(Note: Marshall, Texas, as noted by Bill Moyers, is a place where my heart returns when it is in need of a goodly serving up of memories.)
Twenty years ago I left Marshall after a decade of living, loving and laughing in my favorite town on earth. Every community ... EVERY community ... has its share of smiley times and warts. Marshall is no exception. Observations from long distance reveal the following:
THINGS THAT REMAIN THE SAME
1) Marshall is still a stable population town. As the old joke goes, seems like every time a baby is born, some man leaves town. And it’s still a town where the only population growth is in the cemetery.
2) A majority of local politicians still think they are omnipotent and that the public is a herd of dunces that needs to be treated like mushrooms…kept in the dark and covered in, well, euphemistically speaking, fertilizer.
3) The town still is in need of a few good funerals to get it untracked and on a progressive path.
4) The progressive volunteer spirit of community activists – those that are visible and many more who work behind the scenes – is as active as ever.
5) The next generations of movers-and-shakers are following in the steps of their predecessors, some immersing themselves in good works, some working from the perspective of maintaining the family history linked to greed, turf, territory and ego.
THINGS THAT HAVE CHANGED
1) Downtown is more vibrant with new restaurants, shops, events and attractions.
2) Downtown doin’s have grown exponentially. Fun on the streets!
3) The total aura and majesty of Wonderland of Lights declined dramatically, but is now on the uptick.
4) The FireAnt Festival has become “just another festival.”
5) The Courthouse Museum finally is living up to its potential.
6) Downtown bathrooms are looking like they will be a reality.
7) Ms. Chuck Wilson is still plying her personal form of racism in order to maintain her high Look-At-Me!-I’m A Black Leader! profile.
8) At one time, City Hall officials had a clue. With a few exceptions, officials now advocate and hold firm to a know-nothing philosophy.
9) King Richard is no longer holding court.
10) The local media no longer leads the charge to help create a better community, but seems content to sit back, observe and comment.
11) The resurrection of Weisman’s into a gathering place is a true wonder.
But the most drastic and visible change, and also the biggest (pun intended) change is the fact there’s definitely more cleavage in the area now than there was “back in the day.” (See photo gallery at easttexastowns.com).
Showing posts with label Footprints Column. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Footprints Column. Show all posts
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
It’s not a petty thing if it drives you nuts
When I was working at various newspapers, I was sometimes accused of being petty, of wielding the journalistic pen and using strong arm tactics worthy of a dictatorship in a Third World country.
Denying that makes no sense, just as the accusations, then and now, make no sense. People believe what they want to believe.
Always a proponent of pithy editorial comment that was aimed at creating an environment for thought, I, and a majority of editors that passed through the News Messenger doors, wrote editorials and columns to create a bias for action.
That does not mean those written words didn’t create some heartburn in some folks. Some were assuredly meant to do just that.
I can only conjure up one column that was, in my opinion, then and now, petty. It wasn’t about any politician, or local group, the local school system, postal service, city administration, or any subject that most folks might consider to be fodder for pettiness.
I remember going on a tangent more than 20 years ago about a pet peeve of mine and more than one person told me I was being petty and petulant. If something is so severely intimidating and irritating that it makes you want to take a 2x4 and beat some poor stranger, then, in my opinion, it is certainly not a petty matter.
It is my personal belief that every single person on this planet with an IQ over 12 has at least one pet peeve. My main pet peeve is those stupid little paper stickers applied to fruit and vegetables in grocery stores.
You know. Those little red-and-white or green-and-white stickers with the dumb numbers that are attached to the skin of fruit or vegetables with a mixture of Super Glue and Quikcrete.
Certain fruits – pineapple and kiwi come to mind -- used to be exempt due to outer skin covering, but even those has succumbed to the insidious SSP (Stupid Sticker Program).
Yeah, yeah, I know why they put them on there: Inventory control. I don’t care. It’s not rocket science to look at existing batches of veggies and fruit and order when the stash gets low. That’s the way it was done for centuries before scanners, and it by gosh worked.
As a consumer, it’s a rip off. The stickers add additional weight to the item and I don’t want to pay the extra freight, so to speak. The stickers may be lightweight, but the psychological weight is very, very heavy.
And, the stickers cost money and, assuredly, that cost is passed on via higher consumer prices.
Those stickers are the same thing as … well, parsley. Who needs parsley? Who eats parsley? Yet consumers are forced to spend millions of dollars a year buying parsley that has the nutritional value of mucous and is used strictly for decoration.
I propose a two-prong approach to dealing with this problem: First, join the organization GASOFAV (Get All Stickers Off Fruits and Vegetables). Protest quietly by removing every sticker from offending supermarket items or, for the more adventuresome activist, switch kiwi stickers onto cantaloupes.
Join this fledgling group and help get stickers off fruits and veggies and then we move on to ousting parsley.
If I had my druthers, I would druther see little red-and-white stickers on my mashed potatoes than parsley. The stickers simply taste better.
Denying that makes no sense, just as the accusations, then and now, make no sense. People believe what they want to believe.
Always a proponent of pithy editorial comment that was aimed at creating an environment for thought, I, and a majority of editors that passed through the News Messenger doors, wrote editorials and columns to create a bias for action.
That does not mean those written words didn’t create some heartburn in some folks. Some were assuredly meant to do just that.
I can only conjure up one column that was, in my opinion, then and now, petty. It wasn’t about any politician, or local group, the local school system, postal service, city administration, or any subject that most folks might consider to be fodder for pettiness.
I remember going on a tangent more than 20 years ago about a pet peeve of mine and more than one person told me I was being petty and petulant. If something is so severely intimidating and irritating that it makes you want to take a 2x4 and beat some poor stranger, then, in my opinion, it is certainly not a petty matter.
It is my personal belief that every single person on this planet with an IQ over 12 has at least one pet peeve. My main pet peeve is those stupid little paper stickers applied to fruit and vegetables in grocery stores.
You know. Those little red-and-white or green-and-white stickers with the dumb numbers that are attached to the skin of fruit or vegetables with a mixture of Super Glue and Quikcrete.
Certain fruits – pineapple and kiwi come to mind -- used to be exempt due to outer skin covering, but even those has succumbed to the insidious SSP (Stupid Sticker Program).
Yeah, yeah, I know why they put them on there: Inventory control. I don’t care. It’s not rocket science to look at existing batches of veggies and fruit and order when the stash gets low. That’s the way it was done for centuries before scanners, and it by gosh worked.
As a consumer, it’s a rip off. The stickers add additional weight to the item and I don’t want to pay the extra freight, so to speak. The stickers may be lightweight, but the psychological weight is very, very heavy.
And, the stickers cost money and, assuredly, that cost is passed on via higher consumer prices.
Those stickers are the same thing as … well, parsley. Who needs parsley? Who eats parsley? Yet consumers are forced to spend millions of dollars a year buying parsley that has the nutritional value of mucous and is used strictly for decoration.
I propose a two-prong approach to dealing with this problem: First, join the organization GASOFAV (Get All Stickers Off Fruits and Vegetables). Protest quietly by removing every sticker from offending supermarket items or, for the more adventuresome activist, switch kiwi stickers onto cantaloupes.
Join this fledgling group and help get stickers off fruits and veggies and then we move on to ousting parsley.
If I had my druthers, I would druther see little red-and-white stickers on my mashed potatoes than parsley. The stickers simply taste better.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Stealing a newspaper honest-to-goodness crime
As a 50-year veteran of newspaper wars, I prided myself on always being upfront and honest and truthful in all respects.
In writing more than 3,000 editorials and 2,000 columns in those years, I fully acknowledge the remote possibility of slipping up occasionally and bending the truth into a pretzel, if not busting it all to pieces.
I was talking “newspapering” recently with a long-time East Texas publisher and I was rambling on about something or other and he said, “What was the real scoop on the column you wrote about newspaper theft?”
Well, there were three actually and two happened in Marshall.
Any newspaper can expect a seven-to-eight percent theft from newspaper racks. That’s a pretty good universal number for the percent of thieves that read papers. That number is a given and is figured into circulation budgets.
Back in 1989, the rack thefts at the News Messenger skyrocketed one summer, with daily theft surpassing 20 percent. I teamed up with the circulation director and rigged up a sting: We took quarters out of racks, painted the edges with fingernail polish (Passionfruit, as a recall) and replaced them in the coin bins.
It was obvious the next day when we went through the rack collection bags that many of the doctored quarters were missing.
Before we had a chance to decide on a course of action, we adjourned to Burger King for lunch. Upon arrival, the manager welcomed us and said, “If you’d been a few minutes earlier, (a staff member) could have bought your lunch. He brought in enough quarters to feed the lunch crowd.”
Part of the lunch money included quarters with the edges painted in Passionfruit.
Back at the office, we confronted the circulation employee, had him return all the quarters (three bags full in his trunk), invited him to write a check for the difference of seven-eight percent of theft and what it had been running the past month … and terminated his employment.
Never did a firing feel so good.
The second such theft report in Marshall was even more bizarre.
The Messenger, every Sunday morning, experienced a 90 percent theft rate … at one rack. It was located front and center at a local restaurant.
One Sunday I staked out the restaurant and watched as a stream of customers came up to the rack and put in the correct change, opened the door and took out a handful of papers. There were originally 50 papers in the rack and only $5 in the coin collection tray when I checked.
I went inside the restaurant and went to a meeting room in the back. A herd of men were sitting, drinking coffee, slamming down eggs and reading stolen News Messengers.
Being as it was a pre-church meeting of a men’s Sunday School class, I announced I was there to pass the collection plate to get money for the papers that were inadvertently stolen from the rack outside. I passed a blue-striped plate and dollar bills were piled high in no time.
“Don’t make me come back here,” I said, smiling, as I exited. No more theft problems from that rack … ever.
Later in my career, the paper at which I was publishing sponsored a “Little Cutie” photo contest (or some such titled money-making gimmick), and the official entry blank was included in a full-page ad. Unlimited entries were allowed, but no copies were to be counted.
