Category Archives: Observations

It has been awhile since I last posted anything here. Too long I think.

It had been almost nine months since we last visited the hills and worn-down old mountains of northern Georgia but we did indeed visit again. We just recently returned. This time I did not have any time to write as I had done during our previous visit.

It seems that little changes in the mountains, in the hills. The people are still very friendly and life seems taken a bit more in stride with emphasis on things most of us may have forgotten long ago. The clock ticks yet things remain the same.

The river flows. And we flowed with it.

The day passed along and we passed along with it, with family and good times.

The mountain roads went up and down and left and right with sometimes stomach-shifting severity and always at risk of life and limb to those with too little respect.

The sun rose and it set and the breezes blew the morning fogs away and off the hillsides. All was still yet still somehow passed along.

You see, even when things seem to stay the same they do, for sure, change. You just need to be paying attention.

The hotel we stayed at was the same but is now owned by a different corporation. Same though different.

My relatives are the same but have aged and acquired new problems and ailments. Same and definitely different.

The trees were all still there but this time greener and taller. Mostly the same but still slightly different.

We drove the same vehicle but my kids were older and bigger and my wife and I were older and probably smaller, and definitely heavier. Not really the same at all but similar and part of life.

We shopped at the same mall which I am sure had new stores and some older ones changed or simply gone. Likely some of the people may even have been those there on our prior visit but who knows? It all seemed very much the same and familiar to me at least but probably different to others with more exposure.

It is probable also that the hills and mountains themselves were no longer as tall as they were with material washing off the top and depositing itself at the bottom in a double-whammy hit on height. But who would really be able to tell that at first or even any further glance? Not me.

Same but different.

This time we did not meet the mountain man but he was there. We drove buy his small, old house and back-shack several times and saw his truck but not the man himself. Probably out fishing again.

If we had stopped by we would not have seen his mother again. We learned that she had passed sometime in the past nine months. May she rest in peace and may the mountain man survive with all of his independence intact.

And, sadly also, we did not see Lester. We heard that he is now so old and feeble that while he still makes his way up the hill for some free treats he has to be retrieved at the end of the day by his owners. He cannot make the return journey back down any longer.

To the mountain man and his mother and also to Lester. Thanks for showing us a side of life not often considered and thanks for staying the same long enough for us to meet you all.

It is sad that these things have now changed but change they must. Even in the hills and mountains of northern Georgia.

Falsivilities

July 16, 2014

LastFullMeasure

Observations No Comments

Let me welcome you to my home and also allow me to give you free access within and the full use of all amenities, facilities, and resources within. Eat from MY porridge; relax in MY chair; sleep on MY bed. Enjoy, enjoy and consider all that I have worked to achieve and attain to be as much yours as I am sure that all you do not have and have never tried to achieve or attain is likewise fully mine.

Fair exchange I am told.

Such is the art of the deal.

And when you make any attempt to depart you shall be detained and not allowed to leave. Those guards and rules thought once contrived to keep you out were all except for that. Not set to keep you out but fixed to keep you here, once in.

Welcome to the Hotel California amigo. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

What better way to defend then to pretend to defend. And then don’t. Therefore those who want the defense are satisfied at sight while those who do not are made comfortable by the actual outcomes since the defense was just a feint. But that guard you just walked by as he looked the other way will not present his back to you once you have passed him by. No, he will turn to face you and then work to keep you in. That’s what you wanted in the first place anyhow is it not?

But there is more. When those who actually believed in and wanted the defense realize the full extent of the ruse they too may look to see that guard facing them as well as the soon-permanent guest. (Is he smiling? Is he friendly?) He will not be looking with such a reassuring and calm demeanor but rather with a glare and a gun.

You may not express a position in regard to who has been allowed into your house. You will simply allow them to abide as dictated. You must give way and allow full access for they are there for a reason and that reason is of no concern to you. It’s not really your house- you didn’t build it. You and your home are but a host for the parasite.

A parasite to you but a symbiotic partner to those who have thus allowed and so dictated.

Symbiotic for now, at least until the need for them and their presence is no longer.

By then though you will have abandoned your own abode and fled none know not where to; heard and seen no more. Your home will crumble and with it will go its newest inhabitants. No one will care then where they go but they will go nonetheless- naked and alone.

So goes the need, so goes the home, so goes the country and so go you and I.

But as they say, he who turns against one shall in turn be turned against so…it will also one day not far from this one come for you as well.

Yes, the River Knows

June 18, 2014

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Observations No Comments

If a river is re-directed it will likely, in time, return to its original path.

Rain falls and snow melts. Streams and rivulets and rivers form and flow and fill whatever may lie at the end of their flow.

