We've Been Invaded

Nothing's Safe Now From My Knees Down...


Whew...I'm tired.

Yesterday evening I arrived back home to my beloved St. Simons Island having endured a self-imposed extended absence that included surviving a little over three months of fairly interesting existence outside the boundaries of my normal mode of living.

Yesterday's grand finale of my adventure included a three hour stint spent driving back from southern Alabama through the edges of the smoke plume generated by the wildfires currently assaulting south Georgia and northeast Florida.

Various details are bound to leak out here over the next few weeks, but the only things I can tell you right now (without having to kill you) are:

A) Partially as a result of my efforts, almost everyone in central Alaska and the Tar-Sand areas of southern Alberta, Canada now know everything there is to know about the dangers of a phenomena called "waterhammer" (A.K.A. transients in hydronic systems.)

B) I'm in the middle of designing two 115' tall stacks for a customer in California, actually making a little extra cash using a skill I spent much of the 1980's and 1990's perfecting and had walked away from in the year 2000.

C) I start meeting contractors this week while making application for building permits in order to begin major rennovations on my duplex rental property and to begin construction of three new spec houses over on the mainland.

Meanwhile, I'm spending what extra time I have left over trying to not step on or otherwise offend this small yet deadly animal:

That black and tan thing in the middle of the photo is a one pound head and mouth attached to a one pound body a lovely little minature long haired dachshund puppy (photo taken back in March.)

Here's one of her beauty pagent proofs:



And finally, here's what she looked like (all five pounds worth) lounging by the pool at my mom's house this past weekend.



I have to go now and bow down to her majesty's latest whim...I think I hear her squeeking...

Miss Me?

Stay Tuned To This Channel For More Information

I Want One

But I'm A Little Short On Cash...

It's a $400,000 Lamborghini, and the news story which I copied the picture from is HERE...

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The Frito Bandito Strikes Again

Ayyy, Yeiyyyy, Yeiy Yeiyyyyyyyyyy...





Mexico City (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Mexico's capital on Wednesday night to protest a surge in tortilla prices that has put President Felipe Calderon under intense pressure.

Soaring U.S. demand for ethanol has sent corn prices to their highest level in a decade, pulling up prices of Mexico's national food staple.

Protesters held up ears of corn and complained that Calderon, a conservative accused by leftists of stealing the July 2006 presidential election, was failing to protect them against foreign market forces.

Wait a minute...FOREIGN MARKET FORCES?

FOREIGN MARKET FORCES?


See Ladies & Gentlemen, no matter what you do, and how much you give, what you put up with, and what your intentions are...SOMEBODY'S got a problem with it...

.

News Flash

This Just In...


Somebody important said that there's actually a "clean" black guy running for President.

The media has freaked out, along with all of the usual suspects many "Racial Leaders."

[pause...big breath...]

Dammit, People get over this Political Correctness Shit.

OK?

Oh Kay?

Slap me if I'm wrong...and I'll shut up...

This Is Just Wrong

A Truely Dangerous Animal



For those of you that are watching, I got the image from HERE.

Lazy Observations

I've Taken The Evening Off...


I don't know what to say right now, because nothing much interesting is going on in my life and watching the news makes my head hurt.

Let's see what develops here as I write, but I'm not making you any promises on quality...

Those that know me or which stop by here regularly to read my rantings and ravings know that I read and watch a LOT of news on TV and on the Internet.

The only thing I've seen so far this morning that struck my mind as being worth mentioning and which I could write something glib or funny or even infuriating about was this story about US Representative Loretta Sanchez quitting something called "The Congressional Hispanic Caucus" over supposedly being called a "Whore" by the group's leader.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accusing the chairman, Rep. Joe Baca, of telling people she's a "whore."

Baca denied the charge.

In an interview with The Politico Wednesday, Sanchez, a California Democrat as is Baca, also cited concerns about whether Baca was properly elected Hispanic Caucus chairman in November and about his general attitude toward female lawmakers. The caucus represents 21 Hispanic Democrats in Congress.

"I'm not going to be a part of the CHC as long as Mr. Baca illegally holds the chair … I told them no. There's a big rift here," Sanchez said. "You treat the women like shit. I have no use for him."

My kneejerk reaction, after thinking "dammmmmmmmmmmnnnnnn", was to ask why we even need groups like "The Congressional Hispanic Caucus"?

After all, aren't we supposed to be "equal" here in our new colorblind world?

Then I remembered that there was another recent story (I'm too lazy to do a Google search) and some commentary about "The congressional Black Caucus" and the idea of eliminating it on the basis of political correctness terms.

I say not.

I say everyone should enjoy the right to free association and to form groups among like-mined and ethnic individuals. (Let's at the same time leave Augusta National Golf club alone this spring instead of seeing it assaulted by a bunch of slogan chanting harry legged lesbians before their annual Masters' Golf Tournament.)

Then, just to be fair, and as an example for all of the unwashed masses average citizens, let's go a step further and make ALL of the members of the US House and Senate join a "Caucus."

If I were in Congress, I'd be the leader of the "Redneck Rocket Scientist Caucus."

If Cynthia McKinney were to ever get re-elected, she could lead the "Stupid Loud-Mouthed- Moonbat-Police-Punching-Black-Bitch Caucus."

How about the "I Can't Make A Real Living So I Ran For Public Office Because My Last Name Is Kennedy Caucus"?

And finally, there could be the "My Husband Was A Worthless Womanizer So I Moved To New York And Ran For The Senate Caucus.?

That's hilarious...

Sometimes I crack my own self up...

Auto Mechanics

I Say That They’re The Reason Shotguns Were Invented


Have I mentioned that I can fix almost anything, IF you give me a manual and the proper tools?
Well…I can…

Fix almost anything, that is.

The only problem is that if I anticipate only having to do a given procedure once in a lifetime, I realize that it would sometimes be wise to hire a professional to handle the task and bloody their knuckles and curse their way through the process.

Disk Brake pads?

No problem.

Drum brake pads?

I’ll think about it.

Radiators and water pumps and power steering pumps are another matter, however, although I have successfully done a complete engine and a couple of transmission/clutch jobs in my younger years.

I can replace an alternator in the parking lot outside the auto parts store in about fifteen minutes.

Want to bet me?

