Prayer for the pets

In the last week, I have been so heart broken. Not only for the innocent victims of Katrina but for the pets that were left behind. I myself have 2 dogs. Brutus a 7 year old 105lb Chow-Mastiff mix, and Cleo a 2 year old Springer Spaniel-Pitt Bull mix. My girlfriend has 3, Chopper, 15 year old border collie, K.C., a 6 year old Border Collie, and Jax, a 2 year old nut job. I cannot imagine a situation in my or my girlfriends life, where we would allow ourselves to be stripped from our beloved pets. I don't want to go getting judgmental, but to the rescue workers who are forcing victims to leave their 4 legged families behind, I say this to you. Every time a police dog took a bullet for an officer, or a search and rescue dog gave his life while pulling someone out of a collapsed building, or a St. Bernard dragged an avalanche victim from the snow, our animals earned, with their blood and loyalty, our respect enough to help them in their time of need. So for all of you who let a dog drown when you could have saved them, I wish that in your time of need, a dog saves you. Look him in the eye, and thank him for his selflessness. Let you live with the burden of failing where they give their lives to help. May God bless the souls of the lost, and keep them close to his heart.

I will return to my usual self after a message from our sponsor.

Death of the language...

I decided to post one "word" a day. I say "word" with a certain level of sarcasm. I think there is an ever evolving virus in the English vernacular. What's worse is that I have no way to name the virus. The one thing I know is that the words I present to you will show their true value when you picture them being said by a 60 year old white man. The words I will list, and only one a day, are some kind of conglomeration of slang that I cannot see being accepted into society but are anyhow.

Today's word is...And get ready for it...Here it comes...Stand back....The crap is about to hit the fan...O.K....Here goes.....This is the one and only time I will ever allow myself to type, or heaven forbid, say.......BLING BLING.

damn, that really hurt. No, seriously, that nearly killed me. I cannot take anymore of this friggin(said in case children read this) syllabic sound. I can't bring myself to say it is a word because really, it isn't. Don't call me a hypocrite for using "friggin", I did that out of respect. Every day, it seems like our culture is under attack from every corner of our own society. I'm not saying "our" culture to describe one race or another, but rather describe the American Culture. I thought that it was bad enough that the word "like" has been interjected into every single conversation as a replacement for concise expression. "She was like, and I was like, and they were like, and we were like, and the dog was like, and the toilet was like" Come on now people, can't we have conversations where it's not a guessing game to figure out what we are all trying to convey?

I hate to think that the language we have had is being altered for the sake of being "hip". Now, I know that our American history, our ancestors both recent and ancient have made our language evolve into something that barely resembles it's origins, but there has to be a line somewhere. Now from the days of the Plymouth settlers, we developed new words. But, these words developed as our lives did. They were invented to describe things people never saw, but there was a difference. Maybe you remember a little thing called ROOT WORDS? Ahhh....Now you see. Root words, and conjunctions are what other words are made of to develop a new word. Most new words developed in the last 200 years were compiled from existing definitions of other things. Or, some words were developed with a root word who's origins come from Latin, Spanish, German, or another descendant language.

But now, words are being developed to sell a counter culture, or just to further separate people into different classes. I offer to you all the fact that as this language continues to splinter, a more serious rift between classes and races will occur. Now I'm not saying that we have to go back to the days of Ye, Thowe, Nay, Yea, and all that, but somewhere, we have to understand that all of this slang terminology that we continue to accept or deny will adversely effect out nations future. If we don't reinforce common grammatical discipline, we will have a culture that is not the world leader, but a culture struggling to be understood not only by the world or by ourselves.

Picture this if you will, and then I will stop. You are the owner of a business and you have to hire someone for a position that deals with customers. You have to candidates for the position, each with identical education, experience, age, for the most part identical. You say the following to each;

I'm glad that you applied for the job, now tell me about yourself.

