When I was a kid, my dad never missed an opportunity to watch John Wayne. There were no DVD’s, CD’s, VHS’s or even Betamax back then. Just what ever was on CBS, NBC, ABC, or the local channels on TV. Then, Clint Eastwood came on the scene with the spagetti westerns and Dirty Harry series of movies. I was a kid and leaned more toward Don Adams of ‘Get Smart’ or ‘Green Acres’ with Eddie Albert. I loved ‘McCals Navy’ with Ernest Borgnine and Happy Days with Tom Bosley and the ‘What you talkin’ bout Willis’ of Different Strokes staring Conrad Bain.
There is something that can be learned from all of them, patriotism. No one can deny that John Wayne loved this country and espoused the values that made this country great. Clint Eastwood, Don Adams, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine and Tom Bosley served in the United States Military and Conrad Bain, a Canadian Actor, served in WWII in the Royal Canadian Army.
They all fought back fear to do what was needed for good to prevail and evil to fail. And those above actors along with many more Hollywood actors and actresses abandoned or postponed their acting careers to join the war effort to fight off the evils of freedom in WWII. I have a much deeper appreciation for the likes of James Stewart after learning that he joined the military as a private and worked his way up to Colonel as a member of the European bomber squadron retiring in the 1950’s as a Brigadear General. Now how is that for the star of ‘It’s a wonderful life’?
The men and women of that generation and the following generation were more patriotic and faced the evils of freedom, some even sacrificed their lives for freedom. They had to face the fearful enemies like Hitler, Stalin, and many others that wanted to control people, that wanted to kill freedom and even anhialate races of human beings. Any one or any group of people that, for any purpose tries to control, kill or force people to act against their will is an enemy to our God given inalienable right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness.
Even Hollywood, at the time, honored America with a long list of movies, animated cartoons and radio programs that focused and spotlighted on patriotism. Who would forget Daffy Duck fighting Adolf Hitler in the cartoon? (http://youtu.be/jI9QzNVJK1s)
After September 11, 2001, I remember everyone buying little American flags to put on their cars. Grocery stores, convienience stores and gas stations all had little American flag lapel pins to purchase. You could not go anywhere without seeing at least 1 American flag on a car. I wonder if everyone used up what little patriotism they had then because the patriotism of then has been replaced with tolerance for radicalism today.
Does Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Al Franken or even Morgan Freman espouse patriotism? Do they encourage small government and individualism? No, they have all shown a major disrespect to America and Americans and to freedom itself. Some even have befriended our enemies by giving aid and comfort to the likes of mahmoud Ahmadinajad, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-il and other socialist leaders. In my opinion, they are guilty of treason, just as is Jane Fonda and John Kerry. (Reference John Kerry lying on the Dick Cavett show in 1971 lying about our soldiers http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=KerryONeill)
So, I ask, where are the real MEN in America? And why are our leaders of today, both Republican and Democrat, such lovers of the Progressive movement? These same people that think ‘If we just understand radicalist, they wont think we are a threat and they will like us’. That kind of thinking is weak minded and dangerous. Just recently, leaders of nations went to Paris, France to show support of France and to declare a unified resistance to radical Islamist. One leader was noticably missing, er, rather on the golf course yet again. After many people were making fun of Berry H. Obama for not showing solidarity with those that would fight terrorists, John Kerry goes and does the most embarrassing thing, well, you have to see it. It will make you ashamed of our current administration…(google this: Kerry Brings James Taylor to Serenade French With ‘You’ve Got a Friend’)
8:25 AM, JAN 16, 2015
Now imagine John Wayne seranading the Viet Cong in the movie ‘The Green Berrets’, or Clint Eastwood singing love songs to ‘Captain Red Legs’ in the movie ‘The Outlaw Josie Wales’. How about General George Washington approaching General Cornwallace and saying ‘ Hey, let’s negotiate. Maybe if you got to know us better, you would see that we really are kindred spirits’. Or Abraham Lincoln inviting General Lee for a beer summit and negotiating on just how many slaves a southern plantation can have. Kind of makes you sick to your stomache, doesn’t it? It is more embarrasing to see the French, who has not won a major battle in centuries, lead Americans by finally calling radical Islamists what they really are, terrorists. Berry H. Obama calls terrorism ‘overseas contingency operations’. The radical Islamists must be laughing their butts off at how stupidly our president acts. In a war, there can be no negotiated peace. In WWII, we did not negotiate with the Japanese, we made them surrender, unconditionally. Do you negotiate with a pack of wolves as they surround you, or do you kill the Alpha Male and as many of them you can until they turn tail and run away? Our leaders of today do not know how to win. So again I ask, where are the real men today, and why are they not our leaders? Well, I think I have, at least in large part, an answer. It starts in school. It is what I call the pussification of our children. (to be continued)

