IF I WON THE LOTTERY…

It is game people play when the idea of winning the lottery comes up.  A new house or a new car, a trip to some place they had always wanted to go.

I will admit that in general my winning the lottery would be kind of a waste.  I truly do not have grand dreams or desires, other than family, friends and the neighbors.  No one would know anything had changed, no one would be driving by the house real slow saying a millionaire must live there!

But one thought that come and it is mainly this time a year.  If I had the money there would be such a Christmas for parents and children of those who can not afford gifts!

And yes it is because of a personal story:

Since moving back to Kansas life has not been all that good, low paying jobs and living just below barely getting by. More Christmas then not the two of us have not given a gift of any kind to each other.

So the kids would at least get something.

One of those Christmases, it was another year of tight money and if not for family choosing to have Christmas diner here there would not have been one for us.  The kids had only the toys we could afford and those were mainly out of the cheap bin.

When it happened, I was under the kitchen sink.  Some how it got clogged and I ended up on Christmas Eve soaking wet and squeezed under the sink taking apart the pipes.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door; I ended up crawling out to be the one answering the door.  There on the front pouch were several black plastic trash bags?  I looked all over the yard but no one was there and I did not see any cars leaving?  To make it even odder, our outside dogs that normally would bark at even leaves blowing by.  But they had never made a sound and were just ten feet away on the patio!

I opened one of the bags and there were toys inside, every bag had toys in them.  Toys suitable for each child and their age!  To this day I have no idea who it was that left those bags on the front pouch.

But if I were to win the lottery, that is what would be happening tonight for every parent who can not afford to make their children’s Christmas bright. And one that they will not be going to school and listening to all their friends bragging about getting the latest toys while they got a dollar doll or cheap plastic car.

And like those parents that Christmas Eve, suddenly the thought of there really is a Santa Clause and perhaps a better world to them that they awoke to that morning.

 

NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain

Neville Chamberlain, the name brings up to different meaning for which ever stance or belief some one has.
For War hawks, he is the prim example how diplomacy does not work and how not taking a strong stance will lead to betray and destruction.

For those who think that diplomacy is the first and best answer to any conflict and dispute between countries. He is the one sour point that acts as a weight around their neck. His capitulations to Hitler and the Nazis. In the name of trying to avoid a War between Great Britain and Germany has earned him thought not that different from those when someone hears the name of Judas or Benedict Arnold.

By the time that Austria and the Sudentenland had been occupied by the Germans and it became quite apparent that War was unavoidable. Chamberlain was seen as a coward and a set back, the thought that diplomacy was a failed Ideological concept.

I watched a show that brought another unknown aspect to his actions and resulted in the failure to end the threat from Hitler.

One of the first of what would be many plots to either kill or take from power Hitler lynch pinned of the actions of Chamberlain. A group of military and civilian individuals and the largest and best planned
of all the operations. Was waiting for the British and the French to join in a stand and make a statement that they would oppose Hitler.

Once that would happen then the plotters would act and take Hitler into custody and he would have been executed for the good of the country and the German people. They could see the treat that Hitler posed and wanted to take action.

With the threat of once again a great European, they felt that they could act and that the people and military would be supportive. But it did not come to be with Chamberlain agreeing that Great Britain would not take action against the occupation of Austria.

Then the timing seem to be coming with the invasion of the Sudentenland, once again the plotters awaited the declaration by French and Great Britain to stand against the aggression.
They even sent word to Great Britain of their plot and what they were waiting on.

But once again when Chamberlain came back waving the piece of paper with the agreement.
The plotters could not carry out their plans for fear that the people would not support their take over.
To make matter worse, there was the suggestion that in order to show Hitler that he was someone to make a deal with.

That Chamberlain may have actually informed Hitler of the plot against him!

Neville Chamberlain had 100 percent confidence in his diplomatic skill and thought he could negotiate a lasting peace between Great Britain and the Nazis. That to coin a phrase, he could look into the soul of Hitler and see he was a honorable man.

