scraping my teeth

just like you daddy.....

2012-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

i never thought i'd live to see the day when a son could look up at his father and say, "when i grow up i want to have a husband just like yours, daddy!"

my liberal friends call me an extremist or alarmist when i confront the logic and morality of homosexual marriage. they say that there is no fear of raising a child with certain preconceptions. "what are you afraid of? you think they're going to raise a host of little homosexuals?" they go on to ask me, "did you ever 'choose' to be heterosexual?" "do you think homosexuals, 'choose' to be that way?" my answer is yes. at some point in any person's life, they are bound to make a determined choice of how they will act in the world. now, whether or not there is a "gay gene" is not what i'm concerned with. i am concerned with learned behavior. and there is no more influential place of learning than the home.

i was born into a lower middle class, christian household. we had a traditional american family: dad, mom, sisters & brother. it was the norm. i admired my parents and the life we had. especially when exposed to the households of others. my mom loved to cook, clean & care for her family. my dad loved to work. my sisters loved to pick at one another and i loved to pick on them. we all picked on my youngest brother! i was raised knowing what a family should look like.

now, let's take a look at a new definition of family; two dads & a son. this young boy's norm is two fathers. he is only exposed to this norm and knows no other - except for television families. if this boy is anything like i was, he loves his family and most likely will be influenced by the structure of it. no matter what his own personal desires may be, they could very easily be outweighed by the influence of his own love for the structure of his household. this child is raised knowing what a family should look like.

so, can a child be influenced to live a certain lifestyle merely by years of social interaction? YES, a child can be molded, trained and conditioned to lead a lifestyle that they would not have, had they not been raised in a particular type of household. (i.e. parents with drug addictions, alcoholism, domestic violence or an organized, caring peaceful household.) children learn to present themselves in the world by what they see at home. it is a perfect example of learned behavior. using such an example, it could be very easy to imagine a son looking up at his father and saying, "when i grow up i want to have a husband like yours, daddy!"

i never thought i'd live to see the day.

lessons from bolshevism

2011-10-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

i am an avowed member of the petit bourgeois. i am not, however, as many who use this name in a derogatory manner, a bourgeois wannabe. i don't want to be rich, richer, poor or poorer. i love my life; my wife, sons, grandkids, home, church, job, car, hobbies & leisure time. and yes, although i have may issues with the direction it is currently going, i love my country! i do not usually occupy myself with political things. i find it inane and, frankly, a whole lot of useless waste of time. something that takes me away from my learning, leisure & family. of late, however, i have had a drive unlike any other i've experienced in my life. the occupy wall street protests have awakened in me a sense of duty and urgency that has long been missing.

as most post modern americans i am a frequent visiter of facebook. i discovered the OWS protests not through any media outlets, but from a single post from one of my "friends". immediately i knew that it was not what it seemed. the crowds of wrinkle-free, long-haired, disheveled nouveau hippies were not just out there because they didn't want to pay their college loans - although, that is most certainly part of it - they want a revolution. they are outspoken opponents of capitalism. they lay the blame for our current situation clearly at the feet of wall street, big banks & evil corporations. the words of the protesters looked eerily familiar, as if i'd read them before.

my curiousity was aroused. i went to the official site and read a small blurb explaining the aim of the movement.

"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."

huh, arab spring, eh? wonder what they're all about?

"The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي‎; also known as the Arabic Rebellions or the Arab Revolutions) is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world. Since 18 December 2010 there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a civil war in Libya resulting in the fall of its regime; civil uprisings in Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen; major protests in Israel, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman, and minor protests in Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara. Clashes at the borders of Israel in May 2011 have also been inspired by the regional Arab Spring.

The protests have shared techniques of civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving strikes, demonstrations, marches and rallies, as well as the use of social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness..."

i just read the wiki page, i figured the official arab spring site was only in arabic. still curious, i looked up "technics of civil resistance".

"The term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine the adversary's sources of power. Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, and the creation of parallel institutions of government. Civil resistance movements' motivations for avoiding violence are generally related to context, including a society's values and its experience of war and violence, rather than to any absolute ethical principle. Cases of civil resistance can be found throughout history and in many modern struggles, against both tyrannical rulers and democratically elected governments. The phenomenon of civil resistance is often associated with the advancement of democracy."

non-violent force, protests & revolution. these are reoccurring descriptive terms that are a common thread so far. by the way, isn't non-violent force a oxymoron?

i continued to study this movement. the OWS site had a link to "a call to action."

A Modest Call to Action on this September 17th
Posted Sept. 17, 2011, 9:46 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

"This statement is ours, and for anyone who will get behind it. Representing ourselves (not the movement as a whole), we bring this call for revolution.

We want freedom for all, without regards for identity, because we are all people, and because no other reason should be needed. However, this freedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry.

Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say, money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule, whether by the sword or by the dollar.

We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding.

We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites.

We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.

If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.

If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.

And so we call on people to act

We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.

We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.

We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.

We call for the organization of people's assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.

We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.

We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic."

the picture was beginning to get clearer: take, seize, control, protest, act, power. this movement has a clear agenda and it is revolution. as a christian, i wondered why, if these people have access to enough contributors to maintain an ongoing protest for over a month, why didn't they begin raising money through charity & good will, to give to those who they say are the 99%? why was their time occupied with protest? the answer is, power. political power is the aim of this movement.

so intrigued was i at this point that i ran to my bookshelf and pulled down a few books. books that i thought might contain similar calls to action. i quoted the original marxist call to action in my last post. but, it bears repeating, this time the whole final chapter: Chapter IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Opposition Parties

"Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the existing working-class parties, such as the Chartists in England and the Agrarian Reformers in America.

The Communists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class; but in the movement of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that movement. In France, the Communists ally with the Social-Democrats against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the right to take up a critical position in regard to phases and illusions traditionally handed down from the great Revolution.

In Switzerland, they support the Radicals, without losing sight of the fact that this party consists of antagonistic elements, partly of Democratic Socialists, in the French sense, partly of radical bourgeois.

In Poland, they support the party that insists on an agrarian revolution as the prime condition for national emancipation, that party which fomented the insurrection of Cracow in 1846.

In Germany, they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a revolutionary way, against the absolute monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, and the petty bourgeoisie.

But they never cease, for a single instant, to instill into the working class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat (this is what right wing rhetoric calls advancing cultural warfare), in order that the German workers may straightway use, as so many weapons against the bourgeoisie, the social and political conditions that the bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its supremacy, and in order that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in Germany, the fight against the bourgeoisie itself may immediately begin.

The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because that country is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that is bound to be carried out under more advanced conditions of European civilisation and with a much more developed proletariat than that of England was in the seventeenth, and France in the eighteenth century, and because the bourgeois revolution in Germany will be but the prelude to an immediately following proletarian revolution.

In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things.

In all these movements, they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!"

i have to ask again, does this sound familiar?

in just a quick glance through one of my favourite books from one of my favourite writers; modern times by paul johnson, i came across a description of lenin in the years of the bolshevik revolution.

"certainly politics now obsessed him, then and for ever, and his approach was always cerebral rather than emotional...aged twenty two he dissuaded friends from collecting money for victims of a famine, on the grounds that hunger 'performs a progressive function' and would 'cause the peasants to reflect on the fundamental facts of capitalist society'."

so, instead of contributing money, food, clothes & time toward helping to meet the needs of those who are - in the words of our current revolutionaries - the 99%, it was politically expedient to allow them to hunger. why? because, to a revolutionary, the revolution is more important than the humans for which it claims to be concerned.

returning now to my original motivation for writing today, the target of today's, OWS protest: the homes of the bank owners. this will fail as it always has. the ultra-rich have enough money to insulate themselves from these kinds of attacks. the thing about it is, the protesters know this. if not, the organizers of the protest know it. that is why they will eventually turn on the petit bourgeois, those wannabes who consort with the enemy in hopes of eating the scraps from the table. i call, BULLSHIT.

as i said when i first started this post, i LOVE my life. there is nothing that would make me screw up what i have, ESPECIALLY, some misguided revolutionary wannabes fresh out of college who don't have enough peach fuzz to cover a small shriveled grape!

i truly hope the time never comes that i have to defend myself against a group of unorganized neo-revolitionaries. but, if they decide to continue on this quixotic quest, i can envision bad things happening.

occupying wall street

2011-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

"In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements, they bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labor everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win."

does any of the previous quote look familiar? take a moment to look around. think about the middle east and the famous "student uprising" that was started on facebook. take a moment to compare the current facebook uprising occurring in america: occupy wall street. apparently this movement is gaining some steam and moving out of manhattan into flyover country.

now that you have this picture in your mind, take a trip back to the early 20th century. try to imagine the rush of being involved in the communist movements that swept asia & eastern europe. i'm sure that everyone of those people imagined the egalitarian utopia that would soon encompass the globe. in russia, china & most of eastern europe "the people" ascended to power and ran the tyrants out of the country. (or, in the case of the czar, executed them) it was a true victory and an obvious sign that the historical determinism of marx was spot on! no longer would people be oppressed by unjust, greedy, tyrannous thugs. the world was now on the proper footing. it's path marked out by all those fellow travelers that paved the way.

by the end of the 20th century millions upon millions had died in the largest social experiment ever attempted in human history. formerly rich and prosperous countries were brought to ruin. a handful of party elites had become the very thing they had purported to hate, tyrants. this was the ultimate outcome of the socialist movement. (china, being the one hold out, realized that communism could be propped up by offering cheap labor to the rest of the world & creating a trade imbalance that would drain capitalist countries of their capital.) it was basically, "de ja vu, all over again!" nothing had changed.

toggle forward and find yourself at a bar discussing current events with the chic urban hipster. he/she/it, believes that the cold war was just a manifestation of the military industrial complex. it had nothing to do with the fact that the communists from the USSR had spent a large portion of their national budget supporting the popular front, fellow travelers & leftist sympathizers in america in an attempt to infiltrate the US and turn it's people against the government. it had nothing to do with trying to destroy western civilization. not to mention the their verbal threats (if you think it was just saber rattling, ask any eastern european country.) , political rhetoric, stockpiling of weapons & nuclear warheads. it was merely a fable concocted & taught to school children to make them more patriotic. unfortunately, history does not confirm this bit of liberal fiction.

a question that usually evades these young, eager, revolutionaries is: what happened to the people with money? what happened to the money? did the revolutionaries simply take it when the revolution was over? In part, yes. however, the only thing they actually got was the stuff. the factories, equipment, offices, land and homes were abandoned. but, as the people with money began to see the writing on the wall, they moved their money somewhere safe. somewhere the revolution couldn’t touch it.

the truth about marxist revolutionaries is the same today as it was in 1848 when marx penned the opening words of the communist manifesto:

"A spectre is haunting Europe -- the spectre of communism."

remember the closing words of the manifesto & opening words of this post: "communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things." and further into the document he writes: "Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie." how, you ask, will this be accomplished?

