Tuesday, December 17, 2013

ENOUGH

ENOUGH.

Age before beauty, I suppose?

What The Old Guard clique (a.k.a. RINOs if you’re feeling nasty) loves to say about the Tea Party is that they keep picking fights they can’t win, and that the leadership experience of
The Old Guard clique should be respected.

That’s all right though because the Tea Party clique loves to say at least they remember how to fight, and The Old Guard clique would rather cut deals with the devil to avoid any fight, leading a retreat.

No doubt they will both be insulted that I call them cliques.  Too bad. As they spend all their time trying to convince us that their group (Clique) is coolest and the other one is “uncool”, I find it the perfect word.

The worst part is that I’ve come to believe that BOTH of the above statements are completely true. The youth has poor aim, and the elders won’t even load the gun. Neither inspires confidence in the future.  The saddest thing, however, is that if the status quo is going to be changed any time in the near future, it’s going to take both cliques. They need to have each other’s back.  Trust me, if I believed that either group was capable alone, I would back them and write something blistering about police pulling over random cars to collect DNA profiles. But that is not to be.

Going forward, what the Republican Party is desperately in need of is leaders who love both.  We can’t be rewarding people from either clique if all they want to do is crush the other. We have much bigger problems. I know there are people in both groups who despise the other.  That doesn’t necessarily make them bad people, but those are not the leaders we need.

I even realize that some of you politicians are spectacular actors and think you can pretend to love them both long enough to pull off an election or two.  You are mistaken. The quality of the acting in Washington D.C. has not increased nearly as much as the cynicism of the electorate. You will fail and set all of us back even further.  We need the real deal. Merely liking both cliques is not good enough.  Both sides will be really stupid some of the time. We need people who can forgive stupid mistakes quickly and get back to work.  People who love and are loved by both factions even in the face of inevitable Stupid are absolutely required.

The leaders we need are out there. We have been at war in the Middle East for 10 years. We have not had so many leaders who have been literally tested under fire since the end of WWII. And I’m sure there are many other sources of leaders I’m simply not familiar with.

I’m not pushing anything or anyone in particular.  It’s way too early. However these are the things we should be looking for.  And the candidates should KNOW that this is what we are looking for.

Reagan himself said “If someone agrees with me 80% of the time, he is not a 20% traitor; he is my friend and ally.”

Learn quickly.  Time is not our friend.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Sagging Hopes

Sagging Hopes

I gather that MSNBC’s TourĂ© was horrendously offended by a Don Lemon comment on O’Reilly about saggy pants. So he accused Don Lemon (among others) of being a “White Leader” and asked why they don’t focus on White on White violence.  Well, as I am not, nor have I ever been an Albino or a member of the KKK, I have no idea what constitutes a “White Leader.”  Though, I am looking forward to TourĂ© educating all of us about that. As for the deplorable state of White on White violence, hell yes these kids need some pointers!  Let’s start, as suggested, with Saggy Pants.

Now, while I have no kids, I have a very large extended family and I can testify that quite a few of them around middle and high school age do the saggy pants thing. Saggin’ is not just for black people. It’s for any kid who wants to irritate the powers that be. I get that, and I too started somewhere silly, but thank god I’ve finally destroyed all the pictures. (I hope.) So I’ve got plausible deniability.  Still, having lived through the Michael Jackson jackets with a full mile of useless zippers , and the girls in Junior High all dressing like Boy George and attacking anyone who said he was gay. (true story) People my age were as bad or worse than what’s out there today.  We’re not better, we just got over it.

I suppose it’s the functionality of the thing.  Presumably Sagging Pants come from prisoners in jail not being able to have belts – maybe it’s true, maybe not. It doesn’t matter. I remember people not shaving (who had the option) so they could look like Don Johnson. In Miami Vice he was allegedly trying to look like a drug dealer as he was an undercover Cop.  Well, now the dealers have Saggy Pants, or so we are told.