It was told by someone who was in the room after Hitler signed the agreement with Chamberlain and had left. One of Hitler’s Generals expressed concerns about the agreement and that Hitler laughed and said he never had any intention to uphold this agreement. It was to simply give more time to prepare for the future farther grabbing of the rest of the country and then onto Poland!

Hindsight is always 120 by 120, you can always see where the mistakes were made.
What you should have done or not have done and where and when.

History is capable of teaching many lessons, some are true and a forewarning of what should be done or not done. Some people I have found take lessons from history that is not what might have been intended to be learned.

I think of Iran, North Korea and the Taliban, is there signs and indications of which lessons should be referred to? In some respects the Iranians are not all that different from the average German back then.
On a personal level they do not have anything truly against the United States and its people.

Yet they are subject to the same influences as were the average German from the Nazis.
What are the answers that should be came to from a view of history?
How much trust should be given to these countries that they are going to act in their own best interests?

Perhaps one lesson taught from history is to remember the words of Teddy Roosevelt:
“Walk softly but carry a big stick!”.

A BLACK DAY.

　

The store had a problem, according to the company policy the stores have to reflect the ethnic make up of the demographics that the store serves. The problem came that the racial make up of the town ended up that less then one percent is African American but there had been no Blacks who applied for a job.

And no one from another town would work for the wage that the store could pay according to the schedule of pay for that size of store. Then the day came that Fred applied, he failed the tests, which should have meant he would not be able to retest for six months.

But the personnel manager personally gave the test over again to him; he got 100 percent the second time.

And he told me he was actually waiting in the break room to take the test again when she came to him and said he got a perfect score!

They treated him as if he could not read and expected him to do nothing and settled for what every he would do. Often another member of the crew would be assigned to do both their area and his.

More then once I would be told since we seemed to be friend which he is honestly the only one I would say was a friend to my mind. That I was to set with him when he was required to take a test and make sure he would pass it.

I would read the questions and the answers then wait, he did not seem to know so I would either point or come right out and tell him. I had been told he could not read and I dismissed a lot to that.

TILL, one night I was reading the questions and answers and he cat that ate the canary smiled and pointed to a wrong answer!

I blurted out, “ YOU SOB YOU CAN READ!”.

He could and he had wondered why everyone was treating him like he was an idiot?

I told him how his own brother had told us all he could not read and was mentally slow.

He got angry and said he thought something was wrong when he was just goofing off he never got in any trouble.

I then told him that it was wrong that the other people working the shift were ending up doing his work so he did not have too! From that night on his performance improved, Also he made it clear to the management that he did not want to be treated special because of the color of his skin.

But that did not matter since the only value he had to them was just that… The color of his skin.

The only saving grace from that was when he got in a physical fight with another associate and Fred actually started neither got fired which they would have both been fired but because they would not fire Fred they could not fire the guy he started the fight with.

Fred quit to take a higher paying job and now is back after that job did not work out.

I saw him tonight at Wal-Mart, he was working and told me he wanted out of there so he applied for the School job.

The same one I had applied for!

I have more experience and had worked for five and a half years for the school district doing that job.

But still after I walked away, the thought came to me, a thought that made me feel upset.

The thought of he has a job in fact he had reapplied the same time I had recently to Wal-Mart and I had been told I failed the test. He went back to work as the only black person working at that store.

Given the days off he wanted though you normally have to work long enough to finally wait till your turn to get weekends off.

And now my best chance to go back to work and for the school district now he has applied for it!

And once again another employer has the chance to show equality in hiring the only Black to apply.

I felt bad, that my thoughts ran such and suddenly found myself actually blaming him not for applying for a job I needed. BUT for being Black! Resenting that in the world such a thing is a deciding factor.

My disgust toward him turned from him to the notion that some how this is right!

That somehow this pays for centuries of wrongs, as if this is justice for racism.

How is it any different or a cure? It only serves to continue the wrongs not make attunement for it.

I would like to work with Fred again; I will always consider him my friend.

I am just disgusted that I had those thoughts and feelings and that some how judging someone for a job because of the color of their skin and this time because they are Black is making this open wound caused by slavery and racism to be continued.

