Thanksgiving Sunset

Twisting leaf in wind.

Green, it moves with limb and twig

youth has strength to spare.

Twisting leaf in wind.

Red, it leaves its lofty perch

color to be seen.

Twisting leaf in wind.

Brown, it’s blown from place to place

no one knows it’s there.

Dennis Price

We enjoyed the Fall this year.  Earlier we traveled north to Arkansas just to see the colored leaves in the Ozarks.  They did not disappoint us.  Yesterday we had the complete Thanksgiving fare at our house as our family and friends gathered to celebrate a Thanksgiving feast.  There is a certain tension associated with the holiday if you are the host and turkey cooker.  All the ingredients must be laid in store and the turkey must be properly thawed in the refrigerator to insure a delicious main dish.  After much preparation (some of it at different households) the meal came together.  After we thanked our Heavenly Father for the things he provides daily and asked His blessing on all who were actually present, and those who were there in spirit, we sat down for an afternoon of visitation and relaxation.  I have no complaints.  I wrote the poem above several years ago.  It is made up of three stand alone Haiku stanzas that are linked by time and theme.  I signed up for Medicare recently and the idea struck me that Autumn is upon me.  I am thankful.

Republicans

Not since Reagan have the Republicans had a candidate that truly exhibited the basic tenets of conservatism. Main stream Republicans did not like Reagan, but, he had his own base of support that didn't need the elites to win.

The Republican Party Machine loves the excitement the conservatives bring to the table.  However, the RNC and the established "Inside the Beltway" Republicans are in the game to feather their own political nests as much as any Democrat ever thought about doing.

I have found the reactions of the Republican Royalty to be as predictable as the type of "slap stick" comedy one expects when watching the Three Stooges.  Regardless of the success brought about by the conservative undercurrent, the Republican Stooges can find a way to screw it up before, during, and after any election.

They can have great, eloquent, and electable candidates who would win in a landslide if the Big Republican Machine stayed out of the picture.  They predictably choose some favorite son who couldn't get a laugh in a room full of drunks.  McCain and Romney are good examples.  I voted for both candidates because I realized that the alternative in both elections was unthinkable. However, I gave my money to much more electable "also rans" in both elections.  In losing, the Republicans always capitulate to a lukewarm" position of nothingness.  In winning, the Republicans always retreat to a "lukewarm" position of nothingness.  I am ready to depart from this ineffective party and form an alternative party, early in the cycle, that can defeat both of the established big boys.  We must start now.

Here's what I say to the Republicans - If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me  -Jimmy Buffett

What has America Become?

I know many of you are wondering this same thing.  What was started over two hundred years ago when our forefathers decided to start this great union unlike any other in history?  I found a recent letter to the editor by Alan Walden, and I am going to use selected portions in an effort to condense it without changing its meaning.

"I wonder how I became a stranger in my own land.

During more than three-quarters of a century on this planet I have come to believe in the greatness of America; a greatness fueled by goodness and the belief that this nation was founded to show the world how things can be when free men and women are allowed to pursue whatever dreams and ambitions they may have unfettered by social or political agendas or the tyranny of those to whom power is the narcotic of choice.   We chose, as our mantra "E Pluribus Unum," (From Many, One) as we invited others to join us and become Americans. But now, this stranger in his own land sees only the "pluribus” and wonders what happened to the "unum. "

 We created a government to provide structure and a sense of order, a structure in which the people, not the government, ruled supreme. We won our independence through eight years of blood and fire through the will of the people. We fought each other less than a century later and preserved the nation through the will of the people. We grew into the mightiest and most remarkable national entity the modern world had ever known through the will of the people. We saved the world and rebuilt it, not once, but twice, through the will of the people. We were the United States of America. But that was then.

And the "unum" is just about gone. The unity that once defined us has been superseded by the hyphen. No longer willing to proudly proclaim our status as Americans, we have become a Balkanized amalgam of tribes at cross purposes: African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic -Americans, Gay and Lesbian-Americans, et al. The amalgam used in dentistry contains mercury and is, therefore, a slow acting poison. No less poisonous is the tribal amalgam of 21st Century America. And, not to be overlooked, are the many millions among us who are not, nor do they wish to be, Americans. They're just here, to water at our trough and spit the dregs in our faces.

Around the world we are regarded with suspicion, amusement and, all too often, contempt. The America that sent the Great White Fleet around the world, the America that rid the world of the unspeakable horror of Adolf Hitler, the America of the Marshall Plan, the America that turned back the invasion of South Korea, the America that brought down the Berlin Wall, snapped the fetters that had kept Eastern Europe in thrall for decades, and dumped the tyranny of the Soviet Union on the scrap heap of history has become a source of ridicule. We have become a global punch line, unworthy of the mantle of greatness we once wore with such distinction.

The president has been reelected, and his slogan is "Forward." Toward what, I wonder? Toward the greatness we earned as the last great hope of humankind, or toward the abyss of mediocrity we are earning just as surely."

Alan Walden
Associate Faculty Member, Department of Communication Arts
Notre Dame of Maryland University

What in the world just happened?

