It is amazing to me how a little authority of certain officials, usually those who take themselves too seriously,

can lead to power trips, bullying tactics, abuse of authority, and lack of respect toward the citizens who put them in office

in the first place. It seems as if our politicians’ lack of respect for “we the people” has grown in proportion to their lack of respect

for what our country has always stood and for the Constitution under which they serve. M

The Arrogance of Authority

A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas , and talked with an old rancher.

He told the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs."

The rancher said, "Okay , but don’t go in that field over there…..", as he pointed out the location.

The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, " Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me !"

Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher.

"See this badge?!  This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…. On any land !!

No questions asked or answers given!!  Have I made myself clear……do you understand ?!!"

The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running

for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull……

With every step the bull was gaining ground on the officer,

and it seemed likely that he’d sure enough get gored before he reached safety. 

The officer was clearly terrified. The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs…..

          ( just love this part….)

"Your badge, show him your BADGE…….. ! !"

—

 

Even if you don’t care about hunting, Gotta Love Ted!

 

?

Ted Nugent, rock star and avid bow hunter from Michigan , was being interviewed by a liberal journalist, an animal rights activist.  The discussion came around to deer hunting.

The journalist asked, ‘What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before you shoot him? Is it, ‘Are you my friend?’ or is it ‘Are you the one who killed my brother?

Nugent replied, ‘Deer aren’t capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, what am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the Democrats in Congress.’

The interview ended.

Grey-Haired Brigade
   
They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs.  Some of us are "Baby Boomers" getting ready to retire.  Others have been retired for some time.  We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were.  We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together.  Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true.  But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.
   
In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age.  Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience.  We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes.  For those of you who don’t know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators.  A few even remember when cars were started with a crank.  Yes, we lived those days.
   
We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many.  But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off.  We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam.  We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so.  We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield.  We didn’t fight for the Socialist States of America, we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave."  We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag.  We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner,  America ,and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing.  We’ve lived what many of you have only read in
history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America.
   
Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us.  We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it.  It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us.  We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep.  There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.
   
It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress.  You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies."  You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don’t like it after all.  You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting.  Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer’s remorse.  With all the education we gave you, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the ‘Kool-Aid.’  Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it.  No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.  This is what
you voted for and this is what you got.  We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.
   
Well, don’t worry youngsters, the Grey-Haired Brigade is here, and in 2012 we are going to take back our nation.  We may drive a little slower than you would like but we get where we’re going, and in 2012 we’re going to the polls by the millions.  This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  It belongs to "We the People" and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom.  We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.  So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, Stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the "Grey-Haired Brigade."
   
Author, Anon. Grey-Haired Brigade Member

   
Footnote:
This is spot on.  I am another Gray-Haired Geezer signing on.  I will circulate this to other Gray-Haired Geezers all over this once great county.  Can you feel the ground shaking???  It’s not an earthquake, it is a STAMPEDE.

God Bless America

The most interesting tidbits come across my computer from friends:

LOGIC 101

An interesting letter in the Canadian Shooter Magazine this week, which I quote:

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq Theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington , DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25 per cent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the U.S., than you are in Iraq.“

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington DC

This Is Just Simply … “Brilliant” … And the Present American Way If The Facts Be True.  I thought this series of cartoons so depicted our Government, and not just this Administration. Our Government has been seriously lacking in common sense and fiscal responsibility for quite some time although it seems to be worse now.  “We the people” describes us ; when did it become we the politicians? Who is serving Whom or let’s face it: Who should be serving Whom?   “And this is why we have added over 200,000 new federal employees in the past two years, and no one can explain why we are still in a recession. It’s not a good time to be an ant.” I wish we had more ants employed in our country,  but our government seems to create more bureaucratic jobs instead of worker ant jobs. Unemployment in our country will not be solved anytime soon. We have not saved for a “rainy” day much less a rainy decade. “Our Government at work” is not our government at work, but our Government truly not working at the present time. Our deficit grows; we take care of foreign countries’ infrastructure while our own is falling apart; our industry is no longer industrious; our schools are no longer schooling; our retirement and health no longer guaranteed and we cannot guarantee our own due to job loss, house loss, and hair loss.  What to do? Stop depending on our government for everything and make our own future as we Americans have always done— not afraid of hard work or a job too “demeaning” for our precious self esteem or too “dirty” for our precious hands.

Sorta tells it like it is… A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude. "She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican." "I am," replied the man. "How did you know?" " Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me." The man smiled and responded, "You must be an Obama Democrat." "I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," said the man, "you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault."

In honor of Governor Schwartzenegger, a new commandment has been added to the Bible. Be sure to write this one in underneath the other ten: "Thou Shalt Not Sharest Thy Rod With Thy Staff"

INTERESTING OBSERVATION 1. The sport of choice for the urban poor is  BASKETBALL. 2 The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is  BOWLING. 3 The sport of choice for front-line workers is  FOOTBALL. 4 The sport of choice for supervisors is  BASEBALL. 5 The sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS. And…. 6 The sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is  GOLF. THE AMAZING CONCLUSION: The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become. There must be a ton of people in Washington playing marbles!

