Comatose Pennsylvania Voters

June 16, 2014 at 21:24 (Variety of Subjects)
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Tom WolfeTom Corbett

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We now have two contenders for the Governorship of Pennsylvania, Wolfe and Corbett, Democrat and Republican.  The question is not who will be the best leader, but who is less capable of the two questionable choices.

Let’s start with the Mr. Wolfe.  He vows to tax the companies before fracking occurs and using the tax money for education, road projects, bridge repair, etc.  Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is the known as “detour, road under construction” state.  Gasoline taxes are supposed to take care of that problem.

He also wants to add funds for education, and that my friends, is nothing but a pipe dream.  Look up the statistics to see if Pennsylvania rates in the top 10% of student education in the US.  It doesn’t even come close.  The taxpayers are throwing money down the crapper trying to fund education while the unions are protecting the educators that are not doing their best.  California has the right idea of terminating tenure and firing teachers that are not capable of producing results.

There is not enough of the three R’s and Science, and they concentrate on social problems that cannot be resolved.  The Federal Government is partially to blame for all this chaos.  There is a plethora of systemic educational problems across Pennsylvania, and I do not want to discuss them in this forum.

Concerning the fracking companies, Wolfe is trying to convince the voters about the ridiculous idea of taxing them. Why not make the companies pay an excessive tax.  It will bring more money into the Pennsylvania coffers to spend on fruitless endeavors.  What a joke.  The voters must be in a coma to believe that it will be as he says.  Put a tax on the companies and the companies will only raise the rates and pass the tax onto the voters.  Just what we need, more high pricing and the voters will have additional expenses toward their bills.

Many voters who don’t understand the way government works, hence, are in a coma.  No matter what the politician promises, he is only a third of the government.  The House and Senate must also agree to that promise, else bye, bye promise.  You cannot tax a state into prosperity.

The government mandated to help the people of its state by making sure businesses are able to prosper to create jobs that are lacking.  If you create jobs, you eliminate dependency on other people and agencies.  If the government regulates the business into oblivion, jobs are lost and it creates dependency.  Do you realize that there are signs in New York that say go to Pennsylvania because it is the easiest state to get welfare.  I guess the voters want to support more out-of-state people to suckle on our taxes.

If you uneducated voters do not recognize the problems and continue to accept the futility of these progressive ideals, then you will be in dire need of help yourself one day.  Look at what Obama has created to hurt our country.  That is the same issue when it comes to not resolving our economic problems.

Governor Corbett has taken a page out of the Democratic playbook, and he is thinking of taxing the fracking companies too.  We may be in trouble now unless the congress can see through this absurdity.  Making our gasoline more expensive has put a burden on all of us.  It is unbelievable that since I was born the price of gas has gone up from 29 cents a gallon to almost $4.00 a gallon.  Much of the gasoline prices are stacked with tax upon tax.

There are too many fringe groups hurting the economy by fighting against the development of energy independence.  We can control the environmental problems even after we become independent.  Many of you are too young to remember the prediction of Carl Sagan, noted scientist, who said that if the oil wells in Kuwait are set on fire by Saddam Hussein’s forces that invaded Kuwait, there would an atmospheric dilemma causing a nuclear winter and create environmental problems.  The oil well fires were extinguished it didn’t cause environmental issues as he later recanted that concern.  I guess even a famous scientist can be wrong.

Our state government is in turmoil.  The voters better come out of their coma or zombie state, learn what is best for Pennsylvania, and not rely on more expenditures.  Other states have gone from a deficit of billions of dollars to billions in the black.  Perhaps our next governor should benchmark those states, and meet with that administration to see how it is done.

All you comatose voters get in line and educate yourselves.  Don’t vote blindly or on supposition, but vote for the best possible concern for your needs and survival in Pennsylvania’s economic future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Screwing Capitalism

March 15, 2014 at 13:40 (Variety of Subjects)
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internet-freedom-eagle Obama's star

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Here we go again.  Another executive order, wrongly justified, by our king Obama, is waiting for his signature.  He wants to give all salaried workers overtime pay.  This is another kick in the ass to our capitalistic economy.  It will hurt not only businesses but also the employee.

The obvious destruction of business practices are goals that the Obama administration has constantly pursued with good intentions, but has repeatedly screwed the economy.  Every one of his initiatives has failed and he doesn’t take the blame for his failures, he just blames everyone and everything else.  His flawed ego and his cerebral synaptic neurotransmitters must have crossed over to that place called, “Never Never Land”.

This is another assassination of a freedom of choice.  Obama doesn’t realize salaried employees hired have a guarantee of a consistent pay scale for their work effort, something that any true mentor of business knows from experience.  I’m sure that any overtime by an employee is a decision made by the employee knowing that he/she took the job with the knowledge that time is always a factor and a choice.  A salaried employee can quit and look for a more satisfying job if he feels overtime is not their cup of tea.  An employee on the clock can have hours cut if the employer deems necessary resulting in a lower take home pay.

The most obvious problem is who will set the proposed percentage scale for salaries.  If hourly employees get time and a half and double time for their efforts after forty hours of work, would you trust the government to set the pay scale after the Obamacare ignominy?  This would be another idiotic structure failure for businesses.

