Random Thoughts for May 2021

 

Random Thoughts for May 2021

Robert A. Hall

Feel free to post or forward.  

 

Health update: I’m scheduled for my hip replacement next Thursday, May 6^th. I hope it goes through. I told the surgeon he better do a good job as I had already signed up for the next Marine Corps Marathon. LOL. I’ll be happy if I can walk and get in and out of bed/cars without pain. We will see.

 

Next month’s RT may be short, depending on how I bounce back.

 

Derek Chauvin won’t last a year in prison.

“A mass media…whose raison d’etre is to make money and secure audiences and only secondarily to inform.” –Paul Kennedy. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, 1987

 

Saw a book at Goodwill: “Eat up and slim down.” It was on the fiction shelf.

 

Sometimes you have to quit when you’re behind.

 

Some people plan what they want to do in life, changing the plans as circumstances require. Others just drift along. As a rule, the planners have better lives.

 

“Successful people have a sense of gratitude. Unsuccessful people have a sense of entitlement.” –Steve Aitchison

 

“Race doesn’t matter!” Except when it does.

 

“Rome’s premier contribution to mankind’s understanding of how man may be made civilized was its institution of a disciplined and permanent Army.” –John Keegan, A History of Warfare.

 

“Exactly what is progressive about intolerance?” –Dave Blaska, blogger 

 

Woke is a joke.

 

Dick Armey, the Texas Republican and former House majority leader, used to say, only half-jokingly, “Liberals love jobs, but they hate employers.”

 

From Facebook: One of my favorite speeches comes from Robert Duvall in "Second Hand Lions": "Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good. That honor, courage and virtues mean everything. That power and money, money and power mean nothing; that Good always triumphs over Evil; and I want you to remember this: That Love, true Love never dies. Doesn't matter if any of this is true or not. You see a man should believe in these things because these are the things worth believing in."

 

If you do one thing well enough to become a multi-millionaire, you can hold yourself out as an expert in everything.

 

If you have an IRA or a 401K, you are a capitalist. Stand by for a ram.

 

When a guy says to a girl, “This will be our secret,” ten to one it won’t be secret long.

 

Looking at the world today, I wonder how much lemonade I can make.

 

The government can hand out money. But it can’t hand out knowledge, a work ethic, self-discipline, integrity, goal orientation, gratitude, or belief in something bigger than yourself. They are essential to success and you have to get them on your own.

 

My Drill Instructors at Parris Island gave me resiliency, tenacity and self-discipline. These are vital to success and no amount of money can buy them.

 

COVID has exposed how hollowed out and weak the American character has become.

You can often tell a tolerant liberal by the vicious name calling. Alas, rabid right wingers do it too. It just locks people into their positions.

 

I understand that on Easter Sunday, Biden and Pelosi attended a service at Planned Parenthood where they thanked the state for its blessings and aborted the traditional Easter Baby.

 

There are exceptions, but liberals tend to worship the state, conservatives tend to worship God.

 

Old age: The Flatulent Years.

 

The world would be better if people were as eager to pay their debts as they were to borrow the money.

 

When God gives you a mission, you don’t say, “Sorry, I have other plans.”

 

If you live in America, you are not oppressed and those people you don't like are not privileged. --John Hawkins

 

As to the latest Woke controversy, I never heard of an evergreen tree being used for a lynching.

 

Biden is reinstating economic and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, which will allow them to divert funds to terrorism and murder.

 

Graphing it, in ten years progressives will be fighting to make post-birth abortion legal up to 12 months. And in 15 years….

 

A few years ago I talked about abortion to a progressive relative. He said he opposed end-term, partial birth abortion, but most such were induced abortion early in the pregnancy. Now it’s abortion for any reason up to the moment of birth. I haven’t asked him to avoid an argument.

 

From Facebook: “If you’re happy and you know it, go back to bed. If you’re happy and you know it, go back to bed. If you’re happy and you know it, getting up will surely blow it, if you’re happy and you know it, go back to bed.”

 

If someone tells you the world will end on a certain date, bet them. If they are right, how will they collect?

 

The curse of being a reliable person is dealing with so many people who aren’t.

 

Hiring for competence is racist.

 

“Leave a message and I will call you back” is one of the great lies.

 

One of the vets I called for a MLMS interview had a VM message that said, “Have a nice day…unless of course you have other plans.”

 

To be a police officer in Minneapolis, Seattle or Portland, you must really need the job, or want to be an officer a great deal. I keep expecting them all to quit.

 

Black Jobs Matter. Stop burning down the places blacks work.

 

I think there may be an undiscovered asshole gene that makes some people act the way they do.

 

It must be exhausting to be a progressive. Each year you have to learn new things to fervently believe it. Ten years ago, who talked about CRT or abortion to the moment of birth? Remember when Obama, Bill Clinton, and Schumer were dead set against illegal immigration?

 

Libraries use to celebrate Banned Books Day. Now they ban books themselves.

 

Almost every revolution ends in tyranny. See France and Bonaparte. Ours was the exception. We won’t be so lucky next time.

 

My smart phone addiction is getting worse. It said I was up to a minute a day last week.

 

I think a lot of people say, “Facebook keeps taking it down” to get you to share their pic or meme.

 

Being black or white or brown or red or yellow doesn’t entitle you to respect. Being a decent, hard-working person does.

 

There’s a difference between want and need. I want a Morgan sports car, but I just need a car that will get me around. And a difference between need and greed. Everyone needs a home. The founder of BLM didn’t need to spent $1.4m of donated money on a mansion. (She said it wasn’t donated money? Then where did it come from? Her job?

 

“White privilege” is as racist a term as “ni--er.”

 

If Biden is right and no amendment is absolute, does that abrogate the amendments against slavery and guaranteeing blacks the right to vote.

 

From Facebook: This entire presidency is like being tied to a chair and watching a toddler play with a revolver.

 

Dane County increased our tax assessment by $21,000. Need more money for left-wing programs.

 

Putting Harris in charge of the border is like putting Bill Clinton in charge of a girls’ high school.

 

The only secure, stable, reliable green energy is nuclear power.

 

Baseball used to be the “National Pass Time.” Now being offended is.

 

From Facebook: “I used to laugh at people who went to bed at 9:30pm. Now I wonder how they stayed up so late.”

 

“To become weak is to become prey.” –David Mamet.

 

Never vote for woke politicians.

 

Not only am I over the hill, I can no longer see the sucker in my rearview mirror.

 

The stronger the teachers’ union, the poorer the education.

 

We are all in a competition to be a better person than we were yesterday. But too many aren’t trying or are blaming others.

 

"Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." –Voltaire

 

To paraphrase a fake quote from John Wayne. “Life is short. It’s shorter if you’re stupid.”

 

I told a woman I was 75. She said you’re only as old as you feel. I said, “Ok, I’m 85.”

 

 I reads over the list of Oscar winners. I never heard of, let alone saw, one of them.

 

In light of the service of the Biden family to China, they have named a dish for Hunter. Go to your local Chinese restaurant and order “Dim Son.”

 

Systemic racism is a system that assumes all white people to be racist because of the color of their skin.

 

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.