I Still like a Good Western.... Watch Out for that Chair!

I must admit I didn't actually watch any of the Republican convention. But then again, I have to admit when I read the article today saying Clint Eastwood talked to a chair and told it to shut up I was kind of saddened. Really??? Clint is this what you've become??? You should have stopped with the Chrysler commercial that was an instant classic!! Imported from Detroit!! Man, you blew it, now people are talking about Eastwooding... I won't tell you what I thought when I heard that term this morning... So do you turn to the East when you are playing with your.... I have to admit I lost some respect for you Clint...and then you had to say the line... why did you say the line... Make My Day Punk. Please say it isn't so. I had to ask myself... did he lose his mind 5 times or 6....well did he? I have to admit I won't be able to watch a Clint Eastwood movie the same way again. I'm going to wonder now if he is actually talking to the other actor in the scene or maybe he's just been talking to the props all this time. You Clint became a senile old man last night and that saddens me. But hey I hear you stole the show at the convention... Actually, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo stole the show!! Yes that is a fact, the reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo had more viewers than the Republican National Convention. Just proves the Republicans are winning the war against intelligence. Have you seen the show? They actually have sub titles because you can't understand what they are saying... wait a minute.... HEY is that a reality show about Limbaugh and Hannity??? No wonder... which one is BOO BOO?

Let's dumb it down shall we

No really, let's dumb it down... what are we dumbing down? The American voter of course. Think about it for a minute... are you done thinking? I ask you, what do you think the real issues are when it comes to the current Presidential election? The economy? A balanced budget? Gross government overspending? Health Care reform? Taxes? Social Security and Medicare Reform? Welfare Reform? Can I get a big Hell NO! It's about Abortion rights and obviously the definition of Rape, because obviously there is a difference between forced and "unforced" rape. Let's pause and reflect on that last statement..."unforced rape" isn't that a contradiction in terms? Rape is defined as: the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person. So, I ask what is unforced rape? I'll let the Republicans answer that they seem to be doing such a great job lately... by the way according to GOP Senate hopeful Tom Smith it's the same thing as having a baby out of wedlock.
Back to the program. So the major issue number one is Abortion rights, Number two is Mitt Romney's failure to disclose his taxes(this is payback for "Where's your birth certificate") but politicians have short term memories. Do you see what is happening here? Politicians constantly play a smoke and mirror game with social issues so they don't have to explain economic plans, health care reform plans etc. to the American voter. Do you know why they do this? Because there isn't a politician who actually has anything concrete when it comes to major issues. Have you ever tried to explain a plan when you don't actually have a plan? Ask Alpena's current Mayor how that works, you just say you are heading in a new direction and then fire someone so the story gets shifted. See how it works. Politicians want to cut spending to schools for one reason... Educated Intelligent People can see through the smoke and mirrors. Politicians already know what percentage of the populous will always vote for them the key is to know what social issues pull at the heart strings of the rest of the populous to swing the vote their way. Have you noticed that the abortion issue comes up every four years? And what usually happens after the election? It fades away, why, Roe V. Wade that's why. It has been settled and it would take one hell of a Supreme Court to overturn it. You my friends are being duped by both parties. Where do you think all that campaign money comes from.. Did hear everyone say the Republicans get theirs from Big Business... Uhmmm, So do the Democrats otherwise they would even come close to the same amount of money... So what does this mean.. There isn't really a left wing anymore, there has been a shift and the shift has been to the right so we are more of a center/right wing country. When you get money from big business you walk a fine line when it comes to policies and the people who give you the money always expect something in return so the democratic party is more along the lines of an independent party. I will say this much though.. why would you vote for someone who wants to take away your bargaining power, you health benefits, your pension, and raise your taxes while cutting the taxes of the rich. If that's what you think is right for you than vote for Romney. Sorry but if you can't see that ultimately this country will end up with two types of people, the haves and the have nots, Rich and Poor. That is what smoke and mirrors causes. Are you going to have your intellect insulted? Until there is a viable third party this country will continue to wallow in the current plutocracy. One more thing, don't blame just our current President for the state of our country.. it was well documented that the Republican party vowed to make sure that a Democratic President would not be able to accomplish anything whatever the cost... Well they did it and now they are betting that you will think the Democrats couldn't get the job done. Politicians are betting that you aren't smart enough to do your homework. Do your homework and make an intelligent decision based on viable issues before you vote. I don't care how you vote just make it an intelligent vote.