Obama is now risking salaried employees of their status quo to become potential hourly paid employees.  Now the employers will be able to cut their hours and not pay the overtime all because of Obama’s tyrannical edicts.  Businesses will hire more temporary employees or part time workers to save money and insurance costs.  Does this make any logical sense?

Congress better get off their duffs and do something to stop this barrage of destroying the American Dream.

Mr. Obama has lowered the standards of our military both, land and sea, he had given away our rights to missile defense systems, put us in a national debt to a point of no return, and on top of all this he is giving away our right to the functioning of our Internet control.  He is turning this nation into a third world country and our nation’s strong leadership in this world is turning us into a global circus.

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This administrative fiasco is like putting a juggler in a leadership position of aerospace engineering, with no experience whatsoever.  I haven’t seen this much ineptness since Jimmy Carter screwed up the Iranian hostage rescue when we lost helicopter troops during the ordeal.  It took a conservative Ronald Reagan to fix it.  President Reagan stopped the cold and was the catalyst that brought down the Berlin Wall.  He created his Star Wars Defense Initiative and it was the core defensive asset in the deterrence of global nuclear destruction.

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It is the obligation of all of us to look at the obvious impending downfall of America.  Stop this progressive surge on our future existence by listening to those of us who believe in our economic survival.  If you want to protest something, protest those progressive professors who spew the same destructive rhetoric that is influencing our educational facilities.  If you continue to listen to those who demean conservatism and the love of all citizens to be productive for the survival of the family values, you will find yourself under the power of those who will eventually place you into government servitude and your Constitutional rights obliterated.  We must repair all the mistakes that have happened so far.  Otherwise, we will pay for it with our lives along with our future heirs.

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Crackdown on School Lunches

March 10, 2014 at 12:52 (Variety of Subjects)
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Are you still hungry?

Typical School Lunch

 

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Every week, our local Sunday paper poses a question to a few random students.  This week it was how they felt concerning the lunches and the nutritious values.  I would have to agree with the majority of the kids.  It is terrible tasting and unappealing most of the time.

I do not understand why we accept Federal Government mandates that twist the schools into serving such crap to our kids all for the sake of nutrition.  The government funds education so they feel they have the right to do what they demand regardless of what the kids or parents think.  The agenda of the White House “sitting mother” decides to advocate healthy foods.  Yet she often feeds her kids the same “garbage” that she advocates is not healthy.  Video blurbs document it as we have all seen.

I have read where one school cafeteria monitor took away a child’s brown bad lunch because it was not healthy according to the school standards.  What right does a school monitor have the right to trump a parent’s right to feed their child via a brown bag cuisine?  After the uproar from parents went ballistic on the televised news, the school faced total embarrassment and made a policy change with a reprimand of said monitor.

I hate to bring up the past, but when I was in high school in the late 1960’s, the food was darn near what the food channel terms as “comfort foods”.  I was a typical nerd (with a pocket protector) but I was athletic as well.  I was on the swim team, but after school I was a YMCA Leader‘s Club volunteer member that taught kids basic gymnastics, like trampoline, tumbling, and vaulting.  Swimming was also a part of that ordeal.  I did all of that and even ran 3 to 10 miles a day, all the while I was teaching music professionally at 17 years of age at a private music school across the street from the “Y”.

I was a cool 185 lbs. throughout high school (most of the way though my Navy years until I got married) and I held 2 records for eating.  Bragging, no, I’m just stating a fact as to what the asinine government is doing to our kids.  I often carried two trays of food into the cafeteria.  Our ladies that cooked were terrific.  The two records were the result of the fastest time to down one meal and the other was the most eaten at one sitting.  It was just a passing phase of my life.  The chubby kid, who wanted to eat against me, turned tail when he saw me devour 4 trays at one sitting when my friends offered to pay for it.  Obesity in our high school was at a minimum as gym classes were a part of our school schedule.

I am just saying that if a young child or teen is active enough, he/she will burn all that out of their system.  Denying them the right to enjoy decent food menus is insane.  We, as adults, have the ability to understand our physical makeup and we can make those choices.  We have the tools and the know how to regulate those pounds.  Aging and cell degeneration is a fact for everyone in life.  If you think that child obesity is a big problem, let the parents be responsible and eventually the child will change with the advice of parental guidance no matter how they handle their approach.  Let the kids enjoy their freedom as kids and not as a government food experiment to eliminate the slim (excuse the pun) possibility of obesity.

Parents, you should revolt against the school and their government bias and let your kids enjoy whatever they want to eat.  They are only young once and they do not need the constant push into adulthood until it’s their time to take onus of their adult lives.  As adults, they will have the choice of continuing their lives however they choose, and at whenever weight they wish to keep.

When I was young, I wouldn’t eat liver and onions or green beans.  I didn’t eat asparagus or brussel sprouts because my parents were from the old European generation of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s.  They ate the basics and I did the same.  Adulthood gave way to changing taste buds and many new items are on my menu today, including those items mentioned.

