Is Islam Our Fate?

                                                                 

Is Islam Our Fate?

I was just watching the morning news this morning when a fellow came on, a hired "expert" who was discussing France's "Muslim problem".  And I was astounded to hear that only 27% of the French believe in God!  

It would seem that nature truly does abhor a vacuum, and that vacuum is being filled by the large Muslim population so that, now, Islam is the dominant religion in that country.  Muslims now drive the 43% of all Frenchman who believe in a divine God.

There are probably lessons to be learned from France.  We in America are creating our own vacuum; fifty years ago more than 90% of Americans believed in God and more than 80% attended church regularly.  Those numbers have declined of late with barely 50% of Americans who believe in God and even fewer who attend church regularly.

The French seem to enjoy sitting around their sidewalk cafes, smirking at the rest of the world, and basking in their superior intellect.  To the French, Notre Dame Cathedral is simply an interesting architectural wonder, not a place where they would care to go and worship God.  Our Millennials are the French counterparts, sitting around Starbucks with their tablets and notebooks, googling arguments for Climate Change and deriding the religious right.

One can argue religion all day long but it should be clear that the decline in morality, and church attendance in the West has certainly coincided with a more savage society these days.  While I don't believe the church has all the answers I do believe a modicum of morality is necessary if a society is to survive.

Our seemingly total surrender to moral values is creating a vacuum and nature does indeed abhor a vacuum.  And, whether you like it or not, the Muslims take their religion seriously.....enough to now command 3/5ths of the world.  

Ironically, throughout America, after Paris, I have heard the secular left espouse that we must defeat radical Islam with "love".  I greet that idea with great skepticism.  "Love" is not going to stop the spread of Islam and its many tenets that are in total conflict with our Western values.  I cannot believe that our Secular Left has any love for anyone; witness their insistent and consistent hate for Americans who "cling to their religion".  Laying flowers at the sites of massacres will not defeat radical Islam....developing a sense of moral values just might.

Should we fail get ready to turn toward Mecca five times a day and offer a prayer.  Be prepared to surrender everything you ever believed in because "nature abhors a vacuum".

Susan Rice died for Obama's Sins

                                                                   

Susan Rice died for Obama and Hillary's sins.

We all remember Chief, National Security Advisor Susan Rice's appearance on those 2012 Sunday morning news shows. She came on to defend the administration's failure to act during the Benghazi massacre, alleging that the Libyan uprising was all due to a anti-muslim video.

When the dust settled we all found out that the video story was a huge lie, meant to provide "cover" for a President and Secretary of State that made a horrendous mess of the Middle East.

So, while doing research for a future blog, I came across an interesting tidbit about Susan Rice. Seems she was on the National Security Council during Bill Clinton's second term. And, yes, she was there when Bill Clinton failed to give the order to rescue our guys during Black Hawk Down. And following that tragedy, again born from Presidential negligence, Susan Rice was quoted as saying "Following the Somalia tragedy I vowed that I would never again allow such tragedy to go unpunished. In every instance like that I would call for dramatic action."

So, isn't it interesting that Susan Rice was forced to trot out to those Sunday morning news shows in 2012 and toot the "company line"...that Benghazi was the result of a anti-muslim video!

I would remind you that Susan Rice had been designated by Obama to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. However, after the storm that erupted after those Sunday morning news show appearances she withdrew her name from nomination....she knew she would never be confirmed by the Senate.

So, if you were pissed at Susan Rice, you'd be wise to look elsewhere. Round up the usual suspects because it was Obama and Hillary who were the real bad guys....Susan Rice just happened to die for their sins...on a Sunday morning.  She has not been on television since.

Happy Thanksgiving!

                                                                   

Just as Christmas is not "just Christmas", but a panorama of all the Christmases of your lifetime, Thanksgiving Day is not just a day that falls on the fourth Thursday of the month. Thanksgiving is a celebration of all your Thanksgivings past. From the moment you commit to lugging a 20 pound bird from the grocery freezer to home, you're immersed in memories of every Thanksgiving of your life, every food laden table that you've sat down to, every family fight over a turkey leg or a wishbone, every loved one you've ever shared Thanksgiving with.

