General
Are We The New National Socialists?
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 | General, Politics | No Comments
Those who don’t know their history are destined to repeat it and make fools of themselves. The right has been yelling about how the left is leading this country towards socialism and yet the right seems to be heading towards National Socialism. National Socialism is historically known by its German form Nationalsozialismus or Nazi for short.
I hesitate saying this because name calling has, of late, been an activity reserved for the right but there may be some validity to this. The Nazis were politically on the right,they were fanatical about their country they didn’t want any immigrants polluting their racial purity and after the war they tried to exonerate themselves from their atrocities with the plea “ We were only following orders”.
This” following orders” cop out seems to be the way our government is going to decide on the torture problem. The government seems to be waffling on whether they should hold people who were under direct orders from officials higher up responsible for their actions. Well what goes around comes around and usually bites you on the ass. The world and in particular the United States held German Nazis responsible and some of those faced death if they disobeyed the orders, which to me seems a lot more threatening then possibly losing your job.
We once faced a similar decision with the MyLai massacre where 300 -500 men , women and children were massacred. The only one convicted of a crime was William Calley. At the time, the press talked about indicting people up to and including The President. Then as now, the truly guilty will skate by.
Speaking of the truly guilty, Dick Cheney is ranting about how the torture helped keep America safe.The fact that most of the usable information was garnered before we proceeded with the illegal torture doesn’t get me as mad as something else. All this time I could have kept America safe by torturing someone, which means I didn’t have to have those cavity searches at the airport. On top of that Cheney is saying that we owe these torturers our thanks for preventing further attacks which is tantamount to denying that my efforts to prevent a further attack by brushing and flossing have amounted to nil.
I assume that Bowe Bergdahl the pfc captured by the aTaliban and facing a beheading is more then thankful that Cheney’s SS set the standard for torture at what we can get away with.
Feeling a Little Wishsy Washy
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | General | 1 Comment
I grew up during the 60’s and I always believed that I was a confirmed Liberal but lately I’m feeling a little wishy washy. I still believe in equal rights for everyone, health care for all and all the other things that most people would label me, Liberal for but I’m starting to believe that there are things that we should be Conservative on.
I was watching channel 11 this morning and they had Karrine Steffans on hawking her new book, The Vixen Manual. This book purports to tell you how to find, seduce and keep the man you want. Great! just what we need relationship advice from an unmarried mother who was at various times a hooker. stripper, and a celebrity toy. She also is a New York Times best selling author which means that sleaze still sells. Why would anyone take her advice on how to keep a man when she obviously can’t–not even the father of her child. Do we really need to shell out twenty to thirty dollars to find out that if a man and a woman walk into a bar and both say that they will sleep with any one there, that the man may not get more takers then the woman?
Maybe I’m just getting a little tired of the experts, who don’t seem to be. I have never liked Dr. Phil and recently I have heard that he isn’t even a psychologist. So I looked it up on the internet on Wikapedia and it turns out that he was a psychologist but he lost his license in Texas. He recieved a reprimand and was told to take an ethics class which according to the Internet might be the reason he doesn’t have his license. Go to:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_McGraw or http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2003/11/24/phil/index.html to read my research.
Another person I wouldn’t take advice from is Patti Stanger from the Millionaire Matchmaker (all right, I guess she is not worried about losing my business). She is not married and she still hasn’t bagged a millionaire for herself. Why not? She obviously doesn’t mind taking a millionaire’s money.
Maybe I’m being too conservative, but I think people should be able to walk the walk then maybe I’ll be able to believe their talk.
Miss Californication
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | General | No Comments
I am so old that I remember when the fact that Marilyn Monroe did a nude layout would have disqualified her from the Miss America Contest. Her layout was so popular that it appeared in the first Playboy. At that time there was a line delineating the good girl from the bad and women had to choose between the two.
Now I challenge anyone to name ten Miss Americas without naming Vanessa Williams cause she had to give up her crown because she did those nude pictures(I’ll allow you to count Vanessa if you can name who took her place). Most people would have trouble naming five winners. Very few of them actually accomplished what you would have expected considering most of them had beauty, brains and a talent for baton twirling. Maybe it was because they seemed too pure and unattainable that they never did more.
Enter Vanessa Williams; she won the contest and then went on to a reasonable career after her real portfolio appeared. I remember discussing her problem with someone who argued that the release of her photos were detrimental to her career. I argued that the photos were probably released on purpose by her because more people knew about Marilyn then Mary Catherine Campbell (She was the second and the third Miss America and came so close to winning a third time that they changed the rules. So she is also the only person to have won twice).
Enter Donald Trump. He saw an opportunity to cash in on America’s Madonna/Whore fascination( this is not a redundancy as some might think but refers to the Madonna or Mary, Christ’s mother) so he changed the Miss Universe contest. He keeps setting the bar so low on morality that I can’t wait to see what he goes for next. There have been numerous times when contestants had racy or nude pictures What next, Porn?
