Saturday, November 14, 2009

My two cents; for what its worth

This morning's paper online asks the poll question: "Should the decision be appealed by whichever side loses in the smoking ban case?" As of 9:07 am the results are: 210 votes cast; 25.7% say yes, while 74.3% say no. I see two dynamics at work here.

First, there are people whose whole purpose in life is to make sure that everyone is as miserable as they are. The old song, "Misery Loves Company" surely was written before its time. These people also want to run everyone's life. I suppose deviant behavior analysts would have a lot to say about this, but that isn't where I want to go. Suffice it to say, that I am getting really tired, no, I've been tired, I guess that means I am retired, regarding people attempting to run my life, through getting legislatures to pass laws. First, they come and tell us that smoking can kill you, and second hand smoke can kill you, and they even believe that third hand smoke can kill you. Who really gives a big rat's ass? Lightning can kill you; swallowing spiders while you sleep can kill you; drinking alcohol can kill you; having an affair can kill you; walking down the street can kill you, hey, just being born can kill you.

What I find so sinister about this is the fact that this country was founded on liberty and freedom. Uhmmm, that is L I B E R T Y and F R E E D O M! And these nattering nabob's have tweaked the system until we are no longer centered on freedom and liberty, but are a nation of laws. For crying out loud, that's why so many of our ancestors left the old world to come to the new world. To get away from oppressive laws. There are people in this country who are multimillionaires, and for their benefit it is called "old money". They call it old money because it was earned when there were very few laws, and taxes being levied. It was during the time of unprecedented freedom and liberty, to do, and be the best you could be. Now, those "privileged" few, want to make sure no one else can have the benefits they have, so, they get elected into positions of making laws, and they can't find enough areas to write laws on. Sheesh! Can I get a witness?

Well, these nattering nabobs get the legislature critters to write a law outlawing smoking in public places; makes no difference whether the only clientele are smokers, or not. They want to control people, and make everyone as miserable as they are. So, when the business owners, and the people who provide the business income, don't want that law passed, they file a lawsuit, to stop the progression, and bring the thing to a public vote. I daresay, a lot of laws would not be put into place if it depended on the citizenry to vote them into place. How have we become so complacent that we no longer want a hand in the laws that are written?

Secondly, in the past handful of years, we have witnessed a lot of voter fraud in this country. Not too long ago, the Attorney General of one southern state informed the governor and the legislature that they could not clean out the voter rolls; by removing names of dead people, and people who had moved away. When we the people said enough, we want voter ID, the people who want to run our lives told us "NO!"

To exacerbate the entire folly, we see groups of people being bussed to voting sites, and paid to vote a certain way. When we complain, we are told “Hey, that is the American way”. To which I say, “Bravo Sierra”, or “Bovine Scatology”, or, I guess in good old American slang, “Bull Shit!”

The person who is willing to surrender their liberty and freedom for security will soon have no freedom or liberty. Hey, my military mind just popped up an analogy of security and freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty allow me to go where ever I want, when ever I want. All I need to do is open the door and come and go as I please. Security on the other hand, is being locked up all the time. Why else do you think we term our prisons, “maximum security”, “minimum security”?

Well, I’ve vented my spleen. I guess if you are happy being locked up, and knowing there is very little chance of anything happening to you; then, I guess, I wish you well. If you want nothing more out of life than to be told what to do, where to do it, when to do it, and how to do it, then I wish you the best. However, just because you desire to live like that is no reason for you to require me to live that way. I recall, Hank Williams wrote a song a while back wherein he said, “Mindin other people’s business seems to be high toned, I got all I can do just to mind my own, why don’t you mind your own business? If you mind your own business you’ll be busy all the time.” And that’s all I’m gonna say about that!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Post Veteran's Day commiserating

The US Navy, and the US Marine Corps birthdays are behind us, as is Veteran's Day. So, in this post remembrance period, I am going to take a little license and say some things that have been percolating in my military mind.

What have we learned from the Fort Hood, shooting? To listen to the majority of news pundits, we have nothing to be concerned about. But, what do you think? On a military base where ALL firearms are to be turned over to the armorer, except for the ones that are being used for maneuvers, or qualification/requalification, we have a basically non-combatant officer going around the base with a loaded weapon. Talk about a serious case of cognitive-dissonance...

My 29 years of active duty in the US Armed Forces taught me that medical personnel are primarily non-combatants. There is no call for them to be armed in order to do their jobs; especially in garrison. My money is on the outcome of this fiasco, had all the military people been packing heat of any kind. If there is one thing I am sure of in this crazy mixed up world we are living in, it is that criminals/thugs/terrorists think twice when they are going into an area where there are armed people. Especially on a military base, think about it, probably every one of those combatants could have stopped that muslim terrorist cold in his tracks with one shot, instead of having to cower for cover.

While watching Monday night football, a commercial came on advertising an upcoming movie. The preview showed cities crumbling, apparent tsunami waves rolling through the city, and apoplectic activity all around. What was the title of the movie? “2012”. Now, who’da thunk that? My immediate thought was, Hollyweird is trying to tell us that the 2012 elections are going to be catastrophic. Yep, they would rather not have the elections and just crown B Hussein king for life. How sad, that people who live in this country, the greatest country history has ever known, are willing to destroy everything we stand for.

Finally, I have come to see that there is EVIL in this world. Evil does not depend on mental conditions, though it does have a lot to do with moral conditions. Stay with me for a minute. The bottom line for me is whether or not there is a God, in the sense of being The Almighty, The Creator, The Sustainer, The Finisher. If there is a God, who is Sovereign, and controls everything, we know, and then some. We have a distinct responsibility to know where we fit in in the scheme of things. If we believe there is a God, and we choose to align ourselves with Him, then there are some things that stand out, and need to be dealt with.

First of all, if we truly acknowledge God, and love Him, then we must also love His creation, for it is an image of Him. That means, we must love the life He provides, in any and all forms. If we then love in that manner, we cannot reconcile hating another person, or considering taking their life for any reason. See, the ramifications? That makes it morally wrong to kill someone or something: If we are not going to eat the game we hunt, then why kill it? You see, then we have to ask, how we can justify killing a person who is still in the womb, and has not seen the light of day, nor taken a breath on their own. This also relates to the planet and all forms of life. In my heart and mind, God is love, and in order for me to acknowledge Him, and live my life to the fullest, I must love others as God loves.

Alternately, if I believe there either is no God, or the God there is, could care less about his or her creation, then why should I be concerned? If all there is to life, is an accident, that will end when I expire, what should I care? If there is no reason to love one another, then I can very well look at someone and decide if they should be able to breathe the air, that I want to breathe. The difficulty with that mindset, is I have to figure out pretty quickly where I stand, to prevent that other from erasing me from this existence. Isn’t that what we call a dog-eat-dog life? Along this same line of thought is the idea that if some other has what I want, and I normally do not have any way of obtaining it, I can take it from them, and if need be, erase them from this world.

You see, evil does exist in this world, and evil is hell bent on insuring that none of us love and worship the One True God, but instead, place ourself above everything else. That gives us the impetus to do whatever it takes to feel good about ourself, and our station in life. I would probably continue writing here, but the voices keep telling me it is time to stop; that no one is going to listen anyway.