Thanksgiving is to unashamedly eat until you are as stuffed as the turkey...without a care about calories or cholesterol. And, on those rare occasions when either Dallas or Detroit has a decent team, you might even enjoy the Turkey Day football game....between long "tryptophan" naps...that natural sleep aid in the bird that causes you to snore and slobber with pumpkin pie breath while lounging in the middle of the living room floor.

But Thanksgiving is also about taking a moment to be thankful for what we have, no matter how humble our home, or the year our dinner wine was bottled. 

And it should also be a reminder of how much this country has given of her bounty. We have fed and medicated much of the world for nearly a century now. We have given the gift of freedom to tens of millions of the world's people. And, thank God, even these days, millions of Americans will fan out into their communities, and serve Thanksgiving dinners in homeless shelters (and wash the pans after)...millions more will deliver Turkey dinner boxes to homes who might be without a dinner otherwise. So, we should be thankful that there exists, even in our current societal turmoil, deep goodness in millions of hearts.

And, happily, from the first scent of sage from the kitchen, our memories travel back in time when we shared the holidays with our dearest ones....family and friends now departed, or those too far away to travel home for the holiday.

And let's not forget the thousands of our military who are deployed on foreign soil for this holiday. Let's remember them, and be thankful for them. We need not feel too sorry for them, though. I've sat for Thanksgiving dinner in a chow hall with a thousand men and the spirit of the holiday still reigns supreme, even that far from home...because we were sharing dinner with a thousand "brothers". Whether is it Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings, or Turkey Tetrazini in a chemically heated foil pouch on a craggy outreach in Afghanistan, we always knew to be thankful to be an American.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful For Compassion

                                                                     

Thankful For Compassion

Earlier this month I wrote about our local Valley View Community Food Bank and their perilous financial situation. Food donations have simply not kept pace with the demand. Of all the local food banks, Valley View has always been the most proactive in trying to raise funds to feed the poor. The one here in Sun City has taken a novel approach toward keeping their operation running. They leased a building in an old 70's era strip mall, with half of the building serving as the food bank, the other half as a thrift shop to raise money for store maintenance as well as buying food to supplement food donations.

Alas, just this past week Valley View has been forced to close down their Sun City operation. Their lease rent was $10,000 per month and they could not meet the payments. So Valley View is moving to nearby El Mirage and will occupy a smaller space for half the least rent.

I am saddened by this. More than 50% of Valley View's food donations were made to seniors right here in Sun City, seniors living on social security checks as little as $700 dollars per month. To comprehend that try to imagine paying property taxes and gas and electric bills and buying food and paying for your subscription drugs on $700 per month. And, as most of you know, the government has decided Social Security recipients don't get a pension increase this year because "there was no inflation"...(try telling that to anyone whose tried to buy meat this year, or eggs, or pay increased utility bills). In case after case seniors living on Social Security must decide between buying food or paying for their prescription drugs.

So, the Valley View Community Food Bank was providing an essential service to seniors here. And while many of them could previously hop in their golf cart and motor down to the food bank, they'll no longer be able to do that at the new location. And since Valley View food bank simply can't afford to make home delivery there was a real chance many of our seniors would go without a Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Happily, just this past weekend, the Director of Valley View has decided he simply can't abandon those old folks. So, though the food bank is no long in operation, he's boxing up Thanksgiving dinners and will haul them over to a parking lot in Sun City and will distribute them on Wednesday. 

Don't know what the old folks will do for Christmas dinner, or for the rest of the year, but Valley View is making sure they have a Thanksgiving dinner. Bless their heart. I'm most thankful this year that we still have people who care about other people.

Obama's Revised History

                                                                         

Obama said that, if it were up to the GOP, we'd be fighting seven wars.  How insightful!

I would argue that five of those wars belong to Obama.  Barry's done a masterful job blaming Afghanistan and Iraq on George W.  

But the power vacuum Obama has created through his praise of all those "Arab Springs" belong to him alone....a power vacuum every bit as impressive as the parting of the Red Sea!  Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are all Barry's babies!  And Putin's invasion of The Ukraine was met with stone cold silence by The Community Organizer!

No matter, as Demorats will do, Barry will re-write history as he leaves the White House and sets off on his multimillion dollar lecture tour.

And we'll all be under societal assault by 30 million illegal Mexicans and untold numbers of Muslims imported just for the occasion!

And the National Black Caucus in Congress will still be introducing legislation to fund an Obama head up on Mt. Rushmore!  

Sad.  Damned Sad.

