Category Archives: Silliness

About The Stock Market….

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BreakfastYesterday, while we were at breakfast at the hotel on the last day of our vacation there were several business men at another table complaining this or that about President Obama. They were talking about things that were reported on Fox News about him. It seemed they can’t wait until he is out of office.

My wife being more of a political person than me (go figure) started “talking” to me about all the good things that have happened under the Obama administration. She signed to me without voicing it what was going on so I joined in.

“If you want to live like a Republican you must vote like a Democratic. I said that when Mr. Bush became president he came into office with a stock market at flourishing well above the 10,000 mark and left eight years later with it was barely above 8,000 and now that Obama has been in office a little over four years it has almost doubled from what it was on that fateful day of January 20, 2009.  The stock market is booming because the real business men know that our economy will soon be flourishing again as it was during the Clinton years and almost all Democratic administration before that.  ”If you want to live like a Republican you must vote like a Democrat”.  (For all you doubters out there I put a few graphs related to this subject at the end of this post).  I continued with A recent report found that if you get your news totally from Fox News you are actually less informed than those who do not listen or read any news at all.  In other words, Rupert Murdock’s version of the world has little or no reality to what actually is.

It wasn’t long before the table of business men, or at least I suppose they were, became suddenly quiet and started quickly vacating the restaurant. I guess they had heard enough from us “liberal freaks”.  We have been known to do this before while on vacation. Its kind of fun to rattle a few chains once in a while.  :)

Democrat Admins

The Pledge….

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alliegence

It was nice to see that Rand Paul’s standing filibuster bringing additional attention to the military drone issue in this country. Our country is based on check and balances and the current drone program has neither of those characteristics. The possibility of serious abuse scares me and should scare all of us. But, that is not what this post is going to be about. Instead it is about our pledge of allegiance and our national anthem.

I think it is time to replace both of these “sacred documents” to align us with twenty-first century thinking.  We need to get away from our obsession with wars and conflicts. As pointed out by a recent post here about Einstein’s quote about world war four being fought with stick and stones.  Our technology devoted to making war has advanced so much that we will soon be capable of annihilating ourselves many time over.  Even considering the ancient stockpile of nuclear weapons stored away in the previous Soviet Union could even do that job.

We need to start pledging to try to get along with each other and to prevent wars, not celebrate them at all our public gathering and sporting events. The “rockets red glare” just needs to go.  Most people think that our current national anthem has been the same since the war of 1812 where it was penned. In reality it was changed in 1931; a mere eighty-some years ago. In fact it has been changed a number of time over the years.

About the time the current song was made the national anthem the one I propose to replace it was being written by Woody Guthrie. His song was entitled “This land is your land”. I suspect most of you know the song so I won’t repeat it here. Woody’s song allow us to share our  pride of being an immigrant nation and our astounding geography. “This land is your land. This land is my land” has a nice ring to it.

Going on to the pledge of allegiance, no I don’t propose the above change.  The current pledge was adopted in 1942. Here is what Wikipedia says about that:

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). The original “Pledge of Allegiance” was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas…. 

Bellamy’s original Pledge read as follows:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The Pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided against it – knowing that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.

I wonder if my conservative friends realize that our pledge of allegiance was written by a socialist. I can’t imagine that they do or else they would have demanded it be replaced years ago. :)  The words “under God” were added in 1954. The Catholic organization The Knights of Columbus promoted this change as they had been using it for several years themselves.

Maybe it is time to change both again…….

Two Scenarios…. 5

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I want to do a followup of this morning post with a little more whimsical frame of mind.  As I see it we are looking at two different world views when it come to our energy needs.

One of our political parties theme seems to be “Drill Baby, Drill”. They want to extract absolutely every drop of oil out of our planet. They adamantly insist on building the Keystone pipeline so that we can take the dirtiest oil around and send it off to countries with little or no environmental regulations. They want to send our kids over to foreign countries that have oil so that we can “teach” them how to run their governments and in the process get more of their oil. They want to drill baby drill no matter the environmental impact. They deem all this global warming stuff as just a conspiracy to prevent them from getting their way.

The other political party sees all the damage that the “Drill Baby, Drill” philosophy is doing to  our country and the world. They see our temperatures warming and our arctic regions melting. They see catastrophes in our future if we don’t change our ways. They see how dependent we are on one year hundred old plus technologies and think it is time to move on to another way of accomplishing our energy needs. They see cleaner solar and wind technologies as at least part of that future.

