Civility?

Remember when Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar during a notional televised press conference? The M&M press began asking "where has the civility gone?" The only reason the M&M's pounced on it was that Joe Wilson is a Republican. True to their double standard the M&M's will not criticize Democrats when they lack civility. Remember when liberals were calling George Bush a murderer? Did the M&M's suggest those words lacked civility?

I knew when I heard those comments that any civility meter would be pegged by liberals. They say the most outrageous things about those they disagree with and they are never held accountable for their statements. Just last week, a peer of Joe Wilson, Alan Grayson of Florida said on the house floor "If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."

The most notable difference between Grayson's rhetoric and Wilson's is that Grayson refused to apologize. On the other hand, Joe Wilson apologized for his comment immediately and repeatedly for the next few days. The House of Representatives formally reprimanded Joe by a vote of 240 to 179 for his comment. Not surprisingly, there was no discussion on whether Joe's comment was true - that Obama did lie.

In addition to no apology, Grayson upped the ante by continuing his insult of Republicans, calling them "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals" and "hypocrites." Ensuring that he stayed on the Politically Correct path, Grayson, who is Jewish, did apologize to the Anti-Defamation League, for calling the health care crisis a holocaust, saying he regretted using the word. To no one's surprise, an attempt by the Republicans to formally reprimand Grayson failed.

I have not seen a single suggestion by the M&M's that Grayson acted in an uncivilized manner. In fact, the M&M's have shown the video of his antics over and over. It is how they manipulate the apathetic. From these two examples, Americans who pay little attention to facts (the Obama voters) were told that Republicans act uncivilized and want to kill citizens instead of providing health care. The M&M's subliminal messaging machine is strong and still at work to prop this President up.

Nit Pickers

Nit pickers are the kind of people that I hate to be around. You know the type. They can take any situation and find something wrong with it. They feel their gift to mankind is to find the faults in any circumstance. I see it in business almost every day. One team will complete a project they have poured themselves into for months, and the nit picker will tell them how they should have accomplished the project differently.

For example, say that we had no postal system. One day a company started a business of delivering any envelope from you to any address in the United States for 45 cents. Most people would see that as a great service. The nit picker would complain about the cost, or that international addresses are not included in the 45 cent cost.

Nit pickers make the rest of us callous to legitimate issues. When I hear a known nit picker begin their criticism, I tune out and risk missing valid feedback. Other people react differently. Some use sarcasm. I love the following greeting from an Australian school's answering machine. I am certain it is a sarcastic reaction to nit picking. Enjoy!

The Most Dangerous Man in America?

I would nominate Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York. First, he is a liberal. That should put him in the upper half of any most dangerous list.

Second, he is crooked. Wall Street lobbyist has donated almost $11 million to individual Senators since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to Schumer. His $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator — and more than five times what the industry gave to any single Republican senator.

Third, he makes me livid when debating the $800 million stimulus, he said "And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don't care". Hey, I care!

And finally, he is completely out of touch on how the nation feels toward government run health care. Last week he said "With some work and some compromise, we can get the 60 votes on the floor of the Senate that will make our system better by providing for a strong, fair and viable public option". He went on to say that a majority of the population wants a public option government health care system. That is a completely unfounded statement.

I am perplexed the voters of New York continue to re-elect Schumer. Bringing home the pork clouds their collective judgement and they feel compelled to return him to office, even when his actions are detrimental to the country. I have heard is said, "I hate everyone elses Senator, mine is okay". That attitude returns these clowns to Congress term after term. I once heard an idea I am liking more and more. The idea is that in every election you are given 2 votes. The first vote is identical to your vote today. You cast it for your representative in Congress. The second is a negative vote. You cast that vote to remove anyone in the House or Senate that you feel is not acting in the best interest of the country. The Senator or Representative that receives the most negative votes is removed from office.

A plan like this would ensure that our elected representatives must weigh the pork they bring home to their constituents against what is good for all Americans. These people need to be accountable to the country as they represent their districts.

Who would your most dangerous person nomination go to?

It's Going to be a Really, Really Long Season

After the Oakland Raiders game, I blogged about how it was going to be a long season. I now believe I was far too optimistic. Last Sunday, the chefs played the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are an okay team. On Sunday the Eagles were missing two of their offensive play makers, but it did not matter. Rotating 3 quarterbacks into play, (one was a guy who spent the last few years in prison), the Eagles handed the chefs their rear ends.

It was not the magnitude of the loss that has me reconsidering the chef's eventual won/loss record. Instead, it is what happened to begin the second half. The chefs received the second half kick off down by a score of 24-7. Sounds like they needed to let their $60 million dollar man (Matt Ca$$ell) loose, air it out, right? No, the chefs ran the ball on 20 of the next 28 plays.

That message was heard loud and clear. It was "we know we cannot win, so let's work on the ground game for a while." You don't see a professional team give up often, but that is just what happened last Sunday. I guess another message might be "we don't want to get our $60 million dollar man hurt", which arguably is a coherent thought.

