Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Random Thoughts for February

Random Thoughts for February, 2017. By Robert A. Hall
Feel free to post or forward.

2017, huh? And I'm not quite finished with the 1990s.

People are looking forward to Trump ending Political Correctness. I wish I was hopeful. Weasels are survivors.

I count on Karma. But I'm always willing to lend it a hand.

Turns out money can't buy wisdom, either. Or class.

From my friend Larry Greenberg: As much as there is a cognitive war against Israel, there is a similar war in the United States by those who would make us into a multicultural mélange of tribal entitlements.

I wonder what the murder rate is in "Sanctuary Cities" vs. the rest of the country? It has to be at least triple, begging the question, "Sanctuary for who?"

I'm often at odds with the laws of physics, leading to cursing at inanimate objects.

Hillary claimed she was the most transparent person in politics. Wikileaks may have made it true.

Everyone likes message fiction if they agree with the message. Everyone likes celebrities who take a political stance if they agree with the stance.

If I wasn't on Facebook, how would I know about all the miracle cures now popping up?

Why are people loyal to NFL teams? If money beckons, no team is loyal to their fans.

Politically, if your side does "X," you dismiss it as a distraction, witch hunt, blown out of proportion, or at worst "Everyone does it." If the other side does "X," you cite it as making them unfit to govern, undermining the Foundations of Democracy, blatant corruption or at best an example of why no one should vote for them. It doesn't matter which side you are on, how serious "X" is or what the facts are.

I think we should have a nationwide poll between Obama and Trump, asking the question, "Whose sneer is more sincere?"

After eight years of dissent being racist, I'm looking forward to it being patriotic again.

I've been working on my genealogy (a sign of old age I suppose) in MyHeritage, one of those sites that finds matches for people in your tree with those in other trees. One of my ancestors, according to another tree, was buried the year before he died. Tough way to go. Note that if you do this to pay attention. I find hundreds of bad dates. People who died before they were married, people who died before their kids were born, etc. Often you have to make your best guess as to which site is correct.

Insults are the arguments of the cognitively impaired.

Not only is tomorrow not promised, but if you have a tomorrow, the health, happiness, family, friends, shelter, food and clothing you have today are not promised either. Be grateful for today and the good things in it.

Anyone can chose well among good options. It takes leadership and strength to chose well among bad options.

How many years until the progressives decide that Heroin use is a "human right" that the taxpayers must pay for? Ridiculous you say? Impossible? Think of all the untouchable, not-to-be-questioned rights there are now that you would have said ridiculous and impossible to twenty or thirty years ago.

We cancelled the Madison paper a while back. Instead I get a weekly from local towns, plus The Orange Street News, a monthly put out by a 9-year-old girl in PA (news of her town, but at least straight news), and read the net. We made the mistake of buying the Sunday paper on January 19. Big front page story with banner headline about Obama's legacy of hope. Why don't they just fire the reporters and print only press releases from Democrat politicians (national, state and local) and talking points from progressive mouthpieces like Paul Krugman? Save money with little change in focus.

Which is "The Party of No" now?

For eight years, Obama has taken the side of thugs, traitors and terrorists. A big reason the country got Trump.

All progressives are at heart Hegelians. (Hegel argued that, “The State is the Divine idea as it exists on earth”)

No wonder all those Democrat reps boycotted Trump's inaugural. Recall all the Republicans who boycotted Obama? Me neither. If they had done so the Double-Standard Media would have eviscerated them.

Every day in every weather, an older woman in a motorized wheelchair goes by our house twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, on her way to escort her young niece to and from the school bus stop. Saw her go by in freezing rain the day I wrote this. That's courage. And courage is love.

On the news they interviewed an anti-Trump protester. She said she would "rather live under Stalin than Trump." The reporter asked if she knew that Stalin had killed 60 million people. She said that under Stalin the USSR population had increased 1.6%. Anyone who protested Stalin as she protested Trump would, of course, have been sent to the Gulag or shot. That kind of stupid you can't fix.