Well, I'll tell you what just happened.  The 47% who live in the most concentrated population centers and who have the most electoral votes, just re-elected the president who promises to keep them in the paltry manner to which they have become accustomed.

I am encouraged that even where I live in the tip of Texas, (big Democrat country) there is a little blob of red.  Let's look at what they want to continue as I see it.

Unfettered Illegal immigration with its attendant billions in costs to the American tax payer for benefits, education, increased crime, court costs, and incarceration.  I'm sure many of these Illegal immigrants voted.

Huge increases in medical and insurance costs with a decrease in the number of doctors.  Huge increases in all sorts of taxes on all of us to pay for the mammoth bureaucratic agency needed to ineffectively run the program.  We are in the demographic Obama promised not to raise taxes on and so is anyone who has a life. On January 1st we will see noticeable tax increases, fees, and penalties.

Government sponsored abortion on demand and free contraceptives.  It would seem that free contraceptives would take care of the first cost, but apparently they don't know how to use them.

More spending on those who are in the 17 to 18 percent who are unemployed.  Only the careful manipulation of the data on unemployment before the election kept most people from knowing how bad it is.  This combined with the expenditures not only for housing and subsistence but also for such non-essentials as cell phones and computers is sure to drive up the costs of government.

Continued financial support to the United Nations and billions in tax payer dollars in foreign aid to bolster countries who hate us and want to do us harm.

More government interference and regulation of job producing industries, combined with governmental support of labor unions to insure that good jobs continue to go overseas.  This includes the auto industry that the Obama administration proudly touted as one of their greatest accomplishments.  Just check and see where not only parts, but also finished products are going to be produced in the near future.

We can be assured that this administration will continue to bow before all manner of foreign dictators who are enemies of our great nation.

I predict we will see other aberrant sexual groups lobbying for legal protection and recognition.  The pedophiles are already showing up in great numbers at the meetings of the Gay/Bi/Lesbian and Transgender meetings.  I also predict that the courts will have no option to grant their requests because of the precedents recently set.

There will be greater division in this country as this administration continues its efforts to bring the United States to a third world status.  The rest of the world may cheer at their efforts until they realize just how much they depend upon the economy of the U.S.

Our nation will be made vulnerable with huge cuts to our military strength and we will see more overt efforts to terrorize the U. S. by the cowardly weaklings of the world.

We have created a generation of voters who are totally dependent on huge government for their every need. They are a large enough group now to elect people who will sell their birthright for a bowl of porridge.  The politicians and entrepreneurs who will willing rob the treasury for their own gain are the most despicable of the entire lot.

Individual integrity and responsibility must be taught by those of us who still know what it is.  Each individual must make an effort to model these behaviors and attempt to show others how important they are to our survival.  Socialism has been a huge failure everywhere it has been tried.  It will be no different here.

Writing.

Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.  - Jules Renard

The computer parts were ordered and have arrived.  Soon I will be operating on my new/old computer.  All that will be left to do is send in the four or five bar codes from the packing boxes in order to receive about $80.00 in mail in rebates. If I were King, I would do away with coupons, mail in rebates, special store cards,  small print in advertising, and all other gimmicky commercial come-ons.  I would make stores advertise and post specials without anything else having to happen.  If you saw an advertised price, you would not need special glasses to know how to receive it.  I was in Walgreens the other day and saw a pretty good price posted under a product I wanted.  I got two of the advertised items and put them in my little basket.  When I got to the check-out, the clerk rang up a higher price.  I asked her about the difference in the price she rang up and the posted price and she told me the lower price was for those who had signed up for their new special card.  She then asked if I would like to sign up for one.  I told her "no" without the thank you attached.  Clerks should automatically give discounts to customers who place hemorrhoid medications on the counter.  I also said that my back pain was probably caused by the thickness of my wallet which is the size of a football because of all the special cards I have to carry in order to conduct business.  Like most clerks in our area she seemed dazed and confused because there were no pictures on the register to deal with grumpy old men. 

Happy Shopping

I guess many thought I had ceased my blogging efforts altogether.  Not true, not true. I have been in the doldrums of not having my main computer.  It ceased working properly months ago and finally refused to turn on earlier this month.  I believed it was a conspiracy by Microsoft because I installed a virus program not provided by Windows.  Then I thought, the "Thought Police" have taken exception to some of my writings and decided to censor me.  I think now it might be an outdated mother board.  I am trying to get it updated.  I am pretty sure I have all the data saved on an external drive, but with technology, I never really know for sure.  In the meantime I am reduced to using a laptop.  It is an uncomfortable thing to try and type on because my thumbs occasionally drag on the little pad below the space bar and move the cursor to outer space where my typing ends up.  So until I get my data base back this will have to suffice.  I am trying to use the time to create some new poetry using pencil and paper.  See you in the funny papers, Pappy

Fishing in the Creek

The Catch

I used to take a short cane pole

and head out for the creek

where tannin colored water ran

like iced tea over white soft sand.

It pooled in bends or near felled

trees in deep black holes where

fishes hid.

