Over this past decade our Supreme Court has proven a propensity for anything but supreme performance. Today’s news infringement on our rights continues to put this country closer and closer to a serious backlash. In case you missed it the court has decided that the police can arrest you under false pretenses, then search you against your will, and anything they find that might be illegal or suspect can be submitted as evidence against you. It used to be called Illegal Search & Seizure, now it’s called OK.
So, a quick review of some of their other more stellar rulings have been:
1. The police are no longer required to announce themselves before kicking in your door and taking you by force (commonly called arrest).
2. The police can stop you under false pretence, search you against your will, and hold you accountable for anything they find (or plant?) on you.
3. And some years ago the accepted Double Jeopardy rule was tossed out so you can now be tried by BOTH the state and the federal government and convicted by both, sentenced separately, and required to serve both sentences … back to back if they so decide.
Years ago, when I was in college, we had required reading about certain historical events and the treatment of citizens, prisoners, that “undesireables”. I’m wondering at what point your political affiliation will be used to determine when your rights are suspended or promoted? Please don’t tell me it can’t happen; all the above situations were explained the same way years ago and look where we are today.
By the way, prior to reading this blog you were supposed to submit your Social Security Number, Checking Account Numbers, Credit cards, and attractive teenage daughters …. Oh, you didn’t know that? PIG! Up against the wall; give me your papers; you want a lawyer? HA! Don’t bother, who the heck do you think comes up with these laws anyway?
Stallage [enter your state name] may not be very far away; oh yeah, and did you happen to notice that the Supreme Court is also debating your right to have a firearm right now? And you thought there were no conspiracies in this country…………….
Today I got angry. Oh yeah, I know that probably sounds quite droll, but for me it’s a bit of an event. There are some very good reasons why I don’t allow myself to get angry any longer, but that’s another long and boring story that dredges up more of the past than I care to think about right now.
As I get older I realize that I have less and less control of the world around me. Of course, the reality is that I’m just realizing that I never had any control, but you know, when you’re young and full of piss & vinegar you just don’t see the truth. I think what upset me was that for a moment I got angry with another person; somebody I don’t know other than through simple correspondence. A nice person from all accounts, but for a moment I allowed myself to believe they were different than most and then they did that damn human thing and made an overall judgment about me without even knowing me. I think it wasn’t really anger, just good old fashion disappointment.
Years ago, when I turned on the emotions again after turning them off back in the military, I learned the penalty. Nobody told me it was like water backing up behind a dam. It just stores up until you open the valve and then there’s that flood of emotions. Actually it’s more like bank account because it comes out with interest, compounded, huge … and you’re never prepared, at least not fully. Once I got a handle on it I had a lot better understanding why so many of these kids that are in the military end up taking their own lives. It’s just impossible for many of them to deal with. They are good, clean kids trying to grow up fast and survive in impossible situations that most can’t handle. A lot of them bury the feelings, but a few just can’t do that. Of course the ones that are successful don’t realize that those buried feelings are that time bomb that will explode sometime, perhaps a long way in the future, without warning and doing more damage than one could ever imagine.
Life is full of those tiny little lessons and they show up all sorts of ways. I remember my dad always using a particular metaphor to make a point. He’d say “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man that had no feet”. It was kind of morbid but I got the point. Little did I know that in just a few years later, walking off a hot LZ carrying a half dozen boots with feet still in them that the little bell, you know, the one that rings when you “get it” would go off and the old man’s metaphor would take on an entirely new, painfully morbid reality of it’s own.
Yep, it’s just those “tiny little’s” that seem to make all the difference some times and worst of all, we never know when the point will come home. I wonder how many of them are still buried out there with my name on it, but worse yet, I wonder how many of them I’ve sprinkled into my own kids lives and how they will discover them.
I promised myself that I won’t get angry again. I know it’s a promise I can’t keep, but God and Grandfather know it’s one that I really want to …..