Sometimes they dry up and flow no more but likely not forever.

For the rain will again come and the snows will again melt and the water will find its way, again unvexed, to its natural end. Some will say this is as determined by God and some will say it is simply governed by physics and perhaps a little bit of chance. Some just say it is what it is.

Hate that expression even though I use it.

With our country we have made a valiant attempt to re-route the flow of history but even now we face the age-old threats from within and also from without.

All of the dangers and cancers of government, as known and planned against by our wise founders, are gaining and winning. Look and see for yourself.

The age-old threat of Islam to, not just Christianity but to all peoples non-Islam, has not only faded but is growing. And far too many around the world are complaisant and unwilling to fight or even admit there is an issue.

There are extreme dangers from both but still the river flows. Which route will it take?

With my family and my resolve the waters also flow but I think I know that they must, to a large degree unvexed. What will come will come. What will be will be.

It is what it is.

You can do what you will to inspire, to mentor, to teach, to lead, to help; but in the end things kind of just go their own way and you can only do so much to influence anything beyond a point. Nature kind of takes over from there.

In the end you need to be able to hold your head up and say that you did what you could and tried to make what you did be the right thing. There is a lot to be said for that. Actually, a helluva lot.

I did what I could to be a good citizen and also to exercise my duty to challenge or even rebel if needed. The founders were very clear on this in a free and unfettered society that is not to be controlled by the very government we have put into place to supposedly preserve that very society.

I did all I could to be a good husband and father. I kept trying when I failed. I stepped up or stepped back as best I could and when I could. I loved my family and did my best for them.

I did my best to be a good friend and neighbor.

These simple things are really all that define us and, in the end, all that we have left to cling to. For most I need a lot of work still.

The river flows. The river knows.

And so, I imagine, so it goes.

Responsibilityless

May 21, 2014

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Observations Political No Comments

Things may not always go as planned; or hoped; or desired; or as we think that they should if there is a God.

Nope, things often just go. And how we respond to that may just determine who we are and how we will do with our own existence. How we react to the good and how we react to the bad. All responses are telling; all responses serve to mold us and, hopefully, instruct us for how to better respond in the future.

Responsibility is something of a rare commodity as of late. Many of us avoid it, many of us disdain it. Fewer and fewer of our children are instructed on how to accept it. Why is that, have you ever wondered?

I, for one, blame the parents- us. It’s as if whatever our kids do reflects completely on us- not just on us in terms of our ability to raise them but on us as people, the very core of what we are, of who we are. If my son has failed, I have failed; if no son flunks a test, it is me who flunked it; if my son strikes out looking it is me who could not pull the trigger…and I should hang my head in shame. Or, better yet, I can just blame it on someone or something else and shirk and responsibility whatsoever- that saves him and in saving him I am saving myself. Perfect!

But what happens when no one anywhere will accept responsibility for what they do, for what gets done under their watch?

If my kid hits another kid who is at fault? There will be those who take it (the abused) and those who think it is okay or just simply decide they were not responsible for their behavior. Sound ridiculous? Not really. Happens all the time.

Sometimes we can just claim ignorance- we just didn’t know. “I didn’t know Johnny was struggling with his math” (never mind the 3 D’s and 2 F’s he got in his last 5 assignments); “If Billy wanted to pitch he should have said something” (he did, coach, several times, and, like most kids, just finally gave up asking); “You mean my yelling at you was causing problems? I never knew…” (all tears ignored)..

Nothing could have been done to avoid this. I never had any idea. No one is special. You’ll get your chance. It’s not your fault and it sure as hell isn’t mine. It really wasn’t my decision. There’s nothing I can do about it; there’s nothing you can do about it; there’s nothing anyone can do about it; there is nothing at all that can be done about any of this by anyone at any time…

When responsibility is evicted excuses move in. And before long even excuses aren’t needed any longer. No one is at fault and no one is to blame. So it would then follow that any action, that any activity is completely acceptable. Nothing at all is off limits.

Impossible? Maybe not…

Have you checked out our federal government lately?

After the previous 30 years of so of moving in this direction are you surprised?

Well, I still choose to bring up my kids differently and I hope that somehow it will make a difference- for them and maybe for those whose lives their own touch. Maybe it is not too late to re-inject some responsibility into this world- ourselves, our families, our children, our schools, our communities…

Our government? You can keep the “our” stuff- none of that was my fault.

Love ya man

April 4, 2014

LastFullMeasure

Observations No Comments

No, Really I Do!