Now let’s think about this.  These kids want to either look like or be gang  members, so let’s look at that lifestyle a little.  It’s all about making money, right? So gang bangers or whoever spend lots of their time on the move making money.  Running after people who owe them money – running away from people to whom THEY owe money.  Running from the police,  the FBI, competitors who are just a little better armed – chasing down competitors who aren’t as well armed as them.  It’s a pretty active and nervous lifestyle I would expect.

Now, these kids – probably not much better or worse than we are – either want to look like these guys (kind of sad) or they want to BE these guys (really sad.)  Or they want to look like their friends, who want to look like or be those guys.  I don’t approve, but I also don’t expect one single kid to care what I think. I wouldn’t have.  I just have one little question. If you are thinking of taking up this lifestyle or looking like someone who wants this active and nervous life, I can’t get around this one question.


Why in the hell would you tie your knees together?

Friday, December 6, 2013

Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines 

Hello folks!  It’s been a while I know.  I do apologize for that. I’d give you an excuse but I find the older I get the less interested I become in inventing them. They were mostly BS anyway.

A great deal has happened over the last month, and there is plenty to choose from.  Yet the thing that I believe most astounds me/offends me is how MSNBC handled the Bashir/Palin situation.  I would have said that this one is a no-brainer, and I would have been proven wrong.  Apparently, for MSNBC, ignorance is bliss.  I find that offensive – and am taking this opportunity to remove their excuse.  (No charge.)

As a society, I would say we are no longer taught how to deal with violence in any way.  It is, I believe, an outgrowth of being mostly safe from violence when compared to the rest of the world.  Children are taught that “violence is not an option.” And like good kids do, we tend to believe it.  What that means now is that you have a group of adults with no clue what the boundaries for that sort of thing are.  They were never taught, and that is a mistake.

“Violence is not an option” is an out and out fiction. It is almost always an option.  99% of the time it’s the dumbest single thing you can do, but it’s still up to you.  For example, the only thing that stops you from walking up to a policeman and slapping him because you don’t like his haircut is YOU. Stupid is always a choice, for you, for me, and for everybody else.  I don’t care how smart you are.  Smart people do dumb things all the time, especially when they have no idea about the consequences. I could give examples but I am dealing with MSNBC/Bashir right now.

Essentially what we are dealing with in this case is physical threats.  There are basically three levels of this sort of thing.  
1
.)    1.)The Direct Threat.  That’s the threat where a person threatens to harm you or others personally. If a person chooses to believe this kind of threat, the person making it can be arrested, sued, or in some cases, legally killed on the spot. Google Bernie Goetz if you don’t believe me.
2
.)    2.)The Proxy Threat. This involves a person saying in a public way “Somebody ought to” do x, y and z to another person.  The individual making the threat can be sued, or maybe even charged.  The poor idiot who tries to do x. y and z, is subject to all the consequences covered under the Direct Threat even if he never says anything. There is also the possibility of a completely innocent person being harmed/killed because the person threatened thought they were about to be attacked. I would imagine they or their family could sue the Proxy Threat Maker as well.
3
.)    3.)The Proxy Non-threat. This may not be a crime but it’s criminal and it happens. It involves either “Gosh it would be too bad if X happened” or perhaps “Somebody is going to do X” (just in case nobody thought of X themselves.) I don’t know if there is anything that can be legally done to someone who makes a threat like that, but it happens and it is despicable. Again the person who decides that he is that “somebody” who is going to do X is subject to all Direct Threat consequences and there is a risk that innocent people will be hurt or killed.

The most natural reaction when accused of any of the above would be to say “You don’t know me! I’d NEVER do anything like that.” I like to think that’s probably true more often than not. But here’s the thing.

I don’t know you.  I probably don’t want to know you. Even if I could, I am not required to read your mind. I expect most people feel more or less the same way about me, and that’s fine. W

The fact that a person is a public persona changes nothing here. Threats are a dangerous, stupid business and, in my honest opinion, there’s simply no place for them in any media organization that wishes to be respected, like say MSNBC, (or so I presume.)  I also know they probably don’t give a damn about my honest opinion. So I’m not holding my breath.


