Get Back

My my so I said to my dog, "Dog, sit."  Yeah right.  Good day.

Trump

Donald Trump is not a professional politician, as witnessed by some of the inflammatory remarks he makes.  Some see this as a problem.  I see it as refreshing and mostly on point.

Pat Paulsen for President!

Romney.  Obama.

Pat Paulsen for President!

He's dead?

He'd still make a better President than Romney or Obama.

VP Newt?

Romney will screw up...he NEEDS Newt. 

But I'm still voting for Pat Paulsen!

No big loss.

Let the government shut down! That's what happens when you pay for something and do not receive the product, and then you just keep on paying, month after month, year after year, and the ones you're paying keep saying next year, next time, or "we need more money" and we allow ourselves to be led around by the nose...how do we expect anything to get done if we are not willing to do it ourselves? Look at the facts...the trillion-dollar bailout wasn't enough...where does it end? I am tempted to run for president. Nobody wants to tell the truth...but I would tell the truth. FORCE people to look at the facts. Not opinions, not skewed versions of the truth, just the hard cold facts. It's time everyone gets involved. Government's been screwing us for a long time. It's time to get UNSCREWED!

Transfer THIS

Our daughter attended private elementary school grades one through three. With two mortgages to pay, we decided to put her in public school. It was then we realized that the home we had purchased three years back was not in the school district the real estate agent said it was. However, the actual district approved a transfer to the other. Transfers of this kind are granted only on a year-to-year basis.

For five consecutive years, the actual district approved our transfer requests. Our daughter is about to enter high school at the age of thirteen. This year’s request was denied.

This is a unique situation. Most transfers are requested as a result of the family moving mid-year from one district to another for employment reasons, and the parents would like the child to continue in the same district for the rest of the year. Not so with us. We have lived in the same house for 9 years. We are not asking for a change of any kind. We want nothing other than have our daughter not change horses mid-stream. The denial of the transfer amounts to a forced change, which we believe is not in our daughter’s best interests. All of her friends, her extra-curricular activities, and her education have been molded by the only public school district she has known. Yanking her away from all of this is just WRONG.

The reasons they have given for the denial: transfers are not guaranteed; they are a privilege, not a right – and the most recent: transfers from one level to another, e.g. middle school to high school – are a definite no-no. This is notwithstanding the fact that they approved the level-change transfer from elementary to middle school.

It is my opinion there is nothing to their side of the argument except greed. They want the money that one more student represents. Our daughter’s education or well-being is not, despite my many emails to them, anywhere on their radar.

So, we were forced to make a change. We now reside in a place that is in the preferred school district. No more yearly transfer requests, no more political mumbo-jumbo. Because education in Oregon is funded by state taxes, you would think that a parent would more of a say in how (or where) his or her money is used. The district we abandoned has conveniently forgotten who foots the bills in their neighborhood. They certainly don’t give a rat’s about what’s best for the children. It’s the old “it’s MY whistle and YOU can’t use it” attitude. And this coming from so-called “educators.”

McChrystal

Obama is an idiot. He can't keep the help in check. And he's supposed to running the war. Ya know, if John McCain were to barge into the Capitol Building and simply take command, the military wouldn't have too much of a problem with it. The citizens of this country elected a pretty face, not a military leader. Obama must go. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors. He's going to get us into serious trouble. He's already proved his inadequacy in dealing with the recession. I shudder to think this soundbyte slacker has command of the most advanced fighting machine in the world. McChrystal's resignation? It is Obama that should resign. He's downright scary.

Throw it away

Looks like people just don't get it. There's a special election just around the bend for Oregonians, and measures 66 and 67 want to raise taxes on businesses and folks making over $250K per year (that's my layman's take on it anyway). Throwing money at the problems we face is NOT the answer. We've tried it, over and over again, on state and federal levels, and it has simply not worked. What we need to do is roll up our sleeves and work on these problems ourselves. Better people make better communities. We shouldn't expect others to do for us what we are too short-sighted or unwilling to do for ourselves.

Throw money away, if you like. No matter how much you give, they will ALWAYS want more. I say make them do their jobs like the rest of us, and make do with what they already get. Hey I gotta go. Taxman's at the door.

