Connections

"No man is an island". I forget who said that but it is true. When you wake up in the morning you are not a blank slate. All you say or do during the day is based upon all you have learned going back to the day you were born. The knowledge taught to you throughout your life came from other people spanning back to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. There is a cumulative effect. Ancient man was not some dumb half animal. He just didn't have the centuries of knowledge we draw upon. Today our decisions are made by the sum of our learning. The politics of our parents or friends or someone we admire cause us to look in that direction. To seek answers down a specific path. The same goes with our social presentation. What we have learned by observing others we do ourselves. This learning never stops. Based upon what we learn today we will consciously direct our moves tomorrow. How you act at 13 is not how you act at 30 or 50 or 60. You continue to grow, if you are lucky.

So a corollary to "no man is an island" could be. "I stand upon the shoulders of all who went before me, my day is illuminated by all the sun rises there ever was."

I have no original thought. In fact Adam was the only man who ever had one. Everyone else has based his "original thought" upon the assembled knowledge of those who came before. The conclusions we mistake for original thinking are merely the end result of a connection of data along a time line.

Many years ago there was a show on PBS called "Connections". It was hosted by an English chap named Burke I think. The purpose of the program was to show the connections of the discoveries over the centuries. A show may start out in 13Th century Italy with some discovery and end up in 19Th century America with the TV. Connections, because someone discovered something or postulated some new mathematical formula someone else later on could draw upon it and add to it.

Everything is connected. People and actions in close proximity feed off each other and move in a common direction. If everyone in the group are of the same mind the group will desire the same results.

Which brings us to politics. Remember connections? Look how we got to this subject. This didn't just spring upon this blog unexpected. Starting from the opening post I have marched steadily on to this point. The next post will be based upon this and all the previous posts plus the accumulated knowledge I have. Which is sometimes not enough. The next post will delve into some of the connections I see in our government. Stay tuned.

An Snow it goes

The biggest snow storm to hit Washington DC since 1922. Federal employees are told to stay home. They are now in their 5th snow day. The mayor of DC has pulled the snow plows off the road for now. The capital buildings cannot be seen through the snow. It's as if they all disappeared. Congress is idle.

The rest of the nation has ground to a halt. The trains have stopped running. The planes have stopped flying. Trucks of produce are stranded on the side of the road. Grocery stores are running out of food. Hospitals have gone dark. The children are dying!

Wait a minute?!?! You mean the rest of the country is not at a stand still? Washington is still shut down and we are alright? How can this be? If this keeps up the people will start to realize that we don't really need that big of government in Washington. You mean the federal government could be reduced and we could still live the American dream?

I had an epiphany a few years ago. It was when Reagan was president. He was fighting with congress about the budget and the federal government was shut down except for a few essential offices. After about two weeks they passed a budget but by then the damage was done. Our lives were not affected one little bit during that shut down. Yes I realized how little we needed the feds.

I sometimes think that congress and the president pass those laws and spend our money just so they can justify their positions. It doesn't seem to matter we have thousands of laws on the books. It doesn't seem to matter the laws we have are not being enforced. They say: "By golly something needs to be done about (enter any problem here) and we are the congress and we should have hearings and pass a law and impose a tax to pay for fixing (enter the afore mentioned problem here)." They do that because they are really thinking: "If we don't do something the people will fix it themselves and then realize they don't really need us."

So back to the snow storm. While I don't want anyone to get hurt because of it I really would like to see it snow there until June.

Presidential Gaffs

Presidential gaffs. George Bush was ridiculed for them. His "speech-a-fing" was proof to his detractors he was a dumb Texas redneck. Well.......

Some of the presidential gaffs of the current President whom I'll just call BO. AlQeada is pronounced by him as Al-kI-A-duh. Huh? Or he pronounces Taliban, "Tal-ee-bon". Then there's Copenhagen which he says Coop-en-hogging. As in Hogging Dass the ice cream? That Harvard edgamakation is really paying off.

How about when he gave his first address to the nation after the Ft. Hood massacre. BO talked for over two minutes giving "shout outs" and praises to someone who had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It turned out that while the man was a war hero he did not receive the CMH but BO had awarded him some civilian Congressional Medal. Apparently as Commander in Chief BO does not understand the armed forces he's the head of. He also doesn't understand about addressing the nation and calming fears after a terrorist attack. The disrespect he showed to the dead and wounded was telling. Or the speech he gave about medical costs when he used the example of a man who lost his health insurance and then died. Well the man did loose his insurance but got it back two weeks later and then was treated for his cancer. He lived several more years before dying. Again in another medical cost speech he talks about taking a child to the ER to be treated for asthma and said something about a simple treatment with a breathalyzer would have prevented the child taking up a hospital bed. Again I scratch my head.

So two days ago he gives a speech (with the use of his teleprompter) about some Navy Corpsman who was serving on a Hospital ship in Haiti. Not once, not twice, but three times he refers to the corpsman as corpse-man. I don't know about you but if I wake up from surgery and a corpse-man is standing over me I might be a little worried! I wonder what the military symbol for corpse-man is. A corpsman is the standard snakes entwined on a pole with wings. I guess a corpse-man would be a sickle? Wait a minute! Corpse-man? Sickle? All we need is a hammer! That proves it! BO is a Marxist!

So what is the point of all this. One, you put someone in front of a mic and cameras every day he (or she) will say something that will make you go "huh?" and sound really dumb. Two, George Bush wasn't as dumb as the media and the left made him out to be. Three, BO is not as smart as the media and the left makes him out to be.

Tired

I haven't been writing much lately because I'm tired. I feel like I am just pooping words out there and nothing happens. Nothing changes.

Like this story on the local news today. Fed Ex puts a Springfield employee on administrative leave because she won't hide the cross she's wearing. Seems they have a policy against "personalized jewelry". Who knew wearing a cross was personalized jewelry? In the United States of America someone could loose their job for wearing a cross! I won't call for a boycott of Fed Ex. No one would anyway. Besides Christians are an easy mark. It's not like we have any suicide bombers like that other "religion of peace".

Then there is the story of the presidents chief of staff who used the term "f***ing retards" to a bunch of democrats. He should be fired but nooo! Just an apology to the head of the Special Olympics will do. Who's name is Shriver as in the Kennedy's. Like he is really sorry anyway.

Or the president saying in his State of the Union address that the Senate blocked forming some committee he wanted but that was ok because he would just put out some presidential decree and form the committee anyway. The president just flipped the bird to Congress. By the way he used the words "I" or "ME" over 100 times in that speech. Notice he didn't use "us" or "we" or any other corporate term that much. It's all about him!

Then we find out the Attorney General was the one who told the anti-terrorist people to stop grilling the Christmas Bomber and read him his rights after only 50 minutes of interrogation. The guy immediately clammed up. The AG also refused to investigate and prosecute some "New Black Panthers" who were at a voting place in Philly dressed in black military uniforms and holding billy clubs in an attempt to intimidate voters. Another one who just don't get it. He should be fired too. By the way the current AG was instrumental in getting some Portal Rico terrorists a presidential pardon under Clinton. I guess he likes bad boys.

Or the EPA who told congress that if you don't pass some form of environmental legislation they will just impose even stricter regulations. A form of government blackmail.

An on and on and on.....

I heard a good suggestion on the radio tonight. We should all take a month off from work and go to Washington DC and "get their attention". Maybe we SHOULD shut down the country. Maybe we SHOULD march on Washington and refuse to leave until the broke down, worn out, corrupt, P.O.S. politicians are tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.

Yeah, works for me. Now where did I put that pitch fork and torch?