But the fact remains that my chefs will see many 17+ point deficits in the next few games. Some may be at the end of the first quarter, or even first 5 minutes of play. Will they concede those games also? I think we will get that answer this week when the chefs play the New York Giants. Eli Manning will have not seconds, but minutes of pocket protection. Eli will pick the chef's secondary apart and the Giants will build a large early lead. So large that some will wonder why Eli is not benched in the second half. The answer is that he is safer on the field against the chef's defense, than on the bench where he could be struck by an errant throw, or hit by a chef safety missing a tackle.

There is only one game the chefs might win. Late in the season they will face the Cleveland Browns. That game may be the considered the "First Pick of the Draft Bowl". And knowing how the chefs can screw anything up, I will pick them to win that game and lose the #1 pick. The chefs will go 1-15 this year.

Ouch!

Last weekend I was working in the yard and decided to cut back the 3 tall grassy plants we have hiding the utility cabinets in our front yard. They had grown to about 7' tall and would lay down on the lawn whenever it rained. It was getting hard to mow the area, so I thought it would be good to do the normal fall pruning a little early this year.

I had a plan to make the task go a little smoother. I wrapped twine around all three plants and cinched it up tight. My thought was that I could then cut the plants off at the bottom and they would be bundled and ready for the trash man. I plugged in my electric shears and started cutting the 3 plants. It was going well until I completely cut through all the grassy blades of the first plant. That allowed the entire bundle to compress further and introduced slack into the bundle.

The twine sagged down close to my shears. I reached down to pull the twine back up, but stupidly did not stop cutting thorough the next plant. A finger on my left hand found its way into the business part of the electric shears. My first thought was that I had cut my finger off. I immediately applied pressure to a couple of deep cuts. After a few moments I ventured a look at the damage. I was able to peer deeper into my body than I had ever before. The cut was laying open, flapping in the breeze, and gushing blood.

More direct pressure was applied and I headed into the house for some first aid. Terri helped me get it clean and for the most part, we stopped the bleeding. We taped and bandaged the area tightly. I then went out to finish the job and cut the grass. It's like I always told my daughters when they would get a scrap - "Rub some dirt on it and get back out there." I was walking the talk.

The injury is affecting me more at work than anywhere else. I work in front of a keyboard. I have found that with one finger out of action, I no longer type like I could. The injury is to a finger on my left hand. I would normally type with all 4 fingers on my left and right hands, but have not been able to adjust to only 3 fingers ready for service on the left hand. It's funny how difficult it is to adjust to an 8 finger task using only 7, so I am reduced to typing using 1 finger on each hand.

So do you want to see my finger?

Really?

Okay, here it is:

2 Blog Thursday

In the heat of battle, the soldier calls back to his commander for reinforcements. "We are losing the battle and cannot win without additional men!" he reports. The commander responds that he wants to make sure the strategy is right before he commits additional forces, and then goes on a working vacation to Denmark.

Since General McChrystal asked President Obama for additional troops in Afghanistan less than 2 weeks ago, 54 soldiers have died. The M&M's report on a senile old convicted child rapist who wants to get back in the USA.

The Lamest Show on Earth

A couple of weekend ago, Terri and I took our two oldest grandchildren, Madison and Clay, to Barnum and Bailey's so called Greatest Show on Earth. For the adults, it was hard to endure. The circus has really changed since my childhood. I remember the high wire and trapeze acts that were performed high over the arena floor. The acrobats and other acts were represented by highly skilled performers.

Not so much today. The curcus today is full of clowns, bikes, dogs, horses and other dime a dozen acts, all led by a ring master who sings during the entire event. The ring master and clown acts were the lamest of the lame. But that review is purely from the adult perspective.

Madison, my 5 year old grand daughter, was on the edge of her seat for the entire two hours. She was simply enchanted by the entire circus. Her joy was worth the entire price of admitting 2 adults and 2 children. Clay was a little less impressed. He paid attention until the snow cone, cotton candy and popcorn ran out. When those were finished, so was he.

The entire circus seems to be directed at draining every adult wallet in the arena. The circus started at 11:00 AM. We arrived at 10:15 ($10 to park) and HAD to get snow cones in animal shaped souvenir mugs. That was $10 for Clay's elephant mug, and $12 for Madison's horse head mug. The cotton candy vendor walked by around 10:25. Cotton candy was the highlight for Clay last year, so could not be ignored this year. Cost was another $8.

About 5 minutes later, a vendor with lighted spinning toys walked by and saw my grand kids snap to attention. Without even asking, he handed each a toy that was bright, shining and fun. We had bought similar toys for them last year, so there was no easy way to back out of the situation. Cost was another $36. Mercifully, the circus began a few minutes later and eased the cash flow problem I was experiencing.

During intermission, the popcorn vendor walked by. That cost another $12. So far, the circus was into me by $88 plus the cost of the tickets. We managed to endure the rest of the show without further cost. I knew it was going to be expensive and was prepared to meet my grand children's expectations, so nothing was a surprise to me. I have concluded that today's Lamest Show on Earth is targeted at children with well funded escorts.