Hey, it's just parinoia, isn't it?

As the election kicks into overdrive in it's final days, we are being treated to attack ads, fiery stump speeches and, depending which network you are watching, an unvarnished politically biased coverage for one candidate or the other. Whether it is Sarah Palin's expensive wardrobe or Obama's "Muslim" heritage or, there is enough political hyperbole on display this election cycle to keep our national blood pressure in the danger zone for the next decade. Political grandstanding aside, there are some issues that need to be brought out into the light, sooner than later. The number one issue is character and the candidates desire to uphold the Constitution. To question Barack Obama's character and his associations with those in our country who apparently do not cherish American way of life has apparently become taboo and earns the curious the label of racist, right wing conspiracy nut job or both.

My parents taught me that you are judged by the company you keep and it appears to me that this may be a good place to start looking at Barrack’s fitness to lead the greatest country in the world. Be it his apparent connections to ACORN, the Reverend Wright or Minister Louis Farrakhan, Obama has left us with a number of reasons to question his character.
In one of my earlier blog posts, Troubled Sleep , I explored the troubling Satanic text of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" (the Bible of Community Organizers) and the fact that Obama used the teachings of this deranged man to build his "career of service" upon. Earlier this year we were treated to the video of his Pastor and mentor, Jeremiah Wright, damning America during one of his "sermons". We have heard how he made alliances with the sleazy Chicago political machine which is famous for raising the dead to vote in elections, his connections with ACORN which apparently is attempting to spread the Chicago style of politics across the nation and his personal friendships with the likes of the leader of the Nation of Islam. Is it no wonder that the man has raised the ire of his political adversaries.

All of these points are reason enough, for me, to say that I don't trust the man. He is either lying to the Nation about his true convictions or he has some serious problems when it comes to choosing his friends. But there is one friend that puts the rest of these Yahoos to shame, William Ayers. This is a man who has tried, as founder of the 1970's terrorist orginization the Weather Underground, to overthrow the United States of America and replace it with Anarchy and socialism. This man lives in the same neighborhood as Barrack (and Minister Farrakhan) and was one of the first people in Chicago to befriend Barrack and help him establish his burgeoning political career. As the news of his former alliance with this renowned terrorist began to leak out, we were told that there was no connection between Ayers former terroristic ways and his alliance with Barrack. After all, Barrack was only 8 years old when the Weather Underground was going around blowing up stuff. But if you read the Ruels for Radicals, listen to the sermons of the Reverend Wright and Minister Farrakhan or read the reports of voter fraud being thrust upon our Nation right now by members of ACORN, it is not a far stretch of the imagination to believe that Obama and Ayers relationship may have undertones that run a little deeper than we are being led to believe.

I came across this video clip of the 1982 documentary "No Place To Hide" about the Weather Underground and their plot to overthrow the US Government and replace it with a socialistic, no, a communist regime. This clip is of an interview with Larry Grathwohl, an FBI informant who had infiltrated the movement and was in a unique position to learn of their diabolical plans for our way of life.

Call me a right wing nut job, but I think that befriending a terrorist who had made plans to exterminate 25 million Americans warrants a red flag. I tend to think that displaying treasonous tendencies is a fairly good reason to stay away from a man, not to mention accepting his help establishing my political career as a fund raiser. Now it seems that we are being told not to look at the man behind the curtain. We are told that this is the Messiah and that we should all bow and worship at his benevolent feet as he helps us "share the wealth".

Well, my friends, I smell a rat and I am afraid that we will all come to regret ever letting this man into our House on Pennsylvania Avenue. While I won't even try to hide my disdain for John McCain, I have no doubt that he is a true patriot and would fight to his last drop of blood dripped from his veins to protect the American way of life that our forefathers died for. I wish, with every fiber in my body, that I held the same convictions about Barrack Obama, but my instincts tell me that it is really time to start praying... and that's my 2 pennies.

It's Not Theirs To Give

As I watch in amazement, at the bone headed move that the US Congress and President Bush have made this past week by implementing the largest government bailout in history, and I am reminded of a story that I read several years ago by Colonel David Crockett.

Davey was a true American Hero, whether he was blazing new trails in the settlement of the Western territories of his time, nobly serving as a member of the US House of Representatives or laying down his life for the Texas cause, he has become one of my favorite people in history.

This story is one of the cornerstones of truth that I have built my conservative beliefs upon. I hope that it resonates with your spirit the way it has with mine and it provides a firm foundation block for you to build on.

Warning: This is an extremly long story, but it is well worth the time.

Not Yours to Give

by

Colonel David Crockett;

Compiled by Edward S. Ellis



One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him.

Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:

"Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown . It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made homeless, and, besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.

"The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly.

"I began: 'Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and--'

"'Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett, I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.'

"This was a sockdolager . . . I begged him to tell me what was the matter.

"'Well, Colonel, it is hardly worth-while to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest. . . . But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.'

"'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.'

"'No, Colonel, there's no mistake. Though I live here in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown . Is that true?'

"'Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.'

"'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown , neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington , no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.

"'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.'

"I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

"'Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.'

"He laughingly replied: 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.'

"'If I don't,' said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.'

"'No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. This is Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.'

"'Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.'

"'My name is Bunce.'