Have you ever experienced a blackout? I don’t mean the kind that happen in the daytime where you can still see around or the kind they get in California in the summer called ‘rolling blackouts’ that are scheduled. I mean the kind you get when it is a dark and stormy night. Raining hard with wind. A major blackout happens because of the storm and there are no lights. No street lights, no television, no radio. You try to see in the dark but can’t. You hear a loved one fall and cry out for help. You try to find a flashlight but the batteries are dead. You grab a candle but can’t find the matches and your loved one really needs your help but you can’t find them. The fear and panic that grips your emotions. You can’t think straight and you make mistakes and now you are hurt as well.

Have I painted a picture in your mind? That panic that causes shortness of breath and panic attacks. You just need a light. Even the light of a match would do, you just need some kind of light. That is what I see for our country right now. What was once good is now bad and what was bad is now good. Our country is in the midst of darkness and we just need a light. But we have driven the light out of our lives kicked him out of our schools, driven him out of our courts and halls of justice. We have eliminated the light from our holidays, our Pledge of Allegiance. We have made fun of those that try to spread the light, hold the light up and share the peace and calm that comes with the light. We as a nation have said we no longer need the light and yet wonder why we flounder around in the dark and get hurt.

Man, without the light, is prone to darkness. Like the roach invading your kitchen that scampers away in the light, we too hide our ugliness in the dark. The dark lures us in and invites others into the dark for company. The darkness is afraid of the light because the darkness knows its ugliness. Darkness spreads and life withers away in the total darkness. Only the light brings life. In the light, there is peace. We must remember that when we drive out the light, only darkness abides. The darkness is within us. It is around us.

What is more compassionate, feeding a hungry person or helping him feed himself? Everyone has heard the axiom ‘ feed a man a fish he eats for the day but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime’. So what would you do? Would you take this man down the the fishing hole and teach him to fish or just hand him a fish and walk away? I contend that the prudent thing to do is ask the man, or woman, what they want. If they answer they want a fish, they are in essence asking for a handout. That person will always be a burden to society and a slave to whomever gives him a fish. But if the man wants, teach him to fish and thereby free the man from dependency.

Today, it is so easy to just give in and give the fish to the man then turn your back and say ‘ what a good man I am for helping this hungry man’.

When I was younger and still living with my parents my mother went to the grocery store to do some shopping. On the way out, there was a man asking for spare change. It was obvious this man was inebriated. The smell of his breath was strong of alcohol. He proceed to play, or try to play his harmonica and begging for change. My mother told him she would buy him something to eat but not give him money. Once he realized he would not get money, he backed off to find another victim. That was an observation that I notice on several occasions of begging people. If they were really hungry, the offer of food instead of money would not deter the person. So I tried that tactic when someone asked me for money. A woman sheepishly asked for spare change and I instead offered to buy her something to eat. I took her into a sandwich shop and bought her a sandwich, chips, drink and a cookie and sat with her while she ate. I talked with her and listened to her. I treated her like a person. I offered to pay her to help me work in my yard. There is the difference…she accepted the food and company and was willing to work not just wanting a handout.

So, I prefer to be the more compassionate person and give of my time and money to someone only wanting a helping hand not a handout. That person will be more productive and appreciative of any help given and in the end, have more self respect than that person only looking for a handout.

So again I ask what would you do?

