Random thoughts

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"A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln on June 16, 1858. i sure wish our Congress would remember these words - it's time for the War Between the Political Parties to stop.

Nothing is being accomplished in DC.  The public good is not being served. 

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Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post has it right - Mike Leach deserves better than he's getting.  One of the most successful coaches around - he's brought down by a whiney player with attitude who has a famous father.

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Its time for Obama to rake TSA, CIA, NSA and all the other alphabet soup intelligence and Homeland Security entites over the coals regarding this Christmas Day terrorist attack attempt.

The 9-11 Commission spelled out in detain what needed to be done to make our country safer.  Bush didn't pay attention and Obama seems to be carrying on that tradition.

This latest attempted bombing shows just how uncoordinated, inept and downright lazy our security people are.  I's time for a major housecleaning int he intel community and then a massive push by Obama to revamp Homeland Security so it actually keeps us secure.

I wonder if he or Congress has the balls to do it.

Take a trip on the wayback machine

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1862 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, NC

1879 Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp

1911 Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize

1935 Charles Darrow patents Monopoly

1938 Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer," 1st breath test, introduced in Indiana

1946 Pres Truman officially proclaims end of WW II

1961 1st performance of Beach Boys

1974 Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac

1981 CNN Headline News debuts - long live Lynne Russell

1985 Rock singer Rick Nelson, 45, and six other people were killed when fire broke out aboard a DC-3 that was taking the group to a New Year's Eve performance in Dallas

1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip

1999 Control of Panama Canal reverts to Panama

2006 The death toll for Americans killed in the Iraq war reached 3,000.

thought for the day

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Feeling irritated, restless, afraid, and hopeless is a reminder to listen more carefully

- Pema Chodron

today long ago

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1879 Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance," premieres

1907 Abraham Mills' commission declares Abner Doubleday invented baseball

1938 Electronic television system patented (V K Zworykin)

1963 "Let's Make A Deal," debuts on NBC-TV

1970 Paul McCartney sues his bandmates to dissolve the Beatles

1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam

1974 Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought)

2006 Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged.

thought for the day

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"When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable."

- Thict Nhat Hanh

new year's thought

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"Here we are in a month named after the Roman god Janus, an appropriate personification of the start of the new year. This particular Roman god had two faces so that he could look ahead toward the future and back at the past at the same time. As we get rid of an old year and look forward to a new one, we all try to be a little like Janus. We know through experience what we did wrong and what we did right, and hope to do better this year. Some people make ambitious new year’s resolutions; others just take a deep breath and hope for the best.…"

In the good old days

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1813 British burn Buffalo, NY during War of 1812 (and danmed if we didn't rebuild it)

1848 Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration)

1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants

1862 Bowling ball invented

1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, SD

1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)

1967 Star Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs

Only in The Oklahoman

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In today's Daily Disappointment - aka The Oklahoman, the editorial staff has decided to blame the passage of the healthcare bill on - get ready for this - Watergate.

It seems that a number of liberal (this is not a dirty word) politicians were elected in 1974 that hav had a major impact on the heathcare bill.

Now while the stupidity of their argument isn't worth discussing, I am pleased that a very conservative newspaper bashes Richard Nixon.

After all, if Nixon and his band of thugs hadn't been criminals, we wouldn't have had Watergate.

The healthcare bill is a far cry from the reform envisioned by many in this country.  At least it's a start. 

thought for the day

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"“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

New Year's Quote

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New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. - Mark Twain

long ago

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1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down because of differences with President Andrew Jackson.

1869 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, patents chewing gum

1895, the world's first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris

1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

1958 What might be called greatest NFL game, Colts beat Giants 23-17

1968 Beatles' "Beatles-White Album," goes #1 & stays #1 for 9 weeks

1973, Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system

1981 - The HBO pay cable television service expanded its schedule offering to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

say goodbye to 2009

-

the end of this year can't come soon enough for many. in spite of all it's TV movie disaster qualities, this year has still managed to bring me a great deal of joy and unexpected blessings.


if we all work at it, 2010 can be a great year. it's not up to the President, it's not up to someone else. We each have the power to create our own happiness and joy.

so, plant a smile on your face, fill your heart with hope and most importantly, be mindfull of everything around you.

it's not about you, it's about everything and everybody else.

Now get out there and make 2010 a great year.

No time for anti terrorism backlash

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As the nation comes to grips with another attempted terrorist attack, it would do all well to remember that no matter how many Patriot Acts are passed, no matter how many guards and checkpoints and master lists of possible terrorists there are, two things will remain constant.


1 - With human beings in control, mistakes will be made.

2 - anyone who really wants to attack anything will finds the means and the method to do so.

We can stop the low hanging terrorist fruit but we can never stop the group or individual hell bent on a successful attack.

What we can do is help our fellow countries develop their physical and human resources to make their country better, more prosperous and successful.

Let's concentrate on helping people, not allies.  Let's take the Biblical mandate to heal the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the poor and love our fellow man as we love ourselves.

It's a lot easier and more satisfying than nation building.

What we must never do is keep trying to make other countries into our own graven image. 

We're not that perfect.

New year's thought

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An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.

- Bill Vaughn


A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.

- Anonymos



Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle.

- Eric Zorn

old stuff

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1871 World's 1st cat show (Crystal Palace, London)

1900 Carrie Nation's 1st public smashing of a bar (Carey Hotel, Wichita KS)

1927 Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II's "Show Boat," premieres in NYC

1932 Radio City Music Hall opens

1937 Mae West performs Adam & Eve skit that gets her banned from NBC radio

1947 1st "Howdy Doody Show," (Puppet Playhouse), telecast on NBC

1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan.

1985 Naturalist Dian Fossey, who had studied gorillas in the wild, was found hacked to death at a research station in Rwanda.

1987 Steve Largent sets all-time NFL record for career catches when he catches his 752nd pass


2007 Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a bomb and shooting attack as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi.


 
 
987 Steve Largent sets all-time NFL record for career catches when he catches his 752nd pass

1991 "Carol Burnett Show" last airs on CBS-TV

thought

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Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.


- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A long time ago

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1620 Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, MA

1776 George Washington defeats Hessians at Trenton


1799 George Washington is eulogized by Col Henry Lee as "1st in war, 1st in peace & 1st in hearts of his countrymen"

1862 -Dec 28th) Battle of Dumfries, VA

1865 James H Mason (Mass) patents 1st US coffee percolator

1944 Battle of Bastogne-US Gen Patton's 4th Pantzers repulse Germans

1946, in Las Vegas, Nevada, mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel opens The Pink Flamingo Hotel & Casino

1963 Beatles release "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There"

1973 "Exorcist," starring Linda Blair & rated X, premieres

1996 Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colo. The slaying remains unsolved.

On this Christmas Day

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336, the first recorded celebration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place in Rome.

352 1st definite date Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th

1223 St. Francis of Assisi assembles 1st Nativity scene (Greccio, Italy)

1651 Massachusetts General Court ordered a fine (five shillings) for "observing any such day as Christmas"

1758 Halley's comet 1st sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch during return

1776 Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J

1818, "Silent Night," written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1831 Louisiana and Arkansas are 1st states to observe Christmas as holiday

1896 "Stars and Stripes Forever" written by John Philip Sousa

1939 Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th reindeer

1950 Dick Tracy marries Tess Truehart

1959 Ringo Starr - aka Richard Starkey -  receives his 1st drum set

1968 Astronaut Frank Borman's Christmas reading while orbiting Moon

2002 Katie Hnida became the first woman to play in a Division I football game when she attempted an extra point for New Mexico against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.

 

2006, James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” died of heart failure in Atlanta at age 73.

thought

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Thought for Today: "It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you ... yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand."

— Mother Teresa

thought

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I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.


- Maya Angelou

today in history

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1818 "Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; 1st sung next day

1851, fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.

1865 Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn

1871, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" had its world premiere

1964 Shooting begins on "The Cage" the pilot for Star Trek

1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.