"'Not Horatio Bunce?'

"'Yes.'

"'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.'

"It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.

"At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had every seen manifested before.

"Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.

"I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him--no, that is not the word--I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.

"But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted--at least, they all knew me.

"In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:

"'Fellow-citizens--I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.'

"I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

"'And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

"'It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'

"He came upon the stand and said:

"'Fellow-citizens--It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.'

"He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.

"I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.

"Now, sir," concluded Crockett, "you know why I made that speech yesterday.

"There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week's pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men--men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased--a debt which could not be paid by money--and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighted against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

Holders of political office are but reflections of the dominant leadership--good or bad--among the electorate.

Horatio Bunce is a striking example of responsible citizenship. Were his kind to multiply, we would see many new faces in public office; or, as in the case of Davy Crockett, a new Crockett.

For either the new faces or the new Crocketts, we must look to the Horatio in ourselves!

-Leonard E. Read

Great Rock N Roll And A Hot Cup Of Joe

Tonight, well, last night as I am writing this, my son’s band, Planning Yesterday, played an exciting concert at Seekers Coffee House in Hurst. These guys are, without a doubt, my favorite new band, even without my obvious bias as the father of the drummer. Over the past 18 months, I have watched these four young men gel together to become a monster Rock N Roll machine. Sure, they are a “Christian Rock” band, but they have not been cast in the mold of the typical grab some no-doze, oh no, it’s another KLTY sleeper band… these boys absolutely KICK TAIL!!! They can give any 70’s or 80’s hard rock band a good run for their money. Their energy level is right up there with the likes of Van Halen or Aerosmith.

Right now they are finishing up their very first 4 song EP, which will hopefully be out before the beginning of the year, and they are ready to start the job of attracting a record label to pick them up and cut their first Album. It is extremely exciting to watch an up and coming band begin their climb and to know that your child has a major part of that process.

My son, Cody, has had the desire to be in a “real” rock band for several years now and has made personal sacrifices to ensure that when lightning strikes that he is positioned to jump on and take the ride. I am so proud of his commitment, not only to his walk as a Christian man, but also to his love of playing music. To watch him on stage, playing his heart out, is one of the most gratifying moments that I get to have as a father.

The thought of them hitting the “Big Time” and being able to go full time is both exciting and a little bit scary. However, I know that they have their priorities straight and their heads on right so I have no doubt at all that they will be able to do what they have been called to do, honor God, while they rock as many peoples faces off as they can.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to listen to their music or catch them in concert, you owe it to yourself to visit their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/planningyesterdaytheband to check them out. They play a lot of free concerts throughout the Metroplex so be sure to catch one, it won’t cost you anything but your time and I can guarantee that you will have a great time in the process, or I will make sure you get your money back… and that’s my two pennies.

25 Years In The Making

In 1983, two very young 17 year old kids decided that they loved each other so much that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. Their life together was not so easy, but they managed to fill it with love and happiness. They always knew that they had each other and that nothing would ever change that. They managed to raise two wonderful sons and have enjoyed watching them grow into fine young men. Although theirs was never a life of financial success, they considered themselves to be the richest people on earth because they had each other, and that was always more than enough to sustain them.

Today marks the 25th year we have spent together as husband and wife and I am just as excited today about my bride as I was in 1983. Joyce has been my very best friend, whom I can tell my deepest secrets to. She has always stood by my side and has helped to carry me through the rough times that I have had to suffer through. She does not demand anything of me and is so free when it comes to showering me with her love.

I was taught many years ago that when God was creating the Universe, He finished His work in 6 days. He created every mountain, tree and every human spirit that would inhabit a body in the future. During the time before these little spirits took off on their respective assignments, they were all together, in His presence and bonds were made with each other. I am absolutly sure, without a doubt that Joyce and I were destined, from the beginning of time, to be together for eternity. The draw of our spiritual connection was so great that her parents were led to bring her to Texas from New York to be with me. I know it sounds sappy, but our relationship goes so much deeper than any other relationship I have ever been in, this belief resonates deeply within my spirit.

I thank God every day for Joyce, even though I fail miserably to show her how much I appreciate her. I hope that she knows that my love for her goes deeper than my need for breath. I would absolutely lay my life down for her, without reservation. I am so proud that we have not only stay together for the past 25 years but have managed to become more as one in the process. I look forward to our journey as we start the next 25 years.

Joyce, I love you so much… and that’s my 2 pennies!
~marty

Troubled Sleep

As I was sleeping last night, I began to think about what a “Community Organizer”(CO) is. I know, I’m weird, why on earth would I wonder such a thing and why in the world would I even care enough to wake up at 3 in the morning thinking about it? Common sense would tell me that a “Community Organizer’ is a person who organizes the community to do stuff, duh, but it seems that there may be more to it than it‘s obvious connotation.

We are being told, on a daily basis, that this is a very important job, which endows it’s practitioners with that oh so necessary executive experience that is the prerequisite to assume the office of President of the United States. But the question that still has me puzzled is, what in the name of Fred is a “Community Organizer“? Well, here I sit in the wee hours of the blessed AM researching the subject, and what an eye opener it is. First of all, it is not such a magnanimous position, born out of the sole desire to improve the lives of our fellow men, it actually has an ulterior motive that we all need to be aware of. That motivation is the propagation of socialist ideas aimed at the destruction of the foundation that this nation was built upon.