The Thinking Tinker

Three stories, one lesson. When I was a small boy, I remember a time visiting my grand parents. It must have been summertime because a large umbrella was out to protect the ladies from the sun. My grand mother was telling the other adults about why she had not spoken to her sister in a long time. As a matter of fact, I believe she never spoke to her sister after a particular incident. Her mother had a small chest where family heirlooms were kept and certain items were promised to my grandmother. As a matter of fact, every child had certain items set aside for them.  Now, came a sad time where my grandmothers mother had passed on, and while everyone was at the funeral and the following family get together, one person was notably missing from the funeral and family gathering. It was my grand mothers sister. It turns out that while everyone was mourning the passing of that family member, The sister had brought a large moving truck to the house and stripped that house of everything, including the chest of heirlooms for each of the other children. That sister had the attitude that she was owed those things. That she had a right to take everything. She even refused to give the other siblings the particular items that were set aside for them.

I saw the emotional scars that were left on my grand mother. I saw all the emotion and pain that she was fighting and even the hurt that she never again was able to have a relationship with her sister. And I do believe my grandmother never spoke to her sister again. Lesson 1

Then, later in my life, I was told of the story of the butterfly and the boy. You must have heard of this children’s story, but to recap, a boy had found a beautiful caterpillar and asked if he could keep it. With his parents permission, the boy watched in utter fascination as the caterpillar would eat the leaves that the boy put in the jar and would climb up all the sticks. Then, the boy noticed that the caterpillar started doing something odd. It started to build a cocoon. The boy was told by his parents that the caterpillar was about to go through a change and turn into a butterfly. The boy was anxious and wanted to witness this metamorphosis. Now the day came that the boy saw the caterpillar start to bite a small hole in the cocoon and struggle to get out. The boy was afraid that the caterpillar would die, so he got a small pair of scissors and made the hole bigger so that the caterpillar/butterfly could emerge as it did. Then the boy watched as this butterfly had a fat body and small shrivelled wings. The boy kept anticipating that the wings would get bigger and the body of the butterfly would get smaller. The parents had to tell the boy that the caterpillar actually needed to struggle to force the fluid from its body and into the wings. Because the boy had helped the caterpillar out, the butterfly did not struggle enough to make the body smaller and the wings bigger. The butterfly never flew. Its beautiful potential was never reached because the boy did not understand. The boy did not do this out of malice, but the damage was none the less devastating. Now I can understand the meaning of this story in real life. I have seen someone that was never forced to ‘struggle’ in life and now, so many years later this person is not capable of handling life’s struggle and stress. Lesson 2

Then, I remember the story of Rip Van Winkle. A man who became complacent in his life to the point that his farm and crops had become neglected. While escaping his nagging wife, he hikes up the mountain only to find other gentlemen drinking but not talking. Rip Van Winkle drinks with these men and falls asleep only to wake later, after the Revolutionary war is over. Rip is now twenty some years older, his wife and friends, even is dog are all dead. Life had passed him by, his life had been deemed a waste and everything he held dear was gone. I have become complacent, out of shape and unprepared for the upcoming struggle. But unlike Rip Van Winkle, I still have some time. Lesson 3

So now, I can understand these stories and place real world value to them.

In lesson 1, I learned not to expect an inheritance. I work hard for what I have and make it perfectly clear when it is my time to go, who gets what and to make it an equitable and even split. To make sure all of my kids are treated equally and that everyone knows who gets what and to put it all in a will so that there are no questions, hurt feelings and damaged relationships.

Lesson 2, I learned that I can not and should not interfere with all my children’s life’s struggles. That it is necessary to struggle and find your own way in life once you are 18 years old. That those life’s struggles shape and form a child into adulthood. That I should be there if they ask for advice but to let them find their own path in life. That a person actually needs those struggles so that they can make their own way in life and not rely on others or the government.

Lesson 3, I learned hopefully in time, to prepare and not be lulled into sleep by complacency. That I should be thankful for what I have and yet not be so lazy as to not prepare for the future. There will be a time when our children need to be taught and prepared to provide for themselves and it is up to us, those not asleep, to teach a new generation not to rely on anyone other than themselves. You see, if you rely on others to survive and live, you become a slave to them. And if they stop supporting you or become unable to support you, you truly are a new generation of slaves to the government.

