I made this video because I could not help imagining Obama’s conversation with David Axelrod over making him a dog-eating meme laughingstock until the end of time.

The Obama campaign is working hard to create distractions from Obama’s record. The image of the Romney’s Irish setter, Seamus, having bouts of diarrhea in his kennel strapped on the roof of the family station wagon during a family vacation in 1983 must have looked like the perfect way to demonize Romney.

Then a Daily Caller commenter named “Flatfoot” ruined everything. He reminded the Daily Caller’s humor blogger, Jim Treacher, that Obama boasted of eating dog meat during his youth in Indonesia. When PETA and DogsAgainstRomney.com tried to whitewash this as cultural and/or a youthful indiscretion, Treacher published a YouTube video of the dog-eating passage being read aloud by Obama himself for the audiobook version of his autobiography, Dreams from My Father. (The link has a bonus video of the “Morning Joe” contributors on MSNBC barely able to discuss the topic for laughing.) Now #ObamaEatsDogs is a hashtag on Twitter.

Ace, et al., have collected some especially delicious Photoshops — here are a couple of samples:

See Treacher for many more hilarious Obama dog-eating Photoshops.

Dear Keith Koffler, the White House reporter who blogs at White House Dossier, has rounded up the best tweets on #ObamaDogRecipes.

Michelle Malkin notes this scandal has given a sinister “new flavor” to the Obama school chant from 2008 — and links to the coverage at her new site, Twitchy.

And Allahpundit turned up a new Downfall parody where Hitler discovers that Obama has eaten his dog:

If you enjoy this video, I would love to make more. However, Xtranormal charges for characters and scenery. I take care of my father for room and board while I’m recovering my health and creating a career that will support me in the future. So if this video made you laugh and you can spare a few bucks, I’ll use the money to cover some pressing medical issues, make more videos and to buy the tools I need to improve this blog and make money. Thank you!

Update, 4/20/12, Fri.: Thank you, Prof. Jacobson, for making me “Post of the Day” at Legal Insurrection. Welcome, Legal Insurrection readers! For my readers, if you click the link, you will see a car bumper decorated in a fashion often seen in areas with high concentrations of openly lesbian liberals. But not one “Obama 2012″ sticker. Hmmmmm. I wonder what to make of that.

Update, 4/26/12, Thurs.: Allahpundit at Hot Air features a delicious clip from MSNBC (!) of David Axelrod suddenly eager to change the subject from dogs.

Dear Moe Lane inspired this post by noticing that Tumblr is a thing. How did this happen? Here’s the money quote from the video, which I urge you to watch because the young lady is both witty and wise:

Tumblr is life. Tumblr is probably going to take priority over your friends, homework and other obligations and responsibilities. It’s a Tumblr thing.

A political commentary blog like this one is tough to monetize. One of the reasons I’ve been quiet here is that I have to put my time into activities that make me healthy or wealthy — preferably both. I must become self-supporting while my father is still alive. Failure is not an option. I have a total passion to write this blog and have no trouble thinking of posts I would love to write every day. But you need a ton of traffic to make money from advertisements or affiliate links (such as reviews linked to a product on Amazon).

The other potential income streams are donations, subscriptions and posting an Amazon wish list. The donations to this blog have transformed my life HUGELY for the better and I am very grateful.* And the subscribers give me a huge boost to my morale, far out of proportion to their subscription amount. To make a living from this blog, I won’t just have to find my tribe, I will have to create one — which I’m totally stoked to do, by the way.

A political blogger is selling advocacy, wit and wisdom on spec. We have the business model of hippies — “Donate whatever you feel” — and panhandlers — “Help me with my crisis!”

Or, more accurately, we have the business model of worthy causes — charities, churches, non-profits, political parties and politicians: we must persuade supporters that our value to causes they support is worth their money. Fiscal conservatives fight to keep government small, taxes low and liberty safeguarded so that people have the discretionary income to give to the causes they choose.

