Break Line

Are we getting dumber as a nation?

The other day the lead line on a story on Fox News was "Honda recalling cars for break line issues".

You tell me?

Hey Rushbo

NEW YORK - The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.
One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another. Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk. One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.

How odd, why didn't this make your morning rant?

Somewhere between your rants you could have found time to discuss this guy trying to do the right thing....

It wasn't until after the 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant had been lying there for nearly an hour that emergency workers arrived, and by then, it was too late. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax — who police said was stabbed while intervening to help a woman being attacked — had died.

Ok, sorry hadn't read far enough down.

So If It's Not About??

I often wonder about the real reason for things. I suspect it is never as clear as one might think and yet at the same time not as well hidden as you had hoped for.

To my more conservative friends it would seem your dislike of the current president is not always just about politics.

There clearly seems to be an issue a bout the origin of birth.

I suspect that one is never going to be satisfied in many people's eyes. Though I wonder would it be less of an issue if the suspected country of birth was Germany as opposed to Kenya?

There is also the issue of religion.

In spite of the President's assertion to being a Christian, many here seem to feel he is truly a Muslim.

Why would this make a difference?

Is there a belief that a person's faith has a direct tie to their ability to lead?

Should a Mormon scare me because of the magic underwear and the whole new planet thingy?

Or have many conservatives accepted the Mormon card because it is at least closer then a Muslim?

I always thought God and country were separate. When did that change?

So is it because the prez is a Socialist in some people's view?

A bit little folks thought of Dick Cheney as a dictator.

Both views are probably askew, but most opinions are.

Anyway I was just wondering.....at least it isn't about his color.

As Cool as My Dog...never gonna happen

My dog knocks on the door when she wants in.

She literally knocks on the door.

She sits with her back to the door so she can look out over the lake and reachs around with her front paw and knocks on the door.

She has other dog trained to come get us if we don't answer.

I'm convinced my dog is actually Snoppy, but with more of a PG attitude.

She can kill rats to racoons and all manner of life in between and never have it look like a big deal.

She stalked a guy painting our house until she found the perfect time to attempt ot nip him.

A nip is annoying, a bite is a law suit, she seems to know the difference.

I'm convinced that on my best day I will never be as cool as my dog.

Mega Churches scare the crap out of me

It's true Mega Churches scare me.

A bit like multi leveled parking lots weird me out:
I always think my roof will scrape something, I don't care how many times I drive through them.

Those big churches have the same feel to them, really claustrophobic and overly echo filled...
and they both have parking attendants. They might be the same people.

I don't care where you live, there is always that off duty cop directing traffic, at least i hope they are off duty. Jesus's own state trooper.

I admit having attended these. I am certainly not above finding my spirit side, makes one balanced. But these things are pretty well the mall of God.

For balance I should mention I also tried being a Mormon: hot chicks, really bad songs and no parking attendants.

I also tried Buddhism ( well before Tiger used it to find really hot chicks), Shamanism and selling Avon.

My God search has been never ending, I do actually believe it important. Probably why I discount Mega Church World, or Christco as we call it our house.

Each of them have their own house band, some one named Pastor "Chad or Bob or Greg".

Never Pastor Jose or De Shaun, I'm not saying but I'm saying....

Lattes in the foyer and time share vacations for that special "couple".

You name it, these folks have it covered.

Baseball hat into church?

Not a problem, after all our Jesus is way more hip then he has ever been.

Here it's about your soul and your 10%...Think of us as the Conan O'Brien on wafers.
We have Christ's bikers and the Lord's trout fisherman.

Like I said Mega Churches scare me, most corporations do.

Can I get Some Sugar with that Tea?

I started listening to am talk radio some time back. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything new or earth shattering. I haven't been.

I struggle with extremes on any level; be it left or right, I like subtle more then pit bull in your face.

Today I listened to varying thoughts on immigration reform, also known as get those people out of my backyard. It was a bit one sided to say the least but it was pretty entertaining.

I should say that my parents moved to America when I was a teenager.

I went to school , took the classes and became a citizen. I learned English when I was around 8 (side trip to Canada from Europe).

I think learning the language of your adopted country is, at a minimum, the polite thing to do.
Take it from someone who lived in Canada, 2 different languages divides a country it does not enrich it.

If you want to live here then live here. Don't try to simply make it larger and or smaller version of where you moved from. Have you been to Lynden?

One point that was made was using the military to secure our borders, perhaps bring the troops home to do that. I tend to agree with the US as Switzerland approach. No more the world's policeman and just make really cool watches and pocket knives.

Where I get a little worried is the theory espoused that our current President is going to make the army into his own version of the SS. You lost me after that one.

One caller went with the 32 million potential voters for Obama through immigration reform.

Let's do the math shall we.

If you wish to become an American and the clock starts now, add 5 years to the time you can actually become one. I know this because I did this.

Now if you join the army you can then get your papers at the end of your enlistment. Still a 2 year wait and I don't think the military is looking for 32 million recruits.

OK I know if Obama was going do his new SS this could easily work....

I guess what I'm saying if you want people to listen, maybe a little self listening might help.

And when you start up a group, whether it is the Rainbow Coalition or the TEA party, expect some whack jobs to join right along with others.

Just take time to weed those out...

Just Hit the Ball

Lee Trevino is credited with that statement. Though I think the original contained a truck rhyming word. But I digress....

My point is, the Masters have been more about Tiger's coming out (how many straight lines are buried in that statement?) then it has about the actual golf.

Let me say this about that.

I don't care!

I don't care who he slept with, who he didn't sleep with and whether his wife is pissed off about any of it.

I don't care that he missed his son's 1st birthday because of Tiger's stay in sex rehab.