With weight and hook

and wiggling worm

I’d drop my line and watch the

bobbing bobber disappear

when fish would bite

and take their flight to

wrap my line around some

hidden snag.

Dennis Price

Adrift

I lie adrift in an azure pool

with arms out stretched

in weightlessness

and shut my eyes behind

my shades

and gaze through eyelids

red with blood at

changing patterns light and dark.

The sun bares down

from cloudless sky

gulf breezes slowly

turn me round

and I can feel

my skin turn brown

as afternoon slips into night

and with it every troubling thought

fades on the gentle swells.

Dennis Price

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.  - Brendan Gill

Hauling Hay

Hauling Hay

I was a teacher

my salary was meager

I spent the summers

hauling hay.

The Texas sun

was searing at dawn

when I rose to see

if my hay truck

would start.

I climbed in the cab.

looked at the ground.

The truck had no floorboard

just blue smoke and sound.

The hay fields were strewn.

Square bales of alfalfa.

Heavy to lift,

tough to inhale.

We stacked them high

on the flatbed behind us.

One hundred and twenty

at twelve cents a bale.

We made for the barn.

A loft with no air flow.

Sweating and stacking

and swatting the wasps.

The scene was repeated

as long as the sun shone.

Then we, and the truck

coughed our way home.

Dennis Price

It Has Been Dry

My wife and I spent the week in Dallas, Texas last week.  It was HOT, and in most places extremely dry.  Texas has been suffering over the past few years with extreme drought and hot temperatures.  We are accustomed to hot weather here in the lower Texas Rio Grande Valley, but nothing like what we experienced in Dallas.  The temperatures were over 105 degrees everyday we were there.  The newscasters did some heat readings on black asphalt and dark colored vehicles and got readings in the 130 to 145 degree range.  We were glad to get back to our variety of summer heat here in the Valley.  Our temperatures are tempered by the breezes that reach us from the Gulf of Mexico.  We could use some more rain here, and I'm sure the farmers are praying for some now that the cotton crop is in.  I wrote this poem during a period of drought some years ago.  I could use a rain in the literal sense and also metaphorically in a writing sense.

God’s Symphony

The land is parched and dry

beneath the summer sun

and one might question,

why its been so long since rain

has spattered softly in the dust

until the droplets blend

in numbers large enough to

soak the crust and run in rivulets

steaming in the heat with

pitter, patter beat

backed up by lights

behind gray clouds

and roar of distant tympani?

First pianissimo, then forte

as the lightning cymbals crash

and drum roll thunder shakes

the core.

The howling wind joins in

for harmony and takes the

movement down to pianissimo

once more

then fades to blue.

Dennis Price

The Comeback

THE COMEBACK

     Dallas “Blackjack” Bond, former world light heavyweight champ, returned to New York City. Here he once thrilled boxing fans in Madison Square Garden, and here he met and married Angela Minoni, a petite dark haired beauty he called Angie.

     Born in poverty, he learned to make his way in life early.  In the sweltering heat of the Mississippi lumber camps, he swung an axe and pulled on a cross-cut saw until he was lean and strong.  When his parents died, he went to New Orleans and took a job as a longshoreman working on the docks.  There were always rough men around looking for a fight.  They soon learned the tall slender kid from Mississippi had a crushing left hook.

     “It felt like someone hit me with a blackjack”, an opponent once commented after regaining his senses.

     Angie was supportive, but the years took a physical toll, and she convinced him to leave the ring.  They moved to Las Vegas, where he opened a gym and became a trainer.  They had no children, but lived well and enjoyed each other.

      Last September he lost her after a hard fought bout with cancer.  Her death hit Dallas like a liver shot in the twelfth round of a fifteen rounder.  He was sixty eight years old, conscious, but on the canvas and unable to get up.  He sold the gym and moved back to New York in December, hoping he could find something of Angie.  It was the old neighborhood, but everything had changed. 

The coldness of the winter night seeped in through the wrinkles in the old building.  Dallas stirred under the covers in his small bed.  His six foot two inch frame took up the greater portion of its length.  He slept in his gray sweats for added warmth.  Throwing back the blankets, he arose and shuffled the short distance to his bathroom.  The door frame barely accommodated the width of his shoulders.

     Standing at the sink, he splashed icy tap water onto his face.  He ran his wet fingers through his wavy graying hair, and then dried his face with a tattered green towel. He stared into the mirror and wondered what Angie ever saw in that mug.  The reflection of his slate blue eyes looked back at him.  The thick scar tissue drooped at the corner of each eyebrow and made him look sad.  His nose was flat and slightly crooked.  With age, his cauliflower ears had lengthened and now looked like unfinished candle wax sculptures.  The line of his jaw didn’t exactly line up either.

          He turned away and moved to the living room.  A framed photograph of a youthful Angie stood beneath the lamp on the end table.  Dallas glanced her way and forced a smile as he lowered himself to the hard floor for some push-ups and sit-ups, but his heart wasn’t in it.  He held his huge calloused hands at arms length while working his fingers to loosen the stiffness in his knuckles.  Even though his once-chiseled body had smoothed with age, it was still impressive.  He stood and moved to the window.  The sun shone brightly.  It was time for a walk down memory lane.

