Here is the difference

I refuse to let anyone define me. I am not my skin. I am not my religion. I am not my geography. I am not my politics. They may be part of me, but I am the person I choose to be. I want to be the best I can be. I make of my life what I dare. That is why nearly every religion recognizes we have free will.

I reject any label you put on me. My skin pigmentation makes me guilty of nothing but a collection of melanin cells dictated by generations of genetic code. My eyes are blue. So what?

Born rich or born poor or somewhere in the vast gulf between It matters not at all.  We are all given the same opportunity to make something of ourselves here in America. Sure, some have an easier path in life: but we all have a trail to the summit. All that holds us back is our will, our desire, our effort. The only label on my person is sewed to the collar of my T-shirt.

I am not naive. Some are born smarter, some with more athletic ability. Some are artists or musicians. I am not defined by my inability to dunk a basketball any more than the lack of funds in my bank account. Neither keeps me from working hard, or trying to be the best father I can be.

I am who I choose to be. I am not my hair, my eyes, my skin. I am not my political party. I am not my neighborhood. I am not my car, my house, my bank account, my school, my sports teams. I am what I define as me.

You have the same ability. .

Help me I think I'm falling

We got the outside lights and wreaths and stuff put up yesterday.  It was cold, but it could have been worse.  I got the big tree (8-1/2 ft) put up in the living room. It has lights but no decorations.  As soon as I summon the will, I am off to put up the smaller tree in the family room this morning. I suspect we will decorating both tonight when I get off work.  I hope the wife does it while I'm gone.  I don't mind decorating, but I don't like to put on the ornaments.

I was putting the boxes that hold the outside decorations back in the attic when I heard a loud "crack" and my ladder collapsed, throwing me to the ground. I fell flat on my back. It knocked the wind from my sails for a moment or two.  I'm a little sore today, but I think I'll live another day. Just earlier in the day the boy mentioned the old wooden step ladder was getting a bit wobbly. I think he hurt the old ladder's feelings, and she through me off and broke in a fit of suicidal desperation. I bought that ladder when we purchased our first house back in 1986.  I guess I got my money's worth. Still, I would have preferred to get rid of that old ladder in a less painful fashion.

Have a great Saturday. 

A brilliant post

Lost. A whole post full of bloggity goodness, sunshine, and the formula for perfect happiness -- all lost when my crappy first generation iPad did its usual crash just as I was wrapping up the post. I have neither the desire or ability to recreate my genius.  You will have to trust me it was the greatest thing you ever read.  I suppose it is for the best, nothing I could write going forward could be one half so brilliant.

I plan on climbing to the attic and dragging out the Christmas decorations today. I hope the boy will help me get them up before he heads back to college.

For some reason my crappy laptop will not let me watch or post YouTube videos. Huh? I don't know, I just use the dang thing.  Perhaps the tiny electronic elves that run the tiny movie projector inside the computer are on strike. Perhaps it is sunspots.  Maybe it is that the laptop cost $300 and is a piece of crap. Maybe you are sending bad vibes because you don't have any interest in the Friday Music selection anyway. I think that's it.  It is you fault. And probably because the laptop is junk and I have to update something or whatever.  I have been using my previously mentioned POS iPad for months to write this nonsense blog.

Anyway, here is a recommendation from our blog friend Hey Teacher for the Friday music. I have neither seen nor listened to the selection (see above and pay attention, will ya?). So if it's bad blame the teacher.  If you dig it, I should take the credit. I'm an ass like that. If you think I'm a jerk on the interwebz, you sure don't want to meet me in person.  But now back to our regular scheduled Friday Music program:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFU-FJzPE80

Have a great Friday

Ok I managed to listen on my iPad to the music.  I dig it. Funky. Thanks teacher.

I have plenty to be thankful for

Like the man says....


We are hosting Thanksgiving this year. The whole family (minus middle son who has to work Jeez people stay at home on this day so waiters can be with their families) will be at the old homestead. We rarely have visitors, so I am looking forward to the feast. Too bad it will be too inclimate to enjoy the backyard, one of the best features of the house in my book.

