Political Correctness

This morning I was reading an article by Bill Bonner of "The Daily Reckoning" and he mentioned something about political correctness. It got me to thinking. I've always had a problem with political correctness, in fact I am such a redneck that basic etiquette is a severe challenge to me. Something in what Mr. Bonner said caused me to realize my biggest problem with PC. It has to do with form over substance. About caring how something looks as opposed to what is actually being accomplished. I was reminded of a quote I once heard someone attribute to Albert Einstein, "Ours is a time that is characterized by a perfection of means and a confusion of ends."

We really don't care where we are going or what we accomplish so long as we look good and don't step on any toes doing it. I am afraid that if we continue to worry more about how things look instead of actually seeking positive results, we may wake up one day and not like what our efforts have wrought.

The Numbers

How many troops are needed in Iraq? This post on Antiwar.com gives details of predictions made by a US goverment study in 1999.

Sounds Like Vietnamization To Me

I just finished reading the text of President Bush's address. Sounds an awful lot like what Nixon tried in Vietnam. Vietnamization didn't work in Vietnam, I doubt that Iraqization will work in Iraq.

Mr Bush said "The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits." What exactly does he think is happening now? I've heard this all before. If we pull out of Vietnam, the whole of Indo China will fall and we will be fighting the communist in Hawaii. Things did not turn out as they predicted then and I suspect that Nixon's bunch was at least as smart as the Bush bunch. Sooner or later, we have to leave and when we do, what is gonna happen will happen. Us sending 20,000 more troops over there to serve as targets is only gonna prolong the situation and get more brave US soilders killed or wounded.

Bush's New Iraq Plan

Here is a list of the top ten features of Bush's New Iraq Plan compliments of The Late Show with David Letterman:

Some Help For The Decider

Me and the Decider don't see eye to eye on too many things. Take this ramping up thing. He says it is necessary. I think it is bass ackwards. Since he never calls me to get my approval on what he does, I suspect that he is going on with it anyway. I have been reading a lot about a shortage of troops. That seems like it would make ramping up difficult. In fact some beauracrat is preparing to 'test' the selective service system to make sure it still works. Remember, it is only a test, no one has any intention of using it. Also recall that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Since the decider is gonna ramp up anyway, and since there is a shortage of troops and since draftees are not the most cooperative soldiers, there must be some better way. I think I may have come up with a way that he can ramp up and actually make America safer. You see we are a country overrun by Paramilitary Police Units. They are relics of the failed war on drugs, you know, the big war before the current big war. Anyway these SWAT teams are running amuck and killing innocent citizens right and left. Why not nationalize them and send them to Iraq. They already have some training and M-16s and they are experts in knocking down doors and killing anything that moves. They might not do any good in Iraq, but at least the United States would be a safer place.

All Men Are Created Equal

That phrase is contained in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence and is generally accepted as being true. The same is not true for all cities. Some cities seem to have been created to be great, others to be piss-ant.

When I first moved to the Birmingham area, old timers used to tell me the story of the search for a regional airport in the 50's. According to them, after the war, the major airlines recognized the need for a regional hub airport in the southeastern United States. At that time, Birmingham and Atlanta were still both reasonably small, backwater towns. Initially, Birmingham had an edge in the competition since it was more centrally located. Recognizing that they had an advantage, the Birmingham powers that be started figuring out how to raise taxes and get the maximum short-term profit out of the deal. Atlanta leaders on the other hand started coming up with concessions and inducements to get the airport located there. It worked, Atlanta got the airport and the rest is history.

Now I don't know whether or not the story is completely true, but just as in Aseop's fables, it illustrates a valid point. Some towns are run by small minded, petty people, others are led by people who can look to the future.
Take for instance, Pelham and Alabaster. I have been in the Pelham / Alabaster area for the better part of 30 years. When I moved out here, both places were piss-ant little towns, they still are, but that is slowly changing. Alabaster has been successful in getting some much-needed highway changes and traffic moves around in town much better than it did in years past. Pelham is still working on getting highway changes but even when they do it seems that the traffic patterns are just different, not better. Alabaster has been successful in getting a major new shopping center that continues to expand. Pelham has several denuded areas that have been completely stripped of topsoil and vegetation in apparent preparation for commercial development. All that prep work took place a long while before the Alabaster development, but so far all Pelham has is a lot of vacant weed patches where trees and hills once stood. Maybe its just bad luck, maybe it is bad karma or maybe it is because the mayor and town officials in Pelham spend all their time worrying about passing ordinances like the one they approved last night to regulate the number of adults that can live in a house. Hopefully, now that they have that important piece of regulation taken care of, they will have time to talk someone into building something on all these denuded vacant weed patches.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

I find myself pretty much agreeing with Sean Penn except I would have probably called Hannity an asshole instead of a whore.

A Speech By Congressman Ron Paul

If you are among those who still think the war in Iraq is a good idea, please read this speech by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. After you do, email me at pentonvilleATgmailDOTcom and tell me what Congressman Paul says that you disagree with.

The Bonnie Blue Flag

People who don't know their own email address

Apparently there are a lot of them. Almost everyday, I get an email from someone responding to a person who had filled out a form, requested information or even placed an order and gave my email address instead of their own. Often times these emails contain passwords that would enable me to log on to the sites if I wanted to. Recently some 21 year old guy in California created a myspace page and gave my email address instead of his own. Whats with these people? Do they not care enough about what they are doing to at least get their email address correct?

Some woman in Minnesota must have given my email address to everybody she knows. I am constantly getting newsletters, notices of classes and even receipts for apartments rentals in Paris all intended for her. Once I tried to figure out what her correct email address was using information from the internet, but the person I contacted said that I had reached the wrong person. I always attempt to contact the sender and let them know they have the wrong email address. Sometimes they send me back a thank you, sometimes they just quit sending and a few of them just keep right on sending me the information even after I have advised them of the mistake. I guess that editing their address book is just too difficult.

My letter to my Congressman

This it the text of the email I just sent my Congressman:

Happy New Year. At this time of the year many of us
take the time to make New Year's Resolutions. This
year, I am making one resolution. It is to do all I
can to get our brave troops home from Iraq before
another New Years rolls around. I know that some say
that if we withdraw from Iraq that it will collapse.
I remember when we were told the same thing about
Vietnam. It was not true then, it is not true now.
I am just one person with a small circle of friends
and family. I can not do much. You are in a position
to do much. I call on you to look into your heart
and ask yourself, "will the world be a better place
if we withdraw from Iraq?" If your answer is the same
as mine, please take any action you can to bring our
men and women home.

If you would like to write your congressman, you can do so at this site.

Action Item for 1/1/2007

I just read this article by Charley Reese. He is exactly right. Its time to ramp up the calls for an end of our participation in the Iraq Civil War. I know that the politicians say all sort of bad things will happen if we pull out now. That is the same thing they told us about Vietnam, but the world did not end when we exited Vietnam and it won't end when we leave Iraq.

In case you would like to send a message to your congressperson suggesting that they get up off of it and start calling for an end of the mess in Iraq, you can contact them at this website.

Things Are Tightening Up

Financially speaking, the year 2006 was not bad for me. It certainly wasn't my best year but it was not my worst either. Even though I am retired, I managed to get the things I needed and did not miss any meals. All and all, I can not complain, but in talking to friends and relatives, I sense that in general, things are tightening up. I know that higher gasoline prices contributed to that, but I sense that there is something more at work than just energy prices.

This morning I was reading articles on the internet and I came across a link to this one. I don't know about you but I hope that the Feds don't take a notion to ask me to pay my $440,000 part of this, or even the interest on $440,000 for that matter.

Jubilant January First

I woke up this morning and realized that I had been guilty of a insensitive faux pax in years past. I have been one of those brutes that went around on January 1st telling folks "Happy New Year". In fact, I have occasionally stayed up until midnight on December 31 just to be able to say "Happy New Year" as soon as possible. Well that was the old ignorant me. Not any more. You see we are now in a global economy and one of our chief trading partners is China. Ever heard of the chinese new year? In case you had not noticed, it does not fall on January 1st. And what about our Jewish friends? I believe the Jewish new year was back in September of 2006. Nope, running around shouting "Happy New Year" just has too much potential to offend our friends and associates.

Not to be outdone, I logged on and checked an online thesaurus. There are a lot of synonyms for happy, but the one that caught my eye was "jubilant." So if you see me in the street tomorrow, don't expect to hear "Happy New Year." What you are gonna get is the hopefully nonoffensive "Jubilant January First" instead. For all of you that are not going to see me tonight or tomorrow have a "Jubilant January First and a Prosperous Subsequent 365 days."

Why Now?