There is no healing as long as racism is the basis for the judgment of value.

LACK OF EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT

It started out to be a way to bring into prospective what is most important in life and relationships, but ended up being more disturbing as a whole about a younger generation of men.  The general question, is if you are far away from everything that you know in life what do you think you would miss the most?  Would it be a car, movie, game system, places to eat or someone that is in your family which would you miss the most?  The first person gave a simple answer; he said everything and not one thing in particular.  This was like saying that everything, including a human being that is thought of as a loved one, is equal and there is no real emotional attachment to anything over another.  After a while of thinking about it, I asked another young man in the family and got basically the same answer.

This reminded me of a recent incident, where my daughter asked her soon to be ex-husband whether he was at the house because of her and his sons or simply because he had no where else to be? His answer was because he did not have anywhere else to be.

Three young men of about the same age and all lacking an emotional attachment to those who they should have this attachment to. That the human beings were of no more importance then the objects they also enjoy spending time with.  A wife or a child is not more important to them than a good cup of coffee or an enjoyable game to play.  Simply something that they enjoy spending time doing or having around at the moment.  They boil down the only reason to be in any relationship as a convenience of the moment.   They aren’t saying their loved one would be missed, but rather that they could be replaced and are not a special selection among any other who would also perform the same functions as someone to talk to or be around.

The ability to have emotional attachment gives us the ability to see others as special or even fellow human beings. That goes beyond those outside of our family and in a sense our own value as human.  Lacking it is what enables everything from theft to mass murder like in the case of Hitler.  If this had been shown in only one individual it is a matter of concern but in three in the same generation and from different families is alarming and makes me wonder if it is a symptom of the generation?

Emotional attachment is a key benchmark of being a human being and one of the foundations of the very concept of humanity.

BOOK IT!

With the release of President Bush’s book “Decision points” it has re-ignited a debate and questions that have been occurring for years now. Questions of integrity and honesty along with what happens behind the scene in Washington.  This of course is not the first book dealing with that period, over the years in my quest to actually understand what exactly happened and to understand what was the mindset that led this country into the actions it took, I have read many books already and they vary in the conclusions and facts.

I have been thinking whether I would want to read what he had to say?  It is a point of view in the entire subject, to help to get a grasp on the mindset.  Not sure of the honest within it and will admit that having came to conclusions before the release.  That my thoughts and conclusions would not be tainted or to have the ability to read and /or accept what would be stated within it.

But I do try to look at what is written in such books with a honest and reasonable mindset.  Over the years I have read several books, most were from the point of view that was not supportive of the administration. And a few were totally over the edge on their explanations of certain facts and realities.  Only that which I could verify as factual and truth is accepted.  The books I’ve read have ranged from totally partisan to that of totally conspiracy theory.

A point that was made in one book was truly remarkable, to charge with treason President Bush for with intent endangering the American public by calling up the National Guard.  Since many National Guard are also law enforcement officers and by calling them up it made a shortage of Police Officers on the street. This though sounding logistical is a stretch and distracting from the factual and what is truly at stake.

President Bush’s book as portrayed by both side of the opinion media has so far been just that nothing but opinion that is either supportive or condemning of him and his book. The stated facts or mindset that are in the book will be subject to fact checks. If done honestly some will be found to be delusional or an awakening as to what really happened.  I would say it will not conclude the issue by continue it.  Which is what I am suspecting is the intent, it is something that will fall into the line from a Few good men.
“You can not handle the truth!”

As to what truths there are?  It is either that Bush was not as one side saw him and he did actually perform as he should have when the reality, true and facts are known.  Or he performed as this country’s worst nightmare, that a delusional mentally ill person became the President of the United States.  An extreme ideologue who’s reality was more of his own creation not based on the reality or known facts.

I will once again say it, what he and his administrate stated was not so much a knowingly lie.  They actually believe it to be the case, it is now that after the facts are better known that it is apparent that it was not the case.

