Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Strangely Quiet

I would have expected more of an uproar over the attorney general's unilateral decision to ignore federal law and give those who would use illegal drugs a free 'get out of jail' card. Marijuana is still illegal. It is still harmful. People go to jail all the time for having it on them, loose their car, etc in many parts of the country. It is like this administration is trying to divide the country all over again. Look at the map where radical changes are taking place and compare it to the states that elected Mister Obama.

Now back to the attorney general. I believe it is true that he had to take an oath of office, as did the president, to uphold (and enforce) the laws of the United States of America. I understand that the president must have the authority as commander-in-chief to move the military forces around as he sees fit. The laws of the land are not under the authority of the commander-in-chief. They are under the executor of the constitution. The civilian president. The laws of the land were enacted using the guidelines (and demands) of the constitution. There is a legislative branch of government, there is an executive branch and there is a supreme court for entities to go to when they think the other two branches are wrong. You can't just make laws and arbitrarily make political decisions with them.

If the attorney general does not like the marijuana law, he is within his rights to ask the president to send legislation up to Congress to have the law changed. However, I believe it is a breach of his oath of office to just ignore the law and broadcast a statement telling others to ignore the law. Suppose tomorrow, he decides that meth would be a good way to treat the rest of the diseases that marijuana cannot help, will he tell everyone to go ahead and ignore those laws against making meth?

He has opened a can of worms. The problem is, though, there are so many other ridiculous things going on that illegal marijuana is dwarfed by them. The propaganda machine has been busy for years telling us of the terrible pain that marijuana relieves. I don't like pain either. I'm against it. Then, once the attorney general makes his historical decision to have people ignore federal law, we find out that a backache is sufficient reason to get a prescription for marijuana. Who doesn't have a backache, or nerve problem, or depression some days. Look at the shape the world is in. You either are affected by it or you are doped up. Even that is no reason to ignore the law. Without law, we have anarchy. You wouldn't like that.

So, he dumps it on the states. You folks do what you think is right. Yeah, we tried that once and got invaded. The feds allow states to govern themselves only when it suits the needs of the feds. In this case, it was the thing to do politically. It is a little security for the next election. Don't pull my leg...it hurts already. Besides I went through the teenage years with three leg pullers and I'm not all that easy to fool anymore.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Changing Washington

Changing Washington is my title and I immediately thought "Yeah, In our dreams." I will continue anyway.

If we ever expect to change Washington, I believe it will take a long term effort. Of course, many think we do not have a long term left. In case we do, those with conservative values must encourage children to go to law school and get into politics. While conservatives rested in the Reagan years and other conservative victories, liberals were getting educated (on paper anyway) and attained positions of power. They smoked their pot right into the House of Representatives, judge ships across the nation and other positions of power.

Encouraging children to go into politics seems cruel and it does require a strong personality to endure such a career. Some children should not be encouraged to do so. When I think of telling them to go into politics, I think of telling them to go play in the freeway. Of course we would not do the latter.

My point in bringing this up is that while voting right is always important, we have many times been reduced to voting for the lesser of two evils. Our vote will not count as much unless we have a quality candidate to vote for.

So, it is an idea that leaves us with years of 'more of the same' to deal with. All I can say is keep a backpack ready and the deadbolt locked. The road ahead is going to be bumpy.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Could we do better?

There is still a lot of bad stuff going on with people. They are loosing their homes and jobs. We have heard a lot of talk about the government doing this and that but Could we do better?

I'm thinking of the national reaction that takes place when a flood or bad storm comes upon a community. The response is almost immediate. The red tape is cut through. People get help or at least there are officials on the spot to leave the indication of help.

Yet in this national crisis of foreclosures, the government has helped the banks but the banks have not passed on that charity to home owners. I admit that some of the people who lost their homes were speculators themselves and just got caught in the market. But there are many who have lived in a home for years and are part of the community who have just fallen on hard times and yet there is no help to keep them in their homes. I just think it could have been handled better with more action and less talk. I think banks could have made adjustments and given people more than the usual routine in helping them stay in their homes.

My thought is that foreclosures have become big business for banks or finance companies. You got people into the homes by collecting huge down payments and huge interest payments. Now interest has bottomed out and the quick cash has dried up so the most profitable thing to do is kick them out and start over with a new batch of buyers. I hope I'm wrong about that.