Dirty little secrets

Seems gay men don't care about the potential they have for spreading the AIDS virus. Attention, sports fans! There are terms that spring to mind when I think of their insistence upon their lifestyle: "depraved indifference" and "reckless endangerment" are two of them. In a perfect world, all of them would take the necessary steps to avoid the transmission of that dreaded disease. This is not a perfect world. While some do take the steps, most do not. Even if most DID do so, the virus would still survive. I cannot imagine anyone who would insist upon having the right to practice and to knowingly--KNOWINGLY--be a part of an activity that could have such cataclysmic consequences. Yeah, I know, if I open this bottle of nerve gas in this room it will kill all the people in it. But I have the right to own the bottle, the gas, and I must have the right to open the bottle in a public place! I'm an American! No, Charlie Brown. You are NOT an American. You are selfish, and you are guaranteeing the suffering of many persons, both now and in the future, all for the sake of your bodily urges. Thanks a bunch. NOT!

Life and death

I agree with those who say everyone should have a good life. Of course.



But I do not agree with trying to legislate it into being. The point is, people live and people die. Period. While governments may be verygood at providing protection through the military and other benefits, it is simply awful at caring for its citizens. That is as it should be. You and I are ones who need to care. WE are the ones who need to be there to care for those in need. Governments are ill-equipped to provide such care. No sum of money can replace the need of regular people to just be kind to one another. There are very few programs, subcommittees, cooperatives, or other federally funded undertakings that will keep people from procreation, or from death. We can blithely pass off all of our self-inflicted wounds on a system that was not built to handle such matters, but look at the result. in the US, WE are the government. If it is not doing well, WE are not doing well. The US government is simply a mirror of the level of apathy to which this country has plummeted over the last 60 years. Perhaps the tendency to not wish to take responsibility for one's own actions is a flaw of human nature, but it IS one that can be recognized and handled on an individual basis. The answer is not blaming the goverment.

Take a look in the mirror. There you will see the problem and the answer to the vast majority of today's woes. But remember, people live and people die. These are facts, and they cannot be countermanded by any federal initiative.

yeah, yeah, yeah

You may prefer to call Barack Obama "black" but I prefer to call him "white." Neither is accurate. But he is touted as being the first African American president...that would seem to say that he is of African descent and an American, but he is not only of African descent, he is half white as well. Last time I looked being white was not a flaw, or something to be kept in the closet. I am tired of all this nonsense. He should be welcomed as our new President, but no more or less than any other before him.

Follow the money

Obama and his money won. But where oh where did all that money come from? In September alone he raised over $150M - that's about $5M per day! Where did all that money come from? Single contributors? Let's see, at $2,500 per contributor that would be..let's see...carry the five...about 60,000 contributors, or 2,000 of them PER DAY contributing $2,500 each!



Open your books, Obama. Let's see where those big bucks came from. I'm willing to bet a lot of it came from sources in the Middle East. And with your "God DAMN America" church ties and affiliation with at least one known terrorist, I think your books would make for some interesting, if not scary, and perhaps even incriminating, reading.



Come on, Barack.

You can quote

Presidential Campaign Slogan: "I've upped my standards. Now, up yours."


-Pat Paulsen


You listening, Barack?

Don't Take Debate

I watched the Palin / Biden debate last night. The newcomer versus the old pro. It was unremarkable.







The crux of the biscuit is that hiring Obama to head up the US military (one of the bigger obligations of holding the office, and perhaps THE biggest responsibility in the world) - well, you might as well just grab someone off the street - chances are the person you choose will have as much insight into military leadership as does Barack Obama.





Face it, people. If you hire Obama, you just may be politically...retarded.

After the conventions

Getting right to the point, the only CHANGE Barack Obama will leave you with is nickels and dimes. Pennies. Yup, you won't have any DOLLARS left from your paycheck once he starts funding all his hare-brained schemes. Funny how more and more Mr. Obama is looking and sounding like the entrenched Washington bureaucrat, while McCain exhudes that feeling of exhiliaration, of anticipation that good things COULD (and probably WILL) happen on his watch. Mr. Obama has criticized McCain for first saying Obama is inexperienced, then choosing Palin for his running mate. She's the governor of the largest state in the Union! What does he have in his column? Community organizer?

Americans voted to give Bill Clinton four more years as President, even after discovering the truth about Monica Lewinsky. That affair cheapened and tainted the office of the President of the United States, but not as much as Obama would. Let's not make the same mistake twice.

Never in a million microseconds

Hey, I configured this thing to post my blog through the Atomizer thing. Where do we go from here?

Chicken or Egg

The League of American Wheelmen was founded in 1880 by bicycle enthusiasts. In an effort to improve riding conditions so they might better enjoy their newly discovered sport, more than 100,000 cyclists from across the United States joined the League to advocate for paved roads. The success of the League in its first advocacy efforts ultimately led to our national highway system.



