Warning: Rant In Progress, Proceed With Caution!

Times is hard!

Sometimes I wonder if the world is spinning backwards. I tend to get frustrated with the current state of affairs in our country and feel like grabbing the nearest idiot and beating him about the head and shoulders.
Be it the current presidential election, the Yearning For Zion Ranch fiasco, the war on terror or any number of other distractions, it seems that there is an abundance of topics to keep me busy blogging from here to Kingdom come.

My side can beat your side!

I have never, in all of my adult years, been so apathetic about a presidential election. We have absolutely no one who is worth putting in office running in this cycle.

We have John McCain, who believes that he is owed the office just because he has been around the longest. He has worked diligently behind the scenes, in the Senate, to ensure that he would have no viable competition in the general election. The McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Act (CRA) serves as a tool that ensures that only the independently wealthy will ever be able to seek our nations highest offices. However, Mr. McCain has done his best to have his campaign exempted from the very rules that he put in place. When it became clear that he was the nominee apparent for the Republican Party, he asked for an exemption from the rules that would require him to wait until the Party conventions were over to begin raising more money. So, while Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama are raising funds to fight in the remaining primaries Mr. McCain is ready to raise money for the general election. The only problem is, once you agree to accept Federal Matching Funds you are bound to abide by the CRA, failure to do so could result in a 5 year reservation at one of Uncle Sam's special hotels wearing one of those nifty orange uniforms and learning how to pick up soap bars without exciting a large man named Bubba.

Then we have the Clinton - Obama blood feud. Both of these people are more frightening than Saturday night bath time at Rosie O's place. Clinton is just a power hungry hag who has no qualms about using any tactic that will ensure that her plans are put into action. Obama on the other hand is an overt socialist with the promise of bringing racial upheaval the likes of which we have never seen. Don't get me wrong, I am not against him because of his race, my concerns stem from the people that he associates with and those that have given him counsel and religious training. His pastor, of the past 20 years, is nothing short of a bigoted hate monger who has a visible disdain for the American way of life and the white race in general. How can this man bring racial harmony to our nation when he has sat under the spiritual leadership of such a racially decisive pastor.

Seeing how "We The People" have been played, for the past 50 years or so, as dupes in a shell game that always comes up to favor the house, it is time for me to rethink my political affiliations. I have always prided myself on being a good Republican and have worked to further the cause of the party and supported it's candidates. However, this time around I am seriously considering jumping ship and looking for a safe harbor that matches my beliefs more closely. I am leaning either towards the Libertarian or the Constitutional parties, I have not made my final decision as of yet (I will keep you posted).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, things are going on.

Whatever our feelings on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are, there is just something wrong with the actions that state officials have taken in their "investigation" of wrongdoing at the West Texas compound. Now abuse of any kind needs to be addressed and the states polygamist laws and statutes against incest and pedophilia need to be upheld, but taking over 400 children away from their mothers and the only way of life that they have ever known is cruel and borderlines on jackbooted abuse by an oppressive state with the intentions of disrupting and harassing a religious groups constitutional rights of freedom. No credible indications have been made that all of these 400+ children were ever in danger and that removing them from familiar surroundings and family support groups was warranted. It has come to light that the 16 year old girl who started the whole "investigation" was actually a middle aged black woman who had never been on the compound and has had a history of making false reports to the police. These children are now in the hands of Texas CPS, an agency which has had it share of negative press in the past few years of placing children in more dangerous conditions than they were already in, some placements resulting in the death of the child. It is time to return the children to their mothers, conduct proper investigations on credible assumptions, uphold the laws of Texas and the US Constitution.

War! What's it good for?

The war on terror continues on and on with no end in sight. Well, kiddo's, strap yourselves in because we will be in this fight for a very long time. This is not a war against "Terror", it is a war between two distinct cultures that cannot peacefully exist one with the other. The West's culture is based on personal freedom which is ordained by the teachings of the Judeo-Christian belief system. The Islamic culture is based on strict adherence to the Quran and its call to conquer the world and dismantle any obstacles that prevent it's propagation. These are two diametrically opposed belief systems that will never be able to stand together in harmony.