1979 - the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978

thought

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To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.


- Thomas Merton, from A Book of Hours

Way Back When

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1775 Continental navy organized with 7 ships

1864, during the War for Southern Independence, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah

1882 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison

1894 United States Golf Association forms (NYC)

1944 During the Battle of the Bulge, Germany demanded the surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied: "Nuts!"



1958 "Chipmunk Christmas Song" reaches #1

1978 Kenny Jones becomes The Who's new drummer

thought for most days

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Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.


- Oren Arnold, American editor and free-lance writer (1900-1980)

a long long time ago

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1620  103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

1864 Gen Sherman conquers Savannah

1891 18 students play 1st basketball game (Springfield College)

1913 The first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World.


1914 1st feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" released. (Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand & Charles Chaplin)

1937 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon premieres (Snow White)

1945 Gen. George S. Patton died in Germany of injuries suffered in a car accident.


1946 Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," premieres

1954 Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered (he is accused of crime)

1968 David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash premiere together in Calif

1968 Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell & Anders) 1st manned Moon voyage

1989 VP Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with word beacon spelled beakon

1988 Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland

thought

-

“Consult not your fears, but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do.”


—Pope John XXIII

The (collective) Grinch Who Stole Christmas

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The (collective) Grinch Who Stole Christmas


Let’s give a big round of applause to those masters of politics, those high minded public servants who have the nations’ best interests at heart.

So here’s to you Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, the inimitable Dr. No (aka Tom Coburn), Mitch McConnell, Mary Landrieu, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Max Baccus.

They are not alone. The entire Congress, House and Senate, are included in this group

And let’s not forget the collective head Grinch - President Obama and his team of healthcare elves who managed to take and election mandate for meaningful healthcare reform and totally blow it.

Obama and his band of elves managed to give up every single reform he promised during the campaign in order to get a shell of a bill that even the most pessimistic of us think is a bill of sugar plums - lots of frosting but no real cake.

No doubt shortly after 1am EST Monday Obama will come forth like one of the angels heralding the annunciation of the birth of Christ and triumphantly proclaim throughout the land that healthcare reform has been achieved.

It will be wrapped in a big bow and hailed as America’s Christmas present to itself.

Bah Humbug! (well - at least my thought on this begins with the letter B).

This is a worthless healthcare bill. It does nothing to transform our broken healthcare system. It does nothing to improve the health of our nation.

It will however be a great gift for the drug and health insurance companies. For them it will be the gift that keeps on giving (profits) and one that will give them enough loopholes to continue to do business as usual.

For us average citizens, this healthcare bill is a big lump of coal in our Christmas stocking ( or whatever the climate change people would have us use instead of coal).

Best of all, it’s the gift to ourselves that we get to pay for.

What a great national present.

This President and this Congress had the opportunity of a lifetime, to put partisan politics aside and do what’s best for the country.

Instead, thy resorted to the politics of hate and fear. They refused to come together and work on a real healthcare reform bill. All sides quickly retreated to their corners and began to toss snowballs at everyone who disagreed with their position (translate that best interests).

Instead of meaningful debate we got all the Grinches to dig in their heals and say “what’s in it for me” instead of what’s best for the nation. Congress took the easy path out. Instead of making hard decisions, they retreated to the comfy confines of their “principles” - a bogus, self serving statement if there ever was one in politics.

Collectively, they let the American people down.

So this Christmas I hope all of you out there will send your Congressperson and Senator a lump of coal as a reward for a vital job ignored this holiday season.

They’ve earned it.

Goin' Back in Time

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1606  Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown Va

1803  Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27M

1879  Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park

1880  NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"

1920  Bob Hope became an American citizen

1953  KWTV TV channel 9 in Oklahoma City, OK (CBS) begins broadcasting

1957  Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service

1962  Osmond brothers debut on Andy Williams Show

1969  Peter, Paul & Mary's rendition of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1

1975  Joe Walsh recruited to join Eagles

1977  1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut

1985  Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC

1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of General Manuel Noriega - no nation building here

1990  Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15

1999 The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples.

thought for the day

-

Compassion is the willingness to play in the field of dreams even though you are awake.


- Matthew Flickstein, "Swallowing the River Ganges"

thought

“Grace is available for each of us every day - our spiritual daily bread - but we've got to remember to ask for it with a grateful heart and not worry about whether there will be enough for tomorrow.”

- Sarah Ban Breathnach

Long ago

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1686  Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe)

1732 Benjamin Franklin under the name Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack"

1776 Thomas Paine published his 1st "American Crisis" essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls"

1843 Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol," in England

1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi

1950 Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion

1955 Carl Perkins records "Blue Suede Shoes"

1957 "Music Man" opens on Broadway at the Majestic Theater

1995 Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles & Diana to divorce

1996 The school board of Oakland, Calif., voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics."


1997 "Titanic," the highest-grossing movie of all-time, opened in American theaters.

1998 President Clinton impeached

Capitol Grounds Resting Place for Ten Commandments - Pigeons to Follow

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It’s official.

The Christian religion’s Top Ten, otherwise know as The Ten Commandments, will be carved in granite ( presumably harder to break than the original tablets) and placed on the undeveloped north side of the state capitol.

Some of the more devote flock of state Rep. Mike Ritze are denouncing the location, saying the south side of the capitol should be the resting place for the commandments as it’s a more trafficked area.

Sometimes you just can’t please anyone., especially religious zealots who are hell bent on forcing their brand of religion on everyone else.

Not that it will matter much. As the Buckle of the Bible Belt we have churches aplenty to spread the word of God’s law. There are loads of TV and radio shows devoted to inciting Oklahomans to obey those very Ten Commandments - and a few others.

Maybe the monument will do the trick because in spite of deluge (think great flood) of piety, hellfire and damnation coming from Oklahoma pulpits,Sooners enjoy a proud reputation of breaking most of the Ten Commandments on a regular basis.

Will the monument end up being anything more than bragging rights for Ritze and his disciple Randy Brogdon?

Probably not.

Will this monument to their God’s law reduce sin in Oklahoma? Fat Chance.

The monument, like all good monuments will end up as a resting place for pigeons and other fowl (or foul, depending on your opinion of the legislature).

But since the Capitol Preservation Commission wants to further develop the north side of the Capitol, this may spur some activity. In fact, I may want to put a monument on the north side as well. My family will pay for it.

I want a monument to the Noble Eightfold Path, the precepts of Buddhism out there with the Ten Commandments.

I mean, if it’s fair for Christians to get their monument, shouldn’t Buddhists, Muslims and other religions get an equal shot at a spot on the Capitol grounds?

I wonder if Brogdon and Ritze will expend as much energy with my request as they did for their pet project?

Probably not.

thought

-

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.


- St. Augustine

way back when

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1620 Mayflower passengers come ashore at Plymouth

1777 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender

1859 South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"

1865 13th Amendment ratified, slavery abolished

1892 "Nutcracker Suite," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premieres

1956 "To Tell the Truth" debuts on CBS-TV

1961 Britain's EMI Records originally rejects the Beatles

2008 W. Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who'd revealed himself as "Deep Throat" three decades after the Watergate scandal, died at age 95

thought

-

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity."

Psalm 133:1

thought

-

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.


Henry David Thoreau

Old Stuff

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1631 Mount Vesuvious, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages & kills 4,000

1773 Big tea party in Boston harbor-indians welcome (Boston Tea Party)

1915 Albert Einstein publishes his "General Theory of Relativity"

1944 The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began as German forces launched a surprise counterattack against Allied forces in Belgium.



1953 1st White House Press Conference (Pres Eisenhower & 161 reporters)

1962 David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" premieres

1966 Jimi Hendrix Experience releases its 1st single, "Hey Joe," in the UK

1971 Don McLean's 8+ minute version of "American Pie" released

1973 O J Simpson becomes 1st NFLer to rush 2,000 yard in a season

Thought

When the jet rose six miles high, it was clear that the earth was round and that it had more sea than land. But it was difficult to understand that the [people] on the earth found causes to hate each other, to build walls across cities and to kill. From that height, it was not clear why.