"They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions."

ALL EXISTING SOCIAL CONDITIONS. that is all encompassing. another translation says that "all existing social structures" will be overthrown. the person, the family, the home, the church, finance, business, government, all structures and conditions will & must be overthrown.

and what does marx describe as the "leading question"? property. this is what emboldens the jobless, homeless malcontents that now occupy a small park in manhattan, near wall street. they don't want people to have the right to own things. yet, our founding fathers believed the right to ownership of private property to be the very nail upon which liberty hung! (there are some in this current movement, I’m sure, who merely want people to be limited in how much they can own. either way, it is a shot across the bow of the good ship liberty!) in fact, to take it to it's ultimate conclusion, they honestly believe that the money being handled by the financial establishment is theirs. that's why they believe they have the right to hassle private citizens. it is a misconstrued & misappropriated sense of justice. it is the culmination of years & years of indoctrination in marxist ideology - doled out by the public schools & university professors.

one thing I’ll say about the american marxist, he is patient. he waited out the whole of the 20th century like that fish that takes small bites of it’s prey and scurries away to hide (...usually in some cluttered university office or artist commune.) patiently eating small portions until the united states looks like a turkey carcass after thanksgiving dinner. to a man, every supporter of marxist ideology explains that, regardless of it’s history of complete and catastrophic failure, marxism works. It just hasn’t been done correctly yet!

one of my favourite movies also contains one of my favourite quotes. it is both poignant and instructive.

"the greatest trick the devil every pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

another classic truism is: those who refuse to learn from history are destined to repeat it.

the old lies of the left have become post-modern truths, precisely because no one has stood up like the little boy in the story and pointed out that the emperor is buck-assed-naked! consider this post my accusing finger. the specter lies at the door and is dressed in a coat of progressivism.

"Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win."

J'accuse!

signed: ben c huggins, petit bourgeois

postscript:

out of morbid curiosity, i watched a youtube video shot at the “occupy wall street” protest. a well dressed young black man was tearfully pointing toward a tall building and screaming, “that’s the bank that took my parent’s home!” immediately I was drawn in by the scene. In all sincerity the young man pleaded with the inanimate edifice of stone, steel and glass. he continued, “they played by the rules. they obeyed the law. they went to school. they got their phds. and you took their home!!!” right about there I began to become less sympathetic. playing by the rules and obeying the law means paying your mortgage. the only way a bank will take your home is if you stop paying your mortgage. trust me, banks do not want or need another foreclosed home on their ledgers. post modern americans don’t understand contracts because they haven’t been taught personal responsibility. (a country where you can easily get a divorce because you “changed your mind”) in place of responsibility, integrity & ethics, children have been spoon-fed marxist doctrine that fills them with a sense of entitlement.

when you sign your name to any legal document, you are legally, morally, ethically & financially bound to keep up your end of the deal. (hey protesters, the same rule applies to student loans!) if you do not keep your end of the deal, i.e. pay your bills, there are legal ramifications - your things will be returned to those who loaned you the money to make the purchase in the first place - that is what is right.

criticize and die

2011-07-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

while doing my daily facebook scan today, i came across a link called, Dan Savage's New Threat to Rick Santorum on funnyordie.com. i have always been a huge fan of saturday night live , and most of what comes out of it, except for a short time in the '80s, is good comedy. i would go so far as to say that they have moments of comic genius. some skits are not necessarily my taste, but i haven't been so turned off that i stopped tuning in. my first exposure to funny or die was a skit that, SNL alum, will farrell did with his daughter. there were some people outraged because his daughter was playing the role of will's landlady & he was calling her all sorts of names. i thought it was hilarious! later, of course, the classic bat fight came around and i was hooked. one of my funny or die faves is, between two ferns with zach galifianakis.

with this background in mind, i clicked the link to watch the video. dan savage, a chiseled, well spoken gay man is sitting with a hand full of notes in a nondescript office setting. he begins to describe an episode in which he turned rick santorum's name into a top google search response. with whatever backing he had (big gay money?) he moved a vile "redefined" description of the name santorum to the top google listing. now, this is probably funny if you are gay, non-christian, or a radical marxist, but it is the type of base behavior that is uncalled for in civilized society. especially when the left has been pleading for civil discourse! after describing this event, mr. savage moved straight into threat mode. if, he said, mr. santorum said anything against the gay community he would redefine the name rick. he then sat down with several people named rick and began to read the newly redefined description, which upon hearing they showed open revulsion. thankfully almost every other word was bleeped out. at the end of the video several semi famous ricks pleaded with rick santorum to leave the gay community alone. if not for his own sake, for the sake of the other ricks.

maybe i don't get it because i'm not gay. maybe i don't get it because i'm not liberal. maybe i don't get it because i'm not a marxist radical who is intent on redefining language to suit my agenda. but, one thing is sure, it's not because i don't have a sense of humor. that video doesn't belong on funnyordie.com. because, if it was true to it's name, that video would be dead.

what is really going on with this video, as was proven by mr. savage's prior actions, is threats of character assassination. mr. savage plans on maligning a man and, if need be, ruining his reputation, all to keep negative attention away from his community. mr. savage wants to live a life free from criticism. there is no lifestyle or community that is, or should be free from scrutiny. what mr. savage wants is to live in a protective shell that keeps all opposition at bay, all the while knowing that he has a digital bully pulpit from which he can assure his perceived enemies are properly and publicly bludgeoned.

mr. savage is not funny. mr. savage is a bully and an elitist who can not support himself without the help of threats and slander. redefining has been part of the radical movement for years. they have used it to change the meanings of formerly useful words like progressive, gay, rainbow, family, liberate, marriage, phobia, and so many more. if mr. savage enjoys redefining so much, maybe he should redefine the word funny.

the economy

2011-07-21T14:06:00.001-07:00

without going on & on about why i haven't posted since november of 2010 - lazy - same as it ever was, i'll begin by noting that i was right and all my liberal friends were wrong. that's not arrogance, just truth. everything that i said would happen if barack obama was elected president has come true. he is true to his radical roots, i'll give him that. he has destroyed our economy and returned us to, and this is what i told all my liberal friends, the carter era! that's right, high unemployment, inflated currency, recession, high prices, and a dismal looking future. good job! (feel free to sense sarcasm here.)

there is only so much that can be blamed on bush. i know he wasn't the greatest president! but, he didn't do this!

now, i can also admit that much damage was done long before mr. obama ever stepped foot into the white house. that particular narrative begins way back in the FDR era when everyone was enamored with keynes. and they still haven't realized that his theories were flawed. the economic elites of the world are depending on the words of an egotistical hack to save them. print, lend, borrow, spend. these are the words of a keynesian. here's a little piece of current events that i'd like to shove in the face of the FED, it doesn't work!!!!! when you inflate a currency, you make it worthless!

mr. obama isn't really interested with the outcome of the 2012 election. if he was he would look at the state of this country in 2011. the state of this country had it's economic beginnings in the 1930s, but obama took it to a place, from which he knew - we could never return.

i am hopeful for an economic turn around for the sake of my children and grandchildren. but, i have my doubts that anyone in washington has the stones to take the steps necessary to reverse the downward economic spiral in which we find ourselves.

job one: get away from keynesian economics! that guy was an impostor and a charlatan who sold us on his economic theory like bill gates sold us on DOS. but, as all windows users found out, a system built on another faulty system will fail and fail, and fail....and fail......blue screen. how did they fix this? hello????? a BETTER SYSTEM - unix/linux! (as a mac user i have to say, we made the move to a unix based system first.) move to a better system, have a better product, a better future.

blah

2010-11-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

oh, this old thing......

what is killing us

2010-09-07T08:59:00.001-07:00

democrats will not destroy this country. republicans will not destroy this country. the president, the liberal or conservative media, the supreme court or islamic terrorism will not destroy this country - the loss of civility in public discourse will.

correct terminology

2010-08-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

marriage is not a right. marriage is a rite.

i agree with immam rauf

2010-08-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

i never thought i'd say what i'm about to say, i agree with this recent statement from immam rauf:

‘The United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims.’

it's true! the united states has more men & more weapons than al qaeda. we also have better surveillance and reconnaissance. let's face it, we are better at warfare than al qaeda.

technically, the US has fired the weapons that have killed innocent muslims. however, the blame for this innocent blood has to land right at the feet of islamic extremism. western warfare has always had some air of chivalry. we in the west, do not deliberately put ourselves in the positions where the lives of civilians are threatened during intense fire fights or bombings. this can not be said of muslim extremists. in fact, the very opposite can be said of our enemies! they deliberately hide behind "innocent muslims" in the heat of battle. they build their bunkers under the general population. they use their brothers & sisters as human shields while firing on our soldiers. this fact has been thoroughly documented. it can not be disputed. so, where does the blame lie in cases such as this? does the blame lie with the women and children who buy into the lie that they are serving allah when they protect terrorists? does the blame lie with the muslim terrorists who pressure the innocent civilians to act as a human shield? or, is it the big mean united states killing machine that takes the blame?