On September 11th, we were drug into the fight whether we wanted it or not. The mobilization of our armed forces to answer the challenge was spot on. Our "Shock & Awe" offence was the appropriate maneuver to squelch the actions of those who want to see our way of life destroyed. Taking the fight into their back yard is the only way that this war should be fought and the only way that it will ever be won. But do we have the intestinal fortitude, as a nation, to present a unified front and prosecute this war until the victory is in our hands? Sadly, the answer seems to be a wimpy no.

I am convinced that the problem lies in our collective adherence to the principles of individual freedom that we as a country hold so dear. As long as the wound is fresh and our national adrenalin is pumping, we are willing to commit ourselves to the cause of victory. But as the healing balm of time sooths our wound and the distance of the battle ground grows farther away from our shores the reason for our involvement tends to vanish into the mist that shrouds our eyes. Our politicians, who were standing shoulder to shoulder, waving the flag of attack in the days following our tragedy, have now sensed the short term memory loss of the electorate and have reverted to their true objectives, promoting themselves to stay in political power. Rest assured that once our "leaders" decide to cut our losses in Iraq and bring our troops home, the "War of Cultures" will return to our shores, I'm afraid with a vengeance.

My stomach did flips on May 1, 2003 when President Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared "Mission Accomplished". That was the day that I knew that we were entering into troubled waters with this war. When a commander drops his guard the enemy will seize upon the chance to deal a death blow. I was afraid that our collective disdain for war had reached the heart of our commander and the fight was all but over. After that proclamation, our enemies realized that there was a chink in our armor and began to ramp up the insurgency in Iraq. Our troops were beginning to get pummeled which had a negative effect on our National morale and the calls for a draw down of our troops began to get louder and louder. To his credit, President Bush listened to his Generals on the ground and increased our troop size and the number of American casualties began to decline. The answer to winning this "War" is to hit the enemy with such a strong force that they have no choice but to put down their weapons, fold up their tents and go home. Anything less than sheer brute force will be seen as weakness and will only embolden the terrorists to continue their crusade. I am a peace loving man, but there are times when a peace loving man is forced to stand up and protect that which he holds dear. If we as a nation fail to protect our way of life then there will be an never ending line of "terrorists" waiting for their chance to take it from us.

AN UPDATE:

As I was getting ready to post this blog, i read that Obama has finally distanced himself from his former pastor and has disavowed all of the hate speech that he has been spewing from his pulpit. Maybe he is smarter than I gave him credit for.

No Trees Were Harmed In The Transmission Of This Message,

However, Billions of Electrons Were Temporarily Inconvenienced

Today has been one of those weeks.

Have you ever had one of those days? You know the kind, the ones where you think you should have stayed in bed. Well today was mine. As you may know, I have been dealing with a debilitating back condition for more than half of my life. As noted before, this condition pretty much dictates my daily life. A few years back, it became clear that I would need to change my mode of transportation because getting into a compact car was just getting too burdensome for me, my mobility or lack thereof began to rear it's ugly head. I switched to a pick-up truck and the problem got better. We traded up to a big Ford F-150 Crew Cab which meant that we could all ride in comfort and best of all, I could get in & our without the use of a shoehorn or copious amounts of axle grease. As time moved on the good old back condition decided that it needed to assert more control on my life and soon it was becoming harder and harder to manage to get in. The solution came in the form of a two foot aluminum ladder. I could step up on it and easily get into the truck with little effort.