Mad MaxLet me boil this down for those of you who might have drifted off.

One party, and I think you know which one I mean, is the party of Mad Max. They see our future as a battle to control a dwindling oil supply. They see us like Mad Max  with a gun on his hip fighting for every last drop. They thank heavens for our second amendment rights so they still have their weapons in this war for oil. While the world is spinning out of control around them they still cling to century old technologies instead of searching for better ways of doing it. They see it as a battle of “us” vs “them”.  They see Thunder Domes as a necessary part of our future.

JetsonsThe other party, and I think you know which one I mean, is the party of the Jetsons. They see that we can move beyond our dependence of a dirty source of energy to something much cleaner and healthier for our kids. They see that our future lies in getting our energy directly from the sun and wind which is available almost everywhere. They see a bright future for us as a country and a world. There are no Thunder Domes in their version of the future.

Ok, its your turn. Are you the party of Mad Max or the Jetsons?

I Think I Am Losing My Technology Edge….. 2

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TechieI may no longer be an official techie (or whatever the latest term is). I haven’t bought a new “latest thing” in about 18 months. That is an eternity in the tech world!  I don’t know what has happened to me. I used to keep up on all the latest trends and often splurged for some of them.

Maybe I have just finally found the stuff that makes me happy. Now that I am fully in the Apple camp (MacBook, iPad, iPhone) and now have a couple of versions of Kindle I have finally reached my tipping point of needing something else!

Or maybe I am just getting to be old and forgetful! I think mentally I am still pretty sharp but aren’t we the last to know when we have lost it?

Maybe I have just replaced my technology urges with other things now. As I get more and more active and donate more and more to feeding the poor maybe I am just changing my priorities? That one finally sounds like something I can settle on as the reason for losing my technology edge. But in reality I kind of think it is probably something else.

I have been a techie all my life and it is kind of hard to lose that moniker even in my old age… :)

Power To The People…. 2

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Crowd

I enjoy making predictions. Don’t we all. And since I am probably no worse at it than any of the so-called expert, here I go again. I predict that within the next twenty years the true power brokers will be the temp employment agencies and their eventual workers unions. I know, as usual I am way out in left field with this prediction but again as usual hear me out before you change channels so to speak..

Most businesses now rely on employment agencies for their workforce. Corporations are no longer  willing to provide any perks except to upper management. Employee health insurance, stock options, and such have become a thing of the past. I don’t think all these CEOs who now are getting their workers from employment agencies realize where things are headed. They claim to be smart but they sure don’t have much common sense. Soon there will likely be only a couple of companies that actually employ people; everyone else just hires from them. When that happens the concentration of workers will be higher than it has ever been throughout industry.

The workers will eventually unite like they did a hundred years ago and form Super Unions the likes of which the big shots  have never seen. When that happens the works will finally have the leverage to demand their share of the profits as their grandparents had many years before. Everything that couldn’t be outsourced to another country will be under the thumb of the super unions.

But I’m just a simple guy so what do I know…

Being Against… 4

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againstIf I was a President and wanted something I would claim I didn’t want it. For Congress has not given any President anything he wanted in the last 10 years. Be against anything and then he is sure to get it. – 5 May 1923  – Will Rogers

I can’t understand why each president seems to have to learn this lesson on their own. But, I think President Obama finally gets it.  If he wants something to happen the best thing he can do is to remain quiet about it. Mr. Boehner is constantly harping that the president is not involved enough in the legislative process but what I think he really means is that he wants to know what the president is for so he and all the other sheep in the GOP led house can line up against it.

I imagine it is hard sometimes to put together a list of what you are against. Especially for those House Republicans. They just get lazy on occasion and don’t want to do the work to make up their own “against” list. That is when they insist that President Obama do it for them. A perfect example of that is the immigration reform plan leaked by the White House. It was certain to be “DEAD ON ARRIVAL” before it even left the White House door.

I am waiting for Mr. Obama to evolve into the next phase of Will’s strategy. I expect that soon he will come out with a list of things he is against. If he is good at it the conservatives will want to get everything on that list into law as soon as possible. But the secret is to make sure that Mr. Boehner and company are convinced that he really is against them.  Mr. Obama is a pretty smart guy so I pray that he get good at this game so we the people might be able to get something good from the 113th congress.  But in reality I kind of doubt anything productive will come from that bunch….

