Everyman, the Ostrich

Above, witness the Ostrich-man, in his natural habitat.

He is an American, but in name only.  More than likely, he identifies himself (herself?) as a(n) (fill-in-blank-with-ethnicity or religion) American.  Even if he is here illegally.  He probably doesn’t have a computer.  But if he does, it’s for gaming, word processing and perhaps porn.

He doesn’t like politics.  He believes all politicians are evil, corrupt, self-serving, lawyers (liars) – whose only function (as they see it) is to get re-elected and get more lobbyist’s ‘gifts’.  But, not many pay attention to the ‘issues’ or even vote.

He pays no attention to the state of the economy, or the news, or individual rights.  Or to the Constitution and it’s ubiquitous erosion.  He’s too busy working to make enough to pay the high taxes imposed to pay for everyone else’s (fill-in-the-blank-gov’t-program-handout).  He wears blinders when yet another infringement occurs – be it  the FBI’s COINTELPRO (1960s), airport metal detectors (1972), sobriety checkpoints (1986), random stop-and-frisks (2012), no-knock warrants (1970), shotgun microphones, FBI ‘administrative’ warrants (recently overturned-thank you!), The Patriot Act (2001), NDAA (2012), NSA monitoring of all cellular and Email traffic, cameras on every corner, black boxes in cars, locators in cell phones, warrantless GPS on cars, DHS claiming Christians and conservatives are radicals – but Islamic folks are just practicing their beliefs, The Fort Hood shooting is deemed ‘workplace violence’ (NOT terrorism)…

I could go on, but I’m already physically, emotionally and spiritually ill.

(I keep telling myself) WE (persons who participate on the Internet) are NOT EVERYMAN, and we DO participate  and WE DO pay attention, and WE DO write our congressmen and senators and presidents.

And we DO bitch to each other.  Sometimes, vociferously.

WE NEED TO KEEP COMPLAINING!  To anyone who will listen, and yes, to those crooked politicians, yet again.

If we stop, we’ll be joining the rest of our Nation, with our heads in the sand.  Or up some orifice.

And we’ll be in the perfect position for the next infringement.

BOHICA  -  Bend over, here it comes, again!

February 23rd – 24th, this year…

(for my Jewish friends)  is the celebration of PURIM!

Miss Cellania links us to BuzzFeed Food and

32 Crazy Hamantaschen For Purim

Marked by costume parties and copious drinking (who knew that Jewish folk got crazy?), Purim is a raucous Jewish holiday that celebrates a foiled plot to kill all of the Jews in ancient Persia.Go to the link above and see all the delicious Jewish cookies!  (NO, not Elizabeth Banks) along with a history of the holiday and many recipes!TWO of the highlights…(well, three —–> )Try this Reese’s-esque cookie interpretation.

Gluten-allergic folks can celebrate not only Uncle Mordechai’s heroic rescuing of the Jews, but also this rice and coconut flour variant on the classic shortbread Hamantaschen dough.

Great.  Just like Brigid’s food posts, I’m craving some.  Hoist on my own petar’.  Sigh.

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy!  L’Chaim!

A PAPERLESS Society?

When I worked at my last job, we did many things on a computer terminal.  I was there over 20 years, and saw many changes.  Of course, as the technology evolved, so did our machines – usually about 4 years after everyone else did.

They kept harping about A PAPERLESS SOCIETY, but kept us using paper and printing on it.  More electronically, but, eventually paper was involved.

Now, my roomie prefers the really soft, cushy roll of paper.  You know the kind – advertised by cartoon bears in the woods.  Sadly, roll it about two-times-over and one is down to the cardboard tube.  Time to change the roll.

I prefer the 1000 sheet-single-ply.  If they could, they’d rate it with a sandpaper grit number.  More sheets; don’t have to change the roll as frequently.

My experience is the female-of-the-species prefers as my roomie does.  Better soft than abrasive.

This has evolved into two roll dispensers in the main bathroom, his and hers.  And ‘roll follies’ when one roll is needed upstairs, but the reloads are downstairs.  But, all-in-all, we work it out.

As we humans know, unless one is in a less-civilized part of the World, eventually, paper is involved.

Peace Sign

Nice ‘toon.  I remember when the peace sign was called ‘the track of the American Chicken, when all Americans right of hippiedom automatically assumed it stood for laziness, things unclean, drug use and anti-American beliefs to say the least?  Now it’s become iconic, ubiquitous…

So, I did some research.

The peace sign (or symbol) was derived in the late 50′s in Britain, by protesters against nuclear weapons.  They co-mingled the semaphore signals for the letters ‘N’ and ‘D’  (nuclear disarmament).

Thank goodness the Left hasn’t compromised Winston Churchill’s iconic symbol for VICTORY!

Political Correctness will be the Death of us!

Both The Duck and Old NFO have recently addressed the problems inherent with political correctness.