But in any case MSNBC- you are no longer ignorant. That’s one less excuse I have to put up with.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Ground Rules

Ground Rules

All this infighting between the Tea Party and the Old Guard in the Republican Party has got to stop.  If we break the party we will subject all we care about to Democrat tyranny for a decade. OR we must make one simple agreement.  We have to agree to back the winners of the primaries, period.  It’s a fair question to ask all the candidates, and one that should be asked again and again throughout the primary process: Will you play by this one rule? Because quite frankly if the answer is no, the party is already broken, and we do ourselves no favors by pretending otherwise.

Seriously guys, you need to understand that all the infighting lately is about the best way to lose.  It’s all been about if we should surrender territory we can’t hold without a fight and no losses, or to pay a price for a bloody defense, while making the Democrat Party do some bleeding of their own. That’s it. That’s what the fight is about.

I want that to change.  So does everybody else.  I get it.  But again we are fighting about how.  I have a rather simple and simplistic proposal for that.  First, I want every primary candidate to publicly state that they will back the winner of the primary whether it’s them or not, and to then do so.  On pain of being ostracized.  Second, I would like every group to pledge to reserve at least half of monies raised, and ¾ would be better, to back the winner of the primary, even if it’s not their candidate.  As individuals, doing something similar with our personal contributions would also leave the winner, whoever it is, in the best possible position. We’ve got to start winning elections.


Those two things are more than enough to inspire a well-earned terror in our Democrat opponents.  I like that Idea. I am very tired of fighting over the best way to lose.  We don’t have to do that.  Who would honestly rather vote for the guy with the best way to lose over a guy who can win?  Every candidate has warts.  Since I’m not running, perfect is not going to happen.  Honestly, looking at Democrat despair lately, who would want a politician for a messiah?  They fall.  Let’s get some people in there who agree in principal on most of our goals.  That fight, we can win.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Spun Out


Spun Out

This week the Main Stream Media seems to have finally realized that they are chained to Obama’s bedpost and the house is on fire.   Strangely they do not seem to remember how hard they fought to be in that position. While it’s more than a little tempting to just write “I told you so” regarding the Obama Care disaster in about five paragraphs, that’s being done elsewhere.  Many, many, other places elsewhere.

Face it, the Obama Care roll out stinks.  It stinks so bad that even his devoted media are chewing off their limbs to escape it.  I am less interested in describing why it stinks as I am at noting the sudden free for all amongst the “loyal” MSM, and the great entertainment value for me personally.

The media seems to be mauling each other over how to frame the debacle.  Can they be loyal to the Chosen One?  Dare they? The head salesmen of all things Obama are divided on this.  Is there a way to delay this without admitting that the Republicans had a point? Is there a way to do this without Valerie-the-Enforcer using whatever leverage she has to destroy them?  You can’t convince me she won’t seek petty vengeance. It’s what she does.  And what does she have on the members of the fourth estate anyway?  The press is slowly realizing that they are no longer spinning for Obama Care’s survival; they are spinning for their own.

I’m not even being metaphorical here.  I just read an article on Breitbart.com by John Nolte detailing how Warren Buffett did NOT buy the Washington Post because “he didn't want it to be a burden on his company or family.” To quote Joe Biden “That’s a big F%#&ing Deal.”  It means Warren Buffett does not think it is worth keeping a major metropolitan newspaper alive, even as an act of charity. It means they've been written off.  Partly, I am sure, because they keep putting themselves in positions where they simply cannot be trusted to be objective. Instead of the daily news, all they deliver is the daily spin, willfully not realizing that if the public wants spin we can write our own. They've been showing us how for years.

Most of all the MSM is learning the hard lesson that nobody wants to protect them from themselves.  Indeed it may be too late.  Obama loved them while they were useful, but apostasy is not allowed under Obama.  It’s the unforgivable sin.  However, at the same time, his clock will be running out in three short years.  What to do?  The media made its own hell. Don’t we all?





Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Pressure


Pressure

Well, I’m not going to try and spin this as a win.  We lost.  That sucks, but there it is.  Obama care speeds onwards like the runaway locomotive that it is.  Most people saw that coming too. However, we are not without gains of our own.  While the Democrat Party kept what they started with, they had to spend resources to do so. The pressure has highlighted some of their problems. Problems they like to pretend don’t exist.  I have been in a few disagreements over the course of my life, and there is nothing that brings you down to earth quite like that first hit to the face.  After that, everything is real.

Internally, the Republican Party has learned quite a few things.  Many were unpleasant, but they are things we need to know.  First we learned who is willing to fight on principal alone and at personal risk.  We need to know this. We need to know who, if nothing else, remembers which team they play for. Many will speak of cooler heads prevailing, but they weren’t prevailing. They were sitting on their hands, waiting for the “perfect moment.” That moment historically only happens when you make it happen. Some Republicans have forgotten that.

Obama Care itself seems to be its own worst enemy.  The rollout has been a disaster.  The Republicans did not do that.  The Obama administration did it.   In many minds, however, Republican talking points have been proven correct. Obama Care is only going to get worse. This may be the single biggest help that Republicans get in 2014.  People are going to remember who saw this coming and fought against it.  Those individuals are going to see their stock rise, while those who supported Obama Care try, and I hope fail, to put some distance between themselves and this catastrophe.

And of course there is the damage done personally by #PresidentStompyFoot and his #SpiteHouse edicts during the shutdown.  He couldn’t have been forced to do any of this; but he has harmed himself and his party.

The day of a million immigrant march on the National Mall, Obama decided to lock WWII veterans out of their own memorial in a fit of pique. Not only did some Congressional Democrats march out to support the immigrant rally, after the vets were locked out, and they intentionally got themselves arrested to show support of the immigrants.  But they stood mute instead of supporting our veterans. The only reason this wasn’t more widely known is because the MSM somehow forgot to report it until they looked stupid.  However, every time the media spins the news to protect Obama, It costs them credibility, which to them is measured in dollars. Thus they hasten their own end.  Even they had to balk when Obama pulled the death benefits for the families of soldiers fallen in Afghanistan. The President pulled the money in spite of the legislation passed by both houses of Congress and signed by him that was specifically meant to make sure that benefits were paid.  And again, the Democrats in Congress stood mute. They own that now, and they can thank the President.

Also, and we can’t forget or let the Democrat Party do so, the time to bask in the aura of their Chosen One is fast drawing to a close.  Whatever delusions of protection that the Obama Loyalists thought they had been granted are now gone.  They realize now as they nurse the fat lip they got from this fight that they won, they are immune to nothing. They will be dealing with the consequences their support of Obama’s choices long after he is gone.

You see, everything is real now.


That alone made this fight worth it.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Retrograde Leadership


Retrograde Leadership

In football, all teams have a coach. The coach’s job is to win games. He sends players out to play the game because he’s actually not allowed to do it personally. Some Coaches are Great and become living legends.  Others are horrible and get hustled out of town in the middle of the night. Some of those are legends too. Either way, the coach’s responsibilities’ are pretty straightforward.  Recruit a team, train the team, take care of the team’s needs and send them out to win games. He can hire assistants, but the responsibilities remain his.

Football can be a rough game.  Players get hurt pretty often.  Sometimes they are hurt badly and permanently. All of these are tragedies.  Injuries are unplanned and frequently not fixable.  At that point the coach has responsibilities to the player and his family.  Emotional support, medical care and financial obligations, and therapy if necessary are owed. The expectation of the players and their families is that they will be met.

Now let us imagine a coach who for some unknown reason hates the game but won’t quit and can’t or won’t control himself even in the face of scrutiny. Who even when warned about his behavior, for whatever reason, can’t be easily fired. 