There will always be kids with weight problems.  In my day, we were out practically every day doing something, a pickup softball game, or a football game.  Bike trips were always something to do.  We invented games to keep us busy, both physical and mental.  Parents need to get their kids up off their asses and have them do activities that encourage exercise.  A schedule for homework is vital and the video games and TV are secondary.

I realize the electronic technology draws the intellectual interest of any child but when they ignore you when you are trying to talk to them, it is time to say, “Not now and no more until…”.  When the daily occupation of a video game is there, the imagination of every child is at risk   Trust me when I say, I enjoyed PONG when it first came out, as well as the games after, but by that time I was an adult with a degree in electronics and I built the color TV I was playing on.  We need those kids to wonder about how to do things and make good things happen.  That’s how we should approach our children.

Food regulation is only a small part of our nation’s problem.  Everywhere there are food police waiting to put their progressive agendas to work and make you pawns of their tyrannical power grab.  If you are a Vegan or a vegetarian and that is your desire, then good for you.  Kids under the age of 18 should not be vegetarians.  They need everything including proteins and carbs to make their bodies solid for activities.

So don’t preach to me with your power push and make me your pet.  I have the freedom to choose just as you do.  Keep your priorities to yourself and if you need to save someone else, bite your tongue and read the Constitution concerning freedom of choice.  There is no freedom to persecute me into a raving madman.

 

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R.S.V.P Vladimir Putin

March 3, 2014 at 13:58 (Variety of Subjects)
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RSVP 3

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I cannot believe the newest idiocy by President Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry.

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Not only is Obama acting like the provincial wuss, but also, he’s allowing Kerry to spew the same verbal rhetorical garbage to the media.  Obama is showing the world and especially our allies that he is spineless and talk is cheap.  He might as well just give Putin an invitation and a R.S.V.P. to come to our country and help himself,  especially now with Obama’s budget cuts to our military.  Every move backward, that Obama takes, is a forward dare by Putin.  I’m very sure Putin is watching every dysfunctional step in our government structure and he’s taking advantage of it knowing Obama has no kahunas.

With all this happening in the Crimean Peninsula and the Ukraine, what does Obama do?  He decides to let the EPA, set new restrictions on sulfur content in the gasoline production, for the second time, from 90 % to 10%.  There is no indication or evidence of why that reduction is being promulgated and enacted if it does not help the environment or our health.  All it does is increase costs of our gasoline usage by at least a dime a gallon and screws the car manufacturers by making them make changes to the manufacturing processes, resulting in higher car prices.

It’s another crushing blow to our economic struggle for improvement.    Obama might as well get on Air Force One and take a seat next to Putin in Russia, and then annex the US as Russian property.  We have two and a half years more of Obama’s dictatorship and no one is doing anything about it.  All Congress is doing is sitting on their proverbial asses and allowing Obama to do whatever the hell he wants.  Harsh language, you say, you betcha!

The safety of our country is at risk here.  And Senator Harry Reid…he’s nothing but an Obama ass kisser.  He does nothing but prevent the truth from being told for his own agendas.  I truly believe Obama wanted the presidency so that he could take numerous long vacations, play golf, and B-ball, so he didn’t have to deal with leadership, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

What happened to President Reagan’s Star Wars Initiative?  It must still exist.  We have a new ship that has laser firepower and it never misses its targets, no matter how fast the jets fly.  The power we have does not mean war, but it will be a deterrent if we stand together with a line drawn in the sand.  Where is the courage and integrity of our government to stand firm on freedom?

I read the other day about a question of what will happen if missiles are fired upon the white House.  The solution was to put up blimps in the sky and check for missiles.  How high tech is that?  By the time the blimps are in the sky, we can say good-bye to Washington, D.C., but on second thought…

It is always iffy when electing a government official.  Promises are always broken because no matter what a politician decries, he has to be backed by other politicians who may not agree.  It takes the Legislative Congress and the Executive branch to make it happen.  This is a normal standoff we experience every day, every year, and every election.  But with the powerful oration of Obama, he has convinced the “uninformed and the gullible” that he can do it and solve our problems.

Here is a man who has no experience in business, no experience in leadership, and has no common sense regarding the fundamentals of our constitutional obligations, even when he declared he was a student of the constitution.  And you, the voters, were dumb enough to fall for it.  I guess Obama’s “business” card should read, “Fire, fire, pants on fire.  I promise to tell you the lies I can muster (master)”.

I never thought I would live long enough to see a sitting president surpass the idiocy and inane term of Jimmy Carter.  Obama makes Carter look like a cub scout.  Obama has screwed the American Taxpayer with so many blatant lies.  He promoted the raising of gas prices, no foreign policies, ridiculous healthcare mandates, outrageous EPA regulations, and the destruction of energy companies, preventing business startups and creating their downfalls.

We, as targets of all this destructive and idealistic disappointments, are in dire need of investing in the most popular health product today…Preparation-H.  I remember years ago when the shoplifters made Preparation-H their number one product to steal.  Do you know why?  It helped reduce the widening of their nostril cavities when snorting continuously the abundance of cocaine.  Gee, I wonder who was the first to come up with that idea.

Are you ready for a “real” change and not a prevaricated one?  Mid-term elections are ready for your votes.  So, unless the “real” change happens in November, grab your ankles, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.