That said, right now I have a couple of things that are in need of a good fixing on my old 1995 Chevrolet Suburban that are not included on my list of specialties, and dang it if the local Dealer (I won’t name names here because they haven’t actually caused me harm or otherwise done anything wrong and don‘t have the opportunity to rebut what I‘m writing about them) hasn’t reignited the fire in my soul against auto dealers and, more specifically, Auto Dealer MECHANICS

Then there is also the unique species of subhuman called SERVICE WRITERS, that many times work in concert with the Mechanics (I'm not talking about everyone in the business, just many or most…so don’t start e-mailing me and bitching and complaining because your father or brother-in-law is a mechanic or service writer.)

It’s just that, in my experience, almost anyone with the label of “Service Writer” on them is immediately suspect to living right down there under a rock with the snails and slugs and people like bookies and loan sharks that take advantage of people and generally stink up the environment.

Where do they go to learn to be so crooked?

I almost committed mass murder and burned a Pontiac Dealership down back in the 1980’s over a new car that they sold me and couldn’t ever manage to fix, no matter how much money I paid them.

I swear that I couldn't drive to my mailbox at the end of my driveway without it breaking down.

This all happened back before Georgia passed their Auto "Lemon Laws", and the “Service Writer” actually looked at his watch one morning and told me that they didn’t open for business for another fifteen minutes, and then while smirking at me he added “If it weren’t for cars like YOURS, I wouldn’t have a job.”

My response was “ if it weren’t for fists like mine, his mouth would have a few more teeth.”

The so-called “Service Manager” handled our account from that point to the day we sold the vehicle. I ended up hating virtually everyone that worked at that dealership...but...

Any wayyy…

Yesterday I received TWO QUOTES to do some work on my aforementioned vehicle, and the one from the local Chevy Dealer was more than double the independent mechanic’s price and further, the guy would not guarantee that the number couldn’t or wouldn’t escalate once they had the bowels of my beloved truck spilled out on their dirty concrete shop floor.

I’ve got a third quote coming today, then I hope to make a decision and spend a few days being a one car family while I get my beloved Suburban back into cross country interstate shape.

After all, it only has about 183,000 miles on it…I see another ten years of gas guzzling fun on the horizon with a little investment of time and money.

Microsoft Vista

Who Cares???


I'd rather look at nekkid photos of Hillary.

More Stupid Crap I Shouldn't Have To Worry About

Human Nature


Way back in early 1995 I was running a fairly successful Engineering company and had what I considered to be a pretty decent cash flow, and as a result I eventually felt like going out and splurging some of my hard earned cash on a "Home Entertainment System."

I ended up with a Bose surround sound speaker system, attached to a 100 disk CD changer and a Panasonic 110 Watt amp. I also had a (woo hoo) 32" flat screen Sony Television that had to weigh at least 150 pounds, and once I got the miles of giant "Monster" cables installed and connected to the components, I was in Heaven.

My stereo/Video system ROCKED...until my house burned down and cooked it (the stereo) into ashes.

In fact, the Sheriff's office and the insurance company inspectors agreed that it was probably my stereo that caused the fire--AFTER they got through with the arson investigation.

Don't even get me started talking about what it feels like to be accused of buring your own house down after your house burns down.

I've almost gotten over that experience, but not quite.

Any wayyy...

Just now FOX News was reporting on a story with a prediction that 2.5 Million people are going to run out and buy large format flat screen TV's this week, just to watch the Super Bowl.

I hope they have the same realization now that I had that year when I bought my TV...

"Pre-Super Bowl Return and Exchange Limits"

Whaaaaaaattttt?

Wait a minute here, everybody.

When I go to the store, I generally know the shape and size of what I'm looking for, and most of the time I already know exactly the brand and model which I'm going to buy when I get there. Further, in the past ten years I've also had cash money (read that US currency) in my pocket to pay for it most of the time.

Then when I get to the TV department or the cash register, I find that I have to put up with some moron sales weasel store associate yammering away while making me read the fine print on the back of the sales receipt pointing out that since I'm buying a TV the week before a bunch of giant, smelly, sweaty, 300 pound men attempt to bang their heads into each other while a bunch of 150 pound little fleas run circles around them, that instantly my return and exchange priveleges are curtailed.

It was a surprise to me at first, but I learned that for years now people have attempted to not buy but "borrow" large screen TV's simply to watch for one evening...

Super Bowl Evening.

So what's up wit' that?

Is it just me or what?

I'm thinking that I might be confused or something, because...

When and IF I get through with dealing with driving through traffic, enduring the sales pitch of some pimple faced teen nerd, and dragging home a giant cardboard box full of styrofoam and plastic, I AIN'T TAKING ANYTHING BACK.

If it breaks, and if it weighs over 25 pounds, and if it is under warranty, then YOU ARE COMING TO PICK IT UP AND BRING ME A NEW ONE.

AT YOUR EXPENSE.

NOW...

Regardless of the day of the week or the time of the year, make me happy else I'm coming to visit you with my little friend, Mr. Smith & Wesson.

OK, not really.

I guess I'll just stay home this week so I don't have to stomp any sports fans to death with my only good foot.

No Child's Behind Left Child left Behind

Reruns...Reruns...Reruns...


Here's what I had to say back in October 2004 (slightly modified):

Just in case you haven't noticed, I’ve had a love hate relationship with formal education—both the mandatory 12 years of primary/secondary school and my dual experiences as an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student.

You see, I consider myself to be smart, and I was a good student in school, and maybe I'm just biased as a result.

I just disliked many of my (government) school teachers and many of my (government) school teachers barely tolerated me.

I say many because there were actually a few instructors that liked my work and I liked them, but these were the exceptions rather than the rule. I had a problem with the educational process in that I found it to be tedious and overly bureaucratic.

I guess that my mind didn’t fit the model of the student that they were trained to teach.

My primary failure seemed to be my belief that I was actually there to learn something and that there was too much crap and politics that had to be dealt with in order to get your daily dose of readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic.

In post World War II America, the government has bought (or possibly sold ) the general public’s simplistic belief that a high school diploma automatically guarantees quality employment and economic success.

To this end, the public (government) school system has made every effort to hand a high school diploma to every person (read that so-called student) that can show up in a classroom for some minimum number of days over a twelve year period.

