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Echoes of My Cerebral Vortex

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Diversion of the Moment
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A Few Rants for the Night

07.22.04 (9:35 pm) [edit]

1) Sandy Berger - what can I say? So far it looks like this is going to be one more case of smug political elitism letting someone get off the hook. If during my twenty-year stint with the intelligence community, had I walked out inadvertently (or other wise) with classified documents, my butt would have been in jail, end of story! Martha Stewart can go to jail for her part (not that I'm condoning her action mind you) because she is not political, but good old Sandy can be excused by all his political cronies for sneaking papers out of the National Archives? Worse yet, he trashed a bunch of them! There is room here to question his motives in that stuff, but I will leave this detail to the talking heads. My main point - when is a political type going to be held fully accountable for their corrupt actions by any party? Democrat and Republicans alike, I urge you to look at this case and closely watch what is going on from both sides of the fence. National issue and principle don’t count for shit anymore in both parties. I strongly suggest all of you to think of voting for a third party option, just to wake these clowns up. Maybe then we can have a look see if once again partisanship can be replaced with civics.

2) 911 Commission findings - yet another what can I say! Political and partisan white wash here from both sides of the fence. Mostly what this effort has accomplished is to trash a few more millions of the taxpayer's dollar. The only real conclusion seems to be "We need another cabinet level appointee to oversee the intelligence services." Once again from an insider's point of view, I can not necessarily argue there is not a need to share information better. Agency heads tend to treat the other ones as if it is they who are the enemy. Such turf wars make me sick! It is time to put egos aside and once again for them to become public servants! First the Director of Homeland Security, and now an Intl Oversight Director? Why can't they be one in the same? For all that, wasn't there supposed to be a consolidation of efforts, one that didn't expand the size of government when the Homeland Security Office was established? I'm guessing this has not and will not happen. Each one of these offices comes with a new army of staff. I will concede, if they are needed then they are needed, however, lets cut fat someplace by getting rid of some redundancy in these various agencies. Some redundancy is good, but there is a point where it becomes ridiculous. Given that national defense is clearly a constitutional requirement, I suggest the government cuts some fat by getting rid of the Office of Education, OSHA and Urban Welfare. Those are state's issues and most states could undoubtedly do a fine job of things if the FEDS just stopped beating them to the punch in picking the publics' pockets for funding such programs. I will say it again, excessive federal intervention is like dealing with drugs, the more hands a program goes through the more things get stepped on and who the hell knows what is really in the final product? Only about 10% of the money, that is a fact!

3) The Olympics - It was announced yesterday that 300 Military Special Operations personnel are being sent to Greece to assist in security operations for the event. WTF? Our SPECOPs types are already being run through the ringer in Afghanistan and Iraq; there aren't enough of them to go around as it is, or to even rotate properly. As far as this retired soldier is concerned (add to that a bountiful taxpayer) if the Olympics requires us (the US) to send 300 SPECOP troops (or any military for that matter) to a foreign nation to provide security operations, we don't need to be involved in the damned event! Until the day comes where the media informs me 3000 people were killed in this county by foreigners throwing javelins and discus' at them, I say to hell with providing security for an Olympic event on foreign soil!

Now that these three thoughts are off my chest, things are feeling much better now! ;-})

Alligator Bites Man - Man Bites Alligator Back

07.19.04 (8:37 pm) [edit]

Kevin McAllen, 34, of Foley, said he was bitten on the leg July 16 while wading in waist-deep water in the public swimming area at Gulf State Park Resort, in Orange Beach, Alabama. "I didn't see him, but I felt him," McAllen said. "I felt something tug at my leg and, you know that instinct you have to reach down when something like that happens. I touched his head. He started to roll and then let go of me." McAllen was treated and released after receiving about 20 stitches to close the wound about three inches above his right ankle. Not to make light of Mister McAllen's wound, but he was very lucky, because surviving an alligator attack while you are in the water has just about the same odds as winning the lottery jackpot. Kevin gets the last laugh on this one though, because today a licensed trapper caught and killed the 8.5-foot, 200 lbs. Alligator that had taken up residence in the park's swimming area. The trapper gets to sell the hide for his effort; Mister McAllen gets the meat and a museum will get the head once a local taxidermist stuffs it.