I found it disheartening to read two editorials over the course of a week stating that Alpena is not likely to entice and is not shelf ready to entice a large manufacturer to the area in order to create family wage supporting jobs. Although I think it is a great thing when local people open local businesses I also think it doesn’t necessarily create the “family wage supporting” jobs we need. It is my opinion; these types of businesses more than likely create minimum wage types of jobs and in a sense recycle local money. Tourism aside, if a business does not have a statewide, national, or global presence it recycles local money. The issue with this process is, it creates a stagnate local economy. In other words, we need the influx of the external dollars a large company operating on a global scale would bring to jump start Alpena, entice one, more will come. Kind of like the “if you build it they will come” philosophy.

Here is the other problem. We as a community need to stop thinking that we are solely a manufacturing community. Manufacturers have been leaving this community slowly over the last decade so it is now time for the community to think outside of the manufacturing box. Last I heard there was a pretty good broadband infrastructure being installed in the area. Has it occurred to anyone to entice someone along the lines of a Google, Yahoo, or other internet based service? We can leverage our Community College and our Hospital (think billing services), not to mention our natural resources. Not everyone wants to live and play in the big city! By enticing these kinds of companies you will eliminate logistic and warehousing issues while increasing Alpena’s national and global base giving us an influx of external dollars.

I believe Alpena and our surrounding communities, if handled correctly, could be on the verge of something great and exciting. Stop thinking manufacturing and start thinking and embracing internet style services. Start thinking globally.

I Got a Call Today...

I complained about an ache, about being tired, about not having enough money, about having to pay too many bills and then I got a call today...

I grumbled about having to wake up this morning and go to work, I got irritated about not getting what I wanted and then I got a call today...

Yes, I got a call today... that call got me thinking, thinking about life, thinking about others, thinking about what's important. Thinking about gratitude, attitude, and appreciation. Appreciation for the little things. Gratitude for what you have and being able to have a positive attitude about everything.

I've seen it, you've seen it... we've all done it.. taking things for granted, taking life for granted.

Todd it is obvious from what I have read today; in life, you have touched many lives some knowingly maybe some not knowingly. In your passing today, I do not doubt that you will touch many more.
Thank you for being you and always being you. Yes, you deserved better, but you continued to smile all the way through it and taught many of us a lesson we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.

Rest peacefully.

Have We Really Evolved???

On this faithful day in 1669 Mt. Etna erupted on the island of Sicily. It rumbled, it grumbled, it burped, burped burped and then it threw up(we've all done it, think porcelain bus). And what do you suppose all the fine people from Catania living around the volcano do... they pulled up easy chairs, bucket 'O beers, some smokes and kicked back and watched the show. What a show it was!! Along comes Diego de Pappalardo and his band of fifty lava loppers. Diego shouted "Afferra la tua mucca nascondere ragazzi screpolature e godersi em down! Stiamo andando a correre su questa montagna e qui deviare questo Lava! " ( "Grab your cow hide chaps boys and soak em down! We're going to run up this here mountain and divert this Lava!") With metal rods, picks and shovels the boys managed to poke a hole in the hard lava and low and behold make the lava head west!! Yeah Lardo! Then along come the boyz from Paterno(no not happy valley) and what do they say about the whole thing. "Non si può fare che la testa il nostro modo di lava! ora dobbiamo a calci in culo!"(You can't make that lava head our way! now we have to kick your ass!) Hey they said it... and they did it. So the hole plugged up and the Lava headed back toward Catania and the good people of Catania watched it come screaming toward them at a break neck speed!!! The lava was flowing at such a tremendous speed that several weeks later when the lava reached the city 17,000 Catanians were killed! What...??? Wait a minute... it took several weeks for the lava to reach the city of Catania and 17,000 people were killed??? Oh, I see... no, actually I don't see. They didn't leave! There were only 20,000 residents in the city at the time(3,000 that survived were in Rome on Vacation). The moral of the story... the next time you hear a rumble, grumble, burp, burp, burp... don't wait to get hit with the spew help put the hair back and then get out of the way.

Anyone Have A Goat?