Niche bloggers — the ones who have targeted markets that pay money for information products and physical items that they sell and the affiliate programs they promote — monetize their Tumblr blogs as follows (click the link for more details and links — also here):

1. Contextual ads, such as Google Adsense
2. In-text advertisements
3. In-image and in-video advertising
4. Affiliate programs, such as Amazon Associates or ClickBank
5. Banner ads
6. Sponsored posts (someone pays you to write something)

By the way, for a list of the top 10 ways to monetize a niche blog on WordPress, as opposed to Tumblr, dear David Risley is my go-to guy. The only thing I would add is that niche bloggers can build an opt-in e-mail list and use it to promote affiliate products and do joint ventures with other marketers in their own niche and related niches. Check out his podcast, “The Blog Program,” — show #2 lists 11 ways to monetize a blog.

*To the donors who sent me to CPAC: I will be explaining this week what happened to me the day after CPAC that was a big setback in my health and general progress. I still plan to write about it and I’ve just about re-gained all the ground I lost that day. The short version is that my working memory took a big hit, which plunged me into a two-month black hole.

I agree with all the praise of my fellow bloggers in this video for Andrew Breitbart — Stacy McCain, Chris “Smitthy” Smith, Sean Hackbarth, Tabitha Hale and others. Dear Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, and his wife, Dr. Helen, came to the memorial for Andrew Breitbart at the offices of Americans for Tax Reform in Washington, D.C., and conducted the interviews. My comment is at about the four-minute mark on what’s next: “I am Breitbart.” We’re all Breitbarts now.

Joy McCann also has a lovely remembrance post on Andrew with the following conclusion:

The bottom line? Don’t let them get by with lying. That’s it.

And that is Andrew’s legacy: he put the last nail in the coffin of MSM privilege. The jig is truly up.

My piece at PJ Media begins: “A meteor is threatening to destroy the institution of marriage, but it isn’t marriage equality.”

For background, read the full decision from Feb. 22 by a federal judge that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

Andrew Breitbart and Cynthia Yockey at CPAC 2012: I stand by Andrew Breitbart (for the significance of that statement, listen to Andrew's CPAC 2012 speech at around minute 14:00). Andrew was passing through the Bloggers Lounge and I pounced on him and asked if I could have a photo with him to go with my Advocate op-ed, "Equality will come from the Right: Why Andrew Breitbart is a better friend to gays than Barack Obama." He graciously agreed, but that meant that leftist gadfly Liz Glover could start peppering him with questions. When she got on the subject of his break with GOProud, I jumped in. The commotion attracted Tommy Christopher of Mediaite and he or someone with him videoed the interview. I will update this post with a response to his post, "Liz Glover confronts Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch over GOProud ban," since I only just read it today. However, I will point out that the fact that the reason she caught up with him was the dignity and respect he was showing to A Conservative Lesbian thoroughly spoils the leftist narrative. I'm guessing the last thing she expected was to have that argument directly with a conservative lesbian involved and fighting back, literally shoulder-to-shoulder with Andrew Breitbart.

I loved Andrew Breitbart and he was my friend. He died today of a heart attack at the age of 43. He leaves behind a wife, four children and generations of intellectual heirs determined to pick up the weapons that have fallen from his hands to win the fight for liberty, free markets, secure borders and smaller government.

Cynthia Yockey, in the blue sweatshirt, dances to "Mr. America," the rap parody by Steven Crowder and Chris Loesch, performing as the Powdered Zombies at CPAC 2012 for the blogger awards ceremony sponsored by TheTeaParty.net. Photo by Wonkette.

I am so grateful to the conservative blogosphere for providing the donations that enabled me to attend CPAC this year. I’ve finally recovered from the sleep deprivation and feel perky enough to start posting again.

At the BlogBash and CPAC, in addition to fulfilling my mission of un-demonizing myself, I had a wonderful time catching up with old blogger friends. I live a very socially isolated life taking care of my 95-year-old father, so I wasn’t quite prepared for how kindly everyone reacted to my weight loss (over 65 pounds since I started my diet in June 2010 and over 40 pounds since CPAC 2011). I was tickled silly.