- Zulfikar Ghose, from his poem "Geography Lesson"

another thought

-

Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are.


- Rachel Naomi Remen

thought for the day

Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.


- Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C

A little history lesson

----------------------------------------------

1791 Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gave its approval

1877 Thomas Edison patents phonograph

1891 James Naismith invents basketball (Canada)

1939 "Gone With the Wind" premieres in Atlanta

1944 Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel

1952 Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation

1973 American Psychiatric Assn declares homosexuality is not mental illness

1974 A's Catfish Hunter is ruled a free agent (later signs with Yankees)

2001 Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower

thought

Flow with whatever may happen

and let your mind be free;
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.
This is the ultimate.

-Chuang Tsu

Today in History

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

1287 Zuider Zee seawall collapses with loss of 50,000 lives

1911 South Pole 1st reached, by Norwegian Roald Amundsen

1915 Jack Johnson is 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion

1937 Japanese troops rape, pillage, plunder and murder as they conquer Nanjing

1953 Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Sandy Koufax

1968 "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye topped the charts and stayed there for 7 weeks.



1969 Jackson Five made their 1st appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show"

1977 "Saturday Night Fever,"starring John Travolta, premieres in NYC

1980 - At 2 PM EST there is 10 minutes of silence in memory of John Lennon


1984 Howard Cosell retires from Monday Night Football

Where is the Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Mankind?

----------------------------------------------------

As we move farther into the holiday season, I'm noticing there's not much peace on earth, good will towards mankind.


As a society it seems we are all more anxious to condemn, point fingers at, be belligerent towards and generally act as aggressive and menacing as possible towards our fellow man. The salacious antics of alleged role models are hot water cooler topics, front page news and lead the TV news.

While the financial world seems to get healthier and healthier, more in our country and the world do without, more are dying from war, famine, disease and the offshoots of war that ever before.

We sing the carols. We attend church and hear the Christmas message. It's the same one every year. You would think after a few years it would register in our brains.

Apparently not. For some reason the message gets lost somewhere between the pew and the church parking lot.

As happens every year as we hit Halloween, the thoughts of the true meaning of Christmas gets lost somewhere between the greed of retailers and the mindset of shoppers to fill up on more and more - as if having more and more things under the tree really means anything.

And while part of the world gorges itself in Christmas Gluttony, most of the US and the world finds precious little to celebrate.

Twenty percent of Oklahoma's children will go to bed hungry tonight. Billions more around the world will do the same.

While some of us stay cuddled up in our bed with visions of sugarplums dance in our heads, millions around the US are homeless or live in the most deplorable conditions imaginable.

Across the world it's worse.

Starvation, Disease and War still ride their horses at a fevered pitch, spreading their destruction on the defenseless.

Darfur, Tibet, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sudan, Mexico, Venezuela, Middle Europe.... the list of places where starvation, illness and violence are a daily happening.

Citizens and Politicians decry the destruction - yet do precious little to stop it.

In our own country politicians see starving children and block bills that would feed them

These same politicians see sick and dying people who can't get medical care - and refuse to find ways to help.

We see the homeless and destitute and blame them for their plight instead of giving them a helping hand up.

And yet we continue to call ourselves a Christian Nation. We do that while bickering about whose definition of Christian to use. Maybe once the major faiths figure out who is right they'll start working on following their Bible.

We claim that divine country status while ignoring the very tenants of the faith we claim to believe in. Feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the poor.

So I challenge all of you to shuck the usual Christmas happenings and do something for your fellow man. Buy one less present and donate the cash to a charity helping those who can't help themselves. Spend some time working at a shelter or food kitchen.

Do something for someone else this holiday season.  Break out your goodwill towards mankind.

Maybe we can change the world if we all do one good thing when so many need it most.

Sunday's Blog

******************************************************

Once again the Heisman Trophy voters have gone against their stated aim to give the award to the most dominant player in college football.

Ndamukong Suh of Nebraska, a defensive lineman, should have won the award.  Yes, he will win most every defensive award out there but the Heisman voters missed the perfect opportunity to show that only quarterbacks and running backs are worthy of the award.

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I've had enough of Tiger Woods.  I don't care how many women he had affairs with or what he or his wife are doing about the whole mess.  It's time for the media to back off and give them some time to sort it all out.

Like most of these types of stories, the media runs them into the ground.

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Here in Oklahoma we're getting ready for the state legislature to begin it's magic in 2010.

And like every year, these champions of liberty, these wise sages of the plains, are once again going to focus on the same old problems: workers' compensation reform and tort reform.

After all these years of legislators making these issues "top priority" it would seem that one legislative session would finally get the problems fixed.

I'd be much happier if the legislature would focus on more important topics.  In no particular order they are:

Education - why do we still have over 500 school districts (a couple of which didn't graduate seniors last year); why do we spend more on administration than classrooms: where is all that extra money from the lottery really going.

It's also time for the Governor and the Legislature to grow some big brass ones and reform Oklahoma's education system so that it actually educates kids instead of teaching them how to take a standardized test.

Health: Oklahoma is in the top five when it comes to being the most unhealthy state.  It's time for the legislature to get tough on things it can control.

Poverty - 20% of Oklahoma's population goes hungry.  Why? 

The Department of Human Services - for an organization that is supposed to protect children, why do so many children continue to be harmed and killed while under DHS supervision?  It's time for the Governor and the Legislature to grow a pair and clean out this rat's nest of secrecy and obvious inability to do its job.

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thought for the day

All things arise,

Suffer change,
And pass away.
This is their nature.

When you know this,
Nothing perturbs you,
Nothing hurts you.
You become still.
It is easy.

-Ashtavakra Gita 11:1

Today in History

-------------------------------------------------------------------

1759 1st music store in America opens (Phila)

1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold

1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, VA (Marye's Heights)

1903 Wright Bros make 1st flight at Kittyhawk

1903 Italo Marcioni patents ice cream cone (NJ)

1961 Beatles sign a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein

1961 Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John album is country music 1st million $ seller

1969 Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"

1978 Susan B Anthony dollar, 1st US coin to honor a woman, issued

2000 Republican George W. Bush claimed the presidency 36 days after Election Day.

thought

Hope ...

is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

- Lisel Mueller,
from her poem "Hope"

History Today from Yesterday

--------------------------------------------------

1800 Washington DC established as capital of US

1899 George F Bryant of Boston patents the wooden golf tee

1901 Marconi receives 1st transatlantic radio signal, England to US

1964 Shooting starts for "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage" (Menagerie)

The Time Machine Rolls On

1620 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock (12/21 NS)

1901 Marconi sends 1st transatlantic radio signal, Cornwall to Newfoundland

1936  Edward VIII abdicates for "the woman he loves"

1961 JFK provides US miltary helicopters & crews to South Vietnam

1985: The Unabomber kills his first victim

thought for the day

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"By seizing those moments of delight, we always have a precious gift on hand. Even if we're living in the streets - empty handed, destitute of merit, and with no other wealth - we are rich with priceless gifts. Because, we appreciate the world and perceive its available abundance, we can offer this to others. Instead of desirable things becoming objects of greed, we turn them into vehicles of liberation by using them to make the best of the offerings."

- Pema Chodron

Carrying Guns in Public

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In today's Tulsa World is a letter from one Mr. Jonathon Showman.  He wants HB 1414 passed.  This legislation would allow Oklahomans to pack heat anywhere, anytime.

It took me a minute to stop laughing at Mr. Showman's letter long enough to respond.


I can just see it if 1414 passes.

Half the population of Oklahoma would be hiding in their storm shelters to keep out of the line of sight.

The other half would be turning our cities and towns into one giant OK Coral with bullets flying at all enemies; foreign, domestic and imagined (mostly imagined).