As for jobs, Businesses have to do what it takes to stay in business but I fear that many of the lay offs are so corporations can paint a pretty picture for investors. If they can show that they are streamlining their company, then the investors will read the story and perhaps sink some money there. It would be better if a quality product was how people made money.

Maybe I'm all confused. I'm reminded, though, of the old saying that 'one man's junk is another man's treasure'. Perhaps it can be said of these days that 'one person's loss is another person's gain'. I guess that is true but a little compassion wouldn't hurt, at least for a while, then they can go back to being sharks after the children get a roof over their heads.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Good Weekend

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very nice weekend. I hope both of you are able to find a space of happiness with those you love.



Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Judgment Day

Based on history I have read in all kinds of books including the bestseller of all time - the Bible -, events that are taking place in our country cannot go without a day of reckoning.

You stack up your ABC blocks high enough and someday they will fall down, no matter how good a stacker you are. Too much is happening too fast. It is a blitz. The object of a blitz is to surprise. Do it before anyone has a chance to react, then do another play before anyone has a chance to cry foul.

A country is not a basketball that you toss around hoping it will score a point. To further use that analogy, no one man makes up a team. He can hog the ball for a while but winning the game is another matter.

I listen to the evening news, the one on ABC, and it is so blatantly bias that there is no question that it is a propaganda machine for the Obama administration. It appears that if they do not say good things all the time that they will be rejected by the administration as with FoxNews. I suppose they have this idea that he is president and won the majority that they can please the majority if they plaster his face on every segment of the broadcast and throw some favorable numbers at us. Don't explain the details of the survey or anything, that will be just fine, just do the percent. We get it.

Besides being disgusted, sad, upset, etc, I am afraid that this administration will destroy so much of this country that it will take years, even decades to rebuild. History tells us that there is a cause and effect. Of course, there are large segments of society that like what he is doing, destroying the innocent for convenience sake, spreading the use of marijuana, letting our troops down by not sending more support. The list goes on. What better way to get back at America than to get elected to the top spot and destroy it.

Yes, I am mad and no doubt this email will set off alarm bells in basements, all over the Washington area. Caution should not be directed toward an old man who is too far away and too tired to do anything much except write. Caution should be directed toward the one who has already broken his oath of office and failed in his duties as commander-in-chief. Some news outlets and certain thugs we call leaders of countries are the only ones he is pleasing right now and of course, those who go along with what they believe.

There will be a cost to pay for wasting the great gift we have been given. Freedom once gained and squandered will be difficult to regain.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Gangs,Guns and Drugs

We could conclude that if the world would stop using illegal drugs there would be no market for drugs. By the same token, if the drug traffickers would stop sending out drugs, the use would stop too.

Those are only dreams though. There is too much money to be made for the pushers to stop and people are too bent on escaping their troubles to stop using drugs. At least, as a whole. The amount of illegal drugs used is proof enough of that conclusion.

It should be no mystery, by now, that there is a lot of money in illegal drugs. People are easily willing to kill to protect their drug selling territory. That is the heart of the gang problem in this country. With Afghanistan being the largest producer of opium, it is no wonder that the Taliban protects their territory so violently.

Basically, what we have are little gangs on street corners and the big gang in Afghanistan all doing the same thing which is protecting their drug turf.

That is not a solution, but I think it states the problem. I think, we would like to think that there was some noble cause behind the unhesitating killing of innocent people but there is not. It is just greed.

Good Friends Gone

Something happens as we get older, we loose friends and family like apples falling off a tree. Where we used to turn to the comics, we now turn to the obits to get our jolt of the day (or week in a small town with one paper a week). It is a far cry from the younger days when every time you batted an eye, someone was getting married or having a baby. That still happens on a regular basis, but there is a core group of people in everyone's life that grows up and grows old right along with them. You loose contact, meet again renew old memories, then go off again to scout the world until one day the phone rings and there are no more memories made together.

Suddenly, this life seems so fragile and temporary. The truth is that this life has always been that way. Everyday is a miracle. Think about it, how does this machine that we call a body keep going after all we put it through. Man could never duplicate this holder of our spirit and soul.

