Christmas....a week before Halloween

                                                                         

Well, last Friday, the 27th of October, the two Hallmark Channels began showing Christmas movies.  That is all time early....they used to start streaming movies the day after Halloween.  I guess the world is a bit scary these days so at least some folks want to zip through Halloween as quickly as possible.

Now, just in case you'll be out on a turkey shoot, or Black Friday (or Monday) Christmas shopping, or interning with ole St. Nick up at the pole, let me brief you on the two basic plots for these movies.  Young lady has boyfriend, except he's a jerk, she learns he's a jerk two thirds through the movie, then finally yields to the handsome, saintly stud whose been following her around for the whole movie.

The second scenario (and these are the most prominent) involves the story of either a single mom, or single dad who has given up on Christmas, upon which, at the most opportune time, a great spouse candidate comes along and saves the day.

In each of those scenarios the key players will kiss only at the end of the movie....and never end up in bed as normal healthy people would be.   Naturally those fatherless or motherless children fall for the new mom and dad like a crack addict with the next hit in hand.

Don't get me wrong; I love Christmas movies, and Hallmark runs two months of them.  But I readily admit that I really have to suspend belief when watching at least of half of this holiday fare.  For example, can you imagine how many men and women had to die for these scenarios to come to fruition?  And, by necessity they have to die young.  I mean, no one's going to watch a movie about two silver-headed sixty-somethings finding love under the Christmas tree!  The "surviving spouses" in these Christmas movies have to be at their peak of "hotness" in order to rope in the millions of American women who are watching....and fantasizing about hubby Albert, beer belly and all, kicking the bucket so they can be one of these Christmas widows!  And may I finally add, since half of American women these days breed without benefit of marriage, why even go to the trouble of killing off perfectly healthy 30 year olds?  I think American women ought to be used to the idea of single motherhood, since half of them feel no need to have an honest to god father in the house.  And, thanks to the American taxpayer, many of them are living just fine without a two-income household!  (Pardon my "scrooge-ness" there at the end).

So, now you know.  Don't worry about missing one of these movies while you're out trick or treating with the kids.  Not only are the plots fairly predictable, but, if you miss it, you'll have a chance to catch it again during the 2nd to 12th showing!

You're welcome.

Pay No Heed Of The Man Behind The Curtain

                                                                       

Do you remember watching The Wizard of Oz as a child?  Remember the scene where the trio are finally swept into the lair of the Great Oz, then tremble at the frighteningly powerful image of The Oz ranting up there on the screen before them?  Then, Toto the dog runs over and nabs a bit of the curtain over at stage right and peels curtains away, revealing a mortal man, far less certain, far less commanding than the image up there on the screen?

The Inmates In Charge of The Asylum

                                                                 

None of us should be surprised that NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodall has caved in to the "knee-benders". Last week the NFL announced that they will not enforce their own rule about standing respectfully at attention while our national anthem is played and our colors displayed.

No surprise America itself, over the last three decades, have "taken a knee"...., surrendering their children to the "it takes a village folks" who insist corporal punishment is a sin, who dictate that our children must be indoctrinated into a liberal mindset where safe spaces and blue ribbons for participation is the norm.

And, with respect to our own national defense, Americans at large no longer serve in our armed forces. Our military today is made up from only 1% of the populace...to many just paid mercenaries who command no allegiance, where the American flag represents nothing...except as a symbol to be burned to piss of the right wingers.

We've even surrendered to that "oh so out of favor" puritan work ethic that once drove us to political and economic world prominence.........work being another object of disdain by those who grew up with a green check and a food stamp card.

We have surrendered all of those things in favor of our cinematic icons, and politicians who promise us more and more.....all charged to a credit card with a $40 trillion dollar credit limit.

Just read a news report that the "knee-benders" will not drive down attendance, nor viewership, as most Americans just don't care as long as they can continue to watch O'Bell Beckham cat squat, raise a hind leg, and piss on the end zone. Even Fox Sports had proclaimed they'll protect their ratings by not showing the national anthem at all.........that's one more two minute segment so that they can show commercials about Budweiser honoring illegal immigrants and Coke telling us that everyone is special....and America is not.

All I know is that the NFL will have one less viewer this year.........me. I won't be there when Coke is telling America that they really aren't very special....the same message the knee-benders are conveying when Old Glory makes an appearance.

