Category Archives: Commentary

Foreign Policytical

Political Stories No Comments

 

I just don’t get it. I just don’t understand why all of them are doing this. To me!

I have tried, really tried to stay way away from any conflict, to appease all them as suggested (I really was never good with that but that’s what they suggested so I went with it- not really my fault man!) but all this they’re doing is going so wrong, so much against me.

I don’t get it. What do they want? Who can I talk to who can take care of all this for me? I need to appoint someone to handle this. A new “World Peace Czar”. Or maybe it’s “Tsar”, don’t remember. But I have people and they aren’t doing it, they ain’t getting the job done. No, they ain’t, they aren’t. And it’s hurting me.

I have tried and tried. I have been generous, I have been good to them and even tried to be more like them in what I said and the things I decided to do or have done and they just keep coming. Things don’t seem to be settling down and they said it would be different. Did they lie to me?

I suppose I could try a different approach but what? I don’t want to do what them others suggest since it wouldn’t be good for the Party and it would cause problems in November. Like I care about that shit anyhow. Forget the damn October Revolution, we can’t afford a November one. I guess. They tell me that. Shit man! Why do they keep this up? I’ve stepped over the line that I drew; I extended my hand; I kept bringing down things here so that they would get it and stay over there. But they ain’t, man, they ain’t! They just keep comin’, just like those damn zombies on that TV show. We throw them bodies and they just want more. Shit man! I thought all this would make them want to join me, want to listen to me, want to like me. Be like me. Think like me. Love me. Worship me.

I know some folks are mad because Americans are dying. I can’t help it they’re dying! As if any of that’s my damn fault. Shit! Why do they have to die on me?

I tell them I just want to be left alone to do the things I need to do to get things right here- like I always planned but never bothered to mention. Ha! That comedian guy on TV was sure as shit right on- Americans are stupid! Hee-hee. But wait, no, no time for funny stuff now. I got this world thing to deal with; I got these people outside of this country who won’t get in line and do it the way I want it done. I have to find out who is responsible for not getting those assholes in line.   Why? How? Who!? Shit!! I have a plan and they need to get in with it but I need to know who dropped the frickin’ ball on this one. Who the hell did this to me?

I can’t make this a racism thing. Or can I? Shit, I don’t know. Not a rich against poor or war on women thing. Hell, those assholes are killing their own women so that’s a tough one to spin just right. Let’s see. Maybe the Christians? Hmmm.   Maybe something there. Can’t use minimum wage or the unions or the oppressed folk without jobs since they don’t seem to care about the economy or working or anything like that. Hell, I wonder what they do for work. Gotta be something when they ain’t fighting me.

I know. Maybe they just want money. Maybe we could give them some of our money or land or something- take it from someone who has it and give it to them. Probably won’t work though- it didn’t with Israel and those Jews and Palestine people. Don’t they get it? What do they want anyhow? Don’t they know what this is doing to me?

I’m getting really mad here. At them. At my people who don’t seem to know shit and are failing me.

I’m getting really, really mad. The elections are coming up and I know I’m just gonna wind up taking action on my own after that- who the hell would challenge me? Me!!?

I am getting more than really mad. They all failed me! And on top of all the things that seem to keep getting fucked up here then this stupid fucking ebola thing- gottta get a czar on that-  has to come in and really fuck things up even worse for me!

I gotta think. Get control man. I gotta take a minute. Be a man. That’s what my father would have said to me if I had a father who looked like my father. But he didn’t stick around. Still a man though. Had to leave though because it was too tough, too damn tough to stick around. Rough. Probably had a lot of folks failing him just like me. You can put them in place and listen to their words and believe what they say when they pledge their allegiance to you but you can’t rely on them when it is time to make your decisions. How am I supposed to make these decisions if there ain’t no one to rely on anymore? Gotta have someone who can make my decisions. But I gotta be careful because I don’t wanna make it all about them when it needs to be all about me.

I think that’s it though. Be a man. Let the American people, stupid as they are, know that their president is a man who can make decisions. Strong, dependable, manly. But still kinda soft and loveable when he needs to be. But now, gotta man up. Let’s see if I can remember how to get in touch with the man in me.

I know. “Hey Michelle, Valerie! Come on in here I need some decisions! Come on in here and give ‘em to me!”.

It all starts with I and ends with me.

To Vote

Commentary Political No Comments

 

I think that if you want a say in where this country and her people are headed then one of your few choices is to exercise your power of the vote. It is about all that a lot of us still have. And they want it.

Why do you think that the government is so willing to take so much from the bad man who has (one vote) and through the magic of redistribution give it freely to the helpless hordes who have not (many votes).

Works great I guess until the man who has winds up having no more. And when he has no more then you have no more neither. Every fat cow only has so much milk to give.