innocent muslims have died in our effort to stamp out the muslim terrorists that threaten civilization across the globe, of that we can be sure! but the finger can be pointed only in one direction, east. if innocent muslims begin to stand up to the bullies that give their religion a bad name and support the efforts of the west to rid the world of these vicious barbarians, then fewer of them will die and more of the bad guys will.

comparisons

2010-08-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

with all the hype about the ground zero mosque, which turns out to be the ground zero islamic education center, or whatever the hell it is, i figured it would be a good time to present a comparison. please allow me to elaborate.

the white supremacist organization that funded timothy mcveigh buys the lot across the street from....ok, to be fair, up the block from the alfred p. murrah building in oklahoma city. they only plan on building an education center for their people and perhaps a small memorial to mr. mcveigh. under the laws of this nation they are free to do so. BUT, should they???

there is not a doubt in my mind that the same people supporting the right of the muslims to have an educational center near ground zero would shudder at the thought of white supremacists tarnishing the memory of those lost in the oklahoma city terrorist bombing! the fact is, enemies of the state can not be allowed to have the upper hand. they can not be allowed to boast in their accomplishments. THAT is the issue at hand - not freedom of speech or religion, but enemies of the state flaunting themselves in the face of the citizenry of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

i don't care what false god you pray to. you are free to do it in this nation. however, you are not free to attack us and then set up a shrine commemorating your evil deeds.

shame on all those who give aid and sympathy to our enemies, foreign or domestic.

judicial tyranny

2010-08-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

[a graph showing that majority of californians believe that marriage is between one man & one woman was deleted from the linked site]

so....according to ALL the polls (some vary in minor degrees) the majority of people in california want to make a statement. that statement is that marriage is traditionally & historically meant to be between one man & one woman. (which means that the idea of marriage between same sexes is, what??? REVOLUTIONARY!)

i suppose that democracy has become something that can be used as a political tool. if it fits our goals and aims then it is supreme. if it doesn't then it can be cast aside as something useless and insignificant. if a majority of people in california don't want to acknowledge gay marriage then that vote should stand. the ruling of a single homosexual judge should not trump the will of the people! the people voted against homosexual marriage and that's all it takes in the USA! if homosexuals want to marry there are plenty of states that are standing in line to take the money for their invalid marriage certificate. (because, in the eyes of God they are not a valid couple.) please people, let's not allow the spirit of the age to trash our liberties! the fact is, we have always had separation of powers & states rights!!! that's part of the very fabric of our society! if we allow an extremely small and insignificant and limp-wristed part of our population to mold us into the america (or the california) of their choosing then we are no better than the tyrannical dictators of the world! what we have allowed is a tyranny of the minority. that is completely unacceptable.

(btw, there is nothing contradictory about this poll. if i vote against gay marriage i am voting for them to be "denied to right to enjoy the dignity and responsibility of marriage.")

a birthday cutting

2010-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

radicals

2010-06-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

this one is going to take some precise wording and keen incite - neither of which do i have in abundance. but, i will endeavor to explain why liberals think they are following in the footsteps of the founding fathers of this nation.

in 1776 several learned and determined men on the continent of north america, in the colonies established by great britain, decided that they would declare independence. this was a radical idea in the 18th century! the founding fathers were implementing revolutionary ideas imported from france. (and we know how that one turned out!) all we ever seem to get from france is wine & revolution. but, i digress. in 1776, the conservatives were the red coats & tories - those who sought & fought to "preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity". on the other hand, the liberals were the patriots. they bravely stood up against the monarchy and proclaimed liberte' and rejected "earlier theories of government, such as hereditary status, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings." at that time, as now, the conservatives represented the status quo & the liberals progress.

wow! before i convince myself that i'm really a radical, liberal, revolutionary with a penchant for liberte', i suppose i should try to figure out how & why these comparisons are not accurate.

in the meantime maybe y'all would like to discuss? (who am i kidding? no one reads this drivel...)

justice

2010-06-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

what's the deal with everyone's obsession with justice? (he asked, doing his best jerry seinfeld impersonation.). over the years the gospel has been changed into something called - the social gospel. college students, liberal idealists & leftists are all giddy about spreading - social justice. all the while i keep thinking - as david said to gad the seer, "let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man." as a sinner saved by grace, i'll take mercy over justice any day!

reCoRd-A-skipPing

2010-06-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

my miNd is small, my
wOrds

are Few.
hEre
Are some more
woRds like the

onEs
i'Ve
said bE
foRe.

a broken and contrite heart

2010-06-21T08:04:00.001-07:00

i've learned a few things about a broken heart recently and it has not been fun. "don't let feelings rule your life", is what i usually say when friends and family come to me complaining about how they've been unfairly treated by others. i must admit, it's a difficult standard to live up to. my customary tack is to remind them of I Corinthians chapter 13 - the gold standard of loving. love is patient, kind, long suffering, does not seek it's own... - & my favourite - is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs suffered. i always think those last two will get them, that they will see that the absence of these things is causing the problem facing them right now. that is what THEY are doing! but, what do you do about the feelings? forgiveness is the key, right? why is it then, that the heart wants to revert to that place where "i" am justified in my actions and completely innocent of any alleged offense? providentially, i am reminded of Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV)

The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?

like being blinded by the golden rays of the sun, it all comes to an overwhelming point of clarity. according to the prophet jeremiah, and by extension - GOD - the most deceitful thing that has ever existed in the history of the world is inside me. ME! not only that, it is beyond cure! as a follower of Christ i know that He is the only cure for my congenital heart disease. and yet, over and over again i fall into a pattern of familiarity. a comfort zone in my life that exists to make me feel good about who i am and my place in the world. as my mom said to me the other day, "phooey!" i.e. "fiddlesticks!" in this world we are surrounded by diseased hearts that match the ones inside our own chests. from history past to history future we will be subject to "bad feelings" and "uncomfortable situations". they, like life itself, are temporary. the acid in your gut & my gut will some day subside. until then we have lives to live. we must live them in humility before the face of God and our diseased fellow men.

so, what do i do about my feelings? know that they are temporary and that, in the meantime, God is sovereign, loving and merciful. He will hear my prayers and work in that invisible realm to heal, not only my broken heart, but the hearts of those whose hearts i've broken.

a real leader

2010-06-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

as a student of the Bible, i've read the book of jonah many times. upon reading it again today i was struck by something that i'd never really focused on before - the response of the king. the Bible does not make clear whether or not the king of nineveh was a man of God. my inclination is to think he was. however, even if he weren't he responded to the word of God like a man of God.

Jonah 3 - Jonah Goes to Nineveh

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you."

Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

if the proof of a man is in how he responds when he is confronted with the truth, we can all look to the humility of the king of nineveh and profit much.

pre-forgiveness

2010-06-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

it's something that i've thought about before, but due to recent conversations, i've revisited the idea of "the benefit of the doubt" and it's uses. have you ever known anyone who was easily offended? yeah, me too! in fact, there are probably people who will read the words i'm typing right now and be offended. (i've always thought of it as a bizarre way to control people. after all, if everyone feels like they're walking on eggshells around you, you've got the power, right?) may i submit to you, in love, a suggestion? the act of pre-forgiveness. if we find it too difficult to walk through life thinking the best of people maybe we should commit ourselves to forgive people for being who they are. sceptics and cynics alike can employ this simple tool and effectively change their outlook as well as their appearance to others! why, the easily offended person might even begin to make friends if they simply decide to forgive in advance. understandably, not everyone is capable of being a happy, contented human being - and that's all right. we need a little variety in this big old world of ours - spice of life, you know? however, i guarantee you, there would be fewer divorces, family squabbles, racial tension, office drama and all around rancor if we could all learn to not be sooooooooo sensitive. stop assuming the worst about people and see how everything changes. food tastes better. the sky is bluer. the grass is greener. your whites are whiter. and best of all, you don't drive away any more friends.

I cor 13:4-5

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

political sludge

2010-06-15T16:19:00.000-07:00

inflection point - blah blah, turning point, blah blah, political spin, blah blah blah!

tonight our president is going to make a speech. a statement that is supposed to get him out of the mess he's in. i have a bit of advice for him, a bit too late, but a bit all the same, "weigh the cost before you enter the race!"

the sludge is mounting up and our dear president is having more and more media moments to remember it by. the fact is, it's a lot of work to be president. a lot of work to lead the largest free-market economy in the world. yet, our dear president, ideologue that he is, is all about making speeches. another word of tardy advice, speeches don't solve problems!

this is a point of inflection, a turning point. it is the point at which our president has to decide to be an ideologue or a leader. which will it be, barack? i'm thinking you are going to be an ideologue till you are ridden out on a rail.

good luck in 2012!

tic toc tic toc, barack.

sludge

2010-06-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

as usual, i can't say that i know every detail about the now famous oil spill. however, i still maintain that it was BP that made the mess and they should clean it up. that's the side of me that wants to retain my integrity. the side of me that wants to give washington d.c. the old "aha!" has other thoughts. i recall the media furor that was fueled by the liberals & democrats appalled at the, then president's, slow response to hurricane katrina. let's see, it was day 3, if i recall correctly - and i've been known to forget minor details when it helps prove my point - when the federal government had tractor trailers filled with food and water for the affected areas. now, let's say it took a week - which it didn't - that would still be much faster than our current president has responded to, not a natural disaster that was out of anyone's control, but a man-made disaster! again, i think that the company that made the mess should clean it up. so, don't put words in my mouth. i just think that the group of people who got into office by holding the previous administration up as the perfect example of how NOT to respond to a huge crisis, should show us how it's done! really! is this the way a government with designs on the complete control of all aspects of our lives should handle one of the worst oil spills in our nation's history? i think they've got a long way to go to "out do" the private sector. there hasn't been a mention of how this spill has created jobs in the gulf region. there hasn't been any word about how this crisis has created a perfect opportunity to learn how to control & repair underwater oil leaks. sure, there have been a couple of human interest stories about the people who have come up with creative ideas to solve the problem. but, the emphasis by the federal government and the media is mostly about the failure not the response of the private sector. in short, i just think that the white house has waited to see if this thing would become large enough for them to "express the obvious need to nationalize oil & gas." in the words of rahm emanuel, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."

