Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... There's always another way to look at 'things'. For a long time I've laid the blame for the open door to illegals coming here for jobs on our welfare state and those who take advantage of it. I haven't changed my mind about that because we are absolutely glutted with the sorry asses who prefer to go to the mailbox instead of going to work. But there is another factor to be considered, and that is abortion and the effect it's had on our country over the years. I've heard the figures and listened to the preachers in the pulpit rail about it for years, but I really never thought about the far reaching effects and how it could affect our workforce and economy. Instead I looked at it from the human side and tried to think about it from the standpoint of what's right and wrong and where it places us on a standard for civilized behaviour. I am totally against such an act and opposed to the legality we have placed on it. But there is something else long reaching about this murderous behaviour that has far reaching tentacles that wrap around not only our concienceness but our situation even today with social problems including illegal aliens in our work force. In the 60's we became enamoured with civil rights and personal individual rights and out of that came the crazies who almost never think of any long range effects. Thus came Roe vs. Wade which gave abortion legal legs. One of the facts that come out of abortions heinous acts is the sheer numbers. No one knows for absolute certainty but there is a strong possibility that as many as 75,000,000 babies may have been killed on purpose in their mothers wombs since 1960. There is no problem in documents and records proving that 50,000,000 were denied birth. Forget the God factor in this, because that is a personal thing with each individual, and a private issue. Instead we should think about the sheer numbers. If you can only accept the provable statistics, then we are left with 50,000,000 American individuals who, if allowed to live, would have paid taxes, consumed every thing imaginable that is consumable, contributed to the arts and life in general and more interestingly would have worked. That means they would have a job. This also means there would have been plenty of workers to fill not only the jobs the illegals now fill but would have created many more beyond that. We've never been a people with long term vision when it comes to passion. We've proven that time and again. Problem is, that sometimes has lasting pitfalls that are disastrous and can't be crawled out of.................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... From a Dumb Ass's point of view, what are the real options we have in about, and over Iraq? After actually having been there, especially without a particular mission to achieve either militarily or politically, one can reflect on what was seen and what you walked away in your memory bank with. I went to Bahrain in '87 or '88. It was at the height of Iranian Khomeni's antics attacking boats out in the Persian Gulf when ever that was. Bahrain was said to be one of the richest countries on the planet and big money banking was their game. But the regular people in Bahrain were distant in their demeanor and I don't mean because they were of a different culture, but simply because they just never seemed to be completely 'plugged in'. Some were, but the majority were not. The threat of terrorism was very high but I paid little attention to it and went where ever I wanted to the disappointment of my appointed escorts and bodyguard. It became a game for me to sneak off when they weren't looking. One of the odd things was first, Bahrain was not and is not a free country and never was, and is instead a Monarchy run by the Royal family. Consequently, all those who were a part of the Royal family, be it ever so distant, were well educated with much grace and poise, as were those in position with the Royal Family, while the subjects in general were completely opposite. One block either direction away from main street revealed a very different world where poverty was plain and hunger lived, along with filth and the dregs of humanity. Those were generally ill educated with little beyond survival, very clannish, very religious, very superstitious and what ever other 'very's' imagination can come up with. Later during The Gulf War I spent some time in that part of the world again and I found Saudi Arabia to be much the same way, likewise Kuwait. I didn't have the pleasure of actually crossing the line into Iraq but I spent some time close enough to look at the Iraqi landscape. They were all Monarchies, except Iraq which was a Republic, But all the way through that part of the world the people are very much the same. Either people of means or dirt poor barely surviving with nothing that resembled a middle class. They all had religious dedication in common, with the very poor far more dedicated to faith (Muslim of course) and very fearsome of offending God, and very suspicious of any one who was foreign. So, how does this Dumb Ass see our possibles? Not very good, and no options that will work that we're willing to do. For those of us who believe America can train any Iraqi force to keep the peace and defend the country, that portion of us blazes past being naive headed toward complete ignorance at blinding speed. Iraqi's are all people with tunnel vision direction where God comes first in every breath and deed. That, we are unable to understand, so we therefore cannot appreciate what their gameplan would be, but it would be civil war at its most brutal. The civil war itself, unchecked, we will be held accountable for. The damage and rubble we leave plus the complete breakdown of society will add to the fury and fuel WW3. If we stay, there is no departure of our forces possible in any one's natural life that is presently breathing, which means they're just gonna keep pickin' us off like birds on a powerline and confound us on every corner. Which means, if we just keep on doing what we've been doing, the same things that's been happening will keep on happening. Some day that will have to stop and Americans will demand we pull out. When it does, our departure in failure will spawn the same WW3 beginning anyway, so, I suppose it's either start it now, or start it later. This is NOT like the Viet-Nam war. They had an opposing military force that declared victory and took charge with the peoples blessings. There is no such thing and no such hope in Iraq. What a mess........