If it quacks, it's a duck...

I just heard a psychologist on CNN say that the word “THUG” is now a politically incorrect word.  It is not PC…it is unacceptable to describe the person exhibiting rude and boorish behavior as a thug.   

Sorry, Doctor…The Seattle football player who ranted on TV acted like a thug.  Not a racial comment, a social comment.

You can be white, black, brown or purple and still act like a thug.  And when you do, society has a right to label you as such. We don’t need someone from some institute telling us that THUG is a racial slur.  It is not.  The behavior was a slur on our good taste and good senses.

A thug is a thug, regardless what color the person who acts as such is. Thug has no color lines.

When the right to life becomes the right to dictate...we've crossed the line.

There is a hearing set for today in a Fort Worth, Texas  court to determine if the local hospital district can unplug a brain-dead woman from artificial life support.  She is carrying a 22- week old deformed child which is not growing properly according to doctors who have examined the fetus through ultrasound.

It is for cases like this that the right to choose makes so much sense.  The woman had left implicit instructions with family not to prolong her life in case of  an accident and the husband and father to the unborn fetus wants to carry out his late wife’s request. I say late wife because if it were not for machines, this woman would be dead.

The typical forces are at odds here. Right to Choose versus the Right to Dictate. This is the type of case that implores me to side with the Right to chose.  I am not a huge advocate for abortions.  I wish, as a society we would do more to promote safe, affordable contraception and not have to rely on the doctors to clean up our messes. But until the state gets out of the contraception business, we are going to have abortions— legal or otherwise.

But this case is not about an abortion, as we would recognize it. It is about a fetus that is now suffering from trying to develop inside of a dead woman. But a larger issue exists here.  It is the issue of government interference in our lives. 

The very conservatives who cry out to end Roe v Wade and to hold up this Texas Law protecting an unborn fetus of a dead woman, are the same people who rant and rave about too much government interfering in our daily life.  I couldn’t agree more.  Government needs to step aside from issues like this and allow medical doctors and family to decide.

The thing I wonder the most about is who will take care of a deformed child if it even lives through birth?  Certainly the /state of Texas will not. It barley takes care of healthy children who need its support.  And will the right to lifers step forward and give the family the millions of dollars will take to maintain a life for a child that could be suffering from untold deformities and life-threatening disorders?  I think not.

Most doctors associated with this case have said the child will not develop enough for birth. But there are those who say as long as the sonogram shows a fetus, you can’t pull the plug.

This is wrong.  It is inhumane and it is way out of bounds for a society as ours to inflict a family with such continued grief.

Show me the money.

I have just returned from Illinois, notorious for corrupt government and wasteful spending and yet, their roads, especially their city streets Naperville and Chicago as well as other burbs, were in terrific shape.  As compared to the streets here in Dallas and else ware in Texas.  So, I want to know where the tax dollars for the upkeep of our infrastructure is going?

Show me the money. Show me the cash.  Where is it being spent?

I just rode my bike along neighborhood streets in Dallas that are in such bad shape I was afraid that my fillings were going to be rattled out of my teeth.  In Naperville and the surrounding area, the streets, even in icy cold conditions with salt and sand on them, are smooth and unblemished for the most part.  What gives?

The same is true in Austin, Houston and other cities in the Lone Star State.  And our state highways (those not being turned into toll roads) are faring about the same.

What gives? It is time for an audit.  Where has the money gone?

We have become a little stupid in our paranoia of the boogie man.

There is no reason, other than stupidity and pure ignorance that this had to happen.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/02/customs-officials-explain-why-they-destroyed-musicians-prized-flutes/

Nothing more to add than, come on America, grow up. This kind of behavior is down right embarrassing.

Do you follow the recipe or do you freelance your own concoction?

There seems to be two camps — two schools of thought about making things in life.  there is the recreate the exact formula that has been used before to perfection. Not a bad idea.  Many great recipes are worth following down to the very pinch of salt required right after braising the lamb.  On the other hand there are those who will whip up a gourmet meal with little more in from of them than a TV and a glass of wine. Everything comes from their heads. All creative— all made up on the spot.

Neither camp is all right or all wrong. But it tells a lot about one's view of life. Which are you. Forget the kitchen. Think about how you move through the world on your daily walk. What is your life? Is it a series of forks in the road you negotiate by formula? Or is it one creative moment after the next with trial by fire at every turn?

I have creative friends whose lives are prescribed by a set of rules they follow closely as if by law. Others I know live life from one moment to the next as if there were no laws of nature at all. I even have scientist and engineer friends who live on the edge in their personal life, while taking extraordinary steps to stay with the plan in their work.

Think about your life and how you live it.during the new year, regardless of which side you find yourself, venture to the other side for a few hours each day. the change will do you good.

Tis the season...

It is that time of year again. Time to wrap gifts, drink eggnog and pretend we love our neighbors as ourselves.  But let's be truthful...a lot of the love, joy and wonder of this Christmas season has been lost due to the factions that fight constantly and bicker about very subject that comes up.

A few of my friends are angry over a man killing his stepdaughter as she entered the house.  (They, of course see this as more gun violence.)  Still others are aghast that A&E fired some duck caller guy for being a stupid, ignorant racists and homophobe. There are those who live around me who wish the Obama's dead. Others want them anointed for life as rulers of America.  We try not to have these groups over at the same time, especially if alcohol is being served.

Friends of mine in Utah support gay rights and the rights of LGBT to marry as they see fit.  Others we know in that wonderfully snowy state think it is the beginning of the end.

My vegan friends still think I am going to hell for eating the curds and whey, as well as the Whataburger and medium rare Ruth's Chris steak. My Ford friends won't speak to my Chevy friends and neither of those two groups will even acknowledge that my wife and I drive cars made by the Third Reich. (Heaven forbid if they knew I used to work for a car company from the land of the rising sun!)

But hey, it's Christmas.  A holiday designed to sell a great deal of retail merchandise to celebrate the birth of a man who preached giving your coat and alms to the poor.

Giving to the poor is a great idea.  But there are friends of mine on the right that think any handout is an act of communism. So you see, there is no pleasing anyone at this season. Which is why I am giving all my conservative friends a special gift this season. I am donating to Planned Parenthood in their names.

God bless you one and all.  And may you have a great holiday filled with beautifully wrapped gifts, loads of eggnog (splashed liberally with good Kentucky Bourbon) and relatives out the wazoo.

Merry Christmas.

An Open Letter to the White House.

Mr. President, it is time that the spying on Americans stop.

How’s that for being straight forward?  No more wishy-washy news conferences. No more subtle innuendos about what might be or could be done.  Just stop the spying. Period. Now.

You dropped the ball on Guantanamo, do not drop this ball.  Your support for Obamacare comes from a broad base, but a lot of it comes from progressives like me.  And I for one am fed up with the NSA and their tactics: even more, their lies and denials, which we know to be misleading and not factual.  The government of the United States is conducting surveillance on a broad scale against its citizens.  And that is unconstitutional.

So, Mr. President, bring it to a screeching halt.  Now.

Everyday our freedom of privacy is eroded.  Everyday the new right wing Supreme Court gives corporations and power brokers more and more control of our lives and it goes on unabated.  The men in black robes could care less about the freedoms of Americans. They only care about the rich and the powerful.  We need someone who will stand up for the citizens of the United States. We need a champion for the constitution. And we were hopping that would be you, Mr. Obama. You can do something about the NSA. You can shut it down. You can make a difference.

Stop the spying.  Today.