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The Me, Myself, and I Generation

February 28, 2014 at 19:18 (Variety of Subjects)
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By the time I get to the end of my blog post, the title will become self-explanatory.  My teenage years were probably my most memorable time in my life prior to my stint in the Navy.  Those were the years of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, and Sam Cooke.  Prior to that era, when I was 4 and 5 years old, we only had a black and white TV with 3 basic channels and an outside antenna.

When I turned 8, I had an erector set with an open handled screwdriver.  I somehow learned to put that screwdriver behind the TV antenna terminals and I would get a New York channel that was great considering I was 1½ hours from the New York State Line.  That channel opened a door to Soupy Sales and the Amazing Randi, but most of all it broadcast movie musicals that I had never seen on the other channels.

Whether it was Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and Holiday Inn, or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing, some of my favorite ones were with Gene Kelly in ‘Dancing in the Rain’ and Crosby’s ‘Going my way’.  The best one that I remember, and still watch it to this day, is ‘I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy’ with James Cagney playing the remarkable George M. Cohan.

You may be wondering what does this have to do with the title.  I was also a musician and I learned to love music from the 30’s and up to this day, which also includes, Classical,  Jazz, Pop, some Country and yes, even some Rap.  I suppose that is why I am drawn to “The Voice” each week.  The songs in ‘I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy’ were America’s first step into the 20th century touting the utmost in the Spirit of Freedom.  I am a Disabled Navy Veteran of the Viet Nam Era.  It was that musical memory that prodded me to enlist.

It may not have meant too much to the groups in those days because everything was hippies, communes, flower children, peaceniks, and activists spitting on our returning GI’s because what those groups wanted [peace] was never a possibility even as far back as the beginning of our world.  War is Greed.  Greed needs Power.  But freedom…must be preserved for us, even if we cannot do it for the rest of the world.

My time in service was from 1970 to 1974.  It was a time of The Doors, Donovan, James Taylor, Don Mclean, and his ‘American Pie’.  You cannot leave out Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Jimi Hendricks, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Woodstock, and Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’.  As an immigrant, living in the US I felt thankful and obligated to serve for a country that gave me the opportunity for a good life (I became a citizen in 1975, a year after my Navy term was over).

My suggestion is for all of you to try to watch the movie, ‘I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy’ and maybe shed a tear as the end.  You won’t forget it.

Today our youth, teens, and adults in their 20’s have no clue to what’s going on around them.  I’m not even sure if those in their 30’s and 40‘s have a clue either.  The Progressives are teaching socialistic garbage in lieu of the three R’s.  The socialist view is a detriment to our growing future society.  College professors are the worst offenders.  I know this as fact-based information because I asked my grown kids and they can’t give me the answers either.  It’s just work, cell phones, Ipads, and Xboxes, etc.

Not one of them knows anything about the government except, “Oh, I like his/her face, or I think he’s better than the other guy”.  People vote the physical impression and not the facts.  There is no concern for their future representative government.  The majority of Americans are now crying in their beer glasses with our present Federal Government Administration’s push for power over the citizenship.  History and reasoning is lacking and again, and no one cares to “buy” the program of who is who in our government today.  It is such a waste of human behavior concerning our liberties and history when those individuals are literally walking in a coma as each day passes.

Yes this generation is a far cry from the Boomers, and all the previous generations.  The Gen-X Generation and the following generations will be long in chaos if we do not do something soon.  I don’t want to leave this earth before I can see what the United States was, should be, and must be for the sake of our founding fathers (perhaps I should say ‘your’ founding fathers, as I am a naturalized citizen).

There is your answer…it is the Me, Myself, and I Generation.  They only care what happens today and have no idea what is in store for them in the near future, if they remain ignorant of the history and of our present government administration.  May your ignorance be bliss and good luck kids, seriously!

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Associated Press vs. Maria Von Trapp

February 25, 2014 at 22:49 (Variety of Subjects)
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Maria von Trapp photo

buzzard[1]When I was a teenager in the 1960’s, five of us (3 guys and 2 girls) decided to take in a movie in the next town over.  We drove over to see the “Sound of Music”.  Personally, I fell in love with it, even though the story was somewhat Americanized, because I was born in Austria in 1951.

To this day, I still love the songs written for the movie because I was also a musician.  Having said all this, I guess I have a bone to pick with the Associated Press (AP).  In my newspaper, there was a two-sentence blurb, entitled, “Maria von Trapp, 99, dies in Vt.”.

I thought, oh, wow, what a sad note, until I said to myself, wait, Maria died in 1987.  What is this an act of reincarnation and death all over again?  Well, I had to take a closer look at this unspecified and unexplainable news article.

The “real” Maria was Maria Augusta Kutschera, who was born in 1905 on a train traveling to Vienna, Austria.  With the mother dying when Maria was two, her father left her with a cousin whose lifestyle was very strict.  In truth, Maria was a socialist and an atheist until she heard a Jesuit priest give a sermon.  Later, after speaking to him in a meeting, she changed her beliefs and eventually joined a convent.

The life in the convent was not conducive to her health.  A doctor had diagnosed that Maria’s health was failing because she was no longer outdoors and was without fresh air.  The decision was to let Maria go, and she was sent to the residence of retired Navy Captain Georg von Trapp.

