of us we now have a cute little name for a season of coughing, sore throat, fever and headaches. The piggy flu would have been cuter.

But panic isn’t the appropriate response. Dread, sure. I always dread flu season. And just getting over the flu, with no cutsy animal name tagged to it, I wouldn’t say it’s a bag of laughs. It wrecks havoc on your exercise regiment, workload, and nose. But it’s always a good time to catch up on your reading, that is, of course, if your fever is low-enough for brain function. Mine was hit and miss.

Here is today’s news in the swine garble, something you might want to know:

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world.

Vivienne Allan, from WHO’s patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths - all in Mexico - and 79 confirmed cases of the disease.

The typical, humdrum, everyone-gets-it flu that recently kicked my fanny, kills 36,000 people annually in the United States, with 13,000 already since January. And yet we’re suppose to freak out about the swine flu?

Here’s another soundbite you might find interesting. It will either get buried or explained away or used. As Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Look for massive talks of the dire need for universal health care, or stronger unions, or windfall profit taxes, or government-funded abortions, or (fill in Obama agenda) to come out of this.

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza — at least in its current form — isn’t shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

We have the Vice-President advising his family on national television to stay off planes and subways, pictures of world populations wearing surgical masks, and banners on every station, yet this could be a normal flu season?

The swine flu isn’t airborne, either. It’s caused by droplets. So stay away from anyone looking suspiciously leaky and eat your vegetables. You knew Mom was right.

When the media says “panic”, don’t. They get paid to repeat that word over and over and in as many different forms and ways as possible. When this crisis passes, another will be fast on it’s heels. I wonder if the media can connect pig flatulence to global warming? Stay tuned.

You could say it’s still on life support, but even the chronically ill are fed oxygen. This appears to be asphyxiation on it’s own propaganda.

The corpse I see now more closely resembles Jeff Goldblum in the final scenes of the 1986 “The Fly” - a lump of the greatness it was, the pollution of what it became, and the death of them both.

It was 1996 when I entered the world of newspaper journalism. I was 19. You could say I was naive, but that would be an understatement. The profession opened my eyes, then threw dirt in them.

I started from scratch, from a beat reporter, from making ignorant mistakes, from facing unimaginable horrors and then required to write objectively about them, from spending hours in a dark room with only the red light and the stench of fixer fluid to keep me company.

I loved it.

Despite the pathetic pay, insurmountable hours, and even sporadic public animosity, I viewed the profession as valiant, like a tidier Sherlock Holmes without the tobacco addiction. I was a truth-seeker and educator, combined behind poorly fitting clothes and a curious glance. Each new discovery, new story, was a well-earned Girl Scout patch I could iron on to a jacket, if only I could afford the jacket.

Not all that much has changed. I still can’t afford the jacket. But a certain portion of the idealism is long gone. I don’t respect journalism as a whole. Instead, it’s like a favorite necklace that ceased to be my favorite after falling into the sewage drain. I have no intention of rescuing it. Instead, I’ll stand upwind and admire what it once was.

The last 48-hours of news coverage hasn’t shocked me. It’s really just another line in the obit. But it brings me a level of revulsion when I consider the integrity of what it once was, what it should be, what Americans need it to be, and what it will never be again.
The free press, ladies and gentlemen, has been imprisoned. And that leads me to my first example.

Example 1: the arrest of John Zeigler on the campus of USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism. If irony is a feather, this blew it away.

Zeigler is a journalist and independent film maker, recently releasing his documentary, “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.” Standing outside the reception for the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism awarded this year to Katie Couric for her lopsided interview of Sarah Palin (an example of journalism buffoonery but I only have so much time to write this article so we’re sticking to the last 48-hours), Zeigler had planned to ask attendees questions and hand out free copies of his DVD.
Instead, he was handcuffed and kicked off the campus…the journalism campus…for journalism…during a journalism award banquet…for journalism excellence.

The entire video is worth watching. Zeigler keeps a running dialogue during the entire escapade about the absurdity. And when he directs his questions, while handcuffed, to the college administration about their idea of journalism, they answer by turning their back and walking away.
Roll tape!

Oh Walter. Look at what’s become of your beloved profession.

Example 2: CNN reporter Susan Roesgen’s overtly biased report of the Chicago Tea Party, claiming it is “anti-government, anti-CNN”, promoted by the “right-wing conservative network Fox” and “not family viewing”, then patty-caked by her fellow CNN reporter in the studio.

Roesgen not only became part of the story, a journalism no-no, she antagonized participants by countering and arguing. Also a big journalism no-no.
Here’s a Journalism 101 lesson for Roesgen: REPORT. That’s it. This is a rally, a protest, all you have to do it report. Put a microphone in their face and let them speak. Show the crowd. TADA! Done. The job of a reporter is not to agree or disagree with an event they are covering UNLESS they are a political commentator or columnist. She is not.
Her job is to report, thus the title “reporter”. Show the event. Let the people speak. It’s their moment, not yours. Then go home.

The video of the report I grabbed is from Founding Bloggers via HotAir, who happened on the scene immediately after the broadcast to show a female rally participant explain to Roesgen her job. And Roesgen’s response? “You know, you really don’t need to be so antagonistic.”
Huh?

