Random Thoughts for November 2020

Random Thoughts for November 2020 Robert A. Hall Feel free to post or forward. Health update. I’m about the same. I had an appointment with my surgeon and NP last week. My weight was 152.3. the NP said I was too focused on it and should only weigh myself once a week. I picked Sunday. Today, 11/1, I’m 148.2. I’ve been averaging 2500 calories a day, so go figure. My wife thinks I burn calories coughing and labored breathing after the least little exertion. I’m still tired a lot, sleeping 10-11 hours a day. My surgeon says the anti-fungal I’m on can cause fatigue. I should go off this month. Stomach has been so-so. On the plus side, I’m till doing MLMS interviews for the VA, four last week. One was 3200 words so I had to also write a 1500-word version to go in his records. Good Marine, saw a lot of combat in Vietnam, wounded twice. Here’s a thought. Announce that ICE Agents will be stationed at all polling places. I asked a doctor what he thought of the election. He said, “I think the light is going out in the world.” If the media wasn’t protecting him, the Biden campaign would have collapsed weeks ago. Want to make liberals squirm? Ask them if they are patriots. Increasingly politicians and the public believe that playing by the rules is for suckers. If you want to ban hate speech, you want to ban freedom of speech. My wife likes the “Murdock Mysteries.” Feeling too fried to read, I watched two of them with her. The commercial breaks are now long enough to write a small novel. People say, “Well, 2020 is almost over with.” As thought January 1, 2021, will bring about a miracle. I suspect more of the same. We like a working-class pub about 20 miles from Madison. We have a friend there, works with his hands, two sons in the Marines, pickup. Probably owns more guns than ties. Big Trump supporter. I asked what he thought of the debate. He said, “I turned it off. It was a disgrace to the nation.” I haven’t talked to one who watched it all the way through. One of his sons was in Salt Lake on the way to duty in California. A thief broke into his car, stole his laptop, money, uniforms, civilian clothes, and military paperwork. His brother set up a Go Fund Me page to help him.: https://www.gofundme.com/f/269wii995c?sharetype=teams&member=6247828&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=2dafa906a4bf4d78bfff56295d48908f “The free market must exist to encourage the able to reveal themselves.” –Milton Friedman Liberalism, “…produces government that sees the nation as a mere aggregation of clamorous constituencies with material itches that it is Washington’s duty to scratch.” –Barry Goldwater. I was the best man at my brother Mark’s wedding on October 4th. I looked at the pictures. No denying, I’m now an old man. I didn’t let myself go. But apparently I went anyway. If you do a poll on line, don’t give your cell number. Apparently I did and I now get six or eight fund raising texts every day. “I don’t believe in superstitions. They’re bad luck.” –Then-Mets Coach Bobby Valentine. Trying to reason with a progressive is like trying to reason with your dog to stop him from barking. By the time my grandson is my age, I think Soccer will have displaced Football. “Ingratitude is a shabby failing.” –Historian David McCullough Police cars should have bumper stickers saying, “You loot, we shoot.” “The greatest threat to civility—and ultimately to civilization—is an excess of certitude.” –George Will If you go back 20 centuries, we all had trillions of ancestors. Slavery was present in every society. Since there were maybe a billion people on earth, we are all descended from slaves. And from slave owners. In 30 years, windfarms will be rusting relics. Morning is not a sufficient reason to get up. Getting up is not a sufficient reason to get dressed. When I see “Ancient Grains” on a bakery product, I wonder if the “ancient grains” were in their warehouse for ten years and they had to get rid of them. Republicans believe in God. Democrats believe in government. If you don't believe in freedom of expression for speech you hate, you don't believe in Freedom. If Biden becomes president, and someone tries to assassinate him, will the Secret Service be required to shoot the perp in the leg? The Chinese have named a new dish in honor of Hunter Biden: Dim Son. If Joe Biden wins, Mandarin will be the most popular language course in the universities. From a friend: "Biden's Laptop Matters." At 18, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic. It hasn’t expired. But what do you do when the people elect enemies of the Constitution? Math scores have been going down. Kids need to memorize the Times Tables as we did in school. I hated it then, but it has been a tool that has served me well throughout my life. The Democrats’ slogan should be: “We want it both ways.” Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. –H. L. Mencken If you are a candidate for local office, and the week before the election you find yourself talking to a small group of your party’s faithful, you are probably going to lose. The Democrats used to be the party of big government. Now they are the party of enormous, all-controlling government. Republicans are the party of big government Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2009 through July, 2013 are collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall http://www.amazon.com/Old-Jarheads-Journal-Thoughts-Leadership/dp/1490500162/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1373907206andsr=1-1andkeywords=Old+Jarhead%27s+Journal 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 twelve 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. He currently works part-time as a writer-editor in the My Life, My Story program as the Madison VA hospital, interviewing vets and writing up their life histories. During the crisis he is working from home.