What if you lived in a neighborhood and a couple of blocks down the street from your house there was a funeral home. A block or so further down the street there was a well-known crack house that had been in operation for months. Everyone knew it was there, the police had been watching it and had been gathering up evidence to shut it down. Now suppose that your dad had just passed away and you and your family and friends were at that funeral home mourning your fathers passing. Finally suppose that during the memorial service for your father, the local police descended on the crack house with a couple of dozen police cars, a helicopter and a swat team. Would you ask yourself, "Why now?" Could this not wait a couple of days until my father was buried? After all the crack house wasn't going away. Why create all that commotion and distraction while you and your loved ones were trying to mourn? If that is the way you would feel, you know how the family and friends of the late President Gerald Ford must feel.

Time for a change.

On February 28, 2006, Zogby International released a poll that said that 72 percent of the US troops in Iraq said the war should end in 2006.

On December 18, 2006, CNN published poll results that indicated that only 11 percent of Americans favor sending additional troops to Iraq and fewer than 1/3 of all Americans still support the war in Iraq.

It is time for the decider and his crew to make a change. They need to retrive their heads from whatever bodily orifice it is currently located in and realize what the majority of US troops knew back in February and what the majority of US citizens realize now. The party is over. The fat lady in headed into the final chrous. No surge of new troops is needed. No strategic stikes against Iran are necessary. Just bring our men and women home right now and let the Iraq factions work out their problems however they see fit.

I do not have a bit of confidence that the decider and his crew will make that choice. I do know though that while slow to anger, the American people can be formidable when they are pissed off. If they continue to see their will thwarted by arrogant politicians they will surely act. Civil disobedience has worked in the past and if things keep going like they are going, it may have an opportunity to work again.

Small l libertarian again.

For most of my adult life, I have been idealogically a Small l libertarian. Several years ago, I joined the Libertarian Party. It did not amount to a big decision, I sent them some money, they sent me a card and a monthly newspaper. That has gone on for several years. Now its time to send in my 2007 dues and somehow it just does not seem like the right thing to do. Seems to me that my small l libertarianism and their big L Liberterianism have drifted apart. Don't get me wrong, I am still much more likely to vote for a Liberterian candidate than a Republican or a Democrat, but I am at a point in my life where political party affiliation seems to be unproductive.

Tecumseh Quote

I "borrowed" this Tecumseh quote from Claire Wolfe's Blog . Looks like she "borrowed" it from Liberty Tree.

"Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

Trouble no one about his religion.

Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.

When your time comes to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."

Tecumseh
(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief

Irritating Phrases

I guess everyone has a phrase or saying that they find irritating. I remember that my high school English teacher took exception to commercials that contained sayings like “Tide, there is no detergent like it under the sun.” She said that they should say, “there is no other detergent like it.” To say that there is no detergent like it implies that it does not exist.

One of my supervisors at the power company used to get aggravated when someone would say “in the color of red” or “in the color of green”. He said they should just say “it is red “ or “it is green”, everyone knows they are colors. He also hated the term “hot water heater”, he said that it was a “water heater” not a “hot water heater”. Of course he was right that it is a water heater, but most of the ones I have seen operate the majority of the time maintaining hot water so unless they are being filled for the first time or have been off due to an interruption in their source of heat, they are in fact heating hot water for even when the temperature drops enough for the thermostat to come on, the water is still hot. I suppose something that heats hot water most of its useful life could be called a hot water heater. Not worth arguing about since heat is a relative term anyway and he was my supervisor. You have to pick your fights with your boss and pissing him off about a water heater is not one a prudent person would pursue.

This brings me to the sentence that prompted this blog entry. This morning I was writing checks to pay some bills and I came across the bill for my Symetra Life Insurance policy. I pay it quarterly and every time I do, I notice on the left side of the bill the following sentence. “If you have surrendered or cancelled this policy / certificate you have no insurance.” Now first of all, if I had surrendered or cancelled the policy, why would they be billing me and why would I be paying it? Secondly, does Symetra think that this one little insurance policy is the only one I have? I’ve got news for them, I could cancel it, and half a dozen more and still have insurance. I know, I know, it is really not important. No more that saying “no detergent” rather than “no other detergent” or “hot water heater” instead of “water heater”, but like I said, everyone seems to have little sayings, sentences or phrases that get under their skin and the one from Symetra just happens to be one of mine.

Merry Christmas

To each of you, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And in the words of Tiny Tim, Good Bless Us Every One.

My First Annual Festivus Message

This time of year I celebrate all of the holidays that I am eligible for, after all it is the holiday season. I can’t celebrate Kwanzza because I am not black enough and I have to skip Chanukah because I am not Jewish and I don’t own a menorah. That pretty much leaves Christmas and Festivus. Family and friends dictate a great deal of what I do for Christmas, but I am pretty much on my own when it comes to Festivus.

No aluminum pole this year and feats of strength are out of the question since two little dogs and one little cat are no match for a 190 LB man. That leaves the airing of grievances. As any of you who have read my blog before know, I excel at the airing of grievances.

My first grievance is with the city of Pelham. What is the deal with all the socialist projects? Alabaster is building malls and stores that will bring in tax money. Pelham is building Senior Citizens centers and Police and Court buildings that will cost tax money to run. I recently bought a new (to me anyway) vehicle and when I went to the license office, I found out that the Pelham city tax was almost as much as the State of Alabama tax and many times more than the Shelby county tax. I thought that North Shelby County was supposed to be the great bastion of Conservative Republicanism, not rampant socialism. Maybe we should change the name from Pelham to Stockholm.

My next grievance is with the person or persons that stole my 1972 Chevrolet Pickup Truck. Even though I have it back, y'all cost me a lot of time and money not to mention a world of aggravation. If you had put as much work into something productive as you did into stealing that truck, the world would be a better place.

Third comes the 109th Congress of the USA. You all lived down to my expectation. I am especially piqued with my own congressman Spencer Bachus. Congressman Bachus, did George Bush ever have an idea that you did not like? Also, you need to hire some new staffers. I wrote you a letter opposing the Real ID act. Now I know that you don’t read any of my letters, some staffer does, but they sent me back a form letter saying that you share my concerns about illegal immigration and that is why you supported the Real ID act. My original letter had nothing to do with illegal immigration and was vehemently opposed to the Real ID act. Your office would have done better to ignore me, which they often do, rather than sending me a letter that flew in the face of what I had said.

My last grievance is with our president, George W Bush. Mr. president, you are my age. You lived through the Vietnam era just like I did. Neither one of us served in Vietnam. I had a college deferment. You had the National Guard. We both supported the Vietnam War. We were both wrong. Back then they said if we pulled out of Vietnam, the free world would fall. Contrary to that, when we did cut and run, things got better. Some folks call the current Iraq war, Iraq 2, with your daddy’s Iraq war being Iraq 1. For my part, I think it should be called Vietnam 2. The biggest difference I can see between Iraq now and Vietnam then is that Richard Nixon was smart enough to know when to get out and you and your advisors haven’t figured it out yet. I suggest you get a copy of Kenny Rogers’ song the Gambler and listen close to the part where he says “know when to walk away.”

So there you have it, my first annual Festivus Message. Who knows? If the Good Lord is willing and I am still around next year at this time I may even get an aluminum pole. Happy Festivus!

Thrift Thrumped Temperance

My niece is getting married next spring. I was talking to my sister about that today and the discussion got me to thinking about my daughter’s wedding. Several weeks before the wedding I was on the phone with my mom and she was asking me how the wedding planning was going. What she really wanted to know was if I was gonna have to go bankrupt after paying for the wedding, but she would not come right out and ask. Instead she said things like, ‘ I hope that y’all don’t have to go in debt for this wedding.’ I assured her that I had the money to pay for it without borrowing anything. In the process of trying to assure her that everything was working out fine, I mentioned that my 'son-in-law-to-be' had arranged through the people he worked with to get the wine and champagne for me wholesale. My mom said, “they tell me that is a bad idea.” “Buying wine wholesale?” I quizzed. “No, serving alcohol at a wedding reception.” I told her that by serving alcohol the amount of food that was figured per guest was considerably less and that it was gonna save me quite a bit of money.” There was a moment’s hesitation and then she said, “Well all I can tell you then is to just get them liquored up." My mom was always a teetotaler and was hard on drinking of any kind of alcohol, but when it came to saving money, thrift trumped temperance.

Under The Double Eagle

Funny how 50 plus years can dull your memory. I know that 'Under The Double Eagle' was one of the songs that was played or at least attempted at Pentonville, but there was something about it that I can't remember. I believe it had to do with one of them always wanting to play it, but no one being very good at it. My apologies to all involved if I remember wrong. Maybe my sister can set me straight on this one. Anyway, here is a version of 'Under The Double Eagle' on imeem.com.