If you were to read one of my postings (pick one) you might come to the conclusion that I have set feelings about certain groups of folks. This is true. I simply love the group of people who are honest, hard-working, positive, responsible, patriotic, happy, and not filled with an excuse for every occasion.

Is that your group? Great! I love ya man!

I don’t like groups who label me and classify me without once ever meeting me or talking to me or knowing anything at all about me. I’m sure you absolutely understand it is a possibility that when you do that to me then I just might, when I’ve had enough, do the same exact thing to you. That’s fair isn’t it?

I don’t appreciate groups that hide behind some sort of conveniently constructed screen and then hurl all sorts of accusations with absolutely no allowance for a response, much less any actual debate. Why are they afraid to debate on the facts and not the fiction?

There is always a reason for why people do what they do. I tell my kids as they grow and learn that to understand some things, unfortunately most things these days, just follow the money. From politics to education to healthcare to insurance to media to religion to sports- just follow the money to see what’s what. Money may be evil but it sure as hell is revealing.

I hate groups that try to hold me personally responsible for acts committed at another time or in another place by people that may look like me or even in some extended way be related to me. Again, are these accusers held to the same judgment? Even with such high levels of competition they are perhaps the worst possible examples of what is wrong with our society

Can’t we all just get along?

I recently heard a quote on this:

“I simply love the group of people who are honest, hard-working, positive, responsible, patriotic, happy, and not filled with an excuse for every occasion. Is that your group? Great! I love ya man!”

Not Winston-Churchill or A. Lincoln profound but right on nonetheless. Wish I could meet the author.

So, no, sorry all you hard-luck groups: I ain’t racist (are you?), I ain’t sexist (are you?), I ain’t homophobic (but I do not agree with gay marriage, or, rather, as blacks believe that they are the sole owners & purveyors of the race issue why shouldn’t heteros be the sole owners & purveyors of the marriage question?- we owned it first). I am a bit of an Islamophobic though, I have to honestly admit, as it seems far more of them blow themselves and innocents up than any other group- is that incorrect? That may be unfair but until it stops I find it hard to stop.

I’m sure that I am leaving some groups out and I apologize for that. Maybe in a future posting.

Leave the excuses, grab some responsibility, join with those of us who don’t rely on color, or sex, or sexual preference, or religion, or nationality, or any other convenience to gain ground where our effort or ability fails to do so.

Come meet me and then look me in the eye and glance over at the mirror and then tell the truth about who the real guilty party is.

I’d like to think you’d be surprised but it is hard to hide from the truth forever.

Just Kidding, Right?

April 3, 2014

LastFullMeasure

Commentary Observations No Comments

No Kidding America

I fixed the creaking floor. It’s creaking again.

The navigation system in our expensive new vehicle continues to place the location as off-road and, instead of telling us how to get to where we are going, it keeps trying to tell us how to get back on to the road we are already (and still) on.

There has been another shooting, with deaths, at Ft. Hood.

I heard another white liberal who has spent his life in academia talking about racism again. He had the support of some high-ranking Democratic officials and some black activists who managed to stray out from their mansions in the suburbs. I managed to miss the precise nature of the accusation but they assure me it must be true.

At school my kids are learning all about their country. Correction, all about “their” country. They learn about how we… screwed the Indians; raped the land; polluted the waterways; shut women out from the workplace and voting booth; exploited the working man; planted the seeds for hatred in so very many countries around the world and are now being served our just dessert; were responsible for just about every war in every corner of the world over the last couple of centuries; immorally treated illegal aliens; unethically pursued the sin of the American Dream; allowed and even aided big business to screw over every single person in the country, again and again and again; obstructed a woman’s right to produce, not produce, or un-produce; denied people of the same gender the right to couple, marry, and assume children; withheld the natural right of healthcare by not allowing everyone to insure regardless the risk or even the need; polluted outer space; allowed far too much free speech in the wrong areas; prevented unions from assuming their natural positions as the only allowed owners of labor; shut minorities out from business and school opportunities; unfairly imprisoned people who have broken the legally and properly enacted laws; and enslaved millions of blacks even 171 years after they were declared emancipated by none other than A. Lincoln. I love the look in their eyes when they return home after a hard day learning all of this (and maybe just a bit of math and science)- it just bursts out as “God I am so proud to be an American”. No time for any good stuff even if there was any.

The news media continues to flee from the unfair label of being a “free press”. Their free use of their freedom of speech to deny the same freedom in others is, what, ironic?

It sure seems to cost a lot of money to win a campaign these days. But that’s not buying the office, that’s just the way it is.

When I was a kid youth sports coaches managed to teach a little and expect a lot- win, baby, win. If you weren’t all that good they would cast you off at the end of the season anyway. Nice to see how much that has changed.