I particularly wanted to surprise dear Steven Crowder with my new, slimmer appearance, since that is relevant to a project he promised to help me with at BlogCon 2010. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to become more slim and fit. Plus, I’ve been taking cardio classes for almost five years that are mostly dance moves. So I jumped up from my seat at the back to dance like no one was watching when Steven debuted his new rap parody video, “Mr. America,” singing with Chris Loesch as the “Powdered Zombies” at the TheTeaParty.net blogger awards ceremony on Friday hosted by John Hawkins of Right Wing News. (At the link, John points out the tech clearly got a phone call and left to answer it before the “knickers” line.)

However, Steven put out some political correctness bait that the left gobbled down and the video is now viral and on the Huffington Post, Gawker, Wonkette and Mediaite (which had the class to update its post and identify me, but is adverb-impaired and called me “elder” — do I look 58?). Wonkette went to the trouble of singling me out with the photo above, but they have not bothered to add my name to their photo after I identified myself in the comments, so I’m featuring it here because I’m a giver — a giver who understands SEO and Google Image. I only found out about this controversy last night through a column by Warner Todd Huston (just about the only blogger I know with whom I was not photographed during CPAC), appropriately headlined, “Liberal Tactics: Just Lie, No One Will Check.”

I am preparing a video reply. Please hit the tip jar to help me buy a decent webcam, microphone, boom and lights for future videos — if it helps, think of the consternation you’ll be fueling at Gawker, Mediaite, Wonkette and HuffPo:

 

 

Here’s the video of Steven and Chris performing — I’m at about 1:30.

Cynthia Yockey with bassoon, September 2011.

My free caregiver that I had arranged for my father so I can afford to attend CPAC told me yesterday that his job requires him to be in Richmond this week so he is no longer available. That means that I have to pay for someone to care for my father. I sold some items over the weekend so I can pay my expenses for Thursday, Feb. 9. However, the cost of a caregiver, gas, tolls, parking and meals is about $250 per day for Friday and Saturday. Please donate to help send me to CPAC.

The most important thing I can do at CPAC is to meet other bloggers because that un-demonizes me. The word “lesbian” is heavily stereotyped on the rightwing. Just meeting in person lifts that almost entirely. I am 58 and at my age, as Lincoln observed, your face shows your character. My face is sweet and my manner is friendly and kind because that is who and what I am. I can form friendships and build bridges in person that would be impossible to create in the rough-and-tumble of the virtual world of the blogosphere. Please donate to help send me to CPAC. I thank you in advance with all my heart.

UPDATE, 2/9/12, Thurs.: THANK YOU, readers of Instapundit and Transterrestrial Musings (and the people who tweeted whose tweets I’m too tired to find to link right now) — you have made it possible for me to attend CPAC! Late Wednesday morning enough donations had come in for me to figure I could squeak through if I brought my Glucerna meal bars and ate at McDonald’s. My plans came together and fell apart many times over the last 36 hours, but finally by noon on Wednesday I not only had someone I trust to provide 24-hour care for my father but also a place to stay that’s only about a mile from the hotel.

I would have written all my thank-you e-mails immediately but it started snowing and I thought it was wiser to get my errands done before it accumulated. (One-to-two inches had been forecast — I will write them after sleeping a few hours.) When I got home I had to bake low-sodium bread and prepare food to leave for my father, then do laundry and de-squalorize the litterboxes and bathrooms. The caregiver came after midnight and I had my father stay up so I could show her his bedtime routine. It’s 3:15 am right now and I’m just getting to sit down. Oh, and thanks to the donations that came in this evening, I’ll be able to buy food! I’m tickled pink about that and too punchy to figure out how to phrase that in a way that doesn’t sound pathetic — I just don’t care if it does, and I’m truly delighted. Thank you!