Soldier's Joy

Did some more searching on "Soldier's Joy" and found this on YouTube:

A Winding Path

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved winding paths or trails. There is something about rounding a turn and seeing something unexpected that is fascinating to me. Kind of like opening Christmas presents. It is why, given the time, I will always choose the blue highway over the interstate.

This morning while I was flowbeeing my hair, I got to thinking. Life is a lot like a winding path if you let yourself explore. As I have grown older, I find that I don't turn on the car radio as much as I did when I was younger. Also, not much holds my continued interest on the radio so I tend to keep the scan button engaged. Sunday, on my way back from Columbiana in the van, I was tuning around on the radio (old radio, no scan button.) I came across a Prairie Home Companion on WBHM. I always enjoy PHC and I was getting tired of tuning so I settled on that station. One of the groups performing was a tuba jazz band. Now that is something you don't hear every day. On the last piece they performed, the bandleader played a penny whistle instead of a tuba.

The sound of that penny whistle intrigued me so when I got home, I did an Internet search for information about the penny whistle. I discovered a lot of interesting information. One of the things that surprised me the most is that they are very cheap. There are some that are expensive, but counter to intuition, the less expensive ones are considered by most people to make better music. They were so inexpensive, around 5 dollars, that I ordered one for myself, My Christmas present to me.

After I completed my purchase, I figured that I might as well do some searching for penny whistle songs. I found a great website that had music and midi files for many traditional penny whistle songs. It also had a lot of links at the bottom of the page. I created a shortcut to that site so I could go back.

Last night before I went to bed, I went back to the penny whistle music site and listened to a few more of the songs. Then I clicked on one of the links at the bottom of the page. It took me to a site with multiple links to WebPages containing all kinds of folk, bluegrass, Celtic and traditional music. I was scanning down the list and I came across a song that I recognized. The song was 'Soldier's Joy.' When I was growing up, my father often played the fiddle or the guitar and my mother's father played the fiddle. I remember being down in the living room of my grandfather’s house in Pentonville when they would play music together. One of the songs they played was 'Soldier's Joy.' I also came across the song 'Red Wing.' That was another of their favorites. I can't begin to describe the flood of memories those old songs brought back. Strange how I started out listening to a tuba jazz band on public radio and that took me down a 'winding path' to a 50 year old memory from my childhood. That memory is a great Christmas present in itself.

Drink Your Wild Turkey, Coors, or Merlot

It is good for you. At least that is what an article I just read maintains. Sounds fine to me.

Baby Aspirin - The Wonder Drug

Back several months ago, my sister told me that she had started taking a baby aspirin a day for her heart. As an added benefit, she said that the recurrent nagging ache between her shoulder blades that had bothered her for years had disappeared. I keep a bottle of baby asprin in my truck and take one daily, if I remember it.

This week I took my schnauzer, Corky Doe Taylor Miller Miller, to the vet for his semi annual visit. Actually I should say for his semi annual scheduled visit. This year he has managed to have more like a dozen visits instead of two, but that is a story for another time. The vet gave Corky a couple of shots and asked me how he was doing. I told him that Corky was fine, but that sometimes in the morning when he first got up, he carried his right back leg for a while. The diagnosis was that Corky had some arthritis in both his hips, the right being the worse. The vet asked me if I took baby aspirin for my heart, I told him I did. He said when I took mine daily, to give Corky one. That was Tuesday, today is Thursday and I can already notice a difference. Corky is getting around much better. Not as stiff and tentative with his movements.

To me, baby aspirin is truly a wonder drug. The irony in all this is that now you can't give baby aspirin to babies due to the danger of Reye's Syndrome. Maybe they should change the name to oldster's aspirin.

Spend Your Ameros Wisely

Sometimes it looks to me that the idiot in the Whitehouse is trying to wreck our economy. Could this and this be the reasons?

Charley Reese on Christmas

This article by Charley Reese gives some interesting facts about the Christmas Holiday. As with most of Charley's articles, this one got me to thinking. Why all the hub bub about Christmas and how it is celebrated? To quote Mr. Scrooge, "You celebrate Christmas in your way and leave me to celebrate it in mine." Now I know when Scrooge said that he had not yet seen the light, but there was some truth in what he said. Christmas used to be a wonderful time of the year, no controversy, just gifts, and fun and celebration, and where I came from a lot of drinking of Egg Nog. I for one intend to try to enjoy an old fashioned, no controversay, Christmas this year. I hope you all do as well.

SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO DEBUNKING GLOBAL WARMING

Hold on to your hats. I am going to point you in the direction of a document that is published by the government. The scary part is that I actually recommend it. The publication is put out by the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. You can download it here.

http://epw.senate.gov/repwhitepapers/6341044%20Hot%20&%20Cold%20Media.pdf

Note: Looks like they pulled it, maybe they were getting some political "heat" because of it.

Bush: "We need a new approach" on Iraq

Bush: ''We need a new approach'' on Iraq

Homer Simpson: ''D'oh''

Pearl Harbor

This morning while I was checking the news on the internet I came across an article about the 65 year reunion of the Pearl Harbor Suvivors. I don't know what it is about the stories of old veterans, but they always touch me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that all of my childhood role models were WWII vets. Whatever it is, nothing else seems to get to me as quickly.

My own father was a WWII vet. He never did talk much about it. I know he was with Patton's Third Army at one point. On one occasion he was shot through the field jacket three times. He said he later found out that it was American's that had been shooting at him. They had been some distance away and had mistaken my father and another guy for Germans. At another time, he was shot through the helmet and the bullet traveled along the top of his head taking hair and scalp with it. Some of his more touching stories that he told about the war had to do with encounters with civilians.

Linda's dad spent time in India and got malaria which caused him problems on and off for the rest of his life. I talked to him on a couple of occasions about his WWII experiences. He, like my dad, would talk about certain aspects of it but I am sure there was much that he did not want to think or talk about.

A few years ago, the father of a friend passed away. We went to the funeral in Winfield. The father was a WWII vet. He had been seriously wounded during the war. He came home, worked hard, raised a family and was an outstanding citizen, but I know from talking to my friend that his father suffered for the remainder of his life from his war experiences. During the funeral, there was an honor guard of old VFW men who marched in and stood at attention and saluted the flag covered casket. I really think that was the saddest moment that I have ever experienced at a funeral. Even today, years after, I can't talk about it without tearing up. I really can't explain it but there was and is something about the sight of those old men standing at attention and saluting that flag covered casket that really touchs my heart.

Ice Water In Your Veins?

If this article doesn't scare the hell out of you, then you must have ice water in your veins. Before you dismiss it as just more antiwar hysteria, remember that Timothy McVeigh was a veteran of the first Iraq war.

And Now This!

What the hell is going on in the US? A kid throws an egg at your SUV and you kill him? But you make a mistake and don't even kill the right kid. Have we devolved into a society of mindless idiots?

Is This What We Have Become?

When I was young and growing up, often I would hear grownups or 'older' people bemoaning the trends in this country. They would speak of how certain things had deteriorated. I always swore that I would not become like those 'old folks.' I would look for the good in changes. Throughout my life I have tried to always do just that.

Nevertheless, there are things happening in our society today that make me ask myself, 'is this what we have become?' This morning I read an article about one guy stealing another guy's playstation. I found this article very disturbing. First of all, it troubles me significantly that video games have reached a point in our society where someone thinks they are worth standing in line for 3 days just to buy one. Second it is troubling that someone else thinks that a video game is worth stealing. I suppose that is a matter of personal taste. Equally lamentable is the fact that the thieves have to attack someone instead of just slipping the game out of a store somewhere. Shop lifting is bad, but assault is worse. But the ultimate tragedy in all this is that somewhere, someone thinks a SWAT team is needed to break down a door to a dorm room and shoot some kid to death to recover a stolen video game.

I certainly don't condone stealing, I have been a victim of that myself. I have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone that would do violence to another human being for a crappy video game console that will be obsolete in 6 months. But where in God's name does the idea that a SWAT team is needed in a situation like this come from? What's next, snippers on roof tops to deal with jay walkers?

Microsoft for President

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer has proven to be as two faced as any politician. Back when the Justice Department was persuing an anti-trust suit against Microsoft, one of the defenses Microsoft used to maintain that they did not have a monopoly was the existance of Linux. Now they claim that some of Linux's functionality is based on Windows. Buy Windows and pay Microsoft or use Linux and pay Microsoft. Smells like a monopoly to me. Unfortunately for Mr Ballmer and Microsoft, the next asshole in the Whitehouse probably won't be Steve Ballmer. It will probably be a Democrat and we all know what the justice department under a Democratic president likes to do to monopolies.

Back From Iraq

I found this on YouTube. It is an eight minute video of some of our men and women who are back from Iraq. If you are tough, you may be able to sit through it. For those of you unfamiliar with using YouTube, simply click on the arrow in the picture to play the film clip.