With a statement like that, a little history of the movement may be in order here.

While many in the CO movement would like to include the American Revolution as one of their triumphs, I disagree so I will begin with the actual emergence of the movement as it morphed into the organization it is today. During the industrial revolution from the late 1800’s to the middle of the 20th century, living conditions were abysmal ,to say the least, for Americans who lived in the industrial centers of the nation. During this tumultuous period of change from a placid agrarian society to an industrial juggernaut, there was a huge push, world wide, to reclaim the independence lost to the large corporations that wielded such a considerable influence on the daily lives of the people who made the cogs of capitalism turn.


In America, trades unions were formed and blood was shed to secure the rights of the worker to be treated fairly. In Europe, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and the fascist movements began to sweep Germany and it’s surrounding neighbors. After the defeat of fascism during World War II and the ensuing prosperity that followed, more and more people were moving off of the farm, drawn by the better lifestyle that being a member of the industrial workforce promised. However, the seeds of socialism and anarchy had been planted and began to take root within the CO movement.

Under the leadership of Dorothy Day, an American journalist turned anarchist, social activist and a devout member of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Worker Movement was established which organized workers and tended to the social needs of the improvised downtrodden masses in depression era New York. Her work helped establish many communal farms designed to provide for poor people to live on and share their existence with one another. Over 100 of these communes are still in existence today and Dorothy Day was declared a Servant of God by Pope John Paul II and her case has been opened up to be considered for canonization as a saint.

Saul Alinsky, a Chicago Marxist, actually originated the term "community organizer". Alinksy is the author of two books, "Rules for Radicals," and "Reveille for Radicals." "Rules" was published in 1971, has been the bible of the radical CO movement since the 1970s. In his Rules for Radicals, Alinsky outlines his strategy in organizing, writing,

"There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 per cent of American families - more than seventy million people - whose income range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year [in 1971]. They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail to communicate with them, if we don't encourage them to form alliances with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let's not let it happen by default.."

In his dedication to his own book, Rules for Radicals Alinsky stated:

"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer."


Alinsky is often credited with laying the foundation for the grassroots political organizing that dominated the 1960s. The American Civil Rights Movement, the Global Warming (Green) movement, the anti-war movements, the Chicano, Feminist and Gay Rights movements all influenced and were influenced by the ideas of Community Organization. Famous community organizers include: Jane Addams, César Chávez, Samuel Gompers, Martin Luther King, Jr., John L. Lewis, Ralph Nader, Barack Obama and Paul Wellstone.


Alinsky was the subject of Hillary Rodham’s senior honors thesis at Wellesley College, “There Is Only The Fight…”, An Analysis of the Alinsky Model. In her 2003 biography, Living History, Clinton notes that although she agreed with some of his ideas, "particularly the value of empowering people to help themselves" they had a fundamental disagreement: "He believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn't." Once Hillary Rodham Clinton became First Lady, the White House asked Wellesley College to restrict access to the thesis for fear of being associated too closely with Alinsky's ideas.

Thirteen years after Alinsky died, some of his former students hired Barack Obama for a $13,000 a year job as a community organizer in South Chicago. In a few years he became very proficient in the Alinsky Method of community organizing and became an instructor and teacher of the Alinsky Method to other community organizers. When several speakers at the 2008 Republican National Convention questioned the value of Obama’s CO service, the main stream media was quick to come to his aid with scathing rebukes of the “insensitive remarks“.

So, my conclusion about CO Movement is that it is an attempt by socialists, currently championed by Barack Obama, to dismantle the fabric of Judeo-Christian values which this nation was built upon and replace it with a system that has been dedicated to the “first radical“, Lucifer.

My friends, we are in a war. It is a war of the principalities of the air, a battle between righteousness and evil. To allow this movement to gain complete control of our Government will have grave consequences for our Nation. I fear that we will see our Constitutional Rights shredded as the new American Politburo takes it's place on Capitol Hill.

I, for one don’t think we can afford to enter into a partnership with a movement dedicated to Lucifer. I don’t care how slick the front man is packaged. I am not impressed with the fear mongering and class envy tactics they employ. We cannot allow this evil to come into our Halls of Democracy, we need to take a stand this November and rebut their attempt to destroy what our forefathers built with the sweat of their brow and the blood of their hearts.

If you are as concerned about this issue as I am, I ask you to join hands with us in this battle against evil. This is the year that your vote really counts... but that's just my two pennies.

THE GATES OF HELL OR WATCH OUT FOR WOLVES

As the party, “officially” in charge of defending women’s rights, falls all over itself trying to dig up every grain of dirt it can to hurl at John McCain’s Vice Presidential Running Mate, they show their true colors. They are not in the least bit interested in the rights of the American woman, they are only interested in pandering to the hopes and aspirations of an extremely large voting block.


Baby Gate:

The amount of unadulterated BS that has been slung at Sarah Palin in the past four days is mind boggling, to say the least. And the fact that the Main Stream Media (MSM) are playing the part of the attack dog, all the while claiming objectivity, is just disgusting. My friends we are seeing the left at it’s best or at it’s worse, as the case may be.

