Saturday, September 30, 2017

Random Thoughts for October

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

Note to politicians who never wore the uniform: From those who gave nothing, we expect nothing.

The battlefield is a place of broken bodies and unanswered prayers.

Want to avoid poverty? Start with a job. A full time job. Any job. And do it so well, you get a better job. Repeat.

Bought a great tee shirt at a thrift store for a buck: "Every time I think things can't get worse, there's an election."

Sometimes with my aches, stiffness and tiredness, I feel like an old man. Then I think, "Well, you are an old man."

The Cuckoo Caucus in Congress is over-populated.

I fear with all the hate spewing going on, there will be an assassination attempt on Trump. And regardless of the outcome, sides will harden more and the hate and violence will increase. Boy I hope I'm wrong; we don't need that.

If a used car is in your future, you should take extra care that it isn't one flooded in the hurricanes, totaled out, and then "refurbished" by fraudsters selling wet lemons. I think CarFax can get you the details.

Much of our government since the 1930s reflects the German word: Schlimmbesserung  A schlimmbesserung is a supposed improvement that makes things worse. 

Hillary's Excuse Tour seems solidly within the progressive tradition established by Obama's Apology Tour in 2009.

The VA let me know I'm eligible for a free burial plot. Do they know something?

If you think "Single Payer Health Care" is a great idea, go take a look at the poor payer. In the mirror.

Had an email from a PR firm offering me $40 to put a guest post on my blog. Maybe not real, but I told then no. I can't be bought. At least not for $40.

From a friend: "Chelsea" Manning is essentially Kardashians with a penis.

Headline: Harvard makes convicted spy Chelsea Manning a 'fellow,' igniting firestorm. My friend, retired Army LtCol. and highly regarded author of military science fiction, Tom Kratman, says, "Hiring Manning just indicates that not only is western civilization doomed, it deserves to die." (I didn't know treason was an academic credential! ~Bob)

I will not acquiesce in the suicide of the Church or the Republic.

The other day a cute girl told me I was a ten. I was charmed...until I found out she used a 1,000 point scale.

At the VA, I started a conversation with a fellow Marine Vietnam vet, who, according to his hat, was there in 1969. He said, "You look a little long in the tooth. Korea Vet?" Harrumph. I was there two years before him.

Republicans and Democrats say nasty things about each other that are often true of both sides.

Stereotypes start because there is some truth there. Then the break the bounds of reason.

Think global, bomb local.

Saw a bumper sticker: "Vote for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Our Only Hope."

History suggests that when a country's bureaucracy becomes ossified, the country collapses.

All else being equal, the self-disciplined win.

A Marine Vietnam buddy on Facebook: There are 7.4 billion people in the world. I can tolerate like 3 of you.

When a society becomes very prosperous, it also becomes complacent, soft and the envy and target of ruthless men who are neither soft nor complacent.

It's hard to tell some days if my mistakes are caused by senility or stupidity.

Getting old is when a nap always sounds like a good idea...even if you just got up.

Short term choices to "live for today" are very often bad choices. Few things cause more misery in the world.

I can't shake the feeling that a great darkness is descending on the world.

One of the ancient, respected restraints on war was that non-combatants (women, children, the aged, medical personal, clergy) were spared the horror of combat. Though western countries like the US try to uphold that ideal, since about WWI, certainly WWII, every one is a combatant, every one is seen as a legitimate target.

A world without police or soldiers, as many leftists wish, is a world without civilization. What are gang leaders in our cities but local warlords?

Trump doesn't have power. But if you could be the last person to speak to him before he makes a decision, you'd have power.

Recently read in John Keegan's A History of Warfare of the Australian veteran at the fall of Singapore, who had earned the Victoria Cross in WWI, setting off alone towards the Japanese lines with grenades in his hands and, "No capitulation for me" on his lips, who was never seen again. Can the West still produce men like that?

Keegan also writes that war is, "The one human activity from which women...have always and everywhere stood apart." He published this in 1994, 23 years ago. I wonder what Sir John, were he still alive, would think today of the PC efforts to degrade the forces by including woman in ground combat units.

The Tokugawa Shogunate, wrote historian G. B. Sampson, "Not confining (itself) to the functions of raising revenue and keeping order, undertook to regulate the morals of the people and to proscribe their behavior to the minutest detail. It is doubtful whether previous history records a more ambitious attempt on the part of a state to interfere with the private life of every individual and so to control the thoughts as well as the actions of a whole nation." Maybe we should change the title from "President" to "Shogun"?

Going back to bed in the morning is an under-rated pleasure. But like most such, it is incompatible with work, school, and other accomplishments.

Some employers don't know the difference between a benefit and an irritation.

From Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt: The top ten most popular governors in America are all Republican.

Slaves are taught to kneel before their masters.

The NFL--Brain injuries, assaults, domestic violence, drugs, murders and treason.

"There is no crime, absolutely none, that cannot be condoned when 'our' side commits it." --George Orwell.


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.

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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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