     He slipped out of his warm-ups and put on some heavy woolen trousers and a nice plaid dress shirt.  He drank the last of his coffee, put on his coat and hat, and left the building.  For a moment he stood on the sidewalk, basking in the contrast of warm sunshine and crisp air. Before him an ever-changing pallet of skin colors moved over the gray concrete, accompanied by a symphony of dialects. The city had its own atmosphere.  He could smell smog, refuse, and people, mixed with the more pleasing and pungent odors of garlic and onion cooking. 

     “Let go of my purse!”  A woman was screaming.

     Dallas turned and saw a gang of young punks surrounding an elderly woman who was hanging on to the strap of her purse with amazing tenacity.  He felt a surge of adrenaline as he ran toward her.

 

     “Let go of her now!”  he yelled as he waded into the group, shielding the lady who had now fallen to the sidewalk.  “It’s not worth it guys, back off.”

     A large young man sneered as he sauntered toward Dallas.  The others watched and grinned.

 

     “Looks like you need a lesson in respect old man.”  The bully threw a looping right as he spoke.

     Dallas ducked to the left and the punch found nothing but air over his right shoulder.  Instinct brought his left fist in a short arc to the young man’s jaw.  His assailant fell hard to the sidewalk.  The others scattered.

     “Are you alright ma’am?”  Dallas asked, as he helped the frightened woman from the ground.

     “Yes, I think so.  Thank you so much.  I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

     “Do you want me to call the police?”

     She looked down at the young man now lying at her feet.  “No, I don’t think he’ll be bothering anyone for quite some time.”  She brushed herself off, thanked Dallas again, and started home.

     Dallas thought of Angie.  She fought so hard, but he couldn’t help her.  He knew she would be pleased with him today.

     You know Angie, I’m thinking about making a comeback.  The legs are gone, the reflexes aren’t so good, but I still have my left hook.  The adrenaline was wearing off and the cold air chilled him.  I think I may do it in Biloxi though.

     He glanced heavenward and his blue eyes were smiling again.

Dennis Price

I haven't the slightest idea how to change people, but I still keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.  - David Sedaris

Loutisha

      The old white frame dog run house sat atop a bluff over looking the paved road.  Its tin roof was topped with two lightning rods which were grounded by a large twisted cable. Each rod tip looked like a spear head pointing skyward.  About midway down the shaft was a clear glass ball.  The house had a porch which ran all the way across the front. On the porch was a rocking chair, and in this chair on almost any given day sat Loutisha.  She was my great grandmother.  We called her Granny Tish. 

      The dog run was open and split the living quarters of the house in half.  Granny Tish dressed in a long skirt and long sleeved blouse even on the hottest summer day.  A cotton bonnet hung over one of the rocking chair’s back posts.  She wore gold wire rim glasses that didn’t seem to help her eyesight much. She would squint at your approach and make a guess at which one of the grandchildren’s offspring you were.  Her once dark hair was mostly gray now and she wore it in a bun at the back of her head.  The skin on her face was wrinkled except on her high cheek bones.  She had a pleasant earthy aroma.  It was a mixture of Calgon bath soap, cooked bacon, wood smoke and coffee.  Her old Collie dog was always nearby.  The porch was adorned with a few pot plants in tin buckets, a broom made of broom sage, and a water pail with a dipper for drinking.  A metal basin was also on the shelf with the drinking water. 

      She had a well out in back of her house with a wooden windlass.  A long metal bucket hung over the tile curbing attached to a long cotton rope. I still can hear her saying, “Don’t you kids turn a loose of that windlass, you will break my curbin’” The water from her well was sweet and cold.  She had a big wood stove that could be stoked from the front or top.  A metal cabinet over the cook top was designed to keep food warm. In the morning she kept a pot of coffee warm on the stove.  Her breakfast usually consisted of buttered “cat head” biscuits and slab bacon.  I liked to watch her eat. 

      If the weather got stormy she would leave the porch and go inside.  She didn’t like lightning.

      She would say “It’s a comin’ up of a blowout.” 

      I was young and I found almost everything she did fascinating.  Several long cane poles leaned against the front porch and she always had a coffee can of worms at the ready.  She loved to fish.  I can picture her ambling down the gravel lane toward the creek with her cane pole in one hand and her worm can in the other.  Her old dog went along to keep the snakes away.  He occasionally showed up with his head swollen from an encounter with a water moccasin.  She would never allow you to fish with her if you were wearing light colored clothing.  It scared the fish.  She carried a folding knife to repair her line, and stab turtles who were stealing her bait.

       “I neigh stobbed me a turkle” she’d say.

     Sometimes she asked me to stay the night with her, but I was afraid.  My cousins said the house was haunted because my great grandpa Jack had died there.  I always went back to my grandmother’s house, which was just down the lane, when the sun went down.  Granny Tish was from a large family, and when she was fifteen, Jack (my great grandfather) was courting her older sister, Mandy.  When he came to ask Mandy to marry him, she turned him down.  Tish knew she would and had climbed a tree near the walk leading to their house.  As Jack walked dejectedly away from the house, Tish dropped down onto the walk in front of him and said, “If Mandy won’t have you I will.” 