The real story was Maria wasn’t a governess, but specifically hired for the Captain’s daughter who was bedridden with rheumatic fever.  I guess the story is now history when she married the captain in 1927.

With this historical fact out-of-the-way, there was another Maria von Trapp that AP did not make clear in their blurb.  The real Maria (by marriage) was the stepmother of the Captain’s 3rd oldest daughter Maria, depicted in the movie as “Louisa”.  Since the daughter, Maria, never married, there seems to be some confusion on who died when.  So the article was conveying the death of Maria von Trapp, the daughter, who died at the age of 99, and she was the last surviving child of the original seven children of the von Trapp family.

If you want more information on the “child” Maria, you can look her up online.  She was an energetic, kind individual and accomplished much in her life.

There are descendants of the von Trapp family who are still involved with the ski lodge, restaurant, and other aspects of the von Trapp family history in Stowe, Vermont, since they opened the lodge in the 1940’s.  You can check out their website online and think about visiting since it probably still has snow.  I’ve skied Stowe Mountain in my youth and it was a great experience.

Now if only the AP can get their information straight and not confuse the populace.  Luckily, I had some knowledge of this misrepresentation.

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Abolishing the EPA

February 20, 2014 at 13:32 (Variety of Subjects)
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There are many who support the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).  But, there are many more folks, who oppose the near “tyrannical” rules enacted by the federal government.  And, it hurts the American landowner, businessman, and consumer.  It is nothing but a “hotbed” (excuse the pun) of climate change presumptive fanatics, and the representative induced survival and anti-extinction of all species known to man.

I realize my opening has a derogative message of statement, but you cannot dissociate the facts of their regulatory obsessions.

In 1990, the EPA prevented loggers and other businesses and closed certain land areas because of the Northern Spotted Owl.  They said the owls are extremely important for its habitat and survival.  So what did the EPA do?  They turned to an EPA computer modeling team and tried to answer that question by simulating spotted owl population dynamics.  Here we go again, more computer simulations that have no merit on any future dynamics.  Those spotted owls were located in many areas of the northwest, and they “computed” the solution to avoid extinction.  The government began a program to kill Barred Owls to save the declining Spotted Owl, spending 3.6 million dollars for the program to assassinate the Barred Owls.  What a government expense.  Where were the PETA people or the animal lovers protesting that ridiculous act?  Species always adapt to environment and climate changes, no matter how small or large.  If you don’t believe me, ask your local mutated Swine Flu Virus.

A landowner, who wanted to develop his land, was repudiated.  The EPI demanded.  It was an area, where a certain species of frog needs its specific environment to survive.  And so, the power of the EPA emasculated the owner and it professed its power of species over private ownership.  The fact is, that particular species of frog is not and never was anywhere close to that area of land.  So the EPA used its tyrannical power to stop a private landowner his right to make his land into a capital gain for his future financial stability.  A fantasy the EPA created for the support of some fanatics who hate capitalism.

Richard Nixon initiated the EPA in 1970, an executive order, as a reasonable protection agency.  Contrary to our present president’s actions, Nixon had it ratified by committee hearings by both houses.  Congress approved the presidential appointment of the agency administrator.  The EPA is not a Cabinet department but the administrator received cabinet rank.

With the agency’s 17,000 employees and contract hires, much of their resources are scientists and engineers.  My question is who are the “environmental protection specialists” that meander within the agency?  Are they a viable asset?  Or are they the enigmatic enforcers, who wield the power to create the havoc for citizens within the US?

I realize that the agency was designed to be a caretaker for our environment.  Over the years the agency went from a responsible level to a level of protective supremacy and pressuring Congress to enact many laws that are truly way beyond the point of sanity.  They urge government to pass laws that are so impossible to achieve that it hurts the consumer.  The potential goals of the law will never be met.  A prime example is the new filtering requirement at the coalmines that are feasibly financially devastating and kills the economic structure of the coal miners who lost their jobs.  It is killing the coal industry today.

But the president wants to replace it with “green energy” that has not become an alternative or a viable source in our present time.  Killing today’s coal market by wanting a substitute energy source is a maniacal rage that does not have a promising future, as we know it today.  Substituting a present source of energy for a dream is a demonstrative failure of this administration and the EPA.  Obama’s oration of destroying the coal mining business, and he surely has, achieved this promise for his “glowing” record of accomplishments.

I think it is time for us to have Congress review some of the impact laws to restructure some of the laws that were “intended to protect” the environment.  It obviously has not; as the dreamers of the Global Warming faction are continuing to think the earth is in peril.

In the 1970’s, I experienced the hype of Global Cooling affecting our future existence.  Forty years later I’m still waiting for blistering surges of ice and snow encompassing Florida.  In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the doomsday belief initiated concern for the hole in the Ozone layer.  Protesters, convinced by scientists, petitioned the government to enact laws to prevent using CFCs, air conditioner coolants, spray cans, factory exhaust, etc. for the sake of our survival.