That stipulation guaranteed a high degree of theft. We went to the trouble of printing rack cards telling would-be thieves the penalties for stealing newspaper.
The theft that day surpassed 50 percent.
The following day I wrote a front-page column about the theft, and advised the readers that every single rack paper was printed with a special scan code that, if the entry form was turned in for the contest, could be pinpointed as stolen … and prosecution would be vigorously pursued.
The phone rang off the wall that day with readers saying their spousal units “might” have inadvertently picked up extra copies and they’d like to come down and make restitution. The front desk took in more than $200 that day.
In my convoluted thinking, sometimes white lies are justified. And, despite what newspaper professionals like to think, some readers are dumber than a box of hair.
In writing more than 3,000 editorials and 2,000 columns in those years, I fully acknowledge the remote possibility of slipping up occasionally and bending the truth into a pretzel, if not busting it all to pieces.
I was talking “newspapering” recently with a long-time East Texas publisher and I was rambling on about something or other and he said, “What was the real scoop on the column you wrote about newspaper theft?”
Well, there were three actually and two happened in Marshall.
Any newspaper can expect a seven-to-eight percent theft from newspaper racks. That’s a pretty good universal number for the percent of thieves that read papers. That number is a given and is figured into circulation budgets.
Back in 1989, the rack thefts at the News Messenger skyrocketed one summer, with daily theft surpassing 20 percent. I teamed up with the circulation director and rigged up a sting: We took quarters out of racks, painted the edges with fingernail polish (Passionfruit, as a recall) and replaced them in the coin bins.
It was obvious the next day when we went through the rack collection bags that many of the doctored quarters were missing.
Before we had a chance to decide on a course of action, we adjourned to Burger King for lunch. Upon arrival, the manager welcomed us and said, “If you’d been a few minutes earlier, (a staff member) could have bought your lunch. He brought in enough quarters to feed the lunch crowd.”
Part of the lunch money included quarters with the edges painted in Passionfruit.
Back at the office, we confronted the circulation employee, had him return all the quarters (three bags full in his trunk), invited him to write a check for the difference of seven-eight percent of theft and what it had been running the past month … and terminated his employment.
Never did a firing feel so good.
The second such theft report in Marshall was even more bizarre.
The Messenger, every Sunday morning, experienced a 90 percent theft rate … at one rack. It was located front and center at a local restaurant.
One Sunday I staked out the restaurant and watched as a stream of customers came up to the rack and put in the correct change, opened the door and took out a handful of papers. There were originally 50 papers in the rack and only $5 in the coin collection tray when I checked.
I went inside the restaurant and went to a meeting room in the back. A herd of men were sitting, drinking coffee, slamming down eggs and reading stolen News Messengers.
Being as it was a pre-church meeting of a men’s Sunday School class, I announced I was there to pass the collection plate to get money for the papers that were inadvertently stolen from the rack outside. I passed a blue-striped plate and dollar bills were piled high in no time.
“Don’t make me come back here,” I said, smiling, as I exited. No more theft problems from that rack … ever.
Later in my career, the paper at which I was publishing sponsored a “Little Cutie” photo contest (or some such titled money-making gimmick), and the official entry blank was included in a full-page ad. Unlimited entries were allowed, but no copies were to be counted.
That stipulation guaranteed a high degree of theft. We went to the trouble of printing rack cards telling would-be thieves the penalties for stealing newspaper.
The theft that day surpassed 50 percent.
The following day I wrote a front-page column about the theft, and advised the readers that every single rack paper was printed with a special scan code that, if the entry form was turned in for the contest, could be pinpointed as stolen … and prosecution would be vigorously pursued.
The phone rang off the wall that day with readers saying their spousal units “might” have inadvertently picked up extra copies and they’d like to come down and make restitution. The front desk took in more than $200 that day.
In my convoluted thinking, sometimes white lies are justified. And, despite what newspaper professionals like to think, some readers are dumber than a box of hair.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Some ‘WHOA!’ stories
A recent “Whoa!” writing effort pinpointed items in society that cause common sense advocates to stop and say, “Whoa!” A few emails indicated that "Whoa!" was a fun reading.
In all honesty, this type of computer fodder is as easy falling off a log. To those of the younger generation, it's easier than the beginner’s stage of Halo.
1) Whoa! In Canada, making a marijuana bust can be hazardous to one’s health. Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a suspected marijuana “grow-ops” field in British Columbia and found it guarded … by at lest 14 bears. That’s “bears,” as in “people-eating mammals.”
The bears were kept in the vicinity of the marijuana crop by heapin’ helpin’s of dog food left especially for them. Also found at the property were a pot-belly pig and a raccoon. Officers said the swine and coon were friendly, and the bears were not considered a threat, and one even said the bears “were quite tame.”
In the U.S. pit bulldogs are guard animals of choice. Canadian marijuana growers obviously have a lot to learn.
2) Whoa! According to a poll (if you believe in polls and that they are fair and balanced), 24 percent of Americans believe President Barack Obama is a follower of the Muslim faith. The same number believe that George W. Bush attacked Iraq in good faith and Dick Cheney is not the devil.
3) Whoa! The last U.S. combat brigade is leaving Iraq. Good news, right? For those soldiers, absolutely. For the people of Iraq, it’s a different tale. But it’s a safe bet that tribal warfare will break out in that country within the next year and that another dictator of the Saddam Hussein ilk will be running the place.
One thing about the American military and the civilian leaders: They don’t mind making the same mistakes over and over and over ….
4) Whoa! Almost 400 million eggs have been recalled due to an outbreak of salmonella. First, lettuce, then strawberries, then broch…brocol…cauliflower, and now eggs.
Never had this problem back in the day before television and video games. Think about it.
5) Whoa! Hard line conservatives see nothing wrong with mass emailing anything derogatory about the president. It takes virtually no effort to go to snopes.com and find out whether or not such stories are true.
Yet many believe passing along untruths is somehow helping “the cause,” whatever that may be.
In all honesty, this type of computer fodder is as easy falling off a log. To those of the younger generation, it's easier than the beginner’s stage of Halo.
1) Whoa! In Canada, making a marijuana bust can be hazardous to one’s health. Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a suspected marijuana “grow-ops” field in British Columbia and found it guarded … by at lest 14 bears. That’s “bears,” as in “people-eating mammals.”
The bears were kept in the vicinity of the marijuana crop by heapin’ helpin’s of dog food left especially for them. Also found at the property were a pot-belly pig and a raccoon. Officers said the swine and coon were friendly, and the bears were not considered a threat, and one even said the bears “were quite tame.”
In the U.S. pit bulldogs are guard animals of choice. Canadian marijuana growers obviously have a lot to learn.
2) Whoa! According to a poll (if you believe in polls and that they are fair and balanced), 24 percent of Americans believe President Barack Obama is a follower of the Muslim faith. The same number believe that George W. Bush attacked Iraq in good faith and Dick Cheney is not the devil.
3) Whoa! The last U.S. combat brigade is leaving Iraq. Good news, right? For those soldiers, absolutely. For the people of Iraq, it’s a different tale. But it’s a safe bet that tribal warfare will break out in that country within the next year and that another dictator of the Saddam Hussein ilk will be running the place.
One thing about the American military and the civilian leaders: They don’t mind making the same mistakes over and over and over ….
4) Whoa! Almost 400 million eggs have been recalled due to an outbreak of salmonella. First, lettuce, then strawberries, then broch…brocol…cauliflower, and now eggs.
Never had this problem back in the day before television and video games. Think about it.
5) Whoa! Hard line conservatives see nothing wrong with mass emailing anything derogatory about the president. It takes virtually no effort to go to snopes.com and find out whether or not such stories are true.
Yet many believe passing along untruths is somehow helping “the cause,” whatever that may be.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
An idea whose time has come
Are you sick and tired of the endless yammering about illegal aliens, how to control the slippery hordes, what to do with them when they are captured within the U.S. borders without proper papers, and how to pay for the get-the-hell-out program?
Well, join the verbal fray!
No one – no liberal, conservative, redneck immigrant hater or immigrant activist – has a clue how to solve the problem.
It’s time for a surefire solution. So, of course I have one, so here goes.
Surefire Solve-the-Illegal-Immigrant Plan
This plan includes four key steps:
1) Find every single illegal alien in the country by Christmas.
2) Throw their illegal hinnies out of the country.
3) Tell them if they come back, they will be horsewhipped with a piece of bobwire, regardless of age or gender. (I know it’s “barbed wire,” but I’m mad and don’t care.)
4) Fine every business that hires illegal aliens $1,000 per person for the first offense; second offense, the penalty escalates to $25,000 per illegal worker and confiscation of every flat screen TV and Lazyboy recliner the lawbreaker owns. The gummit would then sell the confiscated stuff and the revenue would go directly to reducing the national debt.
The second offense penalty would insure there would be no need for a third offense penalty.
Of course, the plan has problems, but so does every other plan thus far presented. Three of the four planks in the platform above are perfectly legal … about three more than any other plan thus far offered.
Acknowledging the bobwire beatings are a bit over the top, it is still proffered just so those aginners can throw something in the plan out.
So, let’s all push to get this plan passed.
And, when all the illegal immigrants are out of the country and the crops are not being picked, and the chickens are not being plucked, and the offerings at fast food restaurants are going bad, and buildings are not being cleaned, and landscaping chores are being left undone … we can all take a collective breath and be amazed at the abject stupidity that sometimes encapsulates the best of intentions.
The winds of change blow … well, sorta funny. As soon as people start getting hungry because there’s no fresh farm produce, or consumer goods escalate like the dickens because labor costs soars, there’ll be a solid clamoring to allow any ol’ immigrant who’ll work to make our lives easier and living it cheaper to cross the borders.
The situation would be laughable if it were not so darn pitiful.
Well, join the verbal fray!
No one – no liberal, conservative, redneck immigrant hater or immigrant activist – has a clue how to solve the problem.
It’s time for a surefire solution. So, of course I have one, so here goes.
Surefire Solve-the-Illegal-Immigrant Plan
This plan includes four key steps:
1) Find every single illegal alien in the country by Christmas.