But so many of you out there just don’t get it. Why not? Are you really that stupid or simply just so willingly oblivious? Why do think that ALL of the big socialist experiments wind up with so many, a tremendous majority, of the population in absolute destitution? Forever until the system is one day replaced. Time and again this is learned but then forgotten.

Read your damn history folks- it is all right there. And I don’t mean the revisionist crap that the schools defecate. I mean REAL history that tells the real tales from an honest and unbiased viewpoint. It is a bit hard to find but hardly impossible. Try a few different angles and read and learn and educate yourselves.

THEY are betting that you are too damn lazy or too damn stupid or maybe both to ever do this. THEY are the smart ones; THEY are the ones that know best; THEY are the ones who get to make the decisions of who gets what and when and why. And THEY will be the ones who will just toss away your votes when voting is no longer needed. Maybe not that far away in the future if we keep going the way we are going.

The complete transformation of America. Think it isn’t happening?

Think again, and get out and vote for anyone who can help stem the tide. He or she may not be the best choice, this is rarely the case, but there are always better choices that leave better on top of worse. That may be the best that can be done at present but it is a start.

Don’t lose your country, don’t just give up your freedoms, and sure as hell don’t give up the fight. Not now, not ever. Too many examples of this being done all throughout history. Just go read to find out.

But if you still say you don’t have time to read then at least make time to vote. And vote for the person who believes in the things that made this country great once upon a time and not the person who willingly admits that this is an evil country that needs to be torn down.

Get out and vote and do this to help save this great land of ours before the time to turn back has passed us by.

It ain’t too late people.

It’s Time

Commentary Political No Comments

 

Some folks would have you believe that 2016 is the key year for elections, given that is the year when we decide to turn over the helm of this sacred ship to either one who can and will correct its course or simply to another who will maintain the destructive heading set and sailed to by the current captain.

All true of course. But there is an earlier call that you, that we all, must hear and heed if we are to begin the catharsis toward what we once were when we followed the original plan our founders fought and thought so hard to establish and grant to those who would, indeed, follow.

That call is now upon us, all of us, who still care to begin to heal.

I am aware of precious few who stand out and stand up within any political party to speak truth to fallacy and fact to fiction. If it does not serve them personally or politically within their party then they tend to give, at most, vacuous words and lip-like service to what it is that concerns us who still believe in the family; God; Christianity but also the right to worship or not as you please as intended in the Constitution; a cleaned-up culture; American strength at home and abroad; the entrepreneurial spirit; the free marketplace of things and ideas; limited and restrained government; a hand up over a handout; much better and honest education for our children; reduced taxation for people and businesses made possible by greatly reduced government spending; significantly reduced public welfare and support programs made possible by much greater personal motivation; a much less regulated statist structure; American exceptionalism even and especially at the exclusion of other nations who want a free piece of our pie; the elimination of racism where it exists in minimal actuality but also the cessation of perturbations from those who continue to make such fallacious claims so as to produce it in maximal falsity; the elimination of foreign aid to any and all countries who support or refuse to denounce radical Islam and other such terrorist evils; the clearing out of the pernicious liberalism that has infested in cockroach-fashion our institutes of higher learning; laws against activist judiciaries and a reinforcement of making sure that their job is done as originally intended by the law, for the law; the right to arm ourselves as prescribed in the Constitution; term limits; the gradual weakening of the never-ending PC leviathan and a return to fair but common sensibilities; simplification of the tax code; elimination of Obamacare and the proper and effective overhauling of our great medical-care system in a way that makes it even better but cheaper and more available, not free or subsidized by others who must foot the bill; smart counseling for our high school grads so that they pursue a life-career that is right for them and not some overly-expensive and government-subsidized college education that simply produces more personal debt along with some useless degree; the reduction of our huge national debt and the return to proper government accountability for the budget and spending, not in the form of some very convenient continuing resolution; exercise, ownership and personal accountability for our youth, troubled or not; a renewed sense and enhancement of parental responsibility; greatly reduced abortions; and, just to finish this incomplete list off, the Constitution of these United States as initially intended, drafted, and enacted all those years ago.

Socialism is bullshit and does not work. It never has and never will. If you disagree then show me where it has been successful. All that it does is to starve the many in order to feed the few who have done nothing but talk their way or be born into positions of power. Talk about an elitist structure.

Why not create and pursue a system that encourages and rewards those who take risks and work hard for years to achieve a goal, to fulfill a dream, to serve a productive purpose? Why not set up everything within such a system to not inhibit or interfere with such unique and lofty ideals? A system where we are all recognized as being equal and are limited almost exclusively by our own capabilities or ambitions. A system where politicians and government do not rule, but serve- no one rules.

Oh, yeah, we did that already. It’s called free market capitalism; it’s called a representative (not ruling!) republic; it’s called the United States of America.

