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.
*****
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.
Always a treat. Thanks.
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