The first candidate says;

Well, I am a hard working, outgoing type of person and I feel that I would be an asset to your company. I think this is a good avenue to further my experience and my career.

The second candidate says;

Yo Yo Yo, I'm da bom. Yeah Yeah Yeah my nizzle, I'm da sh*t, I bring much to da game, so I can gets my props and some BLING BLING.

Now who would you hire? By the way...The candidates are both 40 and white. Color doesn't matter. Black, white, brown, yellow, red. This is not about race, to me it sounds as ridiculous from a black teen as it is from a white 30 year old. After all, I will post more words that will show that whites have done far more damage to the language than any other race. I can't remember the last time I heard P-Doody(or what ever he calls himself these days), say he was coming out with a new video that was "like, totally awesome dude".

P.S. to prove my point, Bling was identified when I ran the spell check. Any Questions?

Seat Belts and Helmets

Hello kids!!! Today, is not really a good day for me but I'm here, once again, to share my point of view with who ever might read this. I started this blog as a way to vent some frustration and to better articulate my point of view. I find that writing allows me to delve into a subject more profoundly than speaking. Not that I am the type of person who has a vocal deficiency. Today, I want to get to the subject of seat belts, and helmets. I am both an avid driver and motorcycle rider, so I know from where it is that these thoughts come from.
This past week, while a passenger, I was traveling to the New York State Fair, with my girlfriend, and my best friend and his girlfriend. At one time during the journey, we were pulled over and ticketed for going 85 in a 65. Now, bitch as we might, the officer was in the right. Although traveling at a law breaking,high rate of speed, we were keeping with the flow of traffic. But, safe as we were, speed does kill in many instances, so I have no gripe. Also, it was Pete who got the ticket, so how would you feel.
I give this example of a law because it has it's merits. By traveling at a high rate of speed, you can in fact cause an unintended injury to someone else. However, I have never heard of, read, seen, or had been given an example, where a bystander or fellow motorist was injured or killed by someone who was not wearing a seat belt or a helmet. Nowhere have I ever heard that a driver, while involved in a crash, was propelled out of a windshield, and struck a pedestrian. Nor have I heard where a biker was thrown from his steed, and flew head first into a crowd causing an injury to someone else, where a helmet might have made it better.
My whole reason for this rant is that I believe in every fiber of my body that seat belt and helmet laws are direct threat to our individual rights as free Americans. If I choose not to wear a seat belt, and am injured or killed, it is completely my fault. I may not have caused the accident, but my personal protection is up to me. If I crash on my bike, and my head is ruptured on the curb, I cannot blame the curb. My life, is my freedom. Your life is yours. I do not believe that anything you do, that does not pose a risk to someone else should be regulated by any city, state or federal regulation. Now, I'm not saying that you should take your 3 year old child and toss him into the back of your Hummer2 and let him bounce around the back seat like a beach ball. No, you should be required by law to protect a minor from injury as their life is in your hands. But I believe that once your able to vote, drive, or die for your country, you should be able to make decisions that affect your life and it's continuation.
The whole argument comes down to weather or not we will continue to elect polititians that will pander to insurance companies, who want nothing more than to increase premiums while decreasing payouts. It is the insurance companies behind the lobbies to control your personal behavior. As long as humans are an unpredictable species, they will sponsor laws to limit our freedoms so they can make insurance mandatory for every little aspect of your life. There are so many laws that I can get into, but I will save them for further rants. Most of what will be posted to this web log are unjust issues that most people just accept as a way of life. It is my point of view that unless your hurting or posing a risk to someone else, the government has no right to infringe upon us. Remember this next line, it will give you a clue to an upcoming topic. The people should never fear their government, it is a government that should fear it's people.