But, I’m just a simple guy so what do I know……

About Conservatives….. 2

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MizerI am have been thinking about the word  ”conservative” lately and how I thought it defines me as far as fiscal things go and how it seems to define many of my friends as a general philosophy.  I know  like everything else you can’t put all conservatives in the same box but there seems to be some common traits I assign to that label.  Let’s start out with the basic definition:

noun

  1. a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas

adjective

  1. resistant to change
  2. having social or political views favoring conservatism
  3. unimaginatively conventional
  4. avoiding excess • a conservative estimate 
  5. conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class

In the past I have identified myself as a fiscal conservative. From a governing standpoint I want to make sure that the money I send to Washington in taxes to do the people’s business is wisely spent. I don’t treat my money haphazardly and I don’t want my government to do that either. But after looking at the basic definition above maybe I think I need to find a new label. I am definitely not reluctant to accept fiscal changes or new ideas about monetary policies, in fact I would embrace one if I thought it would solve some of our problems.  I definitely would not call myself unimaginatively conventional when it comes to money  or anything else for that matter! If you have read much of what I have said in the blog I’m sure you would agree with that. Definition 5 is kind of muddled and without meaning to me so I won’t go there. The standards of the middle class seem to change on a daily basis especially as the conservative group continues to shrink.

But the definitions above do seem to describe many of my friends. They, for the most part, fear change instead of  embracing it.  Many seem to continue to live in the limelight of the Reagan years.  They hate all the change in the last twenty years; especially change brought on by the “liberals”.  Yeah, many of my friends are unimaginatively conventional.

Well, I seem to have decided that the traditional definition of the word “conservative” does indeed describe many of my less than progressive friends but doesn’t hack it when I apply it to myself for fiscal matter. :)   So, what should I call myself?   Maybe fiscally prudent progressive.  That has kind of a nice ring to it. From this day forward I am a FPP. Conservative describes those who hate or at least adamantly resist change and that is definitely not me. But I will kind of hold on to that label for some of my less progressive friends….

An Aerobic Workout….

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aerobicI was just watching something on MSNBC that got me to thinking. Yes I do on occasion watch that “liberal trash” as some of my conservative friends call it. Of course if I were to make the same comment about anything on Fox News they would act totally shocked. :) But what got me to thinking had nothing to do with the matter being discussed.

I drifted off the topic here so let me get back to my thoughts. When I watch some of the people talk they are constantly waving their arms in one manner or another. At times they almost hit the person sitting next to them.  It seems as if being on some of these shows is almost a contact sport.

If these guys and gals had to sit on their hands I’m not sure they could even get a word of out their mouths. One of my favorites on MSNBC is Chris Hayes. He definitely gets an aerobic workout during his two-hour broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday.  He gets plenty of upper body exercise on the show and that does not even include his riding his bike to work from Brooklyn to Manhattan each day.

Since I am deaf I know that the sign for the word “english” is to  put one hand quietly on top of the other will little or not movement. Almost all sign language signs are made up due to a particular characteristic of the word.  It is generally known that the English seldom move their bodies while they talk. To them it must seem undignified to be waving their hands around like their Italian neighbors do so frequently.  I don’t think Mr. Hayes is Italian but given that he lives in Brooklyn I am sure he is around many Italians on a daily basis. When I lived in New Jersey the common joke was that there was never an Italian in New York City that didn’t think he and his brother could open up an Italian restaurant and be a big success. :) Believe me there were many in NJ.

I guess my English/Scottish roots show through when I discuss something as I don’t frequently use hand motions to emphasize what I am saying. In order to get my aerobic workout I need to get from behind my desk to take my Bassett hound Beulah for her daily walks and that is exactly what I intend to do right now.  I sure am hoping for an early Spring and at least a little rain this summer…..

Ahead of Civilization…

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I have always regretted that I didn’t live about 30 or 40 years earlier, and in the same old Country, the Indian Territory. I would have liked to got here ahead of the ‘Nestors,’ the Bob wire fence, and so called civilization. – Will Rogers

mountain manI have mentioned on the right column of this blog that I am part native American and proud of it. Sometimes these roots seem to come to the surface on this blog. This quote from Will did that.