In case you haven’t noticed or you have been sold on the swan song of “enhancements”, it’s a marketing trend that we are particularly susceptible to. Today the “enhancement drinks” are the big sellers, even more than bottled water. One particular brand now advertises that you should drink ½ the can at a sitting … like any teenager will be able to resist that challenge! There are several problems with these products, not the least of which is this business of claiming herbal ingredients. One particular brand uses a herbal ingredient that has the potential of causing severe renal failure. Not much healthy in that approach! Wasn’t it enough that we were duped into believing that water that comes in a PVC container was somehow “better” for us? Costing more than a gallon of gasoline, in a container that when being overheated (you don’t believe they put that stuff in air conditioned warehouses, do you???) leaches palates into the water and off-gasses plasticizers from the moment the bottle is molded. Oh yes, and don’t forget that bottled water is in NO WAY regulated so there are no standards like that which comes out of your kitchen faucet. If you’ve ever been in one of these magical bottled-water production plants, you can help but envy how the main water service is directly connected to the bottling equipment … with a very simple set of filters in line that you could duplicate at your local hardware store for roughly $100. My, my, my, for such highly educated people, at the top of the food chain, with the most developed cranial contents, we certainly do some dumb things, eh?
Certainly all you gentlemen are finding yourself bombarded with the tons of emails that boast supreme male enhancement promising to double or triple your current “size”, all in order to please the ladies. Now fellows, I can only speak for myself here, but the idea of that kind of enhancement brings about concerns that I might soon need a garden hose reel in order to cope with all this enhancement. And ladies, those beautiful Ta-Ta enhancements that you all scream for, turning you into not much more than a duplicate for a computer chip … have you thought about what those things are going to look like when you are 90? Beside the fact that you’ll be the single greatest contributing factor to sudden cardiac arrest at the old-folks home, how on earth are you going to carry those things around when you are having to use a walker?
The fact is that we are as gullible as can be. We are constantly sold on the idea that we are somehow flawed, not good enough, could be better, only pluck down your $19.95 and you’ll get the newest Ronco super-duper enhancer, guaranteed to do everything including lose weight (yes, that $19.95 you gave up did slightly reduce your weight).
I wonder just how much money is wasted each year on these foolish attempts at personal perfection? I wonder how many people failed to appreciate their friends, mates, buddies, etc. just for who they are rather than what we want them to be. We preach the value of diversity, yet we fail to recognize it for what it really is … the simple acceptance and appreciation for other human beings with all their marvels, their flaws, their individual traits that make them what they are …. Human.
We all seem to miss the single most important enhancement that would benefit us all, easily obtainable, requiring only a bit of personal effort. Exercise for the body & brain. Just that simple. Getting out there and walking every day and taking the time to read the newspaper. Keeping both active is the greatest and most valuable enhancement that we all seem to shun, but would benefit by.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m headed out the door and walking down the street to pick up the Sunday paper … hmmmm, killing two birds with one stone. Gotta love that!
The fun thing about the job market is the temptation to do something rash. I’ve had some interesting offers that would boggle the mind. The best one to date was to take a 12 month contract where I would be spending approximately 10 of those months on the 7th continent at the NOAH weather station. Hmmmm, sounds a bit too much like my last marriage, but that’s a different story.
Anyway, this afternoon I got one of those calls from a former employment candidate that have suddenly regained interest. Actually, it just took forever for them to get through the process so now it might just happen. Wow, moving to a different state, new friends, etc, etc is a bit scary but when I consider what I’ve got around this city, it sure couldn’t get any worse, in fact there are a number of benefits that would be helpful in the long run.
And if that were not interesting enough, another lead wants me to come visit them to interview. They are further North (brrrrrr) but are offering nearly twice the salary and a bonus structure that is 25% of the salary. That’s nearly enough money to be scary.
So, what to do, what to do …. I’m thinking it might be time to break out the old dart board; it would be easier!
Being a charter member of the human race, I have spent a great deal of my life in pursuit of the ever existing question of “why?”. Certainly seems direct enough, eh? Actually, it’s possibly one of the most complex questions that was ever put forth to another human being. It opens up every opportunity to be explained, lectured, and nagged to death … all without necessarily every answering that simple question: “why?”.