Or, at least, it used to be.

On November 4th you have the chance to join in our journey back by voting for those who come closest to supporting as many of these very same beliefs and initiatives as possible.

2014 can be the beginning of the end or the end of what we have allowed to begin and grow and mutate for far too long.

Go ahead, stand up and be counted and do all that you can for what you believe in.

Don’t vote or vote incorrectly and you will have no one more to blame than yourself. And we will have lost our country as a result. Believe that.

Becalmed and Taking Water

Observations Political No Comments

 

Sails are funny things. Sailboats as well. They work with wind; they don’t work without it. Wind…work. Wonderful. All hands on deck and lay out the canvas.

So when the wind is blowing strong it is good. Too much can be bad, say a hurricane, but a good steady wind fills the sails and makes progress possible. Fill your sails and reach your destination.

Hell, I know that and I ain’t even a sailor! Some things just come naturally to those with a modicum of common sense. And sometimes I got mo’ modicum than most. At least I like to think so.

Back on land you can go ahead and continue to vote for those who don’t do just enough to stay out of serious trouble, personally and politically. They know how to lay anchor and perhaps ride a current into the channel. But without the wind there is no work and no progress. Do they know this? Do they care? Are they doing much to change it?

They don’t do much to get you a job. They don’t do much to improve your education or the education of your children. They don’t do much to reduce crime in your neighborhood and make it safe to step outside again. They don’t work very hard to protect the borders of your country. They don’t do much to improve the economy that works to lift all boats in the harbor. They don’t do much to let you know much of what it is that they are actually doing or not doing. When they speak they say nothing. Nothing. They don’t seem to care anymore for the old standards of a decent life- no one fights for the poor old white man, the heterosexual man, the conservative woman, the married woman who stays home with her kids, the Christian couple who still believes in the American dream and deeply desires some of it for themselves and their children… They don’t seem to care too much for the Constitution of these United States. But are they not, in fact, making it just fine to ignore it more and more each day?

The interests and efforts are so limited and specialized now, targeted for the simple purpose of locking in a long-term voting base, that everything that once seemed important once, long ago, is no longer so considered. All that was is no longer. It was and is not now.

And before you go all slinging-racism on me you should know that they ain’t really doing anything much to help out the black folk, or the Hispanic folk, or the women folk…they just sayin, they ain’t doin. There ain’t no wind for those sails or, there ain’t no sails for that wind. And wind is all it is if you could just be honest with yourself. Lots of wind.

And, oh, by the way, the ones talking most and loudest may BE like you and SOUND like you and say they have your interests at heart but the ones who are making the decisions are still not much like you, are they? You ever wonder why? You ever wonder if the mouthpieces who stoke your passions are under the control of folks strangely similar to those they demonize. Weird? Yeah. Hypocritical? Sure is. Despicable? Only if you make it so; otherwise it is just the status quo and will always be so. Spin, becalmed, and wait for the wind.

So how do you guarantee the sinking of the ship?

Find no wind or unfurl no sails. Disable the rudder. Poke a hole or two in the hull. Throw your old and experienced sailors overboard. Lots of ways.

Do nothing.

Or at least appear not to.

Just Die

Commentary Political Social No Comments

 

We are a caring nation, yes?

Our private citizens and companies give generously to many charities. We love to help.

Our communities reach out to help those in need. At least they used to. That help now comes quite often from outside of the community and is funded by those who do not know Mrs. Jones around the corner or Mr. Jensen down the road a piece.

When I was growing up the folks who needed help in some way, shape, or form got it first and foremost from the family, many of whom were still nearby if not right in the home itself. Those that had, gave; those that could, helped; those with blood ties, cared and helped and gave. It was a beautiful system that complemented the role of the limited, local government. The only time you dealt with the bigger guys was during elections, at tax time, and perhaps with a visit to the DMV.

Sometimes we had older folks who had no children nearby any longer or perhaps had lost their only son to the war or some other calamity. They had lived there forever and everyone knew them.   And whether they were liked or not, when they needed help they could turn to the church and the groups sponsored by the church or some other caring and giving organization.

There always seemed to be someone or some group or some institution that could and did help out when the family could not or, less likely, did not. It was a beautiful system.

And what did they help with? Family counseling, family planning, hospice, food, home maintenance, rides to and from the store or church, recovery from an accident or illness, watching young children for an hour or two before or after school, maybe with some mentoring for kids in trouble… The problems that received local help and the ways in which the help was given were innumerable. Family and neighbors and parishioners loved to help. Even if it didn’t directly get your soul into heaven it sure as hell nudged your heart and mind into a better place.

You just did and gave what you could. Communities helped and since they were already organized there was no need for that.

Activism was not required to elicit results and aid to those truly in need.

