Random Thoughts for March, 2013
Robert A. Hall
That damned rodent promised me an early spring. What is he, the Obama of critters? If it doesn’t warm up soon, I’m going to have fried groundhog for dinner!
If the sequester cutting 2% to 3% from a federal budget that has a 35% to 40% deficit of about $1T every year causes economic disaster and government failure, we are doomed anyway. That debt is guaranteed to cause disaster and failure at some point in the near future.
Boy, the sequester is going to be such a disaster, what with cutting the budget 2% or 3%, that when Obama finds the guy who proposed it and signed it into law, he's in big trouble. I hear OJ is helping him look.
Once again, President Obama failed to invite me to be his guest at the State of the Union address. Was it something I said?
I’m willing to hold judgment on the whole women-in-combat thing until one of the Obama daughters graduates from the School of Infantry
The reason Obama wants to increase the minimum wage is that it will reduce low paying jobs, thus put more minorities out of work, thus denying them the change to build work skills, a work ethic and a record of having worked. Thus they will never have the chance to get out of poverty, and will be depended on the government forever. Thus they will have to vote for the party of big government for a living. He hopes the Ponzi scheme will collapse after he’s gone. Maybe it will last that long.
Everyone, everyone, listens to radio station WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). Never forget that.
Well, after 42 murders in January in gun-free Chicago Lakeshore Drive Indiana
I have a 9mm with 10-round magazines. Never felt the need for larger ones, but I just ordered two 15 –round ones, because they are threatening to ban them. Another gun sale for Obama!
Life is like a diet. If you eat and drink everything you’d find enjoyable at the moment, you end up in real trouble. If you do everything you’d find enjoyable at the moment, you end up in even bigger trouble, maybe in jail or dead.
I’m so old, I remember when Democrats said high gas prices were the President’s fault, not the result of international market forces beyond the president’s control, like they are now.
Some people are surprised that when they kick someone, they get kicked back.
If the illegal immigrants are bad people or folks who cannot support themselves, we shouldn’t want them. If they are good, productive people, then if we really cared about the Third World and the poor there, we would want these good, productive people to stay in their own countries to improve life there for everyone. Right?
“You need to learn to compromise and be bipartisan” means “You need to give me what I want.”
February was Black History month. I assume there was a program about how many black people were murdered by other blacks in the month?
Looking around at the culture, not only doesn’t the emperor have any clothes, he has no music, no art, no….
Declaring every thing created by a black, Hispanic or gay to be wonderful, no matter how bad, is racist and does a huge disservice to the many excellent black, Hispanic and gay performers who are terrific. It’s like the disservice done to black kids who do the academic work by passing black kids who don’t, due to their skin color. It teaches them they can get by without effort. And we wonder why black unemployment is so high.
I’ve never liked sandals. I guess it because ever since the second night in Vietnam
Other than me, everyone in my office is female. So, naturally, no one even mentioned the Super Bowl Monday morning. Sigh. ~Bob.
I am often nagged by the memory of small dumb things I did years ago, that I’m sure no one else remembers. I suppose everyone is.
From time to time I get “friend” requests on Facebook from great looking women—if the photos are to be believed. I delete them. I only use Facebook to promote my books and so much stuff got posted on my wall I gave up on that. And I suspect, suspicious fellow that I am, that these ladies interests are in my wallet, not my charm and good looks.
I eat a lot of apples—good for the diet. When I find one with a bad spot, I cut it out. But some have too many bad spots to be saved. Kind of like some people.
My friend Pat, whom I dated back in the 1970s, called on Super Bowl Sunday to see how I was doing. When I called back, I got her voice mail. “Sorry not to answer, but I’m in the basement cranking off a few hundred rounds from the AK and can’t hear you.” Did I mention she is a Marine Corps vet? My kind of girl.
Give my body an inch, it takes a new belt. Have to fight it every day.
In politics, what matters is not what happens, but who gets the blame. Our current media culture ensures that will be Republicans 80% of the time. This was true even in 2009-2010, when the Democrats controlled everything, even more so now, when the GOP controls half of one branch.
Liberals want to save baby whales, baby seals and baby polar bears. Just not baby humans.
I went to a very exclusive Super Bowl party. In fact, I was the only one there. Had a heck of a time—too bad you missed it.
Some people are very hard workers, once they discover they have no other choice.
How come Gitmo, renditions and killing terrorists and associates with drones instead of water-boarding them (three in total) are no longer issues? Oh, yeah, the media thinks Obama can do no wrong.