Later we faced an imperative solution to stop eating beef and reduce milking cows because of their continuous source of flatulence affecting the Ozone [between the rest of the animals and humans on this earth, maybe we must face extermination as well to prevent the same].  This organization tried to influence our eating behavior.  The government has added regulations that cost the consumer much more for products for a reason that did not do us harm.  The Ozone Layer closed all by itself and “earth” (oh, my hero) saved our beef and milk industry even though the group is still trying to convince us it’s bad for our health.

I’m paraphrasing a portion of a nationally printed news article, “Scientists are in a quandary about today’s Global Warming.  It has reached a constant stage level and has nearly stopped.  Previous decisions on Warming caused a global scare and now speculate the validity of this global pandemonium.  Scientists cannot fathom where excess heat is being absorbed”.

I am not a scientist, but I do have common sense.  And I have worked on statistics in component and aerospace engineering.  Specific climatic data is limited or unknown for centuries.  Scientists decided to create computerized simulation probabilities and “guess” future problems.  Results and judgments are not and were not gospel.

Earth’s resilience shall always rebound and correct its problems.  We cannot control behavior of the entire planet.  What we limit by law in the U.S. will not be limited elsewhere.  The onus is isolated to our country by fanatics and it’s a circle marked with futility.  We cannot sacrifice our standards of freedom while organizations are continuously trying to be masters of our lives.  I, for one, have my fill of it.  We can all be concerned to a degree and that’s perfectly okay.

I am too old to be worried about my future existence, but our young have not lived long enough to experience what our generation has in the last century.  Hopefully, they won’t be so gullible.

We are all concerned with the government and our healthcare.  Additionally, we have to be concerned about environmental global warming.  Both agendas are a financially, economically, and environmentally devastating to our ways of life.  Let’s all stop this fiasco concerning the government’s agendas of power grabbing.

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The Left or the Right

February 19, 2014 at 16:01 (Variety of Subjects)
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Longleat House

 

iLongleat Safari Park

buzzard[1]

There is a historical story reflecting the positions of the Left and the Right.  I found it very interesting a number of years ago when I was a treasure hunter while I held a position in the World Council of Metal Detectorists.  The US, Canada, and the UK, came together to share and protect the clubs and individuals who maintain the sport/hobby of detecting.

I was elected as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Council and we met at the residence of the Marquis of Bath, at Longleat House (see photo) in England.  The Marquis was pro-detectorists and his grounds maintained an Open Adventure and Safari Park (see other photo).

That evening our entire group, had supper with the Marquis attending, and he posed for photos with some of the lady guests. The inside of Longleat House was absolutely breathtaking and ornate.   It was here that one of our English friends related a very knowledgeable story.

There is a treasure trove law in England that states, “If item(s) found are determined to be buried on purpose as defined by the British Museum’s research of said item(s), then it would belong to the crown, however, if the museum determines that the item(s) found was accidentally lost, it shall belong to the finder”.  If it is found and determined, that the object was lost, the museum or any private entity is allowed to bid on it if the finder determines he wants to sell it, hopefully to the highest bidder.

The story begins with one Brit who was hunting on the Thanes River when it was at its’ lowest it has ever been.  This fellow (I’ll call him Jim) was detecting the muddy banks because of the ebbing of the river.  After a couple of hours of searching, he got a signal and found a silver signet ring.  Removing the mud, he described it as a thick circle embedded with rubies.  From the hole attached to the inner circle was a little shaft or wand.  It looked like a mortar and pestle without a bottom.

After taking it to the museum, it was determined that it was officially lost and he could keep it.  But there was more to it than that.  The museum had researched it extensively and traced it to a knight named Sir Antoine de Cressy (ca. 1400) from the medieval ages.  It was handed down from a family ancestor who was a knight in the court of William the Conqueror, known from the famous Battle of Hastings, in 1066.

It is documented that all knights in the court of King William, offered their family signet ring to the king in order to pledge allegiance to him.  This tradition meant that when the signet ring is offered, the king holds it in his hand and the knight pledges his life and sword to the monarch and to the protection of the people, especially the fair ladies.  Now Jim knew from the museum’s research that the ring was once held by William the Conqueror and it is a valuable prize.  Following the pledge, the king returns the ring to the knight and the king places the knight in a position the king decides to value.  This ancestral knight to de Cressy was a very powerful knight who had many loyal subjects.  It was the reason that King William wanted him at his side.

The twist to this story is that with all the knights that King William had, he placed those that he fully trusted on the right side of his court and the untrustworthy ones to his left.  That is how the meaning of Right Wing and Left Wing politics began.

All you voters out there please vote carefully.  Think what you would do, if you were a gallant medieval knight or lady, who loved and protected the people.

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Leaving a Legacy

February 12, 2014 at 16:43 (Variety of Subjects)
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buzzard[1]

Growing up, many of us remember how all our mail was sent threw the post office, especially personal letters to friends and family.  I have lived long enough to experience the transition of communication from “snail mail” to email.  We have all experienced the variety of emails we receive from spam to couples breaking up.  We have read jokes that once were interoffice memos and, by the way, I have saved much, if not all, of those memos for my files.

The point of this post is for those of you that are only aware of the computer age, and the association of texting, cell phones, and Ipads.  I want to remind you that growing up in this new world of communication will obfuscate the paths and roads of your future lives.  I want to express to you the gravity of not being cognizant of things around you, until you get to the age of regret.