I can't think of anything less in the best interests of public safety than people like Mr. Showman carrying a weapon in public.
 
Yes the Second Amendment allows individuals to own guns.  I have no argument with that.
 
I have a big argument with everyone carrying a weapon.  Can you imagine what will happen the first time there's an argument in Target over who's next?  Can you imagine what road rage would evolve into if everyone driving had a gun?
 
What would happen at an OU football game if Ou was on the wrong side of a ref's call?  Or a high school game?
 
Let's not even think of what would happen at a political meeting or one of those infamous teabagger get togethers.
 
But to be in on the safe side, I wonder if WalMart sells Kevlar? 
 

What's Wrong With Us?

thought for the day

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"The irony of commitment is that its deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation.  To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

- Anne Morriss

today, way back when

_________________________________________________________

1690 Mass Bay becomes 1st American colonial goverment to borrow money

1799 Metric system established in France

1864 General Shermans armies reach Savannah & 12 day siege begins


1869 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)

1906 Pres Theodore Roosevelt (1st American) awarded Nobel Peace Prize
 
1915 10,000,000th model T Ford assembled
 
1919 Nobel peace prize awarded to US president Wilson
 
1927 Grand Ole Opry makes its 1st radio broadcast, in Nashville
 
1931 Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
 
1950 Ralph J Bunche (1st black American) presented Nobel Peace Prize
 
1964 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr Martin Luther King Jr
 
1965 The Grateful Dead played their first concert, at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.


1967 Singer Otis Redding died at age 26 in the crash of his private plane in Wisconsin.

1984 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
 
1985 Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress
 
1995 Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours
 
2002 Former President Jimmy Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in the Middle East in the 1970s.


2007 Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize

2007 NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.

thought for the day

"let go your sadness, give up the fight, follow your madness and take flight".

- Seal

a history lesson

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1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin

1854 Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade," published

1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as "Univac 1107."


1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas," premieres


1967 Jim Morrison, arrested on stage for disturbing the peace

1972 - "Tommy" was performed at London's Rainbow Theatre. The recording of the event was released the next year.
1987  the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank

1992  U.S Marines storm Mogadishu, Somalia

1992 - Bill Wyman left the Rolling Stones after over 30 years with the group.

1994 Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after masturbation comments

Healthcare Shock and Awe - Insurance Not Always Enough

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I am in my 11th month recovering from major spinal surgery. I was in the hospital five days, spent about six months in a back brace and had to deal with all of the things people who have major surgery deal with.

In addition to the numerous drugs prescribed (some of them very good), I had repeated X-rays, lab tests, the walker, the brace, a bone growth stimulator and a host of other things to pay for.

Insurance covered some of the cost.

Let me repeat - some of the cost.

When all was said and done, after the insurance company paid “their share”, my out of pocket was over $80,000.

Let me repeat, after the insurance company paid it’s part, mine tab was $80,000 (give or take a few pennies).

Not that the figure I just quoted is accurate. I’ve been going round and round with the insurance company about what they are supposed to pay versus what they did pay.

Some things they just didn’t pay.

Not everything was 80/20. On some things they paid 70%… or 50%… or 40%. 

Because I lived in Elk City at the time and had to come to Oklahoma City for the surgery, some of the services I needed were declared "out of network" - in some cases after the surgery.  It didn't matter that my hospital, for that matter any hospital in western Oklahoma, didn't offer neurosurgery, "out of network" seems to be the insurance company's mantra.

It didn't matter that they gave pre-approval to the surgery.  Health insurance companies can always change their mind after the fact - and often do.

Trying to figure out my bill was hell. Now I have a health insurance billing specialist working through the bill.

And I have to pay for that.

And it’s just not one bill to one place. There’s a surgeon, cardiac doctor(not sure why), anesthesiologist, hospital, imaging center, brace manufacturer…. The list goes on.

My message is simple, if you think health insurance will save you when you get critically ill or injured, guess again.

The nightmare isn’t having the surgery, it’s dealing with its aftermath.

Pay for Prayer

It seems the Church of Christian Scientists have nothing better to do than get into the scrum that is the debate on healthcare reform.

So the leaders of this church, in keeping with their more evangelical brothers around the US, want to be paid for their work. 

Specifically, they want to be paid for praying over patients in hospitals.

I taste a little vomit in my mouth.

It never occured to me that you would ask for something in return for saying a prayer for someone. Isn't that totally against christian religious beliefs?  Aren't you supposed to help the sick?  The Bible I have says so.

I know the Greeks, Romans, Jews and others had a payer for prayer system but that was aceint history.

Have we become such a nation of "gimmie gimmies" that we must be paid for everything?  Is there no charity left in the US?
The only sin worse that not praying for someone is to charge for it.

Christian Scientists should be ashamed.

thought for the day

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Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures, as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret, and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.


- Swami Sivananda

A Little History Lesson

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1776 George Washington's retreating army crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War.

1863: Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction


1941: The United States declares war on Japan


1941: Jeanette Rankin casts sole vote against WWII


1980  John Lennon is gunned down outside his apartment building in NTC

1982 A man demanding an end to nuclear weapons held the Washington Monument hostage, threatening to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. He was killed by police 10 hours later

2008 In a startling about-face, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal he would confess to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks

thought for the day

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Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely.


- Lama Thubten Yeshe, "Wisdom Energy"

A Little History Lesson for December 7th

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0185 Emperor Lo-Yang, China sees supernova (MSH15-52?)

1787 Delaware becomes 1st state to ratify constitution

1934 Wiley Post discovers jet stream
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1941 Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
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1945 Microwave oven patented

1972 America's last moon mission was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

1988 Earthquake in Armenia ( 60,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless)

thought for the day

I do not go to Mass to make myself "better." I go because, in the dimmest reaches of my scattered, angst-ridden mind, there is something that wants me to get down on my knees and, in spite of my own suffering and all the suffering around me, give thanks. I go because I am beginning to believe that heaven is not in some other world, but shot through the broken world in which we live.


- Heather King, from her essay "Heaven and Earth"

OnThis Day a Long Time Ago

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1790 Congress meets in Philadelphia, new temporary US capital

1833 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin departs Rio de la Plata

1865 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery

1870 Joseph H Rainey, 1st black in House of Reps (SC)

1877 1st sound recording made (Thomas Edison)

1884 Washington Monument completed

1896 D T Suzuki found the awakening at Engakuji temple, in Kamakura

1969 300,000 attend Altamont Calif, rock concert feature Rolling Stones - several peolpe die

What is it with FOX News

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After the wannabe faux celebrity gate crashers mad eit into the White House, FOX News has been focusing their venom and wrath on one Deseree Rogers, the White House Social Secretary.

FOX blames her rather than the Secret Service gate keepers who let the faux famous pair in without the apropriate invitation. 

Even the head of the Secret Service says it was totally their fault and no one elses.

Why does FOX keep blabbering about this being Rogers' fault?

It's just bad journalism (not that FOX has ever been accused of practicing good journalism).

What it really highlights is the demise of objective journalism.  No longer are most "news" organizations charged with getting the news.  They are collecting the informaiton that proves their point - or as in the case of FOX News - making up stuff to prove their position.

thought for the day

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Every day is a leap of faith.

- Lizz Wright

Way Back When Today

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1848 Pres Polk triggers Gold Rush of '49, confirms Calif gold discovery

1901, Walt Disney, the pioneer of animated cartoon films and founder of the Disney theme parks, was born. Following his death on Dec. 15, 1966, his obituary appeared

1933: Prohibition ends


1945 "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida (Bermuda Triangle)

1954 KTEW (now KJRH) TV channel 2 in Tulsa, OK (NBC) begins broadcasting

1974 Monty Python's final episode airs on BBC

1991 Charles Keating Jr (Lincoln Savings & Loan fraud), found guilty

2008 A judge in Las Vegas sentenced O. J. Simpson to 33 years in prison (with eligibility for parole after nine) for an armed robbery at a hotel room.

thought for the day

By standing on his own A man finds happiness. By standing on his own A man finds freedom. By standing on his own He goes beyond the world. By standing on his own He finds the end of the way.