Anyway, I hope you have a great thanksgiving.  Take a minute to give thanks to the appropriate beings for the blessings in your life. Despite a few rough patches I have lots to be thankful for this year. I will offer a heartfelt prayer of thanks today.

Let me tell you...

...nothing, absolutely nothing, more demonstrates anger, fear, resentment, and a demand for justice than stealing a television or burning a barber shop.

Get up, Stand up

The perpetually aggrieved are calling for an embargo of Black Friday sales in protest of a lack of an indictment in the Ferguson police shooting. I guess because Macy's and Best Buy and WalMart and Target are somehow responsible for the Grand Jury verdict.  To further highlight the sheer stupidity of this protest one of the supporters of the embargo argued that not shopping on Black Friday would "show the government we demand justice".  Yes, and refusing to purchase a gift from a local small business hurts the Feds just as eating a donut for breakfast shows big cable companies how much we hate their lack of customer service. Perhaps next this moron will support a boycott of the NFL to protest the fur industry. We might see this mental giant waving a protest sign outside a Kroger food store to demand banking reform. Cause and effect is a difficult concept for some. I bet his Mom still lays out his clothes each morning now that gr-animals no longer fit.

On a second point, one day protests are meaningless anyway.  A few years ago economic morons routinely sent emails and called for an embargo of gas stations for a given day.  They laid out elaborate calculations of what the loss of sales for one day would do to ExxonBPMobileChevronEvilOil. Except it is nonsense.  You need gas, you will fill up the day before or the day after and spend the same dollars anyway.

Useful Idiots indeed. Milton Freedman and Adam Smith are weeping.

Things I learned today.

Facts are stubborn things.  Based on what I see on the news,  when one is not sure of the facts, when one has not heard from witnesses, when one does know the law, one should riot, loot, and burn other people's property.

I'm not sure how burning your own neighborhood fixes stuff though. Mayhap someone can explain.

It is time to bring them out of the shadows

The Federal, State, and local governments are in collusion to tear families apart. It is past time that we, as a nation, began to show the compassion and tolerance that is born of our freedom. An entire group of people are living and sometimes working in the shadows, walled-off from society by laws and policies that are tearing entire families apart. If Congress will not act, then I say the President must. Yes, I am talking about amnesty.  No longer should fathers be separated from children, mothers from sons, sisters from brothers.

It is estimated that more than two million people are incarcerated in the US. Though we have but 5% of the world population we have 25% of the prisoners. Yes, some of the people in prison are violent. they are killers, rapists, thugs of every description; but they are people too and deserve to be with their families, not locked in dark concrete cells. Prison tattoos and weight lifting are not a substitute for hanging with family and friends. Just because these individuals made a conscious decision to violate the law is no reason to punish them, to separate them from their families.  For the robbers, killers and Thieves who are hiding, unarrested, life is a nightmare, waiting every day for the shoe to drop when jackbooted authorities round them up and tear them from their crying children to be sent to a dank prison cell.  I cry "no more". It is time for comprehensive reform.

I say let's create a path to regaining their voting rights, and full participation in society -- owning guns, working, paying taxes or collecting welfare. It is time for Congress to act, we need comprehensive reform legislation to close these prisons, reunite families, create Democrat voters, for the children. Closing prisons will reduce greenhouse gases and slow the inevitable march to global warming and a mini ice age which will create overpopulation and starvation because the droughts and flooding will ruin crops. We must do it for the children, we can't raise them in a village when part of the village is locked away in prison.

Free them all -- killers and rapists and child molesters are people too. It is time the spent the holidays with their families free from fear.

Amnesty now.  Who is with me!?


This entire post was printed in sarcasm font which was created by the famed printer Jaques Leblow in 1693 in a remote village in the Patagonian Alps

A little of this, a bit of that

For the first time in ages I had an opportunity to sleep in this morning. Therefore, I woke up at 4:00 unable to go back to sleep. Such is life.

I have been neglecting the old blog recently. This commuting stuff is a big change in my life. Training for the new gig goes well, but slowly. I suppose the company wants to make sure I am up to speed before sending me out to woo customers. I think i could progress a little faster, but the man signs the check and you follow his schedule.