Please allow me to be your “Paul Revere” and issue you a “call to arms” by letting you read some personal email that I have received with the realization that emails are also sensible and endearing, rather than just a contact.

I must develop a prologue for you, as the rest of the text will be an email sent to me, and my response to that email.  There is a group of friends from my teenage years (from the 1960’s) and by some chance, we were all reunited recently after 43 years of absence.  I left for the Navy in 1970 and never returned to my hometown except to visit my parents on short weekend trips.

We are all in our 60’s today and this post concerns one particular (female) friend in particular, whose husband had an accident and is now in long-term repair.  She also is suffering with her own physical health issues, but she manages to work a little each week.  The emails are below, and take notice the time it was sent to me, because it took me by surprise.  For all of you, please read the email as a tribute to your future lives if nothing else.

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Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 1:11 AM

Xxxxx- just a brief heart felt note.

I would just like to thank you for so many gestures of kindness.  First and foremost, I can’t thank you enough for being there for me at all times of the day & night.  Knowing that someone was there when I needed to talk, cry, complain, rattle nonsense, needing to hear the right words, etc.

Someone, who was my cheerleader, confidant, and guide.  Someone, who was a TRUE FRIEND who asked for nothing but gave much in return.

Words cannot express my gratitude for being able to pour my soul without being judged or criticized.

And knowing that you’re doing what you can because you truly care & want to help.

As you’ve said that “your funds are limited” but your true wealth is deep.  To give, of yourself, is the greatest gift one could give to another.  And you, my dear friend, have deep pockets to share.  And you give without being asked.

I lovingly accept all your heart felt generosity that has allowed me to take this unfortunate journey I know I’ll be traveling for many months ahead.

Dear friend, many, many, thanks.  I know you’ll always be there ready to help.

My sincerest love & gratitude.  Until later…Your Xxxxxxxx!

 

Dearest Xxxxxxxx,

After reading your words, I am truly humbled.  Since I have left all my friends in 1970, I have traveled, met people, and learned so much that at my age, and being incapacitated, my only recourse is to share what I know.  Hopefully, I can offer some semblance of peace and knowledge.  You are correct in saying I do not ask for anything except the love of friendship of those that I have lost over the years.  We all deserve a little respect and kindness that perhaps some of us need to experience now at this time when age has a grip on our physical & mental stages.

Even though I do not know many of the spouses, I still feel the connection, as they are a part of my friends’ lives and security.  I know what it was like without a partner at one time of my life.  Though I felt partly released of burden, I also felt much heartache knowing that someone I had loved is no longer as close as I wanted it to be.  Isolation and depression was on the menu at that time.  After separation, I became an insomniac for weeks until I mentally broke that part of my life.  I retraced my daily routine to include new things to explore and reconnect with the world around me.  I wish the friends of my past could have been there, but I experienced every disappointment that one could possibly not understand.  As new venues began to appear, I carefully scrutinized every avenue to not allow myself to experience those feelings again.  It hurt me deeply, that no one can ever understand because I was and still am very sensitive about my relationships with others.

 It all comes down to the fact that for everyone that I know, I will be there for them, no matter what it takes, and as you say, even though I cannot be there financially, but I can always be there to help someone feel needed and appreciated, way beyond what they can experience from their partners.

 When I reached the point of my life when I knew it was time to realize that life has finally come knocking at my door, I asked myself, “What have I accomplished to leave some sort of legacy for those I will be leaving behind”.  I had none.  I began to restart my artwork, rewriting my music, publish what I can and be a different person by trying to be better than I was.  I want to create anything I can with my hands, whether it is the jewelry, carving, and woodworking, fly tying, etc.  Even as we speak, I am facing the deterioration and the failing sensitivity of my hands and fingers.  It will be soon that I will no longer be able to do just that.

 There are just little things in life, one would not think of until it happens.  When I sold my parent’s house after they passed on, it was such a difficult thing to release.  I shed some tears as we were leaving, but not as difficult to realize that the phone number that I had to cancel and shutoff, was a part of their lives when the digits 23 were substituted for BE-verly back in the 1950’s.  And their 23x-xxxx number was the only number they ever had after 1952 to 2011, a period of 59 years.  It was something that not many people have experienced or gave it any importance.

Yes, it is always the things we never think about that are a part of our lives, when and if we take the time to reflect upon it.  The memories rush in and we wonder what do we do with it and why.  I hope that those small memories are an indication of some personal heartfelt feelings that we still hold close to ourselves and as a reminder that life has been a true experience of some good and that good should overweight the bad things we have experienced.

 In retrospect, I have obligated myself to reach back into my memory banks and try to recall all those happenings and small nuances that many of our [teenage] “gang” and you have forgotten.  I try to reach back and remind all that there was much good in our teenage years and perhaps that will allow all to think about the times after, and to the present, about the good things and only dwell on the hardships for a shorter time.  Life is getting too short to dwell on the misfortunes of ourselves, but we can take a thought and make it amusing to remember those times of friendship.