I recently tried to tell a kid that he was responsible for his actions. I managed to escape hard time but was placed on probation. One more offense and I’m in deep doo-doo.

The programming on television has never been better. So much great stuff to choose from nowadays. Good people with positive messages doing good things 24/7.

People still complain about the money poured into pro sports and yet still go to the games and still buy all of the endorsed products. And then again complain that the amount of money these guys command is obscene. Hypocritical of course but still good to know those that complain would never take such an offer themselves if they ever got the chance.

Everywhere I turn I encounter good role models for my kids. It is comforting to know that there are still so many famous and popular folks who still step up to the plate on this.

Heard that Gwyneth Paltrow (or however the hell you spell her name- ain’t gonna look it up) thinks she has it much worse than the average working mother. Wonder what her salary is; wonder if she cleans her own house; wonder if she washes her own car(s); wonder if she has a nanny (does she have kids?); wonder if she writes her own checks at the end of the month when the bills come due and it’s time to make meager ends meet. I’m sure that none of us would want to be her.

White people are the only ones who should ever feel guilty about anything…ever. Correction, mainly white males. Correction, mainly white conservative males. Correction, mainly white conservative males who are married to a woman. Correction, mainly white conservative males who are married to a woman and dare to have more than one slave-owning, gay-bashing, woman-hating, immigrant-fencing, tree-cutting, job-producing, free-market-promoting, Constitution-supporting, air-polluting, responsibility-bearing, victim-causing, global-warming, fossil-fuel-consuming, income-tax-paying, SUV-driving, nice-house-owning, anti-union, capitalistic, property-tax-paying, personal-freedom-loving, non-socialist, light-skinned, home-grown, home-schooled, fascist, charity-giving, bratty little American kid. God forbid it is another male and, worse still, possibly a Republican. Oh the shame.

Do the celebrities who have made a ton of money off of the problems we face think that we don’t see they will lose their allure if ever things got better? I’m not sure that some of them are not worse than those who cause all the problems. But rock on.

The government will take care of you always.

The temperature is twenty degrees lower today than yesterday and there is a rumor of more snow in the forecast.

My kids don’t listen like they used to and certainly nothing like I think that they should. I try to tell them all about life but they keep ignoring me.

I just heard the Dems have another plan to save the country and the Repubs are doing nothing about it. The Libertarians are plotting how to come in 3^rd again.

The price of gas shot up again right after winter ended.

The dogs need to go outside again.

It’s election year again. Mid-terms. We can elect more do-nothings and just let them gather in the aisle- no need to cross it and waste all that valuable energy.

This winter was so bad that we now have over 5 major cracks in the driveway. Never happened before now. Something else to fix.

Finding it harder and harder to get a good night’s sleep. Keep waking up and then just end up getting up early. Every single day.

Will continue to pay property taxes even if the kids go to a private school. Education in this country has really gotten pitiful. But we still have the teacher’s unions thank God.

I heard that God is dead.

Have a leak in the wall, likely from the roof, that will need to be fixed when the weather gets better. Something else to fix.

I’m working out pretty regularly and still can’t drop ten pounds. And my feet hurt all the time and I have ringing in my ears and I am almost always so tired.

It sometimes seems that the world is closing in around me and my days are now numbered. These are the bad days and the days when very little seems right.

I believe that our country is dying and there is not much a person like me can do to stop it, to save it for the future, to save it for the kids, for my kids.

It’s dying and no one is doing very much about it are they?

You have to be kidding me.

Are you freaking kidding me?

You gotta be frickin’ kiddin’ me…

No one looks up and no one, for damn sure, ever answers.

What Success?

March 31, 2014

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Observations Personal No Comments

MY SUCCESS, YOUR SUCCESS

I’ll be archiving the entries for the first quarter of the year now that the 31^st has arrived. This will be the last posting for the first quarter and tomorrow things begin anew.

Nice to divide the year into quarters and months and weeks and days. It gives us all a chance to start over or start fresh- with our families, with our friends, with our work, with our chores, with our dreams, our hopes, our lives. Kind of a nice deal.

It’s still early and in a little while I will be getting the kids up to get them ready to go off to school after a ten day break for Spring. We didn’t do anything very unique or too exciting from a kid’s point of view but we did spend a good bit of family time together. I know they are not thrilled about going back, though they do like school, but I know that I will appreciate some of the available time it offers me. Still I will miss the moments we shared.

They start their day off in band. After that they will go to their classes. Later today they will go to the allergist and then practice baseball in preparation for their first game tomorrow. Opening Day!