"Pie Fight"

                                                                         

Note: I'm already forced to making an exception to my pledge not to post anything political on FB. I believe what I'm about to post is essential information that everyone needs to know about. And, if it's good enough for my FB friends it is certainly good enough for my loyal blog readers.

The headlines in today's (Friday) Washington Post and New York Times are screaming out "Republicans Muscle through $4 trillion dollar budget. They then go on to say that Congress will be kicking old and sick people to the curb and giving tax cuts to the rich. Let me cite a few facts here for you to ponder.

1) Next year's budget will indeed be $4 trillion dollars. That's an increase over last year's $3.6 trillion....most of the increase in spending coming from Obamacare costs which are just beginning to kick in now.

2) The Republican Budget does indeed call for $480 billion in cuts to Medicare spending over the next ten years. That equates to $48 billion dollars per year over the next decade. Those cuts seem rather dramatic, until you learn that the Medicare budget is currently more than $500 billion dollars per year. So, in essence, Congress is proposing that we find just ten percent of the massive fraud, waste and abuse in that program. (How about we start by stopping the Russian Mafia who conned Medicare out of more than $300 million in false claims in the last three years! Or how about we stop funding penis pumps for our elderly! And does everyone oldster really need a mobility scooter just because they qualify for one?) I don't believe any of our elderly will even feel that ten percent cut as much of the savings will come from pressing hospitals to quit charing $50 dollars for a Tylenol tablet.

3) The Republican budget also calls for even bigger cuts in Medicaid....about $40 billion in annual cuts to a Medicaid budget that, at more than $380 billion a year, is now approaching what we spend for the elderly on Medicare. Again, most of the Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse comes from phony claims as well as an overly generous Obamacare program that prevents doctors to even charge a co-pay to Medicaid participants.

4) While the Democrats are up in arms about cuts to Medicaid and Medicare not one of them will explain what we do when funds for Medicare and Medicaid are depleted in 2029 when, according to the non partisan Office of Management and Budget, the last dollar is spent from the program's coffers.

5) Two other programs schedule for cuts include both the Food Stamp program (which quadrupled under Obama..with a third of the entire nation on food stamps) and the Assistance To Needy Families programs. Republican tied work requirements to both programs...asking that folks who get money for the two programs at least work as a community volunteer...in schools, or cleaning up our parks, or other necessary community work in order to earn taxpayer money.

6) Yes, the Republicans did hike spending for the military...by some $97 billion dollars. This money is not only used to improve VA hospital care for our vets, but also to repair, upgrade and modernize defense systems which have suffered during the "Reconciliation Years" when no increases in defense was permitted.

And for those folks who draw up phony pie charts, you are fooling no one. Defense spending makes up only 16 percent of the entire federal budget, the lowest percentage of spending since before World War II...and about half what we spend on Healthcare.

7) As to Democrat charges that the wealthy get a break under the Republican budget, I would only remind you that, for decades now, the top ten percent of wage earners currently pay 90% of all taxes collected. Should they be asked to pay even more, as 47 percent of Americans pay not a dime....and collect all the benefits?

8) Finally, though the percentage has not been determined, the Republicans have budgeted for corporate tax cuts....most of it going toward small businesses who make less than $200,000 a year. Why not give those Mom and Pop outfits a tax break? After all, then generate 70% of all jobs in America! As for "big corporate", they currently pay corporate taxes at a 35% tax rate, which is why companies are moving overseas where, in Ireland, they pay less than half at 17%, and only slightly more than that in Britain and Germany. American businesses have not been playing on a level playing field for decades and it has cost the American worker most...in lost jobs.

9) Finally, (and this one ought to scare the hell out of you), last year the entire federal budget had only 9 percent of "non mandatory" spending. Of that 9 percent, 6% was allocated to paying the interest on our $20 trillion dollar national debt. And that interest was limited to 6% only because we have used the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates artificially low by buying up bonds....using "monopoly money" to pay for their purchases. You ought to know that the Fed is holding $6 trillion dollars in treasury debt that must be paid for eventually....and the only way they can do that is raise the federal interest rates to the 60 year average of 6%. Alas, when that happens (and it must!) we will be annually allocating 15 percent of all tax revenues...just to pay the interest on our national debt. And that's only if the Chinese keep holding the $2 trillion dollars in treasury bonds and not cash them in! If that happens we are all in deep shit.