No organization, no activism, just good old fashion giving-a-damn and doing something to help. Anything.

A beautiful system once upon an older time.

Now, neighbors do not often know each other, at least not very well, and much less local help is requested or given. Families are scattered about the country and are unable to provide any assistance. So help is provided from afar. A simple and a new system.

But what is provided is provided from those who have no choice and have no ties to those who receive. That used to be okay, for example, when we used to give (freely!) to organizations that provided, say, medical aid to poor countries around the world. We kind of knew where our bucks were headed. Nowadays we do not have that freedom of choice and we have no direct connection to those who we are purported to be helping.  Nowadays we just provide the money and resources to the middle man. And after they take their cut then some of what is left may find its way to some who need it.

Or maybe not.

What do we support with this tithe to the middle man?

Oh let’s see some. Free phones. Endless compensation for those who can work but choose not to do so. Endless compensation for those who have kids they cannot afford to have and then have more. Free food for those who look like they have not missed too many meals. Free contraceptives. Services that no one really even needs but take nonetheless. Housing for those who do not even live here and have entered outside the law. Reduced or free transportation. Free college for those who will never do anything with it. Grants to universities for doing research that has no purpose and no direction other than to perpetuate such similar largesse. Subsidies for utilities to those who should be providing that themselves. Cheap or even free abortions. Subsidies to huge corporations who are in political favor (and then enter into political control).   I tire of even thinking on this endless list. And it is endless but still grows. One more though- healthcare.

I mean, why not?

So what would be a good plan?

How about this. You take what used to be- the family, the church, the close-knit, long-term community and you abolish it, demean it, erase it, degrade it, destroy it, eliminate it completely.

But wait, aren’t the same things that the individual really (and I mean really) needs still needed?

Why yes they are. And there is just the right and convenient solution- the government can provide.

And if the simple staples and needs of life are not enough then provide some more. Provide so much that the person receiving has no desire to change things and has every fear that it will be taken away.

What was a hand up, a limited offer so that you can help yourself to get back to where you should be, to where you want to be because of how you grew up, because of what you were taught all along, has now become a hand out. Free, free, and more free. That is the new freedom in our country.

Well, not quite completely free. While receiving with your right hand you simply give with your left. A simple vote is all it takes. Vote for and you get to keep; vote against or not at all then you will lose all that you have been trained to expect, all that keeps you alive and well all that your ever-growing government has given to you. Don’t even think of leaving the plantation.

What a plan.

Oh, and just to make sure the leverage is complete, just take control of healthcare. Nothing more controlling than that next to air and food I suppose.

And certainly none of that could ever, would ever, be taken away.

Right?

Only if they decide to do it. When they have grown so large and so controlling that they no longer need your vote. The family, the church, the local community cared from the heart. Does your government do the same?

Later on they may decide who will be born, perhaps even the genetics of those allowed to be born.

For now they are content in moving swiftly to decide how you will live.

And, oh yeah, who will die.

America in Fading

Commentary Social No Comments

 

I stood in line at McDonalds last night. I wanted a simple wrap and iced tea.

It was one of those Macs attached to a gas station and that is usually a bad sign.

I counted at least seven employees including the very large and slovenly (sorry, but she was both) manager and quickly noticed the disorder, disarray, and rather disgusting filth behind the counter. Granted, space was tight, but the view was one I am much more accustomed to seeing at, well, a Burger King.

I also noted that this particular establishment did not have any foreign-looking or foreign-sounding employees as is the case often. They was all home-growed (except for maybe the younger girl on the grill).

My bill was a bit over five bucks and I handed over a twenty. I usually use plastic as it is quicker and easier for me. The girl who took my order also took the twenty and opened the cash drawer.   She said she needed singles and mentioned this to another employee who went toward the back (to get the singles I assumed). So I waited for what should only be a moment or two. Right?

Next I stepped aside so that the girl at the register could take the next order. As I watched I could not help but listen to the two “ladies” behind me.

“So he said ‘fuck it’” the one said in only slightly hushed tones. “So I called and couldn’t believe it. He said ‘f u’ and hung up.” And so the adult conversation proceeded along similar lines.

I took a quick glance and, sure enough, the attire matched the vernacular. Is it the same to pre-judge and assume how someone is going to talk based upon the way they look as it is to pre-judge how someone is going to look based upon the way they talk? In any event, the pre-judgments lined up fairly well in my biased, prejudiced, profiling mind.

Both were dressed for the cooler weather else I was sure I would have noted some classy tats as well.

Meanwhile it was getting on toward several minutes having ticked away and no one had returned with singles for the cash drawer. The girl at the register neither went to look for the lost courier nor managed to take the next order which was, of course, the lovely ladies in line behind me.