     I was in grammar school and learning to read and write.  Granny Tish did not have much formal education.  She would labor over the grocery list before the delivery man came.  I was comforted that someone had as much trouble writing as I did.  She died when I was fairly young, but I’ve always had fond memories of my visits with her.

Looking For Answers

Today will be an exercise for you in critical thinking.  I am going to post some information for you to review on Operation Fast and Furious.  It will be from two previous posts on the subject.  The first post is sited in the post sited below.  I suggest reading these posts in order, and then making your deductions.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1648308601523670977#editor/target=post;postID=1595521757921552790

I know everyone is zeroing in on Eric Holder for his role in Fast and Furious.  However, I doubt seriously if any of the Congressmen who question him know enough to ask the right questions.  I think Eric Holder has shown his true racist colors now that he's bolstered by the most racist president in recent history.  I agree that he should be removed from office, but I think arriving at the right reasons will take more than the vitriol from the NRA and some of their supporters.  I am going to provide you with information that may cause you to dig deeper.

The focus, outside of Holder, has been on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  The same type of media misinformation was put out about the Branch Davidian Compound standoff near Waco, Texas. The mis-information was parroted by the NRA, and, then Attorney General Janet Reno, was the target of much Congressional blustering and inquiry.  Based on my thirty plus years of experience with such things I can tell you that neither Attorney General Reno or Holder probably knew anything about either operation until things went to hell in a hand basket.  The sign offs on these operations are handled in most cases by a bevy of lesser players in the Justice Department.  The day of the raid, after Janet Reno was briefed, she pulled ATF out of the scene and replaced them with the FBI.  So, ATF didn't have much of a presence other than to man the road blocks and sit in the FBI negotiations and briefings.  The whole affair could probably have been over in a matter of a few days with little or no damage on either side, but nothing the field commanders suggested could be implemented in a timely fashion because of all the other people, with no knowledge of what to do or how to do it, who had to be consulted.

Let me give you some little known background information:  The Justice Department, and the FBI in particular, have been trying to get the primary enforcement designation over the laws that ATF enforces.  ATF is rarely given credit when major cases are solved.  The press routinely refers to them as other federal agents.  After 9/11/2001, the word went out that we were all going to be lumped into a mega enforcement group under the Justice Department know as Homeland Security.  ATF had been under the Treasury Department since its inception back in the 1930s.  I could have worked for two more years before my retirement became mandatory, but I chose to go at the earliest opportunity to avoid having to work for the Justice Department.  I would not be surprised if the real underlying purpose of Operation Fast and Furious was to embarrass ATF and have the FBI take the jurisdiction.  I can tell you that it is highly unlikely that anyone at the field level came up with the idea to cooperate with Mexico in any kind of enforcement operation.  This had to come from higher up.  I worked on or near the border for much of my career.

Fact:  The levels of governmental corruption are so deep in Mexico, that it is impossible to count any information as reliable that comes from their side of the river.

Fact:  ATF has monitored and worked on guns and ammunition going to Mexico since the early 1970s when I started work for them.

Fact: ATF's jurisdiction ends at the bridge.  U. S. Customs picks up jurisdiction at that point.

Fact: ATF's presence in Mexico was in an advisory capacity and to aid in the tracing of recovered firearms.

Fact: Guns and ammunition (illegal to most in Mexico except law enforcement and the military) have been smuggled in for as long as anyone could make a profit doing it.

Fact: The traffic in firearms is continuing at the same rate as it was before Fast and Furious started and will continue until we seal the border.

Fact: ATF did not increase the number of guns going into Mexico by having prior knowledge of straw purchase buyers.

Fact: Once the guns reached the border, all bets were off.  Information from the other side cannot be depended on.  The police on the Mexican side drive most of the nice vehicles stolen here in the U.S. and taken across.  Recovery companies often buy them from these officials when they get tired of driving them.

Fact:  Having a GPS form of tracking device would have been worthless.  These guns would have gone to Mexico regardless of what ATF did.  Identifying and stopping a few guns from heading to Mexico through straws purchasers doesn't amount to a drop in the bucket when it comes to the number of guns being trafficked.  The idea for this operation must have come from some upper level source, because no ATF agent in his right mind would have approached this.

It is sad that other agents from other U. S. agencies were killed and wounded, but again I must ask you to consider who you are dealing with for the evidence in these instances.  The FBI reported, after the operation was stopped, that some of the ones making the deliveries of straw purchased guns were FBI informants.  In typical FBI fashion they didn't bother to tell ATF.

Ask yourself these questions:

Why were ICE agents driving along a dangerous highway unescorted?  These agents also operate in an advisory capacity and don't have any law enforcement authority in Mexico.

Why did the assailants drop their weapons after the shooting?

Who found the weapons?

Who did the ballistics tests?