FB friends, I'm sorry to bore you with this stuff. But I've spent a lot of time researching all this......all in an effort to make you aware of the facts...so that you can understand why, while the Republican budget is a tiny bit thrifty (not nearly enough) but is essential if we hope not to go the way of bankrupt Greece (Which, by the way, we exceed them in percentage of debt vs Gross Domestic Product.).

So, Im sorry to play Paul Revere once again, shouting through the streets that we're in trouble, but wouldn't you want to know when the enemy's at the gate and you're house is on fire?

(God, I hope at least some of you read this)

The Death of Carbon-Based Fuels Can't Come Soon Enough

                                                                       

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm no green freak.  I have frequently poked fun at the "eco-nazis" who militantly insist that we stop using oil and coal as energy sources.....now!  That's not only silly...it's impossible.

Still, as I awakened Monday morning, turned on the news and read of still another oil rig explosion, I was a bit nauseated.  That nausea was compounded as I read of Iraqi forces moving to take control of the Kurdish oil fields.  It has been exactly forty-four years now since oil has been used to fuel the world wide plague of extreme Islamic terrorism, Saudi Arabia the biggest oil producer, and the the biggest funder of those terrorist groups.  The Saudis have, in recent years, slacked off on that funding, given that many of those they once funded have to come back to bite them in the ass.

From an environmental standpoint, we've all been sickened by watching that oil sludge wash up on the shores of Louisiana and Florida.  Even the staunchest oil advocates must have had a stomach churning moment or two seeing that.

So, this morning we are seeing oil workers die and middle east sheiks fighting for the spigot.  And, down in Louisiana we are waiting with bated breath to see if we are going to see more nasty sludge wash up on  pristine shoreline.  I'm tired of it all.

While I know it will take many years for the world to ween itself off of oil, it can't some soon enough for me.  While a "Manhattan Project" level of national effort will be costly, I would remind folks that we've now spent trillions of the last two decades, battling oil-funded Islamic terrorists.  How many solar homes could we have built with those trillions?  How many communities could we have hooked up to the wind turbine grid with that kind of dough?  

The costs of a carbon based economy are enormous, in lost lives, in environmental disasters, and the rapidly diminishing quality of our air and water.  And yet we continue to move at a snail's pace.  I am not advocating for an immediate halt to carbon based fuels.  But we can certainly do better than we have to date.

The death of oil can't come soon enough for me.

"Who Likes Me Better?"

                                                                   

Well, Toys R Us has now declared bankruptcy.  If you shop there, don't get your panties in a bunch.  Before Toys R Us totally disappears they will go through several rounds of bankruptcy.  This first one will just be a means to pare down some debt by stripping stockholders of their equity, renegotiate some newer, higher interest loans, then plow on.

I can remember when Toys R Us was the "Nordstrom" for kids.  When my kids were young enough to be into toys I couldn't afford them.  But they certainly were the standard for kiddie retail.

Actually, I have no intention of talking about Toys R Us....only my "so what" reaction to the news.  You see, I have pretty much gone to war with corporate America.  To me, most of them are just retail whores that will do anything, forsake any measure of societal or corporate ethics, if it means an extra ten cents per share on their annual report.

I now take a new approach to corporate America.  I'm like the kid who rushes to his mother after she has declared that she loves a sibling.  I then rush to her lap and ask her if she "loves me more".  Admittedly the "loves me more" approach is poor ass one.  But, when that's all ya got, you go with what  works for you.

For example, I wanted to boycott Coke when they ran those open borders immigrant ads to please our 30 million illegal aliens.  Except that Pepsi is even worse.  I'd like to boycott my local Kroger owned grocery (cause they announced that the men and women's bathroom are interchangeable) but Safeway is just as bad.  I was successful in boycotting Target for their bathroom policy, because they really have nothing I wish to buy that isn't already available at a cheaper price in Walmart.

Because corporate America no longer demonstrate American loyalty, because they no longer champion traditional values, because they will lay off a thousand workers...just to boost their profit margins, I feel no loyalty for corporate America.