Times have changed. Automobiles became and still are the reason for the immense growth of our highly sophisticated system of roads. Those still riding bicycles on our crowded city streets are taking their lives into their own hands. I can tolerate bicycle lanes. But on roads with no shoulders, many with only one lane in either direction, these bicycle enthusiasts have no right to impede traffic and cause harmful if not fatal traffic accidents. They pay little, if any, user fees to help local governments pay for the special treatment they receive. They are selfish. If they want to jeopardize their own lives, that is one thing. It is quite another to do so in a way that jeopardizes many others around them.



So what came first - the chicken or the egg? Was man built for the earth, or was the earth built for man? Because paved roads may have come into existence due to bicycle riders, does this mean that those who drive cars (and pay dearly for doing so) should be put into harm's way to accommodate the bicyclists' blatant disregard for human life? I don't feel it is right to possibly need to decide, while driving my car, between running into a bicyclist or into an oncoming motorized vehicle.

The Supreme Court and other things

Time is limited, so here we go. The Supreme Court recently rendered an opinion that Americans do indeed have the right to own and bear arms. What a no-brainer. Like what part of the Revolutionary War didn't you understand?

And Obama...I have not the time to expound at this moment. Suffice to say that he would be...a laughing stock. An international, how much more ridicule can one country take kind of laughing stock.

Get real.

Heads up, people.

I heard Laura Ingraham and Geraldo Rivera on the radio going at it one morning over illegal aliens...well, instead of fighting about it, we should either enforce the laws that are on the books, or repeal them and introduce new legislation. But - our track record with enforcement is the real issue here. Who is to say that the new laws would be enforced any better than the existing laws? No matter how we deal with it, it is going to be a phenomenally expensive and uphill battle.



But until new legislation is passed, I believe staunch enforcement of existing laws is the answer. The war in Iraq is taking an immense toll on this country in terms of lost lives and tax dollars. I think we should scale back our presence there (but not abandon the cause), and use that manpower and money to fight a battle that is much closer to home. Build that wall, guard those airports, and transport known illegals back to their country of origin. Though originally a nation of immigrants, our forefathers devised laws to ensure that our freedoms and national resources be available first and foremost to United States citizens. There is a REASON we refer to these people as "illegal" aliens. Their presence here is in violation of federal law. This is a great country, and simply giving that greatness away is unfathomable. It SHOULD be difficult to become a naturalized American. By even considering giving amnesty to lawbreakers we are taking the teeth out of any controls we have against unbridled immigration into this country. We have taken tolerance to a dangerous height in this country.

We have for far too long ignored the need to take action to keep America safe from the inherent dangers that illegal aliens pose. We have allowed them to do the work that many of us see as menial, working illegally "under the table" or for wages far below normal. They fill our emergency rooms and populate our prisons, receive welfare benefits and drive on our roads without being properly licensed, sell drugs, but the majority of us have remained silent. For that silence we are now paying a heavy price.

I want being an American to continue to mean something. I am a citizen of the greatest nation ever to be on this planet. I cannot rationalize, under any circumstances, the demeaning of our great country for the sake of expediency or any other reason. So - no more Mr. Nice Guy - Get a green card, or get lost.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Obama, huh? Change, change change...what in the world is so bad? Are we not the greatest nation on the earth? What changes can an inexperienced, never-in-the-military child make? Will he put an end to hunger? No. Homelessness? No. Poverty? Wrong again. The changes he will make (and he WILL make them) are those that will weaken this country by putting an even bigger government in place, a dumbing-down of monumental proportions. We The People are too stupid and too out of touch to make our own decisions. Isn't that right, Mr. Obama?

I watched one of my favorite entertainers tonight, one Mr. Stevie Wonder, receive a NAACP award. He went up onstage and seized the opportunity to extoll the virtues of Barack Obama, encouraging all those listening to vote for him. Please keep in mind that Mr. Wonder is a musical genius, not a political one. I thought it sad to hear Mr. Wonder give such high praise to a man who would render moot all of the sacrifices our men in uniform have made in the Middle East so that Mr. Wonder and others like himself can continue to enjoy the freedoms and the rights that all of us too often take for granted.

Go away, Barack, go away.

More about immigration

My wife had to go through all the hoops that the US Government normally puts immigrants through in order to obtain her US citizenship.. The multiple trips to the INS office, the mountains of forms and proof of income, and on and on ad nauseum.

Now there is talk of giving citizenship to many immigrants who are here illegally, who have broken the law by not going through the hoops...this makes an absolute mockery of anyone who has done it by the book. It invites many more people to come here illegally and stay here long enough to be declared honorary citizens, or whatever tag will be given them. This is a travesty.

Don't vote for anyone who espouses amnesty or any other form of coddling of these outlaws. And give our law enforcement guys some leeway in their enforcement efforts.