oblivious

2010-04-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

i spent a few minutes sitting at the local watering hole this evening watching the coverage of the "banking crisis". the bartender and i were commiserating about the fact that the criminals were questioning their cohorts. the way i see it, the feds gave the banks the power to do what they did. there are laws in place that guide the banking institutions and regulate them. so, the questions coming from those who are running the hearing should be phrased thusly:

"mr. goldman sacks banker, were you or were you not doing the bidding of your federal overlords when you accumulated subprime mortgages and then sold them in packages to unwitting buyers who understood that the loans were backed by federal funds as well as federal insurance?"

this is just another show trial put on by another socialistic government concerned with nothing more than covering their own asses.

please feel free to read some history and discover where the feds got their "template".

i.e. stalin's show trials

a year later

2009-11-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

after obama won the election last year i was so filled with a strange mixture of rage and dissolution that i decided to go on a media fast until the inauguration. after the inauguration i decided to continue my fast until he'd had 100 days under his belt. somewhere along the way i said to myself, "what the hell? let's just make it a full year!" after a year of refusing to watch network, cable or internet news, read the paper or make a deliberate decision to get involved in "what's happening in the world", i finally made a conscious decision to watch the news. i realized that obama had actually done what he said he'd do, continue his socialist agenda. and, chastity bono is now a small strange looking man. i don't think i missed anything.

acid stomach

2009-08-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

saying goodbye
a familiar churning
knowing the truth
it will never be the same
he said
give it some time for this to
blow over...

repentance

2009-08-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

psalm 51

have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

for I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

o Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

hate

2009-08-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

psalm 97:10a

you who love the Lord, hate evil!

NKJ version

[we] who have turned the world upside down...

2009-07-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

acts 17:19-28

and they took [paul] and brought him to the areopagus, saying, "may we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? for you are bringing some strange things to our ears. therefore we want to know what these things mean." for all the athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. then paul stood in the midst of the areopagus and said, "men of athens, i perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as i was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, i even found and altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him i proclaim to you; God, who has made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. and He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, "for we are also His offspring." therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and men's devising. truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men (read: all humans) everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

the stars have aligned!

2009-06-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

space ladies and space gentlemen, the long wait is finally over. galactic cowboys are reuniting for three shows in texas this summer. no matter what you have to do to get here, you must get to texas! this may be your last chance to see galactic cowboys live!

Thursday August 13th (confirmed) The Prophet Bar in Dallas

Friday August 14th (confirmed) Stubb's in Austin

Saturday August 15th (confirmed) Warehouse Live in Houston

anyone who already knows they are going to attend one or more shows is encouraged to buy advance tickets online. PLEASE!

sorry that this was soooooooo off topic. i've been looking for something else to write about anyway!

useful idiots

2009-05-23T08:53:00.001-07:00

stalin, ...new documents from russia's secret archives by edvard radzinsky

p.514

general vasily sitnikov...when i first met him was vice-chairman of VAAP (the all-union copyright agency). this office was traditionally reserved for KGB generals no longer on the active list. in the VAAP sitnikov posed as a liberal. he helped me when i was, not for the first time, refused an exit visa for the U.S. to attend a premiere of my play...shortly after his dismissal (from the VAAP) i met him in the streets, and we got talking "this," he said, brandishing the back number of foreign literature he was carrying, "includes a documentary play about the oppenheimer affair...the interesting thing about it wasn't oppenheimer himself...." he smiled....he was silent for a while, then went on: "beria often said, 'comrade stalin teaches us that no public figure in the bourgeois world is incorruptible. you only have to know what sort of bribe to offer. for most of them it's money. and if one of these resists temptation it's because you have been too miserly. where money won't do the trick, a woman may. and where a woman won't, marx will.' the best people worked for us for idealistic reasons. if i were to write down all i know about these things...i think i might do that..." soon after our conversation, i heard that he had died.

between 1942 and 1946 intelligence reports from the U.S. had included large quantities of scientific information needed for the creation of a nuclear weapon...in a very short time [the american bomb was recreated].

the great equalizer

2009-05-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

hebrews 10:31

it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

how the big question is answered

2009-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

john 8:47

"he who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

Jesus

thou shalt judge!

2009-05-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

john 7:24

"do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

Jesus

condemnation or not?

2009-05-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

john 3:17-20

for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

he who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of only begotten Son of God. and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world. and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. for everyone practicing evil hates light, lest his deeds should be exposed. but he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

more sacred sarcasm

2009-05-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

isaiah 44:14-19

he cuts down cedars for himself,
and takes the cypress and the oak;
he secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
he plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

then it shall be for a man to burn,
for he will take some of it and warm himself;
yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
indeed he makes a god and worships it;
he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
he burns half in the fire;
with this half he eats meat;
he roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
he even warms himself and says, "ah! i am warm. i have seen fire."
and the rest of it he makes into a god.
his carved image, he falls down before it,
prays to it and says, "deliver me, for you are my god!"

they do not know nor understand;
for He has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
and no one considers in his heart,
nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
"i have burned half of it in the fire,
yes, i have also baked bread on its coals;
i have roasted meat and eaten it;
and shall i make the rest of it an abomination?
shall i fall down before a block of wood?"

sacred sarcasm

2009-05-07T11:05:00.000-07:00

I kings 18:26-29

so they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of baal from the morning even till noon, saying, "o baal, hear us!" but there was no voice, no one answered. then they leaped about the alter which they had made.

and so it was, at noon, that elijah mocked them and said, "cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." so they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. and when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. but there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

wisdom

2009-05-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 18:2

A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.

splitting the kingdom (a warning)

2009-05-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

and rehoboam went to sheckem, for all israel had gone to shechem to make him king. so it happened, when jeroboam the son of nebat heard it (he was still in egypt, for he had fled from the presence of king solomon and had been dwelling in egypt), that they sent and called him. then jeroboam and the whole assembly of israel came and spoke to rehoboam, saying, "your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you." so he said to them "depart for three days, then come back to me," and the people departed. then king rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father solomon while he still lived, and he said, "how do you advise me to answer these people?" and they spoke to him, saying, "if you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."

but he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. and he said to them, "what advice do you give? how should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, "lighten the yoke which your father put on us?" then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, 'your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us' - thus you shall say to them: 'my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist! and now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, i will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but i will chastise you with scourges!'"

so jeroboam and all the people came to rehoboam the third day, as the king had directed, saying, "come back to me the third day," then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men...so the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word...

then rehoboam sent adoram (the tax collector), who was in charge of revenue; but all israel stoned him with stones and he died. therefore king rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to jerusalem. so israel has been in rebellion against the house of david to this day.

liberty

2009-04-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

benjamin franklin said, “any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” these seem like harsh words. especially in a world where we crave security. our post modern world in the midst of the computer age enjoys many extremes. on one hand, personal conveniences have never been so readily available. on the other hand, we've never had so many sedentary people with unhealthy lifestyles due to our dependence on modern conveniences. technology has taken the work out of study and research. practically anything can be known with a small amount of effort. news from across the globe comes to us in mere seconds. if someone with an iphone is present at an historic event they can twitter or facebook a photo and a bit of text and, voila! the whole world is suddenly in the know about an event that happened mere seconds before. and yet the world is not a happy place. there is terror around every corner. terror that is presented on our computers & televisions everyday. not everything is terror. there are some pieces of news that are meant to inform. like when we are informed about how bad our healthcare system is. the media presents us with two alternatives: we can go on like we are, or we can institute a universal health care plan and everyone can have access to quality healthcare. this is a false dilemma. first of all, i don't think there is anything wrong with our system. second of all, i don't think the answer is universal healthcare. but, for those of you who have been following along, you already know what i think about fonctionnaires and bureaucracies. this is not a post about the evils of a monolithic federal government. it is about liberty.

merriam-webster.com defines liberty as: the quality or state of being free: a: the power to do as one pleases b: freedom from physical restraint c: freedom from arbitrary or despotic control d: the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges e: the power of choice. for the sake of this article i will concentrate on freedom and freedom from.

there were wars fought to establish and further the freedoms we enjoy in this country. people who knew what it was to be oppressed by a government fought to establish one that would protect the liberty of it's people. people who knew the freedoms enjoyed by citizens of this country fought others who would infringe on our liberty. that's how important liberty has always been to america & americans.

we now find ourselves so far removed from those historical figures who loom so large in our nations past, that people are willing to submit themselves to a government that offers to "care" for their needs. these overarching social programs are of necessity infringements on liberty. how, you ask?

organizationally, if i am in charge of distributing services to a large group of people, i must have certain criteria in place before i can successfully complete my task. if i don't have essential information about my subjects, i mean, my clients, i won't be able to locate them when it comes time to provide vital services. in addition, i must be able to schedule my time. after all, i'm the one providing the service. to do so, i must come up with a schedule that suits everyone, not just a few. meaning, the subject must bend to my schedule, not the other way around. so, i've got information, private information, personal information. i've made a schedule, my schedule, THE schedule. what's next? ah, i must provide the service! and because i am providing the service and it is a "social" program which involves ALL the people, the needs of the "one" become unimportant. everyone will receive the same care in the same order. all employees, bureaucrats, fonctionnaires, will be required to keep up with a quota. there will be no bonuses or incentives for better work. the employee will treat everyone the same. first there will be a consultation. if it is established that the "client" is in need of the service then an appointment will be scheduled. there are no cuts in line. everyone will go on the list in order of when they were diagnosed. once they are on the list they will be required to do whatever it takes to keep up their end of the deal. if that means taking certain medicines or going through treatments, then the "client" will be required to keep these appointments as well.