Who provided the bullets for these tests?

What happened to the three mopes they originally paraded before the public after the shootings purporting they were the shooters?  I haven't seen them since.

All of this information is coming from the Mexican authorities.

Possible outcome for the Obama Justice Department: Embarrass ATF and have an excuse to shift the enforcement authority to the FBI, and secondarily to show how dangerous and ineffective our current gun laws are.  Before you decide, consider your answers to these questions. Did this plan originate in the mind of Eric Holder?  I doubt it.  Did it come from the cabal controlling the puppet strings?  I think that possibility is entirely possible.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.  -Mark Twain

Tomorrow we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence that occurred on July 4, 1776.  King Alfred the Great was the first British monarch to rule over all of England (849 - 899 A.D.).  He saw the connection between an educated populace and effective government.  He insisted that his Nobles learn Christian history.  He wrote that, "Local government ought to be synonymous with local Christian virtue, otherwise it becomes local tyranny, local corruption, and local iniquity."  Our fore fathers used these same principles in founding our great nation.  We have seen the predictions of King Alfred come to life as our government rejects the Christian faith and the attendant principles of righteous behavior in favor of secular humanism.  It is time, as individuals and a nation, to repent, and return to a government of people who value the wisdom of God and practice it.  Nothing short of that will save this nation.

           AMERICA

Out of revolution,

the grip of monarch’s rule.

Driven by freedom.

Necessity.

Founded on values

from God’s holy book,

the glue that binds,

in trust,

its varied masses.

America

Through fire of war,

without,

within,

was forged in strength

a strong republic.

America

And though the vision dims

in her prosperity,

she rises to the challenge

when tyrants seek

to quell her voice.

America

Blessed by God,

we must hold those

values close

that bound

our loose knit colonies

in their infancy.

America

Dennis Price

We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.  - Walt Kelly

An Enigma

I am still thinking.  Why follow everyone into a panic?  Why pick an easy target and shoot until we've used up all of our ammunition?  I keep thinking that maybe there is some strategy here.  I have been reading pundits from both sides of the Obama Care fight, and I, like you, was left scratching my head over Roberts decision.  However, while I am not sophisticated politically, I am aware that there is more than one way to skin a cat.  There were great constitutional issues to be decided with this decision.  The split in the court was a definite demarcation between the two political forces here in the United States of America.  In case you were wondering, I am not referring to the Republicans and the Democrats.  I am referring to those citizens of our great country who happen to think that morals and ethics are still important considerations when judging what goes on in our country.  I believe there are still more voters in America who think this way than those who sell out for a bowl of porridge.  I wrote about slight of hand in yesterdays post.  When the trick is exposed, the magician loses his mystique and the show is no longer entertaining.  I hope this will be the eventual result with this decision.  The great base of educated and thinking voters will not be fooled.  Someone has commented that while folks thought they were watching a simple game of checkers, Justice Roberts may have been playing chess.  He has taken the argument from the overused commerce clause to an issue of taxation.  This may pay dividends in future decisions.

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.  - Sir Winston Churchill

Here are some comments today from Dick Morris (former political adviser for president Bill Clinton)
“The Supreme Court did not let Obama off the hook, by the time the election comes around, it could be lethal."


Now some comments from,  Erick Erickson 
Editor,RedState.com

First, I get the strong sense from a few anecdotal stories about Roberts over the past few months and the way he has written this opinion that he very, very much was concerned about keeping the Supreme Court above the partisan fray and damaging the reputation of the Court long term. It seems to me the left was smart to make a full frontal assault on the Court as it persuaded Roberts.

Second, in writing his opinion, Roberts forces everyone to deal with the issue as a political, not a legal issue. In the past twenty years, Republicans have punted a number of issues to the Supreme Court asking the Court to save us from ourselves. They can’t do that with Roberts. They tried with McCain-Feingold, which was originally upheld. This case is a timely reminder to the GOP that five votes are not a sure thing.

Third, while Roberts has expanded the taxation power, which I don’t really think is a massive expansion from what it was, Roberts has curtailed the commerce clause as an avenue for Congressional overreach. In so doing, he has affirmed the Democrats are massive taxers. In fact, I would argue that this may prevent future mandates in that no one is going to go around campaigning on new massive tax increases. On the upside, I guess we can tax the hell out of abortion now. Likewise, in a 7 to 2 decision, the Court shows a strong majority still recognize the concept of federalism and the restrains of Congress in forcing states to adhere to the whims of the federal government.

Fourth, in forcing us to deal with this politically, the Democrats are going to have a hard time running to November claiming the American people need to vote for them to preserve Obamacare. It remains deeply, deeply unpopular with the American people. If they want to make a vote for them a vote for keeping a massive tax increase, let them try.

Fifth, the decision totally removes a growing left-wing talking point that suddenly they must vote for Obama because of judges. The Supreme Court as a November issue for the left is gone. For the right? That sound you hear is the marching of libertarians into Camp Romney, with noses held, knowing that the libertarian and conservative coalitions must unite to defeat Obama and Obamacare.