I can only do what I can to ease one’s mind, but it is truly amazing you can recognize and honor me for something, that we, as people and friends, should do for others.  I often think about what I could have done to change my past to make it better and more satisfying, but that day will never come.  I live with the reluctance of my decisions.  Good or not good, I eventually traveled that road.

 I cannot explain fully how much I love my friends from the past.  It will keep me focused on you and them so that I will always know I was a small part of their lives and I have hoped that no one will forget those days…that is the legacy I will leave behind…just a small memory!

 Love & Hugs always….Me!

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 I hope you all will take heed and remind yourselves that life passes all too quickly.  Stop and be an icon, not on a desktop, but in the hearts of others.

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World Fair Silence

February 6, 2014 at 16:34 (Variety of Subjects)
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New_York_Worlds_Fairgrounds

buzzard[1]Before I delve into the crux of the title, I would like to reminisce just a tad.  This year is a special anniversary for me.  It is the 50th anniversary of the only World’s Fair I ever attended, the New York World’s Fair.  In the summer of 1964, my parents, my uncle, and my brother traveled from Connecticut to Flushing Meadows, New York, where the fair had begun.  I was only 13 years old, but I still remember the hype that ensued by the marketing of the event.

Looking back to those days, have brought back some memories, vague as they are so long after experiencing it at that young age. We rode in my dad’s 1957 Ford Fairlane (he always kept a car for 10 years).  The Merritt Parkway was the artery that we traveled to the New York State, and I remember how we pulled over at a roadside rest stop where we ate an early lunch sitting at picnic tables.  Sometimes I have to chuckle when my mom expressed how some of the other women rest stop ladies room were circumventing using the bathroom stalls, because it cost a dime to use it.  As one was finished, the next one would grab the door to save a dime.  Now that’s an odd memory.

When we finally arrived, we routinely took pictures with a Kodak camera.  I still have a few, but they never just showed the pavilions, just the family standing in front of a few.  My mom bought a few postcards, an ashtray, and for me, a suspended flattened unisphere showing the day of the month that advanced each time you flipped it.  Though we visited as many pavilions as we could, the most heartfelt one was seeing the magnificent Michaelangelo Buonarroti’s “Pieta”, on loan from the Vatican.  It was the highlight of my visit.

 Pieta

This fair showed us a remarkable view of technology for the times to come.  At the Ford Pavilion we observed the first Ford Mustang.  We experienced a preview of Disney’s Audio-Animatronics at several of the pavilions.  At the Carousel of Progress by GE, we rode and viewed man’s progress from the past to the future.  NASA brought a Saturn Boat Tail rocket engine for the Apollo missions and even displayed the Lunar LEM slated for the moon years later (during the second summer of the fair’s continuance in 1965).  I visited the fair that year as well.

Ironically, a model of the Twin Towers for New York was exhibited which many scoffed at its’ future construction, never imagining the later destruction of it in our time.  At the Pepsi Pavilion, Disney’s “It’s a Small World” was first introduced.  There were two important introductions of scientific innovation.  The first was the Color TV throughout the fairgrounds and the “Picturephone” that was the precursor to today’s computer and SKYPE program.  The IBM corporation presented some other computer technology.  It was illuminating to say the least.

 parkunisphere

If you look at the Unisphere In the photo, you can see the 3 rings around it.  They represented three important occasions; America’s first astronaut orbit, Russia’s first cosmonaut orbit, and the first orbiting communications satellite.  You might also recognize the towers behind it (for you younger folks) as part of the “Men In Black” movie.

But now digressing from my youthful revelations, you need to ask yourself when was the last time you have heard about a world’s fair taking place.  Consequently the term “World’s Fair” is synonymous with “Exposition”.  Many have taken place since 1853 and many have never occurred due to circumstances happening at the time of its scheduled appearance.  These “Expos” are still appearing presently and in the future.  There is a complete listing of all the Expos that had taken place and where if you search the internet.

The official theme of this fair was, “Peace Through Understanding” dedicated to “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe”.  The obvious reason for the Unisphere structure built on the fairgrounds.  There was much controversy concerning this fair.  The BIE (Bureau of International Expositions) did not sanction the fair in New York.  Their charter only allowed an exposition to take place once every 10 years per country, and the last one was in Seattle, Washington in 1962.  The BIE also was upset about the fact that a fair was to have only one six-month period not two.

The fair was doomed for bankruptcy.  The organizers used advanced ticket sales from the 1964 and 1965 to fund the 1965 fair to save it.  The fair focused on corporations and many countries did not participate.  They estimated that at least 70 million visitors was needed to make a profit, but only 60+ million showed, barely making it through the second season.

There is some ambiguity about whether the US will host a future world’s fair.  Some want to have one, but the government won’t allow the sanction of, or funding for one presently.  You may want to know where the next expo will take place.  It will take place in an area just north of the city of Milan, Italy in 2015, with over 200 acres destined for its’ showing.

Today, some of the structures of the New York Fair went into disrepair and was eventually demolished.  The rest remains as a reminder to our past of a World’s Fair that some of us still remember.  I can only be astonished at the predictions of the technology at the fair, and I have lived to see these amazing possibilities come to fruition.  And that, my friends and fellow readers, was worth experiencing.

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