Is it the pinched mouth, hands on hips, or snotty attitude toward the crowd that gives me the impression Roesgen doesn’t like these people?

Example 3: MSNBC’s David Shuster decided the description of a grassroots effort by taxpayers to protest against excessive taxation could be perfectly complimented by using profane terminology.

Not frequenting the social circles of Shuster, I had no idea what “teabagging” meant. But after his report about the 2009 Tea Party, I got a pretty good idea.

Yeah Shuster, we get it. Oral sex. Hilarious. How crafty and crude of you to use all those double entendres. You did nothing but demonstrate your ignorance about the Tea Party protests and embarrass your mother.

Example 4: CNN’s Anderson Cooper, also well-versed in the “teabagging” definition, makes an oral sex joke while interviewing David Gergen, who found the nastiness quite amusing.

This vulgar joke has been repeated a few times with other reporters, but unlike these low-class journalists, I’m going to spare you. And spare myself while I’m at it.

I’m no prognosticator. I cannot tell the future of journalism, I can only report it.
But I know a thing or two about human nature, as most anyone does. There is a tipping point.

Everyone has a limit. And one day, which we may have already reached or are nearing, the public - the consumers - will have extended their last second chance to the news profession.
They will turn it off. Tune it out.
First, however, they’ll start by simply not believing anymore. And this is where we’ve arrived. Long before the newspaper offices close and the television pundits are silenced, the life of mainstream journalism will be snuffed out by irrelevance.

I won’t mourn it. I may not even go to the funeral.

You can’t help it. Cross into the state and suddenly everyone’s driving faster, with purpose, with polite aggression. You have a mission. You are going…somewhere. And the journey is a competition of agility, quick lane changes, traffic openings, and efficient wheel manipulations.
This is legendary country, producing greats like Nolan Ryan, George Jones, and Howard Hughes. In Texas you walk taller, harder, with sure-footedness and boldness. You look people in the eye, nod, grin even, and say things like, “Excuse me, but you dropped this.”
Individuals are still individuals. It’s the idea of personal liberty on steroids, like finding your favorite cinnamon scented candle and sniffing it until you get a slight headache. There is so much of a good thing you wonder, ‘Can I handle it?’ So you take a deep breath of unscented air and then sniff the candle some more.
When Gov. Rick Perry announced his support of the 10th Amendment state sovereignty resolution, even Matt Drudge’s ears perked up, giving the story a banner. The movement isn’t new. In fact, Texas is just one of 33 states filing a 10th resolution, with Oklahoma debated as the possible first.
But that’s Texas for you. It has charisma, like the one truly cool kid in the classroom all the faux cool kids pretend to ignore and clandestinely covet. This kid wears cowboy boots and spouts personal philosophy in one-line sentences like, “Make me” and “No.”
You can’t follow him. He’s going his own way and neither wants nor needs company. But maybe, just maybe, you can mimic his movements and earn his respect.
That’s Texas.
Their size might have something to do with it. No one wants to mess with the big landmass boy. Or perhaps it’s their unapologetic lifestyle. They are red, gun toting, autonomous, self-sufficient, and in case you didn’t notice, adventurous. Life on the border means asserting their culture constantly, with walls and guns and military, if need be. If you think New Yorkers are rude, try camping out with the Mexican drug cartel in your backyard.
At the end of the day, if the worst thing they face is someone not liking them, they don’t care. That is freedom in a post-politically correct world.
Gov. Perry has that independent spirit, that call of the wild western days where men knew a thing or two about survival and judged each other by their handshake. His words are not pretty sounds. They are precursory warnings. Even in this day of talking a problem to death, he might be a last dying breed of action heroes.
“Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas,” Perry said, as if drawing a line in the dirt with his boot and daring the federal government to cross it. You can almost hear him saying, “Now git!”
Texas has legitimized the 10th Amendment movement, not only giving it a voice but making it holler. The clatter of states already aboard could turn into a clanging noise and that could mean bad press for an administration only afraid of one thing - bad press.
Like author John Steinbeck said, “Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word.”
That means the 10th Amendment has gained its greatest ally. And this gunslinger of a state won’t ride off into the sunset, won’t stop until they get their way, and won’t go quietly.
God bless Texas.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Tenth Amendment

You could call them the winds of change, propelling individual states to rise from the burnt ash of federal control, like Phoenix taking flight, and declare their sovereignty. But in actuality, they were just western gusts blowing in severe weather. By nightfall, the entire state would be dodging hail-coated tornadoes and change would still only be a campaign slogan.

I was heading to the state capitol in “The City”, our state nickname for Oklahoma City because saying “Oklahoma” while in Oklahoma seems redundant, and fighting with my steering wheel to stay on the road. Wind in the western part of the state is like riding a stallion with halitosis, you hold on and hold your breath. Dealing with politicians isn’t much different.

By the time I reached the Oklahoma State Capitol two hours later, I was wondering about the story that brought me here and two obnoxious questions: Would state government bite back against the federal government’s ramrod across clearly-drawn Constitutional lines of authority? Would my hair frizz from the humidity?