Observations on Martha Stewart Living

07.16.04 (9:27 pm) [edit]

Well, the Martha Stewart verdict is in. 5 months in the pen, 5 more in house arrest, 2 years supervised parole and $30,000 in fines (pending about two years of appeal time). In a way I have to admire Martha, not just for her talent, but for her ability to become a self-made person. She can be a bit of a biatchie granted, but she also has endured a lot of personal crap in her life from her ex, the personal secretary her ex ran off with, and other staff that tried to take advantage of her. That does seem to be grounds for most people to justify a bit of bitterness. At the same time, she has shown herself to be loyal to the people who are loyal to her, and that is a very positive sign of character. Unfortunately just because she is a powerful, self-made, wealthy woman (that isn't a rock or movie star) gives a lot of people cause to dislike her.

I make no allowances for Martha's complicity in lying; that was wrong and there should be a price to pay for it. The sad part to me is to look at the balance of this case in comparison to say the Clinton's, White Water for Hillary and Monica for Bill. Their investigations and hearings also took millions of tax payer's dollars to peruse, and of course there is no doubt as to their guilt of inside trading and perjury, yet they walked away untouched; well now that isn't exactly true is it. Let us see - now Hillary is a Senator and she made all those millions on an auto biography, Bill also makes millions on talking tours and now has his own book hitting the shelves. It seems that one group of people's sin is a reason worthy of making them a cult following icon, one to be showered with riches, but when someone does this, say like Martha, it is reason to wish the worst for her.

Sorry folks, but someone just needs to show me the reasoning for this. The justification for two drastically measures of justice for essentially the same issue indicates to me that Martha is due a gracious amount of understanding and a speaking tour, or that Bill and Hillary are due some jail time and house arrest. Justice system my @! If I had done something like this I know where I would be.
:arrow: Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200!

Observing John Edwards on Fox News Tonight

07.15.04 (8:08 pm) [edit]

Did anyone else catch John Edwards on Fox New tonight discussing the Amendment issue on same sex marriage? I thought he was doing a real smooth job of discussing his position on it being a state's rights issue and all that; then he turned onto President Bush and said, "This just isn't a focus issue in the Constitution." I was with him right up to that moment, and then in the next words he said "Misters Bush needs to focus on Constitutional business like unemployment, health programs etceteras." My question is, where in the hell is unemployment, health programs, education and all the other social programs even vaguely mentioned in the US Constitution? It seems to me that these are all State's rights/responsibility issues as well. When is there ever going to be a political candidate that comes into the forefront that even remotely has it right?

A Measure of Time

07.13.04 (3:36 pm) [edit]

Time is the rhythm of a heartbeat.

Times measure is gauged by the sensation of a stomach.

Time never passes quickly enough, especially in moments of boredom or anticipation, but always fleetingly when you are having fun.

Time becomes meaningful with the measure of a device, but eventually you learn it has more meaning when measured by experience.

Time changes from something infinite to finite, with the passing of your first loved one.

Time is something to be managed, compressed and filtered; priorities are juggled and values cast aside for the next moment.

Time becomes pinnacle with the realization that it is likely there are less than half of your quota of heartbeats left to you.

Time becomes fleeting, not because it moves any faster, but because each moment of it becomes proportionally smaller to the scope of your experiences.

Time becomes precious, because you realize you have few peers left to share it with; there is a realization tomorrow can never be taken for granted again and each day becomes accepted as a gift.

Time is bitterly frozen when you are aware of its passing, but you are incapable to move at its cadence.

Time becomes eternally meaningless when the old vessel you used to measure its passage lays inert, but the spirit of your essence remains. Time is now measured by how you used it and nothing more remains.