The Patriot Act

What the Bush administration FBI does to Muslims via the so called Patriot Act, you can bet Hillary will be doing to US gun owners. Sooner or later the liberal democrats will be back in the White House, when they do, it will again be open season on guns. The US is one of the few countries left in the world where average citizens can legally own guns. This is a pain in the ass to every socialist worldwide. All of you out there who think that Bush needs the rights robbing Patriot Act to fight terror, remember what I said when Hillary's FBI and ATF show up to confiscate your weapons.

Iraq

I have never been to Iraq. I have never lost anything there so I have no need to go hunt anything there. Is Iraq important to you? Do you have a vested interest in something over there? Is your interest worth fighting for? Ok. If it is, I say that we should give you an M-16 and let you go over there and have at it. In fact I am in favor of equipping anyone who wants to fight in Iraq and letting them have at it.

On the other hand, I am in favor of bringing home all our men and women who are over there not because they have a dog in this race, but just because some asshole politician says we are there and we can't leave.

Like Big Daddy in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', I say 'Carp.' We can leave right now. What will happen? Some say that the country will plunge into a civil war. To them I say "Wake up , it is already in a civil war." All we as a nation do by keeping our military in Iraq is to entend the fighting and lose precious young American lives in the process.

10 Ways To Live Longer

I was going through some papers on my desk and came across this hand written note, in my handwriting. It is titled 10 ways to live longer. Obviously I copied it from somewhere, but I don't now where. Any way, here it is for what it's worth:

Don't Oversleep

Be Optimistic

Have More Sex

Get A Pet

Get A VAP

Be Rich

Stop Smoking

Chill Out

Eat Your Antioxidants

Marry Well

Something Else My Daddy Taught Me

I just read an article about the the oak doors at the Supreme Court of the United States which display tablets carrying Roman numerals I-V and VI-X. The article indicated that back in the 1970's the Supreme Court's own documentation said that the tablets represent the ten commandments. Now that any mention of religion coupled with government has become an instant ticket to pariah status, the tablets are described simply as being "symbolic representations".

This brought to mind something that my daddy taught me. One night we had left work at Miller's Garage and were headed home. I needed something from a store along the way, but I was dirty and greasy from having worked in the shop all day. Daddy was gonna stop and let me go into the store and get what I needed, but I asked him to wait and let me go home and clean up first and then come back. He said that a working man should never be ashamed of how he looked. That the dirt and grease on my clothes, face and hands was a sign to the world that I had put in an honest days work. To this he added, as long as you are doing right, don't ever be ashamed of who you are, what you are doing or where you came from. I've always considered this to be the Coosa County version of Polonius' advice to his son Laertes in "Hamlet", "To thine own self be true."

When we, as a nation, begin to modify history to match our current politically correct ideas, we are not being true to ourselves. I don't care whether you believe in a higher power or not. It does not make any difference whether or not separation of church and state is constitutional or unconstitutional. If the tablets represented the ten commandments in the 1970's then they represent them today. If it was a mistake to have them, then it is a mistake that we should live with, not try to cover up. If it is illegal to have them, then take them down. Put up some doors with pictures of Paris Hilton and Madonna or whatever else is currently considered PC, but if someone asks what the old doors represented don't lie. Admit they stood for the ten commandments.

Restored

Yesterday, I went down to Sylacauga to recover the blue 1972 pickup that was stolen from my parents old home earlier this year. Back in June, someone just backed up to the truck and snatched it out from under the shed where it was sitting. Having anything stolen is disheartening and tends to make you doubt your fellow man.

The truck was recently recovered and as I said, yesterday I went down to tow it home. Unfortunately I failed to check the air pressure in the tires on my tow dolly. When I got the pickup loaded, the dolly tires were sagging down very low. The guys at the storage yard where I picked up the truck told me that the Shell station down the hill had air, so I headed that way. About half way to the station, the left tire on the dolly pulled off the rim. I drove onto the shoulder and proceeded to the driveway of the Shell Station.

I was not in my regular vehicle and did not have a 4 way lug wrench or a jack. As I stood there trying to figure out what to do, a man walked up and said looks like you are having tire trouble, can I help? I told him there was not much he could do as I did not have my jack or lug wrench. He said I have a jack and a lug wrench. He went and got his tools and helped me get the tire and wheel off. I took them over to the air pump at the Shell station and as luck would have it, the tire took air and popped back out to the rim. I put it back on the dolly, but had failed to put enough air in it, so he and I had to take it off and do the whole thing again. He produced a tire guage and helped me get the correct amount of air in the tire.


While this was going on, another man walked up and told me of a tire place down the road about three miles that was reasonable and fast. I asked him the name and he said Miller Tire. I told him I was a Miller and he asked me where I was from. I told him that I was originally from Rockford. He said I know you, you are Bubba Miller. I thought he was thinking of Buck Miller and told him no Buck was a distant relative and that I was Denson Miller's son. He said not Buck, Bubba, your daddy ran Miller's Garage. It was then that I realized that he was referring to by what everyone at the garage called me, which was Brother. (By the way, this just goes to re-inforce what I have always said, Bubba is a word for Brother, probably coming from young children mispronouncing Brother.) Anyway I told him you mean Brother and he said that's right, Brother. Next he said, "Your daddy bought me my first car." Seems that this guy, whose name was Doyle Harris, worked around my fathers shop when he was young. It would have been in the mid 1970's after I had finished college and had gone to work full time for the Power Company. He washed tools, cleaned up and just helped out in general. He said one day a man came in and tried to sell my father a 1950 model flathead Ford car for $35. My father told the guy , "I don't need that damn thing" but then Doyle said my father turned to him and said "How about you?" He told my father that he would like to have it but did not have $35. He said my father said, hell don't worry about that. So Doyle and my father got in my fathers truck, probably the same one I was retriving yesterday, and rode over to where the 50 model Ford was located. He said my father paid the man for the car and then Doyle drove it back to the garage. He said it had a rod knocking in the motor but he was tickled to be driving his own car. When Doyle finished telling the story, he shook my hand and left.

Me and the first man ,who had stopped to help me, finished putting the tire back on the tow dolly and he was about to leave. I asked him his name and he said James Thomas. I told him if he was ever in Pelham or Rockford and needed help, to just give me a call, I'm in the book.

James Thomas and Doyle Harris did a lot for me yesterday. Of course James helped me fix my tire and get back on the road and Doyle gave me some good advice on where to get tire work done, but they did so much more than that. With their willingness to help a total stranger and with Doyle's recounting the story of the good deed my father had done all those year ago, they both gave me renewed hope in the humanity of man. The things that theives stole from me in June of this year, my dad's pickup and my confidence in my fellow man, were both restored to me yesterday.

Write In Votes

What if your mechanic told you he could work on more cars each day if he did not have to put them back together after he took them apart? What about if your surgeon, after he took out your appendix, did not sew you back up to save time? Well I just read a news article that said in Shelby county, the poll workers don't like to count write in votes because it takes too much time.

Government Versus The Real World

Back in 2000, when the late Harry Browne was running for president, he came up with an interesting question that he asked people. It was "What is your favorite government program?" I watched a video tape of him asking many people that question. Virtually none of them could name a government program that they liked. Very few people like government programs, yet these programs continue to endure. Why is that?

I think it is mainly because of one glaring difference in how government operates and how the real world operates. In the real world, people have ideas, they start endeavors based on these ideas and the endeavors either prosper or they do poorly, fail and disappear. In the world of government, governments have ideas; they start programs based on these ideas. If the programs prosper, which is nearly never the case, they continue. If the programs fail, the people who started them claim they were under funded or under staffed and additional resources are channeled to the failing programs to try and make them work.

A current example of just such an instance is the call by Rep. Charles Rangel to reinstate the draft. Rep. Rangel said, "There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way,". Can anyone be that dumb? Why would 'W' hesitate starting a war for fear of the draft? He was successful in evading the draft during the Vietnam War, I am sure that he would assume that he could keep his daughters out of any draft that came up. I also imagine that most if not all members of our political elite would make the same assumption. No, the war in Iraq is just another failed government program and all Rep. Rangel's proposal would do would make it easier for the political elite to throw resources, in this case the lives of American men and women, at that failed program. If Rep. Rangel is concerned about our minorities and lower income people being sacrificed in Iraq, and rightly he should be, then he should submit legislation calling for the immediate withdrawal of all American forces from Iraq and close that failed government endeavor.

How To Bring Democracy To Iraq

I have an idea of how we can bring democracy to Iraq. Next week, have an election. Let everyone in Iraq vote. Everyone, including the American, British, and other foreign troops stationed there. Make the election a referendum on the immediate withdrawl of all foreign troops from Iraq. Count the votes and let the majority rule.