The Golden Arches No Longer Golden

                                                                       

Just read on Yahoo News that the McDonalds franchises are rebelling at the corporate mandated "all day breakfast" thing.  Franchise owners say kitchen workers are stumbling all over each other, trying to prepare both breakfast and lunch or dinner items.

Sigh.

McDonalds simply doesn't get it.  Let me illustrate.  A few months ago McDonalds announced that they'd be tacking on an extra ounce to their quarter pounder patty, and would toast the bun a few seconds longer.  So I went down to Micky D's and tried em out.  Still the same old untoasted bun, with a cold slice of cheese resting on top of a tasteless hamburger patty.  That was it for me.

You know, McDonalds knows what they need to do to improve product and service; they simply refuse to do it.  They need to just copy the In N Out Burger model...hire good people, pay them a little more, motivate them into preparing hot, fresh burgers and fries (no microwave or warmers allowed) and they'll have customers galore.

McDonalds simply won't do it.  Now the rather pampered franchise owners, in the past simply content to draw customers from a simple look at that big golden arch, cannot cope with changing customer tastes.  (How can Jack in The Box serve breakfast all day without complaint?  How can Chik Fil A win every customer service award?)

McDonalds has yet to learn that being a big behemoth does not guarantee your survival...just look at Kmart and Sears to see the truth of that statement.

So, what once was the "golden franchise" is now not.  Carl Jr's can make a better burger, so can Culver's.  And In N Out is still the standard that all should aspire too.  McDonald's won't, doesn't give a shit....and neither do I.

No Tricolors For Me

                                                                     

Pardon me if I don't overlay the French Tri-Colors over my profile picture.  While I sympathize with the killing of innocents, the French nation itself has not been much of an ally to this nation.

I would remind you that France, after our having saved them in both World War I and World War II, in 1966 France pulled out of NATO.  That's the appreciation they showed for our efforts in two World Wars.

I would also remind you that it was France who got us into the Vietnam War.  As they tried to hold on to Vietnam, a nation they had colonized and exploited and abused her peoples, they asked and got our help in that effort.  And when it came to our involvement in that war it was France who walked away and refused to send troops to support SEATO's efforts to stop the spread of communism in the region.

And while France re-joined NATO in 2009, as soon as they lost four French soldiers, France pulled out their combatant forces and left it to us to battle Al Quaida.

Finally, France, Britain and now Germany have opened up their borders to hundreds of thousands of Muslims...and they have suffered for it.  How many terrorist attacks, how many British, France and German innocents have lost their lives to terrorist attack?  How many more Muslim con caves in those lands will insist that the West surrender their own religious and societal values and bow down to Islamic law?

And, sadly, we have a President who has coddled radical Muslims, even refuses to utter the words "Radical Islamic Terrorism", intends to allow more than 200,000 more Muslims into America...without regard to their religious intolerance, or even their terrorist backgrounds.

Sorry, folks.  I can mourn those killed in yesterday's attack, but I'll be damned if I'll post the Tri-Colors....those colors have run yellow when we most needed their help.

George Bush was right when he said after 9/11, "you're either with us or against us".  The time has come to get tough with radical Islamic terrorists.  No more simpering, no more tricolors painted on our face, no more tricolors lighting the top of the Empire State Building, and no more offering excuses for any Muslim who will not tolerate our religions and customs and values.

Until we have a President who will prosecute a war against terror, and until America wakes up and recognizes the threat, we will not be safe in our own land.  Yesterday the French got a taste of radical nastiness.  Will it wake them up?  Well, America went back to sleep after 9/11 so I'm not very hopeful.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

The Healing Wall

                                                                     

In 1979 America decided to build a memorial for the more than 58,000 Vietnam veterans who would never come home.  Bids went out for America's most prominent architects to submit their designs for the memorial.  More than 1,400 designs were submitted. When the Memorial designs were ready they installed all of them out in a large aircraft hangar at a nearby Air Force base.  The names of each designer was removed, each one tagged with just a number.  The judging panel selected #1029.

The winning entry was designed by a 21 year old Chinese-American girl named Maya Lin.  As a child she was something of a loner, had few friends, loved her school studies, and spent most of her free time sculpting images in bronze.  She was a student at Ohio University when she heard about the call for the design of the Vietnam Memorial.  In preparation for her submission she imagined, then discarded dozens of ideas for the memorial.  Finally, she pondered the names of all of those thousands of vets who had given their lives for the war....and her mind conjured up the image of a violent black slash in the ground, representing the pain and loss of war.