Immigration Concerns

07.12.04 (6:37 pm) [edit]

For some reason questions on immigration and citizenship have been playing through my mind a great deal lately. This is kind of a personal issue because my wife is an immigrant. My wife doesn't want to become a US citizen and frankly I can see her side of the issue. She is however a legal resident with the option of becoming a US citizen any time she wants to. She has a nice paying job; she pays lots of taxes, social security, and Medicare etceteras. Outside of an identifying accent when she says out or house and her odd colloquialism of asking for a serviette rather than a napkin or referring to a knit cap as a toque, she blends in as a born and raised in the USA kind of person. Although she has never studied for the citizenship test, I've read over a couple of the sample tests and I'm confident she already has the knowledge to pass it on a moment's notice. Oddly enough, I'm convinced that at least 25% of the US native born and raised citizenry couldn't pass this test if it was given to them; the sad fact is this test is primarily geared toward demonstrating an understanding of government structures and their operating principals. There is some historical stuff in the test, but not much, and most of the questions I saw were tough ones like 1) Who was the first president of the United States or 2) state at least one reason that lead to the start of the War Between the States. The main reason the wife doesn't want to become a US citizen is her only real benefit in doing this is her right to vote and an ability to get a federal job; other than this, her status as permanent legal resident gives her all she needs.

The real loss to the wife by claiming US citizenship is her Canadian citizenship. Canada recognizes dual citizenship, but unless you are under twenty-one the USA doesn't. She was born and raised in Canada, her family still lives there and the only reason she is in the USA is she had the misfortune to fall in love with a Yank that loves Canada but has a significant snow allergy. Canada's approach to duel citizenship settles well with me. The overall; the gist of it is 1) you have to uphold the laws of both lands as best possible 2) if you are in one of the two countries their law is the premier one and 3) there will be no international intervention on the behalf of the violator. The problem with obtaining a US citizenship is you have to denounce all allegiance your old government (note there is a matter of Canadian social pension here, stuff she has already paid into). The only problem I would have with Canada's offer of duel citizenship is I would have to be there a total of three of four years and I'm not sure how I could accomplish this without suffering at least two winters there. Work visas look much more practical if it ever comes down to such a case.

Still, there is something that bothers me about the current status of immigration into the USA. Right now the US takes in about 2.5 million legal immigrants. The big issue here is one has to add 7 million more to that figure to correct the actual immigration rate, the illegal immigrants far outnumber the legal immigrants. To put a different perspective on things, if it were not for the combined legal and illegal immigration into the USA, for the past thirty-years the nations growth rate would be zero or slightly to the negative. What bothers me about this growth is the eroding effect it has on US culture. I'm all for freedom of choice, after all that is what the USA is all about, but the one area I'm not willing to yield an inch is language. Language is the cement that binds a culture. Now the Continental Congress put the language issue to a vote and by a mere one vote margin English was chosen over German. Of course rulings of the Continental Congress are not binding to modern law, but the immigration laws mandate one of the prerequisites for citizenship is being able to read and write English. This aspect has never been strongly tested, because reading the test and writing the answers to the questions on said test is itself the proof for language comprehension. Sadly, in an effort to buy votes, even this requirement has been given mass waivers innumerable times over the past eleven years in favor of a native language test.

More vote buying has compromised citizenship requirements as well. There has been mass pardons given to the illegal immigrants and an most recently special status is given to legal immigrants that serve in the military; they now can gain citizenship in eighteen months rather than the four years of continuous legal residency as stated in the naturalization process. Now a lot of states are jumping on the bandwagon to give driver's licensee to illegal immigrants and there is serious talk in some states for giving non-citizens (illegal or otherwise) the right to vote in local elections. With all this political whoring going on, one almost has to ask, what is citizenship representative of anyway?

California is a good example of my concern on cultural assimilation before gaining privileges of citizenship. Depending on the source, this state is composed of no less than 29 to 32% immigrants (much of it illegal); compare this to NY at 13.6%, TX at 9.5% and FL at 8.1%. Of course the Hispanic influence is a no brainier here, but 20% of the USA's Islamic immigrant population has also settled in California, as compared to 16.7% in NY, 8% in NJ, 7% in Ohio and 3% in MI, VA and IN. Immigrant concentrations in these numbers are very influential on the electoral process in a state as large as CA. To give way to the letter and spirit of the law by allowing vote pimping politicians to make continuous compromises is a dangerous thing. It is a security issue for a nation that officially is at war with Islamic Fundamentalist Terrorism, but this is a political euphemism for saying we are engaged in the third crusade. The saying is, "So goes CA and so goes the nation." Consider this - the revolutionary war was won with only 35% support. My question is, will CA and a few other states hold up some long standing principles, or will their political prostitution lead to an erosion of an undefined, but recognizable set of qualities that has melded people of many races and many cultures into a people of one spirit for over 200 years?