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.... Pat Buchanan makes a compelling argument that we're losing the entire southwestern United States including California to the Mexicans. I believe he's right but I don't believe the answer is sealing our borders. I think the answer is much more complicated than that. Mexicans have entered this country for years and are finding work beyond the Mississippi River and are in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, and are employed. I think there are some simple questions we could ask ourselves. First off, how is it that so many jobs exist that there aren't enough Americans to fill them? We have very few factories still operating to work in. They all left, most of them going to Mexico. There's some food processing plants still in this country, and most of them have a predominate number of Mexicans working there. But what about all these other jobs that so many Americans work at? What are they? Where are they? What do they do? Where does the profit come from that must be for them to draw a paycheck? Just look around you. Check your neighbors out and try to figure out where their income is from. You'll find that outside of Wal-Mart and other marginal paying employers, most everyone is in the service business. Direct Government, which is a huge business, medical, which when you think of full circle considering Doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmeceuticals, home health care, home health care suppliers, insurance providers, transportation providers for patients, therapists, nursing homes and so on that portion is simply too big to guess at. Those two categories are funded almost totally by tax dollars. No one wants to look at it like that, but it is so in spades. Then comes child care, public schools, universities, colleges and technical schools, all either funded directly or subsidized by tax dollars or doubletalked and deny taking tax money, but we know it is still dependant on the taxpayer in the end. Police , fire departments, emergency personel, all tax money, if not directly then filtered. So then, what does this have to do with the Mexicans illegal in our workforce? Simply put, we are so busy servicing each other we've created a false economy that is devoid of producing hard good in any form, turned that job over to foreign suppliers, and convinced ourselves we are unable to find workers to staff those chicken plants and beef and pork slaughterhouses so we relegate that portion of workforce over to whomever will do it, which is the Mexicans. They need a job, we don't. We just wait for the mail to run. That's all we have to do. One day in the not too distant future the service economy we have created will be unable to fund itself and then we can't pay the Mexicans. They'll all go home. Who will make our food for us?........................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass....... The final decision that probably sealed the fate of the Roman Empire was to hire their military from outside rather than draft the Romans themselves to military service to protect their homeland. Certainly the pay scale for a hired military was much more than a drafted one and this expenditure plus a heavy service load to the Roman Populace and the citizenry's desire to do nothing to support themselves but let the government take care of them instead finally took its toll on the stability of the Roman economy, and unable to pay its army, no one to defend it, Rome was invaded, sacked, and the empire was no more. It's an old old story, but one that has been repeated again and again throughout history. You would think that sooner or later some society would let history be it's teacher and not make the same mistakes again. And someday in the future, one may do so but unfortunately we are not to be the ones. Our economy is in such a sad state and there are no signs that anyone in authority has any intent of saving it. Like the Romans, we have hired our military. So far our forces are still American, but things are not well. When we went to an all volunteer military in the '70's, what that really done was to remove the 'well to do' populace's children from military service and up the pay to better than a bad job making it attractive for the ones unable to educate themselves and vie for the jobs taken by the upper middle class and rich, to make a living with benefits and retirement whether their heart was in it or not. The enlisted soldier who passed basic training in 1965 and in the fourth month of service had a basic pay of $87.80. In 2005, the same soldier of four months had a basic pay of $1,142.00. All of the standard bohunk malarky we usually spew out about God bless the soldiers and the support thereof has no place in my point. What does have to do with it is the absence of the well to do in the military and the question of "Why shouldn't we have a draft and require all Americans of a certain age group be obliged to serve their country for specified amount of time for a much reduced stipend regardless of where they're from or their social or financial standing, no exceptions". For those who desire a military career, after the first hitch, the pay should be increased to reflect the outside economy. In today's military we can't afford to pay the 2.6 million