I am off later this morning to the part time job.  I am not sure how long it will last.  I am not supposed to be scheduled Monday through Friday -- it is a weekend only gig now that I have a real job again. Yet I am (unsurprisingly) scheduled to work Thursday and Friday this week. I won't do it. I may be fired, I may have to quit, or they might roll over, preferring to take advantage of my sales skills on the weekend as opposed to not there at all.  The choice is out of my hands, but I will not bend. I don't have to any more.

A bit of rain was falling earlier. It looks to be a warmer, yet wet weekend.  I thought about trying to get some of the outside Christmas decorations up this weekend (between long shifts at big box electronics store), but that will likely have to wait until next weekend.

Well, you are now up to speed on my most boring of lives.  Working 7 days a week leaves little time for hobbies, and while I love you guys, I do not love you enough to get up at o'dark thirty every morning to post to the old blog.  In fact, I think I will head off to visit Mr. Recliner and take a nap before heading off to work.

I hope you have a great saturday.  Me, I made other plans.

My five minute rebuttal

King Obama claims he is for the working man. King Obama says the Republicans are the party of big business. Yest in one fell swoop King Obama just pissed on the working man. 38 million Americans are out of work. The workforce participation rate is the lowest since the Great Depression and King Obama just created legislation that will help illegal immigrants get jobs easier.

This will lower wages, increase access to government benefits and encourage more illegal immigration. The Chamber of Commerce and business just got a larger pool of low-wage workers.

Where are the unions? Why aren't they complaining?  BOHICA working people of America King Obama and the Democrats just screwed you again.

How...

How did the Caesars come to rule Rome? There was a Senate for the entire period of the Empire. How do despots gain power? How is tyranny born? The people and their Representatives allow it to happen.  Megalomaniacs run for office, especially President. They become above the law. Incrementally the tyrant gains power because no one stops him.

Obama will announce tonight he will create Legislation from whole cloth against the will of the People, despite the empty protests of Congress and in clear violation of the Constitution.  The Courts will let it happen, claiming no one has standing to stop him.

And our freedom and our government will slip away one stroke of the pen at a time.

I weep for my soon-to-be-born grandchild.  She will witness the decline and fall of America as I know it, aided and abetted by a willing press, and politicians who only care about keeping their power, no matter how illusionary it has become.

Six years of study

Geez Democrats, you have been studying the XL Pipeline for six years.  How long do you need? Building a pipeline creates jobs,. The pipeline will help reduce our dependence on Middle east oil. It will help reduce energy costs.

For a party that supposedly is for the little guy the Democrats sure go out of their way to make life harder for us all.

Monday Commute

A mere couple inches of snow on the ground. Yet I know people will drive most stupid this morning. The result is I have to leave early for work.  Therefore, you get a short post with bad grammar.

Suck it up, you will be OK.

Ha

Take that beat down you Danny bastards. Six straight.

Good good good good intentions

...sung in the vein of a classic Beach Boys tune. I had every intention of going out early and raking leaves, but it is freaking 18 degrees outside. Eighteen.   I have plans for later today and I am scheduled to work Sunday at the part time gig.  I suppose I will have to get after it in spite of the cold, especially since we are supposed to get accumulating snow overnight.

Where did fall go?

Worst post ever

Today is a "choose your own adventure" Friday Music day. Listen to your favorite artist, play whatever is pinging away in your brain pan, find something new.  I have Supertramp in my skull this morning.  what suits your fancy?

The stupid party elected a RINO Senate majority leader.  Same crap from the Republicans --"please help us conservatives" then business as usual.  Once again we are Charlie Brown while the Lucys of the party yank away the football.  I'm sick of being screwed like a five dollar hooker. Whatever happened to the Whigs anyway?

Replacing the headlamp assembly on a VW Passat

Part of me wants to complain loudly about the unseasonable cold temperatures. But it is November and freezing cold is not unusual. Nor is a a warm spell unheard of.  It is called weather. I will drag out my winter coat and hope I don't have to scrape my windows this morning.