Should the sexual morays of a 17 year old daughter be held against the mother? By the way, the age of consent in the State of Alaska happens to be 16, so Sarah had no legal grounds to stand on even if she had tried to stop the dirty deed.


The blogs that caused her daughters pregnancy to come front and center were nothing short of evil. To have made the insinuation that Sarah’s daughter was the actual mother of her youngest son went beyond the pale. And the fact that the MSM had picked up the rumors and were willing to spread them as truth shows the true biased nature of the beast.

Common sense would tell the average person, of average intelligence, that the odds of a 17 year old woman giving birth to a child with Downs Syndrome is next to impossible. Common sense should tell you that there may have been trained medical staff present in the birthing room who would have realized that the mother was actually a 17 year old and not the Governor of the State. But apparently, common sense is in short supply in the MSM and apparently in the Democrat Party to boot.


Hillary Gate:
Had Barrack selected Hillary as his running mate, you can bet your boots that the MSM would have reported that as surpassing the parting of the Red Sea in it’s magnificence. There would be no questioning her past, no one would remember the scandals of the Clinton era that she was involved in up to her neck. The White Water fiasco, the firing of the Whitehouse Travel Office, the questionable death of Vince Foster, the failed attempted hijacking of the National Health Care System, the collection of FBI files of people on her enemies list that turned up in her possession, renting the Lincoln bedroom out for political donations, the theft of Whitehouse property as she left for New York name just a few of the scandals that I can name right off of the top of my head.


Green Gate:

The claims of inexperience and lack of qualifications to hold the office just floor me. The Constitution lays out the qualifications to hold the office of President and Vice president as follows;


No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.


There are no other requirements to attain the office. The office of President should always be looked upon as an office that is attainable by an natural born citizen without a test of experience involved. It is arrogance at it’s grandest to attempt to apply requirements on Mrs. Palin’s run for office that have never been applied before in our history. Had the requirement of foreign policy experience been a requirement to assume the office we would have had to disqualify half of the Presidents in my lifetime. George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Regan and Jimmy Carter were all lowly Governors, ill-equipped to hold the office of President if you follow the current logic.


Conclusion:
I am afraid that we have just seen the tip of this iceberg from hell and that the remaining weeks of the campaign will be full of mud slinging and dirty tricks the likes of which we have never before seen. Why the American public continues to go to the Main Stream Media for their news is beyond me. God endowed us all with the intelligence to look at the situation our country is in and make informed decisions as to the direction it is going. The problem lies in the fact that we are a nation of sheep, we will follow the herd right into the slaughter house without giving it a second thought. And what is really sad is that the wolves are leading the way, but that’s just my two pennies.

Winds of Change or The Perfect Storm

As Hurricane Gustav prepares to take aim at the Gulf Coast of the United States, I am inclined to take a look at the other storm that is brewing in our Nation.

This past week, we were treated to a spectacle the rivaled any of the road productions of the Lion King. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance, lots of rich bright colors and a theatrical set that had the tell tale markings of Hollywood special effects designers written all over it. Thousands of free tickets were passed out to the unwashed masses to attend the acceptance speech of the now Presidential Nominee Barack Hussein Obama. After all of the introductions and numerous background videos, the crowd went into a frenzy as the "One" (not my word, it is actually a quote from Oprah) took the stage. After the obligatory pause for adulation, he began to speak. The speech was filled with passion and it was filled with hope, too bad there was little substance to the rhetoric.

The crowd went hysterical as their hero in shining armor welcomed his stead and their families on stage to stand stoically in sheer opposition to the oppression that the past eight years of mismanagement and incompetence has brought upon the American public.

"All is well with America", we are told, by the talking heads who are gushing with pride at the thought that "history" is being made as the first black man prepares to take the helm of the greatest nation in the world and leads us into a new world where change and hope prevail. The only problem being, there is still a pesky little matter called an election that has to take place first.

Enter the buzz kill! Friday, at high noon, John McCain took the stage in Ohio and unceremoniously proceeds to let the air out of the balloons that were flying so high just the previous night. He lays out the card that he has been playing so close to the vest that no one had a clue what was about to hit them. The Ace that he has been hiding up his sleeve is revealed to be Sarah Palin the little known Governor of the State of Alaska. You can hear the deafening silence as the Democratic party and their main stream media mouth pieces go into collective cardiac arrest as it dawns on them that McCain just pulled a rabbit out of the hat. They had no clue that he had plans to upset their apple cart by using such an out of left field move. They had their hearts set on attacking the established in crowd in the GOP ranks, not some unknown, former Beauty Queen first term Governor from a flyover State that lacks Electoral College clout.

Oh, the winds of change, they are a blowin', as penned by one of the lefts favorite sons, Bob Dylan. Yes Bob, they are and now the playing field has been given severe twist, as the GOP base sees the glimmer of a spark of hope in an otherwise dead campaign. If Mr. McCain stays the course he has begun and Sarah Palin continues to display the strength that she had shown in Alaska, we may see an energized group of conservative voters show up on election day and blow the "hope of change" message right out of the water... but that's just my 2 pennies.

Barbrook Memories

Wow, it seems that the years have been slipping by at a breakneck pace and most of the cool places and things that made growing up in Haltom City have begun to crumble or fade away.