I know that I have not blogged in a very long time, but I have just not had the energy.  Losing one’s mate and the ensuing grief has been almost paralyzing for me.  I have also decided whatever depression I am experiencing is really exacerbated by the gloomy and almost always cloudy, snowing, or lately raining yucky and depressing Ohio weather. I have never been a sun worshiper, but now I feel so much better when there is any sun to worship.  My aches go away and my mood lifts when the temperature goes up, the rain ceases, and the sun comes out.   I am moving forward in my life and am blessed with wonderful friends, my faith, and a beautiful home and lovely Cavaliers.  I will leave catching up on my personal life until another blog, but right now just want to “bitch” about the state of affairs in our country. Let’s start with outsourcing:

When my old Dell Laptop started to begin signs of aging after six years of loyalty, I purchased a new Dell 17 inch laptop failing to remember that while the computer performed admirably with only a few beginning glitches, Dell tech support did not perform admirably.  I shuddered when I remembered the long, late nights of trying to get my computer set up without glitches that defied description at least by me.  Do you remember the line that Peter Finch yelled from the window in the movie Network?  “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  In my latest dealings with Dell outsourced technical support I found myself screaming the same line and refraining from screaming American obscenities into the ears of the tech support with varying degrees of English competence and/or intricacies of dialect or computer jargon as I can understand it. I am mad as hell to begin with with Americans in this country continuing to lose jobs to outsourcing.  It is certainly not the fault of the countries or personnel where American companies set up shop; it is the fault of our greedy profit driven at any expense companies who want cheap labor.

Why do companies outsource tech support to non Americans located in foreign lands when I barely know how to describe the problem to myself much less an outsourced “techie”.  When one does not know how to speak “Computer tech” much less explain the problem with a computer, how does one deal with a technical support person in another country..  I am afraid I fit the bill sometimes of the Ugly American when speaking with the fifth or sixth person in two different countries trying to get help.  The phone line goes dead, one must explain the problem to seven different people with no results, one’s ownership of said problematic computer is questioned when there is no record of the computer even when the receipt is in hand. Then the line goes dead.  Finally after five hours on the phone to Dell tech support located heaven knows where and four move hours the next day,  someone who knows what he is doing gets on the phone and the problem is solved in fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, I have become a babbling idiot with a bad headache, frayed nerves, lack of goodwill toward men and especially Dell. 

On another note, Exxon just posted profits last quarter of 10.2 billion.  If you did not get that here it is $10,200,000,000.  If I am wrong in the vast number of 0’s please forgive me as my head swims just visualizing that much money. Now gas has just gone up today again to $4.15 a gallon and going higher. Thank God and I mean thank God that I am blessed enough to pay for gas as long as I stay in our county! However,  I am appalled,angry, and horrified that those of us who are unemployed, making minimum wage, facing or enduring foreclosure, or homeless are hit with the greed of the oil companies.  Our government is doing nothing to help the impoverished or the struggling middle class. Gas prices are going to obscene levels and we continue to just let our elected officials go on worrying about their own good and not the good of our country7 or our citizens. When will we stand up and be counted and “throw the bums (in lieu of the word I would prefer to use to describe our politicians) out!  Now we have the horrible destruction in the South.  New Orleans has still not been rebuilt from Katrina; how will we rebuild our tornado destroyed towns when we truly are operating under a huge deficit and continue to pour money into foreign lands whether in outsourcing labor, factories, companies, or war. We rush in to help countries who have national disasters; what countries will help us. When we have been their for them, what countries have offered to help us in disasters the scope of Katrina or Tuscaloosa.

I am not finished “ranting” but will save it for the future.  I will say this however the 2012 election will be the election which sets the tone of our future.  When will politicians get out of bed with those who can feather the nests of our legislators and decide to forgo their own greed to help those most in need in our country.  Just pray for our country; prayer is needed now more than ever.  Pray also for those Americans suffering from the destruction of the tornados hitting our South and as always for our soldiers who continue to be in harm’s way. 

Until next time . . .  

 

AN ACTUAL CRAIG’S LIST PERSONALS AD To the Guy Who Tried to Mug Me in Downtown Savannah night before last. Date: 2010-09-27, 01:43 a.m.  E.S.T. I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, shortly after you pulled the knife on me and my girlfriend, threatening our lives. You also asked for my girlfriend’s purse and earrings. I can only hope that you somehow come across this rather important message. First, I’d like to apologize for your embarrassment; I didn’t expect you to actually crap in your pants when I drew my pistol after you took my jacket. The evening was not that cold, and I was wearing the jacket for a reason. My girlfriend had just bought me that Kimber Model 1911 .45 ACP pistol for my birthday, and we had picked up a shoulder holster for it that very evening.. Obviously you agree that it is a very intimidating weapon when pointed at your head .. isn’t it?! I know it probably wasn’t fun walking back to wherever you’d come from with that brown sludge in your pants. I’m sure it was even worse walking bare-footed since I made you leave your shoes, cell phone, and wallet with me. [That prevented you from calling or running to your buddies to come help mug us again]. After I called your mother or "Momma" as you had her listed in your cell, I explained the entire episode of what you’d done. Then I went and filled up my gas tank as well as those of four other people in the gas station, — on your credit card. The guy with the big motor home took 150 gallons and was extremely grateful! I gave your shoes to a homeless guy outside Vinnie Van Go Go’s, along with all the cash in your wallet. [That made his day!] I then threw your wallet into the big pink "pimp mobile" that was parked at the curb … after I broke the windshield and side window and keyed the entire driver’s side of the car. Later, I called a bunch of phone sex numbers from your cell phone. Ma Bell just now shut down the line, although I only used the phone for a little over a day now, so what ‘s going on with that? Earlier, I managed to get in two threatening phone calls to the DA’s office and one to the FBI, while mentioning President Obama as my possible target. The FBI guy seemed really intense and we had a nice long chat (I guess while he traced your number etc.). In a way, perhaps I should apologize for not killing you … but I feel this type of retribution is a far more appropriate punishment for your threatened crime. I wish you well as you try to sort through some of these rather immediate pressing issues, and can only hope that you have the opportunity to reflect upon, and perhaps reconsider, the career path you’ve chosen to pursue in life. Remember, next time you might not be so lucky.Have a good day! Thoughtfully yours, Alex P.S. Remember this motto … An armed society makes for a more civil society! I probably don’t have to ask you to forward this one.