in this wordy description it is clear that the "subjects" have traded in liberty for security. socialism in and of itself requires it's subjects to give up individuality and liberty. when any large organization seeks to provide services to a large number of "customers, clients, subjects", their liberty is, by necessity, sacrificed for the "greater good". it's just the right thing to do, right? no one person, or few people, or great number of objectors, can stand in the way of "caring for the people" or "giving the people what they need". this is arbitrary and despotic control wearing the disguise of compassion!

i have to ask, is it worth it? is it worth sacrificing our personal liberties for another mediocre service provided by a bunch of yahoos isolated in dark a corner of our nation, who couldn't care less about humans - yet express great love for humanity as a "concept"?

the answer is no! tell your congressmen & senators that you don't need their help. tell the federal government that liberty is more important than social programs that, for all their good intentions, only infringe on it. tell them that you want "the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges AND the power of choice". remind them what ben franklin said, “any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” or perhaps what patrick henry proclaimed, "forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

stalin

2009-04-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

i enjoy history. reading about the pain and suffering of others throughout the centuries is enjoyable to me. don't judge me, please! the suffering and dying, in and of itself, is not appealing. however, stories told by those who were a part of, or near the action is, not only titillating, but also educational.

i am currently reading a book by edvard radzinsky called, stalin, the first in-depth biography based on explosive new documents from russia's secret archives. a long title for a book about the long hidden & much avoided atrocities that went on during stalin's reign.

although i enjoy history when told by a good story teller, there is more to this particular reading. given the marxist leanings of our current president, i am looking at the actions of "the boss" in a whole new light. mostly, i'm saying to myself, "well, at least obama isn't as bad as koba." (stalin's pseudonym in the "party" before he took on the name stalin) his name is actually iosef vissarionovich dzugashvili. koba was the name of a folk hero from stories of stalin's youth. there is no way obama could possibly call for the deaths of millions like stalin did. so, barrack has that going for him. unfortunately for mr. obama, he doesn't have history on his side. historically, when socialism is instated on a large scale people suffer.

perhaps we've come to the point in history where the tables have turned. maybe the atrocities of history are just that, HISTORY! i hope for all our sake's, that we've all given up ourselves to the idea of socialism, because it's not going away. not to mention, we (christians) are not as determined as they are. do you know why? government & the political process is their salvation. it is not our salvation. (speaking of myself & my christian brothers). our salvation lies outside of governmental interference or political ideology. our, and for that matter, the whole world's salvation is based on the absolute, eternal word of the one true God. in that and that alone do i find solace. a solace that i don't think mr. stalin, mr. obama, and for that matter, a large portion of the citizens of the USA have.

bukharin's advice

2009-03-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

"revolution, like saturn, kills its children. beware! the gods are a-thirst."

support from a strange place

2009-03-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

tabletalk magazine is a monthly publication from ligonier ministries. it contains daily bible studies as well as articles from theologians, pastors and christian thinkers. i've been subscribing to this publication since 1990. as with anything one does on a regular basis, my readings can become rushed and - well, regular. however, from time to time i come across something that zaps me out of my habitual reading haze.

it was indeed strange and ironic to get support for my recent media fast (sorry about the redundancy) from an article written by a mainstream journalist. especially one that - i knew was a conservative - but had no idea he was a christian. not that he was in any way advocating fasting from the news. but there was a sense in which cal thomas gave a nod to my change of focus. this is a paragraph from his article on authority:

no greater verse on authority exists in scripture than what Jesus said about Himself: "all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me" (matt. 28:18). and what did Jesus do with that authority? He ordered us not to lord it over others, but rather to "go therefore and make disciples." He didn't ask us to make converts to our point of view, especially our political point of view. He didn't ask us to organize a band of brothers to take over the government and show those pagans a thing or two (which is what the disciples were hoping Jesus would do with caesar and his romans). He didn't require us to make the world a better place or to enlist in causes.

He said, "go therefore and make disciples." that is hard work, but it is the only "work" Jesus asks us to do. causes are easier, politics may be more fun, but He said to make disciples. are we under His authority, or our own?

before november 2008 i was being wound up by the spiritual fervor of the post modern religion, politics. (as much as i have in common with most conservative talk show hosts, they only succeeded in pissing me off!) since then i've been saying, like sting "there is no political solution to our troubled evolution." my daily affirmation is to not be drawn into useless debates over things that only divert our attention away from the most important things. (although i do fall from time to time...) i don't need politics to survive. i don't need an overarching federal government to care for me. neither does it make life any better to squabble over the rightness or wrongness of "my political opinion". yes, i believe that socialism is wrong, dangerous and dreadful. but my focus should be on serving my Lord. not on who or what is doing who or what in washington d.c.

today cal thomas helped turn me back to the place where my focus should be. for that i am grateful.

JCVD

2009-03-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

after reading a review in the curator, i decided to rent JCVD. let me be clear, not being a fan of jean claude van damme, i had never even heard of this movie. from comedy to drama to action, it had a bit of everything. there were times when i was completely choked up. do yourself a favour, when you rent the dvd, watch the original theatrical release. french is spoken through a great deal of the movie (yes, that means subtitles. i'm sure you can deal with it!) , but the parts of the movie filmed in hollywood english is spoken.

i don't know anything about how oscar winners are chosen (really important people gathered in a room poring over stacks of applicants i'm sure...) , but this movie should've gotten some accolades. skip renting milk (i always knew sean penn was gay! maybe that's why JCVD didn't win anything, too hetero...?) and rent something with meat! if you miss this movie you'll be missing something special.

elkhart indiana

2009-03-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

even during a media fast it is difficult to avoid the media. while flipping in between channels i happened to catch a sliver of a news story about elkhart indiana. during this brief moment i noticed that there were a line of vehicles waiting for handouts from a foundation called save the children. all were needy. all were worthy. all were being helped. the thing that struck me was the voiceover. something to do with how the RV business had dried up, and the community was dependent almost solely on the sale of RVs.

this leads me to the point, with a slight detour. i keep kicking myself that i wasn't more cognizant of the fragile nature of our economy a couple years ago. a friend of mine had quit the sound business (my current line of work) to sell boats. this was probably april 2007. he sold a lot of boats for about 5 months and then the bottom fell out. he is now back in the sound business and much the better for it. the thing that eats me up is, i should've realized what was happening. i flippantly chalked it up to him being a bad salesman. however, i know for a fact that he's not. if i'd just been more sensitive to what was happening, i could've moved all my 401k investments into guaranteed funds before january 2008. because i would be in much better shape for retirement than i am right now! with everything i knew i just shrugged it off - and down went my 401k balance!

the first thing to go in a bad economy is luxury items. it's a fact. the reason my friend couldn't sell any boats after september 2007 was because the rich folks (as defined by president obama's tax plan: anyone who makes $250,000 or more per year.) were bracing for what was coming. they were hunkering down. the reason elkhart indiana has practically gone belly up is because the folks with the money who buy RVs are not spending their money.

no matter how many times i tell people this i'm sure they can't hear me. WE ARE THE LABOURERS! WE WORK FOR THE RICH PEOPLE! IF WE HURT THE RICH PEOPLE WE HURT ONLY OURSELVES! now, you're going to say, "well, this is all because george bush was in office!" whatever. the fact is, we, as a nation were leveraged to the hilt. we were in waaaaaaaaay over our heads. yes, GW could've done something about the housing, mortgage, & credit crisis. truthfully, the more washington does, the more it costs us in the end. i can pay a bank, mortgage company, lending institution off. i can't pay the federal government off. there is never enough money to pay those bastards off! the housing, mortgage, credit crisis happened because people were not good stewards. here's an example: LENDING MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T HAVE JOBS! the federal government in it's infinite wisdom and ultimate compassion decided that every bank who's money was guaranteed by the government had to give low and no income mortgages to poor families. (i realize i'm beginning to sound like a broken record - as i've mentioned this on other occasions) as nice as that sounds, it is just not good business. people who don't have money can not pay back money to a lending institution. the federal government has no business guaranteeing mortgages that are guaranteed to default. it's just a bad way to run a government. (unless you're deliberately trying to make the economy fail so that you can ride in on a white stallion and save everyone from calamity! sorry, it's sort of a conspiracy theory that i have about the libs in congress and their religious fervor to create a marxist utopia.) but, i digress...

obama says that he's going to save us. he's going to punish those rich people, who for sooooooooo long have not been paying their share, by raising their taxes. conversely, he's going to reward everyone else by lowering our taxes. whew! we're saved. i feel much better now. oh wait, don't i work for the rich people? don't they pay my salary? don't i buy all my products from them? the answer for those of you following along is, YES! so, back to the luxury industry. who builds, sells, manufactures, repairs, ships, cleans and maintains the boats, RVs, jet skis, snow mobiles, and single engine planes? WE DO. THE LABOURERS! now, who buys these products? PEOPLE WITH MONEY. i'm not saying that poor folks can't heavily leverage themselves and buy these products. but, nine times out of ten it's the RICH FOLKS (yes, i realize that many retirees purchase RVs to spend their remaining years traveling around the country. by and large, those retirees have invested wisely and have considerable amounts of money at their disposal.) who buy these products. so, we've already taken a hit from the economic down turn. now, we're waiting for relief. obama says we're going to tax the hell out of the rich. ok, they've already decided not to buy luxury items. do we want to make them tighten their wallets any more?