My current random thought: It is impossible for a progressive to take the oath of office without committing perjury. (From A.B.)
In the Marines, we learned to remember the “Seven Ps.” Piss Poor Prior Planning Produces Poor Performance.
Even when I live alone, and expect no one to come by, I make my bed every day. I just know that some day there will be a knock on the door and it will be Sgt. William H. Harris, my Senior DI from Platoon 273 at Parris Island in 1964, and my bunk better be made! Or I’ll be doing bends and thrusts until he gets tired of watching.
I think Obama’s kill list is a viable policy. Okay, maybe “viable” is the wrong word…
People used to come to America
It’s a shame that liberals’ tolerance and love for diversity doesn’t extend to those who think differently or have diverse world views.
If Planned Parenthood was a Republican organization, liberals would call it genocide because of the millions of black babies aborted by it.
When columnists say someone is “disingenuous,” they mean that person is a liar.
If you have to say that you’re humble, you probably aren’t.
I see Monopoly has replaced the Iron token with a Cat token for new versions of the game. Older people will fell sad that the Iron is gone. Younger people will wonder what the hell an “iron” is.
They say with age comes wisdom. Clearly that isn’t true for everyone.
Was Mary Jo Kopechne the first person to be water-boarded?
I made up a family budget. I put in $20,000 for Single Malt Scotch this year. When my wife pointed out that, unlike the federal government, China
Just because S&P made Obama look bad by downgrading the US Credit Rating, doesn’t mean that the DOJ lawsuit against S&P is a Chicago Way
In a long life, you will have many unfounded and malicious things said about you by ignorant and evil people. Years later, you will be the only one who remembers them. You need to get over it, forget and move on, because holding on to this stuff is corrosive. I know whereof I speak. I can still get very angry thinking about things that were said 40 years ago.
I find it easier to let go of the malicious harm folks have done to me, if I was able to get even with the son of a bitch.
Things that annoy you now about people you love, will seem trivial--and often sadly missed--if they go before you.
If you are in a long term relationship with a woman, and you think Valentine's Day cards and gifts are too costly, you have no idea how expensive it will be if you skip them.
I am grateful for not getting a lot of jobs I applied for, which in retrospect would have been bad for me or my career.
Shouldn't the highways have signs saying, "Traffic doing the speed limit keep right"?
People who cannot resist launching personal attacks on those they disagree with, liberal or conservative, weaken their own case with the undecided.
I support a woman’s right to chose to own a gun, to not buy health insurance, to keep what she earns and to not pay for abortions or birth control for others—said no liberal ever.
I suspect a lot of people got married because the first time they had sex, it felt so good they thought it must be love.
Few things annoy me like returning a call from a stranger to find they have a system to screen their calls, that doesn’t recognize your number, and you are expected to jump through several minutes of hoops to respond to them. Okay, there are things that annoy me more. But as I write, this just happened. Again. And the person who called me wasn’t there when I got through.
Both organizations and individuals need to do a constant environmental scan, not only for things of direct concern to their area of interest, but things outside it that will impact them. For example, the geometrically-expanding fiscal black hole in Washington
Some folks called Paul Revere an “alarmist” and went back to sleep.
Good internet joke, but not original with me: Did you ever notice that when you put the two
words 'The' and 'IRS' together they spell 'Theirs'?
words 'The' and 'IRS' together they spell 'Theirs'?
While I often have sharp disagreements with particular Republicans or conservatives over policy, tactics, strategy and focus, I don’t often join in the intramural bashing that is so helpful to progressive efforts to build an all-powerful government.
I fear the lights of civilization are going out. We will not see them relit in our lifetimes.
Obama says Republicans are playing politics while the nation is still at war. Wonder where they learned that trick?
In 2004, I before he was elected to the US Senate, I had far better experience to be president than Barack Obama. I had 10 years as a state senator (and voted “present” only a few times) to his eight years. I had ten years in the military (4 active, 6 active reserve) and I had 20 years of management experience. Go figure.
Pacifists are able to indulge their feel-good fantasies only in societies where hard-eyed men with guns are available to protect them from the savages in the world.
When we got my granddaughter a puppy, we discussed not feeding him people food. Turns out I do not have the discipline to not share treats with him, including wine licked from my fingers. Can’t call them “table scraps” if he gets first bite….
Businesses don’t pay taxes. The customers of the business pay taxes. Raising business taxes takes more money from the customers or more money from the owners, often retires with stocks in their funds and a fixed income. If they won’t pay more, the business doesn’t make a profit and folds, laying off the employees. I do not get why this is hard for liberals to understand.