Now I will interject an example of the incident, a person hearing voices is sure it is true and a fact.
If they take a tape record and tape the voices, you will be hearing from the tape a empty sound of static.
But they will still be hearing the voices now coming from the tape.  Nothing is proven to either person hearing the tape except for confirming what they already had concluded.

I have been stating it for years now, that the final conclusion to it all is, that it will not be in the best interest of the country and its people to have a final conclusion! What would the effect be if there was a final conclusion?  A serious and honest investigation of the available facts and realities?  If that investigation concluded that the worst was the truth, it would shake the very concept of what this country is believed to be. Of what we as Americans are believed by ourselves to be.  We are not the aggressor we are the one who will stand up to the aggressors. The blow to our national soul would be devastating and could even undermine our vary Governing system.  Faith once proved as false brings the questioning of our vary existence as a people.

If the conclusion is that indeed what happened was correct, it would divide the country into a hard and firm two combating faction since one side would be affirmed in their belief that the Government is corrupted and only out for themselves.

So the answer will be that nothing will truly be answered.

SIR BARRY AND THE ORDER OF THE LEO

Sir Barry had been given the honor of being the chief champion of the people. This high honor came with such weighty responsibilities as being the chief defender of all people, along with the high lord for the welfare of all the villagers within the realm.  He was anointed with the best and most shiny armor and a white charger of the finest lines and strongest flanks. Blessed with total say on the roads and all the crops to enable him to provide for the people.

Oh but he did have his nay sayers.  Sir Barry was of the order of the Leo the Lion but within the court was also the Order of the Dracula the Dragon which was a rival Order of knights.  For as long as any could remember the two Orders had been arguing between themselves as to who was the finest of knights and the best protector of the people.

The last champion of the people had been of the Order of the Dracula and he had been measured and been found wanting. As such the people had chosen from the Order of the Leo for their new chief champion of the people.

The Order of the Dragon could not stop Sir Barry, but could muddy the roads and taint the wheat so that it did not seem as healthy or be as tasty. But still Sir Barry would have the rights to order what shall be best for the people.

With a free reign as to what to do, Sir Barry and his Order decided that everything the people needed would be gathered together in a great box of huge size and bestowed upon the people.  The box was such size that once placed it blocked the center meeting of the roads of the village, and of such weight that it would take several years to be unpacked.  The people would have to wait for the benefits from such a large and burdensome box.

PREEMPTIVE STRIKE

“To take action before something occurs or to prevent something from happening rather then waiting till it happens to deal with it.”

Under the laws of the land, it is not an acceptable defense to say that you have committed a violation of the law in order to prevent a criminal action against yourself or another. A simpler way of putting it is that you can not kill someone that some time in the future may kill you.  Since the future is often written as life moves through what is happening right now.  You can not justify self defense against some one who has at the moment not done anything to kill you.  At the moment they have not put your life in immediate danger, so you are not defending yourself.

The following is based on an actual case where the person did kill his best friend with the claim that he knew that sometime in the future the victim without warning would kill him. FOR THE MOST PART, the authorities did not doubt that this truly was the case. The names are not the true names of the actors involved:

Tim had grown up in a area where the general opinion of the Police was one of distrust.That the Police did not do their job to protect the citizens and more was a occupying force. It did not help Tim’s opinion when he made the decision to get involved in crime.  A younger life of committing crime, getting arrested and serving time.

But with his last prison time, he finally came to believe this was not the life he wanted.  He learned a trade in prison and if you ever took a look at the choices of trade that are available to learn while locked up, it might make you wonder just how anyone could really make it on the outside.  But Tim did, he worked hard and soon his life had changed with a family and working daily. His life was more like that of middle America, a nice house for himself and his wife and children. Nice things to enjoy and a pleasant and comfortable place to live.

His life long friend and someone he had grown up with was Fred. They had hung together, laugh together and even done time together.  Each had the others back and were just a call away from the other.  If one had done time in prison, the other would be there when they were released with new clothes and a place to stay till they got back into the swing of things. Fred was Tim’s only real friend and likewise, it had been that way since the beginning. When Fred had gotten out the last time, it was Tim )though by then had straighten out his life) who was there with the new clothes and brought Fred to his home to sleep on the couch and fed him.