For me, it’s been a bit more personal. At one point in my life I made a living with a camera and did a fair job at it. Using a camera immediately tosses you into the field of being a professional voyeur, studying people around you for all the graces, afflictions, annoying habits, and curiosities that would probably otherwise go unnoticed. After a time you start seeing a number of similar problems that have evolved within our species. The inability of the males & females to find and maintain harmony as well as our own inability to seek and find true inner peace seem to be the two that rise to the top of the list most often.
As of today I have found the second volume that I believe should be mandatory reading and part of the packaging of every human being. The first, “Men are from Mars ….” Was an excellent sort of instruction book. Certainly not perfect, but to date it’s been the best guide for understanding the differences in abilities and needs between the male and female. It certainly won’t solve these problems but it gives the best opportunity for these two classes to have a working understanding of the other, which would solve about 65% of the incompatibility issues that arise in a relationship. The second volume is one that I just finished. It’s Randy Pausch’s book “The Last Lecture”. You have probably seen the ABC special on Dr. Pausch and seen my own as well as others comments but you don’t know the entire story until you read the book. Here, in just 206 rough cut, large enough to read pages you will find a few precious secrets … secrets that can turn around even the most dreadful & seemingly meaningless life. WARNING: The contents of this book won’t tug at your heart strings as much as they will jerk you to your feet and slap you back into a reality that we all should be reminded of every day.
We all visit these sites in hopes of finding our perfect Ying to our Yang, to recapture something we have lost and so desperately want to find or replace or whatever it takes to bring us back to that warm, comfortable spot we once called “our life”. The fact is that we are all searching for the same thing, but allow our own prejudices to throw us off track and frequently steer us in the wrong direction. We will claim we are “only looking for our true love” but then put up roadblocks like height, weight, color, hair, location and on and on.
Being self aware is certainly an important first step, but a very important second step has to be to have a good grasp on reality as well as what is important in life. I’m talking about what is really important, not all the clutter we surround ourselves with.
And that, my friends, is one of those “why’s” that will forever remain a goal, but hopefully not necessarily a mystery ….
It’s past midnight and I just hit that mid-life recharge. You know what I’m talking about; that point where the meaning of you life has been once again revealed, re-defined, and given more purpose than you can possibly every achieve in your lifetime … but how you are going to try. Those few that know me, and I mean know me well, know that I’ve done a lot with my life so to come upon this moment is, well, I’m still trying to catch my breath, slow down my heart, and stop my mind from racing. But I’m not going to try too hard because this rush is incredible.
Ever hear of Dr. Randy Pausch? Professor from Carnegie Mellon University? One of the giants of virtual reality among other hundreds of attributes. Well, if not, you can add one more. He’s the man that have given the now legendary “The Last Lecture”. Simply put, he’s dying but has managed to put together in 76 minutes one of the best lectures I’ve seen in a very, very, very long time. I’d put it on par with the lost lecture of Dr. Teller. If you don’t know who that is, time to dump your video games and porn clips and pick up a book again. Seriously, people like this are too important to ignor.
Look. You may not like me or what I say. You may disagree with every breath I take and would be more than happy to point your cursor at me and do a quick CTL-ALT-DEL when I walk into the room; but for a moment, forget all that and just go to this site and watch this lecture.
If you’re smart, find a way to record it, put it on a disk and give a copy to you kids, your friends, you enemies, anyone and everyone you know. This, my friends, is the true secret to happiness and to life and no matter who you are or what you mean to me, just watch this. It will change your life …
We the people of these United States have suffered through much over the past years. Everything from high ranking officials that not only ignore our wishes, but even go so far as to lie to us, steal from us, and are allowed to slip through the fingers of our legal system. It’s one thing for us to be fooled into electing them. It’s quite another to have to sit back and fail to serve the laws of the people.
