It's The Law.

Don't ya just love it? There seems to be a law on the books that says law enforcement can't do a legal search of any Congressman or Senator, past or present. not even a wiretap. So what this means is that a corrupt Congressman or Senator (of course we all know there is no such thing as corruption in Washington) can get away with breaking any law, any time, for any reason, and, it appears, can't be questioned. No searches for evidence, no bugging, no wiretap, nothing. Now I don't want to be a killjoy, but shouldn't the FBI or Homeland Security or the police be able to stop these folks from, at least, stealing the silver off the table? Or robbing Fort Knox? Not according to this bazaar law. I can foresee organized crime getting a hold of this information. Wait a minute? Maybe they already have. Has anybody checked any of these Senators' or Congressmen's past records? Maybe that can't be done either. So, if you think your congressman may be a crook, you may be close to the truth. Now, far be it from me to cast anyone in an unfair light, but if I see my Senator sneaking out of a fourth floor apartment some dark evening, I'll assume he lost his keys. I suppose any pictures of him holding onto a diamond neckless and a wad of cash would be in-admissible in court anyway. Boy oh boy, it's not bad enough that they get a benefits package that's the envy of the free world, and all the donations they can carry on the planes provided by their corporate benefactors, That's not bad enough. But now they can't be jailed for breaking any laws either. I wanna be a politician when I grow up, too.

I'll Say Nice Things About You If You Give In To My Demands.

Well, after the tragedy of the Arizona shootings, our legislative representatives have, pretty much, all agreed to tone down all the violent rhetoric. The question is, for how long? 5-4-3-2-1-0. OK.  That's enough. See, the thing is, addiction is nearly impossible to break. No matter whether drugs, alcohol, tobacco or political vitriol. You just can't go cold turkey. And when it comes to politicians, it's even worse. After all, these are weak willed individuals anyway. I mean, they seem to have only three things on their minds. Power. Power means they can make other people look up to them or at least pretend they look up to them. The other is money. They suddenly find themselves in a position that gives them the "power" to spend other peoples money on just about anything they want. These are addictions in and of themselves. But when coupled with the ability to say mean things about people who are trying to take away those powers, like opponents in elections, it's pretty hard not to be addicted. Oh yes, the third thing. That seems to be sex. Enough said about that, it speaks for itself. So, to expect our legislators to be civil for very long, is somewhat unfair and a lot unreasonable. It's sort of like fantasy. In fact it would be fantasy. Still, it would be nice not to have to hear a congresswoman claim the other party is made up mostly of communists or a Senator say the other party are all racists. What's really funny is to then hear them all say how much they respect the members of the other party. " Why, I just had lunch with my good friend  today". What they really mean is they happened to wind up at the same restaurant at about the same time. Take a look at both houses of Congress. They're segregated. Reaching across the isle could mean loosing an arm.

Government And The Media. Oh Brother.

OK. I admit it. I was wrong. The shooter in Arizona was not politically motivated, maybe. Congresswoman Giffords is still gravely wounded and six are dead. It may not have been politically motivated, but it most assuredly was politically facilitated. What do I mean by that? Our elected officials in the states and in Washington do not have the courage to go against the NRA and other PACs on the subject of gun control. Now, don't get me wrong. I am absolutely in support of the second amendment's "right to bare arms". I own guns, I use them to hunt and target shoot. If someone feels it's necessary to carry a handgun for protection, that's fine. But firearms that are specifically designed to kill people and have no other reasonable use, are a real question in my mind. If they are to be allowed, then they need to be registered. A handgun that's capable of holding 20 or 30 rounds of ammunition is not a reasonable gun for sport or protection. Same for the AK47 style rifles. By not protecting the people from these type weapons, our elected officials do us a grave disservice. Secondly, mental health is poorly administered and the stigma that goes with it is unconscionable. Here again, our leaders need to make such help easily obtainable and acceptable. I find the media guilty of not being more helpful in this as well. In fact the media, with it's 24/7 mentality, continually sensationalizes such acts as took place here and elsewhere. Do we really need to know so much about this persons life? Do we really need to see his pictures from cradle to grave every minute of every day? In fact, we really don't need to see him or hear about him at all, except for occasional references to a shooter. Don't they realize that by holding him up in the limelight they give reasons for some people to mimic him? Some guts on the part of our representatives and some forethought on the part of the media would be extremely helpful.

Please Watch What You Say.

What a terrible thing this shooting of Rep Giffords  in Arizona on Saturday. I keep hearing that it was not likely motivated by politics. Sorry. I don't believe that. Let me ask you this; when politicians or radio talk-show hosts or TV commentators use language that sounds like they're inciting violence and then say "I'm not suggesting violence", do you believe them? I mean really. If you have to preface your comments with the statement that you're not recommending violence, you most certainly are. There's a lot of politicians and media and talk show hosts who are making a very nice living, thank you very much, on living close to the line. These folks are very careful not to step over the line. They don't want to go to jail or lose a court case because they crossed that line, so they get as close as possible without crossing. Then sometimes they use that "I'm not advocating violence" quotation just to cover their behinds. Are you really fooled by this kind of act? I'm convinced these folks know very well that there are people out there who are just unstable enough to take these comments as direction to act. What we need is not a whole new set of laws so much as a better understanding of how dangerous some of these favorite words and phrases really are. When a politician says it's time to take so-and-so out, or puts crosshairs on them, or any such word or action, they endanger that person's life. If that's their intent then maybe they don't deserve to be elected to any position of responsibility. Even dog catcher or sewer plant guard. Maybe cellblock inmate rep would be OK. Same for radio and TV talk-show hosts. Maybe they should be doing the morning news in the Arctic in the winter when there's no sunrise for several months at a time. Well anyway, my heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones on Saturday and my prayers to those we all hope will recover quickly. My respect will be withheld from those who use this ratcheted up rhetoric, mostly for personal gain.