I'm not against immigration, for that is the stuff this nation is built upon. I am not against cultural diversity, but I see no reason for allowing people to immigrate into a nation unless they are willing to embrace the essence of its culture and principles; this takes time of proof. With immigration comes growth, but the growth must be regulated to the needs of the environment (in this case the environment is economy), it must mutually benefit and not sustain a parasite; why tolerate immigration (legal or otherwise) if the immigrant is to become a welfare burden? Why allow student visas to people of nations known to tolerate ideological terrorism, especially in studies such as bioengineering and nuclear physics? Why should the US set a high lottery quota for nations that's immigrants form into settlements that become unrecognizable from the nation they left and fail to embrace immersion? Why should someone be liberally tolerated as an illegal immigrant because they are Hispanic in origin while people from another nation is not?

Shark99, your not a citizen but you are a great American, you have grabbed the essence of Americana better than most of its native children. My work partner Noly, you’re a great American, you wonderfully meld your Filipino heritage into the culture that is America and your work ethic is inspirational. Margo my wife, you may never become a citizen (so you can remain tied to your family and the nation that nourished you so wonderfully), but in my eyes you are a great American too. You work your butt off; you show a deep love for the commitment of US military members and your understanding of how this nation works is far better than the average native citizen possesses. Where is the problem here? The problem is that corrupted politicians by pandering for votes and making countless compromise to the fundamentals of the immigration process have made a mockery of the sacrifices and efforts you have made to live here as a legal member of this nation. I thought when the 9-11 event took place the promise was to reorganize the INS and once again make it a meaningful organization and process. Can someone point out this effort to me? So far all I've seen is continued compromise by the politicians and not one damned bit of reorganization.

Not in the Mood

07.11.04 (8:11 pm) [edit]

Time to get back into the swing of things and start posting again. Even though I've already got a few things ready that could have been posted, my mood said doesn't it. For instance who gives a crap on my view of the development of musical tastes anyway? Such drivel might have gotten me a grade in my old music appreciation class though. The big issue is my feeling like crap, both from the dinged up ribs and the drugs to treat them. When I'm on a regiment of mind altering drugs such as loratab and cyclobenzoprine, at least I'm aware it does effect my mood and generally in a negative way, so I avoid saying much.

As is noted in Krazydone's doll of me, this past week it seemed "I see stupid people" and in great abundance. As a rule of thumb I'm nice to the pilgrims that come down here. Of course it is my job to be nice to them, but it is also fairly much in my nature to want to be a positive part of their experience. However, this week it was hard to keep my civil servant demeanor in check. The question kept going through my mind time after time, "Why can't these states send their intelligent emissaries here on vacation?" I swear this week it seemed that states were mostly exporting dumb asses, especially Arkansas, which was closely followed by Louisiana. I'm just hoping it isn't something communicable with an eastward spread. Here are just a few of the things that piss me off with park patrons:

1) Stopping at the fee window only to answer a damned cell phone (or already be talking on one). What is the primary mission here, talking or driving, entering or holding up traffic? One ditz had about 15 cars backed up and had the brass to tell my partner when he asked her to pull around, "This will only take one or two more minutes"
2) People running the stop sign at the entry station, who then have the guts to say, "Oh, I didn't think the place was open!" Excuse me? Since when were stop signs and lines optional if you don't think there is anyone there to see you stop? My motto, "Discipline is doing the right things, even when you do not know anyone is there to notice the difference."
3) Then there are the people that run over the road cones. There are a series of road cones to narrow the road down to only one lane. I personally had to reset them five times Friday for idiots who ran over them. It is a good thing we don't have people standing out in the road to flag them over. I just loved the young lady from Tennessee who stopped at the first cone, got out of her car, and then walked over to the information window asking, "What should I do?" I gave her my best smile as I said, "The opening there is twelve feet wide, my guess is you will have plenty of room to drive through and pay the attendant." At least she didn't kill the cones and run the sign.
4) Friday and Saturday was the Blue Angel air show at Pensacola Beach; as the crow flies my beach is twenty miles from that location. Every year hundreds of locals, as well as a few pilgrims, come up to me and ask, "Where is the best place to see the air show from? This question from the tourists doesn't bother me as I expect them to be ignorant of the local geography (even when they aren't stupid) but the locals? My polite answer is "Over on Santa Rosa Island at Pensacola Beach" or "You can't seem them from here, the show is twenty miles to the east." More often than not their response will be, "So why can I see them from here? Did they not listen, or are they one of those unique people with an ability to see fleas doing a rendition of Swan Lake on a dog's back a block away?
5) Friday - right as I was closing up, this guy from Atlanta comes and wants to buy a pass and permit. The permit takes a fair amount of time to sell; there is no problem here; I just put out the please proceed sign and direct him to the rear of the building. Of course my focus is getting my last customer expeditiously out of the way and just going home to enjoy the weekend. So this guy pulls around and I do what I've got to do. First off, his drivers license is expired (his lucky day, I don't give a shit at this point) then his lady of the moment has to come out of the truck to be seen. This is one of those cases I often see on a weekend, where some guy in his late 40's to 50's comes in tow with a good looking woman that could at least be his daughter, but their actions say different. She comes up trying to distract me saying, "Has anyone told you that you look like the Wizard of Oz?" I raise an eyebrow and say "The Wizard of Oz?" And she says "Yea! You know, Ohmpa lompa dumpity do." About then her significant wallet of the moment says, "You meant Wily Wonka." She giggles, but she is determined to draw some attention to herself (and thusly slow me down), so she starts fanning herself by repeatedly pulling down her top to show me her puppies. She just didn't seem to understand I had seen one too many strange people already this week, and that nothing she was going to do was going to stop me from closing that damned station PDQ. Both of those odd balls went back to the truck ltike they had had the greatest of times and happily I was able to start my weekend. Why can't something like this happen at the beginning of the day when I could appreciate it?

Any way, blame the grumpy Smoky Bear MIA thing on a beat up body and drugs. I stopped taking them this weekend, but tomorrow I get a broken front tooth pulled and an implant put in its place, so it will be a short reprieve. Both of my merchant mariner sons are off of their boats today and should be back in town by now so that should give me something to smile about.

Not in the Mood

07.11.04 (8:11 pm) [edit]

I Would Rather Be Sleeping

07.08.04 (12:00 am) [edit]

Why at this time of night am I sitting here typing up a post for tBLOG when I should be asleep? It can all be blamed on drugs and my lousy coordination on getting off of some scaffolding. The fall dinged up my ribs and shoulder to the point that horizontal is not a good thing (even moving is not a good thing). The old Sleep Number bed isn't overcoming this comfort issue, so I'm relegated to using drugs to try and make it through the night. The prescribed drugs are loritab 7.5 and methocarbimol; they both do make me drowsy, but they don't knock me out. About all I can do is lay flat on my back and not move; not being too good at that, my moving disturbs the wife and hurts me. Now cyclobenzoprine will knock me out and I tried it the other night; timing being everything, it didn't kick in until about 05:00am and then I slept until noon. Even when I do get some sleep under these artificial inducements, I'm prone to being very restless, endure disturbing dreams and snore so badly that Margo might as well put up with my moaning and groaning from the pain. As it is she will be perturbed that I'm not in bed where I belong at this time of night.

Tomorrow (today actually) I'm going to go back to work and get paid for doing what I am supposed to do. I've stayed active enough the past few days to know I'm ready to make it through the day without any painkillers. Thank goodness my shift doesn't start until 11:00 a.m. or I would be worthless when the sun comes up. Only two days of work left this week and a weekend to recover and get back on schedule. Actually, Monday morning I'm going to get this broken tooth removed and an implant put in its places, so there is more like five days to recover and get back on schedule. Functioning at 07:00 a.m. does require a reasonably good sleep so it is best that goal be obtained. Frankly I hate shift work, but this may be one of the few instances it is a good thing.