(please excuse the following example, as i've used it in the past & just realized it after rereading an older post.)
let me give you a scenario. you and i have a corporation. we're rich. we own a company that sells something that people need and use in everyday life. obama raises our taxes. it costs us more to do business. we have a board meeting, you & i. "obama has raised our taxes. it's costing us more to do business. i move that we raise the price of our product so that we don't lose money and make our stock plunge (we're publicly traded). all those in favour say 'ay'. AY! the ays have it." in this scenario, just one of many that will happen all over the country, the price of a product was raised. did the rich company/corporation pay the taxes? technically yes. but, in reality the taxes raised on the rich will be paid by the consumer. who is the consumer? YOU AND I ARE THE CONSUMERS!

a question, is it wise to desire the rich to pay more in taxes? in the final analysis, who pays the taxes? WE DO! who do we work for? THE RICH PEOPLE! why would we want to hurt the people that employ us? maybe if the rich folks didn't feel like the federal government was their enemy they might open their wallets and buy another RV or boat! i'll bet the people in elkhart would be happy to be back to work building RVs.

i realize that much of this is a garbled mess and that it's redundant in areas, but i was on a roll!

are we all aflutter?

2009-01-20T23:38:00.000-08:00

now that the fanfare has ended and the stars have all gone to their multimillion dollar estates behind security gates and fortified fences, do we all feel better?

after the election, my candidate lost by the way, i decided that i would not watch the news nor listen to any AM talk radio shows. i did this out of necessity. first of all, because i was completely worn out by the media coverage and debate nonsense that lead up to the election. secondly, because after the outcome, my candidate losing, i decided that i needed to clear my head and make myself ready for the new regime. i'm not being sarcastic! there is a change coming. a change that a majority of people in this country made happen. i'm not sure why, really. i suppose that bush was part of the reason. the war was another part of the reason. but, in general, i believe that the people of the united states decided that it was time for someone who didn't look like the rest of the guys that we've voted in office over the past several decades and obama was the guy. no matter how the election was won, i'm not a political guy anymore, there was a clear winner. mr. barack obama is now the president of the United States of America.

as sour as i tend to become when things don't go my way, i realized that three months or so of news coverage and daily talk about the coming regime would only make things worse, i decided that i would do a cold turkey-rip it like a band aid, fast from all news and media. in doing this, my hope was to give our new president the opportunity to make his own impression on me instead of allowing pundits to do it for me-or him. although, there were some withdrawals, i believe i'm the better for it.

mr. obama is my president. as a christian i have an obligation to pray for him and his presidency. i should ask God to provide for him during his leadership. i should be praying for wisdom as he leads this country. to do anything less is unchristian.

so, today i am thrilled to face a new year with optimism. not as the people who voted for our president believing that he can save the world, but as a christian who believes that the future of this country & this world is in the hands of a sovereign and loving God who will not leave us nor forsake us. by His providence this country will move forward and prosper, and by His grace our families will continue to grow and be blessed.

so, mr. obama, bless you in your new job as our executive in chief. God bless barak obama, the president of the united states of america.

creme de la creme

2008-11-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

it was a long day for a union worker. after the 4:30 fred flintstone bell i headed back to the hotel for a drink with my trusty side-kick. there was a time of freshening up and then it was off to the newark airport to send him back to atlanta where he came from. on the way back to east rutherford i decided that i'd cut off the jersey corner and just head straight into manhattan. the day before, my teamster friend had said he'd meet me for a drink at 'hurleys' a well known broadway drinking hole. with apologies in place my friend rescheduled for the following day. so, not one to waste an $8.00 toll through the lincoln tunnel, i decided to go to my favourite watering hole in the village, tavern on jane.

my belly full and my head only slightly numb from the kettle one & tonics, i settled in to watch some basketball on the hd screen behind the bar. my attention was drawn away from the game & toward the young white, close cropped, well shaven man who kept toasting with his several friends about the 'new day' - 'new era' - 'we did it' - 'kudos to us' previous day. by the way, this was november 5th 2008. still trying to maintain a modicum of interest in the game, knicks vs. bobcats, my ear continued to wander towards the young white men congratulating themselves on a job well done - the day before.

once the heightened cheering had waned and there was a commercial in the game, i made a slight turn on my bar stool and said to the young man just over my left shoulder, "may i ask a sincere question without spoiling your celebration?" once he acquiesced. i asked, "what kind of change do you expect from our new president?"

he said, and i will have to paraphrase here, something to the effect, "he will change the dialog of washington to a positive affirmation. instead of ruling from a position of fear and dogmatic ideology, he will rule from a place of cooperation & peace. he will return a peaceful dialogue with our neighbors. and begin to heal the wounds with the rest of the world. he will create a spirit of hope among the the citizens of the United States, as well as the rest of the world. he will develop new relationships with countries who have written us off during the past 8 years. he will negotiate from a position of peace instead of a position of aggression. he continued on for quite some time in this same sort of direction...

once i thought he was finished, not wanting to give the wrong impression - i'd hate to be thought of as some sort of ideologue, i asked, "what you've said are nice, comforting words in an abstract sort of way but, what sort of practical things do you think barrack will do to make the 'change' he has campaigned on?"

his reply went something like this:

"he will get us out of iraq and that will save the country 10 billion dollars per second - or something like that...then he will concentrate on afganistan, which is all f'd up right now. as for the economy, i'm not sure what he's planning to do."

if today's dow numbers are any indication (the dow's biggest drop ever after a presidential election), i know what the rich folks plan on doing - hunkering down! one of my favourite phrases since hurricane ike decimated houston! the people that all we peons work for are going to close up their pocket books and wait to see what the new president is planning for our country. they have the money, they can afford to take a 'wait and see' approach with their investment portfolio. btw, after the last election the dow, S&P and nasdaq all had a huge bump. what do you suppose that means?

here's what i think. if our new president plans on giving a tax break to 95 percent of the citizens and raising taxes on the top 5 percent, we will all pay for it. look at it this way, we have a corporation - you, the reader and i, the feds raise our taxes. btw, we make something that every american buys on a daily basis. actually, we make several things that every american buys on a regular basis! so, we have a board meeting, you & i. we say, our cost of doing business has gone up due to the recent increase in taxes. our profits are down because of the tax 'CHANGE'. i move that we, A) lay off some employees. B) raise the price of our product. all those in favour say, "aye". AYE!!! the motion passes unanimously.

when obama lowers our taxes we'll get $1000 to $1200 dollars back. but all that will be spent in the first month of the year. because everything that we purchase will go up in price when he raises taxes on the top 5% of the people in this country.

an important thing to remember is this, THEY ALREADY HAVE THE MONEY!!! another important thing to remember is this, WE WORK FOR THEM!!! if our federal government punishes them by raising their taxes they will not pay it. they will pass the burden on to the consumer, US!!! WE WILL END UP PAYING OBAMA'S 'TOP 5% TAX INCREASE!"

so, please enjoy your celebration while you can. because the bread lines are looming in the near future. don't throw away the crust!

political sewage

2008-10-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

i thought i was past my days of political outrage. but after reading a recent article at the boston globe i could sense that old feeling rising up from the pit of my stomach. this time it wasn't acid reflux. it was an "aha!" combined with an "i knew it!" mixing in with my own churning bile! the nerve of those people, yes, those people, POLITICIANS! they get us into this financial mess and then blame the president and wall street. it takes a lot of gaul to pass dangerous legislation and proclaim it to be liberal compassion. to not own up to the results is cowardly. to ask the american people to come to the rescue to the tune of 800 billion dollars is criminal! this is precisely the kind of actions we have come to expect from marxist elitists. barney frank & his cohorts should begin counting the days till they are thrown out in the street, because change is a comin'!

(you may have to register with boston globe to read the article. in case you don't want to do that here's a highlight.)

"What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

2008-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

round things fill the holes temporarily
where other things will eventually
go

art balls

2008-05-28T09:52:00.001-07:00

the corner of houston & quitman

they smell like rubber

my life

2008-05-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

i'd been struggling with a way to write about recent events for several days, when i realized that i'd already written it once. the words of this song mean more to me now than they did when i first wrote them.

with a word i confuse, i hurt and abuse

worry, then excuse, in the end i lose.

everything i do hurts someone

my life

galactic cowboys

real hope. real change.

2008-02-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Paul Johnson A History of Christianity

pp. 425-428

…revivalism tended to precede political action: and it was the so-called Great Awakening of the 1730s and after which prepared the American Revolution.

Religious evangelism was the first continental force, an all-American phenomenon which transcended colonial differences, introduced national figures and made state boundaries seem unimportant. Whitfield was the first ‘American’ public figure to be well-known from New Hampshire to Georgia, and his death in 1770 evoked comment from the entire colonial press. This ecumenicalism preceded, and shaped, political unity. And by crossing in many ways the sectarian religious barriers, just as it crossed the colonial-state ones, it helped to bring into being the real ethic of the American Revolution which might be termed the Protestant consensus, the beliefs and standards and attitudes which the American majority had in common…As john Adams, who had lost his original religious faith, put it in his diary:

“One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations, love your neighbour as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you – to the knowledge, belief and veneration of the whole people. Children, servants, women and men are all professors in the science of the public as well as private morality…The duties and rights of the man and the citizen are thus taught from early infancy.”

The diversity of American religion thus seemed no barrier to its social and political unity since it rested on a Christian ethic which was infinitely more important than the dogmatic variations of the sects…What mattered were not doctrinal differences but the fact that all were able to live there in harmony…The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were thus framed in a highly appropriate and prophetic setting. What is tremendously significant and new about the American Revolution is that its victory for religious freedom and the separation of Church and State was won not so much by left-wing millenarian sects revolting against magisterial churchmen, but by the denominational leaders and statesmen themselves…De Tocqueville, in Democracy in America (1835), says the attitude of and towards the churches was the first thing that struck him in the United States: ‘in France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other: but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.’ He concluded: ‘Religion…must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of free institutions.’ And Americans, he added, held religion ‘to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.’

fever

2008-02-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

a scratchy throat. that's the way it started. then all became darkness surrounded by throbbing light. and pain. don't forget the pain. and chills. don't forget the chills. it is an excruciatingly odd and loathsome thing to be both hot and cold at the same moment. in the midst of it, there seems to be no end in sight. just a shivering mass of molten flesh doing it's best to stay upright. but the end will come. don't forget about the convulsive coughing. yes, the end will come. hopefully not the sweet touch of death, but a slight glimpse of the way things were just before the scratchy throat. the way things were yesterday or two days ago, or last saturday. time is relative in the throws of this malady. but, this too shall pass. and then things will be as they were before, however that was. better than this, to be sure...

maybe tomorrow.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!!!