what we've agreed to, and we need a military twice as big as we have, which is out of the question financially. A revival of the draft and a true return to 'serving your country' would certainly help. We have over 7,000,000 individuals on our disability rolls and the average paid to each is somewhere over $1,600.00 each month. This includes the money paid separately to their spouse and ever how many children they may have at home, plus not in that amount is the health care extended to the entire family. Interestingly enough, most of those I know are bitter about the amount they recieve and think it should be more. From my self-employed health care uninsured vantage point it looks to me like about 7 out of ten recieving disability in my community would be much healthier and happier if they got themselves a job. Abuse of that program is undefinable. I don't expect anything to change, instead I expect to witness history repeating itself, as in the Roman Empire................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.... On one of the Sunday morning talking head shows this morning someone was wondering if any newscaster had the power to change the direction of the war as Walter Cronkite did when President Johnson learned Cronkite no longer supported the war in Viet-Nam, believing that if Cronkite was lost then so was mainstream America. The answer was that America's news viewers were too fragmented in their viewing habits to allow the existence of another 'Cronkite', meaning too many sources of news were now available Via cable and internet etc. and that had diluted the power of any network news anchor preventing any one from getting the stature powerful enough to change much of anything. The word 'fragmented' is an interesting descriptive term and can cover lot's of things about us and the world we live in. First off, our families have been fragmented, divorce courts and incidence of single parenting proving that point. But fragmentation goes much farther than that. When choices are widened, fragmentation occurs, and there's a price to pay for that. Automobile manufacturers have been fragmented with the importation of foreign made vehicles, now the American who builds them isn't feeling very secure. Health care has been fragmented so much that there's more Doctors and supporting personel, but less care available. Communication has been fragmented so badly that it's very hard to speak to anyone, even your friends without talking to a machine of somekind at least twice before speaking to a real person. The power generated by each of us in our daily life by the clothes we wear, the jobs we work at, the politics we profess to, the religions we believe in, the cars we drive, the doctors we visit, the schools we attend and the dreams we have is fragmented and diluted until direction is very hard to define. This is a world not comfortable for anyone over 50 years old. It is also a world not very promising to anyone under 50 years old. Fragmented...... that's a hell of a word.............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass...... In todays world nothing stays the same long enough to get used to it. And, some things can't change fast enough to stay up with parity. I have a little midsize pick-up that takes me where ever I want to go for as small of a buck as possible. Even at that, my last gas fill up cost $48.50, compared with about half that a year ago. Today I paid a visit to the tire store to have a couple of new ones on the front, and the bill was $103.00 for the pair, which is about what the two new ones I put on a couple of years ago cost. In todays world one of the new tires is worth a tank of gasoline in my little truck, or a dinner at a family style steakhouse for me and my bride. What's troublesome is the certainty of those tires and those dinners increasing by the same percentage the gasoline has, and you can take that to the bank. The utilities in my part of the country have applied to the public service commission for a rate increase, some of them claiming 15 years since the last increase. That's odd, no one has explained to me why my utilities have doubled over the last 5 years, incredibly so, without a rate increase. We've reached an age that translation of facts can result in so many answers that reality gets lost before bottom lines appear and this is the world we must live in. The first simple rule for living in a secure world is trust. No one has it, and no one can give it. It's a mystery to me how and why this is. The sad and dark side of this is what happens when our world collapses, and it will. It's sad because some how we lost our way in trusting each other, and the dark side is it will get much worse. I think our current inflation rate over all, (even though my two tires cost about the same as two years ago) is double digit as opposed to the .04% the government said it was last month, which means translated that with double digit inflation everything you buy, including the tires for my pick-up, must double over the next year just as gasoline has over the last year, except of course your income, which will mostly remain stagnant except it's buying power will be cut in half, putting mid-stream America in a real squeeze. I'm gonna make myself a note to check things out one year from today. It'll be interesting to see how things stack up. I'll let you know ....... if there's any electricity, and if I can still afford it..............