One good thing did come out of this accident; my daughter-in-laws took pity on me and came over and mowed the grass, as nice as that was, the good part to me was their company and a chance to see the grandsons. Dakota and I watched Haunted Mansion and I watched Hoot. It is a stretch to say Hoot is crawling, but he sure is mobile and it seems if he isn't being watched, he is headed to investigate things not best for eight-month-olds to get into. There is a smile on my face as flashback of his father dance through my head. He will be home in four days and will he ever have his hands full for the next month or so.

Time once again to make an attempt at grabbing some shut eye.

My First Step in Breaking a Bad Habit

07.06.04 (4:17 am) [edit]

Yesterday marked the end of my second month as being a member of the tBLOG community. Although I doubt anyone other than myself noticed, I did something very out of character to mark that moment; I did not make a post. It truly took more effort on my part to do what I did than to make the post, because there are a few "reserve" postings available for an on the spur moment of "if and when the need moves me" to post them. In fact, there was a rather verbose post drafted up for the very occasion of ending my second month with no missed posts. Cut and paste isn't very hard, but breaking my pattern was. Now that my attendance record has been broken, by force of will, it is my hope that this self-made obligation is out of my head once and for all. Having a BLOG urge has become as bad a habit to me as if there was a need for me to light up a cigarette, take a drink or suck down caffeine.

Scientists turn to Popeye to save planet

07.06.04 (3:31 am) [edit]

04 July 2004
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Scientists have enlisted a new ally in the battle to save the planet - Popeye.
They have found that spinach, which gives the cartoon sailor his superhuman strength, could be the power source the world needs to combat global warming. The discovery could lead to a new version of the old instruction: "Heat up your greens."
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported last week that the leafy vegetable could provide the missing ingredient needed to make solar cells sufficiently cheap and efficient to provide the world with electricity. The cells work by harnessing the power of photosynthesis to covert light into electrical energy.
The MIT team - which reports its findings in the current issue of the scientific magazine Nano Letters - isolated photosynthetic proteins from the leaves, laid them on a thin gold film, and covered them with an organic material that conducts electricity. When they shone light on this high-tech sandwich, power was produced.
Professor Marc Dando said that they aimed "to take advantage of two billion years of evolution" by building on the way that nature had developed to convert sunlight into electricity, rather than doing it artificially.
But why spinach? "There's a lot of it and it's very, very green."He added that the team was now experimenting with peas too, and had thought of using "Olive Oyl" as a stabiliser.
The olive is actually ahead in providing green energy. Five power stations burning olive oil already supply homes in Andalusia, Spain.

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

"What the July Fourth Means to Me"

07.04.04 (10:33 am) [edit]

"For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July.

I remember it as a day almost as long anticipated as Christmas. This was helped along by the appearance in store windows of all kinds of fireworks and colorful posters advertising them with vivid pictures.

No later than the third of July -- sometimes earlier -- Dad would bring home what he felt he could afford to see go up in smoke and flame. We'd count and recount the number of firecrackers, display pieces and other things and go to bed determined to be up with the sun so as to offer the first, thunderous notice of the Fourth of July.

I'm afraid we didn't give too much thought to the meaning of the day. And, yes, there were tragic accidents to mar it, resulting from careless handling of the fireworks. I'm sure we're better off today with fireworks largely handled by professionals. Yet there was a thrill never to be forgotten in seeing a tin can blown 30 feet in the air by a giant "cracker" -- giant meaning it was about 4 inches long. But enough of nostalgia.

Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the meaning of days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth.

There is a legend about the day of our nation's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, "They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever."

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, that is the legend. But we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor.

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, three million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation.

It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy Fourth of July."

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States (1981)

A technical Hold

07.03.04 (8:25 pm) [edit]

He working on a scaffold, but fond himself baffled to be suddenly lying on the ground.

For some obscure reason, he didn't seem to be breath'in, he could not even utter a sound.

His wife when she found him, her heart was a pound'in, she wondered if his parts were lying around.