There is something that happens as we age. We become conscious that, as miraculous as our body is, it is not all of who we are. We are a person living inside this body of flesh. We are our dreams, our character, our love and that spirit of life given to us by our Maker.

In this we have hope, that our friends and ourselves do not end with the heart attack or the dreadful disease. These things are of our flesh and will pass. It is the hope of our friends and someday ourselves being in a 'better place' that allows us to carry on beyond the solemn visits of respect to the still bodies that no longer laugh or shed a tear.

Compared to our short time in this flesh, the rest of time outside of time is large and holds us in awe at times. When I loose a member of my family or a friend, it brings peace to me to know that they are well acquainted with their Maker.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Is the Universe Flat?

Just a quick question since Columbus just discovered America after proving the world was not flat: Is the universe flat? Every picture I see shows a swirling mass of heavenly bodies all spread out in one dimension. So is it flat like that or is it more like a snow globe where you can go up and down and still find stars and stuff? If anyone has been out there or knows someone who has, please fill in this gap in my knowledge base.

Old TV Shows

I was getting on in years before we had a television, I guess nearly eight or nine. The first show I remember was Long John Silvers, not the greasy spoon, the story of a semi-pirate. I remember little about it except that Long John and a young boy were stranded on a boat and they ate their leather shoes. I have never tried eating a shoe but dogs seem to enjoy them.

I watched Fantasy Island until some guy said he was God and I threw out my television for a number of years. When I got another one, people were running around in towels and underwear. No doubt, the networks think they have improved things a lot. You can see bodies cut up right in your living room now and even witness the destruction of a bullet as it passes through a human body.

It was my mistake to think that remotes were made cheap. It is having to use them so much to change channels and blot out loud rude commercials that make them wear out before the television. My right hand is shaped like the remote now and my right arm twitches. I've tried the thing on the grandchildren but found that it does have its limitations.

Now the old shows have made a comeback, at least in my life. I like shows where you have to listen to what the characters say to get the story. There is no rush to get the story out there. You just ride along with the story until something happens. With the new shows, I can usually predict how they all will end. I think that is because they move plots from one show to another to save having to think up something new. (He is always the bad guy.)

The old comedies were actually funny. They didn't get to use ugly words and sexual innuendos to get a laugh. Like on Bullwinkle..."My name is Professor--------, I reckon you know yours." Now that is funny and I even heard the same line on Fringe the other night. It was the Walter character...now he is a funny man. He could just talk with his face without moving his mouth.

No, television is not better, writers and producers are lazy or do not have the ability to imagine. They put out reality shows to save money and to take up air space because a lot of viewers have gone someplace else. They focus all their effort on prime time where they look for supposed beautiful people to sacrifice their dignity for dollars.

I think Elvis probably had good cause to shot his television. You can turn it off and peace and stillness floods into the room like fresh air. I don't like it but I watch it. The three shows that I do like keep me tuned in, mostly I watch some of the others while I'm waiting and I sure don't want to miss that foreclosure commercial or the one about black tacos. Yeah man, give me one of the burnt ones!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Roman Empire, Termites and the USA

I am by no means an expert on the Roman Empire. Fact is, I'm not much of an expert on anything. I do try to keep an overview of present day events and to be a student of history. So in that light, I can see a parallel between the time before the fall of the Roman Empire and the 'goings-on' in our great country.

I cannot get the picture of how termites work out of my head. I use to be in the business of killing them, so I know a little. They live in the ground and cannot stand the light of day. They will come up through mud tunnels or towers or between concrete blocks. Anything to get to that wood. They like the house only because of what they can get from the house.

So you sit there watching your favorite television show, totally unaware that the little monsters are eating your house down around you. Someday you will slam the door and part of a wall will fall out in the floor.

We have those in our country who love the country but only for what it can provide for their own bellies. They care not about safety and security and shelter for those living within but rather only for the fullness the house provides them.

I sometimes wonder if the people even know what is meant when they are told that they are destroying the foundation this nation was built on. I can tell you it is not about letting some two-bit outfit defeat us. It is not about making friends with thieves and robbers and killers of women and children. It is not about taking money from our elderly and giving it to people who sneak into this country by bypassing the law and breaking it everyday they are here. You just can't go into a bank and rob it and make yourself the bank manager while you are there. You could expect to be arrested but that no longer happens with specialized lawbreakers.