There’s something about a deluge of cologne that makes you feel like someone’s trying to hide a stink. That’s politics for you – ties, pantsuits, and posturing. Don’t misunderstand me. I have friends in politics, people I’ve known personally or worked with who serve with honesty and integrity. But put too many handshakes in too small a room and anyone can get turned around.

That can be and often is politics, which is why the founding fathers worked to keep it local, the main reason we have a Tenth Amendment. If you have a major problem, your state representative is reachable. Walk in, sit down, and talk to them. And if you can’t catch them in the building, you can grab them at the Rotary Chili Cook-off.

The federal government is an altogether different fairytale. It’s a dragon with innumerable heads and cutting one off only fertilizes two more. Reaching even your U.S. Congressman means going through a series of strategic roadblocks, often called assistants.

And besides, in the fisheye world of Washington, D.C., they aren’t facing disgruntled constituents over the pumping stations at Conoco or across the counter at Whole Foods. It’s called isolation. And we do the same for our federal government reps that we do for mentally ill citizens, padded room and all.

After half an hour and four flights of stairs trying to find a bathroom, I managed to orient myself inside the Oklahoma State Capitol which is essentially a labyrinth of open hallways and indigenous artwork structured socially like a small-town. Walking from floor to floor, shaking hands and exchanging smiles and business cards, I sensed the microcosmic atmosphere of any American Main Street where everyone knows everyone. And if you’re new, you’re eye candy.

Within a few hours, Rep. Charles Key and I were sitting comfortably at a round table with a slightly off-balanced leg in a conference room behind the Oklahoma House of Representatives floor. The Speaker of the House in the next room was rattling off scheduled shell bills like an auctioneer pushing through used cars. And I began quizzing the man helping to spur what is becoming a national movement or a series of fortunate events.

“The Constitution is very specific on what institutions have what rights and authority. The Federal government violated that structure and are out of their Constitutional law,” said Rep. Key, small in stature but big in patriotism. “The bill says to stop doing that. Get back into your Constitutional role.”

The hand-smack came in the form of a Tenth Amendment reaffirming resolution declaring state sovereignty, basically stating:

Dear Federal Government,
Remember the Tenth Amendment? You aren’t the boss of me. Now abide by it and back off.
Love, Oklahoma State Government

The Tenth Amendment isn’t as widely recognized as the First or Second or even Fifth, which we plead to save our own hides. The Tenth, however, is more like a polished stone – smooth to the sensibilities but unbreakable. Bite into it, and you’ll chip a tooth.

“There’s a broad range of rights and powers that the 10th ‘protects’.  But, most importantly, the primary role of this amendment was to affirm a strict limitation on the federal government,” said Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center. “The federal government, under our constitution, actually has very little power.   The most important and the most difficult issues are left to the states - or to the people to handle in their local communities.”

Imagine a pyramid with your face at the top, along with the faces of the other 304 million American citizens. They all fit. It’s a big pyramid. Then come the layers of power from the state and local government. And at the very bottom, the heaviest but weakest, is the federal government.

The founding fathers established the Tenth out of experience. Escaping the slavery of taxation imposed by King George III in England, they knew unchecked federal government meant bloodletting for the little guy. So instead, they positioned state government over the windpipe of the federal government, ready to cut off their flow of oxygen if they breathed too deeply.

In recent years crescendoing in Obama’s days, the federal government has been hyperventilating.

“As I saw the Constitution violated and the structure fall apart, it became a real concern for me,” said Key, running onto the floor to cast a vote and back to our wobbly table for more questioning. “Something will take it’s place if it keeps going where we’re going and history tells us it will not be good.”

What history will say so far might have too much profanity for the classroom textbooks. As private sector businesses go through a genocide of government bailouts, what once was a ‘hands off’ zone for those CK1 spritzed politicians is now an open cookie jar with their hand inside. The federal government sends money, then sends demands. It’s taken only weeks before the President of the United States is holding press conferences about why he fired the CEO of GM, while private citizens return their company bonuses in fear of 90 percent taxation. Times are good and days are bright for Constitutionally ignorant micro-managers on the government payroll.

States, either from years of being stepped on or recent violations through the stimulus, have been reclaiming the battle cry of the Tenth Amendment and filing state sovereignty resolutions to remind the federal government who is the parent and who is the child. To date, 33 states have filed resolutions with more expected.

“Much of the economic trouble we are seeing today was brought on by a federal government that didn’t respect or follow the limits on its power that were created by the Constitution,” Boldin said. “For many years, people in this country have allowed the politicians to ‘bend the rules’ of the constitution - ostensibly for good reasons.  But, when that happens for any continued period of time, eventually you’ll end up with a government that feels the rules don’t apply at all.  It’s my opinion that we’re near or at that position today.”

The resolutions, so far, are warning signs, like a guard dog’s bark. But should the federal government insist on scaling the fence into private property, Key said the next step will be action from the participating states. On that note, he couldn’t comment further.

“The federal government has violated the Constitution so much, they probably need to be told twice,” said Key.

Right now the states are focused on breeding the dog. The bite comes next.