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.... Who won? Who lost? The latest Middle East war between Israel and whom ever is one that came and went in the strangest way. The beginning was standard. Whatever caused it will be left behind in the examination by historians for a long time. Instead the way it was run had the footprints of the USA so plainly imprinted that the Arab and for that matter the Islamic and world reaction was one of disbelief at the attitude and instruction of the world's strongest superpower to it's spoiled child Israel. Israel done to Lebanon what we've done to Iraq. Tear up an incredible amount of real estate, destroy the governmental structure, put it's citizens that are still alive under the stars with no roofs over their heads, obliterate the economy, and expect the world to rejoice at what they've done, then claim victory while looking across at the devastation they wreaked believing that's proof they won. They forgot a couple of things. First, they forgot about the hearts and minds of those they believed they defeated. As they crawled out of the rubble, almost to a soul, the hatred for Israel was many fold stronger and the respect for Hezbollah was absolute. As Israel looked over the smoky remains that used to be Lebanon and claimed victory, the ones looking back at them say that Israel couldn't do them in, even with all their bombs, tanks and planes, and they were prepared to fight again. Hardly a victory for Israel. In fact many see it as a defeat for them. I see it as an open door to much worse than we've seen. The time is ripe for organization of the Islamic states like we cannot imagine. If this should happen, Opec would probably be the first to wreak havoc on us by simply shutting off the oil spicket. That would destroy our already limping economy. After that, there are two possibles. One, the Muslim countries across the globe could have a call to arms, which would be an awesome force, but added to that the dedication of the Muslim ready to die for their cause would make such a military force fearsome beyond what we understand at this time in our history. If they're smart, they'll just fund and support a terroristic attack schedule on us on our on turf. We've already shown we can't stand that kind of heat. A few dams blown and a couple of attacks on our food and water supply and maybe throw in a couple of planes crashed into the stands of some of the football bowl games and we would be unable to function with any sanity and they will have won without doing much collateral damage. They would have the pleasure of watching us implode to oblivion on our own as we would surely do, because we literally have no defense against any of those things simply because there IS NO defense to be had in preventing any of them. There is little hope that we will look at any of these problems in the way they possibly could be dealt with and settled, instead look for us to beat the war drums at Iran, and after the way we've handled ourselves so far, probably attack them too which will set off World War 3. This will be the saddest time to be an observer, and I truly hope I'm dead wrong about everything. Time will tell..........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass...... She was taken from her mother as a child by strangers and placed into a secure comfortable surrounding where she was provided everything needed to grow into adulthood. By the time puberty came she had her own quarters as did everyone else she knew and her keepers provided her with everything and travel was something not in her realm so she had no questions or desires concerning the outside world. When it came time to get her tattoo identification she didn't resist, and neither did any of her friends as they were being tattoo'd also. To her it seemed perfectly normal. As she matured and it was time, she was required to be impregnated and go through the birth process, as were the rest of the girls she knew, so to her in her world things were still normal. No one knows how many times she went into labor, but after enough years went by her usefulness to those who kept her were of less value and was on the decline in general. She was made available to others who would traffic her to even less scrupulous keepers than she had spent her life with, or if the price was right, possibly to someone in the real outside world. That's where I came in. When I seen her the first time she had just finished her regimen with the doctor and was pronounced in good health though she did lose all her teeth. I had no requirements of her which didn't ease her suspicion of everything in her new world, and she trusted no one. She lived with me for a long time before she started really being comfortable and it seemed that things were going to be great for her after all, then the cataracts came. Her previous life plus advancing age made surgery for her particular predicament not a good option so she had to learn to live with it. As time went on her blindness became complete, but didn't break her spirit. She became very good at getting around the house and the blindness became less and less important, and she became more and more dependant on those in my house and of course we became more and more respectful of her. Through time others from her background came to us and we all grew together as a family. She had enjoyed good health all along but when things changed, it was with a vengeance and in a month she went from going any where she wanted to less and less movement, finally to a lot of bed time, and in the last week to loss of appetite and little movement. In 24 hours she went to no food or liquids and her facial features began changing. Today the pain started and we knew it was time. Annie went peacefully at the vets. She was a two pound Yorkie who spent 11 years as a breeder dog in a puppy mill then rescued and came to our home. We had more than 5 wonderful years with her and will miss her greatly forever. Her lesson to me was strength in life. I hope I can maintain it with as much dignity as she did. God bless Annie............