- Ashtavakra Gita 18:50

Today Way Back When

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1619 America's 1st Thanksgiving Day (Va)

1931 "Frankenstein" opens at Mayfair

1943 Commissioner Landis announces any baseball club may sign Negroes

1974 Jenifer Rhymer born

1980 The rock group Led Zeppelin announced it was disbanding, after the death in September of drummer John Bonham

1991 Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity.

2000 A Florida state judge refused to overturn Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's certified victory in Florida, and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.

The Pot Calls the Kettle Black Inside the Beltway Style

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It never ceases to amaze me (and I should have ceased being amazed long ago) about how rampant hypocrisy runs in our nation’s capitol.

As president Obama ramps up his Afghanistan campaign, the holier than thou members of the House and Senate, along with the ever present media talking heads, are screaming about rampant corruption in Afghanistan and the Karzai regime.

These bastions of morality, these followers of the letter of the law, think corruption in Afghanistan is somehow more terrible than the corruption inside the DC Beltway.

My question for all the corruption complainers is - did aliens somehow come in and suck your memories out of your tiny Beltway brains?

Let’s refresh everyone’s memory about corruption in our own backyard:

The Presidency of Richard Nixon - payoffs, burglary, obstruction of justice - the list is huge

The Presidency of Bill Clinton - sex scandal, fundraising crimes, Hazel O’Leary, et al

The Presidency of George W. Bush - Halliburton, Blackwater, Scooter Libby, Abramoff, K Street

Senator John Ensign

Cong. William Jefferson

The Presidency of Ronald Reagan - Ollie North, Iran Contra, John Poindexter, James Watt, Michael Deaver, et al.

Cong. Tom Delay - pre “Dancing With the Stars”

Cong. Duke Cunningham

Former Speaker of the House Jim Wright


You get the idea.

An that’s just national. If you look at any state, you’ll see the same corruption: bribes, featherbedding, kickbacks, manipulation of legislation for personal gain, lying, cheating,…… you get the idea.

Here in Oklahoma, where our Congressional delegation is so hell bent on talking about Afghanistani corruption, have bad memories as well.

Here in Oklahoma we’ve had:


Governor David Hall sent to prison

Governor David Walters pleads guilty to crimes

Former State Senator Gene Stipe - the Godfather of patronage and personal gain while in office

Former State Auditor Jeff McMahan

Former State Rep. Mike Mass

Former Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Reinhart

Senator Jim Inhofe and his insurance company

Senator Tom Coburn and his association with the Senator Ensign Affair

Cong. Mary Fallin and Trooper-gate


The incidents of corruption and scandal on a state and national level go for pages and pages. In fact, if you listed all the political corruption in the US that’s happened in the last 10 years, they would probably cover more pages than the Congressional Healthcare Reform Bill.

The people of the United States are under the mistaken impression that we are somehow better than everyone else, that we’re something to aspire to be like.

Take another look at the brief list of corruption by US politicians.

We have a long way to go before we can lecture another country on their corruption problems.

Countries in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Something to Think About

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Humility is what gives us the vision to look upon our world with fresh eyes. Humility enables us to respect others enough to put down our spurious images of ourselves and open our arms, as individuals and as a nation.


- Joan Chittister

Time Travels

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1621 Galileo invents telescope

1947 Marlon Brando opens on Broadway in "Streetcar Named Desire"

1948 The House Un-American Activities Committee (thanks to Richard Nixon) announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.


1950 - Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast


1965 The album "Rubber Soul" by the Beatles was released.

1967  First human heart transplant

1979: Fans die at The Who concert during rush for first come/first serve seating

2001  Beatle George Harrison dies of cancer

1984  More than 4,000 people died after a cloud of gas escaped from a pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal, India

Same Song, Different War

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For those of us who are old enough, President Obama sounded a lot like LBJ during last night's address to the nation on his intent to ramp up war operations in that insignificant country. 

For you younger kids, he sounded very much like Bush II (I wonder if hes using Bush's speech writer?).

During the height of the Viet Nam conflict in 1967, folk singer Pete Seeger appeared on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and sang  "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", a pointed reference to how bogged down the US had become in that ugly, senseless war.

Last night Obama was no different than LBJ.

The rhetoric was the same - we need just a few more troops, a little more time and more tax dollars to win the war.

It was Johnson's constant refrain for Viet Nam,  just as it was Bush II's for Iraq. 

The problem is, we don't have the cash (Wall Street and the TARP companies got it), we barely have the troops and most importantly, Obama, like Bush, is taking on the wrong enemy.

The Taliban is not a global terrorist network like Al Quaeda.  They are all about local control.  Al Quaeda is the one with international terrorist aspirations. The Taliban didn't attack the US on 9-11. Al Quaeda operatives, based in Saudi Arabia, funded by the Saudi's, did.

Obama's speech sounded way too much like LBJ - we can and must bring down the enemy; we're nation building for the safety of the US and the world. 

Please notice how quickly the other countries of the world are ponying up soldiers, materials and money to help.  Yes there are token presences from some of our allies but this is not a global fight.  You dont' see UN troops or NATO troops.  So much for the global fight on terrorism.

LBJ and McNamara had it wrong. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld got it wrong. Now Obama is sliding down the same slippery slope.

Regardless of his stated timetable, you can bet we'll continue to wage some sort of war in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan for many years to come.  We'll do it until we're forced to tuck our tail between or legs and scurry off like the Soiet Union did some 25 years ago. Or like we did in Viet Nam.

This is a mistake.  It will cost American lives, money and stability.  And for what?  One more attempt at nation building?  One more atempt to pretend we're the defenders of the world?

And what will we get in return?  Cheaper poppies?  Hamid Karzai designer wear? 

After eight year's of Bush's war we are still, to quote Pete Seger, "waste deep in the big muddy and the big fool says to move on".

When Seeger sang that song on national TV, the big fool was LBJ.

After last night's speech, Obama picked up where Johnson left off.



 

Thought for the day

God has made of one blood all nations under heaven. No man can suddenly become my enemy just because he happened to have been born on the other side of a river or a boundary line, and his government has issued an ultimatum against mine. Is it not time that we refused to fight?


- Muriel Lester, social reformer and pacifist (1883-1968)

This Day in History

1805 Napoleon defeats Russians and Austrians at Austerlitz

1859 Militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his Oct. 16 raid on a federal armory at Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia. (Brown had hoped to start an anti-slavery rebellion.)


1942 A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago
1949: Gene Autry’s song “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” hit the record charts.

1954, the Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R Wis., for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute
 
1982 Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center performed the first implant of a permanent artificial heart in a human. Barney Clark lived 112 days with the device.



2001 Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection in one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history.

Is it any wonder

Caribou Barbie, aka Sarah the Baraccuda Palin, is upset with the  media again.  It seems the media has reported that instead of taking the bus on her book tour (as she claims to be doing), she's getting from town to town in a Gulfstream jet.  the bus picks her up at the airport and wisks her to the book signing, then back to the airport.

Palin must be too ignorant or badly mislead by others to believe her constant misleading statements and outright lies will not catch up with her.

*********************************************************************************

Poor Tiger Woods.  He finally found a lie he couldn't play even though his wife selected a club for him.

From a PR standpoint, it's easier to fess up right away and then move on. Too bad no one told Woods.

******************************************************************************

Tonight the President speaks about Afghanistan - and explain why we'll continue to fight a war we can't win.

*********************************************************************************

quote for the day

Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom and dignity. It is not enough, as communist systems have assumed, merely to provide people with food, shelter and clothing. Human nature needs to breathe the precious air of liberty.


- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A quote aboutwar from a warrior

“I hate war,” said Dwight Eisenhower, “as only a soldier who has lived it can, as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”


“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

 
It's too bad Obama has not learned this lesson.  it's also sad Obama hasn't learned from the Russians or Alexander the Great. 
 