Preserving our foundations is not about letting every little special interest group tell everyone else what they can do or what they can say. It is not about spreading all the money, in the country, out like a thanksgiving dinner for every lazy, wouldn't-work-if-I-could, person in the nation.

We are headed toward socialism, where the government takes everything and gives it to everyone. I think people ought to eat. I think children should be cared for (even if they are not born yet). I also believe in family and that Dad needs to get out there and find some money to feed his family, set some guidelines (a budget) they can live within and Mom ought to be there telling the children that money isn't everything and that you don't have to be rich to be a good citizen.

It is not about "give me, give me," and I will do. It is about I will do and you pay me for it.

The Roman Empire fell because they were eat up from the inside. Think about that.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Politics of War

There is a lot of talk from people who know very little about the trials of war. If I wanted a good strategy for war I'd take that of General McCrystal with his chest full of medals over the speaker of the house with her 'Proud Grandmother' bumper sticker any day.

Politicians are again bringing shame to the United States by not going at the war in Afghanistan to win. We are there, the people want us there and there is a clear mission: to kick the Taliban out, so let's get it done and come home.

You save lives by having an overwhelming force against the enemy. Right now we are letting our troops take some whippings because they do not have the resources they need. It is a shame that the general has to go to another country to get support for American troops. Congress and the president should be ashamed instead of slamming the general. He cares about his troops and so should we.

Let the military commanders do war. That is THEIR job.

Snakes

Snakes were a part of our life on the farm, yet none of us every got bit by one.

I remember a black colored snake that use to always run across the road in front of me when I was going to the field. The tractor would go 13 MPH at top speed but I never got close to that snake and never saw it unless I was on the tractor.

There was the water moccasin that stalked us one night while we were fishing. It must have been a moon lite night for I watched it for a long time. At first, it looked like a stick coming toward us a few feet from the bank. The thing was, we were upstream from it and I knew enough to know that sticks don't float upstream.

I never climbed up in the old tree hanging out over the river that caused the deep swimming hole to form but many other boys did. They would wade through the water and tree limbs to get to a good place to jump off. They often mentioned feeling something brush against their legs and chalked it off to tree limbs. Later, someone decided to cut out some of the limbs (which ruined the swimming hole) to get a better place to jump. The story is that they flushed out a bed of snakes from the tree.

Once in our old house, the television sat with the back to the window so the antenna wire could go out easily. At times, we had to reach behind and shake the wire to get reception cleared up. One day I started to reach back there and for some reason on this day I looked first. Usually, we just reached back and watched the television to see when it cleared up. Today though I looked and there was a rattle snake plastered to the back of the television.

I don't much like snakes. I saw a man catch a copper head once but I refused to take it when he offered it to me. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Broadcasting

Does anyone know if they are really going to change the name of the Evening News to the Obama Show?

Monday, October 5, 2009

Afghanistan

Afghanistan - what's different?

Afghanistan is a land-locked country with Iran on one side and Pakistan on another. To the north there are the former USSR nations. We have to stay friendly with someone to just get troops in whether we fly them in or take them over land. In Iraq, there was a gulf to float all the heavy equipment in. Moving 40,000 troops to Afghanistan would not be easy. Getting their equipment there would be a huge logistics problem.

We have a new president with no military experience. He does not understand the cost of indecision in lives. It takes a good plan but it also takes action. You can't give the enemy the play book and expect to beat them.

America is tired of war. There is not the long term determination that we hear about in WWII. Americans, these days, like short wars.

Also, there is the trouble here, which would be 'back home' for the troops. People are getting kicked out of their homes, there is little money to spend and the government is taking more than their fair share out of what is left. My own property tax bill doubled this year. If the books were balanced right now, we would be in chapter 13 in our national treasury. Government knows no restraint when it comes to spending. To solve things they just add more burden on the taxpayers and consumers.

A decision must be made concerning Afghanistan. Troops are dying. We need to either get in with enough force to do the job or get out. We cannot leave our troops in harms way for three more years while politicians (with no war experience) make up their minds about what to do. Do it or don't do it but quit talking about it.

Followers