Predicting The Weather

I just finished reading an article that said that meteroligists have difficultly in predicting in May what is gonna happen in June through November (the hurricane season). On the other hand, the global warming experts tell us they know what is gonna happen 50 years into the future. Yeah. Right.

Like a Crack Head Brother

The song 'God Bless America' by Irving Berlin starts off with "God Bless America, Land That I Love". This morning I read a news item on the internet about someone shooting someone else over a playstation. After reading it, I paused for a minute. For some reason the words of Berlin's song came into my mind. I'll tell you, sometimes I have to question that second phrase, "Land that I love". I know that I still love it, but I can't help but think I must be like someone who has a crack head for a brother. They have to still love him regardless of how disgusting and problematic he becomes. "God bless America, crack head brother that it's become."

Put Down The Gun, Then We Will Talk

I just read this article by Stefan Molyneux. It is one of the most insightful and succinct comparisons of the nature of government versus the principles of libertarianism that I have seen.

Re: Word Verification

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Word Verification sux. I am sure you all know what I am talking about. For those few that may have been spared it so far, word verification is a small box with some barely legible characters beside it. To proceed in a selected activity you have to type the characters in the box. It is supposed to stop automated responses and assure that actual people are using the affected web pages. I don't know how good a job it does at eliminating bots but I can assure that it is excellent at frustrating 59 year old men.

Many word verifications, like the one on the Atlanta Braves ticket ordering page, are nearly impossible to read. Others, like the one that Blogger uses, can be read alright, but don't work properly. If you move back and forth between the composition screen and the preview screen in Blogger, chances are the little characters that you put in the word verification box won't work.

Well to quote Popeye, I've stands all I can stands, I can't stands no more. So, I've decided to fight back. Starting today, when I am presented with a word verification box, if I can't read the characters, or if there are too many or if I just don't like where my fingers have to go on the keyboard to type them, I just hit enter instead. I don't know how this is gonna work on all pages but on blogger it results in a new set of characters. I keep doing that until I get something that I don't mind typing, preferably 5 characters of less. So far on this screen I have passed over zmvskty, ymcmcng, and settled for armfk.

Copyright Crazy

To even the casual observer it is becoming obvious that we are a society that is obsessed with copyrights. Last week I saw a headline that said that Andy Griffith had sued Andy Griffith. Turns out some politician in Wisconsin was running for sheriff and had changed his name to Andy Griffith to help his chances. It did not work, he lost anyway, but the real Andy Griffith is suing him. Why? No real harm was done was it? Well it may have been copyright infringment. The real Andy's attorney said if you don't protect copyrights, you lose them.

Now, this morning, I read this. If that don't take the hair off the hog, I don't know what does! I loved the Keith Dunnavant quote - “This lawsuit is the equivalent of the Catholic Church suing Michelangelo for painting the Sistine Chapel,” He's right.

Those of you who know me know that I have orange and blue blood and don't usually concern myself with things that affect the "Bama Nation", but this is an obsurdity. It is a perfect example of the copyright obsession that is permeating this country. I say it is time that we put the quieteous to all this copyright mania. Relegate copyright back to the funny little c with a circle around it and not much else.

Daylight Savings Time

I was just listening to a podcast where the hosts were discussing the origins of daylight savings time. One of the hosts said that originally daylight savings time was concieved by Ben Franklin while he was in France. The idea was that people would get to sleep the same amount but would use less candles and thereby save money. It got me to thinking about daylight savings time and its relevance to the modern world. I wonder just how much energy we save? I suppose in Ben Franklin's time most people did a lot of work by natural light and used candles, which were probably fairly expensive in relation to overall costs, only in hours of darkness. A reduction in candle wax costs was probably significant. Today, people use lights even in the day time. I used to work in a office where we had to shut down when the electricity was off. Not so much because of the computers being down, but because there was virtually no natural light in most of the cubicles. How much money are we actually saving by having a extra hour of daylight for working? I doubt that it is even worth the effort expended to reset all those clocks.

Then I got to thinking about the fact that congress voted last year to change the effective dates for daylight savings time. Why? If it makes a difference now, why have they waited this long to change the dates? After all the length of days has not changed has it? I expect that the hours of daylight on November 13th this year and next year will be about the same as it was on November 13th, 100 years ago. After thinking about if for a while, I decided that they changed the effective dates because they could. It seems to be important to congress and state legislatures to always be changing things. For the better, for the worse or just for the change. They appear to want to make sure that WE realize that THEY call the shots.

I suspect that we could all do just as well if daylight savings time was eliminated altogether or if it was put in effect for 365 days per year, but after a while everyone would forget that it was established by an edict of congress. We could not have that now could we.

Partridge Meat

My great uncle Mac (my fathers uncle) worked for the county as a truck driver. Uncle Mac worked for district 2 which was the same district where my father's shop was located. Dad did some repair work for the county so uncle Mac, like many of the district's employees, would drop by fairly regularly to have his truck repaired. Uncle Mac was a great kidder. He loved a corny joke or a good story. While he was waiting on his truck to be repaired he would often tell us jokes or stories. Many of his best jokes or stories are not tame enough for this venue, but this one is:

One of the district 2 employees loved potted meat. Anytime the crew stopped into a country store around lunch time, this particular employee always got a can of potted meat. One day they were all sitting under a shade tree beside a little store down below Weogufka eating lunch. Suddenly the employee that loved potted meat said, I wonder how many partridges it takes to make a can of this here partridge meat. One of the crew members told him that it was not partridge meat, it was potted meat. He said, well I wonder how many partridges it takes to make a can of this potted meat. They explained to him that potted meat contained no partridge meat. Getting a little aggravated, He asked if it ain't partidge meat, then what is it? They showed him the list of ingredients on the side of the can. He read the ingredients, got up and walked over to the trash barrel and dropped the can into the trash. Uncle Mac said he never saw the guy eat potted meat again.

I know, the story isn't that funny but I like it. I also like potted meat. I know what is in it, but lots of times I call it partridge meat just for the heck of it.

Mr Fetner Was Wrong

I used to work with a man named Fetner. He was much older than the rest of us so we all called him Mr Fetner. Mr Fetner was a WWII vet and about the same age as my father. He was with the OSS during the war and used to tell some interesting stories although he did not seem to enjoy taking about the war. Mostly he wanted to talk politics, Republican politics. Periodically, he would come by my cubicle and strike up a conversation that ultimately lead to the discussion of politics. Whenever there was an election, he would come by and ask if I had gone and "thrown my rocks yet?" If it was a primary election, I would always tell him that I was a Libertarian and in the State of Alabama, the Libertarians don't have a primary. Always, when I said that I was a Libertarian, he would say "we have to have traffic lights." Apparently, Mr Fetner did not differentiate between libertarians and anarchist. This morning I came across this article. It seems that the northern Dutch town of Drachten is proving Mr Fetner wrong.

Mr Fetner passed away several years ago from cancer. It was very sad and we all miss him, but at least he was spared the results of the recent election and finding out that we really don't need traffic lights.

Dumber Than A Bag Of Hammers

Jim Cramer on his CNBC show Mad Money occasionally says that something or someone is "dumber than a bag of hammers." On at least one occasion he actually brought in a bag filled with claw hammers to emphasize his point. It is a phrase that I have heard many times over the course of my life. I do not know where it originated but I like it. When I read this Capitol Hill Blue article this morning, I was immediately reminded of "dumber than a bag of hammers."

I know that there are a lot of people who believe that the current members of the executive branch of government in this country are involved in a vast conspiracy. I have to admit that at times, I myself have wondered if there were not some covert motives behind many of their actions, but this latest screwup has pretty well convinced me that the whole bunch is just "dumber than a bag of hammers."

Can't Fool All The People, All The Time.

My eighth grade math teacher, Mr. Head, used to like to quote someone, Lincoln I think, who said, "You can fool all of the people some of the time and you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." This article from CNN tells me that right now, the majority of Americans are not fooled about what is wrong with our government.

Word Verification

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Word Verification is a royal pain in the ass. I would gladly endure 5 times as much spam email daily, run three anti-virus software programs simultaneouly and buy a hardware firewall if it would eliminate Word Verification. And a note to Blogger, your word verification does not work right.

Now I understand

It has been troubling to me that the main opposition to the RTBA is that congressmen and senators don't have time to read all the bills that they vote on. Recent news headlines have enabled me to understand why that is the case. They are all to busy trying to pork a page to spend anytime reading.

Am I Missing Something?