Afghanistan always wins.
 
We are about to be plunged into another Viet Nam.  The insane war in Iraq has sapped the US for the last eight years, costing us lives, money and stability in the world.  We have acheived nothing.
 
Afghanistan will be no different.
 
Ike was right.
 
War settles nothing.  It costs everything
 

Thought for the day

Skillful speech not only means that we pay attention to the words we speak and to their tone but also requires that our words reflect compassion and concern for others and that they help and heal, rather than wound and destroy.


- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, "Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness"

Today in History

1824 - the presidential election goes to the Hose of Representatives.  Adams wins, Jackson loses.

1913 - Ford starts the first continuous assembly line

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to go to the back of the bus - igniting the civil rights movement

1963 The Beatles' first single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," was released in the United States.


1968 - Pirate Radio Modern (259) (England) begins transmitting

1982 -  Michael Jackson releases 'Thriller'

20 questions to ponder

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day, "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well..

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Oklahoma School System Sucks

Let's see, going from a wet state to a dry state was supposed to cure our school funding woes - didn't happen.


Liquor by the drink was supposed to cure our school funding woes - didn't happen

The lottery was supposed to cure our school funding woes - didn't happen.

One only has to look at the makeup of Oklahoma's far flung public school empire budget to realize that we're spending disporportionatly on students depending on where they live; that too much money goes to "administrative costs" and that Oklahoma, despite all it's braying, isn't really interested in better schools.

Money is not the problem - eduators, politicians and parents are the problem.

If Oklahomans wanted a better education system, they would, as we speak, be up in arms about the shoddy, half assed education system our state has today.

But, we're not. We love all the state jobs created by common education.

God forbid we shold rock the boat and redesign the public school system so that it actually turns out kids who have learned something besides how to take a test.

It's time for government and educations to stop their turf war, admit they current system is a total failure and create a new one.

It takes guts to do that - something educators and politicians have litte of when it comes to education reform.

DC Catholic Church Does an UnChristian Thing

The mighty archdiocese of Washington DC has announced it will cease offering social services to over 70,000 DC residents (about 1/3 of which are homeless) if the DC government allows same sex marriage.

This is from the same group that has spend decades covering up same sex molestations of young boys by priests.  If priests can have same sex sex shouldn't it be okay for some to engange in same sex marriage?

Apparently not.

So if the big kid on the social services block can't get it's way, it's going to take its toys and go home, leaving 70,000 poor people hungry, homeless, sick and ill clothed.

This threat by the Catholic Curch is the most un-Christian thing they can do.


Doesn't the Bible say feed the hungry, clothe the poor and heal the sick?

I guess that part of the Bible isn't in the DC Catholic Diocese's version. 

The Bible also says be compassionate - another tenan t of thei rfaitht eh DC Diocese is willing to toss out the window.

As this latest anti Christian move by the Catholic Church shows us once again, organized religion has little to do with folowing the preceipts of it's faith, it's about getting and keeping power and about forcing a particular belief system on everyone else no matter who it hurts in the process.
 
 

Time for Cobun to Leave DC for Good

How sad that Senator/Dr/Minister Tom Coburn continues to embarass the state of Oklahoma with his "Just Say NO" form of governance and representation.


Let's face it, Coburn isn't happy unless he's the odd man out, the contrarian, the stick inthe mud.

Government is about doing what's best for the people and the country, something Coburn forgot a long time ago.

We need a senator who has more than a one word vocabulary.

It's time for the people of Oklahoma to get him out of office and get someone who will work to make things better.

Hasan not the first or last to kill becaue of faith

Whether it was Bush II, abortion clinic bombers, post WWII Muslims and Hindus in India, Jews and Muslims in Palestine,, Chrisitan of the Crusades, Catholics during the Middle Ages, people have used religion as an excuse to kill, plunder and attempt to exterminate those of opposing views.


John Brown cited his belief in God as the reason for the Harper's Ferry raid at the outset of the War for Southern independence.

Mormans have murdered in the name of their God and protecting the faith.

God told me to has become a convenient excuse for someone to committ mahem whenever the mood strikes them.

Hasan's actions are not new - this type of thing happens regualrly around the world - it's just making its way to the US.

Senator No Votes Against Troops

Senator/Doctor/Minister Coburn doesn't hate troops - he just likes to say no all the time. He was that way as a Congressman and continues his solo "just say no" campaign in the Senate. 

His latest no is to raise benefits for war vets.  It isn't that Coburn doesn't like the troops - he just doesn't want to help them just like he doesn't want government to help anyone.


Why Oklahoma elected a do nothing is beyond me. He never seems to have a sonstructive idea of his own - he just likes to be contrary regardless of the issue.

I imagine if God came down and called the sky blue Coburn would argue about the hue of blue.

He has no solutions for our problems, he has no alternative. He knows what he's against but has no clue what he's for.

Above all else, if he can't support those who served in the military, it's time for Coburn to retire and let someone else represent Oklahoma in the Senate.

Maybe he can get a job at the house on C Street. He seems to fit right in.

FOX News calls for Inquisition

Fox News presenter Brian Killmeade has called for all Muslims in the US to be brought in for interrogation to insure they are Americans first so the inquisition has already begun.  Count on Fox and the rest of the radical right conservatives to beat the war drums for some sort of internment camp for Muslims while we sort out the good guys from the bad guys.


Get ready to see some legislation before Thanksgiving that would bring back loyalty oaths and a bill that will make the Patriot Act look positively Constitutional.

Here in Oklahoma we're already hearing the quiet drumbeat of those who believe all Muslims are the enemy and we must "do something" about them.

We need to be much more concerned with why this soldier decided to murder his fellow soldiers.

It's too easy to say he was a Muslim.

That's bigotry.

A Culture of Henne's

Everyone Wants to be a Star

The latest parental escapade to get their family noticed is the Henne (as in hiney - horses ass) Family. There’s the alien believing, tornado chasing, wife swapping reality show wanna be’s who decided to create some publicity for themselves.

Obviously they swallowed too much helium while filling their silver weather balloon.

Enter Falcon Henne - the stooge in the hoax who ended up hiding - the only bright one of the bunch - while the Henne family, the Colorado law enforcement folks and every news outlet in the universe chased the silver spaceship across parts of Colorado, convinced by Henne that his six-ear-old was inside.

Of course he wasn’t and the parents now face a boatload of charges and fees connected with the chase and hoax.

They’re not the first. We have the Dugger family who keep squirting out babies to keep their reality show on the air.

Don’t’ forget Octomom. Incredibly she got a reality show too. She must be channeling Anna Nicole Smith for tips on how to act incredibly stupid and get paid for it.

And then there are the little darlings of the child pageant shows, the Housewives from everywhere, Bridezillas…… the list goes on and on and on and on and on.

At first I wanted to ask why these people demean themselves to the point of looking like the lowest of the low. But I realized, like Omarossa, they all crave their 15 minutes of fame and the chance to make some quick cash and occasionally some big bucks. There are always people who will do just about anything for a buck.

In full disclosure I once ate a garden snail for the lofty sum of twenty five cents.

But the bigger question came to mind.

What is it about us as a society that craves watching these misfit fame seekers made total fools of themselves again and again?

Why do we encourage them?

Is it a “there before the grace of God go I?” mentality.

Or - do we so crave more and more of this insanity as an escape from our self imposed hum drum lives?

Whatever the reason, our cultural obsession with these celebrity wanna be’s will continue to drive the Henne’s and other families to get more outrageous with their attempts at fame. As the demand goes up, so will the extremeness of the stunts. I’m sure that one day someone will die trying to get on a reality show. And I’m sure there will be a Neilson record viewership as the death is turned into a special.

Historians tell us we can tell the nature of a culture by its amusements. The Roman’s had the circus. Hitler had his martial parades, we have our reality shows.