As the mercury hits triple digits for the 11th day in a row, my mind drifts back to the lazy days of summer when all we had to do was soak up the sun at Barbrook. Driving down the winding road and entering in through the front gate was like stepping into another world, although Haltom City waited patiently for us at the top of the hill to make our return.

Whether you spent your time laying out on the dock, slipping down the slide or mustered up the courage to take the plunge off of the high dive into the deep cool water, you were guaranteed a good time. How many of us spent time learning how to swim in the almost artic waters of the Olympic pool at the top of the hill? Or maybe you slid down the big water slide the came down the hill, before it burned down.

I feel sorry for the kids of today's generation, who will never get to enjoy the Barbrook experience. The will never be able to eat one of those greasy hamburgers from the snack bar or play foosball in the wet sand by the locker rooms.

It is a shame that the last owners of the park did not do enough to keep the park safe and open for future generations to enjoy. The last time I was there, the floor of the pool had huge cracks in it and it was covered with dirt and slime. Not long after that, there was a little boy who apparently got trapped under the dock and drowned. It took several hours of diving to find him due the murky water. I guess the subsequent lawsuit and repair costs were too much for the owners to be able to open the park back up. We have lost a great resource for our community and I, for one, am saddened to see it gone.

Let me know about your memories of the pool and if you happen to have pictures I would love to see them.

It's Been A Long Long Road

In 1984, I was an 18 year old boy working a very tough job in a warehouse for a company that sold horse trailer parts and equipment and custom conversion equipment for vans and pick up trucks. This job was high paced and required extremely heavy lifting, in an atmosphere that was less than idea for safety. With that said, today marks the 24th anniversary of the day that changed my life forever, the day that I injured myself.


I was attempting to remove a box from a seven or eight foot high shelf that held roughly a 200 pound rubber mat. The trick to getting these boxes down from their perch was to push it from the back side until it was almost halfway out. Then you went around to the other side and climbed up on the bottom shelf, grabbed hold of the box and jump down which, in theory, would cause the box to slide down to your waiting arms to guide it the rest of the way. That's the way it should work, unless the contents of the box shifted too fast and you were not able to beat it to the ground.

To my detriment, this was the case on July 31, 1984. The box managed to slide on top of me before I was able to brace myself for the hit. The weight was too much for my back to handle and the result was a crash to the ground with 3 disks rupturing under the pressure. At that very moment, I was introduced to a pain that I had never dreamed could exist. As an indestructible 18 year old (in my mind at least), I was about to enter into a world of pain that most people don't experience until they reach extreme old age.

So here I am, 24 years later, still dealing with debilitating pain. After 5 open back surgeries and too many lesser procedures to count, you would think that medical science would have been able to provide some relief, but alas, that is a dream that alludes me.

You would think that an accident of this magnitude would cause a person to be bitter, and it definitely has the potential to do just that. Just like any other black cloud that enters into our lives, there has been a silver lining to be found here. I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a stay at home dad for my boys and have been able to guide their lives in a way that has helped them to grow to be really good men. I am convinced that in today's busy world of two income families, children are all too often the ones who have to bear the brunt of the cost. I am in no way casting aspersions on those who do not have the luxury of keeping a parent at home to raise their kids, but I wish that everyone had the ability to do so. While we have not been able to live a lavish lifestyle due to our financial situation, I must admit that I am extremely satisfied with the life we have. If pain is the price to pay for the blessings we enjoy, it has been worth every minute of it, but that's just my two pennies.

Big Concert Review

It is around 1:30 in the morning and we just got home from an intimate concert for around 20,000 at the Superpages.com Center in Dallas. Tonight’s concert was billed as the most important musical event of the year as three major bands from the 70’s & 80’s combined forces to provide a monster show that rivaled the legendary line ups of Rock & Roll’s distant past.

First up was one of my favorites of all time, Cheap Trick. Their music was really good, they played a solid set of all of their biggest hits peppered with a few lesser known numbers. The obligatory Kiss album was thrown into the audience as they sang Surrender and the crowd was excited when I Want You To Want Me started up. All in all, they put on a decent show, the time between songs seemed a little long but what do you expect with all of Rick‘s guitar changes (it takes a little time to lug a 5 neck guitar on stage). One thing that was new, at least to me, was Tom Petersons 12 string bass guitar, very cool. The crowd was rather thin at the beginning of their set but was steadily filing in towards the end of the set. I have seen Cheap Trick when they were the headliner and was a little disappointed (not much) in their performance tonight.

After the Cheap Trick set was scratched it was time for the Wilson sisters to grace the stage with a powerful performance. I have never seen Heart in a live show and was not disappointed. Dreamboat Annie was in tip top condition to belt out the tunes with her trademark lungs, that girl can whale! And then there is Nancy, sweet Nancy, absolutely one of my top teenage crushes, alive and in person. There was just something about such a pretty girl who can pound an axe the way she does that just set the pre-pubescent hormones of a little redhead into overdrive. But I digress, these ladies still have what it takes to bring down the house in short order. Their band was spot on and ripped through almost all of their greatest hits with ease. The only downside that I saw was the fact that they played two cover songs, one from The Who and the other from Led Zeppelin. Both songs were perfectly executed , but it just seemed to me that they have a large enough library of hits that they shouldn’t have to rely on covers to get the job done (I like to pick nits).