“Do you need singles?” asked the more neatly-attired one of the two ladies. “How many do you need?”

“That’s okay, I need more for my drawer” responded the friendly though clueless employee as she seemingly managed to guess that the lady was offering to trade singles for a larger bill. Y’know, just to get things moving along.

During this I noted how many people were waiting for their orders. I also noted as the large manager ambled out and seemed intent on locating some missing keys while all the world about her screamed chaos. Good manager, thinks I. Wonder what I could do in my sleep to improve this franchise.

Still no change. Still the ladies chatted but now more about the fact that no one was taking their order. Not sure if they f-bombed the order talk or not.

About then I got my iced tea! I expected my wrap to be out at any minute so left the tea on the counter. I had ordered the chicken grilled after all and I know that usually takes a little longer than crispying it up.

Now it is past five minutes (that’s 300 seconds) since I placed my complicated order. I looked at the clock and while I was sure when I entered the place that I would have ample time to make it back to the field and my son’s baseball game I was then beginning to get a bit concerned.

Finally the manager seems to rouse from her hibernation and goes to help retrieve the George Washingtons so badly needed at the only manned register (of the three there). Seven employees- two are cooking, one standing helplessly and hopelessly at her open-drawer register, one working the drive through, and one delivering overdue orders to the many people waiting around. This is good, thinks I.

Back ambles the manager with the bills! Hurray! thinks I. She takes care of the money-hungry cash drawer while finally (!) asking if the register girl had taken the next order. When the girl cheerfully responds in the negative and mumbles some excuse as to why not the manager, obviously a top-notch trainer of men and women alike, mumbles something in return. Mumbling before me; f-bombing back behind. Caught in the middle is I.

So now the society women behind me can finally place their (rather large) order. Hurray for them! And I finally have my change- after they re-figure it that is. So hurray as well for me!

I also now see the manager ambling back (did I mention that she really should have worked a bit more on tucking in her greasy shirt?) to the counter to check on orders.

During this the sweet-looking young drive-through girl comes over to make a shake. She grabs a can of whipped cream and fills up the cup nicely though I did note how there was less shake and more cream. Cost-cutting there Mr. Big Mac? Anyhow, she jams the can of whipper, upside down, back into the quite filthy plastic receptacle that it came from. Though she tries carefully the angle at which she is forced to tong and retrieve a cherry is a bad one and she manages to drop a couple into some receptacle on a lower shelf. Wonder what is in there, I wonders. Cherries no doubt, I responds.

Oh oh oh. Did I mention that while waiting for my change a woman had returned to the counter and asked for some ketchup for her to-go order? Well she did and register girl obliges generously and dumps maybe twenty packets into the opened bag. I’m thinking it might have been better for her to offer 3-4 packets, confirm that that was enough, and then handed them to the woman but I guess burying the defenseless fries, in the bag, in unopened ketchup packets was the training she received. I suppose it was a better approach then pumping a bunch of ketchup from a large bottle directly into the customer’s bag. Not my problem I realizes but, notes I, the stone-faced customer receives the Halloween-like dumpage of ketchup packets into her bag without comment and turns and leaves without a word and, quite possibly, without much of a pulse. Kinda reminds me of Charlie Brown getting a bunch of rocks with the only difference being the missing “thank you (for blindly dumping an avalanche of unopened ketchup packets into my bag, register girl).”

Correction. I cannot absolutely say that I know for sure that all of the packets were unopened.

Where was I? (Sorry, longer story than I remembered).

Oh yeah.

So I finally (!) see a wrap get passed to the front from the back and the manager takes it and places it on a tray. Yikes go I. Did I mention I had ordered it to go?

Oh, I forgot. As I was calmly surveying all of this action, or, rather, inaction, I took a welcomed sip of my iced tea through the straw. (By the way, why was there a straw in it already? I don’t want to think of the possibilities…) And guess what? It was sweet tea!

Did I mention I had ordered my now no longer welcomed iced tea to be UNsweetened?

So over comes my wrap and I have to tell the manager that my order was to-go. With a somewhat frustrated, but also resigned, look on her face she turns and goes to lose the tray and get a bag.

Somewhere in here I told the manager about the tea. She starts to look a bit unhappy as if maybe I am causing too many problems for her.

So she returns to the counter with the bag but just as she hands it to me someone must have said something because, without a word to me, and as my empty hand reached out, she turns and leaves the frickin’ counter! (That one is for you, classy ladies). She goes back to the “prep area” (?) and takes the wrap OUT of the bag, to look at it. She places it back in the bag and then walks it over to some waiting, starving customer and what seemed a minor apology. Or maybe she just burped.

“Check your drink!” I wanted to yell to the customer.

But of course I was better behaved than that because my mama taught me some manners that stuck.