2) Throw their illegal hinnies out of the country.
3) Tell them if they come back, they will be horsewhipped with a piece of bobwire, regardless of age or gender. (I know it’s “barbed wire,” but I’m mad and don’t care.)
4) Fine every business that hires illegal aliens $1,000 per person for the first offense; second offense, the penalty escalates to $25,000 per illegal worker and confiscation of every flat screen TV and Lazyboy recliner the lawbreaker owns. The gummit would then sell the confiscated stuff and the revenue would go directly to reducing the national debt.
The second offense penalty would insure there would be no need for a third offense penalty.
Of course, the plan has problems, but so does every other plan thus far presented. Three of the four planks in the platform above are perfectly legal … about three more than any other plan thus far offered.
Acknowledging the bobwire beatings are a bit over the top, it is still proffered just so those aginners can throw something in the plan out.
So, let’s all push to get this plan passed.
And, when all the illegal immigrants are out of the country and the crops are not being picked, and the chickens are not being plucked, and the offerings at fast food restaurants are going bad, and buildings are not being cleaned, and landscaping chores are being left undone … we can all take a collective breath and be amazed at the abject stupidity that sometimes encapsulates the best of intentions.
The winds of change blow … well, sorta funny. As soon as people start getting hungry because there’s no fresh farm produce, or consumer goods escalate like the dickens because labor costs soars, there’ll be a solid clamoring to allow any ol’ immigrant who’ll work to make our lives easier and living it cheaper to cross the borders.
The situation would be laughable if it were not so darn pitiful.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Speaking of the truth ….
A truism is something that is true. It does not become true simply because one says, thinks or believes it is untrue.
A truism is truth, unvarnished and naked in its simplicity.
Everyone has a few supposed truisms hidden in their mental and verbal arsenal. Some are true, some aren’t. Over the past several decades, a list of truisms, started during a pique of skepticism and nurtured in negativism, has grown appreciably.
The fact the following list mainly deals with politics and personalities and should surprise no one. If it does, you need psychological help.
Truisms – No dispute accepted nor tolerated
1) If Congress were to be on the same retirement system as non-elected folk, there would be no problem with Social Security.
2) If the Green Party would nominate candidates that looked and acted quasi-normal, the party might elect a few politicians.
3) A Republican who follows his/her party line 80 percent of the time ain’t worth a cup of dog drool.
4) Democrats, ditto.
5) Anyone who blames Obama for every ill this country is facing is dead-dog wrong.
6) Anyone who blames George W. Bush for 100 percent of the mess Obama inherited is dead-dog wrong.
7) There is no logical reason why IRS filings should not be limited to what information can fit on a postcard.
8) A majority of politicians in Washington are bought and paid for by lobbyists.
9) A majority of lobbyists in Washington have the brains of an earthworm, the ethics of a New Orleans pimp and the conscience of a born-again terrorist.
10) Anyone who votes a straight party ticket has as much common sense
as a demented mole. No party is right 100 percent of the time.
11) Term limits for Senators and members of the House are essential to
reforming politics.
12) There are more people driving cars in the United States with
handicapped stickers than there are handicapped people in the world.
13) Sarah Palin’s main attribute is that she has a memorable accent and is
as perky as all get-out.
14) Dick Cheney is not the devil. The jury is still out on Karl Rove.
15) Obama is a citizen of the United States, is not a Muslim and can not
help what his parents named him.
16) Henry Waxman has the ugliest nose in Washington. Strike that. Make
it “the world.”
17) Nancy Pelosi is the worst Speaker of the House of Representatives
since the last one.
18) More people vote “against” a certain candidate for any office than
vote “for” any candidate.
19) The concept of “justice for all” in this country is a myth. If you’re
rich, you can take advantage of the system; if you are poor, you get
to meet Big Wanda or Big Bubba in the prison shower up close and
personal.
And, one for the road:
20) The “value” of a human life is decreasing constantly and criminals are allowed to literally get away with murder, literally and figuratively. Lawyers are allowed to manipulate the judicial system to benefit them and their clients and judges think lenient sentences for heinous crimes are somehow “justice.”
A truism is truth, unvarnished and naked in its simplicity.
Everyone has a few supposed truisms hidden in their mental and verbal arsenal. Some are true, some aren’t. Over the past several decades, a list of truisms, started during a pique of skepticism and nurtured in negativism, has grown appreciably.
The fact the following list mainly deals with politics and personalities and should surprise no one. If it does, you need psychological help.
Truisms – No dispute accepted nor tolerated
1) If Congress were to be on the same retirement system as non-elected folk, there would be no problem with Social Security.
2) If the Green Party would nominate candidates that looked and acted quasi-normal, the party might elect a few politicians.
3) A Republican who follows his/her party line 80 percent of the time ain’t worth a cup of dog drool.
4) Democrats, ditto.
5) Anyone who blames Obama for every ill this country is facing is dead-dog wrong.
6) Anyone who blames George W. Bush for 100 percent of the mess Obama inherited is dead-dog wrong.
7) There is no logical reason why IRS filings should not be limited to what information can fit on a postcard.
8) A majority of politicians in Washington are bought and paid for by lobbyists.
9) A majority of lobbyists in Washington have the brains of an earthworm, the ethics of a New Orleans pimp and the conscience of a born-again terrorist.
10) Anyone who votes a straight party ticket has as much common sense
as a demented mole. No party is right 100 percent of the time.
11) Term limits for Senators and members of the House are essential to
reforming politics.
12) There are more people driving cars in the United States with
handicapped stickers than there are handicapped people in the world.
13) Sarah Palin’s main attribute is that she has a memorable accent and is
as perky as all get-out.
14) Dick Cheney is not the devil. The jury is still out on Karl Rove.
15) Obama is a citizen of the United States, is not a Muslim and can not
help what his parents named him.
16) Henry Waxman has the ugliest nose in Washington. Strike that. Make
it “the world.”
17) Nancy Pelosi is the worst Speaker of the House of Representatives
since the last one.
18) More people vote “against” a certain candidate for any office than
vote “for” any candidate.
19) The concept of “justice for all” in this country is a myth. If you’re
rich, you can take advantage of the system; if you are poor, you get
to meet Big Wanda or Big Bubba in the prison shower up close and
personal.
And, one for the road:
20) The “value” of a human life is decreasing constantly and criminals are allowed to literally get away with murder, literally and figuratively. Lawyers are allowed to manipulate the judicial system to benefit them and their clients and judges think lenient sentences for heinous crimes are somehow “justice.”
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Want a good rant? Fine! Here!
Land of the free. Home of the brave.
Yeah! Right! (Proving once and for all that two positive can make a negative.)
America today is more like the home of the freebie, home of the greedy.
Look around you. What in name of Jezebel’s housecat has happened to our country?
One word: Politics.
It’s bad enough we are limited to two lame parties with screeching leaders with less common sense than a herd of demented rhesus monkeys, but we have a mindless population that follow those leaders like blindfolded kindergarten rejects.
We elect leaders who claim to have our best interests in mind, when, in actuality, their personal interests and those of their monied minders are paramount. We elect those leaders expecting them to make changes and all they do is raise taxes and spend time figuring out how to emerge from politics richer than when they went in.
We elect the yahoos and yahooettes to make our country a better place in which to live and all they do is spend tax dollars like they print the durn things at projects on which any competent businessperson would take a pass.
We vote for Bert and Beulah Bureaucrat. We smile as they sally forth to do battle with the Budget Dragon … and then add to the burden with pet projects of dubious nature so they can get re-elected for bringing home tax dollar-sponsored projects.
We make fun of members of the opposite party from our beliefs or raisin’s while lauding the attributes of favorite politicians without ever realizing that they are the same mutant critters with different political labels.
There is absolutely no difference in a Democrat who pushes a welfare program for which there is no need, or a Republican who wants a tax break for big business. It’s all politics and the shifty voting moves are to get the respective officials re-elected.
It’s politics and it’s shameful.
Rant over. Now go on back out and re-elect those good politicians that are doing right by you and this country.
Yeah! Right! (Proving once and for all that two positive can make a negative.)
America today is more like the home of the freebie, home of the greedy.
Look around you. What in name of Jezebel’s housecat has happened to our country?
One word: Politics.
It’s bad enough we are limited to two lame parties with screeching leaders with less common sense than a herd of demented rhesus monkeys, but we have a mindless population that follow those leaders like blindfolded kindergarten rejects.
We elect leaders who claim to have our best interests in mind, when, in actuality, their personal interests and those of their monied minders are paramount. We elect those leaders expecting them to make changes and all they do is raise taxes and spend time figuring out how to emerge from politics richer than when they went in.
We elect the yahoos and yahooettes to make our country a better place in which to live and all they do is spend tax dollars like they print the durn things at projects on which any competent businessperson would take a pass.
We vote for Bert and Beulah Bureaucrat. We smile as they sally forth to do battle with the Budget Dragon … and then add to the burden with pet projects of dubious nature so they can get re-elected for bringing home tax dollar-sponsored projects.
We make fun of members of the opposite party from our beliefs or raisin’s while lauding the attributes of favorite politicians without ever realizing that they are the same mutant critters with different political labels.
There is absolutely no difference in a Democrat who pushes a welfare program for which there is no need, or a Republican who wants a tax break for big business. It’s all politics and the shifty voting moves are to get the respective officials re-elected.
It’s politics and it’s shameful.
Rant over. Now go on back out and re-elect those good politicians that are doing right by you and this country.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Oh, the tragedy and irony
It’s no wonder people hate BIG Business and the obscene lobbying efforts of major alliances.
Within the past several weeks newspaper around the country ran a color, one-page advertisement paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. That is the informational, educational and lobbying arm of the “the people of America’s oil and natural gas industry.”
The self-serving ad made several points worth repeating:
1) "The people of America’s oil and natural gas industry are working to help BP (British Petroleum), which owns the spewing well, and the authorities respond to the (Gulf of Mexico) spill."
2) “Clearly, there will be lessons to be learned….”