What a way for our society to be remembered.

If An NFL Player Can Be An Ass, Why Can't An Owner?

Isn't it interesting how being a pro sports star overcomes a myriad of bad behaviors (legal and illegal) and often boorish comments and actions.


It's okay to be a drug user, murderer, sexual pervert, alcoholic or other type of lawbreaker and still be allowed to play in the NFL - or any other pro sports team.

But it's not okay to be a politically verbose, rabble roouser whose schtick is to inflame and insite his audience and be a part owner of a professional sports team.

It seems to be there's a tremendous double standartd being set up by the NFL that discriminates against Rush Limbaugh.

Do I think he's a blowhard, braggart and general nincompoop?

You betcha.

Do I think that disqualifies him from owning part of an NFL team?

No. Not as long as the NFl continues to welcome back with open arms people like Michael Vick, Steve McNair,Michael Irvin, Lawrence Taylor, Randy Moss to name a few and the other "stars" of the game who commit crimes.

Betting on Education

Rats! Crapped out again.

Expectations by the public and by government about Oklahoma's state lottery were pipe dreams waiting for something good in the bowl (sorry, a 60’s metaphor).

Oklahoma has long looked for a magic bullet when it comes to funding common education. You may recall that selling alcohol in package stores was supposed to increase revenues for education. Then it was liquor by the drink. Don’t forget all the cash Remington Park and para-mutual betting was supposed to generate (along with that avalanche of cash from state horsemen and women).

And then it was the lottery’s turn to save public education because Oklahomans surely loved to gamble as much as they loved to drink.

Goveror Brad Henry and his pals expected $300 million a year from the "A" lottery plan. 

The State got a watered down version which was supposed to generate $150 million a year for common education.

Woops - wrong again.  The Oklahoma Lottery is generating about $70 million a year. 

Promises, Promises!

Oh well, another search for the Holy Grail of education funding became so much slowly fades from view while some Oklahomans are dreaming and scheming to find that next sure thing to fund common education.


You are right to think that any additional cash to the system is a good thing. We can all use an extra buck or two in our pocket. As always when it comes to state education, it’s good to look at who is getting the “extra” cash

The basic questions of how our money is sent go either unanswered or shrouded in such edu-speak that no one really knows where the money goes.

What you didn’t mention was how badly the current system is run or how totally out of date it is. We’re trying to get students prepared for the 21st Century with an early 20th Century education model.

We have over 500 school districts. Why? There are some high schools that graduate five or fewer students a year. Shouldn’t that school be merged with a larger one (economies of scale). Why do we cling to this persistent notion that every town deserves a school?

What about purchasing? It seems we would do better if our state had a real central purchasing unit, one that schools had to use when purchasing for their schools. As it is, local districts can pretty much purchase from whomever they like.

And lets not forget the State Superintendent of Schools. That budget continues to climb for an office that has relatively little to do on a daily basis except promote the State Superintendent.

Of course, we do have to do something about the idea that teachers only work nine months a year and they most are second income earners. Oklahoma refuses to accept the notion that educators are actually the most important person their children come in contact with after their parents. If they did, we'd pay them like the rock stars most of them are.

We only put an emphasis on schools when their football team is winning. It’s inconceivable that a high school football coach makes over six figures (Midwest City) while teachers make a third of that.

It’s time for Oklahoma to totally revamp its common education program. Chipping away at the problem won’t help. We need to totally reorganize the State Department of Education. Emphasis must be on the classroom, not the boardroom.

As long as we continue to think of education in this state the way it’s always been thought of (a nice home for football teams and a lace to park the kids during the day), Oklahoma will never be more than a third tier state.

Our kids deserve better.

Semper Fi - Sometimes

“Always faithful” for those untrained in Latin or not familiar with the motto of the US Marine Corps.


Too bad it apparently doesn’t apply to all Marines all the time.

It seems back in 1980 those military bureaucrats found out the water being used by Marines and their families at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina was dangerously poisoned with a variety of chemicals, including trihalomethanes. After getting test results in 1980 and verifying them again and again, it took the Marine Corps and the DOD over five years to shut down the tainted water supply.

While the Marine Corps was told to contact 500,000 people about the problem and very real health risks, the Marines continue to say no problem existed.

Fast forward to 2009.

Over 1,600 people have filed claims against the DOD and Marine Corps for poisoning them, causing everything from cancer to Leukemia

Ex Marines are also coming up with a rare disease, breast cancer.

What they want is the Marine Corps and the government to admit their diseases were caused by the tainted water on base and to allow them to get VA health benefits.

But, the Marine Corps and the DOD are balking, saying breast cancer and other diseases caused by known carcinogens in the water don’t merit VA benefits.

Let’s hear it for supporting our troups!

This isn’t new. Remember Agent Orange poisoning? It took decades before the government would admit what scientists already knew - Agent Orange made people deathly sick. Many of the military victims of Agent Orange died horrible deaths because they couldn’t get VA benefits.

All because the government didn’t want to admit a mistake and take care of those who served their country.

And let’s not forget the government refusing to allow soldiers to get treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome through the VA even though, once again, medical experts said the syndrome was directly related to serving in combat situations.

So once again, military men and women suffered because the government wouldn’t allow the VA to treat them.

Remember the treatment scandal at Walter Reed Army Hospital?

Why does the government feel the need to make getting VA benefits for service related injuries so difficult?

Why do we not take proper care of those who choose to serve in the military?

We ask them to put their lives on the line, we make lots of promises about benefits and healthcare should they get injured.

We promise!

Then we jerk the rug out from under them every chance we(the US Government) can. The Marine Corps has the reputation for taking care of it’s own. When did that change?

It’s a shame. It’s a crime.

It’s dishonorable.

Our marines, soldiers and sailors deserve better from us.

Back in 1957 my family moved to Camp LeJeune. A mere tot back then, I remember very little of our time there.

What I do know is that my mother died from breast cancer and my sister is a breast cancer survivor.

Was it in the water?

How many more have to die or get sick before the Marine Corps owns up to its error and helps the Marines who need it.?

Why is it taking so long?

“Semper Fi” used to be the Marine Corps Motto.

Now I think it’s changed to “Semper Fi…. Interdum”

Always faithful…. sometimes.

Cleansing the Bible

Oh my God, Allah, Supreme Deity, et al.


Scott Schafly wants to cleanse the "liberal bias" from the Bible?

Cleanse?

That sounds suspiciously like someone who wants to make changes to support his or her belief system. I can think of a number of leaders past and present who "cleanse" history, books and traditions to make them conform to their personal beliefs.

As with journalism, I guess guys like Scott never let a good translation get in the way of making it say and mean what he want.

Anyone who has taken more than a couple of years of Latin can attest to making Cicero and Ovid translations come out differently from the accepted translations.

The only thing more insane than the belief that the Bible is the unaltered, unerring word of the Christian God is that Scott Schafly is the man to translate the earliest copies of the Bible (no originals exist) to the "correct" version of the Bible.

What gall! What chutzpah!!

What a load of crap.

This is yet another attempt by the radical religious right to make sure their religion and now their Bible conforms to their notions of what thye want their religion to be.

Just as the early followers of Paul decided their beliefs were right and all others were wrong, now we have a 21st Century version of Paul's followers hell bent on forcing the beliefs about Christianity and the Bible to conform to their political views.

What always amuses me is that Schafly and those like refuse to follow one of the basic tenants of their faith and a lesson from their Bible - Tolerance.

Why are they so adamant that their beliefs, their faith, their God and now their Bible are the "one and only true way"?

It doesn't take much to realize that they are doing this, not out of a sense of enlightment but out of a need to control, a need to be right and a need to be self righteous.

Maybe part of the Tribulation is that we all have to suffer through the insufferable rantings and ravings of Schafly and his quest to "cleanse" the Bible.

Perhaps he should spent a little more following Christ's teachings instead of trying to force everyone else to believe like he does.