It is the little things in life that bring my joy. It probably escaped your attention, but I posted my veterans day tribute at 11:11. While pointing out my cleverness is decidedly crass, it does give me great pleasure.

I pounded down some boneless pork chops and fried some breaded tenderloins for supper last night. I made some scratch Mac and cheese a nuked some frozen corn ( I miss fresh corn cooked on the grill already) to round out the meal. The wife had a craving for pecan pie for dessert. She washed the pans and I dried, then I braved the cold to get her a store-bought pie and was rewarded with a kiss. I copped a feel through her shirt for good measure. After all, it was really cold out. She did not complain. She really wanted a piece of pecan pie.

Thank you

To all of those who have served in the US military past and present I offer a sincere, heartfelt THANK YOU.

Confused

Can anyone explain why, when Democrats win elections, it is viewed as a mandate, the will of the people to adopt their agenda. Yet when Republicans win it is just ...well whatever is the opposite of mandate. It is portrayed as extreme, and looked upon as an aberration by the media.

Why should the Repubs compromise to Obama's policies? The people have spoken. It is the President and the Democrats who must compromise.

Elections have consequences, right?

Minutiae

I have to go in to my part time job this morning at 11.  Yes, I am working two jobs for the time being. That is not a complaint, just a fact. Anyway, I was in my home office setting up my new laptop (from my real full-time job) on my home network. I glanced at the clock and realized it was 10:00. I still had to shower and drive to work. I packed everything up and then glanced at my phone to see when I got off work. The phone said it was only 9:00.  Ah, stupid time change last week.  I forgot to change my office clock.

I have not spent much time in there in recent months. Soon, though. As soon as my training time is up I expect to get back into routine of work and travel.  I have grown accustomed to telecommuting over the past two decades.  This working in a real office stuff is weird. All of those people. Wearing shoes. Showering every morning. Scheduled lunch times. Driving to work.

While I actually like the part time job, and especially the people I work with, I am looking forward to having my weekends off. Another month or so and I am free. Stupid bills.

Old blog friends

The wife and I enjoyed a rare movie night last night.  We went to see the Bill Murray film "St Vincent".  The movie was set in Sheepshead Bay and it brought to  mind my blog friend Erica. Hola Erica if you are out there. Erica hailed from that same Brooklyn area.

The movie was very good and Murray was terrific. We are talking an Oscar-worthy acting job.

Have a great Saturday. Me, I'm off to have the wife's car serviced.

Friday Music

It is harvest time.

Dear GOP

Please note:  if the voters wanted you to compromise and work with the Democrats they would have elected a Democrat.

Your friend,

Joe

Cheers

I am laughing only a little at the repudiation of the Obamites. I fully expect the stupid party to waste this opportunity and to go all out in the effort to piss off their base before 2016.

I love the Democrat talking heads in the media who proclaim the 2016 Senate is up for grabs because 23 Republican seats will have to be defended.  There must have been a memo.  I know this ploy.  As a Cubs fan the old "wait until next year" mantra has been my only consolation.

We will see if the next wave of Obamacare and unilateral amnesty brings the Dems back to power and through out Repubs in the reddest red states.  I think it is clear we are sick of the racist war on women meme.

A new non-post post

It moves The Alan Parsons Project And Thevweekend yammering down the page.

Hope your day is going well.  Happy Monday.

Frost on the pumpkin

It snowed here Friday and it looks like a big dose of the same global warming dropped snow in the Carolina's according to the news. It is very cold here this morning and the ground is white with a crust of frost.

The wife is off to a baby shower this afternoon. I have no plans to shower with babies, instead i think I'll watch some football and goof off.  I plan  to enjoy my Sunday, I hope you do to

Seasonably seasonable

It was a blustery, cold, windy, and wet Halloween. It snowed. Hard. Luckily the ground was warm and it did not stick.  I guess I have to face the fact the warm days of summer are in the past.  Boots and gloves and snow are my life for the next three or four months.  I don't mind much. The heat of summer makes us enjoy the crisp fall air.  The cold bare winter makes us appreciate the green and bloom of spring. The May showers are replaced by the hot breath of a summer evening.

Ah, that is bullshit; give me warm weather all year 'round.