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass....In reviewing some 'Dumb Asses' one could think there's little about us that I like. Of course that would be incorrect. Having said that, I'm grateful that opinions, worries, and fears can be expressed openly without fear of retribution, unless you want to question the holocaust, in which case you'd better hit for higher ground because you could get your arse in hot water over that. I do think it's a healthy exercise in thinking to observe what is happening in your world, what's caused it, and how does it stack up with logic, and also the historical behaviour of whatever situation you're picking on and how that may have produced the current state of affairs. I also do not believe you can have a clue to the problem if you don't have the ability to look at it honestly and completely from the viewpoint of whomever is rebelling. Thus my problem with so many things we're doing worldwide. Our transparency is overwhelming to just about everyone but us. Our invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq were for all the wrong reasons and without correct information. I believed and said so before the invasions were done. Also, President Bush didn't gallantly step up and save face for his father's incomplete job in the Gulf war. On the contrary, his father said exactly what his objectives were, sold his program to the entire world, then executed it beautifully right down to the last move, and got somebody else to pay for most of it. I would call that an uncommon success. Our current President, on the other hand has brought failure and disgrace to us for unbelievable blunders that have bankrupted us, shamed us with most of the civilized world, and defied all we ever stood for in the engagement of war by attacking a country (Iraq) who had little ability and less desire to engage us and who had not aggressed us in any way, fundamentally changing our criterion in choosing whom we will war against and what transgressions are worthy of destructing entire countries over. Bad behaviour and irresponsible judgement always has a price tag. Our price is yet to be identified, but it shall be. This same transparency is up front and screaming in the Middle East right now. We are so foolish to believe that we can sell the rest of the world on the concept that Israel is acting independant of our authority in the war on Lebanon even though a simpleton could figure out very quickly that Israel is flying F-16's supplied by us, loaded with armament supplied by us and rolling scores of tanks over the landscape supplied by us shooting cannons supplied by us against an enemy with only portable missile launchers and writing cease fire agreements that have nothing for the other side and sure to be rejected, creating a timeline for Israel to continue their destruction of their neighbor all the while we're gesturing helplessly and saying 'Oh well'. It would do anyone well who is interested in that particular fracas to educate themselves to what actually has created it. And the starting point must be pre-1948 because that was when the ones presently behind barbed wire were living in the houses now occupied by Israel and were the masters of the real estate now occupied by Israel. No, I'm not anti-semetic, but assholes are assholes no matter how they try to disguise themselves......including us......................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.........Today the 56 nation strong Organization of Islamic Conference is having a meeting in Malaysia. They are asking the United Nations to step in and enforce a cease fire in the on going fight in Lebanon. They are asking that Israel pay for damages in the destruction of civilians homes in Lebanon and that an investigation be started into the bombing of civilian neighborhoods resulting in 900 dead, 3000 injured, and 1 million people displaced in Lebanon. They note that Israel has lost 41 soldiers and 27 civilians from the war and the missiles fired from Lebanon. We are sure to veto any action by the UN before Lebanon's destruction is total and complete. What started this particular action can just about be disregarded because the bad blood between the Muslims and Jews has been there for thousands of years and the fallout from it has cost millions of lives. It is interesting at the lack of respect and downright distaste that Christians who support Israel have. Often the ones who claim to hate them will still defend them. Why would this be? It boils down to Christian biblical fulfillment. Christ cannot return to earth until the Jews have a homeland. America is predominately Christian so that's a slam dunk for Israel and bad news for the Muslims that so hate the Jews. We have become so full of ourselves that we no longer can recognize right and wrong or good or bad. Instead we only see things from our point of view and are unable to consider any mitigating factors or the validity of the other sides position. It is difficult to understand how such a passive and nonviolent kind as the Jews who peacefully walked to the gas chambers and stood quietly while their killers loaded their weapons and took aim in World War 2, and now are one of the most aggressive fearsome and sometimes murderous forces on the planet. The US must bear credit for this transition from oppression to aggression. We gave it to them and said 'sic 'em boys'. What will be disastrous for us in the end is very simple in that all people under the guns of Israel know who is furnishing the weaponry up to and including nuclear and the money to war with. There's enough hate and discrimination to go around between the Jews and those they hate and the ones who hate them. But the Jews have us, and the rest have little organization and therefore generally flounder around while we deliver money and state of the art tools to blow them away with and are met with little resistance while we do it. We would be well advised to be wary of the Islamic Conference and the strength they just might muster. The 56 nations they represent opposed to the US and its allies pretty much amounts to the entire world and if the Muslims organize just a little, the firepower that will be generated might make Jesus' arrival unimportant. The Jews say he's a fake anyhow..............