Circus,Circus
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | General | No Comments
Last Friday, I went to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus and I have a question: Is nothing sacred? Last time I was at the circus was sometime in the late 80s and at that time it could arguably be called the Greatest Show on Earth. Now, I think that it should be called Circus Lite.
In the eighties there were three rings and they all had something going on in them for the most part. It was like a fireworks display; the first ring would have something amazing then the third and finally the center ring would top it all. They had three aerial acts, two or three high wire acts and the clowns were mostly peripheral.
That was in the eighties, when there was only one tour I suppose. Now there are three tours: the gold, the blue, and the left over. Okay the last tour is called the red tour but it should be called the Vincent Benedict tour.
Vincent Benedict was the name of the Danny DeVito character in the movie, Twins. After they took all the good genetic material for his brother, Julius with what was left over they formed Vincent. This pretty much sums up the red tour.
They had one high wire act that I couldn’t see because of the angle. For a grand finale they had double wheels of steel that weren’t all that impressive.
Another reason I was not impressed was that I was expecting a Pre show and I didn’t get it. I must have missed the small asterix next to the 10:30 show that meant that it was one of only two shows that were designated an educational show( boy, did I get an education) and therefore despite having paid the same price I wasn’t entitled to the Pre show. I wasn’t the only one surprised,because three days before the show I got a message from Ticketmaster that reminded me to arrive early for the pre show. On the day of the show there was a woman selling programs (at $15) that said that the only way I could get an autograph was if I bought the program. The person taking the tickets was no more knowledgeable.
I admit that I should have paid more attention but in my defense when I was looking for the best seats on Ticketmaster I had to go through so many of those idiot word boxes (captchas) that I should get a pass for not noticing the notice.
The only thing that made it worthwhile was that my twelve year old loved the show. It was the first time he had been to the real circus. Unfortunately, because of the afore mentioned problems I don’t know if he has been to the Real Circus
In a Gray Area
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 | General | 1 Comment
We all have to make decisions about our appearance. For some, the big decision is whether to wear their hair up or down or long or short. Some at the other extreme get to choose between wrinkles or a botox stone face or in general, growing old gracefully or fighting it all the way.
A lot of our decisions are made between the “hey Sonny” to the “ Yes, Mister” period. Those of us who have experienced the later know that when people start calling you Mister or Mrs. you are starting down the slippery slope of age. For women this means that if a good looking man is helping you with your groceries he’s either after your daughter or trying to impress some girl who is watching him. For a man it means that the pretty checkout girl at the grocery store is smiling and being friendly because she hopes that you will bag your own food.
I’ve always believed that there is good and bad in any decision which is why I often suffer from “analysis paralysis”. I’ve recently been troubled by the fact that I look old. When I had my last child I used to say that both my wife and I had always looked so young that I was surprised that Matt didn’t come out looking like an embryo, but times change.
Nature had already insisted my hair follow a pattern of male baldness but I thought I had sidestepped that by following the Patrick Stewart pattern. I had thought about going with the “Yul Brynner “ look but my wife informed me I was “no Yul Brynner” . As long as my hair was brownish I deluded myself that people saw me as young. Father Time wasn’t done with humiliating me, cause now I remain clean shaven around Christmas for fear of having to fulfill some child‘s Christmas wish.
My hair has turned gray and I have recently thought about coloring my hair (or in my case, the remainder of it). I was in WalMart today and I was going to look at hair coloring but first I had to go to the electronics section. As I was walking to the back, I cut in front of a man in his twenties. Had I looked younger he might have said something that might have led to an altercation but I think he looked at me and realized he didn’t want to beat up someone who looked like his Grandpa. See, everything has advantages and disadvantages.
Dam It All
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 | General | No Comments
I am, by nature, a contrarian. I don’t see the glass as half empty or half full, I refuse to even look at the glass. With that in mind I would like to propose an alternative to our country sitting on our butts and wringing our hands in response to global warming.
Living in New York, I could never see the problem with global warming. If I was forced to invest in sun block during January and February I don’t see that this would ruin my day. I understand that even if New York were a tropical paradise for a few years eventually it would change according to the global warming playbook. The sun would heat up the oceans and the world would become cloud covered leading to the earth sinking into a world devoid of Olympic Summer Games.
So the problem seems to be that the defrosted water from the Polar Ice caps would evaporate and flood the earth. What if we didn’t let the water evaporate or even flood the earth? What if we stored the water where it wouldn’t be effected by the sun? What if we dammed up the Grand Canyon?
I thought that this idea was too shocking because once you’ve seen the Grand Canyon you could never think of doing something like that. Then I googled it and found that the only thing that prevented it from being dammed was that it was turned into a national park. When they were going to dam the Grand Canyon before, they just wanted to give us electrical power now it could save the world.