Rather (but not Dan Rather) than supporting and maintaining the quality while increasing access to a primary and secondary education, the end result has been the degradation of standards and the output of basically the same number of qualified graduates as were produced before government intervention.

The key word is qualified.

You heard me right, everyone is required to go, but the number of successful high school students is quantitatively the same.

It’s a matter of supply and demand.

In spite of this increased availability of educational programs here in Georgia, today over 40% of high school students drop out before graduation.

Do you get this?

They are virtually giving away high school diplomas based on attendance and still nearly half of the students don’t have enough sense and discipline to hang around long enough to get one.

And the sad reality is that the diploma has no real market value in its current form.

I say that that's because a diploma has become basically a certificate of (non)attendance.

You see, the Imperial Federal Government of the By God United Damn States of America made their first foray into higher education with the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (all 499 pages in PDF format if you want to read it,) and back then the next target of the Federal Government’s newly formed Department of Education was a college diploma.

Since the high school diplomas weren’t getting enough people a country club membership and a new Caddy Seville every three years, the belief was that adding four more years of education with the obligatory government meddling would certainly do the trick.

Of course the Ivy League schools like Harvard and Yale wouldn’t in theory have to participate, but the state colleges and Universities were in for an onslaught of ill prepared “High School” graduates with government backing.

Lewis Grizzard, one of my personal idols and a famous southern humorist, newspaper columnist, and staunch University of Georgia alumni was once quoted as saying (paraphrasing): “they say if you drive through the UGA campus, they will throw a diploma through your open car window…taint true…you got to stop your car.”

How true that has become, Lewis.

The State of Georgia went as far as to use education as a basis for implementing a state lottery, the result being the HOPE Scholarship program and state funded pre-K and Kindergarten programs that were heralded as the end-all save-all solution for Georgia students.

The jury is still officially out, but after ten years the initial results are that the HOPE program has done very little to improve education in Georgia. The few good high school teachers that were out there have suffered under pressure to inflate grades to make students have the necessary “B” average to qualify for a Hope scholarship.

The few good college professors are now pressured to hand out A’s and B’s in order to allow students to maintain HOPE Scholarship eligibility. And the reality is that a large percentage of the students entering college with Hope Scholarships are not really qualified and as a result, many have to take remedial classes in English (their native language) and math before they can even enter the normal curriculum.

As is usual with found money, the state government has had a spending spree of using HOPE funds to pay for non-scholarship expenses like computer technology that no one on the educational staff can fathom and for building new facilities all over the state that either aren't needed or are under-utilized.

In the ensuing financial crunch caused by low qualification standards, the state legislature has had to wrestle every year with potential changes to program requirements. The problems are not unique to HOPE, they are just amplified by the availability of public money.

Racial leaders and activists claim that “rich people’s” kids get a disproportionate share of HOPE money—they want income limits on recipients. Inner city school proponents refuse to acknowledge the academic deficiencies of the current standards and oppose the use of SAT scores as part of the qualification process.

As a result, the college remedial programs continue to bulge at seams.

Again, at the heart of the issue is the concept of supply and demand.

Here is my simple (but accurate) Redneck analysis for your enjoyment (and liberal disdain.)

Suppose that by some miracle we actually managed to make the following changes in our society:

1. Every child was a willing and able student.
2. Every household provided a nourishing academic environment.
3. Every school has qualified teachers, useable facilities, and adequate funding.

Given these improvements and assuming that the academic standards were ethically maintained, I guarantee you that the socialists and utopians would still be unhappy.

Why?

Because there would still be students with B, C, and even failing grade averages.

All students are not in fact created equal.

Everyone can't be Valedictorian.

Further, even if you could get every high school student up to a B performance level and handed them a HOPE scholarship, there are not enough seats in college classrooms to park their butts in every day for two to four years.

If you were to somehow carry this concept through to the college level and actually get every student a college sheepskin, then you will find that there are not enough jobs that require a college degree (even a degree in "Underwater Basket Weaving" or god forbid—"Education") to use all of the applicants which they receive.

Only the top students would get the best jobs and attain the highest levels of success in the workplace.

As I like to say, “everyone can’t be a rocket scientist.”

Well, actually, you can be a “rocket scientist,” but you might be an unemployed rocket scientist unless you want to start your own company and work for yourself. (Kudos to Dick Rutan.)

So back to my original point...

“No Child left Behind?”

Baah, Humbug...I say kick them (and their parents) in their behinds until the child has no behind left if they aren't interested in getting a REAL education.

New Winter Art

Now I'm Building Things Larger Than Life...


Well, the bad news is that apparently winter has officially arrived here in the Golden Isles.

The good news is that it took until late January to do so. As Exhibit A I offer a couple of photos of what we faced yesterday morning...I actually had to put on a shirt and wear a jacket when I went outside.

Yes, that is FROST on the roof of our Condo building, and a nice heavy coat of bumpy ice on Pat's Mustang which I absentmindedly left outside instead of using the carport with full knowledge our bout with this blast of winter was coming.

I probably missed some "cool" (please excuse the intended pun) photo opportunities somewhere out there on the marsh, but I was too lazy to get up and out before 8 AM and actually scrape ice off the windshield in order to go see what I could find.

So any way, once we managed to get out of bed, get dressed, and make our monthly run over to Walmart and the computer store to buy printer ink, on a whim we also stopped by Tuesday Morning where I found this (the big thing...not the little thing)...



The little thing is a standard corkscrew I put in the photo for the purpose of giving you some scale and perspective of what I'm up to.

The large thing is a "spike" designed to place in the ground in your yard to chain your dog to...that's right, it's a '"dog spike"...but I have another idea for its use.

Remember my giant clay olive sculpture that I did recently?



Well, I'm going to do a little modification and convert it (my "dog spike," not the olive) into a giant Corkscrew, and then I'm going to make myself a giant wine bottle cork out of some clay to go with it.

I figure that the cork will end up being about the size of a 2 liter soda bottle.

The Olive has been a great success with the employees and patrons over at our local wine shop, so I think that I will continue along on my journey turning the store into my own private art gallery.

It's really tough being me...

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I Stand Corrected

It's Amazing Who Reads What I Write...


I have ranted and raved about a bunch of stuff over the past few years, never expecting to really influence any person's opinion of me or my topic...I'm really just blowing off steam to keep my own internal boiler from blowing the top of my head off.