Then came the end... Joyce was involved in a pretty bad accident when a woman in front of her failed to stop in time before hitting a cement mixer being towed by a work crew. Of course, during the split second that she hit the mixer, Joyce was unable to react in time to avoid bringing up the rear. Our truck was totaled and the search began to find a replacement that would be compatible with my condition. We found the answer in a Chevy Van with low running boards that made getting in a breeze. Little did we know that the drivers side running board had a crack int the connection that held it to the van's chassis and soon the board had began to fail. Climbing into the van was becoming more and more a great big pain in the back and something had to change.

I took the van to a shop that installs running boards and agreed to allow the man to put new Diamond Plate boards on. He ordered the boards while I was standing there and we set a time to come in to let him do the install. This morning was the morning that I thought would be the last time that i would have to haul my big butt up into the van... new boards were on the way. gleefully, i gave the man my keys and left with the anticipation that when i returned, shinny new diamond plates would be staring me in the eyes.

Sadly, this is where my sorry tale actually begins. I get a call from Yancy telling me that there is a problem. He said that he took the old ones off and began to install the new ones, when it became obvious that they were not working. The company had sent him running boards designed for a Ford Econoline, not a Chevy Express.

So, here i sit, with a van that is basically an enormous mountain that I am forced to scale anytime that I want to go out. We are waiting to see if the company has the correct boards and then we will have to wait until they get shipped in from Kansas City to put them on.

And to think, I got out of bed for this.

A Day At The Faire

This past Saturday, we took a trip down to Waxahachie and back in time to the 16th century, visiting The Scarborough Renaissance Festival.

The weather was beautiful, the air was crisp and the excitement of entering into a fanciful realm, full of nostalgia and pageantry, wafted in the air as we approached the castle gates. The crowd of festival goers had begun to gather at the front gates waiting for the cannon to fire signaling the opening of the faire. Costumed characters strolled through the crowd welcoming the guests as the Royal Court was being announced on top of the castle walls. As the Queen was introduced, a cheer went up claiming, "God bless the Queen!", a small voice could be heard in the back of the crowd asking, "what did she do?". This went on a few more times with those in the back of the crowd laughing at the comedy of it all. Finally the cannon fires and the crier calls for the gates to be opened.

Entering the castle gates you feel like you have crossed the line between the 21st century and have been transported back into the 16th. The sights and sounds were very welcoming. All through the Shire, there are numerous stages where Renaissance performers are eager to entertain you. Everywhere you look there are shops selling period crafts and goods, there is a nonstop choice of food vendors and pubs to whet your appetite and strolling performers are all around providing ample opportunity to be entertained. There is a large choice of period games and rides that the kids can have fun playing on. Crafts People abound all around the park that are happy to demonstrate their various trades.

We found a small shop that was selling Heraldry products and were able to purchase a plaque set that has the Renfro & Reis family shields, our names and wedding date and a history of each family printed out in full color. The boys were able to find kilts and period shirts that fit their fancy.

This was, without a doubt, one of the best trips that we have made in a long time. I highly recommend taking the trip, this will definitely be a yearly destination for our family.

The Winds of Change - They Are A Bowin'

What a day!

As you may or may not know, I have a debilitating back condition that basically determines the steps of my life. I am so tired of it dominating every aspect of my daily life. Take today (actually yesterday since this is being written at 1:00am) for instance, I was hurting worse than I've hurt in a long time. I was not able to much more than lay in bed, stoned out of my mind on pain killers. Every move was punctuated by severe pain. When I am like this I am not the easiest person to be around even though I try my best not to be too big of a pain in the ass. I am not one who needs to be waited on hand and foot when I don't feel well, I would much rather be left alone and allowed to lick my wounds, as it were.

Well around dinner time the cause of my pain made itself visible in the form of a monstrous thunderstorm which was ushering in a strong cold front. We started hearing weather reports about rotation in the clouds and major hail hitting just to the west of Ft Worth. We turned on the TV and saw the radar images of a huge monster coming our way. We got out our handy radio scanner and tuned into the RAYCES weather net, these are the Ham Radio Operators who go out in bad weather to give reports of dangerous conditions. There was lots of chatter about wall clouds, funnels and large hail coming into Tarrant County. The sky was turning an eerie shade of green and then an awesome shade of burnt orange. Storm sirens were going off all around us, everywhere except Haltom City that is.