When Maya's submission of that long black wall was announced as the winner Americans exploded in anger.....it didn't resemble any of the other war memorials and critics savaged the young girl...both for her design, as well as her ancestry.  Ross Perot called her an "egg roll" and the Secretary of the Interior refused issue a building permit for that 3 acres just north of the Lincoln Memorial.

Yet the wall was built as designed.  And, over the years, millions of Americans have visited the wall, including hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans who walk along the Wall, longer than a football field, and bow and touch the names of their comrades who gave their life for that war.  The Wall is in two sections, each one rushing to join each other at an elevated summit, the two sections coming together meant to represent the healing of a wound.

The Vietnam Wall has since come to mean so much to so many.  Wives and Mothers and Fathers, sisters and brothers, and brothers in arms and other loved ones visit the wall, leaving flowers just beneath the name of the lost loved one.  They bring paper and crayon and take rubbings of their dear one's name.

When Vietnam vet John Devitt, of Stockton, California came to the inauguration of the memorial he was awed by the healing nature of the memorial.  He vowed to start a traveling wall, a smaller version of it, and take it around the country so that everyone would have a chance to touch the name of a loved one lost in that war.  And still today that traveling wall makes its rounds around America.

The Vietnam Memorial Wall is now one of the most popular war memorials in all of America.  It seeks, and has succeeded in healing old wounds...in finally recognizing bravery and courage for those who lost their lives, and a late "welcome home" for those for whom no hero's welcome, no parades, no "welcome home" was ever expressed by the American people.

Today, 13 November, marks the 33rd Anniversary of the opening of the Vietnam War Memorial.  How wise and wonderful were the imaginings of a 21 year old Chinese-American girl so long ago.

                                                               

Heroism; No Expiration Date

                                                                 

Okay, Veterans Day has come and gone.  But, surely you can hear one more story.

On January 17th, 2010, a group of military vets defied all the world aid bureaucrats, and all official warnings, and deployed into Haiti and began to immediately provide medical aid and bring food and water to hurricane victims.  These vets were in there before UN aid workers, before FEMA, before anyone.

"When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon at the head of his legions and marched on Rome, it marked a point of no return. The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has since survived in reference to any group committing itself to a risky course of action. On January 17th, 2010, despite government and large aid organization's advice not to proceed, Team Rubicon members crossed the Artibonite River separating the Dominican Republic and Haiti, carrying crucial gear and medical supplies to the people of Port-au-Prince. Once across, they were irrevocably committed to their task. Hence the name: Team Rubicon"

This small band of rescuers, Team Rubicon, has now grown as an organization...they now number in the thousands, all military vets who, having forced to transition from a "values-based" organization like the military into "for profit" business jobs, have found something lacking in their lives...the need to continue to serve their communities as well as folks all around the world suffering from a natural disaster.

                                                   

Team Rubicon has, in the past two years alone, deployed to natural disaster sites around the world.  Their motto is "bridge the gap"...fill the void between disaster and the time governments and relief organizations can gin up their aid operations.

And these valiant vets have been there, in Africa, in Haiti, in Joplin, Missouri following a tornado, anywhere where folks are sitting stunned by death and loss.   And where they're not providing emergency relief for disaster victims, they're rebuilding homes for disaster vets and joining Habitat for Humanity to build homes for folks who've never owned one.

One of the greatest challenges for those who leave the military is trying to fit what you did in the military to a civilian resume.  How does one convince a Human Resource Manager that you can "do the job?"  How much does loyalty count?  How many points do we get for courage?  For honor?  For guys used to putting in 20 hour duty days?  Sadly, most business folks just don' t get it.  They don't understand that we managed budgets, that at the age of 25 we supervised a hundred people, that "mission", whether it be taking that hill, or capturing "market share" is well within our capabilities to achieve.

So, hundreds of thousands of us come home, and we apply for a job, and we fill out our resumes, and we don't get the job because we don't have a degree in business.  Too bad.  Businesses turn away some of the greatest leaders they could ever hope to find.

So Team Rubicon was born.  Their mission and their work provides that "values-based" work that is sorely missed by vets when they leave the military.