Before the television, there was photography. Tin types give us a glimps of Billy the Kidd and President Abraham Lincoln as they looked, in black and white of course. Ansel Adams took some of the most breathtaking landscape photography which is still found in art galleries around the world. Even noted photographer Helmut Newton uses black and white photography to effect in some of his work. And how many people can forget Walt Disney’s first animated feature ‘Steamboat Willy’? Arguably the first glimps into what would later become ‘Mickey Mouse’.

If you were to take a piece of white paper and put one small black dot on it, that dot draws you to to it. If you keep placing dots on that paper, you get a chaotic pattern but that white paper is gone forever and replaced instead with a grey-toned paper.

God, the God of Abraham, the God spoken about in the Holy Bible views sin in much the same way. God does not distinguish between a little sin and a great sin. He does not view sins in grey-tones. You are born as a pure white piece of paper. And each sin you commit, is placed on that paper. Even one sin is a black mark that changes that sheet of paper from white to a shade of grey which is seen as black by God. Remember, He sees in black or white, no shades of grey.  So any shade of grey is of course seen as black.

Man is the animal that distinguished different shades of grey where sin is concerned. We instinctively say that a lie is less of a sin than murder, right? How many times have you thought that ‘my sin of stealing $10 is no where near as bad as your sin of stealing $1,000 or even $100. I only look and imagine having sex with my neighbors wife, not like you who actually committed adultery with your neighbors wife. Man makes distinctions in severity. Why else would we have prison terms like 5 years or 10 years or life? How can God, the creator make even one sin a punishment of the death penalty? He made us. He should have known we would sin, right?

James 2:13 gives us an answer to that.”For judgment is without mercy”.  But judgment of what?

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. So you see, even one sin creates a chasm which can not be crossed. So some would then justify that since they have sinned and have been given the death penalty from God himself, why bother. What can a person do to cheat this death penalty? There again, God himself gave an out. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting live”. OK, so God allowed His Son, Jesus Christ to be sacrificed so we all could be saved from the death penalty. Cool. So there is a way to avoid the death penalty. Whew! “I was worried there for a moment” you might think. Well, there is something you must do.

Romans 10:9 states “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. Did you catch that little bit? …confess with your mouth and believe in your heart…Well, you did not think that you could get a pass from the death penalty for free, did you? Well, actually it is free. You just have to accept it. I mean if I had a gold piece in my outstretched hand, in order for you to have that gold piece, you have to reach out and accept it. So If you so chose to accept the free gift, just simply repeat AND BELIEVE the following….

“Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have displeased You in many ways. I believe You died for my sins and only through faith in Your death and resurrection can I be forgiven. I want to turn from my sin and ask You to com into my life as my Savior and Lord. From this day on, I will follow You by living a life that pleases You. Thank You, Lord for saving me. Amen”

This is only the beginning for you. If you read that prayer and meant it, I urge you to find a church and learn more. You are not perfect, but you are now forgiven.

And to those that only suspected before, yes, I am a Christian. Not perfect, far from it but forgiven.

