This Blog is unlikely to ever enjoy another posting. 

Thank you to all my friends who shared their ideas here over the past few years. 

Democrats and liberals. You should encourage all the Republicans you run across to vote for the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who is a true conservative and at least honest in his policy views.  There is also another benefit to America, but you would be wise not to mention it.  :)

Opinion poll

Considering the huge sums of money our schools and colleges spend in producing athletes, do you think we got our money's worth in London?

Thanks to IRISH MIKE

Taken from August 6, 2012 Newsweek Magazine.

Attempting to control protests during the Republican Convention, Tampa banned possession of certain items near the event.
No:  Air riffles, BB guns, Paint guns.
No:  Nunchucks, lumber and pipes.
No:  Supersoakers and water canons.
No:  Rope, wire, chain, and tape longer than 6 feet.
No:  Gas masks and face coverings.
No:  Light bulbs, glass bottles, and ornaments.
No:  Portable shields.
YES:  Guns are allowed.  (Gov. Rick Scott rejected the ban).

without further comment

Goodbye Marvin Hamlisch

For this one song alone, you could be remembered...

Memries, may be beautiful and yet

What's too painful to remember

We simply choose to forget

So it's the laughter

We will remember

Whenever we remember...

The way we were...

snapshot

I received this beautiful picture from Bill Wnnco with permission to post it.  This is his daughter-in-law and grandson. He calls it a "beauty and the beast" photo. "It says it all!"

snapshots

At coffee, Dawn of a New Day Cafe, downtown Saginaw, Pat, Sandy and Deb.

Standing on the corner near Fishbones in Detroit before the Tigers game. Bud and Trase.

Goodbye Gore Vidal

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests."

bargains for billionaires

And then they have the nerve (I might have used a stronger term) to criticize George Soros for giving money to Progressive causes.

Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands Casino, is worth nearly $25 billion, making him the 14th wealthiest person in the world and the 7th richest person in America. While median family income plummeted by nearly 40% from 2007-2010, Mr. Adelson has experienced a nearly eightfold increase in his wealth over the past three years (from $3.4 billion to $24.9 billion). Forbes recently reported that Adelson is willing to spend a “limitless” amount of money or more than $100 million to help defeat President Obama in November.

The Kochs (David, Charles, and William) are worth a combined $103 billion, according to Forbes. They have pledged to spend about $400 million during the 2012 election season. The Kochs own more wealth than the bottom 41.7 percent of American households or more than 49 million Americans.

SOURCE: CLICK

Some rules for living in modern America

There are an estimated 300 million guns in America, not counting those in the hands of police and military personnel. This is almost one gun for every person in the country. Counting babies. Counting old people in retirement homes.

If you want to live in this country, here are some simple rules to follow:

1. Stay out of elementary schools, high schools, and colleges. Educate your children at home, or in small groups in other people's homes.  Christian schools are NOT safe as they have been the targets of several multiple killings. Jewish schools are also targets. Even an Amish school was turned into a slaughter place. Of course, public schools are the most likely to have shootings, and those in wealthy communities are more likely to be shot up then those in poor neighborhoods. On the other hand, shootings in poor schools are more likely to occur one-on-one.

2. Stay out of shopping malls and large stores. Shop at small stores and then only in the mornings.

3. Taverns are not likely to be the scenes of mass killings, but they are dangerous on a one-to-one basis. Lots of tavern patrons are armed. Most shootings at taverns take place outside when the target is leaving. Best advice, when you have to leave a tavern, run. If you leave a tavern, do it before dark.

4. Don't go to a post office. There are good reasons for the expression, "going postal".

5. If you go to the movies, go to matinees after the movies have been in town more than a week. Never go at night.

6. It is best not to work in a work place. The best thing to do if you have to work, is work at home. Or be a farmer. Very, very few farmers are ever shot in America.

Most important, don't let the criminals win!  Don't let them make you change just to accommodate their illnesses and fantasies. Follow these few simple rules and you'll be OK.

And let's face it, if you're not the victim, someone else will be. Better them than us, huh?

Bang Bang some more.

Well, of course I will make some comments.

This is part of my purpose in life, now, to point out the silliness of our responses to gun crimes like the most recent Colorado shooting.

1. I have heard that as many as 1 out of 7 people whose paths we cross every day are armed with handguns. I even see some of those guns strapped to hips in places like the coffee shop and the restaurant. Why didn't even one of these people defend themselves or others in the theater? What the hell?

2. The police are looking for "motives"; well, the greater fools, they. Motives? Name me one sensible motive for shooting 50 people at random? Never mind what this guy's "motives" were, go ahead and name me any sensible motive.

3. People are "shocked" and "saddened" and "horrified". Nonsense. I would venture that aside from the people who were actually there at the scene and the dearest friends and relatives of the victims, nobody is saddened or shocked. What is there to be surprised about?

4. Oh, was he mentally ill? It's no harder for a mentally ill person to acquire firearms in this country than for anyone else. Don't tell me we should keep the weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill.

5. I think the guy had every Second Amendment right to his guns, just like everyone else. Don't you? 

Would it just sound like nonsense to say that we have been so busy this summer, we don't have time to do anything?

Why lie?

On cable news this morning I saw that new Romney ads are calling Obama a liar, indirectly, by saying he cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be spent by both candidates to convince us of something all of us already know: the other guy lies.

Why do they do this? I'm no psychiatrist but I suspect the object of these ads is to try to turn public mistrust into public hatred. One party is more guilty than the other, no doubt.

Democracy will not flourish where the voting public cannot make a true judgment as to facts because they are convinced that every politician is a liar, that their own votes don't really decide anything, and that no matter how the election turns out, the elected officials will not do what's in the best interest of society.

I guess I'm foursquare against lying politicians. Wish I knew what to do about it.

Goodbye Andy Griffith

Where you so often find us these days ---- eating and drinking in a tavern.

If the society we live in continues to move in the direction it is going, there will be violence. This isn't something I wish for. Certainly a violent society will threaten my children and grandchildren, and that alone is good reason why I couldn't embrace it. In all probability I will be dead before the shooting starts.

But there are two knots in the fabric of our civilization which I think are astonishing, because they are so contrary to the future well being of us all, but which will not break, despite what seems to me to be clear evidence of an evil outcome. One of these is the hatred -- or at least the dislike and shunning -- by the white sector of our society (declining) toward the other sectors, black and brown (increasing) .

The second knot is the ever increasing dichotomy between the haves (whose resources are constantly increasing) and the middle class (whose resources are constantly decreasing.) Everything indicates that those with the money are increasingly running the show and building more and more barriers against the possible sharing of power with the less well-to-do. In the effort to free themselves of obligations such as taxes (lower estate taxes and lower capital gains taxes) and elections (more and more "safe" districts and less control of corruption in politics), the wealthy are building themselves a structure which gives them more privilege, while increasingly shutting out other people.

I wonder what can be done to avert a violent collision between the sides?