                                                          

And who is better at responding to chaos...a FEMA bureaucrat..or someone who has known the fog of war...who lives with chaos every hour of every day?

So, relax America....your military AND your ex-military are on the job.  If you're a victim of a flood, or an earthquake, or a hurricane or a tornado, or if someone's building you a house, or repairing one, don't be surprised if the first help you see are wearing those gray T-shirts with Team Rubicon emblazoned across their chest.

A Not So Happy Veterans Day

                                                                   

Before this day is out 22 veterans will have committed suicide.  By Christmas 6,500 veterans will have taken their life this year alone.  Sadly, a recent VA study says this number may be much higher; they don't count those vets who froze to death under a highway bridge, or on a park bench.

These deaths are so very hard to understand for those who've never served in a war zone.  The only civilian equivalent that I can think of is for you to imagine you enter the gates of Disneyland and immediately begin sidestepping concussion bombs on Walt Disney Way,  or having a sniper firing at you from Frontierland.  

But, it gets even worse than being exposed to danger....it is the toll taken for a soldier's own role in the violence of war.  Too many times the damage isn't recognized until that soldier comes home and tries to integrate back into society.

An excerpt from one soldier's suicide note:

I am sorry that it has come to this.

The fact is, for as long as I can remember my motivation for getting up every day has been so that you would not have to bury me. As things have continued to get worse, it has become clear that this alone is not a sufficient reason to carry on. The fact is, I am not getting better, I am not going to get better, and I will most certainly deteriorate further as time goes on. From a logical standpoint, it is better to simply end things quickly and let any repercussions from that play out in the short term than to drag things out into the long term.

You will perhaps be sad for a time, but over time you will forget and begin to carry on. Far better that than to inflict my growing misery upon you for years and decades to come, dragging you down with me. It is because I love you that I can not do this to you. You will come to see that it is a far better thing as one day after another passes during which you do not have to worry about me or even give me a second thought. You will find that your world is better without me in it.

I really have been trying to hang on, for more than a decade now. Each day has been a testament to the extent to which I cared, suffering unspeakable horror as quietly as possible so that you could feel as though I was still here for you. In truth, I was nothing more than a prop, filling space so that my absence would not be noted. In truth, I have already been absent for a long, long time.

My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day, every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again. Now, to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing.

Sadly, our politicos, and the numbers crunchers can break down the costs of a thousand tanks, a million rounds of ammunition...and even how many "meals, ready to eat" will be needed this year in Afghanistan.  And they can tote up the costs of combat pay, and even project how many artificial limbs will be needed next year.  But all those number crunchers simply cannot comprehend the costs of war to the human psyche.

So, as we pause today to honor our veterans, let us stop to think about the "real" burden the veteran carries each and every day.  If you run into a vet today thank him for his service.  But let us also understand that the war doesn't end when a veteran comes home.  

The recent VA scandal brought home just how badly our vets are neglected.  As the news emerged Americans were rightly outraged.  And that national outrage spurred our Commander In Chief and Congress to allocate more funds towards veterans care, and reform of the VA system.

And yet, as we always do, as soon as the outrage dies down, the veteran is soon again given the short end of the stick.  Case in point; President Obama, in his recent budget, cut $4 billion dollars from the VA budget.....the savings to be used to provide benefits to tens of thousand Muslim immigrants fleeing the Middle East.

Our politicians will never face up to the real costs of war.  Let's hope we, the American people do...and not let our politicians sweep the veteran's plight under the rug.

A not so happy Veterans Day.

When Giving Is Just A Pain In The Ass

                                                                   

Two weeks ago our local paper reported that our local Vally View Community Food Bank may be forced to close its doors. Demand is high and donations are not matching the demand.

Valley View Food Bank, I thought, had a pretty smart idea. They located themselves in a an old strip mall, to keep costs down. In one side of the very large building they run a thrift shop, on the other, the food bank. Any profits from the thrift shop goes toward paying lease rent and buying bagging supplies and such, with any left over to buy additional non-donated food in bulk. Alas, again, Valley View is not making enough to meet their lease costs and associated supplies.