3) “… we are fully committed to doing everything humanly possible to understand what happened and prevent it from every happening again.”
4) The institute has “already assembled the world’s leading experts to conduct a top-to-bottom review of offshore drilling procedures, from routine operations to emergency response.”
Somebody give me a hanky. I am crying here.
The ad appeared before BP’s CEO Tony Hayward testified before a Congressional committee(or who didn't testify, depending on your point of view), who, if he is to believed, is not in charge of anything at his company and does not make decisions that could adversely affect his company and the world’s environment. Hayward was so bored at the Congressional hearing he kept checking his watch.
“I can’t answer that question,” was uttered by Hayward time and again. He might as well ‘fessed up and declared, “I won’t answer that question.”
If Hayward was the hearing’s mute, then the HIC (Hearing Idiot Child) was Texas Rep. Joe Barton. Barton actually apologized to Hayward for the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown” of BP, following BP's promise of up to $20 billion in restitution for businesses ruined by the underwater oil well blowout.
One would think Barton was snorting BBQ sauce when he apologized to Hayward for saying the White House’s “shakedown” of BP was a “tragedy.”
On the International SIASD Scale (Stupid Is As Stupid Does), with a 10 being Dan Quayle and Joe Biden and 1 being Stephen Hawkins, Barton is way north of Quayle and Biden.
The “tragedy” in regard to Barton’s statement -- which he retracted six hours later -- is that voters in a Texas congressional district elected that mental doofus to Congress.
Back to the main point: In case you missed the irony in the ad message … the ad was paid for by the Institute, which is financed by the oil and gas industry, which gets its money from YOU!
The next time you need to fill up at the gas pump, give a one-fingered salute to a BP station as you drive by. It won’t do any good, of course. But, then again, it can’t hurt either.
Within the past several weeks newspaper around the country ran a color, one-page advertisement paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. That is the informational, educational and lobbying arm of the “the people of America’s oil and natural gas industry.”
The self-serving ad made several points worth repeating:
1) "The people of America’s oil and natural gas industry are working to help BP (British Petroleum), which owns the spewing well, and the authorities respond to the (Gulf of Mexico) spill."
2) “Clearly, there will be lessons to be learned….”
3) “… we are fully committed to doing everything humanly possible to understand what happened and prevent it from every happening again.”
4) The institute has “already assembled the world’s leading experts to conduct a top-to-bottom review of offshore drilling procedures, from routine operations to emergency response.”
Somebody give me a hanky. I am crying here.
The ad appeared before BP’s CEO Tony Hayward testified before a Congressional committee(or who didn't testify, depending on your point of view), who, if he is to believed, is not in charge of anything at his company and does not make decisions that could adversely affect his company and the world’s environment. Hayward was so bored at the Congressional hearing he kept checking his watch.
“I can’t answer that question,” was uttered by Hayward time and again. He might as well ‘fessed up and declared, “I won’t answer that question.”
If Hayward was the hearing’s mute, then the HIC (Hearing Idiot Child) was Texas Rep. Joe Barton. Barton actually apologized to Hayward for the White House’s “$20 billion shakedown” of BP, following BP's promise of up to $20 billion in restitution for businesses ruined by the underwater oil well blowout.
One would think Barton was snorting BBQ sauce when he apologized to Hayward for saying the White House’s “shakedown” of BP was a “tragedy.”
On the International SIASD Scale (Stupid Is As Stupid Does), with a 10 being Dan Quayle and Joe Biden and 1 being Stephen Hawkins, Barton is way north of Quayle and Biden.
The “tragedy” in regard to Barton’s statement -- which he retracted six hours later -- is that voters in a Texas congressional district elected that mental doofus to Congress.
Back to the main point: In case you missed the irony in the ad message … the ad was paid for by the Institute, which is financed by the oil and gas industry, which gets its money from YOU!
The next time you need to fill up at the gas pump, give a one-fingered salute to a BP station as you drive by. It won’t do any good, of course. But, then again, it can’t hurt either.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What has gummit wrought?
The more things change ….
In reading an article recently, some phrases starting jumping off the page like a frog in a hot skillet.
“The plain fact is that the integrity of our government is threatened by a group lobby claiming to speak for millions of Americans.”
“The recent pay increase voted by members of Congress caused a popular explosion that sent many Congressmen back to private life….”
“Part of the problem is that Congress does not understand what it is spending. Enormous office buildings have been erected, connected by costly underground passages.”
“Congressmen speak to empty (seats).” A real debate on the floor has almost ceased to be. Congressmen pass their days in their private offices (and in meeting after meeting after meeting) ….”
“The forefathers of this country, when they framed out Constitution, were thinking in terms of a small nation ….They did not have the luxury or foresight to visualize a nation of (300 million) people occupying a whole continent ….”
“Had they anticipated such an outcome, they would no doubt have (implicated the following):
“The president shall be elected for a term of six years and shall be ineligible for re-election.
“Members of the Senate shall be elected for a term of 12 years and shall be ineligible for re-election.
“Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected to a term of three years and the alternate Congressional elections shall synchronize with presidential elections ….”
“Most voters take no interest in the choice of their legislators. Congressmen are chosen by the votes of small majorities ….”
“If these are permanent habits of our democracy, it is difficult to see how government of the people through its elected representatives can succeed ….”
The punchline? The source of the article is the Atlantic Monthly magazine, 1935.
As it is written … read it and weep.
In reading an article recently, some phrases starting jumping off the page like a frog in a hot skillet.
“The plain fact is that the integrity of our government is threatened by a group lobby claiming to speak for millions of Americans.”
“The recent pay increase voted by members of Congress caused a popular explosion that sent many Congressmen back to private life….”
“Part of the problem is that Congress does not understand what it is spending. Enormous office buildings have been erected, connected by costly underground passages.”
“Congressmen speak to empty (seats).” A real debate on the floor has almost ceased to be. Congressmen pass their days in their private offices (and in meeting after meeting after meeting) ….”
“The forefathers of this country, when they framed out Constitution, were thinking in terms of a small nation ….They did not have the luxury or foresight to visualize a nation of (300 million) people occupying a whole continent ….”
“Had they anticipated such an outcome, they would no doubt have (implicated the following):
“The president shall be elected for a term of six years and shall be ineligible for re-election.
“Members of the Senate shall be elected for a term of 12 years and shall be ineligible for re-election.
“Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected to a term of three years and the alternate Congressional elections shall synchronize with presidential elections ….”
“Most voters take no interest in the choice of their legislators. Congressmen are chosen by the votes of small majorities ….”
“If these are permanent habits of our democracy, it is difficult to see how government of the people through its elected representatives can succeed ….”
The punchline? The source of the article is the Atlantic Monthly magazine, 1935.
As it is written … read it and weep.
Friday, May 28, 2010
When is a politician like a duck?
(Note: For those interested, Mattie Somer Smith, a graduate of Marshall High, gave birth on May 25 to Colton Andres Cummins. Mattie is executive director of the Brain Injury Association of Arizona. Her and her husband Kyle live in Mesa, AZ. Since I am first-time grandfather, this column is dedicated to my grandfather, the late George Logan Andres of Sutton, Arkansas.)
My grandfather, Daddy George Andres, a south Arkansas pineywoods philosopher with magnolia-leaf clusters, didn’t have much truck with politicians.
He was a political kingpin for two counties in the Natural State back in the day when sweet gum sap was chewed more than Wrigley’s. Daddy George was a justice of peace for a long piece and held court with the likes of Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, and U.S. Sens. J. William Fulbright and John McClellan.
Daddy George, by then into his 90s, told a young man named Bill Clinton that he had a way of “stirrin’ up a crowd,” which was not an oxymoron.
Even though he was elected umpteen times to the Nevada County Quorum Court, he did not consider himself a politician. He only worked for Democratic candidates – Republicans were a scarce and closeted breed 40 years ago – and then only for those candidates whom he considered “too good to be in politics."
He was a story-teller and often regaled relatives with political stories, never stopping to say which ones were true. The matter or truth vs. myth or plain-out lies didn’t matter as the stories flowed off the front porch of his shotgun-style house. The beauty was in the story telling; facts would just have gotten in the way of a good story.
A couple of Daddy George stories come to mind:
-- There was this little feller who told his daddy in a clear, loud voice: “Daddy, I know what I want to be when I grow up?
“What’s that, Son,” his daddy said.
“I want to be a politician.”
“Sorry, son,” the daddy said, putting a hand on the little tyke’s head and ruffling his hair. “You can’t be a politician. You’re a Christian.”
-- A young man running for state office once showed up on my porch,
trying to get me to support him. It wasn’t so much as I was important, but that I knew a lot of folks and some thought I knew a little about politicking.
He was a nice, young man and he made a fine speech. To tell you the truth, he cut a fine figure of a man.
After his pleadings, I told him I couldn’t support him. He wanted a reason but I couldn’t tell him the truth. The truth would have been cruel, to tell you the truth.
It wasn’t his education; he was one smart feller. He spoke well and made a good impression and all.
He couldn’t win because of the way he was dressed: No voter could trust a politician who wears brown shoes with a blue suit.”
And finally,
-- A politician is like a duck. You can thump either one on the head real hard and neither one will be a bit smarter from the experience.
My grandfather, Daddy George Andres, a south Arkansas pineywoods philosopher with magnolia-leaf clusters, didn’t have much truck with politicians.
He was a political kingpin for two counties in the Natural State back in the day when sweet gum sap was chewed more than Wrigley’s. Daddy George was a justice of peace for a long piece and held court with the likes of Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, and U.S. Sens. J. William Fulbright and John McClellan.
Daddy George, by then into his 90s, told a young man named Bill Clinton that he had a way of “stirrin’ up a crowd,” which was not an oxymoron.
Even though he was elected umpteen times to the Nevada County Quorum Court, he did not consider himself a politician. He only worked for Democratic candidates – Republicans were a scarce and closeted breed 40 years ago – and then only for those candidates whom he considered “too good to be in politics."