Finally, while I am not down on John Roberts like many of you are today, i will be very down on Congressional Republicans if they do not now try to shut down the individual mandate. Force the Democrats on the record about the mandate. Defund Obamacare. This now, by necessity, is a political fight and the GOP sure as hell should fight.

60% of Americans agree with them on the issue. And guess what? The Democrats have been saying for a while that individual pieces of Obamacare are quite popular. With John Roberts’ opinion, the repeal fight takes place on GOP turf, not Democrat turf. The all or nothing repeal has always been better ground for the GOP and now John Roberts has forced everyone onto that ground.

It seems very, very clear to me in reviewing John Roberts’ decision that he is playing a much longer game than us and can afford to with a life tenure. And he probably just handed Mitt Romney the White House.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.  -Napoleon Bonaparte

I have been pondering.  It has been almost two months since I last posted.  Sometimes I need pondering time.  When you have said all that you know how to say, and are reduced to posting what others are saying, it is time to ponder for a spell.  How do you explain that which cannot be explained?  I think the problem with explaining anything is narrowing your focus to cover your subject.  The explanations offered by most people today are a product of a society that can't or won't focus.  We have been conditioned to talk in sound bites.  In order to do this, it is necessary to paint with larger brushes.  When you paint with larger brushes, the necessary small details get lost.  So your answers, while they may look good on the surface, do not pass the logic test.

I am going to attempt to make some sense out of some current topics that I think are being poorly handled for political expediency.  Politicians have learned that the more confusing you can make things, the more likely the electorate will be to accept a sound bite answer.  Misdirection is not only a tool for the magician, it is also used by a variety of con-artists who don't want you to see what is really happening.  Obama is an expert in talking about apples and then giving you an illustrative example about oranges.  It may sound good until you realize that he has just misdirected your attention with an example that has nothing to do with what he was originally talking about.

You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there.  - George Burns

The Doctor Will See You Now

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.  - Neil Gaiman


In an article by Jarrett Stepman, written on 5/11/2012, Obama's former physician, Dr. David Scheiner, M.D. offers his insight into the man many deluded Americans voted for in the last presidential election.  The entire article can be found at:  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51433

I have shared some of the same observations about Barrack Hussein Obama since his appearance on the political radar screen.  Mine, however, were based on years of experience dealing with people who lied to further their own best interest at the expense of everyone else in the known universe.  This man knew Barrack intimately.  The quotes by Dr. Scheiner are found in a new book entitled, "The Amateur" by author Edward Klein.

 "The doctor fears that if the health care plan is “the failure” he believes it will be, because of runaway costs and other problems, then any health reform will be set back for years to come."
Jarrett Stepman


In the chapter titled, “Hollow at the Core,” Obama’s former physician, who is a liberal, blasts the president for being uncaring, and perhaps worse, incompetent.

“He has no cost control. There would be no effective cost control,” said Scheiner. “The [Congressional Budget Office] said it’s going to be incredibly expensive… and the thing that I’m incredibly worried about is, if it is a failure that I think it will be, then health reform will be set back a long, long time.”

Scheiner said that the Obama administration neglected the advice of real physicians and instead decided to let political operatives craft Obama’s signature health care law. People like Obama’s former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, were the kinds of medical people that the White House consulted.

“Ezekiel is a medical oncologist, not a general physician,” said Scheiner.

The point that Scheiner was trying to make is that President Obama lacks the ability to understand the critical role of the doctor to patient interaction just as he fails to connect to people personally.

“My main objection to Barack Obama is that he is a great speaker and a lousy communicator. He isn’t getting his message across to people. He isn’t showing that he really cares. To this day he hasn’t communicated with members of Congress.”


Here is another clip by some real doctors who really know the score: http://www.youtube.com/embed/PJ-p29xEM0s

A Verbal Collage

"In modern day America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not actually come to pass while the article is still on the presses."  Calvin Trillin

The following post comes after a month or more of reading, thinking, and wondering what if anything could be said that hasn't already been said.  The great vacuum of ignorance seems to suck up our words of enlightenment and warning into a hopeless maelstrom.  I have chosen to print excerpts from a number of sources whose lines and paragraphs have pointed significance.

From the article entitled "Obama Meets His Nemesis" by J. R. Dunn we find the following;

"Obama is in the process of being ablated as the result of his own actions, born from his own personal flaws. There's a certain type of personality that constructs a life out of the nurturing and protecting its own failings rather than attempting to resolve or overcome them. This is the only formula that is required to understand Barack Obama.


Obama is one of the most arrogant figures ever to sit in the White House. John Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Teddy Roosevelt do not have a thing on this man. There has been considerable speculation that his condition is clinical, that he is in fact a narcissist in the psychological sense, and there is evidence to back this contention. The public sneer, the smirk, the upthrust chin, the repeated use of the personal pronoun at times when it is far from appropriate (e.g., the speech announcing the shooting of Osama bin Laden, where you'd be forgiven, from the way he told it, in believing that Obama himself took the old butcher out in single combat).  


