I'm surprised that so many people seem surprised by S&P's downgrade of our credit rating. Weren't people paying attention over the last year or so when we were getting warning after warning from various credit rating agencies that this was coming?

So, how shamelessly cynical and dishonest must one be to blame this inevitable downgrade on the very people who have been shouting all along "stop spending"?  Blaming the Tea Party for our credit downgrade is akin to Nero blaming the Christians for burning Rome.

We have to face this storm head on. It won't be easy, but there are real solutions to grow our economy and reduce our debt.  We need to stop this deficit spending, balance our budget, repeal Obamacare, cancel all unused stimulus funds, and reform our entitlement programs.

We will have entitlement reform and a balanced budget; it's just a matter of how. We can do it ourselves in a calm, methodical, and responsible manner, or we can wait for the world's capital markets to ram it down on us. Let's be responsible and do it ourselves.

Yes, I invented this term. You won’t find it in Webster’s, the OED, or Google. At least not now. Hopefully soon you will, as it becomes the accepted term for the neurosis with which all those on the Left are afflicted.

Just as a pyromaniac is driven by a compulsion to set fires, a kleptomaniac by a compulsion to steal, and - everyone’s favorite example - a nymphomaniac by a compulsion to have sex, an infantilizomaniac is driven by a compulsion to treat adult human beings as children.

The compulsion to infantilize people is the neurotic compulsion of liberals.

Liberals of course do not call it infantilizomania. They call it compassion.

A number of US soldiers fighting in Iraq have become afflicted with a horrible disease called leishmaniasis (leesh-mun-eye-ah-sis). They get it from the bite of a sand-fly which injects a parasite into their bloodstream. The “cutaneous” version of the disease causes huge, ghastly, and painful boils on the face and other areas of the skin - thus the name, Baghdad Boils. The “visceral” version destroys the liver and other internal organs and can be fatal.

Compounding the problem is that the treatment seems worse than the cure. It’s a 20-day therapy of being injected with sodium stibogluconate (commercial names: Pentostam or Stibanate), which can leave every joint in your body with screaming pain, plus give you unending blow-your-head-off migraines.

There is some very recent research which indicates a way to greatly increase the effectiveness of the antileishmanial drug therapy while greatly decreasing its painful side effects. If you have any friends in the military, know of any soldier suffering from this affliction, or know any soldier serving in Iraq who may be at risk from sand-fly bites, you may want to make them aware of this.

It involves the use of a common bioflavanoid called quercetin.

Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democrat minions' arguments have descended from straw men to bogeymen in their attempts to scare Americans.  

Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped.  Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon. 

But we Americans are more courageous than the president and Democrats credit us. Thus, we must tell President Obama and his minions to stop; join with Republicans to seize this moment to cut, cap and balance the federal budget; and start restructuring Washington Big Government into Main Street self-government.

In our new post-11/7 world, it's important to understand that there are two Robin Hoods:  the legend and the myth of the legend.  The first is a conservative-libertarian.  The second is a liberal thug.

The legend was best played by Errol Flynn in the 1938 movie classic, The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, Alan Hale as Little John, Claude Rains as Prince John, Melville Cooper as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Basil Rathbone as the evil Sir Guy de Gisbourne.

The myth of the legend is currently being played by Teddy Kennedy with Nancy Pelosi as his understudy in drag.

Major General Peter Chiarelli, head of US military’s Task Force Baghdad and commander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, spoke a few days ago at a AUSA (Association of the United States Army) meeting at the Ft. Hood (Texas) Officer’s Club. A friend of To The Point’s took notes. This is how it really is.

*Baghdad is about the same size, geographically, as Texas’ capital of Austin, with ten times the folks: 700,000 for Austin, 7 million for Baghdad.

*Baghdad’s main problem area has been a huge slum called Sadr City. Last fall, there was an average of 160 terrorist attacks per week. For the last three months, they have flatlined: five to zero a week.

*The media blared in front-page headlines about the 100 Iraqis killed in Baghdad as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. It was never reported that the next day, there were 300 lined up in the same place.