Wow

The Obama is the world's worst negotiator, at least when it comes to tyrants, murderers, and the enemies of freedom around the world. Dude sure loves Commie Bastards. There is no doubt a Democrat Party heart beats in his weak little chest.

We send open diplomatic relations, send back convicted spies against the US all in exchange for an international aid worker wrongly held in prison.  The US companies are not given back their assets stolen by the Castros.

Obama has just guaranteed the Castro regime and its successors remain in power for generations to come.

But I may be able to get Cuban cigars.  There is that.

Still, what a bad deal for America.

Dear World

You are already a better place.  Meet Chloe, my perfect granddaughter.

Now could you stop evil people from killing innocent kids in the name of religion?  I am pretty sure no god would smile on such barbarism.

Additional Commentary

Sometime today, most likely, my daughter will give birth to my first grandchild.  I am told it will be a little girl.

Life is good.

Sorta dazed and really confused

Obama's agenda and the Democrat party were repudiated overwhelmingly in the elections last month.  The Republicans were sent a clear message. Yet somehow the Republican leadership just joined hands with the Dems and passed a massive funding bill that covers the Government for the next year. As the White House told recalcitrant Dems, "why are you fighting, this bill gives you everything"? ObamaCare is funded. amnesty is funded. Phony Global Warming projects are funded.

This time next year the RINOs will claim it is too close to the next Presidential election to have that fight and government grows and grows.

I may not be the world's smartest guy, but I know corruption when it is shoved down my throat.

I feel like I just got kicked in the groin by an NFL punter who was wearing steel-toed boots.

This post needs a snappy title

Bark bark. The neighbor's dog has been barking nonstop for a half an hour now. Ah, life in the 'burbs. If they follow the usual pattern they will let it back in around 7:00.

You can't tell, but I am in a great mood. I have the day off! This is the second Saturday since July I have not worked. I am giving my notice to the part time gig when I go in on Sunday. I have worked pretty much 7 days a week for the past 4 or five months. I need a break. I made a handshake agreement when the big box retailer hired me to stay until Christmas, in exchange for him hiring me knowing I was seeking a better job.* I think I have fulfilled my commitment. Now I need to buy some serious man-toys before I lose my discount.

Well I'm off to refill they coffee mug, then I think I'll watch a movie. In fact, I might go buy a box of donuts for breakfast.

I hope you have a great day.

*boy is that a poorly written sentence. I think you get the gist.

TGIF And I'm not talking about the restaurant chain

Sorry. Time is against me. I can either read my usual stuff on the interwebz or write a post for you to read. The path of least resistance is to read. Historian Barbara Tuchman once wrote that"research is endlessly seductive, writing is hard work" and I guess that applies to my efforts around here.

I am certain it is evident by my prose, but most posts just flow from my brain to the keyboard. I have always written like that, even massive research papers in college. I would research, take notes, write facts, and study. After days, or weeks the narrative would just flow. I would write for hours, only stopping to insert a quote, a fact, to verify an important part. In general it took me only a bit longer to write a 20 page paper than it would take a person to read that same document out loud.

Creativity is an uncertain thing, and I have been a bit lax exercising it around here lately. If you care then I apologize. If you stop by only to see what idiotic blathering I share on a given day, then I offer up this train wreck of prosaic nonsense for your entertainment.

No Friday music. Boo hoo.

I hope you have a great day.

That sharp pain in my back

...is the stab wound from the GOP. The new massive spending bill fully funds ObamaCare. It fully funds amnesty.  I see no austerity, few cuts, and more and more spending.

I am told that if I don't vote for a Republican, I will be voting for a Democrat.  It seems that if I vote for a Republican, I am still voting for a Democrat; albeit one who mouths the right words to get my future vote.

BOHICA conservatives Boehner is boning us again. Once again Lucy has snatched away the football.

woof

The neighbors got a new puppy a couple of months ago. They put it outside every morning at 6 am. It barks constantly. Bark, bark, bark, bark. If I can hear it, I know they can. It is damn annoying. I don't blame the dog.  He went out, did his business and now he wants back in. It is the owners who are rude.

Do I ignore it?  Do I be that asshole neighbor? Do I live with it?

A day that shall live in infamy

We were lucky enough to visit Pearl Harbor this summer. It was a somber, moving memorial, especially the USS Arizona.

If you have never read At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange, you should.

Do I blog or watch an old Esther Williams Movie?

I am convinced I need a wooden cigar store Indian for my office. It does not have to be 5 or 6 foot tall; a small one will do. Nor does it need to be an original. A replica will suffice. Said Indian may not go with my decor, but the model of the HMS Victory does not exactly duplicate the theme of Cubs and Colts pictures that adorn the walls, so what the heck.

It looks like the rain is tapering off on this December Saturday. Music is playing softly in the background as I hunt and peck on the keyboard.  I frequently pause and look out the window. The big willow is waving bare branches in the breeze. The old bench made of willow sticks and the small tree next to it are covered in Christmas lights that glow softly in the dim early morning light.

My coffee is just above lukewarm and needs refilled. The laptop hums in tune with the music. It occurs to me I should not have to struggle to fill this space, I blog so little these days. But here we are. I am certain the few dozen of you who bother to stop by are sadly disappointed these days.  I hope to resume my usual routine in January when my training is complete and my seven-day-a-week work schedule changes I am quitting the part-time gig in a few weeks. Until that time these pathetic efforts will have to do.

I hope you have a great Saturday.

Friday Music

And it is too.

Dear Mr. Boehner

That "roll over" trick is cute in a puppy. Not so amusing when it is politics.  Can't you read.the polls? Americans do not want amnesty. They want ObamaCare repealed. They elected Repubs to control Congress for a reason, not to spout empty promises and utter meaningless words. Call Obama before Congress and ask him where he gets the authority to dictate law. Quit crying and grow a set of balls. otherwise you will put Hillary (or worse) in the White House in 2016.  The People have spoken, it is time to listen.

Words to live by

Hands up, don't shoot don't steal those cigars.

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.