Yet...

This morning I received this E-Mail from The Annie E. Casie Foundation:

Hello: Per you most recent blog, please note this correction:

The Annie E. Casey Foundation was founded by Jim Casey and his siblings in 1948 and named after their mother, not Jim Casey’s wife.

Thank you.

Sue Lin Chong

Sue Lin Chong
Public Affairs Manager
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
701 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 223-2836 - voice
(410 223-3714 - fax
schong@aecf.org

Thank you Miss Chong for pointing out that I incorrectly stated that the foundation was named for Jim Casey' wife, not his mother.

His mom was the intended benefactor

I offer my sincerest apology for my error, and I gladly publish this correction at the top of my blog.

See, I'm really trying to be accurate in this process...

Continuing My Re-Runs

I'm Lazy, LAzy, LAZy, LAZY...


OK, continuing in the tradition of my recent blogging reruns, this little missive was written way back in October 2004:


The Working Poor Families Project just released a series of reports on the condition of “working families” in America.

The report is funded by the Anne E. Casey Foundation (AECF), the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation—all well financed “do-gooder” organizations.

Jim Casey, one of the founders of United Parcel Service, started the Anne E Casey Foundation in memory of his wife mother in 1948. A good example of a liberal putting his money where his mouth is.

In their opening statement of the Executive Summary, they offer the following passage:

"The United States of America is often called the “Land of Opportunity,” a place where hard work and sacrifice lead to economic success. Across generations, countless families have been able to live out that promise. However, more than one out of four American working families now earn wages so low that they have difficulty surviving financially.

These are families with responsible, hard-working breadwinners who want to get ahead but hold down low-paying jobs with inadequate benefits and little hope for advancement. Many lack the skills and education they need to move into jobs that pay better, even while the economy demands more highly trained employees.

And while our economy relies on the service jobs these low-paid workers fill—such as cashiers, janitors, security guards and home health aids—our society has not taken adequate steps to ensure that these workers can make ends meet and build a future for their families, no matter how determined they are to be self-sufficient."

First let ME (your lovely and talented blogger) say "What compassionate, sensitive, sincere words—on the surface."

BUTT...

Only when you look deeper into these utterances do you see the true meaning that lies (no pun intended) within.

Once again, here we find a reference to “working families.”

Working Families...working families, working families...

I demand to know what the term “working family” means.

Can any one tell me? (See Living Wages)

I believe that the term is intended to refer to a person with a spouse and kids to support who is trying to live on the wages earned working every day for most of their lifetime in a near minimum wage (what I call entry level) job.

What are they thinking?

Sure they may be “responsible and hard-working” but the best paid sanitation engineer (garbage man) still earns garbage man’s pay.

At least the report seems to acknowledge that the economy has good jobs available, but unfortunately there aren’t many employment want-ads for buggy whip makers and blacksmiths in The Atlanta Journal/Constitution newspaper today.

Times are a changin’, and we have to change also if we are to survive.

Where I come from, the incentive of “hav(ing) difficulty surviving financially" was both an everyday reality and acted as a powerful incentive to get off of your ass and make some serious changes.

I think that you would agree that most Americans have considered themselves to be squeezed financially for part of their working career, so what is so evil with this situation that government intervention should be mandated?

“Many lack,” they say, “the skills and education they need to move into jobs that pay better…”

Well boo hoo hoo, did they have to quit school before graduation to go to work to support themselves and their family like both of my Grandfathers did in pre-depression era America?

Probably not.

Most likely they slept through and played hooky through twelve years of free government education because they either didn’t care or didn't know any better.

The girls likely were certain that they were going to get married to a rich man and the boys were sure that they were going “Pro” in the NFL or the NBA.

Once they hit the big time they figured that they could pay someone else to do their ‘ritin, readin’, and ‘rithmatic.

“Let me ax you, do you know a good accountant? “

Rigghhhtttt...

And then we are admonished that in fact our “society has not taken adequate steps to ensure that these workers can make ends meet.”

Upon utterance of this statement, my head starts violently spinning around uncontrollably.

How about asking these workers to take some steps on their own to ensure that they can make ends meet?

What else should we be required to continue to pay for without seeing some tangible improvement and/or actual results? I mean, after providing twelve years of free education and handing out additional financial support in the form of welfare and public housing, haven’t we done about enough?

No, they say.

Now WE need to somehow do whatever it takes to ensure these miserable, underprivileged souls move out of the ghetto and enjoy a lifetime of success. And God forbid that we attempt to tell our benefactors how to lead their lives in areas that are highly predictive of future outcome.

We can’t, for instance, criticize their lifestyle decisions like the company they keep, the way they speak, the way they dress, or their propensity to adopt expensive, self-destructive habits like alcohol and drug abuse.

No way, Jose.

And we can’t intervene in areas of intimate personal behavior like sex which inevitably have expensive side affects like producing unwanted/un-afforded children and/or the acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS.

We are, as a society, supposed to close our eyes, toss our money at the problem, and hope for the best outcome.

Ab-rah Kadab-rah, poof.....success!

In looking into the AEC Foundation, I found this statement from the current president, Doug Nelson:

“Applying Lessons Learned. The generation of American children born in the last two decades of the 20th century has been blessed by a period of unprecedented national prosperity. For most of these children and their families, this has been among the best of times.

Yet for fully one-fifth of this nation's kids, the economic boom has quite simply passed them by.

In small towns, many suburbs, and especially in large cities, millions of children remain largely untouched by the good times, with little prospect for connecting with the benefits of a soaring economy. Our most recent KIDS COUNT data report a significant increase since 1990 in the number of children—5.6 million—in families of the working poor.

In all, more than 14 million, or 21 percent of all kids under 18, still live in poverty-a higher proportion than in 1975.“ IF the data supporting these statistics are accurate, we are as a society guilty of a great failure.

But I say that the government hasn’t failed; the recipiants have—in spite of a large amount of public financial support. Remember that President Johnson’s series of economic initiatives announced in his 1964 Presidential campaign, called “The Great Society,” was largely implemented by the “Fabulous Eight-Ninth” congress.