Miss manager returns to the prep area and tells the kitchen folk that she needs another wrap and explains what kind she needs. Still no word to me.

Seems like it must be going on about half an hour by now, eh wot? Seemed that way to me too but we were probably just over ten minutes at this point. Be patient, advises I to myself.

Register girl is back to taking orders- from the person now AFTER the classy ladies.

At around this point Miss Manager ambles over with my new and improved iced tea! After she confirms that it is unsweetened and that it is for me (could she have forgotten me so soon? Guess I should learn to raise more of a fuss in such situations- y’know, to gets remembered). No need to worry that her greasy shirt or likely dirty hands would touch my new and improved straw because this time there was no straw! New, improved, wrapped, or unwrapped. None. I mumble something and then just reach over to my old and unwanted sweetened tea which was never removed from the counter and retrieve my old straw. I jam it into my new and improved iced tea as if I am stabbing something. Or someone.

I notice at this time that another customer, a pleasant-looking chap in his twenties, is standing back and looking on to the scene with a look that is hard to describe. Not smiling, but maybe thinking he should. The shorter and less-better-dressed of the classy ladies now engages me in conversation as I relate the series of events to her and, also, as I am not speaking softly, to the obvious interest of the pleasant-looking young man who is waiting to either deliver or receive his order. Though gruff and without a ton of oratorical class she does seem a bit sympathetic. That is until they bring out here and her friend’s food on a tray. Looks good. Smells good. And poof she is off.

“Enjoy your meal” I offer to the contrail. This time pleasant-man manages a wry smile.

Where are we at- maybe twelve or more minutes now? Game starts real, real soon folks!

Let’s see- got my change and got the real deal iced tea, with a straw. Now just need my food.

So then lo and beholden before I know what happens the wrap is finally done, handed over, bagged and given to me with nary a word- no apology, no excuse, no “have a happy life”, no “thank you sir, please do visit us again.” Nothin. They just move on to their next adventure with their next victim, er, customer.

I leave but not without one final contact. Outside of the fine establishment I note the better-dressed classy lassie on her cell phone, still issuing stinging invectives to whoever is fortunate to be on the other end of the wireless.

Oh, and I almost get run over by the Big Mac 18-wheeler as it barrels through the tiny parking lot and then, as I enjoy my tasty wrap, a good bit of it squishes out and lands on my pants. Oh yeah, it is time to get to the game with my attitude damaged but not destroyed. Same story for my jeans.

So there it is, a snapshot of America and what we have become or are continuing to become.

The service, the attentiveness, the self-respectful attire, the cultured language and communication skills, the civility, the general state of things that are as they are or are all too soon becoming.

It’s a fade route and then the final tally to lock down the final score.

Game over man. We lost.

Nine Twelve

Observations Political No Comments

 

This is and will always be the day that follows nine eleven. It has always been so.

How did you observe the day yesterday? Did you spend anytime remembering the events from that terrible day, now some thirteen years in the past? Did you say a special prayer for those who perished at the hand of pure evil or perhaps to those diminished and forever-saddened souls who remained behind, without a mom or dad or brother or sister or son or daughter or cousin or niece or nephew or aunt or uncle or grandparent or grandchild or fiancé or simply just a friend? Did you fly the flag? Did you think about the evil you believe may have left that terrible day, some thirteen days now in the past? Did you think, even for a brief moment, that maybe, like the poor innocents left behind, that perhaps evil remained as well? Did you think, even for a brief moment, about what your elected and compensated government is doing to recognize, confront, and destroy such evil? Or maybe, rather, you worried about all that is not being done?

I flew the flag. I said a prayer for the innocents taken and those left behind. I thought about the rising tide of pure evil that may be rising faster now than ever before. And, of course, I thought about all that I know this government is not doing to protect us, to protect this country.

Wasn’t that supposed to be one of the key functions of this government as expressed in the Constitution? Isn’t that their job?? Isn’t that one of the reasons why we give them so much of our money?? Am I a dreamer or just stupid?

Sometimes I dream about a real debate between John Kerry and Thomas Jefferson. Or maybe Hillary Clinton and John Adams- no, wait, make it Abigail. Or how about Obama and Washington? Maybe Susan Rice and John Jay? Harry Reid and Patrick Henry? Pelosi and James Monroe? Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Marshall?

Sorry, I digress.

But one more digression. I also sometimes dream about administering a pop quiz, popped on those listed above who are still living, that includes both a citizenship and a constitutional test as given to legally immigrated folks and also to junior high students across this great land.

Who would get the best grade? Or, put more in popular vernacular, who would suck least?

Back to topic.

Perhaps you did not even remember or note the passing of nine eleven because of all the coverage of the Ray Rice incident where he knocked out his fiancée as evidenced by the video captured on the elevator. A terrible incident and one that happens far too often to too many people, women, children, and, yes, even men.   It is impossible to escape the news coverage on this- it is 24/7 as they say.