I don't care if he never goes to any birthday party.

I care that he plays well.

That's it.

He is not a role model. He is a golfer, a really good one but still just a golfer.
World peace and so on is not his area of expertise, a pitching wedge is.

So just hit the ball already and let's see who does well Sunday afternoon.

That's all.

Just Quit It.

I don't write enough anymore.

Part of it is I quit smoking and ever since it feels like something is missing in the process. Some sort of missing mechanical piece of the puzzle.

I also got way too wrapped up in work and all the silliness that entails. So I'm thinking this high blood pressure deal might have a bit to do with work.

Ok exscuses aside, time to get back to writing and even making some folks uncomfortable; as Green Day says "And there's nothing wrong with me, this is how I'm supposed to be."

So here are my random thoughts around quitting.

Quit naming your company Son Rise, Son Properties and so on.

No one really believes Jesus has anything thing to do with your rental apartments, investments and or cleaning services. Jesus has a relationship with you. It should be personal and not leverage in the world of commerce.

Quit thanking your Lord and Saviour for having a great career: Last week Shawn "the Heartbreak Kid" Michaels may have taken the award for that shout out to Jesus when he retired from wrestling.

Quit pretending that Catholic priests are not a protected group.

They are.

I believe we might consider replace clubbing seal pups with clubbing pedophiles who hide behind a collar.

Pope Benny is no more a spokesman for God then Mr Peanut is a rep for nature, though they both have very interesting wardrobes.

Quit pretending that losing money as a corporation gives you a reason for not doing routine maintenance on things that can explode. If you can't afford to maintain it shut it down.
We can literally live with out it.

Ok and finally quit blaming...

So I Pretend it's Live?

OK, it's dark out at my house, I can even see stars and so on, but the coverage you are showing me is in sunlight, correct? So I should ignore the fact that the Olympics are all of an hour from my house and pretend it's live?

Morons.

Would you delay the super Bowl for a bigger audience share? I thought not.

I get that this not new, I just think it ranks up there the volume going up when shows go to commercial. I want more say in this.

OK I know Saturday Night live is in fact not because I live on the Left Coast

For years the Grammies and Golden whatever came on at 8, even though they actually happened at 5 my time to be on at 8 in New York. WTF

When we lived in the central time zone it seemed less troublesome, probably because being in Texas required drinking more and earlier.

Our local ABC affiliate in Seattle used to delay MNF till seven so it didn't knock the local news of the air. If you don't know what MNF stands for, I would guess I lost you a ways back.

My only sense of revenge is going to the gym and watching the Canadian coverage, which is live. Novel concept, apparently Canadians aren't as easily duped.

We have direct TV which does not carry the CTV or CBC; once again if you don't know what that stands for.....

I wonder what the Olympics and Rio will be like for the networks?

Or is that redundant...like is men's figure skating a bit gay?

Tiger, I have extra balls if you need some

Hey Tiger Woods, trust me no one defended you more, but then I watched your news conference/infomercial.

Are you completely mad?

I adimre your skill at golf, the rest means nothing to me.

You screwed up, get over it and move on.

Sex addict, really?

A 12 step program for over using your driver?

I miss watching golf with out you in it; watching you sort of grovel is worse then watching...well watching you grovel.

Any chance you can just shut up and play golf; if not please step aside because your recovery is beyond boring.

Good on you for doing the right thing and all that...we only really want to watch you golf.

And you kind of say sorry like you aren't quite done with acting lessons.

Move on...most everyone else has.

I miss the South sort of

The other day my 9 year old nephew called me by my 1st name.

There is no way this would have happened in the south.
I don't want to live in the south, the weather sucks.

To quote my wife "when something in the south bites you, it means it." I don't like the fire ants and the gators, but I love the civility of the place.

When we lived in South Carolina the kids next door called me Mr Jake. These children were between 3 and 8 and still they had better manners then most adults I know on the left coast.

I love that there is an unwritten rule that gives respect to perfect strangers.

I love that in the south, folks in there 70's still call my 92 year old father in law Mr Steve.

Here we dropped the ball. we are perfectly fine with kids not showing respect because somewhere in our lives we lost that skill.

I didn't grow up with that type of civility, but I wish I had.

Perhaps it is that sense of honor and respect that is what really is missing these days. Maybe we could work just a touch harder at that.

The other day I turned older, my kids sent me greetings on facebook and texts.

Thanks to those who stopped by and did that in person.

Ms. Wheelchair Washington USA looking for contestants

BELLINGHAM - Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 Ms. Wheelchair Washington USA competition.

The competition celebrates the abilities and accomplishments of women with disabilities who have overcome obstacles in their lives, said Lowery Lockard, founder of Ms. Wheelchair USA.

Contestants' primary form of mobility must be a wheelchair, but women who may be able to use their legs are not excluded from the competition, Lockard said. Contestants must be at least 18, though there is no upper age limit. They can be of any marital status.

The selected Washington state representative will participate in the live, nationally televised competition in late July in Ohio, Lockard said.

A $250 entry fee must be submitted with the completed application package, which includes two letters of recommendation and an official platform statement, by Thursday, Feb. 25.

For more information or to request an official application, visit mswheelchairusa.org or call (330) 612-5242.

You thought I made this up didn't you?

Admit it, it would not be out of character on my part, but I did not.

Really? We need a wheelchair beauty contest?

And where will all these folks park?

What is the driving need behind this, ok pushing in some cases.

Once again, short on writing ideas...turn to your local newspaper.

Ok Ok...let's dust this mother off

I know I can see the cobwebs as well. Hey 4 major surgeries and yet another house move. But I promise this is the week the writing begins in ernast.