He was a story-teller and often regaled relatives with political stories, never stopping to say which ones were true. The matter or truth vs. myth or plain-out lies didn’t matter as the stories flowed off the front porch of his shotgun-style house. The beauty was in the story telling; facts would just have gotten in the way of a good story.
A couple of Daddy George stories come to mind:
-- There was this little feller who told his daddy in a clear, loud voice: “Daddy, I know what I want to be when I grow up?
“What’s that, Son,” his daddy said.
“I want to be a politician.”
“Sorry, son,” the daddy said, putting a hand on the little tyke’s head and ruffling his hair. “You can’t be a politician. You’re a Christian.”
-- A young man running for state office once showed up on my porch,
trying to get me to support him. It wasn’t so much as I was important, but that I knew a lot of folks and some thought I knew a little about politicking.
He was a nice, young man and he made a fine speech. To tell you the truth, he cut a fine figure of a man.
After his pleadings, I told him I couldn’t support him. He wanted a reason but I couldn’t tell him the truth. The truth would have been cruel, to tell you the truth.
It wasn’t his education; he was one smart feller. He spoke well and made a good impression and all.
He couldn’t win because of the way he was dressed: No voter could trust a politician who wears brown shoes with a blue suit.”
And finally,
-- A politician is like a duck. You can thump either one on the head real hard and neither one will be a bit smarter from the experience.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
All together now: LET’S GO CRAZY!
Why don’t we all just mutually agree to have a snit fit? To go crazy and not push back from the Cliff of Absurdity?
A growing number of Americans have already taken the plunge.
The Arizona law aimed at curtailing illegal alien activity in the state has been met with praise and criticism in heaping helpings of emotion usually reserved for The Big Four of Controversial Topics: Religion, Politics, Capital Punishment, Abortion.
Various groups are calling for a boycott of the state; the Fox News shriekers, with Glen “Always Silly But Getting Sillier” Beck leading the charge, praise the governor and legislators for their foresight and wisdom. In many cases, it’s a re-creation of Dumb and Dumber.
Beck used to be entertaining – like Rush Limbaugh in his day – but has become a caricature of his former self – like Rush Limbaugh. Beck’s newest anti-Obama and anti-anything-Democrat is … well, giggling. The man actually giggles on national TV!
Illegal immigration is a problem and has been for decades. It is not a new problem, but one which has become a target of the far-far right, which views any block that is not considered conservative as a threat.
One Florida company has developed a product to assist illegal Hispanics in the U.S. to “fit in.” Zubi Advertising has developed the Gringo Mask, which allows – according to product information – an illegal “to put your best white face forward.”
The company has the masks in two varieties: A blue-eyed sandy hair-colored white guy or a green-eyed, blonde-haired white woman. The product guarantees that “you won’t look like a suspicious, potentially illegal alien” and notes that “green card not included.”
The firm is not making light of the problem with illegal immigration, according to the company founder, but intends to start a dialogue about the absurdity of the Arizona law. The agency is one of nation’s leading Hispanic ad agencies.
And, if Arizona has not heaped its plate with enough self-imposed-grief, the state’s notorious sheriff, Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio, is insisting Mexico officials apologize for an ad which appeared Arizona’s largest newspaper recently.
The ad, which Arpaio described as “threatening,” shows a man wearing camouflage clothing peering through binoculars with the words: In Sonora we are looking for people from Arizona.”
“Are they threatening us?” the dim-bulb sheriff asked. “Do they not want us to go to Mexico for tourism?”
Duh!
The same questions could be asked for Arizona’s absurd attempt at corralling Hispanics who “appear” to be illegal immigrants.
A growing number of Americans have already taken the plunge.
The Arizona law aimed at curtailing illegal alien activity in the state has been met with praise and criticism in heaping helpings of emotion usually reserved for The Big Four of Controversial Topics: Religion, Politics, Capital Punishment, Abortion.
Various groups are calling for a boycott of the state; the Fox News shriekers, with Glen “Always Silly But Getting Sillier” Beck leading the charge, praise the governor and legislators for their foresight and wisdom. In many cases, it’s a re-creation of Dumb and Dumber.
Beck used to be entertaining – like Rush Limbaugh in his day – but has become a caricature of his former self – like Rush Limbaugh. Beck’s newest anti-Obama and anti-anything-Democrat is … well, giggling. The man actually giggles on national TV!
Illegal immigration is a problem and has been for decades. It is not a new problem, but one which has become a target of the far-far right, which views any block that is not considered conservative as a threat.
One Florida company has developed a product to assist illegal Hispanics in the U.S. to “fit in.” Zubi Advertising has developed the Gringo Mask, which allows – according to product information – an illegal “to put your best white face forward.”
The company has the masks in two varieties: A blue-eyed sandy hair-colored white guy or a green-eyed, blonde-haired white woman. The product guarantees that “you won’t look like a suspicious, potentially illegal alien” and notes that “green card not included.”
The firm is not making light of the problem with illegal immigration, according to the company founder, but intends to start a dialogue about the absurdity of the Arizona law. The agency is one of nation’s leading Hispanic ad agencies.
And, if Arizona has not heaped its plate with enough self-imposed-grief, the state’s notorious sheriff, Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio, is insisting Mexico officials apologize for an ad which appeared Arizona’s largest newspaper recently.
The ad, which Arpaio described as “threatening,” shows a man wearing camouflage clothing peering through binoculars with the words: In Sonora we are looking for people from Arizona.”
“Are they threatening us?” the dim-bulb sheriff asked. “Do they not want us to go to Mexico for tourism?”
Duh!
The same questions could be asked for Arizona’s absurd attempt at corralling Hispanics who “appear” to be illegal immigrants.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Idiots walk among us
There are idiots in Texas.
That’s not harsh, just truthful. But the statement doesn’t take into account there are also idiots in other states.
Arkansas. Mississippi. New York, Arizona. Pick one, pick ‘em all. Pick any one of the other 46 states.
Idiocy has nothing to do with Intelligence Quotient, geographical location, basic political or religious affiliation, gender, or sexual orientation.
A link to idiocy (or idiotic actions, at least) can be made through alcohol or drug consumption, wired-in or manufactured prejudices, brainwashing, fanaticism in most any mental arena … or attendance at rassling matches and the belief the action is real.
It is a truism that examples of idiocy can be observed in any statements or actions by politicians in Washington-on-the-Deficit, and any person who desires to become one of those twisted gomers.
But, for now at least, Texas holds the Idiocy Crown.
Blame it on stupid rules and those that interpret those rules.
A third-grader in Brazos Elementary School in Orchard was given a week’s detention for possession ... of a Jolly Rancher.
Say it ain’t so!
It’s so. Leighann Adair, 10, was eating lunch when a teacher confiscated a Jolly Rancher (flavor unspecified) from her lunch tray. The superintendent for the district – Jack “No Candy in My School, Dagnabbit!” Ellis – stated that the district was abiding by state guidelines that banned “minimal nutrition” foods.
Ellis is an idiot -- one, for believing the State of Texas, in passing a law about the importance of nutrition meant that elementary school kids were to be punished for having a piece of candy were to be punished, and, two, for making such as asinine statement to justify an idiot-based action.
The Texas Public School Nutrition Policy website specifically states the policy does not restrict what foods/beverages parents may provide for their own children’s consumption.
Brazos school’s principal Jeanne Young said the problem was that another student provided Leighann the candy. Wow! Orchard has an idiot-in-waiting backing up the superintendent.
An elementary school principle friend in Texas when told about this incident, said: “Are you serious?” The titled school marm then said, “We use candy for counting exercises. It’s a great motivator. M&Ms are good…but, oh, those Hersey Kisses, those are the best.”
She refused to acknowledge whether or not the teachers “might” eat mistakes in the exercise.
There is no level in our society where common sense does not get lost in protocol, rules and misinterpretation or miscommunication.
But when people make stupid mistakes and try to explain them away rather than saying, “That was just dumb and I promise never to do it again,” it moves into the realm of idiocy.
Which brings up Common Sense Rule No. 114: Ignorance you can do something about. Stupidity goes straight to the bone.
That’s not harsh, just truthful. But the statement doesn’t take into account there are also idiots in other states.
Arkansas. Mississippi. New York, Arizona. Pick one, pick ‘em all. Pick any one of the other 46 states.
Idiocy has nothing to do with Intelligence Quotient, geographical location, basic political or religious affiliation, gender, or sexual orientation.
A link to idiocy (or idiotic actions, at least) can be made through alcohol or drug consumption, wired-in or manufactured prejudices, brainwashing, fanaticism in most any mental arena … or attendance at rassling matches and the belief the action is real.
It is a truism that examples of idiocy can be observed in any statements or actions by politicians in Washington-on-the-Deficit, and any person who desires to become one of those twisted gomers.
But, for now at least, Texas holds the Idiocy Crown.
Blame it on stupid rules and those that interpret those rules.
A third-grader in Brazos Elementary School in Orchard was given a week’s detention for possession ... of a Jolly Rancher.
Say it ain’t so!
It’s so. Leighann Adair, 10, was eating lunch when a teacher confiscated a Jolly Rancher (flavor unspecified) from her lunch tray. The superintendent for the district – Jack “No Candy in My School, Dagnabbit!” Ellis – stated that the district was abiding by state guidelines that banned “minimal nutrition” foods.
Ellis is an idiot -- one, for believing the State of Texas, in passing a law about the importance of nutrition meant that elementary school kids were to be punished for having a piece of candy were to be punished, and, two, for making such as asinine statement to justify an idiot-based action.
The Texas Public School Nutrition Policy website specifically states the policy does not restrict what foods/beverages parents may provide for their own children’s consumption.
Brazos school’s principal Jeanne Young said the problem was that another student provided Leighann the candy. Wow! Orchard has an idiot-in-waiting backing up the superintendent.
An elementary school principle friend in Texas when told about this incident, said: “Are you serious?” The titled school marm then said, “We use candy for counting exercises. It’s a great motivator. M&Ms are good…but, oh, those Hersey Kisses, those are the best.”
She refused to acknowledge whether or not the teachers “might” eat mistakes in the exercise.
There is no level in our society where common sense does not get lost in protocol, rules and misinterpretation or miscommunication.