Among their mandates were:

1. Achieved the goals of the Fair Deal.
2. Achieved the goals of the New Frontier.
3. Introduced Medicare programs.
4. Passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
5. Legislated a Housing and Urban Development program.
6. Ratified the highway beautification act, a pet project of Lady Bird Johnson, the First Lady.
7. Installed clean air and water regulations.
8. Ended the immigration quota system of the 1920s.
9. Set forth new city planning programs.

"New Deal," "Fair Frontier," "Education", "Housing," "Environment," "Healthcare"—don't these topics sound a bit familiar?

Same old same old...

Just throw some more money at the perceived problems and implement government mandated solutions and everything will be ok, right?

That’s what they say.

“To do that (improve the chances for all to advance,) we must effectively invest our public resources so that low-income working families have far better access to education, training, healthcare, parental leave, and other benefits.

People earning higher salaries typically have access to those things; those who are paid less need the same…In the long run we will maintain stable communities and keep our businesses competitive.”

Let me dissect this paragraph for you.

“We must invest our public resources”…that’s government terminology for spending other people’s tax money.

Our “investment” will give low-income “working families” all the things (education, training, healthcare, parental leave, and other benefits) that my parents and I have already paid dearly for in time and money in order for me to be able to work somewhere other than the McDonalds’ drive through window.

And this parental leave thing—where do they get off telling a business owner that when he hires a walking set of ovaries or testicles with no restraint that he has to hand out unlimited (or at least ridiculous) amounts of “parental leave” in order to take care of five or six children that were neither planned for nor can be afforded financially?

Then they actually have the guts to come out and say that, regardless of your personal effort or commitment to your education and employment efforts, you “need” (and by default and government mandate you deserve) the same compensation rewards provided to better educated and more productive employees.

Well, I NEED a vacation home on a Caribbean island, a 100 foot motoryacht, and a Lear Jet to get there—can someone in Washington help me please?

“In the long run we will maintain stable communities and keep our businesses competitive.”

Is this a threat that if we don’t hand over funding, anarchy will result and the stock market will crash?

Me and my Smith and Wesson Revolver don't think so...

I have every compassion for the children identified to be in these situations living in poverty. It’s not their fault, but the problem I have is that the government doesn’t cut checks to minor children. They do cut checks to adults who consciously make crappy life decisions, reproduce without conscience and V-O-T-E.

For forty years “Great Society” politics has yielded little improvement and constant demands for increased funding.

Enough is Enough...but then again I guess that you can just call me insensitive.

UPDATE October 14, 2004 5:30AM

The implied solution to the problems of the "working poor" is to raise the minimum wage.

You might ask, who is actually paid minimum wage?

This link gives the answer better than I ever could.

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They Say It's Going Down To 31 Degrees Here Thursday Night

I ask My Northern Friends To Pray...


And I guess I should check my antifreeze in the Suburban and the Mustang.

Dang this Global Warming Winter weather...

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Even More Ancient Reruns

Here..Look at this good rant called "Living Wages" which I wrote back in October 2004 (slightly modified)...


"A Living wage.”

Exactly what does that statement mean?

Is a “living wage” something for which you build a little house in your back yard and put out a bowl of food and water to nourish and feed?

Activists and politicians love to talk about a “living wage,” and it always makes for good newspaper headlines.

The concept seems to basically involve the government telling the owner of a business how much to pay his employees, rather than letting the free market make that determination.

Well isn’t that special, I know all of those business owners will appreciate the assistance…

I, personally, got a little confused in the process when I started thinking about it, so now I invite you to follow along with me and let's see if I really have this thing straight in my mind.

For instance, suppose that I go out and borrow $200,000 from the bank, put up $100,000 of MY own money, rent a building on a small parcel of land, buy equipment, raw materials, and hire 20 employees (sales, administrative, and manufacturing) in order to produce and sell my own brand of "widgets."

Let's call my enterprise "Rogers' Widget Company, LLC."

(I build a really good Widget, by the way, and my Mother and my Girlfriend would probably be so proud...)

Happily, sales are booming, and now I need a vacation after working my rear end off over the past five years building the business.

But then along comes the government, with a gun and arrest powers, and they have some different ideas about how I should spend my time and what I should do with MY money.

I already have to handle the withholding of payroll taxes (income, FICA, FUTA, social security) from my employees, and collect sales taxes for my state and local governments. To do all of the resulting financial paperwork, I have to hire an accounting firm and a couple of bookkeepers and pay at least fifty or sixty thousand dollars annually for their services.

Then, if I actually have money left over after paying for the building, my employees, raw materials, and my accountants, then I have to pony up between 20% and 36% of the company’s net profit in the form of taxes to the federal and state government to pay “my fair share.”

Boy, am I and all of my employees here at "Rogers' Widget Company" glad that that whole situation is taken care of because apparently we couldn't be expected to accurately estimate on our own what we really owed society in return for our investments and physical/mental efforts...the Government Expertly wants to help us.

Annnnndddddd, by the way, we didn’t mention the cost of group health insurance yet, did we?

But wait a minute, there is another problem that the government is going to have to step in and help me fix.

Now I need help paying a "Living Wage."

I guess that my employees are all too stupid to negotiate one for themselves.

Turns out that it seems that I don’t pay enough in wages to some of my twenty employees I hired after spending three weeks interviewing the 150 applicants I got from the $100 newspaper ad I ran in the local paper.

So now the government will ride to the rescue and tell me how much I need to pay.

Boy, am I ever relieved.

The media loves to report stories about how it is impossible to support a family of three or four on one 40 hour a week job paying minimum wage, which happens to be $5.15 per hour in most states.

As a result, we are told, people are unfairly forced to work more than forty hours or worse, forced to work more than one job in order to “make ends meet.”

Where is my box of tissues…sob, sob.

What is not reported is the FACT that most if not all of the jobs paying minimum wage are ENTRY LEVEL.

Who in their right mind expects to work to retirement age in a position paying minimum wage?

Most of the people working in these jobs are teenagers or twenty something’s that spend a few months or at most a year at that compensation level on their way up the job ladder.

If they don’t move up, something is seriously wrong with the employee and/or their education. Of course there are always the obvious sob stories about the high school drop-out, single mother of three who can't afford daycare and can't afford the time to go back to school while working two minimum wage jobs.

What was she thinking to get herself and her family in that situation?

That's the problem, she and thousands like her aren't thinking--and now they want the government to solve their problem by artificailly forcing wages upward.