Tornado On The Ground In Aledo, just West of Ft Worth 4/17/2008

Finally, Haltom City activated their storm warning system and a hearty cheer went up from the Renfro clan, sitting under our large Mulberry tree in the front yard (WARNING: It is not advisable to sit under a tree when lightning bolts are flashing all around you. Do as I say, not as I do.) When the whistle went off, we took that as our cue to find our way indoors. Just as we entered the house, little pings of hail could be heard bouncing off of the roof, then it broke loose and began hailing like it meant to do some damage. I went out into the carport and the wind was blowing the hail sideways right into the van, the house and my dumb butt. I don't know if you have ever been in a Texas hail storm, but dang, that crap hurts when it bounces off of your melon at 50 or 60 mph.


It hailed for about 10 minutes, nothing too large so the roof should be okay. We will have to wait for daylight to asses the damage to Cody's truck and our van, but I believe that they made it through the storm without too much damage. The people in mineral Wells, about 50 miles from here were not so lucky, news footage showed that they had baseball to grapefruit sized hail pounding their houses and cars. They showed the obligatory footage of the local car dealership which had major damage to their cars hoods and windshields. They showed video taken from their helicopter showing that the landscape was covered in about 1 1/2 inches of what looked like snow but was actually hail stones (very impressive).



Well, back to my initial reason for posting tonight... the pain simply began to pass as the storm and it's accompanying front began to pass through the area. It amazes me to no end that I am able to predict storms with my pain level. This is a talent that I would just as soon lose.


This weekend is the Mainstreet Arts Festival downtown. Every year, hundreds of artists gather together on Main Street and display their art to be judged and sold to the public. Every year, mother nature shows up and throws a major hissy fit. This year she decided to do it on the first day of the festival so they were able to get everything buttoned down and get the lighter crowds off of the streets so that the casualties would be low. I know that the reason for having the festival in April is that the temps are very pleasant, but this is the time of year when we can expect good old mom to go a little crazy just about every week. It seems to me that October would be the ideal time to get out and get artsy, when the weather is more likely to be nice and calm, but that's just my 2 pennies.

~marty

And We're Off!

Well, here we are, doing the blogging thing. I guess the place to start is at the beginning so here it goes. My name is Marty and I have started this blog to share my 2 pennies about the thoughts that cross my mind. I have been known to have a few "strong" opinions on many different topics, shoot some would say that I am pigheaded, well let me tell you what I think about that.......

No really, I am an easy going type of person, I just have convictions that I stick to (sometimes to my own detriment it seems) but I am generally easy to get along with. If I offend you with my comments please know that I do not go around sporting for a fight, I will just tell it like see it.

I am a committed Christian and believe that there is only one way to have a relationship with God and that is through the acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.

I am a committed family man who believes in the sanctity of marriage and in the strong family unit. I am proud to say that I am married to my best friend in the whole world, Joyce. We are currently working toward our 25th year of marriage and I can honestly say that it is a labor of love and I cannot imagine my life without her by my side. I am the proud daddy to two wonderful sons who have made outstanding young men and I am looking forward to the day that they take the steps into family life of their own.

I am politically conservative with strong libertarian leanings. I am a firm believer in the strong individual making a life for himself without the hindrance of government ties to bind him down. I believe that less government is the best government. I am proud of our countries heritage and consider myself to be a patriot.

So, this is me in a nutshell... but anyone that knows me knows that there is so much more to me than that. I will be happy to share more of my life with you and probably throw out a ton of pennies as we go along. Keep tuned in cause you may miss some astounding remark, an incredible word of wisdom or just some goofy thought that squeezes out of my brain like toothpaste (you just can't tell).

Later,
~marty