Profanity, those word that were, and still in some circles, considered intolerable. When I was a kid, my father heard me utter the dreaded ‘F’ word and I was spanked. My mother, another time, heard me utter an unacceptable profanity and she washed my mouth out with soap. My grandfather used to say ‘…profanity is an attempt to make a big point by a small minded person.’ I find it funny that once, I heard my mother call our Ford Station Wagon a piece of (explative removed) as she was kicking the front tire after it had broken down once again. And I used to think my father was a rambling idiot when he got mad, because he would say under his breath when mad something like ‘son of a (grunt) the stupid idiotic (clear throat) I ought to (cough) that (clear throat)…’ I now know he wasn’t incoherently insane, but he was self censoring himself.
Now, I have an IQ of about 140 ( measured three seperate times at 139 in High School, 141 after three years of college and 140 after several years of marriage) and because of my parents early efforts with World Book Encyclopedias and a particular Cyclotron, I have a better than average knowledge of the english language. I find myself, sometimes more than I would like to admit, using these ‘lazy’ words when there are better choices. And sometimes, I use them on purpose because of my audience.
Recently, I read an article on how the brain can use profanity to lessen pain. There was even a segment on ‘Mythbusters’ on how pain can be lessened by the use of profanity. I think some people are trying to justify the increase in profane language.
You can not deny the increase in the use of profane language. Language that is considered profane was not tolerated in movies, books or society in the 1950’s as they are now. Language of a profane nature, today, can be seen in television, movies rated PG, books, periodicals, music and in the language bantied about on the streets across America.
The dictionary defines profanity as: b : the use of profane language
and defines profane as:
1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate
2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use
which means that those that use profanity are literally desecrating the english language with vulgarity.
So is it that people are purposefully using profanity or is it that society is so under educated that the majority resort to its use? The bible tells us that what comes from the mouth first comes from the heart. These vulgar words are words of hate and ignorance and of the uneducated. If these words flow from your mouth, they first flow from the heart.
You are judged by the words you use and how they are used. If our society is to be taken seriously and we want to be viewed as educated, we must reverse the trend of the use of vulgar words. If we show the world that we have respect for our native language, we also show that we respect ourselves, our education and those around us.

The Thinking Tinker

You, in this country, are innocent of a crime until proven guilty in a court of law. This is one way we prevent anarchy and mobs of vigilanties hanging innocent people. Hisory is full of examples of people being accused of and executed for crimes that they may have not commited. Our whole system of justice is predicated on the premise that it is better to not convict 10 guilty men than to convict 1 innocent man. Believe me, you do not want to be accused of a crime in other countries where you are guilty until proven innocent.
Bill Cosby is an entertainer. Some of my first memories are listening to 5 seperate records of Bill Cosby’s stand up comedy sketches. I still laugh at his comedy routines. Then, in the late 1960’s, he costarred in a television series called ‘I Spy’, proving that this man was more than a talented comedian, but a promising actor also. He has become an icon for generations. This man has been an entertainer for over half a century.
But not only has this man entertained us and made us laugh at ourselves, but he has spoken to countless people, encouraging them to ‘do for yourself’. That’s right, this democrat is encouraging others not to rely on the government but to rely on themselves. Several years ago, while talking to a group of people with his message of relying on yourself, a member of the crowd asked him ‘…what are you going to do for us?’. His reply was simply ‘nothing’. There are some, myself included, that believe he may be targeted by radicals in the democratic party because he is encouraging others not to rely on the government.
Recently, several women have come forward with allogations of rape. Interestingly enough, the rape supposedly happened so long ago that there is no way to prove or disprove these allogations. He can not even be charged with rape because of the ‘statute of limitations’ has past. Mr. Cosby is not under any obligation to say or do anything about these allogations. He cannot be charged with rape in a court of law, so legally he is innocent. But that is not enough for some. These radicals, rejects from the 1960’s, want to convict him in the court of public opinion. They are hounding him and even resorting to blocking venues where he is scheduled to perform his stand up comedy routine. Verbally and in some instances, physically abusing those that want to be in the audience to be entertained by Mr. Cosby.
We do not know if this man is guilty or not of rape. We may never know, but what we all should be more concerned with is the way a person can be destroyed by allogations alone. Allogations created by radical people that do not like what a man says or thinks. The damage done is not for the benefit of society, it is straight out of the book created for and read by radicals with the sole intent of destroying personal freedoms and America as we know it. This book, dedicated to satan as being the first radical, is dangerous to individual freedom and the notion of ‘Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law’.