She gathered up his arse, as he recovered from his farce, and drove him across the town.

To the ER she would send him, to see if they could mend him, as he sat in that silly damn gown.

With x-rays they scanned him, to see first hand then, if his innards were still looking sound.

The doctor did reason, that he would have difficulty breath'in, with the banged up ribs he found.

With drugs they did send him, back home to be mend'in, and told him to slow it down.

Now the barn will just stand there, half finished and in disrepair, until a son comes back into town.
:oops:

Just One of My Daily Ramblings

07.02.04 (10:11 pm) [edit]

The temptation not to post is very strong tonight, for there is no clear reason to do so. With the limited time I've got left in the day it is not conceivable to adhere to my normal post style (which I suspect to most is simply just being verbose and boring). However, I've not missed a post since starting this adventure May 6, 2004 and I'm not prepared to break stride tonight. So far my endeavors have lured in 5925 hits. Taking away my own launchings, that take place upon post execution, comes to roughly a 100 viewers per night average, but the current daily mode hit rate is more like 150 per day. This may be just a statistically relevant number, one based on random chance of tBLOG viewing, this I do not know, but I do know that the nice round number of 6000 feels a bit exciting and by tomorrow I should be there. Now comments on the other hand lag way behind my 150 hits per day mode average. Aside from Krazydone, (she has faithfully commented at least once a day almost since I've started this venture) it is unclear who my regular readership has been - aside from family members who are likely checking on me, to see if I'm becoming an embarrassment to the family. In truth, my family members have been very kind and supportive - if you feel my effort is wasted, you can blame this all on them, because they got me started. Anyway, my conclusion is my posts must be brilliant and evoke no argument; or they are so boring that people just say to themselves, "Ignore him and he will just go away"; or, the hit numbers are another tBLOG screw-up, and no one is really reading this stuff anyway. It maters not one bit in any case If anyone is getting something out of this effort; it is keeping me occupied and that is the important thing for the moment. I truly am grateful for all of you that do visit though and ecstatic when there is evidence you keep coming back.

Yesterday Margo managed to make headway on her desire to get a new kitchen and she signed the papers. It was such a simple process at the Cabinet Depot that it leaves a lot of room to wonder why that after a month Lowes was unable to even give us an estimated cost. It was simply enjoyable to be here tonight when the installer came in to verify my measurements; my suspicion has been that Magoo doubted my abilities to get this done right, maybe she just wanted a second opinion, but in the end I was vindicated in my measurement and concept accuracy. The place we are dealing with made us an offer we couldn't refuse (only $110 to install 30 linear feet of cabinets), so now I do not even have to do the install. I didn't even question the cost of demolition for the old structure though, this aspect of the project just sounds like too much fun to let it pass by. Two more weeks to D-day! ;-})

Tonight the wife and I went out and saw Shrek II. No kids to take too it, no adult excuse for seeing it, just and admission that the first Shrek movie was enjoyable and it was time to get in touch with my inner child - truthfully I don't do that often enough.

Tomorrow is literally a day to raise the roof. If the weather cooperates Margo will be turned into a carpenter's assistant and the rafters go up on the mini-barn. After that task is over, I will be able to put on the roof and siding by myself, if she decides she has had all the fun she can stand. The weatherman says it will hit 90 tomorrow, with a matching humidity; in those conditions I've literally got to consume about a half-liter of water every fifteen minutes, or become grossly dehydrated. Just the task of drinking enough water throughout the day will cut into the efficiency of my efforts greatly. Last weekend, even after drinking about ten liters of water each day, my water weight loss was five pounds; sadly it all come back by the end of the week.

My hope for all you Yanks is that you have a wonderful Independence Day weekend. When you see those fireworks -for at least one moment, please remember in your heart all the sacrifice that was made on both sides. I'm not sure the founders of the revolution truly knew what they were creating when the effort to break away from English rule was initiated, but in the end it revolutionized the way the three countries involved in the war would lives their lives thereafter. All three nations took stock in what developed in the aftermath and all three live their lives today with a greater personal freedom in choice than anyone could have dreamed of at the moment. Perhaps even the descendants of my English cousins and banished patriots are not lamenting today, that their ancestors won most of the battles but lost the war.