Then again, the cynic comes out in me and I must wonder if this is all a ploy to get more cash into the political organization that is Scott's mom, noted right wing political and religious zealot Phyllis Schafly.

Use religion for personal and political gain?

Who'd have thunk it?

Oh..... Scott Schafly

Remember the Living

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Memorial Day 2009

This used to be a day of solemn remembrances for the men and women who died serving their country.

To many today is nothing more than the end of a three day weekend, a chance to spend an extra day eating too much, getting sunburned at the lake or picnicking with family and friends or simply kicking back and relaxing.

It's a trite old expression - they died so we could have the freedoms we are enjoying on this long weekend.

But it's true.

The worst thing about freedom is there's always someone trying to take it away from you (foreign and domestic). Because of that, there is always a need for those who will go fight.

So on this Memorial Day, I'd like to pay tribute to someone who believed that his mission was to serve in the military to keep his country safe.

My father.

Roy Harold Rhymer grew up in Hancock County Tennessee, 80 miles or so straight north of Knoxville and just south of Bristol. That's about as far back in the Tennessee hill country as you can get. The family farm lay on the Clinch River without indoor plumbing, without electricity.

Right after Pearl Harbor my dad's older brother Clay enlisted in the Marine Corps. Not quite a year later, at the ripe old age of 15 1/2 and still in high school, my father lied about his age and joined the Corps.

After boot camp at Parris Island he shipped out to the Pacific as part of the 3rd Marine Division. Bouganville, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were among his battles.

After the war my father, since promoted to sergeant and was promptly shipped off to the Middle East, serving in Damascus, Syria and Beruit, Lebanon. That is where he met and married my mother Rosalind.

He got back to the states just in time to go to Korea (right after I was born) with the 1st Marine Division, landing at Inchon and later going through the hell that was the Chosin Reservoir.

Returning to the states, he went to OCS, was commissioned and began his life as a Marine officer.

During the so called post war period, my father's unit was called up during the Cuban Missle Crisis and did tours in Viet Nam.

Despite his lack of formal education, my father read everything. He was a student of military history and foreign affairs. Because of his thirst for education and knowledge that would help him advance, the Corps made sure my father attended every school possible.

His military education and his personal studies allowed him to serve in a variety of posts that today only a college graduate would fill.

My father loved the Corps and loved his country. In his mind, there was no sacrifice too great as long as it meant serving the Corps and his country.

My father was easy to spot in a crowd. Standing six foot seven, he was imposing in his uniform with a chest full of medals. His service jacket contains a number of commendations for his service to the Corps and his country in a variety of capacities.

His proudest acheivement in the Corps however, was that he was one of only a handfull of officers who wore the Good Conduct Medal - awarded only to enlisted men.

After 30 years service, my father retired. Lack of a college degree prevented him from being promoted higher or serving longer, something he wanted more than anything else.

The Marine Corps gave him everything. He returned the favor.

My father died in 1978. He lies at rest in Arlington National Cemetary next to my mother.

Thanks Dad.

Sometimes You Find Yourself Being an Ass

That's me....... ass.

Not the Demcratic Party type - or the Republican version.

Just an ass, someone who forget the tenants of common sense, his faith and his beliefs on the ways to treat his fellow man.

My exact actions are best left between me and the other person.

In the process - of which I was strangly out of touch - I managed to hurt someone I care very much about.

Giving a big me culpa won't take back the hurt I caused.

So I urge anyone who reads this to please be a little more aware, spend a little more time thinking about others first.... especially the ones you care about most.

You don't get very many people like that in your life, you need to hang on to them.

A Few Stupid American Tricks

It's tough to know where to begin.

Let's start with political celebrity teen mom Bristol Palin.

Here's a poor unwed teenage high school dropout who was paraded around by her politically ambitious mother during a presidential campaign as an example of a variety of things depending on where the campaign stopped for a speech.

On the one hand, she was lauded as a responsible teen/adult that made the difficult but right decision about her pregnancy (no abortion).

She was also used as an example of what happens when teens don't get real abstinence education (she did so I'm guessing it doesn't always work).

She was slammed as a vocal pro abstinence teen that let a penis get in the way of her (and her VP candidate mother) message of no sex before marriage.

Now, the teen mom is being slammed as being an inappropriate spokesperson for teen abstinence.

Are you kidding? Who better to talk about the realities of teen pregnancy and the need for kids not to have kids than Ms. Palin?

We have former drug addicts, alcoholics and gamblers talking in public about their problem and how people shouldn't make the same mistake as they did. They are often moving testaments to the errors of their ways, descriptions of what really happens and why it's bad.

If Ms. Palin has the guts t stand up and tell the world about the hardships of teen motherhood and that she made a bad decision, we should applaud her for having the guts to expose her mistakes in public. If teens listen and some don't make the same mistake (yes, having a baby out of wedlock as a teen is a mistake) she should be commended, not vilified.


And then there's the hubub about Miss California.

it seems the recently busty, self professed Christian beauty posed for semi nude underwear pictures to make a few bucks and continue her career as a model.

So?

Oh i forgot, she's against gay marriage so anything she does must be awful and condemned from the highest minaret.

Blah, Blah, Blah.

Does anyone see a double standard here? We demand our beauty pageant contestants, movie and TV stars, entertainers and teen idols of the female persuasion be hot, sexy, over exposed
and semi X-rated. We want them to look like alleged male fantasies about women.

Pick up most any men's or women's magazine and they're telling women and girls how to be more sexy, more enticing, be better in bed and the object of desire for all men with a pulse. Not only that, kids get the idea that exploring their sexuality at 12 or 13 is perfectly okay - they get it from TV, movies and music videos.

We even have five and six year old girls in bathing suit competitions.

And then we wonder why good kids like Ms. Palin explore their sexuality and get pregnant.

We can't have it both ways.


Manny, Manny, Manny

You took a drug that does one of two things; helps you get pregnant or masks performance enhancing drugs.

A-Rob did some enhancement drugs too.

So let them.

After all, we all pay top dollar for the 21st Century version of the Roman Circus. We want our gladiators (football, baseball - whatever the sport - college or pro) to give us a good show, to be as big as possible and to inflict as much damage as possible to the opposing side o it the longest home run or whatever the sport demands on the jock's quest for immortality.

If sports fans want the highlight reels to show the violent collisions and abuses of the gladiator's body every week , we need to let them take whatever the drug is that keeps fans' butts in the seats and in front of the TV screen.

Above all, let's stop being hypocritical.


And last but not least, let's have a few words about those denizens of the state Capitol, those paragons of virtue..... The Oklahoma State Legislature.


They are determined, let by legislator/wing nut Charlie Keys, and in violation of Oklahoma's Constitution and the US Constitution, to put a monument to the Ten Commandments in a prominent place at the Capitol.

Now if anyone has watched the shenanigans of the legislature the past, oh I don't know, 50 years or so, they'd know these people talk a good game but many seem to lose their memory of the Ten Commandments as soon as they acheive elected office.

In all seriousness, this is just one more example of a few religious fanatics demanding that everyone cow tow to their particular brand of religion.

It's wrong.

What is it about these self professed Christians that the only way they can feel comfortable with their faith is to demand everyone else be bombarded with the tenants of their religion?

Are they so unsure of their faith that they are determined to make everyone else believe that way? I guess they subscribe to the herd mentality or safety in numbers as opposed to genuine belief in their God. If they truly believed, they wouldn't be threatened by other faiths or demand everyone believes as they do.

And let's not forget, these are the same Christan leaders who get their panties in a wad when Iran or Iraq or some other country declares that it has a state religion, one that bars Christianity. These leaders rant and rave about how these countries should be feared because they are ruled by a faith they don't believe in, much less understand.

But isn't that what these Christians want? They want the US to be a one faith theocracy (their's of course).

The spend a lot of their time trying to force their religion on everyone and condemning other faiths.

They need to spend a bit more time not preaching,but practicing what they preach.