This evenings news exposed that there are literally millions of tax payer dollars being spent by civil servants to splurge on personal expenses that include dinners, liquor, toys, evening wear, and in one case one person funneled over $600,000 to her boyfriend … all through the government credit card program. Worst of all, it had to found through audits of the OMB.
Where are our watchdogs? Who is failing to review these expenses BEFORE they get out of their particular offices? Where is the GAO and why hasn’t the FB I conducted a series of raids to arrest these thieves? And now to add insult to injury, we are being told the users have disappeared and can’t be found! When I had a government credit card my personal name was on it and every transaction. A detailed report was presented to our boss each month and if there was even a question about an expense, we were grilled until explanations were satisfactory.
Folks, we pay these clowns for their services. Civil Servants, congress-people, judges, federal agents, and a lot more. Is it too much for us to ask them to do their jobs, do them honestly, and represent our wishes? Is it too much to ask our elected officials to give us access to all the non-classified documents that are our property? Is it too much to expect all large expenses to be made part of the public record, debated in open session and properly attributed to those that benefit from them?
I propose that anytime any public official breaks the law, steals, or misrepresents themselves, the full and complete details be published by the office of the Inspector General of the United States on a web site that anyone with a computer can see. Make it easily searched by name, position, state, and under what congressional representation the acts were performed. Only when we put these people in the public spotlight will there be justice and we will have the opportunity to hold those accountable to their sworn oath of office and their duty to we, the citizens & taxpayers.
I guess after the last woman that could generate any real feelings for just stopped calling, writing, or even acknowledging me on the net, the reality of spending the rest of my life alone finally started to sink in. I used to get upset about it but that was before my brother in law fell ill to the big “C”. Now I watch from afar as the disease runs it’s course, try to help him and my sister come to grips with what is to come … and spend time, very late at night, sitting in my bed and wondering what will become of me when I have to face a similar fate. My sister and I talk on the phone fairly regularly now days and I’m planning a trip out to KC to see her & my brother-in-law so I can see him one last time and help him with a few private matters that I have rather suddenly become his most trusted advisor on and for.
I have no idea why. Well, that’s not exactly true. Unfortunately, I’m one of those types that gets stronger as the situation gets harder. When each of my parents died, I was the one that everybody seemed to turn to; in tough situations in and out of the military, when everyone started to panic, I was the one that had to be rock solid, give the orders and make everyone perform over and above. All from an early age diet of too much John Wayne, Superman, & Leave it to Beaver. My dad drove me to never be wrong, always have the answers, and not be afraid to tell it like it is. Strange, he always bragged about having those traits, although as I got older I learned they were more boasts than reality. Oh, I still very much loved the old boy and occasionally spend a sleepless night thinking about all the things I wanted to tell him, but a step-mother always stood in the way. No excuses, I should have made it happen, but I was too busy trying to live up to all his expectations that I somehow forgot to live up to some of my own. Funny how you can wake up the morning after a funeral, swing your feet out of bed, then wonder to yourself “now what?”.
The strange thing is that I have no regrets. I am the man I choose to be and I am exactly where I have chosen to be. I could have changed many things in my life, but for reasons known only to me, I am what I am and that’s just the way it is. I am a difficult person at times, hard to live with and probably impossible to love. No pity intended, just facing the reality of that first sentence of this blog. I often wonder how many people out there some to that same conclusion. Especially when we have that time to sit and look inward, wanting so desperately to find somebody we can love and who will actually love us the same way. Perhaps that is part of growing older; realizing the limitations we put on ourselves as well as realizing those same things so limit our future opportunities.
I know when the time comes, I’ll still be the one that has to be strong. There will be no time for tears or begging for another day or two. I’ll be too busy taking care of the others around me and too busy dying to really have time for myself. But then again, that’s the way it’s always been and it’s worked so far, so why change a good thing? I guess that’s my real quality of life, knowing my immense flaws and shortcomings; knowing there isn’t anything more I can do about them, but knowing those are the things that make me uniquely me.