While Fred had been locked up the last time, Tim had bought the family a new large color TV. One day when Tim and his family were out shopping, they came home and discovered the TV missing.  The house had been broken into and the only thing missing was the TV. When Fred came back he seemed to also be confused and angry that someone would have done such a thing to his best friend. He said he would try to find out who it was along with Tim was going to try to find out.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION ON A PERSONAL MATTER.

　

Tobacco being an expense and not having gotten any unemployment for the last five weeks.

This morning I was reduced to digging out a relic, my dad’s pipe and a bag of tobacco.

Fortunate for me my son-in-law has better taste in pipe tobacco then dad did and the bag was left by my son-in-law.

The pipe really is a relic, twenty years ago my dad had broken his pipe and I was smoking a pipe then.

So I had given him one of mine, since I had about ten different pipes I was really into smoking a pipe!

Well this morning I load the pipe and started to light it when I noticed I was having trouble.

The bowl seemed out of line and turning away from me.

I finally took it from my mouth and looked it over, dad had done his remodel on it!

He liked straight stem and I like to have a downward bend, he had done some craving and then taped it to suit him. The problem was he was right handed and I am left handed.

Being in my right mind often sets me at the mirror image of how everyone else does things.

Left justified instead of right justified, once I moved the pipe to the other side of my mouth everything seem to line up just fine.

Does that ever happen to you, something that once belonged to a parent and it was passed down.

But it brings out a difference between you and them?

WHITE PRIVILEGE

Take some time and think back over your personal life, list the times that the color of your skin has been a personal privilege? And the times the color of your skin has been a personal disadvantage?  Not another persons privilege or disadvantage, not some story you have heard of others.  Yours personally, some you may qualify as a guess or perhaps a could have been so.

But seldom does anyone actually have someone else say I am giving you privilege or disadvantage because of the color of your skin!  You can state that you could not see it, you were one out of a hundred people that applied for the same job. You did not see the other 99 so you have no idea who they were or the color of their skin. You might have got the job, but would have been the only white out of the hundred meaning the other 99 was a minority.

So, that means you should feel guilty of being the beneficiary of racism right?  You should be recognizing that there is white privilege and that is a point made by a guest on the Dillon Ratigan show.  Now since looking back, you personally, of all you have or had was it in your mind because of the color of your skin or because of your efforts?

On a personal level, I can not imagine anyone actually saying that the car in the drive or the roof over your head was because you are white. There is the problem that Torne said is the stumbling block to an understanding between the races.  The refusal of the whites to acknowledge on a personal level that they benefit from ‘White Privilege.’  But like the guy who asked me if I felt guilty for what my people did to his people? When everything he could list is something I had not done and knew no one who had.

One of my best friends grew up in a family of five children, where each day one member had to not eat a meal and their mother only ate once a day because there was not enough food for everyone to eat.  Over the years they lived in houses that were not much better then what people house their chickens in or store the mower in the winter.  It is vulgar, but is the truest example of how poor this family was:  “My friend’s family was so poor when he was growing up that if he did not wake up with a hard-on, he had nothing to play with the rest of the day!”  For his third birthday, his mother gave him a broken alarm clock as his birthday gift.  The rest of the story and one that is true of the rest of his life.  He took it apart and made it work!  And the alarm clock is an example of everything that life has given him.  Whenever life has given him a broken alarm clock he has taken it apart and made it work.

Therein lies the problem, few if any of us can look back and point to any time that white privilege has worked in our favor. We have seen the story of our life from the inside out not the other way around.  To tell my friend that because of being born with the color of his skin he has he was privileged. You would be expecting him to believe something that is invisible to him.

The same problem a Christian would have with a non-believer.  Without an example in his life to point to, you can not convince him that he should recognize it being there!

The same goes with me, never have I ever felt like because of the color of my skin that I have been privileged.  It was not until KAKE TV said it that I knew I lived in a “Socially-Economically depressed neighborhood”.  Only on  rare occasions did I ever feel like the color of my skin has been a disadvantage. In a life time everyone can and will feel that as an explanation for the outcome.