I am about to reboot this blog. I have finally worked out how to make the unique contribution to the conservative cause that I’ve been passionate about from the moment I decided to found this blog in January 2009. I’ve also finally figured out how to make money while I’m doing it. And I’ve just found the tools and mentors to teach me how to do it.

I’ve worked hard over the last few months to get my father’s and my financial affairs in order. (I’ll explain how they got out of order in a future post.) The new clarity feels wonderful! We now have an agreement with the IRS for paying my father’s taxes. While the levy of all my father’s income for October has put us two months behind on the mortgage, as long as we don’t fall behind another month, we won’t be in default. I am juggling the other bills — so far, so good. Our current situation is precarious but with hard work and a little luck, I feel certain we’ll pull through.

I can earn my way out of our financial challenges. But to do it I need some financial angels willing to invest in me. I must generate $1500 for my reboot. One of the things I’ll be doing is teaching the fundamental principles of conservatism along with practical solutions to prove to liberals that money comes from ideas, not a black box. I’ll also be featuring experts in wellness and personal transformation, since the heart of the conservative message is about achieving your full potential to enjoy a life of health, abundance and spiritual development.

Here is my offer: I will consider any amount contributed through the “Donate” button in this post to be a loan. I don’t know when I will be able to pay it back, but when I do, I will pay double the amount sent and match it as a donation to the blogger who referred you and recommended me. However, I need an escape clause: God forbid any disaster befalls my father or me, but if one does, I may never be able to pay you back. Please consider that most investments carry that same risk.

The benefit I am planning for the conservative cause is to answer the fundamental objections to conservatism that liberals have. They believe money comes from a black box and the only sure way to get it is to take it from people who have it. They don’t see the “how.” They don’t see the source. Well, I plan to feature experts in the “how” and the source. I’ll also feature success stories. My ambition is to make this a place of education, inspiration, laughter and certainty in my gentle readers in their ability to create a brighter future for themselves and for America. And I will do so in a way that generates money for me so that I will be able to support myself now and in the future without constant fundraising appeals.

If there are at least 40 people who can spare $40, I estimate that I can have my reboot up and running in about nine weeks. I thank all my gentle readers in advance for the treasure of your time in reading my blog. For the dear gentle readers who are unable to spare any money at this time, your prayers and positive thoughts also are a valuable contribution for which I am very grateful. I wish all my dear gentle readers prosperity, health and every blessing always.

I wish for all my dear gentle readers a happy new year and progress, prosperity, perfect health, enlightenment, wisdom, love, friends, divine protection, divine guidance, good luck and every blessing always.

The tax levy in October has presented me with a number of challenges that I’m still sorting out. That’s what I’ve been focusing on instead of blogging. I hope that I will have things in hand enough by the weekend to start posting regularly again. In the meantime, I will appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts for my success.

My essay making the case for outing members of Congress and their staffers who are gay and engage in anti-gay activism posted this morning at PJ Media. I’m finding that straight people are having a hard time understanding that there’s no such thing as privacy when it comes to anyone’s sexual orientation. Since there is no such thing as privacy about sexual orientation, there is no such thing as a “right to privacy” about sexual orientation. After your gender, it is the main thing people want to know about you in order to know how to relate to you. Therefore they figure it out for themselves, regardless of how many obstacles you may put in their path. You can’t stop people from doing this. Therefore there is no such thing as a “right to privacy” about sexual orientation.