Many times in my life I have dreamed that I was a mountain man in the Rocky Mountains. One of my favorite movies is Jeremiah Johnson which is about those folks.  I have watched it so many times I can just about quote the dialog before it is said.

So, I am kind of like Will here; I wish I had been around before civilization polluted this “good old country”. I live near a small town of about 2,000 people but that even seems crowded now and again.

LOL……..

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Kick MeI couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw this cartoon. Thanks Gary Varvel for the laugh. And an Indiana guy at that.

I know the GOP is desperate to rebrand their party into something with a broader appeal. But for some reason the Democrats just don’t seem to want to cooperate in that endeavor. :)

 

Guys Bonding….

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bondingI know I have a sizable percentage of women who follow this blog so I thought I would spend this post telling you about how guys bond. At least the guys I know.  I’m sure you all know and that guys bond differently than women.    When a woman feels emotional about something it is usually very obvious.  Not so much for us guys.

I think I am more girly, as Arnold puts it, than most guys. I readily admit that I shed a few tears during some movies and such when something bad or even good happens to a good guy. But I am very much a guy when it comes to male bonding. A grunt here and a grunt there when I am with my best buddy is about all you are going to get from me.  We just take it as an unspoken truth that our best buddy has our backs so to speak. We don’t need words to get in the way of that trust. We seem to bond more emotionally with our pets than we do with our buddies. More…

The Persona of John Boehner….

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Boehner 2Ok, I have been working day and night to try to find the right persona for John Boehner and I finally have it. After outing Mr. Cantor as the Lone Ranger I am here to do the same for Mr. Boehner. His persona is Rodney Dangerfield. I’m sure anyone over fifty knows that Rodney Dangerfield was a comedian who’s most famous line was  ”I don’t get no respect”

Although I like to go by the name RJ my first name is Rodney so I was always painfully familiar with Mr. Dangerfield. My family and people I knew during my childhood days called me by my middle name which is Joe, so I didn’t have to face the jokes about not getting any respect.  While I was in college I decided to start going by Rod or Rodney; there were just too many Joe’s around and I wanted to be more unique.  I wanted to stand out at least as far as my name goes.  Anyway, I am getting off the storyline here so let’s get back to Rodney Dangerfield.

To give you the reason why I chose this persona, besides the obvious quote, here is some additional info on Mr. Dangerfield. More…

The Persona of Eric Cantor….. 6

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Lone RangerThe number two Republican in the House of Representatives almost tanked the recent compromise on making some tax breaks for the middle class permanent. The reason, he says it does not solve all our fiscal problems. Mr. Cantor seems to think that every bill that goes through the House must be the be-all and end-all for the problems being addressed. Particularly those involving our safety net. He must think every problem has a silver bullet. More…

Getting To Be As Rare As A Republican With A Smile…..

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Angry 2When I heard the title of this post I couldn’t help but LOL (laugh out loud). That seems to be a very fitting phrase now days. Now before my Republican friends hit me on this I am talking primarily about those folks in DC and not in the hinterland, and all of the rest of the country is the hinterland when compared to them. But I will admit that some of my GOP friends aren’t smiling much since President Obama was re-elected. :)

All you have to do is to look at any of the interviews with the Tea Party folks and all you see are grimaced faces; not a smile amongst them. All they seem to want to do is pick a fight with most anybody who disagrees with them on absolutely any topic and that includes all those “moderates” within their own party as well as absolutely every Democrat that has ever lived on this earth. Let’s face it, that Tea Party bunch is absolutely the gloomiest people on earth right now.

As Rare As

There have been many quotes around the words  ”as rare as”. Let’s spend a few frivolous minutes looking a some. God know we need some frivolity in our lives right now:

More…

Congress’ Approval Rating….

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crazyI see that the latest poll shows approval ratings for congress is about 18%. In my mind that is about where it belongs. Those yahoos just don’t know how to play together. They are more dysfunctional than most marriages today!

So 82% of us don’t approve of how they are doing their jobs.  After thinking about it the most alarming thing about this latest statistic is that

18%  think congress is doing a great job!!!

I don’t think I have ever come across any of those 18%ers. Just who are these guys? I don’t know them but I think they are in need for some serious therapy.