But when people make stupid mistakes and try to explain them away rather than saying, “That was just dumb and I promise never to do it again,” it moves into the realm of idiocy.
Which brings up Common Sense Rule No. 114: Ignorance you can do something about. Stupidity goes straight to the bone.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Nothing funny about religion!
I normally don’t make fun of religion. Well, maybe, in general, but not specifically about aspects of individual religions. (Unless it's really, really funny.)
However, there are exceptions.
And, I’m making one in regard to neo-nutso Muslim fanatical flutterbrains who think, somehow, that Allah hates women.
The newest nut-news out of Iran, the world center for clear thought and compassionate thought, is that women with suntans are violating Islamic law and will be arrested.
This is the word put out by Brigidier Hossien Sajedinia, the Tehran police chief. The testosterone-laden law officer said, “The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehavior by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values.”
He decried suntanned “women and young girls” who look like “walking mannequins” and declared suntanned women would be arrested and jailed.
His pronouncement follows on the heels of a protestation by a hard-line Iranian cleric (read “preacher”) who said that women dressed in revealing clothing were disturbing young men and “causing earthquakes.”
It’s not that Muslims have cornered the market on crazy notions or pronouncements. It’s just that they are coming across as the Oral Roberts of the Muslim world. Remember Oral’s television promise that if Christians didn’t give enough money to Oral Roberts Ministry, he would be jerked to Jesus?
But the suntan ban in the name of religion is really spooky, spookier even than Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker selling bricks for $10 a shot to build Heritage Village, or Dallas’ Bob Tilton hawking “prayer rugs” with his picture on it, or Ernest Ainsley declaring a war on “devil nicotine” and stomping on a pack of Camels on his television program.
In fact, the suntan ban is resonating with something going on in the United States right now.
It makes one wonder if the governor of Arizona and the gidflobberated legislators of that stupidly uber-conservative state aren’t reading a little Koran (or Qur’an, if you are into political correctness) between approving stupid bills aimed at nothing but persecuting selected segments of the population.
Wait! There is a connection: Both areas of the world are hotter’n’hell.
Sun-broiled brains.
That’s the only logical explanation.
However, there are exceptions.
And, I’m making one in regard to neo-nutso Muslim fanatical flutterbrains who think, somehow, that Allah hates women.
The newest nut-news out of Iran, the world center for clear thought and compassionate thought, is that women with suntans are violating Islamic law and will be arrested.
This is the word put out by Brigidier Hossien Sajedinia, the Tehran police chief. The testosterone-laden law officer said, “The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehavior by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values.”
He decried suntanned “women and young girls” who look like “walking mannequins” and declared suntanned women would be arrested and jailed.
His pronouncement follows on the heels of a protestation by a hard-line Iranian cleric (read “preacher”) who said that women dressed in revealing clothing were disturbing young men and “causing earthquakes.”
It’s not that Muslims have cornered the market on crazy notions or pronouncements. It’s just that they are coming across as the Oral Roberts of the Muslim world. Remember Oral’s television promise that if Christians didn’t give enough money to Oral Roberts Ministry, he would be jerked to Jesus?
But the suntan ban in the name of religion is really spooky, spookier even than Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker selling bricks for $10 a shot to build Heritage Village, or Dallas’ Bob Tilton hawking “prayer rugs” with his picture on it, or Ernest Ainsley declaring a war on “devil nicotine” and stomping on a pack of Camels on his television program.
In fact, the suntan ban is resonating with something going on in the United States right now.
It makes one wonder if the governor of Arizona and the gidflobberated legislators of that stupidly uber-conservative state aren’t reading a little Koran (or Qur’an, if you are into political correctness) between approving stupid bills aimed at nothing but persecuting selected segments of the population.
Wait! There is a connection: Both areas of the world are hotter’n’hell.
Sun-broiled brains.
That’s the only logical explanation.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Ask a simple question of your elected officials
Some things I just don’t get.
I know it has something to do with getting regular communications from the Social Security Administration checking on me to see if I am all right and ready to receive all the physical and fiscal goodness that can be laid on my old, bowed head by the federal government when I turn another page on the calendar.
Bring it on. In bushel baskets. I’ve earned the heck out of it.
I’m one of those folks that other folks under the age of 40 put in a category or two: Baby Boomer. Nursing Home Chaff. Old. You know, the words and phrases people use when you shuffle out the door at 10 a.m. after a hard night of popping pudding cups and singing “YMCA” at a karaoke marathon, mumbling about how it’s past your bedtime and you need to be “getting up with the chickens.”
Okay, so I go to bed early and like pudding and enjoy the verbal jousting of a karaoke singalong with people who are contractors, school marms, work on cars and get a paycheck for working in the medical field.
That should not give morticians the right to look at me as if I’m one step from filling one of their satin-lined boxes. And, for the record, I hate satin; bury me in burlap, except that’s not going to work either. I have already donated this dilapidated body to a medical school. I can’t think of a better way to “really” go from this world that having a bunch of young folks getting handy with my mortal leavings.
I want my ashes put in a kosher pickle jar and have it carried by a caring and slightly daffy relative to all reunions. “Couldn’t stand to leave George at home when there’s a party,” would be the general comment.
By an agreement made with the gummit back in the ‘50s, I should be getting my Social Security check starting in July. However, the gummit bumpkins bumped it back a year to keep from giving me my money when initially promised because the SS system is such a gosh-dinged mess.
That’s okay. I can wait a year. Maybe. But while I’m waiting I’m going to be raising billy-jack about how those that make, break and change the SS laws that affect working Americans excluded themselves from being under the same system as working Americans.
Every time I encounter an elected U.S. representative or senator, I’m going to ask them this question: Will you please explain to me why Congress is exempt from the Social Security system? I encourage you to do likewise.
When you ask it, back up a step. The outpouring of political palaver that flows forth will be a tsunami of excremental proportions.
If – and this IF is bigger than the federal deficit – federal officials were under the SS umbrella, there would be no problem with the benefits promised to retirees by these same officials, or others of their ilk.
Before this day is out, make a call to the elected federal official of your choice and just ask them that simple question. Then, share the responses with easttexastowns.com.
The comments shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. But it is guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of any living, breathing, caring person over the age of 50 and looking forward to retirement at some point.
I know it has something to do with getting regular communications from the Social Security Administration checking on me to see if I am all right and ready to receive all the physical and fiscal goodness that can be laid on my old, bowed head by the federal government when I turn another page on the calendar.
Bring it on. In bushel baskets. I’ve earned the heck out of it.
I’m one of those folks that other folks under the age of 40 put in a category or two: Baby Boomer. Nursing Home Chaff. Old. You know, the words and phrases people use when you shuffle out the door at 10 a.m. after a hard night of popping pudding cups and singing “YMCA” at a karaoke marathon, mumbling about how it’s past your bedtime and you need to be “getting up with the chickens.”
Okay, so I go to bed early and like pudding and enjoy the verbal jousting of a karaoke singalong with people who are contractors, school marms, work on cars and get a paycheck for working in the medical field.
That should not give morticians the right to look at me as if I’m one step from filling one of their satin-lined boxes. And, for the record, I hate satin; bury me in burlap, except that’s not going to work either. I have already donated this dilapidated body to a medical school. I can’t think of a better way to “really” go from this world that having a bunch of young folks getting handy with my mortal leavings.
I want my ashes put in a kosher pickle jar and have it carried by a caring and slightly daffy relative to all reunions. “Couldn’t stand to leave George at home when there’s a party,” would be the general comment.
By an agreement made with the gummit back in the ‘50s, I should be getting my Social Security check starting in July. However, the gummit bumpkins bumped it back a year to keep from giving me my money when initially promised because the SS system is such a gosh-dinged mess.
That’s okay. I can wait a year. Maybe. But while I’m waiting I’m going to be raising billy-jack about how those that make, break and change the SS laws that affect working Americans excluded themselves from being under the same system as working Americans.
Every time I encounter an elected U.S. representative or senator, I’m going to ask them this question: Will you please explain to me why Congress is exempt from the Social Security system? I encourage you to do likewise.
When you ask it, back up a step. The outpouring of political palaver that flows forth will be a tsunami of excremental proportions.
If – and this IF is bigger than the federal deficit – federal officials were under the SS umbrella, there would be no problem with the benefits promised to retirees by these same officials, or others of their ilk.
Before this day is out, make a call to the elected federal official of your choice and just ask them that simple question. Then, share the responses with easttexastowns.com.
The comments shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. But it is guaranteed to raise the blood pressure of any living, breathing, caring person over the age of 50 and looking forward to retirement at some point.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Where have all the heroes gone?
The United States is in a world of hurt.
Just take a look at the headlines: Record deficit piled on top of record deficit. piled on the back of taxpayers – the ancients and those future ones still learning to pull up their diapers.
We’re fighting two wars we can’t win; chances are there’s an army general or three looking at future war sites in case there’s ever a scenario in which we can extricate ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq.
God knows this country can’t properly function without a good war or two to keep our minds off other problems.
Shoot, about that next war: Iran is handy and that Amenijarhead needs a good butt-stomping!
We bail out banks that are too big to fail and carmakers who give too much money to elected officials to be allowed to go belly-up. The home of free enterprise has evolved into the home of the free lunch money.
After 9/11 we added a bloated level of bureaucracy that checks our shoes for bombs and thinks its part of their job to frisk a little old lady named Gladys because a similar name appeared on some risk-list somehow.
Wear a doctor’s ordered back brace and try and go through airport security and you risk a real chance of a two-saddle-wide security guard playing hide-the-finger in orifices high and low.
We elect mealy-mouthed word-weasels with the backbone of melted Jello to represent us in Congress and sit back and adore their protestations about anything in which we think we don’t believe but are not sure because we don’t listen because we might miss the newest episode of the stupid, pouty Kardashians or Survivors in Watts if we stopped long enough to have a single, uncommercialzed thought.
Look in the mirror. That’s what a lemming looks like. If you vote to re-elect a single politician – ever -- that contributed to the Hellmess in which this country finds itself, you deserve what you get.