And then we witnessed what is arguably one of the most exciting and power packed performances that I have ever seen, when Journey took the stage. If you haven’t heard yet, Journey is making a comeback that will blow you away, if you are a fan. They have struggled over the years trying to find someone to fill in the gap left in the band after Steve Perry left. They have had some really good front men, but it just didn’t seem to jive. Well, after the last singer took his leave, Neal Schon (lead guitar) decided to start cruising the You Tube pages to see if there was anyone out their that would catch his eye. To make a long story short, his eye got caught and put into a massive eye lock. He came across a little cover band from the Philippines named the Zoo. Their front man was a young man named Arnel Pineda who had mastered Steve Perry’s voice to an almost eerie perfection. He was brought to the US where he auditioned and was given the chance of a lifetime, to front the band Journey. Well, needless to say, the crowd was pumped to see Journey and was not disappointed in the least. They managed to get in most of their major hits in the hour and a half set and added a couple more in their 30 minute ovation to boot. These guys were on fire, Neal is tighter than I have ever heard him before and Arnel is a mad man, the Tasmanian Devil for some reason comes to mind while watching him work the stage. If you don’t get the chance to see them live, pick up their latest release, Revelation, at Walmart, it has two CD’s and a DVD of this concert tour. We had real problems finding our way out of the theater because we had our faces rocked off, this was one of the best shows that I have ever seen, hands down, but that’s just my two pennies.

Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!

Over the past several months, I have been busy researching my families history and delving into the memories, the myths and the unmistakable tall tales that make my families past so interesting. As I rummage around through the proverbial dusty cobweb filled attic, that holds memories of bygone eras, I began remembering some of my own past adventures and have noticed that I have a real longing in my heart for the times that have subtlety slipped away.

In these times of high speed communications, fast paced living and the ever consuming need for instant gratification, I wax nostalgic for a time that was much more simple and one that moved at a much slower pace. A time when children were allowed to play outside with the neighborhood kids without fear of a sexual predator, with less than honorable intentions, having access to their innocence. A time when you were not assaulted with raw footage on the television of the latest plane crash or high speed car chase. A time when a ten dollar bill was sufficient to fill your tank with gas or pay for a date to a first run movie with you sweetheart.

Although I know that those times were filled with their own share of problems and worries, it just seems to me that the simpler life we lived made the social ills of the time a little less hard to swallow. We have grown accustomed to knowing what is going on in the Middle East Wars with just a brief satellite lag time. We have found that we can read our friends latest thoughts in almost real time on Twitter or see our friends & families photographs in record breaking time just by viewing their MySpace page. We can buy the latest, can't live without it now widget just by pressing the buy now button on e-bay and have it at our front door in less than a week thanks to UPS & Fed Ex.

I must plead that I am guilty of freely partaking in the new technology, but at what cost? Has all this new technology really made me a better person? Or has it been a cocoon that gives me the option to avoid the world outside by turning to the virtual world inside? Has it really helped my personal relationship skills or has it merely made me a better typist?

As I have been digging up skeletons I have had some great memories of places and things that are no longer around. Like pulling into the subway station and hearing the chime as you walked up the ramp into Lenard's department Store downtown. Or seeing the Lisa Marie parked next to the fence at Meachum Airport every time Elvis came to town. Swimming under the cross bars of the dock at the Barbrook Swimming Pool in Haltom City. Eating pancakes at Sambo's Pancake House while reading the story of how butter was actually invented, on their menu.

Or the simple pleasures of just being a kid, like walking barefoot in the summer and letting your toes squish into the tar on the road as it was warmed by the hot summer sun. Chasing fire flies and collecting them in mayonnaise jars in the warm evening air. Running wild in Little Fossil Creek fighting Indians and pirates almost every day during the long days of summer. Creating mischief like stealing empty milk jugs from back porches to have coke and candy money for the day or smoking grapevine until you were sick at your stomach.

This was all in a time that was before the reality of life began to hit me as an adult and I'm sure that my parents did not see the world in the same rosy shades that I did but it does seem to me that times were much simpler then. I wish that my boys could have experienced life to the extent that I did when I was much younger, but I'm sure that they will look back on their childhood as the much simpler times and wish that they could real in the years that have slipped away from them too. I guess it all has to do with your prospective of life, but I believe that the good old days are just that and have slipped away down that long dark well of time only to be relived in our memories.

If you are interested in finding some local history, may I suggest that you visit the Fort Worth Architecture Forum at http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/, they have a ton of old memories in the Local History forum and links to old pictures of the area. It is a real fun place for history buffs to play, but that's just my 2 pennies.
~marty

Minimum Wage Increase or Hold Onto Your Wallet

Our "leaders" in Washington, while pandering to the lower economic sectors of our nation, in their infinite wisdom decided a few years ago that it was necessary to begin implementing a substantial increase in the minimum wage. Their rational was that we needed to raise the entry level pay of the nations work force up to a "living wage". This is an extremely noble idea, that will have disastrous implications for our nations economy.