That your age was a matter, the color of someone else’s skin was a deciding factor, the gender you are was the matter.  Sadly like the stories you hear of, it is the truth.  Defecation occurs and life, people and society is far from perfect.

And like history, it can not be charged once written only the blank page of the future is write-able.

THE MALE PSYCHE AND POWER TOOLS?

Power tools, a saw-all, hammer drill and the like are nothing truly new they all do exactly what the human species has always done with the tools they have. Saws to cut the materials that need to be cut and drills for making holes in things.

Other then I have wanted a saw-all since the first time I got to use one it still does not do anything that I could not have done with one type of saw or another. It does make it easier and that would be a valid reason to have one. But I am still saying and telling with a real sense of pride that I now have one!

As if being able to state that I have a saws-all is a true sign of achievement! It is something many men have simply bought on a whim or because they needed it for a special job so it was to the local hardware store and putting down the card. No more special achievements than that, yet somehow this has caused me great joy?  I have not done anything that I had not done with any other type of saw, hand saw, hack saw and the like.  Yet here I am feeling somehow more special or notable since I have a SAWS-ALL!

Is it just a male thing?  Our love of power tools and the feeling of accomplishment for having some special tool?  At times when I do as much brag about having one, I afterwards feel a little silly.  As if somehow this is a badge of male hood, “I might not be able to impregnate half the twenty-something’s women of the world…. Or fix a car or even get changing the oil right the first time…. I may not be the Kung-fu champion of the world, but I have Testosterone flowing through my body because I have a SAWS-ALL!

What if a woman owned a Saws-all, do they just have Penis envy?

But there are, are there not, many things that we do not need or could be accomplished with things we already have that are badges of accomplishment? Only those who have wealth or special status have the things we long for. Oh but it does a better job right?

I TOLD HER SHE IS NOW OFFICIALLY A MOTOR CYCLIST.

The surprise I got for my wife was a scooter, we had seen it at a garage sale and she loved it.

But I also knew she would not get it for herself, one thing that many men would love to be able to say about their wives. Mine is not prone to spending money or wanting things that are expensive that is just for being able to say they have it.  For years she has denied herself many things she wanted but would not get because of it cost money.  When it comes to spending money she makes me look like a Bush conservative.

So after going to the bank to discuss the matter with our loan officer which seems that height of arrogant considering the situation we are in. I was able to add to the existing loan with no increase in what we were already paying a month.

She loves the scooter riding it to work everyday and taking to just going for a ride to enjoy the day.

Gee sounds kind of familiar somehow?

Well she told me after I got back of an incident that happened, one that is so familiar that I myself have lost count as to how many times it has happened to me! I have a couple of pieces of advise to those who decided to ride a motor cycle on the streets. You ride like you are invisible because that is exactly the way it is.  There is a reason that it is a old saying and one that came about since motor cycles became common place.

“Honestly Officer…. I did not see the motor cycle!”.

Another is simple logic and can save your life, what is the first thing on the car setting at a stop you should be watching? It’s the wheels, if the car is going to move the first thing that will move is the wheels.  If the wheels start to roll the car is going to pull out in front of you!

She told me it happened that she was approaching a side street where a car was waiting to pull into traffic, suddenly the car pulled out right in front of her! The woman driver seem to have been watching the traffic and waiting but then just pulled out.  I replied, “And she seem to be looking you right in the eyes didn’t she?”.  My wife said, “Yes she seem to be!”.  Again this kind of thing has happened to me so many times I can not tell you how many times.

She said my advise which I had given her just before I had left gave her the time to be prepared and stop in time. As she approached the corner she started watching the wheels and when they started moving she was ready.

My wife is now officially a motor cyclist, all that is left is to dump the scooter either through hitting loose sand or because of not noticing a bump or pot hole in the road. Then the test will be does she get back up and on or say this is not worth it! Of course to my thinking it is worth it and she is getting to that point.

I wonder how long it will be before she starts talking about wanting something bigger?