Lots going on. Lots more to come by the grace of God.

What will they do with their lives? What will interest them? What do they love now that they will no longer love next year and what new things will draw them in?

When I was a kid I didn’t know much, not nearly as much as I think my kids do at the same age. Not sure why that is but it is.

When I was a kid I wasn’t aware of all of the opportunities and things to do that are out there in life, even at a young age. No one really ever told me and I certainly did not know. My kids are aware of as much of this as I was around the time I entered college. Maybe more.

When I was a kid we did not have the resources to pursue much of anything if it cost money. So we did what we could with the little we had. The situation is much different for my kids. I think that’s good, that’s better, but sometimes I do wonder.

If my kids have all of this knowledge, an early start, and the resources to pursue the opportunities that interest them and the stuff that makes up their dreams then I would think, I would hope, that success for them is farther reaching and is achieved much sooner and much more fully than it ever was for me.

But then there is the burnout factor and the very real chance that they will pursue something that they think they like before they are mentally or physically mature enough and they will then discard it for something else that is a bit simpler, a bit easier to be good at. The impulse purchase syndrome.

There is also the achievement factor in that some things too easily achieved do not hold the same deep feeling of accomplishment as do the things that take so much more effort, of you, to achieve. The level of satisfaction of a challenging goal achieved is just not the same and the level of excitement is just not as high. So I guess that the impetus to just walk away can come more easily, especially for a kid.

What exactly is success and what price should be paid to reach it? Is it fair that some seem to reach it so much sooner and more easily than others? Is it fair that some never seem to get there or, worse perhaps, never seem to feel that they ever arrive no matter what they pursue, no matter how hard they might try?

I guess I don’t really know the answer. I guess I never did.

I don’t know if I was ever really successful until I began to try to help my own children in their pursuit of success. But for them it is not seen as success. It is seen as doing something they enjoy and because they enjoy it then doing it more and maybe doing it better.

And when they have finally succeeded I suspect they may not know it either. I will and I might then also consider it a success for me but I likely won’t. Or maybe I will.

Success then, I guess, is merely only our own accomplishments as viewed and judged by others and is, therefore, in the end, really out of our hands.

All that we can do is to do what we like or love or want to do. And then maybe doing it better.

In a free world and especially in this country this is possible and I would dread to live in a world, in a country, where it is not.

She Taught You What?

March 17, 2014

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Observations Social No Comments

What I Learned in School Today

It’s amazing to me when my kids come home from school and tell me what they learned at school during the day.

Some things are as they have always been.

Gym teachers (I still don’t call them PE teachers- habit I guess) still join with the jocks in mocking the smart kids or the ones who participate in the band or the drama club or other non-jockey activities. My kids happen to belong to all of these groups. But they are not classic jocks though they do play a lot of sports and play them pretty well. They just don’t do that clique and I couldn’t be more proud of the stands they have had to take and have actually taken.

Some math teachers appear to not have a deep background in math. I happen to have done a lot of math during my academic and professional voyages so know a few things about math. Some of these teachers do okay but the schools could do a lot to improve the way that kids understand math. Not just be able to do it but also understand it.

History? Usually buried within the subject called Social Studies. My boys have been lucky enough to have had a couple good SS teachers but still, now in 7^th grade, they have learned precious little about the Constitution other than what they have been taught at home or learned on their own (which is a good bit I might add). Why do they learn about diversity, and immigration, and civil rights, and slavery, and other such deep and more adult topics long before anyone even bothers to mention anything about our founding documents? Wouldn’t it make sense to start with why people first came to this land and then what they did to found this country and then move on from there? Every vector has a starting point yes?

Perhaps because it is easier to cultivate-for-purpose young minds when you present to them a simple good-bad, right-wrong, black-white scenario and then use their only possible answer to sell your own wares. Not possible? Not the plan? Okay, believe what you will, it’s still a free country.

ELA? For those uninformed (and I have a solid foot still in that group) that means “English Language Arts” (http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/key-shifts-in-english-language-arts). I suppose we now need to differentiate between English Language Arts and what may be coming later on. Dunno. I only know that since my kids have started down this enhanced path their use of the language has degraded and their desire to read has faded. We work hard to fix that at home and will only have to work harder in the future I’m sure. Maybe it’s the local implementation of these so-called standards within our school district. Dunno. Just know what they are learning seems far removed from English and from what I would call Language Arts.

Maybe it really stands for Enhanced Liberal Arts. Dunno. Just sayin’.