If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician already in office and trying to stay in office, shame on you. If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician trying to replace an incumbent politician, shame on you again.
Politicians, with few exceptions, will do whatever it takes to get elected and stay elected.
Wait up. Vote them all out and start over. That, and only that, will send a message that we are tried of monkey business as usual.
This announcement didn’t cost you a durn thing…except the time to read it.
Just take a look at the headlines: Record deficit piled on top of record deficit. piled on the back of taxpayers – the ancients and those future ones still learning to pull up their diapers.
We’re fighting two wars we can’t win; chances are there’s an army general or three looking at future war sites in case there’s ever a scenario in which we can extricate ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq.
God knows this country can’t properly function without a good war or two to keep our minds off other problems.
Shoot, about that next war: Iran is handy and that Amenijarhead needs a good butt-stomping!
We bail out banks that are too big to fail and carmakers who give too much money to elected officials to be allowed to go belly-up. The home of free enterprise has evolved into the home of the free lunch money.
After 9/11 we added a bloated level of bureaucracy that checks our shoes for bombs and thinks its part of their job to frisk a little old lady named Gladys because a similar name appeared on some risk-list somehow.
Wear a doctor’s ordered back brace and try and go through airport security and you risk a real chance of a two-saddle-wide security guard playing hide-the-finger in orifices high and low.
We elect mealy-mouthed word-weasels with the backbone of melted Jello to represent us in Congress and sit back and adore their protestations about anything in which we think we don’t believe but are not sure because we don’t listen because we might miss the newest episode of the stupid, pouty Kardashians or Survivors in Watts if we stopped long enough to have a single, uncommercialzed thought.
Look in the mirror. That’s what a lemming looks like. If you vote to re-elect a single politician – ever -- that contributed to the Hellmess in which this country finds itself, you deserve what you get.
If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician already in office and trying to stay in office, shame on you. If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician trying to replace an incumbent politician, shame on you again.
Politicians, with few exceptions, will do whatever it takes to get elected and stay elected.
Wait up. Vote them all out and start over. That, and only that, will send a message that we are tried of monkey business as usual.
This announcement didn’t cost you a durn thing…except the time to read it.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Gummit is like a road kill possum
It’s not because the income tax deadline is approaching that I say this:
The federal gummit is one stupid road kill possum.
Gummit, by the very nature of the beast, is not an effective organization; it is like a mama cat with eight teats and 12 kittens. Good freakin’ luck doing what it is you need to do.
The gummit tax code is a gazillion-page document that was written by wonks and wordjerks in a language somewhere between Jingoism and Malaprops. The Internal Revenue Service rulebook is bigger than that of New York City has as many foreign elements in it. The U.S. Postal Service can’t figure out how to make a profit.
Not only that, but gummit members of Congress exempt themselves from laws they don’t like (participation in Social Security, for example) and pass out tax dollars like it belongs to them.
And don’t get me started on the Census Bureau!
I sorta understand why it’s important to know statistical thingies like number of people in a household. But when the bureaucrats start thinking it’s important to know how much money a citizen makes or how many bathrooms are in a residence or how many mushroom and spinach pizzas a family consumes in a year, it’s time to draw the line.
If you are alive, you have already received information about the upcoming census. You’ve seen ads on TV or in a newspaper or have received a warning in the mail.
This is where I go sidewonkers with the IRS: I received an official mailed notification from the Census Bureau that I would soon be receiving a census form; the form came five days later. Two days after that I received a note from the Census Bureau to remind me that I was supposed to have already received a form and urged me to mail it back.
The form I had received was the short form and is absolutely no fun at all. I filled it in for the family and got it in the mail the same day I received it. Whoa! What a thrill.
What I really wanted to receive was the long form, which I understand, they don’t send out anymore. That is a certified downer.
I (or it could have been a close friend) received the long form in 2000. According to the information I (or a close friend) sent back, my house had six bathrooms and 11 exits to the home’s exterior.
To make sure the Census Bureau didn’t make a mistake and leave me off the receive-long-form list, I went to the gummit website: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/
I thought I wanted to peruse the site in English, but just to be sure, I clicked on the “select a language” icon. It was tough deciding between plain on American English and Shqip/Armenian, Cebuano, Dinka, Haitian Creole, Gujarati, llocano, Tamil or Urdu.
Being an adventurous soul, I clicked Dinka. Couldn’t read a single word. A couple of words looked like in order to pronounce them you had to make a popping noise by sticking your tongue in one nostril and flipping it downward.
I’m not ridiculing the census in general, because I understand the need for having factual data in regard to doling out federal dollars.
What I am ridiculing is the eighth-grade way the gummit attempts to do a post-graduate exercise.
For example, why are the forms not available online? The gummit has an answer, for sure, but whatever it is, it’s not a good one. Look at the money an online survey would save; look at the savings in manpower alone.
It’s a mess, as is most things mandated by the gummit of the people, by the people and for the people.
Wonder what the Census Bureau will do when they get a form mailed back … in Dinka?
Oh, forgot, it’s the gummit. They probably have a legion of Dinkaites waiting to translate the durn thing.
After all, it’s not their money they’re spending.
The federal gummit is one stupid road kill possum.
Gummit, by the very nature of the beast, is not an effective organization; it is like a mama cat with eight teats and 12 kittens. Good freakin’ luck doing what it is you need to do.
The gummit tax code is a gazillion-page document that was written by wonks and wordjerks in a language somewhere between Jingoism and Malaprops. The Internal Revenue Service rulebook is bigger than that of New York City has as many foreign elements in it. The U.S. Postal Service can’t figure out how to make a profit.
Not only that, but gummit members of Congress exempt themselves from laws they don’t like (participation in Social Security, for example) and pass out tax dollars like it belongs to them.
And don’t get me started on the Census Bureau!
I sorta understand why it’s important to know statistical thingies like number of people in a household. But when the bureaucrats start thinking it’s important to know how much money a citizen makes or how many bathrooms are in a residence or how many mushroom and spinach pizzas a family consumes in a year, it’s time to draw the line.
If you are alive, you have already received information about the upcoming census. You’ve seen ads on TV or in a newspaper or have received a warning in the mail.
This is where I go sidewonkers with the IRS: I received an official mailed notification from the Census Bureau that I would soon be receiving a census form; the form came five days later. Two days after that I received a note from the Census Bureau to remind me that I was supposed to have already received a form and urged me to mail it back.
The form I had received was the short form and is absolutely no fun at all. I filled it in for the family and got it in the mail the same day I received it. Whoa! What a thrill.
What I really wanted to receive was the long form, which I understand, they don’t send out anymore. That is a certified downer.
I (or it could have been a close friend) received the long form in 2000. According to the information I (or a close friend) sent back, my house had six bathrooms and 11 exits to the home’s exterior.
To make sure the Census Bureau didn’t make a mistake and leave me off the receive-long-form list, I went to the gummit website: http://2010.census.gov/2010census/
I thought I wanted to peruse the site in English, but just to be sure, I clicked on the “select a language” icon. It was tough deciding between plain on American English and Shqip/Armenian, Cebuano, Dinka, Haitian Creole, Gujarati, llocano, Tamil or Urdu.
Being an adventurous soul, I clicked Dinka. Couldn’t read a single word. A couple of words looked like in order to pronounce them you had to make a popping noise by sticking your tongue in one nostril and flipping it downward.
I’m not ridiculing the census in general, because I understand the need for having factual data in regard to doling out federal dollars.
What I am ridiculing is the eighth-grade way the gummit attempts to do a post-graduate exercise.
For example, why are the forms not available online? The gummit has an answer, for sure, but whatever it is, it’s not a good one. Look at the money an online survey would save; look at the savings in manpower alone.
It’s a mess, as is most things mandated by the gummit of the people, by the people and for the people.
Wonder what the Census Bureau will do when they get a form mailed back … in Dinka?
Oh, forgot, it’s the gummit. They probably have a legion of Dinkaites waiting to translate the durn thing.
After all, it’s not their money they’re spending.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Parent. Child.
The love a parent has for a child is, sometimes, mirrored by the love a child, all grown up now, has for the parent.
I am fortunate to have four children, all of whom love me in their own special way. I tried hard – and sometimes succeeded – in letting them all know that a father’s love should be freely given and, above all, never ending.
It is said that a person’s legacy can best be defined by his or her children. That’s too simple, really. Children, although imprints in many respects of past generations, should always be thought of as individuals, not automaton clones of their parents.
Honestly, I have not always been the best father I could possibly be. I was first a father at 22, and was too immature to fully understand the importance of parenting. A strong, compulsive work ethic drove me as a young man to strive to be the best at my chosen profession, to the detriment to ever being a candidate for a Father of the Year award.
Despite the protestations of both older children, who always have positive things to say about those growing-up years (for all of us), I know I could have been less selfish and provided a more positive fatherly image that what I did. I can use the excuse of trying to make my mark in the world of community journalism as a reason for my lackadaisical attitude toward parenting, but it’s a flim-flam, self-serving excuse, at best.
I am blessed that 20 years later, two bright, wonderful children allowed me to become their father by choice and by law. Being a blended family is never easy; minor obstacles can become insurmountable emotional mountains.
How am I so blessed? Within the last 24 hours all four children, in telephone calls and text messages, have said the world’s most powerful words to me: Love you!
They don’t know how that simple expression of affection touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes. Or, maybe they do. They are all bright beyond belief; they’re perceptive and honest and don’t profess love without meaning it with all their heart.
I know I am not alone in having children that love me unconditionally and are not afraid of showing it.
Right now, in some niche of this big, old world, there is a child who is making sure his or her parent know the true meaning of love; that child is giving unconditional love to a parent that taught them that trait throughout their lives.
Like me, that parent is blessed. And, like me, that parent is appreciative of being loved by those we love.
I am fortunate to have four children, all of whom love me in their own special way. I tried hard – and sometimes succeeded – in letting them all know that a father’s love should be freely given and, above all, never ending.