And Obama took it from there, with some of the most lurid, unjustifiable, and grotesquely inflated policies and programs since the heyday of the New Deal. The $760-billion stimulus. Government takeover of entire industries. The shanghaiing of an eighth of the American economy through his health-care plan. And this is only to mention the most egregious offenses. There is scarcely a single aspect of American life that Obama hasn't attempted to remake in his own image. And why not? He was the Alpha, after all. And the Omega.



The odd thing is, he didn't actually do much. He didn't really put a lot of work into it. Like a Divine Right princeling, he thought that all he needed to do was make his wishes clear for them to be realized -- an odd conception of the presidency that I think is unmatched anywhere else in the record. Obama wanted millions of shovel-ready jobs; he sent his Ivy League-trained economists out to arrange it. He wanted a health-care revolution, and he turned that over to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. And so on down the line -- every revolutionary program was assigned to some secretary or czar or union goon.


The results have been what any normal individual might have expected. As Americans, we have gotten next to nothing out of all this wasted effort and energy and cash."


The next excerpts are from an article printed in the "Washington Post" newspaper and written by columnist, Matt Patterson.


"Government & SocietyYears from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present") ; and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.

He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?

But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass - held to a lower standard - because of the color of his skin.

Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action.


And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois ; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.


Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.

The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?"

An Irony of Epic Proportions

I almost hesitate to start this post because no matter how carefully I craft it, I know some will only look at the pictures.

I was raised in the deep South and I am very well acquainted with what went on there from the middle fifties, into the sixties, and beyond.  I was old enough to start questioning why some things were the way they were.  I got the standard answers that parents gave their children to explain why whites and blacks were separated in some areas and together in others.  I'm sure that black children asked the same questions.  I would imagine there were also answers given to them by their parents.  I was surprised to learn in later life that my mother also asked the same innocent childlike questions when she was a young girl during the thirties.  Life in the deep South during my youth was not totally segregated and people of all races formed bonds of friendship despite the tacit social barriers.  Just as my mother sought to do something as a teen, and was told to let it go, so were many of us who later had the same thoughts and ideas.  The problems were complex and so would be the solutions.  Change is never easy and it always meets with resistance.

The truth is, there was a great chasm, and no solution was going to please everyone.  In the middle sixties, the old barriers were struck down by the courts and people were forced to face and deal with the problems.  Those on both sides, who were educated and at least marginally successful, managed a more peaceful dialog and genuinely worked to make things work.  Those who couldn't articulate the injustices they felt, or perceived, formed groups of like minded individuals and lashed out at those they saw as causing the problem.  It was a time of great tumult in the South.  However, when I was older and traveled extensively in the North and North East, I found out that their racial problems were as bad if not worse than those we encountered in the South.  It made sense to me then that some of the resistance I witnessed was not racial, but rather resistance to people from outside the South who came down to tell us how to solve the problems we had while ignoring their own.  Segments of people on both sides reinforced negative stereotypes by their behaviors and further complicated the arguments being proffered.

The laws and safeguards that were mandated and followed by those who were law abiding, had an impact and helped to bridge the educational and economic chasm.  However, it is human nature to take a good thing and exploit it to the point that it becomes a bad thing.  The government, (that's us) did just that.  For when things got back on an even keel and even started to lean in the opposite direction we failed to adjust the steerage.  In doing so, we increased the injustice in the opposite direction and instead of helping those in need we created a segment of the population that is totally dependent on government for everything they have.  We were forced by government (our elected representatives) to choose from a mixed bag of choices what category we fit into.  By its very nature, this type of pigeon holing is divisive.  We should never have to mark these boxes again.  We are all citizens of the United States of America.  I wish someone in the legislature would move to have all reference to race, skin color, national origin, language, or any other arbitrary and unnecessary classification removed from all government documents.

The great irony here, as I see it, is that people who were once singled out by their skin color, and in some cases persecuted and prosecuted unjustly, have taken to using the same tactics to further a racially biased agenda.  They above all people should be the keenly sensitive as to how wrong this is.  The New Black Panther Party, Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others are deriving their livelihoods from stirring up trouble and acting outside the law.  They are no different than any trouble maker the KKK ever had, and they should be dealt with as severely.  It is not about hoodies folks.  It is about letting our legal system work.  The case in Florida involves two individuals and only two individuals.  When the investigation is done and all the available evidence gathered, the case will be presented to a jury and a decision will be rendered.  Until that time, the president of the United States, talking heads from all our media services, neighbors, friends, schoolmates, legislators, sports figures, and law enforcement should refrain from speculating and commenting on what happened.

Spring has Sprung

April Impressions

Zephyrs stir miniature

soldiers of lavender

and salmon pink

standing at attention

on a carpet of pastel green.

Purple tendrils

surround a phone pole.

Splashes of white and pink

peak out from

Winter’s stark remnants.

An ice blue sky

domes the hillsides

carpeted in yellow and blue.

Songbird fugues

pierce the air

backed up by the

steady gurgle of a

crystal stream.

Subtle hints of perfume

carried on the breeze

refresh and revive

my wakening spirit.

Dennis Price