Perhaps the best example of how I must compromise my own principles to get along in America these days is Amazon.  While I don't agree with major stockholder and founder Jeff Bezos, on almost any political or social philosophy,  I shop Amazon all the time.  I have to....because there really is no alternative.  So, I justify my loyalty to Amazon by admitting that, though I don't like enriching those I disagree with, Amazon treats me well!  They offer me a more attractive price, they deliver it promptly, and if I have a problem with a purchase they'll take it back...and even pay for return shipping.  So, in buying from Amazon, I am saying "Amazon likes me better"...better than Pepsi, better than Coke, far better than Target.  Amazon "likes me enough" to treat me with respect as a customer...and if that's all I got, it has to be enough.

I would love to shop at companies that agree with my personal political philosophies.  I do visit Chik Fil-A occasionally, but I don't go out for fast food much.  And I admire Hobby Lobby for their strong religious stance, but there's nothing in that store that I need.  

In these years, when ethical conduct and morality and principle means so little, either in the private sector, or in business, I am forced to compromise, the boycotts few, because all you can really do is frequent the "most principled whore"...the one who will "like me better".

Sad.  Damned Sad.

Urban Blacks; America's "Fifth Column?"

                                                             

I wrote and published this blog two years ago.  It received very little comment, because, I suspect, even my loyal readers thought I had gone bonkers.  In light of what's happened since this was written, you might NOW find this essay prophetic, in light of recent events on the NFL fields across America.


A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group—such as a nation or a besieged city—from within. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.

The Establishment Summit

                                                                 

Last week, dear reader, from October 2nd through the 4th, Vanity Fair Magazine, that majestic masthead for liberal thought, conducted their annual Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit.  This year they are hosting the event in Beverly Hills, California.  In previous years they deemed their meeting place "the hive", meeting in San Francisco.

Those invited are the cultural icons considered to be the "cream of the crop".  This year we have billionaire moguls, Hollywood actors, pop music icons and studio chiefs.  Also attending are the giants of the liberal mainstream media.  Liberal politicians are invited, John Kerry being one of the latest bon vivants.  George Clooney too.  

The event is sponsored by Hennessy Cognac, whose spirits will be ever present in warmed glasses, and Wolfgang Puck will cater the event.  BMW also kicks in dough, and chauffeurs attendees here and there, so that they never have to mingle with the blue collar ilk.

So what are those summits about?  Well, they first meet and schmooze each other up really good.  Then they sit around and conjure up ideas for raising working class to a nirvana of educated thought.  As Liberal media takes careful notes, they exchange ideas as to how to end war forever, how to make solar and wind power affordable for the masses, how to redistribute America's wealth, how to garner sympathy for the Black Urban Thug, how to disarm the masses, then they propose ideas to convey their wisdom through the mainstream media and "messaging" their philosophies through various movies, to include Disney animation.  (The two gays kissing in the latest Disney was thought out at a previous summit....to show young people that homosexuality trumps heterosexuality...cause it doubles your chances to find a date).

                                                     

I understand that, on the fourth and final day, this select little group sits around, on yoga mats, and picks the people they'll demonize this year.  (We all know No. 1, right?)  

Following the formal proceedings they all gather in a circle and participate in a "group tug" as Caitlin Jenner performs Swan Lake in drag...in soft pink ballet slippers.

So now you know.

"Tender Mercies"

                                                                   

As Columbus Day breaks over America on Monday, the Occupy Crowd, the Black Lives Matter Crowd, the college air heads will all emerge from their "safe spaces"..to demand an end to Columbus Day.  These are the children of the 90's and 2000s who got blue ribbons for participation, who received an allowance from their daddies, just for not acting up, whose helicopter moms kept them sheltered from any of life's challenges.  And, in school, their liberal teachers would have had them well indoctrinated on the evil of our White founding fathers.

It is almost as if these generations have been sprinkled with meat tenderizer...so dainty and fragile, so easily offended, that they simply cannot live with an honest history.

This national fragility was not always so.  Consider Columbus and his crews themselves.  While every era has had its share of bat crazy people...perfectly willing to do crazy things...it still took plenty of pluck to climb on the decks of three tiny ships, then defy every cartographer of the day who said "there ain't nothing out there to the west".  

And while Columbus was wrong about a short route to the Indies, he did find land.  Nah, he never got even close to what we now understand as North America, at least he got in the neighborhood.  And if we can, for a moment, try not to judge those Spanish by today's standards, we could at least give them a little "street cred" for being courageous enough to explore under horrific conditions, scurvy, starvation and thirst being some of the least of them.