2007-12-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

winter moon

2007-12-24T04:47:00.000-08:00

Through the leafless limbs of the neighbors old oak, I saw the most beautiful full moon hanging in the winter sky. Like something from a Christmas movie, picturesque. Images like this are rare and I thought I’d make a note of it.

the picture doesn't do it justice...

A writer writes

2007-11-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

He clutched the small slip of paper in his left hand pressed against his cell phone; A Chinese fortune cookie fortune. He laid his right hand against the crash-bar. “Thank you, come again”, said the slightly shriveled Asian woman behind the counter. He said he would. Pushing through the exit door, this time he was determined. A writer writes. With each stride toward the downward brick staircase he gained confidence. Ideas. Thoughts. Concepts. Truths. Crossing the parking lot toward the car, his confidence began to gradually wane. A writer writes? What does that even mean? Is writing reduced to the action of taking a pen, pencil or stylus and making scribbles on paper, parchment or tablet? Does one need the tapping of the keyboard to be writing? Is there some necessity for a physical action to follow the idea? What if he had no hands, what then? What about thoughts, intentions, formulas and plans? Are they not the stuff of writing? By this time he’d made it to the underpass. The thoughts were crashing through his mind like pebbles in the old rock tumbler from his childhood. What was the purpose of that thing anyway? Did it really do anything? It made the rocks less jagged, less bumpy, more smooth and palatable – something strangers would want to handle. That must be something? Don't get distracted, this is what always happens. A writer writes! Down the divided boulevard toward the downtown skyline, driving, not really seeing the road. His thoughts were too vivid, immanent, bursting from within - right in front of him; nothing to stop him now. What did that fortune say, again? No distractions! Where to start? The best place to start is now. Now he opens the credenza. Now he begins to type. Now his thoughts are made visible. And as he reads them he realizes what is happening. What does that fortune say? He rises from the dinner table chair that he uses as a desk chair. Searches the pants pockets, nothing. Riffles through the mess on the dresser. Takes a quick glance at the dinner table; taps the shirt pocket. There it is. A thought crosses his mind. Does it matter? Who cares what the fortune says? It fills the need, gives a spark, that’s all. Why read it? A writer writes. No stopping now… Unfolding the now crumpled knot of paper, he reads to himself. “A long term goal will soon be achieved.” Hmmm. It could be construed to fit the occasion. But he no longer desires motivation or justification. The thing has worked itself out at last. Now he understands. A writer writes.

pictures of food

2007-11-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

a few good things about france:

my new favorite word

2007-11-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

maggie and i just returned from a long anticipated trip to france. our first two days were filled with the customary tourist stops: eiffel tower, arc du triumph, notre dame, monmartre, etc. it was a wonderfully exhilerating, yet short, excursion for two. then it was on to the cousin's house. cousin sara married a frenchman named steph. they are both delightful people with a hospitable nature. we enjoyed the local sights, smells and tastes. while lodging with the newly acquinted relatives, we found ourselves being entertained by steph's stories. he has had some tough breaks in life. he walks with a cane due to a leg injury, because of which, he underwent surgery to remove a portion of his calf muscle. he lost an eardrum in the french armed services while assigned to explosives detail. he also had some skin cancer removed from his face. i say all this not to try to gain sympathy for him, because he would rather down-play the whole thing (he never complained once, btw. a real trooper when it came to walking le jardin at versailles!), but to set up the situation in which i learned my new favorite word. because the french healthcare system is nationalized, and the french extremely thorough people, there tends to be a lot of paperwork involved in their daily lives. more so for my new friend steph. he is bombarded daily by forms and legal documents that he must fill accurately and maintain in perpetuity. although he has a firm grasp on the situation, working with the bureaucracies has become the bane of his existence. he speaks no englsh, and yet i can comprehend every syllable and read every nuance as he belches his disgust with his least favorite form of human being, fonctionnaire. if you hadn't already guessed, this is the french word for bureaucrat or civil servant. and the french system is overloaded with them, as in any socialist government there is a high percentage of bureaucracies that maintain a large number of employees. each one of these civil servants is usually loaded down with a large number of cases. however, the ratio in france is something like 1 fonctionnaire to every 4 citizens. (this percentage is probably an exaggeration. but i think it gets the point across!) you can only imagine the distaste one would begin to have for such a group, especiallly if one was constantly having to submit and resubmit detailed documentation on a regular basis. thus, steph's dislike for a large portion of his fellow countrymen. i don't want to go into detail about the many blunders of the system. suffice it to say, the stories only served to vulcanize my personal bias against universal healthcare. if you like the way you are treated by the (pick a large federal bureaucracy and place the name or initials here) agency, then you'll love having a bureaucrat care for your health!

now that the story is set up, i will begin my portion of the tale. being a good red-blooded american, i support most of our governments laws and policies. but, my naivete on import matters was exposed upon our return from france. i have over the years taken trips abroad and returned with goods and wares. somewhere in the back of my little pea-brain i seemed to recall having brought home some cuban cigars. no harm no foul. in that same part of my gray matter i seemed to recall having declared the cigars. and my recollection of the customs officer's response was, "well that's ok. as long as you don't bring in too many. the US government just doesn't want them being sold here." fine and good, done and done.

so i purchase 16 of the finest cubans i could afford. 6 romeo y julietta maduro robustos. 10 cohiba maduro churchills. i savored the smell on several occasions while still in france. i even got to smoke one of the cohibas and gave a couple to my french companions. the rest i planned on sharing with friend's upon my return to the US. we fly home - show our passports - the customs agent asks the fateful question. being a noncynical-honest yet slightly misguided citizen, i respond to the question: "yes i have cigars. cubans. but they are only for my personal enjoyment". go to the the next station. "sir, you'll have to follow the red line." i repond, yes sir! walk right up to the examining table...

enter le fonctionnaire. "sir, you need to put all your bags on the table." (she begins the search. she finds the cubans) "sir, are you aware of the fact that cuban cigars are illegal in the united states?" "yes i am. but these are only for my personal use. they are not for resale." "that doesn't matter sir. it is illegal to bring them into the united states. not only that, but it is illegal for a citizen of the united states to purchase or smoke a cuban made cigar while in another country." by this time i begin to feel heat in the back of my neck. my chest begins to heave. i speak a few semi-controlled words of disapproval. maybe something about having wasted $200 on something that she plans to steal from me and destroy. maggie turns and says, (under her breath) "we're going to get arrested if you don't stop!" my head is throbbing. i lean against a post and watch the remainder of the search. le fonctionnaire says that i can voluntarily submit the contraband or it can be seized. maggie suggests i do it voluntarily. i sign a document verifying my release of the contraband. le fonctionnaire says, "come around the end of the table and witness the destruction of the illegal contraband. this is where i must rely on the readers empathy. as le fontionnaire began to open the boxes and slide out the perfectly formed tubes, it was like the air was being let out of me. i was sort of melting. but i could almost smell them as she twisted them and i heard them snap. they would've been good, real good. it took a bit of effort for this extremely large civil servant to twist them to the point of breaking. it only verified my choices in cigar were good. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13. thirteen beautiful cuban specimens broken and in the trash. it took a full day to get the image out of my head. now it seems like a distant memory. a memory that perhaps was someone elses. a lesson.

i learned a valuable lesson. and i have a new favorite word! merci le fonctionnaire, merci!

i started thinking...

2007-09-28T15:45:00.000-07:00

and that's always a bad way to start. maybe, only when your life is in total and complete disarray can you kindle, create, cultivate or nurture beauty. i'm not talking about me, i love my life. things are great with my wife, my kids, my finances. but things around my house and in my life are dry and dead. not important things like love, meaning, purpose, and significance. the house needs painting, plants have bugs and dry dead leaves, grass has weeds, like that. we always seem to be in a hurry and nurturing goes out the window along with creativity. its not that i'm all that torn up about it. i just see other people with beautiful flowers and beautiful lawns and beautiful lives, (creating beautiful things -music, poetry, art) who are on the inside seething with fear, confusion, doubt - without purpose. conversely, i am not fearful, confused, or doubtful - although i sometimes lose sight of purpose, only to find it in the oddest places. you would think that the person with the beautiful home, lawn, life, flowers, would be the one who's settled and content. yet, it appears that the outworking of their inner turmoil is, in effect, reversed when they behold the beauty with which they surround themselves. perhaps they believe that the beauty that they see will some how enter them through their eyes and fill the emptiness, answer the questions, and soothe the doubts and fears within. i don't think it works that way. but, i do enjoy looking at their pleasant stuff.

sometimes things look good around my house, especially in the spring. its easier to care for outdoor plants when its not unbearably hot! but even when things don't look so good on the outside i'm still content on the inside.

seven random things

2007-07-24T06:34:00.000-07:00

tag, i'm it!

The rules: each player should list seven random facts about themselves on their blog as well as the rules to this little game. At the end of their post, they need to tag seven people. Let those folks know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. i notice dust build-up
2. i can't shave everday or i will walk around with a bloody face.
3. i procrastinate a lot.
4. while watching tv, i mute commercials
5. i've never paid for television. (rabbit ears, baby!)
6. when receiving an injection, i have to watch the needle puncture the skin.
7. i can't relate to marriage jokes, marriage is bliss!

here i am supposed to tag other bloggers...unfortunately, most of the ones i know have already been tagged by someone else. to here are two:

jeff m.
wayne l.