There are so many important elements of the American discussion these days it’s hard to put a finger on just one that is worthy of special attention. The war, the economy, the 2nd amendment, and once again the issue of race comes to the surface. Any of these would be a worthy topic, but the fact that all of them are a part of this national discussion causes us to all sit up and pay special attention to these historical events.
Some years ago another controversial figure in our history coined the term “professional citizen” and while some of his rhetoric was a bit further than a majority of Americans were willing to look, the majority of his topics were right on target. His work created an entire generation of active, professional citizens.
So, what is a professional citizen anyway? It’s a good question, in fact it is one that I had not fully explored until recently. Frankly, it’s simple; so simple that this might be the very reason that so many of us have fallen down on the job. It is simply taking an active part in the world around you. Reading the newspaper, discussing the days events, taking time to write a letter or make a phone call to your elected officials and express your opinion and, if they ignore you, actively work towards supporting somebody that will. And, don’t be shy about telling them that very fact. Pick up a copy of your Constitution and read it. Wave it in the faces of those that proclaim things like “old law” and we have a “new system” and demand they comply and, once again, work to promote those that will obey the laws of the land and put the citizen first and foremost over all other interests.
Lastly, take a lesson from one of more courageous presidential candidates and don’t be afraid to stand up for what is right, even when you know you will be shouted down as being wrong. Stick to your principles and hold tight to your beliefs … but most important of all, keep an open mind and listen to conflicting idea’s. You never know when a better idea might come along and if we are to survive in this world it is imperative that we grow together.
And lastly, remember an important note from the past. You are not African-Americans, Irish-Americans, German-Americans, Native-Americans, Asian-Americans or any of the similar expressions that we often use to define who we are. We are Americans. No greater honor could anyone claim!
The Hippocratic Oath was once considered the foundation upon which every physician pledged their undying efforts to heal the sick. The oath, believed written by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, in the 4th century by one of his students. It is still considered by most to be a rite of passage for practitioners of medicine, despite the fact that it is not obligatory and not taken up by all physicians; which in itself must cause every patient to ask “why not?”.
I can’t help wondering why a similar pledge isn’t a requirement by every person serving in the medical community, particularly the medical insurance companies. Imagine being one of those CEO’s, forced to stand before a tribute of peers and having to answer for crimes against humanity; and certainly the denial of proper medical treatment to any person or group of people could certainly be considered just that. If a doctor withholds treatment, knowing that the result will be death; particularly if that death was avoidable, he would certainly be tried for medical malpractice as well as a possible revocation of his medical license.
The withholding of treatment by insurance companies should be treated no less severely. Not too dissimilar from the Nazi’s medical experimentation program, these folks could rightfully be accused of experimenting to see how long a person with a particular treatment can survive without treatment. If a few companies like our latest scrooge spelled CIGNA where put on the fire we would not only be getting rid of a few problem children, but would be sending a valuable message to the medical community. Finally, I see an instance here where the “presumption of guilt” would certainly be fitting. CIGNA’s claim that a liver transplant was “experimental surgery”. In 2005 some 6,500 liver transplants were conducted and the number grows each year … that hardly sounds “experimental” to me. Perhaps it is the play on words that doctors “practice” medicine … which could be a sneaky plot to give the medical insurance companies a basis for never paying a bill … certainly a practice might be considered experimental, eh?
I for one have taken pen in hand and written to the Surgeon General of the United States as well as emailed the listed Congressmen & Senators and requested they craft legislation that clearly makes is a capital crime anytime the withholding of treatment based upon an insurance companies decision directly results in the death of a patient with the senior officers and board members made parties to the crime. While it certainly won’t change anything, a continued bombardment on our elected officials is going to be necessary if we ever are going to get this mess straightened out, particularly that farce that the present administration dumped on the poor and elderly and had the gall to call it Medicare Reform. It is said throughout history that a civilization is best judged by the way their treat their elderly. If that is the case, we may all certainly be in serious trouble on that day of judgment we might face.
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