THE DEATH PENALTY… REASON AND DETERRENT.

In Utah a fellow human being was strapped in a chair and six men with rifles took aim.

Now as is a custom of formal firing squads, only five out the six had real bullets while one would have a blank. This so that the members of the firing squad can ease their feeling of guilt or reservation by excusing them as they were the one with the blank.  As such the penalty of death was carried out against that human after being convicted and sentenced to death for killing someone in his attempt to escape from his trial for murdering another human being.

A cold and orderly murder by the State and the society of Utah.

Is it the right of a humane society to order and carry out the intentional killing of a human being?

A question that has been discussed and argued for hundreds of years in this country among others.  Some other countries even if the crime does not carry the death penalty will not extradite someone to the United States because we have the death penalty for some crimes.

Is the death penalty a deterrent? In 1973 a survey was done of everyone who had been sentenced to death and were waiting for the sentence to be carried out. They were asked “Did you ever consider you could be put to death for committing the crime before you committed it?”  To the person not one said it was ever a consideration before committing the crime.  So in that aspect it is not a deterrent and for the most part crimes are committed due to emotion and impulse, not with reasoning that comes from a sound mind which would take into account what punishment might result in committing the crime.

The laws, courts and penalties imposed are more a deterrent to those who do not need a deterrent.  They are not prone to or having those circumstance that would make committing a crime a reasonable thing to do for them.

So what is the reasoning for a society to put someone to death for having committed a crime of any degree?

An explanation that I have heard came from a reporter who though she was against the death penalty witnessed an execution.  She described the actual execution as being rather simple and not appearing to be unduly painful.  A needle put in the arm of the condemned, the injection of drugs that seemed to just make the man go to sleep.  The condemned simply nodded off and it was over except for the reality being he was now dead.  Her explanation was, that is was the most extreme example a society has to show that certain crimes will not be tolerated by the society.

Now of course the real deterrent is that this one person shall never again commit the crime or any crime that they received the death penalty for. Once they have died they can never do anything again.

SHALL I TAKE YOU ON A JOURNEY?

( What can I say, Will’s topic inspired me)

SHALL I TAKE YOU ON A JOURNEY?

And what shall that journey be?

Shall we sail across an Ocean or wander about in a forest green?

Shall I speak of an idiot or someone that seems an idiot to me?

Should it be about world peace or simply a good piece of Apple pie?

It is not easy being your tour guide, when I do not know which tour you had in mind?

Should I lambaste a Conservative which is something that many here would agree.

Or simply explain the theory of time travel which would leave many say what the Hell?

I may rig the ship and plot the course only for you to show up wearing your hiking boots and carrying a canteen. Than oh then what shall I do, run the ship aground and start walking from the sea?

Oh I guess in the end it is what tour I wish to guide since I have chosen to be a guide and to take you all on a journey.

And that is what I do when posting a new thread, load the gang plank or point the path through a forest glen. As has been seen it does not mean that you will be following me.

The path does change and the voyage sets for a port that was not on the course I had plotted.

But that is OK, for on this journey it is not the travel but the opportunity and where it would lead.

A voice is heard and it need not be solely my voice that sounds and declares what it shall be.

For here is the place of voices and not all speak in the same degree.

So you may sit back and enjoy the journey or change the course and direction as the feeling need be.

Perhaps the intent is not to invite it is the journey I wish it to be?

Than you may come or never set foot on the vehicle I have chosen to journey in.

One day we may go hunting a Bigfoot in those woods, or simply sit beside a brook and enjoy the sun.

which ever is more enjoyable to me.

THE UGLY WART ON THE FACE.

It’s not considered a “beauty mark” like a small mole at the side of the cheek, no, it’s the ugly wart that is plainly on the collective face of the United States that we try to ignore and overlook.

Former President G. W. Bush’s daughter was so moved by what she saw while on trips to Africa.  The lack of medical care for many of the poorer people of the world and her announcement of:

“Health care is a human right.”

She has formed and spearheads a cause to involve younger people into bringing health care to the people.  It is not limited to Africa. There are outreaches in the United States, for now they are focused on Boston Mass.