During the recent outbreak of E. coli that was traced to some contaminated spinach, I kept waiting to hear someone say ” be sure and wash any spinach thoroughly before you eat it.” I never heard that in any broadcast nor did I read it in any article. Instead I heard of a FDA ban on all spinach. Now I don't know much about biology and I don't keep up with medicine, but I thought that E. coli was a bacteria and that bacteria could be removed with sufficient washing. I was also under the impression that if you are cooking something, bringing the temperature to over 140 degrees kills bacteria. Has that changed? Is there some new strain of E. coli that can no longer be washed off or killed?

Eventually it was determined that the spinach in question had been contaminated by cow manure from a pasture near the field where the spinach was grown. What that tells me is that the spinach in question had cow manure on its surface. If it had been thoroughly washed would that not have removed the cow manure and the E. coli?

I remember when I was growing up my grandfather Kelley had one of the best gardens in Pentonville. My father always said it was because my grandfather put lots of cow manure in his garden. I realize that the manure he was using had been composted and that composting kills a lot of the bacteria. Also he plowed it into the garden so it was covered by soil and was not as likely to come in contact with the plant leaves. But, I also remember that anything he brought in from the garden was triple washed at the faucet in the yard and then washed again in the kitchen. I'm guessing that all that washing was the reason none of us got ill from eating vegetables from his garden.

Why has no one from the media or the FDA brought up the importance of washing, or am I missing something?

Truth must count. Innocence must matter.

There is a famous quote by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out

Just before they adjorned, Congress passed S.3930 that effectively repeals the Bill of Rights. The time to speak out is now, before you find yourself in the same fix as Pastor Niemöller. A good place to start speaking out can be found here.

Military Commissions Act of 2006

The text of the subject act can be found by going to the Library of Congress site http://thomas.loc.gov and searching on bill number S.3930.ES

Of particular interest is Sec. 950j that I have included below. Pay particular attention to the text in red. I believe that it amounts to a suspension of habeas corpus.

Sec. 950j. Finality or proceedings, findings, and sentences

`(a) Finality- The appellate review of records of trial provided by this chapter, and the proceedings, findings, and sentences of military commissions as approved, reviewed, or affirmed as required by this chapter, are final and conclusive. Orders publishing the proceedings of military commissions under this chapter are binding upon all departments, courts, agencies, and officers of the United States, except as otherwise provided by the President.

`(b) Provisions of Chapter Sole Basis for Review of Military Commission Procedures and Actions- Except as otherwise provided in this chapter and notwithstanding any other provision of law

(including section 2241 of title 28 or any other habeas corpus provision), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever,

including any action pending on or filed after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions under this chapter.

Worked at Waco, why not try it in Iraq

When the feds stormed the compound at Waco one of the stated main reasons was to free the children inside from being abused by David Koresh. Twenty one of those children under the age of 16 died in the fire. Now it appears that we are using similiar methods to
[LINK IS NO LONGER VALID] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqi_death_toll_8
free the citizens of Iraq .

What Is Wrong With Government?

My usual short answer to that question is 'lots' followed by a tirade against a particular governmental offense. Sometimes I am challenged by a friend or a family member to come up with something better. When this happens, I always begin to try and figure out what is the root cause of the problem. After all, you can't rectify a problem until you have discovered its cause. Coming up with the root cause is not easy. Recently I read a quote by H.L. Mencken that seemed to shed some much-needed light on the subject. He said, "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." I think he was right. It is not our system of government that is to blame for our problems, it is all these so called public servants that are really 'closet monarchs'. Deep down, they all want to be the king or queen of their own kingdom. School board members want to rule the school district kingdom, probate judges want to rule their county kingdoms, governors want to rule their state kingdoms and of course presidents want to rule the American Empire.

Well, if those willing public servants are the problem, what can we do to correct it? Since anyone who wants to hold public office voluntarily is probably a closet monarch, we have to come up with a different way of choosing public officials. I've mulled it over some and I think the only fair thing to do is to hold a public lottery. Put the name of every registered voter in a pot and draw out the names for the people to hold public office. To make it fair, each person serving would be paid their normal salary at the job they did before holding public office plus an amount equal to any additional expenses they incur. That would keep anyone from having to take a serious pay cut. No one would have to serve more than one term. Once a person had served one term in one public office their name would be removed from future drawings. We could grant hardship exemptions and grant contentious objector status to anyone whose religion prohibited them from being involved in government. I realize that a system like this would not be perfect, but look at the mess we have now. At least we would eliminate career politicians and stand a chance of having someone in office that was not a closet monarch. It would also eliminate political parties and costly election campaigns.

Another Highway Yard Sale

I do love highway yard sales. Back in the mid 1990's I started going on the World's Longest Yard Sale and have been hooked ever since. This week, I went on the Highway 411 Yard Sale for the first time. This sale is 4 or 5 years old and runs from Leeds Alabama to Newport Tennessee along US Highway 411. Friday, Linda and I took in the portion of the sale from Leeds Alabama to Rome Georgia. We had a great time. Lots of good yard sales, nice weather and some interesting people. We had an especially good time in Cave Springs Georgia. It is a nice little town and seemed to really roll out the red carpet for the yard sale.

Does A Wild Bear Shit In The Woods?

When I was growing up in Coosa County, if someone questioned the correctness of your statement by asking "Is that right?" you would respond with "Does a wild bear shit in the woods?" It seems that the 'environmentalist' have recently discovered what Coosa kids took for granted back in the 1950's.

Of course dirty water is not much of a problem to me for I follow the teachings of W.C.Fields who said, "water! can't stand the stuff -- fish fornicate in it!"

What Would Jesus Say About Torture?

I know a lot of people who are Christians and a great many more who claim to be Christians. Some of them seem to approve of torture. Richard Land says that
'an overwhelming majority of Baptists still support President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war.' Since Mr. Bush says that torture is necessary to fight the war on terrorism and seems to have convinced the congress to pass legislation allowing torture, I have to ask myself what would Jesus say about torture? I certainly don’t clam to be a biblical scholar, but I did find one verse that seems right on target. It is Luke 6:31 (And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.) When I was growing up, the local Coca-Cola bottler gave out rulers with that verse simplified so a fifth grader could understand it. The ruler was imprinted with “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I think that might just be what Jesus’ answer would be if he were asked about torture. To bad that our ‘rulers’ today don’t have that rule imprinted on them.

Lum and Abner

My grand daddy Kelley used to love the Lum and Abner radio program. Back several years ago, there was a radio station out in Bessemer that played a Lum and Abner episode every afternoon. I used to listen to them while I was driving home from work and I got hooked as well. Two years ago, at the Huntsville hamfest, I happened upon a man that was selling old time radio programs on CD. I bought two volumes of Lum and Abner and have been listening to them occasionally ever since.

Today I was listening to the episode from July 16, 1935. At one point in the show, Abner sizes up Lum's situation. He said, "You are too heavy for light work, and too light for heavy work." Well I knew when I heard it that I had found the Rosetta stone for the meaning of my life. Now I realize what has always been my problem. Like Lum, I am too heavy for light work and too light for heavy work. I have to tell you that a great burden has been lifted off my shoulders. All this time I have always felt like I was kind of a screw up. Just not able to get things exactly right. You know the feeling, like you are half a step out of time in the march of life.

Of course the next question is what do you do about it. I suppose I could loose some weight or maybe gain some, but I think I will just keep listening to Lum and Abner. After all if they can come up with a diagnosis of my problem, they can probably also come up with a solution.

11 Billion Here, 11 Billion There, Pretty Soon ....

You are talking about some real money to paraphrase Everitt Dirkson. OK so we spend
eleven billion dollars and countless hours of waiting in line for honest Americans to implement the Real ID act and then what? Well if I were a terrorist and wanted or needed a drivers license, I would just use a fake social security card or fake birth certificate and get me a Real ID drivers license. Or better yet, forget about the drivers license and pick some act of terrorism that does not require a drivers license like contaminating a local food supply with e coli.

I wrote my congressman and told him that I thought that Real ID was an expensive, useless boondoggle. He wrote me back and said he liked it, he had co-sponsored it and he voted for it. Guess who I won't be voting for next November.

Price Controls

Earlier this week I read an article, by Gary North I think but I can't locate it now, that laid out an interesting senario regarding our current national indebtedness and how it may be handled. As you have probably figured out, we as a nation owe more money than we will ever be able to pay under current monetary conditions. Many people feel, and I agree, that the government is gonna ramp up the printing presses and print our way out of debt. This unrestrained printing of money leads to hyperinflation as happened in Germany between the world wars. In the article I read, the author suggested that when prices start shooting up, the government will institute price controls. Of course the price controls will lead to shortages as they always do. Then the government will blame the shortages on hoarders as they always do. I remember reading several years ago that the president had signed an executive order authorizing FEMA to confiscate and redistribute personal property, including food stuffs, in time of emergency. I suppose that means that stock piling emergency food, for the time of shortage, is a waste of time. Probably better to get yourself a rifle or shotgun, some extra ammunition and learn to enjoy squrriel or rabbit. If you live in the city you might consider acquiring a taste for boiled pigeon and dumplings, if you think you can get the flour and shortning for the dumplings. Kind of reminds me of a saying quoted by my eighth grade math teacher, Al Head. "If we had some ham, we would have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs."