The Thinker Tinker

Remember the game Monopoly? You know where you race around the board trying to buy up as much property as you can, trying to get all the color lock of a property block then build as much as you can without landing on someone elses property and going broke. Now, games like these can be fun and challenging. The rules of the game are agreed to in the beginning and any alterations or modifications must be agreed to before the first roll of the dice. Nobody wants to play a game where the rules are changed in the middle benefiting one or two people and hurting the rest.
I played Checkers with a new friend recently, and lost for the first time in a long time. I always played with the rule ‘if you can capture you must capture’. My friend never played with that rule but we never agreed to the rules before playing. I would set up a trap that would give me an advantage, and he just past right by them. It turns out, we were playing the same game but with different rules. When I mentioned that he must ‘jump’, he said that he did not have to. Had I known before we started, I would have played differently. Again, you need to know the rules before you start.
Now, how does the game Monopoly compare with American politics? Rules, thats how. The Constitution of the United States of America is our rulebook. It clearly lays out how our government is supposed to work. That document clearly is the rulebook on how our federal government is to be set up. It defines how government is responsible to the people. Who has power and how far that power can go. Three co-equal branches of government are created, the executive (president), legislative (congress) and
judicial (courts, highest being the Supreme Court).
Now, the President can not make law. That is the job of the legislative branch which is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. But Barack Hussein Obama, affectionatly known as Berry Insane O’Bummer, has been making laws bypassing the legislative branch, which is illegal. But, those that are tasked with enforcing the Constitution of the United States of America have proven themselves too cowardly to perform their sworn duty. We in America have become complacent and deserve the government we allow to govern. I find it sad that some of those I work with and around do not know nor do they care about American politics. How many people have read or understand the Constitution of the United States of America? How many people understand that this document limits government and not the individual? If we citizens do not start paying more attention to the local, state and federal government and their relationship to the individual, we will find that they have a ‘monopoly’ of control over us.

The Thinking Tinker

In 2002, a movie came out called Equilibrium. I watched it because one of the actors in it I like and believe has potential, even though his part was small (Sean Bean). This is another of many dysatopian stories of totalitarian, socialist regimes. As per the movie, it was determined that the cause of all war and disharmony is mans emotion. In this story, anything that causes emotion is destroyed; art, music, books of poetry, anything that might evoke an emotional response. Anyone that shows emotion is to be put to death. To maintain an emotion free society, all citizens are to inject themselves with a dose of a drug called Prozium. In the attempt to maintain order, a new type of law enforcement officer called a cleric is created. All citizens were emotionless and there were drab and dreary colors throught the city.

Much like the book ‘ Fahrenheit 451 ‘ by Ray Bradbury where we find that all books and periodicals are to be burned by firemen. (My uncle is a retired fire captain and I doubt he ever burned a book.) The citizenry recieve their education and news from government controlled television broadcasts and in some instances, like Guy Montags wife, drugged into submission. I asked myself how far are we to these dystopian societies. Could an outside observer compare television to the mind altering drug Prozium from the movie Equilibrium? And how many people today actually buy a book? I don’t mean an electronic book downloaded in PDF or ePub format onto your ereader or tablet, I mean an actual book. (I have an ereader and it is hard to read it once the batteries die or there is a ‘hitch in the giddalong’ as my grandpa would say) Does the average citizen watch more television than read a book, like in Ray Bradburys novel? There, they could not read a book. I just finished a week long ‘staycation’ (a vacation were I go absolutely nowhere). I had planned on several projects in my workshop, but the weather turned a nasty, bitter cold that prevented me from spending time in my garage where my shop is. Because of circumstances, I spent the majority of my free time binge watching several television shows that I enjoy watching. I am glad that Hulu made ‘The Outer Limits’ available on my iPad and New Years Day had the ‘Twilight Zone Marathon’ on.

The last day of my staycation came, and I came to realize that, much like Prozium, I had spent the better part of my free time in a trance. I had several books that I had bought but did not get around to reading them. I had promised myself that I would write some letters with the pen that I had made, but did not get to them. My car needed cleaning but, you guessed it, it did not get done. My mind had been inactive for the times that I was ‘glued to the boob tube’. Time that could have been spent in more productive and mind expanding persuits wasted watching television.

I am not saying that television is bad, neither is many other things that, done in moderation will not hurt you, but when the distraction occupies the majority of your time, it can be like an idol of a false god. But, I do read actual books, I do enjoy a good piano concerto like Bach or Beethoven, I have personally seen ‘Pinkie’ and ‘Blue Boy’ and other works of art. I actually enjoy sketching and photography. But this last week, I became emotionless, entranced by the television.