Good description of conservative philosophy from Columnist Josh Hammer: Stand for moral clarity and oppose moral relativism.  Support rule by neutral law and oppose rule by capricious men.  Support national sovereignty and oppose outsourcing that sovereignty to transnationalism.  Support the separation of powers and oppose the modern despotic presidency. Support federalism and oppose the centralization of power in Washington, D.C. Stand with the liberalized West and existentially oppose the global jihad.  Stand for free enterprise and unshackled markets and oppose proto-fascistic “economic nationalism.”  Support the private inculcation of civic virtue and oppose heavy-handed government indoctrination. Love life and oppose the destruction of innocent life.  Love liberty and oppose the whims of those who would deprive us of liberty’s eternal blessings.

I read Trump only used the word "I" three times in his inaugural speech. Hardly up to standard--Obama used it a dozen times ordering breakfast.

Remember back during the Bush administration how concerned Democrats were with the National Debt? In fact a guy named Obama said, "The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents - #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back -- $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic." During Obama's eight years, $9 trillion was added to the debt, with hardly a peep from Democrats. Want to bet that starting now, Democrats will be concerned with the National Debt again?

We should apply the pre-existing condition requirement to car insurance. If you hit a tree, you call to get insurance and they can't turn you down for the pre-existing condition of the accident.

Music can move me to tears--the Marines Hymn, Highland Cathedral, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Scotland the Brave, Weep ye by Athol--but often whisky is involved too.

Pastor Matt at our church used this portion of Washington's Farewell Address in a sermon. Well worth thinking about: " The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes."

There is no cure for the past, but every person on Earth shapes the future. Some in large ways, some small. Some for good, others for ill. We knew an elderly relative-by-her-first-marriage to my wife, Bonnie, Aunt Louise. She was quite old, lived in a nursing home with few possessions, had had to give up her little dog, was bent with osteoporosis, and mostly blind. And she was one of the happiest, upbeat people I have ever met. It was a joy to be with her. And her happiness, positive attitude and faith shaped everyone she came in contact with. That is power to shape the future for good.

Obama and Hillary will still tell lies. But it won't matter as much.

As we see after the election, the liberals are revolting.

The anti-Trump protesters burned a limo owned by a Muslim and injured the Hispanic driver. Jim Geraghty: They said if Trump were elected, gangs of thugs in the streets would attack immigrants… and they were right!

Confirmation Hearing serve two useful purposes. They allow senators to grandstand for the press, and to score points for their side with the base.

I hear there's a family story that when Jim Mattis was born, he slapped the doctor back.

Incompetence is the father of chaos.

My new Facebook Friend, Mallam Mohamad: Am a spiritual helper live in northern part of Ghana and am helping like if you need leadership, money, luck about business or work, marriage issues, protection, lotto number, jobs, love spirit, high spirits, husband and wife issues, visa to abroad, witchcraft, disease, and others you can call or whatsupp me on++********* oh OK or********** oh ok. and all your problems will be resolved.

Slavery is illegal, but I suppose the left would have no problems if you established a "sanctuary city" for slave holders.

Did you hear that Disney is remaking "Lady and the Tramp"? Lady will now be a transgender pit bull who self identifies as a poodle. Tramp is a former junkyard dog and disillusioned Trump supporter who was enlightened by the Women's March on Washington and is seeking a new career as a sensitive lapdog, if only someone will give him a safe space.

I have friends I keep on my mailing list and on Facebook just to stay up to date with the ever-changing liberal talking points.

To receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, shouldn't you have done something, however small, to advance freedom and not to advance the state which takes freedom away?

A president can do great damage pushing "alternative facts." For example, the president might state as a fact that, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan," while pushing a bill that makes thousands of plans illegal. Or he might state as a fact, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" when every one knows if you loser your plan, you often have to change doctors. Or he might state as a fact, "your premiums will go down" when pushing a plan that covers many more people and requires extended coverage for things like birth control, knowing that all these things will cost more, not less. Or he might state as a fact," Benghazi was caused by a video," when he knew from the get-go it was a terrorist attack." Or he might state as a fact, "I ended the war in Iraq," when he knew ISIS was gearing up to enlarge and spread the war. Yes, alternative facts can be a problem. Especially if the media isn't coving for you.

If hypocrisy was bullshit...oh, wait, hypocrisy IS bullshit.

One of the features of getting old is that I know advertising slogans and jingles for products and businesses that no longer exist. I can still sing the jingles for Robert Hall Clothes which went out of business in 1977.

I'm an inveterate list-maker. Maybe too much so. My granddaughter, Britnye, recently asked me, "Grandpa, do you put, 'Make a list' on your to-do list?"

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall
The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1304815980andsr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.


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