Ded in the water

Motherboard in computer went graveyard ded a week ago last Tuesday. So, ain't gonna be no communicating for a while.

Cuz I kin

This morning’s newspaper poll asks the question: “Should education be spared from cuts in this year's state budget process?” As of 7:33 am the results are: 50.7% Yes, and 49.3% No. I wonder why there is even any debate about where to cut monies in the budget; be it city, county, state or federal.

Why, are we so exuberant about making sure there is public money available for statues in the city? Most of the statues I see, as I drive downtown, are ugly, and more of an eyesore than a landscape enhancement. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder…Any reason that money couldn’t be better utilized in repairing the streets downtown?

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how come the affluent people, who desire these sculptures to be available, don’t fund them their selves? Why do we always have to use public monies? Public monies are taxes paid by honest hard working citizens.

Why do we have to use taxpayer dollars to build a “convention center”? Every convention center I have ever seen, seems to be collocated with a major hotel chain. If the hotel chain wants the events center so bad, why don’t they build it? Have you ever tried to stay in one of the hotels at the convention center? I have never made enough money to participate in that extravagance.

Well, I am afeared, that the reason the governor is going to “cut” funds for education, is because the affluent in this state, would rather see tax income going to artificial beautification, than to actual beautification. You see, when you want the general, hard working public to get behind something, you scare them into believing there is no other way, than to cut the funds from areas that we really need.

You see, I question why we need to have homeless shelters paid for by tax dollars. Back in the “boom years” of this country. When taxes were almost non-existent, there were itinerant workers all over the place. No one worried about building hotels and “projects” to give them a place to live. Employers, made sure their employees had some kind of a roof over their head. Even if it was a tent. Whole communities sprung up, because of employment needs. Look at the towns around mines, and large factories, like steel mills, and automobile plants.

We are informed that a considerable number of our homeless are mentally unstable in one way or another. There was a time when these people were committed to “non-profit” institutions. Places where they received the care they needed, and received their medications on time, every time. Yet, in the name of all that is “humane” we shut these institutions down, shamed the people who made them work, and turned this part of society loose on the world. Yep, you got that right…let the taxpayers figure out what to do with them, instead of private funding.

Well, for those of us who have taken the time to read “The Communist Manifesto”, and taken the time to learn about world affairs, it is a no brainer that for more years than I have been alive, we have been slipping down the slippery slope of surrendering our personal freedom and liberty, for the artificial security the affluent tell us we really need because of the situations they put us in.
Yes, folks, evil really does exist. Especially the evil that perpetrates envy, and jealousy between the people of this great nation.

Unless the people of this nation, realize how far we have slid from the founding fathers’ ideas for a great country, predicated on the grace of God, endowing each citizen with the right to pursue excellence, and individual freedom, we will find ourselves living in the hell our forefathers left Europe to get away from.

May God have mercy on our souls.

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!

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.

God, country, Corps

Tuesday is November 10th. For most of the citizens of this great country, it is just another day. For many, it is the day before Veterans day; and probably just as meaningless as just another day. However, to a number of us it is the day the Marine Corps was officially founded. Yes, that would make this the 234th anniversary; or as we choose to call it, the Marine Corps Birthday.

Why, you probably ask, would grown, intelligent men and women choose to celebrate the birthday of a national fighting team? That would be a good question. I might basically answer by saying, there is no other fighting force known to modern man, that commands such respect, and awe as the United States Marine Corps. History is replete with comments from many sides. The name "Leatherneck" is a title of respect, earned by the men who rode the ships of the continental navy, and were prepared to defend them to the death. "Devil Dog" was an endearing name given by the Chinese many years ago. General MacArthur, General of the Army, made it known, that he could take a certain piece of land, but only with the Marines.

I joined the Marine Corps in August of 1963. For a small town boy, the Marine Corps was quite a wake up and learning experience. Consider, that in my seventeen years of life, the most powerful weapon I had ever fired was a .22 rifle. By the time I completed my basic training I had fired an M-1 and an M-14 rifle; a Browning Automatic Rifle; a flame thrower; a bazooka; a .50 caliber machine gun, and had thrown real grenades.

Perhaps the most endearing part of my time in the Marine Corps came from the understanding that our priority was God, country and Corps. You see, every Marine, male and female, is first of all a rifleman; a grunt, a groundpounder, an infantryman. A large part of basic training, was formulated to bring a bunch of rag-tag ignorant civilians and turn them into a team, capable of working together without getting in each other's way. Of primary importance was the person next to me, my life depended on that person, and they depended on me. I was taught ways of surviving in unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations.

In the end, being a United States Marine, has taught me many things, but more than anything, I learned to love the Corps, like my own mother and father, because that is where I learned many lessons that have served me well throughout my lifetime. I choose to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday, because all I am has depended upon the skills learned and honed through sixteen years as a Marine. On the internet, I use the moniker "Gunny Pink", when I left the Marine Corps in 1979, I had attained the rank of Gunnery Sergeant, and for the rest of my life, my honorable discharge gave me the right to say I am Gunny Pink.

I wish every person could know the camaraderie and respect those of us who wear the Eagle, Globe and Anchor have. But then, if every body knew, and understood, there would be no need for a Marine Corps.

HAPPY 234TH BIRTHDAY, U.S. MARINE CORPS.

Soggy cogitation

Sittin here at my computer, listenin to the rain fallin, and the water runnin off the roof.
Listen to the rythm of the falling rain, pitter-patter, pitter-patter; raindrops keep fallin on my head, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin red; they must be raindrops, so many raindrops, it feels like raindrops, fallin from my eyes; so you'll never see my pain, I'll do my cryin in the rain; just walkin in the rain; rainy days n mondays always bring me down;rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.

HAPPY FALL TO YOU

From one pumpkin to another!!!!!!!

A woman was asked by a coworker, 'What is it like to be a Christian?'

The coworker replied, 'It is like being a pumpkin.'

God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you.

Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff.

He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed.

Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.'

This was passed on to me by another pumpkin.

Now it's your turn to pass.

I liked this enough to send it to all the pumpkins in my patch.