A total of twelve states have already taken it upon themselves to force employers to pay minimum wages in exess of the federal rate. For instance, the State of California has imposed a $6.75 minimum, with a special rate of $8.50 for the City of San Francisco, with sometimes devastating results.

Within months of this wage minimum being imposed, San Francisco based Chevy’s, the company that owned the Tex/Mex restaurant chain Rio Bravo that operated here in Georgia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed all 26 Rio Bravo Restaurants. It’s sort of hard to profitably run a restaurant paying $8.50 an hour when your competitors are paying $3.25 plus tips.

It seems that California tries to force firms based in their state to pay the mandated minimum wage on all jobs regardless of where the employee is located. The long arm of the law just keeps getting longer.

In my opinion, what is at the heart of the “living wage” controversy and resulting higher minimum wage push is an obvious culprit.

Let me point it out to you if you haven't already been notified.

One word...

UNIONS

OK two words...

LABOR UNIONS

You see, while it is usually disguised as a humanitarian effort, the reality is that union pay scales are directly tied to the local minimum wage, something that the labor unions and the Democrats don’t want you to know about.

If the minimum wage goes up, union labor rates automatically go up across the board, without having to re-negotiate the existing labor contract!

How about them apples?????

.

Blaa, Blaa, Blaa

Random Thoughs On The State Of The Union Address...


1. Is Dick Cheney's head really twice a large as Nancy Pelosi's?

2. Is Dikembe Mutombo twice as tall as Laura Bush and the little oriential chick standing next to him?

3. Was that a flask I saw Ted Kennedy holding in his hand so he couldn't clap during the standing ovations?

Other than that, I think I've heard it all before.

Media synopsis...Democrats Good...Republicans Bad.

Any other questions?

Liberal Government Double-Speak

Tired Of Having To Learn New Meanings for Old Words???


Sorry folks, but I'm feeling a bit lazy this morning, and after watching the TV news endlessly chanting the words "Hillary" and "Obama" and bashing President Bush's upcoming State of the Union Speach, I decided to go back and republish some of my Golden Oldie rants that my newer readers may have not seen and my older readers may have forgotten that I wrote.

First up, here's one from September of 2004 entitled Tax Cuts For Working Families:


I’ll open this discussion on income taxes with the following statement:

“YOU CAN’T GET AN INCOME TAX CUT IF YOU DON’T PAY INCOME TAXES.”

Did you get that?

Adding a further collorary to this concept:

“DON’T EXPECT AN INCOME TAX RETURN IF YOU DON’T PAY INCOME TAXES.”

I’m afraid that today at least half of the US population has lost track of these concepts.

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry loves to talk about tax fairness for Americans. If he and Mr. Edwards (two so called “limousine liberals”) were to win the election this November, he says that the first thing they would do next January is to roll back all of President Bush’s tax cuts..

Mr. Kerry’s campaign dialogue is peppered with references to President Bush and the Republican Congress enacting “tax cuts for the rich” instead of “tax cuts for working families.”

A report issued in late August by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that nothing could be further from the truth.

But Kerry wants tax cuts for “working families.”

Let me ask the question, exactly what is a "working family?"

Does the term “working family” mean that both parents, all of the children, and the family pets each hold full time or part time jobs?

Does the term “working family” only apply if you make less than $50,000 per year in total income?

Does the term imply that people making over $100,000 don’t work for a living and/or don't have families ?

In fact, Senator Kerry, the Democrat’s, and other liberals of all stripes and colors use of the term “working family” plays to the most basic form of envy and class warfare that has been a staple of politics since the income tax was enacted in the early 1900's.

As this editorial in the Detroit News (a newspaper in a city full of Kerry’s so called “working families”) so eloquently opines, Bush hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves. Consider this...

After the hated tax cut, in 2001 the top 10% of taxpayers earned 38.3% of the total taxable federal household income, but they actually paid 66.7% of the federal income taxes. The top 20% of taxpayers earned 51.1% and paid 74.8%.

What else do they want?

I know, I know…”those evil rich people supposedly don’t really NEED all of their money.”

Seriously folks, how can you cut taxes on someone that already doesn’t pay taxes?

The bottom 20% of income earners already get an earned income credit and a resulting tax refund equaling 5.7% of their non-taxable income. The bottom 40% of households earned 9.7% of the total household income and had a negative tax rate of 2.8%.

This means, even after Bush’s tax reform, that the imperial federal government of the United States uses the IRS to take money from the top 60% of income earners and give it to the bottom 40%.

Now the Dem’s figure that if they can just increase this figure from 40% to 51% that they will be guaranteed re-election to local and national offices for eternity. (See Mob Rule Part I)

When faced with the above facts supporting that the tax cut is truly across the board, the liberal Democrats then take another track.

They start jumping up and down about how the tax cut fueled a record setting Federal Budget Deficit.

Again, it's simply not true.

While the 2003 deficit is a record number of total dollars, at 3.1% it was in fact smaller as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than it was in 1976 under Carter (4.1%,) in 1985 under Reagan (5.1%,) and 1992 under Clinton (4.4%.)

The problem is government spending, not income (tax revenues.)

Why does that matter, you might ask?

Here’s an example: Say that one year a business has a $50,000 net income, but expenses also equaled $50,000 and the owner choose to borrow and additional $10,000 during the year to fund new product development costs.

The next year, however, the new products sell well and the gross income doubles to $100,000, but expenses go up proportionally and the owner keeps working on expanding the business and as a result the total debt increases to...say...$15,000.

Record deficit scream the stockholders! Fire the company president.

Wrong...you government school educated imbeciles.

While the amount spent in excess of income rose by $5,000, the debt as a percentage of income actually fell from 20% to 15%, a deficit spending reduction of 25%. Put away the calculator and college diploma, simple 6th grade math tells the story.

Why can’t the AP, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times get this right?

As a last resort, the Democrats and other liberals come out and claim that the middle class is unfairly burdened by FICA/FUTA/Social Security taxes.

In former President Reagan’s words: “there (they) go again…”

Just in case you didn't know, FICA/FUTA/Social Security taxes apply equally to everyone at all income levels and are in fact stolen by the federal government from today’s wage earners to pay the obligations they have accumulated and owe to unemployed, disabled, and retired members of past generations of taxpayers.