As with most other actions made by the current gang of scoundrels in power, this move demonstrates that they are out of touch with the reality of making a living, that our people face daily. As minimum wages are artificially increased due to government edict, the effect will result in a net loss of entry level jobs, an incentive for employers to turn to illegal immigrants to fill these positions at a much lower rate of pay and an increase of the overall cost of living for all of us.

Employers will now face the following options due to this move to garnish political favor:
1. Absorb the costs of increased wages.
2. Pass along the added cost of production to the consumer in higher prices.
3. Make cuts in the number of employees which in turn will increase the workload on those who remain.
4. Begin skirting the law all together by employing undocumented workers who will work under the table for lower wages.
5. Search for off shore facilities that are exempt from Federal edicts.
6. Close up shop all together.

Out of the five options listed above, it is a safe bet to assume that option 1 will not be a front runner. The cost of consumer goods, which have already experienced unprecedented increases due to a sharp rise in material costs, will begin to see a steady increase that will have the net effect of literally pricing the recipients of this “gift” right out of the market.
This in turn will force more people to begin relying on government social welfare programs. The number of displaced employees, due to staffing cutbacks, will undoubtedly feed this increasing line of Americans finding themselves reliant on government handouts.

Along with the devaluation of the Dollar due to the Federal Reserves and the Congressional penchant of resorting to the practice of fiat economics, we will begin to see a steady increase in the cost of living which has the potential to pose dire consequences to the American way of life that we have grown accustom to. Our country would be well served if these socialist “do gooders” would get their fingers out of the soup and allow the market place work through the laws of supply and demand. If an employer cannot fill vacant positions at a low wage, he will be forced to adjust his wages to be comparable to the market in which he does business. This will level the playing field for all by bringing the cost of living down according to the free market demands.

I am not very optimistic about the path we find ourselves on at the moment. I fear that the socialistic tendencies that our elected officials display, both parties included, will not bode well for our way of life, but that’s just my two pennies.

It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level I'm really quite busy.

A Little Girl Named Bear
I have just been killing time perusing the Internet and came across a really interesting video of a 6 year old little girl, named Emily Bear. Emily is an accomplished piano player, to say the least. i cannot comprehend how someone, so young, can possess the talent that this young lady demonstrates. I wanted to share the video, of her on the Ellen show, with you... enjoy.



Well, Hello Dolly!
As I write, Tropical Storm Dolly is cranking up in the Gulf of Mexico and has her eye on far South Texas. It looks as if she will gain Hurricane status at any time and will make landfall somewhere between Corpus Christi and Northern Mexico. This story interests me because Jeromie just returned from South Padre Island, this past Saturday. He said that the waves were getting larger when they left and that they had been wondering if something was cooking out in the Gulf. Hopefully, Dolly will make landfall north of the South Padre area, onto the King Ranch. This is a huge expanse of real estate that has no human habitation, to speak of, on it. South Texas needs the rain... got to keep them cantaloupes watered.

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!
The noon news just showed a story about a daycare in Dallas that forgot to remove a 19 month old baby from the transportation van. This is Texas and it is the middle of July, any brain dead idiot knows not to leave kids in cars in this heat, except these meat heads. You guessed it, another child needlessly killed by the negligence of a daycare worker entrusted to provide for her safety. When will these people learn, how many more babies have to die?

As The Worm Turns

Do you ever get the feeling that we are being sold a bill of goods by the liberal elites in this world. We have been forced to listen to Chicken Little screaming, "the sky is falling" for way too long now. The high priest of "Global Warming", Al Gore, has been lecturing us for the past 8 or so years about the end of the world as we know it being right around the corner. This charlatan has preached that we need to reduce our "carbon footprint" by purchasing carbon offsets, sold by who else? Al Gore, himself. All the while, his "carbon footprint" dwarfs that of the average mope who actually works for a living.


Well, now it looks as if the worm is finally making it's turn. The junk science, that is AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming, the warming of the atmosphere caused by human activity), is being proved to be just that, junk science. The United Nations has begun to scale back it's alarmist rhetoric and is reversing itself on it's dire predictions of doom and gloom.


The following is from an article from Onenewsnow.com that reports on the crumbling of the flimflam that we have been subjected to by these snake oil salesmen disguised as global do-gooders.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=74767


U.N. IPCC scales back climate change report
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 4/8/2008 10:45:00 AM

Marc Morano, a spokesperson from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee minority staff, says the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is scaling back on its previous dire predictions of catastrophic climate change.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) says that with each successive report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there is less cause for alarm than previously thought. Morano points out that in the recent 2007 report, man's alleged impact on "global warming" was scaled back by 25 percent while ocean-level rise was also reduced. According to Morano, this is the 13th year that rapid warming has been predicted and advertised in the media by Al Gore and the U.N., but it has failed to occur. "So at some point, they're getting worried -- and now you have record winter in the Northern Hemisphere and record winter in the Southern Hemisphere, [as well as] global cooling to the extent from 2007 to 2008 that was rather significant and surprised a lot of scientists," Morano contends. He also says the U.N. is realizing and acknowledging that there is continually less cause for alarm on the subject. "And now you have a cooling .... [But] NASA scientist James Hansen [is] trying to say 'well, warming will resume soon, but this is just [a] natural factor [with] the ocean circulation,' but the fact of the matter is the head of the U.N. [IPCC] Rajendra Pachauri came out recently and said we have to investigate this apparent temperature plateau," Morano notes. The Senate committee staff member contends Al Gore is currently trying to sidestep the issue.