A Television Show Disorder

07.01.04 (11:50 am) [edit]

I’m must be possessed by some fatal character flaw, one I’m aware of, but something which is elusively grounded in a root source not of my understanding. With some exception, I have a natural aversion for watching SITCOMS. Maybe my inner child is just too suppressed; maybe it is just my tendency to take life to seriously and analyze things too deeply, humor seems to be something that shouldn’t be analyzed, it should just come spontaneously, but mostly my sense of humor is a dry one - a product of analytical comparison. It is not that I don’t have a sense of humor, because that is just not the case. I lament the day the [i]Muppet Show [/i]and [i]Benny Hill [/i]went off the air; those shows offered me a bit of human insight through humor and they were important enough that they were part of life’s schedule. [i]Laugh-In [/i]is another show that I appreciate, but none of these examples are SITCOMS.

It seems I’m one of the few people in North America that has not watched an episode of [i]Friends[/i] or [i]Steinfeld[/i]; well there is the Amish community to consider, but I’m guessing there is a cult among them that secretly crawls into a hay loft to watch [i]Stienfeld[/i] on a small forbidden battery powered television which is normally stashed in a corner of the barn behind a bail of hay. I’m convinced the Amish could find humor in the plight of a married man that can’t grow a beard; they might even find humor in an adolescent youth that thinks it is funny to stash power tools in papa’s tool-crib or an electric mixer in mama’s kitchen. Probably most of the Amish are more attuned to situation drama though.

Only four SITCOMS come to mind that I definitively can state have received more than an occasional chance viewing; there is no doubt I’ve seen all the episodes of [i]All In the Family[/i], as well as most episodes of Barney Miller; my father loved those shows and I loved sharing time with my father. Most recently I can lay claim to having seen most episodes of [i]That 70’s Show[/i]; the source of motivation for this is not too different from the other shows. The wife is very close to her sister and Sis frequently extolled about how much she likes that show, it was inevitable that the wife would check it out, so the two of them can share common ground. A year back we bought a very practical bed, it is a Sleep Number Bed with a frame that can be contorted to a wide range of configurations, it vibrates in numerous different patterns as well; before this device came into the house the wife’s firm position was that a TV had no place in the bedroom… there are better things to do in bed. With six years and five major surgeries between us, the practicalities of a bed shifted with time; with the introduction of the new bed a year ago, the wife soon discovered that pleasure and comfort could come from the bed itself, that I am but an option in her evening comfort. The new bed was in place only a matter of days when the words are uttered from her mouth, “I think we should move one of the TV’s into the bedroom.” The wife beats me in bed most of the time thus gaining the edge in remote control domination; [i]That 70’s Show[/i] is replayed each night at her bedtime making this a prime sister to sister bonding opportunity, so taking my own opportunity to simply spend some time with the wife has given me cause to catch up on however many seasons of that show are in replay.

It sure isn’t my intent to be critical of anyone that does enjoy a SITCOM, I recognize the humor, irony and satire they contain, but the thing that motivates other people to watch them just doesn’t seem to be engrained in my nature. My guess is that most people don’t always like too take their lives too seriously and they find it enjoyable to see someone else’s life be played out as a tragic comedy. When I see a SITCOM my impulse is to check out what is on [b]The Learning Channel, National Geographic, Discovery[/b]; even the [i]Iron Chef [/i]or an old movie is a much preferable option; failing to find any of that, I’m prone to just getting up to find something productive to do, or to squander time on the internet. I’m no better when it comes to so called Reality Shows. I’ve never watched an episode of [i]Survivor, Joe Millionaire [/i]or any of that other stuff. I will admit to watching all three seasons of [i]Tough Enough [/i]though; that is a major confession too, because in general I despise [b]MTV[/b] and I have just admitted I’m subject to giving in to my principle; however, I’m drawing the line on [i]Friends[/i] and [i]Steinfeld[/i] - they have escaped my view all these years so now it is a contest to ensure one of their episodes never gets the best of me.

Magoo Ville