Fall

This morning when I opened the door to let the puppies out, I knew that Fall had arrived. In Alabama, when you walk outside in shorts, tee shirt and sandals and you feel an immediate chill, its Fall. I love Fall but it is not without its draw backs. I have known for several days that it was on its way because my allergies have been kicking up. The stuff from the Fall weeds and grasses do a number on my sinus cavaties. Fall is just like everything else, it has its good side and its bad side but I really do enjoy it.

Attention Telephone Solicitors

No, I don't want a satellite system with 'awesome' DVR technology. I already have a prefectly good satellite system. And no, I don't want every carpet in my house cleaned. I also am not interested in additional life insurance. I don't need any light bulbs or brooms. I am considered a senior by some but I am not old enough for medicare perscription drug coverage so don't bother offering it to me. I don't want a new state of the art home security system installed free of charge and no I don't need any steaks. Please refer to this message in the future. It will save you a lot of dialing time and me a lot of phone mail messages.

Mad Money

Back in January of this year, my son-in-law gave me a stock tip that he had gotten off TV. I looked at the stock, liked what I saw and bought a few shares of it. It has done real well. My son-in-law told me where he got the tip, but I am terrible with names so I immediately forgot what he said.

Last week my brother-in-law called me and left me a phone mail message saying that he was watching a show called "Mad Money" on CNBC and that it was a great show. The next night I turned it on and watched it. It was really entertaining. Later on I asked my daughter about where the January stock tip came from and she said it was from a show called "Mad Money."

I've googled "Mad Money" and discovered that the show and it's star Jim Cramer are loved by many and apparently disliked by a few. That does not surprise me. There is nothing in the universe that you can mention that someone on the internet doesn't dislike, object to , or thinks it is probably illegal. Having said all that, I recommend the show. It is entertaining. I find it instructional. Who knows, if you trade in the market, you might do like my son-in-law and I did and pick up on a stock that goes up in value.

USA to declare War on Peanuts?

Today, I read in The Daily Reckoning's free daily newsletter that "Since 2001, terrorists have caused fewer deaths in America than allergic reactions to peanut butter. We are awaiting a War on Peanuts...."

Now I know that the author was being facetious but I suddenly remembered reading a few months ago about some school system that had banned products containing peanuts citing risks to students that were allergic to peanuts. I can see it now, first the Surgeon General will demand warning labels on peanuts and peanut butter. Then, every state in the union will file lawsuits against the companies selling peanuts and peanut butter . As soon as those suits are settled, with each state receiving millons of dollars, individuals who are allergic to peanuts will file a federal class action suit to have the government outlaw peanut farming. When the peanut is declared illegal in the USA, all the peanut farmers and peanut industry workers will be forced into the illegal peanut trade. Gober peas will be smuggled in from Mexico and other peanut producing countries. More prisons will have to be built to house the peanut lords and peanut dealers when they are caught. Possession of a pb&j sandwich will result in community service if it is a first offense. Being caught with a big jar of Jif will get you a mandatory sentence of 10 years. A case of crunchy (you know the 'hard stuff') will get you life without possibility of parole.

Sound strange? Sound ridiculous? Look around you, we are already living in bizzaro world. Judging from what I have seen lately, being strange and ridiculous is all the more reason to expect it to happen.

10 Mile Yard Sale Cullman County Hwy 1545

Saturday, Linda and I took in the 10 Mile Yard Sale on Cullman county highway 1545. Hwy 1545 turns north off state highway 69 east of Cullman. We had a great time. The crowds were good but some of the folks having sales said that the Friday crowd was larger. That is somewhat different than what I have experienced with other highway yard sales. I understand that this was the 6th year for the sale. It is held on the Friday and Saturday after Labor Day.

Just Say No

I read this article by Charley Reese today and was reminded of the Reagan era slogan, "Just Say No". Back then they were talking about drugs. Today I was thinking about incumbents. I know that there are a few public officials that have done a few things right, but most of them have to be screwing up for things to be as bad as they are right now. At least if we vote everyone of them out of office, it will take the new guys a few weeks, possibly months, to become as corrupt and jaded as the current bunch. I still have not made up my mind to vote in November. After all, if you go to a whore house and pick the best looking whore you are still fostering prostitution. But if I do decide to hold my nose in November and vote, I pledge right now to not vote for a single incumbent.

Porkphoria

Well today is Labor Day and we had barbequed pork ribs for lunch. After lunch, Linda and I were discussing how good the ribs were and how great we felt. We decided that eating barbequed pork is a mood altering activity. When you eat barbequed pork, you enter a mellow, content state, that we decided should be called porkphoria. Thats right, porkphoria, kinda like euphoria, only better.

Hallowthankmas is Here

Well it's Hallowthankmas time again. You know what Hallatankmas is don't you? Its that holiday that starts on Labor Day each year and runs until the Super Bowl of the next year. Years ago, we had several distinct holidays, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Over the years, the distinctions got blurred, one holiday blended into the next and the Super Bowl got elevated into near holiday status, kind of like Pulto got elevated to a planet for awhile. Now all those distinct holidays and minor holiday have blended into one long protracted holiday, Hallowthankmas.

Every Dark Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Sometimes I feel really sad about the dismal financial future facing our country. We are for all intents and purposes insolvent. If you look at the obligations of the federal government, present and future, you quickly see that there is no way that this country will ever be able to pay them. So what happens? Well it depends on who you listen to. Some folks think that the government will inflate the money supply, debasing the currency until we have runaway inflation like they had in Germany between WWI and WWII and like they are having in Zimbabwae today. Others say we are going to have severe deflation and wind up in another great depression with no one having any money to buy anything and nothing being produced to buy even if they had any money. Either way the economy will be wrecked and many people will suffer. Hard to find any silver lining in either of those dark clouds, but I have given it a lot of thought and I think I have hit upon something.

The fiscal irresponsibility of our current and former government officials has certainly put us on the road to financial ruin and we are no doubt going to suffer a terrible economic crisis. The economy will certainly be laid low. Thats the bad news. The good news is that a destroyed economy will also destroy the tax base. The flow of money into the hands of the government will dry up. Most of the good people who currently work in all those less than worthless government jobs will be put out of work. I believe that when those good people lose their government jobs, they will go out and find gainful work, probably through self-employment. They will start doing tasks that add value to the economy. When those displaced government workers start doing something worthwhile, their contribution to the economy will help to start rebuilding it. The folks that are already doing gainful work will be better able to produce since they won't have all those government workers hindering them. Pretty soon we will have a stronger, better economy than we have ever had before. Silver Lining!

I only hope and pray that when that day comes, we will all look back and remember history's lesson and never let irresponsibile government officials get us into another mess like we are in right now.

Old Time Vendors

Last evening, Linda and I got to talking about how different things were when we were kids. She was talking about the ice cream truck and how it had a bell instead of music, and how you could get an icicle for a nickel but a big dip cost 30 cents. That caused her to remember the man with the old truck or sometimes an old bus who came through the neighborhood selling vegetables. Linda grew up in the city. Her reminiscences reminded me of my own childhood experiences. I remembered the rolling store, a kind of mini mart in an old school bus that used to come to my grandparents home each week. I remembered buying 'Kits' and other penny candies for a penny. I also remembered that some folks traded eggs to the rolling store man for their purchases. I grew up in the country.

I told Linda that I lived near folks who would go to the river and fish. If they caught more than they needed they would take them to Wetumpka or Montgomery and sell them door to door in the neighborhoods. We both agreed that such activity would be nearly impossible in today's world.

This morning I woke up early and was reading some stories on the Internet when I came across 'Dangerous Worm Peddler' by Vin Suprynowicz. It pretty well validates what Linda and I were figuring would happen to modern day impromptu vendors. The article also gives a highly plausible explanation for why such is the case.

Quiet Hysteria

While I was drinking my coffee this morning I was thinking about the plans someone told me their company had developed to deal with a pandemic. Then I thought about the uproar made this week about the tropical storm Ernesto. After that I recalled the national over reaction regarding the so called binary bomb terrorist plan in England which apparently turned out to be about as valid as John Mark Karr's murder confession. Why did I think of all of these things together? I thought of them together because they all fall into what I see as our current national mindset. Quiet hysteria. This is not the running, screaming, crying type of hysteria. No, this is an inner hysteria. Outwardly people seem calm but in side, they are hysterical. They hear of some real or perceived threat and they go nuts. What can we do about it? Well in the old movies, the treatment for hysteria was a hard slap across the face. Usually followed by a 'thanks, I needed that' for the slapee. But how do you slap the face of an entire nation?