Add in things like flipping the classroom (the way I read this is that the onus of actually teaching kids is flipped to where it needs to be done by them at home, maybe with help from mom and dad, so that the teachers can be “free” to provide individual attention to specific students during class- great concept and a rather clever way to shirk any responsibility for being able to teach a class; hell, folks could just have their kids try to learn online and then hire a tutor to fill in the gaps; I wonder though how many kids get left behind when the teacher needs to spend so much one-to-one time during the 50 minutes they have over twenty kids in class?) and I think we finally have the recipe for vaulting the U.S. over the twenty or thirty countries that are ahead of us in too many areas.

How about this. Get rid of the frickin unions that are about everything except for the students and a quality education (if this bothers you then here is a challenge- make Karen Lewis take a 7^th grad ISAT test and see how she does- if she does well then you can call her an educator and then I will believe she is all about the poor kids); break the teacher-union-democratic party-progressive policy circle and just hire and reward the best teachers; hold teachers responsible for results, fire the bad ones quickly, but hold the administrations even more so; pay only for performance especially at the admin levels; interview and survey the parents AND the kids. You’d be surprised how many kids know what’s what and are more than willing to share their thoughts. In the end they are the real customers and they are the ones most helped- or hurt- by the system.

Get real. And get aware of some of the crap they are feeding your kids and I don’t mean greasy potato chips Mrs. President.

I plan to have a lot more to say on all this. To me there is not really a more critical need in this country then to educate our kids properly- in ALL areas. More on that to come…

The 100 Eclectics

February 28, 2014

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Commentary Observations No Comments

Now how many of you thought this would be about a religious topic? True up now, true up.

No, this marks the 100^th entry I would have served up on this blog. And still no one reads and that’s okay. My time may yet come.

So let’s go.