Oprah Meets Katrina

Once again the wonderful Ms. Winfrey has dedicated herself to exploiting the victims of Kartina for the sake of ratings. I have seen many old video clips of Oprah when she was a reporter back in Chicago, and it seems that she is trying to connect to her roots. For a brief few moments yesterday, while surfing thru the channels, I stumbled onto ABC and saw what I thought was a news program. To my dismay, it was the Oprah show. Ms. Winfrey decided that she would bring her "stylist" or who ever the hell he is to the storm aftermath, and throw her considerable weight around. She made it a point to bully her way into the Superdome to "inspect" the carnage. Mind you, she had to be escorted by police and National Guard members. Why? What point did she have to make? How did she intend on helping the homeless, feeding the hungry, consoling families? The point is, she didn't. Her intent was to drum up ratings at the cost of other peoples suffering. While she's touring the devastation, she is taking time from law enforcement officials, who already have enough to do. Look, I appreciate all that some of the celebrities have done in the face of such trauma, but sometimes, a celebrity can do more with a check than they can ever do with a film crew.

Red, White, Blue and Pissed Off! 

What happened to Ice Cream?

Ice Cream!!! One of my happy things. I can remember how much joy ice cream brought me as a child. It's purity and creamy joy. As I grew older, it became less of a treat, and more a sense of remembrance. It was to a point, memory in a cone. But now as I am a full fledged consumer, ice cream is now an annoyance. Other than the "Friendly's" 5 scoop, Reese Pieces Sunday, the only ice cream I would eat was Breyer's. There was nothing like opening up a "1/2" gallon of Mint Chocolate Chip, grabbing a bowl, a scooper, a spoon, and the remote control, all to enjoy the wonder the was Breyer's Ice Cream. It was complete unadulterated bliss. But a few years ago, something terrible happened. The familiar rectangular box(that leaked at the corners), gave way to the new, more stylish, 1/2 gallon container. This was the start of my disdain for Ice cream. Within a few month's, Breyer's offered the "Space Saver", container. The volume of this container was 1.75 quarts. Hmmm....A full 1/2 gallon, or 1.75 quarts. O.K., 2 sizes. Interesting. Breyer's Offered both sizes for about 6 mounts before removing the "space Saver" logo from the smaller carton. This led to both package sizes being displayed next to each other, while not to my surprise, there was only one price tag. "What gives" I asked myself. But something even more sinister was on the horizon. With every journey to the supermarket, the 1/2 gallon size container was disappearing faster than Oprahs blackness when in a white crowd. Breyer's has now completely dissolved their 1/2 gallon product line, and they led the way. Every other company has done the same. It equals a 12.5% increase in price, or reduction in product. Therefore, I have begun contacting all the companies I could and expressing my anger. I got a response from Breyers, saying they had to remain competitive. What they don't realize is that there are millions of customers who remain loyal to a company that would remain loyal to us. Now, I know that this seems to be a very petty rant, but it goes so much further than Ice Cream. The formula of conditioning the consumer has become so overwhelmingly prevalent, that nothing we remember from any of our childhoods will be left untouched. There is an old adage that says if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will jump right out. But, if you drop a frog into a cool pot of water, he will remain there, even as you raise the heat gradually to a boiling point. I believe that if we as Americans keep allowing ourselves to remain complacent in this comforting bath, we will all be cooked alive before we can make a difference. For God sake, take a stand and let your voice be heard. Let us all get our ice cream the way we remember. Just a thought.

To start things off...

Welcome to my opinion page. I hope I manage to give you all something to think about. Sometimes you will applaud me, somtimes you will want to kill me, sometimes you will want to laugh. But, all the times, you will want to think. Is he right? Is he wrong? Only I know the answer. I am always right!!! I may not be right for you, but I am always right for me. But that can be said of us all. I look foward to hearing back from you. Unless of corse, your opinion is poorly thought out and with no merit. If you want to post, explain your position. Give the reasons for your statement. Don't be one of those morons who can say something, but not give a reason. For example...French People Suck!!! Although this may be true, site a reason. Say, French people suck because they forget the sacrafice that American soldiers made for them in WW2. Just a thought!!! Thanks and happy posting