And no matter your opinion or position that is maybe as it should be; I will not argue something so subjectively personal to each and every one of us.

In any event it is inescapable.

At least, in this case, no one was killed. Thank God.

But there were people, Americans, killed on nine eleven…two thousand and twelve.

You most likely know the name of Ray Rice’s fiancée yes? Do you even know any of the names of the four Americans killed two years ago, and one day, in Benghazi, Libya?

Allow me to help you with this.

Christopher Stevens.

Sean Smith.

Tyrone Woods.

Glen Doherty.

Where is, where was, all the hysterical coverage on that? Where was all of the investigating and celebrity commentary and main stream media outrage? Where has all the follow-up disappeared to after two years now? Why has absolutely no one, as in the case of one Roger Goodell, been called out on this? Why is no State Department official, up to and including Hillary Clinton, been held accountable if not responsible for the unnecessary and brutal deaths of four Americans on nine eleven two thousand and twelve?

Why has the president not been taken to task and pressed on this at all?

Where is all of the Ray Rice outrage?

Hell, where WAS any of the Ray Rice outrage?

Oh, I see. Completely different situations.

Really?

Not completely. The reason behind the outrage on one and the acceptance of the other is exactly the same.

It was the video.

Whodat? …evil

Commentary No Comments

 

There are many groups of people in this world. There is a group that conjures up evil. And, to many people, including their own, fear.

This group deals in disregard for life. Any not like them are readily eradicated with no trace at all of moral consideration before or moral outrage after. This also very often applies to when they kill those even much more like them, maybe exactly like them. No regard, no care, no morality, no humanity. As close to pure evil as can be imagined.

There is no respect for property- all is there to be destroyed, looted and burned, at their own behest and whim. Anger unbridled.   Hate unopposed. Evil unabated.

Rape. Pillage. Plunder. Murder.

Within this group and also without there is no concern for a victim who may be of any color or religion but is usually associated with some specifics except in cases of internal opposition or rebut.

Within this group and also without there is no concern for a victim who can be of any age and either gender. All are expendable and none deserve special consideration. All are expendable.

In some cases this group claims a reason for their actions but often it is simply inexplicable and unable to be understood by most others- rich or poor, dark or light, religious or atheist, woman or man, adult or child, cleric or lay person, straight or gay, tall or short, thin or heavy, one-legged or two, capitalist or socialist or communist, hot or cold, up or down, left or right, today or tomorrow or any day that this very earth has passed or will pass away. Inexplicable and evil.

“There’ll be no one to save, with the whole world in a grave.”

Others try to say that this group simply needs an olive branch, some concessions, a dose of true understanding, a bit of TLC. Oh, and just throw some more money at them, at the situation, and all will be well. Throw daisies upon the invaders as they march onward, unabated. It won’t stop them but it might just make them hate you a little less.

There exists, or likely exists, or should likely exist, within this group a number of good persons who disagree with the actions and the leaders. But these persons are mythical because they do not speak up and sure as hell do not stand up. Maybe it is due to simple ridicule by their own, perhaps fear of bodily harm to themselves or their family or friends, perhaps fear of theft or destruction of their property…perhaps simply fear of emotionlessly administered death. When fear alone is all there is to counter evil I’ll let you guess which is likely to dominate.

Some of all of this death and destruction is random, sometimes killing one and often killing more.  Occasionally it is more narrowly directed.

And governments that can, well they do nothing to stop it. They too are scared.

These people hate and they act out their hatred with the most evil actions imaginable. If they do belong to a government, or should be governed and restrained by one, they are not. And if there are those among them who wish to speak out or stand up they do not. And if there are those among us who believe this should be stopped we do nothing to do so.

Nothing. Evil simply goes on.

This group? Is it just one?

And how close to you, to where you work and where you play and where you live, does it reside?

No matter how close it is today you can be assured that it will be even closer tomorrow. Unabated evil spreads…unabated. And it simply grows stronger with time.

So go ahead and continue to hide your head and appease and let others handle it. Go ahead and ignore it. Go ahead and hope for the best and simply do nothing. It can’t happen here, no not to me and mine.

Until, that is, it one day simply does.

John Adams Said…(Was Just Sayin…)

Political No Comments

 

I first noted a reference to this passage in the book “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic” by Mark R. Levin. Interesting viewpoint from a bygone era when none of today’s REAL issues could have possibly been recognized, known, appreciated, or anticipated those many decades ago…especially from a bunch of Old White Guys. #OWG…OMG.