While I am concerned that we, as humans, are called by our maker to be good stewards of his creation, we have been made to feel guilty over a natural phenomenon, the cyclical nature of global temperatures, that we have absolutely no control over. We have been on the receiving end of a collective brow beating by those who wish to abscam with as much of our money as they can and by the socialist elitists who are focused on the destruction of the American way of life that our forefathers spilled their blood for. It is time that we, as free American citizens, tell these blow hards to take their carbon offsets and AGW bullcrap and shove it as far as their slimy hands can reach.

In my honest opinion, criminal investigations should be in the works to ensure that these thugs pay for the harm that they have wrought upon the unsuspecting people of our nation, but that is just my 2 pennies.

No Trees Were Harmed In The Transmission Of This Message, However, Billions of Electrons Were Temporarily Inconvenienced

Frustrations

Have you ever felt like you are the fire hydrant that the dog keeps pissing on? Well, that's where I am right now. I have been in a real funk dealing with my pain level. A few weeks back, I took a fall in the bath tub and I have had a hard time recovering from it. It seems that all the little gains that I have made have vanished and I am back at square one. It is hard to see the sunshine in your life when it is covered with a big black cloud. I know that I am not the most cheerful person in the world right now but I am trying very hard to not be a sad sack. I give mega props to Joyce for putting up with my sorry ass when I am in the hole like this. She is my strength and I appreciate her very much, even if I neglect to tell her so. I don't think I could make it without her unconditional love and support, she is cherry!

Last night was kind of tough, I was awake every 30 minutes or so and I had to get out of bed about every two hours to try to shake off the pain. However, during one of my moments of consciousness, I heard a great song on the satellite radio. It is Hocus Pocus by the Dutch band Focus. You cannot be in a bad mood when this song is playing, it is hilarious. You can listen to it on my MySpace page ro find it at Project Playlist.


Yahoo! has made a big mess out of their My Yahoo! page. They have decided to switch all of their accounts to the "New" My Yahoo! home page, which leaves content that was stored on the beta page inaccessible. This is a big pile of doo doo, as far as I am concerned. I have grown to love the Personal Notes section on the beta page and have stored most of my Internet information on there for handy access. Well now that we have made the switch, all of that content is lost in the ether.

They did make a way for us to import our bookmarks from the beta page to the new page, so I guess that counts for something. Hopefully they will read my many rants on their comments section and find a way to restore my files. I guess this just serves as a big lesson for me to not put all of my eggs in one basket, as it were. Oh well, I will just listen to Hocus Pocus and put on my happy face.

No Trees Were Harmed In The Transmission Of This Message,
However, Billions of Electrons Were Temporarily Inconvenienced

Been a while...

It's been a while since I have posted, I keep telling myself that I am going to get on the ball and start paying more attention to keeping things current, oh well.

So here is what has been going on for the past few months....

We have had two family reunions since I last posted.

We went to Glen Rose, for the Hickey Reunion, and had a really good time. Our numbers were

down dramatically this year and it showed, but all in all it was a good time for all. We had some nifty shirts made up for our family to wear on Saturday and also had some more stuff made up to add to the raffle. Hopefully, next year, we will have a better turn out.

We went to my uncle Bob's house for the 4th of July and had the Renfro family reunion along with the 4th celebration. We had a really good turn out of almost 100 people. A ton of food was prepared and devoured. We burned up a few dollars worth of fireworks and had a real enjoyable evening. As the night was coming to an end and the last rockets were being lit, there was a huge explosion right in the middle of our viewing area. I got hit in the side of the face and chest with flying debris and when the initial shock wave subsided, there was a second burst which caught Joyce's shirt on fire and burned her leg. Come to find out, the next door neighbor decided that it would be cool to send two shells into the air at the same time and loaded the chute with two shots. The tube could not withstand the extra pressure and ruptured, causing the first shot to deploy only about 15 ft in the air while the second one made a bee line across his property towards our unsuspecting party goers. These shells contained a double action shot which had a time delay so the first impact was the big pretty burst that everyone oooohhhh's and awwww's at when it is in the sky and the second blast is the secondary blast that compliments the first. It is all good and well at 100 or so feet up, but 12 inches off of the ground is a completely different story. Thankfully Joyce's shirt took the brunt of the damage and no one was seriously injured. The lesson learned: follow directions on fireworks packaging! Hey, it's not really the 4th of July until someone gets to take a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, anyway.

I have been working on T-shirt designs that will work with a little screen printing system that I bought a few weeks back. Let me know what you think.

The boys of Planning Yesterday have been busy over the past few months with concerts, Battle of the Band competitions and studio time recording their first three songs. They are doing great and have begun to garnish a little attention from some Music Industry types. Things are looking good.

Jeromie left this morning for Camp Padre down at South Padre Island, with Providence. They are the drama team this year and will be busy for most of the next week. I bet they will have a great time down there.

Here I still sit, riding the pill bottle swimming in the haze. I don't know if things will ever change for the better, but with my families support I am able to tolerate where I am at right now.

Se la vie... until next time,

~marty

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.