You would only have to use the dam if the water on the coasts started to flood our cities. I realize that the Grand Canyon might not be enough, we might have to do it globally; using mine shafts, deserts,vacant parking lots. I figure if it will save our planet then dam it all.
Don’t Be Nice in Front of Me
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 | General, Politics | No Comments
Most of the time when a President leaves office he looks a lot older then when he was elected. I know he is older but I mean that he seems to have aged disproportionately more in those 4 or 8 years. If things keep progressing the way they have been, President Obama may look like Benjamin Button at the beginning of his life when he leaves office. As if the economic crisis wasn’t enough now he will have to face more problems in the Middle East.
I can understand that Hamas has attacked Israel and that Israel has the right to defend itself, but does it have the right to do more? If I remember from the Old Testament playbook it is not an eye for a spleen. Please don’t tell me that the Israelis have a right to eradicate Hamas because they are a threat because that’s what Hamas is saying about the Israelis.
Of course I won’t be solving this problem anytime soon, so I am trying to make things easier on me. A couple of days ago I was coming to a stop and a car was coming out of the parking lot. The car in front of me stopped and let the other car ahead of him. I quickly stopped. Then I prayed that the car in back would not be coming home with me. As I was waiting, it suddenly dawned on me that the car in front of me thought that he had done a good deed by letting the other car go in front of him. From my point of view, however, he had inconvenienced me and therefore had done a bad deed. Now I know that two wrongs don’t make a right but a right and a wrong make a neutral.
So I think we should agree to this rule. If you are in front of me don’t be nice; that guy leaving the 7/11 will have to wait for a break in traffic. If, however, the Black Toyota coming out of the Piggly Wiggly has me behind the wheel; do a good deed and let me out.
The Old Man on the Lawn
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 | General | 2 Comments
During the campaign, reporters described Senator McCain as the old man yelling to kids to get off his lawn. This disturbs me because I thought that was my Job ( so much for job security). Let me explain.
Last year we moved into a new house and by new I don’t mean different, it was built, as they say, from the ground up. The lot on which it was built had had an older house on it and it had been empty for a while. This led to people deciding to use the land as a public thoroughfare. Older people used it to get to the stores, younger ones used it to get to the park, bicyclists rode through to avoid getting over exercised.
Of course that was before we moved in. Now surely these people would recognize my right to enjoy my land without these people re enacting the Oklahoma Land rush. Obviously, my new neighbors were more serious about re enacting than some Civil War buffs. The Trespassing continued.
At first when we realized that our invaders had no intention of changing we politely asked them to get off of our land. When we were standing there they did get off our land. When we were not outside policing however they defiantly walked across.
We had thought about getting a fence but we wanted one of those 6ft. plastic fences and they were out of our financial reach right now. We figured that a chain link would be climbed over and a wooded one requires a lot of upkeep. Then a miracle.
The property in back of us was a commercial office building and they were expanding their parking lot. The owner introduced himself and told us that the city was requiring him to put up a fence. We could hardly contain our glee when he told us he was putting up a 6 ft. plastic fence that would effectively prevent our trespassing neighbors from annoying us. Everything comes to him who waits.
Setting the Ground Rules
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | General | 1 Comment
- All blog entries, unless otherwise noted, will be mine.
- Entries will reflect my opinion of a happening at that time but I reserve the right to invoke the “Gandhi Rule.”
- If you don’t like it, feel free to mutilate yourself (Asshole Alert! If you are one of those people who do or will mutilate yourself, disregard this suggestion. I’m doing this for fun–not guilt.)
- Accept the fact that my thoughts may be controversial; sometimes deliberately. I don’t care if you disagree as long as your anger doesn’t turn to threats or physical violence. There is a reason I’ve been called “The Most Annoying Person in the World.” Idiot Alert!!!! In case you feel that I have thrown down a gauntlet of annoyance, I haven’t. I don’t want people vying for the Most Annoying title. If you are considering this, then I submit that you are the winner. The prize is a badge that you wear. If you think you are “the one” then cut out the square below; the badge will magically appear. The problem is you have to actually cut it out of your monitor screen for it to appear.
I know you’re saying to yourself, “What, does he think I am an idiot?” Check the alert description and get back to me.
- New blog entries will appear on Tuesday unless I’m so overcome with ambition (highly unlikely!) that I feel the need to write more, so–basically Tuesday.
- Just in case anyone reading this feels the need to tell me how the blog should be written or expect me to change because of what they say, please answer this question before commenting, “Didn’t you read rule #3?”
– Warren
P.S. The Gandhi Rule: Gandhi was asked how he could justify saying today the exact opposite of what he had yesterday. He replied, “That was yesterday.”