Some like it hot…

…or “skin in the game.”

It is reported that the Obama team has rolled up their sleeves, loosened their neckties, and gone to work in the business of government. They have shed those GOP suit coats in the Oval Office and cranked up the thermostat to something akin to an orchid hothouse.

We’ve all got to sacrifice here, put our “skin in the game” to solve America’s problems, said Obama as he tried to manage our high expectations.

Here’s our "skin in the game." The thermostat is set at 65 degrees. (We spot ourselves an additional three degrees in the evening and to coax us out of bed in the morning.)

And here’s what 65 degrees looks like around the house.
The kitchen.
Our bedroom.
The basement.

And we have our arsenal of wool socks, sweat pants, flannel shirts, and afghans on the couch to keep us warm.

But we aren’t motivated because of our carbon footprint. This is what motivates our energy conservation.

And that has been our motivation for two decades.

You want skin? Let me tell you about my friend John who lives in English, Indiana, hard against the Kentucky border. His power was knocked out by the ice storms.

He spent 48 hours harvesting icicles in dish tubs and placing them in his refrigerator to keep the food cold. When the ice melted he’d dump it in a bucket to use for flushing the toilet and head outside for more icicles.

He kept warm with his wood-burning stove. Where did he get the wood? He not only put skin in the game but some blisters as well. John cut it, split it, and stacked it last fall. It wasn’t “steamy” like the Oval Office but they were comfortable. And they had the good sense to dress in layers.

And his blood pressure helps keep him warm.

When he thinks about the green people worried about the emission from his chimney his temperature goes up.

When he thinks about Pelosi and her private passenger jet that costs 10,000 times a first class airplane ticket every time she uses it, he gets really worked up.

Or when he thinks about Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who burns more resources in a month than John will in his lifetime, he sheds his vest no matter how chilly it is in the house.

And now he can add the thermostat setting at the White House to his list of warming sensations.

But there are others who put the ultimate skin in the game. Every year here in the snow belt you will read about the elderly woman who froze to death in her home with money in the bank and her thermostat set at 50 degrees.

Or the family of six who perished in a fire caused by a space heater.

Or the family who never woke up because they were heating their apartment by leaving the oven door open.

We are those bitter people who own guns and go to church every week that you hold in such disregard. Thank you for just another example of your arrogance, your hypocrisy, your elitism.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/03/obama-getting-heat-for-turning-up-thermostat/

Cartoon: http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2009/02/02/