BTW, Mr. Nedham, is AKA Mr, Marchamont Nedham (Needham). Just sayin…

“Suppose a nation, rich and poor, high and low, ten millions in number, all assembled together; not more than one or two millions will have lands, houses, or any personal property; if we take into the account the women and children, or even if we leave them out of the question, a great majority of every nation is wholly destitute of property, except a small quantity of clothes, and a few trifles of other movables. Would Mr. Nedham be responsible that, if all were to be decided by a vote of the majority, the eight or nine millions who have no property, would not think of usurping over the rights of the one or two millions who have? Property is surely [9] a right of mankind as really as liberty. Perhaps, at first, prejudice, habit, shame or fear, principle or religion, would restrain the poor from attacking the rich, and the idle from usurping on the industrious; but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, to countenance the majority in dividing all the property among them, or at least, in sharing it equally with its present possessors. Debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on the others; and at last a downright equal division of every thing be demanded, and voted. What would be the consequence of this? The idle, the vicious, the intemperate, would rush into the utmost extravagance of debauchery, sell and spend all their share, and then demand a new division of those who purchased from them. The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If “Thou shalt not covet,” and “Thou shalt not steal,” were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.”

http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2104#Adams_1431-06_19

 

Oh, and for those modernists internetsia among the sum lot of you below you will find a blurb taken from the entry on Machiavelli in the holy web bible. Interesting how old white guys like John Adams were so well-read and well-versed on schlubs like that old Italian dude. Since he didn’t have the intellectual linkage that Wikipedia brings forth to the masses in the smallest of bites it was left to Adams, and others like him, to devour the whole course, several actually, in order to finish the meal; think about it all, talk about it all to similarly minded old white guys, and then write more than a few tweets about what was concluded. But such treatment could never pass for the shroud of supreme knowledge available today to the masses but best wielded by the chosen. It is too deeply considered and takes far too long to digest such fare. Small bites by nimbly constricted minds is all that seems able to be swallowed. Pity, that.

“Whatever his intentions, which are still debated today, he has become associated with any proposal where “the end justifies the means“. For example Leo Strauss (1958, p. 297) wrote:

Machiavelli is the only political thinker whose name has come into common use for designating a kind of politics, which exists and will continue to exist independently of his influence, a politics guided exclusively by considerations of expediency, which uses all means, fair or foul, iron or poison, for achieving its ends—its end being the aggrandizement of one’s country or fatherland—but also using the fatherland in the service of the self-aggrandizement of the politician or statesman or one’s party.”

Hmm, sound familiar to anyone out there?

Try This…

Commentary Political Social No Comments

 

Ok ok ok ok. So you don’t really know much about politics, or how our government is supposed to work (versus how it is actually operating), or about any of the key issues (like our debt, taxes, immigration, foreign affairs, etc), or you just simply want to spend the time to deal with any of that crap…

Ever felt that way? Ever said that?

“Doesn’t matter who I vote for they’re all crooks.” Really? Is that just an easy or lazy response?

“Oh, I don’t pay much attention to any of that stuff. I don’t have time.” Do you have time to watch TV or surf the Net, or go shopping, or tend to your garden, or check endlessly check your phone, or walk your dog…?

“I’m not smart enough to understand any of that.” Maybe you should raise your opinion of yourself.

“Oh, my husband worries about all of that; I just worry about the kids.” Better think about your kid’s future because THAT is in serious jeopardy.

“I haven’t voted in years.” Then shame on you- it is one of the few civic duties that you have. Paying taxes is another. You do one but not the other right?

“They’re gonna do what they want anyhow.” Before too long you may be right but maybe there is still time to stop them. Lay down for a fight and you are guaranteed to lose.

Just stop and listen to yourself. This is your country and your community and your home and your school and your family. This is YOUR life. So how about diverting a few minutes a day to getting smarter and getting active?

You should first learn the Constitution- read it; it really doesn’t take that long. Read it with your family. Read it out loud and discuss it. Bask in its simple brilliance.

Next, read some real history. Find a good book that honestly covers the history of our country. It doesn’t have to be a huge or complicated book but should honestly cover our whole history.

Get some news feeds from honest sources. Get them from multiple sources as a way to “double check”.

Talk to people about what is going on, what you like and don’t like. Join a civic group or two if you can.

Learn more about the issues that really matter- to you, your children, to your community. Decide where your opinion falls and fight for what you think is right.

Look at your moral and cultural foundations and decide if you like the way things are going. Be real, be honest.

Ask yourself “am I happy with the way things are?” And also ask yourself “am I doing my best to make the most of the life that has been given to me or am I just getting along or even living off of someone else’s wallet.”

Get real. Stop being lazy and stop being stupid. Stop looking the other way and dismissing everything as not being your problem because the funny thing with problems is that the more you try to avoid them the more they have a tendency to find you. And bury you.

Don’t let that happen to you. Wise up and rise up and be counted…maybe for the first time ever in your life.