We The People Ask Congress to Stop Grandstanding.

Is the end-time at hand? To many, it may seem so. Birds are dropping out of the sky all over the place, fish are washing up on shores and Republicans are back in control of the House of Representatives. To prove it was providence that they are back in charge, they read the Constitution on the first day of their taking over. Well actually they read part of the Constitution. They left out some, like how much a slave is human, three fifths. Now on the face of it, such a reading might have been very moving. If they had asked someone with a voice like James Earl Jones' to do the honors, it might have sent a chill up our collective spines. But saner minds than mine chose instead to allow any member of the house to take part. That's right. Any member. Even Democrats. Those scoundrels who had forsaken the document were, never-the-less, invited to participate. So, what we got was a single sentence, followed by the next name being called. A wait in silience while he or she came to the mike, followed by one more sentence, followed by another name called, followed by, oh what's the use. The point is, the Republicans blew it. I will, however, give them credit for being the first ones in history to read it on the floor of the House, not withstanding that they cut out parts of the document that didn't feed their goal of making the Democrats look bad. Don't get me wrong, the next time the Democrats get back the power, they will surely come up with a way to try to make the Republicans look bad. Next up? A vote to repeal the Health care law. Of course the Republicans don't like to call it health care because it has a positive connotation. So they call it Obama care. I guess they have the votes in the house, but everyone knows it has zero chance to become law. Since that's so, how come they're wasting time when there really are important things to be done? Oh. Silly me. They're politicians.

Jobs. Education Means Jobs.

Well, today is the day the new congress gets sworn in. The Republicans will once again control the House of Representatives. It seems to be a seesaw event. I guess the American people keep hoping one party or the other will actually do the right thing. So far in recent history there's little celebration. It's been decades since Congress has truly tried to do the "right thing". So, if the Republicans would like my opinion, and I'm certain they don't, it would be to put America back to work. There's to parts to that request. First, in the near term, Americans would like to have a job. Now I don't mean minimum wage flipping burgers, I'm talking about meaningful, good paying jobs. You know, the kind we've been exporting to China and India and a few other countries.. That's for right away. But at the same time we need for our educational system to get back to what it was thirty or forty years ago. So what's wrong with it now? After all, the folks who have lots of money can still get their kids into good schools and get them good jobs, can't they? Well then what's the problem? I hear rich people say "I made it on my own, why can't the rest of you do the same"?  I heard some very knowledgeable people state that the ultra-rich don't consider themselves Americans or French or Saudi or Brazilian or etc. They consider themselves citizens or residents of the world. So they don't really care about the needs of Americans or French or Brazilians etc. They're only interested in where the money is this minute. Well, that's nice for them, but we Americans need to be concerned with what it will take to get ourselves back on top or we'll wind up near the bottom. The only way for us to do that is to improve our educational system. If that means we need to scrap the educator's unions then so be it. If it means we need to spend more money on education then so be it. If we need to find a way the get parents involved with their children's education, then by golly, let's kick some butt. And whether or not that means bigger government better not be a concern. I see teachers getting laid off all over the country. Is that the best way to improve our educational system? Maybe it is. If the ones getting axed are the underachievers, then I'm pleased, but I doubt that's what's happening. Seniority may be a good thing to protect. Tenure is probably a terrible thing to protect. But the ones we really need to be protecting are our best teachers. Those who don't fit that criteria need to be retrained or replaced.

Get In Shape For The New Year.

After celebrating New Year's Eve, I realized that It was not my new year's eve. That fell on my birthday. Or, actually the eve of my birthday. That's when my new year started. Yours started on the eve of your birthday. While I'm at it I could point out that Christmas eve is Jesus' new year's eve. Or at least the date we celebrate it. How come we got so mixed up on this thing anyway. Oh, I know that it's the beginning of a new calender year, but to be truthful, I didn't like last year all that much and I'm not all that confident that I'll like the new year, so how come we celebrated it. I guess the answer is that we just look for any excuse to celebrate. That brings me to another problem. Did you ever hear the expression that you shouldn't do something because it'll stunt your growth? My mother used that line a lot as I was growing up. "Don't drink so much coffee, it'll stunt your growth". I've used that line as a joke many times. "Don't eat that dessert, it'll stunt your growth. Eating fatty foods may stunt your growth, but not your girth. Fortunately for us, packing on the girth is easily handled these days. There is almost nothing that draws more commercial time that weight loss and exercise cures. Yessiree bob. Oweightloss product is guaranteed to make you trim and irresistible in no time and our exercise equipment will turn your body into that of a god or goddess. Just twenty three easy payments of...... When's the last time you saw an ad that told you to just eat less and exercise more to lose weight? Of course, you can't lose 250 lbs in 48 hours that way. To do that you have to buy their products and services. Here's an idea. Send me the money. I''ll pretend you really want to lose weight and keep the money. If in two years you haven't lost all that weight, I'll return all the money, but not the interest I earned with it. And who ever said you have to walk on a machine to get in shape? Can't ya just walk on a sidewalk? That's free, ya know.