I often become irate when inanimate objects do not cooperate with my intentions. And when computers, oxygen tanks and hose are a fixture in your life, it happens daily.
Baking from a box mix is like wearing a clip-on bow tie. It gets the job done, but without much personal satisfaction.
Never bet against Marines. They may not always win in battle, business, love or their personal life, but they often win in situations where no reasonable person would expect anyone to win. If he was still alive, you could ask former Senator Joe Ward, who I knocked out of the Massachusetts
If lax gun laws in other areas cause the high murder rate in Chicago
If you can be relentlessly cheerful and uncomplaining in the face of adversity, it counts as a super power.
Rulers who have reason to fear the people always—always—try to disarm them.
If all the folks who call themselves journalists really were journalists in the old sense, not special pleaders for an agenda, we’d have a lot fairer and more balanced news. And the media wouldn’t be declining.
Funny how attacks on the policies of black or Hispanic Democrats are considered racist, but personal attacks on black or Hispanic Republicans like Allen West, Mia Love and Marco Rubio are fine.
I have a musket over the fireplace, an Austrian Jager military piece, probably made circa 1780 and converted to cap and ball about 1835. I have never had powder and shot for it, but I would not take it down and point it at you. Because it’s a real gun. Unless I thought I might have to shoot you, and then I’d use something more up to date. That is the iron rule.
Mark Sanford, having disgraced his office, cheated on his wife and lied to the public about it, is back, running for Congress in SC. He’s kind of like Bill Clinton, except he hasn’t gotten rich on the speaking and book circuit from it all.
It is okay not to like your boss. It is not okay if you don’t like the boss to adopt a hostile, distant or uncooperative attitude, or not support the boss. Such unprofessional behavior will be rewarded as it deserves.
Obama says he cut the deficit by $2.6T. I get it. I cut my debt by $300k last month. I was thinking of buying a new yacht and I didn’t.
A people unwilling to pay the price of victory should carefully consider the long term costs of defeat. But few people can think to what Dr. Thomas Sowell calls Stage Two—the next logical step from a program or decision.
People who live by the “everything works out for the best” philosophy are the least likely to find things working out for the best.
Some people are very concerned about how tall they are, how wide they are or how old they are, when they should consider how deep they are.
If a Democrat was prevented from voting for Obama more than once, the claim is “voter suppression.”
Trying to outbid “free stuff” with “personal responsibility” is a losing game, alas.
Telling decent, honest people they can’t have guns because inner-city thugs are killing too many people is like telling them not to have sex because the same thugs are fathering too many children without supporting them.
Democrats’ solution to protecting Earth from asteroids: give everyone really big whistles. (Well, if it stops rape…)
Every defence lawyer who takes a high-profile client now knows that if the critter is convicted, his last appeal will be based on the claim that the original lawyer did an incompetent job. Lawyers are now suing lawyers for malpractice—the litigation revolution is eating its young.
Spontaneity is important in a relationship. Plan for some frequently.
Around the country, adjunct professors, 98% of whom voted for Obama, are upset that their hours are being cut because the colleges can’t afford the costs of Obamacare. Elections have consequences, and colleges, unlike the feds, cannot print money, thus taxing the poor through inflation.
Do you think maybe Al Gore sold Current TV to Al Jazeera to make MSNBC look like more of a responsible news outlet?
Every few days I get an annoying spam at work from Blue Star Jets, wanting me to use their private jet service. I can’t get them to stop. But I can recommend that they be avoided.
Those who are writing off the GOP forget that they will have a huge advantage by 2016, because the country will be a wreck. Unfortunately, it will be such a wreck that winning the White House and Congress probably will be too late to save the Republic.
How long before the enviro-wackos endorse mass murders as lowering the total human carbon footprint?
Most people ignore my oxygen tank, everyone being afraid of giving offence in our hyper-sensitive PC society. I don’t mind at all talking about my pulmonary fibrosis, in fact I welcome the chance to tell folks about a little-known disease that kills as many, probably more, folks than breast cancer, but gets far fewer research dollars, it being an equal-opportunity killer without a defined victim group, thus not political. But when I tell people it’s considered to be a terminal illness, it seems to make them uncomfortable. What, they think they are going to live forever? (The confusion over the PF mortality numbers is because the reporting statistics are bad. PF often causes heart failure [better, I suppose, than smothering] due to lack of oxygen, and that gets reported as the cause. Best estimates are that breast cancer kills 39,500 a year. PF from 42,000 to 45,000.)
