12/30/2007

Don' t Know How or Why She puts up with Me!

Well, December the 28th has come and gone, and I'm still here in the house with the same lady I married 45 years ago! 'Twas not an auspicious beginning, and all the nay sayers were predicting a very short run from the gate. HAH! Just shows, just how wrong some people can be. Of course the fact that she tried to "off" me twelve hours after the marriage might have been a contributing factor to their observations! Well, that's the story the way "I" tell it. Hers is a slightly different version. But as I am in control of the keyboard, you get my version.

We tied that knot about about 2100 on the 28th and in just about 12 hours later, I had my new bride out in the back yard and was instructing her on the proper way to load, aim, and fire a very nice Hi Standard single action, nine shot revolver. After standing beside her and getting the stance just right, and the noisy end of the gun pointed in the general direction of some old light bulbs placed on the side of a hill about twenty yards away, I said to her,"cock the hammer back till it locks, aim, finger on the trigger and gentle pull till it goes off". All was going according to plan till it got to the "pull the trigger" phase. At that point she turns to me and says, "I can't do this"! Finger is still on the trigger and loud end is now pointed at me when the sear released and a .22 cal slug was on it's way to meet me! Entered right thigh, exited through the knee. I went down just like I had been shot with a cannon! She hollers at me, "Stop doing that, it is not funny"! Well I finally convinced her I wasn't "funnin'" and we called the Local Rescue Squad. Off to the Doctors office for temporary repair and then off in a Navy helo dispatched from NAS Quonset Point to haul my still young Sailor ass off too the Newport Naval Hospital. While there for two weeks I was the center of attention as every single person in the whole place, doctors, nurses, corpsmen, and even patients, and the kitchen workers wanted a look at that guy whose wife initiated divorce proceeding with a gun! Most comments revolved around the theme of "disappointment" after the wedding night!

Okay, that's the story we told everybody, even all four of our kids for years till I finally had to 'fess up and tell what really happened. It's like this. We were out in the back but I was demonstrating my prowess with the aforementioned piece, in the art of "quick draw" and fire at those light bulbs that she was launching into the air for me to hit. As all of you gun nuts might surmise, my actions consisted of grabbing the butt of the gun, ahem---, holding the trigger back as the thumb pulled the hammer back and when the muzzle was aligned with the target, let the hammer slide out from under your thumb. Bang!! Bulb explodes! Hooray, I'm a Wyatt Earp!

Next try, procedure was going along fine till front sight, which I had forgotten to remove, snags on the holster, jerking thumb off hammer with the predictable result. Bullet went in right where I said it did and came out as also described previously, and with the same results. So, after recovery and release from the hospital, I was off too my new duty station up in Maine as a SERE instructor. For some reason they didn't want me any where near a rifle or a machine gun unless it had a BFA attached to the business end!

It has been an absolutely wonderful, loving, on both our parts, and satisfying relationship that produced four of the very best kids anyone could hope for. It had it's trying times, as in me going on various extended "cruises" for 9-12 months at a time, and leaving her in places where she knew no one, on her own, to raise those kids as best she could. As a young "Navy wife" she did it very well, and with outstanding results as far as I can see, for all the twenty years I was in! Living off the base and, "on the local economy" as it was called back then, she became adept at stretching our meager funds to the very limit. She has kept us out of the poor house for all this time together. Now, some of you who know her might understand why it is her vociferously voiced desire for the people who spend our tax dollars to be totally accountable for their actions!!

So Sweetheart, Happy 45th Anniversary and hope to see you for #46!! TIFN

12/21/2007

Help! It snowed in my yard and I can't move!! Help!! Help!!

And with that title staring at you, you have some inkling of an idea of what kind of mentality has beseiged the people of this 2nd most corrupt state!

It snowed here a few days ago, anywhere from 2 inches to the 10 inches in the "higher elevations", that would be Foster-Gloster. But because the weather guessers didn't tell us soon enough,(they gave ONLY two days warning), how deep it would be in each individual yard across the state, why, we were totally unprepared for the unorganized chaos, is there any other kind?, that enveloped the whole state of RI. Apparently there was NOT EVEN ONE teleconference between ALL the business owners, The Governor and ALL his various minions, the National Guard, All the police departments, ALL school Superintendants and Principals AND Custodians, and every single plow driver in the state! And because of this gross miscarraige of group communication, every body decided to go home at the same time!! What the hell is going on here? Why didn't someone in authority TEXT ME and tell me just at exactly which minute of the day I was SUPPOSED to start heading home? How the hell am I supposed to be able to make that decision without at least 40 or 50 other PC people to help me with the deliberations? I am at a complete loss here trying to understand how the breakdown in communications was so total and so devastating to the people of RI. I also know that it is going to take many trips to the physche doctor to enable me to get past this latest influx of PTSD into my being! Thats Post Traffic Stress Disorder folks!