All is not lost. It’s just headed that way.
Why is everyone so jealous and mean-spirited these days?
Why are the rich demonized UNLESS they are also famous?
The time will come when tomorrow does not follow today.
Silence is golden unless it is merely silver.
Kids are the last, best hope of this earth.
Video games are paralyzing this generation.
Why still believe? Because the alternative is not an option.
Where did simple manners go?
When did white folk lose their own culture?
Why is illegal immigration never discussed in terms of its illegality?
When is enough really enough?
I must have missed the announcement giving parents time off from doing real parenting.
I think the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are the best two documents ever created by man. Ever. Anyone who wants to change them: can you give me an example of what you want to change them to?
When and where did socialism ever succeed without devouring itself in the end?
What is it about capitalism that scares so many of you, the hard work involved?
Owning an easy path to success simply means that you get the easy and you more than likely get owned.
So I guess it’s true that bringing up a child with mom and dad at home isn’t really better than the other options. Guess I missed the memo with the irrefutable data on that one as well.
When did Islam become the untouchable national religion?
Also, why do people hate Christians so much? You would think the Jews would have sympathy given their history but I guess they are glad for the company and also hoping to move up from last place.
Is all this social media a good thing?
Just give in- it’s the democratic way.
I am very interested in living long enough to see where all this goes- restriction on free speech; freedom from religion; the legalization of illegal immigration; the control of the states by the Feds; the right of the Feds to know everything about you and be able to acquire information and then ultimately prosecute you (think that won’t happen?) without due process; the acceleration of social justice and entitlements over national defense; the fear to call a man a criminal because of the color of the skin or the basis of the religion; widespread same-sex and other types of marriage (think that won’t happen?); growing control of our schools by the unions and corresponding control of our children by the schools; legalization of marijuana and other drugs (think that won’t happen?); easy and instant access to porn and worse; the rewriting of the Constitution to what the liberal progressives really want; the continuing and purposeful destruction of our economy and international standing. Much more. I hope to be dead before I see most of it but I fear I will not be and I no longer know exactly what to tell my kids to expect or to do.
I am still looking for music with a good message. Much rarer these days in case you plan to look for yourself.
Wonder what the old school civil rights leaders, those who fought with their very lives for equal rights and the elimination of segregation, would say if they were alive today and saw all the self-imposed segregation that has been put in place so willingly and with such purpose.
The best states are run by Republican governors. I think there is a clue there somewhere.
Who studies history anymore?
The national media should be ashamed; very ashamed. Not only are they complicit, in the end they are guilty as hell.
I hear that the government thinks they can do something right.
Can Michigan annex Chicago from Illinois so we can get our state back?
When will Obama announce he is running in 2016?
Happiness is indeed fleeting and I am losing a step every year.
There are no more role models I guess.
There is nothing that you do that the government cannot control if you just simply let it do so.
That country founded by those stodgy old slave-owning (by the way, they all didn’t own slaves in case you care to check, and many were vehemently opposed to it in case you care to check)white guys is not nearly as good as the one founded by the _____________________(please fill in the blank).
Why do you think the government is making it so easy for you to do nothing except vote for them?
What do you think will happen on the day that your vote is no longer needed?
Slaves in the past were so much stronger and smarter- they knew they were owned and they most justifiably despised it. They patiently and sometimes not so patiently tried to do something about it. In the end they succeeded, all over the world.
Spoon fed on MSNBC, CNN and the New York Times. Perfect outlets to tell you what you already know and to make you sign up for what you already believe.
So the U.S. sucks in terms of our international standing on education and we respond by setting national standards (lowest common denominator) and pressing for more power for the unions (which will of course help our kids).
Smiles are infectious but growing more rare these days.
Carly Simon lyric: “I’ll never learn to be me first, by myself.” If that was the goal then mission accomplished!
Taxes solve everything but how do you tax a nation where no one works?
We want to be like Europe. Great goal.
It’s below zero out there and the squirrels are still working the trees for berries and nuts. Good to know there is still a solid and healthy work ethic afoot in the country.
As everyone watches the national and federal issues the locals are getting a lot done whether you like it or agree with it or not.
Beware the ides of March.
Sometimes my retrievers seem smarter than some folks I know. They sure are a damn sight more friendly.
Why is it when the Republicans do not roll over they are accused of being obstructionists? Isn’t one of the benefits of having two parties checks and balances? Else it is an oligarchy. Oh, maybe that’s what they want..
I rest at 50 and will return.
The early bird no longer gets the worm- they have been regulated.
Read a good book that wasn’t written any time in the last 40 years.
Write a book with Christian values, no violence, no sex, and good kids from a dual-gendered parentship and then try to get it published.
Protest a movie or song whose content or creator you disagree with- rent an old DVD instead or just take a walk.
Hug your kids and tell them you are trying your best and then go and do just that.
Forgive someone for something that’s hard to forgive.
Vote. Prepare yourself with the necessary knowledge and then vote in every single election.
Never fool yourself into believing that it cannot happen here. It sure as hell can. Again, I keep saying it- read your history.
“Turn on, tune in, and drop out.” Guess you win Mr. Leary.
When did those who protested authority become the authority that no one is allowed to protest?
Reefer don’t lead to other drugs. Nope, can’t say I have ever seen that happen.
Do I trust the far right pundits? Not completely but it is a good bit easier to scoop a pile off the lawn then to strain it from a cesspool.
I said that I did not like the offensive lyrics of a particular rap song and black man who was nearby said that I was a racist. Before I could respond another black man said that he agreed with me and the first black man said that he was just being white. I asked which was worse and he told me they were basically one and the same.
It is always the darkest just before the dawn but I still don’t hear the sun waking up.
If the reason for legalizing the many millions of people here in this country is to provide workers for jobs Americans will not do or to provide additional workers to fulfill a seasonal need or to provide another layer of diversity then, if these are key needs, why didn’t we pursue some sort of system a long time ago that would allow us to address these needs or fulfill these needs in a more organized and legal fashion? Could it be that these are just convenient excuses to seek to help justify the violation of the law?
Have we ever had a more despicable Senate majority leader or a more lawless Attorney General?
Have we ever had a weaker Senate minority leader or House majority leader?
You’ve just been voted head coach for the Dems in the upcoming debate on the “History of the United States with a special emphasis on the Constitution.” You have one minute left to make your final draft selection and you have to pick one of the following: Nancy Pelosi, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Boxer, or Maxine Waters. Quick, who do you pick?
I like rock & roll, R & B, classical, jazz, blues and some country. What does that make me?
I want everyone who wants to be successful to have the opportunity to be successful but not be given too much of a free ride to get there. What does that make me?
Why is the U.S really lagging the world so much when it comes to the quality of our education? It sure ain’t due to a lack of bread but they would have you think so.
I will continue to teach my kids to respect all people and all creatures great and small but I will also teach them that they need not take crap from anyone and that includes being made to feel guilty for things they had no part in. Got that?
I was born and raised a Catholic but am one no more. Given the platform for abortion, birth control, and gay marriage why do so many vote Democratic? You are all just convenient Catholics and you are all hypocrites and you all know it.
Why am I condemned for being somewhat successful (so far)?
Hey Dems- is there a point when there is too much debt?
Someone has to explain to me how the finances of a country, of a government, are so unlike those of an individual. In the latter case when you owe you have to pay and when you cannot pay you are held to account. Isn’t that the way countries are supposed to work as well? Oh, yeah, just the ones that plan to live long and prosper.
Will anyone live to see the Cubs win the World Series?
Why is going to school and getting a good education that you can use to take you to places you never dreamed of such a terrible thing? And I ain’t even talking about college here.
Why is learning in school considered by some black people to be a white thing?
Why is it that race now enters so much of our conversation? I know that several of my points here touch on it but, hey, I didn’t start it and I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back and let someone control the conversation without the opportunity to respond.
Are we all just Americans or just when it is convenient to be so?
Is it sometimes convenient to not be so?
Why does no one seem to be able to work together anymore?
When did people in this country get so darn stupid?
There doesn’t seem to be much to stop the Russian state from rising again. Certainly not the power elite presently in Washington.
I need to decide how and when to get out of the great state of Illinois. Even Lincoln wouldn’t claim this as his land any longer- he’d prefer Indiana or Kentucky from whence he came.
How many actual Tea Party members do you know and are any of them actually racist? Can you provide any proof?
When I hear “blah blah blah” I know someone is getting what little information they care to share from MSNBC, CNN, the NY Times, the Huffington Post or a similar outlet.
Greatness is fast departing our once-great country. We have been told by the man in Washington that we are not an exceptional people. What are we then?
Why is going to college considered to be a right? It isn’t for everyone but everyone else seems to think it is. What we wind up with is a tremendous amount of student loan debt coupled to either a bunch of dropouts or a bunch of non-working hangers-on without a valuable degree anywhere in sight.
Kids cannot learn if parents will not teach.
Parents cannot teach what they do not know.
Teachers will only teach what is sanctioned or so it seems.
What we call poverty today is nowhere near what we called it years ago. Why did the criteria change?
What happens when the money runs out kiddies?
Global warming? Please. Just follow the money, as always. You insult my minor scientific knowledge when you tell me the science is in and the debate is over. What debate? Please.
Tomorrow can indeed be a brighter day. Hopefully a warmer one as well. We’re freezing here amidst all that warming.
If the science fails you and your initiative then just change the name and blame absolutely everything on something other than what it likely is. Einstein could not even figure out that science but he wasn’t as smart as someone like Al Gore I guess.
Too much in life passes by too quickly. Before we know it the moment and the day are gone. Slow it down as best you can and take time to see and smell those roses.
(Darn Microsoft Word for this indent that I can’t figure out how to fix). I have already wasted too many precious moments in my life and as my life grows shorter I am making a pledge to not waste much more. Make every moment you can really count for something. Stand and fight when you need to. Get educated, wise up. Wise up and then rise up if you care at all about our future.