Further, the so-called rich taxpayers already pay these taxes on disproportionate amounts of their incomes and at most only see pennies on the dollar in benefits because they earn and save too much money in private retirement accounts.

President Bush didn’t invent these taxes, but I seem to remember several famous Democrats like Roosevelt and Johnson whose fingerprints are all over these bait and switch programs.

Yes they are unfair and need reform or outright elimination, but every time Bush and the Republican congress even try to talk about changes and improvements, they suffer under the age old liberal tactic of “scaring the old people” to get votes. “The Republicans are gonna take away your Social Security benefits…run to the polls and vote for us and we'll save you...”

Numerous web sites like http://www.bushtax.com/ go even further with their arguments, indicating that, beyond the excessive amounts of money “given” to the rich in this country by existing tax cuts, the Federal government’s tax policies have actually shifted additional costs to the middle class in the form of increased property taxes and greater tuition costs at state colleges and universities as the state governments see a reduction in the federal gravy-train of grants and other funding.

Give me another break, plu-eaze.

So more and more "working families" are able to actually own their own homes and as a result have to pay corresponding property taxes; and more and more children of "working families" are graduating from high school and entering college and incurring the associated tuition costs.

Here's an option for those of you that want to complain--rent a house and get a job at McDonalds after you finish 12 grades of FREE government school instead of borrowing money to go to college.

While I'm at it, let me mention another problem--up to the late 1970’s or early 1980’s most state governments operated with a budget surplus. Since that time however, most states and many cities have engaged in a spree of hiring employees, building new programs, and generally increasing their spending—following the federal business model—and now they are all facing deficits of THEIR OWN MAKING.

It is not the federal government’s job to step in and bail the Governors, state legislatures, and city councils out of their mess. Let the voters go to the polls and correct their spending problems at the state and local level this fall.

In my opinion, term limits, rational spending policies and letting people keep more of their hard earned money will allow the Federal and Local Budgets to take care of themselves.

Continued income redistribution through taxation and expanding dependence on government for employment, health care, and retirement will ultimately be the death of us all fiscally.

While I'm Busy Posting Photos...

I Might As Well Start Out Your Week Seeing Me Being Rude as usual



Doesn't this image for some reason remind you of Whoopie Goldburg???

(Or possibly something out of the Star Wars movies...)

Yeah, I thought so...

Photoshopping My Life Away

Hey, Check These Out...


First I tried a "filter function" called "Posterize" that gave me this Image...



Then there is just a little old fashoned brightness and contrast adjustment and a little slight of hand that gives you this (click on the images to enlarge)...



More...this is sorta cool also...

Finally!!!!

The Moon And Venus


I've been chasing this photo opportunity for almost two years now.

What I was looking for was a crescent moon hanging low in the western sky at sunset, with decent weather conditions. In this exasperating process and time frame I've learned that it is a very rare event indeed.

Until yesterday...

Last evening I had the added bonus of the planet Venus keeping the Moon and the Sidney Lanier Bridge company over downtown Brunswick, Georgia.

Here, take a look (click on each photo to enlarge)...




Here's a zoomed image (notice that Venus has phases just like the Moon does)...



I need to work on my technique to get the focus and depth of field fine tuned, but it was still a spectacular vista. I almost caused a couple of car wrecks by simply standing on the side of the road with my camera and tripod when people noticed what I was looking at.

Crazy Birds

The Sapsuckers Are Eating Our Seeds


Look at the posture that one of our local feathered friends has to take to hang onto one of our feeders:





And here's a photo of he/she flapping away after noticing my attentions...




Crazy birds...

You Better Get Interested In What's Going On

The Democrats Want To Silence ME US...


Here, take a look at Senate Bill S.1, Section 220, currently being considered in Washington:

(18) PAID EFFORTS TO STIMULATE GRASSROOTS LOBBYING-

(A) IN GENERAL- The term `paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying' means any paid attempt in support of lobbying contacts on behalf of a client to influence the general public or segments thereof to contact one or more covered legislative or executive branch officials (or Congress as a whole) to urge such officials (or Congress) to take specific action with respect to a matter described in section 3(8)(A), except that such term does not include any communications by an entity directed to its members, employees, officers, or shareholders.

(B) PAID ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR SEGMENTS THEREOF- The term `paid attempt to influence the general public or segments thereof' does not include an attempt to influence directed at less than 500 members of the general public.

The term "paid attempt" in the past has included "in kind donations" like the time that I spend carefully thinking about writing my rantings. Since I'm routinely reaching tens of thousands of people each year, I'm afraid that they're coming after me before it's over with.

I swear, people, but if we're not careful it's going to soon be against the law for me to write things like "Nancy Pelosi is a stupid partisan bitch" and "Dingy Harry Reid is a moron" or "Robert Byrd is a senile old bastard" if more than 500 people read my writing.

Are YOU going to sit there and let the government silence the bloggers?

Then call someone, dammit...

This Is Just WRONG

An African Grey Parrot, Showing Off...


Polly Want A Cracker?

Silence

Sorry...I'm Still Busy

I'm almost sleeping normally, so in my absence, you might want to go here to read THIS.

And then, of course, there's this guy's ideas.

In the mean time, all I have to say is

See Ya' Later, Y'all.

.

The Oinker Of The Day

Guess Who???

Isn't that the face of one happy woman, or what?

.

OMG

Careful, Don't Hurt Yourself...


Take a big breath, then go HERE and take a peek.

I Know That's It's Easy To Bitch & Complain

Thus I Currently Write Short Rant's, Else I Write Nothing At All


My head is busy either thinking about technical issues or it is rotating at orbital velocity as a result of having read the newspaper or watched the Television, and as a result I'll just avoid risking offending anyone or inspiring anyone with my ongoing rantings while I thrash around here on our little island.

It started to cool off here last evening, and that's definitely not a positive influence on my attitude either...

Dammit...

Rosie O'Donnell Is A "Jackanapes"

I'm Trying Out FOX Network's Bill O'Reilly's Word Of The Day



Yeah, YOU there, reading this... BE CAREFUL.

Don't Be like Rosie...

Don't be a jackanapes

I, personally, LIKE words like that, because they're so descriptive.

.

Have A Nice Glass of Orange Juice, And Put It On My Tab

That Global Warming Trend...She Be A Real Bitch


Quick, everyone...run to the grocery store

NOW!!!