So, removing the tongue from the cheek I am here to ask, just when the hell did it happen that the people of this state, and country became such dissolute, lame brained, useless sheep, that have to be led by the nose in order to make a decision or a move on their own? When did they fall into the trap that they MUST have a 'Big Brother" to plan their every move? When was it that thinking for yourself, protecting yourself, fending for yourself, and every OTHER "for yourself" became passe in this culture? Somewhere, sometime in your life, you have to take a little responsibility for your self and your actions and quit pissing and moaning 'cause some one else wasn't there to wipe your nose and ass for you! Do it your own damn self! I tell you folks, I am really and truly fearful for the continued survival of this country and it's denizens. I can see our descendants morphing into H.G.Wells' Eloi and Moreloc's if they don't shitcan this Politically Correct bullshit mindset that has infected this whole population. Keep on leaning so far to the left, and sure enough,you are going to wind up on your ass, flat on your back, with a great big Jackboot grinding you into the dirt!

And BTW, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR and stuff that happy holiday crap where it will never see the light of day again!! TIFN

12/03/2007

Democracy, Rise and fall of in America

I read somewhere recently, can’t seem to find it to quote it, about an English Historian from the17th century who was telling of the rise and fall of the various democracies that have arisen in the world and then their fall into just past history. He gave a few reasons of why they collapsed. There were a lot of them that are very recognizable as they are happening again today in this country. The one that finally brought an end to most of them, was when the populace discovered that they could by right of voting, deliver too themselves for personal gain, a piece of the public treasury! This was the final step, or straw as it were that eventually broke the back of these governments.

Do you see any parallels in the US here today? Earmarks by the “folks” that guide and make our laws that help only “selected” portions of our population instead of all? All sorts of “benefits” to themselves as our legislators? You know, free healthcare forever paid by you, free mail service paid by you, interest free loans paid by you and the list goes on ad nauseam. These are the people that will eventually be responsible for the end of democracy in the US. All because of their personal greed, although they will ALWAYS espouse to you that the only reason they have come into public life is to look out for YOUR interests! Yeah, right!

According to polls conducted by lots of various entities, most of the people of this country are highly dissatisfied with the performance of the US Congress, Senate and House! The last one I looked at said only about 17% of us were happy with their doings. You can bet they were the recipients of their Congressmen and Senators largesse. So what are the other 83% of us to do in order to fix this mix mash of incompetents, drunks, good ole boy networks, and just plain crooks?

Part of it can be done by dismantling the good ole boy infrastructure. How do you do that you ask? You do it by setting term limits for both houses. Two terms for each person in each house, and then you are out, just like the president! If you don’t have to spend your time kissing ass and sucking up to the committee chairman in order to achieve things, then maybe you could spend all your time building consensus among your cohorts on items of NATIONAL interest, and getting them passed! Four years as a Congressman should suffice, as well as twelve as a Senator!

So you say that in reality there will never be term limits set because the incumbents won’t do it! And you would be absolutely right. They won’t do it with out some sort of coercion. What is it we can use to make them do it? It is really simple. You do not vote for ANY incumbent in the next election. You let them, as well as the aspirants to their office, know in advance that if they do not get the term limits set in the next session of congress, they also will be out on their ass’s in the NEXT election! We just have to get off our lazy ass’s and DO SOMETHING about it! They all believe that once they attain this seat it is theirs by right of possesion for as long as they want it! Well it is time to stand up on our hind legs and let them know differently.

I can hear the argument already that there will be no continuity with people coming and going so fast. Fast? Two, four, or six, or twelve years is fast? Well the type of continuity that we have had for the past forty or fifty years is way overdue for a drastic revamping. I’m not talking about dumping members of only one party either. There is guilt and conspiracy enough in both the parties to go around.

So if you 83% really want to change the stagnated system for the better, this would be a good place for a grass roots type of action to begin. Form local action committees for the express purpose of letting those incumbents and those that want to be, just exactly what we would expect of them solely with regard to the term limits question. This isn’t going to work though if only one or two states follow through. It has to come from a broad spectrum of the people from all across the country. So spread the word as to what we the people want to happen. Personally, I read quite a few blogs that are in turn read by hundreds of thousands if not millions of folks all over America. I am going to forward this little rant to all that I read and hope that they will put it out there for all to see. Then if they really care about their, as well as their children and grandchildren’s future, they will take this to heart and run with it! It can be done and it is in dire need of being done!