How often does the average person rely on the television for their education, news and general information? The main stream media then become the masters of thought and, in some ways, shape our perception of life. How many people have watched the television series ‘Law and Order’ only to think that ALL Christians are extreme zealots, ALL business owners are out to cheat their customers or ALL gun owners are rejects from the O.K. Corral? That Detective Stabler is justified in beating a confession out of a suspect in order to insure a conviction? I actually worked with someone that believed that show was very close to being acurate to real life. No wonder I have no desire to vist New York.

Point being is balance. Have balance in your life. Eat right most of the time and the occasional piece of chocolate cake wont hurt you. Take time to sit and read a real book every once and a while. Step away from the computer screen and your X-Box and your Playstation to walk in the sun. (That big yellow ball of light is good). You will not come up with the next great idea watching television. How much television do you think Bill Gates or Donald Trump watch?

It will be a long time before I have earned more vacation time from work. Next time, I will plan better. I will try to have more balance in my time. I may insulate my garage so that I can finish some personal projects in my workshop, but what I will not do is become a television zombie and walk around emotionless. I will ‘balance’ my time better. What about you? How do you spend your free time?

    Reduce, reuse, recycle. My grandmother had a drawer full of string and rubber bands and a spot in her pantry for paper bags. My grandfather kept spare bolts and screws and whatnots in old Sucrets cans. My mother, one summer, showed me how to determine which paper plates could be washed and how to wash them. I think my father had computer magazines from the late 70’s until my mother convinced him that they were all outdated. Grandpa, suprised the crap out of me when, before he passed on, bought a new Dodge Caravan with cash. When I asked him how he could afford to do that on only a Social Security income, he said that he does not waste anything.

My grandparents survived the depression of the 30’s by getting by with less, using things until they could no longer be used and not wasting anything. My In-Laws, while not nearly as old, still had the same philosophy on the farm. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… a philosophy used quite successfully by those that were forced to survive the depression and still today by people living in ‘flyover’ country. (Flyover country are those people that live in the country that politicians and rich snobs flyover on their way to places like Los Angeles, New York or Chicago). So when did this become the battle cry and prayer for the tree huggers?

You know these people, the ones that eat tofurkey, wear pleather sandals and shirts made of hemp, drive eco friendly cars with bumper stickers like ‘tolerance’ that have no tolerance for anyone except those that think like them. The ones that refer to the planet as ‘mother earth’. Some of these people have resorted to eco-terrorism in an attempt to force you to think and act like them.

  Now, before you get your panties in a knot, I am NOT saying that recycling is bad. Quite the contrary. As a conservative, I believe in ‘conserving’ what I have. As a Christian, I believe in being a good steward of what God has given me. I still write with a fountain pen and save spare nuts and bolts in containers that would normally get tossed in the trash. I shred paper, separate aluminum cans from kitchen garbage and reuse my coffee grounds in my garden. I have found new uses for my ‘Altoids’ tins and yes I believe in ‘GOOS’ paper. But what I do NOT do is force others to act as I do. I do not puncture the tires of huge, gas guzzling SUV’s nor do I spike trees so that a person cutting down that tree dies or gets wounded. I wear a leather belt, eat steak (when I can afford it) and sorry, come Thanksgiving and Christmas, I eat real turkey.

  My parents and grandparents were forced, through common sense and necessity to reduce, reuse and recycle and that is not such a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with, instead of throwing something away, giving that old item a new life by donating it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. When replacing the stove that still works with a new one, Habitat for Humanity can find a new home for the stove. And why buy these fancy organizing containers when you can simply breath new life in an Altoids tin, a curiously strong idea, isn’t it?

  I do not worship ‘mother earth’. I will not ever wear hemp shirts or be forced to drive a car whos battery costs $20,000 dollars to replace but the concept that the tree huggers and earth worshippers are the only ones that believe in ‘conserving’ what we have is absurd. I bet that if the economy continues to tank like it has for the last 7 years, we all will learn to be more ‘conservative’ in more ways than one.

 A funny and famous quote from someone I know;

     “I am of Scotish and Jewish ancestry. I have learned to pinch the buffalo off the nickle, ride it until it drops, have a barbeque, and charge twenty five cents a plate.” R.R.