That’s it. I don’t plan to revise any of this, just publish it. This marks my 100^th entry on this blog. Can you say you have produced 100 entries in just over 3 months and have you ever done a list with 100 things on it? Until today I could not say that I had done either but now I can. “Well that’s the way I always heard it should be…”

O happy day.

Stand. Stand. Stand.

February 24, 2014

LastFullMeasure

Observations Political No Comments

It’s cold and bleak out there this morning. Seems like every morning…and afternoon…and evening…and especially nighttime. Always seems so close to nighttime.

When will it end? When will it ever end?

The winds blow cold and hard, pushing all that happens to be in the way; relentless, howling, unnerving.

The sun has forgotten how to shine and cast its warmth. It will not emerge to offer hope for a new and warming day ahead for us.

Precipitation falls as snow, then rain, and then returns to snow again. Covering the ground and covering the tracks of all of the creatures who dare roam the killing frost of day and night.

The moon, full and eerie, casts a reflected light down and then again off of the frozen surface of the too many snowfalls, cold and hard but illuminating enough for those creatures who roam the night in search of sustenance and furthering life.

The sounds and the sound. The echo is a dead echo and the sound the sound of the tomb. Feet break through the frozen surface of some newly fallen crust of snow that has frozen over just enough to offer resistance to those who would tread there, lightly or otherwise. Try to run but you won’t get far- it is too slick and far too deep and is nothing else but dangerous.

Temperatures that will kill. Heat can do the same over time but this cold, this bitter, lifeless, brutal cold will kill, can kill, in a very short amount of time. All that was life before may be no more after such a spell as we have had. We will, still, have to wait and see what survives it.

Warmer days have always come to chase away the bonechill and make us well again. But must that always be so? Could it come to pass that one time, perhaps even this time, the cold will stay to keep us in or kill us if we wander out? Must we stay locked in our quarters not only for this season but for all of the rest as well?

It could happen. No one knows when the sun may blink away or the earth repeal its spin. And then we would be forced finally to stay inside and shiver until even that was not enough to save our very bones.

Keep those in power long enough and we will all feel it soon enough.