The Duck takes the macro approach – viewing it from the standpoint of relations between countries and the way the United States used to be thought of, versus the way they are viewed now.

Old NFO takes the more personal approach.  His quote from the U.S. State Department:

Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson penned a column in the department’s latest edition of “State Magazine ” advising readers on some rather obscure Ps and Qs.

Chief Diversity Officer?  Seriously?

Old NFO goes on to say:

You ‘really’ have to wonder if this is all these people have to do every day is sit around and think up crap like this…  I realize it IS Foggy Bottom, the bastion of oh so social and politically connected Staties, who hate the military (and do everything they can to prevent military action), but come on… GET A LIFE!

Punctuated by The Duck:

America was once of the strongest brashest countries in the world, we said what we thought and meant what we said. If some podunk country messed with us we sent in gun boats and the Marines, and burned them down. The rest of the world learned not to mess around when it came to the United States, but shortly after we changed the name of the “War Dept” (as it likely offended some of the liberals), to the “Dept.Of Defense”, we also started adopting those warm fuzzies, adopting terms like compromise, worrying more about how we said something than what we were saying.  (emphasis Guffaw)

Whether it’s more about the guy across the street, or across the World, we need to maintain our standards and integrity.  And stand up for ourselves, both personally and as a country.

This doesn’t mean be a bully or a bigot.  But recognize that we are judged by what we do, not just by what we say.

Calling the Fort Hood massacre ‘workplace violence’ instead of terrorism is an obscenity.  The man was exclaiming “Allahu Akhbar!” while performing his murders.  We’re too much in Condition White as a country, scouring the Rules of Engagement looking for loopholes instead of engaging.

Go to both links above and read.  Then allow yourself to say Indian instead of Native American, and allow your country to use the word terrorist instead of criminal, when it’s appropriate.

Yeah, I know.  I’m politically incorrect.  So what?

15 Maxims for Being a Reliable Man

The Art of Manliness has been posting a series aimed at young men (and presumably young women, as well) regarding what is appropriate and necessary for them to learn as they embark on their journey out into the World.

The most recent is entitled Heading Out on Your Own: Day 26 — 15 Maxims for Being a Reliable Man.

As one who wrestles with my own neuroses on a daily basis, I love stuff like this.  Many of these are things that were taught to me by my Father and Grandfather, but never codified.  And I don’t think there’s an age limit to when one needs to learn them.

Being reliable.

The word reliable has its origins in relier, Old French for “fasten” or “attach;” the reliable man was an immovable pillar of strength on which you could hang your hat, someone you could lean and depend on, a man you could trust.

Compare that image with its opposite: the flake. Floating, drifting, fragile. Melting as soon as it meets any resistance.

We’ve all known reliable men, and we’ve all known flakes. We admire the former, and avoid the latter. To become the kind of man you’ve grown up trusting and counting on, read on.

Please visit the link and pass them down to your youth.  Or refresh your own memory.

It couldn’t hurt.

REGULATIONS for miles and miles…

The Silicon Greybeard lends his sharp analysis regarding the ever-increasing mountain of utterly useless federal regulations polluting the Nation.

A sampling:

From the “Over Regulated State”, I posted back in March about a web site we could go to, Regulations.gov, that tells us how many regulations are being created.  That post had this line:

In the last 90 days, the Fed.gov has issued 5999 new regulations.

and

A year ago, I asked, “How Many Federal Crimes Did You Commit Today?“, quoting author Harry Silvergate from Reason Magazine saying the average person commits three federal crimes per day.  Don’t think that not knowing if something is illegal is any excuse;  there are many people in jail who had no idea they were doing anything wrong.

The register Code of Federal Regulations hit a record 163,000 pages in 2009 and the number of pending regulations costing more than $100 million has more than doubled according to Heritage. And once on the books, regulations are almost impossible to get rid of. One regulation that’s been requested for elimination for over four years, says Heritage, is one that treats “milk as an ‘oil,’ thus requiring dairy spills to be treated as hazardous. According to the agency, exempting milk from the regulation will save dairies around $1.4 billion over the next 10 years.” And yet this regulation still sits on the books four years later, even with the support of the Obama administration in getting rid of it.

Now, according to the Center for Fiscal Accountability, when we add in the costs of [implementation] of just Obamacare over the next ten years the costs soar another $230 billion per year.

Not including the costs of premiums going up – which is already the case for many people.

Now The Money Quote:

The 163,000 ++ page Code of Federal Regulations must be cut down in size.  I swear you could throw out 3/4 of it and not negatively impact a single person’s life – except for the lawyers and prosecutors who would need to find honest work.