So they took their enterprise one step further. Outside, in the parking lot, they set up a row of tables and offered a large supply of fruits and veggies...whatever would fit in a 2.5 foot square veggie bin....and charged ten dollars for it. For that ten dollars a shopper gets ten pounds of potatoes, a large bag of carrots, a 2lb bag of Asparagus, a head of iceberg lettuce, a head of cabbage, four cucumbers, a small basket of Roma tomatoes, a five pound bag of pinto beans, a bag of turnip greens, five pounds of apples, five pounds of oranges and a five pound bag of onions.

                                                          

So, this morning, I drove over to donate some clothing and household items. As I started to pull into a parking slot two Black ladies in a late model Cadillac Escallade cut in front of me and took the spot. Big deal, I had to walk an extra ten feet to the front of the store.

So I took my donations into their thrift shop, then came back out of the store. And I stood and watched as those same two Black ladies were giving that poor volunteer at the vegetable market pure hell for charging $10 bucks for that huge vegetable and fruit package.

The volunteer was trying to explain that the ladies could go into the food bank and get food and meats but that these bulk vegetables and fruits were being sold to support the associated costs of operating the food bank. The two ladies weren't having it; "Ah already been in the food bank and ah already got the stuff in there...why you be SELLING this stuff! You'se gets this stuff for free and now you be ripping people off!"

I just shook my head and walked to my car, not feeling good at all...just feeling sick to my stomach. The "entitlement generation" is alive and well! Geesh!

"If You Build It They Will Come"

                                                                   

"If You Build It, They Will Come"

Yesterday my sweet old classmate friend, Jo, posted a request to describe our day.  I wrote "spontaneous"...and it was.  

I awoke at 5AM yesterday morning, put on the coffee, grabbed a cup and walked out into the backyard.  Coffee cup in hand, I stood there in the morning chill, admiring that golden egg shaped moon and listened to the train whistle as it made its way west, following Highway 60 like a puppy follows its mama.

Coffee finished, I returned to the house, plopped into my chair, fired up the computer and began reading the news....accounts of man's overnight savagery to man, of political analysis (slanted each way, depending on the writer's own political views) and crime reports and the latest doings of the Kardashians and Biebers and Taylor Swift.  

As the morning wore on that peaceful bout of serenity out in the early morning faded away and the small irritants of life replaced it, kinda like the grains of sand that get in your shoe no matter how much you shake them out.

So, I jumped in the car and went out to run some errands.  And the day was absolutely perfect....temperature in the high 70's...no need for the air conditioner....you just lowered both front windows and let the cool morning breeze flow in to cool your brow.

So, I headed over to Glendale, intent on finding a little health food store that sold a low carb bread I wanted to try.  I drove east, toward 75th avenue, then turned south.  Just as I got near Bethany Home Road I was pleasantly surprised to come upon an island of serenity amidst the urban sprawl.  The "island" of serenity was called Tolmachoff Farms, one of those "still working" farms that Arizona, and particularly Phoenix, is famous for.

I had read about Tolmachoff Farms but had never been there.  The family farm has been in operation for four generations in Glendale and, unlike so many who sold their farms to developers, the Tolmachoffs were hanging on to theirs for awhile more.  

When I neared the place I quickly saw how they were doing it.  They operate a fruit and vegetable stand.  Big beefy tomatoes and cucumbers and whatever vegetables and fruits are seasonal.  And then, for autumn, the pumpkins and gourds are on prominent display.

                                                               

And on this day, yellow school buses were dispensing children out that front folding front door like Peds candies, the chldren whooping and hollering with the excitement of a school field trip....a ride on a pastoral time machine..back to a time and a place where most of their grannies and great grannies awoke early to feed the goats and the pigs and the horses before going off to a one room school house.

And the Tomachoff's, perhaps in some last gasp effort to hold on to a way of life, have built that time machine for child and adult alike to bask in for a few hours.  

They've altered it a bit....they've laid out corn mazes and bike tracks and bouncy houses and tractor pulled kiddie cars.  But the animals are still there; the horses and goats and baby pigs.  And, while the pumpkins are not as pretty as the ones you get in the grocery store, there "home-grown" and you pluck them yourself and how much better is that!

When I got ready to leave, I stood by the car and looked all about me.  In the distance I could see the urban sprawl, the cookie cutter houses surrounding this small island of farmland, a 360 degree panorama of urban clutter, with the Tolmachoff Farm seemingly "circling the wagons" in a last stand against modern "progress".