Happy Lupercalia Day! C'mon shout it out loud... HAPPY LUPERCALIA DAY!!! WAHOOSKI!(that's polish for wahoo.. no, no ... Polish not polish). The really good Christians no what I'm talking about. Let's take a trip back in time shall we, back to a simpler time... say.. 753 B.C. or there abouts. So, there I am lounging around in my tunic eating a couple of grapes thinking to myself... Damn this marble lounger is hard(You, yes you over there. You lazy boy get off of your tuckis and o make me a more comfortable chair!) Boredom... what to do... what to do...Got it! You two noble boys over there, go fetch me a dog and a goat and meet me by Lupecal Cave, you know the place, the one where Romulus and Remus got caught doing that beastiality thing with Rumina the she-wolf. What do you mean what kind of dog? I don't care... get me a Roman Shepard or a St. Roman, no make it a small dog.... a Vatican Terrier will do. Mean while I'll set up the beer tent cause boys we are going to have ouselves a Festival.. No, wait, we are going to have ourselves a Pagan Festival and we are going to purify all of these hot women of their curses, bad luck, and infertility!
Okay, here's how we're going to get this party started. I'm going to sacrifice the dog(Hey, not a festival without fido roast).Now I'm going to sacrifice the goat(you didn't think one dog was going to feed all of those people did you). Now I'm going to smear the blood on your face and then wipe it off(done with the hazing) What a good laugh that whole blood on the face thing was. Okay, you two boys put these loinclothes on.. take this goat skin and soak it in the blood really good. Now, run around like crazy and see how many women you can flog!!! Then meet me back at the beer tent ... don't worry we'll tell the women getting flogged gives them the best results for fertility.. they'll fall for it.
A short time later.... back at the beer tent with Romulus, Remus and the Roman V kicking out the jams the revelry, drinking, rowdiness and horseplay began and it didn't end until 1200 years later. Hell, even the Pope got on board, of course he got the marketing rights so he got to change the name of the festival. In 494 A.D. Lupercalis became known as "Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary". After all, a Pope can't associate with a Pagan Festival...or can they....

ask, believe, receive.

Birth Control...OH, MY!

Let’s see…. Today I’m either going to make you really think about something or I’m going to get you really ticked off. Here it goes…. Drum roll please…. Are you ready?

Let’s talk about Birth Control, Catholics, and Politicians. (I’m off to a good start.) I saw where the Obama Administration is making it mandatory for “Faith Based “ employers to provide birth control as part of their health insurance plans and Catholics are pissed because it goes against their beliefs or shall I say it goes against what the less than 10% of those who choose to practice that belief believe. Along with that the Politicians are saying it’s a violation of Religious freedom and under no circumstances should there be a mix of church and state (Unless of course I’m running for office and need the money from your congregation).  Well, that’s that in a nut shell. It’s really just political fodder in an election year.

On to the good part where I screw with your mind and Catholics… by the way I’m a non-practicing Catholic so I get to do this and after all it is my blog…. Freedom of speech and all that.

So, the Catholic Church doesn’t believe in Birth Control (we’ll see about that), they believe in Abstinence (boring) and the rhythm method (now we’re talking). But most of all they believe in being hypocritical, yes I said hypocritical. Let’s take a look shall we….

Most Catholics have already said they practice other forms of Birth Control other than those stated above or should I say, Catholic women, and they do so under secrecy so the Catholic Church won’t send them to hell. I heard the number is around 98% but I don’t know that for fact so don’t quote me.  So even though most of the clergy doesn’t follow the rule the Catholic church won’t change it,  but oddly enough  they don’t have an issue with Viagra and Cialis…hhhmmm  Why, because it promotes conception which in turn increases the potential clergy and that’s all good. Here’s a twist. If the Catholic Church doesn’t approve of Birth Control than it must not approve of Hysterectomies and Menopause for that matter because both would prevent women from bearing children hence, both are forms of Birth Control. I’m kind of wondering… How many Catholic Men have had a vasectomy?? Last time I checked this would be another form of Birth Control so the Catholic Church must have a rule on Vasectomies… right? I’d be willing to bet you that hysterectomies and vasectomies are surgeries covered under the current health plans provided by the same Catholic institutions that are fighting the Birth Control issue.

How come you never hear a politician talk about banning vasectomies?? If you think about it it’s a form of abortion… nothing gets fertilized without the sperm. Any snipped right to lifers out there… shame on you, you got to choose how come the women can’t??? How come you never hear the Catholic Church’s point of view on vasectomies? My thought, it’s because you have a bunch of old men who have old fashioned thoughts and are still under the belief a woman’s place is in the home making babies, or,  it’s because you have an old religion that can’t figure out how to recreate itself for the 21^st century in a dignified way. I’m sure even Jesus would have changed with the times after all; he seemed like a pretty righteous dude.

One last thing, we are afforded a lot of freedoms and you have to decide what is right and wrong for you but remember, just because it is your belief doesn’t mean it’s everyone else’s and that’s okay, because differences of opinion and great debates are what make this country great.  

Ask, Believe, Receive.