Go and read the whole thing at the link.  We need to petition Congress to start removing regulations instead of compounding them. - Guffaw

h/t Greybeard

Whining…

Not me (for a change).  I’m going through some stuff right now, and have a tendency to whine, anyway.  But, I found this website entitled First World Problems, wherein people who aren’t starving and trying to survive in some Third World Hell Hole whine about their petty problems.

It DOES help me put things in perspective…

If you’d rather not go to the link, above (and O.D. on them), here’s a few examples:

US was placed alphabetically instead of at the top of a drop down menu, so I had to scroll down like some kind of Ugandan

Left my bottled water out overnight so had to drink it at room temperature like some homeless man slurping up a rain puddle.

Girls in the city I’m vacationing in all dress like sluts… I can’t tells who’s a prostitute and who isn’t.

My universal remote’s batteries are dead. Now I have to use 3 remotes like some kind of barbarian.

I accidentally bookmarked a web page, now I have to open my bookmark panel and remove it like some 16th century librarian

I have tons of beer, but not enough fridge space.

I ordered pizza and now I have to put pants on to answer the door.

The smoke from this burning house is ruining my golf game.

Life is better, now, isn’t it?

Political Correctness, Yet AGAIN?

Sigh.

Yes, dear friends, the PC police are out in force again.

It seems in the former Great Britain, they are have re-written children’s rhymes and songs:

The original children’s poem:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

A new sanitised version: 

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
He didn’t get bruised,
He didn’t get bumped,
Humpty Dumpty bungee jumped!

In another instead of being unable to ‘put Humpty together again’, the new version claimed all the King’s horses and all the King’s men ‘made Humpty happy again’

(God forbid one drops an egg in the kitchen!  Oh, the horror! – Guffaw)

The society has warned that in some schools children are more likely to learn eastern European or African songs than English ones.

Some songs have been dropped because they refer to death, disease or war in ways that have been judged as no longer be suitable for children.

The English Folk and Dance Society is running the new National Lottery funded campaign to save traditional rhymes and songs.

Rachel Elliott, the society’s education director, told The Telegraph: ‘There can be a risk of people being oversensitive and sanitising these things.

‘They have to be contextualised – we don’t want to condone drunkenness by singing about the Drunken Sailor.

‘But there was a lot of drunkenness at that time. And I don’t think the song is going to encourage it now.’

HMMM – I remember being a toddler and playing ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ and enjoying the simplicity of voluntarily falling on my butt, not knowing, of course, that the rhyme referred to the Black Death.  Of course, now, they probably wouldn’t allow it, as the falling might be injurious.

A Nerf (TM) Society – that’s where we’re headed.

h/t BMEWS, Lawrence Conway

Queenie

There are a number news stories addressing the fact that ‘The Queen’ (Elizabeth of Britain) is celebrating 60 years on the throne this year.  There are also a number of blog posts regarding this fact, and the fact that the Britain of 60 years ago is hardly the equivalent of the current state.  In short, she is no longer Great.

My family genealogy takes me back to British History, in fact the family Coat-of-Arms shows three crosses, delineating (I’m told), the Guffaw family was in service of the Church in three Crusades.  But much of this side of the family emanates from Ireland.  (The other from Germany).

And my maternal side of the family is D.A.R. material, having fought against the British in The American Revolution.  As previously recounted in these pages:  Sybil Ludington

While I’m proud of my family’s heritage and history, proud of being of Irish, German and English stock, however, I am an American.  Much to the dismay of a number of my friends who are anglophiles who are reveling in the current 60 year celebration of the Queen.

While perusing all the hubbub about this matter, I remembered an event years ago, when I was first working at TMCCC.

A female co-worker was quite emotional regarding the shocking loss of Princess Diana, and was going on-and-on about how sad the event was.  The Princess was beautiful, she helped so many charities, yatta, yatta, yatta.  While I recognized the loss, it was not as if she were an American icon, a Jackie Kennedy for example?

But, we read to our young children fairy tales about princesses, and set ourselves up for this anglomania, especially in our women, who remember the princess fantasies of childhood.  And this attachment seems especially strong in our connection to Britain, rather than Monaco or some other European duchy.

I’m (in)famous in my small circle for opening my mouth and inserting my foot both feet up to my knees.  Repeatedly.  I did not disappoint in this circumstance.

After seemingly endless hours of adulation for the Princess, I’d had enough.  And I said, “I thought we fought a war to get away from those a$$7372s!”   Which, of course, was true.

My timing might have been a bit off.

I was treated with icy silence the rest of the day by the person whom I offended.  It was rude of me.

But I still don’t get the fascination with ‘The Royals’.  In a Nation born of fighting them; to divorce ourselves of the class warfare embedded in Europe.

To be here, in the United States, 236 years after the Declaration of Independence, after freedom from the oppression of the ‘upper classes’ only to have it remanufactured by the so-called 99%, to promote Marxism and anarchy.  Because that worked so well in Europe.

Looks like I put my feet in my mouth again…