As I got back in the car I marveled that the morning breeze was blowing back the sounds of the distant freeway traffic, back upon itself, so that all I could hear in the cool late morning were squeals of joy and laughter of little kids, delighted at finding the right pumpkin for the front porch, elated at being able to pet the goats and baby pigs and horses in the corral, and of giggles as they made their way through the corn maze.

And, as mother nature often recycles her moments, I regained the serenity of that early morning cup of coffee out in my backyard, hours ago.  

And I was not alone....the folks out on the grounds of the farm this delicious morning were seeking their own little patch of serendipity...a little time traveling back to an age when man was a bit less savage, when the world was a simpler and perhaps happier place.

"If you build it they will come....for it's money they have but peace they lack".....

The Clinton's White Hot Hate of Our Military

                                                             

Last week, during Hillary Clinton's testimony on Benghazi, she screwed up and laughed when asked about the night four brave Americans died.  She was asked where she was that night and, somehow thought it was funny.  Then, last Friday, on an interview at MSNBC, Hillary Clinton said the VA Scandal was overblown, even in the face of all those vet deaths because they couldn't get an appointment to see a doctor.

I'm not surprised by this...the Clintons have always hated the military.  Their hate developed early as Hillary and Slick Willie demonstrated against the Vietnam War on their Ivy League campus.  Bill was there because he had managed to escape the draft, first by signing up for the Arkansas National Guard, then withdrawing his papers when his draft number didn't come up.

And who can forget those poor troops whose helicopter went down in Somalia.  When Black Hawk Down occurred Bill was on the golf course.  According to testimony by the military folks who managed the emergency phones, when the request came in to mount a rescue Bill erupted in angry vulgarity and refused to authorize a rescue until after his golf game was over.  By that time it was too late for some of those troops.

                                                     

So, I'm not surprised or shocked about Hillary's callous comments about the VA scandal, nor her total disregard for those dozens of security requests from Benghazi.

Do you really want a vagina for President so bad that you'll elect this kind of Commander in Chief?  Haven't we already seen how screwed up the world is with the awful one we've got now?

Cruz-Rubio 1-Liberal Mainstream Media 0

                                                                 

Well, boys and girls, if you watched the Republican Debate last week you watched a classic example of how the liberal mainstream media manages your perception of political candidates....always to denigrate Republicans and promote the "Dimocrats".  

Don't know how many of you know last night's panel moderators, because they are largely on NBC's finance channel.  But, I know John Harwood very well from his financial reporting...and he's a liberal through and through, always praising Obama and criticizing anything the Republicans propose.  And Becky Quick is married to an NBC producer, and we all know where NBC stands on politics; their MSNBC is nothing but a propaganda machine for Obama.

So last night that panel of media libtards started right off with the same old questions that were asked at the last debate...questions that were intended to damage a candidate.  The moderators seemed to have no interest in asking anything new.  And, their liberal bias clearly shown through....they even resorted to quoting previously printed hit pieces.  Becky Quick was embarrassed when she couldn't quote a source for a hit piece on Donald Trump. When The Donald said the hit piece quote was untrue, Becky asked Trump where her own quote came from!  The Donald responded "hey, it's you people that write this stuff!".

And John Harwood had to post a post debate Twitter entry apologizing for accusing Marco Rubio that his tax plan was aimed at the wealthy.  Rubio corrected him repeatedly and Harwood just kept insisting he was right.  After the debate Harwood finally decided to do his homework....homework that should have been done BEFORE the debate, then apologized for being wrong.

I thought the best lines of the night were when Ted Cruz jumped all over the moderators for trying to stage a "cage fight" among the candidates, sending the audience into raucous agreement.  Then Rubio said Hillary Clinton had the biggest "Super Pac" of all; the liberal mainstream media, which again sent the audience into howls of agreement.

Those moderators massively failed last night.  First, they lost control of the debate in the first minute.  Secondly, they were so obviously biased with their questions that they lost all hope to appear objective.

Even with the Rubio and Cruz media slams I thought the candidates missed a couple of huge opportunities to roast the liberal press.  I would have asked why these media types chose to roast the Repubs with their questions but not once did any of them asked Clinton in her debate how she lost track of that $6 billion of State Department funding, or about the Clinton foundation's corruption....or even, God forbid, why she refused to provide security for those four dead Americans.  

I think the American people learned far more about the liberal mainstream media than they did about the candidates last night.