Imagine this coach beating up his hurt players.  I’m not talking Woody Hayes, I’m talking about  a coach who would smack around a kid in a wheelchair, a coach who would charge up into the stands and smack the kid’s mother.

That is not a tragedy. That is a betrayal!  It is a complete abdication of the responsibility given to him.  This is not just being a lousy coach.  There is no reason good enough to do that. It violates the trust of the injured, their families, the players and all who have played or supported them.

OK! OK! So I’m not talking about football.

It’s not just the military funerals and death benefits during the shutdown either. Obama seems to positively delight in denying military families their benefits and in maximizing their pain. He called Fort Hood attacks “workplace violence” to block and specifically deny the wounded and their families’ benefits.  He outed the members of Seal Team Six and their families endangering them all.  He even kicked all veterans to the top of the “domestic terror” watch list out of pure spite.  This is a well-established pattern that has raised many doubts among service members and ex-service members as well of those who watch that sort of thing out of simple love for our heroes and a basic respect for their sacrifices.

However, the shutdown “crisis” offered Obama opportunities he simply could not stop himself from taking. I believe his disdain is pathological, but past a certain point it no longer matters.

The one that bothers me most is closing the base Exchanges. The military is chronically underpaid. Nobody joins for the pay, but the way military families can eat is by buying their food from the post exchanges where they don’t have to pay taxes on the food.  He’s literally taking food off their tables.  Then there is the complete ban on contracted military chaplains giving services on bases, even unpaid, on pain of prosecution.  In addition to denying service members and their family whatever comfort their faith can give them, I believe that to be flatly unconstitutional. It’s difficult to imagine a man who taught constitutional law not being fully aware of that.

Locking our veterans out of National Monuments built to honor them due to lack of funds just stinks.  When you are spending more to lock them up than to leave them open, the spite is blatant and shockingly petty. The outrage over this surprises no one, yet this President could not stop himself.

There are many more outrages than just what has happened to our military, their families and our veterans.  All are outrageous, and pretty much everyone is outraged. I am not sure even I could have made people any more furious, and I’m gifted.

We've had presidents before who weren't fans of the military.  I am not entirely sure what Bill Clinton thought of the military, but at least he kept one eye on the polls and treated them with the basic respect anyone should give the tools of their trade. Carter, I am told almost destroyed it, but the good thing about presidents is that they eventually lose that job.  It’s why we don’t have kings.  Our military will survive even Obama. But they, and those of us who support them, should be prepared for three more years of spite.

Now, I expect Obama’s defenders to come out of the woodwork, and call me and any person with a similar opinion a liar and much worse. They will sing his praises to the world at large while providing him with excuses.  The thing is, this is far beyond words.  I believe Obama’s Media Meat Shield will make excuses and call people names until he’s out of office or they are. I have heard many words, from both of Obama’s faces. They prove nothing. Trust, and any benefit of the doubt are now gone.  If Obama wants to make me a liar, he’s going to have to do it through his actions.


And I would welcome it.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Wait a minute, we're still here?



Wait a minute, we’re still here?
I thought the government shutdown was supposed to herald the end of the world or something. Are dogs and cats sleeping together and such, like in Ghostbusters?

Lila the magnificent, canine and absolute mistress of all things below knee-level is at this moment staring at me reproachfully as if to say “Unlike you, I have standards.”   

I stepped outside and saw the yellow fingernail of the moon just over the horizon.  I suppose the rest of the moon was told not to come in to work today because of the Evil Republicans?  I checked the almanac; the moon is scheduled to go away completely by the fifth! Who knew Evil Republicans had such power?

I suppose the sun is getting a furlough day as well?  We’ll see at 6:56 a.m. (Denver time). How could they doom us to labor in darkness so?  On the plus side, everyone is at least getting a day off….No Way! Everyone still has to go to work?  Well, with no cops to enforce the speed limit it shouldn't take as long….they are working too?!!? And the sun will rise anyway….What the hell?

The entire world is coming to a stop thanks to the Evil Republican plot against Barak, the chosen one, and nothing has changed?!!?