It seems that most of the California Citrus Crop has been destroyed by cold weather in the last few days.

The weekend's bone-chilling weather has caused widespread crop damage and other effects from the San Joaquin Valley to the Imperial Valley, and could top agricultural losses seen in the last major freeze in California nearly a decade ago. California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura toured a Ventura packinghouse today and viewed damage to local strawberries, citrus and avocados."They got hurt pretty bad Sunday morning.

The wind and irrigation water that farmers tried to use to protect crops didn't work too well," Kawamura said. "It certainly appears that this will be very similar if not exceed the damage from the 1998-99 freeze."In the 1998 freeze, $700 million in agricultural damage occurred across eight counties. Kawamura said this freeze was more widespread. Three consecutive nights of sub-freezing weather beginning Friday night froze navel oranges, lemons and tangerines in the San Joaquin Valley, and damaged avocados from San Luis Obispo to San Diego.

Artichokes in Castroville and strawberries in Santa Maria sustained damage. Kawamura said even winter vegetable crops in the Imperial Valley endured critically cold temperatures.

I guess that my Guacamole dip prices will be going up also.

Damn this Global Warming...How can I continue to eat and gain weight with stuff like this going on??

The World's Happiest Poor People

Venezuela's Population Still Stupid & Oppressed...Chavez Still Crazy


Here, take a look at this story: Venezuela Intensifies Takeover Fight With Big Firms.

Now let me ask you this:

"Why is the media so STUPID when it comes to writing headlines?"

After all, the last time I checked, a "takeover" involves BUYING a company.

You know, actually compensating the owners or investors for their financial costs.

Not so according to this story.

All you need is a few guns and bombs and you're in the oil business.

You see, the so-called Venezuela "takeover" is actually a "nationalization", or in reality the theft of private investors funds by a government entity, just because...

Just because they can, and Liberals like Jimmy Carter will avert their eyes in the process.

And the local peasants will hoot and holler and cheer about the results, then go home and have a nice bowl of dirt and glass of filthy water as they raise their angry fists in the air in celebration.

While we're at it, let me offer my own hearty "Yeeeeeee Haaaaaaaa" on their behalf...

If the US government continues along our track here in this hemisphere, that being one of ignoring people like Castro and the little twit dictator Chavez, and we keep not drilling our own oil reserves offshore and in Alaska, we're all going to be tap dancing in dark homes to the beat of music played by little tin hats like this &^%*$er.


Get a grip, people...

.

Cuba Versus Puerto Rica

I Say Let China & Japan Give Them The Same Treatment as Hawaii…


What kills me about the so called intelligent political dialogue (or lack thereof) concerning the current invasion of wetbacks illegal immigrants guest workers and, while we're at it, the US foreign policy in the Middle East, is the lack of consistency with regard to race and culture.

If you honestly believe that the US ended its policy of expansion and colonialism in 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th state, what do you have to say about Puerto Rico and other overseas “possessions” like America Samoa?

Just because most of their citizens can’t swim, sail a ship, or otherwise choose to stay on their home soil, are we and they any better off than say…the citizens of Mexico---particularly the ones still living in Juarez?

How can their residents continue to be forced (or allowed) to live in squalor, with US tax subsidies and other massive funding laid on the backs of US taxpayers, without any standards and oversight other than a slap on the ass and the emergence of an occasional professional baseball player and a cheep supply of rum and cigars?

Worst of all, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba are right here within a few hundred miles in our own hemisphere and fall into this same category of third world “Plantation countries“ owned and operated by displaced citizens living here in the US.

If they had a few more guns, some explosives, and more than a minority of citizens content with singing in nightclubs, cooking in restaurants, and smoking marijuana, we’d all be in big trouble in my book.

The good news is that apparently Fidel Castro is on his last legs, and if we can’t manage to toss a few hundred million taxpayer dollars at ensuring that that situation gets straightened out upon his death, I’m thinking about just folding up my tent, packing up my pots and pans, and moving my ever balding, ever greying, lard assed redneck carcass off to somewhere like Belize or Costa Rica .

Please write if you can’t call…

Another Day...Another Dollar

Earned or Spent?


I'm sorry to admit that I'm stranded in a winter malaise of indecision.

It's so nice outside that I find my mind wandering to the pool and the beach and my bicycle, but then the couch takes over and I wake up having snoozed the better part of the afternoon away being useless and listening to talk radio.

I ran around again today looking for a giant blob three or four pounds of potter's clay to do a quick sculpture to enter in this year's Coastal Heritage Art Exhibit.

My efforts failed.

I won second place last year with my photo submission, but even though I knew that this year's deadline was approaching I found myself without anything in my inventory to submit and by the time I came up with a concept and theme it would appear to be too late.

I took the small blob of clay that I purchased last week for a prototype model and smashed it up and made a giant 3" olive for my friend Brenda to use in a humongous martini glass over at her nearby wine shop...The 19th Hole Package Store.

I'm using a bamboo barbeque skewer as a toothpick, and the results should make a nice finish on a front counter display in her store.

All I have to do is wait for it to finish drying, toss on another coat of green paint and color the pimento red, and I'm good to go.




Time to do some more reading now...or maybe I'll take another nap...

Pollen

I'm Not The Only One Confused...


It's January 15th.

It's 75 degrees F outside.

You can write your name on the hood of our car in the pollen dust that settled in the dew over night.

Pollen on January 15th?

I love living here...

Rational Thoughts From A Great Man

I Wish Jessie Jackson And Al Sharpton Would Get A Clue...


Here, take a look at an excerpt from Martin Luther King's famous April 1963 "Letter from A Birmingham Jail":

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience...

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Maybe we all do have some distance to go to achieve true equality, but we've also come a long way since that text was written. Too bad the good Reverand Jackson & Mr. Sharpton own the franchise these days...because in my opinion, they're both faint shadows of the man that wrote those words.

RIP Dr. King.

.

75 Degrees And Sunny

We're Certainly Getting Our Money's Worth Down Here...


Gosh it was beautiful here on the Georgia coast yesterday. We're expecting more of the same for the next few days as the Midwest and northeast suffers under ongoing bouts of rain, sleet, and snow.

I almost feel guilty.

But not really guilty...