It is said that a person’s legacy can best be defined by his or her children. That’s too simple, really. Children, although imprints in many respects of past generations, should always be thought of as individuals, not automaton clones of their parents.
Honestly, I have not always been the best father I could possibly be. I was first a father at 22, and was too immature to fully understand the importance of parenting. A strong, compulsive work ethic drove me as a young man to strive to be the best at my chosen profession, to the detriment to ever being a candidate for a Father of the Year award.
Despite the protestations of both older children, who always have positive things to say about those growing-up years (for all of us), I know I could have been less selfish and provided a more positive fatherly image that what I did. I can use the excuse of trying to make my mark in the world of community journalism as a reason for my lackadaisical attitude toward parenting, but it’s a flim-flam, self-serving excuse, at best.
I am blessed that 20 years later, two bright, wonderful children allowed me to become their father by choice and by law. Being a blended family is never easy; minor obstacles can become insurmountable emotional mountains.
How am I so blessed? Within the last 24 hours all four children, in telephone calls and text messages, have said the world’s most powerful words to me: Love you!
They don’t know how that simple expression of affection touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes. Or, maybe they do. They are all bright beyond belief; they’re perceptive and honest and don’t profess love without meaning it with all their heart.
I know I am not alone in having children that love me unconditionally and are not afraid of showing it.
Right now, in some niche of this big, old world, there is a child who is making sure his or her parent know the true meaning of love; that child is giving unconditional love to a parent that taught them that trait throughout their lives.
Like me, that parent is blessed. And, like me, that parent is appreciative of being loved by those we love.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
How screwy is this world?
Take a minute. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Open your eyes and scream at the top your lungs: Stop the insanity!
Item 1: The United States is going to build a new embassy in London. There has been no statement on what was wrong with the old embassy, just that we're building a new one.
The location for the embassy will be outside of Central London, and will have humongous trees, and ponds and natural barricades to keep terrorists out. Being it's England, there'll probably be peacocks roaming the grounds, along with black and white swans, and probably a small herd of those smallish animals the English like to call forest deer.
The official reason for why this country is building a new embassy is typical: "Just because." That's not the official reason given, but the accurate one.
The new building will cost $1 billion.
Good gosh, Maudie!
This country is drowning in red ink and we're spending $1,000,000,000 on a building in London? What is wrong with our leaders? What is wrong with us for electing the same yahoos over and over again?
Item 2: As a personal policy, every American can change this country overnight by going to the polls in November and refusing to vote for a single incumbent. Make a stand. If we don't do it now, we have no right to gripe and moan in the future.
Item 3: The military's don't ask, don't tell policy on gay soldiers is asinine, discriminatory and violates federal law. Personal opinions on the issue are the issue; the law is.
Army Chief of Staff George Casey believes that repealing the current shhhhhh policy could do harm to the military. He's paid to say that and he does a good job at parroting the military position for the past 200 years.
But Casey is missing a point: Gays have always served in the military; some have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. For decades, blacks were not allowed to serve in white units; women were not allowed to serve at all, and still today are "prohibited" from front line duty. Those rules did not keep these brave soldiers for dying for their country.
Discrimination in some form has always been a trademark of the military and it's current internal stance on gay soldiers is just wrong-headed.
Open your eyes and scream at the top your lungs: Stop the insanity!
Item 1: The United States is going to build a new embassy in London. There has been no statement on what was wrong with the old embassy, just that we're building a new one.
The location for the embassy will be outside of Central London, and will have humongous trees, and ponds and natural barricades to keep terrorists out. Being it's England, there'll probably be peacocks roaming the grounds, along with black and white swans, and probably a small herd of those smallish animals the English like to call forest deer.
The official reason for why this country is building a new embassy is typical: "Just because." That's not the official reason given, but the accurate one.
The new building will cost $1 billion.
Good gosh, Maudie!
This country is drowning in red ink and we're spending $1,000,000,000 on a building in London? What is wrong with our leaders? What is wrong with us for electing the same yahoos over and over again?
Item 2: As a personal policy, every American can change this country overnight by going to the polls in November and refusing to vote for a single incumbent. Make a stand. If we don't do it now, we have no right to gripe and moan in the future.
Item 3: The military's don't ask, don't tell policy on gay soldiers is asinine, discriminatory and violates federal law. Personal opinions on the issue are the issue; the law is.
Army Chief of Staff George Casey believes that repealing the current shhhhhh policy could do harm to the military. He's paid to say that and he does a good job at parroting the military position for the past 200 years.
But Casey is missing a point: Gays have always served in the military; some have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. For decades, blacks were not allowed to serve in white units; women were not allowed to serve at all, and still today are "prohibited" from front line duty. Those rules did not keep these brave soldiers for dying for their country.
Discrimination in some form has always been a trademark of the military and it's current internal stance on gay soldiers is just wrong-headed.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Where have all the heroes gone?
The United States is in a world of hurt.
Just take a look at the headlines: Record deficit piled on top of record deficit. piled on the back of taxpayers – the ancients and those future ones still learning to pull up their diapers.
We’re fighting two wars we can’t win; chances are there’s an army general or three looking at future war sites in case there’s ever a scenario in which we can extricate ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq.
God knows this country can’t properly function without a good war or two to keep our minds off other problems.
Shoot, about that next war: Iran is handy and that Amenijarhead needs a good butt-stomping!
We bail out banks that are too big to fail and carmakers who give too much money to elected officials to be allowed to go belly-up. The home of free enterprise has evolved into the home of the free lunch money.
After 9/11 we added a bloated level of bureaucracy that checks our shoes for bombs and thinks its part of their job to frisk a little old lady named Gladys because a similar name appeared on some risk-list somehow.
Wear a doctor’s ordered back brace and try and go through airport security and you risk a real chance of a two-saddle-wide security guard playing hide-the-finger in orifices high and low.
We elect mealy-mouthed word-weasels with the backbone of melted Jello to represent us in Congress and sit back and adore their protestations about anything in which we think we don’t believe but are not sure because we don’t listen because we might miss the newest episode of the stupid, pouty Kardashians or Survivors in Watts if we stopped long enough to have a single, uncommercialzed thought.
Look in the mirror. That’s what a lemming looks like. If you vote to re-elect a single politician – ever -- that contributed to the Hellmess in which this country finds itself, you deserve what you get.
If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician already in office and trying to stay in office, shame on you. If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician trying to replace an incumbent politician, shame on you again.
Politicians, with few exceptions, will do whatever it takes to get elected and stay elected.
Wait up. Vote them all out and start over. That, and only that, will send a message that we are tried of monkey business as usual.
This announcement didn’t cost you a durn thing…except the time to read it.
Just take a look at the headlines: Record deficit piled on top of record deficit. piled on the back of taxpayers – the ancients and those future ones still learning to pull up their diapers.
We’re fighting two wars we can’t win; chances are there’s an army general or three looking at future war sites in case there’s ever a scenario in which we can extricate ourselves from Afghanistan and Iraq.
God knows this country can’t properly function without a good war or two to keep our minds off other problems.
Shoot, about that next war: Iran is handy and that Amenijarhead needs a good butt-stomping!
We bail out banks that are too big to fail and carmakers who give too much money to elected officials to be allowed to go belly-up. The home of free enterprise has evolved into the home of the free lunch money.
After 9/11 we added a bloated level of bureaucracy that checks our shoes for bombs and thinks its part of their job to frisk a little old lady named Gladys because a similar name appeared on some risk-list somehow.
Wear a doctor’s ordered back brace and try and go through airport security and you risk a real chance of a two-saddle-wide security guard playing hide-the-finger in orifices high and low.
We elect mealy-mouthed word-weasels with the backbone of melted Jello to represent us in Congress and sit back and adore their protestations about anything in which we think we don’t believe but are not sure because we don’t listen because we might miss the newest episode of the stupid, pouty Kardashians or Survivors in Watts if we stopped long enough to have a single, uncommercialzed thought.
Look in the mirror. That’s what a lemming looks like. If you vote to re-elect a single politician – ever -- that contributed to the Hellmess in which this country finds itself, you deserve what you get.
If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician already in office and trying to stay in office, shame on you. If you believe a single word that comes out of the mouth of any politician trying to replace an incumbent politician, shame on you again.
Politicians, with few exceptions, will do whatever it takes to get elected and stay elected.
Wait up. Vote them all out and start over. That, and only that, will send a message that we are tried of monkey business as usual.
This announcement didn’t cost you a durn thing…except the time to read it.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
An honor I am due, assuredly
Oh, my! Good frogs-a-goshen!!!!!!
I am being honored and I have to tell somebody, so listen up.
I received an official email that was official. It said so in the Subject Line: Official Notification. It said so in the text header: You are officially being considered …
I knew I was special. My mama told me so and so did at least one girlfriend back in college. I believe it was the blind one who was tired of living under her parent’s trailer. I believed both of them … then and now.
The honor was thusly written:
It is my honor to inform you that as of January 20, 2010 you are being considered for inclusion in our forethcoming (sic) edition of the 2010 directory representing
Our alliance is recognized by talented individuals who hold knowledge and experience in a particular industry, demonstrate a commitment to excellence, and seek career advancement or enhancement.
On behalf of the CEO and our esteemed staff, we wish you continued success.
Your profile:
http://www.George.Smith.cbnworldwide.com
Sincerely,
C.G. Meyers
Vice President, Research Division
Continental Broadcasting Network
Who's Who Worldclass Alliance
23 Briaroot Dr
Smithtown NY 11787
This has got to be the real magilla! I know official when I see it and this is official, because it’s signed by Mr. Meyers, a VICE PRESIDENT!
I jumped to the website address to check on me, and got a “server not responding.” It had to be an error. It was! The next 27 times I went to the site I was rewarded with a white screen with a big, black border around it. Knowing a thing or three about the sideloading or uplifting or whatever of computers and SiburrSpace, I waited. Went to lunch and came back and waited some more.
Nothing popped up but I’m there it’s a server problem somewhere, what those are and whatever problems they cause.
A Worldclass Professional. Me?
Who would ever have thunk it?
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