Does that mean the entire world is not coming to a stop? 

Could I ask my Democratic friends what exactly we are supposed to be panicking about? No offence, but I really don’t get it. The cops are there, the hospitals are there…

Most of the government workers won’t be there? This is different from normal because the doors will be locked?  This means I won’t have to stand in line to be told they can’t help me.  How is this not progress?

Why is this happening?

Is it because Obama will not be defied by mere Americans? 


Oh hell, that explains everything.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

One Damned Thing...




One Damned Thing…

“As I was finishing, I heard a crashing noise. A horned and tusked purple thing went racing along the ridge to my right pursued by a hairless orange-skinned creature with long claws and a forked tail. Both were wailing in different keys.

I nodded. It was just one damned thing after another.”     ---Roger  Zelazny

So, how exactly does one stay inspired?

I began pondering while watching news shows.  I thought to myself, always a dangerous proposition, “Why are they talking about the Emmys?  Who the hell cares about the Emmys?  Oh! I get it.  They’re hiding!”

I do get it.  This last year has been a series of disasters, one after another, and to keep life interesting anyone who looks can see them lining up for the next pass.

Syria, Benghazi, Christians being slaughtered in Kenya and Pakistan, Iran talking peace, again, in a bid for more time to build nukes.  Korea apparently is going into the meth business.  Floods in Colorado, home for me.  The Climate Change Militia is coming out to scream all their old dire warnings, yet again.  This time it’s the growing ice pack that apparently heralds more global warming.

Stateside, we have had another mass shooting.  Even some liberals are starting to realize that all their attempts at gun control are only making things worse, but they have the bit in their teeth and are determined not to stop.

Nobody can afford what Obama Care is doing to them, but now that congress itself has waivers, it isn’t passing out any more of them. K-12 education stinks and is getting worse. And of course, my own unwavering depression acts like punctuation for every piece of bad news. It would be easy to give up. Why continue?

I’m going to do a horrible thing to you.  I’m going to tell you why, and you won’t be able to un-hear it. Ever.

It’s very simple.  Hopelessness and despair are just not good enough. You will fight it, because humans simply cannot stay locked in despair.  I have found that when I am curled into a ball and waiting for death, it only takes a little while until I am furious at myself for acting so ridiculous.  It does not work. Humans, and particularly Americans, struggle for more because it’s how we define ourselves.  We want better.  We will make it better.

Ideals cannot be destroyed. Hope cannot be lost. It’s simply misplaced for a time. Hope is the human, and the American, imperative. Despair is unnatural to us. 

It is always crisis that brings out the very best in us.  It forces us to grow.  Maybe we don’t step up, but when everyone else steps back, the point is moot.  Here we are. What now? To quote a great American:

"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time."     --- Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC

The worse things get, the less there is to lose.  Refusal to quit is a curious strength and power. We have all found it from time to time.  We will find it again.  No fight is over unless we quit fighting.  In the end, we can’t do that.  Nor should we, It is a surrender of all that we are.

And we’re not dead yet.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

"If you're truly a pessimist, all of your surprises are pleasant."--Casual Meyhem

I suppose this is my first post - if it works AND I don't screw it up. Thus the title.

This is allegedly the new home of @CasualMeyhem (me) where I can rant without getting anyone else in trouble. A laudable goal.

I am a 43 yr old male Conservative/domestic side only libertarian. Barely and technically, in no particular order, I am Christian, Republican, White, and Sith Lord.

Whether I like it or not, I am always a Non-Drinking Drunk, Crazy Person, Cynic with delusions of grandeur who is a little too blunt for his (my) own good.

You can judge for yourself, but I happen to think I am pretty good at simplifying the complicated and using it to antagonize it's author. This is also how I have fun.

Some will say that my comments are The Pot Calling The Kettle Black.  Sometimes that's even the truth. Just don't forget that "The Pot" would know all about Black wouldn't it.(and here come the race-baiters in 3...2...1...)

So welcome! and let's see if this works.