I'm not sure that you can slap the face of an entire nation but with real estate sales beginning to sag and the interest yield curve inverted, the economy may have its arm drawn back for a swipe. Can you say recession?

Trends

Now that I have a grandson, I have been thinking more of what kind of world he is gonna grow up in. I think that if current trends continue, he can expect that the government will not allow him to get his driver's license until he is 21. He won't be allowed to legally consume alcohol before he is 25, but he will face 6 years of mandatory military service at age 14. I know that a lot of you think I am kidding, that my tounge is in my cheek, but think about it. Is that not the path that we are currently on. Others of you may say that such things are silly. Well you can take it from me that most of what we are experiencing right now would have be considered quite silly by my parents generation and reason for open rebellion by my grandparent's generation. No, it is not as crazy as you might think. We are all frogs and the government is slowly turning up the heat. When TSA agents can confiscate toothpaste as a potential bomb threat, the other things I mentioned don't really seem that far fetched.

Bye Bye Verizon, Hello T-Mobile

Time to change cellular phone carriers. Overall, I have been pretty happy with Verizon Wireless, but T-Mobile has a better deal for the same money I am spending now. Also T-Mobile is GSM, so if I drop my phone and crack the screen, like I recently did with my Verizon phone, I can just remove the SIM card and put it in a new phone. I already have a couple of spares that I picked up at garage sales for next to nothing.

I made the swap from Verizon to T-Mobile on line and was happy with everything, except they did not transfer my old number like the web page indicated they would. I talked to customer service and they took care of it while I was talking to them on the phone. But a word to the wise, if you transfer to T-Mobile online and your old number does not get transferred right away, give their customer service number a call. They are nice folks and they work fast.

An added benefit of getting T-Mobile for me is their unlimited mobile to mobile option. My sister and daughter both have T-Mobile so I can call their cell phones anytime without using any of my anytime minutes. The unlimited mobile to mobile option costs $5.99 per month but it seems like a bargain to me.

Whats Next?

I won't bore you with another recount of how bad the current administration is. If you want a reminder of that, read 'Not A Clue by Charley Reese.' Charley, as always, describes what is going on with the 'W' bunch much better than I could ever hope to.

No, I want to talk about what is next. What is gonna happen in 2008? To try to answer that, I have thought back on history as I know it. Harry Truman was president when I was born, but I don't remember him directly, only the stories I have heard. I do remember Eisenhower and all of the subsequent presidents. It seems to me that the overall trend in quality of presidents from Ike to now has been downhill. Seems like each one is worse than the last. If that trend contines, we can probably expect Hillary Clinton to be the next president. She is about the only living person that I can think of that would make a worse president than 'W'. Will the trend continue? I don't know. Can this nation survive a administration worse than the current one? I doubt it. Can this nation survive the current administration? Some times I doubt that as well.

If you live in the USA, its time you asked yourself, where are we headed as a nation. If you are happy with what you see and the direction you think we are taking, fine for you. As for me, I think that we need to alter directions and a good start to that would be to elect someone to the office of president in 2008 that is better, not worse, than 'W".

Binary Explosives, Really?

Be sure and read the bottom part of this article, it gives a description of what would have been required to pull off the binary explosive terrorist plot.

One without his cap

More G.E.

Inappropriate Medicines

Take a look at this before you have that perscription filled.

Gantt Eli

A Drink A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

Maybe its a glass of wine or a beer, instead of an apple a day that keeps the doctor away, at least the heart doctor. This information from the University of Florida would seem to indicate as much.

Did Some One Say the 'C' Word?

Not that 'C' word. The 'C' word I'm talking about is 'Cholesterol'. Read what Karen De Coster has to to say about it and the mistaken efforts to reduce it.

Why Do Jews and Muslims Fight?

Every once in awhile I will get into a conversation with someone from “around here” and invariably the topic of conversation will drift on to the Middle East. We usually end up agreeing that “them folks” have been fighting since dirt was new and will be fighting right down to the end of time. The other day, I got to thinking about it and asked myself “why is that?” Well, I think that I have come up with the reason. This reason I’ve come up with is pretty simple, and you may ask yourself, why has no one thought of that before. Just remember, we often overlook the simple solutions because it just don’t seem right that seemingly complex problems can have simple solutions. One reason I think we have missed the solution is that we are always concentrating on the differences between Jews and Muslims. That is not were the problem is. The problem stems from something they have in common. They don’t eat pork. Yeah, that is all there is to it. They fight because they are mad as hell and they are made as hell cause they can’t eat pork. Of course they don’t know that is why they are mad, but it is. They are kind of like two cats eating peacefully side by side at a bowl of food. If you walk up and grab their tails and start mashing them, they will begin to squall and cry and pretty soon they will stop eating and begin fighting each other. Now they really are not mad at each other but they are mad so they lash out at the closet thing to them.

Some of you may question if not eating pork would be sufficient to cause people to kill each other. I think you are missing the point. It is not so much that not eating pork will make you want to be a suicide bomber as it is that eating pork will prevent you from wanting to kill. Anyone who has just walked out of Dreamland after eating a slab of ribs, a half a loaf of white bread and drinking a couple of Coca Colas or a big glass of sweet tea will tell you that the last thing on their mind is killing anyone. What they probably want more than any thing else is to take a long nap. Could it be that there is some hidden chemical in BBQ that soothes human beings?

Well that’s the answer to why they fight, so what is the solution to get them to stop? I don’t know. Both groups think that pork is unclean so you are not likely to get them to start eating it. If that soothing chemical exists, maybe some chemist can isolate it, produce it synthetically (no pork involved) and start putting it in the Middle East’s water supply. I’m afraid that until they do, the Jews and Muslims are still gonna continue to dispatch each other to the next life with gruesome efficiency.

Another Good Article On Global Warming

This article from Telegraph.co.uk contains some interesting information on global warming and climate change.

What to do about Alzheimer's Disease

This article by Bill Sardi points to resveratrol (red wine), folic acid, vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, carnitine or the Chinese herbal huperzine as all being better than existing perscription drugs.

David Letterman is Funny

I laughed my ass off at some of these.

We Believe What We Want To Believe

Warning! There is some fairly technical language in this article that will probably have you reaching for your dictionary or surfing the wikipedia. What the article seems to say is that when we are left to our own devices, we make up our minds about what we believe, gather information to support that belief and routinely dismiss information that contradicts our belief. In short, we believe what we want to believe.

Why do we do that? I think it might be because we all want to do what we want to do. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, we have learned to do what is right. As my sister used to say, we are all born into innate depravity. As we grow up most of us are taught 'right from wrong'. When something comes along that we want to do, we feel we have to justify it in our minds. The hippies used to say, if it feels good do it. For most of us that doesn't work. We have to 'feel' that it is the right thing to do. So we gather the information that supports our belief, dismiss the nonsupportive information, believe what we want to believe and then do what we want to do.

Some times this works out OK, other times it brings disaster.

Why Are We Overweight?

Some of the answers in this article might surprise you.

US Going Bankrupt?

An article from the "Daily Telegraph" in the UK quoting "research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis" says that may be the case. The title of the article is 'US could be going bankrupt.' Could? After reading the article, I would say that the chances of the US going bankrupt are probably greater than the chances of the sun coming up tomorrow morning.

Political Continuity Is Counter Productive

I've thought a lot about this, especially lately. I believe that having the same people in the same public offices year after year is hurting this country. I know that there has been a lot of talk of term limits, but nothing ever seems to happen to change the status quo. I realize that at most levels of government, the people holding the offices are career politicians. I also realize that most people don't like to change careers. How many doctors have you seen give up a medical practice to go to law school? So, we can figure that these folks that are in public office are gonna stay there for life. If that is the case, how can we mitigate the damage they do?

My answer is (1) to have all public office holders run for re-election every other year and (2) make it illegal for any office holder to have the same office more than once. Simple enough, two year terms, no succession. In a perfect world, I would rather see citizen office holders who give up a couple of years of their life to serve on the water board, school board, in congress or as president, but that is not gonna happen. The next best thing is to have all these politicos rotating between jobs every two years. They will do a lot less damage that way and they still will be able to live out their lives swilling at the public trough.

Some Folks Never Seem To Get It Right

I am beginning to think that ole Al Gore is one of them. This Wall Street Journal Article casts some serious doubts on claims he made in his recent movie.

The true meaning of patriotism

This article does a good job of describing what patriotism is and what it is not.

Americans Are Angry

As I read this speech that Representative Ron Paul of Texas made to the Congress on June 29, 2006, I was reminded of something that Harry Browne said. 'The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk".'