From that first sailing, a sailing that generally coincided with the Great Renaissance, the human family began to brave unbelievable challenges in order to better the state of the world.  Keep in mind that, only a century or so later, the western Europeans were trying to carve out basic survival in Massachusetts and Virginia.  Many died in both their successes and their failures.

And by the time our colonists finally achieved a foothold on the North American continent, they did so at the expense of their sweat and tears, and an infant mortality rate that would leave modern man dazed.  In New England they plowed the rocky fields, suffering one crop loss after another, learning as they went.  In the Southern colonies they battled malaria and the "dirty dozen" of the world's plagues, yet somehow survived.  And somehow they managed to suffer through the burial of at least half of their children, on average.  Tough people!

From Columbus' first visit, and for the next three centuries, Americans settled a continent, scored such an inventiveness that would change the world for the better, and achieved those things through an inner toughness that we cannot possibly conceive of today

Sadly, today, millions of fragile souls, seemingly marinated in the meat tenderizer of parental coddling, will venture out to demand that the name Columbus be removed from our museums and on public statues, old Chris suffering the same fate of our nation's founders.

But, Happy Columbus Day, for those who choose to remember.

"Put Me In The 'Hung Like A Horse' Category....Please"

                                                                   

This morning I called my broker and bought a hundred shares of Penguin-Random House Publishing, publisher of America's largest selling dictionary.  And my stock selection was based on a news report that came over the news wires this morning.  It seems that K-Mart is now discontinuing the use of "Plus Size" when describing women's clothing.  Apparently K-Mart has been getting hell from their customers over that term.  Instead, K-Mart will use the term "fantastic sized" for women's dresses that use more material than a five-man tent.

The Sad Passing Of A Human Bouquet

                                                                       

Just hours after the Las Vegas tragedy a CBS Television Vice-President hopped on Twitter to say she had no sympathy for the victims of the mass shooting.  Her reasoning?  They were country music fans and the majority of country music fans are Republican.

Of all the lessons we might have learned from Sunday night's tragedy, it ought to be how we dehumanize tragedy.  It's a perfectly natural thing, as despicable as that is.  The death of a neighbor two doors down might have a greater impact for you than a news report that 20 Marines were killed in Afghanistan this week.  By not putting a face on the victims, that CBS Vice President was able to place politics above a sense of humanity.

The problem with that is, the dead and the wounded and the dying are all human, with all the virtues and failings that all of us must own up to.  If we were to equate those victims to a flowers in a garden we find that some were lovely, some were less so, and some, like the shooter, were invasive weeds that one seeks to pluck in order to make room for more flowers.

Though we cannot personally know any one of the victims, as we see their faces, and as we learn about their lives, the immensity of the tragedy hits home.  Among the dead was a recent high school graduate...an honors student who challenged herself with advanced college classes, whose life was snuffed out before she ever had a chance to do great things.

When the shooting began a male nurse named Sonny climbed across his orthopedic surgeon wife, and took the hail of bullets so that she might live.  Other men did the same...gave their lives so that their mates might live.  

Included among the dead were off duty police officers, seeking joy and peace at a music concert, an escape from the everyday rigors of their jobs.  A young university student died, record clerks were slain.  School teachers seemed overly represented among the dead, their students shedding tears for the loss of folks who were toiling to guide and educate them through their growing years.

A local resident, working 9 to 5 to raise three young sons by herself died on those dark mean streets just off the strip.  Her co-workers mourned her, and said they will sorely miss her perpetual smile and boundless sense of happiness.

An off-duty police officer, and coach of a youth football team passed.  So did a young woman from Massachusetts, whose sister was so stunned by the death, she turned to bible passages to try and make sense of senseless death, desperately seeking comfort as one seeks a sip of water in the desert.  

A mother and daughter came to the concert, reveling in their mutual love for country music.  And, as the concert wrapped up, the 20 year old daughter was killed as her mother lay beside her.  One cannot conceive of the depth of sadness and despair that mother experienced.

All of those people were simply one of God's gardens.  A bouquet of His children snuffed out with the same cold and remote range of feelings that motivated a mad man to fire, and a CBS Vice President to claim they all deserved it.

Peace.

Spoiled Sports...Without An Ounce of Courage

                                                                     

Michael Bennett, a 6ft, 4 inch, 280 pound defensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks, loves to take a knee when the American flag appears, or when the first notes of the National Anthem is heard.  He hates cops, and he hates Whitey and he pretty much hates America.