(i hope this does not disqualify me.)

speaking of weirdness

2007-02-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

have you ever been in one of these supposed, private situations; punching in your atm pin code, unlocking your locker at the gym, entering your password for some online service, in a public place? have you ever thought to yourself, i wonder if anyone here reads minds? i have. here's how it usually goes:

(thinking)6-4-7-3, oh man, what if someone here can read my mind? ok, 4-3-2- 9 that'll throw'm off. i'm actually thinking different numbers than the ones i'm using! wait...if they are really mind readers, then they know that i'm not really using the numbers that i'm thinking. they actually know the numbers that i'm seeing! damn! ok, ok, calm down. its not like i've got a million dollars in my wallet. i've only got like $56.00 and....damn damn! now i've told them how much they can expect to find in my wallet. how can i fix this? now way to fix it....uh, hello? mr. mind reader guy? look, i've only got a few bucks. i know i said that i had $56.00, but i was just guessing. and now that i really really think hard about it. i've only got like five bucks. so, you can go about your business and forget that we ever had this psychic conversation, ok? what the hell am i saying? there is no such thing as a mind reader. sheesh! what got into me? that's just plain weird. having a conversation with someone that may or may not be in the room and may or may not be a mind reader. that's just plain....hello? mr. mind reader guy? i'm really not crazy. if you really can read minds, you'll realize that i'm just a little weird, not out of my mind. nice talkin' to ya. 6-4-7-3.....

yes, its really happened. and it usually only takes a couple seconds to say all that in my head.

addendum to weirdness

2007-02-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

in reading and rereading my weirdness post i realized, a bit too late, that there are more weirdnesses for me to post.

7. i always fold my arms left over right because it feels weird the other way.
8. i always fold my hands left thumb on top because it feels weird the other way.
9. i always cross my right leg over the left because, why? that's right folks, it feels weird the other way.

i'm sure i'll think of more later...

weird things

2007-02-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

i was "tagged" by my friend allison and am now obliged to post 6 weird things about myself. here we go:

1. what's the name of this blog?
2. i chew my tongue.
3. can't watch babies eat. i'd rather change the diaper than feed the little rascals!
4. while driving, i give suggestions to other drivers in an extremely sarcastic tone of voice (ie. "no really, why don't you drive in both lanes?"). when they don't listen, which obviously they won't-as they are in a completely different car and it is impossible to hear my excellent suggestions, i begin to call them bad things. you know, cuss like a drunken sailor!
5. i always notice an open fly. don't want any comments about this, you bunch of smart alecs! if someone misses a button or forgets to zip i notice. then there is the little conversation that you have with yourself, "should i tell them?" "are they the kind of person who will be grateful for this type of information. or will they begin to call me some sort of 'crotch looker'???"
6. i usually correct people. (i'm getting better at this one, as maggie, my dear wife of 26 years hates it!) now i merely make note of it in my head and fight the urge to say anything. however, if i'm in a small gathering of close friends i'll let the corrections fly.

as a final note, under the heading "best fortune ever", i proudly submit a fortune that i got from a cookie at auntie chang's dumpling house last night.

"avoid compulsively making things worse"

words we can all live by.

cletus

mexican doorbell

2006-11-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

that's it! i'm up now. pulling on my sweatpants, t-shirt. slide on the slippers. by the time maggie figures out what i'm up to, i'm already out the door and through the front gate. the headlights are still on because its barely dawn. no one behind the wheel. then i see him walking back from the house toward the car.

"is this your car?"

"si."

"was that you honking the horn?"

"oh jes."

"you realize its 6:15am and there are people trying to sleep, right?"

"i'n soddy!" (intentionally misspelled)

"its too loud." (now i'm starting to feel a little bad about the confrontation.)

"i'n soddy."

"if you want to get someones attention at 6:15am just walk up and knock on the door." (a bit sweeter tone now. like a grandfather speaking to a child.)

"i'n soddy."

i'm walking back to the house now. maggie is at the front door. i can tell she's not happy. "you shouldn't do that! you don't know what kind of person you're dealing with." she's right. but after putting up with it for sixteen years i'd had it.

in the fall of 1991 maggie and i moved from our safe and "rent-free" haven at her parents farm to unfamiliar territory. the middle of the katy, texas rice fields. it was all we could afford at the time. i traded services for partial rent. the landlady got some greatly needed upgrades and we got cheap rent. the house was quaint, close to my band's management office, and it was nice to be away from the extended family for once in a good long while. we were finally an independent family. maggie, the boys and me out in the middle of the rice fields. in addition to the standard problems of a poor (the life of a starving artist.) growing family faced with large and prehistoric type bugs (the rice fields are rife with them!), we had other difficulties. being the only "euro" family on the block, we encountered a problem that we had hitherto never experienced.

i was raised in the suburbs. friendly neighborhoods had an unspoken code that protected the "friendliness" that kept the peace in those fragile environs. back in the '70s we called it "common courtesy. it might also be more traditionally called "the golden rule". this was important to the relational aspects of small town life. unfortunately many of our neighbors from south of the border were not exposed to these same cultural niceties. in the katy rice fields, in the wee morning hours "the ride" would barrel down the unpaved road and park in front of the neighbor's house. instead of the traditional neighborly process of getting out of the car and walking up to the door and ringing the doorbell (a quaint long lost slice of americana.), the driver would simply sit in the car and honk the horn with no thought of the surrounding neighbors fast asleep in their warm comfortable beds. and if the rider didn't hear the first honk, the second honk would quickly follow. followed by the third, fourth and so on and so on. maggie, who is not the most coherent, friendly or patient person, in the wee hours of the morning, dubed this irritating phenomena , "the mexican doorbell".

after moving in to the city in '94, we discovered that it was not a rural phenomena. the mexican doorbell was an ethnic epidemic. between the hours of 5-6 am the car horns were extremely active. this did not sit well with the late night types that we are. when you play a show, or go to see a band, or just stay out late for no good reason - get home at 2:30 - 4:00am. sleep is a necessary and precious thing. obvious cultural differences not withstanding, there seems to be a wide gap in acceptable behavior south of the rio grande. it would seem to me that the practicality of a good night's sleep and keeping the peace with the neighbors, would be an international norm. (especially in a neighborhood like mine. i like to call it underdeveloped. others have called it "transitional". ) tragically this is not the case. which leads my story back to the events of this morning. as i said, after years of putting up with an unacceptable situation, i became filled with a sort of righteous indignation which compelled me to be a sort of urban hero. (i realize i may be exagerating a little...)

as i savour the warm feeling that still lingers in my chest, i know it will probably be a long time before i get the nerve to confront another early morning mexican caller. but, the next time i hear that familiar morning sound i'll remember how it felt to finally stand up to the insensitivity and selfishness that is the mexican doorbell.

i take a natural brown-basket coffee filter from the plastic container. grind the beans. take the small brush from the utensil drawer and gently brush the fresh ground starbucks coffee into the basket of the coffee maker. making sure to get into the corners. its another morning. a good morning.

on hold

2006-09-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

have you ever been on hold? it starts with an unfounded hopefulness. "this won't take long." "i'll be done before you know it!" time moves slowly. you realize that you've heard the same hold song over 30 times. the dog is barking to be let out to pee. ignore the dog... now, desperation sets in. "should i wait?" "should i just hang up and try again later?" i'm old school. i do a lot of things online. its pretty easy. but when i have a REAL question, i want to speak with a REAL person. so i sit. i'm old school in more ways than one, i don't have a hands free earpiece. i sit with my head cocked to one side. about the time my neck and back begin to throb, i begin to think about ordering one of those hands free ear pieces. but then i change sides and the pain subsides. i don't know if you've noticed, but the new phones are not like the 1960s phones that we're almost made to fit between your shoulder and your ear. tucked neatly in the fold of your neck. ah, those were the days..... the new phones are smooth, slick, and thin. so for a long while you can feel the phone creeping away from your head and moving toward the point of your shoulder. here is another phase in the "hold" experience, tracking the time. there are moments where you truly believe that you've somehow aged since dialing. why do we still say dialing when there is no dial, only buttons? "really need to get one of those hands free ear pieces!" "oh man, my neck hurts..." shift again......... then the music stops and you think, "at last!" recording- "thanks for your patience. we're currently experiencing a high volume of calls. if you'd like to hang up (why is it still called "hang up"? there is nothing hanging! most people don't even put the phone back in the cradle until the battery indicator is at one bar!!!) and try again later (ohhhhhhhhhhh you'd like that wouldn't you! never, never NEVER!!!! ouch, my neck.....) or you can log in to our website at www.alldayhold.com. thank you!" hold music. by now you've begun to hum the hold music. your neck is past the point where it can be described as pain. you are now online trying to locate the hands free ear piece that goes with your phone. the dog has pee'd on the floor. and you begin, for the 50th time to ask yourself if you should, "...hang up and try again later...." straighten up. phone in one hand. end call? just then, like and angel in the night, "thank you for holding. how may i help you?" hold back the sobs. warm feelings of gratefulness. she truly is an angel.... "yes, i'm having some trouble with...."

back to reality.

first of many

2006-09-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

i've realized since adulthood that i scrape my teeth. many types of difficult work have left me with ridges in my teeth. when i watch tv, read, think, drive etc, i take the edge of my fingernails and run them along the rough ridges in my teeth. i don't bite my nails. that's too primitive for me. i take the more sophisticated route to habit forming action. thus i've chosen a habit that both wears my teeth down and introduces germs into my body. its comforting to me that i have a regular routine. i don't even have to think about it. like an involuntary action, it just happens. something i can count on. this being the first in many posts of introduction to ben, i'll keep it brief. just picture me with my hand in my mouth and hear the sound of my nails on my teeth. yeah. that's a nice place to start.