Boston Mass? Of all the places within the United States. Within Massachusetts one does not even have to drive fifty miles to find poor families and areas where health care is so neglected.  Oh but the counter is that health care is available but the patient may have to travel thirty miles or more and schedule weeks in advance to be seen.  Or they can simply walk into a E. R. to be seen.

I am aware of the cause and movement from watching Fox news Sunday.  There were two points I noticed from the piece.  First, to address Ms. Bush’s statement of “health care is a human right,” they asked, did she truly believe it to be a human right?  What did she think of the Health care reform bill that passed.  Yes, she does believe it to be a human right and she was glad that the health care bill passed.

The other point I noticed is the visuals were all from villages in Africa, only a brief sight of a fly over of Boston harbor was shown.  With the focus of the visuals of Africa villages, it implies that the problem is not close.  It is someone else’s problem not here, some other people and some other country’s concern.  The only mention of the problem here is in one of the oldest and most noticeable cities.  WHERE the Problem can be over looked in the movement and flow of the life there, I.E. can go hidden within the flash and flow.

So the problem with health care within the United States can be masked and corrected with simple and minor cosmetics. Like a wart on the face of the country, small and with a little effort hidden.

On the face of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL!

But the wart is not limited to the face of America when the country is stripped naked.  The warts can be seen, surrounded by the clear and beautiful skin of the nation.  But then we dare not strip the nation, to do so it would become like a wart of her face.  Try as one might, the eye focus on the wart on the face of someone else.  It can cause the viewer to feel rude and even self conscious about noticing.  Give a uncomfortable feeling for doing it, better to ignore it and pretend it is not there.

tosmarttobegop

THINGS THAT ARE MYSTIFYING ME….

Contrary to what some may believe and one being my wife I am mystified by other then Politics.
Once in awhile there is something that catches me as odd or I do not understand how it is happening.

One is the water in the dehumidifier in our bedroom in the basement? A devise that sucks the air in and takes the moisture out of the air. We got one when we had such a problem of black mold after the main sewer backed up into the basement leaving five inches of sewer water till the blockage was destroyed.
Along with the fact that every time it rains fast and hard a water puddle forms and seeps in to the windows.

When I notice the red light is on I know to empty the reservoir and I am still mystified by how clear the water is! It is at least as clear as the water that comes out of the Kitchen tap so clear you might think it is drinkable!

In a room where it is a content battle to keep the spider webs knocked down and with the natural tendency of dust to drift down from the floor above how can it be so clear?

I moved the furniture around in the family room today, which the main part of that was changing the sofa from North/ South to East/West. Something in reality should not have changed the flow of the ceiling fan all that much.

In fact it was blowing straight down on the sofa either way, so why is it that I can hardly feel it now?
Where the back was facing toward me before now it is facing with me. I would think now it actually should be flowing better toward me since the back is no longer in the way?

Why is it that my father-in-law has a old pieced together mower that still starts right off and he only checks the oil and fills with gas. And today my mower seems to have blow-by and is the sixth mower I have had in the last ten years? Any taller and I will need a bush hog mower to cut it which brings up another mystifying thing,

why is it that things only seem to break when you really need to use them?
Or you can always find something without looking for it except for when you do need it?
You could be tripping over it every time you walk through the house until you wish you could trip over it!
I once read a Stephen King book where there were little grotesque doctor looking guy running around collecting items of those who were about to die. One sock, a favorite comb, one of something that is a set or you use often.

I guess that would explain it but since it happens often and I am still alive I discount that theory.
A related oddity is when ever you put something up and then can not find it again?
Yet if you just leave it laying wherever, you can always find it?

Now you would have put it somewhere you thought it would belong, a place where it would be logical to put it. But when looking for it is missing and never found where you thought it should be.
My socket set was that way, for a couple of years a brand new socket set was missing then one day I happen to look and there is was! Recently it was a cocking gun, I know I have at least three somewhere around here.
Finally I went to wal-Mart and bought a new one and figure now I will find the other three.
SO I AN”T LOOKING!