More people every day have a sinking feeling about the country, like being on a plane in trouble, that you are fighting to keep aloft, but realize that it is going down, despite your best efforts. Most of the passengers can’t believe it, don’t want to believe it. But that doesn’t change the physics. It hit me about four years ago. Many folks won’t get it until impact. Then they won’t know why.
Respect does not come from titles, heritage or position. It comes from character and conduct.
To avoid any taint of racism, we should adopt the same laws and treatment towards illegal aliens that Mexico
Watching 4-5 hours of TV a day makes kids stupid. Not adults. Any adult that watches that much TV is already stupid.
I’m listening to Guns, Germs and Steel on audio book, by Jared Diamond. He is at great pains to debunk the old notion that differences in the development of different societies are caused by race. I believe he is right, but suspect he, like most modern intellectually, is so infected by political correctness he would come to the PC conclusion despite any facts. To me, race plays a very small, if any part; culture is everything. But he misses the big point. Suppose the IQ tests showing Asians are generally smarter than whites are true. I test at the 98% percentile for intellect. Should Asians being generally smarter mean that I should be discriminated against on the basis of my race in favor of a slower Asian? Of should Dr. Thomas Sowell or Dr. Condi Rice, who are clearly far brighter than me, be discriminated against if the tests showed that blacks as a group were not as smart as whites? Groups don’t matter, individuals do, a lesson always lost on Progressives. And we should note that intellect is only one factor in success and accomplishment, often not the key factor. Work ethic and character—usually culturally determined—play a huge role.
I bought a CD collection called Unforgettable Fifties. The songs have words you can understand, they have a meaning, they have a melody and there is no screaming. Which begs the question, "What the hell happened to our culture?"
Yes, I know that the 50s didn't have our commitment to equality for women and blacks. Blacks in particular suffered under racism. But I understand the majority of black kids were born into two-parent homes, which isn’t close to being true today. And that more young black males are murdered every year in Chicago
We must judge an age by it’s times. In the 1850s, few Americans favored the abolition of slavery. By 1865 it was formally gone, if not the discrimination and terror. Today, we are all abolitionists (except those whose religion sanctions it), and cannot understand how good people could have even thought that it might be a necessary evil.
I almost died putting down the slave power. That is, my Great, Great Grandfather, Sgt. Oliver Vernal, fought throughout the war with the 6th Conn. Volunteer Infantry and was badly wounded twice. He had no kids at the time, so had he died, I would not be writing this. (The 6th had the misfortune to usually be in the Army of the James under Ben Butler, a great organizer but poor field commander. They had a really bad day at the battle of Deep Bottom, where Vernal was shot in the hip through his tin cup—probably skedaddling with the rest. But they had some good days, including being the first into Fort Wagner , ahead of the famous 54th Massachusetts
How do you know if something a group does is based on multiculturalism, pride, group solidarity or racism? If whites do it, it’s racism. For other groups, it’s one of those good things.
What is the difference between the Boy Scouts and Journalists? The Boy Scouts have adult supervision.
Marxism: The opiate of the gullible.
Maybe the reason Obama seems partial to Muslims is that when they pray to Mecca
To paraphrase President Ragan, “Freedom is never more than one terrible American president away from extinction.”
You know those bumper stickers that runners put on their cars, which say “26.2” or “13.1” to show they have run a marathon or half marathon? Where can I get one that says “0.2”?
2013 is flying by, like the last several years. At this rate, I’m going to get old. Wait…
When you have a few years on you, and are struggling with something like pulmonary fibrosis, as I am, simple things you didn’t think about when you were 25, like going to the store or carrying things up stairs, become tedious.
With the cough, oxygen hoses and shortness of breath of pulmonary fibrosis, I find that I’m borderline miserable a lot of time, though I carry on with work, the blog, writing, daily activities, and family stuff, because I must. And I’ve established a “no-whining” zone around me. If you ask how I’m doing, I say, “Feeling good and looking better!” Folks don’t want to hear about your struggles—they have their own. Trust me on this.
Nothing starts the day off with a grump like picking up a voice mail where the person just can’t come to the point. Then they give their phone number at light speed so you have to replay it three or four times to write it down.
Here you would have read the brilliant thought I had at 2:00 am, if I’d had the energy to get out of bed and write it down.
*****
For a free PDF of the book, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com.
Posts
What a long and brilliant post! Enjoyed it, so true.
ReplyDelete