Grover Predicts….. And So Do I….

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Source: Norquist: Tea party resurgence if no “fiscal cliff” deal – Political Eye – CBS News.

Grover Norquist is predicting that President Obama will be the political target of tea partiers if a deal on averting the “fiscal cliff” fails to materialize.

No this quote from the article is not a joke.  But it sure should be. As if the tea partiers will suddenly love the president if he averts the fiscal curb. We will see pigs fly before that group has more than four letter words for our president. Grover seems to want to predict the future and so do I.

  • Tea BagI predict that there will only be a few stale moldy tea bags lying around in the gutters when the next presidential election comes up.  The tea party continues to shot themselves in the foot with all their screw-ball candidates and  after the mid-term elections they will be toast. How’s that for a prediction? A pipe dream you say? But what is wrong with pipe dreams. More…

The Right Tool…. 1

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I am a tool guy. I have had many of them throughout my life. My barn is stuffed with specialized tools I purchased when I had a cabinet making business. I am also a firm believer in the old phrase

The Right Tool for the Job

That is you don’t use pliers when the job really calls for a socket wrench.  In that regard when I looked out on our 150 foot driveway covered with over fourteen inches of wet snow I knew I didn’t have the right tools for this job. My Craftsman garden tractor is the top of the line and biggest garden tractor they make.  I mount a fifty-six inch mower deck to it in the Spring and it does a great job on my two and a half acres of grass.
Stuck in SnowIn the fall I put on the fifty-four inch heavy-duty snow plow blade and tire weights and chains. I even add a concrete filled building block to the back for additional weight.  All this makes it the right tool for snows up to six inches deep but it is not the right tool for this one!

So, I did what a man really doesn’t like to do and that is to call for help! I am now patiently waiting for the guy with the big four-wheel drive truck to come. I hate to admit defeat before I even start the job but sometimes that is the best and safest thing to do.

Sometimes a guy has to do what a guy has to do…..

PS.. We are officially plowed out now but even the guy with the “right” tool got stuck at the end of our driveway. At least for a little while.

Being A Contrarian….

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Being that we are coming upon the end of another year I am in a self-reflections mode. I admit that much of what I post about is the result of reading a post or article about something and thinking that there is more to the story than is written. Sometimes it deserves an alternate view. Sometimes it needs expanding to attain its full meaning. And sometimes it’s just wrong, at least in my view. :)  I write to fill these gaps.  While I don’t like others putting me in boxes, particularly those that don’t really fit, I do sometimes try to label myself.  I am a contrarian at heart; always have been. Probably always will be.  It is nice to have a venue as an outlet and at least a few folks to read what I say.

contrarianLet’s look at the definitions of contrarian to see where I might fit:

contrarian

  • a person who takes an opposing view, especially one who rejects the majority opinion, as in economic matters.
  • a contrary or obstinate person( as modifier ): a contrarian investor ; contrarian instincts

More…

The Pro-Scrooge Christmas Story…. 2

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Banner - Aside 2Source:  Conservatives urge GOP leaders to be bold, prepare to go over cliff – The Hill’s On The Money.

Scrooge“I think Obama is very mindful of his legacy and is horrified of going over the cliff,” said Andy Roth of the Club for Growth. “Going over the cliff might be a signal that needs to be sent to the president, that he needs to play ball.”

He argued that President Clinton was forced to become a less liberal president after Speaker Newt Gingrich shut down the government in 1995.

“Clinton would not play ball with Newt until Newt shut the government down,” Roth said.

We all know the story “The Christmas Carol” about Scrooge who was a greedy money-mindful person who after being visited by the ghosts of Christmas past and Christmas to come turned around his life and started treating people, not his money, with love. More…

The Makers/Takes vs Brother’s Keepers and a Huge Wasteland in Between….

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CrowdsThe “Radical Right” and the “Liberal Left” are so twentieth century!  Its time we invented some new monikers for these two opposing groups and I have the perfect names. These names just seem to be more descriptive than the old one.  Who knows what “Right” and “Left” really mean anyway.  For some reason I know I am right-handed but I am also called left leaning. I know we in the U.S. read from left to right but some countries read from right to left and some read up and down.  Left and right just don’t have any solid meaning.

So, I am going to invent some new names here and I expect them to be in common use by the end of 2013. ;)

More…