UPDATE, 12/21/11, Wed.: 

The small number of commenters here and pretty much all the commenters at PJ Media seem to me to be putting words in my mouth in order to disagree with me. I’m fine with disagreement, but have to draw the line at misrepresenting what I wrote. The primary confusion is about my point that when someone wants to know your sexual orientation, you can say anything you want but they are going to observe you and make up their own minds — that’s what makes sexual orientation not private. I focused my article specifically on members of Congress and their staffers who meet two additional conditions:

1. They are gay.
2. They are engaging in anti-gay activism.

Frankly, I am already being accused of engaging in anti-gay activism for supporting practically any Republican, since so few support gay equality. I think it is a threat to America that so many Republicans are intent on shredding the Constitution in order to impose their religious beliefs through the state and on destroying the power of the judiciary in our traditional constitutional balance-of-powers because it is the most effective obstacle to achieving this goal. These are definitely poison pills. However, Obama and the Democrats do as little as they can toward gay equality to keep gays in the fold, which also is bad. But what is infinitely worse is that they want to destroy free enterprise and impose socialism. I believe I have a better shot at gaining my equality under free enterprise than under socialism. Therefore I will support an anti-gay Republican candidate who understands the policies required to get the economy thriving again — just as gay Democrats voted for Obama, who is still “evolving” on marriage equality and has savagely fought against gays in federal lawsuits on gay equality. (Note: one of those lawsuits, by the Log Cabin Republicans, forced Obama to support the repeal of DADT, but he gets no credit since he didn’t get in front of the parade until it nearly passed him by.)

I’m not going to out the average closeted lesbian or gay man who is minding her or his own business. But I am telling them they do not have control over what other people see and think, so without their permission, a lot of people in their lives have figured out their sexual orientation without being told.

However, I will grant that some people are harder to discern than others. I had to be told that financial advisor Suze Orman, Iron Chef Cat Cora and country singer Chely Wright are lesbians. But I believe if I were in a position to observe them in daily life, I’d have figured it out.

The truth that sexual orientation is virtually impossible to keep secret particularly seems to bother closeted gays, perhaps because they didn’t realize that this information about their life is not and never has been totally subject to their control. This thought frightens them and makes them go through the list of everyone in their life trying to figure out who might know without having been told. This also is embarrassing. I still cringe when I think of all the people who tried to reach out to me to let me know they were OK with my being a lesbian when I thought I’d pulled off being an ex-lesbian in my 20′s.

It also alarms people who do not have well-developed powers of observation because they can’t imagine what observant people are doing in order to read other people better than they can. This may frighten or shame them. That was not my intention, but few people react well to those emotions.

Others are terribly concerned about what would happen to closeted gay members of Congress and their staffers who have married a straight person, especially those with children, if they are outed for anti-gay activism. They seem to feel these people are entitled to enjoy all the perks of heterosexuality while exploiting the gay community — for men this typically means seeing gay prostitutes, or having one-nighters or brief flings. Lesbians tend to have longer affairs. But for both lesbians and gay men, they are involved with someone who will never commit to them. This creates despair and instability in the gay and lesbian community. Gay lives are ruined and no one cares. The sympathy has been entirely for the liar and cheat, never for the gays they exploit — and not even for the straight spouses and the children who have a legitimate entitlement to honesty. Funnily enough, the sympathy never seems to go to a straight liar who is cheating on a spouse, so Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner were widely reviled when their affairs were exposed and the destruction to their careers was considered their just desserts.

Enough gays and lesbians are openly gay that we have reached the tipping point where it is assumed that if you are out and about in the gay community, you are out, period. Part of gay equality is that it is just as dangerous to your career and family life to lead a double life, or to say one thing (anti-gay!) and do another (gay!), as it is for any straight person because of the unpredictability of scorned lovers. I am not saying that everyone in the gay community who is leading a double life should be outed. If you are a private person, people should mind their own business. But if you are a gay member of Congress, or staffer — or any public figure, including celebrities — and you engage in anti-gay activism by demonizing gays and opposing gay equality — then the fact that you are secretly gay IS legitimate news. It is fair to bring your true sexual orientation to the public’s attention and ask for an explanation because of the destruction you are causing in the lives of an untold number of people both in the present and for many years to come.

UPDATE, 1/6/12, Fri.: HA! I was very specific about outing only gay members of Congress and staffers who ALSO engage in anti-gay activism. Both things have to be true to deserve outing. Everyone else who is not in a position of power can make his or her own decision about the closet. And Lily Tomlin said it first: